WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE AN MMA FIGHTER?

Early MMA Roots And First Gym

SPEAKER_01 0:19

So how how long have you been fighting or doing MMA?

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Yeah, man, so I started at 10 years old. I'm 28 now, so good eighteen years. Good eighteen years of this game, this sport working on my body. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

And what got you into it?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Uh, just being a fan of it. Man, I had an older brother who would always have barbecues, always have people over it, and I just got in this other. And I just remember being a little kid and watching people watch the fight, and like there'd be all this chatter, right? People are talking, people are excited, people are just talking about whatever. Yeah. But as like the main fight happens and the big fight happens, and like I just loved the anticipation of it all. I could hear the voices get quieter, I could hear the people lean in a little more, I could see people be more engaged in it, and then it'd be just like it just felt like waiting for something to happen, right? The the calm before the storm, and then a big knockout happens, a big submission happens, and the place just erupts. And I just remember being in love with that feeling as a little kid. Yeah, and I wanted to uh replicate that, and I just loved it, man. Like uh it was always a way for me to connect with people too. You know, I'm I was pretty quiet as a kid, pretty timid as a kid. So martial arts to me was always a good way to connect and understand people and have people feel like they could understand me more. And what was the art you started out with? Yeah, so back in the day it was interesting because you know, usually you would think about starting with one thing and then it leads to the next thing. Yeah, I felt lucky enough to find an MMA gym in my hometown. I'm from Yuma, Arizona. We had a guy, Chance Ferrar, who really brought MMA to the scene. He fought Uriah Favor in the WC, which to us was like a huge deal. This guy fought for a world title. Yeah, so that was a really big deal for us. So I started in MMA. Uh, it was mainly jujitsu kickboxing. And then around seventh grade, I started wrestling. And once I started wrestling, I was like, I have to focus on this because I can see that it's dumb, like I can look at the trends, I can see that it's dominating the game. Yeah. So it's something that I gotta hyper focus on for the next six years. So for six years, I just focused on wrestling.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah. And you wrestled in high school?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Did you rank at all? No, I was terrible. With boxing and jujitsu, man, I felt like it was like it came naturally to me. It was a rhythm that I understood, and I felt, you know, pretty precocious for that aspect of fighting. And then once I started wrestling, I was like, dude, I've been doing this like in my head, like I've been doing this, and I'm terrible. Like I can't figure it out. The rhythm of this doesn't make any sense to me. I'm flopping to my back like I'm looking like a fool. Yeah. So it was such a long uh learning, it was just such a big learning curve for me. Yeah, but I love wrestling. Wrestling means so much to me. It's one of my favorite things to practice. Yeah, me and my brother wrestled for yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

I I wrestled throughout high school.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

What got you guys in it?

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Uh um we're Middle Eastern, we're from Iran, so um we're from Iran, so wrestling's big there, but like I don't we were like ESL and we didn't really speak English. And yeah, you don't need to speak much with the wrestling or martial arts, you know. And I was like, all right, I gotta try a sport. I was kind of a big chunky kid. So I was like, all right, I gotta, you know, wrestling is chunky.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Extra emphasis on that.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah, so I was like, I gotta do some sport. I was like, soccer wasn't my thing, but like wrestling just found a place. Did you love it?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

What did you find it did for you?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

I loved it. Um, I I you know, and I want to get my kids into it too. It's man, I think wrestling is so transformational. Yeah, I know with discipline and just life lessons like throughout the whole thing. It's like so you wrestled starting out? Okay. No, he

Wrestling Humility And Identity

SPEAKER_01 4:10

he started MA MMA and then but he did wrestling.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

I started MMA at 10, and then once middle school rolled around, just hyper focused on wrestling for a good six years.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

Was that still in Yuma or yeah, you moved okay. How old were you when you like moved out to I moved out here at 18.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

18. I was supposed to start community college, you know. You guys are immigrants, so that immigrant dream of like you go to college, you yeah, you know, this is why we came here for was really heavily instilled. And it was a thing that I understood and I respected from my parents' side, from my mom's perspective. I was like, all right, I'll give her that. And about like a week or two before classes were supposed were supposed to start, I was like, I can't do it. Like, I just can't, like in my perception at that time, I was like, she brought me here to dream, and my dream isn't this, my dream is fighting. My dream is to be the best in the world at fighting, and I believe I can make that happen.

SPEAKER_04 5:07

Definitely is your dream.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Yeah, so you pursue that. So I pursued that, I'm grateful for it. But yeah, so I moved out here at 18.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

When was your last fight? Uh March 14th. Do you have a scheduled fight coming up?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

I just got one, yeah. So this was my first uh hard week of training since I got it. I got the news Friday. I'm fighting uh October. Keep saying October. I'm fighting July 18th in Oklahoma City. Okay. Uh against a guy named Austin Bashey who's gonna look to wrestle, he's gonna look to grabble. But yeah, man, I'm in the midst of it, man. I just had a grindy, grindy day. Yeah, yeah. I'm feeling it now. But man, I I feel so grateful for it. Like, I if it's the best feeling to know that you have something to strive for, something to push for, you know.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

What what's your favorite part part of the fighting? Like which aspect of it? Because if you grew up a wrestler, if I've watched a few of your fights since meeting you, and you're definitely strike first, like on your feet. Uh I wouldn't guess you you grew up wrestling. But it makes sense. You started out with MMA, but like um, I don't know what what what's your favorite aspect of it other than knocking somebody's teeth out.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah, the glitz and glamour of the of what I do is really fun and really, you know, sick, like for lack of a better word, it's just sick. But I love the I love today. I love a Tuesday. Tuesday's our hardest day at the gym. It's the grimiest, it's the grindiest, it's the most. Dig into the depth of your soul type of day. And I love those days. And I we talked about a little bit right now about what wrestling is, but what fighting is is like it's to me, it's so transformational, it's so unveiling. You you find out so much about yourself through it, going through it. So I just like I love the grind of it within everything within the strike and within the box and within the jujitsu, within the wrestling. Love it all, but the grind of it is what I'd say.

SPEAKER_04 7:05

Gotcha. I your ears have gotten worse since I've last seen you. They're pretty bad back then, too. You can tell you can tell how successful you are. Like growing up wrestling, like, if anybody like talk crap to me uh at a bar or something, I'd first take a look at their ears. I'm like, yeah, my lady just sent me a thing. Somebody I'm gonna mess with.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah, my lady just sent me a thing on Instagram of like you guys heard about the looks maxing trend and all that. Yeah, oh yeah. We were talking about a version of that, is like guys like trying to get cauliflower ears. Yeah, and she's on the comments, like, oh, it's you.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

I'm like, deal with it. But when you're ready to get that fixed, you let me know. You gotta you gotta manage it's uh that's after retirement. It's not gonna be a good one.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

I wouldn't even say to do it either.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

So what it's a pain in the butt, yeah. But um, I bet what else did you guys get into? So nothing much. We just started

UFC Resources And Daily Training Load

SPEAKER_04 8:00

upbringing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah, we're just talking about how you started and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

That's uh uh for your training and stuff. Like whether do you have like nutritionists or like athletic trainers? And is that something like because I know UFC is different than boxing, because boxing you get you get contracted fights and you have your own gym and your own setup, but I know UFC uh has contracts because you're stuck with UFC rather than being like WBC, WBA, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, so prior to UFC, not really. It was a lot of YouTube, it was a lot of you know, Google was a lot of Jack in the Box tacos, yeah. Yeah, and hope. There was a lot of hope prior to the UFC. Uh once I got into UFC, man, I've been really I I learned as much as I could about the resources that they provide, and they provide a good amount, and I just went all in. So with that, that comes the nutritionist, that comes a good just knowledge, like the guy they're on the cutting edge of what it takes to be, and it's super specific to fighting, which I is cool. Like it's cool that there's actually science-backed trends that we can follow and do. Um, and they just provide a lot of information in terms of that. Um, they run my nutrition uh PTs. I work with uh Al over here. He's a local guy, he's one of the best in the game. He's a physical therapist. Does he run his own shop? Yeah, Aries, Aries physical therapy. Okay, there's the best, they're taking care of me on a couple things. Every time I have something, I go to them.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

How many hours a day do you train usually?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Five to six. Do you watch a lot of film or yeah? Absolutely. I love film. I love I love watching just a pure fight. And with that one, I'm not even looking to really take too much notes. I'm just kind of trying to get some my mirror neurons firing. Like, I just want to see it. Um, and then I like watching breakdowns. Like I got a lot of like guys that are super nerdy about the game, they'll pinpoint one position, they'll talk for 40 minutes on it, and I just can't get enough of that. I love it. Yeah, um, and then I watch with my team, or I'll get my team, like, especially if I have a fight. I got a group of guys that I'll go to, guys that I really respect their opinion on, and I'll be like, I can I can you give me your notes? Can you give me your thoughts? And then

Film Study And Fighting Free

SPEAKER_00 10:10

I'll watch it with a couple of my coaches as well. So there's a lot of film studying involved in this.

SPEAKER_04 10:14

Yeah, you nervous going into the fights? You you seem like again, the fights I've watched, especially like recently, you seem like really calm, yeah, collected, and like because you know, like when we were wrestling, like even if it's like an easier match, like just stepping out the mat, like nerves were firing.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Yeah, man. I feel really I I meant I was talking to your brother about the fact that I was a terrible wrestler. Like, I was really good at jujitsu boxing, kickboxing, like it came pretty natural to me. Wrestling, it was just I was I just was so stubborn headed and I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't find the rhythm of it. And then especially in competition, once I started to find my groove and wrestling in the room, I was like, oh man, I'm I found my pathways, I feel really good in here. And then it came down to the competition, and I could just never, I felt like I could never perform for years. I just felt like I could never perform to the standard that I held in the room. And it took a lot, and it was that way throughout my entire wrestling career. And it was a lot of once I decided to focus fully back on fighting, just kind of reverse engineering, like where did I make those mistakes? What was it? And it's like a lot of it's just belief, like limiting belief, and just investing in that man. And just it's tough too, because like that puts a chip on your shoulder. Yeah, and that chip on your shoulder fuels you, and with that, with that, you know, the work comes in. Um, nowadays, though, when I go into a fight, and it's funny, I got a buddy who's making his debut in Mexico, I think this week actually. Um, I was talking to him about my first fight, I was so nervous. Like I walked in, I saw the lights, yeah, and I was just staring, and I was just staring, and then the ref slaps his hand and he says, Go. And I'm like, just like just enthralled by the the entire it was just such a sensory overload, so much nerves going into it. And that was a tough uh experience. And I was like, I can't, I can't have that. Like, I gotta figure this out. So journaling became a big staple from that that point on, and just kind of writing down my my thoughts, my feelings, my this or that, whatever it was on that particular day. I found that to be super beneficial. So you journal? Yeah, I journal quite a bit, and nowadays going ah, this is kind of weird. I don't know which I like talking about.

SPEAKER_04 12:29

All this I don't know, I was just curious. Yeah, honestly, this part is just like about the same reason I was just like, oh, he'd be a phenomenal guest, because like it's it's stuff I personally want to know. You know, it's it's like how people get through it. And like I know there's so many times, whether it was a wrestling match or like presenting at an international conference, my nerves are just going bonkers, but I have to like okay, compose. And then once I get going, I'm like, okay, the the nerves die down. Yeah, you get into that like flow rhythm, and and things just happen for better or worse. And then you just like analyze it afterwards and then see where what you could have done differently leading up.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Yeah. So my approach nowadays is I want to evoke those feelings. I know those feelings are gonna come. It's it's the nature of competition, it's the nature of try striving to be the best version of yourself, and it's what you have such a platform to do that in, right? So the nerves are gonna come, and I want to evoke those early because I like feeling free when I when I fight. I like feeling free when I walk in, when I walk into that cage, when I'm on the walk, you know, that's the most liberated I have ever I can ever feel as a human being. Truly is. So I evoke those feelings, and I like them. I want those feelings to come. I want those butterflies. Like I, and it's just what you tell us. It's like before that that was a limiting belief, right? Like, oh my god, this nerves, and then you just get encapsulated by you, just get engrossed by the nerves, and it just becomes overwhelming. Nowadays, it's like, no, like I'm gonna, this is a wave of energy, and I'm gonna ride it. These are butterflies that I will put in formation. I will grow from this, and I feel that like I it's physical, it but it's more so than that is spiritual. Like, I genuinely believe like I grow when the nerves come.

SPEAKER_04 14:12

Yeah, it makes sense also, and and you're probably not to put words in your mouth, but you're like found a way to kind of get that feeling a little bit earlier because it's better to get those like butterflies in your stomach on your walk up to the ring than after you get punched the first time.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah, I I evoke those feelings early in the day, like uh 2, 3 p.m. I'll be at a coffee shop. If you see me, man, I look like a chihuahua. I'm shaking. Like I promise you, like I truly do. Barking at everybody, not barking, but you know, the shaking, you know. Damn, there's a fighter that barks at people too. Yeah, there's a few. There's a few, but there's one guy in particular. He's in my weight class too. It's funny. Okay. What weight did you wrestle in high school? Uh, my last year I wrestled at 152 uh the years prior. Yeah, 45, 36, uh 27. So he was bigger than you.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Yeah, I was 103, 112, and then senior year, I was 140. Yeah. Then in college, it was like 65, 74, 85. Did you go to college? Uh Rhode Island College. It was a D3 school, it wasn't very highly competitive. And I didn't really try hard. I regret afterwards, I was like, yeah, like it really hit me my last year of wrestling. I was like, oh man, like this isn't like something I get to pursue, like do all the time. And I just like I kind of like took it for granted. And I wasn't a great wrestler because I was just like I didn't stick to the basics. And it's something I learned like when I was just playing rec basketball, somebody's like, you're trying to shoot like three pointers, like three feet beyond the mark, and you can't shoot a layup. Like, what are you doing? You like if the things open, go in, get your two points, and you're over here throwing this like again, high risk, high reward thing. So, like, my move was a splatle. So, so that kind of the see the laugh says it all. Like, it's just like, okay, leave my leg hung out a certain way for this guy to shoot in with his head on the inside, and then get try to get him on his back. And um, the funny part is uh a couple of my teammates told me afterwards, they're like, Oh, dude, you need to do jujitsu. I'm like, what are you talking about? It's like because most of the time you wrestle, you're on your back. Yeah, that's funny.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

That was my early years.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

Yeah, so that I mean, I got really good at it, and the like I like I'm like uh junior or senior, like catching freshmen, people who weren't expecting it, like it was an easy little turn, but people who are expecting it, I'm like, can't be a one-trick pony in anything.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

That's the thing. Like, he used to get me in trouble because like when UFC was first coming out, I am yeah, when UFC was first coming out, like they'd have no holds bar matches and at the bars, and like he'd sign me up and like I and we wrestled so wanted to. It's not like I was a big guy. I was like I wrestled heavyweight high school. I wasn't I was like uh usually under 200 in high school. And when did you lose all the weight? Uh a couple times. Yeah, a couple of times, yeah. Yeah, like when it was wrestling season, I dropped like 30 pounds. Yeah, but like that totally screwed up my metabolism.

Weight Cutting Reality Checks

SPEAKER_01 17:40

So, like as I grew older, I just gained weight and such a vicious cycle for sure.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

Yeah, what what's your weight in what what's feather weight at? 145.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Yeah, were you off uh about 170? Holy shit. Yeah, it's not fun, dude.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

Yeah, I know, I know, I know what it's like, and doing it professionally is different than yeah, but this kid was always like spitting cups, like as we're I I was until college. College I didn't really suck much weight, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

I uh I had a harder time in high school with that because it was like a Terry Brand's Iowa style like school of thought that we came in and just be tougher, be dirtier, be grimier. Like yeah, so that's how I did my weight cuts, and I had an eight-pound weight cut, usually six to eight-pound weight cut. Obviously, it wasn't eating super great, but it was just about doing the weight cut in the most grindy, they're just running sweats, plastics. It's the time where you're growing the most puberty. Is like I would never make my kids cut weight, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah, and Rogan said, you know, Rogan. It's dumb as they do it now. Yeah, but they cut so much is like, you know, it's like they gotta just make more weight classes so people aren't like cutting so much. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

They're still people gonna cut.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

No, I know I know they're still gonna cut.

SPEAKER_04 18:55

Classes are made originally to get the same-size people against each other.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

The main thing like they talk about is like, you know, you dehydrate like your brain, then you can't even think you're in the ring and you're like you weigh in like 24 hours before the fight.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Uh it used to be that way. Now it's around 36. 36?

SPEAKER_04 19:13

Okay. How much weight do you gain after the weigh in? It's like a good eight pounds. What's up?

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Well, how you gotta give within a certain amount, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

No, no, you're allowed to get California is the only commission, the only state that wants that. But even then, there's nothing that they can really do about it. They just won't, uh not to say they can't do much, but they they won't. If you go, ha don't quote me on the number, but if you go 20% above your weight class, then it'll be then they won't they'll ban you for like six months or a year from California.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yeah, some of the tournaments they were like you couldn't gain more than two pounds overnight. Yeah, those were some of the wrestling tournaments.

SPEAKER_04 19:52

But there was some like two-day tournaments where you got to weigh in each day. Yeah, those were two because I remember one of my friends, I'm looking at his face, he he was good, and he wasn't like the best wrestler, he was just country strong. Yeah, it was Luke. Yeah, and dude, one one time we we just finished the day of wrestling, and we all stepped on the scale afterwards to know what we need to get on for the next morning. I just look at his face, he was like, I swear his face was just like that realization, you know. I'm like, dude, what's wrong? He's like he's like, I'm like, you're in the quarterfinals, you're you're doing great. He's like, I gotta cut 10 pounds in the next eight hours.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

After you wrestled four to five matches, after you already physically spent two.

SPEAKER_04 20:37

Yeah, I was just like, what? He was like, Yeah, just like he made it happen and he did really well. He was never expected to be like a great wrestler, but he freaking he punished people, and it was like impressive to see like what he accomplished because it just like setting out like this is what I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

We had a guy like that in middle school, he just he just unfortunately passed away over the weekend, but uh he in middle school, man. This guy lost every single match he ever competed in, and then he went to City and he won it all. It was just such a cool moment. I just remember

Camp Structure And One Percent Better

SPEAKER_00 21:10

that and wanted to give him a shout out uh Willie Flowers, man. That was a cool moment. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

Changing subject. What's what's your routine? How many days a week are you in the gym? Um, like, which day am I not in the gym?

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah, it's six days a week. Uh, Sunday will be the one day I take fully off. That's good. God took Sunday off. Yeah, you know, we give praise to God on Sundays. Um, yeah, it's my schedules vary throughout the year. I'm really happy with my routine. I'm really happy with my day to day. It feels super productive. It feels like, you know, there's a motif we live by at our gym at the lab. It's called one we just say one percent better. That's our goal, right? We just want to be one percent better, yeah. Just that incremental amount. I'll let it compound for you. But yeah, it's

SPEAKER_04 22:00

Do you change your schedule uh once fights get scheduled?

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Yeah, for sure. The intensity and it's spiritual, man. I feel like something kind of just takes over you. The intensity of your practice, the intentionality of your practice. And then you also have the opponent in mind, right? Outside of camp, you're allowed to just kind of explore. And I like thinking of it as like mining. I'm just looking for different diamonds, different gems, and I'm just kind of exploring in different pathways when it comes to the fight. It's like, all right, what are the pathways? Where does this guy find the most confidence? Where does he gain momentum? Where does he look to what pockets of the fight does he look to win to secure confidence in himself? All right, that's the pathways to shut down, and then from there I let my game grow. But it becomes a lot more about refinement the closer we get to a fight.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

Gotcha. And um, have you noticed anything change since you signed a UFC contract?

SPEAKER_00 22:51

I always say no, but that's such a lie. Like, yeah, so much has changed.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

It's just subconscious stuff, or you think good question. Um some of both, some intentional, some subconscious stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Probably, yeah. I probably have to dig a little deeper within to give it a better answer.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

How much weight training do you do in your training routine?

SPEAKER_00 23:18

About right now, it's around two two, but it's more so the the sessions are more like plyo, more it gets a little different. Outside of camp, it's two to three, and it's more just standard lifting weights getting strong. Two to three hours a day. Uh like two. Our strength conditioning likes to keep us there. Two.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Do you do a lot of legs for UFC and stuff, or is it just all overweight training? Like leg day, yeah, like leg specific workouts?

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Yeah. Uh yeah, man. Big on our coach is big on the posterior chain and really getting that strong. A lot of our hips. So much of that happens throughout the wrestling, so much of that, you know. Um, yeah, we attack legs pretty heavy on Mondays.

SPEAKER_04 24:08

I used to do a lot of back and I used to swim a lot because I just I'm like, oh, like we're supposed to work out back and like looking at these swimmers, they look like freaks because their lats are like ridiculous compared to everything else. So I used to swim a lot, and it's low, like yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

I gotta incorporate that. I swam yesterday and I was like, ah, I like this. It's just fun too, you're just splashing around, but maybe I gotta swim actual depths.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

No, no, it's it doesn't matter. I was never able to do the flip. Everybody else that swam as much as I did, or even less than me, they were doing the flips at the end. And I'm like, okay, reach the end, touch it, turn the other way. I'm like, I can't get this flipped down. I tried it once and smashed the back of my head. I was like, okay, I'm done with this.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

I wanted to go back to that uh making it to the U of C changed anything. I I just think it's all belief. Like, once I got there, I was like, oh man, like I don't know if you were here when I spoke earlier about like you know the immigrant dream about like you go and you want to make that happen, but like that was a really big part of my life. Like, ah, like I disappointed people that I really cared about. So I was like, to me, it was like a sense of like, ah man, like it was worth it. And I think that was the feeling, that was the sentiment within the my community. Yeah. Like, oh, okay, like you weren't just you know screwing around, like you you went and did something. And now I I feel like that gave me the freedom to really just I was already on the path, I was already all in, but just even more to be like, all right, now let's go be the best at this, let's go be the greatest at this. Yeah, we like hit a uh a

Broken Hand Story And Surgery

SPEAKER_00 25:45

checkpoint that was really important. Now let's go to the finish line.

SPEAKER_04 25:48

That's right, that's right. We want to see you climb up the ranks all the way to the top, yeah. And you get in some big fights, it's just like watching the pretty much all your fights since you've been in the UFC. And it's just like, ah can we talk about how we met? Yeah, yeah, of course. Okay, so how we met is um the nurse that got in touch with me that was like, I have a friend whose brother's a fighter that needs his hand fixed. He's like, Can you take care of this? And I'm like, Yeah, and he he's signed on as actually working at our surgery center now. So, like, he's he's been close with us from the beginning. And so, like, that's how I've stayed in touch. And he said he sent me a message, uh, because your brother sent him a picture when you signed on with Dana White asking you to sign up.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

He's my biggest hype man alone.

SPEAKER_04 26:45

Dude, he's he's it it was so cool. I was just like, because they worked together at the hospital, yeah. And I was just like, can can you get him in with somebody that can take care of this? And dude, I just the I usually like for plastic surgery, for hand surgery, what they call a boxer's fracture is actually when people punch wrong and they break their pinky metacarpal, and that's because they hit with the bottom part of their fists and not the top part of their fists. And what you came in with was these two broken, these two bones broken, and those are really hard to break with like direct contact. So I I I was just like, let me see how he did it. Found the videotape on YouTube, and I saw you hit that guy in the face, and I was like, Holy crap, that was like his it knocked him out, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

It changed the fight. I submitted him. Oh, okay, okay. So he was done. I I hit him and I hit him in the top of his. He was a country strong boy, and I hit him in the top of his skull. Oh, okay. But I hit him so hard.

SPEAKER_04 27:57

But his head literally sound up, you hear the it was so hard.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

I knew how hard it was. He goes, his head just went like like jerk back, like dumped, he just slumped, and then I went to finish him, and the fight was done. But I got like one, nah, I'm still a little salty about it. I got like one or two that were like slight back of the heads, and the ref pulls me off, takes a point. The guy recovers a little bit. I submitted him like a couple seconds, but I submitted him and I had it a squeeze over my broke. And I'm as the refs taking a point, I grabbed my hand and I'm like, ah, like I just feel it clicking in and out, and I was like, ah, it's gonna suck tomorrow or in a couple hours.

SPEAKER_04 28:37

But you can't tell that, like, if if I'm not you, could not tell, like, that was bothering you at all.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Well, I was like, we're so dumb as fighters, we're so stubborn to my immediate thought. I was like, I have to punch him with this hand just in case, you know, like I have to punch him with this hand so that I don't limit myself. Yeah, it's such a dumb thought. Thankfully, that punch missed. He I've he shoots in recklessly because he's still wobbled, he's still hurt. Yeah, I have to get this choked. This hand is the broken hand, I have to squeeze over it, it hurts so bad. Oh man, thankfully he tapped a couple seconds later, but that was that was a sucky moment.

SPEAKER_04 29:14

Yeah, Diego is our friend that got us in touch, but he's just like, check this out. And I just we we watched it no less than 25, 30 times. Like, holy shit, like, look at this fucking hit. Like, I can't believe this person's like like alive. Yeah, that was that was brutal. How was the recovery from that surgery? How how much time did you take off?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Oh man, that was a good while. I want to say I had to take like good eight months, eight to nine months. Oh, wow. It was a really long time. It was it was taking forever. That's where I met uh Aries. Ah, sorry. So it was I was ready to fight six months, and then I had a fight, and I was preparing for a fight, and then they kept pulling out. So I made my return about nine to maybe even 11 months later, but I was ready to go at six.

SPEAKER_04 30:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

But that was cool. That was my introduction with the Aries team, and then they were super helpful. Man, in fighting, you don't make no money, especially as an amateur. You're paying, you're straight up paying, you're losing money every single time. And I was such a broke kid chasing this dream and going after the fight, and you're like, ah man. I don't know if you want to speak on this, but I think we had to finagle the system a little to get the hand done.

SPEAKER_04 30:29

Yeah, yeah. But uh, I forget what your coverage was, but we we made it happen. We made it happen. I'm really grateful. One surgeon had to do some jaws and stuff. Yeah, what one surgeon told me early on in my training was like, if you can't take care of your family and friends, how do you expect to take care of like like random people out there? He's like, you gotta you have a certain set of skills, and it's like you have to make yourself available for certain people. Needless to say, this procedure that he was asking me to do for like his neighbor's like husband is like some type of hemorrhoid surgery. So I'm like, oh gotta do this hemorrhoid at like 1:30 a.m. Run to the ER. I'm like, but that that always stuck with me. So like when things come up, I'm like, I'll I'll make it happen, I'll make sure they get appropriate care.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Well, truly, man, I am very grateful because that was a low point, and I was like, holy shit, what am I gonna do? Like, is this dream dead? Like, it was that the stake the stakes are so high.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

We got to do the the I am screws. I am screws, they go inside the bone. Because before that, like even in training, I never used them. I only knew it because he was using it. And um, when I came out, and you put the screws on the inside of the bone to stabilize them enough to heal.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Because you have to yank them out, huh? What's that with the other ones you you have to yank out? Not necessarily.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Well, sometimes with the plates and stuff, sometimes you do because like the tendons kind of get caught up in the back.

SPEAKER_04 32:04

Yeah, so that's the problem. Like your hands, so like there's so many little movements that it does. Uh, it's and like the tendons sliding, and that plate, this screw goes inside the bone, so it doesn't touch the tendons or anything. Previously, you you put the plates and screws over the bone, so your tendons line over there. So, like that puts you at a like greater risk for like adhesions, your fingers, hands not functioning as well, or like the tendons adhering to it. So they like build scar tissue and they don't work quite as well. So this I had only done it for like a year or two. Umfortunately, we don't do much hand surgery anymore, but it it like I I really love the procedure, it cuts the time down, cuts cut the complications.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Yeah, it's seriously like 15 minutes, and you're you're not in a cast or anything, and you're out

Macros Recovery Sleep And Hyperbaric

SPEAKER_01 33:00

like just moving your hand right away, which recoveries like much quicker that way.

SPEAKER_04 33:06

All right, what's your diet? Uh when you're not second weight.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Yeah, right now we got the macros around 2600 calories a day. My girl thankfully takes care of all that, she's the best. Uh, a lot of carbs, man. They got me at I think 304 grams of carbs, which is pretty tough to get through with uh just food itself. They've got a pretty nice drink called Vitargo, it's super helpful, especially post all my hard practices. When my like I usually have one practice that's super intense. Not today's two, but usually one super intense.

SPEAKER_04 33:43

What one or a week you're talking about? Or you see? No, no, no. One a day.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:50

Um, I have one hard practice a year.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Yeah. And that is super helpful. That like brings you back to life. Like you'll be dead, and like it'll it'll get you back going, and it's just carbs. Um proteins like at 148, I think. Fats are at 90. Okay. Breakdown of just the macros. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

What's your recovery? What do you do for recovery?

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Uh, so I got I go to a place called Rejuvenate, and they've got, you know, the good modalities of cold plunge, sauna, uh, normal tech compression, red light. And I go to them about two to three times a week. Yeah. In between my practices, I just kind of chill over there and hang out there and use all those bad boys.

SPEAKER_04 34:40

How long do you hang out on the cold plunge for?

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Uh brother, I used to I used to be so ego about it. I used to, there was one time where I did it for 15 minutes and then I was just freezing for the next five days. Like, I couldn't stop shivering. It was the dumbest thing I've ever done. Uh nowadays, man. I think that I think I those early I spent like a good year to two years of being like super like whim. I thought I was the next whim hoff. Like I was like, I'm I'm in this. It's a I do it a lot less nowadays. In camp, I do it and it feels good, but I think it also just the mental like this sucks. Yeah, is a good win. So three minutes. Three minutes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

One to three minutes as well.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Yeah, I just stick with the standard. How about sleep? What's your sleep schedule? Uh sleeping a lot earlier, man. Before I used to be such a night owl, and before in my earlier, like in my early 20s, and even as a kid, it was like, oh man, this is where I'm creative, this is where I find the flow. And yeah, there's aspects and there's times where I go back to those, especially in camp, where I do just want there's something about an empty gym and your own music and your own energy and your own vibe. And yeah, there is a creative uh zone that I really love and that I really find beneficial. But man, I'm I'm getting older and I'm feeling it. So I like being in bed. I like being asleep by 9, 9:30. Wake up around it. Depends on the day. Sometimes I'll I be asleep till 8 p.m. a good chunk. Other times, like I'll wake up, don't need as much sleep around 7. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:09

So you get over 10 hours a night?

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Yes, especially on the grindy days for sure. But it's tough. Like, today is so good. Today's such so good in terms of it being really difficult. Sometimes I have an issue of like I'm still twitching, I'm still reacting. So I try to, I gotta, I gotta focus more on that aspect. Any recommendations on like sleep protocol?

SPEAKER_04 36:33

I think you're doing the right thing. Getting to bed at the same time every night is the most important thing. Obviously, no alcohol. Alcohol like just freaking destroys your sleep. I've been using a PME MFE band uh bed. Oh, really? Yeah, and um you generally need like 10-15 minutes on that. Uh-huh. And there's different wavelengths. It says, okay, this is for sleep. This is for I I personally think I find the one I have.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

I got the higher dose. Or the higher dose, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:06

Okay, I can send you all this stuff. Yeah, please do. But I got the higher dose, and the sleep one didn't really make a difference, but I noticed when I'm setting it at the higher uh whatever the rating is, I I have no idea. Like science-wise, I couldn't find anything.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

So, like what what he has, you know, you could either go in a sauna to which you're doing already, yeah. Uh like sit in there, or these mats. Like, I have the mat and I'll go um I'll lay on it, but like I'll usually pass out after 15-20 minutes of being on it. So it's red light, near and far infrared. So it gets your growth hormone uh release and everything, and then the PMF kind of helps with recovery and okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

You're doing this right as you go to bed, usually back out, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:57

I do it sometimes. I'll wake up and go and do stuff when I wake up. Uh I personally like to do it, but it usually it gets me into a deep sleep like right away. Really like I'm on it and what's going on? What is it doing? So it's the red light, so you're releasing your growth hormone, it's just relaxing your entire body. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:17

I think I personally think there is not enough research behind it to be like, okay, this is what it's doing. It's probably with your cycle of uh growth hormone release. Because what what are the there's two optimum times your body's releasing growth hormone. So you want to maximize how much growth hormone your body's releasing. Obviously, you get tested, you can't be injecting growth hormone or peptides.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

But these are the natural ways that you guys are manipulating that. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 38:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

So and and is it uh it does well like sauna, the the the way it works is it's your growth hormone release and melatonin release.

SPEAKER_04 38:58

So that's but also you get an actual release because you're getting more deep sleep when you're doing it because that's like the biggest time during the day to get your growth hormone release, right? Let me know if you know you know this stuff better than I do.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

So you're gonna get your two releases. One's gonna be like as you fall asleep, and the other one's gonna be like early in the morning at like 5 a.m. That's why if you're gonna do growth hormone or growth hormone release and peptides, you're supposed to do it either like right before sleep or um right after you wake up because those are the times you're gonna get the releases. So gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Those are the times you you're gonna wanna increase the and then another recovery place I also utilize is a place called Eminent Wellness. And they uh what what I really love about them, they've got a lot of modalities, but the hyperbaric chamber. So that's something that I haven't utilized too too much or too consistently, I should say. I've used it through varying amounts throughout the years. But yeah, I've been utilizing the hyperbaric chamber a lot lately.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Yeah, the hyperbaric is gonna be great for you, especially like just building that stamina too and endurance. We have one in our clinic for like four people.

SPEAKER_04 40:12

Is it a lie down chamber or do you want to do it?

SPEAKER_00 40:14

No, it's a giant, yeah. Okay, you walk. So it's up to like five to six people, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:18

Okay. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, ours is like four people now. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

And yeah, we do it for like post-surgical recovery and like as long as you as long as you know when you start going, you want to stack like 10 to 20. And after that, you can just, you know, because after that you can do it like uh you know, once a week or once a uh every couple weeks and get get benefits. The the the original you want to stack it up right at the beginning. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 40:49

Post post injury, you definitely want to stack it up. Yeah, yeah. Like if you got something that's hurting or something, I would stack up uh hyperbarics. So like it's uh going multiple times in that week, that first week after injury. Gotcha. Because that's kind of like how we're using it, like post-surgical too.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

Oh, right on.

SPEAKER_04 41:07

Or even if you even even if you get hit hard feeling a little like dizzy or something.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Every pro box, every I mean every high level at least wears by then it's longevity, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:16

Yeah, so spe especially for you, like you actually like if you it post fight, if you have like concussion or anything, you want to actually be at lower levels, but it improves. Like I had a concussion, I fell and like got knocked out. Did you really? Oh my god, like yeah, he had to actually close my laceration. Um, and like I just went in there, like you're supposed to do the lower settings, and it's only up to like 1.3 to 1.5 atmospheres. So that's the printing where the studies. Yeah, because a lot of them go out, you know, medical grade goes up to four, but a lot of the other ones go up to around two. Oh, that's interesting. But you don't want to go yeah, you don't want to go like as high as possible with like a concussion or something.

SPEAKER_04 42:07

It'd be like, okay, I want 1.5 you're not overdoing it.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

Right on the house, yeah.