JRE MMA Show #105 with Derrick Lewis
Guests: Derrick Lewis
Full transcript · Read the full conversation in order, with its original context.
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Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. TRAIN BY DAY, JOE All right, Mr. Lewis, what's up? Mr. Lewis, what's up? Thanks for being in here. Thanks for finally having me. My pleasure, dude. Yeah, we talked about it a couple times. Yeah. The my balls was hot, one was the So, how's things, man? Things been crazy. Been really I can only imagine. Yeah. After that knockout of Curtis Blaydes, like uh whoo. I mean, that that got a lot of attention. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it felt real great good to knock him out because he was talking a lot of trash before the fight. Isn't that like par for the course, though? Everybody talks [ __ ] before the fight. Um even whenever I'm doing good, though. He's been talking at least 3 years now he's been talking mess to me. Really? Yeah. Do you take that [ __ ] personally?
Um I I do because I'm not in there trying to sell tickets. Don't just come to me try to sell tickets to talk trash, you know. I take everything personal. Yeah, some guys do just try to sell tickets. And then they they'll say it's not personal. It's just like when Khabib Nurmagomedov was [ __ ] up Conor, when he's on top of him, pounding on him, going, "Let's talk now. Let's talk now." Remember that? Yeah. Yeah. And he goes, "It's just business." You know, it's like this is not business. No. No. I go into every fight like life or death. And I go in I enter a deep dark place every time I step inside the octagon, so it's not business for me. What was interesting is after the fight, I mean, it was just such a spectacular knockout, but after the fight you were so nonchalant. You were just so relaxed, and you're like, "I couldn't get started
in there." And everybody's like, "What the [ __ ] are you talking about? You couldn't get started." You just It was one of the most spectacular knockouts in the history of the heavyweight division, and you're like, "Ah, I couldn't get started." Yeah. Um so, I went back home and got my blood and everything tested. And my T levels was like in the 300s. So, I had very low T, so it's like Yes. You Mhm. have low testosterone? Yes. That's ridiculous. Yeah. I would never And so, like I try to spend all my energy on my wife, so it's kind of hard because if I don't have the energy for her, then she'll think I'm out there messing around and stuff like that, so Do they know why your testosterone was low? Um Maybe you overtrained or something? No, I don't We We don't know yet, so I want to go to another doctor that the lady was just telling me about.
Oh, wow. Yeah. That's crazy. So, that's why you felt lethargic. Yes. Yes. It was like that all week. So, I At first I was I thought it was the jet lag or something like that, but it it ended up just being my T levels. That was a like one of the most perfectly timed uppercuts I've ever seen. It was perfect. Yeah, we practiced that for the last few months. So, that was the game plan when he shoots to catch him coming in? Yes. Either the knee or the uppercut. Um we knew he was going to be there. We knew he was going to try to play the game, try to stand up for a little bit, then the way he shoots he don't really shoot like a real wrestler. He shoots like from the hip down. And come in like that. He doesn't bend the knee and try to come in. Mhm. Mhm. That's interesting. So, he goes he hinges. He goes forward. Why do you think he does that? Um I don't know.
I don't know. We It's usually the wrestler they drop a knee, then shoots. Yeah. But he just bend down, and I'm guessing he's just trying to grab my leg to pick it up or something like that. I don't know. So, how how did you get involved in fighting? What was your first experiences? First experience was like cuz everyone knew I loved fighting in the streets. Like every weekend at parties and stuff like that. And so, one of my friends I told me um about MMA, and I was like I didn't really know anything about MMA at the time. And he took He told me to watch videos. This was like 10 years ago. Did you have any martial arts training at all? No, I don't. I I still don't have any martial arts training, really. That's ridiculous. Of course you do. You're a professional martial artist. I'm watching YouTube videos now, so I'm learning some stuff now. Really? Yeah.
You're not You're not [ __ ] around? Like really you learn from YouTube videos? learn I learn from my coach as well, but I watch YouTube videos and stuff like that, too. So, 10 years ago you had no martial arts training at all? No martial arts training. And where did you first start training? I just started training at a gym called Silverback MMA. And so, this was 10 years ago, you just decided to learn? Were you thinking about being a professional or you just doing it for fun? Um they said it back then I thought like 500 500 was pretty good money, you know. So, they were saying that you could get paid $500 just 3 rounds of 3 minutes. I said, "Just 3 minutes?" I didn't think 3 minutes was a long time until I got in there. It's like, "Damn. Okay." And so, we just started training from there, though. And I fell in love with
it. So, so it's to me it's almost like street fighting, so it's like, "Yeah, I could do that." But one of the things that's changed about you over the years is your endurance. Your endurance is it came up in a big way. Like you can see in the Gabriel Gonzaga fight, you can see it in a lot of your fights. Like you can you can put pressure on people now. And and you have a a lot of high volume with which with in the beginning of your career I think you had a harder time with. Oh, yeah. And so, that's really what we focus on now at Main Street Boxing Gym is my conditioning and my endurance and stuff like that cuz we feel like that's the only weakness in my game right now. Yeah, but it's like you're so big. I don't even know if it's a weakness. I think it's just part of being a giant person. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Like But in the Travis Browne fight is
another example. Like that was a crazy fast-paced fight, but you you know, you overwhelmed him. Yeah. Yeah. Um I loved that fight, too. Before the this this past fight with Curtis, it was one of my favorite. And that that week going into Travis Browne fight, I took some laxatives just to try to help me cut some weight. But you know, I took it that Wednesday, and it was still lingering around, so it's like then he kicked me in my body, but he also broke my ribs, but I also did have to take a [ __ ] I did. So, I wasn't lying about that. So, yeah. Yeah, that fight was That was That was a heavy-duty fight. It was a lot of bad blood in that fight, too, right? Yes. And ever since then, like whenever I do my you know how they come in few days before the commentators try to talk to you. Mhm. And ever since then I stopped telling the the guys what's my game plan
and stuff like that. Cuz I didn't know him and Brian Stann at the time was friends. And so, Oh. our game plan was to come in and try to kick his legs cuz he used to stand real wide. Mhm. But whenever me and him fought, he didn't stand like that at all. Not one time. So, you think Brian Stann went to him and told him so. I believe so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of dirty. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, And he didn't tell you his strategy? No, he didn't. Damn, Brian Stann. So, I'm just believe that's that was the case. Cuz he didn't do that at all. And I watched previous fights of Travis, and he always used to have that wide stance, and he didn't do that at all for my fight. That's interesting. Um do you watch a lot of tape on fights? Who? Do you watch tape on fighters when you're going to face them? to. Like early in my career I used to,
but then I stopped because they fight me different. Like if I'm watching tape on a wrestler, then by the time me and him fight, it's he's going to try to stand up with me. It's just like when I ever fought Big Country, I thought he was going to stand up the whole fight. And he just tried to take down take down. But don't most dudes try to take you down? I mean, you have some pretty ridiculous punching power. I think a lot of guys if if the option presents itself, they're going to try to take you down, right? Yeah. I guess so, but I prefer that anyways. I That's where I I I starting to breathe and catch myself, and my adrenaline be pumping too high. Like I fought Roy Nelson, and my adrenaline was out of out of this world. And so, I told my coach if that happens like in the fight with him, then I'm going to knee him in the nuts on purpose. And so,
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I don't think you should say that. Cut that out, James. Cut that part out. You can't say that, man. No, my adrenaline was just crazy. I just needed to calm down, so it was like beginning of the fight, so I did it on purpose, and Oh, no. No. I knew that I was going to get a warning, so I was like, "Okay. I'm calm down now, so I can go now." Yeah. That's an interesting strategy. Yeah. Do you So, what What makes you What makes you get more amped up for some fights than others? if I'm looking at something that I want to buy um after the fight. And so, I'm like, "Okay, yeah." You get excited? excited for that. You start counting your win bonus? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm already counting my win bonus before I even get it. So, I'm like, But give me an example of something that would that you would want to buy that gets you excited. Um we wanted to buy some property in Colorado
um few years ago. And so, I was like, "Man, that if I can get this knockout right here, then we can buy cash." And so, that right there it gets me excited to do stuff like that. Like Cuz there's no more cars. So I I got all the cars and like that don't excites me anymore. It used to, but like stuff like that gets me What are you going to do in Colorado? You going to get like a vacation spot? Yes, we got the got like 80 acres and so yeah. Nice. Nice. Where at? And St. Louis. Where's that at? It's like south of Colorado Springs. Okay. Yeah. It's like 2 hours away from New Mexico. Oh, all right. I [ __ ] love Colorado. So beautiful out there. Beautiful. So peaceful, too, right? Especially at night. It's I didn't those that many stars at night it's like it don't even seem real. I know. It's crazy. It's so quiet out there. It lets you know that we you know we
Yeah. Especially if you're high, right? Man, it's it's a different story right there. So for a guy like you I'd imagine like you need some serious downtime cuz like the chaos of being a professional fighter at the highest level in the heavyweight division like there's a lot of pressure and stress. Oh yeah, that's why I don't watch fights. You know, whenever I watch fights I catch myself starting to sweat or like holding my breath. Because like this past weekend and I was watching one of the guys fighting. I was sitting next to my wife. And she noticed that I just started breathing heavily out of nowhere because I'm already daydreaming about okay, if I was in that situation this is what I would do. And so like that's why I don't watch fights cuz it's still stressful. Yeah, so that was a rare thing you watching the fights Saturday night?
Um it just way how they want a guy that's fight like Khabib. You know, it's like Oh, Islam Makhachev? Yes. And I was like wondering like if a guy would hold me down like that like the whole fight won't be able to do anything, what would I do? That dude's a bad [ __ ] Yeah. Yeah. Islam's he's he's for real. That that grappling is serious cuz that kid Drew Dober is very good. For him to handle Drew Dober that way I was super impressed. What did you think of the main event? You know, I was going for Stylebender, but Blachowicz he just seemed too like strong like his power was like wasn't a match with Izzy. Yeah, his power is ridiculous. That dude's got crazy power and he's a big fella, too. Difference between a legitimate light heavyweight and a guy who's a middleweight who just wants to test himself. Yeah, but I I don't think he's he got what it takes
to beat Jones, though. Yeah, Jones is a different person. He's a different person. I mean Jon Jon Jones is you know, that's top of the food chain. He just figures a way around people. He figures out how to beat people. But I got to admit when you see what Blachowicz did to um what the [ __ ] his name? Uh The guy he not Jesus Christ I forgot Dominick Reyes, thank you. I don't know what happened. Uh my brain just short circuited. Dominick Reyes went five hard rounds with Jon Jones and it was a real close decision. Blachowicz blew him out in two rounds. You know, the thing about Blachowicz is you can't [ __ ] up. You know, it's a lot like you. Like you can't make any mistakes. He hits too [ __ ] hard. Um But I would like to see that fight. I wish Jon but I want to see Jon at heavyweight, too. What do you think
about Jon coming up to your weight class? Yeah, that's good. Um And you know, Jon cool. He's cool people or whatever, but I also like picture myself fighting him one day and I I kind of know what his game plan would be if he ever faced me. You know, he'll try to attack the legs a lot. Um I don't think he'll really try to take me down. He'll try to keep his distance and try to strike at it um if like at a distance or what. He'll try to stay away. You don't think he'll be try to take you down at all? I don't think so. How come? What makes you think that? Cuz I would love for a guy to get that close to me. You know, that's I believe that's their downfall whenever they get that close. That makes sense. The clinch up especially. Yeah. Well, Jon's very good at using those that that long reach. You know, it's I'm just interested to see. I mean he's at 250
lbs now. That's a legit heavyweight. He looks like a heavyweight for sure. Um I don't think he should try to gain any more weight, though. I think like his walk around weight is good enough because I believe he walks around like 240, 235 something like that. I don't think he should like keep trying to gain weight or bulk up as much he think he should because um Cain Velasquez and Stipe they walk around like 235, 240. And so he'd be a natural heavyweight, really. That's interesting because there's a there's two schools of thought, right? There's a school of thought that you should be as big as you possibly can to deal with guys like you or guys like Francis Ngannou, the biggest in the big in the division. And then the other school of thought is you should be lighter, have more endurance, push more volume, move quicker. That's
that's what I'm working on right now. I'm trying to be bigger, endurance and trying to be quicker and stuff like that because being big it's like you can last for like 3 minutes, four four or five minutes, one round and then after that everything start going downhill. What do you weigh now? Like right now I'm 290 only because I had Krispy Kreme this morning. We going to cut that part out, though. What do you want to get down to? I would love to get down to like 250, 245. Yeah. Yeah. Do you see that being possible? I think your skeleton weighs about 250. I don't know. I don't know. I'm trying. I'm trying. But since I've been off I've been eating my ass off, so I would love to get down to 250, though. Now, I've watched a lot of your training videos and you do a lot of strength and conditioning stuff like a lot of like
explosive work and [ __ ] like that. Would you change that and just do start start doing a lot of like long distance endurance stuff? Like how would you lose that kind of weight? No, I wouldn't change that. I love doing that. I believe me doing right that right there takes a lot out of me and I love feeling fatigue after every workout. And so I wouldn't do that anything like that, but I would also try to run on a track or something like that. Run few miles around the track. That's something I never done before. Would you Oh, so you don't run at all? No. Would you So what do you do for endurance work? I do stair master. We do some elliptical bike and stuff like that. We I I don't run. I haven't ran in years, really. Do you not run because you don't like it or do you not run because your joints? Cuz Oh, I just don't like it. It's
boring to me, really. It's boring. But if it was good for you, do you think you would So this is the plan. The plan is to start incorporating that. Yeah, if it's good for me, you know, but it's hard, though. I can only imagine. I could probably do it for a few days, but after that I'm like uh No, I don't feel like doing all that. Well, I only weigh 200 lbs and it's hard on my knees. I can imagine as big as you are running is rough. Yeah, I'm sure it's rough. I don't like it. It's boring. Yeah, but you I mean I guess you could do other kinds of cardio, long distance cardio, long long duration cardio to try to drop some weight. But you have to try to change your diet, too, right? Yes, diet is the number one thing, but it's hard, though. I'm living I live right next to Popeyes and all these Whataburgers and all these fast food restaurants. It's like
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it's like right there. Listen, man. I'm a giant fan of Popeyes. Spicy chicken and beans and rice it's hard to pass up. That beans and rice is good. Yes, it's deadly. Yeah. It's a problem. But like if you Do you work with a nutritionist at all? I used to work with Lou Nutrition out there in New Jersey. I used to work with him. But other than that, no. My wife she's she try to look up recipes here and there. But she still need a lot of work on in the kitchen, though. Have you ever used the UFC's program with a Trifecta meals? Yeah, I did and I didn't like it. Didn't like it? It was trash. I told them it's trash. I don't like it at all. What don't you like about it? It's no season. No no flavor to it. Yeah, I get it. Whenever I spit in the other guy's food I really meant that. That [ __ ] was nasty. Oh. That's why you spit in his food. Why the
[ __ ] would they Was that Oleinik? Yes. Yeah, why would they send you Oleinik's food? I don't know. They probably just trying to get rid of that [ __ ] because it was nasty. Did you didn't send it back to I mean they threw it out. They didn't give it I don't know if they sent it back or what. I don't think so. And I definitely not after seeing the video. Well, he don't speak English, so he probably didn't know what I was saying anyway. Well, he probably knew you were spitting in his food. That's pretty universal. What kind of [ __ ] were they giving him? Oh, I don't know. Did it look boring? Chicken breasts, boiled broccoli, that kind of [ __ ] got something good because I don't order no nasty [ __ ] like that. That was nasty. I told him put season on mines. So like for Trifecta do you get to pick what
they send you? Yes, you get to pick. So you can order something that's got seasoning and some spicy food, something good. Yeah. But whatever they was trying to give to him it was not good. No. No. Well, maybe he's got some weird diet he follows. Yeah, probably so. Probably. He's an interesting cat, that guy. Yeah. Not I never fought anyone like him. He's weird. Crazy grappler. Yeah. He finishes people when they're mounting on them, which is nuts. The only guy I've ever seen it. I think he's done it twice. He gets them with that Ezekiel. Yeah, when he he got me in I guess the Ezekiel, that's what it was. He got me in that position. I was like if my coaches never had told me about that the week of the fight, I wouldn't ever know what the hell he was doing. Yeah, it's weird. It was like I was kind of panicking cuz I he was suffocating me with his skin.
It wasn't just the the choke. It was just I couldn't breathe. So I was like panicking a little bit. Then he had said something in Russian then let it go and smile. So, I [ __ ] Appreciate it. Cuz he almost had me. I was like, [ __ ] I'm about to tap cuz I ain't know what was going on. So, I was scared. I said, all right, appreciate it. And he hit me in my stomach. I said, all right. That's hilarious. that. Yeah, that guy's a he's a unusual grappler. He just grabs a hold of people. He seems ridiculously strong. Yeah. Yeah. It was weird. I've never seen anybody finish that that move like he does. Where he lets guys mount him and then like he grabs a hold of their neck, he he puts it like this and then he like opens up so they think, oh, I'm going to mount. And they move in the mount and he sinks it in and he squeezes and he
presses you down. I want to feel that. It's it's a crazy move. I want to know how he does that. I wonder if he's got like a certain setup he uses for that. Yeah, he's got what, 80 fights? So. Yeah, he's been around. It's crazy. Yeah, he still loves it, I guess. He's in his 40s, too. Deep in his 40s, right? 45. 45? Yeah. What when do you think you're going to stop? How old do you have a number in your head? Um it all depends. Um if my body says sit your ass down or you know, we could keep going. It also depends on the money, you know, um Right. If the money keep getting better like it is, um we'll keep going until UFC say, all right, we holler at you. Well, you're in a position now where, you know, you're at the top of the food chain, right? So, you got Stipe who's about to fight Francis in a rematch. You've already beat Francis and then you got Jon
even count that as a beating Francis, you know, that fight right there. I wish people don't even talk bring that up no more. Yeah, that was a weird fight. What was up with that fight? My back was hurting. I felt overweight the whole fight. I had knee issues. I had a bunch of problems with myself. And I don't know what was going on with him. I think he was still [ __ ] up because of the Francis fight. I think he was The Stipe. Excuse me, yeah, the Stipe fight. Yeah, I think that Stipe fight just [ __ ] with his head and he just in fact he got so tired in that fight and that Stipe overwhelmed him and beat him for the first time in the UFC and yeah, I think it was just bothering him. I for sure love the running back, though. You you've had some back issues over the years, right? What what are the back issues? Um it's my L4 and L5. Do you
have a bulging disc? Herniated disc. Bulging and herniated. What have you done to fix it? Um I had knee surgery after the Junior fight. Um And so, they were saying that my right leg was shorter than my left leg because that's how tight my back was. Wow. And so, they ended up having knee surgery and they said that I was compensating on it. And so, ever since I had the surgery, I haven't had any serious problems with it. Really? That was it? Mhm. Isn't it it's weird how everything's connected like that? Like a knee problem can [ __ ] your back up. I've been having the knee problem for like 4 years before I got it fixed. Was it meniscus? Yes, meniscus and it's partial torn um ACL. So, did they replace the ACL? The ACL still partial torn. They replaced the meniscus. MCL MCL is completely gone. Oh, really? Yeah. So, did they reattach the MCL? How did they
do it? Yeah. they Yeah, put some plastic things, anchors or whatever. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, now it's good to go? Mhm. What happened I had hurt it um against Ryan Bader. He got me in a knee bar. It was real tight and I didn't tap and so ever since that fight, it'd been bothering me. Cuz the one fight you had, the Fabricio Werdum fight, you had to pull out cuz your back was so [ __ ] up. That was like the day of the fight, right? Yes. What was it going on with that? Um I couldn't move. I couldn't even roll out of out of bed. It was like cramping sharp pain in my lower back. And that was just from the herniated disc? they the doctor came in and coaches and it was size of my fist the knot in my back. Wow. It's crazy that it's all because of the knee. Yeah. And so, since the knee's fixed, now your back is good. Yes. And did you have to do any back
strengthening exercises or any Yeah, I had to do therapy for like 4 months. Yeah, ever since I've done I had finished all of that, there was no more back problems. That's pretty crazy. Do you [ __ ] with yoga or anything like that? Um they told me that yoga would help a lot. You know, I seen DDP been trying to reach out and help trying to get me to do his yoga and Have you been in contact with him? No. I can connect you. No, all right. Oh, come on, man. Come on, man. I want to see you doing DDP yoga. He's a great guy, too. You'd love him. Yeah, I guess I I'd give him a try, but I prefer like a woman try to teach me yoga and I don't know do it. Oh, I understand. I understand. Yeah, he he thinks it's different than regular yoga. Yeah, that's what I heard it is. Yeah, it is. Well, he has like dynamic tension with the yoga. You know,
he did he does yoga, but he adds like a bunch of other moves that go with it. It's really tough. It's very good workout. And you know, he's in his 60s and he can grab his foot and stick it straight up in the air and do like a standing split. It's crazy how flexible he is. I guess I'll give it a try since I got low T. So, I'm just about I'm close as a His whole thing was his back was so [ __ ] up from pro wrestling. So, using yoga, he strengthened his back and that that allowed him to extend his career. Okay. Yeah, I know a lot of guys whose back has been pretty [ __ ] up and yoga is what saved them. Yoga yoga put it all together for them. That's why I brought it up. But I understand. A lot of manly dudes don't want to be in there doing yoga. It's special another man, you know. I understand. Yeah. Yeah, it's like getting a massage
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from another man. Yeah, I can't do that. I can't do it. I got I like to relax, you know. Yeah, I don't know. It's odd, but sometimes dudes are the only ones that can really get in there. Get in there and work them muscles. No, I know some big old Brock Lesnar women Brock Lesnar form looking women that really get in there with the same haircut and everything. Shout out to Miss Linda. Appreciate it. Same haircut and everything. That's hilarious. Yeah. So, what is like a a typical training day for you? Do you do do you do straight Do you ever do straight jiu-jitsu or do you do just straight on MMA training? Like what do you do? Um now I do strength conditioning for hour then after that like I rest for like 3 hours then I go back and do jiu-jitsu and striking at the same time. So, you just MMA style workouts. So, you just everything's So, um when you say
you do strength and conditioning for an hour, you do that every day? Yes, um Monday, I guess. Not anymore. It was Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I do that. Is and so, every day is two-a-days or do you have sometimes one workout a day? Like how do you do it? Winds- Tuesdays and Thursdays is one one a day. And how did you does this from trial and error? Like did you try different ways of doing it and different ways of setting up your camps? And this is what you found to be the best for your body? Um I really just don't like training. I'm not going to lie to you. I don't even like I don't like doing none of this. You know, I really just do it just to take care of my family. I do it just enough if okay, I can last three rounds. So, I can I'm trained just to last three rounds. If I got to train All right, I'm trying to train as much
as I can just to last at least 4 and 1/2 rounds. But if you're going to fight for the title again, you're going to have to fight five rounds. Yeah, I know I'm going to have to fight five rounds. That's the only thing that scares me. But you want to be the champ. I want to be the champ, but it's not my main goal is to be the champ. My main goal is to And I ask people questions, but I understand. But the best way to be rich is to be the champ. That's like your best path. And you have a like a legit shot at being the heavyweight champion of the world. That I mean, that's got to mean something. It's just my name and mixed with heavyweight champion of the world is so crazy because my past and the stuff I've been through in my life, it just won't be real. Well, well, tell me about your past. Like what what about makes it seem less real? Um I guess, you know,
like going through the system and stuff like that for so many years and being counted out and being left left behind by our family members and friends and stuff like that and everyone turning their back on you then being on top of the world and top of the the the sport and stuff like that and my name mentioned um by other great people in the world and stuff like that and now other people are looking up to me then being heavyweight champion of the world just be unbelievable feeling. Well, it's got to be unbelievable already, right? I mean, you're you're one of the top heavyweights on the planet Earth. It is. You got to be ranked like number two right now, right? Yes, I'm number two. Yeah, it's it's crazy feeling. You know, I try not to think about it because it really don't feel real, you know. Feel like one of those highs that you wish you never been this high.
I don't want to be this high anymore. I'm sure to show you at So, I heard me on the mushrooms and stuff like that. I'm like, no. Yeah, I understand. So, like So, tell me about your past. Like what what about like when you say going through the system, you mean the judicial system? Like what what about your past was uh Yeah, I've been like in prison and stuff like that. I did 3 and 1/2 years in prison. For what? For assault, aggravated assault. Street fighting. people. That's weird. I'm kidding. Well, you should have been in my courthouse. You should have been in talking telling that to the judge. have said that to the judge. Your honor, I think I think this is a mistake. Yeah. So, 3 and 1/2 years for that. And so, people wrote you off. They felt like this is just you're just going to be trouble your whole life. Yeah. Especially I had a full scholarship. Um
I was already I played a year. I ended up getting probation for that. I ended up playing a year of college at Kilgore Junior College. And I ended up violating because I didn't have a job and I had to pay my fines and fees and show up to my um meetings. Which no one wanted to help me don't to do. And so, I ended up getting violated um from that. And it was only a 2-year probation at the time. Duplication and so, no one wanted to help me um to go to my classes and help me pay my fines and stuff like that because I was in college. You know, didn't have any money. And so, they violated me. I went to prison for on the 5-year sentence, but I got parole 3 and 1/2 years. So, you went to prison because of the violation of not paying the fines. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Did the the feeling of being counted out by the system? That's one of the main problems that most
people have with our justice system. It says it doesn't really rehabilitate people. It makes people feel like there's no hope. And in a lot of ways it makes them resign themselves to a life of crime. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Then it's really no no nothing they can really do to help somebody to re- rehabilitate theirself, you know, whenever they get out. It's no programs they can really like jobs and stuff. There There's some jobs, but not really good paying jobs that they really need to really um survive out here. So, from going from that to becoming a successful martial artist, like and to be and I know you don't think you practice martial arts, but you definitely do. But to be a successful fighter, you've you've uh you've changed your future. But I think you've also opened up a lot of people's eyes that maybe they can change their future, too. If a guy like
you can do it, then what's the difference between you and a lot of other people? Not much difference. Yes, my brother remind me of that all the time. He thinks he thinking that it the fighting is so easy because I can do it that he believe that he could do it. I'm telling it's completely different. It's not It's not the big like you? Yeah, he's big. Yeah. Can he fight? Well, he can fight in the streets, you know, it's completely different fighting in the streets than mixed martial arts. But yeah, in the streets he can fight. How old is your brother? He's 31. I'm recruiting him right now. How much does he weigh? What's he Where's he at? But he short, though. He short. He like You can be short and still be the heavyweight champion of the world. I mean, Mike Tyson, too. You know? Yeah, but he's uh is he interested in doing it? Yeah, he is, but I'm I I told him no.
We're not doing it. Really? Yeah. Why? Cuz my brother too ghetto, first of all. They wouldn't the world wouldn't be able to handle someone like him. Really? He's too outspoken and he's real ghetto. Man, I don't know. If you tell him to tone it down a little bit, we might have I tell him that every day whenever I talk to him. He always going live and just want to be ghetto all the time. So, he can't be doing that. You got to learn how to turn it off and on. And he's like, "No." Is he the guy you get your Instagram clips from? Dude, you got the best Instagram page out of any MMA fighter. I check your [ __ ] every day. I do. I check your [ __ ] every day cuz there's always something wild that you have posted. somebody reported me for something just now. Oh, you [ __ ] rats. Yeah. What was it? It's the video I posted on kid getting
he ran into the back of the truck. He was getting pulled by the truck. guy who had slid with the rope hanging onto the rope. You got reported for that one? That's so tame. They should see all your other [ __ ] They reported you for that? So, I now what I do I just keep them on there for a few hours or maybe a day or so. Then I delete them. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I almost hesitated telling people how good your Instagram was cuz I didn't want you to get in trouble cuz it was so fun. Cuz it's always dudes getting [ __ ] up and it's always he's okay. When you know that motherfucker's not okay. That's why I started doing because I was getting reported a lot. And I was like, "Okay, he's okay." And people start asking me, "What's the backstory? Is they okay?" I'm saying, "He's okay." There's a lot of dead people that were
§05Transcript · 34:44
on your Instagram for [ __ ] sure. Yeah, and you don't Aren't you selling a he's okay shirt? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We sold out. We sold out. Yeah. Oh, man. He's okay shirt. He's okay. Sold out. I need a he's okay. She's okay, I feel bad. I feel bad. I don't know why, man, but when girls get [ __ ] up in those videos, it makes me feel bad. When dudes get [ __ ] up, I don't feel bad at all. It doesn't bother me at all. Snoop's got a great page, too. Snoop's always posting people getting [ __ ] up, but he posted this one girl. She was drunk and she was on the top of a truck and the truck pulled off and she fell and landed I told the lady that did that. I was like, "Damn, I know my head is messed up, but she really had cropped the hell out of my head." Yeah, what did she do? She made your head small?
too. And my ear. She's like, "His head's too big. I'm going to make it smaller." She did. She shrunk your head. Look my ear. My right ear. It she It looks like she took like a half inch off the right side of your face. It's a rough Photoshopping job there. Yeah, she's terrible. Yeah, well. People think they know better. Like, "Oh, his When did you start posting [ __ ] up things on Instagram like that? Oh, [ __ ] I don't even know. Probably um 16, 17. [ __ ] that's funny. Which one He stuck a hot dog in dude's pants, wake UH WHAT DOES the UFC think about your page? Um they used to have that one guy, Randy. He used to always call me every day telling me, "Oh, Dana White wants you to take it down." I'm like, "No. I'm not taking that down." I said, "Hold on. Give me a few more hours. I'm going to leave it up a few
more hours." That's hilarious. Yeah, he used to call me every day saying they want think it was really Dana White though or was it him? That's what I was telling him. I said, "It's probably Dana White." I bet Dana I mean, it's probably um him. Yeah. Yeah. But then then Dana White had messaged me one day on one of the videos. The guy had jumped off the roof. Where he was trying to jump in the pool, but he ended up slipping on the roof and landing headfirst. And Dana White said, "Why What happened to that video?" I said, "I took it down." And he said, "Send it to me." And he ended up posting it on his page. Yeah. I said, "Okay." Let me tell you something. If someone's saying take it down, it's not Dana. It's not Dana. I send Dana some [ __ ] up things. He never gets upset. Yeah, he's he's fine with it. But you figured out a way to make your so I
mean, you How many followers you got now? I'm just about almost 2 million. Yeah, and I mean, a lot of it is people following you because of your fight career, but a lot of people are following it cuz it's some wild [ __ ] you post. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of celebrities, too. Like I didn't even know they were following me. That's pretty cool, though. Got invited to shoot some golf with um Scarface. Really? That's pretty cool. No [ __ ] Look at this. Oh, look at that. Oh, look at him right there. Yeah. Yeah. Brotherhood Brother Brother Mob and Scarface. Uh I met Willie D when uh I did uh the Improv in Houston. And it was like Sometimes I get starstruck. You know, with him I got starstruck. When I was a kid, when I was delivering newspapers, I would listen to Geto Boys all the time. And I was like, "I can't
Sometimes you meet people and you can't believe that's really them." Like Like, "You're a real person?" Yeah. Like, here you are right here. Yeah. Then I had him on the podcast and it was great, but Jamie [ __ ] up and half the tape got erased. Whoops. Whoops. The recording's good, but the the the video got [ __ ] up. The hard drive He'll come back again. He'll come back again. Yeah, I had the chance to have Bushwick Bill on, but we we when we circled back, he apparently was in the middle of dying. And right when we circled back, he was already in the hospital. And then he died shortly after that, unfortunately, but but I've always been a huge Geto Boys fan. Yeah, I love Geto Boys. But uh Scarface was sick, too, right? Didn't he have uh Yeah, he's getting lung or something like that. He needed a a transfer. Yeah. Yeah, I think he needs a kidney
transplant. I think he still do. I'm not sure. I think so, too. Yeah. So, you golf a lot? Yeah. Is that like your recreation [ __ ] that you like to do? week. Every week just about every week. Yeah. Yeah. What else do you do to relax? Um just probably just go for a ride and through the city. That's about it. Go for a ride and chill with my kids, my wife. That's about it. Well, we were supposed to have a UFC where they were trying to have a UFC in Houston. They're trying to do the title fight in Houston, but apparently Texas is like, "Not yet." Yeah, it's the the mayor. He was already tripping about it being fully open, 100% open. He was already tripping. It went on the news like right away whenever that happened. And he's saying that it was wasn't a good idea. Look at Florida. They're fine. Yeah, I'm going to Florida next week actually, Miami.
they're wide open and they're fine. If you look at their cases, their cases are no worse than anybody else's. It's And they have an old population. Florida, like the numbers, the average age of people is higher than most places. Yeah. And they're fine. It's retirement home city, though. Yeah. I think you got to let people do whatever the [ __ ] they want to do. It's too long. It's been a year. You can't just lock everything down for a year, especially when we know what the disease really is. Like a year ago everybody thought it was like the plague and it was going to kill 10% of the population. It's We know it's not now. But they was blaming everything on COVID. You get in a car accident, COVID. Right, if someone died, you mean? Yeah. Mhm. Yeah, talk to me about your cars. What kind of cars are you into? Ferrari, um, Lamborghini.
Really? McLaren. Really? That's where you spend all your money? Yeah. Yeah. I buy houses, too. Yeah. What kind of Ferrari you got? F12. Really? It's the best sounding car in the world right there. Oh, yeah. Pull up a a picture of that F12. See if you can get a video of a Ferrari F12. That's a serious [ __ ] car. That's the V12, right? Yeah. Oh my god, that thing sounds good. pipe IP E E exhaust. Yeah, my friend Cole La Wand War, he's a a gun guy on Instagram. Maybe you've seen him. He's a famous uh like he posts all kinds of [ __ ] about guns. He just got one of those, too. Got a F12. But yeah, that's a ridiculously fast car, too. Yeah. Yeah. Is that your favorite? My favorite cruise around car. If I wanted to like embarrass somebody in speed, it's the McLaren, the 720. Yeah. Yeah. So, how many cars do you have? Look at that thing. About six.
Look at that thing. Woo. What color is yours? It's red. Do you sometimes like get in it and go, "I can't believe I have a [ __ ] Ferrari?" Every day. Every day. It's same way with my home, my house. I'm like every day I'm like I'm just sitting in the living room or sitting at the kitchen table and I'm just looking around like can't believe it. So, I've been in the house almost 3 years now and I still like can't believe it. And I pull up to it and I'm like, "Man, I can't believe it." Because I grew up in a 700 square foot home, you know, um, in the projects in New Orleans. And been in apartments just about all my life until um, I got into the UFC. And so, like living in a home like this is like so crazy. My whole life to right now is like so crazy. So, that's why I really don't even really get high no more or really drink because I'm already
feeling like I'm on top of the world. Yeah, you're high on life. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it's got to be surreal. What is this here? Oh, that's my Lamborghini. Damn, it's twin turbo. Look at that [ __ ] thing. Which model is that? Huracan. Look at Derrick Lewis' McLaren and Lamborghini man. They find everything. I would think my wife is back there. James is the best. He knows how to find stuff. is back there and she be finding all kind of stuff. She say, "Oh, you was here, huh? Oh, you was doing this." I said, "No, I wasn't." She'll pull up the I said, "No, that ain't me. That's Shaq." They say me and Shaq look alike. Shaq is a ridiculously big person. Yeah. Every time I'm around Shaq, I can't believe we're the same thing. He's His hands are so big. Like you shake his hand, like my hand disappears inside of his hands. I'm like a point guard next to Shaq.
§06Transcript · 44:04
It's so crazy. When When you see a guy like Shaq, what's crazy is like he couldn't fight in the UFC cuz he's too big. Too big. That doesn't make any sense to me. Like why why do they have a weight limit for heavyweight? I don't know. It don't make any sense to me, either. So. I don't get it. Like why do you have to reach 265? That seems so silly to me. Cuz there's a super heavyweight, right? Isn't that Yeah, super heavyweight. But there's no division. It's not real. I guess they feel like that it would be too fat and slow and everyone would get tired real quick. Maybe. I don't know. Well, what does LeBron James weigh? He's got to weigh 290. What does he weigh? He might be slimmed down. I remember them saying 280 was the claim like 10 years ago. Yeah, okay. So, let's let's assume Okay, let's think he's 20 It's 280. Let's say he's 280. He's not getting tired.
Like you could be a 280 super athlete. You know what I mean? solid right now, I know. Yeah. I just think it's weird that there's a limit on the heavyweight division. Yeah, it'd be good if they change it. Yeah. So, in a way, not in a way, but like for sure, you live in the American dream. Yes. In a in a in a good way because like it wasn't good Your life wasn't good in the beginning. And now it's amazing. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. You know, I can't complain about anything, really. You know, even the bad days, I really can't complain about it, you know, cuz it's so crazy. And now it's like I try to help a lot of my family members out, but they still trying to find ways to burn me at the end, you know. Your family members? Yeah, I brought just about all of them cars, like cash cars. And less than a few months they sold all of them. Like every Each of my brothers
and sister, my mom, they all sold their cars for the cash. I don't know. Yeah. And they was had some Do you have a lot of people asking you for money now? Every day. You know, I already know what what's the setup going to be. Soon as someone text me or call me that I haven't talked to in a long time, I already knew Yeah. the kind of story they going to talk about before they ask for money. You got to do what I do. I changed my number. Oh. I changed my number. I changed my number all the time. I changed my number all the time. And my wife My wife thinks oh, it's because of females or something like that. No, it's not really no females. There's no females at all. It's just like family members or some other guy is trying to get an interview with me that somebody gave my number to. Yeah, that that becomes a problem, too, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this uh
That's the problem, right? More money, more problems. It's 100% true. It's real. So true. And as you become more and more successful, it's going to be a bigger issue still. Like if you become the champ, Yeah. then it's going to be crazy. Oh, it's crazy now. I already know. I I got men follow home like three times already. Really? By fans? Yeah. Do they ever knock on your door? Twice it was by some like different It was couples. And twice it was like the woman was driving and the guy was in the passenger side wanting a picture. He's making his girlfriend follow me to my house Jesus Christ. Yeah, it's it's weird [ __ ] being famous, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. But for you, I mean, to to come from being incarcerated, not having hope, and to being in this position now, and I mean, I can only imagine. It's got to be completely surreal. It's so real. That's
what I said. It's like I really don't need to get high on nothing or drink anything. But it's cool, though. It's It's a plus, you know, to smoke a little weed here and there. Yeah, to relax. Yeah. Relax. Take the edge off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But does it give you more motivation to keep pushing, too, because you realize that what has been possible? I mean, you've you've done an amazing thing with your life. Yes, they give me a lot of motivations, um, like cuz I know how easy it is to slip up and go back into those situations cuz it was nothing but a street fight that ended ended bad for the guy I was going against. And ended up having to serve almost 5 years for it. So, it could still happen. I could walk out of here and get in a street fight with someone and be probably be way worse situation, you know. I think you got better lawyers
Yeah, I think. But you're not a You're You're an easy going guy. Yeah, now I am. Yes. Now you are. But you weren't back then when you were younger. Back then I was just I think I had a lot of anger built up in me. I wish I still do now, but back then it was a lot more. Um, I believe it was just the way I was raised, you know, wasn't showed that much love, you know, in my household and just the family circle. You know, I believe that's what led to a lot of my my troubles. That's It's a lot of young men. Yeah. Do you feel like um you have a a second chance with your children to show them love because you didn't get that kind of love when you were younger? Oh, yeah, for sure, you know, um, My kids is like completely different than how I was raised, you know, I'm so happy that they're like making straight A's in school and making the honor roll every every year and
getting already getting scholarships and stuff like that um, to go to to big colleges. And so it's like already is my life is already unbelievable as it is and just seeing that it's like make me so proud. That's beautiful. Yeah, so proud. That's amazing, man. That's what everybody wants, right? What everybody wants is like a happy life where it all comes together. And I I think with a person like you, you really appreciate it because it wasn't always like this. Oh, yeah. So I I I tell people all the time I don't regret I don't you know, wish nothing like that would happen. I believe that I had to go through that situation to to be a better person that I am today. So it's like raising being raised without a father figure and stuff like that. I feel like to me everyone is different. To me I feel like I had to go through that situation
to be a better father, be a better man here today. Cuz if not then I'll for sure would have been going in and out of there. For a lot of guys growing up with a a bad situation like without a father figure, that's ultimately ironically what makes them great. Like having this thing that you're missing when you're young, having these deficits in your life, having like a lack of love and all that it gives you all this motivation and it makes you gives you all this energy to do something with your life. It's It's ironic because like everybody like I want nothing but good things for my family. But all of my interesting friends had [ __ ] up lives. Like all my favorite people, all the people that I know with the most character, their their their childhood was chaos. But I don't want my kids to go through that. You know, I want my kids to have a
nice easy life. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's ironic. Nowadays you you really have to really talk to your kids now. Even though they doing everything good in school and they quiet. But now it's like the suicide rate is so high. You never know what's really going on inside their head, you know. Even though they're not in the streets or doing anything bad. But they stay in the room all day long. Like my oldest daughter, she's 17 and she stays in the room all the time and like we me and her mom we talked to her all the time and and sure enough that she had those thoughts like suicide. Is she staying in the room because school's closed or she's just has she always been like that? Um she always been like that, you know. Just to herself. And she just want friends and stuff like that. We try to like tell her to go out and try to make friends and stuff like
with her she want friends so bad that she willing to pay for their friendship, you know, like give them money and just buy them gifts and stuff like that. Try to tell her it's not the way to do it. And so she's in a real bad place right now. So we still trying to talk to her. That's terrible. Um have you thought about getting her involved in something where she can meet people that are doing things she does like some kind of either a sport or an activity or Yeah, um some type of art class art because she's a real good artist. She like that Japanese art. She could really draw really good. Like anime, you Yeah, anime. Yeah. So we trying to get her involved in something like that. So that's about the only issue with her. That sucks. Yeah, it's I think it's real hard for kids today with social media, too. Social media Social media.
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There's a a book called The Coddling of the American Mind by this guy named Jonathan Haidt and inside that book he talks about how there's a spike related to in suicides and self-harm particularly among girls that's directly related to the invention of social media. Cuz people are they're [ __ ] [ __ ] on social media. Yeah. And a lot of girls are comparing their life to other girls' lives and and the you know, they're they're comparing their pictures to other girls' pictures when these girls' pictures are photoshopped and they're changing they're doing what they did to your head and shrinking the heads and shrinking the bodies. I mean, that's what they do. And you know, people look at other people and they they feel like they they just feel like they're not as good. It leads to a lot of bad things along
with the bullying. Leads to a lot of bad things. Yeah. And this is the thing I didn't know women do. They go to stores and take picture with purses and stuff like that or jewelry. Then they go to the restroom and take pictures make it seem like they're they brought all those things. Come to find out they didn't. And that's the thing that's trending right now in Houston. They go to this the Post Post Oak Hotel and they got a lot of cool stuff over there and they make it seem like they brought all this stuff. They didn't really didn't. Yeah, it's so weird showing people all your [ __ ] Yeah. It's a weird thing that people are doing today. It's just social media has gotten everybody all [ __ ] up like doing things for likes and doing things for attention. And and and then just paying attention to those likes. Looking at it all day.
Checking to see what you got, you know. I think you're doing it the right way. Just show dudes jumping off roofs and [ __ ] Getting pulled into trucks. At least Yeah, it's crazy. How old are you now, Derrick? 36. How long do you think you're going to be fighting for if you had a guess? Um I would like to stop fighting whenever I'm 40. That'd be great. But But after 40 it just be embarrassing after that. I see it seems like the bigger fighters they have a longer career and like you you mature. That's always the thing with heavyweight boxing, too. You except for Tyson, of course. But you mature later in life and you know, you I think maybe bigger guys they get more coordinated as they get older. They get a better control of their body. But like look at Jan Błachowicz. He's 38. You know, and he just won the title last year. And there's a lot of
like top flight heavyweights that are in your age range, you know. Like DC, he won the title at 40 I I don't know. It depends on my body. I'm feeling pretty good right now. Like my body been feeling good ever since the surgery. So we just see. But you've had so much success and you've had this success because of your body and because of your hard work and the fights you've won. Do for a guy like you is like you got to have that in your head like man, like this is this is what I'm using to make my life amazing. Yes. Like how much more time does this thing got? The thing about with me, you watch my fights and it's like I don't really don't take that much damage. Like been in like real wars like um JDS has been in and or Yeah. the other guys at the top has been in, you know. Stipe been in a lot of wars and took a lot of damage. You know, I believe stuff
like that would shorten your career quicker. 100%. How do you avoid taking damage? Um I just I guess just go to weigh-ins No, I don't know. So I don't know. Well, you being big helps and also I think your endurance helps, too. You know, I think a lot of guys one one of the things that happens they start fading and then they start getting beaten up, you know. Yeah, that's the thing, too. It's like like in my fights I I'm fighting with myself. I'm not even really worried about my opponent. I'm fighting with myself the whole time. Like How so? All right, don't do this. Don't do this. Okay, you can throw this punch, but how do you feel after you threw this punch? All right. You got a little tired right there. Okay, taking a little time. All right, you can throw right here. Okay, see how you feel. I'm trying not to get tired. I'm fighting with myself.
I'm trying not to get tired after every movement I do. And so okay, you're tired right now. So okay, wait. Wait. All right, wait till he clinch you and then he clinch you then we probably could finish him right here. Does that show you how important experience is? Because that's what you learn. Experience from day one. My first amateur fight I gassed real bad. I gassed so bad I had to put my hands on my knees. And like even the guy was walking towards me he just was hitting me because I was just so tired. I didn't wasn't even feeling the punches anymore. So I didn't want to be in that situation anymore. So now but that seems like it's not just endurance, right? It's knowing when to put on the gas and when to when to slow down. Knowing your body. Yes. Like experience come into play. You know, um I learned a lot like being in the UFC
fighting in all these different type of fighters and it's like okay, they could have way more skills than me and I feel like that if my endurance and conditioning is is decent enough to to finish the guy no matter what round or how many seconds left in the fight that I should be okay. Jamie, I'm going to send you something. It's me reacting to him knocking out This is one of my favorite one of my favorite clips because that knockout was so crazy. We were in the middle Here it is. All right, I'm going to send it to you right now, Jamie. Here, I just airdropped it to you. Hang on. All right, is it going through? I've got two Jamie Vernons here. You have my computer and phone connected. Okay. You got it? Okay. So that fight to me was a perfect example of one of the reasons why people love you is because at any moment in the
fight Yeah. you get in that [ __ ] And that was a fight where you were you were behind on the judges scorecards and we were just saying it doesn't matter like at any moment Derrick could knock him out. Like that's the thing that's exciting about you but the UFC, because we go so crazy, the UFC's decided to put these cameras on us. Give me some volume Look at everybody going crazy. We were going crazy. I had to get up. I had to stand up. I couldn't take it. That was so nuts. My coach, um, my manager Lou Lou said he fainted. He couldn't take it either no more. So, everyone was just so so pumped about that and I heard that some police was called because my neighbors our fans was just going crazy after that fight. Oh, that was that was wild. That was one of the best come from behind knockouts ever. And but it was it was wild too
because we just got done saying like don't count him out. At any moment he could knock him out and then boom you catch him with a big punch and then drop him and then boom put him away. We went nuts. I like whenever my coach said okay we got a minute left 30 seconds left. Then I'm like okay. Try to gain. So, I got I have to let everything out. Um A lot of my fights I finish in the last few seconds of the fight. So, I like to to wait the last minute or last 2 minutes left to really show what I got left in my tank. So But that shows your hard work and that you can keep that power in in like deep into the fight. That means you've did the work in the gym. Like you you still have the the gas. Yeah. Yeah. Was that your most satisfying knockout? That was, yeah. The crowd made it really exciting and satisfying because the way they reacted. You know, then
seeing that one guy that played in grunt um Groot Brute What movie is that? Guardians Guardians of the Galaxy? Oh, Chris Pratt? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He's Seeing his seeing his reaction it was like it made it all worthwhile. Yeah. Yeah, no that was a big one. That was a big one. Yeah, I wish the fans was here for the Curtis fight. I'm pretty sure they would have went crazy for that one too. 100%. I screamed in my house. I screamed in my house. My wife Every now and then in a fight like, you know, when I'm watching fights at home I scream and then my my wife has to realize I'm watching fights cuz I'm by myself in THE THEATER GOING "OW!" YEAH, THAT WAS THAT WAS ONE that for sure would have got a giant reaction from the crowd. Yeah. Is it Yeah, is So, what is like do you have a favorite moment as a fighter? Or do you have you you have so many knockouts.
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Yeah. You have the most knockouts ever in the heavyweight division. Yeah, it's crazy. Because I wasn't even really going for that. Um my favorite one I it has to be Volkov. Volkov Cuz I was telling my coaches and my camp before that fight it's like I'm fighting a Russian guy. It'd be cool if I could get one of those Rocky type fights. And showing up it was a Rocky type fight. I'm like So crazy. So crazy. Ended just like a Rocky movie. Yeah, there it is. Boom! My goodness, that was crazy. Then like a few minutes before that he's I had hit him and he's saying that his mouthpiece was my mouthpiece. I said no, that's not my mouthpiece. I said he okay, I guess Yeah, that that was picture that that KO. Back up to the the right hand again that drops him. That [ __ ] was picture perfect. Here it is. Boom! I mean timing, distance, everything. It
was picture perfect. And the fact that you did this deep into the fight. Look Yeah. Does this feel Does it feel surreal watching yourself? Oh, yeah all When you watch yourself on television like what goes through your head when you see something like this? I'm like man, I don't look that fat in person. I don't look fat whenever I watch my highlight and like then you see me in person like you lost some weight. No, I ain't losing no weight. That's the TV. The problem was the Fox Sports. Fox Sports ESPN I think I look a little smaller now. Fox Sports cameras make me look fat. I think everybody thinks they look fat when they see themselves on television. I think I look fat when I walk by a mirror. I'm like come on, really? It's all this [ __ ] Yeah. But you know, if you do drop down to you know, whatever you want to get to the 240 or 200 maybe
maybe then you can see a little six pack. Yeah, then you know, I'll walk around I'll walk around with no shirt. But now I don't like walking around with a shirt. With no shirt in front of my sons my boys they always call me fat. Still like that cuz they got six packs so then like I make it seem like they don't bother me but I cry I go and cry in the room. How do they feel about their dad being one of the baddest [ __ ] on earth? They don't care. care? Yeah, the neighbors in the backyard like that lives behind us said we know who your dad is. Your dad is famous and I heard my boys had say something back to them said that we know we don't care. So, I'm like what the I They say they don't care but they must care. They have to. They spoiled though. My wife spoils them. I try not to. I try to give them lessons. Make them earn everything that that they
get. Do they have any any interest in fighting themselves? No. They wanted to fight wanted to box and put them in boxing class then now they saying they don't want to get punched so they don't want to do that and then play soccer. I said okay, cool play soccer. I don't want them fight either. I don't even want them play football. Yeah. Football maybe worse, right? Mhm. Yeah. Concussions and stuff like that. Did you feel like that when you were playing football that it was more dangerous than fighting? Not at all. That's all I wanted to do was play football. Yeah. So, if you had your way to go back you would have done that instead? Yeah, I would have played football, yeah. It was my number one sport. You enjoy it more? Yeah. Especially being in this situation and playing football it was a team sport so I could really blame Okay, it was it wasn't my fault. It was
the defensive tackle's fault or the linebacker's fault. But now there's so much pressure on myself like okay, if if I lose this fight it's really all on me. Yeah, but if you win this fight it's really all you. Yes, yes. Yeah. If somebody else scores a touchdown and you win, you're like yeah. But if you knock a [ __ ] out like you did Volkov Yeah. That's you. Mhm. I mean listen, man. You have more knockouts than any heavyweight in the history of the sport. It's giving me goosebumps just hearing that. Isn't that crazy? Because I watch like the highlights of Randy Couture Mhm. seeing his highlights and all like Shane Carwin and stuff like that. The guys that was really knocking out everybody back then it's like for me to pass them it's like so crazy. Passed everybody. Yeah. Is there any fighter from the past that you wish you
were in the same era as them so you could have fought them? I guess you would say Kimbo because everybody like before I even got into UFC they was asking me you think you would fight Kimbo? I'm like yeah, I would fight him. And just like everyone still ask me that. And they don't even know Kimbo passed away already. Yeah. And like people that don't know anything about fighting really still ask me do you think you would fight Kimbo one day? I'm saying I'm like hope not. He was an interesting case, right? Because he he became famous from the internet. Like one of the rare guys that became famous from street fights from the internet. I believe that's when YouTube had came around too. It's like that's when it really got popular because everyone was trying to go watch fights really. That's really all you could really do back then YouTube is watch fights.
Yeah, YouTube was in its infancy back then, right? Yeah. There wasn't much going on on YouTube. Everyone just watch YouTube because of fights. Man, I didn't really know anything but else to do on YouTube. What to watch? Street fights. I admire that Kimbo went from that with no real experience in grappling or kicking or anything and then took a chance and fought in the UFC. I mean that that took a lot of courage. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was a big fan of his back then. I mean he was famous when he got into The Ultimate Fighter and really didn't have a lot of experience in MMA. I mean fought a little bit in the Lead XC but you know, relatively small amount of experience in martial arts really. Just really had good hands. Yeah, I believe his career is similar to almost mine. So, you know, I started following him back then too as well because I felt
like the same way. You know, people would treat me the same way as well. What do you think of this bare knuckle boxing that's going on now? I couldn't do it. Yeah? I pray I never be in that situation where I have to be like going in there and fighting for financially to be going against guys like bare knuckle boxing and stuff like that. It just looks so painful. Yeah, you get cut up. A lot of guys get cut up. Yeah, I'm already ugly guy so I can't really I can't can't go in there like that. Did you see the cut that Chris Leben got in his fight? Chris Leben get See Chris Leben versus What is his name? Dakota Dakota Johnson? Is that his name? He fought this guy and he had this like an axe wound on his forehead. Like people don't realize like how much Look at this. Yeah, seriously. People don't realize like how much guys get cut open
from just the the bones of the knuckles. I used to wonder I used to think that like night Jesus Christ. Jason Knight got [ __ ] up too. And Artem Lobov Look at his face, too. Yeah, both these kids. Both these guys their faces just But is it like because you can elbow a guy in the face? No, but I mean in MMA an elbow slice people open, too, but it just seems like you get sliced open more in this. I just think it's crazy. Paige VanZant's in it. Yeah, that was That's crazy. I bet that she got paid a few million for that. Did she really? Wow. If they came around for a few million, would you think about doing it? That's the problem, right? How much you getting paid for like a big fight in the UFC? I don't know if it like You're not allowed to say it? Yeah, because the way they they set set it the pay out right now is like I get it. No need to discuss it, but so
It's pretty good, though. Obviously, you got a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, and a McLaren. You live in a big house. You're doing great. But uh I guess with Paige she just wants to do it anyway and show everybody she's not just pretty. She's also a bad But yeah, I I watched I watched the highlights of her her last fight. She did pretty good. Is she tough? She's tough. It's just It's amazing that uh She's what But I guess it makes sense if they're willing to pay her that that amount of money. But there's a lot of fighters that are leaving the UFC, you know, that at the end of their career and then going over and transferring into bare knuckle leagues that's out there are really paying this good like I'm hearing. Yeah, I hope that there's more competition like that that fighters can negotiate against, you know, other wasn't for them, then it would be like
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the negotiation would be harder. Yeah. So I'm like it's good that they're around. Yeah, it is good that they're around. It's good that they're willing to, you know, that they're willing to make big bids on fighters that they think are worthwhile. Guys like Mousasi, you know, Ryan Bader, all these guys that are going over to Bellator and But you need competition. You know, there was really strong when the UFC had Pride against them and Pride was gigantic. Pride was as big as the UFC at one point in time. And you know, it was a real legitimate competition. Then when the UFC bought Pride, for the longest time there really wasn't much competition. You know, there was Strikeforce at the time and the UFC bought Strikeforce. It's not good for the fighters. It's not good for the business, either. Like it's better for everybody. Like look at boxing. You've got all
these different promotions. You got Mayweather, you've got Bob Arum, you've got, you know, Eddie Hearn. You got all Who's that? Yeah. The one guy that wears the dresses. I don't even think he's wearing dresses. He was wearing fishnets and high heels. Cocaine's a hell of a drug. Get you wearing fishnets. Yeah, woo. Yeah. Some Russian broad set him up. Took the pictures. She just wanted to push him put them out. Yeah. She was hot. She got him to wear the stockings. They want you to do this for me, Oscar. Put on fishnets for me. Okay, fishnets. Let's do it. What What kind of conversation do you have before you put on those shoes and you pose with the boxing gloves? I mean What's up, Jamie? It's actually both. There is another picture. Uh that's it. That doesn't matter a whole lot. Oh, with a dress? Just have a little something. There's a girl. Let me
see. Zoom in on her. Woo. Look at him. Yeah, I don't uh Yeah, look at his eyes. He's He's on another dimension right now. Coked out of his mind wearing a tutu dancing around her apartment. And she's snapping Polaroids like what the [ __ ] Yeah. Yeah, um he's he's an interesting character. But I guess he still promotes fights. He doesn't promote Canelo anymore. Him and Canelo had a big falling out. I didn't know anything about Canelo until he fought Mayweather, you know. I didn't but he's a good fighter. He's phenomenal. Yeah, he's phenomenal. Do you follow boxing? A little. Really like the heavyweights. Someone that's entertaining. You know, I really don't keep track of them that much. What do you think about all the [ __ ] that's going on with Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz? There's There's a lot of good fighters
right now in the heavyweight division. It's an exciting time. Yeah, Um what's his name? The Bronze Bomber or whatever. Deontay Wilder. The Wilder, yeah. It's like it's crazy that he's he's not calling out Fury right now. He want to fight like someone else. Some other guy. Andy Ruiz. Yeah, I think that's the latest. I would be calling out Fury again. You know, it's 1-1 already. So it's like for him to go away from that and it's like it don't look right. It doesn't look right. Now, there's there was a lot going on with that fight. I don't know if you know, but he may he came up with a bunch of crazy excuses. Yeah, I was hearing the excuse every few months. Now it was the the suit was too heavy. And Someone poisoned his water. Yeah, his water was poisoned. He thinks Mark Breland like had some sort of a deal to sabotage him. Yeah. That's why he threw
in the towel. And Trump lost the election and South Park episode was supposed to be canceled. Well, he thought that Tyson Fury had a egg weight in his glove. Egg weight. And he also thought that the glove was not attached correctly. He thought that the he wasn't hitting him with the padded part of the glove that the glove was like pushed further up on his hand so that his knuckles were like hitting the wrist area. And that's where his knuckles were. And it's crazy. There's all these videos detailing how Tyson Fury It's so Cuz they don't understand like what Tyson does. He does this kind of [ __ ] with his hands. And if you catch this in like if you do it in a as a photo or in slow motion, it looks weird. But it's cuz he's showing you this and then dropping the right hand. And that's what he does. It's always what he's done. If
you watch that, it's in all of his fights. But he also can do this. Like it's it they're they're gloves. He's got gloves on. He's wearing the gloves right. He [ __ ] you up. It's just a fight. And it sucks because I like Deontay and I'm a big fan. I think he's probably the most exciting one punch knockout artist in the history of the heavyweight division. I mean he knocks guys out. Like he hits them on the forehead and they go to sleep. It's crazy. He's got crazy power. It's just sad when a guy is used to winning only winning and then loses one fight and doesn't say, "Hey, he was a better man. Back to the drawing board. I'm going to figure out what I did wrong." Instead he's got crazy excuses like there's a weight in his glove and I was poisoned and the weight the vest was too heavy and Like Conor McGregor, he has a lot of
excuses as well. In the last fight? Yeah. Well, he had legitimate excuses. Like Dustin Poirier did [ __ ] up his leg and he said he wasn't ready for that. And he also said he was training for Manny Pacquiao. But he also said at least that Dustin was the better man. He's better man that night. So he and he wants immediately to do it again. Yeah. It's It's interesting how valuable personality is. Right? Like think about that guy. Obviously, he's had some spectacular fights, the Jose Aldo fight, Eddie Alvarez fight. He's done had some amazing knockouts. But it's also a lot of it is personality. Personality is so valuable cuz people want to watch him fight. They just want to watch. Yeah, he's crazy, though. He always has me laughing. I just feel sorry for those little guys, though. Like having to go to press conference to talk.
So like you can't really say anything. Yeah, he talks so much [ __ ] He's so good at it. Him fighting Cowboy and he was talking [ __ ] to Cowboy before the fight. I'm like I feel bad for Cowboy cuz he couldn't really say anything to him. Cuz Conor be on his [ __ ] though. Well, Conor's just too good at it. He's just He's just much better at talking [ __ ] The best example to me was the Jose Jose Aldo fight. Cuz Jose Aldo had never Not at Everybody respected him. Most of his opponents respected him cuz he was a I mean he was the greatest featherweight champion of all time at that point. And to have Conor just talking mad [ __ ] for months and months. And they went on a world tour. So they did press conference after press conference and Conor is talking mad [ __ ] And then knocks him out with one
punch. Yeah. Yeah. I guess it's kind of kind of seeing it too. Try to get on his skin. Mhm. Guys from Brazil try to get on his skin. He's not used to it. And he just knew that he was going to try to come in and try to take his head off cuz he built up so much hate. Yeah. So. It worked. His game plan worked. Yeah, but it backfired against Khabib. Oh yeah, Khabib. Cuz when Khabib was on top of him beating the [ __ ] out of him going, "Let's talk now." Bam. "Let's talk now." Damn, that's like damn I would be so mad about that. Damn. Yeah. Fight of ever. Ooh. You probably have to catch me in the parking lot. Uh. Yeah, Khabib's an interesting character, isn't he? He's good. He's the best lightweight of all time for sure. 29 and 0. Mhm. Uh maybe lost one or two rounds his whole career. Mhm. Maybe. And you know, those rounds is not
like he lost in a big way. He was just kind of coasting. Yeah. To me to me I go into a fight not even worried about trying to win the round. I'm trying to win the fight. So. I'm not even trying to make it to the the decision. Do you ever think about decisions? Do you ever think about scoring points? No. You just trying to knock people out. Yeah. That's it. Maybe that's why you have the most knockouts ever. That's what I'm going for. That's what I'm trying to just finish him. Not trying to go to decision. It's weird going to the decision. I'm always shocked. Every time I win the decision I'm like Yeah. Yeah. I'm banging my chest. I'm like I'm It's always so weird though. You know? I never have a good feeling in decision. It's funny because that's most people that's the majority of their wins. But with you it's opposite. So Yeah, it's so weird.
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Have you always had that kind of power? Yes. What do you attribute that to? Is like is it from I don't know. Probably my father. My my dad. That's what my mom said. My dad used to be like that in the streets and stuff like that. Like knocking everyone out. But I believe that's where it's from and most of it maybe from my anger. Just built up. Just wanting to just rip somebody's head off, you know? Well power is a weird thing, right? It's like you either have it or you don't. Yeah. You can get stronger. You can hit a little harder. But it to have the kind of power like you do Mhm. you can't train that. You either have it or you don't. Yeah, I'm um some of the boxers they seem like they have a lot of power. But whenever you see them start um not boxers, um basketball players. They come to the gym like couple of the Rockets come in the gym like James Harden came
to the gym. And you see them hitting pads. It's like there's no power behind their punches. And you know they're big guy big strong looking guys. It's like they pity patting whenever they hit the the mitts and they trying to hit it hard as they can and they just can't. Yeah, it's a weird thing. You either have it or you don't. You know um I don't know you know I don't think they've ever figured it out either. I don't think there's like I know that like there's the size of your fists, the width of your shoulders, the size of your shoulders. There's a lot of things along that. But it's also you either have it or you don't. Yeah. That's what I believe. Yeah. It's a I don't think there's anything like it in any other like for like athletes in any other sport you can get stronger. You can lift weights. You can get more powerful. But just in terms of striking power
I don't I just think your your either designed for it or not. It's very strange. So I feel like I'm living like a simulator. In a simulation? Simulation. Yeah, it's like whoever picked me it's like okay you know they do speed do grappling or whatever and they put strength all the way up. And they spent everything on strength and power. And so it's just like my life just feel like a simulator. I think you you have those things. But I think it's also your mind. Like you you stay calm in there and you you find ways to win. And there's there's moments in fights where guys get overwhelmed by chaos. But when I watch you fight you find ways to win. You're always you're always seeing through all the [ __ ] looking for a way to win. Yeah, like I said I'm think I'm talking to myself the whole time I'm fighting. I'm like, "Okay.
You got to you got to slow down right here. We got to keep going." It's like they can hit me a thousand times and I'm like I'm still the same like he can't really rock my my spirit within. Now where does that come from? Did you ever have you ever worked with a mental coach? No. I think it was I ain't got a hold some No, I don't know where it come from. It just Just always been you? Yeah. Do you think it's just from getting through tough times in life? I believe so as well too. Going through some pretty bad situations and coming out of them. It's like man if I made it you know how some people like pray to God and say, "Man Lord if I ever get out of this situation right here then I ain't going to never do that no more." So it's I believe it's stuff like that. I think also when you go through those bad situations being inside the octagon is not as bad. Oh yeah.
cuz it's like the fight's going to be over in three rounds and you'll you'll go on with your life. Mhm. But for you know for some I compare like I seen my grandfather like battle with cancer and stuff like that. And and I knew how tough he was and like to see him go through all that pain and stuff and suffering that that he did the last few months that he was here. And it's like man if I could just go through just this whatever I'm going through right now in life or if I could just go through this for 15 minutes 25 minutes then I should be all right. But my grandfather had to deal with that pain every day all day. The suffering that he went through and you know cuz I knew how tough he was and for him to be calling out for me to help him do certain certain things like to help him go to the restroom or get some water. I even for him to just to sit up.
And I just knew it was just real tough on him. Yeah. Well that seeing something like that puts it all in perspective, right? Yeah, for sure. Now after the Curtis Blaydes knockout where does the UFC have you lined up? Do they are they telling you, "Hey we want you to face the winner of this fight or we want you to face Jon Jones?" Like that. I think what they're saying now is they want Jon to face the winner of Francis versus Stipe. Yeah. Do you know where that leaves you? They didn't say anything really. Right now we just trying to renegotiate the contract. And see where it goes from there. For me I want to stay active. I don't want to be waiting around to fight anyone, you know? Cuz I'm not young like I used to. So I'm not really want to wait around and fight for the title or wait around to fight on a certain opponent. So I'm willing to fight anyone who's ready.
So do you think that it's better for you to stay active because you fight better when you're active? When you fight more often? No, I don't think that's the case. It's just that I know I have my window of time is closing. And so To make money. To make money. Yeah. So. I don't have that much time left. So I just want to make money. Not just sit around and wait. So who's left though? Overeem's gone. Junior's gone. You knocked out Volkov. You knocked out Curtis. You know like who who makes sense in that heavyweight division to you right now? Other than Jon, Stipe, and Francis. Um Rozenstruik or what? Rozenstruik? Yeah. Rozenstruik or I guess Gane. Mhm. Gane or whatever his name Ciryl Gane. Yeah. Who just beat Rozenstruik. Mhm. Yeah. Or whoever whoever I haven't fought yet in the top 10. What did you glad they not talking about that one guy
anymore. I'm bad with names. I don't care who you are. I'm terrible with names. Which guy? Um The guy that beat his wife. What's his Charles Brown? The the black the black guy. Who's that? Who James Greg Greg Hardy. Oh, Greg Hardy. That's right. I'm glad they not ask me to fight him anymore. really ask you to fight him? Yeah, they was But he was just starting. Yeah, I know. They've been trying to get us to fight for a few years now. And is he released from the UFC? Did they release him after his fight? know. Cuz he he got stopped by a Marcin Tybura, right? Yeah. That's who it was. Yeah. Yeah. Um That's CBD drink. It's good for you. No THC. Oh, okay. This has got my face on it too. Look at that. That's me. How did it feel? How did it feel to have your face on certain products? Uh weird. Not as weird as people tattooing my face on them. Yeah, it is weird. Yeah.
Especially when it's a dude, huh? Yeah, there's a lot of dudes. Yeah, I hope I know of one lady who got my face tattooed on her. She's very pretty. Where she put it at? Uh right next to her boob. How your wife feel about that? She Oh, okay. All right. Look I didn't ask the lady. What kind of facial expression she put on there though? Um just a regular regular picture. Just a regular picture of my face. Yeah, I didn't ask her to. I don't know her. You know? Yeah, you You to say that now. I don't know work. I just She's just a lady who put my face on her leg. It's all good. That'd be cool if a woman do that to me. I'm sure they have. You probably just don't know about it. It's probably one listening right now going, "Now I know my next tattoo." Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a new one. Yeah, that's me with the a UFO and some asteroids. It's
amazing how good tattoo artists are now. Like that looks like a [ __ ] photograph. It's wild. Like they got the pores in my face and the gray in my beard and everything. It's nuts. Stoned out of your mind. Stoned out of my mind. Yeah, there's been a lot of those. Yeah. Um how did I get How did we get to that? Oh, the CBD drink. So we're talking about the Greg Hardy fight. Yeah, that was That doesn't make sense to me that they were trying to do that. Other unless they're trying to set Greg Hardy up with someone who's got a lot more experience than him. And No, it was really the um Well, he fought Volkov. You know? Yeah. Greg Hardy fought Volkov and he fought well. He fought Volkov after I fought Volkov. Yeah, he fought well. I thought I was impressed. Like when you think of how little experience that guy has in MMA that he went three
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hard rounds with Volkov. I thought that was impressive. Yeah. Yeah, other than that he seemed like a okay guy. Yeah, I don't know him. I don't know him. Um seems like an okay guy. But so there's no one that stands out as a potential opponent for you in the heavyweight division. No. So whoever want to fight just let's go. College boy. Yeah. So you just sit around just wait for the phone call, right? That's it. So we we would like to do some grappling tournaments with um Chael Sonnen. Oh, yeah? Oh, you're going to do Submission Underground? Yeah, we was supposed to do it in December. But the UFC said no because they might have me fighting again in December. And this was before I was supposed to fight Curtis the first time. Mhm. And I'm like, "No, if my fight is going to be in November, I'm already fighting Curtis. Why I can't do a match right there in
December?" Usually it don't no matter how fast or knockout that I I would land. And so we kind of had knew something was up with Curtis because we kind of figured that maybe he's sick or there's something the UFC is hiding. Mhm. So sure enough that day before the fight he was he got tested positive for COVID. Oh. Okay, that makes sense. You never got COVID? Not that I know of. No. I don't know. I know if I'm sneezing or coughing or my feet itching, I'm thinking it's COVID. I don't know. They coming out with new symptoms every week, so you never know what you got now. So when you have a big knockout like the Curtis Blaydes knockout, does the UFC Do they talk to you afterwards? Do they say that that was impressive, this is what we want to do with you? What do they say? I Face I got a FaceTime from Dana afterwards. You know, he he talked
pretty good. You know, I'm just leaving it at that. Yeah. He talked pretty good? Yeah, he talked pretty good of me, you know, during the FaceTime and said some other stuff too, but I'mma leave it at that. Okay, I understand. You don't want to divulge any information. Not yet. They have They have to be happy with that. I mean, that was literally one of the most spectacular I think there's two super impressive one-punch knockouts in the heavyweight division. There's uh Francis knocking out Alistair and you knocking out Curtis. I think those are the top two of all time. I can't imagine a better knockout than that uppercut. noise that he was making afterwards. I don't know if you heard the noise. it, yeah. That reminded me of a fight I had in in in high school. It was at CC's. A guy was talking trash, kept bumping me. It was a rival rival school. We just
finished playing a scrimmage football game against. And we was all sitting at the table eating pizza. And their school came in. And the guy just kept elbowing me in back of my head. Like like bumping me every time he walked by. Yeah, I thought he was messing with me at first like playing around cuz I knew him since elementary. And but he was serious and then he said, "What's up?" And stood in the middle of the the floor just cussing me out and stuff And soon as somebody cuss me out like that, I'm like I already think it's something hostile hostile. And so I said, "Okay, what's up?" And just walked to him. And just laid him out right there and he just start catching a seizure and making that same noise Curtis was making. I was like, "Damn, maybe he about to die or something." And so what we learned that if they turn their wrists inwards, that means they about to die.
That their body is shutting down. But if they turn it like the way Curtis was, then you good. Really? Mhm. So certain certain way like whenever a guy get stiff, if the wrists turn outwards, that means the body is shutting down. And if the wrists if they keep their arms like this, that means they going to be okay. Really? Mhm. You sure that's not more of a he okay Well, I told y'all he's okay. He had his thumb up and all all that. That was so [ __ ] up. That was so [ __ ] up when you made that He's okay. He's got the thumbs up as he's going down. wrists was good. Yeah, you you look into that. I've never heard anything like that. Yeah, Jamie'll find it. So I don't wonder why that is. Like turn it turning That means the body is like shutting down that is you can't survive from it really. Mhm. Um the other way is like survival mode your
body. Is that from that street fight that's when you learned that? No, I just learned that a few few hours Yeah, it's it's uncomfortable watching someone out cold snoring. But whenever a guy talking trash, you know, it could happen to me. It was just another better feeling. I'm glad it happened. But I'm glad he's okay though. Yeah, but in my head I'm like, "Damn, I'm serious. That's why I was calm. Yeah. As crazy as things are now, I mean you had one shot at the heavyweight title. You you lost to DC. What was that fight like? To me it was I felt like I was in the best shape of my career. Even though I came in with the knee problems, but it didn't really bother me until he started taking me down and I started hobbling on that on my knee. Then I had the problem, but other than that I felt the shape my conditioning and everything was on point.
And I really felt like that I was going to win that fight. I mean you you look at that guy's career. I mean pretty [ __ ] amazing. The only guys he's lost to is Stipe and Jon Jones. You know, won the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix and he's undersized heavyweight. Won the heavyweight title, defended it, knocked out Stipe who's on paper the greatest of all time. I mean you look at Now going from that, what did you What did you get out of that? Like what did you learn that you would apply if you fought for the title again? That I had to get surgery. Mhm. And we was already in talking talking to the UFC trying to get surgery done before I took the JDS fight. And so they had me going to the doctors and stuff like that to really get X-rays and MRIs and stuff done on my knee before the JDS fight. And they knew that I was everything was messed up.
But we also wanted to still get that taste out of our mouth from from losing to DC. And it ended up still backfiring. Um fighting JDS. So I ended up doing the surgery after the JDS fight. So after that, then you feel like you're a different person. Yes, after that then I felt like I could really do more in the octagon and like move around and and just have my conditioning way better. Like going three rounds is like it was just completely different fighter then. So what How would you feel now if the UFC says you're going to get a shot at the title? How much time do you think you need to prepare for that? Um how much time I need to prepare for a title fight? Maybe 6 months. 6 months? Really? no. But it just be 25 minutes. It all depends on who the opponent. If the opponent is going to be a wrestler, I feel like I'mma have to get my conditioning
pretty good, at least 8 weeks. If I'm fighting um um Francis, I believe like four or five weeks. Four or five weeks for Francis. Yes. Yeah. And is that a fight that you'd want to do again because of the first fight? Yes, for sure. Got to get that Got to Got to do that again. Yes. If you had your choice, that would be the fight that you would get next? Yeah. Maybe I mean who knows what's going to happen with him and Stipe. Um it's just it's got to be a weird situation for you because Jon Jones is waiting in the wings for a shot at the title and then there's a title fight in 2 weeks. So what the minimum you're waiting a few months. Yeah, that's the only thing about it. I don't want to wait. Yeah. So it's like Rozenstruik, Ciryl Gane. Those are the two guys and I guess it's got to be Ciryl Gane cuz Rozenstruik lost Yeah, it all depends. I don't know how
the UFC you to build up the Cyril Gane guy or if they want to throw him in there in the mix right away? So we'll see. Did you watch that fight? Rozenstruik and Cyril Gane? It was not the most eventful fight. It was uh Yeah, I I started getting tagged in the fights only because they were saying that it still wasn't worse than Francis and and Lewis fight. I'm like, damn, okay, Yeah, it was uh but it was five rounds, right? That was a five-rounder. But it was Oh, that's bad then. Yeah, it wasn't the most eventful fight, but Cyril Gane fought he's fought smart, just moved around a lot, stayed on the outside, you know, clinched some and just avoided big shots. He's a big dude though, Cyril Gane. Yeah. Big big powerful heavyweight. It's interesting to see at least some new talent in the division, whether it's Rozenstruik or Cyril Gane. You know, out
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of all the divisions, the the heavyweight division it's like it's hard to get big powerful Guys. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess that the couple of heavyweights that was on my card the last fight, they looked pretty decent. Who's that? I don't know their names. I'm telling I'm terrible at names. Um they won one of the guys fought Arlovski. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. his name is Yes. Yes. Yes. The English fellow. He's very good. Yeah, he needs more experience, but um Jesus Christ, why can't I remember his name? Don't help him out, Jamie. Tom Aspinall. Is that how you say his last name? I haven't called He's very good. Very fast. Mhm. You know his name? What's that? It's not coming up. Usually when you type in their name it comes up like Google it. I think it's it's I think it's pronounced Aspinall. Yeah, he's very good. Very fast. He's got a lot of potential,
but you know, he's a young guy and I think he's like 24 or 25 or something like that and he's you know, on his way up. I don't think they'd have him fight you right away like that. No. No. I'm just saying it's the future of the heavyweight division is pretty good. Yeah, do you see yourself being a champ one day? Or is it too crazy to even think about that? That's what I was saying, it's crazy to even think about. It'd be cool if I can, you know, but you know, I wouldn't be bummed that I that I couldn't you know, achieve that goal. But if you could achieve that goal If I could, it'd be cool. Yeah. You really couldn't tell me anything about it. Even my kids wouldn't I wouldn't care they tease me walking around the house with no shirt on. But just walk around that belt would cover your belly. Just put that big ass belt on. Yeah. Yeah, it's um I mean, you have a really
interesting opportunity in this life. You're you're at a rare position. Very few human beings ever get to where you're at. Yeah, go through what I went through to It's crazy to think about. So crazy. Yeah. No, I can only imagine and it's uh it's fun to watch you, man. You're one of my favorite guys to watch because anything can happen at any moment. Yeah, any moment. Give me a moment. Like the Curtis Blaydes fight or the Volkov fight or a lot of your fights. At any moment you could drop a hammer on somebody and it's over. Yeah. This the next fight, whoever it's going to be is I'm a I believe I'll be in real great shape for the fight. So it's going to be it all depends on the type of shape I'm in with each fight and I believe I want to be in better shape than I've ever been. And so with me going in into a fight like thinking like, damn, okay, I'm in great
shape. Now I could go ahead and go for the finish in the first few minutes. So you're looking at your career right now as like this is kind of the home stretch, you know, the last five, six years or so, whatever you got left. For sure. Yeah. So you want to go out with a bang. I want to bang. Yeah. Do you have any idea what you want to do after you're done fighting? Um a lot of people say I should do acting uh comedy and stuff like that. I don't think so. Um I really just want to just sit back and collect checks and real estate and stuff like that. Something more easier. Yeah, but you're a funny dude. No, I'm not. I'm not. You don't think You don't think so at all? No. No. No. Whenever I'm drunk, yeah, I'm I'm So real estate investment. Yes, that's what we're that's what we're doing now. I got a few houses. Well, especially Texas. Texas is hot
right now. Yeah. It's a good place to buy houses. Yeah, real cheap. Except for Austin. Austin probably the Crazy. It's crazy here. Yeah. All the tech people are moving here. They're [ __ ] everything up. And then me, I [ __ ] it up, too. Moving here. I'm bringing in all the comedians. Yeah. But uh the prices around cuz I won't we wanted to do something around the lake like Lake Austin or whatever. Mhm. But we seen the prices of it. It's like, damn. Not even an acre is over a million dollars. I'm like, nah, it's all right. Yeah, it's it's pretty ridiculous here, but it's because it's a great place to live. Not downtown though. Now all the homeless people. Yeah, they got to clean that up. I don't know what to do about that though. episode of South Park like, got any change? Change? Like everywhere you go in the grocery store they ask for
change. I'm like, damn. This is nothing compared to LA. If you go to LA right now, it's like a zombie movie. It's nuts. Like there's people have camped out everywhere all throughout LA. You see tents on the streets. It's very strange. It's sad because it's like so many people that are out of houses that that just this is their only option. They don't know what to do. COVID and the the pandemic and the lockdowns just killed so many businesses and it's [ __ ] I mean, I don't know how to fix it, but it's it's not a good sign when a society is that that [ __ ] up that you've got people camping on their sidewalks. I don't want to be in charge of like having to handle something like that. It's like I'm pretty sure it's going to be a tough job. Do you think you you could run for office? If they pay me good, I would. Yeah, I'd be like a Kanye West.
Mayor of Houston? Yeah, I'd be like, okay, take some donations. We need some sponsorships. Go ahead and take everybody's money. Then they'd be like, oh, I don't think we have a shot. So when you think about the future, you just think about investments and things along those lines. to. Have to because you know, a lot of people doubting me still. Like a lot of family members really doubted me. Still? Yeah. How can they doubt you still when you have the number one most heavyweight knockouts ever? No, they not even worried about the like the fighting side of things. They they talking about the financial side of stuff. Listen, if you can do what you've already done, you could do anything. Yeah. You just have to dedicate yourself to it 100%. For sure. Yeah. So they my motivation, you know, that's all it is. And motivating me. Does it motivate you to show people
that they're wrong? Oh, yeah, for sure. Especially, you know, I can't really say it, but yeah, my close family, my own blood, you know, I don't want to Talking [ __ ] be picking them out because, you know, family reunion coming up. Talk of the family reunion. But yeah. It's hard when there's people that you have to be close to, but yet you know It hurts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a bummer. You know they're jealous and bitter. Mhm. That's always going to be the case if someone's successful. Especially someone's like you that's so much more successful than the average person. And I tried helping them out. They burnt their own bridge and expect for me to send a yacht Can't do it no more. But listen though, if you looked at it, you got to you know, it's worth it. All of it's worth it, you know, all the [ __ ] all the dealing
with the families just to be Derrick Lewis in 2021. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. If not, I would have been here in Austin asking everybody if they want some if they had some change and stuff like that. Yeah. No, you've got a great life, man. You've done amazing [ __ ] and you got a amazing future, too. And I'm a fan. I appreciate it. I'm happy to have you in here, man. It was cool. Um s- Alyssa, um my strength and conditioning coach, and she's a huge fan of you. Shout out to Alyssa. Yeah, there you go. That's the lady in the videos, the countdown videos that work you out? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I've seen her. She's a huge fan, so she appreciate that. Yeah. Oh, my pleasure. She looks good, too. She looks like she's a really good coach. Oh, yeah, she's real good. You know, it's shocking because she's she's a woman. Yeah, no offense to all the women out there. I
know Kelsey coaches real strong right now, but yeah, she's real good. How did you find her? Um she's my coach used to train her um in jiu-jitsu. And so he told me about like going over there and she's close to my house. Were you hesitant at first like, a woman? Yeah, a woman. Yeah, but I think it fits you though. type of woman, so I was like, okay, cool. I'll I'll give her a shot then. It fits you though. Mhm. Like when watching it I'm like, I it's kind of it's kind of appropriate to see a big bad [ __ ] like you with a woman telling him what to do. Beauty and the beast. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. Well, listen, Derrick, good luck with everything you do. I appreciate you and and I'm a big fan. And thanks for coming in here, man. Thanks for having me and thanks for not