JRE MMA Show #4 with Justin Wren

00:033, 2, 1 Justin Renn, ladies and gentlemen, come on! Hello, fella! With the silky hair and the beautiful beard. Oh, thank you so much for having me. My pleasure, my brother. How's things? Man, things are good. Things are really good. I mean, last night getting to go to the comedy store for the first time and seeing all those legends and just being in a legendary atmosphere. I mean, it was seriously an incredible time. It's a fun place, right? Yeah, I mean, and you had us rolling, so it was really fun. I got to see Brendan and Brian Callen first, and then you, and so it was just hilarious. Did you get to go to the upstairs room as well? Or did you go to the two downstairs rooms? No, I was in the belly room. The room was upstairs. Brendan and Brian were in the main room. I was there? I was in the original room, which is the front room. Yeah. So I didn't get to go to the top. Tonight I'll show you the top.

00:49It's a bizarre little place. There's three comedy clubs in one place. Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, it's fucking great. Yeah, walking around, seeing all the history, seeing everyone get amped, and then being able to be that close to the comedians, too, is pretty awesome. I mean, being able to meet them, say hi, and just you're in arm's distance from them. So really unique. If anyone hasn't gone, I suggest going because it was awesome. Yeah, I think Chappelle has filmed his Netflix special, his next one. He did there. In the belly room. In the belly room, yeah. I watched him work one of them out. I don't think he was filming then, but I'm not sure. It comes out soon, right? Does it? I think they weirdly announced that it comes out this month, I think. Whoa. I'll double check on that real quick. I think so. That might be the case because it's so small. There's probably not a lot of camera angles.

01:35And I know he filmed a lot of shows. So maybe he just wants to just get one of them perfect and then throw it out there. But he had a lot of really topical material, real current material. Yeah. Was it smaller than the room that you were in last night? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. Even more into it. Not even half the size. Wow. Yeah. See, that's incredible. December 31st? That's crazy. I don't have a video here, but this is equanimity is what it's called. Nice. It was funny, man. It was really funny. And seeing him in that tiny little room, like there were 70 people in the room. Oh, wow. Yeah. They did get more in there sometimes, but don't tell the fire department. Because they fucking shouldn't. Speaking of fire department. Oh, man. It's crazy out here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've seen that video you posted on your Instagram. Yeah. It seriously looks like Armageddon. Yeah. It's from Barstool Sports.

02:28If anybody wants to go to their Instagram page, somebody put up a video of last night driving up the 405. Gosh. It's the craziest thing you'll ever see. It's the entire mountain. What's crazy is that's Bel Air. I mean, that's like a really ritzy area. Super expensive houses. And that fire is just raging towards them. It's right near the Getty Center. And apparently what they're calling this is a dry hurricane. Wow. So I don't live in California, and I'm not a homeowner yet. But does homeowner insurance cover all that, or do you have to have extra fire insurance? That's a very good question, and I don't know the answer. Sure. Yeah. Because my family was in Hurricane Katrina, and because they had hurricane insurance, but they didn't have like wind insurance. And so the insurance companies would say- Wait the fuck a minute. Or flooding insurance or something like that.

03:18It was whatever you didn't have, you would get one and not the other. And so then whatever you didn't have, that's what the insurance company would claim. Well, you didn't have this, and that's what you should have had. Oh, my God. And so people were losing tons of money, their whole homes. My family lost a whole roof off their house. Ah, these monsters. Yeah. And so that's what I'm wondering. Like, okay, you have a homeowner insurance, but- Do you have fire insurance? And are they going to cover that? You know, if that's Bel Air and that's million-dollar homes, hopefully they have the right insurance. Well, I'm sure some people have fire insurance. I know it's a thing. Just like hurricane and flood insurance is also a thing, but- Do they have fire hurricane insurance? It's a good question. Well, yeah, right? This is a fire hurricane. It's not just a hurricane.

03:58Well, they're calling it a dry hurricane, meaning there's no wind or there's no water. But it's hurricane gale force winds. Gale force? I don't know if that's right. Hurricane force winds, technically. Not like, you know, Katrina. In my hotel. I mean, the wind was just ripping all last night. And they know that there's those fires out there. I mean, that's crazy. Yeah. It's insane, man. Where I live, I was evacuated twice. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Twice in the early 2000s where the fire got so close it was within a mile of my house. And, you know, when it hits and the wind goes, it can take over. Like, it can just run. They said that the fires that they were having in Northern California were going through an entire football field every six seconds. Oh, my gosh. That's mind-blowing. Fuck, man. Wow. Just imagine watching that. Watching fires just cut through a football field 100 yards every six seconds.

04:53Yeah, it's almost like those clouds when the storm was rolling. Yeah. You're just watching those go by. A lot of people died in those Northern California fires, too. They just got stuck. There's nowhere to get out. And they apparently, like, that whole Napa area is... Have you ever been up there? No. Damn, before the fires. I don't know what it looks like right now. But, God, it was beautiful. It's where they do all the wine making. Yeah. You know? And we actually went turkey hunting up there, me and Brian Callen. Oh, nice. Yeah. Steve Rinella took us up there. And we were up there. And we were like, God, this is so gorgeous. But it's, like, semi-rural, but then a big tourist vacation destination, too. It's like people come there for those wine-tasting things and everything. Apparently, a giant chunk of that part of the state just got lit up. Wow. And when you go turkey hunting, are you using a bow?

05:42Are you using a shotgun? Shotguns. This was for the meat-eater show. So, do you have to, like, go for their head? Yeah. So, that's nuts. Because you can't hit their body or it goes everywhere, right? Well, then you have to pull out all the lead. You know, like when people shoot smaller birds like pheasants and things along those lines, you do shoot the entire body. But with the turkey, you're basically sitting still and you call them in. You're like, bark, bark, bark. You make this little, you get this little sound thing in your hand or you have one in your mouth, you know, and you make little turkey calls. And the turkeys come in and you just blast them in the head. Or you shoot them in the body with a bow. I know my friend John Dudley and a lot of those guys, they hunt with bows and they shoot turkeys with a bow. But it's tricky because a turkey is a goddamn dinosaur.

06:27And if you don't hit it in the right spot, they'll just fly away with an arrow sticking out of them. Wow. Like, literally. Wow. Something that kills a deer, like, go right through a turkey and the turkey's like, bitch, I'm out of here. Like, you have to catch them in their vitals. And their vitals are, you literally are shooting an arrow at a softball from, you know, 40 yards. Yeah. So, you might not hit it. Well, man, seeing this new space is awesome. I mean, this is an incredible new studio. And seeing that your targets are up there, you got, what, 48, 46? 47 yards. 47 yards. Indoors. Yeah. But when you come back, man, we'll have a full gym. You'll be able to work out and the whole deal. Yeah. No, that's awesome. Dude, after you watched the UFC and you saw Francis Ngano, did you see if you could make 205? That's a lot of people did. A lot of people were like, I could make, I can make 205.

07:13I think it's totally possible. I've always been against it, but now I'm thinking about it. No, just kidding. But man, he is a monster. He's terrifying. A monster. To see how far he sent over him's head was just backwards in that one photo. That's like an iconic, that's probably the most iconic, at least in my mind, or epic heavyweight fighting, MMA fighting photo that there is. I mean, with that head knocked back that way. And I mean, it just looked like such a power, I mean, it was a powerful punch, but the timing of that shot was just incredible. You see that one where his head is just completely knocked back? Yeah. Man, he's a scary, scary dude. I put that one on my Instagram feed, too. That picture seems like the coming of the new king. You know what I mean? Like, obviously, he's got to beat Stipe Miocic, but if you want to look at a picture, like

08:01in history, when you come back and go, this is the moment where Ngano arrived, and people realize, like, holy shit. Like, this guy is for real. He didn't just do that to any guy. He did that to Alistair motherfucking Overeem. K1 kickboxing world champion. Yeah. Strikeforce world champion. Just a stud. Like, elite fighter. Yeah. Number one heavyweight contender. Yeah. Well, you and Brendan were talking about it last week on the show, and to hear you guys saying, if he starches them, and if he can't, if he can prove himself, and it's like, man, he just did it the best way possible. And the way he did it, it's like the whole world's noticing. Like, I saw it on CNN. I saw it on all these different websites, and they're just, everyone's just raving like he could be the next big thing. And I think that's going to put him on the map. Now that everybody knows, and they have this highlight reel of his knockouts now.

08:53Yeah. And so to advertise a fight between him and Stipe, I think it's going to be gigantic. Yeah. I think it's going to be huge. I've been able to talk with Stipe's coach, and there's a potential I was going to go out and help him in this training camp. So hopefully that still happens. My schedule's kind of crazy, but hopefully I can get up there for a week and sneak up there. Yeah. I'm happy for Stipe to get a big fight. Yeah. For sure. And if he wins against Nganu, I mean, that is just gigantic. That would be absolutely phenomenal. If there's a guy that can do it, I think it's Stipe for sure. Well, he's the champ, and he's the champ for a reason. Yeah, definitely. But he's got a lot of work to do. Yeah. He's so big. Got to weather that storm and put him up against the cage, wear him out, pummel. I mean, just get really heavy on him and tire him out. Yeah. Get him into deep waters, put him on his back.

09:39We've got to remember, Overeem did get him up against the cage. Yeah, that's true. Overeem lunged at him, clinched with him, got him up against the cage, but couldn't do a goddamn thing with him. Yeah, that's true. I think a little difference is Stipe having that All-American wrestling background, being able to keep him there a little bit more. This is crazy. He's opening up as the betting favorite over the heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. I mean, this is amazing. I mean, I get it. I understand. But that is pretty incredible that he's the betting favorite. Yeah, I guess if you just look at his comment, do MMA math or so, but the common opponent with them and Overeem and how they both performed against him. Yeah. Well, Overeem did catch Stipe and had him stunned and knocked him on his ass, and then Stipe came back and won.

10:23But, you know, he's got to be obviously super aware of how dangerous it is to connect with Ngano. He's going to obviously try to stay on the outside. And when he closes the distance, close the distance, get that clinch, get him up against the cage and figure out some way to either get that guy down or wear his legs out or do something. We don't know what happens when Ngano goes into the third, fourth, and fifth rounds. Right. If anybody can even physically take him there. Yeah. I do love how Stipe has that killer instinct, both against Overeem after getting hurt, even Verdum after his leg injury. Junior Dos Santos, I think. Oh, sorry. Yeah. You're right. The Dos Santos fight. Yeah. He's Dos Santos had kicked his leg pretty hard and giant swelling on his leg. Yeah. Yeah. Then to come back and just knock him out the way that he did was just beautiful. Yeah.

11:07So even if he gets hurt, if he doesn't get put out and he's hurt, he can still turn on that killer instinct and put him away. Yeah. It's going to be exciting. Like watching this fight, I'm amped for it. This is one of the big heavyweight fights recently that I'm just so stoked for. Yeah. That's the big one. I think it's probably the biggest heavyweight fight ever when you think about what Ngano is. Yeah. You know, I mean, there's obviously been some giant fights like Brock Lesnar when he fought Cain Velasquez, Brock Lesnar when he fought Overeem. Those are huge fights. But I think that Nganou is something special. And if Stipe could figure out how to turn him down, how to shut him down and beat him, I mean, it will really cement his position as the baddest man on the planet. And if not, we've got a new king. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's really exciting.

11:53I was even thinking when you're seeing those last fights, this one I'm as excited for as whenever Brock fought Shane Cartwin. Yeah. Helping me and Brennan both were helping Shane train for that fight. And now I might be involved for a week or so helping Stipe get ready for this one. Just being around that, seeing the preparations, what they're going to do. Even just being a training partner for that legendary fight would be pretty epic. Are you going to shave lightning bolts in your head to emulate Nganou? I'm at least going to dye black lightning bolts in my hair. Just be the reverse. The vanilla gorilla version. Have you trained with Stipe before? I haven't. I haven't. I've just talked with his coaches a bit. So they thought it would be a great idea, and I think it is too. So he's out there in Cleveland. I'm sure. I mean, he's got some incredible team around him. And you're in Oklahoma City now, right?

12:40I'm in Oklahoma City. Yeah. With Lovato. With Lovato. Yeah. That's awesome. And he's killing it out there too. Oh my gosh. Well, he's undefeated. 7-0. Strangling people. Gosh. And knocking people out too, which is crazy. He started boxing, or at least kickboxing, before he ever started jiu-jitsu. Really? So as a kid. His father and him, I don't know if you know what they're, the first ever American father-son Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts. And man, but they have this background of just everything. That's awesome. Since like, you know, early 90s. Just going and cross-training everywhere they could. He's from that old school. Like, it goes like, Hicks and Gracie, Salo Hibero, Shanji. And then, you know, he's in that group of those, that style of jiu-jitsu is just smush style. Those guys have just tremendous pressure, basics. And when I say basics, I mean like the hard, polished, tried and true techniques.

13:35And it's like, there's not like a lot of fancy, crazy, new school stuff, but it's just laser sharp and just smashing power and pressure. Such a big fan of that guy. He's always talking about the pressure passing and just melting into him. Being a wet, hot blanket on top of him. Just taking their air away. Making them give up. And man, honestly, I've trained with guys like Carwin and Mir and Couture and Overeem. And I've trained with some of the biggest heavyweights around. And he is the only person, and he fights at 185. He's the biggest 185-er I've ever seen. I can't imagine. I don't know how he makes that cut, but he does it in such an incredible way. He's the healthiest guy I've ever met. Most disciplined athlete. Most disciplined person I've ever been around in my entire life. Obsessed with discipline and training. The performance mindset or competitive mindset.

14:28The guy's the best I've ever been around. But he is the only person to ever make me completely claustrophobic underneath. I've never been claustrophobic underneath anyone. And he just takes my, not in a weird way, but he takes my breath away. Not in a weird way. Yeah. But I mean, just he makes you want to quit. And he's so, and he's always about putting yourself in the worst position possible and becoming uncomfortable. Or being comfortable being uncomfortable. And just making yourself to where, no matter where you get put, like you're going to fight out of it. You're always just one step away from a finish. Like you finishing them. Even if they're about to finish you, you're just a few small steps. Just inches away from getting out of there, reversing it, taking their back, you know, putting them on their back and mounting. And just finishing. And man, he's incredible.

15:16He's the only guy that I've ever seen be able to go through like 10, 10 minute rounds or sorry, 10, eight minute rounds back to back when he was training for the 80 cc's. Wow. I mean, he's just an animal. No, 10, 10s. It was 10, 10s. And I was just blown away that he could do that. And we were having to rotate fresh guys on him. And by the end of it, he got tired. But that was the only time I've ever seen him tired. But actually tired. And so he's just an absolute animal. It's a lifestyle for him. It's honestly so incredibly inspiring. And I feel like just being around him and me doing a lot of the same things that that's what's going to make me the Bellator heavyweight champ. But like just us feeding off each other. It's really cool dynamic. But if I can be half as disciplined as he is, I'll be the most disciplined heavyweight fighter there is.

16:03So it's it's it's pretty amazing being around him and his mindset and how he travels the world seeking out the the top instructors in every discipline. I mean, he's going down to Brazil to Evola. So if you lose a tie, a Volo South tie, that used to be it's kind of like in the box. Yeah. Yeah. It's a be shoot a box. And he goes in Curitiba, right? Yeah. Curitiba and goes and soaks up those good vibes at the like largest waterfall in the world or one of them. And then is just in training camp. Does he speak Portuguese? He does. He does. A lot of people mistake him as Brazilian, but his family is Spanish and he grew up in Oklahoma City. So there's no Brazilian in him, but he speaks fluent Portuguese. Where did he learn? I think through jujitsu, through jujitsu, being around people, always trying to put himself in those situations. And then he would go down.

16:52I think it was a 16 year old kid and he would go down to Brazil sometimes by himself and stay for like a month or two. Or I think he might have done it for four months at one time. Wow. So he's a really, really special individual. He's the guy that I've never seen take a break or take off. I mean, he competed. He fought three times in Bellator this year. Three and O. In between that, he had a super fight with Buchecha. He had another grappling tournament. He had the ADCCs. He was just going from every two months he was competing. Every two months. But he was staying healthy the whole time, too. Which blew my mind. Because he takes his... We have a place called the ARC that we train at. The Athlete Recovery Center. And it's got hot and cold plunges and infrared saunas and the cryotherapy and the... Just all sorts of stuff.

17:36Those Norma Tech boots and our PTs there and our strength conditioning coach is right there. So it's all in one shop. And so right after he's done training, he's recovering. Where he gets there early and he's stretching out. And so the whole warming up truly and cooling down and taking care of your body and putting the right fuel in it. Eating whole foods at all times. Like just not putting garbage in your body. Man, he's going to be the Bellator middleweight champion probably pretty soon. And I think they have that maybe lined up in the next two or three fights. I'm excited. I'm excited to see him compete against like really upper echelon guys. Like guys like Musashi along those lines. Yeah. The guy who just fought, Chris Honeycutt, was in the NCAA finals. That was the first high-level wrestler that he's competed against. He won every single round. The first six fights, he finished everybody.

18:22And so it's going to be exciting. If there's someone watching this that hasn't watched Rafael Lovato Jr. compete, whether it's in grappling or MMA, like go follow him because he's going to do it. He's going to be a champ. Yeah, he's a savage for sure. What does he weigh before he makes the cut to 185? So I don't want to put a specific number, but I think it's around 210, 215, 220, something like that. So I know whenever he's in camp, he's trying to walk around at less than 200 when he can. And he's about like what, 6'2"? No, he's 6'4". 6'4"? 6'4", and he's got like some of the longest reach. Damn. Yeah, he's at least 6'4". And he gets down to 185. Oh my God, that's crazy. And if you see like pull up his Instagram and you can see a picture of him with his shirt off, homeboy is fucking shredded. Shredded, man. He's got to be in the neighborhood of like 8 or 9% body fat. Yeah. Yeah. Zero.

19:15But just jacked and shredded. Just as a heavyweight, I've always just envied anyone that was under 15 or whatever. Yeah, there he is. I mean, come on, son. Yeah, just shredded. And he looks down at every guy he's ever fought. I mean, if you see other weigh-in photos, like they're all looking up at him, like literally their chin's up in the air. I'm sure. And he went through a pretty significant injury a few years back, right? Didn't he have like a pec tear? Yeah. I think it was the, is there a pec tendon or something like that? Something like that. I think it was the tendon in there that connects like the shoulder and the pec and completely tore it and had to have reconstructive surgery. And man, the guy's so disciplined. I mean, he went through like anyone, all of us athletes would, being bummed out a bit. But, you know, he had this machine that was, you know, moving his arm up and down and, you

20:03know, just sitting there. Uh, but then the guy is a planner, a visualizer. Like he takes advantage. Even the times he's not on the mat, he's structuring his life around it to where he's writing down his goals and his dreams. And this month's plan, the next three months plan, uh, this week's plan, this day's plan. I'm just writing every single thing out. So that way he can make sure that he's doing everything he can. Even when he's not training, he's, he's training, you know, he's training his mind. He's training, uh, everything for that so that he can, he can perform at the best. And I think that's why he competes at such a high level. And I'm, I'm speaking about him like this and, but it's all true. It's all honest. I'm not just trying to give the guy props. Like he, he earned that from me at least. And I think you should from pretty much anyone he competes with because, um, man, I mean,

20:49his match with Buchecha even was so competitive and could have easily won that match. Um, he could have won the ADCCs. I mean, easily. He is a big fellow too. Yeah, I know like two, two 45 of just like, yeah, just, and then world-class. Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, one, the ADCCs, I think four. Now I'm a big Lovato fan. I think he's awesome. I'm excited to say, I always love when the really, the highest level guys in any discipline enter into MMA, you know? And when you see a guy like him, who's just a, just jujitsu phenom. And now he's like, okay, now I'm going to try to take over MMA or a guy like Gokan Saki enters into the UFC. Like, okay, let's see what happens when you get like a real high level guy in any discipline who enters into MMA. It's always interesting because they're such specialists because most MMA fighters, you

21:37know, pretty good at wrestling, pretty good at jujitsu, pretty good at kickboxing, but not elite, like world-class world championship level at any different discipline. Yeah. So when you see a guy who is like Rafael Lovato, he is world-class at jujitsu, like world championship level, and then enters into MMA, it's like, ooh, what you going to do when he grabs you? Yeah, absolutely. Like a Damian Maia. Yeah. That's who Rafael is. Or Verdum. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And something special about Rafael, you know, and then, but anyways, he's, he can coach it so incredibly well too. And that's not always the case with a lot of athletes. I've been coached by a lot of incredible wrestlers, Kenny Monday, Kendall Cross, they were incredible coaches. Kale Sanderson, I've been coached on the mats by Dan Gable and some other guys. So absolute legends. And his coaching is also just so thorough and so exact.

22:28And it's, it's like, you see the guy at the top right now who's, who's performing at the best and he's able to teach it at such a high level that that's why he's, you know, coached up some other grappling world champions and stuff like that. Now his focus is on MMA. He's just perfect timing that him and I got to train together for a full year now and taken in 2018. Both of us want to be, you know, hunting down those belts. Did you move down to Oklahoma City specifically to train with him? There was a few reasons. But yeah, that was, that was one of the big ones. I was going to regardless because Water 4 is based out of there and Fight for the Forgotten is underneath Water 4. And so we're, we're partners with them and they've taken over all the administrative stuff and we're officially an initiative underwater for it. That's nice. Yeah. I mean, it's the, it's, it's incredible.

23:14So, so stoked that they're, they're making things just flourish. We're going to serve over 200,000 people with clean water this year. That's so incredible. Yeah. And we're doing a benefit tonight at the comedy store. Yeah. Yeah. And it's going to be incredible. Super pumped. One of many. I think we're going to start doing these all the time there. I just thinking we do shows there all the time and most of the time we just do shows and I'm like, well, why shouldn't we just do shows? I mean, a couple times a month or so, just donate all the money. So that's what we're going to do. Man, I'm blown away by it. So stoked. Well, I just found out right before we got on the podcast that there's a generous donor out of Oklahoma city and he's going to match whatever comes in today on the website, whether that's at the comedy store or now up to $10,000. So the first $10,000 will be matched.

24:01And so that first 10,000 will be doubled. It'll turn into 20,000. So just so stoked. So whatever comes in through the doors, man, it can be doubled. That's beautiful, man. Yeah. Well, you know, like the first time we did this, we got Bitcoin from people and they donated Bitcoin and I have that Bitcoin on my phone and I have to get it off the phone, but that Bitcoin is now worth like $50,000. So what I did was I took that Bitcoin, I took the cash version of it and I donated it to Waterford and then I matched it. And now we're up. So all that additional money is yours too. Like it's not mine. Oh my gosh. So it's yours. So it's like there's an additional $45,000 in there. Yeah. So we got to get it off, get it off the phone, but that'll go to Waterford as well. Oh man. I can't, this isn't fake. I can't fake this kind of smile, man. That's so awesome. I'm happy too, man. Yeah.

24:53And it's, the thing is, do you keep it in there for a while? Because if you keep it in there for a while, it might be worth even more. Do you bail now? It might go way up. Oh, well then we can keep it in there. Way, way, way up. Like how way? Like speculation in the next six to 12 months is at least 20,000, if not 50,000. Whoa. But that's like way high speculation. I'm not buying into all of that. Well, this is what I'll do. I'll leave it up to you guys. We'll get the Bitcoin off the phone and then I'll essentially leave it up to you guys when you want to pull the trigger and take the money out of it. Okay. Because that seems to be the right. Because like, well, let's get some advisors to tell us. You know what? I'm going to get Andreas Antonopoulos. He's going to be on the podcast soon. And he's the guy who set up all this Bitcoin stuff for me in the first place. The Bitcoins all came in as donations.

25:40So just so anybody knows, like, because some people accused me of not donating that money to you. And I had explained to them, no, I took the Bitcoin and I just, whatever the money value of it was, then I gave that to you guys. Yeah, you gave that for sure. I remember that. But what's left, I still, it's not mine. It's, you know, just because I gave, I mean, I have it, but it's not mine. It's yours. So it's, it is all donation. That's just, I thought as a science project, I'm like, let's just see what happens with this shit. I don't want to take it out. It could have been zero. Yeah. Well, I also didn't want to turn it into money. I didn't want to cash it out. So I said, let me just give you guys whatever money it is and I'll hold onto that and I'll see what happens with it. But now it's worth 50 grand. Wow. That's nuts. So more than that, 665. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. It keeps going up.

26:26It's like on a crazy spike right now. Wow. Now it's worth $13,000? Holy shit. Whoa. There's like five or so coins. That's crazy. And I will also put out my Bitcoin address once I get it off the phone for you guys if you want to donate money. And again, all of that money, none of it goes to me. It's all going to go to Waterford. It's all going to go to Fight for the Forgotten, which is the shirt that I'm wearing. And that's what the benefit is tonight at the Comedy Store. All the money is going to Fight for the Forgotten. And you can donate to at, what is the website? It's fightfortheforgotten.org slash donate. Right. And if you guys haven't paid attention to any Justin's podcast before, I'll give you a brief rundown. Justin was on The Ultimate Fighter, fought for the UFC for a while, and then found his true calling going to the Congo and building wells for the Pygmies. And it's just an amazing story.

27:22You could watch some of the podcasts. You could watch some of the short clips on you. And I know there's a documentary on you that's coming out soon as well. Yeah, I think it's going to be the summer of 2018. And so thank you so much for even doing a sit-down interview on that. Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. It's going to add a whole lot of value to the film. And just give it a louder voice or a wider reach. Because my first promise to the Pygmies, and this was even... So, man, I'm just so thankful for the support of this community and personally you. Because, man, when I first came on, we hadn't drilled any wells. In fact, I had just had Andy Bowe. So, you know, I had held him. And he's a one-half-year-old boy that I held as he passed away. And it wrecked me. It changed me. But I knew we were going to do something with water. I just knew it. But my first time on the podcast, there were zero wells drilled.

28:09I was just going to go there and live for a year. And hopefully we were going to build an incredible team. You know, that team is now 20 strong, full-time, 12 part-time. Been able to drill 70 water wells now. That's amazing. 70 communities have been transformed. If that Bitcoin is 50 grand, I mean, 4,200... 65, he said. Oh, 65 grand. Oh, my gosh. Well, I'm not a math whiz. So I fight for a living. But it's $4,200 transforms a community. It helps our teams go out there and survey the land. We have a survey team now that gets to go out and scout it out beforehand. Tell our teams what tools to bring out and what obstacles to expect. So that's a few hundred dollars. Four or $500 to go survey. Then to drill the wells, around $2,700. And then to help the community and really teach and train them. So we educate the locals with the knowledge on how to drill the wells.

28:59We equip them with the tools to be able to do it. How many of them can read? So of our well drillers, everyone. Well, I think everyone can. A lot of them have even graduated from a university with community. Development degrees. I mean the people that live in the Congo. The Mabuti Pygmies. Yeah. The Mabuti Pygmies. None of them. There's a. I've met two people, I think. Two, maybe three that can actually read. And they're the chiefs. One of them is actually an incredible guy. Chief Alondo. His grandson's Jippy. And he's going to be chief one day. And it's like my favorite little guy over there. And Jippy's in school now. And there's a long story with that. But it's one of the first times ever the Mabuti Pygmies have ever been in school. And sustainably to where they can even pay their school fees. And they can have food there because they can buy the food. And so.

29:48But traditionally they don't have a written language. They don't have a calendar. So they don't know their age. And so they're really, really traditional hunter-gatherer society. That's just incredible. You love them. You know, with the bows there. They're deadly. I've seen a little boy. Probably eight, nine, ten years old. Climb up. The canopy of the rainforest is probably. It's well over 100 feet. It's probably 150, 200 feet. And seeing a guy shimmy up there. Eight, nine, ten years old. To the top. With a bow. With a bow on his. Like hung around his neck. And so he goes up there. And then he's sniping, you know, parrots. Or other kind of birds. They eat parrots? They eat anything they can find, man. So. One thing that they do. I don't know why this popped in my mind. But if they're running. And they're hunting after an antelope. And a bee flies by. They're going to chase that bee to the hive.

30:40Because honey to them is like gold. I mean, it's. They love honey. Having something sweet. So they'll risk their lives to climb up into the trees. They set a fire at the bottom of the tree. Let the smoke go up. And then they climb up there. And they just reach in. And these are African bees. These are killer bees. That they're reaching into the honey hive. And just pulling it out. And dropping it down in a basket. Or just. Or just plopping it down. And just getting jacked. Just getting jacked. Sometimes two people go up there. And the one guy's purpose is just to have like a twig and leaves. That he's hitting the bees off of the guy reaching in. Jesus Christ. So he's just protecting them. But then when those guys come back into the village. And they have this just treasure pot of honey. The whole village celebrates their heroes. And you know. Because they literally did risk their lives. For their wives.

31:29For their kids. So that they could have some honey. Wow. And they save it. They savor it. And it's pretty incredible. Another thing they do is if they're on a hunt. And they find a turtle. They'll actually make it look. So almost like the kids here. They have like ninja turtle backpacks. They'll tie a vine around the feet of the turtle. And then they put it on their back. And then they go back to hunting. And if they get an animal. If they get like an antelope. Do they kill the turtle first? No. They just keep it alive. And it's on their back. And if they get a kill of an antelope. Or a wild hog. Or something like that. They actually let the turtle go. And then if they. Yeah. They only take what they need. So they respect the forest. And it's resources. So much. So they only keep what they need. What a fucking tumultuous ride. For that poor turtle. Yeah. You're right. It's like Jesus. I hope these motherfuckers find a pig.

32:16But. But. But. But if they. If they don't. And they have food and dinner later for their kids. And so they bring it back. And they'll just cut it open. And put it on the fire. And boil it. Did you eat turtle? Have you eaten? I have eaten turtle there. What's it like? It's not the best. It's. It's. It's really gamey. And. It's really. Really chewy. The kind that I had. And I don't know what part I had. But I've. I've had even monkey there. This was before. I was there doing the Ebola breakout and everything. Jesus. But I didn't know that you get it from eating monkey. And so they just. They eat monkey all the time. Oh my God. I've eaten monkey several times now. Really? Probably five, six, seven times. Wow. What does it taste like? It's going to sound goofy. But it's super tender. It was some of the best meat I've had. The one they gave me. I think it was part of like the. Around the femur bone or whatever.

33:07Does it freak you out to eat a primate? It didn't. No. At first I thought it was kind of crazy. And then after I tasted it, it was really, really good. And so after that, I mean, it's good. My friend Steve Rinello went to. Where was it in South America that he went to? I cannot remember. But he was down there hunting with this tribe and they prefer monkey over everything. Oh man, it's that good. Yeah. I mean, that's why. It's good. Really good. I'm not just saying that. I mean, it's really good. And they celebrate whenever. Whatever monkey size they bring back, whether it's a big one or a little guy. They're going to really celebrate because that's some of the. They call it the sweet meat. So. What does it say he's at? No, they're eating monkey stew. Yeah, they're eating monkey stew. Does it say where he's at? Bolivia. Bolivia. That's it. Yeah, that's. I think there's even a YouTube video.

34:02Sometimes people can go check out on my YouTube channel of me trying monkey for the first time. I thought they were teasing me. And so at the end I go, no, it's. This is chicken. It's got to be chicken. And they're like, no, it's monkey. And after I got off, they walked me outside to where the monkey like carcass was still there and everything. And I was like, dang, this is real. Like it's really, really, really good. And I said it tastes like chicken. Yeah, that's funny because Rinella said it tasted like a smoked turkey leg. Yeah. It's like the way they cook it. They cooked it over like the meat consistency. Like wet leaves over the fire. Mm hmm. Yeah. It's just. So, man, it's it's awesome. And we're about to get two to three thousand more acres of land. Oh, yeah. Monkeys. We got a monkey harvest coming in. I hope so. But I just. I don't think I'd be a hunter if that was all you could hunt was monkeys.

34:49I'd be like, I think I'm going vegan. Yeah. He's a vegetarian. Coming back here. You know, my wife like shed a tear, I think, because I ate a monkey. Really? Yeah. I mean, she was. She was like, you ate a what? So I think she still thinks I just had one instead of five or six. Oh, now she knows. Oh, yeah. Whoops. Actually, yeah, she does now because of this. But, man, it's it's such an adventure living out there. And so to be able to empower the locals to do it for themselves is just so key. Like that's that's I guess the message I'm I'm preaching is just the opportunities greater than charity. That's why I asked you if they could read if it's like, do they do you give them instruction manuals with how to maintain and how to the upkeep for wells or how to build a new one or. So with the pygmies, they're involved in helping us get our equipment out there.

35:38I mean, sometimes our hikes are from the nearest quote unquote road, which none of us would call a road at all. And the same drive, some of the times the drive to the beginning of the rainforest where from the airport is for six hours. The same exact drive has taken 24 hours or 48 hours. We had to dig out like 40 cars in front of us one time because they're just stuck in the mud and to get around it. So but once we get to the rainforest, it can take an hour, two hours, three hours to hike each way. And so a round trip with one ton of well drilling equipment is a lot. So the whole village helps us. I mean, there's a incredible Swahili proverb that basically says, if you think you or if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. And so I think it's beautiful because they don't even let us do all the work alone.

36:26They know that we're going to come in there and help them with something that's so precious, that's life saving, life giving to them. So they all send 100 people to come help us with our equipment. And so what used to take us days to take in, you know, it takes us just that one trip. And so they help us get it in there. They build us huts. So basically they build us a home, just like what they live in. Very hospitable. Give us our food while we're there. They must be so happy that you showed up. Can you imagine some big white dude from America out of nowhere? Just like, hey, I'm going to live with you guys and make wells. They're like, yeah, sure you are. Nobody ever come down here and made a well? Get the fuck out of here. Meanwhile, you made 70 wells now. They must be like, how is this possible? Yeah, well, what I love is the heroes of this are our 32 well drillers.

37:16We even have now, I got to share on your podcast last time that Pacha Soap, which was inspired even by this podcast, him listening to this, working at night, the night shift, and having a dream to start up Pacha Soap, which is in Whole Foods. And they got another brand that's in Target. It's super successful. That's awesome. Yeah, they're helping us buy land there in the Congo. And we're starting up a soap production facility. So we have an essential oil press. And we're hiring the locals to be able to get all the essential oils like eucalyptus and avocado oil and palm oil and different raw materials. Because the only thing they have available to them right now is car washing soap. That's literally from China or from India. It's just packed with chemicals. When I used it, it left me raw. I mean, like in pain from it. And you're better off with no soap at all. Just washing yourself with dirt. Right.

38:04And so... By the way, you can do that if people don't know. Yeah. If you just take dirt, like if you're somewhere and there's no soap, just take dirt and just literally use water and mud and just wash yourself with the dirt and then rinse it all off. You're just trying to scrub off the bullshit. And dirt is probably better for you than antibiotic soaps. Yeah. For sure. And so we're about to get 2,000 to 3,000 acres more of land. So we have 3,000 there now. That's awesome, man. And it's about to be 5,000 to 6,000 acres. What if we reach out and reach out to people? Because I know a lot of people do like to go to places like that and teach English. What if there was a way? Or what would be the language to teach that would be most beneficial for them down there? So language-wise is really tough because... What do they speak? There's over 200 spoken languages in Congo. Over 200.

38:51And so there's five national languages. The government and schools and hospitals is French. It was colonized by Belgium. And that's a nut story. But then they also speak Swahili in the east. They speak Lingala in the west. They speak Banna Congo. And there's one more that I'm missing. When you talk to them, what do you talk to them with? So I have very, very broken Swahili. Very, very broken Swahili. But the Swahili they speak there is... It's mixed with a little bit of French and also the local language. So you've got to truly live there. And over the last six years, I've been there for about maybe a year and seven, eight, year, nine months. Boots on the ground. A year at one time. And then, man, but the saying about Swahili is that it was born in Tanzania. It got sick in Kenya. It died in Uganda. And they took it to the Congo to bury it. Because they can't communicate with anyone in Uganda.

39:53I mean, not truly communicate. Wow. Get their point across. So it's really tough. What I meant by teaching them English is teaching them how to read. Like, I just think that if you could somehow or another teach them some language where they could read and write things down. And, like, you could just keep this thing going. Yeah. With them while they're there. What I think is really cool is now we've got this video up on YouTube. It's Chief Leo May's transformation. And so Chief Leo May, in his village, it was just an incredible transformation. They had never owned land of their own. But Chief Leo May remembered his grandfather used to actually take him to hunt on that land that they now own. And so now it's theirs. And his grandson is going to be able to say, you know, this was my grandfather's land. Just like he's able to say, you know, I used to hunt with my grandfather here.

40:42But so from the land that they have, they have land, water, and food there. They have about 500 acres, I believe. And so then they have their own water. And now they've grown so many banana trees there. They used to get paid one to two bananas a day for labor, from sunup to sundown, a banana or two a day. Now they have hundreds and hundreds of banana trees. I mean, probably 500, 600 banana trees in that one village. And from that, they're able to go sell it. When they sell it, they can buy their own clothes for the first time. They can now pay school fees so that they can actually go to the local school and learn to read and write. It's a little bit of a hike for them, but they can go learn and read and write. And so it's the first time that, I mean, it could even create an opportunity for the Mabuti Pygmies to have representation at their version of Congress in the Congo for the first time ever.

41:31There's over 200 tribes represented there. The only one not represented is the Mabuti Pygmies. And so to get them educated, the excuse used to be from the government was they're not really people. They're part man, part animal. That was the government saying that, I think, in the early 2000s, maybe the late 90s, but early 2000s. They were saying they were half man, half animal, that they'll never have representation. But now it's started to shift to where we even have a governor, the governor of the largest state in Congo, sponsoring everything we do, endorsing it, saying, hey, you have free range of the Eturi region. And we want you to drill here and we want you to drill there. And so he's actually come on our side and said, the work you guys are doing is really great because it's through the locals. It's locally led.

42:14And so to have that opportunity once some of the Mabuti Pygmies are educated, have a high school education, maybe we can get them to a local university there or right next door, maybe in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya. Then they can go back and they can actually start representing themselves because now they say if they're educated, then we can. But none of them are educated. So it would draw out the process longer. But now they're, you know, the next generation will be. And that's what's inspired you also to get back into MMA again. Yeah. And that inspired you to sign up with Bellator. And since then you've had three fights? Three fights. And won all three. Yep. And now you're one of the top Bellator heavyweight contenders. Yeah. It was kind of crazy because when we first talked, you hadn't fought in a long time. And you were five years, two months. Yeah. And you weren't training.

43:01You were just kind of like going back and forth to the Congo. And then, you know, that had to be a crazy thing to just get back into it after all that time out. It was the hardest thing I've ever done physically, at least. I'm sure to get yourself back in that kind of shape. In between my first and second fight back, I had malaria again. And that was my third time to have that. He's got malaria three times, folks, by the way. Yeah. And so that time I got malaria while I was there. Because it was so bad, I broke out in shingles, which, you know, being 30, just now turning 30. So then I was like 28 or 29. To have shingles, the doctor was like, you're too young for this. And my body was just that stressed out. Too young for shingles? Yeah. I've heard of people getting shingles. Well, I guess. I guess normally that might be like in Pantago or met herpes, something like that.

43:48But they did the culture or whatever, and it was shingles. And it's supposed to be an older generation thing, I think. No kidding. I didn't know shingles. I think they say it starts like 40 and beyond. Is it a compromised immune issue? Is that what it is? Yeah. The idea? Yeah. And so it's actually chicken pox coming back out in your body. So if you haven't had chicken pox, you can't have shingles. And so it's like it lays dormant in your body. And then once you get into older age or your immune system is compromised, then shingles can reappear. That is the most fucked up thing about the human body, that it harbors these bacterias. And they sit there waiting, just waiting, biding my time to fuck up your life. Yeah. Waiting. Yeah. And so then I had, oh man, dude, I had that, then I had shingles, and then I came back and for a month or two months, the doctors were trying to figure out what was wrong with me

44:37because I was clear of malaria. But the CDC did two tests on me for malaria again, but they found out I had dengue fever. Jesus Christ. Every night I was going to sleep, I was waking up and that was probably- Did you tell them you ate a monkey? I did. I did. And then they wanted to- Did they look at you like sideways? Like, oh fuck, bro? They wanted to do the quarantine thing on me. Oh boy. And so, but it had been over three months since I had, since Ebola had broken out and it had been three months since I'd been back. What happened to Ebola? Ebola was like going to kill us all just like a year ago. Remember? Everybody was freaking out. That one lady who's a nurse who wouldn't be quarantined. She's like, fuck you, I'm going outside. Like, no, she's going to kill us all, you selfish bitch. So, so Ebola was actually discovered in Congo. There's a river called the Ebola River. Oh, great. Right.

45:23And so that's, that's where it was discovered. And it actually came back. It broke out since the big crazy one. It broke out. And I think it was like less than a hundred people. It might've been like 10 or less. And so they really were able to contain it, which is impressive to be able to do in Congo because it's not as organized as, as anywhere else. But yeah, so man, but on the MMA journey back, it was, it was really, really tough. I mean, the muscle memory just was not there. I had lost the wrestling I grew up with. And the cardio obviously wasn't there after five years off. But the sicknesses, other things, my body was healed. The muscles and joints and ligaments and all that. I think I felt better than ever there. It was just the muscle memory wasn't coming back. And the cardio was really tough. And I had to shed some weight. Yeah, the muscle, just get healthy.

46:14The muscles and the cartilage and the joints and everything that they're probably benefited from all that time off, right? I think so a lot. Because so many guys get by the time you're 30, I mean, how many MMA fighters are just have like really huge injuries by the time they're 30, 31 years old. It's pretty common. Yeah. To start, I started fighting at 19 years old professionally MMA. And so, and I was always the young guy in the heavyweight division. And so now just turning 30, I feel like I got a lot of miles left on me having those five years off. And so- A lot of life experience too, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I honestly think a lot of people are like, oh, so you didn't, you took off and that's probably impossible. For me, it was a whole other kind of training. I mean, kind of like I was talking about Raphael and being comfortable being uncomfortable.

46:59I mean, I've slept in the mud, woke up in the mud, at least slept on the dirt, woke up in the mud because the rain came so hard and sleeping under twig and leaf huts on the dirt, you know, no, no mattress underneath, you know, anything. And so, I mean, to have that to battle through the sicknesses, to, to see what they suffer from and how they dig deep on a daily basis, they're in survival mode and to see the battles they fight. And then to have, you know, 32 of my heroes there that have drilled 70 wells that whenever a bridge collapses because a truck is illegally logging and they overloaded their, their weight and they just collapsed this 1930s bridge. And then I think, oh, what's going to be impossible. And then they get out of the truck. They start walking through the water with all our well drilling equipment. And we're going to find another way.

47:51We're going to get a taxi motorcycles to, to ride in everything we needed this big truck to carry in. And so it's going to take a lot longer. It's going to be a lot harder, but we're going to get it done. We're going to win this fight. So you feel like that was a training sort of tool for you? Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to say this, but, or I don't want to compare it to this, but it's almost like it was a life experience and kind of like some of our Navy guys, Navy SEALs, or they do the special forces training. I think this was my version of like kind of special training for me as a fighter. It enlarged my heart or deepened the well of who I am. And so I think I just have more of a motivation to go in there and win. It feels like your submission game has really come up a lot now. Yeah. It just seems like it. And now my submission game is on point. Yeah. You're a blue belt now under Lovato. Right. Yeah.

48:44And, uh, and I, I wanted to do it, um, the right way. I wanted to do it the way that every other student does it. And so it was, it was really cool to get that. I didn't know that that would mean so much to me, uh, but it, but it really did. Crazy, right? Yeah. It's nuts, man. It's nuts how that award or that, that promotion, um, is a milestone in my martial arts journey. That's why it's so good for kids. Martial arts are so good for kids because it gives them a tangible representation of their hard work. Like you get, give them a belt and they tie on that belt and have this giant smile on my face. You know, when my kids, uh, my kids take martial arts and when they get a new belt, they have this giant smile on their face. They're so happy and they jump around, they look at it, they want to wear it home and that was me squeeze it. Yeah. Yeah. Me too, man.

49:28I remember when I got my blue belt, I was like, Holy shit, I'm not a white belt anymore. Yes. Yeah. You know, you feel like I made it over the hump. And what they say is if you can make it to purple belt, you can make it to black belt. Yeah. It's the, the blue belt is like, you're just working hard. If you work hard, you get there. Hey, you know, you're not, you're not at white belt anymore. But if you can get to purple belt, like, Hey man, just keep going and you can be a black belt. Yeah. And in Lovato's school of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it says, um, a black belt is a white belt who never quit. Yeah. So that's a great quote. I've heard that before. Yeah. I like it, man. It's an interesting time now for jiu-jitsu and MMA. It really is because you're seeing like some guys like, uh, this weekend, Brian Ortiz, um, Ortega rather, Brian Ortega is fighting, uh, Cub Swanson and Brian Ortega, T, I'm trying

50:20to remember his nickname, T city, T city, triangle city. He's got one of the best guards in MMA. Yeah. And Ortega is fucking nasty off of his back. I mean, he's just, he's so good. Do you think he lulls them to sleep with his baby blue eyes? And then, and then locks it up. He's a beautiful face, beautiful face, long flowing locks, just like you. Yeah. So Brian is, um, in my opinion, probably the best guy in the division off of his back. I don't think there's anybody that could fuck with him at 145, especially now that Charles Oliveira is moved up to a 55. I think he's the best at 45. His fucking submission game is so lightning, lightning fast and just tight as can be. But Cub Swanson's a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu too. Yeah. And Cub is a nasty striker too. And super unorthodox, like real weird. But Brian is a fucking great striker too. And Brian is un motherfucking defeated. 12 and Oh.

51:17With a one, no contest. So I'm. That's an interesting fight. Fuck yeah, it is. It's, it's like, uh, uh, you know, it's, it's a real crossroads fight in a lot of ways. Cause Cub is at the top of the heap in the 145 pound division. He's lost to some of the big guys like Max Holloway, lost to Frankie Edgar, but he's still really respected and thought of as one of the top guys in the division. And Ortega being this young prodigy at 12 and Oh has this opportunity now to fight one of the most crafty veterans in the division. I like it. Sounds like a similar opportunity that Nagano just had, Francis just had, you know, to be that young lion to come up and throw in a guy and really announce himself as, as one of the top contenders. Ortega can submit anybody in the world. I really believe that. And he, he'll box with you too. The thing about Ortega is like, he'll make it seem like there's no intention whatsoever

52:09to go to the ground. And then sometimes he boxes guys up and then when they want to take him to the ground, cause they don't like the standup, that's when they're Foxville. He's got an interesting strategy in that regard because in the last fight I was thinking like, wow, this is kind of interesting. We're in the third round. He still has not tried to submit this guy. Like that's his game. And then boom, they go to the ground and he instantly catches them with a guillotine. But the reason they went to the ground, his opponent took him down cause he didn't like the standup. That's smart. Yeah. So his strategy, his standup keeps coming up higher and higher and higher. But when it comes to jujitsu, he's one of the very best in the sport. He's really good. How far away is he from here where he trains? He's close. He's in Black House. Black House is in Compton or that area.

52:50So it's, I don't know if it's exactly Compton. It's Compton adjacent. But so there's that. Go to the, go to the 219 card. Oh, you know what? Go to the fucking, the Fox card. That's a big one. That is. Yeah. That one right there. Oh man. Robbie Lawler. I love that. I love that. Dos Anjos. Good. Former lightweight and welterweight champ. Yeah, man. That is fucking interesting. He's been doing so great, man. Yeah. Like Lovato. I mean, Dos Anjos, what he's done in going up from 145, 155 to 170, there was like, well, he was the champ, but he lost to Eddie Alvarez. I was, well, let's see how he does at 170. Looks way better. I mean, he's steamrolling people. The way he fucked up Neil Magny. Oh my gosh. Like kicked him to the ground, took him to the ground, smushed him. Yeah. I mean, he beat Tarek Safedine in a standup fight, which is like, wow. Safedine is a world-class striker. Yeah.

53:47Neil's a buddy of mine and he is an absolute monster. And to have seen that fight, I mean, Rafael Dos Anjos looks incredible at this weight. Yeah. He's, uh, that's, it's very interesting because I think he's supposed to be at 170 all along. It's not like he's a big 155 or that's made it up to 170, but he's kind of small in 170. No, he looks like a 170. And of course he's fighting one of the best 170s ever in the form of champ, Robbie Lawler. So that, that should be a perfect fight for Fox. Cause, uh, you know, just to, for fun, I mean, it's going to be a chaotic fight for, there's never been a goddamn boring Robbie Lawler fight ever. Yeah. You know, he doesn't even know how to have a boring fight. Very, very, very true. What do you think of the Lamas fight? I like it, but Lamas was obviously training for, um, for Aldo. Right. And so, uh, you know, he gets this change of guard.

54:39Now he's fighting Josh Emmett, who's a, who's a tough customer. And Emmett, a lot of people don't know him, but he's 12 and one. It's a good fight. Very good fight. I'm excited to see how that goes out. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited about that, but I'm also excited about the Ponzinobio Mike Perry fight. Yeah. I almost want this fight to just happen so Darren Till can fight Mike Perry. I'm like, I'm almost like rooting for Mike Perry just so he can get out of it and they can make that Darren Till Mike Perry fight. Cause if they do decide to make that, cause I know they tried to make Mike Perry versus Wonder Boy and Dana even announced it. And, and Wonder Boy was like, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, slow the fuck down. Like the guy had one fight in the UFC. I just fought for the title twice and then beat, um, uh, Jorge, uh, Masvidal. Right. And then you're, you're going to have me fight this guy like right away.

55:31Like, this is crazy. And by the way, my thumbs hurt. He had like injuries in his thumbs. He was like, he got his thumbs. He was talking about it after the fight that he fucked up the tendons in his thumbs when I was interviewing him. He's like, something happened in my hand. I thought it broke it. I'm not sure. So he's got, he's got a lot of rest to, to go through. So Darren Till's looking for an opponent and they were talking about Darren Till versus Kamaru Usman, which is very exciting as well because Kamaru Usman, who's slated, go to UFC 219. Usman is slated to fight against, um, Meek Mill. I've known him since we were 15. Usman. We grew up wrestling together. Emile Meek. Yeah. Meek Mill's a rapper. Meek Mill's a rapper. Right. Yeah. What the fuck's wrong with me? Emile Meek, who is, uh, the, the crazy Viking motherfucker. In high school, people called Usman US man for some reason.

56:23Uh, but he's just a, I don't know. Just because of the way it's spelled? Yeah. But he's a terrifying guy. He is. He's one of the most terrifying guys in the sport. What I love seeing is I think in high school, our senior year, I think he graduated or sorry, I think he finishes senior year fourth in the state of Texas. Um, so number four in, in wrestling. Uh, and then he went on to UNK or Nebraska Kearney and he ended up- Well, he had never fought Meek Mill. Meek. Emile Meek is a scary guy. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, was really looking forward to this fight. And then there was some talk of the fight night taking place because Emile couldn't get his visa settled out, sorted out. But then he got it sorted out and Kamaru Usman was saying, hey, you know, I've already moved on. And, and then so lately, uh, Emile Meek's Instagram and his, uh, Twitter has been calling Kamaru

57:14Usman a chicken and saying he's ducking him and all kinds of crazy shit. So I do not know if this is official. I'm hoping that this is official because someone needs to challenge Usman. I think Usman is one of the most dangerous and scary guys in the division and he's not being talked about. Someone in the top 10 that he's, he's earned that spot. I think. I believe so too. There's so many tough guys in that division that he's sort of kind of been overlooked in my opinion. And to me, when I watch him fight, I'm like, Jesus Christ, this guy's a handful for everybody. I think Usman, pull that card back up, please. I think Usman is just, uh, he's got all the tools. He's in his prime. He's fucking super dangerous everywhere. Super dangerous standing up, smashes people on the ground, really fucking strong for the division. Top game out of control.

58:00You know, we don't know what happens when he gets put on his back. We don't know what happens if he gets tagged, if he fights a world-class striker that could stand up. But what Amik Meek brings to the table, Amil Meek, excuse me, I did it again. What, uh, Amil Meek brings to the table is nasty power and a real warrior spirit. Yeah. I mean, Amil. Mahala. Yeah. He came into the UFC after a KO victory over Husamar Pajares. I remember that. Yeah. I remember I watched that and I was like, get this guy in the UFC. Right now. Please. Yeah. Like, he's a fucking animal. And the thing is, everybody's running away from Kamaru Usman except Amil Meek. And maybe Meek Mill. We haven't asked him. Yeah. He said Colby Covington's ducking him too right now. Oh, Kamaru Usman said that? Yeah. Yeah. Of course he is. Everybody's ducking him. But also, Colby would be wise because Colby's made so much noise after beating Damian Maia.

58:55He's trying to get a fight with Tyron Woodley. He's trying to like, he's trying to promote himself. And the worst way to promote yourself is to fight Kamaru Usman. But Amil Meek is like, get me in there, bitch. Let's do it. So I sincerely hope that this fight actually takes place because I think it's a fucking wicked, wicked fight. And I want to see if Amil has any answers for the problems that Kamaru Usman brings to the octagon. Because no one has so far. And, I mean, he's got one loss in his record. I do not know if that was in the UFC or outside the UFC. But in the last few fights we've seen him since he's won the Ultimate Fighter, he's just been unstoppable. But, again, not getting the credit that he deserves. Yeah. It's all, all of his fights inside the octagon seem to be all victories. He's one of the most naturally athletic guys that I've ever known.

59:47That's what I meant by growing up wrestling with him. He started wrestling in high school and finished fourth in the state. But then he went on to the NCAA's Division II and just won two, I think, two national titles or maybe three. And he's a stud. Well, the big fight for me on this card is not just the title fight between Cyborg and Holly Holm, but, yeah, that one. Khabib Nurmagomedov versus Edson Barboza. Come on, son. Number two and number three in the lightweight division, which is the most stacked division, I think. It's like lightweight and welterweight elite are the two most stacked divisions. But it's hard to pick which one is most stacked. But, Jesus Christ, I like this fight. I like this fight a lot. And, apparently, Nurmagomedov has a new, according to Daniel Cormier, he told me Nurmagomedov has a new conditioning guy or a new dietician guy, new nutrition guy. Less dessert. No tiramisu.

60:38He's backing off the tiramisu. He's got him, you know, on a very strict diet plan. And he's far lighter than he's ever been. And we're headed into this fight. This fight is in, what, two weeks now? 30th. And today is? Three weeks away. Three weeks away. So, very exciting. Very interesting. I'm fucking pumped for that fight because Barbosa is one of the best strikers in the division, for sure. And Khabib can't do anything wrong on the feet because Edson can light him up, for sure. I mean, this is the best striker, for sure the best striker, that Khabib has fought. He fought Michael Johnson, who's a good striker. Michael Johnson caught him and tagged him and had him rocked. It was the first time we saw any adversity whatsoever or any real struggle for Khabib. But he went on to dominate that fight and he took him to the ground and just beat the shit out of him. And he's 24-0, which is unprecedented.

61:34You know, 24-0 and just been steamrolling everybody. He's only like 30, right? 29, 30? Something like that? I do not know his age, but I feel like he's not even in his prime yet. What does it say here? 29. 29, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's like right at the door of his athletic prime. If he can stay healthy, I know he's had a bunch of injuries, but if he can get healthy and stay healthy, man, it's going to be scary seeing what he does. Yeah, for Barboza, it's all about just keeping the fight standing. And Barboza has wicked leg kicks. He's the only guy in the UFC that stopped two guys with leg kicks. He stopped Rafael Alvarez with leg kicks and Mike Lulo. Both those guys he stopped with leg kicks. How do I remember that? I don't know. But his leg kicks are amongst the fastest I've ever seen in any division. His switch kick? Fastest switch kick I've ever seen. It's fucking ridiculous.

62:30When he lights it up, like off that left leg, you're like, Jesus. Jesus. It's like he's getting there with half the time that most world-class fighters get there with that kick. So that's interesting. Yeah, that spinning heel kick is like, yeah. Ridiculous. As fast as most people's just normal head kick. Yeah, his spinning shit's out of control. He's just a ridiculous striker. But it's all about Nurmagomedov getting him to the ground. The question is, is he going to be able to stuff the takedown? What's the strategy they have for this guy on the feet? Are they going to have him open up and possibly give up that takedown? Or are they going to have him cautious and just throwing punches and just constantly worry about the takedown defense? Because Nurmagomedov, he has been unchallenged when it comes to the grappling. He's so goddamn strong. It's crazy. He's dominant.

63:16Well, even guys like Dos Anjos, who's a black belt in jiu-jitsu, usually puts the smush on people. Nurmagomedov puts the smush on him. He gets the guys to break, too. You see it in their face. They're like, fuck, I can't do anything against this guy. He grew up doing it to bears. So that's why. For real. Like, legitimately. Yeah. My wife didn't believe that, so I had to pull it up and show her. And she's like, what are they doing to him? Like, why? That's a baby. Why did they make that baby fight a bear? He was like six, seven, eight years old, and a bear's just biting him in the arm. Yeah. Jimmy Rivera versus John Lineker. That's a fucking great fight, too. That's up in the right-hand corner there. Woo-wee. That's going to be good. That's a good fight. That's a real good fight. Jimmy Rivera has looked insanely good at 135. Especially that victory over Uriah Faber. I was super impressed with that. I was like, wow.

64:05Like, this guy is for real. I knew it was for real before, but Rivera was supposed to be fighting Dominic Cruz, but Dominic Cruz broke his arm in training. And so now he's fighting John Lineker, who's a scary fucking guy at 135. Yeah, I like this a lot for Jimmy because you can just hear every interview he does, he's just hungry. Hungry for the chance to be world champ. Yeah. So it's exciting to see this fight happening. I like it, too. And there's interesting. And TJ Dillshaw just shut John Lineker down. I mean, completely shut down his offense. It almost was like having... Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. I mean, it was a perfect example of how you play the matador. Like a technical matador. I mean, that was one of his finest performances. Because Lineker is fucking terrifying. Like everybody's in a war with Lineker. You know? Like Ian McCall.

64:57Like everybody who fights Lineker winds up being in these goddamn war. So many guys get in there with him and they get hit by him. And you just see it on their face. Like, Jesus Christ. He's one of the few guys that actually earned that nickname. Yeah. Hands of stone. Yeah, Francisco Rivera. Like so many guys he's fought. He cracks them. And you just see the look in their eyes. Like, oh, Christ. Christ. So he beat... Who did he... Oh, okay. He beat Marlon Vera. Which is a very good fight. The TJ Dillashaw loss, I think, was the most telling. Because TJ Dillashaw figured out a way how to solve that puzzle. When John Dodson couldn't. Which was really interesting. John Dodson lost to Lineker when Dodson was thought to be one of the best guys in the division at 135. And he lost to him with a split decision. You know, he fucked up Michael McDonald in the fight before that. And he's just something special, man.

65:53You know, he really is. He's a tank of a guy. But I really honestly believe that Jimmy Rivera is world class. And I think this is a good opportunity for him to fight against a big, scary tank of a guy in John Lineker. And show his talent and his ability. I think it's a real test. I'm really interested to see how this works out. Because Rivera's not like an elusive TJ Dillashaw type guy. He's an attacker. So how is he going to... What is he going to do with Lineker? Is he going to chop the legs? Is he going to attack from below like he did with Uriah? Like he fucked Uriah's leg up real early in that fight to the port where it really limited Uriah's mobility. That's an interesting fight. I like that fight a lot. Carlos Condit returns. Yeah, against Magny. Dun, dun, dun. That's interesting too. Carlos has been out for quite a long time. I want to say two years. Yeah. Click on his thing.

66:53Let's find out when his last fight was. I want to say it was about two years ago. Didn't he... He lost to Damian Maia. And say that he was talking about retirement or he was retiring then? Yes. Yeah. Okay. August 2016. So not quite that long ago. And then before that, he lost the Robbie Lawler fight, which was a crazy five-round war. And he lost a split decision. Beat Tiago and lost to Tyron. So, I mean, those... The victory over Tiago was phenomenal. He caught him with that elbow. Yeah. That's murderer's row of his last opponents, man. Yeah. And the Tyron Woodley loss was by injury. It says KO, TKO. But the reality is Tyron hit him with a brutal leg kick and his knee blew out. Yeah. I remember. Yeah. With switches. You know, I mean, apparently he had heard it before. But the power that Tyron Woodley has in his fucking leg kicks. Like, Christ. Tyron Woodley had some choice words about Colby Covington too.

67:48You know, he was, you know, talking about Colby, like, campaigning hard to get the fight and talking all kinds of crazy shit about him. But Tyron was saying, like, this... First of all, everything he's saying about our training sessions is 100% bullshit. And he's like, when I get that dude in the octagon, if he ever does, get that shot. He goes, I am going to fuck him up. He was... Colby Covington is never going to fight again after he faces me. That's what he said. Yeah. He was... We were talking before the weigh-ins. We were standing around the octagon before the weigh-ins, this past UFC in Detroit. And he was, he was like shaking his head. He's like, I am going to fuck that dude up. He's like, he does not understand. He's not on my level. He's talking all kinds of shit. He's, you know, writing all these checks that there's no way his fucking talent can cash.

68:34When I get him in there, I'm going to smash him. And he goes, I'm going to take my time on him. I'm going to try to hurt him. This is what he said to me that was crazy. He goes, I have never tried to hit anyone with all my power in the octagon. And I'm like, wait, what? Why not? How is that possible? He sends people flying across the octagon. Watch his fight with Jay Heron. Oh, yeah. You can hit somebody harder than that. Are you sure? Because that doesn't seem normal. That doesn't seem right. Talking about his leg kicks, I was just going to ask you, what did you think of being there for the Gaethje-Alvarez fight? Jesus, that was great. Gosh. It was amazing. There was two fights that night that were humbling. That was one of them. That fight was humbling. Like the fucking guts and glory. Watching those guys go at it. But Yancy Medeiros and Cowboy Oliveira might have been even crazier.

69:26I think that was the craziest fight of the night. And I believe that one performance of the night. Thank the baby Jesus. Because if it didn't, there was some criminal shenanigans afoot. It was the craziest fight ever. One would get rocked. And then the other would get rocked. And you would think the fight was over. And then the other one would come back and rock the other one. And then finally Yancy won in the third round. I mean, it was just a fucking chaotic war. It was such a good fight. Just such a good fight. Two bonuses. Two fight of the night awards. That's nice. See, that's what I love about the UFC. When people really perform and lay it on the line like that. But did Aldo and Holloway win any sort of a fight of the night? I know Francis didn't. But they said they were going to really take care of him. Yeah, they were going to hook him up with some sort of a bonus.

70:14How do you not give that guy KO of the night? What? What are we doing here? What is it? What's that? It doesn't say. It just says that those two got fight of the night. It didn't say anything about anything else. Oh, okay. Does that fight get fight of the night? No, no, no, no. Gaethje. Gaethje and Cowboy Oliveira and Yancy Medeiros got fight of the night? Well, Max Holloway's performance was nothing short of masterful. Nothing short of masterful. The way he handled Aldo. The way he yelled at me after the first round. He gets done with the round and he's going back to his head. And he looks at me and goes, The man is tired! The man is tired! He's a motherfucker. Dude, Max Holloway is a real fucking warrior. I mean, to the core. That guy relishes it. He loves it. When he was like chicken necking at Aldo and he's got his hands down, he's talking shit to him and stalking him,

71:08you could see it in Aldo's face like he was drowning. You could see the waves were coming and he knew he wasn't going to be able to dog paddle for too long. He's like, Jesus Christ. How am I going to keep up with this guy? The thing about Max Holloway that's so interesting is in a lot of ways, he has that sort of Nick Diaz approach where he's not hitting you with all of his might. He's not throwing these hand makers unless he's got you hurt. Until he's got you hurt. Once he's got you hurt, then he's just fucking whipping bombs your way. But until then, he's just constantly on you, just constantly peppering you, constantly on you. Kick, knee, punch, move forward, move forward. And you're just dealing with him and trying to breathe. You don't get any breath. And he just keeps that pressure on you. And he knew Aldo was fading right out. And I'll tell you, Aldo looked good in that first round.

71:55Yeah, I thought he was going to start picking it up like almost the Aldo of old with the leg kicks. Just leg kick, leg kick, leg kick. He should have. He should have gone. His strategy should have been almost entirely leg kick centered. Right. And he was trying to catch him. And he caught him with a couple of good punches. But all of his punches are sprints, right? And if he doesn't knock you out with those sprints, he only has so many of those in the gas tank. You're fighting the guy that can do it for a marathon. And he can. And Max Holloway can. He is so well conditioned and so aware of his ability and not stretching himself. So when they got to the third, he started slugging it out with Aldo at the very beginning of the third. He's like, I know this guy's tired. He goes, I'm going to make him sprint with me. And you could see, like, as the beginning of the third round played out,

72:40Aldo was swinging wild at him. And I was watching this. I was like, this is not conservative. Like, he's not conserving his energy at all. What he's doing is trying to take Max Holloway out with one shot. And he's blowing out his entire wad doing this. And then you saw Holloway just coming out, coming on, coming on, just bang, bang, bang, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And Aldo's trying to move his head. And he's using all his head movement. But he never gets a break. Yeah, it's an incredible pace that Holloway has. Incredible. He doesn't give you any space. You don't get any rest. There's no laying back with Holloway. Max Holloway is on you, on you, on you. I love what he said about fighting Aldo in Rio, too. He goes, that's what kings do. He goes, they go to the other person's village and they take their crown. I was like, ooh. That's right. That's what they do. That's what he did. He's the baddest motherfucker.

73:34I think he's the best 145 or ever. I mean, he might not agree with it yet because of the record, which I see his point. But the way he fights, the octagon IQ that he shows, his fight IQ, his ability to find a weakness and to see it, his predatory behavior inside the octagon, I think he's the best. I really do. I just think it's so impressive to me that he's not like Aldo in his prime was spectacular and amazingly impressive. Like his flying knee first round knockout of Cub Swanson, the knockout of Chad Mendes. I mean, he's the Uriah Faber fight where he brutalized Uriah's leg. I mean, he's unquestionably one of the greats of all time. But in my opinion, skill-wise, Max Holloway has now surpassed him. I think he's the best. Yeah. What are your takes? Or who do you have for the Bellator heavyweight tournament? I'm fucking very curious about that.

74:30First of all, I thought it was really interesting they decided to go with Mitrione versus Roy Nelson right out of the gate. Rematch, yeah. I thought that was interesting because, first of all, Mitrione just knocked out Fedor, right? Wouldn't you, like, want to see that again? Like, does Fedor want to see that again? Because Mitrione's fighting Frank Mir. I do not know what kind of testing that Bellator is employing, but I hope it's Wild West-style testing. I hope they pee in a cup, hold it up to the light, and if nothing's swimming in it, they go, you're good. Let them roll. Yeah, I'm kind of campaigning right now to be the alternate, so I would love, love, love to be the alternate in the tournament. What is your ranking in the Bellator heavyweight division right now? Do they have one? I'm not sure that they really have an official one, but I think if I'm not in there for this as the alternate,

75:18I think that I'll be one of the first title defenses. Interesting. That's what I'll be hoping for, and I'll stay active. I'm going to fight. Hopefully I'll pick it up to two, three fights a year. And King Moe is in the heavyweight tournament with Ryan Bader, who's the light heavyweight champion. That's going to happen in May. It's Chael versus Rampage in January. Then it's the Roy Nelson and Matt Mitrione in February. And then they have the Fedor versus Frank Mir in April. So they're going to take a break in March. The only thing I don't like about this is it locks everybody up for a long-ass time. I would like it if that was all on two shows or maybe even one crazy card. Have all the fights on one card. I think Mir has to wait until April. Why is that? For his contract? I think it's the testing that he had in the UFC. Don't test him, Bellator. Don't do it.

76:12So I think he's suspended until April, and then he can fight. And so, but that fight, I think probably a lot of fans 10 years ago, but now too, are going to be really excited to see Mir versus Fedor, you know, two kind of legendary champions. And then, I don't know why the Bader won and King Moe won all the way back in May. Well, King Moe's had some pretty significant injuries that he's had to deal with. Okay. And Bader just fought recently, so maybe he needed some time too. Yeah. But yeah, maybe it's the injuries with Moe. But man, I'm excited. So I'm just training and ready to jump in. I'm actually getting to go climb Mount Kilimanjaro maybe. Well, actually, I'm deciding on it this next week to see if I can cement the alternate position or not. To me, the big one is Rory McDonald, Douglas Lima. That's the big one. Yeah. That's the big one. That's the big one. That's going to be big.

77:05That's the one I'm like, okay. Okay. Because I feel like when it comes to the welterweight division, Bellator has two guys in Lima and in – see, the Lima thing, the only thing that stands out in the Lima thing is Ben Askren. It was Ben Askren, and it was a long time ago, no doubt about it. But Ben Askren just had his way with Lima and had his way with Koroskov, had his way with all these guys. That, to me – and Ben's coming on the podcast next month. We got him scheduled before or after – I forget which one – the event out here, the Bellator event. But I feel like that is – I mean, now that he's retired, that is my biggest regret that he didn't get in MMA, that he didn't get into the UFC. UFC. My biggest regret. Yeah, I wish they could have worked that out, whatever it was. Fuck. I wanted to see what would happen. Yeah. You want to see what happens with him and Tyron Woodley.

77:57You want to see what happens with him and world-class wrestlers who are also knockout artists. You want to see what happens with him and the elite of the elite at 170 in the octagon. And for whatever reason, and I'm sure he'll tell us, and I'm sure he'll be very outspoken. Yeah. I wonder if it's the whole style thing. I mean, like the hardcore fans – I think the most of it. Yeah, hardcore fans love it. But then it's almost like – I won't use his name, but I know a fighter that fought in the upper weight classes in the UFC, you know, nine or ten wins and only two losses and gets cut. And so it's almost like, you know, you've got to be in it. Who's that? Jared Rochelt. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, great guy. Awesome training partner. Great fighter. He had some fun fights. Why did he get cut? It was after just – he had an early loss in the UFC and then he went on a tear.

78:44And then he had another loss and they cut him. One loss. Yeah. That seems crazy. So I think he had like eight, nine or ten wins and only two losses there. And then so it was after one loss and he was gone. So I believe it was because of the style. The style. Yeah, man. That style's legitimate though. The problem is you can't decide that you need things to be exciting. You need things – your sport is things being effective. The whole idea is like here you go. You got a guy like Francis Ngannou who can knock anybody's head into another dimension, right? Well, what happens if Francis Ngannou gets smothered by some Rulon Gardner type character? Yeah, the Rochel. Yeah. Some giant dude who grabs a hold of him, drags him to the ground and fucking hammer fists him for three, five rounds. Yeah. You know, like don't you want to see that? I want to see that. I want to know that this kind of guy can be immobilized.

79:42Right. That he can be neutralized. And we've seen Ben Askren do that. Yeah. To really – like Korshkov and Lima. Two fucking straight up assassins, right? Right. We've seen him do that. So I wanted to see him try to fight like some of the elite of the elite because I think that style is critical. The wrestling style is the hardest style to deal with if you can't compete with a wrestler. That's why I've always said if you had like a pyramid of all the techniques in martial arts, like what would be the most important? I think wrestling because the ability to dictate where the fight takes place. And by wrestling, I include takedown defense, which is obviously a wrestling skill. But wrestling, the ability to dictate where the fight takes place is fucking critical. And if you could take the guy down, having the ability to take a guy down is giant. You're on top of him. You're smothering him.

80:31He's got to carry your weight. It's exhausting. You're beating him up while he's down there. It's just – it's a giant factor. You know, obviously every fight starts standing up. But when a good striker is fighting a good wrestler, they're fucking always worried to let anything go. Right. As soon as they tee off on something, woo, the double's on them and then they're on their ass. So I think that a guy who has been proven to be one of the most difficult wrestlers to deal with, to not have him fight in the octagon is a tragedy. It's a fucking real bummer, man. Yeah, it is. And I wonder how many wrestlers out there are looking at Ngannou and going, I wonder. I wonder what would happen if you take that guy down. Yeah, no, I mean, even me being in the same weight class, I mean, that's – my wife was asking, who would you be more terrified to fight before the fight? You know, with Alistair.

81:21How much do you weigh right now? 262. We can get you down 205. Get you going, Keough. Yeah, but when Overeem and him were facing off, she's like, which one would you prefer to fight? And I was like, I think Ngannou. I think Francis. Really? Yeah, I think so. Well, this was before he sent Alistair into orbit. But because you take him down, take him down, and then it's your game, hopefully. He's apparently so strong. With Alistair so seasoned and everything else. Right. And he does have some takedown defense, and he does have some submissions. So I've just seen him be more well-rounded. Mm-hmm. And so – but that was before. Right. Obviously, before. Yeah, obviously. Yeah, I would have talked to you before that, and I would have said, no. No. Because my thought before the fight when I talked to Shob, Shob and I would talk on the phone. He said, what do you think is going to happen?

82:04And I think Alistair doesn't make it out of the first round. I think we went over all the times Alistair's been stopped. Ah, that's a big factor. It was a big factor. Yeah. Is it more than 10 times? Yes. More than 10 times in MMA. I think it was – what was it, like 12 times in MMA? 13 times in MMA? And then three or four times in kickboxing as well? What's that analogy? Is there any truth to it? It's almost like a peanut butter jar or something. The first time you open it, you've got to get out a towel and put over it and try really hard to open that lid. And then after that, it's a little easier. And then it's a little easier until eventually you do it enough and you can just spin it off, just flick it. You know? Yeah. Well, he's in the flick it stage. Yeah. But it doesn't matter. That punch would have knocked him out when he was 20. Oh, yeah. That would have knocked anyone out. Yeah. Any human being.

82:46That punch was insane. Contour. Roy Nelson. Either of those guys. And the way he threw it, it was like a leg from the thigh and then whipping that arm with the whole body behind it. Just full torque. I mean, it had everything. It had all the power. I was a little skeptical of the – well, it was probably from listening to Brendan, but talk about the punching power. Well, who else? Has Mark Hunt hit it? And has Crow Cop kicked it? And everything else? And then all of a sudden, once you see that punch, you're like, he's sealed the deal. Dude, I've shook homeboy's hand. And it's like holding hands with a fucking cinder block. Let's see that again. Boom. See how he comes up from the thigh and the arm whips up? Look at this. Wham! Oh, man. Oh, my goodness. And as he's punching, he's moving in position to punch a second time. Then he hammer fists him while he's out. Boom. Thank goodness he got in there.

83:43Yeah, he certainly – I mean, the referee got in as quick as he could, but he certainly could have not hit him while he was down. He was out cold. What were you going to say? Who got knocked out with a bunch of the elbows? Didn't there, like, seven, eight extra elbows at the end before the ref stepped in? In this past weekend? Yeah, yeah. Do you remember what I'm talking about? I was going to say Gary Goodridge. They weren't, like, extra, extra elbows, but, like, it was, like, ah, man, probably should have stopped that early. Pull up the card. I'm trying to remember. Sorry. Try to figure out who it was. Paul Felder? Yes. Felder beat the shit out of him. Yeah. That was an interesting fight because what played out is exactly what I thought. I was, like, Oliveira is really dangerous with his grappling. His grappling is phenomenal. He has submitted.

84:32I think he's tied with Hoist Gracie for submitting the most guys in the UFC, which is, how badass is Hoist Gracie? All these years later. All these years he has the record. He still got the record. That's awesome. You know, pretty goddamn significant. Yeah. But he smashed him with that one shot and then he tapped. He's got such great elbows, man. Yeah. He tapped. That's right. That's what happened. No one saw the tap. Yeah. And Felder just smashed him. Well, Felder's an enormous 55. Felder walks around somewhere in the 185-pound range and then Giants down to 55. Yeah, he tapped, but the referee didn't see it. One, two, three, four, five, oof. Yeah. Six. Yikes. Should have tapped a little harder than that. Yeah. You got to let. Don't. I mean, that's like a humble tap. Like, yeah. You got to. You got to tap. Like, okay, we're done here. Yeah. You can't tap. Paul didn't even realize he tapped. You can't be reluctant.

85:26You can't have a reluctant tap. It's got to be like, but guys don't want to tap. You know, I'm kind of tapping. Mm-hmm. You know, you've seen fights where. Almost like Ioana, right? Guys said they tapped, but they didn't. Yeah. Yeah, the Ioana thing, she still says she didn't tap. Yeah. But she definitely did. Mm-hmm. She probably doesn't realize she tapped because she was in dreamland. You know, I mean, she got hit so hard and got dropped. But guys have tapped, said they didn't tap. Remember Murillo Bustamante and Matt Lindland? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. They restarted the fight. Matt Lindland got caught in an arm bar, clearly tapped. Yeah. And Big John McCarthy separated them, was declaring Bustamante the winner. Lindland said, I didn't tap. I was moving around. I was moving around. I wasn't tap. Okay. Okay. And then Bustamante, you can tell he's like, what in the fuck? Are you serious?

86:15And then they make him go back at it again. And then he catches him in a guillotine the next round. Yeah. I mean, I started in 2005 or 2006 fighting. And I remember a lot of wrestlers talking about wrestler tricks as if someone, if you go for the double leg and you start getting a takedown, you know, tap. Here it is. Watch. That's. Well, I don't know. Hold on. Let me watch that again. Let me watch that again. Play it right there. Yeah. That looks like he's tapping. But then he says he's not. Hmm. It seems like he wanted to tap, but he didn't. Hmm. Let me see it again. I'm less convinced now. Watch this again. Here it is. He's got the arm. Turns him over. Yeah. That's a tap. Yeah. That's a fucking tap. Yeah. And then he said he didn't. So I know a lot of wrestlers would talk about if, you know, you get in a guillotine, try to see where the ref is, and then you can tap on the other side. Do you remember Chael did that?

87:13Oh, yeah. Chael did that with Paulo Filio in WEC. That's right. And then they fought again. The second time they fought. Two team quest guys. Filio didn't make weight. And now he catches him with the guillotine. This is it right here. Old school Carlson Gracie style, son. Yeah. I mean, Bostamante was a wizard back then. A lot of people forgot how good he was. At the top of his game, man, he was one of the fuck. That's a tap right there. He was one of the fucking best. Such a good jiu-jitsu guy and really good boxing, too. But Paulo Filio went crazy. Remember? He was kind of like the second time they fought, he missed weight. So Sonnen should rightly, by all accounts, really be the, he should have been the WEC 185-pound champion. But he never, he never got that title. Because Filio didn't make the weight. And then they had some real weird fight where, like, Filio was saying, just do my friend.

88:13Come to the ground with me. He's like, can't do that. Sorry. And he said he was talking to him. Like, you know, remember when, Paulo had like a kind of a bit of a breakdown, right? Yeah. Got a Mike Tyson tattoo on his face and was acting a little weird. He kind of just disappeared. Yeah. Man, he was a beast, man. He was. He was a monster. At one point in time, yeah, he was submitting everybody. He was so good. And he submitted a bunch of people, at least one or two people in pride, I believe. But yeah, he was another guy. He was a Carlson Gracie guy as well, right? I believe so. Yeah, world-class jiu-jitsu guy who's just a little pit bull of a man. Yeah. Yeah. Like the pre-Paul Harris. What do you think about what Risen is doing now? You know, Risen is trying to kind of bring back the pride days. I miss the pride days. Me too. Right? Yeah, a lot. So I support it. Yeah. I hope they do it well.

89:05They're doing a lot of freak shows, too. Like they had, wasn't Risen Gabby Garcia versus some maid? The old lady. Yeah. The grandma. Well, she's had a couple fights over there. Yeah. There's one she literally fought a grandma. Yeah. Not just joking around like she was a grandmother. A grandma with a bad knee, remember? Yeah. Grandma had a knee brace on. No. You can see like once it started, it was like they put her up to that. She didn't want to be in there. Why would they put her up to that? I have no clue. Maybe they can't find anyone to fight Gabby. I'm sure they can't. Yeah. But it's almost like I'd rather not see that fight happen, though. For people who don't know, Gabby Garcia is probably 225 pounds. And jacked. Yeah. I mean. She would be my training partner. Yes. Like legitimately. Legitimately. Yeah. I'm 6'3", 262. She'd be my training partner. Yeah. Crazy. She'd be. I think she's taller than you.

89:54Oh, she probably is. She's a gorilla. So big. So finding a female competitor to compete with her. Good luck. Yeah. Well, whenever they were always talking about the Rousey could beat guys in her division and different stuff like that, you would almost think they have to have no other options to where Gabby's going to have to fight a guy someday. I know, right? Maybe like a 185 or something like that. But yeah. Yeah. Look at the size of her. Oh, my goodness. It's so insane. And this is her versus a little girl in kickboxing. This is a kickboxing fight. Oh, my God. She's so. Oh, it's MMA. What are those gloves? Maybe the smaller one didn't want to fight her in MMA gloves because she'd take too much of a beating. They do look like boxing gloves, don't they? Yeah. I think this is a kickboxing fight. I think that's why they stopped the fight after that takedown attempt. Right? Because they got back up to their feet.

90:43This is a kickboxing fight. Maybe it's an MMA fighter, though, doing it. Ooh. Yeah. She's getting battered. I'm just getting hit by tree trunks. It's so crazy. When she fought grandma, that was a. Yeah. I was sad for the woman that had to be. Had to go out there. This is in Brazil versus Megumi Yabushita. Japan. Brutal knockout. Illegal soccer kick. Okay. I don't want to watch this. Here it is. Oh, Jesus Christ. Illegal soccer kick. That's a good night. Yeah. When you're 100 pounds bigger than someone, please don't soccer kick them when they're down illegally. That just seems like. Logical. Adding insult to injury. So what else is coming up next that you're excited about? Is Paul Daly fighting Semtex? I mean, Semtex fighting Michael Venom Page? They want to. I know that Semtex is going after that, going after that, going after that. But I don't think it's finalized. Is Michael Page into the fight?

91:37Does he want to have that fight? I think he's a little more on the fence about it. I think Daly is like campaigning for it. At least the last I heard. I love shit talking with a British accent. Yeah. It's one of my favorite things. Yeah. Anything with a British accent. Especially from Daly. You know, like you look at him, this muscular animal. He's such a fucking psycho. Dude. And then what a fucking left hand that guy's got. Josh. When he stopped Lorenz Larkin, I was like, whoa, that's for real. Yeah. That'll be really exciting to see if it happens. Yeah. He's even Venom Page with that flying knee. Mm-hmm. Oh, with the sideboard one? The shadow of the face, yeah. Jesus Christ. I've never seen anything like that in my life. Yeah. I think it's the right fight to do. So hopefully Venom Page is. And I don't think he's. I don't know. Maybe it's other details they need to work out to make it happen.

92:22But it seems like Daly's the one that's been campaigning for it. And Michael Venom Page hasn't yet. Yeah. Because after Rory McDonald beat Daly, Daly was immediately saying he wanted to fight Page. Right. It wasn't like saying, like, I didn't really want to fight Rory, fuck this fight. He's like immediately going after that. He didn't want to rematch with Rory. He was just. Michael Venom Page and him have some serious bad blood. Yeah. Makes it exciting. Really exciting, man. Yeah. I don't know. Here we go. After boxing debut win, who's Paul Daly? Oh, yeah. That's what he's doing. He had a boxing match. Who's Paul Daly? That's funny. Who the fuck is that guy? Which is probably one of the most brilliant lines. No, everyone else can copy. That's amazing. Yeah. The timing. The timing of that when Jeremy Stevens yelled that out. Yeah. Venom Page looked amazing in his boxing match.

93:12It's like you're hearing all this shit now about Conor possibly fighting Paulie Malignaggi. In an MMA fight? In an MMA fight? No. Boxing match in a cage. That was the latest. Like a boxing match in the octagon. Listen, the WME crew, the people who own the UFC now, I think they're willing to put on whatever fight's going to bring in the most shekels. That's what they've got to do now. But now they've got a star. I think Ngannou, one or two more fights you're going to be looking at Mike Tyson days. That's what I think. I think Ngannou's going to be like, you're going to watch fights just to see how long these motherfuckers can survive against that guy. That's what I think. And I think that could be their big breakout star. Conor, who knows if he's ever going to fight again? I mean, we really don't know. We haven't heard Conor saying, you know, this is my plan. This is who I'm thinking about fighting.

94:06This is who I want to fight. He's been talking shit to Max Holloway. He's been talking shit to Tony Ferguson. But he's not said, like, set it up. So. Did you know what Francis was really talking about whenever he was talking about the slaves? Yes. Those happened? Yes. That's so nuts. Yeah. We played that on the podcast. We showed a lot of that stuff that's going on in Libya. They had open slave auctions and people filmed it and put it on YouTube in 2017. 2017. Yeah. I know multiple people from Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo that were, they were lured into some of these countries like there. And they would go there thinking that they were going to have a job opportunity and that they would be working at this place or that place or whatever. And you, you start here and you work your way up and, but automatically you're going to be making more than you've ever made in a year every week.

94:55And so they go there thinking that they're going to be able to have a new job, send back a bunch of money to their family. Then all of a sudden they get there, they take all their documents away from them to where they can't travel. They can't escape. If they do, they don't speak the language. Um, and then they throw them into someone's house and they're literally their slave. Um, and they were lured there. Now all of a sudden you're a slave. Um, and how long are they keeping them there for? They'll keep them there forever. But then some of these families that are able to, some of these people that are able to make contact with their families, they have to fundraise and come up with thousands and thousands of dollars. I'm talking like an African family that might make a dollar to a dollar 25 per day is now having to come up with three, four, five thousand, $10,000, uh, to try to buy them back to try

95:41to buy them back out of it. So, um, you know, there's more slavery today than any other time in human history. Yeah. So the lowest statistic is 27 million, but I think it's over 30 million. Just stop and think about it. Most people in America, if you get, you talk to them about slavery, they're like, Oh yeah, that ended in 1865. Nope. Nope. Not only did it not end, there's more today than ever, but until we saw the Libya, the YouTube video where you see the one guy saying he's a good, he can lift heavy things. He's a good digger. And you're like, what? And they were selling him for like 400 bucks, 600 bucks. Yeah. So the Mubuti Pygmies actually. So this is what the documentary is really covering. I cover a little bit of it in the book, but we've actually seen 1500 people. And that's what at the comedy store tonight, we'll play the short trailer for it.

96:28And it's going to talk about the slavery that's in there. There's 400 to 600,000 Mubuti Pygmies in the Congo, and basically all of them are enslaved currently right now. And so we've actually seen peaceful negotiations of 1500 people transition out of a life of slavery and into a life of freedom. And we're hoping that we can replicate that. And so how we're able to do it is we're able to work with the local state and national government on documents. And then also we're able to buy back the land from the slave master. So they benefit financially by having maybe more money than they've ever made from their slaves. And then there we get water for both sides. So the slave masters, it's a different context for slavery. There's a lot of places like Libya or different countries that they're really rich and they have a bunch of slaves. But in this context, it's a family owns a family in most cases.

97:21Some some own many families. But there I've attended the funerals of the slave masters kids. The slave master, the slave masters kids are dying of dirty water because they have zero access to it. And so whenever you can bring in because they're making a dollar, dollar twenty five a day on the film. There's going to be a beautiful part on the documentary. I don't want to ruin that part or something of the thunder. But it's man, there's a slave master crying on camera with us crying because of how much of a benefit it's been. The piece that's come from not having the slaves that he inherited from his father who inherited them from his grandfather, because it became a burden where they're making a dollar, dollar twenty five a day. They're spending on average. The average person in Congress being one hundred and eighty five dollars a year on treatment against water and borne disease.

98:08So on medicine, all stuff, they're spending half of their salary on water and borne disease. They're losing their kids because of it. And now they're making a dollar, dollar twenty five a day trying to take care of their own family. How are they supposed to take care of their slave family? And so they can give them just the scraps. And so whenever we get to come in there and say, hey, this land is rightfully the Mbuti Pygmies. They're the first citizens of of Congo. They're the first people here. They're the native Congolese. They don't you think they deserve some land? And so we kind of cast a vision, work together with them. It's all inclusive to where they get to share their concerns and questions and and they get to be part of it and say, we want this here. And so then all of a sudden, once that happens, we do the land purchases. It's all legal.

98:53And then and then we bring in water for both sides to where they both have clean water access to that, which changes everything. Whenever the slave master's wife is on average going three point seven five miles to go collect water. She can't do other things. Imagine that you're you own slaves and you have to walk three miles to get water, get water and or you're a slave master. And if you are fortunate enough that you your wife doesn't have to go collect water all day, one of your kids can't go to school because they have to go collect water all day. And so and when those jerry cans are full, 44 or sorry, 20 liters, 20 liters is 44 pounds when full. And a lot of times you do it with two, because if you're going to if you're not going to carry it on your head and if you're going to make the most of your time, that three point seven

99:40five mile walk, you're going to go with two jerry cans on that walk and then it'll balance you out almost like kettlebells. And so you get to 44 pound, almost kettlebells, but jerry cans of water that's moving. That's so hard to carry. And you walk that back. A hundred pounds. You're basically with a hundred pounds. Yeah. Yeah. Eighty eight pounds. And so to be able to alleviate person, you're not a big person. Some of them are girls that are, you know, teenagers and stuff. Imagine trying to get an American teenager to carry eighty eight pounds. I mean, I it hurts me going. Like literally I go on those, our team normally does the water walk in every new village that we go to. So probably 70 water walks. Now there might be one or two that we didn't do. But the first 13 we did when I was there and man, it's to understand, to put yourself

100:29literally in their shoes and go on that long walk and to have the sore neck from carrying it on your head or to have just your shoulders dying because you're walking back with 88 pounds. You're not doing, I mean, think about whenever we're doing those kettlebell walks. I mean, how many feet are we going? But go miles that way. Yeah. I put on one of those outdoorsman's vests. You know what those things are? Outdoorsman's pack that has a weight plate in the back. One of those posts for weight plates. I slide on a 45 pound plate and I hike the mountains with it. Just 45 pounds. Yeah. You go like that's how I weigh 200 pounds. Why? Why would 45 pounds be a lot? It's a fucking lot, man. It's a lot. So to think that these women are carrying double that and they're walking through the jungle. Yeah. Oh, man. And it's not funny, but I mean, they cracked up because they're so used to carrying this walk.

101:20But I'm going down this steep hill and it's on a little foot trail and it's muddy because it had been raining. Oops. And so I'm having this thing on my head and I fall on my back and the water just soaks me because all the water that we went and collected, I mean, half of it ended up on me and on the ground. Did you go back and get more water? No. Wow. No, because we were currently trying to drill the new well and we were getting pretty close to it. And so, but just slipping, falling while you're doing it, losing your balance. I sprained my knee one time on one of the water walks because you're carrying all this weight. You step in a hole and then all of a sudden you sprain your ankle, sprain your knee. Knee, different stuff like that. Listen, Justin Wren, you are doing the Lord's work. You're doing amazing stuff, man. And I'm so happy that we can help and I'm happy that we can help tonight.

102:04If you were thinking about coming to the show, you're shit out of luck. Sold out. It was sold out a long fucking time ago. So tonight will be Tom Segura, Tony Hinchcliffe, Whitney Cummings, Owen Smith, Tom Papa. Is that everybody? And me. Is that it? That's it. That's the show. Tonight, 930 at the Comedy Store and all the proceeds will be donated to Fight for the Forgotten. Wooah! Wooah! Ay-yo! Whatever he said. Oh yeah! Thank you, brother. I appreciate you, man.