Up On Game Presents Burn Factory Podcast Featuring Alex Perez Talks The Pressure Of Fighting

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to The Burn Factory Podcast with Priest and Phoenix Rivera.
Listen as the voice interview the biggest names in sports
and entertainment. The Burn Factory start Snow.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
What is up? Guys?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Welcome back to another episode of The Burn Factory Podcast.
I'm your host, Priest, drawn by my co host, my brother,
mister Phoenix say it's up to the camera.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Let's up, y'all.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
This is called the Burn Factory for a reason.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
I was literally caught on fire fifty percent chance to survive,
but through that started this podcast because I believe every
single person out there on this planet goes through a
burn moment somewhere in their life.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
You heard pre say a burn moment.

Speaker 5 (00:42):
So burn moment is a super hard time in your
life that you just have to fight and overcome to
ultimately get you where you are today. And me and
Priest believe that every single person on this earth goes
through little burn moments every single day that truly make
them who they are. But what an amazing guest we
have today. Priest our guests was an All American wrestler.
He was the Taichi Palace Flyweight Champion. He was on

(01:05):
the thirteenth season of Dana White's Contender Series, and he
is now the number seven ranked flyweight in the world.
And he also has his own sie shop called Sie Republic.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
So please give a welcome to Alex Perros.

Speaker 6 (01:21):
Hey, guys, thank you guys for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Welcome to the factory. So it's true you got eight siblings. Yes,
thank gosh. I can imagine that.

Speaker 6 (01:34):
It was interesting, that's for sure. You know, there's four
of us, so it was four older, then there's like
a break, and then the five younger. So it was
it was a crazy time growing up. Never got my
room until I got into college. I always had to
share a room, you know, four bedroom house, so I
always had to share my two brothers. You know. Obviously
the girls have their own room. The oldest girl got

(01:55):
her own room because she was the oldest. But it
was definitely interesting. Never a dumb woman, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
They are.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
They all finders or so.

Speaker 6 (02:02):
Most of them wrestled, so all of them, I say,
besides one of them tried wrestling. One of them actually
went to school in Oregon. I believe she got scholarship
to wrestle. I didn't uh fulfill the you know, four
years she was like, oh, school is not for me
kind of thing. But uh, we all wrestled, we all
played sports growing up, did something my mom was always

(02:24):
big on, you know, uh, doing an activity, whether it's
a sport or just you know, joining a club or
something just for one just that's our way to get
to college, you know. So my mom was really big
on that, really pushed us to do something.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Extra very competitive family I could see.

Speaker 6 (02:40):
Yeah, so I'm the only one in my family that
didn't place at the state tournament. And when you walk
into my wrestling or wrestling room, I lean more high.
Like you walk in it says, wrestle like a champion. Today,
you walk in and then there's boards, right, you got
lead chants. But back when when we were in our heyday,
you're you're supposed to win the league title, like that's
a given, supposed to place that divisionals. Okay, that's a given.

(03:03):
Master's okay, a little bit harder. But the state tournament
in California, it's only one state champ. So out of
five six hundred schools, you only got one state champ.
So if you place in the top eight, you're, you know,
out of seven hundred kids, are the best eight kids
in the state, and uh, I was the only one
that didn't play. So every time we go into that
room or anytime there's a family argument about who's the
better wrestler, who's the better athlete, that always comes up.
That's the number one yeahs And I mean they just

(03:28):
me pull up this picture, you know, look at the
look at the wall and stuff, like a man.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Come on, that's interesting. So there's no divisions.

Speaker 6 (03:36):
The one detail so we have sections is like north, south, Central,
you know, like Central Coast, things like that. But it's
only one state champion and in wrestling, so one state champ.
So if you win the state title one California, you're
the best guy in California. Uh there's about seven hundred
high schools that have wrestling, so you're that guy. You know.

(03:56):
That's why California when we get recruited in college, if
you plays, you're gonna go. You can go D one
just because you're in the top eight. You're gonna go
D one. Because it's the hardest tournament to place at
state wise, because every other state has like a one eight, two,
eight three, you know, things like that, but California doesn't.
It's only one.

Speaker 5 (04:14):
Wow, that's crazy. Do they just take like the top
like sixty four and they go to the tournament.

Speaker 6 (04:19):
So you have to go through the league tournament, you
qualify for your division, and now you go divisionals to Masters.
You get top before when I was wrestling, was top
six and then you and then you rest with the
state tournament. Before it was a forty eight man bracket
as a sixty four man bracket, so you have to
be the best of the best. The northern sections kind
of like like if you have like a Northern section guy,

(04:40):
like you kind of like okay, laugh, like okay, that's
the easiest section, Like, oh, thank god, you know, but
it's random. Uh, they literally put they separate the top
eight guys in the state, like you get ranked every week,
they separate them and then it's random, so you can
I can be wrestling the one guy in the state
were off the back, or you never really know. So
it's definitely interesting, but it's definitely fun to wrestling California.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
What section would you say the hardest?

Speaker 6 (05:03):
Was? A central section is the best section? Even to
this day, we have a Buchanan right now. My buddy
Nick Contrazi actually coaches there. I think they've won six
or seven state titles in a row. Hard ranked in
the probably top ten in the country. They're probably top five.
You got Clovis, they're ranked in the top ten. You
got Bakersfield have always been the top fifteen. Like my

(05:23):
section is if you rest if you're in the Central
Valley and you wrestle there, you make it to the
state tournament. Like you're wrestling the best guys in the state.
It would be funny because you have guys that wrestle
League Division's Master State all in the same two guys
in the finals every week. Because two best guys in
the state tournament or in the country, you're wrestling each other.
So it would be like this guy's like seven and
seven and zero against this guy going to the state tournament.

(05:45):
You know, it'd be like two to one, three two,
like one point matches. So it's definitely a very competitive section.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
During the state like championship runs. How many times would
you fight in a day?

Speaker 6 (05:55):
So in high school union can wrestle up to like
I believe it was four times a day, so they
were split it up. So you have so like you
have buys and stuff like that, you only can wrestle
for four and then the next day you have another
three to four depending on where you're at in the tournament.
So it just all depends in high school and cif
so in section like high school and stuff as that.

(06:18):
But like if you wrestle like freestyle Greco, I remember
wrestling Freestyle and Greco and I frost out of state tournament,
like going like twelve and two and not even placing
a tournament because so many guys are showing up. It's
just intense. So California wrestling is definitely definitely.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
Where it's at. So Alex on this podcast, we used
to acting in Burns. So each letter is kind of
a different time in your life. And you touched on
having eight siblings grow up, so B stands for beginning,
So kind of take us back to your childhood.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
What was that like?

Speaker 6 (06:47):
Childhood was great, you know, I mean my mom, my mom,
there's nine of us all together. My stepdad, he was
working in the fields and stuff like that. So I
definitely got a lot of like their values in me
because they worked hard, you know what I mean, Like
I had a lot more than other kids had. And
there's nine of us. I mean you're talking about like
I like I got Marrigan iPod back in the day.

(07:08):
I remember getting nice shoes, nice clothes, Like we're getting
a lot from my mom and my stepdad. I really
sacrificed a lot to get get is there? So like
it was fun. I had a great time. You know,
obviously there's challenges here and there, just like everything. I
hated school, that's for sure. I wasn't the biggest school guy.
But my mom is really big on school. And she
I mean, you get a seeing classman, shear whip us

(07:29):
so bad. I mean, my mom's a lot nicer now
she's gotten older to my sisters. But my mom was
very really really strict. And it's crazy because my neighbors
are my labors are some of my best friends. Still
talk to them to this day. And they actually told
me the other day like, hey, man, like I wish
my parents were a little bit harder like your mom,
because man, look at all you guys, like all of
us are very successful. My brother is a cop in

(07:51):
Long Beach. My little brother's a decent mechanic. My brother
both owned their houses. I'm just buying my house. My
sisters graduated college, you know, has degrees. My little sisters
all very successful in life, and my friends are like, man,
I wish my mom. My mom and dad were a
little bit stricter like your parents, you know, so I
got really really you know, at first, I hated it.
Like my mom was an mmie all day every day
school you came home. I mean we were up at

(08:13):
six in the morning. It was like military. You're up
five six in the morning, we're cleaning the house and
you're getting ready, you're walking to school. We're walking to school,
you're doing your school work, you're resting. Came home, homework's done.
And then on top of wrestling, we had to like
we're I come from a really really like prestige wrestling culture,
like a lean Moore. We're probably top ten in the state,
top five in the state for like at that point,

(08:34):
like ten twelve years in a row. So we were
hard to wrestling. So we had to do a homework,
still get our extra runs in, still get our extra lifts,
extra practices in. So my mom was very honest, and
her biggest thing was, I don't care if you're a varsity.
I don't care if you if you placed or now.
It was mostly about just getting us to school. She's like,
you guys are going to be the first ones to
graduate from school. And my older brother said, a really

(08:56):
good example. He graduated from high school, graduated from college,
got his master's, you know what I mean. So, uh,
my childhood was really really crazy, just because siblings. We
always I give this, We always fought. You know, we wrestled.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
We know about that, so uh.

Speaker 6 (09:11):
It was crazy. At one point in time, my older brother,
me and my little brother were on the same wrestling team,
like all varsity, and my mom was just like, no,
you guys can't practice because we'll go at it because
I hate losing, you know what I mean. I and
our room was stacked with killers at that time, you know. Uh,
it was just it was just in the tense room
and my mom like, you guys can't wrestle each other

(09:32):
because we will go at it. Our mimbror of coach.
I mean, you can't do this nowadays, but our coach,
like anyone's leaving practice until you guys are freaking someone's
on the mat crying and we're there trying to club
each other, make each other cry, locked the doors to
the restroom, Like now we're running, running for two and
half hours, like we're gonna we're gonna change this culture
around you. Guys are practicing too soft now. I'm like, man,
so yeah, I'm telling you my my childhood was fun.

(09:55):
You know. I got into some trouble but uh here
and there, but my mom did definitely straightening me out afterwards.
You know, you know, I was uh, you know, growing up,
I was a little bit smaller, so I always had
like a chip on my shoulder. I was always the
best athlete either, so I always had to work harder
and I always help people. To day, I'm not the
best athlete, that's for sure. Even to the day, I'm

(10:17):
not the best athlete, but I'll work anybody. I'm practicing
two three times a day, trying to get everything right.
I'm doing my extra runs. You know, I'm doing everything
I need to do to be better. And I know
if I go into a fight or back then in
the wrestling match, it wasn't because the lack of effort
or just because you're just better than me at that
point time. And I was I'm okay with that. I
was never okay with not giving it my awe and

(10:39):
and man, like I said, my mom and my stepdad
definitely showed me that because for working in the fields.
You know, I may watching him work. We I went
out to work with him a couple of times, like now,
I don't know he do his day in the day.
I was like, well, someone got to feed you guys, right,
He's like, well, that's true. So he's out there climbing
on trees, apples, peaches, you know, picking grapes. We're doing
a guard like at some point the time, you know,

(11:00):
we're doing things like that, and just seeing that kind
of man brought it to me like I did not want.
This is not the life I want for myself, you know.
So it kind of made me work a lot harder
and uh be a lot more disciplined, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Your parents are definitely a good burn moment for you.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
Oh yeah, man, my mom still gives me some burn moments.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
But growing up in that household, it just gives you
that blue collar work ethic to just never stop what
you're doing and always give you a whole one thousand
every single rep.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (11:27):
Like my like my said, like my mom was a
big inspiration, you know what I mean, like just doing
what she did for us, you know, like she's she's
a homeowner stuff like that first one and I like
in the family, like bought her house and stuff like that.
So she did set an example. And uh, I always
like listening to Inky Johnson, you know, it's always about
like always talks about like saying the example for the

(11:48):
next generation up. And she set the temple. She she
sent the temple for us, Like, hey, like I didn't
like she went to school and stuff, but she didn't
you know, obviously go to get her bachelor matter and
stuff like that. And it's like, hey, this is why
I did. Like, you guys gotta be than me. And
my older brother set the temple real high because graduated
high school, went to San Francisco State, graduated there, left
Orange County, became a cop, went back to school, got

(12:09):
his master's you know what I mean. And I'm like, dang,
like for me, like I didn't go I didn't finish school,
but I'm successful in the UFC and fighting and obviously
start my own business. My little brother went to school,
he had like two degrees, and he's like, I'm gonna
be a Deesel mechanic, you know. So he's a Deesel mechanic,
has his house things like that, so we set the
bar high for each other and you know, all the
all the stuff we make fun of each other for,

(12:30):
but we always pretty much put each other in check
and make sure that we're doing everything we're supposed to
be doing. And my big thing about my family, they're
not scared to check me or check We're not scared
to check each other if we're messing up.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, that's good to have.

Speaker 5 (12:42):
But back to your older brothers said in the bar High,
did you feel any pressure kind of growing up to
kind of live up the kind.

Speaker 6 (12:48):
Of because like I said, my brother is like our
brother is one of those guys that, like he said,
the bar high. And I'm competitive. I don't care what
it is. It can be checkers, man, I'm trying to
beat you, TikTok tell. I'm trying to win. So I'm
trying to at the temple high. So I'm trying to
always catch up to him, you know, like he and
this guy, I mean, he lives in Huntington Beach, has
a nice house, has a nice car. You know, he
travels the world. He did you know, he does all that.

(13:10):
So like eventually I want to get to that point
where I can start doing all that more frequently, you know,
so he's definitely set the temple high. It's definitely a
little bit of pressure, you know what I mean, because
I'm the second oldest, it's a little bit of pressure.
But uh, you know that's what that's what I's hearing about.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
What age did you get into mixed martial arts from wrestling?

Speaker 6 (13:29):
So? I So I started wrestling when I was in
about fifth grade, sixth grade. Diminitely take it serious. When
they told me wrestling, I was like, man, where's the ladder,
whe's the chair? Yeah, where's the chair is?

Speaker 3 (13:40):
At? Man?

Speaker 6 (13:40):
And I started about like fifth sixth grade, and I
was like a naturalide. It was like I think we
practiced for like two weeks. Went for my first tournament.
I took second, and I you know, I wish now
I would have had the work ethic I had now
then when I head back then when I first started,
just so simple for me. It's like kind of doing it.
So I started then and then highest junior, hig high
school and then so I didn't end up. I didn't

(14:03):
place at the state tournament. I didn't get no college offers.
You know, I got a couple of ones, but I
was like, man, I didn't want to go there, so
I was like, I'm just I want to try fighting.
What's the worst that happens here?

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Man?

Speaker 6 (14:12):
I wanted to try that as a hobby. So when
I was eighteen, I threw my first puntitting pads and
it was cool. I mean it was cool, and I
was like, I'm going to try this a little bit more.
And I made a deal with he's now he's not
a manager, but my buddy Jeremy Luca. He's like, hey,
I'll help you get fights, but you have to go
to school. So I was like all right. So I

(14:33):
ended up going to Junior College West Hills le More
and I started going to school and he started having
me train with with the team in the town it's
called Tiamachoa. Started training with them and kind of took
off from there. I honestly just wanted to try it
as a hobby because I don't want to be like
forty years old, like, man, man, I can beat these
little guys. You know, these guys up, Yeah, this ain't nothing.

(14:54):
So I tried it as a hobby and then man,
twelve years later, I'm still doing it.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:59):
What was kind of the time that it just like clicked.
You're like, you know what, I can be a world
champion one day.

Speaker 6 (15:04):
For me, it was it wasn't really about being a
world champ. It was being the first guy for my
town to get to the UFC, because, uh so, around
my area we have Fresno, we had Coles Cavito, we
had uh LeVar Johnson, and we had other guys to
be a belter shrike for us back in the day.
And then you had like Hamford had tam Ends. Then

(15:24):
you had uh Vycelle. You had Cody Gibson, he's an
Ultimate Fighter right now. And then you have he was
in the UFC now he's back on the Ultimate Fighter.
And then you have Marion she was in the UFC,
and you have beltro fighters. Then you had Joe Soto.
But no one from my town was in the UFC yet.
And I wanted to be the example that kind of
show guys from my town because I see even to
this day when I go home, is that people don't leave.

(15:45):
I always tell people like Lee Moore is not the
world man, like leave, go explore, like go to college.
Some wrestlers door scared to go. Some of the kids
get college offers, like in Kansas or something right, like
I don't want to go. I'm like, dude, go worst
causeing there you come home, right, there's a Dunam College here,
but go explore the world. Le More, isn't it. And
I wanted to kind of be the example to show
people like, hey, just from being in a small town

(16:05):
doesn't mean you can't do things. And I've been blessed
that I've been able to travel the world for free,
watch people fight, do what I'm doing, you know, doing
things like this, like we're back in the day when
I first started this. This is you know, this is
all like things that you work for and I just
want to be that guy that to kind of show
the younger generation like you can do it. I mean,
I'm still the only person that has come out of

(16:26):
there to be in the UFC, but I hope other
people take the risks, you know. I mean I bet
on myself and you know I gambled on myself.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Not too me.

Speaker 6 (16:34):
People are willing to do that, and uh and it
has worked out for me.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
Think about all the people you did influence too, and
lamar right now, like I'm watching Alex Prez growing up.
I want to become a UFC fighter one day too,
and they're trying to make it one day.

Speaker 6 (16:47):
Yeah, you know, like I said, I always go back
to my restling room. I was going there and wrestle
those guys stuff like that, And I was just telling them,
you know, I use this as as like a pedestal
to get you, get you just to the next level,
like school is not for everybody. Like people I have guys, well,
I don't like school. I don't like this. I'm like, dude,
like I'll just want to wrestle be this. I'm like, dude,

(17:08):
use wrestling to get your education to go to bigger things.
Like I wish I can go back and finish college.
That's the one thing I tell you anytime I talk
to anybody, it's like, I wish I can go back
and finished you finish school, just because it's always a
backup plan, you know what I mean. Like my thank god,
my plan A has worked, you know what I mean.
But if it wasn't for if it didn't work out,
what I'd be doing, you know, Like I don't know
what I would be doing, honestly. So I'm just grateful

(17:30):
and happy that it's worked out. But I always tell
kids all the time, like, you guys need to go
to school. You guys need to finish it. You guys
need to set the table for your family, you know,
for your little brothers and sisters. It might not be
your older brother, you might be the second third oldest
going to school, but you can still show the younger
or the older guys in your family, like, hey, it's
not too late to go back to school. So I'm
always trying to always encourage going to school.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
It's not too late for you. You could go back
and do something.

Speaker 6 (17:55):
I'm ready. I'm like a couple of classes away, but
I'm like, I'm ready a bit.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
I got my business is.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
Going yeah you know, I mean speaking of business ie republic, Yeah,
got that going this Uh in October would be be
a year.

Speaker 6 (18:09):
Thanks man, Thanks.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 6 (18:12):
My goal is by the time I'm forty to retire.
Who knows if that really happens or not, but that's
the goal I set for myself. I own a couple
of these for the next two to three years, and uh,
you'll go from there. I always tell people, I don't
got to be a millionaire. Man's gona be able to
pay our bills. He's some Korean barbecue here and there.
I'm not happy. Yeah, man, I'm a foodie food man.

(18:32):
There's a reason why you know I'm this big one
twenty five.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (18:37):
All you can eat is my thing?

Speaker 4 (18:39):
What's your what's your favorite food? For sure?

Speaker 6 (18:41):
Korean Barkie? Like I go there everywhere, Barkie. Yeah that's
number one, number one. Yeah. I mean I like sushi, pizza, everything,
But Korean barbecues is my thing.

Speaker 4 (18:50):
No Chick filip.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
That's his, he loves.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
It'd be too expensive, man, I eat too much, especially
going there every single day. But Alex, what a crazy
beginning tier life. It's time to go to you and
burn unfortunate. I actually want to share a little unfortunate
experience for myself. So it's the last week of school.
I was in sixth grade. He was already out for summer,
and I just like you, I hated school and I

(19:19):
was just like, man, how come mom could just let
me be done with school already?

Speaker 4 (19:22):
But anyways, go to science class.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
Teacher says she's going to be doing a science experiment
that unfollows fire, sand, rubbing alcohol, and she's like, we
need to go outside to do this, So we all
get upside, get upside, and now does makes sense?

Speaker 4 (19:35):
We get outside, go.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Sit down in a semi circle, you know, like a
horse shape, you circle. And she was trying to perform
this like fire black snake. It's this like charcoal snake
that's supposed to form wasn't working. And you never dump
rubbing alcohol into a flame because they can burst. So
she grabs a rubbing alcohol dumps it into the flame
and completely burst in my face. And I was immediately rushed,

(20:00):
I see you, And spent a week there and had
seven surgeries and a fifty percent chance to survive and
then kind of not kind of, but day three in
the hospital, that's where I found my bird moment is
whenever I'm a competitive golfer, and I had my parents
and my brother go give me my putter, and I
would put three balls into a glass jar over and

(20:24):
over and over again because I was feeling so down
on myself, like, oh my gosh, I literally might lose
my life because what burns is swelling is so bad,
and just use my bird moments for good in the hospital.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
And it was it was hard for me because like
that's my brother and you having so many siblings, like
there's a different, deeper level of love.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
And I'll never forget.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
I was actually golfing on the golf course and I
got the call and my Dad's like, yeah, uh, your
brother got burned and we're going to the hospital. And
I was like, oh, maybe it's like a hot glue
gun or maybe they're messing around with that. He was
like no, like it's it's bad, like they might flight
for life. And and I'll never forget. I had my
ball sitting right there, and I turned for the woods
and I swung as hard as I could, and ironically

(21:08):
it was the best shot of the entire day. But
it was just so hard to see that, and you
just got a questioning. You're like why, Like this is
my little brother, it's like twelve years old, and as
bad as it is, is like there's worst people out.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
There, Like why why couldn't happen to them?

Speaker 5 (21:21):
And uh So for you, like, were there any unfortunate
kind of burn moments that you've gone through in your life?

Speaker 6 (21:28):
Uh? Yeah, man, so like just growing up in general.
So you know, I think when I was younger, it
kind of kind of happened for me, not even fighting.
So within a three year span I ended up losing
my great grandma, where like I was with her all
the time, Like I almost flung school because I was
with her so much. She was in California, I was
living in Sparks. And then I say, maybe about a

(21:49):
year later, my little brother, one of my little brothers,
I he in there passing away, and I was the
first one to actually wait, like because my mom would
leave to work. The nanny would come and probably like
twenty minutes later, come in and she was Graham. She's like, hey,
like go check on your brother. Remember running to the
room and my brother was past. It was like stone cold,
and I was I was like in I was in
fifth grade, and I remember just seeing like what the

(22:09):
heck is going on? Like I'm trying to call nine
one one. The phone's not answering. I'm running to my
neighbor at the time, they lived across the street. We're
friends with them, and I remember knocking the door like hey,
nine's not answering, Like I don't know what to do,
like we're running crazy. And then within another year, my
great aunt ended up passing away. And that's the people
I like. I lived with my great aunt, my great grandma,
I live with them, So it was kind of crazy

(22:30):
just going through that, and I remember just being super
mad all the time, like dang, like you know, why
is this happening to them? You know what I mean?
Like obviously when I was young, I understand my grandmall
she's already older, you know what I mean, but still
my great grandma, And like I said, I lived with
there forever, So I was like kind of one of
those things. And I was like, man, just getting past
that was kind of the roughest part. And that's part
of the time where I started getting in trouble the most,

(22:51):
Like ended up moving from Sparks, Nevada to Hanford, California,
start moving there and going to the school Lincoln, and
then kind of just start going off through rails, you
know what I mean. Like, you know, I was kind
of mad, and everybody's excuse was like, you know, we're
going through everything, just seeing at a young age going
through all that stuff, and I remember just, uh, one day,
I was like, man, like what am I doing? Like

(23:13):
I've seen we're living on this it's called like the
South Side, you know, kind of like the bad area
and stuff like that, and I've seen all my friends
I'm walking around with these guys like I'm literally I'm
just like smoking cigarets. I'm like in fifth grade smoking cigarets,
guys smoking weed and stuff like that. And one day
I was like, dude, what am I doing with my life?
Like there's like there's way more to life than this.
I've seen these guys, you know, going joining gangs and

(23:36):
things like that, and I was like, man, so I
kind of use that so kind of kind of changed
myself a little by little. It took a lot longer
than what I thought, you know, I mean going from there.
You know obviously like kid, I didn't I didn't know.
I didn't really talk to anybody about it or didn't
have any anybody to talk to about it, you know,
I mean couldn't walk kind of going through the same thing.
And even to this day, I can say that I

(23:56):
like me and my family don't really talk about what
happened through those years kind of just kind of just
like a you know, like we kind of like pass
that stuff. So I was like it took a while
for me to start changing everything. But just being the
first one there, like seeing like my brother like passing away,
like he was a couple of months old, partly like
eight nine months old, maybe a little bit older. It's
kind of hard toime. I was so young that I
read didn't know how, like couldn't tell hold he was.

(24:18):
But just seeing that that kind of definitely changed me.
I was like, man, I saw I use that later
on to kind of like change my direction where I'm going.
Like obviously I wasn't the best at school and did
hit the school, but I kind of used it seeing
where I was going, like smoking, doing all these things,
like you know, trying to be a little gang being
things like that going kind of changed my life. Got
myself really involved in wrestling and stuff like that. So

(24:41):
that's probably that's probably the biggest one that I had
growing up, and then just through THROUGHMA it was kind
of just a couple of times where like I wanted
to quit and armor my me and my son's moms
taking these walks around the block. Like he's just like crying,
like I don't know what I'm gonna do, like like
this isn't working for me, Like I'm tired of living
five six hundred bucks. You know, people complain about the

(25:02):
fighter pay now, but when I first started, I was
fighting for three four hundred bucks, like to show up,
drive to drive across California, you know, fight for two
hundred bucks. Okay, cool man, you know I'm happy for that.
You know, after a while you get tired of doing that.
There's times where I had to pick whether the put
gas in my car to get to training in the
next couple of days or buy some food, you know,
or things like that, and sleeping on people's floors doing

(25:24):
all that stuff. That's probably one of the ones that
really kind of helped me elevate it. And then I
end up fighting for the Tacchi title.

Speaker 4 (25:31):
I won.

Speaker 6 (25:32):
I was like ten and two, and then I ended
up losing. I ended up losing to Adam Mantelin. He
ended up coming on the Ultimate Fighter. He was almost
been fire with Brandon Marino, that one where they had
all the champions. Ended up losing again to this guy
named Jared Papasian, and I was like, man, I'm done,
Like I've been doing this. I was taying, too, you
had the title UFC dodn't want me. I was like,

(25:52):
you know what, I'm done with this. And one of
my coaches, coach Colin o yama uh I was like, hey, man, like,
you know, I'm done, blah blah blah. He's like, nah,
just just pack your pack all your stuff, come down here.
And I literally he's like, I was like, you know,
I'm just gonna work for a little bit, get some money.
You know, you know, I might have him tire. Like
I'm thinking, like I'm done, I'm retired, and he was

(26:12):
like not, just get down here, like you know, I mean,
I was like, no, I don't want you to work,
Just pack all your stuff, get down here. And I
kind of literally thought about that. So and casinos, you
fight either on a Wednesday night or Thursday night because
those are the deadst nights at a casino. You know,
some people they want to bring people in to make
some money. So this is on a Thursday night.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
I just lost.

Speaker 6 (26:30):
I'm texting them. I was like, hey, I'm done, you know,
like like I'll just work and then I'll head up there.
He's like no, no, no, like literally told me, He's like,
I expect to see you here Monday, Larry. For three days,
I was like thinking, like what am I gonna do?
Am I gonna like, Larry, just pack all my stuff.
I just lost. I don't know if I'm ever gonna
make it to UFC. I don't know if I have
the shot anymore. And I'm sitting there in the whole
tire room like thinking, and I was talking to my

(26:51):
son's mom. I was like, what do we do? Like
what do I do? And she's like, you know what,
I support you whatever you do. If you want to go, go,
It's like I think you should and uh, you know
what I mean, like Lee Moore is always gonna be here,
like worst case scenario doesn't work, just come back. And
I was like, all right, you know that that makes sense.
And I kind of just thought about it, and then
literally Monday morning came in, I packed all my stuff

(27:12):
and just took off, and uh you know, I ended
up staying out there too, more young for the last
I think. I was there for eight nine years and
made it to UFC far for a world title under
coach Colin and uh you know we're still good friends.
I still train out there with them, and uh yeah.
But that was the moment where I really realized, like, hey,
I'm gonna put everything into this, like what's the worst
is going to happen to me? Like I fell try

(27:33):
to make a dream come true and Uh, you know,
I mean, worst case, go back to Lemore and work
wherever I work at, or you know, try and make
it happen. And uh, I'm glad. I'm glad I like
listened to my gut. You know, my son's mom, Christina,
I'm glad to listen to her. And then uh, you know,
and I'm glad they supported me through this decision because
it's probably some of the toughest times living at a
gym for a while, you know. And uh, it's definitely

(27:56):
changed me and gave me gratitude to where I'm at
and how much we make and all this stuff like
a lot of people don't see, like oh well fighter
pay this and that, or just in general like fighter houses.
I didn't have none of that when I was first
coming up. You know, we got it later on, but
I'm grateful for the experience that I got because it
definitely molded me to what the person I am today.

(28:17):
You know, living at a gym definitely sucked.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
I was gonna asking him, think about like if you
didn't even call coach Omanya, you wouldn't be in the UFC.

Speaker 6 (28:29):
Yeah, I literally was gonna so like where I trained,
only Moore, it was mostly in a garage. I was
seven to two as a pro and my partners were
guys that like had jobs and stuff, and I was
only one really like trying to make it a career.
And you know, we had a couple of the guys
that were serious about it. But at one point, to remember,
during the winter, like we were like our gym was

(28:51):
in a garage, and then we finally got a boxing
gym was called Peafox's Boxing Gym, so we let us
put it like a slab of matt down. We're turning
in there and there's no heater in there, so you're cold,
and in Central Valley it gets really cold. So I'm
training with my head coach and he's two hundred pounds
plus and it's just me and him. Me and him
were sparring, we're rolling, We're like you know, and finally

(29:11):
he like I talked to him about like going down
to uh Tim Moriyama, and I was going down there
and and I was like, hey, like I didn't want
to leave, but he's like, man, like you get a
shot here, Liz, go down there and do it. And
I respected him for let allowing me to go, because
I mean I was like he's seen something in me.
And sometimes people want to hold you back, like no,

(29:32):
like I want you for myself, but he's like, not
go out there and do your thing, you know, He's
like always be here to help you. And even to
this day, like I text so many time him the town
we get workouts in, or we just text each other
just see how we're doing. But like, I'm definitely grateful
for everything he taught me because I so hit so
the gym when we turned in, his garage was at
his house, so he would have cut I didn't have
a car and he lived about ten fifteen minutes away,

(29:53):
so he would come pick me up in my house,
take me to his I was a train, and then
take me back to my house. So he was doing
a lot of that for me. And like I said,
without him getting me started in the sport at M
M A and doing what he did for me, I
don't know where I would be because, uh, he said,
it takes a lot for someone to pick you up
from their house. That I mean literally just walks into
the garage he's at the gym. So he literally would
pick me up, take me back, bring back and forth

(30:14):
and stuff and never charged me never said anything about
doing that. So even now when I fought for the
title and I fought some fights, I bring him out
my first fight in the UFC, I brought him out
when I fought for the UFC title, I brought him
out just because he's a big part of of of me.
And uh, I was the best way to show gratitude,
you know, to him, because you know, I'm the first
guy that he coached the may to UFC. So I

(30:36):
was happy. I was honored that I was the first guy,
and I was just happy that he was there with me.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
That's crazy that he.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Saw something in you that you didn't even see in
yourself to start.

Speaker 6 (30:45):
Yeah, it's it's crazy with some some coaches, you know,
look at you and they're like, oh man, we see something,
and you don't see something in yourself. Like, uh, it's
definitely like I said, for him to approve of me,
to do that, I was like, oh man, that's it's
pretty cool because I you know, I don't know how
too many people are gonna go from there to pick
you up and take you back back and forth, you know,
without any questions. He never hesitated, He never said oh no,

(31:05):
I can't do it today or not. This always made
sure I was at practice.

Speaker 5 (31:09):
It definitely gave you the extra boost of confidence too,
like going into the cage knowing that he's got your back.

Speaker 6 (31:14):
Oh yeah, definitely. Like in fighting, I mean you're going
in there by yourself, but you need a team. It's
like that's why I like wrestling and fighting because it's
an individual sport, but you still need a team behind you.
I mean, yeah, I'm the one in there making all
the decision where I'm fighting and wrestling and stuff like that.
But without the team helping you get ready, there is
no fight. There is no you, you know what i mean,
Like they help mold the person or the fighter you're

(31:36):
going to be. So like, like I said, I was
definitely grateful for him being there.

Speaker 5 (31:40):
Yeah, and that's so much trust in your coach too,
because like they literally have your career like in their hands.
And so was it hard to kind of find that
trust with him at the beginning or from the start.

Speaker 6 (31:50):
It was just full on obviously like I'm pretty like
like I'm pretty quiet and stuff like that, but me
and him click pretty well. And he's a quiet guy too.
He doesn't really talk. He's not really a big talker,
so he was very very very like like quiet too,
so I kind of like took a little bit, but
it wasn't like just it wasn't because like trusted, just
because we're both quiet people. So it was cool though

(32:12):
once we clicked. I mean, like I said, his my
main training partner was his nephew, Stephan, so uh yeah,
it was funny because when we first started, he had
already been training for years and he used to beat
me up so bad, like, and then his nephew would leave,
would go home, and he lived in uh he lived
in Nevada, so he would leave, and every time we
come back, we're like measure up, like okay, like you've

(32:33):
gotten better and better and better. So it was cool
to see, you know what I mean, putting putting everything
together like little by little, seeing my progress because his
nephew used to beat me up all the time. Like, man,
there was not a day I would go with that
getting freaking beat up. I'm like, dude, whether it's jiu jitsu,
the only thing I had on him was the wrestling part,
but jiu jitsu wise, kickboxing boxing, he was throwing me
around left and right. So it was cool to see

(32:55):
kind of like me trusting him kind of gave me
to that level and finally surpassing him. You know. Stepfing
ended up uh just kind of going his own way,
kind of doing his own thing, stop fighting. So it
was kind of cool to see though, like the progress
going up.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
It's crazy to see how one single person can change
your whole life for you. Oh yeah, going back to
whenever you did fight on the Contender Series, what was
what was the pressure? Like so crazy story.

Speaker 6 (33:19):
I got the call for the Contender Series and I'm
literally like, hey, we got a contenacary spot. My manager,
Jason how Has calls me and I'm like, I was
like one twenty fives. I'm like nah, I said nah.
I was like really and then he's like, uh Like
it was like three weeks, you know, I was getting
ready to fight. I want thirty fives like a week
after that, and I was like, nah, I'm not gonna

(33:40):
do it. And then he's like uh okay, and then
he hangs up, and my coach call and calls me.
He's like, hey, you gonna do this, and I'm like
I'm like literally in a candy bar. I have a
candy bar in my mouth I'm like, oh, well, do
I finish this candy bar?

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (33:56):
I like, screw it. So yeah, at first I said no,
and then he's like, now to make this weight, don't
worry about it, and then we end up we're like
we're like, okay, screw it. Yeah, we're gonna do it.
And I'm like, I'm fining. I won thirty five, so
I'm probably like one fifty five at the time, like, oh,
you know, it's gonna be a cut. And I ended
up linking up with Perfecting Athletes. There's still my nutrition

(34:16):
is and uh dietations from now and uh they helped
me make the weight and stuff. And it was crazy
because the contendacaries back then wasn't like how it is now,
like where they're signing. A lot of people was like, no,
you gotta be you gotta be on it. And I
remember telling one of my friends like, look, you know
I'm getting nocked out. He's getting knocked out. I mean,
that's the only way back then is like, that's when
the way you're gonna do it. And I kind of
took it as my last chance because obviously I had

(34:40):
the title at tacI, I lost and then they gave
an ultimate fighter. Then they had to show h Dana
White looking for a fighter in San Diego. Uh for CFFC,
I believe, and uh he was there for my fight
and I just I won, but I was like I
was just it was like a I just had a
bat like camp and stuff and just horrible fight, right,
So I I think that this was my last chance. So

(35:01):
it's like either I'm getting knocked out or he's getting knocked out.
And went up there and ended up knocking them out
and got the contracts. All like, oh man, thank you God.
Because I give myself a timeline. I give myself until
I was twenty seven. It happened when I was twenty six,
and I give myself a talent just because I don't
want to be thirty one thirty chasing this dream, you
know what I mean, and not get there. It was
just like one of these things like hey, I've tried

(35:23):
everything I could. I moved to Orange County, I've you know,
I got my sho in front of Dan and why
I've won titles. I won all these fights in a row.
If it doesn't happen now, you know, like I'm okay
with it because I did everything I could like, I
don't you know, when I was in college, a it's
a party a lot. But when I when I was fighting,
I stopped partying, didn't smug nothing like I'm literally I'm
at the gym twenty four seven, I'm putting in hours,

(35:43):
I'm cleaning the mads, doing things like that. And you know,
I was okay with it. I was like, I did
everything I could on my end to make it and
if it didn't happen, then it wasn't part of the plan.
And thank god it worked out because I made it,
and then you know it has been a run.

Speaker 4 (35:57):
Make it sacrifices.

Speaker 5 (35:58):
Yeah, that's all you have to do if you really
care about something, you want to be the best.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
But when he finally called your name, what was that
kind of like?

Speaker 6 (36:04):
I was excited, man, because just all the hard work
and everything just you know, I mean, my corner was
coach Colin Oyama, was Casey Hallstad and uh and Ron
turning it. But my coach from from Backcoe Meto Morales.
I got him a taket to be there, you know
what I mean, And it was just exciting to see
and obviously my manager, Jason, he's been managing me since

(36:25):
I was eighteen years old. So at that time I
was alady twenty four to twenty five, like twenty five
years old, so I was like, okay, So it was
cool to see, you know. I mean, he was probably
one of the ones that like, man, if we don't
get this kind, then you see, I'm gonna go freaking
jump off a bridge or something, because he knows. I
used to live with Jason, you know, like I lived
with him and when he was in San Diego, when
he lived in Lake Elisono, I live with him. He
would I would live at the gym Monday through Friday.

(36:45):
He would pick me up Friday, I'd go to his house,
do my laundry, come back Monday morning for see him
jiu jitsu, and I'll say there for the whole week.
So I lived with him in this every house he's had,
I've lived with him, even the one here in Vegas.
I stayed with him, you know, when he first got it.
So he's been a big part of my journey too.
And you know, I know, I know it was like
a big relief off his shoulders, my shoulders, everybody's shoulders, Like, man,
we did it, you know, I mean, Coach Calin. He's uh,

(37:08):
he's definitely not the most emotional guy, but you know,
probably the first time I seen him showed some emotion
in a long time, you know, Like I said, like
he was a big part of the reason why I
got there because with the highest opportunity, like like he
let me stay at his gym. Then he we got
a fighter house where I got to run it, you know,
like I would have my That's like the first time
I had my own room, you know, And uh, I

(37:30):
got to run the fighter house. And that's where we
had cheato Vera living with us, her brother Bad and
I diego from you know, all these guys living with us,
and uh, it was it was awesome, like all the
soccer phrases did for everybody, and it was just cool
to see that, like I'm bending for him for this
guy just taking a you know, a lucky shot basically,
you know, because in the sport, you're not guaranteed to
be in the UFC, So it was cool. I was

(37:53):
just super happy to get get that monkey off my
back because I've never I always told you I've never
won the big one and can stay tournament. I was
one match away from placing in junior college. I was
in the finals my jue sophomore year and ended up
losing that. You know, when I fought for the title,
when I defended my title, I lost that, you know.
So I always was getting my monkey off my back.

(38:15):
I've never been able to big win, the big one,
the big fight, the big match, and to finally get
that off my back and make it to the next level,
it was. It was awesome.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Next is the UFC title that's.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
Coming soon and coming. But what was it like fighting
during COVID, Because I remember we had Jason House on
our podcast earlier in March, I believe, and he was
talking about how managing all these fighters during COVID was
one of the craziest things ever.

Speaker 4 (38:43):
But I can't even imagine as a fighter it was.

Speaker 6 (38:46):
It was crazy because obviously in California we got super
shut down, like there was that then. So I just
I remember getting the offered me a fight and I
was like, screw it, I'm down. I remember texting coach
Colin was like, hey, I need to use the gym.
I got a fight book, and like we had training
together in the morning right like it was only the
fight team. But I was like, hey, I need a wrestle.
I need to do this. I was like, look, if

(39:07):
we get busted, I'll pay the fine, not knowing like
speaking like I didn't know what the fine was. You know.
I was like holding it was like a thousand bugs outrageous. Yeah,
you know, I'm hoping it was like a thousand bucks.
I didn't know, but I was like, okay, He's like
all right, man, whatever. So I had my own wrestling practice.
I was running, We're hitting paths outside sometimes. You know,
it was crazy, and it definitely was an interesting time

(39:30):
because I wasn't It was good because I got to
focus on myself, but it was crazy because I wasn't
able to access everything I needed. Like sure in the
conditioning was just like we work with Corey Beasley and
we worked him for like seven eight years, and obviously
everybody was freaked out about COVID, so like he was like, yeah,
I'll send you the workout. So I'm doing workouts and

(39:51):
I'm like, man, I don't even have half the stuff
I need, but we're gonna make it work, you know.
So it was definitely a very interesting time. And then
remember coming out to Vegas and Jason actually got every
be staying with him for a couple of weeks going
out here, Like it was definitely interesting and I was happy.
A lot of guys got the opportunity. Like my one
of my good friends, Christian Aguilarra, got a call, you know,

(40:11):
he was gonna he was he he was gonna be
on the Contender Series. But then they're like, screw which,
Like he was gonna fight that day, like he was
came from Orange County, drove in, was getting ready to
like fight two days later, and he's like, you know what,
we just put him in the UFC. His fight would
be auted to UFC. So he got opportunity. A lot
of guys that who knows, maybe not maybe wouldn't have
got the opportunity, like you know, right off the back.

(40:34):
So they that was cool to see a lot of
my friends got in and it was it was cool
to see like a lot of good things happened, even
though it was a bad time for everybody, a lot
of good things happened.

Speaker 5 (40:42):
Then he got the call to fight for the world title. Yeah,
and then that was in the APEX. So what was
that kind of Like was it eerie with no crowd?

Speaker 6 (40:50):
Yeah, it definitely like it definitely not having a crowd
room because all my family came out to Vegas and
stuff like that. So when I got the call, was
like Ricky, I was getting ready for to fight somebody
else and Ricky Simon was staying at my staying with
me and uh uh my son's mom, Christina, she was
pregnant at the time, and I remember getting a call.
Looking at my phone, I'm getting a FaceTime like from

(41:10):
Jason the house like one am, like, dude, like he
knows I'm in bed by eleven, Like I declined, caused
me again, I'm like, bro, what do you want? Like
Christina's gonna be pissed. You're waking her up, you know.
She's like the babies are kicking her on the side
and stuff. She's like like waking up and like you're
barely sleeping, you know. And I'm like, what do you want?
He's like, UH, just can't to tell you that you're
fighting for a world title. I'm like I'm like wait

(41:32):
what And he told me. I was like oh man,
And then I go back to bed and then she's
like like who is that was like, I was Jason,
what do you say is fighting for a world title?
And she like, Lily up, like what did you say?
I was like, oh yeah, I fired for world title.
I'm up. And I was like, does that mean I
go run right now? Or like I was like, oh man,

(41:52):
but it's definitely it was definitely a good experience. And
obviously the fight didn't go my way and this is
a part of it. But had a good time. I'm
probably one of the better better counts have I had.
You know, I did every Like I said, like, it
sucks ID lost, but like I'm not. I mean, I'm disappointed,
but I'm not like, oh man, you know, I can
go back and look at that camp. I did all
my running, my diet was on point, everything was on point.

(42:15):
I mean, it just wasn't my night. I always tell
people all the time, like you have to be it's
whoever you can have the best camp, worst camps, whoever's
on that night, and and if you're both on it
just was that much better, you know what I mean.
And obviously it was his night. He was better than me.
And I feel nine out of ten times I can
beat them. But I feel like every athlete that does
a sport can do as says that, you know, yeah,

(42:35):
and uh, I mean, I just take it on the
chin to kind of keep going and going from there,
and uh, you know, it was cool experience. It was
cool to see my you know, kid from the More
seen your face on a poster and bulletin boards on commercials.
You know, I have people with him like, oh man,
that's cool to see that you're actually doing something, you know,
like people from my hometown like, oh school, you know,
like it's just not only more like everybody else. So
it was definitely a cool experience, you know, me and

(42:56):
my family because I have so my dad lives in
Mexico and I have two brothers out there and and
they're like all pumped about it and stuff like that.
So it was definitely a good experience. I had a
good time. Like I said, I loved I loved the experience,
loved the opportunity five for a title because people don't understand,
like only a small percentage making to UFC, only a
small per smaller percentage make gets a ranked and not

(43:17):
only a smaller percentage fights for UFC title, you know.
And to say that I did that, you know, like
whether I fight, you know, I fight for a title
or not, again, I could say I did it once,
and I mean that that's always a great opportunity.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
I mean, you've seen guys in the UFC for eight
years and they haven't even made the top fifteen rankings
or anything, and they're just constantly putting hours and hours into
the gym.

Speaker 6 (43:39):
And yeah, it just like I said, the sport, it's
a it's a great sport to chi law, discipline and everything,
but it's very unforgiven, you know, like a it's a
love hate relationship, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
I can't even imagine.

Speaker 5 (43:51):
This portion of the Burn Factory podcast is sponsored by
Phoenix Salon Suites. Please visit Phoenix Salon Suites at p
H E and I X Salons s A l O
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to find one near you. Everyone has unfortunate times in
your life, and I really feel like that that time

(44:12):
period has really helped you today and has motivated you
to to continue to chase after your dreams. But our
stands for ridiculous. It's kind of lighter, kind of funny.
I mean, all these fights that you've been in crazy crowds,
was there kind of a ridiculous burn moment that happened
to you? Maybe a fan asked you a random question
or someone yelled something at you some kind of funny.

Speaker 6 (44:34):
So anytime I'm fighting, it doesn't matter where I bet,
I thought, you know a lot of arenas. I can
always hear my mom always if you go back, and
if you go back and and like watch some of
the fights. I think when I was in North Carolina,
I was like I was like on the main card
part like almost towards the end, and you can literally
hear my mom like squeeze, like I can hear like,

(44:56):
I don't know why, man, I can maybe because she
yelled at me a lot when I was little. Man,
I can definitely hear her voice clear, Like it's just
I don't care where I'm fighting, I can always hear
her yelling. And uh, it definitely always makes me laugh
when I go back and watch the fights and stuff
or sometimes like was that your mom that, like, oh yeah, probably,
like I can hear that. And then uh so my
last fight end up losing to uh Pantosia, right, and

(45:18):
uh it was my first my son's first time going
to a fight, And I remember walking like walking out
obviously you're kind of just focused walking in, you know,
after I lose you kind of walk back and I
remember looking up and Christina's up there and she's like hey.
I'm like I hear a voice, like what And I
see my son and my Amason like looking at me
all crazy and it's like, oh, like trying to jump
off the thing, and I'm like and I was like, hey,
just pass the baby down, like go down there, and

(45:40):
she couldn't because actually had to go all the way
across and down. So my son ended up like crowdsurfing
all the way down to me, like they like all
these strangers like grinding the babies were passing them. Like
I'm like, man, that's probably thinking back, probably not the
smartest idea. You know, I don't know how drink they were.
But because I was on the pay per view part,
you know, I was like, why don't they drop them?
But they're like passed them down. So that was funny
just seeing them out in Uh. Later that night, I

(46:02):
ended up walking him back to the hotel and uh,
you know, they go in the elevator and she's like, hey,
that she said, like the lady goes hey, was that
was that the baby crowd? That was crowdsurfing? I was
like yeah, so my start ended up crowdsurfing.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
You know.

Speaker 6 (46:12):
He's like and he was like one, one and a half.
So it was that that's pretty fun's famous. He's just
like I was like, dude, that's crazy just watching my son.
They go from like stranger stranger stranger. It's probably not
the smartest thing I've done.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
But hey, you got to think about like what if
someone did drop him the consequence and strangers.

Speaker 6 (46:35):
Yeah, I was like, god, like I just got hit
in the head, so like, hey, I would have blame
it on his mom, Like, hey, I just got punched
in the face. Man, Like you're supposed to be the guy,
the person responsible for him, you know. But it was cool.
Every like walking down was it was cool, Like just
seeing him, he's just like looking at me like what
the hell is going on?

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Just wanting to get to you.

Speaker 6 (46:51):
Yeah, it was cool. You know. I took him to
the back and stuff, and we're riding in the car
back to the and he was just like, oh like
but she says that like when I was walking down stuff,
you know, they put your face on the screen and
he's like, oh, like he recognized me and stuff. So
that's pretty cool. So that's definitely one of my That's
probably one of the ones that I remember the most.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Would you say your son being born was the greatest
Burre moment of your life?

Speaker 6 (47:13):
Oh for sure, because I you know, I thought by
it if I wasn't like by Thomas thirty five, have
Carols gonna have a kid. And then my son Like
so he's the first grandchild on both sides, her side,
on my side. So he's super spoiled, Like he runs
all over my mom my. Moms like put down the hammer,
you know on this now my son be running around
doing whatever he wants. I'm like, man, mom, what the heck?

(47:34):
Watch you that nice to us? It's like he's my
love blah blah blah. I'm like, man, but yeah, definitely
definitely changed me. Like it's just crazy having a little
human to watch after. And he's everybody says he's my twin.
Like I took him to the gym. He goes out there, runs,
he does front rolls, he warms up with the classes.
He goes in the cage with lock him in there.
He's punching the corner pads. Definitely, yes, it's definitely fine, Like, man,

(47:57):
I do not want this, Like what do you mean
it's like I want to be your doctor or something.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
I be a fighter.

Speaker 6 (48:03):
But he will fight. He's gonna wrestle, for sure, he
will end up fighting. He's one or two times, you know.
But like I'm trying to hopefully he comes a golfer something.

Speaker 4 (48:13):
Yeah, if he does.

Speaker 6 (48:15):
If he does, he's got I always tell people like,
it's kind of hard because no matter why to be
coaching him because I'm so good at everything.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
Are you good at golf?

Speaker 3 (48:23):
No, horrible, We'll get you right, We'll give you some
lessons to golf.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
Yeah, I need something part of the.

Speaker 6 (48:32):
Part of the most unathletic person you ever met in
your life. You watch me do the ladder and stuff
like what the hell? Like this guy's in the UFC, Like, yeah,
I'm super unathletic. I just work hard.

Speaker 5 (48:41):
That's a good thing about golf. You don't have to
be super athletic to play.

Speaker 6 (48:44):
I'm trying to hit the ball, and it's like I
hopp you do more and just run and just try
to chop it too.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
I'm like, now we need we need to take him
to top golf.

Speaker 5 (48:52):
We're competitive golfer, Okay, yeah, we're pretty good. Ver scratch
and stuff, and we actually just came from Miami and
we played in the tournament.

Speaker 6 (48:58):
So all right, yeah, we'll give.

Speaker 5 (48:59):
You some lessons and you go take your buddies out
to the course and start taking their money, taking some money.

Speaker 6 (49:04):
Yeah, no, I'm down, like I said I but yeah,
my son's definitely gonna fight. But I'm hoping he doesn't.
I'm hoping he does something else because I'm like, she's like,
everybody's like, how are you gonna be when you coach
your son? I'm like, how you don't want to coach?
Coach my son? And wrestling? You know That's like I
like to leave that to the to them, you know
what I mean. Like I've wrestled, I've done that. I
love coaching. Always tell you all the time, I'm better
coach than I am fighter. I love coaching. I love

(49:26):
watching film like technique and stuff like that. Like I'm
literally watching fights all the time. I'm boxing, kickboxing, muay
Thai wrestling, I'm watching everything, And like, I love coaching,
but coaching my son, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Coaching to be something you pursue after you're done fighting.

Speaker 6 (49:43):
Yeah, I like currently now I work with like even
though I'm fighting. I've always helped other people, like a
whole paths, a break down film, like Hey this, I
feel like we're game planning. We should kind of do this,
this and this. What do you think coaching is just
one of the things I like to do, Like, I
like helping other people achieve their goals, you know what
I mean. I've I had to help, you know. I
like to spread my knowledge and help people get to

(50:05):
where they want to be. Because I say, if it
wasn't for other people helping me, investing time in me,
I would definitely wouldn't be where I'm at.

Speaker 5 (50:11):
Do you think coaching has helped you as a side
of yourself? Yeah, so I'm taking a step back.

Speaker 6 (50:15):
Yeah, Because so I started coaching when I was in
high school. My manager now, Jeremy Luca. I have his son, Jason,
So I've known them since I I've known Jeremy since
I was fourteen, his son since he was four years old.
So I started coaching him, you know, and wrestling, because
what we're do is they would pay us ten dollars
like an hour, you know, basically close like an hour,

(50:35):
and that would help core towards like our USA Wrestling cards.
Or freestyle tournaments or state tournaments, so stuff like that.
So it kind of helped me because if if I
wasn't wrestling, I would be out being a little hoodlum,
you know, be running around. So I was always trying
to wrestle. I partly wrestled. I wrestled folks style, and
then take a little break, probably a couple of weeks
breaks and go to freestyle and greco wrestle that I'll

(50:57):
probably gain like fifty to sixty matches in the summer time,
just trial and wrestling. But I started coaching and it
definitely helped me become a better coach, better wrestler because
you know, you're explaining technique and you're like seeing where
you're messing up, so you're like kind of correct there.
So it definitely helped me a lot in MMA and
in wrestling.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
And from like seeing other fighters and like their style,
you could probably pick out something that they do good
and start to put it into your fighting styles.

Speaker 6 (51:21):
Yeah, yeah, you can definitely pick apart things. So like
now when I watch fights, it's hard for me to
go out and really watch fights because I'm like I'm
texting coach calling, I'm like, hey, what would you do
in this situation and the two rounds? What would be
your adjustment? And like like, all right, I would do this,
like I would I was thinking of this and like
oh that's good. Or he's like, I don't know if
that would work for this guy, you know, blah blah blah.
So like I'm always trying to like see what, you know,

(51:41):
what I would do as a coach, you know, because
eventually I am going to coach full time and stuff
like that. So it's always good to know because like athletes,
you know, I mean're always trying to improve, but as
a coach, you gotta know what to do. Because I
remember Carlas spars Carla as sparsas she fought Claudia, and
our game plan with Carla's always like, hey, we're gonna
force her to shoot, uh punch so we can take

(52:03):
her down. And the take that wasn't working, and our
game plan literally for heat nine weeks was that you
were gonna take this girl down and take her down
between the first and second round. He's like, no, no, fuck that,
We're gonna punch her. We're gonna just fake the shots,
start punching in the face, you know, and then like
literally for him to make a call in a big
fight like that was like, oh okay, Like this is
why you need to like be on top of your
game because he made the adjustment within you know, you

(52:25):
got a minute from the five minutes, you get a
minute to explain to your fighter. And it was just
crazy to see like, hey, no, no, no, fuck that, We're
just gonna do this. This is what we're doing right now.
This is it Like screw that game plan we did
for eight weeks, but we're gonna switch it up to this,
you know. And I was like, oh man, to see
that like live was kind of like eye opening you like,
oh man, that's so crazy for him just to switch
it up like that.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
And sometimes you gotta go to the basics and fights
because they can win.

Speaker 6 (52:46):
Yeah, like, uh, you know, Coach Colin always gets us
basics win fights, man, Like all this fancy stuff. It's
funny because you get guys coming to what Connor McGregor
does is like, well, if you're Connor McGregor, we probably
wouldn't be here right now, probably making millions or like
may whether you know, like Floyd was like, hey man,
let you know you ain't Floyd. Whether or she definitely
want to be in this amateur MMA class, you know
kind of thing that people like laugh. He's like, dude, yes,

(53:08):
stick to fundamentals. Some guys are good at what they do.
They've mastered it. You know, you get the floyd you
got like John Jones, Like you guys aren't damn Like
basic wins fights, basic stuff, basic jab, basically low kick,
basic defense, like things like that were gonna win fights.
That's all this fancy spinning stuff is, like, yeah it
lance ten fifty percent of the time, you know, but
like basic jazz, basic one two lance, you know, eighty

(53:30):
percent of the time. So like we really do fundamentals.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
You know.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
I mean even go looking back at the Juliana Pena
fight versus Man and noon is just the jobs one.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Of the fight.

Speaker 6 (53:40):
Yeah, just stayed behind the jab. Everybody everybody like, oh,
like look man, like the fight that a man could
have probably finished the fight. But I think I honestly
don't think she wanted to. I think she's wanted to
beat her up more because but you look at it,
like she didn't do anything fancy turns South Paul worked
behind the jab one two jab, she knocked her. I
got on top ground and pound let her back up.

Speaker 5 (54:01):
You know.

Speaker 6 (54:02):
It wasn't like she was doing spinning stuff, nothing crazy,
you know, it just basic quins.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
What do you think would have happened in the third fight?

Speaker 6 (54:08):
I think I think Panion is like man I saw.
I always tell people this, Ronda Rowsey was the Royce
Gracie of women's MMA, right because they're like women in
May so far behind just because they started later. But
she's the Royce Gracy. Uh a man of newness is
the gsp of She's good on the ground, she's good,
you know, good on the feet, she's good everywhere. You
know there's gonna be there's gonna come a little bit faster,

(54:31):
just because MMA training so more evans, you know where
like an MMA for guys like Royce Gracy was the
guy for so many years and then you had like
the Matt Hughes and chuckle, you know, like it took
a little bit longer. But girl like girls are having
so much more success because all the training is available
to him. And nowadays you're putting your kids in and
you're not putting them into rest and you're not putting
them into JITs. You put them into m M a

(54:53):
where you're doing everything. So I so I feel like
she's the GSP of women's MMA, Like she's probably she
for sure the greatest onest fighter of all time. You know,
I'll probably be the goat forever. But I mean that
that's why I see her as GSP as a women's MMA.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
That's a good way to put it. I never thought
about that, right, but it makes it makes a lot
of sense.

Speaker 6 (55:11):
Like, I mean, Ronda wasn't the best striker. She just
took girls down arm Bard, right, Rose, Gracie. What was
he doing taking through to the match, choking them out?
You know, GSP was wrestling guys and being able to
strike with certain guys, doing all it. And that's what
she picked what she wanted to do. I want to
take this grow down or I want to stand with her.
They're kind of picking what she wanted to do. That's why.
That's why I said she's a GSP.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
And like switching game plans too. Because in the second flave,
she came out Southwall. She's never fought Southball in her
entire career, and it prevailed for her, for sure.

Speaker 6 (55:39):
Yeah, twenty five minutes ago, Southpaull, you've never done it.
Is like, that's pretty impressive.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
Yeah, especially first time doing it too. I can't even imagine.
But going back to you coaching, do you think you'll
one day open up your own gym.

Speaker 6 (55:51):
I don't know. I've thought about it, like I've actually
had offers like like you know, like hey, man, like
we like we'll kind of investing them, like like, it's
it's hard because I like to grind and I was
always taught like and fighting, you're not gonna like I'd
rather fight a guy that's ten and zero than a

(56:11):
guy that's like eight and eight because the tenino guys
probably never made out of the first round. I would like,
I'll just tell my guy work down the jab, you're
gonna survive the first round, and see what the guy
has second and third round. Like the way I like
to fight is like when we're if we end the
fight early, great, If not, we're gonna we're ready for
fifteen twenty five minutes. So I like to grind a
lot and a lot of like I don't know, I

(56:32):
don't know what it is, a lot of guys don't
like to like a lot of guys don't like to wrestle.
Like I come from a wrestling background. You gotta be
able to wrestle. A lot of people don't like to
be by the body, Like this is the most uncomfortable part.
Like people can do jiu jitsu, but wrestling is probably
the hardest thing you have to do because by the body,
you're trying to physically overpower another man, you know what
I mean. So you're literally by the body, and a
lot of people don't like that. And that's the way

(56:53):
I kind of run my stuff, like, hey, we're gonna
be good on the feet, We're gonna wrestle a lot,
We're gonna be good on the ground, but like we're
gonna grind, grind, like you know, it's not gonna be
the stuff, like what're you gonna do?

Speaker 2 (57:02):
What?

Speaker 6 (57:02):
What're you gonna stand up and strike all day? Not
like we're gonna grind it out, grind it out. And
a lot of athletes now are starting to lose that.
I feel like, starting to lose that grind. I mean,
you gotta a lot of them. I still have it,
but I feel a lot of them more like aren't
aren't really grinding as hard as they used to because
I feel like it's too much science behind training, like
when I grew up man, like growing up to the sport,

(57:23):
there wasn't like no no one telling you what do this?
Like our strength conditions goes like hey do this, do this,
do this, pick this up, put this down, you know
kind of thing. Now it's like, oh, man, say you
know you kind of burnt out your your levels that Like, no, man,
sometimes you gotta learn how to work through all that.
You gotta on your worst days when you don't feel
like doing it, you gotta that's part of the day.
You gotta go with the hardest because it's gonna get
you through five. Like, there's times where I've been like, man,

(57:45):
I do not want to go to the gym today,
but probably some of my best workouts because I forced
myself to go, got in and started going.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
You know.

Speaker 6 (57:51):
So, I feel like if I was to open up
a gym, I don't know how it would be because
I like to grind people out. Man, We're gonna win
the you know, we're not gonna spar crazy or we're
gonna turn do each other out, but everything else, we're
gonna grind. We're gonna wrestle a lot, We're gonna get
into those faces I want I want. I want you
to be conditioned for fifteen minutes. Like my schedule back
home was Monday Wednesday we had mm A striking training.

(58:14):
Uh Monday, Wednesday nights we wrestle. Tuesday Thursday mornings we
had jiu jitsu strength conditioning. Then we went live. Tuesdays
was sparring. Thursdays was live, but it was like on
the ground, on the wall, like turn positions. Friday was
our day off. Saturday we hit a track, hit about
three miles, like different intervals like you know India, run
one mile, do this, do this, do this. Then we
went back to the gym and spar right after that

(58:35):
and you know what I mean, And Sunday we're off.
So that's the kind of that's the kind of thing
I would kind of want to keep going with because
it made me successful and I feel like it can
make other people successful.

Speaker 4 (58:44):
What does mean life?

Speaker 6 (58:45):
Yeah, Like so also like when we go so when
we go live, so everybody thinks Live is going spark,
like we're gonna sit there and just bomb it out.
We're gonna go stand up, go on the ground. But like, man,
we would get hit enough, Like I we get hit
all the time. So for us like on Tuesdays, we
I mean we would do like eight nine rounds with
like big gloves. Then we'll do little gloves where like, hey,

(59:06):
just all wrestling. We're gonna restle, wrest wrestle, so it's
all one hundred percent goes. Thursdays was a little bit lighter,
really didn't punch each other in the head too much.
I was like, hey, you're gonna be on the wall,
you're gonna wrestle, you're gonna be on your back and
being guard. You're gonna be there's like always different bad
positions where you're gonna be in a fight where you
can't do you know, where you're not really getting hit
because Grundar and Pound don't really grounding. Pound's too crazy,
you know, with the elbows you on the ground, But

(59:26):
when you're on your feet you get hit a lot.
Like for me, I feel like if you're sparring twice,
like we sparred on Saturdays, but if you're sparring three
times a week, it's kind of like, man, that's a
lot of gating hit in the head. I mean, we
would get hit a lot. So like so our coach
put it like, hey, like we're just gonna do this, like, yeah,
you can punch each other, but you're really not Like

(59:46):
grounding pound in in the gym is way different than
in a fight, right, Like you're really not hating each other,
Like you're hitting each other on the body and stuff,
but like really not to the head. So we would
go one hundred percent on Thursdays. But I was like,
you're gonna wrestle. I'm trying to take you down on
the wall that take you down. They bought back up,
taking down like NonStop, just live, going, going, going, NonStop,
Like I mean, we're probably at six thirty. We'll be

(01:00:07):
done by like eight thirty, sometimes nine, depending our cousin
characters our cause coach is gonna grind his album and
a coach Colins probably said, like I like him because
he wrestled, and he wrestled in high school, played football, right,
he played football and high in high school and wrestled
in high school. Then he went to college he played football,
but he also did like boxing and Muay Thai, so

(01:00:28):
he had a little bit element of everything, and uh,
he kind of did a really good job putting everything
together and kind of uses that wrestling mindset to like
grind people out. Uh, coach Colin. If you guys don't know,
I mean he uh trained Rampage, Rampage and Tito at
the same time. So when Rampage was dominating it probably
Tito was the UFC champion. Had Rico Rodriguez, Carlos sparsn't

(01:00:48):
even call myself Chido Vera back in the day before
he went to Ruca and the Hbrique, Simone Lewis, Smoke,
Russell don Like, he has a good list of guys
that you know in MMA, and he's known as a
like a muytag guy. He's you know, somewhatsa Romeo Donza.
He's cornered Shane, a big Shane. He's cornered like guys
that have a really good accolates and all sports, you

(01:01:10):
know what I mean. So his knowledge goes it's crazy.
And the way he works people out, it's just insane.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
What do you think about like big gyms nowadays?

Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
Like you have like att who's massive, would you rather
be kind of in a smaller like circle so to say.

Speaker 6 (01:01:25):
I think Jim, big gyms are good small like they
all have the like pros and cons. I think big
gyms you get way more bodies, right, like you get way.
Sometimes you get all these guys like American Top Team, right,
they get all these guys that top guys in the world,
all being beating each other up all day, you know,
But then you might fight each other. So that is
an awkward situation. You know, little gyms you might need,

(01:01:46):
like you get more one on one attention, but then
do you have all the bodies you need? You know,
so kind of like like mix and match, you might
have to do a little bit of both. Bring guys in,
like I know, like I bring I bring Ricky in
for a lot of my camps. Simone, I bring him
a lot for a lot of my camps. Probably one
of my best training partners. We put each other in
the wrestling, grappling and all that I trained with Chilo Vera.

(01:02:08):
I mean, you know, so we kind of like you
got to bring people in. So smaller gyms aren't bad
if you have the bodies. If not, you have to
find a way to get them there, and then big
gyms are good. But then why was it if you
guys have to fight each other like I see every
day at the gym, where you could train with each
other eventually, you know, So it just kind of hit
or miss. I like, I like the like the smaller gyms.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:02:27):
At a big gym, I feel like it's good because
you have so many different people and it's good to
train with all these different people compare to like a
smaller gym when you're constantly training with like the same
guys and yeah tactics.

Speaker 6 (01:02:39):
Like you yeah exactly, like you do like figure each
other out, you know. But then like it does like
people think about it like, oh, well I figured this
guy out. Well, that guy's gonna figure you out. Like
you gotta make adjustments too, like yall learn how to
make adjustments a big thing. I like for a smaller gym,
it's more of a team aspect. I come from a
wrestling background, so it's an individual sport where you used
doll need a team. So I like the team aspect

(01:03:00):
more than the big big gyms, where like, yeah, you're
a team, you might want to work out. But I
feel like I feel like I haven't been to too many
big gyms. I feel like it's a lot of more
clicks than then like, oh, we'll friends, we're all gonna
train together, you know. I mean we're like at a
smaller gym, like we all train, we all do the
same training, Like are you almost We all training together
Monday Wednesday morning, Tuesday theur'say nights like jiu jitsu. I

(01:03:20):
go to my own jiu jitsu gym with coach Jieva Santana,
and then I do my strength cogition with Corey Beasley,
you know what I mean. But everything and then Saturdays
is a team training. So yeah, five team trainings you
have to be at. You know, if you want to
do the jiu jitsu class and stuff like that, you
kind of make a match your own jiu jitsu. But uh,
but it's all team aspect, you know, Like that's why
I like. I like to be a part of a team.

Speaker 5 (01:03:40):
All right, Alex, It's time to go to en and
has two parts. It's kind of now and next. So
what are someurn moments you're going through right now? And
what are some moments that you see coming up in
the future.

Speaker 6 (01:03:53):
Man, I would say now just waiting, you know what
I mean, Like, what what's next? It's the big question,
you know always for fighters. You know, I'm coming off
of so I'm coming off a couple of injuries. Uh,
I broke my orbital, had an orbital surgery. I've had
like a stretch s fracture in my back out five
reinjured my back. So just right now is just what's next?

(01:04:13):
You know, the start ist part for a fighter because
I'm training and training, training, and then you get hurt.
Like you get hurt, it's crazy because you'll be fine
for like five six months. All of a sudden you
get a fight, like two days INTERI You're like, oh man,
I'm freaking hurt my knee or hurt my back, and
he's like, man, but you know, just coming off these
major injuries, just what's next. It's been a while since
I've been in there, so I'm just trying to see

(01:04:35):
what's next and go from there. And then obviously the
the what's after that is kind of just for me.
It's more of a personal like what's next with my businesses?
I want to you know, I really want to expand
my business portfolio, like I'm buying a house. I want
to do obviously, I want to do more of the
business side as well. Just set up my future. Like

(01:04:56):
I said, like I don't want to be a millionaire.
I want to be able to pay my bills. So
that's what's next, because fighting is gonna end eventually. You know,
I'm thirty one. I've been doing this for twelve years.
So I got to figure out what's next and that
aspect of life. You know, fighting is fighting, But I mean,
I got a son I got to take care of now.
So I got to figure out what's next and that
and that part of that aspect of life just you know,
whether coaching, whether hey, I'm not going to coach, I'm

(01:05:17):
gonna run my businesses full time kind of things like that.
So that's kind of what I'm kind of looking at. Next.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
You just moved to Las Vegas next?

Speaker 6 (01:05:26):
Yeah, Vegas in Vegas, California was cool and everything, but
how to get out of there? I was in Orange
County for the last like seven probably seven seven eight
years around there. Just man, it's got crazy expensive. So
for want of buying a house out there here as
I would have bought it, like a one bedroom condo
over there in Orange County. You know, so just I

(01:05:47):
never grew up. You know, some of my goals growing up, uh,
you know, obviously being a UC champel was one, but
I always want biggest thing I had, Like I have
a whiteboard at home. I have my year league goals
and my life goals, and one of my life goals
was I want the UFC to buy me a house.
And you know that means obviously I don't want to
see paid, you know, write me a check, use your house,
but I want to do you see, I want to

(01:06:08):
be able to make enough money in the UFC to
be able to buy my own house and be able
to pay it off. So you know, I've I've done
great with my money and I invested very well. So
you know, that's the next one off my bucket list.
Once I pay that house off, that'll probably a big one.
You know. I never I grew up in a house
in Lee Moore in the country, you know, And uh,

(01:06:28):
I could have bought a condo back in Orange County,
but man, I have a son. I never grew up
saying hey, man, I can't wait to buy a condo,
you know. So I was wanting to buy a house.
So that's a big one for me. And I'm super excited,
super nervous, but super excited. Yeah, for sure, it's a
big purchase. But uh, you know, I'm grateful that I
got them, getting the opportunity to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
Starting a new chapter in Vegas.

Speaker 5 (01:06:46):
Yeah, it's back to what you said. You got to
take a leap of faith, like you got out a
little more. Yeah, and now it's it's time to get
out of California and come to Vegas exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:06:54):
And I got good people around me at like a
Jeremy Jason, you know, Radium Jake of all those guys,
Like I've known those guys was part of that part
of my family. I mean, my son caused them uncle,
you know what I mean. They're around me all the
time to give my son gifts, you know, Like I've
known I've known Jerremany since I was fourteen. I've known
Jason since I was eighteen years old. I'm thirty one now.
I've never signed with any other manager, never even I

(01:07:16):
don't even think. I don't even think I've ever like
talked to the manager like by leaving Jason and them,
I they're the best in the game. They've always had
the best interest and they helped me just so much
just in general, Like if I have questions about just life,
they've you know, those guys are scared of like like
oh yeah, you know, tell me the truth. Uh, funny
story because I was getting ready, Like I was talking

(01:07:38):
to Jeremy one time and I was like, dude, like,
I'm being all these UFC guys up in the UFC,
and UH like, how come I haven't got the call.
He's like, we gonna be honest with you. I was like, man,
I'm like, you know, I'm from the country. I expect
you to be blunt. He's like, because you're born and ship, dude,
start finishing some flights and you get in the UFC.
And I was like, all right, that's hard, man, I'd
rather take the truth be it like that then then

(01:08:01):
so we're like, you know what You're like. You know,
you went like two, three, more five, So you're on
the short list, Like, man, how long is the shortlist?
I've been on the shortlist for the last six years,
you know what I mean? Like how many people are
on there? You know? I I like people being straightforward
me because I'm a straightforward person. I'm gonna tell you,
you know what I mean. I'm gonna tell you how
I feel. You asked me for advice. I'm gonna tell
you exactly how I feel. I'm not gonna shoot your code.
I'm like it's a good idea a bad idea, you know,

(01:08:22):
if I'm like how they feel about him, Like I
don't know, you know, but I'll make sure you know exactly.
And uh, you know, that's why I like Jeremy Jason.
They've always been super blood with me and I I
like it like that. And I said, Jason and Jason
and Iridium Sports, Uh there parat of the best in
the game.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:08:38):
They got Lance, they got Jacob, they got they got Jeremy,
Jason obviously the main the main guy. But all those
guys like family to me. Sometimes you need the straight
up answers. Yeah, even though even though you want to
hear it, and it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
Still gets there for sure. Where did you meet Jason Att?

Speaker 6 (01:08:53):
So? I met Jeremy when I was coaching his son
in high school. And I met Jason not Tauchi Palace,
So I'm very first fight, I fight in the middle
of nowhere, Touching Palace. A lot of people don't know,
but WC started there and then Zuka end up buying them,
and then they moved to Vegas, so Touchi Palace came
after them. And uh, my first fight was outside and
one hundred some degree weather. I remember like going out

(01:09:16):
there like, oh my god, like touching the mat. It
was funny because the cage is like this right and
I'm looking. I'm like, I'm on the opposite side. I'm like,
I'm facing the sun. So I don't circle tracking this guy.
You like, close his eyes. I could hit him. But yeah,
so I met him there from my very first fight.

Speaker 4 (01:09:32):
He got me.

Speaker 6 (01:09:32):
Ian McCall was on the card. I think it was fine.
Derren Montic used for the title to title and yeah,
he gave me a pair of metal Melissa shorts I
still have to this day. And uh, He's like, hey, man,
my name is Jason. You know I'll be managing you.
And I'm like, oh man, thanks, you know I was.
I was super happy got me. He gave me two
pairs of shirts.

Speaker 4 (01:09:53):
Man, let's go.

Speaker 6 (01:09:55):
Yeah. So I'm know I met him when I was
eighteen years old and I haven't back since. Like I said,
I've known him for most of my adult life. And
uh said, I live with him. I've known his family,
I've known his wife. I mean, my son goes over
to their house all the time, you know, so it's
definitely definitely more family than anything else, Like I said, Jason.
Jason helped me out so much just in life, like

(01:10:17):
show me things like you know you don't learn in school,
like whether it like like not have bounty check, but
like life stuff. Yeah, like literally like like hey, this
is what you're supposed to do, you know, saving money
stuff like that. So I said, like, he's definitely been
a really good mentor for me.

Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
Awesome, Well, Alex, you just spelt burning your life. Thank
you so much for coming on. You tell the audience
where they can find you at Instagram, all social media platforms.

Speaker 6 (01:10:41):
So thank you, yes for having me. First of all,
I really appreciate you. Super fun social media is Alex
Presmma on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Uh, you guys are most welcome.
Hit me up. If you guys have any questions. I'll
do pretty good at responding, So just hit me up
anything you guys got to ask, whether it's fighting or
just anything. Just hit me up and more. I'm always there.
Like said, thank you guys for having me.

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
Of course you heard Alex go give him some love.
And as a gift for coming on the podcast, you
will be getting the black Label edition hoodie. The only
guest get Yay Rocket Rocket Rocket. I will man thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:11:18):
We're proud.

Speaker 6 (01:11:19):
I will thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:11:20):
Guys of course, and like always, please visit my foundation
as well, the Priest James Foundation dot org. Again the
Priest James Foundation dot org to understand why this is
called burn Factory.

Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
We'll see you guys for the next episode.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
Peace all right, guys are here with Alex Press, who
just felt burnt in his life. He is now the
Burn Factory podcast champions.

Speaker 6 (01:11:42):
Here you go.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
He's expected to have second out here pretty about coming soon.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
But thank you so much Alex for coming on one.

Speaker 6 (01:11:50):
Yeah. Man, it was fun. I actually had a good time.
I don't really do too many podcasts, but I'm glad
you do this funny. So thank you for coming on man,
Thank you for having I really appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:08):
Mm hmm

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Up On Game Presents Burn Factory Podcast Featuring Alex Perez Talks The Pressure Of Fighting