#12 Toasty

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Today's guest is someone I metthrough the open mat community,
known as the Koffee Krew.
I remember the first time I sawthis guy, not because of what he
said, but because of what hewore.
This bright yellow gi, thatimmediately made me think of
Bruce Lee's iconic yellowjumpsuit worn in the game of
death back in 1978.

(00:20):
And just like the legendhimself, Toasty stood out not
just with style, but withpresence and skill.
Toasty is a coach competitor,martial artist, and someone
whose story is filled with grit,growth and heart from a tough
upbringing and early battleswith weight and anger to

(00:40):
stepping up as a provider forhis family.
And now leading the nextgeneration as a high school
wrestling coach.
Toasty's journey is as real asit gets.
We're gonna get into all of it.
His roots, his evolution throughwrestling, MMA and Jiu jitsu.
And how he's found strengththrough community and the love

(01:03):
and support of the people aroundhim.
Hi, Toasty.
Hey, welcome to the podcast.
Hey, how's it going?
Good.
Good.
Let's get started.
Why don't you tell me about,your childhood, how you grew up,
and we can go from there.
Okay.
Yeah.
So I was born, April 19th, 1993.
born here in Gilroy.
Mom and dad weren't married yet.

(01:23):
My mom's last sort of drive toget him to get on that knee,
was, giving me her last name.
And, from there, they gotmarried, moved over to, Texas
for a bit.
We stayed with my father'sfamily for a while.
My sister was finally born, Iwas probably around three, four
years old.
From there we moved back toCalifornia and been where our

(01:44):
roots have been lied since then.
My grandparents have lived heresince they moved over from, the
East coast, before moving fromPortugal.
This has been like our roots.
My grandparents live about fiveminutes from the gym that I'm at
now, and it's the same housethat I grew up in.
Right on.
Okay.
Can you paint a picture of whatgrowing up in Gilroy was like
for you?

(02:05):
Well, before the introduction ofcell phones, it was very much a
small town, you knew everysingle person on every part of
the block.
I grew up, hanging out with allthe kids, on my street.
The same way that, you got allyour news from the library and,
the newspapers.
I spent a lot of time at thelocal library, a lot of time
walking around town, knowingevery sort of shop owner,

(02:26):
knowing every single personaround town, whether or not I
knew their name, I knew theperson with the funky dog or the
funky house and things likethat.
I know.
What kind of kid were yougrowing up?
it's hard to say, looking backwhether or not I was like a good
or bad kid, but, I definitelygot into a lot of trouble when I
was a kid.
Not to the extent of getting introuble with the cops, not

(02:50):
really living up to theexpectations of your family.
Breaking the rules, staying out,smoking pot when you're young,
when you're not supposed to,breaking sort of the
expectations that your parentshave for you.
I did a lot of that, grew upwith a lot of angst and anger
from my perception of how myfamily growing up sort of
reflected on me.
I resemble a lot of who myfather was physically, and I

(03:11):
think a lot of, my reflection onmy family is that they didn't
appreciate how he treated theirbrother, their sister, their
niece, my mom.
And so the anger that they hadfor him pushed out towards me.
And I let that anger, at leastmy perception of that anger,
reflect out on the world.
Okay.
How was your relationship withyour mom growing up?

(03:32):
My mom has always been like mymain rock and emotional, island.
there's not really much that mymom can do wrong in my eyes.
She's been the one person thatcan show strength and compassion
just about in every situationthat she's in.
Growing up, she basically raisedme and my sister on her own.
While she did have mygrandparents, giving you the
opportunity to have a roof overher head, she worked three or

(03:54):
four jobs.
She's constantly taking uswherever she could, feeding us
every single thing she could.
We never went with, wanting.
With my mom to look back and belike that woman did that as a
single parent, is inspiring.
She never let anything get herdown.
When I turned 18 she got herfirst diagnosis of having
cancer, going through thatbattle, eventually beating
cancer, trying to get her lifeback from what cancer took from

(04:18):
her, and then eventually gettingback on track, and doing what
she has wanted to do, get out ofher parents' house and move on
with her life.
She's finally gotten theopportunity to be the best
person that she could be.
it's unfortunate it happenedlater in life because of
everything she had to gothrough, but it is what it is.
She's pretty much the personthat I aspire to be when I get

(04:39):
older.
Beautiful Any lessons that yourmom passed down to you that
sticks with you today?
There's the practical lessons.
She taught me how to be a humanbeing, cook for myself and, keep
myself as a basic person.
She instilled, passion in me.
The things I may not bepassionate about the things
she's passionate about, but tosee her care and love for things

(05:01):
that, other people don't reallycare but like she puts her all
into it.
It's sort of the reason that Ihave so much drive and care to,
put into coaching and wrestling.
And you know, jumping back offthe couch and jumping into
fighting things that I wanted todo when I was younger that I
thought I was too late on theopportunity to do.

(05:21):
She showed me from a young agethat it doesn't really matter
what time you're trying to dosomething, just go out there,
put your passion in, you can getit done.
The practical stuff, like I havea passion for cooking.
It's something that I went toschool for.
Mm-hmm.
And if she hadn't taught me howto cook when I was younger,
that's not something that Iwould have, had the ability to
do.
So I can't thank her enoughOkay.

(05:45):
Let's see.
As a kid did you play in anysports?
I played in a few organizedsports, t-ball, soccer, things
like that when I was like realyoung.
But in terms of, my mom was asingle parent, so I didn't have
the funds and the opportunity todo a lot of the organized stuff,
but that never really stoppedme.
If you can think of a sport,I've probably either watched or

(06:07):
done some sort of it, Football,soccer, basketball, swimming,
golf, tennis, wrestling,TaeKwonDo, jiu jitsu.
I've played rugby I watch dartson tv.
If there's some sort of athleticattribute to it, I at least know
something about it.
I know the basic rules ofcricket.
I've officiated jiu jitsumatches and MMA fights, and, I

(06:28):
coach wrestling.
I used to have a football squadthat we would play local
football, get together, pick upgames every Saturday.
I used to play basketball everySaturday.
The list goes on and on in termsof like sports that I enjoy
watching.
You're well rounded in sports.
Yeah.
I was going through yourInstagram and just looking at
things and I noticed, uh, acollection of Pokemon.

(06:49):
Can you tell us a little bitabout that and how that started,
did it start as a kid?
Yeah.
When the games came out, I thinkthey came out the year before I
was born.
And so when I finally got, oldenough to start playing video
games.
I picked up the first generationred and blue, and I think I've
played every single authorized,version of Pokemon that.
Nintendo has claimed as a videogame, everything that they have

(07:09):
a license to.
I've played, I have a leg fullof tattoos that are all Pokemon
related.
My gi the yellow GI that youwere talking about is actually a
Pokemon Gi.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
It says it has Pikachuthunderbolts all through the
inside.
It has chokemon on it.
It's something that, like when Ipicked up as a kid, I looked at
it and I was like, oh, I'll makethis my entire personality.
There you go.
So I thought it was a replicafor Bruce Lee, right?

(07:32):
Yeah, the Bruce Gi.
You.
You'd be surprised how manytimes I've gotten that, I think
like maybe six or seven times.
Somebody's oh, I like the BruceGi, and I'm like.
Yeah.
Thumbs up, right?
Oh yeah, but it's actually aPokemon Gi.
Yeah.
You're gonna show me the insideof it the next time I see you at
open mat.
Okay, cool.
Is there anything else thatyou'd like to talk about in
regards to your childhood?

(07:54):
How about academically?
How'd you do as a kid growingup?
did you struggle?
Did you have any hurdles thatyou had to overcome?
In terms of schooling?
It was never really, um, it wasmore of being passionate.
Like I didn't ever have apassion for learning specific
subjects.
I don't really have a passionfor learning, you know, English
and world history and thingslike that.
But then when it came to thesubjects that, you know.

(08:16):
Culinary.
I took maybe nine, 10 semestersof culinary school in high
school, which is like a collegelevel course.
I took that nine, 10 semestersand you're only allowed to take
that five times.
Okay.
Five semesters worth.
Right.
I was really intelligent interms of taking tests, but you
couldn't pay me to do homework.
Like I, there were teachers inhigh school, I shout out Miss

(08:37):
Andrade.
She asked me, Hey, you failedlast year.
What happened?
I was like, I didn't do anyhomework.
She's like, you passed yourtest, right?
And I was like, yeah, of course.
And she was like, okay, well youcan.
You just be my TA.
So I had a free English year.
She gave me every test and aslong as I passed it, she
essentially just gave me an A.
Wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
So you were talented at takingtests?
Yeah.
Like most kids, if you can getthem passionate and interested

(09:00):
about something, it's notusually that they have a problem
learning, it's usually that theyhave a problem caring about
whatever subject it is thatperson is teaching.
As I've gotten into coaching,same sort of thing.
If you can get somebodypassionate or caring about the
thing that you're showing them.
Get them to understand theimportance of it or why it's
important to that person,they're gonna pick it up a lot
quicker or at least with a lotmore desire than just trying to

(09:22):
force it down their throat.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Okay.
So let's go into family andearly struggles.
You've spoken openly about yourfather and the challenges
surrounding that relationship.
How did the absence shape you asa young man?
When you're growing up, youdon't really see it.
But looking back, when you runinto things, as you get to be

(09:43):
more of an an adult man, yourealize oh, this is a result of
not having a father in the home.
Like I had to learn how to shavefrom YouTube videos.
I had to learn how to change atire from, calling my friend on
the phone while I'm like stuckon the side of the road because
I didn't have a father to teachme these practical things.
Right.
But then, at the same time, Ifall back to, how much of a rock

(10:05):
and an inspiration my motherwas, I never went without
wanting anything and I neverwent without learning anything
that was needed.
She showed me how to be a goodperson, which is something that
a father's supposed to show youhow to do.
He is supposed to show you howto stand up for those that can't
stand up for themselves mm-hmm.
and she showed me how to dothat.
Like I have said before, I don'tcare a lot about, speaking good
upon my father, nor do I, wantto speak bad about him.

(10:27):
In terms of giving me somethinghe gave me very little other
than an example of what I don'twant to be when I get up to be,
a man.
Awesome.
You mentioned feeling like themale figure in your household.
What kind of pressure did thatbring and how did you carry it?
It kinda really reared its head,when my mom, got her first

(10:49):
diagnosis with cancer, I wasjust getting out to be, 17, 18.
I was decided at where I wasgonna go into college.
I was gonna go into culinaryschool and I was finally
finishing out my, athleticcareer with wrestling.
And my mom gets hit with this,cancer diagnosis.
And I take a step back and dothe big adult realization that
oh, I'm about to move away two,three hours away from my home,

(11:12):
and the only persons that'sgonna be there is gonna be my
little sister who's justbecoming a freshman, sophomore.
My mom and my elderlygrandparents who don't have the
wherewithal to really take careof somebody emotionally or
monetarily or physically who'sgoing through this sort of
battle.
Right?
So that was where I had to make,at least in my interpretation,

(11:33):
it's not like somebody told methis outright.
I made the interpretation thatit was in my family's best
interest for me to take a stepback and go to supporting those
within the household.
And being the big male figurethat you know, I didn't have
when I was growing up and endthe cycle, so to say and be
like, okay, if somebody wasn'tgonna be there for me, I'm not
gonna put that on somebody else.

(11:53):
I'm just gonna be the nextperson that is there for the
person who doesn't have it.
And at that moment it was my momand my sister and, Thank God,
eventually she ended up beatingthat battle and we were able to
move on with all of our adultlives.
My sister had her full, senioryear.
She went to every ball, everyprom, every trip.
She got, you know, every sort ofthing she could want for in her

(12:15):
senior year.
And that was the big goal thatme and my mom had.
Oh, that's great.
The two of you Yeah.
Put together helped your sisterout.
That's awesome.
Let's go into your sportsjourney and discovering
wrestling.
Let's talk about your accidentalentry into wrestling.
Yeah.
It's, a funny story.
you talk about the few thingsthat my father gave me.
Was a love for the, WWF, assomebody who literally resembled

(12:39):
the exact identity of Stone ColdSteve Austin.
He was my first favoritewrestler.
I was really into to WWF back inthe day.
I heard over the intercom in mymiddle school.
I think it was like seventhgrade, had to be 12, 13, 14
years old.
They did this thing over theintercom, Hey, we're doing
tryouts for wrestling.
I'm like, okay.
Hell yeah.
I'm gonna go in there.

(12:59):
I'm gonna put somebody through atable.
I'm gonna hit him with a chair.
I'm gonna throw Stone Coldstunner on him.
And I walk through the door,ready, gung-ho, ready to go.
And.
It was very quick within thefirst couple minutes that I
don't think that this is quitewhat it is, but we'll see what
it, we'll see what we get there.
I got to the end of the week.
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, this is actuallypretty interesting.
It's not, it's obviously not,you know, hitting people with

(13:20):
chairs, but, it was very cool,very interesting, very
different.
I love being part of a team andlike the individuality of being
both a team and an individual ina sport.
And then by the end of the year,even though I lost every single
match, like the worst, immediatepins, 30 seconds, barely into a
minute, into the round, and justlosing every match.

(13:41):
But by the end of the year, it'ssomething I fell in love with.
Every time I talk about it, Ijust get a smile on my face.
I love the sport of wrestling somuch.
Yeah, It is pretty amazing.
it looks really grueling.
Just the workouts in itself.
So what made you stay even afterlosing every match the first
year?
The big thing is Marty, my firstwrestling coach in middle

(14:02):
school, Marty Serrano, stillcoaches to this day, with DC.
He's the JV coach for Gilroy.
He's one of the main coaches forSolorsano Middle School.
He's been a pillar of thewrestling community.
He's.
just, that father figure that Inever had growing up.
The one that made you work,being proud, being prideful of
your effort.
And even though I was losingevery match, I would look over

(14:25):
at Marty and I would see okay,he's proud of me.
He's happy with what I'm doing.
He's hard guy to get, you know,inside of like he's rough around
the edges.
He's one of those, if you earnthe, I'm proud of you.
It's one of those big thingsthat sort of drives you forward.
Awesome.
What did wrestling teach youthat carried into other areas of
your life?

(14:46):
I mean, everything like theinability to give up on
something is something that wasabsolutely beaten into me in
wrestling.
I can't tell you how many thingsI've held onto far past the
point of which I probably shouldhave let go of it.
And even my MMA journey is areflection of that, where I am
200 plus pounds, within five,six years of not doing MMA.

(15:10):
And you know, I'm just like, oneday, no, I think I want to do
this and I'm just gonna do itbecause I'm not giving up on
myself.
And it's something that Marty,it's something that other
coaches, Miguel, Maldonado, GregVerella, Armando would be like,
no, Toasty.
We're getting back on the matand we're gonna keep grinding.
My MMA life of just not givingup my wrestling life, my sort of

(15:34):
mentality of not thinking I wasgonna be able to coach wrestling
and then low and behold, acouple years later, that's what
I get to do.
Wrestling has taught me do notgive up on anything no matter
what.
Nice.
You played everything fromhockey to horseshoes.
What made wrestling stick morethan the rest It's the ability
to be both a team and anindividual sport is like other

(15:57):
sports, try to replicate it withlike team scores and
overarching, tournamentvictories.
But like I've seen, like jiujitsu does it and other sports
do it the same.
But wrestling is so ingrainedand so like you're, I can't
describe how much of anindividual you feel like how
much, um.

(16:22):
Man, I cannot think of the wordagency.
How much agency you get as to bein control of your own destiny
within wrestling, as well asalso constantly thinking about
how this is gonna affect theteam.
Everything has a team scorebehind it, whether or not you're
shaking hands and beingrespectful to your opponent or
the other coaches, whether ornot you're throwing head
gearing, being overly emotionalin your matches.

(16:44):
Everything has a reflection onboth the team and you.
Okay.
Let's move into another area.
That you're very passionateabout, which is culinary.
Yeah.
I love the twist in your story,you actually went to culinary
school How did that happen?
It's one of those things that mymom taught me when I was
younger.
Being a single parent, you wannaget every minute of a sleep you

(17:06):
can.
And so she taught me how toscramble some eggs, uhhuh just
to keep herself in bed a littlebit longer when I was growing
up.
And, I was one of those things,I was like, oh.
I can just add anything to this.
I can do anything I want.
There's no rules, there'snothing stopping me, mama's
sleeping.
I can do what I want.
And so from there, it's morphedinto what can I grab from the
cabinet and add to it.

(17:26):
And I started watching FoodNetwork and Chef's Network and
all this other stuff.
Then going into high school, Ifound out that they had a
college level culinary course.
So I signed up for it as afreshman.
Went into the class and got myfeet wet and really got a
passion for it and reallyburning inside.
I think in middle school I evenwas telling people I wanted to
be a chef when I grew up.

(17:47):
And then in high school when Itook that class I was like, oh,
it's set.
This is what I'm telling myacademic director, this is what
I'm doing.
They ended up having to kick meout of the culinary class, they
have a set rule.
You're only allowed to take it acertain amount of semesters.
So they only allow juniors andseniors.
So I ended up taking it for asemester, freshman year, calling
them again the next year to takeit another semester.

(18:08):
Took it junior year, and then asa senior, I took it twice being
her TA.
My culinary teacher just seeingme so much there pushed me along
to jump into the culinary, worldof college.
Going to culinary school, signedme up for a, culinary
competition at the college.
I ended up going to shout out.
Chef Betty.
Thank you so much for that.
I signed up for a culinarycompetition, went out there into

(18:30):
Sunnyville, and I ended uptaking first and got a
scholarship to go to college.
Oh, that's great.
What was your dish That youpresented?
It was one of those like uniformthings.
They didn't want anyone to like,be beating just because they
chose a better, like, tastingdish.
So it was just like, grilledchicken and with a sauce, a
basic like barbecue sauce andBroccoli and potatoes, but it's

(18:50):
just showing like, Hey, makesure that you can follow the
instructions, cut everything theright way.
Can you do a Julianne, can youdo a dice?
What's a medium dice?
What's a large dice?
Can you cook an egg?
Can you scramble an egg, fry anegg?
Things like that.
And then when you finally got tothe thing you presented was,
just a basic, chicken with sauceand broccoli.
Okay?
Pretty cool.

(19:11):
Yeah, it actually reflects on mylast fight.
So my last fight, they announcedthe wrong winner.
As I'm standing in the middle ofthe cage, they announced the
wrong winner and I go to theback.
I'm all disappointed.
And they come back there andthey announce, Hey, actually you
won.
And I go back there and theyannounce me.
It sort of bittersweet.
It drove me back to culinary,that same competition that I
went to do.
They announced the guy who wonsecond as the winner.
And so I'm like walking outtathe room and they're like, oh,

(19:34):
actually no, you won.
They brought me back.
And I'm like, oh no, I.
Guess I'm gonna college.
Wow.
Confusion, right?
Yeah.
All right.
Do you find any overlap betweencooking and martial arts in
terms of focus or creativity?
I think a little bit of both,for sure.
On the creativity side, like Isaid, the ability to know the
basic rules, how to cook an egg,and then like you can add and do

(19:57):
whatever you want to and make itanything you want.
Essentially a scrambled egg canbe, a souffle, frittata, omelet,
you can do just about anythingwith it.
The same way you can know, youdo a sidekick, you can throw a
spinning back kick, you canthrow this kick round, kick,
head, kick, you can, mix upfaints and do things like that.
It's once you have like thesmall ingredients, it's just
like whatever flare and howeveryou can put'em and piece'em

(20:20):
together and make the flavors orthe moves sing together, to the
point of everything has atechnical base and needs to be a
certain way.
And in culinary you would callit mise en place.
Everything has its place.
The same thing with like martialarts.
If I don't come in here with mygloves, it doesn't really matter
how much striking you wanna do.
If your stuff's not in the rightplace, if your mind's not in the

(20:41):
right place, your gear's not inthe right place, your body's not
in the right place.
Correct, yeah.
All right.
Toasty, you said there was anadvantage in regards to your
culinary background, can youtell me about that?
Yeah, A lot of MMA is like thefuel you put in the gas tank,
right?
And, um.
Correct.
Culinary from, being able tojust physically cook stuff, to

(21:03):
knowing what is in everything,how much of everything your body
needs is a big thing.
It's definitely been to a hugeadvantage in me being able to
satisfy my sweet tooth withoutgoing overboard on sugar or,
being really wanting somethingsalty without going overboard on
sodium.
Being able to, know how muchwater I'm drinking, how many
calories I'm consuming.
These are all things that, youknow, through culinary that I

(21:26):
think I have a huge advantageover.
If you look through myInstagram, that you'd be
surprised at how many thingsthat like I just cook from
scratch with like protein powderor, blending oats and making my
own sort of mug cups.
And you know, I almost had a,half thought of making my own
sort of Instagram of just food,based off of just how much,
value you get from knowingwhat's in and around your food

(21:49):
as a fighter.
I think that would be a goodidea, even teach other fighters
how to prepare their food.
Yeah.
Let's talk about MMA and martialarts You were on track to fight
in MMA before pausing forfamily.
How hard was it?
To make that call?
It's probably one of the harderdecisions I've made in my life.

(22:10):
It was one of those things thatlike, it was like the big
turning point when you realizethat oh, you don't get to just
do what you want to do, all yourlife.
Sometimes you have to do thingsthat life requires from you.
There are other people that youare going to end up being
responsible for and like yourchoice of who you're gonna make
you're self responsible for yourfamily, would be a big one of

(22:31):
'em.
And, seeing my sister, wantingto give her as many of those
years as I possibly could, aswell as being able to give my
mom some sort of support systemthat she probably didn't have, a
lot throughout her life, was, itwas a very challenging decision,
as you said, but it was one ofthose things that like if I had
to make that decision again, I'dmake it a hundred times over.
That's awesome.

(22:52):
So when you came back in 2018,what changed in your mindset and
your approach?
So when I went away and took myhiatus to support my family, um,
I obviously, I'm caring moreabout like supporting the family
than I am about like my bodyphysically.
Eventually I got up to, I thinkyou're not weighing yourself

(23:12):
when you don't feel good, so Iwould expect or estimate, I
probably was like at 2 60, 2 70something around there.
Oh wow.
I was very big and somethingjust snapped in my head and I
was like, I'm over feeling theway I feel.
You know, with the seatbelt kindof coming across and sticking in
that crease between my belly andmy boob, I didn't really like
that too much, so I was like,you know what?
I'm over this and it was whenCovid was going around, it was

(23:35):
very hard to get back in thegym.
And so I used that to myadvantage and was like, no one
likes being in the gym and beingat the bottom when everyone else
is being at their peak.
And so you gotta self-conscious,things like that.
So I found a gym in San Jose,eventually started going back
and there was like maybe two,three people in the gym at any
one time.
So it's like you never reallyfeel too down on yourself

(23:56):
because you're comparingyourself to what.
One other guy, two other guys.
So eventually I got back into itand I think when I had my first
scheduled bout after gettingback into it, I had at 2 0 5.
So, Between jumping back in andgetting my first fight, I had
already lost like 65 pounds.
That's great.
That's pretty tough to do, but alot of hard work pays off.

(24:19):
Yeah.
Okay.
Consistent work.
So you fought in 14 sanctionedMMA bouts.
What were some of the biggestlessons inside and outside the
cage?
Each individual one has a lot oflessons, but if you look over
the whole thing, I think a bigone is your mentality.

(24:42):
Like you don't realize how muchstress, how much not sleeping,
how much bickering with yourfamily or your girlfriend or,
your friends or, your coworkersor anything like that is
draining you and keeping youfrom being at your best at any
given time.
And if you're not at your bestwhen you're in the gym, putting
in the work, you can't reallyexpect to be at your best when

(25:02):
you're in the cage and things ofthat nature.
You gotta be able to stopbickering with your coaches.
Stop bickering with yourmanager.
Stop bickering with yourgirlfriend.
Like things that don't need tobe on your priority list.
You need to be able to pushthose things out.
You need to have support groupsaround you, your family and
friends that allow you to Itsucks to say it like this, but
put them on the back burner.

(25:23):
I can't tell you how many timesI've had to cancel on, date
nights or going out with friendsto parties and things like that.
And, the people around me arethe ones that are like, yeah,
absolutely.
I understand.
there's nothing more importantthan protecting your brain from
getting hit in the head bysomebody who's trying to take it
off.
I bet.
Yeah.
Do you have a favorite fight ormoment that lives rent free in

(25:47):
your head?
For sure.
The two big ones would probablybe like the, like coolest move
and like highlights that I haveon my Instagram would be my
bulldog choke in Santa Cruz,Daniel Compton threw one of his
CCFC cards on the boardwalk,which is cool enough in itself.
Fighting on the boardwalk is socool.
Oh, I didn't get to make that.
I heard about that.
He was so sick.

(26:08):
We do the card over there.
I have a fight booked and thenthat fight falls out.
So I end up getting a gentlemanby the name of Joey Bartholomew
a great individual's, so muchrespect for him.
He takes the fight on shortnotice.
We go out there.
We, it was a great grimy fight.
It was so awesome to watch oneof those entertaining the whole
way through.
But there's a moment, I think inthe second round where I have

(26:28):
him in like a bulldog choke sortof Ben Askren uh, versus, Robbie
Lawler.
And we're on the floor and I'mjust trying to rip it and he's
pushing me up against the cageand I'm like, I don't wanna stop
and I don't wanna push into him.
I just literally walk my feetstraight up the cage where
there's a point where I'm likealmost vertical in the air, just
standing on his shoulders with abulldog choke and then we flip

(26:50):
over.
It's a really cool video.
Really cool sequence that, likeyou said, rinse rent free in my
head.
The other one would be, my firsttitle fight, that I had as an
amateur was against somebodythat I don't think I had any
business beating a black beltthat owns his own gym out in
Santa Cruz.
Fighting on a card where thepromoter is one of his students.
And I go out there as somebodywho just barely got his Gi on

(27:12):
and end up, I think in thesecond round, put a rear naked
choke on him that made a blackbelt, tap out.
So it's like one of thosethings, like anyone can beat
anybody on any given moment.
It's just a matter of giveyourself that opportunity.
That sounds great.
Awesome.
Is there anything else thatyou'd like to talk about in your
MMA journey?
I think a big part of my MMAjourney has gotta be, my friend

(27:33):
Andrew Gomez, I mentioned himearlier.
He's one of those guys that ifhe hadn't been in my life, I
would've just been some wrestlerkid.
It wouldn't have been anything.
I would've never gotten into jiujitsu or TaeKwonDo or anything
like that.
I did have an interest in theUFC, so maybe I would've went
that route.
But in terms of getting me, tolearn jiu jitsu to learn

(27:54):
TaeKwonDo, to learn Muay Thai,kickboxing to get me back into
fighting in 2018.
It all comes back to AndrewGomez.
One of my great friends growingup, he's only two years older
than me, but in terms of thingsthat somebody has taught me, I
can't really list somebody otherthan Andrew who's taught me more
things in my life.
All right.

(28:15):
Let's start navigating to jiujitsu and your growth there.
How did your jiu jitsu journeybegin?
I had been wrestling in middleschool.
I jumped back into wrestling inhigh school.
And after getting into wrestlingin high school again, I was
fooling around with, one of mybuddies out in the field and, at
the school.
And like I said, Andrew waslike, Hey, you want me to show

(28:35):
you how to do some like jiujitsu stuff for that?
'cause he had saw me do as adelinquent sort of the little
backyard fights that we used todo in high school where we'd get
together on Wednesdays in ourbuddies Michael's house and just
have fights in the backyardlike.
The Ultimate Fighter.
He saw Heard me do a couple ofthem.
He was like, Hey, you want me tohelp you out?
Like finish'em, you know,instead of just sitting on top
of him wrestling him the wholetime.

(28:56):
Being one of those kids that'sjust open to everything, allowed
him to show me, which was myfirst submission, which was the
Americana, go out to the nextone the next week, and I submit
every single person in thebackyard.
And you know, it's one of thosethings I'm like.
we're learning this now.
How old were you then?
Sophomore in high school.
Okay.
From there, he brought me intothe TaeKwonDo gym that we had
here in town Champions, martialarts, Pellidos Pro Fitness.

(29:18):
and from there we learn jiujitsu from the moves that his
uncle would teach him, or theonline videos we would find on
the Gracie Garage.
His, uncle was a, jiu jitsufighter for our Gracie fight
team down in the Lodi area.
And so he would teach Andrewsome things.
Andrew would teach me somestuff, and then from there we
sort of took off.
We ended up taking over thecoaching job at Gilroy Health

(29:42):
and Fitness when they had an MMAprogram after Ant Dawg's left
and coached in Morgan Hill Fromthere, and then I just barely
got back into doing actual gijiu jitsu within like the past
three years.
Okay.
Give me some background on yourgym.
AntDawg's has been around inGilroy since I was doing martial
arts in high school.

(30:02):
They had a gym on the other sideof town, that ended up getting
moved over to Gilroy Health andFitness.
They were the first MMA programover there.
They ended up leaving and then Iended up going into Gilroy
Health after that.
Just one of those things, smallworld just barely missing each
other.
AntDawg's ended up moving into,this building that you see here
and they've been thriving eversince, growing more and more

(30:25):
over and over.
I ended up coming in here,because my last gym that I was
at in San Jose, as I got backinto, got shut down.
I had been training for a fight,so I'm like in my front yard
just training.
One of my now teammates, Alandriving by, calls me over and
invites me to come to AntDawg's.
And I've been at AntDawg's eversince.
They've housed multiple UFCBellator, PFL fighters.

(30:51):
Brianna has been an Invictachampion, ant do himself, has
fought all over the place.
From Nevada to, LA.
We had Jesse Delgado in heretraining.
Adin Duenes has fought JoshEmmett.
Countless.
Great talents have come to thisgym.
Awesome Any lessons you'velearned as a white belt?

(31:11):
the big lesson is, as any whitebelt would need to know coming
in is that like anybody can be abeginner, especially somebody
who's, has so much, time spentin doing MMA or grappling or jiu
jitsu still doesn't matter.
As a white belt, anybody can bea beginner.
Anybody can learn anything fromanybody.
And that would probably be thebiggest lesson I would learn as

(31:32):
a white belt.
Even though my time has been soshort, getting my white belt and
then I think within six monthsgetting my blue, it's still
that, that time of just everysingle class, every single
person looking at you tocritique your small little
movements to make sure thatthose foundations are correct,
is a big eyeopener that like,oh, even though I thought that
those foundations are correct,it's still good to relearn and

(31:55):
be a beginner again.
Nice.
What did getting your blue beltmean to you?
I think when I got it initiallyI thought it was like.
An acknowledgement that, okay.
What I learned before was like,not wrong.
A lot of self-consciousness fromlearning, just from my buddy who
learned from his uncle orlearning from like these videos

(32:16):
online.
You never want to be, that guywho just watches YouTube videos
and just tries stuff in the gym.
So it was like anacknowledgement to me, okay,
you, you did know.
What you were talking about, youweren't wrong.
So now it's just a matter ofhaving that confidence to go
forward and use the skills tobetter those that are trying to
move up to the same rank you areor trying to, get up to the

(32:37):
same, level of grappling thatyours is.
And since I've had it, it's beena big eye-opener in terms of
patience.
Just keeping it for longer thanI expected is one of those
things that's like just becausegetting it made you confident
doesn't mean that you can't gettoo confident and you should
make sure to keep that in checkas well.
Humility.
Yes, exactly.

(32:58):
You mentioned learning patienceas a blue belt.
How has that changed your game?
Or your perspective?
A big one would be like myperspective on like, you can't,
and you would think that Iwould've learned this already,
but you still just gotta relearnlessons, it doesn't matter what
a belt or an accommodation andaccolade someone has is like

(33:20):
everybody that accolade thatrank that regard doesn't make
that person who they are anddoesn't make me who I am.
So I can't look at a belt andlook at a ranking and expect
something to give me, some sortof permission to be myself.
I have to just be who I am andnot let you know, a rank or a

(33:43):
belt define me.
In jiu jitsu, Do you teach?
Yeah.
Not in that like I take over ordo a class.
But almost all the time in everyclass that I'm in, because
there's so many people in thisgym, every class is like seven
to 17 different groups, pairs ofpeople on the mat, right?
There's only one coach for everyclass.

(34:04):
I can't tell you how many timesI have to, you know, stop what
I'm doing to help out.
It's not that like I have thetitle of being a coach, but in
terms of what people look at youas in the gym, a lot of'em look
to me to give them guidance.
So I take it upon myself to, todo that.
And in doing that you have tomake sure.
That what you're saying is, tothe tee, you can't be skipping

(34:26):
steps when you're showingsomebody how to shrimp or how
to, frame off or things likethat.
I can't be instilling my badhabits on those that are looking
at me for guidance.
Coaching and guiding in thatregard has definitely changed a
lot of my game in terms ofmaking sure that my foundations
are actually solid.
Okay.
Have you competed in jiu jitsu?
Yeah.
I've got, I've been able to, nowthat I've gotten my gi, jump in

(34:49):
and do some competitions.
I think I've had four so far.
I had one here in town, theGarlic City Invitational.
I was able to do a GrapplingIndustries tournament.
I was able to do a submissionson the shore tournament, and
then at one of the Evo Expos,last year, I believe, I had the
opportunity to fill in, a gap onthe MMA program and did a jiu
jitsu competition.
The Garlic City Invitational wasmy first foyer into advanced

(35:12):
belts.
I think the same weekend of megetting my blue belt.
So that was a big jump in termsof getting into the.
Sort of away from the kittypool, so to say, of competitions
and getting away from just,people who are learning to
compete and getting to peoplewho are, into the depths of
competing.
The grappling industries was onewhere I was able to, or I chose

(35:32):
to go in, at a different weightclass'cause.
I just commented off a fight andI didn't wanna cut weight.
Think I grappled at 180, 185mm-hmm.
While I weighed 160.
Then the other two were just oneof those things where I was just
sort of filling in.
I didn't really have, any planto do it, but it was, one of
those things you get anopportunity to take it.
Yeah.
Is there anything else inJiu-Jitsu you'd like to talk

(35:53):
about?
It's just funny how small of a,you know, a world, just the
entire combat sports is.
The very last guy I did thatcompetition with the Evo Expo,
somebody that I've ended upworking with at a bar in San
Jose doing security.
One of my teammates here,Elijah, has competed against, a
gentleman by the name of Gavinmultiple times through multiple
jiu jitsu competitions.

(36:14):
Low and behold, within the lasttwo months, he ends up coming to
the gym and signing up here.
I've competed against a coupleof guys from Koffee Krew at the
jiu jitsu Industry competition.
It's just so funny how small ofa world these combat sports, can
be where, you're competingagainst one guy one day and then
like they're your buddy at thegym the next day.
So true.
Yeah.

(36:34):
Friendship through pain.
Yeah, exactly.
And suffering.
Trauma bonding.
There you go.
Let's go into coaching andmentorship.
Okay.
Yes.
Let's talk about coaching highschool, wrestling.
How did that opportunity comeabout?
Matt Corona was the coach forChristopher High School.

(36:56):
His son, Logan Corona, had justgraduated senior year.
So he was moving on to help outhis daughter with volleyball.
So that left Christopher Highwith an opening as a head coach.
Coach Ant here at the gym foundout.
His son was a former state,wrestler for Christopher High
School.
Found out that they were lookingfor a head coach and immediately
thought of me.
I had been helping out with themiddle school, wrestling program

(37:18):
with Chad Haygood the yearbefore.
And being someone that I believeCoach Ant has a lot of trust in,
he immediately brought thatopportunity to me.
I sort of was like, yeah, that'dbe something I'd really like to
do.
And you know, one of thosethings you say oh, I wanna do,
but just never put some effortinto doing'cause you didn't
think it was something you coulddo or something that they would
want you for.

(37:38):
It's something you weren'tqualified for.
And I think for like two weeksAnt every single morning would
be like, Hey, so you signed up.
Uh, You applied right?
You applied right?
Yeah.
You applied right?
You applied right.
And eventually, with hispressure and a few of the
wrestling moms here at the gym,Kristen and Jules, just cracked
my shell and I was like, screwit, I'll put it in the
application.
Went to the district, put in myapplication, and, after a few

(38:00):
interviews, low and beholdyou're talking to a new coach at
Christopher High School.
You know, bucket list job.
Something I never thought Iwould have the opportunity to
do, but always wanted to have.
I could not be any more gratefulto Coach Ant for pushing me in
that direction.
That's awesome.
What did it feel like leadingyour team to state and walking
away with wins?

(38:20):
Being a brand new coach for aprogram that's in the same city
as DC and Gilroy High School,you don't really give yourself
too much of a chance, but it'sone of those things, wrestling
doesn't tell you to give up justbecause you don't think you have
a chance.
Doesn't matter what rank someoneis or what belt they have, you
just gotta put forward theeffort and wrestle, wrestle your
match.
As I've told my wrestlers allyear, like anybody can be beaten

(38:43):
in and you can beat anybody inthe world.
It doesn't really matter who itis in front of you.
To go out and not haveexpectations, but to set goals
for the team and have them reachevery single one of them.
Go undefeated in every dual meetthat we have.
Go out there and almost pinevery single opponent on one of
our duals.
Go out to CCS and take third asa team where people didn't even

(39:07):
give us a regard to take top 15at all.
And then.
To be somewhere that I neverthought I would be at the end of
a wrestling year and be at thestate tournament with a wrestler
in the bracket and being threeto 10 seconds away from being on
that podium.
Two wins at the state tournamentis something that it will be a

(39:28):
core memory till the day I die.
That's something that nobody cantake away from me and nobody can
take away from any of thesekids.
Wow.
They worked hard.
Absolutely grinded.
Unreal.
What have your athletes on yourwrestling team taught you?
They've taught me a lot, about,myself emotionally, I think.

(39:48):
I always thought that like Ialways had like myself in check
and I always thought that like Iwould be able to, be that stern
rock that like never broke downor cry, but I can't tell you how
many times these kids have mademe so proud that I just start
crying in the middle of thecorner and giving them hugs
after wins and, I thought that Iwas that big mountain, but it

(40:09):
turns out I'm just a big softielike everybody else.
They've taught me that you canbe both, hard nose and grinding
and put your nose to it, but Ican't tell you how many times
I've looked back and seen thesekids goofing around and joking
around with their buddies andstill being kids and, not taking
it so seriously that like it's ajob and still finding love and
passion.

(40:29):
And every single time they're inthe room and they're on the trip
to the dual meets and they'renot competing this weekend, but
they're still at the JV dual, orthey're still at the girls dual,
they're still at the tournamentfor the other kids.
And, they're all lined up at theedge of the mat and screaming
and cheering for theirteammates.
It's something that, I hope thatI continue to have and that I
can continue to build.
Yeah, it's nice.

(40:50):
Seeing kids develop Yeah.
And then become champions.
It's amazing.
Did you want to talk about, thestudent that you took to state?
Yeah.
In fact, she's actually one ofthe girls that, I knew before
becoming a coach there.
Her brother Anthony Deek issomebody who fought for Ant
Dawgs.
He's somebody who's, I trainedjiu jitsu with here at the gym

(41:12):
up until the point where he wasa brown belt.
I watched him propose to his nowwife on this very mat at an open
mat, in this gym.
He and his sister are like twopeas in a pod.
They're both always smiles andalways happy and always bubbly
and but at the same time, again,it's one of those things where
as soon as they flip the switch,put the nose to the grindstone.

(41:34):
They never stop working.
Jules gets her wisdom teethpulled and her tonsils pulled
and she's into the next day, or,she has a major headache or
she's dehydrated or whatever itis.
You never hear her complain.
You never hear her cry.
She's always there on time.
She's always working hard, butyet at the same time, she's

(41:55):
always got a smile on her face.
She's always happy.
She never lets losses beat herdown too hard.
She doesn't live in sorrow andshe likes to live in, in, in the
moment and live in thehappiness, and that's.
That's all you can ever wantfrom a kid.
Yeah, absolutely.
What did she teach you?
She taught me that like, itdoesn't matter if you make the
most noise or if anybodyexpected anything from you.

(42:16):
It's all about putting in, thatnext match, that next step.
Just wrestling the thing infront of you, not focusing on
what's gonna happen at the endof the year, or have these
expectations just wrestle thenext match in front of you,
fight the next fight, take thenext step, get through the next
minute of your weight cut, andthen the next minute of your
weight cut, and by the end ofthe year you're at 30 minutes
and your weight cuts over.

(42:36):
She's the kind of person thatlike never stops and never gives
up.
I may have already had thatthought in my mind of like, you
know, you, grow up alreadyknowing that.
But it's one of those things,it's a another lesson of passion
doesn't come at the expense ofhard work or, joy.
How Important has yourcommunity, your gym, and your
girlfriend, Sabrina, been onthis journey?

(42:57):
The support system, I can'tstress enough how, important
that is.
The people around you are theones that are gonna be helping
you the most, besides justyourself, obviously giving you
the space to, to say no or sayyes to things, to be who you
need to be so that you can getwhat you need to get out of your
training.
I've had plenty of girlfriendsthrough this journey where,

(43:20):
they'll say, Hey, you can takedays off, from hanging out with
me to go to the gym.
It's not a big deal.
And then three months later downthe road, it's very hard to, it
is a big deal.
It is a very big deal.
Yeah, exactly.
Somebody like Sabrina, who, hasbeen in the combat world, she's
trained at Kung Lee's gym.
She's trained at AKA, she'sintricate with wrestling and jiu

(43:41):
jitsu and she's very versed inthis world.
Has been an absolute Godsend interms of being a support system
for me.
My mom and my sister, obviouslytwo of the biggest pillars in my
life.
I don't think that they'vemissed a single fight that I've
had, my mom even getting arecent diagnosis again, from the

(44:04):
doctor with I think like twothree, weeks before my last
fight was a very big deal andstill was in the front row
screaming her mind off at theresults.
My sister and my girlfriend, youcould hear in the videos over
everybody else.
You could hear them over thecoaches.
And they are the absolute threepillars in terms of support.

(44:27):
My friends at the gym who everysingle day they're at my house.
Just absolutely living there,essentially.
Helping me, vent and ventingtheir regards, I'm helping them
with stuff.
They're helping me with stuff.
Ant has been an absolute wonderin terms of just welcome me in
with open arms, offering me hisgym to do a podcast.

(44:47):
Offering the gym to Koffee Krewwhenever we have opportunities,
allowing me to bring extrapeople into spar with, being
somebody willing to, oh, heyAlan, you have somebody who just
wants to use the gym for hisfight.
Sure, whatever.
Come on in.
Cool.
Have a good day.
There aren't people much likeAnthony Figueroa in this world,
and I cannot be any more blessedto have him as somebody in my

(45:11):
support system.
That's cool.
He sounds like a great guy.
Yeah, he was a good guy.
Okay.
I got a Pokemon tattooed for himon my leg.
Do you?
Yeah.
all the Pokemon that I havetattooed on my leg all represent
somebody, The Shinx is for mycap.
The Sunflora is for my mom.
I have a Psyduck and a Throh anda Swak for the buddies that are

(45:32):
at my house all the time.
And then I have the Machop line,Machop, Machamp, and Machoke on
my leg.
And um, Machamp is for AnthonyFigueroa.
The two Machokes are for AnthonyFigueroa, Jr.
Joseph Figueroa, and then theMachop is for Alexa Figueroa.
The entire family is on my leg.
Very cool.
How about you?
What's your main, Pokemon.

(45:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
My mine would be Charmander forsure.
Cool.
Yeah.
One day I'll get him tattooed onme somewhere.
I have a plot that I have beenscheming against my future wife.
I'm gonna name my firstdaughter.
Her first name's gonna be Charm,and her middle name will be
Ander.
Charmander.
Very cool.
The moment where you found anold tournament photo and Sabrina
was right next to you.

(46:14):
Can you tell me about that?
Yeah, when me and Sabrina firststarted talking, we were
chatting about our familiaritywith Kung Lee and, the gyms in
the area.
AKA, the fact that she trainsthe fact that I trained.
Excuse me.
I was telling her that, yeah, Idid a tournament up at Kung
Lee's gym up in San Jose back inthe day.
She was like, yeah, I think Iwas there too.
So I went and searched for somepictures on Facebook as you do.

(46:35):
Found all the pictures from thattournament and go to show she's
not only in two of the picturesthat I'm in for this tournament,
one at the rules meeting and oneat the awards ceremony.
We're literally sitting next toeach other in the picture and I
go to send her all thosepictures, I'm like, oh wow.
Look it! We're in the weigh inpicture, the instructional
picture.
And she's no, not only that,we're in the award ceremony

(46:56):
picture too.
I looked two pictures over andthere she is.
It's such a small world, thecombat, uh, sports world, the
wrestling world.
It's funny how like evenAntDawg's was at that same
tournament, and it's one of thefirst times that Anthony
Figueroa was like, Hmm, I likethat kid looks interesting.
So you guys were right next toeach other and you didn't even
know it.
Didn't even know it.

(47:17):
If our paths had crossed at thattime, would we be where we are
today?
Probably not.
Exactly.
You can't ever think thatsomething that, you would think
would be a negative is somethingthat is not gonna end up in the
right way.
Fate, God, whatever it is youwant to call it, has a way of
getting you where you need tobe.
Absolutely.
I agree.
What does it mean to you to havesomeone who understands the

(47:39):
world you're standing in?
In terms of Sabrina?
It's so hard, like saying thesame repetitive thing to
somebody and being like, theythink you're coming up with
excuses like, no, I have to beat the gym.
There's nothing more importantthan protecting my brain, from
brain damage.
Somebody doesn't like hearingthe same thing over and over.

(47:59):
But you know, having somebodywho's openly been like, oh no,
absolutely, go do this thing.
I want you to be at the gym.
I want you to get up at five 30.
Hey, are you setting your alarm?
You gotta be up at the gym atfive 30.
Come on, you gotta wake up.
Not, oh, you're getting up.
Come on, please pull me backinto bed.
And things of that nature.
To sort of know and be able to,give me the space to chase what

(48:23):
I wanted to chase is somethingvery hard for most people to do.
So to, to be able to do that forme, has gotta be a strong
person.
Yeah, absolutely.
So that scar on your head, howdid your, your family and
Sabrina do with, seeing you, gethit hard?
Sabrina's a wild one.
She actually patched me up aswe're driving home from San

(48:43):
Francisco.
I'm driving she's not ascomfortable with a stick shift.
I've always driven a stickshift.
Yeah.
I have an eye patch just goingstraight across my face looking
like it's straight from EscapeLA and it's falling off.
It's getting bad like it's in myeyeball, I'm leaking everywhere
and I'm like, oh no, we gottaget back.
I want to get Denny's at two inthe morning.
I'm so over this.

(49:03):
And she's just like, okay, noworries.
Just pulls it off my face.
Blood's coming down.
She's just patting blood off myface, no qualms, no worries, and
just throws another patch overmy face.
Pulls out of her medical bagthat she brought with her
because she wanted to beprepared, knows exactly what to
bring for nosebleeds because ofhow many wrestlers and people in
her life, she's had to patch upthrough her thing.

(49:24):
It is really, really cool.
I don't think the guy at Denny'swas too excited to see the guy
with a gaping hole on his facesitting at his dinner table.
That's funny, man.
That's awesome that she doesthat for you.
Yeah.
If you could give a message backto your younger self, what would
that be?
That's a good, really goodquestion.
Take your time.

(49:46):
What would you tell your youngerself like about your future or
anything in general?
I guess it's something that I'velearned, like probably more
towards my end of my twenties islike, is a phrase that I
learned.
At least the meaning of is like,this too shall pass.
Don't get too into the weeds ofanything.

(50:09):
Don't get too low on yourself.
Don't get so high on yourselfthat you don't, look for anybody
for guidance or help.
If you win the lottery tomorrow,this too shall pass.
If somebody in your family diesthe next week, this too shall
pass.
If you gain 200, 300 pounds,this too shall pass.

(50:31):
As long as you put in theeffort, as long as you keep your
nose grinding.
Everything negative can have apositive.
Anything that has a positive canhave a negative, and we just
gotta stay in the middle andmake sure that we're not overly
on one side either way.
Now bringing up the question inregards to weight.
What would you tell somebody, orwhat type of guidance would you

(50:52):
give somebody that is overweightand wants to get back in shape?
Somebody who, constantly sort ofin that flow of being overweight
and in shape.
When I was young, when I firstgot into wrestling, I was like a
rolly polio.
I was like barely five two, Ithink I weighed 180 near the 200
mark near the heavy weights ofwrestling.
When you're in middle school.

(51:13):
I was not a skinny kid.
And then got into wrestling andit's just as long as you don't
focus on the finish line andjust focus on what's in front of
you.
The next step, the next workout,the next weight cut.
Don't worry about, I need to beat a certain weight.
I'm just gonna keep working.
I'm gonna keep focusing on mycalorie count.
Whatever it is that you're gonnakeep driving for, just keep

(51:33):
plugging away and don't letyourself get over on one side or
the other.
Getting back into to fightingwas a big thing that sort of
helped me.
It doesn't have to be a bigintense workout.
It could be as small as, gettingoff the couch for two hours of
the day, whereas usually you'rethere, you on the couch for 10,
you never stand up.
if you're already at that point,then just take the next step

(51:55):
forward, take the next stepforward.
Don't focus on, I'm 200 pounds,I need to be at 150.
Just don't focus on the finishline.
Just next workout, next thing,and eventually when you look
back you'll be like, wow! I lostan entire person behind me.
When I got back into fighting, Iwas 2 60, 2 80 and when I
finally got my pro license herelast year I had three fights at

(52:18):
1 35, so.
Wow.
It can be a big difference aslong as you don't focus on what
do I have to be at a certainpoint, just keep plugging away.
And eventually by the time youlook back, you'll be a
completely different person.
Yeah.
One step at a time.
Exactly.
If you were to go back and talkto your younger self when you
were wrestling, what would yousay to Toasty?
I'd probably inform him thatthere's like a lot more,

(52:42):
opportunities than he expects.
A lot of kids think that oh,it's just the wrestling team and
school.
You go to your practice, you gohome and that's the end.
Of your rest.
Like, as you get older yourealize is there extra practices
we can do?
Is there extra stuff we can do?
I always was one of those kidsthat wanted to wrestle all the
time, but I never knew that youhad, the Gilroy Hawks in town.
I didn't know that you had localwrestling tournaments in the off

(53:04):
season.
I didn't know that you could goto, other schools and get these
like individual dual meets andstuff like that going.
Just to not be so narrow mindedand only take your practices
like all the wrestling you get.
If you want more wrestling, askfor more wrestling, and you'll
get more wrestling.
What's next for you?
More coaching?
More fighting?
More tattoos?

(53:26):
Por que no los todos Everything.
I want to do it all.
I'm trying to get my foot intoworking for Camo.
I'm trying to get my foot intothe door for coaching wrestling
for, reffing wrestling if I can,get more fights if I can get
Muay Thai fights, if I can getboxing fights.
I did the event that we hadhere, the Semicontact MMA for
the kids.
I was able to get my foot in thedoor and ref for them.

(53:48):
Nice.
Getting some opportunities toref for IKF and to officiate for
them.
I was able to book my friend afight, so I was a little bit of
a manager for a fighter, likeany opportunity that I can take,
especially in this combat world,that's exactly what I wanna do.
Cool.
First things first.
I gotta book a fight though.

(54:09):
What would be your dream fight?
If I, it's very unrealistic, butUrijah Faber is one of those
guys that, was probably the veryfirst fighter just in general
MMA I was watching when he wasstill in the WEC when he was
still fighting Dominic Cruzbefore he started putting his
hair up with gel.
Like when everybody like was awild west of MMA.
Somehow I know he's fighting orsupposed to fight in the GFL, if

(54:31):
somehow I could fight or do somesort of combat thing with Urijah
Faber, I think I could die ahappy man in that moment.
I'd love to see that fight.
All right.
Is there anything else you wannaadd to the podcast?
Anything you'd like to talkabout?
One of the big things would justbe shouting out the gym.
Like I've said, and a fewanswers ago, is they've given me

(54:55):
so many opportunities andwelcome me in with open arms,
working with me in terms of,what my game plan is.
You can go into a lot of gymsand they're like, okay, if you
want to fight for us, you haveto do this then.
And it's What can I do to helpyou on this journey you want to
go through?
Is a lot more of what it ishere.
As you look around the mat spaceon this gym is impeccable.

(55:15):
there's no sort of gym anywherein this area that has the mat
space or the personnel inside ofa place like this.
Anthony Figueroa is one of thenicest human beings on the face
of the planet.
His entire family have beenabsolutely nothing but generous.
They've taken me to CSA and allthese other opportunities that I
wouldn't have any option to doon my own.

(55:37):
They've given me a key to startteaching classes and bring
people like yourself in here, togive other fighters
opportunities to broaden theirhorizons.
We've been able to bring in, I'mthe Bay and do pictures in here
for, photography moments.
We've opened up the gym for IKFand ISKA and things like that.
Just any opportunity I can toshout this place out is

(55:58):
something I'm gonna do.
I love this place to my core.
This is one of those places thatI can't believe that I didn't
start going to when I wasyounger.
Right on.
If somebody needed advice inregards to prepping food.
Can they reach out to you?
Yeah, for sure.
Like I said, I like to get myfoot into a lot of doors, so if
that's something that, somebodyneeds help with.

(56:19):
I've helped a lot of the guys atthe gym just in general, Isaiah,
Elijah, Justin, the guys thatcome over to the house and
they've allowed me to take themunder my wing.
I know a lot of them get a lotof the stuff that they do and
consume, from me and I can'tthank them enough for just
taking my advice.
And if somebody were to want to,add me in to help them out, I'm
always willing to help somebodyout if I can.

(56:41):
Awesome.
Where can people follow yourjourney?
The big one would be Instagram.
That's where I get a lot of mycontent out.
I do a lot of my stuff there.
A lot of my videos and stuff,are on YouTube, but most of my
fights are on YouTube.
If you wanted to check me out,most of my interviews are on
YouTube.
I think a couple of'em are onUFC bypass, but other than that,
everything else is on YouTube.
But if you wanna get ahold ofme, the easiest way to get ahold

(57:02):
of me is gonna be on myInstagram.
My handle is Toasty MMA.
T-O-A-S-T-Y-M-M-A.
Pretty straightforward.
You could probably search Toastyand I'll probably be like the
first one that pops up.
I think you are.
Alright.
It's a name to forget.
Awesome.
It's been a pleasure,interviewing you and, getting to
know you, your personality isawesome.
You're very positive andoutgoing.

(57:25):
I just wish you nothing but thebest in your journey, and I am
very happy that I met youthrough the Koffee Krew.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Luckee.
This opportunity has been ablessing.
The fact that you go out of yourway to, to help all the people
in this community.
Just the fact that you're doingjiu jitsu, you gotta be a little
bit like weird and crazy and outthere.
You do.
Everyone's got a, everyone's gotan interesting story.

(57:46):
So like the ability that yougive other people to bring their
story out is awesome.
So thank you for that.
You're welcome.
And in the future I'd love tohave you on again, maybe you can
go into more detail in regardsto one of your fights.
That'd be awesome.
Yeah, for sure.
In the future, I was thinkingof, the people that have been on
my podcast, maybe getting themand a couple others and just

(58:07):
talking about different topicsor jiu jitsu or MMA fighting
whatever, round tables arealways fun like that.
Yeah, that was where I got that,this too shall pass.
there was a lot of, gentlemengoing around giving their
guidance and like what it is tobe a man and sort of like what
it is in life lessons.
And one of those things came outwas like a round table.
Everyone just, shooting outdifferent things.

(58:28):
All right.
Right on.
Yeah.
Okay.
Toasty.
thank you so much.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you.
Okay.
Bye.
Bye.