Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody to
another episode of the Ride Home
Rants podcast.
This is, as always, your host,mike Bono.
I got a great guest for ustoday.
He is brought to us by Tony theLatin Assassin, another MMA
fighter.
He is actually into thecoaching realm of that.
We're going to get into allthat coming up here, but Billy
(00:22):
Friedson joins the show.
Billy, thanks for joining, man,hey no problem, mike.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good, good to be on
with you, man yeah, absolutely
so.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Um, like I said, uh,
tony actually connected us.
So you know, how do you knowthe latin assassin there?
Huh, how did that relationshipcome about?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
well.
So I started uh cross trainingwith a place called upgraded
industries and that's actuallywhere I met tony.
Uh, they used to do do thesethings every Saturday where it
was open sparring.
You can go up, you can, youknow, basically just get
sparring with all the fightersthat are around the area Um.
And that's actually where I metTony the first time.
At that time he was just kindof getting into striking um,
(01:01):
which is my expertise.
I I'm more of a Muay Thai K-1boxer.
My ground game's okay.
Tony would dominate me there,but luckily we were just in band
up sparring.
That's when I met Tony.
And then about a year later Iactually started coaching the
striking program for UpgradedIndustries.
And then that's when me andTony really really hit it off
(01:23):
and started becoming friends andI worked with him on his
striking from then.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I got you.
How is his striking improvedsince you've gotten to work with
him?
I know we talked about it withhis show um, about how striking
was kind of I don't want to sayhis weakness, because I saw him
fight live and it definitelydidn't look like it was his
weakness.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But uh well, you know
Tony is an amazing grappler.
His wrestling career speaks foritself.
Three-time state championwrestler growing up, one in
Greco, two in freestyle.
The dude knows how to grapple.
His striking was very brutish,if that's the right way to
(02:00):
explain it Very forward, hewould take a lot of punishment
to give a lot of punishment.
Yeah, you know, when I firstcame on he was very
straightforward and he relied onthat power.
Now Tony's a lot more finesse.
He could.
His angles are amazing.
Now he's got much better kicks.
It's something you don't see alot when you go and watch him
fight.
He mainly uses his hands, buthe has very.
(02:23):
He mainly uses his hands, buthe has very, very underrated
kicks.
He can flip them up.
Good body kicks His knees aregreat.
One of the things he doesn'tget to use is his elbows.
It's something we've gone over,but you know amateur MMA,
you're not elbowing people, soyou don't really get to see that
.
But you know the dude is knownfor his grappling.
I think if he ever foughtsomebody who had grappling on
his level, I think he'd still beable to show off a really,
(02:46):
really good amount of goodstriking.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, I saw him fight
live when he won the
championship at a mountain aircasino a couple of months back.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Is that the one where
?
Speaker 1 (02:55):
he knocked him out.
No, he, I think he choked himout.
I was the well, it was thefinal result, but he definitely
used his striking to set up histakedowns.
Uh, is that something thatyou're able to coach into?
Like strikers and you knowgrapplers that are, you know
they mainly want to go to theground like, do you coach into
(03:17):
that?
Like, okay, this, this punch,this kick will set up for your
takedowns yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
So for grapplers, I
really I really try to use more
of a boxing style, a little moreforward, something to where you
can go to a one, two, an anklepick, and you know you could
really translate from puttingyour hands in their face getting
their chest to rise.
When their chest rise it kindof opens up their legs for easy
takedowns.
Also, you know, if you're doinguh striking into muay thai, you
(03:46):
can grab the clinch and greco,roman kind of takes over from
there.
Um, yeah, honestly, the basicstrikes to set up uh takedowns.
You know, using your jab to setup your right hand to an ankle
pick, using a one-two kind of aspearing jab that the body,
things like that.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, I mean I, I I
do have a black belt in
Taekwondo and they brought infor about a month a jujitsu
specialist to kind of try to getus a little bit more of the
background on the ground game.
With Taekwondo being more of adefensive karate style, it
(04:25):
helped.
I learned very quickly.
With my height and my weightand, being as lanky as I am,
ground was very formidable forme.
Just, I could get my legsaround him in a guard and you,
you know, really lock into bodylocks with how long my legs
(04:46):
actually are going for triangles, stuff like that.
But I'm very easily to takedown because I am, I'm six, five
and you know, and yeah, so soI'm, I'm very tall, so I, I
leave a lot of my lower bodyopen.
Uh, because of that, Go ahead.
(05:07):
No, I was just saying yeah and Ijust get taken down.
So I had to learn very quicklyvery defensive strategies on the
ground in transitions.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And that's the hard
part you have a Taekwondo black
belt.
I actually one of the schools Ilearned Muay Thai and K-1
kickboxing it was a Taekwondoschool Vanyos in Brunwick.
I, it was a Taekwondo school,yeah, vanyos in Brunwick.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Ok, but I don't know
where you were at, but I was
back in Steubenville Ohio.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Oh, ok, ok, yeah,
cool.
As you know, throwing kicks onsomebody who wants to take you
down Not the best idea.
Yeah, you know, it gives themeasy takedown.
So, you know, disguising kickswith your hands and and chopping
more legs really, really helps,um, with really good grapplers.
You know guys like Tony, if Ikick his body or try to attempt
a head kick, he's just going todump me.
(05:52):
It's, it's not fair.
Um, that's Taekwondo.
Has got some really good kicksand it's something I use, cause
that's where I came from was aTaekwondo school.
Right, um, never got belted,but when he showed his muay thai
kicks it was more of ataekwondo finesse style.
Yeah, um, so a lot of spinningkicks, axe kicks, you know, jump
, double kicks, things like that, that if you're not set up
(06:15):
properly, you try to throw themto a body.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
A wrestler grappler
is just going to take you right
down yeah, and we had a coupleof guys in um in my class that
were wrestlers and um that wewere.
I was, I was a teenager so inhigh school and junior high and
I learned very quickly when umwe went full live sparring with
(06:37):
jujitsu and Taekwondo that I wasjust getting taken down Cause I
, I, I'm all legs that, all legs, that for my height.
So like I use my kicks a lotfor distance to try to protect
myself, because with my strikingI'm kind of like tony in that
sense and I was a brute.
I'd always move forward and I'deat a lot of shots to get the
(06:59):
shots that I wanted and it justit was.
I was on my back a lot of thetime in that jujitsu class but
it was a lot of fun.
I learned a lot of transitions.
They helped me out with that agood bit and it was.
It was fun, I liked it.
I know I probably should havepursued it a little bit more,
(07:19):
according to what everybody hastold me, but you know you don't
get into comedy because you knowyou're good at anything else.
But do you have any otheranything outside of like
coaching in the combat sportsspace that you do, or is combat
sports kind of.
All it is for you.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, you know, so I,
I own a plumbing company, so
that's my morning job, and thenI end up coaching and doing
personal training the rest ofthe day, um, so pretty much from
6 AM in the morning till eight38 at night, I'm, uh, doing
something, I'm moving.
Um, you know, I I did somestunt work, some acting stuff.
That was really cool Um, withJohnny Wu, a local guy here in
(08:03):
Cleveland.
Uh, he got me into stunts and Iwas doing that and then I
didn't realize he was theproducer, I was bullshitting
with him and then he startedgiving me lines and things like
that.
Never done anything like thatbefore.
He was really cool, got to do alot of cool stunts, meet a lot
of cool people.
That's actually the person Imet who brought me to Upgraded,
was through that.
(08:23):
So it was really cool.
I've made a lot of goodconnections and then, uh, yeah,
I mostly kind of live the sportof Muay Thai at this point.
You know, I just got back fromThailand.
Uh, I was there for six and ahalf weeks and all I did was
train.
It was great, um, and I justwas happy to come back and start
using some new tricks andteaching some new tricks.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, I would say,
has that helped with your
fighters?
Have you seen any of that withthe fighters that you do coach
from what you learned inThailand?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, I mean so
Thailand doesn't really use well
, at the gym I was at inThailand, I should say not a lot
of punches.
It was more about the clinchwork, the elbows, the knees and
the kicks which, if I'm beinghonest, I think we cause.
We have boxing coaches as well,not just me.
We have Luke.
Fresh hour is golden gloveschampion Justin.
(09:17):
I forget his last name.
I apologize, justin, but he'she's been around the block as
well.
So we have you, we have twoboxing coaches and then me, the
Muay Thai coach.
So we're more dominantly aboxing style with kicks, but
we're definitely getting betterat the clinch and we're
definitely getting better atsetting up the kicks from the
(09:40):
boxing the from the boxing.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, um, yeah, it's,
it's the combat.
Sports has always fascinated me.
Um, I like, I love it.
I watch the ufc every saturday.
Uh, for their fight nights.
Um, love it.
Uh, it was funny.
When, I, you know, met my wife,we moved in together.
I can't remember what it was.
I was watching like an oldclassic ufc, it was just
something that was on the tv ona weekend.
Uh, my wife, we moved intogether.
I can't even remember what itwas.
I was watching an old classicUFC.
It was just something that wason the TV on a weekend.
My wife was in making dinner andthen she came in.
She was like what are youwatching?
I was like, oh, it's the UFC.
(10:13):
She was like well, what is that?
I was like it's mixed martialarts, but it's basically a big
cage street fight.
They lock two brutal, brutalhuman beings into a cage and say
have it out for three rounds.
And it was a brutal, strikingfight.
The guys were both justbloodied up and just still
throwing haymakers in the middleof the octagon.
(10:33):
I felt her sitting down next tome and now she looks forward to
Saturday and says, hey, is itfight night?
When are the fights on.
She looks forward to thosefights and watching those.
It's become a weekend traditionfor us to have fight night
Saturdays and you know gettingpeople.
I don't think I know it'sgotten bigger because of the UFC
(10:56):
and Dana White and everythingthat he's done for mixed martial
arts.
But do you notice that a lotwith there's still not a lot of
people that know about thecombat sports realm and just how
entertaining it can actually be?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
It's hard for me
because I'm surrounded by it
sport, whether it's boxing,whether it's K one, uh, muay
Thai, whether it's MMA.
Most of the people I'msurrounded by are are obsessed
with some kind of combat sport,which is great for me, cause I'm
one of those people too.
Um, but you know, when I am outand about or I'm at, you know I
do plumbing and and I'm doingthat, and people ask you know,
(11:40):
oh, you look like you're in goodshape, you work out things like
that I always say I do MuayThai.
I don't say I lift or anythinglike that, and they're always
fascinated by it.
So I guess, in like everyday-to-day things, those people
I guess don't notice it, butbecause I'm surrounded by so
many competitors and people wholove the sport, it's hard for me
to say that they don't see it.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
You know?
No, yeah, I got you and you'reoriginally from the Cleveland
area.
Is that where you grew up?
And you know?
Tell everyone a little bit moreabout yourself.
I guess you know where you grewup and you know schooling and
all that.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, so I grew up in
a small town called Columbia
Station.
It's between Elyria andStrongsville.
My graduating class was 74people, so it was a pretty small
class.
Yeah yeah, we didn't.
We knew everybody first andlast name, where they lived.
I mean, it was not very clicky,which was cool.
Um, you know, and I, I'm a, I'ma small guy, you're, you're six
(12:38):
, five.
I am a foot shorter than you.
I am five, five on a good day,with my shoes on, um, um, but so
I I like to say I had Napoleonsyndrome.
I was always, like, ready tofight.
I was angry, um, I had an olderbrother who's a half brother,
and he is six foot two, 20.
So used to beat the crap out ofme.
(12:59):
It was great, um, so I got into.
When I saw MMA, I was like, oh,that'd be cool.
We started doing it in mybackyard.
My dad would leave, uh, to gocamping on the weekends and I
would have basically fightparties.
I mean, we'd have people justcome over, we would throw the
crappy MMA UFC gloves on youknow, they're all tore up and we
(13:21):
would beat the shit out of eachother.
There was no time limit.
We would just go till someonequit.
You'd fight a couple times oryou'd fight, you know, once,
just depending on what youwanted to do.
People call you out.
You'd fight, um, and I thoughtthat was cool.
But then, uh, you know, I waslike, you know, it's one thing
to fight in the backyard with abunch of random people watching
against another guy.
You can't fight.
But uh, you know, fighting thecage I thought would be cool.
(13:43):
I went to one event.
I was like, yeah, I coulddefinitely do that.
I was so wrong, uh, I got myass handed to me.
Uh, my first fight, clintmuscleman.
The dude was a tank.
He went on a fight for a bunchof titles.
Dude was super strong, fast,really good, striking.
I wrestled in high school and uh, school and that didn't help as
(14:05):
much as I thought it was goingto.
I lost my first three fights.
Uh, I fought cody garbrandt.
Um, oh, yeah, yeah, I foughtgarbrandt for, uh, dan bobish
had a promotion in parma.
I was a parma, it was brookpark, brook park, okay, um, and
(14:26):
garbrandt's guy, uh, had backedout or got hurt.
My guy backed out or got hurtand they said, oh, do you want
to fight this guy?
He's a boxer and I was awrestler thinking, oh, I'm just
gonna take him down.
So I said yes, only to find outthat cody is a uh, phenomenal
wrestler as well.
Yeah, um, and then he dominated.
(14:48):
I mean, he knocked me out inthe first round.
It sucked, um, I, I shouldn'thave been fighting.
I had no, I didn't have theright coaching.
I was at a small little karategym, didn't have the right
training going in there, I justhad a mentality, and that
mentality just wasn't enough.
So from there I went to Vanyo'sin Strongsville Brook Park and
(15:10):
he was known as a kickboxing gym.
He would not let me fight forat least a year.
That was the deal, at least notsanctioned.
So I don't know if you've everheard of smokers, yeah, okay.
So smokers were a big deal whenI was coming up, and that was
about 10 to 13 years ago, and Iwould do a smoker.
After the first maybe sixmonths, he started getting me
(15:33):
smokers and I would do a smokeronce a month at least.
Um, and I, I did really well insmokers and once I got, you
know, going and and put a stringof wins together, he got me a
sanctioned fight and I went backto mma where I went three and
oh, at 135 um.
And then I lost my last fight,mma fight, because I dropped on
(15:56):
a one 25 and the way cut wasjust too much for me.
Um and I and I have gas now itit sucked.
I I have some issues with thatfight in general.
Uh, I thought the guy tappedand I let go.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Dumb dumb on my part.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Never let go, you.
You wait till the ref stops it.
You know that's kind of a youngmistake.
Um had a couple sanctionedkickboxing events.
Um went one and one insanctioned kickboxing.
I fought nicolai glanti who wasranked number one in the state
when we fought.
I went all three rounds withthem, lost a two to one decision
.
Um, yeah, after that I reallykind of looked in the mirror and
(16:31):
I was reflecting like, hey, doI still want to do of?
Looked in the mirror and I wasreflecting like hey, do I still
want to do this?
I love the sport and I love,you know, training and I love
all that.
But I don't just didn't know ifcompeting anymore was right for
me.
Um, so I really buckled down ontechnique and started learning
different styles.
I did judo for a while.
I've done jujitsu, I'vewrestled, I did Kali uh,
(16:55):
filipino knife fighting.
Um boxing Muay Thai K1.
I mean, I've done all thesedifferent styles just to you
know see what works for me.
Um, but it all helped withfootwork and it helped with
angles and it helped with allthis stuff.
And then I found that I reallyenjoyed coaching.
So I coached for Vanyo for afew years after I stopped
(17:17):
fighting.
I was going to give it up, butthen DJ, the owner of Upgraded
Industries, hit me up.
Yeah, and that's really when Iwas like, hey, I'm 100% coaching
.
I love coaching.
I love showing people newtechniques and seeing their face
light up when they understandit and making you know these
(17:39):
guys great, I, you know it sucks.
I don't have the resume A lotof these fighters have.
You know, when you're talkingabout Tony, he's got four MMA
titles.
Easily could have went pro andprobably dominated as a pro.
Anthony Perzoli you had on aswell.
Well, he's a kickboxer atupgraded industries, worked with
him.
Uh, you know he's undefeated.
He's got a title.
(17:59):
Um, you know just, uh, chrisdraggy I don't know if you've
had him on.
Um, he's a another phenomenalfighter out of upgraded.
He's four and one holds aheavyweight title.
Um, you know, ron I, I can'tsay ron's last name.
He's the cuban missile crisis.
Uh, guy, we, he's a big cubankid who anytime he touches you
(18:25):
with either hand he can knockyou out.
So it's been really cool towork with those guys.
You got a lot of young andup-and-coming guys coming up for
boxing as well.
But, yeah, that's where I'm atnow, man, that's.
That's from the start to whereI'm at now.
Yeah, it's, it's cool to seethe development of other people
and that's what I enjoy doing.
I don't know if I'll ever fightagain.
(18:46):
I get the itch sometimes, but Idon't want to lose weight so.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, that's the hard
part of losing weight.
I was in the cutting of theweight.
I just never really understood.
I guess I never wrestled oranything like that.
So you know, just the weightcut.
Like me, for how I am mentally,I would just want to fight at
the weight that I walk around at.
You know what I mean.
Like that would be for me.
Um, I understand that.
(19:12):
You know, with weight classesyou might have to cut a couple
pounds here, but you've seenthese guys losing 20, 30 pounds
to get.
I don't understand how they dothat.
I know they're not fighting atthat weight when they get into
the ring.
Obviously, because that is thebiggest point of contention for
my wife and I when watching theUFC, seeing these guys like 155
(19:34):
pounds.
It's like dude, I'm 220 andyou're bigger than me right now.
Like there's no way you'refighting at 155 right now, like,
and yeah, I just, I never gotit.
The weight cuts, but that'sjust how I am.
You know me mentally and youknow now that I've actually put
on some weight since I've gottenolder I mean I graduated,
(19:56):
gotten older, um, I mean Igraduated high school six, five,
155 pounds.
So I mean I would.
I was very, I was very skinny,um, lanky, just long, um, but I
was also a swimmer too as well,um, so didn't want to bulk up
too much, you know playingfootball and that because
(20:16):
swimming was my main sport.
But yeah, you know, it's, it'sit again, I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Now, you know,
husband, dad, I'm up to 220
pounds, you know, since you know, at six five though, I mean I
look, I don't look bad.
No and you don't need to cutweight, you're.
You're a naturally taller guy.
Now I'm at 5'5.
I can't fight what I weigh,which is I weigh 185.
(20:42):
Right now, I get mauled at 185.
You know, if I was gonna fight,I'd have to go down to 55 just
because I'm so short.
I mean, I could always be, youknow, short and bulky.
That's fine, but even at 55 youlook at the pro 155ers when
they, when they fight, they looklike they're 185ers.
Yeah, so you know it's, it'sridiculous yeah, that's, and
(21:03):
that's that's my point.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I mean, you see, like
the shorter fighters are
normally in those lower weightclasses and, you know, when you
get to like 155 and up,everybody's six foot and above
from what I've seen, especiallyin the pro rankings it's just
like, okay, there's a lot oftall dudes with some weight on
them.
And yeah, I mean, like I said,I loved it when I was in
(21:29):
Taekwondo, did a lot of sparringtournaments back as a teenager.
Only lost once, um, oddlyenough, it was to um, um, it was
to a person that was in thesame gym as me.
Um, and I hate to say it, butshe knocked me out.
(21:49):
Um, yeah, uh, we, we, we wereat this.
I don, everybody loves thisstory, but I, you know, we were
riding up to the venue togetherand I was like, look, if it
comes down to it we've looked atit, we're, we're the top two
ranked people at this tournamentLike we're going to end up on
opposite sides of the bracket.
If it comes down that we haveto fight each other, I don't,
(22:11):
we're not going to hit eachother hard, we're going to let
it go down to the cards.
Whoever wins the trophy isgoing to come back to our gym
anyways regardless.
Well, as fate had it, we endedup in the championship round
together, fighting each other.
I may have tagged her a littleharder than I thought I did, and
as a fighter, you'll notice.
Did you ever see the blinders?
Come on somebody?
(22:31):
They just hyper-focus in on you.
Yep, they lock in, they, shelocked in.
And I was like, oh, she'sputting on a show, because we
already talked about this, so Ilet my guard down a little bit.
Next thing I know her foot wason the side of my face and I'm
waking up to five peoplestanding above me that that was
the.
That's all I remember from andfrom what they've told me of
(22:55):
6'5", she was maybe like yourheight, 5'5", 5'6".
At that point they said her onefoot never left the ground and
she got her other foot up andcaught it right on the button,
right on the jaw.
Next thing I know there's fivepeople standing above me and I'm
waking up not knowing what thehell just happened.
Oh, it's brutal, oh it wasbrutal.
(23:17):
She was an assassin.
She was she was tough as nails,one of those chicks that you
see like fighting in the MMA.
It's like, yeah, I'd probablyrun from you in a dark alley
Like you look tough as nails,like she's.
She was one of them and yeah, Iprobably had like 30 fights,
counting that one, and I waslike 20, 29 and one.
That one still kind of bothersme because it was my own fault.
(23:38):
But you know, yeah, brutal,brutal woman.
But yeah, the sad thing is tome is that you know I have one
KO against myself and you knowit was a woman that knocked me
out.
But you know it is what it is.
It's the fight game intaekwondo.
There's no like back then.
(23:59):
It wasn't.
You know, the late 90s, early2000s there wasn't really like
at those gyms like all right,males are fighting males and
females fighting females.
It was.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
you know, you're in
taekwondo, you're gonna, you're
gonna catch some shots um, oh,yeah, I mean that's, but that's
how we do it at our gym too islike the, the female fighters.
We have multiple femalefighters and they work in with
the guys, they spar with theguys.
Yeah, I, I, I would hope theguys would take it easy, but I
mean, I have seen, uh, you know,some of the guys turn it up a
(24:30):
little bit because the girls hita lot harder than they realize
they do.
Yeah, um, you know, I've, we,we have a girl kickboxer, uh,
chase, she's, you know, she'snewer and she's one to know as a
muay thai fighter for us.
Nice, um, but she hit me with aone, two and I have a picture of
it.
My head is snapped back and youcan see the sweat flying off.
(24:52):
I can't let my guard downagainst her because that shit
hurts, man.
It's like getting hit by a guy.
She hits a lot harder than shethinks she does.
You're like I don't want to hityou hard back, but I'm
definitely going to cover and atleast hit you hard to the body,
so you'll leave me alone.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Right, yeah, but you
know what?
Look at Amanda Nunez.
She only sparred and trainedwith men and she was a
two-division champion and wasfighting in both weight classes
and defending both titles.
That was impressive to me.
Nunez was just, she was a beastwhen she was fighting.
(25:30):
And I think it helps the womenfighters that they train with
the men and I think it helps thethe the women fighters that
they're, they train with the menand yeah, I don't, I don't
think it could hinder them atall, but I mean, yeah, they
definitely hit a lot harder thanthan than than you think they
do yeah, they, I, I think,because they, they're smaller,
(25:52):
they think they're not going tohit as hard.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
But you know, as a
guy, you know training with them
, I still need to practice goodguard and I can't dick around my
hands down because you getclipped and all of a sudden
you're not happy about it.
Um, but as far as like thegirls training with the guys, I
think it's a good thing to apoint.
I like when people can workwith somebody roughly their size
(26:15):
and their power.
So you know, like I'm, when Ifought, you know I'd be training
with guys that are one 55 andI'd, you know, fight down a
couple of weight classes at, one35, one 25, whatever it was.
Um, I think the girls can, cando that too.
I think it's an unfair tony,tony's, you know walking around
200 pounds at least.
(26:36):
Yeah, when he trains, you know,jujitsu and the mma, with holly
, one of our female fighters,who's one and oh, she can't take
him down, she can't work herjujitsu because he's bigger,
he's stronger.
She needs somebody roughly moreher size.
It could be a guy, but it'd bea lot nicer if it was a girl,
because then you get thestrength similar, you get other
(26:57):
things that are similar and it'sa more realistic look.
Um, speaking of which, uh,upgraded industries.
We have a all-female sparringday coming up.
So you know, if you're a femalefighter striking, grappling,
all of it that's two Sundaysfrom now, which I believe is May
4th You'll have to go toUpgraded Industries, the
(27:19):
Instagram page.
We haven't posted up there, butit's an all-female training day
.
It's a Sunday Come up, getsparring, you know, get rolls,
get all that.
So it's all the females, localfighters, all in this area
coming up.
There'll be guys there, youknow, whether that they're going
to be training on their own, orthe coaches.
I will be there.
We may have our boxing coachthere, one of our jujitsu
(27:40):
instructors there yeah, we'regoing to have a bunch of people
there.
This way, the women can come inand they can work with, you
know, other women.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I'll definitely put thatin the description of this
episode.
Um, for sure, uh, to help youguys out, yeah, I would love to
see that.
For sure, that sounds like anamazing, amazing opportunity for
them.
Um, definitely, everyone.
Go and check that out atupgraded industries.
Uh, one thing I want to talkabout too as well, and this is
this is going to be uh, this isgoing to be a fun conversation
about this, but, um and I hatetalking about this guy, guy but
Jake Paul just announced that heis fighting Julio Cesar Chavez
(28:17):
Jr in June in California assomeone in an MMA training space
.
What do you think about JakePaul's boxing abilities and just
him as a fighter?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Well, you know, first
off, I'm not a fan him as a
fighter.
Well, you know, first off, um,I'm not a fan.
But, with that being said, Ithink what he did was smart.
The way he created the buzzaround it was very smart.
Also, very smart to go againstpeople who couldn't box to start
.
Um, I think jake himself is ahigh level amateur boxer.
(28:50):
I think he's got good amateurboxing um.
Um, I don't think he's at thatlevel where he can compete with
the real pros in his weightclass.
He's got power.
You know, he looks like he doeshit pretty hard.
He throws his weight around he,but he throws a lot of looping
stuff.
Um, if you go and just watchany of his fights, it's usually
kind of big haymaker stylepunches.
(29:10):
Yeah, um, you know, I think I Ihonestly think if he was an
amateur fighter, he'd be adecent you know, high level
amateur.
You know he'd have a goodamount of wins, couple losses.
Uh, I think he's actually afairly decently trained boxer.
Um, he actually started at aplace called hooligans in Elyria
, um, which I went there to,kind of you know, I was between
(29:34):
gyms and I just needed a placeto train and, uh, they had a
picture of him up, cause he hadstarted boxing when he was
younger.
I don't know if he stopped,continued, whatever the case is,
um, but yeah, I, I think it's asmart, he's smart, he's a smart
dude.
He's made, made money by kindof being a jackass.
(29:56):
You're being a loud mouth,you're creating buzz, I get it.
I hope that's not his realpersonality, I hope that's just
stage personality.
But yeah, as far as his actualathletic ability, the dude's
athletic, I think he does hitreally hard, but he loops a lot
of his shots.
I think he does hit really hard, but he's just, he loops a lot
of his shots.
I think his boxing has come along way since, if you go and
(30:16):
watch his first fight againstwhoever he fought speed, I don't
, I don't know some YouTube guybut I think his ability itself
has come a long way and I thinkyou know he's at that point
where you know he has to startfighting legitimate boxers to
prove himself.
Um, yeah, the dude himself isboxing is, though, I think it's
(30:37):
decent, I think it's decent yeah, I've watched a couple of his
fights.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
I watched the uh, the
tyson fight, um, and everything
.
I think that was fixed.
It's a fixed fight.
You can see it in the earlyrounds when tyson wanted to
throw a shot and he stoppedhimself.
He had the clear opening, hehad the clear shot for his left
hook, his knockout punch, and heand he stopped himself yeah,
(31:05):
there was a couple times youwatch it.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
He does that.
He throws, you see, a loop overand he just kind of pulls it
right and the biting of theglove.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I know he did that
later on in his career, but a
lot more in this fight.
Not dudes in his 50s, Iunderstand and like all right,
jack, you're, you're in your 20sand you're fighting 50 year
olds, um, my it for me toconsider him a legit boxer and I
know, like you said, if he cameup through the amateur ranks
(31:36):
like most people and likeeveryone, um, I'd have a little
bit more respect for him as a,uh, as a boxer.
But he's not fighting any realboxers, right?
He?
He was boxing youtube stars,celebrities, mma, guys that were
grapplers, um, and then thentyson, you know, it's just like
(32:01):
okay, chavez, I, I'm interestedto see that fight uh well I
think he'll do well.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
I, I am interested in
their contracts.
Um, I don't know, because I Ireally do think that tyson threw
that fight.
I'm really surprised he would.
But just just watching thatfight drives me nuts, because
you see the overhand rightcoming.
He just pulled it a coupletimes.
He stops himself where bigshots definitely could have
landed and you know, if youwatch young Tyson, he's thrown
(32:32):
that with reckless abandon.
But as far as the Chavez fight,I mean, jake will probably do
all right, he'll do like he didagainst Fury, he'll do okay.
But you know, as the roundsprogress, chavez is going to
start to take over and he'sreally going to.
Just, you know, he'll dominatein the, you know, second third,
(32:55):
I don't know how many roundsit's going to go, if it's a 10
round, whatever it is.
But yeah, I think a lot morepeople would have respect for
Jake Paul if he did do theamateur ranks, though if he did
like golden gloves and you knowright Came up the way.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, I mean, yeah,
you were a YouTuber that wanted
to get back into boxing becauseyou started as as a kid and you
know it's fine.
You want to get back into it,do it the right way.
Yeah, speaker 3, that's mywhole hang up with them.
Um, as somebody who, you know,loves combat sports, you know
I've watched Garbrandt and hecame from, uh, near my hometown.
(33:31):
You know, coming up throughthrough the ranks and becoming a
champion.
You know people like that, Ilike watching that.
Um, blake Perry bought out ofCleveland, um, follow him, had
him, I've had him on the show.
Um, um, oh, my God, taser, andI can't think of his wrong turn
(33:51):
taser, and I can't think of hiswrong turn Taser, I can't think
of his first name, I don't knowwhy.
Why do you got a Cleveland MMAguy getting his pro starts
fighting on UFC fight pass a lotnow, you know.
You know I like seeing thatprogress and doing it the right
way.
I mean those guys a lot more.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, yeah, are you
familiar with alonzo turner?
Speaker 1 (34:15):
the name.
I haven't seen any of hisfights okay, so lonzo is he's.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
He came up through
the amateur ranks, local guy.
He cross trains with us a lot.
Um, yeah, I mean the dude, hisnickname is, uh, relentless
alonzo, uh, relentless turnerhe's.
I think he's seven and one, isa pro now and I mean he's pretty
much dominated every fight he'shad and I'm pretty sure one
loss was a three-round decisionloss.
(34:40):
But the dude is strong, he'sfast, good striking, good
wrestling.
Yeah, I mean, if you get achance, man lonzo, go watch some
of his fights.
Super tough fighter him andtony went.
I've seen them go in the gymtogether and him and tony would
go back and forth and lonzo mostof the time would kind of edge
him out.
Um, you know, when it came tolike striking, then tony would
(35:01):
edge him out a little on thewrestling and they go back and
forth.
It was always fun to watch soanother really good local pro
who came up from the area,worked his way up through the
amateurs, got titles and thenwent on to be a really good pro.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, see, and I love
that.
Yeah, I'm definitely going tohave to check out some of his
fights.
For sure, I always root for thelocal guys.
You got to almost Well, Billy.
We are running down here nearthe end of the episode here, but
I do want to get this lastsegment in, and it's everybody's
favorite segment here, and itis the fast 55.
(35:36):
It is five random questionsfrom the wonderful manager of
the podcast, johnny fittyfalcone.
Uh, they have nothing to do,basically, with what we've been
talking about for the last halfhour.
Um, they're kind of rapid fire,but you can elaborate if you
need to.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Okay, I'll do my best
.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, no, it's a fun
way we like to end the episode
and it gets everyone to tasteinto the mind of Johnny 50
Falcone.
But if you're ready, we'll go.
We'll get started.
Let's get it All right.
Question number one what's theworst day to do laundry?
Monday, monday, yeah, start theweek.
(36:15):
Yeah, can't be doing that.
Question number two which isthe least intimidating nickname,
being called Fluffy or theQuiet One?
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Fluffy Quiet ones are
scary.
I'll go.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Fluffy, quiet ones
for sure.
Question number three If youcould.
If you could have either amillion dollars I'm a little
fluffy, quiet ones for sure.
Question number three If youcould have either a million
dollars, but no longer speak forthe rest of your life, or $20
million but you have to be alonefor the rest of your life.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Which would you pick?
That sounds terrible.
Either way, I'm going to gowith the million and not speak,
because I can still text.
I can still text, right.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
He doesn't elaborate
on that.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I guess I'm a mute
and I'll take my million dollars
and just text everybody.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
That's not a bad
option.
Question number four One wordto describe George Clooney is
sexy.
Can't argue with that onesilver fox himself.
He's a good looking fella.
(37:27):
Good for him, absolutely.
Last question here is the YMCAor the electric slide a better
wedding dance song?
oh um I'm gonna go electricslide, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I have to go with thatone just for that.
But that was the fast 55.
Um, I think he took it easy onyou a little bit, but that I
(37:49):
think he did.
That wasn't too bad.
A lot of his questions and heasked me these on you a little
bit, but that wasn't too bad.
A lot of his questions and heasked me these on a daily basis.
I've known Johnny since collegeand he comes up with the most
random questions possible andit's just how his mind works.
It's just like what he thinksabout all day in his free time
and like a couple of them arelike okay, it's you a bear,
(38:13):
conor McGregor, and you'relocked in a racquetball court
and you have a stick of dynamiteand boxing glove.
Who comes out alive?
Like that's kind of like someof the things that he comes up
with, like it's okay.
So we figured it was a fun wayto end the episode for everybody
here.
But, billy, I do give everybodythis opportunity at the end of
(38:34):
every episode.
If there's anything you want toget out there for your gym, any
fights you got for yourfighters that you're training
coming up, anything like that,or even if it's just a good
message.
I'm going to give you about aminute and the floor is yours,
alright?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
thanks, man.
Upgraded Industries is wherewe're out of.
Anyone can come up and train.
We have classes jujitsu,wrestling, boxing, muay thai six
days a week.
Um, you know, we always have alot of good amateur fighters
coming in and training with us.
We always have amateursfighting.
Uh, chris the great draggy isgoing to be fighting for a title
(39:08):
here soon.
Another title here soon.
Ron Cuban Ristal crisis will befighting for a title soon as
well.
Got a couple up and young andup and coming guys Logan Morales
, a really good young boxer whohasn't had the opportunity to
fight yet.
We're still looking for a fight.
So, junior division if you, youknow any local promoters want to
hit us up for that, that'd begreat.
(39:29):
Otherwise, promoters want tohit us up for that, that'd be
great.
Um, otherwise, man, we're hereto train.
Uh, upgrade industries.
We, we pretty much goteverything.
Um, really would love to seemore and more people come and
train with us.
Uh, even if it's just crosstraining with us.
It's a really good gym, greatfacility, great people, um, you
know, and uh, you just geteverybody out here training with
(39:52):
us.
Help us, help you.
I think as a community, if wecome together and train together
, we're going to be able to kindof take over the sport.
I really do like a lot of goodMMA fighters out of the
Cleveland area and I'd like todo the whole Cleveland against
the world thing.
So if we pull together, traintogether, I really think you'll
see a lot more Cleveland nativesin the UFC.
(40:12):
High-level kickboxing like onechampionship, even bare-knuckle
boxing man A lot of good talentaround the area.
I'd love to train with thoseguys.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Absolutely Everybody.
Go and check them out.
I follow them on Instagram.
I've had a lot of theirfighters from upgraded
industries on the show.
Sounds like and looks like aphenomenal gym.
Definitely go and check themout.
They have a lot of greatfighters there and a great coach
here that we have on the showhere.
But that is going to do it forthis week's episode of the Ride
(40:43):
Home Rants podcast.
I want to thank my guest, billyFriedson, for joining the show.
A lot of fun to get to talkcombat sports.
I always love talking tofighters and everything like
that on the show.
A lot of fun to get to talkcombat sports.
I always love talking tofighters and everything like
that on the show.
Really great to have you on.
Thank you, everybody.
Go check out UpgradedIndustries there in Cleveland,
ohio.
But, as always, if you enjoyedthe show, be a friend, tell a
(41:04):
friend.
If you didn't tell them anyways, they might like it just
because you didn't.
That's going to do it for meand I will see y'.