Fighting Last-Minute | Dan Ige & Eric Nicksick | Straight Outta The Lair Podcast

What happens when a fighter gets an urgent call mid-massage to save a fight card on just four hours' notice? That's precisely the situation Dan Ige found himself in, and his story is nothing short of heroic. In this episode, Dan opens up about the urgent call that turned his day upside down and his immediate decision to step into the octagon. He shares the whirlwind of emotions he experienced and his unwavering readiness that exemplifies the essence of staying prepared for any challenge.

Trust and calmness are critical when facing high-pressure situations, especially in the world of professional fighting. We dive into the nuanced relationship between Dan and his corner, shedding light on the humor and strategic relaxation techniques that keep the team focused during intense moments. This heartfelt conversation also touches on the gratitude and perspective gained from these experiences, where even potential defeat is met with appreciation for the opportunity to compete on the grand stage.

The episode rounds out with reflections on elite training, post-fight insights, and the inspiration drawn from legendary athletes and military training. From the rigorous Navy SEAL-inspired sessions to absorbing lessons from Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant, listeners will learn about the universal mentality required to achieve excellence. We also discuss the evolving goals of athletes, the importance of reassessing motivations, and the supportive gym community that keeps fighters grounded. Join us for this in-depth exploration of what it takes to push past limits and embrace the relentless pursuit of greatness.


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----- Content -----
00:00:00 - Intro
00:10:57 - Corner Synergy and Fight Preparation
00:16:57 - Post Fight Reflection and Team Dedication
00:28:11 - Elite Training and Inspirational Role Models
00:36:11 - Learning From Elite Coaches and Athletes
00:43:11 - Mentorship and Maintaining Focus in MMA
00:49:39 - Adapting Goals in Combat Sports
00:57:37 - Fighters Reflect on Training and Victories
01:03:17 - Urgent Fight Call and Team Support

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
straight out the lab, flex and rock rock.
When it comes to guys who saythey stay ready, it doesn't come
any bigger and better than ourguest today.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
You don't got to get ready if you stay ready.
My man right here, my man righthere.
They were ready.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Both Eric Nixick and the main man who saved the 303
card, Donny Gay.
Welcome to the show, guys.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Thank you guys for having us.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Be nice in the building.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Listen, you are the man.
I mean.
I can't even go through my feedwithout seeing a Dan Ige clip
right now.
You are on fire right now, andrightly so.
My friend, you have all theflowers.
303, my friend, I was at homewatching this.
The next thing you know, johnAnik announces Dan Ige stepping
in for Brian Ortega on fourhours notice.

(01:04):
That was legendary,unbelievable my friend.
As a friend, as a fan, I meanlisten, bro, there's nothing
bigger than having theopportunity and stepping up to
the plate, and you've done that,thank, you, thank you.
And am I right in saying whenyou had the call or the messages
, you were having a massage?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Just take it through this, dave.
Yeah, I want to hear about thecall or the messages you were
having a massage, just take usthrough this, Dave.
Yeah, I want to hear about thecall and who called.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, I want to know all this.
Let's get back to that day.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
So, yeah, I mean, okay, let's just wake up
Saturday morning, right, it'skind of the end of the week.
I had a hard week of training.
I'm getting ready for a fightin three weeks.
So I'm kind of tapering down.
Saturdays I usually have aboutyou know one good session, you
know one hard session in themorning.
So I go and get a, get aworkout in.
We do like a sick of Saturdaywhere we just go push hard for

(01:51):
15 minutes, kind of like a fight.
And then I did some heatacclimation.
So I'm riding in a um, call ita heat tent, whatever you want
104 degrees.
I'm riding on the bike 30minutes jumping the sauna.
Now I'm just at this point.
I'm thinking recovery, right,get ready for Monday.
You know I usually rest onSunday.
I don't do anything, maybe awalk with the family, um, but

(02:15):
I'm just thinking recovery.
So I'm home, I call my massagetherapist.
She comes by, she works on mykids, so she worked on on BAM,
on max, and I'd hop on the table3 pm or so.
You know, no word from the.
No calls, nothing.
You know, I'm getting ready.
I'm probably gonna order.
I ordered the pay-per-viewalready, just so my wife doesn't
have to finagle with the, withthe apps and um.

(02:37):
So I'm on the table hour and ahalf like deep tissue.
Like I.
I would never get a deep tissuemassage before a fight too, but
I'm getting massage.
They got spa music on like I'mzenned out dude, um.
So about an hour 15 and I'm I'malready flipped over on my back
getting ready for that happyending and and you still got a

(03:01):
happy ending.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, yeah, we'll get there.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
So my wife comes upstairs and she's like hey,
ali's blowing up my phone, aliAbdelaziz, and he doesn't even
manage me, right?
I have a good relationship withAli, I work with Ali a lot, we
talk a lot.
But he's blowing up my phoneand it's saying like SOS siren
emojis.
I'm like what is it?

(03:27):
Dude, probably wants like a bankinvoice or something.
I was like he could wait.
And uh, then she's like my, mymom's calling, my mom's calling
said ollie's calling her, he'scalling savannah.
I'm like dude, why is all the?
Why are all these peoplecalling?
So I grabbed my phone.
I opened up my call log.
I had about 10 missed callsfrom ali, from hunter.
Hunter campbell was the firstperson to call me and he

(03:47):
probably called me right around3, 55 pm, 4 pm, but I missed the
call right.
And as I'm going through allthese missed calls, all he calls
again.
So I'm on the table layingthere like didn't even finish my
massage yet.
I answered the phone.
I was like hey, what's going on?
and he's like hey brother, didyou, did you?
Did you talk to anybody?

Speaker 1 (04:07):
I'm like, no like I'm getting a massage.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
What's going on, um?
How come you're blowing up myphone?
He's like um, or take us out.
I'm like all right, like, whatdo you want me to do about it?

Speaker 1 (04:20):
I don't, I don't give a fuck, so he's trying to get
this happy ending yeah he's likebrother, do you want to fight,
diego?

Speaker 3 (04:28):
so I'm thinking like next week, yeah next week or for
my, I had like three or fouropponents pull out or july 20th,
so that could have been themain event yeah, I'm still not
really a good main event, rightyeah?
yeah.
So that's what I was thinking.
I'm like, yeah, sure, let's go.
He's like, no, no, no, brother,tonight, tonight I'm like for
real, like for real, for thisthis has never been done.
So I'm like kind of nervous andexcited and I just say, yeah,

(04:52):
let's like, let's fucking go,let's go.
I don't even think it canhappen, right, because it's
never the way it was yesterdayyeah, how does this even work?
he's like okay, call you back,I'll call you back.
So I call e.
I was like, bro, we might befighting diego.
He's like what?
Or he's like okay, call youback, I'll call you back.
So I call E.
I was like, bro, we might befighting Diego.
He's like what?
Or he's like okay, cool, I'mlike tonight.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
He's like what I'm like.
Whose car are we taking?

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Dude.
Yeah, exactly, I'm like Ali'scalling me again.
I'm like E, I'll call you back.
And then Ali gonna happen packyour bags.
I'm like, fuck, all right, so Iget off the table.
I'm butt ass naked.
Um, I was like, okay, closeyour eyes, tell, tell the chick.
I run downstairs.
I'm like starting to grab shit.
I don't even know what to grab,right.
I'm like just, I don't knowwhat to do, you know.

(05:35):
So I was like, fuck, I need acup and a mouthpiece.
And I didn't have my cup, so Icall e.
I was like, bro, grab my cup.
This fight's happening, I think.
So all he calls me back.
He's like what's your weight?
I'm like, uh, probably 164, 165, usually what I weigh about
three weeks out, um.
So he said, okay, cool, perfect.
Um, he calls me, he hangs up.

(05:56):
So I'm getting all my stufftogether.
I start hydrating, right,because I was like, fuck, if I'm
gonna fight and four or threehours from now, I better be
hydrated.
I better get a meal in.
I didn't have like anything inthe fridge.
I just grab a yogurt, somegranola, some honey.
I made a shot of espresso.
I'm just pounding right now andI'm nervous.

(06:16):
I'm excited, right, and Alicalls me.
He's like, bro, you're going toget a contract in your email and
like, just keep, keep checking,you're gonna get a contract.
So I go, I'm refreshing myemail like every five minutes.
Meanwhile I'm calling e.
He's like who do you want inyour corner?
I'm like, uh, I don't know.
He's like what about kai?
I was like done, call kai.
So he calls kai.

(06:37):
He's like hey, dan's fightingtonight, blah, blah.
He's like who else do you want?
I call gif.
Um, who's my other coach?
He he's corners me.
All my fights called him likefive times.
He doesn't answer.
I was like all right, shipsailed.
He was getting his massage andhappy ending 100, 100, um.
So he's like what aboutstrickland?
I'm like dude, perfect, perfectguy for the job.

(06:58):
So paul strickland was heawesome yeah, he was awesome to
have.
He's probably the most nervousguy out of all of us 100.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
Where was strickland?

Speaker 1 (07:08):
oh, I don't know, right he was having lunch, uh,
with his girl.
Well, when he took the call,what was he?

Speaker 4 (07:14):
like oh, I just said I go the same thing.
I called him, didn't answer,sent him a text.
Fucking sos emergency callsback and he goes what?
Everything good, like he goes.
Am I in trouble, legit?
He's like am I in trouble, whatI do?
Who is there a warrant out formy arrest?
now, and I was like I was likeno, he gave, he gave fighting
tonight.

(07:35):
And he goes who?
And I said Diego Lopez, I go.
He wants you in the corner.
He goes what time do you needme there, I said.
I said we'll get there.
We don't need you there rightaway.
You can come around 7 if youwant he goes.
All right, tell him to let mein through the back gate.
I'll be on my bike.
I'm like cool, strictly, I'mpulling in on his bike.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
In flip flops.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
So you arranged everybody.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
So I arranged everyone.
Boom, I get the contract.
They hooked me up, they gave megood numbers, so I get the bout
agreement.
I'm looking at it.
I don't look at the weight, Ijust look at the numbers.
I'm like it's good, boom, signit.
I didn't know it actually had aweight class, so we go there.
Um, and, by the way, this allhad to get approved by the

(08:20):
commission and then thecommission had to get it signed
off by the governor of nevada,so this had to.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
There was a lot of dude it was a lot of red tape.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, so it was wild, so that that text you saw on
the screen, that was all youknow.
I'm sure that had to get.
That was sent for a purpose,right?
You know, ali, I'm talking toollie and hunter.
They're like, we need thestatement from you.
You know, you're ready, you'refucking in great shape, let's go
.
You know.
So I sent that text.
Ollie shows up to the house, heshows up to the house.

(08:52):
I'm like, dude, I'm fuckingdriving.
Please give me your keys olliebecause I don't want to get car
sick.
He calls kai kamaki's like be atsilverado ranch, las vegas
boulevard in 15 minutes.
Be at the shell station.
We're gonna pick you up.
Do this like a fucking.
It was like a movie, this islike fuck it sounds like the
tone.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, yeah, who's car ?

Speaker 3 (09:10):
yeah, who's car?
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So we go pick up kai.
Pull up to the t-mobile.
They had a vip entrance.
Uh, parking spot for me.
Walk in, they take me to theback room.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
All this like vip, fucking mark walberg um is that
when we saw you walking in thestadium?
Yeah, yeah, that was dope theshot of you guys walking in was
dope.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
Yeah, it was.
It was our sick.
He was owning that fuckingmoment.
Dude.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
I was like yeah it was awesome, it was a moment
look at my guy.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, I just.
I mean, you walk in confidence,right, just like dude.
This is it.
This is my time to become alegend.
That's's all I thought, youknow, from the beginning.
When they called me, I was likethis has never been done, dude,
this is an opportunity.
It's not a money grabs onething, but this is more than
money.
This is something more thanmoney can buy.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
That's what you're doing it for yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah, and then, like you guys said, definition of
stay ready, people will talkabout it, people will negotiate
themselves out of opportunity.
Be like I want five milliondollars.
They'll be like go fuckyourself.
You know, this was more thanmoney and um I earned that
legendary status.
But yeah, I went to the backroom.
They they're like official um,step on the official scale.

(10:19):
They had the commission.
I was like fuck, oh, I actuallygotta weigh in, so I go.
I was like, hold on, I'm goingto take a piss.
Take a piss, come back, boom164.5,.
Thank God, because I don't knowif had I been over 165,.
What happens?
Does the fight happen?
But we made weight go back.
Get wrapped up and it's fuckinggo time.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
It's pretty wild too, because you've got to give
Diego some credit too, becausethis dude made weight right the
day before as well.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Three times yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Technically made three different weight classes.
Three weight classes Wow 145,155, and 165.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
So that whole fight.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Both of you guys Was bananas, yeah, bananas,
absolutely crazy.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
No, I credit this kid , because this fight wouldn't
have happened without him 99.9%of fighters are not taking that
fight especially they didn'ttrain for you.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
He has no prep for you.
Nope, dan's just astylistically not I mean, he is
a bad matchup for a lot of guys.
Um, and look, we're not likecalling these guys out by any
means, but that name we've.
We've asked to fight himnumerous times and on their end
they're like eh, not really thefight.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
No, no, and on a full camp.
I would love to see that runback because, I thought you were
nullifying him on the feetreally well.
Like your stand-up game, youwere controlling.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
You know he had a little bit of control time on
the ground, but I mean it was areally good fight yeah,
considering, you know fights ofold and going in, you know
you've got a date set, thementality of that focus date and
then the week and the nervesand everything that goes into it
.
On the media thing, do youthink not having that played a
part?

Speaker 3 (11:56):
I think a little bit.
That's why I had to constantlyremind myself.
I'm like dude number onethere's no game plan at this
point, because we don't havetime to sit and watch tape.
And I mean, I've seen him fight, so we kind of understand the
basics of his game, but I don'thave time to sit there and
figure out details and look fortendencies.
I'm like dude, I'm gonna go outthere and trust him the last 15

(12:19):
, 20 years of my training andlet all that take over and just
be in the moment.
And you know, even he was like,right before I walked out, he's
like hey, take a moment, takeit all in, take your time, dude,
this is fucking, this isawesome, dude, this is what we
live for.
And, um, that stuck with me as Iwalked out.
I took it all in fucking lightsin my eyes, like it was crazy.

(12:40):
It was like I was at a rave orsomething and and um, I just had
to constantly remind myselfanytime I felt any type of
stress or like tenseness, oflike man, all right, just let it
go, have fun, have fun.
Even at the end I was like,yeah, I probably lost, you know,
on the scorecards, but the wayI finished.
I was like I could be bummedright now, or I could just just

(13:01):
smile, just smile and be fuckinggrateful for this moment,
because again, I became a legendovernight, I mean literally
within hours.
I got paid.
I got to pay my, I got to takecare of my team.
Um, he texted me yesterday.
I got to pay him.
He's like, dude, you paid memore than you made on your third
ufc win, like it was a fucking.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
That's a blessing dude straight up blessing man
yeah, yeah, yeah, and you wereready for it which?
Is which is, which isincredible.
One thing I'd like to say is,you know, like E in the corner,
you know, I mean, obviously youhad to feel this stress too.
Now you gotta, you gotta fighttonight that you weren't
prepared for, like what is?
What do you do to prep for thatand what do you get him?
What do you do to to get himready?

Speaker 4 (13:42):
um, well, I mean him and I, I think, are very
connected.
Our, our synergy is spot on towhere we can read each other's
mannerisms, our body language.
Like I can tell if he walks inthe room if he's upset or
something's wrong and vice versa, like he's he walks in the room
, sometimes like oh, we're gonnahave a hard fucking practice
today just by telling you knowone another with the way they

(14:05):
read our body language.
In that particular fight, likeI always kind of I'm almost too
relaxed, right, because anytimehe looks over at me I want him
to feel a sense of calmness andI look at coach and then my
nerves get calm and then I'mover here just fucking cracking
jokes and giggling.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
I think you do it really well because you're able
to stay calm in moments andyou're able to fire guys up in
moments 100%, and I thinkthere's a buildup to it.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Right, I like to try to look at us as coaches as like
the conductor to an orchestra,like I'll try to have a buildup
as that.
Maybe even the fight goes on,or maybe that particular round.
But right then, and there, likeyou know, going into round
round two, like I looked at himwas like what are you doing, bro
?
You're getting a massage andjust to cut the tense of the

(14:55):
situation, the gravity of thesituation, where he kind of
giggled and like yeah, I wasgetting a freaking massage, you
know, and like whatever andwe've done that before and every
guy is a little different,right like I'm sure talking to
him.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
He's like really taking everything in.
You're sitting there talking tosean and it's like a brick wall
sometimes, as I see from anoutsider.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
Right, yeah and I'll do that sometimes too, just for
me, like almost to kind oflighten the mood.
And then, you know, it's almostlike a psychological thing too.
It's like you're gonna takeyour the mind off of the
situation, the gravity of thesituation, and then kind of like
ease your way back into this.
And we got some good reads.
You know, after the first roundI I'd really really trust kai

(15:34):
kamaka and what he sees, and I Iand sean had a lot of good
reads, so you have two reallygood guys in the corner.
Um, and then eddie baraccocredit to him.
Like he gave me a list of stuffwhen I was in the car, like on
the way there, eddie sent me athing in notes like here's I'm
gonna break down tape while youguys are driving, because it was
a fiasco yeah, and it was likeI called the guys that you trust
the most and and get the bestinformation that you can.

(15:57):
And then we diagnosed what wesaw in the first round and then
try to implement that going inround two and round three.
But I mean, dude, that was our20th pro fight together.
You know we've done this shitbefore.
It's all about you and I talkabout this all the time.
It's like gaining reps, and thereps that him and I have had,
the amount of fights we've had,the amount of corner time that
we've had together, dude, itdidn't matter, we could have

(16:19):
done that any day of the week,it wouldn't matter.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, you guys have been in the trenches multiple
times and for you, that's got tobe that feeling of of complete
trust in his guidance and allthe team right.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, it's got to be, it's got to be uplifting oh,
100, and like I mean him and Iknow each other so well, it's
like anything.
He's yelling I.
I hear everything.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
I was so in the moment he's like same side head
kick, boom and land it.
Oh fuck, he's on my back eric'slike my bad dude no, it's good,
like I was just stoked itlanded.
I think it was another round.
That would be in a completelydifferent fight yeah, I was
really.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
I mean, range is a sometimes it's a hard thing to
find within a fight.
And round one was kind of I waslike all right, he's dangerous,
I'm just gonna within a fight.
And round one was kind of I waslike, all right, he's dangerous
, I'm just going to keep youknow, stay composed.
Round two I started feelingthat my range, finding my range,
landing my shots Got taken downwith that head kick.
But I knew I had my range.
So going into round three I wasstill confident there and I was

(17:20):
like, okay, now I can startputting you know the pace on
this guy.
And I was like, okay, now I canstart putting the pace on this
guy.
And I remember hitting in roundthree I hit him with something.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Right hand.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah, I hit him with the right hand and the whole
entire fight his eyes were on me.
He was focused.
I hit him with that right hand.
He took his eyes off me, walkedback, looked up at the clock
and I was like, oh, he's fuckingdone, dude.
I got him His spirit.
I felt his spirit diminish andI was like I just gotta go.
I gotta keep pushing the pace.

(17:47):
Anytime he would counter withsomething.
I just I didn't give himrespect.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Great pressure.
No, it was really good pressureyeah no respect there.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
He tried to take me down, shuck him off, reverse off
the cage, get back up, and nowit's been a few days.
So I'm starting to go in myhead like fuck, I could have
stood up right there and justthe ifs and what ifs.
But hey, it's done, it's in thebooks, it's in the past and
here we are.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Yeah, same with me, especially calling for the same
side high.
You guys got to understand likeas his coach, but like a guy
that makes me better in areas ofcoaching.
That makes me better in areasof coaching.
We'll spend time in the offseason out of camp and we'll
break down possible fights.
So if, if he doesn't have afight, he'll text me on Sunday

(18:35):
or he'll tell me like, hey, whatif we fought?
Um, you know so-and-so, andthen so Sunday I'll watch like a
fight or two and then Mondaywe'll go into a training session
pretending like this is our,this is our matchup to work on
things.
Furthermore, he always, willalways try and find, find, try
to find ways to improve on ourskill set, offensively and or

(18:56):
defensively, and one of thosethings has been his head kicks.
So in my mind I'm like, okay,diego and his team just crammed
in whatever fights they could towatch of dan and not one piece
of information is going to showdan throwing the same side head
kick, not one piece ofinformation.
So when dan drop stepped anddrifted into southpaw and then

(19:18):
we had the barrier to where wework this so many times, where
we set a trap into the, into thecontainment of the barrier.
I'm like, oh, there it is.
And, dude, my eyes got big andI'm like this is it this is the
movie scene right here, becausewe giggle all the time in pads,
sweep the leg.
He's like what if I knocksomebody out with the same side
head kick?
I'm going to fucking lose mymind and dude.

(19:40):
The whole scenario ran throughmy head of like in this half a
second going.
He's going to knock him outwith this head kick and he threw
it and fucking damn it landed.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Well, I want to say, like I don't want you to ever
feel that guilt, because it wasthe perfect read.
It was the perfect read and itlanded perfectly.
That dude's just got a fuckinggranite block head, yeah, and he
caught the kick, but he caughtit kick so it's like but he
caught it with his head likeliterally caught.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
Like you're never taught to ever catch a kick like
this, like you want to blockthe kick.
This dude like had his handslike this and like scooped the
kick off of his forehead.
So I mean credit to that kid.
Yeah, yeah it did.
It did land.
And I was like I looked rightat kai in the corner right when
he fucking I I was like I justfucked us dude.
And Kai's like no, he didn't.
No, he didn't.
Like we're fine, we're fine.
And like Kai's like talking meback into the into the fight

(20:30):
because I was like I just fuckedus.
Oh man jersey brother, jerseybrother.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, the fight, obviously, you know, didn't fall
in your favor, but I think youare the winner.
I think everybody who was therein, in that audience, I think,
was like over 18 000 people,close to 19 000 people, soaked
out on uh, people's champ.
Everybody, everybody wastexting me, everybody was going
ballistics, sending me all kindsof reels and stuff, as if I

(20:56):
hadn't seen it already.
Yeah, let's talk about whathappened after you walked back
to the dressing room happenedafter you walked back to the
dressing room.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
So we walked back um go to the medical tent.
They checked me out, my legshurting a little bit.
Right, he fucking he did hit mewith some nasty leg kicks.
Um, I used to believe calfkicks don't work.
They fuck, they work dude, theywork yeah my leg was hurting, so
we get checked out.
You know little glue on thenose and uh, then they're like
hey, they want to do media,which they never do.
Um, after a loss, usually noone wants to talk to you.

(21:31):
They're like media boom, espn.
Megan, olivi and eric was likeI mean, you were there but my
body started like shaking, likeconvulsing, and I don't know if
I was cold or just theadrenaline dump, but like it's
because you don't.
I was not mentally prepared forall this to happen, but my body
was shaking in the back.
Then we go in the back in thelocker room.

(21:51):
Hey, more more meaty wants totalk to you.
I'm like, dude, I just need to,I need to chill for a moment.
So we went back to the lockerroom, chilled and we didn't have
any plans.
Like we ended up, just we got adriver.
They have any plans.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Like we ended up, just we got a driver, they took
us home and eric and I had likea little glass of whiskey ended
up at the rhino.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
We actually kept saying it yeah eric's like let's
go to the rhino.
We end up uh yeah, we're justat the house, have a glass of
whiskey and said good night andrespect what a day a day.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yeah, dude what a whirlwind when we got to the
house.
That's when it all hit me ofjust the week compiled up and
I'm like all right, dude, I'mready to pass the fuck out.
It's been a hell of a month foryou, man.
Yeah, it was a lot, it was busyand that was just really the
icing on the cake.
Roman took the fight on shortnotice.

(22:45):
He had a six-day notice fightto fight Anthony Smith, you know
, he looked great.
And then the week before thatwe had Sadabusi, who had a
last-minute replacement the dayof his fight in Salt Lake.
So, dude, I mean within themonth we had so many guys from
June to the end of the monththat fought On Strickland,

(23:06):
strickland and Puna, and CodyStammen and all these Kai fought
the night before.
So Kai fought in Sioux Fallslands, goes home, drops off his
bags, gets a phone call from meand then pulls up, like when you
saw the video of Kai jumping inthe car he had just gotten home
and just flips his shades upwith his huge black eye, which
is so gangster and that's legit,legit me, like that's how the

(23:26):
conversation went down.
I said meet me on the corner ofsilver water ranch and babita,
30 minutes, bring your gear back.
He didn't say like he goes,like like you know he goes, what
do I need?
I said bring your gear bag.
And then I hung up.
He texts me.
He's like what's going on.
I go I think dan's fighting, Idon't know yet who or what,
whatever just be in the cornerhe's like I'll see you there.
Like that's how that went down,like it just made me feel so
good knowing, like our group,our guys, off the drop of the

(23:49):
hat yeah they dropped everythingthat they had going on and
we're like love it.
See you there bud it's atestament.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
It's a testament to how you're pushing the team as
well and, like you knowsomething I saw you say
yesterday it's like we're wetrain to get in the pool and
drown people.
That's how we're training andpushing ourselves right.
So guys are ready to go at alltimes and it's just a testament
of that.
You know, just this last weekeven right yeah, I mean, that's
always been our mentality.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
We've talked about that numerous times about you
know you don't have the luxuryof staying on the side of the
shore.
You have to be willing to getin the water.
You know you have to be willingto get in the water.
But drown, proof yourself.
And knowing that I could takethis guy down to the depths,
because we do it every day inour practice and we, we vocalize
it, we tell our, we tell eachother, I'm going to try to kill

(24:33):
our training partners, becauseif we don't give them the best
look, then other people aregoing to try to kill us, right,
like if like dudes walking inoff the street into the gym
trying to fight.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
That doesn't work out well for a lot of people.
Let's talk about greenlighting.
Some guys coming in the gym Gotit.
We got to talk about thisbecause we were talking about it
earlier and he's like does thatreally happen all the time?
I'm like, bro, it happens allthe time.
You got to ask him about it.
So tell us about greenlightingdudes in the gym.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
Well, you kind of.
I mean, I'm not really thegreen light guy, but we use puny
pagoa.
He's like our go-to guy, he's a125er, but this, this dude's a
killer and anytime someone comesin the gym with that wants to
fight someone, we we sick punyon him because he's just the
young blood coming up and, um,you know, I've had my green
light days coming up as a, youknow, as an amateur and a pro,
but I'm usually pretty'm a goodtrain.
I call myself a good trainingpartner and I don't train with a

(25:27):
.
I usually don't train withrandoms and I always look at
sparring too like false data,cause I can't really ever, you
know, I don't want to put aguy's lights out, like I don't
get to just knock someone outand go home, like if I hurt
someone, we got to stand back upand keep fighting and finish
out the round.
So we just call pooney.
Pooney puts it on him and, uh,it's.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
It's nice when it's pooney because he's he is.
He seems a little nicer thanthan strickland, right, because
I've seen strickland put thescrews on a couple guys.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Yeah it just depends on the situation, like on how
this green light takes place.
You know, so, um, certaincertain guys are going to get it
.
Uh, so the green light hasevolved over the years.
So Jay Heron and Mike Powelland those guys were the
executioners back in the days ofstreet couture and they were

(26:16):
trying to put your lights out,right.
And now the funny thing is like,jay Heron in his wise old age
is now the voice of reason.
He's like guys, no, can't filmit, don't knock them out to the
head.
He's like guys, no, can't filmit, don't knock him out to the
head.
We're like what?

Speaker 2 (26:29):
No touching of the hair or the face.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
What Jay Gentleman's KO.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
Gentleman's KO, as we call it now, and you can rip as
hard as you want to the body orthe legs, and that's why we
usually use Poonie or Kobe Fair,because Kobe's a different
stylistic matchup.
Nightmare for dudes, causethey'll take you down, and to me
, there's nothing worse in theworld than not being able to get
another fucking human being offof you and this dude just

(26:54):
holding you down, holding youdown and beating the shit out of
you.
So, sean, sean has gotten tothe point now where it's like,
all right, we'll send Poonie infor the body shots and this, and
then kobe will take you downand beat the crap out of you and
then sean will go instagramlive kobe's the 125, smacking
you up, glenn yeah, kobe's the125 strickland yeah, so you know
a lot of this stuff.
Like people have to understandif you're new to the gym and

(27:16):
you're coming into the gym, thisisn't like we're not.
We're not trying to hurtanybody, but there's people that
will show up to the gym and belike fuck that guy, I'll smoke
that dude.
Or they're talking shit oninstagram or twitter.
Or even worse is if youdisrespect the front desk,
ladies if you're disrespectfulto the front desk ladies and
they come back and be like yo,this dude was a dick and he was

(27:37):
talking to his shit or sayingthis is that like, all right,
I'll have, I want my nazi scalpsand I want my scalps, I want my
Nazi scalps and I want myscalps, I want my scalps, and
then I'll cash out dudes forbody shot KOs no shit.
Oh yeah, I'll cash out fuckingPoonie.
When Chris Curtis was not inthe UFC, Chris Curtis used to
love to get the cash apps I'dcash out Chris Curtis all the

(27:59):
time.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Did Strickland get the cash app for this Mitch
Aguilar yesterday?

Speaker 4 (28:02):
No, and people need to understand like mitch and
sean are actually friends, likethey've trained together before
they're friends.
Mitch has pro fights um.
The whole banter that startedthis thing off with with sean
and the navy seals was more likesean and mitch joking around
back and forth right and thensean goes on his and was like
I'll beat any navy Navy SEAL.

(28:23):
So that brought the wholecommunity Navy SEAL community in
on this thing when it reallywas about more like Sean and
Mitch and dude credit to thisguy Mitch.
He shows up and takes a fiveround ass beating.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, I saw some video and, yeah, he definitely
looked.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
Hey, man the dude.
That dude at any point couldhave quit and said, all right
man, all right, you got me.
And that dude took it.
I mean, sean wasn't trying toput his lights out, sean was
chopping his legs hard andhitting his body shots hard and
Sean's like I don't want to hurthim, I don't want to, like,
give this guy brain damage, youknow, because they are friends.
Yeah, and man hats off to Mitchbecause he took that 25-minute

(29:02):
ass whooping like a man.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
I watched it and I was like okay, I got to do an
interview.
I went back, did an interview.
I came back.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
He's still beating his ass Beating his ass, beating
his ass, bro.
So I mean credit to Mitch.
We don't joke about this.
But, like, we take our trainingvery seriously and we are, I
would say, a lot of thatinspiration comes from Dan's dad
.
Dan's dad is a Navy SEAL and welook at our training in the

(29:29):
same capacity of okay, obviouslywe're not going into things for
life and death, but what can welearn from in the way that
these men train and operate andhow can we be better amongst
ourselves in our training?
So you know, with Tim Ige and Ihave friends that are in the
community as well I use thoseguys as resources on how we can

(29:51):
become better and because ofthat training.
Those are the reasons why he'sable to pick up the phone and
take four-hour phone calls ofgoing yeah, I can fight.
I can fight tonight and Ifirmly believe it's because of
the way we train.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
What did my dad?

Speaker 4 (30:05):
call it Time-sensitive information.
I can fight tonight and Ifirmly believe it's because of
the way we train.
What did my dad call it timesensitive information?

Speaker 2 (30:08):
who's going to carry the logs?
Not even well, tell us.
I already know.
Let's get into this.
Why do you guys hate on DavidGoggins, bro?
What's the deal?
I don't hate on him at all.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
I don't hate on Goggins.
I think Goggins has a role andhas a purpose and he inspires a
lot of people to do great things.
I don't hate on Goggins.
I think Goggins has a role andhas a purpose and he inspires a
lot of people to do great things.
Definitely there's no hate forme on that.
I hear guys within thecommunity that don't like
Goggins because of things thatthey did with him on deployments
.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Gay stuff.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
I wish, but I mean I wasn't there gay stuff, but I
mean I wasn't there, you know,and and I would never my my
opinion about somebody wouldnever be levied on on what
somebody says, right, like if so, I hate j-rock, well, hold on,
I don't know j-rock, I've nevermet him.
Why would I, why wouldn't?

Speaker 2 (30:56):
I he's really cool.
Yeah, he's a really cool guy,you know.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
but I think within the community a lot of people
misunderstand when Goggins wenton Rogan and was kind of bashing
on the SEAL teams or green teamtesting and not getting on
DevGuru and things like that,it's because of this, this and
this.
Well, guys that I know withinthe community are like no, he's
a skilled, he's very skilled inall the things that he did.

(31:19):
We just didn't like him.
We didn't want to be around theguy for six months at a time.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
Yeah, he's intense.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
Yeah, that's maybe part of the reason why that he
didn't get selected.
I don't know, I wasn't there.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
I like listening to his stuff.
You know like I'm a militaryguy, so when I hear him he just
reminds me of these dudes thedrill instructors, yeah.
But obviously your dad being aNavy SEAL and having some of
these back-end stories like youhave probably a little bit of a
different perspective.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
A little bit.
I mean, dude, I try to my daddoesn't tell me much.
Actually it's funny becauselast year in June when I fought,
I linked up with my dad, hadn'tseen him in years and Eric was
the one.
He's like, dude, you shouldjust sit down and have a couple
beers with your dad and, youknow, ask him, be like, give me,
tell me some stories you knowto tell my grandkids.
So we're, we're smashing someJameson and I'm like, hey, dad,

(32:08):
you know you got any stories Icould tell Bam.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Give me some more stories.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
You know, he's a he's like maybe in a couple of years
he's still, he's still in.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah, he's still working.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
I mean, what do you want to know?
You know there's.
It's like I've been on dozensof missions, like, yeah, you
kill people, like, but what isit?
He's like, just put it this way, I've been places you're not
supposed to be and it's prettymuch as secretive as that.
He's very loyal to the core andI think that's where, like,
maybe Goggins or guys like thatget a lot of hate because

(32:40):
they're leveraging the sealcommunity.
Yeah, the trident.
It's like dude, I had a solarguy come to my house the other
day and he's like trying to sellme solar.
He's like, and I was wearing ac4 foundation shirt, he's like,
oh, dude, I'm a seal, look at,look at my trident, and and then
he's trying to leverage.
He's like, man, you know, I gotintegrity because how many
times I went to fuckingafghanistan.
I'm like cool, I respect you,but I don't want to fucking buy

(33:03):
solar.
So, please, you know.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
So I respect we get the fuck off my porch.

Speaker 4 (33:08):
Yeah, yeah, I'll call sean strickland but I mean we,
we learn so like we have to havepeople to look up to too.
Right and and tier oneoperators are the, the pinnacle
100.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
They're the highest performing operations unit in
any military force in the worldso so it from from where we are.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
And I look at like this like why does?
Why did joe mazula call us inthe off season right from the
from the boston celtics?
We're not basketball guys, wedon't know shit about that stuff
, but he, he's like I can learnsome of these things from what
these guys are doing in adifferent demographic.
Same thing goes for us.
It's like who are the elite?
Elite in what they do?
That's why him and I hit it offthe first time we ever met.

(33:49):
It's like he's an elite at whathe does, you don't think?
I tell him all the time, yeahbut I, I, I can learn from him,
from what he does.
And it doesn't have to apply tobodybuilding, it could just be
applied to work ethic.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
It could be applied to my family mindset exactly
this is why we're all in thisroom.
We all have that samecommonality, same moral compass,
but yet we're, all you know,different lanes.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
100, 100, yeah I like to surround myself with
gentlemen like yourselves, right, because that's what pushes me
right to to, to do great things.
It's inspiring to see what he'sdone.
Inspiring see what what you do.
Inspiring see what you do right.
So, like that's, all I want tosurround myself with is that
kind of energy 100.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
You know, you know it's that.
It's that saying, it's like ifyou're running track, you're
going to run track andeverybody's running fast, we're
all going to try to keep up withone another.
You know, and and that's thehonest to god truth like why I
even got into mma because youand I were in the bar industry
for however long, yeah, and, andwe had to separate that because
it's like, if you fall intothat hole, it's like when you

(34:49):
get off of work, what are yougonna do?
Oh, I'm gonna go drink, I'mgonna gamble, I'm gonna smoke
cigarette, whatever, I don'tknow, yeah, and, and that's what
you fall into.
But when I got into mma, it waslike everybody was doing
healthy things and training hard, positive, positive and I'm
like, okay, this is what I wantmy life to become and that's who
I surrounded myself withpositive addiction exactly eric,
you mentioned your relationshipwith the boston celtics coach

(35:11):
joe mazula how did that comeabout?
so, um, dan, and we had apractice uh, this is during
summer league last?
yeah, it was last saturday um, Iget a call from dr Duncan over
the UFC PI and he said, hey, doyou mind if I share your contact
to Joe Mazzulla?
And I like one of those likewhere I kind of like, wait, joe

(35:32):
Mazzulla from the Celtics.
He's like yeah, and I was likefuck, yeah, dude, no problem.
So then I get a text from fromJoe and it said hey, I'm in town
from here to here.
Um, would love to be able tojust sit down and meet up and
just pick your brain on somethings.
And I was like you say it, bro,anytime.
You call it out and I go.
I would suggest, if you want tocome in, to come into sparring,

(35:54):
to come watch the guy spar, andhe goes, I'll be there.
So I show up, walk in the office.
Sam Cassell is sitting in thefront lobby.
I this Sam Cassell is sittingin the front lobby.
I'm a big Florida State guy andSam Cassell is a Florida State
alum.
I'm like shit, sam Cassell.
So I start chopping up with him.
Joe Mazzulla shows up, he hangsout with us for basically all

(36:15):
of pro practice and we'recornering rounds like we would
at sparring.
I introduce him to Dan, to Brad, to Boston Salmon, to a bunch
of the boys on the team I thinkcoach gif was there.
You know, these are all likeboston fans as well, um, celtic
fans.
And then he's like if you haveany time, can you, you know,
hang out with us in the office.

(36:35):
So the three of us, I think fourof us, we sat in the office for
like an hour hours dude yeah,yeah and just dude, we just
talked and and talked about youknow, know what's it like
running a team the way that wehave, and how does coaching work
within the corner?
How do you delegate time forthe other guys?
How do you grab attention?
You know all the rightquestions.

(36:55):
A true coach is coach.
A true coach is coach.
But what I really was inspiredby was this man was going to
find any way possible to becomebetter yeah he.
He felt like he let his teamdown the last um in the playoffs
.
They lost in the easterconference finals and a lot of

(37:16):
that blame was put on coach joe.
And he's like, dude, I don'tgive a fuck what it takes, I'm
gonna find ways to become abetter coach, a better, better
person, a better human being.
You know he's, he's a, he's aman of faith.
Um, the dude works his ass offin any, every capacity that I've
ever seen and we really hit itoff.
And I told him before he left.

(37:36):
I'm like this is still like, Iunderstand how busy you are, but
I go, bro, my phone will alwaysbe on, like if you need
something, call me, whatever.
But I wanted to make a consciouseffort to stay in contact with
him during the season.
So, bro, I'd shoot him a textlike once a week hey, checking
in on how are you.
He would shoot me a text aftera fight Yo don't fight.
That was great, how so?

(37:57):
And so Anytime I asked him aquestion about how he's doing,
he would always respond back tolike something about dan or brad
or one of the boys on the team.
Never really, really respondabout the basketball stuff.
It was like, dude, that fightwith strickland was sick you
know, because he's a, he's anmma guy.
He's a big fan, you know.
So, um, it was very organic.
And then, you know, wefacetimed with him on monday.

(38:20):
Yeah, it was his birthday andwe talked.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
I saw him at the fight yeah, third round.
I looked up, I was like what'sup, coach?
I'm like yeah.
And I was like, oh shit, headback in the game, get back yeah,
he was sitting right behind usin the blue corner.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
So when roman fought I got on the on the apron.
Uh, you know they're announcingthe guys.
I looked back, I saw coach joe,I gave roman his water and then
I hopped off and ran back togive Joe and his wife a hug and
say what's up, because I knewthat there wasn't a chance.
You know, I may be only goingto see him for this brief amount
of time, so I knew, whenAnthony Smith was walking out
and Roman was taken care of, Ihad like maybe a minute to spend

(38:56):
with Coach Joe.
So that's.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
You know, it was important to be able to give him
a hug what's crazy that thatfirst day when, when you
introduced us, like, I mean, Idon't, I don't really follow any
other sports other thanfighting and, um, sam cassell
was there, I didn't know samcassell, joe mizzou, I thought
sam cassell was the head coach.
I thought that was joe mizzouand I'm like I thought I was
talking to mizzou for over anhour, had no clue it was him and

(39:20):
I was like I thought he wasjust like an intern.
I was like dude, this he'sfreaking this guy's smart dude,
he wants to learn.
He was picking my brain justasking, like about the mental
coaching adjustments, uh, camps,and I was like I like this guy?

Speaker 2 (39:33):
who's this guy?
Keep at it, this is the headcoach.
I'm like what, yeah you, keepat it, you'll make it someday.
No, he, he's young man.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
And I think that's where you have to give him
credit is like your team isgoing to follow your lead on
things like that.
Like look, I didn't fightprofessionally, but I give my
team everything, every piece ofresource that I have.
So they see, like, okay, he'sstudying, he's training, he's
working, he's doing all thesethings.

(40:00):
Like, okay, he's studying, he'straining, he's working, he's
doing all these things.
Okay, he might not have been apro fighter, but he's doing his
fucking best to be the bestcoach for us.
Right, and that's what I sawfrom Joe right away when I
gravitated to is this dude'sgoing to spare no expense.
He's going to leave no fuckingleaf unturned, like this, you
know exactly no crumbs behind.
And that's what I respect aboutthe guy.

(40:21):
And and I will I was never aBoston Celtics fan.
I'm a Joe Missoula fan throughand through.
So wherever that dude goes,he's going to be my guy for
forever.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah, it's a good point.
Like you know the cross, howthe sports, and it's the
mentality that's the same right,like, as you know, prepping for
a show, like your mental game,you know, and you can take
things from other athletes,right, other people who have
pushed themselves past theirlimits, right, and so all those
kind of connect in that way.
I've noticed that and obviouslysports with fighting, you know

(40:56):
bodybuilding and other you gotguys in there.
Utilize Kobe Bryant as anexample the Mamba mentality that
transfers into every singlesport or even your business or
your life, right, that's prettycool.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Sorry, but my mentality when I was living in
Florida I surrounded myself withfighters.
As you know, I had back then.
It was Spong, yeah, spong.
He caught me up the other day.
Obviously my boy Rumble Johnson.
Who else was there during that?
Rashad Evans?
Um, obviously my boy rumblejohnson.
Um, who else is there doingthat?
Rashad evans?
Um, there was a multitude ofdifferent salvages.

(41:30):
Who?
Even?
Usman just came out of collegeto join what was um jacko?
Yeah, that's what it was backthen, jacko, and that was henry
black zillions I was there doingfor all that time.
I was down for the blackzillions until I met eric we're
down with them too.
Yeah, yeah, he's my guy.
I remember that time there was,it was black zillions versus.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
I was down for the Black Sillians until I met Eric.
Of course we're down with himtoo.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Henry's my guy.
I remember that time it wasBlack Sillians versus ATT and I
had to choose my hat wisely.
And then my brother ended upgoing and being the strength and
conditioning coach for ATT, sothat was a fun time.
To be truthfully honest, butthat was for me as the Mr
Olympia at the time.
I, the Mr Olympia at the time,I loved being around fighters
because that mentality wassomething I wasn't used to and I

(42:05):
used to hone in that knowledge,just like Coach Joe and you.
Having that conversation, it'slike what can I learn from
fighters that I've already kindof already know in my space, but
what can I learn from theseguys in a different space that I
can put into my daily step?
Is there any sports that I know?
You kind of said you don'tfollow much sport, but is any
athletes then that you kind oflook at and go, man, I I'd love,
I love what he does and and uh,not that I try to want to be

(42:28):
like him, but I want to takecharacteristics from that
athlete honestly, a little bitof everything.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
Like I, I don't hone in and watch a lot of sports,
but you know you got like themama mentality.
I listen to a lot of like, evenlike the.
Have you ever heard of theinner game of tennis?
no, these guys are so like I'llstudy the, the mind just of
these tennis players, high leveltennis players, because you
have to be in the moment, right,you got a fucking ball coming

(42:54):
out, you back and 103, yeah,it's going so fast, and like
you're not thinking it's beingthe moment.
Listen to the sound of the ballspinning.
You know the the pound off theracket.
You know the squeaking of thecourts.
Like this is very in the momenttype of sport.
So I, I study that, you knowjust like the psychology of it.

(43:14):
And then obviously you got likethe mindset, like a you know
mama mentality.
Like I, I love it.
You know a guy like tom brady,who has never I, I look at the
goats, right, bodybuilder, myman over here, flex Lewis.
Like I, I just try to study thegoats and take little bits and
pieces of information.
And how can I apply it?
How can I apply it to mewithout changing who I am?

(43:36):
Because I did that too and Ilearned by mistake, by, like you
know, I'll talk to someone likekamaru usman or or uh kabib,
but so hudo, and they all havethese different philosophies and
I'm like trying to like forceit and I'm like trying to be
this guy, this guy, this guy,I'm like dude, I can't.
I, I can't take all theselittle bits and pieces because
they don't like, they don'tcollaborate together.

(43:56):
It doesn't work, you know.
So how can I just form my mindand then truly believe in what I
have and and who I am?
And I think over the years,that's where I've really gotten
better at, just, you know,believing in myself and not
saying don't listen to anyone,but believe in myself, believe
in my team and kind of fuckeveryone you know fuck

Speaker 1 (44:17):
everyone's opinion you know, I want to ask you the
same question, coach what about?
Yourself.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
As far as athletes go .

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah, coaches athletes.
Obviously, you mentioned Joel.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
I think, coming from a football background, I've
always followed Nick Saban.
The ones that have had alasting effect on me are always
going to be my dad and my uncle,because of firsthand
acquaintances of these are thethings that they've taught me or
instilled in me.
And then you know, athlete wiseyeah, I think you got to look

(44:49):
at like guys like Tom Brady,michael Jordan, kobe Bryant, and
, again, like what Dan's sayingto me, it was more about
understanding the work ethic.
What made them tick?
Okay, guys at the highest level.
I'm going to use you for anexample.
You've won how many in a row?
21.
Okay, how does that motivationstay the same?

(45:13):
And this is what, to me, madethe greats the best.
The elite was they weren't okaywith getting caught up.
They weren't okay with somebodycatching up to them, so they
always found ways to evolve orbecome better in areas that may
be okay.
Um, lebron, my free throwshooting can be better.

(45:33):
So what do I spend more time onthe offseason doing?
Developing that they're nottrying to get caught, they're
trying to lap the next guy orthe next group of guys coming,
coming up, and that, to me, likethe tom're trying to lap the
next guy or the next group ofguys coming up and that to me,
like the Tom Brady's of theworld, it's like, yeah, I'm the
goat, but if I let my guard down, then people are going to catch
up to me.
So this work ethic and allthese things that I've done is

(45:56):
here right now, but now thisnext group of crop of guys are
going to try to catch me.
So I actually got to double myworkload.
I'm going to wake up earlier,I'm going to get better, just
because of that mentality oflike no way do I want to get
caught.
So I think when it comes for usfor MMA, we started finding
other ways of details to coach.
Right, like we corner differentbecause of the reps that we

(46:19):
have.
I speak my language isdifferent in the corner because
of what the judges might hear mesay.
Right, it's not just X's andO's.
We prep for things in the roomof like, hey, when we get up off
of these grappling situations,we're going to shadow box in
between these rounds.
Oh, that's just cardio.
No, it's not cardio.
What I'm trying to do is buildbody language.
So the moment we get up off theground, you see my guys bounce

(46:43):
right and they're like oh fuck,this guy looks like he's in
shape and he's ready to go.
We're all tired, everybody'stired in the room, but what
message are we delivering?
Are we giving off?
So there's so many areas thatwe can coach that I think people

(47:04):
overlook that.
I feel me personally, that Ifeel I have an edge on because I
try to stay open-minded andfind areas of improvement and
then, furthermore, man, talk tothe people around you.
Like you, I have greatresources.
I have Randy Couture, one ofthe best mentors and resources
in the world, that I'll pick upthe phone and I can call and
just have an honest, openconversation and he'll tell me
things like hey, don't forgetabout x, y and z, because all of
us get tunnel vision and we weour sights set on the target,

(47:26):
but when you, when you're asniper, you always have your
spotter yeah you got the guysitting next to you looking at
the overall landscape of things.
So having those resources areimportant.
Set of eyes, second set of eyesyou know him and I, bro, and we
we do this all the time.
It's a checks and balances.
A.
What do you think I can bebetter in?
Or if I need an actual resourceto tell me something, I'm going

(47:49):
to go to Dan, or I'm going togo to you or I'm going to go to
you.
A was I wrong in this situation?
There's a saying that says Ilove you too much to leave you
the way that you are.
A lot of your friends will justtell you what you want to hear,
not what you need to hear.
So surround yourself withmotherfuckers that will be like
yo bro.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
Call you out on your shit.
Call you out on your shit.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
Hey man, come to church yeah my guy.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
He got me in, he got me in the church.
I invited Flex too.
Yeah, you did.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
You did.
I got Dan's barber chasing meall the time, every Sunday too.
Oh boy Dan, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Where you at Flex, knocking out guys, knocking out
guys, you're going to walk in.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
We're going to start like burning.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
Knocking out guys on Saturday, blessing guys on
Sunday.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
That's some crazy stuff, but not that shit.
But it kind of threw me offthen, intrigued with what he was
saying, and it kind of made methink about fighters on the path
to stardom.
Okay, how, as a coach, you knowwhen you get these guys in,
they're all coming in differentlevels, right, maybe you've got

(48:51):
somebody that's just, you know,been with you for a number of
years and now he has that fight.
The next thing he skyrocketed,all eyes on him.
You know, look at Dan.
Right, obviously we know Dan,it's not his persona, but if
another fighter had thatopportunity and it goes to his
head, as a coach, what kind ofthings do you do?
Preventative measures, to kindof be like, hey, listen, you're

(49:13):
getting caught up in the saucebecause we can name names who
have won belts and you knowwe're up at 5 am running for
that.
And when they get it, it's likeyou, you're invited to
nightclubs, you're getting paidto do this, you're doing that,
and they're all distractionsGetting laid.
Yeah, how to your point, how,as a coach, do you able to kind
of get that guy back down tolevel, to be like, hey, listen,

(49:35):
we've got a job to do, don't getcaught up in all this
extracurricular stuff.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
Well, what are your goals?
What was your purpose ofgetting into this sport?
And we reinvent our goals, orreestablish goals, all the time,
and a lot of that to me, like,if you're, let's use Conor
McGregor for an example, right,I think he's a great example.
His motivation was to betwo-time champ, or one of the
best to ever do it, but then,when your motivation starts, to

(50:02):
change because pajamas waking upin them silk pajamas you start
waking up in silk pajamas.
Well, what do I?
What am I doing this for?
So?
So your goals have to bereassessed.
And maybe it's not to be thegreatest in the world, maybe
it's you know, I want to makemore money, or I want to do this
, I want to do that.

(50:22):
I think you have to be honestwith yourself as an athlete and
even as a coach.
It's like motives change.
Your motives are going tochange, so those goals have to
be reassessed time and timeagain.
To where?
Yeah, when we first started,our goals are still very similar
to where we're at today.
He's not, he's not moved bymoney.
That's not what he's moved by.
His successes are a byproductnow, or the money's a byproduct

(50:45):
of his successes.
I said it wrong, right?
So, like, that climb is isstill there, that drive is still
there.
You know, we, we haven't hadgold wrapped around our waist,
although that is always going tobe in our sights and what we
want to accomplish, right?
So when certain guys come in andyou can see their, their
celebrity and this, the otherside of that man is, I feel,
like the room, the gym, is itsown entity.

(51:07):
The guys in the room, the team,they'll, they'll bring your ass
right back down pretty freakingquick, you know, because sean
strickland come in the room andhe's a celebrity bro.
He's a celebrity not in the gym, not in our room.
Like you don't give a fuck ifhe's late, late it's yes sir, no
sir, I'm on his ass just aslike I wouldn't be anybody else.
So I think, treating people thesame, but understanding their

(51:30):
motives and what their goals areand those things are always
changing, no matter what.
But at the end of the day, man,I'm pushing for greatness with
my guys and if those motiveschange, I'm probably out the
door, jayrock, um, well, no,it's a, it's a good point.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
I mean, and, and you know, obviously, francis, right,
one of your fighters, um, justwent through some you know
personal tragedy and obviouslyyou know, really crazy tough
time.
You know, I, I see you guys areback training again, you know,
and you're, you know this hasgot to be, uh, you know,
something that's just incrediblyhard for him.
And getting him back in therenow into the ring, and you know,

(52:09):
what do you guys have planned?
Are you, are you trying to gethim back moving again, or what's
that?

Speaker 4 (52:12):
look like, honestly, that that was kind of just the
situation I wanted the most wasjust to get him back in the room
, yeah, and and I just I wanthim to heal, that's all you know
.
And and I think, like we saidearlier, the gym is its own
entity, it's its own likefountain of youth, if you will.
And seeing him walk in the roomand seeing the reception that

(52:33):
he got from the guys and theteam and then seeing his smile
on his face again and how hefeels, that's just one little
baby step towards healing.
And like last on Monday, onMonday he came in and he said
you know, it's been a rough weekand he's going to have that.
He's going to have those roughweeks and he goes.
And I know why.
Because what did he do onSaturday and Sunday?

(52:55):
He probably sat around ordidn't have a whole lot going on
.
So, knowing Francis as well as Ido, like during covid, he was
depressed a lot and that's whenhe kind of became part of the
family because we would justhave him come to the house and
spend time with us.
So he, here he is with this,this loss in his life, and he's
sitting around at home doesn'thave a little lot going on
saturday and sunday.

(53:16):
That's when, probably, thedepression hits.
Monday he comes in and he has agreat practice and then now
throughout the rest of the weekhe's around the boys, around the
team.
He has a sense of purpose.
You know he's getting the jobdone and you know whether he
decides to fight ever again.
Um, it's going to be completelyup to him.
But being in the room andtraining is a step in the right
direction, not only to fightagain but to heal that heart,

(53:38):
yeah, just just his mentalmindset, just to get in there
and be around the boys.
That's right Be around thefamily.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Wolfpack.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
How long is he going to be on it?

Speaker 4 (53:45):
Eric.
He'll be here until the end ofJuly and then I think he has to
go back home due to his visaobligations.
And then, you know, dependingon what he wants to do, we're
going to sit down and kind offigure out, you know, is he
going to come back home, Is hegoing to try to do a training
camp, Are we going to fight,when are we going to fight?
And then all those things.
You know we'll have to figurethat out.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
He's got so much options too 100% He'll be back
to boxing or back, you know, inthe MMA world.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
I'd still love to see him come back and fight Jon
Jones.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
I think everybody does, everybody but that John
Jones list is adding up now with, you know, aspinall Pereira,
you know there's so many namesbeing thrown in the mix.
I think John Jones will neverbe able to retire.
And when he does they're likethere's going to be another guy,
and I know that feeling too.
As soon as you retire, allthese guys come out and call you
out and talking about what'snext?
What do you want next?

(54:37):
I hear Dana White saying that,you know.
I hear Dana White saying thatif these guys wanted to fight in
the Sphere, is that somethingyou want Dan.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
A hundred percent.
I think that Sphere is going tobe insane.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
I've never been there .
Can't wait for that thing.
It's incredible.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
It looks sick, dude.
I mean the amount of eyeballs,too, that are going to be on
that.
That's the biggest reason Iwant to go on there and fight.
Biggest event of the year,right.
Biggest event of the year,right.
Biggest event of the year, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
It's going to be hard to top 303.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
Yeah, I mean, the circumstances of that is insane,
but the Sphere is going to beincredible.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Earn that spot at the Sphere right.
I think I saw Dana was on, likeyou know what.
Let's put both these guys on atthe Sphere for that fight which
earns your spot dude, it'sgreat.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
Yeah, so I mean, I believe Dana's a man of his word
.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
I even tweeted today I'm fine, Ryan.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
Garcia at the Sphere, let's get it going.
We heard it here first, guys,is that?

Speaker 1 (55:30):
something you're interested in doing.
What is that?
The fight between yourself andRyan Garcia?
Would that be something you'reinterested in doing?

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Or any crossover right, dude.
I mean, I'm all about it, dude,whatever brings, shoot.
He's going to put money in mypockets.
But if he wants to come to theUFC we're about the same weight
class he could take all the.
What do you take, osterine?

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Osterine.
I love how he looks at me whenfucking he said that.

Speaker 4 (55:54):
What did he take?
Fuck, I don't fucking know.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
But Dan, that's got to be kind of now with all the
eyes on you there.
But, dan, that's got to be kindof now with all the eyes on you
.
There's the celebrity fightsand everybody's calling each
other out.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
Has anybody called you out?
No, I don't think I've everbeen called out Like really, you
know.
Oh, brito, oh, besides Brito.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
What the fuck.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Danny.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
If you could fight anybody and I mean like a
celebrity, another fighter fromthe past be dead or alive, who
would you fight at the sphere?
No, anybody, just like in thebackyard in the anywhere right
like like four hours, one person, four like three hours I'd love
to fight this dude like maybeit's bruce lee, I don't know
right for you, but there's two,both dead in life alex yeah,
dead in a life, volkanovsky,volkanovsky hesky.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
He's one of the goats , I mean, last year he was pound
for pound, number one.
He had a few KO losses, but,dude, he's still one of the best
in the world and that's what Iwant.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
I was going to say you and BJ Penn would toss it up
.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Real nice, the couple of.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
Hawaiian boys.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
I don't want to do that to my wife.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
He's trying to stir the pot with all the Hawaiians.
Listen, Dan, I think you know.
Suffice to say, man, we hadthis conversation actually at
Xtreme, when my daughter was injiu-jitsu and you had just
finished practice and I'd seenyou, probably the first time I'd
seen you for a while.
Yeah, I said bro you're lookinggreat and obviously this guy no

(57:27):
, bro, you're looking great andobviously this guy.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
No, you're looking great, but done, I'm gonna put
on tricep.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
But thank you very much, mr nice guy over here and
he said one arm, one arm.
She's like um, obviously I'vegot the fight coming up, and
this is a couple of weeks ago,yeah.
And I said, bro, you look ready, he goes flex.
I'm always ready and suffice tosay.
A lot of people have said thatto me.
You know I'm always ready andsuffice to say.
A lot of people have said thatto me.
You know I'm always ready.
You know you heard it more thanme in that world of fighting.
But you truly lived up to that,my friend.
And when I seen you walking out, as I said in the beginning of

(57:50):
the episode, man, I was sittingon the couch, I think my son was
sitting on my lap.
He went flying.
I was, oh my God, goosebumps onmy arm.
I was like I'll pick him up.
I went ballistic.
And then that text popped up.
This is something I didn't talkabout in the episode and I
looked at the time of the text.
It was 4 pm and it was like6.30 when I was watching the

(58:12):
fight and you guys about 6.30, 7o'clock when you were walking
in, walking in.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
yeah, he was looking down with his happy ending.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
It's like unbelievable man that mindset
shift from being totally in Zento then being in the octagon
19,000 people screaming yourname at the end.
And that speech at the end, mangot me fucking riled up Four
hours.
Give us the soundbite bro,let's go.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
I can't do it.
Eight weeks, six weeks, fourweeks, weeks, four weeks four
hours doesn't matter.
Oh dude, I was, I was pumped up, man it's uh, it's truly a
blessing from god and this, thiswhole thing, this whole
training camp, has been a truetest of my faith losing how many
opponents and just believing,you know, there's something
better in store.
There's something better instore, and I didn't know what it

(59:00):
was till I woke up on thattable and was saying you're fine
tonight.
So yeah, man Sick.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Well, if you weren't on the Don E Gay train before?
Oh shit, get on on it, it'sgone, there we go.
I was going to rip my shirt offthere, but Taya said I can't
move.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
Did you get one?

Speaker 1 (59:26):
of those for me, bro.
I I went to the store andbought it like a good friend.
I'm dropping new merch rightnow.
It's live.
Yeah, that's the thing, and andI want to and want to push and
promote you guys.
So, on that note, what have yougot going on?

Speaker 3 (59:32):
uh, we got two shirts .
Right now I got a third onecoming out.
If you go to shop danny gaycom,it's got the eight weeks, six
weeks, four hours, doesn'tmatter, it's got the eight weeks
, six weeks, four hours, doesn'tmatter.
It's got the font on there.
And it's got me walking in inmy house slippers, holding my
coffee walking into the arena.
Yeah, just some merch for thefans.
Love it.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Burn the boats.
Let's talk about it.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
My man to the left here.
You just started up an epicpodcast.
My friend, I want to give youthe flowers to that.
Let's talk about that.
I want to give you the flowersto that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
Well, let's talk about that.
Thankful for you because yougave me a little space to do it.
You know, in the lair, yeah, Imean honestly, we kind of we
just kind of started on theheels of just these epic stories
like this, like theseexperiences that we have with
these fighters, meeting greatpeople within the industry,
great friends and more, justkind of inspired by like how you

(01:00:22):
and I sit down and chop thesestuff up.
And these stories, I think,need to be told the behind the
scenes.
You know the fans arepredicated to seeing a lot of
what happens in the cage, butwhat leads up to those things?
So you know, unfortunately wefilmed one here, dan and I, last
week or two weeks ago andthat's going to be a little bit
outdated, so we're're gonna haveto film another one again.

(01:00:48):
But there's a lot of goodinformation on on for the fans
to understand dan and myself andhow we got to be where we're at
today.
You know that was our 20th profight together, but there's a
lot of history in between thosefights.
Like you know, we had themoment yesterday.
You know he pays me this hugeamount of money and and we're
walking and I just give him thisbig old hug.
It's like man eight years.
We've crammed so many greatmemories in together in this
time and then we have so manymore to go.

(01:01:08):
So that's what kind of thepodcast is predicated on is just
these adventures, together,spending some time with some
great friends.
I love you.
I love you, dad.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
I love you Dad.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
Winning some some great friends and I love you, I
love your dad and going out, youknow, winning some big fights
and doing some fun shit, youknow.
So we've got a lot of goodstories and I I just want the
fans to kind of hear a lot offighter stories, a lot of other
stories too.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
I watched the the first episode congratulations.
And it's not just fightingright?
I just want to clarify.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
There's a lot of different yeah, and you know,
like I didn't want to get intolike breakdown of like, oh, this
week we have so-and-so.
Yes, of course, if there's abig fight coming up, people want
to know what my thoughts are onbreaking down Jon Jones versus
Aspinall or whatever it may be.
We'll break some stuff down.
But, moreover, what I wouldlove to do is be able to say,

(01:01:56):
hey, dan, come sit down.
We're going to talk aboutMursad Bektik camp and that's it
.
We're going to talk aboutmersad beck to camp, and that's
it.
And we're going to talk aboutthe corner.
We're going to talk about this,and you know some of the stuff
that we've been through.
And brad tavarez I've been withbrad for 15 years now, you know
.
So brad's going to sit down onthe couch and we're going to rap
and we're going to talk aboutsome.
You know fun road trip stuff.
And you know ray cefo when it'slike having ray in the room.

(01:02:16):
So I wonder the name dude,what's that I love?
the name.
Yeah, the name's great VersusUs you know Versus Us.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
I love it, and that's what it was this weekend, right
, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
It sure was.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
It's the fucking team and I said it is a movie and it
reminds me so much like aspinoff from the town.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
That's the movie, right?

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
It's like my car to yours Is yeah, and that's what
Eric Wright, calling thesepeople up, it's like be there at
this time, at this venue, atthis part.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
It's like a high school fight, like when we used
to fight in high school like yo.
Meet me here, meet me here, andthen we're going to go stomp
these dudes out.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Put on Tupac.
Not much information, justplayers time.
Something's kicking off.

Speaker 4 (01:03:03):
And that was it right .
I just love how much credit theteam gets for that, because it
was like here's Kai Kamaka,fresh off of a win, pfl, fresh
off the plane, ali, doing such agreat job behind the scenes
making this happen.
You got Sean Strickland, yougot Eddie Baracco who's watching
tape and putting this down.
A lot of things had to cometogether really to make this
whole thing work.
Even Jeff Mullen calling me,he's like can your guy fight

(01:03:25):
right now?
Is this even possible?
I'm like fuck, yeah, it'spossible.
I was like if there's anybodyin the world that can do it,
it's this dude right here and Igo.
I would never put my fighter inharm's way.
I would never put my fighter inharm's way.
And I'm telling you right now,when dan called this wasn't hey,
what do you think this was?
yo, we're going and I'm likefucking, let's go, dude, let's

(01:03:47):
ride, let's ride.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
Don any parting words for the fun.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
That's funds, that's your camera, right there, my
friend no, I just want to saythank you guys so much.
I love you all and, uh, thankyou flex.
Thank you, jay rock e.
You know I love you.
I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Well, guys, what an episode.
And fresh off 303,.
I mean, listen, he's stillfucking smoldering, right, he's
so fucking hot right now.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
What's happening tonight?
My scrap code yeah, we'll keepthat off camera.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
But anyway, that's straight over there.
Flex and Rock Eric Nixick onthe man of the hour, my man Don
Eagay.
We are out.