February 8, 2025 • 23 mins
The champion Dricus Du Plessis IS BACK on the DC Check-In series with Daniel Cormier, ahead of his MASSIVE REMATCH against Sean Strickland at UFC 312 in Sydney, Australia. After beating Strickland and Israel Adesanya, DDP GOES IN ON why he's a different and better fighter than EVER BEFORE. Plus, Du Plessis details his fight camp and what made this one unique from any other he's had ahead of a fight. Cormier also asks DDP what he makes of Strickland making fun of his awkward fighting style. And don't miss Dricus and DC about his viral moment when he made a face after Du Plessis and his coach kissed! #Volume #Herd
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We're back in Australia for UFC three twelve. Strickland and
dupus C face off for a second time and for
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Speaker 2 (01:37):
Drake is du plus see thanks for checking in with me.
Drake is the Physics Belt this week and against Sean Strickland.
Clearly you had a good camp in those five days, though,
when you a guy like you that's getting ready for
a championship fight, when you take those five days, are
you able to really disconnect? Are you still running? You
still like doing them? Are you doing push ups in
the room and shit on vacation?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I was at a whole program program, I was training
super hard, I was I was feeling good, but it
was good for my mind. I went fishing. Called a
shark a massive one is great?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Way will you be a shark?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Like? What kind of shark? Ragged two shark. It was
one hundred and forteen kilograms.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
What's that that's way one two hundred and sixty pounds.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, it was a it was a good shark. How
long did it takeet a really in but they said
it's got to take an hour. I did, like in
twenty five to thirty minutes. But it wasn't fight, it
was it was amazing, really, and I was just saying
I was jet skiing, I was staying busy, burning categories. Yeah,
and obviously to be able to have someone that Christmas
(02:36):
Christmas view Mom made and yeah, I mean to disconnect
in the middle of the fight camp and really spend
time families. I just realized it's impossible. It's my second year,
So it was a it was tough, you know, my
second year. Usually I have two weeks with mom and dad,
my brother's, my nephew's niece. And once again, you know,
I was there, but it's it's almost impossible for me
(02:57):
to completely be there. I'm almost looking forward to getting
back and you know, getting rid of it's fight. Yeah.
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
You know what's funny is is we talked about this
all the time. How you have truly turned a whole
bunch of people detractors in the believers. Right now, you've
settled at the top of the middle of division. I
remember when you fought Izzy. I was talking to Danny
and I said, how do you see this fight?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Easy fight, easy fight? And I'm like, come on, you
can't believe it's gonna be an easy fight? Right then
you end up submitting Israel Adisania. Today I saw this
dude and I go Strickland Philsey's God that he'll submit him.
Like this confidence that your whole entire team now carries,
it's it's very impressive because through your performances you have
(03:41):
shown that this confidence is earned and not just something
that's kind of made up by the people around you.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, I think I would hope the people around me
believe in me as much as I believe in myself,
because that's where it starts. If you don't believing yourself,
how do you expect other people to believe you're right?
My team, my coaches, I know they believe in me,
my brothers that I'm both here and my whole team.
Everybody around me, I know, believes in me. To make
(04:11):
when you get a manager or a nutritionist in or
almost somebody from the outside just part of the Yeah.
Even if you get a photographer, if you're a videographer,
I need that person to be on my team. Yeah,
I can few. I I work off energies with the UFC.
(04:32):
I have Fantasis as my guy with the camera from
from the UFC, the embedded guy, and he's the guy
I work with. I've worked with him from the first
embedded and I'm not working with anybody else. Yeah, because
I don't trust anybody else because I know Fantasists believes
in our team. As ridiculous as that sound, because he's
only see.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, you spend so much time with embedded people, right,
you know if they believe it.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, and right now I'm guessing if he's unbiased, he goes, well,
I'm gonna be bossed because I filmed this guys, I'm
rooting for him. So even if it's just that for me,
that energy, I can feel it. I'm like, I'll know
if somebody doesn't believe in me, and they will.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
There you go, oh, yeah, I got a question for you.
This kind of popped into my head. So when you want,
I went to interview you one time and your coach,
will you see this meme where it says that I
was reacting that when your coach kissed you?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Oh yeah, did you?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Did he kiss you? Because I didn't even notice.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I didn't even.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Notice drakers Like that's why everyone was like, look at
DJs go. I did not even notice. I did not
even notice the Dear's julyar Bro.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I had no idea to say, like, I want to
listen to the game. I was like, he didn't look
at you.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
What did I do? Like, I did not do that.
That's bulls. I swear to god. I didn't even realize it.
I didn't even realize it happened.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I know what. I know what you're saying, and photos
sometimes can be the same bent. But that was a
bad look.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
It was a bad look.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
It was just so depending on which angle he look for.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Which, because I swear to god, if they looked at
me on a different angle, I probably wasn't even looking
at it at y'all.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
But that angle was like, if they seem that way,
you might have just looked over there. But we were
in that rich kissing, very rude for staring. Do you see?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It's so funny. I always I just wondered about that
reason I was like, I wonder if he's seen this thing,
because dud, they have all these memes. I'm like, yo,
I didn't. I wasn't doing that.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I love the memes.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You like it.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I love them, I say to them, I reshad them.
I really enjoy it. Some of them are stupid, They're
very stupid, but some of them are really funny.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And yeah, it just they are made to make you
feel uncomfortable. It's like I, I did not do that.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You have to go through a lot of trouble to
get me uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Really, yeah, yeah, nothing makes you uncomfortable. Nothing makes bro you.
You've what you've done, seriously has been ill, really amazing.
You're fighting a guy you fought before. In Sean Strickland,
he thought he won the first fight. I think that
even on the commentary, I thought that we were by
(07:09):
the side was saying one two, I thought you won
that fight pretty clearly. He feels that you he won
that fight, would play the biggest part of him as
you headbutting him. Yeah, he said, without that head but
it's a completely different fight. Do you think he's wasted
too much energy on that moment or do you think
that's just something that he takes to get confidence that
(07:32):
he can make it a different fight.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I didn't think it was any of those. I think
I think he if he talks about the head butt
that wasn't the fourth round anyways. Yeah, and he talks
about he was winning that fight. He only won the
first round. In my opinion, you can you can make
a case for the fifth if you only score the
last minute. But he spoke about when that happened. I
(07:59):
went to go get a big after the fight. Was
the first time I heard about this this headbut yea,
and I went to go see where he talked about it.
His eye was already bleeding when that happened. It was
a I remember in the fight when I cut him,
I thought he was speaking about the other cut, Yeah,
not the one on his eye. I remember so clearly
in the fight when I threw I threw one two,
(08:19):
it's almost a fake, and I stepped over and I
hit another straight and I caught him on the eye there.
And then I caught him three or four times, even
with the southball jab or the straight right on the eye.
And I remember when I saw the blood for the
first time after the shot, and I said, ha, gotcha.
And I remember when I caught him on the eye
(08:41):
and I saw the blood flowing down, I went, I
hope that goes into his eye because my one eye
was proper swollen. Just see your bottom eyes. I couldn't
see through that eye properly because especially after the first round.
It went down during the fight because I started getting
out of the way of the jab. And then I thought, okay, cool,
(09:01):
at least both we have we have one eye aage.
And then I think that noise was for one reason,
one reason early to get back in this out of picture,
and I cannot hate that. Okay, He's never taken away
from my performance. He's never taken away that. You know,
I'm a good fighter, and I cannot hate on the
fact that he you know, this is part of the game.
(09:23):
The guy who makes the case for getting it shot again,
and I gotta respect that. And I'm happy you got
it because that fight pushed me. And this is going
to be the best comparison of the improvements that I've
made over the last year. And I cannot wait. I
cannot wait to showcase that.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Were you ever worried though, like when it was happening
right Sean Strickland was called the normal contender have to
be Paula Costa. Then hams that Jamayah beats Robert would
occur he beats them impressively. It seemed like Hamzad might
be the guy. Right, there's so much hides surrounding the guy.
You ever concerned like it might be? Jami appolsed the strick.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
One concerned, Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I was not like, I mean, well, I want to yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, because you know when I looked at it and
I wind, huh, they've I know, they've wanted hums Out
to be the guy for so long. He just hasn't
been able to. No, Humsad is such an incredible fighter,
he just hasn't been able to constantly keep well, get
to fights first, and you know, whatever the case may be,
(10:29):
however long he has been the guy and just not
being able to to make that leap. I know they
want because Humsad has a massive following. Humsad is a
big name, The hype is there deserving. Humsad is is
a special fighter, and I believe that once he fights me,
that's when people will will really see how special I am.
(10:51):
And I was looking forward to having that fight that.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
But how in the world. Can you think that people
still don't recognize how special you are after what you've
done now? Right, because I you know you and I
we've both got this public caste. You beat Robert, Oh
something's wrong with Robert. He's not the same guy. Right.
You go out there and you beat Sean Strickland. Well
that was really close. So maybe then you finish Israel
(11:17):
to Sonya when nobody was finishing Israel of Sonya, and
then people, oh, yeah, okay, this dude's the real deal.
You still think, though, that there is a section of
people that you still got to show that you're that guy,
Like you're that dude.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
More myself and the believers than anybody else, those people
who who believe in me. Even then you believe us,
I didn't care. I'm not like you didn't believe me
in the past. I'll laugh at you after the first time,
like I did with you. You told me by the way
I told you all the idiot people they were mentioning
you today after the fight and like, ha, you look
(11:52):
like dumbasses. Now, yeah, that's fun for me. But I
never take it personally, and it's not about that. It's
just like, oh, you're gonna find out and for me,
it's about the people who believe in me, whether they
are new believers or those who were there in the beginning,
proving them right, and myself and going out there and
giving them the performance that I owe them and myself
(12:14):
the performance. You know, when I pray before I fight,
I don't ask for a win. It's not fair because
the open and can ask for the same thing. How
do you I ask that I firstly get out what
I've put in, that I get the result of my effort,
and that I walk out of that octagon knowing that
I've given everything that I can. I don't ever, with
(12:35):
a win or a loss, want to walk out of
that octagon saying I could have done this, I should
have done this. And in the two losses of my career,
I walked out of there and I said, hm, I
did everything I could. I got beat tonight. Even my
worst performances, that is, my worst performance is with a
win has bothered me more than any of my losses
(12:58):
because getting out and saying ah, that's not how Yeah,
I can't perform like that if I want to be
the base in the world. So that's what I ask
for is let me perform at the base of my ability.
When I get out of there, I know I did
everything I possibly got. I was willing to give my
life to get that when and that's what satisfacity.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So Sean Strickland, for lack of a better word, is different. Right.
He can say some crazy stuff that we did an
interview earlier, him and I and I think I got
to cut the last like two minutes. It's like, I
don't know that I could use it seriously. But he
seems to like respect you much more than most. Is
(13:38):
it odd that when you watch him do media, he'll
say things about you like he's like a kid off
the short Bus. That's how he fights, right, But then
the moment you guys are.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Like, he doesn't fight like a kid off the show.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
He said you, I always say you are fight. He's
like a kid off a short buss. I was gouls
full sent he's what he says.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
But then, oh, he looks like somebody who built the
short Oh my.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Wrong with damn?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
What is wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Guys? With you didn't have me chopping up interviews the
whole damn time. But he's quite respectful of you until you,
guys get to like presslers and stuff in face to face.
Is that odd to you?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
No, not at all. I have the world's respect for
Sean Shoulden, you know, in terms, I know Sean Shouldin
as a fighter. Once you've shared, you have shared the
octagon with somebody for twenty five minutes, and you had
you have had to do the game matches, it is incredibly,
incredibly hard not to respect, not respect somebody. He's the
(14:42):
only person who's ever been able to do that with me.
And I tried to kill him. I tried to kill him,
and he was willing, he was able to withstand. If
there's one wish in this sport, sixth round, Yeah, that's
what what I have. Maybe a seventh or how long
ever it would have taken. But the man is tough
as name, and he's willing to go for it, and
(15:02):
he's willing to He's a fighter by heart. And I
have the world's respect for Sean Strickland as a fighter.
He's a great fighter. He's tough, he's good, and you know,
he's made this work for him and I respect that.
I think he's a great fighter and he brings the
best out of me. Yeah, every time I went to training,
(15:23):
I was thinking about that first fight, how hard it was,
how hard it was, how I had to push myself,
how much I had to have complete disregard for my health,
for everything. And I would go harder, and I would
break up earlier, and I would do more because I knew.
He now knows what I'm willing to do, so he's
(15:44):
prepared for that. Yeah, and now he's going to find
out that I'm willing to go way beyond that.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
What what a Sunday morning to you look like? Is
it like the closing of a chapter in your career?
Like the rematches are I had a lot of rematches, man,
I rematch Jones, Ariette, match arematch Rumbell Johnson. Yeah, I
had a lot of rematches, and every time one of
those rematches finished, it felt like the close of a
chapter in my career. What do you think Sunday morning
(16:13):
will mean to you, especially if you retain your championship? Like, Okay,
now I'm done with the strictest part of my career.
I can move on to something bigger and better or
well you kind of live in and go. Man, this
made me better this year.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I'm gonna be honest with you. The fact that this
is a rematch is irrelevant in my opinion. I'm looking
at this fight as the fight that's a head of me.
If Sean Stocking had to pull up right now of
this fight, I would feel exactly the same about this. Yeah,
because I didn't train to beat Sean Stuet, and I
trained to be the best trickist. That's ivastating the other octagon.
(16:46):
I've trained to be the world champion and perform like
the world champion I am. The fact that this is
our second fight is irrelevant because it's not going to
be like the first fight. I am better a lot better.
He is probably better a lot better. We the area
there's almost unknown. You've had room matches. For me. The
(17:07):
biggest thing when you fight somebody is that how hard
does this guy really hit? How fast is you?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
What?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
What's it all about? And that takes it maybe a
minute or two to figure out, Yeah, is that's his
herd Bunge is good at that. Now I can go
that that is that's gotten because you already know we
already know that. But the game Bland is going to
be different, The circumstance is going to be different, and
this is a completely different fight. This is the biggest
(17:33):
fight of my life. And I said this before, I'm
not defending my title. When I get into the titles
doesn't belong to me anymore. They're now standing with the
title and he's putting it around the waist of whoever
wins that fight. So I'm fighting for my title. Yeah,
And that's the only thing similar in this whole fight.
The same name and surname, and we are fighting for
(17:55):
that title.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah. Last two for you before I let you go.
One when you fight is he last fight? And you
guys got into the deeper parts of the fight very competitive,
but many believed that you broke him down to the
point that you got the submission. Did you feel that
Did you feel like you had taken that wool away
from him to fight and compete with you?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, I think in any stage, I mean, it was Jesus,
he's so good. Yeah, he's a good fighter. He's a
great fighter. But I've studied that man, and I've seen
when things get hard for him, that's when it turns
around when he gets Firstly, I clipped him with a
left hook to the top of the head that people
(18:35):
didn't really think that was the shot, but I knew
it was right here, and I found that I missed
the first one, missed, the second one. The third it
was closer, closer, and the third one according right here. Yeah,
And when I shot landed, I knew that shot wobbles people.
And I looked at him and I walked forward any
end where he almost sides and starts going in that direction,
(18:58):
and I thought, ha, I got you. And then I
just started putting it on him. And when he pointed
to the gun he pointed, he said he slipped, and
I took it as he's pointed to the gun, and
I said, well, okay, I'm in for that. Let's go
and accord him with a punch. And as soon as
he turned his back, I knew this is this is
this is trouble for him, and this is you know,
(19:20):
when you turn your back like that, you are in
a position where I don't want to take this anymore.
I want to get away from it. And I hit
the punches. And the game plan for Easy specifically was
is this guy's take down the defense. He's too good.
When you try to take him down when he expected,
you are not taking him down because he will sprawl
(19:40):
and he's so tall, he's really hard with the long
legs and arms to you have to take him down
when he's expecting you to strike, which is a lot
easier said than done. Yeah, but what better time than
rocking him with three big right hands and him covering up.
And it was in that moment I went, there's no
way I can go for the tiko. But he's still
(20:02):
in it. This is where I'd take the takedown. He's
not expecting this got to take down. And you know how,
I put the hooks in, a sloppy way of putting
that hooks in because it was just there was no
system it was. But I knew he was dazed, he
was tired, and he was in a place where he
didn't really want to fight for that, let's say, for
(20:23):
the next twenty seconds.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, because the first time he was able to defend
it get away.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I said, get these hooks in, no matter what if,
even if you don't get the choke right now, get
those hooks in because he's dazed, he's focused on his head.
I put the hooks in, and as soon as I
got my hands, yeah, I knew this fight was over. Yeah,
And yeah, that was that was just the breaking down.
I could see it. I could see them. I could
see him fighting the urge to give up.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, and eventually I saw this is it okay? Last one?
So you got a lot of trouble with Usman and
all those guys for a while. Acceptance is a word
in a way, almost like bullish way of making people
accept you as the champion you are today. And I
saw a clip the other day Kamoraw Usman talking about you, right,
(21:10):
and it was all about we're all the same, right,
we have we have four African champions, right, It's not
just three kings anymore, it's four because Dracus is a
African champion. Right. That acceptance? Uh, you? You always take
that respect? Like is that satisfying to hear from a god?
Because remember before it was like he said, he didn't
(21:30):
even listen to what I said and just reacted. But
now that there seems to be this acceptance of we
are all one, Like what does that feel like you?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
That's amazing? And like I said, when when the whole thing,
like you said, we had, we had problems and before
that we never had because like I said, when he said,
when he referred to what I said, I could hear
that he has never listened to the actual clips. Yeah,
and that was he was listening to what people said.
I say him, he wasn't. He wasn't listening to you,
and I think he went and listened to it. And
(22:00):
obviously after the fight, the respect Sharon, it is. It's
an honor for me to be a part of that
group and you be considered as the full Yeah, among
the legends. That is Frans isn't gonna Israelasanya and kamar Usmann.
That small group of elites, among a small group of elites.
(22:21):
I mean, I'm getting goosebumps I think about it. That is.
I mean that in itself, you can see you look
at this, that in itself is incredible. It's such a
big gonna. You know, we are proud of a heritage,
we are proud of for where we come from, and
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You have truly knocked down some borders. Some borders, guys,
this guy has knocked down the walls that we've all
put in front of him. You want to doubt him,
He'll just continue to win This weekend Dracers Dupless see
Defenders Middleway Championship for the second time, this time against
a guy he fought before in Sean Strickland. You have
see three twelve goals down this weekend. Make sure in
the ESPN play per View by button cap and everything
(22:57):
Dracus is doing until next time piece. She had the
fights right, She had the fights
Speaker 1 (23:06):
M
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
We're back in Australia for UFC three twelve. Strickland and
dupus C face off for a second time and for
all the big fights. You know that your boy DC
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Speaker 3 (01:00):
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Speaker 2 (01:37):
Drake is du plus see thanks for checking in with me.
Drake is the Physics Belt this week and against Sean Strickland.
Clearly you had a good camp in those five days, though,
when you a guy like you that's getting ready for
a championship fight, when you take those five days, are
you able to really disconnect? Are you still running? You
still like doing them? Are you doing push ups in
the room and shit on vacation?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I was at a whole program program, I was training
super hard, I was I was feeling good, but it
was good for my mind. I went fishing. Called a
shark a massive one is great?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Way will you be a shark?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Like? What kind of shark? Ragged two shark. It was
one hundred and forteen kilograms.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
What's that that's way one two hundred and sixty pounds.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, it was a it was a good shark. How
long did it takeet a really in but they said
it's got to take an hour. I did, like in
twenty five to thirty minutes. But it wasn't fight, it
was it was amazing, really, and I was just saying
I was jet skiing, I was staying busy, burning categories. Yeah,
and obviously to be able to have someone that Christmas
(02:36):
Christmas view Mom made and yeah, I mean to disconnect
in the middle of the fight camp and really spend
time families. I just realized it's impossible. It's my second year,
So it was a it was tough, you know, my
second year. Usually I have two weeks with mom and dad,
my brother's, my nephew's niece. And once again, you know,
I was there, but it's it's almost impossible for me
(02:57):
to completely be there. I'm almost looking forward to getting
back and you know, getting rid of it's fight. Yeah.
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
You know what's funny is is we talked about this
all the time. How you have truly turned a whole
bunch of people detractors in the believers. Right now, you've
settled at the top of the middle of division. I
remember when you fought Izzy. I was talking to Danny
and I said, how do you see this fight?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Easy fight, easy fight? And I'm like, come on, you
can't believe it's gonna be an easy fight? Right then
you end up submitting Israel Adisania. Today I saw this
dude and I go Strickland Philsey's God that he'll submit him.
Like this confidence that your whole entire team now carries,
it's it's very impressive because through your performances you have
(03:41):
shown that this confidence is earned and not just something
that's kind of made up by the people around you.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, I think I would hope the people around me
believe in me as much as I believe in myself,
because that's where it starts. If you don't believing yourself,
how do you expect other people to believe you're right?
My team, my coaches, I know they believe in me,
my brothers that I'm both here and my whole team.
Everybody around me, I know, believes in me. To make
(04:11):
when you get a manager or a nutritionist in or
almost somebody from the outside just part of the Yeah.
Even if you get a photographer, if you're a videographer,
I need that person to be on my team. Yeah,
I can few. I I work off energies with the UFC.
(04:32):
I have Fantasis as my guy with the camera from
from the UFC, the embedded guy, and he's the guy
I work with. I've worked with him from the first
embedded and I'm not working with anybody else. Yeah, because
I don't trust anybody else because I know Fantasists believes
in our team. As ridiculous as that sound, because he's
only see.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, you spend so much time with embedded people, right,
you know if they believe it.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, and right now I'm guessing if he's unbiased, he goes, well,
I'm gonna be bossed because I filmed this guys, I'm
rooting for him. So even if it's just that for me,
that energy, I can feel it. I'm like, I'll know
if somebody doesn't believe in me, and they will.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
There you go, oh, yeah, I got a question for you.
This kind of popped into my head. So when you want,
I went to interview you one time and your coach,
will you see this meme where it says that I
was reacting that when your coach kissed you?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Oh yeah, did you?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Did he kiss you? Because I didn't even notice.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I didn't even.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Notice drakers Like that's why everyone was like, look at
DJs go. I did not even notice. I did not
even notice the Dear's julyar Bro.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I had no idea to say, like, I want to
listen to the game. I was like, he didn't look
at you.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
What did I do? Like, I did not do that.
That's bulls. I swear to god. I didn't even realize it.
I didn't even realize it happened.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I know what. I know what you're saying, and photos
sometimes can be the same bent. But that was a
bad look.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
It was a bad look.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
It was just so depending on which angle he look for.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Which, because I swear to god, if they looked at
me on a different angle, I probably wasn't even looking
at it at y'all.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
But that angle was like, if they seem that way,
you might have just looked over there. But we were
in that rich kissing, very rude for staring. Do you see?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
It's so funny. I always I just wondered about that
reason I was like, I wonder if he's seen this thing,
because dud, they have all these memes. I'm like, yo,
I didn't. I wasn't doing that.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I love the memes.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You like it.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I love them, I say to them, I reshad them.
I really enjoy it. Some of them are stupid, They're
very stupid, but some of them are really funny.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And yeah, it just they are made to make you
feel uncomfortable. It's like I, I did not do that.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You have to go through a lot of trouble to
get me uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Really, yeah, yeah, nothing makes you uncomfortable. Nothing makes bro you.
You've what you've done, seriously has been ill, really amazing.
You're fighting a guy you fought before. In Sean Strickland,
he thought he won the first fight. I think that
even on the commentary, I thought that we were by
(07:09):
the side was saying one two, I thought you won
that fight pretty clearly. He feels that you he won
that fight, would play the biggest part of him as
you headbutting him. Yeah, he said, without that head but
it's a completely different fight. Do you think he's wasted
too much energy on that moment or do you think
that's just something that he takes to get confidence that
(07:32):
he can make it a different fight.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I didn't think it was any of those. I think
I think he if he talks about the head butt
that wasn't the fourth round anyways. Yeah, and he talks
about he was winning that fight. He only won the
first round. In my opinion, you can you can make
a case for the fifth if you only score the
last minute. But he spoke about when that happened. I
(07:59):
went to go get a big after the fight. Was
the first time I heard about this this headbut yea,
and I went to go see where he talked about it.
His eye was already bleeding when that happened. It was
a I remember in the fight when I cut him,
I thought he was speaking about the other cut, Yeah,
not the one on his eye. I remember so clearly
in the fight when I threw I threw one two,
(08:19):
it's almost a fake, and I stepped over and I
hit another straight and I caught him on the eye there.
And then I caught him three or four times, even
with the southball jab or the straight right on the eye.
And I remember when I saw the blood for the
first time after the shot, and I said, ha, gotcha.
And I remember when I caught him on the eye
(08:41):
and I saw the blood flowing down, I went, I
hope that goes into his eye because my one eye
was proper swollen. Just see your bottom eyes. I couldn't
see through that eye properly because especially after the first round.
It went down during the fight because I started getting
out of the way of the jab. And then I thought, okay, cool,
(09:01):
at least both we have we have one eye aage.
And then I think that noise was for one reason,
one reason early to get back in this out of picture,
and I cannot hate that. Okay, He's never taken away
from my performance. He's never taken away that. You know,
I'm a good fighter, and I cannot hate on the
fact that he you know, this is part of the game.
(09:23):
The guy who makes the case for getting it shot again,
and I gotta respect that. And I'm happy you got
it because that fight pushed me. And this is going
to be the best comparison of the improvements that I've
made over the last year. And I cannot wait. I
cannot wait to showcase that.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Were you ever worried though, like when it was happening
right Sean Strickland was called the normal contender have to
be Paula Costa. Then hams that Jamayah beats Robert would
occur he beats them impressively. It seemed like Hamzad might
be the guy. Right, there's so much hides surrounding the guy.
You ever concerned like it might be? Jami appolsed the strick.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
One concerned, Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I was not like, I mean, well, I want to yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, because you know when I looked at it and
I wind, huh, they've I know, they've wanted hums Out
to be the guy for so long. He just hasn't
been able to. No, Humsad is such an incredible fighter,
he just hasn't been able to constantly keep well, get
to fights first, and you know, whatever the case may be,
(10:29):
however long he has been the guy and just not
being able to to make that leap. I know they
want because Humsad has a massive following. Humsad is a
big name, The hype is there deserving. Humsad is is
a special fighter, and I believe that once he fights me,
that's when people will will really see how special I am.
(10:51):
And I was looking forward to having that fight that.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
But how in the world. Can you think that people
still don't recognize how special you are after what you've
done now? Right, because I you know you and I
we've both got this public caste. You beat Robert, Oh
something's wrong with Robert. He's not the same guy. Right.
You go out there and you beat Sean Strickland. Well
that was really close. So maybe then you finish Israel
(11:17):
to Sonya when nobody was finishing Israel of Sonya, and
then people, oh, yeah, okay, this dude's the real deal.
You still think, though, that there is a section of
people that you still got to show that you're that guy,
Like you're that dude.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
More myself and the believers than anybody else, those people
who who believe in me. Even then you believe us,
I didn't care. I'm not like you didn't believe me
in the past. I'll laugh at you after the first time,
like I did with you. You told me by the way
I told you all the idiot people they were mentioning
you today after the fight and like, ha, you look
(11:52):
like dumbasses. Now, yeah, that's fun for me. But I
never take it personally, and it's not about that. It's
just like, oh, you're gonna find out and for me,
it's about the people who believe in me, whether they
are new believers or those who were there in the beginning,
proving them right, and myself and going out there and
giving them the performance that I owe them and myself
(12:14):
the performance. You know, when I pray before I fight,
I don't ask for a win. It's not fair because
the open and can ask for the same thing. How
do you I ask that I firstly get out what
I've put in, that I get the result of my effort,
and that I walk out of that octagon knowing that
I've given everything that I can. I don't ever, with
(12:35):
a win or a loss, want to walk out of
that octagon saying I could have done this, I should
have done this. And in the two losses of my career,
I walked out of there and I said, hm, I
did everything I could. I got beat tonight. Even my
worst performances, that is, my worst performance is with a
win has bothered me more than any of my losses
(12:58):
because getting out and saying ah, that's not how Yeah,
I can't perform like that if I want to be
the base in the world. So that's what I ask
for is let me perform at the base of my ability.
When I get out of there, I know I did
everything I possibly got. I was willing to give my
life to get that when and that's what satisfacity.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So Sean Strickland, for lack of a better word, is different. Right.
He can say some crazy stuff that we did an
interview earlier, him and I and I think I got
to cut the last like two minutes. It's like, I
don't know that I could use it seriously. But he
seems to like respect you much more than most. Is
(13:38):
it odd that when you watch him do media, he'll
say things about you like he's like a kid off
the short Bus. That's how he fights, right, But then
the moment you guys are.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Like, he doesn't fight like a kid off the show.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
He said you, I always say you are fight. He's
like a kid off a short buss. I was gouls
full sent he's what he says.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
But then, oh, he looks like somebody who built the
short Oh my.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Wrong with damn?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
What is wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Guys? With you didn't have me chopping up interviews the
whole damn time. But he's quite respectful of you until you,
guys get to like presslers and stuff in face to face.
Is that odd to you?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
No, not at all. I have the world's respect for
Sean Shoulden, you know, in terms, I know Sean Shouldin
as a fighter. Once you've shared, you have shared the
octagon with somebody for twenty five minutes, and you had
you have had to do the game matches, it is incredibly,
incredibly hard not to respect, not respect somebody. He's the
(14:42):
only person who's ever been able to do that with me.
And I tried to kill him. I tried to kill him,
and he was willing, he was able to withstand. If
there's one wish in this sport, sixth round, Yeah, that's
what what I have. Maybe a seventh or how long
ever it would have taken. But the man is tough
as name, and he's willing to go for it, and
(15:02):
he's willing to He's a fighter by heart. And I
have the world's respect for Sean Strickland as a fighter.
He's a great fighter. He's tough, he's good, and you know,
he's made this work for him and I respect that.
I think he's a great fighter and he brings the
best out of me. Yeah, every time I went to training,
(15:23):
I was thinking about that first fight, how hard it was,
how hard it was, how I had to push myself,
how much I had to have complete disregard for my health,
for everything. And I would go harder, and I would
break up earlier, and I would do more because I knew.
He now knows what I'm willing to do, so he's
(15:44):
prepared for that. Yeah, and now he's going to find
out that I'm willing to go way beyond that.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
What what a Sunday morning to you look like? Is
it like the closing of a chapter in your career?
Like the rematches are I had a lot of rematches, man,
I rematch Jones, Ariette, match arematch Rumbell Johnson. Yeah, I
had a lot of rematches, and every time one of
those rematches finished, it felt like the close of a
chapter in my career. What do you think Sunday morning
(16:13):
will mean to you, especially if you retain your championship? Like, Okay,
now I'm done with the strictest part of my career.
I can move on to something bigger and better or
well you kind of live in and go. Man, this
made me better this year.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I'm gonna be honest with you. The fact that this
is a rematch is irrelevant in my opinion. I'm looking
at this fight as the fight that's a head of me.
If Sean Stocking had to pull up right now of
this fight, I would feel exactly the same about this. Yeah,
because I didn't train to beat Sean Stuet, and I
trained to be the best trickist. That's ivastating the other octagon.
(16:46):
I've trained to be the world champion and perform like
the world champion I am. The fact that this is
our second fight is irrelevant because it's not going to
be like the first fight. I am better a lot better.
He is probably better a lot better. We the area
there's almost unknown. You've had room matches. For me. The
(17:07):
biggest thing when you fight somebody is that how hard
does this guy really hit? How fast is you?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
What?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
What's it all about? And that takes it maybe a
minute or two to figure out, Yeah, is that's his
herd Bunge is good at that. Now I can go
that that is that's gotten because you already know we
already know that. But the game Bland is going to
be different, The circumstance is going to be different, and
this is a completely different fight. This is the biggest
(17:33):
fight of my life. And I said this before, I'm
not defending my title. When I get into the titles
doesn't belong to me anymore. They're now standing with the
title and he's putting it around the waist of whoever
wins that fight. So I'm fighting for my title. Yeah,
And that's the only thing similar in this whole fight.
The same name and surname, and we are fighting for
(17:55):
that title.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah. Last two for you before I let you go.
One when you fight is he last fight? And you
guys got into the deeper parts of the fight very competitive,
but many believed that you broke him down to the
point that you got the submission. Did you feel that
Did you feel like you had taken that wool away
from him to fight and compete with you?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, I think in any stage, I mean, it was Jesus,
he's so good. Yeah, he's a good fighter. He's a
great fighter. But I've studied that man, and I've seen
when things get hard for him, that's when it turns
around when he gets Firstly, I clipped him with a
left hook to the top of the head that people
(18:35):
didn't really think that was the shot, but I knew
it was right here, and I found that I missed
the first one, missed, the second one. The third it
was closer, closer, and the third one according right here. Yeah,
And when I shot landed, I knew that shot wobbles people.
And I looked at him and I walked forward any
end where he almost sides and starts going in that direction,
(18:58):
and I thought, ha, I got you. And then I
just started putting it on him. And when he pointed
to the gun he pointed, he said he slipped, and
I took it as he's pointed to the gun, and
I said, well, okay, I'm in for that. Let's go
and accord him with a punch. And as soon as
he turned his back, I knew this is this is
this is trouble for him, and this is you know,
(19:20):
when you turn your back like that, you are in
a position where I don't want to take this anymore.
I want to get away from it. And I hit
the punches. And the game plan for Easy specifically was
is this guy's take down the defense. He's too good.
When you try to take him down when he expected,
you are not taking him down because he will sprawl
(19:40):
and he's so tall, he's really hard with the long
legs and arms to you have to take him down
when he's expecting you to strike, which is a lot
easier said than done. Yeah, but what better time than
rocking him with three big right hands and him covering up.
And it was in that moment I went, there's no
way I can go for the tiko. But he's still
(20:02):
in it. This is where I'd take the takedown. He's
not expecting this got to take down. And you know how,
I put the hooks in, a sloppy way of putting
that hooks in because it was just there was no
system it was. But I knew he was dazed, he
was tired, and he was in a place where he
didn't really want to fight for that, let's say, for
(20:23):
the next twenty seconds.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, because the first time he was able to defend
it get away.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I said, get these hooks in, no matter what if,
even if you don't get the choke right now, get
those hooks in because he's dazed, he's focused on his head.
I put the hooks in, and as soon as I
got my hands, yeah, I knew this fight was over. Yeah,
And yeah, that was that was just the breaking down.
I could see it. I could see them. I could
see him fighting the urge to give up.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, and eventually I saw this is it okay? Last one?
So you got a lot of trouble with Usman and
all those guys for a while. Acceptance is a word
in a way, almost like bullish way of making people
accept you as the champion you are today. And I
saw a clip the other day Kamoraw Usman talking about you, right,
(21:10):
and it was all about we're all the same, right,
we have we have four African champions, right, It's not
just three kings anymore, it's four because Dracus is a
African champion. Right. That acceptance? Uh, you? You always take
that respect? Like is that satisfying to hear from a god?
Because remember before it was like he said, he didn't
(21:30):
even listen to what I said and just reacted. But
now that there seems to be this acceptance of we
are all one, Like what does that feel like you?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
That's amazing? And like I said, when when the whole thing,
like you said, we had, we had problems and before
that we never had because like I said, when he said,
when he referred to what I said, I could hear
that he has never listened to the actual clips. Yeah,
and that was he was listening to what people said.
I say him, he wasn't. He wasn't listening to you,
and I think he went and listened to it. And
(22:00):
obviously after the fight, the respect Sharon, it is. It's
an honor for me to be a part of that
group and you be considered as the full Yeah, among
the legends. That is Frans isn't gonna Israelasanya and kamar Usmann.
That small group of elites, among a small group of elites.
(22:21):
I mean, I'm getting goosebumps I think about it. That is.
I mean that in itself, you can see you look
at this, that in itself is incredible. It's such a
big gonna. You know, we are proud of a heritage,
we are proud of for where we come from, and
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You have truly knocked down some borders. Some borders, guys,
this guy has knocked down the walls that we've all
put in front of him. You want to doubt him,
He'll just continue to win This weekend Dracers Dupless see
Defenders Middleway Championship for the second time, this time against
a guy he fought before in Sean Strickland. You have
see three twelve goals down this weekend. Make sure in
the ESPN play per View by button cap and everything
(22:57):
Dracus is doing until next time piece. She had the
fights right, She had the fights
Speaker 1 (23:06):
M
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