JRE MMA Show #152 with Sean Brady

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What's up? What's going on, Joe? Good to see you, brother.

Thank you for having me, man.

So we were just talking about injuries, like the life of a fighter. You always have something wrong, right?

Yeah, it's rough. Especially for someone like me. I'm getting a little bit older now and I'm being smarter, but I was training. I still kind of do almost three times a day. So I would do a morning skill session, an afternoon run or an afternoon strength session, and then another skill session at night.

The whole rolling light is...

It doesn't happen. It never happens. I was telling my wife, because my hand, I was coming out here, I was like, maybe I can go and I can just drill with Gordon and those guys. She was like, you ain't fucking drilling with. no...

That's smart, though. That's smarter, Sean. Older.

100%. And that's where, before, I was like, nah, fuck that. I'm going, I'm going to go hard. And then I'd be injured. And then I wouldn't be able to fight.

The problem with injuries is, if you don't give them respect, they get chronic.

And that was me after my Balal fight. So I came home from Abu Dhabi. I didn't have any injuries. I wanted to get back, and I wanted to get that taste out of my mouth. So I'm back training.

Have you had any surgeries?

I had my deviated septum done. Obviously, they didn't fix the outside, because this shit is fucked up. But besides that, like, I broke my thumb. I never had a knee. I never had any— I've been pretty lucky, with no surgeries but a lot of injuries.

Isn't the deviated septum? one amazing?

When I got it done, and they—. When you have to have those things in your nose for a week, though, as soon as they pull them out, you feel like a new human. It's like— Oh, it's the best.

It's incredible.

It's the best.

I never knew, like, how much cardio I was missing, not being able to breathe out of my nose. Look at, like, Drekus. Yeah. Like, Duplicy. When he got his nose fixed, like, he used to always fight, with his mouth open.

Yeah.

And the guy just can't breathe out of his nose.

I think, at some point, though, you have to open up your mouth, obviously. But I do all my Zone 2. now, on the Echobike, mouth closed. And now I just started doing mouth tape. when I sleep.

Just from mouth tape?

Just from mouth tape.

You use, like, hostage tape?

I had this one called Dream that I got. But hostage, it's the same thing.

Does it fuck with you with the mustache, though?

No.

Sometimes, if I have, like, too much facial hair, it doesn't stick that good.

My buddy Simon was saying that because he had some, like, cheap one. He was like, doesn't it bother you when you pull it off? I'm like, yeah, a little bit.

No, I don't mean that. I mean it doesn't stick good.

Oh, no. These ones, they stick. good. You have to pull it off. The cheap ones just fall right off.

But that's interesting, that it had that much of an impact on your recovery.

Yeah.

So you wear an Oura ring. Yeah. And, like, so, what is—my wife wears one of those, but I've never worn it. Yeah. How does it work?

So I used to have WHOOP, and WHOOP couldn't—like, I was getting— Tattoos. WHOOP couldn't shoot through my tattoos. Yeah. So I'd get inaccurate readings on all my shit, and I actually messaged them, and they were like, hey, like, it's just the kind of lighting we have. So I would wear it here, but then it would go up on my wrist, and then on my—like, I had nowhere I could wear it.

I got a new one, Morpheus.

I have Morpheus. Train with Morpheus. I have Morpheus, too.

The app is outstanding, too.

I have Morpheus. I really like that one. You do the HRV in the morning and stuff like that. Yeah. I just—I love buying them, and I just try them.

Yeah, it's just such a different thing to be able to breathe out of your nose. But it's interesting to me that the sleep—that your recovery is better. I just always wonder why. Yeah. Why breathing through the nose while you sleep improves your recovery.

Well, I'll snore. Like, I'll—if I sleep on my back, my wife will hit me. Right. And she'll be like, you're fucking snoring. I'll turn on my side, and I won't snore anymore.

That's interesting. So, like, does it give you a score? And, like, what is your score that you get?

So it will give you, like—can I put my phone up? Sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, I'll—I posted one the other day.

So here it is.

Jamie's pulled it up here.

So it shows you readiness, readiness. So time to recover is 44.. That's me today, for sure. Trey, carefully is 75, and then, good day ahead, is 96..

This was my one when I wore the mouth tape and the CBD. My heart rate was 38..

Yeah, that's great. No, that's awesome.

And usually my deep sleep doesn't get as deep. Mmm.

Resting heart rate, 38, is pretty fucking low.

Yeah, especially not for in camp. Yeah. Not bad.

The description of what makes it may be a little different. It says,

I like it, but can't wear it during MMA practice or anything like that. So I'll take it off, but I was getting almost too caught up with the whoop, because, like, you, wake up when you're in a training camp, like, you're most likely going to be in the yellow or the red, you know? Like, you're not always going to be in the green. Then it's like telling you to take it easy. It's like, I fucking can't take it easy.

It's really funny, that balance between, like, especially when someone's just completely obsessed. Like, I was listening to this, or watching this video where Craig Jones was talking about when he was training, especially when he was first starting out, he was training every day. Yeah. And he went to a doctor, and the doctor's, like, you, like, might have cancer. Like, you might have a serious illness.

Yeah. And with MMA, like, we just have so many things we have to cover. Like, we have to do boxing. We have to do wrestling. We have to do Muay Thai.

Why did you get into that initially? Was it just for jujitsu or just strength?

I started off lifting before I started MMA. So I started training when I was, like, 16.. But I started off lifting at, like, my local, like, rec center. Like, just benching every day. And then I really got into lifting.

Yeah. There's a lot of people that think that deadlifts are just not worth it.

Yeah.

The amount of possibility, the possibility of injuring your back. That there's other ways to stretch. Like, you saw that machine. We had the belt squat machine.

Belt squat's the best.

Which is such a great machine for your legs. I mean, it just puts all the weight on your hips. You're not compressing your spine at all. And yet you can get, like, big numbers.

Yeah, you don't have that bar in your back. That's, like, in camp. we do a lot of the belt squat walks. So we'll do three five-minute rounds of, we'll put on, like, if I'm fighting at 170, we put on 170 pounds. And we walk for five minutes.

That's another Louis Simmons invention. That fucking guy was a genius.

The best.

He was such a genius.

That's, like, the method we do is, like, the conjugate. So we do a dynamic upper, dynamic, lower, max effort, max effort. So a lot of, like, we do a lot of sled pulls, backwards, forwards. So it's a lot of, like, the Louis, the Louis stuff. It's really good.

It's interesting when you see fighters training and, like, their strength and conditioning routines, because it's so hard to figure out what's the optimal balance between strength work and skill work. And then we were talking about how GSP, especially towards the end of his career, all he did was do skills.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's all. He didn't really do any strength and conditioning.

Yeah, yeah. Well, because think about, like, the NFL. Like, if you go into the Eagles or the Steelers, like, they might have different coaches and small things they do. But almost everything they're doing is going to be the same. Like, they have that strength system figured out.

Yeah, I think there's, like, the Sam Calavita method, which a lot of people really like.

Yeah, I was listening to Bo with it. He's a wild man. He's amazing. Sam does some crazy shit. He does.

Well, you know, Marv Marinovich, who was training BJ Penn when BJ was the fucking man. Yeah. There was a time where, like, people forget. There was a time when BJ was in his prime where I would put BJ against any 155-pounder that ever lived. He was a monster.

Yeah.

Just six weeks, eight weeks, just. we're going to blow it out with this insane cardiovascular routine.

Yeah.

And they got him in just fucking superhuman shape. Yeah. In superhuman shape, BJ was skilled. Yeah. Sean Shirk, BJ.

That knee against the cage.

Oh, yeah. Joe Stevenson. When you beat Joe Stevenson, he was a monster, man.

Did he move up to 70 before or after that?

Well, he moved up to 70, I think, for fun, you know, because he didn't even really move up to 70.. He just didn't diet.

Yeah. He probably walked around 170 pounds because he was pudgy. Yeah.

When he beat Matt Hughes, he wasn't big.

Yeah, no. It was just jiu-jitsu. Matt Hughes was-.

A monster.

A monster. A monster. He had that farm strength. He was jacked.

He was fucking strong.

And now we all walk around close to 200 pounds, you know?

Isn't that wild?

Close to 200.. Like, I cut from fight week, I show up, I'm 190 pounds.

What's the heaviest you ever get?

I used to get heavy. Like, I'd be like 205.. But when I was younger, I'd go out after a fight and celebrate and eat like shit and drink. Now, like, I don't drink. I don't drink alcohol.

That was a big win for you, though. You need to celebrate.

Yeah, it was. But I needed it. I needed to get back, and I got into it. But 195, like, 10% body fat, like, that's where my dex is scans at, and that's where I feel great, like, 195.. And then I'll slowly get down to 190, and that's where I start my, like, actual water cut from.

So you put 23 pounds on.

23,. yeah. Wow. Yeah.

That's nuts. How bad do you feel when you step on that scale?

Not that bad. This last one was my—I was on weight the night before. I had, like, probably three liters of water that day before I even went to sleep. Wow. I woke up.

There's different schools of thought. Some guys like to just have a good night's sleep. They don't want to be— Because they say they can't sleep when they're cutting. Yeah.

I feel like you're already—like, you're already into that cut, though. So you're—like, if you're going to sleep bad, like, you're going to—I think you're going to sleep bad regardless. So I just rather not have that stress of, like, fuck, I've got to wake up and cut. I know guys who wake up, they cut 10, 15 pounds. But that's how we used to do it when the weigh-ins were at 6 o'clock, because you had all that time.

I wish they would let people do IVs. I feel like if you're going to allow people to have these massive cuts, they would have better performances if you let them do IVs.

We used to fucking—like, we'd get hooked up with the IVs, and we'd feel like Superman—like, 10 pounds immediately.

But that's the only negative aspect of it. They say that it can mask performance-enhancing drugs. But I think the solution to that is test the guys, like, as they're cutting. Like, test the guys before they rehydrate. Test them then.

Guys are definitely still doing it, though. They have to be. Guys are doing it, 100%. And now, with this new thing that we're under—.

You think guys are doing IVs?

Oh, 100%. Really? 100%.

No shit.

Yeah, because if you're—if guys are cheating and getting away—because guys are definitely getting away with taking PEDs, there's a way to get away with, like, how—what are they going to test for? The traces of the plastic in your blood? I think that's it, yeah. But from what I heard, we're drinking shit that has plastic in it all the time, so how are you going to know it's an IV? That's a good question.

Why is it better orally? I don't know. It seems like getting it right into your bloodstream would be quicker.

Obviously, you do IVs. I used to—like, it'd be after cutting weight, so I'd be super bloated afterwards. I mean, you get bloated from drinking your liquids. you have to put back in anyway, but that's the only thing I'm thinking. Like, maybe it'll just fuck up your stomach more, but I don't know.

It's such a weird balance.

It is.

It's so interesting when you have something like the UFC PI, which is, like, super high-tech, super scientific. They can tell you how much water to drink. It used to be. guys were just kind of winging it, and they would fuck it up one time and get it right the next time.

Like, they give us a sheet, because we have Joey Pfeiffer fighting December 10th. He has a main event. So I'm going to go out there, do all my testing, and they give you a sheet. Like, they know how many calories you burn at absolute rest. Like, they know, like, your body better than you do, and they give you a sheet.

Do they provide you—I know they do that with some fighters. They give you, like, meal prep. Like, how are they doing that? They do it based on each athlete, your weight.

As far as I know, yeah. And I've, like, hired other nutritionists and stuff like that, but the PI does it great. Like, it's free for all UFC fighters, and if you're just in contact with them all the time, like I am, like, they make it so easy for you. And they hand you your meals, and they're like, listen, eat this, eat this, eat this, and then you should be good to go. Like, they're taking your weight.

And do they provide you guys with supplements? Because I know that— Thorne.

Thorne.

Okay, so it's all set up for you.

Yeah, so if you want all Thorne, like, now, we have an app that we go on, and we can put in an order every month that we want. So they do a lot of good shit for us.

Like— What do you not—like, what are you not allowed to take? You're allowed to take creatine, right?

Creatine. Creatine's okay? Any supplement that's third-party tested. So I use this company called Allmax. They have some things that are third-party tested and some things that aren't.

Yeah, I was talking to them about that too, as well as the new guy from Drug Free Sport. I forget his name. But the guy's taking over from USADA. And they were saying no, because peptides, you'll get popped for it at each individual commission. So if you're in Florida and they don't allow it, you test there, the Florida commission will pop you for it.

Yeah, because I was asking him. He said, even if they didn't allow, he said all the states, like, they won't give you—it's called a TUE, some kind of exemption. And they said none of them would do it. So I'm like, all right, well, just good to know. Not to—but, like, stem cells and stuff like that, like, as far as I know, like, that's all good to go.

And the UFC gives you all that stuff for free.

Yeah, yep, yep. That's nice. Yeah.

So do you ever do a camp at the PI, or do your camps all in Philly?

I've done all my camps in Philly, and that's something, like, that I'm super, like, proud and happy about. Like, I'm born and raised in Philly. I never left. We have a small team. It's called Marquez MMA.

That's a great group.

We got a good squad. We had Paul Felder. Paul was, like, one of the first guys out of Philly. Besides, I do—I train with Eddie Alvarez. So, like, we have a good group of Philly guys.

When Cormier fought Stipe, he got COVID during camp and just trained right through it. Yep. Just kept going.

I fought—first time, when you interviewed me and you weren't even in the cage, it was when they were still doing— Oh, that was ridiculous. It was Jake Matthews. I had COVID two weeks before the fight.

You remember that? How crazy that was? You just had a fucking cage fight. So, you're on top of each other, sweating, pounding on each other. Everyone's tested.

So, I had COVID two weeks before that. No—only symptoms I had were I lost my taste and my smell, which that fucking sucks.

For food, right?

Food. And, like, I love drinking coffee, especially when you're in camp and you're cutting weight. Like, that's the only, like, thing you really get to enjoy. So, I get to—I get to fight week show up because I tested negative before I got there. I let the UFC know.

What a wild time.

But it's still lingering.

Sort of. They're trying to bring it back.

A little bit.

In some ways. I still see people, like, in restaurants. I saw—the other day, a server was wearing a mask. I was like, okay.

The best is when you're in your car by yourself.

Nuts.

You're by yourself. Wearing a mask. There's no one around you. It's insane. Yeah, it's—.

These people are just insane.

Yeah, yeah.

Some people just lost their minds. I mean, they just broke—they broke a fuse.

Yeah, yeah. But the hospital is like—my wife's an RN, and she said they're reinstating the mask mandate. But I think it might be—there's flu, and then there's COVID, and shit, so who—.

It's just not even scientific. That's the thing. It's not even based on science. Yeah. Like, you're doing it to make people feel better?

Yeah, yeah.

Because the science doesn't support mask use. It just doesn't.

Before the Kelvin flight, like, three weeks in, I had lost my taste and my smell. I'm like, I definitely have COVID. I've refused to test myself, though. I'm like, I'm not testing myself. Like, I'm not doing it.

Are they testing anybody at all?

No, no, no, no. And I'm like, I'm just sick. Like, I'm just normal. Right, normal sick. Like, normal sick.

Isn't it crazy, though, that it feels like normal sick, but because you have this label on it, it's not the same COVID anymore. It's just not. Yeah, yeah. And they're still treating it like it's this deadly disease.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Like, I knew a few people who got—like, you got fucked up, but people also get fucked up from the flu. Yeah. Like, people get fucked up from normal sicknesses.

I had a friend who was just in bed for 10 days with the flu.

Sick as shit.

Sick as shit.

Like—.

No one shut anything down.

And that was—that's normal. But now, like you said, there's—COVID's attached to that. Yeah. And if you post about it or you say shit about it, like, these motherfuckers are trying to come at you and cancel you. So, like, I try to, like—on social media, you just got to—kind of got to.

There's just so many insane people on social media. Yeah. They're so insane. Yeah. And COVID just gives them an excuse to be a cunt.

Yeah.

It just gives so many people an excuse to just yell at people.

We're starting to get tired of it, though. Like, people like me and you, and, like, people who want to just go about their life. And, like, two weeks in, I was back to my normal shit. Like, I was running. I was doing all my shit.

It's so silly. Dude, they arrested a guy. The Coast Guard got a guy who was surfing. This dude is on the ocean by himself on a fucking surfboard. And the Coast Guard rolls up on this dude.

Pulled up on him, yeah.

Like, is this a good use of resources, folks?

Like, let's go, buddy. You're getting locked the fuck up.

So dumb, man. Yeah. But— I'll never forget how dumb it was. It's like it's all kind of normalized now.

Yeah, for sure.

It was just a couple of years ago. Everybody had lost their minds.

Well, we look back at it, I'm like, it's not that long ago. Our whole country was just fucked up. And now we're just—like, it's like it never happened. I'm like, this is crazy.

Well, it seems more preposterous to MMA fighters or jiu-jitsu guys or anybody who does anything. that's actually dangerous.

Yeah, yeah.

Because you're doing something dangerous all the time. Yeah, yeah. And also, you're in supreme health and condition. Yeah. And then they ask you to do something ridiculous forever.

Forever.

Stay in your house for a year. Like, what?

That's the worst thing you can do. Yeah, terrible for you. But they don't want you to be healthy. They want you to be fat. They want you to be lazy.

Well, they definitely want you to comply. Yeah. That was the most important thing that they wanted during that time. They wanted full compliance from people.

Yeah.

And if they could scare you into compliance, that's the way they did it.

It fucking worked for a lot of people.

Boy, it did. It scared the shit out of me because I was like, oh my god, there's so many pussies out here.

Yeah.

There's so many people that will roll over for the government, even if what they're saying doesn't make any sense. Even if it's not scientific. It's just really disheartening.

It was almost like a position where I'm like, damn it, I'm not vaccinated. I'm like, am I going to have to get this shot so I can fight? I'm like, then it's going to come like, do I retire because I don't want this fucking shot? I'm like, I don't know what the fuck to do. So luckily it didn't come to that, because choosing my career or getting that fucking shot, I don't know what I would have did.

Well, I almost got the shot. The whole UFC staff, they allocated all these vaccines. They had it set up. So Dana and I were talking and he goes, hey, if you want to get vaccinated, we have them for you. I go, great.

Yeah, yeah.

And then within two weeks, they pulled it.

Shit got bad.

That's when they pulled it. When Johnson & Johnson was on. And then I knew two dudes who got strokes. Two guys.

It's like.

I was like, what is going on? And so then I started getting a little weird. And then I started like listening to these doctors. They were speaking out against this technology. And then I listened to Dr.

Yeah, yeah. Well, my mom's a nurse too. And she got her yearly flu shot. And the chick who gave it to her must have gave it to her wrong and fucked her shoulder up. So she had problems in her shoulder.

And almost all of them get exposed to it. And almost all of them develop. Yeah. Naturally.

Yeah. 100%.

They were trying to pretend that natural immunity was bullshit. I've heard people say it recently. Natural immunity has been debunked. Yeah. No, it hasn't.

Yeah. Yeah. When I face Craig Jones in that grappling match, my whole fucking team was sick. And at that point, we're like, none of us were getting tested. I'm like, dude, we definitely all have COVID.

When you do something like that, like, so, you're one of the most promising welterweight contenders in the sport. You know, as your career progresses, you'll probably get a shot at a title within the next couple of years. Taking a grappling match is that's a risky move. Yeah. Especially against a world-class guy like Craig Jones.

Yeah. Well, it's funny, because so only thing Craig couldn't do in that match, he couldn't heel, hook me. But he could straight knee, bar me, straight ankle, lock me, anything besides heel hooks. So after the match, like.

Is that your idea?

No, that was, that's the UFC's. So Fury was working with the UFC and they're like, the UFC told them like, hey, all UFC guys, just no heel hooks. Even like Aldridge just did that match for them. And the only thing they couldn't do was no heel hooks. So, I mean.

Just because of like military.

Yeah, but like a leg locker, like Craig or anyone else, you still have all those other submissions you can do. So it's not like you're getting handicapped. that fucking bad. Where, like people, were giving me shit online like, oh, you had a handicap on this. And I'm like, I'm a UFC fighter.

You didn't make the rules.

You could knee bar me. You could straight ankle lock me. You could do all these other things. So you could toe hold me. But yeah.

Yeah, it is a risky one, man. I mean, how many guys have ripped their knee apart heel hooks?

Oh, yeah. It's a lot. Yeah. A lot. Yeah.

Did you see that Mikey Musumachi one in one FC where the guy wouldn't tap?

Horrible. Horrible.

Dude, I can't watch that one. He ripped that guy's knee apart. I don't know how that guy's doing right now.

He's probably not doing well.

I got to imagine his knee is ruined for the rest of his life.

Was it?

See if you can find that video. Because it's so hard to watch. Because we were talking about Mikey before.

Yeah, yeah.

Because he's calling out some dude who's a bully. Yeah. Dude, he destroys this guy. I mean, destroys it. The guy won't tap.

Oh, God damn. So, you see the way he's holding that? Yeah. He calls that the Mikey Lock. Yeah.

He's a monster, man. Yeah.

He's so good. Yeah. I heard he does very well against all the biggest, like, even guys who are a lot bigger than him.

Oh, I'm sure. He's so technical.

Well, we were just talking about Craig. How about Craig versus Vinny?

Oh, yeah. He broke his leg. He broke his leg and Vinny wouldn't tap.

I'm like, bro.

His leg. And Craig's like, your leg's broken.

Craig's, like, your leg is. And then he went again. And then he finally was like, all right, I'm done. I'm done. It's insane.

But beating Craig Jones in a grappling match, even if there's no heel hooks. Dude, that was gigantic.

I just went into it. I'm like, I'm going to stay on top. I played by the rules. And I'm like, if he doesn't sweep me or get under me, like, I'm going to win. And then there was odds for it.

Oh, so this is what happened with the dude. Torn ACL, torn MCL, torn meniscus, and a broken ankle. Oh, my God. So, Mike, he said, I'm really sick to my stomach. I never felt someone's leg explode like that in a match.

For sure. Tap. Anything. Knees, shoulders. Like, I'd rather almost not tap.

Straight arm bar. Where's the elbow?

But more like your shoulder.

Not just the shoulder, but that spiral fracture. Like when Frank Mir gave it to Minotauro, and you see his arm snap.

Just like a chicken wing. Oh, that guy. You're done.

Oh, that one's so scary. Minotauro, he had a giant scar up his arm where it was like a spiral fracture.

When he rolled through the way he did, it was beautiful. When he turned it. And he just snapped. Put it behind his back. Done.

Frank Mir has broken two arms of world champions.

Who else did he do?

Tim Sylvia. Yeah. Remember that? Yeah. Snapped his forearm in half.

He was good. He was a monster. I was just watching him versus DC the other day. When I'm on the Equibike, I always just watch fights. And I was watching him versus DC.

And he was not even really a heavyweight. No.

He was so small.

DC could have been a 185..

He was so small.

Yeah, look at him. Look at him. I mean, he carried around so much body fat. But his wrestling was so fucking high level, man. And he's such a tank.

The outside high crotches he would hit when he dumps the dudes. Yeah.

No, DC was the man.

And he was actually hurting, Frank. I don't think there was one takedown scored on either side here. I think they just struck the whole time. But, like, DC, kind of just put it on him.

DC was an animal, man. Yeah. And, you know, that was one of those things, you know, iron sharpens iron. Because DC was training with Cain Velasquez. Yeah.

Anderson, same thing. Yes. Guys who are watching fights now, I'm like, you guys, don't. I remember they came to Philly. It was Anderson versus Forrest Griffin.

I heard that Forrest, though, got knocked out twice in camp for that fight. That's what I had heard.

Oh. It happens all the time.

And I think that's true, because I think Forrest at that time was, you know, Forrest is – look at it.

It's like Jesus.

He wanted to help him up.

Jesus. Right here. It was just complete different levels. I think he, like, ran out of the arena.

Yeah, it's that right-handed guy. That's it. Forrest was like, that's it. But I genuinely think that those concussions that he got in camp had an effect.

Yeah.

There's quite a few times where you see guys fight and you're like, man, something's wrong here. Yeah. That guy got knocked out too easy. Yeah. And then you'll hear, oh, he got knocked out in training two weeks ago.

And that – and even if you don't get knocked out, like, you're fucking getting hit in your head. You might not be going out, but, like, I definitely left practice before and I'm like, damn, like, I'm fuzzy. You know, like, guys are definitely – and, like, we're pretty controlled. Like, I only go with guys, I trust too. And that's something I think, like, you have to do.

Yep.

I hit them up, and they sent it right out to me. And it's good, like, because you can grapple with it.

He makes the best shit. Best shit. The best shit. The best gloves.

They sent me gloves, and I was like, yo, can I get your MMA gloves? Like, I'll pay whatever it costs. And Gaethje was like, nah, they're not out yet. I'm like, all right, well, when they're out.

Dude, the UFC – I don't know what happened. I don't know how it went wrong. But the UFC was talking to Trevor about using his MMA gloves. He has absolutely superior MMA gloves. They're the best.

The arm – like, you fucking know. That arm pump we get from when I put – like, I get the smallest hand wraps. Like, I tell whoever's up, I'm like, give me a grappler's wrap. Like, I almost want nothing, because once you have that wrap on and you have the glove on, like, when you're trying to close your fist, I'm like, I'm getting fucking arm pump just from trying to close my fucking hand. After the fight, like, you're – like, my forearms are, like, double the size because the arm pump you have from grappling.

I'm telling you. It's Trevor's gloves. I mean, I should probably reinstitute these talks and try to get it going again. I really should. You know what?

It's a problem. It's a problem, for sure.

I don't know what happened, what went wrong. But Trevor uses superior foam. Yeah. Like, he – like, if you use his boxing gloves –.

I love them. They're great. They mold to your hand.

They're the best.

They mold to your hand.

And it's also their superior protection, too. Like, he'll – like, he's done demonstrations where he shows how much better the foam he uses to other, cheaper foams.

Well, because it's fighters making stuff for fighters. Right. It's not people who aren't doing it. Right. Like, Gaethje's, the best one to do it.

Remember Mike Tyson back in the day? He wore the real thin one. The real thin one, when he was training.

It was almost like a wrestling headgear.

Yeah. I think that's the way to go. And I think that, you know, it's just unfortunate that there's no other way around it. There's nothing better. Yeah.

Yeah.

I do not like, like, when people have the face bar, and there's, like, you can't see.

I wore that for a while. Like, I broke my nose so many times. But in the beginning of training camps, like, I broke my nose. So you have to spar the entire camp with that nose guard. And it fucking sucks.

You definitely get more head shots.

Oh, yeah.

Because you can't see shit. With a big headgear, yeah.

You can't see shit. And that bar, it sticks out, like, this far. So that bar gets touched, and it will touch your nose. So I would even wear, like, you see basketball players? Right.

So you were telling me that you hurt your hand in the Kelvin fight. Yeah. But it's not a break.

Not a break.

So you're just trying to, like, let it rehab or recover.

So I'm trying to, and that's, like, me trying to be smart a little bit. At my older age of 31, there, I'm just trying to let it heal. And before I get back, I just don't want to start another training camp with an injury. Whereas before, I would do that. But, yeah, I'm just trying to be smart.

Let me see if Brigham got back to me. Not yet. I'll call him when we get out of here. But I think we can get in there.

But, yeah, just rest. But I can still work on my kicks. I can still punch. So, yeah.

You're always getting in training.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was a big win for you, man. Kelvin, I really think, and I've said this to Kelvin. This is back when he was fighting in 85, after he knocked out Bisping. I was like, dude, I think you're a world champion at 170.. I really do.

And he's not a big guy.

He's not big, man. He's not. He's not even big for 170..

No, he's not.

Guys like Philly.

Yeah. Even when I grabbed him, I was like, oh, these are the easiest takedowns I've ever gotten in my life. I couldn't believe how easy it was to get him down. And even when I wrapped around his legs, he has a big framed upper body. But his legs, I would lock under his butt.

Well, the Tim Kennedy fight, I know for sure for a fact that Tim Kennedy overtrained.

Yeah.

And that's what – because Tim Kennedy, who's known for his cardio, gassed out in that fight.

I watched that fight a million times. Yeah. Just studying him.

The fight sucks because Tim's a friend. Yeah. I watched him get beat up. Yeah. Because I know how good he is when he beat Bisbon.

Yeah.

And he just went through two camps in a row.

Yeah. And it's almost like, in our minds, we always think more is better. Yeah. And I'll take a day off now, or even just a session, like a night session. And I'll come in the next day and I'm like – and you want to get after it more.

Yeah. That was interesting talking to Bo Nickel about that, because Bo takes two days off a week.

Yeah. I listened to that.

Yeah, and I was like, why do you do that? And he's like, it's the right way to do it.

Sundays are my day. Like, I, like, I try to do nothing. Like, not live. Like, I'll go on, like, a long walk, or, like, walk my dog or run my dog or something like that. But I try – no training on Sunday regardless.

There's no other sport like it.

It's nuts. It's nuts. And then we start, like, I'm eating, like, 3,000 calories, 2,700, 2,500, and I'm cutting my calories down. Like, and you're still – and we still in our minds, like, we have to keep that same workload. Yeah.

It's got to fuck with your mind.

Yeah. Right?

Especially when you're cutting the calories down.

Oh, yeah, because you're, like, damn, like, I'm supposed to feel this way, and I fucking feel like shit. Yeah. You know?

And, you know, fights four weeks out, three weeks out, two weeks out.

And then, if you miss a session, that's where you're, like, oh, shit, like, he's fucking training, you know, and I'm not fucking training. Right. So that – but that's where you've got to be, like, I'm recovering. You've got to trust the process. Yeah, like, I have the sauna.

Yeah, that's the superpower. Yeah. Tito Ortiz used to sleep 12 hours a night.

I wish I could sleep 12 hours a night.

Yeah, he would fucking close all the windows, the shades, make the room dark as fuck, and just conk out all night.

I think, like, seven – like, eight hours is, like – minimum seven, like, seven to nine. But if I get, like, eight hours, like, I feel like, that's, like, the sweet spot for me. Like, I feel good.

It is interesting that this sport, which is relatively recent, right, the UFC, didn't even exist before 1993, and yet, guys, you know, here in 2024, are still kind of just dialing it in. And there's no – there's no, like, established protocol that everyone uses. Everyone's got their own kind of methods. they're using. Different individual coaches.

Well, even, like, I know guys who are high-level fighters, who don't know dick about nutrition, don't know dick about nutrition, recovery, nothing. And they're just, like, just naturally talented. And I'm like, man, like, these guys don't even know. Like – Yeah. So it's – it is crazy.

No, he does some animal shit. Yeah.

His cardio sessions are legendary. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. On the, like, the ski ergs and I love that shit. It would be super fun to get in on that.

And the guy's not even fighting anymore. No. He's still fucking tip-top in good shape.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's an animal.

He's jacked.

Yeah. And that fight always bothered me, that Calvin fight. Yeah. Because I knew what was wrong with him. Yeah.

Probably 16 weeks.

Yeah. Something nuts. Where you can't. You just can't do that. You can't.

And then you're caught in weight. And then you have to gain the weight back because you don't want to stay too low. Like, that's where it starts to get, like, this is fucked up. Like, I need to let my body recover.

There's some guys where I look at them and I'm like, how are you making...

Yeah, he's a big boy.

How are you making 185?.

He's a big boy.

That doesn't even make sense. He's so big. He's so fucking big, man.

He gets to, like, 215, 220..

That's it? Yeah.

No, he doesn't get that big. He looks even bigger than that. He doesn't get that big.

He looks like 230..

No, no, no. He looks big. Yeah, he does. He does.

When he's in the octagon, like, this is a heavyweight almost.

Yeah. But, like, 215, 220 for him, he's got a big fight coming up. He's fighting Hermanson. That's right. At a main event.

Yeah, that's a good fight for him.

Yeah, that's a good fight.

That motherfucker hit so hard. We should tell everybody that he broke Francis Ngannou's record on that punch machine.

And they weren't trying to give it to him or something like that. Yeah. They didn't want to register it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which is, I don't understand why.

I've trained.

Why didn't they want to give it to him?

I don't know. The guy was saying, like, something was weird with the machine. And Joey was, like, he did it, like, three times. Like, three times in a row.

Oh, so the guy didn't want to believe it.

Yeah. He didn't believe that it was real. Like, how hard Joey was hitting it. Like, Joey cracks. Like, he's by far the hardest person I've ever been hit by.

Who was his last fight? Who was his last fight against?

Um, Abdul Alhassan. Yeah. Holy shit. He submitted him.

Yeah, but, bro, he was putting it on him before that.

Yeah, yeah.

He's on another level right now.

Joe's good. He's on another level.

But there's a real clear difference every time you see him in the octagon. He's just getting better. Like, at a high, accelerated rate.

Yeah. Like I said, me, him, Jeremiah, Andre Petroski's another one. Like, dude, we have a fucking good squad. We do. It's a small gym in Philly.