JRE MMA Show #151 with Bo Nickal

Sup, Bo, how are you?

But over there, it's like you're kind of set for life. So it's like, yeah, it's a completely different kind of motivation, I think.

You understand. And I'm sure I've competed against a lot of guys that were doping and doing stuff, but the one experience that I had that was really kind of prominent in my mind... So I wrestled this dude... I wrestled a tournament in Rome. This was a few years ago, and I was trying to go up from...

I was in between weights, so my weight was 86 kilos or 97 kilos, and I was kind of having a little trouble with my lower back. So I was like, I don't want to cut. I just want to get bigger. And so I came in, and I was weighing 210, which the weight class is 213, 97 kilos. And I was like, I'll be fine.

I'll be good. And I rolled up to this second-round match, and I was wrestling this Iranian dude. And my coaches weren't there with me, so I had some different coaches, and they didn't really warn me who this dude was. I had wrestled the number one Iranian guy a few months earlier, and I tech-fouled him. I killed him.

So I was like, I'm going to smash this dude. I don't give a crap. But this dude comes out. He's like two inches taller than me, freaking, jacked as hell, and does a forward roll and squat jump, and his feet are over my head. And I'm like, what the hell is going on here?

And we're just at this random tournament in Rome, and I'm wrestling some dude that I don't even know, and he killed me. It's the only time I've ever wrestled a match where I really got whipped. Single leg took me down, gut, wrenched me, and he came down from probably like 235.. He was way bigger than me. And then I got off the mat, and I was like, what the just happened?

And then the coach was like, oh yeah, this guy was a world silver medalist, world bronze medalist, like five years ago. But the last five years, he got banned. He got popped. And so he hadn't competed in five years. He'd just been freaking, training and juiced.

And then he actually, the next round, he beat my teammate Kyle Snyder, who was Olympic gold medalist, the exact same way. Smoked us both. And I was like, what the hell is going on here? So then world championship that year comes along, and now they're getting tested, and he went 0-1.. So yeah, I was like, all right.

So I kind of felt bad about myself. at first. I was like, damn, I suck. And then I was like, all right, well, it is what it is, whatever.

Yeah.

This is what we do. Let's freaking see how far we can go. I mean, I think that's, I don't know. That stuff's interesting to me. The optimization of, like, human performance, right?

Like, how far can you get? So, like, let's do it. That would be fun.

You never know. Because a guy like that's probably been juicing his entire athletic career.

Well, I won't say nobody, but 99% of guys really aren't doing that. Especially because we get tested a lot, like, in collegiate athletics and stuff. And it's just something that is kind of very looked down upon in what we do. But it is interesting to think about, like, what would I be like if I was doing these things? Like, I can compete at such a high level already.

And I have, you know, I think that my biggest asset in wrestling and in fighting is my mind. Imagine, like, my body. And I think that, you know, with time, I'm very disciplined and do things a certain way. I'm going to get to as close as I could be. But there is this other, like, level.

that's kind of unnatural, where it's interesting to think about. But, you know, while I'm competing and stuff, I just, I don't even really, it's obviously not an option. And, you know, but at the end of the day, I'm probably going to be, I probably have competing against a lot of guys that are juiced up. And I will, we'll see what the UFC's drug testing program is like, since you saw it over at the end of the year. But it is what it is, man.

It's just like I'm pretty confident in myself regardless. And if I've got to fight a dude that's juiced up and you're willing to kind of take a back door to try to get an advantage and win, I think that you're probably cutting corners in a lot of other areas as well, which I'm not doing. So, you know, that's something that I feel okay with.

But I know that in their mind, like there's a little weakness there to me. And I can take advantage of that and capitalize on that, because at the end of the day, I'm going to do every single little thing right. I'm going to make sure my sleep's on point, make sure my nutrition's on point. And not only am I going to do this for a camp, but I'm doing this all the time. And I've been doing this since I was a little kid.

So, you know, take what you want, do all that stuff. But you're not going to outwork 20 years, 20 plus years, in the short amount of time that you have to prepare for me. So, that's kind of my mindset around it. And it's just the reality of the situation. Like I'm going to fight guys that are probably doing stuff that isn't, you know, that I'm not doing.

Yeah. Like, we all want to be healthy, and, you know, for me, it's like that comes from diet, from supplements, from nutrition. And it's like, you know, I'm doing everything I can and I still finish some sessions and I'm like, frick. Yeah. I mean I got a freaking black eye right now.

Yeah. Like, it's not. like, you know, we're not putting our bodies through a lot.

And I'm like, why am I doing this? This is so crazy. And then the other part of me, the bigger part of me, is like, I love this shit. Like this is the best. Like.

let's do it again, again, again.

I could be pretty much doing anything. I could be, you know, coaching. I could be in business. I could be doing whatever I want to do, but I'm choosing to do this. And there's a lot of like, a lot more consequences, you know, on the negative end of what I'm doing now.

But I just freaking love it. I just love it so much.

It's amazing.

And it was always something that I was like, I could do that. And, like me and my friends would fight and stuff, or we'd fight other kids just for fun. And so it was always something that was kind of in the back of my mind. And, you know, really, through high school, through early college, I'm wrestling. I'm focused on wrestling.

And then I did a camp in Missouri and I was teaching wrestling all day. And then this dad came up to me and was like, hey, man, we're doing a jiu-jitsu class after this. Would you want to come and try it out? And I was like, yeah, sure. Like, I'm down.

Let's go. And so I go in and they just kind of, I rolled around with all the guys. And I was like, dude, this is fun. I love this. I'm really into it.

I have to fight. It was just that one class kind of.

And so it was just super fun to do something different. And that was probably in between my sophomore and junior year. And I was like, dude, I'm going to do this. I'm going to see this wrestling thing through to where I feel comfortable and ready to move on. And then I'm fighting.

I just knew I wanted to do it.

that, my high school. So my dad was a high school wrestling coach. And this jiu-jitsu, it was like Naga or something. They wanted to put on a tournament at the high school. And so my dad set it up, like put all the mats in and stuff.

And I was like, why don't you enter? I was like, okay. I don't know anything. I've never trained. Nothing.

And he was like, just do it. And so I did that tournament. And I actually won. But I never trained or anything. I just wrestled.

And again, I like played around, just watching stuff on TV. You can learn a few things. And so I did the tournament. And that was it. So I never trained.

And I had competitive wrestling matches with him. Not that competitive. Like I would kind of whip him in wrestling. But he also trained jiu-jitsu. And right away he like pulled guard.

And I was like, what the? But he knew good wrestling, so I couldn't really like do anything to him. And I didn't know the rules at all. So he was winning on advantage. But then I somehow like got past his guard at the very end.

And then they gave me a point and I won. But really that was it up until my second, third year in college. And I did that class.

I started MMA training full-time August of 2021.. That's when I started.

I'm always watching film.

And then I was like, you know, this dude frigging, pulled out after saying all this stuff. I kind of expected it. But then the new guy came in and I was, just, like you said, grateful I got to fight. But, yeah, you know, the actual fight, the plan was to take him down, sub him, you know. Of course, like that's my wheelhouse.

But I have great, great coaches, you know, for striking. I work with – the dude I was telling you, his name is Moose, collegiate national champion in boxing. Grew up in Philly. Probably had 70, 80 amateur boxing fights. And so that's who I'm training with and who's teaching me every day.

And then I work with another guy. His name is Barry Robinson. You should check him out. He's on Instagram, A Million Styles Boxing. Dude's, like, amazing, amazing striking coach.

He lives in Thailand now, but I brought him out to PA for a few weeks and he worked with me on a lot of stuff. And, dude, all my stuff is just from them. And, you know, I want to utilize my wrestling, right, but it's a fight. So, you know, everybody's nervous, oh, I'm going to take him down, this and that. But when I go in there, I have the hours and the reps of training this way in the striking, so that's what comes out.

And I think that that's my mindset. now, with fighting. I got, like, the ultimate cheat code with wrestling. So use that to my advantage, whatever it looks like, whether it's actually wrestling, take a guy down, hold him down, or whether it's the threat of it. And, you know, that's where I feel like it's a psychological battle, where, you know, the guy's so worried.

If you saw, I just did, like, a little feint. Dude dropped his hand. I was like, all right, you're done, bro. Boom. And then after that, it was kind of funny because I hit him and I saw him wobble.

And I was like, in my mind, you're making so many decisions in that split second. But I was thinking, okay, I could take him down, I could back off, or just go in for the kill. And that's just my nature to, like, go for the kill. So then I just took him out.

It's so gigantic, man. Because a guy always has it in the back of their head that you might take them down. But you don't ever have that.

Now. that's what they're focused on rather than winning the fight. And, you know, of course, you know, the actual skills that come with that of being able to implement that, the game plan and do it is big. But if you ever notice and you watch guys fight or compete, especially in training, if you see one guy is a little more tense, a little more nervous, a little, like, more reacting, like, that's such a big part of how much energy you spend in, you know, your overall, in the overall time of the fight. I noticed when I got a lot better at wrestling, when I started pinning a lot more guys was when I just relaxed.

It was like this huge thing for me because I pinned a lot of guys growing up and got a lot of pins. But then in college, guys get a little better. They learn how to hold you off a little better. And so I would use all my energy, all my strength, try to throw them on their back. And a lot of times I would.

And so I'd get up, you know, a bunch of points. But then towards the end, I'd get a little tired. I wouldn't finish as strong. Instead of just what I figured out later in my career was,

I'd move you around, just get into position, pull you, push you, fake. And I'm very relaxed. Okay, you shoot. No worries. I'm going to down block, run around you.

And then, you know, when I have my opportunity, maybe you're fading a little bit, now I overwhelm you versus trying to do that when we're both fresh. So that's where I feel like in a fight, it's 15 minutes, a really long time. I don't got to overwhelm you in the first minute. I can, you know, just be relaxed, move, catch your jab, check your kicks, set you up, and then wham. And then overwhelm you when the time comes.

And I'm very relaxed because, like you said, what are you going to shoot on me? Like now, dude, you shoot on me, the fight's over. I'm going to win. As soon as I catch somebody shooting on me, it's like, you're done. So that's what I want them to.

But, you know, more than likely that's never going to happen. So they're going to be very tense, nervous, worrying about that stuff. So, yeah, that's kind of how I feel about, like, the wrestling advantage, right? Like it's exactly like you said, it's so big to have that comfort and confidence.

And I think that fighting is such a, it can become such an emotional thing. People get baited into fighting a certain way that it's so important to be disciplined. Obviously, you actually have to have the training and the base and the cardio to be able to do that. Then to also implement it in front of millions of people and all the pressures on you. And now there's this other guy, who's a monster, coming at you, trying to knock you out.

It's like, you know, you got to be a certain type of person, I think, and have a certain mindset to be able to be disciplined and calm and stoic in that fire, right? Because you could have all the cardio in the world, but if you go 100% for two and a half minutes, you can't do that for 25, right? You're going to lose it, no matter what, even if you have the training. So keeping cool in that situation, I think, is almost equally as important.

Right. So I know if I'm hanging in there with him and I can move and defend and hit him with some shots, like, what are these guys going to do to me? So that's kind of where I started, and then I love—I just love it. Like, I watch so much film. I'm watching boxing.

I'm watching Muay Thai. I'm watching kickboxing. I'm always studying, always watching breakdowns, and that's another thing that I learned from wrestling, where I think I had a big leg up on people because I was studying it like a science, almost at a young age, watching Cale Sanderson, you know, when I was 8 years old, watching Satiev Brothers, watching, you know, multiple-time world champions. Every tournament—and my dad was a coach, so I'd be at every high school wrestling tournament watching, and I absorbed a lot of information from that. And so I just took those as principles, and now I apply them to MMA.

So, you know, it's not unusual for me to study 4 or 5 hours of film in a week where, yeah, maybe I can't train an extra 4 or 5 hours, but now I have this extra 4 or 5 hours on top of the competition that, you know, these guys, I don't think they're really willing to do that, to put that time in.

Now. that gives them time to see, think, decide what they're going to do. And really I learned a lot of my film study habits in the analytical sense, from the guys telling me about Barry Robinson. He is, like, to me, the best film study breakdown guy there is. And so I'll do stuff on my own.

I'll also do stuff with him where I'll say, hey, I want to look at Southpaw, Orthodox matchups, or I want to look at how somebody effectively counters a big right hand, or a good example of a guy that checks, kicks or a good example of a guy that manages the clock. So we'll look at all these specific things and then he will help me break them down analytically. And then I just kind of take some of the stuff that I've learned from him, and I do it on my own as well.

But if you don't have a system and you don't have a way to apply it in actual competition, then there's really no point to what you're learning. And I think the MMA, the culture of MMA, it's such a new sport, one, but it's such a tough guy mentality, sport of, you know, let's bang, bro. Let's get in there. Let's do this. And that's not really, to me, I see fighting moving in a different direction.

I see it moving in a way, and I hope to push it more towards an analytical, professional way to go about your sport, the way that an NFL quarterback reads a defense, right? The way that you hear an NBA basketball player talk about offenses, schemes, setting it up. That's not the way an MMA fighter talks about fighting. And I hope to move MMA into a more professional realm where now we can look at things, we can systematize, we can break stuff down, we can analyze, and then it's going to make everyone better. It's going to improve the overall sport.

And I think that when you talk that way, too, it appeals to a much broader audience, and it'll get more eyes on the sport, which is also very positive. If you hear, like, what 40-year-old mom wants to hear, guys, like, talking about just crushing each other's faces and heads and this and that? Right. But maybe that 40-year-old mom will listen to an interview where Tom Brady talks about, you know, being a quarterback, right? Like, you know, you can appreciate it a little more.

So that's kind of the way that I look at it, and a lot of it comes from my background in wrestling and just the way that I've approached that sport and the way that my coaches in wrestling have handled themselves and just what I've been taught. But I think the MMA, you know, people still want to see violence, but I would hope that we can make it into a platform where, like, there's some people that want to see the sport. And I would hope that it continues to, I think it's already turning that way, but continues to move that way.

But there is something to that, that the elite of the elite in any sport, they have to have all their bases covered. And when those elite of the elite then enter MMA and use that same analytical, systematic approach to training and getting better at this, they're going to get so good that everyone's going to have to do that. Unless you're some freak of all freaks. athletically, they can get away with things. Which we have seen guys like that.

But for the most part, hard work overcomes that.

And then it became, okay, now, if I know a little Jiu-Jitsu and I can defend and then strike, that's the advantage. And wrestlers really took over in that stage. I feel like from there, it went to a point where the most well-rounded guys were winning. You look at George St. Pierre, he's not a wrestler, but super well-rounded.

Great Jiu-Jitsu, great wrestling, great striking, good conditioning. It was like the well-rounded guys had the biggest advantage. I think now it's moving to a point where it's almost coming back. And I'll use myself as an example, but you have to be a specialist in one thing where it's like, dude, that one thing is better than anyone in the world. And then everything else has to be elite.

It's like Israel Adesanya. He's the best kickboxer, one of the best kickboxers in the world, but he also has great takedown defense. And you even see him throw up subs in some of his fights, things like that. Or you see, guys, where it's like, dude, you have this one thing, Khabib. This one thing, his grappling is so outrageous.

But then everything else is freaking world class. That's where I think it's getting. Now, these guys that have one thing that can kind of overwhelm and overpower somebody in a certain area, but everything else is not as good, but better than the average.

He's getting better at it. It doesn't seem like he's very good at getting back up to his feet, but he's getting better at it. But at least now he's good at defending. So if guys take him down, he defends, he survives, he doesn't get completely exhausted, and then next round he's standing up again.

What are you going to do? That's how I want to develop. my style, ideally, is to where, when somebody comes out to fight me, to game plan, they're like, all right, well, we obviously don't want to wrestle with him. Dang, he also has knocked a lot of guys out. We don't want to get hit.

Oh, wow, he catches every jab. He checks every kick. Are we going to jab with him? Are we going to kick with him? Okay, no.

Okay, maybe we'll try to get him tired. I don't get tired. That's the idea, where I want to get to, right? If that makes sense. I think a lot of fighters probably are thinking on a similar wavelength nowadays.

And I was like, okay, I could probably do this to some of the top guys in the world.

And I always want to hold on to that. I always want to make sure that. that's why I still, you asked earlier, I still live in State College, Pennsylvania. I'm ten minutes away from Penn State University. I train there three, four times a week with the best guys in the world wrestling.

I think that for me, I could take four weeks, five weeks, and go compete with the best guys in the world in wrestling right now.

And what's a guy in MMA going to do to me who has never wrestled in his life? He's going to do some sprawls for eight weeks and learn how to stand up? Good luck, dude.

Please take these eight weeks and try to wrestle. It's going to hurt you more than it will help you.

But yeah, and when I go train wrestling now, I want to keep myself sharp and keep improving. But I'm really trying to help the college guys and help these guys out, give back, help them improve and stuff. So I'm not trying to be the best wrestler in the world right now. And I'm trying to be the best fighter. So I tailor my training to that.

And I think that's an important thing. Some of my coaches say, like, never forget your wrestling. A lot of guys forget it. But to me, I think I just love the sport. I appreciate it.

I want to represent for the wrestling community on a bigger stage. And so I'm still very involved in it. But yeah, at the same time, it's like I'm adjusting my training and kind of fine-tuning it to what I think is best, for what I'm mainly focused on.

What I've done is I've partnered up with Dan Lambert, American Top Team. We built a gym right near Penn State campus. And the idea is that will be a pipeline for any other wrestlers, specifically Penn State wrestlers, who want to come and fight after they're done wrestling, right? So, you know, it's a good relationship there. But basically what we've done is I've brought in coaches for jujitsu, for Muay Thai, you know, really high-level guys in their specific disciplines.

And so I'm learning from them. I'm learning boxing from my boxing coach. And then for strength conditioning, I use the training lab with Sam Calvita. Oh, great. So he – I've been using him since I was in college.

So he has worked with Penn State Wrestling for a long time. He's known one of our coaches for 25 years. So when I started getting serious about my strength conditioning, nutrition, recovery, he was the guy I started using, maybe as a junior in college. And so I have a good relationship with him. But most – for the most part, it's on me to organize it and kind of see what works best.

And I did play around at the beginning, like, all right, how much wrestling am I going to do? How many times am I going to lift weights? How many times am I going to do jujitsu? How many times am I going to strike? And I'm kind of continuously refining that process.

And the idea for me is I'm the trailblazer. I'm the guy that's the first one to do this. Now, all these guys that are coming behind me, my best friend Anthony Kassar, he just won his second pro flight. He's a 205er, heavyweight NCAA champ. Like he started about a year later than me.

So now he kind of gets the benefits of me tinkering for that year. And then the guys behind him, like they'll get the benefits of us tinkering and figuring stuff out. And we're really trying to build, you know, a program. We're trying to build a team that we're going to do things a certain way. And, you know, it's fortunate, and unfortunate because I'm the first guy to do it.

I'm going to get the credit and I'm going to be probably like, you know, everybody's excited about it and things like that. So I get benefits there. But I do have to like take the time and effort to test everything out and figure out what works and what doesn't. And, you know, there's so many variables. But I like that.

It's fun for me to do that. I would rather do that than just plug in somewhere and just kind of go about it in a very set way.

Those type of things. Right. Hitting mitts.

And the way he trained, the way he committed not only his time training but his lifestyle. I felt like that aligned a lot. That aligns a lot with how I want to do things in a professional manner. And so if you are a true professional, you have to take ownership of that and take responsibility. Like, if you're not getting what you need, you need to make an adjustment.

And now, luckily, I have the freedom to be able to do that. And I'm fortunate that I had the foresight to kind of see that and know, all right, let's look at MMA. There's a lot of people doing a lot of good things out, but it's been a sport for 20 years. And so there's a lot of people that also don't know what's going on, that don't know what they're doing. I look at wrestling, it's one of the oldest sports in the world.

There's so many tried and true methods of training and how it works and what's best for you. And not only have I been part of that for 20 years, but I was a part of the most elite organization and really dynasty in wrestling history with being on the Penn State team. Like my coaches, they started at Penn State in 2009.. They have notes for training sessions and recovery days for pretty much every day of the year since 2009.. So they know what they did, what's today, December 7th, 6th?

They know what they did December 7th of 2009,, 2010,, 2011,, all the way until now. And they meet every day to discuss these things. So that's kind of like where I come from and what I know about training and how to organize a program and put things together. They know a lot more than me. I'm just kind of learning these things through osmosis.

And now I'm trying to apply them to my career. And again, we're going to continue to refine and get better at them. By the time I'm done, hopefully I can give this system that I've created and what I've put together to a new generation of guys that are going to do even bigger and better things than me. Hopefully they'll win more than me, make more money than me, be more famous. That's what I hope for those guys that are coming.

They can benefit from this.

It's covering every fucking base, everything from nutrition to recovery, to making notes and learning and adjusting to each training session and figuring out what went wrong and what went right. And how do you feel and how was the performance? I love hearing shit like that. I love when it's just a full, comprehensive analysis of every single aspect of it. And then you see these insane results like the Penn State team.

Of what it's like to mentally go out there and perform and do what you need to do. But, like you said, leaving no stone unturned, making sure that I've done every single thing that I can do to put myself in the best possible position to have success here. That's what I want to do in fighting. That's what I feel a lot of people don't do. They're tough dudes who have some skills.

They're athletic and they're smart, and they go out there and they fight. It's like, well, that's not really the way that I look at the sport. I look at it like, like you said, all-encompassing, comprehensive. How can I optimize every single part of my lifestyle to now go out there, be comfortable, be confident? And I'm not here to guess.

Oh, am I going to win this fight? No. And that's another reason that I'm taking my career. the way I am. I fought in July.

I'm not fighting again for a while. And people say, oh, you're a prospect. You need to fight this and that. It's like, well, I want to be ready and prepared to the point where now I'm fighting guys that are unranked, that people see as low level. Nobody's low level in the UFC, but people see as a lower level.

And I'm demolishing them, dominating them. By the time I fight a guy in the top 15, top 10, top 5 championship, I'm planning on doing the exact same thing to you, bud, because this is the way that I'm structuring my life. So if that takes more time for me to improve and get better, fine. No worries. I'm willing to be disciplined and not be in a rush to do that.

And, you know, like you said, that just comes from the overarching theme of doing things right, doing things correctly, and always trying to learn and improve and grow and do better, and just come at it in a professional, intelligent way.

There's a contender show and, you know, watching you compete and everybody knew right away, like, oh, this guy's got something special. And then you got guys who are like, hey, I'm like fucking one and one. I don't want to fight that guy. Fuck that. I need to learn.

So there's a lot of guys that are probably going to look at that matchup and go, that is just not right for me at this time. I don't need to get smoked and have my confidence crushed and realize that the gap is so wide. Realistically, there's some guys that are competing that unless they have some monumental breakthrough or unless they leave their training camp and move into a completely new environment and get totally new coaches and radically restructure their life, they're never going to bridge that gap. They're never going to bridge it. And so how hard is it for you to get quality opponents and the kind of opponents that you really do need in order to continue to.

not just you're developing these skills, obviously, in the gym, but you also need to be implementing them in real fights.

I started training in August of 2021, MMA.

Four weeks later, I was like, yo, I'm freaked. Let's get a fight. So I took an amateur fight. And just some poor dude didn't know what he was doing. He was 1-0 amateur.

I was 0-0, and he took the fight. And, I think, a lot of people, there was a lot of question marks. People were like, all right, I don't know. I was like, let's see. Let's see what's up.

And I choked the guy out. And I was like, let's go again. Four weeks later, I fought my second amateur fight, knocked the dude out cold. And then I was like, all right, well, I wanted to put a show together in my hometown, in State College. And so I was working for a few months to get that going.

And it just – there was – the P.A. Athletic Commission is – working between my management team, the P.A. Athletic Commission, and Penn State, there was just too many moving parts. It was tough. And I was like, I need to fight.

So, you know, I could wait like four more months and do this, or I could just get a fight. So then I had trained another six months, six, seven months, and I was like, let's do a pro debut. And that was in June of 2022..

And so I'm coming out against another poor guy who thought, like, he was going to knock me out or something. And knock him out in 30 seconds on UFC Fight Pass. And it did, like, the most views in UFC Fight Pass history, like more than any other promotion. It was, like, something like three or four million views in the week. And it did a bunch that night.

There it is. Yeah, this is it.

So this is eight months of training.

Let's do it. And I'm like, what the frick? I'm a 1-0 pro. I haven't even trained. I've been training eight months, or whatever, nine months.

He's got a couple fights at the UFC, and then, all of a sudden, he's fighting for the title. Yeah.

And I talked with my manager, and I was like, dude, am I even going to be able to get a fight? Like who's going to fight me on these regional scene promotions? Like who's going to fight me in any of these? And he's like, I'll be honest with you, like nobody's going to fight you. And I'm like, okay, well, then, you know, in my mind I was always, I'm going to the UFC.

Like, you know, these other organizations, I think they do a good job and stuff, but that's not really me. Like. I'm a UFC guy. So, you know, discuss with the UFC, and they're like, hey, well, you know, we can throw you on contenders. And I'm like, let's do it.

And it was a couple months later.

So now I'm like, it's on. Like. let's get it rolling. I'm going to fight these contenders fights. I fight my first fight.

Choke the guy out in a minute. Dan's like, let's do another fight. I'm like, perfect. Let's do it. Like that's great.

So then I fight at the last week of contenders series. And it's actually a crazy story. So this is going to make me seem like a real dummy, but my gym is like 200 yards away from where I live. And there's a main road that you have to cross to get to it. It's probably like a 40, 45-mile-an-hour speed limit.

But it's not super busy, but it's a little busy. And so I used to, you know what a one-wheel is? So I used to ride my one-wheel like, to and from practice. And I would just do this all the time. And so I'm riding back from training session once.

And I've got, so I'm barefoot. I've got like a Yeti bottle. I've got my phone and wallet and like my flip-flops in my hand. And I've got no shirt on. And I'm just like, it takes like 25 seconds.

So I'm just like zoom, zoom. And I'm going on this road and my buddy pulls behind me. He's leaving practice too. And then I have another car behind me. And I'm like, oh, frick.

I don't want to make these people wait. I better pick it up. And normally I'm pretty safe on this thing. I don't really go crazy. So you lean forward to go faster.

So I'm leaning forward. And I catch the nose, the tip of the nose, on the asphalt. And I slam into the ground and roll. And my Yeti, I have like a 64-ounce Yeti. It's flying in the air.

My shoes, wallet, everything is flying in the air. And I hit and rolled. And I just was like, get off the road. You're going to get hit by a car. So I popped up, grabbed my stuff, and got off the road.

And my buddy is sitting there in his car and he's like.

And I was like, oh, I just jumped in the car with him. And I'm like, take me home, bro. And he just pulls into my driveway. And he's like, you, all right? And I'm like, yeah, I'm good.

Like my shoulder hurts a little bit, but I'm good. And I checked on my app. I was going 23 miles an hour. Oh, Jesus. So I was flying.

And then, you know, I was like, oh, I'll be fine. Like I kind of hurt. My shoulder hurts a little bit. And then, four hours later, I couldn't move my arm. I was like, I could get up to like here.

And that was it. And so then I go get x-ray, MRI. And I cracked my collarbone. And I had like a separation in my SC joint.

He's amazing. He's worked with the wrestling team for 30 years. And he does a lot of like kind of. he's more like eastern philosophy guy. So we're moving energy through it and doing a few different things.

And I started to feel a little better, feel a little better. I'm about to fly out to Vegas, like the next day. And I'm like, well, it's the day before I'm about to – two days before I'm about to fly out. I'm like, okay, if I wake up tomorrow and I don't feel significantly better, like I'm going to have to pull out of this fight. And so I woke up the next day and I was like, all right, it feels okay.

It felt better. So I hit pads and like, did a couple things. And I was like, all right, whatever, let's just do it. So let's freaking, go into the fight.

And I ended up – I knocked that dude down, hit him in a triangle, choke him out, win the fight in whatever, less than a minute. And I'm like fired up. And I'm like, let's go. Let's do it again. Get me in there again in December.

I tell Dana and Hunter. And they're like, done.

And I was like, maybe we held off a little bit. So then we pushed my next fight until March. But I don't ride the – moral of the story, I don't ride the one wheel anymore.

And so now, in the past, really since whatever that was of 2022, June, so the last year and a half, really over a year span, I fought five times professionally. And then I was thinking I can keep going at this pace. I can fight five more times in the next year. But I can only fight so many guys until I'm moving up into the top 15, top 10.. And I only trained MMA a little over two years.

So is that really the best move for me, right? Like, do I want to be fighting a top 15 guy in the world at 5-0 on two years of experience? Or do I want to take control while I can, slow it down, learn, develop, get better? Like I'm still a prospect. So these type of things are things that are, on my mind, things that people that I'm close with, coaches, have just helped me with, because I want to get there.

I have goals and a plan. But there's also, I think, a better way to go about it that I'm trying to be considerate of and manage.

I'm like, hey, guys, no one's watching.

And if you're not in the fucking NFL, are you really playing football?

Absolutely. I mean, guys like Johnny Elblin, same thing. Yeah.

We go to Bryce Jordan, which is our bigger venue, 16,000 people sold out. We go to Carver Hawkeye, 20,000 people sold out. We go to Gallagher Eye, Baltimore State, 20,000 people. It's like that was every weekend for me in college. I love that.

That's like, freak, let's get it. And you get a good atmosphere in these other organizations, but there's nothing like a UFC fight. Like the production, everything that goes into it, the eyes, that's where I need to be competing.

I mean, everybody knows who you are when you're the UFC champion.

If you're not in the UFC, like, all these marketing deals, all these endorsements, like, those aren't really going to be available to you. Right. You know, it's the platform. And so I think people talk about fighter. pay, this, that, whatever.

It's like, I'm in the boat of. it's on you to get yours. Like, I'm never going to sit around and beg for somebody else for a check. It's like, oh, pay me more money. It's like, dude, go earn it.

Like, go, get it. Like, I feel like, you know, what you get paid, that's between you and the company and take care of what you need to take care of. And, you know, I'm going to take care of me. But there's a lot of other parts of the equation that people don't factor in, in my opinion.

Like, it's so cool. It's so fun. And the way they do it, you know, everything, the energy in Las Vegas when there's a big fight, it's unbelievable.

But, you know, you can't do that with fights. But if I could, man, I just love that. Every, I'll do it every weekend. It's so much fun.

You know, the mainstream media can say all the shit they want and they're trying, but the people aren't buying it.

You just talk to people or see what's going on. It's like, you could tell.

Like, how is this guy?

When I first got there, rolled up, I mean, there's 30 Secret Service members. You know, everybody's doing their thing. And he did a few, like, kind of worked with one of his secretaries, like, make some announcements and do some stuff. But then we just golfed for, like, four hours, rode in the car with him. And he was, like, the coolest guy, so with it, so smart, asking me about fighting.

We were talking about, you know, all the boxing. We talked about football, talked about golf. And he was so sharp and with it. And it was me. This is, like, the craziest thing.

Like, I'm from, like, I grew up in a town of 5,000 people in Wyoming. Now I'm fighting on the UFC. And then with Trump golfing, it's me, Trump, OJ Anderson. Who's an NFL running back, Super Bowl MVP, and LT. Like, that's the foursome.

And I'm like, what the heck is going on here?

They just look like the weight of the world, which it literally is. Right. It's on their shoulders.

Trump, like people, I golf with him. The dude's an amazing golfer. I couldn't believe it, how good he was. He hit every fairway right down the middle, hit every green, making all those putts. And so he won the first nine like pretty easy.

And then the last nine, it was going in the 18th hole. Him and LT were tied or something. It was like the winner, it was like. all came down to this last hole. And they both hit great drives.

And LT hit like a good approach shot. And Trump gets up there. He's probably like 150 yards from the green. And he sets up, just stripes it straight at the pin. Ball's, like in the middle of the arc, like not even coming down.

yet. He turns around, doesn't even watch it land, walks right back to the cart, sits down. And the guy's like, nice shot, Mr. President. And I was like, damn, that was clutch.

And he looks at me and he goes, don't you want your present to be clutch?

And I was like, for sure, man. And he hit it two feet from the pin and tapped it in. And I was like, jeez. It was slick. It was just cool, dude, though.

It was funny.

Whoa.

He said a stable genius. And that's where the transcription.

It ran the ramparts. It took over the airports. It did everything it had to do. Oh, okay.

Yeah. He's just, I don't know. To go to the airports is funny. That's the thing about media these days. You've got to look into it.

Yeah. Yeah.

I retweeted it. There's a guy named Terrence McKenna, who's this, like, psychedelic bard slash philosopher, who said a lot of very interesting shit. He died. Listen. Just listen to what he said.

Because he's literally, I think this was 1998 that he said this. And literally he called what's happening. The level of contradiction is going to rise excruciatingly, even beyond the excruciating present levels of contradiction.

So I think it's just going to get weirder and weirder and weirder. And finally, it's going to be so weird that people are going to have to talk about how weird it is. And at that point, novelty theory can come out of the woods, because eventually people are going to say, what the hell is going on? It's just too nuts. It's not enough to say it's nuts.

You have to explain why it's so nuts. I look for the invention of artificial life, the cloning of human beings, possible contact with extraterrestrials, possible human immortality. And, at the same time, appalling acts of brutality, genocide, race-baiting, homophobia, famine, starvation. Because the systems which are in place to keep the world sane are utterly inadequate to the forces that have been unleashed. The collapse of the socialist world, the rise of the Internet.

These are changes so immense, nobody could imagine them ever happening. And now that they have happened, nobody even bothers to mention what a big deal it is. The mushroom said to me once, it said, this is what it's like when a species prepares to depart for the stars. You don't depart for the stars under calm and orderly conditions. It's a fire in a madhouse.

And that's what we have, the fire in the madhouse at the end of time. This is what it's like when a species prepares to move on to the next dimension. The entire destiny of all life on the planet is tied up in this. We are not acting for ourselves or from ourselves. We happen to be the point species on a transformation that will affect every living organism on this planet.

at its conclusion. That guy called it.

I feel like I have to think about it.

But I would say, and I get a little more vague. So then I would say, formulate a game plan for a wrestler against a striker in an MMA fight under these rules. And then I would ask it more detailed questions from there. And it's giving me good information. So, I mean, we'll see where it can go.

In five years, it'll probably be able to download video of somebody and tell you every one of their weaknesses. I'm sure it will. Yeah.

I don't know what the fuck that even means.

Like it was something for tickets or something like that for the matches. Pull out your phones. And he was like, of course, like every single one of you, it was like 30 kids on the team all had their phones on them. Like we're about to practice. We have like a little set of bleachers that they sit in.

But every single kid on the team had their phone on them. Like, I don't really, I feel like I missed it a little bit. Like I'm a little older than that. I'm 27.. And, you know, the generation that I see below me, these dudes never are without their phone.

It's like incredible. Like I'm still good. Like I leave in my locker or whatever. Like I don't even have my phone on me right now. But some people like they can't.

I don't know. They're attached to the hip.

Right.

No. That's literally not possible.

There's some guys that don't seem to have, like Sanhagen's, one of the best examples of a guy who doesn't seem to have any patterns. He is so good at mixing things up.

I'd probably spend, you know, 20 hours watching film, and then I would take a little time and then I'd do it again, and I'd take a little time and I'd do it again. I'd probably do it three times throughout a camp. You're going to figure out some stuff, like certain things. Like. I was listening to a Jon Jones clip.

It was just a sound bite of him talking about how he analyzes film, which, to me, I think he's probably one of the best game planners in the sport right now, just with the way he breaks guys down. But he was talking about something that was really interesting. He was like, I even focus on how they flinch. Like if I throw a feint at them, like how are they flinching? I've always thought about how does the guy react to, you know, certain techniques defensively, but he takes it to a whole other level of, all.

right, if I feint a jab, like, does the guy flinch the same every time? Like? does he try to catch it or does he slip one way or the other? It's like. you can really, you know, break it down.

And it'll be more, it's just, to me, everybody's just like a puzzle to solve. And, you know, a guy like Sandhagen would obviously be more difficult. He doesn't repeat as much, but everybody has something, you know. Even if I have something, everybody does.

Yeah. And I think in the future that's just not going to be the case. We're going to be a new version of human beings.

and just, I got my bow. and let's figure it out. Like, let's figure out if I can make this happen.

And so I think about something like that, and it's so pure and valuable to me, that real human experience. And there's a lot, obviously, hunting is a great example, but there's a lot of different examples that, you know, you can have that and fighting is a good example.

But like, it would be nice to have a GPS in my brain. Yeah. Have Onyx in my brain. For sure. Yeah.

Mark your coordinates. Or like something where I could, I don't know, play a perfect elk bugle. Right. And a perfect cow call to where it's like, doesn't have a human error, right?

Like, I don't think the people that initially did that understood the health repercussions of it the same way like having something in your brain that's putting out 10,000 X EMFs. Like there's going to be other problems to solve. And, you know, maybe it's not, nothing's going to be like wholly good or wholly bad, but it's a mixture of it. But, like you said, it's kind of just the way it's going. It's the reality of it.

they take like a bowl almost, and they spin like a marble around and it goes around the circle and then, as it gets lower, it goes faster and faster and faster and faster. Yeah, yeah. That's where we are.

And we're in the middle of it. as biological human beings that are used to a certain timeline. We're used to getting up in the morning, going to work, doing our things. We have timelines and we think of the world as being kind of static.

And so, I feel like, with what you just said, how many, like 100 years ago, like, imagine, you showed somebody an iPhone. It's like, and you know, not even 100 years ago, imagine, 20 years ago, you showed somebody an iPhone. It's like, that's such a short amount of time. Yeah. That's incredible.

Because if you look at, let's say, like 0 to 1,500, not that crazy of a difference. Right. Or even like 0 to 1,800, like until the Industrial Revolution, really. Right. Okay.

We're still getting around on boats and wagons and things like that. All right. But that wouldn't really blow your mind too much. like, oh, they got a nicer boat or crazier wagon. It's like, okay, now I see a train.

Okay. Now I see an automobile. Now I see like plane. Okay. Now we got an iPhone.

It's like, whoa, like now I can FaceTime somebody in New. Zealand. It's like, what is happening? Yeah. Yeah.

What's it going to be in? Like you said, I think it's a good, it's days go slow, years go fast, right? So, in five years, it's like, you know, the technology is already so different. It's going to be the wildest frigging, it's going to be like the wild west.

And you see this integration of the FBI and Twitter with the Twitter files. It's like, boy, there's a battle going on.

Exactly. So, you know, it's like a balance, right? I mean, we all have our day-to-day life, family and things going on. And, you know, got to get an oil change on your car. Right.

Things like that. And then it's like, all right, well, there's also like pretty significant evidence that we have some extraterrestrials flying around like Earth.

There's pretty much explicit evidence that certain people and organizations are trying to mass manipulate the entire population and make it, you know, I forget what they call it, but basically like whatever the thing where they're like, making all the world like, I don't know. Do you know what I'm talking about? What's the organization?

Yeah.

Yeah, he had a fucking stroke from Vioxx. Jeez. Yeah, and he was in his 30s.

I see on Instagram, every single person I see is buying 10 acres, homesteading, getting chickens, drinking raw milk, eating beef, liver. That's the trend now. People are starting to see, I'm not going to freaking, eat McDonald's and take these drugs and do this crap. I'm out.

And he eats junk food and he doesn't work out. Like, this is crazy. You think you're going to medicate your way to health? That's never happened.

I'm like, dude, I never get sick. I don't know about you, but, like, maybe once a year I have something, like a little sniffle or something. But other than that, like, I feel pretty freaking, good, man. And I'm taking care of myself and all the people that I'm around, everybody is like a professional athlete or a coach who's still very active competing. It's like, we're all like that.

We don't want those people sick regardless. Like, if COVID never happened, you don't want those people to get sick anyways. So, but why is it all of a sudden, like, this whole thing, everybody's freaking out when it's... Nobody's dying of this.

Yeah.

This is the truth. And that's what people should know. They should just know the facts. If this is good for you, great. If this is terrible for you, okay, cool.

Now we know.

And when you do say something that goes against their narrative, they fucking come for you hard.

Oh, you're propaganda. You guys are full of shit. You don't give a fuck about the truth.

Take everything they say with a grain of salt. It's like, you know, you got to get information from people who have no financial interest in it. Otherwise, it's like, you don't know.

Right. And now it's available for millions and millions of people. I mean, the Huberman's podcast is gigantic. And he said the people are listening to it every day. They're changing their life.

They're doing cold plunges and saunas. Yeah. And they're eating well. And they are eating healthy foods. They are avoiding seed oils.

Right. And people are seeing these immense physical benefits from it, health benefits from it.

That's what I'm talking about.

Yeah. You'll feel happier. It'll make you feel better.

So we go a little long. But the best ever is we do like 15 or so minutes of – we call it shiver time after. So we'll go cold, just shiver and freaking shake. And then you let your body kind of come back and regulate and get warm. And then we go in a hot shower, and I'm like, I feel so good.