Smashed noses and grappling - that's the gritty reality of athletic life Tommy's lived through, and now, he's taking us behind the scenes of the blood, sweat, and tears. We get raw about the injuries that shape us, and the rites of passage in the world of wrestling. This episode isn't just about the battles faced in the ring; it's about the camaraderie, the gym dynamics, and the relentless drive that pushes us to show up, fight after fight.
Transitioning from the gridiron to the wrestling mat, Tommy has grappled with more than just opponents - he's navigated the complexities of life with a hearing impairment, the people that tested his resolve, and the shift towards Jiu Jitsu that refined his technique. My brother and I have battled through the silence, finding our strength and support systems along the way. We're opening up about the mental fortitude needed in the face of adversity, setting personal goals, and the transformation from football pads to singlets and Gi's.
As we gear up for Tommy's third MMA fight, feel the pulse of his disciplined preparation. This is a tale of motivation and self-reflection, from the adrenaline of competition to the serene moments of teaching the next generation of wrestlers. It's a journey of passion, from the Savage Wrestling Academy to the octagon, where the hunger for a championship fuels every grueling session. Join us for a candid and inspiring look at the enduring spirit of a fighter carving a path through the world of mixed martial arts.
https://www.instagram.com/beethoven_the_grappler/
Smashed noses and grappling - that's the gritty reality of athletic life Tommy's lived through, and now, he's taking us behind the scenes of the blood, sweat, and tears. We get raw about the injuries that shape us, and the rites of passage in the world of wrestling. This episode isn't just about the battles faced in the ring; it's about the camaraderie, the gym dynamics, and the relentless drive that pushes us to show up, fight after fight.
Transitioning from the gridiron to the wrestling mat, Tommy has grappled with more than just opponents - he's navigated the complexities of life with a hearing impairment, the people that tested his resolve, and the shift towards Jiu Jitsu that refined his technique. My brother and I have battled through the silence, finding our strength and support systems along the way. We're opening up about the mental fortitude needed in the face of adversity, setting personal goals, and the transformation from football pads to singlets and Gi's.
As we gear up for Tommy's third MMA fight, feel the pulse of his disciplined preparation. This is a tale of motivation and self-reflection, from the adrenaline of competition to the serene moments of teaching the next generation of wrestlers. It's a journey of passion, from the Savage Wrestling Academy to the octagon, where the hunger for a championship fuels every grueling session. Join us for a candid and inspiring look at the enduring spirit of a fighter carving a path through the world of mixed martial arts.
https://www.instagram.com/beethoven_the_grappler/
Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but you sound a little nasally as well, because in the last fight didn't your nose get fucked up?
Speaker 2:Didn't you break your nose? My nose got fucked up. My, I did, but my nose was fucked up even before that.
Speaker 1:So your nose fucked up before that? Yeah, and you, and I think I asked you I said Are you gonna get the nose fix? And you said well, I got another fight coming up, so probably not yeah, yeah, yeah, I will.
Speaker 2:I'm planning on getting my nose fixed after I find in May, because I definitely want to get that fixed before I go pro. Oh, especially, like you know, 15 minute fights, as, yeah, it's a. Nine minutes fights, yeah, ah, it's just no, it's like it's a month where I can't really do cardio at all, like I can't risk. I've been bursting the capillaries or I don't know if that's I'm using the correct terminology, but like I can't like breathe heavy, I can't like put strain on my body for like a month, yeah, I can't work out at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I broke my nose in a football accident years ago and Me and this kid we collided faces. We were, we were playing touch like not touch, we're playing a flag football and we both dove for the same ball. We were on the same team, yeah. And we collided faces in midair and my nose just went like totally sideways. Yeah, and I had his teeth in my forehead. They cut through the muscle in my forehead. I had stitches up there.
Speaker 1:It was, it was rough, it was not a fun, not a fun day. And I just remember I Notice that my head was bleeding, like it was shooting out blood. That's what I noticed. I didn't notice the nose was broken, okay.
Speaker 1:So then my buddy's on the phone with my mom and he's like yeah, he's okay, you know, we're gonna get. We just called the ambulance, they're on their way, but oh, they're coming over now and she goes is there anything else wrong? What's going on? Like is there anything else? And he said what? I think his nose is broken, like he was whispering it to her out of the phone, cuz. And she goes does he know? And he goes no, but as they said that the EMS guy comes over and he goes, all right who's injured? He goes oh damn kid, you broke your fucking nose, huh?
Speaker 1:Oh my god, I broke my nose. What do you mean? I just I had no idea. So it was so swollen, though, like it was so swollen that I actually had to have surgery two days later, like that's how bad. It was okay, and I'm trying to remember the recovery. They sent me home with one of those like pieces over the top. They had to break it and reset it underneath and it was uh, I Feel like I was training within a week, week or two. I don't know if you know, maybe I just didn't listen to the doctors, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know you definitely want to keep it clear. I had a buddy that that had that too, so it's actually I.
Speaker 2:I broke my nose and layman's terms, but like the nose isn't actually broken and medical science.
Speaker 2:What happened was? I Know I messed up my nose in the last fight, but the initial injury and the thing that needed to be fixed even before the last fight was and the very first Spongebob session I did after my first fight so it was after the fight wasn't even doing my very first fight shit. Very first spawn session I did. I took a shot, I took a nice shot and I ended up deviating my septum oh man, and it filled up with fluid like I didn't realize it at the time until like maybe a week later. I can't breathe at all. I'm talking like this, like it was bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah and then like, like I take a picture like selfie camera up my nose and I just see like a giant blob yeah, that's the congealed blood, right? No, it was like it was my skin swollen. Oh, there was like a ball, like a no, I mean like a yeah, a bold, I guess of skin. Yeah, I Was scared, shit risk, because I thought that I had staff up my nose.
Speaker 1:Oh, is that? What? Is that what it can turn into and look like what's just?
Speaker 2:that I Got I had around this time I had been getting staff a lot and I haven't had seven a while. I hope. I hope I never fuck again.
Speaker 1:I'm new to this world and the, the skin infection Stuff is very new to me because I never did any wrestling like you and I never did anything like that. So the showering immediately after and using the defense soap and all this stuff, that's all new to me. I never realized that. You know, ringworm and staff was so prevalent in this spot, even just training.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, because it's we're skin on we're skin, skin on skin contact and we're sweating on each other. Yeah, that's, and that's victim. What's that for the trans mess through through sweat, but, um, like, especially in the summer, man, when you're sweating so much, yeah, that's bad. You know, I love those sessions though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love those sessions, man, when I so. When I first came to Sarah's, I Just it was so funny because I was so not timid, but it was just a new world for me. I never did anything like this, so the thought of another man sweating on you was just kind of like, oh god, what's going on? You forgot the best part is gonna wrap his legs around you yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Wrap his legs around me and he's gonna stare me, what I stare right into my soul while he's doing it too and I'm like, how do I get out of this? So I just remember rolling with one of the guys I think he was a blue or purple belt at the mixed class and we're you know it's my first week, so we're rolling. He's obviously going very light on me. I'm trying to figure out Whatever. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I got, what I what to do? All right, so he, he mounts me and he's just like on top and he's like almost gift wrapping my arms. And I just remember looking at his chin and there was a huge glob of sweat. That was just like rolling back and forth as he was moving and it just Slow motion style, just it falls off and it just right in my forehead and I went all right. Now, I don't give a fuck. I guess that was it. Now, ever since that, I don't give a shit, I don't care. Yeah, it's like whatever. I mean, you know, you, I roll with the dudes in North Carolina. Those guys were awesome, that room was sweaty. Yeah, that shit was crazy, but it's.
Speaker 1:I think since starting this, it's been really cool to be able to like we were talking a little bit before About tribe mentality and all like the people that we associate with at the gym. Yeah, how, sarah's our team. You know we're like in that that room together. We come to support you when you fight. We come to support Marcus when he's fighting. You know the, the trials, the ADCC Trials and all these other things. If we have guys going to it, you show up as a team because we want to make sure that we're there for one another. And it's really cool and I like the aspect of when I travel. Now I get to go to other gyms and experience their versions of the little tribes that they have. So it's pretty cool, man. I really been enjoying that aspect of it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm happy to. I'm happy like that aspect of it. Yeah, it's definitely a friendlier environment. Oh, you know the MMA Jim, just to Jim, at least that Sarah says it's much friendlier environment than a wrestling room and everybody's miserable in a wrestling.
Speaker 1:Why are they so mad? Talk to me. Why are they so mad in wrestling rooms? Because you know we have to get them happy meals. What's wrong we got to get there is smiling a little bit crazy. Oh, they're cutting weight.
Speaker 2:We can't get him happy Because it's, you know, we've got two a days of the team. We've got a six o'clock practice and three o'clock practice where we've got hill sprints in the morning and then I left in the afternoon. We've just got miserable stuff going on, and we're gonna practice twice a day and then we're gonna get the shit kicked out of us by. We're gonna we're gonna get on a bus for Four hours while we're, you know, dehydrated and hungry, and we're gonna get the shit kicked out of us, and then we're gonna get on a bus and go back home and it's, you know, it's just, it's just a miserable environment.
Speaker 2:And you're also, you're constantly in competition with one another, right? If and you need it needs to be that way if you have just like an established hierarchy, then the guys that are at the top just beat the shit out of the guys at the bottom. Nobody really gets any better, because you're either just getting the shit kicked out of you or an accepting it, or you're just, you know, beating the shit out of somebody that's not really fighting back, right? So you need to have competition. Yeah, it's, fist fights should break out in a wrestling room because guys get heated, that tense. Yeah, it's just like we have to push each other to elevate each other. It's just an environment like that black, you know we can, we can have we hang out outside, you know we, we shoot the shit, you know, like we all friendly. It can't be friendly but it's supposed to be, and it should be, a competitive and tense and like just yeah, environment like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, from this, from the second you walk into the room, you're just like it's go time. That type of that type of mentality.
Speaker 2:You're saying, yeah, well, just like you know, like you're, you're competing for sport, for starting spots.
Speaker 1:And how many starting? So I'm very unfamiliar with the wrestling world, so how many starting spots are there? Like, how does it, how does a tournament pan out, like?
Speaker 2:just give me a rough estimate of a rough idea tournaments and Like the starting lineup is like a different thing, okay, but when you wrestle a Team versus another team, which was known as a dual meet, a dual, well, the dual like not DUE, l, due, al. Yeah, there's like dual because there's two of us.
Speaker 2:Yeah anyways, but you have this team versus that team. The format is we send one guy out at each weight and the results of each of those matches Create a team score. Yeah, so you have in college wrestling and that's the double-a wrestling. You have 10 weight classes One twenty five, one thirty three, one forty one, one forty nine, one fifty seven, one sixty five, 174, 184, 197 are these meticulously done weights based on roughly hitting the whole array of where the people would be is?
Speaker 1:Is there a reason between the nine pound differences or I?
Speaker 2:mean in high school they change the weights all the time. Okay, um, college, I don't think they changed. I must. They haven't changed from when I started knowing, from the time I started knowing what the college weight classes were to now. They haven't changed, okay, but the high school weights have changed like Four or five times since I've been around wrestling, so I can't testify too much for that. I don't know for sure, I feel like kids are smaller nowadays.
Speaker 1:I feel like there's a lot of a lot more lesser weight classes. I feel like they were bigger back in the day.
Speaker 2:I don't know, man. It's just if a lot of times something will happen like we're high school when they change the weight classes, like, for example, in recent memory from me I think, like 160 was really stacked and 170 was really stacked, or like 160 was really stacked and 182 was really stacked out one year, and then we're just like why we have a 170 pound weight class. So if they make like 160 a little heavier and they made 182 a little lighter, got you Um, but it's changed again since. That, like that and that. That those specific weight classes might not be the correct example, but Like one is that like those things? Those are the things that create rule changes in wrestling. But in terms of college wrestling, as far as my memory serves away, classes haven't changed Okay, for me at least. But anyways, we got 10 weights, 10 max when you wrestle 10 matches, 25, 133.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 10 way classes, some one guy out at each weight and Whether that match ends as a decision, major decision, technical fall or pin Awards, a certain amount of team points and after all, 10 matches are wrestled right. The team score determines who won the match. Gotcha, that's a dual meet. That's what happens when this team wrestles that team. Now, when you enter a tournament, that's much like that's almost the identical format of the jiu-jitsu tournament, except there's gonna be like 32 and 64 man brackets, not five man brackets, gotcha, you know, cool, yeah, it's a different world, man.
Speaker 1:Who is? Who is the kind of person that signs up to start in the wrestling field in, like high school? Sorry, say again what? The? What type of person signs up? Because you're making it seem like it's just all misery and anger. So what kind of person decides that I want to be a wrestler when they're in high school and then obviously Continue to follow it through to the collegiate level? It's a guilty one. I General question Um well, is it somebody that that wants to?
Speaker 1:I Don't know you, because you can translate rest some wrestling to some self-defense. I mean, there's, there's a lot being able to control Someone's body. That's all that. That's a, that's a perk to it. And learning all that. There's another aspect of it, of they want to be able to Become stronger. Whether it's based solely off strength or speed is a lot of explosiveness in wrestling. I don't know if there's like a specific person that that looks at it and just goes I'd like to start wrestling because I I'm interested in xyz. That's why. Or they just try it on a whim, because their high school offers it, and then they either hate it or fall in love with it. That's why I figured I don't know, maybe there's a reason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, you definitely have Right now, you definitely have. So the whole idea of wrestlers working harder than anybody else, um rest, like how difficult wrestling is, like that has made its way into public view. I think, like, I think that, like, people generally understand that wrestling is an extremely difficult thing to Even people that don't know anything about wrestling. Um, and, like you know, we live in a world now where everybody knows that, everybody knows who David Goggins is, everybody, everybody has at least even if they don't agree with that everybody has heard in their life that you need to push yourself and do difficult things. Um, so I think that that's one factor that's rock people towards wrestling.
Speaker 2:Like a lot of people, um, at high school, middle school, start wrestling and we'll quit. They'll quit, like before their first season ends, or they won't come back Because of just how difficult it is. And rightfully so, because if you don't have a reason to be doing it, whether that's like a goal, I mean almost 99% of the time it is because it's a specific goal and wrestling you want to achieve. But if you don't have a goal you want to achieve, your, your mind can't rationalize the difficult that you're putting yourself through, like this is where, if I wasn't a wrestler, if I wasn't a fighter, I wouldn't relate to David Goggins at all because, like I I'm like I'm not going fucking running, I hate running. But like, if I didn't have, if I didn't want to achieve something right, if I didn't want to be a world champion one day, then why would I put my like, why would I push my body through that? Just because, like, that's just that's where.
Speaker 2:That's where that's where I start to disassociate a little bit, where it's just like doing hard things just for the sake of doing them. You know, because once your body enters that Fight-of-flight mode, if you will right, there needs to be a reason that you're doing what you're doing. Like, when you dig deep, you're finding a reason to overcome this. And when you do it every single day, like three hours a day, you know, maybe you can dig deep and overcome, just because, like, you could do that a little bit. But like when you're doing it every day from November to February, like you're gonna one day, you're just gonna reach in and you're not gonna have anything to pull out unless you have A reason, you're putting yourself through that, which is the goal right to want to stay championship, for example.
Speaker 1:You could. I agree 100%. I do think that there are some type, some type of situations where the reason could be because you want to callus yourself, like that's a. That's a David Goggins quote from the book. So you want to callus your, your body, you want to callus your mind, because doing these hard things makes the regular hard things that you do in your life, like the oh, a client didn't pay on time, or the dog is sick, or Um, you know, I have to be able to go, I have to go get groceries, but it's snowing outside, like these things that would seem monumental to people that don't do hard things. Because you've put yourself into the gauntlet x amount of times, it actually lowers that bar and it's actually not that bad and you're able to face these things a little bit easier. So I do agree with what you're saying. There has to be a reason. You know one of my reasons which I?
Speaker 1:I started bodybuilding and I started, obviously, this little journey that I have going on. I just I wanted a way to be, to be in shape and keep myself accountable, but also to challenge myself, because I I already did the bodybuilding route. I did my two shows, I did xyz and I just I started doing the hit classes and different type of training and then I said I always wanted to try jiu-jitsu, so let's give it a shot. And it's been a hard journey, man. It's been little injuries, it's been just dealing with things and it hasn't been easy.
Speaker 1:I want to compete, but injuries stop me. Not that I'm I'm, I'm sustaining them, but the thought of injuries Stops me. Okay, because if I'm going to go 150 at a, at a contest like a adcc or or one of the other show, the, the contests that are competitions that are coming up, you know you, you have to take that out of your mind, the injury thing, and I have to learn how to block that out. If I'm going to do that, because you can't go into it thinking that you're going to get injured. You can't go into thinking that, oh, this, this could happen, or you know your ankle could give out, or listen that. You have to go into it, just go on. I have this challenge in front of me and I have to just face it head on.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, you know, you brought up adcc's an example.
Speaker 1:Well, the reason I bring that up is because gary at the comp class has been getting us ready for it. Yeah, yeah, we have the new one coming to the Atlantic City area. Yes, so that's that's next sunday, right, no, no, no, that's no. I think that's in a couple of months, it's like in two months.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, I thought there was like an adcc open like next week, like not the saturday and six days. I thought that there was like another one.
Speaker 1:I have to look. Maybe, maybe it is in a month or a couple of weeks, but I know that iB JJF is coming to long island as well. Okay, so you know he's been. They, they, they hammer that home. And I like going to the competition class because it's it's a way for you to really roll with some dudes that are serious about the way that they do it, but we're still respectful with each other in certain ways and I like that. That's. That's what I look for.
Speaker 2:Of course, well, but I mean either way, you know, like An iB JJF open or an adcc open, like those are. Those are bigger competitions. There's a bunch of smaller ones, uh, there's a bunch of smaller steps To get into the competition phase, right going Right into an adcc open, that would be. That would be pretty huge right? Yeah, you're, you're probably won't find anyone else, you're being the very small minority of people competing for the first time at that competition. Yeah, but you should do much more local competition First.
Speaker 1:I'm a white belt with two stripes, so I have that. I said I'm a white belt with two stripes, so I do have that on my side. Not that, not that that's a benefit to me in terms of like winning or not, but I'm saying that I'm going against other white belts is the point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean like and I believe and I mean I might be I'm a little out of touch with uh, because there's so many different Organizations and rule sets with you get to like you have naga and new breed, pride, adcc and iB, jjf and XR, qyz and and the promotion rookie and I started and like there's a whole bunch of stuff. But, um, I think, like those types of events like the ADCC open, for example, like they separate the skill divisions not by belt oh really, I'm not sure they have G at ADCC.
Speaker 2:No it's all. It's all. No G yeah right. So like the skill divisions are like beginner, intermediate, advanced or something like that.
Speaker 1:So I wonder what the cutoff is then technically, what they consider it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but like I would do, like a like a really local tournament first, like the one where you sign up and you know like three guys in your bracket just to get out there and and deal with the nerves and get your feet wet. Yeah, yeah, exactly, Get your feet wet Right Before you start getting worried about dealing with, like you know, somebody who's going hard at 720 in the morning. Right, Because a lot of the guys that you'll see that competition are going hard at 720 in the morning and trying to hurt people at 720 in the morning. I'm not saying that they should be, but that's just like. Those are the kind of people you'll run into out there. Maybe start smaller and work your way up to that.
Speaker 1:I agree, I agree. So, in terms of you know, getting into wrestling you brought up you know you have to have a why. What was your why when you first started with wrestling?
Speaker 2:I started wrestling, kind of actually football before I wrestled. I liked football because you got to hit people, not that like I want to like. When I say hit people, I mean important people, I just like.
Speaker 1:I like the physicality. I like the physicality, yes, the physicality. He's a natural physicist, he likes the collisions.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and so like I was like generally the size when I was in middle school too. Like I mean, obviously you know I've been there and I've gained muscle and whatnot, but I've generally had the same physique since I was in middle school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had the same height since I was in middle school.
Speaker 2:So I've generally just been the same build and physique since I was in middle school. So, like I was a lineman when I was 13 years old and I loved it, and then by the time I was a freshman in high school, like the 10th graders that were playing on the line were like gigantic, like they were 250 and six foot. And then they're like, yeah, and they moved me to linebacker and I was learning an entirely new position and you know, I've got a helmet on and I can't hear, and there's just, there were just a lot of things adding up that made the environment not as warm and welcome for me. Yeah, not that like it was anybody's fault necessarily, but it just, um, it just lost its appeal to me. And then, and then I started wrestling in middle school and last week let me dial it back a little bit I was playing on the line in middle school and one of the kids that I played on the line went, told me he was going to wrestle next year. Because, uh, you know, like when you're blocking and like maneuvering somebody is very similar to like being in front of somebody and wrestling them. It's just like make sure better, better alignment. Oh, I know, I'll try wrestling.
Speaker 2:I wrestled as an eighth grader in middle school with my first year. I liked it, I liked the grind, I liked the physicality of it, I liked the. I just liked it, um, but not for. It came around, and then that whole story that I just explained about falling out of love with football. And then, um, I had a lackluster effort as a freshman wrestling in high school. My primary goal as a night as a 14 year old was to hang out with my friends. Yeah, but you know, I was on the wrestling team and then, after the freshman season ended, I got more. I got a lot more involved in the off season. Wrestling is like wrestling, like, even though the high school season is only in the winter, there's wrestling year round Um, so I got a lot more involved.
Speaker 2:And then I got, by the time I was getting ready from like to be a 10th grader. I was like, you know, I really want to, I really want to get serious about wrestling. And I was like, well, I need to gain weight for football, I need to maintain my size, I might even need to lose weight to wrestle. I'm just like you know what, I'm just going to put my chips on wrestling and I did, and I never looked back. Nice yeah. So my why, why I started was I don't really fucking know. Tell you the truth. Come to a better football player.
Speaker 1:There you go, just started, and then you found out you fell in love with that.
Speaker 2:I fell in love with that.
Speaker 1:It's cool how pivoting in life can actually create new pathways for you to go down, because if you just continue to play football and you learn how to be a linebacker and not to say you wouldn't have loved it at some point, but you just kind of stayed the course and did your thing and never touched wrestling we might not be sitting here today having a conversation because we would have never met at Sarah's. The pathways that we choose just set us up for just everything. It's pretty crazy how it works. It is Absolutely. I did want to just take a back step. So you were mentioning that you couldn't hear with the helmet on. Yeah, with the hearing impairment. Yes, just was that, because I don't know your background on that? Was that something that you were born with? That it had developed over time? What was it?
Speaker 2:So I was born with the hearing loss.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm not an expert on the subject. I probably should be, but I'm not. Okay, you don't have to be. Yeah, but there's like three. There's like three categories that make up your hearing. You have the bones in the bottom of your earlobe that like rattle, then you have hair follicles that carry that vibration over and then you have the receptors, the nerves receptors in the brain I've got the correct term for them that pick up and interpret the audio waves that you're hearing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I believe it's the receptors in the brain that I have an issue with.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I don't know exactly. I don't know the exact terminology or the exact diagnosis of oh no, is that? Words come out of your mouth and I don't know which company?
Speaker 1:So it now obviously with the ear, with your, with the, the wrestling cauliflower here. That definitely doesn't help your hearing either.
Speaker 2:No, I don't know if it hurts, but it definitely doesn't help. It doesn't help. It doesn't help. People, people have thought that my hearing loss came from the cauliflower here. Actually, yeah, but no, it has nothing to do with it.
Speaker 1:Okay, and now was it a challenge. Going through school, did you have any, you know?
Speaker 2:issues. So in New York there's something that's called a 504 or 509 planner I forget the exact number, but it's basically just like student has special needs. I mean like that's a very broad term, you know, but the student has. If the student needs accommodations in the classroom, I know I'm going to wait for the microphone. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:You're good.
Speaker 2:If the student needs, you're doing great with the mic placement, you're doing great. If a student needs accommodation in the classroom, right, they have like just sort of like separate meetings to make sure that those accommodations are being met. And for me it was just like sit in front of the room, make sure, like as you go along with the lesson, just make sure he can hear everything and you know, give, make sure that there's something written, there's a written version of the notes, right, like if I transcribed version.
Speaker 2:A transcribed version it doesn't have to be like word for word, but like there just needs to be like, if there's a lecture, there needs to be some kind of notes that I can take, that don't simply rely on you talking to me hearing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got to have relaying that information down to pen and paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So like am I making sense?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 2:Um, school wasn't like. Being able to get through school wasn't difficult. You got. You got to have a set of humor.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you that right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it's the definition of go hang fruit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kids can be man. You know it's such a weird thing because I don't. I was bullied when I was heavy because I was 270. Okay, I was bullied when I was heavier. And then it's like you go through that and I I hate bullying as a whole, obviously, but it's weird how it like shaped you to just get like an armor over you, to just not take things as seriously when people talk to you and and so it almost did me a favor in the long run.
Speaker 1:Uh, but kids are fucking mean man. They'll just, they'll take anything they can to just make fun or, you know, big themselves up in front of a group of other kids, they want to make themselves look funny and cool and they'll, they'll grab you by the throat and throw you in the in the road just to do it, and it's. It could be a tough time, especially when you're trying to, you know, you know, have friends, be with, be friends with people, uh, do okay in school and well in school and follow sports that you're trying to, you know, not only master, obviously that's down the road, but just get into and get involved with and and stay focused on, and then you just you have, you have things that are kind of obstacles that you have to just overcome and and and uh, not let stand in your way. Essentially is what I'm saying. So, and with football that would definitely be tough to be able to hear everybody you know telling you all the different plays and whatnot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know, like well intentioned ball breaking, uh, like you know it'll, sometimes it'll, sometimes it'll get to me, but like I never take it personally. Yeah, you know, um, there were kids like when people I didn't know that well would, when I could see that they were messing with me, like just to get a kick out of it, like that's, that's what bothered me, Like I just I'm not going to name anybody's name, but I distinctly remember one time and I've created social studies this kid was sitting behind me and he was just like he like took the bag of his pencil and just like was like like poking my hearing aid from behind me and like I just I've never wanted to punch somebody in the face so bad in my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Uh, only because, like, I just didn't know that kid that well, and it was just like, who, like, who do you think you are to do that? Like, if it was one of my friends sitting behind me, I would have, like, I would have, like, crumpled the piece of paper up and thrown at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, friends is, but that's it. But that's the whole point. Friends are different. It's okay when you're friend, you know, as long as your friends are doing it in in, you know not being actual dicks and trying to like put you down.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because there are friends that'll try to do that shit. Friends that'll try to do that shit to you, and then you eventually get them out of your circle. But you know, if it's somebody that you have no affiliation or association with, it's like why, bro you have, you think that you're that important that you could put your hands touch somebody else, fuck with somebody else's hearing aid. You think that that's okay? Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's supposed to be so difficult being the main character, right? Just like you're the main character of the whole entire world. Nobody else exists, right, you? You're the, you're the guy. Okay.
Speaker 2:I, I'm, I'm picking up what you're putting down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they, somebody like that acts as though they're the only person that exists on the planet. So they call that being the main character. I gotcha Somebody thinking that everybody else just is in their gaming world. So that's why, yeah, so, oh, yeah, you're the only one that matters, okay, cool. So I mean, I mean, I think most people yeah, they're usually the ones that aren't doing very well after after high school either. So I'm sure, I'm sure he's not doing that great after high school anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I I've forgotten about most of those people. Not like to put anybody down, just in general, just like um, like you know, sometimes somebody will say to me like, oh, you want that. Like you're like, oh, I know this guy, I think you want the high school Tam. Like I'm just like dude, like aside from the people that I was friends with that I stayed in touch with, like I don't really remember like much about anybody.
Speaker 1:Me either. No, yeah, I get asked every now and then. Oh, do you?
Speaker 2:know something? Nope, like people that I was friendly with, like you know, if I wasn't like best friends with them, like if I was friendly with them, like and I see them, like if they want to talk, like I'm happy to talk, I'll talk while the day goes on, I'll talk while the sun in the sky, Like that's why I'm sitting here with you right now, yeah, but then there's people that's just like I think I barely knew them and, uh, I don't know. It's just like like before I, before I ran into you right now, I forgot you existed, you know, and I don't mean I don't mean to say that to be a dick, but it's just like, like I just you know, and they probably forgot I existed too Up until that moment they saw them and said what do we have to talk about right now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are, it's just like hey, I hope everything's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know good.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you had a family now. Excellent man, be good Like I'll see you in the next 10 years. It's like that's pretty much how it goes.
Speaker 2:And I don't say that to be like malicious or pretentious at all. It's just like you know, just like like what the hell do I say?
Speaker 1:Don't say anything. There's not too many people. Too many people will sugarcoat conversations and they'll just pretend like, oh my God, like they don't really give a shit. It's just like hey man, I hope everything's good. Good, I'm glad you're doing well, like that's it.
Speaker 2:So I got to say I mean like the, the 10, the 10 or so people that I hung out when I was in high school, uh, like, like I've I've been in a group chat with them that's been active every single day since since we were like 14 years old. You know, like three of them train at service. Um, like they all came my last fight. Like I don't see them that much, you know, because, like, especially right now, like because these past couple of months, um, because I'm training and then you know I'm coaching wrestling, so like my weekend they're just shot. But you know they get together like every weekend or every other weekend, and normally I would be getting together too, but just like these past few months, because it's been both my training camp and wrestling season and I'm also like coaching like high school wrestling right now.
Speaker 2:So it's just are you coaching at your old high school, not at my old high school, okay, different high school, ricky's high school actually.
Speaker 1:Where did Ricky go to high school?
Speaker 2:Division Avenue Rivertown.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, yeah, cool. And where did you go to high school? Mass Piqua, oh, cool, all right, I'm not. Wayne View, jfk, yeah, or Beth Page, yeah, yeah, they do, they do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look at that Awesome.
Speaker 1:I wanted to ask you what. What actually translated? Obviously it's years later now, but what translated into you going from now wrestling to Jiu Jitsu? So?
Speaker 2:I had known that I was going to walk into the doors of Sarah B Jai after I was done high school wrestling because I've known Ricky since I was like 13 years old. I've known Ricky almost as long as I've been. Only been wrestling for a long, for a year long, and I've known Ricky, ricky Stan.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I know, I know who you're talking about. People have no idea who you're talking about, so you just brought Ricky up. So who is Ricky?
Speaker 2:The other deaf wrestler, like only other deaf wrestler, is it Ricky's?
Speaker 1:deaf, I had no idea.
Speaker 2:Not not nearly as much as I am, okay, but he does have hearing issues. He has internal hearing aids, gotcha, the type of hearing aids that my hearing loss is too severe for. That's why I wear the ones that you can see, okay, but Ricky does have hearing slight hearing problems. I didn't even take a sip of this. Yeah, it's all right. But yeah, I've known Ricky since I was 13.
Speaker 2:At the old Levittown Sarah Academy, which is like literally around the block from the high school, from division Avenue High School, which we both coach at now. Um, my dad and Ricky's dad used to work together, so my dad bought me the open mats on Sundays and Ricky would wrestle with. Like Ricky would teach me wrestling, teach me a little bit of jiu-jitsu, and that was like my first introduction to I. I forgot all of the jiu-jitsu. I learned like 100% of it.
Speaker 2:I knew zero jiu-jitsu when I started the gap but, um, I had known Ricky and I had known Matt, so I had a little bit of a relationship there. Uh, and then, like I just like you know, wrestling doesn't last forever I knew I wasn't going to make like an Olympic team or anything like that, so I was just like all right, you know, when I graduate wrestling I'm going to start training jiu-jitsu. And I wasn't like overly serious about it. I was just like I want to get into this, you know. Um, and then after a little while I was just like, all right, I'm not, you know, I don't know why. I thought I could just have a hobby. I've never been a hobby type of person in my life. I've never done anything casually in my life, you know so. And then I got into the same business.
Speaker 1:Okay, and what was it? What were the difficulties that you experienced coming from wrestling and then trying to assimilate into Jiu Jitsu? Because there are a lot of things that you know, you, you, you do from wrestling that compliment Jiu Jitsu, but there's some things that you do in wrestling that don't yeah.
Speaker 2:So this is where Jiu Jitsu actually really made me better. It's a better grappler. Well, not do I, but just to make, just to make my wrestling better. Because when you get taken down in wrestling right you right, you get taken down. Your opponent gets two points and if your opponent exposes your back to the mat he gets more points. Depends on you. The match is over, right, so you get taken down right away. You turn onto your belly right, you give up. You give up your back turtle up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, turtle up, but not as you would even be flat on your back, like flat on your stomach, and then you work back up, turn on these, try to stand up and get out, which, by the way, I still do, right, so I don't give up my back, knowing that I can defend a choke, defend the body triangle, to stand up, get back to my feet, take the guy down again, get into a better position, you know, but you get to help me unlearn the habit of just accepting the take down and going to your belly, you know. So now I so my scramble ability got real better. I got better at fighting through all these different positions where you kind of don't really have control but you haven't fully been taken. You have, you're fully not controlled either, you know. So I wanted to continue wrestling, to continue fighting through the positions to, um, right, you defend yourself from a not so great position, but you don't automatically just accept it. So this guy's on top of me controlling me now. Does that make sense at all? It makes sense, yeah, so you get to help me do that right. Help me extend the scramble, not not concede the position so quickly.
Speaker 2:Um, and the other thing is it just taught me how to calm down.
Speaker 2:Like I talked about the intensity of a wrestling room and in wrestling and I can say this at the high school wrestling coach there are times when you will win a wrestling match simply by being more conditioned than the other guy. If you can go harder for six minutes and the other guy can't, you'll win that match. Right, if you can continuously output energy longer than he can, you'll win the match. But in YouTube that's kind of futile because, right, if I go, ah, and I take you down again on top of you and I'm shot and I have no idea how to maintain mount or I have no idea how to stop you from retaining your guard and you can sweep me, now I'm underneath you and I'm exhausted. Yeah, you know, so it's futile. Um, so you learned that I really learned how to calm down and just kind of get into that flow state when I'm assessing and reacting and my thinking is sharp and it's fluid and I can still push right, so put my foot down to the gas, but it's a much more relaxed throttle.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I've learned how to be effectively aggressive. Yeah, controlled.
Speaker 1:You're controlled.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's, it's. It's very interesting. I, uh, I've, I've begun to the last couple of like months, I've begun to just like chill a little bit more and it has helped substantially being able to just some. I'll roll with some of the other white belts that are newer and dude. I still have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. Like I know, I willingly, openly say that, but I know more than they do on their first week. So it you know what I? What I find every time is just they go so crazy right out the gate and I just there's a lot of times where I'll hold them in my guard, I'll just hold them there and I'll just be like yo, dude, do you see how much energy you're burning? Just chill out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You're going so hard, man, you're going to just fry yourself, just chill yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, so that that, that the ability to relax, I believe, comes from familiar, from from the feeling of familiarity, Yep. And even if you don't have to necessarily know more than somebody to know enough to be familiar with the position right, you could be rolling with somebody who's more experienced than you, but if you can feel, if you can find a sense of familiarity within the position, you have an idea of what to do, and if you could take a breath and think about what you do and do it, then it just becomes less of just a physical back and forth.
Speaker 1:Well, even the way you said it, there's been plenty of times where I've given my backup and I'm totally fine with it because I know that I can. I'm in a better position that way than when they're trying to like attack me from an S mound or something like just before that, I'd rather just here you go and then they go for like to lock everything in, and I can, I can fight that off better. So it's it's positionally. You have to just be aware, okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, I was referring a little bit more of to right Um, but for MMA you know I'm not going to be. I really don't want to be on my back with this guy in my car.
Speaker 1:Well, that's yeah, that's totally different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I'm not.
Speaker 1:You know, mma is totally different than just me rolling in a jujitsu, or you know.
Speaker 2:Sunday Sunday class. I'm not trying to make the comparison, no no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying I'm just anyway. I don't have to worry about a dude punching me in the face, like generally the whole point I was trying to get to was right.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm not. I'm not Anderson Silver here. I don't. I don't see myself and as of right now, in terms of my skills, I don't see myself finishing a triangle off my back and I fight. I mean I could, like I have. I have an idea.
Speaker 2:I have successfully triangle people, but point is, I'm not going to stay there underneath somebody and let them give them a chance to plaster up and hit me. You know I'm. I'm sticking with what I have more experience doing and I'm sticking with what's going to be more effective, which is I'm going to, I'm going to create some space and wrestle up, or. But see, here's okay, here's the thing. A lot of people here wrestle up and they think, like you know, unhook, half guard, I get the single lag and start coming up with the leg. But if you just turn down and start standing up, that that's exactly what wrestling from the bottom is just getting out when a guy's trying to hold you down, you know. So you have more challenges because this guy can put hooks in and he can strangle you, right.
Speaker 2:But wrestling up is still a very, very massive part of the jutsu game and it's an even bigger part of the American. That's something that I kind of neglected for a while, but I'm glad that I neglected it, because I developed some other areas of grappling by neglecting it. But as I get ready for the fight, right, I'm going to do what's going to be most effective and I'm going to do what I do best, which is, you know, I don't see my. I don't want to sound overly cocky, but I don't see myself in a bad position. That's why I see myself as the dangerous guy, no matter where we go. But I'm, I'm, I'm so ready to fight, I'm so excited to fight, I want to fight so bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So for those that don't know how long do we have until this fight Six days, so you're ready man Coming up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're getting ready. Yeah, like I feel like if I want some month right now, like I know you can't do that your whole career. But like you wrestle, like I come from wrestling eight matches a week, 10 matches a week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but striking is different now. Now we add in the the effects that it's going to have when you're actually taking blows and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I know, I know, but, but like I could fight more. I could fight more than once a reform once.
Speaker 1:Take it easy, let your body heal. Okay, yeah, otherwise, that nose. We got to get that nose fixed. There's a lot of things we got to do.
Speaker 2:When they bring back the MMA tournament, I'll be the first one to sign up.
Speaker 1:If they, if they want to make another, another never back down movie, I'm going to. I'm going to pitch you as the main character I got. I got you. Now, you know it's funny. You said that you weren't ever a hobbyist, so you couldn't just join something and just sit there and do it without actually taking it to the next level. I find it very interesting that you decided to go to the MMA side of things instead of just like the ADCC or the Jiu Jitsu competition side. So you had two routes that you could have went with this. But you went to the striking side, which you never stroke. You know, stroke, move, pause. You never were a striker prior. You did, you did wrestling.
Speaker 2:So it's just. It just appealed to me more.
Speaker 1:Okay, um cause do you think I mean I, I would assume that you'd fare pretty well at, like, an 80s with a lot of wrestlers. I'm sorry, I said I feel like you would fare well at an ADCC tournament. Yeah, cause it's a lot of wrestlers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I've had success competing and grappling. Um, you know I haven't competed in a hot level at grappling but you know I won um a Naga intermediate open weight tournament. Like I have like nine matches, uh guys, like the guys that competed against wage from like 130 to like 250 and I went in that bracket, that was that. That was a pretty cool experience down in that sort of belt for it. Like it was cool. Um, but, and it is fun, like I would love to do that again. It's just, it just doesn't appeal to me the way, like the way the fight does Um so what's going on in your head as you're prepping for your first fight?
Speaker 1:let's just, let's just put it into the perspective of just like their first time ever, getting ready for an actual fight where they're striking. You're asking me about like my first fight. Yeah, I don't need to. I don't need to know, like the the, we already know the outcome. But I'm saying I want to know, just like mindset, cause this is something that's so new to you what was it? What was it like mentally preparing for that?
Speaker 2:I decided that I was going to fight late 2022, january 1st 2023 until June 24th 2023, which was the day of my first fight. Every single day of my life was about that fight. Like every day was about that fight. Um, I went out my friends on New Year's Eve 2022, you know, went to the bar, had some drinks, uh, did stupid stuff and I was like, all right, hard reset. Like I know, most people can't actually go out drinking and on New Year's Eve and then actually go into strictly adhering to, you know, practices of upstanding from alcohol and keeping a clean diet. And you know, like I know, that that strategy doesn't work for most people, but, um, it it's one I know myself and it does work for me. Like I can jump into something and stick with it. Um, so, I'm not saying that I was like getting drunk every weekend before that, but I was about to say, like you know, I had that. Like West, who are you?
Speaker 1:wanted to be strict. You wanted to just hold yourself to a higher standard and make sure that you were ready and taking all potential variables out that could affect you negatively for the fight.
Speaker 2:Right, but again it just it wasn't like I mean a hard lifestyle switch, right. It's not like I was, like I was a general, I was a general.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you mean.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, january 1st, I started living like a monk but you know, I made I had that West who are and then I just every day was about preparing for the fight and I thought, and I won, it was a great night. I wasn't like at first I wasn't totally happy with my performance, but I was just like I won and it was a great night and I went out and had a couple of drinks and ate it so much pizza and it was that night. Going out was so much more, which is so much greater, but you felt like you earned it. You earned it, yeah, yeah. I, literally the first beer I had after the fight, I said to the way gratification yeah, you know, because it was just and I'm looking forward to doing that again for this fight. Right.
Speaker 1:Now, did you change anything that you were doing on the daily from your camp from the first fight to now the second fight that you did?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah for sure, definitely. As I get deeper into this, more and more striking, right. So my first camp was about it was like look, we're not going to be standing with this guy, we're going to take this guy down. We have to make sure we have the tools on the ground to win this fight on the ground. Get up on that mic. You're sitting back. Oh, sorry, yeah, no, no, you get it. You get it.
Speaker 2:It was like, you know, I knew that first fight going on, I knew that I couldn't just take this down, kick this guy down and let him off. You know, I knew that if I took him down, I had to have the tools to win the fight on the ground, you know. So that's what it was about me. It was like almost treating it like a jutsu match. Um, I got, obviously I was working my striking, but it was just about just about setting up that first take down and it was just about protecting myself. You know, yeah, I wasn't going out there trying to knock anybody out. Uh, second fight same philosophy, but starting to grow into the striking a little bit more, just trying to level up my striking. This fight, so much, so much kickboxing, sparring, um, so so, so much kickboxing sparring.
Speaker 1:And who do you have helping you out with all this?
Speaker 2:So I got a combo Columbus, columbus, the best. Uh, she's a great coach she's. She's helped me come far, she's helped me believe in myself. I've had the steam roller for lower holding pads for me. He's been helping me out a lot.
Speaker 2:Um, between those two and Matt, obviously, Matt, with the famous right hand that put down GSP, you know, um, listen, as a short, stocky Italian guy that likes to grapple, I couldn't have a better. It's a good team out there, yeah. But now for real, uh, colombo has helped me level up my striking. Like this whole time, you know, it's just been about, uh, every fight getting better and getting better and exploring more options, you know, and starting to look at striking, look at boxing, look at kickboxing, the way I look at wrestling as systematic, you know. And then for both of us been doing some pad sessions with me this camp and they've been huge, like I feel, like I really find my groove, uh, when I work with him and Marcus. You know, marcus, with that, with that beautiful head kick in his last fight, we got the iron shin the iron shin yeah.
Speaker 2:We know, we know Marcus can strike Um and cause, especially cause Marcus is the little lighter than me. Uh, so that you know, like if, if we're moving around and he kicks me in the head or he went to shot like it's not going to drop me onto the floor, like, and we also we don't spar like that with the other. Like when we spar, it's one thing, but when we get in the gym and we start moving around and throwing shots, it's another thing. You know you have to. This is something like like you can roll hard without trying to hurt somebody, Right, you have to. It's much more difficult to do, but you can do that. And striking you have to really have a good relationship with that person. That's something I have with Marcus, um, so doing those rounds with Marcus and Joey beans actually Joey beans, while he can dismantle anybody on the ground, has been putting on his gloves and his shin guards a lot lately and me, him and Marcus been getting them there and moving around a lot, and doing that with those two guys has helped me level up my striking, just feeling comfortable standing in the pocket.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, and Colombo was a coach and ball holding pads and obviously, matt, as a coach, it's just all the pieces that come together. Yeah, it's coming together. That's what it is there's. There's a part of me that wants to like. It's part of me that wants to not even take this guy down. It's part of me that wants to get this guy up against the fence and just boom, boom, boom, boom. Well, do you?
Speaker 1:feel like that, especially in your last fight. It was a lot of grappling. Do you do a lot of ground game? Do you feel like you know people that are looking at you and seeing your background? They're just going to expect all grappling and you want to almost mix it up on them.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't want to give a shit. Can I curse? What can curse on you? Yeah, you curse on your shit. I didn't give a shit. Yeah, we're in a fight, I'm going to win this. I'm going to take you down, I'm going to hold you down and you can't stop me. That's exactly what happened on my last fight. Um, yeah, this guy, the last guy I thought was like he was lanky, you know he was. If Marcus was 170, like you know, this guy would have like that, like, like this guy had those dimensions. You know, that's not a guy that I want to stand and trade shots with. You know, um, like he landed like three punches, one of them broke my nose, yeah, and so like I wasn't trying to stand and trade shots with this guy. Um, this guy's background, like he didn't have I don't know I'm not saying you had an extensive of a kickboxing or boxing background is I had a wrestling background, but his background was kickboxing. You know, was that classic grappler versus striker matchup?
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, you kept taking him down with ease man. They look, they look pretty. It looked pretty easy from everyone watching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right now. I mean, if you can time your level changes and your takedowns with someone who's standing up and throwing strikes, it's very difficult for them to sprawl. It's not like a wrestling match or a grappling match where we're both like you know we're both grappling each other, right, you know you're trying to hit me right and I'm moving around, I'm working my feet, I'm working my level changes, I'm working my fakes and I time my takedowns with when you are backing out or coming in on a strike. You know it's very difficult for you to get that sprawl going. It's very difficult for you to transition into the wrestling Like obviously high level.
Speaker 2:I mean like good MMA fighters can do that. But this guy and I think of this guy that guy fought my last fight Darius Lancaster. I think he's a good kickboxer. I think if he keeps training and he learns from wrestling man, I think that guy could be a dangerous dude. Maybe I'll see that guy again in the future, I don't know. I mean like I wish him like good luck and good things on his path, but like I believe that the lack of well-roundedness was kind of apparent there and I mean, look, the lack of well-roundedness was apparent there for me Like I couldn't stand and hit this guy. But what I could do was, you know, move my head and Bob and weave a little bit level changes.
Speaker 1:Do your?
Speaker 2:thing yeah, time my takedowns right. And then, as my striking continues to level up, the timing and the defensive movements and the takedowns are only getting better. So I'm excited, I feel for, and especially now because the first two fights right. That's the other thing. The first two fights were under the novice MMA rules. That's the way it has to be in New York State. So I wasn't allowed to ground pound, but I could only hit him in the body and I mean, you have a little bit of experience here in Jiu-Jitsu. How effective do you think holding some? How effective do you think you could? How effectively do you think you could hold someone down if you could pass through up and hit them? Or you could only hit them in the chest.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, it's just not that effective, you know.
Speaker 1:But, and how much are those shots actually doing? I mean some of them. I mean if you hit them in the liver, I mean maybe, but yeah, but it's just.
Speaker 2:It's difficult to get, it's difficult to put power into that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially when you're the lever. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Also face we've got a different story going on here.
Speaker 1:There's only so many strikes you could take before you start slowing down a little bit.
Speaker 2:You're like oh, okay, yeah. Well, now that I've got ground pound on this fight and I've been training my ground pound, been training my striking on the floor, training my kickboxing, been training my wrestling, been training my Jiu-Jitsu, like just doing everything, like I really feel dangerous everywhere and that's what you should be as a fighter, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you should be like well, that's the whole point, mixed martial arts. You need to be well-rounded, yeah, yeah, of course you have to have a little bit of everything and there you can have your strong background in one particular area, whether that is wrestling, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, muay Thai, whatever it might be. You have your strength there, but you still have to have all the other pieces Combat Sambo like the Dagis yeah, something crazy. I said to you those videos. I'm like how do I do this? How do I train?
Speaker 2:like this yeah, but no man, I'm excited, let's do the noon class like that.
Speaker 1:Let's do it like a wrestling room or in the middle of Russia. Oh, that's great. I did wanna. I do wanna ask where does this, where does this path go? Like? What do you see in the future? Well, what do I see in the future? Yeah, are you trying to go to the UFC? Are you trying to do you know, cause I don't know the goal.
Speaker 2:I mean, like I wanna be world champion, okay, I wanna be world champion, camping. I don't believe you can be getting locked in a cage to fight somebody if you don't wanna take it to the highest level, you know.
Speaker 1:I don't know. There's some sick fucks. There's some sick fucks that just like to just do shit. Yeah, yeah, you know Outliers. I'm not gonna say that's the majority of human beings, but there's some outliers that just like to do crazy shit and yeah, you're right, but you know I'm not letting this like as in, it's right on when junkie you know, Like I wanna, like I do love this like process.
Speaker 2:I wanna take this as far as I can get it. You know, Like I said, world champion, like it doesn't necessarily have to be the UFC. Like obviously that's coveted, like that's special. There's just something about the world UFC champion because of like, because of the world we live in and because of the influence that Dana White in the UFC has, Like there's just something about that that just kind of in the eyes of the world there's an allure to it.
Speaker 2:There's a big allure to it, but if I'm in a position where I can be fighting professionally and making a great living doing it, then that's, then I'm happy, absolutely Cool. I'm not gonna go to a PFL tour, pfl, something new that comes up man. If there's a big old check with my name on it and I get to do my favorite thing in the world, then you know, and that's why I wanna take this too. But like this is like the process of this. I've learned to love it so much from myself. I hated it when I was in high school, hated it, but I've learned to just love this grind. And I say this to everybody If I won the Lotto, if I got 50 grand, if I got you know what is it?
Speaker 2:What are these? 52 weeks in a year? If I got two grand, if I got two grand a month, two grand a month, blah, two grand a week, every day for the rest of my life. Like I would never have to like worry about necessities, about a roof over my head, but I would never have to worry about that again. I do exactly what I'm doing right now. So, that being said, why not take this to the most successful path I possibly can? That being said, I also kinda just wanna add a little bit of something onto that. 99% of me is like good vibes, like I pride myself on being like a kind and positive person. You know, I think that's who I am.
Speaker 1:But I I'd agree.
Speaker 2:I don't have people I don't like on the show, so yeah, fair enough, fair enough, but like and I hope I don't really think there's a way to say this that doesn't come across as cocky, but I'm just gonna say it anyway I really don't think it's cocky, but I know it comes across as cocky which is I've just never really met anybody that's had something bad to say about me. Like I just I really believe that I put that I put good energy into people's lives and I only, I only look to have good relations with people. Like I never really I try, I've never like gone out to try to put somebody down, you know. Or I just try to anybody that tries to be friendly to me, I try to be friendly back to them, you know. Yeah, just the way I go about it.
Speaker 2:But, that being said, like I do have like that, there's that, there's that, there's that whatever inside of me that just wants to like stand on, stand on that octagon you know Joe Rogan, on the mic belt over the shoulder, sold out arena, knowing the people on TV, and just be like I, everybody, everybody who looked past me, everybody who didn't believe in me, like I'm the man fuck you. Now. I don't bring that like into my relationships with people, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, not in your relationships with people, but I would definitely keep you know. There seems to be some type of like a chip, which is okay, that's all right, because the world isn't nice to everybody and you're not gonna always have positive experiences from everybody else. You can emit that energy of positivity to everybody. It doesn't mean that you're gonna get reciprocated. So if you feel that way and you do feel like, you know you've been slighted in certain ways or things haven't always gone the way that you were anticipating it to you have to have the Tom Brady chip.
Speaker 1:The Tom Brady chip is well regarded and you hold that 199th, you know, like the last, the least picked person and he's the world champion time and time again, but he plays like he still has that chip on his shoulder. Sometimes you have to have that. Yeah, you know that's what? That? That can drive somebody way further than just the motivation to be something. That could be the motivation to prove some other people wrong, the motivation to show that you have something that these other people didn't think that you have. Sometimes that is even more of the igniting fluid that you need to just propel yourself into like the cosmos.
Speaker 2:And the funny thing is I don't even know who right, I don't even know who I'm directing that at, but there's just like yeah, I have an arrogance about me.
Speaker 1:But there's continual life. We all do, though that's the point of just like the human psyche and ego and whatnot. We all have dual sides to all of us. Whether we show all of those sides, you know, some people show every side of themselves, some people only show one side. So I would say that you know we all have that dormant. I'm the fucking man built into all of us, and if it takes winning a world championship for that to come out for a few, I mean, no one would slight you, no one would blame you. People would be like yo, man, doing your fucking thing, let's go.
Speaker 1:But I will also say, on the other side of things, it's like we can also emit such positivity and good vibes and be nice to everybody that we see, but we can still be the enemy in someone else's story. Yeah, man, yeah for sure In someone else's. Listen, man, I'm pretty fair, I'm a down to earth dude. I've been told that time and time again. You know I appreciate when people tell me these things and they like to be around me and they like to come on the show and sit and talk and hang out. You know, cause, listen, if you didn't like me, you wouldn't come and sit down either. So that's it's vice versa type of situation. But in someone's story at least one person on this planet I'm the villain in that story. Yeah, it happens.
Speaker 2:I had an experience like that. Actually I did. I had an experience like that. Like this brought up a memory I forgot I had. But this kid I mean again not gonna bring a name up Somebody I knew from like middle school, regardless of like who he is and what his life is like now, was friends with somebody I was friends with like later on in life and apparently I had made a comment about this kid's acne, without even realizing it, like I was just apparently just like bantering and like I thought I was just like breaking his job, so like I don't even remember saying it.
Speaker 2:But I said something about this kid's acne and like five years later this kid told a common friend about the thing that I said and it just made me feel terrible, like I like I never even realized. I said I don't remember remembering saying it, I never intentionally wanted to say that and like put somebody down like that. I felt really bad. When I heard that story I was like kind of shocked. Like that actually really taught me like how much effect what you say to people has.
Speaker 1:So yeah, man, every experience. Just like the kid fucking with your hearing aids. Just like that kid. You don't hate the kid, but you remember it, you remember that shit.
Speaker 1:That made you feel a certain way. You remember that. And it's not that you, it's not that you're sitting here and you're punching the bag, say reciting that kid's name every punch, but I mean shit like that. You've experienced things over the years with the hearing impairment, with just like switching sports, and you know things. We absorb all of these experiences that we go through in life and, whether we want to admit it or not, at times they affect us and it's not always positive. A lot of times it can be negative and we have to just take those negative parts of art that we hate and the things that we can't stand and we have to channel them to just continue to do what we want to do and whatever our mission is.
Speaker 1:You know I talk a lot about my first bodybuilding coach. He is a guy that I will never get put his name on the air because the people that know me know who he was. He was a dirtbag, dirtbag human being. He tried to get me to take tons of PEDs before I was doing my prep. Just a shit of a human being. I don't like him and as I moved on to a different coach I totally forgot mentally him, but I always kept that in the back of my mind, just like the things that he would say to me to try to get me to take the steroids Wow, it's a chemical warfare out there. Are you really gonna be able to compete? And this and that like all this negative shit. Bro, just write my meal plan, big me up because I'm paying you and I'm your athlete, and just be like hey, nick, yo, you're doing great man. I know you wanna be natural. It's not the way that normally goes in this Federation, but it's cool, dude, I respect that you're doing your thing. Because he couldn't do that. That left the chip on my shoulder and because of how the relationship ended in the long run.
Speaker 1:So it's like these people, these experiences. We remember all these things and, instead of just like harping on names and individuals as a whole, it's the feeling of when he didn't show up to my show. After I prepped for 23 weeks with him, didn't show up the day of my show. I remember that feeling for the rest of my life. So it's like I take that and I work harder and I do my thing. He's not a ruin of my day. I'm not sitting here going oh, every bite of food, motherfucker, I'm not doing like that, but I remember that feeling and I just go yo. I gotta work hard, I gotta keep going, and that's really what motivation is fleeting. That's one of the quotes that I like.
Speaker 1:Motivation is fleeting that's when discipline takes over Absolutely. So you say discipline, you stay doing your thing, just like you, getting ready for that fight from January to June. That's a long camp, man, but you wanted to be ready. This was you. You had to be in that zone and that's what helped you excel and win that first one. Whether you enjoyed the performance or not, it was still the first time you ever did it. You got the jitters out, you felt. And now your second one, and now there's gonna be your third one. So it's like getting into that uncomfortable state, having that door locked behind you when the octagon closes in it's time. Like I've been here before, I'm good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. It's cool. I try to remind myself that every time I spar actually like just doing the thing you do every week. That's it. That's the thing you've done a hundred times before.
Speaker 1:at this point, Did you ever see the movie Gray man? Gray man.
Speaker 2:Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's not Ryan Reynolds, it's um oh, no, no, no, ryan.
Speaker 2:Gosling, yes, gosling, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh, one of them, ryan's One of them. Ryan's. That's the one where he's like he's sex right. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I love that movie. It's a great movie.
Speaker 1:But remember what he says when the girl's like freaking out and this and that, and she's like at the end of the movie she's like no, come at me. And he just looks at her and goes it's a regular Thursday. Oh yeah, that's fine, he's about to fight the other one.
Speaker 2:I like that, Captain America whatever it is, I watch that movie again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's fire movie, but that's the point, just another.
Speaker 2:Thursday Nice job. Nice job with that reference.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying. Man, now you're gonna watch that at home. You're gonna be sitting there in the living room. You're like, oh, let's go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I try to like, I always try to like, always try to like vibe with the music. I always try to dance like keep it playful.
Speaker 1:Rhythm, it's all rhythm, it's all you know movement patterns and whatnot, and that all helps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, never. Just, you know, if I get tense and I get like I just go, I just start going.
Speaker 1:I gotta take him down. I gotta take him down, I gotta take him down.
Speaker 2:That's when nothing happens, but when you just know you're relaxed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, Boom, boom. You know that's what I'm saying, but it takes the time that you've put in to get to the real estate?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, the more you do it, the more comfortable you're in.
Speaker 1:If they throw me in an MMA cage this coming weekend, I mean I'm like okay, sure, and I'll be freaking out. I'll be like, oh God, he's coming, he's gonna be hitting me right in my face, uh-oh, and it's like you know, I haven't been there before. But as you put in, you make your bones and you do your thing in the sport, you become more and more comfortable.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, matt, matt. Sarah always says we say this week's the other way around.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Matt Sarah and all of his espresso shots.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, oh yeah, he made a comment about that the other day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was like I'm four in, it's like seven AM. Matt, what are you talking about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh that dude. I have seen that man down an energy drink and then he's got a cup of coffee in his hand, like literally like 10 minutes later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a character man. I remember watching him years and years ago and I had actually come and I came to the school in Huntington this has to be in like 2007. Whenever they opened, they just opened up in Huntington, Okay. Anyway, I came through and I think it was his brother that actually gave me like my first introductory lesson. Okay, and you just gave me an intro lesson and I just I wasn't ready for it yet. I just I wasn't in the mindset. I was a younger kid, I just wasn't. I saw him fighting in the UFC so I was just like, oh, I wanna do that stuff. That's when I met, around the same time, Slim. That's when I met Joe, Okay. So it was like around that time and he was telling me he was gonna start getting ready for he wanted to fight in this and that. But it's funny, like when I walked in in May, he was behind the desk, Matt, and I walked in and I was like, hey, what's going on, guys?
Speaker 1:He was like hey what's up, man, I'm Matt. I said, yeah, I know who you are. I was like, yeah, I know who you are. And he's like, what's your name? And I told him I said, man, I just wanna see if this is something that I could give a try and see. And that was it. I ordered my ghee. I said, once my ghee comes in from origin, chow's the origin. I said, once I get this ghee to come in, I said that's it. I'm literally going that day to sign up for the year, at least doing I'm at least committing to a year. And that was it. I was running like five days a week, Nice, yeah, Little injuries here and there, especially in the beginning, and then that's it, man.
Speaker 2:That's how I felt when I first started doing it. You just see what, ricky, when I was younger he wasn't ready for it. Yeah, like I remember, when I first started I was like, fuck, I wish I like picked this up when I was younger, like I wish I really got into it, found the groove when I was younger. But then we said you just weren't ready for it, yeah, I just don't.
Speaker 1:I don't think that my path was at that point yet and I, you know all signs pointed to bodybuilding. Okay. And then once again goes back into the status of kind of how we started this episode, which was, if you didn't do the wrestling and you didn't translate, you know we wouldn't be sitting here talking. It'd be the same thing if I didn't get into the bodybuilding world and do my shows and then buy a camera and start doing content and do the podcast based off of that and then segue out of bodybuilding but still obviously doing the show and shooting for a reign and all these other brands. I wouldn't be sitting here doing this. So it's crazy how all of your experiences through life bring you to these points of you know two people just flying through the galaxy intersecting at a given time point. It's cool.
Speaker 2:I mean, you talked about the chip on my shoulder. Right, I had the chip on my shoulder because I didn't accomplish like really much of anything in wrestling. Like when I was in high school, I kind of just went through wrestling and I didn't really start like, even though I got into it, like I didn't really start putting in the level of effort that's required to be successful amongst right. Cause I tell this to my, to the kids I coach all the time wrestlers work harder than anybody else, Like the guys that wrestle during the season and take it seriously, like just your average boys to the wrestler. Like they work harder than anybody else. No doubt in my mind about that, but so does every other wrestler, right? So, other than now, like the un-athletic kids or the kids that aren't from like good schools, they can beat those guys up. Like, if you want to beat up, like just for example, if you're like, if you're going to separate yourself from the rest of the pack, you need to do what no one else is willing to do. Right, and that's how I got told about the competition in the wrestling room, how we push each other and make each other better.
Speaker 2:That happens throughout Nassau County, throughout Long Island, throughout New York state. Right, we're doing sprints in the room over at Mass Piqua. They're doing sprints in the room over at Wontaw. We're doing sprints in the room over at division. They're doing sprints in the room over at Plain Edge. Right, it's just everybody's work trying to outwork everybody else and that's elevates the community as a whole and that's what's so great about it. But me personally, I didn't really understand the level of commitment and the level of work ethic required to be at the level of the goals that I wanted to achieve until I was, like a senior in high school, with a month to go before wrestling season was over, and at that time I had no intention of wrestling college. I was gonna go to St John's and go to law school.
Speaker 1:That's what I that's and that was gonna be my other question If you weren't fighting in the MMA type scenarios now and trying to push for a career in that, what would you be doing?
Speaker 2:Well, can we like jump back to that in like a second? Yeah, yeah, what I want to say and kind of to double back around because I want to, because I do have, I like that question. I have a good answer for it. But I want to make sure I get back to my original point here before I answer.
Speaker 1:Drive the point home, baby, drive it home.
Speaker 2:I got that chip on my shoulder because I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve in wrestling, and that's what made me want to wrestle in college. Right. When I finally put that effort in for like three or four weeks as a senior in high school and saw the difference and how far I had come, that that's when I really got hooked. That's what made me change my decision of where I want to go to college, go to post, wrestle there. That's what drove me through college wrestling. That's where that chip came from, where, like all those other kids I wrestled in high school that thought they were that like you know, that used to like kind of mess with me, that acted like they were better than me, that kind of like put me down.
Speaker 2:I just always wanted to like be all county and prove them wrong, and I never did that. So I was like all right, I'm gonna wrestle in college, I'm gonna be like I want to be like. I want to be an American, I want to be a national qualifier, I'll prove them wrong. I want to be the guy that never qualified for states but qualified for the NCAA tournament. I didn't do that. I'm fighting in a cage.
Speaker 1:That's okay, but how hard is that to accomplish?
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I have a really good relationship with the guy who was my JD wrestling coach. Shout out to Coach Salman man, that dude, in terms of like. When I talked about that level up and that I made in those few weeks, it's because that guy got a hold of me. I made sure that I didn't graduate high school without leaving everything I had. From that, from that point, like in January, to the season ended, he made sure that I didn't walk away without giving it everything I had from that point forward. But you can't get the time back but he made sure that from that point forward, I gave it everything I had.
Speaker 2:I would always speak with him throughout my college wrestling career, spoke with him before and after my fights, came to my second fight actually maybe very happy to see him there and I actually sat down with him when I went to give him his ticket, sat down with him before the second fight. He told me so many wrestlers think about doing what you've done. You've done it, you're doing it. That was really cool to hear. Yeah, it's definitely you're wrestling skills. There are a bunch of wrestlers that could be where I'm at right now in terms of winning one or two fights. But I know that nobody's training the way I'm training and living the lifestyle I'm living. So that's where I get my, that's where I start to pop my chest out a little bit. I take pride in that.
Speaker 1:Well, listen here, when it comes down to it, in a fighting sport, in a combat sport, people want to take you off the pedestal. They got to come get it. So I want to talk about I said if somebody wants to take you off the pedestal in a fighting sport, they got to come get it. So if they see you doing your thing day in and day out or they have something to say about it, come get it. I'm doing my thing, man. I'm working at every opportunity I have and there's every opportunity in their book to work towards what you're doing. So we could always meet in the cage. You could always do it. If you think that I'm not working hard, if you think that I'm doing something that I shouldn't be, that's okay. We could have it all settled up and sign up for the next tournament. But you know, most of the people that talk like that, they won't. Okay, that's what I'm saying. I hear you. You mopping what I'm dropping A little bit. Yeah, you picking up what I'm putting down.
Speaker 2:Mopping what you're dropping.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when were you in high school? Was that like a week ago? How old are you? I forget. How old are you again? How old am I? Yeah, I'm 23. Oh, yeah, you baby. Yeah, you're 23 years old. Mopping what I'm doing, I got almost 10 years on, you, bro. That's why you got to go easy when we roll together. You got to go easy on your elders, don't hurt me, okay.
Speaker 2:I'm old and fragile. I really did not know that you were 32, right 32. I had no idea you were 32. I thought we were like the same age. Thank you.
Speaker 1:You see how he makes me blush like this on a podcast. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:Please don't ever do that again.
Speaker 1:Well, I can't grapple, so you're not going to get me on the map, so leave me alone.
Speaker 2:No, no, I'm serious, I built you like 26. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know I got, my grandmother is 93. Okay, and she's still. I mean, yeah, it's old, but she still looks like she's in her, like 70s, it's crazy. So I'm attributing my fountain of youth gene to my grandmother. Okay, shout out grandma, shout out grandma, shout out mama Rizzles and shout out your pops, who I fucking love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love you Talk about a great guy.
Speaker 1:I love your dad man. He's awesome. I know what he was. Your dad no clue. Yeah, he had no clue.
Speaker 2:A lot of people have said that.
Speaker 1:No clue. I was rolling with him in the beginner class. We're like hanging. Every time I see him Like hey, you feeling big guy like hugging him, he's great. And then I saw him. He followed me on Instagram and I saw it. I was like what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean dude, good soul man, just a good soul, being a 50 year old white belt dude, that's I. I really admire him.
Speaker 1:Tough as nails man.
Speaker 2:He's a tough dude, I'm so happy he started training, really admire him for doing it. I'm going to call him out publicly right now. I was hoping that when he started training that we're going to quit smoking cigarettes, so maybe he will.
Speaker 1:He still hasn't quit. He's been Every time I see him. Now I'm going to be like hey, come on, man, come on.
Speaker 2:Well, I just put him down a little bit, so let me build him back up. Um, seriously, though, like being a 50 year old white belt man, that is like that takes. That takes guts. You know, I couldn't imagine walking into the gym like I'm 50 years old, never having my grasshoulders doing anything, and seeing this and being like, yeah, let me get my ass hanged to me and then like, come back the next day and do it.
Speaker 1:You motivated, you've inspired him, man, what's up? I'm sure you've played some parole in that You've inspired him. Yeah, yeah, I don't want to Take it. Take that, that's awesome man. You know, I've had, I've had people tell me that I've inspired them in certain ways to do you know, certain habits or kick things and this, and that Dr Scott, over with Nick and everybody, he told me he stopped drinking. I mean, I haven't drank since March of last year. So it's like I've had a lot of people contact me saying, just because you started, you gave up alcohol actually and motivated me and inspired me to do it. So so you know, you got to take those flowers, you got to take that, that merit and and and be like yo, I'm happy that I can. And still, some, you know, inspiration and others.
Speaker 2:He, he says he's told me before that, he's told me before that, um, and when he washes this because I know that as soon as this comes out it's going to be playing over, like he's going to airplay this on the TV like for six hours over and over again.
Speaker 2:So, so I already know that this is going to be playing in my living room, but, um, he said this to me before. He said that it's. It's not an exact quote, but he said that it's a really insane thing when your son is your hero, like he's called me his hero. That's awesome, and that is awesome, like he's, he's mine, you know. Yeah, um, like my dad is my dad's super dad. Um, my parents split up, you know, and I'm not here. I don't want to weigh in too much about the details of that, but we're short. Like my dad raised. You know, my dad raised three kids by himself.
Speaker 1:I mean, I, I have no siblings. My mom raised me by herself. My mom's that was too. So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, and he was still working at first um, when they, when they first, you know, split up. So it was tough on him. My grandparents helped out a lot, but just I'm not going to act like I come from an impoverished background. I'm not going to act like um, I have like a ghetto gangster. I told them I'm a mess people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it wasn't all, it wasn't all sunshine that it wasn't all. Sunshine and flowers every single day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean streets of West mass people.
Speaker 1:No, nobody mess with him, I'm not even looking at him wrong.
Speaker 2:Seriously, though, um, like my dad always made sure that we never went without. Like that was his, like always his priority. He was always the reason I bought up that whole impoverished background thing. It's like I'm not. It's not like we were in a situation where he didn't eat so we could eat, but like that essence, that philosophy, was always there for him, like we've done anything for you, we've done anything for his kids.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yeah, like, and he bought, like, not just like. You know, that's how he felt, like that's the way he acted, that's always the way he did.
Speaker 1:But that also rubs off on you, because that's how you've become the man that you are today, for real.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All your experiences, all the experiences seeing your dad do his thing, the, the respect that you guys have for one another, you know the, the, the um, the hero, you're my hero, I'm your hero, like going back and forth. That's admirable, that's awesome and that has sculpted you into this man that sits before me. That's what it is, man. So, with that, and if things weren't that way and things were, it wouldn't might not be the same way. You're the way that you've developed and your personality might not be what it is today. So you know he's, he's helped shape you into that person and that's amazing.
Speaker 2:That's always um. Just, I mean sounds corny to say I love my dad, it does not.
Speaker 1:It does not sound corny. And anybody that, anybody that thinks that that sounds corny, needs to reevaluate their, their relationship with themselves and their parents. I mean, I love my mom. My mom would have done and still to this day does, anything I I can, I can potentially ever need. Anytime I need help with the dog, anytime I have life advice, anytime I need, she's there. My mom is one of my best friends, if not the best friend. I love my mom and she was on the podcast, so it's just good vibes man.
Speaker 2:Sorry go ahead.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, that's it. I was going to say she was on the podcast. I mean I just I want to show my mom that because she's such an amazing, strong woman and without her I wouldn't be the way I am.
Speaker 2:It's very easy to take that for granted too. So easy to take that for granted Like sometimes I hear, like sometimes I just talk to people, um, some friends too, and like um, I got a friend who described the situation where she just like she was just so worried about her future and like she still lived with her parents, but like her parents helping her out, this wasn't something that she ever considered. Like you know, um, again, I don't really know how to continue talking about this without getting into details. My whole point is that you don't have to you don't have to.
Speaker 1:You're good, we do. There's. There's no details that we need. We all the the only detail that we need is that pops is the shit we love. We love dad, I love my mom, and that's all that matters. I actually want to ask you, so let's transition real quick. I want to ask you, um if you have any advice for any other athletes that may have um hearing impairments or any disabilities that are looking to get into combat sports. Is there any advice that you can give them? Anything like that?
Speaker 2:Actually, I got a kid over at the, we got a kid over at the vision. He's a little bit hard hearing too. So we got, we got Ricky, we got Kaden, we got me, we got the trio there, man. So I posted a picture on Instagram with the three of us and I'll go like this it was awesome, but you know, I break. It's so funny because I break his balls the way that I used to get my balls broken, but, like now, it actually comes from a place of like.
Speaker 1:You're toughening that iron skin man but he's but I'm sure he's happy that you know you've been in. You guys can relate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know, and my brother, my brother is hard of hearing too.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:My sister too. Yeah, yeah, so like. So it's genetically, yeah, so my mom originally had hearing issues right and, uh, my brother, my sister and I were all blown with it, gotcha. Okay, I got to bring that up earlier on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, I had no idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but um, so my brother said this all the time um that when he, like when he, when he studies right, my brother was a wrestler too, by the way my brother when he studies, take this hearing aids out, he's locked in. Oh, it's probably awesome. Like no distraction. Oh man, like when I'm you might have witnessed this but like on the mats, like if someone is calling me over from the other side of the mats, like I don't get their attention. They start.
Speaker 1:They start banging on the mat and like get me to turn around you know, um, but yeah, like dude, I lock in, I lock in.
Speaker 2:You know it was difficult at first because, like, when a practice is going on, you don't have your hearing aids in, Um, you miss some things or it's hard to follow along. Sometimes you don't make the mid-match adjustments. Did I freak him out when I banged on the door.
Speaker 1:It's okay. It's okay, kenj, I'm sorry. He's good.
Speaker 2:Um, you know like it's hard to make those mid-match adjustments. Yeah, as a coach, there have been times when I yell out something, the kid does it right away and it works Like it's not a major thing. But when you're like, when you're like 14, just started wrestling, you don't really know doing one small thing changes everything. You know that was something I missed out on a little bit, um, but as but then I kind of learned to rely on myself a little bit more, but I was able to lock in and I'm making this by myself a little bit, but the whole no, but that's what I'm asking.
Speaker 1:I'm asking what, what can you, what light can you shed on?
Speaker 2:I would give is never be afraid to speak up and say when you're going to hear something, man, as to repeat it a million times Doesn't matter. But just because you have a hard time hearing doesn't mean that, um, you're in convenient like, so all right, maybe you are inconvenienced in somebody by having them repeat it. I don't give a shit. You have as much of a right to hear it and learn the information as everybody else. You know. So speak up. When you don't hear something, make the extra effort. Right, If you're, if you're, if you're being a little shithead and you know, pay attention in practice. And then you don't hear something and you use that as an excuse. Different story, but if, but you know coach is going to have no problem repeating himself or showing something again when he knows that you're working and you're trying to make that extra effort, you know so, and if he does have a problem with that, get a new coach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, but like, seriously, um, speaking from from both sides of it, right? Uh, as a coach, I love when kids just aren't vested, you know, and when I can, when I can sense that a kid cares and wants it and he puts effort into it, then everything changes for me, because now I know that I'm putting into something that's going to be received, as opposed to just. You kind of have to filter your information a little bit when you're talking generally, because you have to make sure that you're not losing people. You know you have to keep it short and sweet and simple. Sometimes when you have a kid that you know is going to lock in on the details, you can ramble all you want because he's going to pick those details up. Yeah, To get back to the piece of advice I would get is that, um, speak up.
Speaker 2:You know, whenever you need something, go that extra mile. But, like, also, we live in reality, right, people aren't going to cater to you. We still live in the real world. You got to take responsibility for yourself. You need to make that extra effort. Make no mistake, you have a disability right, not the special, like everybody's special, special, differently abled bullshit. You have a disability right, this is reality. You need to make up for it, you need to put that extra effort in get after it. And then the other thing is I would say is the piece of advice I got from my brother, where you can use that to really lock in and get in the zone. Right, there's no distractions Like, specifically, if we're talking about hearing, tune everything else out, put your head down, just fucking go forward, keep trucking. Yeah, I fucked it up.
Speaker 1:I had some notes about Main Street. What is he saying?
Speaker 2:I'm going to try and knock it on. I'm second trucking.
Speaker 1:I trucking?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I fucked the song's called Wraithful Dead trucking. I haven't heard it.
Speaker 1:Are you serious? It's dead serious. We're going to play it after we're done, wraithful Dead. No, I don't listen to the Wraithful Dead. Yeah, but like it's like the one song, everybody knows, I probably heard it then.
Speaker 2:I went to sing it and I fucked it up. Now that's what we were laughing about.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, I was just laughing because you were singing. I was going to say stick to MMA.
Speaker 2:All right, what you literally said just keep trucking on. That's the line I was just saying just keep trucking on. That's just the thing.
Speaker 1:It's over, it's over. Oh, my God, I had, you know, a bunch of notes that we honestly covered everything. We did have a couple of your topics the art of self-belief, which we did start with. You did talk about that a little bit. Sorry, I didn't hear you. Some of the stuff that you wanted to talk about was the art of self-belief. Yeah, yeah, we talked about that. We talked about that in the beginning. The Long Island Wrestling Dads you didn't bring that up. What is?
Speaker 2:that it could be a reality show.
Speaker 1:I was about to ask, like you said it long, you sent me these topics and I said and Long Island Wrestling Dads? I went oh, what does that mean you?
Speaker 2:see that you know the reality show Dance Moms.
Speaker 1:No, okay, it was basically just like it's like the little girls that do the pageants, like the crazy moms, yeah, yeah yeah, this is the dad's version of that. It's just crazy sport, parents.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, but like I feel that it's really prevalent in wrestling, a lot of people try to live vicariously through their kids. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Are they a lot of ex-wrestlers that are that their kids are wrestling now? Yeah?
Speaker 2:I think so. I think so. Um, but I see kids like yelling, Like I see kids. I see parents that come to practices and yell at their kids like starting to practice, Like that doesn't happen anymore, Like at the club I coached out because we don't want all our parents in the room anymore, which is thank God.
Speaker 1:It's different if you're bigging your kid up and you're just like, yeah, let's get it, come on, let's keep going.
Speaker 2:But I'm sure they're yelling like psychos Uh, yeah, but it's just like it's okay, I can only describe my own experience, but you know my dad, my dad, my dad never wrestled. My dad only gave me positive reinforcement when it came to wrestling, but all I could say is I was so hard on myself. I really hated myself when I wasn't, when things weren't working out for me, and the last thing that I needed was my dad fucking like putting me down.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When I was like really hating myself. You know, um, maybe it would have like pushed me, but I don't think that that would have bred like good feelings and, uh, like a good relationship with the sport you know.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, once again words of encouragement and cheering on for somebody or giving you know positive vibes If it didn't go, the hey, it's okay. Buddy, you know you got him. Next time this and that, versus the psychotic yelling of come on, get off your back, like that type of shit is probably not helping anybody when they're in the in the heat of battle.
Speaker 2:You know, it was just like. There are parents that like yell over the coach and over the match and it's just like. Let me give you an example. So yesterday I was at a high school wrestling tournament, coaching a high school wrestling tournament, and the other kids were watching when, like, cause it's a tournament, Now nobody rest up at the same time, like you know, you get called up or whatever.
Speaker 2:But the other kids were there when one of the teammates were wrestling and since I was the only coach there for a few hours, right, you know, there's usually two chairs in the corner, so I sit down. One of the kids would sit next to me and I was. And then I always tell them like, shut up. You know, like before the match started, like because, especially like when you have like a beginner in a resource, like I said before, you tell them one thing and they hear it and do something right away that could completely change the match, you know. So it's very important that, like, they can hear me and listen to me. At least I think of this.
Speaker 1:But I would hope so. That's why you're a coach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, but anyways, like yesterday, the kids, like I was trying to tell I was trying to tell one of these kids was wrestling something, then the other kids started yelling up and I was like I just like trying to shut up. Like you know, I have no problem with you cheering them on, Like right now I'm trying to communicate something and you're blocking me out. Likewise, you know, um, and it's just like, regardless of what the parents are saying, like, especially with the club setting right, I coach for Savage Wrestling Academy. That's the club I work for. The guy who runs that, Justin Acordino. He's a division one, all American. He's like a three time Pennsylvania state champ, One of the best wrestling coaches I know. But you pay good money for your kid to come here to this club and then yell and yell, Go to a tournament and you yell over him. It makes no sense, no sense.
Speaker 1:You know I don't have kids. Obviously I have a dog. Mr Kenji, I can't imagine the stress of like your kid competing in a high stakes moment like that.
Speaker 2:Of course I got it.
Speaker 1:But you have to have that real, that realization that the coach is the coach for a reason. Yeah, like I shoot videos for a living and do podcasts, like that's what I do, he does the coaching. Let him deal with all of that because they know better than I do, right? But you know, there's a lot of people that just get in the heat of the moment and they get crazy and then they're fighting with other parents and it's like relax, dude, it's chill out.
Speaker 2:Especially if, like the dad, was a wrestler, it's hard for them to let the coach do their job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's a masculinity, it's an ego and a masculinity thing. Yeah, like you're not dude, let's just be clear. You're not being undermined. You're not less of a man because another dude is telling your kid that he has to do XYZ during a wrestling match. That's why they're there.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, you know, it's just. I just personally think that you know, if you're a father, you should be, even if you're a coach, and even if you're a wrestler or a coach, you should be the father first. Yep, that's my opinion. Um, at Savage, like, I work with the high school guys a little bit. I'll go to tournaments for the high school guys, but mostly my responsibilities are with the little guys, with the elementary group, the parents there. They're great, they're great, um, they. I communicate these things.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you now, right, that it's about positive reinforcements from that Make. Going to a tournament should be a fun experience for them. That you know they should be encouraging them and all that they, that the wins and losses don't matter for them right now. It's about them learning and getting better and all that. They're very receptive to that. They're great people. You know they trust me with their kids. I appreciate that Motion of a comment to my fight. I appreciate that, um, you know. So it's a great experience Like this isn't like everybody that I'm talking about, but the thing of the thing of it is the reason why it's reality show worthy is that because the ones that do get nuts really get nuts, and when it's just like every, it's like kind of becomes the elephant of the moment. Everybody looks around like who's going to tell them?
Speaker 1:Well, it's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable because and you know, if you're, if you're the one that has to talk to this person and bring them off of the cloud nine, uh high that they're off of yelling and screaming like a lunatic you know there's a chance that they're going to get nasty with you. So you have to like just yo it just easy, man, it's going to be okay. Yeah, where everything's going to work out.
Speaker 2:Just bring it down a little bit, Especially when they're younger just really want to drive that point home, especially when they're younger man, to make it a fun experience. Right, it doesn't matter what the results are at this random like because uh, yes, it's a wrestling tournament, but, like, at the end of the day, all that's happening is that we're gathering in a gym, we're putting mats down and we're letting these kids wrestle each other. Okay, If your kid makes it, if your kid's part of the 1% of high school wrestlers that go from high school wrestling to division one college wrestling because part of the 1% that does that is eight year old tournament record isn't following him now, I promise.
Speaker 1:Imagine, imagine if it did. Imagine if it did. Oh well, we can't accept you because you had that loss when you were seven. It's like what? Yeah, seriously.
Speaker 2:Like it's. You know you have to get them there, Right? You want them to win a state championship. You got to get them to like wrestling enough that they want to go when they're eight and they're nine, and they're 10, and they're 11 and they're 12. They have to make sure they don't fucking hate it by the time they're 14. And then the results actually start mattering. At that point, yeah.
Speaker 1:And resenting is is a fairly easy process If it's a nothing but a headache. Nervousness for them, stress, just because the parents are just emanating what they're feeling, right.
Speaker 2:Oh look, okay, your kid's not going to want to eat broccoli, so you have to make him eat broccoli. I like broccoli. You get one off sign Okay.
Speaker 2:That's just because your kid doesn't mean your kid always has to be happy and smiling or whatever he wants, right? Sometimes you have to force them into the wrestling room. Right, if you believe that this is a good pair of two, because I'm going to force them into the wrestling room, so you tell them no, you can't go, you can't play Fortnite right now. You have to go to wrestling practice, right? I'm not saying that you, baby, I'm going to do whatever they want, but you should make the wrestling a positive experience for them, so that they learn to fall in love with it. Yeah, so that they find goals in their own right. Not you put goals onto them. You know what I mean? Yeah, makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mr Bates, oven, which how?
Speaker 2:did you get?
Speaker 1:the. I mean I can understand why you got the nickname, but who gave you that nickname? So there's double credit for that one, okay.
Speaker 2:Anthony Palacino and Eric Prush get the credit for that one. Okay, they get the credit for that. Yeah. And the symphonies every time, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, it's just playing. You're playing on it now. I like it. Like like we first started talking about you got to have.
Speaker 2:You got to have a good sense of humor with the hearing man, because it's a definition of low hanging fruit, the jokes. So it's our company. You know, faith home, because Beethoven went deaf like right around in life from from always clanging on the piano keys and then I just kind of like ran with it, I like it yeah.
Speaker 1:The, the, the profile picture makes me chuckle, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's literally just like an AI image of like Beethoven with cauliflower. It might be photoshopped, but I don't care what it is.
Speaker 1:It makes me laugh every day.
Speaker 2:You got the shirt right. You got the shirt. I don't have the shirt no. What? I don't have the shirt. No, you don't have the shirt. I don't have the shirt. No, you don't have the shirt. I don't have a shirt. I I. I've got you a shirt.
Speaker 1:Okay, I will, I will proudly wear the shirt. Okay, uh, that, that is on the shirt. Yeah, I know, I know, nick has one Big Nick has one.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's the big Nick. Oh yeah, yeah, Dude, dude, dude keeps me healthy Like dude. I'll text that dude anytime he's like what's wrong, Like what do you need? You know, dude's awesome.
Speaker 1:I texted. I texted Scott. No, I texted him and Scott, right after I fucked my ankle up and I was like, uh, can we just take a look at this? Like are you sure it's not like bad, bad? And they're like, yeah, of course. And they, I went through and they're just like, yeah, you're good man, it's like a grade one, grade two sprain. I was like, okay, cool, yeah.
Speaker 2:I definitely wouldn't. Like I when I was also in college. I would get so run down and what I had thought was like what Nick and Scott do is what I always thought PT was. Before I went into a PT place for the first time Brutal and then, through high school and college, wrestling like, oh, this was PTSD. I met, I met Nick and Scott and I would not be training at the volume I'm training at, performing at the level I'm performing at, if I did not have their help. So, yeah, big shout out to those guys. Yeah, they help. They help keep everybody.
Speaker 1:LI stretch. They help everybody. It's. It's a great place. I see your dad was getting treated next to me one day. It's all good, so we got to fight in six days. Man, do you have anything else you want to end on and talk about? Where can people follow you? Number one, you know. Just give give some insight on. You know to follow the journey, bro.
Speaker 2:Um, like I said, you know, I got that chip on my shoulder a little bit. I'm a. I try to radiate good vibes, like I. I generally am a happy and positive person, but I just really have that drive inside of me that just wants to be better, just wants to be the man you know. I let that push me. If you have that and you, you know, don't be afraid to let it push you. If there's that little thing that subconsciously eats inside of you, turn that into fuel, man, let that fuel your discipline, let that let that wake you up and let that push you. Um, I'm just like I'm on this path also because of that. I'm also on this path because of why I'm aware that I'm, I'm aware of how fortunate I am, um, whether my dad, that pops, has my back, no matter what.
Speaker 2:Um he actually texted me the other night. He said no, I always got your back. No, you're too pun intended, but he's always got my back. I was there for me. Um, drop of a hat, anything I need, let's go. You know, he makes this possible for me, and so does Matt Sarah, uh, shout out to big Matt. Oh, yeah, like I was when you asked me what I would be doing if I wasn't fighting right. So actually, yeah, we can jump back on that for a second, that's okay. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:So I, I wanted to go to law school. Like that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to go to high school and I still wanted to like my first like year of Seoul college. And then, by the time I got to my second year of college, I was just like, yeah, I did not want to like do that at all. Um, it should be very raw, raw political, not anymore. I mean, I still like have my own personal feelings, but like it's just not what I put my energy into. But anyways, um, I was, I had, I had like a, I had a pretty good job.
Speaker 2:Like I was, uh, I was working, uh, municipal job, uh, you know blue collar, neon shirts, that kind of deal. I liked it. I liked being active. I like shooting the shit with the guys. Uh, if I chose to go like, if I chose to like buy into it, like you know, that would have been like good benefits package and retirement and stuff Wasn't great money, but like a steady job, always have work, even during COVID, like, just like, just like to use that as an example like those guys like only like didn't work for like three weeks and like they were still going to pay the whole time and they went right back to work.
Speaker 2:You know, like that's just like a job that's always there. No, it's stable, like definition of a stable job. Um worked for my boss there, so he had a business that he ran on the side. Um worked for him too. Uh, one of my first sponsors. Uh, guys always did the right thing by me. So JT trailer trash shout out to you guys. Love you guys, um. But, like you know, I don't miss digging into a rat shit and vested apartment and you know, throwing stuff in the back of the truck. Like don't miss that at all.
Speaker 2:But that's what I was doing, um, while I was trying to figure out like what I was going to do next when I finished wrestling in college right when I graduated college, I actually had a fifth year because of the COVID year right, we didn't use eligibility during that year, so I could have wrestled in the fifth year. I could have stayed in school. I thought about going for a teaching degree, but I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to do and I wanted to keep. I wanted to do that fifth year of wrestling. But like I didn't know what I was going to do and it just seemed like a really stupid idea to make the financial expense of a master's degree when I didn't know for sure what, didn't really know what I wanted to do. When I knew that I was only going for that master's degree just because I wanted to keep wrestling right, it just didn't seem like a smart thing to do. So then I got to get to. I'm working, trying to figure out what the next route is Like maybe I will get that education degree. And then I was like you know what I'm going to do a fight, like you know. That would just sound like something I wanted to do. And then, as I get into it, like my dream job and always just been like, like I said, if I got you know two grand a week, a hundred grand a year just to live off that, like I would do exactly what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 2:And then it didn't happen instantaneously. Once I took the leap, I was able to start moving towards doing what I'm doing right now. So I left my job at the town and I was still working for Trailers, rational and doing some jobs on the side for cash. And I was right here. I was bouncing on the weekends I was bouncing at the Huntington Village Tavern and the Ivy. Okay, yeah, I mean nothing. I got nothing bad to say about those places, but I just hated bouncing. Yeah, I don't blame, you, hated me until four o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1:Did you know my buddy? Did you know my buddy, russell Zeus, russell Zeus, say again, my buddy, russell Russell. He used to bounce at the Ivy Big guy, maybe Beard he got stabbed in the face I heard about that.
Speaker 2:I didn't know. Yeah, that was him. Yeah, he alive. Yeah, he's alive. Okay, he all right. Yeah, he's good, okay that sucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's bouncing. That's why it's not. You know it's a tough gig.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was right. So actually let me jump back at the hair. I was working for the town doing that job. I was coaching. I started coaching at Savage, savage Russell Academy and then I was training for the fight, right, and then I realized I couldn't do all three, couldn't train the way I needed to train, coach and work that 73 job. So I left the job doing some side work, bouncing, coaching. That's how I made it happen. After a while, map, and I was like sleeping in the. I was sleeping in the gym from like after I bounced here, cause right here on hunting 10, I was training in Saturday morning anyways. So I was sleeping in the gym on Friday nights. Like I asked Matt about he said okay, and then after a while he's like oh, how much are you making bouncing? You know, I told him I'm gonna say he's like, he's like we don't need to do that anymore. So now he's got me running the kids' class. He's got me. You know, he's paying me for the wrestling class.
Speaker 1:Noon the midday.
Speaker 2:I teach on Tuesdays now, uh, I do private lessons for his, for his three daughters, angelina, maria, sophia. They're there. They really are unbelievable Young girls like. The dedication and focus and attendance that they have at 10, 12 and 14, respectively, is unbelievable. Like 17 year old high school wrestlers don't put in the effort and attention that they do. It's incredible and so.
Speaker 2:But, like, between that, what Matt pays me, I do. You know, I took out more responsibility at Savage. Um, I do a lot of private lessons now because you know, as you grow relationships with people that you coach with, you know their parents will want to take their commitment to the next level. I'm happy to be involved in that. So I do a lot of private lessons now. But the point where I've had to turn five lessons away because, like, with the fight coming up, I just don't have um as much time right now. So my question we got to revisit this after the fight but I went from not knowing how I was going to make that transition to now having to like figure out how to make enough time to do it. It's, it's the best problem in the world to have. Yeah, uh, so I forgot what question I was answering.
Speaker 1:What would you be doing if it wasn't for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I don't know, like I struggled with that for a while I think it was when I was wrestling in college. That gave me purpose, right Cause I was a college wrestler, like that. That was that was enough to get me through the day, uh, and then so I struggled for a while with that, couldn't really figure out what I wanted to do. And then, when I was, the lifestyle of training and being a fighter which is what I loved, obviously, but it gave me the, it gave me purpose to go, yeah, and that was the first time I started to cause what wrestling, I was so worried it was going to end. Now I don't have that feeling like I'm able to just kind of put my energy into moving forward without worried about what's going to happen next. Does that answer the question? Yeah, that is the question. All right, I don't know more over the placement.
Speaker 1:No, no, I told good bro. Um, how can people follow you if they want to follow the journey? How can people follow you?
Speaker 2:So, uh, beethoven, beethoven underscore loop the underscore grappler. That's my name, beethoven the grappler, and my name is Beethoven, you know, because, uh, like I said, I, uh, I performed symphonies. They started out as just get through symphonies, but now they're you know they're, they're violent symphonies. Now we get in the cage and it's awesome. But yeah, um, I I'm pretty active on Instagram Beethoven underscore the underscore grappler. Um, yeah, I don't really do like the Twitter or threads or TikTok or anything else. I just just sent it to where I'm going. That's okay, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Dude six days. Yeah, you're going to knock them dead. Man, You're going to kill it out there. I can't wait to see you do it.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited it's going to be a good fight man, so so words cannot describe how excited I am right now, and that's how you should be when you're doing things that you love.
Speaker 1:I said that's how it should be when you're doing things that you love. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm like some fights uh got taken off the card, right. You know cause guys drop out all the time.
Speaker 1:Get up on that. You better get up on that mic. You're getting relaxed, sorry.
Speaker 2:Sorry, uh, some guys dropped out, so like the card hasn't stayed intact. But I was supposed to be the third to last fight on the night. No, I might be the second or I might be the last Friday night. Now I'm going to be fighting late, so it's going to be late, so it means we get out of there. I'm going to go to many, so we're going to get some pizza. Man, nice, oh yeah, I've been. You know, I don't cut a lot of weight for one. I don't really cut weight that I'd ultimate 170. Like I walk around, I'm probably sitting in front of you at 178 right now, you know. So it's not difficult for me, but like out of choice, you know, I've decided just like, like, I'm not eating pizza during this. Yeah, you want to be healthy? Yeah, yeah, but I need so much pizza.
Speaker 1:I enjoy that. Yeah, where is it? Where's the fight? Is it at the space? The space in Westbury? Cool, so it's at the space in Westbury. So we got the fight six days. Yup, y'all got my man's, we've got legal assault and battery.
Speaker 2:And then we've got pizza. Oh it's it, We've got beer.
Speaker 1:Yes, then you got assault. Then you got assault of the gut. There you go, right. There it's salt the stomach.
Speaker 2:I might not be able to digest cheese after Saturday night, oh it's over?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's over.
Speaker 2:It's going to be great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's over for you, I'm like everyone know. Do not let him in. He is going to crack that porcelain. Do not let him come in there, yo, tommy. I appreciate you, dude.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you sitting down hanging out with me and Kenji, I believe this episode 86 of Rizology. I got to sit down with my man from my brother in Jiu Jitsu who very kindly I didn't get to bring this up yet very kindly always lets me just like work when I'm working with him. He just he could snap my shit in two seconds but he like I know that he just is very, being very nice. So I appreciate that. Like I said, I'm not a shaner, I'm not shaner. I appreciate that. I really do. But, as usual, if you guys got something amazing from this, which I know you did share like subscribe to the channel. I'm definitely going to have Tommy back on in the future. We'll all sit down. Maybe we'll get like a little panel Me, nick, we'll get a bunch of people to sit down and hang out. But definitely share like subscribe. I appreciate every single one of you guys for hanging out and fucking with us and, on that note, peace.