As your host, alongside my guest Alex Vargas, I take you on a journey through the mental chess and physical grind of martial arts, sharing tales from my return to Jiu-jitsu to the finer points of boxing's knockdowns and scoring. We navigate the landscape of adulthood, laughing at the absurdity of our evolving definition of 'grown-up', and recount tales of cultural clashes that test our mettle in unexpected ways.
Bringing a raw perspective to the show, our special guest—a prominent figure in law enforcement & the boxing world—dives into the gritty reality of weight cutting for a fight, juxtaposing the professional fighter's discipline with the daily demands of protecting and serving the community. We contrast the controlled chaos of the ring with the real-world implications of reckless behavior and legal frustrations, calling for personal responsibility amidst community concerns. Our conversations span lighthearted banter over sports injuries to the more sobering discussions of handling pain and the emotional scars left behind.
As we wrap up this session packed with anecdotes and reflections, Alex and I extend our heartfelt appreciation to you, our listeners. We've weathered the storm of topics from space skepticism to the intricacies of testosterone and health protocols, and we've done it with humor, candor, and a few well-placed jabs. No plans for bare-knuckle boxing here, just the promise of more enlightening conversations in episodes to come. Stay tuned, share the love, and remember—every punch we throw teaches us a little more about the fight of life.
https://www.instagram.com/alexvargas631/
As your host, alongside my guest Alex Vargas, I take you on a journey through the mental chess and physical grind of martial arts, sharing tales from my return to Jiu-jitsu to the finer points of boxing's knockdowns and scoring. We navigate the landscape of adulthood, laughing at the absurdity of our evolving definition of 'grown-up', and recount tales of cultural clashes that test our mettle in unexpected ways.
Bringing a raw perspective to the show, our special guest—a prominent figure in law enforcement & the boxing world—dives into the gritty reality of weight cutting for a fight, juxtaposing the professional fighter's discipline with the daily demands of protecting and serving the community. We contrast the controlled chaos of the ring with the real-world implications of reckless behavior and legal frustrations, calling for personal responsibility amidst community concerns. Our conversations span lighthearted banter over sports injuries to the more sobering discussions of handling pain and the emotional scars left behind.
As we wrap up this session packed with anecdotes and reflections, Alex and I extend our heartfelt appreciation to you, our listeners. We've weathered the storm of topics from space skepticism to the intricacies of testosterone and health protocols, and we've done it with humor, candor, and a few well-placed jabs. No plans for bare-knuckle boxing here, just the promise of more enlightening conversations in episodes to come. Stay tuned, share the love, and remember—every punch we throw teaches us a little more about the fight of life.
https://www.instagram.com/alexvargas631/
even going last night. I mean, it's brutal sometimes. Uh, you, the dudes will just come up to you and you just know they're just spazzing out and I know I was like that. That's the tough part. The tough part is I understand that I was at that point when I first started, like when I really first started my first week, I was erratic with my movements. In my mind I was being, you know, more agility based, but I probably look like a fucking weasel running around like in circles. But you start to like see that and you just go yeah, my ankles and my ligaments don't want to be around that jacked up, yeah, yeah, and I'd rather be around the upper belts. The upper belts, they kick your ass.
Speaker 1:I mean I rolled with the dude, manny, who is the instructor for the monday class african samurai. That's my man, he's the shit, it's the shit. Shout out to manny bro, and uh, he's just a monster. And we worked with, I mean he, I gave him a challenge for a couple of moves to like not let him just eat so easily past things. I know he let me work, he's a fucking black belt, let's be honest, I guess, yeah, I didn't think I was gonna beat him. But you know, and, and we we're respectful, and when he goes into a submission it's smooth and it's clean and you just okay, tap, we're done. But you get other dudes that are trying to rip arm bars, man, and they don't know the difference.
Speaker 1:So I've been injured for a while and now I started rolling again in the white belt class. So a couple of these kids haven't rolled with me before. I've been doing competition class, I've been doing all these other things. I'm not a master of jujitsu, but probably better off than a one strike, two strike white belt at that point. So, uh, I roll with this kid. He's like, hey, do you want to roll? I said, sure man, this kid, um, frank, he's awesome, and we start going back and forth and he tries to, and he's heavier than me, he's probably like 220, 230, and he tries to use his weight to bring me into him, into his guard. Because we started on our knees, yeah, and I literally just like grabbed him and I just rode him over to like him pulling himself back and I just rode him in and I just knee sliced and I was right on his side and you just hear him just go, oh man here we go, it started and bro I went.
Speaker 1:I went for an arm bar. He wasn't giving it to me and I just did what you're supposed to do, where, if you have both the arms right here, you almost take the hand. So his head's here and you're sitting on your side, on his, uh, side. You almost take this hand going through the arm, go behind your head like you're the fonz, like you're checking the hair, and then you just peel the knuckles off and now the arm is all yours. Man, it's so crazy how it works. You literally just you're threading through and fighting it and then all of a sudden, the last one. You just go, whoop, bam, and then you peel the knuckles away from his grip. And you did defenseless, you can't. So he instantly started tapping. I said yo, I know we haven't rolled together, bro, any submission, I go super slow. Yeah, I am not gonna be the one to snap someone's arm, not doing it, and I'm sure with sparring and stuff like that, yeah, like sparring.
Speaker 2:like now where I'm at, like you got these amateurs that jump in the ring or even pros that just turned pro and they're trying to take my head off, like just try and make a statement and whatever. Go around and tell people like, oh, I was in there with Vargas and I took it to him. And tell people like, oh, I was in there with vargas and I took it to him and I'm not going all out. But there and like I said, like you said, I used to do the same thing when I was young. I'm like I'm going in with this pro and I'm an amateur, like I'm gonna, I want to make my point and they're just teeing off on, yeah, like swinging as hard as they can, going so hard, and I'm like I'll just relax, like there's no, there's no need for it, like really, it's sparring. It's sparring Like we do go hard in sparring, but when I'm in there with these guys that are amateurs, I'm not going to try and take your head off, but they're trying to take my head off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's you know the going for the crown type shit. Like if I can prove myself in this scenario, then why can't I get a title shot? Why can't I get? I can attain the belt and do things. It's a weird type of dynamic, especially in the boxing world.
Speaker 1:I'm sure Jiu-jitsu stuff like that there's rankings, sort of with the ADCC and the IBJJF. They have who the really guys that come through every tournament and they just obliterate everybody and then they'll do team matches and whatnot. So there's ranking systems to then go to the bigger tournaments and then win it and become, you know, like a gordon ryan or something like that. But you guys it, you know, I watch it. With golf too, you have those rankings and they're constantly moving. So it's like maybe not as um, maybe it's not, maybe it's maybe not as volatile as golf, because the competition's weekly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, obviously you have fight camps and then you have a fight months and months apart from each other, and then the rankings start to dip in and exchange. But when you start looking at just like, oh, who's number one, okay, how do I get there? Oh, I gotta fight this guy, I gotta go to this guy, I gotta, I gotta keep making these leapfrog type jumps to get up to that spot, yeah, you know. And then while he's doing that, uh targets on his back the entire time that he's sitting at the at the top of the mountain. Yeah, so you are at the, even though. What position are you in now?
Speaker 2:ranked 14 in the world 14th in the world.
Speaker 1:So at 14th in the world, every person underneath you and that's even people that aren't ranked, you're there, number one, yeah, and you the targets on your back. So if they get the opportunity to go, oh shit, I get to like train with vargas a little bit. You know, I think the the normal male ego and psyche is like I have to make a point that I deserve to be up here too. Yeah, and it's not necessarily that they want to undermine you at your stage of the game and what you're doing, but they just they see this as a little slice of an opportunity. If there's a social clip of me giving him a hard time in the ring, maybe maybe some people will see yeah, it's who sees it.
Speaker 2:Exactly that's the thing. And I I get it like you don't know. I've gone sparring and I've sparred, you know, when I first turned pro some of these top guys in the world and world champions, and you'll know who's there. You know their manager could be there, that promoter could be there and they see you. And now they're like, hey, I like him, let me, you know, sign him or turn him pro, whatever the case is. And so I get it. You never know they come to spar me, you don't know who's there. Like a few times they've come and there's some people there and there's some um websites there, or you know like newsday, whatever, and they're like I'm gonna, I'm gonna go at them to get my name out there. I completely get it, you know. You know I just now I'm going in there with with like an amateur. I'm like, all right, I'm going to work with him, whatever the case is. And I get in there. I get cracked with like a right hand. I'm like, oh, here we go. I'm like he's coming, and that's every time.
Speaker 1:And that's tough in your position too, because you don't want rolls with me. Yeah, if I get, if I get him in a good move, he's got to be able to hold himself in check for a hot second. I know, I know everyone's gonna be like oh nick, you're not getting any black belt in a good move. I mean maybe, let's just say, the planets aligned and for some reason he was tired after doing 900 rounds before me and now, for some reason, nick was able to just slip a move in and get something real quick, not a tap, not a, but put him in a weird position for a hot second. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, same, it's the same thing. You have to, they have to have that reservation and that. That, that wherewithal, to just kind of go step back and go. Oh, okay, like, all right, maybe I'll give you a shot now, and that.
Speaker 2:Is it what you want? Like chill, that's what it is. I'll like smile, you know I won't take it personal, but I'll land my shot. After that they should be like I am here, Like I'm going to land my shots if you want to go hard, Like, but I'm not going to go out there and knock you out, and then I look like an idiot.
Speaker 1:Like, oh, August, knocked out just like rolled off your chin All of a sudden you just started going crazy on him. Like no man, he put some shit behind it, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's like it's a tough position, yeah. And then it's tough to spar the guys in the top 15. Weird. It's like do I go hard against this guy now too, because you take it to him, he's not gonna fight you in the pros. And that's happened to me before. When I first turned pro, I'd spar some guys and take it to him, and when the opportunity came to fight them, I was like, no, you know, and I've sparred guys too before where I'm like, you know, in the pros, that would be a tough match.
Speaker 1:So it's a it's a weird game yeah, it's, it's definitely a weird game, it is. And uh, I know you were going back and you were trying to get uh, the fight with um, what's his name?
Speaker 2:oh, garcia garcia, well, yeah because he he wasn't getting any fights. He was ranked number four at the time I was 14 in the same division. So I'm like like why not? You know he might take it. And now he pulls off this insane win over the weekend.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this Was it actually a good fight? Now, I did not see it, I didn't watch it at all. But you start looking at the comments of people and I find it interesting that there are so many people like a split decision, of people just saying like it was a shit fight. It was a great fight, it was. This is what you guys call good fights. This is why mma's grow and you get such a a split down the middle of like, was it good or wasn't it good? I didn't even watch clips. Actually, that's a lie. I did see one where he knocked him down, yeah, uh, and he was like circling around to the left side of the ring afterwards wherever the camera was placed. I don't know if that was like the defining moment where he was winning or that was the first knockdown. I don't know what it was, but like you, from your experience of viewing that fight, you viewed it as a great fight.
Speaker 2:I thought it was a good fight, okay, and I wasn't going to watch it. I'm like I'm not watching this. He's gonna watch it. I'm like I'm not watching this he's. I don't know what's going on with Garcia.
Speaker 2:I was like I don't want to watch it and I was like I had a weird feeling. I'm like man, he's gonna throw that left hook and he might catch Haney and it might change the whole fight and that start watching it. First round, that left hook lands and that's like the one thing he has. But he's so good at it when that left hand hurt him, I'm like, whoa, this might be a weird fight. So then, yeah, it was a good fight. I mean, he was losing most rounds, haney was winning them, but you could tell Haney was a little weary of his power and then Garcia would drop him again. Now the whole fight turned around and he'd drop him again. So no, it was a good fight, it was entertaining. I think people in the fight game there's really no, it's never like that was a good fight. It's always like, oh, it was this, it was that everyone bitches about everything.
Speaker 1:Someone's always gonna everyone bitches about everything, though, yeah, that's in everything. That's in everything the new forerunner dropped and everybody's been waiting for it. They're like fuck this, this is what they took this long to do. But then other people are going. Oh my god, it's the movie roadhouse again, I thought it was.
Speaker 2:I liked it, I liked it, I thought it was supposed to be corny and cheesy and let. Connor mcgregor was great. I thought he was awesome. That's the thing people like he's a terrible actor. I'm like. I'm like he just played better than that role he's better than some a-listers man, I tell you what he played the role like it was corny, and I remember seeing comments like oh, when they hit the piano, they're like oh, that's not on tune that's on purpose that's. It's supposed to be like that.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what man my man, jill and hall, got shredded for that movie ripped. I felt I was like I kept looking at his abs. I'm like yo, my man is diced.
Speaker 1:He's fucking veined up and diced me and my boy were like damn, yeah, like that's like when, that's like every time, every time hugh jackman does a wolverine movie and he's just straight to the bone Like yo. How much gear are they going to put this dude on? Every time? They bring him back, they put him in retirement, they bring him back out and they're like, all right, dust him off, all right, shoot him up with some shit and get him back out there.
Speaker 2:Him and.
Speaker 1:McGregor just jacked in the movie. Yeah, mcgregor definitely put on size and that fight with uh chandler is going to be interesting yeah, that's gonna be an interesting fight.
Speaker 1:Mcgregor comes back yeah, well, I mean, listen from from the fight perspective, especially in in your shoes. You didn't want to take a lot of time off originally. Yeah, you find it gets. You know, I'm sure you find you get rusty, and you get rusty, you lose your edge, so that that is actually a thing that always amazes me about guys in the upper tier. It's like I know you have that target on your back, but at the same time don't you want to stay? You know fighting to stay at that point? Yeah, you know. But I guess guys are just worried about the legacy factor. Now, how long can I retain this belt and how long can I retain this title? Yeah, versus like the dude who's coming up and just wants to get as many fights as he can, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think you need a break sometimes. I think mcregor is at the top for so long and fighting, you know, fight after fight and tough fights. I think it was just a lot for him, like he blew up in fame and then it's just a lot to be training and training and training. So I think he got that motivation now Again, like taking that time off. He's like motivated. He's definitely going to train hard stuff like that. But in the ring aspect is going to be different for him, like when he first, first gets hit by that small glove or or gets grabbed and it's like you forgot what it's like, kind of.
Speaker 2:So it's like a shock at first yeah but I think he's gonna be motivated, because you get that motivation once you're away. You're like I'm ready to go I fucking hope so.
Speaker 1:He's one of the most entertaining dudes to watch, like. Whether you like him or you don't, you have to agree Entertainment value. He is at the top. I mean just the shit talking, the showmanship Dude him, the Mayweather stuff, the banter that they were doing back and forth was, I mean, it was top notch. Let's say all of it was staged, all of it was fake. I don't even care whatever. Whatever you want to say, it was the case. But when you start listening to some of this shit that they were going, back and forth on each other.
Speaker 2:I was like yo man, that is that's entertaining shit. Yeah, it's natural. What they have is natural. You can't just think of stuff off the top of your head like that and say it. You know, just like that, yeah, just be so witty with it.
Speaker 1:A fucking school bag. You can't even read and you're just sitting there like, oh my God, like the 50 Cent stuff that he was ripping into Mayweather years and years ago. It's crazy, dude Him against.
Speaker 2:Aldo, like he's finding Brazilian words to say yeah, I'm like, this guy is nuts.
Speaker 1:He's like I'm going to murder you in Brazilian. Yeah, In Portuguese, yeah In Portuguese.
Speaker 2:I was like what's he saying? He's just Googling how to say stuff in Brazilian. He's like this is my country. He was like Chael Sonnen too. Yeah, he was amazing at it.
Speaker 1:Chael Sonnen was great every time. I think that that was in Roadhouse. I think that was a callback to Chael with what's his name, where they were on the Ultimate Fighter. What is that guy's name? Oh my God, was it Rampage? No, no, it's going to drive me crazy. Now it's going to drive me crazy. It was the one where he said I can't let you get close. Oh yeah, the dude who looks like Easter Island. He's got that fucking mongoloid head from all the beatings he's gotten over the years. I love that baby.
Speaker 2:It blew up there in COVID.
Speaker 1:Yes, I can't let you get close.
Speaker 2:It sounds like he's joking when he says it he sounds like an action figure. I can't let you get close.
Speaker 1:What is his fucking name? Vanderlei Silva. I can't believe, I couldn't even think of that name. Yeah, dude that?
Speaker 2:What am I going to do with you? You're going to see.
Speaker 1:You're going to see? Did you tell me You're going to see? You're going to see what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2:But I feel like You're going to shake the hands. But no, yeah, do I. Good morning, I don't want to be your friend. I'm going to hurt you. I don't like you. He and the dude do not let you.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what, yo he stumped that, he did he got that man.
Speaker 2:He's so calm too, so I'm like dude, stop, stop. I can't let you get close.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, and I want you to, I actually have a question for you in terms of, like, the boxing stuff. So let's think back to your first time in the ring. Were you calm? My first time? You, ever, ever, ever, as an amateur it's no, not even for a fight, it's time to spar. Oh, were you calm? Or was it like a very surreal experience where it was a lot of it was a lot emotionally for you?
Speaker 1:Because for me, my first couple times grappling was a very like whoa, whoa, like you're trying to figure shit out and you're just like you don't really know a lot and you, you're trying to block punches, you're trying to slip things and start hitting and you don't have that technique, you don't have that stamina yet. And then now last night, my boy beethoven, who's been on the podcast, I guess, he saw me, uh, rolling with a couple of kids. Yeah, I, I don't know what it is, but lately I'll be all animated, like I usually am. I'll be all I mean yo, what's up, baby, you know, adapt, somebody I'm about to roll with and I go all right, let's get it.
Speaker 1:And I get into this like weird, straight face, calm, like, and I'm just sitting there and I'm feeling like where are they trying to sweep me? Where are they? My brain kind of just shuts off and I just feel what's going on? And afterward, and every time, like I passed everybody's guard, every single time and I walked over to him and he goes are you having fun? Like is everything okay, and I go oh yeah, I'm having a great time. He goes because you're just you look. So I go oh yeah, it's like my poker face when I'm, when I'm rolling now yeah so I got at this point a year in now.
Speaker 1:I'm not really like that, how I was when I first started, which is how it's supposed to be. But what was your first experience?
Speaker 2:like, yeah, first experience, I mean I used it. I used to spar with my dad in the basement, so I had the sparring aspect. But when I went to the gym for the first time, I think I was eight and I got in the ring to spar.
Speaker 1:I was stressed about Pokemon cards. My man was out there sparring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got into the ring and I was like I was freaking out Because now people are watching you, you're self-conscious about your form and how you look and getting hit by someone else. I didn't know who it was and he was like maybe 13, I was eight, it's a big difference at that age, you know, and getting hit and stuff, yeah it was.
Speaker 2:It was like that for a while, though I mean, I didn't feel comfortable, like with what I could do until I was like 12 in boxing. So it was a few years of just freaking out every time I got into sparring. Yeah, getting those, getting those, uh, jitters those pregame jitters I mean, that's how I got better.
Speaker 2:I was getting beat up. Throw me in there with older guys that's what I do eat me up, beat me up, beat me up and then, as I got older once I was older, turned around. So that's how you get better. But yeah, it was definitely. Uh, I was a nervous wreck. Yeah, I mean for a while, even all my fights, my amateur fights nervous wreck. What would be going through your head? Everything, everything. But I felt nauseous. It's like oh, am I gonna get knocked out? Am I gonna get hurt, embarrassed and it still goes through my head, but it's not like it's not like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's prevalent.
Speaker 2:It's just natural. It's natural, you just don't know, in combat sports.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it never went away. It's just controlling it and having confidence in what you can do now. So yeah, but I remember those days freaking out, shaking in the car, driving to Brooklyn to go spar. It's a long drive to be freaking out. Oh God, yeah, and you do bad.
Speaker 1:And then you go home 45 minutes hour.
Speaker 2:You're just like fuck man, Awkward ride home. Yeah, my dad's just like. You did this wrong, you did that wrong.
Speaker 1:I'm like I know, I know, I know, I you got to run more.
Speaker 2:You got tired. I'm like I know it's probably my nerves yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh man, yeah, that's. And so I've done filming for people where I've gone to events and they didn't do as well as they anticipated, and that's bodybuilding. That was football. A couple of times that I did some football stuff for corrections, and, man, that is a tough ride home, man, when you were so on cloud nine, excited, leading up to it, getting ready, ah, we got all the training done. Yeah, now is the time to display everything, and then just the performance just for some reason is lackluster. For whatever reason it is even if you win.
Speaker 2:It's like that. You still think like that because, especially in the fight game, you could be on point all training camp, like sparring, you're looking perfect and then fighting. You have an off night and then my like my last fight. I didn't not fight anywhere near the way I should have fought, and that still bothers me to this day. I hate watching it, I can't watch it, I free. I'm like what was I doing here, what was I doing there? I did not feel good at all in the ring and I knew it.
Speaker 1:You could just feel it I'll tell you what man you got knocked down in that first. It was that first round. Yeah, first round, first round. You got knocked down real quick and I just went oh yeah, oh place went quiet.
Speaker 2:I was like, yeah, I'm down two rounds now. Is that what it was? Yeah, because you get dropped. It's like losing two rounds damn I didn't know, I knew.
Speaker 1:Explain that scoring, yeah.
Speaker 2:So usually in boxing, if you get knocked down so it's's a 10-point scoring system you win a round. You know boxing it's 10-9. So if you win, you get to 10, your opponent gets a 9. And it adds up like that to whatever it is.
Speaker 1:So, even if they didn't do well, they still get a 9?.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay, 95% of the time, Unless they really got beat up. But even then it's rare Like give him a fucking three.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that display. Yeah, yeah, give him a three.
Speaker 2:That would be great. You'd be up like six rounds, yeah. So if you get dropped it's usually a 10-8 round. So that's like losing two rounds, gotcha. So when I came back to the corner I was messed up because I'm like I'm down two rounds already and then when I knew I won the next two, I'm like, oh great, I just tied it up, I should be up. You know whatever four rounds to nothing.
Speaker 1:So that was a rough moment and what happened, Because I felt good he just caught you with the wrong. So like just a quick one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because he had long arms and I knew it Like freak long arms, like a 72-inch reach, which for my I have 68. And for my I have 68 and for my weight class it's average. It's a big difference. Yeah, he had, he had the reach of like a middleweight so and he was my height, but you could just see his arms were like past his knees. I'm like all right Jesus.
Speaker 1:What am I fighting?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, mr Fantastic Is that you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's hitting you from the corner.
Speaker 2:So I knew he had the long reach and he kept setting up that right hand. He was throwing it to the body every time and he was landing it because his arms are so long. So I'm like trying to figure out the range and it's only his first round so it takes me a little bit to figure it out. He goes like he's throwing that right hand to the body and just comes up with it, and I was stepping back and then he came up. Yeah, he just went like he was leaning down and just came up with the punch and he caught me. I wasn't hurt, I was off balance, you know.
Speaker 1:But a knockdown. Almost caught myself, but a knockdown's, a knockdown, knockdown's a knockdown.
Speaker 2:I was looking like at the ref, like maybe he's going to call a slip, and he started counting. I'm like, oh, that's brutal. I mean you were there, yeah, crowd the place. The place goes silent, yeah.
Speaker 2:and then he's looking at my crowd, you know doing all these antics because he was a freaking wacko interesting guy interesting, interesting, staring at me in the back in the locker rooms doing all these trying to get in my head and stuff, and I knew that was coming. And then he did that. I was like, oh man, and that changed my, my fighting style because at first I felt good. I was like like, all right, I'm moving on, I'm landing my shots, I'll get going once I figure him out. Then he dropped me and it threw me off because now I was cautious about getting dropped again. Now that's technically four rounds in his favor. Now you're in the hole.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how did you get back from that A knockout.
Speaker 2:I would have to knock him out, yeah. So I was just very cautious that whole fight, like I could have pushed more. I could have pressed that I could probably hurt him more. But I was like let me just. I'm sorry to the crowd if it wasn't as entertaining, but I'm like I gotta do what I gotta do to, I'm sure, everybody in the crowd will admit that having you win is the more important outcome of anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they don't care if it's a slower-paced match or whatever, or anything like that. Having this, which you said earlier in that week that you were going to obtain, that is the end-all, be-all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was the goal, that was what I had to do and that's what I had to do to win. I've done it before where I'm like let me give an entertaining fight and I just go out there and brawl. I'm walking out with lumps on my face and, hey, whatever, that's what I do is fight. But with this fight it was just too risky and being in that position to, you know, win this belt and get that ranking, I wasn't going to go out there and blow it because, you know, I wanted to entertain the fans and stuff like that. I would love to that. I wanted to entertain the fans and stuff like that, I would love to. That's my goal. You're a fighter, you want to entertain. I think it was a good fight, but I just played it smart. I'd land my shot and move land my shot and move.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, it's your fight, it's not the audience's fight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's my fight.
Speaker 1:You have to fight it the way that you experiencing it live switched it like 180 from what I was gonna do.
Speaker 2:Uh, like I had him going backwards that first round and I was gonna pick it up and keep pushing him back because he likes coming forward. So I knew he didn't like going backwards, his footwork isn't, isn't, wasn't the best. And then once that happened, he got the confidence started coming forward. So I'm like now got to do the opposite and let me move. And that's a good thing my dad and my trainers have always instilled on me is be able to adapt. Some fighters just fight one way, and my dad's like you got to be able to go to plan B, plan C, plan D if you have to. And that's what we did. Once he dropped me, I came back to like all right, you're going to have to be smart now. Just pick your shots and move. Pick your shots and move Instead of pressing the action like I wanted to, because I think I could have stopped him in the later rounds if I pressed it, but there was no need for it.
Speaker 1:And what did you feel like were some of the advantages that you had during it, though? During the actual fight, Were you hitting him harder than he was hitting you? Were you getting? Were you getting in between certain areas?
Speaker 2:it was more, uh, my footwork and my speed. I knew I had on him. He was slower, um, he would come in wild sometimes. So just I, my movement, that fight, just going back and forth, back and forth, from side to side, like he couldn't keep up with that, like he started missing every right hand. After that he wasn't really landing and I was landing, just clear points, but my, I wasn't sitting on him to really hurt him. It was more like let me make it clear that I'm hitting them with, you know, two to three shots and then move and get out the way. Two, three shots, move and get out the way, and that's that's, that's what. It was, just the footwork and my cardio. But, like I said, I didn't feel on point for that fight. I think the job just working a full-time job and then going to fight, I felt it like my lower back just from wearing the gun belt which weighs what?
Speaker 1:30 pounds batman utility belt.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, yeah, batman, yeah so that's funny.
Speaker 1:Conversations from before.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I felt it Mentally. I'm usually very strong focused. I was a little bit off in that fight, just because it's just work. It's just a lot. I get stuck at work and then have to go train at 11 pm and then go to bed and then wake up to go back to work. It was just brutal. I think it was too much, um, handling both. Yeah, I was a little bit off. It was more finding a way to win yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:It's tough, man, I actually. I actually wanted to ask you about the weight cutting. I want to shut that because I hear I keep hearing the blinds opening. Yeah, it's so fucking annoying. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about the weight cutting because I got you, when you're all bushy eyed and happy, yeah, what was the? What was the rest of that weight cutting? Like for that? Because, man, I saw you step on that scale and I was like, oh, that's a different alex, bad, bad I'll uh you can stay, don't move you want me to keep talking?
Speaker 2:keep talking, man. Um, you know how we do. Yeah, uh, the weight cut. Yeah, it was brutal. It was probably my toughest one in my entire career. I'm getting older now, so the weight doesn't come off as easy and I remember it was just I haven't made 140 in about three years and that's the way that I had to come in at. If I didn't make the weight, I'd get fined and I wouldn't be able to win the belt. So I was freaking out like I haven't made 140 in in three years, if I don't make the weight, I'm getting fined. You know from my fight check, and then I can't win the belt. So everything would go out the window pretty much. I'd be fighting for nothing, you know, no belt, nothing. But he could win the belt. So I was freaking out. Um, when we did the podcast, it was early on in the week it was the Monday, I think Monday weay we did it on a monday, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I wasn't at that point yet, I was already down in weight. But once I hit, like wednesday, brutal. I mean, that's when you start cutting the water, take out the carbs, the sodium and I could, I couldn't talk, like I really could not speak. I could barely stand up. You know, working out in the full sauna suit and then jumping in a hot bath. 10 minutes jumping out, wrapping yourself up in plastic, just laying there, jumping back in the bath, and then I hit like one. I was at 144,. I remember I laid on my couch and I just wrapped up and I kept sweating Like just nonstop, and it was so uncomfortable I'm like I'm not moving. My couch was soaked. I'm like I'm not moving. My couch was soaked. I'm like I'm not moving because the weight's going to come off. It's going to come off. I lost like two pounds laying there. Then I knew I saw two pounds to go. I'd go to the bathroom. There's nothing in me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's nothing, any trickle of like Urine coming out. There's 0.2 and I'd step on scale be like 0.2 ounces and um, once I finally made the weight, it was just. I was just in such a bad mood, I mean because it's a lot like you know, you're on weight, now you get to wayne's and this whole process.
Speaker 1:You have to see a doctor yeah, doctor, you got this fucking guy eyeballing you, yeah, and you see the questions the doctors ask.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like I can't do that when I'm normal, like I'm fine, like this, this is not easy. Now I'm cutting weight now, oh you, okay, I'm like, yeah, I'm great I'm doing as great as I'm gonna be doing yeah I need to get on scale because I'm trying not to pass out.
Speaker 2:I pass out. Now the fight's canceled, so thankfully I made the weight came under it, um, but the rehydration was tough too. Yeah, yeah, I struggled. Usually you have to ease into it to get that weight back up because your body hasn't eaten, it's not used to it and I actually I can say now because the fight's over, but I I drank, like my pedialyte too fast. I ate too fast. I ended up throwing up, yeah, and I felt horrible. I did, I messed up, I did it too fast. And because you're probably up, yeah, and I felt horrible, I did it, I messed up, I did it too fast Because you were probably so famished, so thirsty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, You're just like oh my God, I got to get something in me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have to ease your body into it, to get used to it, and I drank and ate too fast and I just threw it right up and it was tough all around, from the weight cut to work to in the rain getting dropped. In the first round it was a rough one, so for the next one I would need to just take off for work. At this level I can't do both. There's no way.
Speaker 1:And how long you'd have to take off for a whole camp type of situation.
Speaker 2:I'd take at least a month and a half off.
Speaker 1:Would that be using all the vacation time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the job says they'll work with me now. Oh, that's cool. Which is nice. They um.
Speaker 1:I mean truth listen. I don't mean to interject, but truthfully, you, you, you bring a lot of value to the, the job. I mean, you know you're, you're a good dude, you're, you're an officer of the community You're fighting in, you're almost like a role model to look at as somebody that's of good stature, so they want to push that more so than you know. A cop that can't stop having drunk driving.
Speaker 2:I was like dog, stop Just stop, stop doing it. Yeah, they said they work with me, which is nice and it feels good. You know I could represent the job with it. You know I could walk out with like the eight point cap, stuff like that and uh, you know, because they don't allow that, so it'd be nice to walk out the eight point cap has the pba on it and represent the job. And they said they'd give me off.
Speaker 1:I don't know how something we'd figure out when the time comes but if they transition you into the health and wellness department something admin behind the desk, whatever the heck it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, that would help because, like I said, there's no way I could hang with these guys with a full chunk. That's all they do. That's their full-time job yeah training, you know, three times a day, and I used to do that and I felt great. Now you know I'm arresting some piece of shit that's cursing at me.
Speaker 1:You're getting text. You're getting text from me. Yo, if this motherfucker outside my house doesn't shut up, I'm going outside with kenji.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm like I'm stuck with this dirt bag right now, but after, after I head over bro, that dude, those kids were so loud that night I texted you. Oh my god, they were so bad. I was like, bro, it's bad, like it's normally. I'm just like, I close my window, I say something. I say something like Yo, bro, go anywhere else besides here, just go anywhere else. You're right in front of my home, just go somewhere else.
Speaker 2:The good thing is by the end of June. That's going to be my steady car, like that area, so I'll be right there, just hang out with me.
Speaker 1:Sit on the porch with me. They've got a fight they have there. It'll be slight work. I'll make food for us. We'll hang out.
Speaker 2:We got a good group down here, like my midnight squad, so you're set.
Speaker 1:Does AJ work up here with you too?
Speaker 2:No, he's over by the mall.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's his car. I love AJ.
Speaker 2:Yeah, every now and then he pulls up and he's just like yo throw kenji in the backs, in the in the back yeah I'm like, and every time kenji's just like I'm not going in there yeah, he's uh, yeah, he's uh like the mall car okay during the days, but yeah, this is gonna be for me it's tough, man, it's tough.
Speaker 1:This is tough for me. I'll tell you what, man. There are some fucking interesting people that I walk around. I walk around with him and I'm like man, if I didn't have him as the buffer, I'd be in some weird circumstances and positions with people. People just act very strange and I don't know if it's just people that are just weird.
Speaker 2:And now they feel like they're just weird outside now, but it's crazy. And then working nights. Now, everyone that calls it is a creature. I'm like they just all come out at night. Oh yeah, they could be a simple call. Yeah, I'm like they just all come out at night.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It could be a simple call and I'm like whacked out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they lurch around, bro and I was walking Kenji last weekend, this past one.
Speaker 2:Wasn't this past one it was.
Speaker 1:I was walking him this past weekend and see, that's the problem with having two phones I never know which one's making noise. That's the, that's been the. That's been the bad part about my little experiment one cons the one thing, and then, when I want to tell you, when I wanted to text you, once I had the other phone on this phone was off so I had to turn this phone on I was like, oh yeah, damn it. So I'm still still balancing it out, but anyway. So I was walking kenji. It was like I woke up 4 45 in the morning. It it was Saturday morning, woke up wide awake.
Speaker 2:Alright, let's go for a walk.
Speaker 1:Bring him. I usually walk all the way up to prime with him. I slow walk, he gets exercise, he feels good and then, dude, I'm done, I feed him and he's knocked for a couple hours. Great, go sit in the corner. You just get these weird vibes and people, and just these fucking people are just like. They just yell shit and they say things. You just look at them. You go really man, like yeah, dude, just go home, it's 4, 45 in the morning. Obviously your night is ending, my day is just beginning.
Speaker 2:So surprised you haven't seen people sleeping like just on the road. I mean we've had numerous calls after we did the shed twice so I haven't.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen at the shed. So one time I walked around I can't really say it because it'll get me flagged on YouTube, but I was walking in front of the Paramount. I swear dude, and I'm trying to think of a word that I can use instead of the word that this guy used. I'm walking, kenji, and I have my headphones on. I'm truthfully, I was like scrolling. I was getting a song on whatever podcast, whatever I was doing, didn't even see the dude.
Speaker 1:He was sitting on the corner on the, uh, the, the edge of the street, okay, so kenji's on my left and I'm like walking and the noise canceling. Headphones are on, yeah, and I just. But I hear like, like noise, is that? So I look around, I look at the dog. He's not doing anything, he's looking back and I look and the dude is looking at us saying things, while he's like half slumped on the on the curb. So I go, oh, I was like my bad bro. I was like I didn't know you were talking to me. So I take my headphone off, I go. I said I said what. I said, you talking to you saying something about me, that's not. And he's like oh, yeah, the thing that's not. I go me or the dog, and he goes you, you fucking, and he just starts going off and I go, okay, I was like, hey, buddy, have a good one, man, let me, let me, let me tell you man, it's just like, have a good one, and I just kept. Of course is like, oh, we're doing this.
Speaker 1:I'm like, just keep going, I don't need you biting his ass and dealing with rabies now because this guy definitely has them. So I don't know, man. It's the same thought process of, like, people that get blacked out, blacked out, drunk. I think I've only been blacked out maybe once, and the only blackout portion was when I was at the bar and I got on the bus back to school because they used to take us to New Haven from Quinnipiac, from Hamden, connecticut, and I got back on the bus from school. Don't remember that entire bus ride, but I remember getting off the bus and standing there going how did I get here? How the fuck did I get back here? I was like, okay, cool, at least I took the right bus and take the bus to Saskatchewan.
Speaker 1:So so I, um, I just I don't understand that mentality and the and and one of the biggest issues I had with potentially even dating or seeing girls back in college especially, I was so into my bodybuilding phase that I was all I was just getting into, like the health and why you shouldn't drink all the time and why I was just starting to get the tip of the iceberg. I mean really the tip of the iceberg. And these girls. Their mission every weekend was to get blacked out. Their mission was to get blacked out and I used to go to them. I go, you know that blacking out is actually your brain shutting down, right, you understand that, right that you don't want that to happen. But I mean, listen, cool, do do whatever you want to do yeah, I don't get that if you want to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't get that. If you want to go out and drink whatever, but to have the goal of I'm blacking out. Why, why, why. What is fun about that, Dude? I couldn't-. Whenever it's happened to me, I wake up. I'm like-.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're genuinely concerned.
Speaker 2:I'm like depressed. I'm like what did I do? Yeah, yeah, it's not fun. I'm like. I'm not like, oh yeah, next week I'm doing that again.
Speaker 1:Yeah oh shit, we're gonna do it again next week. It's like, uh, no man, I don't want to remember what I did. Yeah, again, yeah. And you know just the, the people that can't handle themselves when they drink because they're everywhere. They're everywhere. I mean, I, that parking lot that's across from my house, I I thought you were gonna pull up for the call it next morning. This super nice dude who's my neighbor, across the street his girl's car got a huge footprint on the side of the quarter panel. The dude whoever was there just literally kicked the side of the car. But from what I understand now, I asked my neighbor upstairs. She saw him doing it. Him and his girl were fighting, and he just started kicking every car in the parking lot and he kicked the mailbox over too. What possesses someone to do that?
Speaker 2:Dog go home. That's how it is now. Like you said, people just getting drunk trying to start fights. I mean, I live on Main Street in Babylon now I've walked back from the bar alone plenty of times or whatever. Whatever I'm doing, walk off the train walking home and cars driving by like you're a fucking bitch, like yelling out the window and I'm like all right, thanks.
Speaker 1:Like yeah, cool you have no clue. I could knock your ass out. You have no idea that if you come out here and square up, it's over for you.
Speaker 2:That's why I'm like hey you want to say something, you want to drive by, that's fine by me, don't get out the car yeah so things like that, like just working in the village, now we'll drive, you know, around at whatever 4 am and every garbage can is just not going to the side like everyone's just, and they're heavy, they're like big, they're not like plastic, the big garbage cans, they're like flipping them over, like what I? I just don't understand doing these things just randomly, throwing stuff at cars, whatever the case, is just weird, the go I have a good time.
Speaker 1:The glass everywhere bothers me because, kenji, yeah, they just stand there, just, oh, yeah. So I think I said I think I had said that something to you. I saw kids do that one time at my corner but there were six of them. Yeah, I was like, yeah, I could probably take three. Maybe I'm like maybe if I'm feeling really, good, you took six.
Speaker 2:that would be a great video. That would be a great If you arrested me.
Speaker 1:it would have been good Figure it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:I didn't see anything.
Speaker 2:I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Those kids fell off the curb and hit their faces but I was like maybe I could get three If I really was like going crazy. I was like maybe Because they weren't like big dudes, they were younger kids Probably don't know a thing about fighting, but you know that kids like that you go outside and you go yo bro, don't do that shit, because my dog walks past. There they're with their boys. They're like oh fuck yeah, isn't that.
Speaker 1:Now you're just like ah okay, just go inside, nick, just shut up, just go inside. Your night. Your night, your night ends right here with your jam jams in your bed. Just fuck these kids. But yeah, man, the glass, the breaking bottles, I just I never did that and then mostly anybody I hung out with didn't do that either. I had had some wild friends. They didn't just like, oh fuck it, and just break bottles and dude, it's like a war zone after a Friday, saturday night out there. You, just you, look, you're like who's who's defending their home with broken shards of glass out front. What is this? I?
Speaker 2:know it's a new mine. Like what is this? I'm not saying I was a for human being.
Speaker 1:You know I went to college things like that, went out, drank, but doing stuff like that was never in my mind destructive. It's just why this is the place that we well, even if you don't live here. It's the place that we call home, this long island, the area, whatnot, I don't know to me. I would think that you'd want everything to just remain nice. Dude, it's bad enough. The place looks like shit as it is. There's new york, everything. Yeah, the place looks like shit as it is and, truth be told, you know, I I don't feel like it's ever gonna look like a dubai, because nobody takes it seriously. That's a problem?
Speaker 1:yeah, you know they. They don't punish people for doing shit. What do you? What do you give somebody if they, if they break glass or they litter what a slap on the wrist and a fine, yeah, a court date maybe. Yeah, they don't pay it. Yeah, great, you know. But here I am getting fucking murdered over a traffic light camera ticket because I can't figure out which providence of long island I'm in and I don't. Well, I, I go right on red when I fully stop in huntington, so I should be able to do it down here.
Speaker 2:Click, nope, oh great yeah, I think I just got one over here. That was a day in my eyes okay, we're gonna transition into this now.
Speaker 1:$45 ticket Fine, how much is it? $45 ticket Okay, fine. $55 public safety, because I'm endangering the public by my right on red. So $55 ticket added onto that, and then there was another 45. So the ticket itself is like $45, but it winds up being $150, up being 150, 160. So you sit there and you just go. Why, why? I don't understand. Why do I have? I wish I had the fucking ticket with me. It's at my house. I'm not paying it until the day before. I'm not gonna. It's due like may 20th or something like that. I'm not paying until like the day before. It's insane. I got a ticket. I got a ticket in um lynyrdhurst for the parking meters, but it wasn't for the parking meter, it was for a uh, expired registration. And then I went to the court for it. It was on valentine's day, ironically, yeah, and and the owner of og evan, he was there too, and I go. We have court together on valentine's day.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, you're so cute, we're just like hanging out and he and you know I thought they were going to dismiss it because I had my registration. Yeah, everything was fine. I just didn't have their good one in the window. I didn't even realize. I didn't put my sticker in. And so they go, yeah, I mean we scanned it and you were good the entire time and I go okay, they go yeah, but we still have to give you the ticket because it wasn't displayed for like three months, four months, whatever it was. I'm just like okay, how much is the ticket? 120. Okay, let me pay to get out of here, because if I stay here any longer I'm going to be irritated.
Speaker 2:I might walk out to one today. I think that you have to pay me there in front of the building, to park.
Speaker 1:Well, there you got to put the badge.
Speaker 2:I put my card up there.
Speaker 1:Okay, I put my card up there. Okay, hopefully, but these they don't care. I know they don't. The parking meters, the meter maids don't want to listen to shit. They actually probably would try to get cops.
Speaker 2:They're probably like yeah yeah, this fucking guy thinks he's above the law. I got a 70 on the test.
Speaker 1:So screw him. He took my place. Yeah, my mom used to do the construction hack. Put a cone on the top of that, on the top of the car. That was the construction hack for years. My mom bought a cone and everything and she would just put the cone on top and the the meter maids wouldn't bother you because they think that you're, uh, part of a construction job. That's going on. Smart, yeah, smart, yeah, karen broke the law nicely. Yeah, yeah, yeah broke the law nicely her name karen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a karen thing to do I love it though yo, she gets so mad when anything says, oh, you're such a karen, she goes don't fucking call me that, I go. That sucks, yeah, yeah, um, uh. So now let me ask you this yeah, what is the next step in this, like, where do we go from here? Obviously we're climbing the ladder, moral combat style. We're climbing their ladders right now. Yeah, the top, yeah. So now, what is the next step in getting a fight, like, do you fight because you're 14th? Do you fight 13th or are you going to go to like 10th? What is it so?
Speaker 2:this is probably a little long, but it's interesting. What do it? We're actually in a weird spot right now. Good spot, but weird spot, so obviously, with the ranking being 14th in the world is huge, um, but now so much more goes into it. You know, uh, negotiations, this, that, who we're fighting, where we're fighting. Uh, money, you know should be more money now, and you know I should get a good opportunity with where I'm at, not be stuck in the same place, pretty much. So we're waiting for that offer to get a fight against, you know, someone in the top 15, if not top 25 or even below.
Speaker 1:But don't you have more? Don't you have more to lose, though, if you fight somebody below you? I do, I do, and do they feel that way with the same way at the top?
Speaker 2:no, because they've offered me some guys that are below me good records, but below me in the rankings. Um, it will bump me up even more. Oh, just by having wins. It'll bump, just by having a win in the ranking, depending what goes on me up even more.
Speaker 2:Oh, just by having wins, it'll bump you up Just by having a win in the ranking, depending on what goes on. You know, like Ryan Garcia went from four now he's going to be number one in the WBA, so I could move things without me even fighting. Like I may go up in the rankings and other guys lost. Now they get booted, or, since I haven't fought, I could get knocked out of the rankings. It's weird.
Speaker 2:So pretty much where I'm at is I want the money that I deserve to fight. I don't want to be shortchanged and you know how it goes with promoters and this and that everyone wants to take money and not give the fighter the money they should get, and most fighters take whatever they're offered because that's all they do. So, like I have to feed my family. Unfortunately, I have a great job. You know I will make good money and I love going to work, so I'm not going to fight to be short-change money.
Speaker 2:So we're going back and forth working on. You know, like I don't want to fight at the Paramount again. You know I think we outgrow it. I mean two fights in a row and we sold it out and could have sold more. I don't want to be stuck in that spot and a lot of people are like no, you deserve your shot at MSG on an undercard or here or there and get more money, and everyone knows that. But it's hard saying that and getting that to happen. I know they're in talks right now for a possible fight in Dubai.
Speaker 1:It goes through.
Speaker 2:You know how it is, when we were saying before everything could be going good and then it falls through.
Speaker 1:So I'm not getting my hopes up. Until a contract is signed, I don't get excited Exactly With all my clients, that's with everything and even then my last fight.
Speaker 2:The contract was signed and the kid pulled out and I would have been probably ranked 10 in the world. But because it was a change of opponent last second, I didn't get bumped up as much and um.
Speaker 1:And why wouldn't you get bumped up as much?
Speaker 2:because this kid that you fought's ranking wasn't as high yeah, the other kid was like 22 and 3 and backed out because of an injury, which I don't believe at all. Um, so that happened. Whatever it is what it is. But right now, where we're at is just going back and forth and, like I said, I don't want to take less and no, I deserve more. And what drives me nuts is people are like oh, you're right there, you got to take this fight, you got to do that. I'm like it's not that simple. I'm like it drives me nuts is people are like oh, you're right there, you got to take this fight, you got to do that. I'm like it's not that simple. I'm like it drives me nuts. I'm like if you lost 40 pounds, went through a weight cut, get hit with eight ounce gloves, go through a full training camp while working a full time job, like do that and then tell me you would want to fight, knowing you're getting less than what you deserve.
Speaker 2:And you're putting your body on the line.
Speaker 1:I'm putting my body on the line every single time yeah, I mean even leading up to the fight, not just doing the fight yeah, not just the fight, I mean the sparring.
Speaker 2:Getting hit in the head, it's not healthy. The weight cut I mean when I get my my blood work checked I'm all jacked up from weight cut. We're doing permanent damage to our body as fighters Going through that and now, knowing I'm not getting paid what I should, it's hard. So that's where we're at. We're working on a lot of different things, seeing the back and forth, back and forth of what the best option is, and we'll see what happens. But I'd love to fight again.
Speaker 1:It's just see what happens, and so do you have a timeline for something like this? To stay sharp, because how long was you obtaining this belt? Now, october, october 28th, okay.
Speaker 2:So I would have liked to have been in the ring by now. You know there's fights at the Paramount in May, but, like I said we moved on from that.
Speaker 1:When would the next undercard be for a Madison Square Garden fight? It was.
Speaker 2:I think like June. But you know, if people don't want to pay to get me on that card, you know, sometimes, just a little bit, I bring a lot of money to the Paramount. It's like, oh, this is easy money for us, but not me. You know, I'm doing all the work, I'm bringing in ticket sales, stuff like that. You know, put the money out, get me on the card on ESPN, you know, and on the card or whatever the case is. Whatever Prime, amazon Prime now is doing fighting Because I can see it done. I see guys that aren't even ranked where I'm at and don't sell as much as that I do, and they're getting on the cards because someone's getting them on it. So that's the thing, the timeline. I would like to stay active. I don't want to have that ring rust anymore.
Speaker 2:I always said by 30, I want to know what I'm doing with fighting, like I don't want to keep fighting if I'm not there yet and it would be hard to walk away from. And I'm not saying that's what I'm doing, but like for myself, like I never gave myself enough credit in anything I've done and like after winning this, I finally finally was like you've done good, like you're okay, like I. I remember saying I wanted to win the golden gloves and get this chain when I was 10 years old. I did that. And uh, everything I set out to do, I fortunately did, you know. I remember saying I want to get my college degree I did. I remember saying I want to become a suffolk county police officer I did. I remember saying I want to I'm pro ik County police officer I did. I remember saying I wanted to become a pro I did.
Speaker 2:And I did more than I ever thought you know, to become ranked number 14 in the world and win the WBA title. Like I finally told myself, like you've done good, you know. Like if boxing were to come to an end, like you've done good and I finally let myself you know my pat on myself, pat on the back by doing that, because I guess I've been too hard on myself with it was never enough like I've got to do more. I've got to do more. So if I became number one in the world, I'd also be like, all right, let's go to a different weight class and and win that. So if that were to happen and I do retire from fighting, like I'd be content with what I did. Do I want that to happen? No, but luckily, you know, I have a good job. I love going to work. Like I said I'd be okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's definitely tough.
Speaker 1:It's tough because you know we live so far in the future that we forget about what we're doing currently.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, thinking that we forget about what we're doing currently and thinking about everything that we want to attain, the more money, the house, the relationships the pack of. Akitas. You start thinking about all these things and you lose sight of what you're doing currently. I'm guilty of it. I've done it for years. I've always been hard on myself, always, always, even just like with you get excited about clients and things that you're doing and oh, I got to get bigger clients.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Just enjoy the clients you have right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a good thing to Things will come.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to have aspirations, but at the same time it'll burn you out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've also got to give yourself some credit and be like doing good. You know things grow my clientele, whatever it is. We'll get bigger fights, um, but you got to give yourself that pattern on back too. Yeah, it's tough too. Sometimes it's tough, it's tough, it's hard. I just realized I was like I think my mom was the one that was like you've done a lot, like you need to like chill. You know it's like right now it's great being a normal human being like I haven't gotten to do that. You know my. You know birthdays I've met birthdays, holidays, dinners with my family. You know weddings for my, my close friends. I missed all that which it. I know it comes with. There's a price to be paid. Yeah, price to be paid. I've been doing it my whole life, so I've missed everything.
Speaker 2:So right now it is nice to hey, if I do want a slice of pizza, it's okay to have it yeah or you know, if I do want to go out to eat with my family, like I can go, or just not get a piece of grilled chicken when I go with them and be miserable. So it's been nice, it was nice to have the holidays with my family and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:That was like the perfect time to fight man. That was the perfect time, yeah.
Speaker 2:That was perfect. Right before the holidays got to eat Thanksgiving, this and that.
Speaker 1:Didn't have to miss it with them. It's been nice hanging out with them and being with friends, stuff like that, so it's been good, good, good. Dude, I want to see you fucking climb these ranks, man. I want to see you climb these ladders, me too. I, uh, I want to get your take on the bare knuckle boxing because I've become very interested in it. It is a brutal sport, man. I watched those fights. Man, I'm good on that. It is not you to do it, no, yeah, not you to do it, but man, dude, I watched those fights and I'm cringing the entire time. It is brutal bare, bare knuckle.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine. I mean just the eight ounce gloves we wear with the, with the wrap under it which is like a cast hurts it, freaking hurts. Bare knuckle. That's savagery, dude, that's just I. I would not want to. I don't know how they're sitting there, trading, trading, hit with going in, I mean leaving the ring with just scars everywhere say where is it? I don't even know how much they're getting paid. It can't be a lot can't be.
Speaker 1:Who's the guy? That's the top one. What do bare knuckle fighters make? Here we go. They usually pay an average fighter between $10,000 to $30,000 per fight. Is that good? That's terrible, okay.
Speaker 2:That is horrible, especially for that Not including performance bonuses. Yeah, so you make $50,000 tops. I'm saying, on getting hit with a bare knuckle, walking out with how many stitches and broken bones, bare knuckle fight club 28.
Speaker 1:salaries and payouts. Salaries for most fighters range from $2,000 to $9,000, with a few fighters in the $20,000 range, although the purses appear low. For Although the purses Hold on one second, I got to click the article. Eventually, guys, I'll you know screen and we'll be able to link all this in.
Speaker 1:I think my camera keeps turning off I don't care, I did it last time right, no, yours, usually this fucking thing, whatever that, that's rolling the middle one, I don't care, I don't care, there's always. I usually I stress about shit like that with the electronics.
Speaker 2:Yeah last last time you were like just constantly looking.
Speaker 1:Constantly looking. As long as I know yours is on, I don't care. People see my face enough. Let them watch you. Let them watch you. Here we go. Although the purses appeared low for a violent evening's worth of work, the fighters likely took home a decent amount for sponsorships, and then the article ended. That was it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, these guys must be broke or something. I don't see how you do that. For fun, let's see Air knuckle fight. It's called the boxing. At that point you make more being a nobody.
Speaker 1:Some of these dudes are animals, man. I think these are just dudes that just like to fight like that. These are the dudes that are at the bar outside of fucking Finley's. Who is that? Mike Perry?
Speaker 2:He's doing it.
Speaker 1:I think he's the most. He's one of the big ones Do you see his face yeah. Oh dude. Yeah, he's wild. I don't want to get banned off YouTube. We're hitting showmanship songs. Show me a knockout, bro. That's what I want to see right now. I can only. I mean, I've never been hit with boxing gloves. I can only imagine how, and I've gotten into a couple of fights.
Speaker 2:but not like this dude, no, where it's just like. This is what we're doing Three rounds, you know, street fights. What?
Speaker 1:30 seconds, 30 seconds and you know these are hitting like trains yeah, I mean you're hitting bone on bone like they're.
Speaker 2:They're breaking their hands, they're breaking their face, their body.
Speaker 1:I punched a wall when I was younger like a dumbass and I broke my fifth metacarpal. They call it the boxer fracture.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine that, because my hands are swollen after a fight wait for this face.
Speaker 1:oh my god, yeah, the boxer, apparently. Yeah, I can't imagine that, because my hands are swollen after our fight. Wait for this face.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, oh my God, that is, oh my God. It's not worth the 10 grand Gee.
Speaker 1:That's a tough look man. That's horrible. Oh my God, here wide, if you guys can see, that is crazy. Look at Alex's. I don't even think you'll see it.
Speaker 2:That is crazy man, that's nuts. Like I said, with eight-ounce gloves and the wrap, my hands are swollen after a fight, insanely swollen, oh really, yeah, I mean, I could barely close my hands after a fight and that's hitting someone with gloves. And how long does that take for that inflammation to go down Depends how much I want to take care of it, how much I want to ice it. I usually don't. I don't either. I'm like screw this. I just thought, whatever, my hands are swollen.
Speaker 1:A couple days.
Speaker 2:One time I was like two weeks I had a real bad. I guess bone bruise, Maybe a fracture in my hand, I don't know.
Speaker 1:You had that shiner on your eye from this last fight. I did yeah he headbutted you.
Speaker 2:right, that was a headbutt? Yeah, that definitely wasn't. I would have said it felt a punch, but that was a headbutt. I remember feeling like Clash.
Speaker 1:Did you hear me talking shit to him during the match? I think I do. Yeah, I was talking.
Speaker 2:I voices but I might. Yeah, because that kid was like who the fuck are you looking at? He was freaking. You know the cocky? He was a cocky one me, you know boxing experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just I'll rip a I'll rip a kimura.
Speaker 2:I forgot what you were saying, but I remember you said some funny stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you said you were laughing. I forget what I said too.
Speaker 2:I just, I just rattled off here and it was just random. Yeah, just ran it off. It's like what?
Speaker 1:and I'm sitting next to the judges and shit, and they're looking at me. I'm like what man I'm here for him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm taking pictures.
Speaker 1:Relax Commentary. Yeah, Just like get this fucking kid out of here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember that I swelled up and I was scared, because that's where I got cut in one of my fights Bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was scared, I was going spots like usually you is that like a not a weak point for you, but you find that those are the spots that usually, yeah, you build up that scar tissue like you could see, like the scar under here.
Speaker 2:So once it's walled up, the scar came up up top yeah, I was.
Speaker 1:Now I'm looking at it's a little little thicker yeah.
Speaker 2:So what do you do for that? Nothing if in the fight, no now, oh, now nothing, no I just got it stitched up after it's just.
Speaker 1:It's just the inflammation, inflammation, that's it right.
Speaker 2:That's it. It's just weaker. That's it. The more you get cut, the more easily you cut. So you don't want to build up that.
Speaker 1:So there's some dudes that just fucking drip everywhere.
Speaker 2:Some guys, yeah, that just have tons of polymyelinage, tons of scar tissue, First round, boom sliced open. It's because it's so weak.
Speaker 1:At that point I don't want that no, no, no, no, stay, not getting hit Just getting that one set of stitches was horrible. Oh, dude, I got 30 stitches in my head, my forehead. Feel how thin that skin in your forehead is. Yeah, that's fine. 30 stitches in there. They had to stitch the muscle together underneath the head, which is why it's almost frozen in time right there.
Speaker 2:That's what they did with me underneath, and then, and then the skin on top.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, not fun that was not fun, no, just the needle numbing you, oh my god oh it was this, it was like this big, and she was like digging it in my forehead. Oh yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't a good time. That was definitely one of nick's um, one of one of nick's more traumatic memories of just not wanting to uh, live. At that I was like, yeah, I'm good on this. It was tough man, me and this kid. I don't know if I ever said the story on the podcast, but I've told a lot. All my friends know it, me and this. We were playing flag football, everything was fine, blah, blah, blah. I was playing safety, I was in the end zone and my buddy on the other team this was snowing.
Speaker 1:it's like the perfect dude it's the perfect outdoor football game. We're having a, we're blasting, ripping down the field, we're feeling great, this and that, and then I'm in the end zone and I'm just looking. I go, oh, he's gonna launch this middle and I'm just gonna snag this like fucking just midair. I'm gonna look in my mind, I'm gonna look like the most athletic guy in the world, but what everyone else is gonna see is me barely come off the ground but still grab.
Speaker 2:It's like slow-mo to you too. You're like oh this looks great.
Speaker 1:It was dude. So I'm watching him. He hikes the ball. He's kind of like going a little bit. He goes to run. So I start moving up and he stops because he sees me and then he just lobs it over the middle, bro cut. I run flat out and I dive for the ball. Other kid on my team had the same idea. Bro, we collided faces midair so all you heard was oh, was that His jaw and his? So basically what happened was it was like I got sandwiched like that from that. So his top tooth cut through the muscle in my forehead and then his jaw pushed my nose. That way I broke my nose, which is why I still have, uh, sinus issues. And uh, as I came down from the bus hitting each other, he was out cold. No one even knew he was hurt. He was out, he was just like knocked out.
Speaker 1:But me, the psycho that I am, I stumble and I as I'm, as I bring my head up, all I remember is seeing drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, and it was shooting out of my forehead. So now I start grabbing my forehead like this yeah, and I'm going like this and it's all, it's everywhere. And now I'm getting angry and I'm going. I hate needles, so I'm going oh, I'm gonna have to get stitches now. And the more I'm getting angry, the more it's coming out because of my blood pressure. So they, they throw me on the ground, they put a hoodie on my face. They're like Nick, you gotta chill out, chill, the fuck out. I'm going crazy. And then they go oh shit, he's down Like they go to the other kid. They forgot about it. They fucking know, because my psycho ass, I'm yelling and the blood's shooting out of my forehead. His teeth went through his bottom lip, dislocated his jaw.
Speaker 1:It was a bad injury. It was bad. I got the better of it. I was going to say I don't think I want my teeth, nah, I think I'd rather stick them in. No, they wired them up. They wired them up in the hospital and the teeth through you, uh-uh, mm-hmm. And then so that top tooth was sliced through my forehead.
Speaker 1:So I was laying people. I'm like you call the ambulance, you do this. I'm like I'm calling karen. Yeah, I call my call, my mom, and I was like and and uh, I said mom, I got hurt and single mom. She's like what, what chill? Don't be a karen, you're gonna be getting me crazy right now, don't you get me? Get me more, more upset. I'm like chill out, I go. I don't know how bad it is, but my head's bleeding this and that, and we're gonna.
Speaker 1:So then I give the phone to my friend and he's off to the side. The paramedics get there and she goes how bad is it? He's like it's not great, it's really not good. So you know his nose? His nose is broken too, I think. And she goes does he know about the nose? And he goes no, she goes. Don't say anything, as they're talking about this on the phone. The paramedic comes up and he goes all right, who's hurt? And he goes oh shit, kid, you broke your fucking nose. Huh, I went. What do you mean? I broke my nose, so I started feeling sideways.
Speaker 2:It was bad it was bad.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I have the picture. Yeah, it was bad, it was a good time. So then I, you know, rushed to the hospital. They're asking me who's the president, who's this, who's that?
Speaker 2:oh yeah all those silly guys fucking know, bro, it's picks me.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, I don't, i't know. Can you just like tell me if I'm dying or not? Like, what's going on? Tell me, let me see. If it's on here, it's probably on my Google photos, yeah, man. And then my nose was so swollen they couldn't re-break it and set it. I had to come back in three days. They said we can't, we don't know what's broken and what's cringe. Yeah, no, it wasn't. It wasn't. It was not one of my prouder moments. And uh, people have asked me um in the past. Hey, uh, do you want to go to um? Would you like to go to the? Uh like play flag football, stuff like that? Nope, I'm good, I'll call the place.
Speaker 2:There's me and the kid oh my god yeah you gotta see the your nose, oh you gotta see the actual picture of my nose.
Speaker 1:Like dead on, that shit was snapped. There you go. There's the paramedics hanging out with me. Oh yeah, right at the bridge, right at the top. Yeah yeah, it wasn't a good time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it looks like someone just bit you in the forehead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you see how deep that cut is. It was bad man. And then she, unfortunately, because it's teeth, they're serrated, they're jagged, they're not clean. So because the wound wasn't clean, cut, she had to cut tissue away and they had to start pushing the point. It was a plastic surgeon that had to do it for me. She was pushing it and doing it and doing it. It was 25 minutes of her doing stitches to me 25 minutes. I was. I was laying there, I had all the whole, I had all my boys in the room. I have a whole video of me getting the stitches of me on tons of drugs and then and me just saying shit and then just feeling, it just popped through your skin I'll tell you what, man.
Speaker 1:As it went on, I didn't, I didn't feel anything. I felt like nothing. No, no, they numbed me to the core, like I didn't feel nothing.
Speaker 2:I didn't feel even no pressure, Nothing. I don't know if it was in my head then or just I was like he needs to finish up already.
Speaker 1:It's tough for you because it's right over your eye. Yeah, they're just right here and you're watching it. At least here I couldn't see anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was watching it and just seeing the needle go through, I'm like how many more are you going to do?
Speaker 1:I hate medical shit. I really do. And now, ironically, with the hemochromatosis that I have or I think I'm like 90% sure I got the genetic test for it a week ago. So I'm waiting for the genetic test to come back to see if I actually full blown have it. Yeah, but I've always feared needles my entire life. I've always hated needles. Yeah, and ironically, I potentially have the disease that requires you to get month, uh, every three months phlebotomies, so you have to donate blood every every three months. I hate giving blood doing anything like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've gotten tattoos. That's different. But giving blood and stuff, I'm freaking out it took a lot.
Speaker 1:It took a lot for me to go. I can't look I'm. Yeah. It took a lot for me to go the first time in, uh, october. I was really feeling shitty and I and I just my iron levels were still high and it took a lot for me to just muster the courage up, go to the donation center, sit there, allow them to do it. It was tough. The second one, this last time, wasn't bad, I mean yeah, depends who does it too.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've been stabbed up before I think his name's julio, my man down at the millville blood center, dude, you don't even feel it. Go in that. That then he is so good. You don't feel it go in, you actually just go.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're, we're going, yeah it's done and then when he's done, he does the move where you like. He hits you with a cotton ball. But as he hits you with a cotton ball, he pulls the needle out and he just goes hey, you hold that there and you go. Oh wow, I don't even realize it. That's how I usually am. It's so crazy. My mother will testify in court that I'm usually anytime blood or needles or thing comes up I'm like that.
Speaker 1:I hate when they take it out to it, like you said, just the feeling oh, bro, and it's so crazy that I'm just getting so accustomed to doing it now that it's, I'm not even, I don't even, I'm not even phased by it. I did a pint in four and a half minutes. It was shooting out of me. Yeah, dude, I can't. He. He double took. He's like oh, dude, you're done four and a half minute, what he's like what I'm dude, you're done Four and a half minutes, what he's like what I'm like. Yeah, man, I guess who's getting that fucking Captain America part? Yeah, yeah, yeah, bro. And then I got my test levels done. My test I posted on Instagram the other night almost 750., almost 750. And my free test, which I didn't post, is 138. It's almost. That's almost at like the point of too high a free test. That's great. Meanwhile, months ago it was like it was like 550, 520 when I was cutting weight.
Speaker 2:You know what I was at probably when I was training. Probably like 100, 50, 200. Yeah, bro, I didn't know, I'd know I'd probably been fighting like that for years. I actually got my blood work done while training.
Speaker 1:Like dude you're, you're low man, even after like, after all this, when's the last time you got blood work?
Speaker 2:last time I got blood work, two months ago, I was good.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was good what were your test levels? I think five. Okay, that's good, I've 20, yeah, I 15. I thought I was gonna have to go on trt like if I was in the five. Still my guy was going to recommend I try to bring my levels up to eight and I sent him the levels. He goes. Oh no, no, no, he goes. Usually people do TRT to get to your levels. He goes. Do not touch anything.
Speaker 2:I did another one because I can't take TRT and stuff with boxing, boxing and everything. Um, what is hcg, hgc, something like that? Like raises it naturally, yeah, it's like.
Speaker 1:But it makes you fertile.
Speaker 2:So like oh hey you better relax like you, better be careful don't get trapped.
Speaker 1:I just had to have a conversation with my boy recently. I was like yo man, I love you, but you know your girl's giving uh, pull the goalie vibes and not tell you I was like you. Better chill out, dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah you better relax man. So every time they give me it they're like just uh, be careful, it's very, very fertile yes, the higher test levels do yeah, but this is like specifically for, I think, people that struggle to get the one pregnant or something like that. Yeah, but I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you know, obviously, in the federations that you do. I don't know what's technically okay because I feel like that's ever changing and they always, um, adapt those. But uh, I take tribulus right now. After my blood test I thought I was gonna have low t, so I I ordered tribulus, which is just like a natural way to raise test, and yeah, I've used it before in the past and it's always been fine no side effects, nothing like that. And uh, yeah, I just I started taking it the day after my blood work because I'm like I'm probably gonna be lower, so I want to just like get a head start and then I get these numbers.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh jesus I don't know if I wanted higher man, give me more yeah, so I'm gonna take it anyway, fuck it yeah's crazy, all these motherfuckers at jujitsu.
Speaker 1:Some of these higher end guys are definitely on test man. Oh my God. And you look at them and you go. Oh, I'm going to let you put me in a triangle.
Speaker 2:No way you could see it. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy because I was like I'm always so tired. I was thinking it was the time.
Speaker 1:That's what I've been experiencing lately. That's what made me think that I had well, lethargy and all these different symptoms. Those are some of the hemochromatosis, so that's why I donate and then just I'm trying to rack my brain with certain things. I had a little bit of brain fog, a little bit of like this, and that I was trying to figure out what.
Speaker 1:What was the problem? Yeah, and still you know you start racking your brain like, could it be this, could it be that, could it be this, could be that? And then I just start thinking I'm like, bro, you train weights in the morning, usually 6 15 in the morning, okay. Then you go to jujitsu at night. You're working all day, you're making sure the dog's good, you're doing this, you're doing that, and then you're not sleeping until maybe like 10 o'clock at night and you're getting like a very up and down, restless sleep. That's why you're tired, bro. Yeah, go to bed, yeah, go to bed. And so you just you know. And then I was under eating for a while too. Like I've gained a little bit of weight right now, maybe like two pounds, and I want to get back down to uh, 188. I'm like 193, right now 192. But I was under eating for months, not recovering, just under eating yeah sickating, yeah Sick.
Speaker 1:I know that Sick, yeah, so it's tough, man, I don't know. You listen to all these. You know these health gurus and all these different people and you start looking at all their protocols and they're. Every morning I wake up and I do this and I just I never take. I never take X, y, z, and I don't drink and I don't smoke weed, and I don't do that.
Speaker 1:And you go oh, okay, like if I, I do a cold plunge right before the gym and then I go to the gym and then I come back and I sit in the sauna for a half hour and then I stretch and it's like, bro, what do you do all day? Yeah, like if I, if I had to take all of these protocols and I had to utilize them every single day, I wouldn't have any time at all to do anything else. So it's like you have to selectively choose and then, unfortunately, you start to hear all of these things and you go well, I want to try that, because they said that these are the benefits of it. But then you're just like I'm just adding more shit that I have to do. I'm just, uh, is it going to be worth it? You know, is it?
Speaker 1:And then you start. You almost have um paralysis by option. There's too many things that you want to do or that too many options. It's like you go to a buffet yeah, everything looks great. Where do I start? Yeah, oh my God. Like you, sit there for a second, you just go all right. What do I want first?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You almost have to like have less options. I know Less knowledge. You know when you can look up in four and a half seconds. We're we're accustomed to just like learning things on the fly, whether it retains in our information or not. We learn something about something that we're questioning and then we make decisions based on that learned material. Yeah, but we have almost too much knowledge on a daily basis. At this point. There's too much coming at us yeah, never just chill.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something new, always something new yeah, well, I mean well for you with with fighting especially. It's like how many people tell you that you should be doing it this way and oh well, I heard that this new training is good, yeah everything's contradicting. Yeah, this this modality will help you with this. And oh, your diet should be this, or the weight cutting needs to be like this. It's like holy shit. Can everyone leave me the fuck alone?
Speaker 2:I know that's, yeah, that's how I am. It's like just relax, like there's so many different ways. Just let me do what's been working, stick to that and that's it stop. I don't like changing stuff sometimes. Yeah, you know, maybe I'll go get a massage or something, which is probably what I should do yeah, you definitely should do that yeah, and it helped a lot for my last fight that did.
Speaker 1:But you go to, you get pt work done and everything not pt work, but my last fight.
Speaker 2:I was getting like deep tissue massages, like my lower back, you, you should go to my guys, scott and all of them.
Speaker 1:They work with a lot of fighters.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they deal with a lot of just like nagging injuries. They'll do all of the ART, the active release technique of opening up fascia, the muscle tissue and all that stuff, just if you have certain things that are like clicking or hinging and this and that I never took care of my body in that aspect, so doing that helped a lot.
Speaker 2:Like my lower back, it would just dig into it. It was painful but I felt good. But just from training and then the gun belt being on all day and that weight.
Speaker 1:Dude, I hear from all my officer friends that shit is rough, Bad it's really bad.
Speaker 2:How heavy is it? It's got to be like 30 pounds. It's got to be like 30 pounds.
Speaker 1:It's got to be 20, 30. Yeah, it's a lot.
Speaker 2:I took a lot off now because I wear it up here now. Yeah, and then you have the armor, yeah the armor, and yeah it's. And then sitting in the car, I guess my back is going.
Speaker 1:I'm like my back's going right now on this chair. I have to get out the car. Yeah, my always, always fidgeting man, yeah I don't know if that's just become from from being uh quote, unquote, athletes maybe I think so, I guess, rolling around definitely you roll around.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what was getting jacked up bad. What was getting jacked up really bad. It was a problem for a while until I figured out that I need to like actually stretch and and I had, I bought the chirp wheels and I bought the so right and the neck the so neck. You know that they sell the neck tissue, bro. My neck was getting beat up bad. No, like really bad headaches and which I never get yeah headaches and just tension and clicking.
Speaker 1:You get like the um the batman neck. We have to like turn like this every three seconds, dude it's a horrible man not being able to like actually turn your neck. And then you start looking, oh, should I get like the iron neck and and invest in that? And you look at the iron neck price like six hundred dollars. Oh, my god, bro, please, where is that? Put iron neck on blast right now. The fuck are they made? Because if that's made in china, six hundred dollars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm gonna lose it right now let's see. No way, it's China.
Speaker 1:It has to be. You think so? Yeah, they probably wouldn't even put this on their site now that I'm thinking about it, where it's made, unless it's proudly made in America. Oh wait, it's $100 off today. It's $499. Oh, wow, yeah, thank you guys. Oh, wow, yeah, thank you guys. Yeah, six hundred dollars, that is insane. I mean, listen, they have 895 star reviews. Okay, that's great, or well, it's four and a half stars technically, but you gotta also I wonder if they inhibit it's real the bullshit reviews. So that's the thing, yeah, or maybe at this point I would get skeptical that companies use ai to just like mass generate reviews that that look good it's hard to read them reviews now because you don't know what's true.
Speaker 1:It's hard watching anything because you don't know what's true. Yeah, that is true, it really is. I don't believe anything anymore. It's nuts I'll tell you about. I was watching Elon Musk do the. This is like the debate I have with people and I always love people's reactions. They think I'm stupid, they think I'm like stupid. I'm not stupid, I just I. I just want to know. Yeah, he did a whole presentation about in the next 20 years, how we're going to colonize mars. Pretty interesting, pretty cool. Like he's talking about multiple, like andromeda style, just battleships waiting in in in orbit and then, once everyone's everything's ready to go, they all just go at the same time. I mean a pretty cool shit. But then I, you know, I'm talking to my mom about it and I just said, yeah, well, space isn't real and she just goes, she goes. Why do you say that I go? Have you been up there?
Speaker 1:yeah I haven't been up there, I don't know. I'm just being told that it's real. I don't know if it's real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not saying it isn't, but I'm not saying it is yeah, that's kind of how I think, like, how do we know, how do we know, like, how do we know, how do we know?
Speaker 1:How do we know, how do I know how many satellites are just orbiting around Earth?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I get. They stay in our orbit and that's what keeps them in our location. But I mean, you know, I'm not an astrophysicist, I'm not like these hyper-intellectual kind of guys, I'm a regular guy. But you start to actually think about things. Okay, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I told her. I said I'm going to go, I'm going to go, I've had enough of this planet. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:If I make it back, I'll make it back. Yeah, whatever I've had it.
Speaker 1:I told her. I said Kenji will be long 20 years, 25 years. I said so at that point. I still probably won't get any text back, so at this point I might as well go to Mars, because I got a better shot with a Martian. Yeah, hanging out with a Martian probably a great time, nah, but Drake's already DMing them, so he's already. I'm going to be looking, as I'm going, at the flight. They're going to be going to Earth. I'll be like what the fuck? He said the ship yeah, you can't win. It's a bunch of bullshit. You can't win. Let's see. That'd be fucking hysterical. Oh my God, certifications. I don't want certifications. Where is it made? Where is the Iron Neck made? Let's just Google it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's China.
Speaker 1:No way, it's probably China Bro. This titanium iPhonehone's made in china, that's the shirt is made in Austin, texas. Nah, don't do that. Where is the device made? They're not going to post it.
Speaker 2:They're not, no way. No, they're not going to post it.
Speaker 1:That's China.
Speaker 2:I can't believe nobody's asking this, you got to be the first one.
Speaker 1:Former UCLA football player, mike Jolly, designs a prototype for isometric rotational neck strengthener in southern california. Is that the beginning of it? Oh yeah, that's the beginning of it. He's a ucla football player. Interesting, oh, that's 2012. After seeing college teammates lives, this is basically a fucking ad for them.
Speaker 2:Now, jesus yeah, yeah, after seeing college teammates live after.
Speaker 1:I'm just trashed five minutes if you're seeing college teammates lives ruined from head injuries and cte accurate yeah, jolly developed the concept once he learned of new research associating neck strength and lowered concussion risk interesting made in china yeah, all right, that was in 2012. Let's jump to the timeline 2022, made in china. Mike realized that he couldn't make any fucking money by making this in the states.
Speaker 1:So he had, so he decided to opt for a chinese manufacturer. Yeah, he, he sought out alibaba before. Yeah, yeah, and you can actually buy for four and a half dollars yeah, yeah and loaded yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:I had that debate with Andre. Andre was like do you support American made companies just because it's American made or do you actually? I was like, dude, I support it because I like the product, but when, when I see American made, it makes me. It does make me want to support a company more because we have to stop protecting everybody else. We got to fucking focus on ourselves a little bit. Focus on ourselves, monetarily, our community, our people, our veterans, our officers. We have to focus on us, tired of focusing on everybody else, especially nowadays.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bro, I'm tired of outsourcing all this bullshit. I'm tired of doing all this. I don't want to hear it anymore. I don't. And you're going to tell me that they're not cutting corners over there so they make more money off us. Stop it, yeah, get the fuck out of here. Stop it. Yeah, it's common knowledge, man. They're gonna. They don't give a shit about us. They never have, they never will. All they care about us is that we are generating income for them and and money in their pockets in their country, yeah, without actually having to do business here.
Speaker 1:But now this new shit is gonna be interesting, with bricks and and uh that, them separating all these countries brazil, china, russia, all them separating themselves from the us currency. Bro, we're going to see some shit in the next couple years. It's going to be very, very like textbook style shit. It's getting weird. It's getting weird and it's going to get weirder. That's the problem. The problem is, it's going to get weirder. The world's weird enough now. Oh, it's weird enough. Man, people freaking everything. I know what you want to say. It's okay, you don't have to say nothing. What do I want to say? No, what?
Speaker 2:girls.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a different. Weird Girls are very weird, very strange. Here we go, you're going gonna get ripped apart for that one. I didn't say you said it, I said it. I said the girls that I interact with. And then you'd be like well, you're looking in the wrong place. I've looked everywhere. I don't know where else I can look. Anybody got a an adventure. I can go on to middle earth.
Speaker 2:At this point, hinge range is going all the way to china.
Speaker 1:Oh my god my hindrance is to mars, but drake evidently beat me there. Bunch of bullshit. Yeah, dude, I don't know. Just everybody, just everybody acts very strange nowadays. Yeah, we talked about that already. I mean with the people that are out in the streets and stuff like that. It's just. I don't know. I don't know if it's a lack of uh, I don't know if it's a lack of just moral compass anymore. I don't know if it's a lack of just people don't give a fuck and they only care about because we've been blindsided by watching everyone's lives on those phones. I don't know what it is and I don't think there's a solution to it. I think the solution is I think the solution starts with the younger generations that are coming up now, and you have to limit the amount of time that they spend on these devices and that they do it.
Speaker 2:That's the thing they all have it so early now that whatever they see is like, like if you had a kid right now?
Speaker 1:I'm not wishing that on you, but if you had a kid right now, don't wish that on me, I'm not wishing it on you. If you had a kid right now, what's the earliest that they would be allowed to have? A cell phone.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think of when I got it. I think I got my own cell phone sophomore or junior year of high school.
Speaker 1:That sounds about right. Because I was having panic attacks in the bathroom because I hated my school. So my mom got me a cell phone so I could hit her up whenever I needed it. Yeah, and then I had a razor yeah and yeah me too.
Speaker 2:And then, uh, you know they take it away whatever, I was on it too much or I'd do something stupid at school.
Speaker 1:Playing too much Snake Be freaking out.
Speaker 2:That's the tough thing now too, though, because if you have a kid and you don't give them that phone, they're just it's like you're doing the wrong thing, they're freaking out. We had a kid come into the precinct the other day like my dad took my phone.
Speaker 1:No stop.
Speaker 2:Get the fuck out of here. Junior, yeah, with with his dad. His dad brought him in. He's like, my dad took my phone um for a few hours and he keeps doing it and you know the cops are like the desk officers. Like you got to get off your phone like you like I'm.
Speaker 2:I told him I'm like my parents used to do the same thing. They they're like. No Xbox during the week. You know, only on the weekends. You know all my friends would be playing during the week and this and that I'd hop on whenever they jumped out. But you know they went out to dinner or whatever, but that's what they did with me. They take my phone all the time, but I never thought about going to the cops.
Speaker 2:Like you know, know, it's like never. Like he. He was saying like he can't do that. It's like you live. He was whatever 13. You live in their home, under their rules. They can do what they want. You know, until you move out.
Speaker 1:It's crazy I just think about the billy madison. Uh, stay here as long as you can yeah, I look at these kids and they're just i'm'm so miserable home, I go, bro, stay, I know I'm telling you, man, once you get out here, it's a trip man.
Speaker 2:Well, I just left after my fight. Yeah, I moved into Babylon Like man, spending double the money. Oh, yeah, man, it's nice having the freedom, don't get me wrong. Oh, it's beautiful having the freedom. It's beautiful having it's great.
Speaker 1:At the same time it's lonely man, yeah, unless you got a girl, unless you got, like a dog, which thankfully I have, kenji, because he saved me on more occasions than not yeah just you know, with being feeling that loneliness yeah dude it's lonely man.
Speaker 1:It's tough, especially when we do what we do, man. We, we go to work, we do our thing podcast, jujitsu, the gym and then I'm home, yeah, and then it's like I'm not going to just go places, just to go there. That's not my personality. I'm not just going to go to the city and no, let's go explore.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to do that. No, time drags Like I have a roommate, oh you have a roommate?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's like my best friend but he's not around a lot.
Speaker 2:He's always traveling. For I'm like I hit the gym, I get stuff done, blah, blah, blah and it's like three o'clock. I'm like I don't know, Especially on a.
Speaker 1:Saturday, Sunday, that weird middle point.
Speaker 2:I'm all four days a week now being on nights and I'm like, what am I going to do? I'm like I'm bored. I could only work out so much, run so much, read a book so much, and still freaking early. I'm like, yeah, unless you have something to distract you, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Like you said, girlfriend, dog, I don't have a dog, I don't have my dog anymore I know and that's the thing, man, you have to almost be okay with like being bored and not having a distraction because, it's almost like the distractions inherently make us.
Speaker 1:We get worse off because of them. Because we're constantly distracted by things, we actually it actually impacts us worse. Yeah, if that makes sense. Yeah, that was like I'm telling you. That was that digital minimalism book I read. It was so interesting it was, it really was, and it really did make me want to change a lot.
Speaker 1:The last couple of like week it I was on my other, I was on my work phone way too much. Yeah, I mean there was, but there was a lot going on, yeah. So it's like it was. It was a little bit quiet for a couple weeks for me, like just my retainer work and I was just like there wasn't really a lot of new clients, and then all of a sudden a ton of new clients just bursted open the fucking door and it's like, okay, so now I'm on that, constantly checking emails, doing things, planning shoots, this, and that I'm blessed. I appreciate that. But then you start to realize like fuck, like I kind of missed when that phone was just very quiet and I was able to just read and just chill and no tv on and quiet time, yeah. So if you're not getting that quiet time, you almost have to make sure that you slot that, that quiet time in for yourself. Yeah, the the quiet time is nice.
Speaker 2:I'll pick up over time at work if anything, um, but yeah, you need the quiet time. Just too much for me, like I did in my head think about, we all do you know? Yeah, yeah, but that's but that's everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because, like the second, that there isn't something that's going to have your attention now. Your attention goes internal and it goes into your head and unfortunately, you have to fight those demons because we all have them, we all talk to them and we all hear them and you have to be able to just like live with it, because the more that you distract yourself, the less time it's like sparring time. Yeah, the more time that you're out of the ring, the rustier you're going to be. The less fights that you have, the less you know well-versed you're going to be when you go against somebody. Yeah, but now, on the opposite end, the more that you've done it, the more you've sat with yourself and taken the time to like confront your, your dark thoughts and things that you find strange or upsetting in this life. Yeah, the more you've confronted those, that mental chatter isn't going to phase you when it's quiet again yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, you're right. Like I said, when I thought about you know, I was like, oh, I gotta do this, gotta do that and get this done. That's that's why it was nice Just realizing, like, you know, everything I set out to do, I did. It's like you could chill out, stop stressing over so much Like life's.
Speaker 1:Good, yeah, life's good, life's good, until I got to go to the grocery store again and I spent another 300 in a week. Yeah, the cashiers.
Speaker 2:I don't even say anything anymore because I know they're just miserable they're so irritated that they have to just rob people blindly and I just, I used to be like wow, 25 for a steak.
Speaker 1:Huh, yeah, interesting, yeah, thank god for redefine meals. Shout out, redefine, shout out which I truthfully, my stomach is grumbling right now.
Speaker 2:I don't know about yours yeah, are you working after this? I'm not. I go back tomorrow night.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're off for a? Yeah, I'm off, so we're going to redefine after this. Oh, yeah, you're in town, we're going to go get some redefining because I'm fucking starving. But yeah, dude, it's interesting. It's interesting becoming an adult, because I thought I was an adult at 25 and I wasn't. No, I was an adult at 28. I wasn't. I still think I'm gonna. I I at this point now, at the other side of 30. So I'm 32 now I'll be 33 in august weird. But at 33 I'm looking at myself and I'm like, yeah, I used to think I was an adult and normally I'd look at myself presently and be like, yeah, you're an adult, until you get older and you realize, no, you're not. Now though I. Now, though I go, yeah, I'm not an adult. I have no fucking idea what the hell I'm doing out here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just turned 29. I'm like, is this normal? I feel lost.
Speaker 1:I'm like I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2:No idea what I'm doing, bro. I don't know what's going on. I'm winging it by the day.
Speaker 1:Right Kenji on its own, because we're trying to find our place. You're trying to find what you know. At least you love your job a lot of people don't love their job.
Speaker 1:I'm lucky, yeah you know, and, and unfortunately even people that have passions for listen I, I love what I do. I do. I love that I have the freedom to hang out with kenji most of the day and make my own schedule and podcast and do my thing. There's a lot of benefits, but there are a lot of stressors that come with my, with my side of work and they're. And at the end of the day, it's like, although I love what I do, it, everything does become a job. Yeah, you know, because you love what you do, but like that drunk that you told five times to stop fucking with other people and they keep doing it. Now it's like I love what I do, but now I gotta grab this yeah, and now something happens and then now you're stuck.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, you work 9 pm to 7 am. Now you don't get out till 1 pm. You're stuck there and that that's like a bad day, yeah, but luckily, for the most part you have your bad days. Just hide, just come into my apartment just hide, you just hide. It'd be raising me on the radio, but I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Kenji answers yeah, what the fuck is that? What's vargas's radio doing? Oh, man, man all right, so tell me what's uh, what's next steps? We're waiting for the uh. I know you said you're waiting for the potential fights to come up maybe dubai, maybe msg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, hopefully the dubai thing uh comes through. Right now we're just working on getting on the card. Um for that, even if I made when would that be what? It's got to be at least two months from now so I could get the weight down.
Speaker 1:Oh, is there an event though?
Speaker 2:that's scheduled. There's an event but it's not scheduled. But from what it seems like it would be like two months away, but you never know, it could be five. Whatever it is, and even if I got paid a little less than what I deserve, that's a life experience to go to Dubai and fight.
Speaker 1:I would do it. I would do it. So I was out there. Oh yeah, I was out there when I shot some stuff for redcon with kai. I was at. I was in dubai. Oh shoot, yeah, I didn't really get to see it. You know, I saw it through a screen this big, but, um, it was, uh, it was interesting. Everybody was super friendly. I'll tell you that, I heard. Everyone was super friendly, except for the people that were at the expo. The people at the expo were assholes, assholes, yeah yeah, some of the fans were just really dirtbaggy. They were just pushing to get to the front of the line. They wouldn't listen to you. I almost fought this somalian dude. He was an asshole man. That dude was a dick big african dude yeah, he was an asshole man and I put the camera down.
Speaker 1:I was like, bro, what are you gonna do, man? I was like, what are you gonna do? I was, I did not fly from new york to deal with this show, but I'm here like what?
Speaker 2:do you want to do yeah in front of kai and everybody? I left new york to get away from new york and, bro, acting like you're in new york and he just like walked away.
Speaker 1:He was giving me shit. Basically, long story short. He cut the line. He cut the line and the dudes from redcon said yo, you can't cut the yeah. And he comes and stands next to me. Now I'm standing in front of Kai filming Kai, so I look at him and I just go. Now I'm distracted. I turn to him and I go, bro, I said I literally just heard them say you can't cut the line, please get to the back of the line. He goes yeah, don't worry, I will. And he like pats me on the shoulder and I look at him and I just go, okay. And I said, hey, man, remember when you just said, like you were going to go to the back of the line, you're still standing here, though it's kind of interesting that you're not moving. He just goes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's like he goes, don't worry, brother. He goes, don't worry. And I look at him and I go, I'm not worried.
Speaker 1:First off, saying that you're going to do things and you don't do them, I go. That makes me irritated. I go and I don't want to be irritated. And he just goes. He goes. Why are you so angry? Why are you so angry and he puts his hand on my shoulder. Oh no, like, just like, putting it just like in a dominating way, like just like, just just like this, like grading like this, yeah, and I just, I like shook his shoulder, my his hand on my shoulder, I put the camera down, I went yo, bro. I was like, if you touch me again, it's going to be a fucking problem. I'm not playing what you do. I'm not here to play with you, bro, and we're just looking at each other. And then he squared up a little bit with me. He was getting in his bag and that's when I went what are you going to do? What do you think you're going to do over here right now? And then he just looked at me and he walked away. Could have avoided all of that unnecessary yeah, all of that, all that. But yeah, people are just weird. People are fucking strange. They just want I don't know if it's a especially the guys, I don't know if it's just a testosterone thing or the egos, egos, man. Crazy, yeah, crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's a kid, there's a kid at jujitsu. He's super nice kid man. He gives his first class, first class. I just taught him how to do an elbow escape. I mean, that's like one of the most basic things. And even when you try to hit it, especially on upper belts, it barely works. Yeah, so like I'm showing how to do it, he barely knows what he's doing and then, after we're done drilling it for like a couple of minutes, he looks at me and he just goes. So how do I do you think I'm gonna be good at this? And I'm like dog, you got a while. Man, it takes time. Yeah, just wait till your knee pops. Yeah, yeah, then you'll be like fuck, I was like.
Speaker 1:So it's like I don't know the egos and not to say that he was ego driven which is like you just want to be. You don't want to be weak, you don't want to be, you don't want to be emasculated, you don't want to be like that. People have a hard time of just like suppressing that inner thing. I'm cool, bro, I'll tap to anybody, I don't care. Yeah, no matter, don't matter to me. I'm actively trying not to fight people, but I'm also not going to let you get away with shit when you act like that. So don't act like that. So, on the topic of Dubai Dubai was awesome. Truthfully, it was cool. The flight was long as shit. I had a dude coughing on the back of my neck for 13 hours and he didn't speak English and I was like man, you're always getting screwed on flights it bro I always get screwed on flights, bro I have babies and stuff.
Speaker 1:I have people message me no babies on the flight. Yeah, I guess you. I guess you take all that baby karma. Yeah, it's like man. Every flight I'm on, all I hear the baby screaming the entire time. Every flight to germany, back from germany to hawaii, back from Germany to Hawaii, back from Hawaii, fucking California. Three or four times Vegas. Every flight there was a child screaming on my flight. And then I have friends that had never had a kid on their flight ever. I'm like what time are you booking these flights? Because I need to know. I book 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night flights. Baby. I book ass cracker dawn flights. Baby, I.
Speaker 2:I book midday flight baby, the videos kill me.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, like baby's screaming, I pay for the wi-fi, intentionally to show people how miserable I am yeah sometimes and, truthfully, towards the end of it I would just laugh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just laugh. I laugh at the parents. I laugh at them. I'm just like, because it's ridiculous. Man, I I know in some ways they can't handle, especially little, little little babies.
Speaker 1:You can't help it. I get it, I really do. I don't have a kid, but I can only imagine the anxiety that you go through once your baby starts screaming. I got to get out of here because I don't want these people to judge me. I get it.
Speaker 1:Even if you don't care about people and their judgment of you, you still have that feeling of like I don't want to disturb people. Yeah, if you're a good human, yeah, but some of them don't care. That's the thing. Some of them don't care and then they have like kids, five, six, seven. You're like dude, yeah, discipline your child. Tell them that that's enough.
Speaker 1:It's like my next door neighbor. Her kids walk around like they're wearing steel shoes when they're there, running back and forth, back and forth, and my? I tell my landlord all the time hey, kenji. I tell my landlord all the time, yeah, you love alex kenji, he's been sleeping, um. So I tell my neighbor too, and I'm just like bro, it's bad man and he she didn't tell him that she had kids before he came in, but all you hear is just like the like, the, the feet it's like and the screaming, like the screech that children do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like yo, I know that they're excited, they're little kids, they're having fun, but at some point as a parent, you gotta be like hey, you gotta take it down. There's people that live in this building. There's people on this flight. No, every flight I'm on, I get the parents that are just like, well, fuck it, fuck it, let him cry, I'm doing it, great. So, anyway, that Dubai trip would be something else. And do me a favor, hold that belt up for the camera. I know it's heavy man. I was not expecting it to be that heavy there it is.
Speaker 1:Get in there. Yeah, oh, did he knock the camera over? Yeah, it moved. I think he's such a jerk man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I was like, did I move?
Speaker 1:No Kenji the jerk.
Speaker 2:That's what happened. Yeah, what happened? Because I looked up when Kenji was, I was like, oh, I must have moved back, or something.
Speaker 1:What a jerk. And I don't even think that thing was rolling the entire time. But anyway, that's exciting. You fucking manifested that shit you talked about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember we said it next time. Next time you come back, it's gonna be on and I'm dude, I love that it couldn't.
Speaker 1:It couldn't happen, truly couldn't happen to a a better deserving human on this planet for real. Thank you, and I'm excited to see where you go next for those that aren't following you currently. Where can they follow my man?
Speaker 2:Alex. Instagram Alex Vargas 631, and then Facebook Alex Vargas. That's it. I'm about to delete mainly Instagram. I'm about to deactivate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah it's corny, bro, I'm over it. Yeah, facebook, facebook shot the weirdos yeah now you want to talk about weirdos yeah, that's where they really are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're hanging out over there. Instagram sucks too. I'm like well, he's getting to like do you gotta post more? I'm like oh alright.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe we could slot you in with some of the brands I'm working with. Yeah, that'd be cool, that'd be fun stuff, that'd be great everybody listening. I appreciate all y'all for hanging out with us. I'm talking to this camera as if it's on I don't know, but have to throw your hands over and you'd be like, hey, it is what it is. I'm not gonna get mad over audio. Whatever I got all the audio that's. That's the podcast. Um, everybody, please continue to share, like, subscribe on the uh podcast. It helps me to continue sitting down with amazing human beings like alex and uh. I hope you learned something. I hope you laughed with us. It was a good time. We learned a lot. We know that alex is never going to make the transition into bare knuckle boxing, no way. I appreciate all y'all for fucking with us, but for now, peace.