Fragle Rok

Interview: Rafael Miranda - MMA Coach and Professional Fighter

• Fragle

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:00:58

We break down what makes Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu different from wrestling and judo, why the guard changed everything, and how points, position, and patience win when submissions don’t come. Rafael shares how he structures training for performance: sport-specific strength to bulletproof joints, steady cardio on the road and bike to build an engine, and mat rounds that sharpen timing and strategy. He explains cutting to 66 kg for MMA, climbing to 86 kg for absolute divisions, and using clean carbs and consistent meals to fuel results without wrecking recovery.

Beyond medals and gyms, this is a guide to mindset. We talk composure after a punch, why tapping early saves careers, and how community shapes outcomes more than talent. In Taiwan’s fast-growing combat scene, most train for stress relief—not fame—and still gain confidence, self-defense skills, and the ability to walk away when it matters. The closing note is simple: surround yourself with people on the same mission, work your craft every day, and keep faith when no one else does.

New Studio And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_07

All right, ladies and gentlemen, what's happening? Welcome to another episode of the Fraggle and Friends podcast. Yo, dude, get off your fucking phone. All right, sweet. My guest today is Rafael Marando. I say your last name. Miranda. What's up, my man?

SPEAKER_00

Sat priest, my pleasure to be here, my friend.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, dude. This is the first podcast at the new crib. Wow. Yeah, usually we're in like a tight little cubicle of a room. So I'll see you. See it. This feels better already.

SPEAKER_00

This looks so beautiful. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, man. Yeah. Go dip in the hot springs in the river when we're done. See if you can keep that microphone like as close and as yeah, like straight up and down to your mouth. Okay. Act like it's something you don't want to be there. Alright, word. So uh sweet. I get to learn a lot about you that I feel like you probably never told me. I want to know how you got to where you are today. But first, but first, let's just talk talk about where you are today and what you do, like what your job is.

Discovering UFC And The Gracie Legacy

SPEAKER_00

I'm uh right now I'm a work at uh UFC Gym in Taiwan here, of course. And I've been working there for five years, and I teach the jiu-jitsu, boxing, and MMA. Yeah, so first started all of that like uh when I was 13 to 14 years old. Oh, always I like I have a big passion for martial arts. Before I trained jiu-jitsu, I used to train in capoeira, judo, karate, all those kind of martial arts, but I never really training serious until get get b be good on one of those martial arts. Uh really serious. So I start to watch the first UFCs, you know, uh the very, very first. What year was that? Like uh I was that it was one 1999. 1999. Yeah. Wow. You know, and I saw the Brazilian, they they got very famous. They they created the UFC, you know. Was the Brazilian, yeah, yeah. Brazilian guy, the Gracie family, Roy, Royal Gracie, who created he created the the UFC to prove that Jiu-Jitsu was the best martial arts who could beat everyone. You know, they put jujitsu uh jiu-jitsu fighter against wrestling fighter, boxing fighter, mua thai fighter, all those kind of martial arts they put it in UFC and the Jiu-jitsu got the guy a fighter, the Brazilian guy Royce Gracie, he got beat everyone. So that's how Jiu-Jitsu got very famous, and that's how the Brazilian people got very famous as well. Also, they have a big culture of Vale Tudo, what we today we call MMA, you know? Vale tudo was created with not many Tudo.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, is that like Spanish, Portuguese?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. It's an MMA today, yeah, but they created more rules when they became from Vale tudo to MMA. Vallitudo is MMA, but before was allowed you someone kick your balls, was allowed uh push behind off the head.

SPEAKER_07

This is like the days of like when there was like backyard fighting, right? Or cage fighting, and everything was sort of like bare knuckle, no rules, not that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, something like that. But bare knuckles is something right now, they create right now.

SPEAKER_07

They kind of came back with that one guy. I forgot his name. Uh was a really crazy dude. He was fighting in the UFC. He said he's like got a bunch of African DNA. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'll figure his name out later. I think he's like one of Mike, Mike Mike Musma. Oh, I think I I know he fought one of those the twins from Ohio that fought Tyson. What was that kid's name that fought Tyson? I forgot I forgot too for like a couple fucking burnouts in there. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, he bought he bought fought Mike or Mikey something, who I think is one of the champions in the bare knuckle bare knuckle community. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So anyway, so always I had the dream to live from Brazil, and also I had a dream to become a fighter. And the first uh valitude I the first UFC I watched, and I said, Man, one day I want to fight that shit, man. Really? I got pretty love with that, and then I started to train jiu-jitsu, always with the goal to be a fighter, not just for training for fun, you know. Always I had tried to push myself to competition, you know. And the beginning for me was very difficult. I was pretty bad.

SPEAKER_07

I was at what age are you talking about?

SPEAKER_00

Uh when I was 13 to 14 years old. Okay.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So my first my first jiu-jitsu tournament, I got disqualified. I did some illegal movement in my point. I was very feeling so nervous, you know. Yeah. And and my friends after that, they said, man, better change the sport. You are not for that. You know, they said, no, man, one, I'm gonna be good in this sport one day, no matter how long it's gonna take, but one day I will be good on that. And you know, I had to put a lot of dedication, always try to be around of people who have the same dream as me, same goal, like compete in big Jiu-jitsu tournaments, and one day leave from Brazil, you know. And after I become a jiu-jitsu brown belt, purple belt, after being trained in jiu-jitsu for seven, eight years, and then I started to push myself to train boxing, and then I start to compete in boxing, and then I start to train Mai Thai. And when I was 22 years old, I did my first MMA fight as professional in Brazil, yeah, yeah, in Brazil. And after that, I just keep training. Did you win? Yeah, yeah, I won. Oh yeah, yeah. And then I did like uh 12-13 profess MMA professional fights, and then I got uh the chance to fight for the uh I start to fight the the event in Brazil we call Jungle Fight. It's a very big event, like once you get the belt from the jungle fight, and then you get into UFC. It's one one the one of biggest tournament before the UFC. So I had I had the chance to win the the the belt from jungle fight, and but I they didn't sign me to the UFC. I think they would like to see my opponent win beat me up for then put him to fight the 1 FC. Because this guy I said 1 FC. Oh, to UFC, not 1 FC, yeah, UFC. And I got beat this guy by the second time. I got to I got beat him in 2011, and after 2011 he didn't lose, he got beat every one jungle fight, and they they put me to fight with this guy again in 2013.

SPEAKER_07

He had won several fights in a row, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, and I had and I had a couple of fights in the row as well, and I got uh and I was winning all those those fights I had.

SPEAKER_07

Gotcha, and these are all weight-based, right? You're in like in a specific weight class, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Featherweight. Yeah, featherweight, yeah, yeah, until 66 kg.

SPEAKER_01

Featherweight is like up to 66.

SPEAKER_00

Uh no, it's like from 62 kg to 66.

SPEAKER_07

62 to 66.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, okay. Yeah. So when before I was to cut down like 10 kg to fight, it was it's very hard to make the weight.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

Early Training, Setbacks, And First Wins

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, I got to beat this guy, so and then I I I thought I I would sign with the UFC, but I didn't because I didn't have a good manager in this time. So it's a lot of politics, you know. And then I moved to US in 2014. I moved to US to train like for nine months at uh Black House. It's a very famous uh MMA gym in California, in Los Angeles. I was training there with uh uh Anderson Silva, Liotto Mashida, Rafael dos Anjos, many UFC legends with them in the same gym. No, yeah, in the same gym with same coats, yeah, right. Wow, yeah, damn. Was very, very good experience to myself, and also I trained with uh Rafael Cordero, he's uh I'm ma coach as well. He's a very famous, he got training many, many UFC legends as well, like uh Vanderleysilva and other guys. So, and then I uh also I trained with in Brazil with some UFC fighters, my friend Renato Moicano and uh Rani Aya, and this one of my friends, this guy who ran the he has a friend who who who knows someone have a gym in Taiwan, and who was looking for MMA coach and jujitsu coach, and he introduced me to this guy, and then I have a chance to come to Taiwan.

SPEAKER_07

Had you heard of Taiwan before?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, a little bit. I thought Taiwan was part of China.

SPEAKER_05

Well, Chinese people would agree with you.

SPEAKER_00

And here I am.

SPEAKER_07

I would I just went to Laos, Laos is like the borders China, yeah, yeah. And there's Chinese people everywhere. The hostel I stayed at was ran by Chinese people. The half the restaurants I went to were ran by Chinese people, so I showed up in Laos expecting to speak English, and actually you can speak Chinese and totally survive in Laos. It was crazy. And so I told them I'm from Taiwan, and they're like, Oh, Taiwan is China, and then I'm saying, I don't understand what you're saying. What? Like, Taiwan belongs to China. I'm like, well, Tim Butong. I don't understand what you're saying. Anyway, I'm hungry.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, man. All my friends in Brazil, they think I'm living China. For real? For real.

SPEAKER_07

I think I got an aunt that might still think I'm in Korea. And I think somebody else thinks I'm in Thailand. I still get like, how's Thailand going? I'm like, I'm Americans for you. I guess in Brazil too, a bit, eh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When I got offered a job in Taiwan, I had never heard of Taiwan. Never even heard of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Nice. You came already to Taiwan with the jobs, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. I graduated. I was gonna go to Japan. So I studied Japanese, but then these people who had already traveled the world were like, dude, don't go to Japan. Like, you're all tatted up, you can't go to the bathhouses. Because you have the tattoos, you'll kind of be grouped in one category.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_07

And the Japanese society doesn't like tattoos because it's associated with like yakuza. Right. And the Japanese. I've never been there, so I don't really know, but they say the society's more closed off and not as welcoming to foreigners. So these guys were like, you should look at some other countries and try to find something more open, more open-minded, right? More welcoming of foreigners. Right, right. And then I kind of accidentally found Taiwan.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Being Japan a couple of times there, people almost don't speak English. It's so hard to communicate there. Really? Yeah, they all they speak Japanese all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

So that's what I was scared of when I went to House.

SPEAKER_00

For foreigners to visit the places there to do everything.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_07

Did you so that's interesting, right? There's a lot of BJJ out of Japan as well, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the Brazilian community in Brazil is huge, man. I go, it's been two years I'm going to straight to Japan there to compete. There's a big competition there we call Asian Open, organized by the IBJJF. IBJJF is the biggest jiu-jitsu federation in the world. Wow. Yeah, they make it.

SPEAKER_07

It's based in Japan. What? It's based in Japan or it's a US. It's based out of Japanese.

SPEAKER_00

But they promote a jiu-jitsu event around the world. Okay. Yeah. So this competition there is the biggest competition in Asia. So a lot of people from many countries from Asia they go there to compete in Japan. And the competition there is like in four four days of competition. Wow. For key for no just adults. And there there are so many Brazilians. So they speak Japanese as well. Wow. Yeah. So the Brazilian community in Japan is huge. Yeah. There are a lot of uh Brazilian restaurant. Really? Yeah. Supermarket, everything.

SPEAKER_07

Wow. It's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah. So you said you'll go there in two years to compete. Yeah, yeah.

Jungle Fight Belt Run And UFC Hurdles

SPEAKER_00

I went last year, I got the third place. And I went this year again, I got true true true first place. No shit. I compete in in my division. Also, I compete the open weight, absolute. Like uh people with semi-belt as me, but the the the weight doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_07

Oh so first you can so you competed in your division. Yeah. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00

My division is like uh medium heavyweight. Right now I'm 86 kg.

SPEAKER_07

86 kg, and that's a middle heavy weight.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, medium heavyweight. Okay. And also I compete in the absolute. We call absolute or open weight. Okay. It's like uh you can fight with someone with 200 kg or with someone with 50 kg. Doesn't matter the weight. Uh huh. Just the belt. The belt. The white belt.

SPEAKER_07

What can you tell me about belts?

SPEAKER_00

I'm uh in jiu-jitsu. We have uh four belts, like uh blue belt, purple belt, brown belt, and black belt.

SPEAKER_07

So you start with blue?

SPEAKER_00

No, start white. Start white. Yeah, after white, white belt, yeah, and then you get the blue belt. But also depends. That's for adults. For adults. But I took yellow belt and orange belt. When because when you start too young, they they have more belts.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, say when I did taekwondo as a kid. Yeah. I mean, it's taekwondo, but I think there was like eight colors or something. Right. Yeah. I see.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of uh like you talk about taekwondo. Taekwondo, I don't agree much with taekwondo, also with the other martial arts that promote the students to black belt too early. You see, some some people so young, like 16 years old, 15 already, black belt. Yeah, so that's not really I don't agree much with that, you know. You should people should be old a little bit to be able to receive the black belt. Like you should to get more experience and train more.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. Right. So this year you went to IB was it IBJ. IBJ J F IBJF in Japan. You compete.

SPEAKER_00

You did two I come I got gold medal in two divisions.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. Wow. So you won in both of them. Yeah. You got first place in both? Both, right. So was it like a process of elimination or just one component and then you're done?

SPEAKER_00

No, man. There are many, many, many fights for you to oh, so you and you just and also you are you just can compete in the open weight if you get into the first, if you get qualified, like for example, you must must fight in your category, you must be one of those, you must get it at least the third place. Okay, you know, for example, if you don't get medal in your division, you are not able to compete the open weight division.

SPEAKER_07

So you do that at the competition, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so at the competition, you can win the first place in my category, and then I sign up to compete the open weight in the same day. Wow. Yeah, I did seven seven, I had seven matches in one day, man. Wow. It's crazy. So so tired. That's intense. I watched you compete once, right?

SPEAKER_07

And I think that was also like a process of elimination. You gotta win this fight, yeah, and then if you win this one, you go to another one, and then you work your way to the top, right? Until there's one final match. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That was a sad day. It is.

SPEAKER_00

That's how we live, man. One day we win, one day we we learn. You know, one day we win, one day we learn. Like that. If you don't don't go there and try try to win, you never know, right? You must have a courage to challenge yourself, man.

SPEAKER_07

A lot of us don't do things because we're too scared to fail, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, a lot of people they don't they try, they don't even try once. Well, they don't try anything, right? They don't try anything. They have so many fear of fail. Yeah, so biggest fear is the biggest fear is not is not trying man.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, yeah. The biggest failure is not to try at all. Yeah, fuck yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Huh. Yeah, we and also this year I compete here in Taiwan, had uh some big competition as well. Who the winner got qualified to compete in Guan. Island near Guam, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

It's like it belongs to the US, I think.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. And I got to win as well. I got to win my category, uh-huh. And also I I won the the the open weight division. So I got uh I got the the flight tickets paid to compete in Guan next month. What? Yeah, oh my god, yeah, and the winner there get they get 3,000 US dollars for the first place.

SPEAKER_05

Paid tickets to Guam, yeah, plus hotel plus hotel, everything's paid.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, everything's paid. Oh my god, yeah, you're living the fucking dream. And if you win, would you have a high probability of winning? Because it seems like most of the time you do win.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but the problems is because I I gotta fight with the guys heavier than me. Yeah, so you're gonna you're going to do the open weight, right? Yeah, yeah. This time I go, I have I saw my opponents. They I'm the lightest one.

SPEAKER_07

Really? Yeah. And you're 86 kg.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, no. The the open weight. But you, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right now me 86. I'm trying to gain weight. Yeah. As much I can to get heavy a little bit. So I check my check out my opponents. One of them, they are heavyweight, what means he's uh 40, 94 kg. 94 is heavyweight.

SPEAKER_07

You said you're middle heavyweight, mid medium heavy, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Middle heavy. Yeah, yeah. He's until 88 with the gi. They count with the gi.

SPEAKER_06

Okay, you get weight with the gi. Yeah, yeah. Got you.

SPEAKER_00

So another guy, he has he's a super heavyweight. Super heavyweight's like uh till 100 kg. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

So you're gonna fight one dude that's 94, one that's 100.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, I'm they are they we are in the same division. I don't know with who I'm gonna fight. But if I wanna, I'm gonna compete with those guys.

SPEAKER_06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And there are two guys ultra heavyweight, it's like above 1k 10 kg. 100 kg. Damn. Yeah. So they have some advantage on that, you know.

Black House In LA And Path To Taiwan

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, especially in BJJ, right? As compared to like, let's say it was boxing.

SPEAKER_00

If it was boxing, these guys are really martial arts, their weight matters a lot, man. Yeah. One thing is one gets punched from someone similar as you, another thing is to get punched by a guy 10, 20 kg heavy than you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Make a huge difference. Well, and and BJJ, I mean, if a dude that big gets on top of you, it's gonna be really hard to get him off, right? Yeah, yeah. Yes. So you really gotta have some good technique. Right. Yeah. And strength. And strength, of course. You got plenty of that, eh? Yeah. How hard how hard is cutting weight and putting weight on for you?

SPEAKER_00

Oh man, they both are pretty hard. They're both not easy. If I want to put some weight, I must make a diet to eat in three, three hours, four or four hours, eat like uh 200 grams of carbs like rice and 200 grams of meat.

SPEAKER_07

So sometimes not 200 grams of protein, but 200 grams of meat.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, protein. Protein. Yeah, meat's protein, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Well, I mean, like if I have like a chicken breast, right? I'm like, all right, so this chicken breast has about 26 grams of protein.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Oh, oh, I know, I know. Yeah, yeah. We counted them the grams of meat, not the protein. We got you, gotcha. But uh, if you have it to do like three, four, five meals of that, it's not easy. You'll you'll be feeling hungry to eat all the time, you know.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, you're eating even when you're not hungry, right? Yeah, every three hours you're having like 200 grams of carbs, 200 grams of meat, right? Some veggies in there. Yeah, yeah. You've always eaten a lot of carbs since I've known you, which I don't, but I don't train the way you do.

SPEAKER_00

Me easy to lose weight, that's why I must eat it. It's easy for you to lose weight.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. Oh, you got that, I forget what it's called, but that's a specific kind of body type, right? Ectomorph, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm the opposite of you. Right. Like if I don't do shit and I don't train, I just get fat. Right. So you would get skinny? Yeah, yeah. Really? You don't seem like that.

SPEAKER_00

I have friends that I stop to work out for two weeks and start start to drink or don't sleep well. Yeah, I cut weight so so easy.

SPEAKER_07

Really? Sleep has a big plays a big part of that, huh? Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. You sleep well. Yeah, it's always get enough sleep. It's tough. It's tough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Also to cut weight, it's not easy. Everything's difficult, right? Yeah. To cut weight, uh, the first two weeks is pretty difficult to sleep. Sometimes you feel hungry. Yeah. To sleep, and it's hard to sleep. Yeah. Right. And you feel a little bit weak through training. Yeah. Yeah. But it's been a long time. I don't cut weight. As when I when I was to fight MMA, I I was light a little bit, was like a 77, 76, and I had to cut to 66. Shit, man.

SPEAKER_02

66. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. And make the weight one day, the next day I I get you, I was able to gain almost 89 kg.

SPEAKER_07

In a day? Yeah, just from eating?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, eating you drink a lot of water.

SPEAKER_07

Uh oh, you mean like you got your weight down just to get into the competition? Yeah. And then the next day you're just like back to eating. And then you put that much weight on that quick. Right. Wow. So you're probably dehydrating yourself. Right. Not eating like sauna or something to get all the sweat out.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, stop to eat salt a little bit.

SPEAKER_07

You stop to eat salt. Why?

SPEAKER_00

Cold salt that is uh make the water registration.

SPEAKER_07

Uh water, the water will stay in your body when you have salt. Yeah. I hear a lot of people say they put salt in their water. Like for electrolytes or to get more hydrated and put salt in their water.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe.

SPEAKER_07

So you would so if you're trying to cut weight, you would reduce salt from your diet. Because the salt will cause water to stay in your body, right? Cause you to be heavier. Yeah. Right on. Alright, let me see if I can go back. I've had many questions for you. So the Gracies, that's a family. Right. Like who's the dad and who are the kids? What is that? I kind of forgot.

SPEAKER_00

Who learned jiu-jitsu was Carlos Gracie. He learned jiu-jitsu from a Japanese guy who went to Brazil. And he teached him the the the Japanese jiu-jitsu. He learned the Japanese Jiu-Jitsu. The first Gracie. He went to Japan. No, no, the Brazil. The Japanese went to Brazil. After the Second War in Japan, a lot of people ran from Japan to Brazil.

SPEAKER_07

After World War II. Yeah. A lot of Japanese fled and went to Brazil. Yeah. Whoa.

SPEAKER_00

And is that what caught the Japanese community in Brazil, in Sao Paulo? Uh-huh. Is huge. Really? Yeah. Whoa. Also, there's a lot of Taiwanese, Korean.

SPEAKER_07

Really? So you did know about Taiwan before you came to Taiwan because you probably knew Taiwanese people.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, really? No, really. No. I live in Brazilia.

SPEAKER_07

Oh.

SPEAKER_00

I don't live in Sao Paulo. Some people. There are many states in Brasil. Is that a country? No, but it's a state. It's a state in Brazil. State in Brazil. Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro. Yeah. Most of people just know those two places because they are the famous ones. Right. But I live in Brazilia. Brazilia right now is the capital. The capital from Brazil. Okay. Yeah. But before, many years ago, was Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, the capital.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. How many states are in Brazil?

SPEAKER_00

Uh 27 states. 27 states. Yeah. Wow. US there are 50. Yeah. Huge.

SPEAKER_07

50. 51? 49?

SPEAKER_05

49. I'm trying to forget.

Competing In Asia: IBJJF And Absolute

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the Carlos Gracie, he learned the Japanese jujitsu. And then they the and his brother then start to learn from him from car from Carlos Gracie, his brother Helio Gracie. But was too difficult for him because he was a little bit weak. He developed some uh Jiu-jitsu new techniques. That you were you wasn't need to use too much strength. He adapted that jiu-jitsu the way he was able to pratize. And then he he created some kind of jiu-jitsu techniques what became the Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

SPEAKER_07

So Carlos was teaching his brother, but his brother was too weak to do the traditional Japanese methods, so he adjusted it in a way that he could do it. And that's what gave birth to the Brazilian style jujitsu. So is Japanese jiu-jitsu just called JJ? You mean like because BJJ is Brazilian jiu-jitsu, right? So what was it called before I came to Brazil?

SPEAKER_00

It's very interesting. Also, the Braz the Japanese jiu-jitsu, they use they throw some punches and kick when I stand. Oh really? Yeah. But the Brazilian jiu-jitsu, there are no there is no punch and kick.

SPEAKER_07

It's just grappling.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, it's just grab. It looks like a judo. Yeah. When you are standing, just allowed takedowns. Yeah. They use a lot of judo techniques as well. Yeah. And and you have option. They dev also the the Brazilian, the Gracie family, they develop the guard. Guard is when you are on the bottom. On the bottom. Yeah. Okay. Like the Japanese jiu-jitsu, they work more on the top, the top position. So when the person was on the bar, they didn't have much options to defend themselves. So that's the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. They could they they have they develop much more skills when the person is on the barrel. Wow. That's what made the jiu-jitsu very interesting. You know, because not because I'm on the barrel, I'm losing the put the game. Sometimes the person is on the barrel, he's controlling the person who is on top.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, jujitsu is quite complicated. Like chess.

SPEAKER_00

It's like a human chess. Yeah. People call that. How would you know? You said you don't know how to play chess. But it's like if you don't think a lot.

SPEAKER_07

It's all technique and strategy. You told me that was boxing as well. You have to memorize the combos.

SPEAKER_00

You cannot get angry when you get punched. That was the hardest part. That's what separated the good fighter and the bad fighter. Right? If you get angry during the boxing, that's become a street fight. Yeah. Right? You must remember the skills, must use the strategy all the time. Try punch and don't get punched. Yeah. Show some fake punch. Wait for the person to punch you angry. Yeah. And then you use the counter. Yeah. Right. You must fight smart way. Like you see, Mohammed Ali, his fight is very beautiful, man. Yeah. He always runs away from his opponents. He does never go really forward.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

He always try to punch and move around. Punch and move around. Kind of like Floyd Mayweather, too, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. Really light on the feet, really bouncy, always moving around. And making the opponent chase them. Yeah. Which is smart because then the opponent's gonna get tired, right? Yeah. So just wear him down and then put him down. Yeah. Yeah. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Jiu-jitsu's almost the same, like that. Really? Really?

SPEAKER_07

Wear down the opponent. Or let him tire himself out. Right. Yeah. So that's kind of what gave birth to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Carlos was teaching. And then there's what's the other one? Rickson Gracie?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, yeah. Rickson Gracie. He's a Elios Gracie's son.

SPEAKER_07

Andros?

SPEAKER_00

Elio Gracie. Elio Gracie. He's a Carlos brother. Carlos Gracie's brother.

SPEAKER_06

Okay. Yeah. And then his son is.

SPEAKER_00

He had a lot of sons, like uh Rickson Gracie. Royce Gracie. And the the this guy, Roycey Gracie, he was the one who got very famous in the first UFC.

SPEAKER_07

Around the early 2000s. Right.

SPEAKER_00

993. 1993.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, what did you say? The first time. Maybe you said the first UC.

SPEAKER_00

I watched, I watched they were the first UFC I watched was in 1999.

SPEAKER_06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

But they they they have they the first time they they they they made the FC was in 1993.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, okay, okay, right on. And you said Brazil created UFC?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they created the UFC. You can check that on Google.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. So UFC actually started in Brazil.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, it started in US.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, it started in the US. But it started by Brazilians in the US? By Brazilians. By the Gracies?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, by the Gracies.

SPEAKER_07

But Gracie started UFC in America.

SPEAKER_00

Roy and Gracie.

SPEAKER_07

Royon, Royon. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

He created that to prove that Jiu-Jitsu was better than any martial arts.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Before, like uh when people used to fight, they fight, they fight just one martial arts. Right? Right now, right now, people used to train boxing, Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, everything. But many, many years ago, people used to train just on martial arts.

SPEAKER_06

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Right. And after jujitsu win all those martial arts and then became respected by people. And everybody started to get very interested to learn that. Because it's very effective, man.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

Mindset, Fear, And Learning To Lose Well

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, a lot of people. A lot of people.

SPEAKER_00

And it's still growing a lot, this sport. Like in Taiwan, right now, we are in the beginning of that.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. A lot of people don't have any experience or knowledge of combat sports. Right. And I know when I first started boxing, and the first thing my first coach did was he just kept hitting me. And then I'd get mad. And I'd get irritable. He's like, relax. I'm like, fuck you mean relax. You just hit me. And then we'd like to start moving around and hit me again. And I'd get all hyper and pissed off again. He just kept doing that over and over and over again until I finally didn't have an emotional reaction. Oh. And then I could finally get hit and realize I'm not being attacked. This is part of the game. Right. And part of the game is learning how to stay calm when you get hit. When you get mad, your heart rate speeds up. You start sweating and you start losing energy immediately, right? And your opponent can definitely see that, feel that, and take advantage of that. Yeah, yeah, of course. And I think like in the whole world, not enough people train any kind of combat sport, no matter what it is, whether it's boxing or muay thai or BGJ or whatever. Not enough people do that. And because they don't, there's just a lot of bitches in the world.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, people scary.

SPEAKER_07

Like it's important.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right, man. As we are men, you know, we are kids when many years ago. And I had to in my school, always I had some fight. Play some game with someone, and then someone tried to get fight to me for no reason. And then I had to fight for myself, or sometimes I start to bully someone, and I had and then we got some fight. Yeah you know, and it's very important you know how to defend yourself. Big time. It's very important.

SPEAKER_07

Big time. I got bullied a lot growing up, even in my 20s, going to the Grateful Dead shows. Man, I got jumped quite a few times, people trying to rob me. Yeah. And it wasn't until what five years ago, six years ago, I learned how to box. Yeah. And it just reshaped my perception of myself.

SPEAKER_00

You make me more confident. After you know some martial arts, when you get in trouble, not gonna not gonna be missed, you don't know what you do, right? You already gonna have a some experience of that. So that's gonna make it easy for you to be able to defend yourself.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, you also know what to walk away from. Right. Like I don't want to be a part of this because if somebody gets hurt, it's on me. Right, of course. Or when you know how that how that stuff works and somebody's coming at you, you don't even really need to hit them. You know, you can kind of just move out of the way or let them hurt themselves. Of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We always learn that to avoid getting the fight all the time, right? Yeah, because when you're on the street, someone can have a gun, can have a knife. So you cannot just be good as a fight, right? So you must try to be away from the fight all the time. But that is if there is no way to run, you have to fight, man. Yeah, you know, that's gonna be your last chance, your last chance. So better you know and don't have a choose than have a choose and you don't know how.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, it is so Taiwan, the country, the culture, the people, I feel like even like exercise and nutrition is a pretty a relatively new thing for Taiwanese people. And I would say that probably because it's a young country, and not too long ago it was a relatively poor country. And anybody can call me out and say I'm wrong about this, but a lot of Asian countries I think have a strong history with poverty, and having a strong history with poverty, your primary focus is just survival, right? Eating whatever you gotta eat to survive.

SPEAKER_00

Walk, just think about work, yeah. No time to have a to practice some exercise or to take off the health, eat some healthy food.

SPEAKER_07

Right. It's not an option, right? You're you're and even still in a lot of countries, it's still just survival, like in Laos or some of the countries I visited. So yeah, because of that, I think like in Taiwan, for example, people eat a lot. It's a it's part of the culture to eat every time they eat, it's like 70% carbs, which I perceive as a bad thing. Yeah, yeah. You might you might not. I don't know. No, I think so. Yeah. When I eat, I like to eat 60 to 70% protein with every meal. Right. And almost no carbs, right? You train like six six times as much as I do per day. So you do a lot of carbs as well. So I think it's like alien to the culture here to eat less carbs and also to do sports, to do exercise. It's like a new and upcoming thing over the past decade, I think, in Taiwan. And so I think maybe men here aren't as aligned with their masculinity or like being a man, maybe not just Taiwan. Maybe I see that in America too, in every country. But what what are you observing as you work at UFC Gym? And if you you've worked at other MMA gyms as well, in terms of Taiwanese people coming into the MMA world and training. Is it like catching on? Are people getting really into it? Is it having a really positive influence on society here?

Open Weight Challenges And Strategy

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I feel people here really like to right now to practice and and train martial arts, but I feel they they just train for fun, you know. They don't really want to be uh don't have a they don't want to have that as a job, most of people they just train for fun for to stress out of work, family, all the things, but they look very interested for that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

It's really good stress relief. Yeah, it's very good. It's really good stress relief, and it's really good for general health, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um and about uh about uh the the food, I eat I eat a lot of carbs, but it's clean, like rice, you know. I don't eat like things with uh much sugar or oil, those things like that.

SPEAKER_07

I feel like bread and noodles are the bad ones because they're processed and they have flour, right? Right, right. Yeah, but rice and potatoes, yeah, in terms of carbs, those are your better options. Yeah, so you're saying so they are interested in it, but they're not interested in it in to compete or to take it on as a career, they're more interested in it just for fun.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I wanted to like compete. That was something I said to you a long time ago. But it's like to compete, to be able to compete, you gotta have a lot of free time, right, and you gotta have a lot of money. Right. And I think that's really difficult.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

How did you how were you able to like move to America and start competing like financially? Like, did you it's a pretty personal question.

SPEAKER_00

I didn't compete in you in America. What did you say? You started I was living there. I just tried, I was just training there. Yeah, how were you able to just train what? How are you able to survive just training without a job? I saved some money in Brazil. Uh-huh. Also, my parents they helped me a little a little bit. Okay. So I was able to survive there for nine months without I was teaching some some jiu-jitsu class illegal way because I had I had the tourist visa. Uh-huh. So I didn't make money, I didn't get paid well. Yeah. So just get very little money. So that was one of the reasons I came back to Brazil. Because it was hard to make money there.

SPEAKER_07

In America. In America. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I was trying to get some fights there, but I did uh I should wait a little bit more, maybe. And also because I had to get the work visa. I couldn't get an MMA fight with a tourist visa.

SPEAKER_07

Illegally. Illegally, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. So what age did you move to America? I think it was like 26, 27, something like that. And up to that point you had just been training in Brazil?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, after that I come back to Brazil.

SPEAKER_07

Before you went to America.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, before I will go to America, I was training in Brazil. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

And you were working as a coach that whole time?

SPEAKER_00

I was I was working at as uh as a coach as well. Because in Brazil, I I studied uh physical education. You went to school? Yeah, I went to university. Oh no shit. Yeah, yeah. You got a bachelor's. I didn't know that. Yeah. You got a four-year degree in physical education. Yeah, physical education. Oh, in Brazil, if you want to be a personal trainer, yeah, you must go to the university.

SPEAKER_06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Like uh here in Taiwan and in you in America, yeah, you just make a course, yeah, like five, six months, uh-huh, and you then you are able to be a personal trainer. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

It's kind of easy nowadays, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah. So since I always been working in the gym in Brazil. Yeah, you knew exactly what you wanted to do from a very young age. Since my young age.

SPEAKER_07

And this is the only thing you've ever done.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, man. And I they I haven't the support of my family at the beginning, you know. Yeah. Always I try to fight some some friends to support me, yeah, to pay some competition, to help me to pay my travels in Brazil, to go to compete was very tough. Yeah. And my parents always haven't seen my my my friends, my my cousins study a lot, uh, to work to the government, to become a police, to become all the things, you know, and make money. And they my parents always saw me just training, training. And they they they they never thought I was able to live from Brazil and just walk in the martial arts as I as I have uh the dream. But my dream my dream was always to be a UFC fighter, you know. I wouldn't be a coach, I would be a fighter. That's what what I have dedicated all my life.

SPEAKER_07

So your dream was to be a UFC fighter. Yeah, now you work for the UFC gym. Not but you're not a UFC fighter, no, yeah, but you do compete in MMA boxing industries.

SPEAKER_00

I'm still happy. Yeah. Doing what the things I like to do.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right. But as I told you, the beginning, nobody support me, you know, was very hard, very tough.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Part. Until you start to make money, people don't believe in you. Yeah. You know, even your parents. Yeah. Everyone.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to have faith right now. I'm trying to start some pretty uh impossible businesses right now. But yeah, listening to you talk makes me realize you gotta have that dream and you gotta be completely dedicated.

Nutrition, Cutting And Gaining Weight

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and you must be around people who have that same dream, you know. You cannot achieve your dream alone, man. You must be around the people who have been there where you wanna go.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Or they they with people they they wanna go get the same go as you.

SPEAKER_06

Right.

SPEAKER_00

You know, right. Because you're gonna learn from them.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. I have learned that because there was a few times in the past I tried to do things on my own, and then I got discouraged or I got intimidated and I gave up. Yeah, so now I'm trying to put a team together to help me to work together.

SPEAKER_00

Right, you know, have attitudes to to fight for that and do that every day, man. Yeah. Every single day you must work on yeah, work towards your goals.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. But when it comes to BJJ and wrestling, what's the big difference between that?

SPEAKER_00

The difference like a wrestling, for you win a wrestling match, you must have to put your opponents back on the ground and hold for a few seconds, maybe three or five seconds. And they work just take downs. They start the fight. Judo start. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fight start stand, uh-huh. But once you put the opponents back on the ground and control there, then you you you win the match. So what's the difference between that and judo? And yeah, judo is pretty the same. Judo is pretty the same. Okay, but judo, there is no no gi. Oh, rest in there is no gi. Okay. No clothes, right? Okay, yeah. And judo, they we are gi as well. Yeah. And judo, there are many rules, like you cannot take down your opponents by holding his leg. Okay. Must take him down by holding the gi. You know.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, a gi is a big part of the sport, right? You really you learn how to use the gi as a part of it, right? Right. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and jujitsu, if you win the match, you of course they both there are points. If nobody if you cannot be able to submit your opponent, make him give up, and then if the the time passes, nobody gets uh submission, you can win by points. Like any some techniques they count points. If you inverse the position, if you get the takedown, if you get your opponents back, everything counts points. Of course, almost those martial arts like rest and you do, they are pretty the same. They have a point. If nobody gets put your their opponents back on the ground, the winner is gonna be the one who who counts more points.

SPEAKER_07

Like boxing. Yeah, yeah. Are you still doing boxing? Like competing in boxing?

SPEAKER_00

Uh not much since 2023. I haven't competed on boxing.

SPEAKER_07

I remember you telling me like nobody wanted to fight you, right? Because you just keep winning.

SPEAKER_00

I have I never lost some boxing match in Taiwan. You have. Never, never, you've never lost since I moved to Taiwan.

SPEAKER_07

You think it's because Taiwanese men just aren't that strong?

SPEAKER_00

No, they are good. They are good, man. They are good. Yeah, they get improved a lot.

SPEAKER_07

You just have a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00

Because I haven't been training up for many, many years. Yeah, a lot of couple decades, eh? Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, that's a lot of experience. Right. So now you're more focused on just yeah, you're doing the big ass competitions now, right? Didn't you go to Vegas last year?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I went to Vegas last year. Also, I competed the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

And how'd you make out there?

SPEAKER_00

I won one match and won and lost the second match.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. And as soon as you as a that's the same like process of elimination, right? So as soon as you lose your out. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I got you. Wow. And was that all paid as well?

SPEAKER_00

No, no. I got some sponsor to pay my flight tickets to go and then uh and hotel, and then I spent the the money to spend there had to take by myself.

SPEAKER_07

Okay, so not like Guam at all. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Right. And that was the jujitsu world championship. Yeah. And then next year you're going to the IBJF. Is that right? Yeah. In Japan. In Japan again. Right on. Right. And then Guam. It's the open division. Right. When is the Guam thing?

SPEAKER_00

October 5th, 18th.

SPEAKER_07

Soon. Soon. Really soon. Man. A few weeks. A few weeks. Two or three weeks. Is there a big and when you land there, how many days until the competition starts? After two days. After two days.

SPEAKER_00

I land there on Wednesday night or Thursday. And I compete on Saturday.

SPEAKER_07

Is there a time difference between here and there? Probably, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course.

SPEAKER_07

I feel like that would be an added element of difficulty, right? Because then you gotta adjust to the jet lag.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. But not much is today, it's not that far. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_07

Oh, no way.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's just four or five hours from here.

SPEAKER_07

Really? Really? Okay, that's nothing. Yeah. Okay, that's not so it won't be a huge difference in temperature or time. Yeah. Like those would be the two most difficult things to do.

SPEAKER_00

Competing US is much more difficult. Yeah, you're facing a 12 to 15 hour time difference, right? Right.

SPEAKER_07

So that would suck if you go into a fight jet lag.

SPEAKER_00

It's crazy, right? Yeah, in Las Vegas, so so dried. It's crazy. Like if it's really dessert, then I felt that.

SPEAKER_07

Like the really rich guys were wanting to have their own private UFC fights, I think. Yeah, and that would be a pretty big thing to adjust to right before a competition. Yeah. Yeah. Right on, man. I'm trying to think. Yeah, so weight cuts, weight gains, that's your diet. What do you do for uh so every day? I mean, even when you're coaching, you're still training. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, I still train.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, and then you're doing in general. I think you were talking to my buddy about what you do. You do long bike rides, you do 10 kilometer runs, you do weightlifting, and then you coach. And then when do you get your own personal like training in? Do you ever have a coach that trains you?

Gracie Family History And BJJ Evolution

SPEAKER_00

Oh no, really. I pay I have a paid some training just to pass my my workout training. Uh-huh. Yeah, just for that. Some specific training, not to because uh I some specific training focus on martial arts, on jiu-jitsu, on MMA. Because you can I know I have been learning in my my uh most of the time in my uh university just to to teach to train as like uh to hypertrophy, to people be like a bodybuilder, yeah, right? So the train is different when you when for every different sport is different the the training. It's sport they focus more on one kind of uh strength more in the legs, more in the arms, or more like endurance, or more like strength.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, so you do a lot of specific strength training that's gonna make you a better BJ or MMA competitor, right? And then also the bike riding and running for cardio and endurance, right? Right, yeah, yeah. Have you dealt with a lot of injuries?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I'm very lucky. Really? I never had some serious injuries for the time I haven't been training, yeah, and for how many times I have been competing, yeah. I'm very lucky to never had some serious injury to be able to have to do surgery, yeah, or something like that.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. So your body's mostly good, probably because you started at 13, right? Right. So you started shaping your body like when it was developing. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And also because I I know how to I don't push myself too hard, you know, you know and the training. Sometimes when I when someone try to get in my arm and I feel hurt, I just step, I give up. Yeah, I don't try to resist much. You know, that's smart, right? Yeah, of course. You don't have to hurt yourself during the train, okay? Hurt yourself during the fight.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right? But during the train, you don't have to, of course, you must train hard, you must push yourself, but everything that is a limit, right?

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. Cannot some people don't know when to stop, right? Yeah. Our friend, our mutual friend, the devil. I think he's got quite a few injuries. He said his feet are all messed up or something from jujitsu. Right. From what I've heard, like it's pretty easy to get injured in jujitsu. A lot of people do have a lot of like spinal problems or joint problems, ligament problems. Right. Knee problems. Yeah. You've managed to bypass that, eh? Yeah. Maybe it's taking the right supplements.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Also, by doing work out as well, that helps a lot to prevent injury. A lot of people they train jiu-jits, but they don't don't don't work out.

SPEAKER_07

Like weightlifting? Yeah. Yeah. Just like all weightlifting in general. Right. Squats, deadlifts, everything, right? It's all important.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Make your ligament stronger. Yeah. Gain muscle. Right on. But everything you must train with the technique, right? Must know how to do their this proper squat, deadlift. Otherwise, also gonna hurt yourself.

SPEAKER_07

Right.

SPEAKER_00

You can do practice that in the right way.

SPEAKER_07

You can do everything right, or you can do everything wrong, right? Right. Hmm. Yeah, I'm just kind of getting back into strength training. I was just doing cardio, just cardio there for a minute, but now I'll get back into strength training. I had to take a break because I got a fresh tattoo. Right. But I think it's all healed up, ready to go, baby. Ready to go. I was enjoying the runs. I was getting up to like 14, 17 kilometer runs, which is nice. Really nice. You you generally just do 10 kilometer runs?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Right now I do short to like 5K. 5k. Yeah, still like a month, two or three months to do 10k.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. Yeah. Solo run? Like by yourself? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I enjoyed the hash.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, the hash runs.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, hash runs. The guys are pretty fun.

SPEAKER_07

Uh so listeners, let me tell you what a hash run is real quick. It's so weird. I think it was started by the military in Southeast Asia or something, and there's like a huge group of people, they get together, and then one person's called the hare, right? Yeah. And then he'll have a friend, and they take off running first, and they have a whole path pre-planned, and they have a bag of flour, and then they leave a trail of flour, sort of, and then they take off running, and then like 10-15 minutes later, the walkers start walking, then 10-15 minutes later, the runners start running, and then the goal of the runners is to catch the hairs, the guys who left first because they're leaving this trail of flour. And then if you catch them, you win. And then afterwards, everyone just drinks beer and talks shit and makes really perverted jokes.

SPEAKER_01

That's the reason of the run. What are they called?

SPEAKER_07

Drinkers with a running problem. I think that's their motto. So even running with the hash runners. Yeah. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00

I teach a private class for one of my students. He he introduced me for this group of people. Cool. So I've been I went there with him a couple times, so I enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_07

Okay, cool. I've done it a few times. I haven't done it for a while. But I have a friend that usually invites me to those. That's cool. My other buddy was just telling me about running groups. He said there's a lot of really cool running groups in Taiwan. It's like a up-and-coming fad. And it's yeah, a good place to meet people. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, I might do that this coming Thursday. Hell yeah. You do any cold exposure or anything like that? Like cold bass, cold showers, cold plunges. I know you're too scared to try mine.

SPEAKER_05

Why don't you do my cold plunge?

SPEAKER_00

Just scared more during daytime, we can do that. That's nice time.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Hell yeah.

Combat Sports Growth In Taiwan

SPEAKER_07

Well, the river, the river's been pretty cold since the typhoon that we got. Yeah. Dude, I went in the river two nights ago and it was cold. Wow. It felt fucking great. And we got a new hot spring at the hot springs right now. Because like where we're about to go, ladies and gentlemen, is like a wild hot spring outdoor next to the river where like a group of old people take care of it and keep it up and kept. But a pipe burst from one of the paid hot springs. And so what these old people did is they saw where it broke and they took these pipes and ran it all the way down to the wild hot springs and dug out a little pool. And now we got one little hot spring of like the original hot springs. So the water is a little different, the texture is different, the feel is different. It's a little bit like thicker, slimier, and stuff like that. So we'll get to try that today as well. I mean this is so dope. Yeah, we got the cold river, then like a warm spring, hot spring, a kind of hot spring. It's like everything, everything. We'll take some videos. Also, yeah, man. Cool, dude. I guess we can tie it up there. That's what's up, man. Dedicate to your dream, don't give up, even when other people don't believe you can do it. Yeah, man. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, believe in yourself always. Yeah. If you don't make it, nobody's gonna make that for you, man. If you don't work for your dreams, nobody will make that.

SPEAKER_07

Nobody's gonna do it for you, huh? It's on you. Alright, word up. Let's get out of here, man. Let's go to the hot springs.

SPEAKER_00

Let's go, my man. Alright.

unknown

I think it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_04

Try to get paid for the get down. You can't take a shit now.

SPEAKER_03

That's just how it's going. You can't take a shit now. This is how it goes on.