Speaker 1: They want to offer us a hundred million dollars. Me
Speaker 1: isn't gonna have to go in the back room and
Speaker 1: talk about this, and we want we want to do
Speaker 1: it a hundred million dollars. You know, you got mom
Speaker 1: and dadd Now they they living up there in the
Speaker 1: upper room and they living somewhere nice now you know.
Speaker 1: So you know that's the conversation men and would have
Speaker 1: to have. But right now it don't make no sense
Speaker 1: for me because and I've said it before, two Nigerians
Speaker 1: having belts, right, it's more important than do that all
Speaker 1: my life, the grinding all my life, sack fights, hustle,
Speaker 1: back price, one slice got the dice swad all my life.
Speaker 1: I've been grinding all my life, all my life, the
Speaker 1: grinding all my life, sacond fights, hustle, pack price, one
Speaker 1: slice got the brother dice to swad all my life.
Speaker 1: I've been grinding all my life. Hello, welcome to another
Speaker 1: edition of Club Sha Shake. I am your whole Shannon Sharp.
Speaker 1: I'm also the proproud of Club Sha Shake. The guy
Speaker 1: that's stopping by for conversation on the drink today is
Speaker 1: one of the USC's best. He's the reigning and defending
Speaker 1: well toweight chance. He was the pound for pound best
Speaker 1: fighter in the UFC twenty twenty one Fighter of the Year,
Speaker 1: King of the Octagon. The Nigerian Nightmare, Kamaro Uzma. How
Speaker 1: you doing, br I'm good, I'm good. Hold on, hold on,
Speaker 1: hold on the be here. I got ask that name,
Speaker 1: Nigeria Nightmare. Now you know Christianna Coore, you had that name? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Have you ever met Yeah? I actually met him. It's
Speaker 1: a crazy story, I do. I did a little bit
Speaker 1: of research on it, okay, because it's when you're growing
Speaker 1: up a Nigerian athlete. Growing up, you hear that name
Speaker 1: a lot, right. He's not the first to have a name,
Speaker 1: oh he not. No, We've had a plenty of famous
Speaker 1: soccer players that had the name. So it was just
Speaker 1: a name that that just signifies excellent, right. So it
Speaker 1: was if it was any Nigerian at the top of
Speaker 1: their game and they respected sport, that was the name
Speaker 1: you had to carry on that torch. And so growing up,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I wish I haven't was, you know,
Speaker 1: in a sports where I could carry on that name.
Speaker 1: So when I got into him and May, I was like,
Speaker 1: there's no one in this space with that name, right,
Speaker 1: I need that right, So I carried on the name
Speaker 1: for a while, so you know, you're building the buzz.
Speaker 1: You're building the buzz. And then once I got to
Speaker 1: that level where I was about the challenge for the title, right,
Speaker 1: I had the USC do the research or reach out
Speaker 1: to him and he was actually there. He watched me
Speaker 1: become the champions. Okay, he was there also the other
Speaker 1: Nigeria ninemare with Samuel Peters heavy WBC Heavyweight Champions in
Speaker 1: the World. Okay, he was there as well that night
Speaker 1: in Vegas when I won the title. Okay, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: sure a little a little secret which I haven't told
Speaker 1: anybody this. I did my ancestry. I'm ninety percent Nigeria.
Speaker 1: Of course I see it. I see it the way
Speaker 1: you talk. Oh yeah, okay, we've been claiming you are.
Speaker 1: But what what okay? What do I okay, what foods
Speaker 1: do I need to eat? What do I is there
Speaker 1: certain is there a certain food that I need to
Speaker 1: eat that's uh exclusively for you for the Nigeria. I
Speaker 1: can tell you like chicken I do. I could tell
Speaker 1: you like rice I do. Right there, We're good. We
Speaker 1: like chicken with like rice. Right, you know we're mixing
Speaker 1: other things in there, you know, but that's that's the foundation. Okay,
Speaker 1: when you eat those, you got your size, you got
Speaker 1: your strength. Good. What about gear? See, I know, I
Speaker 1: see you came in here, you cat you nice little
Speaker 1: jacket on. You got your jeans, you got the double
Speaker 1: jeans all. So obviously you know, Nigerias are fashionable. We
Speaker 1: are very fashionable. We we And this is the thing too,
Speaker 1: is I think a culturally you know, in this culture
Speaker 1: that where we a lot of people they see some
Speaker 1: of these guys with this jewelry. There's there's a such
Speaker 1: thing as being sensible, right with especially with all these athletes.
Speaker 1: And when you get money, you gotta be sensible. You
Speaker 1: gotta do the right things first. You gotta make sure
Speaker 1: you have your money in places to where you know,
Speaker 1: you don't never run out of money. Right. But of
Speaker 1: course having the jewelry and the thing we come from kings, right,
Speaker 1: we come from gold and diamonds, so yeah, we like
Speaker 1: those things. Those are in us, right, there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with that. So yeah, Nigerians we were fashioned them. But
Speaker 1: we like to shine. Yeah, if you don't, if you
Speaker 1: don't work for it, you don't earn it. Why not you?
Speaker 1: You gotta show a little exact, exact inspiration. How important
Speaker 1: is it for you to represent the Nigerian culture and
Speaker 1: represent it appropriately. It's very important because and it sounds
Speaker 1: cliche cheesy, but it was something in this for me
Speaker 1: is that famous line in that Spider Man movie. With
Speaker 1: great power comes great responsibility. You don't choose to be
Speaker 1: in a certain position. Sometimes you're placed there to be
Speaker 1: able to touch and effect change in certain ways. And
Speaker 1: that's something that I learned and I I understood early
Speaker 1: because growing up, I didn't really see somebody in the
Speaker 1: spot to show me that all that can be done right,
Speaker 1: that that's something that you can get one day once
Speaker 1: you go down this path. I didn't really see it through,
Speaker 1: you know, the positions that I was put in and
Speaker 1: the doors that I was blessed to be able to
Speaker 1: walk through. I found myself in this place to where
Speaker 1: it's very rare nowadays to be the first to ever
Speaker 1: do anything right and to say that I was the
Speaker 1: first ever Nigeria born Mixed Martial us UFC champion right.
Speaker 1: It is something that I don't take for granted, and
Speaker 1: so it's extremely important for me to show the next
Speaker 1: generations everybody else, all the kids coming up, that hey,
Speaker 1: you do have somebody that represents you right, and that
Speaker 1: you can get to that point one day. You was
Speaker 1: born and raised in Nigeria, what was it like and
Speaker 1: what did as a kid? You mentioned soccer players. Obviously
Speaker 1: the soccer is big, so as a kid growing up
Speaker 1: in Nigeria, what were your aspirations? What did Carmaro Usman
Speaker 1: want to be as a kid? Of course, in sports,
Speaker 1: you we boys, you know, I was growing up it
Speaker 1: was three of us, three brothers until my sister came
Speaker 1: later on, but it was three boys. So if it
Speaker 1: was problems out there, we fought together, you know. And
Speaker 1: then if it was if it was sports, we was
Speaker 1: gonna play together. Football what we called it, which is
Speaker 1: soccer here is what we all played. Of course, everybody
Speaker 1: wanted to be the best at it. You saw some
Speaker 1: of the stars JJ Colches, some of those guys, so
Speaker 1: we all wanted to be like them. So then eventually
Speaker 1: when we immigrated here, it was like now you got
Speaker 1: to simulate to what's going on and the sport wasn't
Speaker 1: so big. And I was in Texas right and so
Speaker 1: foa it was football, or he was playing basketball, right.
Speaker 1: I didn't had a hype for basketball, so it was
Speaker 1: football right. Middle school, I was okay, right, and then
Speaker 1: you got to high school and the boys looked like
Speaker 1: college players and I wouldn't. I wouldn't messing with him.
Speaker 1: So I was kind of caught in a space to
Speaker 1: where I didn't really know where I could fit in
Speaker 1: because I was freshman year. I was five ft two,
Speaker 1: one hundred and three pounds. Yeah that's not it wasn't yeah,
Speaker 1: So I didn't know in my in my mind, I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm not gonna grow right, and and I'm
Speaker 1: watching all these guys and I just can't find out
Speaker 1: where I fit in. And the assistant football coach was
Speaker 1: the assistant wrestling coach, right, and he kept why don't
Speaker 1: you come in and try wrestling? And I remember the
Speaker 1: wrestling I was watching with my dads. Don't coach Steve Voston.
Speaker 1: So I told him, I said, man, I don't want
Speaker 1: to get hit with chairs. I ain't trying to do that.
Speaker 1: And he laughed at me and said, why don't you
Speaker 1: come on in there and try it? One day, and
Speaker 1: I was walking by the gym and I peeked my
Speaker 1: head in there one day, and it was it was older,
Speaker 1: it was a small it was I just I was like, nah,
Speaker 1: that's not for me, right, and and I but I was,
Speaker 1: I was a little shook on the inside. I just
Speaker 1: seen it was about sixty seventy kids in there slamming
Speaker 1: each other down, and and I was like, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: not that's not for me. And that was the thing
Speaker 1: as football players because football is king here in this country.
Speaker 1: So football players we liked it. Were tough. You're the
Speaker 1: toughest guy. You're the big basketball player. So we don't
Speaker 1: like to admit that it's something else that it's more
Speaker 1: difficult out there that we can't do. So I was like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm a big, bad football player, even I was one
Speaker 1: hundred and three pounds for two Naw, I'm a football player.
Speaker 1: Now we don't we don't do that, right. But I
Speaker 1: was shook on this side. So he kept the coach
Speaker 1: kept making fun of me and making fun of me.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, you know one would shut him up.
Speaker 1: One day, I'm going there and showing him up. And
Speaker 1: I went in there one day and they put me
Speaker 1: in the group with two other two other guys and
Speaker 1: a girl and yeah, it was all out of salt.
Speaker 1: You know. This girl beat on me so bad, took
Speaker 1: me down, slam me. I didn't know how to get up.
Speaker 1: It was the first time in my life to where
Speaker 1: I felt like I didn't understand something and there's nothing
Speaker 1: I can do about it. And I just remember walking
Speaker 1: home that day and I was thinking, man, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get him back tomorrow. So I kept showing up and
Speaker 1: showing up and showing up. Next thing you know it,
Speaker 1: I've been in there for about a month or two months,
Speaker 1: and one day we wrestled. I threw a move and
Speaker 1: I landed it, and I was walking home that day,
Speaker 1: I said, man, I actually learned something, right, I'm coming
Speaker 1: back the next day. I ain't go off for football.
Speaker 1: I went straight to wrestling and the rest was history.
Speaker 1: Being a Nigeria was raised on a farm. So what
Speaker 1: what what did you do? What did you have like pigs?
Speaker 1: You had chickens? I mean, what kind of farm were
Speaker 1: you on? We were kind of It wasn't a full
Speaker 1: bread like here we full bread farm, right and right.
Speaker 1: It wasn't necessarily full bread farm like that. We did
Speaker 1: a seasonal to right. At the point my dad at
Speaker 1: all was already here. My dad was going to school here, okay,
Speaker 1: and so my mom is there with three boys, right,
Speaker 1: so we we we grew corn, you know, yams with
Speaker 1: it for the sailor we just for you guys to okay, okay,
Speaker 1: So sometimes we of course, you know, you eat you
Speaker 1: know special kids. You had chicken. Yeah, we're hard, but
Speaker 1: it's hard work to get in them. You got you got, yeah,
Speaker 1: I grew up on you got a planet, watch some girls,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. And so we had all of that. And
Speaker 1: my mom, my mom was an ultimate hustler. She was
Speaker 1: a teacher, right, she owned the store, all of the above.
Speaker 1: And so going up I got to see every level
Speaker 1: of hustle, right, I got to see it all. So
Speaker 1: coming here and immigrating here, it was just I just
Speaker 1: I say, it's a different level of hustle, right in
Speaker 1: my mind. You know that most kids that I grew
Speaker 1: up with, you say, you had three three or three boys,
Speaker 1: then your sister came along. How was the discipline because
Speaker 1: your father's away, Because there's something about a father's voice
Speaker 1: and a boy that would resonate a little bit more
Speaker 1: than a mother. So your dad is thousands and thousands
Speaker 1: of miles away, you and your brothers getting the tussle.
Speaker 1: If somebody gets the best of one and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden all heiled break loose. How did your mama
Speaker 1: control that situation? It's my dad always had a voice, yes,
Speaker 1: So even though he went there, his voice was loud. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he had a voice. And so and that that was
Speaker 1: a big thing about growing up in Nigeria as well
Speaker 1: as it wasn't just mom and dad that raised you.
Speaker 1: The village, the whole village raised. You know, you did
Speaker 1: something up the street and they house over there, always
Speaker 1: coming back to your house. Yeah, Oh they might whoop
Speaker 1: you over there. Then they're gonna back yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna Yeah, you got the whooping over there, came
Speaker 1: back to your house and you got the whooping. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so it was a whole village. So you knew
Speaker 1: how you was growing up, the whole village. You knew
Speaker 1: how he was growing up. And so even then, my
Speaker 1: mom still had a firm grip on things. And you know,
Speaker 1: you understand the dynamic. The mother's gonna be the loving one, right,
Speaker 1: but she still she was able to deal with the
Speaker 1: three boys. And at that point we were still we
Speaker 1: were still relatively young, So we weren't we weren't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not quite yet. Yeah, when your dad said we're going
Speaker 1: to the States, obviously born, raised in Nigeria, you got
Speaker 1: friends in Nigeria. Now when you go to the States,
Speaker 1: this is not like, Okay, I'm in California and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna move to Arizona, or I'm in George, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: move to Florida. You on one continent, You're about to
Speaker 1: move to another continent, and there's a very good chance
Speaker 1: you're probably not gonna see these again. Yeah, what went
Speaker 1: through your mind? I meant that at that point, you're
Speaker 1: a young man. You don't you're just going with the flow.
Speaker 1: You don't really know what to expect. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't have that make mental capability to be able to Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't like this. I liked it. You just knew
Speaker 1: that this is what's happening, right, and you were going
Speaker 1: along with it. But you had heard about you you
Speaker 1: had heard about it. Oh yeah, you don't heard about
Speaker 1: the US. You heard about McDonald's. You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: even know what McDonald's was, but I wanted to McDonald's.
Speaker 1: What was so you heard about all these things you've
Speaker 1: seen him on TV. And so now you get up
Speaker 1: first something bit on the airplane, get off an airplane
Speaker 1: after hours and hours on the flight. And crazy thing
Speaker 1: is the day we landed was one of the first
Speaker 1: times it's snowed in Texas in a long time. Okay,
Speaker 1: I think maybe over ten years. So the night we
Speaker 1: get outs, first night are slowing so we can arrive
Speaker 1: here like two thousand nins. No, it was in the
Speaker 1: I want to say ninety I want to say ninety eight, Okay,
Speaker 1: someone around that. So we come come out and were like,
Speaker 1: oh what we Nigeria. It's not sun and rain sun
Speaker 1: and rain? And I'm like, what is this white stuff
Speaker 1: for you? And we tug out the car trying to
Speaker 1: be trying to see what this is, okay, and and
Speaker 1: you know, the car slipping and slide right, And that
Speaker 1: was my first experience. So it shattered everything that you
Speaker 1: you thought, whatever you thought that you were going to
Speaker 1: experience when you came out. There was no words that
Speaker 1: I can describe it. How much TV did you watch?
Speaker 1: How much because obviously being from another country and the
Speaker 1: language obviously, and then so how much American TV did
Speaker 1: you watch? To figure out Okay, this is what I
Speaker 1: should say when they say this, this is how I
Speaker 1: should do, Just what I should do. They do that
Speaker 1: a lot of it, a lot of it. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing. When you're a kid. TV is is one
Speaker 1: of the biggest teachers. Yes, So that's why obviously the
Speaker 1: parental guidance and the certain things that you should be
Speaker 1: able to children should be able to watch, and televisions
Speaker 1: so important nowadays because you don't realize how big that is. Right,
Speaker 1: We watched TV constantly to where we we learned what
Speaker 1: you could and you couldn't say. And I learned quickly,
Speaker 1: right because how much English did you speak before you
Speaker 1: ride through? We spoke I mean the root of the
Speaker 1: language in Nigeria is English. Okay, so you speak a
Speaker 1: bit of English, but it's just different English. So certain
Speaker 1: words are differently. You know, you can tell obviously the
Speaker 1: Europeans colonized that area, so you know, our English is
Speaker 1: different than American English, right like obviously the trash can
Speaker 1: here we call it the trash can, but that's the
Speaker 1: despoin Okay, you know, so you you you say certain
Speaker 1: words differently, but we still we spoke English. But then
Speaker 1: you come to America. The slang is what what got it?
Speaker 1: The slangs will get you. And I remember That's where
Speaker 1: going back to the TV and the things that you
Speaker 1: should watch, it was obviously we might remember some marriage
Speaker 1: with children with Al Bundy, and so that was that
Speaker 1: was that was a show. We I uhould love to
Speaker 1: watch that show. So we watched the show. And there
Speaker 1: were certain words. You know, Kelly was the blonde, and
Speaker 1: so she was you know, you can't say those words nowadays,
Speaker 1: you know. And and it was a word that was
Speaker 1: said to her. And I went to school. I was,
Speaker 1: I guess you called girls that? And and I said
Speaker 1: it to a girl and I think it was I
Speaker 1: was in the fourth grade at that point. I said
Speaker 1: it to a girl. Yeah, I was in the principal office.
Speaker 1: They called my dad. I got a whoop in that day. Okay.
Speaker 1: So you start to learn very quickly things you can
Speaker 1: as certain things you can't say. Well, if you moved
Speaker 1: to Texas, you moved to Arlington, you in Texas, football
Speaker 1: is king pro sports. Cowboys tell me tell much to
Speaker 1: tell me cowboys? And Skip, I was with you back
Speaker 1: in the day. Skip, I was with you. I of course,
Speaker 1: by default, I'm a Cowboys fan, okay to by default, right,
Speaker 1: But you know, now, in my position, I have so
Speaker 1: many friends that played for so many different teams. I
Speaker 1: support my friends. So if my friends played for the Saints,
Speaker 1: I gotta support them. If they played for the for
Speaker 1: the Ravens, I gotta support them. Right. So that's mainly
Speaker 1: what I support. But by default, in my heart, if
Speaker 1: the Cowboys succeeding, I have to I have to support them. Well,
Speaker 1: you ain't seeing them, and they ain't then much of
Speaker 1: in the very long time you came here in ninety eight,
Speaker 1: you ain't see the man I'm gonna get I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you opportunity before we end this interview to get
Speaker 1: on another team that could possibly possibly win it, if
Speaker 1: you like. I see. That's the thing. Though, I watched
Speaker 1: the game, okay, and Andy, they said they I'm big tired.
Speaker 1: I was tired of being disappointed. They told me this
Speaker 1: was a year, you know, Skip said this was a year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was gonna do it. It was gonna do it.
Speaker 1: And so I watched the game and I was just like, man,
Speaker 1: so many opportunities and we just we just couldn't get
Speaker 1: over it. But but we you know, y'all in my heart, cowboys,
Speaker 1: y'all in my heart. You come here, you said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm too small to play football. You start wrestling. Did
Speaker 1: you view wrestling as your opportunity to get out to
Speaker 1: do go places? No, I didn't. I didn't. It's one
Speaker 1: thing about when you're coming from an immigrant family, especially
Speaker 1: in African family, certain career fields that you were gonna
Speaker 1: be able to go into. It's gonna be a doctor, doctor,
Speaker 1: gonna be an engineer, gonna be a pharmacist, and it's
Speaker 1: maybe a lawyer. You know nothing else, that's it. Those
Speaker 1: are the accepted fields that you were always going to
Speaker 1: get a job, right, So that's where you wanted to be,
Speaker 1: not an athlete. That wasn't in there, right. And so
Speaker 1: for the first two years of me wrestling, I actually
Speaker 1: lied to my parents about it, right, So I they
Speaker 1: once they said the grades, you gotta keep the grades up.
Speaker 1: So I said, okay, once the grades were up, could
Speaker 1: I practice? Could I go to football? And they yeah,
Speaker 1: of course you could. You could do that. That's on
Speaker 1: the side though, right, I said, Okay, So they ain't
Speaker 1: known I have. I was done football after that, I
Speaker 1: was wise and knowing that air and you have the size,
Speaker 1: it's time to move on. So I was done with
Speaker 1: it after freshman year. So now I was in the
Speaker 1: wrestling right, So I was going to practice. And of course,
Speaker 1: the same thing I thought when I first was introduced
Speaker 1: to wrestling, if they would have heart wrestling, they would
Speaker 1: have said, no, we just watched SummerSlam with Stone Coast Seabaws.
Speaker 1: We don't want you in that, right, So I didn't
Speaker 1: say nothing for the first two years. So I was
Speaker 1: wrestling and I started to kind of get better and
Speaker 1: better and better at it. And then the junior year,
Speaker 1: I actually was in the City City Championships and took
Speaker 1: third place. Okay, and my my mother, I was flipping
Speaker 1: through we had a of course, the channel in the
Speaker 1: city of the City channel. My mom was slipping through
Speaker 1: the television and she saw me wrestling on that. Oh
Speaker 1: so you got I got home over TV. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so I got home. By that point, now it was
Speaker 1: already too late. I was. I found something, and so
Speaker 1: you know, at that point she was able to talk
Speaker 1: my dad down and say, Okay, let's let him keep
Speaker 1: doing this. And so the next year I think that
Speaker 1: summer I made the decision in my mind that I
Speaker 1: wanted to be good at something, okay, because I had
Speaker 1: ups and downs. I would win something, I would lose something,
Speaker 1: and then I got sick of it. I said no,
Speaker 1: in order for me to ensure that I continue to win,
Speaker 1: I need to do something that I haven't been doing right,
Speaker 1: And so I dedicated myself fully to it. And it
Speaker 1: was just the trajectory that I saw in my career
Speaker 1: at that point was astronomical. So I said, I'm not
Speaker 1: turning backwards. Did your mom understand that this could be
Speaker 1: an opportunity that could help you get an education that
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have to finance. That you could get a scholarship,
Speaker 1: go to school, get get an engineering degree, or towards
Speaker 1: a lawyer or pharmacy, pharmacist. That's why they let me
Speaker 1: stay in there as we discovered that, hey there's scholarships
Speaker 1: for these things. Yeah, all right, you could keep doing that.
Speaker 1: Then you can keep doing that because now you don't
Speaker 1: have to cost this so much, right, I mean, and
Speaker 1: all my brothers we all had scholarship, We all had
Speaker 1: My whole family was ex athletes, so we all had athletes.
Speaker 1: My my oldest brother, Cash, who is a pharmacist doctor,
Speaker 1: Cash actually said he but he was a semi pro
Speaker 1: soccer player. He played at the University of South Carolina
Speaker 1: Aiken and got done and played semi pro. My little brother,
Speaker 1: football player, played at University of Arizona. Okay, big boy,
Speaker 1: So I got my chance on So so athletics running
Speaker 1: your family? Yeah, so your mom, your mom and dad
Speaker 1: had to be athletes. Yea, even though they weren't willingness
Speaker 1: and they didn't really want you guys to be a
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, we we had the athletic jeans. We
Speaker 1: got my uncle's you know, look like you. They got
Speaker 1: the size, and so we got those genes in our family.
Speaker 1: But once I got to that point, I was getting
Speaker 1: ready to graduate, and now we found out that day
Speaker 1: there's schools do offer scholarships, yes for this. And at
Speaker 1: that point I didn't even know there was more than
Speaker 1: five schools. I thought it was Texas University of Texas,
Speaker 1: Texas Tech, Texas A, and m SMU and that that
Speaker 1: was it for football. And then I'm starting to get
Speaker 1: all these letters from these small schools or different schools
Speaker 1: all across the country. I'm like, oh, they got wrestling
Speaker 1: out there. Okay, okay, now we can do that, and
Speaker 1: you know, thankfully I was able to get a scholarship
Speaker 1: to go out there and compete, and it just built
Speaker 1: that fire. Who is your favorite wrestler growing up? Favorite
Speaker 1: wrestler growing up? See? I gravitate towards the ones that
Speaker 1: I respect, all the wrestlers, like the out like any Monday. Okay,
Speaker 1: are you talking about pro wrestler, Pro Wrestling, Stone Coach,
Speaker 1: Steve Ass, Okay, Undertaker, Yeah of course, Harlem Heat, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're talking book a team start. So these were the
Speaker 1: guys that I grew up, Watson and I love, so,
Speaker 1: you know, going up and seeing them do is is,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, that's fun to watch. Me
Speaker 1: and my brothers we played that in living room. But
Speaker 1: we can't we can't do that right. So like the
Speaker 1: actual competition, the freestyle, which which you were a freestyle wrestler,
Speaker 1: did you know any great freestyle wrestlers? Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: When you start to progress in something, and this was
Speaker 1: something that I I even tell kids now when they
Speaker 1: asked me about certain things, is by my careers. When
Speaker 1: you want to get to a place, you want to
Speaker 1: find out who's been there, right, And then once you
Speaker 1: find out who's been there, It's like, who looked like
Speaker 1: me that's been there? Right, who possessed some of the
Speaker 1: athletic abilities that I possessed has been there? So I
Speaker 1: started researching that. Then you realize, Oh, there's a Kenny
Speaker 1: Monday out there, right, There's a Kevin Jackson. Right, there's
Speaker 1: a league camp out there. There's there's all these guys
Speaker 1: Bobby Douglas out there that that looked like me, that
Speaker 1: have accomplished heights greater than than where I'm trying to
Speaker 1: go to. So being able to research those guys, I
Speaker 1: started to say, Okay, they've done it, so I could
Speaker 1: I could get there? You am I reading this correct?
Speaker 1: You wrestle alongside John Jones? No? See me and John
Speaker 1: Jones Actually mad. It's crazy how this this inter twines.
Speaker 1: We met senior year because there's this tournament called Senior National, right,
Speaker 1: and there's a tournament just for the best seniors all
Speaker 1: across the country, Okay, from different states get to meet
Speaker 1: in a location and we wrestled to see who's the best.
Speaker 1: And John Jones and Author Jones were at the tournament
Speaker 1: as well. So, like I said, there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of brothers that look like me, and wrestled and my
Speaker 1: brother my my buddy Iron at the time. So we
Speaker 1: were the two from our area in Texas that were
Speaker 1: in the tournament. Right. So we in Cleveland, Ohio, and
Speaker 1: and in the hotel we're staying at. She these two
Speaker 1: big tall brothers eat breakfast in the in the cafeteria
Speaker 1: where we would eat breakfast in the hotel. So of
Speaker 1: course naturally gravitate towards them. You gotta say, what's up
Speaker 1: to him? So then we start talking and what's y'all name,
Speaker 1: Author Jones, John Jones or y'all wrestled too, Yeah, we wrestle.
Speaker 1: Were from New York and the New York Okay, So
Speaker 1: we we get acquainted and then we watched him court.
Speaker 1: Now you gotta follow them and see, Yeah, they do
Speaker 1: in a tournament and they do well. Like, oh, these
Speaker 1: this is a bad dude. Right. And then Author said, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go play football Syracuse. Right. I'm like okay.
Speaker 1: Then John said I'm gonna go wrestle at a small
Speaker 1: school in Iowa. Right. I said, oh, well, I've been
Speaker 1: getting calls from a small school in Iowa. Two. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, what school? And he tells me in school,
Speaker 1: and I tell him my school. We'll say we're about
Speaker 1: an hour and a half apart. So I said, okay,
Speaker 1: well we'll Shane Numbers will link up next year if
Speaker 1: we end up in Iowa, all right, cool. Then the
Speaker 1: following year we end up in Iowa. So we stay
Speaker 1: in touch. And and my fall break was, which is
Speaker 1: a week off for school, was a week before their
Speaker 1: fault break, so we talk. I said, Hey, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: come see you, come hang out with you all fall
Speaker 1: break because I didn't want to go all the way
Speaker 1: back to Texas. So I drove up there hung out
Speaker 1: with him all fault break. And while I was hanging
Speaker 1: out with him that week, we had got invited to
Speaker 1: uh I guess a friend of the wrestling teams house
Speaker 1: to watch some fights. Never seen a MMA fight every
Speaker 1: I never seen anything like that. So we go to
Speaker 1: the to the house. It's the first time John and
Speaker 1: myself actually watched MMA fight. So we watched the fight
Speaker 1: and and and the dude, the guy was saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: y'all should get into this, I should try this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think we looked at each other like, Nah, We're
Speaker 1: not doing that. That's crazy right there. These dudes hitting
Speaker 1: each other, needing each other. We're not doing that. And
Speaker 1: we left and it was just the next year I
Speaker 1: transferred out and John went on his path. I think
Speaker 1: he moved back to New York. And then a couple
Speaker 1: of years later, I'm wrestling at Nebraska. You're wrested in
Speaker 1: Nebraska at Carney, and I see him on television. I'm like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's my guy. He's wrestling, he's fighting out for the UFC. Right,
Speaker 1: he's doing well. And two thousand and I believe two
Speaker 1: thousand and eleven, two thousand eleven, I watched him win
Speaker 1: the title and I'm like, if you can do it
Speaker 1: all right, I'm doing it right. I made the decision
Speaker 1: right there. I wrote it down in my journey. I
Speaker 1: said I'm gonna I'm gonna be champion in this And
Speaker 1: fast forward to two thousand nineteen, me and him end
Speaker 1: up fighting same night. He defended his title and I
Speaker 1: become the welterweight champion. Wow, so crazy? How crazy? You know?
Speaker 1: I'm just a small a small kid from out Nigeria
Speaker 1: ended up you know, being on this on this platform
Speaker 1: and on this stage. Well, here's the thing. Obviously, you
Speaker 1: got to have a background in something if you're gonna
Speaker 1: do the MMA, UFC, and the more discipline you're good at,
Speaker 1: the better you're gonna be. Absolutely wrestling background obviously, so
Speaker 1: you're good at the take down. So how difficult was
Speaker 1: it for you to transition because it's just not about
Speaker 1: getting somebody on the ground. No, it was difficult. But
Speaker 1: a thing that helped me is being able to deal
Speaker 1: with competition. Right, I have been just trained and dealing
Speaker 1: with competition, dealing with wins. No, you're dealing with that too,
Speaker 1: that too, So dealing with wins and losses. I was
Speaker 1: accustomed to that, learning knowing how to bounce back from
Speaker 1: the laws and getting back on the horse and continue.
Speaker 1: And so the biggest thing that wrestling teaches you is
Speaker 1: how to be able to deal with diversity and overcoming
Speaker 1: which is a big part of what people don't really understand.
Speaker 1: And now, the thing with wrestling too is is you
Speaker 1: got the leg up. If you already mastered the wrestling,
Speaker 1: you got the leg upright because you think about it,
Speaker 1: you go, you go out there and you see a
Speaker 1: street fight happening. Right now, it's only three positions you
Speaker 1: can end up in in the street fight, right you?
Speaker 1: I could both be standing punching each other, or one
Speaker 1: guy could be on top of the other guy punching them,
Speaker 1: or flip vice versa, the other guys on top of
Speaker 1: the other guy punching him. Right, So two thirds of
Speaker 1: that fight is on the ground. Right now. As a wrestler,
Speaker 1: I have the ability to control the real estate where
Speaker 1: that fight takes place. So six I already have a
Speaker 1: sixty seven percent advantage of a fight, and so it
Speaker 1: takes some years to get used to getting hit right now.
Speaker 1: That was a tough one, is you know you don't
Speaker 1: because you know somebody come in here right now and
Speaker 1: wail off on you, You're gonna get mad, And it's
Speaker 1: it's it's right being able to control the mind, being
Speaker 1: able to control enough to where you could see these
Speaker 1: shots to where you could defend yourself intelligently and plan
Speaker 1: and put them and set them up for something that
Speaker 1: took years to come. But it was all a mixture
Speaker 1: of learning how to compete, learning the wrestling, because you know,
Speaker 1: you get lit up too much now standing up, I
Speaker 1: could take him now right, So when you're getting ready
Speaker 1: for a fight, Floyd Mayworther says, I don't watch other
Speaker 1: fighters if I'm gonna fight a fighter. A fight a fighter.
Speaker 1: I don't watch him fight. My corner handles that when
Speaker 1: you're getting ready to fight someone, do you watch them
Speaker 1: or you just trust your corner. It's like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is what we need to do, this is what he's
Speaker 1: good at, this is where we're gonna try to stay
Speaker 1: away from. Or do you sit down and actually watch
Speaker 1: him and try to break him down? Because when I
Speaker 1: play football, I'm watching my opponent. Okay, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: pick up any tendencies. Okay, you gotta stagger, probably gonna blits, Okay, square,
Speaker 1: probably gonna buzze the flat. So I'm trying to just
Speaker 1: the slightest thing. He doesn't know he's doing it. He's
Speaker 1: just playing football. But I'm just trying to pick up
Speaker 1: the slightest tendency to give me an advantage because it's
Speaker 1: not about yards, it's about inches, it's about seconds. I agree.
Speaker 1: I think different things work for different people. Okay, there's
Speaker 1: there's there's certain things that make certain people great. Okay,
Speaker 1: like Floyd's great. Yeah, you know that that's a special
Speaker 1: individual right to be able to do what he does.
Speaker 1: And we are great and our our right right, right,
Speaker 1: And so what makes us great is your ability to
Speaker 1: be able to just see study a little bit into
Speaker 1: where you know. For me, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: my coaches ain't gonna get with them for me and
Speaker 1: fight for me, right, I have to be able to
Speaker 1: fight for me. So whatever it can make that easier
Speaker 1: for me, I'm willing to do. Okay, So if I
Speaker 1: can see a little bit of tapes to where I
Speaker 1: know an overview, like I could tell just by watching
Speaker 1: I know an overview. Okay, you don't breathe well, so
Speaker 1: you won't have a problem once I push that heart rate. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're striking and the greatest, so I can stand with
Speaker 1: you as long as I want. Or you're wrestling the greatest,
Speaker 1: So if you're starting to get the best of me
Speaker 1: with the striking, I can take you down if I want,
Speaker 1: and I'll have an advantage. Yet, So I like to
Speaker 1: be able to see a little bit of film, right,
Speaker 1: So I have an overview when you're watching film? Are
Speaker 1: you what look listening to the TV copy? Because see,
Speaker 1: I couldn't listen to the TV copy because the commentators,
Speaker 1: because you get a false sense they're talking about Oh
Speaker 1: he's so good. You just see that play, so I
Speaker 1: need to listen to it on silent. So when you
Speaker 1: watch tape, are you watching a TV copy or you
Speaker 1: just watching and silent, just watching him seeing what he does, Okay, circling, Okay,
Speaker 1: I can see him up. I can, I can, you know,
Speaker 1: I can take him down. And that's that's a that's
Speaker 1: a very very good assessment. But I watch every aspect.
Speaker 1: I watch it with and I watch it without, okay.
Speaker 1: And the reason I do it is a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't understand. And if you have you ever been
Speaker 1: to a UFC I have a matter of fact, I
Speaker 1: went to the first two UFC fights in Denver, Colorado
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three, so waiting waiting before there was
Speaker 1: no day of water about dance, Samfering and all those guys,
Speaker 1: Ken Shamrock Horse Gracy. Have you been to him recently? No?
Speaker 1: The last one. The last one I've been to is
Speaker 1: that John Jones be uh sugar sugar sh Rashard Evans
Speaker 1: in that lage. Okay, I didn't I need to go
Speaker 1: to weather when you try to get him coming, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta come to one. Now. It's different, it's different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's one thing about a UFC event. It's infectious.
Speaker 1: I don't care where you've been at football game, basketball game,
Speaker 1: it's infectious. You know the sound of a kick landing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the crowd go from quiet to ut like that.
Speaker 1: It's infectious. It's nothing like it, and you have to
Speaker 1: be able to understand what that does to a fighter
Speaker 1: when you're fighting. So when I watch film, I'm not
Speaker 1: just watching Okay, he's doing these moves, he's doing that.
Speaker 1: I'm watching how he reacts. I'm watching his heart. That's
Speaker 1: what I call it. I'm watching his heart, how he's
Speaker 1: affected by what's going on. Okay. So I like to
Speaker 1: hear the crowd because I like to put myself in
Speaker 1: there with that fighter. Okay, how I would react when
Speaker 1: I hear this crowd? Okay, he's a fan favorite, So
Speaker 1: the crowd's gonna chant for him. How does he react
Speaker 1: when they chant for him because he turned up a
Speaker 1: little bit more? Or is he able to deal with that?
Speaker 1: So I like to watch it that way, And then
Speaker 1: I could watch this for the movie. I can turn
Speaker 1: the sound off and watch him. Okay, he's he's a
Speaker 1: good striker. He set you up with this, this and
Speaker 1: this but I watch all of it, But what about
Speaker 1: him being a fan favorite and the least little thing
Speaker 1: the crowd is going to erupt they're trying to sway
Speaker 1: the judges does that? So how do you like? Okay, man,
Speaker 1: he ain't even hit me. What's yelling is pray for
Speaker 1: it ain't touch me. That's that's my job. That's my
Speaker 1: job to control the outcome. That's why I do everything
Speaker 1: outside to make sure by the time I step in there.
Speaker 1: There's no question. There's not a fight that I've been
Speaker 1: into where I don't understand if I want a round
Speaker 1: or not. There's not There's no question if I even
Speaker 1: had remotely feel like I lost that round. Okay, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna make it out out of this fight. You know.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let it go to the judges. I
Speaker 1: don't want to go let it go to the judges,
Speaker 1: and then I'm wonder that I win. Did I not win? No,
Speaker 1: if it goes to the judges, I know I want.
Speaker 1: You have one loss in the UFC. Do you remember
Speaker 1: why you lost one loss in my career? Yeah? Yes,
Speaker 1: I know exactly why I lost. What happened, and it
Speaker 1: was it was ignorance. I got into the sport. When
Speaker 1: I got in, I was I was just high level wrestler,
Speaker 1: where I mean I could control I don't care whether
Speaker 1: you were twenty light flyweight or you were a heavyweight.
Speaker 1: If I got a hold of you, you're gonna end
Speaker 1: up on the ground, right, I could control all of that.
Speaker 1: So it was a certain ignorance that came with that
Speaker 1: that I that, yeah, that I didn't even realize at
Speaker 1: the time. I'm a team player. I'm gonna help everybody.
Speaker 1: I'm not cocky with it, I'm not none of that.
Speaker 1: But when you've spent so many years and you get
Speaker 1: to a certain level of controlling the engagements, there's a
Speaker 1: certain level of ignorance that comes with it that you
Speaker 1: don't really realize. And I had that. So I was,
Speaker 1: you know, mma practice were practicing. I hated the striking
Speaker 1: days because I knew I was gonna get beat up.
Speaker 1: You know. I had to train with Sugar Shot Evans
Speaker 1: and Tyrone, ty On Spawn and Vitor Belfo was in
Speaker 1: there at certain times, and some of these caused more
Speaker 1: Alexander like some of these guys that were more tight
Speaker 1: world champions, they knew what they were doing. So I
Speaker 1: knew I was gonna get beat up on kickboxing Day.
Speaker 1: Emma made day. I knew I was gonna get beat
Speaker 1: up too, but I could still kind of control what's
Speaker 1: going on. Wrestling day was my favorite day, right, I
Speaker 1: knew that was my that's my day. Everybody knew they
Speaker 1: better stay away from me because I'm gonna put it
Speaker 1: on you. And with that being said, it was just you.
Speaker 1: You developed this. I didn't. I felt like, okay, jiu jitsu,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't need to study what was on
Speaker 1: the ground because I control if the fight goes there
Speaker 1: or not. So if I want to take somebody down,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take him down, that's it. You know. I
Speaker 1: dominate there. But my ignorance was understanding that there's tricks
Speaker 1: from being down there. Yeah, and jiu jitsu is kind
Speaker 1: of like the counter for wrestling. Yeah, you could take
Speaker 1: them down. They want to be a lot of them
Speaker 1: want to be on the gud want to be on them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I saw a horse grace and he would lay on
Speaker 1: the Yeah, he jumped down on him. You want to No,
Speaker 1: that's it's exactly what what happened. And so and then
Speaker 1: you got teammates because my teammates knew what I was
Speaker 1: capable up there, like, oh man, you about to fight
Speaker 1: this guy? Oh we know this guy running, or you're
Speaker 1: gonna get him. You're gonna get him. He's nothing. So
Speaker 1: I was wondering. I never want to believe that, right
Speaker 1: because I still gotta do my homework. I still gotta
Speaker 1: do my research. But for the first time I started
Speaker 1: to believe that a little bit. I'm no, that's that's
Speaker 1: the former chance. He said, I'm gonna get him. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get him. I know I'm gonna get him. So
Speaker 1: I get in the fight and not even really trained
Speaker 1: jiu jitsu like that. So I get in the fight
Speaker 1: and of course I threw it one two boom shot,
Speaker 1: took him down. He was ease, took him down, mounting him.
Speaker 1: Now you're man, you're like, okay, yeah, this is so
Speaker 1: I'm punching. And this dude was about six I want
Speaker 1: to say, six three six four, tall, skinny for the
Speaker 1: weight crack, but tall, long and flexible. Okay, And I'm
Speaker 1: from a family they do this, they've been training for
Speaker 1: a while. And he did something that I've never seen
Speaker 1: because I don't really do you just like so he
Speaker 1: threw his legs around my waist while I'm in a
Speaker 1: full mount, and I was like, I never felt that before.
Speaker 1: What was going on? So I panic and I try
Speaker 1: to turn up and get it. Try to turn and
Speaker 1: get up. He just called off my back. This was
Speaker 1: a minute and a half into the fight. We're not
Speaker 1: sweating yet. I'm dry. He's on my back. I'm carrying
Speaker 1: a backpack for about another minute and a half. I
Speaker 1: don't know the defenses to what's going on because I
Speaker 1: haven't spent time learning because I'm my ignorance and thinking
Speaker 1: that just because I'm a wrestler, I control everything right.
Speaker 1: And I learned the hard lesson that day. I just
Speaker 1: remember before I had to tap because and I And
Speaker 1: there's a story behind this because in the back the
Speaker 1: commission they have a talk with you and they tell you, Okay,
Speaker 1: if you're choked unconscious, or if you're knocked unscious, you're
Speaker 1: it's automatic six months, six months suspension. Now I'm fighting
Speaker 1: for one thousand and one thousand, so I'm might here struggling.
Speaker 1: I'm staying with my big bros. Sugar Ri shot Evans.
Speaker 1: I ain't got no money, so I got about seventeen
Speaker 1: dollars in the bank account, and I'm like, Okay, if
Speaker 1: I can't fight for six months, I can't make no money. Right,
Speaker 1: So now I'm in this compromising position, and of course,
Speaker 1: going into a fight, I'm like, oh, I'm a warrior.
Speaker 1: I'm not willing to tap out. I'm going I'm going
Speaker 1: out of my shield. I'm dying here. I'm not tapping out.
Speaker 1: And I'm in that position, and I realize, for the
Speaker 1: first time, I didn't have the knowledge to be able
Speaker 1: to get out. So either I was going to just
Speaker 1: try to be tough, get choked unconscious, or tap and
Speaker 1: live to fight another day. And for the first time,
Speaker 1: in the last time in my career, I made a
Speaker 1: decision to give up on myself. But then I you know,
Speaker 1: I made peace with it later because I gave up
Speaker 1: because I didn't have the knowledge. Right. I didn't give
Speaker 1: up because I had the knowledge and I was incapable
Speaker 1: of doing it. I gave up because I didn't have
Speaker 1: the knowledge. And I walked out of that cage. That night.
Speaker 1: I paced in the back for about two hours, just
Speaker 1: by myself. I was pacing, and I made a decision
Speaker 1: to myself, and I said that I will never go
Speaker 1: into a fight without the knowledge to be able to
Speaker 1: defend myself. Right after that day, the rest is history.
Speaker 1: You're great at freestyles, at wrestling, So now, how much
Speaker 1: time do you spend in your areas of weakness? Okay, Virginia,
Speaker 1: jiu jitsu obviously you know striking, you're bet, you're most
Speaker 1: You're probably most comfortable on the ground. So you're talking
Speaker 1: about the movie tie to kick boxing. So in a
Speaker 1: given week, how much time are you spending and say
Speaker 1: kick boxing, how much time are you spending in jiu jitsu?
Speaker 1: How much time are you spending in wrestling? How much
Speaker 1: time are you spending in striking? I spend a lot,
Speaker 1: a lot of time. I think the words the most
Speaker 1: of your time spent. Most of my times it's spent,
Speaker 1: was spent on striking. Because I had gotten so far
Speaker 1: in wrestling to where not all I had to do
Speaker 1: was maintain I had gotten to what you would consider
Speaker 1: an elite level of wrestling right where now all I
Speaker 1: had to do was maintain that because once you stop wrestling,
Speaker 1: it's a quick, rapid decline. So I just had to
Speaker 1: slow down that process. And if I could slow down
Speaker 1: that process to spend a lot more time on my
Speaker 1: areas of weakness. I was going to be there. And
Speaker 1: so one of the biggest things is as an athlete
Speaker 1: that I think makes the the best the best in
Speaker 1: the world is being able to be honest with yourself.
Speaker 1: Is not just drinking your own kool ai, but being
Speaker 1: honest with yourself because if you weaken that area, you're
Speaker 1: honest with yourself to say, oh, i'm weak there, I
Speaker 1: need to get better. And I see that's what a
Speaker 1: lot of people can't can't do that because they get
Speaker 1: to a certain level and they're good at something, they're like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not weak in nowhere, right. I know I'm still weak.
Speaker 1: I'm still learning to this day. But the fact that
Speaker 1: you're willing to still train a strength, because a lot
Speaker 1: of people, well you train your weakness to just train
Speaker 1: your weaknesses, but you're still willing to work on that strings.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because I knew it's the thing. I knew
Speaker 1: what got me to the dance right, and I wasn't
Speaker 1: just gonna give it up right away. Because they're guys
Speaker 1: have been striking to say, we're five years old and
Speaker 1: now they're thirty years old. They got twenty five years
Speaker 1: experience on me. You know, it's something different about twenty
Speaker 1: five years compared to five years of experience. How good you? Right?
Speaker 1: And so no one what got me to the dance?
Speaker 1: I have to make sure that I stayed polished on that, right.
Speaker 1: But of course I'm honest with myself to know that
Speaker 1: I'm weak with the striking and I gotta get better
Speaker 1: at Yeah, but I watched you and you have gotten
Speaker 1: exponentially better at striking. It's now you're sitting down on punches.
Speaker 1: You're throwing punches with the tent. I ain't just tried, bro,
Speaker 1: I ain't trying to get your attention. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get you out of here. Yeah, I'm trying to put
Speaker 1: them in the right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'll see you
Speaker 1: sit down on the punches. But you did something to
Speaker 1: model that. I don't know if anybody saw it. You
Speaker 1: You knocked his head, you knocked his hand down and
Speaker 1: caught it with the overhand. Right. Yeah. He that that
Speaker 1: sequence and that that's I gotta give it up to
Speaker 1: my my coach, Trevor Whitman. He he really we spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time that camp committing to punches and
Speaker 1: just committing all the way through throwing and even if
Speaker 1: it lands, throw it. If it doesn't land still though, Right,
Speaker 1: So he gonna feel you, He gonna know that you
Speaker 1: You you almost put something you came out there that
Speaker 1: came out to get him out of that that second one,
Speaker 1: because I was unhappy with the first one, okay, because
Speaker 1: a lot was made of him taking the fight on
Speaker 1: six days notice, right, But I also took the fight
Speaker 1: on six days no, right, And I have also had
Speaker 1: to fly across the world to go fight him when
Speaker 1: I prepare for a whole another definitely, And people don't
Speaker 1: realize that you had. You had a decided disadvantage because
Speaker 1: I'm prepared for one type of fighter and then you
Speaker 1: send me somebody else in week's notice. Yeah, I haven't
Speaker 1: prepared for him. Forget who he is. And that's that's
Speaker 1: the big thing is as a champion, all eyes on you.
Speaker 1: You have to entertain, You have to go out and
Speaker 1: you have to put on that performance each and every time.
Speaker 1: So you give me six days notice with a completely
Speaker 1: different style, a completely different fact that I haven't prepared for, right,
Speaker 1: And but you want the fireworks that you want from
Speaker 1: a champion, right, And I couldn't give that that night.
Speaker 1: So I was disappointed in myself, and I was dealing
Speaker 1: with other little, you know, injuries and things like that
Speaker 1: that kind of hindered it. But I knew that I
Speaker 1: had to still see Burns first. And once I got
Speaker 1: through Burns, I said, nah, we got to do that
Speaker 1: one over because he's still walking around here, he's still
Speaker 1: talking about Now. I took the man. Yeah, I get
Speaker 1: a pull of training camp. He gonna have to see me.
Speaker 1: He gonna have to feel man. So I said, I
Speaker 1: you want me to feel you, I'm gonna feel you.
Speaker 1: And so I asked for that one person and I said, data,
Speaker 1: we gotta run that one back over. And then they said,
Speaker 1: all right, let's do it. Okay. I was gonna go
Speaker 1: out there. I was gonna put something on him that
Speaker 1: he was never gonna forget. Okay, Kobe Covington, you hear
Speaker 1: what he's saying. He's a maga guy. Okay, what if
Speaker 1: that's if that's if that's where you want to be. Okay,
Speaker 1: I got no problem with that. That's who you are.
Speaker 1: How do you after you hear all the things he says,
Speaker 1: knowing that you gotta fight him? But remain calms, and oh,
Speaker 1: I just want to do something so bad to him,
Speaker 1: But I got to be calm. I gotta stay with
Speaker 1: him myself, because the one thing that you can't do
Speaker 1: is get outside of yourself, because now you play into
Speaker 1: his hands. And maybe he says a lot of that
Speaker 1: stuff to get you to play into his hands. He does,
Speaker 1: he does, and I don't think it was intentional at first.
Speaker 1: I think it was just he was trying to find
Speaker 1: his own lane. But then it got to a point
Speaker 1: where he's like, Okay, I might be able to use
Speaker 1: this to my advantage, right because of his specific skill set. Right.
Speaker 1: But I got into the sport. I got to where
Speaker 1: I got to because not because I I wanted to
Speaker 1: be rich, I want to be famous or any of
Speaker 1: that that came later. But I got into it because
Speaker 1: of competition. I wanted to be the best at right,
Speaker 1: And so studying all the grades and learning what it
Speaker 1: takes to be the best at it is your wit
Speaker 1: and not just what you got out here and your
Speaker 1: strength and all that. And so with him and some
Speaker 1: of these guys that I deal with, is is learning
Speaker 1: how to deal with them. You sign that contract, so
Speaker 1: that means it's a date. We're gonna get in there
Speaker 1: and it's gonna go down, right, And so that that
Speaker 1: was it for me. Once that signed. Okay, you're gonna
Speaker 1: compensate me for this to do this with all right,
Speaker 1: that's the date, okay. So now I'm gonna do everything
Speaker 1: in my power to prepare to make sure that I
Speaker 1: go out there and I dish out that discipline the
Speaker 1: right way. So when these guys talk and I tell
Speaker 1: it to all these guys, now, I am the judge,
Speaker 1: the jury and the execution of when we step inside
Speaker 1: that octagon. So anything you say outside leading up to
Speaker 1: the fight, I'm gonna hear it. Somehow, somebody gonna send it.
Speaker 1: My mom now is a big fan. So my mom
Speaker 1: watched everything, so she gonna tell me, you see what
Speaker 1: do you said? You see with this? So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: see it, and I'm gonna use it against him when
Speaker 1: we get in there. And so Master Door, there's a
Speaker 1: famous viral clip of him during an interview. He was
Speaker 1: sitting now he said, yeah, this guy's nah, he just
Speaker 1: don't possess the the macho ness to be able to
Speaker 1: send you know this, you know, set a man apart
Speaker 1: from his consciousness or something like that. I've seen it.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, all right, I'm gonna give it to him,
Speaker 1: and then and then somebody of course later on they
Speaker 1: put the clip together when he's saying that, and I'm
Speaker 1: sending him over to the you know, to the rafters.
Speaker 1: And it was a good feeling, you know. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, for me, it's about competition.
Speaker 1: That the cleanest point you ever landed on somewhere, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you hit him. Yeah that was I mean he
Speaker 1: was out before he even hit the floor. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that one was. That was the cleanest in competition, that
Speaker 1: this flush landing. It was another one that I ended
Speaker 1: a few fights before on I thought a Brazilian Sergio
Speaker 1: Mariahs I few fights before, and but this one was
Speaker 1: the clean one shot you know, send all that the
Speaker 1: sweat flying from Yeah, you gotta you gotta send him off.
Speaker 1: So that one was in. Let me have the one
Speaker 1: the Covington too. You won that fight he's talking about.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he really proved yet that he's
Speaker 1: the better the man. Do you want a trilogy? I
Speaker 1: wouldn't mind. Now, this is the thing that and these
Speaker 1: guys realize that when you fight for the title, the
Speaker 1: most money you're gonna make, you're gonna make when you
Speaker 1: fight for the type, right, So of course they want
Speaker 1: to fight me, right, everybody want to fight me because
Speaker 1: you fight me, you're gonna get the big check, right,
Speaker 1: So I have no problem with that. Comington is a
Speaker 1: guy that he has proven that he's one of the
Speaker 1: best in the division. If if he's not the next
Speaker 1: best guy in the division, he has proven tough. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's tough. So he's a guy that's always gonna make me.
Speaker 1: There's no cutting corners. I don't want to cut corners
Speaker 1: anyways when I'm trained, but there's with him especially, there's
Speaker 1: no cutting corners. And so there's a certain level of
Speaker 1: discipline that you earn that you get from that training
Speaker 1: camp when you compete against a guy like that. So
Speaker 1: I like it each and every time. So being able
Speaker 1: to overcome that level of competition, it's you know, as
Speaker 1: an athlete, it is something that really solidifies where you
Speaker 1: are as an elite. What about I look at you,
Speaker 1: you you well to weight champ is it is at
Speaker 1: a signa in frances In God, you got three African champs.
Speaker 1: Uftually needs to take take the show on the road
Speaker 1: and go over, go go to Africa. They absolutely and
Speaker 1: all three of you guys want to fight on the
Speaker 1: same car. Of course, of course that it's something that,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's very rare nowadays to be the
Speaker 1: first or be part of something that's that's the first,
Speaker 1: never been done right, and so to be able to
Speaker 1: do something like that, it's it's monumental and and I
Speaker 1: don't know it's whether obviously there's a lot there's a
Speaker 1: lot of details behind the scenes that we don't understand
Speaker 1: that you know, the partners and the deals and the
Speaker 1: TV contracts that UFC have that might not permit them
Speaker 1: to do it, or they might not feel like they
Speaker 1: have the landscape to do it, which is why myself,
Speaker 1: I've started promotion in Nigeria right now, the AKL show
Speaker 1: you know, Face Off Fight Night too. We're about to
Speaker 1: have the second event March eighteen, and I want to
Speaker 1: let them know that, I want I want to show
Speaker 1: them that because this sport is not really that big
Speaker 1: right Africa, right and you have three champions right now,
Speaker 1: Imagine once we're able to spread that sport round, bring
Speaker 1: the sport over there. I mean, we I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not even it's not even fair. You within Francis Saint
Speaker 1: got Nuth's corner against Cyril Gone. Why did you decide? What?
Speaker 1: What did you bring with just a different set of
Speaker 1: eyes that you can see some things Like Francis, I
Speaker 1: think this is what we can do. I think this
Speaker 1: is how you can neutralize some of his strengths. Uh,
Speaker 1: stay away, you know, stay away from his strength. Play
Speaker 1: to your strength to his weaknesses. What what? Why did
Speaker 1: you were? You're in the corner with Francis. The thing
Speaker 1: with Francis is me and Francis are like brothers, right,
Speaker 1: and so I'm always gonna have my brother's back, and
Speaker 1: so I'm there mainly for that moral support, right, because
Speaker 1: I understand what it is when I'm going to a fight, right,
Speaker 1: I like to know that everybody behind me, next to
Speaker 1: me is ready to ride. Right. So if something broke
Speaker 1: out in here right now and I'm going to fight,
Speaker 1: I know that everybody on my corner is stowing that
Speaker 1: we fight. Yeah, And so it's something in that solace
Speaker 1: as a fighter when you walking when you're going to compete. Now,
Speaker 1: as far as game plan, Francis has excellent coaching. Eric
Speaker 1: nick sake and doing do it Cooper. Those guys down there,
Speaker 1: they great coach for Francis or Francis Is is a competitor.
Speaker 1: You know, some of the greats that just a lot
Speaker 1: of things that you just can't teach them. They know
Speaker 1: how to they know how to win. And that's the
Speaker 1: thing about Francis. You know, he was dealing with a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, he had a knee injury, right, and he
Speaker 1: still resorted to the wrestling to get the job done right,
Speaker 1: and so it wasn't much for me, of course, being there,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell him my Okay, I think this is
Speaker 1: where we should go. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: Francis is the one that's gonna step in there. He's
Speaker 1: gonna make the decisions that's gonna win or lose him
Speaker 1: to fight, right, and that's exactly what he did, you know.
Speaker 1: Alongside with it with his coaches, I mean, they do
Speaker 1: a good job with him, and he's proven that he's
Speaker 1: the baddest man on the planet. Yeah. I mean when
Speaker 1: Francis walking the room, you know, Francis gotta in the room.
Speaker 1: What transpired, Dana wasn't in the ring to put the
Speaker 1: belt on him. He wasn't there in the press conference,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if I've ever seen him not
Speaker 1: put the belt on the champion, not go to the
Speaker 1: the the after fight press conference. Obviously there's a lot
Speaker 1: going on. His contract was up after that fight, but
Speaker 1: since he won, he gets have to resign for another
Speaker 1: two three fights or wherever however that goes. How do
Speaker 1: how do you guys bridge the gap? Because the pay
Speaker 1: scale we're gonna talk about Jake Paul said, you look,
Speaker 1: come on over here and fight, you boy, make a
Speaker 1: big pay. Dare you make triple quadruple what you're making
Speaker 1: in the UFC? How do you guys get the money
Speaker 1: that you believe you deserve because there's a big piece
Speaker 1: of the pot there and trying to start, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to get you in trouble with your balls, but
Speaker 1: there's there's a big piece of the pot there. I
Speaker 1: know you want the biggest slice. Absolutely, I don't care
Speaker 1: what it is. You give me a hundred million today,
Speaker 1: that's fine. I'll fight for one hundred million, But the
Speaker 1: next fight, I'm trying to get two fifty. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: need too fifty. So I understand that as an athlete,
Speaker 1: as a man, It doesn't matter what it is. That's
Speaker 1: who's competitive. I'm always gonna want more, absolutely right. Could
Speaker 1: we have biggest slice of the pot? Absolutely right. You
Speaker 1: could argue that with any and everybody in every sport.
Speaker 1: Now there's there's things that of course Francis and it's
Speaker 1: coach in the camp that they need to you know,
Speaker 1: work out with the UFC. That's absolutely everybody knows that.
Speaker 1: I mean, the situation the way it got, it doesn't
Speaker 1: it didn't have to get like that. Absolutely. You know,
Speaker 1: there's stings that they need to sit down and they
Speaker 1: need to talk about. One hundred percent. You know, Francis
Speaker 1: gonna that's my brother. I believe Francis is always going
Speaker 1: to be worth more than he's getting. Absolutely, if he
Speaker 1: can go to boxing tomorrow and they'll pay fifty million,
Speaker 1: I think he's worth more than that. You know. So
Speaker 1: that's something that they need to sit down with the
Speaker 1: company because you know there's plenty and plenty of athletes
Speaker 1: that weren't happy that we eventually sat down and something
Speaker 1: was done. You know, that's that's business. No one side
Speaker 1: is always going to get more than you know, you're
Speaker 1: gonna come to a compromise, and I think they need
Speaker 1: to come to a compromise. You know, can he get more? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Should we get more? Absolutely? Shoult football players get more. Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Would you be willing to go fight a Jake Paul
Speaker 1: or a Logan Paul. Absolutely, But these guys don't make
Speaker 1: These guys, don't they They're making a lot of noise.
Speaker 1: That's good. They got the they got the the YouTubers,
Speaker 1: and they got the new generation that these new kids
Speaker 1: involved in watching them. That's fine, but they don't equate
Speaker 1: to dollars. No, it's not them, you know, like like,
Speaker 1: what's the what's the other one? Logan Paul Floyd, But
Speaker 1: that's Floyd. Floyd been making a hundred million dollars paper
Speaker 1: so that that money came because of Floyd, right, you know.
Speaker 1: But Jake Paul, he says, oh, we're doing these numbers.
Speaker 1: We're doing these numbers. You can add up every fight
Speaker 1: Jake Paul has had, and they pay per view numbers.
Speaker 1: Want more than what I did my last fight, So
Speaker 1: they can say whatever they want to say. He can
Speaker 1: say this, or I'll say that, or you write me
Speaker 1: a check for one hundred million dollars. Jake Paul and
Speaker 1: I'll be there to kick your ass next week. Do
Speaker 1: you blame Connor for UFC fire is wanting the box
Speaker 1: because he got a hundred million dollar paper he got
Speaker 1: No why why we blame No, we don't blame him.
Speaker 1: You got one hundred million dollars. That's a kyda. Don't
Speaker 1: have to work no more? Right? Is that why he's
Speaker 1: been unsuccessful? But he hasn't been the same fighter. It's hard.
Speaker 1: It's hard now when you when there's a difference. When
Speaker 1: I got on the Guti, when I got on Louis
Speaker 1: vittar roll, I got on meek slippers, I got some
Speaker 1: bringing me all three of my meals in bed if
Speaker 1: I need that. I got a yacht, I got a Rolls,
Speaker 1: I got a Ferrari. It's it's about it's a good one.
Speaker 1: It's a good one. You're right, You're absolutely right. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a difference. But I think it also depends
Speaker 1: on that on the individual. Yeah, because you mentioned Floyd.
Speaker 1: Floyd had all that and he's still going out there
Speaker 1: get putting the work in giving folk. To be exactly,
Speaker 1: it depends on the individual because some guys they they
Speaker 1: they that's what they aspire to get right. So that's
Speaker 1: everything that they do. They do it for that and
Speaker 1: they get once they get it, it's oh I got
Speaker 1: it right, you know. And I think it was back
Speaker 1: in the day, whether it's Sugar Ray or maybe Haglow
Speaker 1: and they said that it's things is different when you
Speaker 1: start sleeping on silk sheets, Barbara had because yeah, so
Speaker 1: when you when you're sleeping on that knowledge, you know,
Speaker 1: the hustle is not the same. And now sleeping on
Speaker 1: silk sheets, I have to say, uh, I still want
Speaker 1: to I still have that hustle, right, I still I
Speaker 1: still want to get up and go get it right.
Speaker 1: So I think it's it's on the individual. So with him,
Speaker 1: I don't know why he's not that successful. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe he got a lot of different things going on.
Speaker 1: He's got his demons that he's battling. You know. I'm
Speaker 1: not here to condish, Yeah I'm not. I'm not here
Speaker 1: to kick him. Man, while he got down, but that's
Speaker 1: the best time to kick him. Man, better time to
Speaker 1: kick him. And he right, easiest, easiest to get him.
Speaker 1: But he wasn't trick. He never evolved. The same thing
Speaker 1: happen to Ronda Rousing. She didn't evolved. He didn't evolve.
Speaker 1: He's striking. Take him to the ground, he never gets up.
Speaker 1: He spent. If you take him down to the map
Speaker 1: thirty to the round, he died the rest of the round.
Speaker 1: You'll see that. They take him out the deep water
Speaker 1: and they drowned him because told him what he was
Speaker 1: gonna do. Ya, i'mnna drag it to d and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna drown you. Yeah, no, I mean, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the thing about the sport is you have to be
Speaker 1: honest with yourself. You have to be able to understand
Speaker 1: that I'm weaking these areas. I need to make sure
Speaker 1: that I'm bringing those up to parts so by the
Speaker 1: time I step out there, like That's what people don't realize.
Speaker 1: It's not just all I won this fight. Is I
Speaker 1: want to be the best mixed martial artists in the planet,
Speaker 1: right and and that's being able to mix it all
Speaker 1: up together. You gotta be good at everything when you
Speaker 1: step in there. And that's what I think I do
Speaker 1: better than everybody right now. Right Would you fight Connor?
Speaker 1: Would you fight? Could be? I would not fight could be?
Speaker 1: You know, could be is like my brother, Okay, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll see no interest in that. Connor, absolutely, I gave
Speaker 1: him a chance. He got scared. He I gave him
Speaker 1: a chance. He was, he was barking. He was because
Speaker 1: that's what he do. Now. He tweeted a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we call twitter fingers now. He tweeting a lot. And
Speaker 1: so he one time before I fought Master Dollar, he was,
Speaker 1: he was, he was tweeting a lot, and I said,
Speaker 1: here's your chance. If you picked up the phone right now.
Speaker 1: I called the UFC. They're not gonna say no to
Speaker 1: you to challenge for the best. And he was quiet.
Speaker 1: And then the next week he started calling out at
Speaker 1: his silver or retire fighters and things like that. So
Speaker 1: would I fight Connor? The offer is there, but you
Speaker 1: know the fight you don't make no s the fight
Speaker 1: people want to see. They want to see you step
Speaker 1: up and see him step down. I are you interested
Speaker 1: in that? Of course they like to see that. No,
Speaker 1: I've said it before. I'm not interested in that because
Speaker 1: right now I'm a part of something that's bigger than
Speaker 1: me and at some at some at certain points, you
Speaker 1: kind of have to you know, you have to stand
Speaker 1: your ground on certain things. Now you know they want
Speaker 1: to offer us a hundred million dollars. Me, is he
Speaker 1: gonna have to go in the back room and talk
Speaker 1: about this. We want we want to do it a
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars. You know, you got mom and dad
Speaker 1: now they they living up there in the upper room
Speaker 1: and they living somewhere nice now, you know. So you
Speaker 1: know that's the conversation me him would have to have.
Speaker 1: But right now, it don't make no sense for me
Speaker 1: because and I've said it before, two Nigerians having belts,
Speaker 1: it is more important than me. Two three Africans, all
Speaker 1: three of us havening belt. Right, It's more important to
Speaker 1: me than one African with all belts. John Jones, Francis
Speaker 1: and Galu. That's I'm gonna tell you right now. Where
Speaker 1: am i? I'm over here. I'm gonna tell you right now,
Speaker 1: Francis and Galus is a tall full glass of milk
Speaker 1: for anybody to drink. Now, you know, John, when they
Speaker 1: come out with the rankings, you know who the greatest
Speaker 1: they say, the number one ranking, the number one UFC
Speaker 1: fight up all time, It always is JJ. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it to John Jones. You look at
Speaker 1: what John Jones has done in his career and the
Speaker 1: way he's done it. I put him up there, of
Speaker 1: course I put him up there. But times have changed, okay,
Speaker 1: and it's always like, come on, now we know how
Speaker 1: this goes. You can't be the best for ever. Okay,
Speaker 1: what about what about John? Is it? That's a tough one.
Speaker 1: I want to see that one. I want to see that.
Speaker 1: I want to see that one. I mean they want
Speaker 1: to fight each other out for that. But John moved
Speaker 1: up now the heavyweight. So but that's the fight that
Speaker 1: I was really intrigued by. You know, I think it
Speaker 1: is he is a is a ninja, right, he's a sniper.
Speaker 1: But John, I mean mixing it up. John has proven
Speaker 1: that he's been the best for a long long time.
Speaker 1: So that was the fight that I was very intrigued about.
Speaker 1: And that's one thing about MMA is there's no math
Speaker 1: about this, right. It's not okay, Floyd fighting Mike Donna,
Speaker 1: you know who don't win, right, There's no there's anything
Speaker 1: could happen. But when you fight, for instance, and Ghanu,
Speaker 1: though I don't want to see it, I want to
Speaker 1: see it, of course. I want to see it. July, Dana,
Speaker 1: let's make it happen. International thing. Ask you about the hand.
Speaker 1: But I see you got the hand bandage. I saw
Speaker 1: it on Daniel's page. You have throw on the hand.
Speaker 1: You're looking for a fight in mid July. July, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be ready. Who you wanna fight, you don't matter.
Speaker 1: Throw him in there, it don't matter. You gonna find
Speaker 1: him and you throw him in there. I'm just in
Speaker 1: a place now to where I'm having fun with this. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm having fun. Like I said it was, we was,
Speaker 1: we was run your race early on. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't pass them all up. Now I'm coming back around
Speaker 1: and now like like like you saying both, I'm looking
Speaker 1: back and I'm smiling. So it don't matter who you're
Speaker 1: throwing and throw them all in there. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your time, brother, Thank you my brother tomorrow. Who's my lady?
Speaker 1: To Jim? All my life? The grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle,
Speaker 1: bed Price, want a slice? Got the broller dice to
Speaker 1: swad all my life. I've been grinding in all my life,
Speaker 1: all my life. Then grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle,
Speaker 1: bad price, want a slice? Not the brother, the dice
Speaker 1: to swad all my life. I've been grinding in all
Speaker 1: my life,