The Zach and Pat Show
56. From Fighter to Father (feat. Adam Cella)
(upbeat music) What is up guys? Welcome back to the Zach and Pat show. I'm Zach. - I'm Pat. - This is the show about manhood, fatherhood, entrepreneurship and the mentality it takes to be successful at those things. And we'll probably sprinkle in some helpful real estate advice too, 'cause that's what Pat and I do. You know guys, life can be tough. We can go through some things and struggle times, but this is the show to let you know that you're not alone. So if you're someone out there going through any of these things, this is the show for you. Shout out to our friends at Neurogum for keeping us energized and focused. Neurogum is a chewing gum. They've also got mince. It's got caffeine, l-theanine, vitamins B6 and 12. Helps with energy and focus. You know, I like to chew it really all the time. I chew it whenever I'm driving around in my car, showing houses or without clients. If I just need a quick pick me up in the afternoon and stops me from grabbing another coffee or energy drink, it's about 40 milligrams per piece. So it's about half a cup of coffee per piece of gum. So get out there and try some neurogum. - Yeah, I couldn't use that this morning. - Yeah, yeah, Pat went to his, what was that? Like your first fundamental Jiu Jitsu class. And yeah, I got my ass kicked. - Yeah, pretty good. - First black guy or kind of whatever. - There you go. - I can officially say. I was like, what was your first black dude? That's why I heard two, holy shit. 2024, bud. - Yeah, that's funny. (laughing) - Well, to announce our awesome guest today, he's a friend of mine, a pro MMA fighter, pro kickboxing, pro kick boxer, the president of CXBJJ, the great and powerful Adam Selah. - What's up, guys? Hey, a couple of things if correct. I'm retired from two of those things. - Vice president of CXBJJ, yeah. Makes me sound way cooler. - Hey, I'm trying to hype you up, bro. - Yeah, don't do that. (laughing) That says the bar way too high. - Yeah, man, we were just talking before the show started about the event here in St. Louis this past weekend. They held their third invitational here in St. Louis, but their third pro card, we all win. It was an absolute blast, man. How did everything turn out as you guys hoped? - It was great. It's the third time we've sold out and that venue, so a lot of people compliment the venue. I've had one person complain about it and she was on the second show we did. It sounded like she wanted me to rent out and it's got trades in there so she could have more room, food, bunch of bathrooms, good parking. I'm like, "Lady, come on, get out of here." - It's a jiu-jitsu pro card. - Yeah, I'm like, "Chill, you're asking for too much." But the venue is exceptional, right? And you guys are all there. So, you know, it's very different than what you normally see. I went for an underground fight scene. That's how you would be like, "Oh shit, we're kind of "probably not supposed to be here "and there's probably people betting on stuff." - Sure. - But that's what I wanted, right? And I went in there. - It was awesome. - Yeah, and it's dark. I have dark, like Yellow Wolf is the rapper. I have his Pandora station playing over the back and they're like, "Oh yeah, it's good music." I'm like, "Yeah, it's not me." But I just found it once and that was cool. But the venue's badass, parking sucks. But that's downtown, what do you expect? - Yeah, I mean. - Good and bad. But the venue's great, parking sucks. But the fans turn out every single time, right? And they, we jam the house full, you know, full. So it's second level's full, first level's full. Never have problems with like bathrooms or the bar or nothing like that. - Yeah, I mean, there's really not a bad seat in the house. I mean, you can see everything with me, especially with the elevated stage. You just gotta make sure that no one gets thrown off the stage. - Yeah, so Josh McKinney, the first one, Josh McKinney and his Josh Murdock, they rolled off the first one. Second one, we had no issues anywhere close. This third one, the heavyweights and the people before them. - Oh yeah. - And I was like, guys, I'm about to stop this. - Yeah. - Like stay in the grave. - They're trying to throw each other off the door. - There were some little kids in that front row too. I was like, damn. - Well, the, well, the problem is whenever you are being, it was, so as it kind of explained to me, I was sitting with, with James Kraus and my partner Enrique, who are both black bulbs. And James Kraus obviously has his own resume of excellent. Whenever you're being pushed back, like the defense is not to go backwards. Like you want to turn and switch it up a little bit. They weren't doing that. They were just going backwards and the guy pushing forward, right? When he got to the heads of your mat, that's when he decided, oh, I'll try to take down now. - Right. - Like dude, this is a different, it's not a tournament. It's a different level. You got to work for that take down inside that little gray area. So that was a little, I might change that next time and not have so many blue belts. - Yeah, how many blue belt purple? - So we had, I say two kids. - Yeah. - Man, those second, man, the kid with the cornrows and the, that was a hell of a mat. - So that one. That was Joseph Spug-Gogney or something. He's on a Perryville, which I had never knew Perryville. - How old were those kids? - Those kids were like 13 or 14. - So you're all saying like, dude, when those kids are 18, we're all fucked. - Well, I'm fucked now. - Yeah. - And judging how a Europe experience went, I'm already fucked. - So, but no, we had, the first kids was with two cadence. I watched them go at AGF like two weeks before. And I was like, okay, this will be fun. But the one kid from Pettico, Caden St. Angelo, he's a butt scooter. - Yeah. - I hate that shit. - Yeah. - Yeah, he just dropped his butt and then just kept coming out. - Yeah, the kid was just backing up the whole time. - And Caden Castin, who I've coached against him in wrestling, he beat the shit out of my kids all year. He's a little stud. - Really? - But he's saying get up. And that's where the referee was our first ref having this guy. He is a Pettico guy. And I was like, can you be unbiased? 'Cause like, I'll get rid of you right away. - Sure. - He's like, oh, yeah, no problem, no problem, you know? But he speaks Italian, so it's not like Portuguese. - That was like black forces on. - Yeah, we started out though. - So we, yes, he did. He did. And people were mad he had mats on the shoe. - She's on the mat. - I was like, a lot of that. I was like, ah, I don't really care, guys. - Yeah, so one time, yeah. - I cleaned them once, you're fine. And, but I don't like that but Scooten's standing back up. Then the next ones were two girls. Those girls, like Cassidy Hartman, she's a bad little chick. - That one happened quick, didn't it? - Yeah, I went to the bathroom and then I heard them, you know. - Yeah, well Cassidy won, so the one thing we want to harp on is if you do our tournaments and you win everything, you'll get invited to this pro event, most likely. - Cool. - Cassidy, I watched her win our tournament, which our first tournament wasn't like a huge tournament, but she won, she did great. She was at Arnold BJJ and then I guess they had problems there so she was leaving now, she's at Pettico. But she's a bad little chick and then the other girl with her scarlet, she sold a ton of tickets. - Really? - It's another way to get back on. - Yeah, sure. - Sell tickets, but she, I would like to have her back on there 'cause she's a great little, she's from BJJ Lifestyles in South County, but then we had the Spiconi kid and then the other St. Angel, a little brother. That one was a little bit confusing because we had said no ankle locks for kids. - Right, and they were just, that's all they were doing. - But that St. Angel kid was going for St. Angel locks and then I was like, that's like the ref needs to step in, but like, I don't want to interrupt the show and say, "Hey, you can't do that." And then the other kid was like, "Fuck it, we're going for ankle locks." And then he was going for him and then I think the one kid got slapped in the face or something and I was like, fucking punks. Like, God, just get done, I'm over this. But then we had, I think we had two blue belts and those were the ones trying to throw each other off. I think we had maybe two purple belts. - Actually had Bryce and his guy. - Yeah, Corey's a brown belt now, isn't it? - Yeah, Corey and Corey's a brown belt. - Yeah, Corey got his brown belt with John. Ron, Ron, as I call him. I think that's about it. - And then his browns and then, had a handful of brown belts, which was cool. - Yeah, you had court. - Yeah. - Court Kevin. - Court Kevin. - Uso. - Uso. - Those were all good matches, man. I mean, Uso's was really back and forth and, you know. - So Dennis wanted that match. They had gone before, I guess, in like February. - And Uso won, right, didn't he? - I don't know. - I'm pretty sure Uso won the last time that they did. - But Dennis was like, "Now, do you guys know who Dennis Williams is?" - Yeah, he's, oh, I mean, I know him. I mean, I know who he is and I know he always, he always refs at Fuji tournaments and stuff like that. - Yeah, so literally one of the nicest guys I've ever met, very helpful when I started doing this, he was like, "Hey, if you need help, let me know 'cause he ran all the Fuji stuff." - Sure. - And then he sold it, but he's still like, "Hey, man, and we're still cool." But super jujitsu nerd, right? Like, he's like, "Bro, our match is gonna be so exciting." And I'm like, "Okay, like, it's two little guys and geez." Like, it's not that exciting. That shit was exciting. - Yeah, dude. - I was like, "Damn, like, okay." - Well, like, Uzo was like one of the, like he just so fast and wiry and like technical. - Sorry, bro. - Yeah, it's just, I mean, I knew it was gonna be, I mean, just watching Uzo roll in the gym is always interesting to watch, just 'cause he's so athletic. - And then Dennis actually did a good job of pulling guard. I typically guys are guard pullers are boring, but Dennis was like pulling guard and attacking right away. I like that. - Yeah, for sure. - And then Dennis is really close to getting his black belt. And he told me afterwards, like if I get promoted, he's like the next one. I have a name, I will submit him and I will hurt him. I'm like, "Okay, nerd." - Yeah. (laughing) - I don't know what I've done, but let's see. But yeah, no, I'd like to have both those guys on. And they did well, especially on two, three weeks notice. - Yeah. Oh yeah, I mean, that was pretty last. They were like the last one you guys announced, right? - Well, yeah, because you and I were out to lunch when you were like, "Yeah, just got paid," or whatever, yeah. - Yeah, because I saw, I saw Dennis at AGF and he's like, "He's always said he wanted to get on, "but I don't want to pressure anybody. "If you say yes and then I ask you and you can't do it, "I'm not going to bug you." He said, "Do you want to get on?" I said, "Okay, I might get to happen." I messaged Kyle, Kyle said, "Yes." I saw Uzo said yes. And I was like, "Where in, let's go." - Easy. - And now the scoring you guys did wasn't traditional. - So the one thing we'd have to improve on, we have to make a rule set like list that this is it. What I've always done is we just say, "Go off IBJJF, that's kind of where we're going to start." But if you are a blue belt and you are like a leg lock dude and your opponent's down with like heel hooks and shit, let's do it. I got to get away from that. I got to be a little bit more firm with the rules. But as far as the scoring goes, we go for aggression, you're trying to finish. So like, if I'm going Zach and I do a takedown and I stay on top, but he's like firing shit off from his back, trying to finish the match. He's going to win. We've given it to those people and we've been booed. - Yeah. - I mean, we saw it at the tournament this week. - Yeah. - And we were a little biased, obviously, we all wanted Collin to win. If this was a point system, Collin would have believed Collin would have won with a takedown, a sweep, but then he passed on. - But Cody was more aggressive with attacking leg locks and stuff. - And that's what we go for. There's a match in Kansas City we did that a guy was literally on his backs the whole time. The dude on top just stuck him. But the dude on bottom was moving, trying to, he was trying. We gave it to the dude on bottom. We got booed by the whole place. He actually gave his belt to the other guys. I got it when that, but they don't understand our rules. And we've made it very clear, your job is to finish this match. Like, I don't care if you get a takedown pass guard, you get them out. That's cool. Do something with it. Like, I mean, this is not a tournament. - Right. - And when we judge it, that's what we kind of go off of. - So you're designing it to be a little bit more aggressive? - Yes. - That's why I'm entertaining. - Yeah. And that's why I have, my first one I did, I did a 16 by 16 mat, a little too small. I had to upgrade and make it 20 by 20, which is like a traditional kind of competition size. Yeah. So it works, especially for the venue. I thought about going bigger. - Then you really lose that seat. - But then you would, yeah. - And then I lose seating. And I don't think he's gonna really matter. - Yeah. - So. - No, it was perfect, man. We had such a good time. There was so many good matches too, man. You know, Jordan Daugherty's match was really entertaining. - Yeah. - It was really back and forth. I mean, it hit that beautiful Ujimada. - So he hit that and I was like, that was very controlled. - Yeah. - It was like, it was like. - And it was like perfect. They landed like almost in the center of the mat. - Yes. - I mean, like big boys and they landed. - That was a big boy. - That's how you drill it. It's like, hey, we're drilling this. Here we go. And this is like perfect. But Jordan's, I'm one of, I like to think I'm one of Jordan's main training partners. I'm with him every Monday, every Friday. Him and I go all every time together. And we went 10 minutes straight on the Monday before. And Jordan, his back had been bugging him. So he's like, I kind of want to let it go. Now he's also a weird dude. If you guys ever talk to Jordan. - Not much. - He's very, so I've gotten to know him over the past, probably 12 months, maybe a little bit more. We've become pretty good friends. He is very, he's very direct, but it's like, there's no play in his words, right? - Want. - Yes, but he's like, my back hurts. There's no saying, okay, well, let's ease into it. He's like, no, I'm taking off. You know what I mean? There's really, there's no give. But his back's been bugging him and he's kind of kept it under wraps with me. - Sure. - Now, I knew, I knew he was bugging and he told me, but it was like, I didn't know if it was like, hurtin' him or type stuff. - Or he's gonna have to call him. - Because he will not pull out of a match. He's like, it's jujitsu, I'll be fine. But him and I went on Monday and we went 10 minutes straight and I wrestled the fuck out of him. And I tried, he would've won if it was a match, but then we went again. He submed me four times in like five minutes to like, fuck off. (laughing) It's like, now he's very good trading partner. I've got a bad shoulder, bad neck, head surgery, and all these things. And he gets something he'd like, let's it go. So I consider that a sub. - Yeah. - He was nice. I lost, no big deal. But I was like, damn dude, you're fucking ready, bro. - Yeah. - Let's go. - Now, who did he go against? - He went against a guy from Springfield, named Ryan Colbertson. Ryan Colbertson figure is a hyphen. I don't know if he took his wife's name or what. (laughing) I don't know how that works. But that Jim Springfield BJJ, he had just competed the week before at Synergy for that quintet, they had like a quintet style. - Oh, cool, I saw that, yeah. - I didn't know he was like six, seven though. - Yeah, I did. - He's big, tall. - Jordan's like, you know, he's like six, seven. I was like, I have no idea. I just gotta get along in his arms. His arm was like, I'm never, I'm not really just shorter than people who are like, damn, bro. - Yeah. - He just mentioned quintet. Have you guys ever thought about doing something like that? - Yes. - Offset. - I think that is such a cool rule set. - So the only problem is-- - For you guys that don't know, I guess let's explain that, you know, quintet, it's like at least, there's only been a couple of them, right? And it's basically, they're like five man teams. So essentially like you do a team from a tack team team or a, you know, a pedigo team, where essentially the team total is a weight. So you can, you can, you can do it by on, like you need five guys. So you need to split up the weight accordingly. You need to have like a big guy, a small guy, a couple medium sized guys, but like, it's like think of everybody stepping on a scale together. Like that's your team total. And then it's like five versus five. And so if you, so if I go, if Adam and I are on different teams and Adam goes out and subs me in that first round, Adam stays in and he's got to fight the next guy from our team. But if no submission happens in that, then we're both out. - So I want to do it a little bit different, right? I want to have like, okay, we're going to have brown, I'm sorry, purple brown, two blacks. I would love to have it like that. - I like that, okay. - So it's like fair, right? - Sure. - Because if it was a tack team, we put Matt Green and everybody else takes a seat. - Yes. - First we're going to have a good night. - Yeah, put Nick and Nick behind him and then we can just chill. - You don't even have to. - Yeah, you don't even have to. - Nick and I talked about it. We were like, put Matt Green and then they're fucked. Like he's a monster. - He's a fucking guy, he's a demon. - And since he's not here, I'll just tell you. I beat the shit out of him. - Oh yeah. - Every time we roll, I have to go easy on him. - Oh yeah. (laughing) - He's not here. - Nick, I'm on the show. - No, not Nick. - Matt, Matt. - No, Nick. - Nick's fine. - Matt Green's a, he's a pad motherfucker, man. - He's a CrossFit Games level athlete. - Yeah, I think it was 75th in the world in the CrossFit games when he was fucking around getting ready for no-gib hands. Like, I was like-- - That's gross. - Yes, but his dedicate, like-- - His work ethic is second to none. I've never seen a Michael Chandler's the only person I've seen before. - Watching him do his workouts on Instagram. When I was doing, when I did the last show, he programmed a program for me to get ready for it. And I mean, it got me in probably the best shape I've ever been in. - Yeah. - And fuck, he's a, I mean, just the shit that he, like, the shit that he would have in me do. Like, one of the days was just like, yeah, go do a 10,000 meter row. Go sit on a row, it took me 56 minutes to do it. (laughing) - Oh wow. - Dude. - But that's a thousand, 10,000 meter row. - But like, that right there, so Matt does that. - Yeah. - And then he'll go do, like, I saw one workout he did. He did five, one mile runs. And this fucking dude, his first mile was like, let's say, 640. Next mile was faster. - And know that this next mile was faster. - 220 with that. - Yes. - Hey Zach, real quick. Will you move your, over a little bit? You're sure you're-- - You're blocking it, yeah. - No, his fifth mile was like, close to like, 605. And I was like, how the fuck do you get faster? - And he's that big, too. - He's big, he's big boy. - He's like, yeah, I mean, he's like two, I'd say he's probably 220-ish, you know, shredded. - And when he was a cop, I was like, oh. - God, yeah. - Did you imagine, like, getting chased down by him? - Yeah, oh, he's just chomping at it. - It's like the Terminator, that T-1000. He's just always there. (laughing) - Yeah, he's a freak. And then he won worlds, he double golded at Worlds at Brownbelt, right? - Yeah, he's won everything. I've seen, I know he's been beat before, which is weird. But the thing, like, he's that guy who got his black belt on sheer ability, right? - Yeah. - So like Nick knows all the terms, all the moves, Junior knows all the moves, Kyle, same thing. And they can do them, they've earned their spot, right? Matt probably knows 50% of what you should know, but can do everything, he's good. - It's like knowledge versus instinct. - Sure, yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, man, he's a, he's a freak. Yeah, dude, it's such a great event. We had a blood on Josh's, how about that for the? - So Josh is on my shit list. - Oh yeah? - For, I love him, I love him. But he is the most non-communicative person I've ever met in my life. (laughing) Like, I text him and nothing, I text him nothing. And then I had a match set up for him against a guy named Max Hansen, who is a pedigo guy, but he does like $10,000 tournaments. Like he's like, he was expensive. And I was like, and I talked to Nick and Kyle and Junior and I'm like, yeah, if we get this match, he's like, oh, that's a big win for Josh. Josh's like, no, I'm not doing, this is ghee season. Get the fuck out, God damn it, guys, you train ghee and no ghee every day. - We all train no ghee and every, yeah. - It is like a guy like Josh McKinney, you are so good. You could do either. - Yeah. - So I offered him quite a bit of money. He didn't respond. And I was like, this fucking guy. So then from then on, Junior's like, just go through me. And I was like, all right, I'm back through here. So everything went through Junior. And then it was kind of funny. His opponent this time was like heavier than they said. - Yeah. - So they agreed to do 200 pounds. And Josh, this may be 190. And-- - Yeah. - Yeah, and well, Gabriel, his coach said he's 207. I said, okay, cool, just be like 200 pounds fine. And that was months ago. He texted me like Monday. He's like, hey, this is Gabriel. I do your, and this is over tech. So I read it like this. (laughing) I read in Portuguese. - Yes. - He's like, I need to do your event. He goes, I'm like 220. I'm like, oh fuck. So my first thought is like, I'm the replacement. Like, I made it very clear. Like if someone drops out, I'm jumping in. And I'm like, fuck, I don't want to get beat up by Josh. Like, I mean, I will. - Yeah. - Or whatever. - He's beaten you up before. - I've only rolled them like once. - Really? - And he was very nice. And it was when he was a brown belt. So that's how long it was. - Okay. - But I've always told everybody, if I step in here, I'm fucking going. Like, we're going 100%. You might win. - Yeah. - But like, it's gonna be-- - You're gonna find me to the death today. - Yeah, we'll just, I'll tap, I promise. (laughing) But like, I was like, fuck. And then I was like, how do I get a replacement? And I was just thinking, right? And I said, if you could be under 210, we're good. Did you came in at 206? I'm like, what the fuck are you? It's so confusing. - Yeah. - If I waited, it would be 185. I was 185. I didn't come in under. Like, this is where I need to be. - I'm right there. If I don't need a pound, you're not getting a pound more from me. - Yeah. 100%. - But no, Josh did good. Josh has an it factor though. Right? Like you guys saw after he won. - The crowd's gonna-- - The crowd lost it. - Keep in mind. - Keep in mind. - Keep in mind. Kind of. He didn't tell a lot to get some. - Really? - Yeah. So unless he told people to go buy from Bryce and Ron, like, then that's fine. But you just saw that his charisma, he has like an it factor. And when we first did these, I told him personally, I said, I want to make you a star as best I can. If I can help get you to the next level, I will. So we want to take him to like North Carolina, Florida, Texas, all these other places, even Japan. He'll fit in over there. You know, he kind of looks like-- [LAUGHTER] But like, you know, I said, just don't get lost in the crowd. [LAUGHTER] - He's a little bit more tan than the average-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] - Yeah. But I want to-- like, for Josh, I want to do that for me. He's young enough to do it. Kyle's a little bit too old. - Sure. - You know, Kyle doesn't care either. - No. - Kyle's competition. - Well, Kyle's-- yeah, Kyle's had his-- - Kyle's had his point. - --at his time in the-- - Nick's-- Nick's over it. Nick doesn't want to ever do it. Junior, I'd love to get him on. But like, Josh is-- I think he's like, what, 30, 31? - No, he's-- - Younger than me. Yeah, he's like 30. - We're both 31, so he's got to be like-- - He said he was 30. - Yeah, he's 30. - I think he's like right there. But that's young enough. He's got another six, seven years to where he could actually be something big. - Sure, 100%. - Now, I think the problem is where is he training it, right? You've got to get guys that are better than you to make you better, right? Not that he's not going to get better, like with-- but he's trained with Kyle for 15 years. He's trained with his dad for that, you know, forever. - He knows their skillset. He's prepared for it by now. - Yeah, so I offer-- hey, man, I'll send you out to California. I'll pay for it. Like as a CXBJJ sponsored athlete, I'll send you out there for two weeks if I can or whatever we can afford, right? - Sure. - Go out there and just get the best you can. - And train one of those West Coast gyms that are huge. - Yeah, or Florida or-- - Austin. - Wherever, but go there, train, and you're going to bring some shit back and then just make it better. It'll get better. And that's what I want. - I was going to say one of the things, because we just got done reading Tim Grover's book, Winning, is like there's three levels of competitors. There's the cooler, there's the closer, there's the cleaner, and just like the way he goes in and handles business is like the dude is a cleaner. And I snapped some really good candids of him. They're in the win, just look at his hands up, and you can tell that he's got that vicious, that dog in him, and not a lot of guys have that. - Yeah, so Josh is a goofball. - Absolutely. - So Josh came on the scene really, because everybody knows him, because he'd be in the middle of a tournament, and he'd be like, "Oh, cameraman." - And he's got that showmanship, for sure. - He would pose for the camera, and that's just one of those weird things that people don't really notice, right? But he does, and then he has charisma. If you ever talk to him, he's a kind of a goofy character, but he's very nice, awesome dude. And I would love to push him, as far as I could, can, but fucking talk to me, like, God damn it. - Yeah, dude, just the way he won. I mean, it was a spectacular fact. I mean, the whole fucking place erupted, that was awesome. - Yeah. - I mean, we were all, we were all losing. - What percentage of the crowd do you think was tag team? - I mean, it's like-- - Not that many. - Really? - Really many. No, I promise you, like, I would have to go through and break it down, but the number one ticket teller was a guy from Parabellum, which is out in Williamsville, that was Frank Rodriguez, and then the next was, I think Scarlet, that 15-year-old girl. - Really? - We were not like, like, when Kyle was here, he sold like 60 tickets, which is a lot. Devan Parada sold like 57, so there was a lot. But I didn't have any of those this time, and we still sold it out. - Wow, yeah. - It's impressive. - Yeah, but I also, I had to change things up, so like the last time we were a little too crammed, and so this is probably not the best business model, but I eliminated a row of $100 seats, so that we can have a better, so if you go, you're gonna have a better viewing experience, and I gotta fine-tune it again, but I'm trying to make things, if you go to the event, you're gonna have, you're gonna be like, okay, this was a great event, not like, oh, it was cool, but my seat sucked, or something like that, right? - Well, that's I think 'cause we were in different spots and everywhere, we were out with it. - We were up at our seat for a while, and then we went down to get a beer, and you know, - How was that great? - Another fine start, and we were like, just ended up standing there for a while. - Well, those balcony seats are 65 bucks a piece, and it's not, you're far away from the bathroom and the bar, but they're the best seat in the house, - The best seats to see, yeah. - And then we got those boxes that are private boxes, I get those catered with food, I just had a meeting yesterday with the guy who owns a place, now they're gonna have their own private bartender. - Ooh, oh, that'd be sweet. - But drinks are included, so the price tag goes up, but I'm gonna be paying for it to where you'll have your own bartender for those boxes, I get it catered by Johnny's hideout, and the one agreement we had was I can have food there, but he doesn't want messy shit. So, the two boxes I picked, like chicken strips, toaster raviolis, pretzel bites, you know. - Yeah, shit on the way out. - Shitty food, and then the other one, the owner of Johnny's, he picked whatever he wanted, I don't even know what he got, but they have a little menu, I can get sliders, I can get all sorts of shit, really. And if you bought the box, I give you the menu, I say, "Hey, what do you want?" And here's what we go. So, include that with like a bartender. I mean, I could sell those tickets for $220, $230 a piece. - They're gonna be Hennessy at that bar? - Hennessy at the bar. (laughing) - We're a sponsor, goodnessy, you know. - Yes, so, I'm looking to improve those boxes up there, then you got those seats, and then the stage seating's pretty good, I don't like that you have to walk kind of back behind where the production guys are, I just don't want anybody kicking-- - Kicking wires and shit down. But really, I do the best I came with what I got, and I think it works out. - Dude, it works out, I mean, that's the third time I've been there for it, and it's gotten better and better each time, I think, so. Yeah, Hudson, obviously, you came up fighting, and I definitely wanna get into some of that stuff, but how'd you get into this? How'd you get into promoting-- - So, when I retired from fighting, I was like, so I openly went and saw a therapist, 'cause at the time, I was like the main event for everything, and we can get into fight stuff, but starting off as an amateur, I sold a fucked on the tickets to go. - Did you grow up around here? - Yeah, okay. - Here you go. So, I sold a fucked on the tickets, and that just translated to like, okay, well, obviously the biggest ticket mover goes to the end of the card. So I started main eventing everything as an amateur, and whether it was kick, it was never kickboxing, always for MMA. So I had probably, we'll just talk about the fight shit, so I started off kickboxing. I had probably 170 kickboxing matches. - Oh, wow. - So back then, I-- - When did you start holding me? - 20. - Okay. - So I hate the, I hate these guys who are called, I have one sanction fights. I think about it, I had a fuck ton of one sanction fights because it was like, the sanctioning body was either I-S-K-A, I-K-F, or Shamrock. - Yeah. - Like, and so a lot of stuff didn't count, I guess, and none of it really counts in theory. It's all amateur stuff, but no, I fought in St. Louis, Kansas City, Iowa, I just, kind of like the Midwest, just kind of kept going, and I would fight four times in a month, like every weekend, I was like going somewhere to fight, it was fine. Then I went into the boxing, one Golden Gloves a couple of times, and then did pro-kick, our amateur MMA, and then did pro-kick boxing, and then pro MMA. And then, we can dive into all that nonsense too, but after that, being the main event, you're like, the big deal, right? And you walk into a room, people are like, "Oh shit, there's that." He said himself. - Yeah, and like, I thought that was cool. I didn't like fighting, I liked all the shit that came with it, right? - Right. - And then, before I was married, obviously, I would say that, the women, absolutely. The first night of the Ultimate Fighter that aired, I had my inbox was like full of like, one hot chick after the next hot chick. Oh, hey, hey, hey, you know, and like-- - Saw you on TV. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it was like, "Oh shit, okay." And then, obviously, I'm married now, I've been married for a while. After, you know, after that, I was like, how do you cope, right? How do you go from being this cool dude to like, and I retired because my daughter would be important to being dad, right? Now, I do have a step son who I've been, you know, I've been with my wife, Jenny, for almost 10 years now. And, you know, so I was a dad, but it's a little bit different, right? So, I was like, how do I go from being the main event fighter dude to dad, which, I know you have kids, you guys have kids? - I know, personally. - So, you know, being a dad is the coolest fucking thing. - Yeah, absolutely. - I 100% would trade everything I've ever done in my life to be dad. Like, it's-- - The best. - It really is that cool, but like with my son, he was able to walk me out for fights in Iowa, Arkansas, St. Louis. - Wow. - Like, he loves this shit. And I have him pick up my walk out song, which was questionable with Hirend. - Was it Blippi? - No, no, the one time it was hooked on a feeling by Blue Sway-- - Oh, shit. - Like, I'm like, who fucking is this? - And then, the other time it was Sunflower by Post Malone. - Yeah. - Oh, wow. - He watched that Spider-Man movie. - Spider-Man. - Spider-Man. - That was probably the time when he was picking these. - They range, man. He was probably six, and then eight, nine, and then I retired. I retired, he was probably, he was like nine. - Okay. - No, he was probably eight. Yeah, but in my retirement fight, he is there, Cadeside. And I got a video of him, he's going, "Body shots, get the body shots!" (laughing) I'm like, "What the fuck did that mean?" This is like a video game, you can't just press A, and like, "Yeah, do you hit the body shots?" And he's just gonna drop. - Yeah. But that was, that was like the cool shit. But then when I retired, we'd just get back to the point. I started seeing a therapist, and I was like, how do I cope with almost normal life, right? How do I do this? - Yeah, and it was all good. And then I just, I've always commentated fights, whether it's for Shamrock, NFA. When I retired for NFA, they wanted me on as a commentator, and I said, "Cool." I love Brad Marlene, they're the greatest. They're truly one of the nicest people you ever meet, if you guys ever like... - Is Nemesis? - Yes, and Nemesis Fighting Alliance. So, they, if I call Brad right now, and said, "Hey, can you, can I borrow your truck?" Yep, sure, no big deal. Like, it's right there, he's just a good dude. - Brad. - Brad Carey. - Yeah, I know Brad. - Yeah, real estate guy. - Yeah, and my business partner works with him. So, but I commentated for them, and then I commentated Ben, Nogaris, who was my old partner in Kansas City, he was like, him and Enrique were like, "Hey, you commentated our Jiu-Jitsu." I'm like, "I don't know shit about Jiu-Jitsu, "but I could talk shit for a problem." He's like, "Cool." So, I went up to Kansas City, and I was like, "This is awesome." I said, "We need to bring this to St. Louis." And if you guys have ever had... - It was the CXB-JJ? - Yeah, okay. - Well, it was up there, it was CXB-JJ, blue corner. - Got it. - And if you guys have ever had an idea where you were like, "This just needs to happen." I just feel like it's gonna work. This was that idea for me. So, right away, I put the wheels in motion. I came back that weekend, I just started setting it up. Kevin Smith, who was at Revive, him and I were talking, he does event coordinating, he helped me find Red Flag. He gave me a list of places, that was the first place I looked, I was like, "I'm sold." He met me there, he helped me a ton, dude, a ton. And, but that was kind of how we transitioned to it, was I went to an event, I thought it was pretty badass. And, you know, as far as like, I just bounced around a little bit. The therapy thing, she was like, "You need to find another purpose of like what you want to do, and is dad gonna be okay?" And I was like, "Yeah, I'm okay being dad, but I want him more, right?" Like, "I've never been a normal nine to five, I've never been a normal." Like, "I'm okay, let's go to soccer practice." Like, it's like, if you guys train, it's like I go to work and then I go train. I think that, for so many years every day, I got off work at three by 3.30, I was at the gym, playing punch face with my best friends. That was, that was just what we did. And then... - Punch face. - Yeah, but now it's like just jujitsu shit. - Yeah. - So, I found, it was like I found a new purpose, and it just sat right, you know what I mean? Not being a jujitsu guy, being a combat sports martial arts kind of guy. I was like, this is gonna be cool, right? And then, business side of things, I was like, "I think I can make some money doing this." And, I'm pretty transparent about stuff. I do make some money, I could make way more, but I spend a lot on these shows. Like, I want them to be awesome, and they cost a lot. - I'm sure. - It's like, just buying everything to get, like, I have a storage unit that's basically a tournament in a box on my mats, $20,000 for the mats. You know, I got eight TV, you know, everything's in there and I'm just like, "Fuck." This doesn't work out. Do I sell this? - No, but I do. - Yeah. - So, - To make a sweet garage gym. - You, you could, but I don't have friends that are gonna come down to one of the roles. (laughing) But. - Well, what's the vision that you have for it? - So, I wanna travel with it, right? Like, I'm gonna keep my normal job. I own a, I don't own, I work for my parents, but the process of trying to own a heating, cooling company with my brother and my cousin. And, that's normal, that's solid. My goal is to travel the Midwest. Like, I wanna, I think the next city I'm gonna go to is Houston. And then I'm gonna go to either Nashville or Memphis. I think Nashville is gonna kind of be where it's at. I wanna go to Colorado. We already do them in, we do tournaments and shows and pro shows in North Carolina. He has, Enrique has another partner in, in Quantico, West Virginia. So, and then he does stuff with cyborg down in Florida. So, we have, and then we were in Kansas City. - Cyborga, Maria? - Yes. - Which, I could bring him up anytime I want. - Really? - Yes. - Oh, that'd be cool. - So, he's a legend, man. - The, he, what I wanna do is bring someone big up like that and then have a seminar on Sunday. So, pro show on Saturday, seminar on Sunday. I just don't know how well that'll go over. It's a lot of, it's a lot of due to it soon and weekend. - Yeah, that's true. - But, well you gotta thank all the, all the people that are, you know, like, I mean, for like me, for instance, I went to the show, I didn't compete, but, you know, I definitely would show up with the seminar on Sunday, you know? - Yeah, well, so cyborg's one option. My first option is Gilbert Burns. So, I've been, so I've been, I've been working on Gilbert Burns to bring him up, compete now. He would have to compete against someone like, my old coach Zach Cummings. Who knows, like, hey, if I get you in a heel hook, I'm not gonna try to rip your fucking leg off. You're like the number five ranked UFC welterweight. Like, there's, there's, there's, there's a level of sportsmanship, right? - You need to have. - In respect, yeah. But then do a seminar the next day. I think 100 bucks a seminar, or a person, it would be like an hour and a half or so of no-gee/MMA and then hour and a half of gee. And Gilbert Burns is multiple-time world champion. - Yeah, world champion and gee, yeah. - It'd be unreal. - Yeah, that'd be. - And so that's, that's kind of the goal, kind of an option, but travel to all these cities. Now, my partner Enrique, who owns CXBJJ. - Was he the one that was talking there between, towards the end? - Yeah, with the, so he's a Marine. - Yeah, with the two Marines. - Yeah, yeah. - Those two guys. And those two guys, Tulsa is a Marine out there in North Carolina with him, who I feel so bad for Tulsa, man. But, and then Frank is Enrique's black belt down in Wayne, in Wayne'sville at Parabellum. Enrique was down in Wayne'sville for a while. Stationed, whatever, at Fort Leonardwood. But Tulsa, I feel bad for him. I brought him in twice. He's got beat twice. He went with Devin last time. - Yeah, that's right. - And then, like this time, I think he won in Kansas City though. We brought him to Kansas City and he won. But with, with Tulsa, he, I brought him here. He brought his wife Bianca, who I think she just got in her black belt. Bianca, like she's such a sweet person. They're great people, great fucking people. But he's flying home. His flight went from St. Louis to Charlotte, maybe? I don't know. Delayed, delayed, delayed, canceled. Next day, delayed. And then I, he finally made a home around four o'clock on Monday, P.M. - Aw. - And I was like, I'm so sorry, buddy. Like, he's like, oh, it's okay, it happens. He's great, again, great dude. And then today, I get an email assist 'cause I booked the flight. He says, hey Tulsa, how was your flight? I sent it to him and go, how do I respond? (laughing) So we just kind of laugh, but it was a... - Or dude. - Yeah, so, but with Enrique, he wants to essentially franchise that on almost how Fuji does all their stuff, but he's a lifelong martial artist. He's been a black belt for probably, I would say probably 10 years. I don't know, he's been doing Jiu Jitsu 24. So however long that is. But great guy, awesome dude. He's got a couple of businesses, like everywhere. He's one of those guys who does everything. And his goal is to never... I don't think everyone wants to sell it. He's talked to about selling me almost the whole thing. And I'm like, but I got into this because I wanted to do with my friends. And it's something cool we can do. I'm going to North Carolina August 10th that weekend. We have a tournament out there, but I'm gonna go out a few days early. I'll put on a seminar at his gym. An MMA kickboxing seminar. And then we're gonna take that money and donate to some sort of veteran thing out there, or whatever he wants to do. But that's the fun shit, man. Going out there, hang out with my buddy. He owns a restaurant out there. The food's killer. He's Peruvian, so it's like all this weird Peruvian shit. I mean, you'll have diarrhea, but it's really good. It's really good, I promise. And then his restaurant's right on the water. So if it's nighttime, the music I like is like one dude with guitar, that's my jam right there. Whatever they're doing, we're good. So it's like, it's just cool. And trying to get my wife out there if she'll go, but we got kids. - To Charleston. - No, it's in Swansboro. So Swansboro, North Carolina, which is right by like Greenville, I guess is maybe the biggest city. But when you go to Swansboro, it's like that show, "Sweet Home Alabama," when she goes back, everybody knows your name. Not me, but like, oh, hey, you serve. I'm like, I'm like the minority, but not being in the military. But everything's on the water, everybody's so nice. I walked in, I bought a can of soda from some dudes, like little mom and pop shops for like 50 cents. I was like, really? - 50 cents? - Yeah, I was like, shit, that's cool. But it's just, it's a cool place. I always said that if our kids were older and we wanted to move and we, you know, financially okay, we would, I would move there. Like, that place is badass. - Yeah. - So, but yeah, the goal, the answer to your question is I kind of beat around the bush, sorry. - Is, I want to do these in other cities. I would love to do it to where I do, I'm gone probably almost every other weekend. And I hate being away from my kids, but they can come, right? So when I fought, it was like, leave me alone, I got. - Yeah, I'm busy. - This dude's trying to fucking kill me, but with like, with Nathan, my son, he can help. Jenny, my wife, she can help. Mila, when she gets a little bit older, I mean, she can come, she's a good kid. She'll do whatever. She's three. - Okay. - But I get it, I have her on the mats now and she knows ground and pound. When I say ground and pound, she runs up, tackles me and she, she puts me right in the face. So. - That's awesome. - And I coach a kids wrestling program. So I'm hoping that she gets on the mat with me this year. - Where do you do that at? - Down at second. - Oh, fuck. - Really? - Yeah. - I need to get my son in there. - Yeah, it's two. - We got a four and five year old. - So five is, I think, where we start. - Okay. - Now my daughter will be on the mats in the sense of she'll get some cute pink wrestling shoes. - Yeah. - And she'll stand there with me. - Excuse me. - I just wanna get her on the mats, get her familiar. Like I take her to revive. She wants, she wants, she wants to get out there. But she wants to get out there to go play the Bubby. - Sure. - Like she don't care about what we're doing. But I see how junior, so my head coach junior, how he was with winter. It's like, I look up to all my instructors like this. But with junior, he had winter on there. - And is that his son? - His daughter. - His daughter. - And then when she started, she would do like, a quarter of the warm up halfway, like half ass. Now she, I had her on the pro show. The second one that you were on, she was the first match of the night. And it was like the cutest thing ever. I was like, this is, this is why I do this, right? Like creating memories for people. - Right. - Like you'll never, your picture is right here. - Yeah. - Like you'll never forget the night you did that. - No. - We'll have you on again. - I have sold to go. - Oh, you want no key on that one, huh? - Yeah. - Yeah. - He's a ticket seller. - Yeah, he's a ticket seller. So I get to come back. I get, and I forgot to pay him. And I was like, hey bro, I think I owe you 500 bucks or something. (laughing) - I was like, oh, I didn't even know I was getting paid. A lot of people didn't. But that's the other thing is with these shows, I want everybody to get paid. Now, it's not much, but it's something. - Yeah, well, I looked and I was like, oh well, you know, and then be going to be a sponsor for it. I was like, oh, happily, you know, I just, you know. - And that's creating those relationships, right? - But I want everybody, all the kids get paid and like, you start handing them, I'll pay them in like 10s or 20s. So it looks like a whole lot more. - Yeah. - And they're like, oh my god. - Yeah. - I could buy roadblocks or whatever. - Yeah. (laughing) - Dude, that's so cool. - Magnetiles. - That was so much fun. We had to buy them. I had a blast. It was the coolest, coolest like combat sports things I've ever done. I mean, I've done a lot of wrestling tournaments growing up, a lot of Jiu-Jitsu tournaments, but never anything like that. - Yeah. - It was very, very cool. - But like that's what we want to do is we want to expand, create memories for everybody. Different cities, different states. See where it's going to be cool. You know, we want to go to Vegas, Houston. The reason Houston will probably be the next city, I've got friends that, my best friend lives on Houston. So I've got feet on the ground. He's a, I think he's a purple belt. And his coach was on the second one we did. Invitational two, I flew him up. But they, they're able to help me. You know, so I don't like fly down there all the time. - Yeah, you need someone there. - Yeah. So that's the goal is to make it grow. Pro shows for sure. Tournament will be a little bit different because how do I get all my mats and my whole ship? - Right, yeah, that's all we're finding. - There, right? It's like, 'cause Enrique, when they did it in Kansas City, he drove from North Carolina to Kansas City. That's like two days of driving. At the time he drove a Dodram TRX. He's like, "This is just like stupid." Like, this chuck's not made for this. So we just got to figure it out. - Awesome. - And so now you've gone through all the, the therapy that you've found your purpose now, so. - Part of it, part of it. Yeah, I, I'm always trying to grow, right? Like I was talking to, so I'm good friends with James Kraus who, when we-- - One of fighters, right? - Yeah, and we can talk, and so James is passed. James was like top 15 UFC. - Coaches, yeah, I was kind of explained in this situation. - Yeah, so he, if there was a UFC on, he had a fighter on it, whether it was contender series, whether it was a fight night, a pay-per-view. He was at every event coaching someone, great coach. Then I think with all the shit that went through with him, which I'm not gonna, it's not my sword to tell us I'm not gonna dabble into it, he got fucked. Like I truly, truly, truly think he got screwed. So, he accepted to be on this event, this last one, and he was reluctant, right? - True, this was kind of like his first, probably his first thing. - This was first thing back, yeah, and since-- - And I had a couple-- - How long ago was, whatever happened to happen? - A year, maybe a year and a half. Yeah, it wasn't that long ago, but I had some of the guys on the show make kind of smart ass comments, and I mess, like Bryce was one of them. I mess with him, I'm like, "Hey bud, just so you know." And I erased it, I said, "If James sees this," I said, "He is the guy that, James will get "in your Facebook, you have something to say, "and he will fight you right there, and not give a fuck, "and he will probably win." Because, so James grew up pretty rough, and he's a real estate guy now. He would be a great guy to have on this because he does-- - Is he local, he's in Kansas City. - He does things, he's like a flipper, but he does coaching, for like he's got, the thing I like about James is he is all about making money, but he will make you as much money as he can for you by helping you. Like, now he sells his coaching and stuff like that. - Sure. - It's a business. - It's a great program, and I'm gonna talk to him about it because I think it's gonna go more toward like how to grow in life, right? Not so much as real estate and flipping houses, but how to push yourself to the next level. Like him and I were talking today, and he's like, "Yeah man, everything was great." I was like, "I just don't wanna be comfortable. "I wanna keep pushing myself to that level "of being uncomfortable, right?" But talking to James, what the fuck were we even talking about? I guess we lost the track. - Talking about therapy and finding your purpose, and you were-- - Yeah, so that was ending. It was talking to James was like, "I wanna get, "I wanna grow it and keep being uncomfortable. "It sucks, my hair is gonna fall out, I'm getting gray, "but like at the end of the day, I love it." Like I've worked towards something, when I see the end product, I'm like, "All right, cool." Like yesterday-- - Dude, after that last, after Josh's match, he had to feel pretty fucking good. - Well, it felt good once I had, I looked around and I had other people folding up the chairs and not me, seriously, because the first one, so I'm a bit of, my wife will tell you, I'm a bit of a control freak. If I don't do it, I'm afraid it's gonna get done wrong. So I finally had like three or four kids folding up these chairs and then I'm like, "Fuck, I don't have to do that." Now I load up the mats and I always help and I'm like, "All right, we're kinda getting somewhere." Like set up was easy, breakdown was easy. It just went smoother and I was like, "Okay, cool." Now we can, let's do one more, like this, so it's smooth and we'll see. - Yeah, and then what's I guess, would you just, what would be the next step going up, like getting a different venue, or a little bigger, you know, what's the... - I've talked to, I just, I actually was talking to the owner of that red flag. - And red flag's great, but you know, I mean. - So my problem is, real, realistically, I don't think you're gonna sell more tickets than that for Jiu-Jitsu. - Right. - You're not. Because like... - And it's almost like good to have a smaller space so it feels like fuck it. - That's the thing, I could easily go to shave it, Serena. - Right. - And have like six rows full and I'm like, yeah, that's look like shit, but... - Yeah, it's like you gotta find another venue that's just only like a little bit bigger, but it's, you know, it's feel that tight, you know. - The thing is though, is I want the same vibe that I have. - That's like an underground fight scene. - Yeah, in like... - What's that movie, Never Back Down? - Yeah, and when you start going bigger though, you start paying more. Then it, that's what, yeah, that's where the business thing is. - Often it's paying writers, I mean, all these other things. - Yeah, and I don't want to take any of it away, I want to keep it where it's at. So, I'm going to stay at Red Flag until I feel like I need to move. Whether that's this year or next year, I don't know. But I have, I've been looking, I've looked at other places. One place I looked at, I just don't think the bar setup is going to be good as a good viewing experience, because I also don't want to sacrifice quality for more tickets. - Sure. - That's never worth, that's never good. - Yeah, that's true. - So are you trying to do the, I guess you've been on what, it's been one a year for like the last? - So I want to do two a year, I want to do two tournaments, two pro shows a year in St. Louis. - Cool. - Now, if you think about it, so four events here in St. Louis, if we go to Houston, we do two in Houston, two in Vegas, two in Nashville. Go out to Denver, go to Iowa. You know, those are the kind of the cities I want to hit now. - Busy. - It's busy, a lot of moving parts. But if we do these pro shows, we take Josh McKinney, or a dude who really impressed me with Steven Carlisle. He went with, so he's a brown belt from Gracie, you might've, he went with a black belt from Kansas City. He fuh, fuh, fuh, fuh, fucked him up. - Yeah, I remember that match. - Now, I will say this, Paul, the black belt was one of James Cross's black belts. Paul is really good, but Paul is like in his 40s. Steven is maybe early 30s, maybe, but he's a brown belt. So it was like kind of like a give and take, right? - Yeah, age for experience. - Yeah, and, but Steven was all over him. And I messaged Steven privately, and I was like, buddy, I think I was impressed with you most. - Damn. - And I was, and like, he gets his black belt, take him out, just like Josh McKinney. You start pimping him out. - Come on, I was literally about to say pimping him out. - You pimp him out, and it builds their name. And then, who's to say that someone like, like Josh McKinney or Steven Carlisle don't, they don't get like the right eyes on him. They're like, hey, we want this guy on this. And the next thing you know, they're on the fight pass. - Yeah, and they're on who's number one, or something like that, you know? - And fight pass tried to buy CXBJJ stuff. - Oh, really? - And told them no, yeah. Because they want to own everything. And that's a bad thing, 'cause it all, like, if you want money in the pocket, it's a great business. But like, we're kind of getting stuff a little bit different. - Yeah, no, you want to own it, man. I feel like that's the, at least that's the way I look at everything. Like, you want to keep, you want to keep that money in your pocket, you know? - Yeah, for sure. And what's the CX stand for? - Kombate Extreme, okay, right? So the Enrique, he had CX MMA. He used to put on fights down in Waynesville, down in that area. And that was what they did. That was his MMA gym as well. And it's funny because the first one we did, I had a combat, a combat you did too much. He's like, dude, the name is combat. We've never had one. I'm like, well, here we go. Turns out it was real shitty. It was court, and the court wall, and this guy, Alex McGowan, kids city. They had fought before his amateurs. - Like MMA. - Yeah, and Alex won. But like with combat, you just, you're supposed to hit the shit out of the person. These guys were like. - Yeah, he like had his back, and he was like-- - Yeah, it was like some weird sex thing. I was like, he looks like this is not working out for him. - Yeah, it's supposed to be palm strikes. - Yeah, I'm like, beat the shit out of this guy. I mean, I guess we did it, but-- - 'Cause that was the only combat you've had or like, on the hand. - Yeah. - That was the only one I've ever seen in person. It's a-- - Hey, it was not a bad goal. (all laughing) - Ever I've seen a couple of those. - I've seen a couple of those in the gym before, and those are entertaining to watch, for sure. - Yeah. - You know, guys slapping the shit out of each other. - I did one with Matt Green. - Oh, that was a-- - Yeah, that was fun. - Yeah, he's still sleeping. - Yeah. (all laughing) - He can't, hey, he's not here to defend himself. (all laughing) Fuck, he's gonna kill me. - No, he's not. (all laughing) - Yeah, he's-- - Look at this though, Matt Green is as, people are scared to go with him in our gym. - Dude, he's a great training partner. I've tried, I've rolled him many times. - So the thing is-- - He can kill me at any point. - Yes, so the thing is like, I told you guys about my neck and my shoulder. Before I had the surgeries, I was like, hey, I gotta have surgery. Like, so I'm gonna go with you, and he was like, cool. Never hurt me. Never once, the intensity's still at 100. Never once did he hurt me. Never once did he accidentally come close to trying a fucking phenomenal training partner. - Right, I feel like I'm catching release, you know, kind of. - Not even catching. He worked, I guess he's so goddamn good, and he just did everything, didn't touch these two things. (all laughing) - That's what I was gonna say. I was like, you guys, you get guys that you're training with that are at that level, I mean, the control and everything that they have over their movements and everything, I'm sure they probably make for great training partners. - Oh, 100%, yeah. - 'Cause they know exactly what they can and can't do. - Speaking of Connor, so-- - Shadow Goldstein, not a good training partner. - So Connor's a little bit wild. He's gotten better. Him and I had a talk, probably a month ago, he's like, I gotta start using more technique and not so much explosion and just, ah, I'm like-- - No, no way. - Like, yeah, I've never had a problem. Everybody likes Connor, but he is a little bit wild sometimes, but he is strong as fuck. - He's very strong. - I mean, you look at him. There's bodybuilders that aren't strong. He's functionally strong. - Right, I mean, you can see him. He's got videos out there of him, deadlifting 500 for reps, you know. - But that's like, that's not functional to me, right? That's like, okay, I'm a bodybuilder, I'm gonna get big. Connor actually has functional strength where he grabs you and it's like, okay, you're moving me, this, okay. - Mm-hmm, yep. - So. - Yeah. - Yeah, no, he's a good dude. He's just wild sometimes, you know. - I still look at him as those deadlifting videos, and I'm like, you're not using a belt, dog, like, no belt and narrow his fucking stance, and he'll be like, man, I haven't deadlifted in forever. I'm gonna get this shot, and he just walks up and does 500 pounds on his foot. - That's not deadlifting years ago. I don't know how to do it anymore. - I never started. (laughing) - Good for you. - I did it for one fight, and-- - So you didn't do any strength and conditioning, like-- - I did it a couple of times. What's three plates on each size at 3.15? - 3.15. - So I did 3.15 for 10, and then we put another plate, it was 4.05. - Yep. - Right when I did it, my back started to bend, and I dropped it. - You felt that, huh? - I go, hey, don't need to lift that up. This guy's 185, we're good. - Yeah, man. (laughing) - We're good. - And my trainer at the time, we were like, all right, we're done. - Yeah. - It was either Joe Rogan or Mark Bell's Power Project. There was some dude who used to be a power lifter on their goes, as far as the risk reward of deadlifting, he goes, we won't do it for athletic training. He goes, there's nothing about deadlifting that actually transitions over into any of these kinds of sports, 'cause we're gonna do cleaning jerks, we're gonna do snatches. The risk reward is a lot lower, and the exposure is a lot higher. - Makes sense. - I mean, I pulled 405 just for the gram after, and like, dude, I used to power lift. I've had a 515, and I'm not saying I'm the strongest dude in the world, but I started noticing like how I felt and how my posture started going. I'm like, yeah, I'm not stepping onto a platform to fucking deadlift or power lift ever, so I'm done with this shit. - See, I think it's all, I think it's all, so someone told me a long time ago, who do you, what do you wanna look like? Like Michael Johnson was that sprinter, right? Like when I look at him, do what he does. Like, he sprints, he does explosive stuff. Like, I fight, I'm, I did. I'm not trying to, like, curl 300 pounds. Like, I gotta give a shit about that. I just need to be able to pull my arm out of stuff, and when I used to train with Wes Richards, and we did, so when I would, - I wanna look like Wes, that's what I wanna look like. (laughs) - Well, it'll be a little bit taller. - What, Wes wanna say mine? - Yeah, yeah, a little taller. (laughs) - Stay where you're at, stay where you're at. But Wes and I, so when I, right before, when I was getting ready to leave for the ultimate fighter, we used my train training coach, right? We used to do things where I was like, I had a kettlebell, and it's not like a row. We're like, we're jerking that, like, okay, you got an arm bar, pull it out. But it was like, we were turning, the elbow's not down, turning, pull, right? And it was physically, not appearance-wise, but like physically I was in great functional strength, right? But my diet was shit. I always just did like low carb stuff. I just never, - Oh, I agree. - Never knew, like, kind of what to do. So I was always in shape, but I kind of was never like, I never had muscles. There's one time I had muscles, and I was doing everything like correctly. I got, like my, I was playing softball one time and my brother's on my team. He goes, didn't I sleep, I surely goes, dude. Fucking, oh. (laughs) And you like that? But I was, but like, it was for a fight, and I was like, I don't wanna keep up with this. Like, I mean, you look cool 'cause you're naked, you got some abs. - Yeah. - But like, this shit's not fun. Like, I'd much rather go to stacked. - Yeah, sure. Well, I mean, that's one of those things in Jiu Jitsu fighting and everything. It's like, you cannot judge a book by the cover. You can't just look at this dude who's shredded and, you know, 3% body fat and just assume that he's gonna be a great fighter. - Well, Kevin Smith's match, Kevin-- - Yeah, oh, it's a perfect example. - Kevin is, so Kevin is 170 pounds, maybe soaking wet. I'm 235. He is one of the hardest roles for me in the gym. Now, he's technically much better than me. He's always been better than me. But that dude, like, have you ever rolled with a Kevin? - Yeah. - So he is like, just so fucking hard. - Yeah. - And like, the dude he went with was-- - Jacked. - That was a big boy. - I was watching their arms like next to each other when, like, - His calves were scary. - I just saw him around the house as a whole was massive. - Well, and he took that match on, like, three days notice. - Really? - Yeah, the guy he was supposed to go with back down, but the dude he was gonna go with never once, like, advertised that he was competing. And I was like, and I told Kevin, I go, I think there's something up. I go, be prepared. I was like, you might go with me. - Yeah, again, I'm the backup. - But, no, Kevin's, I was, it was one of those where I was, I felt bad, I was like, fuck, I go, Kevin, this dude's pretty big. - Kevin didn't care. - Did they weigh? Like, what was their weight? - They weighed the same. - Oh, really? - Yeah, 170. - That guy was 170? - I think he cut a lot away 'cause he wanted to get on the scale. Like, with these events, I don't want anybody to cut weight. - Yeah. - Like, my big thing is like, if you tell me you're 170, I'll match you up with someone who's gonna be within 10 pounds. They may be 160, they may be 180. Within 10 pounds. And for the most, so far, knock on wood, it's worked out well. I hate cutting weight. I don't want anybody to have to cut weight. If you're, if you're 220 pounds, just be 220. I'll find a guy who's like 225, 230. - No, I need to get down to like 180 or anything. - Yeah, no, like, unless you just physically, unless you want to for like an IBJJ ever something that's coming up. Like, "Oh, I'll use this pro fight." - As a, yeah. - Yeah, I say fights and I'm a fucking fight, it's a match. I use the pro match as a way to get ready for IBJJF to win, you know, get these points, whatever else you want to do. So, but yeah, no, I don't, I don't do the weight cut thing. - Jeez. - Yeah, I can't believe it 'cause that too is 170. I'm like barely under 180. And it's just like, where the fuck does all that muscle weight, dog? - Man, look, I've always been, I've always looked heavier. I'm sorry, I've always looked lighter than I am. So, I think there's like a dense bone thing. - It's a thing, yeah. - I think there's like a real thing because like, even when I was in like, fight shape. - I'd be like 220. I thought at 85, they're like, "What are you like, 190, 195?" I'm like, "No, dude, I'm like 225." They're like, "No." - Yeah, like even when I did that match, all my buddies were like, "Dude, that guy was huge compared to you." And I was like, "I mean, I don't know, I think we both weighed like 170 or whatever." - I can't remember who you went with. - I think he was a last minute replacement. - Kansas from Kansas City. - Yeah. - Was it Cade? - So, you went with Jay Denny. - Yes. - Okay. - Yeah, I don't know. It's a pretty boring match. We're just trying to take each other down the whole time. Neither of us want to play bottom. - I heard you like being a home bottom. - Yeah, power bottom. - Hey, I told you we got here. Pigeon or Ketchin just put me in the game. - Yeah. (laughing) - It's all of either way, baby. - Yeah. - Well, speaking of matches and all that, let's talk about your career and everything that you said, you started off with kickboxing and then boxing and then MMA. Out of all that, what was your favorite? - Honestly, MMA, because that was where all these success was. - Yeah. - And that was the coolest. But my love will always be kickboxing because that's what got me into it. That's probably what I'm best at. And in real life, that's probably the most effective real life skill, you know? So, 'cause if we're gonna need to fight and start butt-scooting, I'm just kidding. - Yeah. - Yes. (laughing) - And, but no, MMA was the, they're all different, right? So, my first title was in kickboxing, but I won Golden Gloves twice the same year. - How do you win Golden Gloves? What is that? - It's a tournament, it's a tournament. - So, Golden Gloves is a tournament and what it's cool about it is it's old school, right? So, what I did was I won Golden Gloves twice in the same year, two different white classes, two different divisions. They have novice, they have open. Novice is like brand new. Open is like, you'll fight Olympic guys. - Okay, whoever. They don't matter, I'm on a fight. So, I won it both in the same year, two different white classes and then I got the Outstanding Boxer Award. But, what was cool is like, it was prestigious, right? And when I won, the open was at South Broadway with Let of Club, that's where I saw my first fight ever. - Cool. - So, it was kind of like historic, right? - Sure. - But, I was at the VFW Hall, my grandpa was, when he was still alive and I was talking to this old guy and I was like, yeah, and my grandpa was like, oh yeah, he won Golden Glub, this guy's like, yeah, so did I look, he still wore the ring. They gave him, right, from like the '40s. I got some shitty fucking trophy. Like, this dude's got his bad ass joss, like, like a joss dude, like a class ring. - Yeah. - I remember my dad telling me about it 'cause he had family members that would fight and no one ever won it, but like, they'd give like, necklace like gold glove necklaces or rings like you were saying, like, and people wore that with pride. - Yes, he used to be so much cooler than when I did it. Although, to me, it was cool. - Right, it's cool. - But I will also say this, like, back then, those guys had 12 matches. I had like three or four, like, you know what I mean? It was like, it was just different. - Yeah. - But no, that was what was cool about Golden Glub and then MMA was cool because like, nobody did it. Like, oh yeah, he's his fighter, oh my God. - Yeah, 'cause when did you get into MMA? - 2000, maybe 2010? - Yeah, so it wasn't, I mean, it was popular, but not as popular as it is now. - Yeah, no, now it's a main stream sport. - Yeah, it's fucking, yeah, it's blown up. - Yeah, it's a main stream sport at this point, but MMA was cool, my first MMA fight, I'll never forget, I came out to board George, do you really wanna hurt me? (laughing) And the dude looked like Jerome Bettis, right? And I was like some little chubby white kid, and I was like, hi. (laughing) But I have a picture, after I won my mom, it was in a ring, I was leaning over the top row, giving her a kiss, I have it in my living room. It's just like those memories, or what I, it was bad ass, but probably MMA, because it was just so much cooler shit. - Yeah. - That's awesome. - And what was one of your favorite memories from MMA? - What was, what's one of your favorite memories from MMA? - So, man, there's a lot of them, but like, as far as like a fight goes, was the fight to get in the Ultimate Fighter house. - Yeah, I wanna hear about the Ultimate Fighter and some of the stuff you did that. - So, getting in, that was one of those wins where, so, okay, let's just start from the beginning. With the Ultimate Fighter, the process is, you fill out application and you go to the tryouts. It's a tryout. We have 500 guys in the room. They were doing 205 and 185. I had a fight like two weeks later scheduled, so I was 192 pounds, and I was like in great shape. And the first thing you do is, is a grappling session. They break you up into a couple groups. I went into grapple, I grappled some Iowa corn fed wrestler, who fucking ragged dog me. And I was like, well, that was a good trip. I made it through, he got cut. And I was like, oh shit, okay, cool. But I had also given them my bio, which was like a lot of stand up kickboxing credentials. And I gave him a highlight video that someone made for me. I was like, hey, if you guys wanna check this out, like, it's cool. But I was only three and oh at the time, which was the minimum of a record you could have, three fights. So, the next one, so I make it through the next stage, I'm like, okay, cool. The next phase is hitting pads. And now I do heating and cooling for a living. I had broke my hand right here on the top part here. I hit my hand with a hammer. Oh boy. I was trying to chisel something. So it just cracked right here. So like, I had this huge calcium like bump here. And I was like, well, fuck. So I wrap my hands and I start taping it. And I start shadowboxing, right? Like, and Joe Silva, who is UFC matchmaker, he comes up and goes, hey man, you're through. I think you're good. I'm like, oh fuck, thank God dude. Like, he was like, we can see that you clearly know what you're good. So, the next step, and this thing make another round of cuts. So this is like weeks or is this, oh, it's one day. One day, one day, okay. So, and then the next phase is an interview. Now, Justin Lawrence is a guy from 21st Century, who's on the Ultimate Fighter season 15. This is, I was trying out for season 17. He was, I, you know, I asked him, I can't man, is there any tips you can give me? And he's like, you have a personality, turn it up a little bit, but be yourself. He's like, they're gonna love you. He's like, you gotta keep them talking. So I had that in my head when we went in there, the producer was like, I wore a cardel shirt, trying to beat St. Louis guy. He's like, so you're 190 pounds, trying out for 185, you're kind of small. I'm like, yeah, I have a, actually I said, this doesn't really work out. I'm gonna go fight somebody in a couple of weeks. So either way, I'm fine. And the guy, he didn't like that. And then he's like, he's talking about power bottoms. I swear on my daughter, this is what happened. He goes, you look kind of gay. You don't really look tough. He goes, how gay are you? I don't know, no, he goes, you look kind of gay. I was like, yeah, I get that. And he goes, how gay are you? I was like, no, I want to 10, I'm like a five. And he goes, fucking wait a second, wait a second, he goes, what do you mean? Well, judging by the way, I look, you can see that I care about my appearance. I go, but I just don't really want to be on the bottom of anyone like that. I said, I want to be a power bottom. And he goes, what the fuck? And I was like, yeah, you asked. So this is what you get. And then he's, the whole place started laughing. And then in my head, Justin Lawrence, like keep him talking. So I was like, but how can I not look tough? I have tattoos knowing that they're going to ask about my tattoos, like it was like a thing, right? And right here, you guys can't see it, but I have a, there's a name right here. That was a daughter that I had. I raised her for about two years, found out she wasn't mine. So I was like, and like I get goosebumps thinking about it. And I was like, they're going to ask about that. I'm going to fucking yank on their heartstrings because it's a true story. And then we're going to keep going. So I had all the girls in there almost crying when I was telling them the story. And I said, but I'm over that now. And then the guy was like, okay, well, what about if Michael Bizby walked in here? Think you beat him up. I go, my fuckers around the corner. I know you like, this is one of those punk things, right? I was like, I was looking at you. No, boo, this is before the one I. Oh, okay. And I was like, I probably fuck him up. (laughing) And I was like, is he here? (laughing) Like, no, so it was about 15 minutes of talking. I walked out and everybody in the room was like, dude, what the fuck are you doing? 'Cause like people are going for like two minutes and out, three minutes and out. And then there's a couple of guys. So do you guys know who Derek Brunson is? - Yeah. - So Derek Brunson taught me to wait. - Blind Derek Brunson? Was he-- - He was not blind at the time. - Wasn't blind at the time? - He was under contract or strike force at the time. He walked in, said hi, walked out. He was picked to win the show. They were like, oh, he's the guy. And then there's a couple other dudes, this guy Josh Saman, who ended up being on my team on the show. He went in and they wanted him real bad. So he walked in, kind of walked out. But I was in there for a long time and I was like, what the fuck are you doing? I was like, I was just having conversations. - Chat. (laughing) - And then I made the final cut and I assume all of you guys have seen me get kicked by Uriah. - Yeah. (laughing) - Okay, so I was in a professional kickboxing league with him. So him and I made it to the room and I was like, dude. I was like, hey, it's good to see you. As you know, blah, blah, blah. And I remember I called my dad, like, goosebumps. I called my dad, I go, hey man, I got good news and bad news. He's like, I said, I got some bad news. And he's like, what? I go, I gotta take off the next week of work. He's like, oh fuck, did you get hurt? I was like, oh no, they're keeping me here for medical stuff, fucking made it. So I had to say there, like, look, look, you see it? - Yeah. - See it. I'm like, he's like, I tell my mom's like, Chris, Chris, he made it. I go, hey, don't tunnel when he goes, don't tunnel when I go, hey, you fucking idiot. You're just in your house. You're not live on the news. (laughing) - What the neighbors do here? - Exactly, so I stayed for the next four or five days for medicals and I almost got cut because I had contacts at the time and in Nevada, you cannot fight with glasses or contacts on. Obviously, no glasses, but I had to take them out and I failed an eye test. I was like, hey, you're the doctor, but I have contacts here, I can't fucking see. Like, of course I failed the eye test. So he, the doctor helped me kind of pass it a little bit. And he's like, I suggest you go do this. And I, and I got him, and one of my sponsors was actually an optometrist. Or I'm sorry, an ophthalmologist. So I called him on, hey, Dr. Brent Davidson, great, great eye doctor, go see him. Anyways, he's an envision AI plus something like that. But I call him, he's like, hey, what's up? Hey, look, I gotta tell you something secret. I'm trying out for the ultimate fighter right now and I've made it. He's like, what? I'm like, phew. (laughing) - They're telling them what I said. - But here's the deal is I need to get PRK surgery. - Okay, like ASAP. - Like tomorrow. And he's like, so we kind of fudged the numbers on the paper like, oh yeah, I've not had my glasses on or contacts, I haven't had my contacts in for two weeks. But blah, blah, blah. I got back right away head eye surgery. And like, have you guys had laser surgery or anything? - I did. - So, are your eyes suited? Did you have LASIK? - Yeah. - Okay, so LASIK they cut it? - Different than PRK. I looked into getting PRK too, but they said since I just do Jiu Jitsu, I'd come on. - I got punched in the face of the video and we didn't want me to have a flap. - Right, right. - So, the afterwards your eyes are really sensitive for PRK, I don't know about LASIK. - Dude, I was fine the next day, I trained two days later. - So. - Yeah, I got one up Mr. Zach. - Yeah. - So, like three days after that, I'm sparring full on. - Fuck. (laughing) - We would kill. - Like punch face. - Yes, but I was like, I have to, right? But I got the head gear with the bar on the front. But I had a good camp going into it, went there and then they do random matchups. I don't know who I'm fighting. And I get there and this guy named was JQN. He was trying out for 205. He was a linebacker for Hawaii University or state of Hawaii, whatever it is. Big fucking guy. And I'm like, oh man, he's huge. And at the time though, we were getting my way in. He was super sucked in. I was like, okay, but we were friends at the tryouts. And sure enough, they draw my name in his name and I'm like, fuck, the one guy I liked and like, okay, here we go. So, I end up arm barring him and not being a jujitsu. - I was gonna say, yeah. Crazy is like, we're in the back and we're all getting ready. And this is one of the only times I've ever been nervous for a fight. It's a big fucking deal. - Yeah. - It was your first fight on the ultimate fighter. - But what was big was like Frank Meer's back there. - Who were your coaches? - My coaches were John Jones, Frank Meer, Bubba Jenkins. - Jesus. - A guy named Stonehorse who was John's Moitai coach, first Moitai coach. But at this time, it was you were just in a random locker room and I happened to get Frank Meer and I said, Hey man, I wanna say, I'm like a huge fan. And he was like one of my favorite fighters of all time. - Yeah. - I go, but listen, I don't really know how to do jujitsu. So, if you could help me and make sure you corner me and just yell some shit, I'll listen, I promise. I'm like a video game. He's like, cool, got you. And Frank's very arrogant and kind of cocky. So, we go out there and we end up on the ground and arm bar the guy, pop his arm. And Frank didn't say a fucking word to me the whole time. He goes, I thought I had to help you. I go, ah, I think I got it. (laughing) So, when it was time to pick teams now, we know Jon Jones chills on other coaches. I'm like, I wanna be on Jon Jones as a team just 'cause it's fucking Jon Jones. So, we pick, I get on Jon's team. It's Jon, Stonehorse, Bubba Jenkins, a guy named Ricky Lindell, Frank Meer. Ricky Lindell is Frank Meer's grappling coach. Ricky, I think, I'd have to look at that again, but I think he's the only guy who ever got a Penn State scholarship with never wrestling in his life. - Oh wow. - Because how good of a grappler he is. - Wow. - He was like, he's probably the best athlete I've ever met in my life, better than Matt Green. Athletic wise, they do do anything. But, Bubba Jenkins is like, he's a wrestler. And he wrestled at Penn State. And then I think he probably partied too much. I kicked off the team, went to Arizona, I think, only, and he picked Arizona 'cause he knew he could go wrestle Penn State guys and beat them. One national championships there. It was like the weirdest shit. And then obviously Frank Meer is Frank Meer, and then Jon Jones is. - Yeah, yeah. - Yes. And so, but that was a cool experience. And then obviously he got kicked on the face. We can skip through that. - That's the next fight. - No, it was the second fight of the week. So it was my next fight. But the first fight of the week was Gilbert and Sky Luke. And then nobody wanted to fight your eye. They were all scared. And I'm like, I'll do it. I'm like, that's my best avenue of winning. - Yeah, kickboxing. - Yes, exactly. And people were like, man, you were winning the, it was a first round. They're like, man, you were winning that round. I go, I don't think it was. Like being very neutral, I watched it. I was like, I would have given it to him. But he did a good job, kicked me in the face. It happens. I see him do that to 15 other people. Like, it is what it is. But it was, it was cool. - Did you get to party with John Jones? - No, so, just to jump back to jujitsu. John came in one morning practice. We got done practicing. He threw down like 3,500 bucks on the table and goes, winner takes all. I was like, bet. Now, I'd already been knocked out of the tournament and all this stuff. So at this point, I'm just a cast member, just a fucking, just have a trainer partner. And it's also on YouTube. So we can look at this. So me and John square up, and this guy shoots in and I snatch up a guillotine. And I'm like, no, no, not that easy. So I'm not squeezing 'cause I don't know how hard we're going, right? And then I hear, I'm like, I'm just not letting this fucking, I'm not letting it go. Like, why would I? Yeah. So I end up tapping him out. And like, you'll never find anybody but me tapping John Jones on video. I'm sure it's happened. Please send me this video link. Yeah, I will send it. But it, it was a, and he made it funny. Like, he tapped and I think he tried to get out of it. But I was like, I wasn't squeezing. And then, like, one of the other guys goes, hey coach, a real G, don't tap till he sees the light. And I'm like, oh, he's gonna try to get it. I was like, just slowly going. And I was like, okay. And then he was stuck. He tapped and then he ran off the mat. Like, like he flails his arms. He does this little baby thing, it was funny. He turned it into a good moment. But I didn't get the money 'cause we couldn't have cash on the show. So, in theory, he still owes me like three grand, four grand, whatever it was there. You hear that John Jones? Yeah, John. Come on. This is gonna be real. I actually messaged him. I was gonna try to grapple him on this show. I actually messaged him. No response, but. (laughing) You hear the one guy who's stuck on the show. I said, hey, you got one chance for redemption. Yeah. That's it. You gotta just take a picture of $3,500 on that table. Yeah, yeah. So, but yeah, that was, I mean, there's a couple, a lot of cool shit happening on the show. Yeah, dude, that's awesome. I'm sure there's just like a lot of, I mean, what was like the house like living, you know, being at the house with all those guys? The house was cool, so season 16 was that, that idiot Julian Lane was like, you gotta let me bang, bro. Yeah. So, let me fucking go up from there. Yeah, he was an asshole. Which side note, I tried to fight him in bare knuckle fighting after that. Never happened, but I was just like, yeah, fuck it. I don't like the guy. He's weird. But the house was badass. It was a Las Vegas house that had indoor pool in the basement, so you guys being real estate. The pool was drained. It had indoor pool in like a dance studio in the basement, so it was a fucking shack, right? Yeah. Real little house. And, but the house was cool. The guys were cool. We all got along, like it was zero drama as far as that goes, which is exactly what they needed because the season before was a bunch of fucking idiots. And we were all serious, but like all friends, and like, it was a good mix. How long are you there for? Seven weeks, seven weeks. I was gonna say, you get a bunch of fighters in a house that, that could be. Well, the hardest part of everything was trying to figure out where you could jerk off without cameras. (laughing) I appreciate the objectivity. Well, because you think, oh, the shower. No, it's like one of those, like you see your head, you see your feet, and the glass wall is like, it's just like frosting. Yeah, I'm like, you definitely got to still let this happen. It was washing my thighs, guys. (laughing) And it was one of those bathrooms where it was like, it was like a closet, get ready bathroom. So it was like, people weren't there changing, you're just like. Yeah. (laughing) Don't mind me. I was taking an extra long shower. It's getting ready for my fight. It was forearms worked out. I find out where to do it at though. I did it at the gym bathroom. No cameras in there. For you guys that are gonna be on the Alton Fighter, that's where you get it. It was gym bathroom. And it was real quick. (laughing) I don't know if you remember the first time you ever did that when you were a kid. But it was like, don't do it for like four or five weeks. And then just fucking let her rip. (laughing) You're gonna be easy. Yo, I sneezed you hard, I'm like, shit, someone freaked me. (laughing) The pants rubbed on my thing too quick. Allergies, that's a snot-luge-y that counts. (laughing) It's like, it's something that I'm afraid of. As I'd say, like, you see that old footage of Tony Ferguson back in the day. He was pretty tightly, well, you know, wound pretty tight. Now we know why. Yeah. He's also a fucking weird dude. You're great. You're mad at him? Oh yeah, he is a good dude. No. So any of the guys on that show are you still keeping contact with us? Yeah, so who won that year? Kelvin, Gestlem. That's right. And I actually was trying to get Kelvin here for this show, but he had, and him and I still talk to him. Yeah, now he was father's past week in Saudi Arabia. So, but Kelvin, I expect I could probably get Kelvin on one of these pro shows. For a decent, you know, I think he would do it. But, so my friend Josh Saman, who we talked about earlier, he passed away. Yeah, overdosed on some drugs, which is who I don't do drugs. But he, he had a promotion in Florida. So a bunch of us, my buddy Dylan, who lives in Australia, and Clint, who's from Atlanta, we all went down to the promotion in Florida. So we all hung out for a little bit. I still talk to Clint. Zach Cummings, who was on the other team, he became my head coach for MMA, and he's in Kansas City. Now, him and Krauss aren't different gyms, right? Yeah, so they're different gyms now. Because they were together, right? Yeah, they were glory. All the shit that went on with James, so they had to change, Zach had to kind of change his gym. And, but then, let's see, this guy, Jimmy, he's up in Boston, he's a cop, he was, he was like one of the only black folks, like the specialists we had. He's fucking good. He's a good wrestler, good, you do it to guy. He owns a gym up in Boston, this guy Colin. He's out in California, I don't know what he does. But Gilbert, who lives in Colorado, he was on another season of the Ultimate Fighter as well, the comeback season. He, him and his son are actually, we're gonna be on this Invitational 3, but his son is an upcoming MMA fighter, and they fought the week before. So he was like, I don't know if we'll be able to do it, but he was gonna go Jordan Daugherty. So he, and he may do the next one in October. Cool. So that's when you guys are coming back in October? Hell yeah, man, well, we will, I'll definitely be there. Yeah, man. And who, who from your episode, I mean, that's, well, I guess, how long ago was that shot? Oh, 2013, 2012. I'm sending those guys still fighting. I mean, Iraq, well, I mean, Uriah. Uriah. So all of our, so our season had probably the longest longevity of people stayed in the UFC, but we are the only season that everybody got a contract. Okay. I think that was, that was what was weird, was our season was so good, and credit to Chael and John, they told Dana, they said everybody on this season needs a contract. They get one chance. That's awesome. And they were like, deal. So Uriah retired, but Uriah fought for, and now he did like a boxing match against, I think like in that Adrian Peterson. No, it was, fuck, it was a football player. Someone for the Steelers, Steelers, yeah. I can't remember, but then you have. You played Ambo, is that it? Yeah, yes. It was, yeah. So Uriah fought for a long time. Josh would have fought, you know, passed away. He had crazy life he had. But then Kelvin fought for the interim title. He fought Izzy. Kelvin still. That's one of my favorite of my fights of all time, is the Izzy Gaslin fight. Well, Kelvin, yeah. And Kelvin just fought this weekend in one. Bubba McDaniel, who was on our team, he's a bit of a head case, had some crazy personal shit going on, so I don't blame him. Like his son was killed and this one was two. So imagine like, imagine that. The fact, and then I know Bubba, I talked to him on a regular, the fact that he didn't go to jail for murdering someone because of that is the, I don't know how he didn't. Yeah. But then, let's see. Zach just retired in the UFC last year. Um, Thor, he's out in Sweden. He's like an engineer. We always wondered why he fought. He's like an actual fucking smart dude. (laughing) He was like an engineer at a university or something. Trying to think, Clint, retired. He's a fireman. No way enough to do anybody else. You might've gone through them all. - Dude, you've had a hell of a career, man. It's done some cool shit, that's for sure. And that's, that's my main thing. So that's ends right there. I've done cool shit. I have built a legacy for like my, like all my kids, my son, his friends think I'm rich. They're like, oh yeah, Nate, that's rich on TV. And if you, and if you look up, like Adam Sell is like worth net worth, it says like three to five mil. I'm like, first of all, where the fuck is that? (laughing) But I'm like, yeah, check it out. What's up? (laughing) I was gonna go with it. Like the kids on the wrestling, that I coach on wrestling, they all found the video of me getting kicked. And the two of them started talking some shit. And I was like, oh really? I said, oh really? I said, guess what? I made five million dollars on that fight. They're like, what, oh yeah. And then you can look it up. - Yeah. (laughing) - And I'll back it up. And the one kid's like, can you buy me some prime? (laughing) - I bought him a case of prime and he just, oh he's like, I like this. - Your dad kicked that face for free. - It was eight dollars. (laughing) - And, but no, it's, it's cool because it's like, I've done something that it's like playing couch football and then going to the NFL, right? Most people aren't gonna do it, right? - Right, you did it. - Yeah. - You did it. - I did it, but I always had a career outside of it. Like I never stopped working. - Yeah. - That's why I have retirement plans. (laughing) - Well, I don't know if you remember the first day I met you, but I remember it. We were playing-- - As you should. (laughing) - No, I remember it. I remember it 'cause I was like terrified and you ended up being really nice, but it was at Finney's my very first day in Jiu-Jitsu. We used to warm up playing. - Dodgeball. - Dodgeball. That was the warm up and I remember I, we were playing that, you were on the other side and I remember I threw a ball and hit you in the face and you looked at me and you go, new guy. When we're rolling, I'm coming for you and I go, fuck and I look at Adam, he's like this big scary guy, big cauliflower ears, tattoos. I'm like, God, I'm fucked. You know, and then we ended up rolling and he was, and he submitted me but he was very nice. (laughing) - Well, hey, I don't remember any of that. Thanks, that's-- - No, I remember. - Yeah. (laughing) - I just remember that, it was just funny. I don't know if you remember that or not. - I don't, I don't remember all the fans that come in. (laughing) - Well, shit, man. This is awesome, man, I really appreciate you coming on and is there anything else you wanna highlight or talk about or-- - No, man, just plug. - The only thing we got is July 13th, we have that open tournament, the CXBJ Open Tournament, that's at Segment High School, so it's down actually right by where I live. And so, go to CXBJChampionships.com, sign up there. And I do have to say, like when you go there, you will not see like your weight class, your division, that automatically puts you in there, right? If you're born in 1984 and you're 210 pounds and you're a blue belt, it puts you where you need to go. We adjust the brackets later for as they need, right? Like if there's only one guy in your division, we will move you. - So you get matches. - Two more, yes. So you're gonna have matches. The first one, everybody had a match, right? There were no, you're not gonna get a free medal. We'll give you your money back, right? You're not gonna get a free fucking medal, like I don't do that shit, you're gonna earn it. And if there's only two of you, you're gonna do a round robin. So you'll have-- - It's two out of three. - Yes, you're gonna go. And we will call you before to make sure you're cool with it, but you really have no choice. - Yeah, so July 13th, and then we're coming back to Red Flag in October 19th. So we'll be looking for matchups for that. I'll start matching for that probably in like August. - Cool. - Somewhere around there. - Yeah, well that'll be perfect. I know even though there's gonna be a lot of people coming off that IBJJF in September, so people can be-- - Big ticket seller over here, you know. - I mean, if I get the call on my mind, I'm in, so. - I know some people. - Yeah, that's, in the other thing is like-- - You're a conner. (laughing) - I think conner's a little heavy. - Yeah, I mean, he'll let you, he reminds us of his weight daily, so-- - I'm not heavy. - I'm just like not on the lighter side of it. - I don't know if it's testosterone, but I love it. - Yeah, low T conner. - Low T. - Well, the problem also is like, gold weighs more than silver. (laughing) - Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. - Wow. - I'm not editing that out either. (laughing) - The only thing is conners, probably a little too wild to have on the mat. - He'll throw small notes. - Small notes, yeah. - Well, that's my biggest, my only concern is like, so when Kyle competed, we had Kyle's parents in the front row. - Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that. - Kyle's dad's like 80, like, first off, if you smash Kyle's dad, Kyle's gonna kill you. But like, I'm gonna be pissed off because like, then I gotta readjust, it's almost like I have to readjust and have like a barrier, and I don't want that, so. - Oh yeah, 'cause you're limited with the space that you know you have, you need that space for seeds. - So, but no, that's it. I will say the NFA is coming to, so the MMA fights that accommodate for, they have a fight August, I believe it's like 14, no. - Yeah, Brad was telling us about it. - He's 17, maybe. - Something like that. - Those are great fights, man. If you guys like fights, tickets are cheap, the venue's badass. - Well, hit the armory, right? - The armory, yeah. - Sick. - So, the thing that's crazy is like, when I start a fight, my first fight was the Stratford Inn. (laughing) - Over there in Fenn? - It's not there no more, yes. - Oh yeah, but it was. - Yes, the Ratford. (laughing) It was, but it was like that, it was cool, right? - Yeah. - And these kids now, they're having their debut fights at the armory in front of, you know, 1500 people, and like a great light show, a great, a great, a great. - Walk out. - Production, yes, and it's, they don't understand that, like, how lucky they are, but Brad Marlene put on a good show, the matchmaker has this guy Lance de Clue, who does a fucking awesome job, like, not to shit on other promotions, but there's another one in town that, if they, like, the match-ups are never good, right? If you have a ticket seller, they're like, oh, he's gonna get an easy fight. We need to make sure he wins. I don't like that. Brad Marlene matched up very even. Like, I retired with them. When they matched me up, they matched me up with a guy similar records. The only thing I will say is, my daughter came, like, two weeks early. I told Brad, I'm not cutting a fucking pound. I'll be 210 pounds for the photo. We're gonna go to 85. I was like, I'm not cutting a pound. I don't even know if I'll be in the gym. My daughter's in the NICU, 'cause she was early. I was like, I'm still gonna fight. I sort of fucked on the tickets, but like, I'll still be there, but like, I don't know what version you're gonna get. And luckily, my opponent was, was cool with it. You know, I think Brad, he'll never tell me, but he might have slowed the guy 500 bucks or something like that. You know what I mean? And that's how Brad is. Brad will never tell you when he does you a favor. Like, he just does it, and that's him. - I'll tell you, especially in real estate, that's a dude to connect with. - Really, I've heard about him. - Brad's pretty cool. - Cool. - Brad's, Brad, so he's that guy who-- - Is he trained? - That's, no. - He's how I'm at my leg store. - Oh, really? Okay. - Yeah. So, Brad is the guy who, especially with this promotion stuff, if I call him, I'm like, hey man, who sells bleacher seats? (chuckles) He knows someone. - Yeah. - Hey, Brad. - He's got a guy for everything. Who custom makes shoelaces? - I got a guy. Like, he's just fucking weird, right? He's got everybody for something. But, he loves helping people, and he never asks for anything back. Like, they help me with my shows. They always help me with myself. I help them with theirs to help me with mine. I send them money. They're like, you'd have to pay us. I'm like, well, you pay me. I pay you. Like, that's how we do it. But, great dude. - Get him on the show. - Get some people in his fight. - Yeah, he's a fun guy on the show. - Yeah. - Both talk real estate and fighting. - Yeah. - I don't know if he's-- - I mean, that's usually one of the other-- - Either one of the other guys. - Either one of the other guys. - Yeah, no, he's never fought. - But, he knows promoting and putting stuff together. So, but one more thing. We like to end our show with one last question. Kind of catch guests by surprise. Called the Tombstone Game. Here lies Adam Selah. What's it saying in Tombstone? - Love it, Father. - Perfect. - Perfect. - Love it, simple. - Yeah. - Easy. - 'Cause, like I said, being a dad is the coolest fucking thing ever. And you guys know, right? You got kids, you know. And you don't have kids? - I don't know what it's like to be someone's kid. - Do you know what it's like to have intercourse? - Yes. - Okay, make sure we're there. Make sure-- - I know it's like to be scared after it too, so. (laughing) - I've never had a scare. (laughing) - Good for you. - No one's, well, I did have a scare 'cause I raised a fucking kid for a couple weeks. (laughing) And then, that was, that was the top time. But, we're past it. We're good. - Cool. - So, yes, Tombstone be beloved, Father. - Perfect. - Love it. All right, guys, well, Adam, thanks a lot for coming on the show. - Thank you so much. - Yeah, guys, make sure you hit that subscribe button, hit the like button under the video, and comment what you guys thought. We will see you guys next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)