1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,440
Call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system.

2
00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:08,840
At the tone, please record your message.

3
00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:12,880
When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press 1 for more options.

4
00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:17,680
Hey, goddamn genome alley.

5
00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:23,680
Now I know you're not going to stop talking on your goddamn podcast, so I might as well

6
00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:26,000
tell you the story about when I went to Burning Man.

7
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,560
And yes, I did go to Burning Man.

8
00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:32,960
I didn't know what it was, I thought they were going to burn a different kind of fellow.

9
00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:38,280
But I got there and most of what I did, I spent most of my time in the Orgy Dome doing

10
00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:41,880
**** and trying to sell ****.

11
00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:46,760
Apparently you can't sell **** that Burning Man, even though you can bring all kinds of

12
00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:47,760
other drugs.

13
00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:52,840
Those goddamn hippies need to understand if they're there for freedom or not.

14
00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:57,280
So I was trying to sell **** in the Orgy Dome and they didn't like that, so they put me

15
00:00:57,280 --> 00:00:58,680
in Burning Man jail.

16
00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:00,880
Yes, they do have a jail at Burning Man.

17
00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:04,720
I was there, so don't call me a liar about it.

18
00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:08,400
I was in Burning Man jail and I just woke up a few hours ago.

19
00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:11,400
Everybody else is gone, so I don't know what happened.

20
00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:16,800
Maybe I did too much ****, so maybe it was just really, really good ****.

21
00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:22,000
Anyway, Burning Man was a very wonderful and enlightening experience and I will go back

22
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:29,000
next year, around 2024.

23
00:01:52,000 --> 00:02:13,040
3, 2, 1.

24
00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:17,440
Welcome everybody to Breakfast of Champions Season 1, Episode 21.

25
00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:24,360
I'm joined by my third co-host Kevin O'Malley here at Fort Worth Folk Company.

26
00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:30,320
We also have a gentleman here, obviously right down the center, who is a UFC fighter, a very

27
00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:35,320
entertaining individual and we just appreciate him blessing us with his time, Abdul Razak

28
00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:36,320
Al Hassan.

29
00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:37,320
Thank you.

30
00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:38,320
As-salamu alaykum, my brother.

31
00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:39,320
Wa alaykum salam.

32
00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:40,320
I didn't know you wasn't.

33
00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:44,160
I'm not, but I appreciate you and I appreciate all fans.

34
00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:48,920
I'm a traveler, east to west and back and forth, so I just wanted to make sure that

35
00:02:48,920 --> 00:02:49,920
you're welcome.

36
00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:52,680
I know a little bit about you.

37
00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:58,200
Seen a lot of your fights and I'm very impressed by just everything that you've given to the

38
00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:00,560
UFC so far.

39
00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:05,920
Your emotions, your vulnerability, your attitude towards just getting after it right in the

40
00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:09,240
first round is just super exciting and thank you for joining us.

41
00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:10,920
Really cool to have you here with us.

42
00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:12,960
Thank you for having me, brother.

43
00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:13,960
Yes, sir.

44
00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:17,480
So right off the bat, we do what we call lightning round questions.

45
00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,880
We want to kind of get to know you and your personality a little bit before we kind of

46
00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:22,960
delve into some deeper questions.

47
00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:23,960
I've got your enemy right here.

48
00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:24,960
I was showing him.

49
00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:26,960
I was showing him.

50
00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:27,960
Yeah.

51
00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:29,960
That's the one thing I said.

52
00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,680
One of the things that is like a, what's that?

53
00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:34,680
A grab curse?

54
00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:35,680
Yeah, of course.

55
00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:36,680
Yeah.

56
00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:37,680
Fuck that guy.

57
00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:38,680
Fuck you.

58
00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:39,680
Yeah.

59
00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:40,680
Buckley's a bitch, right?

60
00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:41,680
He's a bitch.

61
00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:44,440
I think he's fighting this weekend.

62
00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:51,280
Yeah, that's kind of why we brought it up is that just one of the greatest all time

63
00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:55,960
sound clips that have been chopped up is Buckley's a bitch over and over again in that press

64
00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:56,960
conference.

65
00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:00,600
So I was telling him he looks like Tyler, the creator, you know, that is the rapper

66
00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:02,080
Tyler, the creator.

67
00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:03,080
Yeah.

68
00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:04,440
Anyway, lightning round questions.

69
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:06,680
Very, very simple.

70
00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:10,800
Basically kind of kind of introductory level questions.

71
00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:13,520
Let's see here.

72
00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:15,680
So you can see them and they're very easy.

73
00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,280
So what did you have for breakfast today?

74
00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:21,320
I've always wanted to ask you, USC fighter, what did you have for breakfast today?

75
00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:27,480
Actually, you might be disappointed was just toast and turkey bacon right on the drive.

76
00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,560
I just ate that and got here.

77
00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:31,560
Toast and turkey bacon.

78
00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:32,560
Yeah.

79
00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:33,560
Breakfast of champions, right?

80
00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:34,560
And eggs.

81
00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:37,480
But I didn't want to say this because I know if a Nigerian is going to listen to this,

82
00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:38,480
they're going to talk shit.

83
00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,120
Because Nigerians think we Ghanians, we love eggs.

84
00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:43,200
We eat eggs.

85
00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:44,200
With everything.

86
00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:45,200
Yes.

87
00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:52,280
So toast and you said turkey bacon, which gets into another one of my questions coming

88
00:04:52,280 --> 00:04:53,280
up.

89
00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:54,880
Do you have a outside of training camp?

90
00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:58,560
Do you have a typical like breakfast routine or do you freestyle it?

91
00:04:58,560 --> 00:04:59,560
Oh, I freestyle it.

92
00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:04,760
But if you hear my breakfast, I don't think you think I'm a fighter.

93
00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:07,840
My breakfast is like what you have for lunch.

94
00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:08,840
Okay.

95
00:05:08,840 --> 00:05:10,680
So I'll have the African food.

96
00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:15,840
Like we have one called Kenke or Bangkok and I would just eat in the morning.

97
00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:16,840
Yeah.

98
00:05:16,840 --> 00:05:18,920
The most obvious food to eat in the morning.

99
00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:19,920
We talk about this all the time.

100
00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:25,600
Some of our favorite morning foods, cold Chinese food, cold spaghetti, cold pizza.

101
00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:28,680
Some of that stuff sometimes really you need that in the morning especially.

102
00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:30,560
It's very good.

103
00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:31,560
Yeah.

104
00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:34,320
Do you have an all time favorite breakfast cereal?

105
00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:36,200
Do you eat cereal or do you like cereal?

106
00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:38,240
I used to love cereal.

107
00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:40,640
I know it's probably a guilty pleasure for you guys.

108
00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:41,640
Frosted flakes.

109
00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:44,960
I need to see those people.

110
00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,320
All the wheat I gained in my life.

111
00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:48,320
From frosted flakes?

112
00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:50,440
From frosted flakes and snick of bars.

113
00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:51,440
Okay.

114
00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:55,920
I heard this really good story.

115
00:05:55,920 --> 00:06:01,760
There was a assistant production director on Ali, the movie Ali with Will Smith and

116
00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:07,520
Jamie Foxx and all that and whenever they got over to Africa, the head trainer of Will

117
00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:11,320
Smith said, we're a training camp from the top to the bottom.

118
00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:14,880
The director all the way down to the grip.

119
00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:19,160
You're going to get up and do road work at like four o'clock in the morning with us and

120
00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:22,840
you're going to eat like us, boil chicken at night, that whole thing.

121
00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:25,520
So this assistant director just couldn't take it anymore.

122
00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:27,600
He was like, I can't take it.

123
00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:29,440
Please send me one Snickers bar.

124
00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:30,760
He phoned up a friend from the States.

125
00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,160
He's like, I need you to send me one king size Snickers bar.

126
00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:38,800
Make sure that you wrap it up good and make sure that nobody like kind of sees it.

127
00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:45,800
So his friend wound up going to Costco and buying a giant box of king size Snickers

128
00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:46,800
bars.

129
00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:48,320
And so it made it to the set.

130
00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:55,120
And so before this assistant director finds out that it's made its way there, they have

131
00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,480
this meeting and this head trainer is going in about bad apples.

132
00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:02,040
There's one bad apple in the camp, spoil the whole bunch.

133
00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:04,560
And he's like, it starts with a diet.

134
00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:11,440
And as soon as he said diet, he knew that that guy got that Snickers bars will get you

135
00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:14,320
in trouble on the set of Ali or in real life.

136
00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:15,320
That's for sure.

137
00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:20,240
I don't really celebrate birthdays, but there was one time when I said, you asked me what

138
00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:21,240
I want.

139
00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:22,240
I said, I want Snickers bars.

140
00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:27,080
So I got this box of whole Snickers bars and I put it right under there.

141
00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:30,720
I watched TV.

142
00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:35,440
I ate the whole box of cereal in the city.

143
00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:36,440
Yeah.

144
00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:37,440
Awesome.

145
00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:43,680
If you could do, like if you had access to every ingredient in the world, no matter travel,

146
00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:45,800
because I know like you said, you're from Ghana.

147
00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:46,800
Is that right?

148
00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:47,800
You're from Ghana.

149
00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:51,880
So if you have access to any ingredient in the world, no matter the price, and you wanted

150
00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:59,320
to build the perfect breakfast sandwich, what would you put on that breakfast sandwich?

151
00:07:59,320 --> 00:08:01,320
I'm a very simple guy.

152
00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:03,480
Really, really precise.

153
00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:10,920
Turkey, bacon, eggs, more turkey, bacon, cheese, extra cheese.

154
00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:13,920
What kind of cheese?

155
00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:16,400
My wife, she's the one that buys all my cheese.

156
00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:22,200
This yellow cheese that she put on my eggs when I'm not on a diet.

157
00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:25,680
When she gets my eggs, she put it in there and then she make me this chocolate milk.

158
00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:26,680
That sounds good.

159
00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:27,680
Sorry, I know you're in training camp.

160
00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:28,680
I don't need to do this to you, brother.

161
00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:29,680
Let's move on.

162
00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:30,680
Let's move on.

163
00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:37,840
Let's go to, obviously, I think I know the answer to this question.

164
00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:39,800
Is turkey, bacon, trash or delicious?

165
00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:40,800
So it's amazing.

166
00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:41,800
It's amazing.

167
00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:44,200
So I want to tell you a story before you move.

168
00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:45,200
Please do.

169
00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:49,560
I don't eat pork because I'm a Muslim, but a lot of my friends have been trying to make

170
00:08:49,560 --> 00:08:51,160
me eat pork.

171
00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:56,840
And since I love turkey, bacon, they said there was a pork, I don't know what you call

172
00:08:56,840 --> 00:09:00,960
it, not just a turkey, bacon, but sausage, the sausage, but the turkey, bacon.

173
00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:01,960
Oh, okay.

174
00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:05,680
So they tried so much to make me try that.

175
00:09:05,680 --> 00:09:06,960
One of them almost tried.

176
00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:08,480
I picked it up.

177
00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:11,640
This should tell you how much I like turkey, bacon, right?

178
00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:21,600
When I picked it up, I started eating, I realized I was not taking it.

179
00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:22,600
Your friends are.

180
00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:23,600
I know.

181
00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:24,600
I have horrible friends.

182
00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:25,600
I know, right?

183
00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:26,600
With friends like these.

184
00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:27,600
I know.

185
00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:30,440
What is your favorite Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, if you have one?

186
00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:36,840
Oh, I don't know the name, but it's the one he did the split in the sewer.

187
00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:38,840
Is it kickboxer?

188
00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:39,840
Yeah.

189
00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:41,840
Is that the name?

190
00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:42,840
Maybe.

191
00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:44,560
He was, I watched this when I was little.

192
00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:46,800
You know, in Africa, we don't have TV.

193
00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:47,800
Right.

194
00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:48,800
Right.

195
00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:53,080
So if the whole neighborhood, there will be one person that has a TV, like, and our houses

196
00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:54,080
are different in Africa.

197
00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:56,240
It's almost like a linear sediment houses.

198
00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:57,240
Okay.

199
00:09:57,240 --> 00:09:59,840
So when you come out of your house, you can see all your neighbors.

200
00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:01,720
It's almost like you see that TV.

201
00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:02,720
Yes.

202
00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:03,720
That's another room.

203
00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:06,440
So when you come out, you can come out of this room.

204
00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:08,320
Now this whole space is for all of us.

205
00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:09,320
Like a common area.

206
00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:10,320
Yeah.

207
00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:13,800
And out of that whole house is one person that has a TV.

208
00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:19,040
So every kid, all of us in the morning will go to their window and we'll open.

209
00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:22,200
That's how we watch Van Damme, Jackie Chan.

210
00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:23,200
Yeah.

211
00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:24,200
Wonderful.

212
00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:29,720
What is the worst injury that you've received, whether it's fight, training, or maybe even

213
00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:30,960
in a street fight?

214
00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:34,400
Anytime you've gotten an injury that you've maybe is memorable.

215
00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:39,840
I've had a lot of injuries, but the injury that is still in my head right now that puts

216
00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:44,000
me off was my elbow.

217
00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:48,160
I was in Colorado training with one of my friends.

218
00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:49,160
He needed help.

219
00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:50,160
So I was being a body for his friends.

220
00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:55,840
And when he threw me, I tried to put my hand down to his face.

221
00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:58,840
He stood up pushing.

222
00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:00,840
So I washed my whole hand.

223
00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:02,840
It's bone pop.

224
00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:04,600
Yeah.

225
00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:06,400
I can only imagine.

226
00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:07,400
Yeah.

227
00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:08,400
That's the worst.

228
00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:12,440
Posing and then having somebody basically break your elbow.

229
00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:15,760
I literally saw the bone.

230
00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:17,840
Did it just dislocate or go through the skin?

231
00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:23,280
No, the bone didn't go through the skin, but it's also a few.

232
00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:28,920
What do you think your best, we usually ask people like, what do you think you see as

233
00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:31,160
like the best finishing move in the UFC?

234
00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:35,280
Obviously, I know you're a fan of knocking people the fuck out.

235
00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:39,720
So do you think that's the most satisfying is getting the knockout?

236
00:11:39,720 --> 00:11:41,120
For me, I think it's the moves.

237
00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:47,400
So I've done judo all my life since I was almost like the age of eight to 10, since

238
00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:48,400
I was in Africa.

239
00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:49,400
So I love judo.

240
00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:54,360
Even coming to America, the whole point of me fighting started from judo.

241
00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:55,360
So I loved throwing people.

242
00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:59,920
But I remember when I started kickboxing, I just started punching people.

243
00:11:59,920 --> 00:12:02,600
All I can think about is throwing people.

244
00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:07,560
I just want to tell a different feeling.

245
00:12:07,560 --> 00:12:08,840
I understand that for sure.

246
00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:10,880
Did you play any fighting video games?

247
00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:13,280
And if so, your favorite fighting video game?

248
00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:14,280
Mortal Kombat.

249
00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:15,280
Mortal Kombat.

250
00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:21,440
We didn't have a lot of options back home, but there was a big two games that was most

251
00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:26,160
popular that we still got in Africa was Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.

252
00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:31,040
So you just pay somebody and they have a chaos.

253
00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:32,480
Who is your fighter in Mortal Kombat?

254
00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:33,480
Van Damme.

255
00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:37,640
Just like you said, I was in Street Fighter.

256
00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:38,640
Sorry.

257
00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:40,640
But in Mortal Kombat, I'm Luke.

258
00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:42,640
I play cheat.

259
00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:45,160
My feet.

260
00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:46,360
That's a question we always talk about.

261
00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:47,360
Are you a blocker?

262
00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:49,960
Do you go forward all the time?

263
00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:54,160
No blocking, just attack the whole time.

264
00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:58,120
So we delve into this question.

265
00:12:58,120 --> 00:12:59,580
Do you have any thoughts on trash talking?

266
00:12:59,580 --> 00:13:05,040
Are there any quote unquote rules when it comes to that?

267
00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:07,040
I think trash talking.

268
00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:09,160
It depends.

269
00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:11,760
For me, trash talking, there is one I don't like trash talking.

270
00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:13,760
I take this serious.

271
00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:19,400
Mostly the things that I say, I mean it.

272
00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:21,600
It's not for the you're not selling fights.

273
00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:27,160
So some people say to get you riled up, I'm okay with them saying you're riled up.

274
00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:31,320
But for my end, I'm thinking I'm going to murder your ass by seeing you.

275
00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:32,320
That's right.

276
00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:33,320
Just from saying that shit.

277
00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:34,320
Yeah.

278
00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:35,320
So it's different.

279
00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:38,720
My theory is if you have kids, it's a little bit different.

280
00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:42,280
If you don't have kids, you just don't have that mentality of like attacking someone's

281
00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:43,280
family in that way.

282
00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:44,280
Exactly.

283
00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:46,800
When I talk trash, I talk trash to you.

284
00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:47,800
Right.

285
00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:52,000
I don't talk trash to you or not talk trash about your family or your kids.

286
00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:53,000
Or religion or politics.

287
00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:54,000
Not like that.

288
00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:57,000
If we're talking trash, you are not.

289
00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:58,000
Right?

290
00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:02,960
Something that I'm saying or in a fight situation, I'm going to beat your fucking ass.

291
00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:06,760
You know, like in the bat, if you go in there and get knocked out, at least you know you

292
00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:07,760
talk your own shit.

293
00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:08,760
Yeah.

294
00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:09,760
I don't insult you.

295
00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:13,400
You're going to make it fun looking whenever you've.

296
00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:18,680
You know, you and that approach that makes it a lot scarier for me because you're one

297
00:14:18,680 --> 00:14:20,040
of the nicest people I know.

298
00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:24,080
So if you say it, I know you're going to mean it.

299
00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:25,080
That's the thing.

300
00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:33,000
I recently watched Mr. McMahon, the Netflix documentary about the whole wrestling and

301
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:34,320
that whole life.

302
00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:39,640
And while this is nothing like that, there are some similarities when it comes to the

303
00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:41,160
good guys and the bad guys.

304
00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:44,600
When it comes to the UFC, you're definitely one of the good guys.

305
00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:49,560
In my opinion, I think that no matter what, like you said, no matter who you're talking

306
00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:54,640
about, what you're talking about, it is always a very focused laser focus.

307
00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:59,320
This is my objective and only this I've heard interview is asking you, you know, try to

308
00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:03,000
throw you off your square and go different places, but you always kind of bring it right

309
00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,180
back around to this guy, this opponent.

310
00:15:06,180 --> 00:15:07,720
So I appreciate that about you.

311
00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:11,520
You know, the hills are the ones to me that are there, the characters, they're the ones

312
00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:15,840
that like you said, I think you said Joe Piper was really nice to you, but then you see him

313
00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:17,520
in an interview and he's talking all that shit.

314
00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:18,520
Yeah.

315
00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:19,520
Yeah.

316
00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:20,520
He's the hill.

317
00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:21,520
Yes.

318
00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:22,520
For sure.

319
00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:29,840
Do you have a favorite movie or TV show or anime training montage?

320
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:33,960
You shouldn't be asking me about anime.

321
00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:40,760
If I'm not training, right, or I'm not playing with my kids, I'm literally watching anime.

322
00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:41,760
Perfect.

323
00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:47,080
It's almost, you can open an anime, a famous anime or any anime and there's 99% chance

324
00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:48,080
I've seen it.

325
00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:49,080
Really?

326
00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:50,080
Yes.

327
00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:51,080
I love that.

328
00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:52,080
But my favorite anime is One Piece.

329
00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:53,080
You cannot.

330
00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:54,080
One Piece.

331
00:15:54,080 --> 00:15:55,080
Okay.

332
00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:56,080
You have a great training montage in there?

333
00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:57,080
Not the training.

334
00:15:57,080 --> 00:16:01,480
The training I'll go to more like, not almost, but I'll go to Naruto.

335
00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:04,160
Those are super famous ones.

336
00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:07,600
The hardship to realize it and stuff like that.

337
00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:08,600
Yeah.

338
00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:16,560
But One Piece, I just enjoy it as in the worst situation that you think is not going to win,

339
00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:18,200
you come up and win.

340
00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:19,200
Yeah.

341
00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:20,200
That's what I like.

342
00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:21,200
One Piece.

343
00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:22,200
Shout out to One Piece.

344
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:25,400
And then lastly, what is your walkout song?

345
00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:27,920
Do you have a specific one or do you change them out?

346
00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:28,920
I change them.

347
00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:29,920
Change them up?

348
00:16:29,920 --> 00:16:36,720
Usually I will play like maybe same music twice and then I'll change it.

349
00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:37,720
I go by the feeling.

350
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:38,720
How I'm feeling at that time.

351
00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:39,720
What's more, the reading than that time.

352
00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:44,080
And I choose the music to go from that.

353
00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:46,320
Do you already have yours picked out for the Saturday?

354
00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:48,560
I'm excited to hear it.

355
00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:49,920
I'm sure you heard it.

356
00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:50,920
You heard the same music.

357
00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:51,920
My last one.

358
00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:56,960
Do you think that anyone in the UFC has like a really great walkout song?

359
00:16:56,960 --> 00:17:00,400
Like I know that we talk about, you know, you have Dustin usually comes out to James

360
00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:01,720
Brown and that sort of thing.

361
00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:05,880
Is there kind of like that undertaker bell when you hear it, you just, if you know, you

362
00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:06,880
know?

363
00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:13,240
I don't think there's one particular person that I have paid attention to.

364
00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:14,240
Sure.

365
00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:20,040
But Israel Lozano is one person that I, anytime he's walking out, I kind of listen because

366
00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:23,680
I'm like, the music will be coming out.

367
00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:25,800
Or one person is John Jones too.

368
00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:26,800
John Jones.

369
00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:27,800
So because he plays different.

370
00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:31,560
I just want to listen to what is.

371
00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:35,560
I always think that has sort of like a theme to get the camp usually, you know, Sean O'Malley

372
00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:38,760
is usually good about giving a, this is the theme or Israel.

373
00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:46,000
I mean, obviously he brings movies and feelings and moments and that becomes the theme of

374
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:47,000
the camp.

375
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,960
So I'll have that process come about.

376
00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:52,160
Everybody's for me is different for me.

377
00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,160
So let me say.

378
00:17:54,160 --> 00:18:00,120
When people see me when I'm talking in an interview, UFC, they think of this.

379
00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:01,120
Oh, no.

380
00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:05,840
When they see me in the gym, I'm the most playful person.

381
00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:07,520
I'm the most talkative person.

382
00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:11,840
I'm the most loudest person because I want to enjoy the workout.

383
00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:12,840
Sure.

384
00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:15,640
You know, you hear the most loudest music and African music too.

385
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:20,160
I'm the type when the beat eats me, there's nothing as being tired.

386
00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:22,160
We don't get tired.

387
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:23,160
Activate your DNA.

388
00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:28,160
We go until the music stops and we're like, we don't want to fight anymore.

389
00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:30,400
So I go with the flow.

390
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:31,400
I love that.

391
00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:34,160
Kevin, you're a big judo guy, right?

392
00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:35,640
Yeah, I am.

393
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,360
So let's talk about a little bit about judo.

394
00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:40,120
How did you come to judo?

395
00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:44,320
Did you have somebody in your life that was already practicing judo or is this just something

396
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:47,320
that came to you serendipitously?

397
00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:54,920
Well, you guys can both of you go first.

398
00:18:54,920 --> 00:19:01,800
So it should be a long story for us to explain how I got judo.

399
00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:05,280
My big brother was his, he loves martial arts.

400
00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:07,320
How do I put it?

401
00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:10,600
My brother is a nerd when it comes to martial arts.

402
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:17,600
In Africa, since the martial arts, we see them on TV, but there's nobody there to teach

403
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:18,600
us.

404
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:22,040
So in the beginning, my brother saw kung fu, he started learning kung fu.

405
00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:27,600
And then because we watch a lot of Jackie Chan movies, we start telling them that shit

406
00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:30,800
doesn't work in real life, don't do it.

407
00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:31,800
So he went to judo.

408
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:32,800
Everybody loves judo.

409
00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:37,520
I guess because of the uniform, my brother started taking everybody in the neighborhood,

410
00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:38,520
the kids, his friends.

411
00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:40,960
And I'll tell my brother, hey, can you take me with you?

412
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:42,920
He said, no, he will never take me.

413
00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:47,760
I don't know why either he's trying to protect me from doing it.

414
00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:53,240
But I think from my perspective, my brother think I'm too hyper to do that.

415
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:54,240
Okay.

416
00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:55,240
Right.

417
00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:56,240
Or I'm going to embarrass him.

418
00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:57,240
Okay.

419
00:19:57,240 --> 00:19:58,240
Different personality.

420
00:19:58,240 --> 00:19:59,240
Yes.

421
00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:00,640
Or I'm going to learn it and use it to beat somebody else.

422
00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:01,640
Right.

423
00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:03,220
So he didn't take me.

424
00:20:03,220 --> 00:20:05,640
One day he was going to training.

425
00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:10,280
In our neighborhood, you can hire a bicycle, you can pay somebody a lot of money and they

426
00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:11,800
give you a bicycle.

427
00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:13,400
So I hired a bicycle while he was going.

428
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:14,400
I know where he was going.

429
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:15,400
It's the stadium.

430
00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:19,520
That's the only one stadium that we have in the whole place.

431
00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:20,520
So I know where he's going.

432
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:25,320
So I waited for the bus that drives closer to that stadium.

433
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:26,320
And I took the bike.

434
00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:30,400
So I sat on the bike and I hold the corner of the bus.

435
00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:33,640
This is an eight year old me, eight, nine year old me.

436
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:40,560
And then on the highway he just owns me.

437
00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:45,720
I can't imagine my nine year old holding the back of a bus.

438
00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:46,720
A lot of us do that.

439
00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:49,840
A lot of the kids we do that back home.

440
00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:56,160
So when I got to training there, I saw him training and I saw this white man, he's Japanese

441
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:57,160
man training them.

442
00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:01,120
And I waited to my brother put on his uniform and he started working out.

443
00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:04,880
So I know if I walk in and he see me, he's going to kick me out.

444
00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:07,400
So I waited till he started working out and I'll run inside.

445
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,560
Now once I went to the white man, I said, I want to try this.

446
00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:14,480
I was like, I want to do this.

447
00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:15,480
And he's like, really?

448
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:16,480
Come on the mat.

449
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:20,520
And then he got me on the mat and started teaching me the basics of falls.

450
00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:21,520
My brother was pissed off.

451
00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:29,620
He's training, I can see from his side, I'm like, what the fuck, I'm gonna murder you.

452
00:21:29,620 --> 00:21:32,000
He wanted that to frame him.

453
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:33,420
But that's how I joined.

454
00:21:33,420 --> 00:21:35,680
But later on he stopped.

455
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:36,680
I loved it.

456
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:43,760
To be honest, I know I went into judo for the wrong reasons, but I'll end up loving judo.

457
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:49,360
I went to judo because I want to learn and be strong and beat other people.

458
00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:53,760
And not just that later on, I wanted to come to America.

459
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:57,920
And I found out that a lot of people get the opportunity to use the judo to travel outside

460
00:21:57,920 --> 00:21:58,920
of the United States.

461
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:01,360
So I'm like, okay, this is my ticket.

462
00:22:01,360 --> 00:22:02,360
I should take it.

463
00:22:02,360 --> 00:22:03,360
So I went.

464
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:04,360
My brother quit.

465
00:22:04,360 --> 00:22:05,360
I didn't quit.

466
00:22:05,360 --> 00:22:10,480
Within like two years and two years, God blessed me enough that the Japanese coach, he saw

467
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:14,960
the potential in me or he saw the heart in me.

468
00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:22,560
So it's like, hey, there's three of all of you, I'm gonna train them as extra camp.

469
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:24,440
I wasn't even invited.

470
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:28,640
But because I was coming every time and also dedicated, I joined them.

471
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,560
Every time they're training up there, the coach realized how good I was.

472
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:35,880
Within a few years, I joined the national team.

473
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:36,880
I was beating everybody.

474
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:39,880
I was so happy.

475
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:44,560
My first competition, I remember the bigger guys, the people who were saying they were

476
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:45,560
gonna win.

477
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:46,560
And I'm saying, I'm gonna fucking win.

478
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:47,560
I wiped all of them.

479
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:48,560
All of them.

480
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:49,560
Since then, I was like, I love this game.

481
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:50,560
I'm never having them.

482
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:51,560
I love this feeling of just, I'm gonna prove you wrong.

483
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:52,560
Tell me I'm not gonna do it.

484
00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:53,560
That I will work there.

485
00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:54,560
I'm not gonna do it.

486
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:55,560
I'm not gonna do it.

487
00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:56,560
I'm not gonna do it.

488
00:22:56,560 --> 00:22:57,560
I'm not gonna do it.

489
00:22:57,560 --> 00:22:58,880
I'm not gonna work there.

490
00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:01,200
Since then, I've loved it.

491
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:02,200
Wonderful.

492
00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:03,600
That's how I was able to get into it.

493
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:07,520
I love when people have an origin story a little bit.

494
00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:08,520
You know what I mean?

495
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:12,040
Especially when it comes to martial art, because it is a very special thing, especially young

496
00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:16,200
men, whenever they have no idea what they wanna do with their life.

497
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:17,720
And then all of a sudden, it's like-

498
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:18,720
Something clicks.

499
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:19,720
Yeah, it clicks.

500
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:22,200
And then you're like, okay, this also bleeds into the other parts of my life.

501
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:23,200
I can be disciplined.

502
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:24,320
I can have respect.

503
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:30,440
I can show other people who I am through talking or physical or whatever the case may be.

504
00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:33,040
How did you get into judo?

505
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:36,040
I was probably around the same age as when you started.

506
00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:39,720
There were a few kids in my neighborhood that we were friends with and family friends that

507
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:42,360
were doing it.

508
00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:47,920
And I was big into pro wrestling, but not very physically active.

509
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,520
So my parents put me in it that way.

510
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:56,320
And I did it for a few years and then when I was a teenager, got kind of fat and lazy.

511
00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:58,720
So I quit for a while.

512
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:04,120
But then my last year of high school, we got a wrestling team and I joined and made it.

513
00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:09,640
And then that got me back into judo like my next year, first year of college.

514
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:15,720
The big kind of turning point for me was after wrestling, I started having dreams about judo

515
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,880
every night, which got me back into it.

516
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:24,400
And once I got back, I just realized I was going to be doing that the rest of my life.

517
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:26,560
Something about it, it was right for me.

518
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:28,040
I love that for you guys.

519
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:33,760
I wanted to talk a little bit about, like you said, you're from Ghana and then you came

520
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:34,760
to the United States.

521
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:40,640
Was there a huge adjustment and culture shock, obviously for you, but for other people to

522
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:47,920
kind of adjust to you and your style of fighting and what you bring to the table?

523
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:51,360
You have this era of mystery whenever you come from another country a little bit.

524
00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:55,920
Oh, you mean coming, seeing the culture here, the culture that I live.

525
00:24:55,920 --> 00:25:00,000
It surprised you, the first thing that surprised me.

526
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:05,760
The first culture shock for me, it surprised you about my reply.

527
00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:14,160
Actually my friend, when I moved here, I lived in a place that wasn't much really safe in

528
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:15,160
the United States.

529
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:16,160
OK.

530
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:17,160
But I didn't know that.

531
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:18,160
I lived in Minneapolis.

532
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:19,160
OK.

533
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,160
It wasn't that great.

534
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:31,400
So I think I was at that point, I was thinking everybody was going to be like, did he just

535
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:34,400
insult his mom?

536
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:40,120
And I'm like, I almost just want to go there and smack the shit out of them.

537
00:25:40,120 --> 00:25:44,320
That was what surprised me the most because in Africa, you cannot do that.

538
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:45,320
Sure.

539
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:46,320
Level of respect is a big one.

540
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:47,320
If you're walking, I can be walking outside.

541
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:48,320
Especially elders, right?

542
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:49,320
Yes.

543
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:55,320
If I'm insulting my mom or I'm talking to my mom about that and a stranger was walking

544
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:56,320
by, he doesn't know me.

545
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:57,320
He doesn't know my mom.

546
00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:02,040
He would smack the shit out of me because I'm insulting my mom.

547
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:03,040
So when I came here.

548
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:04,040
The way it should be.

549
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:08,920
That was what shocked me the most when I was like, how are they talking to their parents

550
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:10,360
like that?

551
00:26:10,360 --> 00:26:11,360
And they're still alive?

552
00:26:11,360 --> 00:26:12,360
Yeah.

553
00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:16,520
That was the biggest shock.

554
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:17,520
Yeah, sure.

555
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:21,720
I always wonder about it just because I've done a little traveling.

556
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:26,080
I've been to Pakistan, Dubai, Bahrain, China, Japan.

557
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:32,760
So I think one of the biggest things is that side of the world and this side of the world

558
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:37,920
need to trade places for a couple of days because I feel like everybody would just get

559
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,480
along so much better if we could see each other's perspectives.

560
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:42,400
You know what I mean?

561
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,760
To be honest, it was weird for me when I went to Pakistan.

562
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:48,000
So when I went to Pakistan, there was a masjid.

563
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:49,960
Sorry, I forgot the name.

564
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,040
And I went to the masjid.

565
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,320
Everybody wanted to talk to me.

566
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:56,640
And it's not because I was a UFC fighter.

567
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:58,600
They didn't even know I was a UFC fighter.

568
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:00,160
But because I was black.

569
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:01,160
Yeah.

570
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:02,760
They were just coming to shake my hand.

571
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:06,080
And later on, there was a crack.

572
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,280
How do you?

573
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:09,280
Sorry.

574
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:11,880
I hope Indians and Pakistan don't insult me.

575
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:14,880
What do you call that?

576
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:15,880
Cricket.

577
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:16,880
Cricket.

578
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:17,880
Yes.

579
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,080
So I guess they hired a black person on the cricket team.

580
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:25,640
So when they saw me, the only black person they thought I was.

581
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:27,600
Everybody just shake my hand.

582
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:29,600
You know him, right?

583
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:30,600
Yeah.

584
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:31,600
Exactly.

585
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:36,280
So one of my Pakistani friends, he realized and then he came and grabbed me and said,

586
00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:37,280
come on, don't stay here.

587
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:38,280
Just let's go.

588
00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:39,280
I'm going to beat you.

589
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:46,280
I know you have, but can you remind our audience some of the fights that maybe you fought outside

590
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:48,200
of the United States?

591
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:52,400
Have you fought maybe in Europe or anywhere like that?

592
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,680
Besides the UFC, I fought in Europe with UFC.

593
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:57,640
I fought in Sweden and Ireland.

594
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:01,520
But besides in Stockholm, outside of UFC.

595
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:02,520
Just anytime you go.

596
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:03,520
Yeah.

597
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:04,520
Judo.

598
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:06,840
Where did Judo take you around the world, I guess?

599
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:08,760
A lot of world championships.

600
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:14,880
I went to Mauritius for a world championship in Mauritius a couple of times.

601
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:16,600
I went to the All African Games.

602
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,920
I made it for the All African Games.

603
00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:21,640
That's the opportunity that opened the way for me to come to America.

604
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:26,280
I qualified for the national team and of course I lost.

605
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:29,960
It's almost like an Olympic for Africans.

606
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:33,160
And then I also came to United States for the world championship.

607
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,160
That's when I decided I'm not going anywhere.

608
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:37,760
I'm staying right here.

609
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:41,480
So if you don't mind me sharing the story.

610
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:47,840
So the story was like I said, I wanted to use Judo to come to the United States.

611
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:54,600
So any opportunity I can get or any invitation that I can get from the United States, I want

612
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:55,600
to have.

613
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:57,960
So I sent a lot of emails.

614
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:05,040
So when I went to Mauritius and I came back, they said, hey, you have to prepare for All

615
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:06,280
African Games again.

616
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,960
But all that time I sent all that emails.

617
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:15,560
When I went to All African Games and came back, I saw an email in my, I saw an email

618
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:26,520
from the United States saying, hey, we're inviting you to world championship in Georgia.

619
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:28,520
My mom is just going to go up when dad is at home.

620
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:32,440
It's for a second that it can't even give me a cent even if he needs it.

621
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:33,440
I just went to All African Games.

622
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:35,760
They just paid me $900.

623
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:36,760
I've never seen $900.

624
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:37,760
I've never seen $200 in my life.

625
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:38,760
This is your first time I've seen $900.

626
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:45,760
I said, no, I'm missing this money to go to America.

627
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:46,840
Georgia, yeah.

628
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:51,480
So I went to one of my friends and I told him that I just got an invitation from the

629
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:52,480
United States.

630
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:57,480
I want to add it to her so we can get a team so we can all go.

631
00:29:57,480 --> 00:29:58,480
Yeah.

632
00:29:58,480 --> 00:29:59,480
And he said, really?

633
00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:00,480
I was like, oh.

634
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,320
So we all, I add his name and I went to the sports council and I told them, hey, I'm

635
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:04,320
going to go to America.

636
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:05,320
There's a world championship in America.

637
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:06,320
We want to go.

638
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:07,320
We have an opportunity to win.

639
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,320
They said, we're not going to pay for you.

640
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:14,000
If you can pay for yourself to go there, we'll give you the invitation to help you to get

641
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,000
that visa or we're not going to pay for you.

642
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:18,000
Okay.

643
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,920
If I have to sell everything for my mom, somehow I'll sell it.

644
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:22,920
Hustle it.

645
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,000
So I used the money, everything I had and then replied for the visa.

646
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:30,520
I don't want to go into the details of how it was so hard just to get that visa.

647
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:35,520
By the time we finished the $900 they gave me, it's already gone.

648
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:36,520
Sure.

649
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:40,880
Imagine an African kid, that $900, do you know what that $900 can do for me?

650
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:41,880
Change your life.

651
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:42,880
Change your family's life.

652
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:43,880
I swear to God.

653
00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,000
But it's that $900 too.

654
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:47,280
So the seed into your dream.

655
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:48,280
Yes.

656
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:49,280
Yeah.

657
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:50,280
Finally I got the visa.

658
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:53,920
I don't have the money to come to, to get the flight.

659
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:59,360
I went to my brother and I was like, hey brother, I was given the opportunity to come to United

660
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:01,960
States, but I don't have the money to take the flight.

661
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:04,760
And he said, I have somebody, I'll get you the money to go to the flight.

662
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,000
But when you go to America, don't fucking think about coming back.

663
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:09,000
Yeah.

664
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:10,520
Don't fucking think about coming back.

665
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:12,400
When you get there, you run away.

666
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,480
Go find a job, go do something and pay.

667
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:20,920
So the guy that he talked to is almost like a, I would not say a mafia, but it's almost

668
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,360
like the guy in the hood that we can borrow money from.

669
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:25,920
If you don't pay him, he's going to fuck you up.

670
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:30,280
So my brother went to him and borrowed $2,500 from him.

671
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:34,000
So that means I have to pay him twice the money when I come to United States.

672
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,240
We came here after the competition we lost.

673
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:41,440
I didn't care about the competition to be honest.

674
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:46,560
The competition was just, you won already.

675
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:47,560
Yes.

676
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:53,120
And when we got here, now this is where you get interest.

677
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:57,800
When we got here now, I'm trying to plan my escape move to run away.

678
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:02,840
And I told my friend that I brought him with me because I'm the one that brought him here.

679
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,440
And I was talking to another white woman here.

680
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:06,440
She was my ex.

681
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:12,800
So she was trying to help me run away from Georgia to come to Minnesota to her.

682
00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:18,840
But I think the coach and the manager, they realized that the two of us are trying to

683
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:19,840
run away.

684
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:26,120
So they took our passport away from us.

685
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:32,920
But luck, when we're going to weigh in, they ask us for our passport to weigh in since

686
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:33,920
we're foreigners.

687
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,920
When we gave them our passport, they forgot to take it back.

688
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:41,200
When we got to the hotel, they told us they're going to McDonald's to buy food.

689
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:46,720
I found out we took our bag.

690
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:47,720
Another trouble showed up.

691
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:48,720
We don't know anybody.

692
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:54,640
There was a girl that was in Minnesota that was giving us Greyhound to come.

693
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:59,760
So we went to the front desk and we told the hotel, can you please get us a taxi to take

694
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:01,360
us to the Greyhound?

695
00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:03,920
So he's the one that got us the taxi to go to Greyhound.

696
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:07,720
When the secretary and everybody came back to the hotel, when they didn't see us in the

697
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:12,320
room, they went to the front desk and said, ah, our fighters, our athletes, we don't see

698
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:13,320
them in the room.

699
00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,960
They said, oh, I just got them a taxi.

700
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:20,800
They went to the Greyhound.

701
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:23,320
So they found out that we were running away.

702
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:28,600
So the guy said, can you bring that taxi guy here so he can take, he called that taxi back

703
00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:34,640
and the taxi guy brought our manager and everybody to the Greyhound and we were sitting down

704
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:35,640
with him.

705
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:38,440
I thought I was done.

706
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:40,240
I was going back to Africa.

707
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:43,360
They grabbed out in Africa.

708
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:49,560
If an African is watching this, you understand when a cop arrest you back home, the way they

709
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:54,960
will hold you, they'll put their hand in your pants like this and then they will hold you

710
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:55,960
up.

711
00:33:55,960 --> 00:34:00,440
So it's almost like your toes is dangling in the air and that's how they were holding

712
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:01,440
us.

713
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:02,440
Oh really?

714
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:10,160
And well, when we got to the Greyhound, there's this African lady that we were talking to

715
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:14,440
and we were telling her about Africa and she was enjoying the conversation.

716
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:17,120
She's like, wow, this and I was like, yeah.

717
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,720
But the good thing is we told her the honesty.

718
00:34:19,720 --> 00:34:22,720
We told her this is our first time in the United States.

719
00:34:22,720 --> 00:34:23,720
We didn't have the opportunity.

720
00:34:23,720 --> 00:34:28,000
So we're trying to run away to make a better life for ourselves and our family back home.

721
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:29,000
So she was supporting us.

722
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:34,000
So when she saw us being grabbed by them, oh, she came out like an angel.

723
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:39,160
She's like, you mother fucker, you better let them go right now.

724
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:40,160
They're going to fuck you up.

725
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:43,160
And she said, give me a second, I'm going to call the cops and I started freaking out.

726
00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:44,160
Please, please don't call the cops.

727
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:45,160
So I thought, I'm going to be bored in too if you call the cops.

728
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:46,160
She's like, don't worry, I got you.

729
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:47,160
You mother fucker, they cannot get you.

730
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:48,160
She went and called the cops.

731
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:49,160
The cops showed up.

732
00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:50,160
The cops talked to our managers and said, give them your passport back.

733
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:51,160
If you touch them, I will arrest you.

734
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:52,160
It's been the best happiness in my life, even to today.

735
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:53,160
That was the best thing I've ever experienced.

736
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:54,160
I'm going to call the cops.

737
00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:55,160
I'm going to call the cops.

738
00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:56,160
I'm going to call the cops.

739
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:57,160
I'm going to call the cops.

740
00:34:57,160 --> 00:34:58,160
I'm going to call the cops.

741
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:10,160
I'm going to call the cops.

742
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:17,160
I'm going to call the cops.

743
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:29,160
I'm going to call the cops.

744
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:36,160
I'm going to call the cops.

745
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:43,160
I'm going to call the cops.

746
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:47,160
I'm going to call the cops.

747
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:49,160
They pulled me under."

748
00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:48,200
Akarantzuma himẩ�TONA.

749
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:50,200
She said, I love you possession hit without detonator.

750
00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:51,160
I had a victory bag.

751
00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:51,200
I gave them my bag.

752
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:52,160
This is what it's called, bros وبbiscuit.

753
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:52,200
I said it's a decoy, I identify with this.

754
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:53,160
They pulled me in their chests.

755
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:53,200
He illuminates her not just on the first date, but続 Nós.

756
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:56,200
I Community of Rivers Second YeAR, that's mother fucker."

757
00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:59,200
Address with a hits infite us in University of Chicago.

758
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:00,200
Tiam.

759
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:01,200
Tiam.

760
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:06,080
in the gym and since then it's like, hey, why don't you join my team? So I joined his team, he paid for my

761
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:13,520
travels, I'll compete, I'll because of him I have so many medals at home through United States because

762
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:18,960
of him. Yeah. And that's why I'm at ST. They hired Steven over there and that's my transition to

763
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:27,120
Texas. Beautiful. When did you arrive in Texas? It's been like what 10, 12 years now?

764
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:31,680
No. So because you were in Denver before, is that right? For a little while. I was in Minnesota.

765
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:38,240
Minnesota. Okay. And Johnny Hendrix, they were going to hire Steve, my kickback coach to come

766
00:36:38,240 --> 00:36:42,800
and train Johnny Hendrix here. So he told them that he has a fighter, which is me and he didn't

767
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:50,080
want to leave me there. So they told him to bring me to do an audition with Johnny Hendrix. Sure.

768
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,920
If I'm very good enough and they will keep me. So I came back to him with him. They like it.

769
00:36:53,920 --> 00:37:00,560
It was like, can we pay you to try with Johnny Hendrix? And then I never left. Perfect. Love that

770
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:08,480
for you. So when you had your very first fight in the UFC, do you still remember that day? Do you

771
00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:16,000
still kind of play that feeling back? Yes. Yeah. Yes. What did you get an email or a phone call?

772
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:22,560
It wasn't, it wasn't me. It was my coach Steve that got the call. Some crazy things happened in my

773
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:30,400
life when I sit down and I think about it. So the way I got the contract from UFC was crazy.

774
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:40,080
So I was supposed to fight Kevin Holland and Kevin ditched. And I think they found out I'm

775
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:48,240
not open to fight. But in the last minute, that opponent also ditched. Within, that's why I love

776
00:37:48,240 --> 00:37:54,960
LFAA. Within like eight hours, they were able to find a guy from Chicago. Come and fight me in a

777
00:37:54,960 --> 00:38:01,600
short notice. And I beat the guy. After I won that fight, I think that was when they hired McManig.

778
00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:14,080
And at that time I have a contract in LFA and then Bellator also contacted my coach. So I signed a

779
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:21,840
contract with Bellator to fight for Bellator while I was preparing for Bellator. But you see what's

780
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:30,640
crazy in Bellator clothes. They shouldn't let me go. By that time I was also signed to LFA. So that

781
00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:38,240
contract helped me to get into it. I see what you're saying. Yes. That's how I was able to get into

782
00:38:38,240 --> 00:38:44,480
a UFC in that short notice. McManig is that guy. I really appreciate that guy. From a fan's

783
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:49,360
perspective, he's done a lot of great things for the UFC since he's joined. So. McManig,

784
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:56,960
I hold so much respect on McManig. Of course I've gone through a lot of crazy stuff in my life.

785
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:03,920
A lot of people will not wait for the truth. When that kind of accusation happens to you,

786
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:07,760
nobody will wait for the truth. Even some people that know you, they will not wait for the truth.

787
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:13,280
They will just start to accuse you or think you're this kind of bad person. So wait for the truth.

788
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:20,880
Did he do it or not? UFC could have fired me. McManig could have fired me. This is my emotional

789
00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:28,000
fact. When I came back, I lost three fights in a row. My mind was not even there not even one time.

790
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:32,560
Look, all the fights I lost today, I can sit down, I can tell you. I don't remember almost

791
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:42,560
70% of this fight. My mind was so clouded. So crazy. I swear to God. Most of my fights,

792
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:47,840
I don't even remember working in that ring. After the case and everything came, I don't remember

793
00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:56,160
working in that ring. My mind was blown. They could have fired me. They did it. They gave me a contract.

794
00:39:56,160 --> 00:40:02,240
They even on a losing streak, when I won one, they gave me a contract. That man helped me save my...

795
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:09,760
I'm going to stop talking. I'm going to start crying. No, it's okay. He helped me. He helped me look

796
00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:16,320
after my family because when the case happened, literally every money I had, everything I saved,

797
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:22,320
went to that. Went to that? Yeah. Every victim went to that. Yeah. Just to prove my innocence,

798
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:28,320
even though there's a video to prove my innocence, the state did to permit me to work. If he wasn't

799
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:34,160
the one that kept my job for me to be able to feed my family, well... Yeah. Thank you, Vic Maynard,

800
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:40,560
for everything, but especially thank you for helping Razaf during this time. I saw this is

801
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:47,760
how when I go into the room, I'm more than a model. I saw that press conference and that's one of the

802
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:56,960
things that I do. I want to say just from breakfast of champions perspective, you need to make sure

803
00:40:56,960 --> 00:41:01,680
that you know exactly what you're talking about before you start talking about people. This is a

804
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:07,680
human being. This is someone who has feelings. Just because you have a YouTube channel or a

805
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:13,200
Twitter page or a voice does not give you the right to falsely accuse somebody or even treat them as

806
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:19,360
if they're guilty when they haven't had their due process. I appreciate you coming through that,

807
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:23,680
being vulnerable and letting people know that, yeah, my head wasn't in those fights and that

808
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:32,000
wasn't me as a person. I felt for you at that time because you had mentioned, this goes back to you

809
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:37,440
being a good guy in my opinion, you care about how others perceive you when you walk in a room with

810
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:43,360
them and at that time you could see the downcast and downtrodden people that and it bothered you

811
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:47,840
and especially it bothers you when you're innocent. You know what I mean? I see what I mean.

812
00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:52,960
And even the people that were so close to you, look, you almost think they know you to the

813
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:57,920
back of their own head. They know you will never do something like that. Even then they'll take

814
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:05,920
the thing back on their shoulders. But I'm happy at this age that I drew to find out that why did I

815
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:13,760
care about what they think? I know me, I know I didn't do, why did I care? And I think because I

816
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:19,920
cared so much. That was why when I came back, he hit me so hard and I lost. I couldn't even come

817
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:28,000
back. But right now I've found that dude, that devil me. As soon as you acknowledged it, it was

818
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:32,160
almost like it changed and the last couple of fights you've been mowing through people. And

819
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:38,960
so you last fought Cody Brundage, which we discussed on this podcast that was Oscar worthy

820
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:47,440
performance on his part. He was trying to act his way into a win there for sure. I have personally

821
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:55,040
slowed down that fight several times. This man did not hit him in the back of the head. There was

822
00:42:55,040 --> 00:43:01,280
a lot of really great shots off to the side, to the ear, even to his arm. Yeah. It was like,

823
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:06,000
you hit his arm and his arm was hitting him and it was like, that's your flight on you, bro.

824
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:11,360
Yes. The one in the corner, legal, when he moved and my hand went like this, it didn't be touching

825
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:18,240
him. Yeah. So, uh, I did see a couple of interviews with your upcoming opponent, Josh Friend,

826
00:43:18,240 --> 00:43:22,960
the, the narrative that the media is trying to point is like, he's trying to get revenge for his

827
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:30,000
teammate, but here's the thing. He has distanced himself from that. He's like, no, uh, just because

828
00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:35,520
we're teammates, Cody's his own person. And to me, I think he realizes exactly what happened in that

829
00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:41,280
situation. He has not taken up that narrative. He, uh, has not coming for revenge for his teammate

830
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:46,720
in any sort of way. He has segmented that and has, uh, like I said, I think that speaks a lot to,

831
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:54,160
uh, the media knows who won. Even his teammates kind of know who won. You know, in the old school

832
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:57,200
days, you know, if you have a teammate, you'd be like, yeah, that's my teammate. I'm coming for him

833
00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:02,160
or whatever the case may be. Yeah. It's nice. He told me, I really thought that's what he was

834
00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:07,760
going to do. I thought he was going to come out to say my teammates that I'm going to beat the

835
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:11,920
shit out of you for the half of my money that I lost. Cause for a teammate, I thought he was

836
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:17,360
going to say that. But still he's going to get it. I think, I think the truth has prevailed. And I

837
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:21,360
think that that narrative, he can't even buy into that himself to make himself believe that for,

838
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:25,520
to get up for this fight. So you've got a fight coming up. Uh, you're, you're fighting Josh

839
00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:30,880
friend. It's going to be a fight night in Vegas. Right. Is that right? Yes. Uh, apex fights. Yeah.

840
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:36,160
I know. What's the deal, man? I don't like it. You love a crowd, don't you? You need a crowd.

841
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:41,920
You need that energy, that transference of energy. Oh man. That last fight, the last fight,

842
00:44:41,920 --> 00:44:47,040
I've been for the crowd forever. Cause since that happened to me, I've been for the crowd.

843
00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:55,600
Yeah. So that was the first time I fought in the crowd since all that. Oh man. I feel that. You

844
00:44:55,600 --> 00:45:00,720
feed me. Let me go murder somebody. I can feel it. You know, that's why I don't like the apex.

845
00:45:00,720 --> 00:45:07,440
Apex doesn't have that energy. Give me, feed me. Let me go. Yeah. Also the ring's a little smaller.

846
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:12,400
Do you have to address for that? Yes. Yeah. And it makes people that wrestlers feel like they can

847
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:16,800
just, even if they don't have a chance, they can shoot from up there and you don't have that much

848
00:45:16,800 --> 00:45:22,880
of a chance to get up. Yeah. Super excited for your upcoming fight. Like I said, we're huge fans of

849
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:29,360
you over here. Just who you are as a person. Just because like I said, we see things from the

850
00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:33,040
craziest of the craziest. We've got the Sean Stricklands and the Colby Covingtons and all that

851
00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:38,800
craziness putting on a character to sell a fight, but it is refreshing to see someone who is humble,

852
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:44,960
who doesn't forget where they come from, who continues to be vulnerable with their training

853
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:49,520
process, their mental issues that they've gone through and worked through and come out on the

854
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:57,200
other side too as a conqueror of that. So we're here because Kevin has brought us together.

855
00:45:57,200 --> 00:46:01,920
How do you use Fort Worth Float Company as like recovery for yourself? Fort Worth Float, I've

856
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:08,480
helped me for a long time. Not now. My day is all the way back than I've known Kevin. Anytime I need

857
00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:14,240
recovery, I'm always here. I don't go anywhere for recovery. How do you recover here?

858
00:46:14,240 --> 00:46:20,240
His eyes. He has this amazing eyes bat, which I can ask him. I think I still have the video

859
00:46:20,240 --> 00:46:25,600
the first time he tried it. I can't believe he can do it for five minutes. I did it for 30 seconds

860
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:30,720
and I'm dying. Yeah, I did it for three minutes and it was three minutes. Who knows?

861
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:36,560
The last 30 seconds or a minute, he was like, put your hands in the water. And I didn't. I was

862
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:43,680
just like, I can't do it. Last time I was here, I was in there and I was like, I'm going to do one minute.

863
00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:50,240
And I started with my hands out and he kept me, Kevin was like, put your hands in. And I put my

864
00:46:50,240 --> 00:46:58,320
hand in and Kevin walked out. Same thing. I was like, I can do this last minute, about 40 seconds.

865
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:02,400
I'm like, no, I can't do it. My hands need to be out. My hand was in, he was up and he was like,

866
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:08,160
fuck, fuck, is it me? And then he walked away. I was like, yeah. Do you also do sauna here?

867
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:15,280
I do. I love it. It says it's float tanked. Oh, you do sensory deprivation as well. I just sit in

868
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:20,560
there and every time I leave here, when I get home, I'll take almost like two, three hours now.

869
00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:26,080
Yeah. You have to decompress for your decompression. I usually come here right after training.

870
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:32,160
So when I sit here, you're working all those knots out, huh? What I didn't do, what I should have done.

871
00:47:32,160 --> 00:47:36,800
Exactly. Just relaxing. I can see that being helpful, especially if someone,

872
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:41,440
such a high performer as yourself. So if you need recovery in the Dallas, Fort Worth area,

873
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:46,320
in any form or fashion, Kevin is always here for you. Fort Worth Float Company. He's got sensory

874
00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:51,840
deprivation tanks. He's got a cold plunge. He's got sauna. You have any, you've got some really

875
00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:56,400
light stuff coming up. Is that right? I've got the Brain Tap device, which I'm still kind of

876
00:47:56,400 --> 00:48:02,320
testing out, but it is available to use. Basically what that is, is it's got lights that shine in your

877
00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:09,040
eyes and your ears that kind of mimic brain waves. And then you have like a guided meditation that

878
00:48:09,040 --> 00:48:15,600
goes along with all that. Perfect. So like I said, if you need recovery, or even if you're not a UFC

879
00:48:15,600 --> 00:48:19,840
athlete, if you're just a regular Joe like myself, and you want to conquer your inner bitch and dry

880
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:26,000
out the cold plunge that's available here for you. This place is always... This is what I love about

881
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:30,960
him. He's so knowledgeable when it comes to this. And he comes in and is like, yeah, this is going to help this.

882
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:36,000
Your muscles, fatigue. It's like, ah. He's done the work for you. Exactly. I'm like, no, you need to say my,

883
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:43,520
just tell me where to go. And I'll just go. Yeah. So you're training out of? Fort, right here.

884
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:47,840
Metroflex. Metroflex. That's right. I wanted to say Fortis because you were there for a while.

885
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:56,160
Yeah. So Metroflex and... War Room. Wonderful. Inside Metroflex is a War Room MMA in there.

886
00:48:56,160 --> 00:49:02,400
War Room MMA. Okay. Excellent. And so lately you've been, like I said, you've been really

887
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:08,320
focused on being patient in your fights. I've heard that word being brought around, you know,

888
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:15,520
as far as like a mantra. Is that something that's hard for you just because you are so intense and

889
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:18,880
you are like, you've got to keep that in check a little bit. I'm going to tell you this now.

890
00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:30,080
Fuck the visions. Fuck the visions. I'm not. I've noticed things about me and I think as you grow up,

891
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:35,840
you know, you realize, you know you, why are you trying to change you? Sure. And I realized that

892
00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:45,840
I love the chaos. I love the... Getting into the fire. You're getting excited. I just, you know,

893
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:54,000
I like it. That's the simplest way I can say it. Do you think that's just your personality or

894
00:49:54,640 --> 00:49:58,080
your experience with Judo having to be so decisive and it can win so fast?

895
00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:02,560
Exactly. I think it's because of the Judo. Because Judo is always like,

896
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:09,920
do it, win. And also there's a match right after a match. If you win, the more you win, the more

897
00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:15,520
you're fighting. Right. So you want to finish the match as fast as possible. Conserve some of that.

898
00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:20,160
Yeah. So you can fight for the finals. So I think the way you put it, I think, I think it's the same.

899
00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:28,480
And also, I think I realized something. Anytime I'm fighting patiently, my mind just fuck with me.

900
00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:34,000
It's like, throw, don't throw. Throw, don't throw. Why the fuck am I doing that? You're almost having

901
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:40,160
a conversation with yourself. Exactly. For myself. Not me. When I'm, my mind just say, let go. And

902
00:50:40,160 --> 00:50:44,800
everything is coming out. The hand is throwing. When the mind think it, the hand is throwing.

903
00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:50,400
Yeah. Right. But when I'm patient, somebody hit me like, take your time, take your time. Let him go.

904
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:55,360
You get him. You get him. Let him go. Yeah. Before then it's not like that. You're going to hit me and

905
00:50:55,360 --> 00:51:00,320
run away. Fuck you. When you hit me by the time you're leaving, I want to hit you like 10 times

906
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:06,400
before you leave. Right. You know. So you know, next time don't. So fuck the patience. Yeah. No.

907
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:12,400
When I go in, I'm going to murder somebody and then that's it. That's all I want. I think I realized

908
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:18,320
when I came back, I tried some of the patients. Didn't work much for me. The path of fight.

909
00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:23,120
I tried that patient. They didn't work for me. Didn't work. So fuck that patient. Yeah. Fuck the

910
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:28,640
patients. Yes. Let's see here. Lastly, I just wanted to quickly ask you before we kind of wrap

911
00:51:28,640 --> 00:51:36,000
up and let you get about your day. There's some perceptions of like time being either slower or

912
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:41,600
faster in the ring considering fighters. How do you feel? Does time, do you feel like that five

913
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:49,680
minutes is actually five minutes? No, I think it's any sports. If you're in it five minutes,

914
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:54,000
it's especially if it's intense. Yeah. Right. If it's intense.

915
00:51:56,320 --> 00:52:03,200
What in judo might have five minutes, if I can stall, I know how to stall and look at the time,

916
00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:10,240
but the time is big. Right. In MMA, even if you want to stall, you have to look at the time.

917
00:52:10,240 --> 00:52:16,160
You have to search for it. Yes. So it's hard when you're thinking, oh, I fought for like two minutes.

918
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:20,720
Right. There should be three minutes left. That two minutes is only like 10 seconds.

919
00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:26,640
I've often wondered that. Yes. I just know that like in regular street fights, you either like,

920
00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:33,600
everything's in slow motion. So then like getting into a high caliber, high performance situation,

921
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:39,840
it almost feels like this, a similar thing. Your adrenaline is all the way up. And so your perception

922
00:52:39,840 --> 00:52:44,960
of time kind of gets weird. Because even when you hit impact, sometimes it depends.

923
00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:50,560
Or your coach will hype you up. Let's go. And then the last 30 minutes, the last 30 seconds,

924
00:52:50,560 --> 00:52:56,320
you go all out. In your head, you're feeling it. Right. And then all of a sudden, yes, coach,

925
00:52:56,320 --> 00:53:01,520
20 more seconds. What? I've been throwing like a hundred punches. How is that?

926
00:53:02,720 --> 00:53:10,080
Because you're in that zone, you know. For sure. So weight cuts, not your favorite thing probably.

927
00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:16,480
No, I don't think anybody likes me. So is there any anything that you do that's different from

928
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:21,200
anybody else? Do you start earlier? Do you use sauna suits? Do you just come to Kevin a whole lot?

929
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:26,960
Do you just do everything that everybody else does? It depends. For me, I go with how I'm feeling at

930
00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:38,000
that time, but I usually use like sauna. Yeah. Or even like you said, his, his float tank. I use it

931
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:44,560
to lose weight. You don't have to come in and sweat. To help lose the weight. So for me, it's more like

932
00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:50,240
I eat less than last week. I just also like that. You taper your diet a little bit. The reason I also

933
00:53:50,240 --> 00:53:58,400
like that, it put my mental in a whole different state. When I almost starved myself, I was hungry

934
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:05,840
to hell. Yeah. I get pissed off and I've been everything on the, on the fight day, when I'm

935
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:12,480
able to get some food, go murder somebody. That's another question I've always wondered. What do you

936
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:18,080
eat after you're done cutting weight? Like is there, does your brain just go in overdrive and you're like,

937
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:23,360
please give me something. That is different. Yeah. I think it just depend on whoever it is, but

938
00:54:24,160 --> 00:54:28,880
they always tell you to try and eat something as healthy. Don't eat greasy. Yeah. At least so

939
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:36,320
after Saturday night, because we eat too much greasy. It's going to affect you. So for me,

940
00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:46,800
rice. Rice. I'm a binge eater on Saturdays. Yeah. So I'll buy a lot of rice or pasta. Every 10 minutes

941
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:55,200
you see me eating. Yeah. Or there's a cake. You remember when I told you I eat cake? Sometimes I'll buy cake.

942
00:54:55,200 --> 00:55:02,240
It's so heavy. It's an African food is very heavy. Is it a meat or is it vegetables? No, this is corn.

943
00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:10,240
Corn and cassava. Okay. It is very heavy. Yeah. So I can only eat a little bit of it and I can

944
00:55:10,240 --> 00:55:15,120
follow. When I, when I eat those foods, when I go to sparring, I can spar all day and I'm not

945
00:55:16,080 --> 00:55:22,560
feeling like I'm tired or fatigue or anything. It gives you the energy. Yeah. Is that a traditional

946
00:55:22,560 --> 00:55:27,680
Ghanaian breakfast? It's not a breakfast, but everybody. Tell us about traditional

947
00:55:27,680 --> 00:55:32,880
Ghanaian breakfast because we've had a Seth Gilmore on the podcast and he spent time training in

948
00:55:32,880 --> 00:55:38,720
Thailand, a Tiger Mu Thai and just let us know kind of like the typical breakfast routine in Thailand.

949
00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:44,960
I kind of want to see like, if you were, let's say a middle-class person in Ghana, if that exists.

950
00:55:44,960 --> 00:55:50,480
Okay. No, no. Relatively to this area. I don't know any middle-class. I didn't mean to say that

951
00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:54,320
way. That's insensitive, but I just more meant like, I don't want to talk about like the extremely

952
00:55:54,320 --> 00:56:01,360
poor or the extremely rich. In Africa, you know how there's middle-class and the small class,

953
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:06,320
almost there's none like that. Yeah. It's almost like in your neighborhood, it's almost like

954
00:56:07,520 --> 00:56:12,880
everybody's poor and there's not one rich guy with that big house over there. I don't want to know

955
00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:17,440
what that guy is. I want to know what you guys. Yes. So it's like that. So there's no middle.

956
00:56:17,440 --> 00:56:20,400
Is that right? That's kind of why I noticed that when I said that I was like, wait a minute,

957
00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:24,880
that's more here. I'm sure there's middle, but we don't see them a lot of them.

958
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:31,120
Because in Africa, anytime you have a little, all the poor ones, we're going to come to you

959
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:34,880
and take from you. So if you're in the middle and you're doing better, you need to hide it and pretend

960
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:38,720
as if you're part of the poor. Some people do that. Yeah. Or else everybody's just going to come and

961
00:56:38,720 --> 00:56:44,720
take, take from you. Sure. Sorry. I lost. No, you're fine. Just traditional Ghanaian breakfast.

962
00:56:44,720 --> 00:56:53,280
So I'm not going to say the poor, the rich ones. The traditional is porridge. Porridge. Okay.

963
00:56:53,280 --> 00:56:59,280
The easiest name I can say is called cocoa. Cocoa and then there's a, um, like this.

964
00:57:00,320 --> 00:57:07,680
We call it coce. It's a cocoa and coce. It's so good. I don't know how to explain it. It's a

965
00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:13,680
porridge with a, oh, it's the coce is almost like a donut. Oh, okay. It's not a donut, but it's a

966
00:57:13,680 --> 00:57:18,800
coce. It's not a donut, but it's heavy, but it's almost like a, like a denser bread. And then they

967
00:57:18,800 --> 00:57:27,200
fry it. Ooh, fried bread. Yes. So when you, and then you put, um, like, uh, I'm trying to,

968
00:57:29,120 --> 00:57:35,760
I'm trying to remember what the name, uh, wow. Nuts. So, okay. Nuts. Yeah. You'll put nuts and sugar

969
00:57:35,760 --> 00:57:40,480
in the porridge. Okay. And then they stir it up. So you eat that. Take a bite of the bread and then

970
00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:45,920
you put a porridge. Oh, you guys are making me hungry. Again. Yeah. I'm so sorry. This is the

971
00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:52,160
worst possible time to be interviewing the UFC fighters during this. Especially for our podcast.

972
00:57:52,160 --> 00:57:58,400
So for me, that, that a lot of us, that's our, because when you get up, it's already set up on

973
00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:04,000
the street. There's a lot of vendors that go and get out of your house. There's the porridge ladies

974
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:07,760
sitting over there. So everybody, your father will send you over there. Your mom will send you.

975
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:12,640
You've got a lot of porridge and bring it home. Have a feast. Yes. I'm going to have,

976
00:58:12,640 --> 00:58:20,640
that sounds really good. I'd like to try that for sure. All right guys. We got some good and

977
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:26,240
wrap you up for today. Uh, uh, thank you again. I appreciate, uh, you, uh, stopping by and giving

978
00:58:26,240 --> 00:58:31,520
us your time, uh, much luck to you and everything that you do. Um, definitely we will be watching

979
00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:36,080
you and cheering on for you. And, and, uh, and, uh, I think you're our new favorite fighter.

980
00:58:36,080 --> 00:58:41,520
Thank you. Thank you. Hopefully after this fight, I'll find, we'll talk to Kevin. We'll come back

981
00:58:41,520 --> 00:58:47,680
and have an audience. That way I can go into details. You can ask me more how I lived. Yeah.

982
00:58:47,680 --> 00:58:51,600
So you're welcome. You're welcome. Anytime. Anytime you have anything to promote or if you

983
00:58:51,600 --> 00:58:56,000
have something to say. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you. And I'll say, you know, I don't

984
00:58:56,000 --> 00:59:03,360
watch UFC much because I just felt that interesting to me unless I have some kind of, yeah,

985
00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:09,440
emotional connection. So every fight he has, I'll watch that. Yeah. Uh, we did, uh, we did a,

986
00:59:09,440 --> 00:59:13,840
like a simulcast during Noche UFC and Kevin joined us and we went for like four hours watching the

987
00:59:13,840 --> 00:59:19,040
USA was just by the end of it. We were just so tired. That is the kind of part after this fight

988
00:59:19,040 --> 00:59:25,360
you need to do kind of long. Yeah. Let's do a fight companion. Yes. Yeah. We can, I've never

989
00:59:25,360 --> 00:59:31,760
shared, like I was doing a podcast for myself, like a sub podcast to talk. Sure. So I was going

990
00:59:31,760 --> 00:59:39,200
to share a little bit of my story. Yeah. Right. On, on it, on my video, I feel like it'd be nice.

991
00:59:40,560 --> 00:59:44,400
People saying that instead of me just sitting there talking. Yeah. Because even the story I

992
00:59:44,400 --> 00:59:49,760
told you about going to all African games, if I told you the stuff that happened, the full story,

993
00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:57,600
I was sitting in a kiosk like they say like this with my back and there's a drunkard driving and

994
00:59:57,600 --> 01:00:03,520
he drove right into a chaos. You run me over inside the kiosk. In the middle of you trying to

995
01:00:03,520 --> 01:00:09,440
compete? No, I was sitting down. I was actually praying. Oh. And then in a car, he took someone's

996
01:00:09,440 --> 01:00:15,040
car and drove the car right through this stall and he hit me. I was under the car like this.

997
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:22,080
Good Lord. You see this? Yeah. This, and I had one huge one. Yeah. Still have the road burns.

998
01:00:22,080 --> 01:00:30,000
I had all this car when I was qualifying for all African games. It wasn't a fresh, fresh, fresh.

999
01:00:30,640 --> 01:00:34,480
This is what I did before I went to the competition. I took some old clothing

1000
01:00:35,280 --> 01:00:42,240
and I ripped them and then I tied them on my thigh. I tie one here and I tie one here. I told myself,

1001
01:00:42,240 --> 01:00:48,640
don't look, go and fight. I fought my whole match until the finals. I finished and then I took my

1002
01:00:48,640 --> 01:00:53,440
gear off. When I took my gear off, you see this? The whole skin has peeled off. You can literally

1003
01:00:53,440 --> 01:00:59,120
see my white flesh. My whole white, especially this corner. It went so deep. The blood is just.

1004
01:01:00,240 --> 01:01:04,640
Goodness. I didn't give a shit. I'm going to all African games. I'm going to make a hundred dollars.

1005
01:01:05,200 --> 01:01:07,840
Yes. Yeah. I will cut and make that hundred dollars.

1006
01:01:12,480 --> 01:01:16,240
We'll talk more hopefully. Yeah. Can't wait to talk about that again. Thank you very much for

1007
01:01:16,240 --> 01:01:22,000
joining us. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, we have a phone number at 682-294-0101.

1008
01:01:22,000 --> 01:01:27,840
I was awoken this morning to a Gene voicemail. That will be right at the top of this podcast.

1009
01:01:27,840 --> 01:01:32,320
If you know and love Gene, he's checked in with us this morning. We also have an email address.

1010
01:01:32,320 --> 01:01:37,840
It's breakfastofchampspod at gmail.com. We're also on social media. Once again, thank you very much.

1011
01:01:38,480 --> 01:01:42,240
Razak, is that what you would like to be addressed as? Razak. Razak. I figured that

1012
01:01:42,240 --> 01:01:45,840
that I've seen and heard a lot of people. Thank you, Razak. I appreciate you.

1013
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:51,520
Thank you for opening up your Fort Worth flow and being the third co-host today.

1014
01:01:51,520 --> 01:02:12,800
Give us a call if you need something and we'll see you next week. Bye bye.