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Hey, goddamn genome alley.
Now I know you're not going to stop talking on your goddamn podcast, so I might as well
tell you the story about when I went to Burning Man.
And yes, I did go to Burning Man.
I didn't know what it was, I thought they were going to burn a different kind of fellow.
But I got there and most of what I did, I spent most of my time in the Orgy Dome doing
**** and trying to sell ****.
Apparently you can't sell **** that Burning Man, even though you can bring all kinds of
other drugs.
Those goddamn hippies need to understand if they're there for freedom or not.
So I was trying to sell **** in the Orgy Dome and they didn't like that, so they put me
in Burning Man jail.
Yes, they do have a jail at Burning Man.
I was there, so don't call me a liar about it.
I was in Burning Man jail and I just woke up a few hours ago.
Everybody else is gone, so I don't know what happened.
Maybe I did too much ****, so maybe it was just really, really good ****.
Anyway, Burning Man was a very wonderful and enlightening experience and I will go back
next year, around 2024.
3, 2, 1.
Welcome everybody to Breakfast of Champions Season 1, Episode 21.
I'm joined by my third co-host Kevin O'Malley here at Fort Worth Folk Company.
We also have a gentleman here, obviously right down the center, who is a UFC fighter, a very
entertaining individual and we just appreciate him blessing us with his time, Abdul Razak
Al Hassan.
Thank you.
As-salamu alaykum, my brother.
Wa alaykum salam.
I didn't know you wasn't.
I'm not, but I appreciate you and I appreciate all fans.
I'm a traveler, east to west and back and forth, so I just wanted to make sure that
you're welcome.
I know a little bit about you.
Seen a lot of your fights and I'm very impressed by just everything that you've given to the
UFC so far.
Your emotions, your vulnerability, your attitude towards just getting after it right in the
first round is just super exciting and thank you for joining us.
Really cool to have you here with us.
Thank you for having me, brother.
Yes, sir.
So right off the bat, we do what we call lightning round questions.
We want to kind of get to know you and your personality a little bit before we kind of
delve into some deeper questions.
I've got your enemy right here.
I was showing him.
Yeah.
That's the one thing I said.
One of the things that is like a, what's that?
A grab curse?
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
Fuck that guy.
Fuck you.
Yeah.
Buckley's a bitch, right?
He's a bitch.
I think he's fighting this weekend.
Yeah, that's kind of why we brought it up is that just one of the greatest all time
sound clips that have been chopped up is Buckley's a bitch over and over again in that press
conference.
So I was telling him he looks like Tyler, the creator, you know, that is the rapper
Tyler, the creator.
Yeah.
Anyway, lightning round questions.
Very, very simple.
Basically kind of kind of introductory level questions.
Let's see here.
So you can see them and they're very easy.
So what did you have for breakfast today?
I've always wanted to ask you, USC fighter, what did you have for breakfast today?
Actually, you might be disappointed was just toast and turkey bacon right on the drive.
I just ate that and got here.
Toast and turkey bacon.
Yeah.
Breakfast of champions, right?
And eggs.
But I didn't want to say this because I know if a Nigerian is going to listen to this,
they're going to talk shit.
Because Nigerians think we Ghanians, we love eggs.
We eat eggs.
With everything.
Yes.
So toast and you said turkey bacon, which gets into another one of my questions coming
up.
Do you have a outside of training camp?
Do you have a typical like breakfast routine or do you freestyle it?
Oh, I freestyle it.
But if you hear my breakfast, I don't think you think I'm a fighter.
My breakfast is like what you have for lunch.
Okay.
So I'll have the African food.
Like we have one called Kenke or Bangkok and I would just eat in the morning.
Yeah.
The most obvious food to eat in the morning.
We talk about this all the time.
Some of our favorite morning foods, cold Chinese food, cold spaghetti, cold pizza.
Some of that stuff sometimes really you need that in the morning especially.
It's very good.
Yeah.
Do you have an all time favorite breakfast cereal?
Do you eat cereal or do you like cereal?
I used to love cereal.
I know it's probably a guilty pleasure for you guys.
Frosted flakes.
I need to see those people.
All the wheat I gained in my life.
From frosted flakes?
From frosted flakes and snick of bars.
Okay.
I heard this really good story.
There was a assistant production director on Ali, the movie Ali with Will Smith and
Jamie Foxx and all that and whenever they got over to Africa, the head trainer of Will
Smith said, we're a training camp from the top to the bottom.
The director all the way down to the grip.
You're going to get up and do road work at like four o'clock in the morning with us and
you're going to eat like us, boil chicken at night, that whole thing.
So this assistant director just couldn't take it anymore.
He was like, I can't take it.
Please send me one Snickers bar.
He phoned up a friend from the States.
He's like, I need you to send me one king size Snickers bar.
Make sure that you wrap it up good and make sure that nobody like kind of sees it.
So his friend wound up going to Costco and buying a giant box of king size Snickers
bars.
And so it made it to the set.
And so before this assistant director finds out that it's made its way there, they have
this meeting and this head trainer is going in about bad apples.
There's one bad apple in the camp, spoil the whole bunch.
And he's like, it starts with a diet.
And as soon as he said diet, he knew that that guy got that Snickers bars will get you
in trouble on the set of Ali or in real life.
That's for sure.
I don't really celebrate birthdays, but there was one time when I said, you asked me what
I want.
I said, I want Snickers bars.
So I got this box of whole Snickers bars and I put it right under there.
I watched TV.
I ate the whole box of cereal in the city.
Yeah.
Awesome.
If you could do, like if you had access to every ingredient in the world, no matter travel,
because I know like you said, you're from Ghana.
Is that right?
You're from Ghana.
So if you have access to any ingredient in the world, no matter the price, and you wanted
to build the perfect breakfast sandwich, what would you put on that breakfast sandwich?
I'm a very simple guy.
Really, really precise.
Turkey, bacon, eggs, more turkey, bacon, cheese, extra cheese.
What kind of cheese?
My wife, she's the one that buys all my cheese.
This yellow cheese that she put on my eggs when I'm not on a diet.
When she gets my eggs, she put it in there and then she make me this chocolate milk.
That sounds good.
Sorry, I know you're in training camp.
I don't need to do this to you, brother.
Let's move on.
Let's go to, obviously, I think I know the answer to this question.
Is turkey, bacon, trash or delicious?
So it's amazing.
It's amazing.
So I want to tell you a story before you move.
Please do.
I don't eat pork because I'm a Muslim, but a lot of my friends have been trying to make
me eat pork.
And since I love turkey, bacon, they said there was a pork, I don't know what you call
it, not just a turkey, bacon, but sausage, the sausage, but the turkey, bacon.
Oh, okay.
So they tried so much to make me try that.
One of them almost tried.
I picked it up.
This should tell you how much I like turkey, bacon, right?
When I picked it up, I started eating, I realized I was not taking it.
Your friends are.
I know.
I have horrible friends.
I know, right?
With friends like these.
I know.
What is your favorite Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, if you have one?
Oh, I don't know the name, but it's the one he did the split in the sewer.
Is it kickboxer?
Yeah.
Is that the name?
Maybe.
He was, I watched this when I was little.
You know, in Africa, we don't have TV.
Right.
So if the whole neighborhood, there will be one person that has a TV, like, and our houses
are different in Africa.
It's almost like a linear sediment houses.
Okay.
So when you come out of your house, you can see all your neighbors.
It's almost like you see that TV.
Yes.
That's another room.
So when you come out, you can come out of this room.
Now this whole space is for all of us.
Like a common area.
Yeah.
And out of that whole house is one person that has a TV.
So every kid, all of us in the morning will go to their window and we'll open.
That's how we watch Van Damme, Jackie Chan.
Yeah.
Wonderful.
What is the worst injury that you've received, whether it's fight, training, or maybe even
in a street fight?
Anytime you've gotten an injury that you've maybe is memorable.
I've had a lot of injuries, but the injury that is still in my head right now that puts
me off was my elbow.
I was in Colorado training with one of my friends.
He needed help.
So I was being a body for his friends.
And when he threw me, I tried to put my hand down to his face.
He stood up pushing.
So I washed my whole hand.
It's bone pop.
Yeah.
I can only imagine.
Yeah.
That's the worst.
Posing and then having somebody basically break your elbow.
I literally saw the bone.
Did it just dislocate or go through the skin?
No, the bone didn't go through the skin, but it's also a few.
What do you think your best, we usually ask people like, what do you think you see as
like the best finishing move in the UFC?
Obviously, I know you're a fan of knocking people the fuck out.
So do you think that's the most satisfying is getting the knockout?
For me, I think it's the moves.
So I've done judo all my life since I was almost like the age of eight to 10, since
I was in Africa.
So I love judo.
Even coming to America, the whole point of me fighting started from judo.
So I loved throwing people.
But I remember when I started kickboxing, I just started punching people.
All I can think about is throwing people.
I just want to tell a different feeling.
I understand that for sure.
Did you play any fighting video games?
And if so, your favorite fighting video game?
Mortal Kombat.
We didn't have a lot of options back home, but there was a big two games that was most
popular that we still got in Africa was Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.
So you just pay somebody and they have a chaos.
Who is your fighter in Mortal Kombat?
Van Damme.
Just like you said, I was in Street Fighter.
Sorry.
But in Mortal Kombat, I'm Luke.
I play cheat.
My feet.
That's a question we always talk about.
Are you a blocker?
Do you go forward all the time?
No blocking, just attack the whole time.
So we delve into this question.
Do you have any thoughts on trash talking?
Are there any quote unquote rules when it comes to that?
I think trash talking.
It depends.
For me, trash talking, there is one I don't like trash talking.
I take this serious.
Mostly the things that I say, I mean it.
It's not for the you're not selling fights.
So some people say to get you riled up, I'm okay with them saying you're riled up.
But for my end, I'm thinking I'm going to murder your ass by seeing you.
That's right.
Just from saying that shit.
Yeah.
So it's different.
My theory is if you have kids, it's a little bit different.
If you don't have kids, you just don't have that mentality of like attacking someone's
family in that way.
Exactly.
When I talk trash, I talk trash to you.
Right.
I don't talk trash to you or not talk trash about your family or your kids.
Or religion or politics.
Not like that.
If we're talking trash, you are not.
Right?
Something that I'm saying or in a fight situation, I'm going to beat your fucking ass.
You know, like in the bat, if you go in there and get knocked out, at least you know you
talk your own shit.
Yeah.
I don't insult you.
You're going to make it fun looking whenever you've.
You know, you and that approach that makes it a lot scarier for me because you're one
of the nicest people I know.
So if you say it, I know you're going to mean it.
That's the thing.
I recently watched Mr. McMahon, the Netflix documentary about the whole wrestling and
that whole life.
And while this is nothing like that, there are some similarities when it comes to the
good guys and the bad guys.
When it comes to the UFC, you're definitely one of the good guys.
In my opinion, I think that no matter what, like you said, no matter who you're talking
about, what you're talking about, it is always a very focused laser focus.
This is my objective and only this I've heard interview is asking you, you know, try to
throw you off your square and go different places, but you always kind of bring it right
back around to this guy, this opponent.
So I appreciate that about you.
You know, the hills are the ones to me that are there, the characters, they're the ones
that like you said, I think you said Joe Piper was really nice to you, but then you see him
in an interview and he's talking all that shit.
Yeah.
He's the hill.
Yes.
For sure.
Do you have a favorite movie or TV show or anime training montage?
You shouldn't be asking me about anime.
If I'm not training, right, or I'm not playing with my kids, I'm literally watching anime.
Perfect.
It's almost, you can open an anime, a famous anime or any anime and there's 99% chance
I've seen it.
Really?
Yes.
I love that.
But my favorite anime is One Piece.
You cannot.
One Piece.
Okay.
You have a great training montage in there?
Not the training.
The training I'll go to more like, not almost, but I'll go to Naruto.
Those are super famous ones.
The hardship to realize it and stuff like that.
Yeah.
But One Piece, I just enjoy it as in the worst situation that you think is not going to win,
you come up and win.
Yeah.
That's what I like.
One Piece.
Shout out to One Piece.
And then lastly, what is your walkout song?
Do you have a specific one or do you change them out?
I change them.
Change them up?
Usually I will play like maybe same music twice and then I'll change it.
I go by the feeling.
How I'm feeling at that time.
What's more, the reading than that time.
And I choose the music to go from that.
Do you already have yours picked out for the Saturday?
I'm excited to hear it.
I'm sure you heard it.
You heard the same music.
My last one.
Do you think that anyone in the UFC has like a really great walkout song?
Like I know that we talk about, you know, you have Dustin usually comes out to James
Brown and that sort of thing.
Is there kind of like that undertaker bell when you hear it, you just, if you know, you
know?
I don't think there's one particular person that I have paid attention to.
Sure.
But Israel Lozano is one person that I, anytime he's walking out, I kind of listen because
I'm like, the music will be coming out.
Or one person is John Jones too.
John Jones.
So because he plays different.
I just want to listen to what is.
I always think that has sort of like a theme to get the camp usually, you know, Sean O'Malley
is usually good about giving a, this is the theme or Israel.
I mean, obviously he brings movies and feelings and moments and that becomes the theme of
the camp.
So I'll have that process come about.
Everybody's for me is different for me.
So let me say.
When people see me when I'm talking in an interview, UFC, they think of this.
Oh, no.
When they see me in the gym, I'm the most playful person.
I'm the most talkative person.
I'm the most loudest person because I want to enjoy the workout.
Sure.
You know, you hear the most loudest music and African music too.
I'm the type when the beat eats me, there's nothing as being tired.
We don't get tired.
Activate your DNA.
We go until the music stops and we're like, we don't want to fight anymore.
So I go with the flow.
I love that.
Kevin, you're a big judo guy, right?
Yeah, I am.
So let's talk about a little bit about judo.
How did you come to judo?
Did you have somebody in your life that was already practicing judo or is this just something
that came to you serendipitously?
Well, you guys can both of you go first.
So it should be a long story for us to explain how I got judo.
My big brother was his, he loves martial arts.
How do I put it?
My brother is a nerd when it comes to martial arts.
In Africa, since the martial arts, we see them on TV, but there's nobody there to teach
us.
So in the beginning, my brother saw kung fu, he started learning kung fu.
And then because we watch a lot of Jackie Chan movies, we start telling them that shit
doesn't work in real life, don't do it.
So he went to judo.
Everybody loves judo.
I guess because of the uniform, my brother started taking everybody in the neighborhood,
the kids, his friends.
And I'll tell my brother, hey, can you take me with you?
He said, no, he will never take me.
I don't know why either he's trying to protect me from doing it.
But I think from my perspective, my brother think I'm too hyper to do that.
Okay.
Right.
Or I'm going to embarrass him.
Okay.
Different personality.
Yes.
Or I'm going to learn it and use it to beat somebody else.
Right.
So he didn't take me.
One day he was going to training.
In our neighborhood, you can hire a bicycle, you can pay somebody a lot of money and they
give you a bicycle.
So I hired a bicycle while he was going.
I know where he was going.
It's the stadium.
That's the only one stadium that we have in the whole place.
So I know where he's going.
So I waited for the bus that drives closer to that stadium.
And I took the bike.
So I sat on the bike and I hold the corner of the bus.
This is an eight year old me, eight, nine year old me.
And then on the highway he just owns me.
I can't imagine my nine year old holding the back of a bus.
A lot of us do that.
A lot of the kids we do that back home.
So when I got to training there, I saw him training and I saw this white man, he's Japanese
man training them.
And I waited to my brother put on his uniform and he started working out.
So I know if I walk in and he see me, he's going to kick me out.
So I waited till he started working out and I'll run inside.
Now once I went to the white man, I said, I want to try this.
I was like, I want to do this.
And he's like, really?
Come on the mat.
And then he got me on the mat and started teaching me the basics of falls.
My brother was pissed off.
He's training, I can see from his side, I'm like, what the fuck, I'm gonna murder you.
He wanted that to frame him.
But that's how I joined.
But later on he stopped.
I loved it.
To be honest, I know I went into judo for the wrong reasons, but I'll end up loving judo.
I went to judo because I want to learn and be strong and beat other people.
And not just that later on, I wanted to come to America.
And I found out that a lot of people get the opportunity to use the judo to travel outside
of the United States.
So I'm like, okay, this is my ticket.
I should take it.
So I went.
My brother quit.
I didn't quit.
Within like two years and two years, God blessed me enough that the Japanese coach, he saw
the potential in me or he saw the heart in me.
So it's like, hey, there's three of all of you, I'm gonna train them as extra camp.
I wasn't even invited.
But because I was coming every time and also dedicated, I joined them.
Every time they're training up there, the coach realized how good I was.
Within a few years, I joined the national team.
I was beating everybody.
I was so happy.
My first competition, I remember the bigger guys, the people who were saying they were
gonna win.
And I'm saying, I'm gonna fucking win.
I wiped all of them.
All of them.
Since then, I was like, I love this game.
I'm never having them.
I love this feeling of just, I'm gonna prove you wrong.
Tell me I'm not gonna do it.
That I will work there.
I'm not gonna do it.
I'm not gonna work there.
Since then, I've loved it.
Wonderful.
That's how I was able to get into it.
I love when people have an origin story a little bit.
You know what I mean?
Especially when it comes to martial art, because it is a very special thing, especially young
men, whenever they have no idea what they wanna do with their life.
And then all of a sudden, it's like-
Something clicks.
Yeah, it clicks.
And then you're like, okay, this also bleeds into the other parts of my life.
I can be disciplined.
I can have respect.
I can show other people who I am through talking or physical or whatever the case may be.
How did you get into judo?
I was probably around the same age as when you started.
There were a few kids in my neighborhood that we were friends with and family friends that
were doing it.
And I was big into pro wrestling, but not very physically active.
So my parents put me in it that way.
And I did it for a few years and then when I was a teenager, got kind of fat and lazy.
So I quit for a while.
But then my last year of high school, we got a wrestling team and I joined and made it.
And then that got me back into judo like my next year, first year of college.
The big kind of turning point for me was after wrestling, I started having dreams about judo
every night, which got me back into it.
And once I got back, I just realized I was going to be doing that the rest of my life.
Something about it, it was right for me.
I love that for you guys.
I wanted to talk a little bit about, like you said, you're from Ghana and then you came
to the United States.
Was there a huge adjustment and culture shock, obviously for you, but for other people to
kind of adjust to you and your style of fighting and what you bring to the table?
You have this era of mystery whenever you come from another country a little bit.
Oh, you mean coming, seeing the culture here, the culture that I live.
It surprised you, the first thing that surprised me.
The first culture shock for me, it surprised you about my reply.
Actually my friend, when I moved here, I lived in a place that wasn't much really safe in
the United States.
OK.
But I didn't know that.
I lived in Minneapolis.
OK.
It wasn't that great.
So I think I was at that point, I was thinking everybody was going to be like, did he just
insult his mom?
And I'm like, I almost just want to go there and smack the shit out of them.
That was what surprised me the most because in Africa, you cannot do that.
Sure.
Level of respect is a big one.
If you're walking, I can be walking outside.
Especially elders, right?
Yes.
If I'm insulting my mom or I'm talking to my mom about that and a stranger was walking
by, he doesn't know me.
He doesn't know my mom.
He would smack the shit out of me because I'm insulting my mom.
So when I came here.
The way it should be.
That was what shocked me the most when I was like, how are they talking to their parents
like that?
And they're still alive?
Yeah.
That was the biggest shock.
Yeah, sure.
I always wonder about it just because I've done a little traveling.
I've been to Pakistan, Dubai, Bahrain, China, Japan.
So I think one of the biggest things is that side of the world and this side of the world
need to trade places for a couple of days because I feel like everybody would just get
along so much better if we could see each other's perspectives.
You know what I mean?
To be honest, it was weird for me when I went to Pakistan.
So when I went to Pakistan, there was a masjid.
Sorry, I forgot the name.
And I went to the masjid.
Everybody wanted to talk to me.
And it's not because I was a UFC fighter.
They didn't even know I was a UFC fighter.
But because I was black.
Yeah.
They were just coming to shake my hand.
And later on, there was a crack.
How do you?
Sorry.
I hope Indians and Pakistan don't insult me.
What do you call that?
Cricket.
Yes.
So I guess they hired a black person on the cricket team.
So when they saw me, the only black person they thought I was.
Everybody just shake my hand.
You know him, right?
Yeah.
Exactly.
So one of my Pakistani friends, he realized and then he came and grabbed me and said,
come on, don't stay here.
Just let's go.
I'm going to beat you.
I know you have, but can you remind our audience some of the fights that maybe you fought outside
of the United States?
Have you fought maybe in Europe or anywhere like that?
Besides the UFC, I fought in Europe with UFC.
I fought in Sweden and Ireland.
But besides in Stockholm, outside of UFC.
Just anytime you go.
Yeah.
Judo.
Where did Judo take you around the world, I guess?
A lot of world championships.
I went to Mauritius for a world championship in Mauritius a couple of times.
I went to the All African Games.
I made it for the All African Games.
That's the opportunity that opened the way for me to come to America.
I qualified for the national team and of course I lost.
It's almost like an Olympic for Africans.
And then I also came to United States for the world championship.
That's when I decided I'm not going anywhere.
I'm staying right here.
So if you don't mind me sharing the story.
So the story was like I said, I wanted to use Judo to come to the United States.
So any opportunity I can get or any invitation that I can get from the United States, I want
to have.
So I sent a lot of emails.
So when I went to Mauritius and I came back, they said, hey, you have to prepare for All
African Games again.
But all that time I sent all that emails.
When I went to All African Games and came back, I saw an email in my, I saw an email
from the United States saying, hey, we're inviting you to world championship in Georgia.
My mom is just going to go up when dad is at home.
It's for a second that it can't even give me a cent even if he needs it.
I just went to All African Games.
They just paid me $900.
I've never seen $900.
I've never seen $200 in my life.
This is your first time I've seen $900.
I said, no, I'm missing this money to go to America.
Georgia, yeah.
So I went to one of my friends and I told him that I just got an invitation from the
United States.
I want to add it to her so we can get a team so we can all go.
Yeah.
And he said, really?
I was like, oh.
So we all, I add his name and I went to the sports council and I told them, hey, I'm
going to go to America.
There's a world championship in America.
We want to go.
We have an opportunity to win.
They said, we're not going to pay for you.
If you can pay for yourself to go there, we'll give you the invitation to help you to get
that visa or we're not going to pay for you.
Okay.
If I have to sell everything for my mom, somehow I'll sell it.
Hustle it.
So I used the money, everything I had and then replied for the visa.
I don't want to go into the details of how it was so hard just to get that visa.
By the time we finished the $900 they gave me, it's already gone.
Sure.
Imagine an African kid, that $900, do you know what that $900 can do for me?
Change your life.
Change your family's life.
I swear to God.
But it's that $900 too.
So the seed into your dream.
Yes.
Yeah.
Finally I got the visa.
I don't have the money to come to, to get the flight.
I went to my brother and I was like, hey brother, I was given the opportunity to come to United
States, but I don't have the money to take the flight.
And he said, I have somebody, I'll get you the money to go to the flight.
But when you go to America, don't fucking think about coming back.
Yeah.
Don't fucking think about coming back.
When you get there, you run away.
Go find a job, go do something and pay.
So the guy that he talked to is almost like a, I would not say a mafia, but it's almost
like the guy in the hood that we can borrow money from.
If you don't pay him, he's going to fuck you up.
So my brother went to him and borrowed $2,500 from him.
So that means I have to pay him twice the money when I come to United States.
We came here after the competition we lost.
I didn't care about the competition to be honest.
The competition was just, you won already.
Yes.
And when we got here, now this is where you get interest.
When we got here now, I'm trying to plan my escape move to run away.
And I told my friend that I brought him with me because I'm the one that brought him here.
And I was talking to another white woman here.
She was my ex.
So she was trying to help me run away from Georgia to come to Minnesota to her.
But I think the coach and the manager, they realized that the two of us are trying to
run away.
So they took our passport away from us.
But luck, when we're going to weigh in, they ask us for our passport to weigh in since
we're foreigners.
When we gave them our passport, they forgot to take it back.
When we got to the hotel, they told us they're going to McDonald's to buy food.
I found out we took our bag.
Another trouble showed up.
We don't know anybody.
There was a girl that was in Minnesota that was giving us Greyhound to come.
So we went to the front desk and we told the hotel, can you please get us a taxi to take
us to the Greyhound?
So he's the one that got us the taxi to go to Greyhound.
When the secretary and everybody came back to the hotel, when they didn't see us in the
room, they went to the front desk and said, ah, our fighters, our athletes, we don't see
them in the room.
They said, oh, I just got them a taxi.
They went to the Greyhound.
So they found out that we were running away.
So the guy said, can you bring that taxi guy here so he can take, he called that taxi back
and the taxi guy brought our manager and everybody to the Greyhound and we were sitting down
with him.
I thought I was done.
I was going back to Africa.
They grabbed out in Africa.
If an African is watching this, you understand when a cop arrest you back home, the way they
will hold you, they'll put their hand in your pants like this and then they will hold you
up.
So it's almost like your toes is dangling in the air and that's how they were holding
us.
Oh really?
And well, when we got to the Greyhound, there's this African lady that we were talking to
and we were telling her about Africa and she was enjoying the conversation.
She's like, wow, this and I was like, yeah.
But the good thing is we told her the honesty.
We told her this is our first time in the United States.
We didn't have the opportunity.
So we're trying to run away to make a better life for ourselves and our family back home.
So she was supporting us.
So when she saw us being grabbed by them, oh, she came out like an angel.
She's like, you mother fucker, you better let them go right now.
They're going to fuck you up.
And she said, give me a second, I'm going to call the cops and I started freaking out.
Please, please don't call the cops.
So I thought, I'm going to be bored in too if you call the cops.
She's like, don't worry, I got you.
You mother fucker, they cannot get you.
She went and called the cops.
The cops showed up.
The cops talked to our managers and said, give them your passport back.
If you touch them, I will arrest you.
It's been the best happiness in my life, even to today.
That was the best thing I've ever experienced.
I'm going to call the cops.
They pulled me under."
Akarantzuma himẩ�TONA.
She said, I love you possession hit without detonator.
I had a victory bag.
I gave them my bag.
This is what it's called, bros وبbiscuit.
I said it's a decoy, I identify with this.
They pulled me in their chests.
He illuminates her not just on the first date, but続 Nós.
I Community of Rivers Second YeAR, that's mother fucker."
Address with a hits infite us in University of Chicago.
Tiam.
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
travels, I'll compete, I'll because of him I have so many medals at home through United States because
of him. Yeah. And that's why I'm at ST. They hired Steven over there and that's my transition to
Texas. Beautiful. When did you arrive in Texas? It's been like what 10, 12 years now?
No. So because you were in Denver before, is that right? For a little while. I was in Minnesota.
Minnesota. Okay. And Johnny Hendrix, they were going to hire Steve, my kickback coach to come
and train Johnny Hendrix here. So he told them that he has a fighter, which is me and he didn't
want to leave me there. So they told him to bring me to do an audition with Johnny Hendrix. Sure.
If I'm very good enough and they will keep me. So I came back to him with him. They like it.
It was like, can we pay you to try with Johnny Hendrix? And then I never left. Perfect. Love that
for you. So when you had your very first fight in the UFC, do you still remember that day? Do you
still kind of play that feeling back? Yes. Yeah. Yes. What did you get an email or a phone call?
It wasn't, it wasn't me. It was my coach Steve that got the call. Some crazy things happened in my
life when I sit down and I think about it. So the way I got the contract from UFC was crazy.
So I was supposed to fight Kevin Holland and Kevin ditched. And I think they found out I'm
not open to fight. But in the last minute, that opponent also ditched. Within, that's why I love
LFAA. Within like eight hours, they were able to find a guy from Chicago. Come and fight me in a
short notice. And I beat the guy. After I won that fight, I think that was when they hired McManig.
And at that time I have a contract in LFA and then Bellator also contacted my coach. So I signed a
contract with Bellator to fight for Bellator while I was preparing for Bellator. But you see what's
crazy in Bellator clothes. They shouldn't let me go. By that time I was also signed to LFA. So that
contract helped me to get into it. I see what you're saying. Yes. That's how I was able to get into
a UFC in that short notice. McManig is that guy. I really appreciate that guy. From a fan's
perspective, he's done a lot of great things for the UFC since he's joined. So. McManig,
I hold so much respect on McManig. Of course I've gone through a lot of crazy stuff in my life.
A lot of people will not wait for the truth. When that kind of accusation happens to you,
nobody will wait for the truth. Even some people that know you, they will not wait for the truth.
They will just start to accuse you or think you're this kind of bad person. So wait for the truth.
Did he do it or not? UFC could have fired me. McManig could have fired me. This is my emotional
fact. When I came back, I lost three fights in a row. My mind was not even there not even one time.
Look, all the fights I lost today, I can sit down, I can tell you. I don't remember almost
70% of this fight. My mind was so clouded. So crazy. I swear to God. Most of my fights,
I don't even remember working in that ring. After the case and everything came, I don't remember
working in that ring. My mind was blown. They could have fired me. They did it. They gave me a contract.
They even on a losing streak, when I won one, they gave me a contract. That man helped me save my...
I'm going to stop talking. I'm going to start crying. No, it's okay. He helped me. He helped me look
after my family because when the case happened, literally every money I had, everything I saved,
went to that. Went to that? Yeah. Every victim went to that. Yeah. Just to prove my innocence,
even though there's a video to prove my innocence, the state did to permit me to work. If he wasn't
the one that kept my job for me to be able to feed my family, well... Yeah. Thank you, Vic Maynard,
for everything, but especially thank you for helping Razaf during this time. I saw this is
how when I go into the room, I'm more than a model. I saw that press conference and that's one of the
things that I do. I want to say just from breakfast of champions perspective, you need to make sure
that you know exactly what you're talking about before you start talking about people. This is a
human being. This is someone who has feelings. Just because you have a YouTube channel or a
Twitter page or a voice does not give you the right to falsely accuse somebody or even treat them as
if they're guilty when they haven't had their due process. I appreciate you coming through that,
being vulnerable and letting people know that, yeah, my head wasn't in those fights and that
wasn't me as a person. I felt for you at that time because you had mentioned, this goes back to you
being a good guy in my opinion, you care about how others perceive you when you walk in a room with
them and at that time you could see the downcast and downtrodden people that and it bothered you
and especially it bothers you when you're innocent. You know what I mean? I see what I mean.
And even the people that were so close to you, look, you almost think they know you to the
back of their own head. They know you will never do something like that. Even then they'll take
the thing back on their shoulders. But I'm happy at this age that I drew to find out that why did I
care about what they think? I know me, I know I didn't do, why did I care? And I think because I
cared so much. That was why when I came back, he hit me so hard and I lost. I couldn't even come
back. But right now I've found that dude, that devil me. As soon as you acknowledged it, it was
almost like it changed and the last couple of fights you've been mowing through people. And
so you last fought Cody Brundage, which we discussed on this podcast that was Oscar worthy
performance on his part. He was trying to act his way into a win there for sure. I have personally
slowed down that fight several times. This man did not hit him in the back of the head. There was
a lot of really great shots off to the side, to the ear, even to his arm. Yeah. It was like,
you hit his arm and his arm was hitting him and it was like, that's your flight on you, bro.
Yes. The one in the corner, legal, when he moved and my hand went like this, it didn't be touching
him. Yeah. So, uh, I did see a couple of interviews with your upcoming opponent, Josh Friend,
the, the narrative that the media is trying to point is like, he's trying to get revenge for his
teammate, but here's the thing. He has distanced himself from that. He's like, no, uh, just because
we're teammates, Cody's his own person. And to me, I think he realizes exactly what happened in that
situation. He has not taken up that narrative. He, uh, has not coming for revenge for his teammate
in any sort of way. He has segmented that and has, uh, like I said, I think that speaks a lot to,
uh, the media knows who won. Even his teammates kind of know who won. You know, in the old school
days, you know, if you have a teammate, you'd be like, yeah, that's my teammate. I'm coming for him
or whatever the case may be. Yeah. It's nice. He told me, I really thought that's what he was
going to do. I thought he was going to come out to say my teammates that I'm going to beat the
shit out of you for the half of my money that I lost. Cause for a teammate, I thought he was
going to say that. But still he's going to get it. I think, I think the truth has prevailed. And I
think that that narrative, he can't even buy into that himself to make himself believe that for,
to get up for this fight. So you've got a fight coming up. Uh, you're, you're fighting Josh
friend. It's going to be a fight night in Vegas. Right. Is that right? Yes. Uh, apex fights. Yeah.
I know. What's the deal, man? I don't like it. You love a crowd, don't you? You need a crowd.
You need that energy, that transference of energy. Oh man. That last fight, the last fight,
I've been for the crowd forever. Cause since that happened to me, I've been for the crowd.
Yeah. So that was the first time I fought in the crowd since all that. Oh man. I feel that. You
feed me. Let me go murder somebody. I can feel it. You know, that's why I don't like the apex.
Apex doesn't have that energy. Give me, feed me. Let me go. Yeah. Also the ring's a little smaller.
Do you have to address for that? Yes. Yeah. And it makes people that wrestlers feel like they can
just, even if they don't have a chance, they can shoot from up there and you don't have that much
of a chance to get up. Yeah. Super excited for your upcoming fight. Like I said, we're huge fans of
you over here. Just who you are as a person. Just because like I said, we see things from the
craziest of the craziest. We've got the Sean Stricklands and the Colby Covingtons and all that
craziness putting on a character to sell a fight, but it is refreshing to see someone who is humble,
who doesn't forget where they come from, who continues to be vulnerable with their training
process, their mental issues that they've gone through and worked through and come out on the
other side too as a conqueror of that. So we're here because Kevin has brought us together.
How do you use Fort Worth Float Company as like recovery for yourself? Fort Worth Float, I've
helped me for a long time. Not now. My day is all the way back than I've known Kevin. Anytime I need
recovery, I'm always here. I don't go anywhere for recovery. How do you recover here?
His eyes. He has this amazing eyes bat, which I can ask him. I think I still have the video
the first time he tried it. I can't believe he can do it for five minutes. I did it for 30 seconds
and I'm dying. Yeah, I did it for three minutes and it was three minutes. Who knows?
The last 30 seconds or a minute, he was like, put your hands in the water. And I didn't. I was
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.
And I started with my hands out and he kept me, Kevin was like, put your hands in. And I put my
hand in and Kevin walked out. Same thing. I was like, I can do this last minute, about 40 seconds.
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,
fuck, fuck, is it me? And then he walked away. I was like, yeah. Do you also do sauna here?
I do. I love it. It says it's float tanked. Oh, you do sensory deprivation as well. I just sit in
there and every time I leave here, when I get home, I'll take almost like two, three hours now.
Yeah. You have to decompress for your decompression. I usually come here right after training.
So when I sit here, you're working all those knots out, huh? What I didn't do, what I should have done.
Exactly. Just relaxing. I can see that being helpful, especially if someone,
such a high performer as yourself. So if you need recovery in the Dallas, Fort Worth area,
in any form or fashion, Kevin is always here for you. Fort Worth Float Company. He's got sensory
deprivation tanks. He's got a cold plunge. He's got sauna. You have any, you've got some really
light stuff coming up. Is that right? I've got the Brain Tap device, which I'm still kind of
testing out, but it is available to use. Basically what that is, is it's got lights that shine in your
eyes and your ears that kind of mimic brain waves. And then you have like a guided meditation that
goes along with all that. Perfect. So like I said, if you need recovery, or even if you're not a UFC
athlete, if you're just a regular Joe like myself, and you want to conquer your inner bitch and dry
out the cold plunge that's available here for you. This place is always... This is what I love about
him. He's so knowledgeable when it comes to this. And he comes in and is like, yeah, this is going to help this.
Your muscles, fatigue. It's like, ah. He's done the work for you. Exactly. I'm like, no, you need to say my,
just tell me where to go. And I'll just go. Yeah. So you're training out of? Fort, right here.
Metroflex. Metroflex. That's right. I wanted to say Fortis because you were there for a while.
Yeah. So Metroflex and... War Room. Wonderful. Inside Metroflex is a War Room MMA in there.
War Room MMA. Okay. Excellent. And so lately you've been, like I said, you've been really
focused on being patient in your fights. I've heard that word being brought around, you know,
as far as like a mantra. Is that something that's hard for you just because you are so intense and
you are like, you've got to keep that in check a little bit. I'm going to tell you this now.
Fuck the visions. Fuck the visions. I'm not. I've noticed things about me and I think as you grow up,
you know, you realize, you know you, why are you trying to change you? Sure. And I realized that
I love the chaos. I love the... Getting into the fire. You're getting excited. I just, you know,
I like it. That's the simplest way I can say it. Do you think that's just your personality or
your experience with Judo having to be so decisive and it can win so fast?
Exactly. I think it's because of the Judo. Because Judo is always like,
do it, win. And also there's a match right after a match. If you win, the more you win, the more
you're fighting. Right. So you want to finish the match as fast as possible. Conserve some of that.
Yeah. So you can fight for the finals. So I think the way you put it, I think, I think it's the same.
And also, I think I realized something. Anytime I'm fighting patiently, my mind just fuck with me.
It's like, throw, don't throw. Throw, don't throw. Why the fuck am I doing that? You're almost having
a conversation with yourself. Exactly. For myself. Not me. When I'm, my mind just say, let go. And
everything is coming out. The hand is throwing. When the mind think it, the hand is throwing.
Yeah. Right. But when I'm patient, somebody hit me like, take your time, take your time. Let him go.
You get him. You get him. Let him go. Yeah. Before then it's not like that. You're going to hit me and
run away. Fuck you. When you hit me by the time you're leaving, I want to hit you like 10 times
before you leave. Right. You know. So you know, next time don't. So fuck the patience. Yeah. No.
When I go in, I'm going to murder somebody and then that's it. That's all I want. I think I realized
when I came back, I tried some of the patients. Didn't work much for me. The path of fight.
I tried that patient. They didn't work for me. Didn't work. So fuck that patient. Yeah. Fuck the
patients. Yes. Let's see here. Lastly, I just wanted to quickly ask you before we kind of wrap
up and let you get about your day. There's some perceptions of like time being either slower or
faster in the ring considering fighters. How do you feel? Does time, do you feel like that five
minutes is actually five minutes? No, I think it's any sports. If you're in it five minutes,
it's especially if it's intense. Yeah. Right. If it's intense.
What in judo might have five minutes, if I can stall, I know how to stall and look at the time,
but the time is big. Right. In MMA, even if you want to stall, you have to look at the time.
You have to search for it. Yes. So it's hard when you're thinking, oh, I fought for like two minutes.
Right. There should be three minutes left. That two minutes is only like 10 seconds.
I've often wondered that. Yes. I just know that like in regular street fights, you either like,
everything's in slow motion. So then like getting into a high caliber, high performance situation,
it almost feels like this, a similar thing. Your adrenaline is all the way up. And so your perception
of time kind of gets weird. Because even when you hit impact, sometimes it depends.
Or your coach will hype you up. Let's go. And then the last 30 minutes, the last 30 seconds,
you go all out. In your head, you're feeling it. Right. And then all of a sudden, yes, coach,
20 more seconds. What? I've been throwing like a hundred punches. How is that?
Because you're in that zone, you know. For sure. So weight cuts, not your favorite thing probably.
No, I don't think anybody likes me. So is there any anything that you do that's different from
anybody else? Do you start earlier? Do you use sauna suits? Do you just come to Kevin a whole lot?
Do you just do everything that everybody else does? It depends. For me, I go with how I'm feeling at
that time, but I usually use like sauna. Yeah. Or even like you said, his, his float tank. I use it
to lose weight. You don't have to come in and sweat. To help lose the weight. So for me, it's more like
I eat less than last week. I just also like that. You taper your diet a little bit. The reason I also
like that, it put my mental in a whole different state. When I almost starved myself, I was hungry
to hell. Yeah. I get pissed off and I've been everything on the, on the fight day, when I'm
able to get some food, go murder somebody. That's another question I've always wondered. What do you
eat after you're done cutting weight? Like is there, does your brain just go in overdrive and you're like,
please give me something. That is different. Yeah. I think it just depend on whoever it is, but
they always tell you to try and eat something as healthy. Don't eat greasy. Yeah. At least so
after Saturday night, because we eat too much greasy. It's going to affect you. So for me,
rice. Rice. I'm a binge eater on Saturdays. Yeah. So I'll buy a lot of rice or pasta. Every 10 minutes
you see me eating. Yeah. Or there's a cake. You remember when I told you I eat cake? Sometimes I'll buy cake.
It's so heavy. It's an African food is very heavy. Is it a meat or is it vegetables? No, this is corn.
Corn and cassava. Okay. It is very heavy. Yeah. So I can only eat a little bit of it and I can
follow. When I, when I eat those foods, when I go to sparring, I can spar all day and I'm not
feeling like I'm tired or fatigue or anything. It gives you the energy. Yeah. Is that a traditional
Ghanaian breakfast? It's not a breakfast, but everybody. Tell us about traditional
Ghanaian breakfast because we've had a Seth Gilmore on the podcast and he spent time training in
Thailand, a Tiger Mu Thai and just let us know kind of like the typical breakfast routine in Thailand.
I kind of want to see like, if you were, let's say a middle-class person in Ghana, if that exists.
Okay. No, no. Relatively to this area. I don't know any middle-class. I didn't mean to say that
way. That's insensitive, but I just more meant like, I don't want to talk about like the extremely
poor or the extremely rich. In Africa, you know how there's middle-class and the small class,
almost there's none like that. Yeah. It's almost like in your neighborhood, it's almost like
everybody's poor and there's not one rich guy with that big house over there. I don't want to know
what that guy is. I want to know what you guys. Yes. So it's like that. So there's no middle.
Is that right? That's kind of why I noticed that when I said that I was like, wait a minute,
that's more here. I'm sure there's middle, but we don't see them a lot of them.
Because in Africa, anytime you have a little, all the poor ones, we're going to come to you
and take from you. So if you're in the middle and you're doing better, you need to hide it and pretend
as if you're part of the poor. Some people do that. Yeah. Or else everybody's just going to come and
take, take from you. Sure. Sorry. I lost. No, you're fine. Just traditional Ghanaian breakfast.
So I'm not going to say the poor, the rich ones. The traditional is porridge. Porridge. Okay.
The easiest name I can say is called cocoa. Cocoa and then there's a, um, like this.
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
porridge with a, oh, it's the coce is almost like a donut. Oh, okay. It's not a donut, but it's a
coce. It's not a donut, but it's heavy, but it's almost like a, like a denser bread. And then they
fry it. Ooh, fried bread. Yes. So when you, and then you put, um, like, uh, I'm trying to,
I'm trying to remember what the name, uh, wow. Nuts. So, okay. Nuts. Yeah. You'll put nuts and sugar
in the porridge. Okay. And then they stir it up. So you eat that. Take a bite of the bread and then
you put a porridge. Oh, you guys are making me hungry. Again. Yeah. I'm so sorry. This is the
worst possible time to be interviewing the UFC fighters during this. Especially for our podcast.
So for me, that, that a lot of us, that's our, because when you get up, it's already set up on
the street. There's a lot of vendors that go and get out of your house. There's the porridge ladies
sitting over there. So everybody, your father will send you over there. Your mom will send you.
You've got a lot of porridge and bring it home. Have a feast. Yes. I'm going to have,
that sounds really good. I'd like to try that for sure. All right guys. We got some good and
wrap you up for today. Uh, uh, thank you again. I appreciate, uh, you, uh, stopping by and giving
us your time, uh, much luck to you and everything that you do. Um, definitely we will be watching
you and cheering on for you. And, and, uh, and, uh, I think you're our new favorite fighter.
Thank you. Thank you. Hopefully after this fight, I'll find, we'll talk to Kevin. We'll come back
and have an audience. That way I can go into details. You can ask me more how I lived. Yeah.
So you're welcome. You're welcome. Anytime. Anytime you have anything to promote or if you
have something to say. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you. And I'll say, you know, I don't
watch UFC much because I just felt that interesting to me unless I have some kind of, yeah,
emotional connection. So every fight he has, I'll watch that. Yeah. Uh, we did, uh, we did a,
like a simulcast during Noche UFC and Kevin joined us and we went for like four hours watching the
USA was just by the end of it. We were just so tired. That is the kind of part after this fight
you need to do kind of long. Yeah. Let's do a fight companion. Yes. Yeah. We can, I've never
shared, like I was doing a podcast for myself, like a sub podcast to talk. Sure. So I was going
to share a little bit of my story. Yeah. Right. On, on it, on my video, I feel like it'd be nice.
People saying that instead of me just sitting there talking. Yeah. Because even the story I
told you about going to all African games, if I told you the stuff that happened, the full story,
I was sitting in a kiosk like they say like this with my back and there's a drunkard driving and
he drove right into a chaos. You run me over inside the kiosk. In the middle of you trying to
compete? No, I was sitting down. I was actually praying. Oh. And then in a car, he took someone's
car and drove the car right through this stall and he hit me. I was under the car like this.
Good Lord. You see this? Yeah. This, and I had one huge one. Yeah. Still have the road burns.
I had all this car when I was qualifying for all African games. It wasn't a fresh, fresh, fresh.
This is what I did before I went to the competition. I took some old clothing
and I ripped them and then I tied them on my thigh. I tie one here and I tie one here. I told myself,
don't look, go and fight. I fought my whole match until the finals. I finished and then I took my
gear off. When I took my gear off, you see this? The whole skin has peeled off. You can literally
see my white flesh. My whole white, especially this corner. It went so deep. The blood is just.
Goodness. I didn't give a shit. I'm going to all African games. I'm going to make a hundred dollars.
Yes. Yeah. I will cut and make that hundred dollars.
We'll talk more hopefully. Yeah. Can't wait to talk about that again. Thank you very much for
joining us. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, we have a phone number at 682-294-0101.
I was awoken this morning to a Gene voicemail. That will be right at the top of this podcast.
If you know and love Gene, he's checked in with us this morning. We also have an email address.
It's breakfastofchampspod at gmail.com. We're also on social media. Once again, thank you very much.
Razak, is that what you would like to be addressed as? Razak. Razak. I figured that
that I've seen and heard a lot of people. Thank you, Razak. I appreciate you.
Thank you for opening up your Fort Worth flow and being the third co-host today.
Give us a call if you need something and we'll see you next week. Bye bye.