The expectation of winning or the motivation, you shouldn't have any outside motivation if you're gonna do this. You should already have that drive to just, I wanna fight people. I wanna win. I wanna be the best that I can absolutely be. Yeah.

If there's if you're only gonna have that motivation because somebody new came into your life, you shouldn't be here. Like, you're like, I wanna be the best, and you should have that internal motivation.

Welcome to the Fuel Hunt Show. What's going on, Eagles? Welcome to the fuel hunt show. I'm Joey, and I'm joined as always by my cousin and cofounder Drew. Today, we have 2, count them, 1, 2 special guests on the show.

First time. Right? We've had 4 people simultaneously on the show.

Yeah. Cousins and brothers. I'm saying.

Look at that. Right? So I couldn't think of a better duo. We have Chris and Kyle Daugas here with us today. And astutely, yes, we're cousins.

They're brothers.

Let's do it. Yeah.

Yeah. Look at that. Thank you for coming in today, guys.

It's, it's

a pleasure to have you on the show. Chris, you've been on the show, actually, every show that we've ever done because you're it's likeness. Right. My face. Right?

Not the first time.

Yeah. You've also traveled the country with us. All the events that we do, you come with us. You know what

I mean?

So it's part of our

That's a it was

a fire

photo shoot, didn't it? Nick Bessie. Shout out Nick.

Shout out Nick. I think you introduced me to Nick originally.

I think we did. Yeah.

Because he shot you guys, and he said and you said, hey. Like, he really wants to work with you or whatever.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So that was all through through this case.

That was the day you learned about the Philly knot. You had no not known what the Philly knot was before.

About the Philly knot? Yeah. I

That's right. Yeah.

I didn't know about the philly knot.

Oh, it's like a hoodie knot? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's a philly thing?

Okay.

Philly knot. It's hard for me to admit. Yeah.

It's very difficult for me to admit. Is there That that

actually, like, blew me away that you didn't know

about the

philly knot.

Is there a possibility that there's, like, a it's because the age gap?

I believe it's a it's a Northeast Philly thing from predominantly. Probably. Yeah.

But I grew up in a Northeast.

You didn't grow. You're a kind of

a Northeast

yeah. But you're, like, kind of a Northeast guy. But, like, when did you move out of, Fox Chase?

Well, Fox Chase is northeast.

We don't consider

No. It does that doesn't count. What?

No. I don't think

I mean,

I don't think it's out there.

Like, I was I was in Mayfair when

I was in Mayfair.

Yeah. Yeah. Fuck.

In the heart of the heart of Northeast. Yeah.

You might as well have been in the suburbs. The burners. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. Especially when he he it's only when he was there, that was like Yeah.

This is an identity crisis. That. Shit. This is an identity crisis.

We're like,

we don't claim you.

Yeah. Definitely not. Alright.

So then I'm gonna have stick with, like, Nice Town, North Philly.

You would say Philly. Kensington.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

I'll stick with that side of that.

But when I learned of the of the Philly knot, like, the we were doing it in Mayfair. Like, that was, like, back in the day. Like, Mayfair.

I always just knew that that was a thing. But are you guys, age?

How old are you guys?

I'm I'll be 35 this month.

I'm 31. Okay.

I'm 33. So we're on the same.

Yeah. So

Where do you think it was was I think it was a tie an age gap thing.

Probably. Northeast? Catholic. North you were North Catholic?

Yeah. But I went to North Catholic and then graduated from Judge because my senior year,

it closed.

You closed. Yeah.

Were you in I mean, this is

were you

in grade?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, shit. I didn't know. Not. You guys are much I think

he wait.

I think

he might be a year below me.

He he, he graduated from Judge too. I don't know if it was late.

I graduated in 11.

Antsywick, Brianna's husband.

Yes.

That's Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So I know you guys with North Carolina.

D one wrestling.

Yeah. That we could have been d one.

Yeah. Wrestling.

So explain the Philly knots since we're we're talking about

the I mean, basically, it's when you tie the of a pullover hoodie, you tie the the knot into a little nice little bow

and Yeah.

It's roughly knots. You can't see in the picture.

But Yeah.

So I'm I'm gonna go with since I'm 42, I'm gonna go with the fact that it's just like an

age old.

And maybe it just maybe

it just developed later, and I was already out. I don't know.

No. It could be.

I was like, what? We didn't wear many hoodies. It was all, like, white t shirts.

That's

that's all we wore. And Tim's.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

We I feel like I feel like we all have that phase, though. You guys I we are. Chris is like, I never had that phase. Never had

a white t a white t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t. Yeah. You did. No. I like Kel might have, but I I didn't I there's some photos floating around Kel.

You'll you'll see that. She's got the white t t's all t t t t.

Yeah. And the and the and the golden back.

Yeah. Listen. Yeah. Well, I'm not gonna say anymore. I love my wife.

I know.

I love I love that she is she is got rid of that.

It's too early

in the show to be getting it.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. My photos will be blow up. It's too early in the

show. Early in the show.

It's a good thing to say live,

I'll be honest. It's a good thing to say live.

Go with this.

So, yeah, like I said, you've you've you've been on the show with us, every show since the very beginning. Right? You were you were over there in the middle of them to change sets, but, you're here. So, you share that, that throne with Shane. Shane sitting behind you.

So we had him on. His likeness has been on every show too, which is cool. The community knows you guys well. They know your accolades. What we wanna talk about is the come up because this wasn't easy.

Right?

I mean, it

never is. It looks easy after it's done, but, it wasn't easy. And that's what our community really relates to. So, we'll talk a little bit about that. You know, growing up, had gotten to the game.

What's it like being brothers in the game? What's it like being dads in the game? Anything else?

No. We

should probably just address the elephant in the room that we're also well, I'll give you flowers, which I've which I've done before, but thank you both for getting me involved in jiu jitsu because it wasn't for you too. I wouldn't have started. And, I know for you guys, it was probably just like, we'll just invite this dude, to come in to get his ass kicked. But for me, it meant much more, and it's it's literally changed my life. And I I sound like a walking blue belt probably when

I say

that, but, it has,

you know, on many

levels. My life. Yeah.

Yeah. On many levels, it's it's really changed my outlook and how I approach life. So thank you.

Of course.

For for that. Of course. So we're teammates at at Martinez, BJJ, not too far from here, Frankfurt and Codman in Philly, and, Tuesday's now.

The Dreds. The Dreds. He's

joined the he's joined the dark side?

Yeah. I'm in the room with you guys.

I've joined the dark side. So on, Tuesday Thursday, there are there are 2 rooms at Martinez. One room is gi. One room is no gi. It just so happens that in the no gi room, there are humans that are significantly larger and more skilled than on the key side.

So I've joined so I've joined the dark side on Tuesdays, and, I've I've started training with the guys here.

Oh, just Tuesdays.

He can't make it both days.

It's a lot of those things.

Yeah. Well,

I'm okay. I'm doing what I can to make it both days, but I I I do have loyalty to to the other room.

Got it.

So even on Tuesdays, I've been putting the gi on after no gi and going over to the

gi on. Coach on Tuesday's gi as well. He teaches. So you're already is it already you're you're already fucking LaMonde on Tuesdays. You just don't wanna

Oh, yeah. And I'm here.

And I'm here.

You just don't wanna

do it too. Traitor, Benedict Arnold. You know, I need to be hanged, like, all

all the good stuff. Yeah. All the good stuff

is Just rough.

That's aggressive.

Yeah. That's basic in our

room. Yeah. It's basic. So if if

you wanna come and have a good banter back and forth, definitely come to Tuesday, Thursday, please.

Yeah. Yeah. The interesting thing is in in the on the gi side, it happens before class. On the no gi side, it happens after class.

Oh, yeah.

That's kinda like what I'm learning. Yeah. So, so, yeah, Tuesdays have been, have been amazing, so far. So I'm just gonna put it out there, and if anybody wants to take it and cut on me, they can during the show. But Tuesdays have, have been amazing.

So, let's get into, the come up a little bit with you guys. So your brother's both pros in the fight game. What when did you get your start in jujitsu? Was it MMA first? Like, take the community through the beginnings.

You can help me just yeah. Go ahead.

Well, we're both athletes. We've always kinda played sports growing up.

Yeah.

For me, high school hit. I decided to try wrestling, like, freshman year.

Mhmm.

That lasted about a week. I was like, I'm not really I don't really wanna do this. They said that we needed to be there at 6 AM running running stairs and stuff like that, and I just kinda wasn't for

it. Yeah.

I was weak minded in a in a way thinking about it now. But, yeah, he always drove past a Jim and Fox Chase, for college that he went to. And, finally, they made the jump, went over to it, told me about it. Adi was like he described passing the guy's guard. He was like, I threw my I threw the guy's legs one way.

Yeah.

Tried to go the other way, and he magically, like, spun and was still in front of him. And I was like, what is this dude talking about? Like, what's going on here? So, yeah, I decided to join up, fell in love with it. Obviously, we watched fights growing up.

But, yeah, that's how I started. At least he Yeah. He he got me into it.

It was pretty much the same thing. After high school, going to Penn State, it was you know, like you said, we were athletes playing sports in high school. I didn't had that void going into college. So I was driving past MMA gym, and it was literally, like, 3 years I was, like, driving past this place. I was like, I'll eventually go there.

And then it was like this one week, I bought, like, shorts,

and I was

like they showed up at my house, and I'm like, alright. I gotta go. Now I gotta go.

Because I'm like, what am

I gonna wear these shorts for? You know? That, like, there were black sprawl shorts with, like, the sprawl was, like, yellow. Sprawl.

The basic yeah.

The the basic, like, everyone's OG shorts. So I was like, alright. So I just showed up, and that was pretty much it. And it was just from there on out, that's what I did. That's what everything was supposed to be.

Yeah.

Actually, before so a funny story. Before you you actually even signed up at any gym Yeah.

I remember that.

My mom lived, down on Delaware Ave or up on Delaware Ave by Maggie's Waterfront. And we had a we had a nice sized basement, with carpets and stuff. So we would actually train and roll in the basement. Yeah. Alright.

Just us. Yeah. And, like, one of my buddies, my buddy Mike would come up. Before we even attempted to train,

we were just Okay. Pause

it on, like Yeah.

We're watching watching UFC fights and stuff like that. We're like, yeah.

We could do this.

So we started rolling in the in the basement and stuff.

Not punching it?

No. No. Strictly jujitsu. Yeah. And we heard about Grappler's Quest.

Grappler's Quest is like a famous,

Yeah.

Grappling tournament back in the day. Mhmm. And, there was one in Lancaster. Yeah. And we decided to sign up for it.

With no training.

With Well, no. There was training.

There was training in baseball. So it was it was nothing like It

was us. No.

We never we never went, like, a little d camera and something like that.

Yeah. There was we were putting in rounds. Right? Don't think Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So we talked to my mom. We were like, hey. Like, there's a grappling tournament coming up in Lancaster. And she said, what is grappling?

Like, what is this? And we're like, it's kinda like wrestling on the ground.

Yeah.

Like, we wanna go do it if you don't mind, you know, driving us. She drove us. Hell, that's me. That's kinda how it kicked off.

Hell, were you?

I'm 31.

Hell, at the time. Sorry.

At the time, I was

16, 13, 16, 15, 16.

And how did that Grabhorse Quest go?

There was only 1 guy in my division Yeah. And I lost. But, you know Out of

the out of

the match? Out of the match? I think I lost on points. Okay. I think he, like, mounted me, and I was bad.

I think I lost on points.

That was

probably Yeah.

It wasn't it wasn't the test or the rounds you were getting.

Yeah. Dude. Yeah.

I was used to and back in, like, back then, I was, like, I was huge. So I was, like, I was, like, 250 myself.

Oh, really?

So at

the time,

I was in that as well.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Same thing, really. I'd showed up the division. It was, like, one dude, maybe another, like, 2 dudes. Still medaled.

So

Yeah. Still medaled. Still medalled. Still medalled.

How was How was that, Chris? I was like, damn. Still metal.

I was

like, what? You got silver that day?

Yeah. Yeah. There's only 2 guys in there.

So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was either, like, maybe That

was it. I was like, oh, it's not too bad.

Oh, it's amazing. You would stack the deck in your hand. Yeah.

Do you still have them? You still

have them? I'll probably not.

Crap. Maybe. Maybe not.

They're probably

I mean, when you have the I I feel like that. Yeah. The crab is

west. Maybe. Yeah.

Oh, listen. I my so I don't I don't really tell anybody this, but, like, my CFFC belts

Yeah.

Are in my garage in, like, a Tupperware case.

Like yeah.

I I mean, I'm not Yeah. I don't really keep them.

But I think maybe that's I mean, that's your mindset, though, too. The mindset

that you

guys have. Like, it's Yeah. Always forward. Right? Like, you know, never done.

You know what I mean?

So it's like,

you know The the college you were driving to, Chris, is that Ben to Abington? Ben

to Abington. Yep.

We're driving Ben's Gym on Road Street.

Is that Yeah.

It's Semper Fi. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

So that's

where I started too. Yeah.

It's where we started at Semper Fi. So, like, we started, like like, no one, like, knows about it or talks about it. Like, we sat we started with, like, Danielle Kelly. Yeah. Like, Sean Brady.

Yeah. Oh, they everyone was in that room at one time.

That's it's wild to think. Yeah. The level of grappling and MMA that came from that gym.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like, it's absolutely insane.

Like, we started there, Sean, Danielle. Like, we were training with Joey when we were gone. Like, when we decided to start, like, fighting Mhmm.

We would

go down the balance and, like, this was years ago. All the guys who are, like, the pros then when we were amateurs, they were all at balanced studios on Sunday's farm.

Yeah. And

it was, like, people, like,

Tim Williams. That room at Sunday's.

Yeah. Tim Williams, Timmy Carpenter. Yeah.

Like, Sam Ambrose and

Dan Ambrose

and Sam Morpizo.

Like, everyone who was, like, in Bellator, like, in the tournaments, like, that's where they were going. They were. Like, we were training. We're like and then Joey was there too. So, like, we've known Joey since he was, you know, 15 years.

Yeah. Yeah. We've known Joey for that that long.

Wow. You're right. It's it's like everybody sees, you know, what you've done. They see the now

Yeah.

And they forget, like Yeah. That that that it not only was it difficult, but it was long. Yeah. Like, it was a

long, grueling road. I hated going out of balance Yeah. Because I was

Sunday's always

it was like I was a bigger kid. So the people that we were going with were, like, heavyweights and Mhmm. Like, light heavyweights, but they were, like, pros who were fighting for a $1,000,000 in the Bellator Tournament. So they're not taking any, like, rounds off. And you're just, like, some kid who's, like, yeah.

I wanna, like, fight conditioning

is probably different than Yeah.

And they're, like, whooping your ass. The I'm I'll never forget. 1st my first round was against Timmy Carpenter. And he hit me with, like, 1, 2, and ripped the body and then literally judo threw me and literally, like, hit me on the mat. And I'm looking up at the mat at the ceiling, and I'm like, I've never experienced anything like that.

I I had to take the rest of the round off. He'd not like, first time I ever been dropping a body shot, like, it was the the worst feeling ever. Yeah. Yeah.

No. That's that's that's

that's a testament to, like, where we are now.

Like Yeah. Yeah.

We've seen those guys, and I I've said this all the time. Like, my head coach, Juan Martinez, was in a Belgian tournament training, like, when we first started. So these guys were you know, they had a set squad that was training, so they've, like, really instilled, like, the hard work and and dedication that you need to get to where they were. That kinda showed us,

their where we could do

it in the path. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Way.

Like, at the gym now, we have guys that are kinda where we were when we first started, and they see us kinda as we saw them. Mhmm. So it's it's kinda

At Brookwood's point in that journey from, like, Semper Fi to the balanced, era, like, were you guys, like, okay. I wanna take this more seriously and go be in that and, like, get those crazy rounds and and try and take this to the next level. Like like, what happened in your guys' lives or heads that you're like, okay. We're gonna take this more seriously. Because, like, that's gotta be tough to go get your fucking ASB by Tim Carpenter.

Like Yeah.

It sucked.

Like, at what point what drove you to wanna take it to the next level? You know what I mean? Like, to these

me, really, it was just like I I just wanted to at least have one fight. Like, at the time, I was 2010. For me, it was, like, 20. I was still in college, still kinda, like, up in the air. Like, I didn't know what I was, like, doing in life, and I'm like, alright.

Let me just, like, take a fight, and then

we'll see.

Just see what happened.

Like he said, head coach Will Martinez was like, if you're gonna do this, you have to, like, dedicate a year. Like, I don't want you to just be, like

Yeah.

Willy nilly just going in there and you get your ass beat Yeah. Some some hurt, you know, whatever. So I was like, alright. I'll I'll take a year. Mhmm.

In the meantime, I signed up for the police academy. I decided to do that. And then during that year, 2011, I go into the police academy in, like, August, and I took my first fight, my first amateur fight. Before or something. It was literally the week before.

Like, me and my dad didn't speak because of that because he's like, you're taking a fight a week before you go in the police academy. Like, what happens if you, like, break your hand, you break your foot, something happens? Like so we didn't speak for a while about that. But,

firstly how

it lined up.

Yeah. That's just that's that's literally how it happened. It was like, alright. We finally Were you

were you a year into that promise with Will? Yeah.

Yeah. It was yeah. It was it was right at,

like So this is how it, like, all

lined up? It's literally just how it's lined up. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So

For me, like, when I started, I knew, like, not that I knew, but, like, my main goal was I always saw myself being in the UFC and fighting in the UFC, like, when I first started. And I I, like, told my mom that from the very beginning. I thought everybody that I knew from the very beginning that that's what I wanted to do. Yeah. So it's something that's always kind of I had a like like a feeling that, like, I can do that.

Mhmm.

And that

that's where my start like, growing up, like, as far as, like, work and stuff like that, I worked maybe maybe 3 jobs for, like, a month. I worked at Sesame Place for a month. I saw Christmas trees for, like, 2 weeks, and I did some landscaping here and there. But that's about it. Every my whole life has been fighting ever since I started.

You figured out a way to support yourself

Yeah.

Through jiu jitsu and Yeah. And I don't know. Exactly.

Yeah.

And that's what I tell everyone too. That's, like, you don't have to just get a job, just get a job. But you can find ways to support yourself Mhmm. Through doing what you love. Like, there's there's always

You know, it ain't always gonna be pretty.

Yeah. Exactly. But the

the ability to do what you love, I think Mhmm. Helps you smooth over all the rough edges and all the Yeah. You know, rough stuff it takes to provide for yourself while you're doing it.

Yeah. We have that feeling when you have that feeling it's gonna pay off in the end Yeah. It makes that much better.

Yeah. Yeah.

For sure.

For sure. What so what sports did you play growing up?

Literally everything.

Like Okay.

So every all year round k. It was soccer.

Organized and unorganized.

Yeah. It was just soccer, football, basketball, baseball, whatever is whatever time of year it was, whatever sport is that time of year, that's pretty much what we were playing.

I gotcha.

Our main thing was lacrosse, though. Yeah. Oh, we're just in high school.

Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I was just saying about the North wrestling thing. I wrestled for, for Wood, and North would always win everything all

the time.

Like and I swear it was I always say this to people, like, the reason they're they won everything, they were fucking up at 6 AM running stairs when we were when

we were

all way back.

Running stairs before school and

then probably afterwards. They were the coach Savage Savage was

the guy.

I was

like, he was, like, fucking I don't know where he's at now, but, like, he was it. And he he

had a might be at Wood now.

Real no. Really?

He I think he's he wasn't the last

thing I heard. He was coaching at

the judge or teaching

at the judge.

Judge. Yeah.

But then he got a job, I I think, at the border somewhere else. Oh, that's wild.

That's crazy. Yeah. That's cool. So yeah. I mean, was about to get a new wrestling program,

but Yeah.

Yeah. Dude, they were putting in fucking work. Yep. That is yeah.

That's I

think it's what they were mostly known for. Like, Eddie Alvarez wrestled

that Yeah.

Wrestled at North. Yep. Like, they have a they had a lot of good guys from there.

It's so interesting that you gave it a go, and you were like, this isn't for me.

Yeah.

It was literally it was weird. Like, it was literally, like, a

weakness idea.

It's Like, my I call I I still I to this day, I still remember getting the worst weird feeling in my stomach in the parking lot at wrestling, talking to my dad, being like, I don't wanna do this anymore.

Yeah.

Like, this this is what I wanna do. And he was like, well, you can't quit. He was like, I don't want you to quit it. And I was like, okay. Well, I'm quitting.

He's

like, I'm out here.

I'm out here.

How long was that again that you, like, tried it out?

Like, a week?

Literally a week. Oh, yeah. I think it was I think it was an accumulation of, like, 5 days altogether.

That's that's really how it is. It was like, some random kid by my friend and I was like, yo. I'm doing the workout. Like, I'm doing the workout. The the the off season workouts.

Like, we'd go

in the

room and, like, figure it out. And, like, he ended up not doing it, and I ended up staying. Like, I don't know why. Like, I wasn't a a mentally dialed in kid at the time, but, like, I just, for some reason, just stayed. And, like, I I well, like, 12 and 12 my senior year, but, like, it wasn't great.

But, like, I think being in that room at that time in my life, like, did a lot for me.

Yeah. Like

Yeah. Yeah. So you guys you guys grappling in the basement.

Do you think do you think

that because it was the both of you as brothers doing that together, that that kind of, I don't know, gave you extra incentive or enjoyment out of the grappling aspect of things since you wanted nothing to do with the wrestling?

To be honest, I don't know what the difference was between it because I think I trained harder now. I think I trained harder when I started training jiu jitsu than I did

Yeah.

Than I would have when I was training in wrestling.

Yeah.

Like, when I started in high school, all when I was in in class, all I could think about was training. Training. Training. Training. Training.

And he was there, and I was like, alright. Well, I have somebody here who who will be here the whole time.

Yeah.

Like, he he wasn't he wasn't working at the time or anything like that, so he was here. He was an an accountable, you know, training partner that I had Mhmm. That and we had a basement. I can just be like, yo. Let's go downstairs.

We'll train a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. Was that, like, every day?

I can't imagine the dog rounds that we're having between 2 teenage But we were

white belts all the time. Yeah. It's fine. If you look back on

me, that's fine. It's probably, like, stop. Just walk. Yeah. It's that's

what I'm saying. The 2 teenage white belt dog is brothers. You guys probably just fucking

Yeah. Any,

No technique whatsoever.

No. No.

No. Any injuries or anything to report from those early days between the 2

of you?

No. You haven't been shippers?

Yeah. No. Nothing. Maybe a

little rug burn. That's about it.

Yeah. Nothing nothing to do with that.

No. No.

It was just carpet. There was a carpet. It was it was very a concrete floor. There was a there was a carpet on top, and that was it.

Like a 12 by 12.

It was literally. That's it. Yeah. That's it. That's all it was.

That's amazing, man.

I mean Start from the basement.

Yeah. This is the A lot of good things. Lot of

good things coming from the basement. A lot of good things starting in the basement, So, you, had the first fight go.

I won 1st round rear naked choke.

Okay.

Yeah. So that was the first amateur flight.

That was a CFFC amateur flight?

No. That was a locked no.

No.

What was it? XFE? Locked in the it wasn't locked in the cage?

No. It might have been locked in the cage or something like that. Yeah.

Yeah. There's been so many Yeah.

There's so many And they're gonna be

around it. Over the years. I think it was locked in a cage. It was literally the amateur rounds are 2 minutes. So, like, we came out Oh, yeah.

A little bit. He threw, like, a body kick. I caught it, took him down. He, like, rolled his back, and I ran into choke, but no hooks. It was literally just right on his neck and tapped down.

That was

it. Damn. Yeah.

So what's the feeling like going then into the academy

after I didn't wanna do it.

That win.

So I just wanted the fight. Like, that is the greatest Yeah. Feeling ever is winning a a fist

fight. In your hand, miss.

Yeah. There there's nothing that compare like, nothing compares to it. Yeah. And and any level, like, whether it's your first fight or the UFC, there there's nothing that compares

to it. Like, the the amateur first amateur fight might have felt, like,

maybe just bad.

Maybe just bad. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly.

I I I literally got in the back. I was like, I'm I'm never not gonna do this again. I'm totally doing this

again. That's it.

Like, my dad came in the back. He's like, oh, did you get that out of your system? I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Totally.

Yeah. Until until the

next one. Yeah.

Totally, dude.

For today. Yeah. For today.

Until I get out of the academy, and then I could just continue to

keep doing it. Yeah.

And how long how long did you end up being a cop for?

10 years. Wow. 10 years on 25th, so it's, like, 10 minutes down the road. Is

and you were fighting the whole time?

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Fighting the whole time.

When you were in the academy, you couldn't fight? No. Did you take amateur fights when you were

Nah. The was it, like, a 6 month Next question. They had a 6

month was,

like, 6 months ago.

Yeah. The academy was

I think they extended

it to, like, 8 months. Yeah. And literally the last 2 months was us watching movies. Yeah. It was really, like, watching, like, cop movies.

Like, maybe, like, well, you're done everything for, like, the state exam and then you'd be, like, yeah.

You'd Police academy?

Police academy, like, heat,

like, all those, like, cosmopolitan. It it's it's I don't know. It's a

Philadelphia police department. Yeah. Well, now we

know what the police department. Yeah. It's training is like.

Yeah. But no. It was it was great. And then might have taken a fight here or there in the academy or out of the academy

and whatever.

Sure. Sure. Sure.

You know, I always use my own time. I never Yeah. Ask for any kind of handouts or anything. Yeah. Always Yeah.

Always got hurt. If I got hurt, I got hurt at work. So,

Yeah. Yeah. I got you. I got you.

It was was it, copacetic to be doing it while you were an officer, though?

Yeah. As long as, like, you you got a cool supervisor,

like Yeah.

Yeah. It was cool. Like, I always had cool supervisors. That's why they give you sick time to Sure. Make sure that you can use your sick time.

Yeah. The only bad thing is normally flights are Friday or Saturday nights, and Friday or Saturday nights in the 25th district is not the quietest places. Yeah. So it's, I mean, one, you're not gonna miss 1 cop, but if, like, I'm not there and then, like, another person calls you out with, like, a family emergency, then it's

I need all those you just sell those tickets to

your family.

The thing,

like, growing like, he would sell tickets. I wouldn't sell any tickets, and the promoters would be like, yo. What's you need to sell tickets.

And I'm like, all my friends are cops.

Like Yeah.

Never working. Like

My friends are at work where I'm at work.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's

like my whole squad can't be off and, like, you know what I mean?

So So

well Did

you ever feel the weight of not being at work for your squad while you were fighting? Or is that something that, like, you you're so mission focused on the

fight, man? It was it was really it was really that. I mean, the only time I ever felt that was like I was on vacation I wanna say. When So doing the

riots or something like that?

Not even not even doing the riot. When, the 15th street job, Broad and Erie, they, Yeah. Everything is narcotics units. Ended up hitting the house, staying up, getting trapped inside the house. There was, like, 3, 4 narcotics units that

I remember that. Trapped in the house.

Right at 15th and

Broad Street.

And I would have been parking, but I was on vacation. Like, I just on vacation, like, hanging out at my house, like, a staycation. Like, me and my wife didn't have any plan or anything. So we're like, alright. We're just gonna hang out.

And I was like, I'm gonna go to work. And she's like, you're not going to work. And I'm like

Did you?

I'm gonna no. I didn't. Because at that point, by the time I noticed I I was told about it. It was, like, 2 hours later.

Yeah.

So how that happens is, like, if the major event happens, which if you're not there within, like, 5 minutes, you're you're

just gonna be,

like, pulling perimeter duty and just, like, hanging out. So For sure.

So you said after that first fight, you got that feeling of, like, I'm never not doing this. Yeah.

I'm yeah. I'm

Were you all so I with entrepreneurship and, like, when coaching people and whatnot, I'm telling them, like, you're gonna get to this point in your career where you're, like, having success in one area and in your side hustle, which is which is funny at the time. And then you're gonna be, like, fuck this what I'm doing. Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah.

At the and, like so did you almost, like, have that feeling of discount or, like, disdain or, the the harsh words, but, like, that those feelings, like, from the moment you started, like, all the those 10 years, you're kinda, like, damn, I really wanna be doing this the whole time.

The like, going through the academy was awesome. Graduating is that's what I wanted to do. And then it was, like, the fighting was, like, still, like, whispering in the back of my head. Like Yeah. It's like, yo.

You wanna fight? Like, let's fight. And then it's like then it came a point in time where it's like, I'm no longer like, it was more so of, like, I'm being a police officer to pay my bills so that I can focus on fighting when I'm not at home or when I'm not at work. Yeah. That's it was like I so I didn't have any kinda, like

I can't imagine Yeah. So, like, the bullshit that you guys put up with the the the 25th district. Like Oh, man. Yeah. You're like, dude.

Like, who knows?

You're adult. I'm I was a 22 year old kid fixing 45 year old people's adult problems when they should be able to figure

it out themselves. Exactly. Yeah.

Like, if you guys are a married couple and, like, you can't figure out why you can't be in the same room, well, I don't that's not my problem. They just figure it out. Like, stop calling. Like, go go do some go take a walk. Go go do something.

You know

what I mean?

And, yeah, I the all the time, bro, like, I I just be fighting. Like Yeah.

It's like I can be a trainer. Like, he's like, I'm going to the gym. And he's he's like, oh, it was a really good time. We were at such and such's place and, yo, he came by. It was a really good round.

And I'm like, and I gotta deal with this dude who's, you know Yeah. Upset because this girl took his dog, and now he's out here creating a problem. Yeah. Like, that's just that's how it was.

So how long after you got into it, like, got your first amateur fight did did you, Kyle?

I think we were supposed to fight on the

same side. We're supposed to fight on the same side. Okay. But unfortunately, something happened with my opponent or something.

You got hurt or you got I think

you misweighed or something. I don't know. The typical amateur stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then I took a fight. I actually lost. I was actually I was o and 2, I think I started. No. I'm sorry.

I wanna say I was, like, 1 in 3 in my first four fights. Wasn't the best, obviously. I started out we're gonna like I said before, I was, like, 250. Yeah.

But you're also fighting the wrong

weight class. I was fighting at the wrong weight class.

Like, that's

all that it was.

You were fighting the heavyweight race car?

When I first started, I think the heaviest I was was 260 Yeah.

I can imagine what are you now? 19?

Right now, I'm, like, 212, 215. I walk around that, but I fight at 185 now. Yeah. So Yeah. I know something had to change, obviously, from the very beginning.

Mhmm.

I wasn't really, like it wasn't, like, that I couldn't compete with the guys. Yeah.

They

would just lie on me, and they were just that much stronger because they were heavyweights. And I wasn't I wasn't that built in that frame or anything that I was kinda just a fat kid. But, again, you know, I stuck with it. I dieted down. I started fighting 85.

And then when I went to 85, I was undefeated.

Yeah.

So I was like, alright. Well, I should probably just stay 85.

And then

I turned pro and then kinda just took off from there.

That's crazy.

Yeah. Did we talk about the the what what took you from jiu jitsu to to fighting them? Was there, like, did we talk about that? No.

I mean, I I always wanted to I've always wanted to fight.

That was your that was your thing for

Yeah. And I remember him telling me or and and coach my coach Will telling me that, like, you have to train jiu jitsu in order to get better at fighting. And I was like, what is this dude talking about?

Like That always been Plexus doing, like, in MMA that guys just completely disregard jujitsu, and it's such, it's clearly such it's mixed martial arts. Like, you need to have a good again, I'm not a I'm casual, but, like,

you Obviously.

Like, I just see so many guys, like, like, disregard and just only wanna strike. I'm like, oh my god. You're clearly unmatched by by all these other guys in your division because of the fact that they have jiu jitsu.

Yeah. And a lot of guys, like, when I I was younger, so I was like, I want to use jiu jitsu to get better, MMA. Like, no. I just wanna punch and kick people.

Like, I

just wanna fight. That's about it. Yeah. I didn't realize how much went into, like, jujitsu and wrestling and, like, cage wrestling, wall work, whatnot, and striking and trying to mix it all together.

Yeah. Did you guys get on, like, fist fights as kid? Like like, teenagers, like

Literally been in one altercation my entire life outside of the gym. Yeah.

And I got into, like, a shopping contest with

my buddy with this kid in the 5th grade. So it's, like, nothing too crazy.

So what's that? Like Nothing

nothing too wild or

what's going on there.

We literally had a next door neighbor. He was we would literally share a side yard. We would fight, like, every day.

Yeah. They would. Like, literally,

like, fist fight every day. Like, we'd be playing hockey, and he'd be like, this fight. Yeah. Yeah. That's

a I would my my one fight story is Chris Ryzeck. Yeah. Yeah. How do you know

Ryzeck? Matt, it's Mayfair.

Okay. But we're friends now.

We put

together as adults. Like I I he

was in my squad.

Yeah. We're, like, great friends now. But our but we were always we're friends. Our my only fight was in, like, the 5th grade when we were fighting with the he, wear your Eagles jersey to school day. And I had the white numbers, and he had the the green numbers.

Yeah. And, like, all your reviews was fake. And, like, it ended up in a fight. I was like, I'm pretty sure he won. Yeah.

But he

was just, like, funny. Like, that was, like, the only fighting experience I have. But, again, another great Philly cop.

Yeah. Yeah. That guy is insane.

Yeah. Most most of you guys are.

Just a little

bit. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta be a little bit insane.

What, so what was it like you know, there came to a point where you said, I wanna leave the department.

Yeah. Right? So what was what

was that like? What was that?

I was, like, I was, like, up in the air because I was, like, well, what? I was up in the air internally about, like, do I wanna leave? Can I still make this work, like Mhmm? As doing a full time thing? Like, do I try and get a position, like, inside the department where I'm not, like, on the street answering Yeah.

35 radio calls every Friday Saturday night? Like Mhmm. Like, some nights, like, you're just not stop going. And if you're you get stuck in a scene, you do 12 hours, whatever it is.

Yeah. So it

was kinda, like, at a point where I'm like, am I gonna do this and try and get, like, a cushy job or, like, it's an inside job, and it's kinda, like, a Monday through Friday thing, or what am I doing here? So I contacted the pretty much, like, downtown. I wrote them a 3 page memo about, you know, what the UFC is, what fighting is, how this will be good for the department, how all I wanted was them to just hold my position as a police officer. I didn't want any pay. I didn't want any health benefits.

Yeah. I didn't want anything. I said, I just want you to hold my position as a police officer. And they told me that I had to pick a pick a profession. So I said, okay.

No problem.

Yeah. So They didn't really.

Oh, really?

That's a 100% how that yeah. I was like, I'll I'll do anything. I'll I'll literally give the gun the badge, whatever. If you need me to check-in weekly, if you need me to come do random drug testing, whatever you need me to do, just hold my position as a cop so that I can come back. I don't have to go through a whole another academy.

Mhmm. If you wanna dump my name some place in, like, a closet in center city where you're, oh, yeah. He he works in there. Whatever. I it didn't matter to me.

Yeah. I wasn't asking for a paycheck. I'm not asking for any health benefits. Just hold my spot. And they're like

I didn't

know that I

didn't know that was the case. So you you have no you couldn't go back there. He was like Yeah.

I'm not I'm not going back.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Burn the boat. It's up.

I feel like

I feel like like partially, like, the family always kinda wanted him to stop fighting. I mean, not sorry. Not fighting. Stop being a cop. Yeah.

Yeah.

But I think, like, for him, he was doing so well fighting and being a cop. Yeah.

Yep. He

also loved being a cop too.

Yeah.

So it's like I love being a cop, but I'm also doing well fighting and doing this as well. So, like, if I give one up, like, how's this gonna go? Yeah.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

They're both pretty dangerous.

Your 10 years your 10 years in at that point. Right? Yeah.

Yeah. I was I was right there. Yeah.

So that was Yeah.

Piece of

identity, man.

Yeah. And then, like, you know, going getting into certain situations throughout the 10 years is, when you gotta make call your wife. Yeah. She's not sure what kind of phone call you're gonna be getting. She's kinda happy that I was done with that.

You know, after, like, I think it was the the second phone call, the second or whatever phone call was, she's like, yeah. Like, I can't be make I can't be doing this anymore. Like, the next one's not gonna be this one. You know what I mean? So I'm like, alright.

That eases my my decision a little bit better.

Yeah. So

So far, my this is another side story, but my stepdad, is also a cop. Joe Bell, you you know him, Beau. Yeah. Yeah. He one night recently, I we sat down, like, just, like, by the fire pit.

And I was like, you know what? Like, tell me some stories, like, back then. And, like, I was like, I can't believe I was such an I was such an asshole. Like, as, like, a high schooler, like, the grief I was causing this dude as he was, like, dealing with shit like that. Yeah.

I'm like, oh my god, dude. Like, it's I'm

the worst. Then you have to, like I got good at compartmentalization because of police department.

Yeah.

And it's like, you have to see the worst of the worst, but then you're, like, you have to go home and meet your family. Yeah. I can, like, speak to your wife in, like, a normal Yeah. You know, normal fashion. If you have kids, you have to be, like you have to be that.

I do think it's crazy. Like, you guys are already driving to work and then cortisols, and and there's, like, right or right away through the roof.

Like, you know what I mean?

The matter, like, you have to always be at on a high alert. Yes.

It stays there for the entire time.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I'm sure.

For Kelly, though, like, I mean, you kinda made it easier on her. And then also, like, I came out of watching modern day gladiators, like, go to war.

Like I mean, she's you know?

So, I mean, she kinda she gotta pick her poison. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll never forget. There was I'm literally sitting out in front of her house, and she grew up on LaRue Street down here. And I'm literally sitting out in front of her on the park.

From HQ, man.

Yeah. I'm literally sitting here, and I'm like, I think I'm gonna be a cop. And she's like, okay. And then I was like, but I'm gonna fight too. And then she's like, I'll whatever.

We'll figure it out. And I'm like, okay. I guess we're gonna figure it out. Let's let's go.

Let's go. Yeah.

I was like, we'll figure it out together. And then I guess she didn't realize or I didn't realize what kind of life that this was gonna turn into. You know?

Yeah. I I pass, their old house every day on the way to Martinez. Yeah. And the, I don't know what school that is. I forget the name of it, but

forget what school.

Yeah. Across the street, and we used to place we used to play halfies and

Yeah.

Everything there, man.

I actually just just was reminded that Kelly's your cousin. Yeah. Something like yeah.

Little known fact.

Little known fact is yeah. Little known fact. We're all related. We're all related. We're all related.

It's totally mine doesn't do that.

This is the balance. I mean, it's just, you know, like, any coach here. It's just Yeah.

Yeah. We're big family.

Never forget how how I think we got connected. I was buying stuff from here from you guys.

Yeah. I

mean, your mom Yeah. Was like, what are you doing? Yeah.

And I'm like I'm like,

what do you mean? She's like, just talk to him.

Yeah. I was

like, just talk to

him so you

don't have to, like, wait, like, 4 months for stuff. And I'm like, okay.

I had no I had no clue.

Neither did I.

I had no clue. You didn't know either.

Yeah.

I was I told Jen Stewart.

I remember a picture popped up.

Of course, my mom would know because

she was our number one customer

for the first years.

Yeah. I

remember a whole bunch

of people. Just take care of it. Here. Here. Here.

I remember a picture popped up. I think we reposted it or something. That was you and your son, back in the day.

That's the first one I saw, and I was like, wait a second. What's going on?

You're wearing, like, a t shirt. That's why.

Yeah. Yeah.

Because even even then, even at that time well, no. That is definitely at that time. Like, I was in a big family party goer.

Yeah.

You know, every once in a while, I'd I'd come, but that kinda started fizzling all for me. Let's see.

Same.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Not for any reason other than, like, just time.

Yeah. You know what I mean?

Just time. Yeah. You know?

And that's I feel like you guys probably know too. Like, you have to as you start to take things more seriously and, like, start to rise in your craft, like, and then figure things out. Like, if you want to get to the next level, you have to start saying no. Like, it's

just Yeah. If the

family doesn't realize your stuff, like, yeah, you show up holiday parties, like, oh, you have a job yet?

Yeah. Are you still Yeah.

I'll be having a job.

Doing that, like, things that level job yet?

To the family. Yeah. Always question.

And then I'm like, man, this is, like, 6 Christmases in a row. They're asking me the same stuff over and over again. Yeah.

And I

was like, alright. I'm just think I'm just gonna stop going now.

Yeah. So alright. Going.

There you go.

That's my my best friend, Donnie, is still, like, just dream chasing. He's 33. Like, he's still, like, waiting for the big like, he's having success, but, like, waiting for, like, the big break. And, like,

he goes

he tells me every family party he goes to, they're like, oh, you got a job yet? Like Still doing that? He's like,

I have

I have a job. I I am supporting my I I

I support myself. Yeah. They don't see that because it's different, you know.

Yeah. I really don't understand that about society where they think just going and working for someone else and collecting a salary makes it

Are you talking about a 100 years of that, though? Yeah. Like, it's it's so deeply ingrained in us as humans, like, the conditioning. Mhmm. Like, a 100 years of that, man, since the industrial revolution.

Shut up to

work, punch your car, do your job, get paid, come home, have

a life.

For Kyle, though, for, like, literally, they never, like, I Never conformed? I was I conformed for a little, like

I'm not doing it.

Yeah. Like, that's

been one thing. Am I and, like, you know, have having the mom that was there with with us, like, is is a blessing because when she really, like, told me, she was like, if you're gonna go for this, like, I'll help you out. I'll support you as much as I can. But if you're gonna go for this, you have to go for it.

You have

to go all night.

And I was like, alright. I'll do it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Yeah. My parents weren't

like that.

I I will say, like, for me, like, this obviously, I'm speaking from, like, the entrepreneurial journey side of things. Like, the bones were always super supportive. Yeah. Like, I never got that. Like, I never got to, like, oh, well, you know, why don't you just calm down and don't take risks?

Like, we

got the opposite. Yeah. You know what I mean? My dad was, like, he was always, like, know what you're getting into, but go do it.

Yeah. You know

what I mean? Like, stop and think about what you're doing, but then go do it.

Yeah. You know

what I mean? So I always had a lot of support. Like, what it came down to for me was, like, honestly, man, I was just drained. Like, the game drained so much for me and, like, bowing parties are, like, everybody's cutting on each other. Like, everybody's interacting.

Like, there's so much, like, and it's a beautiful thing, but, like, I was just my batteries

were low.

Like, I couldn't be around it

Yeah.

Asking, answering questions about, like, how business was.

And that

is just it was just too much.

I talked to Kenny about that, Casey, about the it is to help business goes was going. And I'll say, how's it going? Great, dude. We're thriving. Right.

He said,

I always hate when we ask that question. It's like, what do you do? It sucks, dude. Like, do I guess it's a suck.

Do do you wanna, like, do you want a real answer? Real answer? No. That's right. Fucking horrible.

Yeah. He's like, I need to figure this out.

Got his exact words. Like, do we I've got the for you so you could take a look

at 2 hours. He's he's

fucking crazy. Yeah. He's crazy. I I

had that I had that moment, just over the weekend. We had a little family thing for, Everly's birthday, and someone was there that I hadn't seen in a while. And they're genuinely, like, supportive Yeah. Like, what we're doing and curious, like, how things are going. Like, tell me, like, all about it.

Like, what's new? And I'm just, like, everything's good. Like Yeah.

You know what I mean? And it is Yeah.

But it's also, like, you know The most stressful thing. Battle.

No. Yeah.

You know

what I mean? And, like everything ever. On a on a Sunday afternoon, I wanna have, like, my chicken and my non alcoholic beer and just, like, kinda chill.

Chill out.

Yeah. Relax.

Yeah. You know what

I'm saying? Do you and this is back to what we were just talking about. Like, do you think you had made more gains living that life and whereas Chris was work at a job? Like, are you committing full time to fighting?

I I I'll I'll I think he did.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, like I would say so.

And then,

like, you were coming back to practice and Kyle was beating your ass.

I think there was times when I'm like he'd, like, would have, like, 2 days for, like, 6 months straight. Yeah. He's like, in the morning and the night, and I'd only make night classes or if I'm making day classes because we work 2 and 2. So

But he would never but he but he's not he would never take a day off. Like, he would always come in. Whether he's in in the morning or at night, he's there working. Yeah. Yeah.

It was never like a I needed a rest day. And, like, even, like, talk to Kel about it. Like, I would be like, I'd go to work. Like, if I was day work, I'd have to be in 6:30. So 6:30 to 2:30.

And then I'd go lift at my shift and conditioning place

at, like After your shift.

After my shift at 4:30. Yeah. And then I'd be there 4:30 to 5:30, and then I'd have to drive back over here Yeah. For the 7 to 9 class, whatever that ended the same day. And then that's just what it was.

All while being at that, and I was like

All while yeah. Yeah. All while doing that. And that's what, like I don't know if, like, people don't know that.

Like Yeah.

She's, like, awesome for her sticking with me because I don't know a lot of people who would do that.

Yeah. It's the truth. It's the truth. I there's, you know, we're not getting kicked in the head. You know what I mean?

In the entrepreneurship game, but there are a lot of parallels between.

Metaphorically, yeah.

Yeah. Well,

yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying metaphorically. Yeah. Metaphorically, I'm getting kicked in the nuts. It's more like a nut kick, I think, than it is a head kick, but, there's a lot of parallels between, like, you know, our relationships in the entrepreneur game and, you know, yours in the fight game.

Yeah.

You know

what I mean? It takes a special person to be in it, and it also takes a special person to ride with somebody and support them while they're in it.

Yeah. You know what

I mean?

Yeah. And I think that's what, like, a lot of people don't really wanna, like, my boyfriend's a fighter. I think that's super cool, but, like, when it comes down to it, it's is it cool, like, that you see him for 2 hours a day? Yeah. And, like, when you see him, like, he's super fucking grouchy and, like, everything hurts or, Yeah.

You know, he's not sleeping or if he's, like, fighting

empty or Yeah.

If it's, like, fighting and he's, like, not eating or, like, not drinking and, like, he's miserable, but, like, you say something and then it sets him off because he's Yeah. You know? He's only eating 60 carbs. 60 grams of carbs in a Yeah. Like Oh, exactly.

Week. It it it brings out, like, you know, everything that's inside of you, like, probably, like, the most reactive animalistic parts of you in in a in a bay way. Yeah. You know, sometimes. You know what I mean?

Absolutely. And entrepreneurship does the same thing. I mean,

I can

count on, I would need 50 arms to count on my fingers. How many times, like, the stress causes me to snap

or Yeah.

Or something like that. You know what I mean?

It's like that's why I was amazed Sean hit it off. So I'm ready to also, like, immediately at the wedding we met at because it's like we're on the same, like, same journeys, same hunt, did like, or different hunts with the same mindset. Right? Like like, we're dream chasing. Like, I I that's why I kind of, like, loop all of these people in together, entrepreneurs, fighters, athletes.

Like, we're all chasing a dream Yeah. And and going against the grain of society that tells us we have to do what they say is right.

Yeah. Yep. Yep. For me, I mean, the linchpin or the the commonality or the common thread has always been, like, the mind fight first. You know what I mean?

Mhmm. That's that's what it's always been, like, fighting the mind first.

Yep.

I think we all have that in common. Fighters, entrepreneurs, athletes, you know, winning the battle with yourself first, before you can win the battle with anybody else.

I agree.

You know?

Kyle's always on that tip. I and his story is I always wanted the I DM him, but it's doesn't allow DMs. I I thought I thought

I thought

it was tough. I think he did.

I think he just doesn't allow DMs.

Yeah. I

can do that.

Too many people react to your stories.

I was just like, I gotta

do something. Yeah.

I'm just I might be the top, like, like, of

his story. Yeah.

You guys are our Grover fans. Right? Tim Grover? Yeah. Yeah.

You're bigger Tim Grover fans. So, he's in our he's he's in our in our network.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So we're gonna have him. We're gonna have him on

the show

Oh, yeah. Obviously.

Actually. Yeah. We'll have him on the show. Okay. We'll put that out there.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well and then my next question is, like, from the the amateur days. Right? Like, from you you did a couple amateur promotions?

Yeah. So there was, like, locked in the cage, XFE.

Yeah. The other ones were there. I did I did a CFC Amateur 1. Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah.

So I

mean, back when when we were fighting like, when we first started

Yeah.

There was kinda minimal, pro cards around that would happen, like, fights that would happen. Like, fights would happen once every, like, I don't know, 6 months.

Yeah.

And then there would be, you know, 3 amateur fights and then 6 or 7 pro fights. Pro fights. Yeah. So it was hard to get a fight when you're an amateur.

Mhmm.

Yeah.

But and if you were a pro fighting at the time, you'd only fight twice a year. Yeah. Yeah. So now it's like

That's crazy. Yeah.

It's fights every weekend now.

So at what point from the amateur journey to the pro journey for you guys was it, like, okay. We got something here. Like, we could actually make, like, pro and then UFC.

I mean, for me, like, when I hit 85, I was, like, alright. Like, I'm doing good. But when I hit pro, like, I know it's a completely different level.

Yeah.

But I always knew, and everybody at the gym always told me that I would be a better professional than I was an amateur. Because I felt like in the amateur fighting in Pennsylvania as an amateur, it's more of just like a like a grappling match with boxing. Like, you can't, like, you can't use your whole whole,

skill set.

There's no ground and pound on the ground. You can't push them in the face,

stuff like that.

So I always felt like

I didn't think of that.

Myself personally as a professional, I would have been a lot better, and I and I am, obviously, than I was an amateur. I was a 5 and 5 amateur. I'm 15 and 4 now as a pro. So it's it's it's it's always, you know, good to to to see that and then grow up from that. But, yeah, I mean, I I I figured I was going with that.

But yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So I knew I'm sorry. Yeah. I knew from the very beginning, like, as a professional, if I can get 3 or 4 wins that maybe something can take off with this. Yeah. Yeah.

I think I finished off I I had I had finishers for, like, my first 6 6 fights, I think. 6, 7 fights. And then I fought CFFC. I won the CFFC belt. And I was like, alright.

Like, I'm getting closer and closer to my goal of being being in the UFC.

Yeah.

Yeah. The manager the management that we had had, a couple UFC fighters at the time, so it was a good in for us.

Mhmm.

I fought Webb for the CFFC belt. I won that. And then after that fight, I got called to the contender series, and I was like, alright. Like, this is my time to shine. Like, I need I need the I need this.

I beat the guy 30253025 across the board, didn't get a contract. And I was like, damn.

Did Dana say anything to you?

So I

saw him in the back, and he was like, just keep fighting. Stay busy. We'll call you. I was like, alright. I fought 2 more times, and then I got to call up on a short notice after that.

Oh, that's cool.

Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah.

It seems like, like, one one common one common thing is just you have this goal, you have this vision, both of you, but focusing on the work. Yeah. Just day in and day out. Like, focusing on your output, not what the outcome of that output will be. Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, at at that point, it's like you're doing everything that you can Yeah. Do to ensure that you're gonna get to wherever you're gonna go. Yeah. Like, you would make in practices. You're eating right.

You're lifting right. Whatever you're doing, you're ensuring that you're doing everything possible, and you just have to wait for you just wait for it.

Yeah. Wait for their call.

Yeah. Yeah. Wait for it.

Are there guys in the room that, like, have or that have been in the room that have that goal that you're like, yo, like, you're you might not really like, this isn't might that be for you? Like, it's, like, doesn't have what it takes?

Honestly, yeah. There's there's there's guys there's guys that that we've trained with who are like, yeah, dude. I wanna do this. I wanna get where you've been.

Yeah. And And you're just like

I'm like

Yeah. Probably not.

Like like, you're 30 years old, dude. Yeah. I think it's a little too late.

It's a

little too late. But then you guys got you got guys like Pat Brady who

Yeah. Are That's crazy. Yeah.

You know, at the top of their game right now. Yeah. At what?

And perform. That is always the craziest thing to me about the UFC and fighting is, like, like, Tom Brady can lose a 100 of like, he's lost so many games. Yep. And then

Yeah. It's But

it's still regarded the best quarterback to ever live potentially. Like, but for you guys, you guys don't get multiple you have to perform every every time. Or or you're you're

Or you're gone.

Yeah. You're just you don't have a job. Yeah. Pretty much.

I I

think that's, like, so crazy to me. It's, like, who knows how good some of these guys really are because they got pushed aside when they lost a couple of fights. Like, I understand. It's, like, wild.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Because you can't even have a record like that. Like, Tom Brady's overall record is probably, like, whatever. Like, close to 500 maybe or, like, whatever. You know what I mean? Mhmm.

But in in the US, like, in fighting UFC, like, you can't can't have that.

Yeah. You go out there and see a 500 fighter, you're like, dude, ugh.

Exactly. This is

not good at all.

But he

could be he could be really decent. Yeah. But he just lost a bunch.

Yeah. Definitely. Yeah.

Absolutely. There's guys around here there's guys around fighting, specifically that we've trained with who kind of had those records. And in the gym, you think they're world champions.

Yeah. There's, yeah, there's guys that you train with.

Trained with, they beat, like, every single person Yeah. Like, decisively to training. Yeah. But as soon as the lights get on them

Yeah. For whatever reason. Well, that's I

mean, that's the that's the thing. Right? Like, the training translates, but then there's also more variables once you get there. I can imagine. I don't I can't I can't really imagine.

I can't speak.

The only thing I can relate to is high school wrestling and, like, when it's all you train all all week, and then you get to that to that mat on Wednesday night, and it's like the light they got the spotlight shining down. It's like there are people in the stands, and there's you versus one other person. Like, that's adrenaline. I couldn't even explain the the feel. I can't imagine what it's like in the UFC cage, but, like

you know

what I mean? Like, that's, like, that that adrenaline and, like, different kind of nerves that, like, you just, like, have never experienced. Like Yeah. And you can't even explain to someone.

Yeah. No. It's it's Yeah. It's hard to explain.

Yeah. It's certainly hard to

Like, once you do it Yeah.

You're addicted. Yeah. You can't get you

yeah. Yep. But then there's guys that are, like, those guys are addicted to just that feeling.

Yep.

And there's guys that are addicted to, like, being the best and winning.

Mhmm.

Mhmm.

And, like, that's where you can that's where I feel like like some of us differentiate to guys that are just chasing that high of getting in the cage and fighting. Yeah. And then, you know, a guy like me who's I don't I don't really chase the high of of fighting getting in there. I know I have to fight. Yeah.

It's like Yeah.

I have

to get in there and fight regardless. But it's all about winning and making sure that I can progress, you know, my family's life and my life to be better.

Yep. Absolutely.

That will Absolutely.

Yep. Loading up. They had another question.

No. No. No.

No. So during so you're both, your pros, both of you, when you start your families? Yeah. Right?

Yeah. I just had a I just my son is Well, honestly, I'm trying

to do the math for Yeah. So, like Yeah.

He was he was professional

too. Yeah. Yeah.

So we talked a little bit about relationships and the people that are around you, those who support you, those that ask questions, and maybe you don't wanna answer all that stuff. Yeah. What's it like being fathers in the fight game?

You can go first. Oh. The next one's younger. So

Yeah. So, it's it's great. It's it's stressful. It but it's, let me preface this. Yeah.

The the expectation of winning or the the motivation, you shouldn't have any outside motivation if you're gonna do this. Like, you should already have that drive to just, I wanna fight people. I wanna win. I wanna be the best that I can absolutely be. Yeah.

If there's if you're only gonna have that motivation because somebody new came into your life, you shouldn't be here. Yeah. Like, you're like, I wanna be the best, and you should have that internal motivation. Yeah. Now granted, you my when I held my son, I'm like

adds to it.

It certainly adds to

it. Still.

It certainly adds to it. And I I still do everything I do, and life is for my kids and my wife. Mhmm. But I wanted I started fighting because I got that itch to fight, and then I just I wanna be the best at something. And Yep.

Everyone wants to be the best at something, and that's you have to have that air motivation to do that. Yeah.

So I mean That's an important point because I think sometimes it gets glorified like, hey. I'm gonna I'm fighting to change my family's life or I'm fighting to give my Yeah. Which there's truth to that.

Correct.

But the people that actually

But deep down, you are fighting for you. And you're you're fighting. You have to have that motivation. Like, my son was born 2 weeks, 3 weeks before I fought, zoo for the CFFC, for, title. And I knew that that was gonna be, like, a thing, and that gave me a little extra motivation for the fight.

But I was already motivated to Yeah. To to get further. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you're

gonna go further. It can't be, like, I need to make this work for for my fat like, for, like, everything rides on this. Like, I need to you you already wanna go in there and fucking compete and win.

Yeah. Like, not to, like, sound like more, but, like, if, like, my family didn't exist, I'd still probably be doing this.

Like, I

I'd still be doing this. Like, it's that's just how I

am. It's Yeah. Made me think Ryan Holiday talked about this thing recently. He said, he said, I don't have goals. He said, I just wake up, and I put my best, and I do my best.

I want and I wanna be the best.

Yeah. And

that's what I do. Oh, he's like, I don't I don't set goals anymore.

Mhmm. You know,

that was interesting. It's like, you know, I have a goal of being, like, the world champion or or a a specific goal. It's like, I'm just like, I'm gonna be the best.

Yeah. That's I mean, that's a goal. That's what you that's what you're trying to do. You're you're trying to get better.

Like Yeah.

If Kyle always hits me with, like, a single leg to to body lock to to dump, I have to I have to be better so that he gets better. And I've I'm gonna do better. I have to stop that chain wrestling at one point. Now granted, it's I'm still 15 years later. I'm still working on it.

But I

was just saying to just give away Kyle's.

I mean, do

we have to cut that out?

Cut that out

of here.

But no. But that's that you have to find that that little whatever you're gonna do. Yes. You know?

The one, my son's 10 months now. So I'm still kind of new to it.

Yeah.

But I fought I have fought, you fought twice? Twice. Yeah. Twice since he's been born.

Yeah.

And people have always said, you know, when you have a son or when you have a kid, it's gonna change. Your your motivation is gonna change in the fight game. Like, people think like like, people were telling me I was gonna go soft. Yeah. I feel like I've I'm I'm the best that I've ever been right now.

It is really

yeah. But, you know, as far as having having a son and, like, it's for me, it's just somebody that can, like, look up to me. Like, it's somebody that's, sees like, obviously, I see him every day. I take care of him every day. And and my buddies is, like, my best he's on my best friend pretty much even though he doesn't speak.

But yeah.

What the hell are they?

I even told my I even texted my wife, before not my last fight. The the fight before my first defense being back. I was taking care of

him all

day, and I was like, this dude could care less if I wanna lose tonight. Like, he could he really could care less if I wanna lose just as long as I come home and I'm good and I and I see him Yeah.

I'm

sure he's gonna be happy.

Yeah.

And at that when when I texted her that, I, like all anxiety of the fight and everything like that went out the door. Yeah. And I was fine. Yeah. And it's I think it just adds a nice the points.

That's It just adds a little extra

I mean, not like extra motivation or anything like that, but, like, at the age that he's at right now I mean, it's different because his son's older.

Yeah. I have a 5.2 year old. Yeah.

So Yep. I feel like for me, it's more kind of, like, relaxing and relieving that I'm fighting when he's young right now Yeah. Because he's not gonna, like I I want my kids to come to the fight anyway.

Yeah. Yeah.

But he's not gonna see that and, like, be talked about it to to kids at school yet or anything like that. I'm gonna be

out here. Even even then, just watching your dad be on the losing end of something, it's like, yeah. It's like just, like,

it's cool as you're down on TV, but, like, if he's if if if the winning or losing shows up and the kids, you know, kids are kids are terrible these days.

Kids are kids. Hey.

Excuse me.

I mean,

plus you're taking you're taking damage either way. Yeah. Yeah. You know, in most instances, and

that's how for

them to see too.

It's like just, like, even though I have you guys as friends, like, partner my son. I sent you the one that way when, you had your one, lost news where you got, like, I think it was Anita.

Yep.

The like, Parker was, like, literally, like, crying.

Yeah. He was crying. He was crying.

Like, literally, I said, I'm a big guy. I'm like, dude, my son is, like, literally, like, And Mike Mike, he might be soft too. But, like, but Bring him over and

let everyone to see

Yeah. Seriously. He's a I

mean, he's trained now. These they're just like street fighters. They really and sincerely are just street fighters, dude. They're just scrappers.

Fox Chase, man. They're dangerous streets of Fox Chase.

They're in the basement mountains.

Yeah. That's right. We do.

We have massive we have puzzle mats in the basement.

That's a

They take it to they take it to the couch, though, dude. They're starting to do stuff where they're,

like, you know Jumping on the couch? Yeah.

Yes. They're starting to do

that. WWE

now. Yeah.

I'm like,

what is

going on? Yeah. Dude, I'm not

I told Joey on the phone. I'm grateful I only have one child.

Cecilia had she was eating fruit. I don't know what fruit she was eating.

She

had a fork. So they start wrestling on the couch with a fork.

You're like, time?

Like, now

I'm turning,

like, missing dog. Hold on.

And it's

gonna be, like, why

Give me a fork. You need to go back at it. You know, so you can get a folding chair.

Dude, it's wild.

That's funny. There there is sibling, like, there were, siblings on the mat. I've been there, so I went to a park at his class. Yeah. And they were partnered up together.

It was funny watching. Like, the the younger one always end up crying. Like, they're, like, they're just, like, beating

this out.

Cecilia fights dirty. She'll, like, she'll start with, like, the hair pull. She'll do, like, a little hair pull. Like, if Everly's, like, laying on tires too.

No. You haven't do you plan on that anymore?

As of right now, no. Dude, one is easy, bro. But I'm sure, I'm sure, like, when he gets older, we might. Yeah. But as of right now, we we're both agreed that we're just gonna stick with 1.

I'm telling you. I knew what it'd be very if

you can. I mean, we're supposed to Get it older.

As soon as Like, ideally ideally, I I when we first, like, were talking about it, I was like, I would like 5. I I think I want 5 kids.

5 is my number, bro.

And she was like and then she was like, okay. Well, let's start with 1 first. And I said, okay. Cool.

We're at

1, and I'm like, that one's not too bad.

Kyle, that's exactly what I said. Like, we because everyone work mobile. I I tell everyone, like, you don't have any kids. You want the app 1? Then you can tell me how many kids you want.

I have one. Immediately went to the guy. I said, Cal, when

are we doing this? Yeah.

When are we doing that? But I still I still go go. I'm like, when when were you in the 3rd party? 4 and 5. Yeah.

5. Are you still you better

have that number? 2. Yeah.

It's gonna be 5.

She told me I gotta have a $1,000,000 in the bank. I'm not getting another one. Okay. So I'm working on a million. And then But you're

still game for 5. I'll do 5. I feel like there's different people that, like, the economy, let's say, wait by now. I'll do 5. My son is also my best friend, but, like, there are times where I'm like, yeah.

Like, my house is super chill at night. Like, there's not a big

You got

a nice bedtime. I don't gotta worry about, like, putting other kids to sleep. Yeah.

Worry about it. Everybody else is done.

Everyone goes to bed at the same time. Everybody go upstairs. Yeah. Let's go upstairs. Yeah.

We go to the baseball game. We put our chairs together. We just none

none of

us have to run around with another kid or

go park

another kid or something else. Like I

mean, I'm sure we'll have another one because I really I mean, for my, like, feeling of it, I don't wanna live by himself. I probably have a sibling, so it's it's different. But then again, I found 1.

Yeah.

Yeah. That is my one thing too. We'll never have, like, a big table at Thanksgiving. Like, I mean, I'm my sister, like, is our runs, like, the show here.

Like

Yeah. Yeah. She is what the glue that, like, holds us together. So, I mean, it's to think that he won't have something like that does kinda make me feel so much.

And my dad my dad has 5 brothers and sisters, and Christmas there Yeah. And all holidays, everything was huge because we had a bunch of fat with everybody there. Yeah. And I always loved that. And that was kinda something, like, growing up, something I always wanted.

Yeah.

Same.

But that one's a 1

to 12. Right? 7. Jesus. Kershaw is 1

of the 5. 5.

5. 5,

I think

so. 5? Yeah. 1 to 7. I'm on the Bowen side.

That's the one thing. Like, 5 was my number. I was like, we're doing this.

Yes.

But, we're I'm out of the game. I'm retired. I'm out of the game. I'm retired. So Tuesday Tuesday limit, but it wasn't, one thing like, it wasn't as easy for us to have children as I thought.

Yeah. Yeah.

And we were 2, like, you know, perfectly healthy individuals, but, like, you I think growing up, you you or at least I did, you have the assumptions, like, oh, yeah. People just get married and start families, and it's just, like Yeah. It just happens.

It just happens.

You know what I mean? It's just, like, you know, magic. But, yeah. It wasn't wasn't as easy for us.

Yeah. Same. It took us I think it took us, like, two and a half years. Yeah. Oh.

Once so that and that's another thing on her mind. She was like,

oh, well, if it doesn't work

out again and whatnot, and I'm like, oh. Yeah. It's true. Yeah.

We

got 1. We're happy with 1, blessed with 1. But

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. That that, that wears on you.

Yeah. And it it wears on you in a in a major way. That's a whole different show.

Yeah. So I don't

know if you get into that. But Yeah. So, yeah, I'm out

of Gabe. Some of them

some of them

some of them shoes.

What's that?

Some of us in shoes.

I was gonna I

was gonna

say that. You know,

there's there's people out there.

Some of us are 24 and had to figure through that.

Yeah. Yeah. Figure it out. Yeah. It's like, here you go.

Figure it out.

Still living with their parents. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like, we got this. Yeah.

I, I distinctly remember, like, bringing Everly home from the hospital, and we didn't have, like, there was no I don't know what's it called. I don't even know. Where the nurses take the baby overnight. So you don't have

the baby overnight.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff was, like, done with that. So, like, when we had Everly, it was just basically, like, here you go. And I'm, like, what do I do?

What? In the hospital?

Same thing.

In the hospital.

They gave you the baby overnight?

Yeah, bro.

Oh, no.

And Evelyn had feeding issues, so she wasn't eating.

Okay.

So we went, like like, almost like dude, it was a dangerous amount of time

that

she wasn't eating,

and they

were just, like, letting us figure it out. They thought it was us, like, not

Not like a rat or whatever. Yeah.

But here she had, like, a tongue tie. She had really

bad raphelf.

Training that comes with Yeah. GR training. It's like, you know?

Yeah. Literally, it's the craziest thing ever.

It's crazy.

But I I I remember, bringing Everly home after, you know, we were in the hospital for a couple days longer than we should have been.

Yeah.

Bringing her home and putting her down on the living room floor in her car seat and just being like, okay.

Like What now?

Let's go to this.

Now. The same

thing with Cal. Yeah. I was like, what what are we doing?

But I had, like, I was older. I at least had some life experience. Like, I was I had a, like, structure. I had a career. Like, I could, like

Figure it out.

Figure it out. I had tools. You know what I mean? And it because I was I didn't have kids, so I was in my thirties. For you There's a different story.

Our first night living together was the first night home from the hospital.

Oh my gosh.

Oh, that's crazy.

Literally. Yeah. Yeah.

You're a wild man. You're a wild man.

Yeah. I You're

a wild man.

My choice, dude. I was not my choice.

My choice.

Luckily, a man is the best person ever on the face of the earth,

but,

No. Of our

Like, literally, we just, like, I'd I'd say it to like, you don't know who you're married until it's it's 3 AM, and you got work the next day. Yeah. And the kids

And the baby's screaming.

Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah. That's how you know who you're married too. Like like, I I can see that shit break in marriage.

It's easily.

Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Like there's nights when I intentionally fall

stay asleep Yeah.

So she'd get the baby.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like, there's a funny thing where if I once I fall asleep, I'm out.

Yeah. Yeah.

The thing is it's like, I may hear, and

I just

like that. And I was like,

yeah, you

got to say that.

And I'm like I hear her on the

monitor. Yeah.

I'm like, is she moving yet? Yeah. I'm like, what time is it? Yeah. It's 3:30.

She's gotta be up in an hour and a half for work. Let's see if she just gets up early and goes to work.

Yeah. Does.

Stereotypes about men and women exist.

Like, that's If we all do the same shit. That's where the play is. You're on the side that they're not facing.

Yeah. If it's off to what?

Sleep facing them, they

don't know.

You got, like, a strategy. I

did. I

did. Strategy.

So I'm like, she just gets spoiled when

my shit just hits me.

She's Yeah. Well, they get they get maternity leave, dude.

They get into these. Yeah.

They get, like,

8 weeks, dude.

Yeah. Apparently, they get paternity leave. They're staying

out too. So

Yeah. My buddy's my buddy's on it now too. Wow. Yeah. He's a nurse, in

Florida.

Yeah. And, I think he gets just as much time as she got. Yeah. She gets Yeah.

I got 2 days.

Yeah. I I wasn't I wasn't the best

for that. Yeah. That'd be I just work from home. So yeah.

Yeah. I wasn't the best with that. I mean, making up for making up for those mistakes now.

Get, like I mean, from a like, obviously, entrepreneurs, like, at like, if if you're not going to work, you guys aren't Yeah. Progressing towards your

Yeah.

But I feel like people that are in those jobs, like, realistically should get paternity. Like like

Yeah. Like, especially, like, if, like, it's not, like, natural, like, your wife has, like, a c section. Like, that's a major that's a major surgery. Like, she can't, like, pick herself up off the couch or, like, hand hold the baby and, like, walk around. Like, there's needs to be, like, a little something.

Yeah. Yeah. You know?

Yeah. I agree.

So, are your kids gonna

train? Yes. I definitely my daughter, she's she's a wild ass. She she fights all the

time anyway.

So she's like yeah. She's insane. Like, she yells in your face for, like, no reason or, like, hits, like, her brother for, like, no reason, and you're like, what are you doing? She's warming up. Fight.

I fight. And I'm like,

let yeah. Let's not let's not do

that right now. But, like, my son's, like, super cool. He, like, he wants to train. He's he's in the lifting. Yeah.

Like like, lifting down his house or whatever. And then Mhmm. Like, he's like, can we work out? So I got, like I've I have, like, small little cowbells in the basement and, like, little, like, 2 pound weights. I'm like, alright.

Let's go. And then he, like, at

the age. He's at the age where you can start He's right

at the age. He's he's, Well, it

sounds like he's conditioning already.

Yeah. I mean, he's he's got the kettlebells. He he likes working out. So, like, he likes and it's, like, quality time, like Yeah. Spending.

And that's what he wants. He, like, wants to get, like, hang out. Of course. You know? So yeah.

It'll definitely be good. Yeah. I think he's he's right around that age where I think it's it's time to get him into it. So yeah.

But he's been he's been in the gym and, like, watching. So Yeah. He knows who's getting into.

He's he's

there. He sounds like

he doesn't, like, you know, doesn't know what the gym is. Like Yeah. Kale, like, another guy we train with, he brings his sons and they they, like, wrestle, like, after sparring or whatever. Like, they're, like, good single legs. You know?

They're doing all that. Like, Kale's kids are both doing lacrosse. They're both wrestles. So, like,

it's all

good for them.

I had dreams of making my son a, like, a state champion wrestler.

Just put him on a program. Just figure out a program and just be like, this is what we're doing. He's been

I mean, we've trained we've trained together since he was 2, 3 years old. Yeah. And he's, like, every day we work out together, and he's still, like so he didn't love wrestling. He got the wrestling bug. Like, he just, like he he he did it because I wanted to do it.

Yeah. But, he didn't like he wasn't like, let's go to wrestling. Like, I decided to go to wrestling practice every he's always just did it because

I asked

him to. Yeah.

And I, I was started seeing videos online, like, kids get, like, beat up in school and stuff. Like, just, like, the shit that people are, like, doing nowadays. Yeah. And I was like, I just, like,

never

want Parker to experience that. So I was like, yeah. I'm a part of, like, like, when you come try to do it. Like, I was already trained to jiu jitsu, and I was like, why don't you come try this? Like, just to say and I'll if you do this, like, I mean, can maybe, like, switch from wrestling.

And, he just, like, love the jiu jitsu. I feel like because it's it combines that combat sport with more of, like, a chess or a game. You know what I mean? Like, there's ways to figure out how to win other than just being the more aggressive person. Like, typically, in wrestling, the more athletic and and aggressive person will win.

Barring, they have the same amount of skill. Correct.

But we

got the same amount of skill, and I can catch you in something. And, like, there's a there's more of a gamer chest to be played. So, he really does love, training jiu jitsu. So we haven't really wrestled since. But Yeah.

I mean, my dreams I'm just I'm playing I say I'm playing the long game with wrestling. Like, if I just keep miniu jitsu and grappling for this transfer.

He might be able to

hit that wrestling. Yeah.

Freshman year, he might he might be feel differently.

Yeah. The girls I'll bring the girls in when they have, when they're off to school or wherever, I'll bring them in. You know? And I I will say that the wrestling at home and that what they call jiu jitsu at home has definitely, like, accelerated since they've been in watching.

That could be the reason. Like, well, like, the kids that love wrestling in the wrestling room at this age are, like, the kids with brothers. They were, like, beat each other. They're fucking aggressive. You know what I mean?

Like, parties at home chilling. I'm like, I I rough them up, but, like, it's not does my dad rough up and the brotherly rough up are 2 different things?

They're a 100% different things.

But I I I believe he's good around.

I believe

I believe my nephew around a little bit. So maybe he's maybe he's he'll be alright. He'll introduce you for that.

That's the rest. That's true too. The and the uncle, rough up, is different than

the Yeah. Yeah. Dude, the uncle

rough up, man.

I was

He beat me up when I was little, so I'm only oh, yeah. Turn the favorite. That's true.

Return the

He's out.

We're gonna

save this. Yeah. We have a a teammate, Christian. He brings his 2 kids in. And what's Achilles?

Achilles gonna be 2,

I guess.

His nickname.

I think he's I

have no idea.

2 or 3?

Yeah. And then Amber is is brand new. Maybe 1 out there.

1. Yeah.

But then he sets up, like, a little octagon at this time, and he puts him in there while we train. Yeah. And they're starting to, like, wrestle each other. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, they're not playing with, like, their dinosaurs and, like, stuff anymore. They're, like, actively looking. They're, like,

watching the Yeah. They're, like, watching

the class. Applying.

Yeah. They're like

Achilles had Achilles had amber in, like, half guard one day. I swear. I swear.

You gotta have a soft fuzz. You gotta have a soft fuzz one day. Like, one of them is choking out the other

one. I tell them.

Yeah. Like, what's the problem? Yeah.

He walks around like he owes joy too.

At least he walked around. I was those those things are sick. I feel like the downside of having kids young is is, like, I I didn't think of, like I wasn't as a compliment myself where I would name my kid Achilles.

You know what I mean?

I saw it growing

and they're

like, yeah. Like, my partner's one friend is Odin and Apollo. Yeah. That's true. That's fucking

that's right.

When I when you talk to Christian next or whatever, he's done he's actually done some, illustration for us for

some of

the Ts and stuff. So when you talk to him next, he'll tell you he had, like, like, a whole list of, like, more badass names than Achilles. And I think they were actually the list was built by his wife.

That's sick.

So it was much like

I tried to get that. I tried to get my wife to do that, and she was like, you know they're not gonna

and he'd be, like, they never just, Japanese anime character. That's what it is.

That's cool.

Goku's a badass motherfucker.

We didn't always you can just nickname it.

I thought

that changes the name. Don't do that.

Just make

it his middle name.

Well, I Yeah. Hide it in the middle. Hide it in the middle.

What, so let's let's bring it in for a landing. Guys, what, what advice there's many, many people in the community that are just starting their journeys in jujitsu, just starting their amateur journeys and fighting, MMA. What advice

Or just dream chasing and doing.

Or maybe yeah. Exactly. Maybe it's just a dream and they haven't taken any steps. So, what advice would you this is your moment. What advice would you no pressure.

What advice would you, would you give them?

Don't quit.

Oh, yeah.

Like, jiu jitsu is the long game. Let's we're talking about playing the long game. Jiu jitsu could be the long game. You could the goal is to do jiu jitsu for as long as you're physically able to do jiu jitsu. The goal for creating a business is to run the business for however long you can physically run a business.

Yeah. So just don't quit. I mean, yeah, times are gonna get tough. It sucks. Yeah.

But you can look back after and be like, remember remember we almost lost it back there. Remember that? Yeah. Yeah. We got it.

We got it. Yeah.

So that's my thing. It's just like, don't quit. Like, it's gonna suck. It's gonna be hard Yeah. Because it's life, but just don't quit.

Yeah. The roller coaster of life, ups, downs, Swiss turns. I just heard an email about it last night, night before, or whatever. Amazing advice, man. Like, amazing advice.

It's what it boils down to.

I would, I would say, like, just take it day by day. Yeah.

Like,

I'm 31 years old.

Yeah.

I'm a professional athlete that's fighting to to get back to the UFC, and I'm still just myself. I'm taking it day by day.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like, we all struggle day by day, but Yeah. At the end of the day, if you can sit down and and just be like, alright. Today was a good day. I got everything that I needed to get done, Then you're one step closer to that. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think those That's

a big thing. Yeah.

Those those two pieces of advice are kinda intertwined. I feel like it's Yeah. Harder to quit when you're taking it day by day.

Oh, yeah.

Because you're taking mental inventory every day and you're saying, okay. Look. You know, another another notch on the belt, another day under, you know, time under tension, another day.

You know

what I mean?

Let's do

it again tomorrow. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. You know what

I mean?

Yeah. What I found is if you keep keep it small, like you're saying, day by day, it's it's worked out better

Yeah.

That way, and it's less stress. Like, alright. Like he was saying, today was a good day. Like, I'll I'll tell Cal, like, today was a really good day. Yeah.

And, you know, today wasn't a good day, whatever it was. Like, if she was, you know, busy with the kids or if

she had a bad day

at work, like, today wasn't a good day. She said, no. Today wasn't a good day. So as long as you can keep it small, keep it focused on the things that matter, you're good to go.

Yep. I would agree.

Don't let anybody else kinda take you away from getting done what you wanna get done. Mhmm. You have a goal. You say it. And if you can feel it in your heart that, like, it's it's it's something that's really, like, you're here on earth to do Yeah.

Nothing should be able to stop you. Nothing should be able to take you

away from it, and you should be able to get

it done.

Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, you we were we're messing around about the DMs earlier. And I think you made a comment of, like, yeah, I shut my DMs off cause there's, like, too many people reacting Yeah. To the stories where Yeah.

It's kind of the same thing. Right? Like, you've we work with consequence of habit, which you guys both know. It's like starving yourself of all distractions and negativity Yeah. That tries to dim the light of that dream that you have.

Yeah. You know, and and more often than not, people have great, I think they have good intentions, but it ends up when you take in too much of the external Yeah. And you're not focusing on your internal, it it starts to dim the light of your dreams. Yeah. You know?

Definitely. Absolutely.

Starts to starts to dim it.

That was also, though. I feel like a lot of the successful peep you've talked to a lot of successful people in our space and, like, athletes and people that have actually achieved great things and a lot the same thing rings true. It's as simple as it sounds. It's like, don't quit. Like, things are hard for a reason.

And Mhmm. If it was Beta said it was yesterday, if it was easy, everybody would do it. You have a lot more competition. Yep. You know what I mean?

But that's the reason why we don't.

We just had, this, like, almost exact conversation with him yesterday. And, like, you know, we're at a point now where we're at another precipice. Like, in 2020, 2021, we were at a a precipice. Like, we were we were about to break through.

Yeah. You know

what I mean? A plateau, that we had. And then we decided to get super aggressive, cut over it made in USA, which we believe in. Yeah. And it was difficult, man.

You

know, it was difficult and it was hard, but we didn't quit. And now we're again at that precipice. Yeah. And that's it came full circle. He was like, yeah.

You know, you see what happens when you don't quit. Like, you have to eat his his words or you gotta eat a bunch of shit sandwiches. But then eventually, the universe, your higher power, whatever it is, whatever you believe in says you've been at the shit sandwich buffet for enough time.

Yep.

Like, you you you know, the portal opens. The door opens. You know what I mean? And and you can walk through it. He also says interestingly enough, which something that correlates with what you're both were saying, with taking it day by day is, a bad day doesn't equal a bad life.

Mhmm. Yep. You know? It's just

one bad day.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just one bad day. You know what I mean? Whether it's bad day at off at the office, whether it's bad day at home, whatever your office is.

Yeah.

You know

what I mean? If it's this or it's the cage, whatever, it doesn't equal a bad life and it's not over. So Yep. Sage wisdom from B. Shout out B too.

I agree.

Yeah. What else? What else you wanna kick around?

You guys have anything else

you wanna kick around? Any? Yeah. We're we got no clock, so we'll just go.

Shane went right with no clock.

Shaking his head in disapproval at the very

I gotta we we did I literally think about pockets like this. Like, I literally think, like, wow. This pockets could be 3, 4 hours. Like, now I know I Rogan

does it.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Because we

get guys

are gonna start quitting idiots.

Nah, mate. Joey, baby. The bluebell curse.

It's bluebell curse.

What is

it, though?

One one thing, and I say all one thing I am not is a quitter. Like, I just I do not quit.

I identify as a purple belt, though. So

Bro, I'm kidding.

Do you have

any stripes?

Do you

have stripes in your blue belt?

1 on that.

1? Alright. So you guys are past it. Yeah. Yeah.

Usually, like, as soon as you get it and, like, the first, like

It's like first

first, like, 6 months after that, the guys usually fade. Yeah.

You're a 2.

Right? Yeah. Yeah.

I lost 1 yesterday.

You'll be alright.

Really? Gotta get, like, a

we gotta get

a little bounce. Magic powers too fast. Grappling.

Oh, yeah. Grappling mashing you guys. Yeah. Let's let's go.

We just have we just have one the other night.

Yeah. Now let's see what goes on over there.

Sub only.

I smashed. I smashed fast

on Yo.

This is frog flash. Oh my god, dude. Like, literally, like, fucking I thought I never got a competition speed. Like, we we had a 5 by 5 match. We only we only have look.

I mean, I'm just been there for 3 years, so you guys correct me. But I only see really one speed at Martinez, and it's that speed.

That's true. It's go, baby.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with that.

I just wasn't ready for it on the 5 by 5.

Yeah. Gotta go. We gotta go.

What for the question, do you wash your belt? I mean, I think I was training d anymore.

But That

Do I wash my belt?

Is that shouldn't be a question. Yeah. That shouldn't be a question. Nah. Never.

Yeah. You

never wash your belt.

You wash your belt.

Can you

change your belt?

No. Dude,

you know. That's how a black belt Yeah.

That's a story that's a story I

would watch. With the white belt. It gets so dirty and gross over the years, but it's black.

I mean, look. I in my mind, it's just

I think I'm doing okay.

That's what I'm saying. All the knowledge.

I know. All the power.

Away your stuff. What happens

is Yeah.

That's exactly it. You lost it.

You lost it.

Yeah. What happens is because you just I put it in the wet bag. And if I don't wash it and the wet bag sits out there baking on

the car's

go app Fair moon.

Oh my god. It's like I open up the bag, smacks me in the face. Yeah.

It does it does smell like fair like,

a So every once in a while, I'll hit it.

I've ever run run into the issue of my belt stink like, getting attached

to it.

Unless you

put it with your gear. Yeah.

If you're

just right off your gear, it might not sting.

There you go.

Yeah. I just I just

have to do watches this. Don't put

my wet back. Wash your belt.

Washes your wallet.

I can't do this.

You're wild. Day is occasional. Yeah. Still do it.

That's disrespectful.

Yeah. Still do it. Do

want to. Yeah.

And this is why I don't advise the girl.

Like, I needed another reason to get an ass whooping to what's today? Wednesday?

Yeah. Today's Thursday.

Tomorrow I'll be Well,

I actually heard Tim? I actually heard

that you Tomorrow

I'll be ready guys.

I actually heard that you're going through the end Thursday soon.

I think you should. Cover your dick. Cover it. Like, he's on his RC's fest.

He's fast.

Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Are there with Lamar?

The best days. Good. The best days.

Yeah. I'm having honestly, guys, like, I'm having a blast, like, the first, the first time.

Listen. You're gonna get smashed. It sucks. Yeah. Yeah.

Especially when there's no technique or no lemongr branding like that, and it's that much different than, like, just like a traditional class.

Oddly enough, I it's kinda like When is

his technique supposed to level up, though? It's what you guys When

he goes over to g class and does his does his little PJ

party over there. Yeah. Dude, that

There's literally a black curtain that gets pulled between the 2 ears. We don't want

any large We

don't want any pajama for yourself

over there.

Pajama. Like, Sean would let me the other day and move me out of the the ghee class. And he's like, hey. You doing pajamas today?

Like Yeah. So PJ have already got out

of here.

Like, you guys all started with gees? Not anymore.

Not anymore. Yeah.

I think I I think I only yeah. We only we had we did gi because we we had to.

That's all there was really.

Yeah. Yeah. Back back when we start yeah. When we started the result.

It wasn't like today where there's it's, like, strictly no gi stuff. It was guys who were really good in the gi would just take the top off, and then they would just roll no gi.

Yes. That's how it was. That's so funny. I feel like do you guys feel like no gi is the the new age? Like, it's like that's, like, where Yeah.

Yeah. I think

I think

g compositions have kinda fallen off just because of the way everything's marketed now. Everyone's And

you really

can't

I've not to cut you off, but you can't understand it. Like, you can like, no gi grappling is kinda understandable to this casual watcher.

Yeah.

But you just, like, if you don't train jiu jitsu, you're not gonna like a gi a gi match.

Yeah.

Yeah. Part of the thing. In order to get better at gi, like, training no gi helps.

Yeah.

Because if you strictly just train gi and you transfer to no gi, what's the first thing you grab? Yeah. You can't don't have a lapel.

And I'm like That's I trained gi for the for primarily for the longest time, and I I didn't know what to do in

no gi.

When you

when you do no gi, it's definitely you have this completely different grips and everything like that.

Yeah. That's so true.

Yeah. And it's super transferable, like you were saying to to the viewer. Like, you see, like, intricate grips of, like, certain things, and guys are, like, sitting there for a minute with, like, certain grips, and they're like, what's going on? Well, I Mhmm. Look at just look at CGI.

That was ridiculously entertaining. Electric. And it was it was great. Like, I I love watching it. Like, there were total brothers, them going back and forth with, who's Tackett.

Tackett. Yeah.

And when that

that match was insane.

That was crazy.

Yeah. I think it's definitely the the wave I don't wanna say wave of the future, but that's like the Yeah. What everyone's gonna be drawn towards.

That's how

they're gonna be able to make grappling a

Major thing. Yeah.

Plus I always thought that the gi was, like, an easy way for white belts and blue belts to kinda just survive against bigger belts because you can just hold on and stall. Yep. Like, I mean, there's obviously different different types of chokes and stuff you can do with a lapel, but

Yeah. Yeah.

Majority of the time,

they're stall. Slow it down.

I feel like that.

Yeah. You can slow it down. Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely.

I can slow the pace.

Completely different Yeah.

Yeah. And, like, that's, like, a major thing.

Like, you

have to be able to overload someone's processing Mhmm. With the with no gi. Like Yep. I I think that's awesome.

Yep. Yep. Well, I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. Because if I go tomorrow, if I go into the no gi room, they're gonna tell everybody, watch my belt. And then if I go into

the game room I will keep it here. I'll keep it here.

Better than Arnold.

Yeah. We'll keep it here as all of our viewers.

Keep it right

here. We'll keep

it here until this gets closer to the end, and we'll talk about it.

2 weeks ago was the last time I washed my belt. There you go. It's it's over now.

Oh my god.

Yeah. It's over.

He Mark Stemmons.

Yeah.

And so

I also you know? Listen. It's over.

I'm like, yeah, it's

a prick in the habit. I'm prick in the bad habit. A freaking bad habit.

I can't wait to hear about this as the next, family event. He's really staying. His belt stinks. I don't know about why it's this thing. She says, you told him never to wash this thing.

Yeah.

You know my mom's gonna

come back.

She's like,

what are

you doing?

My mom's gonna come back.

Yeah. That's gross. What do you she's gonna DM me. What are you doing? Yeah.

Yeah. She always she always goes

and hits me on the Yeah.

Yeah. Instagram.

Not Kyle, though, because he doesn't

make sense. He's got the shuttle.

No deal. Nobody does. No one no one's sliding.

If you're getting DMs from, from mom and b, from my mom, and you're in the fuel hunt community, consider yourself special because she Yeah. You know what I mean? She gravitates to certain people in the community.

The mother of fuel hunt.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And number 1 customer for a bunch of years.

I agree. So yeah.

Biggest supporter.

Shout out shout out mom and b. Alright. Where, not that the community doesn't know, but let's tell them anyway. Where can, the community find you on the interwebs?

I'm on x Twitter, whatever you wanna call them now. Instagram. Mainly on Instagram. That's really I mean, I I just, like, look at, like, crazy headlines on x and Twitter now. So, but, yeah, I usually unlike him, I'll usually answer a DM or 2.

So hit me up on Instagram. Chris Daukas, MMA, I think, is my handle. So yeah. Yeah.

I'm just Kyle, underscore, both x and Twitter or whatever and, Instagram.

Yeah. X x can be a dark hole sometimes.

Like, you

have some threads. It has rollers. Some wild shit goes on there too.

Whichever one you wanna whatever rabbit hole you wanna go

down. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We

how much time do you got? Because we can go down a lot. Yeah.

I'm off to get Dan Dan is

not look at that's that's We got a lot of ideas. He's a lot of rabbit holes.

Don't make dinner tonight.

Thank you for

that. Alright, guys. Thanks for coming on, guys. Pleasure having a good day. Forward to seeing you tomorrow for an ass beating.

Yeah. And, I'll leave a few with a reminder. Always choose hard work over handouts. Always choose effort over entitlement. Remember, no one owns you.

No one owes you. You're one of the few. Now let's hunt. Yeah. Thanks, guys.

Appreciate it. Thank you, man.