Not everyone's gonna make it to the UFC, but that doesn't mean you gotta go 50% because you never know. Yeah. Our our guys, like, they all came from amateur pro. They were homegrown, and they were trying to get in the UFC, and it's, like, almost impossible. Right?

At times, it's like, we're not gonna get the call. Yeah. We're not gonna get the call, but we we stuck to the game plan. You have to train every day. And then all of a sudden Mhmm.

Yo, you wanna fight next next next Saturday? And it's like, holy fuck. Welcome to the Fuel Hunt Show.

What's going on? Eagles, welcome to the Fuel hunt show. I'm Joey. Today, Drew and I are joined by coach John, John Marquez of Marquez MMA. We have temporarily turned the set into a cigar lounge today if you're watching on YouTube.

We are all well, not all

of us. To my dismay.

Most of us are enjoying a cigar courtesy of coach John. Yes, sir. Great to have you here, man. Finally, man. Great to have you here.

Looking looking forward to, like You can't

smoke a cigar. I wasn't gonna be here, man.

If I knew that was if I knew that was the deal, man, we we would have made this happen sooner.

Yeah. Exactly.

I was telling coach Sean that, like, back in the day, I was, like, heavy in the cigars. Like, I had the humidor. I had everything. And then I kinda, like, lost touch with it. So this is very nostalgic for me.

It's the

first time I've probably smoked a cigar in, like, 10 to 15 years.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Very nostalgic for me, man. Very, very nostalgic.

I see you puffing and looking at the

Is it a good is

it a good one?

What's that? What? Only the only the finest.

Where did you get where did you

get the finest?

That's Jaime Garcia. Don't don't Pepin Garcia, blended that with his son.

Mhmm. Yeah. I guess which hands are.

I had all that. Yeah. I know. Sorry. I was, trying to go back to, like I think I was Rocky Patel's Mhmm.

The Padron's CAO, something like that.

Padron. I I I got the Padron. Right? The CAO. It's CAO.

I was heavy. I was heavy into it. Triple flame, butane lighters and

shit, all

sorts of crazy stuff.

Gonna I

told him I wasn't smoking. He told me, so bring me a, a lunatic. I was

like, that sounds I thought that sounds crazy.

He's like, no.

Not so bad. It's like a picture of this fucking, like, big ass cigar like that. That's gonna be the next time

when you Yeah. The new tick the new tick is a is wild.

Is that a real thing?

Yeah. That cigar is real.

Oh my god.

But try to smoke 1 cigar Yeah. At least 1 cigar a day after the gym work Yep. Fights, and I kinda sit back and think about how the day went. Relax. Reflect.

Yeah.

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

They actually hitting Kurt both these bubbles. Yeah.

Don't you have one too? I saw Kurt's bubble.

It's a little tent.

Yeah. Yeah. That thing that thing got destroyed.

There you go. Yeah.

Yeah. It's funny, man. It's funny.

I, when I was, like, 15, I think, I went to Italy, which sounds like bougie, but trust me, I started working at, like, 11, and I saved my money. I saved, like, 2 grand, and I went to Italy. It was like a school trip. Right? And they had these little cigars, and they were in, like, a tin.

And that's the first cigar.

Sell them, bro.

Yeah. I'm not, like these were, like, European ones. I don't know what

I forgot the name of them. Horrible.

Yeah. I must probably backed. I must have smoked. I was there for 5 days. I must have smoked, like, a 10 a day.

Jeez. I was letting and that kinda, like, started my cigar thing.

Yeah.

But then once I graduated high school and I started working and I started making a little bit of money, then I went, like, deep down the rabbit hole, but then I lost it. But that was the story.

I remember that when, Jay came home talking about your wedding, he was, like, hype on the

Oh, that's right.

We had a cigar roller guy.

Yeah. I had a cigar roller at, at our wedding.

Nice. Yeah.

That was actually I forgot

That's the coach down show right there.

I I always see the cigar like a super American thing. Yeah. Cigars and guns.

Yeah.

Cigars, guns, and fighting. They're the best.

Yeah. That's a good transition. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good transition.

I only dabbed. I only dabbed one of those, but

As of now. As of wait. Which which which one is the I'm a

dad one guns. Oh, dad one guns.

I was gonna say, wait. Fighting.

I was

gonna say, wait. Grappling and fighting 2 different things. 2 different things. I guess.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, man. So, yeah, most of the community is familiar, with you and with Marquez MMA, obviously, but maybe they don't know the backstory. You know what I mean? Like, how you got started, where you grew up, all that. So maybe we can jam on that, talk about, you know, the come up,

where you're

at now, you know, what it feels like now versus what it felt like then, stuff like that. You know what I mean? So how long, how long has Marquez MMA been operating?

I started our team 2012. I was talking to Drew a while ago and, but I really had before, we were in Kensington at the little they call it the red door because it had a red door. It was a second story. It was almost like a Rocky style of gym. The l train is right outside the window.

We started that 2012.

Okay.

But I had a space before that, like 2010. Ah, okay. I never meant to open up a business. It was just helping guys. Yeah.

And then one thing led to another. The more guys started coming in. We got kicked out of that first place on second in Susquehanna.

Okay.

They used to store horses in the

same Susquehanna. Yeah.

Brick building. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And we had a unit there.

And then one day, the man was like, I don't want your type of people in here. It was like I mean, MMA was viewed different back then. It wasn't that commercial and

Wasn't as mainstream.

Yeah. It was always, like, viewed as super violent and Mhmm. Not a a sport back then.

Plus, I gotta imagine the guys on the team at that point

Oh, it was it was a couple of fighters.

Yeah. It was a

I was shooting a couple of fighters and Yeah. Just helping them. You know? And one thing led to another, I say, yo, I was I was into other shit Mhmm. Out there, you know, and I wasn't really into opening up a business or being a coach or anything.

I was just helping

Yeah.

The guys and my experience from training before and all that stuff. And I didn't really care about having a team or being called coach or any of that shit. And the guy was like, no. We we need you. Or

What was it? What was it like?

Were they

friends of yours and you wanted to help them out? Or you had the means and you could you saw that they had talent, like, as a way out of

where their

current service is?

I trained with them, and they needed help. Ah, okay. So at first, before the little space, they were going to my house to get extra work.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. So, like, yo, I need mid work or I need to I have a fight. Can you help me with a strategy?

Did you always, like, as far as, like, pad holding is like a skill. Right? Did you always have, like, a knack for it, or did you have to, like, figure it out?

No. You kinda, like, build it, you know, with time. Yeah. It it's like anything like anything. You know, you can't just hop on a tractor trailer and just take off.

Yeah. You need it's all about the reps and experience. You know? Because you you could hold paths a certain way, but doesn't mean it's realistic for a fight. So Mhmm.

And you

see that all the time. Yeah. But it comes with experience, you know Yeah. And and time.

What so you were saying you didn't really wanna start a business, that because you don't wanna be on the books with your shit, or you just didn't have an interest?

I was I was I was into other stuff.

Yeah. You

know what I mean? Like School. Yeah. I already know. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep. Like bad bullshit. Yeah. But, you know, they they needed my help, so I was like, fuck it. I'm a start helping them.

Sure.

We got kicked out, and I say, yo. Y'all on your own? Like, I don't really need to do this. And, they're like, no. We need to find a place, bro.

Like, we could do this and, started looking on Craigslist back in the day.

That's how we found that's how we got that's how we ended up here at Craigslist.

So started looking, and everybody said no.

Yeah. What What

do you want the place for? Oh, it's a mixed martial arts gym. Mhmm. They're like, no. We don't want that type of business here.

Yeah. Blah blah blah. And then I kinda gave up, and I was like, yo, I'm not calling no more. Like, you guys are fucked. If that if this is what y'all wanna do, I'm done.

Yeah. And, they were like, no. Let let's keep looking. So we called this one last place. Yeah.

And it was Bill Gershenfeld. He's like my brother.

Yeah.

And he's the one that owned

The building on

Kessenson Ave. Okay. And,

K and A's got home for you, man. Mhmm. You know what I mean?

I've been 9 years in that building.

Yeah. I was gonna

say, hey. And, he was like, what do you want the gym for? I said, mixed martial arts. He said, oh, yeah. I I watch UFC, and I'm like Yeah.

MMA, brother. UFC is a league.

Yeah. Yeah.

So we went and looked at the place. He say he had one more person looking at it. I was like, don't show it. Yeah. I went back.

I told

Was the door was the door red at that point?

It was, it had, like, that diamond plate metal. Ah, okay. Yeah. And the guys, we painted it red. So because we didn't have a sign for, like, a year.

Yeah. So Remember, I looked at the red door.

Yeah. The business the the the idea wasn't to own a business. It was just to have a space Yeah. For guys to if they have a fight, go get extra work. Yeah.

Come get work.

Yeah. Yep. And, it was just like, yo, pull up to the red door.

Oh, they pay you at that point? Like, if they're if they have a fight? Okay.

No. Yeah. At what point did it Listen. If you become an MMA coach thinking you're gonna get paid Yeah. Yeah.

Go find someone else

to do. At what point though did it start to be like, okay. I need to actually charge for this. I'm spending so much time and effort Yeah.

So, started training the guys more and more, and then they started posting. And people was like, oh, shit. I want I wanna try it. And we started getting results. Mhmm.

Winning, grappling, winning fights. And then, when people started coming in, I'm like, wait a minute. I don't know these motherfuckers.

Like Yeah.

I need to get these people on paperwork Yep. And all that stuff. So

So gradually kinda, like, made its way down. It's organic.

You know? I never meant for it to be what we have now either. Yep. It it's just that's the

way it went. Sometimes I think, like, the most beautiful things that are built, like, you didn't have that intention in the beginning. I know that sounds crazy because I'm a big attention guy, But, like, I feel like when you're just open to everything and you're just doing the right thing by helping other people, serving other people, it turns into something really beautiful.

I mean, you focus on the work too. It sounds like he wasn't necessarily planning or focusing on where he was gonna go, but he woke up every day and focused on the reps and just doing the work and getting people better.

Yep.

And it just naturally turned into something great.

Yeah. Mhmm.

Yeah. You said when we were talking before the show, you said that, we were talking about HQ and the space and obviously, coach Sean's space. And, you said you had been to gyms all over the world. Right? And there's nothing like the character and the grit that a gym in Philly has or space like this in Philly has or like you have there, the one you had on Kensington.

I gotta imagine that, like, you look at the entire United States, there are very few places that you could have a gym with that type of, like, grit and character, like, the place you got now or the one on Kensington.

Yeah.

With the l right out the window. You said you could reach out the window, like, touch the l.

A lot of them boxing, like, dirty, greedy.

Yeah.

Yeah. That that brings the the fighter out of you. You know? Mhmm. Yeah.

It's also, like, a mental thing too. Like, red mats.

Yep.

Red and black is like it it's I'm I'm sure there's a study out there. Like, blue mats, it's more cool, white mats. Yep.

Yeah. It's common.

Red brings out violence in you.

Energy violence, orange. Blacks protect it.

I want people to kill each other in there, but, yo, it's a fight, man. And it's proven that if you saw off, just like anything

It's not gonna be a good day at the office.

Just like anything in life. You know? You you don't build some grit. People are gonna walk all over you. Yeah.

So it's the same thing in fighting. Yep. For sure. You have to train how you fight and Yep. There's nothing scientific about it.

It's just what it is.

I feel like a lot of people that are there, you know, whether it was at Kensington, your Kensington spot or here, you know, they're fighting, but they're also fighting to get out of something.

Yeah. Right? Yeah.

And, like, a gritty place

Yep.

That has character, right, that people sweat in, that reminds them of the circumstances that they're trying to fight their way out of too. If you sit, and, like, turn on turns on the fire

some of these guys' stories Mhmm. Man, it it's fucked up.

Yeah.

And fighting is their only way out. You know? So they they go all in.

Yeah. Do you find that people that come from maybe more privileged backgrounds or, not with that grit instilled in them, they don't really last long at at your gym? Like, have people come through and been like, wow. This is this is a little maybe too too

much. Really, like, privileged backgrounds because privilege just means you grew up with a little bit of money. Yeah. Because I have guys from all over the play like Yeah. There's people that drive from New York to train with us.

I have a kid that drives from Reading, PA every world. Every day. Really? From Reading, PA every single day. And on fight camp, he comes down twice a day.

Yeah. It's wild.

And we have people from Delaware, like Yep. A hour and a half away. And those people didn't grow up like the inner city guys that I have. Mhmm. But they have the natural grit.

Right? Yeah. Not that they grew up. Privilege is what happened to them growing up. Yeah.

It's what build them to Yep. To who they are today. Yeah. You know? It's it's not really like having money money, whatever.

There's there's people in the hood with money. Yeah. But it's what happened to them or how their parents molded that foundation.

Yeah.

That is how you how you gonna act when you get a little bit older. Yeah.

That's something I worry about. Like, my son, like, he he had grown up brought up with, like, too much love and and things he wants. Like, he he's not gonna have any drama or

I don't

think I don't but yeah. But I don't know what to think, like, is the things he he wants or loved. I think everybody I mean, he's just not gonna love your kid.

Yeah. Exactly.

You got him you got him on the mats. Like Yeah. You have to manufacture that.

I don't think I don't think it I don't think you should view it like that. It's other shit Yeah. That creates grit. Yeah. You know, like a a death or Yeah.

You know, a bully or Yep. Stuff like that. You know?

I feel like that's a in today's age of society, people want to shelter their kids from everything. Right? They wanna, like, make them

Mhmm.

Put them in a bubble and be like, oh, I don't want them to feel sad or unhappy or or, like, things are hard.

Right.

And

that's what we have this today's soft society because people just wanna solve the problems for their kids. And I think it started with my parents' generation, like

Oh, absolutely.

And it's just it's trickling down into people my age and their kids. But I try like, I tell Parker every day, hard is good. Like, if it's hard, it's probably gonna make you better.

Well, I mean, like like, coach Sean is saying, you're not gonna not love your kid. You know what I mean? Like, there's certain things that you went through growing up, you know, what however you wanna call it, difficulty, trauma, whatever. There's things I went through growing up and, like, our job I'm sure you too, John. Right?

Yeah. Our job is to make sure our kids don't feel that. They don't have that. Sorry. They don't have that.

They don't have to go through that.

Yeah.

So since that's the case, you gotta manufacture the university.

Oh, yeah.

You know? Gotta manufacture it.

Have you had people come through though that you're like, they're not gonna last here? Like, they're not Yeah.

I mean, not I think to be a fighter, you have to be born a fighter.

Yeah.

It it's something that's not everyone has. It's I think every I think 9 out of 10, like, grown men wanna wanna fight or feel like they know how to fight, but they don't just have it. It's just what it is.

What I was thinking.

And that's okay. Like

Yeah. When you said that, I was like, the UFC and all these league, they make it look super sexy to be a fighter. Like, it looks fucking awesome like a modern day gladiator. But then you may wanna sign up for you. I'm gonna go to Market FMay on Monday and and test it out.

I cannot imagine.

I I I think that's social media's fault, though. Because everyone lives this fake story on social media.

Yep. Yeah.

It's like a like a movie. Mhmm. You create your own movie on social media. Yep. And then and that's what's bringing the mental health issues.

Oh, of course.

Everyone feeling low. Yep. People counting your pockets. Like, it's fucking weird.

We're literally we wonder why depression and things like that are up because we're staring at other people's fake lives on Instagram. Yeah. You're literally only posting constructed or or To highlight real.

To highlight real.

We're highlight real. Even just manufactured happiness. You know what

I mean? Yeah.

These people aren't even happy in their not their day to day lives, but they look like they're ecstatic on Instagram.

Yeah. But

it's also like you gotta you have to tell yourself, like, yo, you don't have I don't have to believe this shit. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. You could just scroll through it, and it is what it is.

But some people get so sucked into that life. They're trying to live like others. They're trying to do what everybody is doing. Like

Yeah. If you don't if you don't have the awareness to tell yourself that, like you just said, if you don't have the awareness, then you start to assume you start to assume that's exactly what that person's life's like all the time.

Well, everyone thinks that what that's what life should be like. Yeah.

Mhmm.

Lamborghinis and fucking Yep. And it's like that those are good things, but those people work. The ones that own it for real Yeah.

Yeah. Not posing in

front of me. Fucking ass off.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know?

The the majority of the people, at least the majority of people we know, they're, like, super high achievers that have those type of things. They're great, and they they enjoy Nine times

out of 10, you don't even know they have it. This is true. Because they don't care about posting it.

Right. And they enjoy those things. Mhmm. But what they enjoy much more is the fact that they went through Mhmm. All that shit to get it.

Mhmm. Like, that's what they're really proud of. They ain't really proud of the car. They enjoy it. It's a thing they enjoy.

But, like, what they're proud of, they're proud of themselves. You know what I mean? For getting through it.

Yeah.

And I think I'm probably the youngest one here, but when we started fuel hunt, I, Think for yourself. Had a

Was that a fucking shot?

No. Dude, I think she's I I was just like,

I've I've obviously have grown since we've started, but whereas we started Fijuana, I had this vision for my life. Right? Like, we're we had this huge state of the art facility with 300 employees. Check. Like, we we had 300 employees and, like, we had these cars and, like, there's, like, a more lavish, big, huge operation.

And I've found that when you fall in love with the process and what you're doing, your and your vision for what your life is like in the future starts to change.

Mhmm.

And now I know that I want a much I I have no want or need for cars or fancy things. It's really I just want to live out the mission if you want, provide for our team and my family. And it doesn't really, like I don't need a Lamborghini to make my to define my worth or make me happy. You know what I mean?

Yeah. B b talks b talks about a lot about, like, borrowing credibility from things. And I think that, like, when you go through some shit, especially if you're gonna be an entrepreneur, when you go through it, you learn quickly that, like, nothing makes you feel more credible than yourself being strong enough to go through your circumstances and build something and serve people. So you don't need to borrow credibility from cars, watches, things.

I think one of the best things is to be proud of what your company represents. You know? Mhmm. Like, the gym. Right?

I'm proud of being a product of struggle Mhmm. And fucking, like, hard work.

Mhmm.

You know? You gotta be proud of that shit. And just just thinking about that, it's just gonna push you to do better. You know? Yeah.

And like you said, like, serving others, I work hard to serve others is, like, one of our things. And, like, I feel like you more than anybody, while you may not think about it every day, but, like, you serve others more than, like

From what we learned, that's how it started. Yeah.

Anyone we know, you've always been doing right by people and doing good things for people and working hard.

Listen. You honesty. Right?

Yeah.

You have to be honest. Yeah. And an honest man will always be good. Yeah. You know?

Yep.

And it it goes with anything. I'm honest as shit with my fighters. They do bad. I'm not a yes man. Hey, brother.

Good round. No. Yep. You fucked up. We have to do better.

You have to be honest in everything, you know, and a honest man will never have any trouble in life.

Yeah.

Keep it honest, you know. So

I gotta imagine that, like, that's probably part of the secret sauce of, like, your team. You're you're leading with honesty.

Honesty and humbleness. Because that's what's gonna produce the results.

Yeah. Because no no ego, no lies. Mhmm. That'll produce the best results.

That's it.

In time. In time. Not right away. In time. Yep.

It it is it it goes back to the soft soft society shit. Right? Like, some coaches don't be honest with their and me and Dean Thomas talk about this all the time. Yep. A lot of coaches don't be honest with their their fighters.

Right? They're they become friends

and

during the fight Mhmm. During work hours. Right? I'm I'm friends with all my guys. I love all of them.

I love all my guys. And but when that bell ring, I have to be honest with you. Right? And if you're fucking up, you're gonna know.

Yeah.

A lot of people don't be honest, and then they start creating this false sense of reality in their fighters. And when something don't go right, their fighter breaks.

Yeah. I think it it creates entitlement too.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

I was like, it's crazy, but

it's MMA is one of the most like, MMA probably has the most entitled people in the fucking sports world.

Listen. It's not too much different than parenting, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. Like, if you're not

if you're not if

you're not honest with your kids and you start to build that false world Right. That false reality, they're gonna be entitled to shit. They think they're deserving of everything. Yeah. You know what I mean?

You start praising what's required. Oh, you did a great job because you stepped in there. No. You got not the fuck

out of here. My guys, like, yo, I'm not gonna walk around saying good job if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing.

Don't praise what's required. That's literally the root of entitlement, man.

Why do I have to say good job every single fucking time you do something right if that's how you're supposed to be doing it anyway?

Yeah. Yeah.

You know? So I tell my guys that all the time.

There's a And

they understand it.

There's a, a book, man. What is that book? Shit. I think it's called The Entitlement Trap or something.

I haven't

heard of that.

Where, the author, I think he's a doctor, he he really went deep on the root of entitlement in society, and he pointed to that one thing. He was like, at some point, parents started praising what's required of their kids. They ate dinner. Oh, man. Such a great job eating dinner.

It's like, no. You gotta eat dinner to to survive on the planet and live. But, like, they they started to praise those things, and it breed it bred this entitlement.

Yeah.

That's now seeped in everything.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? The workforce, you know, people that come into the workforce, they don't wanna sweep the floors before they do the trim work. They don't wanna clean the toilets before they do the trim work. You know? So if you have

any saw it without doing the work, and you're never gonna get that. Never.

How long do you think it takes someone when they it's their 1st day at Marquez to potentially break into a pro? Like, maybe even

There there is no, like, time chart that you follow. Everyone is different. Yeah. Some people take years. Some other take 1.

Yeah. So it it it's different. Everyone is different. More one guy has more grit than the other. One girl has more grit than the other.

So

You think it's proportionate to the effort, though?

Yeah. A 100%. Yeah. MMA is all about education and effort. Mhmm.

The education part is your training, the eating and all that shit, sleep, and the effort is you doing the shit on the mats.

Yeah.

Putting it to work, and it'll pay off. I I say that all the time. Yo. Education and effort come true Yep. And then give you all when you go live.

Mhmm.

Empty the tank. Yep. It's funny because there's another there's another Ian there, that I think and I I'm outside of the game, but that I think that some of them get caught up in and that eventually leads to their demise and that's, like, the entertainment. Mhmm. You know what I mean?

Everybody wanna be the McGregor, man. Yeah. And it's fucked up.

Yeah.

Every sport has that athlete, but it only happens once every 10 years. Yeah. You know? So

Yeah.

Just I always say don't pay attention to that shit. You know?

I think if you're if you're educating yourself and you're putting the effort out, it's, like, it's hard to not be authentic, like, who you are. If If you start slacking on those things, then you start trying to be like somebody else.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Do you think potentially anyone in your room has what it takes to be the next champion, but if they all put in the the amount of effort and work that was required.

Hell, yeah. Sean Brady is on his way. Sean Brady probably has 1 or 2 more fights, bro. We're right there.

Yeah.

You know? And he faced he faced some fucked up times, you know? Mhmm. And his mentor was a little fucked up for a little bit, but he found he found his way. Yep.

You know? And that's through dedication and the grit that he has. This fucking guy trained so hard. You have to put a leash on him and be like, yo. Yo.

Like, you have to take a day off.

Right? We say the artist part and the few on community, but that's one thing I've always that I think draw me drew me and Sean together when we first met is that, like, we understood each other and, like Mhmm. People like us that just put the word first, and it's, like, oh, like, he gets it might be in 2 different walks of life, but

we get we get where

each other are coming from. Yeah. But, I I always said when he he used to post, like, it's basically his diet routine on Instagram. And I'm like, dude, you're giving people the blueprint on how to do this, and the and I don't see other people doing everything you're doing. You know what I mean?

Like, he would he would, like, literally, like, wake up, train Yep. Go home, train, and then, like, train at night. And I'm like, I don't see everyone else putting that same amount of effort.

Just because he do it doesn't mean he wants to do it. Yeah. Right? A lot of people think, like, oh, Brady just want like, a lot of times, he sores shit. He's hurt.

Yep.

But he knows

that's his job, and that's what he has to do to reach the top.

And even even worse, I have so much respect for Sean. 1, he did, he did a, I don't know if it was pre or post fight, where he was talking about, his fight with Bilal, and he was just like, look. Like, I'm mentally quitting here. Yeah. He was like, he touched me.

He's like, I was fine.

He built so so he built this he built this thing in his head. You know, he had an undefeated record. Uh-huh. K. And in his head, everything had to be perfect.

Mhmm. He would it was he had to have an o at the end of his record Yeah. The entire time. And I

got so much respect for him. My respect points went up through the roof even further after that interview because he was vulnerable enough to just be like, look. I'm, like, super dialed doing all the stuff you're talking about. But in that instance, I realized I mentally quit on myself, and he's like, yeah, I'm never fucking happy

That's the one thing I think is tough about the MMA world is that in life, in business, we lose all the fucking time.

All the time.

We always lose.

Oh, yeah.

But Sean, in his mind, couldn't give himself one loss. Like, you know what I mean? Like Yeah. And that's how the MMA world it's, like, unforgiving like that. Like, 1, 2 losses, you're, like, kick to the curb, but it's

it's not really

I think nothing in life is fair, but it's not fair to those guys to be, like, Michael Jordan, the best baseball player of all time arguably for some people. But Right. How many how many losses does he have in his record? Well, it's

the same. I think the the example is another Brady. Right? Tom Brady or whatever. Yeah.

Right? I think it's him. You look at his record as, like, losses versus

And and when he first got drafted, nobody believed in him.

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

He wasn't He turned out to be the GOAT.

Yeah. Exactly.

And Yeah. Plenty of losses. So I I I think, it's challenging for MMA fighters to get comfortable with losing.

But that it goes back to your original question. Right? Like, growing up privilege is not really about having a nice car growing up and money. It's about the shit that you go through in life. Right?

Brady, it wasn't about money to him. It wasn't about getting 2 checks. It was about a loss in the cage. Yeah. Then, you know, he came back from that, and he's a total different man now.

Mhmm. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Super grounded, level headed, and

It takes losses. Dad.

You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It takes losses in life to to make you that way, though. Like, literally, like, lost the big bosses, dude.

Absolutely. I don't think there's any, like, I don't I don't think there's a way to learn that and apply it without that adversity

I agree.

At at great scale.

Yeah. You know

what I mean? I'm not talking about, like, you know, you got a flat tire on the

When when he fought Michael Kiesa. Right? Mhmm. That was 21, I believe. November November 20th or 21st.

Some some sometime around there. I have so many fights. I don't even know the goddamn dates, but, we landed Sunday. Monday, I had moved from the red door

Mhmm.

To American Street. And I had put all this money there fixing it, making it look nice because the landlord didn't wanna fucking do it. And I'm like, man, I can't give a product out, like, looking like this. So put all this money in fixing it. We landed after the kisser fight Sunday.

Monday, we go to work as usual, and it was a fucking sticker on the window from the city. I saw a tenant because it was multi tenant. Saw tenants outside. Like, what the fuck? Read the sticker.

The city shut the entire building down. And after 9, 10 years in business, that moment, I'm like, I fucking lost everything. Like, I can't even I don't have a place to train my people. Mhmm. And at that time, 10 years later, our team is fucking huge.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I was I was so frustrated. Right? I'm like, I was about to give up. Yeah.

I was about to go to my old lifestyle and fucking whatever. Right? And Kurt Kurt worked for you guys, was there. He was like, bro, you're gonna get through this. I had picked up the phone Yeah.

To to bust a move, and I'm gonna get a place, like, tomorrow.

Yep.

And he was like, yo, it's cool, bro. We're gonna get through this shit together. And you hit me up, I think, a day later, and Yeah. You guys kept me level headed.

I remember that.

You know? Yeah. And we got through it. I didn't have a gym for 4 months, bro.

Yeah. Yeah.

And now we're in the same building together.

Yeah. I know. Crazy. But and then after that, you're probably, like before that, you were, like, she ain't gonna take me out. But after that, now you're like, now you gotta try even harder

to kill me.

Yeah. To take me out. Yeah. Because through that adversity, all the action you took through that, now you have higher level of grit.

Yeah.

Right? Higher level of determination.

It's important too, like I mean, Kurt's a a one individual. Like, I call him a lot. We can't we can't

we can't pass 5 without

10. He's 34 going on 80 in wisdom. I I feel like when I talk to him, like, are you like, he's like, we're the same age, but feels like he's my old head all the time. But, it's important. We always say you are who you hunt with because if you didn't have that, like, the the times like that, especially entrepreneurial life and in business and the times can get dark, dude.

Like, if you didn't have her there to pick you up and you needed it, like, it's easy to say, like, yeah, fuck this.

I would've made the stupidest decision on

my life. Gotta yeah. You you have another you have another opportunity. You have some other shit Mhmm. That you can just you can just flip it.

You can just flip right back

to them. Yeah.

You know, it's not like there's a lot bunch of years, but not a lot of distance. You gotta just flip

right back. When everything's going south in Mhmm. Business, it's really easy to look at that alternative and be like, oh, that's

why I easy route too.

Yeah. You

know? Uh-huh. It's almost effortless. Yeah. Yeah.

You don't have to put no effort in. Mhmm. You know? Mhmm. So Would

you say that was your hardest time in business or and in life? Or

Nah. In life, I had shit outside business that was fucking horrible, but during business, yeah. I mean, you fucking build something for so many years, and then you just

Show up to a sticker.

Lose it because a landlord wanna be a Yeah. You know?

And that's

the thing

people don't see in in dream chase and business building. It's like, times can get super, super dark, dude. Even in the fight game, like, it's crazy about you. You're essentially this Sherpa for all these people or this leader, but also you have to be a business owner.

Every time we lose and every team loses, fucking hurts my heart.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like, it hurts. I I don't I don't wanna I don't like I don't wanna see my my people take it out. You know? Yep. Especially knowing how hard they train and Mhmm.

It

it's it's fucking hard.

But I gotta imagine it puts you back in gear too. It's like, okay. What's what's the lesson from this? And it puts you back in gear.

You have to figure

Not just with who took the l, but with the rest of the team.

You have to figure shit out, man. Yep. You know? And, the the team's starting to understand this now. Mhmm.

You know? They they a lot of young guys, and they're like, oh, I see why we have to go so not hard. We have to train smart, but Mhmm. You have to be your dedication level gotta be a 1000%.

Yeah.

You know? So yeah. It's it's a lot of hard times, but losing the gym, doing the business Yeah.

And you have to be this leader and then also be a business owner at the same time. So there's gotta be a delicate balance too. Like Yeah. Because business takes just as much work as being the coach does.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. It's it's tricky, man. As a you you guys know you go through this shit every day here.

Yep. You have to find balance. If not, you will go crazy. Yeah. Crazy.

Yeah. It's a it's a it's a mix. But but,

you know, you know, one thing that helps me is sometimes you open social media Mhmm. And you think you're going through a hard time and you see a person Mhmm. On a hospital bed breathing through a

Yeah. Through a vent. Yeah. Right? Yep.

And it's like, man, that fucking person has it a 1000000 times worse than I

Yep.

At least I have the chance to god gave me legs, arms. Yep. And oxygen.

I I

could do this shit. You know? So

Yeah. That's it. Be

grateful, man.

That's the other side of social, I think. You know what I mean? You go in there and we're it it's a thing. Like, you know, it's easy to demonize because it's, like, the highlight reel and what it's doing everybody's mental health, But there are positives to it. Mhmm.

And, you know, it it it can give you a reality check sometimes. Yeah. Right? So for as much as fake shit is on there Mhmm. You can still get a reality check at times Yeah.

Whether you like it or not. Yeah.

I think the the power of perspective too, like, it I have a gratitude practice is, like, super powerful in my life, but someone else will always take your problems gladly. You know what I mean? Like, when you think you have problems, you should really think about the people that actually have problems. And I'd tell my son that too. Like, people some people didn't wake up today.

Mhmm.

But I agree that the and there there's some humor on Instagram too. I do I do enjoy myself a, a funny reel here and there.

Yeah. Yeah.

I'm working on that. I'm working on my ability. I'm, like, notoriously, like, super serious. So Drew and, and the team have brought me around.

Well, at our old our old warehouse, we'd show up to the office, and Joey just be mister freaking serious all day.

I'm an intense.

No fun. Very intense, man. Yeah. Super intense.

I can be super intense.

Like a shoebox office.

Okay. There's no there's no escaping them. I gotta go to the

other side of the room.

Hey, bro. Relax.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Like, you you have to when you open the door to the room, if my intensity was high, you'd have to, like, fight through it.

Like, you you you need, like, a machete to cut through my intensity just to walk into the room.

Just sometimes you're so focused. That's what it is. To be intense.

Yeah. That's that's what it is. But I've learned to meter that with some humor, and it's, I think it's added some years to my life.

I agree.

Yeah. Yeah. The cigar might be taking a couple years off today, but, you know, with the the humor's added. So we're balanced.

With, with Marquez, I was just thinking, do you find that when people come training with you, they know the mentality that's gonna be required to train with you guys? Like, when they show up, they know you have your

So a lot a lot

of times, yes, and a lot. Like, 5050. Right?

K.

We have guys from all over the world. So we have guys from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, all over the world, and Russians, and they grow up or something. They have fucking grit too. Yeah. But when they come down, they're like, holy shit.

This is different. Yeah. You know? And I I try to keep it old school, old school way

it works. Yeah.

And, yeah, they they realize that shit. Some do, some don't. But after that first day

Yeah. Like

And some of them won't come back, and that's alright. I always post about this. And my math ain't for everyone.

Yeah.

You know? Yeah. So it's okay.

I feel like you you you said a couple minutes ago, you said, like, dedication level, 1,000 percent dedication level. Do you think that that's what separates your team from other teams?

Yeah. Our guys train twice a day every day Yeah. On my mats. Yep. And they still do extra work.

You know, they go they Jonathan Jonathan's guys Yep. 2 times a day too. Like, either you do this shit or you don't. Yeah. You're in or

you're out.

K. Because you're it's gonna show. Mhmm. Listen, fighting Yeah. Is probably the most honest way to to calibrate what what you do Yeah.

For 10 weeks.

And Do you find that if you did the right preparation I mean, I guess it's a stupid question, but if you did the proper amount of preparation, studying, training, etcetera, like, you won't get caught you will win? Or is there is it is it never

If you believe so coaches, we do our job. I don't think there's any coach in the world that trains people to lose Yeah. In any sport. Yeah. Like, why would you train somebody to lose?

It doesn't make sense. Right? The bigger part is that fighter's mindset, especially if they have the skill. Right? Mhmm.

Like Brady has the skill Mhmm. Had the training, but missed the mind piece. Yeah. And it's just it's all about fight night, man. But you should get ready and you should believe in yourself.

Like, yo, I do this shit every day. I got what it takes to be anybody. And I have what it takes to fight tomorrow

Yep.

If I had to. That's part of that's a big part of the game. But the bigger part is the fucking mindset.

It's almost sounds like the same, like, phrase almost Too scared to lose. They

Not scared to lose. I I just feel like he went in there like he's gonna win. No. Nothing bad can happen. Mhmm.

Because you build this false sense of reality. Like, I'm perfect. When I swing, the punch has to land. Sure. When he shoots, I have I'm gonna sprawl.

Yep. You know?

One thing you've learned in business and in life, I believe, nothing,

where rarely ever goes to plan. No. You have to be prepared.

But that that's that that comes from living, like, the perfect way. Yeah. There's nothing is fucking perfect.

No. And especially when you're so locked in like he on this impression Yeah. Training.

He was just he just wasn't present that night. Yeah. Mentally present. Mhmm. He didn't get dropped.

Yeah. Well, that was one of the things about the interview.

Well, early stop is I was as a fan of Saul Brady. Yeah. I I disagree with the stop. Yeah.

No. We needed that shit though, bro. Yeah. He needed that. We all needed that as a team.

Well, I was gonna say the team learns from that.

Hell, yeah.

The team the team learns from that because I the team sees the guys on the team see guys and girls on a team see pieces of themselves and Sean. Mhmm. So they learn from his lessons as well.

Yeah, bro. Yeah. Yeah. And it shows like, yo, life ain't fucking life ain't perfect. Life is not perfect, bro.

You know what I mean? It's it's about how you how you return from that. Now imagine he still would have been in a basement with his head down. Yeah. He just beat 2 of, like, like, legends.

Kevin Gaslim and fucking, Gilbert Burns are both, like, legends. Right?

And Dominic and Dom. Yeah. Right. That's that's questionable. Like, it's what this is.

Right.

So now he understands, like, yo, I just gotta be present. I got the skill. I got the dedication. I got the support. I just have to be mentally present.

And,

it's, it's good.

It almost basically, in business and in life, it's it's the reward really doesn't come from the man in Omaha. The they almost come right off. The worth and being willing to not be loved when it gets hard and staying

with the you know? Yeah. Mhmm. Yep.

I mean, that's just the same thing, you know, that I wrote recently in in email that I sent out to the community. Like, I said, it's like somebody stabbed me in the chest when I hear, like, oh, you know, I'm not one of the few, but, like, I'm doing all this work, but I'm not one of the few yet because I haven't experienced the win. It's not about the win. It's about the work. It's not about the having.

It's about the hunting. But that's a that's a hard mental shift to make, especially in the beginning. You know?

People not gonna understand till they go through something that they have. They're

truth, man.

Obligated to fucking switch. It's like survival. Right? God forbid, somebody bring into your house. You just gonna let them do whatever the hell they want.

You're gonna turn that killer switch. Everyone has a kill switch. Yep. Like, that shit comes on, you're going to survive.

Yep. Yep.

So Yep. A lot of people don't react until something happens that makes them react. Yep. And

it wakes them up, man. It wakes them up. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

You find that it's hard to get some of your guys to my unresect all their that prepping inside that might that close with?

Some some some people. Yeah. But that that's because of the foundation that was built in them. You know? Yeah.

Again, it's not about the money and and love. It's about building the proper foundation in your kids. Mhmm. That when they grow older into adults, they're ready to have that foundation of getting through life.

Yeah.

That's what I thought. People to go from my ascent to a way.

Jujitsu will do that. You know why? Because you get choked a 1000 times, and you gotta figure that shit out.

Yep. Exactly. And the curse

6 months or so, like, the the straps were hard. Like, I always push a bill, like, had a car, like, a hard strap. But the so

the medicine that would get caught in were, like, the tears, it's all the opposite.

So you see that all the time. Like right? Like, kids get caught. You start seeing tears. 6 months later, now you see a little grin in their face.

Hey. But a

year later, you're the ones choking people. It's that foundation.

There are always something better in business, in life Mhmm. Anime. They're literally always somewhat better. So, like, we

get to college where I get I do go to the

next time.

Yep.

I

think I think in the sports world, I think coaching has gotten soft because I'm sure you guys played sports. Coaching back in the day, your parents couldn't say

Bro, don't even think

sing to the coach.

Don't get me started.

Just, you know, teaching back in the day. Like, my teachers would grab me

by the ear.

My teacher hit me with

a rule. Like, nuns, dude. Tongans would We moved from Puerto Rico to Philly 1992, and then we moved back to Puerto Rico 1996 for, like, 9 months. Right?

Yeah.

And my first day of school over there, I see a teacher hitting the student.

Wait. In Philly?

In Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico. Yeah.

Hitting the student, and I'm like, what the fuck? I go home. I'm like, yo, mom. Like, the teacher hit the student. Yep.

And my mom's like, yeah, motherfucker. Get ready. You act up. That's gonna happen to you. And I'm like, holy shit.

Bring that, guys. Do this on the XP launch. Sure.

I don't remember. I'm sure I got I I'm sure I got smacked with a ruler Ascension. Yeah. In

the US, you should do, like

Yeah. Yeah. But I know for a fact at Holy Innocents, you know, Caster and Eerie around there, Holy Innocents Yeah. Yeah. I know for a fact if I didn't pay attention during the morning prayers over the PA system, my teacher, I forget her name, she was a nun.

I got the ruler, man. I got the ruler. It was either across the back of the neck or on the hands or whatever. Oh, wow. Guys get smacked.

So that's teaching, but coaching

It's the same, bro. Like, now it's like a coach can't say Yeah. Coach can't talk a certain way, and then there's, like, first off, motherfuckers, I pay my rent Yeah. Here. Right?

Like, I can say whatever the fuck I want, and this is my style. If you don't like it, you don't have to be in my gym.

But you you also I think, you know, one of the one of the things where it broke down was, like, you're gonna say what you want, but you're being honest, and you have the intention to build that bet.

That's the problem.

People don't want honesty.

They want a fanboy. They want a fanboy. I'm not a fanboy.

Encouraging it in friendship.

Thank you. You want to sample

to make them feel good.

They all wanna act to hear what

Listen. I want my friends to keep my boys, you you know my circle, they keep me in check all the time. You know, like, whether I like, I'm bitching about something or yo. Like, the fuck? You know?

And I'll do the same thing with them. We do the same all the time.

I they, you didn't mention West CEO. Yeah. We spoke. Yeah. They're we're on the phone with you.

So it's a that am I the Yeah.

I'm not in on these calls or the group chat

on the call.

Or the group text her to call. You know,

how's business today?

3 hours of nights of time. Yeah.

Yo. Yo. Let me tell you about this.

As I took, we make

a bond later, but for the first

You gotta go on Friday. Fridays, we go to the lounge. I was gonna

say, I'll go I'll go with you.

Everyone, like, has their own business and we get together and

Yeah.

You hear everybody's day be like, damn, you went through some crazy shit today.

Yeah. But we're like, this is hard. And you're

like, I'll go do the little Friday. It's most set.

Yeah. I know. I know. I know.

Yep. That's what we do. But when we walk out, fresh. Yeah.

That's I mean, that's the one thing you wrote me. I got business is that it's not like work life. I don't say the work life thing. So you're always on we're

all Mhmm. Yeah.

Even when they ever work.

Listen. I I I go to family gatherings and shit, and they're like, yo. You good? Because I'm I'm Yeah. Mentally away thinking about

Yep.

Business. Right? And, like, you're always locked in, and it's like, yo. You're good. It's like, yeah.

Yeah, bro. I just got so much shit in my head that

That is the soul of being present. Yeah.

I mean, you're being on your feet off.

You're just thinking about your goals. Yep. Yeah. Chasing it.

You know? Metal.

Like, I've been in the building now. Like, I'd

be no better. I should've done more. Yeah. I should've more reps. I feel, yeah, I feel the same way.

I mean, there's that, one of those things floating around social media. I guess one of the more positive things that, I think is maybe a football coach, high school coach. He says, like, you know, overachievers, hard workers, they do so much and they still think that they should be doing more. Where, like, lazy and entitled people do a little bit, and they think they deserve it all, like, type of thing. And I think we all if you are a business owner or you're a coach or you're a leader for real, everybody feels that same way.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? The the, you know, blessing and a curse, I think, that I've developed over the years is, like, the ability to compartmentalize. So I can put stuff in a box, and that's good and bad sometimes, but that's how I separate.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, I can compartmentalize really well.

I'll be I'll be sometimes I'll be so locked in. I'm, like, not even there. Like Yeah. My mind is, like, yeah,

I gotta do this

and do that.

When you when somebody snaps you out of it or you snap yourself out of it, how crazy is it to, like, sit and think about it? You're like, man, I was just doing this thing for, like, 30 minutes Mhmm. At this place, and I wasn't even here. I was like, fuck.

I ran a business for, like, 10 years with I didn't I have no vacation. Yeah. I would even, last weekend, we had 2 nights of fights, 3 different events. Mhmm. And thank God, like, you know, we we swept.

But one of my coaches, James, was like, yo, bro. You know, we had 13 fights in November 2nd, and we won all of them. And I'm like, holy shit. I put my head down, and I don't think about none of this. It's just, yo, show up and do what you're supposed to be doing every fucking day Yep.

To reach success. And I I wasn't keeping count of how many bodies we were catching. It was just we're doing our job. You know?

I mean, to to some degree, that's what's required.

Yeah. We

were doing what's we're we're to acquire, but, you know, James was like, let's have a 60 second Sally. Yeah. 60 second celebration, man. I didn't

ask for that. You know? Right? Like Yep. I didn't need him to be like, yo, coach, you good shit.

Week 13. It was just like, oh, shit. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Monday, we gotta get back to work.

Yeah. Yeah. It's like more gas

in the tank, though, to, like Yeah.

Look at

that and be like, oh, this is what I did. Mhmm.

Yeah.

On that point of vacation, I find that when you are living a life that you enjoy and find purpose in, you don't need a vacation. You know what I mean? I don't like to go to vacation. I'm like, dang. I gotta take time off of my daily life to

Yeah.

Chill. But

Mhmm. And And a lot of people, including family members, don't understand that because they don't live

No. They yearn for that.

They don't live our lifestyle. You know? So a lot of people see it like, man, you fucking selfish. And it's like, nah, bro. I'm just I do what I love every day, and I don't need to escape it.

Yeah. Exactly.

Exactly. Vacation as an escape. I don't need to get away from

Yep. I agree. Yeah.

I agree. I agree. People love Love to

replace the word obsessed is selfish. You know what I mean? Like, because you're so dialed in on your your goals and your trajectory and and what you're doing that you're you're selfish. Right? Because you're not spending your valuable time, but then but literally, every second of your life is dedicated to the gods.

Yeah. I don't know.

Yeah. My my dad says we often mock what we don't understand, and that's that's, like, the truth. You know what I mean? He says that all the time. And I think that, like, most people just don't understand their life because they don't live it.

So they try to, instead of understand it, cut it down. You know what I mean? And, I

don't I don't teach every class in my gym, but I'm in my business every day. Oh, yeah. And that's just I have to be if I if I don't show up, it feels weird. Mhmm. I'm like, I'm off.

You know? I'm like, no. I have to do something in there. You know?

Sure. Yeah.

I mean People probably understand how arduous the the the feisty walls code down. There's this person. You have name 1. You have awful job. It's a bit sorry.

What do you just stay very simple.

And in the coaching world, like, you take everyone's problems because you need that person level headed, and you take in their problems. So now it's like, you have your stress plus their stress. It's just their

dump on. That's what, problem with them. That's it. That's one of the craziest things, like, you know, as a coach or as a leader of a community or a team or whatever. Like, everybody talks about boundaries, boundaries, boundaries.

Protect your

energy, put up the boundaries, blah blah blah. But, like, a good coach, a good leader will dissolve those boundaries for their team or for their community so that they can take some of the burden.

Yeah. I mean That's good. We I I have a great relationship with all of our guys, and we know each other's problems. And Mhmm. We try to figure it out all the time.

You know? So it's good. I I I love my team, man. We're we're different. Yeah.

We're different in there. I think

we I think we've established that. I think you guys have established that.

It's it's it's awesome, man. And a lot of people come in. If they're not like us, they find their way out, and that's okay. But the ones that are like us, they stay. And that that goes with any business.

You know what I mean? And you should only want people that Mhmm. Think alike and got the same grid and all that shit. You know? Yep.

I tell the stories one time I got on an airplane for one more trip, and I was wearing a Jeep in a shirt on a

railroad, like, waiting for work. I got to

win this company to go high. And they're like, oh, what's that mean? And that didn't even make say it. I was like, if if you don't understand, as real eagles get it, you say,

people aren't,

Betty, how

are you following that?

Mhmm. Yeah.

That's the that's like that that moment that point that point, excuse me, where you're like, do I wanna explain this? Like, do I really wanna get into it, or do I just wanna accept the compliment that it's a nice t shirt? Yes. You know? Or or do I wanna really get into it?

Like, how much time you got? You know what I mean?

It's cool, man.

Yeah. So what's, what's next, man? I mean, the the the gym's packed over there, man.

Yeah. We kinda outgrown our mess space, but, again, we'll make it work and then see what happens. But grinding every day, keep spreading our culture, and next year, we're gonna have a whole bunch of fights. So just work. Yeah.

They just if I tell my guys, listen. If you're a fighter, this is your job. Mhmm. You have to be on the mat. Yeah.

You can't just have a job. 1 of your workers just show up here and there. It's like, yo, you're gonna get fired.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? So this if you're a fighter, your job is to fight train. You know? And

Have those. And I didn't have people reach out to

you about, like, franchising or something to add.

Couple times. But, again, like, can't, man. You lose your soul.

Yeah.

You lose your character. Like, that's why we're in North Philly. Right? Mhmm. We represent Philly.

Mhmm. If I say my team from Philly, we in Philly. Yep. You get what I'm saying? And Philly is a fighting city.

Mhmm. So we're fighters. This is what we do, and we're we we represent what where we come from. Yeah. That's just what it is.

Yeah. Marquez MMA wouldn't be Marquez MMA somewhere other than

yeah. Diego.

Yeah. The grit is different.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, even at the PI, we we talked about this, and the PI is amazing. Yep. It's great. Top of the line.

Yep.

State of the art facility, but I feel like sometimes you forget you're a fighter in there.

Yeah.

And there's no grit. Yeah. So

Too too pretty, too polished.

Yeah. Yeah. Full feet out

of it.

Man. You need to look around and be like, damn. I I gotta fight Yep. To get away from this shit. You know?

So Yep. It it just it fits who we are. Yeah. You know? And I love Globe Network.

They they gave us a chance when we have shit. Matt Papa John, he looked out.

Matt Matt's a solid dude. Yeah. Matt is a solid dude. I've had a couple hard conversations with Matt since we've been here, and he's always had our back. You know?

Everything hasn't been lovely for us since we've

been here. Matt Matt did a lot for our team, man, and,

he's solid.

Gave us a chance, and I I love

the speed. Yeah. You gotta fight the trap, they can just fight the adversity, not the side.

That's who we are, man.

It's Yeah. That's it.

Yeah. Multiple fights.

Gotta carry your gun. Yeah. Multiple fight. On the way to the gym. So Right.

Yep. There. I, he showed me no. I think it was Joe, from Bertrand. Joe.

He showed me the video when on Kinsey, when we had their string of break ins.

Yeah.

Like, a couple of your guys got their bag stolen or whatever. He showed me the video. He's like, yo, you wanna see something crazy? I was like, yeah. All I see is Jonathan.

I think it was Jonathan. Like, he's got pads on and shit. Like, running out of Marquez to run after this dude that's breaking the car. They were bringing

the cars around here.

Yeah. I think it was And

Joe was like, yo. This dude at this time, they start, like, plotting. I said, yo, call me.

I'll stop the training

to go fuck this guy up. Right? So Joe's like, yo, they're outside.

I tell the guy, they're outside. Oh, he's he's got, like, shin pass. He's, like, running out.

Angel Angel you know Angel is a police officer for for Philly. He went out there.

It was crazy.

Yeah. I

mean, there's a little bit sadly after the the war. They're not there to be a man. That's where Lior is with where he's,

That was that was wild. Got carjacked. That was wild. And he was surfing.

He was hanging from the door Yeah. And Yoli shot at him. Yeah. That's why he jumped off.

Yeah. The story. You you want not like the number of evil.

Yo. You could add. I could add a clip of this in this

We we should. We should. 1 of 1 of the few eagles. It's on YouTube.

Coming to yo here, but

he was delivering for DoorDash or Eagle Eats, and he got a car jack in the process. In San Jose, inside

of the city, and it completely throws cars into

the wind and hops on the car to, keep them prevent them from stealing it. He's he holds on for, I would say, a mile.

I mean, it was it was good. Half a block. It was it was yeah. It was a good, like and that's a long block. Because he was by the Ben Franklin Bridge.

That's a long

block there.

Yeah. Right off market.

Yes. And he eventually hopped up and they did fire and all shoot at him.

It shot out through the window. Yeah.

So the level of danger in which it it really, taken for to save, the car would probably not work.

I think it was a Mercedes, bro. I think

it was

a Mercedes.

It was a old Mercedes. Yeah.

Brothers love these old ass Mercedes. Heard.

It's like, coach, I have a I said, what kind of car do you get? He's like, I got a Mercedes. I walk outside. I'm like, motherfucker, it's a 2,008. They got 300,000 miles on it.

But it's a but it's

a bit.

Yeah. It depends, dude. It's a 500. Yeah. When I when I was a kid well, I can't even say when I was a kid because it continued almost to high school.

But you have a bumper hop, like, in the snow?

Yep. We used

to do it all the time.

We ripped somebody's bumper off. Yeah. We held on to the plastic part. Yep.

Did you ever do that kind of?

I used to ride a septum bus from middle school to 5th and Erie. Oh, really? On the back. Just hang on. This is like So Philly We

used to

we used to bumper hop. So you know what bumper hopping is?

Very car fault because they found out that dad's something is to get us killed. So my arm. I was a good I was a good kid.

I was a good kid, but I did double check.

We were good kids. We were just misled.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Here we go. Bumper hop we we used to bumper hop in the snow.

So when there's snow on the ground, 1 kid would stop the car and then ask some stupid ass questions. And all the other kids would run around to the back and hold on to

the bumper. It's a cold ladle.

And we would just hold on.

It's like a spot. Yeah. On the snow. You were

driving it. On the snow? Yeah. Mhmm. So when I saw the video at Igor, he was holding on to the driver's side door Yeah.

On pavement, like, bumper hot

crocs on. That is crazy.

That should be an ad for Crocs, man. That should be a Crocs ad. He was doing the same thing.

What are you talking about? How does he say, like, I

served on that, man? I said, it's like Yeah.

I mean These guys come from other parts of the world, and I think it's, like, the same, and Yeah. It's not. Yeah. He's like, it's okay. Now now he understands.

You know? Yeah. Like, brother, like, can't be living like that all night.

Let it go.

No. He didn't get the car back either. Right? Fuck. No.

That thing is

That shit was going.

Is there at the time?

That thing's probably in pieces right now.

Now. Gone. Doesn't exist.

My, my uncle went to potty shop.

Oh, for the Yeah.

Well, you know the potty shop. Yeah. He went to potty shop, and my dad used to work on James Street, like, right off

State Road.

And there's this little there's this little body shop, right by James Street. And when the cars used to get stolen from my uncles in Philmont, like, off Philmont Ave, my dad would see the cars down at the shop getting chopped up within, like, hours. Crazy. Out within hours. Within hours.

Yeah. You go through crazy shit in this city, man. Yeah. It's getting kinda wild too. I got a red light.

Somebody hops the curb. They don't wanna be at the red light. They just keep moving like, man, this is crazy out here.

Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty wild, man. It's it's pretty it's pretty wild.

It's crazy.

We were we were talking before the show too. Like, even the neighborhood that I'm in now, one of the nicest neighborhoods in Philly, still crazy shit going on.

Yeah. Well, no repercussions for their actions.

Well, no. There's no there's no repercussions with the DA. But, plus the other thing too is now, like, nobody has to be bare faced anymore. Mhmm. Everybody's got the on.

It's like 80 degrees. It's like 90 degrees in the summer and it's full, like on. Full bottle Listen. Bottle clap.

Brother, I live in. Motherfuckers just wear that all day. You have a on in the summertime or winter. I'm like, I'm pointing my shit at you. Like, don't come my way, motherfucker.

I never

heard the term shiesty. Yeah.

It's like the thing.

Jeez. Where you live at?

I know. I did.

No. That's a it's a thing. Man. I thought I everyone needs to say, I was like, look. Like, this is the deal with, like, what's going on with what people are wearing.

And, like, why do they do that?

We have to write Drew like a like a checklist. Be aware of this.

Yeah. That. I need I need the the street encyclopedia.

Now you know what we gotta do. We gotta take him to Kensington, drop him off down Lehigh.

Yeah.

We park on Allegheny and be like, yo. I see you. Just walk this shit walk.

It's funny you fucking say that because when I was a kid, I had crazy anxiety about, like, just, like, getting kidnapped or anything. Yes. Because my parents' brutal divorce probably Yeah. Led that led me to that. So, anyway

Not funny.

I'm scared of

I'm, like, scared

of my own shadow. And my dad used to live at Bridgeton Pratt, and we go down there to, like, hang up with one of his friends and, like, play around or whatever. And I'm like, oh, like, I wanna I need a drink. So he's like, oh, go walk to 711. And I'm like, here?

Like, the like, you mean

to walk to 711? Like, this is like, he's like, yeah. Go.

Like, here's $5. Like, I gotta get

your hair.

But look.

And do

That's the foundation. Right?

You were a kid,

and that's the foundation that

was I agree. And one of the

better things what dad did.

So, anyway, he followed me, like, in his car. I I he didn't know I didn't know, But I walked like, it was scared shitless, dude. Like, I'm walking those streets of Brita Pratt. Just like, what the fuck? Like Yeah.

Anyway, I go to someone, and I get a drink and come back, and he's like, oh, you're fine. Right? I'm like, yeah. Like, he he was But

Jim Pratt wasn't even that bad back in the

day. Bro. Yeah. So, anyway, long story short, the next day on the news, my mom sees, like, 711 blows gets blown up by a Molotov cocktail. Like

And it was the one you

were at? Yeah. That day, I was like, I was at That's crazy.

When we we were talking about, Globe and how amazing they are, we had our first, like, photo shoot here for fuel hunt, like, 2017, then we found it on Craigslist. And I called Drew, and I was like, yo. I found they got a spot in Globe. It's perfect for us. Blah blah blah.

Do do you remember the first thing you that you said? No. You were like you were like, isn't that near Bridge and Pratt? So I guess I, like, triggered I triggered that core memory, dude, by saying, you know? Saying, you know?

That's funny, dude.

We, yeah. It's it's wild. I sent some of the like, my oldest daughter, soon as she turned 4, I started sending her into stores by herself, like, the coffee shop. Like, she'd be like, oh, I want a chocolate milk. I'm like, alright.

Here's $5. I wanna stand outside. You can see me through the window.

Yeah.

But you gotta go into a full coffee shop, go to the fridge, pull the chocolate milk, put it on the counter, get your change. You know, she knows nothing about, like, how much change she should get. But, like, I was trying to, like, you

know, impart that. Yeah.

Part that on her. You know?

You have to

say that. When you're put in that situation, even as a young kid, you're, like, acutely aware to everything going on around you.

I I had looks like a podcast. I got some parenting podcast about this woman or Kim must be, like, 5 or 6 years old. Mhmm.

She was

out of the middle of New York New York City and was, like, get home.

Yo. We we talked yeah. We talked about it too.

And, like, that was, like and she, like, was building a whole business of this, like, parenting strategy of, like, making kids figure things out for themselves.

Yeah. Novel idea, man.

I never did it. Think for yourself solving

your problems.

I don't

know what the hell

would happen to Parker if I dropped off in Philly. I told them to get them.

My now granted, like, Japan is, like, a super safe place. My wife's half Japanese. Right? They had a show on in, like, the mid 2000. That was the whole premise of the show.

So the parents would give, like, a 3 year old money and be, like, okay. Go to the store and, like, get these things. It was a literal show on television. Now granted, like I said, Japan is, like, super safe or whatever. But they had to cross, like, 4 lane highways.

Yeah. You know what I mean? To go and then the bag would rip on the way back. They'd have to go back to the store and, like, explain it. It was wild.

It was wild. But I think there's something to that strategy.

I agree.

Something to it, man. Something to it.

Yeah. But that foundation, man.

Yeah. You're either gonna you're either gonna build it or you have to break it later.

Yeah.

Right? You're gonna build it right or you're gonna break it down.

It's like fighting. Right? Like, if you build bad habits Mhmm. Early Yeah. It's super hard to to change those habits.

Yep. And and it's it's crazy. Yeah. I saw online, and it's super smart. It's like academies for adults to, like it kinda like you build grit

Mhmm.

And they fucking scream at you. They put you through hell.

Yeah. Yeah.

And you see, like, adults, like, breaking. Mhmm. Oh, yeah. And it's like, damn. You don't realize how many

They're out there, man.

Yeah. We had one for for a while. And after you you feel to realize how many people don't live a realistic way. Mhmm. Oh, yeah.

You know? Yeah. That's crazy.

Like, it it's like you said earlier, John, like, it's mentality. You know what I mean? Whether it's built or you have to relearn it or refigure it out. But when I did my first 5 day fast with my friend Frank, like, I've been on the show before,

He was at FTB FTB.

And I was he was like, oh, do you wanna do this? I'd I'd, like, never done any kind of fasting before. And I told Amanda, I was like, yeah. I'm doing it. And then I was like, you're either gonna, I'm gonna either gonna finish the fast in 5 days or you're gonna take me to the hospital because I'm gonna die if I don't like, I just just refuse.

I was like, I'm not gonna fucking eat food if I told myself Yeah. If I told myself in here that I'm not gonna do it and I couldn't bring myself to do it, like, what can I do?

Mhmm. Yeah. That's tough.

I said build I said build you build it now or you break it later. And I actually thinking about it, I don't know if it's a if it's an ore. I feel like there's always something you have to break later. Like, you know, that building and breaking. You know what I mean?

You could build a good foundation, but something seeps in. You got one habit, you know, one something that you gotta break.

You gotta be sharp too to recognize it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because if you don't recognize it on time, that shit just gets worse.

Right now, you can find it's a the great thing about the world and or society and the troubling thing about society, like, you can find somebody that's gonna rationalize and support you. You can find a community to support the shit that you need to break.

For sure.

You know what I mean? You can find somebody that says it's okay.

To our k and

like, I I will be

the next champion. Do you sit down with like, do you tell them right away what they're doing what they're doing wrong with the choir?

No. I I let everyone grows different.

And there's some guys in there that are like, I wanna be the champion. You're supposed to be like, do I say what brings do I do it?

The thing is, yo, you gotta you gotta be honest and be realistic. Right? Like, the UFC is becoming almost like playing for the NBA, NFL. I think the UFC roster right now is, like, 700 people. Yeah.

But how many fighters you think are out here saying, I wanna be in the UFC? Yeah. Right? And if you don't keep it real, it's like you build a false sense of reality in these people. And it's like, yo, not everyone's going to make it to the UFC, but that doesn't mean you got to go 50% because you never know.

Yeah.

Our our guys, like, they all came from amateur pro. They were homegrown, and they were trying to get in the UFC, and it's, like, almost impossible. Right? At times, it's like, we're not gonna get the call.

Yeah.

We're not gonna get the call, but we we stuck to the game plan. You have to train every day. And then all of a sudden Mhmm. Yo, you wanna fight next next next Saturday, and it's like, holy fuck.

I'm sure you have I'm sure you have guys, and gals on the team that have done that, just focused on the work, and then some crazy circumstances happen. Like Yeah. Like, short notice, somebody dropped out something.

I think I think Brady was the only one that was signed with enough time. Yeah. But Pat Sabatini, short notice. Jeremiah, short notice. Mhmm.

Andre came out of the ultimate fighter, short notice.

Yep. So he got short notice after this.

Joe Pfeiffer was after contender, Nushoton. Right? He's from Uzbekistan Yep. From a village. This guy has, I believe, like, 30 something MMA fights.

Yeah. Oh, really?

He's like 38 and 6 or 8 or some 40 something fights total. Right?

Yeah.

From a village. He's the number one guy in his country. His following is crazy. Yeah. Like, 1,600,000 followers or something.

Yeah. He has a whole damn country. Right? And he came from Uzbekistan here, got the work permit, was training with us. He wanted to be in the UFC.

Mhmm. UFC UFC nothing for a year and a half.

Yeah.

And we're like, yo, Left his family, left his kids, everything. Yo. Just put your head down and work. Mhmm. Next thing you know, it was like 6 days notice.

Yo. You gonna fight an undefeated guy with 10 first round finishes. Yeah. And he was like because he did the work. Yeah.

He said, we're ready. Yeah. We go out there. He gets 1st round finish in a couple minutes. Knocks the guy clean out.

Right?

Yep.

Because he did the work. Yeah. Yeah. And he thought he was never gonna get signed.

I don't I don't think that that's by accident.

You know

what I mean? And that's maybe that's a little maybe that's a little too, like, hippy dippy for everybody, but when you make the decision to do the work, even when you can't see a clear path, the path opens for you.

Yeah. You know?

And I

mean It's not

gonna be on your terms. You're not gonna get

to that. Beat UFC, but it may be somewhere else that's cutting you a check that now you could live comfortably. Mhmm. You know? Yeah.

Because UFC is getting hard as shit to get into. You know?

Everybody wants to

be a competitor. Is so so big.

Being that he was having so much success in his prior country, can you not make a living like you can in the UFC over there? Like, why would he want if he was if he was the whole country is behind him and he was the top guy over there, what would drive him to wanna be in the UFC?

The UFC, it's the the top.

The glory.

Right. So like like Brady, you could probably pay Brady $1,000 next fight, and he'll be like, yeah. If it's if it's if it's gonna take me to be a UFC world champion, I'm gonna do it. Even if it's for a $1,000. Yeah.

Because he's not fighting for money. He's fighting for his legacy and his goals. He told himself when he was a teenager, I'm a be a UFC champion. And that's what Again that's what his mission I'm

like, well, it's in my it's my arm.

It's in my arm way. You're you're into his space.

Yeah. I mean, I'm

trying to

keep this so far.

He believes that. You know what I mean? And we believe that. Yep. And in his mind, this is what he's chasing.

He's focused. Doesn't matter We'll get in his way. And not every fighter says they wanna be a champion. That's that's also a thing that I learned throughout the years. Not everyone's gonna be a world champion, and not everyone wants to be a world champion.

Mhmm.

So And that's fair too. If if you're Yeah. You just wanna make a living.

That's okay.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

There's a lot of fighters that just make a great living just fighting. Yep. And they don't have no desire to be world champion, number 1. They just wanna fight, make a living. That they're doing what they

love. For their family.

They're doing what they love. That that's it. And, but then you have the other ones that are chasing greatness and legacy and

Yeah. Yeah.

All types of shit. Mhmm.

It's interesting for Sean like, that that is Sean's goal because, as you can see, he's not like a McGregor type, but he doesn't wanna he don't be in the limelight. He wants to work and

then Right.

And have that goal.

That's

why it's gonna happen. Exactly. He's like a it's like a oxymoron kind of like I said, you have you have to be if you are the champion.

And and that that's one thing I kinda, like, dislike about the game nowadays. Mhmm. There's, like, you have to build that clout. Mhmm. And that has nothing to do with fighting.

Yeah. Like, the talking shit, the acting, the

Yeah. It has nothing to

do with it.

Fake? The

A lot of it is fake. Like, Kobe Covington, I hear from everyone. Yo. This guy is the nicest guy in the world. Yeah.

But then when you see him on in front of a camera, it's like, man, this fucking guy.

You know why? Because, like, it's proportionate. Right? Like, the intensity of the love is proportionate to the intensity of the hate, and I think that that's why, like, you know, people put on that.

I I

dislike that part about the sport because it's like especially, like, we're working every day. Like, yo, this is my job. I don't wanna fucking go online and then see one of my guys just talking mad shit.

And Yeah. It's like honest sometimes. Mhmm. Giving the team a bad reputation too.

Yeah. I don't play that. Our guys I don't play that shit. Yeah. Our guys are pretty much, like, super humble and Yep.

They defend themselves as something is said.

But

Sure. Sure. Sure.

But that's a whole different thing. I mean, defending yourself and Yeah.

I don't like that.

Character are 2 different things.

Yo. Let your work do the the talking.

You know what

I mean? You go in there, you knock the ass out and just walk away.

Results speak for themselves. Yeah. That's that's my favorite things to to say, like, to Parker is, like, scoreboard don't lie. Because the scoreboard always tells I I I the story.

I live like that. You know what I mean? I don't pay attention to the outside noise. Because in MMA, a lot of people, like, hate on each other. They talk about this.

They talk about that. And it's like, I don't pay attention to none of that shit. I have my almost, like,

kinda really changed from the days of, like, the Gracies or whatever when they were in the UFC. It was like a fucking

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Like, a dog fight, like, Friday night Friday, night fight club. Like, you know what I mean? And now it's kind of taken on a totally different I think, being a casual and just from my outside perspective, like, a totally different like.

Because that's the the talking shit and the acting and all that, that brings in views.

Mhmm. Yeah.

And It brings in spectators. And then Spectators. The spectators. Means more money. And Yeah.

It's like WWF. Right? None of that. Yeah. I hate to

tell you guys. That was a shit

as dream.

That's not

real. Bro. But when

I discovered that in the game, I was Yeah.

Of course. Money and, yo, you gotta Yep. You gotta take the juice so you get a little like a Power Ranger and Bro. You know what

I mean? When I

discovered that as a kid, I was heartbroken that the WWF was fake. And people still go and watch it knowing that it is.

Yeah. I mean, it's entertainment. It's entertainment. You know what

I mean?

People like to be entertaining.

It's not even the part of it was real.

Yeah. I mean,

You you letting me down more and more as a child.

Kid when I was a kid, I'm saying.

When I was a kid, you thought it was, like what part of it did you think it was legit?

I thought

I don't

I just never really

of it or the What I was story line?

12 maybe. Like, 11, 12 years old. Like, I

Put it together though because I I started seeing them hit the floor.

Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm like, man, I'm walking on this team.

Every I I was I loved it so much that I I I was playing fucking NWO ECW on my Nintendo 64. Like Yeah. I I don't I don't think any part of me wanted to even think about it being fake, so I just never even remember.

You remember ECW? ECW.

That was that was on Woodhaven like, off Woodhaven Road, wasn't it?

It was on, 23100 Arena. Oh, was it really? And that's a Philly that that was a Philly thing.

I never went, but I had a a friend of mine. Real. Listen. I had a friend of mine from South Philly. I met this kid on, like, a service trip, and he was a big ECW fan.

Crazy. And he was like, oh, man. You you in wrestling? And I'm like, nah, man. I, like, gave that shit up.

Like, I was kinda the same way with you. I was like, this like, it just wasn't for me.

Yeah. You know

what I mean? I did enjoy it. Like, I was a big, like, it

was crazy. Yeah.

Ultimate warrior guy and all shit. But at a certain point, I let it go. He was like, oh, you ever see ECW? I was like, no. Show me some shit.

Bar wire. Like, people stapling other people in the face, getting hit with chairs, and I'm like, this is crazy. This is some crazy shit.

It is crazy, bro.

Yeah. The barbed wire, like, all that wild shit. Yeah. I was like, how is this even legal? Like, how are they getting away with this, man?

I don't think it is. When I used to go to a camp, like, a day camp back in the day. And Jesus. What? Like, a day like, my parents are at work, so they drop me off at camp.

Yeah. Not like a like a a rich kid, like, stay away camp. But, anyway, they drop me off at camp so they go to work for during the day.

What did you do in camp?

Like, dumpster.

My mom was like, go out. Go outside. I'll be Go outside. When the street lights come out,

I'll see you.

Your mom to save her mom? Mom?

No. She worked. Well, who was locked in when you're nobody, dude. I was on the street.

Locked the doors. You're

telling me

answer the door to anyone.

Okay. So year old Joey is saying I'm by himself.

8 year old Joey was cooking hot dogs, dinner By for my family.

He was I'm gonna ask auntie that. You were staying home by yourself.

We did it. Bro.

This is the thing. So there when I was younger, before we moved to Fox Chase, I used to stay at my nads. Like, after school, I used to walk from Holy Inn to my nads. She lived on Hunting Park Ave. And then, like, my my mom and dad would pick me up.

In the summer at, like, 7, 8 years old, you were staying home by yourself Yeah. All day.

Yeah, bro.

I'm calling it after this podcast. I was the last

I was the last kid kid. Yo. You know how many

As soon as we move to Fox Chase, 3rd grade That

really happened, bro. It really happened. Last kid.

I walked to the bus stop. I walked to Saint Cecilia's in the morning. I walked home, and it was my job to get dinner ready, man. When I

Yeah. You you you should talk to Kurt, though. You didn't say thing. You don't

wanna don't watch you.

My mom was to stay at home.

Okay. But

I was I was outside in the street. Yeah.

I I Even when my, like the same way about, like, during when I was, like, 10 years old, I wasn't staying home myself all day.

Yeah. During the summers, I was I was home by myself.

A lot of kids do that, bro.

But I was the same. My mom would just say, like, come home whenever, but Yeah. Not during the day when she was at work.

I have to go inside when the street lights come on.

Yeah. Same. Same.

Dirty as shit. Dirty ass kid.

Well, that's why I think it's crazy. My kids

used to open the she used to open the window. I dude, man, I remember this. She used to open the window, and she used to yell for me to come in. And she'd be like, I smell you from here. Come in and take a shower.

You've been out all day. And I'm like, but that's what I was supposed to do. You know? And she's you smiled.

Don't go no more, bro. It's bad. I tell her to just go outside and, like, just be just be a kid, dude. Like, because every kid is entertained 247 nowadays, and they all have self kids at Parker's Parker's in 3rd grade, and kids have cell phones.

Don't yeah. Don't give

me shit.

I I go for it.

Said my mom used to just, like I would just I'd just leave the house, just do it, go home with a star. And she had no idea no cell phone, no idea where I was. Literally, I could have been anywhere in the city, but I try and be

to take my bike.

Yeah. Once you were on the

hills another part of the city. Is that what

you're saying?

Thing, like, I'm down the street.

Yeah. Miles.

We used to just roll out.

Go from from Fox Chase by from, like, Fox Chase Cancer Center, like, from there. And I used to go down to Roosevelt Mall. I used to ride my bike to Roosevelt Mall back, during the summer. And I, like, we're doing all sorts of fucked up shit. Like, we're tagging walls.

We're going to coconuts. Like, my buddy's stealing, like, CDs. Like, my one buddy has a walk

from North Philly to Northeast on Hooptie Bikes Yeah. Yeah. And come back with Dino GGs.

I think maybe one of my diamond bikes, dude. I think you got one of my diamond bikes.

My my chromies.

Yeah. I

we used to go we used to steal chromies. Yeah.

We used to

do some dumbass shit. Down, I come back

for 30 minutes. Man, where was that? It was,

Don, it was a lip light, dude.

It was by, like, Ascension BVM. There was, like, a dirt track back there. So I used to BMX, like, freestyle BMX. Yeah. We got, like you know?

I was pretty good at it, but amateur when

I was

Are these still in here? The what? There's a big, just flew on me.

Oh, maybe. Yeah. It's been warm, so they've come back to life.

Great.

But we used to drop we used to ride down to I think it was, like, Tookany, and there was, like, a dirt track back there. And there were some, like, North Philly kids that would come up. So, like, bikes are getting taken, like, left and fucking right, man. So my buddy got his We were poor as shit, bro.

We used

to get He had the dyno with the, what what was the thing called on it?

The gyro.

The gyro. Yeah.

Inside the full spin.

He had it for, like, a week, and he got it stolen out of Turkey. Yeah.

We struggled, man. We struggled growing up.

Yeah. Oh. Hot dogs

instead of, like, a piece of steak.

Yeah. Hot a hot dog in a microwave.

Protein was a protein was a fucking hot dog.

It was a lot hot dogs.

Yeah. I did I used them in the microwave, bro.

Microwave?

Geez. Grabbing a paper towel and put it in the microwave.

Oh, yeah.

It's new.

That's cool. Yeah.

Then we're kinda close.

Hot hot hot dog water, man. Like, after you boiled the hot dogs, like, the water that was

Friday night was pizza night. Right? We were so fucking poor. We used to get sliced bread

sauce. Oh.

Popping in the oven. That was our pizza night.

Pizza night.

We had pizza night.

Hooray, man.

The point of the story was I would go to this camp, and we would go to Pennyback Park during the day. Yeah.

And we

would, like, nature walk there. And the night before, they were at these wrestling matches on the baseball field where we would play. Dude, there'd be, like, barbed wire, tables broken, like, all this glass because, like, these guys were having

wrestling Penny Pack?

They were having wrestling matches on the baseball field at Penny Pack.

That's great. It's probably, like, ECW.

How much time are you doing at camp? Every summer? Yeah. That's crazy.

My my privilege is showing.

Did. My my, my mom did put me in, for 1 year, which I really enjoyed actually. She put me in, like, golf camp. It was, like, with the Philadelphia rec.

Golf camp.

And we went to, like no. We went to, like, the Berghome

Drive. Rich ass shit.

Yeah. That's some Well,

this was through the city. This was through the city. So I'm pretty sure it was almost free.

It's some, there's some pale stuff. Some kind of. Yeah.

So we went to, like, Burnham Golf, and we were, like, drive balls, and then we go to, like, was it Walnut, Lane, maybe?

Yeah.

Like, button rock in, like, Roxboro, and we could play on that for free. So that was that was kinda cool. But

But that builds grit.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know? I saw it it was fucked up. I grew up in North Philly, Hunting Park. And the first time I saw somebody get shot, I was 8 years old.

Yeah.

The first guy has had blown out. And I'm on the sidewalk. I was like, I looked, I looked away. Yeah. I just walked home, sat on my couch.

My mom's like, what happened? You heard that blast? I was like, yeah. They just killed somebody around the block. Yeah.

She was she started freaking out. You see that shit?

Like

and I'm like, yeah. I will never forget that. That was the first time. After that, growing up in the hood, shit happens. You see it, and there's, like, nothing.

Yeah. Kinda brought like calluses in your brain. Does.

Yeah. John, and he was he witnessed a I don't know. And the guy actually maybe got shot, but there was shootings happening. That's I like, bro, what? He's like, yeah.

Like, they're shooting each other out of here.

That was it one time in the phone.

Yeah. Yeah.

We were

on the phone. I was on the phone with Drew, and some guys passed. And I'm like, yo. They're about to do something.

Yeah. You got real quiet. Couple

couple minutes later, big ass shoot.

Around. And I'm

like, oh, shit. He's like, yo. You good? Yeah. I was like, fuck.

I'm freaking about out of my car. You're gonna save him. Yeah. I mean, it's a John, you good? I'm like, shut the fuck up.

I can't talk right now. I'm hiding.

Yeah. I'm on speaker. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Give away his location. Mhmm.

I mean, that's I mean, it it sticks with you, man. Sticks with you. But you're right with the with the counts is

Yeah.

You kinda you kinda get desensitized to it, a bit. And I'm sure you've seen, like, way way worse than the

other. But The street life and all that, like, so many of my friends, you know, I think I think about my friends every day, but

Yeah.

It come it comes with their life. You know? Yeah. And, that also, like, others have it worse than you. I think about my boys all the time.

Yeah.

It's like my boys not even here no more. You know? They can't even live life and

Yep.

I get to I have a chance to do what I love. I just take advantage. Yeah. It it pisses me off when people are not grateful what they have Yeah. Because those are the people that didn't go through shit to realize they have it good.

You know? Yep. And, I tell them all the time, like, yo, there's there's more to life than just not having what you want all the time. You know? Mhmm.

Gotta work for it and be grateful that you get to work for it even if you don't get it.

At least

you tried.

Yeah. The opportunity to

try it. Be a hard conversation too with the people that wanna be champions or being either league. But being, like you said, grateful for where you are in the journey and the process while you're looking to achieve that goal. It's like, it's hard for us sometimes to to think about where where we wanna be business wise, but then, like, also be grateful for where we are.

Yeah. Of course, bro. I think everybody has a story already written, and doesn't matter how how hard you try or it's just that's what it's gonna be. You know? Mhmm.

But at least you could lay your head and on your pillow at night and tell yourself, like, yo, I'm I'm giving them my all. Yeah. There's not one person on this fucking earth that could say John doesn't go all in in what he wanna do. I'll go all in. Yeah.

You know what I mean? And I'm comfortable with that even if we don't get to where we need to our goal, but at least we fucking worked our ass off for it. You know?

Our goal being the individual fighters? Like, would you say Yeah. As far

as the team the team

go, you kind of surpass what you made.

Yeah. As a team, yeah. But remember, everyone has a goal, and it's

And that becomes your goal.

I'm part of Yeah. Each individual goal.

You know? I've seen the the board of the fights in the, in the room, but, like, they all become your individual goals, essentially.

So, like, when Brady becomes a world champion Mhmm. That'll be a Saturday. Monday, I'll be right back to work. Yeah. Mhmm.

Hey, Ryan. Congratulations. Thank you. Good. Yo.

I bet you Sean

I bet I

bet you Sean is that too.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, no. I mean, that's the thing. Like, let's keep doing the thing that brought us here.

That's it. Else.

It's someone else. Yep. And I I say this all my like, all the time. Like, everyone a lot of clout is focused around the UFC guys, and that's cool Mhmm. Because they earned it.

But, yo, I have next generation coming up. Yep. These guys, everyone is the same to me in my room. Yeah. Everyone.

Everyone everyone trains together. I've never separated the elite guys with the new guys.

Mhmm.

Someone

who do. Trains together. Everyone trains together. Because how how the new guy is gonna where he's gonna get his motivation from

Mhmm.

If I keep him away from the elite guy. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And that's what it is.

You never know.

You might pick up something like that Like, in jujitsu, that black belt wisdom. You know what I mean? Like, you gotta roll with a black belt, and then they're like, oh, do this differently next time.

Imagine doing jujitsu, and it's all not not saying that purple belts or whatever. That that just purple belts teaching the entire

time. Mhmm. And

you're like, your goal is purple.

Yeah.

Yeah. When you see the black buzz, like, man, I wanna get there. You know?

Just through, like, osmosis. Like, even if you're you're in class and you're next to Sean. You know what I mean? Just through osmosis. Like, you can feel that energy.

You can feel, like, what he's bringing into the room, and I I I feel I believe it, like, seeps into you.

Yeah. You

know what I mean? If you have the right mindset.

But to your point, though, complacency is definitely the enemy in all facets of life. Because once you get comfortable, that's when you you start to lose. You start to slip. Like Yeah. Even in business, like, we we stopped

Had a big year.

Yeah. A big year. We we thought we're like, like, we're just gonna fucking

Yeah. You you take you you relax for a second. That second turns into an hour. That hour turns into a week.

Pounds. Yep.

And that I don't even know

if we really relaxed. We just took our eye off the ball, essentially.

We thought we thought that there were certain areas that were covered, and they're never covered, man. Like, they're never covered. Like, you you always have to have your eye on

p's and q's all the time. Yep. Yep. But it is is it's the same thing. You become champion Saturday.

Monday, we're right back to work. You've got we've won some some great fights. Right? Like, that the fight camp was so intense and the the leading up to that fight, everything that you go through in the fight camp and all that, and you deserve a week or two off. And we're like, we're not where we wanna be.

Yeah. Right back to work on Monday even after he win. Brady, a lot of our most of our guys, they win on Saturday. Yep. Monday, they're right back in the gym training.

Even if even if they took some damage, they're still in doing what they can. Yeah.

Your leg hurt. They're doing all boxing.

Yep. Mhmm. Yep.

It's just that's the culture that we built as a team. You know?

You said you said that, you know, you specifically, and I'm sure the guys too and the gals too, but, like, you may not be where you want. You may had to take a left turn. Mhmm. Things aren't going your way, but at night when you put your head down on the pillow, you know you did the work to get there. That's the most important thing.

Like, that's what and I'm sure you find comfort in it too. Like, at this point, I find comfort in the discomfort. Like, that makes me comfortable. If I feel like I've done the uncomfortable things Yep. That I need to do regardless of if we're there or not

Yeah.

If I've done the uncomfortable things, then I have some type of

Just just last night. So Wednesday morning, we spar, and I saw a couple of things. Like, guys only doing what they're comfortable doing. Last night, all the drills was uncomfortable drills,

and

it was like, yo, y'all have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Yeah. Because the fight is not always gonna be how you want it to go.

Yeah. So, it's funny. Switch up like that in the room, do they know? Do they, like, something prompted this. Something prompted this.

You can see, like, oh, what the fuck is going on? And you can see the the vibe and the the motion in the room. Yeah. And it's like and I'm walking around like, see, you motherfuckers are uncomfortable. That's why we look like this right now.

Yeah.

And they're like, fuck. You know, giving it their all. Our our team always

What are some of those comfortable moves and uncomfortable moves? Like, could you

Certain footwork drills, certain head movement drills, certain combinations Yeah. That you feel comfortable doing. Yeah. But then again, it's like, yo, you you have to build your toolbox. And in order to build your toolbox, you can't just keep doing what you already doing.

You already have those tools.

I mean, you can't you can't build a house with just a hammer. You know what I'm saying? Like, you need all the tools. You need to be working.

And then MMA, the sport has evolved so much that you have to work on new things all the time, man. Mhmm. All the time. If you go back to, like, videos of years ago in our team, like, we always work, like, switching stances and all that shit. Yep.

And they used to say, yo, this is weird. Like, I don't need to switch stances. They used to my system was weird to people, and it's like, now we're, like, years ahead.

Yeah.

Our guys do this shit flawless. You know? So

Yep. That's another aspect of your job, like, being coaches. You have to also update your hardware all

the time. Listen. The the worst thing a coach can do is think their way is the only way. Yep. You know what I'm saying?

That's the worst thing you could do as a coach. Yeah. Because this shit is evolving

I mean, dude

by the fucking minute, you know.

You gotta you gotta grow with them. You know what I mean? Just as just as you're forcing them to grow, you gotta force yourself to grow.

Yep. Yeah. Gotta study all the time and set your goals for the team and shit like that. So Yep. Yeah.

If you don't you don't evolve, you sink. Yep.

So Grow or die.

Oh, yeah.

Grow or die.

You see that in the clothing world. Yep. You know? Mhmm. You see that in the apparel world.

Like Yep. People that don't evolve.

Yep. Oh, yeah.

Even the humongous companies. I'm not gonna say their names, but Yeah.

A lot of brands.

Yeah. A lot of brands.

If they they kept if they kept the how they it's not Even

a lot of people that we were coming up against when we were building our brand from, like, the ground up, A lot of those brands have fallen by the wayside and closed up shop because they just we talked about before the show, like, they didn't have it. Right? They weren't our lives are solely dedicated to to the work. You know? It's like work, family, jutsu.

You have to be connected to your customers and your community. Mhmm. You're not connected with them, you're not gonna know

what they're Tone deaf. Yeah. Tone deaf.

Yeah. And

people, they wanna like, you talk about the clout. They want the they wanna clout chase, not actually do what it takes to achieve something. You know what I mean? Like, they wanna be the champion. It may

be good for 2 years, but yeah. That's it.

And you wanna be you

wanna be the champion. You wanna have a great business. You wanna post on Instagram that you have cars and a fancy business, but, like, fighting and business are too Mhmm. Gritty, fucking hard things to do. Yeah.

And no one's out here posting the sleepless nights or when you don't know if it's ever gonna work out, and you have to just continue to show up to work the next day knowing that you've gotta make payroll. You know what I mean? Like Yep. And that's how it is. Like Mhmm.

That's just

Or you're like, I try to help a lot of people that can't afford to, like, pay a membership or even have this lifestyle because MMA is a rough Mhmm. Life to live. Right? Like, you're only making money when you fight. A lot of these guys work on doing Uber or whatever it is.

They can't afford a membership. Yeah.

Because you can't.

And it's like, I have to train this guy. Like, he pays me a $1,000,000 a month so he can

make it. Yeah. That's true.

While still trying to cover my overhead. Yeah. You know? So Yeah. A lot of people don't realize that.

And when I snap sometimes at my team when they start slacking Yeah. I kinda let those motherfuckers know, like, yo, this is this is life. This is what I go through. Yeah. And then you see them, like, alright.

And they start picking it up again. So

Yeah. Fucks. Yep.

I, can't even imagine what my first step would be. Like, so what is your advice to someone that, like, wants to even, like, pick up fighting? Right? Like, what's if they're if they're okay. Like, I hear this podcast, and I wanna go train be

world champion. Yeah.

I wanna be world champion. We're like, I wanna go to Marquez and become a fighter. I wanna make fight my my, daily

I don't think I don't think any coach can make anyone a fighter. I think you're born a fighter. You just gotta find it. Yeah. You have to find it, and then the coach

helps you Yeah. You think I got you think I got top of this army?

Fighting you? Yeah. Fuck no. Hell no. Shit.

This guy

ain't gonna fight it.

He's got a lot of other good stuff inside

me now.

He got some other good stuff

inside me.

Great businessman. Yeah. I'll

get on that.

Yeah. But but Yeah. I don't think I don't think a coach

can create a

fighter. Yeah. I think you're born a fighter, and the coach the coach's jobs is to fine tune that animal that you have inside. Yeah. But it's hard to it's like the veterans.

Right? The the war. Right? A lot of people go to the military, but how many people fall off? Right?

Mhmm. Like, yo, you gotta be a dog to to want to go to war Yeah. For your country. You know what I mean? I mean, if if shit hits the fan around here, I'm a fight for my country here.

Yeah. Yeah. But people, you gotta be born for that shit. You know? Yeah.

And a lot of guys do 2, 3, 4 tours fucking war. You know, you built for this shit. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah.

So Yeah. It's just the drilling and the the the the the system and the military shape you into that controlled warrior. But Yeah. Same thing with fighters. Like, I mean, your viewers wanna come try it.

Yeah. They're gonna find out real quick if they're a fighter or not.

Yeah.

You know, when they get put through the drills. I'm not saying they're gonna get hit or anything like that, but just the dedication it takes Yeah. For you to be a fighter. A lot of people break there. Like, damn, I gotta do this shit every day when I'm sore, when I don't wanna

do it. And not just what they're doing in the room, but what they're doing outside the room. Because in their life, I can't I can't be dicking around. I gotta get to sleep. I ain't because I can't

control that part.

Yeah. I

can control the room. Yeah. But I can't control you, what you do with your friends or Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yep.

So, like, a lot of people break there.

Yep. Yeah. It's crazy. I didn't realize until years ago when I talked to Sean one day.

Oh, yeah. They

they fist play every day. I thought there was, like like, light sparring every day. Like, you really, like it was, like, kinda, like, touching touch gloves, but, like, that kind of sparring. They're actually getting hit in the face on a daily basis.

Yeah. A guy a guy Martinez, a friend of mine, he just fought and, he was telling me he got knocked out cold 4 times during his camp.

It's crazy.

You know? Now a lot of times is you have to have control because you wanna beat your brains in. Yeah. And we do fight train every day, but not to the point that Yeah. You're getting knocked out every day.

You know what I'm saying?

Yep.

That might be That goes to the point. Got knocked out doing sparring.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But he he didn't get knocked out every day. You know what I'm saying? He probably took a couple days off, make sure he's good. Yeah. But you have to you imagine being a soldier Yeah.

And training with Nerf guns.

Yeah. Yeah. And then When you go to war

That's actually a great analogy, dude.

Yeah. It's very good.

It's real, bro. It's I say this shit all the time. Hey. We are fighters. Right?

You have to train like you have to fight train. Yep. There's no other way around it. Yeah. You could throw all the scientific shit on a book.

But if you ain't doing this shit on the mats

Yeah.

On somebody Yeah. You're never gonna do it in a fight. What you do on the mats, you take it to the fight.

That's right. Great. Yeah.

That's true. And when how you study an opponent is you go study their cat. Mhmm. That's how I study my opponent. I go study their cat.

I see how they how they how they train. And I see exact exactly how they train is how they gonna fight.

You know what? That then you know the product that's gonna show up in the cage. Yeah. How do

you get access to that kind of thing that, like, how do you oh, you guys are Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I gotcha.

Yeah.

I got some CIA agents. An

espionage. Some espionage. But it

it's it's Mhmm. I mean, it's social media. Right?

Yeah. They're posting.

Everyone wanna pro post clout.

That's a double edged sword. Right?

Everyone wanna post That's

a double edged sword.

You wanna post your training, how hard you go? Let me watch that shit because I'm You can every mistake you have in your highlight reel video for, like, that you did for likes Yeah. I'm I'm a like it just letting you know. Yeah. I got

your ass.

Will you double tap on it?

Like, Gotcha.

But it it's the same thing. You prep you you train for a war with a Nerf gun Yeah. And then you go overseas and go shoot a 556 or something. Yeah. Yeah.

You get you get what

I'm saying?

Yeah. It's like that. You have to train realistically. You know? Mhmm.

So for sure, that's how I see things.

That's, I've read your extreme extreme ownership with Jocko. He talks about how they would put themselves they would put their the people that were training through, like, real life Yeah. Like, battle operations. They would be, like, they would be in a controlled environment, but, like, it was, like, the real deal.

Yeah. That's why training is so chaotic. Right? Because Yep. War ain't smooth.

You out there getting screamed and bombs going off and all that.

So like, all all sorts of stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. K. That's so true.

Yeah. But you you have to take that and view that as that's how you should live. You know? Like Mhmm. You wanna get ready for anything that life life is gonna throw you crazy punches.

Mhmm. And if you don't build that foundation Mhmm. From a early age Mhmm. You're gonna have a hard time.

You're gonna get

And I feel like that's the the mental health going on right now. How many like, I see so many people stressing out. It's fucking crazy.

Yeah.

It it's it's it's sad. Yeah. Yeah. And it's because back in the day, like, 50, sixties, those people had built America. Mhmm.

Right? Those hard jobs. Yeah. Those people created strong children. Mhmm.

Now we come up. They gave us we strong. So it's like, I wanna take it easy because I don't wanna be as hard on my kid as my mom was. Yep. Now you start building a soft little human.

Yeah. When they get a little bit older, It's fucked up. Okay. And then that soft human creates another softer human. Yeah.

And this is where we at now.

It's hard time, Sean.

We've arrived. Yeah. We've arrived. I saw somebody and this is the first time because I wrote an email to community about it. 2 weeks ago, I saw somebody freaking out because the escalator was broken in Whole Foods.

Freaking out, bro. I'm talking, like, the worst thing that happened to him that day. Wild. It's wild. Right?

To the point where they're, like, they're getting the, you know, whoever manager, whoever's, like, on the floor at the store to, like, bitch about it and losing their shit. And I'm, like, man, like, we're we're in a really sad, really weird time as a society. Yeah. Man, really weird because, like, something really terrible because that's how life works is gonna happen to that person, and they are ill equipped to handle it.

I was,

Ill equipped, man.

My kids I I had my first child with 17, and I have 3 kids, 20, 22, 20, and 17, bro. And, like, I was I was strong. I was firm with them Yeah. Because I didn't want them to be soft out here, bro. This world is, like, reckless.

Cheer up. And a lot of people like, I remember people like, man, you kinda too strong on them. I'm not saying, like, violence. I'm just saying my rules were fucking I was on my kids all the time. Right?

And people like, man, you're too strict. I said I used to be like, I don't care. Yeah. Because I know how it is out here. And if I create weak people Mhmm.

They're gonna get eaten by this world. And Yeah. I I don't want that. And now they're, like, you know, they're good. My daughter go to college.

My son has a great job. Yeah. Super humble.

And

And they're good kids too. Like, having met them, like, they're just, like, solid dudes. Like, they're not.

That's the thing. But

and you said, like, people stress too much just in general, like and that people don't realize that stress is a choice. Right? Like, even, like, a hardship happens to me, Amanda, every day. And my wife and I, and, like, it's I just do, like, the Zeke motion. Right?

Like, feet like, good. Keep it coming, dude. Like, every any adversity that's sent my way, I will take it. I'll deal with it, and I'll overcome it. And that's how it's gonna be.

And that's the problem is people get too afraid of of hard things or, like

And people go on rabbit holes too. Like, you have to counter negative thoughts with positive ones immediately.

Yes. Yes.

I say that all the time. Like, yo, as soon as that one negative thought creeps in your head, yo, you gotta counter that shit.

I say, if you if you think quit twice, you have or if if you think quit once, you have to think commit twice. Mhmm. Like, you gotta counter it right away and then hit it again.

Yeah. That's how it's funny. Like, you wouldn't think coach Sean, like, dropped, like, super, like, philosophical I mean philosophical, like, quantum stuff. But, like, Joe Dispenza, doctor Dispenza, he's, like, a a quantum psychology guru, essentially. But he talks, like, when a negative thought comes in, you'd say, like, change, and you Mhmm.

You send out another positive one to the universe to let the universe know that, like, you want good things

That's not gonna be your reality.

Yeah. So you didn't even know that, but you were

just I'm a firm believer in that shit. Yeah. Mhmm. When I wanna find a parking spot, I'm driving. I'm gonna get a parking spot.

I'm gonna get a parking spot.

That is so funny.

I don't wanna get robbed. I'm funny

when you say that.

Bro, we were at Strong New York. Amanda and I were circling around, and

I couldn't

find a spot. I'm like, we're gonna find a spot. Like, good things always happen to us. We're gonna find a spot right. And dude, we got a spot right by the front

door. Yeah.

I had over over the summer, Everly had a softball game. It was just me and her. And she wanted like, we saw the ice cream man that comes around and, like, I love that because that was, like, a big thing for me when I was a kid, but he was nowhere to be found. And I was, like, here's a here's a a moment where I could potentially, like, teach her a lesson about, like, you know, manifesting something. And I told her that.

I was like, look. We're gonna find this ice cream man. And we were just kept saying it. I said, you can control what happens in your surroundings with your mind. And we found that motherfucker.

He's behind the he's behind the art museum, but we found it.

We say that about fighting all the time. Like, fight night is like, yo. Visualize and doing training. Visualize your fight. Put yourself in every situation that you can encounter, but you winning it.

Yeah. Visualize that. When it comes your way, you already Yep. You've been there.

You've been there. 1,000 times in your head. Yeah. You've been there.

And that's why I truly believe it's gonna work out for Sean too because in his mind, there's no there's literally no other option. Like, he is fucking locked in,

dude. Like,

I bet like, who knows how long it'll take? Like, the like like you said, like, it may not always be Yeah.

It's not gonna be that gonna happen on your timeline.

The the the path you wanna go might instead of look like this, might look like this. But, like, he'll get there.

His path's been fucking like this.

Yeah. Progress ain't But Progress ain't straight line.

Ethic has it only has gotten better. Yeah. You know?

And It's funny too because

Life life is gonna he's gonna pay more

money. See him working all the time, but, realistically, the hard work for him was working smarter and and dialing back a little bit when necessary. Like, I know he was going full Yeah. A 100% 110% all the time on his body and, like, sometimes the Take

a couple sessions off.

Yeah. So sometimes the taking the time off is the hard

is the hard part.

He loves it. Right? So, like, even when we say, yo, take a couple sessions off, he and he's off on his daily routine because this is his job. Yep. This is what he do.

Yep.

Like, yo, Brady loves training. He fucking when he retires MMA, you're still gonna see him. Mhmm. And he he loves this shit. This is this is who he is.

Yeah. And that's just what it is.

He's in love with the process. So, like, the end goal is inevitable.

I would my favorite Brady story I've told before, but, he got us started doing rash cards. Like, yeah, you should make rash cards. I'm like, what's that? Like, Joe and I both are trash

at the time. Yeah.

As as we figure out how to make rash cards. And then, he's like, yeah. You should train.

And I'm like, alright. Like, it's a good idea. Like so

I go to December 5 with Julio where I started, and I was that fucking typical white belt that would go once a week, every other week. You know what I mean? Just, like, never really be in the Sean would call me every fucking day. Train. I would dread the call.

Like, I knew it was coming. Yeah.

He still do that with everybody.

Yeah. Dude, he it's fine. He's like,

he's like who he is, bro.

You train. You train. You train. And I'm like, damn, dude. Like, if I my I would train more often because I'd be like, damn.

Look. People from the outside, they hear how strong he is

Yeah.

But they don't really believe it.

Yeah.

Because every time an outsider has come in to train with him

Yeah.

They're like, they're kinda like, oh, yeah. He's strong. But Yeah. This motherfucker grabs people.

I was I was a Yuki at New York, and I was surprised he's been a Yuki, dude.

I like home, like, middle of the day, and

he'll be like,

we are we doing I'm I'm I'm benching. I'm like, oh, like, what do you got on the bar? Like, just curious. Right? He's hanging out, like, 385.

He's doing doing doing sets of 6.

Respects, and he loves this team so much, bro. Like, even, like, little shit. Like, yo, like, coach, is it cool if I go out to dinner? Bro, don't fucking call me. Go out.

Like, but in his mind, he wants to make sure Yeah. That's not gonna get in the way of tomorrow. Yeah. But he gotta do his job. You know?

And and I said I heard

you do

fucking goes my mind. Like, I'm like, bro, get get off my phone.

I I

heard you do his nutrition programming. Is that true?

The what?

The nutrition programming for Sean? That's from you. Right? That's the that's the coach?

Nah. Listen. If I if I eat a salad, I break my diet.

That's a full Marquez package.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You get nutrition as well.

Yeah. Right. Oh, shit.

He he he's a perfect example of what a fighter should be like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean,

it's not He about to be a great father, man. Yeah. He's gonna be a great father.

Another job not everybody should do. You know what I mean? Like, it's not made for everybody shouldn't be a dad.

No. I told him, like, I said, yo. This is gonna change your life

It is.

Forever. You would never feel love how you feel love from a child. Yeah. Everyone can say they love you, but when your child say they love you, you can feel that shit.

Or a hug when you come home.

You can feel it.

What I mean?

Or Or the the that feeling when they come out and you see them and get hold for the first time, like, that was life changing for me because Yeah. I felt through the pregnancy, Amanda was getting You

gave me the Viala. You was crying

all your ass. I know, bitch.

I'm the I'm the crying ass.

That's an affirmation I make partners say all the time. It's like, I know bitch.

That's fine.

You're probably you're probably holding your son. Like

So I felt Amanda, like, through the whole pregnancy, like, getting, like, attack like, because they're feeling, like, well, for

carrying a human Yeah. Not much. Right?

And she would get, like, so excited. I'm like, oh, I can't really, like I got I was like, yeah. I'm excited, but I'm gonna be a dad. Like, it's cool, but, like I

was I was growing shit, man. I was young.

Because I I mean, yeah, we were 23.

I was so

younger. That's

pretty young too. Younger. Yeah. Nowadays, people have, like, 30, 30 shifts

when I have that's when I

But I felt like as soon as I saw him and held him, I was like, holy shit. Like, now I feel it. Like, now I feel what she's been feeling for.

That's why my kids the reason I go so hard, you know, I wanna show them, like, yo, you could do whatever you wanna do in life. Yeah. You know? And, Yeah. Just be focused, put your head down, and work for it.

Yeah. Yep. You know? And

It's crazy to me that some dads bow out on that. I mean,

like, it's

They've seen, like, all the crazy shit I've been through, try you know, with

the business. Yeah. They they

they've grown. You know? And, bro, like, I my son, my oldest, like, we have deep talks, and he's like like, yeah, dad. I saw you. You never quit.

You know? And he my kids live life like that.

Yep.

You know? Like, yeah, anything that comes your way, there's a way out. You know?

When and during those times, did you sit him down and say, like, oh, hey. This is what I'm doing, and I'm not quitting. No. Yeah. You did.

You did too. Okay. I was gonna say because, like, a lot of those examples caught not taught. Like, he saw he he saw what you're doing and stated.

He saw it and, like, took it in. And then after

And you sat down.

And he's like, yo. This is what happened. Yeah. And, like, this is why I had to

do

this or be it. Yeah. For sure. My kids are grown. Right?

So, like, I sit down with them, and they give me advice. Yeah. Dad, like, do this. You should do that. Like, it's okay.

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, like, 20 something years old. So Yeah. Yeah.

It's funny that even at, like, 8 sometimes, like, Pardo say things that I'm like, damn. Like, you

know what? Like, I actually Yeah. Yeah. My even like even Cecilia. Like, my youngest, 5.

Sometimes she'll say something to me. I'd be like, damn. You're right. You know what I mean? Like, you're you're right.

Like, you got that wisdom in you. You're right.

It's the foundation.

Yeah. And it's it's starts with what we instill in them too. It's the ones I'm thinking of the I said, like, oh, I don't wanna do that. It's it's it's gonna be hard or something like something like that. He's like, that hard is good.

Yeah. And I'm like, damn, like, use my own words against me. It's fucked up. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I really I really used the the perfect thing against me because I was, like, real, with her early on, like, I drove that home, like, nothing's perfect. Like, you know, I'm not you won't be.

Yeah. You know, school won't be. Your test won't be.

Like, you won't

be. Won't be. So she hit me with that, And I forget the exact circumstances, but I was like, ah, like, I would've liked it to be a little more perfect. It came out of my mouth that way. And she was like, oh, you know, daddy, like, nothing's perfect.

And I was like, damn.

Checked your ass. Like, damn.

You know? But I I, I had a, like, a real short talk, with Sean at Strong New York and, you know, about becoming a dad and stuff like that. And the work that he's doing in the room, he's doing that type of work Mhmm. For dad life too. Like, he was, like, listening to audiobook on the way he started doing it.

So, like, he he's applying that work ethic to parenthood from, you know, what I see in the talk that I had with him. So I agree with you, man. He's about to be a great father. Yeah.

He's he's a great uncle, great son. So

yeah. It's a and

I don't know. And and every man be like, damn. Do do I have what it takes? But

That's

Me and my experience having 3, if you're a great person, you're a good person, you have a good heart, you're good. Yeah. You know?

You're gonna make mistakes, but you're gonna make mistakes, but you're gonna make them right.

If you're a hard worker, you're good. As long as your child has food, clothes on their back, you're fucking great, bro.

Yeah. It's funny. And it comes with being one of the few, but when I met Sean, we kinda clicked right away. And it's I've we slowly built this community and and the people we surround ourselves with, like John, like, Simon, Kurt, like, so Sean, like, they're all good people working hard and doing good things for people. Like, they're I didn't realize I'm kinda having, like, a a, like, a moment where I'm like, damn.

Like, everyone I've The dots

are connecting.

Everyone I surround myself with is, like, a good fucking person, and, like, I've kind of we've kind of curated that, like, on purpose.

You you probably didn't realize that, but when you're so focused on certain things in life Mhmm. You you're not gonna be attractive to people that

Yes.

Are not alike.

Exactly.

Because when you find yourself next to these people and you're trying to, you know, help them and shit and

That's the thing.

You're just like, man, I wanna be around this person.

Dude, two points on that. It's like, as you start to grow, the those people that don't belong in your life kinda you don't have to worry about asking them or get rid of them because they'll just fall Mhmm. Away regardless.

It can't hang, bro. It

that. People that are fixed will fall away.

And to that point though, John, like, I've learned the hard way. You can't save everybody. Right? Like, everybody doesn't wanna be saved. I've tried too many times

to Everybody everybody grows differently too. Like Yeah. And they grow at different paces and they don't. And sometimes, like, where you're at and the vibration that you're emanating or the the support that you give or the support that you need, it just doesn't doesn't fit in the lock that they have right now.

And you probably went through that a lot with these athletes too, like

And I and I say I say to my kids, I say to my team, I'll say to you guys, like, you're not gonna get anywhere far on, like, in life if you're not grateful. Mhmm. Right? Like, a person that's grateful, you're grateful for the good times and the bad times. Mhmm.

And if you're not grateful for those moments, for the people that helped you, for the people that were there when you didn't have shit. Mhmm. You ain't grateful, you're not gonna get nowhere in life.

Yeah. No.

No. That's that's how I think and believe. That's fucking That's how I walk around here. Yeah, man. I

wasn't ready for as many bombs we dropped today, dude.

I was, man. I was ready for the bombs.

I was ready. I thought I was gonna get roasted the whole fucking

There's still time.

We're gonna find out what you did in that fucking camp. That's good to know. Yeah.

We're gonna get that bomb. I can't

believe you guys never heard of day camp, dude. Like At

least they just took you to Penny Park, and they a day pack, and they just, like, eat a lot.

Like, we would play dodgeball, fucking have snacks.

Have snack. Alright. You dig it all over.

We play handball,

had snacks,

streetball with the the milk

creo on it. I was at camp at Penn State, San

crazy. Yeah. Crazy.

I used to take I used to take my BB gun from the basement, sneak my BB gun out, go in Bear Home Park, build forts, drink a case of soda.

Yeah. I know it's like a case of beer, dude.

No. No. No.

He was a I was a I was a stupid ass kid. I used to buy Alka Seltzers.

Yeah.

And the drug dealers used to, like, sweep the corner and feed the birds.

I could steal the alka seltzer to the birds. Where the fuck is John at?

It was horrible, man.

Yeah. The whole alka seltzer to seagulls.

I never I never heard of that. Yeah.

Yeah. Because you was at fucking day camp.

Yeah. You see

the way you thought you

said they'd, like, take it.

So this is the, this is, like, what it's like on the

on the phone call. It's worse, dude.

Well, I'm

gonna hit the, Friday, as Bro, you

gotta hold on.

I have an invitation now, so I'm gonna do the Friday thing.

Go to hold 10.

I got

a question, though. Is the

I'll leave you guys at the salad bar.

Is the Uzbek restaurant before or after? Before. Okay. Alright. I mean, I Yo.

That we need to get to, man.

Are you free this Friday? We're going this Friday.

I got my girls with me next, next Friday maybe.

Let's go. We finished training, like, 11:30, 12 o'clock. Yep. We'll go straight there, and then we go right to the the lounge just 2 minutes from there.

I was talking to I was talking to Kurt one day, and he was like, oh, yeah. And, you know, at the restaurant with the guys or whatever, and he sent me, like, a photo of, like, the dish, like, the signature dish that you guys were eating at the time. I don't know. And I was like, man, I gotta get I gotta get No. It's amazing.

I gotta

get Does someone own that that Alright. One of the Yeah.

Yeah. I got you. I gotta get that.

That's I mean, another, one of your guys that I mean, I only have up and coming from what you guys tell about Itso. Right? Like, he's at, like

Georgian.

Yeah. Another one that's working his ass off.

He has a he has a bare knuckle fight coming up.

Yeah.

And I did pads with him the first time with no gloves. Oh, I'm not even gonna say it because I don't want the opponent to watch this.

It won't be. I hope it won't have to fight anymore.

It was Yeah. It's crazy, bro.

Yeah. That's a whole

another animal too. But these guys are humble as hell. You know, go to the restaurant, they everyone eats from the same plate.

Yeah. Yeah.

When I first went there, I'm like, where's the fuck is my plate at? They said, coach, you eat same it's a big ass plate.

Yeah. There's symbolism

in that.

Table, and it's literally the meaning of breaking bread. Yeah.

There's symbolism in that.

And you have your own spoon, and you have your own little section in the plate, and you just eat.

Oh, really?

And they do not eat until the coaches eat. So, like, I didn't realize. I'm just sitting there. They're all just staring at me. Yeah.

And they don't say a word. That's cool. Yeah. And I'm like, what's up? Like, coach, eat so we could eat.

My bad. But it the culture is amazing, bro. It's it's super respectful people. Mhmm.

I think thing we, as a society, like, kind of abandon, like, traditions like that that made societies and cultures, like, strong. You know what I mean? Like Very there was a strong

Their brotherhood is they're like, how tight they are

Actually, they have bonds,

man. Yeah.

Bro, it is. Bonds.

And they and a lot of times and you can confirm this, like, they're, like, a strong like, the coach, like, the strong father figure or a strong leader in in

I know a lot of their fathers that Okay. Back home in villages, and they're like, yo, you you his father in the United States. Like

Yeah, man.

That's

It's a big responsibility, but I honor that shit.

Yeah.

And the way they treat me, bro, I I love it. I have to go to Uzbekistan next year. K. They want me to do a seminar. They want me to fucking open gyms over there and stuff.

Oh, yeah. That's what you're saying.

So but

amazing, man.

I have, like, few from the government. Hey. When you come in service

That's crazy.

What's up, dog?

Yeah. Yeah.

What's this dog?

What's that? What's

up, motherfucker?

I love You're not

allowed to for it, man. You're suited for it. Yeah. You're suited for it. Alright.

You got a a lightning round? Yeah. I got 2, but

I got I asked 1 already, but Okay. I got 2 questions. They're, like, quick questions. First thing, what does it take someone to become a champion in coach Sean's eyes?

In my eyes, grit and dedication.

And then can you leave the few one community with your cigar reco? Like, what's what's your go to?

Padron, number 90. I thought

it's what you're gonna say.

Yep. Shout out to AJ Padron.

He always hit me up.

Yeah. Yeah.

Please sponsor coach John and team Mark. That's crazy. That's crazy.

I had

a blast today, man.

Oh, yeah.

This is

probably Amazing.

This is probably, like

This is officially our longest episode.

Show that we did. Really? It went by like this because we're out of time.

Flow state, baby.

Yeah. Flow state. We we could do

Make sure you charge these guys overtime, Will. They got it. They got it in the bank.

We could 2 episodes probably.

We could maybe do that. Well, yeah, we could do that. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

I appreciate the cigar. Yeah. Man, I'm gonna I'm gonna join you on a Friday.

Appreciate you guys always.

Likewise. And

we're gonna do some with the team.

Oh, yeah. I Yeah. I committed us to, sponsoring the the Market of May, last night.

Yeah. I know. That's cool.

We're doing all their jerseys. Yeah.

I know.

No. We we gonna do something together. You know what

I mean? There's a there's a lot of, I'm not gonna lie. During this whole show, there have been a couple ideas, like, just from things that you said that, like, sprung into my

head. Yeah.

So, yeah, we'll get something going.

Yeah. We wanna we wanna push the brand that we believe in. You know? Yeah. So

For sure.

I'd rather push the brand that we believe in than let another you know what I'm saying? Mhmm.

We're aligned. We're aligned. We all we always have been aligned, dude.

I mean,

that's it's great. Like, we have been through a lot, together on the same path in the the past few years. So

Yeah. For sure. Man, for sure.

We gotta do it again. Next time we do it at my gym. Yeah. Smoke some cigars.

Yeah. Man.

Next next time you gotta have a cigar, bro. Nah. I'll send you back to decan.

Let me No. You have a dog you have

a dog. Sorry. There

are so many people in

my life that would love to have

a cigar. I I want to have a cigar with everybody.

Father-in-law smokes cigars.

My father-in-law would be would maybe accept me. Day?

No. No.

No. My father-in-law.

My father-in-law.

I agree with him. Yeah. He should not accept it till he smoke a cigar.

I there's a little piece of

him inside of like, he still doesn't accept me as a son.

When you walk out the house, he'd be like, honey, you see this fucking guy doing this You

still got a smoking cigar?

God. But between the way I smoke the way I smoke my my the way I eat, like, he's like, this he he

You know what, man? You don't know what your lungs got in got in you in the future. Maybe you got a couple

of different things. I may have. Yeah.

Alright. Next time we do it in the gym.

There you go. I'll

do it. Training session too.

I've been told Yeah. This guy is like, oh, come to the 10 AM session. I see they posted that Kurt video. You see that? That's what they're gonna do to me.

No. The video where I. But that's because Kurt actually come to 10 AM practice. It'll be fun. Yeah.

And then then I got a them few on stocks coming.

Damn it, bro. As long as you don't quit, bro. We're good.

As long as you don't quit, that shit gonna skyrocket.

Yeah. That will happen. I'll get that mentality with the 5 day fast, and

I'll I'll just wake up. What the fuck happened? No. That's funny, man. That's funny.

I mean, coach Sean, where can everybody find you if you want them to find you?

Or the team.

Or the team.

Marquez m m a on Instagram and, of course, john dot 215.

Philly reps.

Yeah. 2. Always.

Alright. Yeah. I'll leave the few with something. What 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.

Let's hunt, baby. Let's

do it.