Transcript of JRE MMA Show #165 with Jiří Procházka

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Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. Great to have you in, man. Great to be here. How are you feeling? You must be feeling fantastic.

Many things were successful. So even if I was a little bit had a flu, many things-You had a flu before that fight? Yeah. For one week, five days. Five days before five week, I was in... How to say that? Heat, like body's-Fever? Fever. Yeah. Fever.

That's crazy.

That was something... But every time... Maybe I'm a little bit glad for that because I'm every time trying to push my preparation too much that I'm every time hurt myself or I'm overtrained. Right. So that's why I'm maybe just a little bit glad for that.

That's interesting, right? It's so hard because you want to prepare so hard. You're so disciplined, so driven, but you can do yourself a disservice. You can go too far, and then you don't recover enough, and then you go into the fight a little compromised. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we've I've seen that many times with fighters who just get so enthusiastic about their training.

Because I feel like self-confidence and still there is something what you can do better every day. That's my idea of the training, life idea to go better every day, one % better, one % better. Even if you can't train, you can sit in a meditation and visualize it, how you train, how the body is working. Sometimes is the most biggest thing, what you can do is just rest. Like you show me the floating. Yes.

Yeah, you need one of those, man. If all the people that I know, you need one. A sensory deprivation tank. You should get one of those. Because I know you're into Meditation. I know you spend a lot of time in dark rooms. That's meditation times 100. That's right. Do you monitor your heart rate every day to see what your recovery is at, or you just go by feel?

Feeling. Feeling. I did that in high altitude training in all the November in Mexico, Mexico City, where it's 2,300, 200 meters.

Yeah, 7,700 feet above sea level, I believe.

Yes. And there I monitor everything. Take up blood exams before, in, and after this camp, four weeks camp there. And man, amazing. Amazing.

But Your endurance was incredible in that fight because that was such a high- And still. Paced fight.

And still, I felt like after that flu, I felt a little bit down.

Well, that's That's pretty amazing then. You must have been in an insane shape before the flu. Yeah, it's that fine line, that balance.

Yeah.

You went to Mexico City. Did you know a gym up there? Did you bring your camp up there?

I was there in a UFC Performance Institute there. There's a new one. Nice. You have everything here in the Performance Institute, like regeneration, training coaches, coaches with the pats. I was there, especially to work on the things what I took from the last fight with Pereira, to work on hands up a little bit, just a little bit. A little bit.

But we were talking about in the broadcast, your hands down sometimes has a benefit. There's a real advantage to it because no one sees where those punches are coming from. So for the people that don't know what I'm talking about-Not just punches.

Movement, movement, head movement.

Head movement was excellent. Everything. Your head movement was excellent.

And the feeling with the hands up is another one with the hands down because this is your natural posture. You spend most of the time in this. And It's about just feeling the space. I can explain to another person, like this one, because when I am in the flow, like you want to be in the flow, in the fight, somewhere between the flow and uncomfortable, somewhere in the center. When I achieved this attitude, that's why I don't need to keep my hands up, because this For me means, and for everybody, that means defending. I don't need to defend myself when I see everything, when I feel everything. But I understand in this preparation, where I tried, where I did all the camp hands up, this gives you the calm in a close distance. In a close distance, it's not so Sometimes it's not so smart to keep hands down. Hands down, yeah. But I'm crazy enough to go through, to be in the moment, to stress my body so much in this situation to see every movement, every start of the movement of my opponent that I can react before he start. The next level is to try to to read the thinking of the opponent, what he wants to do before he do that.

There is a many levels of that. But sometimes I can't explain that. Sometimes, in the second fight with Pereira, I was a little bit punched in the end of the in the first round. So I stepped to the second round and I said to myself, I was too courageous and keep the hands down. So that's why it happened.

Well, you should have been more defensive, maybe to recover. Yes. One thing you said after that fight, you said you have to evolve. And one thing that I saw in this last fight with Jamal Hill was evolution. I really saw it. You really see it. The counters, the head movement and the counters were brilliant. There's one that I put on my Instagram stories. It was so incredible. He threw a punch, you slid slightly out of the way, landed a straight left, and then the right hook that dropped him. But it was so dynamic. It was so fast and precise. I was like, that's a different Yuri Prohasca. Your earlier fights were always excellent. You always had amazing power and very unusual movement, very difficult to predict. But the sharpness of your counters was on another level in this fight.

That's what I worked on. To be not just connect to the opponent and react what's happened right now, but a little bit before what will happen. Yes.

Well, you're definitely getting better, which is so fascinating. You had a very brilliant approach. You waited until you had reached a certain level before you entered the UFC. You could have been in the UFC years earlier.

Yeah, that's right.

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And I have to say thank you to my coaches for that because we worked on my style. We are consulting, communicate about that style, what to make a better, how to do that. That's why I'm keeping my two coaches, what I began with all the time with me, because I think that's the only thing you can go to be a master in something, to stay with some people, with some...

Tied circle.

Yeah, tight circle and go deeper. You can go really deep.

Yeah. It's also I value loyalty. Loyalty is very important.

It means a lot.

When people work really hard to get you to a certain level, what I like is there's some coaches that they recognize that maybe there's other skill sets they can bring in, so they work with other people as well. But always stay with the people that brought... As long as the relationship is good, always stay with the people that brought you to the game.

Sure. Because in the end, You can change whoever, but you have to start again with the same people and go. Again, you will go to the same level, to the same problems with these people because it's not about them. It's always about you to recognize what's in you.

How much tape do you watch? Do you watch a lot of film? Do you watch videos of fights?

Yeah. I was five days sick before the fight, so I just watched the Spartans 300. Ongback, I watched Ongback Man.

That's wild shit.

No wild shit, but I was really inspired. I was really hungry to see something because long time I didn't see some good, not good movie. It doesn't matter if it's good or new, but these old classics of fighting Jean-Claude Van Damme with kickboxer and all these things. Oh, yeah. That's what made a spark inside me to a true love for martial arts because in that movies, they live that, really live that. They have no other chance to solve their problems just by martial arts and something like that.

That's why I'm-So you got inspired by movies? Yeah. Do you watch a lot of films of fight footage, your fights, your opponent's fights?

Yeah, but I don't need many times to study that. I just need to see once. I just see the attitude of the start of the fight, how he's fighting, how to say, his spirit, his mindset, how he's thinking, how is the start of moving of his body, how he's reacting for not just for opponent, for the many situation, for a slipping and movement. But everything, like a personal, I'm studying that guy. Just energy. His energy, his vibe, how he's reacting, how he's react in some situation like these eye pokes and all these things, like some breaks in a fight every time because it shows you how he have under control himself all the time. This is something what Alex Pereira I don't know what is his story behind, but he handled that. He handled that, and that's why he is how he is. Now he's starting to be more relaxed, and I wish him to stay sharp.

Well, I think he's more relaxed outside the fight, but in the fight, he's always very calm. Very calm and very focused. Yes. Did you watch your first fight with him before you watched the second before you have fought him the second time?

Yes, sure. I studied him a lot, but the second fight, I a little pushed it too much. Too aggressive? No, no, no. Training? After the fight, I was like, I want Alex Pereira. I'm ready for him. Right now, I'm ready, too, but I'm open for whoever, UFC will give me a next opponent to prove that I am... But I wanted a true challenge. I wanted a true challenge from the, I think, top five guys.

The interesting thing about the light heavyweight division is there's only about five really exciting contenders, four or five. There's not a deep pool of fighters that would be very interesting to see you fight. That's right.

Because like I said today, there's a few guys who really have the taste, have the drive to go to the top. I want to go to the top. I want to take it. I feel the energy of the Crown, and I can take it. That's why I'm doing that. That's why I'm still talking about that to be there, because I really feel that I can be the top. One thing what I needed is that I had to be stable. Stable to not just get to the top and back and out, but to go to the top and know how it is to be there, know to keep all these weights on the top, what there is.

Yeah, defending the title is more difficult even than getting the title. And then it's improving while you're champion. They say that Daniel Cormier always says that every champion improves significantly once they become champion because you have the confidence of being champion. And it's just how long can you maintain the energy that's required to constantly get better? Because it's not just about maintaining, right? It's about constantly improving, constant analysis of all your movements and what you're doing right What your mistakes that were made, what the thought process was before the mistake, and how to eliminate that.

This is something what is, like I said, the style of Japanese, they call that kaisen. Yes. Kaizen. Daily improvements, small improvements, daily recognizing what's bad, what's good. Sometimes I feel like it's like a sick. To be too much obsessed in that. Man, you need little break. That's why I think the life gave me this little break before this. The little flu.

Yeah. Was that why you came in so light?

Yeah. Was that why? That was why.

Because I was When you were watching a video when Luke Thomas was going over your performance. Everybody was very impressed, and he was as well. But one of the things that he was talking about was that you only weighed 208 pounds when you walked into the cage.

I thought I will do my best when I would go to the sauna night before the waiting and spend there. And again, I switched myself in the sauna and I was there for two hours. Oh, No. No, no, no. Just like 15 minutes, 15, 15, like many rounds. Right, right, right. Two hours there.

Do you do sauna cold or just sauna relax?

Relax, relax. Yeah, okay. No, no, no. Sauna cold. Okay, and then you go back in the sauna. Yes, sure. And cold, normally, the cold, cold plunge. I'm doing that daily because I have at home the cold plunge. I'm using that.

Yeah, they're fantastic.

But the fun is, the second day after that, and I didn't drink anything after the sauna. And next day morning, I went to to the control weight, and then I have, I don't know how it is in the libras, 91 kilograms. I'm fighting in 93 and half. And I was two and a half kilogram under my weight.

Sounds like 200 pounds.

Yeah. So I was the only one guy who was in a row to the weighting, and I tried to hide myself before other guys, and I drink one liter of the water, second liter of the water.

Wow. Just because you didn't want to weigh in light.

Because I spent too much time in the sauna, man. Wow.

That's crazy. Because you only weighed 208. Yeah.

I felt really like...

You look great. You look very lean and fast, man. Fast. You look significantly... You've always been very fast, but you looked even faster.

It's just all about this, man. If you have the reason why and you can not just... You want it, your ego just want it, but you feel it like it's your destiny these moments, and it's yours. Then it will happen.

Do you feel like maybe even the Fito Pereira are a blessing and that it showed you what you need to work on?

Every time. This is the only way how I want to see that. Especially the guy like him who's really top guy. His style, his mindset, what he showed till now was something I needed to work on. Still, I'm on the way.

Well, his style is extraordinary. It's very unusual, as is yours. But the thing that's shocking the most about him is that he only needs to hit you once. Is it much different, the power that you feel from him than anybody else?

There is a difference from other guys. Yeah, there is a difference. But Only one thing I can say, I know the recipe.

You know the recipe? Yeah. What's the recipe?

What's the recipe? Because you have to know how to give the punch and how to accept the punches. How to move with it. How to move with it. How to overcome the bad moments and all these things. But it's better, much better, to defend the punch with the hand or defend the punch with the movement.

Did you ever watch any of his glory kickboxing fights? Yeah. This is a good one to watch the Artim Vahitow fight. Because Vahitow is very technical.

I think he won.

He won a very close decision. It was very close. It was one of those fights where you could call it either way, but he won. But he's very technical, very interesting to watch him deal with the style of Pereira because Pereira is such an unusual way of moving. Even the way he holds his hands up, he looks different. So do you. You look different. There's only a few fighters that if you saw other silhouette, I could go, Oh, that's Yuri Prohaska. I could see it right away. I know how you move. And Alex is that way as well. It's a very unique way of moving. But the way Vahitov handled it is a good blueprint footprint for a lot of people to avoid the power and keep the volume on him. What was your original style? What was the first martial art that you learned?

Muay Thai. Muay Thai. In my high school, I started with karate because it was in a daily schedule.

What karate?

Shotokan. Shotokan. And judo, there was two. And I felt like I need something more contact, more and more aggressive. So not aggressive, but more- More potent. More potent, yeah. So I started with Muay Thai.

The most potent. Muay Thai is fascinating to me that this one island figured out how to fight better than anybody on the feet. Yeah, that's right. And a lot of it, they did it through gambling. That's a lot of it because they're so into gambling that they had so many fights, and then people just fought a lot. And then they're like, What works best? And then they figured it out.

Yeah. Right now, after watching Unk Back, I'm just still realizing what is the best style, what is the best movements, Best deadly techniques, what to do. Right now, after the watch to come back, I see the Muaiboran. My next chapter to what I want to see, real, in Thailand, to see really how to use that and how to... Because I'm the man who's taking the piece here, taking the piece here and making...

Combining it all together.

Yeah, all together.

Have you trained in Thailand?

Thailand, yeah. In Thailand? Yeah. Just a little bit for three weeks there before the title fight with Teixeira. Then I was there for our camp. Yeah, Buket.

One of the- Banketal. One of the greatest knockouts that you had was that Dominic Reyes spinning elbow, which is beautiful Muay Thai.

Flow. That'sbeautiful flow.

It's like you just timed that out. That was a real coming out party for you, that fight, because that was when people were like, My God, like this guy.

Yeah, always find a way.

When you first started When you started fighting in MMA, was this something... First of all, how old were you when you had your first fight?

When I was first fight in my 18, 19.

Were you looking at it as a career?

Yeah.

Yeah, right from the beginning? Were you looking at it to do... That was what you wanted to do professionally? Yeah. Yeah, right away?

Right away, yeah. It's around my 20.

You knew you wanted to be a Championship fighter?

Yes, because that was Something that I was too inspired by because I was a young guy who tried to challenge everything around himself, everything, every man, every situation, everywhere. I am better than this. I am better than this. Not the school. Just not in the school. But I like I fall in love with the fighting, with the looking for finding my biggest strength. That's the why I'm going every time to the nature, to sleeping in the mountains. That's why I'm living in the cottage, to be in the contact with the nature, to feel the present moment and rare natural power of the of the water, fire, of all these things, of the sun.

Yeah. I was going to ask you about that. When did you start this training in nature? Because when you look at your setup that you have at your place and everything's outside, you put pads over trees and you punch and kick trees.

Sometimes it looks weird. But you know, wow, I don't like to I don't like. Right now, I realized I need to. Right now, I want to overcome the people, the men, the sparring partners in the training. But in my personal way, I was inspired by... Once, I was inspired by Masu Tatsu Oyama, who was the founder of Kyoku Shinkai Karate. I saw his movie and how he spanned a for more than one year, one and a half year in the mountains. He trained just in the mountains under the waterfall in the winter. He made from himself a really something like unshakable mind, self-confidence, so deep because he found a way how to overcome How to rule his body. He's describing that in his book, the mind without the thinking, without the thoughts. Pure mind, pure focus, pure consciousness right here, right now. I took that my own way. I I think it was year 2014, 2015. I took everything in myself. I took a tent. I went to the mountains. To the mountains, and I slept there just for one week, two weeks, one and a half week. I was inspired too much, so I did the same thing.

I ran there and I punched to to the rock. I just want to fight with the environment, with the nature around me. In the end, you can realize there is no fighting. There is nothing. This is the pure life because this is the pure life because the life has the one reason to overcome everything around andsurvived. This is the nature what is in us. As deeper you can go in this uncomfortable environment and all these things, that deep you can understand the life and be a philosopher about that. Understand more deeply and I don't know how to say.

No, you're saying it right. I understand what you're saying.

That's why. I was inspired by the Masuta Tatsuyama. That's why I decided after the second fight with Alex I need to go to Japan, to Japan, to the places to make a black belt from Kyoku Shinkai Karate, and really feel all these things like a realist, realist, not Just think about how it can be, how is this style can be, but to live that. That's it. Because I like to take an inspiration and take it and go there. Fight that, fight that guy. Live that experience. This is it.

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Co/audio. Well, you're obviously very physically talented, but I think one of the things that does separate you from other fighters is this mindset that you've cultivated and that you embrace. I think- That's the only way. It's also something fascinating about the fact that you do it outside. I think that scares people. I think it's about the fact that you like to be fighting in nature and punching trees.

Because I'm coming from one village where was a lot of good guys. But Everybody, we are still really crazy. When we are celebrating, it's all the time about... Right now, we are trying to slow down to show others we are an adult. We know we are the mans. But still, it's about showing the strength, what to destroy, how to punch other guy, how to showing the strength above others. When they started on the... Okay, like I said, when on these parties started the level of... It was really dangerous, a fire and firearms and the cars and the fire. It was not safe. Then I said, Guys, okay, we are a man.

Let'sbe mature.

Yeah, please.

Yeah, take it down a notch. Because Somebody could die.

Yeah. That's something what you have to realize. This sense of I'm looking for a strength, this something, this true madness. When I see this picture, That picture? Of that. It remembered me that when I saw that when I came here. The JRE logo. Yeah, the logo. When I saw it, it remembered me like, yes, go through, going through all all the time, choose the hardest way and go through, overcome whatever and show you are the boss. This is it. This is why I came from that place where we are trying to show each other this one, and I'm trying to carry that energy and put it in the calm way to show it in the cage. That's why the Samurai ideas, the Bushido Codex, helping me in that to show it. That's all.

I understand. Then you feel that in training in nature and then experiencing the wild and getting it out there, it becomes even more pure because you recognize that all around you is survival.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. You are on the wave now.

We're on the same wave. Yeah. So what year did you start doing this training in the wild?

Like I said, in-2014. 2014. I was inspired by Masuta Tatsuyama, and then I realized it's not about opponents. Man, it's about just your body, just about rule your body. How much you can rule your body, rule your mind, rule your emotions, logical state of thinking, to find the way how to not overcome, how to rule your breath because this is it, this is the way. Because this is the most primal thing of the body. When the child born. First is breath. Everything is like you can settle by the breath in the body, not just by thoughts. The thinking and thoughts is like a great surf, but a bad boss, really. It serves you well, but you can't let it control you. Yes. There's many levels, what you have to rule in your body, what you have to understand and put it in I'll put it in one way in the present moment.

You had your first fights when you were around 18, 19. And then when did you decide that you were ready the UFC and how did you make that decision? Because I do know that you were offered fights before, but you said, I want more development time.

That was somewhere in the center of between my sixth, seventh fight in the rising, so around the year '17 to '18, something like that. I realized that, man, there is a There is a way in the horizon yet. I need to... No, I need to. I want to take a title here. I want to prove that I'm the... How do you say? The king of Japan, to rule these guys, really. Then I can go to the League of the Best, because if you want to go to the League of the Best, better to be prepared for.

Yeah, I think that happens too often.

That's why I can fight for a title in three fights.

I think boxing has it right. In that boxing, they look at fighters, managers look at fighters as an investment. So if you're a manager and you have Floyd Mayweather, you don't give Floyd Mayweather the best fight, you can get him right away with the toughest guy. You want to see how he performs with a guy who is an inside puncher, a body puncher who is a brawler. You want to see how he handles a slick guy like Emmanuel Augustus with unorthodox movement. How does he handle Diego Corrales? Long, tall reach. And you build them with fighters that you think you got to know when they're ready. And then there's an objective assessment. Okay, he's ready. Then you start moving them into top 10 contenders. Then you move them to a title shot. The UFC throws you right the wolves.

It's good to have this objective view. I like to be just a watcher of my progress, of the situation. Think about that How to plan it, how to see that not personally, just to see yourself as another person and put it in myself in a way where Where it will be the best for these targets. And then, go in and do that.

Yeah. You had a very quick rise in the UFC to a title fight. Was Volcan Osdemir your first fight? Yeah. So you beat Volcan Osdemir. Then Dominic Reyes was the second fight, and then, bam, title shot. Crazy. So that's the reason to be so prepared. Yes. Because if you're successful, things go very quickly.

That's right.

You have to be ready. When you look at your first fight with Volcan Osdemir, and then you look at your fight with Jamal Hill, do you see significant improvement?

With who for the first one?

When you look at your first fight in the UFC when you fought Volkana Ozdemir, and now you look at yourself now in the most spectacular performance against Jamal Hill, do you see the improvement?

Right now, I can say yes. Yeah. Because with the blockade in the mirror, there was just a pure raw power, rawAggression. Aggression. Aggression, but not so...

Refined.

Yeah. You can see that in the fight, man, there was just a pure... Chaos. Pure chaos, man. I was too much. Sometimes it's the self-confident. When you are too much self-confident, it's a bad thing. Because ego will took you to another and it will destroy you. It will burn you. You have to keep that burn, that fire under control and to give these attacks, this aggressiveness in just a small... To keep it under control, just like that.

I like what you just said, that ego will take you to another line.

Man, it's good to have it. We can't live without in this world with cooperations, with collaborations, talking, relationships. You can't live without. But also you have to cultivate that. There is two worlds, like without in life. So you have to go in.

Yeah, they have to be working Working together, the mind and the ego have to be working together. And the no mind, the zen, the steam, the flow. And the ego will take you out of the flow. The ego will take you out of the flow. The ego will go, I'm going to go fuck him up. And then boom, you get hit. I like what you said, though, about it takes you out of the line because it takes you into a different line. It takes you in a different line of fighting. And then sometimes in that line, you'll realize you're out of place. You'll realize you're leaving openings that shouldn't be there, and you're trying to force.

Good force. Force and power. Yeah. Good when you said, when you realize that, it's bad when you don't realize. Sometimes it's good when you have the people around you to Man. Bring you back. Bring you back. That's why I'm sometimes really glad for my team, my people around me to keep me back.

That's what's amazing about having a coach who knows you, having trainers who know you. They know where you're at. Like, calm down, calm down. Everything's great, but you're hitting the gas too much. Be a little more technical, move around more.

But not too much.

Not too much.

Because sometimes it's this wildness, the aggression to take over. It's too necessary.

Well, that's what I asked you after the fight. I said there's something about you where you thrive, you get better when it's chaotic. It seems like you relish in the chaos of these wild exchanges. Because sometimes fighters like to piece people up where they're not getting hit. Jamal Hill is really good at that. The Glover to share a fight, he did a fantastic job of utilizing his game and his accuracy and reach, and he just put it on Glover. But they don't want to be in these wild exchanges. You seem to want to be in these wild exchanges because you thrive there.

Yeah, that's right. Sometimes it's... I don't know where it is to keeping yourself. And sometimes it's, I don't know, where is these Keeping yourself and the control is going from. Sometimes it's going from the fear to be not hit. Sometimes it's going from to be careful for the takedowns. But I want to be fearless in that, to stay before the opponent and have no fear. You can go as close as you want and try to hit me, and you will not hit me because I'm here and I feel you. I got you. So I can't explain it, and I don't want to explain it. I want to show that in a fight.

I know what you're saying. One of the things that we were talking about Daniel and I were talking about when we were doing the commentary was your head movement was so good. It was different than before. It was like at another level. What specifically had you done to prepare that made your head movement so much better?

I have a long time I'm working on that. Before I stepped in the U. F, no. Since my title finding, I really exactly know when I started to work on, especially on that, because I realized that this is my game. This is really what's me. It was around the title fight with King Molava in the so that was a title fight in the rising. It's about the feeling the opponent, the feel the opponent, but not be, but Do not be... How to say? Do not let this feeling to push you in some way. I understand? To feel the space, but still be calm, be unshakable. Then you can feel the space around you, everything. And whatever will move right now, you will react for that naturally because you will feel all these things like yourself. Everything is you. Then you can step to the level I'm everywhere because there is no difference between me, this thing, this thing, the opponent, but still. That's sometimes why I need to be a little bit hit, to feel the aggression back to the fight. That was before the UFC. I was needed to get hit because I felt the movement, felt the right movement.

Everything was right. But I also needed to be more aggressive, wanted to to go through the opponent because I was too nice for them. To just show them I can sleep and I can move everything. You can't hit me, but this This is not the fight. The fight is the answer to catch him in the right moment. So yes, to be here and now, to be, like I said, to be everything, but still to not be pushed by this feeling like to be so nice, not too much aggressive, but something in the middle, still control that. It's all about control. Yeah.

I like what you said, that there's no difference between you and your opponent. You're not even... You're just in this flow of movement and life. And this thing you're choosing to do, there's no difference between you and them. You and them, you don't even exist. You're just a part of it all.

Yes. And the bad for fighting is when you really realized we are doing this, we are doing We are fighting each other, and right now I'm going to hurt other person, and you don't see really the difference between you and him. You know you are doing to yourself. But this is the game what we chose, and we are here to have a fun. So not just have a fun to live this experience, experience.

To live this experience, and an extreme experience that will teach you about yourself like no other experience. Yeah, that's right. If you want to learn about yourself, go fight. You'll really find out. You can bullshit yourself all you want, but until you fight. That's right. And when you go through a loss, like the loss is to Pereira, what is your process like of evaluating what went wrong and how to change things? Ings.

What's what's wrong?

Yeah. What's your process? What do you do when you lose a fight and then you come back? What is your thought process? What do you say? I have to learn. I have to figure out what went wrong.

Let me After that last, the second fight, first time in my life, I realized that, man, that was really I will not say what was that, how hard it was because I don't like it, but it was something what I didn't experience yet, not till now. That time, I really realized how powerful the meditation and the true self-talking with the How the true meditation look like? Because I have no other chance than to start, stop doing a bullshit, stop doing just a pure inspirational training in the garden, stop doing all these things and start doing just a things what what really matter, what can, what have a real effect, how you can feel, how you want to be. The power of true self-talking, power of true, overcoming the mistakes in the life and be the boss of your mind because sometimes Sometimes it's... It was the next level.

Very difficult to recover from a loss like that.

But you-Yeah, because especially when you lost, that was bad. For me, how to say? Like a man who likes the honor and all these coaches from Bushido Moral Code. That was something that was for me really bad. He got you. Yeah. That's how it goes. Man, you can say it like that, but I really work on every move, every thought, every catching, every move in the fighting. Now this happened, That was not me. That was really... It was me, but you showed yourself your worst, your worst to the world, man. But then you came after that and showed your best.

So this is the thing about overcoming a loss like that is that I'm sure it was awful. But because of it, the pain that you felt from it caused you to rise to another level.

That's what is life about, yeah. Yeah, You need the challenge.

You need the Tong Po.

Yeah, no, no. That's right. And how I see these worlds and this is what I wanted to speak with you. What is here right now, the true challenges in this world, in this age, in a human's life, in a What is there? Because how I see that, there is not too much thing, not too much. There is a lot. But still, we can go Right now, we have to go to another level because there is too much of the comfort life of the people because like that, you can have the food. Like that, you can have a drink, a massage, everything. There is no price, like I see in the young people, what they want to pay to really achieve something because...

They just want things handed to them. That's it. Yeah. This is an entitlement era because things are very easy. When things are easy, it's very difficult to develop character. That's why for young people, I always tell them, you should choose to do something hard. Choose to do something hard for your human development, for you as a human being. Because if you just live your life in comfort, you will have a terrible life. Yeah.

I think, and on the One reason, only one thing, what I realized, maybe the one thing, the step up will be take us two steps back and understand the true life.

I I think so. I think we'll realize that the people that live this way are living disastrous lives, and people will learn from that mistake because this level of comfort that most people have is very new, historically. It's very new in human history. There's never really been a time where the poor people were fat.

That's right.

This is a weird time. That's right. The poorest amongst us have no worries about starving to death. They're in America. They're fat. It's more common than not. I think some crazy number of people in this country are obese. What was the number? Was it 60 %? Was it 60 % of people are obese? Something crazy like that, which is just nuts. And it It's too easy. It's too easy to exist. And I don't mean it's too easy. You don't have to work, and I'm sure everybody has to work and your work sucks, and it's hard, and you got to get up every day. But physically, you have to do something to test your will and your discipline. If you don't, you're going to have a shitty life.

That's right. You won't be able to control yourself in situations that require you to stay calm. I think right now, it's up to, like it was in every culture, up to the older people to teach the younger to real life, to tell them, like the simply tell them the stories, listen the stories, live the true life, man, because we are forgotten for all these things because we have the phones and this is the fake lives.

It's a fake life. It's a fake life, and it's bad for you. It's bad for your development. It'll hinder your potential. Whatever you want to do in life, if you want to be an artist, if you want to be a musician, whatever you want to be, you want to be an author, it will hinder your development if you live the comfort life.

Okay, so this is it. How you see in the 10 years, in the 50 years, in A hundred years. What's the next step for that?

You're not good.

Right now, I'm trying to lead you in some way, but no, this is your podcast. Sorry. No, you tell me. How are you trying to lead me? I'm curious about that because I'm trying to... This is my true motivation, the human evolution, the evolution of myself, how to fight better, how to to become the opponent better, how to show him that I am everywhere and you have no chance around me. Please hold your head down and tell the other, I'm the winner. You know, this is like my ego wants this. But the way to this, there is. But still in some humble way, to show it like Peacefully. Show it. Show it like...

Show violence peacefully. Yeah.

That's it.

Yeah. It was nice seeing you and Jamal Hill out after the fight, having a drink together. That was nice to see. Yeah.

I bought him my original drink, what I'm drinking, the vodka. Vodka soda lime. I told him, We fight together, we drink together. Let's go for that. Yeah, because, man, everybody, we are one. In the end, there is no enemy. Even with your the baddest enemy of the world. Man, it was a good life. It was a good fight. Let's drink together. Let's celebrate together. That's all.

Was it cool? Was it cool hanging out with him? That was cool.

That's something what I like to do with my opponents, whoever, you win, you lose, whatever. That's great.

It's always nice to see. That's one thing that people really do love about a great fight is afterwards when the guys hug.

Yeah, but still, I don't like to speak about opponent in some in some bad way, in some bad way before the fight. And after fight, change it. It does not exist. Right now, we are the friends and everything good, man. Please. Let's be honest. You talk a shit about me. Talk a shit about me. Okay, so you are the motherfucker, but it doesn't matter. Let's drink together. You are who you are. I am who I am. Let's drink together. But stay honest. Right.

Keep that in Energy.

Because that's why I like to keep same word, same attitude before the fight, in the preparation, and after the fight, In the fight, after the fight, all the time, the same. That's me. And I want to show me, not me before and me after.

Right. There's a lot of guys, just for the sake of promotion, they talk a lot of shit, and they're just trying to stir things up and make the fight more exciting by insulting people, insulting their families. And it gets very ugly. And I think the audience turns on them over that. And one of the things that's shown with your success and your popularity and guys like Alex is that you don't even have to speak English. It doesn't matter if you kick out. It doesn't matter. You could talk all the shit you want, get everything hyped up. What really matters is how you perform inside the octagon. When you perform inside the octagon, like Alex has, like you have, there's no need for shit talking. People love you, and they love you just by the style of your fighting and your expressing your soul inside that cage, who you are as a man inside that cage. You don't have to talk shit about someone's wife or all that crap.

Yeah, that's why many people around me, my manager team, try to be more focused for a promo and all these things. Man, the fight will do the promo. This is the main thing of everything. Not selling these things, these things, these, these. The main thing is the... The fight. The performance.

The performance. That's what drives me crazy about when championship-level fighters have to do a lot of promotion before the fight. I'm like, Man, leave that guy alone. What's really important is how he's going to perform. If you want to promote it, have a bunch of people like me or Daniel Cormier or Chael Sonnen, have people talk about the fight. Hype the fight up. You don't have to bother this guy at seven o'clock in the morning and talk to him for an hour about some fucking nonsense. Leave him alone.

That's what I like on UFC. They are focused for performance. That's great. Every time. And no talking before. No one fight, other fight, no one fight No special promo before.

Afterwards, do interviews like right now. Afterwards, relax. But when leading up to the fight, the most important thing is that you're 100% prepared, and anything that distracts from that should be eliminated.

That's right. That's right. That's right. Many fighters are focused for.

Sildas, there are things about shit-talking that I do like. And what I do like is that, first of all, it gets a lot of people excited about it, which makes me happy because I want more people to watch the sport. But also there's a psychological aspect, especially Conor McGregor. He's so good at talking shit that he gets people so angry. When he fought Jose Aldo, for instance, no one had ever treated Jose Aldo any way other than with respect. He was one of the greatest champions. He's an elite fighter. He had defended his title multiple times, destroyed his division. But you could tell that all that shit talking from Connor had an effect on him emotionally. And I think his ego made him go out of line. So he ran right at Connor and tried to hit him, and Connor stepped back and cracked him. He was so energetic. Now, imagine if instead, if Jose Aldo fought that fight and dragged it into the fourth and fifth round and started using the leg kicks that he used on your My A favor, and started picking him apart from be careful in the beginning, but stay inside the game plan.

Stay inside, fight the best of your ability. Don't get emotional. That could have been a very different fight. That's right. But that's the weapon, the weapon of shit-talking.

Especially if you know how to use that.

Oh, yeah. He uses it better than anybody. He gets people so mad.

That's right. But still, it's a big weight. It's a big weight. What you need to What you need to handle, what you know how to handle that.

It's also that big weight weighs on you as well. It doesn't just weigh on your opponent. When you talk a lot of shit, it puts extra weight on you. That can get you out of line. The additional pressure. You might hear the audience boo when they introduce you. Like, oh, shit, what have I done?

Yeah, that's right. Not everybody has this big self-confidence to keep Yeah, it's an interesting aspect, but I don't like.

If I had to choose one way or the other, I would say, just fight. There's no need to talk shit. We should behave like martial artists.

My attitude about that is a true self-confident man, a true man who overcome and understand his body, his mind, the opponent's mind and body, and his mind don't need That guy don't need to talk shit. It doesn't matter to show that to others, to the crowd, or to fear theopponent. Because why? I know that. I don't need to make this show to anybody because I know it. I know what will happen. I have this self-confidence.

The thing about talking shit, though, it does make you more money because it does cause more people to pay attention. A good example of someone who doesn't need to talk shit, but talks a lot of shit and becomes successful is Gordon Ryan. You know Gordon Ryan, the jiu-jitsu champion? That's his belt up there. That's his Abu Dhabi belt. Gordon talks a lot of shit, and he's the greatest of all time, and he still talks a lot of shit. That's him. But that's also why he's so popular is because people talk shit back to him, and there's a lot of back and forth on social media.

The most important thing is to be him, to be not like, to play it, to be true yourself. When you are like that, okay, be a bad guy or whatever, but just show yourself. That's it.

Who are you, for real? Express who you are in there. You might not even like who you are after it.

That's right.

So A lot of guys, that aggression, especially after a loss, it leads them to a place where they're like, I don't even like how I behave. I don't even like me, especially with the bad feelings of a loss. So when you have all this aggression and shit talking and then a loss, a bad loss, and you have this feeling of like, I was an asshole, and I lost. And the crowd cheered when I lost.

Like, fuck. That's the game they play, though. That's the game. And this is something what is for me I can't forget for myself because I want to show really through myself. So I can't talk shit.

Yeah, you've got to be yourself. Yeah.

That's me.

Yeah, you can't. Especially now, if you try to become an asshole now, everybody would be confused. They're like, What's going on? If you took a heel turn.

I am an asshole. But so So big one, so I need to keep myself so straight. So I can't do that because that will be just, like I said, ego line. I will show you just this one line. No, I need to show you the center.

You need to be pure. You need to be you with no bullshit. And that's how you perform at your best. So after a fight like this, there was a lot of... I brought back to the Luke Thomas video. He was saying, you could be a middleweight champion. If you fought at 208, that's a lot lighter probably than Drekus 2 plus C. Drekus is huge. I look at him, I was like, How does Drekus make 185? He's so big. Have you thought about that? I know there was some talk about that at one point in time.

Yes, I thought about that. But the main thing for me is right now I see the way in light heavyweight because I'm one of the strongest guy in this division, and I still feel like there is a way in light heavyweight. I said to myself, Okay, you can go to the middleweight, but first show the consistency in light heavyweight. Take a belt, then you can... With the belt from light heavyweight, you fight for the belt in the middle weight.

To be a double champion. Yeah. It's interesting because weight cutting is, in my opinion, the worst aspect of the sport. Josh Barnet was just talking about this. He was on the Ariel Hauwani show, and he was talking about the dangers of weight cutting in reference to Arman Sourukian's having to pull out of that fight. Arman is big. He's big. When I stand next to him, I cannot believe he makes 155. He's very muscular, very dense, and very lean. And so for him to make 155, it must be an absolutely brutal weight cut. I got to think he weighs 180 easy, maybe more. He's big. And I think off when he's out of camp, I bet he weighs closer to 200. I mean, he's fucking thick, man.

Why they do that? Why they done fighting in- Higher weight class?

In higher weight class? The thing is, at that weight class, Islam Makhachev is so fucking good, and he's so big. He's another one. You stand next to him, you're like, How the fuck does this guy make 170? And he was actually talking about his first fight with Alexander Volkanovski. And one of the problems that he faced was that the fight was very early Australia time so that it could be on pay-per-view in America. So he was getting ready at 05: 00 AM. So he did not have the time to recover from the weight cut from the previous day. So instead of having a full 24 plus hours. So if you're weighing in at 10: 00 in the morning now, is it what time do you weigh in? What time did you weigh in in Los Angeles? 8: 00. 8: 00 in the morning. 8: 00 in the morning. So 8: 00 in the morning, and then you have a full 36 hours plus before you fight. That's right. Which is plenty of time to recover and rehydrate. But he did not get that with the Volkanovski fight, and you saw it in his performance. He didn't look as good because he's fucking big, man.

So I think weight cutting should be eliminated. I said this to Ari Emmanuel when they first bought the UFC. I said, Listen, man, you know what you do? Get rid of weight cutting. Just stop it. Look, if you can randomly test people for drugs, you can randomly test their weight. Show up with a scale. Hey, buddy, step on the scale. You're 190 pounds. How the fuck are you making 145? Do something like that. That's right. And come up with more weight classes. There should be a weight class every 10 pounds. This idea of these giant gaps, like 180 85 to 205. That's a 20 pound gap. That's huge. That doesn't exist in boxing. That's right. They should have every 10 pounds, 85, 95, 205, 225, and then unlimited. Instead of 265, let them weigh whatever the fuck they weigh. They just got giant guys out there that can't fight in the UFC because they can't make 265, which is crazy. Bigfoot Silva, when he was at his prime, when he was saucy, he was like 300 pounds. He was fucking huge.

I like the way they're open weights, man.

Yeah. Open weight, not 265. Let Francis Ngana weigh whatever the fuck he weighs when he doesn't cut weight. Probably weighs like 290. Instead of having weight cuts, just take the champions, find out what the champion weighs, Don't get rid of the championship belts. Find out what does Islam Makachev weigh? Islam Makachev is a UFC champion, best pound for pound fighter on Earth. Find out what he weighs. What do you weigh if you were healthy if weight cutting didn't exist? Would it be one 85? Okay. 190? Whatever that is. That's how you fight now. And we're not going to weigh you in the day before and let you rehydrate. That's crazy talk. Fight people your size. And also, the fights would be better because too many guys get depleted horribly by these weights. Like Max Holloway said, he would never make 145 again after he fought Ileya Topoya. So I can't do it anymore because he had gone up to 55, he got thicker, and then he went back to 45. He He just drained. He just wasn't himself. He didn't look good. I think that would be, and I know this is not an easy thing to do, but I do think it's just like getting steroids out of fighting.

When they brought in Usada, when Usada came in, you saw people's physiques melt. You saw people that were doing steroids on a regular basis and gaming the system and testing negative on the day of the fight. But all throughout their camp, they were using. You saw their bodies change. They started looking like doughy and flabby because they didn't have any testosterone anymore. They fucked up their endocrine systems. Instead of allowing that, they brought in USADA, and USADA started randomly testing, and a lot of people fell off. Great champions fell off. Guys like Vitor Belfort fell off. Great fighters who, when they were using, were unbelievably good, but then as soon as they had to be natural. Okay, so we realized that we're going to have to sacrifice some fighters for that. This is the same approach that should be made with weight cutting. Weight cutting should not exist. It's terrible for you. It's unnecessary. It's not necessary. It's just sanction cheating that we've done forever. If you're telling me that Alex Pereira When he fought Israel Adesanye, he weighed 185 one day and 226 the next day. That's crazy.

That's crazy.

It's crazy. It's not a slight against Alex because Alex is willing to fight He's heavyweight. He's willing to fight what he weighs. Weight cutting is something that exists. It's sanctioned. They allow it to happen. They know what's going on, and it's cheating. That's right. They're not really 170 pounds. That guy's 195. He's depleted and dried out, and then he's going to swell back up again, and he's going to look huge the next day.

But trick us. Everything is evolving.

Yes, they should evolve that because for the safety of the fighters, it's not good to dehydrate your brain 24 hours before a cage fight. That's right. It's dumb. But nobody's going to listen to me. Nobody listens to me, Yuri. Nobody.

Maybe off to DCI.

I don't think they should even have cages. I think it should be an open floor. I think it should be an open floor like a basketball court. Yeah. Because I think the cage allows you to get up when you wouldn't ordinarily be able to get up. You could walk, walk, walk. The cage allows someone to press you up against an unnatural object. There's a cage there. So you could press a guy up against a cage. Whereas if you were standing in the center, you could do Muay Thai sweeps, you could rotate around each other. There'd be more action, there'd be more movement. That's right. I also think if someone takes you down at the beginning of the first round, at the end of the round, you're on your back, you start that second round in the same position.

Yeah. You see that like... I have a similar view of the fighting. First, I thought, why there is a rules? Why there is a... The eye-gouging. Yeah. Eye-pokes is not allowed. I'm glad after this last fight, it's not allowed. It shouldn't be allowed, but it's very effective. Man, yeah, but show all your weapon of your body how you can defeat this man. That's all. One against one. That's all.

Yes, one against one. That's all. The minimal amount of rules possible. You know another thing that I think they should do, and I'm going to talk to Dana about this this week, cover the fingers. There's no reason to have these fingers exposed. It doesn't help anything. It doesn't help grappling. You never grapple like this, right? You never use the fingers.

No, no. Nobody does.

You do this or you do this or you do different things with your hands, but your fingers, they're always closed.

But still the feeling.

Still the feeling. I understand. But the problem is the pokes because everybody does this because you're used to sparring with gloves on.

So allow the eye pokes. Man, Everybody, you know what will happen? Everybody will be more prepared for... For eye pokes. No for eye pox, for every possible attack for an eye because eye is the weapon, too. It's a vulnerable. I can speak about that because I'm using that like I see. I know what you're saying. Maybe it's weird.

The problem is you don't want people to go blind. Like, Michael Bisping can't see of his right eye. I feel like for the sake of the athlete's future.

Everybody will took every fucking... Sorry. Every fight, every fight so seriously, so preparation will be so... And every people in the crowd will watch that with, Man, in this fight, there can happen something. After that fight, we will not... Nobody Everybody can change. Right. So we will, like the fighters, we will speak better, perform better, train better, be prepared to die.

Right.

And not just in our mind, just to die, to show the best performance. I mean that philosophically. You have to stop thinking and be in the moment and all these things. But that's what we are right now speaking about ancient fights, about the fight for a life. Real fight.

Yeah, real fight. No rules at all. Do you think maybe get rid of cups, too, and allow kicks of the balls? That's real. It's a real target. It's a vulnerability of the human body to ignore vulnerabilities of the human body.

It sounds We are, especially in this age of the full of laws and all these things. But that's how I see that. We are living in the age where the laws is for laws and the system is working, so we have to put some system on the fighting, too. Right.

Eddie Bravo actually came up with an idea. He was joking around, but he wanted to call it ultimate sack fighting, where you were allowed to kick a guy on the balls and that your balls would be exposed. It was like when the balls are in play, the game changes. And the idea was that your balls are so vulnerable, but yet you cover them like a tie cup. And then if he didn't, if the balls were hanging out, your chin is hanging out, that it would change everything. He was just joking around. It was very funny that the guy who would win would just have iron balls. But nobody has iron I mean, the human body has the eye pokes and ball shots.

You didn't see the monks, how they're kicking?

I don't understand that. I think they're just hitting each other in the taint. I think their balls are tucked up. I think otherwise it doesn't make any sense that you could just slam your foot. Because also the way they're doing it, the monks, they're kicking up. They're kicking up. So I think they're just slamming their shin into the instep into the taint. It's not really the balls. Like, If you front kick that monk in the balls, just front, snap. It would fall down dead. He'd be like, What happened? I thought you had iron balls. Nobody has iron balls. Nobody has iron eyeballs either. The problem with eyeballs is, yeah, these guys. See how he's doing that? He's getting kicked in the taint. I can even see the way his sack has pulled up. See that little thing that he's got on there?

But still, he's right.

He probably has little balls, too, unfortunately. It's stupid. Either way, that's stupid. If that was the only way, if you could train that way, a lot of the ties, they kick banana trees and kick sandbags. We have a sandbag out there. It's so brutal to kick. But if you do that enough, you'll develop those micro fractures on your shins, and it'll make your shins much tougher. You can't make your balls tougher. You can't make your balls tougher.

I think there is no A reason.

This guy just punched himself with the dick.

Reason to.

This is so ridiculous. This is so ridiculous. This guy's used to take... Oh, no.

Fuck, man.

Oh, no. Don't do it. Oh, God. He's just getting slam the nuts by a log. These guys just hit each other in the balls. But again, I think if you stepped to one of those guys and front snap kicked him right in the balls, it would fall down. This is stupid.

Whatever. I realized when I I saw a lot of masters of these, kung fu, doing these weird stuff and all these things. There's a way to About obsession of the martial arts, of doing something in your life to the deepest level. But still, this is a fighting. This is about the win. So I don't know if this will help you to really defeat the... No. No. Especially, this is just defense. Yeah. Okay, so you are prepared to defend your boss. Man, really, think about it in real. Don't give it too much on these on this side of an art of just doing... It's good to know one thing, one, two. One, two. Really, really deeply so you can time that Timing that in every situation to know how to do this movement in every situation. But these movements...

They're not an effective use of your time. Yes. Yeah. It's not going to help you be a better fighter. There's a lot of ancient ancient movements that are probably good for the development of your consciousness, and they're probably good overall for your ability to be a better martial artist because they teach you certain movements which are almost like a form, like kata. A lot of people talk about forms and they say it's a waste of time, but I think it's a moving meditation. I used to think it was a waste of time when I was a young man. When I got my black belt, I just learned the katas, and then afterwards, I had forgotten them. I just learned them so that I could pass the next test. And then once I knew all the forms and the kata's, I didn't care anymore. I just wanted to fight.

But all these moves-They're important. Are written in your body. Maybe you don't realize that yet, but in in a hardest situation in maybe there will... One move will jump up and boom.

Because you've trained your system about those things.

Like the Neo in the matrix, man. I know the kung fu. I know kung fu.

They think they're going to be able to do that now. I was just reading an article about that, and they were comparing it to Neo and the Matrix. They think they're going to be able to download skills into people's brains.

Which sucks. But it sucks because I want them to learn the way you learned. I think, no, man, there's the ego, the force. We will do that by... I will take it, and there it is. Dimitri. Yeah. That's Dimitri. Dimitri, hey. Instead of to find a real snake and whatever, I cannot describe on the snake. I know what you're saying.

I know what you're saying. Train those movements. So when the punch comes, you block, you counter. And then that it's in your mind.

You will take some information and by the force, you will give it in yourself. I don't know which form you meant. Like the matrix we spoke.

Let's Google that because Jamie will find the article.

Maybe like, on mask have that.

Neuralink.

Yeah, Duralink or something like that.

I don't think it was that invasive. I think it was some other technology that they think they're going to be able to utilize. Scientists use matrix-style learning to write skills into human brains see non-invasively, so they don't have to inject anything, put a wire in your brain. Techniques use real-time brain imagery in neurofeedback. It bypasses learning processes that require effort, study, or practice. With our method, not only can we nudge complex patterns around in the brain towards known ones, but also for the first time, write directly a new pattern into the brain and measure what effect that has on a person's behavior. Said Dr. Coraline Lourdon, lead author of the study and assistant professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester.

That's crazy. Okay. And this is the one side. The second side, how How I'm looking at how I'm taking that is about... Right now, I have no antenna. But it's not just about the hair. It's about to be open, to be connect with With the consciousness. I don't know how it's working, but it's working to be just connected for all the information, what ever happened and will happen is there in this moment right here, right now. It's just about the state. If you can be really connect for that, Because I don't know where many moves, I didn't... Rehearse them. I didn't train.

They just came out while you're fighting.

They just came out. In the fight, in the fight, and I don't know where, and I didn't train spinning elbow. Never.

Really?

Never, man. Really? I didn't train that. Never. That's crazy. And just follow.

You just saw it.

It was just there. I just following the flow, following the movement because there is a one elbow. Okay. It's going really slow. You have a second. Here it is. You have the second elbow. We'll see it here. Use that.

Boom, boom, bam.

Between one and second one, there was a long conversation of, You can do that. Try to do that. Okay, I don't believe that. No, do that, please.

This was such a phenomenal exchange. People love that antenna, too. They love that crazy hair. Are you going to bring that back? I liked you like this. Streamlined. The thing I'm worried about that antenna, that could get caught in something. The what? It could get caught. If you're in a submission situation, and you know how people grab shorts? I don't think anyone should wear shorts either. I think you should wear tights.

Maybe I can grab it in some joke. That's what I'm saying. You could.

Yeah, you could. You know what? You could, and it would be legal.

Dominic Rays caught me in in a guillotina. I was there and I said, Fuck, I have the hair, big fucking hair. I can't give the heads up. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That was the problem in that moment. That's what I was saying.

Yeah, I think shaved is better for you, but it looks cool.

That's what I'm saying. It's not about... Right now, I feel like it's not about hair. It's not about anything. It's just about to be there, be here and now. That's all.

No bullshit. Just be in the moment. Especially right now, you have all this momentum on your side because of that spectacular victory. So you must be very energized right now. You must be really feeling like you're on the right path.

Yeah, but still this state and this feeling have the two sides. So That's why I... Because I know how it is to be a champion. How is this all these feelings? And still, to not be the champion, to really lost like a shit, fell on the ground like a shit after. I realized that it's about to be just here right now, to be just here right now in this moment and show true yourself. Not playing. You don't do stupid shit. Don't have the war hair, be a warrior, be angry, be... No.

Just be.

That's it. Show your true self. That's all. That's what I like on the States, on America. They everywhere, They are okay with that to show yourself, true yourself. In Europe, we have some special thinking about America. There is something better than everywhere. And you here just pushing more to everyone to just live through yourself. Maybe I'm wrong. No, you're right. But this is... Freedom. Freedom.

Fuck, man. Freedom allows you to be your best self.

This is something What? Man, what is for me so inspirational. But still, it's a gift, a big gift, but a big... How to say? Big weight. Yes.

Big responsibility.

Responsibility. Because if you don't know how to work with the gun, it can be dangerous. Right. Yeah.

With great power comes great responsibility. Where you sit right now at the top of the heap, after Ancalyev, especially after that performance, it's very likely that either or a lot of people, forget him about Jan Bohovic. I always like to give him his props because Jan Bohovic is still one of the best fighters in the world. And I would like to see him get another shot because he's also 41 or 42, I think now. And he doesn't have much time left in his prime. Jan is maintained. Even at 40 years old, still, it doesn't show any signs of a deterioration.

That's right, man. When I thought about my next opponent, there was just these Guys, Ancalyev, Pereira. The Pereira is the most, but let's see how the negotiations will be. The Pereira, Ancalyev, and maybe the Bacowitch. These three guys I see, still there I see the challenge. Yes. The challenge because I want to go somewhere where I will feel I can... Because every time when there is a challenge, there is a new you. There is something new, what you need to overcome, what you need to rule, what you need to observe. Yes.

They're the elite level of the game. Jan Bohovic, he's, I think, the only guy to go the distance with Pereira other than Bruno Silva, right?

Yeah. Because he have the hands up.

Also, that guy's made out of iron. I mean, I'll never forget the fight with Ancalyev when he was just going shin to shin with Ancalyev, and Ancalyev could barely walk. Jan Bohovic is made out of rocks, man.

That dude just-Man, I thought he won that fight, but-Very close.

Very close fight, but you could definitely see given it to Jan Bohovic. There's a lot of those fights. Here's another thing that I think should happen in the UFC. I think we need more than three judges. I don't even think that the judges... Some judges are very good. I think the judging in California was very good. I think overall, I I think we need at least five judges. I think three is too little. Because there's too many times where two judges get it wrong, and the crowd is like, What the fuck? I think if you had five judges, then you have two judges that would counterbalance that other, and there'd be three, two in the right direction, and you would get a good result. I think you're more likely to get a good result, an accurate result of what the fans and the experts see about the result of a fight than you would if there was only three judges.

Or fighting to win.

Yeah. Yeah, it's fighting to win. What Gordon likes to do, Gordon Ryan likes to do, is no time limit fights. He does no time limit fights with no points. We're going to submission. This is what this game is about. It's a bit me strangling you. That's right. Yeah. Imagine that if they started doing the UFC like the old UFC, like UFC One, no rules.

Maybe for somebody, it will be a little bit... They will not like it because maybe sometimes it will be long.

Maybe So what?

Yeah, this is it. That's fighting. Yeah, that's fighting.

People watch baseball. No offense against baseball, but that shit's boring as fuck compared to fighting.

You know what's my theory about that? There is a sport, a a lot of sports, but the first one, first sport, first...

First version of sports?

For the first version of sport was like one man wants to I've overcome the second man. Yes. It came from...

Dna.

From DNA, from fight, from fight for this piece of...

From being caveman.

From eat, from food. Fighting the predator. Yeah. That's where it came from. In the time, there was like, let's do another competition, another competition, to not be...

So So violent.

So violent. But to be honest, the realest one competition is the one man against the second man.

That's why that sport translates through all languages. It's the only sport that translate. Cricket is huge in other parts of the world. Nobody watches cricket in America. In other parts of the world, billions of people watch cricket. Nobody gives a fuck about cricket here. Put cricket on TV, no one's going to watch.

In the time, we gave the Some rules, the kimonos, all these things. No, let's...

Well, that was the beauty of the first UFC. The first UFC was just wild. No weight classes, no real rules other than eye pokes. Joe Son was fighting Keith Hackney, and Keith Hackney was caught in a guillotine, and he's just punching Joe Son in the balls. It's a famous scene Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you remember that?

I remember watching that going, Oh, this is awful. This is awful. There's another one in Brazil. Big Daddy Goodrich was fighting this guy named the Pedro. Look at this. Just pure nut shots. Just one after the other, right to the balls. This is horrible to watch.

Show me the monk training.

But here's the thing. If he's wearing a cup, especially if he's wearing a Thai cup, a steel cup, which I also think should be illegal. I don't think you should have steel cups because steel cups act as a leverage point as well. Okay. Not only that, you could break your foot on it. It's an unnatural object. Then if you get someone in an arm bar with a steel cup, you could break it. It's like an extra leverage point. It's like bending a stick over a rock. Use it like a weapon. Yeah. And you... Kenny Florian used to always fight with a Thai steel cup. He's like, I don't know why anybody would fight with anything else because it hurts them when they kick me. Yeah. And it really is a good leverage point. It's also good for the mount. If and he mount you. There was a guy that I used to train with, Mir Rinovardi, and he used to get on top of you and mount you and drive his cup. He just drive his dick in your solar plexus. If you want to tap. It was horrible, but it was smart. I mean, if it's legal, it's a smart thing.

Find a way between the laws.

Imagine if nobody had cups. If cups were illegal, there'd be so much more nut shots.

Maybe somebody will find a way how to jump with this cup to do a face.

Those guys? I don't think so. I don't think that's real. I don't think that would work. But other than that, the rules, they're pretty good. They're getting a little bit better. I'd like knees on the ground as well. I don't think a opponent should be allowed to be in a turtle when your head is vulnerable. You have to move. You have to avoid those knees.

Before my last fight right now, the referee, sorry, with a big mustache.

Mike Beltran.

Mike Beltran. Yes. Sorry, Mike Beltran. He goes, he's a good guy. And he tried to tell me how to... Because I didn't know that. The change of the rules. The change of the rules. When the hands down when it's not the elbow, when the hand's down and you're staying and the hands down, you can knee the opponent, the hand still. So, man, that's...

That's better. That's better, much better. That's much better. Because These guys were gaming the system. They put a hand down so they couldn't get need in the face. That's crazy. That doesn't make any sense. You should not be doing that. That's a good rule that they changed. Another rule is the 12 to 6 elbow. That should be legal, too. And now that's legal again. That's the only reason for Jon Jones ever having a loss. So there's good movement on the rules. Rise and allow knees to the head to a grounded opponent and kicking. Did you get accustomed to that and have to get that out of your system when you came to the UFC? Is there any moments where you thought about throwing a soccer kick?

No, I didn't thought about that. But when you are in the control in the fighting, what's, I think, the biggest thing of the fighter in the fighting to stay in in the control. You know what to do, what can't to do. But there's moments when you don't control yourself too much. It's dangerous. But in Raising, I used that. I did that, I think, twice.

Yeah, it's very effective. It should be allowed. I think it should be allowed. I think the only problem with soccer kicks is the cage. So the cage, if your head is right there and you get stomped, you can't move. So it's the unnatural barrier of the cage that's the problem. That's why I think basketball court. Yeah, matted down basketball court. Just two men in the center of it. Have a warning track where you go outside the warning track too many times you lose points because you're trying to avoid the fight. Plenty of movement, plenty of time to move. And if someone gets you down.

I was just trying to imagine that. It's better. It's good. It's much better.

It's better because you wouldn't be able to just stall the fight out by holding someone against the cage. Because sometimes when fighters are exhausted, they'll just clench against the cage, try to catch their breath. That wouldn't be allowed. You couldn't do it. There would be no opportunity to do that. That's right. Also, if you got taken down, you'd have to get up with skill. You can't just use the cage to get up. It's very hard, especially if you got a great wrestler like Islam on top of you. Very hard to get up any other way than wall walking.

Just right now, I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about the... What's the name of the movie? Hunger Games. Just to put somebody and somebody somewhere, and they will find each other's in the natural environment and they will fight together and everybody will watch that. So give them weapons.

Well, have you seen those? They do have people with armor on fighting sword fights now.

Yeah. Crazy.

Just a matter of time before they take that armor off. Yeah. That's right. In some crazy country, some wilder country, they Yeah. Million dollar purse, you fight with swords. Then you're back to the Roman days, the Colosseum.

Yeah. But still, how I see that when we are going higher in understanding understanding everything, we have to go, maybe I'm wrong, deeper in these raw things. We want to see more raw because to be not to go… You understand me?

Yes, I do, because the consequences are higher. You have to get more pure.

So balance.

Did you ever read any Miomoto Musashi?

You know why, right? Yeah, of course.

I don't even have to ask. But the Book of Five Rings, he talks about that because Miomalta Musashi was such a great sword fighter that he believed the only way to fight at your best is you have to be a balanced person. Very balanced. You have to be an artist. You have to be able to do calligraphy and write poetry. You can't just be aggression. You have to be completely balanced. And he believed in that so strongly and taught that so strongly in the Book of Five Rings, that if you think about how he applied it to sword fighting, it makes Everything what you're saying makes sense because you have to be completely pure when it's just two men and swords. You can't have any bullshit. You can't let the ego get you on the wrong line because you're not just going to get punched in the face. You're going to lose your head.

That's right. Yeah. That's right. There is no time. And that's why I don't like it. There's no time for a talking. There is no time for a bad word in your talk. No time for a bad move in the fighting. So your mind has to stay controlled, stay present, and use, do nothing what's not useful for this moment. Right now, we are natural here. But when our life will... This podcast, this talking, maybe when you will not talk your everything honestly, it will cost you a life. So we will, both, we will pay attention of every our world. Because in that ages of Miamoto Musashi, there was a Even the word can cost somebody's life. That's why they were so precise in everything. That's the Japan, every movement, even the teapot, even the tea ritual is the art. That's why they were, and still they are, so precise in the thinking in expressing your true self, not just talking, whatever, motherfucker, Hey, how are you? Hey, what's up? This is something what I don't like to America. Everybody ask you, Hey, how are you? And don't care about your... And they don't care about your answer.

And I want to stay and, Hey, I'm great. How are you today? No, he don't care and he's going somewhere. So why ask me, Why are you doing this?

It's a figure of speech, unfortunately.

But still.

It's a kind figure, it's people.

How are you doing? I know. But it's not real. Yes.

But it's not real. They don't really care what you're doing.

They don't care how are you. I understand. It's Kaizen. Let's be But sometimes, don't push it too much to the I'm important, every my voice is important, every movement. The true power is coming with a lightness, to be lightness. And lightness is not to take in so much seriously and take in too much light, so taking like, don't care about what I'm saying. So You still... Balance.

Balance. It's this balance. It's constant balance and staying pure. Is that what you're feeling when you stare your opponents down? Because One of the fights with Pereira and the fight with Jamal Hill, you just lock on your opponent and you stare. And is that what you're doing in that moment? Just trying to be completely present, just empty yourself of all bullshit?

This is the moment before the fight. It's all about that because there is no opponent. There is just this moment. I'm everywhere. You're everywhere. That's all.

I like it.

I'm everywhere. But this is not something I'm telling you that because I want to be cool.

No, I don't think you are.

But this is a real truth. That's all.

So now that you have this big victory, what happens next? Do you wait for the UFC to call you? Do you wait for Anca Live and Pereira to fight to see what happens next?

This is what I am right now not expecting what I want to see the fight, if the fight will happen because they are translating that so much, their fight. Let's see who's the best. My attitude, and right now I know what to do, not to get better, to do a real serious preparation to get prepared for both of them, doesn't matter who, and be ready for negotiation about the next fight. I want a title, but I will let the life to give me who's before me right now. Who's the challenge right now before me?

It's just about whatever the challenge is, accept it, and then try to find your best self for this next performance as well. That's right. It's an exciting time for you, man. How old are you right now?

32.

It's a perfect prime. That's in your prime. It's an exciting time. Are you enjoying this life?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Enjoying. But, man, long time, nobody asked me for these questions, so I didn't thought about that long time. But yes, Since I decide I want to go this way of the warrior, of a true man, to to feel the true power and take it to my life and live with that, not just to feel that and go away, but to keep it in a daily life. Yes. I'm enjoying that. I don't know who said that. Watch yourself like an art, like an David, you are.

You're making a masterpiece.

Make a masterpiece from your life. That's what I like to do in my meditations, to take a step up, watch yourself, watch where you're going, who you spend time with, what's your daily routine? How it make it better? Then go into the deepest level of the present moment and live that and stay with these your best ideas, what you are connected with. Yes, you asked me, yes, I lived that. But I didn't in the time, right now, I can say it right now, I didn't expect, it will cost you everything. It will cost you your old personality, and you will be born like a new personality. But still, I know somebody, my spirit, whoever choose that because I know this is the way.

One of the things that I have to talk to you about was in the Alex Pereira fight, you thought that they were using some magic spirits. Black magic. Black magic. Why did you think that?

Okay, I will take it from another start. When I'm doing something, I'm doing that like... I'm extreme in everything what I'm doing. So I want to go to the bottom, to the start where the source of that, where it's going. The source of the spiritual world of that question, what is the spiritual world? Where the source is, if there is some weapons, how they use that in the cage. I went in that so deep, so I get lost, really. So I had no other chance just to totally close these doors. Just believe that I am who I am, who to believe just for ideas which I started with, like the martial arts and all these things, and just be in the gym and train. Don't do another this bullshit because with Pereira, I really get lost, and I started to believe in other people, to not just myself. This is the way to the hell, to when When you start, stop believing yourself, your true yourself. When you start believing some spiritual guys who's trying to protect you or giving you something and trying to lead you and they know what's the best for you.

That was my biggest school in this life, I think. That was my last preparation to just believe in myself, go to the gym and train. Do a good camp, do a camp, what was the first your biggest inspiration so in Japan. I made a camp in Japan. Then I made in high altitude training in Mexico. Then I went back to my city, Bruno, for my guys, for my team, and we made a solid good camp, hard camp. The last fight, I'm happy that... Happy.

What is it about getting down to the source that made you think he was using Black Magic?

It's every time a big... No big difference. Experience, I said that for us. Big power when you are-Responsibility? It's big responsibility, not just big responsibility. I want to speak right now, so I don't want to speak about that fully because still it is something what I am humbled for, and I can say, this is it. This is it. Yeah, too, because everyone has their own way and nobody is, like even me, prepared for Just saying something, what can be for somebody, take it seriously. Again, I get lost in that. The thing is, I just started to believe. I will not speak about where is the magic, how to use the magic.

But you believed that there was magic working against you.

Man. And that was the biggest power for my opponent because I was focused for him, not for me.

That's where the black magic lies. Because it gets you outside your own head. But is that black magic or is that just his presence as a champion? Because the aura of a fighter is a weapon.

He have.

Israel Adesanye when he was in his prime had that. Mike Tyson in his prime had that. There's Anderson Silva had that. There's an aura that champions have when they're in their prime that makes you think about them instead of yourself. And it probably seems like Black Magic.

Yeah, but still, this is the... Just for me, it's a pure self-confidence. To be pure self-confident, you can't think about your opponent. That was something what I made. That was something what I really went to another level.

When you look at yourself now in this amazing performance against Jamal Hill, are you imagining yourself even better? Are you constantly imagining yourself even more precise, even more accurate, even more effective?

Yeah, sure. But right now, I'm more in reality about that, not just in not just in imagination. I want to see that in video. I want to be real. I want to see the results of my work, all these things real, not just the things I think, still think about I can be better, I can do this, but no. I want to be a champion, and I'm going for it, and I want to show that to everyone. That's all. I will show that, and then we can speak about the black magic again. No, because...

So right now, you don't even want to concentrate on the idea of that. Yeah. To protect yourself from that, you just don't think about it and be in your own mind.

It's all about that. It's all about that because, like I said, the mind is a big Great to serve, but the baddest, the boss. So that's why...

It can run away from you. Yeah.

Yeah. That's why I had to go back to the Japan where my old belief started to go really deep because there I started to be, I don't know how to say, not just inspired, but to live it, really live it without anything.

In So managing your mind, I'm sure one of the most important things is to not have a lot of negative influences, not have a lot of negative thoughts. Do you spend any time on social media when you're in camp?

Yeah. Yeah, but I'm doing just some posts, and that's all. Yeah, just post and ghost.

That's it. That's how to do it.

I'll post and maybe some answer to just a few of my friends, and that's all. No no reading comments, no reading anything, because I'm here to... Right now, I'm here to show you my way of the martial arts, my way to the strength, where I still feel the way. And this is it.

What is the days that you spend in darkness and silence? What does that do for you?

Still, it's about explore your mind. Keep your mind disciplined. Keep your thoughts on the ground. Observe. It's all about the mind And then about the training, because I trained there too in that dark... You mean that dark room?

Yeah.

So meditation, observing mind, follow your and find the best of what you can achieve in this Which you can, if you can, if you want, really. This is the question what everybody has to answer to ourselves. Which life we want to live? Which thoughts is the useful, which not, which I need to let go, and which I want to keep in my life? It's just a deep exploration of your own mind. Yes. Maybe because there is a lot of levels like imagination, See some visualization, some life dreams, all these things, because after three days, there is an opening, the third eye is opening, and you can see truly who you are. Maybe sometimes somebody needs more days without food. So it's going to be... Then without food, it's going to be more intensive. Everything's going much faster.

So when you started doing this, you do no food? Do you just drink water when you're in there? Yeah.

To understand me, all these things I'm doing because I really decide to use everything like a weapon in a fighting to to use my mind, use my visualization, use everything. That's why I went to this trip of the spirituality so deep because I Well, I thought there will be some special weapons what I can use in the fighting. The biggest special weapon is to be your yourself, the realest yourself. That's all. That's the key.

That's the key.

Yeah.

Well, listen, brother, I'm a big fan. I love watching you fight. I really enjoy talking to you. I wish you nothing but success, and I can't wait to see you get after it again. I'm very happy for you and your improvement. The last fight was incredible. Thank you for everything. Thank you. Tell everybody, do you have a website? Do you have a website online? Sure. What is your website?

I have just a brand. Do you have a website or do you just have social media? Social media, sure.

Social media, just Instagram, Yuri Prohasca.

Yuri, Yuri Prohasca, yes. Instagram Twitter, too. Twitter is Yuri, BJP.

There it is. Yep. That's it. What does BJP stand for?

Wow, man. This is What I came from, the stand, that young Jury, not young Jury, the true Yuri, who's But UFC don't like that. Because I'm trying to tell them, this is the best Jury Prokashka. But in the real, in Czech, is a Bombiak Pitcha. That means like, Bomb as fuck. Because that's it. That's it.

It's Bomb as fuck, Yuri Prohasca. That's right. That's it.

That's right.

Beautiful.

Yeah. All right. Looking for a bigger strength, that's all.

Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, brother. This was awesome. Thank you. I really appreciate you. Thank you very much. All right. Bye, everybody.

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