Transcript for JRE MMA Show #45 with Justin Wren & Rafael Lovato Jr.

Yeah, well, we'll see what happens, but right now I'm I'm really happy where I'm at.

Yes 31 how four four years ago. Yeah 2014 is my first fight.

Well, you know, that's a kind of my life story, I guess. You know, my father is a lifetime martial artist. And so I had a whole martial arts upbringing well before I ever found out about Brazilian Egypt too. My father was a Gekundo instructor. And so growing up, you know, the main thing that we were training it when I was a child was the Gekundo system, which was basically mixed martial arts before mixed martial arts. Bruce Lee's philosophy was way ahead of his time. He believed in, you know, learning from all the arts and creating your own personal system of self-defense that involved, you know, each range of combat. And so, you know, I grew up doing several different forms of martial arts, boxing, Muay Thai, Estrima, Wingchang, Pinjaxi, a lot. I mean, you name it, I've probably done it. And when my father discovered Brazilian jujitsu, I was an early teenager, like around 12 years old, he learned about Brazilian jujitsu in one of the Gekundo instructor conferences that takes place in California. They brought in the graces. They had You know, they did like shoot fighting and different sort of, you know, martial arts that included grappling. But it was very, you know, rough and not near the technique that Brazilian Gitu has. So whenever he first started learning Brazilian Gitu, he fell in love with it. My dad's a smaller guy. At that time, he was probably like 14550 pounds. And so it was perfect for him. And he fell in love with it, and he comes home, and he starts telling me about Brazilian Institute, and teaching me what he learned. And we live in Oklahoma. And the instructor conference was in California. At that time, basically, the only Institute was in California. Maybe a little bit in Florida, and then Hensau was in New York. So everything was as far as possible from us, because we were right there in the middle of the country. And, you know, he fell in love with Brazilian children, so he started making trips to California to learn Brazilian children too. And I was just a teenager, I'm a young kid, so, you know, I was already doing some boxing at the time, competing in amateur boxing. And I'm used to training with adults. And once I started learning Brazilian Gigiitsu, you know, I fell in love with it right away because that gave me something that I could do where I could be competitive with the adults right away. You know, it was a long-linked kid. And the guard just, you know, felt natural to me and just being on the ground, I really loved it. And I loved it. the technique of Brazilian Gigiitsu, how technical it was and the science of it. So I fell in love with it right away. I mean, we sacrificed a lot to learn Gigiitsu being in Oklahoma, always traveled to learn. The first time I went to Brazil, I was 16 years old. It was 1999 to train and compete in the world championships. And we just never stopped. And we became the first American father in some Brazilian industry to black belts. But going back to your question. The full spectrum of martial arts was always in my blood. You know, even as a jiu-jitsu competitor, you know, someone that found his passion in jiu-jitsu, I still considered myself a martial artist first and foremost, not just a jiu-jitsu practitioner. And so it was always in the plans to one day do MMA. But I really wanted to go as far as I could in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. You know, I was there when BJ Penn won the World Championships in 2000. And I watched him win and I said, you know, man, I really want to be the next American to win the world. I immediately became like my my big life goal, my first life goal. And and I achieve that in 2007, but you know, like we all saw BJ go straight MMA after he won. He never even did another tournament. You know, that was the only tournament he ever did as a black belt. What's the world's? And he won and then switched MMA. And so I really wanted to be an American, just kind of representing for us in Brazilian Gitu, competing at that high level and winning as much as possible. And kind of, at that time, it wasn't like today. The worlds were still in Brazil. The sport was just dominated by Brazilians. And pretty much still is today, but now we've come a long way. And I just wanted to be that forced to show everyone, like, hey, we can do it. You know what I mean? It's possible, you know, because at that time it was a whole another scene, you know, the world's in Brazil. At the end of the tournament, you're lucky if you had a handful of non-Brazilians on the podium at all the belts, you know, including blue purple, I mean all the belts, let alone black belt. And so I stayed in the sport to really try to get a second gold. That was the main thing that was keeping me in it. To win a second gold at the world as a black belt. I ended up meddling eight times. Never got that second gold. But towards the end, I was just like, you know, it's time to switch. You know, I really felt like MMA was calling me. Jitu was getting a little too comfortable. You know, and I had been fired too comfortable. Yeah, it wasn't motivating me and inspiring me the same way that it was in the beginning. It kind of lost a little bit of that hunger just because I'd been at that level for so long and I've already competed against the best guys of my generation so many times and it didn't take a lot for me to get ready. just used to it. You know, it was the same tournaments the same season year after year. Yeah, same guys. It just stopped bringing out the fire. Now every now and then I felt it, you know, especially when I went back to competing Brazil, you know, the world switched to the US and in 2007, the year that I wanted. And so I stopped having that thing to push me to go to Brazil to compete. And so I went back a couple of times to compete in the Brazilian Nationals and I had really good performances there. I ended up winning the absolute in 2013 in Brazil. The all-way class division became the first non-Brazilian to ever win a major absolute title. And I did it in Brazil. That was a day I was extremely inspired, you know, competing in Brazil brought that out of me. But I just didn't feel that way all the time, you know, just got too used to it. And so I just felt like it was calling me, you know, I knew one day I was going to do it. I had to have one fight, just as a martial artist. I had to do at least one before it was all set and done. And I really just kind of took it as a one fight basis, you know, like I knew I needed to do it once. And, you know, the time felt right, like, okay, let's, let's go, let's switch back in to, you know, kind of tapping into who I was as a martial artist, the training that I had as a kid, as a child, under my father, under the, the GECOMDO system. And, and I did one fight and I enjoyed it and I said I got to do more and I got to do at least one more.

Well, always did wrestling, you know, it's a supplement. Yeah, supplement, Brazilian Jitsu, the no-key competitions, ADCC, things like that. And I just believed in training everything to Judo as well.

Well, whenever I was younger, my father, he had some fighters that he was training. And so I trained a lot with them. And then whenever I took over the academy, we had a couple of guys that were fighting then as well, one of which went to the UFC. And so I was sparring with these guys, helping them get ready. And in 2008, I met who is now my main MMA coach. He's my Muay Thai instructor. His name is Maricio Amado. His nickname is Veil. He is Brothers of Andre Dita. And they are both shoe box.

Yes. Exactly. That's where Dita lives. His brother.

K1, I think he did a dream, he did some MMA as well, but he's more of a kickbox striker. And I met Matt Isio and I really fell in love with his style of Muay Thai and I had some guys fighting at that time.

Well, it's totally designed for MMA. You know, it's not Moitai for Moitai. You know, they call their system Evalu sound tie. Basically means evolution, you know, and it's evolved into this system that is designed for MMA. You're not just training striking for striking, you're doing striking to set up takedowns or defend takedowns and It was just, you know, in a couple of systems, just whenever we fought last year, he got to train with my DCO and experience it for himself and it's special. Yeah, and Matt, DCO himself is just an amazing martial artist, you know, the passion that he has is, you can't get him to stop.

Well, I mean, the the offense and defense is so intertwined, you know, you do everything on both sides. And it's all, you know, very powerful as well. It's designed for You know, inflicting as much damage as possible. And for me, it was so good because they can work with me as a jitter guy, much different because they don't have to worry about someone trying to take me down. You know, I can pretty much throw whatever is possible, everything in the kitchen sink. And for the most part,

Yeah, it's okay. It's okay. And then also I have the threat being able to threaten someone with it, take down, which opens up a lot of striking as well. And so the way they have this system design, you know, is just perfect for me, and many of you as a person is just an incredible guy that I really fell in love with. Honestly, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be doing MMA. He just made me feel like I had the right person in place, the family to go into MMA confidently and enjoy it. And the beginning I wasn't sure how much I was going to. how much I was going to like the whole process.

Yeah, we've been training together for 10 years. Yes. And so I was bringing him out to help my guys get ready to work the guys that were fighting MMA. And at the same time, always training with him. It wasn't my focus then, but I loved to cross train, you know, and just the movement, you know, I love the movement and keep in my body guessing doing different things. And so when I decided, okay, let's go all in in on MMA, he was the obvious person to call and since then he basically spends half the year in Oklahoma with me and lives with me and I go to Brazil to train with Dita and his team there.

How many camps have you done now? Nine. Yeah, I've had nine fights. Basically, every fight. Wow.

At least two weeks, sometimes a little more, there's been a couple times a little less, but right around two weeks.

Yeah, I'm thinking probably a month. You know, it's just kind of full circle for me. You know, like I said, I went to Brazil. First time 16 years old, going to Rio to train strategic to compete in the World Championships. Did your dad go down there with you whenever you're 16? Actually, my dad has never gone to Brazil. He's not a flyer. He doesn't fly. He doesn't like to fly when he was going to California. He was driving. What? driving home.

He knows. And he used to be in the Air Force and that's kind of why he had a bad experience. And he lived in Spain. He was stationed there when he was in the Air Force. But you can get him to fly. It's a bit of work. It's going to take a little bit of some drugs and maybe a drink or two to come down. But Yeah, he would, I mean, we did road trips on my spring break, Christmas break from Oklahoma all the way to California to train. So he has not made a trip to Brazil yet, but I think it's coming soon. He took a long break from from flying and in 2009, he had a heart attack. unfortunately, but he bounced back and since then he's kind of reformatted his life a little bit and and one of the things that he put his mind to do coming back was the the famous walk in Spain. Got it left my mind right now. They made a movie about it before and that pushed him to to the famous walk. Yeah, why do I can't remember it right? Yeah, you know where you walk like you walk to height. Yes. Yes. It's a long walk. I feel so bad that I can't remember the name. Yeah, it's like a six week walk and you ended a special cathedral.

Yes, and the Santiago is the cathedral there. So he did that and so he had of course you had a flight of Spain to do it and So he's been to walk six weeks.

He trained for it, and you know, and he that was one of the major trained to walk six weeks Well, you weren't a backpack and so every day he would. Yeah, I'm just back. Backpack through. They have special hostels that you would stay in on the walk. I mean, there's a lot of people that do it. You know, you're not going to be by yourself. There's people doing it all around.

Yeah, I'm so proud of him for doing that. But, and so we start flying again, and I think he'll be going to Brazil soon.

My dad is a full-on martial artist. He follows his passion. He's martial artist musician. He plays the organ just a very unique individual. And he opened a martial art school and my mom gave an incredible support. And I just basically followed his footsteps. And whenever I started to commit myself to going all in, they've always been behind me. And I mean, the timing of it is just very special because he was inspired by Bruce Lee, and that's what pushed him to, you know, fall that you can do system. And so I got to come in in that, which is a very, you know, unique style. When I was a child, I was training with Danny Nassano, Richard Pistillo, some of the most incredible martial artists that I've ever lived.

And then I was at the special age of a teenager, you know, when Brazilian just to first start making his way to the US, and I had the support of them saying, yeah, you're going to go to Brazil. You're going to compete in the worlds. And I got to see jujitsu, you know, very early on. The first World Championships was in 96. And I competed in 99. And so I got to experience Brazilian Gigiitsu in almost its roots in Brazil and see what it's become today, you know, worldwide, such a big sport. And now I'm also fighting in the May. So it's really cool. My whole martial arts.

Yeah, I would say they learned from that a little bit, but it's definitely hard core down and could achieve it. And that's one of the reasons that I like it so much. It gets me out of my comfort zone. And you feel that energy every day, you know, you wake up and you kind of have to process what you're about to go to, you know, the professional training every morning. But it's a big spart on there. There's some version of sparring almost every day, basically every day. But it's a different aspect. You might be boxing only. There's a moiety only day. There's in the maze barring. There's, you know, grappling with ground a pound and wall, wall work, you know.

There is, you know, and there are definitely days where I have to kind of speak up and say, you know what, I'm going to pull back just a little bit today, just depending on what my body feels. I try to listen to that as much as possible.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right. This car right here is happening could achieve a Spartan with Vanderley. You know, you get more comfortable with it. And the guys are awesome. I mean, they are definitely my enemy family.

No, they're trying to hurt you. No, not hurt each other. They sing and dance and, you know, hug and, you know, I mean, afterwards, everyone's so happy. You make it through it and you celebrate it.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a little different.

Yeah. I think one of the things that they the worst things they were doing there, they were sparring full-on like day like two days a day before the fight. Yeah.

So yeah. There's some really funny cool stories. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and don't don't take it wrong. I mean, it's controlled now. But yes, but I would say it's still more hardcore than the average place for sure.

I think Tony Ferguson was just doing something about it. No sparring.

That's what I saw in the postfighting interview.

I think he won that round, right? That was at the first round.

I mean, did you? Did you feel at all like, oh man, this ride's coming towards me or anything like that? Did it spread around?

Oh, that's what I think I did. I saw that.

Yeah, that's a guy that got fired. Yeah.

Yeah, they just moved Artem into fight Michael Johnson, I think. Ooh. I'll be good for you.

He's still dealing with. injuries, I think, from that. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I saw that one of the bellotours in Chicago there, and he was like, man, I still dealing with like flash concussions or something like that. And I don't know. It was really serious for him for him. I think he took the worst of it.

don't quote me 100%. I know he had glass in his eye and I just know that he was still dealing with residual effects. Yeah, residual effects.

Yeah, I mean, same thing that you're feeling just, you know, that little bit of kind of sadness and disappointment of, you know, the biggest event, the most views and most people watching, and that's the last thing that they see, that's what they, you know, go to bed thinking about and feeling about. And I just, you know, I don't think even Keven Conner could be, that's not who they are as martial artists, you know, sure all the motions were flying and they, you know, they have a history and it's hard to let that go, but I just don't, I don't feel like that's even who they really are. You see, and all their other fights, they respect their opponents, you know, should come out and disagree with you.

That's what I mean about Kabib.

I wish he would have had the chance to say that. The sad part was him letting the emotions take over what he felt. Instead of just getting the belt tied on and kind of killing them with kindness at the end and saying that and having that chance to put that in everyone's minds.

But you think there's a point where there it is.

that they should say, hey, let's let's turn the talking down a little bit. How can you?

It hasn't escalated.

He's got one up or so for me, it just kind of felt like it wasn't a surprise. It was kind of like the karma for the UFC promoting the bus and letting it just keep getting deeper and deeper.

What does he have now? I've 100 some thousand and just a couple of days after that.

Derek, what's your issue with Daniel?

Oh, it's worth the guys. There's something about that that round body time though. I mean, there really is like the barrel, the, you know, the ability to kind of be ungradable, you know, and of course he has the power and he has the wrestling. So I mean, He's like a version of fetor, you know, very similar. Very similar.

Is that going to, uh, I know they're going to strip DC. So is that, is that fight for a title?

Well, he's probably going to fight the winter anyways, and then it will be for the belt. So maybe let him keep the belt.

Helping to promote the fight. Yeah.

Just for the rankings and the ability to get your shot, you know, just that by itself, I think deserves a sanctioning body, 100%. Let alone the ability for them to get paid more and be more, you know, fair across the board, everything.

There's really no one else for him to fight. He's has to fight.

I want to know the area where the sport and entertainment process.

You know, because one of the few that can jump guard.

It's a super nice guy. Yeah, super fun guy.

Man, the guy told us food stories all night. He's got like four or five restaurants. He's literally not allowed in.

Yeah, he's talking to Cabead now.

I don't know, but if he's supporting Bella Thor, I don't know. There we go. I'm not necessarily against it, but I don't know what's going on.

Yes, I do. Very much.

Everybody that I know that went over there really enjoys super professional. Everyone's really friendly and a lot of it's a great guy. A lot of jutsu guys on the staff too. So yeah, I like to feel that love. It was funny the last time, you know, Sean G. He's always in my corner. And, you know, one was Chicago, rich, rich child who's also I hope I said this last name, right? Joe. Joe, who's also... I think he might be Joe. So, okay. He trains you, too. And Sean, he was like, hey, he's a matchmaker for Bell. Yes. Yeah, great guy. Take it as to who I next. Yeah, and they've met before, and Sean, he's like, hey, did you bring your gear? Let's roll. You know, let's, let's go train. And, oh, no, I don't have my gear. I'm too busy. He's got a lot of things going on. Well, in, in Idaho for the last one. Rich had his knee and he was totally ready for Sean G this time and man, they ended up training him like probably I think that at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at at

Yeah, they're from Damazon, from Announce. So I was a six-time world champion. He's the older brother. Sean G seven-time world champion, two-time absolute world champion. He's the greatest heavyweight that ever, there's ever been in Brazilian G2. It's a really cool story. I was 19 years old, I was a brown belt, and I competed in my first professional event. It was a no-gui pro tournament in Ohio. It was the part of the Arnold classic event that goes on with the body building and and all that they had a a digital competition and they had a pro nokey tournament it was only three way classes like a lightweight a middleweight and heavyweight and at that time it was like the biggest no-get tournament that there was besides for ADCC. And a lot of the ADCC champions would do that event to win the money, of course, and then also just kind of prepare for ADCC later in the year. And I knew Saul, he had his home base as affiliations, associate association schools were in the beginning in that area of the country, in Ohio. And he always competed at that tournament, so to Charging. And so I knew there was a great chance that, you know, I would get a chance to face solo going into that event. I had to send my resume in to get accepted into the pro tournament. And I never forget the email they sent me where it was like, you've been accepted. Congratulations Saul. He bet it was in your division. Good luck. You know? How am I? Okay. How awesome. I'm already thinking, how awesome would it be to have a match with Saul? I'm 19 years old. Saul was already six time World Champion. A legend already. And so, you know, go to the tournament and sure enough, it was destiny man. We're on opposite sides of the bracket. And, you know, he clears out his side, gets the finals, no problem. And I fight my way to the finals. I had four matches. And actually in the semi finals, I ended up going against one of his black belts. And it was the first time I ever faced a black belt. At that time, there wasn't a whole bunch of no-key opportunities, you know, where you could be a non-black belt and fight a black belt. And I was losing on points and at the end I started coming back and I was able to submit his black belt and go to the finals. And his black belt kind of threw a fit and was pretty disappointed. I wouldn't shake my hand. Wasn't there when the referee was razor hand? And I could feel all this energy because it was kind of I think everyone thought they were gonna close it out together, you know, and How would they do that though?

Every tournament's different. Oh, wow. Yeah, it probably bow out. Yeah, and then they would share the prize money. There was some substantial prize money for first place. I think it was like five grand and second place was like 1500 something like that. It was the first time I got paid to compete like I ever won money. I was super pumped. But yeah, so you know, I'm going into the finals against Saul and I just beat one of his black belts and I was just like, I was so nervous, so scared, you know, but it was an absolute legend. Yeah, and I'm 19. I'm a brown and you know, it wasn't like today where you see all these you know, legends and these world champions all the time like at that time they were all in Brazil, you know, and so it was hard to see this guy's like the only time you saw him is if you were in Brazil and they were still very like they had this mystique about them and you know, it was just a different vibe. They were way more scary, I guess you could say way more intimidating back then. So I was definitely super intimidated, but you know at the same time I was fired up, you know, I want to be a world champion. I get to face, you know, a legend. And let's go. And so we had a good match. I was able to last for a good amount of time. But he eventually passed my guard, mounted me, and submitted me at the variant. And, you know, I wasn't disappointed. I was happy. It's like, man, you know, this was the first time I got to face someone like that. And I did my best. I was able to keep my guard for a while, so I was proud of that. But at the same time, he amounted me tapping and that's what he was supposed to do. But he was so nice to me afterwards, he gave me a big hug and we talked and that was kind of that at that moment. But I felt like I had earned his respect. Fast forward a few months later, I'm in Brazil, and at that time there was two world tournaments. There was a second organization called the CBJJL. So there was the CBJJ, and then there was the CBJJL. And they were paying. There was a world championships that were paying. Novelinial kind of created that event. They separated, didn't want to support the original world championships. And they made their own world championships. And they were paying. And that was the way they could get a lot of guys to come over and support that tournament. And it was big. It was pretty much the same. It was basically the same thing. There was only a couple teams that didn't support that tournament. And at the same time, there was a couple teams that competed that tournament that didn't support the original worlds. So depending on what division you were fought in, it was either exactly the same or it was tougher, you know, especially in the light weights. Because no one had all the best light weights at that time. And so I met that event. I competed there and Sala wasn't competing that year. And so he was very approachable. He wasn't fighting. He was just coaching. And I competed. I was a brown belt still. And I come over and I say what's up to Sala. And always say, hey, my brother, good to see you. Did it? How are you doing? He's like, where are you training? Tell him where I'm training. He's like, well, you want to come train with me? I would love to. And he was like, here's my card. Give me a call on Monday. I'll come pick you up. Sure enough. I call him. He comes to my hotel. Him and Shonji. They pick me in a couple of my friends up. They drive me all the way to Copacabana. We were staying in Baja. And we go and train. And man, like, just seeing the way he interacted with his guys, the energy, the way I felt there. You know, at this time there was a lot of them. You know, how do I put it like there was a resilience and then you're a green go you know, it was it was hard to go to Brazil and like learn a lot and have someone really kind of open up and help you and show you and teach you a lot. I mean, Eddie would know, I'm sure you've heard the stories. I remember being in Brazil with Eddie a long time ago, back in the day. You know, especially if they felt like you were a threat, you know, they wouldn't show you a lot because what if you ended up fighting one of their buddies, you know what I mean? And so This was the first time that I wasn't treated that way. And, you know, a solid one, Sean, you really opened up and was like, you know, bringing me sort of into their family right away. Do you speak Portuguese? I'm not 100% fluent, but I'm pretty good. You know, I can go to Brazil and do whatever, you know, I need to do and be on my own and be fine. At that time, my Portuguese wasn't as good as what it is today. Did you take classes or, The next year, actually the year after this in 2004, I lived in Brazil for four months and that's when I really got pretty good at Portuguese. But, you know, anyways, he was open to answering my questions, he was teaching me stuff and we trained, I trained there all week in between the time from the first worlds into the other, the main worlds. And I just kind of knew like immediately like, man, this is, this is what I want, you know, and it was the first time I ever had someone of that level. be open to helping me and taking me under his wing. And so we stayed in touch shortly after that trip to Brazil. He came out and two local homo and taught a seminar at my dad's school. My dad was running the academy. My dad loved him right away as well. He stayed with my dad and once again, we spent a whole week on the mat together. He's helped me, did an amazing seminar. Saul is just an amazing guy too. He's like an encyclopedia of Gitu and just one of the most amazing martial artists I've ever met. Um, and I mean, we just never stopped.

Exactly. Two of the greatest car park guard pastors that have ever existed in their mountains. They smothered. They make people tap just from their mount. You know, who do you brother?

But I didn't have that stuff. I was a guard guy. Right. I didn't really.

Yeah, it all came together for me. But I mean, this was the time I'm a brown belt transitioning into becoming a black belt. The next year I give my black belt. When we really started training like day to day that year, I spent four months there. I trained with Sean to do every day. You know, I'd become a black belt and they're literally just I mean destroying me, you know, they were their home base at that time in the U.S. was Toledo, Ohio, and the middle of nowhere. Really? How does one up in Toledo? That's where their affiliates were. In that area. Michigan, Ohio, down into Virginia, they had Philadelphia.

It was 2007. 2007.

It was around the same time. Oh, seven. Oh, eight. Really?

So I said, oh, seven or eight. It was probably oh, you don't know. Yeah, I mean, they would just destroy me with that pressure and it was like the exact answer to my guard because they, you know, you fight your way inside. So I couldn't use my length and I didn't understand how to frame how to protect myself and I just literally got smothered and, you know, just destroyed on a daily basis and to lead Ohio would just be the three of us, you know, they didn't have like a big team. And so I would go there and stay with them and we would just train for hours every day. And the bike, the airdine bike would be the evening training partner. You know, some two guys are out the other guys on the bike.

Yeah, it's a lot harder to me have so all screaming in your ear.

You had to keep a certain pace. And whenever they were in a scramble and going hard, you had to sprint at the same time on the bike. So you didn't want to be the one going too slow. And in the middle of the training, Sol looks over and he's like, you know, yelling at you to pick it up. You know what I mean? So you had to push it. You had to push it. And then it was your turn to go in. And so I'm going back to back between Sol and Sean G. And the air dine.

That was Lehman, okay.

Yeah, it was on his computer. Yeah. Another guy that had a big influence on me.

He was he went back home to Wisconsin, right? And I think he might have a teacher there.

Yeah.

He's had some back issues, you know, they kept it from training, but I think I want to say I heard he is teaching now he is back to teaches teaching and I think he's also some of his family either it's

I think that's yeah.

I used to have some neck issues. You know, it wasn't never anything too serious, but if there was something that kept me from training for a week or two, it becomes my neck would flare up. But fortunately, my strength conditioning coach that I've been with now for about nine years, he really changed the way I trained. I used to think that, you know, the supplementary, like strength condition, type stuff, like I had to just destroy myself and lift hard and do all this crazy stuff and I didn't feel like it was productive unless I couldn't walk at the end and then I would go train and get hurt, you know, just I couldn't move, I was too tight, too sore. And so my strength at the finishing coach Luke Tyree, he really kind of put me on a different path and made it a lot more back to the basics pure clean movement and everything just about health and awareness a lot of so what kind of stuff do you do now? Well, you'd be surprised how little I do. There are times where we push it, but I don't ever leave feeling like I'm not going to be able to train later. A lot of people do strength conditioning type training later in the day after they've already done their martial arts training, so they don't feel tired when they do their martial arts training. The strength of getting training that I do actually makes me feel healthier and makes me feel kind of awakens my body. I feel looser and so I always do in the morning. That's the way I like to start all my days. But you know we do a lot of kettlebells. I've been playing a lot with the mace lately as well. I do a lot of air dine bike. I'm on the bike a lot. Sled drags, you know, we just pick heavy things up and move it around. You know, the only lift I really do on a regular basis somewhat is dead lifts with a trap bar, so it's safer. And there's just also a lot of movement, a lot of mobility involved.

Because you're not carrying the weight in front of you so it's not as much pressure on your back. You know, it's you're kind of inside of it. It's a little more natural to bring it up.

And here's the first one to just say, crawl. Why don't you, you know, he's taught me how to crawl and, you know, just start crawling for five minutes, ten minutes. Hang, you know, get on the pull bar, hang. You know, we, he would incorporate all these recovery techniques and exercises into my training and a lot of movement and would be the first one to say, I know you want to go this hard today, but no, you're going to tone it down. How are you feeling? What's on your schedule? You know, and really just, you know, put it to where it fits nicely into my routine and isn't something that is everything. You know, that takes it all out of me. And he kind of opened my eyes to the movement area of his training. And that kind of led me into another person I'm training with now these days. His name is Cameron Shane. who's an innovator when it comes to movement. He has a system, the Budacon movement system, and he is an incredible guy. He's in Florida, in Miami, and he is a yoga, you know, he's a yoga, he's a yoga, he's a martial artist first, fell in love with yoga, and then created this free form mobility and movement that you see guys like Edo Portal preaching and doing now is really well known for his work with Connor. And I'm really into that as well. And so I've been working with him now for a year. And I love that movement. I just love it. And it's all when Sean G. are also that they spend a lot of time with Alvaro Humanum from Genesca, Natural. So I said it was a bit hard of that as well. Exactly. Exactly. So I love yoga, I love movement and that's a big part of my recovery and training without impact, you know, and it's kind of implemented into my strength conditioning program as well.

Yeah, I was 100% going for all the major tournaments in Brazilian jujitsu at that time. And I would kill myself in strength conditioning, go to train, neck would get jacked up.

Is that like a halo? Yeah, I've seen it, but I have one here.

Yeah, it's crazy.

I've heard you talk about it. I love it. The decompressing on the hangs. Yeah, those are great as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. More people should be doing that.

Yes. Exactly.

Yeah, I do something every day. Money through Friday and then Saturday is like a long hard training day. in the mornings and then Sundays is like a yoga recovery day. That's the other thing Luke taught me about is active recovery. You know, I used to think, well, I need to take a day off, I need to rest. And I would basically lay around, you know, and I thought that was helping, and it wasn't. He was the first one to really give me active recovery, like go take an hour long walk, you know, stretch, move, breathe, do yoga, you know, something like that, and that helps tremendously too. I don't get to a level of soreness anymore where I feel like I can't do anything. You know, where is that used to happen to me? But I was younger and I had this you know stubborn mindset and and I just thought well no I got to go go go go.

I got to go hard today.

Yeah, it's going to be a lifestyle. 100% has to be a lifestyle. The way you, you eat, you move, you breathe, the way you view, you're training.

Uh, yeah, I mean, both, uh, harness, um, that's maybe around your waist or you can, you know, hold like, uh, you know, some handles and push it, um, pull it. Are you doing any running at all? A hill sprints. Uh, I don't do like a lot of long distance extended period of time running, uh, just hill sprints. I feel like that's deasy some of my body and also translates the most into what I need.

Yeah, because it was just my dad and I, and Oklahoma, you know, I was the most advanced student there, you know, and so I started helping my dad teach when I was like 16, you know, if he, if he wanted to go travel and train, I would help teach. If he needed a night off or whatever, I was sort of the next one. And I started teaching adults right off the bat, you know, 16 years old, teaching grown men. But I've been teaching now for almost 20 years.

He's been such a blessing in my life. You know, I was very kind of like skeptical of him at first just because You know, he's a big guy heavyweight MMA fighter is like man is how is this gonna work? Is he gonna be open to putting on the key? What is his mindset is he see a fighter or see a martial artist you know How's I just didn't know how is gonna work you know I'm not a we don't have them a fight team, you know what I mean? We have a martial arts school. And so you're always just a little, you know, when a fighter wants to come and, you know, how is this going to work?

Yeah.

Right.

Right, and that's the most important thing, just learning. And becoming part of the team, part of the family, of course I did my research from Justin, and you know, I knew he was an amazing person, but I just didn't know what he trained like, what his energy was like inside the academy, you know, but he was open to putting on the gear. The first conversation we had, I said, hey man, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna wanna put a gear on you. Are you okay with that?

For me, I can't pass on what I really have to offer. You know, my passion, my love. There's no way I'm going to be able to pass that on to you if you don't put on the key. If you don't get inside my head and learn what I have to say and how I feel about Brazilian each year too.

It's just, for me, that's jujitsu. For me, that is jujitsu. No ghee is jujitsu as a part of it, but it's submission wrestling, submission grappling. The beauty of jujitsu, for me, is with the ghee. The inches, the details, the way you can make a mistake here, and that's your downfall 10, 12 moves later, minutes later. The way it feels, the tightness of it, everything, Jiu Jitsu is, you know, I mean, Jiu Jitsu is my passion.

That's what it was, too. It's like, you're not going to fully become part of the team and the family if you're not in the classes. And I was saying, I'm going to want you to do the classes and 98% of my classes are all in the ghee. You know, we take it off. We do no key afterwards. You know, we have our sparring or MMA training, everything else. But I want you to come to class. You know, I'm not going to do like a lot of special treatment just for one individual. You need to, you know, be a part of this family. And that is to put the key on and come to Jiu Jitsu class.

No. No, Oklahoma's not like that sort of hot spot. You know what I mean? It's rare for people to come.

And he learns like a sponge. I mean, He's because of that attitude that he has and our connection that we made so quickly It made it really easy for me and I mean obviously it's a great athlete great wrestler And the fact that he was open to it, you know I Was sound like just and you got to play guard, you know, you're gonna start on your back like all these things He was accepting of it and then he just made it so easy to absorb all the knowledge and it's just like you know playing a video game with him. It's like here's what you're gonna do and boom. He did it

He's been working with a strength and conditioning coach too. I mean, he's kind of gone all in with everything.

It all started with my dad and having that when I was a kid.

Yeah, so solo he is logo. It's the star, and he considers the middle, the spirit of the samurai, and then there are six blades to the star, and they stand for six different values. Loyalty, respect, honor, discipline, attitude, and family. And those are the core principles in the Children's Program at My Academy, and sort of just the... There it is right there.

Yes, it is. I have right here. I carry it with me every time. Yeah, that's it. But you know, besides for You know, those are the core values and then, you know, being a forever student and dedicating your life to learning and bettering yourself. I mean, these things that martial arts gives you, I just, you know, there are certain areas and other sports that give you peace of mind, but nothing is like martial arts, you know, for me everything I know are live, I've learned through martial arts.

The different bars the level almost looks like a ladder.

Yeah, everything that you could ever ask for to help pass that knowledge along and increase your program, you know, help your school bring more kids in, make a bigger impact. So not only are you helping the kids, but then you're also raising money inside the academy to help towards, you know, the fight for the forgotten.

Yeah, I just wanted to back it up one more time. You know, Justin has inspired me so much to, you know, get involved in these sort of things. You know, I'm happy to have my school involved and I'm just kind of out there calling out for all the others due to schools. You know, in the country like, I mean, if we just get two schools per state, that's 100. And if each one reaches the goal of 4200, then we've done it. And so, you know, it's a great cause. It helps the school, the material that they get is very helpful to implement into their children's programs. It even comes with marketing material to help get those kids in the doors. So it's totally worth it and then, you know, it's always great, like he said, you know, when we had the school Christmas party last year, you know, it's always great to get everyone behind something behind a cause. And, you know, to get your whole school to rally together, you know, for this cause would be, you know, a great thing for your teams and your suggested families. And it's not that hard to do, you know, it's not that hard to hit 4200. And if we get 100 schools to do it, then we've done it. So I'm here to support Justin and that.