Joe Rogan - Conor's Coach on the Mayweather Fight

Now, when you train for the Mayweather fight, what, first of all, how much time did you have to prepare for that fight? Ten weeks to the day. That doesn't seem like a lot. No. No. I remember just getting the message. Do you think that that was calculated on Floyd's part? Maybe he's a very smart guy. Because it seems like most of his fights are planned way in advance. Yeah. But that one was like, what? It's a couple months away. It just sort of happened, yeah. Yeah, it was, was it August? Is that when the fight took place? It was August. August? So I remember hearing about it and thinking like, wait, wait, August? That's fucking really close. Right. Right. Like for a Mayweather fight, you would think six weeks or six months or something along those lines. But I would feel like for Floyd is as great as he is and probably the best ever in terms of boxing technique and not being hit. I mean, he's so elusive. Still really wouldn't want a guy like Connor preparing for a long period of time and really getting acclimated. Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of funny how that all came about because when he fought Eddie in November, the year before, I remember shortly after that we were at a function and I kind of pulled him aside and I shook his hand and said, right, you're done. All the best. Enjoy the rest of your life. And he was kind of shocked by saying this to him. But I said, what else are you going to do? You're a two way champion. You've got out the other end of this grind, this meat grinder with no damage. You're in a very small percentage and you've made plenty of money. Often enjoy yourself. And then time in my past, couple of months in my past and then the Mayweather fight start talking. And I could I could understand this because now his grandkids were going to be financially secure. So it made sense because it was a big payday. Didn't really make sense for any other reason. He enjoyed the competition side of it. That's no matter what you're doing with Connor, it's going to be competition. I don't care what it is. He's going to look. How quick did you do that? You're like, I was just going for a piss. Yeah, I'll do it quicker. Yeah, he's just that way. So when him fight start having a bit of a back and forth, he's like, OK, let's quit the boxing and be the best boxer in the world. And for me, myself, you know, I was on the outside going, OK, I understand what that makes sense to do. Nothing else was really making sense at the time. It's going to be damaging boxing as a horrendous sport to prepare for and to compete in because we're just looking at one thing really punches to the head. You know, of course, the body shots are well, but it's so damaging. The only justification I could see for that was, you know, your grandkids are financially set. Yeah, tremendous, tremendous height behind a tremendous amount of money. Did you think you could win? Of course, I'm always going to think that way. You know, that's my mindset. Let's let's prepare as best we can. That's the options here. When he landed that uppercut in the first round, what did you think? Yeah, like even when he went out to do that. So, you know, we did a whole training camp and we brought in you probably heard we brought him. We thought about it. And that was my first time ever seeing him against a recognized boxer. Yeah, it was in the gym. We have local guys really happened in those sparring sessions because what we got to see the clip that was released was kind of lighting Malinaji up. But Pauli Malinaji insists that most of the sparring was him dominating. Now, that's not what I saw. You know, when we when he when he came back from like he did it a spar, he went away. It all broke as a picture got leaked and then he probably did a lot of interviews. He was on the East Coast working a show. So when he came back, he came back. It was coming back to have a fight. And it was actually it was a weird night in the gym because the Fertitta brothers come in. Dana command was a few celebrities come in. It was a fight, you know, and the referee was there. Joe Cortez is a great guy. And he did 12 hard rounds. And I do I think there is something being released on Netflix soon. A documentary based around that fight. And it will have all the have all the rounds. So I guess really. Yeah, I mean, we of course we have the rounds. We have the 12 rounds. And it's as far as I'm aware, I just actually did an interview for recently there. I think it's a three part documentary that's going to be on Netflix soon. And so people will get to make up their own minds about it. But just going back to the fight. So what did you think, though, about the sparring? When he walked out, when he walked out first and I went to myself, I have no idea what's going to happen. I seen him box some amateurs back home and some pros. I'm horrendously ignorant to the boxing world. I just I just don't really follow it. And he was schooling those guys and I was like, yeah, but they're not a world champion at that elite level. So that night when he went into the ring with Paul, I was like, you know, being an owner kind of like what's going to happen here? Is he is he just going to get tooled? And then we have to scratch our heads and go, shit, what are we going to do here? Right. But he came back after the rounds and me and we're going, wait a second. It's not magic. It's still punching in its range and there's techniques. And so I got my confidence was growing. My confidence was growing. So I knew it. I knew no matter what happened, it was going to be a good fight. It wasn't going to be, you know, you could win and just, oh, this looks terrible. He's missing whatever you shot and he's being made look silly. Was it a good fight? You know, it's entertaining. I think no one in the crowd was saying that was ridiculous. No one was saying that was a waste of money. It was it was an entertaining fight. And it's going to be one of those things that I'll be an older man that I am now. And I'll be talking about the time we we went into the boxing world and fall flight. Even on the night, I was kind of this look at scratch. What am I doing here? That's Floyd Mayweather. And it's dad over there. These are guys that, you know, of all the boxes, I always prefer to watch him fly than anyone else, because I love defense. Defense to me is the most intriguing part. And him and Tony and those those type of guys and that how he worked the Philly shell. And it was it's beautiful. It's so interesting to watch and getting on a bit and but still able to compete so fantastic because his whole career was defensive base. Everybody took the shots. Never never was damaged in the gym. Never was damaged in fights. But yeah, when he was in the ring, never working in the corner, in our corner, I'm just going, what the hell is Connor doing? This is just strange. Even even at the beginning, you know, I'm so used to Bruce Buffer and it was a different guy and he hit the bell tree times. I was like, oh, yeah, they do that in the Rocky movies. I remember that thing. Ding, ding, ding. Ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, it's kind of the beginning of the ceremonial. Right. And I was like, oh, shit, they're actually going to box. Right until the end of it, it was still just head scratching and then, you know, flight coming over at the end and giving this little compliment. You know, he's got a hell of a shot on him. He's tough as nails. Which was a great experience. Oh, and I wouldn't do anything different. If the Pauli Malinaji sparring session, which you said was like a fight, if it was scored as a fight, you think Connor would have won the fight? And yeah, of course, I'm going to say yes. And then people say, well, no, everybody who was there in the night had, you know, as Dane, as actually Dane knows a lot more about boxing than me than I do. And all of those guys were going, OK, we have a fight in our hands here. This is going to be this is going to be an interesting contest. So, yeah, I'm of course going to say, yeah, I guess people will see their hands and make up their own mind. But it wasn't as one sided as those clips that were released. Of course, of course, Pauli, he landed his shots as well. Of course, he's a brilliant boxer was for me as a trainer was it was amazing looking at me. He's put on a little bit of weight and you still have to go 12 rounds because after round four is gone. He's not going to continue because he's been very heavy and he's been hit hard and he's been sat down once. Whether it was a push or a point, you guys can make up your own mind and that. But a lot of heavy shots. I'm thinking he's going to be over here by six. So we had another sparring partner ready. And I was like, OK, just be ready to go, because I think this will go about six rounds. And then Pauli just hit this rhythm and start landing his own shots. And it turned out to be a great a great contest. You know, I'd say contest because it wasn't a spar. They were talking all the time. Pauli was talking to me. He was talking to the cameraman. He talked. He was almost better than Conrad. It was great to watch everybody had a great night. And I think they both actually bizarrely enjoyed it. Like kind of Connor Nate, it's Batman and the Joker. Like, you know, they both need each other, but they need each other. But you know, each other. It's a weird dynamic when you when you see a contest like that. Well, Pauli was campaigning for a fight. Yeah, he was trying to get Connor to to box him. Yeah, I. It's not out of the realms of possibilities. Really? It's absolutely not out of realms of possibilities. There's there's all sorts of crazy rumors going around the managing team and the fight team and what might happen next. It could be boxing. It could it could be him. It could be Floyd. It could be Floyd again. All sorts of names are being thrown around. Well, one thing that happened in the fight that was undeniable is that Connor started to fade. And we've talked about this, the endurance issue. Like, what what do you think is that issue? Well, certainly in in that fight, you could see. And what I learned about it was it was just brilliant to watch Floyd, how he managed his energy. I think it's one punch in round one and maybe not much more around two. He was just so such, you know, such an amazing strategy. And then and then switching from the usual style to kind of just hands up and walking in and and Connor did unload a lot on his forearms. Very inefficient, which is the opposite of what I would describe. Connor's fighting style. He's efficient. Very few shots. Maximum return. This was a lots of punches. And it was one of the few bits of advice I gave him in the corner that was of any use, because I'm not a boxing guy. It was let's pick our shot. There's a reason why he's not trying anything. You don't try anything. This is 12 rounds. It's almost like there's three parts to a fight. There's one to four, there's five to eight and then there's nine to 12. And Floyd just worked that beautifully. And it'd be something that we would definitely do a lot more if we were to ever get another boxing fight was recognized that there's 12 rounds, pace yourself. He was he was kind of in the MMA mode of just big shots and light the guy up. But Floyd's the best in the world, not being lit up. Do you think it's a pacing issue and not an endurance issue or think it's both? Specifically for the boxing, yeah, it was there was a pacing and endurance in a new field, no clinch work at all. We had a few little kind of funny clinch techniques. We were going to try out the hammer fist to the back of the head. It was well, he was aiming for the side of the head. It was supposed to be like that. You know, we we played around with little stretches of the rules and we'd see what Joe Cortez would pull us up on. And could we do a little, you know, I'm a Llamashenko fan as well. And he comes from wrestling and you see him doing kind of what almost look like arm drags and and tie ups and stuff. So we were trying to use that. And we just got broke every time. We we had very little opportunity to kind of, you know, even going towards the back and holding the hip and hitting with one hand, I couldn't find anything in the written rules that were against that. But but we were pulled on a straight away. So some of the areas where we thought we'd be able to rest and maybe make Floyd use energy that he's unused to clinch. We didn't get that. It was it was immediate breaks. And that's you know, that's the sport of boxing. That's just how it is. So, yeah, it would have to be all those all those type of adjustments. One of the more fascinating rumors was that there was going to be some sort of a striking match in the Octagon. Yes, that was with MMA gloves. That's being talked about. That was being talked about. Is being talked about. It is. That's being gone around as well. I talked to Dane about that. He said it was horseshit. Oh, OK. Well, I don't deal with you. You talked about this. I heard about who is talking to you about it. You know, speaking with Connor and speaking with Magna to talk about like you can only troll a kicks, but, you know, that would be the end. Yeah, I mean, that's all it takes. Especially the side on the side on stances. You know what it's like if you get a leg kick in that way. You must face straight on so you can check leg kicks. If they allowed leg kicks and only leg kicks, no head kicks. Connor would fuck him up 100 percent quickly, 100 percent. I think it would be the first kick. No one even understands. It would be the first leg kick. Yeah. Now I will say right away that Connor absolutely doesn't want to do that. He wants to fight UFC rules or boxing rules. Oh, zero, zero interest in the high. Leg kicks. Just that alone. A hybrid fight. Just leg kicks alone. Yeah. Yeah. He would fuck Floyd Mayweather up. Doesn't he want to fuck Floyd Mayweather up? He does. But but within one of the two real sets, it doesn't. He just thinks it's just leg kicks. Just let him throw like just a few. I mean, it doesn't matter what fucking stance Floyd stands in either. Inside leg kicks, outside leg kicks. Just one of those. It would be like we've a lot of, you know, Ireland is we have very good boxing history and very good athletes. And we get the odd time and a good boxer will come down for a spar. And, you know, these guys can take shots all day long and one leg kick. And they run. You know, it's such a pain that they've never felt before. You know, like you said, it just it changes everything very, very quickly. It would change Floyd's entire game. He has no idea. Do you remember when cool Vince Phillips fought Masato in Japan? No. When Vince Phillips was at the top of his game, when he was, you know, a real elite boxer, it was just starting to slide and he went over and fought Masato in K1. And Masato just fucked his legs up. Just fucked those legs up. It was horrifying to watch. The only one that I remember that went over there and actually, oh, Shannon Cannon, Shannon the Cannon, Shannon Briggs fought Tom Erickson and Tom Erickson cracked him with a couple of leg kicks. And Shannon actually talked about it on the podcast. He's like, champ, he hit me with a couple of those leg kicks. I was ready to quit champ. He's like, it hurts so bad. He goes, but I'm pretending. He goes, I'm pretending it ain't nothing. He goes, I'm in agony. Yeah, it's just a different pain. It's just a stomach. You get whacked in the head all day long. And, you know, most fighters won't even recognize that. But the right body shot, you know, you hit that liver or the right leg kick. And there's just no grit and true. It's stunning for people that have never been kicked before. It's stunning to watch. They're like, what? This happens all the time. And if you watch like a K1 match or, you know, a glory match or Muay Thai, it's just crazy how often they get kicked and they just learn how to absorb it. They learn how to check it and eat it. And, you know, it just takes time. But that would that would be if you could somehow another talk, Connor and Floyd into a boxing match with leg kicks. Did Floyd actually say that that would be something I don't know? It was just one of those. While I'm talking to Connor, he he regularly throws stuff at me. Then I'm like, what the hell are you talking? You know, I'm always having weird conversations. Yeah. And this was just one of them where it come up that there's a possibility. It is. And they were talking about it. Hybrid rules. And he shot it down straight away. You fight him out. You'll fight him. Obviously, MMA rules will be ideal. I think Floyd is a very intelligent guy. He's not going to do that. Absolute intelligent guy. He's not going to do that. I don't even think he would do the leg kick. I don't think so either. I think he flirts with a lot of this stuff and I'll come over to your world. Yeah, but he's no he's no fool. He's a super smart guy.