Joe Rogan | Weight Cutting and Training Muay Thai w/Khalil Rountree

So what would you think about if they abandoned weight cutting? Mmm. They just opened up more weight classes and abandoned weight cutting. Ooh. I mean, I wouldn't mind it. I would like to see that. Don't you think it would be better for the fighters? I think it would be better for the fighters and we'd see some really cool match-ups. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because there's some guys that cut a lot of weight and there's some match-ups that would be really cool at different weights too. I think it's one of those dumb things that's existed in the past and we never corrected. I think we should stop it. It's not helping anybody. To lose weight for a fight so that you can be fit and in great shape, yeah, okay, sure. How do you go about that? But I mean, losing weight, like losing weight in training, not like massive dehydration. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For weight cut day and then rehydration the next day for fight day. I think it's a crazy strain that guys are doing to their kidneys and their bodies. Many fighters have told me that they don't feel like they can take a body shot as well when they cut a lot of weight. Yeah, sometimes your head, my head, I remember in the Johnny Walker fight, I had cut, excuse me, could have been from the weight cut, but that morning, if I even tapped on my jaw, I just felt like my head was just off, like rattly. Really? Yeah, I felt very sensitive. You mean it was from the weight cut? The same night I get knocked out. I don't know what it was from, but I remember feeling that morning when I woke up, because usually I shake everything off, I'll like, you know, punch myself in the jaw, all that stuff just to get ready for the fight. And I remember that that morning when I was tapping myself on the jaw, my head just didn't feel right. Dude, that's not a good feeling. No, but I got it checked after. I didn't have any concussion or anything. Did you have some particularly hard sparring session or something close to that? I don't think close to it. During that camp, like I said, I didn't feel it all the way until, I didn't have it. The only time I ever felt it was like after the weight cut, so it could have been from that. Right. Yeah. And I think that morning, I actually ended up cutting the last little bit of my weight the morning of weigh-ins too, which is not usually like me. I usually cut it the night before. So you said you like to start your day off with a run. Are you doing that every day? Yeah, definitely. Really? So that's one thing that I learned too is just training every day. Not to learn, but it just feels different. Now, I have to go and train every day. When I was in Vegas, like, I got to drive 30 minutes. All these things, I had a lot of excuses to make up. And now with the convenience of how training is now, I don't even make up excuses. I'm like, if I'm tired, I still, it's a two-minute walk. Get your ass to the gym. Right. And so, yeah, every single day training and then weekends off for sure. So you're running every single day, then you're training every single day. Before Muay Thai, it's mandatory you run. That's how they train. The trainers want to train unless you run first. You show up, you run. The first day I showed up at Tiger's Muay Thai class, I didn't even have tennis shoes. I just showed up with my flip-flops because I was standing right across the street. And I showed up, I started wrapping my hands, and the trainer, he's like, are you going to train? And I was like, yeah, I think so. He's like, you think so? Go run. And I was like, I don't have shoes, I only have my flip-flops. And he's like, just pointed. So, go run. And I had to run, I think it was like eight kilometers in flip-flops before I even trained. Jesus. Yeah. That's like four miles, right? Somewhere around there? Five and a half. Five and a half? Yeah, it's like four miles, something like that. We just had to run, run, run, run, run, run. I asked the girls, how long do we run for? She's like, usually like five to six kilometers or something like that. Yeah, it was like... Five K is like three and a half miles. Yeah. I'd say just cutting it short, five K. Wow. And then in flip-flops. That's really cool. And I was like, okay, cool. Yeah, I never forgot my shoes again. I would always show up. How bad that fuck your feet up? It wasn't too bad, actually. No? No, because I wasn't wearing shoes a lot anyway. Oh. Just, Thailand, sometimes you got to take off your shoes before you enter the store. So, they're hard-assed in their discipline with the wanting you to run first. They're just serious about it. Very serious. Yeah, they're just serious about it. They're like, show respect, you know? And when you're running, are you running with a group of guys? Or are you just... Everybody. Guys, girls, whoever shows up to class. Yeah, dance class. Okay, so when they're running, are they running organized, like in a group? Or is everybody running a few miles before class, every time? The first Muay Thai gym that I trained at, the straight Muay Thai gym in Bangkok, they run as a unit every day, 5 AM, as a team. They live at the gym, they eat at the gym, they sleep at the gym. They are. They don't have homes. Their home is the gym, and their job is just fight and eat, sleep, train, fight. That's it. It's crazy when they even take on the name of the gym. Yeah, exactly. And that's a whole different life. That is what made me respect and learn and love Muay Thai so much, is how these guys trained and just... They lived together. Everything. It was amazing. So, they run as a group, but the other place, we all start off, but if someone's lapping you and they just want to run fast, it's totally fine. But before the class, everybody has to go. Yeah. Wow. That's a smart way to do it, man. If you could really convince them to be conditioned all the time, and there's no... You have no option. You can't be out of condition if you're going to run five miles every day. No. Five miles and then hitting, kicking pads for five to ten rounds a day, clinching 45 minutes a day. Clinging after every session. It's like you run, knee bag, sit-ups, all that stuff. Second session is kick the bag three to five rounds until a trainer picks you up. For me, I had to wait for a trainer to actually even want to hold pads for me. If you just show up, you'll just be hitting the bag until a trainer was like, hey, okay, I'll hold for you. And then once you actually find a trainer that wants to work with you, then you kind of whatever their schedule is for you, they'll create it. They'll hold pads. You'll kick the bag. You'll do push-ups. You'll do sit-ups and then clinch 30 to 45 minutes after. It's the same thing every single day. Wow. Do you ever worry that this might be something that would be monotonous because you're doing the same way every day? Or do you think we just concentrate on excellence? No, because it's also like going to the fights and there's so many different styles. People are doing the same thing every day, the repetition, but the styles are completely different. Nobody fights like Sanchi, right? He does the same thing everybody else does, but he has his own style. You know what I mean? Or some guys will do the same thing, but they don't even like to kick or knee. They just like to throw elbows. I know plenty guys like that where they just like, you know that when he goes, he's just throwing elbows all five rounds. This guy's just going to throw knees. It's just like, which tools do you use the best? Are you a knee or are you a kicker? Are you an elbow guy? Are you a left kick? Are you a low kicker? It's kind of like which strikes are your thing. Then you go watch the chaos and these guys are getting split open every night. On the stretchers, they take them stretchers on the ring, man. It's amazing. Wow. It's like not to see someone get hurt, but just the fact that these guys are all out brawling every night. Every single night there's a fight at the stadium. Thursday nights are the nights that the higher guys go. They're packed with people, thousands of people. The one I went to, there was a few thousand people there for the stadium. It looked packed and everyone's betting like, oh, and then when the kicks land, they're like, oh, the energy is crazy. They never showed up, man. I'm getting hyped thinking about it. Can we back to Thailand right now?