Justin Gaethje Recounts the Tony Ferguson Fight | Joe Rogan

You know, and that's why I'm only coaching a few now too, is we gotta be in this together and you gotta trust me and I gotta be there for you and if you trust me, then every decision that I make for you, you've gotta trust whether it's hey don't take this fight. I mean with the fight, the last fight, I was like no you're not taking the fight and he's like come on coach. What fight is that? This is the Tony fight when he first got offered for the first time and I was like no we're at spar session and he's like why not? And I'm like because you said you'd never take a short notice fight. I'm like no. Yeah, it was like 11 days. Yeah, but we've been traded hard like all that. He hit me with all these points and he's like dude with the coronavirus going on who cares? He's like, let me get in there. I need to fight someone right now. I need to release all this and his little basic points. I looked at him. I said, all right. Is it gonna you gonna do it again? You can stick to your goal on the next one because I might let you off on this one and he said I will never take a short notice fight. That's why the second time he was offered. He was even more pissed about it. And I was just like he's like dealing with seven days out like I got nothing to lose. You know, I'll go out of my shield. So this is the first let's be clear for everybody. This the first time was the the Lamora, California on the Tai Chi Palace. Yeah, 18th. Yep, April 18th. And that was how many days out? So I got the call. I think it was 10 or something. No, I think it was like 15 days before that fight. I got the call one night the next day. I went we know I called him. He said no that night went to sparring the next day and then that's when I talked, you know, not talked him into it. But I I did like seven hard rounds felt great. You know, I had been sparring so much and so he was like I was like, let's do it. You know, I talked him into it and then so we we go hard and then I think it was when did they cancel? I think it was 10 days before the fight. They canceled it. Mm-hmm. And that's when you know, it went out the window and then they called me. Did you do that right out of camp or did you try it? I was down to 168. They called me at like 3 p.m. and that night I went to sleep at like 182. I went hard. I would I you know, just terrible choices. I was like, would you eat would you eat? I would go to I went straight to a call McGill's world of ice cream. I got you know, double scoop with the waffle cone. Then we ate a pizza huff for breakfast the next morning. We had pancakes in my I had my cousin Basquito there with me. He was helping me, you know, help with my cooking and helping me around the house during that that those hard 20 days. And yeah, we went hard. Did you? And then three days later they called me and they're like, you know, it's May 9th. Now I was like, fuck that. I was like, I don't take short short notice fights. Like this last one was, you know, 10 days. I get the benefit of the doubt of it being a late late notice fight. And now they want me to do May 9th. You know that that goes out the window that you know me this not now. It's not really a late replacement fight. It is but it is for me and it is in general. But you know the the general public would think you know, this is he got a full camp and this is a real fight blah blah blah. So I was like no like I'm not doing it. So let me get this straight. So you're not doing it because you fell out of camp and started eating again because because so that the 20 day notice was like something very special like that was something that I definitely could have performed and I would have performed. I think this is April 18th. This is April 18th. I think I would have performed and I think I would have won. I wouldn't have been as confident as I was. I was terrified when they called me that night. I was terrified. I couldn't sleep the next day. I woke up terrified because I knew I knew that this is not what I do. This is not how I do it. This is what because you weren't fully prepared because there's no way to fully prepare in that amount of time. Right. My mind my mind when I go in there and do I have to get my mind in a very very special place. How much of it is that and how much of his physical? You know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't have that question. I don't know. It's that I can't answer that question for you. But here's a question. I don't process that but it's not something I ever processed this. What I'm saying in this way though is what help physically prepare where you were you in training. Yeah. So I was just I was my I was the main training partner for Neil Magni. I've been Hubbard when they fought in Vegas. Oh, I was I was in shape. I was in shape. So the second fight let me jump in here. The second fight I thought was a way better way better place to be from a condition standpoint because he was already in shape prior to the first one. We just went two weeks so hard like we were trying to get his body in shape quick. And that's all that's a hard thing to do. Then he went and gained 12 pounds which in we are four weeks out of that point which is perfect because the fourth week out I always pull back on and let the body recover because your third and your second week are our peak weeks. Those are the weeks that we need to really hit hit hit prime and really push hard and it was perfect fit. I'm like dude we take this time off you going up and eat now you're ready to go again. You got that little that little fire back in your body because you're able to eat whatever you want. And I thought it was perfect timing from how I train my athletes from a conditioning standpoint and I actually had to talk him into that one. I was like this is even better like this is perfect for you for a five round. So for your perspective is like he had a chance to recover. Eat all that food. Take a little break and that's good because your body gets to charge back up again and then grind back to six and five on week six and week five are hard weeks. They're like a start to those those last two weeks of peaking because our fight week we slow down a little bit and we just turn the engine on turn it off. So we go six and five on the weeks are really hard. Then we pull back on week four will take like three days that are really light and then push it a little bit and then week three and week two are the ones that I'm trying to get him to peek get hit five rounds. We're not doing six rounds. We're not doing seven. We're making sure that we can go five minutes hard for every round be sharp not get lazy and I thought it fit perfect too. So when you're saying week two you mean two weeks out two weeks out. Yep, right before we leave for the fight. What do you prefer like if you had a blueprint like they came to you Trevor. How much time do you want before a fight like we'll schedule it around your if you're in decent shape eight weeks. If you're out of shape 12 weeks 12 weeks because you take three or four if you don't lift weights for a little bit and then you come back and lift weights and you can't lift for six months or three months. You're going to get real sore. Yeah, so you've got to have that break in process where your body because your body is going to be shutting down and you start to. So you have to get through that process at just the pre-training and then you start to hit it hard because you can't just go in hitting it hard. If you're two weeks out you just can't break you down. You're going to get hurt. Yeah, so why did you feel that that was not a good fight the main nine. So I had no idea I can my body would respond as well as it didn't. I didn't think I could be ready a hundred to a hundred percent without I've always done 12 weeks. That's my that's all I've known that so I felt like the first decision was just like a split decision is the middle of covid 19. Fucking I'm going to do it anyway. And then when they came to you the second time you're like no, no, no, no, no, I want a real. Yeah. So why can't we just push it to May 26th right? You know, give me three extra weeks. Then I get my whole then I get my whole 10 weeks. Right. And that's all I asked for. So that was my mindset when they call me because I knew they were going to call me the day before I was like, what's going to fucking call me? And they want me to fight May 9th or something like that. And I knew it and my manager called me. He's like, May 9th. Let's go. I was like, fuck that. I was like, no, he was so mad. I was like, fuck that. I was like, I ain't no fucking puppet. I'm not going to dance when they want me to dance. It's like I said, I don't take late replacement fights. This is now late replacement. You know, this is different circumstances. These aren't the circumstances. Everyone and even he was like flabbergasted. He's like, what are you talking about? It's the same thing. I'm like, no, it's not the same thing. Like to me, it's not, you know, like because I don't know. It's confidence is everything I know I can perform. You know, I but you wanted everything to be done. Right. It's the biggest fight of my life. Right. Of course. And but ultimately and then and then when I thought about it, I was like, it's only if it's anybody's fault, it's my fault. You know, because I knew this, you know, I knew I was going to fight again. And if I'm not, if I wasn't, I was training hard, but I wasn't training with the mindset, you know, that I need to have old school wrestling mentality. You know, you you have to see the prize. You know, every single morning you wake up, you know, the guy, the guy that you're going to fight, you know, that wasn't there. That wasn't there when I woke up in the morning. So I didn't feel like I was preparing in the proper way. So something at that was at this level. So you don't just need 10 weeks for your body. You want it for your mind as well. That's the most. Yeah. I mean, that's the most important part to me. I've been training since I was four. My body is my body is a machine. You know, I do. I didn't know I can get ready in that amount of time. That's what it comes down to. I had no idea because I've never tried it. But I wasn't better. I had done better between fights since since I fought cowboy than I had ever done between fights in the fact that I was staying in shape, running. You know, I had treadmill in my house. I was still sparring. I never I took like two months off sparring, three months off sparring. But then I was sparring for three, four months before I got that call. And rage is hard to settle down when someone hits rage, like someone says something about your mama. I'm always like they don't even know your mama. Like stop. Well, there was a great moment after the second round after you got hit with that uppercut where you came back to the corner and you told them take something off your punches. Take about 10 percent off. Just hit him a clean shot. So you try to murder him with every shot and then you made that adjustment. And that's that was really interesting because a lot of times coaches will tell stuff to fighters and the fighters probably know someone in their head. But it's fucking with them that they're starting to get tired. It's fucking with them that they got hit and then they lose some composure. They get emotional and they go out there and they want to make mistakes. You immediately adjusted and you went out there and you would see like by the end of that second round when Tony hit you with that shot, people were like, well, maybe this is a shift in the direction of the fight. Nope. The shift was the opposite way. You came out in the third round more technical and you came out and did exactly what Trevor said. Yeah, so we worked long and hard on that. I trust him with you know with everything as he said, you know, we wouldn't be he would be my coach if I didn't trust him with my life and with with everything I go in there to do. So when he said that to you, he said take 10 percent off. So I'm trying to the crazy thing is is you only see 10 percent of the interaction between us right between rounds. I'm right now I'm actually with you talking to this. He trying to get that whole that whole thing. But yeah, it was I got a policy trying to get what the recording is trying to get his audio from his. Oh, because you want to hear it and watch it because I don't remember it, you know, right. Of course. Just like when they come to me in the fifth round and I was laughing. I just asked the reason I was laughing is because I just asked him. I said, was that the end of the second or third round? And they're like this is a fit. And I was like, no fucking way I'm in that kind of shape. I was like, no way. And that's what that's when they cut in, you know, so you don't see there's so much you don't see in that interaction between me and him. And it's so important for fighters to see that adjustment and how his endurance leveled off because it was like you were having these wild exchanges and you were you were fucking hitting Tony. First of all, Tony Ferguson is made out of metal. It's crazy. What crazy fuck, especially when you're talking about a body type like you were talking earlier about someone with a frail body type. He doesn't have a chiseled neck. Right. He's not and built like Mark. He is. It's so unique to me. So tough. He's so fucking tough. It makes me want is it a choice to go to sleep or not? But there's there's also a key like if a fighter could take something on understanding coach ability is like you have to have your reactions, but you also have to have your responses like reactive stuff is like like jabs. Positional stuff is reactive. Like you have to be able to react to positions first. I love jujitsu because it's it's position before submission. You have to react to positions before anything else. So there's reactive stuff. But the responses is why you have a copilot to help you see what you can't see and start noticing that or how are you playing defense and using a jab to find openings where you're still working but you're thinking and going, oh, every time he does this, he's dropping his hand and you're able to see things. That's where you have to be responsive. And you have to be aware in the moment where a lot of times people can't they just bite down. They just bite down on them. I'm very similar to the way you used to fight was bite down. Their eyes are getting big. Oh, that's my response is like continue to do this and they're going to fall. And again, that is a very important point is a coach and the athlete understanding. I am there to help you with your responses in the gym. I'm going to create your reactions. I'm going to create your patterns, your basic fundamental patterns. That's going to help you win positions and slightly win rounds where you're controlling the fight. The other piece is how am I slowly creating momentum to get finishes? It was pretty stunning how well you adapted and then also how your endurance leveled off like so because you you did seem like you were slowing down a little bit at the second round. But it was because you were sprinting because you were throwing these full power fucking haymakers. But then when you leveled off in that third round, then it's like you had an endless gas tank. That was interesting. You're in control yourself. If you're making decisions, it's a lot easier on your psyche. Yeah, when you're trying to just fight out of things all the time again, you're not in control. If you can't control your thought, you cannot control your breathing. How stunned were you that Tony could take those shots in the fight? You know, there's no there's no point where I even understand. You weren't thinking it all. Just throwing them. You know, it was crazy. The shots I hit, you know, John's are Vic Barboza and surrounding with I was so surprised. They went to sleep. You know, I didn't understand why I think it was position mostly. But yeah, I was when I was hitting him with some of those shots, especially the one when I came through and he was throwing uppercut. I couldn't believe he didn't go to sleep with that. But I go back to the Michael Johnson fight when he hit me with that left hand. There's no reason I shouldn't have went to sleep then. So I don't I haven't figured that part. Johnson is a very good. See when he knocked out Poirier with that same one of the sharpest left hand. I was turning through it and it was on the chin. It was everything a knockout shot should be. I don't know why they didn't go to sleep. I got to figure that part out. I know how people go to sleep. I don't know how people don't go to sleep. It's random. It's weird. I mean, sometimes guys take head kicks full on head kicks and they don't go to sleep. It's position. It's position. Everything is for a can you base can you can you lock down? Did you see it? Did you see it? That's that's huge piece because if you don't see a game bracing for it, so you're letting your it's again the linear or rotational is what's causing the concussion. And when you don't see a shot, those are the ones that caused the most damage. If you're able to brace for it and and bite down on the punch, it's a lot better. So a lot of times when you see in two hooks, both people hook it. I throw like this. I turn away and then also I come and I don't see it. I'm causing that head-on collision, but I'm not brace for it. I'm not leaning against the wall where if I see a hook coming, I've got my my head carrying my weight and able to take the shot. So a lot of times it's the shots you don't see coming and that's the timing. But there are people who will punch you in any moment and you're gonna go to sleep. Yeah, that's there's a power. So we're not so that's like one of the craziest thing in this world. It's no it was Tony would have went to telling you I've seen people who don't have those around one foot when I touched them. Hey, you're low kick. So was so it's your low kick for many years wasn't thrown with the right technique, but it is when you kick people. They're like, oh my gosh, like you have a sharp heavy bone. It's so you got dense bones and the densest bones in the UFC. There you go. So there's a lot. Yeah, so they've done a scan on you. Well, they said they can't confirm or deny. I got the densest bone to the UFC. They can't get it out. We can have a dance. They have a DEXA scan at the UFC PI and it you know, you lay there inch by inch scans their whole body tells you what you're made of. But yeah, my your bones are denser than your else. I would assume so. That seems crazy. That guy.