Kamaru Usman's Story About His Dad Going to Jail | Joe Rogan

Yeah, and I mean it like and like Tyron was man, there's a there's this thing to where you you get to a point where you have to you're the guy who has to provide you're the guy who has to hold up and it's not not necessarily people saying you have to do it. But you you feel that sense of responsibility, you know, and in my family, I felt that I feel that sense of responsibility. Like, there's one thing your family when you were growing up. Yeah, you know, like, I like when I say I come from humble beginnings, you're like, being raised in Nigeria, like, and it wasn't like the village village where we lived in huts, we had a house, but it wasn't really we didn't have plumbing. You know, we had to go to the well or get water. We electricity was rare. That's a scarce thing, you know, and it's a way we even when we came here, when we immigrated here, yeah, life got a lot better. How old were you when you came here? About eight years old. And it was hard to adjust to the school system, you know, because kids were kids, kids are mean. I have to talk with the funny accent and kids would tell you, hey, why don't you say this to the teacher, say, hey, bitch, call her. And I was always in the principal's office because I had no idea what that means and things like that. The kids are cruel. I had, you know, I dealt with all that. Did you know English when you came here? Yeah, we spoke English, but it's pigeon English. So we knew that, like, you know, we're colonized by the European. So the English is the word root of the words. Root words are from the European. So we knew English, but it's just our take on it. And so how much different? It's pretty different. Yeah, it's very different. Like if I was talking with another Nigerian, I was speaking pigeon English, you would pick out words, but it's a little different. But can you say something in pigeon English? Yeah, like right now, we just sit down here just to talk now. You know, I said, I just did talk just a young each other. Now, you know, I'll be an E.T. That sounds cool. Yeah, it does. If like me and Israel out of Sanrio is talking like it would be medical. Oh, right, right, right. You know, like we speak it to each other. So going from that to, you know, being essentially raised and going through school and. And one thing that, man, I haven't I really haven't ever shared with anybody. You know, very, very few people know is that my father has been incarcerated since 2009. And this is the first time really I've ever talked about it like many. My dad was it goes to test it just to justice system here, man. It's so it's so so crooked and it's so backwards. Yes, of course, we're fortunate. Like there's so many things that we're thankful for living here in this country that, you know, you can sleep a night in your house and not worry about somebody breaking and robbing you and killing you, you know, for the most part. And so we're thankful for all that. We're thankful for the opportunities. But my dad was a businessman and my dad built one of the one of really, very big business in Dallas. He owned like an ambulance company and. You know, it comes to a certain point where people just don't want you to be. You're you're an immigrant and you're succeeding in a certain business to where it's kind of like people don't care about it. People don't want you to be there. And, you know, it's one of those situations where my dad hired the people that he thought were the right people to do what he didn't know. The job to run his company, why he could tend to certain things like us, like his family day to day, different things that I cared about to where they run the company into the ground. And not because my dad was the owner of the company. They put it all on him, even though the people that were doing, you know, the things that were wrong in the company admitted to doing the wrong things. But what the court is saying is that, oh, because you own the company. So ignorance is not an excuse. So because of that, we're going to sentence you to 15 years. So he got sentenced when he did no crime. Yeah, see, the thing is, what was the business again? My dad owned an ambulance company, an ambulance company. Yes. So it was a transportation for emergency and non-emergency, you know. And one thing that he hired these like the paramedics, the, you know, and you're max to run the company because these people that know the business. So he had people that he hired from that he acquired from a different company. But, you know, one thing that I would say is my dad's ignorance is is he didn't really do his research well enough on the guys that he hired. So you hire certain guys and now these guys are running the business and these guys are like, yeah, we're going to make it. We're going to help you grow this business like any businessman. Fuck, yeah, I heard the right people. Yeah. Help me grow the business. So now they're helping. He's they're doing that if he thinks, OK, I trust these guys. They're taking care of the business. And the the most disappointing and heartbreaking thing about the business is my dad, they're not they're not the one who does the billing, the billing for the business. They contract a difference, an outside company to do the billing. So it's not them doing it. So they're doing the runs. They're sending the notes to them. This is the runs we did to you guys, build the government or whoever else to pay us. My dad's the owner. He has people that are doing all this. He's not there running the day to day. So eventually they go on the investigation on. We're investigating, like, I think maybe like 15 patients or something like that. I don't know the exact number. I have 15 patients were investigating for these runs or whatever that would build this billing on them. And so they put it all in the investigation and they're like, OK, after a while, they they come back and they say, all right, we'll give you your stuff back like we didn't really see anything, but we'll give you your stuff back after they shut it down for a little while. So damn, now I got to go back to. So my dad's like, oh, fuck it. I'm getting out of business. They already killed my business for me. So now it became one of the biggest company. But you shut down for so long. You've lost, you know, what you've worked for. So now he's getting rid of it, getting out of it. Then they come back later, a few years later for the same thing that you've already said, you're good here to have your stuff back. They come back and say, no, we're going to prosecute you for this. So now those guys and I've seen that this is obviously how the feds work. Now, those guys that you caught the EMS and these guys that were clearly did what was wrong, you gave them a deal and say, hey, we caught you guys because those guys started their own company doing the same shit. So they get caught. Now they're like, OK, we want that guy. So you guys basically gave them a deal to say, OK, that that guy was in on it. And my dad's like, and I guess they offer my dad a deal, a plea deal, which his lawyer didn't really tell him about because he had a court appointed to a lawyer lawyer. So he said, no, I didn't do shit wrong. Why would I take that deal? Which would have been, I think maybe like five years was the deal or something like that. My dad's like, no, I didn't do shit wrong. Why would I take five years? So he goes to trial and broke. We've seen murderers. We've seen all these people that are defraud the government like stock more hedge fund guys, billions of dollars get bail. They said, no, they wouldn't even grant him bail. My dad's a citizen, like turned over his passport and everything. They said, no, I'm not going to give you bail. We're going to hold you. We're going to freeze all your accounts. You can't really fight the case. So you're stuck there. And now your family's left with nothing. We're nothing. No money in the account, nothing. And so my dad had to deal with that and they just threw the book at him. They're like, you know, we'll give you 15 years. And this was 2009. And he's already been in for 10. Yeah, it's been in for 10. And one thing that really killed me was one thing it was a part in a trial where the lawyer would basically tell him the judge, like, this guy's an upstanding guy. No record. You know, he has kids look at his kids and how well they're doing. His older son is in college. The second one is in college. The youngest is about to be in college. These kids are all scholarships, student athletes, great student athletes. And the one thing that killed me was the prosecution was like, the reason that is is because he was defrauding the government from this money. That's why they're in college. And I was like, wait, my dad's not paying for us to be in college. We're all student athletes. We earned this. We worked hard. Earned scholarships for us to be in college. The defense didn't say that. They didn't fucking say like, did he have a court appointed attorney? I think he did. Yeah. And bro, my dad just got railroaded, man. And it was like and it was so heartbreaking to where you're telling a man that has raised his family, raised his kids to to work hard, get to a place in life. And you're telling him that the only reason is there is because he cheated. And it was just one of those things that added a chip on my shoulder at all. Man, I saw there'd been so many moments that added put chips on my shoulder with everything that I've been through so much that I just internalize and I compete with all this energy. And so for that, you're telling my dad that, yeah, like you're going to sit down. And I just and obviously, of course, I research more and more into that because I was so heartbroken after that, like my like you just for what? For how much? You're saying not up to almost a million. They would this day just piled a lot of money on there. Oh, this is not for a little over. They're saying a little over a million total, which is nowhere near that. You gave him 15 years when these guy hedge fund guys that that you found guilty for manipulating these markets for billions. You give him six months house arrest. If that. And you're saying you're going to give him 15 years, not sort of research. I'm like, a lot of these judges have stakes in these prisons. And to what they do is they they give a lot of time because they get paid for prisoner that's in the story about that guy in Pennsylvania who was a he was a judge and he was doing that. He was sending kids to jail. He was extending their sentences and giving them sentences for nothing. And it turned out he had been getting paid by the president to send a lot of them down the river. Yeah, I heard a lot of them get kicked back some different things from that. And so to put people there. Well, as you become more and more famous, you can shed more and more light on this. Yeah, man. And then your dad do for parole. Man, I don't I don't even know. I think soon. Listen, this podcast alone, you talking about this could very well bring someone forward that wants to help you with the appeal. Yeah, and my my dad actually wrote because during the Obama administration, there was that whole clemency deal when they were doing it. My dad actually wrote a letter. I actually have that letter. I don't know where to put it, but he wrote a letter to him. And it was when I read the letter, man, I I can't help but cry about it because my my dad. It's my dad cares about his family. So when I go to see my dad, because my dad is so proud of me and I'm so proud of him. I mean, he raised us so well. And to go see him in there. And I mean, it's not like he's sitting in the maximum security, but for someone to tell you that you can't go home to your family at night for 10 years, you got to sleep when we told you to sleep. We got you got to eat when we told you to eat for 10 years. And when you know I didn't do anything wrong because I chose to say, no, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm not going to take this sentence you give me. They say, OK, fine. Then you're going to sit in there for 15 years and there's nothing you can do about it. It is a man. It broke my heart, man. And then when I think about it, I just hold it in because I don't you know, I try not to cry about it, which I'm just like, screw it. I've had different situations that happen in life. I'm like, you know, but I ate that one up on the shoulder. I put that chip on. I'm like, you know what? They're going to say that the reason I'm here, I was scholarship is because my dad, they're saying my dad got money, a little bit of money. Are you serious? What about the freaking hard work that I did to get here? What about all the times that I sat in a freaking hot box, my bathroom upstairs, which is trash bag on because I knew that I needed to get a pound off the next day in order to be able to wrestle at this JV tournament? What about all that? You know, that didn't make any difference. You know, the reason, the only reason it was there is because of that. What about all the times my brother ran, worked hard to make national team when he was playing soccer or my little brother getting numerous scholarship for a division one football everywhere? Like that. What? So all that put a chip on my shoulder, Joe, to where it was like, man, I got to succeed at all costs. I don't really care. And where did this happen? Where was this trial? In Texas, in Dallas, Texas. Not the best place to have a trial happen, but it happened in the end. And I put a sour taste in my mouth. But does he file an appeal? He filed an appeal one time. They even look at it, man. It was like one of those things where it's like that judge, they put you there, you're there. That was his domain. They didn't even look at it like, who cares? Does it feel like you're using the system? You're a UFC, Walter, we champion. But I think that they treated him like that because you're an immigrant in front of the system. Get in there. And that's, you know, Joe, to wrap that, put that on. That's part of what this next fight symbolizes to me is the attitude that a lot of people have towards immigrants. It's people are forgetting that Americans are immigrants. I was just having that conversation on the last podcast. People are forgetting that. Yeah, the entire country is immigrants. To where people have this attitude towards, we're Americans. Go back to your country. You know, go back. This is a free country. You are this and that. People like, I always heard that growing up. I always heard that. And the more I research, I'm like, what are you talking about? First of all, this this whole attitude, when you walk into a nail shop, get your hand, feet, nails done, who are the majority of the people that run those nail shops? Asians. I'm not saying all of them in the world, in the country, but a majority of them are Asians. But there's a lot of people that look down on me like, I'm not washing your feet. I'm not going to do your nails. No, those people are taking pride in that because that provides for them. You know, they do that, you know, but people, people condemn it. That's not a job people want to do. When you go to these hotels and certain things, who are the main people that are the maids that clean up the hotels? A lot of them are immigrants. We take pride in them because now we're in the country, in a better place where we can provide for families. Those are jobs that a lot of people, so-called Americans, the whole Kobe Covington, whole persona, are like, I'm above that. I'm above that. That's the persona. But then at the same time, people now want to cry. Oh, they're here taking our jobs. Let's build a wall. Let's keep them out. They're taking our job. No, they're providing. They're helping this country get to its height. The fact that you could come here and have someone do your nails, someone clean your house, someone wash your car, someone do all this for you is part of what makes America so great. One of the greatest nations in the world. And the fact that they want to build a wall, you want to keep these people out. You can't come here. You can't bring your culture, your stuff here. It just saddens me and it upsets me. As part of what this fight, when it happens, this fight represents for me because I feel like that's the attitude that this young man has. He's entitled to. I should be UFC champ. You're a soy boy. You can't hang with me, boy. That's his attitude. You can't do this, boy. First of all, who's your boy? I'm a grown-ass man. Don't fucking talk to me like that. And that's the attitude that he has. I'm entitled to this. I mean, I should be the champion because I am this way. I'm American. I'm this and that. Bro, we're all American here. And so this fight is greater than just me beating up a guy that's talking a lot of shit. This fight means a lot to me. So when I get the chance to put my hands on that guy, let's just know this is the wrath of every immigrant that has stepped foot in this country.