Kickboxing Champion Says Fighting is a Thinking Man's Game | Joe Rogan

The first fight you had with Botter, holy shit was that crowd hot. That was a wild crowd. Yeah, they even jumped to the ropes and everything went crazy. So... Well, it ended in a fucked up way. You know, Botter said his arm was hurt. What was the... did he get an MRI or anything like that? I have no clue, not from the organization or something. Yeah, he did some bandage or something over his arm in the next... because that's what he posted on Instagram. But I don't know. I don't know. For me, it was... Yeah, you know, it was like an anti-climax that... Yes. That wasn't the way I wanted to end that fight. Right. I think for the rest, for him, this was the perfect way to end the fight because this is the way you could get a rematch. Because if you would have lost... no point in doing a rematch. If you would get knocked out, no point in doing a rematch. So... For my feeling, it was a really close fight and then you eventually won. Yeah. You know, but... For my feeling, everybody's like, Yeah, but Rico walked into the jabs, the first round and everything. That's true. But I was pressuring him. I was pressuring him the whole time and I was trying to feel like, where is my distance where I can hit and where I can... where I get hit? So, and of course, that's... Right. You get tagged. Yeah, you get tagged sometimes. So, my nose was already during... training, my nose opened up. So, when he hit it, it opened up again. So, I was like, yeah, it is what it is. You know, I'm not really bothered by it. So, I was pressuring, pressuring, and I was like, okay, now I got it. So, after that first round, and yeah, then we jumped into the second round. I was fit. I was ready for this fight. And that's what I like to do. I would like to drag people into the deep waters. Well, you're very fit for a heavyweight. You have crazy cardio. That's one of the things that I've always admired about your fighting style. So, you put insane pressure on guys for a heavyweight because heavyweights, bigger guys, tend to fight at a slower pace and with less volume. But you push a pace and when the fight gets to third, fourth, and fifth rounds, you fucking pile it on, man. Yeah, because I've been training with light guys for like my whole career. So, when I started at the gym, I started with the Super Pro Sports Center, with Dennis Corral. He had Albert Kraus. He was the first K1 Max champion. And he had Alvear Lima, like multiple middleweight champion, world champion. So, I was working with those guys, like every day. And they just kept on pressuring me and like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was getting my ass whooped like almost every day. Guys that weigh like 75 kilos. So, I was like, I can keep hitting those guys hard or just go with less power and pressure them like they try to pressure me. And of course, in the beginning, it's like, still you get tired, but at a certain moment, you get like, hey, this is going better. And just not trying to hit them. Yeah, don't try to hit them hard, but just try to keep the work, blah, blah, blah, blah, like a machine gun. Is that something that happens in a fight as well where you have to balance out how hard you swing versus like not going full blast, but going technical, knowing that you can start unloading in the third, fourth and fifth rounds and you start to see them fade. But it's for me, it's like, I'm playing a game. For me, this is, we always say, fighting is a thinking man's game because fighting, everybody can fight. When they have to, everybody can fight. Doesn't matter what person, when you put them in a corner and it's life or death, everybody can fight. But it's so much more than that. It's so much more than just fighting. So, and that's how I try to step into the ring with that mentality. People don't understand that, who've never competed the managing of the resources is a big factor, right? Like when do you decide to hit the gas? And you see like guys in MMA, you see it with a guy like Nick Diaz. Like Nick Diaz is famous for not hitting guys hard. He just stays on you. He just stays on you with a lot of volume and then you get tired and then he starts unloading. You know, with big shots. So, and that's what I like to do. The biggest compliment I could get from an opponent and I had it like from my last six opponent, I got like three or four times this, I'm like Rico, now I understand why you are the champion. I fought everybody, but this I've never felt before. And you're on a different level and that's the biggest compliment I could get because I'm in the ring for five rounds with this guy. And they got every opportunity to do everything they've trained for with me for five rounds. So I didn't knock them out. We just fought for five rounds, but they just did not know what to do. And that's, yeah, for me, the biggest compliment I could get. Yeah, to be technical and to just play your game. Exactly. Yeah, I really loved your rematch with Jamal Ben-Sadiq. Yeah. That was one of my favorite fights. I believe that. It was a great fight. That was like the full rocky version of a fight that people would love to see you get tagged in the beginning and then you. Overwhelmed him and then when you put him away, I was like, holy shit, what a fight. What a fight that was. That guy's a big motherfucker too. He's a big guy and I lost against him back in the days and when I was like just a little kid. And so this fight brought something with it as well. He's like, yeah, he's the champion now, but I beat him. But it was like six, seven years ago. I'm a totally different fighter than I was back then. So let's go. I'm ready for you. So yeah, this was the best thing. I need you spit in my face during a press conference. So I got some extra motivation for that fight. Well, you played it out perfectly too, where even when he hit you and hurt you early in the fight, you stayed calm, you didn't get emotional, you used good defense. And then once you got him into the deep water, you stopped him in the fourth? In the fifth. Fifth round. Yeah. Once you got him into deep water, then you piled it on and then put him away. But then again, it's the same thing for me. Everybody's like, how did you do that? You got tagged. And I said, but then again, like I said, it's a thinking man's game. So I got hit from my point of view, I made a mistake. I switched to South Pole, but instead of switching and stepping outside of his front leg, I was right in front of his leg. And he was just throwing a left right. And I walked straight into that. And that's what happened. It's not that from my point of view that he timed that. So it happened. And from that moment, I can do two things. I can think, okay, I can jump into the fight and try to get that point or whatever, that moment back, or just think in my mind like, okay, fuck it. You lost this round. Take it and let's go fresh into the second. That's what I did. So just think about, okay, I lost this round, but I got four more to go. And I got back into the corner and my trainer says, hey, you're back. So yep. Okay. He's tired now. Yeah, when he tried to unload on you, he emptied out a lot of the gas tank when he had you hurt. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the game, right? Trying to figure out when you can finish and when you can't. Exactly. Yeah. Just stay focused, stay relaxed. And of course he hit me with some good shots, but he's a big powerful guy. He's always a dangerous fighter. That guy's huge. What is he like six, nine, six, 10 or something like that? Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And then yeah, he's huge. Isn't that like 270 pounds I think. That's a big motherfucker. So, and then he's like, yeah, now it's one-one. I said, come on, man. You beat me like six, seven years. I beat you. Oh, he wants another fight? Yeah, he wants another. How many fights has he had since then? I don't know. He won a tournament last year. Right. So he sent a few. Yeah. So maybe that fight is going to come, but like I said now, I mean, like last year, the 31st of December, my contract was finished with glory. So we've been in negotiations ever since. So from that moment on, I said, in my last contract, you guys told me the butterfly was going to happen and it didn't happen. So that's what I want first. Give me the butterfly. And from that moment on, we're going to discuss.