Rafael Lovato Jr. on Emotional Victory Over Mousasi, Aftermath | Joe Rogan

But I think like, you know, those moments, you know, I needed that. I needed to combine our energies, you know, because look how that fight ended up going, you know. I felt like that fight before the fight was to prep me for the fight, you know. And, you know, going there, obviously I'm a big underdog. You know, it's in London. Musasi has so much history there. He's from Amsterdam. You know, I don't know if anyone out there saw the video that Bellator put out afterwards where I said like, you know, we did it. And you could see how emotional I was. This is why, you know. And fast forward to when we're backstage, you know, getting ready to go out there. I always take my favorite book, Think and Grow Rich from Napoleon Hill. I always take that. Why is that? It's just a powerful book for my life. I discovered it in 2000, the end of 2007. And it's just such an inspirational book and really kind of like was the sort of the Bible for self-help books and all the other, you know, people that kind of came from that like Tony Robbins and things like that. Like, you know, the motivating, you know, like the secret, you know, all those sort of things. Think and Grow Rich was like the first. And anyways, there's so many quotes in there and things that just have stuck with me throughout the years. And I love to read certain chapters and portions of it when I'm backstage getting ready to fight. And I have like highlighted sentences and notes in it and stuff. And I'm backstage and I open the book and I hadn't opened it up to this point on this trip. Like it was just with me, put it in my bag. And, you know, I got a couple hours before we go out to fight and I always open it up. And as soon as I open it, it's on the you know, the flap isn't inside in a chapter already in the last place I looked at it or whatever. And the first thing I see is a highlighted highlighted portion that says every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent advantage. That was the first thing that I saw. And it hit me right there. It was like everything that I went through in this camp to get to this fight, you know, that is going to be my advantage. That is going to be what carries me through this fight. That that's my power. I know what I'm here for. That's a great quote. It's the best, you know, every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent advantage. Another one of my favorites from Napoleon Hill that I've used on T-shirts and inside a gi before. Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting, you know, which is that's martial arts, right? That's a black belt is a white belt who never quit, you know, as long as you never quit, success is always possible. Every failure just helps you learn and grow to get to your ultimate objective, your ultimate goal. And when I saw that, you know, I'm writing that book down right now. Yeah, I think and grow rich. And to point out, I tell all my all my students, all my competitors, all my guys, I always talk about that book. And that was the first thing that I saw, you know, and and like I said, like going into this fight, all I wanted was that fight like trying to get approved. That whole process was just like, hey, just give me this one. Just give me this one more. Don't stop me this short of of my dream, you know, my dream to fight for the belt, to fight a legendary fighter like Musasi, someone that's been, you know, at the top for so long. That was how I envisioned, you know, fighting for my first big world title in MMA. And I mean, I was going out there like that was the last fight of my life. Like it could potentially be the last fight of my life, you know, and all this stuff with my health, like, you know, when I'm thinking about my parents and my family, you know, like wondering, you know, am I going to get hurt? Is this am I, you know, going to do something where selfishly where because I want to I want to fight, I want this this title that something could happen to me. And and, you know, I'm not going to be healthy. I'm not going to be the same. And I'm going to break their hearts. I had all these emotions and thoughts. And and, you know, I was just like, like, I was literally kind of I mean, and it's so to speak, going out there ready to die, like, ready to just let it all out. Like, this is it, you know, all I wanted was this opportunity, you know, and and I could feel how all of that was to prep me for the fight, you know, everything that we went through that fight to get to the fight. And my dad's in my corner, you know, he's in my corner for all my fights. I have the guys that went through everything, you know, those that last four or five weeks before the fight to get approved with me. And when I saw that, I looked around at them and I smiled. I said, guys, we're going to do it. We're going to do it. You know, it was like it was destiny. And and I don't know, you know, if you're going to do it, you know, you're going to do it. You know, if you've ever seen, but I've posted before some clips of my dad who is a professional organist or former professional organist, but he still plays the organ. He's a musician. And when I when I walked out for this fight, I I had them play a clip of my my dad playing the organ. And, you know, growing up, when I first started training martial arts, my dad was playing the organ at that time professionally. And and that was that was what I did the time that I spent with my dad. I was at church listening to him play the organ. And then we would go to the academy and we would, you know, we would train or we would train at home. And, you know, my father's in my corner and, you know, this is this is our work. You know, I am who I am because of him. I'm a martial artist because of him. I have my brothers, the guys I've been training with for over a decade. You know, it was it was it was our destiny. It was family. You know, we were going out there to fight as a family and walking out to my dad playing the organ. You know, it just really it. It took me to this place where it's like I'm going to give everything I absolutely have win or lose. I'm I'm I'm, you know, I'm not going to stop. I'm going to do my best, my absolute best. And and then, you know, the fight went the way it did. Came down to the fifth round. You know, that's where that fifth round came from was. Was for them, you know, the love that they gave me to get me even just to get me there, you know, because I was ready to break, man. I was I I I was in pieces so many days in that camp. I you know, it was it was just a roller coaster of emotions. But having them, you know, my father, my brothers behind me, that's where that strength came from. And in everything we went through before the fight. But that's why I was so emotional in the cage. I mean, you'd be emotional anyways for a title fight. But, you know, it was it was something else just to just to get there, you know, and have that opportunity. And you could really matter. You see, I mean, I'm not a CEO. He. He's right there with his hands like powerful moment right there. Did it bother you that he was he had a lot of sour grapes after the fight? Gagard did. It did. It did. He didn't didn't really credit you for the fight. He was just saying mostly that you want steroids. He's my mom. Yeah. Paying her respects, giving him a hug. I mean, I understand that he felt bad because he lost, but I felt like the way he handled it was uncharacteristic for him. He was a true to we were so respectful before after the fight. I went up to him before they made the decision. I went up to him. I shook his hand. I said, man, it was an honor. You know, so much respect for you. It was an honor to battle with you. I think thank you. And we shook hands and hugged and and you know, but then he didn't stay after they raised my hand. He walked right out. We didn't shake hands again. And then everything else really surprised me. I think it was just hard to fathom because this was my tenth fight. He had already had over 50. He was a big he was a big favorite. I just don't think you know, he they were very confident. They were very confident leading up to the fight. And I don't think anyone imagined me to walk out of there with that belt, especially with one leg. He didn't know about that. Really bad after. I'm sure. But, you know, I didn't feel it like that's when the adrenaline is pumping. You know, I didn't. It wasn't until like an hour later. I was like, whoo, right? It's pretty tight. Yeah. Why do you think he did that? Why do you think I mean, he's lost before. I've never seen him just attribute essentially attribute most of your success. He was just accusing you of taking steroids. Yeah. And not a little bit of steroids you're saying like monkey steroids. That's what he said. Yeah. I don't know. You know, his camp had a I felt like Massassi is genuinely like what I would call a real martial artist. He's a he's a martial artist and doesn't really ever trash talk anybody. And we were very respectful. But, you know, his camp was they were saying and doing some things that were a little edgier. I would say when we will do here. Yeah. Yeah. When we were at the press conference and we were going on for the face off, you know, all this camp were always yelling a bunch of things. And, you know, when we were walking up, one guy yells up to me, dead man walking. And of course, immediately in my mind, I'm like, I have this brain disease, you know, that, you know, may or may not be an issue here in a couple of days when we fight, you know. And and I have my family right there. I'm like, hmm. And then I have to look at him in the eyes, you know, but now I'll never forget that. I thought about that, you know, dead man walking. And I was just like, this guy, you know, and it was a lot. It was a lot to take in to step into that cage. But I think maybe some of the people he's around, maybe that doesn't mean that doesn't cause him to say, those things when he was sitting at the table with the microphone in front of him. Did you respond to that? No, I mean, that was right when we were walking the face off and the press conference was basically done at that point. So I had nothing to say to that, you know, that that person yelling that and, you know, no, I mean, after the fight when he was accusing you of steroids. No, I never never had a moment to, you know, I haven't had another fight. You never did an interview or anybody talked to you about his accusations? No, who was I did one Luke Thomas. Luke Thomas didn't interview with me. I like that kind of a lot. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it was after. No, yeah, it was before he fought Machida was before he fought Machida. And he talked to me about it, you know, in an interview about the fight and everything. And, you know, I didn't have too much to say other than I just felt like it was a little sad because it was a great fight. You know, it was a really great fight and good, close fight. Yeah, super close. I feel like we kind of, you know, I he probably thinks that he was under par and and I made a lot of mistakes too. And I wasn't too happy about some of the things that that happened in that fight as well. I thought I could have done a lot better. But in a way, I felt like we kind of brought out the best of each other, you know, his jiu-jitsu very much impressed me. He was he was a seasoned pro just like always calm. And, you know, then when he had his moment, he had his moment, he started taking over, you know, and and I, you know, it brought out the best of me and the heart that I showed coming back in that fifth round. And I just felt like it was a great fight and we should be applauding each other for our performances and and all this, you know, trash talking is really taken away from that.