The Mental Toughness of Wrestlers

We were getting like major athletes, like major athletes. And I remember I interviewed Chris Weidman, and he was fighting... He wasn't fighting the other guy. Anderson Silva, Roto Machida, Luke Rockhold. It might have been when he was fighting Luke Rockhold. I can't remember. What year? This was about 2015. Was he the champ? He was the champ. So the odds are it's either Vitor, Liodo Machida... Vitor. It was Vitor. He was fighting Vitor. And it was the first time I sat down with guys who were trained fighters. And the calm. It's just like a calm and a peace that I was trying to put my finger on. Like, what is that calm? And then I realized, I get insecure, I'm like nervousness. And a lot of that is because I always in a situation know there's a probability that I could get fucked up. If I walked around and I knew that 99.7% of the people I could fuck up, I'd be calm. Well, Chris Weidman is calm. I would be calm if I was hanging out with 10-year-old girls, and they were trying to tell me how the world works. And I'd be like, that's cute. Let me tell you how the world really works. Yeah, it's like that. Especially when he was the champ. I mean, when he was the champ, first of all, when Chris Weidman was coming up, the limitations of Chris Weidman legitimately are the limitations of the human body. Because his body started to break. He had knee problems and neck problems and back problems, but the limitations of his mind were limitless. There's a lot of these guys, and a lot of them are wrestlers. Because I think wrestlers have the strongest brains. The strongest minds, the strongest determination, because that sport is so fucking brutal. But these great wrestlers who get into fighting, like Chris Weidman and Kane Velasquez was another one. The limitations of Kane Velasquez were the limitations of his body. Because he started getting shoulder surgery and back surgery and knee surgery, and then it all started falling apart. But when he was at his peak, Chris Weidman was a motherfucker man. Strong. Not just the mind, too. It's not just the body. His body was surely strong, but his mind was just unbreakable. He would break guys. And Kane was the same way. Kane was a guy who broke guys. He would break them. Because I really firmly believe this to this day, that I had Jordan Burroughs on the other day. He's a wrestler, right? Olympic gold medalist, four-time world champion, stud of a human being. And when you talk to him, you realize he's just so exceptional in every way. And one of the reasons why he's so exceptional is because wrestling has no glory. The people that get into wrestling, they do it because it's the pursuit. It's not like a Bentley and a mansion and watches and rings and all that bullshit. The glory is in victory. It's in the pursuit. And also in victory in the most difficult of circumstances, which is amateur, high-level, world-class wrestling. It's so fucking hard. So the guys like Chris Weidman, the guys like Jordan Burroughs, the guys like Kane Velasquez, guys who excel in wrestling. There's a mindset that they have that's so interesting to be around them. Because they are that calm. They have that. There's a level that they've reached that very few human beings outside of wrestlers ever reach. That's fascinating. Do you think that's changing now because they do have an outlet with MMA, which is great? They can go pro and become rich and kind of famous? Some of them. But Jordan Burroughs doesn't have any interest in fighting, especially his wife doesn't want him to fight. She does make good money wrestling, just as an ambassador to wrestling. But I don't think they fall into the same pitfalls that a lot of the other fighters fall into. A lot of them, they get into fame and glory and all that shit. Weidman never really got into that. He was just into smashing people. Yeah, smashing. Yeah. Kabib. Just smashing people. Kabib. I'm going to smash your boy. He's the perfect example. Kabib's the perfect example. The guy drives a Toyota. Okay? He's worth fucking millions of dollars. He's the most dominant fighter in any weight class in the history of the sport. And he is as calm and as humble as can be, while also being incredibly confident. Yeah. Yeah. And super religious. Yeah. Doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't party, doesn't do anything. He's just dedicated to smashing people. I'm going to smash your boy. I'm going to smash your boy. When he said that. I'll come the lala. I'm going to smash your boy. Somebody said to me, that's like Samuel Jackson in Pulp Fiction. You're like, ah, fuck. It's greater because it's not fake. Right. And he did it. Yeah. And he did smash them. And you know what the best, the scariest thing that he ever said? He goes, I want to change his face. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I want to change his face. Yeah. How much is the mental bad did like Connor when he fought Connor, it was like opposites going against each other. Like that ultra, ultra humility versus that like, you know, absolute boastful. Like do you think Connor knew before? Just no. Like you think he went in. And look, he won a round with Khabib. He won the third round and that's probably the only round that could be lost in his entire career. Like there's an argument that maybe he lost one or two rounds earlier that are real close. But I mean, he's, he's 29 and oh, you have to understand how insane that is. And then you have to understand the weight class he's in. He's in the 155 pound weight class, which is arguably the most competitive in the history of the sport. Right. It's like the arguments are like 45, 55, and maybe 70 are the most competitive weight classes ever. And he's the most dominant guy ever in the most competitive weight class. Yeah. I mean, he's a monster. He's a beast, man. You're in that weight class and you know, you got to fight him. You're like, yeah, you think you question everything about yourself. Yeah. Do you think wrestlers on to that level are having advantage in MMA? Like, could you just eventually going to get your hands on a guy? Yeah. Well, that's what he has an advantage in. I mean, he, when he wrestles guys, when he grabs them, you could see the look in their face like, oh my God, this is different. It's like an Anaconda got you. Well, look at his last guy that he fought is Justin Gaethje, who's a fucking killer. Right. Smashes Tony Ferguson, smashes Zetson Barbosa. I mean, he's a fucking beast and a really good wrestler too. But when Khabib got ahold of him every time, just drags him to the ground and almost submitted him at the end of the first round and then submitted him in the second round. Well, he said he wanted it submitted. He didn't want to hurt him. Do you think that was true? Yeah. He said like, I didn't want to do it that way because his parents were there. Well, not just that. That's some fucking ill shit to say. Like I'll just wait till next round and do it a little softer. Well they were friends. I'm Justin actually. They have the same manager and Justin actually helped him cut weight earlier in his career because cutting weight is I don't know if you ever spent some time in the sauna. I have. I did some shows in Sweden. Yeah. There's a moment in the sauna that comes around like minute 13, 14, especially if it's like a hot sauna. It's like minute three for me. When you start looking around, you're like, you look at your wash and you're like, fuck. Like how do I do this? I want to get out now and you don't, you don't get out. You stay in. And so it's like you need support. And like a lot of times the guys will have guys cut weight with them and they'll come and sit with you and give you support. Cause like as much as Khabib is like his mind is a fucking a vault, a bank vault. I mean his mind is impenetrable. Even a man like him will use encouragement from other people and you support and love and friendship from other people. Justin helped him cut weight. And I think they were, he was, they had a bond because of that. So when he fought Connor, he wanted to change his face. He wanted to smash your boy with Gage. He's just like, I'm going to beat him and I'm going to beat him the way I would beat a friend. It's like, you're beating up your brother. Like you go, like, you know, I'm going to hurt you, but not, you're my brother. So it's like, I'm going to do it so you can, he went to submissions faster than he has in any other fight he's ever had. God, he's not good. He's not good. He followed a broken toe too, by the way. Snapped. Like he took a, they showed an x-ray of his toe after the fight. He broke his toe in training and a lot of guys would have pulled out of that fight. If you looked at the fight, I watched it yesterday actually while I was working out. He had his toes taped together. That's it. That's the brace. That's the cast. A little piece of tape connecting his toes. When you break your toe, that's all you can do, right? Is really just tape it up. He's an extraordinary human being and it's his mind. His body obviously is ridiculous too, but his body is ridiculous because of his mind. And he just comes from a place that like, what did Joe DiMaggio say? Rich guys can't make the big leagues. He comes from a place that probably getting in the octagon is the easiest thing he's done in his entire life. I mean, there's videos of him as a kid wrestling bears. I mean, it's like, you got to get in the ring with him. You're going like, how can I grapple better than a bear?