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ambassadors. I'm Mike Boris, and this is Straight Talk. You can be my friend, you can be the biggest
asshole. I'll still kill you in there.
It's a job to be done.
Dregas, welcome to Straight Talk, mate.
Mac, thanks for having me.
Let's not go and act as if Sean Strickland fights or entertain. I'm there to give the people a show,
a fight. And I'm in there to kill someone. I'm not in there to point my way to victory.
You just said you're going there to kill somebody. I mean, that's a mindset.
How do you become that person?
I'm fighting a guy in front of millions of people that wants to kill me, and I want to kill him.
That's all the motivation you need. I'm pretty high.
Stop when I get out there.
Pereira, what would you ask him?
How's it going to feel to be in Sean Strickland's corner losing a game?
What's the next thing for you?
Becoming world champion is a big, big step, but this is not the end. My final step is being the
greatest to ever do this sport. Along the way, being double champ is one of the steps to achieve
Dregas, welcome to Straight Talk, mate.
Mac, thanks for having me.
More importantly, welcome to Sydney.
You're here for the Australia Day long weekend,
just passed. How was that, mate? What was it like? I mean, you obviously didn't go out and get on
it because you're ready for a fight.
It sucked, to be honest, because I could just see. It's like a public holiday, and you can see
people are just having the best time, and I just stayed in no time. I went out, and we got
something to eat, and I could just see everybody having the best times, and I'm like, after the
fight, I'm going to have my Australia Day.
Because I've often wondered about fighters. I mean, do you go through, like, say, 12 weeks
prep, fight, then sort of like, I don't have to fight now for where I'm going to fight again in
June, so I'm going to have a month off. Do you have a month off? Or does something happen?
So sometimes you are forced to take off because of injury.
And it is good. You know, you get these guys, a lot of guys do this. So they'll fight. They'll
take off for a month. And sometimes, even longer, I can't do that. Like, taking off for a month,
I will forget how to do what I do. And what am I going to do for that whole month?
So it's less intense. I'll take off however long I need. Sometimes, mostly, I'll fight
this Saturday, Sunday. Next day, I'll at least go for a run.
The next day. I mean-
Subjuncture, of course.
Yeah, if you're not injured. Because, you know, if you do this your whole life, I've been fighting
professionally now since I was 19 years old. It's the only job I've ever had. So what else am I
going to do? It's what I know. It makes me feel good to train. And especially after a fight,
you immediately start thinking about what you could do.
You could have done better. And the things you can improve on. And then you want to start working.
But it's very important to take that break. Earlier in my career, I couldn't. I couldn't do it
and couldn't switch off. And that adds up. It gets to you. And then it's not the pressure. You start
losing the fun, if I can say it like that.
Yeah. And you've got to love it too.
You have to love it. And I absolutely love it. And once you get that obsessed, you start,
and you just want to go, go. You start not appreciating the wins as much.
And I find that being more devastating than anything. Because then you're just thinking
about what's next. What's next? Focus on what just happened. Take it in. Go on a week, two weeks
breakaway. And come back and start working again.
What's it do? You've got like family? I mean, obviously you've got family, but are you married?
I have a fiance. And I'm very close to my mom, dad, and my brothers and their wives and kids.
So that's a breakaway for me. Spending time with them.
Because in a fight camp, you know, there's, it's only, it's a selfish sport. It's only me,
the fighter head, and everything takes a backseat. So that's the time to really appreciate that.
That's interesting you're saying, and I'm glad you sort of made that admission.
It is a selfish game. At what point does someone like you say,
and I don't even know if you thought of this, say, yeah, it's time for me to settle down
and maybe marry, have kids, have families. Because, or would you, or would you be happy
And have kids at the same time, like Volk, he's got a family, a couple of kids, a couple
of daughters, he's married, and he fights. Do you say to yourself, now, I'll wait till
I get my fight game over, then I'll settle down. How's that work?
Yeah, that is a, you get two minds on that. I mean, in most guys, a lot of guys, especially
champions guys, all in a career, you have to start, you know, because I want to have
a family, a wife and kids, but I'm 30 years old now. I only got engaged very recently.
And yeah, it's, it's something you have to think about.
Because, you know, I have so much respect for a guy like Volk, even a guy like Rob, doing
what they're doing. And I mean, I can only imagine, because it's not like they are just
dads. They are involved dads, you can see it. And, you know, I look at my dad, my dad
gave me everything my dad was, you know, was running a business. He was looking after us
very well. He didn't miss a single game, didn't miss a single anything that I did, me or my
brothers. And, you know, where I am right now, I can honestly say, in terms of what he gave me
materialistically never mattered. But to know the support that I got, and how much it meant to me to
see him at every game, and how I wanted to play and be better for him when I played rugby. You
know, he was there every single game. I actually did dancing at a stage. When I was younger,
he didn't miss a dance. He didn't miss anything I ever did, me or my brothers. And that means more
to me than anything ever. And to this day, you know, he would fly when he when he can, he would
fly to come and watch me fight. He went to every fight, drove thousands of kilometres to take us
to judo tournaments, all that, just out of the love. And that's more important. So when you are
going to do that, that's why I have so much respect for a guy like Robin Volk, to be involved
while doing this full time. I don't have that in me right now. Where I'm at in my career, like I
said, I got engaged. But I have a lot of things to do still. And, you know, I'm not going to do
anything that I don't want to do. I'm not going to do anything that I don't want to do. I'm not going
to do anything that I don't want to do. I'm not going to do anything that I don't want to do. I'm not
I know, if I'm going to be a father, I'm going to be the best father in the world. I want to be
the same as my dad. Does that mean when you say you've got lots to do, does that mean perhaps
go up into a second division, another division? I mean, what do you have to do? I mean, you're
already the champ. Congratulations, by the way. And you defended as well. And, you know, against
someone who's considered to be, you know, the greatest of all time in your division.
What's the next thing for you? I mean, apart from defending your
position? Yeah, yeah. For me, right now, you know, ever since Conor McGregor did it, it became
almost the norm of being a dominant champion going up, defending your title, or going up,
winning another title. What people have been struggling with is defending and keeping both.
So I would love to be one to do that, winning both titles and defending them. But when the time is
right, I believe, you know,
at least three defenses before you even consider going up a weight division, you really have to
dominate your division. You know, right now I've beaten three of the guys in the top five of my
division. And I think if you've gone through the whole, if the top five that you've beaten,
still top five, that's where you get to a situation where you go, well, what's next?
Or you just keep on doing rematches. I'm already rematching one guy. That's when I'll start
thinking about that. But I definitely want to.
It's 100%. It's in my, it's part of the journey. It's the next step. Now, becoming world champion
is a big, big step, but this is not the end. You know, my final step is being the greatest to ever
do this sport. And along the way, being double champion is one of the steps to achieve that dream.
How's it work though, Drikus? Does Dana come up to you and say, hey, mate, let's,
maybe doesn't say mate, but hey, Drikus, let's go and put you up a division? Do you do planning,
strategy planning in that regard with someone like Dana?
No, I don't think that's the, that's not the way we go about it or would go about it. It's about
fighting and making, you know, at the end of the day, this is a spectator sport. So it has to make
sense for the company. Whatever makes the most money, what's ever going to, it has to make sense
at the right time. Timing is everything in the sport. And sometimes you miss opportunities,
sometimes you gain opportunity. And with this, it's purely going to be that is once you go up,
this is going to make more money than any
other fight in your division and more sense, because you don't want to water down a champion
going to face another champion. That needs to be a very, especially the guy in the lower weight
division, needs to be so dominant that he really earns his spot in fighting for another title.
So I think that's how it goes about. And the fans need to be calling for it. People need to go,
okay, he's done with this division. We need to see him one up. Let's see if he can,
get that comma, comma, zero, zero, zero, one percent achievement.
So it's, when I, when I look at, you know, I'm a mad fight fan in every sort of
discipline of fighting. What did you first start off in terms of your disciplines? Like,
you know, did you, was it, was it grappling, judo, jujitsu, boxing? Where did you go?
I started with judo when I was five years old and I did that for five to six years.
My brothers were both multiple national champions.
This is your older brothers?
So you've got two older brothers?
Two older brothers. I'm the youngest.
The youngest in the family?
And my oldest brother became national champion twice, my middle brother four times. And I did
it for five to six years. And then we moved, we moved to another province and the judo there
wasn't just not at that level. And then I started wrestling for around two years.
Wrestling as in actual wrestling?
Yeah. Like amateur wrestling.
I was, I was 10, 11 years old and I did it for two years. I wasn't too fond of it. I didn't,
because I was so used to the judo. Now I wish I did it, but I started with wrestling. It's an
amazing sport. But I mean, at that stage it was never for me to become a professional fighter or
anything. It was an extracurricular activity.
Right. As in after school?
Yeah. We didn't, we didn't have it in schools. It was just, my parents always encouraged us to do,
we tried everything to do as much as we possibly could. And then I started with kickboxing at 14,
K-1 kickboxing. It was, and I loved that. The full,
contact K-1 kickboxing. That was, that was amazing. I had my first fight late. I was 14,
maybe 15 early. And I loved it. And MMA was always the goal. That's the videos I watched,
but that was the sport that was available. Became national champion in that. And at 18,
I became junior world champion in K-1 kickboxing as an amateur. And at 19, I made my professional
debut in MMA. So that's how my journey, I've been a lifelong student of martial arts and a,
yeah, it's been amazing.
Given that, you know, obviously you watch everything like, but I'd be interested to hear what your
view is. If, if say somebody, a parent is saying to their, a parent of a boy or a girl, doesn't
really matter. And you're saying to your partner, okay, let's get our son or daughter to become
very good at defending themselves and, or perhaps even attacking in terms of maybe being a competitor.
rank the various disciplines, wrestling, judo, jiu-jitsu, boxing, kickboxing? I mean,
what would you say if you only had to pick two or three? Let's get them good at the competent,
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Well, if I had a daughter, I would invest her time and money in sprinting.
So that's the best way to define yourself.
Yeah, just get away.
Um, because, you know, uh, a girl fighting two men is never going to work. No matter how good
you are at it, it's not going to work. It's not physically how it should work. So I would
get a, maybe throw a strike and run away. I can teach you that. But I'm talking about my brother's
girl. She loves it. The kickboxing, she loves it. She's an amazing dancer, world champion at that.
And she's only 12 years old.
11 years old. And her mom is like, no, like the dancing is what we focus on. You're going to get
hurt, but she loves it. The grappling, the wrestling, she wants to do all of it. And his
boy is wrestling. He's loving it. The kickboxing, not so fond of it, but he does it. And the best
discipline for, if you're going self-defense, I would, you know, jiu-jitsu is just something
that's always going to, going to help you. Wrestling is great. You know, you can look at,
at a striking situation and in terms of kickboxing and boxing, that is going to be
great one-on-one. But if you are attacked, jiu-jitsu is just the way to go. I think that's something
that, that is every kid should do. I think it's amazing. But more so, I think other than
self-defense, and people like to hide about around the self-defense, except for unless,
and just not saying my kid loves to do this. People feel, I, I, I experienced,
that people almost feel like, you don't want to say my kid likes fighting. People don't want,
want that image. Why not? It's a, it's an incredible sport. The, the overall changes
when I started taking the sport seriously at the age of 16, you know, really wanted to become a
world champion. I'm talking about academically in my other sports, in my general life, was insane.
I went from a C student to A plus student within a,
six months period. Just because I found discipline, I found structure, and I found
something that I love to do. And something where what you put in directly results in what you get
out. And once you realize that, you go, well, maybe if I put a bit more in, in this area of
my life, I'm going to get more out. And that discipline to somebody telling you, you are not
going to talk right now. You are going to do 10 pushups, even if you don't want to. That is,
that is something that, uh, that is the biggest, the biggest attribute of doing a martial arts as
for bullies and people who are being bullied. Because now the bully gets to a place where,
you know, you're used to bullying. Now you're getting a guy that knows how to fight. It's not
just a bully. Now you're getting bullied and you feel, ah, this is what it feels like. Changes you.
If you're a guy that's being bullied, and in many situations, I'm, I'm, I own a gym back home.
You see the bully and the guy who's being bullied two months later, different children,
no manners, all the manners, shy, hiding behind his mom, being friends. Can't wait to be at the
gym because now he has a friend there who was, his parents came to us saying, we need our kid
to learn discipline because he's a bully. Now you have a guy who's being bullied and a guy who was
the bully. Best friends at that gym. That changes you forever. Yeah. Not that I'm suggesting he's
a bully, but, um, your, your opponent, Sean has actually put up on exit, uh, to you or to everyone,
I guess, but, uh, to you.
Yeah, I mean, uh, and that's his go. I mean, he's, he's very good defensively. He's very good
on defense, but what do you think about that? And how do you respond to that?
My response was clear. It was, uh, there are no backs between lions and men. That was my,
my direct response, but you know, that was exactly what we did the last time. He said to death,
let's go, let's fight to death. And the man threw a jab and a teep for five rounds in that,
and this is a stat, you can go check it. For 23 minutes, I went forward. He went forward for two
minutes. That is a very clear indication of who's there to fight and who's there to defend.
He's not banging. He's moving around.
He's not banging, you know, he's, and listen, very effective style. That's his style.
Let's not go and act as if Sean Strickland fights are entertaining. The man has eight split decision
victories. Well, eight split decisions in his six victories, two losses against me and Kanania.
Four exciting fights. Split decision means it's a very close, it's a very close fight.
And that has to say something. I have two decisions over my whole career.
Split decision is because he's not doing anything to prove that he's winning that fight,
but he's not doing anything that make, to make him lose the fight.
Do you mean he's not, he's fighting not to lose?
He's fighting not to lose.
As opposed to fighting to win.
He's good at frustrating people. He prioritizes defense over offense.
And I prioritize offense because I'm there to give the people that spend their hard-earned money on
pay-per-views and, and arena tickets, a show, a fight, and I'm in there to kill someone.
I'm not in there to point my way to victory.
And I think that's where the biggest difference between us comes.
You come across a pretty nice guy, but like, is there a, like a, a glaze over when you walk in the
ring, does something happen to Drikus when you walk in the, like you just said, you're going there
to kill somebody.
I mean, that, that's a mindset.
How do you, how do you.
Sort of become that person?
I think, uh, people always ask me, do I listen to a certain type of music to hype me up?
I'm like, I'm fighting a guy in front of millions of people that wants to kill me and I want to kill him.
That's, that's all the motivation you need.
I'm a, I'm pretty hyped up when I get out there, but yeah, it's a good question.
That's, that's what I always tell people.
The mindset, the people always go, you have to be able to, uh, you like the, you have to be willing
to die when you get in there.
You have to, but that's a minimum requirement.
The harder part is, can you kill a man when you have to?
So I'm willing to die and I'm willing to take a life.
Oh, you believe that?
I mean, like, actually believe it in your mind.
When I go in there, if there's no ref, the ref doesn't stop, but I'm not stopping.
I can be sitting on you for 10 minutes, bashing your face.
You know, if the ref doesn't say stop, I'm not stopping.
And that is the question that me as a, as a modern day gladiator has to ask myself, am
Am I still alive?
Am I still alive?
Am I still alive?
Am I still alive?
Am I still willing to die?
It's, are you willing to kill a man in front of his family?
And that's why I'm the world champion.
Because I say yes to that answer, that question every single time.
But that's Drikus Stilnox.
That's not Drikus, the guy that you see right here.
I can't be living like that the whole time.
And I think that's for a lot of athletes, a problem.
Differentiating against the man.
In society and the man in the arena.
It's two very different people.
I can't live my life just willing to kill everybody that, that wrongs me or no.
But when the time comes in life as well, when you have to defend your family, when you have
to, you have to be able to pull that trigger.
So when you, when you, when he fought Israel, Israel was on his back foot the whole time.
And I kept thinking to myself, it didn't.
And you're, you're sort of putting yourself in a difficult position when you keep walking
up against Cage, especially when, when, you know, Israel's normally with hands, better
off with hands and feet.
He's not really a wrestler.
And, but when he fought you, it was a totally different deal.
He, he was on the back foot the whole time.
Do you strategize with your team?
I presume you've got a big team.
Do you sit down and say, okay, we're going to be on the front foot the whole time.
I'm going to take the fight to him.
Knowing that, as you say, he's a great defensive fighter.
Like he's, you know, he's, he's got the role and everything on him.
How hard or how serious is the whole strategy strategizing and do you train into the strategy
or you just, that's, or, or is this just drinkers?
I stick to my style.
I don't change my style for anybody.
Well, there's two sides to that.
So the strategy for, for me is very important.
I watch, I've probably watched every fight that there is to watch.
I don't miss a UFC.
I love watching it.
I love, you know, because I can learn from every, what's great about this sport.
It's so quick evolving that you see a UFC fight, you maybe miss one weekend, miss another
weekend, you watch another.
It's almost a different sport.
The people just get better so quickly.
So you have to stay on top of that.
Now, in terms of watching tape of everybody in my, especially in my division, watching
the guys that's coming up, it doesn't help this guy burst on the scene and now you're
You have to know.
In the back of your mind, what this guy does well, what this guy's, where his faults are,
where he's good at.
And the strategy, I make my strategy the way I see the fight.
I see his strengths, his weaknesses, my strength, the stuff where I can struggle.
My coach does the same.
Some teammates does the same.
And we discuss it and we see where the similarities are and that's how we compile our game plan.
This fight a bit different because we've had, uh, we've had five rounds in there with each
other, but that can also be a trouble because you can't just go out there and think, oh,
I think it's the same guy.
He's going to make adjustments.
I made adjustments.
I believe the guy who evolved the most in the last year, because that's how long it's
been, is the guy who's going to win this fight.
The guy who's, who has made the necessary adjustments to be better for this round is
the guy who's going to win this fight.
And I made sure of that.
I made sure of that.
So you're evolving.
I'm evolving the whole time.
You're evolving your fight game.
I mean, if you look at the guy who fought Adesanya, he was the guy who fought Stryktyn the first time.
He was the guy who fought Adesanya.
He was the guy who fought Stryktyn the first time.
He was the guy who fought Adesanya.
He was the guy who fought Stryktyn the first time.
Complete different fighter.
And if you, like on the 9th of Feb, the guy who fought Adesanya would get his ass kicked
against Rodriguez that's going to show up that night.
I know that for a fact.
And the game plan is very important, but it's a fight.
You know, you get a lot of people, and that's one thing I have to give to Stryktyn, he's
always down to fight.
I can, I know he doesn't listen to his coaches.
I know he is a radical.
So you know, mentally when he gets frustrated, it's a, it's a nightmare for him.
It's a nightmare for a coach, I would assume, but he's always there to fight.
And that's something you can't teach because you can have all the systems in the world,
the best coach, the best team, the best technology, you can have everything, the perfect game
At the end of the day, it's a fight.
If you bring your game plan, I punch you in the mouth.
If you bring your game plan, I just have a power.
Now that fatigue will make a coward of you very quickly.
You forget about game plan very quickly because you don't know what my game plan is.
So you can have this.
You play in your mind.
Oh, he did this in this fight, this in this fight.
Now all of a sudden you're feeling my strength.
You're feeling my presence in there.
You're feeling the pressure that I put on you.
It's really hard if you have a forward game plan and you're fighting a guy that's keeping
you on your back foot to implement your game plan.
You look like, I mean, I know your weight division, but you don't, you look bigger than
your weight division.
What are you walking around at normally?
Around 102, 105 kilograms.
And so you've got to drop a fair bit of weight to make weight.
I'm going to do it three weeks after a fight, three, four weeks after a fight.
Because then you're training, you're eating whatever you didn't eat in the last 12 weeks.
Eating whatever you want to, drinking a lot of beer and enjoying life a little for that
Because you have to do that.
You have to unwind.
And also, I love this sport more than anything.
So you have to also have that break.
You can't just be focused the whole time.
It takes it away.
You need to go up and go down.
Go up and go down.
So yeah, I can get to 105 easily, but when I'm in good shape and when I'm not in fight
camp, but in good shape, training every day, eating, I'm around 102 kilos.
And so your plan then for, in terms of making weight, is there any residual sort of exhaustion
as a result of trying to make weight?
Because hydration in UFC is a bit different to boxing.
Hydration in UFC is, it's a big deal.
You've got to be properly hydrated.
In other words, you can't be just-
I mean, you have to-
With us, I mean, you can be dehydrated as much as you want on weighing day.
It's about fight day.
You get guys that cut the weight.
I mean, you can cut, like if I had to go, I used to fight at 170, so 77 kilograms.
This is the exact same body.
That's a 23 kilo drop.
I was weighing the same.
I fought there for five years.
The problem was when you do that, it's the rehydration process that's the most important.
The last fight I fought there was, because as I grew, I started at 21 at that weight.
When I was 25, 26, my body just became heavier and bigger.
So to make that weight, my body fat was like 3%.
Yeah, so it's impossible.
And I made the weight, but every shot I would take feels like somebody's hitting me with
And that's the day I said, no, I'm not doing this.
I'm not doing this anymore because I'm going to lose unnecessary fights.
And it took the joy out of the sport because my diet, I had run one week off in terms of
And then I had to start dieting for the next fight because I would go up from 77, get in
the cage at around 92.
A week later, I'm 100 kilos again.
So then the whole process starts all over and that's not healthy.
Moving up to middleweight, the best decision I've ever made.
That's the best decision I've ever made because now I can have a life outside.
And when my camp starts, I can do it.
And it's about that rehydration process.
It doesn't help you make weight, but you can't perform on fight night.
You get bodybuilders, they are allowed to use like water, stuff that's, you know,
Yeah, drugs that takes the water out.
You're not allowed to use any of that.
And at the end of the day, you stand on a stage flexing, which is, I mean, each to their
And it's a hard work to get that physique, of course.
But we need to get punched in the face.
You need to be able to perform for the time it's, I mean, you have to be able to perform
at the highest level on earth.
You know, cardio-wise, muscle endurance, all of that, I mean, our whole bodies consist
So if you, your brain, I mean, the shots you take, so you have to take all that in consideration
when you're cutting this weight and do it in such a manner where it doesn't negatively
affect your fights.
You know, I was just reading, I was just reading a guy on the show yesterday put up a post,
I don't think he's actually sure what it was, probably on his own Instagram page, but said
that he's not going to do, he's not going to fight pro fighters.
He's going to go and start fighting YouTubers.
What do you think about that concept?
I think where the man's had in his life, I mean, Conor McGregor is, you know, there's
a lot of controversy around the man, 100%.
But I did an interview a couple of months ago where I said, whether you hate him or love
him, you've got to respect what the man has done and achieve in the sport.
People look at Conor McGregor now, they're like, oh, he's done.
Well, if he is done, good on him, you know, good on him, you know, because I've been a
fan of his for very long.
When I was, I was still up and coming when he first on the scene, well far up and coming.
I think my second fight in the UFC was on the undercard of Conor and Dustin Poirier's
And before that, when he was on the scene, I was on the undercard of Conor and Dustin
Poirier's third fight.
And when he burst on the scene, he just, he was, he almost changed the game in terms
You know, bringing in mental warfare, not only as saying nasty shit, no, bringing in
mental warfare as a tactic, practicing that mentality, practicing.
And I was 21 when that happened.
So I immediately took to it and said, this is an area, especially locally where I was
fighting at that stage, where people don't even consider this.
People just go like two people fighting, getting their note.
The mental aspect of this creates, makes people crush, crushes people, it builds people.
I see people in the gym all the time, great fighters, world champion fighters, can't win
a fight in front of people or when the lights are shining.
He brought that to light.
He may change the game from, we are fighters.
When I started this sport, I said, geez, I hope I make enough money so I can eat and
like, but I don't need to eat.
I just need to be world champion.
That's the only thing I thought.
And he changed the game to, it doesn't have to be like that.
And he made the sport more famous than the sport itself, worldwide.
Everybody knows who Conor McGregor is.
And if you love him or hate him, he was an incredible fighter.
He did what no man before him could do.
He beat Joseph Aldo, who was my favorite all-time fighter at that stage.
He beat the, he was the pound for pound number one.
He beat him in 30 seconds, 13 seconds knockout.
Then goes on, becomes the first double division champion and in an absolute clinical display
against Eddie Alvarez.
And people forget about that immediately now because it's been a while, the man sitting
on his yacht, geez, you know, it's kind of easy to sit here and judge, but I think everybody's
kind of jealous of that.
And yeah, I mean, the man has done some controversial stuff, but that's, that's, that's a completely
different story as the Conor McGregor that's an athlete.
I have to give that man all the respect and thanks, our fighters, because of what happened
to this sport because of him and the raising pay.
It's as simple as that because of somebody like him who changed the narrative.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, and he, and he did unbelievable stuff for UFC.
So McGregor, Aldo, who else are your, I mean, you've been a student in this game for a long
Who's your, you know, your, your goat list?
That's a tough one.
I mean, you can't ever deny it's Grady Jones.
Never, ever, ever.
I mean, this guy, and I mean, the Tom Aspinall fight, let me tell you this, Tom Aspinall made
him, he's an incredible guy.
So humble, nice, gentle giant until he gets in there, of course.
It's a fight I don't need to see because the world wants to see this.
Jon Jones, because I love Aspinall, I think he's a phenomenal, he's in the heavyweight
He has grappling, wrestling, incredible striking.
You don't see that with heavyweights.
Jon Jones is years ahead of everybody.
Especially at heavyweight, until Aspinall came along.
I mean, we saw what he did with, uh, Cyril Garne.
And now Aspinall is young, he's hungry.
You have Jones, who is definitely at the end of his career, what's he, 38 years old?
I don't need to see this because he's never been beaten.
So I don't need to see Jon Jones fight Aspinall because I don't want any, either one of them
I want Jon Jones to retire unbeaten.
Of course he had that DQ for 12 to 6, which is now legal, but unbeaten and the legend
And I want him to retire and Aspinall goes on to be the next big thing.
But Jon Jones being the warrior that he is, he says, pay me enough and I'm doing it.
Aspinall wants it.
And one of them has to lose that fight.
And that's the one thing you look at it and you go, Aspinall's probably going to win.
But then if you ask me that, I say, no, no, no.
We've said that so many times with Jon Jones.
Jon Jones, Jon Jones, Jon Jones.
And it makes it look easy.
He is the greatest of all time for sure.
You can't deny that up until now, this for now, up until this date where fighting exists,
And then of course, Conor McGregor, massive inspiration for me in terms of how we change
the sport, approach the sport.
He was a great inspiration to when I was young and how to approach it.
The guy that got me into the sport.
Mirko Krokop from the K1 days because that's how I started he was and he was in the UFC but he was
already 40 years old then he was incredible uh Anderson Silva was the guy that's the highlight
reels that I obviously you've seen me fight it doesn't look like Anderson Silva but I always
tried definitely failed definitely failed like he was he just made it look like a video game so
he's one of the greats and then one of my my favorite fighters a guy that I've trained with
a guy that I know one of the nicest people as well and he's also down for anything as a guy
Gilbert Burns I think you know he had a loss against Jack Madalena and his last outing but
Gilbert Burns is not a young fighter anymore just in terms of the guys he has beaten if you look at
the fight with Bilal Muhammad he was a very dominant champion well he won his belt in dominant fashion
decision of course and he
dislocated his shoulder in the first round fought that fight through wasn't an easy fight
it just went but he couldn't use his one arm he has the mentality of a champion I've trained with
him and how I see that is just the work ethic of that man when he's on the you get people to be
present and be productive it's not the same thing you can be at the gym every day you can be training
every day but are you taking in and trying your best every day to show up it's not like it's great
it's good for your weekend warrior to show up
to be the best in the world you can't just show up you have to show up and that's one thing that
I've seen from him that's really inspiring so he's one of my favorite fighters too
what's really interesting is the way you talk about um your favorite fighters but what's it
really interesting is um the way you positioned Jones etc um it's nearly like there's a romantic
I don't mean in a lovey-dovey sense but I mean like it's there's a romance associated with
the fight game and for those people who you hold up in such high esteem it's like
it's not just the entertainment not just the athleticism um not just the hardness but there's
a romance in there you absolutely love the game yeah would that be fair summation working in the
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absolutely i think when people ask me what advice i would give any youngsters and don't give them
the advice of work hard do make the sacrifices they know that you should know that by the time
you'll figure that out very quickly and you can just google motivation or youtube and that's what
they'll all tell you you have to love this more than anything that you do because people look at
me now and actually listen to me now because i'm the champion of the world up until then you don't
what am i going to do after this because i spent my whole life i didn't develop any other skills
in life i didn't build up a cv i mean it's going to be hard to get a job if you say no what did
you do before there's no fight people other than being a bouncer i guess um if you don't make it
you don't make it it's only one way it's a lot of risk it's a lot of risk if and now you get you
you i was very young when i started fighting professionally some guys only get professional
25 if if you don't get to the u.s.
by 30 you're getting in a situation of okay am i gonna because if you don't get into a pfl at least
in mma i'm talking about a pfl at least or the ufc and make it to the top
you have to know that you're not going to be set you're not going to be able to
you know you have to after your career you have to be
something to look after you i'm talking about and quickly because if you don't make it you don't
make it it's all you make it or you don't it's all or nothing it's all or nothing it's a huge risk
it's only one way to find out and that's to go for it if you if you go i want to do this but i have
to you know still make sure that i'm taking care of some things if this doesn't work out you already
lost it you'll never make it can i ask you a question about something because it's a really
important question for me and i don't know if you're remembering but many years ago um i had
quite a lot of experience with the u.s.
a good relation with a guy called tian strauss a rugby union guy
and he kept in australia too oh yeah he come over here to live and then he kept
australia but tian tian worked for you in another business because he was a lawyer but
um he told me that and i don't know what this is about south africans but
he told me that when he was a young man and i thought it was all bullshit but he said they
used to drive alongside i think he said wildebeest or something like that and actually jump out of
um jeep order was and try his father's skin try and tackle it there's something about south
africans the mindset yeah that they're bloody hard-minded tough-minded people now we've only
just seen you here in um in ufc there aren't a lot of south africans in the ufc there's not even a
lot of south african boxers even out there at the moment that that are known yeah but what is it
about south africans it makes them so hard-minded i mean people from south africa i'm talking about
not the ones that live here but the ones from south africa
yeah the one from south africa i think uh especially uh what you are talking about now
south africans in general english afrikaans um you know we have 11 12 official languages
and so that's 11 12 different cultures so in my culture as afrikaans um south african
you know my my dad is extremely tough hard work is instilled in us like you wouldn't believe it's
sometimes i see for example a kid like talking back to his parents and i see the situation and i
go and the parents go you are going to the naughty corner i don't get a naughty corner
no no no it is not how it works in in in our culture you get a naughty backhand that's what
you get and you know it's about discipline and there's a lot of love my parents loving my dad
mom they love me but i was brought up hard and right because not a struggle now there's a lot
of struggle it wasn't a struggle you know i grew up in an amazing family it is hard in the sense
that you will show respect and you will appreciate every single thing you have no matter what it is
i was rewarded for winning and i was told when i didn't do good enough that it wasn't good
enough in the ufc when i fought derek brunson it's actually a funny story i fought derek brunson
and uh it was a tough fight no you know my cardio it was a great camp felt amazing but it was a
that first round was so intense it was you know it was wrestling it was full speed second round
came out i was tired he was tired but i just kept on pushing and that's that mindset you talked about
and i got home at the airport and you know i just became number five in the world the first south
african ever to even get to the top of the world and i was like oh my god i'm going to be the first
close to a ranking i get home we get in the car so happy to see my parents they they're so happy
to see me and they go geez so you still want to be world champion i said well yeah it's my whole
life is dedicated this one they go not if you fight like that that was terrible and i'm almost
i couldn't i couldn't even fathom what was happening right now i said excuse me
i was ranked number 10 i just became number five in the world
no that's amazing we but you won't be number like it's number five what you want to achieve because
like that you're not achieving number one like number five will be the highest achievement you'll
get if that's the way you want to do it and i was almost i couldn't believe i was stuttering like i
am right now i couldn't believe it and i said listen we are so we couldn't be more proud we
are just saying we're not saying you didn't work hard enough we're not saying you're not doing
enough we're saying there's a change needed and we're not saying you're not doing enough we're
not saying you're not doing enough we're not saying you're not doing enough we're not saying you need to do
you need to find it it's your career you need to find something for the next level because like
that you won't make it i'm sorry so is it is it would it would a good description be tough love
tough love and i was angry at them i was literally sitting in a call right i'm not saying a word
i just got back for a month away from her and i then when started thinking about it made the
changes that was needed you know i did the introspection i was angry first like or and
then i did my introspection processed it and i said shit they were right and i said i'm not saying
i need to make a change made the change and here i am today so that you know my parents when i was
younger they were very hard on us but rightfully so because we were naughty little shits me and
my brother if maybe we would have been in jail if it wasn't because i would be more afraid of
my parents finding out when i when we were making shit then going to jail i was like
please please lock me up if my dad finds me or my mom we're in big trouble and that taught us
respect it wasn't fear it was respect and to this day you know my brothers myself and my parents
we are so close we see each other every week you know we and you that's very rare these days you
like me and my brothers are best friends me and my mom and dad and my brothers we are so close
because we have that and when you're younger you don't necessarily understand
why are they punishing me like this i never got grounded no ways that's not you go to the farm
you work for a week because you don't have manners and that was that was it you're rewarded
for hard work and you were punished with hard work i love that i i think to me that's the best
one before sunset i had to do that but i mean i love that type of process i've one quick last
question i'm gonna get wound up to keep one because i know you've got a busy schedule and
by the way can i say it's a great privilege to have you sitting here i really appreciate it um
i i'm i'm meekly lucky to be able to interview
yes whatever next week what question would you want me to ask him because i don't know what to
ask him what would you ask him if uh how is it going to feel to be in sean strickland's corner
losing again ask him that i'll ask him then i'm going to say it's from you if you don't
say him one day when we fight he'll be zero and two
really great to say i really have to say i think um when we talked about um
my goat list yeah i can't name him because he's a potential opponent or you know he's a potential
nervous fighter or whatever in my mind uh but he's going to be a tough guy because he's a strong
opponent but it doesn't really matter like it doesn't change me like i said you can be my friend
you can be the biggest asshole i'll still kill you in there it's a job to be done i think he is
one of the greatest combat athletes to ever live he is a phenomenal athlete to go in a short period
of time from a different sport and not just a different sport kickboxing which is not a great
base for mma it helps but if that's the only thing you know not a great base you know if you
want to go up against these wrestling guys he came in and just went through everyone after being one
of the greatest k1 kickboxers to ever live i mean multiple titles at the highest level comes in in
a short period of time and just becomes a two like became middleweight champion
goes to light everywhere becomes champion and being one of the biggest names always like always
ready to fight i have the world's respect for him as a fighter i think and you know as a person even
i think we are rivals but you know i have the utmost respect for what he's achieved in the sport
and he's truly one of the goats to ever not do mma or in the ufc in combat sports i think probably
the most achieved combat sports athlete the world's ever seen thanks dregas
mate good luck thank you really seriously if you've been listening along for a while
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