00:00The term, you know, the biggest fight of my career is tossed around loosely,
00:05but in a fight game, it really is.
00:07I mean, if you're on a team, you lose a game, you win a game,
00:11you're playing a game the next night, a couple of nights later.
00:13Fight game, you only get a couple of cracks at it a year, right?
00:16So this really is the biggest fight of your career.
00:19How excited are you right now to get back in the ring?
00:22It's been a little while, man.
00:24I can't contain myself, to be honest with you, man.
00:26And I'm just juiced up from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed.
00:30I'm thinking about taking this guy's head off his shoulders.
00:33Yeah, it's kind of tough, too.
00:35Like, you know, you like to train, you're in great condition,
00:37but there needs to be a light at the end of the tunnel sometimes.
00:40How difficult is it, the life of a fighter, showing up, doing your thing?
00:46Because, you know, fights aren't won right in the ring, man.
00:49Fights are won in the gym months before, years before, right?
00:54How difficult is it?
00:55Or do you plow through, man?
00:56Like, you've got to show up every day.
00:58You're waiting for the call.
00:59You're waiting for a fight.
01:00Are there dark times, you know, at times, waking up in the morning,
01:04you're by yourself.
01:05What's it like, life as a fighter, waiting for a call sometimes?
01:10Yeah, dude, of course, all you can do is plow through, right?
01:12And I live by a motto that all you have is today.
01:15So I do my best to stay focused on today.
01:18Yesterday is done with, and I don't know what the hell tomorrow is going to bring.
01:22And I'll be honest with you, man, there's the highest highs in this game
01:27and the lowest lows, and those lowest lows are hard.
01:30Because you come down from people screaming your name,
01:33and whether they're booing you or they're hyping you up,
01:36there's nothing like it, dude.
01:37No drug can match it, you know what I mean?
01:39It's a performance.
01:41And then the weeks after, dude, you seek something.
01:45You're like, I need to feel that again.
01:46And you don't feel it.
01:48You can go to the gym and you can train, but it's not the same thing, man.
01:53So after five, six weeks, you start hitting like this.
01:57I'm like, dude, I need a crowd.
01:59I need to feel something.
02:01Not that I don't feel anything outside of it,
02:03but I need to feel that specifically.
02:05I live for it, dude.
02:06Yeah, that rush, right?
02:08The competition, the energy, the drive.
02:11And also, I guess, I don't know about fear,
02:14but the pressure, right?
02:15Do you get butterflies before your fight type thing?
02:18I mean, look, GSP was one of the greatest fighters of all time, bro.
02:21He literally threw up before every fight.
02:24Like he said, every fight he threw up before,
02:26and he goes, yeah, I'm nervous.
02:27I'm the champ, but I still get nervous before fights.
02:29And he goes, if I don't get nervous,
02:31I know I got to get out of this game.
02:33Everyone's different, though.
02:36What's it like for you before a fight?
02:38The GSP is actually my first favorite fighter of all time.
02:42Really?
02:42Yeah, so it's great I brought him up.
02:44Yeah, he's one of the biggest influences of my childhood right there.
02:49But me, I think it's a fight-by-fight thing.
02:53But for the most part, I'm just really, really excited to get to compete.
02:57I get more nervous for a hard spar or a training session at shift
03:01because I know I'll probably puke at the end of it.
03:04But on fight night, dude, I'm having the time of my life.
03:08That's the shit I've been dreaming of doing since I was a kid.
03:10I love to perform, and I love whooping ass as well.
03:15As far as BKFC is concerned, it's just sort of exponentially growing
03:21and getting bigger almost by the week, right?
03:23The Fenway Park show was massive.
03:26You know, the knuckle manias are big.
03:29You know, you've fought on big time.
03:32You've fought in arenas.
03:34What is it about BKFC right now that was the perfect fit for you
03:38and so many other fighters that have just sort of gravitated towards this world right now,
03:45and it keeps on growing, and the competition keeps on getting better.
03:48What I love about it is there's dudes from all walks of life.
03:51You've got straight fighters.
03:52You've got world champion boxers.
03:54You've got mixed martial artists.
03:55You've got older dudes.
03:57You've got younger dudes.
03:57It really is just sort of a real fight club, isn't it?
04:02Yeah, it is, dude.
04:03Yeah, first of all, about fight clubs.
04:04You don't talk about fight clubs.
04:05But we get to talk about it, man.
04:08I get to talk about doing this shit with my homies back in middle school, high school,
04:12because we would skip the gloves, maybe put on some hand wraps, and we would just scrap.
04:17And I always talk about, man, if they make a league for this one day, I want to do it.
04:21Because MMA was cool, but every time I hit those guys, they want to smell my balls.
04:27And I'm trying to punch somebody in the face and have somebody try to punch me in the face, dude.
04:31So let's play that game.
04:33BKFC is perfect for a guy like me.
04:34Papa G likes throwing hands.
04:36Yeah, you know, that's the thing, too.
04:38Whenever, like, these UFC fans, it's disrespectful when they start booing when somebody takes someone down.
04:44But I always think, Mike, I'm like, well, you know, if you don't like this, go to a freaking BKFC
04:49event.
04:49You don't have that.
04:50You don't have to worry about it, right?
04:52What are you booing for?
04:54And that isn't at the pleasure of it, that you get to fight in BKFC.
04:59You don't have to worry about getting pinned.
05:02You don't have to get worried about, like, grappling and held against the cage.
05:05Although there are a lot of elements to MMA in bare-knuckle, aren't they?
05:10A lot of people don't really realize.
05:12There is a lot of clinching and grabbing and Muay Thai and all that.
05:15Yeah, there's definitely a lot of clinch work in there.
05:18And I think Jamel did a good job of nullifying my skill set in that last fight.
05:24And that was actually the first time I've ever been in a fight that I got booed in.
05:27Because he just, he played the Olympic boxing game.
05:30He wasn't in there to fight, and I can understand that.
05:33Yeah.
05:33But, yeah, I'm in there to fight.
05:38I don't want somebody to run for me.
05:40I don't want him to just ignorantly stand in front of me like a caveman.
05:44You know what I mean?
05:44I want to play a little bit of chess.
05:46But come try to punch me in my s***, because I'm damn sure going to try to punch him in
05:49his s***.
