00:00:00
Speaker 1: What's up? Guys. Welcome to another episode of the Daniel Cormier Show. Today's episode is brought to you by Total Wireless, the official wireless provider of UFC in your corner with unlimited five GE data that will not slow you down. Guys, that is a total power move and the guy I'm talking to you today Total power move join by one of the toughest featherweights in the UFC. This is a guy that will literally fight anyone anytime. Dan's had twenty one fights in the UFC. Hawaii Raised San Clemente Bourne Dan one hundred k E Gay, Dan Gay, my man, Thanks for joining me, Bro. I appreciate you popping into the show. So obviously you and I have sat down before for interviews to talk all those other things, but on this show we try to get a little deeper, talk a little longer, get to know Dany Gay more than just the fighter, but everything else that makes you such a great human being and a great person. But fought a couple of weeks ago, how's life like? How's everything going for you right now? How's the last couple of weeks been? After? After the fight obviously didn't go away that you wanted to and yeah, you tore your ACL.
00:01:13
Speaker 2: Yeah I tore my ACL. It's unfortunate. Fractured orbital. God, it's a crazy It's what do we do? Man? I mean, obviously you can never plan for things like that. It was just a freak accident. He kicked, I kicked the same time, snapped, and what do you do? You just you gotta fight through it. Spinning kick at the end. Didn't see it fracture my orbital. Four or five seconds left in the fight, I felt, okay. I was definitely hurt, Like the shot hurt me. I covered myself. Ref stopped the fight, and but what are you gonna do? I wasn't gonna fight the ref about it. Definitely would have had some adversity to overcome had we gone back to the corner. But that's just the way it went, you know. And then it's funny. We we actually went home, both my kids, my wife, we're all sick, just bad coming out of both ends. And I went immediately into caretaker mode. So I didn't even have time to like mourn my own loss or like feel sorry for myself. So I just went straight into like dad mode, caretaker husband, And here we are ten days later, I'm like, what do I what am I going to cry now? Like, I don't know, man, It's just I'm blessed. I'm very fortunate to even had twenty one fights in the UFC. Is crazy when I look back at it. I've had a you know, a great career so far, a lot of ups and downs, battled a lot of adversity and always came through on top. So it's just anough, you know, It's just part of the story what I'm going through now. It's just something for me to come back from and be better from. And we'll see what happens.
00:02:47
Speaker 1: We'll talk a little more about the career in the fight. But let's kind of go back. Born in San Clemente. But how do you end up in how well, ah, the White holli Eva, Holly Eva. But you're born in Sant Clemente. How you how you end up in Halla Eva?
00:03:04
Speaker 2: Crazy? Honestly. I mean my dad, my mom and dad were born you know, they met in Dana Point and they worked together.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: Which is beautiful. By the way.
00:03:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I loved it out there. I grew up a little bit out there. Most of my life, you know, I spent growing up in Hawaii. But my mom and dad were separated at you know, when I was not even one years old, so I moved. It's crazy. My mom was so my dad was always deployed moving. You know, he's the Navy Seals, so he was always gone. And if I wasn't with my dad, I was with my mom. And then my mom would be working two three jobs, so I would be getting watched by random people. And like then my mom went had a couple years where she was in and out of jail, and I would just move. I would be living with my auntie, be living with my dad, be living with my grandma. So I moved a lot. And I guess that's created that just ability to adapt.
00:03:59
Speaker 1: Would you you're when you're your family? Your parents were separated, but then your mom and dad both moved back to Hawaii. Your dad was in the military there, so they all you guys all or did they separate when you got back to Hawaii?
00:04:14
Speaker 2: So no, they separated beforehand. My dad initially, yeah, he got the call, Hey, we're going to get the stationed Hawaii Pearl Harbor STV T one. He was the command master chief over there. I uh, and I and I was like, sick, I want to move to Hawaii. I love skating, I love surfing. And I grew up, you know, I went to you know, uh intermediate school, middle school, and then all of high school there. And my mom moved there because I was there. She wanted to be closer to Yes, and so my mom and they were both living in Hawaii on a small island. But for while I was in Hawaii, I was living with my dad completely. He was remarried. You know, I have a half brother, half sister. Yes, crazy, you that being tough for you, It was tough, But I didn't. I didn't even know what tough was. I was just life. Like no one ever put that word or verbiage in my ear. So I thought, that's just kind of normal and part of life. I was an only child up to when I was twelve. I didn't you know, I didn't point fingers or anyone or blame anyone, you know. I my dad implemented a lot of structure. Like I was always afraid of my dad. Like I didn't want to get bad grades. And my dad never beat me, but like he could just look at me a certain way, I'd be like afraid and I didn't want to disappoint where my mom, I had a little bit more free will, more of a street kid. I could run around, you know, ten o'clock at night, skating down the streets, and you know, no one's calling me asking me to check in. So I got a lot of streets smart and a lot of you know, knowledge from that side. Then I got a lot of structure and discipline from my dad. And I don't know, man, it's uh, my dad gets a lot of credit for for my fighting style and my discipline and my hard work. But I think I get a lot of my mom should get some credit to just for like the craziness and the free will and the free spirit. So I got a little little blend there. Yeah.
00:06:12
Speaker 1: Well, when you're when you're growing up, like you said, going between places family, that's that island community, right Like there there's not many places in the world where the kid can be uh, you know, from the ups and the downs in the in uh finding that comfort in the community. When you think back to growing up on that island, that small island, what do you remember the most.
00:06:39
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's a reason I call Hawaii home. You know, it's like the first place I moved that, I feel like they adopted me, you know, they adopted me as part of the cultures, part of the community. Granted, you know, I got in fights. There's a lot of bullies, a lot of you know, just punks out there, and I had to I feel like, growing up in Hawaii, the only way to really like get your respect is just to like defend yourself and fight back. No one. No one's pulling weapons or guns or knives. It's all you know, street fights. And I got in a few fights here and there just to I don't know, you call it bowling or not. But then eventually I got into martial arts, started training and then I didn't really get in much trouble after that. Yeah.
00:07:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think we all have those those things, but it is a community that raises most people. I remember growing up in Lafayette, and uh, we always had other kids around at my house, but I think it allowed for us to play more. We were more active outside. We spent a lot of time doing things that you that kids today don't necessarily do. Kids are inside, right, but having that was was very important. Now you speak about the fighting and fighting to defend yourself as a young kid, it becomes martial arts. And what age did mars become a part of your life. I'm talking jiu jitsu first, wrestling second. But when did you start to think man martial arts could be something that I want to try and pursue.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I started training jiu jitsu and one of my buddy's backyards we would Uh. His dad was a purple belt. He fought MMA. He was really smart though. He just had us drill arm bars and triangles like drill back like five hundred.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Was he an MMA guy?
00:08:27
Speaker 2: Was he?
00:08:28
Speaker 1: Was? He a fighter?
00:08:29
Speaker 2: Yeah? Early MMA fighter. His name was Gary Fredez. I trained with my friend Alika and then you know, I we we would go to like a couple of academies that had like sun Sibi jiu jitsu that ended up becoming my jiu jitsu academy growing up on the North Shore. And I honestly so my dad was a really good wrestler in California, Like he was a runner up and then he wrestled in Oregon for the Ducks. He's a really good wrestler Greco, just really good. But his mom pushed I'm so hard to wrestle that he I didn't even know he wrestled. He never pushed me into wrestling until one day I was a I don't want to wrestle. I never wanted to wrestle, honestly, the honest truth is I just didn't want to wear a singlet. I didn't want to like my nuts like I didn't want to.
00:09:16
Speaker 1: You don't want your nuts out there?
00:09:18
Speaker 2: No, I didn't want that.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: And they ride up do they go all up? And your ship man Back in the day too, Back in the day they got long singleists. Now back in the day they were kind of short, looked real bad.
00:09:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, I jumped In my junior year, I started wrestling uh play six in States. My senior year, I lost an overtime in the semis lost every matchups Slide yep, semi slide. Got wrestled two years at Wartburg D three school. Learned a lot like about wrestling, just being in a high level room, and but I also was very honest. I was like, I'm probably not gonna went in caa title like these kids have been wrestling since they're four years old. Like I just maybe with the mindset I have today, maybe I could have done something great. But I at the time, I just was like, this isn't it for me? But I felt like I got enough wrestling to apply it to MMA. Yeah, And I went back during like semesters and I did a couple of amateur MMA fights back home in Hawaii.
00:10:23
Speaker 1: You already knew when you were in college, you already knew that MMA was something you were going to do.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, just because you know, we grow. I think Bjpenn was champion at the time, So that gave a Hawaii kid hope.
00:10:35
Speaker 1: That was also what I was going to say to you next, like when you're in Hawaii, it's gotta be Bjpinn back then. I mean, who are you watching Bjpenn all those Hawaiian fighters early? I mean even guys like Cabbage. We're just around like Hawaiian guys that were really, uh, setting the tone for what MMA was. And you guys are down there in Hawaii watching this, Like what do you think watching a guy like b J Pinn essentially rule the world?
00:11:04
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean he was, in my opinion, like he was the greatest at that time, like knowing like just his ability, his fight IQ, his ability, like his dexterity. He was just so good and dominating and I think it just gave a lot of Hawaii kids hope, and fighting is just kind of part of the culture. So I kind of always knew I wanted to fight. We grew up watching, you know, watching the UFC in the house, just watching all the old time guys, go go, get after it, and it was just I knew it was something I wanted to do. Your Rya Faber was coming up, I was like watching your Rye Faber. I was like seeing the little guys, the smaller guys. I was like, Okay, maybe I can do this. So I but I never really trained striking or anything till after wrestling, after college and then.
00:11:48
Speaker 1: But that's it's kind of what you know, like the power is one of the things that you're known for, but you didn't do that until later.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: No, yeah, no, I don't. I don't know where that came from.
00:11:58
Speaker 1: Where did it come from?
00:11:59
Speaker 2: I don't know. The first day I stepped into extreme couture, like I didn't really even know how to throw a punch, and Ray Cepho was holding pads for me. He's like, man, you hit, you hit like a middleweight, You hit like a like like He's like, you have some something in your hands, and like I thought people were just telling me this to hype me up, but then like I heard it from like different coaches all around the continent telling me the same thing. And then I just started trying to buy into that and learning and like learning the art, and I fell in love with that. Still have all the wrestling and jiu jitsu on my black belt in jiu jitsu. Decent wrestler, But I don't know, man, it just started. You knock a couple of guys out and then you're like, maybe I could just do this. It's fun.
00:12:42
Speaker 1: I remember when you started coming to Aka to training with this, but you were working with Ali abdella Ziz, and it seemed like you were more of an apprentice to become a manager, right, And then all of a sudden you were on the mats all the time, and I was like, Yo, this dude is good, Like you were good. Was was that the plan was the way to go into management or were you just training to fight? But it seemed like you're almost like in a printice almost.
00:13:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. So that was a crazy time in my life, just being on the road with Ali and you know, Ali, it's just like all over the place, but high, very high, successful manager. But adhd to the to the extremist. And when I moved to Vegas, I had no money. I was sleeping on you know, talking about guys coming up. I was watching Brad Brad when I was in college. Brad Tavars was on The Ultimate Fighter. And when I made the move, Brad always I didn't really know him that well, but we got to know each other. We started. I trained at the MMA gym. He came up in and Hawaii. He was already out here in Vegas, and he offered me to come out and sleep on his couch. I had no money. I came here with twenty seven dollars. I bought a plane ticket and I was working. I was saving up money and then working in construction, you just could go weeks without work. I spent all my money that I saved up. The day came from my plane ticket and I had twenty seven bucks. So I was like, screw, I'm jumping on the plane. I slept on Brad's couch and he took care of me for a little bit, like I helped out, did dishes, cleaned up, and He's like, I knew I needed to work and provide somehow, and he's like, he's like, hey, do you want to go to dinner with my manager? And I didn't really know all the I know he was promoting a little bit with the World Series of Fighting, and I was like, oh, cool, it could be a good opportunity to get into like a show or something, just like put my face out there. And we were at dinner and I kind of got to know him and he's looking for an assistant because his assistant went on The Ultimate Fighter, and I was like, me and my boy Poony were like fighting over the job, and I ended up getting the job, and like within one week, I was already applying at other jobs. I was like, screw, I don't want to do this job. I don't want to be around this guy. This is crazy, Like I can't handle this. And I did that. I was two and one as a pro. I did the all the way up to like ten twelve fights into my UFC career. Yeah, I remember, I thought I was gonna get to the USC and be like see you and then yeah, I just didn't work like that.
00:15:12
Speaker 1: But because you're still not making that much money, you know, once you get there.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not making that much money, there was still a lot of benefit you know for me working there, Like I got to you know, train with could be got brought into his camp, train with guys like Islam, train with guys like Frank Jeger, you know, travel wherever he went, worked with high level coaches, and I just picked everyone's brain. But I was always the guy, like I was carrying. I was the guy carrying the guys that are fighting for the title, was carrying their grocery bags and carrying their backs.
00:15:44
Speaker 1: I remember that.
00:15:46
Speaker 2: I wanted to be in that position, and I was like.
00:15:48
Speaker 1: How motivating is that for you? Though, right to like say, man, this is my way, right. I know that I have to do these things right now, but ultimately I want to be the guy.
00:15:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, has the guy exactly? That's I mean, that's what it was, and that's what drove me. Maybe that fueled my six fight wind streak in the UFC. I was just like I was so hungry and fighting was my only, uh way to like express that. I felt like it was almost like captivity, you know, like I'm I'm in this, I'm bro I wasn't working in an office, I'll lease works from bed. I'm sitting on the ground and I just want to be that. I wanted to be the guy. I wanted to be there so bad.
00:16:34
Speaker 3: And then.
00:16:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, it drove me. It drove me really far. And then I ended up having a family, you know, having a kid. My wife had my kid.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: And when you had your kid, is that when you stopped working?
00:16:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I took time, I took leave. I was like, listen, I need to be there for my I was there. I would I would wake up, train or do whatever. Second I'm done, I'm still sweating. Now I'm working, and I'm like, it's practice is at three thirty is three twenty five, We're driving to practice, Texan doing whatever for all the calls on the mat, like, no time to warm up, I'm on the mat. Second I'm off the mat, boom, sweating back to work like that was my life.
00:17:13
Speaker 1: That's but that's probably because you're who you are, right, so you want to do a great job. Yeah, yeah, right, it's not because it's because you know, hey man, this is what I'm doing right now for work. I want to be good at it. So you were so locked in. But that but that I remember for me, I remember one time you only tell you my moment that I knew sure, And then when you say I was carrying the bags and doing all that stuff. I remember one time Kane Velaska has had an appearance and it was twenty five thousand dollars and I was living in a seven hundred and fifty square foot apartment in San Jose. I was paying thirteen hundred bucks a month. I had a six month old baby, and Kane was not gonna do it. He was like, I don't really want to go anywhere for twenty five grand. And I just remember thinking to myself, if I ever have the opportunity to make twenty five thousand dollars for a little bit of time on an appearance, I'm absolutely gonna do it. But then I watched him value himself so much that eventually they gave him more, and I was like, man, I need to get to a point where I require them to give me more, where I am at a point in my life where I can say no. And then I just kept working and working and working. But I remember when I heard that because it wasn't a conversation I was supposed to be a part of. It was something I was listening to and I was like, man, to live this life is the craziest thing. I said, I'm gonna work so much that my son is gonna have everything. And it happens in different ways, and it sounds like to me, the hard work you were doing was the thing that made you say, you know what, man, I'm not gonna be fifty k Danny got, I'm gonna be one hundred grand. Yeah right, because I'm gonna earn bonuses and I'm gonna make a living for me and my family.
00:19:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, now that's exactly it, man, because there was no it was just a work ethic at the time. It wasn't about it wasn't about the dollar. I work just enough to as long as I can eat train and have a roof over in my head. That's all I cared about in the moment. And you know, having a guy like Alli in my corner it was a big advantage. You know, I had a lot of lot of help, pull a lot of strings, make a lot of connections, build the network, and but yeah, here I am today.
00:19:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, you had a lot of interactions with I'll be during that time. What do you think he took the most from him? Because he's a guy that elevates the people around him. Yeah, first off, he told you to go to one thirty five.
00:19:47
Speaker 2: What was that? No, I think he tried to tell me, and I was like, I did all the bone Dexa scans at the PI and they're like, there's no.
00:19:54
Speaker 1: Way, Like, you're not a small guy.
00:19:56
Speaker 2: No, But I learned a lot just being around him, you know, the brother, just to seeing the team and how strong they are and how they bond. It was really cool to see. And then every fight week I somehow ended up being like his favorite guy to train with. His dad loved that I trained with him because I don't know if I was just easy and I've played j On bottom, but I was a safe and a good train.
00:20:18
Speaker 1: Safe and yeah, take care of you. Well, you don't run the risk of getting hurt with a guy like you because you're so good you know how to uh to uh train, especially when he's coulning.
00:20:28
Speaker 2: Wait. Yeah, and I mean, don't get me. I'm trying to do stuff and he's just that good too. But yeah, it's not there's no ego. I'm not trying to kill you and trying I was trying to win some rounds, but it's not it's.
00:20:41
Speaker 1: Not easy to do it too. Yeah, you spoke about your son, your wife Savannah. You guys been in high school.
00:20:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy.
00:20:49
Speaker 1: You know, most most high school sweetheart situations don't work out. Yeah, but for you it has. How important has she been in your journey?
00:21:00
Speaker 2: Man? It's she's everything. It's uh. We didn't start dating until after high school. We were like really good friends.
00:21:06
Speaker 1: But you know, wait, so did you do it? Did you do the friend turned boyfriend thing to her? Did you love bomb her from us from Afar? Did you love bomb her as a friend? And then eventually she didn't recognize you were like kind of creeping into her.
00:21:19
Speaker 2: I know, I don't know. Maybe I did, but maybe not. Her mom was the one. Her mom she's like that boy loves you, Like would always tell her that boy loves you, and I didn't really like maybe I did, but maybe she was just cool. Like she was like, we will sit on the bus together listening to a little wayne, you know, have her ear pods in and listen listen to her iPod.
00:21:39
Speaker 1: And so I'm pretty sure the kids, because kids, I mean they're like, oh, you two are baiting, and you guys, She's like, no, when every time your heart broke a little bit.
00:21:49
Speaker 2: She was always she was always with a guy I'm like and I mean, and I didn't like him, so maybe maybe there was a little something there. But yeah, I went to college. We were texting and talking and then one day her mom it's like, when I came back, she's like, you should just kiss him, And then really she her mom told her to kiss me, and then we kiss and then like a little spark and uh yeah. Then we were dating for a while, we got married. We've been married ten years now. She's been with me for every fight eleven amateur fights, twenty one or I don't even know how many, got a lot of forty seven fights.
00:22:24
Speaker 1: You said she's your rock. That relationship, how's that been for you? And honestly, picking a partner's tough, Like picking the right partner is tough. You go from a friendship to that romantic relationship. How quickly did you recognize this is the one, this is the woman I'm going to spend the rest of my life with.
00:22:51
Speaker 2: I knew pretty quickly, just because we already had a strong foundation and a great friendship. I just I remember praying just to find a wife and have a family, and like she was the one. Marriage isn't easy, you know, relationships aren't easy. Like we went through a lot of you know, ups and downs, especially during that season when I was working with all the and grinding, like she wasn't the top on my priority list. You know, I was like I had to I'm just thinking family security. I have to do whatever it takes, where like I neglected my marriage, and my marriage went through a rocky season, but again we we battled through that. We did whatever it takes to keep it alive, and now it's like stronger more than ever.
00:23:44
Speaker 1: How difficult was that time when the thing that's most important starts to feel like it's slipping away.
00:23:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was really difficult. And I'd say the biggest thing was like we didn't have God at the center of our marriage. And I think that that was the biggest thing, is in God at the center of her marriage, and then everything builds upon that, on that rock, Like she is my rock, but God is the rock and that's the foundation. And that wasn't We were both you know, I'm a man of faith. She she grew up you know her, you know, woman of faith, but like still wasn't like our foundation, and going through those seasons and rocky trials, realized like, okay, we need to build on something. And you know, it took a lot of it was finding community within our church, going to therapy, doing whatever it took. And we and then we put when we put our marriage first, everything else just got better, you know.
00:24:42
Speaker 1: And the kids, the kids. Now you have children, do you think call back to growing up in the situation you did? Did that make you adamant not to have the same type of situation as you had with your parents and have your kids have to grow up the same way that you did.
00:25:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just like just to be an example of a healthy marriage is like motivation enough. And again when I grew up like I wasn't you don't think no one tells you anything, Like I don't know what an idea of a healthy marriage even you.
00:25:21
Speaker 1: Don't even know what it did because you're like, what you live is normal because that's what you see.
00:25:25
Speaker 2: That was normal. Then when I look back and we talked about it, I was like, Okay, I went through a little there's a little trauma there, and we trauma bonded that way. You know, My wife, her mom and dad were separated. She had a step mom. We bonded like that. We'd talk, you know, talk shit about her step moms and like we bonded that way, Like I love my step mom. She's she's a great person.
00:25:49
Speaker 1: But all you just did, all you did was talk about it.
00:25:52
Speaker 2: But we did talk shit. But again, it's just it's what we knew at the time, and his way, we were trauma bonded it in a way.
00:26:01
Speaker 1: And that's funny, man. You know, one thing that is very difficult for a fighter is managing family relationships, being a father while being a fighter. I think, and to my detriment, I've had failed relationships because I was too selfish. Because the greatest athletes, the greatest athletes struggle in relationships because there's a selfishness with wearing that championship.
00:26:38
Speaker 2: Right.
00:26:38
Speaker 1: So I have a whole bunch of gold belts at my house, right, But on the way, you just leave people because your goals are too singular. I was talking to Tom Brady. He struggled with that himself. Right, how do you balance being a father and a fighter. And if you are to be asked, then if you'd have been more selfish, you'd be the world champion, or if you be the guy you are today, the great father, the great husband, you have, the career you are where you're a top ten guy, but you never reached that belt. What are you choosing?
00:27:20
Speaker 2: So it's funny. I was just talking about this with someone, and I think we're just talking about my last fight, and it's like, I wouldn't trade what I have for anything. I wouldn't trade my wife and kids, my relationship with my wife and kids for a win and extra hundred grand you know what I mean? That being said, it's like I feel like my wife understands me enough. She knows she's a great team player too. She understands when I shift into camp modes and when I need to be more selfish than not, and she's very supportive in that role. But I also just my own human nature, having that little bit of like tear of like being selfish almost harms me more than just being you know what. I don't even know how to explain it. It's like there's an internal battle, an internal struggle when I am maybe being as selfish as I should be.
00:28:23
Speaker 3: When you're not, or when you are when I am when I am.
00:28:28
Speaker 1: It hurts you to be that person, even though ultimately it moves you closer to ultimately your goal of the success inside octagon.
00:28:37
Speaker 2: But does it that's the question? Does it really?
00:28:40
Speaker 1: I always wonder to myself like, could I have been less? Could I have been more present?
00:28:49
Speaker 2: Yeah?
00:28:49
Speaker 1: And still one eight title fights?
00:28:53
Speaker 2: Yeah?
00:28:54
Speaker 1: And every time I ask that question, I don't know that I don't know that the answer is is yes. I've I feel like every single workout needed to happen, every single thing needed to happen. I don't know I'm really asking you because I don't know.
00:29:10
Speaker 2: I can tell you this. I've gone into every single fight with no stone unturned. I've done everything that I'm supposed to do as a professional athlete, as far as what I sleep, what I eat, what I sleep, what I put in my body, how I recover, getting in the hours of training, getting whatever I need to make my mind sharp and strong and healthy, and having the bonding. I don't even know how I could be better, Like there was there would be no way unless I had Like, there's really no way for me to be better. I live the life as a champion. It doesn't always work for the results.
00:29:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, most of us do change when we have kids. When I had my son, I was barely starting right. I was thirty. My son's fifteen though forty six years old. I was thirty two when I had my son. And while they say it changes the fighter, I was able to and again. And I don't know if it sounds bad or comes off as wrong, but even during fight week, I would separate them from me in everything that I was doing, from staying in separate hotel rooms. If I was in San Jose, I would stay in a hotel and not home. How much did you change when you started to have kids.
00:30:33
Speaker 2: I would say the only thing that changed was just being a little bit smarter financially. Yeah, was making investments. Find like even being in the UFC, I can get I can go from fight to fight and fight to fight and be broke. Yeah, I'm out living a lavish lifestyle. I'm just buying good quality food and literally I say, I'm not buying chains or jewelries or cars or anything. I bought a house at one point.
00:31:00
Speaker 1: But that's what you're supposed to do.
00:31:02
Speaker 2: We're supposed to do. But I was still I was.
00:31:04
Speaker 3: Like, how am I not, you know, not more secure?
00:31:08
Speaker 2: So going into the Damon Jackson fight. I was on a three fight losing streak. I had one mortgage. My fight was in January, Christmas was coming up. I had one mortgage payment left in my bank in my bank account. And fighting is not guaranteed, Like what if he doesn't even make what if he tears the shit and we don't even fight, then I don't get paid, and then I don't I lose my house. Like parents were at my parents and family and friends were asking us, like what do the kids want for Christmas? And I was like, just send us money and we will buy them whatever they want on our credit cards. And after I fight, I'll pay it all back. But that's where we were going into that fight. And I'm top fifteen, Yeah, top fifteen, maybe top ten and knockout Damon Jackson. Get a you know show when got a bonus? Immediately met with a financial advisor, and I interviewed four or five different ones and picked one and started making smart decisions of how to manage my money better and set up and you know, now I got a good ness and good investments that I'll never have to worry again. But it was a scary place to be going into a fight three fight. Losing streak could lose my job, but also gave me a lot of freedom to go in there and just say fit and like be there.
00:32:31
Speaker 1: Which leads to the to the to the uh that nickname right? Fifty k? Yeah, hundred grand though, yeah, that all is from bonuses? Like what made Why did you call it?
00:32:42
Speaker 2: Why?
00:32:43
Speaker 1: Why? Why? Fifty k?
00:32:44
Speaker 2: Egay?
00:32:45
Speaker 1: Was that a name before you want a bonus? Or is that from the bonuses?
00:32:48
Speaker 2: So it was my first bonus. I fought Danny Henry in London and got the fifty k bonus first round.
00:32:55
Speaker 1: How did that money feel when you get it?
00:32:57
Speaker 2: It felt great? That was my down payment. I got a I bet Ali too. I told him I wanted to buy a gold chain. Kamara Usman was in the car. We're all talking and I was like, Ali, like, I want to buy a gold chain. He's like, brother, you need to buy a house. I'm like, I'll buy a house and a gold chain. I just want a gold chain. And he's like, I'll make you a deal. If you finish this guy, I'll buy a gold chain. And then I finished him. I hit him up. He tried to buy me a little baby, like a little now I want.
00:33:22
Speaker 1: A big one.
00:33:23
Speaker 2: No, I was like, give me that rope. I want that big rope right there. So I got my rope. I got the down payment for my house. That felt good. But yeah, the day I walked in the gym, my buddy Boston Salmon started calling me fifty k Ega and I was like, that kind of flows and I just took it and adopted it.
00:33:39
Speaker 1: You know, I fought. I was in a Strikeforce Challenges series, and I was making ten thousand dollars every time I fought. The very first time I made ten grand, I just come off the Olympic team. I spent the money so fast that I couldn't even pay my managers the twenty percent. I owed him the two thousand dollars. Then I made forty grand. Once I started going and eating at Sizzler. I started going and eating a Sizzler. In two months, I was gonna go. This was in June twenty eleven. September twenty eleven. I was gonna fight Bigfoot Silver and I probably had like five grand left. I had spent all the money. It was going crazy, but I was buying Sizzler and buying toys from my kids. I was doing all these crazy things. It didn't seem like I was spending a lot, but every little bit was chipping away at what I had. Then eventually I thought bigfoot silver and that was the first time I made good money. And then ever since it's kind of been all systems go. But it is interesting how so many struggle like that. But like you said, you've now made smart decisions. It's kind of crazy, right, And I'm not a guy that ever was shipped on the UFC, but it's kind of crazy that you could be in that situation right when you're fighting at the level that you were fighting and not having that level of security.
00:35:00
Speaker 2: We one day randomly took the top one hundred baseball players. Yeah, and we're looking at We're like, okay, if I'm top fifteen in the world, top fifteen in the world over eight weight classes, whatever the fifteen times eight is put me on that list. Let's just say I'm the very last one. What's that guy that MLB player make? It was like something crazy like twenty eight million dollars a year. Yeah, I'm like, it's just I don't know, it's hard, and I the way to approach it is with like there's I can't change that myself, so I'm very grateful. But when I get in that mode of thinking, it causes a lot of resentment in my heart, and I don't think that's healthy. It can be used to drive you and motivate you, but like that, resentment can easily overtake you and leak into other areas of your life. So I really try not to dwell on the fact that I should be and could be making more money, because I mean, in comparison to what the UFC fighters are making, I make decent money.
00:36:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, and in comparison to what most people in the world make, right.
00:36:23
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:36:24
Speaker 1: You know, earlier I was talking about total wireless and I said, that's total power move, right. I kind of want to get into power moves, right, So your power move it has to be that moment UFC three zero three, you take the Diego Lopez fight. Then, I don't know that there's ever been a fighter that's taking a fight on four hours notice. Were you really getting a massage when that call came in? You were getting a massage? How's that happened?
00:36:53
Speaker 2: Though? So it's Saturday, right end of the week. I'm recovering. I was training, I trained twice. Day I trained, I was in the sauna, I was going home. It's it's like three four pm. I was like, okay, I'm going to get a massage before the fights. And I had like my phone was on do not to serve. They went up, they called my phone a hunter like a bunch of times. They ended up finding my calling my wife.
00:37:19
Speaker 1: Really.
00:37:19
Speaker 2: My wife came upstairs and I was like, hey, you know, Ali's calling. Ali's calling me. I'm like, I was like, he probably just wants like an invoice or something like a contact. I was like, I'll call him back. She's like it seems urgent. So I looked at my phone. I saw a hunter called me. Ali called me, so I called uh, I think I don't know. I called Ali back first, I was like, what's going on? He's like, brother, how are you doing. I was like, I'm getting a massage right now. He's like something. He's like the comine event comine event fell out? Would you can you fight Diego Lopez? So I'm thinking, like they're going to rebook it. I'm like, yeah, cool. Like when he's like tonight, now are you serious? Like how is that even possible? Like the winds the winds were yesterday. Yeah, and so like honestly, like I didn't even think it would happen. So I just like, I'll call the bluff, you know, yeah, I'll do.
00:38:18
Speaker 1: But I would ask for my money or something.
00:38:20
Speaker 2: I got a new contract, I got all my It worked out very good in my favor. I got good money, got all my money guaranteed. So there was like I called Eric, same thing. I was like, hey, Eric, there's a good chance for fighting. He's like, cool win. I'm like, tonight is oh yeah.
00:38:36
Speaker 1: I was.
00:38:37
Speaker 2: He's like what do you What do I need? I was like, go to the gym and grab my cup because my cup's there in my locker Jesus out of my mouthpiece. I was like, cup of mouthpiece, that's all you need. Right, Yeah. So we go boom talking to Hunter, talking to all Leid. They're asking me what I weigh. I'm like, I don't. I don't even know. I think, I said. I was like I think I was like one sixty five this morning, So I don't even know what I weighed. They made a contract, so I didn't even know I had to weigh in. So they're like, all right, it's gonna happen. So now I'm scrambling. I'm like, what do I do? Like, I better start eating, putting some fuel on my body. So I'm eating, I'm turned on my espresso machine, I'm getting some caffeine. Go to the arena. I'm like pounding water because I was like I should be hydrated.
00:39:18
Speaker 1: What are you thinking when you get to that arena though, Like this guy, your mind's got to be spinning because Diego Lopez is dangerous.
00:39:26
Speaker 2: It is dangerous, but I was like it was a It was just a cool like moment.
00:39:31
Speaker 1: Could you imagine, Like did you ever think like I'm about to make history? Like this is about to be when because I remember when we're on teep we're calling fights. Yeah, all of a sudden in our ear to producers go, dude, We're about to break the craziest story of all time. They're like, just listen to John and and it does it because they want to hear Rogan and nice reaction, so they we both lose it, Like this is one of the craziest moments I've ever seen in the sport. Were you aware that you were like making history?
00:39:58
Speaker 2: I kind of I kind of knew I would, and I was, and that was a big factor of it too, because in order to get respect in this sport, it's like you go on a crazy run when a title win two titles, like that's that's almost how you get known. Like I can go on cool wind shrieks, you know, have some amazing knockouts, and then just be forgotten. And I needed to do something that was like that would put my name in the history books and earned me that respect. And it did. And that's why I was a no brainer for me. It was a win win. I didn't. I felt in decent shape. I felt pretty good. I was like, you know what, I'll go in there and let's wing it. There's no game plan. It's ah, but yeah. I walked in. I walked in the arena. I'm like, there's Dana, there's Jelly Roll, there's Mark Wahlberg, all on what the heck? And then they took me to a scale. They're like, you got a wayh in. I was like, oh, I actually got away in. I was like, let me go pee real quick, and I came back now one sixty five Jesus lie about my weight. Yeah, because like they actually made a real contract. I don't know what would have happened. If I missed way, I would have looked stupid.
00:41:08
Speaker 1: They would have figured out a way to make your fight, is what would have happened? Ye to think about that, that's what was gonna happen. You know, that was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. And I'm telling you, man, like we've had some insane moments, and I am thankful to you for doing that and making that moment. But lately in your career, obviously, as we all, you know, one of the things we don't get in fighting is uh, George Saint Pierre's is one of the rare ones. Kabib was one of the rare ones. Generally, as your fight goes, career goes longer, things start to go a little sideways. You've been incredibly active lately, fought all the best guys. When you look back on your career, is there anything you would have done differently, Like when you think about it, like, man, maybe I shouldn't have done this one, maybe I shouldn't have done this, Like what could you have changed Dan to you know, because like you said, you know, you wouldn't change your career for the family. But ultimately that championship goal escaped you.
00:42:09
Speaker 2: I think maybe saying no. I've always said yes to everything, and especially when I was on a six five win streak, I got the call again to fight short I fought short notice. It was COVID. I fought Edson Barbozon too on two weeks notice. And I was on the couch and not really training, and they're like, does anyone want to fight? And I was like, oh, you know, I'll fight. A world's going end, I'll fight. They're like Edson Barbosa two weeks and this. I looked at his instagram. He's like shredded and been training trying to get a fight, and I was like, oh, like, that's like the scariest guy you can draw. And then I thought Edson out of pure fear. That was a crazy fight and it was close split decision. And then they called me again. They're like Calvin Cator main event, so I might because Frank Jegar fell out of that fight somehow, I was like, probably shouldn't have jumped in it again right away. I wouldn't even not really have a camp going into that one. Had three or four weeks going into that one, and you know, just the ability to just say no sometimes and like, I don't think would have hurt me, but yeah, I felt like I was just I was on I was on a wind streak. I'll just keep it going. You gotta ride the momentum and ride the roller coaster.
00:43:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes saying no goes a long way. Have a lot of things right, not just fighting, not just career, but just in life. In your division, the champion is an older guy, Alexander Volkanowski. Does that give you? Does that is that encouraging? Knowing that he went through his trials and tribulations, right, he lost two fights in row, got knocked out two fights in a row, and now he's the champ again. And speaking of Olk, like, do you anticipate a long title reign for him? Because he just continues to like set the standard in the bar in this weight class.
00:44:05
Speaker 2: Man, he's so good, one of the greatest to ever do it. Do I think he's gonna have a long title run? It's hard to say because.
00:44:14
Speaker 1: He who do you think gets him?
00:44:17
Speaker 2: I don't even know. But he does bring up retirement.
00:44:20
Speaker 1: A lot, he does, and he does that.
00:44:24
Speaker 2: Would be the only concern. But he looks great. He goes up who do I think gets some. I mean, there's a lot of killers coming up right now. They got Larn Larn Murphy.
00:44:41
Speaker 1: He seems to be calling out those guys too. He wants Algemy. No, yeah, he calls out the hardest fight.
00:44:47
Speaker 2: He does, yeah, and he means it. And again, I mean, anyone can be beaten with the right plan, the right showing up on the right night. But it's you never know. Man, this is such a crazy sport.
00:45:03
Speaker 1: As we start to turn the turn the corner and uh and get into the end of this interview, I got some quick hitters for you, Max Holloway, Charles O Lavera, and who wins n.
00:45:12
Speaker 2: Y Oh dude, I'm going Max Holloway.
00:45:17
Speaker 1: Is that just because he's from Hawaii?
00:45:20
Speaker 2: This part? I mean, yeah, I'm a little biased. I like Charles too, even though every time I fought in a card with him he took the bonus from me. He's uh. I just think Max is the guy right now. He's just so good and he's been on top, He's been in high level championship fights. He is the BMF and is his He's just so good.
00:45:41
Speaker 1: Do you guys have any did you guys have you had much interactions with Max as a guy from Hawaii. You know, you guys trained together or anything over time.
00:45:47
Speaker 2: We when he just got in the UFC, or he was four, and oh we got in the UFC. I was we were training together and I think maybe three four fights before I moved to Vegas. But yeah, Max is my boy.
00:46:03
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, So you've been doing this for a while now decade, right, long time to be fighting, to be fighting the best in the world. So today, like, what do you What do you fight for today? When it seems like, you know, you've accomplished quite a bit. You've accomplished quite a bit, you have made money, You've secured your family, you have your house. That kid that came here with twenty seven dollars is like a person of the past. Yeah, but what do you fight for today?
00:46:35
Speaker 2: I fight for myself, man, Like I still love this. I love showing up. I love the process. I love the process of getting better and mainly just proving to myself that I can still do great things. The thrill of going out and walking out and not knowing what's going to happen, but doing everything to prepare for what you want to happen. And I just love it. Man. I'm still in the game. How much longer do I want to do? I don't know. I just I'm just right in the wave, man, and again what I just suffered from, and the ACL and the I. It's just like one more part of the story to have something to fight and come back from and and show up and do something great again. So I don't. I just love it, man, that's all it is. It's just a love for the game.
00:47:19
Speaker 1: It's like a drug that you can't ever replace. I'm telling you, bro, it is. That walk to the octagon is like nothing you could ever feel. Hey, there's not a woman's kiss that's better. There's not anything in the world, right, the sweetest, greatest thing a man could think of. Nothing matches standing in that octagon.
00:47:39
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
00:47:40
Speaker 1: It's crazy. Yeah, I mean, it's just it's the one thing you miss whenever it's over.
00:47:45
Speaker 2: So I know there will be a time, you know, when I have to have to hang it up. But it's just it's.
00:47:51
Speaker 3: Not I'm thirty four, Yeah, you're young still, and I take.
00:47:57
Speaker 2: Care of myself. This is probably the first real injury I've ever had. I don't, I haven't really suffered any injuries or surgeries, So I don't know, man, just we'll see, We'll see what happens.
00:48:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, tremendous, tremendous, hey, man, to grow up you know the way you did Hawaii, go through the ups and the downs and and all the things that have formed into the fight you are today. Trust me, you're smart. So you've learned from every single lesson and it shows not only inside the octagon, but in the man that you've become, the husband you've become, the father you've become. So congratulations wrote a job well done, Dan, I promise you job well done, man. Not everybody does it and the way that you've done it, Guys, that's Danny Gay. He's one of the toughest guys in the featherweight division and uh, he's one of the best dudes. And we're so happy to have him sit down with me for another episode of The Daniel Cormier Show. Until next time, guys, Peace,
Speaker 1: What's up? Guys. Welcome to another episode of the Daniel Cormier Show. Today's episode is brought to you by Total Wireless, the official wireless provider of UFC in your corner with unlimited five GE data that will not slow you down. Guys, that is a total power move and the guy I'm talking to you today Total power move join by one of the toughest featherweights in the UFC. This is a guy that will literally fight anyone anytime. Dan's had twenty one fights in the UFC. Hawaii Raised San Clemente Bourne Dan one hundred k E Gay, Dan Gay, my man, Thanks for joining me, Bro. I appreciate you popping into the show. So obviously you and I have sat down before for interviews to talk all those other things, but on this show we try to get a little deeper, talk a little longer, get to know Dany Gay more than just the fighter, but everything else that makes you such a great human being and a great person. But fought a couple of weeks ago, how's life like? How's everything going for you right now? How's the last couple of weeks been? After? After the fight obviously didn't go away that you wanted to and yeah, you tore your ACL.
00:01:13
Speaker 2: Yeah I tore my ACL. It's unfortunate. Fractured orbital. God, it's a crazy It's what do we do? Man? I mean, obviously you can never plan for things like that. It was just a freak accident. He kicked, I kicked the same time, snapped, and what do you do? You just you gotta fight through it. Spinning kick at the end. Didn't see it fracture my orbital. Four or five seconds left in the fight, I felt, okay. I was definitely hurt, Like the shot hurt me. I covered myself. Ref stopped the fight, and but what are you gonna do? I wasn't gonna fight the ref about it. Definitely would have had some adversity to overcome had we gone back to the corner. But that's just the way it went, you know. And then it's funny. We we actually went home, both my kids, my wife, we're all sick, just bad coming out of both ends. And I went immediately into caretaker mode. So I didn't even have time to like mourn my own loss or like feel sorry for myself. So I just went straight into like dad mode, caretaker husband, And here we are ten days later, I'm like, what do I what am I going to cry now? Like, I don't know, man, It's just I'm blessed. I'm very fortunate to even had twenty one fights in the UFC. Is crazy when I look back at it. I've had a you know, a great career so far, a lot of ups and downs, battled a lot of adversity and always came through on top. So it's just anough, you know, It's just part of the story what I'm going through now. It's just something for me to come back from and be better from. And we'll see what happens.
00:02:47
Speaker 1: We'll talk a little more about the career in the fight. But let's kind of go back. Born in San Clemente. But how do you end up in how well, ah, the White holli Eva, Holly Eva. But you're born in Sant Clemente. How you how you end up in Halla Eva?
00:03:04
Speaker 2: Crazy? Honestly. I mean my dad, my mom and dad were born you know, they met in Dana Point and they worked together.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: Which is beautiful. By the way.
00:03:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I loved it out there. I grew up a little bit out there. Most of my life, you know, I spent growing up in Hawaii. But my mom and dad were separated at you know, when I was not even one years old, so I moved. It's crazy. My mom was so my dad was always deployed moving. You know, he's the Navy Seals, so he was always gone. And if I wasn't with my dad, I was with my mom. And then my mom would be working two three jobs, so I would be getting watched by random people. And like then my mom went had a couple years where she was in and out of jail, and I would just move. I would be living with my auntie, be living with my dad, be living with my grandma. So I moved a lot. And I guess that's created that just ability to adapt.
00:03:59
Speaker 1: Would you you're when you're your family? Your parents were separated, but then your mom and dad both moved back to Hawaii. Your dad was in the military there, so they all you guys all or did they separate when you got back to Hawaii?
00:04:14
Speaker 2: So no, they separated beforehand. My dad initially, yeah, he got the call, Hey, we're going to get the stationed Hawaii Pearl Harbor STV T one. He was the command master chief over there. I uh, and I and I was like, sick, I want to move to Hawaii. I love skating, I love surfing. And I grew up, you know, I went to you know, uh intermediate school, middle school, and then all of high school there. And my mom moved there because I was there. She wanted to be closer to Yes, and so my mom and they were both living in Hawaii on a small island. But for while I was in Hawaii, I was living with my dad completely. He was remarried. You know, I have a half brother, half sister. Yes, crazy, you that being tough for you, It was tough, But I didn't. I didn't even know what tough was. I was just life. Like no one ever put that word or verbiage in my ear. So I thought, that's just kind of normal and part of life. I was an only child up to when I was twelve. I didn't you know, I didn't point fingers or anyone or blame anyone, you know. I my dad implemented a lot of structure. Like I was always afraid of my dad. Like I didn't want to get bad grades. And my dad never beat me, but like he could just look at me a certain way, I'd be like afraid and I didn't want to disappoint where my mom, I had a little bit more free will, more of a street kid. I could run around, you know, ten o'clock at night, skating down the streets, and you know, no one's calling me asking me to check in. So I got a lot of streets smart and a lot of you know, knowledge from that side. Then I got a lot of structure and discipline from my dad. And I don't know, man, it's uh, my dad gets a lot of credit for for my fighting style and my discipline and my hard work. But I think I get a lot of my mom should get some credit to just for like the craziness and the free will and the free spirit. So I got a little little blend there. Yeah.
00:06:12
Speaker 1: Well, when you're when you're growing up, like you said, going between places family, that's that island community, right Like there there's not many places in the world where the kid can be uh, you know, from the ups and the downs in the in uh finding that comfort in the community. When you think back to growing up on that island, that small island, what do you remember the most.
00:06:39
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's a reason I call Hawaii home. You know, it's like the first place I moved that, I feel like they adopted me, you know, they adopted me as part of the cultures, part of the community. Granted, you know, I got in fights. There's a lot of bullies, a lot of you know, just punks out there, and I had to I feel like, growing up in Hawaii, the only way to really like get your respect is just to like defend yourself and fight back. No one. No one's pulling weapons or guns or knives. It's all you know, street fights. And I got in a few fights here and there just to I don't know, you call it bowling or not. But then eventually I got into martial arts, started training and then I didn't really get in much trouble after that. Yeah.
00:07:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think we all have those those things, but it is a community that raises most people. I remember growing up in Lafayette, and uh, we always had other kids around at my house, but I think it allowed for us to play more. We were more active outside. We spent a lot of time doing things that you that kids today don't necessarily do. Kids are inside, right, but having that was was very important. Now you speak about the fighting and fighting to defend yourself as a young kid, it becomes martial arts. And what age did mars become a part of your life. I'm talking jiu jitsu first, wrestling second. But when did you start to think man martial arts could be something that I want to try and pursue.
00:08:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I started training jiu jitsu and one of my buddy's backyards we would Uh. His dad was a purple belt. He fought MMA. He was really smart though. He just had us drill arm bars and triangles like drill back like five hundred.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Was he an MMA guy?
00:08:27
Speaker 2: Was he?
00:08:28
Speaker 1: Was? He a fighter?
00:08:29
Speaker 2: Yeah? Early MMA fighter. His name was Gary Fredez. I trained with my friend Alika and then you know, I we we would go to like a couple of academies that had like sun Sibi jiu jitsu that ended up becoming my jiu jitsu academy growing up on the North Shore. And I honestly so my dad was a really good wrestler in California, Like he was a runner up and then he wrestled in Oregon for the Ducks. He's a really good wrestler Greco, just really good. But his mom pushed I'm so hard to wrestle that he I didn't even know he wrestled. He never pushed me into wrestling until one day I was a I don't want to wrestle. I never wanted to wrestle, honestly, the honest truth is I just didn't want to wear a singlet. I didn't want to like my nuts like I didn't want to.
00:09:16
Speaker 1: You don't want your nuts out there?
00:09:18
Speaker 2: No, I didn't want that.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: And they ride up do they go all up? And your ship man Back in the day too, Back in the day they got long singleists. Now back in the day they were kind of short, looked real bad.
00:09:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, I jumped In my junior year, I started wrestling uh play six in States. My senior year, I lost an overtime in the semis lost every matchups Slide yep, semi slide. Got wrestled two years at Wartburg D three school. Learned a lot like about wrestling, just being in a high level room, and but I also was very honest. I was like, I'm probably not gonna went in caa title like these kids have been wrestling since they're four years old. Like I just maybe with the mindset I have today, maybe I could have done something great. But I at the time, I just was like, this isn't it for me? But I felt like I got enough wrestling to apply it to MMA. Yeah, And I went back during like semesters and I did a couple of amateur MMA fights back home in Hawaii.
00:10:23
Speaker 1: You already knew when you were in college, you already knew that MMA was something you were going to do.
00:10:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, just because you know, we grow. I think Bjpenn was champion at the time, So that gave a Hawaii kid hope.
00:10:35
Speaker 1: That was also what I was going to say to you next, like when you're in Hawaii, it's gotta be Bjpinn back then. I mean, who are you watching Bjpenn all those Hawaiian fighters early? I mean even guys like Cabbage. We're just around like Hawaiian guys that were really, uh, setting the tone for what MMA was. And you guys are down there in Hawaii watching this, Like what do you think watching a guy like b J Pinn essentially rule the world?
00:11:04
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean he was, in my opinion, like he was the greatest at that time, like knowing like just his ability, his fight IQ, his ability, like his dexterity. He was just so good and dominating and I think it just gave a lot of Hawaii kids hope, and fighting is just kind of part of the culture. So I kind of always knew I wanted to fight. We grew up watching, you know, watching the UFC in the house, just watching all the old time guys, go go, get after it, and it was just I knew it was something I wanted to do. Your Rya Faber was coming up, I was like watching your Rye Faber. I was like seeing the little guys, the smaller guys. I was like, Okay, maybe I can do this. So I but I never really trained striking or anything till after wrestling, after college and then.
00:11:48
Speaker 1: But that's it's kind of what you know, like the power is one of the things that you're known for, but you didn't do that until later.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: No, yeah, no, I don't. I don't know where that came from.
00:11:58
Speaker 1: Where did it come from?
00:11:59
Speaker 2: I don't know. The first day I stepped into extreme couture, like I didn't really even know how to throw a punch, and Ray Cepho was holding pads for me. He's like, man, you hit, you hit like a middleweight, You hit like a like like He's like, you have some something in your hands, and like I thought people were just telling me this to hype me up, but then like I heard it from like different coaches all around the continent telling me the same thing. And then I just started trying to buy into that and learning and like learning the art, and I fell in love with that. Still have all the wrestling and jiu jitsu on my black belt in jiu jitsu. Decent wrestler, But I don't know, man, it just started. You knock a couple of guys out and then you're like, maybe I could just do this. It's fun.
00:12:42
Speaker 1: I remember when you started coming to Aka to training with this, but you were working with Ali abdella Ziz, and it seemed like you were more of an apprentice to become a manager, right, And then all of a sudden you were on the mats all the time, and I was like, Yo, this dude is good, Like you were good. Was was that the plan was the way to go into management or were you just training to fight? But it seemed like you're almost like in a printice almost.
00:13:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. So that was a crazy time in my life, just being on the road with Ali and you know, Ali, it's just like all over the place, but high, very high, successful manager. But adhd to the to the extremist. And when I moved to Vegas, I had no money. I was sleeping on you know, talking about guys coming up. I was watching Brad Brad when I was in college. Brad Tavars was on The Ultimate Fighter. And when I made the move, Brad always I didn't really know him that well, but we got to know each other. We started. I trained at the MMA gym. He came up in and Hawaii. He was already out here in Vegas, and he offered me to come out and sleep on his couch. I had no money. I came here with twenty seven dollars. I bought a plane ticket and I was working. I was saving up money and then working in construction, you just could go weeks without work. I spent all my money that I saved up. The day came from my plane ticket and I had twenty seven bucks. So I was like, screw, I'm jumping on the plane. I slept on Brad's couch and he took care of me for a little bit, like I helped out, did dishes, cleaned up, and He's like, I knew I needed to work and provide somehow, and he's like, he's like, hey, do you want to go to dinner with my manager? And I didn't really know all the I know he was promoting a little bit with the World Series of Fighting, and I was like, oh, cool, it could be a good opportunity to get into like a show or something, just like put my face out there. And we were at dinner and I kind of got to know him and he's looking for an assistant because his assistant went on The Ultimate Fighter, and I was like, me and my boy Poony were like fighting over the job, and I ended up getting the job, and like within one week, I was already applying at other jobs. I was like, screw, I don't want to do this job. I don't want to be around this guy. This is crazy, Like I can't handle this. And I did that. I was two and one as a pro. I did the all the way up to like ten twelve fights into my UFC career. Yeah, I remember, I thought I was gonna get to the USC and be like see you and then yeah, I just didn't work like that.
00:15:12
Speaker 1: But because you're still not making that much money, you know, once you get there.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not making that much money, there was still a lot of benefit you know for me working there, Like I got to you know, train with could be got brought into his camp, train with guys like Islam, train with guys like Frank Jeger, you know, travel wherever he went, worked with high level coaches, and I just picked everyone's brain. But I was always the guy, like I was carrying. I was the guy carrying the guys that are fighting for the title, was carrying their grocery bags and carrying their backs.
00:15:44
Speaker 1: I remember that.
00:15:46
Speaker 2: I wanted to be in that position, and I was like.
00:15:48
Speaker 1: How motivating is that for you? Though, right to like say, man, this is my way, right. I know that I have to do these things right now, but ultimately I want to be the guy.
00:15:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, has the guy exactly? That's I mean, that's what it was, and that's what drove me. Maybe that fueled my six fight wind streak in the UFC. I was just like I was so hungry and fighting was my only, uh way to like express that. I felt like it was almost like captivity, you know, like I'm I'm in this, I'm bro I wasn't working in an office, I'll lease works from bed. I'm sitting on the ground and I just want to be that. I wanted to be the guy. I wanted to be there so bad.
00:16:34
Speaker 3: And then.
00:16:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, it drove me. It drove me really far. And then I ended up having a family, you know, having a kid. My wife had my kid.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: And when you had your kid, is that when you stopped working?
00:16:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I took time, I took leave. I was like, listen, I need to be there for my I was there. I would I would wake up, train or do whatever. Second I'm done, I'm still sweating. Now I'm working, and I'm like, it's practice is at three thirty is three twenty five, We're driving to practice, Texan doing whatever for all the calls on the mat, like, no time to warm up, I'm on the mat. Second I'm off the mat, boom, sweating back to work like that was my life.
00:17:13
Speaker 1: That's but that's probably because you're who you are, right, so you want to do a great job. Yeah, yeah, right, it's not because it's because you know, hey man, this is what I'm doing right now for work. I want to be good at it. So you were so locked in. But that but that I remember for me, I remember one time you only tell you my moment that I knew sure, And then when you say I was carrying the bags and doing all that stuff. I remember one time Kane Velaska has had an appearance and it was twenty five thousand dollars and I was living in a seven hundred and fifty square foot apartment in San Jose. I was paying thirteen hundred bucks a month. I had a six month old baby, and Kane was not gonna do it. He was like, I don't really want to go anywhere for twenty five grand. And I just remember thinking to myself, if I ever have the opportunity to make twenty five thousand dollars for a little bit of time on an appearance, I'm absolutely gonna do it. But then I watched him value himself so much that eventually they gave him more, and I was like, man, I need to get to a point where I require them to give me more, where I am at a point in my life where I can say no. And then I just kept working and working and working. But I remember when I heard that because it wasn't a conversation I was supposed to be a part of. It was something I was listening to and I was like, man, to live this life is the craziest thing. I said, I'm gonna work so much that my son is gonna have everything. And it happens in different ways, and it sounds like to me, the hard work you were doing was the thing that made you say, you know what, man, I'm not gonna be fifty k Danny got, I'm gonna be one hundred grand. Yeah right, because I'm gonna earn bonuses and I'm gonna make a living for me and my family.
00:19:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, now that's exactly it, man, because there was no it was just a work ethic at the time. It wasn't about it wasn't about the dollar. I work just enough to as long as I can eat train and have a roof over in my head. That's all I cared about in the moment. And you know, having a guy like Alli in my corner it was a big advantage. You know, I had a lot of lot of help, pull a lot of strings, make a lot of connections, build the network, and but yeah, here I am today.
00:19:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, you had a lot of interactions with I'll be during that time. What do you think he took the most from him? Because he's a guy that elevates the people around him. Yeah, first off, he told you to go to one thirty five.
00:19:47
Speaker 2: What was that? No, I think he tried to tell me, and I was like, I did all the bone Dexa scans at the PI and they're like, there's no.
00:19:54
Speaker 1: Way, Like, you're not a small guy.
00:19:56
Speaker 2: No, But I learned a lot just being around him, you know, the brother, just to seeing the team and how strong they are and how they bond. It was really cool to see. And then every fight week I somehow ended up being like his favorite guy to train with. His dad loved that I trained with him because I don't know if I was just easy and I've played j On bottom, but I was a safe and a good train.
00:20:18
Speaker 1: Safe and yeah, take care of you. Well, you don't run the risk of getting hurt with a guy like you because you're so good you know how to uh to uh train, especially when he's coulning.
00:20:28
Speaker 2: Wait. Yeah, and I mean, don't get me. I'm trying to do stuff and he's just that good too. But yeah, it's not there's no ego. I'm not trying to kill you and trying I was trying to win some rounds, but it's not it's.
00:20:41
Speaker 1: Not easy to do it too. Yeah, you spoke about your son, your wife Savannah. You guys been in high school.
00:20:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy.
00:20:49
Speaker 1: You know, most most high school sweetheart situations don't work out. Yeah, but for you it has. How important has she been in your journey?
00:21:00
Speaker 2: Man? It's she's everything. It's uh. We didn't start dating until after high school. We were like really good friends.
00:21:06
Speaker 1: But you know, wait, so did you do it? Did you do the friend turned boyfriend thing to her? Did you love bomb her from us from Afar? Did you love bomb her as a friend? And then eventually she didn't recognize you were like kind of creeping into her.
00:21:19
Speaker 2: I know, I don't know. Maybe I did, but maybe not. Her mom was the one. Her mom she's like that boy loves you, Like would always tell her that boy loves you, and I didn't really like maybe I did, but maybe she was just cool. Like she was like, we will sit on the bus together listening to a little wayne, you know, have her ear pods in and listen listen to her iPod.
00:21:39
Speaker 1: And so I'm pretty sure the kids, because kids, I mean they're like, oh, you two are baiting, and you guys, She's like, no, when every time your heart broke a little bit.
00:21:49
Speaker 2: She was always she was always with a guy I'm like and I mean, and I didn't like him, so maybe maybe there was a little something there. But yeah, I went to college. We were texting and talking and then one day her mom it's like, when I came back, she's like, you should just kiss him, And then really she her mom told her to kiss me, and then we kiss and then like a little spark and uh yeah. Then we were dating for a while, we got married. We've been married ten years now. She's been with me for every fight eleven amateur fights, twenty one or I don't even know how many, got a lot of forty seven fights.
00:22:24
Speaker 1: You said she's your rock. That relationship, how's that been for you? And honestly, picking a partner's tough, Like picking the right partner is tough. You go from a friendship to that romantic relationship. How quickly did you recognize this is the one, this is the woman I'm going to spend the rest of my life with.
00:22:51
Speaker 2: I knew pretty quickly, just because we already had a strong foundation and a great friendship. I just I remember praying just to find a wife and have a family, and like she was the one. Marriage isn't easy, you know, relationships aren't easy. Like we went through a lot of you know, ups and downs, especially during that season when I was working with all the and grinding, like she wasn't the top on my priority list. You know, I was like I had to I'm just thinking family security. I have to do whatever it takes, where like I neglected my marriage, and my marriage went through a rocky season, but again we we battled through that. We did whatever it takes to keep it alive, and now it's like stronger more than ever.
00:23:44
Speaker 1: How difficult was that time when the thing that's most important starts to feel like it's slipping away.
00:23:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was really difficult. And I'd say the biggest thing was like we didn't have God at the center of our marriage. And I think that that was the biggest thing, is in God at the center of her marriage, and then everything builds upon that, on that rock, Like she is my rock, but God is the rock and that's the foundation. And that wasn't We were both you know, I'm a man of faith. She she grew up you know her, you know, woman of faith, but like still wasn't like our foundation, and going through those seasons and rocky trials, realized like, okay, we need to build on something. And you know, it took a lot of it was finding community within our church, going to therapy, doing whatever it took. And we and then we put when we put our marriage first, everything else just got better, you know.
00:24:42
Speaker 1: And the kids, the kids. Now you have children, do you think call back to growing up in the situation you did? Did that make you adamant not to have the same type of situation as you had with your parents and have your kids have to grow up the same way that you did.
00:25:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just like just to be an example of a healthy marriage is like motivation enough. And again when I grew up like I wasn't you don't think no one tells you anything, Like I don't know what an idea of a healthy marriage even you.
00:25:21
Speaker 1: Don't even know what it did because you're like, what you live is normal because that's what you see.
00:25:25
Speaker 2: That was normal. Then when I look back and we talked about it, I was like, Okay, I went through a little there's a little trauma there, and we trauma bonded that way. You know, My wife, her mom and dad were separated. She had a step mom. We bonded like that. We'd talk, you know, talk shit about her step moms and like we bonded that way, Like I love my step mom. She's she's a great person.
00:25:49
Speaker 1: But all you just did, all you did was talk about it.
00:25:52
Speaker 2: But we did talk shit. But again, it's just it's what we knew at the time, and his way, we were trauma bonded it in a way.
00:26:01
Speaker 1: And that's funny, man. You know, one thing that is very difficult for a fighter is managing family relationships, being a father while being a fighter. I think, and to my detriment, I've had failed relationships because I was too selfish. Because the greatest athletes, the greatest athletes struggle in relationships because there's a selfishness with wearing that championship.
00:26:38
Speaker 2: Right.
00:26:38
Speaker 1: So I have a whole bunch of gold belts at my house, right, But on the way, you just leave people because your goals are too singular. I was talking to Tom Brady. He struggled with that himself. Right, how do you balance being a father and a fighter. And if you are to be asked, then if you'd have been more selfish, you'd be the world champion, or if you be the guy you are today, the great father, the great husband, you have, the career you are where you're a top ten guy, but you never reached that belt. What are you choosing?
00:27:20
Speaker 2: So it's funny. I was just talking about this with someone, and I think we're just talking about my last fight, and it's like, I wouldn't trade what I have for anything. I wouldn't trade my wife and kids, my relationship with my wife and kids for a win and extra hundred grand you know what I mean? That being said, it's like I feel like my wife understands me enough. She knows she's a great team player too. She understands when I shift into camp modes and when I need to be more selfish than not, and she's very supportive in that role. But I also just my own human nature, having that little bit of like tear of like being selfish almost harms me more than just being you know what. I don't even know how to explain it. It's like there's an internal battle, an internal struggle when I am maybe being as selfish as I should be.
00:28:23
Speaker 3: When you're not, or when you are when I am when I am.
00:28:28
Speaker 1: It hurts you to be that person, even though ultimately it moves you closer to ultimately your goal of the success inside octagon.
00:28:37
Speaker 2: But does it that's the question? Does it really?
00:28:40
Speaker 1: I always wonder to myself like, could I have been less? Could I have been more present?
00:28:49
Speaker 2: Yeah?
00:28:49
Speaker 1: And still one eight title fights?
00:28:53
Speaker 2: Yeah?
00:28:54
Speaker 1: And every time I ask that question, I don't know that I don't know that the answer is is yes. I've I feel like every single workout needed to happen, every single thing needed to happen. I don't know I'm really asking you because I don't know.
00:29:10
Speaker 2: I can tell you this. I've gone into every single fight with no stone unturned. I've done everything that I'm supposed to do as a professional athlete, as far as what I sleep, what I eat, what I sleep, what I put in my body, how I recover, getting in the hours of training, getting whatever I need to make my mind sharp and strong and healthy, and having the bonding. I don't even know how I could be better, Like there was there would be no way unless I had Like, there's really no way for me to be better. I live the life as a champion. It doesn't always work for the results.
00:29:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, most of us do change when we have kids. When I had my son, I was barely starting right. I was thirty. My son's fifteen though forty six years old. I was thirty two when I had my son. And while they say it changes the fighter, I was able to and again. And I don't know if it sounds bad or comes off as wrong, but even during fight week, I would separate them from me in everything that I was doing, from staying in separate hotel rooms. If I was in San Jose, I would stay in a hotel and not home. How much did you change when you started to have kids.
00:30:33
Speaker 2: I would say the only thing that changed was just being a little bit smarter financially. Yeah, was making investments. Find like even being in the UFC, I can get I can go from fight to fight and fight to fight and be broke. Yeah, I'm out living a lavish lifestyle. I'm just buying good quality food and literally I say, I'm not buying chains or jewelries or cars or anything. I bought a house at one point.
00:31:00
Speaker 1: But that's what you're supposed to do.
00:31:02
Speaker 2: We're supposed to do. But I was still I was.
00:31:04
Speaker 3: Like, how am I not, you know, not more secure?
00:31:08
Speaker 2: So going into the Damon Jackson fight. I was on a three fight losing streak. I had one mortgage. My fight was in January, Christmas was coming up. I had one mortgage payment left in my bank in my bank account. And fighting is not guaranteed, Like what if he doesn't even make what if he tears the shit and we don't even fight, then I don't get paid, and then I don't I lose my house. Like parents were at my parents and family and friends were asking us, like what do the kids want for Christmas? And I was like, just send us money and we will buy them whatever they want on our credit cards. And after I fight, I'll pay it all back. But that's where we were going into that fight. And I'm top fifteen, Yeah, top fifteen, maybe top ten and knockout Damon Jackson. Get a you know show when got a bonus? Immediately met with a financial advisor, and I interviewed four or five different ones and picked one and started making smart decisions of how to manage my money better and set up and you know, now I got a good ness and good investments that I'll never have to worry again. But it was a scary place to be going into a fight three fight. Losing streak could lose my job, but also gave me a lot of freedom to go in there and just say fit and like be there.
00:32:31
Speaker 1: Which leads to the to the to the uh that nickname right? Fifty k? Yeah, hundred grand though, yeah, that all is from bonuses? Like what made Why did you call it?
00:32:42
Speaker 2: Why?
00:32:43
Speaker 1: Why? Why? Fifty k?
00:32:44
Speaker 2: Egay?
00:32:45
Speaker 1: Was that a name before you want a bonus? Or is that from the bonuses?
00:32:48
Speaker 2: So it was my first bonus. I fought Danny Henry in London and got the fifty k bonus first round.
00:32:55
Speaker 1: How did that money feel when you get it?
00:32:57
Speaker 2: It felt great? That was my down payment. I got a I bet Ali too. I told him I wanted to buy a gold chain. Kamara Usman was in the car. We're all talking and I was like, Ali, like, I want to buy a gold chain. He's like, brother, you need to buy a house. I'm like, I'll buy a house and a gold chain. I just want a gold chain. And he's like, I'll make you a deal. If you finish this guy, I'll buy a gold chain. And then I finished him. I hit him up. He tried to buy me a little baby, like a little now I want.
00:33:22
Speaker 1: A big one.
00:33:23
Speaker 2: No, I was like, give me that rope. I want that big rope right there. So I got my rope. I got the down payment for my house. That felt good. But yeah, the day I walked in the gym, my buddy Boston Salmon started calling me fifty k Ega and I was like, that kind of flows and I just took it and adopted it.
00:33:39
Speaker 1: You know, I fought. I was in a Strikeforce Challenges series, and I was making ten thousand dollars every time I fought. The very first time I made ten grand, I just come off the Olympic team. I spent the money so fast that I couldn't even pay my managers the twenty percent. I owed him the two thousand dollars. Then I made forty grand. Once I started going and eating at Sizzler. I started going and eating a Sizzler. In two months, I was gonna go. This was in June twenty eleven. September twenty eleven. I was gonna fight Bigfoot Silver and I probably had like five grand left. I had spent all the money. It was going crazy, but I was buying Sizzler and buying toys from my kids. I was doing all these crazy things. It didn't seem like I was spending a lot, but every little bit was chipping away at what I had. Then eventually I thought bigfoot silver and that was the first time I made good money. And then ever since it's kind of been all systems go. But it is interesting how so many struggle like that. But like you said, you've now made smart decisions. It's kind of crazy, right, And I'm not a guy that ever was shipped on the UFC, but it's kind of crazy that you could be in that situation right when you're fighting at the level that you were fighting and not having that level of security.
00:35:00
Speaker 2: We one day randomly took the top one hundred baseball players. Yeah, and we're looking at We're like, okay, if I'm top fifteen in the world, top fifteen in the world over eight weight classes, whatever the fifteen times eight is put me on that list. Let's just say I'm the very last one. What's that guy that MLB player make? It was like something crazy like twenty eight million dollars a year. Yeah, I'm like, it's just I don't know, it's hard, and I the way to approach it is with like there's I can't change that myself, so I'm very grateful. But when I get in that mode of thinking, it causes a lot of resentment in my heart, and I don't think that's healthy. It can be used to drive you and motivate you, but like that, resentment can easily overtake you and leak into other areas of your life. So I really try not to dwell on the fact that I should be and could be making more money, because I mean, in comparison to what the UFC fighters are making, I make decent money.
00:36:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, and in comparison to what most people in the world make, right.
00:36:23
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:36:24
Speaker 1: You know, earlier I was talking about total wireless and I said, that's total power move, right. I kind of want to get into power moves, right, So your power move it has to be that moment UFC three zero three, you take the Diego Lopez fight. Then, I don't know that there's ever been a fighter that's taking a fight on four hours notice. Were you really getting a massage when that call came in? You were getting a massage? How's that happened?
00:36:53
Speaker 2: Though? So it's Saturday, right end of the week. I'm recovering. I was training, I trained twice. Day I trained, I was in the sauna, I was going home. It's it's like three four pm. I was like, okay, I'm going to get a massage before the fights. And I had like my phone was on do not to serve. They went up, they called my phone a hunter like a bunch of times. They ended up finding my calling my wife.
00:37:19
Speaker 1: Really.
00:37:19
Speaker 2: My wife came upstairs and I was like, hey, you know, Ali's calling. Ali's calling me. I'm like, I was like, he probably just wants like an invoice or something like a contact. I was like, I'll call him back. She's like it seems urgent. So I looked at my phone. I saw a hunter called me. Ali called me, so I called uh, I think I don't know. I called Ali back first, I was like, what's going on? He's like, brother, how are you doing. I was like, I'm getting a massage right now. He's like something. He's like the comine event comine event fell out? Would you can you fight Diego Lopez? So I'm thinking, like they're going to rebook it. I'm like, yeah, cool. Like when he's like tonight, now are you serious? Like how is that even possible? Like the winds the winds were yesterday. Yeah, and so like honestly, like I didn't even think it would happen. So I just like, I'll call the bluff, you know, yeah, I'll do.
00:38:18
Speaker 1: But I would ask for my money or something.
00:38:20
Speaker 2: I got a new contract, I got all my It worked out very good in my favor. I got good money, got all my money guaranteed. So there was like I called Eric, same thing. I was like, hey, Eric, there's a good chance for fighting. He's like, cool win. I'm like, tonight is oh yeah.
00:38:36
Speaker 1: I was.
00:38:37
Speaker 2: He's like what do you What do I need? I was like, go to the gym and grab my cup because my cup's there in my locker Jesus out of my mouthpiece. I was like, cup of mouthpiece, that's all you need. Right, Yeah. So we go boom talking to Hunter, talking to all Leid. They're asking me what I weigh. I'm like, I don't. I don't even know. I think, I said. I was like I think I was like one sixty five this morning, So I don't even know what I weighed. They made a contract, so I didn't even know I had to weigh in. So they're like, all right, it's gonna happen. So now I'm scrambling. I'm like, what do I do? Like, I better start eating, putting some fuel on my body. So I'm eating, I'm turned on my espresso machine, I'm getting some caffeine. Go to the arena. I'm like pounding water because I was like I should be hydrated.
00:39:18
Speaker 1: What are you thinking when you get to that arena though, Like this guy, your mind's got to be spinning because Diego Lopez is dangerous.
00:39:26
Speaker 2: It is dangerous, but I was like it was a It was just a cool like moment.
00:39:31
Speaker 1: Could you imagine, Like did you ever think like I'm about to make history? Like this is about to be when because I remember when we're on teep we're calling fights. Yeah, all of a sudden in our ear to producers go, dude, We're about to break the craziest story of all time. They're like, just listen to John and and it does it because they want to hear Rogan and nice reaction, so they we both lose it, Like this is one of the craziest moments I've ever seen in the sport. Were you aware that you were like making history?
00:39:58
Speaker 2: I kind of I kind of knew I would, and I was, and that was a big factor of it too, because in order to get respect in this sport, it's like you go on a crazy run when a title win two titles, like that's that's almost how you get known. Like I can go on cool wind shrieks, you know, have some amazing knockouts, and then just be forgotten. And I needed to do something that was like that would put my name in the history books and earned me that respect. And it did. And that's why I was a no brainer for me. It was a win win. I didn't. I felt in decent shape. I felt pretty good. I was like, you know what, I'll go in there and let's wing it. There's no game plan. It's ah, but yeah. I walked in. I walked in the arena. I'm like, there's Dana, there's Jelly Roll, there's Mark Wahlberg, all on what the heck? And then they took me to a scale. They're like, you got a wayh in. I was like, oh, I actually got away in. I was like, let me go pee real quick, and I came back now one sixty five Jesus lie about my weight. Yeah, because like they actually made a real contract. I don't know what would have happened. If I missed way, I would have looked stupid.
00:41:08
Speaker 1: They would have figured out a way to make your fight, is what would have happened? Ye to think about that, that's what was gonna happen. You know, that was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. And I'm telling you, man, like we've had some insane moments, and I am thankful to you for doing that and making that moment. But lately in your career, obviously, as we all, you know, one of the things we don't get in fighting is uh, George Saint Pierre's is one of the rare ones. Kabib was one of the rare ones. Generally, as your fight goes, career goes longer, things start to go a little sideways. You've been incredibly active lately, fought all the best guys. When you look back on your career, is there anything you would have done differently, Like when you think about it, like, man, maybe I shouldn't have done this one, maybe I shouldn't have done this, Like what could you have changed Dan to you know, because like you said, you know, you wouldn't change your career for the family. But ultimately that championship goal escaped you.
00:42:09
Speaker 2: I think maybe saying no. I've always said yes to everything, and especially when I was on a six five win streak, I got the call again to fight short I fought short notice. It was COVID. I fought Edson Barbozon too on two weeks notice. And I was on the couch and not really training, and they're like, does anyone want to fight? And I was like, oh, you know, I'll fight. A world's going end, I'll fight. They're like Edson Barbosa two weeks and this. I looked at his instagram. He's like shredded and been training trying to get a fight, and I was like, oh, like, that's like the scariest guy you can draw. And then I thought Edson out of pure fear. That was a crazy fight and it was close split decision. And then they called me again. They're like Calvin Cator main event, so I might because Frank Jegar fell out of that fight somehow, I was like, probably shouldn't have jumped in it again right away. I wouldn't even not really have a camp going into that one. Had three or four weeks going into that one, and you know, just the ability to just say no sometimes and like, I don't think would have hurt me, but yeah, I felt like I was just I was on I was on a wind streak. I'll just keep it going. You gotta ride the momentum and ride the roller coaster.
00:43:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes saying no goes a long way. Have a lot of things right, not just fighting, not just career, but just in life. In your division, the champion is an older guy, Alexander Volkanowski. Does that give you? Does that is that encouraging? Knowing that he went through his trials and tribulations, right, he lost two fights in row, got knocked out two fights in a row, and now he's the champ again. And speaking of Olk, like, do you anticipate a long title reign for him? Because he just continues to like set the standard in the bar in this weight class.
00:44:05
Speaker 2: Man, he's so good, one of the greatest to ever do it. Do I think he's gonna have a long title run? It's hard to say because.
00:44:14
Speaker 1: He who do you think gets him?
00:44:17
Speaker 2: I don't even know. But he does bring up retirement.
00:44:20
Speaker 1: A lot, he does, and he does that.
00:44:24
Speaker 2: Would be the only concern. But he looks great. He goes up who do I think gets some. I mean, there's a lot of killers coming up right now. They got Larn Larn Murphy.
00:44:41
Speaker 1: He seems to be calling out those guys too. He wants Algemy. No, yeah, he calls out the hardest fight.
00:44:47
Speaker 2: He does, yeah, and he means it. And again, I mean, anyone can be beaten with the right plan, the right showing up on the right night. But it's you never know. Man, this is such a crazy sport.
00:45:03
Speaker 1: As we start to turn the turn the corner and uh and get into the end of this interview, I got some quick hitters for you, Max Holloway, Charles O Lavera, and who wins n.
00:45:12
Speaker 2: Y Oh dude, I'm going Max Holloway.
00:45:17
Speaker 1: Is that just because he's from Hawaii?
00:45:20
Speaker 2: This part? I mean, yeah, I'm a little biased. I like Charles too, even though every time I fought in a card with him he took the bonus from me. He's uh. I just think Max is the guy right now. He's just so good and he's been on top, He's been in high level championship fights. He is the BMF and is his He's just so good.
00:45:41
Speaker 1: Do you guys have any did you guys have you had much interactions with Max as a guy from Hawaii. You know, you guys trained together or anything over time.
00:45:47
Speaker 2: We when he just got in the UFC, or he was four, and oh we got in the UFC. I was we were training together and I think maybe three four fights before I moved to Vegas. But yeah, Max is my boy.
00:46:03
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, So you've been doing this for a while now decade, right, long time to be fighting, to be fighting the best in the world. So today, like, what do you What do you fight for today? When it seems like, you know, you've accomplished quite a bit. You've accomplished quite a bit, you have made money, You've secured your family, you have your house. That kid that came here with twenty seven dollars is like a person of the past. Yeah, but what do you fight for today?
00:46:35
Speaker 2: I fight for myself, man, Like I still love this. I love showing up. I love the process. I love the process of getting better and mainly just proving to myself that I can still do great things. The thrill of going out and walking out and not knowing what's going to happen, but doing everything to prepare for what you want to happen. And I just love it. Man. I'm still in the game. How much longer do I want to do? I don't know. I just I'm just right in the wave, man, and again what I just suffered from, and the ACL and the I. It's just like one more part of the story to have something to fight and come back from and and show up and do something great again. So I don't. I just love it, man, that's all it is. It's just a love for the game.
00:47:19
Speaker 1: It's like a drug that you can't ever replace. I'm telling you, bro, it is. That walk to the octagon is like nothing you could ever feel. Hey, there's not a woman's kiss that's better. There's not anything in the world, right, the sweetest, greatest thing a man could think of. Nothing matches standing in that octagon.
00:47:39
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
00:47:40
Speaker 1: It's crazy. Yeah, I mean, it's just it's the one thing you miss whenever it's over.
00:47:45
Speaker 2: So I know there will be a time, you know, when I have to have to hang it up. But it's just it's.
00:47:51
Speaker 3: Not I'm thirty four, Yeah, you're young still, and I take.
00:47:57
Speaker 2: Care of myself. This is probably the first real injury I've ever had. I don't, I haven't really suffered any injuries or surgeries, So I don't know, man, just we'll see, We'll see what happens.
00:48:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, tremendous, tremendous, hey, man, to grow up you know the way you did Hawaii, go through the ups and the downs and and all the things that have formed into the fight you are today. Trust me, you're smart. So you've learned from every single lesson and it shows not only inside the octagon, but in the man that you've become, the husband you've become, the father you've become. So congratulations wrote a job well done, Dan, I promise you job well done, man. Not everybody does it and the way that you've done it, Guys, that's Danny Gay. He's one of the toughest guys in the featherweight division and uh, he's one of the best dudes. And we're so happy to have him sit down with me for another episode of The Daniel Cormier Show. Until next time, guys, Peace,
