just jumping in here quickly to let you guys know that I have recently created a facebook group for listeners of the lift train performed podcast. So this private forum is the place to connect with other podcast listeners and guests as well as to interact with myself and other coaches who have provided content for the coach's corner episodes. So in this forum you can ask questions which I can then answer in the group or I can use them for episodes, former Q and A sessions, post relevant articles you can share memes. The goal is to create a network of like minded people um so that everyone can interact with each other. Um you guys are listeners, the audience members can interact with the network of professionals in the fitness industry that have provided good quality content for the podcast. To gain access to this private group. All you need to do is leave me a rating and review what this does is allows me to bump up the ratings, draw bigger names and bigger guest to the podcast for your listening pleasure. Um once you've left a rating and review, take a screenshot of that, send that through to my instagram at coach underscore codes ko bes once you've done that, go onto facebook type in live train perform that group will come up request access, answer the three questions and I will grant you access, I am in the process of building out my online business.

One of the income streams is going to be from the facebook forum, so I'm going to be allowing 50 people into that forum for free after that it will be paid access only. So get in early, be one of the O. G. S. Thanks guys, much appreciated. Yo, what is up guys, Welcome to the live trade reform podcast. I'm your host, Sean Cobra and joining me today is came the danger moussa brother, Good to have you here, man, this is actually a first for me bro. I've never actually sat down with one of my clients whilst we've been in fire camp and had a conversation with them. So this is the first, this is gonna be awesome for me, It's gonna be awesome for my audience. Um so I'm gonna drop this episode leaning into your fight Perfect five on 25 February 25 February 21st broke on Monday. Yeah, we'll get that pushed out as well. So my supporters, everybody is following me as well. So you've got your own ship to focus on. I'm not worried about that man, I'm not about for myself, I'm the leader, let people see exactly what's been going on.

You know, I get a bit more of an insight, time moves on and as time moves on things happen and so there's new experiences to talk about and I want people to be as tapped in with this fight as possible because like I said, you know, we've been working together, we're focused on getting the job done. So I want people to hear this, they got a bit more of a back story moving into this awesome man. First place that I want to start is why I tied my tie. Why did you come out here for this fight camp? You know, I came out in, I think it was john 2020 the first time I came out with me, Laurent loss became obviously Brendan has been coming here for, for a while now you've been coming here for a long time. So, you know, it was something for me where I came out and I experienced the, the gym and the bodies that were in the gym and you know, the, the atmosphere and obviously the side and everything out here was just perfect for me. It was like, wow as a fighter coming into something where you've got everything at your doorstep, you know, your, your cells, your gyms across the road, you've got food, you've got massage, you've got recovery, ice baths, you've just got everything all in one.

That's exactly why I'm here. Exactly. And that's for me, it's kind of like you can't beat this as an athlete, you can't, especially a fighter, you can't beat this environment anywhere in the world. I've got friends who have been, you know around the world, training in different places and they've always said that listen, when it comes to Thailand that's, that's the one place I used to have a teammate slash coach slash training partner, anacostia stuff, He was like a world champion thai boxer, um he's from Cyprus, but you know, he used to have fights and every time you had a big fight coming, he'd always go to Thailand and I say why is it? So you'll understand what it's going to be there to experience it And you know, I came in January 2020, experienced it and training was meant I didn't actually even have a fight and I was training like I had a fight, so I've always said, you know when I got a big fight coming up, I'm gonna get out and I'm going to go and do a full camp out here and that was my main purpose and reason for coming and doing it. I remember one of the first conversations we had about why you're out here and you know, what was going on preparation for the fight etcetera and you know, something that you said stuck with me man and um it's something that I've experienced with not just fighters, but you know, most people that come over here and train at Tiger muay thai and face themselves on the toys, you know, it's, it removes a lot of distractions because you've got a family back home, you've got kids, you got a business, you know, you've got lots of ship going on man, you're a busy man, you're sucking entrepreneur, you know, you're doing big things in the world, so um you know, being in a place like this just helps make those decisions a little bit easier that allows you to get away from not necessarily those distractions back home, but those stressors because all of those things are stresses man and if you're, you've got all of those things going on in the background, it means you're not gonna be able to train as hard, you're not gonna be able to recover as well because you know, stress, stress man, we need to recover and adapt from that.

So is there anything you want to add to that? Yeah, you know what even saying that just re erase to me sometimes, you know, men, especially men that we are, you know, we like to take responsibility, take ownership and step up and you know, we like to believe that we can deal with everything and sometimes for men, I feel like that type of mentality sometimes can be detriment, you know, our detriment detrimental to our, to our progress and to our own mental health and me being the type of person I am resilient character, I believe that I can balance everything and all my camps that have had whilst I've been signed to Bella to have been, whilst I've been in that stressful environment, I'm stressed being, you know, a present father in my Children's lives, you know, being being in a relationship and trying to support my partner and being at home and trying to support my mom and my sister and you know, just trying to do my bit, sometimes it does take a lot out here and also with the business, the business is moving at a fast rate and it's a growing business, so it needs a lot of attention, it's another it's another child within itself.

Um so this time around, you know, my performances have been good in balance, so I bought the performances could have been better and I believe that me taking the distractions out leaves me with a clear thought process of attack and approaching this one because I've got no excuses, yep, cool man, um we'll circle around to the business later on in the conversation, but something that I want to talk about is obviously being at Tiger, you've got me running strength conditioning, johnny's been running striking, you've been doing Emma with joseph, you know, you don't have your typical team around, so your, you've changed location, you've removed those distractions, but now you're in a different environment where you've got a completely different team around how has that affected your mentality and your preparation, you know, like I said, it's all about, for me, it's about analysis, so I analyzed before I came out and knew exactly who I wanted to work with, obviously, you know, there's there's there's other people in the gym, but obviously there's been a bit of a move around that the gym, so for me it was kind of like okay, you know, I'm close with woody but obviously there's been a move around at the gym, so for me it was kind of like okay, let's look.

And obviously I've always seen you working a senior approach to the game and I know how clinical you are with your approach and I respect your work rate and your professionalism. So you know, bringing you on board was definitely an an easy decision. Obviously johnny johnny, you know johnny's downs worth a great person, it really wants you to win. But more than anything is a great coach as well at the same time. So you know obviously joe joe's black belt is the man, he's down to his own bullies, my type of guy as well, so everything has made sense. And you know obviously I've been hitting pageant might as well, like for me it was, I've been through a lot, I've had to adapt to crazy environments, going to prison, I've had to adapt to their environments, being in gangs, I've had to adapt to different environments. You know, moving from city to city when we were moving around on the streets, I've had to adapt to different environments, so being able to adapt to a new environment and a new system is is not really too hard for me when you put it like that, it makes it sound really easy. Yeah, well for me, yeah, that's that's the thing, that's your reference point, you come, you come from this background where you've had to, you know, fucking for survival man, you know, and then you get into a position like this where, you know, you're in a completely different environment, you've got a completely different team around you and like it's quite an easy transition for you, but it was an easy transition, was still got communication with the team back home, but you know, this is you guys have been working with the best fighters in the world at the same time, so you know, it's a bit of a no brainer at the same time, that's something I've been touching on a little bit with some of my podcast guests recently, strength conditioning coaches.

Um you know, for the audience, I'm recording this on the ninth of february, I've got an interview with Phil guru who's a world renowned strength conditioning coach tonight at 11 o'clock, so um something don't stop, you know, the guy don't stop the guys doing this, he's doing, he's got all his clients and respected thanks bro, I'm I'm under the pump and I had some, some general population clients down in the water, I don't do too many general population clients at the moment because I am focusing on working with fighters. Um but I was talking to them, they're like, how was your day this morning, like today? And I was like, well I had a one championship fighter this morning um and then the UFC fighter ah and then coached a cast and then uh I was editing a podcast with world renowned strength conditioning coach, author, podcast host. Um then I had my general population clients and I'm like, I'm going to catch up with one of my bellator fighters and then I've got award renowned strength conditioning coach episode tonight, had a meeting as well for, you know, um an affiliation with a health company in pockets, so under the pump man, but under the pump, that's more than under the right now, serious, I don't know what it is, I do understand that we do it is because the passion is there and of course when it's passion, you know, people say it's where it is, what it would be wrong and you have to be organized, you have to be structured, you have to be dedicated, but when it's passion it just feels so feels so great and it feels so rewarding, so yeah, yeah, absolutely man, going back to what I was, what I was talking about with the team environment, like I come from a military background, I come from a rugby background, so everything that I've done throughout my life has been revolved around team sports team environments and you know, I've been part of, you know, very, very highly functioning team environments and when I was a sniper in the military, you know, four man teams operating in Afghanistan behind enemy lines man with no support, you know, we need A strong 100%, bro.

And like, you know, it's it's what I've noticed over the last 4.5 years since I've been at Tiger is a lot of people look at fighters as an individual sport and yes, it is, it is definitely up to that individual. Once they get in the cage man, once that cage door's locked behind them, it's up to that individual, but it takes an entire team to get them to that point. And I think it's the team element is so important man because as an athlete and I want you to speak on this as well as an athlete as a pro fighter, you want to have the right people in the right positions at the right time to guide you through that process and all of those people need to work together because if they're not working together creates friction, put stress on to you, you know, so I can talk about it from my perspective as a strength conditioning coach, you know, I'm talking to the striking coaches, the grappling coaches, you know, ideally I'd be talking to nutritionists and managers and things like that as well to make sure that everything that we're doing is tying in together and everything's complementing each other, so for me, you know, mixed martial arts, combat sports as much as it is an individual sport, there's definitely a massive team element that needs to be considered and having those right people in the right positions to push you in the right direction, I think is it's absolutely essential man, more than essential.

I believe that the right people in the right position in the right places, the B. L and N dollars career, let's be honest with you. You know, you've seen people with the wrong teams and yeah, have you experienced that much? I've been looking, I've been looking, obviously when I come out of prison, I had to kind of build certain teams because I had to live in certain areas. When I came out of prison, I wasn't able to go back to Manchester straightaway, I wanted to stay out of the city because I wanted to create distance between my, even though I've been in prison for that long for 4.5 years, I still wanted to come out and create separation from my old lifestyle, just because it was very risky if I would have went home and there's a high possibility that I could have got involved in what I was involved in before and I made sure that I got my level two level three personal training qualification whilst I was in prison. And then when I came out, I was able to get a job in pure joy in working as a Pt and then obviously I got I got promoted to assistant manager and then from assistant manager, I went to GM.

But when I, by the time I got a GM with after 12 months of being an assistant manager had to do a lengthy amount of um educational courses within the business. So I had to do Chinese styles course which was like analysis of from therapists of like psychologists and how to To be a team leader in assessments and everything that it was it was a great program that I went through and that taught me a lot. That taught me a lot. It showed me you know I actually got the capabilities because it was assessment of 50 people, 58 gems got put in an assessment room and only 15 were taken. I was one of them 15 you know what I mean? And that was only like 12 months after being released from prison. So it showed me that I have got you know got skills and for me it was kind of coming out and making sure that I was not going back home. And what that did was it led me in a position where I wasn't able to train with my uncle. So I had to train, had to train roughhouse with judo jimmy warhead andre when he was ex UFC fighter and it was a good gym.

So I came out and I had to kind of like mix it a little bit so I wasn't able to get a solid set team around me from the beginning all the way through to the to where we're up to now. So, you know, don't get me wrong, I did well, when with the support that I got, you know, I got supported everywhere I went. I've always had support, but I've never had a solid frame foundation around me specifically for my style for the game strategy that I should apply for the way I'm fighting, analyzing weaknesses, strengths, weaknesses, and working on them things. It took a little bit of a long time for that to come around. And by that time I was kind of winning a lot of fights and I got to a point where I end up fighting Maddie, a case where I got knocked out in the 1st 1st round. But unluckily for me, that's when I came home and had everything sorted out. My uncle, he had a clot in his foot and he's my strategist, he's my evil strategize with me for the fight and he wasn't able to be in my camera at all for that.

And the crazy thing was, once he had gotten out of hospital, he got out of hospital probably about a week and a half before the fight, so we weren't able to do any work because he's still in question with his foot. So when we get to the fight, we get to the to the arena and he comes and he goes, right, what he's gonna do is that he's going to try and hit you with his overhand, right, you need to make sure you got your hand high, but that was probably the first time in the camp that you'd heard that I had heard that, and that's what got knocked out with. So it shows from experience what I'm telling you about. And that fight was a decided for UFC Mark when he went to the UFC, I didn't and it just shows that the camp, like the people you've got around you are very, very vital, very, very important. And I learned that lesson, you know, so moving forward, we got a lot tighter on stuff and after that five we went we took Alex Hedlund who was we had a couple of run throughs after that and then we took Alex Hedlund who was ex Cage Warriors february champion, who got signed by the UFC, but he didn't get it because we had a a blur in his brain and he wouldn't allow him in.

But then I I fought him after that and I beat him after that. So then we started to excel in that department, but it's very, very important. It's very important because the right people around you, they can if you have the right people and you're an athlete and you're dedicated and you've got all the necessities within yourself because you can have the right team, but not the right athlete. I mean, you can have the right you can have the right athlete, but not the right team and I feel like when you get there might just be one piece of that, that's not there, and that's what I'm saying to you, and that throws everything else out, and that's when you see some fighters don't actually get there, and it's not that they're not as good, it's not that they've not got this, it's just that they didn't have the right remedy recipe to go through, because 99% of us who are fighters, you know, probably 98 I don't know, you probably have a better, but we're all athletes, you know, you get some of them that are not not not necessarily born athletic and field, but the the thinking fighters got the mindset, the dedication and all that.

But the majority of fighters, especially fighters, are all naturally gifted with athleticism, and they probably grew up playing multiple, multiple sports, like myself and all this. So it's like, okay, these guys with the right team, all of them, it should be will be. And you see some guys falling at certain levels, and you ask yourself, would they have felt if they have the right team around them? It's a great question, man, it's definitely scary question for some people to sit with for sure at the end of the year, because yeah, man, because there's, I'm assuming there's like a lot of loyalty with the team that you've built and trust these guys, and, you know, but at the end of the day, like if you don't have the right team, if you if you if you're aware of it, then that's a hard decision to make. That's a hard conversation to have. Some people are not aware that Yeah, that's true. Some people are just not aware and some people are not aware and then some people start self doubting themselves. It's like, well my team's sick. This must be me to get me or it might, it might, it might be but some people sometimes or not, but then you get the ones that are aware, but once what you were saying, you get the ones that are aware but they're too loyal to break away.

That's when it's a sad sad story as well because it's like I understand their pain because everyone's worked with them. You had it with venganza and this civil gone thing, that's what's going on now. It was the separation had to come down what you see in Ghana, we went and made the separation and he went to Vegas. He actually made the right decision because now that's a perfect example of a man that was with somebody, it was working. But then he realized that it wasn't right and he wanted to go and do that and he's gone over to his game and he needed the right people. Yeah, 100% man. Um something you touched on then um that I want to talk about a little bit more detail is the psychology like how how much Importance to put on the psychological aspect of one training but to stepping into a fucking cage and trying to take someone out whilst he's trying to take you out for me, the mental aspects as I've got older has become more of a of a of a challenge because it's just a basic um it's just a basic transition we go through as men, Both humans especially men young boys were full of spunk at 18, 17, 18 I would have fought any I didn't give a sh it I had my first fight off phone everyone I would have been ready for that shot.

I was like listen I'm fighting this kid, I want to smash it and then just come and see me thinking that I got there and I got beat but I think they were like I didn't care, I have no fear and it's that when I was on the streets when I was young I was like I don't care, I was getting caught up in May but you knew some of the crazy ship that we used to do, obviously you've done your own stuff within your time which you're crazy, imagine that but just probably on the streets obviously not to the level and extent whatever but we were doing some crazy ship but we're doing on the streets bro and that was that age 18 1917, 18, 19. Not giving a fuck you know what I mean? Just crazy just out there doing mad stuff and when I sit back and think you're lucky to still be in now that you know what I mean? So it's kind of like and that's that's probably how you ended up in prison prison. Yeah, just moving like a madman, reckless. So as as we get older in our career then we start obviously we start to transition mentally, we start to become more fingers and as you apply the mindset to to the game, it's more psychological because you're more aware, you're more conscious as a mature man, so you're more aware and also not just that when you build something now because at the beginning I had nothing, there was nothing to lose.

You understand? Of course now there's a lot to lose, there's a lot more on the line. I've got I've got my reputation for what I've got my brand, I've got my family, I've got my kids, I've got everything to lose now and it's like when I'm fighting, I'm fighting for a bigger cause and fighting for a deeper root. And if that wave is on your mind a lot more than the 19 year old cane you are 21 year old came, he was just fighting because he wanted to be a fighter and wanted to show off to everyone and be that guy and you're like I actually get paid to do this. Yeah, exactly and that's what I was fighting in the street for nothing, and getting beat up or beating guys up and all that ship, and now it's like, now we're at a different level now, you know, we're finding co main event is probably going to be over 10,000 people in the arena, It's gonna be a big, big show. So the mental, so the mental preparation for this is it's deep, you know, you have to go into yourself, you have to reassure yourself, you have to confirm to yourself everything and it was, and as you get to this point closer to the fight, you know, just just over two weeks out, you know, it starts to get to the point where you have to reassure all the work that you've done, but it comes down to the team and to give you that reassurance that yo bro, you there, you get the reassurance, you know, and then the work that you sparked when you're sparring and I'm feeling good, it doesn't matter who you have to see everywhere in the gym, this is why it's great for me and other fighters, I would always advise younger fighters come and experience something like Tiger and even the truck fighters to come and experience something like Tiger, because you've got some of the best fighters in the world that we even find at a higher level than myself and for them, I can see they still have to go through the same mental reassurance that I do no matter who they are, those fighters that we see in the gym and everyone's like ah and I see these guys going through the same at fall patterns as myself leading up to the fight.

We need our confidence, we need our mind right, We need the self belief and we need to have the desire to know that we're going to go all the way to I'm ready to go to, honestly, I'm ready to go to hell in this fight. This guy is gonna have to kill me and I keep saying that, I mean it, I've seen you move man over the last couple of days and like you're looking solid, you're looking super stable, your balance is on point, your center of gravity management, man. Like it looks like you're moving really well bro. How are you feeling feeling good today, if I'm honest we did today, I felt tired so I arrested the whole day because I've listened to yourself, I know myself, I've listened to yourself and I listened to my uncle and listened to Kyle Prince as well. I've been out here for setting nearly seven weeks bro, regardless of what you talk about our sprints and I've been sprinting, I've been in red zone for the whole six weeks virtually training wrestling. Red zone, Red zone, regardless of what we've been in red zone, we've done this, we've done aerobic work. We've done balance work with us a bit of Spider wrestled, I'm ready to fight, I'm ready to fight.

So it's like, you know, we always like, that's a great place to be a couple of weeks out, man, like feeling so confident in your skills, your ability and your your fitness levels to be able to be like, I'm ready to go, I'm ready to go man and you know, like we've still got time. I know we're not going to push the boundaries, but we've still got time to refine and tighten up. And that even fills me with more confidence and joy to know that I've got still tightening up of what I do. My shadow boxing at my shadow boxing nice and tight. Get my head movement even tighter debt my drills, right? So any combinations or shots, this guy's throwing, I've got answers for everything. He thinks he's going to throw the answers for him and then when he's ready to go to the trenches, then that's something that I don't ever have to worry about. That's always there. The trenches, the darkness, the pain, the questions that I've been there many times, you know what I'm saying. So it is what it is in that in that respect. But yeah, back to it. The mental aspect of the game for me, listen to physical without the men of about physical doesn't make any sense because you can be mentally ready for it if you ain't physically prepared no matter how confident you have or you're going to get in there and you're gonna wilt under some pressure because you've not got the endurance, you've you've just got the physicality, so when you get both of them in tune for me, the mental comes from the physical, 100%.

When the physical has been done, the mental then balances itself out, and then then when you get to that point bro, it's like the fifth element, it's like, it's like the movie, the fifth element when it comes together, boom, that's what it's like, right, okay, let's go, I'm at that place now, I'm at that place now, that's awesome man, Yeah, what you just said then, like it's a self fulfilling prophecy, right? Like the mental works with the physical and the physical works with the mental, like when you get into the gym and I say this all the time bro, like I can tell What somebody's like outside of the gym by how they conduct themselves in the gym, like if they were doing sprint work or whatever, and they pull up 5m short and they start taking shortcuts, like I know they probably not disciplined in other areas of their life man, you know, so and that will come through in the fight. Exactly, exactly man, because how you do anything is how you do everything, you start taking shortcuts and training bro, that's going to carry over to, you know, being on the mat in the ring, in the cage on the field on whatever it is, whatever sport you participate in, 2%. You know, even if you don't participate in sports and you go to the gym, you know, a couple of times a week and you're you don't put your weights away, like that's an element of discipline, and if you're taking those shortcuts, that means you're not going to get the physical progress that you're looking for when you don't get the physical progress that you're looking for, then, you know, that plays with the mental game.

So, you know, the training is um so important man, because you can put yourself into a fucking into the hurt locker, you can put yourself into a dark hole, man where you're just grinding, grinding, grinding and it sucks and it hurts. But then you finish that and you go, all right, I just achieved that. I just pushed my barriers and push my mental and my physical barriers. Now that line has now moved and you know, you can go to that place again. That mental side gives you the physical progress that you're looking for, and then having that physical progress and that physicality, it gives you the confidence knowing that you can go to that dark place anytime you want to any time you need to man both of those things physical and the mental bro, like it's like the infinity sign, man. So interconnected, right. And for me, it's kind of like your opponent can feel it as well as your opponent can feed it bro, he knows when you're looking at him, like my last fight, David got on, he knew I was there, I was there, I was there with him and that's why when we went in my approach, I was there, I was lighting him up in the first round, I felt so beautiful and I felt so amazing to be picking someone to pieces.

And you know, he caught him with the elbow, which for me is down to his skill set yet. But for me, at the same time it was look on his behalf because I'll be honest, reduced skill set allowed him to do it, take nothing away from him. But believe me, that would not have happened. I was, that's the one of the best times I felt in there where I can feel I'm actually chopping this tree down from every angle and every time I tried to chop, I'm actually being successful with the chops, which was a great place for me to go to, to experience. And that's why I support you forever. Forever learning doesn't matter what level you get to. And now, unfortunately for Peter Quill is coming against a man who's been felt, felt that in his last fight and now has come to a place where he pushed past the boundaries of mental threshold because I've been thinking I'll go again and the regime here is not easy. The regime that tiger is tough if you try your hardest to stick to that, believe me, if you rest right?

Like I've been like, today, you see me, I'm resting, right? And then you go again. The benefits are different. There's so many things that I want to unpack there. But the first thing I want to touch on is the recovery side of things like what makes you, what makes you take the extra recovery knowing that your tired etcetera? Because this is this is an issue that I've seen with fighters, you know that I've been working with. And just once I've seen floating through the gym, men that are just fucking grinding, they are grinding all the time, man. And it's like, they're like that all year round, I'm like, man, you're just gonna burn yourself out. You know, give yourself a little bit of a break, start eating a little bit more food, put on some body fat, reduce your training load a little bit, like, let's get you healthy, let's get you focused on other things right now so that when you do sign a contract, like you're fresh and you're going into, you know, this eight week fight camp in a fucking good healthy position where you've got something to pull from, you can now start pulling calories, you can start dropping body fat, you can then start bumping your training up, etcetera, etcetera, like you're not going to let yourself completely go. But, you know, there's definitely gonna be again, going back to the team sports environment, like I'm with the rugby boys, we've got the offseason, right?

Then we've got the pre season and we've got in season and then understand that and then we want to be peaking at the right time. I don't want to be peaking in the middle of the season and then fucking burnout and come home, you know, at the end of the season with no wins, I want to be building, building, building and I won't be going into the finals, peaking at the right time and making sure that, you know, I'm putting the work in, but I'm also putting the recovery and that's going to allow me to perform and allow those adaptations that I've driven in the gym through my training program to then occur. So I can walk onto that paddock and fucking go, all right, we've got four weeks of finals, let's make sure that we're prepared as best we can be physically and mentally. And it's for me, it's like one, right? So besides just understanding, you know, like I said, I've studied level three, which has given me a general on open minded approach to all the new bits of science out coming out of college, science, you know, all this rest and recovery and active rest and ice baths and hot and what and making sure that you're ticking all the boxes.

It's kind of after one of my fights, I can't remember the fight when we had the tango show, I've put loads of working loads of drills, but I was grinding myself to the ground in that camp, we were just working hard, we're working too hard. And after the fight I had like a week and half off eating what I wanted, drinking what I wanted, just did what I wanted and I went back to the gym a little bit, have a little bit stronger and when I hit the part I was like, I was like, whoa, actually what actually recovered and got this super Yeah, but yeah, but I've recovered after the fight, you get what I'm saying something something I always say, man is like, if you're fucking working your ass off fight week, your fight camp didn't go to, you can't be working with, you know, that, that last week, you know, should that 7 to 10 days depending on the athlete, you know, it should really be about the acute weight loss protocols, bringing body weight down, strategizing strategy, strategy, strategy strategy has already been implemented.

That doesn't mean refining strategies in his skills, just like a warrior when he's going to, well, you know, the day before or the day leading up, he's going to sharpen his sword and I believe that he's not going to be going, he's just gonna be fun, he's just preparing himself because he knows the storm's coming and now he needs to reserve his energy, but he still needs to make sure he's sharp. He still needs to make sure that he's moving, keep the body flowing and that's exactly what fight week should be and what will be for me is just keeping the body moving because once again, from experience, I had a fight against robert White furred, which he would just come out of UFC and beat Alex and Lyndon was on a bit of a role and we called robert White without any that substantive fight. And I went, I went to Nottingham, always main event a CB and I didn't do anything all week. Mhm proper stike. When I got in the cage, I got into a grapple exchange black, my arm blew up and I felt just, I was like, whoa, because I didn't just dust off the cobwebs.

I didn't sharpen the tool through that weekend. I learned that lesson as well. So now it's like, you know, so you basically experienced both ends of the spectrum where you're grinding right up until fight day and then you walk in, you're tired and then you recover after a week and a half after and then you've also gone the other way. We're like, all right, well, I did too much there, haven't recovered, I'm going to make sure that I recover fully. But then you you sit around, you sit around man and then, you know, you're probably in too much of a parasympathetic state, too much rest and relax now. Now now I believe, like in my last fight, we got the last fight well with a few, but you know, we've had some great performances in in Bellator, you know, to the fights have not gone the way that we wanted them to go, you know, but we've had some great performances in there, you know, we had 22 solid wins in, in Bellator, you know, I'll be Matthias pitch Carson, but I'll be um I'll be the italian. Um and they were solid performances. I've had two performances where I didn't get the decision.

I've never been except for the one knockout, I've never been beaten up whilst I've been in there, I've never quit, I've never tapped, I've never submitted. I've never, you know, I'm always in the, in the fight, always in the mix, right to the point where I believe some of the spirit decisions, I should have won themselves, you know, it is what it is at the end of the day and this time around, you know, I feel like I'm coming, everything's coming together. I've done the camp in the place the way to do it. Mhm. Like instead of taking all the stresses out the matter was good, The physical is good. So it's just gonna be all down to the powers that be in the end, you know, regardless of what I know, I'm going in there determined to win and there's nothing but the wind in my mind and but I'm also a believer that what was meant to be in your life and the path you was set was what was set for you regardless. Some people don't believe it. But that's my belief and I believe that that allows me to deal with situations in the past where I've had to take lessons and I've gone, why me? And then I thought, well, my mom always said, look, you can't cry over spilled milk.

What happens happens, allow it to drag it down. Just keep moving forward. And that's it. That's the approach that takes me. When people say to me, what about this fight? I say listen to M. M. A. Is a different beast. It's a different animal to everything. Look what just happened within Ghana and civil law and civil gone. Look what happened with Amanda Nunes. And when she just lost her belt, there's so many upsets. There's so many surprises. That's why it's the greatest sport in the world. World. Combat sport in the world because it's nothing's really, it's only it's only at the highest level in boxing where you're a little bit uncertain. But nine times out of 10, you know, he's gonna win the high top guy, whatever we're in UFC mm a belter, there's anything can happen at any time. The gloves are so small, someone could just get some of my about a bad weight cut because we cut so much weight. So there's so many variables that go into it and I just say like your last fight man, you got opened up above the eye and that was it. That was the only thing that changed the whole game because I was on him, picking him to pieces and as soon as he elbowed me, I was pushing the pace book.

Then when the guys motherfucker's got me against the fence, he's driving his knuckle into my court and he's opening it. So I'm trying to contain him here while he's driving the knuckles. So then when I move it makes my body positioning out and then he's like, he's able to do the flips because a black belt in judo. So there's so many variables. All that minds is when you step in the cage, are you ready? Are you confident? Do you believe in yourself? As long as you've got all of them things in your bag and you're happy and you're ready and whatever else happens is up to the powers that be bro, that was fucking powerful man. Everything you just said was amazing bro. And I was going to ask some questions but you kind of already tied everything in together. But again, you kind of talked about the mindset, you talked about the mentality and that's something I want to, I want to ask about for those listening for the audience, you know, obviously when you win, you can take lessons from that alright, my fire camp went well, had these people in my corner, this is my strategy, this was blah blah, blah, blah.

This is my preparation, this was how fight week was, this was weight loss, blah, blah, blah. The losses. Yeah. Do you take the same type of mentality with that? And look at, you know, do an assessment of it and say, all right, what can I learn from this? It's crazy because I kind of, I have like a self coping mechanism within myself which never allows me to ever, never allows me to get too low, you know, last fight, I cried after the after the loss of my uncle, but that was just more because I felt like I let them down. Mhm. Not because it was just the emotions, emotions in that emotions at the time was, you know, your adrenaline is pumping and you believed in yourself that you actually won the fight, and I thought I believed in and the shock of the decision not going your way. It's a lot to deal with. Um and but then I've got this secondary phase I go into and it's kind of like, okay, well look at what he did, well fucking you thought this guy and this guy was a good guy and you know, this guy, the last guy I thought he knocked out Ross Pearson with a tornado kick and you know, for me it was kind of like, well, you know, and Ross is one of my Makes one of my girlfriends and one of my actually love his fight style, but he wasn't able to do that to me because obviously we've seen it with him.

But what I'm saying is this is a guy who's fought some big names and it was, it wasn't an easy opponent, was a tough opponent. He was very durable and I was able to, I was, I know without the court I would have, I was finishing this guy, he was too slow for me, I was picking him off or whatever. So I was able to do all that with blood in my eyes, not being able to see me. There was times I swear to you, I must have had him on the cage have come off the cage and the blood in my eye and I couldn't see him and I couldn't see how there's lots of sides go whack and I thought my legs are wobbling and then he's coming for me hunting me out to clinch him. So I've been able to take from that and basically say, look, look who you are, look what you've done, look what you're about and reassure myself that I'm a warrior, I'm a soldier, regardless of what I've got, what it takes to be at this level and put these people under pressure and definitely know that I've got what it takes to put these people away because there's been times where we've been in there and I hit these guys and they fly across the cage when I land this power.

So you know, we've been putting things in place in this camp to make sure that we're landing more of them powerful shots over and over and the power is going to sustain all the way through. So thank you, appreciate it. Make the environment, I think that's so powerful man. We've mentioned environment a couple of times, you know, obviously the environment of you being on the streets with the gangs doing all that ship that then led you to prison, getting out of prison, having to move your move away from that environment, knowing that it would be quite easy to fall back into those same patterns again with the same people. Um, you know, then you've obviously changed camps, you've come out here in preparation for this fight. What has this environment been like for you in terms of training partners and the people that you have on the mats that you actually get to train with wrestling, sparring? Everything man? Like, I mean, you just recently had a viral video review and comes out to my wrestling, which is absolutely blowing up on social media.

So, um, how's that environment being for you here, having those high quality people on the maps to train as far with, it's been everything, you know, for me, it's kind of like, don't get me wrong though and I'll say this and I'm going to say this talent that we have got in Manchester top team at home. Honestly, honestly, one day I want to speak with the team when we get back and we're gonna do a date and do a month for a couple of weeks where we just bring everybody out and I know the amateurs that are in our gym will be able to match up with a lot of these guys because of the work, because of where they're from, the work rate in the gym. Don't get me wrong. I always say environments. Um, so people say, oh well I was conspiring with this guy and he's a world champion. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. You're aspiring him in the gym, but let them, let them let you go under the lights on the same level of event and the same type of magnitude of what he's fighting for. Then you see the difference in performance, so jim training and fighting, it totally is two different things.

Okay, I always make people aware that everyone always gets excited. I say bro. Yeah, in the gym is one thing, but on the night is a totally different thing and I know some of the kids in our gym now in the gym would be able to match up, we've got a lot of Dagestan ease in our gym as well and these guys are killers, we've got a lot of young kids from around my area, These guys are killers, so it would be good to get them out. But just for me, myself in the in tiger around some of these guys who I'm a fan of, you know, like you're saying your rafael desires you, Peter young's, you know, these are fighters that I'm actually a fan of their their fight style, their ability, their achievements, and it's great to mix it on the map with them. It's great to learn from them more than anything to learn from them because I do learn from them and it's good, you know, like you see in the video with with hands that you know, that's that's me asking hamza on a regular basis, I'm saying today, I'm saying can we train, you know, I need you to give me these lessons, I need you. I see that man, listen bro, nobody doesn't even want to spar with this guy, nobody lightweight, I mean middleweights, welterweights in the gym, light heavyweights, it's only migrants seen every day.

He was, but not no one doesn't want to part with this guy, I'm the guy who's asking this guy to to put it on me, I'm the guy who's challenging myself. You watch his videos, you see what he just did in his last fight over there, that's what I'm saying and he manhandled the well away like he was a baby and you see him training, he trains with Gustafsson, he wrestles with these guys and he's in dominant positions on a regular basis with these people bro, I'm 79 80 kg right now, the man's 90 kg, he's a beast, and for me to even be able to push myself on this guy and learn from this guy has just been a blessing within itself and yeah, the video went viral have gotten with them, but you know, he did get me with it and you know, he's got his little cheeky ways as well, there was a little power, I let go, it was going to get me anyway, because he's on my FB, what I'm saying, it's just been so amazing to be around these people and not even just to build relationships and friendships with these guys, you know, me and I have got, you know, we've got we've got a proper relationship friendship, you know, we've got mutual respect and all the guy wants to do is see me win, so he's pushing me, he does push me, he pushes me really hard and he challenges me, like you're saying about that place of mental, he's pushed me into places where I've never been pushed by anybody else, so it can only make me Bill and believe me, I leave on sunday and I will be chasing him for one more session before I go, Yeah, awesome man, made this has been a fucking great conversation, I've really enjoyed it bro and I really appreciate you putting your trust in me to help prepare you for this fight.

Let's just talk about you before we go, come on now, let's just talk about your professionalism, let's talk about your passion, let's talk about your approach to the game. And for me it's kind of like I see you as somebody who's really um passionate about changing the game for the, about I want to say changing the game because it's such a new sport, changing the game from the aspect that you cover, from your angle, which is you don't really get involved with skill work and you believe that you're aware of it, what's going on, but you leave that to the specific cultures in that area. What you focus on is your area and you focus on the energy systems, you focus on the balance of stability, the power, the endurance of all of that, that you focus on you. You know, you cover it really well, you know, you you've been not necessarily you run it, you know, it's what you live for and I feel like people like you and the sport are very needed in M. M. A. To kind of make fighters aware because you know, we've got over jim's over him that's not sitting on this, but there's other gyms where no fighters are being pushed to the point of breaking point, they're not being educated on rest and recovery and nutrition and eating right, and I know a lot of them and a lot of them are ill right now today ill some of them are broken, even some in our gin, that some are broken.

A lot of, a lot of guys that we've seen on certain regimes are broken because the bus pushing too hard and your knowledge and the way you apply it and explain it is amazing for fighters, especially young fighters coming up as well and the experienced fighters, because strength and conditioning aspects and nutrition aspects has been probably the last part of the the last missing part of the of the of the game that's been coming over because everyone's just new figures, your training and your training, that you're thinking that you're tired. All right, sweet, but it's not, it's about your heart rate variability, it's about your nutrition intake, it's about your hydration, it's about your recovery, it's about everything else fits in and you bring that aspect to the game and I appreciate you bringing it over salt. Thank you, bro. That's amazing, man. Thank you very much. I really appreciate that, bro. And I mean, that's that's something that I again, have noticed over the last few years and this is why I coach the way that I coach, right, because I see that there is, you know, there's there's there's 1% that people aren't doing then that could just, that are going to make all the difference, right?

So I want to make sure that, you know, I'm I'm a very educational coach, I want to make sure that the people that I'm training, like they buy into the system, sometimes it takes years man, like, you know, the last time I went over to Russia to train yard man, like, you know, we did, I think that was our sixth fight camp together, We've done five fight camps here at Taga prior to that, and you know, I was educating him on heart rate, variability was taking his blood pressure before training sessions, etcetera, etcetera. It was years and years and years before he actually bought into the process and the reason that he brought into the process, so I took his heart rate variability was training for um he was in fight camp for the Jose Aldo fight for the vacant bantamweight title. And uh we've been training through the quarantine period. He was coming around, my place was putting through um some strength conditioning work a couple times a week and I could see his heart rate variability was dropping gym opened up again, we trained about four or five weeks, like really hard. He was working with these other coaches as well. Um and I could see his heart rate variability was dropping me in and I said to him, I was like bro, next week, Light Week, one Training Session Per Day Go Light Go Light.

And uh he went around big border that weekend, trained hard monday Tuesday and then it was just like bedridden for a couple of days man and afterwards he comes back in he goes coach, I trust you, you're professional. I listened now and since then man has been taking his recovery a lot more seriously. I see him I see him I see him he's not in the gym every day and the days that he works 100% when he works. But that's the thing like he's resting and recovering enough to allow him to push the pace to put that hard work in. Exactly that's why I mean today look I can feel it in my head. I feel a bit tired a little bit because today when I woke up I was like message my look today is not the day bro. I know how I feel now and that's another thing I didn't do I didn't have any coffee today because I thought if I have coffee what it does is it loads me into a false sense of security it boost me makes me think everything's fine. It makes me think I'm good. I've got energy. So I did was today I said no I'm not going to have any coffee at all. I'm gonna have zero coffee and I'm gonna feel how the body really feels and how my body is feeling right now.

Is that I need to go drink some more water and do some more resting and then even tomorrow it might even be another slow day because at the end of the day, the work's been done now, you know, I don't fight for it damn circuit on the, on the weekend that they did 3, 5 solid a spot on Monday. I did four or 5 solid, I did 25 grappling wrestling, didn't lose no rounds. What else more do I need? You know? But anything else now is overspill so it's about balancing and getting that rest and recovery and so that adaptation, I felt that time, the week and a half after it comes in on fight week on fight night then now that I feel like we're peaking at the right time. So I love it man, to finish up mate, the name of the podcast is live train perform that stands for live life to the fullest train to your potential and perform at your best. What does that mean to you? It means everything. That's that's what life's about. You know, everybody's out here striving for to be a better version of themselves every day and you know, everyone wishes, even though it's it's highly unrealistic.

Everyone wishes that they can wake up smiling, happy go larry every single day. But that's what we all work for. We try our hardest to get the balance so we can do that. So the mantra stands for, you know, keep going, keep elevating, keep working, keep dedicating yourself and and never stop. I love that bro cain the danger moussa appreciate it, brother, Let's go legend. This episode was brought to you by Swiss eight, which is a proactive mental health program designed by veterans initially for veterans that has been pushed out to the wider community that allows you to structure in and schedule their eight pillars of health and wellness, including nutrition, sleep time management, discipline, fitness, personal growth, mindfulness and minimalism. This episode was also brought to you by be spunky, which is a male hormone optimization supplement that I've been taking for about a year and a half now absolutely rate. It is a TJ listed nutraceutical, meaning that it's made from all organic produce to help you manage and optimize your stress levels, which in turn increases your ability to improve testosterone production levels naturally.

User code codes 10 at checkout for your 10% discount. All of those links will be in the show notes. If you've got some benefit from this episode, please make sure you pass it off to your friends and family. I'd appreciate any shares on social media platforms. If you tag me or if you share it to your stories, make sure you tag me so I can share that as well. 25 star ratings and reviews are much appreciated, much love guys, Peace