Welcome to the weekly wrap-up, everybody. I'm joined again by Drew Marks. Drew, how are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for being here, my man. So I am actually, I probably sound about another hundred years older than I usually sound with this voice, but still recovering from the Badass Festival last night. All day, actually, yesterday. Skid Row threw a great festival, Boogie by the River, and trying to recover in time for next Saturday's festival, which I'm looking forward to. You know, I tend to get addicted to this stuff, but Ragfest. Ragfest. That's a fantastic name, Ragfest. Just a bunch of angry women. What is that? Yeah, there was no way I was going to get that by you. And keep a straight face. But no, actually, Rockin' Gaming Fest is what it is. Next Saturday, St. Patrick's Day. Going to be music, chip tunes, a bunch of bands. It is at the Airliner in Lincoln Heights. St. Patty's Day, good time. It's going to be gaming competitions, which I can't compete in. I would get crushed. But maybe somebody there can teach me how to play Madden. Are we really going to talk about how bad we are at Madden? No, we are not going to talk about that. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You're talking about Madden. You know, we say, hey, great Satan says, hey, diplomacy. Iran's thinking, you know what, nice diplomacy. Why don't you guys come in and talk? And Netanyahu says, you know what, it could be any minute. Yeah, I'd rather bomb. It's more fun. Well, fun is probably not the word, but, you know, we are also not the one who's been threatened to be wiped off the map. So, you know, harder argument, I guess, or different argument. But, yeah, just when you think things are looking good. Well, the problem, I think, is you've got so many people who are just so gung-ho, not just in Israel, but in our side. You've got all these people who are like, we should, you know, they're so untrustworthy, we should just, you know, bomb first, talk after. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, and that's a big Republican talking point. I mean, we'll get to that in a little bit. But that was part of what we were being praised for, was basically trying to settle down, one, the world talk about a possible war and a, quote, inevitable war. But also. You know, there's a lot of people he's going to be running against have been talking about a whole lot of, you know, basically drumbeat, warbeat. Warbeat's not a phrase. Could be. Yeah, sure. They're beating the drums of war. They are basically, I mean, that's on the campaign trail. There is a whole lot of, you know, we need to strike almost immediately. Right, which personally I don't agree with. When did we get to this point where we don't want to exhaust every option before we can get to a war? Right. Right. Before we start fighting. Twelve years ago. Iraq? Is that what you're? No, shortly after 9-11. Eleven years ago. Eleven years ago? Yeah. I was told there'd be no math, but yes, eleven years ago. I was like, wow, man, this is getting tough. Yeah, no. But that's, I mean, that's the answer after giving it no thought whatsoever. That's the first thought, you know. I don't want to use the old cliche, things changed after 9-11. And for a while, completely understandable. But I also think election year. Election year, if Obama was bombing, they would be saying it's bad. If he hasn't, you know, said I'm going to bomb, then they love to say he doesn't support Israel and what better way to do that than this. Right. He's an appeaser. Anything he does to the right is wrong. It's not, it wouldn't matter. They're going to take the contrary position. But I just think that aside, as a nation, maybe we shouldn't be quite so eager to get into another fight. No, that is definitely true. And I mean, one big problem is, and even if you feel it's the right fight, and that being said. I don't necessarily think we shouldn't eventually go into Iran. If Iran is close, and here's the thing is, you can't believe whether, you can talk to one quote inside official who says they, you know, they can have a bomb by Tuesday. And then you speak to somebody else, it's like they're years away. So who knows? It depends on whoever's telling you the story. And I don't pretend to know, you know, the truth. But I can't say that I think it's a bad idea to do something if they're that close. If Israel is sitting there saying, oh, we're there. We know they're months away from getting a nuclear bomb. We know they've tested it. We know they're that close. I would do something if I was them. I would 100% do something. I'm also an idiot, but I would do something. But what about that whole mutually assured destruction thing? I mean, don't you, I understand no one really trusts Iran, but it's not like they don't know that if they were to nuke. He was a good wrestler and he decided to create that team and manage guys and train guys because he'll believe that. And wrestlers can, as long as they learn the other skills, it can be pretty tough. And, you know, eventually he showed that he was right. And from that team, the guys came like, you know, wrestlers like Randy Couturo and Dan Henderson, myself. And so I think from beginning, back to your question, from beginning, I was pretty confident that it's going to, you know, I want to be a fighter. But at that time, again. The fighting itself in MMA was not, was not known where it's going to go. Right. So it wasn't established. Yeah. What was that? It was a 97 when you had that first fight. Did you have fights before that? I mean, 97, what I assume was your first professional fight, right? Yes. You mean like a bar fight? Well, yeah, I'm sure. Well, you have to test yourself somehow, right? Yeah. That's how Tank Abbey did it. Not in the United States, but back in Russia, of course, you know, it's a tough, tough life there, especially again in the middle of. Or early 90s was a lot of crime. There was no cops on the streets and you have to pretty much defend yourself. Yeah. One thing, one thing I want to touch on, you just brought it up. You said early on in your career, you didn't know where the sport of MMA was going to go. I think it's important to get your perspective because, I mean, from the beginning of your career till now, you've actually been one of the people that has actually participated in the sport as it's been evolving. Yeah. And that's a big, like you said, it's good. And a good story too. It's a story of all MMA and it happens pretty quick, like in the last 15 years than exactly when I started to fight. And in the beginning, I think they were bending more and more fights. And they're still better than New York for, you know, even back from those days. Yeah. And when UFC bought, when Zufa bought UFC and time started changing a little bit, but even they have a hard time in the beginning. And the Spaniards. Yeah. A lot of money. But I can tell you honestly that in my head, I quit actually for almost a year and stopped fighting because it was not kind of cool thing to do, first of all. And I was a young father of the young kid and I wasn't able to go on PTA meeting and say, well, I'm a fighter. Back then it was like, oh, you're one of those guys, you know. I think also, I guess one of the difficulties for the sport to get, to be more accepted was the fact that you had... You had to get some sort of like established rules. I mean, what... I think one of the big steps forward was getting Nevada State Athletic Commission in California to approve it. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, such a thing would have no rules. It sounds good, but it can become any, you know, chaos and be a danger for other people and nobody needs that. And I think, yeah, you're right. The big step was, you know, get... Work together with athletic commissions. Yeah. You know, get some sort of different states, which is, I'm not a big fan of them. They kind of... It's sometimes very difficult to work with them, but... You're right. You have to be some kind of structure. You got... You had to change from spectacle to sport. That's at least how I see it. How do you deal with that, though, when you're like... Because sometimes when you look at, like, when you step back and look at the production, when you're in a cage ready to fight, they got a camera guy right in front of you. I mean, people at home don't see that, but there's a camera guy right in front of you. Well, you get used to it. And again, working with the media was not my thing. I got, you know, in the beginning, I was kind of more shy guy. Not shy, but be more modest. That's my motto. But again, you have to do what you have to do. Right. And you can pay pretty much by people because they're watching you. And the more they watch, the more interesting, the more they pay, and the more, you know, sport evolves and allows you to train. So it goes, like, in a circle. And I realized that if I tried a little bit harder, and I'm, like, even talking to you right now, I'm here, I'm not just trying hard, but I just took my time to come over here, which is good because it makes good for sport and good for myself. And also when you're, like you said, the camera in front of you, the better you do, the faster you go home. Yeah. You produce good material, and people like it. You've done your job. Exactly. So you learn with the time. And also the media itself and the camera guys and everybody get so more professional over the years, too. And before they're asking a question, like, I go to a show like this, and they're like, what's your style? I'm like, really? Is that how you can ask? So I think media and the people who work there, they got more educated. So it become more easier to, you know, for the fighters, too. Yeah. I just wonder because I know sometimes you see these guys that they get a camera in front of them, and they just seem to be talking bad about the other fighter. And I've never seen you do that. Like, you show up ready to fight, and you go in there. So I just, you know. Trust me. There's a lot of things. Going on behind the scenes. Because actually they have a few, there's a job like that for UFC, integrators. They will talk. Oh, really? Yeah. They will instigate you and make you say stuff, even if you don't want to. But they will say something, oh, he's going to kick your ass or something like that. Just get you going, huh? Yeah. Or some people just do it on their own, right? Yeah, some people do it on their own. It depends on personality. But, again, it's not my personality to go. You know, talk smack. Because I always think, well, beat him first, then you can talk smack. But after you actually, after you beat him, you're so happy. I'm like, you know. Right. You can't be mad at him. Yeah. So what's a typical camp like? Is it 12 weeks before a fight? How do you change your mindset from, let's say, just walking here in downtown L.A. to, like, you get a fight? Well, the key for me, you know, always was trying to stay always in shape. Don't get out of shape and lately become more harder. But when I was young, you just be in general in good shape. And that actually helped me to get a lot of fights because people get hurt. And you can become replacement right away. If you're in good shape, you can pick up good money and, you know, make it happen. If you're not in good shape, something happened and you're all of a sudden you have opportunity, but you're not in shape to go. So I'm trying to stay in shape first. And then, yeah, three months, four months is a good time for the camp. And you start training, you know, a little more in general. And then towards the fight, you become more and more specific in the, you know, shorter time. Very intense. Put together the game plan. Yeah, put together the game plan. But, again, depends who you're fighting. And also in my mind, I don't really specifically train for one fighter because, again, in my career, it happens so many times. You last minute, you change your opponent, and then you're not ready. So better train in general. But, of course, there's little details, like you say, if you fight left-handed. So you have to train more with, you know, with softball guys. But do you have a lot of, you know, notice as far as, like, the percentage you're going to fight? Or I know it changes, you said, sometimes, you know, towards the end. But do you usually get enough? Like I say, they will let you know before, especially with UFC right now, it's pre-organized, everything. And there's a lot of guys on the roster, so it's not a problem. So four months, three months before. So you have adequate time to prepare for somebody. Have you always been a light heavyweight? No, I fought heavyweight a few times, including UFC. Yeah. Now, was it, did you have to cut weight, or was it just because that's what you were walking? The reason I ask is because you see somebody, like, and I hate to bring up the other Russian, but Fedor, but, like, you look at him, and it's like, that's a guy who can probably lose 15, 20 pounds and be a weight cut down. But I don't know if the mindset is different. Right now, maybe it's a little bit changed, but still. I mean, heavyweights are most paying middle guys. Yeah. So it's, you know, that's what, that's what most money is. Right. So if you're pretty close, it makes sense for you to go and fight in heavyweight. And plus, it changes a little bit too, because you can see guys like Junior Dos Santos, and they're more lighter and faster. Before, heavyweights were, you know, you just. Yeah. No, we don't talk about that. Yeah. You just go on a, a good chance to just go and fight some bag of potatoes or something. Yeah. Yeah. Guys like Tim Phillips. Yeah. And, you know, other big guys like Tyler were just. Yeah. And then back in the day, there was the heavyweights were not that good. And they still probably not as much as like light heavyweights or middleweights. It's a lot, a lot of, it's just a general population are little guys, like all middle guys. So the competition is much, much different. Yeah. Rich and I were talking about that a while back, how like the heavyweight, the heavyweights now are so different from the heavyweights, even, you know, from back in 97 or 98. I mean. Yeah. They were like just regular guys. And now you get these monsters. And there's kind of crazy. Yeah. But then there's other danger too. Like you said, there's a, the guys fast, like Junior DeSantis, like, and, but it's still pretty heavy. So you get hit by heavyweights, you get hit pretty hard. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, back in the old days, there was, there was guys like Tank Abbott and then now you got guys that look like Brock Lesnar and, you know. Yeah. Big difference. Yeah. Oh, that's great. So, so do you spend most of your time doing like cardio? Is cardio important or is it just all around training? No, cardio is definitely important. And again, just being a gym. In general, if you need to lose 10 pounds of weight, you have to be, your cardio should be pretty high there. Yeah. But do you train, let's say, cause you know, you see some of the cycles where people train two hours in the morning, take a break and then two hours in the afternoon and take a break and. Yeah. I like the scenario. I'll do train twice and, you know, as long as there's enough break in between. So yeah, twice is good. You can do cardio in the morning, you do Jiu Jitsu at night, you can do striking in the morning, you know, your cardio or whatever in general. Yeah. General stuff, just do it at night. Yeah. You do that, do you do that seven days a week or do you take, I mean, No, you take a break. So again, my training changed with, with time. Right now I'm not going super duper crazy. And again, I do, for instance, more cycling than just running anymore, you know, or swimming because, you know, there's such a thing as a. Because of the joints. Versa, versa climber. Yeah. You're not getting younger. And then, you know, for me, I'm, you know, still light heavyweight, I'm pretty heavy. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I'm 225, two pounds and I can't just go run for 10 miles anymore. Don't lie Vladimir, you know, brag, brag, brag that you ran the marathon this morning. Did you? Yeah. He beat some Kenyan guy I heard to get here. That's what I heard. No, after I realized that they, again, paid so much money, the girl just won like $125,000. I'm like, I'll go run. That's crazy. I didn't think that Kenyan. I don't know if you can run with those shoes with wheels on them. They kind of cool, right? Yeah. Yeah. Get done quicker downhill. You'll be good. A lot of money. As long as it's not raining. Yeah. Well, like back to your question, the training's a little bit changed. And also you have to be very picky with the fighters who you train with. Like before Howard was probably witnessing back in the days in the old raw, you can see people getting beat up back and left. And you know, right now I'm very, very picky. I don't just go and bang with anybody because everybody wants to hit Vladimir or at least, at least try. That's right. I don't like that. So, you know, we have, we had it, we're in the process of change right now, but so, you know, for the last few years we have a good crew with Anthony Hardonk and Jared Hammond. And I was trained with Fabricio Verdun for a little bit. And so I've been just blessed that in LA, South California, it's a good place to train because you can easily find a good, not just a good trainer partners, but also good schools and like full camp of people to help you. When you were training with Fabricio, were you guys over with Rafael Cordero too? Yes. Oh, okay. Since we're talking about training, I know I've looked online, it says you've got your own gym. Yes. Again, I'm trying in a transition. I had my gym VMAT and El Segundo. I'm in the transition now, moved to Redonda Beach with collaborating with Velocity and also with my friend, which is this gym is going to be in the Chinatown, right Howard? Yeah. He's going to be training with us. He's going to be teaching, working with us over at Strong Sports Mixed Martial Arts. Oh, excellent. Actually, that's going to start on 26th, on Monday 26th of this March. Oh, coming up. Yeah. That's like an exclusive. And it's pretty close from you guys. Yeah. What's the website? You guys got a website up for that? You know, I have to check with the managing partner to see if he has it, but the name of the gym is Strong Sports Gymnasium or Strong Sports Mixed Martial Arts. Oh, okay. Excellent. Yeah. We're on 700 block of Figueroa Street. Okay. So if you're interested, we'll make sure we'll put the link up on our Facebook page. Okay. On the Madtime Radio page and you know. Yeah. We're so lucky to be here, but actually I don't have a website right now. Again, because I was in transition to move my business from one place to another one and then re-changing everything. Or we can at least put up the address and- Yeah. Please. Yeah. We'll put up the info. Thanks. Anyone in the area, there's so much, like we were saying off the air, there's a lot of good training out there in the South Bay and there's a lot of great places to train. Soon to be in Chinatown, boys. Do you find it difficult though to run a gym and train? I mean, there's- Yeah. Sometimes, yes, I do. So, but I want to make a smooth transition with my career. So I don't want to just stop one day, stop fighting and then I start all over again. I want to be kind of be aware of that business already. But it can be really hard, especially being in the corner of guys who doesn't listen, like Jared Hammond. Yeah. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. But his last fight, I said, no more. I'm not going to go into your corner. No, I'm still probably going to help him. But it just- What happened? He didn't listen? He told him to do something, didn't do it? No, he just one of the fighters. He just liked to go and brawl and just get hit and hit the other guy and get hit again. It's kind of very entertaining, put it that way. But it's, you know, when you like see your little brother fighting, it can be heartbroken. Yeah. We did have a question actually from Steven from Fight Me Cold. He wanted to know when was your next fight? Well, right now I'm working. I just lost a fight. It was on December 30th and I took a few months off and now I'm ready to go back in. But as far as Fight Me, I have no idea yet. Wait for the honchos to call you. Stay in shape and stay ready. Exactly. That's the plan. Yeah. Victor, anything? Actually, I was going to ask you because it sounds like at this point in your career, when you prepare for a fight, you have an emphasis on different things. Either at one time of day you practice on your grappling, then your striking. Earlier in your career, specifically I want to talk to you about your fight with Pedro Izzo, UFC 41. I've heard you in interviews, you've said that this was actually the smartest fight you fought. But just I'm interested in how did you prepare for a fight like that against such a good striker like Pedro Izzo? Well, definitely I remember that time when he was getting ready. It was, like you said, it was one of my smartest fights because I know his kicks are devastating. Punches aren't bad either. But the key was for him to keep him busy. Don't get him relaxed because he's very dangerous when he's set. It's like a cannon. But the key was for me not to get him let get set. So mix him up. Just do a lot of fakes. If you see, like I was faking and going to the legs and then just punch him or fake the punch and go for take down and just stay active. And it was pretty difficult fight as far as because you have to keep high pace all the time. But luckily I was in pretty good shape then. But preparation for this fight was not just hard but also very interesting. Like I said, back then I was working with Rico Ciparelli and for particular for that fight, it was Eric Poulsen was helping me. He's very technical and I learned a lot not just for that fight but even for later in my career I used those tricks on other people. You still train with him? You still go over to CSW over there? I haven't seen Eric Poulsen in a while but I've been training with him and last time I think when he was training Josh Burnett. Oh, okay. That's another person who left a big mark on me. I've been training with Josh for a long time and I learned a lot of good things from him. Big guy. Yeah, big guy but very technical on both on his grappling and on his feet. Yeah. Yeah, and one of his early training partner suits was a very young Liotto Machida. Oh, Liotto. Yeah, I've been training with Liotto for almost two years now. And then I know, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I was just going to say it seems like all the fighters are in this small circle of friends almost like family. But I think you've got some history where you were a coach of another fighter during his wrestling days, right? Oh, yeah. Rampage Jackson. Yeah, Rampage Jackson. He was my student in the college which is he never graduated. He actually got kicked out after like three months. So, and get kicked out for beating up other guy. That's what he's, I mean, he started his career anyways. Wow. But maybe it's a good thing. If he will continue his college education. Maybe he will become a fighter. Yeah. So, you were a coach in his college or did you guys train together or you were his instructor? Well, I was one of the assistant coaches. Okay. And, you know, actually my job was not to recruit or do other stuff but actually go and wrestle and beat the guys up. So, yeah, I wrestled with Rampage back then. Oh, okay. Did you beat him up? Yeah. Well, he had the, you know, big heart and big balls back then. He didn't know much as far as fighting. But he definitely had a good career. He definitely had a, you know, big heart and trained hard. He came from, you know, being poor and from Tennessee and Memphis, whatever. Yeah. And he, you know, he become what he become right now. That's a cool story too. Yeah. He's really cool. We used to see him, we always talked about it, we used to see him at King of the Cage fights when they were at the Boba Casino. That's right. Yeah. He used to be in the back there. I'd sit there and I'd sit next to him one time, try talking to him and he was saying something. I was like, man, I don't know. I don't know what this guy just said. Yeah. But he was a real big fan of you when he fought Marvin Easton. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. Excellent. Yeah. So, it's a really small circle of friends, right? Yeah. Yeah. Real small. Yeah. I guess that's because you guys all share a common bond. You guys do this sport and love this sport. Yeah. And you know, on those big trips you, you know, stay in a hotel for a week. Usually, you know, they fly you back before and you kind of pick and choose who you hang out with. Like, I like hanging out with Pat Mellatich, all the time, nice guy. Uh huh. And every time we're on a trip, we just kind of hang out and, you know, and continue to teach each other, not just by, you know, just in a fight, but also in life. You can ask, you know, some advice or whatever. Was that a friendship that was really grown in the IFL or did you guys know each other before? No, even before. In IFL days and then, you know, and a lot of guys with wrestlers, especially wrestlers, I knew them before even we were in UFC. So, I knew those guys, you know, like I said. I knew those guys, you know, like, like Matt Hughes. I knew him in college because my buddy, Adam Vladimir, he was his coach in, you know, Eastern Illinois. So, I knew him when he was still wrestling. It seems like grappling is the same, the thing that tied it, has everyone together, huh? Yeah, yeah, I think so. It seems like it. But right now, it's changing. There's more striking guys coming in too. For instance, a lot of guys from Holland and Anthony Hardank, one of them, he was kind of going back and forth. Then he decided to stay. And, you know, he's one of my coaches and sparring partners for, you know, for a long time now. He's got that Dutch, is he like a Dutch kickboxer? Yeah. Yeah. So, I guess it's similar to kickboxing, except more striking. At least that's what I hear. You know, when they say Dutch kickboxing. Well, from my understanding, it's Thailand, then Holland, and then... Yeah, it's more like Muay Thai mixed with Kyokushin karate. Like Toink karate. Yeah. I think Rich brought up a good point about lots of people with a grappling background. You know, being in sport of MMA. I mean, I think the sport also opened a venue for lots of people primarily wrestling at, you know, collegiate level or Olympic level. Because after that, I mean, where do you go? And now MMA has... Exactly. You'll see more and more wrestlers participating in it. Because it's a big... So, you know, not as much as in the East Coast... west coast but on east coast it's very very big as a matter of fact there was a ncwe was this weekend this weekend in san luis and like i say yeah after that what are you gonna do yeah of course go and go and fight and right right now the special mma becomes so popular so all those the wrestlers you will see more and more in common and and learn different uh different skills and join mma that or they you know if they don't want to fight they can always be great coaches too which yeah it gives them another outlet it's not just a it's not just a john jones by himself or anderson silva it's a lot a lot of sparring partners behind them that's you know it's you're only good as uh your partner's good right so and you're right not everybody's going to become champion but they're going to help to create champions and build a base for that is it hard i mean it seems like there's so many people that help you get you know you're getting a lot of value in this area and i think it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's to where you're at, but is it hard to keep them in the loop? Because obviously some people, you always get like egos. Everyone's got ego and jealousy in gyms. Yeah, here and there you can see some drama. And again, the bigger gym, the more people you have, the more drama or chances that you have drama. But I've been trying to avoid people who can have problems with and actually been pretty lucky and blessed. And again, that's maybe helped my career just because my friends and I've been lucky to meet good people on the way. I'm sure with that much testosterone in the room, things like that always happen. Not always. And again, I hate the guys who are just trying to satisfy their ego in the fighting or in training. And I tell them, I'm always trying to teach my students that way too. You're here to grow. You may be this big, other guys a little bit more big, or somebody have more skills, but it's not for us to fight each other. It's more. It's more to raise up them together and learn from each other. And in your school, is it an MMA school? Are you teaching striking and grappling? Or are you concentrating on more than one with your students? No, a little bit of everything. And self-defense, most of it. And again, you can learn. Some people like more striking. Some people more grappling. I actually would talk with Howard. Because like wrestling, for instance, it takes a little bit of beating on your body. And it's a little bit impact and people kind of scare sometimes. Or some people don't like. And they don't like even being touched. So for those people, it better be striking. You go hit the bag or mitts and stuff like that. So it's less contact in that sport and less impact. But some people like to grapple and it's more physical. So those people who can compete also can compete in tournaments. And you know, you grapple. It's fun, but you have to learn. It's also injuries involved kind of that. I'd much rather get choked and punched in the head. Not too. But depends how hard you. How hard you punch. Yeah. I always thought that my games improved more when I was injured because I had to deal with an injury. So let's say like, you know, a couple of tournaments, I let's say tweak my neck and then you got to be able to. That's maybe true enough. You know, even my not just in my MMA career, even back days when I was wrestling, same thing. You become more cautious and careful what you do. And those things that you can do, you're trying to perfect it. So you use as much as. You can do. And also, what I was trying to say. Howard. Oh, Howard. Q-card Howard. Q-card Howard. Also heavier guys too. That's my, especially in my grappling. You know, I'm pretty strong guy. So I can just toss people around without much technique. But then somebody comes as good as you are or as strong as you are, then you may have a problem. That's why I like to wrestle with some guys like 300 pounders. Because I know I can toss them around. I have to be fast and flexible with my. My moves and smooth. That helps too. You're pretty strong. You shook my hand. Still hurt. But you know, some of the most amazing grappling practices that I've seen Vladimir perform was when he was training with Jacare. Oh, OK. Yeah. Jacare was part of a wrestling promotion that was put on a few years back called the Professional Submission League. And. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. it's a constant grind. You don't have like, you know, jiu-jitsu, like if you pull guard, you can take a break and, you know, kind of get your thoughts. Definitely not a lot of breaks. Yeah, when you wrestle, I mean, you're on it all the time. They'll call you for stalling and then... Yeah. I mean, you can't stall. You lose a point and stuff. But back in Belarus, when you wrestled out there, was it more Greco-Roman or was it... No, I did the freestyle. It was freestyle. Okay. It was Greco-Roman. Yeah. I've done some of that stuff too. And being here in, you know, in this country and seeing, you know, the different, the way the training is here, you know, with American wrestlers, what are some of the big differences about, you know, how they train in Russia, you know, as far as the wrestling goes? Okay. That was a big difference for me, first of all, because, again, like I did freestyle and folk style here, a little bit different rules. I like both and freestyle is more dynamic because you can throw people around and you can do other stuff. The thing I don't like about freestyle because rules are changing almost every year, so! And folk style, which is the college style here in America, is more traditional. Maybe I'm not always agree with the rules, but those rules were for many, many years, so you know, people know them and that's why a lot of people go and watch, actually, in St. Louis. It was packed. You can't even buy tickets to go and see NCAA because people know the rules. So for them, it's easy to watch collision style. Another thing is changing, too. I like in Russia better because it's all year round. There's no seasons. Here in America, you do a season, then go get fat. You lose your weight here and then they just do nothing. A lot of people do that. And a lot of coaches just use, recruit good people, but they don't try to coach them. They're just trying to get as much as they can from that particular wrestler and that's it. Get result and goodbye. In Russia, it's more like four years process. I was like, oh, coach, I want to do this. I want to do this. I'm like, no, it's not your time. Your time is in the three years from now. So that way they can achieve better results, I think, put it that way. And the wrestling itself more technical and more smarter than in America. There was definitely a few individuals even in America, very talented guys, but here it's more how can I say, natural selection of only strongest and smartest survive. And in Russia, even if you're not smart, they make you. They make you put in the time to get that technical. That makes a lot of sense. So I know you said you also said that you just went back home to visit, right? Yeah. Went to visit my family. My father didn't feel too well, but I'm feeling better right now. Do you go back there and feel like does that re-energize you to do better here or do you miss your home? Because obviously where you came from was pretty rough and you go back there now and I'm sure it's not like a big city anymore, right? I mean, it's still pretty rough. No, it's not pretty rough and things got much better since when I was there, but yeah, definitely I miss home. It's not just Russia, it's just anything. I'm traveling a lot. I'm going to Canada, Germany, Brazil and different countries, but always my home is LA and South California. There's nothing like home. So yeah, when you're in Russia, three weeks ago I was there nighttime I was going minus 30. That's pretty freaking cold. That is cold. Yeah, most of us here, if it gets below 60, you know, we're complaining. If you're too hot, just jump in the car and just drive to Big Bear or whatever then you're skiing, snowboarding and you come here on the beach, I think it's the best. And it's not just the location, but also I think people tend to be more grumpy when it's cold. That's why I think compared to LA and New York even, people over there are like, whoa. Yeah. The weather. That's why we pay all those high taxes, I guess, right? That's why we're here. That's why we can ski and surf on the same day. Well, maybe you can say something in Russian to your friends out there so they can download this podcast halfway through. How's your Russian? Pretty good? Конечно. No, I don't understand. What about if you're going to go to live in a different country right now, are you going to forget English? Maybe. Sometimes I forget Spanish, you know? How do you say that in Spanish? I've got to look it up. Хочу всем слушателям, которые слушают на русском языке, хочу сказать большое спасибо и послушайте это радио и дальше. All right. Well, thank you. Whatever that means. No, I was just thinking that all the Russian listeners who ever listens and, you know. We've had some downloads from Australia, from Sweden and different places. So shout out to everyone out there listening. Yeah, it's kind of cool. Going global. Yeah, trying. We're trying. The web's worldwide, right? Exactly. That's why it's www, right? Yeah. For now. So in case anyone's just tuning in, you know, this show will be available for download on iTunes within the next day or so in case you miss any part of this broadcast. And, you know, we still are live. You can call the show 1-800-893-9562 or tweet us and we'll see if we get your question on the air. If I can say something, something that I find interesting. If I'm not mistaken, isn't Velocity in Redondo, isn't that a sports performance gym? Yes. Right. Yeah. So I think that's pretty cool that he's training wrestling and whatnot in a place where they have all the equipment where they can assess all his all the kinetics to improve. Yeah. You will see it more and more collaborations of gym like that. So it's not more traditional like jujitsu gym used to be when they have a mat and that's it. Right now you can see a lot of like Mark Munoz gym like that in Irvine. Exactly. It's a big gym for sports performance, but also they do MMA. Do they have machines there that test like your O2 and all that other stuff? Like your oxygen levels when you run with, you know, we see people on the treadmill. And they did. And actually, I don't know if they continue to do it, but I did what's called altitude training when your computer changes your input of your oxygen. With a tent or with a mask? With a mask. Oh, OK. Why am I thinking rocking three now? But you're right. And, you know, I've been working with a few football players right now, you know, getting ready for a combine and for the draft and really being enjoying it because, you know, they're great athletes, but you can see big results if you show them a few moves, you know, like for your wrestling moves and they, you know, totally, totally get in it. Linemen especially. Yeah. Yeah. A little arm drag. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Right. That's exactly what I show them. Arm drag, inside control, a little tackle, but mostly like hand placement and footwork and stuff like that. No ankle picks, huh? Face mask and ankle. If you're going to get a foul, might as well go out with style, right? Get on ESPN, though. Yeah. That'll make top plays. Look at this ankle pick. I'm not thinking I can see a double leg. Yeah. That's kind of cool. Yeah. And so now, you know, training in your gym, you're just waiting for the next call. Is there anyone out there that you'd like to fight again? Are there any matches you'd like to see? Well, yeah, definitely. I still have a few unfinished fights. I would like to fight Lil Nug. And I heard he pulled out a fight with the guy who I lost, with Gustafsson. And he wants to fight in Brazil. So that's maybe a good idea. Oh, you guys are one and one, right? Yeah, it's a nice trilogy, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, good trilogy. Yeah, one and one. And I, you know, again, I had a little injury. Not a little, but a pretty big injury. When I was fighting him. So I don't think it was a fair fight. I mean, I don't want to take any credit from him. But, you know, the third time, we'll show who's who. Or maybe you and Tito again. Me and Tito again, too. I think that will be a good match, too. When you fought Lil Nug, was that at heavyweight or light heavyweight? Well, at that time, when we fought in Japan, I think there was no weight limit there in Japan. The first time. First time. And then second time, we fought in a flicks show. And yeah, it was light heavyweight. OK. Yeah. So spending your time in different organizations, what did you think, really, of your opinion of the IFL team system? Did you think that was something that was going to last? I think it was a pretty good idea. And it worked for a while. But I think given athletes are insurance, that time, and it was a pretty, for that time, it was a pretty organized organization. But again, it kind of eat itself. It just didn't happen. People were stealing money from each other or from themselves, whatever it was. It was a big scam. But I think the idea was good. But execution was not too successful. Yeah. So do you find it, is it, do you have to go out and get a lot of sponsors? Or do you have a lot of sponsors coming to you? Because obviously, I. My management team works, which is Alchemist. And I'm trying to, you know, I hate to go around and find a sponsor before a fight because there's other things to do. You know, stay in shape. You need to train. Yeah. And those things, those hours that you don't train, you want to sleep and get rest, you don't want to run around. So ideally, your manager will go and look for them. OK. I'm just curious because obviously, I mean, it seems like money is important as well because you don't want to go out there and beat yourself up. Yeah. Definitely. And speaking of sponsors, my first sponsor was sitting right here, Howard. Comeback Kimonos. That was my first sponsor. Look at that. Yeah. Back in the day. Back in the day, I don't have to run around and find him. He was coming and. I was a student too, you know. He was teaching me. Yeah. He was helping me out. So it kind of worked for both of us. Yeah. I got a good friendship, it looks like, you guys. Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah. We've known each other, gosh, 13 years. Even sometimes, like for instance, right now in UFC, to be a sponsor, you have to be pre-approved by them. And you have to pay the fee. And back in the NFL, it was the same kind of thing. And Howard was not approved. But even then, he was helping me. And I was helping him out without wearing, because I couldn't wear his stuff on the ring. But you know. You should have got a tattoo. They can't make you do that. Hold on. That's interesting right now that you brought that up. So in the UFC, say if you get your own sponsor on your own, it has to clear through Zufa and them first before? Yeah, that's correct. That's definitely before. And not only that, you have to pay a tax to the UFC. Oh, you do? Yes, you do. And that's, I think. It's not cheap. Yeah, it's not cheap. Really? Yep. Wow. But I think it's fair for those, first of all, they have to do that. To protect their big sponsors. Exactly. Because if, let's say, for instance, you become a sponsor, you pay a big fee, then you want to be exclusive, right? You don't want to be a bunch of guys who wear everything else. But you just want your stuff, right? So I think it works for UFC and works for fighters. Of course, it will be better if there will be a little bit more lose. But then if you're losing it up a little bit, the price will go down. Right. Everybody can become a sponsor. Right. I mean, it's interesting to see my background is boxing. I work as a matchmaker. And with most fighters that I've gotten to work with on shows, and I see they bring in their own sponsor, and they're trying to make a little extra money on the side. Yeah, definitely. And again, you'll probably see it on different scales. But what seems interesting about this is, at least for MMA, it seems like right now the UFC is, you know, the biggest show around, if you want to make any money, just seemed odd to see them also getting their hand in on them. Well, you know, that's just their business model. They're doing nothing different than what the NBA is doing or the Major League Baseball or the NFL. They just need to protect their brand. And I think in a modern world, like today, you have to do that in order to be successful. That's what I'm saying. If you kind of start being too... too soft on things, then it's not going to happen. You're just not going to survive. There's junk out there. Yeah, that's true. And you were talking about that earlier, where you have to trademark your name, because then you get other guys trying to sell stuff with the janitor on there or whatever it is, right? So it's, I mean... That can happen. Yeah. And I know, like, at least I've seen that happen when Dana White got mad at Brock Lesnar for saying a different beer company was sponsored. And I mean, he blew up. He was very upset. You know, I guess... Well, you can see the both sides again. Like Brock was not happy because probably they didn't pay him much or he was thinking they could pay him a little more. Jeez. Didn't he make like half a million dollars a fight? Yeah, but there's like always two sides. Well, yeah. And there's taxes. Yeah. So, you know, you really can't blame them for what they do. You know, I'm just lucky that I got in the game when it was a little bit more of a wild, wild west. And so, you know, everybody had an opportunity. Everybody had a chance. Now, you know, tap out on ice. It started out at the same time. In fact, I was out before tap out was. But look how big tap out got. So, you know, it's just the way it is. It's kind of like when you're a pioneer or something, it's always that way, right? Because like you look at music, like the pioneers of music, any kind of music or whatever you want, they never really got paid enough and they came up on the sport. And then when it got really big, they kind of got forgotten. Right. Well, just like, you know, our coach, like, you know, Awano, John Awano. Look at his gloves. That's right. That's right. They used to be... He used to make the gloves for the UFC. Yeah, first it was Boxergenics and then it was his and now it's Century, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, he used to make all those gloves. Yeah. He always talks very highly of you, Howard, by the way. He does. The guy, he was, you can even hear it on the old radio show. He always talks about how much you helped him out. Oh, thanks, man. And those are still some great gloves too. He still makes them for other organizations. Is he? Yeah, he still makes those gloves. That's good. That's good. But yeah, not for the UFC anymore, but yeah, those are some great gloves. Yeah. Yeah. You know. And... And any new projects you're working on, Howard? I saw actually you have a line of shorts coming out, right? No, no, no. I'm just still making gi's. In fact, I'm having a 100% cotton ripstop gi finally coming out in May. It's going to be pretty nice. Yeah. Yeah. Rash guards? No, no, it's a gi. No, you're making more rash guards. Because I think you're the first guy who started making the rash guards. That's right, I was. Yeah? Yeah. What happened to those? You know. Under Armour came in and just took over the market. Yeah, yeah. That's okay. It is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's still a market out there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I don't buy Under Armour. I like my, you know, Jiu Jitsu brand type rash guards and stuff. Well, you know, I'm known as the Jiu Jitsu gi guy. So that's really where I kind of keep my interest in right now. Just the gi's. Just the gi's right now. What about you? You got anything, you got any shirts coming out or anything? How about a website? A website where people can go look you up? Anything out there? Still working on it? Still working on it. I had it before, like I said, vmat.tv. Right now, everything's changing. Everything's changing. All right. We'll be there. Yeah. And then, you know, he'll be at Strong Sports Mixed Martial Arts. Yeah. You going to be teaching there or training there? A little bit of both? Both. Oh, okay. Yeah. Like I said, we're starting on March 26th. So you guys come and check it out. Yeah. 714 North Figueroa Street. All right. Yeah. Sunset and Figueroa. Oh, I got to look that up. Yeah. At the world famous Kim Sing Theater. You train as much as Howard? Howard trains like six times a day. I don't think I can do it now yet. But when I start getting prepared for a fight, that's about my pace. Well, Vlad is my coach. You know, he's one of my gurus. He taught me everything I knew. So do you cut a lot of weight? I mean, how much you weigh right now, if I can ask you? 225. So 20 pounds, 20, 25 pounds. That's not too bad. No, it's not too bad. I just met actually in Velocity in Irvine, Jake Ellenberger. And he's like my size and he fights 170. Really? That's crazy, huh? Yeah, he's almost 200 pounds. Wow. But he looks big. You see him on TV. Some of those guys just look big. Well, here's something funny. You know, I saw a YouTube video of a grappling match that Ben Henderson entered in. This is a while back. Uh-huh. He's got 190 pounds in that tournament. Oh, wow. Well, he's a big dude. He's got some big legs. No, but he's 155. Yeah, he fights at 155. So can you imagine in that one video, I saw him. He's dressed at 190. Well, look at Diego Sanchez doing the Ultimate Fighter. Was that at 170? You know, same thing. He really fights at 155. Yeah. So, yeah. It's crazy. Did you cut weight when you wrestled? Not as much as right now. But again, it's getting easier with time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you kind of learn your body. And again, with technology you have different supplements. You have IVs and have to have like that. So it's become much easier. But it's still not easy. It was still a hard time. Vegas is good place to do it. Canada. I went to my last fight in Germany. That was pretty tough one. When I get there the week before and you have all those German sausages in the buffet. And you just go. I'm going to eat this today. And tomorrow I'm going to start counting down. and tomorrow come again and again and it was toughest toughest cut for me around up and down in the 14th store and back 20 times before like what's wrong with this guy everyone can't be like vandalism and eat a bowl of like udon noodles before you you know before you weigh in and stuff that's crazy in vegas a good place to lose weight because if you drink enough a lot of water is coming out that's right the desert there yeah the desert you're gonna get soaked out no but also vegas is good because i like that they usually have first of all you you fight where you stay so it's easy to travel and also usually they have good gyms and a nice sauna and stuff like that spa so you just sit in there and chill and it's actually pretty cool is it is it hard because i know the mindset when you're at a fight is like you just want to get get to the weigh-in get ready to fight yeah that's actually pretty i think it's hard to date it's one's way especially for the guys who are losing it that's that's tough a lot of grumpy guys yeah a lot of grumpy guys and that's commission's work was such with such urgency right i mean it's getting better it's getting better but yeah i hate those days when you have to weigh in and you wait for commissioner come like for two three hours so it's crazy and it still exists on smaller shows and you know that's that's totally prevalent man that's cool do you ever wonder why that wedding will just come out on the weigh-ins when the ufc has weigh-ins on to you why don't people just come on their underwear and weigh in they're like you come out it's getting better and better because especially if uh there's broadcast yeah so they have to be on time yeah it looks like our uh oh we still got it we still got a couple minutes about a minute 40 seconds coming up yeah well any other questions well we got a lot of questions we just don't have enough time that's a problem man so at least for myself i just wanted to say thank you for coming out on a sunday thank you guys for doing it and uh you know it's a it's an honorable thing to do to yourself too too but well no promote actually we're here to promote you because thank you yeah because you know we're fans and you know we want to see you continue to fight and thank you guys and like i said it's mma got so big not you know again just because i'm sell but also because of media and it changed dramatically it's actually nice it's pleasant to to do right now yeah yeah definitely for everyone out there make sure you if you're in the area you know check out the gym check check out howard kimonos and uh you're looking for for some new equipment and i remember this show is going to be available on itunes uh probably through the next day or so or you can uh refer to the um skid row studio.com website or the my time radio website if you want to catch uh the show again i feel like i'm at a bar and the music's real loud we're like at the oscars and they're like they're playing the wrap it up music yeah wrap it up and we're looking at the clock it's like 26. thank you i'm a big fan of you know i'm always listening to you guys hey we appreciate that howard i like it yeah we really do appreciate you coming out and uh reaching out to vladi for us and well thank you for i know you were going to do the marathon and you said forget the marathon that's good you took a detour we'll throw some water at you but thanks everybody here