#137 Dustin Jacoby - UFC Light Heavyweight
Dustin Jacoby - UFC Light Heavyweight Fighter/Athlete. Factory X Athlete. Landow Performance Athlete. Jacoby is an American mixed martial artist and kickboxer who currently competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In kickboxing, he has competed for GLORY, and in MMA, he has competed also for Bellator, World Series of Fighting, and Titan FC. He has fought as both a Light Heavyweight and a Middleweight. On November 1, 2018, he was ranked as the #8 middleweight kickboxer in the world by Combat Press. When Dustin is not in the gym training, he enjoys the outdoors as a sportsman and conservationist. Bobby is joined by Dustin to discuss the UFC, MMA, GLORY kickboxing, archery, upland bird hunting, hunting, elk hunting, backcountry, family, Colorado, outdoor life, and much more. Please subscribe or like us on social media platforms for updates on shows, events, and episode drops.
Sponsor Links:
Mountain Side listeners receive 10% off all Jocko Fuel products! Use Code TMS10 to save.
Mountain Side listeners use Discount code TMS to receive 10% off ONNIT products!
---
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Dustin Jacoby - UFC Light Heavyweight
Joining us back is my good friend Dustin Jacoby. Dustin is a top-ranked UFC light heavyweight who is quickly climbing the ranks for a potential title shot. He has had an extensive career in mixed martial arts, fighting at the highest levels in Glory Kickboxing, the UFC, and multiple organizations. Above all that, Dustin is an incredible person and friend. I always enjoy spending time with him. We spent the morning at the archery range and rolled in here to do an interview. It was a great time, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Dustin Jacoby is back in the Mountain Side house.
The studio is super dope. I love it. We've had a hell of a day. We've been shooting bows. We've had a great day.
We met at 7:30 in the morning. We've been hanging out all day. You didn't even see your wife that morning.
I did. My wife is an early riser. We were up, chatting, and moving. She was getting ready to go for a run. She's big into running. She decided she was going to sign up for a half marathon. When she goes all out, she goes all out. Every day she's got this schedule and diet that she's following, and running and training program with her friends Mary and Colin Englin. I don't know if you know Colin Englin.
You talked about him a little bit. He's a big hunter, or is this somebody else? I'm getting confused.
His wife's a big runner. Kayla's hooked on running now. She was up getting after it. We met first thing in the morning and went up to the American Bowman Club.
What do you think? Honest opinion.
Unbelievable. If you go hunting and prepping to go out there and get an animal, you're walking through the mountains. It's a mountain course. You're going station to station and shooting between trees with 8-inch gaps at a couple of different times.
There are some tough shots in there. Shout out to Scott Enderich. We've had him on the show. He's the President up there. He directs the course and how it's set up.
For the people that don't know, I have been bow hunting for several years. This will be my third year in 2023. In 2022, I got a brand new bow. Unfortunately, I was not able to go. I had a fight right around that timeframe. We moved into a new house in September 2022.
You got called out of elk camp last season.
That was a couple of years ago. That was in 2021.
That was the last time you were in there.
That was the second time. Time flies. We went out there to shoot. I'm a golfer. We played twenty holes.
It's similar to golf a little bit.
I shot a 148, which is not good in golf terms.
In archery terms, it's good. For as little as your bow is set up and as little wraps as you have, you don't shoot your bow every day like I do. I only shot a 180.
You beat me 40 or not quite a full 40. Where I was going with this is I've only been hunting for a few years with a bow. The first target out there was between an 8-inch gap and a tree at 25 yards. It was a squirrel. I'm like, “Is this what we're doing now?” It was cool to set up. We're tracking through the mountains. We got elk that we're shooting at, caribou, a pheasant, squirrel, badger, and bears.
There's nobody out there. You and I didn't run into anybody until we got back to the truck.
It is cool. I highly recommend it. It is an unbelievable spot. Thank you very much for bringing me. I get to do a lot of cool shit because of the cool people I know. Thank you. That was awesome. I can't wait to go again.
The feeling's mutual. I always say this, “You can have all the cool shit in the world, but if you can't share it with anybody, what's the fucking point?” I love taking people up, especially if it's their first time up there because I get as much enjoyment out of seeing them enjoy it as I do. That shot across the creek at the mountain lion and the 50-foot cliff is epic.
Are you going to bring up some video?
Jeremy's got it right here. You were posting live.
I should be on my live feed.
I'm more of a live-in-the-moment type of person. I try to take it at the moment. I've had to learn personally, and I posted it on social media a few days later. My feed isn't like what I'm doing now because I've had it bite me in the ass a couple of times where people have found me.
I get that. I'm the same way, but I have a different perspective. I'm a story guy. I'll post a story. I'm like, “That’s what I'm doing at the moment,” and then it's gone. I don't make many posts. You don't see what I'm doing. You get to see what I'm doing now, but it's history once it's over. I was playing golf. I played at Red Rock's Country Club. I'm putting it out there for everybody to read. I'm going to be a member of that country club one of these days, sooner than later, in Red Rocks Country Club. I loved the course. It was my first time playing it. If you watch the video, we get down towards the end, and you see these deer chilling on the course. There were a couple of nice bucks. Going back to hunting, a big mule buck is the one thing I haven't taken out yet. That's on my bucket list of mine.
Did you pass that buck when they were dragging off the road? It's like a 200-inch deer in the velvet. I always get heartbroken when I see them on the side of the road.
This is starting our day. This is probably stake 7 or 8.
I think that's 10 or 12.
You got a big horn sheep down there at 50 yards.
It ranges at 30 yards, but it's a 50-foot cliff that you're shooting off of 60 feet.
By the grace of God, we aided this one. We both had kill shots.
It was in the vitals. It's vetted to make it even harder.
This was my first one that got put on video shooting across the creek. You hear me say that did hit the foam. It did hit foam, but it hit the leg. It was a little bit low.
It'd been one pissed-off mountain lion.
I felt bad about that one.
I got to send you the other videos because I got videos of you. I don't know if you noticed, but I was filming you shoot off the clip. I'll send those to you. I should do it now. It's beautiful up there. There are wildflowers everywhere. It's peace and quiet. It's 10 or 15 miles off a highway so you don't have any of that noise. The only thing you hear man-made going by is airplanes every once in a while. That's about it. Other than that, squirrels and birds.
It is the first day ever shooting my bow 100 yards. I don't even have a pin for 100 yards. We shot six arrows a piece. He was 6 for 6 and probably 4 kill shots. He had a pin for 100 yards.
You were aiming at the sky.
That's what it felt like. I was like, “Here we go. Bombs away.”
Do you remember the Tootsie Pops thing, the little Indians shooting out the star on the wrapper?
I don't remember that.
It's a perfect picture.
I'm 1 for 5. I hit the leg, and the other four are way short. They don't even come close to the target. We pull it out. I was like, “I got to get this on camera of you shooting at 100 yards for the people and proof.” This is that video.
We were going to send it to cam.
I would love to. This is what I do over and over again when the lights are on.
It was funny because we weren't doing that good until we turned the camera on. When you turn the camera on, you shoot better than I did. I got the setup to shoot it 100 yards.
We will go ahead and pull this back. The first recorded 100-yard shot was a kill shot.
I was filming and watching through the binoculars. I saw the arrow drop right in. I knew it was a kill shot. I was like, “Yes.” I was stoked. It's fun. You were outside of the tin ring on that.
We would've taken that one home. That was a lot of fun. Thanks for bringing me out there. I can't wait to do it again.
I had as much fun as you did. I love going up there by myself.
We didn't run into anybody until we were getting out of there. We saw a couple of people.
I hardly see anybody up there.
You said there are 150 members.
It's somewhere around there. It might be a little bit more. They opened it up to a few more. I don't know. They have meetings. You see how well that course is taken care of. It's taken care of by the members, which is cool. When we crossed that target, and it fell over, we took a few minutes to fix it because you fix it for the next guy. I would expect somebody to do that for me. We found a couple of arrows that weren't ours. We returned them back to the shack. That's the type of people that are up there. I feel like it's hard to find that in America these days. People care about one common thing themselves and are all vested.
They're concerned about themselves and what they have going on. They are selfish. You pick up after each other, and you leave it better than how you found it. That's the big thing about hunting. Anytime I go hunting and camping, my entire goal is to leave that place better than how I found it. A little bit goes a long way, a wrapper here or an arrow there and putting it back in place.
We didn't see one piece of trash up there. The thing about it is those guys go up there on the weekends sometimes and cut firewood for a day. They clean the place up and make it better.
It's me feel like a piece of shit. What did I do now? I need to go back and chop some more.
You got to be a member. Scott, if you're reading this, Dustin wants in. Make another spot. It's awesome to be a part of that. It's cool when you go to one of their meetings or something. It's a lot of like-minded younger dudes like you and myself. They enjoy being in the woods. They appreciate the same things. Most of them are bow hunters. There are a few old salty dudes in the group to keep everybody in line. You got to have those too. It's good fucking people.
I love it up there. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made joining the club, which I'm a guy not to join clubs. I'm like, “Why do I need a club for?” This is different. Not that I'm going to war, but these are good people. It's good people to be around. The guy that was up there tuning his broadheads, we didn't even catch his name. The little interaction we had with him was positive. We've had a good day. It was awesome. Having a common interest in something like archery, look how much time we spent together that was uninterrupted where we didn't have cell phone service and had the best fucking time. That's what you get out of golf too.
I love the bonding on a golf course. I'm dialed into the game. That was dialed in now. It's a fun activity and a challenge. What I like about this golf is the challenge.
I'd love to go golfing with you sometime, but I have to take a lot of mulligans.
I'll put these scores up, and I've been playing good. They're like, “How many mulligans?” I'm like, “I don't play mulligans. You ask any of my buddies I play with. I don't shoot mulligans. I play real golf. I hit a bad shot, and I got to drop. I'm going to put it on and give myself a chance for par.”
They wouldn't want to hold you up.
That's the thing with the guys I play with. I don't care how you play. I don't care if you suck. My motto is, I don't care if you suck. Suck fast. Let's not be the group holding other people up. You got to be considerate of other people's time. When you're on the golf course, I'm not a soap. I don't like slow golf. We got to keep it moving. We'll look for your ball if it goes OB. We'll give you the time of day you get your 2, 3, 4 minutes, whatever it takes. If it's not there, we drop and move on. We don't make a big deal about each shot. We're trying to put it in, but let's keep the game moving. Be respectful of other people's time.
If you suck, suck fast. Don’t be the one holding other people up. You've got to be considerate of other people's time.
That's how I feel about this 3D Archery. There are people who take it to a different level where your foot's got to be on the stake, and there are no range finders. They get serious. It's fun going up there relaxed. Even though we kept score, it wasn't like a competition. We didn't have money on the line or anything like that.
Not yet. Next time we go up there.
We got to invite Luke Caudillo. He's the guy. Shout out to Luke. He is the reason why I have a membership up there. I hit him up. Me and my son went up. They do a Father's Day shoot, which is cool. It's an actual competition.
You and your boy both shoot. Do you add up each other's score against everybody else?
There's a pot. They do 3D tournaments. Everybody pays an entry fee of $30 or $40. It is whoever shoots the best round, and it's an honor system. I'm sure there are a few guys that cheat, but in this, it's an honor system. You score yourself and turn in your score sheet at the end of it, and whoever has the highest. Do a second, third, and fourth.
Luke does a shoot up there called Best of the Best. It's a traditional shooter and a compound shooter pair-up. If they don't have one, you randomly get paired up with somebody. It's like a couple of thousand dollars if you win. You get to go up and shoot a course. You're only paying a $120 entry fee. The prize money is big too. They give away trophies, belts, and rings.
A hundred bucks to win a couple of thousand, I'll sign up for that end of the day of the week.
There are some shooters that go up there and shoot it.
I don't know about this. I need a handicap one. The highest possible point you could get was 220.
Two twenty if you are shooting one arrow at each stake.
You get five points.
The animals are life-sized targets. We shot at a grizzly bear and a mountain goat. The squirrels are like on roids. It's a big squirrel. We shot at a pheasant and badgers.
If you hit the 3D target, you get five points. You have vitals and a kill shot. From there, you can go 8, 10, and 12.
There are different rings on the target. If your arrow's barely touching the twelve-ring, and it's mostly in the ten, it's a twelve. That’s how I've played. Some guys might argue that. You can go as deep as you want. There are different bow shoots. It's called IBO. There are professionals that do this. Their living is shooting 3D targets.
Archery is an Olympic sport. We work with USADA, which is the United States Anti-Doping Agency. They come and randomly test us. Outside of competition, we're getting tested for PEDs, steroids, and things of that nature. He comes to my house. He's like, “I got to go. I'm going to do an archer next.” Archer is getting PED tested. He's an archer. It's an Olympic sport. He's getting piss tested for steroids, which is crazy. I found that pretty unique.
They have different rules. I pointed it out to you on one of the targets, and I can't remember which one it was, but there's a little circle at the top of the lungs. If you hit that, it's scored as a fourteen over. That's not your best possible score. If you shot all fourteen on a pheasant, it would be the diameter of the arrow.
You can take it as far as you want, like anything. You can take golf as far as you want. You can get the rangefinders. You can have your own cart and the club that fills your beer. You can go as far as you want, but there’s a ton of guys out there that go and shoot all these 3D archery tournaments. They win belt buckles. It is like rodeo or 100 miler marathons. Belt buckles are big in this community. Luke and they do a thing called Best of the Best. They give away a fight belt.
Speaking of fight belts, Justin Gaethje, a Colorado boy, won the BMF title. Shout out to Gaethje. I got to play golf with him.
We talked about that a couple of years ago.
I got to play with him. My days are all thrown off since my last fight. I've been playing golf every day. I walked up to him on the punting ground. I said, “I've been doing a lot of talking about who the baddest motherfucker in the UFC at golf is, and you wanted the BMF title. I'm going to challenge you to see who the best golfer in the UFC is.” He looked right at me, dead serious. He goes, “I guarantee I'm your toughest test. You're going to find out now.” I was like, “I can't wait.”
We go out there, and he birdies the first toll. I parted the first toll. He is a good golfer, but I will say I did beat him in golf. I shot a 73 that day. He shot a 79. We both played well, which was cool. It wasn't a complete blowout, or both guys played badly. We both played our A game. My A-game was a little bit better. Shout out to Justin Gaethje. That was cool playing with the man. I've been wanting to forever. I claim that BMF title, and he put it on his story, “I guess I'm the second-best golfer in the UFC.” I thought it was cool. We bonded and played golf. We both played well. It was a great day. I couldn't be happier. That was a lot of fun.
I know Luke well. He corners Gaethje. He is the guy I was telling you about. he got his own podcast. He's a great dude. I've never met Justin. He is a good guy.
He is a quiet guy. He's got a small circle. He doesn't have a big crew. I like that about him. He's cool. He's a twin. I'm a twin. We talked about our twins a little bit. We got to know each other. As the day went on, we both opened up more. I'm an outgoing guy and laid back. He's a little more reserved and quiet, but you can tell he is a good dude. He's done well. BNF is the baddest motherfucker on the planet. That's not easy to do. Kudos to him.
He's a hell of an athlete.
I've always been a big fan. I looked up to him and respected him after he fought my boy Brian Foster. Shout out to Brian Foster, one of the baddest dudes to ever do it. He is the first real professional fighter I looked up to. He was Donald Cerrone before Donald Cerrone. He had five UFC fights. Three of them were bonuses. The only time I have ever seen him sparring got dropped one day in sparring on a Monday.
Is that what ended his career?
He went and got an MRI. He was supposed to fight on April 30th, 2011. The MRI showed a spot on his brain after taking a hit. The UFC cut him and never let him back in. he couldn't get approved by athletic commissions. There was some inside corrupt shit going on. There's no doubt in my mind. He didn't get along with Mike Mazzulli, the Head of the Connecticut Athletic Commission, who had a lot of power. I remember him telling Foster, “You're never going to fight.” While he passed multiple tests and head screens, he was blacklisted.
The UFC was also scared. They were like, “You got a guy with a head issue. We're not going to take that risk ourselves.” You've seen that happen to a couple of other athletes in the modern day. They've got retested, and they've been okay and competed. Look at Luque, who fought RDA. He had a brain bleed a couple of years ago. He was back fighting in the UFC. He got blacklisted. That was a bad deal. Shout out to Foster. He's a badass and a real OG. When Gaethje beat him, I cornered against him. I was like, “This kid's the real deal.”
I remember watching Foster several times. He was a bad motherfucker. Gaethje fought in Salt Lake City, UFC 291. I fought a couple of weeks ago in Nashville. I drew inspiration from Gaethje. I was like, “This guy is a bad motherfucker.” I love Dustin Poirier. Those two are two of my favorite fighters. I didn't want to see either one lose, but for Gaethje, the way to win that fight the way he did was badass. I drew so much inspiration.
I remember I was sitting in the back. The TV was on. The fight before me got done. They showed the crowd. Everybody was there. It was massive. I was like, “Everybody in the world is watching. Do what Gaethje did. Go out there and ball out like he does every time.” I went out there. I was like, “Here you go. Gaethje and Foster.” I was in the corner of this one. There I am up top.
This was you had the little flavor saver back then, didn't you? What year was this?
This was 2016. Gaethje was still undefeated. This is earlier, but he won the World Series of Fighting Tournament. He got all the way to New York to fight for the title for $1 million. He didn't get cleared by Athletic Commission because of this Mike Mazzulli guy. He won the whole fucking thing and didn't get cleared for $1 million.
You wonder how many people are out there like that.
There are tons.
Part of it is you got to be a Sugar Sean type of attitude or Conor McGregor.
You got to bring some flair.
Those guys are the highest-paid dudes in the sport. It's not because they're the best, in my opinion.
It's all about moving the needle. In this fight, Gaethje got him with low kicks dude. Brian is nasty.
UFC: You’ve got to bring some flair. Conor McGregor and those guys are the highest-paid dudes in the sport, and it's not because they're the best. They moved the needle. It's all about moving the needle.
Look at how young Gaethje is there. Was this a UFC fight?
No, this is when it was World Series of Fighting, which is now PFL.
What do you think about them doing the $1 million prize? Is that to get fighters over there?
They're getting bigger. They're getting more investors. It's good. The more competition, you keep driving up the price for fighters. Back to guys like Conor McGregor, shout out to those guys. They've elevated the sport so much. I'm on my fifth UFC contract. I'm making real money because of those guys.
What you should fucking be for what you guys do.
In one night, there's so much work that goes into it. Where I'm at my career, I've invested several years of this professionally. I’m at 50 pro fights. I've put a lot into this sport. I'm at the tail end myself in the big picture. I'm still in my prime. I'm still going strong now. I see no end in sight. However, if you're being real and realistic in the big picture, I'm at the tail end of my career. It's only going to get better.
Those guys help pave the way for me. I hope I continue to help pave the way along with these other guys now. The next generation of fighters is making real money. There is a fighters union. They're being able to retire and live off of what they make because it's not about what you walk away from. It's about what you walk away with. To be able to walk away with this was something to show would be huge.
It's not about what you walk away from; it's about what you walk away with.
Nobody remembers these fights unless you bring it up. I remember watching Brian Foster, but that's a name I've forgotten about as a fan. Because I'm personally invested with you as a friend, Josh Fremd, Grant Neal, Chris Camozzi, and Coach Marc Montoya.
His kicks are nasty.
That is brutal.
That's what gate you bring to the table.
He's a different fighter from this era. He's still got the backflips there.
Those have gotten better over time. We were talking about that. He's got an epic photo. If you go to his profile, he's in the middle of a backflip. I don't know where it is. It is Salt Lake City if it's the most recent or Madison Square Garden, but the crowd talks about the fucking man in the arena. That is the high that 99% of people in this world will never feel. It's incredible. That's why this sport's awesome. The highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows.
That photo is not just epic. I commented and said, “Heart is on fire after that performance. I’m inspired.” I got to fight less than six days after that. I saw that, and that left me with so much fire. Look at the crowd, people, and emotions. That brings a tear to my eye. Moments of greatness like that fire me up. That is badass.
You or somebody who stepped into that octagon can truly appreciate it, even though we all appreciate it from the outside as fans. Going back to it, you guys, being my friends, I know how much you've invested. I know where you're at in your career. I know the downside of it too because you're my friend. I've seen the losses. I pay attention to them. You're a fortunate guy. You haven't had a whole lot of losses. There are some other dudes out there that I'm friends with who have been through some shit.
I train with guys every day that I've felt terrible for. You want to see them do good.
It's heartbreaking for me to see that happen. I can't imagine how it feels to be that person.
I said, “The highest of the highest, the lowest of the lows. This is a rollercoaster life.” Now you are living at the top and coming off a big knockout win several days ago.
That was fun to watch too. It was the fight of the night.
Performance of the night, another 50 Gs. We're on the golf course. My buddy Todd Romero brought that up.
He was trying to gamble your 50 Gs.
He was telling this other guy who played with this when Gaethje praised. He's like, “This guy is number fifteen heavyweight.” He got $50,000 and knocked on the night.
Where are you now? You were 14 going into that fight.
The rankings change by the minute. It changes by the minute. There wasn't a guy. I didn't fight a guy in front of me. I'm probably hovering around that 13 or 14. Khalil Roundtree is ahead of me. I didn't lose that fight. That's a whole other convo. It is bullshit.
I can't wait to get somebody here from the UFC like Dana.
We have to reach out to get somebody on. This was the last knockout, which was cool. The roof blew off of that place. I was jacked up doing high knee around the whole octagon.
I'm yelling in my living room. My family is looking at me like, “What the fuck?” They don't understand because they see me watch this all the time. My kids watch it. They understand. I get even more jacked up knowing you and you being a personal friend.
This guy I fought was the biggest guy in the light heavyweight division. He had the longest reach. He is listed as 6’5”, but he's got a little bit of an afro. He looks like 6’8” when you're standing up next to him. He was a bit of 225 or 230 pounds when we fought. I was 213 pounds. I don't cut a bunch of weight at light heavyweight.
I tried something new for this fight. I saw this video where the cheetah is stocking his prey. He's hungry. A cheetah doesn't eat on a full stomach. All week long, I was eating light. I was a little bit lighter than I used to be. I'm like, “I don't need food. I'm getting ready to kill. I'm getting ready to go hunt. I'm going to try to do this hungry.” You saw what happened. You're going to see on fight weeks I'm not going to eat shit. I'm going to be primal, eating the bare minimum. I’m making sure I've got the energy, but at the same time, I got to be hungry.
It's funny you bring that up. I have certain things I do before I have a show because I want to come here in my best state and be my best self. This is my profession. With you, I feel comfortable because it's a friend. My last episode was a fucking archeologist. He's got a doctor in his title. I'm like, “He's talking to a Neanderthal.” You want to study ancient people, and you're talking to one right now.
I do have certain things and rituals. I'll make sure that I don't eat. I fast before the show because I've found I'm sharper mentally. It's all about like that awareness. That's funny. It's not even related to stepping into the octagon, but it's funny when it does. I found that being fasted I'm sharper mentally than I've ever been. You're probably more on edge. That's perfect for fighting.
You want to be on edge. You want to be quick. Your reactions and instincts are popping.
You want to be on edge. You want to be quick. You want your reactions and your instincts to pop.
That makes 100% sense. It's a great philosophy, and keep going after it. How much weight do you have to cut? How hard is that? That is science these days.
For me, at 205. It's not difficult at all. I fought the majority of my career at 185 pounds. I had to make sure that I was watching what I was eating. I walked around in a fight camp closer to 200 or 205. What people don't realize is I'll cut down to 85, and the next day I'd be 205 to 207, stepping back in there.
You're dehydrated.
It's all water weight. If you're not properly preparing beforehand, you have to drink at least a gallon of water a day. I tell the guys that cut the weight. If you're cutting fifteen pounds and you are drinking a gallon of water a day for a month leading up to your fight, and you don't miss it, not one single day until it gets down.
Let’s say you weigh in on Friday. On fight week, you want to drink half a gallon on Wednesday. Another not quite half a gallon on Thursday because you're already going to start losing. You'll be golden. If you do not miss one day of drinking a gallon of water, you're going to make weight. There's no way you can’t. Your body is ready for it. You're fueled up on water. You are water-loaded.
I had one bad weight cut at 85. I barely made 186. I remember that Tuesday before, I didn't drink my full gallon. I drank half a gallon. That told me right there that weight cut sucks bad because I did not get that full gallon. Anything above a gallon, you're good. At least one gallon. Some guys naturally get closer to two, which is great. It is even easier.
I drink a fuck ton of water. It's an issue backcountry.
You got to. When I'm not like this, I bet I have not drank one gallon of water since my fight. Before that, there was not one week for ten weeks. I didn't drink a gallon of water a day. I know when people say, “I drink plenty of water.” I guarantee you. No, you don't. People don't even drink this much water one day. I know I haven't now. I have because we were walking.
I gave you a liter of water. I did drink a liter, but yesterday, I didn't drink a liter of water. I've been drinking beer on the golf course. When I'm not training, I'm not drinking the proper amount of water. People are like, “I drink water.” I'm like, “You do not drink enough water. I promise you.” You got to drink the water.
I'm telling you this right here. If I ever had to write a book about weight cutting or being healthy in general, I would be 100% sold. It’s water. If you're drinking a gallon of water a day, you're healthier. Your system's flushed. It's easier for a guy like me who trains and sweats as much as I do because I'm losing the water on the mat.
If you're drinking a gallon of water a day, you're healthier, and your systems are flushed.
If you're working a desk job or you're driving all day, you can't drink a gallon of water because you're pissing every five minutes. I remember when I was twenty years old. Somebody was telling me, “I can't drink that much. I'd be pissing all this time.” I was like, “What's going on with me? I'm not pissing at all.” He was like, “You sweat so much.”
You're burning 2,000 calories on a mat in a session.
I'm losing half a gallon. If not more, it is closer to a gallon every day on the mat. Drinking a gallon of water is a lot easier.
You have to be active. It is good for you too. I'm a firm believer that if I don't get enough water in the day, I know and feel it. Even my kids, that's something I had to teach them. He's starting to play football. It's fucking hot this time of year. You're going into practice. One day, he got sick. He was on the verge of throwing up lightheaded. I was like, “How much water did you drink?” He's like, “I can't answer that. I was like, “You should be drinking two liters of water before you go to practice. Bring water with you.”
You to tell him that.
When I was a kid, everything I drank was soda. I think about high school football games. I probably had at least two code reds and a couple of ice creams at lunch. I couldn't even tell you what I had to eat. You were never worried about nutrition. When you're younger, you can get away with that. Start them young. Make sure they are drinking that water, especially this time of year.
One thing with the obesity epidemic and all that shit that's happening in our country is crazy. There are many people who are overweight. It's easy to fall victim to like myself.
I'm fortunate. I have a high metabolism.
You work out. You're still young. At your age, it's going to catch up to you a little bit. If you hit that 40 mark, it's a different story.
I get skinny fat. I'm naturally a skinny guy. I don't put on that weight.
You've been performing at a pro level out of high school because you went straight into college football. I would consider that as hard or, if not as hard, as being a pro athlete. I have a couple of friends that have played college football and went on to the pros. They were like, “College was harder because of all the temptation around you to keep yourself healthy, get sleep, and train.”
Sleep is another big one. You got to sleep. It's another thing. People don't realize when I'm in camp 8 to 10 weeks out from a fight, my wife and I are lying in bed by 8:00 PM at the latest. We're passed out by around 9:00 or 9:30 at the latest. I have a lot of fun, but when I'm in camp, and I'm in camp a lot, those 8 to 9 weeks, I'm drinking a gallon of water a day, and I'm in bed by 8:30 at night.
All that shit is important.
That shit adds up.
It is not drinking too much. Right. Drinking fucks up your sleep.
That's another thing I do take pride in. I'm always prepared. I've never shown up to a fight, not prepared.
You've had some short notice shit.
No one has ever questioned that because I prove it time and time again. Even on short notice, I show up there with abs and in shape. I'm constantly on it. I've been active. I've always been grinding. I've dedicated the better part of my life to sports, the highest part of dedication. It is my job. It feels weird talking about it sometimes because I don't talk about it. I do it.
It's a badass job, but I don't think that people appreciate the discipline that you guys have as professional fighters. Not every professional fighter has it. All people are different. There are levels. There are levels.
I saw Poirier posted a photo. Somebody made a meme about him on his back after the gates you fight. When you realize you've dedicated yourself to being the best in your sport for a few decades and come up short. He reached out. He is like, “These poor miserable people doesn't change who I am. They want to post. I've come up short.”
I like to see a photo of the guy who posted that. He is not showing his face. He's not in front of a mirror taking a selfie with his shirt off. I would love to see that.
I was like, “You're right because I'm getting up there too. Props to you for dedicating that much of your life to something you believe in.”
Think about how much better that's going to make you later in life. I know you guys take some bumps and bruises in the octagon, head trauma, and everything else that comes with that. There's a shit ton that comes with it. What people don't bring up a lot is you guys are at an advantage to continue that. Look at Shannon Sharp after his football career. That guy is still almost in the same goddamn shape. That guy is fucking ripped.
If you're overweight from a young age or maybe you're lazy, I didn't mean for it to come off that way. Honestly, I don't care because there's no woke culture on this show. What I'm saying is if you're lazy, overweight, and sedentary early on in life, it's only going to be that much harder when you get older. No doubt. You're only going to go through that many more medical problems when you're older. There's something to be said.
It's almost an investment in your future training that hard as long as you keep it up and maintain it. You don't have to go as hard when you retire. There are guys out there doing it. My buddy Josh Walker is an NFL lineman. He's in better shape now than I think he was when he was a lineman. He's still a brick shit house.
That's a testament to what got them to the highest level. It is that type of person. If you're lazy or not as self-driven, you're not going to make it at that high level. You see those successful linemen. Those always look better after their careers.
If you're lazy or not as self-driven, you're not going to make it at that high level and see those successful alignments.
Having Derek Wolfe in here, some of the stipulations they put on those guys, you have to weigh in at 3:30, or you're going to get fined $10,000. That's each time that you miss weight. Those guys have to make weight too, but it's on the opposite end. They have to gain weight. What's the fastest way to gain weight? It's a lot harder to put muscle on than it is. Here are some pictures of J Walk. He's a good dude. You should go on his podcast. He's got a podcast, Retired 2 Hunt.
What's he retired from?
NFL football player. He was a lineman for the Packers. He played under Aaron Rogers in that era. He shoots up at American Bowman.
Is he living here in town?
He lives in Pines. We drove right by his place on the way in.
Did he play for Denver? Is he from here?
No, he moved out here on a whim. He brought some property. Where did he grow up?
I want to say Tennessee.
No, I think it was Arkansas. It might've been Tennessee. I think you're right, Jeremy. He was a waterfowl hunter. These guys, with their NFL career, all the hunting seasons are during football season. They can't hunt.
I experienced that with high school and college football. I never got to go deer hunting because I was always playing football. It was always the start of football season.
That’s why I quit playing high school football in my senior year to hunt. I wanted to elk hunt.
I remember I always missed deer season because I was on the gridiron. I was playing.
They are awesome. He's dedicated his post-NFL career to hunting. He played for Houston and a couple of other teams. What I was getting at was the shape that he's in now is as good as he was when he was playing. He's maintaining. He's outdoors. He's doing shit. He's active. You know, like, super cool. As long as he can maintain it, you guys are up on one on your fucking average day person that goes and sits at a cubicle and pounds a keyboard.
There are a lot of pros and cons to what I do. When I say my struggle is my strength, getting up and going to the gym every day and being in fight camp, that shit does that suck. When I say it sucks, there's nothing else I'd rather do. I'm not at a desk job. I'm hanging around my buddies. I'm training and active. We're competing.
Look what we got to do now.
It's cool, but a con is being sore and getting through what can be a grind. That's also a pro. I'm eating healthy. I'm drinking the gallon of water. I'm getting my sleep and taking care of myself physically. All those things that, if you look at on the bad side, are also a good side. It is a positive side to overall health and well-being. This sport has made me a better person because of that. That's something a lot of people don't think about. On our end, we got to think of those who work the best job. You can see how it gets a little bit lazy. You go to a job you don't like. You got to pay for a house you can't afford, and a family and kids are running around.
They're doing the bare minimum to get by. I'm no CEO of a company, nor do I want to be, but there's a way to run it. Give these people some freedom. This is your responsibility. This is what you're responsible for. This is what I expect. I don't give a fuck how you get it done. When you get it done, if it's at midnight or not, get fucking get it done. That's all I care about.
Do whatever you want. Be on Instagram as much as you want. Be on fucking social media. Go drink, smoke, blow it up your nose, and go to the strip club, as long as you can show up and perform. That's my roadie background. That's the roadie philosophy. As long as you could do your job, nobody could say shit about I'm with what you were on with or what you were doing. It is different.
Take your time. Hurry up. The choice is yours. Don't be late.
The biggest thing is to be on time, do your fucking job, and go over and above a little bit. That's all you got to do. I feel like corporations are like, “No, you got to be here for eight hours. You got to sit in this cubicle.”
They try to micromanage you. Stand over your shoulder. Make sure you're doing this and that.
They're starting to do it at the point where they're tapping into your phone. They have an IT person watching every move you're doing. Here's your company computer and phone.
Everyone is being monitored.
We're fortunate in that aspect. There's nothing wrong with people who have to work those jobs. My hat goes off to them.
It's a choice. You choose what you want to do. You're cool with that. I'm a live-and-let-live type of guy. If you're down with that, you'd be down with that. It's not my cup of tea, but if it's you, it works and gets you by, right on.
We need those people building houses and doing all that stuff. There's no way in hell. We're seeing a ton of roofing going on around here because we had a hell storm. I'm like, “That is a thankless job.” Nobody thinks about the roof until there's a hole in it. Those poor dudes do that. We were sweating our asses off on the archery course shooting 100 yards. Those guys have to go to the roof of a house.
They all got sweatshirts on. What the fuck's going on?
They're smart. They are, “I'm not getting get out of the sun.” The best investments I've made are those origins and sponsors of us. They make not a rash guard. It's a thin layer. It's sunproof.
Is it what you had on?
It's what I had on. I hate putting on sunscreen because of the grime.
I play a lot of golf, and I don't put on sunscreen because I can't swing a club. I can't hold the club.
Those long-sleeved things are board shorts. Once you put them on, you don't want to wear anything else. They're like flip-flops. I want to wear it everywhere.
Speaking of flip-flops, we got out the boots. We got done with the course. How nice was it? We were like, “I can't wait to put these slides on.” I live in these slides. We get these slides up. It is comfy.
That's a UFC bonus.
Let the dogs breathe.
I'm the same way. As soon as I roll out a jiujitsu, it's like I'm going to wear flip-flops everywhere I possibly can.
It's a Ben Askren thing. He wears sandals everywhere he goes.
When I lived at the beach, it was barefoot. It was accepted. When you lived in Hermosa Beach, you could walk into any store. They're not going to refuse you a service. You can barefoot everywhere. It was next level until you stepped on a fucking piece of glass or some shit. Going through your UFC career, not even your UFC career, because I don't even want to put it in that, you've had a ton of years of fight career in MMA, outside of it, whether it was kickboxing, wrestling, or college football, what keeps you going in this? What are the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows?
That's always what's on my mind. It's badass what you guys do. I also don't think that people understand discipline, like talking yourself into going to the gym and getting through a fight camp. I'm sure there are some shit you've missed in your life. Having to pack up out of elk camp when you're in the middle of an elk hunt to go to Madison Square Garden is the exact opposite of where you're at.
I've been self-motivated my whole life. What fires me up is that picture we showed earlier, Justin Gaethje, moments of greatness. If you go to Netflix and you see the Quarterback Show or The Last Dance. Those moments of greatness fire me up. It brings a tear to my eye. When I see people do something that people think is unachievable and they achieve it in the sports world, that's something that's always driven me.
When it comes to football, basketball, and baseball, I was a three-sport guy. I was the best on the team, but I was always there. I couldn't get enough of it. I'd be the guy playing the pick-up game from the first game until people want to leave. I'd want to drag people out. Even as a kid, my brother was super competitive. When it comes to sports, I would always be dragging him out. I was like, “Let's play catch. Will you catch it for me? I want to pitch. Will you run this route for me? I want to throw the football. Let's play one-on-one.” I could never get enough. I've always been like that. That's what's gotten me to where I am now.
I've lost fights in my career, but I've always been the man in the arena. I've never listened to what other people say. I've always had this undeniable self-belief in myself that I have greatness within me. I read that in a book one time. If you can spot greatness and you can see it, you have it within you. The way that I spot it, see it, and set my heart on fire is how I am as an athlete. That's what's driven me to be where I am, how far I've went, and how I'm still doing what I'm doing is that inner fire that burns hard for so long, and it's still burning. I still get fired up.
The training can be difficult at times. You got to learn to love it, and I do. I enjoy it. That moment on fight night, when you can go out there and however many thousand people in the stadium watching you and however many millions of people on a Saturday night, ESPN, are watching you. That fires me up. That's what keeps me coming back for more. It's an addiction and craving I've always had. It's always been inside of me. It always will be.
The hard part with this sport is it's an individual sport. Fighting for one is dangerous. Guys that have that, which I know will never go away in me, are going to make it hard when it is time to say, “This is it.” You got to have those good people around you. If things aren't going well, you're playing a dangerous game. If you physically can't compete anymore, you get over that edge.
It is even if you're mentally not there.
There are lots of guys in the gym. You can tell they're not fully mentally there. This is a game you can't be. Coaches always said it. I've always known it. You can't be one foot in, one foot out because it's a dangerous game. If you're one foot in, one foot out, you can get hurt again. That's one thing I said that I've always taken pride in is being properly prepared. I've always been two feet in. If I got to fight, you're not catching me out on a weeknight. You're not catching me not in bed by 8:30 snoozing. You're not catching me out with my gallon of water and cheating meals.
I've got a great wife that takes good care of me, man. She's been the backbone of the whole operation, and I wouldn't be where I am without her. She pushes me to be better. Being better is training, eating, diet, and sleep. That's everything we've talked about. It all adds up. It's the compound effect for that fire to still be burning at 35 years old. I see no end in sight now. I'm at the tail end of my career. There's no doubt in my mind I could be a world champion.
I want to see you fight for the title badly. I don't think that there's a better time with the people that are at home right now. You can fight those dudes.
The division is wide open. Alex Pereira, who I have fought, and I have a history with Glory. It is now fighting for the title. My best bet is he wins this title. I get another sick knockout, and he grants me. He's like, “Let's go, Jacoby. I have history. You can sell it. It's a selling point for the UFC. Let's not get a twist.” That Khalil Roundtree fight was a fricking robbery. If I don't lose that, that's ten in a row. That led to my last two fights ago when I lost that decision. I did lose, but I was fifteen seconds away from winning. I got dropped in the second round twenty seconds before that round was over. If I don't get dropped there, I will arguably win that fight. I lost the first round. I won the third round. The second round was close.
That decision was bullshit.
With the Khalil Roundtree fight, that was 100% bullshit. The whole world knows it, but the next fight after that is when I did lose, and rightfully so. It is what it is. I finished that fight strong. I won that third round. If I hadn't got dropped in the second round, I would've won the fight, I think. You're only as good as your last fight.
You're only as good as your last fight.
When you lose two in a row, everybody forgets about the nine-fight win streak I went on in the UFC. Everybody forgets about that. They're writing you off. You go out and have a win I had however many days ago. Now you're back to being the man. Everybody forgot about the two losses. They're talking about, “This guy could potentially be the next guy.”
How bad is the spectrum? I've always wondered how many phone calls you get when you're winning and how many you get when you're not.
I am fortunate and lucky. I started this show by saying, “I got to do cool shit because of all the cool people I know.” I have many great people around me. I have a support system that's unmatched. I don't think anybody could match it. I've had 70-plus people. There's a core of them, 15 to 20, that have been there through thick and thin every single time. There are another 50 more that have been hit and miss and been to 6 of the 9, 8 of the 9, or maybe 3 of the 9.
You've got a little fan club falling. You are like the grateful death of fighting.
That support is unbelievable. That's what keeps me going. I am fortunate when it comes to that. I'm grateful. Shout to my family, friends, and fans. My wife put together this Facebook page. It's the same 80 people or so. Hit or miss. People have life going on. What's even crazier is there are some people who have been to every single one. I'm like, “How do you afford this? You're taking the time to come see me and support me.” It makes me feel bad in the sense that I'm not there. I need to be there for them more. It was overwhelming and cool. I couldn't do this without any of them. I forget what the original question was or where I was going with that.
I was talking about the highs and the lows. I've always hit you up whenever you win or lose. How many phone calls do you get when you're on top of the world and you get the fight of the night? How many podcast people are hitting you up? When it's an L, your whole world crumbles a little bit. Not the whole world crumbles, but it's radio silence.
With the Khalil Roundtree fight, I had a ton of people hit me up because it was bullshit. The next fight, when I lost, I remember I had 26 text messages. When I got back to the locker room, I got my phone, and I opened it 26. With this last fight, when I got back to the locker room, to my phone, this was within 30 or 40 minutes, 255 messages. The fight before I lost was 26.
It's unanimous. People like winners.
I do have many people. We have brought that up. I told them the drastic difference. There are a lot of people who don't know what to say. They don't have the right thing to say.
It's fucking hard because I don't know what to say to you when you lose.
If you win and get a knockout, everybody is fired out.
That's simple. It's like, “Congratulations. Let's go.” When somebody has a loss, you want to choose your words carefully. I genuinely care because I'm personally invested in you guys as friends. Some of you I don't know, even though we support you. If you're my personal friend, I’m comfortable texting you and being like, “That was a shitty deal. Keep your head up.” Something as simple as that. If it's somebody I don't know, I've found what works for me less to support a fighter is to promote their fight because that's what they need beforehand. After winning or losing, let it be.
A lot of people could have that same feeling, which is why you get 26 compared to 255. Some people are like, “Let it be. Let that one marinate.”
What would you expect? What would you want? Would you want more people to reach out to you? Is it like, at that moment, you don't want to fucking talk to anybody?
It is a catch. It's going to sound bad because of those 255. You want to say thank you to everybody. You have a different relationship with every single one of those people. I'm the worst of this.
You need to hire somebody.
I care about a lot of people. For everybody, I'm trying to give them my all back, but they start texting you. I'll reply to one guy, thank you, and the next guy.
They're taking it off social media to text.
They don't realize that I have 255 of these, but now they want to start asking questions and texting with you like, “How did you do this? What was this?” That's when I feel bad. A lot of times, after a fight, you'll get that one back, and a lot of people will leave a question. I'll get back to them within the next ten days or so. It is tough because you have many people reaching out to you. I'm the worst about that. I want to give everybody time.
I've had some people get pissed off at me because they're like, “I messaged you five days ago.” I'm like, “I don't pay attention to social media. You have my cell phone number. Call me. If you don't have my cell phone number, I don't want you calling me because there's a shit lot of people that have it.” That's how I gauge it.
I do get a lot of numbers that I don't have saved. I could have lost it somehow some way, but more often than not, if I don't have it saved, we're not that good of buddies.
That takes a lot to keep up with because as that goes down your feed, you forget about it. You got to go way back.
I'll look at a message and read it. If something else is going on, I'll never make it back to that message.
It's hard. You can dedicate your life to that. There are people who dedicate their lives to social media. I have some friends that are fucking on it. For me, I have kids. When I walk in the house, there are certain people, like Jeremy, who can ring me because if Evergreen is burning down, I want to know. He doesn't normally bother me. I think I bother you way more than you bother me.
My life is, “Don't bother people.” That's all that I do.
He's the fucking man. I love this guy.
I don't want to bother people. When I see Bobby call it, I'm like, “I got to talk to this guy.”
There are certain people that can ring through, like family members. It doesn't matter. Do not disturb on. I try to throw my phone on top of my refrigerator because nobody can get to it. I have to go to the extra effort to get it. It's tucked back in there. Your hand doesn't fit. It's a bitch. I got cabinets built around it. It's a good spot to shelf it. I don't have business deals happening or anything urgent. That lets me focus on being a father and being present with my kids. What are they doing? Are they doing homework? Do you want to play basketball? Do you want to throw the football? Do you want to do whatever? Do you want to do a board game?
I'm not that invested in social media. I don't get that much out of it. It's been great for me. If I were single and living by myself, I would be all over that shit all the time. I'd have a different girlfriend every week, but I love my wife and my family. I can understand that. There are certain people I know that are on it all the time, and they fucking crush it on it. I love washing their shit. Sometimes those guys even get mad at me. They're like, “You don't like any of my stuff anymore.” I was like, “My feet are big. I get lost in it. I appreciate what you're doing, but I can't like every fucking thing you do because you're posting 9, 10, 15, 16 times a day.”
I'm not a big story watcher and scroller. What I'll do is I'll put stories up. I don't ever look at a story. People were like, “You don't ever see my shit.” I don't. I put my stuff up, and I go on. I threw that stuff up. Who knows if it got 1,000 views now, especially after the fight?
That's the best way. It is posting ghost. I don't care how many likes it gets.
I guarantee it'll probably be tomorrow. I'll be like, “Let's see how many people looked at that story.” You got 2,500.
It is funny how I find out about it. Some of the guests I have will reach out after we have the show because we do little reels and clips from the show now. Production-wise, it's come a lot further than the last time you've been on. Each time we keep growing, our audience keeps growing. We have all these little reels. They'll call me up. They were like, “This shit is going viral.” I don't have a clue. I'm like, “I'll check it out.” They're like, “You haven't seen it.” I'm like, “No.” I'll go on my feed, and it'll be 3,000 little hearts or whatever the notices are. I don't know how to gauge it. If I could ever get to the point where there was one person who managed that, I could talk to my friends.
The problem with that is I'm anal about how my stuff is portrayed. I want it to be 100% me. I don't want to give anybody else the right to post something because I want it in my words. I'm weird about that.
It's almost like you got a decoy. If somebody's answering your messages right, and it's not you, and people think it's you, that's a little fucked. I don't think you could take it to that level.
Gaethje has 2 million followers. Even if I had that, I would still do it myself. I don't know if he does his or not. I could see him being the guy who lets somebody take it over because he probably has his stuff on there and hit-and-miss. I have a couple of friends that have some significant followers. They've got their set to where it's like, “If you message this person, they're not good.” It says it right there. It's like, “This person does not accept messages.” There are all kinds of different settings.
You have a little separate inbox on IG for people you don't follow or follow.
I could pull that up right now. It's pushing the thousands of how many are in there because I don't ever look at them. I don't ever go through and delete them. I don't ever click on that. I had before earlier. What made that popular was the betting. Everybody has placed a bet. They want you to see they're betting on you, win or lose. When you win, they are like, “Thank you. You did this for me.” If you lose, they were like, “You lost my house. I can't pay for my kids' diapers.” I was like, “I didn't make that bet.” They were like, “Will you Venmo me or PayPal me because I put this on you?”
I've gotten a couple of messages when I've supported you or other fighters because I'll post something on the story. If it's fight day or something, I was like, “Let's fucking go. Check out UFC or Bare Knuckle.” I'll have dudes trying to make side bets with me. It's a scam. They're like, “I see that you're supporting Jacoby. Will you want to throw $500?” I'm like, “What the fuck is this guy?”
I had a buddy, Todd Romero, who I wanted to bring up on this show. Shout out to Todd Romero. He works for Altitude Sports. He does their golf show. We were talking. People see him on the golf course a lot. I play a lot of free golf. That is my secret. I don't pay for a lot of golf. With my buddy Todd, I have thousands of dollars racked up in comp rounds I've played with him. We play for free all the time. This is going to be three days tomorrow, playing with him this week. I haven't paid a dime. These are $100 to $200 courses. Shout out to him.
He told me after one of my fights that he bet this guy and I had lost. It was the Roundtree fight the first time it happened. I can't remember what it was. It was like $20, $100, or $80. Nothing too crazy, but my buddy paid him. It came back on another fight. It was the last fight I had. This same guy hit him up. I won, and the guy ghosted him. He never paid him. He got him for whatever their wager was. When Todd won, the guy was nowhere to be heard from and nowhere to be found. It is a scam.
How are they doing it on Venmo?
All they're doing is saying, “I see you're supporting Jacoby. How about a $20 or 100 bet?” You're like, “Okay.” If I lose, they're like, “You're going to be a man of your word. You pay whatever.” If I win, they're gone. You'll never hear from that. They'll create a new account. It's a 100% scam. That happened to a good buddy of mine. I felt bad for the guy. He's like, “I bet on you. Will you pay the stab?”
Did he ask you for the money?
No, he never would. There's a full circle right there. That's another thing in this sport that people don't realize. I won. I'm the freaking man. I'm riding this class. I still haven't stopped cheesing.
I would've invited you up here if you lost.
If you win, you're awesome. You're only as good as your last fight. In football, if you lose, you get to play the next week. It's a team game too. In basketball, you might get to play the next night. In baseball, you're playing the next day. If you go for 0 of 3 at the play, the next day, you get a chance to go 2 for the home run. The next day you get 3 for 5. In football, if you throw a couple of picks, you got the next week to throw touchdowns. In fighting, if you lose your fight, you don't know when the next one is. You're a loser for the 3, 4, 5, 6 months.
It might not ever come back. There are guys that have been cut after six months of fucking being dormant.
One of the hardest parts that people also don't realize about this sport is it's unique and individualized. We have a team. We have Factory X. It's a great team. We have a great coach in Marc Montoya, but it is an individual sport. Win or lose. You're the guy that has to sit on that until the next one comes. You don't know when that next one comes. Nothing is guaranteed in life. You don't know if you'll ever get back in there. If that's the case, hopefully, it's off of a win. It's off of an 82-second knockout. Nothing is guaranteed. I don't know if I'll ever step foot back in the UFC octagon. I plan to, and I'm going to.
After this last performance, you'll be back one.
Life happens. He didn't stop fighting because he wanted to stop fighting. He stopped fighting because he had to. His wife was pregnant, and things got hard. She almost died giving birth to their daughter, and Brooklyn almost died.
We've had Brooklyn on.
I saw her name up there, which was cool. She's a marathon runner. Speaking of the marathon thing, I told you my wife's getting into it. I'm doing a 10K with her, the Boulderthon. I don't know if you're familiar with that.
I know nothing about marathons.
I'm going to do it. 10K is six miles. I'm going to because it's a lifestyle. It's what I do. I could not run from now until that Boulderton here in a few months. I guarantee I could do it. It is six miles. That's all mental in your head. You get talking a full marathon 26. That's a little different story. You got two hours. I'm going to be jogging for two hours. I could be sitting here scrolling Instagram for two hours.
There's going to be fifteen minutes that's going to suck, but it is in your own head.
Life is all a mindset.
How important is Marc Montoya to that mindset? I want to kick down doors in here when he leaves. I love being around that guy.
He is a great dude. He's passionate. He is not like a sit-by-the-wayside type of guy. He is a take-control and get-after-it type of guy. The biggest thing is he's going to challenge you. He's a great mentor. We're buddies and friends. He always says, “If we become friends, awesome, but it's not my job to be your friend.” That's what he takes seriously too. He's not friends with everybody. If we become friends, cool, but I'm not going to be your friend. I'm not here to be your friend. You got enough people telling you you're good at this and good at that. He's a guy that if you're not at practice at 10:00 AM by 10:01. In 9:58, he's texting you like, “Where the hell are you?”
It goes for anybody. It could be the guy amateur on the team who may never have a fight and the guy like myself, one of the top pros on the team. He doesn't care. He's not an excuse guy. He is a show-up, gets it done, and gives your all. You show up, work hard, and be on time. That's the motto of Factory X. He’s a great dude and mentor. He is a guy that is passionate and pushes you to be better.
Show up, get it done, and give it your all.
Honestly, when I was going through my weight loss thing, I was like, “I got to do something.” One being on the show held me accountable. I was like, “What am I doing? I need to get my shit together. I'm having pro athletes in and talking to these people. I need to be in better shape.” It was an eye-opening thing.
I had some, not major health scares, but heart disease runs in my family, it was the first time I had gone to the doctor. They're like, “We need to put you on some blood pressure medication.” I was like, “No, you don't.” I decided. He was one of the first people I called. I was like, “This is what I want to do.” I knew, in my own mind, if I didn't hold myself accountable, I would look like a piece of shit in that guy's eyes, and I didn't want to.
He pushes you to do better.
It's different than drill sergeant mentality. You don't want to disappoint him. That's the vibe I get every time he's in here.
Some people think he's an asshole.
I don't think he is. He's just truthful.
That's the thing. He was like, “I'm not here to be your friend. I'm here to make you better.” You got to have thick skin with him.
That's why I love having fighters, veterans, and active military dudes because they are all the same mindset. They will tell you when they don't agree with you. If I say, “Dustin, I think you should do this. This is wrong.” You go, “No, I don't think so.” You guys aren't afraid to be like, “Let's go.” Nowadays, there's no him hawing of like, “What should we do now?” It was like, “We make decisions and fucking go. There's no time for any of that.”
You get around people who don't face any adversity in their life. One reason why I've gotten back into hunting is because I want my kids to face some adversity. I want them to see the value in life. There's no better way to do that than sharing those moments in the backcountry, seeing a gigantic animal be filled, dressed, bleed out, and butchered, and what you have to go through to get out.
You got to cut it up and take it out. Adversity, hard times, and struggles create the strongest people, fighters, and best people. You need to overcome a little adversity.
Adversity, hard times, and struggles create the strongest people, the strongest fighters, and the best people.
It makes all the little bullshit in your life.
People should be able to headbutt, move on, and get over it. You don't headbutt. Nowadays, people are salty and soft, and so in their emotions.
I want to hear the honest opinions of people.
Get out of your emotions.
Don't fucking tell me what I want to hear. Tell me when I do a bad job.
That's another thing I look up to Marc. Emotions make you weak. You can't get emotional around him. There are many people who get emotional. He'll eat you up. Do you think he gives a fuck about your emotions? No. Toughen up. Take it on the chin and move on.
That should be any good coach. I don't care if you're coaching Little League football. We are raising our kids in a soft-ass world now.
Everybody gets a blue ribbon. No, that's not how that worked. When I was in grade school, I got a blue ribbon because I won. You got a red ribbon because you got second. That's how it works. Not everybody gets a blue ribbon. Not everybody is going to be able to do it. Find your way. Figure it out. You'll fit in where you get in, but not everybody is going to win and get this blue ribbon. That's the problem with society nowadays. I don't have kids. I can't talk about that. I have seen it with my friends who give in to their kids.
Jeremy and I were having this conversation. Some of these people that run our school boards don't even have fucking kids. How can they understand? I don't want to go on a tangent. I don't even want to bring this up on the show.
Do you want to get me fired up? I got some shit to say.
You got kids. You got skin in the game. That's nothing where I take a back. I've got my thoughts. I don't have kids. I don't have skin in the game. I leave my thoughts to myself.
Are you going to have kids?
I wouldn't mind. My wife does not want kids. I think it’s crazy. For whatever reason, I'm on board with it. We went this far. We're busy. It's not in the picture. She is adamant. She wants no kids. If it's in the cars and it's meant to be, I have many people back home and close family and friends. They were like, “When are you guys going to have a pup? I need to see a kid of that, you know.”
You got one right.
I got a legit pup. He's half dog, half human, as my buddy Cody Brundage always gives me shit about. He is our boy. He is our kid.
Shout out, Cody. I mean to get Cody in here. He seems like a cool dude. I'd love to sit down with him.
He's a cool dude. He's learning right now. He's struggling in his career. He's in the UFC struggling at the highest level. It's not going to be always easy. That's why he looks up to me a lot because I always say, “I've been through it to get to it.” I've told him I've struggled in my career. It hasn't all been fight night bonuses, big wins, and 82-second knockouts. There have been some real struggles in there. That's where I am, where I'm now. Struggles and adversity create the strongest fighters. I'm quite forged in fire. The Hanyak is forged in fire.
I'm forever grateful for that. My lumps and losses I've taken, and my bruises and fat lips and Ls on the record, have all made me who I am now. Cody is going through that now. You should get his perspective. He is a little bit younger guy at a different point in his career. He'd be a great guy for the show, and I'm sure he'd love it.
I'd love to have him in. Cody, if you're reading this, hit me up. Dustin got my number. You started at a young age. What were you, 19 or 20?
I was nineteen when I had my first MMA amateur fight. I had my first pro-fight in 2021. I had my first amateur ride at eighteen.
Thinking about what I knew at eighteen and what I was into, it was dangerous.
I also thought I was grown up and knew so much. My twin brother's girl is going to be a junior. In my junior year, I was already feeling I had it all figured out. I knew everything. I looked at her. I'm like, “You are young. You have no idea.”
What's the youngest opponent you faced?
That kid I fought was 31 when I was 33.
Have you faced a twenty-year-old?
I haven't. I've always been the younger guy.
That's that division. The light heavyweight division always seems to be a little bit older dude.
That is funny that you bring that up because I've never fought the younger stud yet. I'm 35. I was always the younger stud. I got to the point where I was the rookie and vet. I'm the vet. I've yet to face that young up-and-comer 24-year-old kid where I was several years ago.
With Chris Gutierrez's fight, was it Frankie Edgar that he fought?
That was dope. I was there.
That’s an incredible fight for Chris. I was heartbroken a little bit for Frankie. That's not a way to go out with your family there. I felt bad for him, but how excited I was for Chris and everything the Factory X family had been through leading up to that coach. That was such a high win.
That was one week after the Khalil Roundtree fight. It was bittersweet because I was coming out of the loss.
I wish politics would get the fuck out of fighting because it made me not a fan of Khalil. I liked the guy before he fought you. Now I'm like, “This bullshit.” I'm sorry. I don't mean to bring that up. It needed to be said. Where I was going with this, and to bring it back a little bit, is we're going to wrap this up here soon. We've been at it for a little bit.
I know that you're big now and the amount of time I've known in audiobooks. We were talking. You're like, “I don't listen to podcasts.” I get it. When I want to learn something or be in a good head space, especially now that I've been podcasting, I don't let other podcasts influence me because you end up saying the same shit that somebody else did. That's a whole different level of podcasting in my mind and how I am. I'm a big dumb guy. I'll repeat anything I've heard. Sometimes it's not good. Going into it at 18 or 19 years old, what was your mindset then? Is it like, “I'm going to fucking dominate and destroy everybody?”
UFC: If you want to learn something or be in a good headspace, don’t let other podcasts influence you because then you end up saying the same things that somebody else did.
It seems like you are a calculated fighter now. You know where you're at and what you're walking into. You are taking your level of preparation to the highest level. When you do walk through that octagon door, there's no question that I could have done anything better. If you go to bed every night at 8:00, you're drinking that gallon of water, you're not having a cheap meal, and you're not slamming roids, you know that when you walk through there, you are the best version of yourself. That's your mentality now. I don't mean to put words in your mouth, but that's what I'm hearing.
I know where you're going. Let me tell you the hardest part about the fighting. It is mental. When I was an 18, 19, or 20-year-old kid fighting, you don't know what you don't know.
What's rule number one? Party.
When it comes down to fighting, you don't know what you don't know. When I stepped in there, I thought of one thing. I'm going to knock you out. I don't think anything of it. I don't think of getting tired. If you haven't been through these battles, you don't know what you don't know. Now, I feel like I've always been a calculated fighter. When I was younger, I didn't think. I go. You're going to knock him out. You're going to do what you say.
You start going through these battles where you don't quite knock the people out. You're thinking too much. You're going in there. You're not thinking about knocking this dude out and killing him. That's something Justin Gaethje does well. This is getting on a deeper level. For every single time he fights, there's no consequence. It's straight. He's trying to fucking kill you. That's how you have to be.
I was saying it earlier. My buddy was saying how I got the $50,000. He made the joke. He's like, “Gaethje gets that every single time. He doesn't have to talk about that.” That's the type of fighter he is. It's 100% kill mode. He's not thinking. When I'm at my best, I'm a killer. I don't think. You go. You're in the fight game for so long, and you start thinking too much. That is the downside of so many fighters and in life in general. Life is 100% mental.
If I overthink the show, I was like, “Let's hang out.” I'm not relating the two. It's different. We didn't come in here with anything scripted. We've spent all day together talking about many different subjects and having fun, and we've still hit this off like a fucking champ because if you overthink it, you're going to fuck up. Let it go where it's going to go.
I've always been calculated, but when I was younger, it was easy because I didn't know what I didn't know. I didn't have any worries. There is one thing on my mind. I'm not worried about getting tired. I'm not worried about losing. I'm going to knock you out. That's all I care about. That's all I'm thinking about. The more you get into it, the more you start thinking. Turn the brain off and go. That's what's done me well here as of late.
The Khalil fight, when you lose that fight, you start thinking so much. That fight after that, I'd lost a lot of confidence. I started worrying about my opponent, getting knocked out, and losing. I started thinking too much. What happened to I got one job to do, and it's to knock that motherfucker out? What happened to that? Do that.
It's great that you got 50 Gs, but the fight bonus has made the sport that much more exciting as a spectator. You get all these guys that not only are they trying to go in and win a fight. They're trying to do a spinning back fist, a spinning back kick, or a fucking spinning elbow. They're doing some exciting shit. That's part of the sport now. You can't go in there like Cory Sandhagen did with his last fight. No disrespect. I love Cory. Did he make the right move there? He probably did. He won. That's a W. That was a tough opponent for Cory.
Rob Font is dangerous. He can knock you out. If you make one mistake, you're getting knocked out. Did the fans hate it? Yeah. Did they love it? No. Cory and I were in the same locker room. We were the last two in there before I fought. He's like, “Get it done.” I'm like, “You too.”
You make one mistake, you’re getting knocked out.
He seems like an all-right guy too.
He's always been cool. I've always been cool with Cory. He was disappointed after that. I remember I got done. I was on my excitement. I'm in the back door interviews.
You stole the smoke.
I got asked to be on the ESPN desk. I'm waiting for him to come out. He finally comes out. I'm like, “You got it done. Good fight.” He was like, “It wasn't as cool as yours, but a win is a win.” He's right. Sometimes you got to go in there and do what you got to do to win. He had torn his tricep.
Was that before the fight?
I think like in the first round. It was an old injury. That plays a role that people don't realize.
You have a fight where you went out, and you had a leg injury.
I fought three fights in one night, and I broke my leg in one of the fights. I still won the tournament, but I had a broken leg. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug because when that fight was done, I could barely walk.
Do you know Scott Parker, the Parkerson? We had Scott in. They're promoting this new fight league, Ice Wars. I went up to Wyoming and watched Chris Lockhart. It was a hockey fight. We did a podcast with him, but I had gone up and watched him fight. This is a fight in full hockey gear. You fight five rounds. If you make it to the main event, you fought five times that night. It was full-on. It was nuts. I was thinking back. When the UFC started or the Ultimate Fighting Championship back then, that's how it was. It was a tournament fight. You were fighting 5, 6, 7, to 8 times a night to make it to that title shot.
I've fought in it six different times I've fought in tournaments. Four times, I've won the whole thing. Five times, I've won a fight in the tournament. Amongst those tournaments, a couple were four-man tournaments, and several were eight-man tournaments. We were fighting three fights in the night. It is hard. Let me explain this. We were talking earlier. It's the highest of highs and lowest and lows. When you win, you feel like the man. The cool thing about a tournament is when you win your first fight, you go back to the back and now you're a winner. You can't wait to walk back. It's almost as if the night gets easier, especially if you're a guy like me that builds off the swag and you got confidence.
Is it like a gladiator vibe?
It is when there were dudes against dudes and piling guys against one guy. You've got them all behind you, you walk up to the next level, and you're like, “You’re next.”
It's exactly like that. When you win the fight, you feel like the man, and you're stacking by. You can't wait to go again. When you win, you're at the highest of highs. You're going to find another guy in 30 minutes. Let me fight ten. I'll fight ten guys. When you lose, if they were to ask you to go out there and fight again, I bet you're not going out there with that same confidence and swagger.
Although, back to Brian Foster, let me give a huge shout-out. In that first World Series of the fighting tournament, the PFL, he didn't get a fight for the $1 million, but he made it to the championship. He never got a fight for the actual fight. That tournament was a four-man tournament. That's back when PFL made you fight your semi-fight to get into the finals. There are two fights in a night.
He fights the number one seed and loses. It's a badass fight. It goes back and forth. He ends up getting caught in a submission. He gets to the back. He's done. However, if one of the winners can't advance in the tournament, they go and take the first loser if he's healthy. One, the winner back one of the winners that won that night. Foster lost a fight out of the tournament in the back. He’s pissed off. There's a chance you could fight 10 out of 10 times. That's never happening.
The guy wins that night. He can't advance. Foster replaces him. He goes back out there and beats the dude. It is a first-round knockout. It is no big deal. He goes back out there for the final fight and beats and fights the guy that beat him the first fight and ends up having another fucking insane fight, back and forth fight, that he ends up winning. He ends up TKO, the guy in the third round. They fought six rounds that night.
He's the only guy I know, and I know him personally, who fought and lost, gets brought back into a tournament, fights, and wins. He fights again against the guy that first beat him, and he beat him. It was so badass. It's easy to go back out there when you win. To lose your first fight, and go back out there and beat two dudes, that say something about you. That's why I'll forever look up to Brian Foster. I know how bad of a motherfucker that dude is. Shout out to Brian Foster. I love that dude.
What's he doing now? Is he coaching?
He's coaching. He got back to Oklahoma, Arkansas. He lives right on the border. He lives in Oklahoma. His gym is in Arkansas. It's a little mile eight-mile gap. He's got four boys. I saw one of them be born. I knew these boys when they were knee-high to a duck's ass. They were coming into a gym. They were tiny. They were in diapers. The oldest boy is a professional MMA fighter. He is a badass. Foster took him to my fight in Nashville. He showed up
on a whim. I saw him there on fight night. He's like, “I brought Alex here because I want him to see.” My first UFC fight was when Brian Foster beat Matt Brown and got a submission of the night victory. I made my pro debut one week later. Brian brought his son, who's 1 or 2 in 0 pro now, to my fight because he wanted him to see the UFC. He wanted to see where he belonged.
To see that full circle come around is special. I remember that little kid. His baby was in diapers. He coaches those guys. He's got a whole team that all look up to him that he's the fucking leader. They were like, “He is a guy you want to make proud.” He is a guy I love in my corner. Coach is the same way. If shit hits the fan, we're all in. Your corners jump in. We're riding and dying all night long. We're whooping your ass. He's that type of guy. I love him so much.
It's easy to go out there and fight in a tournament when you win but to go out there and lose your first fight and win the next two is unheard of. You can't live by your emotions. You win a fight. It's an emotional rollercoaster. You're up here. You lose a fight. You're down here. To be in a tournament, you got to stay even killed. You got to be in the moment the entire time.
You can't live by your emotions. Winning a fight is an emotional roller coaster. You're up here. When you lose a fight, you’re down here. You've got to stay even-keeled and be in the moment the entire time.
It was crazy having Scott Parker, and it made me realize, not anymore, but back in the day, how much those guys fought. You fight 3 or 4 times a year. He was fighting 100 and some fights. They're not as long rounds, but this is on fucking ice. That guy is such a savage.
What happens to your hands? You're punching helmets.
He told us a story. He used to wrap chains around his hands and go box trees to make his knuckles tough for bare-knuckle. You're going bare knuckle. You're throwing the fucking gloves off. Your wrists aren't wrapped.
He's playing hockey to fight. I love it.
His deal was the enforcer. Did you read the picture on the autograph for us?
No.
He gave us a picture of him holding up the Stanley Cup or his wife did. Shout out to the whole family. They are fucking awesome. That's how he signs it. Kill them all, Bobby. He's a savage.
Thinking about playing a season and how your hands must feel through the entire season. The thing you're walking around with is always in pain.
That's the thing for Chris to show up and be like, “What am I doing? I play hockey. I bare knuckle. Whatever, sign me up.” He starts throwing fists at the helmet. What a madman. How long was it before he got called up?
Who's that?
Chris. It was a couple of weeks out.
It was short notice to do the Ice Wars thing. That’s the next level.
I got a good story about Lockhart. When he first came into the gym, he had to train with Camozzi, Adam Stroup, and me.
He shouted you out on the show.
He came into a murder as real. We had some big guys. He made the most improvement. I remember sparring with him, and he was fragile. You had to be careful. He's going with high-level guys. Imagine being the new guy. I was that guy. I remember being that guy. Chris was a little soft. This is not a dis. I've told him this. It's amazing what he became after.
I wouldn't say it to his face.
After several years of training with that guy, you should see the improvement he made. I watched it with my eyes. I watch him transform into a beast.
I think he'd admit that too.
No, he would admit that. He knows like. It was cool to see with my own eyes. When I first sparred with him, I was like, “You're going to have to get tougher.” He did, and he's still doing it. He was a punching bag to a guy that was pushing you back. It was one of the biggest improvements I've seen in a guy I've trained with. That was cool.
He's in Thailand now.
Is he? He had no easy rounds. He was a big guy. He got thrown to me, Camozzi, and Adam Stroup. He's going against tough guys who are already developed.
That way, in height, you're stepping into the lion's den.
He stepped into the lion's den. He walked away and came back, leading the back. Kudos to him. He is a great dude. I love Lockhart. He is a nice guy. He gives you the shirt off his back. He would never talk shit behind your back.
He was great to have here. He's an awesome person to talk to. He is thankful. He's a grateful person.
I know how much he looks up to me and has over the years. There's mutual respect.
You got a lot of guys that do it. Being in this as long as you have, you're cornering. I know you're focused on your UFC career, but we've talked briefly about maybe doing some other stuff outside of it. Do you have anything going on outside of it?
I don’t.
It's hard.
I'm hoping I can make be a senior PGA.
I'll come to drive your cart.
John Daly and I would need one. I would like to parlay this career into some commentating. I get asked about these podcasts all the time. I don't take full advantage of them like I should. I like to parlay that into commentating. I remember, even after my last fight, I got asked to get on the ESPN desk post-show, which I thought was cool and a true honor. Coach is standing there. I was getting on with Anthony Smith and Dan Thomas.
I remember the coach right there. He is like, “I want you to take this in. I remember the first time he got asked to do this.” He was pointing at Anthony. He got a full-time position at ESPN as a commentator. He is a salaried employee full-time. He's been doing the commentating for several years. ESPN signed him full-time.
He's good at it.
The coach was like, “Do you want to do it?” I was like, “I was here the first time he got asked to do this.” He's like, “You're following right in the footsteps.” I'm hoping that it leads to something like that. I got to continue putting myself in the fire.
I know what you're focused on now, but that's got to be in the back of your mind.
I got the gift of gab. I'm good at shooting this shit.
You are, and I love having you here. I had a blast with you. I feel like we haven't stopped.
I'm easygoing. If you put a mic in front of my face, we can keep it rolling.
We could've recorded the whole fucking day. It would've been a nine-hour episode.
There's stuff we talked about earlier that we wanted to get on here that who knows if it's going to make it or not, but we could talk about anything.
It's funny sitting at the bar at lunch. You were like, “What are we going to talk about now?”
I remember sitting there and being like, “What are we going to say here? We've already talked about everything.”
I was worried about that. I know because I've done this before. I honestly think it's the best way to do a show if you have the time to spend 6 or 7 hours with somebody and do something outside of here. You almost form a bond outside of here. You come in. It's like having somebody in for their second or third time. It goes so much smoother. The first one, you're feeling each other out. People are a little nervous on their first time. There are some lights and cameras in your face.
This is a cool studio. It's quite the upgrade. I remember the first time was like a shoebox. We were in each other's faces. I was like, “On camera, it looks like you guys are in this big room.”
Those are GoPro wide-angle cameras. I looked a lot fatter on camera then.
When I first saw you, I was like, “You're looking lean.” You've lost 60 pounds.
I don't know. I'm not watching the scale.
You look much leaner.
I think I lost 70 pounds originally. A lot of that was muscle mass. It worked, but I fucking lost it fast. Now I'm in that struggle where I'm putting mass back on and keeping body fat down. I'm doing that. I'm trying to balance it. It's been a tough road.
It is sleep and water.
Moderation on whatever. Get out there and enjoy life. It's made me enjoy life so much more. I'm more athletic than my kid. My goal is to stay ahead of my son. You don't ever want your son to kick your ass.
My fifteen-year-old gripped me up. I'm like, “What the fuck was that?” He grabbed a hold of my shoulder. It was like a claw that grabbed me. He didn't even mean it.
You got to quit sending him to Jiu-jitsu. You need to start rolling.
You can't ever let the sign.
Don't let him out belt you.
It was like, “Good morning.” He grabbed my shoulder, and I was like, “What the fuck is this thing going?”
You got to make sure you stay ahead of the board.
It's about being around for them in the future. I appreciate you taking that and taking notice. It's been a while since I've seen you. We can go back and look at the photo. I was probably a fat fuck still back then.
It's out there. If you look hard enough, you'll find it.
We've grown here. I always appreciate you coming in. I love having you every time you're in. Thank you for hanging out with me. It is a blast. We are shooting 100 yards. We do some badass targets.
I had so much fun. It's got me fired up for the season. That's another cool thing. We go to the Evergreen golf course for lunch after you get done shooting. I've got my Hoyt hat on. It was multiple people that had brought it up, but this guy sitting next to me was like, “You're a bow hunter.” We started talking a lot more. He's fired up. You can see an Instagram poster flare.
My brother had a couple out there shots. My brother is a bow hunter. He's only been on two elk hunts. He's put down two trophy bulls, one in Montana and one in Oregon. He's headed to Montana and Idaho here for sixteen days. I called him up. He texted me ten different pictures. He is talking about equipment. He's like, “I wish you'd come here for one week. I'd get you dialed in on the bow.”
You should. If you got time, go fucking do it. Those times, you might not ever get that back. You got to fucking take those moments.
I've been trying to get his ass out here. I'm like, “You got to come out here in Colorado. We need to go chase him out in Colorado.”
I want to meet your brother. You speak highly of him. I want him on this show to talk.
He's a journeyman lineman. He works for Ameren. He's climbing the poles.
Those are the gnarliest dudes.
He loves his job and the thrill. He got into cage fighting before I did. He's that type of person. He's got the bad boys had it on the side of him.
That's what got you into cage fighting.
He got me into it.
He thought you were going to be a street fighter. He showed up, and it was an MMA fight.
He put me in. He was talking shit. I was like, “I knocked that dude out.” The next thing you know, he signed me up on the card. He's a thrill seeker. He loves climbing those poles and playing with them high volts. I'm like, “He'll send me pictures. He is in a bucket 100 feet up in the air.” I'm like, “Don't send me that shit.” He was like, “I would be climbing a pole 100 feet up in the air.” I'm like, “Get off your phone. I don't want to see that shit.”
I want to talk to him about hunting. He's a hell of a hunter. I've been following him on Instagram for a couple of years.
Pull up his Instagram.
Does he want us to share it? It is private.
My brother is funny too. I'm like, “I'm going to get you on this show. We're going to talk about what you do for a living and hunting.” He's like, “I don't know if I'm ready for that.” He lives in Illinois. That was the first one he killed. He got one in Oregon or Idaho, which would've been tough.
I love the one with the flask in the bull.
Shout out to his daughter.
He's a Matthews guy too.
Yes, he's a Matthews guy.
We can talk and hang out.
He saw my video of you shooting off the hill. He is like, “He must be a Matthews guy. That bow is quiet.”
That's funny because I wasn't talking shit, but I was like, “Your bow is loud.”
That was one of my first big wins in the UFC. Someone captured that photo. We were both in tears right there. We are happy.
My brother would tell me what I did wrong.
I want real fucking people on this show.
He's a real one. Read the caption there. That was hilarious. It says, “Confidence, cockiness, Jacoby luck. All three race through these veins.”
Is that a 75-yard shot?
That was a 75-yard chip shot. I hit him. He was out by himself. He called it in. I'm like, “You're an animal.”
Dustin, it's been a fucking awesome day. We got to wrap this up. I need to let you get back to your life. I don't want to get in trouble with your wife. I got a football scrimmage to go to. I'm going to be doing a little bit of coaching here. I'm going to get the kids fired up. This has been awesome.
It was a great day. Incredible.
We got to do it again. Podcast or not, let me know. Let's fucking hang out. Let's go up there. Let's get some of the other boys up there that want to go up. Vince, if you're reading this. Let's go.
I want to do that again and sooner than later. Let's go tomorrow.
I'm golfing tomorrow. I got a 7:40 tee time. I got to do something with my wife. I've been out all day, every day.
My tee time is going up there. You're welcome anytime. I had a blast with you. I wish you the best of luck. Before we jump off, Instagram, websites, or anything you got going on, you want to plug in.
You can follow me @TheHanyakDJ on Instagram. I post here and there. My stories are where I update people. I'll put a story up. That's my living at the moment. I don't do a lot of posts, but I'll put a story up to let you know what I'm up to. My team at Factory X, my management company, and Iridium Sports Agency those guys are awesome. Landow Performance. We didn't even get to talk about Landow.
We didn't talk about Landow, but we talked about it at lunch.
Shout out to those guys over Landows was the best. Anybody who's anybody in the Denver area who wants to be a better athlete? They train athletes. They teach speed. I've been going there since August of 2014. I've been a better athlete because of those guys. Loren Landow is an incredible individual. I love that guy. I know he thinks highly of me. The feeling is mutual, and a lot of respect between the two. Until next time, cheers. It's been a great day.
Thanks, everybody, for reading. Jeremy, thank you for being here.
I appreciate you, Jeremy.
---
Thanks for reading. If you haven't had a chance to do this already, please take a moment. Follow, like, subscribe, or rate on whatever platform you catch the show. If you'd like some more information on upcoming episodes, safety tips, access to all of our affiliates, and all the badass discounts we get here, check out TheMountainSidePodcast.com.
Important Links
Scott Enderich – Past Episode
Derek Wolfe – Past Episode
Facebook – Dustin Jacoby
Brooklyn Montoya – Past Episode
Chris Lockhart – Past Episode
@TheHanyakDJ – Instagram