97. Michael Chandler: The Reason He Walked Away From The Conor McGregor Fight

I'm 38 years old. You're not supposed to be fighting at this high of a level at 38 years old.

The news is just exploding over the Conor McGregor, Michael Chandler fight. What's going on there?

Conor McGregor. Yes, of course I want to fight him, but I do not need Conor McGregor for my legacy. The Chandler McGregor fight will happen eventually. It's just not now.

Where does faith fall into the picture for you?

It's been revealed to me so many times over my entire life, all these different seasons, how God has had me in the palm of his hand. And even in the seasons where I feel like everything's over, right when I lost three fights in a row, that's where you start to question things. But then you look back and you say, man, I needed that.

Talk a little bit about what your regimen is like to have your body in top physical condition.

We have been starting to work together. The hypermax oxygen, the cold plunge, the pimp mat, and the red light. This was the best I have ever felt in my entire life at 38 years old.

What can the fans expect next out of Michael Chandley? We got a date set.

Now the Next step episode.

Today's guest, Michael Chandler, is a three time Bellator lightweight champion and one of the most electrifying fighters to ever fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. You're really going to get to know him during this podcast. He's relevant in the news right now, trying to get this Conor McGregor fight to really happen. And he talks about his road to the championship and how it's actually, actually not going through Conor McGregor anymore. He's going to talk about what he thinks about Conor McGregor, when and if that fight's going to happen and how he's going to get to his next UFC title. What's really amazing about this podcast is you're really going to get to know who Michael Chandler is. You're going to get to know the family man, the father, the D1 walk on championship wrestler. You're going to really get insight into the fabric of who this gentleman is. I have so much respect for him. After this podcast, it's going to be one of the most enjoyable podcasts for you guys to watch, even if you are not a fight fan. There's so much, much to unpack here about the man, Michael Chandler. Listen and enjoy, guys. Hey, guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist, Gary Brea, where we go down the road of everything. Anti aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. And today's guest is. Unless you've been in a coma and maybe even if you have been in a coma, you know, my next guest, because he is all over the news right now. It is the biggest thing going on in fight sports. We're out in Las Vegas with my good friend, friend Michael Chandler. Welcome to the podcast, brother.

Thank you.

I'm super pumped to have you on me as well.

This is awesome. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's. You and I have had a. A little bit of a journey together, and we're going to talk about that on the recovery side and everything else, but we scheduled this podcast and I came out for the, the, you know, the UFC 306, you know, at the Sphere. I'm all excited to go to the sphere. And, dude, the news is just exploding over the Conor McGregor, Michael Chandler fight. I think that Dana first leaked it out, you know, by accident that the fight was off. So tell me, man, in your own words, like, what. What's going on there? What's up with you?

So, yeah, so I've, I've known for about four weeks that we were going to make. Make a pivot, and I wasn't sure when they. When it was actually going to get announced. I was hoping it was going to get announced this.

Oh, so you knew it was off for a while?

Yeah, yeah, well, I've known. So the fight was never off unless I wanted to make it be off necessarily, or just wait for Conor. And I was just. At some point, you know, I don't want to ever look back and say I wasted too much time. I gave it the old college try. I gave it a good enough try. Me and Connor got us a contract signed to fight in June 29, and then he pulls out. And then they gave me the opportunity and said, hey, well, there's. Charles Oliveira is waiting in their wings. He needs a fight. That's a big fight. It's a rematch.

Huge fight for you. Yeah, I mean, it's.

It's one of those, you know, in mixed martial arts, you want, obviously, you want the biggest fights possible and you want the bright fights at the right time. This is the right time to fight Charles Oliveira. It'll be a number one contender fight. And then I go from being a guy who sat out a little bit waiting for the Connor thing, which I had the huge promotion of the Ultimate Fighter and had a lot of growth over the last year, didn't take any damage. It was all really good. But then now, coming into this fight and waiting for Conor, and I'm going to be able to come back, beat Charles Oliveira, and then become the number one contender, get the opportunity to fight for the title if I want next, or if Conor can finally get his house in order, string together a training camp, proves to everybody that he's going to come back and is serious about making the greatest comeback in combat sports history, then we can finish the Chandler vs Conor McGregor fight that it was supposed to happen. I believe that fight will happen at some point, and his road back to the UFC goes straight through Nashville, Tennessee, to fight me. That's. That's it. He's. He. He can't just come back and pick and choose who he wants to fight. So I'm gonna take a little detour, go continue to chase my number one goal, which has always been my number one goal, to become the number one guy in the world and fight for a world title, win the world title. And I gotta be Charles Oliveira first to do that and then go beat Islam or Conor.

And the thing about this Connor fight is that, you know, Connor's not on the pathway to becoming a world champion. I mean, he's. It's probably the fight that the media most wants to see, that the fans most want to see. I mean, arguably the biggest, you know, fight in UFC history. But is that really a fight for Michael Chandler? I mean, is this really something for your career or.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, I knew. I knew that going into. When Hunter Campbell called me to do the Ultimate Fighter in January of 2023, which I had to leave in February, come here to Vegas and film it, I knew that. It's like, hey, everyone's talking about this fight. This is a fight that makes sense. He wants to do the Ultimate Fighter. Would you like to do the Ultimate Fighter? The answer is yes, because of the Ultimate Fighter, the history of it, the platform of it, 12 hours, 12 weeks on ESPN, and everything that came with it was a huge opportunity. Plus, the biggest combat store, biggest combat star on the planet is Conor McGregor. Yes, of course I want to fight him. I knew it wasn't a fight that got me toward the title athletically, but.

Or career advancement wise.

Career advancement, but. Yeah, but it kind of is, too, because, yes, this is a sport, but it also depends a lot on how big your name is, how much weight is behind your name. A win over Conor McGregor with that many eyeballs, you know, the proof is in the pudding. It puts you more towards, you know, being in the position to fight for the title, so. I understand. Understood. The. The fight the fighting side of it didn't really check that box to get me toward the title, but it did from a promotional standpoint.

Yeah.

And ultimately, I'm here to make the biggest impact I possibly can. So the more people who know my name, the more people who see me, the more people who hear my voice. That's how I make the greatest amount of impact. So that's the way I kind of weighed the pros and cons of it all. But me and Connor will fight eventually. I just. Not next.

Not next.

Not next.

You know, I remember the, you know, the first time that, you know, the fight started getting on wobbly legs. When did you. How did you first. I mean, I think there was a presser that was get. That got canceled. And, you know, you. I guess you could think, hey, they can cancel Oppressor and fight still on. But I remember that Oppressor got cancer, canceled overseas. And then the rumors started swirling and there's a whole. I mean, I. I actually went down deep down the rabbit hole and all the MMA sites before, you know, before jumping on the podcast. And there's all kinds of stuff out there about Conor, you know, good and bad about, you know, why this fight has been delayed so many times. I mean, everything from his injuries to partying to he had a big financial score to, you know, is he even going to get back in the ring again? And they all seem to have some measure of credibility. Yep. What's your take on. On this yo yo position? I'm not calling him yo yo.

The yo yo.

I did not call you.

No, the up and down nature of it. Similar to a yo yo. Yes. Yeah, man. I. It's. It's always interesting, right, because you can read the headlines and you can look at it all and you can. You can take this big pie chart that is who Conor McGregor is and say, well, because of these.

Definitely a dynamic character.

Dynamic character. And like you said, all of those things have been talked about, whether they're true. Not overblown, underblown, whatever. But I always like to say, yes, me and Connor live two completely different lifestyles, and we are two different types of people. But I've also never walked a mile in his shoes. Give me that kind of fame, that kind of fortune, that kind of notoriety, and let's see what kind of guy I am. Right. I think I have a sneaky suspicion I'd be very similar to the guy I am currently right now. But I also cannot judge a man when it comes to his propensity and willingness to come back and fight. I think it's, I think it's still there and that's why I was willing to bet on that horse throughout this process. I think it is still there. Not necessarily because I believe Conor McGregor believes he's going to win a world title or he's still the Conor from 2021 or 2020 and 2018 when he had became the double champ and all that. I don't think he believes he is that guy anymore. But I do believe that he needs the sport of mixed martial arts like he needs oxygen. Yeah, I believe he needs to continue to fill a void inside of him that only one thing can ever, ever give him. The money won't give it to him. The fame won't give it to him. He needs to step inside of an octagon and stand in the middle and do this and feel like a God. He needs that. That's what he wants. That is his breath, that is his oxygen. So I've always bet on that spirit of the man more than I actually bet on the man of himself. Currently. I have been proven wrong, obviously, but I do believe at some point he's going to come back. And that's why it was so important for me to attach my name to that contract. And it's undeniable at this point. If he comes back, he's got to fight me. So that's what I believe.

You know, you said that you don't think that he believes that he's that man anymore. And I want to drill into that for a second because you know, I work with a lot of top athletes, you know, people that are very much in the public eye, a listers, celebrities, what have you. And what's always fascinated me about a phenomenal athlete is not an, not a phenomenal athlete that's able to be good once, but someone who dominates a sport over a, over a prolonged period of time. Someone like a Lance Armstrong or Michael Jordan, know Tom Brady and that mindset of, of belief or who you are. I mean, talk a little bit about the mindset, like how, how do you stay focused? Because look, you might not have the fame and the fortune of a Conor McGregor, but you are still a very well known fighter. Y. You're very well respected fighter. You're very much in the public eye. You've had to now be camp ready three different times, you know, for this fight. At some point what gets inside of your head? Where was the tipping point for you where you said I gotta go back to doing what Michael Chandler's dreamed of? Doing. And whether it means I put this fight off or not, this is the tipping point for me. I'm going back to my. My dream of chasing the title.

Yeah, no, it's a really good question because it's been an evolution over this last year, year and a half, and there's been times where I was 100% focused.

It's gotta get in your head.

Yeah, it's 100, hey, this fight's happening. We're good. It's gonna go. And then all of a sudden, he would throw a tweet out, or it would be, you know, the media would say this, or some report would come out, and then it's like, okay, now the fight looks like it's in jeopardy. But then ultimately, we got the fight booked and I trained. I mean, that's. That's just one thing about me. And it's. My journey in mixed martial arts has been very, very unique, and I love my journey, and it's why I love fighting in the UFC so much, because I know what it's like outside of the ufc, and I've fought so many guys that you and everybody else listening right now, they're not household names. They don't know who these. A lot of guys that I fought in my Strike Force days, Strike Force and Bellator, yet I still trained just as disciplined, just as hard, left no stone unturned, never cut corners, did everything perfectly to the best of my ability when I was fighting a nobody, or I was making 500 bucks in my first fight, or I was making very little money, very little promotion in a smaller promotion outside of the ufc, all the way into now, coming to the ufc, training just as hard and just as disciplined for world titles, are now fighting Charles Oliveira or if I would have fought Conor. Yeah. So to me, it's. It's not about who you're fighting or where you're fighting or when you're fighting, dictating how you prepare or the professionalism that you keep. It's the standard that you have set, and it's a non negotiable, and it doesn't matter. So once, once the fight kind of felt fell through for the first time. Well, not for the first time, but this last time with the broken arm.

Or the third time.

Yeah, yeah. This, this pinky toe. Yeah.

Oh, the pinky. That was my favorite one.

That was.

Yeah.

I. I talked to Hunter Campbell about that, and I was like, what was going through your mind when you, you know, saw Connor come out and it was a broken pinky toe and he was just, you know, he's like, I'll no comment. Right. Yeah. Because ultimately, before that, as of right now, in my entire career, I've never missed weight, and I've never pulled out of a fight, never pulled out of a wrestling match, never did not show up and compete.

Never miss weight.

Never miss weight.

Really? That is a D1 for.

Oh, never. And that's hundreds of hundreds of times. Wow. And it's because it's. It's not that hard to just do the right thing. If you do the right thing.

Discipline is not that hard.

Yeah, right. You know, and like I said, I don't take a lot of credit for it. Mike and Betty Chandler from High Ridge, Missouri, they built me into the young man that I am through osmosis and watching them and how hard they train or how hard they worked. So it's just ingrained in me. But a guy who had never pulled out of a fight before, Connor, and has fought injured. He's got his little documentaries that came out, and then he always showed every time he had an injury or broken this or broken that.

Yeah, I remember the picture of the toe. And I mean, I'm a human biologist, not a. I'm not a surgeon or a doctor, but I got plenty. Plenty of orthopedic friends. They're like, dude, you break a toe like that, you tape it to the next toe and you move on.

Yeah. I kind of made the joke, you.

Know, going to the bathroom and kicking the, you know, kicking the plate on my bed.

You know, I made the joke. So at the work, I made the joke, too, about, isn't there a certain segment of the population who has that, like, hanging toe syndrome where, like, the toe doesn't even touch the ground? So you're like, you basically don't even have a pinky toe. Or some of the people don't. Right.

Well, not me. I got gorgeous feet. Everybody talks about.

Yeah.

If I took my shoes off right now, it would throw the whole podcast off, because then that'd be, like, the.

Biggest thing, the biggest focal point.

Yeah.

But I. You know, so he had never pulled out of a fight, and I was just obviously, almost like, hey, it's. It gives me an opportunity. And I think you never quite know how your legacy and how your story is being told because you're just living it. And then someday people are going to look back and see the way that I operated and how I handled myself throughout this process. I agree with that, and I believe it's going to be a shining light to how people handle adversity, how. And it would be a blueprint for getting knocked down, metaphorically picking yourself back up. That's always been my walk on mentality, my walk on story, and this is just another chapter in it. But the Chandler McGregor fight will happen eventually. It's just not now.

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Yeah. And it was. And it was taking a huge risk and it was betting on yourself. And I, and I thank God every single day that for some reason this little 18 year old kid who didn't believe in himself took the opportunity to bet on himself to walk onto the University of Missouri because tell me what that was like. It was. I honestly, I, honestly, it doesn't actually compute in my head because I know for a fact that I didn't believe that I deserved to be at the university, University of Missouri. And mom and dad were telling me not to and coaches around me and, and, and teammates and everybody from my little small town in High Ridge, Missouri was, was like, dude, what are you. This is, this is a crazy.

Wrestled at that level. Because you were, can I say small.

Town wrestlers, Small town and very, very average. Ish. You know, like I was, I was ranked high in the state my senior year, but still fell short, sabotaged myself, didn't win a state title and, and I had scholarship offers from smaller schools, local, locally and obviously that would have paid for my, my schooling. So my parents, you know, probably wanted me to do that. Right? Yeah, but, so there was everybody around me saying this is probably a bad idea because you either you're either A, gonna not gonna make it, you're not, you're gonna quit, B, or you're gonna ride the bench and just go there and be a human punching bag. Why, why go do that when you can go maybe be a starter at Missouri Baptist or Lennonwood or one of these other schools. And thank God, for Some reason this 18 year old little kid was like, no, I'm going to go chase that dream. I'm going to go climb that mountain. And that was the first time I bet on myself and obviously it worked out well. Ended up becoming an all American in the hardest weight class in the country and a four year, four year starter, four year national qualifier, three year team captain. Just, just a guy who started at the bottom. Coach didn't even know my name, didn't even look in my direction, didn't even talk to me the whole first year. The lowest guy on the totem pole. But I think I still, I still am that guy. I still, even when I beat Charles Oliveira and then I go beat Islam and I'm the UFC champion and we sit here and we do this podcast again and we'll run it again. Yeah, it's. I still have this yearning to, I have this yearning to continue to find the best version of myself, but I also don't see myself as better than anybody else because I Know where I started and. And starting at the bottom.

Yeah.

And starting at the bottom of the totem pole was the greatest gift I ever could have gotten in my entire life. And then betting on myself to come over to the UFC when it was a huge risk, and I had that. I had great money, great platform, great relative security in Bellator.

Yeah.

And I said, I just. I'm not gonna be able to sleep at night unless I go climb. Climb this crazy.

Because that was the next. I mean, that Strike Force. The Bellator, Bellator to the ufc.

And that's what I told Hunter, too. Like you said, I fought the toughest five guys. I sat in his office in Vegas and I said, hey, I'm completely content coming over here, and I want you to throw me against the toughest guys right away. And if I lose my first two fights and you need to cut me, that's fine, but at least I can prove to myself. I need to prove to myself here. I am who I say I am or I'm not.

And now, where was Oliveira in that lineup?

He was number two or number three?

He was. Yeah, number two.

Well, yeah, because Khabib was the champion. He was about to fight Justin Gai. I came in as the backup, and then Oliveira was ranked second, but really ranked third. And then that was the reason, because Khabib retires, Poirier and Conor were stuck in their trilogy, so they had to fight each other. So then all of a sudden, now that was me and Oliveira fighting for the title in my second fight, because it all worked out perfectly, serendipitously so. It's. It's just so funny how God keeps the door closed, and you're trying to break through it, and you take a sledgehammer to it, you're trying to kick it down, and you. You're asking him, why won't this door open? I deserve it. I deserve it. But it might be the right thing. It just might not be the right time. Yeah, right. So when. When.

The door is not a virtue that a lot of great athletes and competitors have either.

Right, Exactly. So when the door opened, it didn't just open was wide. It was completely wide open. And it. And I walked into the greatest scenario I ever could have asked for coming into the ufc, and it was just. It was perfect.

Did you have any mentors or guides? You know, wrestling is a very individual sport. I mean, it seems like nobody's getting you up in the morning, nobody's putting you to bed at night. I mean, you're. You're Very motivated. It's not a team sport as like other sports. It is because your, Your. Your team, you know, wrestles, wrestles on behalf of institution. But it's not like an organized sport where those days where you're not motivated, y. You're motivated because you got to show up for everybody else. You only have to show up for yourself.

Y.

And I have, I have a lot of respect for that because people that find that, that motivation, that self discipline, it's more probably more discipline than motivation. You can't wait to be motivated. You just have to, you know that you have to do these things every single day in order to. To compete at the level that you're at. Where did the motivation come from? Where the guidance come from? Like, who were you looking up to and. And getting guidance or advice from?

It's a good, good question. So to start with the. And this is one of my superpowers, I believe. And, and why me walking on and being the lowest guy on the totem pole was so important is I was so grateful to be there. So you had blue chip. That's a big blue chip recruits, state champions, studs, guys. Guys who are sitting there with 15 different scholarship offers. They're. They're the cat's meow. They walk into the University of Missouri like, okay, hey, I'm here. Take care of me. But then all of a sudden, the grind punches them in the mouth and they realize, oh, this is tough. I don't really want to be here anymore. I'd rather go work for my dad back in Pennsylvania or whatever. Whereas me, I walked in like, shoot, if anybody even talks to me or even knows who I am or even wants to drill with me, man, I'm excited. I'm grateful to be here every single day. I woke up, was never, ever late. I was always. I immediately started becoming a leader on the team because I just. I did the right things, but I did more than what was asked of me. And I didn't have to be told what was right and wrong. Right? And I was just so grateful to be there. So that's. That's one of my superpowers, is I still, to this day, I'm so grateful that I get to do what I do every single day. And I'm 38 years old. You're not supposed to be fighting at this high of a level at 38 years old. And with all of the fights I've had, the wars that I've had, the awards that I've won, the world championships, and the ups and the downs and the, the tears and the, and all of the things I've been through. But I'm still so grateful for the opportunity. And with that, I had some great mentors in University of Missouri with Tyron Woodley I wrestled with, who ended up becoming a UFC champion. Ben Askren, who was multiple time world champion outside of the ufc, came to the UFC and fought a couple fights and great, great coaches. I had a Bible study leader named Bus Tarbox, who was the first person who started to open my mind to. Because I was, I grew up very, hey, we're in High Ridge, Missouri. And if you have money, if. Or if you have status or you have nice things, or you have a nice big house, whatever, you're probably a pretentious, you know, person who, who isn't, isn't full of giving, right? And then gratitude and also just generosity, right? You want to keep it all to yourself. That's how people get rich. They just keep it all to themselves and they're very selfish. And I saw the way that he served his wife and I saw the way he served his two daughters. He would, he. We have Bible study on every Tuesday night. By the time we would get there, he would be. They would just get done eating dinner, and he was sitting there with his daughters, doing homework with them and just loving on them and serving them. And he was such a great servant leader and he was so generous. Everybody in the whole community in Columbia, Missouri knew who he was. And all of a sudden I started thinking, wait a second, he's an orthopedic surgeon, owns an orthopedic practice. Wow. Very successful. Very, very successful. Has money, has status, has nice things, yet he has the biggest heart I've ever seen. And he started to open that, that up, started to open that in me to think, wait a second, where am I playing small? Where am I playing scarcity? Where am I playing lack? And that really started to open it up. And then getting exposed to the kids from California, kids from Pennsylvania coast to coast, around the entire country and seeing different ways that everybody grew up, and it started to just really mold me into the young man that I was. And then full of gratitude and just, I would run through that brick wall for you if you wanted me to, and I will do it harder and faster. And I'm willing to die for you, coach. Like, that was the kind of guy I am. And I'm still like that, which is kind of dangerous and scary because I, I am that guy inside the cage, right? So that's kind of the Origin.

You know, that's. It sounds to me this is kind of where faith enters the picture. Right.

And.

And maybe talk a little bit about how that's shaped your role as an athlete and your aspirations and your tenacity. Maybe in those moments where you don't have that mentor by your side and you're. You're a little bit alone in your decisions, because at the end of the day, you know, fighting is a very individual sport. I mean, you got difficult decisions to make on your own for you. You know, you got to make decisions for yourself and not necessarily for the media, not necessarily for the fans. If you were doing that, you'd still be waiting on the counter fight, right?

Yeah.

Well, where. Where does. Where does faith fall into the picture for you?

It's obviously. Yeah, it's the cornerstone of. Of who I am and what I. What I do. Right. Because. Because being a fighter is great. It's what I do, but it's not who I be. Like, who I be is a man who was put on this earth to reach people and to serve people and to be a servant leader and also be a shining light. You know, I always say, like, fighting is my. My shiny object that gets people to look. And they say, oh, man, he's cool. He's got cauliflower ears, and he fights in a cage, and I saw his highlights. Right.

You have cool cauliflowers.

Oh, thank you.

I actually like those.

Right. You know, so it's that. That's the shiny object that gets people to look, but then they. Then they're able to say, okay, now that I'm looking, let me go ahead and peel back the layers of who this guy is and how he operates. And speaking about my faith, I don't. I don't like to do it in a way that is necessarily unbecoming or. Or too over. You know, I just. I want. One of my favorite quotes about faith is, preach the gospel at all times, but only use words when necessary. Right. And I want to. I want to be a person who operates a certain way. And you say there's something about that guy. I don't know exactly what it is. It's not. It's not necessarily his fighting, but there's something else going on, and I'm. He's a desirable individual for me to want to look to. Right. And I just know it's been revealed to me so many times over my entire life in all these different seasons, how God has had me in the palm of his hand through every single season, and even the seasons where I.

Know you don't see it at the time.

No. And even the seasons where I questioned him, and even the seasons where it seemed like the devil was winning, and even in the seasons where I feel like. Like it's all about to go to hell in a hand basket and it's all about to just catch on fire and everything's over, Right? When I lost three fights in a row, and it's. That's where you start to question things. But then you look back and you say, man, I needed that. That was exactly who I have become, who I am today because of the man I was then. And I was so upset at that man, and whether it be his lack or his. His scarcity or whatever it is, but I needed to be that man, to know that I never want to be that man again. Yes. You know, and then just watching the way that he has galvanized me through the fires of what I've had to go through, and sometimes. Sometimes it's. It's being the tallest nail that gets hammered, and people, you know, people say.

People say, I'm gonna start using that. Yeah, that gets hammered.

Yo, the tallest nail always gets hammered first. Right? And so true. And I. I like to be that guy. It's. It's a blessing. It's. It's a. It's a. It's a really, really cool place to be because it means you're doing something impactful.

You know, I've watched your career, and you never really have been that guy that's played the victim mentality. You know, I've. You hear it a lot, even from the most accomplished fighters. You know, you never talk getting robbed. You've never talked about being taken advantage of. You never talked about not being given what you deserve. And, you know, you could look at. You could take a step back and say, well, you know, there's. There's fighter this. That came into the ufc, Alex Pereira, for example, comes in and gets four fights in the time that goes from virtual obscurity to, you know, a household name. And in the. In the fight business, you know, in the fight game, during the timeframe that you were waiting on this one fight, but you never, you know, or took that woe is me attitude. You know, you never played that victim card. I think at some point, you just reached that tipping point, and you said, I've got goals and aspirations that, that I'm. I'm gonna go after and I'm gonna put Conor to the side. And like you said, I like what you said. The other day, I'm, I'm not. Conor's not my next opponent, but I'm. I'm his.

Yeah.

And that was, you know, that that statement says a lot about who you are. You like, I'm not running from this fight. I'm still ready for this fight, but I, at some point, I've got to do what God put me on this earth to do, and that's to be the best version of myself. And I, I, you know, I study a lot about the, the human mindset and, and I study how it affects, you know, the cells in our body because, you know, for a long time people would talk about the universal law of energy and these concepts of your emotional state having no impact on your, on your physical health. But we know that to not be true now. We know that what goes on up here has a lot to do with what goes on down here and our mindset and our mentality and what we think about and whether we wake in gratitude has a lot to do with how healthy, how conditioned, how focused we are. And you've been able to maintain, in my opinion, this fight ready level of conditioning over, over a long period of time. I mean, tell me how that grind, when the goal keeps taking, Gets taken away from you. How do you just keep up that grind?

I think once again, it's just gratitude.

Because you get after it, man. I mean, I've seen your, your, your workouts. I mean, they're nasty.

Yeah. I think it's just gratitude. And I mean, it's, it's so hard and it's, you know, it's, there's a reason that depression is the number one disability in, in the United States. Isn't that true? Right. Depression has now become one of the number one disabilities. And it's.

Don't get me started on that.

I know, exactly.

There's a whole podcast.

But, but this idea that we can sit here, you know, and we're both Americans in this beautiful country with all the freedoms and liberties and, and you can go down the list of a billion things that we have to be thankful for. Even the fact that I have two capable arms and two capable legs that millions, and I mean millions and millions of people would trade to give anything.

To have a hot shower.

Right.

Simple thing.

Yes. To trade places with me. And I, and I look at it, it as though to give anything less than my best is to sacrifice those gifts, these gifts that I've been given. And I have been given so many great gifts. And Mike and Betty Chandler, my mom and dad. High Ridge, Missouri, worked two and three jobs, were up every single morning, never complained, never cut cords.

Are you still around? Yeah, they are.

Yeah, they're in. And that's the thing. I, I get so much credit for how hard I work and how disciplined I am. And yes, I have to do it. I have to make the decision every single day to do the right thing. But I almost don't have a choice because it just becomes so natural to me because of how the example that my parents set for me, you know, and it's. So whether, whether I have a fight booked or I don't have a fight booked, I still have another day to live. You know, I still have another hour to live. I still have relationships, and I still have a choice every single day to do the right things or do the wrong things. And the simple fact of the matter is we all know the right things and the wrong things to do. It just. Are you willing to admit that you do or you don't know those things? You know, you can't play ignorance is bliss or you can't play ignorance to the things that you know you need to do. Yeah, you got to do what you need to do instead of what you want to do. Because too many people, people are just driven by emotion. So I take the emotion out of it and say, here's my standard that I have set and I have a. I have a duty to myself, to my family, to my. My creator, to my onlookers, to my. This, my one life that I get to live to do the right thing. So it's just this intrinsic hope and peace coupled with a tenacity.

Yeah, you've been tenacious about everything. In fact, there's a really funny story I want to ask you about that I heard. I actually hope it's true because it's a great story. My wife loved it. About how you met your, Your wife.

Oh gosh.

And tenacious. Tenacious stalker literally emailed her. I think it's illegal in 14 states. Yeah, what you did, but. But it worked out for you. Yeah, but you, you went full blown stalker mode. You emailed her every day for what, two years?

Not, not every day, but. Well, I mean, I would have, if she would have responded me, I would have emailed her back every day. But she, she being the wonderful, very self confident, very self sufficient person that she is, didn't need me or want me or any man for that matter because she was married to medicine. She was doing an 80, 80 hour a week critical care residency at the University of Missouri, er. And she was living her dream. That was what she wanted to do, and she didn't need me or anybody else.

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So she would take, like two months to. To respond to my email. And I'm checking it every. I'm checking it every day, checking it every day, because once I got the first one, I'm like, like, you're telling me there's a chance. So I'm just like, we'll check it every day. And then as soon as it would come through, I'd email her back and then sit there and wait.

Two months. And you took two minutes?

Yep, yep. Oh, less. Probably less than two minutes. But the origin story is, you know, going back to Bus Tar Box, my Bible study leader. His Bible study leader was a man named Kent Willett, who had a phenomenal reputation around town, and he was also a dentist. And I got this tooth knocked out, thank God, in college. And I went to his dental office and I knew. I knew of his reputation, and I saw pictures of him on the wall, and I saw this cute little brunette girl with these beautiful dark brown eyes and a picture. Yeah, a picture on the wall. And I said, that girl's beautiful. And if. And that's his daughter, and if she's anything like him, I want to marry her someday. And so then, thank God, through the beauty of, like, a Facebook, I was able. And I went and got my tooth fixed. I didn't go get creepy and say, hey, your daughter's beautiful. Can I take her out for a date or anything.

And you didn't send her your picture with your tooth still?

No, I did. Yeah, I got. It's still there. And so then, you know, I looked up on Facebook and thank God we had a bunch of mutual friends. And then I. I went to another Bible study that was more of a. A college age Bible study. And everyone kept bringing this girl's name up. They kept saying her name. Brie Will it. Brie Willett. And. And because everybody knew her, and I was like, that's that girl. Like, that is that girl that I saw in that picture. And now I've been kind of seeing on Facebook and seeing if I'm ever going to run into her, because she. She went to PA School in Illinois and she was just coming back around that when I was in college, when I guess she was in college, but she was out of town. I had actually been to her house. She wasn't there. I went to her house for a guy's birthday party who was in our Bible study. And yes, in the back of my mind, I was like, I'm definitely going to that Bible study because it's at Dr. Willet's house and maybe Bri will be in town. She never was. But the funny thing was I pictured myself fishing in the pond in their backyard. Like, someday I'm going to fish on this pond and I'm going to marry this girl. And now I married her and I fish on the pond. So it's crazy, but amazing. Yeah. Finally she. We kind of Facebook friended each other. I sent her a message on Facebook, then she said, hey, I'm deactivated my Facebook account because I'm applying for residencies. So we started emailing, and she would email back like every two months. And then finally I hounded her enough to say, hey, can we go to coffee together? And she finally said yes. And then since January 20th, 24th of 2013, when she walked into Culdi's coffee, we've been together ever since 2013. 2013.

That's amazing. When did you guys get married?

2014.

2014.

Yeah. So we were. We were dating for 11 months, engaged for five months.

Wow.

And I tricked her and I trapped her.

She don't know how tenacious you are.

Yeah.

So. And then you've, you know, you've gone on to. You. You. You're building a beautiful family. You've adopted two children. Yep. And how did it come about the, you know, how does the discussion start that you want to adopt, you know, children? I mean, how does that.

That's so. That Started because we were in San Diego, because we. When we got married or when we were first dating, I had just moved to San Diego, and we. We both. We got married in San Diego, bought our first house in San Diego.

So you. You're fighting?

Yeah, yeah, I was fighting. And she had never seen a fight before. She never wasn't following it, like, which was good. I liked that about her.

And did you just lay that on her in the beginning when she was like, well, you know, what do you do? And she's like, I'm. I'm working in the er. And you're like, well, I actually, yeah, I fight in a cage.

I think that was the problem. Which is. Which is awesome. Like, you know, we have this preconceived notions of who fighters are, how they operate, what their goals and what their morals are and what type of people they are. So she was kind of like, well, number one, I don't need a man or want a man right now. I'm married to medicine, and I definitely don't want that guy. I never want to be a professional athlete's wife, number one. Number two, a professional athlete who fights in a cage for a living, there's probably some red flags that I probably am not interested in. So I think that's why it took so long.

That's what I mean. Yeah.

Yes.

Two months to respond to an email.

Exactly. But eventually my. My character or who I was kind of shown through, I guess, in my. Some of my emails. But once we started dating, we were in San Diego. We were laying on a little blanket at this cool little dog park, watching planes fly over. And she first told me, she said, yeah, you know, I've always, always wanted to adopt. And. And it caught me off guard a little bit because I had never really thought about it. And quite frankly, I was like, well, I've never thought about this, but I'll do anything to marry you. Like, I'm completely on board with that. Because ever since she was a teenager, like, 14 years old, she had it on her heart to adopt. She used to. She used to serve at an inner city mission in Columbia, Missouri. She used to go on these mission trips to Jamaica, and she just loved children. And. But she also knew she. When you go on mission trips, obviously you see the hurt in the world and you see fatherlessness and you see. You see orphans and you see. Yeah, you know, and, and. And so I think that was always ingrained in her, and everybody around her knew, bri, will it someday. She said, you know, if I. If I ever get married and I marry a good man, I want to adopt children. I want, that's how I want to build a family. And, you know, obviously after praying about it and seeking wise counsel about it and thinking about it a lot, obviously I was like, hey, I'm on board. Let's, you know, let's do it. And we adopted our first son.

And then what was the distance between adopting the two children?

Hap was 2017, and then Ace was 2022. So it's like five years.

Wow.

No.

And they're not siblings.

No.

No. That's amazing, man. God bless you, dude. This is incredible. So I want to switch gears a little bit because I want to talk about what you do in addition to your, your typical fighting regimen to, to have your body in top physical condition. You know, I mean, you're obviously a physical specimen, so you're, you're no stranger, obviously, growing up, you know, D1 wrestler, high school wrestler, D1 wrestler, cage fighter. But you're getting, you know, 38 years old. You have to pay a lot more attention to recovery than a fighter does when they're 21 years old, 22 years old. I mean, at that age, you can't be killed by a bullet. And, yeah, you know, and the knees and hips and shoulders and rotator cuffs and the low back just don't, don't ache the way they do when, when you get older and you've, you, you've, you put some miles on yourself in the ring. You've, you know, you've had a lot of, you know, a lot of contact, a lot of heavy weights. Talk a little bit about what your regimen is like. I mean, obviously we, we do a lot together with 10x health. But what is your regimen that you would say for recovery is, is outside of what you see going on with, with your peers. I mean, most people are strength training and obviously doing their jiu jitsu and stand up and what have you.

I would say, I mean, my emphasis towards strength training is so much higher than everyone else in the sport. I believe, I believe, I believe they use it as a very small supplement to the sport. But I, I believe my body is so durable because I've, I've put it under heavy load constantly, day after day after day since I was in high school. And obviously, the college wrestling, college wrestling environment, we lifted weights and we lifted heavy and we were constantly wrestling because in these, in this contact sport where you're constantly getting pulled on and contortionists and elbows and, and joints and stuff going different ways and load bearing in these weird little positions. It's so important to be strong in those positions. So. So strength training to me has been a superpower for me. Probably doing it too much in a lot of people's eyes. Yeah. Yet I still keep my explosiveness. I'm still able to make weight because I don't put on a ton of muscle mass on. I have a good amount of muscle mass, but it's also my body armor. Right, right. And then also. Yeah. Similar to what you said about being young. As soon as I hit 27 years old or so, I realized I was starting to get closer to the end of the career than I was the beginning of the career, which started at 2022. And that's when I really started emphasizing body work. Getting body work every single week and my own manual therapy via a roller. So. So I'm one of the only. One of the only guys at my gym who started rolling out every single day before practice for 20, 30 minutes, getting there early, getting a good little stretch and actually rolling it out, getting my body moving. And then all of a sudden, the young, young guys start. Start kind of seeing me do it. And they're all getting on their rollers and stuff now.

So you're doing the rolling, you're doing red light.

Yes. And then. So then, now with when what we have been starting to work together. The hypermax oxygen.

Yeah.

The cold plunge, the pimp mat and the red light.

Yeah.

And that this last camp, as we talked about this, was the best I have ever felt in my entire life.

Yeah.

At 38 years old. 38. 38 years of scar tissue and all these things. Yeah. My endurance, my recovery, the. And yes, there's. There's.

People talk about your gas tank because you have so much muscle.

Yeah.

They're like, you know, the later. The later he goes that, you know, the more gassed he gets because, you know, he's carrying all that muscle into late rounds. Yeah. And you're. You're conscious of that and combating that by trying to recover and increase your VO2 max and improve your. Improve your gas tank.

Yeah. It's been. It's been awesome. And I have. I have it. The hypermaxin in my house in Florida where I do my training camps, and then also in Nashville. So even when I bounce back and forth, I've got everything set up. And then the red light and the pimp. It's. It's been. It's taken because, you know, like you said, speaking about the highest Level athletes. We all, to a certain extent, we all train hard, we're all pretty disciplined. There's certain little differentiators. But how do you get that one, that extra little 1% better that whether it's explosiveness or cardio or endurance or. Even more important than all of those things is recovery, because your current workout is only as effective as your recovery was from the previous workout or the previous damage that you have done to yourself. So every single day, just the revolving door of redlining yourself and then recovering and then redlining and recovering.

And I think we're so good at redlining ourselves. I mean, you know, most athletes have their strength training down, they have their, their standup training, their jiu jitsu training down. But it's whether or not their body is keeping up with the, with the damage that they're making. And one of my favorite recovery devices is the, is a red light therapy bed. And I know when you started using it, you saw a parabolic rise in, in your recovery hydroge. Another one. Good call. I'll fire that up right now.

Yeah, so I, yeah, I just started doing this a couple months ago now. And just having one of these, you'll.

Notice onset muscle soreness, you know, inflammation, recovery joints especially. We, I, I even have a little surprise that I got for you to help help close that, that, that last one. 1% gap. Can we, can we bring that over here?

I like surprises.

I know you. These are recovery surprises.

Yes.

So, you know, I'm, I'm obviously enormous fan of the pemf, the pulse electric magnetic field, you know, keeps your body alkaline using the ewat, the exercise with oxygen therapy. This is my newest recovery love right here, brother. You're gonna love this. So this is a hydrogen, this is a hydrogen gas generator that you put into your bathtub. And what it does is it saturates the bath with hydrogen gas, just like the, this, this water bottle will do, but just in higher concentration. And we know that this gas can go transdermal. It goes right through the skin. So inflammation, circulation, what we call vasomotor activity, which is your micro, micro circulation only. Only 30% roughly of our circulation is actually done by our heart. The other 70% of our circulation is done by something called vasomotor. It's kind of like a snake swallowing a mouse, right? It's the, it's the microvasculature moving blood around the way that we heal and repair at phenomenal wolverine rates. I cannot wait to hear how you respond when you start. 20 minutes a night, you're going to be in a hydrogen bath. It feels great. It's that you keep the bath at 102°, we saturated with hydrogen gas. You set down in that bath, that gas is right transdermal.

And then it's, is it little, the little bubbles?

It's, yeah, it's a little micro bubbles, kind of like the bubbles you see in here. Yeah, but, and some of the things we talked about with your son too. You know, I think this will really help your son too with some of the topical things changer.

Because that's, that's one of the toughest things in my life right now with him.

So I know we, we've had many a talk about it and if there's anything that I can do, you know, to serve you, it's such a blessing to be able to work with you. Then, you know, I, I, I pray that this is going to be the solution that your son needs. And I really think that will be yes.

Sounds like I got, I got a date. 20 minutes. It's kind of weird for a man.

To give something to another man to use in the bathtub, but whatever. You're a UFC fighter, you're securing your manhood.

I'm a tough, I can give you a bathing device. I play a tough guy on tv.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's better than a rubber ducky.

Man, that is awesome. Thank you. I'm excited about that.

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November 16th, Madison Square Garden, the world's most iconic arena. The main event. So Charles's. Charles and I are the co. Main event. Five rounds. Main event. I don't know if it's been announced yet, so I don't know if I should maybe say it, but obviously there's speculation out there fighting somebody else. Yeah, exactly. Wouldn't that be the. The biggest kick in the teeth? Right?

That would be the biggest kick in the teeth.

You're like, okay, well, the main event.

Conor McGregor, newsman.

At this point, nothing would surprise me. But one. So.

And he could fight himself maybe for the first time.

Well, he loves himself enough to probably fight himself because he's. Nobody else. Deserves to be on the ticket. Yeah. And so that will be the, you know, the next step in me pursuing and also then achieving what I believe has been my. My goal. Not just my goal, but my destiny the entire time. And maybe this is the way it was supposed to be. The entire time. Time beat Charles Oliveira, which. Why beat him?

Something about redemption.

Yeah, I beat him the first time. If there's even a better storyline, you can beat him the second time and beat him on a rematch and beat him at the right time to then go fight for the title. And then good old fashioned, passionate. Division 1 Missouri American Wrestling vs Dagestani Sambo Islam Mahachev, who I have a ton of respect for, but I believe I will. I match up well against him and.

Then I think so too.

And then. And then if the counter fight happens, if he can get his house in order, that. That is a fight that I obviously want because I want to. I want to finish that chapter. I feel like it's. There's. We waited and there was so many ups and downs and, you know, I went through things with it. When it. When it comes to all of the, you know, being away from my family, but then not actually getting to fight was. Yeah. Very tough. Like.

Yeah.

Wasted time. I would never say it's wasted time. Right. And anybody who's listening or you. You've had times in your life, you're like, man, that was wasted time. But was it. It wasn't really wasted time because of the man I became from it.

My wife and I talk about that a lot. A lot. A Lot of, A lot of the things at the time that we found to be. We built a business together and it wasn't always a successful business. And along the road, you know, when you're, when you're in a business with your spouse, your relationship is very much tied to the business. You have a good day at work, you have a good day at home, you have a bad day at work, you have a bad day at home. I meet all kinds of people. They're like, oh, you can separate your business from your personal life. No, you can. Can, right?

Yeah.

No, you cannot.

And especially when. When they're your biggest fan and you're their biggest fan and they're your best friend, it's almost you. You want to always share every single thing with them, every single update, right?

Yeah.

And I've. I found myself trying to protect my wife Bri a little bit more with not giving her half truths or half informations until everything is 100% concrete. Because this whole experience has been up and down in the media and everything. She's like, hey, I heard this. And hey, I heard that. Hey, what did Hunter, what did Dana say? But then it's like, like, yeah, so we were constantly in it and there was a constant update or non update and sometimes no news was good news and sometimes bad news was good and all of the different things. So, yeah, we've gone over through that this last year and a half and what. So I want to close that chapter. I want to punch this guy in the mouth and I want to finish him. But if it never happens, it never happens. One thing that I did also realize, and I've. I've always realized it and I always knew it, I just wasn't public about it. I do not need Conor McGregor for my legacy. Do not need Conor McGregor. I don't need this Conor McGregor. I want this Conor McGregor fight. I desire this Conor McGregor fight. I think it's great for my. Me in a lot of different things, from a career, from a career wise to. To the biggest lights, to the most amount of money, to the brightest lights, but I don't need it. But I want it. So that was one thing that I can finally stand firm in and say.

Hey, is going to set you up for a title fight. I mean, and that's, that's ultimately your.

Goal, which is the most important thing. Right. You know, because that's always the question. And the funny thing is there's always this public perception and there's all these lies out there when it comes to other fighters of what their motivation would be. Everybody wants this Connor fight, by the way. Every single one of them. Whether they say they wouldn't fight him or they say Chandler's an idiot for waiting. Everybody wants it. And I don't think a lot of the fighters would have the, the cojones to, to step away from this and go fight a killer in Charles Oliveira. I do believe I'm a guy who's making a decision that not a lot of guys would they say it or admit it or not. So I can put that feather in my cap and I can go out there at Madison Square Garden.

I, I, I know it's hard to look to the other side of that fight, but if you were to take a, a, a view beyond the Oliveira fight after you finish him, who are you set up for to fight for a championship? Who are you set up with?

I believe it's Islam. I think Islam, Islam versus Armen is a fight that's already, it's not booked. But they're, they're, they're booked together. They just don't have a date. I believe that fight was supposed to happen in December. I heard there might have been an injury. I want to fight Islam because I.

Believe Islam's gonna, Yeah, I mean, he's a stud, man.

He's, he's good. He's a dangerous fight. He's, he's gaining momentum. He's getting better with every single performance. Life is all about challenging yourself. Life is all about throwing yourself into sets of circumstances that the probability of you losing or falling short is higher than you feel comfortable with, with. And I love those type of opportunities. I love, I'm not a prove a guy wrong type of guy. I'm not like, hey, well, you say I can't do it. Well, watch me do it. I love that about Dana. That's kind of Dana's mentality. That's why very much that's why people love him. Right. I'm not really that guy, but I'm more of a prove my supporters and my believers correct more than proving the doubters wrong type of guy. Yeah, but in these type of scenarios, it's. The DAC would be stacked, stacked, stacked against me, and there'd be a lot of people who I would, would, would not believe that I can beat Islam. Just like nobody believed I would beat Eddie Alvarez whenever I came into the sport.

Right.

He was ranked number five. And the whole world thought I was going to get beat by this big world class guy. And I looked across the cage and said, hey, this Guy's better than me at fighting. He's got more skills than me at fighting. But I was destined to be here, and I'm about to be this guy. And I really, I believe that you remember thinking that. I remember thinking that, but I also remember thinking I was crazy. I also remember thinking, why do you believe you're about to beat this guy? He's been beaten all of these guys. He's ranked number three, number five in the world. You're not even supposed to be in the same cage with him. But for some reason and, and really going back to, you know, playing small and sabotaging myself, I did that to myself in the sport of wrestling so many times that I made a promise to myself. I remember being at this, the, this arena in, in St. Louis and I took my, my singlet straps off for the last time. And I remember the relief that I had that finally this thing is over, because I kept putting so much pressure on myself, but then also the hope that I knew I was going into mixed martial arts. And I made a promise to myself that I was going to stop playing small and I was going to never self sabotage myself again. And then 18 months later, I'm standing in an octagon or standing in a Bellator cage against opposite Eddie Alvarez, a guy who was arguably, people thought he would go to the, would go to the UFC and become UFC champion, and ultimately he did, and I beat him that night, and it was just I stopped.

That must have been. You know, I've often really, like, truly wondered what it's. It's like to be in that octagon for fight. I don't care how many fights you've had, but when that cage locks and the crowd is going crazy and, you know there's somebody on the other side of that octagon who's actually only there to hurt you.

That's really one goal. They have one, and it involves you, and it's not a, it's not a good thing.

It's not a good ending for you. And, you know, on a much different scale, you know, I, I've done a lot of public speaking, speaking, and I don't know that I've ever gotten completely used to walking onto a big stage, you know, and I've spoken on, you know, small ballrooms, but I've spoken in stadiums that have had, you know, basketball stadiums with 30, 000 people. And for me, when I'm, you know, when I walk out on that stage and I look at the crowd, you know, I, I get this sort of tightness in my chest, and I realize, shoot, I. I gotta actually say something. Yep. Right. I mean, I'm. I'm. I'm by myself. All the eyes are on me. Yep. And I don't have the pressure. Nobody. Nobody's actually there to hurt me. Right. Yeah. So just put. Put us in that. Put us in that moment. What. What that's like. Because that's got to be the best and the worst and the craziest, and, I mean, it's got to be a drug like nothing else in the world.

It is. Yeah, it is. And. And the beautiful thing about it is, is I know I was born for this because. Because when I go in there, there is no. There is no apprehension. There is no lack of.

You're calm.

Yeah, I'm just so calm because everyone's like, hey, man, you. What do you listen to? What do you got to do? How you got to get pumped up? I'm like. The last thing I want to do is get pumped up. I. I know I'm in the right state of mind when I'm listening to music and tears are starting to fill up in my eyes because I'm so grateful for what I get to do and who I get to do it for. Wow. And I think about my wife, and I think about my kids, and I think about. I think about what I get to do in this masterpiece that I'm painting for my sons to see, my kids to see, and the millions of people around the world that get to see it. That's where I want to be. And it's. It's. You don't want. You don't think. Well, tears in your eyes and your heart fully coming right now. Yeah. Right. You don't really think that's. That's where you want to be if you're going to go get into a physical altercation in your underwear, you know, with no. Barely any clothes on, with no shoes, in front of millions of people, people locked into a cage. You wouldn't think that, but that's exactly where I feel I need to be. That's where. That's my homeostasis to be able to get into my flow state. And when that door closes, there's this. You know, you've been to so many fights now. You. You know what the octagon kind of smells like? Because you. You. You're right there. That smell. Yeah, that smell put. Turns me into a different person. And it happens to me every time I go to the fights. You know, I'll be at the sphere tonight and you. And you'll smell it and you'll smell the air and you'll feel the air and you'll feel that. You'll feel the energy and you. You know, obviously tonight the guard is down because I get to go watch the fights and not actually have to fight. But that smell brings about something in me that I just become a little bit of a different person. And the lights are bright and you can hear the chatter and you can hear the cheers and you can feel the energy and it's, it's.

So then does it all kind of.

Then it. Yeah.

Then is it just tune out and you're only your opponent in front of you or. Yeah. Are you ever distracted by somebody just bellowing through the cage? Because I mean, there's some people sitting next to me at these fights that are yelling their ass off. Yeah, right.

Most of the time not. And mainly because my fights are so crazy. There's, there's never. All of my fights are edge of your seat type of non stop action, non stop violence type of fights. So there's never a lot of time where it's like you never hear footsteps in my fights. Whereas there's some fights where you can hear the footsteps because the crowds kind of. Of just watching two guys point fight and they're not watching one guy try to, you know, absolutely damage somebody like I. The way that I fight. So most of the time it's so loud in there that you're just, you're just focused on targets and threats and the two arms and two legs and a head and the torso of a body. And obviously there's the referee is in there. You never see the referee, you know, obviously because they're good at getting out of the way. But yeah, you're just trying to limit your distractions and honing in. Aim small, miss small on your opponent.

Wow, that is amazing, man. I mean, never had somebody put me in that perspective before.

But, but public speaking, like, I, I can't. I've spoken in a lot of different places. Nothing like that big. But what's great about it is you can have confidence going onto the stage and, and speaking, but you're only as good as how well your audience is accepting and receiving what you're saying. Right. So there's so much more, there's so much more propensity to, to feel like you're scenario because you can't see the instant feedback unless people. It's awesome. When you actually see a crowd laugh or they're smiling or they're nodding or they're taking notes, but that doesn't always happen. You're sitting there, man. Is anybody listening? Is this falling on deaf ears right now? Whereas in a fight, it's like when I land a punch, I felt the punch land. I hear the crowd, you know, it's there. And I'm so much more in control of what's happening in the fight.

Right.

Compared to speaking on a stage and just hoping that people are listening to what I'm saying.

You know, I always say you just got to get the first. You got to get the first minute of your speech down, you know, so you can get through jitters.

Y.

And you got to have a really good grasp of your topic, because if your mind goes blank, you're just going off of what you really, truly know.

Everybody's biggest fear.

Yeah. That's why I never do. I never have notes, and I don't really go off of slide presentations. I just try to speak from the heart.

That's awesome.

But, dude, you're amazing, man. I mean, this is. This has been an unbelievable podcast. I mean, I'm going to come back, we're going to run it again after Oliveira. You're going to walk through Oliveira? Let me not walk through them. But you're going to. You're going to finish it.

I'd like to walk through them. That'd be great. I need it. I'm due for an easy fight.

I'm. I'm going to put that out to the universe, Brother Oliver. I'm sorry, brother.

My wife would love your night. My life. My wife would love. If I walk. Just walk through.

No more cauliflower on the ear. She's like, there's enough.

Yeah, exactly.

And, you know, I. I end every podcast the same way, and there's no right or wrong answer to this question. But I ask every guest, what. What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

I believe being an ultimate human and isn't. Isn't exactly where you are today or what you're doing today, but having the confident expectancy that if I continue to do the right things and I try to get the most out of the gifts that I was given. We all have unique gifts. There's. There's a certain list of things that we need to do. There's a certain. There are certain roads that we need to go down. There's certain things that we need to do to optimize ourself, but ultimately becoming the best version of yourself. And not just physically. You know, I'm obviously A guy who. I'm always trying to be the best physical version of myself, but it's. There's nothing more important to me than when people say, hey, I. I love who you are. Not because of your veins, your abs, or you look like a super superhero or any of these things. You fight in a cage, but because you're a good human being, and you want to become the best version of yourself, and you want to see other. Other people become the best version of yourself, because that version of yourself is out there. And sometimes you need through tough scenarios to get there, but he. He or she is out there. It just depends on whether or not you have the courage to go through the mud and the muck and the valleys and keep on climbing.

Yeah. You know, I got to tell you, I mean, I. I wasn't planning on telling this story, but. But to your point, when you walked in here today, you know, my. My private security guard is also a very, very, very close friend of mine. He's a former professional MMA heavyweight. I'm walking by, and I overhear him pull you aside and tell you what a difference he. You've made in his life as an athlete. He told you that you had the greatest influence over him to get kind of pull his shit together in his relationship with his. With his girlfriend and. And. And put her in his relationship first. And I just. I overheard the conversation, and. And, you know, this is. This is a. Someone that did seven combat tours, you know, former Marine, you know, MMA fighter, you know, big burly dude, and he. And you had touched his life in that way, and I don't think you guys have ever met. So your message is resonating, brother. Yeah, I got to hear it today firsthand.

Those. Those are those moments, man. It's. And. And. And once again, just goes back to gratefulness and gratitude and that I get to do what I get to do. And there's. There's. There's a calling on my life, and for me to not give every single ounce of my human to it is really bastardizing those blessings.

Well, I know everybody in this room and everybody on this podcast cannot wait to see the Oliveira fight.

Can't wait, man. I'm getting pumped. We'll be there for Florida tomorrow or Monday. And so.

Camp time.

Camp time, baby.

Awesome, brother. Well, best of luck, man. Michael Chan, I hope to have you back, man.

Thank you for having me.

That's just science.