Georges St-Pierre: Kill Your Ego, Transform Your Health & Build Self-Confidence EP 1129

This is episode number 1121 with one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time, Georges St. Pierre. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur.

And each week we bring you an.

Inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Maya Angelou once said, we may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. And Gandhi said, whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love. My guest today is the iconic and legendary Georges St. Pierre, who is well known as the Undisputed goat of combat sports, UFC record holder for most wins in title bouts and all-time best pound for pound MMA fighter in the history of the world. Georges St. Pierre has now also made his arrival into Hollywood permanent, reprising his original breakout role as Batroc the Leaper in Marvel's Captain America: the Winter Soldier for the long awaited the Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV miniseries. And in this episode, we discuss how George's childhood bullies shaped him into who he is today, why it's so hard to let go of our egos, why George never enjoyed fighting. He never enjoyed it. Every match, he didn't want to do it. How fasting has transformed his health at his age now, why he chooses an animal-based diet and he talks about what he's learned from doing that and so much more. This was inspiring. He goes into his pre-fight ritual, his breathing strategies, all the different things he does to focus his mind to get ready for battle and for life. And if you're enjoying this, make sure to share this with someone else who you think would be inspired by it. Just copy and paste the link wherever you're listening to this, or you can do the full show notes link, lewishouse.com/1129. Okay, in just a moment, the one and only Georges St-Pierre.

Welcome back everyone in the School of Greatness. Very excited to bring our guest Georges St-Pierre is in the house.

That's right.

My man, very excited that you're here. I always love having the greatest of all time in athletes. I've had Novak Djokovic, Mike Tyson, Kobe Bryant. I've had some incredible athletes on this show and as a former athlete, I just geek out about it. So, so glad that you're here. My first question is who is the most influential person in your life growing up? And because I know you had an interesting childhood that I want to talk about. And what was the greatest lesson they taught you?

I think the most influential, the person that had the most influential influence on me was probably my dad. He was a very hard working man and he taught me the value of hard work. He taught me a lot of good stuff that I've learned and also a lot of stuff that I realized that he did very well, but stuff that I don't want to be like him. I think he worked so much because he didn't have a choice. He comes from a family of nine kids. I'm from countryside. That's where we grew up. So family tend to be bigger normally in the country. They work on the farm and all that. And his dad died when he was young and he was the older of his family of nine. So he had to become the dad and bring money. So I believe he get used to that life of Working and working working and he's Down the line he lived to work and he didn't work to live and that's one thing I don't want to do.

Yeah, what's a good lesson?

Yeah, he needed to at one point it was a necessity, but I know very well now that it's not a necessity anymore for him, but he still do it.

Yeah, it becomes a pattern if it becomes who you are your personality or identity right?

Right?

Yes.

It's hard to kind of take that off.

And I think that if he does not do it, he feels useless. And I know I thought before, because I'm very wealthy now, I wanted to make sure like everything was taken care of for my parents. And I thought that he would have taken it easier because he would retire.

Relax.

Yeah.

Now he keeps the same rhythm. so now I understood also that he need this to maintain his, his health, because if he does not do it, you see very often older people when they retire, they die because their brain, I believe it's because they're, they don't work their brains and, you know, they, they need to stay active up here. And I think that's the way my dad does it. Yeah.

You also, I read about your childhood where you, you were pretty much bullied and picked on and people like beat you up and stole your money, isn't that true? Yes.

I think it left a scar in my head. And yeah, I've started martial art as a self-defense.

Against that stuff, right?

Yes. I was also a big fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bloodsport. He's awesome. Bloodsport, Chuck Norris.

Did you do a movie with Chuck Norris? Yeah, I did.

And I got my butt kicked by Chuck Norris by Steven Seagal also.

What was that like? Doing a movie with your heroes.

It's amazing. I did this movie, it's, I mean, the movie, it's not a movie that came out on theater. It's like on Netflix, but it's called Kickboxer, it's a reboot. I did it and just to have the experience to be able to have a fight scene with my idol, it was amazing. Wow. And that's one of the reason why I started martial art, because of a self-defense and I got, I was bullied when I was young and At the time, I saw it as a very negative experience, and it was. But I realize now that the fact that I was bullied when I was young helped me later on in my life facing the mental warfare that I had to face in mixed martial arts because it's a very egotistic sport. There's a lot of intimidation when you get into a fight, especially during the promotion of the fight, the press conference. And I got used to it when I was so young. And we see very often a lot of fighters, they lose their chill, so they go crazy. It can make them commit mistakes, but it never worked with me because I had a very strong shield to protect me that I probably built during my youth.

So no one could say something to you that would get under your skin.

No.

They would talk about this or that, or whatever, they could make anything up and you're just like, okay.

That's right. I think the, the way to get to me would be not trying to get to me, try to get to someone that I love or like a family. That's why a lot of people ask me sometimes, hey, you're very mysterious, you know, you're a public person, but you always keep your private life private. And that's one of the reason, because fighting, you know, you play hockey, you play soccer, but you do not play fighting. So if I'm fighting you, it's very serious business because the outcome of the fight might affect your well-being or mine, your life. Yeah. Yes.

Your arm, your face, something.

That's right. So if I can do something to you to make you derail from your. Your strategy by insulting someone that you love, I will do it in a heartbeat. You know, that's what fighting is about. I mean, no, because I'm not a trash talker. I'm just good. But most guys will.

Yeah.

If I can do something, trying to play. I have done some stuff like. like, for example, I'm fighting a guy that I made him, I made him know that I am, I know one of his good training partner that I, you know, I play mind games like this. I've done my mind games, too. Like, I've trained with your training partner.

And I've destroyed him. Yeah, you know, but he beats you.

Yeah, I know, I know your training partner, you know, and he told me what is, what you're good at. And now he's getting angry instead of focusing on me, he's getting angry at his training partner. So he's not focusing on the task ahead. He's focusing on something else that has nothing to do. So I've done some mind games. Yeah, I've done my own. I'm not a trash talker, but I'm more slick, you know? I've done my stuff, yeah.

That's probably an advantage because English wasn't your first language, so you maybe didn't feel the confidence to say a bunch of things.

Yeah, I choose my battle very carefully. And if I believe if I try to get into a trash talk contest with, like my last fight was against Michael Bispming. He's known for his trash talk. If I would try to get into a trash talk fight, I would never win. He's from England, you know? I'm just not good at it. on top of it. So I do my, my talking in the octagon.

It's great, man. What was. So I felt like I was picked on a lot as a kid as well. And it, it's what got me into sports because I was like, I never want to get picked on, bullied, made fun of ever again. And I was picked last on sports teams early on, and I was like, I'm gonna become so big, so strong, so dominant that people have to pick me. They have to choose me. that I will win at all costs. And I built a shield as well. So I can kind of relate in a sense. What did that teach you about building this, you know, identity around self-defense, around karate, around jiu-jitsu, all the different mixed martial arts that you built for decades. What did that do for you, that identity?

For me, right now, training, like people ask me, why do you train? You don't have a fight coming up. For me, it's not because only I like it, it's because it's a therapy. I believe because I was bullied when I was young, it left a scar in my mind. And it might sound crazy to most of people because most of them cannot relate to that. But because when I was young, I got bullied so much, I got humiliated so much, and sometimes physical damage is not as bad as like, emotional, emotional damage. And that's what happened to me. So I need to train. I remember even sometime when I, when I'm not in shape and I, or I got an injury, I don't feel as confidence and I, as I am. And I don't know. I know I would never get probably beat up because, you know, I'm an adult now, but I, I don't know. It's inside my head. Like, it's a question, it's a confidence thing for me. And I believe confidence is very important for me. So it, I like to walk in a room knowing that if something happened, I can take care of business.

Yeah.

I know it sounds maybe Preposterous because we're in a very civilized world, but because I was victim when I was young, it left that scar. And yeah, and I know confidence is very important because you could have all the skills that you want. And I'm not only talking about fighting, I'm talking about everything.

Yes.

If you have the skills but you do not have the confidence, I believe it's like someone who has a lot of Money in his bank account, but no way of accessing it. For the magic to happen, I think you need the skills and the confidence.

Do you feel like you ever learned how to heal from the bullying?

I think it left a scar, but sometimes it's for the best and sometimes for the worst. There's good things that it does.

It trained you to become a killing machine, essentially, right? It trained you to become a disciplined human being, goal-oriented, you know, structure with your life.

Yeah, and I'm not a psychologist, but I think it helps me to be stronger to face adversity. When you get ready for a fight, it's the stress, the fear, it's unbearable. And there's no courage without fear. And for a long time, Because looking around me in my entourage, before a fight sometimes I corner other fighters and everybody react differently. Other fighters, you'll see them there. Some of them are very excited, they're in the locker room, yeah, yeah, yeah. Some are quiet and nervous.

And I'm thinking, yeah, and I'm thinking.

Man, this guy's a psychopath. When I'm getting ready for a fight, I'm scared, deep down inside, yeah, I pretend that I'm happy and everything. Yeah, I mean it's good. yeah, but deep down inside, I'm like, shoot, what the hell I'm doing here? Oh, God. I don't. And every fight day, you don't. I don't feel good because I sleep terrible, terribly the night before, every time, because I make too much scenario in my mind. It becomes like an obsession. So I think it build up that tolerance and that, that courage to go face certain adversity that you would not have the courage to face if if I wouldn't have gone through that.

Really? How often did you doubt yourself when you were competing?

Was it every fight?

Would you doubt yourself in training days too or just during fight days?

Well, in training also, because in training you try to, not every day, but sometimes the training is very hard and it's borderline very dangerous. Even though we have equipment, we can get knocked out. So we try to recreate the same environment that you will face in a fight because in a fight you're always outside of your comfort zone. And I believe in order to improve you need to get out of your comfort zone because they force you to adapt and the fighter that are the best are people that adapt, that become the perfect nemesis to their opponent. So every training, you're on the floor.

You'Ve got one arm back, you're like, how to get out of every horrible scenario.

I see the lineup of my aspiring partner and I fly them from outside, you know, because I don't, when I'm, that's one thing, when I'm getting ready for a fight, I don't train with my normal training partner because you're used to it now, because the reason I'm used to them. So there is some kind of camaraderie. So I fly a lot of the guys. You don't like, I don't know them. I never touch them. I don't know their movement pattern, and I don't know them so emotionally. I know they're there, and they maybe try to take my head off, but, but it's the same. uncertain feeling. I'm nice, but when the ring starts talking, like you don't know what's gonna happen. Some guys are nice, but they're gonna try to go crazy. So I never, I always doubt myself before every fight. The only fight that I doubt, I didn't not doubt myself was when I fought Matt Serra the first time and I got knocked out. No way.

I swear. You had confidence.

You were like, I had a great night of sleep the night before. That's the only fight and I got humiliated and I've learned from that. mistake because it taught me that I should never underestimate anybody.

It takes one moment, one punch, right?

You zig when you should have zagged at this level. You don't even have time to blink, it's too late.

Moment, you're done. They're already ringing the bell.

It was a terrible experience for me.

But.

I think it made me a better fighter. at, at the end.

So you doubt it yourself.

I, I know some experience can be taught.

Yes.

And the best way to learn is always through other people's mistakes. However, at that time, I was, I just became Champion. I beat Matt Hughes. I was like, the next big thing. I was borderline cocky. Not publicly. I never been a cocky, but deep down inside, I'm like, man, I'm the best at this guy. It's. He's got nothing on me and people telling me that I start believing it.

You're the greatest.

Yeah. Yeah.

But boom, one shot that I didn't see coming.

Oh man.

Cut me. And I got dizzy and I remember it like it's yesterday. And I was so angry, I got more emotional. I was like, man, I can't let that happen. I got to give it back to him right away. I tried to get myself into a slugfest, which is not a good thing to do when you're dizzy. So he was accurate and I wasn't. Bang, bang, bang, I end up on my back and now I'm in front of you to my worst nightmare. Oh man. So am I gonna go out on my shield like this or I'm tapping out like a coward? I tap out like a coward.

You tapped out.

In MMA it's a big thing and I got blamed a lot because he said, oh, he's a quitter, tap out. And now I'm older. When I look back at things, it's, and it's a little bit like Roberto Duran no mas against Sugar Ray Leonard. It's a good thing that I've done. I don't regret it. I regret it when it happened the few weeks, months after because I saw it like a coward move. But now it's a sport. We're not in a war like a soldier. And I tapped out. Maybe if I would not have tapped out, I would get brain damage. I would never have come back the same. So I saved myself for another day. So there's no shame in it. And now I'm proud. to say it in front of everybody. That's great, man. But I wasn't proud of myself. I was humiliated because I tapped out on strike. That's why I was humiliated. I was not necessarily humiliated because I lost, because it's like a big taboo in a memory. Oh, you tapped out on strike.

Other fighter was looking down on me.

Like, I want to strike. Not on, like, an armbar or something.

Yes. You tap down on strike.

That was a big thing.

Most people don't tap out on a strike, right?

They just kind of get beat up.

Their shield and then someone takes them off. That's right. They wait for the referee, but. But then you're gonna get 10 more blows to the head, which could do some serious damage for the rest of your life.

So it makes people wonder, oh, he's a coward, he's a quitter. So I had a lot of anger. I felt like I needed to come back and add a lot of things to prove. And I remember I used to carry that inside and I wanted to get my revenge as fast as possible. And I saw a sport psychologist, and he says to me, He says you're not focusing on the right thing. You're focusing always on what happened in the past. You live in the past. You need to live in the present moment. Not live in the future, live in the present. So he made me clear a brick and made me wrote a name, Sarah, Matt Sarah on it. And I carried that brick every day in my gym bag. A big brick, a brick.

With his name on it.

With that chuck I wrote, I wrote Sarah And I carry that brick every day, every training. And after a while, like, man, my bag is heavy for nothing. It sucks, you know? And I carry it, carry it. Until the time I got tired of carrying it. And I told him, I said, hey, man, I'm tired of that sh*t. He says, I'm coming to see you. His name is Brian Cain. He's a sport psychologist. I took the brick, I went near the Saint Lawrence River. I know it sounds crazy, and I threw it in the river, and I feel delivered. I felt like, man, I know it sounds crazy to many people, but because they cannot relate, but I feel great because by this physical gesture and the emotion just manifests, and it's an emotion of delivering me. Like, I didn't have, like, you know, sometimes you have stress, you're all stuck. You release the same thing I release by throwing the brick and the river. I know it sounds crazy, but it played a big role into the growth of my career.

I'm a big believer in, I mean, I've worked with and interviewed many sports psychologists and I started doing this stuff when I was, I don't know, 16, visualizing and meditating and always letting go of the past from this stuff. So I'm a huge believer and I'm a big believer in rituals. Rituals to prepare you for your event or your sport or a game or a match. Rituals to let go of something, whether it be a relationship, it be writing letters and letting go and forgiving. or releasing something into a river and an ocean. I'm a big believer in the ritual process of letting go. Otherwise, we'll always carry something.

That's right.

So how long did you carry this brick for?

I carry it for a long time. I was about to fight because when I lost the title the first time.

Because you won it and then you lost the next match.

Yeah, I won against Matt Hughes, who was at the time the greatest of all time. So I became myself the new kid on the block.

-You'Re what, 20, how old are you?

-I was like 23, 24. I was young. So, and it was a last fight. -Yeah, I gained a lot of wisdom to that, in a way, like a lot of knowledge. So I lost the next fight. And now everybody was saying, oh, is that, you know, people say, oh, don't pay attention to the critics, but I think we should pay attention to a certain point because it helps you get better. if it makes you crazy and obsessive, but if it helps you just enough to get better, I think it's a good thing. So people now start doubting me, saying, oh, he's not as good as people think. And he's a quitter. He's a quitter. That was the big top. Never quit in my life. And I was, people see me as a quitter. I was very, very angry at myself for. Yeah. Not necessarily for losing, but for tapping out. And when, when I Did this. I was getting ready for another fight because I couldn't go back to a revenge, a rematch against that guy. I need to go to other contenders in order to get my revenge. So I was not focusing on my immediate opponent. I was focusing on that guy that I want and which is a mistake. So I could have lost down the road. So I did the brick thing right before my match. And then I was able to focus on the present. Knowing where I was going, but I was like focusing on what's going, the task ahead. And then I got my rematch in Montreal. In front of my family, my friend, I was able to redeem myself and win the title against Matt Serra for the second time.

But you had already let go of the brick. Ah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Which gave you a lot of peace. Now, I'm curious about, it's almost like you need to kill your ego. Like, in order to tap out, you need to be like willing to kill your ego and not be like, well, I'm gonna be this tough guy and just wait till I'm knocked out. and go out on my shield or my sword. But why is it so hard for people, especially in that sport, but in general, to let go of their ego, do you think?

I think personally my ego, my pride, it's one of my best asset as a fighter, but also one of the worst issues I have in society.

Tell me more.

Example, my pride, I'm very proud person and that's why I train so hard because fighting is so important for me. So I don't want to go there and lose and be humiliated because my friend, my family will see it and remember that moment. So I do it not only for myself, I do it for the others because the way they look on me, that's why I'm so proud. I'm always training with that behind the back of my mind. However, it can become an obsession at one point. Because if you, and I'm a little bit obsessive compulsive, I think.

You'll train 10 hours a day.

It will train 10 hours a day. And I'm the kind of guy that when I get ready for a fight, the idea of fighting the person, the scenarios hunt my mind.

You go over every scenario in your mind. I over it. You watch it all day long. Everything they do. Train it. Repetition. How do I get out of it? get out of this. How do I get out of this?

And sometimes before a fight, it haunts you so much that you, when you eat, when you drive your car, before you go to bed, when you wake up, when you go to bed, every time, everything to the point that there's some highlight that pop-ups in your head sometimes. And sometimes you see yourself winning, sometimes you see yourself losing. However, the trick that I've learned is, and I think one of the reason of success, I believe that I stay very strong mentally, is that and sometimes it pops in your head. It's not because you want, it's just popping in your head. You don't control it. And you're in trouble. Sometimes you're not winning. However, you never want to let go your thought on a negative ending. You always want to let go. Let's say you're in trouble, you want to think about force yourself out thinking. Even if you're in the middle of something, you say, wait a second, put things on pause and say, okay, if this happened, I'm gonna do this, this, this. to get out of trouble and get the upper hand. Now I can go do my thing, you know what I mean? So that's how I, that's what I've been doing to all my life. But it become an obsession because it hunts, it hunt you, hunt you. And I believe it hunt me because of my pride because I care so much about it. I don't want to be humiliated that it's go, it's working up there.

So when you're going through scenarios in your mind, it's happening all day, right? In your sleep all day.

You know, and the closer you get to the fight, it's like a funnel. Like. Like on the other way, you know, it gets worse and worse and worse and worse. It's terrible.

How often would you imagine yourself losing?

When you.

You.

Would you always find a way? I'm getting out of it.

No.

When you instigate yourself, the. When you instigate the visualization, you.

You.

You focus on the positive thing. However, sometime, like anything in life, there's something that will pop in your head very often. It's a threat, and this imagery will be negative. However, you don't want to let it. Like I said, you don't want to let it hang on the negative note before you go back to what you do. You want to. Okay, wait a second. Okay. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, this.

You.

You put me down. Now, okay, I'm gonna humbly you, and then I'm gonna win the fight. And that. okay, now, now what we're doing now. And then you write the script. You write. I don't write. I do it all mentally. Yeah, I do. You're writing it in your mind. It's all that work. It's a different world that happens in my mind. It's a movie in your mind. Yes. And that movie, by the time I get to the fight, I've seen almost every possible scenarios. I've seen myself in trouble in any possible ways because I run it through my mind so many times. So when I get into the fight, it's like. It's not the first time I've lived through this. And when I fought Michael Bisping, just to give you an example, five years ago, right?

Yes.

When I came out, I came out after four years. People say, oh, you didn't look that rusty. It's because I play stuff in my mind all the time. So maybe physically I was not competing, but I did in my mind. And the way I finished the fight, people will think I'm lying, but I visualized it. Really? Yes. I didn't know for sure that was the way. But I know that I remember visualizing it exactly like it happened. Or if it's not exactly like, I knew it was going to pass out and I got him like this after dropping him.

So when you had him like that, were you just like, oh yeah, this was already... Did you just know it was over when you had him behind? Were you like, this is ending?

So this fight, yeah, so the way it happened is, if I recap the end, Michael Bisping is a bigger man, he's taller than me. And one of my strategy, because most people will not know that, because when they watch a fight they think it's only people, two guys trying to scrap each other. When you're fighting a taller guy, he's punching down on you because Michael is taller than me. Because he's punching down on you, he's wide open. However, if you're like me, smaller than him, and you're punching up, you're protected. So the idea for me, because he's taller, was to start a combination to the body. So if I start to the body, it will crouch me down, it will force him to punch me down in the exchange and then come back to the top. And that's what I did with the hook. That's how I dropped him. It was part of my strategy. We practiced it many times. Once I dropped him, I tried to finish him off with elbows, but he's very resilient, he resist. And I know that Michael is very good at standing back up from his back. But the way he does it, he likes to go on four point on his limb because he's very strong like this and he's so strong that you can't stop him. However, there is a catch to it. He exposes back. So I give him an opening. When I knew he was coming back to himself and I wasn't able to finish him, I give him an opening.

You let him stand up.

Let him.

Give him a moment.

So he went back on four point like I thought. then he exposes back and that's when I went. So this, I knew for a long time, I didn't know for certain that that's how I would have finished the fight, but I knew it was a possibility and I visualized it many times. Many, many times.

When you're visualizing in training camp, are you visualizing the win over and over again or are you more putting yourself in adverse situations to get out of both?

And both are very important.

To do like, okay, the one punch, it's gonna be easy and I can see every, he's not gonna touch me and everything's gonna be smooth. And then also what happens if it's all challenging?

So there's always an X factor. There is things that are unexpected that can happen in a fight, for example, a finger in the eyes, like this. Maybe you haven't thought through that.

They hit you in the groin and exactly.

It's like things like this that you haven't perhaps not visualize, but I do personally visualize everything, like every situation. Maybe I did not physically drilled it exactly the same, but I visualized it. If I didn't re visualize it exactly the same, because I'm obsessed. I've done a very close version of it.

Yeah.

So you talk about doubt and confidence. You said you need to have The time you were the most confident is the time you lost. The time you slept like a baby and you were like, I got this, you lost. Every other fight you said you had some doubt. I feel like doubt also holds us back from being our best.

That's right.

So how do you build confidence and not let doubt cripple you from not taking action and playing scared and playing like weak, you know, soft.

So I believe confidence, it's a state of mind, but you can work on it. And of course you need to train hard, but most importantly you need to train smart. You need to work smart. And this is applied to everything in life. And to make an analogy is a good analogy is that let's say I have an exam at school.

Yes.

And it's very important exam, like decisive one. and I did study, I will be scared still of the result, but I will be more confident. But I'm still going to be scared.

Because you know you put the work in.

Yes.

And I have reason to be confident, but I'm still going to be scared. Just as scared that if I would not have studied, the same thing in a fight. So confidence is, if I got a fight, there's always an X factor or unknown factor, because I do not control my opponent, but I do control It's myself. So I work as hard and as good as I can to get myself ready that I know that there's no way I cannot be better than I am right now. Yeah. This is confidence. Now I have the right to go in there and be confident.

And calm.

Yes. But I'm still gonna be just as scared as if I would not have worked out, but just as scared, but I'm confident.

Yeah.

And when you work hard and smart and get very well prepared on top of that, I believe, because I'm a big believer of that, of that.

But.

I always act and put on a mask. Like, for me, it's impossible to fail. Deep down inside, even in, in front of my team and, and my team knows, like, my trainer knows how I am. And because deep down inside, I'm like, oh, my God, I can't believe I'm in this again. But the day of the fight, I'm in the locker room because I want to carry a positive attitude and I want my team to be positive. So even though I have doubt, I cannot let that happen. And my team, if they're scared, they cannot let that happen because it would be a breach. And if there's a breach, there's an opening. So we have to stay united and strong. We go to war together. So I'm very scared, but I go and I don't show it. I show confidence and even every five days I feel like very bad.

But inside you're just like screaming.

I feel terrible. I always wake up in the morning and say, oh man, I don't feel good today. And when my trainer asked me, how do you feel today? I'm like, can't wait. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I can't wait. But they know, because they know I'm playing games and they kind of we laugh and after we never tell the truth until the fight is over. But after I'm like, I went to bathroom, I threw up, I tell the real thing. But before that, until the war is over, playing the role of an invincible fighter because we go to war as one unit.

What happens if you told the truth? Hey, coach, I'm not feeling good today. I'm just not sure. Did I do enough scenario? Do we train hard enough? What happens to a fighter or anyone in life? In business, sport, whatever.

What is it?

If they actually say the truth.

Well, it's the same thing if I would make an analogy. You go ask a girl on a date and you go, nothing with no confidence. I'm sorry, would you please? I mean, if you wouldn't mind to come to the movie.

Can I get your number?

It's not very. Or you go for a job interview, you go like this check, yeah, I would work really hard. The guy is like, yeah, I don't want to get that guy. So it's the same thing, when you do something, you need to come out 100% or don't come out at all. When I do something in life, I go 110%. I win, I win big, I lose, I lose big. But I'm not gonna go and lose and tell myself after, oh, I wish I would have... Because I've done a lot of stupid things in my life. and, and I. But there's things that I, it's hard to live with is regret. And for me, regret is the worst. I don't want to have regret. Yeah.

Do you have any regrets?

I have a lot of regret because, you know, like when I tap, add regrets.

Now you've let that go.

I let that go.

When I live forever now.

Yes. Yeah. When my Matthews, I was a number, number one Contender at and Matthews after one of his fight, I believe it's against BJ Penn, he won the fight and everybody because they were trying to promote the fight, they were like telling me, like, George, come in, Deoctagon, come in, Deoctagon, say something. Because I thought he was speaking on the mic. I thought he was insulting me, but I couldn't hear because of the sound in the arena. It was so many people. So I went in the Octagon and I tell him, I'm not impressed by your performance. That's where it comes from. But I regret it. And I went, I apologize after him because that was his moment. That was his win. And I tried to take that away from him to make it about me. And it was a big mistake. I regret that. But I apologize. I re. I don't. That's good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When was the moment in your life you had the most fear?

So that's another thing.

And it could be. It could be in the octagon or. in just another area of your life?

Oh.

Any area of your life? The most you felt afraid?

That's a good question. I believe if it's outside the octagon, I was afraid. I got into a car accident when I was a teenager. I just had my driving license and I got into a car accident and the moment, I mean you talk about fear, the moment like the split second that you realize what's going on, like holy sh*t, like you dance is like crazy, but I believe fear, we talk about fear, I believe it could be a good thing, fear can save your life, like in fighting, I believe it could enhance my performance, and I thought when I was young that fear will go away with time because I will get used to it, and you never get used to it because every fight is bigger than the last one.

More pressure and more to lose.

Now I embrace it because I need it and I know that it increase my reaction times and make me more explosive and increase my decision making time. So I need fear. So if I would go fight and I would not have fear first, it's because perhaps I don't care about it. So I believe fear can Save your life when I had that car accident, I tensed myself. Then the impact, boom, but I was so tense, maybe my head didn't hit the... Maybe I produced so much strength and isometric tension that it made me like a block and my head did not hit, but because the car was badly damaged. So I think fear is a good thing. It could be a good thing. We see fear as a negative thing. I think we should embrace it. It's something that can save our life.

What'S your biggest insecurity in your life right now?

Well, biggest insecurity.

Because you're this, you know, multiple champion, you're movie star now, you've, you know, you've done a lot of great things at 40. You're better shape ever than now.

I I think my, my biggest insecurity all through my life was because I was so much concerned about. performance and was able to not be able to deliver as good as I should. Now, my biggest insecurity, I mean, it's not a problem. I do not have this, not even close the same amount of stress I used to have. Now I'm doing, now I'm 40 years old, I'm just doing the fun stuff. I'm so happy.

All the rewards.

But the thing is, insecurity that I had my lot of insecurity earlier in my life. Some people, but that's why now I don't have to have it, because I have so much insecurity, like all that negative tension. For me, that's how I put it in perspective. I put it all in my early in my life, so then after I can have a smooth ride. But I needed to have it. So some people put that amount of insecurity, make it they stretch it to down there, like maybe that, for me, those 10 years of my career were so crazy. Because I never liked it. I never liked to fight because you.

Don'T like me to fight.

Never, I never liked it. I like to train, I like the science of fighting. I never loved to fight. I never enjoyed it once.

You didn't enjoy fighting?

Never, even once. The reason why I did it is because I was very good at it. It's because it gave me a lot of money. It gives me the freedom. When I was young, it was all the girls, the dream life, the celebrity, the access. of things that people don't have access and I was very gifted at it. That's why I did it. People like why do you fight them? Because it's not the same person. The Georges that speak to you now is not the same person and I have two personalities. It's a little bit like in a movie. The way I explain that is in every day of my life, I'm Georges St-Pierre. I'm a nice guy. I don't like to fight. I like to train. I like the fitness to be fit, training and everything. Science. fighting is unbearable. I do it because what it gives me, what it provides me, but bigger the risk, bigger the rewards. So all that insecurity thing, I done it only to obtain what I have now. The freedom of life, the wealth, the health, even more importantly. But I needed to go through to it. The Georges St. Pierre doesn't like to fight. However, when I go train, like earlier, I train with Freddie Roach. When I start hitting pad, bing, bing, something happened to me, like a psychological transformation because I remember the mechanic of my movement and how good I am at this stuff. And now you become a different animal. Now you're like, man, I like this job. I want to hit someone again. Yeah, so you become a different animal. So it's same thing before I fight you, you're so scared and terrified, but when you start warming up, it makes you remember that you're good at this. You have done this. many, many times and you're good and then your confidence grow, you become a different animal. So that's how I see it. People, it's very hard for them to understand. It's a love-hate relationship. So when you talk about insecurity, it's had my lot of insecurity throughout my life. Now it's the fun stuff ahead of me. Now in movie, for me, yeah, it's a lot of it's a hard, it's not a hard job, man.

It's nothing compared to farming.

Yeah, if I may say, if I may sound like a hypocrite, yeah, this is easy. Yeah. My insecurities that maybe if I. If I make myself look bad and so wet, I'm like, I mean, it sucks, but I'm not gonna die.

I'm not gonna, you know, it's like.

Yeah, you're not breaking your arm. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So. So it's the fun stuff now. I don't have. And, you know, I'm always concerned about health and stuff like that. People. People I love, their health, I would say I'm diagnosed with ulcer colitis, so at one point it was insecurity, but.

What is it called?

Ulcers. Ulcers. It's an inflammation of the colon, the intestine. So what I did is I started fasting. I cannot recommend it to anybody because everybody is different, but it works for me. And I think intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting.

16 and 8.

Yeah, I did 16 and 8. And also I. I did a prolonged fasting. Three days, five days water fast. And it diminished all my inflammation problem. And I get rid of all my symptoms now.

You'Re fine.

I don't need any. I'm medication free now.

How long were you on medication for?

For the first six months. But then I. I. The idea of fasting at first, when I started investigating, it seems Preposterous to me because we live in a society that we're bombarded by publicity all the time. I eat this protein shake, this, that to get big. We're. The company promote this and it.

It.

Kind of get into our head. So the idea, if I would not have never had that condition, which I have probably for the rest of my life, I would never have done fasting.

So you've been eating more and more still.

I would never have believed you. If you would have told me, even if you're a doctor, you would tell me, I go try to fasting. This guy is out of his mind.

I need five meals a day. I'm gonna eat, yeah.

So this thing needed to happen to me in order to discover fasting. Wow. And I'm glad and I wish I would have done it when I was younger. And I talk to younger people sometimes about it say it's worth investigating. You should try if it works for you, you know?

Absolutely.

And they laugh at me. It's true.

I started doing intermittent fasting probably four years ago and I've done a three and a half day no food, just water and coffee. And that was inspiring, you know, to see the clarity I had, you know, I lost something like seven or eight pounds in like three and a half days. But just like feeling better, sharper. I wasn't, I was giving my body a rest, my digestive system.

So, what's the farthest you've gone without food? I've done five days. Five days. But in those, the thing is, when I do fast, I still train.

That's crazy.

Because I believe it get you in autophagy faster.

You're just, getting rid of the dead cells.

I do not train. I mean, the first two days I do exactly in our normal training, but the third, fourth and five days, I. I start. I modify my training.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because otherwise you have no energy.

No, no. You can't hurt yourself.

And.

And I wanted to do a week at first, but after four days, I started having troubles to sleep. And. And the fifth day I told myself, I said, I'm doing this for the. For the benefit. Not because I want to break a record, because I have that crazy competitive spirit. And I say, you know what?

I'm good.

Let it go and just drop it out. I think for me, everybody's different. For me personally, the sweet spot, it's three days. The way my system is, for me it's three days. Maybe for you is a different and.

For someone else, but three days was good for me.

For me, I think it's the perfect sweet spot.

I've done three days twice and then I've done a two day a couple of times and I want to do a 24, I want to do like a 36 hour once a month.

What makes you start fasting? What were these? I think it was like health benefits. Yeah, I was like, I was a little bit overweight.

I mean, I was probably like 15 pounds more than now. So I was like, ah, you know, how do I get rid of this belly fat? Like finally get rid of it. And it was also, I was getting some like eczema, like a little skin and I was like, is this allergies? Is this food? I don't know what it is or is it stress? Am I holding on to something emotionally? So I was just trying everything. And then I interviewed a lot of experts who were talking about fasting. So it's like, let me explore and test this out. I think I was telling you beforehand, I just interviewed someone who does water only fasting for seven to 40 days. He has people come in and do it in his clinic, modify it, make sure he's watching them all. So I'm just, I'm fascinated by how to extend the quality of my life. Happier, healthier, more flexible. look better. I love that you said you look better now than when you were 20 years fighting.

Yeah, I mean, recently I've done a-- that's crazy. I was doing it. Yeah, I feel better. And imagine if I would have known what I've known now and put that when I was in my 20s. I'm not a doctor, but I don't know if fasting is good for a teenager. I don't think so. Maybe because he's not, he hasn't grown fully yet. like, if I would have known what I've known now, perhaps I would never have had my ulcer colitis problems and maybe, you know what I mean? Maybe I would not have that like two ACL tear and then that, you know. So now- you- have two, I thought.

You just had one. You had two? Both knees?

I had two. I had my surgery done by Dr. Ella Trasch. The thing is in Canada, the health care system is free, but everybody gets treated the same. So if you're a professional athlete, you have the same treatment as a lady who's Really? For example, 70 years old. So, I'm an athlete, so I need to react to have a good surgeon and also rehab faster than a normal person because that's my job. So that's why I came in LA. Dr. Latrache did my two ACL and I rehab with Eder Milligan and with Gavin McMillan in Orange County. It was great. The best thing I've done. It came back. even better than it was. Really? Yeah, good six months. Still stronger now?

Six months.

Yeah, six months.

Now you're probably, I'm assuming, you probably had the best nutritionist, the best sports psychologist, doctors, camp that you were working with, but even then, you didn't know about fasting. It wasn't really that popular 10-15 years ago, right?

I know, and it wasn't popular, maybe it was, but I never would have, you're like, I'm gonna eat my food. and nutritionist, I never had really a nutritionist until last May, I tried that animal based diet and I always eat whatever I want, whenever I want.

Because you're a genetic freak too and you're burning so many calories.

Yeah.

And I believe some people have a faster metabolism which is advantageous nowadays, but perhaps 12,000 years ago in the hunter-gatherer society it wouldn't have been so advantageous because food was more scarce. So a guy like me maybe would have died. I would have died earlier.

So were you eating, when you mean you were eating everything like pizza and ice cream?

Everything.

You were just like whatever I want, I'm gonna eat it.

Yeah, one thing I would have, I did is like maybe a month before a fight I would try to cut down the desert. No desert, no sugar. Well, yeah, I eat sugar, but no, let's say, excessive desert. Yeah, I would have taken it, but no excessive, no excess on sugar, because I'm a kind of excess person.

And then you're all in. You're like, it's not one scoop of ice cream, it's the whole bucket of ice cream.

It's not one slice of pizza, it's the whole pizza. Maybe two pizzas. That's one thing. It also manifests when I eat, it manifests when I party, when I drink. I mean, I don't, there's a line I don't cross, but if I know we party and I drink, I'll drink and I get drawing and then, you know, like, like, not that every time, but if it's a party and I'm with good, good friends and I'll take it and have fun because it's clear my mind. The next day I can start out fresh, you know?

Yeah.

But same thing with food, you know, take it. I'm, I'm the man. I'm a little bit of an, of an excessive personality, but before a fight, I I I used to tell myself, no alcohol, no to. No shaggar too much.

That's good.

But outside of that, it was bad. Eat that very bad.

So it wasn't until really a year ago when you started to focus on nutrition and you tried the, not the carnivore diet, but which diet?

I try not an exclusive carnivore diet, but I try an animal-based diet.

Animal-based diet?

Yeah, the person who gave me is Paul Salezno. His Instagram is @carnivoremd.

Okay, and what did this consist of?

He's a doctor and It consists of mainly you try to feed off animal organs.

Mostly organs.

You try organs because if you look at nature, when a predatory animal lion.

Goes after the stomach.

That's right.

They leave the meat, they leave the leg.

They go for the stomach. When a horroko kill a great white, it eats the liver. Like every animal, like even when I went to Africa, I went to see the Masai. They're almost exclusively carnivore. When they kill an animal, they eat the organs.

Crazy.

They don't eat like us, the Fleming and all that. So you eat organs. Then you eat, of course, like you try to get fat like a ribeye, bone marrow, grass-fed meat, free-range eggs, like wild catch fish. And then if you're still hungry after you get fruit, not no veggies. No fruit, no veggies, no processed food. That's what I did.

So you're eating mostly the organs?

Yes.

So what are we talking about?

Trypt, heart, liver, testicle, brain.

You're eating all that? That's all you're eating every day?

Yeah, every day I try to get like a... But it's not a lot, it's maybe one gram or two gram. How you get that supermarket? In Canada it's every super, It's you.

Hard to liver and everything.

It's cheap as hell. Nobody buys it. It's not part of our North American culture. A liver and it tastes like you.

And.

And the. The more you do it, the more you'll develop a taste for you. It's an acquired taste.

Yeah.

Now I love liver. Now for my breakfast. For my breakfast, I'm. I'm doing bacon sauce, and I put a liver, like, maybe the size. the size of like a cell phone.

Yes.

Like a iPhone you put 90, you put your cup very very hot, like 90 second, 90 second, thank you, you eat is delicious. Cat liver, very very delicious.

Is that good huh?

I love it, I mean at first it was weird but I love it now.

Yeah.

Okay, so we're talking intestines, heart, everything.

Everything, yeah.

Yeah, and so you did this for how long?

I've done that for a month, the month of May.

One month.

And I took a picture on my Instagram to show that at 40 years old. Last month.

Yeah.

One month.

And I took a picture to show that even at 40 years old, it's possible. I was lean and shredded like I'd never been before. So imagine if I would have done that when I was like 30, 25 years old, I would have been like, ah, you know.

So one month, were you big? I mean, you weren't that big. You're still shredded.

I lost, I think I lost maybe four pounds. Three to four pounds.

But you got lean.

You look bigger, but it's not that you're bigger. You lose water retention, inflammation, because your skin is like really on the muscle.

Yeah. Yeah.

For a bodybuilder, I think would be a good idea.

Wow. So no vegetables?

No vegetable, no leafy greens? No leafy green, no vegetable, nothing. Only animal base and fruit. A little bit if you're still hungry after your meal.

I got to, I'll have to interview this guy to learn more about it. But what was the science that you're aware of behind not having leafy greens?

And, well, I've, I've investigated a lot of Paul Saladino's work. That's the Carnivore MD guy. Yes, yes. And, you know, it's a very controversial, controversial subject, you know? Yes. And I'm aware of it because I grew up like everybody else, I guess, like my parents, hey, eat your vegetables.

Yeah.

And I just, I'm just curious. I like to think outside the box. I like, you know, I like to break the rules, not break the love, but break the rules. And I think sometimes it's in order to improve in life, you need to do that. So I wanted to do something that everybody thought I was crazy, but now I've, now, because I post that picture, everybody's like, what'd you do? No way. What the hell is it? People thought I was on steroids or something. You know, it's like, I did that. That picture was taken three weeks after. I was down that diet, you know? So only in three weeks, you know? So I wonder what the photo looked like before.

You still look shredded.

No, I'm still, I'm still sure, but not as much as this. And it's not a lighting thing because like I who took a picture, it was like, it was like he had a real professional camera, but it was.

Not like a lighting trick. What did your body fat get down to?

Do you know? You know, I still don't know. I have no idea. I have no idea. As long as I feel healthy and I feel good in my my own skin, I don't.

Now tell me about after the months. Do you feel like you were sleeping better? Do you feel like you were clear of mind or were there side effects to this?

I did not feel like that I was stronger or any. I just feel I was just as strong. I felt a little bit that I had less inflammation because when I train in martial art, there's a lot of impact and I feel like my body sometimes was not as damaged, I would say, than I would normally.

You were covering fast.

Yes. And I also have a little bit of, I would say, arthritis and my big toes, one of my big toes, because I think earlier in my life I kick, I must have kicked someone.

Or a turf toe or something. Yeah, jammed it.

And sometimes when I'm laying down in bed, not when I'm moving, but when I'm laying down in bed, I feel and it jams. And this during that month when I did the diet did not happen.

No.

And now I'm back to live normal. It's back again. Shut up. Yeah, so it's not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence. I think it has something to do with inflammation.

Really? Yeah. I played arena football. I'm not sure if you know what that is, but it's indoor football in America. And they play it in like a hockey rink, but they put like astroturf down, like fake grass.

Oh.

And it's intense. There's walls. So it's kind of like hockey, but football.

With the wall.

With the wall. But they put pads on the walls, but it's still okay.

Okay. You're still like dying.

It's like a hockey wall, yeah. But it's a pad, but it still hurts.

Yeah.

And you're falling down all the time on the, like, there's a concrete and then turf, like a grass. And I jammed my toe one time.

Like, stopping and just jammed it.

It's always been, had problems, but never came back. It's never in the flexibility. There's no flexibility. I can barely bend it. back. But it's like I notice when I eat certain things, like, oh, the pain's gone, and then other times the pain is back.

Yeah, I. However, I do not know if I would eat vegetable and. And do animal based diet and fruit with no processed food. If I would have the same results. I mean, maybe it's just a fact because I stopped the process. Food it.

Food. Right.

It may not be the. You might have vegetables and fruit according to certain people.

But Paul, Paul says, no, believe it's. That's the right way to eat. It's no vegetable. Because he believe. I. I. I mean, you can research him, but he strongly believe I. That any living organism develop a defense mechanism to survive. And vegetable, when you eat them, they make you have inflammation and all kinds of different issues. so what they do to defend themselves is to create allergic reaction and also they create fruit in order like a bait for an animal to eat their food instead of eating the plant so it protect themselves.

Have you heard about the blue zones? The blue zones are the I think there's seven blue zones in the world which are areas of the world, regions of the world that have people that live the longest. like, they live over a hundred. And so they're these seven places. There's one here in Loma Linda, which is about an hour and a half away from Los Angeles. There's one in, like, somewhere in Japan. And there's these seven, I think it's seven zones. And I've heard that they mostly have, like, plant-based with, like, some fish. Yeah, mostly. But that wouldn't make sense. There might be other environmental things. Like, they have a good sense of community. There's, like, all these factors. They have a good sense. family, community, they're like, they have a sense of purpose, all these other things that help them live longer. But.

If you look at nature, that makes sense because if you look at nature, the animal that are the more, I mean, I would say more rip, normally is a carnivore, but they don't live as long as the herbivore. Herbivore, like the turtle, I mean, might not be true.

But grubs are plants, right?

Exactly.

Nothing is shredded.

Yeah, yeah. If you look like a, like a, most of the predatory animal I don't think they live as long as the Arab, a certain Arab of war. I mean, I mean, maybe the Greenland shark, I think is a, I'm not sure if he's a carnivore animal, but I know he lives like 500 years or something. Maybe I'm wrong in that, but it.

Would be worth to investigate.

Yeah, I want to learn more about that. So that makes sense. If you say that most women, who knows? Yeah, that could be, that could be, I think we don't, it's, it's not been long enough that we, I know that we study this stuff. We need more factors too.

There's other environmental factors, the weather, the community, all these things.

The stress, they're stressed.

They're not stressed, yeah.

They need purpose, you know?

Absolutely, absolutely. But when you watch a nature documentary of a lion eating a deer or something, it's going right for the intestines.

Hyena, same thing. When an animal is dead, they don't know how to kill, but they know how to eat. They go for the testicles. for the the they gu. Yeah, it's crazy.

Is that just 'cause that's where the most nutrients are?

Right?

That's why that's why. Over like the arm or the leg.

Or whatever it's like. Now that the nutrients are it's it's there is more nutrient nutrient than in those, uh those part in the organs.

That's right. So so what is your so you just turned happyy birthday, by the way.

'Cause you just turned forty, like, a.

Couple of weeks ago, right? Yeah, Ma nineteen.

It's crazy, man.

Uh, you look yourre best you've ever looked, that try. once weren't you? What's your diet now that you've been testing these things, intermittent fasting, this carnivore style diet? You've trained like a machine for so long. What is your diet and workout routine gonna look like moving forward from 40 to 50? What's your vision? Is it still experimentation? Is it train hard? Is it yoga and relax?

I'm in a constant phase of learning. But there's certain things that I experiment that I will keep with me forever. For example, eating organs is something that I'm still doing now. However, I loosen up on my diet. I like chocolate, I'll eat chocolate. I live my life to the fullest. I like coffee, I stopped coffee for that period of time, but now I like coffee. I am back on it.

Yeah, it's good.

One thing that I do too that most people think I'm crazy and I think that's one of the things that contribute to try to make me fit and live long and contribute to my athleticism is I like ice bath.

That's so cool.

I have it at home three to four times a week. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, I go in a ice bath. And when I say ice, it's Titanic cold water. And when I am, why am I?

A lot.

It depends the temperature of the water. In the winter it's much colder. when I'm doing it in the summer, I need to put ice in it, but it doesn't go down as low as it is when it winter.

It's like 20 degrees in the water.

Yeah, it's the water actually in the when I do it in the in the in the winter it goes maybe four degrees. Four degrees. Right over the the Fahrenheit.

Yeah.

It'S like 35 degrees Fahrenheit or something. Yeah, yeah, it's 40.

Yeah, 40, that's mean it's about five. Yeah, that's right. So, the reason why I'm doing this is also therapeutic.

Yes.

What it does is, yeah, I believe it helps to boost my, I believe, I mean, there is no real stuff, strong data.

Well, there is data now.

I mean, there are cold chuck protein and hot chuck protein with Sono. Yeah, but what I'm saying, I believe, It helped boost my immune system. I believe it helps me with inflammation. I'm talking just personal experience. And also it helps with my mood. The reason why it does is I am forcing myself to find comfort in a very extreme, uncomfortable situation. And I believe in life pleasure, it's also related to a relief of pain. And hold on that thought, and I'm gonna explain my point if people are not agreeing with that. the fact that I find comfort in a very extremely uncomfortable situation when I'm in the cold water forcing myself to breathe by the nose. When I get out of it, I don't stay too long because of course you'll die of hypothermia. When I get out of it, it makes me feel better in my own skin. Example of that to make an analogy for everybody to understand is let's say we go eat a meal, the same meal, together. We eat the same dish. You eat maybe your breakfast or your dinner, but I haven't eat for five days because when we eat the meal, because of what I've done, my meal will taste much better than yours. Yeah, because I wasn't paying it. So. So it's a relief of pain. Same thing that I'm trying to do with the heist bath. I try to put myself in. in a very extreme situation to force me to find some kind of comfort to resist. Then when I get out, I'm like, wow, now I feel so good. It's very therapeutic. It's very therapeutic.

Have you heard of Wim Hof?

Absolutely, yeah. I'm doing this as well.

Have you done with Wim? I went to Poland last year. I took a group of guys to go with Wim. We spent five days with Wim, just ourselves.

No way.

A bunch of influencers former pro athletes and hockey player and NFL guys and former champions. And we went for five days together just as those guys. And we dove in the freezing river. We climbed a mountain in snow with no clothes on.

You did this?

Yes. We were in the ice tub for 10 minutes. It's crazy, man. And it was an incredible experience. And as a football player, I used to have ice tubs after practice for 10 minutes after practice. But it wasn't this cold ever. It was just, it was cold, but it wasn't. But this was another level and it just continued, I'm a big believer in putting yourself through structured pain on a daily basis. Even if it's two minutes, even if it's something where it's an ice bath, it's push-ups, it's whatever you gotta do, something that's uncomfortable.

It sounds like you've been doing this.

For a long time.

Yeah.

But have you met Wim yet? I never did.

Oh, I gotta connect you guys 'cause.

He'S, I think he might be in town right now. Wow. How long are you here for?

I'm leaving tomorrow.

Okay, well next time you're back, I'll connect you guys. Oh my God, man. Or if you go to Poland, I'll set you up with like a private session with him.

He's unbelievable. He's probably more extreme than you. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, I see stuff that he does, it's insane. But I like the, you know, he claims that he believes the body can learn how to heal itself. And I know, objective.

Yeah.

And then resisted it from his mind and the cold.

And also, I believe it's 14 of his students have done the same thing. Versus 14 other subjects that were not trained to his methods and the result data was like same. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Crazy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's climbed like Mount Kilimanjaro or something with like no clothes, just shorts.

I think when they estimate the power of the mind, and I we just start touching it. And I'm a big fan of Matthew Walker, too.

Oh, the sleep guy?

Yes.

I'm supposed to have him on soon.

And he talks about, we talk about that subject. So he talks about meditation and he says that at first when he heard of the idea of meditation to help someone to sleep, he kind of rejected it. But he knows now that the data proves that it can help. So the brain as a as a strong influence of the body.

You meditate a lot?

Well, what I do is when I'm in this cold water environment.

Yeah, yeah.

So what I do is I try to force myself, close my eyes, force myself and breathe by the nose. So it put me in some kinds of meditation because it helped me.

To.

Find peace and calm in a very extreme environment. So it's some kind of meditation, but I do not spend like half an hour. I do it for a few minutes and then I go on with my day.

Speaking of breathing, did you learn how to breathe properly growing up as a fighter? And did they teach you this in martial arts? Because breathing is everything in competition, any sport. If you don't have your breath under control, you're screwed. You're tired. Did you learn this early on or did you learn it?

I've learned the technique, but I didn't know why. and now I've read books and now you're like, oh, I know why. And it makes sense.

What did you learn that was effective for you to stay relaxed under extreme tension and not burn out?

So let's say you do a crazy physical activity or that you're exhausted and you're out of breath. The worst thing you can do is bent over and breathe bad amount. So you take a straw for example and try to make the air go if you bend it it will not go through so you try to stand up straight and we call it in karate and kyokushin karate it's called ibuki it's breathing so we used to do an exercise after let's say a fight when I was young and I always wonder why it was making us do that but I knew it was helping me recover very fast. So you stand up straight, you're exhausted. So go, you take big, big inhale by the nose and exhale by the nose. And it's like you're trying to hyperventilate yourself, but you exhale, you inhale long inhale and very quick exhale, but very powerful.

Can you show me an example?

Yeah, so I go like this. It's called ibuki. It's karate. So it's a little bit like here, but I used to do that when I was a kid.

Yeah.

And I didn't know why. I knew it was working well, but I didn't know the why. I know how to do it, but I didn't know the why. Now I know the why. And I'll tell you why. Yes.

Is it. Is he in camera? Is he in a frame still just somewhere? Yeah.

Okay, cool.

Yeah.

So ibuki is this. So you go like this. You go. You can do like five to 10 to 30. It depends. we used to do. Like I was a kid, we used to do five.

Wow.

Then you hold it as long as you can. Then when you're ready. then that's the first cycle that you do three cycle.

Wow.

You do that in between round. So when I go fight in MMA, that's awesome. When I go fight in MMA and I sit down on the stool, you would do that. I didn't do the movement, but I. You're doing help ride the nose. I'm doing the same. I'm doing very often that if I needed it, I'm doing it.

And.

And help.

Or most guys are like, yes, they're like.

Sticking to the mouth. They're panicking. They're panicking. Wow. And the reason why you, it's better to inhale by the nose, from what I've understood, when I've inhaled. The science of it, yeah. Yes, it goes through the nose, it goes over your eye and right in the brain. And there's a filter in here. If you breathe by the mouth, it doesn't go through the same part. Yeah. And I thought it was very interesting. We have a nose, and a nose is like a herring. if you don't use it, it will close a little bit like a hair, like a woman they put earring, you know like very often so it closes down after you take it off for too long and your hair will close down but if you want to keep it open you need to exercise it or breathe some people are mouth breather I think is very bad.

Have you read the book by James Nestor?

James Nestor, that's right.

It's called Breath.

Yeah, the art of the lost heart of breathing.

It's crazy. We had a man who was talking about this, how even the jaw changes when you breathe through the mouth all the time, like you, your face will change.

Yes, and he explained that's what I'm talking about. He explained that it goes over here, it goes in the brain, it oxygenate your brain and the body. It's good for anti-depressing, it change your behavior and everything. So I thought it was very fascinating data. you know, and I did it a long time ago, but I didn't know why, but I used to do it still. But now I know the why.

Your teacher taught you this earlier.

Yes, a long time ago. And I think it's been transmitted to karate, to martial arts, to generation, and I don't even know if they know why. They know it works because it makes people, you know, but they don't know why. Now we know the why.

The science behind it. What's something that you've done your whole life through training that you still don't know the why it works. Like this.

And there's many things, we talk about breathing, it's another thing about breathing. If I may, when you braid, a lot of people, they braid to here. Like if I may put your hand here. You feeling in the back here?

Yeah.

Expanding?

So it expands, your lungs are like a bag, it goes all the way down. If you never use it, you always use maybe one third of your lung. Yes, so you don't fully oxygenate yourself. And the oxygen does not only goes into your lung, it goes everywhere in your body.

But you were taught this early on, you didn't know why it was working.

I didn't know why.

You were just like, I'm doing, you're practicing every day.

Exactly. Exactly. And I'm glad that I had, you know, we talk about the reason why some people are successful and not, and we don't know all the, always the why the cause. I believe in cause and effect. I believe, I personally believe in causality and determinism. I do not believe in, like in a free will in a way, because by definition, if there is a cause, there is, I mean, I still don't know, but I believe the fact that at that this technique when I was young could have a huge influence on my life.

Yeah, for decades.

This is one example that now I know the why but how many things like this that I'm not aware of that happen and every day you know for everybody you know.

That's why teaching and being educated the right way early on could transform your life.

That's right. Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world. How many guys like Usain Bolt there is in the world, perhaps even more talented than him, but maybe they didn't have the same path.

Exactly.

So, you know, it's fascinating.

How do you seem like one of the most mentally determined individuals? I mean, you are obsessive with training, with learning, with mastering things, and with putting yourself through pain and hard work. consistently. How do you make sure that you never negotiate with your mind to do less than what you really want to do in order for you to be successful? How do you not say, oh, I'm tired today, so I'm going to negotiate with myself and take the day off? How do you be so determined with your mind, no matter what is happening in your world, pain, stress family like you are committed all in on on what you need to do.

I think it's I mean it could I never been diagnosed to be excessive compulsive. I just think I am but I never been diagnosed. I can live in society with no problem. I'm not that kind of guy who opened the door at the time. I mean but I have my own mental issues and stuff as stupid as when I drill a technique. If you talk to my training partner, I drill the same amount of time on the left side than on the right side. And equal. And I have some guys sometimes that I drink with. They're like, hey, I don't want to do this, you know? And I'm like, no, no, no. And they think, like, yeah, he's got issues up here. Like, maybe I do issues, but these issues maybe made me the success, made the success that I have.

Sure.

So it could be a bad thing in terms of how you live to society. If you, if you, if you, it makes you go crazy to have a weird behavior towards other people. But it could be a good thing. In my, in my case, I try to take that and put it into my field of work.

Your creation. Yeah.

But become, sometimes become an obsession.

Yeah.

So you try to, like when I play basketball, just an example, when I play basketball and I look at the alarm clock, oh, I gotta so I need to do a free shot, a free throw and get it in. I cannot leave the court if I do not get my free throw. Otherwise, I don't know. I know it sounds completely Preposterous to everybody, and it is. It is. But I have this impression that if I don't do that, my. It will ruin my day. I know it sounds crazy.

You'll think about it and you will never.

Yeah, this is not normal. This is insane. Nobody, you know what I mean? That's how crazy I am. People think I'm a normal guy. I'm not, like, I'm nuts. Everybody's has their own mission, but that's one of the things I have on the mental.

Do you think anyone can be number one at what they do in the world without being insane a little bit? Without being a little crazy, without being obsessive? Like, you can't be number one at something. You can be great, but to be number one consistently, you gotta obsess over something for a while.

Yeah, perhaps if you dig into to these individual lives, you'll find some pattern that like, hey, whoa, whoa, this guy's got issues, you know? I mean, it's not really an issues, but it serves him well. But he's not normal.

Yeah.

And what is normal? What normal is just to compare to the norm, the norm, the living, the average. I mean, what is the word normal is a word that we made, we made it up. You know what I mean? It's Yeah, maybe nobody is normal. You know what I mean? Right, right.

When do you feel the most loved? When you're doing something, when you're around certain people, when do you feel the most, when you're accomplishing, when do you feel loved the most?

I'm gonna tell you the truth. Yes. The most love is as good as my career was. I was very happy with what I've done. It's nothing compared to my life, you know, like my career is great, the great thing, but my personal life, I feel very lucky and this is the most important thing for me. In order to maintain that, I keep all the extraction away from it, you know, to protect it. But I think this is my core. This is what makes me a happy person. you know, this is the most important thing. And that's where I feel the most love.

That's beautiful. The moments where people aren't seeing you performing and being in movies and training and competing.

That's where I feel the most love. Yes.

I.

I really enjoy what I do. I, I, right now, it's only fun stuff. All my, the stuff that I do not like to do, it's in the past.

Really?

And I'm very lucky. I'm very lucky. I mean, there's no no perfect job, you know?

Right.

But I'm, I feel very lucky and very privileged to have had the, the, the adventure of life that I have. And especially now, I mean, it's, it's only fun stuff ahead of me, and I have the, the opportunity now to do things, only things that I, you know, I want to do, do that I want to do with people that I want to do. And, and I am here today with you, and very happy to be here and I wanted to be here with you and it's great, it's fun. I didn't come because I had to, because I want to. And that's the difference now. Even in business, when you started mixed martial art, there's not a lot of money and you take what-- Especially what.

15 years ago when you were getting into it, right?

It's like-- you- take whatever it goes--.

Making what, like 20 grand a fight or 50 grand a fight? Your first view?

My first fight, I made $1,300 because my opponent did not make weight, so I gained 30% of his purse. Oh my God. $1,300.

That was in the UFC though.

No, that wasn't in UFC. I'll tell you, I'm not sure. In UFC, my first fight, I did $3,000 to show, $3,000 to win. My first UFC title, I did $9,000 to show.

Come on.

$9,000 and I didn't win, so I only did 9, 000 against Matthews. I got Umbar. I get. I did nine thousand. That's how it was back then. So when we had an opportunity to take money, we took for him everything. But now, now the good thing is I have my health, which is the most important. I have my wealth. So I do not associate myself with something that I don't like. I need to be authentic. And I'm.

Yes.

And I'm lucky that I reached that point of my life. in terms of autonomy, in terms of wealth, freedom. And I wish it to everybody, especially in MMA, but in MMA, it's not like other sport. There's no guideline. Basketball, soccer, you go in a school program, they take you, they will show you the guideline in MMA. It's a world of sharks. It's crazy. Like, I lost so much money, but I made a lot. thanks. I'm so happy. But through my journey, I was like, I was lucky, but I lost a lot of bad luck happened to me. But just what I'm saying is it's a, it's a crazy sport. And very often I have parents coming to me with their kids. They're like, hey, George, this is my son, the future world champion. Do you have any advice for him? I look at the kid, I tell him, I say, you go to school. He's like, yeah. He's like, good, man. stay at school is very important for you. It should be your number one priority. And the parents always look, give me a weird look when I say that. And it's not because I made it. I'm gonna tell your kid to do it because the chance that you have success, the odds are very low. And I know me because I only talk about the one who make it. But I know the truth because I've been there. I've been there. I've seen it. One of the happiest place in my life and one of the saddest place to go. in the gym because when I go there, it's happy because I go train, I go do what I love to do. One of the saddest places to be also because after the training, there's always some people that come to me and say, Hey, can you give me some advice about this? I give them some advice. It's always technique related. But the real advice for me would be like, Hey man, get out of here. You're 35 years old, bro. What are you doing? It's been three losses in a row. Get out there. It should have gotten out 10 years ago, by the way. I know you're not gonna make it. So when I tell the kid this, I say, stay at school. The reason is if he put all his eggs in the same basket to do a sport, and I'm talking about soccer, hockey, baseball, not only fighting, everything. And then he reached the age of 28 years old, 30 years old, and he doesn't make it. It's too late. There's nothing that he can fall back into, at least if he goes to school, even. even he doesn't know what to do, at least it's a grind. He will get his diploma. At least he has something. It's an assurance.

Yeah.

I chose fighting not because I didn't have choice. I went to school. I just, I stopped school when I had my first title shot. People don't know that because it's a stereotype in fighting. Yes, I was in Kinesiology. People don't know that. But like any, every other kid, I didn't like what? I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I was lost because it's normal. You're not the same person at 15 that you will be at 20 and 25.

You'll change.

But stay there. Stay. Keep the grind. Maybe one day something will happen to you and boom, that's what I want to become. That's what I want to go. Now you will orient yourself towards that. But if you do not stay there and you only put your eggs in the same basket, especially in sport, maybe you get hit by a car. maybe you're not good enough, you won't make it, you have nothing. So that's why that's the reason why I tell the kid because I've seen this movie in the gym when I see my training partner. It's a really bad ending and I don't wish that for any kid. Try to make it if you want to be a professional. Try to make it, make it big, you know, dream big. The problem is not to aim high and never make it, it's to aim too low but at least go to to school. It's very important. Get your, your, your Assurance.

Have other skills as well. Yeah. Learn other skills. Learn other things you can use in your life, not just only one thing.

That's a problem with a lot of, a lot of young generation now.

Yeah.

So I see it every day when I go to the gym. It's very, it's very sad. It's very, very sad. And, and if I would tell them the truth, they will say I'm cocky. They will be insulted. Right. I've told my real friend, I tell them some of my friends, they listen to they re-arranged that. We are re-arranged their life.

Training partners, like guys who are actually fighting.

Because I care about them, I know I said it's not gonna work, bro. It's like I'm telling you the truth, it's not gonna work. And it's painful to say for me as well, because I see their pain, their dream is shattered. But some other people, I see they never listen to me. They don't like, they keep doing and they're gonna, they're gonna hit the wall and they're gonna, oh, I should have, it's too late, man, because you wait too long. Now you have nothing that you can fall back on.

Do you feel like you left the sport at the right time for you?

Yes, a lot of guys, they stay too long in here. And it's unfortunate because a lot of these guys, a lot of them are legend. But because they stay too long, it damaged their legacy and we forget how good they were when they used to compete in their prime. and everybody compete for different reasons.

Yeah.

I competed personally to become the best in the world because I wanted to have my life, my. My dream life, my freedom. But I didn't want nothing less than being the best and the champion.

Right.

So you weren't gonna keep it.

Number two, I. I. It's done. I don't want to be number two. I want to be number one. But if you compete, if you still compete because you like to fight, and perhaps it's a good choice. But me, that's the reason why I do. to compete because I'm 40 years old. I came to the realization, which is very hard to accept, by the way.

Very hard.

Man, I think my best years are behind me. Oh, I hate to say it, but it's true.

The best fighting years.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

The best of the rest. Good years are there. They're here. Coming, man. That's right. Movies, opportunities, friends, family, whatever you want to write. Businesses. All the. The rewards now can come from this. I'm.

Look at George Foreman.

Yeah.

He had party, but then, like, okay, he kept blowing up afterwards.

His barbecue. Absolutely. And so, so smart.

What's the, you know, the platoon machine that you can sell in Quebec?

You know, that problem is if you're, if you're, if you're amongst the, the best and the best and you retire right on time, your stock is high. So the doors open on a new everything level of different business. If you retire when you, you, you, you're on many a set of losses. Now your stock is low. When you retire, the door are closed. So it's an, it's, it's also about business and opportunity. I think you close the door for yourself if you do so on top of having damage and physical injuries. Yeah, it's very sad to, you know.

Did you ever wish you would have done one more fight or are you.

Like, okay, there's always the idea behind my head. I if I would have fight Khabib, if I would have, you know, and this, and it did not happen. And maybe I'm glad that it didn't happen. Did you ever fight McGregor, right? Or could be those different weight classes? Khabib was one of the fight that would have come back at the time, not now, because now it's done, but at the time we tried to make it, UFC said they had other plans for Khabib. And now up to recently, you know, my days of competing to be the strongest man and to prove I'm the strongest man in the world done because I believe my best server behind me. However, I'm an Entertainer. I'm in the entertainment business.

So what do you fight again?

If I do fight, it would be maybe an exhibition for a novelty fight. And I got a proposition not a long time ago to fight Oscar de la Hoya in a fight. Yeah, boxing. Eight round with bigger gloves on two minute rounds. And I would have done it not because I believe I'm a better boxer than Oscar was in his prime, because I think the fact that I'm heavier than Oscar. I'm younger. And maybe I think he has perhaps more mileage than me. It would have make an even fight. And I would have done it because a big purse, a big paycheck. And also the, the big, big money would have been given to charity because I, I request that when I was on the phone with Oscar and Mr. Cam of trailer to show that we don't take ourselves too seriously. I think there is room for entertainment in that. Now there is certain fighting promotion they want to find out who's the best man in that, like in boxing or in MMA. But there are also other promotion that want to, they make entertainment say this celebrity versus this celebrity and people are curious they want to see what happened. I think there's room for both to exist.

What do you think? I've had both Logan and Jake Paul on the show who are friends of mine from Ohio. I'm from Ohio. What's your thoughts on both of those guys entering this world, training, fighting, winning?

Great, great business guy, man. And they're very opportunistic. They serve the wave. They take advantage of the world that we live in and in social media. And people who are jealous and say, oh, they're not real fighters, it's because they're jealous. They don't have as much money. I think it's hypocrite because I'm sure if they would be in the same situation as these guys, they would have done the same thing. They would have done the same thing. So I'm not a Paul Logan and Jake Paul haters. Yeah, I think I admire these guys. They're very smart. And I watched the fight against Mayweather. Yeah, because I was curious.

What do you think?

I think he did great. I think he did great.

Three years fighting is pretty good.

Yeah, I think he did great and I think it was a good show. It's all about entertainment. Of course, Mayweather is not the same Mayweather than he was and perhaps he did not maybe prepare himself as good as he would if he would have fought Pacquiao in his prime. But it was great. I had fun watching it. And I enjoyed it.

Would you fight one of those guys for the right purse?

I would more because Who I am, I would maybe more fight more like a legend. For me, Oscar De La Hoya is my second favorite boxer of all time behind Sugar Ray Leonard.

That'd be cool.

So for me, it would have been cool at 70 years old to look back in my life and say, I fought him. I fought that guy. But Dana White stopped it. He didn't want me to do it because I'm still under contract with UFC.

Still?

Yeah, because I retired. And even when you retire, I didn't finish my fight contract. Even if when you retire, you're fighting five years after you retire, you're still on contract. And people will say, why don't you fight it in court? It's not MMA, it's boxing. I know, I just don't want to have a neck-dake and hire lawyers to go in court and be the bad guy. So what I do is I let Triller and UFC taking care of their business and maybe if it works one day, I'll be in. But if it doesn't work out right now, it does not work. So maybe We'll see what's gonna be a fun fight to watch. It would be a fun fight, but I know Oscar and Dana hate each other. They hate each other. So we need someone to bridge the gap, perhaps. How old is Oscar now? I think he's 48. Oh, really? Yeah. So now I knew I was going maybe to fight him. I started studying his video and everything.

I was like going like crazy in.

The same mood than when I'm fighting. What about like Mike Tyson? Mike Tyson, I think he's might be 50. Did you fight him? no, no, no. No, Mike Tyson. No, it's. It's like a different thing. I think Tyson is heavyweight. I think he's a big guy, too.

Yeah.

Yeah, maybe not. No, maybe not. But Oscar would be. It'd be fun because he's, like, the golden boy of boxing. I was, like, the nice guy of ever. I think he would have made.

And we give a purse to a big purse to charity.

I think it would have been.

It would have been a fun event.

You think it would still happen? Maybe it's a possibility. I think there's a chance that it happened.

I gotta come watch that. I think there's a chance.

I did happen, but right now there's problems that need to be solved in order for that to happen.

I got a few final questions. Does that work for you?

Absolutely.

This has been inspiring, man. I'm so glad that you've been opening up like this. For people who, for people in the world who are not extreme fighters, not in your field, but they have a lot of challenges that come to them. Relationships, career, health challenges, just whatever. the pandemic, they have challenges that come to them. How do you think people should prepare for tough challenges, for pain that's coming their way? What's the best way to prepare for pain?

To prepare for a challenge, sometimes.

Time.

Restricts you in terms of your preparation because you might not be qualified to face certain problems. and I think you need to build a team of people that are qualified, but also people that you can trust. For example, when I started making money in my career, I was facing a big challenge because I was paid in US, but my structure was never like I never did that before. So what I did is I didn't try to make my, my tax report myself. I hired someone that I first could trust and I know is qualified to take care of that problem. So I think one thing that was good in my career is to build a team. And I think if you're facing a challenge that is overwhelming, overwhelming you and you need help in order to face that challenge, I think you need to build a team of people that are qualified and also that you can trust. and if you don't have these two things, it could be very damagable. You can hire someone that is qualified, but you do not trust, he's gonna maybe take advantage of you. And if you can trust, you're a friend, but he's not qualified. You're going, you're like, it's just as bad, you know? So you need both.

So you need both.

Qualify and trust.

Yeah.

Do you see a lot of fighters who just have people in their corner that they trust, that they're like, they're homeboys or whatever, friends, but they're not qualified and it just ruins their career. Really?

Tons. And it affects their career because the career of an athlete, and a career of a person, not only an athlete, it's not a straight line. Career is a long, it's a marathon, not a sprint. And then sometimes there's failure, that you need to come back, there's a victory, there's something that you've learned but you lost, and this and that. It's not a straight line. So building your team is very important, I believe. Inspiring, man.

Okay, you've got a new movie out. It's on, it's called Marvel's the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

It's a series.

You play the bad guy. I'm excited to watch this. It's gonna be fun, man. I'm super excited. Kai, our producer, said it was amazing and he was like, you were awesome in it. So I'm excited to watch this.

It's on Disney+ right now, right? Yes, it's on Disney+. I'm very lucky because after I retired, I had a call from Disney. They want me to reprise my role of the Winter Soldier. And the Winter Soldier, it's a movie I have a fight with Captain America. He beat me up. I survived. So they wanted me to play the same character in the series, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I said yes. And, and I've done some, some gig in the past in acting, but I was not focusing on it because I was too busy training for a fight. It was life-threatening so I was training for a fight. Now it's only phones, fun stuff. So I'm still training, but I'm focusing on acting full-time it's been two years that I'm focusing. I'm having a theater class, camera classes, English classes, audition classes because these are like an MMA. You have a Jiu Jitsu coach and Muay Thai coach, a karate coach, a rest. Like, it's very specialized. And in order to improve, you need to learn every special specialization in order to. And you need to get out of your comfort zone. So I know I'm always going to be choose for an action figure and in a movie. Fighting and doing something, of course, because my background. But when I do train, I get out of my comfort zone. I play drama. script, a romantic script, a comedy. So I'm not playing an action figure.

So it's important. That's cool, man.

Are you enjoying it? I really enjoyed it. It's a lot of fun. And I have a, because the, the background I have, I'm very lucky and privileged because I have a lot of project coming. So I'm very happy.

You got a lot of stuff in the pipeline coming now. Yes.

But, you know, in movies, it's always an uncertain because they need to find budget and that, but there's a lot of stuff. I'm very happy that Disney gave me that opportunity.

That's amazing, man. I'm excited to watch it. And when everyone else to watch it on Disney plus, it's called the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

And a lot of fight scenes that you're into. There's a lot of fight scenes. And the fight scene are you don't.

Have stunt man either, dude.

The stunt men are incredible. Do you have a stunt man, too?

I've done some of my son, but not every, every of, every of my son.

You're not jumping off buildings. You yourself.

No, no, but you're doing the fighting scenes.

These guys are a different level. They make me look bad in a way like, oh, they're incredible. Like to be a martial artist, I think there is three different major dimension. There is the fighters, like I did through all my career, like the timing and everything. I'm a fighter. There is the choreography, like the forms, the stunt people that you see in movies. and there's also the philosophy, I would say Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was known mostly for his philosophy. Maybe I know he was perhaps able to defend himself for sure. If we would be good enough to put in UFC, I don't know. And I maybe I don't think so, but in terms of philosophy, his philosophy changed my life. Like stuff that he says, like it's incredible, like use your longest weapon against his nearest point. It's still stuff that we do in MMA. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. It was ahead of his time. And in movies, we talk about choreography. These guys, the stunt people are just on a different level than what they do. They are martial artists. They can defend themselves, but they specialize in stunt. It's just unbelievable. And they make me look good, like, very good, because they do stuff. Like, I can do certain things, but stuff that they do on the concrete, it's right, different level. I needed them in order to make it to the next level. That's cool, man.

That's exciting. Well, it's cool that you're learning and you're challenging yourself. This is a question I asked everyone at the end. It's called the Three Truths. So I'd like you to imagine a hypothetical scenario. It's your last day on Earth. Many years away from now. You get to live as old as you want to live, but then eventually you got to turn the lights off. And you've accomplished every dream. Everything you want to accomplish healthy, happy, family is good, it all happens. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your work with you. This interview, you got to take it with you, all the videos of your content from your fights, the movies, the shows, it all goes with you to the next place. So no one has access to your information anymore.

Okay.

But you get a piece of paper and a pen, you get to write down three things you know to be true that you would share with the world. three lessons that this is all we would have from you. What would you say are those three truths for you?

My God, you're getting deep. I think one of the lesson will be work hard or work smarter. It's even more. It's even. it's more important. Work smarter, it's more important than working hard. I would still to live in the present, try to not live in the past because of your experience that things that haunt you, your nightmare makes you have nightmare, but also not live in the future to worry too much about what's try to live in prison.

Throw the brick away.

Yes. And I think I will say in order to be happy, health, we say very often, like in French we say, I don't know if I can translate it, like an elf, healthy mind in a healthy body. It's like a symbiosis. it's both works together.

How do you say it in French?

It's actually, I believe it's a Spanish coat, but this is very true.

Healthy mind, healthy body.

Yeah, I think it's, I can, I have to research, but there's a coat. It's healthy mind and a healthy body. If one of it it's not healthy. It won't be as happy as you could.

Yeah, those are beautiful. Simple too, I love it. You're all over social media. Georges Saint-Pierre on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, same name everywhere there. What else can we do to support you? How else can we go to? Is there a website we can go to? Can we sign up for something else besides watching the series?

Yeah, I'm promoting well-being and fitness, I have equipment that I'm promoting. I try to give people other avenues of how they can increase their health and fitness, you know. And I'm working with TrueConnectTV.fit. It's a platform that promotes health and fitness. And when I say health, it's only physical. There is help for mental health, books, guideline, diet. There's program training for yoga. My program is called Strike. I teach martial art. I teach people how to fight and maintain their level of fitness. It's called Strike on the Chukanch TV outfit platform. I also promote Aqualogic. It's a training device that we use in the water. It used the drag out of the water.

I think I saw you using this with Ben.

Yes.

His videos, right?

With water. Yes. So you don't have the load on your joint, so it really helped me.

What is this? It's like weights in the water.

It's not weights. It used the drag of the water. So you can do the entire body. It's very good. It's not complete by itself, but it's a great compliment. and your training and it's called again? Aqua Logic. Aqua Strength, Aqua Logic. And also I have Base Block. It's a very easy portable equipment that you can bring in your suitcase or put somewhere in your house and you can train with it. I'm promoting this.

That's cool. The Aqua Logic looked really cool. I watched you with Ben using that. That was pretty cool. It looks like it was a, I saw someone else using it with him and it was like, this is a total workout. Like his whole body was like, Yeah.

I learned that when I blow up my 2 ACL and you can use it as a rehab, but you can also use it as a performance. Now more and more American football players train with it because there's so much impact in their sport. This does not give you the impact, it just help your muscle fiber to work out without the impact on your joint.

It's amazing.

It's good for inflammation.

I got one final question. But I want people to follow this. Is there a website for you as well?

Base Block, Aqua Strength, Aqualogic, and TrueConnectTV.fit platform.

Okay, cool. Do you have a personal site?

George St. Pierre site? Yeah, absolutely.

Just Google you. I want to acknowledge you, George, for being here and for the incredible career you had. for being an inspiration to so many people, for getting even fitter at 40 than when you were at 25 and 30.

I don't know if I'm fitter or not.

You look amazing, man. For the passion and drive for life you have. You have an incredible joy and passion, which I love being around. And it's fun to see someone who is number one in the world for so long, dominant, arguably one of the greatest of all time in your sport.

I would thank you.

Be incredibly joyful, playful, curious, and not act like he has all the answers. So I really acknowledge you for just the human being that you've become and how you've given back to society. And I know you have, I believe you have a charity as well, an organization where you give back for anti-bullying and things like this, like for you to constantly show up, trying to help the youth.

Yeah, I think for me it's important.

Yeah.

For you to constantly show up was an inspiration, man. So I really acknowledge you for the gift you've been for the world. And I'm excited to see what you create for the next 100 years, man. You're going to be around for a long time, so.

Oh, thank you very much.

Of course, man. My final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

I think it's linked with happiness. Everything I've done in my life, it was to get me closer to my ultimate goal.

And.

If people think my goal was to be champion, it's BS. It's not my goal. I use that as a platform to get me to my goal. My goal is to have a family, live long and happy with my loved one. That's my goal. And I use that to get through that, to get my mind, to get through that. But that's, you know, I think that's the ultimate goal is greatness is to be happy. If you're happy, you're successful.

Yeah.

What else? You're happy. You succeed.

That's all you need, man. That's all that matter. My man, George.

Thank you so much, man. Appreciate it, bro.

Thank you very much. Powerful, man. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for listening to this episode.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I just wanted to get in the.

Ring and battle someone after I heard all the lessons. Actually, I did. he said it was terrifying every time he went into a fight. And I don't think I'd want to.

Get hit in the face that hard either. So lots of lessons, though, for how.

To overcome adversity and really train your mind and body to be prepared for something when that time arises. But really loved his message, his personality, and the breathing strategy he shared. If you want to see what that was like, make sure to go to the YouTube channel. Subscribe over there. Youtube.com slash to his house and you can watch that full interview and watch him actually perform this breathing technique live on YouTube. So make sure to check that out as well. If you enjoyed this, make sure to click the subscribe button over on Apple Podcast or Spotify and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcast so we can stay up to date on your feedback and really see what you enjoyed most about this episode. And I want to leave you with a quote from the iconic Bruce Lee who said, Use only that which works and take it from any place you can find. We try to bring you some of the greatest strategies in the world from some of the most inspiring people in the world of multiple disciplines here. And I'm telling you, you could gain a lot of wisdom from the over thousand plus episodes, but use what works. Take one thing from each episode and.

Apply it to your life to help.

Improve the quality of your life and continue to do more of that thing. I hope you got many of those ideas from George today. And I want to remind you, if no one's told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.