BTG 134 - Fighting Smart

[Music] Hello and welcome to Breaking the Guard. I just got back from my vacation in the Turks and Caos and uh I was able to watch UFC 314 which was a very good card. I I just tuned in for the prelims and the well the last prelim fight really Dan Eay. Um and then I watched the main event solid. There were many finishes and the the one the fight that did go the distance was a good battle, right? Obviously, spoiler alerts here, so you don't want to see them, you could tune out. But starting with Dan Eigay, um, of course he trains like Shinktor, so I was rooting for him and, uh, he had a great showing against a very tough fighter who his name is slipping at me at the moment, but uh, I think it was the biggest height disparity um, of the of the card, which there were quite a few of them because I believe Denigga is 5'7 and his opponent was 6'2 at 145. So, it's just a crazy height advantage, but uh it didn't look like he was able to fully utilize it cuz you know when you're that tall and this guy in particular, man, I wish the name would come back to me, but his legs are very very long. So, that makes you very easy to to shoot on. So, you end up having to crouch a little bit. So you end up fighting short. Um, which does negate some of the reach advantage, not really from the arm side, but at least from being able to fight tall, you know, but in any case, it was clear that Dan had some serious power. Everyone already knows that. And I thought he was winning the round pretty convincingly. Uh, I forget it. I think it was second round they went to or it might have been the first, I'm not sure, but towards the end of the round, Dan clips him, I believe, with a left hook or left straight. I I can't fully recall. Drops him. Uh he uses the fence to get back up. Dan rushes him and starts uh throwing bombs at him. He shoots in and he's holding a single and Dannis is hammerfisting him. Back elbow was just like giving him the the the the ass end of an ass beating, you know. And uh he stays there for a bit and you can see the referee is getting ready to stop the fight and the opponent starts to stand up and the ref jumped in at that moment and stopped the fight. Not a great call. Um, again, it's a fight. Fighters are going to get hurt. You know, if someone's starting to to stand up, you can't just get in there and stop the fight. So, early stoppage, yes. Do I think it would have changed the outcome of the fight? Probably not. I don't think it was getting better. Um although I could be wrong. We've seen people come back for worse. So I would be really upset if I was him for sure. Right. Uh but I think that there was blood in the water there. There was still plenty of time in the round. Uh it would have been a really like odds are he was going to get knocked out uh if he kept going. But I he totally should be pissed at that because yeah, early stop, you know, especially after you've taken all the punishment, now you're getting up and you're stopping. It's like if you were going to stop it, you should have stopped it earlier, you know, like you could have saved a few brain cells. But uh anyhow, EA won that fight. uh opening fight of the main car radic with Dominic Reyes. Reyes uh just went through this man, knocked him out. Three knockouts in a row he has scored. So he's had a hell of a comeback since uh having a a skid of losses and then he just come in and he's just steamrolling people. So clearly he's done the work and uh hopefully he's ready to come back and start fighting for title contention. You know, people forget, but at one point, you know, he had he had gotten uh Jon Jones and given him just about everything he could handle. So, uh he definitely has potential to and the the frame to be a big problem in that division. So So that was that fight. Uh we then had what many people were tuning in for which is Bryce Mitchell and Jean Silva and uh that fight went just about how I would expect it to which was that Jean Silva's striking was just too much for Bryce Mitchell to handle but his grappling was also very good right And I expected him to have good grappling, but I didn't expect him to be as dangerous with his grappling as he was because every time Bryce was able to take him down once and almost got put to sleep. He got stuck in a really bad guillotine. Uh, and he spent a good amount of time defending it. It looked really bad at some points, but then he lost it, but the moment he lost it, he was back on his feet. So he it was a very successful use of the guillotine as far as for especially from a striker standpoint. I ate the gas tank of my opponent a little bit and I still managed to get an escape off of it. So uh and plus it scores, you know, like he he was close to finishing that fight. And I think that definitely had a sway because I think Bryce outlanded him in the first round. Um but the takedown might have been enough also to like okay he took the round but since he added the guillotine uh and now looked like Jean was more effective but uh I think Bryce still won the the on the scorecards he had still won that round which surprised Jean in the postfight interview but he didn't realize he got outointed that first round because Bryce did land more but it it just wasn't doing any damage. you know, he was throwing lots of side kicks to the legs, roundhouse kicks, doing a lot of kicking, and it makes sense for him because he's not worried about getting taken down. So, uh, he can use that for range. But in round two, things heated up quite a bit and the striking of Jean Silva started to be really put on display. Lots of showboating going on and uh he was clearly putting in the work and Bryce would keep trying to shoot in for takedowns. Get he would keep getting stuck in either a guillotine or a ninja choke front rear naked and uh but Bryce was able to just squeak out of a lot of those. I believe it was in the third round they went into where Bryce was getting lit up a little bit. Went for a shot. I think like a headside single and this time around Silva slipped in uh the ninja choke and it was locked in really tight. And I mean if you don't know what I'm talking about basically if someone's going for a single leg on let's say my left leg. So I'm standing with my right side forward. He shoots the single. I slip the right arm under the neck and then lock over here using my chin to like keep his head down and trap. This is a really hard position to escape from if it's really tied in because both your hands are behind their head and your chin is behind it. So, they have no way to hand fight, right? Uh it's a lot of like trying to spin and got out. And that's pretty much what Bryce tried to do. He tried to spin but couldn't spin anywhere and then he ended up tapping but the choke was so tight that uh he tapped uh Jean released and he was unconscious. So it was just a really really really tight choke and I mean Silva's looking like a star right now. you know, dangers of his feet, good wrestle up ability, and he can, you know, get chokes and finishes on on a ace grappler. Uh, that's why I picked him to win the fight, you know, even though I don't I think personalitywise, don't like him, but uh he's a he's a re he's the real deal, right? He's a problem, you know? So, he he's going to make some for some interesting matchups, uh, as he starts getting towards the top of the ladder. So, there's that one. Then we had uh Michael Chandler and Patty the BDY. And this is one that's frustrating for me. And I say that because on paper, Michael Chandler has a ton of power. He should be a wrestling juggernaut. He all you see on his Instagram is him doing conditioning, so should have stamina for days. And with all that stuff, you would think he would have grappling ability on the ground. But what comes out in in the fight is not that. He first of all, the sizewise, I mean, everybody knows Chandler is just a physical specimen. Just huge short stocky guy like what you would expect from a wrestler build. But Patty is bigger, like tall, very thick. Like he soaked up a lot of weight. He he made Chandler look a little small, which is kind of a a crazy feat because of how physical Chandler is, but in the first round, he was pretty tentative. I think he was worried about um some of those big haymakers and possibly getting taken down. Uh Chandler did well in the early stages of the fight. Did score a takedown, but this is one where McMahon had a huge missed opportunity. He was able to get a nice takedown. Had the Dagustini handcuff. So, you know, he reached around the back. He had both hands controlling the forearm. So he had Patty on the cage turned into him on his side, but rather than circling towards the front of him and looking to hook the half guard to trap him. So now you're in a great position to ground a pound, especially on the cage, he keeps circling behind him where, yeah, you might be able to put more weight to pin them, but you can't do anything with it. Like there's no striking there. So he just like controlled him until eventually Patty got up and escaped and and I I say it like it happened quickly, but it was like a maybe like a minute that he killed on the clock where he was just like riding behind him holding him instead of actually getting in front locking the half guard from top position. And this is one of the few positions that it's better to be in half guard than to be side control because if I have you with a Dagistani handcuff, you're going to turtle up to try to stand up. But if I can lock you with a half guard or like in wrestling what we call like a Turk and then pull that leg and keep that knee off the ground. Now you can't come to your knees. So you're kind of stuck and you can't bring your shoulder out to try to come to your force because I have that Dagastani handcuff. I'm holding you down. So that shoulder stuck. So this leaves now that left hand just to drop hammers and someone like Chandler could smoke someone there. Right. Uh I've had uh one of my fighters Jason Suarez knocked someone out from there like not like TKO like knocked him out cold just from being in that side position with a handcuff. So like a huge missed opportunity in my opinion which you know if played right could have been end of the fight in the first round but instead uh Patty was able to escape get up to his feet and uh I I forget the how the rest of the round go but I don't think anybody like dominated round one. Um but round two is when things started to turn. uh Patty started to take over, the striking started to get a little more fluid as I believe he understood now that Chandler couldn't control him on the ground. Uh he was able to come up. There was multiple takedowns that happened throughout the fight, but Patty was able to stand up from all of them and be able to to strike. At one point he did score a takedown of his own or no no he dropped uh Chandler was able to do some damage from top position. Ultimately, if I recall correctly, the fight ends up with Patty landing a flying knee. Um, if I'm thinking of the right fight, dropping Chandler, then getting to his back. Oh, no, no. I think he rocked him, but he ended up getting uh to his back. quarter turn lift, slammed him, took the back, and then was able to secure a very naked choke off the back. And it was rough for Chandler because he was getting beat up pretty bad. He was bleeding all over. Uh he was hurting. And I think that was third, maybe fourth round. Uh but he took a lot of punishment on the the way in there. And Patty, I you know, I I haven't given him his props. I felt like he was kind of uh cherry they they matchmake them well, you know, so that he can climb up to the top. But this was definitely a tougher fight. Even though I think again I've said this before and I like Chandler, like I've trained with him personally. He's a nice guy, but he fights dumb, you know? Uh and I think everybody knows that at this point. And you know, it it's part of what made him a fan favorite in the UFC was that he just goes balls to the wall, but it's great to be an entertainer, but ultimately if I'm a fighter, I want to be a winner, right? And uh fighting just to please the fans, while it might make money, you're never going to be in the top. Uh, and to me it seems like Chandler, like he got stuck on the ground a few times and uh, he had his back taken more than once, had no real idea of how to escape back mount, how to escape a body triangle, how to get up from his feet. Like, it looks like he has zero groundwork, which to me is just bananas for a guy who is a wrestler. Uh especially if you're working with someone like Patty who's a really is a really good grappler, you know, and like part of his plan seemed to be to score takedowns. Like what did you plan to do when you were on top? Like if you don't know how to grapple and it's just this weird thing that to me is really like old school UFC or old school MMA thinking, which is I only need to do learn, you know, what I want to do. I don't need to learn grappling. It's like, man, you need to know how to grapple, especially if you're going against someone like Patty who is a good grappler, right? Uh, and not to work your back escapes seems crazy. And mind you, he had plenty of opportunities to escape. Plenty, but he just never really utilized them. The best that he could do was to pass the arm, you know, the choking arm to the other side. That was like the only intelligible defense that he had. Other than that, didn't seem like he knew how to get out, which to me is crazy, right? It's like, you're a professional fighter. I see you conditioned for like, you know, hours on social media. Put a little bit of that time into learning jiu-jitsu, right? It's it's frustrating. But, uh, on the bright side, someone like Patty to me fought smart. He fought very smart. He was tactical. He knew where he had to do to win the fight. Executed very well. And at this point now, I'm a believer. He definitely has great tools. Uh he can grapple, he can wrestle, he can wrestle up. Obviously, he can strike. So, he's dangerous everywhere. All right. And uh I will say that now I I think he's the real deal. He definitely proved himself. Okay. And even though I might not like all the shenanigans, the the guy can fight, right? And uh he's a problem now. So kudos to him. Final fight of the night. Uh we had uh Vul with Diego Lopez, right? And this uh was a great fight. U some good back and forth in this. Diego obviously is known for being ferocious and uh could tell you he has a hell of a chin. Also is very powerful. Uh Vog looked great. He came like what we recognize as like prime Vulk, good head movement, landing some big bombs. Uh, and they kind of went Vog controlled most of the dance. I think in most scorecards it was like four to one, but that wasn't to say it was totally dominant. There was one point where Vulk almost looked like he was about to get finished. Uh, so they definitely took turns rocking each other. Lopez seemed to be the more powerful of the two or at the very least showed like whenever he landed a clean shot, Vulk showed it. Whereas the most that we got out of Diego was like a stumble, not so much getting dropped. Vulk did get dropped once bad and uh could have been a fight ender, but of course he's a champion. He's tough. He was able to sur weather the storm. I think Lopez needed that experience though to be able to progress because it looked like he was a little bit hesitant to to unload cuz he was worried about getting taken down or maybe getting counter shot. But Vog was able to looked a lot more comfortable in there, was landing a lot of his shots. uh he was also doing a good job of mixing up his takedowns. And again, DC was commentating and he's spot on, which is even if you don't care about scoring a takedown, you need to score those level changes just to give your opponent that threat so that they now have to, you know, widen their stance a little bit, bend a little bit more, make them a little more reluctant to commit to a heavy strike. If you never throw a taked down attempt, you are giving me peace of mind that I never have to sprawl, throw my hips in, and that I could commit 100% to all my shots without worrying about overexposing myself to a takedown. That's why even like I, you know, we have guys in extreme that have never done a takedown ever, right? Like one of them I think is Chris Curtis. He has zero takedown attempts in his MMA career if I understand correctly. And I believe another one like that is also someone that's trained here in Vegas. Uh I forget his name, but he fought Pereira and made a pledge that he wasn't going to go for a takedown. Good Muay Thai guy. Everybody knows this guy. Ah man, his name slips me at the moment. But uh in either case, to me, both these fighters are dumb, right? It's like you're you're giving up a huge uh advantage to your opponent simply by having them not have to worry about takedowns. And both these guys can wrestle and stuff, right? They they're very good counter wrestlers, which implies also that you know the wrestling game. So just adding a level change, even if I just went to trip somebody, you should be using it because you're giving up uh an extra tool. And to me, fighting is not about proving who's the tougher guy or whose ego is the best. It's about who is the most efficient in dispatching their opponent and winning. And if you're leaving weapons on the table just because you're trying to be sporting, you're fighting dumb. And um Alex was not fighting dumb. He was fighting very smart. He was mixing in a lot of takedown attempts. He didn't really I think he may have gotten one at towards the end of the fight, but most of them were just to get Diego to defend. And again, just had that in the back of his head that I got to make sure that I'm ready for that takedown attempt. Make me a little more hesitant to throw with big power. And Diego never threw a takedown attempt as I if I if I can recall, which again, he's more of a striker. Understandable. But he still should, you know, it's actually uh it would be more of a surprise for the striker to go for a takedown. You say, "Oh, I never saw that coming." And now you're putting that guy on his back foot. Right? And you don't have to do a risky takedown. Like I wouldn't want somebody to go drop to their knees for like a double leg if they're not a good wrestler, but I can do a snatch single or even, you know, commit to like a get a clinch and, you know, try to hip toss a little bit or foot sweep just a little bit to get the opponent off balance, right? Just a simple level change even would be enough to get people to make a reaction. And if you're a good striker, it's a good idea to faint these level changes because usually your opponent reacts and now that's a opportunity to strike. Like if I level change and I see my opponent drop, if I come in with the uppercut or knee, I'm going to catch him in a collision. So you should always be adding that variable into the mix. In either case, Alex ended up winning and uh when the fight started, they announced that the title was officially vacated. So Vulk now is the champion once again and he's the first fighter under 35 to regain a lightweight title. Oh to gain to win the lightweight title or one of the lighter division titles. So congratulations to him. No small feat. That was definitely a very tough fight. uh he had to weather a couple storms there and uh I think Diego though looks it's great learning experience for him and I think if they do a rematch it might not go exactly that same way right uh if he's training right but uh good event overall um and yeah I just on side stories I was in the Turks and KO goes like I was saying and had a nice little uh vacation there. We were there for like 10 days and uh mainly just to get in the ocean. We were doing a lot of uh scuba diving, snorkeling, and just being in on the beach. My wife loves being in the ocean. So, part of a a commitment to me that I have to go with her. Uh I I enjoy some of it. Sometimes it's a little bit of a work cuz she's like a a dolphin. and she'll just swim there for hours. So, uh I'm not the greatest swim in the world. I can swim for a long time. I'm just not very fast and uh I'm just pretty much chasing my wife for a couple hours every day uh in the water. But, uh it was nice. Got to see, you know, sharks, sea turtles, stingrays, eagle rays, all sorts of fishes. So, it was good. We hadn't had a dive trip in just around a year. So, it was good to get back in the water again. And uh although it was a little colder than I thought it was going to be, like uh I think it was like they my dive computer was saying it was 80, but like man, it felt colder. It felt like it was in 70s, which is not too bad, but uh it's definitely a little frosty, especially once you hit like an hour or so in the water. you know, you're starting to get chilled out, you know. Uh, and it's also quite windy over there. Talking about like 20 mile per hour winds persistent uh throughout the day, which I wasn't expecting, but it is quite a beautiful island there. We were staying by Grace Bay, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Uh, I'll tell you, it definitely is very pretty. you. The water in the Turks and Caos is just a turquoise blue everywhere. Uh very beautiful and the visibility is wonderful. You can see, you know, very deep, especially when you're scuba diving. You can see so far in the water, which is uh not typical. So, that part was nice. Um I will say as an island, it was very well stocked. the roads. Again, I've been in islands where it's they're super remote and you barely you just have dirt roads, right? So, this is all well paved roads. Uh they drive British as far as they're on the left side, which is easy to adjust to because there's only like two lanes on the highway, so not hard. They use roundabouts everywhere, but they're mostly pretty easy to function with. Uh pricing wise, at least from Vegas, wasn't bad and the grocery stores were stocked. I wasn't impressed. Like usually getting groceries on the island is tricky because there's just not a lot of uh like they have to get everything imported of course. So you're usually very limited stock and pricing is pretty expensive. When we went to Turks and Caos, we rented out a beach villa. So we are able just to walk out and get in the water straight from the villa. Had a full kitchen. You guys know I'm doing, you know, carnivore. So, uh, initially the idea was I was going to go out to eat more, but when we got there, when we went to the grocery store on day one, I'm like, man, they have like legitimately good ribeye steaks, New York strips, pork chops, and all very cheap. I mean, I was getting Oh, the ribbies I won't say were cheap, but they were same price as here. like a nice marbled ribeye for $25 a pound. That's what I pay for here. So, I'm like, man, great. I'll get those. So, I was getting ribe eyes, New York strips, and then uh getting pork loins. And their pork there was super cheap. It was like $4 a pound, which to me is crazy. And they were like nice center cut pork loins, you know, with a good uh layer of fat on them. So, I was impressed. And they even had like these like fancy jams that my wife likes. She gets this like black currant jam from something in France and we can't find them here and they had them over there. I was like what is going on? Like these grocery stores are really well stocked, you know. So that was impressive. So, it made the our trip pretty easy because I was able just to go to the grocery store and buy like pretty much 10 ribe eyes, like like four New York strips, a bunch of pork loins. Uh, and we had brought in those carnivore snacks that I have for meat chips and I we brought a bunch of chocolate with us. That's one thing that was actually very expensive there. I like having dark chocolate. Uh, I make my own dark chocolate just using honey, cacao paste, and salt. And they were charging like nine $10 for a bar of chocolate. So, I'm like, I'm glad I I brought my own. That would have put a a dent in the wallet. But in any case, uh, it went well and I I got back and I ended up losing three lbs on vacation. I went from 206.8 to 203.8. Um, and this is while, you know, eating ribe eyes every day, having chocolate. Oh, and I was getting uh I found there's one brand of ice cream that I'll eat, which is hagandas vanilla because it's made the way I would make it, which is just cream, milk, um, and eggs. And they use sugar as well, which is fine. It's cane sugar. It's no problem. Uh, and so I was having that just about every day as well. And you lose three pounds that way. I we were doing a good bit amount of exercise because we're, you know, swimming for a couple hours a day. But, uh, yeah, that's what I tell people, man. Like people ask me all the time like, "Oh, isn't it hard to do that diet on the road?" I'm like, man, it's the easiest diet to do on the road because there's always a place that has meat, you know, like there I'm not I haven't been somewhere where there's there's no meat selection. Like there's always meat, you know, even if it's ground beef, you can, you know, that's enough. So, uh, I keep recommending it to people because, and I've seen quite a few of my friends have made that the shift and, uh, one of them has lost a tremendous amount of weight and kind of completely changed his lifestyle for the better. Uh, lost over 100 something pounds and, you know, in the best shape of his life and, uh, proud of him for doing that. So, uh, I say especially as a guy, like I I tell people like this is the diet I would have dreamed of as a kid. You're telling me I get to eat steak. I can have dark chocolate. I can have my milk and cafe and yogurt and all that stuff if I want to. And I can have ice cream, you know, and uh that's susceptible in this diet. I don't have to force myself to eat salads or, you know, eat the the rainbow and different vegetables and fruits. I can just eat what I want to eat. At least for me, I I mean, and my dad was a bit of a carnivore also. I have pretty sharp canines, so I think it's in the blood. Uh, but for me, this is the easiest diet to do. It's been over a year now on carnivore. Uh, I'm also the strongest I've ever been. I'm lifting more than I've ever lifted. Uh so uh as far as progress for me, it's been fantastic and I'm able to do it 24/7 365. Never off of it. So if anybody needed another reason or wanted to hear me say it again, I'll tell you giving carnivore a try is worth it in my opinion if it's even if it's just 30 days just to see what it does for you. Uh, obviously for me it's been a game changer. Uh, even my wife, she's not fully on it. I would say she's like 90% on it and she was able to lose some weight and she's eating much better now, better energy levels. So, I haven't seen it fail for anybody personally. I'm I'm sure there there might be someone out there that it doesn't work with, although I haven't met them yet. Uh, I know a lot of people feel like it's harder to do uh because they feel like socially it can make them awkward. Like, oh, I go to the birthday party, I don't eat the birthday cake. I don't know. Personally, I never cared about whether people think like if I'm in a social scenario and somebody's asking me to do something I don't want to do, I'm not going to do it. It's as simple as that, right? And if they're truly my friend, they would understand, you know, hey, he just doesn't do that thing. Like I have plenty of friends who, you know, do drugs and it's not my thing. I'm never going to do it. But it's not like, oh, because I don't do that now, I hate this guy. Like if that's how they really were, there's something wrong with him in my opinion. And vice versa, there would be something wrong with me. Like, oh, I I I can't stand that person now. It's like, no, everybody has their choice of how they want to live their life. So, I don't know. For me, social pressures were never really an issue for like dieting. If I'm going out to a restaurant, which I have done, and you know, we do get togethers, I just order steak, you know, and it's as simple as that, right? Like, and they decide to go to somewhere where I don't want to eat. And it hasn't happened to me yet, but if it if it does, I'm like, I'll just sit there and watch you eat. I don't care, right? Like I I don't see the issue personally. But some people feel, oh, like in scenarios, social scenarios, you can be a little awkward if you're not, you know, joining in in the group. I don't know. For me, it's not a problem. Everybody could do whatever the hell they want. I'm going to do what I want and that's the end of the story. Especially when it's coming to something like health, you know, uh I don't see why you would have to bend a knee on on that stance. like I live a particular lifestyle and like just like I would respect someone's religious, you know, beliefs and allow them to practice how they want to practice the way I practice my health. To me, it's kind of like a religious belief. I'm going to do what I have to do, you know, and if you don't understand it, well, I guess that's your problem, not mine. Anyhow, that's all I have for you guys for today. I hope uh you all have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you in the pod next week.