BTG 41 - Gilbert "Durinho" Burns

[Music] hello everyone we're back to one more episode of breaking the guard it's been a minute right dave but uh it was worth the wait uh we have a very special guest with us very good friend of mine uh teammate former training partner go way back been following his career for a long long time gilbert burns pleasure have you yeah my pleasure be here and be a while being why we don't talk so how you've been in florida with all this uh covet stuff i imagine it must be more difficult to train nowadays huh it's getting better it's getting a lot better everything's getting open uh but i got caught by colby so i can't understand so much but yeah i think a lot of people had already and people was getting things are getting very normal the the it's even weird because like yesterday i saw a couple nurseries doing a couple you know a couple documentaries they talking about and they said hospitals are food and a lot of people like still dying from that no we kind of we don't see that much but and then they say not just elders like normal people like guys 40 35 years old a lot of people dying from that but i think as a right now the numbers are going down as we talk you know but it's very confusing because i got i got covey i felt bad for like two days two to three days i was bad but like flew back you know not bad like i was bad but i had a kind of like the way i i thought i had a flu and i got fever in there for just two or three days but the only thing that i had most was a headache i had a strong headache for almost two weeks i think a little bit more than two weeks but things are getting better in florida a lot of i think a lot of people had already to be honest in uh jesus getting open training getting better i've been training a lot of vaginal russia and at our genes say for me trending kind of like pretty much normal you know um a lot of people describe it as a headache you'd always think it's a cold or it's going to be on your lungs but like you're like the third person i hear describe it as like a really you know harsh headache um but you know one thing i have like i have this idea i don't know if i could be wrong here but i think fighters like we're so exposed to germs our whole life like on the mask literally having people breathing your face and rolling around and people sweat for so many years i imagine our immune system is much stronger than the average person like that'd be my guess that's probably why you like you don't get knocked down with something like this because your immune system has to be so strong to deal with all the stress and training and being exposed to so many sweaty people every day right i believe it's you and i think even my doctor we were having that conversation he said the only way the only way i had that that vibe was because i had three training camps already in until july you know i had three strong training camps and two of those was for five five minute rounds and i in that week it was a hard week for me was training super hard my immunity came down and then i got and then i caught the virus but my gastric will be is because it's a new virus to you know like even our immune resistance very you know tolerate tolerate a lot of things he's very strong but he's a freaking new virus you know like i don't think you know the body saw that thing before you know for sure you know when they went over because obviously you must train really hard because i saw your last fight a phenomenal performance and your conditioning was off the chain i mean i i remember the thing that left me the most impressed was that you were pushing to finish the whole five rounds and even in the fifth round you were still like you had that very fast twitch like jesus christ i mean yeah yeah i mean is there any secrets you can give to them old-timers like me and rob yeah share it man give us the whole deal i was so hungry for that fight and i was training so much and i was nervous too because it was my first my first main event my first five five rounds fight i was i was very nervous going through that fight but as soon as i knew you're gonna start strong i know i said you know what i'm gonna shout very strongly and as soon as i connect i knock him down and then i got on top i was very confident okay i got that fight you know i'm just gonna keep working and that thing that you said that go for the finish that's all my fights all my you know even from the jesus that's my style i remember not long ago when when you guys were commentating when robert that black belt uh tournament the cbd one yeah and i remember i could have finished either guys they're very tough uh marcelo mafra and dj jackson couldn't finish either guy but i was putting a crazy pace towards the end you know i think i remember if i'm not wrong with a six or seven minute fight i couldn't finish either that but i put a crim a crazy pace on these guys and uh i did the same i tried to finish but those guys are very durable you know they can take a lot of punch and they they defend submission very well i i think the way i thought if i could go through different options going to the fight but was working always out working here i was outpacing him and i just kept going and uh the thing was just the training you know i get very i don't know if it was the motivation going to that training the hungry going through that training and then that put me on a very good conditioning and one thing that i take toward that coach is very famous vincent lombard uh he was nfl coach and he he said something read a lot of things from him that the wheel to prepare has to be better than the wheel to win the fight because it's like he's like a tournament the day of the tournament everyone wants to win you know but two months three months i had the tournament the will to prepare you know the day that you're super tired and you gotta go anyway so i just i just like to prepare myself to those then i think that was the series was nothing special that i did but it was just the wheel to win was super on the beginning of my camp every single day i thought about it and i worked hard for that fight no i mean it really showed right i mean it's funny because the cbd tournament that you were at it was the first one time i saw you in person i've seen you in the other 20 but in live and i was so impressed because your explosiveness and particularly with uh dj because dj is known as a really good wrestler and you out wrestle them you out hustle them everywhere and he's hard to submit because he's got like no neck [Laughter] but i was like man this guy can wrestle and he's great jiu jitsu and then when your ufc career blew up and you showed you also had dangerous striking you know both with your hands your kicks your knees so i feel like you're i would love to see you as the ufc champion you know because uh me you you're one of the most exciting guys in the division because you have the weapons to finish people anywhere you know from the feed from the ground the submissions so i mean particularly with i'm sure you saw the camaro usman with uh mass feed all you know and like not the most entertaining fight you know his style is not that entertaining you know like it's effective but it's not like it doesn't draw people to watch you know a style like yours everybody wants to watch i would think so i mean what did you think about that fight with you yeah with um uh usman and massfield what was the way that i thought would be you know because uh camaro fight iq is very high he's very smart and then he has the strong wrestling he has the ability to control the fight and i know myself daughter's six days notice couldn't do much you know i think he i think he did what he could do you know try to strike survive he's very tough i didn't i don't i didn't believe camaro had the ability to finish the fight either way on tko or on on the jiu-jitsu on the submission i i didn't think so and i predict the way the fight went i said man i think it's going to be a boring fight but i think kamari gonna control most of the fight and then when the way i did and then i don't know if there was more backing my feelings with that fight because i was studying all the fire was the watch i was paying attention i don't know if i was more frustrated that i could have made to the fight or if i was more like oh okay i can beat this guy i don't know of course how was that feeling going to the fight because uh obviously i want to be there and you know and take that belt but the way i see right now i i didn't feel good that that day i had a strong freaking haircut on that saturday july 11 watching the fight so the way i see right now was a blessing no way i'm gonna have a full training camp i'm i'm sorry very slow right now but uh i know i i i know for sure i'm gonna pick very good at the day that we fight and uh i just saw the way i think that was the way i predict you know and then but i saw a lot of things that i can i can't capitalize against camaros interesting yeah what do you do like i want to ask you like what you know i think that you know every successful fighter or every successful person has like a few common denominators right some things that they all have in common but we are different at the same time like people aren't exactly the same so even like very you know all successful driven people have certain some common thread but i wanted to hear from you like what what is your motivation man like what keeps you going is this like is it oh i just want to you know do it for my family it's my dream um it's personal satisfaction is it like you know because i've known you for a long time you're not you've always been a very humble person you're not obsessed with cameras or anything like that it's not the attention you're after but you seem like to be a very good family man you know i you know i've known your wife for quite some time you're a very good dad obviously but i wanted to hear it man what what motivates you man what gets you out of bed every morning because you've been doing this for a long time and yet you're still highly competitive and it's the you you've never been better this is the best version of gilbert burns we've ever seen like what keeps you on that track it's simple i i i want to be the best and i know what can be you know and and knowing i can be and believe in myself i know i can be it's just like i don't see something very very i mean very special very i know i said no i can't do this thing you know i just i'm just going to put in a word and another thing too i don't know so a lot of people will say that but i i love when people doubted me like when people i don't think he would be a champion i don't know that's i just that thing just triples my my determination my my will to compete and to prove and uh but on the same time my competition is different like for example we have to go to a run me and you like and we start doing sprints and everything i'm the thing with me is i don't even know how how to explain how they started but for example if you go to a sprint i don't want to beat you you know i don't want to especially beat you i want to do my my best every single time you know and uh even if i lose to you but deep down inside i know i did my best i'm okay with it you know i'm very i'm i'm always okay with it but the competition within myself is very i'm very competitive with myself like if i know i could give a little more and then and for any reason i hold myself i get very frustrated myself so i tried every time that i go to compete i want to show my best i want to give my best and that drives me the to be the best and just to and it's hard to say to explain that but the competition is with myself i know i can go there and beat these guys but then i need to be at my best but then to be on my best is a lot of things that i need to do no sleep good eat better train rest recover and study the fights and make the strategy you know and stay with my head in a good position and it's just a little a lot of things that make me go to a competition first but the competition is just crazy just within myself and that makes me super motivated and super hungry and uh he's even i don't know if i was able to put on the words but he's with me you know the things with me i know i can be this guy he's not about the guys about me okay now what are you gonna do and then and then i i'm kind of going obsessed with those things because i make a i make a little like a system that i that i make and i go on every individual aspect of the fight like i go to like physical therapists then i go to strategy then i go to mental training then i go to like the the specific uh trainings that i got to do like the technical training go to jiu-jitsu and i go to every single area and i ask okay in order to be a hundred percent to fight kamar what should i do in a physical therapies and then okay i gotta do physical therapies through three to four times a week okay in the jiu-jitsu did you do so i gotta do my own drills three times a week and then i gotta go to pregnancy and to cyborgs two times a week and then i kind of make all that big plan but the thing is it's hard as soon as i make that big plan going to a fight i gotta execute every single thing that i know i have to do in order to be 100 but that thing with me is even hard as soon as i made it i sign it as soon as i sign it it's commitment with me no one knows like he's there my wife if she wants to see she will take a look but she kind of she don't even look he's there he's on my my table and as soon as i sign it and i make that thing is is a commitment that i have with me the competition with me and i know if i follow that direction to my training camp i'm gonna get i'm gonna get there i'm going to be there that giver that you said like me i was impressed i'll be that guy and uh i don't know as soon as i make that thing i'm hungry and i don't know it's hard to explain but i keeps myself very motivated every single day i look to that thing you know what i have to do and then i do my notes and a lot of things to keep me driving keep that thing but i think that the end of the days i want to be the best version of myself in if that it's a b become a word ufc world champ that's my my dream i'll be but if for any reason i don't even like to say that so much but if we if any reason i'm not becoming but i know i give my best that'll be okay with me you know i think you explained that wonderfully and i liked the self-contract that you were talking about essentially you created a plan for yourself and then you made a contract you signed it i think that's an awesome mental device yeah because i it's kind of like i was telling robert yesterday like i had to go i wanted to go train at the roberts gym but i was tired i i don't know i was making excuses in my head i'm like you know what i'm gonna get dressed like an hour early because if i'm dressed up now i'm gonna have to go if i can put all the ghee you know i'm not gonna take it off and then i train you know it's sometimes accountability i like i never thought about that but that's a really good idea because there's something about writing right like it's it's a it's a contra you make with it it's a brilliant idea man like especially you have it on the wall and you look at it and you're not doing it you're gonna be like and you know how much that means to you and the price you've paid to make it this far gilbert i think you answered the question beautifully you you you said something you know that you know almost everything you said but one thing i i have to prove it to myself right i'm doing it for myself and i always say that that's the correct motivation i think there are many motivations right like you can have like prove it to my girlfriend i want to make some money i want to be famous i want to you know have a legacy or i think their motivations are valid right and they can help but i think that the real engine to success is like i want to prove it to myself and i you hit the nail on the head and i think that's why you have proven to be so successful in the guillogi and now in mma because i think your motivation is the right one and also that you're you're measuring yourself not against somebody else i think that's where a lot of people make the mistake uh particularly people who are low or in adult a white belt or blue belt and they're trying to compare their progress to their friend who maybe is more faster or more talented and they're not going they're not getting as good as that guy and then they're like ah and they quit or they let off where i think you have it right where everything's about you you know it's about how good am i even if i could beat somebody if i didn't beat them to the best of my ability you're kind of pulled back and i know what you're talking about where you you could lose a fight but you poured everything into it there's no shame in it yeah you know it's like i did everything i possibly could i prepared properly i it just wasn't my day you know like when i you and i lost i was okay with it i i poured everything out in the match i just you were the better man that day you know so like i said he was really tired myself too much credit funny quote but it's corny but it's very profound and it's corny because it's from karate kid right and when daniel's son is defeated and he wants to quit and master miyagi gets on the mat and goes daniel son it's okay to lose to your opponent it's not okay to lose to yourself yes and it's corny as that is like it's so profound because that's what's going on man most of the times we lose we lose to ourselves and that's unacceptable because you can win that fight your opponent sometimes are going to be better than you there's nothing you can do about it like that day which is his day you make a mistake call you whatever but losing to yourself unacceptable you know i think that it shows in your fight because the amount of pressure that you put he didn't have to right like a lot of people that were in your position round five they would have just coasted i'm like ah you know i've already got four rounds in the bag i'll relax he was and he was pushing hard because it's against you right you want it yes you want it to finish so like it all because the opponent was faded like he probably already conceded i lost his fight i'm just gonna survive right i'm sure you know a lot of people once they lose or they they know they're gonna lose they just go into survival mode right where they're just like you know what i'm just gonna do enough not to get finished i'm not going to get knocked out i'm not going to get tapped out i'm just going to dance around and i'll take the loss you know so it's easy to stand with somebody who's already in survival mode and you just rely but what he was doing was no you're not i'm going to try to get take you out yeah at every moment possible and that's somebody who's competing with himself because they're like yeah i want to get the fastest time i want to get the block out you know so that's what i love when i saw this fight like man he's like new favorite guy right now what does that mean yeah and then and another thing too is i want to make those guys after i fight i want to i don't want to have for sure i don't want to give those guys any excuse you know because if you freaking fly on board a guy in one minute they're gonna say oh man i got caught in that position but if i'm trying to finish the fight every single minute of the 25 minutes is no excuse to the guy after you know like and i i i guess they're not gonna ask for a rematch if they ask me they're gonna be like free man if he asking for a rematch are you gonna be ready you know then i'm gonna get them all ready but i think uh what make that five most pressing is the only thing that makes that five more impressive was that wheel to finish because like you said most of the guys who have that four rounds already they kind of you know what i'm just gonna control that fight i'm not gonna fight i'm gonna relax that way they want to fight but the like i said the hunger that i have the things that i have and i think the feeling that combined to make people be like you man that last fight was very impressive was just this because i want to finish the fight it wasn't something that i i didn't train to do i didn't push to do i just i just want to finish you know if if i was losing two if i was losing the fight i'm gonna fight to the end and then and i think that was it i just want to try to finish it that way that's why people got me don made it was wasn't because of the the overall fight itself was because even towards the end of the round if i saw something say man i think i can finish and then i push a little bit and uh but i love the thing that you said about i might lose to the other guy that's okay with me you know i'm gonna train i'm gonna get but i'm gonna improve we might face each other again but i cannot lose for myself and uh and i even saw that we roberts when he cornered the guy he's got on on the ufc fight yeah i was watching the fight and then i saw yeah that guy first he's so much pressure people don't realize like ufc debut shot notice it it's it's a lot of pressure and he was getting hit he was losing the fight but i saw when he got very frustrated you know when things wasn't working was on his way but he's it's something that i i for sure he learned and i i don't know him very well as an old robert but for sure he he's not proud of himself for what he did but he's very young i think he that i think he will going to overcome it you're going to do better next time but sometimes they're going to they they pull you so deeply on the fight that you go to a certain place that you're not used to be and when you get there it's very uncomfortable it's very different and my advice is you gotta get on those certain places during the training if you can you know and and mentally to sit down do a little visualization get that deep the place that you want to don't want to go and be there you know and and make friends with that feeling you know make peace with that feeling and it's not even it's not don't be i'm not saying to you to be happy in a place because it's not a place that you want to be happy there but it's a place that you need to be okay and be there you know it's like the the the hardest thing going to that fight was doing the condition because we get five five rounds five five minute rounds doing the circuit and that's the worst he's even hard at this point his point is hard because i have every round i have a fresher guy but going through the circuit may be so hard and then i gotta do a bike and then i go to the versa climb like that i gotta do i do in in running to the circle you know and then i gotta be on the fire movement you know when it when i do the transition then i gotta do like so many things and it's hard but going to the third round i always did three rounds so it was always good but going to the fourth and going to the fifth i gotta be on that place and sometimes i'm so fatigued so that i just i don't complain to myself i'm just there i don't do no like no like pain no pain face i don't do nothing just i'm just you know what i'm gonna be okay i'm just gonna keep doing and i i try to don't think of the pain my body's hurting i'm doing pull-ups i'm doing push-ups i'm doing you know like a lot of different movements going through that circle then i go to reverse climb then i push and then i get tired the way i calm myself are just i just be okay with that feeling you know i don't i don't answer i'm like because if you if you start answering to those feelings like [ __ ] i don't want to do that [ __ ] like man i'm so sorry if i start talking to myself like that i'm already on the bed on i don't know i just get just getting the worse it's just getting worse what i do when i go to those place i'm just you know i kind of clean my mind i'd accept that feeling and i'm just keep doing you know like i'm tired i know i'm tired but just keep going man okay keep going deep breath and keep going then that i don't know that just give me a little more to go you know and then when that happens on the fight i'm i'm okay it's not the end of the world okay got knocked down okay let's fight through it let's keep going okay man that guy took me down he's not like he's different the way you identify that feeling and you answer that feeling because you get two ways example you're in the fight and the guy hit you so hard you can be pushed oh [ __ ] that guy hit hard okay better put my hands up better good on my feet then you answer like man [ __ ] that guy hit so hard i don't want to get hit no more you know it's the way you talk to yourself and same thing if i got taken down the end of the round and i made [ __ ] that guy took me down like okay guys let's work my way up let's get a sweep let's set up a submission is the way you talk to yourself during that the hard tests you know as soon as you you start talking good to yourself i think you approach differently the the situations on the fight are in the condition on the tough times is a lot how you talk to yourself you know for sure i think what i think you said that i 100 agree with is being tired i think most people they fear getting tired right like oh they and they don't want to get tired so they conserve energy they don't fight to the fullest they and they fight out of fear whereas i know like for me it's like you said you have to accept that you're gonna get tired of course you're gonna get tired because you're fighting to 100 percent of your ability but that's okay right like you know that's going to be part of the fight is being tired and i i always felt that and the one thing i always took confidence is is i listen to my opponent's breathing and you're bigger yes yes i need you yeah i got you you know you're exactly you're you're breathing harder than i am you know what i mean so even though we're both tired i'm gonna wear you out you know and i think that that's one of the things for me i'd always listen to you know but like you meet you one thing um i just going off that note i i'm exact same way i listen to the breathing and i always had in the back of my head i'm like you might be better than me you might be stronger but i know that you will break before i do i always have when i'm passing guard for example i always have that in my head i don't care who you are i know that if i keep coming at you non-stop eventually you will break because i know i'm not going to quit and i have that conversation with my because in the gym i'm used to being exhausted you know and not never stop me exactly like it doesn't stop me no matter how tired i am i know i'm not going to stop and not everyone has that that's the other thing because it's you were mentioned like training that in the gym i think it's a difficult thing to train but you you have to it's a good way of at least exposing people i don't i don't think it's that hard yeah i don't think it's that hard to train that it's just but that goes on the ego like you you got to know the guy very good because that if you're gonna you know he don't want to get that in front of everybody and uh to be honest i was i remember when i remember clear when i was a blue belt and i won a state tournament and i got back to the gt and i was trying to get a little [ __ ] you know and my coach just fell oh that guy won a little tournament and okay and then no like i won a tournament on saturday or sunday and monday got back to the gym with the medal and show everybody and then yeah how was the fight i always talked and i remember my coaches were just looking at me and he just want to kill that ego feeling you know that champion feeling and they say you know what you did good but you're ready how are you feeling and then yeah i'm feeling great i can't throw out you can train okay let's go let's go do a little training and then we start training and then he just makes a shark shark tank for nothing for nothing but he just he was just killing my ego at the gym you know because so he what he do he go one guy two minutes okay guy out another guy with during you and then the first five guys i have i always had a great card here so first five six guys was good and then i said okay now we're starting a bad position you're starting a side controller then he was pretty heavier guys and after like and i was like i said i have a lot i have a great car dude sometimes took me 20 minutes to freaking get tired and after 20 minutes he don't even tell me the timing back then was just on the little timer right here stop [ __ ] change change your other guy other guy and then i remember i was doing like 40 minutes 45 and i was i was exhausted i was done and then when he saw that i was done he put a white belt on me okay white belt shot on the mount and i got [ __ ] i'm not tapping for this guy and then i'm gonna give up my back and the guy on my back he crossed faces man got a tap and then another guy and that was just keeping me very humble and that thing was i don't know i don't know how was his intention doing it but was helping on my cardio i was helping on my ego was helping on my defense was helping a lot of little things that i i helped when i do my training for mma i do a lot of shark tank too and then i put i put me a lot on the back position let's say fighting for camaro if i do the train right now i'm gonna first minute stand up second minute i fresh guy putting me on the cage and then 30 minutes one guy on top of me putting pressure four minutes on the cage again last minute striking with the quicker guy than me and i will do that several times and for sure the guys that are coming they gotta be smart they for sure sometimes they gotta hurt me on the body with the kicks but not trying to take my hat off you know sometimes beat me up but you know beat me up but don't kill me you know like kind of like that i think that we can do the same concept on mma too just got to be smart but i think that type of training pulled me a lot on those place he put me on that place every time that i feel my ego was going up a little bit i got cocky oh how was the tournament it did amazing and depart my my division and i found open class and i beat this guy that way oh nice you're going to change today how are you feeling i know i'm good let's all right let's go and he put me on the middle and then every single time until i like until i was getting very humble even i was reading that tournament yeah i'm good i'm beat up you know i'm not training today i'm done you know and then that since the the young guy that he put my ego down but he put me on those place a couple of times that sometimes i got tired on the fight but i just did like one hour rolling the guy sweetie on me makes shark think of me that i go to a tournament you know any place that the guy can bring me i've been there before you know like i think it's something that we need to train more in for mma forgive for no he just make sure the guys get with the ego down first and secondly he gets the condition and he gets i don't want to i don't want to like no one of my fighters no one of the guy for sure that happened short notice freaking who who who knew you know the guy gonna finish i noticed but i don't wanna know one of my guys going to a fight and come back and say i i felt that i never felt before i said no i wanted to go there with all the feelings check you everything check go there you might lose for sure you're gonna lose a couple times but you're not gonna go there and see nothing different that you never saw here you know and i think that was the way it learned you know i think what you were saying too about uh being humble is important because if your ego is too big and you kind of touched on this in your class yesterday yeah which is you want to use the training room as your laboratory to experiment and to put like as you said to put yourself in places you're not comfortable with but if your ego is too big you're gonna be scared to do that because you might lose and then it's gonna hurt your ego so you're like you know what you protect yourself and you only fight your a game and you never put yourself in those weird spots which somebody will get you to in a fight and then you're going to be like i do so i think it's like what you were saying in combination with gilbert which is you got to use the training to put yourself in those really bad spots that you never want to be in so that at least you can accept what it's like and be able to move on because i think when we look at somebody who's a veteran fighter it's like why is that an important thing it's because that guy has so many experiences right he's been in all these different places so he's not uncomfortable anywhere he knows what it's like you know where's the new guy even though he can be very talented and be like a natural star he doesn't have that experience so like a veteran can pull him into those deep waters and mess them up yeah i think it's that's why it's not always like the the most technical fighter that wins or the most athletic but it's the most crafty fight the guy who's the most strategic because i could look at somebody like he can beat me here here and there but i know this spot and i'm gonna pull him in there and he's not used to being there and that's where he's gonna drown you know but i but having that mindset where you have where you're always putting yourself in those bad spots there's not gonna be a spot for you where someone could pull you in you know like you're like i've been here i've been there i know what this is like yeah you want no cracks in the arm exactly you want to find out what your opponent's weakness is and it can be it's not only your you guys are absolutely right in the sense that it's not just technical weaknesses we're talking about it might be conditioning but there's a psychological weakness that you can smell you know you can spot like i've interacted with people that you know they i could tell they were intimidated by me and i knew i had them because before the match started they were like it was their body language gave themselves away yes and i've been dominated as well i remember the first time someone stared me at the eyes i remember where it was it was the final of the world championship against roger 2006 and he's like staring me down like an mma like just kind of scary like and no one ever done that to me before that's weird in jiu jitsu right yeah but he's doing it and i'm like and i i cannot describe how much that threw me off i'm not saying suggesting i would have won had he not done that yeah yeah but doing that early on in the match did something to me where it was almost like you ever see dogs when they're interacting and it's like one of the i'm the dominant one like he was dominating me before the match had even started and it messed up my head but it taught me a lesson that there's a lot more going on in combat than just technique and the athletic ability there's there's a psychological warfare and it's in the body language it's in the the the how you breathe and how you look at them and it's in the eyes man and you know if you guys know what i'm talking about but you can feel it when they're scared of you and you can feel when this guy's gonna go out die in here before i quit you know and i think what you were i wanted to come back to what you're talking about which is the self-talk right the things that you tell yourself during training and doing the fight it is super important you know i because if you do get taken down and you have that oh crap i got taken down you're starting to bring your whole mental game down you know what i mean whereas like i always was somebody that wanted revenge after everything went wrong like yeah when i had my nose broken i'm like okay now it's my turn to get some licks on this guy you know where some people they get their nose broken and they fall back they're like oh god i'm hurt you know or they see blood and they get scared and so i think it's important that you everybody's different of course but i think that self-talk has to working for you in a way where it keeps you pushing some people need to like insult themselves to get riled up some people just positively but whatever that language is it has to be there and it comes in training first right like you have to see when you're in training and you're in that deep water what's going on in your head is it helping you is it hurting you and how do we like fix it yeah see this is a kid i think they shot as a kid because if like for example i'm playing with the kids or they're running they fail i hate when those moms come oh my son what happened look at the guys see because sometimes they don't even hurt you know they sometimes they just fail oh [ __ ] just look at sometimes the way my when that happened to my kids i just look then i can tell like that was nothing and then he's crying say stand up that was enough he keep going and then and sometimes sometimes i want to go there and see but i'm like no you need to learn those little things because if something something some little thing happened you keep protecting them too much it's not going to help it's like a coach if sometimes they need to learn they lose and sometimes you got to put into a test or or to a train and sometimes i just i just hey how do you feel man that i was so strong yeah and what else what else you i care about i saw i can tell you you you you learn that history what else you learn just that you just focus on the guy's strength in the the sub oh yeah i couldn't do much here but you couldn't do nothing you sure you couldn't do nothing come here try to escape now do something oh okay but he's so strong i know you're stronger wait he told me one don't don't need to tell me again what else and then i make those open that mind a little bit because i think that answer is the main thing like you cannot be like for sure that happened with me before too and a guy i have a guy looking at me and i can see that the guy's hungry i already know man that's going to be a hard fight sometimes i look in the guy eyes especially from the jiu-jitsu days and i look at that guy the guy put the head down you know even look at me he's a little shaky he don't even touch my gear say i'm going to kill this guy like i i can't feel that the guy is nervous and when he's nervous i don't know what happened that just tripled me and said i'm going to kill this guy he's but he's nervous okay is even is even the worst and a lot of thing has to be with body language the way you look and a lot of guys in mma they're very smart like camaro titan woolly uh i think gsp we got dc john john jones i think is the most like on the good way fake guy on the ufc because he's so long okay he's very smart so now he does a little action and he step back and he keep his hands up i can see that he's arrested see man look at that guy he's just taking a couple deep breath and gonna do something again but he don't show you he just do something good on you quick he steps back he keep that distance but i know on his head he said well okay where's the little energy now i'm going to rest i can see that but took him a long time to start seeing that and i know a lot of guys from from the jiu jitsu today he used to do that a lot he was getting tired and he kept moving he kept looking in there and jack ratchet jacare always had a cardio crazy quarter but you think he doesn't get tired he does get tired but he don't show it and keep going forward and he keep going but for sure he's starting a lot of things that i put on on my game at you like sometimes i'm gonna get tired but if i see like same thing that robert said if i see that you're tired and i'm faking i'm not i'm tired but i'm not showing i'm i'm able to keep that to myself and keep that that poker facing going and you're showing that you're tired on my head you're more tired than me i'm going out working you i'm gonna outpace you i'm gonna keep on going and eventually you're gonna break but i think a lot of guys on mma they have the ability to do that more than for sure things are way more danger than than jiu-jitsu that might be why but i can see that guys doing that a lot more and the guys when they get iron jiu-jitsu i saw they put hands on the knee they give go a deep breath they go out of bounds and they come back very slow if if he's a ghee match they throw the belt out and they slowly pull the belt again you know you can see that but on mma even if the guy get a you know uh i poke or something the other guys they're like taking a deep breath but they don't show much you know i think is the thing that jiu-jitsu guy is supposed to be getting more you know yeah i think so i think fighting it comes quicker because if you expose a weakness especially from striking you're going to get targeted big time you know like the moment someone switches stances from leg kicks you're like okay i'm chopping your legs off now you know yeah and you're just so there isn't that much i mean everybody gets tired but it's not the same unless you're someone like you know you or like me or rob like we we listen to breathing and we are the guys breathing hard okay push push it's very rare where you could have something unless you pop the guy's arm or something and then you went out there it's a it's a rule of thumb for inviting you never let your opponent see you bleed how much you're bleeding how much it hurts poker face i remember who you know this is a true story man i'm not i'm not going to mention names but you know i asked them once you ever get scared because in my head i'm thinking there's a human being on the planet who doesn't get scared it's that guy right like he there's no way on earth he's ever scared and he's like oh man i'm [ __ ] my pants i'm like what are you talking about no man i'm scared like i i get really nervous before fights i peed like every 15 minutes i gotta go to the bathroom and pee and i'm really nervous but i never let my opponent see it that's what that's what he said and when when he fought you know uh tito or tc years ago uh tito told me this was like a long long time ago that was the only time in his life when he looked someone in the eye and he actually legitimately felt scared like because you know this guy was so good at hiding his fear he was so good he was so convincing that the other guy's like oh man this guy's serious about business isn't he all right this guy's a he's a psychopath and it's i think it's a very difficult skill to train some people it comes natural to some people some people just embody it they're not really faking it but regardless of how you feel in a fight you should be stoic you should be cold very don't show emotion man like it's such a silence you know don't show anything it's very hard to do for sure but think first of all i think you need to learn how to control that first you gotta control because if you're freaking nervous you you know you're almost freaking out you're not controlling you're gonna show it first i think you're gonna learn how to control that because it's okay the way i see man we're going for a fist fight it's okay to be nervous you know he's okay we might get hurt i'm gonna try his head away he's gonna try to you knock me out for sure we both might be nervous but i think first you gotta learn how to control that you know like getting the why you're doing that and then the person that they're there with you the preparation a lot of things and then okay i'm i'm ready to go you know and then that gives me my confidence give me more relax and for any reason if i feel like i'm getting nervous i'm [ __ ] gonna fake it till i die i'm not gonna show i'm gonna be there but i think both are important but you gotta control first and then control the control first and then don't show it like you said don't show it you know like don't show it yeah and i think it's yeah because everybody gets nervous right because to me nervousness is just a form of energy right because stress is just pressure right but it's how you channel that that energy you know i think some people they don't do it properly they start getting their hands tight and they get super tired before the match even starts by the time they step in they're already exhausted you know whereas like i see the people who are able to sleep before a match or relax like they're allowing themselves to relax a bit and like if you have some nervous energy you warm up and you use your warm-ups as a way of channeling that stress out like in a positive way but i think to deny that it exists is a problem also because it's kind of like you said like you're going to get tired if you pretend you're not going to get tired you're going to get you know a bad surprise during the fight so like you are going to get nervous but you should have a routine set up usually yes it was my warm-ups my warm-ups is my way of because the nerves are telling me hey we're about to get the [ __ ] fist fighter we got to get ready like why are you doing sitting down you know like because i think it's something that most people don't understand it's one thing to get into a street fight where there's no preparation right it's just like me and rob we start fighting right now there was no nervousness because it was instantaneous but it's like the schoolyard days like oh i'm going to fight you tomorrow in the play regardless five o'clock everybody's gonna watch now i got 24 hours to think about oh [ __ ] i'm gonna rob but what's gonna happen you know in the fight game we're doing it like three months ahead of time against somebody who's really good you know so i think that's what most people don't get that that high level of stress i think that's why competition is so good for the soul because if he can handle that type of stress and combat everything else is easier like this is like a survival issue because you know every time you step in there you could walk you might not walk out there you know it hasn't happened but you could get hurt seriously you get so like yes it's serious consequences but yeah if you can deal with that to me everything else becomes a lot easier you know it's hard to get intimidated by anything in life yeah i mean the only thing i can think is worse is like probably going to war or like some kind of special op situation you gotta go kill bin laden you've got like six of your buddies with you it's gotta be nerve wracking yeah that's another level i i agree i think that's kind of i mean i can only imagine but i'm assuming right but other than that something extreme like that one of those survivalists those people that go climb mount everest or claw across the amazon on foot that's some extreme [ __ ] but you know fighting is pretty extreme in every way man it's that psychologically talked about this before physically intellectually emotionally it's it's on the on the frontiers of what humans can handle in so many different areas right not just one aspect but i speak it for myself and it was very difficult for me to master this like it took me years and i never fully matched up to my last fight i was still [ __ ] my pants but you learn how to control it but when i do other things in life you know even when i was a kid like walking up to a girl and talking was really hard like it was hard i was scared girl you know like look at her number like now to the point where like it's how on earth am i going to get intimidated by something like that you know like a tested score how is that going to intimidate you like nothing else intimidates you because it's like it's not nowhere near as hard as stepping into a cage and fighting yeah yeah and i think and i think it helps a lot like you say help a lot on outside you because when something crazy happened at home i remember we were moving to to to my house last summer that we were moving we we got the battery so we had a lot of wood on the wall hanging on the wall and my kid was playing on the wood and he kind of ruined the wood fell on his head and i just heard i just heard the wood pop and i just i think something happened pedro and i was my wife bruno and then she said no and then that would hit so hard that when he he would he you know when you want to yell so hard but you have nowhere he would five to 10 seconds to start yelling and the way he yells i say oh okay something happened then i gotta go there and then i went there i run to the room and i saw the wood and i saw him using that and then that thing was so crazy because i was so calm between that freaking he was there and bruno came and the boy bruno what happened when i say relax let me take a look like i took her out of the room i took pedro and i look when i look you can see the white you know the white on the head right here from the from the skin that was open the blood took like two three seconds boom start blooding everywhere and pressing the blood and then i was so calm doing that and then i looked like me i was after after i was realizing because those situations making me so calm in the middle of something going crazy i just okay hey i just think i'm solution okay i gotta i gotta get you know cotton gotta put here gotta go and go to the hospital i think that my mind was going crazy thinking on the solution and then i got in my wife who was going crazy it was bleeding on me everywhere and i tried to make any comments you know that was nice to realize coming here with that they taking my hand was he and then i got something then i pressed boom went to the car i kind of dropped it out like we're doing jiu-jitsu something he had went to the hospital got there he got sticks and then after when he got six i i still relax you know what's with him doctor over there say relax that is here but nothing's gonna happen but the only thing that makes me relax on those situations was fighting going to the fight and the other thing too that even worse is i'm getting better around i'm here back to because i'm going to corner one of the guys it's hard to corner into because especially i don't corner a lot of people i'm not like i call like three to four guys that's like my guys that i that are really close with the guys and one i want the guy to win don't matter i don't have ego don't need to be on your jeep so don't need to be i just want you to win on your best and i want to be able to tell the guys the right thing that you know the right adjustment or the right details the right things that he needs to do during the fight and for that i need to have a clean mind and so stress that i need to be i need to be on my on my zone to to be able to to say the right things on the right time and be rhythm the guy reading the opponent and see if he's tired or not that thing makes me so tired like is the hardest thing for me is to coach because i don't want to just i want the guy to win and sometimes i just there me and the guy sometimes i see that's me and the guy i remember i went to the ufc that no none of the coach could travel that was just me and caesar cesar mutant he was in the ufc he did a common event in brazil and freaking flew to brazil and holding past every grapple helping him to kuwait cooking buy stuff move about everything we're going to the fight here for cb dollar first the mean of the fight he rocks every dollar boom ship dollar was robberly and caesar starts swinging for his life crazy should we see the dollar just kind of protecting himself a little bit she's like get knocked out cold and that was a minute and a half and then i was like man [ __ ] and then i gotta run to the doctor gonna help me to come up what happened and i said whatever you were reading the fight but you start swimming like crazy you got caught and then you say oh really for oh [ __ ] i'm fighting yeah you're fighting and i was like and then they were showing the replay say look at the screen look look how you hit the guy and then he'll look man and after a minute say okay okay i'm remember everything i'm good for and then after that is the worst because we go back to the room and he lost not a lot of people called just his wife and i think he's dead and i see nobody calls and we're there and waiting and that's it and that's why when i when i when people ask me to corner i say no mutual times just like my brother i cornered this guy right here that's kind of like my little brother hurry and if you said look there's three guys that are corning for sure i have a lot of guys that are like you if i have nothing going on i can't might go and coach and help but i don't like to do because for me it's very personal i put a lot of energy you don't get back because those guys have done making real money i'm not going to ask for money they just pay my tickets help a little bit with food and little things but that's it but money i don't make money but i think the only thing that is hardest harder than a fight is to corner i know you're very important to the guy you know you can make you can really help the guy to win the fight and i gotta put a lot of attention the only thing that's harder for me i think robert now it's he's you know he's you should now i'm not that useless yet but it's hard to be there no i couldn't do nothing and the guy we know lost the fight and like man like if you did this you want to fight like why did you do you know that thing is i still working on that you always want to think that you could have done something right like i should have said something i could have trained them like this so you always like carry your share of the blame which you know i think is a good way of looking at it because you know i always say this to my students we win together and we lose together right right we prepared together we went because that way we we it's i'd say this my students all the time fighting is a team sport what you're describing that tight little network you have of like four people like those your boys that's super important man that's a big piece of the equation so we we have to when we win we win together so we share the the the credit of victory when we lose man it's a time for everyone to go back to drawing board and like what could i what could i do different to be a better coach in training partner right it is a stressful thing i know your brother fights and i guess we'll talk about him another time uh i know my brother and i we were fighting together and my brother he wouldn't corner me because he was too nervous he would he would have true we would have everybody he would have all the other senior students in our black belts corner but he wouldn't be there because he would just [ __ ] his pants you know but like but he's fought a bunch of times so like it's the same thing fighting is a little bit easier because once you're in there you're no longer thinking you're you know you're a machine you're just you're doing what you train but the coach like you said you're kind of helpless you're you're trying to influence whatever you can but there's only so much you can say you know to influence a fighter so it is especially someone close to you like your brother or your training partner that you care for it's it's hard to watch it especially someone gets knocked out or something and that's it's hard because then you know i've been in the situation where we have to go to the hospital with them and they're waiting oh god this is torah it's a really hard thing to go through you share the stress and the the pain right you feel like you're that pain anyway thank you so much for your time i got to get going i got a class in like 15 minutes but i wanted to thank you um i wanted like i want to say and i mean this sincerely you're one of my favorite guys not only as a fighter as a person too throughout the years you always maintain yourself humble you're a good role model on a number of different levels um you know outstanding fighter you were gui nogi and now you're killing mma you're one fight away from being the ufc champion and i believe that you truly deserve it and this will be a victory of not only gilbert it's not only a victory for your friends and family it's the victim for everyone that loves a true martial artist accomplishing things you're a great role model for the sport and um yeah man um dave anything else i'm super super happy to have you on the show man thank you yeah no it was great hearing your insights and your the mental game you have it's it's very obvious why you've been so successful and then the way you approach the fight so i think it it's great i look forward to seeing you with this trap 100 thank you thank you one final question how do you make your neck bigger than your head training training training training all right man hey love you man hey kick acid okay we'll talk again soon thank you thank you [Music] you