¶ Meet Billy Friedson: MMA Coach
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast . This is , as always , your host , mike Bono . I got a great guest for us today . He is brought to us by Tony the Latin Assassin , another MMA fighter . He is actually into the coaching realm of that . We're going to get into all that coming up here , but Billy Friedson joins the show .
Billy , thanks for joining , man , hey no problem , mike .
Good , good to be on with you , man yeah , absolutely so .
Um , like I said , uh , tony actually connected us . So you know , how do you know the latin assassin there ? Huh , how did that relationship come about ?
well . So I started uh cross training with a place called upgraded industries and that's actually where I met tony . Uh , they used to do do these things every Saturday where it was open sparring . You can go up , you can , you know , basically just get sparring with all the fighters that are around the area Um .
And that's actually where I met Tony the first time . At that time he was just kind of getting into striking um , which is my expertise . I I'm more of a Muay Thai K-1 boxer . My ground game's okay . Tony would dominate me there , but luckily we were just in band up sparring . That's when I met Tony .
And then about a year later I actually started coaching the striking program for Upgraded Industries . And then that's when me and Tony really really hit it off and started becoming friends and I worked with him on his striking from then .
I got you . How is his striking improved since you've gotten to work with him ? I know we talked about it with his show um , about how striking was kind of I don't want to say his weakness , because I saw him fight live and it definitely didn't look like it was his weakness .
But uh well , you know Tony is an amazing grappler . His wrestling career speaks for itself . Three-time state champion wrestler growing up , one in Greco , two in freestyle . The dude knows how to grapple . His striking was very brutish , if that's the right way to explain it Very forward , he would take a lot of punishment to give a lot of punishment .
Yeah , you know , when I first came on he was very straightforward and he relied on that power . Now Tony's a lot more finesse . He could . His angles are amazing . Now he's got much better kicks . It's something you don't see a lot when you go and watch him fight . He mainly uses his hands , but he has very .
He mainly uses his hands , but he has very , very underrated kicks . He can flip them up . Good body kicks His knees are great . One of the things he doesn't get to use is his elbows . It's something we've gone over , but you know amateur MMA , you're not elbowing people , so you don't really get to see that . But you know the dude is known for his grappling .
I think if he ever fought somebody who had grappling on his level , I think he'd still be able to show off a really , really good amount of good striking .
Yeah , I saw him fight live when he won the championship at a mountain air casino a couple of months back .
Is that the one where ?
he knocked him out . No , he , I think he choked him out . I was the well , it was the final result , but he definitely used his striking to set up his takedowns . Uh , is that something that you're able to coach into ? Like strikers and you know grapplers that are , you know they mainly want to go to the ground like , do you coach into that ?
Like , okay , this , this punch , this kick will set up for your takedowns yeah .
So for grapplers , I really I really try to use more of a boxing style , a little more forward , something to where you can go to a one , two , an ankle pick , and you know you could really translate from putting your hands in their face getting their chest to rise . When their chest rise it kind of opens up their legs for easy takedowns .
Also , you know , if you're doing uh striking into muay thai , you can grab the clinch and greco , roman kind of takes over from there . Um , yeah , honestly , the basic strikes to set up uh takedowns . You know , using your jab to set up your right hand to an ankle pick , using a one-two kind of a spearing jab that the body , things like that .
Yeah , I mean I , I I do have a black belt in Taekwondo and they brought in for about a month a jujitsu specialist to kind of try to get us a little bit more of the background on the ground game . With Taekwondo being more of a defensive karate style , it helped . I learned very quickly .
With my height and my weight and , being as lanky as I am , ground was very formidable for me . Just , I could get my legs around him in a guard and you , you know , really lock into body locks with how long my legs actually are going for triangles , stuff like that .
But I'm very easily to take down because I am , I'm six , five and you know , and yeah , so so I'm , I'm very tall ,
¶ Training Tony the Latin Assassin
so I , I leave a lot of my lower body open . Uh , because of that , Go ahead . No , I was just saying yeah and I just get taken down . So I had to learn very quickly very defensive strategies on the ground in transitions .
And that's the hard part you have a Taekwondo black belt . I actually one of the schools I learned Muay Thai and K-1 kickboxing it was a Taekwondo school Vanyos in Brunwick . I , it was a Taekwondo school , yeah , vanyos in Brunwick .
Ok , but I don't know where you were at , but I was back in Steubenville Ohio .
Oh , ok , ok , yeah , cool . As you know , throwing kicks on somebody who wants to take you down Not the best idea . Yeah , you know , it gives them easy takedown . So , you know , disguising kicks with your hands and and chopping more legs really , really helps , um , with really good grapplers .
You know guys like Tony , if I kick his body or try to attempt a head kick , he's just going to dump me . It's , it's not fair . Um , that's Taekwondo . Has got some really good kicks and it's something I use , cause that's where I came from was a Taekwondo school .
Right , um , never got belted , but when he showed his muay thai kicks it was more of a taekwondo finesse style . Yeah , um , so a lot of spinning kicks , axe kicks , you know , jump , double kicks , things like that , that if you're not set up properly , you try to throw them to a body .
A wrestler grappler is just going to take you right down yeah , and we had a couple of guys in um in my class that were wrestlers and um that we were .
I was , I was a teenager so in high school and junior high and I learned very quickly when um we went full live sparring with jujitsu and Taekwondo that I was just getting taken down Cause I , I , I'm all legs that , all legs , that for my height .
So like I use my kicks a lot for distance to try to protect myself , because with my striking I'm kind of like tony in that sense and I was a brute . I'd always move forward and I'd eat a lot of shots to get the shots that I wanted and it just it was . I was on my back a lot of the time in that jujitsu class but it was a lot of fun .
I learned a lot of transitions . They helped me out with that a good bit and it was . It was fun , I liked it . I know I probably should have pursued it a little bit more , according to what everybody has told me , but you know you don't get into comedy because you know you're good at anything else .
But do you have any other anything outside of like coaching in the combat sports space that you do , or is combat sports kind of . All it is for you .
Well , you know , so I , I own a plumbing company , so that's my morning job , and then I end up coaching and doing personal training the rest of the day , um , so pretty much from 6 AM in the morning till eight 38 at night , I'm , uh , doing something , I'm moving . Um , you know , I I did some stunt work , some acting stuff .
That was really cool Um , with Johnny Wu , a local guy here in Cleveland . Uh , he got me into stunts and I was doing that and then I didn't realize he was the producer , I was bullshitting with him and then he started giving me lines and things like that . Never done anything like that before .
He was really cool , got to do a lot of cool stunts , meet a lot of cool people . That's actually the person I met who brought me to Upgraded , was through that . So it was really cool . I've made a lot of good connections and then , uh , yeah , I mostly kind of live the sport of Muay Thai at this point . You know , I just got back from Thailand .
Uh , I was there for six and a half weeks and all I did was train . It was great , um , and I just was happy to come back and start using some new tricks and teaching some new tricks .
Yeah , I would say , has that helped with your fighters ? Have you seen any of that with the fighters that you do coach from what you learned in Thailand ?
Yeah , I mean so Thailand doesn't really use well , at the gym I was at in Thailand , I should say not a lot of punches . It was more about the clinch work , the elbows , the knees and the kicks which , if I'm being honest , I think we cause . We have boxing coaches as well , not just me . We have Luke . Fresh hour is golden gloves champion Justin .
I forget his last name . I apologize , justin , but he's he's been around the block as well . So we have you , we have two boxing coaches and then me , the Muay Thai coach .
So we're more dominantly a boxing style with kicks , but we're definitely getting better at the clinch and we're definitely getting better at setting up the kicks from the boxing the from the boxing .
Yeah , um , yeah , it's , it's the combat . Sports has always fascinated me . Um , I like , I love it . I watch the ufc every saturday . Uh , for their fight nights . Um , love it . Uh , it was funny . When , I , you know , met my wife , we moved in together . I can't remember what it was .
I was watching like an old classic ufc , it was just something that was on the tv on a weekend . Uh , my wife , we moved in together . I can't even remember what it was . I was watching an old classic UFC . It was just something that was on the TV on a weekend . My wife was in making dinner and then she came in . She was like what are you watching ?
I was like , oh , it's the UFC . She was like well , what is that ? I was like it's mixed martial arts , but it's basically a big cage street fight . They lock two brutal , brutal human beings into a cage and say have it out for three rounds . And it was a brutal , striking fight .
The guys were both just bloodied up and just still throwing haymakers in the middle of the octagon . I felt her sitting down next to me and now she looks forward to Saturday and says , hey , is it fight night ? When are the fights on . She looks forward to those fights and watching those .
It's become a weekend tradition for us to have fight night Saturdays and you know getting people . I don't think I know it's gotten bigger because of the UFC and Dana White and everything that he's done for mixed martial arts .
But do you notice that a lot with there's still not a lot of people that know about the combat sports realm and just how entertaining it can actually be ?
¶ From Backyard Brawls to Professional Fighting
It's hard for me because I'm surrounded by it sport , whether it's boxing , whether it's K one , uh , muay Thai , whether it's MMA . Most of the people I'm surrounded by are are obsessed with some kind of combat sport , which is great for me , cause I'm one of those people too .
Um , but you know , when I am out and about or I'm at , you know I do plumbing and and I'm doing that , and people ask you know , oh , you look like you're in good shape , you work out things like that I always say I do Muay Thai . I don't say I lift or anything like that , and they're always fascinated by it .
So I guess , in like every day-to-day things , those people I guess don't notice it , but because I'm surrounded by so many competitors and people who love the sport , it's hard for me to say that they don't see it .
You know ? No , yeah , I got you and you're originally from the Cleveland area . Is that where you grew up ? And you know ? Tell everyone a little bit more about yourself . I guess you know where you grew up and you know schooling and all that .
Yeah , so I grew up in a small town called Columbia Station . It's between Elyria and Strongsville . My graduating class was 74 people , so it was a pretty small class . Yeah yeah , we didn't . We knew everybody first and last name , where they lived . I mean , it was not very clicky , which was cool .
Um , you know , and I , I'm a , I'm a small guy , you're , you're six , five . I am a foot shorter than you . I am five , five on a good day , with my shoes on , um , um , but so I I like to say I had Napoleon syndrome . I was always , like , ready to fight .
I was angry , um , I had an older brother who's a half brother , and he is six foot two , 20 . So used to beat the crap out of me . It was great , um , so I got into . When I saw MMA , I was like , oh , that'd be cool . We started doing it in my backyard .
My dad would leave , uh , to go camping on the weekends and I would have basically fight parties . I mean , we'd have people just come over , we would throw the crappy MMA UFC gloves on you know , they're all tore up and we would beat the shit out of each other . There was no time limit . We would just go till someone quit .
You'd fight a couple times or you'd fight , you know , once , just depending on what you wanted to do . People call you out . You'd fight , um , and I thought that was cool . But then , uh , you know , I was like , you know , it's one thing to fight in the backyard with a bunch of random people watching against another guy . You can't fight .
But uh , you know , fighting the cage I thought would be cool . I went to one event . I was like , yeah , I could definitely do that . I was so wrong , uh , I got my ass handed to me . Uh , my first fight , clint muscleman . The dude was a tank . He went on a fight for a bunch of titles . Dude was super strong , fast , really good , striking .
I wrestled in high school and uh , school and that didn't help as much as I thought it was going to . I lost my first three fights . Uh , I fought cody garbrandt . Um , oh , yeah , yeah , I fought garbrandt for , uh , dan bobish had a promotion in parma .
I was a parma , it was brook park , brook park , okay , um , and garbrandt's guy , uh , had backed out or got hurt . My guy backed out or got hurt and they said , oh , do you want to fight this guy ? He's a boxer and I was a wrestler thinking , oh , I'm just gonna take him down .
So I said yes , only to find out that cody is a uh , phenomenal wrestler as well . Yeah , um , and then he dominated . I mean , he knocked me out in the first round . It sucked , um , I , I shouldn't have been fighting . I had no , I didn't have the right coaching .
I was at a small little karate gym , didn't have the right training going in there , I just had a mentality , and that mentality just wasn't enough . So from there I went to Vanyo's in Strongsville Brook Park and he was known as a kickboxing gym . He would not let me fight for at least a year . That was the deal , at least not sanctioned .
So I don't know if you've ever heard of smokers , yeah , okay . So smokers were a big deal when I was coming up , and that was about 10 to 13 years ago , and I would do a smoker . After the first maybe six months , he started getting me smokers and I would do a smoker once a month at least .
Um , and I , I did really well in smokers and once I got , you know , going and and put a string of wins together , he got me a sanctioned fight and I went back to mma where I went three and oh , at 135 um . And then I lost my last fight , mma fight , because I dropped on a one 25 and the way cut was just too much for me .
Um and I and I have gas now it it sucked . I I have some issues with that fight in general . Uh , I thought the guy tapped and I let go .
Dumb dumb on my part .
Never let go , you . You wait till the ref stops it . You know that's kind of a young mistake . Um had a couple sanctioned kickboxing events . Um went one and one in sanctioned kickboxing . I fought nicolai glanti who was ranked number one in the state when we fought . I went all three rounds with them , lost a two to one decision .
Um , yeah , after that I really kind of looked in the mirror and I was reflecting like , hey , do I still want to do of ? Looked in the mirror and I was reflecting like hey , do I still want to do this ? I love the sport and I love , you know , training and I love all that . But I don't just didn't know if competing anymore was right for me .
Um , so I really buckled down on technique and started learning different styles . I did judo for a while . I've done jujitsu , I've wrestled , I did Kali uh , filipino knife fighting . Um boxing Muay Thai K1 . I mean , I've done all these different styles just to you know see what works for me .
Um , but it all helped with footwork and it helped with angles and it helped with all this stuff . And then I found that I really enjoyed coaching . So I coached for Vanyo for a few years after I stopped fighting . I was going to give it up , but then DJ , the owner of Upgraded Industries , hit me up .
Yeah , and that's really when I was like , hey , I'm 100% coaching . I love coaching . I love showing people
¶ Wrestling vs. Striking in Combat Sports
new techniques and seeing their face light up when they understand it and making you know these guys great , I , you know it sucks . I don't have the resume A lot of these fighters have . You know , when you're talking about Tony , he's got four MMA titles . Easily could have went pro and probably dominated as a pro . Anthony Perzoli you had on as well .
Well , he's a kickboxer at upgraded industries , worked with him . Uh , you know he's undefeated . He's got a title . Um , you know just , uh , chris draggy I don't know if you've had him on . Um , he's a another phenomenal fighter out of upgraded . He's four and one holds a heavyweight title . Um , you know , ron I , I can't say ron's last name .
He's the cuban missile crisis . Uh , guy , we , he's a big cuban kid who anytime he touches you with either hand he can knock you out . So it's been really cool to work with those guys . You got a lot of young and up-and-coming guys coming up for boxing as well . But , yeah , that's where I'm at now , man , that's . That's from the start to where I'm at now .
Yeah , it's , it's cool to see the development of other people and that's what I enjoy doing . I don't know if I'll ever fight again . I get the itch sometimes , but I don't want to lose weight so .
Yeah , that's the hard part of losing weight . I was in the cutting of the weight . I just never really understood . I guess I never wrestled or anything like that . So you know , just the weight cut . Like me , for how I am mentally , I would just want to fight at the weight that I walk around at . You know what I mean . Like that would be for me .
Um , I understand that . You know , with weight classes you might have to cut a couple pounds here , but you've seen these guys losing 20 , 30 pounds to get . I don't understand how they do that . I know they're not fighting at that weight when they get into the ring .
Obviously , because that is the biggest point of contention for my wife and I when watching the UFC , seeing these guys like 155 pounds . It's like dude , I'm 220 and you're bigger than me right now . Like there's no way you're fighting at 155 right now , like , and yeah , I just , I never got it . The weight cuts , but that's just how I am .
You know me mentally and you know now that I've actually put on some weight since I've gotten older I mean I graduated , gotten older , um , I mean I graduated high school six , five , 155 pounds . So I mean I would .
I was very , I was very skinny , um , lanky , just long , um , but I was also a swimmer too as well , um , so didn't want to bulk up too much , you know playing football and that because swimming was my main sport . But yeah , you know , it's , it's it again , I didn't know .
Now , you know , husband , dad , I'm up to 220 pounds , you know , since you know , at six five though , I mean I look , I don't look bad . No and you don't need to cut weight , you're . You're a naturally taller guy . Now I'm at 5'5 . I can't fight what I weigh , which is I weigh 185 . Right now , I get mauled at 185 .
You know , if I was gonna fight , I'd have to go down to 55 just because I'm so short . I mean , I could always be , you know , short and bulky . That's fine , but even at 55 you look at the pro 155ers when they , when they fight , they look like they're 185ers . Yeah , so you know it's , it's ridiculous yeah , that's , and that's that's my point .
I mean , you see , like the shorter fighters are normally in those lower weight classes and , you know , when you get to like 155 and up , everybody's six foot and above from what I've seen , especially in the pro rankings it's just like , okay , there's a lot of tall dudes with some weight on them .
And yeah , I mean , like I said , I loved it when I was in Taekwondo , did a lot of sparring tournaments back as a teenager . Only lost once , um , oddly enough , it was to um , um , it was to a person that was in the same gym as me . Um , and I hate to say it , but she knocked me out . Um , yeah , uh , we , we , we were at this .
I don , everybody loves this story , but I , you know , we were riding up to the venue together and I was like , look , if it comes down to it we've looked at it , we're , we're the top two ranked people at this tournament Like we're going to end up on opposite sides of the bracket .
If it comes down that we have to fight each other , I don't , we're not going to hit each other hard , we're going to let it go down to the cards . Whoever wins the trophy is going to come back to our gym anyways regardless . Well , as fate had it , we ended up in the championship round together , fighting each other .
I may have tagged her a little harder than I thought I did , and as a fighter , you'll notice . Did you ever see the blinders ? Come on somebody ? They just hyper-focus in on you . Yep , they lock in , they , she locked in . And I was like , oh , she's putting on a show , because we already talked about this , so I let my guard down a little bit .
Next thing I know her foot was on the side of my face and I'm waking up to five people standing above me that that was the . That's all I remember from and from what they've told me of 6'5" , she was maybe like your height , 5'5" , 5'6" .
At that point they said her one foot never left the ground and she got her other foot up and caught it right on the button , right on the jaw . Next thing I know there's five people standing above me and I'm waking up not knowing what the hell just happened . Oh , it's brutal , oh it was brutal . She was an assassin .
She was she was tough as nails , one of those chicks that you see like fighting in the MMA . It's like , yeah , I'd probably run from you in a dark alley Like you look tough as nails , like she's . She was one of them and yeah , I probably had like 30 fights , counting that one , and I was like 20 , 29 and one .
That one still kind of bothers me because it was my own fault .
¶ Women in Combat Sports
But you know , yeah , brutal , brutal woman . But yeah , the sad thing is to me is that you know I have one KO against myself and you know it was a woman that knocked me out . But you know it is what it is . It's the fight game in taekwondo . There's no like back then . It wasn't .
You know , the late 90s , early 2000s there wasn't really like at those gyms like all right , males are fighting males and females fighting females . It was .
you know , you're in taekwondo , you're gonna , you're gonna catch some shots um , oh , yeah , I mean that's , but that's how we do it at our gym too is like the , the female fighters . We have multiple female fighters and they work in with the guys , they spar with the guys .
Yeah , I , I , I would hope the guys would take it easy , but I mean , I have seen , uh , you know , some of the guys turn it up a little bit because the girls hit a lot harder than they realize they do .
Yeah , um , you know , I've , we , we have a girl kickboxer , uh , chase , she's , you know , she's newer and she's one to know as a muay thai fighter for us . Nice , um , but she hit me with a one , two and I have a picture of it . My head is snapped back and you can see the sweat flying off .
I can't let my guard down against her because that shit hurts , man . It's like getting hit by a guy . She hits a lot harder than she thinks she does . You're like I don't want to hit you hard back , but I'm definitely going to cover and at least hit you hard to the body , so you'll leave me alone .
Right , yeah , but you know what ? Look at Amanda Nunez . She only sparred and trained with men and she was a two-division champion and was fighting in both weight classes and defending both titles . That was impressive to me . Nunez was just , she was a beast when she was fighting .
And I think it helps the women fighters that they train with the men and I think it helps the the the women fighters that they're , they train with the men and yeah , I don't , I don't think it could hinder them at all , but I mean , yeah , they definitely hit a lot harder than than than than you think they do yeah , they , I , I think , because they , they're
smaller , they think they're not going to hit as hard .
But you know , as a guy , you know training with them , I still need to practice good guard and I can't dick around my hands down because you get clipped and all of a sudden you're not happy about it . Um , but as far as like the girls training with the guys , I think it's a good thing to a point .
I like when people can work with somebody roughly their size and their power . So you know , like I'm , when I fought , you know I'd be training with guys that are one 55 and I'd , you know , fight down a couple of weight classes at , one 35 , one 25 , whatever it was . Um , I think the girls can , can do that too .
I think it's an unfair tony , tony's , you know walking around 200 pounds at least . Yeah , when he trains , you know , jujitsu and the mma , with holly , one of our female fighters , who's one and oh , she can't take him down , she can't work her jujitsu because he's bigger , he's stronger . She needs somebody roughly more her size .
It could be a guy , but it'd be a lot nicer if it was a girl , because then you get the strength similar , you get other things that are similar and it's a more realistic look . Um , speaking of which , uh , upgraded industries . We have a all-female sparring day coming up .
So you know , if you're a female fighter striking , grappling , all of it that's two Sundays from now , which I believe is May 4th You'll have to go to Upgraded Industries , the Instagram page . We haven't posted up there , but it's an all-female training day . It's a Sunday Come up , get sparring , you know , get rolls , get all that .
So it's all the females , local fighters , all in this area coming up . There'll be guys there , you know , whether that they're going to be training on their own , or the coaches . I will be there . We may have our boxing coach there , one of our jujitsu instructors there yeah , we're going to have a bunch of people there .
This way , the women can come in and they can work with , you know , other women .
Absolutely . Yeah , I'll definitely put that in the description of this episode . Um , for sure , uh , to help you guys out , yeah , I would love to see that . For sure , that sounds like an amazing , amazing opportunity for them . Um , definitely , everyone . Go and check that out at upgraded industries .
Uh , one thing I want to talk about too as well , and this is this is going to be uh , this is going to be a fun conversation about this , but , um and I hate talking about this guy , guy but Jake Paul just announced that he is fighting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in June in California as someone in an MMA training space .
What do you think about Jake Paul's boxing abilities and just him as a fighter ?
Well , you know , first off , I'm not a fan him as a fighter . Well , you know , first off , um , I'm not a fan . But , with that being said , I think what he did was smart . The way he created the buzz around it was very smart . Also , very smart to go against people who couldn't box to start . Um , I think jake himself is a high level amateur boxer .
I think he's got good amateur boxing um . Um , I don't think he's at that level where he can compete with the real pros in his weight class . He's got power . You know , he looks like he does hit pretty hard . He throws his weight around he , but he throws a lot of looping stuff .
Um , if you go and just watch any of his fights , it's usually kind of big haymaker style punches . Yeah , um , you know , I think I I honestly think if he was an amateur fighter , he'd be a decent you know , high level amateur . You know he'd have a good amount of wins , couple losses . Uh , I think he's actually a fairly decently trained boxer .
Um , he actually started at a place called hooligans in Elyria , um , which I went there to , kind of you know , I was between gyms and I just needed a place to train and , uh , they had a picture of him up , cause he had started boxing when he was younger .
I don't know if he stopped , continued , whatever the case is , um , but yeah , I , I think it's a smart , he's smart , he's a smart dude . He's made , made money by kind of being a jackass . You're being a loud mouth , you're creating buzz , I get it . I hope that's not his real personality , I hope that's just stage personality .
But yeah , as far as his actual athletic ability , the dude's athletic , I think he does hit really hard , but he loops a lot of his shots . I think he does hit really hard , but he's just , he loops a lot of his shots
¶ Jake Paul's Boxing Credentials
. I think his boxing has come a long way since , if you go and watch his first fight against whoever he fought speed , I don't , I don't know some YouTube guy but I think his ability itself has come a long way and I think you know he's at that point where you know he has to start fighting legitimate boxers to prove himself .
Um , yeah , the dude himself is boxing is , though , I think it's decent , I think it's decent yeah , I've watched a couple of his fights .
I watched the uh , the tyson fight , um , and everything . I think that was fixed . It's a fixed fight . You can see it in the early rounds when tyson wanted to throw a shot and he stopped himself .
He had the clear opening , he had the clear shot for his left hook , his knockout punch , and he and he stopped himself yeah , there was a couple times you watch it .
He does that . He throws , you see , a loop over and he just kind of pulls it right and the biting of the glove .
I know he did that later on in his career , but a lot more in this fight .
Not dudes in his 50s , I understand and like all right , jack , you're , you're in your 20s and you're fighting 50 year olds , um , my it for me to consider him a legit boxer and I know , like you said , if he came up through the amateur ranks like most people and like everyone , um , I'd have a little bit more respect for him as a , uh , as a boxer .
But he's not fighting any real boxers , right ? He ? He was boxing youtube stars , celebrities , mma , guys that were grapplers , um , and then then tyson , you know , it's just like okay , chavez , I , I'm interested to see that fight uh well I think he'll do well .
I , I am interested in their contracts . Um , I don't know , because I I really do think that tyson threw that fight . I'm really surprised he would . But just just watching that fight drives me nuts , because you see the overhand right coming . He just pulled it a couple times .
He stops himself where big shots definitely could have landed and you know , if you watch young Tyson , he's thrown that with reckless abandon . But as far as the Chavez fight , I mean , jake will probably do all right , he'll do like he did against Fury , he'll do okay .
But you know , as the rounds progress , chavez is going to start to take over and he's really going to . Just , you know , he'll dominate in the , you know , second third , I don't know how many rounds it's going to go , if it's a 10 round , whatever it is .
But yeah , I think a lot more people would have respect for Jake Paul if he did do the amateur ranks , though if he did like golden gloves and you know right Came up the way .
Yeah , I mean , yeah , you were a YouTuber that wanted to get back into boxing because you started as as a kid and you know it's fine . You want to get back into it , do it the right way . Yeah , speaker 3 , that's my whole hang up with them .
Um , as somebody who , you know , loves combat sports , you know I've watched Garbrandt and he came from , uh , near my hometown . You know , coming up through through the ranks and becoming a champion . You know people like that , I like watching that . Um , blake Perry bought out of Cleveland , um , follow him , had him , I've had him on the show .
Um , um , oh , my God , taser , and I can't think of his wrong turn taser , and I can't think of his wrong turn Taser , I can't think of his first name , I don't know why . Why do you got a Cleveland MMA guy getting his pro starts fighting on UFC fight pass a lot now , you know . You know I like seeing that progress and doing it the right way .
I mean those guys a lot more .
Yeah , yeah , are you familiar with alonzo turner ?
the name . I haven't seen any of his fights okay , so lonzo is he's .
He came up through the amateur ranks , local guy . He cross trains with us a lot . Um , yeah , I mean the dude , his nickname is , uh , relentless alonzo , uh , relentless turner he's . I think he's seven and one , is a pro now and I mean he's pretty much dominated every fight he's had and I'm pretty sure one loss was a three-round decision loss .
But the dude is strong , he's fast , good striking , good wrestling . Yeah , I mean , if you get a chance , man lonzo , go watch some of his fights . Super tough fighter him and tony went . I've seen them go in the gym together and him and tony would go back and forth and lonzo most of the time would kind of edge him out .
Um , you know , when it came to like striking , then tony would edge him out a little on the wrestling and they go back and forth . It was always fun to watch so another really good local pro who came up from the area , worked his way up through the amateurs , got titles and then went on to be a really good pro .
Yeah , see , and I love that . Yeah , I'm definitely going to have to check out some of his fights . For sure , I always root for the local guys . You got to almost Well , Billy . We are running down here near the end of the episode here , but I do want to get this last segment in , and it's everybody's favorite segment here , and it is the fast 55 .
It is five random questions from the wonderful manager of the podcast , johnny fitty falcone . Uh , they have nothing to do , basically , with what we've been talking about for the last half hour . Um , they're kind of rapid fire , but you can elaborate if you need to .
Okay , I'll do my best .
Yeah , no , it's a fun way we like to end the episode and it gets everyone to taste into the mind of Johnny 50 Falcone . But if you're ready , we'll go . We'll get started . Let's get it All right . Question number one what's the worst day to do laundry ? Monday , monday , yeah , start the week . Yeah , can't be doing that .
Question number two which is the least intimidating nickname , being called Fluffy or the Quiet One ?
Fluffy Quiet ones are scary . I'll go .
Fluffy , quiet ones for sure . Question number three If you could . If you could have either a million dollars I'm a little fluffy , quiet ones for sure . Question number three If you could have either a million dollars , but no longer speak for the rest of your life , or $20 million but you have to be alone for the rest of your life .
Which would you pick ? That sounds terrible . Either way , I'm going to go with the million and not speak , because I can still text . I can still text , right .
He doesn't elaborate on that .
I guess I'm a mute and I'll take my million dollars and just text everybody .
That's not a bad option . Question number four One word to describe George Clooney is sexy . Can't argue with that one silver fox himself . He's a good looking fella . Good for him , absolutely . Last question here is the YMCA or the electric slide a better wedding dance song ? oh um I'm gonna go electric slide , yeah , yeah .
Yeah , I have to go with that one just for that . But that was the fast 55 . Um , I think he took it easy on you a little bit , but that I think he did . That wasn't too bad . A lot of his questions and he asked me these on you a little bit , but that wasn't too bad . A lot of his questions and he asked me these on a daily basis .
I've known Johnny since college and he comes up with the most random questions possible and it's just how his mind works . It's just like what he thinks about all day in his free time and like a couple of them are like okay , it's you a bear , conor McGregor , and you're locked in a racquetball court and you have a stick of dynamite and boxing glove .
Who comes out alive ? Like that's kind of like some of the things that he comes up with , like it's okay . So we figured it was a fun way to end the episode for everybody here . But , billy , I do give everybody this opportunity at the end of every episode .
If there's anything you want to get out there for your gym , any fights you got for your fighters that you're training coming up , anything like that , or even if it's just a good message . I'm going to give you about a minute and the floor is yours , alright ?
thanks , man . Upgraded Industries is where we're out of . Anyone can come up and train . We have classes jujitsu , wrestling , boxing , muay thai six days a week . Um , you know , we always have a lot of good amateur fighters coming in and training with us . We always have amateurs fighting . Uh , chris the great draggy is going to be fighting for a title here soon .
Another title here soon . Ron Cuban Ristal crisis will be fighting for a title soon as well . Got a couple up and young and up and coming guys Logan Morales , a really good young boxer who hasn't had the opportunity to fight yet . We're still looking for a fight .
So , junior division if you , you know any local promoters want to hit us up for that , that'd be great . Otherwise , promoters want to hit us up for that , that'd be great . Um , otherwise , man , we're here to train . Uh , upgrade industries . We , we pretty much got everything . Um , really would love to see more and more people come and train with us .
Uh , even if it's just cross training with us . It's a really good gym , great facility , great people , um , you know , and uh , you just get everybody out here training with us . Help us , help you . I think as a community , if we come together and train together , we're going
¶ Cleveland's Fighting Community and Fast 55
to be able to kind of take over the sport . I really do like a lot of good MMA fighters out of the Cleveland area and I'd like to do the whole Cleveland against the world thing . So if we pull together , train together , I really think you'll see a lot more Cleveland natives in the UFC .
High-level kickboxing like one championship , even bare-knuckle boxing man A lot of good talent around the area . I'd love to train with those guys .
Absolutely Everybody . Go and check them out . I follow them on Instagram . I've had a lot of their fighters from upgraded industries on the show . Sounds like and looks like a phenomenal gym . Definitely go and check them out . They have a lot of great fighters there and a great coach here that we have on the show here .
But that is going to do it for this week's episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast . I want to thank my guest , billy Friedson , for joining the show . A lot of fun to get to talk combat sports . I always love talking to fighters and everything like that on the show . A lot of fun to get to talk combat sports .
I always love talking to fighters and everything like that on the show . Really great to have you on . Thank you , everybody . Go check out Upgraded Industries there in Cleveland , ohio . But , as always , if you enjoyed the show , be a friend , tell a friend . If you didn't tell them anyways , they might like it just because you didn't .
That's going to do it for me and I will see y' .