#97 | Tommy "Beethoven" DiGennaro |

Um , you know , especially because I was on it , I started rolling again , probably like four or five weeks after the injury , but it was light , it was super light . It was mostly with your dad . It was mostly with your dad . He was . I just said don't beat me up too bad , and he was like , oh no , come on , go on .

So it was , um , it was good though , but my mom , actually , she just broke her foot . Oh , really , yeah , she broke her foot . Uh , it was not this past tuesday , the one before , when I was at a concert over in brooklyn .

She was here walking the dog , she was hanging out with him because he needs his pills at night and , uh , she stepped into , I guess , like an area that there were missing bricks and she totally rolled .

No , no , fucking guy , no , I'm not , I'm not being a wise ass on you , I'm just saying in general , it could always , theoretically , we have to remind ourselves of that At least I do , because when I , if something goes wrong or there's an injury or something like that you know for , have like a little pity party , oh shit , really .

Me like , oh , I couldn't catch a break , yeah , this and that yo , it could always be , your fucking foot could have ripped in half , like you know , even me with my injury , I was out eight weeks , technically eight , nine weeks , until it really felt good again yeah but I was still able to move around and every week it got progressively better .

So I mean I could have fucking broken it and then I really would have been yeah problem . So , yeah , it could always be worse . I got you Beethoven . Yeah , tommy , welcome back . Dude , good to be back , it's really good . It's a fight week tradition now . Huh , it has to be now . Now we have to do a podcast every time you got a fight coming up .

Cause you know , like right now , like I'm kind of like on the verge of my hamstring cramping up , like as I'm sitting here talking to you right now I'll be okay , but you know I get that son of a bitch digging his elbow into me . Move me around . I'm probably going to . I've cramped up on his table before . You know which . I'm probably going to .

I've cramped up on this table before . You know which . I've just I've always dealt with those cramps in my legs . Um , so I just don't . I just want to avoid that situation .

We'll talk about that in a second .

But anyways , talking to Dr Nick , and I'm like yo , sunday morning I started doing my shakeout . You can work on me , then We'll go get something to eat and then I'll chill out before the fight How's that sound ? And he's like whoa Sunday morning . And I'm like what , what's wrong with that ?

He's like well , I've made that offer to work on guys the morning of the fight all the time . And they all say that you know they don't want to mess with their routine . They're very superstitious . So I've learned that a lot of those guys are superstitious , superstitious , super sick . No , you had it . You know what I'm talking about . You had it , you had it .

But um , I was like dude , this is my fourth fight . I wouldn't even say I have a routine .

You know , vargas , my boy alex vargas , came in , yes , uh , 14 and oh , he's doing his damn thing in the in the boxing division . Ranked , uh , ranked 14th in the world is yeah for the , for his division . So he's unbelievable , alex .

Yeah , like you get like that's a , that's a great , stable job and you also get like a enough freedom to train and pursue things on that end yeah , he was telling me it's .

You're a hundred percent in but you're in like 90 or 80 and you know there's a lot of things , there's a lot more responsibility on your shoulders to be at the main job and do your thing . So stuff like that , he said , is definitely a challenge .

But he did say that for his next fight whenever that may be , suffolk county police department was totally cool with him taking some time off to pursue doing the fight camp . That's great and really focusing on it , which you know you look at it like that as that's good , because they see him , that's great different scenarios .

And once again you go back to like it's a public image thing . They want to showcase that hey , we're behind the people that also have a life outside of just the department yeah that's great . so it was really cool to hear that they were doing that for him , because you know you want he's in his prime right now .

You want to see dudes do their shit right now . You're going to be , you're going to be in your prime right the next 10 years . Like this is that you're starting right at right , at the precipice of like what could be something super special , so you're doing it at the perfect time , right . And you got a perfect team around you for real . Oh , absolutely .

I mean , how could you ask for a better ? No bullshit , no gas , no , nothing Like . How could you ask for a better team ? Columbo , matt Law , like Dr Nick , your father , just everybody at Sarah's that is rallying around behind you . And you got Fatboy Burrito making burritos after . I mean , listen , burritos this early in the game .

Oh , dude , it's over , it's just getting started .

Yep , long story short . Liu Post their Division II wrestling team gets cut around like 1989 , something like that . Something to do with money Almost always comes down to money . Of course they bring the team back and I'm ballparking , but let's just say , 2015 , 2016 , something like that . 2018 is when I graduated high school .

I'm a freshman there , walking on to the D2 team , I'm on campus for 10 minutes . All of a sudden the athletic departments are merging with LIU Brooklyn and now we're a Division I team and it was a really great experience . I was really grateful that I got to compete at the highest level . I got to compete with some really good guys .

I got to get my ass kicked by some really good guys . But you know , the lack of structure , the lack of culture , the lack of experience at the highest level , both on the athletes and the coaches' behalf , was notable , and that's not talking bad about anybody , it was just new time .

You know we weren't going to burst onto the scene and just start killing everybody . You know we were new in Division II and then all of a sudden we're in Division 1 .

Okay , not to say that everybody on the D1 roster is better than everybody on the D2 roster , but like , all the best in the world are in Division I yeah , and all the best in the country are or Division I yeah , and all the best in the country at Division I , I should say . But anyways , the commitment on our behalf was a bit more .

There's actually the NCAA only allows you to practice a certain amount of hours .

So my point is that when I got to post , I was trying to figure it out on my own , you know , because the coaches were the assistant coaches , were always shuffling and you know , quite frankly , I was a walk-on guy , so I wasn't the kind of guy that they were there to build up and bring up .

You know , I was in the room , I was trying to really do it on my own and it 100% does not feel like that anymore . I started thinking that way a little bit at first because , you know , I hadn't , I was still in that mode .

But , you know , I really begun to realize how much all these different people are doing to make things happen for me and I realized that , um , you know , uh , it's . It's good that I can only look at things one fight at a time , but I'm not supposed to be looking at three fights ahead . I'm not supposed to be looking at Matt ? Matt's looking at the board .

Lou Neglia , the promoter .

When are you going to fight for the belt ? You know when are you going to .

What you do you know what I'm saying Like , this is a very brutal sport at the end of the day . And for you to put yourself in there and mindset , physicality , everything like that , you know you got to make sure . You got to make sure that you're not leaving it up to the stars being aligned . You're putting the work in .

You know it's not , it's not just by chance that you're , that you're getting these victories , that you're doing the things that you're doing . You're putting that fucking time in . Oh yeah , everybody at our academy can see it and everybody that's watching you train and post about training on social can see it . It's what you do in the dark .

That's the quote that everybody , always , you know Walk in the dark to shine in the light .

and how much time ? Three three-minute rounds , that's what I'm saying . Only one , so yeah , but even still . I'm going to know what cocky I am . No , but listen , even still . Nine minutes total . If you had to do that and go the distance . Nine minutes total , yeah . How many weeks did you get ready for this ?

And then , um , when , when we closed down the gym for a couple for the weekend to take care of the mats yeah , so you know , it happened right before that , right , so I was like half-assed training a little bit , just trying to get through it . I couldn't stop coughing . I went to the doctor . First thing they did was test me for COVID .

I didn't have COVID . I was like I don't know what the hell it was , but I just could not get my breath going at all .

My lungs doesn't matter , man , sometimes but listen , sometimes , at the end of the day , man , you're doing all this training , yeah , you're working your body into the ground and and , unfortunately , when you , at least in my position I can't speak for you , but in my position , when I'm firing on all cylinders and I'm really going , going , going , my body does start

to tell me yo , you need to slow down , like we're . We're performing at a high level , we're doing our thing , but at the same time , it's like we're we're beating ourselves the . The engine can only run so high for so long . So that's , that's exactly what happened . And , unfortunately , you know , you want to keep going and I'm the same way , man .

I want to keep training , I want to keep cause , I want to keep this consistency and I want to get better and I want to do what I have to do . But once your body starts telling you the first sign , the second sign , they start grouping together and becoming more and more snowball effect until you're forced to just go . Okay , all right , I'll take the rest .

Like you know , my immune system was taking a downward spiral , yeah , but so , like I spent three or four , maybe five weeks training hard , sparring hard , get doing two , three days , getting my conditioning , going ready to get locked in on the fight , and then about eight , nine weeks out , that happens , pulls me back for two weeks and then I come back and I've

got a new perspective on this right . I've got to do this right . I've got six weeks to get ready for this fight . I can't have shit like this happening . I'm training in a calorie deficit two months out because I've got to get down to 155 . It's not like before when I was fighting at 170 . That was a walk in the park , man .

I could be at my maintenance calories having a little cheat day here and there . It was no big deal . I stayed walking around at 180 , 185 . To get down to 170 from there was a joke . Nothing I mean . It's not like it's nothing I haven't done before .

So I think that just kind of goes to show that height really is a massive factor in there . Yeah , like the days of like George St Pierre and Matt Serra at 170 , those days are over . You know not that like their skills weren't the best in the world , but you know it's just that the size difference is big .

The amount of people in the sport is growing , right , the sport's growing . The freaks , the mutants are coming in . You know A lot of guys that maybe would have been doing something else . They're doing MMA now and you know , I think it's . I think like the average height of a welterweight in the UFC would be like 5'11" , 6'1" . You know that's not my height .

You know there's a lot of lightweights , 155-pounders , that are taller than me . You know , I think this is just the right weight for my body . Listen , I would love to not have to cut that much weight , but this is the reality of the sport . It's like a Mexican standoff . We all cut weight . You can't really afford to be the guy that doesn't cut weight .

Then they just kept growing and growing and growing and it's like yo guys , everybody relax , we don't have to be like we don't do this right now .

Do you find that it's easier , the same harder , to do these weight cuts versus when you were wrestling ? Is there more on your shoulders because it's an actual fight versus just a wrestling match ? Is there similar ?

Like you wrestle , like within two hours of stepping on the scale , like it's technically like the match has to start within an hour of the weigh ins , right ?

So if you're one of the , if you're towards the heavier side , like myself , like wrestling goes from 125 all the way up to heavyweight , my point is that , like you're going to wrestle within two hours Of stepping on the scale , so , which makes the process of dropping down To the point that you get severely dehydrated not worth it , because you really can't bounce

back that much in an hour .

They'd get blown up ankles and their sodium and water tables would be off in the body . So I can understand that , being a very , very tight window to do anything severe .

You know so what the sport evolved to , what the direction the sport of wrestling is headed into , at least , what the high level performers are doing is they're staying in really good shape and then they're doing a work , and then they're watching what they eat for a couple of days and then they're getting a workout in right before the weigh-ins to pull some water

off , stepping on the scale , putting that water right back on , and they feel , they feel okay , they're good to go . That's what I believe is the habit of a high level wrestler making weight .

You know , when you got to the point where you were pulling off six pounds the day before , holding it overnight , pulling off another two pounds in the morning , when you have to wrestle an hour after you weigh in , your cardio is not . You don't .

So , anyway , it's different because when you weigh in for your fight , how long do you have before the actual fight from ? It varies , but I have this division . I have almost a full day , your full day , yeah . So is it ? You get weighed in the morning and then you fight at night , or is it the night before I make ?

What's the food that's worked for you , that you feel good because you obviously don't want like a full stomach .

Stepped on the scale , weigh in , have some water , have some electrolytes . And then me , matt Colombo , marcus Marcus was fighting Justin Marcus . Yep , we go to the restaurant and , dude , we're at an Italian restaurant .

We're ordering some chicken cutlets , we're ordering some pasta , we're basking in it and I say to myself this beats the hell out of a gatorade and an uncrustable in the corner of the cafeteria so that you got to put the uncrustable in the air fryer . It's that sums up , I think , the difference between the wrestling and the fighting .

Wake up , yeah , you know , but and again , dropping down from to 170 , not a whole lot of water coming out of my system , not that many days of not eating , not relatively difficult to do . So , you know , I got away with not eating that clean in the dinner in between the weigh-in and the fight . You know Now , though .

But I will say that obviously , obviously it felt great after that dinner . But then you know , the night before trying , the night before trying to go to bed , and then the morning of feeling so bloated , yeah , a lot of sodium a lot of eating the pasta .

Not , not a smart thing , but you put it , you put us , you put penny albacca in front of a son of a bitch like me , and especially , especially with your last name , man .

Yeah , they just get it , because the sodium , the , the carbs , the meat , and that's usually what they just get and that's it , and then they'll have their meals the next day Makes sense .

I know I intake a shit ton of sodium , right , I'm salting my water , I'm salting my food , I'm salting . Do you use liquid IV or do you use element or you just put actual salt in ? No , I have electrolyte powders . Okay , I have a bunch of supplements that I have for my shakes in the gym .

I use Waxamaze , I use beef collagen , I use protein powder , I use electrolyte powder , I take zinc magnesium . I have to give you I did take zinc magnesium because it's supposed to help your sleep . Yes , but for like two and a half weeks in a row I just kept getting shitty night's sleep and I couldn't figure out why .

My dad's like have you been taking any melatonin or anything ? I'm like I've been taking zinc magnesium . He's like so stop taking it . And I stopped taking it and I was actually sleeping better .

So if you take a cup like two , two to 400 milligrams of L theanine , then L-theanine . So if you take a couple , like two to four hundred milligrams of L-theanine . Then the other thing you can take is GABA . And this is all from Huberman , from Huberman Lab Podcast .

Nasty with him is different than me rolling nasty with him . I try a little harder . He's going to grab my neck and just crank it . No , I don't mean , try a little harder .

so , like my strategy is that I know that I'm not going to , I know that I'm not going to find a way to secure all of his limbs enough and then pass , but I know that my cardio is significantly better than his .

So if I can keep going from a static position to an explosive movement , from a static position to an explosive movement , enough times , eventually he won't be able to keep up with me .

Yeah , if you could just keep the pedal down , essentially , and then bursts yeah , yeah , now listen , that's not a very technically sound form of jiu-jitsu , but you got to do what you got to do hey , man , listen , I lean into my grip strength .

When you're in someone's half guard you like , cradle them up to you and shoot your hand across the back and then grab the other one like this , and that's you do that as a cross face . Yeah , that's horrific .

I leave a ton of , but I'm also a white belt , so I I'm supposed to forget moves still . Yeah , so like I'll , I'll , I'll be in a perfect position to get an arm bar and I'll be like all right , I guess we're going to do like a bow and arrow choke . It's like , bro , the arm's right there , just grab it .

And those are the things that you should remember the details on , those are the things that you should drill , those are the things that you should stick with and I'm just a blue belt talking here right , yeah , but you're a blue .

be as much of a sponge as possible . You know , even with the shit I don't like , like the leg locks , and you know the inverting and the stuff that I that doesn't really speak to me .

I just try to soak it up , I try to drill it , I try to do , I try to get everything you know , because , at the very least , what I've learned is that , even if you know you're not going to use a move , when you drill a move you're learning also how to shut it down in a way .

Yeah , right , because just to know which direction you have to turn in , you have to know the and that's a very small , scratching the surface kind of statement . But yeah , you can definitely hurt yourself if you , because they're putting positions of leverage on you , on your leg , where , if you go a certain way , like they're closing off a certain avenue .

You know what I mean . It's scary .

when they do that . So so I got , I got into it , not into it badly , I just I I was rolling last night and I don't know if I have like a little rib thing going on in the back from just getting slammed down . It's just , it's super sore if somebody does like a neon belly to me or they or they push me down too hard .

I feel it in the back of my right ribs . Okay , so I was rolling and , uh , purple belt , he was unbelievable , he's super good . You , you know who he is . I don't know his name , but I'll explain afterwards . But okay so he's a nice guy , he's nothing bad , he didn't do anything wrong . But he , he starts doing a knee on belly and I start defending it .

But as he pushed into a knee on belly harder , I felt my ribs . So I kind of just like I , I kind of crunched into my ribs to get some of the pressure off , but in doing so I left my arm out there and because of that he just really quickly grabbed it and ripped the arm down and I was like , oh man , so it wasn't his fault . I just told him .

I was like , yeah , I was trying to defend my ribs and then I forgot my arm was up .

That's not okay . Well it's it . We saw it a lot and anyway he'd be like yo , you gotta sit down . You're making me nervous , like what the fuck you guys doing ? They're just like hovering over the back of the couch . Just sit down , stop being weird , yeah , no .

Yeah , cloudy with a chance of meatballs and show , yeah , man , it was great . It was the best animation back then . That movie was awesome . If y'all I remember the first time I saw that that's what I'm saying if y'all , if y'all know , cloudy with a chance of meatballs man , shout out to Jeff .

First off , jeff and I sold home theater systems at Best Buy so we had like the best TVs , the best everything . We'd be like , you know , come over , we had the 3D glasses .

and all the . If I show you those food images that I got you'll , you'll start , you'll bite my table , you'll be . I need , I need to just eat something . I'm biting my finger a little yeah you bite your finger right off , bite that mic , but anyway .

So when I was , when I was uh getting ready for my bodybuilding show and I was dieting for 23 weeks , I dieted for wow , yeah , I dieted for 23 I thought I had it rough over here .

I've been dieting for like 12 14 weeks I was and I was away at college , man , no partying , no , nothing like I hear you fucking just zoned in and that's all I wanted to do . So you know , I wanted to do it and I did it .

But , uh , we , my whole algorithm of and it wasn't even really the algorithm at that point , which is my whole search feed , was food network and what spots in Brooklyn to get ice cream after the show and this , and that I had lists of food that I wanted to eat and consume and I've been thinking about .

Jump in man , because I had a couple of questions , but I want you to jump in .

In a way , it was almost like the beginning of a new camp , right , because I was training hard and then I had to , I had to take like a week off completely and then another week where I was just like training once a day , not being able to train the way I wanted to , yeah , and then six weeks out , I get back in .

I'm like , all right , I need to refocus , right , I I got healthy , now I need to focus on staying healthy and getting in the best shape possible . And I had to make some adjustments and I stopped training . Uh , I stopped training some sessions of Jiu Jitsu , right .

What I did was what I replaced that with is when I started doing hot yoga again , matt did so much for me , right . It's been about six weeks now of me going two or three times a week , and at this point , I don't even need water in there anymore . When you put that in perspective , I'm sitting in a sauna for 60 minutes and I'm not drinking water .

The fact that I built my body up to that , the fact that the class goes by like that , is kind of insane , because I remember how hard that was when I first started doing I've been doing .

But for this camp this past six weeks I'm like we got to get that weight down , we got to get that cardio up , we got to take care of the body we're doing . You know I was either going to hot yoga twice a week or class and one cardio slash sauna session and obviously doing way more . That's the other thing . I don't want to jump into this too much .

But the other thing 40 to 60 minutes of like 100 , 110 beats per minute heart rate cardio has been a game changer for me . Helps my circulation , helps my recovery . That , more than those insanely difficult drills , has helped my conditioning . Like you do those intense drills every day , body never recovers .

This helps the body recover , helps bring the heart rate down . When you came in and filmed I've never had my heart rate drop down so much in between the rounds of that drill . Yeah , and I've seen it on my whoop , on my monitor , right . Usually it starts to spike and then it goes like this and then it goes . Monitor .

Usually it starts to spike and then it goes like this and then it goes like this , and then it goes like this , and then it goes like Now it's like yeah , you have a much more steady and greater capacity for heart rate variability .

That's why , when you first asked me about the difference between wrestling and now , I would say that I've learned a lot more lessons , I've gained a lot more experiences and I'm definitely a better athlete , and it's better .

I don't mean like physically a better athlete , like I make better decisions as an athlete now because of my past experiences in wrestling and I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve in wrestling , but that's okay , because I almost look at it like that was just 10 years of building up for me to have this , for me to be in this fantastic starting position as a

mixed martial artist and as feel good and awesome as

that statement is . Let let's jump back on the hot yoga . So I had a pleasant , pleasant surprise this morning because my brother he just got home from school a few weeks ago . He came to hot yoga with me this morning and you get in , lay our towels out and steamroller comes in Dan , the Swiss Army knife from Switzerland .

He comes about once a year , trains with us for a couple weeks . He fights in Cage Warriors Great dude , great fighter , him Steamroller and Gary Rock come on in and all of a sudden I'm like what the hell is going on right now .

This is great , the fact that we all happened to be there , like Dan and Matt came together and then I came with my brother , then Gary came in and I'm like this is awesome , like we just all kind of happened to be here , you know . So that that made it fun .

Definitely right , it takes just takes the shittiness out of the weight cutting experience when you have those guys there with you , you know yeah and then , as I'm leaving , my aunt's coming in .

Yeah , and she was like I remember she , she was originally going to come with us for the 10 am class and then apparently she told my brother she was coming at 1130 , but she didn't tell me . So I walk in , I'm like , oh what ? So that was a very you know , it was a very fun day , but the class was great .

I think it was like the fifth or sixth time I've done it consecutively without taking water into the room with me , which is very freeing . It's a very confident thing that I can go through that and I feel better about my flexibility . I feel better about I'm obviously as light as I've ever been . I got down to 163 after that class Today .

The carbs have been cut , the sodium has been cut and then pretty much what's left to cut is the water and the calories completely . That's the toughest part , the process , but it's uncomfortable , but it's nothing I haven't done before .

It's cool , like , after the little bit of discomfort , we're back Like don't worry about it , and because of that it's you know it sounds corny , but you do get stronger from it , mentally , physically , everything .

Like every single time you go into the gauntlet , every time you get , every time they close that mma cage behind you , and you're in there and you're , you're facing your opponent , you're doing your thing , exactly what you prepped for . Yeah , laser focus , man .

Every fight that you do , yeah , makes the next one just a little easier in terms of the process of doing it . Not necessarily the opponent , but the process .

Right , she went through a whole camp and she finds out , like a few weeks before , that the fight's off because the girl failed her medical screening to something and she was obviously obviously very emotional , very understandably , very upset about that . But you know , first thing that matt told her was listen , you still leveled up .

Yeah , right , that's like kind of what these camps do . They allow us to level up . She's got a new fight coming up now . Yes , yes , taking this one on Shouts to Lauren . Yes , taking this one on short notice , and she's a little about that . But I'm like listen , you're not coming off the couch , you've been in the gym , she's been training .

You've been in the gym , you've been sparring . We got to dial in .

I didn't I wasn't cornering him , but I got to kind of be around it for the first time . When naz favola and dennis fought at madison square garden , cool , that was like the best week of my life . Like literally I turned 23 in the hotel , you know , um , doing the workouts with those guys fucking carrying the portable sauna around picking up their food .

I was so happy to do it , right , I ? I remember one of the other fighters was like , yeah , man , this gets old . Yeah , for a while , like me , I was like a kid . On Christmas I was in an elevator with Mackenzie Dern Like scared shitless . But you know , dude , I was like face-to-face with Alex Baer and just staring at me , obviously Drama , you know .

But , and just staring at me , obviously trauma , you know . But , like you know , I met DC . I met John Anik . I met Tom Aspinall . I met Yuri Prokofsky . I met Alex Pereira . It was like it was a crazy week and it was awesome . It was a great experience . I was very happy to be a part of it . You know I kept getting thanked . I'm like , don't thank me .

I'm so happy I'm getting to be here to do this for you . It's like midnight turning on to my birthday . Now I'm just sleeping . So I go down to the hotel restaurant . I get myself a steak , a cheesecake .

Yeah , that was the real start of you doing what you are loving to do . Yeah , so your your passion , really coming to fruition in terms of , like , this is what I'm doing now and this is what I want to do .

We've done that every year and I just haven't been able to commit to it anything , even when I know when I'm fighting , because I don't know what else is going to happen . You know , I don't know when Lauren's going to have a fight . I don't know when Marcus is going to have a fight . I don't know when .

You know somebody might say , hey , I'm fighting , you want to come with me ? And you know like I want to be able to take advantage of those opportunities .

beauty of it . Well , sacrifices in terms of that , you can't hang out with the friends , you can't do the trips , because you want to be available and have these moments that you're going to be able to take advantage of in a positive way , and I'm not saying that that is a sacrifice .

Yeah , the sacrifice is that you have to keep yourself available for the fights and the teams and versus being able to go , I can commit to this weekend , we're good , let's do it like that . In itself is a sacrifice , yeah so , but it's a sacrifice for something you want to do and that you love doing .

Maybe it's just the hunger to talk and I'm getting a little emotional right now , but like I hope that if those guys , if my growing up buddies , end up watching this , I hope that they know that like they still are like my best friends in the world , that you know I don't like want to be saying no to these kind of things , but it's just kind of just feels

like what I need to do for the path I've chosen . Maybe sometimes I feel like they .

There's a tiny bit of resentment that I get sometimes , which I understand , but you know , it was kind of just like my PSA , like hey , like I still love you guys , I still love and , if I can , if we can , you know , rent a house and just be idiots all day , like we're 18 again .

I would love to do that , but at the same time I can't , I can't , I don't know what the board looks like , so I can't make those commitments right now .

So , helping lauren , helping marcus , they're there for you on your fights 100 . So it's , it's it's aie thing , it's a tribal thing , it's all of that . So , when it comes down to it , with friends , you'll have a lot of friends and a lot of family that understand . But on the other side , you'll have friends and family that don't understand .

And , unfortunately , the friends and family that don't understand usually get phased out . And it's not because we don't love them , it's not anymore . It's just because differences start to become too much and schedules don't line up anymore . And right at some point you say your last , you .

It's kind of a sad thing and but it's a , it's a , it's a new chapter and it's in all in itself . So at one point you you had your last xbox game with a friend , or you had your last hangout with them , or the last time that you ever went out to .

Yeah , man yeah , last time you guys ever went out to get food , and you know it's a sad thing sometimes , but people level up differently and go on different paths and as long as you guys can come back to common ground at you know , a year , two months , a month , a week , however long the duration is , as long as you guys can come back and the time feels

like it never even passed , great , yeah , for some people it doesn't ever go like that and unfortunately , people so you know , I had a ton of friends that I never thought that I would be without in life and unfortunately most of them have cycled out .

But I've met new and amazing people like you , like Lauren , like my body for real , like you know that our paths are aligned right now . Yes , and it's just interesting how life kind of pivots you into things . Unfortunately , I can't go like three days without seeing you , that's true , yeah , yeah , just me with my rash guards and my poison dart .

. What's that ? Uh , calloway , but cal , oh yeah , I grappled with it , fucking with his name on instagram .

Uh , he , um , I finally grappled with him and after the round he was like yo , bro , he's like you feel good , like you're doing good this , and that I said you know you've been waiting to take a piece of me since I came in with that flashy rash guard that first week here and he started laughing . I was like I know you were waiting for that .

It's all good fun , man , listen , man , damn Mikkel . Yeah , dude , listen . If I'm going to do it , I'm going to do it .

Okay , how has your approach to training and fight strategy evolved from your first mma fight to now preparing for this current one ?

You know , know that was really the plan .

So I haven't done any one camp planning to go in there and strike and win the fight with strikes , but every single camp , my striking has gotten better and gotten better and gotten better and gotten better .

So I had to strategize for that Right , because things do change a little bit . There are people that will tell you it doesn't matter . It does matter , it matters . It matters Not to go against Chael P Sonnen , but it matters . He's not going to listen to this podcast anyway . Just by example . Just for example .

Right , he's not going to listen to this podcast anyway . Just by example . Just for example . Right . One of my biggest things is I use my jab right . I'm coming forward , I'm putting the jab behind it right . Chin down , keep that hand moving . Stocky guy , I like to grapple . I got to close the distance . I use that jab . I come forward With the softball .

It's a little tricky . You don't want to do that because you're stepping right into their power side . If you come straight in with that jab , right , so you . Usually the first thing I do is not throw a jab when I'm fighting a Southpaw , I need to move in a different direction . So those were things I had to work on .

Fortunately , marcus is a Southpaw , so making getting that kind of work in wasn't very difficult at all . Um , and then my third fight we started to . We started to really focus on the striking a little bit more , started to focus on not moving straight back . After I throw a combination right , I come in right .

So at first it was get in there , throw punches and then move out right . Then it was get in there , throw punches and then move out right . Then it was getting there , getting there , throw punches . Don't move straight back , right underneath , out to the side . An angle or a hard break in a reset .

Don't just come , don't just step in , step out , right , you'll go back into a kick or something like that . So I've been working on coming in and coming out .

Um , the guy I'm fighting now I'm not I haven't like I'm not like strategizing or preparing for him , but I've watched a bunch of his fights on youtube because I've seen , because , like , there's like five of his fights available on youtube , yeah , why not watch that ? Do your homework , yeah .

And we've picked up on some things that he likes to do something , some trends that he's done in multiple fights , so like , okay , we're going to be prepared for those kinds of things . So that's something else .

I've worked on this camp and , like I said , when I had that sickness and I had to make that flip , came back in six weeks out working on my low-intensity cardio , working on the hot yoga , spending time in the sauna , in the hot yoga room , and one part of that was obviously for the recovery aspect of it , for the cardio aspect of it .

But the other part of it was to kind of get myself ready for this final weight cut . Because I'm doing like I did hot yoga on Monday . I'm doing it again on . I did it again on Wednesday , did it again today , thursday . I'm doing it again on Friday . I'm going to be in the sauna friday night . I'm probably going to be in the sauna saturday .

Now , if I had never been in the sauna , or if I had barely been in the sauna up until this week , this week would be miserable . Yeah , I wouldn't be able to stay in for that long . But I've built up a tolerance and a resistance for the heat a little bit , you know know . So that's been very important .

Yeah , but back to fight strategy . Um , look , there's no secrets here . Beethoven the grappler , former division one wrestler , make no mistake . I'm coming forward , I'm going to put my hands on you , I'm going to put you on the ground and it's not going to be fun down there and there's not a whole lot that can be done about that .

That and it's not going to be fun down there and there's not a whole lot that can be done about that . That's the way I fight . I come forward , I get my hands on you , I put you down , you stay down . That's the way I'm going to fight . That's what you're going to see on May 19th .

That being said , what I am excited about is the ability to play the kickboxing game a little bit more . On my way to doing that . Does that make sense at ?

Second guy I fought a little bit different right . He definitely knew I was going to try to wrestle but he also couldn't really do that much about it . The first round I shot on him . I took him down . Second round he kicked me and I caught it . I used that take him down . Third round I start coming forward . He knows he's down on the scorecard .

I start coming forward , I throw a right hand , I miss it , I get rocked , I break my nose and then I end up . And it ends up going back to what we worked on are we gonna get the nose fixed after this ?

That's exactly what I did and I remember I kind of like everything just kind of went like blank , not that like I got knocked out , but like all of a sudden like I got hit . And then whoa , baby , no man , you get hit , you get hit man , it's sent you into a different little thing . I had never been hit like that before .

Just four ounce gloves , just a hard shot like that with all that adrenaline going . But again , hands up , move your head , get close to him , take him down . That's what I did . Get right back , get right back to it . My nose was fucking leaking . Yeah , I'm on top of him . I have his legs up . I'm just like you are not getting up .

You are not getting up . It was . It was very frustrating fighting in that rule set because he was safe . Once I took him down because I wasn't allowed to hit him in the head .

Naturally , because 10 years controlling people , two years trying to submit people , we go back to go back to leaning into what you're good at . Yeah , but I do believe my submissions have gotten a lot sharper . Submissions become more effective when you can also hit someone and force them to choose . Right , so we talked about before .

Right , you chose to protect your rib and you gave up your arm in the process . Right , so in addition to making you choose between different things that might attack in a submission , you also have to choose between getting hit in the head or putting your hand up over your head . You know what I mean ? Yeah , so that plays into it as well .

Um , but yeah , it was frustrating because I was . I could only control him on the ground and try to submit him Right . I couldn't actually damage him while we were on the ground . Not the case anymore . As you could see in the third fight , I definitely put some shots on him . I had him hip to hip on the cage and I just started hitting him .

I actually counted . I watched the fight after . In that engagement I hit him 28 times in the head . Then he still kept coming up Kudos to him . I grabbed the single , put him back down , forced him . I grabbed the single , put him back down , forced him into the half guard , hit him some more , got the pass , got the mount . He bellied down right away .

I grabbed his wrist , I started hitting him some more , and then I got a little carried away . I let go of the wrist and I started hitting him With both hands , and then he started to buck up , and that's when I was able to put the choke on him .

So , yeah , him with both hands , and then he started to buck up and that's when I was able to put the choke on him . Um , so yeah , the strikes on the ground are a game changer . I believe this is actually a henzo gracie quote . You hit a black belt , he becomes a brown belt .

You hit him again , he becomes a purple belt damn you hit him again , he becomes a white belt . I guess we skip the blue belt , we go right to white belt . Damn , what happens when I get hit . Yeah , hit , yeah , but it's true . An infant , it's true .

Just imagine that Gary had you mounted and you're trying to like , you're thinking about your hip escape , you're thinking about your frames . No man , you got to protect your face . You're putting your hands down here and your elbows tight and all of a sudden , you .

I'm just very happy with it and I'm very excited for May 9th . And , like I said , I'm telling you guys my plan right now . I'm going to walk him down , I'm going to set him up , I'm going to hit him , I'm going to take him down , I'm going to hit him some more and then he's going to have to make a choice .

He's going to keep getting hit until the ref stops it or he's going to decide to give me his back and give up a submission . But that's the way it's going to go . Cool , that's my plan . I'm ready , I'll be ringside .

I love working with Joey , and Anne Serra is a phenomenal kickboxer , phenomenal drill partner . She's been putting up with me in my sauna suit , sweating all over the mat as we , you know , drill our combinations . But she's awesome , she's great .

So shout out to Columbo , shout out to Anne , shout out to Matt , the head of the helm , you know , keeping the whole thing running for me , master Matt , so many guys in the gym that I'm helping out my jujitsu . Sean Levy , joey Beans , anthony Palacino , gary I mean , I can't even name everybody . Yeah , you know , gary , I mean I can't even name everybody .

The entire academy . Like I said , it really does take a village . I have all those people around me . I have Matt Favola holding pads for me and come with me to hot yoga and help me out with the weight cut and getting dude . I got to spar with a ranked UFC lightweight . What other amateur fighter gets that ?

Eric Prush , my strength and conditioning coach , he's helped me out a lot with the nutrition , with , just again , keeping me healthy , keeping that muscle on the body , keeping me moving fast and explosive that's the one thing that we never wanted to sacrifice is my rotational power , my explosiveness , my ability to switch my legs , that kind of stuff .

He's helped me out with that a lot . And , as you can see , as I'm naming all these people and all their different roles and I haven't even mentioned pops , yeah , yeah and my brother and the way I have .

for you . And then I want to ask you the last one , which is can you describe your mental state and routine on the day of a fight , and how do you get into the right headspace before stepping into the cage ?

Vision Quest is like one of the only wrestling movies , like high school wrestling movies out there . That's not god awful , okay . But yeah , I there .

It was a family like a real family that did it okay . Yeah , I mean I know the .

This time I'm like , um , I mean , we won't know how many fights got scratched until the weigh-ins tomorrow , but as it stands right now I believe I'm like the 15th fight out of 20 . Okay , so again later on in the night . But so it's just a whole lot of excitement building up to it .

And then you get to that point in the dressing room where it's just kind of like you just don't know what to do with yourself . Yeah , you know , because like , everybody has to be there , all the fighters have to be there by a certain time , like before the show starts . It doesn't matter when you're fighting , you know .

So then I got to sit there and wait , which is fine , but it is kind of weird sitting there . I'm used to it , you know , from the bus rides and wrestling and whatnot , but it's just that weird moment of like I just want to get out there already . I just want to get it done . I've been waiting .

Once I start hitting pads , once I start moving around , that's when like that real excitement , like even bigger than before , just kind of comes in .

And then this was so strange , when it happened to me during my first fight and it's carried over into every single fight I was so calm my first fight as I'm standing there like waiting for the like the people to tell me that we can walk out now , like you're standing there like kind of in that little tunnel waiting to walk , and I remember I'm standing there

and I was just like I'm so calm right now locked in .

Um , you do , I'm not going to get . I'm most likely not going to get brain damage if I lose . You know what I mean , Like I'm . You know what I'm saying .

There's only so much energy to go around from the coaches . I understand that . I don't hold them against them , but you know , and again like I said , we made that transition into D1 , revolving door of coaches Hard to get that culture , that family thing going on .

On the other side of it , matt is as close to family as matt , matt's , matt's family , the sarah family , is my family at this point an extension .

So you know , you're just like , the excitement is just there and I'm just calm . I'm cool because I have these people with me and because of who these people are and the fact that they're with me and how hard I train and the guys I train with and all the work I've done there . There isn't a variable in that cage . Right In my mind , in that moment .

There's no multiverse where I lost that fight . Like I'm walking in there and that is my fight to win . I'm in control and I really really , truly believe that and I understand that I'll get to the level where I won't have that luxury .

Maybe I don't know , but the difference between when I would step out onto a wrestling match , when I would step into the cage , when I step out onto the circle , put my toe on the line to wrestle I was trying to win . When I step out , when I step into the cage and they lock the door . I'm there to win .

the weirdest face . You were like , okay , I'm like yeah , bro .

I tell him where I want to go , he's like we'll make that happen , that's where we're going to go With wrestling in high school , even in college , he would always tell me , regardless of what happened during the match . He would always tell me I'm just happy I got to see you wrestle , and we talked about this last time . Some fathers are assholes .

Some fathers are really hard on their kids and I think wrestling is hard enough and you're going to be hard enough on yourself . You don't need the person that's supposed to be your rock being hard on you too .

You know Like I felt like again , I can only speculate , but I felt like if I had him coming down on me and forcing me to try to be better and stuff like that , that I maybe I might've had more success , Maybe it would have brought something out of me , but I don't think that I wouldn't have learned the lessons I've learned on my own and I wouldn't have

kind of stuck through it the way I stuck through it on my own . It's because of that passion , because I had this kind of like almost blind belief that what I was doing was going to lead me somewhere . Good , that I stuck with wrestling .

Like , rationally I shouldn't have wrestled in college , rationally , I should have went to St John's and went to law school or something . I went to Albany , I don't know , but I had this like I really had this faith that if I put the work in that it would lead me into the right place . And now it has . And I'll say one more thing about Pops .

So when I turned 18 , he basically told me that he's like , I don't have to like , I don't have to take care of you anymore . You know like . You know , um , you're like , you can go and do your own thing if you want . He's like , or , and basically we call it .

We call it like the contract or the agreement , like , we have an agreement pretty much , and I'm not going to get into the details about that with you , but basically you know he's like , you do the right thing , you stay out of trouble , you keep me in the loop . I got your back . You know he's like if you go off and you want to do things , you can .

You're a big boy , I'm not stopping you . But if you go out and do something and you don't involve me in it and then it bites you in the ass , don't call daddy to come bail you out . Yeah , you know that was basically the gist of it . Pretty much you know so . But now it's like listen you , you want to go in this direction ? I got you .

Um , I definitely wouldn't be able to train the way I'm training if I wasn't in the situation that I have with him . He's just always been there for me . Like I said , his first response is I'm always happy to see you , russell . One thing I hear from him every day is what do you need me to do ? You know , yeah , man .

It's the same guy on looking for a fight , you know what I mean . Like he's just , he's always that guy , the same personality that people fall in love with on the ultimate fighter , the same guy that we see every day . But you know , in those like conversations , just a little bit , you get to hear a little .

You know some other you get to like just kind of like it's the same person , but you get to hear some private things a little more personal , yeah , little more personal , yeah . So you know , it's very touching that . I got to experience that .

And , to make a long story short , we were just talking and you know like , obviously , right , I teach the kids class , I teach the noon class , I teach the wrestling class . Matt's my boss , matt pays me , you know .

So we were talking about money and he was just like saying like listen , you know , I just want to make sure you're saving your money and this kind of stuff , so on and so , and he was talking to me about , like , certain things and it was almost identical to the stuff that pops tells me about like putting my money in certain places and so-and-so .

And I went , you know , home like that day or the next day and I'm telling pops about that conversation and I'm like saying it's like almost worth what . I'm like did you tell Matt to say this to me or something ? He's like almost worth a word ? He told me the same stuff you tell me and he goes and what does that say to you ?

That he's looking out for you , like like he would for his own son . Yep , you know . So it's really powerful that relationship . The fact that a guy that had that belt around his waist sees me in that light , it's hard not to believe .

You're focused , you're excited , all the things that you want going into something like this you have . Yes , and I'm happy and proud to say that I'm a friend of yours and I'm excited to see you just do your damn thing again .

Oh yeah , it's going to be awesome , and I'm also very honored and privileged on the other side to capture the behind the scenes of you doing your thing as well . So that also means a lot to me . And , bro , on ending notes , what else can I end on with you that you want to let people know ? I may , actually I'm fucking starving .

I may go get the Fat Boy Burrito . I'm not going to lie . I was going to say I may go get the Fat Boy Burrito and eat a quarter of it and then put the rest in the fridge and then eat the other half tomorrow .

And I'm going to get my Fat Symphony , the Fat Symphony , may 20th , baby Fat Symphony . I'm very grateful to Fat Boys for doing that . Yeah , putting that together , it's awesome . I get a burrito named after me . We get money into the wrestling program , which is great .

And just to very briefly say this , I realized how fortunate I was to wrestle at Mass Peoples High School in a program where we have such a massive booster club , such a massive support behind our wrestling team .

The kind of things that we had available to us when I was wrestling in high school the kids I coach don't have available to them because , just you know , the money behind it . It's a big thing . So , hopefully , the Fat Symphony sold pretty well and we've got a little bit of a chunk of change to help our boys next season .

And you know , I'm shouting out my sponsor , fat Boys . I got to shout out Abe and Lifetime Chimney Supply . Abe is one of Matt's old school black belts , you know , quote Matt Serra . He's a loyal soldier man .

He's a really great dude and he has contributed so much to me in so many different forms In a sponsorship , in buying , buying tickets and buying shirts and I don't mean buying like one or two tickets , one or two shirts , I'm talking to like , you know , like he's done some , he's made some big contributions .

A really great guy , really happy to have his support . Byron Divens Capitol and Divens attorneys at law yeah , it's another man from the 7AM crew . I don't know if you know Byron from the 7AM crew . Another great dude . He's been with me since the first fight , thrown his support behind me , Never has anything but a smile and can't wait to see you do it .

Let me know when I can help out again . Uh , which is really awesome . And then actually , one of my silent sponsors is I got to give this guy a shout out to the mix . I'm not that silent but , uh , my very , very first sponsor , which is rich Schaefer . He's a town of Babylon supervisor he's . I made friends with him through Ricky , who's just a great dude .

You could even call him my therapist honestly , because literally he'll be like come over , sit down , we'll talk , okay , and we do so . The support from those guys has been amazing . And if I'm talking about sponsors , how am I not going to talk about Warrior Garden , which is another way in which Dr Nick and I have had a great relationship together ?

And you know Warrior Garden . You're going to see their logo and you're going to see Lifetime and Fat Boys and Divins on my shorts . You've always seen me repping Warrior Garden . You know a lot of the content .

We shoot'm repping warrior garden , sir um , and , as you may know , the philosophy behind warrior garden is it's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war .

And that has really been a testament to how I talked about being calm for the fight right .

That calmness , that stoicness , has really allowed me to have the sharpest blade I can , has allowed me to really hone my skills and one of the biggest things I had to learn we may have spoken about this last podcast one of the biggest things I had to learn , coming from a wrestling room to a jujitsu one , to a jujitsu room was how to be calm .

You know how to relax , how to take a deep breath and start seeing things . Yeah , you know so , um , obviously , no matter what Dr Nick named his company , named his , made his philosophy , I was going to be behind him because that's my boy , but I really do have a connection and a sentiment to warrior garden .

This is big episode number 97 , 97 , 97 Beethoven right before his May 2024 fight . That's right . I appreciate you , bro , and I appreciate everybody for listening . So , on that note , appreciate you , appreciate you , symphony continues , symphony continues , but for now peace .