0:00 [Music] welcome back to careful boys where we are indeed very careful boys very careful be careful guys today we are not careful where we have um well let's be honest nick has been opening up like a flower around here beautiful it only took six months we enjoy it yeah we gave him so many ████ chances he finally started open up so thank god 500 videos later yeah i still don't know what the ████ you guys are talking about high five on the camera 775 videos of nick not really talking now he opens up so but no it's honestly awesome but um we i we were talking a little bit and we're very curious about how you prepare for a fight day because like you know we all i've been watching ufc since like thousand ████ what six or something ████ win karate times yeah i did when it was like
0:50 bj and all those guys and and gsp and you know that's just me sounding cool yeah you know million dollar man bam bam bigelow bigelow dude wait what do you say what you're here but yeah how do you how do you prepare for a filing how many weeks out do you even start how do you choose what's day one what's day one of like i know i'm gonna fight somebody what's day one when i was fighting it was a very i was fighting amateur and it was really like loosey-goosey so there was a lot of times where i would they would say all right there's a day that everyone's gonna bring their fighters to a gym
1:40 and we're gonna find somebody to fight you that's how it goes so it'd be a pool of other gyms in the community saying hey we're gonna do some kickboxing fights on this saturday everyone pull up we're gonna find someone who is around my weight and you guys are gonna fight each other later this day so a lot of times oh so you wouldn't even know you wouldn't even know there was this is like this is like this is like a prohibition error and people are just trying to go out to the statute for work yeah it's like me me people just trying to yeah it's like they call them smokers or like exhibitions or something they would use all these legal names to just kind of work around because it's like for you to be able to fight in california it needs to be sanctioned by an athletic commission for it to be a whole ████ thing is this scarier uh in the preparation when you know who you're gonna fight or when it's just up and or if it's like a big question mark you know what's funny for me the younger i was and the earlier in my fight career
2:30 the more i was like not really nervous at all life is young and dumb yeah because and then yeah because at the time i was like dude yeah i'm gonna fight bro i'm gonna be ████ i'm so ████ tough blah blah blah because for me the reason why i started training in general is because you know i felt like i had like a chip on my shoulder i was like i didn't learn how to fight and i protect myself i'm gonna get my ass kicked all the time so i might as well learn how right so it was more of just proving myself that like oh i could ████ fight that's what it eventually came out to be but when i would go to these fights it was really scary because you're like ████ i don't know who i'm gonna fight a lot of the times too you would get intimidated by finding fighting someone who's like has more experience than you who's probably like like i remember i got matched up with a guy who had like seven fights and he was like actually pretty ████ good and i didn't know at the time and i ended up fighting him and
3:21 i only had like one fight under my belt oh ████ and he like he ████ me up in the first round and i was like god damn so when you're scheduled for that you're not sizing up your opponent you don't know anything about his history my my teammates purposely didn't tell me wow because they they don't want you to be like like low self-esteem dude because that's me all day i'm low self-esteem head case nick like negative nick like that's how i don't tell him i'm like i'm gonna i'm gonna get my ass kicked man really yeah that's me all the time a hundred percent so your coach would be like all right so who's nick's gonna fight he's like oh that guy over there he's like yeah oh dude the guy's real short don't worry about that and he was he was he's a short dude and i was like okay this would be a good fight and then he ████ clocked me the first punch he threw he closed my eye and then he the second one he threw my contact flew out so i couldn't see i was like ████ and i was like the first round man we were fighting someone's ████ backyard bro
4:12 and the ring was like the ring was as big as these tables bro like there's nowhere to run yeah kimbo sliced in the show what's going on it was yeah that's what the vibe was probably like right in those days when they say nick was a knockout artist he was like the one that gets knocked down bro he's like i could fall on this side how do you want me to get knocked out how can we put you over i'm gonna put you over that's what i'm here to do that that's exactly who i was yeah but i i actually won that fight surprisingly i thought you won that oh you won it i thought you said you lost well i got ████ up in the first round we were like blind yeah bro and it was purely off instincts and i just was like uh how many rounds was it and then when did you turn dude it was like it was in the middle of ████ like august and it was it was like 110 degrees out we were the last fight we were like 16 16th fight people walk into the car yeah dude honestly we were waiting so ████ long
5:03 to fight so already i just was like i didn't want to be there and i was like ████ and it was it was like the whole time you're going through this emotional roller coaster um so by the time you fight you're just like ████ it like by the time i fought every single time i was always like all right dude like let's just get this ████ over with like i just want to go home you're not hyping no more you're here yeah you're not really not hyped like i was like so fatigued you're not getting paid ████ i bet huh dude do you ████ wish you got paid in that fight though when you're getting ████ up and a contact flew out how did you like how did you turn that around in my head i was like don't get ████ up in front of your girl that's what i thought are your girls there and i remember i remember having deja vu was she screaming like oh no i remember like i got cracked and then i grabbed the dude and then i remember looking out to the crowd and i see like tiff and a couple my buddies like like steve green
5:54 embarrassed for you and i'm just like whoa and then because usually for me it's like once i got cracked i'd be like oh ████ we're fighting you know like this dude is really trying to so it doesn't turn on until you get hit for me at least which is probably a very bad strategy cause you're too friendly yeah yeah cause nick had no hype no for real like that's how it was and then i was like this guy's trying to ████ kill me and then like like i didn't ████ know the pretense right like i said does that like turn on the animal in you though is that like what i think for me it does like for me it did and then you grabbed his jacket you ████ turn it around i don't want trouble and then i don't want any trouble yeah rubble on the bronx's ass dude um but then that was like a kickboxing fight and then when i did i wasn't in the middle it was yeah it was an mma fight but how did you win how did you win that i just i just ████ kept punching my stomach and i just was like
6:44 i was like i couldn't really see you you ████ them up with one eye yeah well it was it was hard because i was like i just said all right i'm just gonna try to ████ knock this guy out and that's all i pretty much did like there was no strategy it's like because it's so primal at that time and you're and it's so fresh these are new skills i was probably kickboxing i was i started fighting maybe six months in wow i was ████ super fresh and in my head i was like everybody kicks my ████ ass in the gym i get beat up by everybody i don't know how the ████ i'm gonna win this fight and it's purely like your back is against the wall and someone's trying to knock you out and you're like all right i gotta do something and they put you up against the guy that has seven yeah he was like he was like six and one and my buddy my buddy had trained with him and was like yo we didn't want to tell you but this kid's really ████ good and i was like oh thanks dude thanks bro yeah you're awesome but that was for me like it was a validating moment from them how
7:35 did that fight get matched up though like how do you just from weight that's purely it and was it a decision by the judges no dude there's no ████ judge so how did you win like knockout like there's like three that like it was a decision so it was just i i just outlasted him that was it he started throwing up in the ring he threw up in the ring that's a pretty good decision and the ring's this big dude he threw up like in the afternoon as we're raising our hands he's like he's like throwing up holy ████ you push the pace do you think where he was like you kind of yeah well i think he was i thought he probably thought he was gonna walk right through me that's probably what it was over overconfidence ████ him up yeah and then i just kept ████ punching my stomach and then over time he just got more tired more tired and then it gave more openings for me as the time went on but at the time it was just like the only thing that was going through my head was like this is just what i do in the gym so i'm just going to do this
8:26 here that guy's name by the way jorge massa yeah what are you gonna do about it yeah after that fight after that fight did you get the bug you're like ████ you gotta keep doing this yeah but it also kind of got me a little more scared like oh ████ like this is because i saw after that fight i had like like crazy dehydration and at the time i thought it was a concussion ████ oh my god because i was like ████ up i couldn't drive home i was like ████ wrecked so it was like every time i would fight i would always feel these feelings and i was like man what the ████ is going on like if this is winning i don't know if i can handle this ████ right like so that would always be constantly in the back of my head and then once i started transitioning to mma it started getting a little more serious there was actual like fight camps where we would have a eight week training camp of like all right
9:16 this was through the commission so i had to get blood work i'd go get physicals from doctors and there was people that would come and actually sanction these fights so it was like real like there'd be walkouts and there'd be weigh-ins and all this ████ so there would be more things you have to do before the fight which is actually more like anxiety-inducing because the longer that ████ goes you're just like i just want to ████ fighter it i don't want to do none of this i don't want to have to do stand in my underwear and pose in front of a guy i didn't want to do any of that ████ i was like i just want to compete and that's it how hard is it to like you know you're going to fight someone but you don't gotta do all the ████ press right so like you have to go okay stand up you're like yeah well dude at that level yeah it's super awkward like one of my first fights right here's some just backyard going like this this is so funny okay so i was getting matched up with this this is my first
10:06 mma fight and in my head i was like dude i have to stare down with this guy i don't want to do that ████ i was like 19. yeah you know i was like i don't want to like look at me it's gonna be ████ weird in my head this is how i knew i wasn't gonna be a good fighter i was like i don't when i would train with new people or spar with new people i would rather want to be their friend rather than like ████ them up in training big teddy bear yeah like i didn't want to like ████ you up because i don't want to fight my friends in the gym because that's what it takes to like be competitive and be really good but i just want to hang out and like crack dick jokes i don't want to do all that ████ yeah yeah so i would square off with these dudes like right before we're gonna fight and in the picture it looks like i was like i don't want to look him in the eye so i'm sure he'll look down you're looking at his dick it looks like i'm looking at his ████ dick and this dude had a little chubber too so it looks like i'm just he's looking at me in the eyes and i'm like this
10:57 looking right at this ████ dick dude well it that's because back then it was winter ████ the loser and i ████ the losers that's when his ak was dick nunn yeah no but in that fight it was my first mma fight i was like really nervous because at the time i had a lot of insecurities about like my overall game and i was like i don't know if i'll be able to handle this ████ you're 19. i was like 19 probably like 19 or 20 at this time how many years of training and was this now this is probably like three years but in my head but in my head i'm like i'm ████ terrible like i should not be fighting like this is constantly playing in the back of my head why do you keep signing up for these fights because i don't know do people push you or you you're the one that's it's people pushing me like oh i think you should fight now i'm like my coach savant was like i think you're ready to do an mma fight and then my head i was like are you ████ kidding me i was like i don't feel ready at all for any of this ████ but there was still an ultimate like desire for you to find yourself in there when you're waking up
11:47 working out you're doing yeah we're doing the training camp we're training hard you're doing all you're doing i had to lose like 15 pounds in like a week and a half which was ████ terrible wait you've been training since high school since like after high school so like when i was like 17 i started starting oh ████ and then from there like what was the moment when someone was like yo you should actually compete instead of just like the rest of us that just train at the gym it was just based off the coaches right like the fact that they even put me in fights in general i was like really all right you think i'm ready okay ████ it and at the time i was like this is a goal of mine so obviously i'm gonna do whatever it takes to be able to to achieve that goal but when i when i started getting in these fights like dude i don't want to do any of that ████ i was ████ freaking out all the time i was like scared and even after i would like the my first mma fight i won like i
12:39 didn't really feel like i was like that was it because it happened so quick you the build up on everything is just takes ████ all day quick guys in like a habit and in the first round like you got to do the press you got to do all this ████ there's all this anxiety and then when you actually get to the fight you're like three minutes in the first round it's over two minutes in my first mma fight it finished and you won because you won yeah but then even morning but even the way it happened was very like underwhelming in my head i was like i thought that was an early stoppage i don't think the ref pulled me off a little too soon like i bet like in my like that's just how it's not good enough nick in his head 100 do you relate to when uh you know mike tyson like they asked him like how come you went crazy back then he goes man he's just training for like 16 weeks you become this machine of war and then you you just kill the guy in the first round so when i'm i'm not done with that yeah yeah and then he goes like i have to go
13:30 to the gas station and beat up people because i've been training yeah like he's just so ████ hyped for like 16 weeks and that's when i realized that i don't relate to that where i was like i'm not a pilot and that's when i quit yeah honestly like it's it's like little ████ like that and it wasn't and then like i had a good success in my fights like i would i won like three fights up until this point and the whole time i'm telling myself you're gonna ████ lose why are you even doing this ████ this is crazy blah blah and then the final mma fight that i had i actually lost and going kind of back to that topic that we talked about that's where i learned the most that's where i really felt like this is where the real growth and that's the birth of the knockout artist yeah that's when i was like i'm gonna get ko'd in everything every time what was it about the the loss that like because i went in there so confident
14:20 i thought i had i had checked all the boxes i thought i did everything i needed to do and then i lost by just getting held down by this guy who just didn't make weight you know like i i just got held down for three rounds i almost beat him in the last round and then i just was like that fired me up like i was like oh ████ i need to train i need my rest yeah like that's when i was like okay i need to start doing more jiu jitsu more wrestling and really dive deep into that and then once i kind of went down that rabbit hole that's when i kind of started seeing like other outlets and more coaching and understanding the game as a whole rather than just like i'm a fighter yeah exactly like looking at it from like a macro perspective and i feel once i pulled back a little bit then i started to have a little bit more fun and love for the game and coaching and and like
15:10 seeking self-improvement rather than like just wanting to beat people up in a weird way like i don't know it's like it's like a weird explanation it was less of an outlet and more of a discipline exactly in a lot of ways and i think once that happened for me that's when i started really getting a lot more from the sport and like actually training were you the guy that told me you ████ up a restaurant worker because they didn't have anybody to fight that day and they had a smoker fight and then they didn't oh no that was my teammate that was like one of the first they pulled like a chef or someone to just fight it was it was that indian reservation in saboba oh yeah i remember those and like the king of the cage it was similar it was called gladiator challenge oh yeah this is like the same thing it's super simple yeah and one of my buddies it was my first fight that i cornered uh my buddy for and the guy the day of the fight
16:00 the guy he was gonna fight just didn't show up nobody showed up and we're like all right he ████ up a waiter dude he's like you're gonna you're gonna fight 10 minutes you don't have a fighter so then they kept asking corner men and other like the people in the crowd this is what they would do over there they would they would go to the crowd and be like hey do you want to fight for like 200 bucks 200 bucks dude that's how it would go down bro and they asked this guy who was a corner man and he this guy's fighting in cargo like shorts what year is this this is i remember this this was the this was the exact day where anderson silva broke his shin oh that was wild so it was probably what like 2014 2016 wow no 2015 ish i think so it wasn't like that long ago yeah but it just shows what a like crazy time the
16:51 sport was my buddy fought some random guy and this would happen all the time like yeah but what did that random guy win no he got ████ up i was like i was like what a crazy story though they put it in bitcoin he's a millionaire there you go you're fighting a train killer man the fighting is ████ it's it's really not for everyone hey what's your thoughts what's your thoughts about cte because every time we talk about fighting now it's it's kind of creeping in the conversation that's part of the reason why i stopped fighting for sure oh it's it's just the brain um trauma brain trauma from not just from concussions yeah yeah it's like i think it's a protein that develops from brain trauma and it ████ your ████ up oh really is that it is a protein they're finding out so much about cte like unfortunately the death of athletes and football and yeah yeah mma even is yeah that's going to be next yeah for sure yeah because i've seen a
17:42 lot of people like old ogs in the game come train with us and people that we used to watch like coming up in a sport who are legends and then they just have really weird behaviors like in day to day conversation with and like just interacting with them and hanging out with them you're like oh this is the dark side of fighting this is the ████ cost that it takes it because dang when you're getting punched in a ████ head like that even in training i mean you're getting punched constantly dude in training that's when you get those are all the injuries i got were in training guys who were just trying to ████ you up and you know way bigger guys just not take care of people in the gym and then poor gemetic hit and then then i got like a bunch of concussions and i started feeling those effects which is how i mean like for me the last concussion i got which was really what
18:32 like ████ scared me away from all of this ████ was like i got i didn't even get knocked out or anything i just got hit in the back and head and i was just sparring with a couple of dudes and they were going really hard and at the time i was probably like 140 pounds and the guys were like 240 220. dude and the the drill was hey we're going real light like pitter patter boom boom boom i know where to just ████ crack you oh and his name is david so yeah but honestly that's how it will kind of go like ████ like that where incidental contact where you weren't trying to do that but then things escalate and all of a sudden we're ████ fighting in the gym dude you know we're full on like dude you crack me i'm gonna ████ try to knock your ass out too let's go probably not the smartest thing to do you know and that's why you sometimes you need good coaches to be able to regulate that turn it down yeah and to and to make sure people stay on pace but
19:22 after those like i remember later that night i finished training i felt fine and then at dinner like i started getting the concussion effects and like lights are really bright and i was feeling nauseous went home threw up a bunch oh ████ and then massive ████ headache and then um just feeling like kind of really delirious really scared too because you're like ████ and at the time it was probably like the fourth one i had so i was really freaking out and i already had thoughts of like ████ what am i even doing and then once your family sees you that way that's another ████ like guilt trip so you're a coach now so how does that emotion or that experience translate into like how you train your students because you know what i mean like those things happen and you kind of want to get out but now you're also like coaching people that might potentially i'm in my head i'm being the coach for my students the way i wish i was brought
20:14 up in the game just like everyone else right like just passing on better methods because only because mma in combat sports in general is pretty young yeah so if you could just bring a little bit of insight to the coaching methods and how you bring up new athletes in the game they could have that you could service them pretty well a good example is like when i started training with nick and his crew the culture is so different from all the karate places and like things that i've experienced because traditionally it's always been ████ just tough at the ████ out like i even visited a full contact uh karate gym and i got my ribs broken by bad training because dudes just kick the ████ out of you yeah whereas like when you're training with this dude it's like they go hard and they're great fighters but they're also not trying to win a world title belt while practicing right and and the the
21:05 gym culture isn't a bunch of dudes trying to kill each other every day and even the one where me and bart went to our sensei was pretty old school where he would just be like hey you go fight this guy he goes but this guy he's like way ████ bigger and crazy and they're like so i just want to watch it it's fun yeah like they'll do stupid ████ like that all day long did i see him i've seen the video of bart being the ████ of like a five five hundred ████ he was mugging this guy dude and he got a belt for him he got promoted for it unbelievable it's almost like toughness over science that's what i don't like and part of it though like you need that ████ a lot of times like you could there's times and places where you just need to have hard ████ training bro like there's you can't substitute it because it gives you a type of grit
21:55 that that science doesn't teach you you get exactly and then there's the time and place for it but isn't some of this like it's being like kind of too uh oh man i'm a man and ████ hundred percent cause like when i was doing jewelry karate you turn your head like that and i'm like oh ████ hold on dude that's me bro that's what i can beat yeah like i'm like trying to do forms to music and i'm like whoa wait oh whoa i turn my head a little too fast i gotta pull the flag man i gotta i'm dizzy i don't know what i'm doing to my brain i do remember when i was in taekwondo and you know you're like ████ 11 years old but you're like a second-degree black girl for no reason because you as long as you pay you get the ████ okay that's pretty baller though but but i would ████ like kind of beat people in in my ████ age range so then my you know you know what's happening the the the master
22:45 would ████ spar with me but i'll find a spot with you and kick me once until my wind was out i'd be crying on the floor and that would be the end of my entire day yeah and i'm sorry why would you do that he's trying to humble you dude i'm like 11 years old you're a black belt with like 17 black stripes because of 17 weeks paid and he just kicks the ████ out 17 degrees get more money dude he's just like hey you still gotta pay more baby [Music] foreign
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