Fighting A Woman For $1M, Ukraine War & Gordon Ryan - Craig Jones

Why Craig is Hated by BJJ I have to say I'm not that interested in Brazilian jiu-jitsu as the sport itself kind of complex to work out what's going on but I've have been pretty captivated by what's happened over the last few months I mean yeah full-time trolling that's my that's my commitment at this point you got I mean you're right the sport is uninteresting but it's full of weird characters I can provoke and make it interesting on a surface level some of the strangest most serious people in the world that take what they do very seriously but for me it's a bit weird it's a bit gay it's a bit easy to poke fun out so that's my Target in life why do you think Brazilian jiujitsu attracts such a particular subset of people I mean it's a good question I think some of the people were bullied so it's like an empowerment thing but then when you climb the ranks and get to the top it's meant to kill your ego but it gives you a bit of power and then these guys take it very seriously obviously in the kimonas they tie the belts they've worked hard for it so I love to provoke also it looks weird and they're self-conscious about that so me I'd rather Embrace that than push back on it right because there's no way that you can roll around with another man for up to 45 minutes and it not be a little bit like what are we doing here yeah 100% so it's like everyone's not enjoyed that aspect of it but me I own it I'm comfortable with it you know like we have to get used to having someone's balls in our face you know we're sweating each other's mouth it is what it is we should laugh at it you're Public Enemy Number One right now kind of what have you done for the people that don't know what's happening right now in the world of grappling what have you done yeah I mean I have I have a friend I'll say a friend it's anonymous source or maybe I made made the money through other means obviously we've been going to Ukraine we've going to different countries where uh perhaps there's different sources of funding I've been in Dubai you know like some go get a handbag I come back with a few million you know um and I've used this money to basically support the sport so I've decided to throw a tournament where we're going to give away a million dollars to the two divisions under 80 kilos over 80 kilos and that is a hundred times more than sort of the other event that people consider the Olympics of our Sport and I've decided to throw it the same weekend to sort of make the athletes choose because it's a what's what's worth more The Prestige of a long running tournament or money and I think it's money and it seems to be proving that proving that way basically why is the sport of BJJ so poor why is everyone in it so broke I mean for the same reason you don't watch it I think you know like I think most average fans rather watch MMA it's a sport you only really watch if you participate in whereas MMA is a sport that people enjoy to watch and have no interest in participating in it at all so our audience is sort of capped but the sport is is growing so there is some money in it like we make money off instructionals seminars um if you have some some funny jokes on Instagram you know you can make some money too so the money is there the audience is there sometimes they'll sell 10 to 15,000 seats at an arena and obviously they're streaming riots so there is money there it just in competition doesn't really funnel back to the athletes why that's the question right they said that uh these events are non-profitable who's they who's they tournament organizers for liability which you are now now I've now become the the cabal I've become the sleazy from Odo but my point will be to try and prove that you can do it and you can compensate the athletes that'll be my point with this tournament yeah so what do the existing tournament Runners say like Daddy needs a new car or well that's it so I don't know I don't I mean I don't think they're taking the money I think it's just uh they use it in places that we don't need fireworks you know like uh the over-the-top production expensive Arenas when we're not there yet those sort of things like uh I mean like to ran a place like T-Mobile I believe is $2 million has someone done an event there is that where the next ADCC is that's where the next ADCC is right so we went and booked the old ADCC venue for basically the same weekend they'll still have the opportunity to watch ADCC finals will'll be Friday Saturday they'll be Saturday Sunday I wanted to do that for two reasons so that the fans could watch the finals on Sunday and so I could enjoy Las Vegas on Saturday night [Laughter] so it's way less of an exciting conspiracy if the main reason that the money can't get funneled down to athletes is that like entrepreneurial incompetence oh yeah I would imagine so because it's like I I feel like if you can sell 15,000 seats there should be some profit what's the sort of ticket price I mean I mean obviously resale has got nothing to do with them but in terms of the value some of the resales are $7,000 perhaps maybe not anymore I don't know but yeah I mean there's a lot of entrepreneurs in the sport like I work on a ton of things you know like uh one thing for example that you might be interested in is sunglasses so we've re-engineered the sunglasses and I think you enjoy this right I want to see if you can notice there's an extra special feature have you ever been in a situation where you've desired both sunglasses and a tiny spoon at the same time where's the tiny spoon on the end so obviously me as an athlete very important to monitor my sugar content so when I have a coffee I want to put in a micro dose of sugar straight into my coffee and that spoon is the perfect tool to do that so these are the sort of ideas that I utilize to get funding for these events you know you're obscene you're like a manace you're a menace to everything shout out to Oscar and Frank obviously yeah I mean yeah I'm trying I'm trying to disrupt everything you know Jiu-Jitsu sunglasses whatever I can you know why so just going back to the sort of state of Brazilian jiu-jitsu you don't need to be a fan of it to know Are Martial Arts Lame? that it's very popular you know it is kind of the Bedrock that underlies much of UFC and of UFC success like wrestling striking BJJ all like ground game grappling stuff is given that BJJ I think is the final maybe wrestling as well but it doesn't have quite the same Heritage from a martial arts perspective when you think martial arts you're probably thinking like karate maybe some sort of kickboxing style thing and BJJ given that BJJ is probably the most prominent popular one of that is it kind of making all martial arts seem a bit lame I think so I think martial arts are kind of lame you know what I mean like they just are lame but they are fun you know so like I think jiu-jitsu's become a little more cool recently it's a very cool sport luckily we've uh stolen some celebrities that enjoy participating in the sport you know what I mean uh that helps us a ton and when we can get super fights with UFC guys and that really helps us but I think Jiu-Jitsu is cool cuz it's a hobby you can do where you're not going to take brain damage MH and I think that's the most fun about it that's that's why a lot of like uh business execs CEOs obviously Anonymous Rich sources of funding enjoy the sport because they don't want to take head trauma but they like some form of combat sport they still need to be able to function mentally but I don't want to feel like a [ __ ] exactly yeah they want the they want to get some aggression out without real long-term consequences I guess to the brain yeah just go back to explaining to me of for people that don't know the sort of mentality that is attracted to Brazilian jiu-jitsu especially in the upper achons of the sport ah so I mean the biggest determining factor for Success would probably be some level of autism that's very important for a singular focus in this sport usually we can correlate social skills with your abilities in the sport the higher those social skills are the it diminishes really your ability to physically perform in Jiu-Jitsu that's wasted in this sport that's what you'd see if you would have talked to most people on the jitu mats but then really the Great equalizer would be steroids if you give these guys steroids CU we don't test don't enough money to test that actually gives these people with poor social skills a lot of confidence and those are really the people that run the sport if you could give them a steroid that also allowed them to maintain eye contact do you think that that would decrease their ability in the sport massively well I mean that's why I regret the sunglasses being clear like it would be good if they couldn't show that they were hiding on contact you know that's a that's a future future endeavor it definitely seems to be when you look from the outside I spent what 90 minutes on Christmas Day watching your guys's Vlog around Japan oh yeah which I thought was fantastic that was so much fun I know your favorite part which bin the vending machine the vending machine do you want to explain to people what you did what you found in Japan well I mean that's what I like to do when I'm traveling around if I hear about something a bit weird I'm going to investigate I consider that a bit of journalistic Integrity you know and really a personal interest this one was Japan there was always the thing that sold used underwear in vending machines I've personally sold used underwear on only fans but in terms of uh using the vending machine to distribute those I think that's probably a much more efficient system and they had variations of those underwear I can't remember actually what the variations were one of them was period blood that was the one I selected but there were obviously varying ages of also those panties and we found it in a basement of a five or six story sex store so I I started at the top I worked my way down and we found in the basement I bought it thinking I don't know what I was thinking but I didn't think it would smell like it smelled and still describ the smell exactly as You' anticipate but a little bit stronger but we opened it up outside like I immediately smelled the bowl and it was sealed in plastic and it still smelled terrible it like opened like a like there was a toy inside and then when we went outside and we took it out of the plastic it was it's it had a radius around me the smell right rated and the problem is there was a terrorist attack in Japan and there's not a lot of trash cans so once I committed to opening this it was very difficult to find it took me 15 minutes to find somewhere to dispose of it so I had to walk around Tokyo and like even my teammates were keeping a distance from me like that that smelled so bad so that would actually be a really great solution for any Brazilian jiu-jitsu athlete who doesn't want to have to have any social contact or make eye contact with another person to kind of have this permanently on them at all times as a safety perimeter that's true that it's actually a good idea I think if you were a celebrity to see how committed the fans were to getting a photo with you have you seen there's a special kind of anti- mosquito um device and you kind of turn it on it lights a tiny little blue flame and it makes this orb kind of like that and you see these really committed mosquitoes and they'll fly toward it and they and they'll really struggle and then they get super close and then they die that kind of be the equivalent that would work as well that would work as well I've always thought about this this is probably a poor a joke in very poor taste right is like I travel around I train and people try to kill me every gym I go to and they really want to roll with me no matter what so like some gyms I go to I'll be like guys like uh I've got staff ringworm and they're still committed and I've always thought how committed are they if I would to tell one of them I had HIV would they still ask for the rounds that's the ultimate test I think that would achieve a similar thing I subbed Craig Jones and got HIV in Thailand like you got a great t-shirt you yeah you got something to remember the trip by you know don't say you didn't get lasting memory going back to your new Craig’s NonProfit Tournament competition why is it owned by a nonprofit uh Jiu-Jitsu doesn't make a profit so we figured why not make it a nonprofit but we're going to turn it into I mean we're using the money to donate to charity or charitable Endeavors we showed you before the show a little video put it up now [Music] he guys I've got a huge surprise for you today we've got the second best Grappler in the whole world here his name is Craig Jones dad you came back why did you leave me obviously very serious thing we're doing there but yeah travel show traveling around uh helping sort of underprivileged kids through Jiu-Jitsu and stuff obviously there's some jokes in there but we are really doing something good with that what do you what are the causes that you're giving the money to uh well anything in sort of like we gave some of the athletes the choice so Fon Davies was one of the first athletes that signed and she wanted to donate a portion of the ticket sales uh to the people in Gaza so we're like yep go for it so like in terms of the tournament we'll give some of them the choice but we also use it to fund some personal documentaries and stuff like obviously I've been traveling around to some crazy places and also want to do some good we're just in the Philippines we're able to helps some uh the kids eat jollybee they love jollybee out there like a f it's a crazy fast food place where they have both fried chicken and spaghetti on the same plate and sound fantastic actually you think that' be in America that's but I don't think it is everyone wants to know where you got the money from you keep on giving different answers to where you got the money from is the donor is the the the job of that is just keep keep source of money Anonymous yeah I mean it's it's like obviously going to be lot of speculation that's fine but the guy donating uh he wants to remain anonymous because people are going to bombard him asking him for money asking him for different things you know he prefer to stay Anonymous and it allows me to be a little mysterious with the source of money you know like obviously I've been to Ukraine it's a good joke everyone thinks wasting American taxpayers over there maybe I went over there and found some you know I don't know ADCC is the sort of incumbent prestigious competition happens every two years how did they [ __ ] it so badly how I mean I don't know I think just like I think most people's heart is always in the right place you know what I mean the road to hell is paved with good intentions I just think they wrongly assumed that they could maintain the same purse they've had since day one and continue it as the sport grew and it's like if we went from a basketball stadium with maybe one to 200 people there to now selling out 10,000 plus seed Arenas to knowing the streaming rights for this event are obviously going to be a large figure too like it doesn't make sense to me how the grais pay cannot change at least some token gesture amount you know what I mean like it was 10K in 99 it's 10K in 2024 despite now it's a popular event people flow in whose purse 10K that's the prize money to win four matches at ADCC and you get the same money to just show up and and $1 $1 we threw $1 in on top I contributed that dollar personally but so that's a total of what like there's 32 Fighters I three $32 into to the poll you know that's very charitable of you very giving generous in tax deductible non that's important for the nonprofit so I watched uh one of the tets do a video last night um and my housemate helped do some conditioning work for them and he said that ever since he's known both of them their only goal has been to go to ADCC all I want to do like that's the dream they grew up watching this the videos I think they've been training since they were four years older like something insanely young he then wins ADCC trials growling event trials he had to face some top level competition yeah and then decides to abscond from ADCC to come and do your event instead for the Craig Jones Invitational yeah um I mean that just says you know like I again people say ADCC is the Olympics of our sport the Olympics everyone around the world knows what an Olympic gold medal means Olympics is universal around all countries of the world a UFC title I consider the same thing ADCC no one knows what ADCC is has no intrinsic value unless you're already involved in the sport so that's the way I see it is really the prestige isn't enough to keep guys like the Tacker Brothers in there when they could potentially win 100 times the prize money and we're going to stream it free on YouTube so in terms of how many eyes are going to be on it going to be much more eyes exposure growth of platform do you think ADCC will ban anyone who doesn't compete there to come and compete at yours do you think that in future they're just not going to be allowed back and they won't get another invite I don't think so CU I think that would just be a bad look I think it would be bad it wouldn't make business sense to do that what I think and I think he's they've said this is basically that if you won the trials or if you were an invitee and you elected to my event then you just have to win the trials again which guys like the Tacker Brothers don't care they're young they're like oh we'll give this a crack and ADCC will always be there and they're like what they're happy to do the trials again they're happy to earn their place again we're just waitting another two years have you heard anything from inside of the ADCC Camp about what the response has been like to you doing this no but I can't imagine it's positive you know but it's a bad day when you wake up to that Instagram post he's probably like who the [ __ ] gave this asso some money you know I think that's probably probably the energy yeah well it's it's nice that people who have insane ideas are usually limited by their resources and then it's a big problem when they have enough money to be able to do what they want yeah as is evident by if you if you combine having nothing to lose with spending someone else's money big big things can happen my God yeah I so what I found particularly interesting about that tacket situation was it just shows how attractive I mean a million dollars is attractive to anybody right like it doesn't matter but that to show the purse being bigger than to win four matches and then you know a 100 times more to actually be able to win the whole thing is it a million dollars for under 85 and over 85 so under 80 kilos over 80 kilos million million yep and then no second place I'm punishing the only medal I could get so the difference between the difference between first and second 990,000 so like I think that's cool I'm also scared about the 99,999 exactly but I'm scared about the risk of injury because what guy with no money is going to tap when it's a million on the line so hopefully some of that 10K they spend on uh health insurance go to a new knee yeah I mean you'd lose it I guess I mean someone would for a million they lose it they don't tap for Less guys at ADCC don't tap for the potential to win 10K how much is that driving you know money we I see on UFC the sort of older videos of the guys Conor McGregor like 60 G's baby like all of that stuff just how much a fight is driven by money in that way cuz I think from the outside you think professional athlete probably got sponsorships probably got a you know all of these different sources of income and yet it's evident that money is a big source of stress for guys that are in the sport yeah I think people just want to have enough money to not worry about having to earn money you know what I mean especially as athlete athlete you're like a stripper you got a shelf life you know you better make the money where you can that's how I see it so it's like these guys want that the red rose would care to disagree about the shelf life of strippers that's true it's amazing what lighting can do but yeah I mean they just want to I mean tets are pretty noble like when when I spoke to them it wasn't about their money it was about their family money basically giving back to their family for taking care of them for so long which is pretty noble what you really want to do is put two people into the same category together and then just have a cartel agreement to say we'll just split it at the end that's twice as much chance of being able to win yeah and I'm basically there's only I mean if you're a blood relative that's the only reason I'd allow you to I think split the money but that match at the end better be real because if anyone from that are just friends make it to the final like and they you considered that for sure I'm going to warn them and I'm probably warning them right now it's like uh this isn't 50k going to your account if we send you a million 500 moves and we hear about it it's going to be built into the contract that's like that's really not good for the legitimacy of the event so probably I imagine legal consequences to that we got to keep the event pure which I mean Why Craig is Fighting a Female obviously it is about purely Sport and not entertainment which is why I've decided to participate in the event and rebuild the battle of the sexus and decide to take on a 6'4 250b 11 time world champion female Grappler of the sport who's that Gabby got here in other news this episode is brought to you by create creatine gummies creatine is an unbelievable supplement across thousands and thousands of 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mythology and history is around you and Gabby Garcia I mean first and foremost a lot of sexual tension that would I would say that's one of the main driving sometimes depends what hour of the day it is but definitely yeah I mean she's just the most accomplish Grappler female Grappler ever I mean maybe really if you combine sex is maybe the most accom Grappler ever me personally just a dude that's never won anything and I remember one event a girl called her out a flow grappling event at wo and she did some crazy interview after where she's like anyone calls me out I'll take that match I was like will you let's do it and then we had this big buildup we had like an arm wrestling match he won the arm wrestling match and now after two and a half years of foreplay it's finally come to fruition how strong was she in the arm wrestling match stronger than me y that's for sure so I mean we're going to find out she is outside of your weight category how much heavier is she than you I mean she's real particular about her weight so I better be careful here but let's just say that's a that's a large strong muscular woman you know I'm going to do this match I mean many guys would be would pay to wrestle around with her you know you're doing it for free I'll do it for Noble purposes I'll do it for charity what is the rule set between you and Gabby we're gonna do three five minute rounds one minute break in between we changed the rules up for the event because we wanted to appeal to MMA audiences because it's a broader portion of the general public so it's like we want to still keep the Jiu-Jitsu scoring kind of as it is because Grapplers don't like especially only two months out they don't like a big change they don't want to have to PR prepare for something crazy so we'll do basically in Jiu-Jitsu you score points so like we'll have the judges on the side sort of score points along the traditional scoring systems and if there's a fourpoint differential we'll represent that as MMA scoring like a 108 it's a close around 109 we can take a point easy and we're going to put it in a structure inspired by karate combat karate combat have a square pit they call it the pit we're inspired by this because a lot of problems with other tournaments is elevated platform guys either crash off the stage or like it's it's actually pretty dangerous or if the mats are just on the ground they crash into the judges table some people think that's cool it's dangerous for the athletes so the karate combat guys really came up with this angled wall there's nowhere to go there's very few referee sort of interactions so we're inspired by that and we spent a lot of money to set up a rectangular like a basically a much bigger version of that so we don't want to have bigger like more space like rectangle and 30X 40 and we we're calling this the alley because first and foremost I believe you only go to a back alley for two reasons fighting or [ __ ] sometimes both just to loop back to Gabby Garcia for a second is there an adjustment to your game plan that you need to do given that this is a MF I mean I don't train much now so I don't anticipate me training too hard for this one well I mean we'll see we'll see we'll see what happens like a lot of people out there really think like oh this big woman's going to take you out and it's like we'll see I just I I have no idea about the capacity of a woman a female BJJ fighter rated for strength like if you make them the same size make them similar sort of strength uh as a guy do a q shaped pelvis mean that they can get into rubber guard more efficient I don't know do you know what I mean like are the things that girls can do structurally biome mechanically that guys can't yeah I mean now you're concerning me with the thoughts of what she can do you know um obviously I have to subscribe to only fans to really get into detail there but she doesn't look too flexible but we will find out we will test her flexibility come August 16th 17th okay so you've got a huge big Getting People to Compete rectangle alley the back alley yeah um you rather than going for a a trial style selection process you just used your sort of editorial ability to try and get people like to lure them in yeah had I mean we first and foremost No One Believes anything I say so we had to kind of really emphasize that it was real it was very hard to convince people that this was really happening and that's where the tacket are good cuz those are just good kids that really like for them to be a part of it legitimizes the whole thing you know it's not we not we didn't announce a celebrity first we didn't announce like uh someone people like Luke rockold or whatever yeah we saved rockold for a little a little bit later later but yeah I mean right now we've got the tacket Nikki Ryan Joseph Chen Nikki Rod we've got Luke rockold will yeah William and Andrew Tacker we got Fon Davies we're trying to work on a super fight for her um and that's it but obviously I'm talking to everyone we're working on what's your inbox like right now I mean yeah it's uh sadly more male Grapplers than usual you know but it's it's busy man I've been on the phone nonstop hey just having to explain the rules having to prove that it's real but I mean it's funny when you throw a million dollars on the table some people that didn't like you are suddenly like brother po let's talk well it's uh it's interesting to think how big of a deal this is in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and I think this is what I meant before the sport itself holds like limited interest to me I once watched like some super fight match that lasted 45 minutes and one of the guys gave up uh at the end oh yeah yeah um but everybody knows drama everyone can get into oh this is like an incumbent thing and then there's a new thing and there's this game of rivalry and and you need to make a value judgment which where do I want to be do I want to be here do I want to be there like that's something that anybody can understand like that's a a narrative out the Kardashians or whatever and that makes it I think more compelling and it creates characters and it creates Intrigue yeah I mean I think it's good I mean competition is good it is a even between competitions exactly I think it's really good you know it forces both events to have to do something more contribute more obviously we have to we have a lot to prove for this there's a lot on the line if it turns into the fire Festival I'm going into hiding in Kazakhstan or something but isn't Billy McFarland fighting at karate combat this week is that this week you know th right yeah I the guy that founded fire Festival someone told me oh that's right he's meant to have a fight actually is this true cuz someone told me this the other day and I was like the guy that was in jail for fire Festival is fighting at karate Combat on Thursday in Austin I mean believe it or not that's actually our event organizer I should know what you mean Billy Billy he's the guy that funded it he's the dude with the million dollars I'm sure you do it at a discounted rate as long as Blink 182 play um would you let Gordon fight if he said that he wanted to come over I'd let anyone do it yeah you know obviously I got the Custom Gold CG Jones Invitational ring he'd have to kiss but for sure I'd let him in you know what if he said that he had to fight you would you do it for a super fight I mean you've already got Gabby on the table I think I got a bigger match you know we're doing something crossing the mainstream Battle of sexist you know this is gender equality talk to me about sort of Gordon's role as the figurehead for the Gordon Ryan’s Influence on the Sport sport because he is super dominant you know sort of the Lewis Hamilton a couple of years ago in F1 where kind of wasn't didn't really seem like that much of a a competition um does this help to make it more interesting well what I think is most funny about this so Gordon unquestionably best grapper in the world had many health issues disappeared he comes and goes He battles health issues comes back competes beats everyone for sure beats everyone but he's controversial figure uh just I mean he says crazy [ __ ] online like he's got strong conservative uh political beliefs but I mean if you would to look at his Instagram it's a Facebook dad Republican page you know what I mean that's the sort of stuff he's sharing nonstop and he's I would say money obsessed and uh I would say he's kind of um I would say insecure you know I think anyone that takes offense to jokes that are like light-hearted I find them a little insecure or like uh he bites he bites all the time and like you would understand this Americans take the bait we roast each other like I've said worse things to my friends and relatives than I've said about Gordon Ryan but these guys Take debate and that's the game for us you know we love throwing something out if someone overreacts that's what I live for that's that's fun to me so it's like Gordon in terms of this tournament this tournament is the ultimate bait because we're talking about free free market competition it's good according to his political beliefs we're talking about money loves money there's 100 times more money in this but he has to choose to stay with the old tournament or go to the tournament of someone he hates does he hate you I think so yeah I think so do you hate him I don't hate him I love the I love that he exists you know I love that he exists It's Entertainment you know I mean we used to train together we used to I would say we were friends like we would train together we wouldn't hang out after training or anything so I think it's like we're training Partners weren't close friends what how much of Jiu-Jitsu culture do you think is Downstream from Gordon and John and kind of that culture that they've created yeah for sure massive influence probably for the last seven seven eight years massive influence on the sport um and it's they really broke new barriers by making noi more popular and more respected everyone used to do the ghee and the ghee guys used to win most of the noi tournaments and then danah her's crew came along as kind of noi only guys and started to win and they started to use new techniques so created a really cool story John is like some serial killer that got away with it he has a interesting like he wears rash cards all the time he has a weird personality you know but it's like captivating philosophy Professor originally or something wasn't he yes yeah so he he's got I mean obviously with all the university and college he can teach well he knows how to teach people you know and he he's coached GSP so he's a good coach so like you throw in all these factors and you create this Empire that they have today and like he even uses Japanese terminology you know it's like whether it's intentional or not it's really good marketing really good marketing so lends sort of credibility and Mystique a little bit to what's going on yeah he takes what people already doing he teaches in a really high level way changes the name a little bit really good really good marketing and obviously his students back up that with results yeah if you didn't have a guy that was super dominant it would just be a bloke using weird terms that weren't effective exactly and that's the funny thing is like he's like a car he's like your cheesy martial arts character that you're like his personality should be that of a guy that's not a good coach cuz most of the time guys like that with that eccentric personality he's got injuries so he never compet he can't train like guys like that in martial arts typically raise a lot of red flags but his students produce good results so it becomes this conundrum of like like the legitimate Steven Seagal exactly yeah he's it's like a he has a Steven SEO mythology about him but the results back it up what do you think Gordon will do because if you rip the ass out of everyone that's competitive at ADCC the legitimacy of the ADCC competition then goes away what's left to do he'll still do ADCC is that your if you were to put money on the T some of your big wads of cash yeah that's not in my house anymore for the record um yeah he will still do ADCC it's uh it's funny a lot of people like uh have loyalty to what they have accomplishments in you know like when noi started booming a lot of the ghee guys were worried that their accomplishments were suddenly going to be forgotten now because if you create a new event with a new name more prestigious was potentially 20 years people be like what the [ __ ] that you know like so there's always going to be push back when something new comes in and steals well not steals but just gives athletes the choice so it's like there's always going to be push back I mean even Gordon's mom was in my inbox talking about how prestigious ADCC is I know Gary tonin's mom was commenting on some post and I was just like I personally think your tournament's in trouble if your mom's defending it you know what I mean I'd kill my mom if you was defending my 2 line I'd be like hey [ __ ] tone it down that's I'm 32 years old can look after myself yeah [ __ ] hell um yeah it's I think it's it's created a really fascinating story Philosophy of Life-Changing Money between the decision of this lineage and it it asks genuinely does you might have to ask John for the answer but it asks a interesting sort of philosophical question around what does prestige and lineage actually mean like what are people in this sport for when there is something very sort of real and tangible placed in front of them which is seven figures of cash yeah it's like it's life-changing money and like one of Go's arguments was that like he's like million dollars that's easy to make you know he's like do some sem sell some instructionals but the reality is is like I mean if you come from Brazil uh you do have a disadvantage in the markets in which we make the most money because you have a language barrier sometimes these guys have Visa barriers you know like Gordon grew up in New Jersey close to John Dano I'm not denying that he put in the work to get where he is but that's lucky that's lucky for me I grew up in Adelaide I didn't even train with a black belt to Purple belt like I wasn't exposed I just wasn't in the vicinity of a mind like John danaher to shape me from a younger age I had to work a lot of jobs side hustles so Wonder way to get to where I am today and if I think about the bra I in the sport they can win ADCC but if they can't utilize a marketable style and they can't express themselves well in interviews the idea of them making a million dollars is going to be very difficult and even if they grew up in sort of poor areas they're not going to have access to people able to teach them business skills marketing skills those things are much more difficult for them and a million US Dollars going back to Brazil is going to go a long way that's going to change their family's lives so it is a t lifechanging amount of money for them for Gordon a million really is probably a million instructional sell but the amount of people that do that not many so for him to criticize those guys for leaving the tournament that he's in I think it's kind of a bit unfair to those capitals that need money the issue that the Brazilians have with their communication barrier their ability to use executive function is actually probably the same of a lot of the more autistic athletes that are from America that's true that kind of levels the playing field in some way that's true and I think obviously covid vaccine hased the level of autism in countries you know like that's be the argument there do you know if the uptake in Brazil was higher or lower than usual because I kept giving it to me but uh I couldn't increase it so I've capped out that's why I'm retiring and going into promoting you know well no you're not you're coming in you're like some football manager that also wants to step like play a coach wants to step out on the field of play against a woman yeah put I mean you run the tournament you give yourself a favorable match I think that's only fair you know and really test the waters of equality true equality is fighting a woman I think and that's why we call our foundation the fair fight Foundation there's no fairer fight than that I think what nationality Gabby Brazilian right okay so this is a meaning of the Australia vers Brazil oh [ __ ] yeah of course of course yeah it's interesting to think about um how so many of the gains are recuring to just a couple of people at the very very top of the sport obviously Gordon being one of them what who else is who is there anyone else in the sport where you think oh they're pretty flush they're having it good yeah I mean like BJJ Fanatics our main source of income and a lot of guys on there make good money you know like myself included but it would be I don't know I'm not that financially so it's like I I mean even accomplishment like I pursued those accomplishments to get those gold medals obviously didn't get them but like uh I'd rather have a legacy on the sport that I changed it for the better for all the athletes and I think if there's more money on the table the matches will be more exciting the guys who have more money to prepare for these matches will reach a higher level in the sport so I think like it's best for everyone some of the fans might complain that they bought tickets to one event and the athletes will be the other again our money from the tickets is predominantly going to Charities so it's like if you've already got the flight you've already got the hotel you already got 0cc ticket keep the ADCC ticket buy a ticket of hours it's going to go to charity you're going to be able to see the ADCC finals if you wanted to watch both of our days you could still watch the other tournaments finals It's the Best of Both Worlds you're getting the biggest grappling weekend ever what's the so you've explained three five minute rounds is that all and the final be five FES uhuh so literally like UFC style rules trying to flect yeah uh and how many uh rounds of fighting is there so it'll still it'll be like uh 16 people per division so to win four four matches to win okay two on the first day two on the next day are you doing a super duper fight at the end and overall between oh Under and Over yeah I mean that would be fun to do I'm going to be like hey I need another million like that's why I'm going back to Ukraine hey right get some more plutonium they got some missiles again we'll take it back to Iran yeah [ __ ] hell presumably this is a tested Federation then you're going to be making the sport clean along with giving it some money oh yeah I fully intend to test every athlete but myself that's the fair that's really fair Gabby should be tested not just for chemical enhancement but just for pure human biology study something new going on there like a specimen of something we need to see what it is identify it replicate it create an army she sells a lot of underwear you know like does she really yeah I don't know much about her can you explain I mean she's just a giant uh very attractive Grappler that's fought in MMA and she's fought in Japan she's had shows in Japan often criticized because she fought an old grandmother in Japan you know and a lot of people saw that and they said that poor grandmother's getting beaten up by a giant woman and I said hey that could be me you know there lies opportunity where other people see issues do you think that the removal of steroids from the sport of Brazilian What it Takes to Be a BJJ Champion jiu-jitsu for the people that don't know BJJ is there any tested BJJ Federation uh ibjjf does some testing yeah okay I'm not too familiar with it though how they do it would the removal of steroids make BJJ more or less interesting um um I don't know I mean Pride was Pride Fighting Championships was interesting spectacle in Japan there was no testing there uh I think the testing all it does is give you legitimate big sponsors you know because there's certain brands that don't want to be associated with the sport where everyone's on drugs exactly yeah for me personally I do have a local Texas TI sponsorship sadly when I post about it No One Believes I'm actually on steroids that's the funny thing No One Believes anything I say you think that's like a the sort of fat build curse yeah they're just like this guy Fe on steros they're not working you know they must be Duds get your money back I'm like look at my blood pressure brother they're working something's happening what was that thing where were you were you in Tokyo or you were doing some sort of test and I think you got one of the things that you won that weekend was highest blood pressure high blood pressure yeah so I mean depends I do have high blood pressure I could I should get that fixed Rogan was actually concerned about my blood pressure which is in turn made me more concerned but yeah yeah I mean the doctors take obviously your blood pressure could be high sometimes before a match cuz you're a bit stressed out B nervous so like sometimes it's high mine's probably too high I should fix that but well as a man with a famously short gas tank what does it take to become a winner in the sport given that you have your sort of parameters of of limitation yeah that's yeah I mean the gas tank is an issue you know but it's not an issue where there's enough financial compensation to fix it I would argue you know maybe a million dollar on the line I do some cardio work okay but generally speaking man I barely lift weights these days I barely have time to train um I take I don't take it too serious at all you know in other news this episode is brought to you by momentus you are probably not having enough protein in your diet in fact no one is having enough 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using the code modern wisdom a checkout that's l i v m o m n t us.com wisdom and modern wisdom a checkout that being said you've had a pretty good run recently you and Phil row had a pretty cool fight I saw you do something else relatively spectacular recently like trying to break down what it is that what makes you even this close to the second best guy in the world like what is it about your particular approach well I mean I I don't know a bit there's a bit of luck involved you know strategy I think it's a game of strategy you know like uh I don't think I think if you have the right strategy you have the right skill set and you pick the right opponents and you pick the right rule sets there's always a path to victory that doesn't involve working harder and I think if you leverage your name at the top of the sport to make the rule set the most appeals to you based on who the opponent is to have that Leverage is a huge factor in your success rate of the sport so it allows me to work less and still have better results do you think that well that's interesting that BJJ seems to be a sport filled with people that are at least a little bit cerebral that are interested in cognitive tasks and and coming up with interesting strategies I've seen some of the breakdowns on YouTube it's like a unbelievable level of autism that is being applied to the question in hand why is everyone else not doing that I mean good question a lot of people are scared to Market themselves scared to put themselves out there you know so like I just think like uh you just like people talk about they're like I don't like doing social media and stuff and it's like I mean no one does you have to roll the dice sometimes it's not going to always come up good you know like I've throwing some jokes out there that have [ __ ] missed hard but they they forget them if they like it they forget the misses they remember the hits you know hopefully so people just got to put themselves out there more to Market themselves in Jiu-Jitsu the bigger following you have the more leverage you have with promoters and none of us are in exclusive contracts with any organizations so you can massively pit them against each other to really leverage par your participation in their events is this Invitational just a oneoff at the moment have you got plans to bring it back next year do you is you just going to wait and see what the like post kitle Pillow Talk feels like yeah true I mean let's see obviously if the event goes very poorly there might be a sex tape with my opponent released at a later date to really get recoup some of that money but that's that's how committed I am to the event you know I would do that I'm serious I'll do that we've already filmed it but yeah the plan is to do it every year we want to do it every year wow so it would be twice as frequently as ADCC as well I wonder just thinking about that sort of from a game theory perspective I wonder whether doing it every year would encourage athletes to do cji ADCC cji ADCC I wonder whether they would do it that way or whether it's just this is lots of bites at the Apple of winning a million bucks I think that would be I think it's going to offset it so much because of the amount of money and we're going to learn so much about this right so like if I compete on an event they don't tell me how many people watch it the uh and OB pay-per-views they sold online or whatever they don't tell me how many new subscribers they get like this is all privileg information I understand from a business perspective but they're not giving me certain tools of Leverage like I don't get to find out my metrics to further negotiate my position in the sports that's one of the reasons I want to do it free on YouTube is we're going to see transparency yeah we want we're going to see how many people are watching you know like for ADCC would have to be the most viewed grappling event but I don't even believe the information is shared with the promoters of ADCC that's all privileged information for the people that bought the streaming rights so for me personally I obviously it's going to be inflated cuz it's free and we're going to involve some MMA fighters some Marquee super fights so it's going to be enhanced but we're really going to see how many people watch grappling and I think it's a significant amount of money given the amount of people that are traveling from around the world to Vegas to watch the tournament and I want to have that information and also YouTube's going to show you the Peaks and valleys so who are the interesting fights who are the boring fights we will know that metrics of information I think it's going to translate athlete wise pretty similar to instructional sales I do think there's going to there's a a little bit of a correlation between how many instructionals you sell and how many fans want to what you compete because you can just drive traffic so I really want to I Really fascinated I think that information is awesome when Testing for Steroids in BJJ you said about drug testing I kind of wanted to do it from a research perspective I didn't want to punish them but I would love to know everyone says that it's the sport where everyone's Juiced out of their minds it'd be great to have Anonymous drug testing where we see what they're taking just Aggregates yeah just from like that's are we going the average testosterone level is500 yeah like we would have Anonymous names but it's like who had the highest you know what I mean like what's athlete B was the one that came in with a 2,200 testosterone level yeah and I think they're pumping crazy amounts talk to me talk to me about that talk to me just like how aggressive do you think the use is of PEDs in BJJ I think it's pretty aggressive I think um again there's not great financial conversation from the events but like in terms of instructional sales sent seminars and just they want the medals they want the they want the clout from the metals so there's no drug testing generally people are going to take some I myself put out my stack obviously I'm sponsored by steroid uh or trt anti-aging clinic in uh Testo in Texas but in testosterone yeah but I put my stack out because I also like just saying no doesn't really work with drugs you know it's like you just say no kids take it anyway I'd rather at least to the Next Generation let them know what I'm taking so that they don't they don't imagine it's up here and they don't take dangerous amounts at least want to be like is it a relatively sort of therapeutic dose that you take yeah so 200 or 250 a week we get spicy with some anav for matches coming up and then a real low dose Decker but that's that's really it and I want to I don't want the kids or the Next Generation to speculate I I don't want them to think my I'm taking a gram a week or something I think it's good to let them know what I'm taking so they can see hey well he was be the second best in the world I could be the second best in the world on this [ __ ] shitty little stack you know so I think it's like a harm reduction strategy rather than a just say no have you got any idea how much further people push the drug oh yeah I've been I've been around athletes that pump some crazy levels you know like you got the ultimate Bro Science guys like I remember one famous athlete um had and it I mean it's more than who you think you know one I know one famous athlete had some health issues and when the doctor said hey what are you taking they didn't know what they're taking but their Bro Science that was administering it to him said hey I just look at this person every day I know what they need and I'm just like that's wild you that's like some voodoo doctor like telekinesis yeah like holds the stack back from him doesn't tell him what it's given him it's like uh so there's a lot of crazy [ __ ] out there when it's shrouded in secrecy and they're going to do it anyway they're left to find idiots to administer it you know so it's almost like uh it's very much of the Wild West there's kind of I guess this is like the meeting of the sort of more old school martial arts side stuff which is this mystique and kind of magic and secret moves and stuff with a new world of evidence-based something but you know the Mystique and the magic is supposed to stay within the art form of the sport and the evidence-based stuff is supposed to stay within the blood work and the testing and Pharmaceuticals like you don't get it the other way around yeah I'm I mean I'm all for full transparency you know like I'm almost I'm honest about every single thing I do almost too honest but because some of it comes across a joke most people just don't believe me but like most of the stuff I put out there is true what have there been any uh spicy substances that you've heard about Fighters using before matches given that anything's on the table maybe I need to smoke weed before I go out there I don't think that katamine would be a particularly useful no is give you a little uh perk up you know is it an is cocaine a performance enhancer when it comes to the sport of Brazilian jiu-jitsu I think it's a bit of a wake up you know like a strong shot of coffee you know I mean at the end of the day it's just a simulate you take too much you're going to probably guess out and maybe that's why I have a bad guess I don't know but uh yeah I mean people take crazy [ __ ] everyone has different stuff they take I've been around guys who took magic mushrooms before the match and [ __ ] and I'm just like what are you doing you know like just people do anything to get an edge are you worried about I I appreciate what you said that you know you put your puny wimpy little stack out there is like that you know this you don't need to sort of go too hard and heavy but you know Downstream from you and uh a lot of the other guys in the sport are young kids you know like one of the tacket brothers started when he was four years old if you think steroids what you do tonight that's why he so good the bastard um yeah are you worried about sort of influence on the new generation whether it be nose beers or keep Jiu-Jitsu gay or the steroids like do you yeah the nose Biz is not good hey because you know what's funny is I make jokes about that like uh and uh the kids do the sign I saw you next to a kid at the UFC thing I know the problem is I tried to stop doing it but it's the parents that want it you know and like we even gave it a bad name I was calling it the white powder white powder you know the but yeah I don't know it's not great you know but like uh I guess it starts the conversation but I would say your kids shouldn't be looking up to me you know I didn't win anything [ __ ] send him in the right direction you know do you feel or do you think that From Competitor to Organiser you're going to feel a bit of a different kind of responsibility now being a event organizer in some regard is does that come with any change in the way that you need to operate yourself I mean that's a good question I think basically running a nonprofit probably influences a little bit but uh well I'm not really I'm not really running I'm the just help him run the the tournament but uh yeah I mean for sure but I've already had these conversations with sponsors you know where sponsors have said to back down on certain things and I've turned the money away you know like even with my instructional titles I keep a controversial title because I'd rather be authentic I'd rather have a smaller more dedicated audience than a broader what are some of the names of the instructionals you've released all right so this one was spicy actually so there's a move in Jiu-Jitsu CA false reap it's a false reap it's a type of way to enter a leg lock reaping in the ibf is in a legal move it's something where you bring your leg across the knee and it could potentially injure someone's knee however in the ibit Jeff a lot of people because they want to win they'll do anything to win they'll try to force the guy to make it look like they're doing it a legal move and it's sort of they were reaped but falsely but I brought out instructional on the false reap and I called it false reap accusations but it was really a strong uh it was instructional about the reap I remember Fanatics called me and they said bro can we change the title on this one please and I said what about false reap allegations but I mean it fits in with I jef like uh DQ narrative and I just thought it'd be funny but we take you got to take a risk you know like someone's got to do it what was that one that you did about balls something to do with balls balls to the wall yeah CU When you when you're defending against wool wrestling you're really slamming your balls well I'm on TT mine are pretty small so they're not hitting the wall but generally speaking a clean athlete he going to have some big balls what have you learned since being around the UFC at the Top Flight over the last few months I mean obviously just a level of professionalism of the athletes the teams uh volcanos is unique just because like he's almost like a character is too good to be true like it's like you meet celebrities and sometimes you're disappointed by who they are as people vulcanos is's such a good person he makes me disappointed in who I am as a person you know he's just like who he portrays himself as is exactly who he is I guess that's probably true of me actually so people won't be disappointed but yeah being around those guys you realize again the financial compensation is much greater at the highest level so we're going to have much more professional teams like obviously most of those guys have managers most you guys don't have man cuz you call them up you be like hey how'd you like 10% of $100 you know you're not getting a manager in Jiu-Jitsu so they have the whole team striking coach wrestling coach grappling coach they just have an orchestrated coordinated effort towards one individual winning this next nutrition conditioning mindset breath work all this stuff yeah all the things I don't do yeah so I mean it is good to see what can be done at that level and folosi takes it so serious what do you think of him as an athlete oh incredible incredible it's going to be interesting to see what he does next I want him to have a grappling match I think we'll probably try and get him a grappling match on our event but it might clash with something else that I can't say but um not him fighting but I want to see him take a grappling match because I grapple with him and he's like he's a tough round so like my dream would be to see him perform in a grappling competition if he has to wait it out for a toore rematch or something like that or if he wants to wait it out because he was knocked out for whatever reason I think grappling match would keep his mind occupied that's a good question how well are you person who MMA Compared to BJJ focuses on BJJ or or you know Chen or like one of the rods or whatever how well would they be able to hold their own against some of the best UFC fighters just in grappling like how good are um mixed martial artists at grappling at just grappling yes I mean they're they're really good like I put Luke rockard in the tournament because he's really good like I trained with him that's like Elite level Grappler and he it hits a few things there obviously former UFC champion he's got a good following he's a fun guy and he could surprise some people like I wouldn't put a UFC fighter in the tournament unless I believe they had a chance to do something and that's why I think Luke Rocko's fascinating cuz people are going to be like ah he's not going to do anything and it's like I've trained with him he's he could shock some people you know in terms of MMA though MMA is so brutal and it's like it it's sort of if you've never gone to an event live and sat close to the action I think most people don't realize how brutal and Savage it is often times a guy gets knocked out the camera's on the winner camera's not on the guy slumped in the corner like I was there when Bryce Mitchell got knocked out uh by hmer he's unconscious for a long long long time you know it's like it's it's kind of traumatic and it's really traumatic for the coaches too like again these guys are your friends so it's like I don't go lightly into joining a guy's Camp you know because it's like that is your putting some of your heart into this guy's well-being yeah it's brutal it's brutal it's an unforgiving world and it's like it's traumatic for the fighters it's traumatic for his friends and family his coaches like it's not just about or losing it's about their health wellbeing psychological well-being so it's like it is a big thing to corner a guy I didn't learn that until I did Ultimate Fighter the first time I cornered an MMA fight was an ultimate fighter and we're talking about guys that are so broke they got no money they're not in the UFC and they're fighting they're putting it all on the line their health on the line for really not much money and that was really you feel like obviously one of my Grapplers loses that sucks but generally speaking he's not hurt walk it up yeah they're out of there so like it's such an investment of energy and really emotion because you're so invested not just in them winning for their own Financial well-being but just for their health you're like man I got to take this serious what is sitting in the corner of a UFC fight watching vul and some guy like are you ready are you ready like what's that moment like as you sort of watch them walk together oh I mean there's so much anxiety so much anxiety going in and it's like I'm the grappling coach I'm the Striking coach but so like I'm keeping time I'm holding the bucket when they're on the feet you know so but like I don't I don't fully understand I know what they've spoken about strategy wise for the standup portion so I'm sort of like trying to see but I don't know a lot about striking at all so I'm really trying to listen to them see what they're saying see what they're feeling but it's yeah it's really it's real scary and vogs like I was with vogs where it was like he just kept doing things people didn't think he could do you know what I mean it's like shocking you know like what he did to hallay in the third F getting out of Orga submissions and stuff like that so that you build him up yourself as this invincible figure but no one's Invincible you're in the game long enough you're going to get cracked you know like very few make it out and retire at the right time and I'm not saying V should retire but I'm saying guys like khabib got out before that happened to him and you never know when it's going to happen but if you're in there long enough it will happen so it's like it's both traumatic to see as a friend but also it's like it shocks you you're like oh this guy was invincible I don't think about that I never thought about the you know you think about how traumatic it is for the fighter you realize that the friends and family are invested in that way but I never thought about the corner man and what they need to do they need to go away and have a week of emotional reflection on imagine if you gave the wrong advice or imagine if you missed something you didn't the guy hit him with something like you didn't expect you know like when I Was preparing folks for Islam I was like like looking for everything on the ground cuz it's like that guy's like a mythical figure in terms of wrestling and grappling so it's like you don't want to leave sort of no stone on turns it's a lot of pressure there's a bunch of compilations on YouTube of uh bad Corner advice from UFC I think a video got released pretty recently that I I watched maybe like five things one of them where uh you're you're four rounds up you can Coast in this round it's like no you weren't you were like three down uh yeah no that's the thing so the cornerman the UFC come to you before and they're like who's wearing the mic no one wants to wear the mic you know what I mean it's like hey if you say something stupid you're [ __ ] like a immortalized on the internet you're like hey bro you got two rounds to go but it's already you know what I mean like it's the last round it's like [ __ ] you don't want to you don't want M yeah yeah they always want to give the mic to the guy that goes in the cage but most of the time a lot of guys would be like no I [ __ ] give it to this guy right yeah the guy that's not speaking as much how interesting and you get to choose that you get to choose who has the mic the staff try to force you to give it to the right guy because they kind of know who's the head coach yeah what's going on but like you try to give it to like me or the wrestling coach or you know what I mean some who's basically just holding just back there like wow what about Dana White as an operator as a now yeah co-promoter Federation owner I mean I feel like I've got big shoes to feel but my hairlines on its way you know you need to get Gary Breer on that he'll fix it uh yeah that's that's the BL man I wanted to go to do the oil wrestling World Championships in turkey and do a hair transplant the same time I was like [ __ ] that's the full Turkish exp you mentioned this before we got started what what is this Turkish oil wrestling they just oil each other up and they take any grip they can finger slips in the ass it slips in it's a good handle is this allegedly is this a a well-known sport or is yeah I don't remember the actual Turkish name but I think it's the oldest uh consecutively ran sporting event in the worldly annual annual yeah annual what what's got more prize money but yeah very good what's got more prize money ADCC or Turkish oil wrestling I'm good question we'd have to find it out I think there's more to lose in Turkish sh wrestling to be honest I don't know how do you prepare prepare for that lots of the like pelvic floor exercises yeah lots of Keel that's what Gabby said she was preparing for me with some strong keagle routine okay right like a a special kind of finger snap yeah hold it mov yeah we'll get back to talking to Craig in 1 minute but first I need to tell you about element if you dread the thought of drinking plain water all day I get it sugary electrolyte drinks and lemon water that turn your teeth yellow just don't cut it which is why I love element element is the tastiest way to start your day they make the best tasting electrolyte drink mix that I've ever found with element hydration becomes a treat rather than a chore each grabbing pack replaces essential electrolytes like sodium potassium and magnesium with no sugar no coloring artificial ingredients or any other BS this means fewer muscle cramps less fatigue no dragging yourself through the day and no more dreading that next sip of your drink also they have a no questions asked nobes refund policy and if you do not like it for any reason they'll give you your money back and you don't even need to return the box that's how confident they are that you'll love it right now you can get a free sample pack of all eight flavors with any Box by going to the link in the show notes below or heading to drink lnt.com slod wisdom that's drink LM n.com slod wisdom all right so the last few months we've Being on the Frontline of War been chatting and I've been saying yo man where you at like let's catch up and blah blah and I think you were in town for two days and then left where have you been over the last four months oh my God where have I been I've been to Kazakhstan Kyan usbekistan Poland Ukraine Mexico Philippines Thailand Indonesia Australia UAE I think that's it where do you want to start where I mean I guess probably most interesting place is probably Ukraine so I'll sort of set up a seminar out there to raise money for the soldiers cuz the soldiers do get weapons they do get support us has provided weapons Europe has provided uh weapons as well but a lot of the basic equipment they kind of have to sell fund you know like even like to get to the front line is a treacherous road and that's just Soviet construction you know so even if they want to get away from the front line for their brake period like driving the cars like when we drove to the front line man potholes everywhere destroyed cars everywhere just from the roads alone so even to get the cars to be able to come and go from the front getting to the front line hard have to purchase most of their own military equipment especially if they want good equipment and you would want good equipment with what's at stake there so I really wanted to go out there support those guys and really see kind of what was going on out there and the seminar blew up probably bad choice of words but yeah we had 250 people at the seminar so it was like widely supported was awesome and we donated all the money to Ukrainian soldiers and then one of the guys Roman I remember he commented on the same semar poster and he said oh obviously semar for the soldiers is great but what about the guys on the front line and I was like I'll come to the front line I'll come to the front line with you and he said I can't promise we'll survive but we'll have a good time and that's exactly the sort of thing I live for that's where that's where basically we ended up I don't know if I can say the name of the village but it was a village that Russians had taken and Ukraine has liberated taken back obviously very very damaged and we got to go I think 7 km from the Russian offensive it's pretty close ke has Patriot defense missiles so you are somewhat safe obviously it's it's a war zone but City Life Goes On has to go on you know a so I got man I got so many trolls mesia after this Ukraine stuff like saying oh look you're out there drinking beers and [ __ ] and it's like yeah I mean like even well they were suggesting that there isn't actually a kinetic war going on yeah and it's like guys this it's the front line you know what I mean obviously that's where the heaviest shit's going to be happening there's impacts all across Ukraine but really the front lines where the actions at Russia has missiles that can reach far they have planes that can reach far but again the target is gaining land and progressing into Ukraine what was that like what you talk to me about the atmosphere on the ground in Ukraine I mean the craziest thing to me was and it's like if you think about it it makes sense that life goes on you know but really it's the attitude that the ukrainians have towards the situation so it's like the first night I landed so we we you can't obviously fly in airspace is dangerous there so we uh took the car ride in got to the hotel I slept through it but like 44 missiles or no 31 missiles were shot at ke and it had been 44 days since it had been such a a big attack so I woke up people messed me like okay I was like [ __ ] I slept through day had the earplugs in but that's when I realized the scope of it another serious thing was when a missile was shot down so Hypersonic missile was shot down and this was so close to the hotel I was at that the whole building Shook and I thought that was a missile Landing but that was it being shot down they took me to the missile side after where part of it had uh landed in the ground I was just like even that just part of the missile did so much damage to the land there but what's crazy to me is the guy life goes on you know like sometimes like after that the building shook people are still trying to go in the gym and work out they're just like oh [ __ ] it that's like that's that's life out here you know we're not going to let we're not going to let Putin change how we live our lives and like even in the Villages and stuff like there's shelling going on there's old guys out there still gardening and stuff it's that it's that energy that's like so like crazy like I saw when I was there one of those uh missiles damaged a coffee shop window was like completely blown out the lady's still in there serving coffee just like bll or moves like that but I mean it's intense you got the air siren app you hear the air Sirens go and it's like there's a plane in the sky heading your direction missiles are being loaded to launch there's kamakazi drones coming your way and you're like do you go to the bunker or do you not go to the bunker and did you go to the bunker no I was it was mostly out of laziness but yeah I didn't go I figured hey [ __ ] it if it happens it happens but I I wanted to do what they did like those guys were like we're not changing our lives because of that's exactly what Putin I say Putin not all over Russia by say pu that's what they want they want people to to live in fear they want it to affect their daily lives and that's their goal is to not let it affect them even if there are consequences I think when you see archive footage of London during the Blitz and keep calm and carry on stiff up a lip stuff you almost think about that as being a mentality of a bygone era that you know this was when humans were almost built differently mad it was you 80 years ago uh and yet it seems that during a war zone that same mentality just continues even now 2024 yeah I mean it has to it just it has to reemerge you know like I mean it is kind of like really a World War II feel over there like it's doing trench warfare you know it's like I think of Americans in the Middle East and stuff it's not trench warfare you know you got a rich superpower against sort of poor terrorist groups whereas over there like I look at Ukraine situation it's crazy to me like it's a country of 40 million versus a country of 150 million it's like a it's a crazy thing to think about like and when it happened in Ukraine men weren't allowed to leave you're not allowed to leave some men died trying to leave trying to swim across rivers to get out of there to get to Europe you know and then Roman the guy that took me to the front line he had lived in France he has a wife and kid in France but he felt such a strong sense to really uh defend his country that he didn't have to go back he volunteered to go back and he hadn't lived in Ukraine for eight years but I remember he said to me goes home is where people miss you he's like my wife and kid is here my mother and brother is in Ukraine so he volunteered to go back so you hear these stories like this and you're like just super inspiring stuff yeah I was going to say how does that make you feel to be around people that are like that I mean obviously makes what you feel what you doing last pretty [ __ ] trivial you know like uh The Bravery of taking on ADCC taking out a tournament you know uh but yeah obviously I mean people can say what they will about the war and the politics of it but they shouldn't confuse that with the warrior involved and go guys like that are super inspiring and I followed him so he had 15 he only gets 30 days off a year but he went back to marsill and that's where he lives with his wife and I I literally just left there I spent a few days with him there so I got to see what his regular life that he left was and it's mindblown Jiu-Jitsu black belt he used to compete he's uh he owns a pizza shop there he's got like a idealic life and he left all that to go defend his people over there and it's just like guys like that you know like you think [ __ ] that's That's Heavy Wow you went to Chernobyl as well Chernobyl yeah so I've always wanted to Why Craig Visited Chernobyl go to shoba I guess like he said the bit of dark tourism we were talking about before fascinating place but Russia had invaded via bellarus and came through Chernobyl and there was actually some fighting that occurred in Chernobyl which is obviously that's dangerous [ __ ] highly irresponsible by everybody if shit's blowing up over there you know like and I'm pretty sure that was one of the moments that was one of the heaviest things that's happened in the two years of this war and that was when basically bipartisan supported America and they were like yo if any radiation Leakes and Crosses into the EU like you're going to feel the full brunt of NATO so that was one of the heaviest like don't [ __ ] around with Chernobyl but there's a ton of mines around Chernobyl like Russia came through and were pushed back out of Chernobyl so Ukraine controls it but Russia left a ton of Mines it's very close to bellarus so it's you're actually pretty CL it's on the border so you're close to where they had previously invaded from but I still wanted to go there I thought let's try let's try so first was a guy I met at the seminar was a special forces guy and his unit controlled Chernobyl but you have to clear four military checkpoints to get to Chernobyl this guy cleared two of those points and then the third one the guy was very angry that we were trying to go there cuz it's like it's dangerous it's a liability if like [ __ ] Australian gets killed out there that's that's not good you have your video guy with you as well yeah we had the video guy with me so it's like we're trying to clear through it's not it's not looking good this guy like wanted to arrest us it was that serious so we had to failed Chernobyl Mission we left however another again top secret opportunity presented itself and we were able to bypass all of the security checkpoints and get into chobble and it was funny cuz the same guy that was angry had to let us through this time and I was like Money Talks no money no money involved just like uh basically I don't want to say who did it but like obviously right connection someone appreciated that I was there for charity and I was helping the ukrainians and I was Raising sort of the little following I have sort of raising awareness about the issue because it kind of fallen out of the media cycle very much so so he basically allowed me this person allowed me to go to shoba we got to see it and it was crazy obviously crazy it's Eerie like what are you able to see like so you're driving up so we got we got to see obviously the reactor we got to see uh the abandoned town we really spent a lot of time in the abandoned town we get to see the ferris whe like that little Theme Park area and crazy but it's just completely like there was a lot of Tourism there now there's not a lot of Tourism what's Eerie is there's a lot of bullet holes from the fighting that occurred there so it was like over the last couple of years yeah so it was like Call of Duty Modern Warfare there was that map at uh shoba I forget the name of it but like it's Eerie to see that there was actually fighting going on there there's bullet holes in the walls and stuff on top being loaded into a lobby with no other players yeah super strange super strange so we got to see all that and then we got to see the giant sort of like it was a a radio signal blocker they built this huge thing I forget the name of it but like during the survey Union days that used to send out weird signals and would interrupt radio broadcast and stuff it's just like huge radio blocker that people didn't really know what made of like a mesh sort of satellites material what is it just like I'll show you pictures of it just some metal like massive massive and I think it was like a early missile detector and a and a uh radio signal blocker but it would send out this signal that would make noises on broadcast and during the Serv people had no idea they thought it was like weather control or they thought it was mind control like a lot of conspiracies around it but we got to see that as well so those are the main things got to see in choby was there a did you have a Gea counter with you to work out was the like no and I mean the radiation levels could have uh switched around because obviously there was fighting there there's a part of the uh disrupted something maybe yeah there's the red Forest where Russia had come through and I don't know how much truth there is to this but there was like people said that there were trenches built there by Russians so that would obviously that's the most radio one of the most radioactive zones there so these guys and they've kicked up all of the dirt dust yeah all the dirt and the radioactive dust and they've uh probably poisoned themselves with radiation so like they obviously didn't know you'd hope they didn't know what was going on there what was the reactor like what was getting close to that leg I mean that's just fully sealed in that big dome yeah it kind of looks like mod just looks like modern like it's like they' built a building around you know what I mean but I was still there being like [ __ ] I probably shouldn't be it just taking photos and [ __ ] you know I'm like it's definitely illegal I think that I watched a YouTube video about the elephant's foot which is the melted core of the old reactor I don't know how much truths in this there may be something that's beaten it now but that it's regarded as one of the most radioactive uh chunks of material on the planet like the way that that congeals the way that it melted through the bottom and then it is that it looks like an elephant's foot this big sort of melted blob of just I'd like to think that's what created my opponent coming up Gabby Garcia you [Laughter] know but even when we left we had to go to the radiation the old radiation sensor machines where we're like standing there and they scan you to see if there's any radiation on you who knows if they still work but we got in there you know okay yeah yeah yeah and we made it out but it was kind of surreal we were like oh man [ __ ] is chobble did you get to fire some weapons did I see you with a bazooka in your Joining Ukrainian Firearm Training hand or something we got to fire bazooka so obviously people are pissed about this they're like it's [ __ ] idiots down there wasting American taxpayer dollars you know but we just got to participate in the training like the firing range training of what the troops were already doing that took us to the front line so they just let us shoot a couple of uh missiles out of the Bazooka which was pretty fun shot the M60 Rambo style so yeah it was it was pretty fun yeah standing up start laying down and then standing up walking forward that's fun but really like I shot the the RPG I shot and I was like was [ __ ] pretty surreal you know like I just remember a lot of times in my life I think [ __ ] someone shouldn't have trusted me with this you know like like uh the guy that gave me the million dollars to bring on Rogan I was just like [ __ ] people trust me way more than they should like the RPG the guy's like just make sure you don't fire it too low it's going to [ __ ] blow yourself up I'm like okay didn't think about that but yeah everyone's tried to do the Bazooka jump in Halo so oh yeah the yeah imagine how high you could have sent yourself then what a way to go pretty crazy though fireing the RPG pretty wild why I mean it's just intense you know and you're just like just in case the blood pressure and heart rate went high enough already and I think they do have a bit of a failure rate so I think sometimes they [ __ ] explode and [ __ ] but it was fun the guys I mean the guys took care of us we got to shoot a bunch of [ __ ] was cool I've met a ton of guys that were like uh talking about missions showing us private footage of like battles like their own GoPro footage which is crazy because I said about how the units lack funding so obviously like in Jiu-Jitsu we lack funding so what do you have to do you have to create a social media presence to raise money you're kidding me these guys are making their own war footage yeah they their telegram groups where they're showing personal combat footage they're wearing GoPros they're raising their profile obviously that helps for intimidating only guns yeah but they do it it's crazy man like you meet these guys that are famous sort of soldiers and the more famous they are the more donations they can ask for and that money can be used towards a battalion to better equip them wow and what's what's crazy about the soldiers out there in the situation is like uh I think if there's something that means a lot to you or it has Grave consequences and your budget is constrained creativity goes through the roof you just have to so in terms of drone technology they figured out ways to attach explosives to $500 fpv drones that can kill like DJI whatever and they'll take out a Russian tank that's worth $2 to3 million with something that explosive plus DJI drone was a grand grand and a half yeah so I always thought drone technology for Warfare would be heading in a direction of Highly expensive but Ukraine as the innovators in this and they're able to do so much fighting with the drones did you see this was a while ago now and it kind of shows how much out of sight out of mind the Ukraine conflict is now that you've got what's going on in Gaza uh but I remember seeing a Tik Tok they were I think it was Ukraine that were recruiting pretty hot female influencers to explain now you're interested um to explain to normal citizens how to drive a Russian tank if you happen to come across one that was abandoned by the side of the did you ever see these videos I didn't see the dude it was so [ __ ] cool so it's the classic you know like kind of high up Selfie Style video and you know the sort of overly positive demeanor that most influences have and it's you step one turn the thing step two press the button step three and it's hurt like just some Dolly bird chick with a little bit of lip filler in a tank like well it's Ukraine it's usually a lot of lip Feller but okay each of their own yeah that's crazy I mean the using social media in war is huge over there to swear the opinion of the enemy your people the uh front line of the propaganda camp cign yeah yeah it's great I mean it's it's it's kind of surreal you know but it it plays a factor how did uh I know How Ukrainians Viewed Craig that you're not American but you have probably been perceived as part of like this side of the world how was America or you as a representative perceived what were people warm toward you did they have issues and super positive but I mean like uh I went at a time when the US hadn't agreed to fund to continue to fund Ukraine so it had been like 7 months since they had funded it it was up in the air have they since agreed to give more money since they've had like a bipartisan vote they've decided to contribute more weapons to Ukraine but I went there at a time when that was up in the air and people didn't really know what was going on so at that time even then it was still very positive towards the us because they were like no matter what happens in the upcoming election we have faith that the US will support them cuz like I mean happened in the '90s with Bill Clinton I think it was called The Budapest memorandum where Ukraine was left with a lot of nuclear weapons when the Soviet Union ended and Russia and the United States were very invested in getting those out of Ukraine nuclear de de Armament program basically so there was a contract signed uh Budapest me memorandum where they said hey if we get rid of those nukes we promis to basically protect your border so it's like from Ukraine's perspective they felt like the US has a obligation you owe us yeah you owe us you agreed to do it we gave up no country with nuclear weapons gets invaded you know that's a strong that's a strong defensive strategy so Ukraine gave up the weapons Russia crossed into their territory and um obviously they didn't feel the full brunt of a military conflict with the US and then so they always had faith that the US would contribute honor that agreement yeah contribute and luckily since then they have but that was a surreal moment to me because again you didn't know when those weapons were going to run out I didn't realize how big uh Ukraine was how big Kei was how beautiful ke as a city was so like when I went there it's like it's like you're in Europe you know like ke's a beautiful city so it's so real yeah it's surreal to think that like I was there and they were talking about like we felt what the Patriot air defense system did to Russian is what is the Patriot defense system it will intercept or shoot missiles out of the sky so that they don't impact the city okay and they were provided by the the US it's like a pin that pops balloons type thing yeah and the technology on that crazy cuz the Hypersonic missile I think it can hit from the from the Black Sea it'll hit ke in 30 seconds that's how fast so when they go off you don't get a asir siren alert they just are shot down or impacted so when we were there they hadn't been given weapons for a long time so you had this sort of how many are left to defend the city and that was surreal to me when I left Ukraine just thinking about all the people i' had met obviously especially the troops on the front line cuz you're like these are great guys are guys like everyone else you know like normal people defending their country and if the US decided not to supply those weapons what would happen and even in ke it's a city life goes on largely as normal but if they ran out of air defense missiles that would get absolutely destroyed like places like Maro kson now khi now K's getting hit really bad now so that is what was left on my mind leaving is how heavy you know what I mean how heavy what's happening there is and really again thankful that the US decided to step up keep contributing weapons how do you feel in in retrospect you know you've been there viscerally you've made human connections with people on the front line they looked after you I'm sure you wait with them the family here's a photo of my kids blah blah are you has this sort of impacted you emotionally yeah for sure I I mean I feel attachment to those guys you know I worry every day about what could potentially happen I worry a little less with the support of weapons you know cuz it's like you think like if you think about the situation it's like they put it to me like this when they talk about having a peace agreement right it's like have you watched 20 days in Mar opo no so that won the Academy Award last year basically tells what happened to Mar opo when the first 20 days of the fullscale Russian Russian invasion happened and I mean you see that video that the city's been destroyed the uh filmmaker stayed behind and filmed from the hospital you see kids die like just bombing indiscriminately so tragedies have happened in Ukraine and a lot of other countries will say it's still expensive let Russia have the land let Russia have what they want but it's like they put it as a perspective if a third if a different country invaded California Mass massacred a bunch of people did war crimes for all intensive purposes and then the rest of the world said ah let them keep California let's let this end let's let this war go for Americans they'd be like weol fight to the last guy so for me that's what I was thinking I was like wow if the weapons run out they're still going to fight they're going to fight till the last guy shovels and pitchforks and whatever they get their hands on because of what they've been perceived I mean even there was one guy Demitri and like the tension between Russia and Ukraine is longlasting because I remember he showed me a picture of like execution papers of when the Soviets executed his grandfather so when Russian fullscale invasion started he got his AK and his [ __ ] motorcycle helmet went out to the streets he's like I'd rather be dead than live under Russia so it's like it's a very personal right he's got Heritage to his distaste yeah he's like I would never let them you know what I mean like it's it's crazy wow so I don't know how that conflict is going to end you know like who I mean Ukraine deserve their their land back Russia deserves Russia should have to be obligated to pay for the damages I mean how can you even pay for the emotional damages and the deaths and stuff but I don't know what's going to happen I don't know how that ends it seems like uh just a war of numbers you just continue to throw Russian bodies at Ukraine and that's how they've done it forever Russia right I think the official statistics they say is like half a million Russians dead in 2 years and I know the soldiers CU obviously a lot of soldiers have journals they're Journal out there so I know Ukrainian soldiers have told me about how they've found journals of dead Russians that have gone stra they've been conscripted and ended up at the front line immediately it's Canon fter you know and that's like heavy to think about they just sending Mass amounts in human human meat grinder yeah one well like Russia does have obviously great technology there military technology they can build create shells so fast to Shell the cities which is what's happening in KH K's just getting block by block bombed right now and it's irregular it's factory to back end of a cannon to KH Factory so quick and like you said polit the the news cycle shifted towards uh sort of Palestine Israel conflict Gaza and stuff so it's largely getting forgotten I would say it's funny like the the mental Ram of the world only has sufficient disc space to be able to have one war going on and that's people people be messing me they're like why are you so passionate about Ukraine like because obviously people think it's so cor they're like are they paying you and it's like why don't you talk about Palestine and I'm like [ __ ] go to Gaza yeah I can't go and also like just because I'm raising money for cancer the heart disease crew aren't going to glinch me on the internet you know what I mean like we're trying to do what we can with the short uh time we have you know like and it's easy I can go to Ukraine I can help you know I can support I've made personal connections there so it's like uh I don't think it should be one or the other you know what I mean but like it's kind of like it's it's best not to spread yourself too thin on one political issue at a time cuz people only have the attention for time where else did you fall in love Why Craig Finds Kazakhstan Interesting with over your travels kazakhstan's cool kazakhstan's cool I've been going to Kazakhstan since 2016 actually did ADCC trials in Kazakhstan in 2016 interesting place interesting place why obviously again you got something you can't talk about over there but would be Bora Bora obviously is fascinating that's what you associate Kazakhstan with unfortunately what I feel bad for Kazakhstan is sometimes when there's a language barrier jokes get misinterpreted so for me Borat was hilarious because the joke was on dumb westerners that thought that was really Kazakhstan but he actually filmed it those Village scenes in Romania so it's like but obviously things get misinterpreted it gets lost on them you know and it would be annoying if you're a kazak everyone's like oh Bor out Bor out you know they took offense of that they have a bad uh relationship with the Borat films very bad but the tourism board did lean into it recently it took a long time but they did lean into it and they were like come to Kazakhstan very nice you know so like it took a long time but they're leaning into it now but we we went over there to film a film some documentary stuff we showed you the the [ __ ] bar the horse sort of uh we could put that up as well but dangerous is cocka oh man it's really dangerous other horses like come to hit you somebody can KCK your but horse fighting basically like it's like rugby it's like rugby on Horseback where you take a goat they take a goat or sheep they cut its head and legs off and they'll have up to a thousand guys on horses at a time where they'll lean down they got to pick it up and throw it into an area to win money and local businessmen will put cash up to watch these guys fight it out okay and people get severely injured doing this poor people polar poor people polar so we yeah really yeah we went there and we wanted to film and we filmed but it was tense cuz I was riding around on a little pony with a biggie small sweater on and some sunglasses you know it's like and those guys are like is he making Bor most of them loved her some of them were like hey this a Bor out joke I was like [ __ ] I'm going to die but it was fun we only filmed for one day there we had some difficulties but what was funny was I had a we had a stunt like cocka so dangerous like they kick each other like if a i a horse falls over they don't stop like they'll trample a dude it doesn't stop cuz you're taking a big prize poll especially trained horses especially trained rid fighers it's the cji of it's the cji of [ __ ] horse fighting I guess but like we had a stunt man and his job was we were filming some scene where he was meant to take me so it looked like I was riding on Horseback into the pit and we had a stunt double wear my outfit to go into the pit but this guy first of all he missed his flight that day cuz he was drunk he fell asleep at the airport good very good and then when we flew him in instead of taking me to the edge he took me right into the center of the pit and I don't know how to ride horse and he had the rains so he's taking me dead center into the cockp bar pit and for a while I was chill some of the Riders were angry cuz I was blocking them cuz he's holding my R getting in the [ __ ] way I'm in the way and some of them get angry like what the [ __ ] get this [ __ ] guy out of here some people thought it was funny but then someone picked up the carcass and a whole mass of them came charging towards me and I was just like [ __ ] I'm about to be trampled here and obviously if I don't have the range of the horse I don't even know how to [ __ ] ride a horse I've never ridden a horse before but I got out of there on they got hit a couple times by people on horses but we made it out but basically the drunk stunt man it's a good story but was [ __ ] dangerous high-risk scenario managed to survive the front lines of Ukraine only to be trampled to death by a bunch of BLS trying to chase a goat head it's been a dangerous year and it's probably only going to get more dangerous I think but Kazakhstan is awesome kazakhstan's actually going through like sort of a a women's rights movement over there right now it's big I don't think it's been presumably Champion by you Champion by yeah and Gabby and Gabby got say I'll bring her out there right but they had they've had a couple of big sort of women's rights issues out there there was a guy Bish B of a politician like heavily Muslim that country yeah pretty heavily Muslim obviously a country that was suppressed in the religious beliefs under the Soviet Union but heading like a back to their Roots basically you know so there was a politician that Bish B who just straight up beat his wife to death and some of it was recorded on camera and he still plead not guilty and fought it in court and it was like a crazy thing because everyone was like is he going to get off is he not going to get off they have weird laws there where it was like a wife could get two weeks in prison for provoking the husband you know like there's a lot of a l a lot of that going on but a medieval stuff yeah and it was called of sort of it was occurring when we were there and actually even the people that filmed that one day for us uh very good director over there he made a film that was sort of a a film about what's life's really like for some of the women in the smaller towns and then it became like a horror movie it was like it was really well done uh called duster I don't think you can get it in the west yet but the culmination of both those things it was the highest grossing kazak film ever made in that big story at the time luckily he just got sentenced and got a proper jail sentence but it was kind of an issue where everyone was like they might let this guy off this is an unspoken about sort of corner of the world that's got some pretty yeah egregious [ __ ] happening well there's some amazing stuff like the scenery the people awesome that was going on at the time we kind of wanted to cover that but it's very difficult to be a foreigner yeah a foreigner and cover anything like that you know what I mean like as a foreigner it's kind of like it's a very sensitive yeah it's like mind your business and maybe rightfully rightfully so but luckily it went in the right direction he was sentenced to a fair sort of amount but that was Heavy we got out of there I we got out of there after that well all right we'll go to Ukraine and then still heavy in Ukraine yeah geez what's driving you to do these trips like what I what's the underlying What Motivates Craig? motivation that you have I mean I just have the ability and the connections as weird as it is Jiu-Jitsu gives you connections all over the world oligarchs to Tech gun you know what I mean like there's a lot of like obviously celebrities a lot of people that I can kind of utilize Jiu-Jitsu to get experiences that people might not normally get so I love an adventure I love seeing the world and if I can do some charity work along the way that's awesome and on top of that create some content so that's the goal with it and that's what we're trying to do with that travel show obviously it's going to be a lot of fun but also try and touch on some uh serious stuff I guess BJJ has it's a kind of a bit of a rich people sport at least from what I can see like maybe Brazil actually might be a good example of where it's not but certainly when I think about the people that I know the people in Dubai that do it the people in Austin that do it it's like it's like the Gulf of the combat world for sure yeah you know what I mean like it's a very affluent people are smart or business owners and CEOs so yeah you're right it does I guess give you an unfair advant AG in peace of access yeah get to slip in slip out of some places I remember like it saves you sometimes right so the soldiers were giving me uh I don't know what you call them they're giving me things gifts for coming to Ukraine some of those were heavy helmets of soldiers they killed from Russia and they show me the different styles of helmets some of those were from 1945 basically almost World War II time you know like they get some of the Russian soldiers had old helmets some were modern Russian military has from highest level to still where they're just utilizing anything they can from the last century anything and one of the things one of the guys gave me was a bayonet so I got given two knives the police chief of the entire country gave me a knife made out of a Russian tank and this is a Russian tank that was on its way it was in Ukraine territory and they've destroyed it and someone's turned it into a knife and he's like tell the world this is what we do to Russians in Ukraine we turn them into knives and I was like well heavy and then another guy gave me a bayonet and I was just like the guys said hey don't cross into Europe with all of this wielding your bayonet yeah but I was like well I don't want to throw it away I'm like the guy's giving me a personal gift so as I start Crossing into Europe through Poland the bayonets found and because it's too long and too thick and it can attach to a gun it's considered a Cold War weapon so like it could a cold weapon I don't know some it was meant to be 5 years in prison for that for carrying that and I was like [ __ ] I didn't know that but luckily we got out of that situation was a bit dicey res SEC the police came they had a [ __ ] old camc her out I was like oh [ __ ] I might be going away for this should have left the bayonet behind did you break both of the knife and the bayonet did you have to leave those in Europe or did you they kept the bayonet I've still got the Russian tank knife that's all right the bay there I think it was mainly that it attaches to guns like it attached to a rifle and also there's a problem of guns in Ukraine making their way into Europe and I guess weapons in general and even though you can't fire a bayonet and it's a pretty primitive cons weap it's it's part of the overall assembly that is and that's the web I fell into wow that was like we were stuck at the border for like 9 10 hours trying to negotiate this I'd to call in all sorts of favors to be like yo this is like well surely the police chief of Ukraine would be hey mate come on let him out you know yeah yeah he's sound I mean all of those guys are heroes like the police chief there Marshall when Ukraine first got attacked uh cria I think back in 2014 this guy's like a hero over there he's like defended the dones airport and this was in the Don and I'm terrible with the names but he defended this really pivotable airport and he is like they held on to it for so many days and wouldn't let Russia take this airport and he was just telling me the story and he's just like yo we just couldn't let him take it and he shows me a picture and he's got shrapnel hanging out his head and a bullet hole in the side of his helmet and he's like yeah we couldn't let him take the airport that couldn't happen I'm just like [ __ ] does it put into perspective uh people who take Brazilian jiu-jitsu very seriously as something where they're going to war for sure for sure that's why I drink a couple beers before a match I'm like [ __ ] we're just having fun out here you know just like there's heavy [ __ ] going on it's good perspective shifter to be able to go to these places you know especially like B Team men like some of the guys I'm with they don't even have passports they don't want to leave America I'm just like man take me to the crazy 60% of Americans don't have a passport yeah that's why some of that's obviously because they can't afford it but oh some of us also have [ __ ] no vacation time here you know but yeah I think a big chunk of it is a lack of culture at least from what I've seen outside of the you know like tofy wanky [ __ ] influencer friends that I've got like just the country's so big you've got 50 countries attached to the same country where you can work anywhere use the same currency speak the same language Etc why it's like saying I've never traveled outside of Europe well you can travel quite far within Europe and America is basically a collection of countries that happen to share a currency in a language yeah I mean I'm down to go anywhere I'll go anywhere I'll risk it all for a good story you know that's uh that's I love what was your time in Thailand like you must have been out there before there's something out there that pulls me each and every time you know you put your finger on it I have they have to me but yeah I love Thailand Thailand's good time I just went in the Philippines Philippines surprisingly awesome I've never been Manila like I didn't know what to expect you know you visit some Asian cities some of them are super welldeveloped some of them Philippines Muslim as well right uh I have got this no but there is an island in the Philippines controlled by ISIS I was trying to visit that while I was out there controlled by Isis Isis Isis Island yeah they got to Island okay some parts of Philippines super dangerous like people get kidnapped and stuff but for the most part I had a good time uhhuh that's actually I don't know if you saw the video where I had a bunch of lady boys wake up my friend I did that's him out there okay so we we were in the Philippines and we're hanging out in one of the seedier areas and we just recruited a bunch of lady boys to wake him up okay that's the punishment you get if you want to go to bed early and not hang with the boys you know okay Y no excuse and how did how did that go how where do you find that many lady boys I'm like the P Piper They Came to Me in the streets you know okay this just something that you exude the smell of Japanese yeah that doesn't wash away no doesn't wash away N I love hanging out with lady boys you have a good time you know one of the boys drinking beers with them tell some good stories they make your friends uncomfortable [ __ ] love it what do you want to do next where do Where Craig Wants to Go Next you want to go next after this I go hang on you've got a [ __ ] invit have you not got how long until the Invitational 6 months 5 months oh we put the C we put the counter up yesterday 80 Days 80 days until oh [ __ ] and before then I got to go back to Ukraine so I'm going back to Ukraine to visit the city of curen so head back there what why I'm going to do a charity seminar for the police as a thank you for help probably helping me get out of jail no but as said Thank you just appreciation and yeah just go visit the guys again I booked that before booked the tournament I probably would have shelf that for a while but summer is a pretty heavy time during the war cuz obviously winter those roads like snowed in wet it's hard for a lot of offense to come you know like things get bogged to T for cars to move Summer's pretty hot things can move pretty quick so go out and see the boys at least with some nice weather with some nice weather yeah yeah so what else have you like you've done Ukraine Kazakhstan Philippines Thailand but you did a ton of other places in the middle what were you doing that so when we were we were planning to film in Kazakhstan we had a break between the first day of shooting and the later days of shooting so we're just like I spent a lot of time in Kazakhstan and our mati so I was like [ __ ] it let's just pick a random country and head there so we went to usbekistan and I showed up to a gym in usbekistan and just surprised them and train with them so I was like we got time let's do it they recognize you yeah luckily otherwise I would have fell [ __ ] this guy who's this [ __ ] [ __ ] dressed in short shorts it went well awesome yeah visiting I just love trying to visit as many crazy places possible Jiu-Jitsu is everywhere it's like a virus it's like heres you can't get rid of it yeah it's uh it's interesting to think just how much a sport like that I remember I was on a a wedding in Barcelona a few years ago and one of the guys who doesn't usually drink had had a a particularly heavy day and evening and uh I don't know whether you know but Barcelona is the robbery capital of of Europe really super super super bad and um he wandered off from the guys late run in evening got this bus back from wherever we'd had the ceremony during the day and he wanders into the train station falls asleep in the train station and wakes up to find out that his phone his wallet and his shoes had been taken from him good shoes uh well wedding shoes so not not totally terrible and he kind of has he's a sort of a bearded CrossFit dude so he's like pretty well-known CrossFit coach bearded guy uh so it's now 6:00 in the morning and he's wandering the streets of Barcelona beard wedding suit but you know the ties down the shirts open no shoes no phone no wallet and he's going up to people in the street saying please can I your phone which obviously given the fact that it's the robbery capital of Europe just looks like like he is yeah he is one of the people that's then going to try and do it and he said uh he ended up finding a like person that would give him his phone and then he rang messaged someone on Instagram and managed to get them to let him into the Airbnb where he was staying but he said uh if I was really really stuck I would have just found the nearest CrossFit gym and said you know look on Instagram there's me yeah it's kind of like a global passport thing it's a distributed network of people who do the thing you do and by proxy care for some reason like oh like you do our thing you've dedicated some years of your life to this thing we will look after you it's like a secret society you know it's like it's a good it's good to be famous in a niche sport but everyone in the niche sport knows you you know cuz you don't have to deal with the the issues of widespread Fame but that's interesting You' got a connection everywhere you go narrow but deep yeah narrow but deep that's what we okay uh going back to the BJJ thing you know we've it seems to me total like Bro The Next Leaders in BJJ Science comment here but it seems that at least within the next sort of five years or so we're going to see the um phasing out of one generation of competitors and kind of probably the ascendency uh of a new generation who if you were to throw a little bit of money invest into a bunch of different Fighters young guys that are coming up who do you think is going to be the most dominant few Fighters over the next few years I mean I think the young guys they already do well in the lighter divisions the heavier divisions some of the old guys can linger around um but the younger guys now I mean like miky gal the Rolo Brothers you know like those guys are phenomenal and then from guys that like I mean Doran he trains with us from time to time but this guy's like a wrestling champion in America he's super young I think 18 19 he's already like world class level so at the smaller weights those guys can already win like Kade Rolo won 80cc super young so it's like the Next Generation has already arrived I think yeah I uh I really enjoyed seeing behind the scenes of your Tokyo Vlog and what's it called not kimono what's the [ __ ] thing what's the five the gay the gay no the what's the five person fight oh quintet Quint quintet that's it [ __ ] kimono shut up actually that's a question is G Jiu-Jitsu dead now does no one care it's not dead it just doesn't have the personalities that noi does you know and uh you can get a lot more it's hard to get people to watch grappling that don't participate it's harder to get them to watch ghe why I think it just reminds us of um some traditional martial arts you know like it's like unattractive it was cool in the 80s you know [ __ ] Bruce Lee movies and [ __ ] but it's harder now they I think it's a bit weirder to them you know so I think no is just a bit more easily digestible than the uh than the G game are you going to make the guys wear uniforms at cji I'll let them wear whatever they want as long as uh it covers enough skin I think you know can say that to Gabby for me I'll wear a banana hammock some Budgy Smugglers against Gabby I think come out smoking try to finish a I'll put the cigarette on the edge of the of the mat space and try to finish it before that thing runs out of steam you know well that's also the same Pace that your gas tank is moving down at based on that's true that is true that is probably the timer I have it's either that or I put it out of my tongue flick it out of I don't know what are the uh that might turn her on what what are the ways that things could The Risks of Running the Tournament could go wrong between now and CGI like you must have considered that what could go right we would get all of the people that we want and this would be fantastic and it'll make money and we can give it to charity what are the ways that it could go wrong I mean it could go wrong in any way you're trying to put on any sort of event can go wrong you know any sort of difficulties like we're going out of our way to build like we could just throw mats on the floor but that's not the safest that's not the best way to do things so we're going to build something that is safe for the competitor to compete on that adds layers of complexity on a short time zone as it is to put on an event but the goal is going to be high really try to spare no expense in making it the best athlete and Fan Experience possible but I mean any of those little things could go wrong we got a tight a tight timeline you know and the media to get the lighting sorted to Tech everything out in terms of sound and broadcast and blah blah yeah now you're making it worse sorry well look man I need you evidently need the well that's one thing you know people are looking at it and saying God where'd you get $2 million from like that's the prize money what about the money to actually front the event I mean we got build your back alley I mean we've got the budget was 3 million so we've got money aside we're doing production budgets now budget was three yeah but two of it's going to the fighters plus there's a super fight at least one super fight yeah two how much is Gabby getting paid how much does she won she just gets the physical contact of me that's more than money could buy some of your genetic material yeah money could buy it but um yeah I mean we're going to make it work sponsors you know like we do have more funding accessible if needed but we've set it as our goal to do this on a certain budget well I mean that if and especially given that you're being largely transparent apart from your Anonymous Ukrainian funer um if you are relatively sort of open books about it and say hey guys we managed to do this thing on you know 3 mil to put on an event like this or what 5 mil to put on an event like this it's like pretty shoestring budget that doesn't seem like an insane amount of money for the impact that it's had and for what it gives to the fighters and so on uh I think it does throw into harsh light okay so where does all of the money go in usually right competitions yeah that's and that's what we want to prove we want to be fully transparent about everything like I mean even the venue like we're using Thomas a Mac I think that's we rented it out two days I think with loading days we're still talking under $200,000 you know so it's like the venue itself is quite affordable for an event of this scope being run over weekend in Vegas fully Tech yeah wow yeah so it's like it's I mean that's my theory is that we can do it for that budget if it goes over we have more money accessible but the goal leaves the question where the [ __ ] does all of the money go in the other competitions like where is it and that's something that we won't have to answer that's something if we do this correctly I feel like other competitions will have to answer and that's that's kind of the goal here to say hey can we put on a spectacle that takes care of the athletes and is good for the fans to you know do you have any aspirations for fair fight Foundation fair for sure yeah I mean that's sort of like what we're doing when we're traveling around doing charity work and stuff we want to use some of that Foundation money to keep Jiu-Jitsu alive in these small countries cuz like I try to like my position in the sport I think most people like me don't go to poor countries like these countries don't have access to higher level Jiu-Jitsu guys so I love the idea that I can visit places and train with people where Jiu-Jitsu guys wouldn't go and that to me is really ultimately growing the sport a true Jiu-Jitsu missionary you know traveling to these weird places leaving a few kids behind you know but spreading the sport nonetheless yeah yeah I mean look if you don't have uh Uber exac and if you don't have a nice sort of at least fourstar Resort available yeah you know the guys that are the biggest in any industry aren't going to go there the service isn't there and that's yeah those are the places I want to hear craziest places I inspired by Bourdain obviously um I want to try to do what he did for street food for basically Jiu-Jitsu You Know Have You released or what's the release schedule for the content that you've captured from all of this stuff we're we're aiming to utilize the event and the eyes on the event to coordinate maybe show clips during the event maybe even play it before the event like we're hoping to utilize the event and the eyes on the event to grow that document trffic would you uh Netflix comes along and says here we go sell myself for a sure you know I've sold myself for Less yeah yeah yeah yeah and you've bought someone's panties for less as well that's that's true yeah how are you operating B Team while you're well I mean it's like I helped set it up for two years it's kind of a self it sort of runs a self Point yeah I mean my I started teaching the classes I don't teach anymore all the boys teach the classes I'm mostly the merchandise clothing ideas guy you know that's my Niche but yeah I mean I'm not there too much to be honest do you miss it when you're away I miss it's good to come back good to leave too but it's definitely good to come back I love coming back training with the guys and seeing where my levels are seeing how much they've improved making sure they're still okay yeah I think they're happy to see me leave too you know I come in I throw some [ __ ] talking around they're like all right sick of you now they miss me until they see me then they're like please [ __ ] go back to a war zone keep him please God damn it dude I'm really excited I'm really excited to see what happens over the next couple of months where should people go they want to keep up to date with all of the Where to Find Craig updates and everything my Instagram Craig Jones BJJ uh cji official fair fight Foundation website tickets will be on sale on UNLV Thomas and Mac Event Center page I think that should be up on the 31st around then but yeah I mean it's all if you follow Jiu-Jitsu it's on the guy social medias it's blowing up I can't wait man I'm really I'm really really happy to see uh to see you doing something cool I think this is going to be an interesting few months if I survive appreciate you man thanks for that thank you very much for tuning in if you enjoyed that episode you will love my fulllength three-hour long podcast with the one and only Dr Andrew hubman and it's right here