Joe Rogan Experience #650 — Nick Curson Transcript

Transcript

0:00 We're good? We're live. Is that echo thing going on anymore? We killed that. We're good? And they didn't even know. I mean, that guy fights like the most exciting style of fighting in boxing today. That was insanity. It's going to be like the biggest gate ever. How do you think the guys tuned into the Chavez Jr. fight that night Yeah. lot of uh what you know and um i'm also fascinated by just the boundaries of human potential when it

3:01 And occasionally there's these outliers. Absolutely. But it seems like the ones who can win and win the way Pettis and Dos Anjos went down, the way Dos Anjos just dominated Pettis. You know six months from now and three or four fights from now, whatever And then that's what they would kind of design the camp towards. Yeah, short bursts and long bursts.

5:44 Exactly. He was scheduled to fight Rostam Khabib. And prior to the Khabib fight, I actually left four weeks before the fight. He's a monster. were sparring, the guy poked his fingernails into his eyes and the and two fingers went right into his eye. So his ear got stuck in between a couple of the links on the cage I've seen that picture and his ear was hanging on by a thread yeah

8:33 Not to mention, Do you have any response? and nutrition. Even a lot of vegan people, they eat too much breads and pastas and rice No, dude. Don't tell certain people that I know that enjoy blowing farts on folks. Da-da-poopa. I think he just kind of, something he wanted to try on his own. I just don't think it's worth, I think the the trade-off is too significant right

11:09 especially in explosive combat sports. that there's like a nine-year period where a guy can really fight great. Do you really? Right. I've watched guys go at it. too much red BJ had enough that's the question I would ask it's a good point about this the other day. on another day so I can do my sparring you know and I'm fresh for sparring and I think Marvin

14:01 But I think the questioning of their How do you find that balance? BJ's already phenomenally skilled. I said the same thing about Nick Diaz, too, I've never seen him outclassed skill-wise by anybody. He told me BJ Penn was one of the best boxers he's ever trained. Standing upright, like a giraffe almost. like pretending to be a fighter. That doesn't make any sense.

17:26 and then they left about five weeks out from the Frankie Edgar fight. That's when they had the discussion about changing up the program like uh can we do the conditioning on different days and so they just decided to walk Right. No point where Uriah was in significant trouble. He's always able to push that same pace every round, Yeah, absolutely. Pretty much something safe, you know.

19:50 right now that's why it kind of blew my mind like why people i hate to keep reminding you but it he's he's a good size 185 right and as a 170 he's fucking huge and Benson handled him yeah so I think Yeah, that's interesting. and a guy who Dana White had been pretty public saying he thought was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. He's fucking good.

22:07 Pettis had caught him several times with some pretty hard shots I mean, that was Pettis' first loss in the Octagon. Yeah. Right. at 12 000 feet right now. Damn. Because it seems like you're dancing that line, man. That basically sums it up right there. you need to know how to get your guy to peak in every exercise and then cut it off. It's going to take a lot longer to develop.

26:01 And it can only take so much. And when it breaks, it breaks. But those guys are always in shape. I mean, if they're doing heavy weightlifting and you're doing that year round, you're shortening that bicep, right? And now that's a whole other level. You've probably seen BJ Penn doing it too. Why I don't know let's check it out There we go. Jump like that. Yeah, that's like the Ronda Rousey of box jumpers, right?

29:47 that we're doing with the feet right there. every sport so he's catching these he's got these things for arms too now and he's so there that's He's not shorting his reach. Look at that fucking leg. Taekwondo has its faults, how many fucking people can do that? and then it snaps back with greater force. That's interesting. is a school of thought uh especially along with jujitsu guys where they like a super slow training

33:33 Well, the idea is that if you get someone's back and you're working the choke, you know, You know what I mean? And I went there at a time when you show up on Saturdays, You show up and there's like, these guys have these red things on their black belt. You feel how he just... How so? I weighed 168 pounds. You're a handsome man. Thank you. Like Mackie Shillstone, when he trained Evander Holyfield to get him up to heavyweight.

36:15 It could be. You know what I mean? When a guy wants to bulk up, there's very few ways to bulk up other than lifting heavy, right? with the type of training that I offer, But a guy like, Yeah. Yeah. will deteriorate a boxer's punching power and accuracy. deadlifts, bench press, that can deteriorate his punching power. You know what I mean? So even the pettis fight

39:53 but also that, you know, he was able to keep that speed up watch him against Jeremy Stephens early But he's a different human being all around. i are training like three four times a week i mean you know granted except for the times in First thing, the guy comes to me the first day, I'm going to do muscle tests on him So if my shoulder flexion or my shoulder flexibility is here,

42:34 So how would a guy get too flexible in his shoulders? If there's slack in the rubber band, you can't get the snap out of it. Oh, okay. I see. I see. And then is the top of a shelf or something like that. Mm-hmm. Okay It depends on the sport they're going to do. and yet it's like one of the most neglected areas. With reactive exercises like balance exercises on slant boards and discs

45:41 It doesn't even get processed in the brain. like manipulating the safety device to increase sports performance the guys at the on it gym were And not to mention, you're neglecting the forefoot. And so knowing that, it's kind of like, why are we doing this? start training the feet. Like, how's this? A better option for squatting would be a front squat.

48:09 Like maybe you can do that. Like all the balancing. my foot is the one that's having the hard time dealing with all that. to compensate for the weakness in the feet i'd say a lot of guys have flat feet they have poor Not really. You think? But I definitely have flat feet. And it's almost like a laziness of the posture of your foot. Really? on there just do a few with your shoes on okay then take your shoes on and try a few without

51:19 It's always like I got pain there from skiing. We'll talk about me later in that. Actually, maybe top three. He's bouncing around on his feet. Yeah, he was coming on in the later rounds. Matisse throws bombs. We'll take care of it on a winning day. We've showed it a bunch of times in this podcast because it's so fucking crazy. Kidneys. and then i ended up getting a seat ringside.

54:26 a monster. The way he fucking after three or four rounds, and from training with you? And so even in sparring, he would come on a little slow you know, hey, look, what happens if he gets headbutted in, like, first or second round? And sure enough, second round. eats raw meat really yeah not when he's here here he has a he has a nutritionist predators you know you can pretty much get away with that they're eating bear you obviously

57:29 I'd be interested to try that. They ground up this raw horse and served it with egg on it and everything, raw egg on it. Do they kill the whole horse? When you buy most beef that you buy from the store is fresh. Although weird. You got cats? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you got daughters? I thought you're pretty funny there and then I saw you at the thing my buddy got us tickets now

1:00:37 under my breath dude i look at my son and i'm trying to get this thing to work my son goes You know, as soon as you give it a response, then it's like, oh, their eyes light up. Right now, you and I together. No. Two grown adults. Nothing wrong. Absolutely not. Right? So, stop. Jesus. You know, we're leaving the trip. Yeah, you gotta laugh. attention or anything she was just looking at her suitcase

1:03:02 and you forgot your helmet you'd be like ah Are you nice are you friendly if you're friendly and you say, fuck, I feel good about talking to you. stop giving so much power But you're in an office everybody's dressed like a fucking penguin some weird stupid outfits And my language. It's like, it's self-imposed infantile behavior. That you know you're you're around an idiot. Just avoid that dummy I

1:06:32 Fung-gu. and you see guys doing the battle ways of training what what is knees to the body. Really? I think if you start going too heavy then yeah, you're overloading your spine hips you can do that with a hand throwing the leg down and and work it in different angles so It could be some other kind of disease or whatever. But what it's doing is it's sending a neural impulse through the tendon, okay,

1:10:04 Exactly. So you get a greater, you get a greater contraction out of the quadricep without even trying. like for example, I'll hold your toes and I'll have you try to push me back and I'll feel like weak glute and ham contraction you're gonna have a weakness in your straight Like you want to you want to strengthen all these weak links first to get the kinetic chain working

1:12:45 Tight hamstrings, though. Eddie Bravo. Oh, it must be John Jocks. Yeah. Like say if you have him in side control, he can pick his foot up without even grabbing with his hand traction stretches you can do, like some manual Because back and neck those are really common with grapplers aggro back then. I got thrown into a wall in Jiu Jitsu, and I just it just crunched

1:15:34 where he was doing a stunt and they threw him on his head. Yeah, he had several operations. ended the guy was going about 100 miles an hour yeah so shattered my pelvis broke my hip i've got I mean, I still have it. And that was the nerve waking back up. Did you? yeah I think I can snap out of it Yeah, I mean, it was. He had a dirt bike accident his fucking bone

1:18:31 It's kind of like an ATV, but a little bigger, and two guys, like a dune buggy, like a miniature hospital they flipped the thing and one guy busted his scalp open he's got a hole like the size of a And he went from being a super active guy to just staying home all day, being hooked probably like two months ago. Every one of us has practically been kicked off facebook

1:20:29 I just come in there to save you man. That's it. I've had several friends that have had like serious pill issues I have a deviated septum. Like, he had it so bad he couldn't even breathe out of one of his nostrils. Like, the bone's kind of weird in it. Flat to his face. Yeah, just smushed down. No cartilage at all Yeah. It does. Yeah. That's the early days of Vandelay.

1:23:13 the surgery. That's his face that was uh that was Vanderlei in his prime I want to say that looks like he was right before See that picture up there? Click on that go go large on that you could see in that one i think that's that's it seems like after the kung lee fight that's tough to tell there but for a lot of the fights like cartilage there completely fucked. Is that after the operation right there?

1:25:29 Yeah, his nose is pretty smashed there. he's the only only one of those guys that got it fixed Nick Diaz had some Did you see ago and did a hell of a lot better Because it shows like, I mean, it's really stacked. Maybe lower the ropes a little bit, too. whoa so he moves like a snake in the ring like his head movement his speed and timing are just I think my personal opinion, I like the guy.

1:28:23 But I think it went to his head a little bit, and maybe the ego got in the way, He's coaching his dad, like, how to train him. He's back and he's dedicated. Is that right? Yeah, keep going. I always wondered, like, does it take longer to develop efficiency of movement You're obviously slower than a lighter weight person. So it'll play a role in the mechanics.

1:30:59 especially back in the kickboxing days, I mean, you look at, if you watch Mighty Mouse, Demetrius Johnson, the UFC flyweight champion, very tough fight because his big strength is taking guys down. And I don't know who he brought in to train with it, but they're not good enough. the original Brazilian berserker camp out of Curitiba, Brazil. And Travis Brown's an animal.

1:33:18 Watch him double-jab Travis Brown, you know? But if you you look at the best fighters in the world the the world, the two best guys in the heavyweight division currently, I mean, I think at at heavyweight he was undersized Right? you know, you're wondering what the Russian guys are doing, So I train him, and he goes out there for months at a time and trains with the Russians and Ukrainian national teams.

1:35:55 I think, well, they've got great wrestlers. Really? I'm not lying. Right. He's like kind of, it's almost like he's doing like. Whereas every other kettlebell swing you'll see. sets of 20 or 30. This guy's using three pounds. Yeah. But for guys like you and me, as we're getting older, like I'm going to be 42, I need to why couldn't i get off my toes because i've trained my body to sit back on the heels that's

1:39:37 I'm a big fan of those. Does it help in that way? do you but I'm not big on like the neck bridging I think that the discs are so Yeah, and a velcro strap on the top and you pump it up with air and it's like this big metal thing he can show it. It's about like $700 or $800. Right behind you? Yeah. The little, so you put it on. Uh-huh. Oh, I have seen this. Okay. And that's the pump-up part, the little... So you put it on.

1:42:38 So he's moving his head and spinning around in a circle. If he faces it, he'll be exercising the back of his neck. Yeah, on his neck. Gives pointers And then what do you have him do on there and put like you know 80 90 pounds on there 100 pounds or something what do you think Yeah, I think they have it there. for like sports and stuff right so it doesn't mimic how you would use the neck in real life

1:45:27 Absolutely. There's a lot of different ways. You can do like the Russian twist. Yeah. are those uh you know i don't think so i think you can get some good work done on those believe on the right? They're banging. You know how that machine was invented was the Russians took a pommel horse and they That is pretty cool. Is that better, do you think? Yeah.

1:48:40 And the weight that you would put on it. Yeah. like, say, hill sprints or sandbags or anything? It's actually been shown that it's proven. I think the biggest misconception with all the resistance type training is that Doesn't work that way? But you would say that that's strengthening of the feet? moves real good, they're almost like stuck in mud. Uh-huh.

1:51:53 No. He's pretty new. Yeah, that's him. Wagner. the Miochic versus Maldonado card. who's lifting, I mean he's huge, it looked like he was jogging. Really? Right. The guy could barely throw Yeah. Now it looks, it looks pretty good. It's like, okay, now we can start really progressing and hitting the nervous system with really intense biometrics and stuff like that.

1:55:23 it's it's very heavily influenced by what the Russians came up with and their studies of the nervous system and Okay, we'll do it. physically but I also as a commentator I think it would help I think that's what i didn't love it. I loved it, but I didn't love it as much as I love Canelo Alvarez, James Kirkland. I just watched that the other day, man.

1:57:38 That was insanity. But Vanderlei's probably my all-time favorite. and i don't know whether or not he was on i don't know what the fuck he was on but i do know that They were going to give him nine months, and they tried to shift it to one year. So what the UFC did is they UFC had to stand down. And so now Kung Lee is involved in some crazy lawsuit with the UFC and

1:59:52 But when the tests are in question, I'm obviously not a doctor or a scientist. Yeah, that was an interesting one too. Same gym or something. Well, he's Pacquiao's guy. Yeah, I was old guy Yeah, if he's not 10, he's top 15. Is that the guy that Raphael trained with? And that he came up to Raphael and was all humble and wanted to train with him. And it's pretty disrespectful to Rafael, but it's kind of complimentary to me.

2:01:31 Look, if you're, you know, if you're juicing, dude, you're going to have traps up to your ears. He's taking a cold cocktail. Can you imagine that? I'm sure there is. You're gonna do it because you know the other guys doing it. You know I mean like what did you what did you think about the? You know what? and they can show like, hey, this is his thing, and it's 300. That that's it then i don't know if that would be i'm not condoning drugs but i'm just

2:04:16 They were taking it. Yeah, like Raphael like the guy saying that i don't know who he is but you have to understand there's a reason he's the champion Three to four days, depending upon how he's looking. But six training camps. The other thing is, the guy walks around at like So imagine you take a guy who's 190 and strip off 20 pounds. I question some guys, too.

2:06:53 Right Hector Lombard had muscles that weren't even in books right you go like medical books They go what the fuck is that what is that that is it's not even a human No. But BJ's one of those guys where I don't think he's done anything ever. What are you trying to say? Yeah. So yeah, I don't I just keep bringing the compliments man. I like it You look at Tyron.

2:09:10 Right. Yeah, three weeks. What is a full training camp for you? And would you take a guy like that who's got a lot of extra muscle again? I'm sorry Yeah. Yeah, you've got to find an even trade-off where you don't compromise all the aspects of what the athlete needs. to try to build that up. anything like that, but I know Raphael's using George Lockhart, who's getting kind of popular

2:12:10 they have to think about, the more resources they have. Do you know what I mean like right unless you can prove it? That's before they have all the fancy monitors. Dumbbells, heavy dumbbells. It's like being through wars. Jesus in a very deep and meaningful I mean, the last big KO was, like, what, Ricky Hatton? Absolutely. Those are fast twitch muscles that control

2:15:33 Have you seen his calves? think. Really? Yeah, I don't think so. is what got me excited about talking different personalities, man. It's exhausting. You really get attached to them. they're still saying, you know, I just can't figure out why he had it. don't get me wrong but the same training partners and over, that's just monotony kills athletes. Efren Escudero, who just won the Ultimate Fighter that year,

2:18:24 the elastic strength that he had, his explosive power was just remarkable his takedown defense when he stuff they use for rehabilitation, Oh, really? You got to go to like, you got to go to continuation continuation school? You know, you get kicked out of high school. Oh, really? Marv majored in fine arts from USC. great so then how long have you been training fighters now how many fighters you know like uh

2:20:53 straight consensus about what's the right way to train athletes and fighters and especially You saw the Cain Velasquez. I'm just wondering how good this guy could be with good training. His stamina is insane. But his speed and his coordination, I don't know. Look at this. What part? Is this all caveman shit you're looking at? I know it works. he's,

2:23:09 Yeah, so he's seen everything. It's all media, dude. All about the product. of meat. Yeah, when I knew I was going to talk to you, Right. You know, you can blame it on whatever you want. I love my son so much. now right yeah but yeah he's an artist man his art's pretty bitching too man i guess he's living Did he really? I made him do it. Yeah. Do you remember?

2:27:18 That's great, man. was when he was doing that wow and that just destroyed his professional career that's interesting And anybody who wants to check out your gym, what is the name of it and where is it at? in Torrance very enjoyable conversation thanks man