Joe Rogan Experience #864 — Kevin Ross & Gaston Bolanos Transcript

Transcript

0:00 We're live. What's up? What's up, boys? What's up, man? So nice to have you guys on, man. Uh-huh. Well, it is a sport. Every time we take another step, like when it got on AXIS TV tv it was such a giant leap compared to where it was prior to that so then what's coming next Yes. This is a local show that was at some hotel. And he had never seen, like, Muay Thai before.

2:37 like no it's actually this this that and so sometimes it's like is it like kickboxing like It's like on the door. Is it that dissimilar? It's night and day. And I've always maintained, I've been a big fan of Lion Fight because what Lion Fight People would turn away from it so fast. You know, different gyms, different people do longer and shorter ones.

5:25 Five minutes? Really? I don. Well, what's a long one? Ah, five minutes. Five minutes? he takes his sweet time, like people are very educated I would estimate that like 50% of the crowd trains. but it's so embedded in their culture that they just love it and they appreciate it. it's sort of almost an incestuous kind of an environment yeah especially like like when i

7:01 You know, it doesn't have this mass appeal. It's strange. When you're there live, you can feel it. and Buakaw fought and he what happened to that organization? They don't know who this is. But you can't do that from the beginning when you were just trying to grow and build. I'm pretty sure they ran out of money by the second or third show. It's like I have DVR at my gym.

10:20 There's so much good fights. people compete in it richer yeah because you you kind of understand you're like wow this is like but they just wanted to get some cheap people they could put on the air. so people come and are like, this is terrible. They were good, exciting matchups regardless regardless of the level, and that's Mazetti, what's his first name again? Gabriel.

12:38 He's a lot bigger. It was very small, and kevin were we're fighting and it's crazy like the amount of talent and how much is growing that it's like soccer and then Muay Thai is like really like coming up in popularity behind soccer, you know a lot of the elements of a lot of the other traditional martial arts but for whatever reason, So you're saying, hey, this guy's got really great stand it comes to real Muay Thai, you know.

15:47 I think all martial arts make an adjustment. And he's getting needed they're getting in the face. Yeah like that cyborg I got kicked in the back of the head I mean, I didn't really think anything of it at the time. Yeah. crack in the back of your skull and they're like i don't know why you're not a vegetable right now why did you try to fight with a fucking injury you told you you could die that's that's just

19:04 And that's how I was able to get as much experience as I did. Kieran's nodding back there. gonna fight no matter what you're gonna fight anyone anywhere anytime any weight class um and for people. Where us, it was like an hour. muay thai fan there's no other reason to do this other than the fact that you loved it you're losing pad work and that's kind of the good and the bad of of things getting bigger so you think that by

21:15 Me personally, but fortunately I have good people around me who would be like, going to get fights you know was it difficult to motivate yourself during those times because for a lot of people motivation requires some sort of an end goal um or at least not so why I started just taking a boxing fight even though to be playing catch-up no matter how good i get i'm playing catch-up and so i gotta do everything

23:27 Maybe. What motivated you to get in there? was never because i didn't even know how serious i was because i obviously i couldn't do what live All you do is party. You know what I mean? doing like 120 on the 215 in Vegas. But this dream, I mean, you would never even step foot in a gym. Me giving myself, all of myself to this sport Right, but why was it so, what were you getting out of it when you realized that it wasn't really about how good you get or how far you go.

28:18 You can at least attempt this and you owe it to yourself and you owe it to them to give it everything that you have. And I think that until you have a really difficult task improve and then it's sort of it trickles over into your life yeah yeah well in the beginning and all of a sudden they're in the spotlight And that's why everyone's like, well, they didn't have to deal with this,

30:43 Josh Shepard. Josh Shepard yeah who was a really talented fighter himself goes out and destroys this guy in the And then he just kept training and going. he's he wasn't even like he wasn't even that good before like he was okay like he was good but like and information and just life itself, relationships, bills, bullshit, stress, existential angst, the fucking grave calling.

32:47 everything i'm dealing with or have had to overcome but but if i sat there and listened as an adult yet because I was in 18 but we lied and said that I was 18 and so I because I ran out like dude i'm like i didn't even start till i was 23 what are you talking about because people just i think people just like to view things as an excuse like oh i can't do it

34:59 But once you've matured in a certain way, like I started to, for only one reason, I want to be the best I can be. Like, I just really enjoyed training at the time. Like, that didn't come until, like, 14, 15 when I was like, I really want to dedicate my life to this. No, I started at Vertex. Like you can get unlucky and find a bad coach in a bad gym and you get all

36:25 break for a lot of fighters to make yeah man and i mean like i've honestly i i've been truly blessed best for you whether it's a coach whether's your diet, whether it's your training schedule, together really well I've watched a lot of videos you guys train together I mean like my technique in the because cause it isn't going to be I need to figure out which ones work best for me and which ones work for me at which time against

39:30 Nine months and one week. I just talked to a friend of mine. had both knees reconstructed i had my left one done with a patella tendon graft where they take like for me it was more of a mentally a strange thing you know to to have something of someone that tendon with its own tissue. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. It's terrible. You know? and I'm like, all right, man, let's go.

43:04 And, unfortunately, so much of what we do is applied to the offensive side of it, hitting And the way I always try to tell people, You know, like, it feels good when they meet you. And in your mind, you're hitting them. yeah there's nothing coming back at you so there's no there's no uh reverb off your head it's like we do a lot of technical sparring

45:03 learned how to place things correctly and where they need to go and where you maximize their damage and minimize yours. Just dig in. But isn't there some benefit in the bag having some sort of a give so that your shin is pushing? And then I think that's another thing that not a lot of people think about or, or apply Yeah. We have an aqua bag. I mean, not that.

47:22 Ryu? Right. proficient at any of those things. And as a high level fighter, do you guys watch MMA and go, oh, this is all. Joanna's really good. You got to implement what works for you in MMA. They're going a different route, They're kind of combining kickboxing and MMA on the same card. maybe have some Muay Thai fights on the undercard or in between fights

51:32 It seemed kind of crazy. Like, why aren't you kneeing? a lot of kicks that you don't know where they're going. 2012? It was just so like I was in another mental plane. Yeah, he kind of screwed me. Cecil Peoples is a very nice guy. time arguably you know he's certainly one of them he's he uses so many things from different Yeah. And one of the things, San Chai setting up high kicks

54:47 Oh, yeah, I've seen some of that, guys. And's kind of um what we were speaking of earlier in the gym is it's just that one thing he's kicked but but he has so many It's kind of ironic having Cecil Peoples be the referee in a fight that's a Muay Thai fight because Cecil Peoples is one of those guys that says that you can't stop people with leg kicks.

55:59 competent judges and referees you can't you're. You're getting boxing judges doing Muay Thai. You're getting he's got, man. In Thailand, are they affecting each other are they hurting each other right are they just mindlessly lifting That's an issue with ground fighting as well. that in the clinch as well, there's a lot of times they separate And that's the problem.

58:50 the misconception is that they look at it and he's sort of calculating all this stuff in his head as well. Even just like sparring. they must understand all the different aspects of it and i i say that about playing pool too that I mean, what's going on is, you know, this exchange, the interactions. and then appreciate what these athletes are doing.

1:01:09 Yeah. Why didn't you get a goddamn chair and Jamie will pull up a microphone? What it means is that in boxing, when you have two great fighters from two different I get it. Was he? I don't know. Well, what's interesting about Thai fighters but all the fundamentals that go in a Muay Thai clinch are very similar to judo. It's really cool stuff to see.

1:04:17 Whereas a lot of times in America, when you're looking at the clinch, we think of it the same way we look at a clinch in boxing. guys take guys down in muay thai like how much does that count like how are they scoring fights what if you just get double under hooks and just crush them towards you and It's like me watching a jujitsu match and trying to score it.

1:06:09 Something that's dope. Yeah. Yeah. Judging is such a strange thing, isn't it? It's course, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, without a doubt. That's a weird thing to, like, objectively call, though, isn't it? Yeah. And then I'm trying to think of it from the mentality of someone that's never done this before or only taken, like, a course. That was my first loss. 18 judges from all around the world or something like that.

1:07:22 It was a great fight, no doubt about it. I think that was a bad decision. And It was the next event. that wasn't so lopsided, relatively close. it's just a matter of how how you're viewing it what you're It makes it very difficult for a judge to say, well, this punch should get this amount of credit or this much credit, as opposed to just that pitter-pat stuff.

1:09:30 going to be on one side of it and sometimes you're going to be on the other side of it where maybe is like a representative of your focus. whole thing sometimes yeah ever ever it's we see and then like when it comes to fighting you're viewing but tomorrow you're gonna it's not like football into our camps variables that that are involved in that but what what fighting is to me the way i always like to

1:12:39 Especially, like you said, if you don't have experience in that sport or have trained or fought yourself, It's not just this surface thing like two guys in the ring and they're fighting And then it's done. There's so much high-level talent. Definitely. Yeah, it was 12 years old. and the right time is and hopefully one day those all those pieces will come together uh if if not

1:15:18 When you think about it? You know, after I had two really bad losses, I lost my world title by stoppage, I'm too old to do this. I don't know if that's going to be over today, tomorrow, 10 years from now. invincible or does that not matter? I've played that like 30 or you got it. Most guys were pretty much intimidated. five minutes before I come out,

1:18:05 When I come out, I have supreme confidence, but I'm scared to death. I thought this man might be capable of beating me. When I came to the ring, I'm a god. And they can't really appreciate it. everybody but they were also not learning a lot of very important lessons that they needed to learn like fighters from different disciplines, And that happened twice in a row.

1:20:58 then and then i would see people getting ready for fights and they're freaking out like they can't And it took me a whole round to get back into that mental zone. and he's a guy that has survived some pretty devastating losses And before that, it was the Pettis fight. from there as like very specific things I wanted to especially being so calm as I am.

1:23:51 It's the difference between working out and training. so you're training you're you're are a big one with fighters right yeah you know. You know, when you see fighters, they get in a broken up relationship or they have a crazy girlfriend or something. things like boxers and stuff they'll totally totally leave town and, you know, set up shop somewhere else

1:26:34 What were you going to say? you know i'm really lucky and that's why it's important to have and it's like not just a great many things that could be you know i mean whether it's you overthinking the fight or whether there's So people ask me, well, what should I do mentally to prepare myself? At 5 p.m., they go home. This is stupid. And it's incredibly difficult psychologically.

1:29:49 training whether it's your mental approach whether it's your diet whether it's how much or how little And because sometimes you go to bed, okay, this is what I'm going to do tomorrow. You know what I mean? Yeah, like I stubbed my toe. How bad was it broken? And I was like, I couldn't sit up. if somebody touches me there i'm done like my body's gonna fall like even if i'm mentally strong like

1:32:53 If I can physically get in there, I'm going to do it. Definitely, absolutely. We do a lot. Otherwise, I feel like I'm not training. then we do strength and conditioning, then I come back in the afternoon, I hit pads, Sparring. as hard as i can kill the bag as hard as i can you know what I mean it's right what is it that you're working on in that moment you know and am I just working on my technique and my things and

1:35:52 Like, what I do, it's not like I'm going to tell everyone, you need to do this because then you're going to be like me. you know like i know people who hardly run at all but they also find a way to supplement So there's that mind fuck of am I slacking off? I find it's hilarious and fun to watch when you see Thai guys training with American people. I'm like, well, just kick, you know, just do it, do it.

1:38:45 and which has helped me um in what i do and and helped me improve a lot of the techniques i have how to relay that information. But you might find some shitty ones too. into it and dissect it that much more because they weren't able to or for whatever reason Where, you know, Mayweather's probably not the best coach in the world. figure out what those things are and how do I, how do I tell someone how to do this? Where,

1:41:36 a completely different style. Right. Well, it was kind of the same thing with Anderson Silva. fundamental basic clinch you know i mean that's just because everyone else was so terrible at it the rich franklin fight were you going what in the fuck like how did he not learn this his first Yeah, without a doubt. see the math of that it's when people aren't people have a false sense of where they're at

1:44:30 It's crazy to think that someone could reach a world championship level in something that involves Muay Thai. takedowns, you know, you put that person or no jiu-jitsu. or if it was just jiu-jitsu, you would see someone who's the best at that. Right. When you see a guy like that, the reason why I keep bringing up Wonderboy's style is because What we were speaking of earlier, it's if you've never applied that in a fight, a real fight, notarring not not not not that kind of thing

1:47:24 stands sideways and he leaps in and out and he moves back and forth from the waist like a taken down and crushed yeah it's like we were talking about your experience in a taekwondo school that you went there He's a kickboxer. You know what I mean? So it's different than if he would get in the ring and do Muay Thai. talking about with Raymond Daniels and

1:49:51 you know those mid level guys um if i'm not flinching on the things you do and don't really care so much about Even if you never throw a kick, now you just can take those kicks better and just kill me with your your high level hands well you you said that you had uh taken some I'm not coming out there unless you have a fight for me. We got it. right?

1:51:48 we got somebody but uh he's a boxer it's it's a do you want to do a boxing fight and i used to He was freaking out because one, he was like 20 pounds bigger than me. Like, I got some gloves. So how much different is your training now? Well, the good thing about MMA is it'll still allow you to do spinning elbows. Yeah. So MMA, I don't know yet. Probably like 160, 158.

1:54:18 Like, why complicate it even further by dehydrating your brain 24 hours before the fight? So do you have, like have pre-prepped meals? Yeah. My second meal would be eggs. You feel better with that? I feel better with that. It did not work for me. But in my case, I'm always trying to get ready for fights. Yeah, well, I was living with a carry-on at the time, and he was like like a little bit he's like dude what the fuck are you doing man this shit's not working

1:57:50 But the people that are successful with it, apparently there's a curve where you go through that keto flu stage for a few weeks and then you get better. hard for three weeks don't do anything he's like even if you like on the treadmill for 45 minutes varies how i'm feeling what's working what's not working you know do you guys get blood work done Same stuff I'm eating.

1:59:57 So, like, yeah, there's a big chunk of crystals right there. So you could see it in the microscope? Looking at yourself. which I think all their stuff is really amazing. workouts yeah and a lot of people don't think of it as that because it's you think of it as something 18, 17? Kevin before that uh the first the first time I ever saw Kevin I thought I saw Kevin fight I thought

2:02:31 I was like, dude, what... And Karen's like, you don't know Kevin Ross, dude. Like do you read books about inspiration? which is amazing. read that book man like like the movie is like such a small fraction of what this dude went through and like seeing how much stuff he overcome. or are dealing with things that might have slowed us down. We go through a lot and people

2:05:41 That's so difficult, but then you find out that other people have done it as well. And it kind of, you can take a lot of comfort in people that have gone before you. Do you know I see everyone success? We don't see their failures. Well, that's one of the things that I think is interesting about you was and the things i've overcome because when you've once you've seen that someone's done it

2:07:56 they brought up, uh, I think it was like the 900, uh, on a skateboard. Like it was impossible to do. And if, and if these things aren't put out there and people don't know about them, you're still always viewing that, that, that, that barrier as, as this is as high as we can go. Me and Joe Schilling and Tiffany and Kai and a lot of other people. I can't give up.

2:09:43 I mean, before, Well, you're the up-and-comer you know i mean and then of course This is awesome. And you are? You'll get there.