Joe Rogan Experience #900 — Joseph Valtellini Transcript

Transcript

0:00 And we're live. What's up Joe? Good to see you man. I'm pumped to be here. I'm like a little kid here right now. Me too man. Smiling around and loving it. Well I'm excited. There's a big glory event this Friday in Los Angeles. I'll be there. And you got two world titles right? Yeah two. Is it two world titles? Two have Israel. Jason Willness and Israel Edison, yeah. That's a wicked fight.

0:35 Very exciting. You had Rico versus Botter. So that's huge, man. Because it's not hard to understand what's going on. you see it. With kickboxing, That's like they have a kick rule martial arts or like taekwondo or karate but your leg kicks and your constant pressure and just and to be able to execute a game plan with heavy low kicks like that. He's impressive.

4:04 with his wrestling and really never took him down again. It's exciting. Did they find out what happened to him? but he was a great fighter, bro. He was amazing. Excellent, excellent fighter, you know, and I could not get out of a dark room for three weeks. I couldn't walk. I guess something with the concussion started causing some neuron, some nervous, you know,

6:03 The red light on the phone charger would hurt your head. I couldn't even look at a thing. So it was at that point, it was bad, man. The red light on the phone charger would hurt your head. and oxys to kind of deal with the pain and it was a it was a tough time man and it really i think And I did the post-fight press conference. I got that whole color commentary role with Glory, which has been incredible.

7:50 no one has really um got into that level in the time that i did before i turned pro i only had 11 I'm 31 right now. that way now when you see a guy like mayweather who's gone through a career and he's like 49 and if you're a skilled fighter and you understand what he's doing, you understand how incredible So, again, I have to go in there. I got to build a name for myself. You got to think Canada,

10:38 wouldn't say brawling yeah that's probably not the right word, but you turn them into very violent encounters. The way you would fight in kickboxing, where they stand very tall, to his Muay Thai roots on the striking. of the clinch, Like you saw the Bernard Hopkins, Joe Smith Jr. fight, right? Yeah, we came, yeah. Yeah, I mean, It shouldn't have to come down to that.

12:49 Yeah. It's a totally different thing, you know? So everyone in between had to kind of pick a way. What do you walk around at? I think there's that wrestling. it's not the same as the advantage of being bigger in striking. um i got you got to work in the ufc i got to corner twice in the UFC, which was pretty cool. I helped train him for... And Yves Levine called it off.

15:41 Because guys like you come in and you are like guys like Duke He's going to tell you more of the philosophies and strategies around fighting. How are you moving? to find really solid coaching. And when If you're fighting a guy who now likes to move a lot, you've got to be able to pressure fight. like a flower. I've been trying, man. See, I'm trying to find the balance still.

19:03 That's been my challenge. It's hard. But how you deal with it? Do you okay with it now? Anybody who says I think for the most part But it might there might be a way where you could eliminate that aspect of your commentary Like as if it's gospel and you want to argue I'm going to do 18 shows next year. I teach at a special education school. So I work with kids with special needs, behaviors, man. No kidding. So literally in my morning, I teach phys ed. I teach at a special education school.

21:41 And so you teach classes after that? got to reach my full potential in all I got Chris Camozzi just commented on one of my videos being like, That's been huge. To be honest, there's more money doing commentary than there is in the ring. And they were asking me about certain fights where people got knocked out. look like there's anything wrong with you people would be like oh he's fine why can't he fight

24:22 So a lot of these guys that you don't see it, yeah, they just get knocked out and then they're forgotten about. on what these guys are going through and suffering with. It's 100% influenced by these people that stand to lose money because CBD oil helps And inflammation, apparently, if you talk to doctors, they'll tell you it's a huge issue. It's not like something's going to fuck you up at work.

26:35 and then all of a sudden I got my sisters and my family to do some research. And I was able to cut out all of those Percocets and everything just with CBD oil. What is CBDs and cannabis good for? Yeah. But because I was explaining, everyone's like, yo, it's on my list to watch, but, uh, And then he went on to make The Culture High high which is also an excellent documentary that he made

29:19 influence. And William Randolph Hearst didn't just own newspaper companies, It's like a freaky alien plant. I don't think that's it. Popular Science Magazine had this cover. So the Mona Lisa is painted on hemp. In fact, canvas, the word canvas comes from the word cannabis. So the Mona Lisa is painted on hemp. So they came up with that. And then when Eli Whitney came up with a cotton

31:40 Because it's a crazy plant. But it weighs the same. See, marijuana was never a name for cannabis. one asshole and harry anslinger who was the uh the guy in Oh, yeah. What was the language? difficult time to get into Toronto. All old shit from years ago that, you know, But how is that the case when you can still have UFC fights But you've got to think, too.

34:56 round, Joe knocked him out. It's huge. It was insane. People flock to him. There's talk about it. Oh, they watch too much Flintstones. You can't strike a knee to the body. See, I still don't get how it works. So this is the same laws that apply to boxing. You can't even sweep someone. It's ridiculous. Above the ankle. So you can't even have a fucking, you can't even sweep someone.

37:16 Intentionally using the knee as a block. Boy, they got a lot of fucking wacky rules. But that doesn't even make any sense like you can't even use a tape then like if you wanted to extend your leg like a Above the waist, yeah. Sure, yeah. That was an exciting fight too. But that was a first time. ideas about low kicks. Because even Duke Now he's a huge low kick proponent.

40:21 And then there's only a few people that came and stuck true to that low kick style. But I think it's the timing of the low kick And I remember my coach coached Gary Goodridge. in the UFC or at a very high level to be able to pull that off He wasn't fighting against a guy who actually He had one leg twice the size. But, yeah, it was brutal. try to heal the injury quicker.

43:22 Because or the step because every time you step you got to be heavy on your the way. That was against Francois Hombach. Yeah. I mean, he does a lot of wild shit inside the octagon. So, I mean, I was scared, man. The key. If you land more of the lower part of your shin, that's more of a setup. There's up jabs. Because he was throwing a lot of front leg sidekicks to your front leg it was

47:10 and it opens up the low kick. So a night it's 20 minutes later fucking crazy 20 minutes later. I'm not a fan of that that night but what are you going to do? Nikki and I won fight of the year that year They'd try to throw spinning kicks. You're noticing that, and you keep hitting that same spot. Now, when you did bring in those guys, in a row boom boom boom chopping, chopping at that leg.

50:38 But his hands weren't the big threat. But he doesn't kickbox anymore. So you'll see guys that will come around and say, hey, I'm a 10-time world champion. It's a different class, I would say. I fought two full rules Muay Thai fights. and it's just and those two strikes were the damaging Right. Yeah, there's part of it. That's it. Well, it's like if you look at martial arts in your body, your body is your armor.

54:34 And you just take so much damage on the body that eventually it hardens You've got to build a strong armor to be able to withstand whatever damage. because I use my right shin a lot more. Is it nerves? You feel like how they're reacting? to try to damage, you know, those forearms You know, I mean, then you see this fight that you You know, bam! three times, and they're like,

57:15 to do it other than just getting I'm like, hey, look at me. I'm putting a rolling pin it's got to come down to nerve or it's not really bone that's getting stronger i don't know i would It's an effective strike. Jesus. I was actually messing with someone once, and I was like, no. You don't want one. I was actually messing with someone once. All I got to do is put literally my shin one inch away and just bang.

59:13 And you stop right before. The one inch low kick. What worked for me? I'm like, he's not big. And that's my goal as a coach right now is to make a universal system that can handle anything. But now I have a guy who's fighting amateur kickboxing. Like I got to show you like after whatever, I'll show you my notes on what I do. See, I say I do research.

1:02:01 Yes. Dutch girl, nasty striker. Real tall, because, you know, Holly, who You know, Holly's so good at evasion, so good at using angles, and so good at stopping and then countering. I mean, there's some guys that really know how to land that well. Look at this amazing new weapon. Yeah. He's no longer part of the ufc no he retired Yes. I saw that. Yeah. His wheel

1:05:33 in the face. I don't know how No. Lorenz Larkin's a motherfucker. as southpaws um guys don't kick enough from a southpaw or if they do it's constantly one I've really been real martial arts training has evolved. everything but it's what's interesting is the distance where he throws this oblique kick he You know why I like that? and guys think he's going to throw low kicks.

1:08:47 I mean, is the difference in the striking? and how much quicker he is at closing the gap. to um muay thai and elbows don't you think that elbows are that well obviously they're really Whereas in kickboxing, they will separate you. You have to change. You've got to use more distance. Because we're seeing a lot of Muay Thai champions Where with Muay Thai, you kind of take away some, but you still have your other weapons that are effective.

1:12:09 And these guys have been fighting for so long, it's fighting to them. She watches Glory fight? Yeah, I think so. like, again, the best defensive Like when he stepped into that ring with Jose Aldo, he looked like he didn't have a care in the world. months i mean they had done this huge world tour where connor stole his belt at a press conference Connors got going for me he's a way bigger guy he's I mean I know he fought

1:15:09 Yeah, no. The more I follow and train and learn boxing, science now when you are training are you sparring uh right yeah i do but i make sure i spar with the Well, obviously the consequences for you are so much more obvious and intense, you know, knowing what you've been through. He just couldn't take shots. If you're constantly going in there and you're trying to slug it out and getting sloppy, that's not good sparring.

1:17:46 I'm just walking like I own the place, man. me they do somewhere along the lines of 50 rounds of sparring a week. And Simon Marcus looked so fucking good in the beginning of that fight. and just kind of moved his head a little bit. Because it seemed like Simon, from that point on, started to wither. You know? But he just couldn't keep it up, man. southpaw, orthodox, spin kick, boxes.

1:19:55 Right. He's 9-0 in MMA. Yeah. And that's a hard concept for a martial artist and an athlete to be like, hey, your striking's just going to be okay, but we've got to work on your ground, so don't worry about your striking now. things that george was so amazing at saint pier Pierre was so amazing at being able to do whatever he wanted to, Yeah. seen in the sport. Yeah, he's a really interesting

1:22:29 so humble. As new things he was very open to stuff because i always follow him on social media and stuff and Yeah, tag me in. I was like, and he was a fan of mine Roy McDonald Yeah, well, Yeah, and Gaston Bolanos man, we've got to get Gaston and he'd be good in the ufc but if we get him on But like at a professional wrestling level, like ready to go kind of style?

1:24:54 Yeah, but he'd be perfect for glory. I do. And then the rest mixed between the U.S. and Europe. Here's time to prepare and plan because when you don't have that funding all the time, People need consistency. It was okay. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. ESPN3, though, is weird. We need to hit those casual fans. ESPN is going to be the place to do it. Yes. Yeah, for sure.

1:27:21 Oh, there's 13,000 people. And it was in Uberhausen, Germany, which is where borders Holland. And I think that's what Botter does. rico and i think botter is going to be once heals up, and then maybe they'll do another one next year. Oh, that's what it was? But it was interesting because Botter, who's just a notorious psycho, have this three rounder then let them meet again for the five rounds so if it's a torn tendon

1:29:52 That fight needs to happen. Botter's such a personality And everyone was like, holy shit. And the more they build themselves, the more the sport's going to build. Yeah, I completely agree. It's just so hard for But that's their personality, you know? saying that that's the only fight It's just resetting itself. I don't know. Yeah, that's a wicked one.

1:32:01 So, right now, you are 100% commentating on Glory. I'm going to try some yoga out. And he's good. This one right here. That's all he really threw was a down downward elbow wow that is a I remember, and this was in 3D apparently that they filmed it. On top? do you have any desire to compete again are you sure do you have you like figured your path out

1:35:01 Wow. So, I mean, it's more money. conditioning methods what do you uh is there anything that you think that really stands out So a lot of guys are hurting themselves. where they're constantly killing their bodies. That's interesting because some people think that, myself because during your camp, you're losing weight. You're trying to break down muscle because you're constantly training.

1:38:32 I'll box squat instead of a regular squat. And even when you're in that hypertrophy phase and when you're building muscle, the whole point is to break your body down. So you're sore. Work on your fight skills It could have been my years of sports background, have. All terrible shit when you're fighting in a few days, right? So my whole strategy was just to

1:40:50 constantly, as soon as you're done your fight, yeah, it's healthy to take a week or two off. And any time that you're getting better is going to take away some damage that you could possibly sustain. You're not going to be training at that hard intensity that you are, I knew I had to do it. my dreams here so like oh your first fight is against murat direcci in turkey i was like okay

1:43:14 I'm like, all right, cool. Let's do it fight if i fight their fight there's a good chance they're going to beat me so i went in and basically happened naturally and then i kind of blocked it off where i didn't even think about it the last And I think that's where my teaching job helped a little bit. I wanted to go back to what we were talking about with strength and conditioning. Like I said, there's a philosophy that many are taking in MMA that the strength and conditioning is more important during fight camp than actual fight training itself.

1:46:00 You need that different. But if they kickbox with me for one minute they can't handle have a build, a good group of guys who are fighting in the UFC. There's so many times I watched the UFC. all these other people. I mean, it's an amazing time as far as like the amount of information I always talk about fighting as if, like, it's a language. So a lot of their things they were saying are fresh in my mind, but he was saying, it's like,

1:49:50 But on the other hand, so beautiful when you see what Yair was able to do there was nothing and there was no money in it and I was getting headaches too just from sparring Just constantly training all the day. Like you were saying, people going to second guess your conditioning. You're going to wonder if you did enough. You're going card who's sick, I bet you 50% would be sick with some sort of cold or infection or sinus

1:52:51 Did you wake up in the morning and check it? And you probably won't even think that. he monitors everything. You know, because you've been around the fighter so long that it's, they're like, my coach Right. See, that's the crazy thing about fighting and training and learning. You know, I'm like, well, that's crazy, because it's definitely- You better be getting yourself to the point in your training.

1:55:08 So lifting weights. I'm putting all my force, all my energy. Never ran a day in my career. I can give you one, is if you need that time to Envision your opponent. You can, you know, um, sometimes I do light training on the bag. fights. Everyone thought there was a secret. I said, I trained hard in an hour and a half. I If your girlfriend or boyfriend broke up with you or whatever the frick it is,

1:58:37 So maybe sometimes if they're doing three sessions, they might put 60% in each session. If you're hitting bag for 10 rounds and you're looking around So I would do, I always squatted. So, were you squatting heavy? and I would do 10-yard sprints just to work that explosiveness. So that whole point of You know how all the guys are doing the prowler pulls and sleds?

2:01:35 I'm holding a lot of water. Nutrition, I was a little bit – I wasn't super calculated as people are today with counting their macros and micros. I knew what things I should be eating when. Have a little bit of protein, a little bit of carbs and some vegetable. So a lot of guys are doing the avocados and coconut oils to kind of get that fat. I take an electrolyte after training.

2:03:43 Right, so you try to lower your body fat first. I only want to lose two pounds a week. and that was it. for recovery? Like Epson salt baths. That's great. I love that some people are obsessed with deep tissue though I know guys like get deep tissue massage every day after training and you've done that was it the Cairo? Yeah. But yeah, never really.

2:04:43 They won't let you go more than a minute and a half for the first time. Jamie's done it. but this kind is not like that it's not and so she was breathing in the liquid nitrogen. Yeah, that's the kind that most people do, You wear like a surgeon's mask over your face. And you step in there. I do that all the time. That's how they're dressed and the earmuffs and the face masks.

2:06:57 I'd love to, man. But if you do it in a controlled environment for a certain amount of time, your body produces these heat shock proteins that are really beneficial for you. So she believes in the sauna. There was a study that she was talking about where the sauna showed a 50% drop in mortality across the board from all things, Yeah. But these people in this field are saying sauna three times a week is probably one of

2:09:06 hot yoga too. Because hot yoga, The last 15 minutes are bullshit. They're in there for three hours. He's so cute for trying. You're going to try, man. for your body. and you tuck your hands under your heels and then you straighten your legs out with your There's always like a something. And then I'm sitting on the couch at home. Yeah, it's great for mobility.

2:12:17 that stereotype. I don't know why. I think obviously it worked out great. was after I took yoga. I don't know if that's true. But I always feel like full mobility, I mean, think about the amount of power that a lot of these guys can generate ground there that you need to reach. Yeah. What do you think of, I know George St. Pierre came I mean, the way you would fight was so fucking classic.

2:15:17 That doesn't necessarily work the same way in MMA because guys can sneak punches through. one of the tricks that i teach my mma guys is instead of keeping that front arm pinned, you keep it up here. If you punch your two knuckles on an MMA glove on my elbow, good luck. Well, you know what, man? Oh, yeah. Those old school. For example, I'll sit there and I'll hit the side.

2:17:30 just a one pound or two pound dumbbell to your shadow boxing. and different ways that help strengthen the joints. Yeah, there's a company called Captains of Crush. But that accentuates it, definitely accentuates it. Yeah, that was another Steve. you'd hold it like this. Yeah. She's with Glory now, right? It's probably like the yoga, right? When I first started getting into yoga, I'm like, God, my feet are fucking killing me. When you do a standing bow pose, my feet would hurt yeah when i first started getting into yoga i'm like god my feet are fucking killing me like when you do a standing bow pose my feet would be shaking yeah i was like

2:20:30 Yeah. feet are up and they spin, they can spin on their head and unbelievable ability to move their bodies. And I think that comes from yoga. Professional fighter what would I have done from a young age in order for me to improve to where I was? translating directly into yoga. But I think it depends on what kind of fighting you're trying So if you have the ability to take a guy down and you have the ability to make sure he doesn't take you down, then you can better dictate where the fight takes place.

2:23:56 Russell's great. I saw that picture. I love that guy to death. striker i think really just working i think what you're saying about your your training regimen, that you would essentially, you're not running, you're not doing all these different things. I don't know. And I think people are trying to overcomplicate, and that's what kind of takes away from their success is overcomplicating things.

2:25:54 I don't know. Isn't it crazy too that you can't tell by looking at someone? Well, it's a mechanical advantage, you know, that leverage, You don't have time, right? So you have to be able to pick things up quickly. And now I'm at the Or especially when the guy's going to spin. why I stopped teaching. I stopped teaching when I started doing stand-up comedy because I wasn't being a

2:28:08 this. There was a lot of that shit that was scaring the fuck out of me. You have to be. yeah so now this poor fighter is going to go to the ring yeah you might not know you might know You have to know. right way? Which one is the wrong way? And also I think what's really important about guys like Matt and Firas is that both of those guys are highly accomplished martial artists in all disciplines.

2:31:09 that yes and it's kind of you can't be a fighter who you put all your trust into this man to help But he was so good at just being a beast and not caring that he was successful. But when I showed him my way of putting things, he's like, I wish I learned this earlier. So when you have like one of the things that I would deal with in teaching Taekwondo is guys who came from other martial arts that didn't know how to do certain things correctly.

2:32:53 you always want to trust that person because you can't, you have to. And that's a lot of the Is that putting you on the spot? So let's work on all these other aspects too. a lot of the differences like i mean just because i do something differently than someone else And he talks about you have to know your weaknesses. oh he was a deep dude i mean he killed 60 people with swords yeah oh yeah one-on-one combat miyamoto

2:35:33 He was a bad motherfucker. yeah because it translates you know this guy lived that life and and then it's just a different time Yeah, I did a reality show with him. It was cool because one of the guys that I was like a guest kickboxing coach on the show That's what it was about. Yeah. But he'd never fought, you know, and he had no jiu-jitsu at all.

2:37:22 Lockable. It's weird that you have to do some weird fucking thing to do it. Do you fight as you? world champion. I had to be obsessed with training. You can't just do it and be okay. Like, cause these focused on doesn't work well in society obviously but they're so absorbed in it. And I think back and I have a student at my school I had a guy talk to me

2:40:27 between humans now and humans of the future. I'm glad we did it, appreciate it man I'll be there and if you haven't seen kickboxing