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Drawing from over two decades of real-world experience in combat zones and high-risk environments, KP leads authentic conversations with warriors, protectors, and everyday individuals who’ve faced adversity head-on. This podcast is more than content—it's a movement for those who understand that the fight begins before the event.
Through storytelling, lived experience, and expert insight, The Formation Podcast equips its listeners with the mindset, tools, and awareness to remain vigilant and prepared—whether on the battlefield, in the streets, or in everyday life.
The Morning Formation Podcast
Grappling with Purpose: How Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Shapes Character with Black Belts Mike Medina and Juno Lucero
We explore the transformative journey of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with black belt Mike Medina and competitor Juno Lucero, delving into how this martial art shapes character, builds mental resilience, and provides purpose beyond the mats.
• Juno shares his background growing up in New Mexico and how Mike introduced him to jiu-jitsu at a young age
• Both guests recount street fight stories and how martial arts training prepared them for real-world confrontations
• Juno explains how jiu-jitsu gives him a calm demeanor in everyday situations by providing a positive outlet for energy
• Discussion on how belt rank differs from actual maturity on the mats and the importance of humility in training
• Mike shares experiences with overaggressive visitors to his gym and how he protects his students
• The importance of wrestling as a foundation for both competition and self-defense applications
• Debate on the merits of gi versus no-gi training with perspectives on the technical depth of each
• Commentary on social media influencers in jiu-jitsu and the importance of following credible teachers
• Examination of questionable self-defense techniques circulating online and why they often wouldn't work in reality
• Both guests share their competition mindset and how they approach upcoming tournaments
Join us at American Nationals in Las Vegas, June 24-26, where Mike, Juno, Nate and brothers AJ and Jesse will be competing as a team.
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Welcome to the Morning of discipline, struggle and brotherhood, with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Joining me in the studio are two true warriors. I've got Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt himself, mike Medina, right here. Say what's up? Hello, hello, Thanks for having me back. Appreciate it, and his beautiful, handsome cousin, juno Lucero. What's up, guys? As always, it's great to have you guys on the show. Man, today we're getting into everything from Juno's journey into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, how it helped shape his life, to some of the most trending topics in the Jiu-Jitsu world right now. Whether you're a white belt, black belt or somewhere in between, or you're just searching for your purpose, today's episode is definitely going to be for you. So, juno, I just want to ask you man, let's get started from the beginning. Where did you grow up? What kind of environment did you grow up in?
Speaker 2:I grew up in albuquerque, rio rancho. Rio rancho, albuquerque, new mexico, grew up there until I was about 14. I went to sacramento with mike, then from there I moved back to rio rancho for a little bit, for like three months, then out to, went to San Diego, back to LA. Now I'm back in Rio Rancho, new Mexico.
Speaker 1:So tell me, how did you first get into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu man? Was it something that Mike kind of brought you in on, or was it something you got in on your own?
Speaker 2:That was Mike. He got me and my brother AJ into it and then from there just ran with it.
Speaker 1:So, mike, what was it like convincing your family to jump into it? So, mike, what was it like convincing your family to jump into it? It was fairly easy.
Speaker 3:The thing is they were already doing a lot of stuff. They were doing BMX and a lot of new cool things, and I was at the time teaching jiu-jitsu and doing Muay Thai and I said, hey, you guys got to try this out. And it started like every UFC fight or something, I would show them a technique. And it just grew, it just kept growing.
Speaker 1:And or something, I would show him a technique. And it just grew, it just kept growing. Juno was your cousin? I guess not your cousin nephew uncle nephew. You're a much older, more wiser uncle here. Has he been someone that you've always looked up to?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. He's always telling me fight stories, like street fights, that he's been in All these things. Me and my brother always looked after him, especially in jujitsu. He's beaten my ass for years now. I'm finally catching up, so that's nice yeah, that sucks oh really, mike, you're you're really humble man.
Speaker 1:You don't talk about um a whole lot of anything and you pretend that you don't know how to do anything when it comes to fighting, but talk to me about the street fights he's talking about.
Speaker 3:Jeez. Well, you know, albuquerque is a tough place to kind of grow up, you know. So you kind of either have to handle you they're a victim, right or you're going to be in there like just defending yourself. So yeah, I just kind of ran with a pretty good group. I had, like I said, like like I said last time, I had boxed and I had, you know, just just really didn't take anything from anybody. You know, I wasn't one to really take a lot of shit.
Speaker 1:So give me, give me one specific time that you sticks out. Listen, I know you have one, he's like. I can tell by the look on your face that you have one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got a few fight story. I got a good one. So, um, it was my friend AJ's girlfriend's birthday, so we had a little house party and it was me, my friend Mitch, my friend Drew, a couple good buddies of mine had a great night. It was a big party. Everyone was vibing, having a good time, and the night started winding down. And keep in mind when I tell you this, me and all my friends were wearing emo clothes. We had tight jeans on, did not look like we knew how to protect ourselves for sure.
Speaker 3:Night went down. My buddy knew he was with me and my buddy Mitch who can you know, who are kind of known around for protecting ourselves, if you will he was in the. My buddy Mitch was in the back telling a story to a group of girls about how a street fight that he was in and at the same time I look over and my buddy drew is getting into an altercation with these guys, and there was about four of them. So I run back, open the door, I get my buddy Mitch, we run out and it was. It was, it was like a movie. My buddy looked at me and he saw my boy Mitch and he just like punched the first dude and then a pandemonium broke out at that point. But my end, I end up suplexing a guy onto a table and like it was just really bad. It was really bad. Yeah, my buddies did work, but you know it was not easy that night which were you ever worried about?
Speaker 1:like, especially in albuquerque, new mexico, those rural areas, man like weapons are a thing like, were you ever worried about that coming out?
Speaker 3:yeah, you, it's always in the back of my mind, but at that moment now, I was just. You know who's this like in the zone. Yeah, I was just. I was just in the moment so, yeah, what about?
Speaker 1:what about you, juno? I mean, have you been in the any altercations where you're like having to deal with people and fighting, or have you been kind of a cleaner path?
Speaker 2:definitely inner path, mike, for sure. Yeah, like I've done jiu-jitsu since I was like eight, did wrestling since I was like five or six. So everyone I went to school with always knew I did some type of martial art, so no one really wanted to mess with me. So I mean I went like bodies in the bathroom for my homes and shit like that, but nothing as brutal as Mike, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:So was there a turning point in your?
Speaker 2:life, maybe a challenge or a moment of clarity that made you commit fully to the path of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, because you're very competitive. Honestly, just the thought of having to work a job and have to go to work every day. Because Jiu-Jitsu is not a job to me, it's something I love. So every time I do it I'm not working at all. Anytime I teach a class, it's not I'm not working, is what I love.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of why I chose it. Yeah, that's actually really. That's actually really huge man. People ask me sometimes like whether I like my job, and I'm just kind of like, what kind of question is that? Who likes who likes their job? I don't know, I don't know anybody that really likes their job. I mean, very few people do. So. You are blessed with that and I want to ask you, how is you jitsu impacted your life outside the gym, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?
Speaker 2:I just feel like I'm super calm. So every time I go train I get all my energy out. So anytime I'm like dealing with someone at the store who's like being annoying, I'm just kind of like it is what it is. You know, I get cut off in traffic. I'm like just where it is pretty calm, Pretty calm guy because of jiu-jitsu I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Mike, I want to ask you, man Early on I didn't ask you this last time, I think last time we asked a question about if you could bring anyone back, who would you train with or who would you roll against, or something like that. It was a question like that. But talk to me about your early training days. Who are some of the key mentors, or?
Speaker 3:people that helped sharpen your tools. When it comes to the mats, wow, I got pretty fortunate. There was a lot of guys, a lot of wrestlers, I could say when I first started influenced my grappling for sure. So there was a guy named Lenny Lovato. He was state champion, his cousin, this guy from Montana named Derek Asher. He really taught me that if I learned jujitsu I'd be a lot more dangerous than just primarily wrestling, if that makes sense. So I would watch this guy come in and he was doing jujitsu, submitting these guys that were super high-level wrestlers and I was like man, that's impressive. So I'd say him and Ray, yee, he runs. I think it was Albuquerque kickboxing at the time. He gave me the chance to teach and really opened my eyes to martial arts. So all them played a huge fact in where I'm at today for sure. Yeah, what about?
Speaker 1:you Gino.
Speaker 2:Early on my uncle, obviously my first coach, barata. He was at Gracie Baja back then. Now he has his own gym Smart Jits. After that, kahlo, kahlo Lopez he was my probably. He gave me my yellow belt all the way up to my green belt. But the biggest one is probably Cabrinha, out here in LA. I'd say he probably shaped my game the most for sure. And then Keenan I was at Keenan's for a while, but most for sure. And then, uh, keenan, I was at keenan's for a while, but uh, I'd say andre spunovsky, you probably showed me a lot of stuff. He gave me a lot of insight on how to like compete and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So right, so when are you planning on competing next? I know we just came back from long beach, the world's long beach. Uh, what, what's your next? Uh, what's your next plan over the horizon?
Speaker 2:I think we're all going to be doing, uh, american nationals me, mike, nate, my brothers aj and jesse, so that should be fun, little little crew going out there to american nationals in las vegas, nice. When's that happening?
Speaker 1:june 24th to the 26th, or 26 to the 28th, or something like that so are you guys planning on cutting any weight, or are you just gonna go in and where you're at I'm gonna cut some weight.
Speaker 3:I got a little overweight recently so I gotta, I gotta shed some pounds, but you know I I could do it so where you at right now oh geez, right now I'm like 185. What a fat ass, I know no, dude 185.
Speaker 1:I wish I was 185. Still, what Juno.
Speaker 2:I think I might cut to 141. I'm sitting right at 150 right now, so a nine-pound cut it's not too bad. We'll see, though. I might stay at feather, though that's fair.
Speaker 1:That's fair. Have you guys ever plateaued, mentally or physically, where you questioned on whether or not you were going to continue? If so, how did you push through that? Who wants to take that one you could take?
Speaker 3:that you know yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of times in training where you just like get beat up. Like for a week in a row you say, man, I'm don't feel like I'm getting better, but you just got to keep going. Because you don't realize that when you're training with all these guys, you see them every single day, so you don't realize that they're getting better as you're getting better, so that you don't see your growth as much. But once you kind of step back and just keep going, you'll, you'll get out of that bunk Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Have you guys ever taken like a long break before and tried to try and tried to come back and had to and had some problems with that?
Speaker 3:I did, I did, I took, I think, two years off, because I hit a plateau. I felt that it was like that monumental moment you reach where it's like is this something that I'm doing for the right reasons or am I just, you know, being selfish, right?
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, mike, we talked last time, man, and it sounds like you you've had life like just hit you in the face before. Yeah, like you know, like failed marriages and and or a failed marriage and just going through those emotions and everything like that, whereas you know, was brought up in jiu-jitsu and and has kind of lived his life through that way. But when life hits you, man, jiu-jitsu has always been there for me, um, as far as keeping me in the middle somewhere in the middle there, um, and keeping me mentally exhausted enough to where I'm not doing stupid shit. But how do you personally define the difference between, um, a belt rank and a real level of maturity on the mats? Who wants that one?
Speaker 1:go ahead jenna, I'm sure you have a lot of students and stuff right and you have like, because I'm gonna tell you right now, like I've especially early on, like in 2008, 2009, 2010, when I first started, there were guys that were high ranking but were completely immature, like guys that would just blow your knees out, you know, blow your shoulder out, usually as a grappling dummy, and there's just no maturity there. But what would you?
Speaker 2:yeah, for sure. I mean the belt doesn't really say who you are as a person, you know, right, you could be a black belt but be a white belt as a person. So I mean, it's just about the person. I feel like belts don't really matter, like I could be a white belt and still be as good as I am now, you know. But I feel like belts don't really matter, like I could be a white belt and still be as good as I am now, you know. But I feel like jujitsu, if you learn it from the right person, they also teach you how to be a man as well. And some people don't have that. They just kind of go into the room, they just kind of brawl it out and they're not really trying to like get better as a person.
Speaker 1:So I mean you guys have probably had people walk into the gym before and actually like you know, maybe wearing a purple belt or a blue belt or whatever, but then they started destroying everybody, right, and then you have to kind of like hey, like tone it down, and have you guys dealt with that before?
Speaker 3:I have not very often. Usually everyone who comes in is very respectful, you know, and nice. But we've had, we've had small instances at, you know, someone visiting from out of town and with Nate. They were kind of going at it with Nate and, yeah, we kind of had a little situation where I had to tune this guy up for not being respectful. What happened? What happened Is that the guy you put in a triangle yeah, it wasn't even that, it was like a flying I jumped off the wall and caught him in a choke.
Speaker 3:It was crazy. Well, jumped off the wall and caught him in like a choke, it was crazy. I well, he came in, he was like already telling me oh, I'm an mma fighter, and blah, blah, blah. And I said, hey, that's fine, you know, come on in and I'm very welcoming for people who train with us. Know that I, you know, we, I teach my guys when someone comes in we don't go hard, you know, we match their speed, we try to like be there.
Speaker 3:But, um, anyway, he was uh, kind of going hard on everybody and Nate at the time was a white belt, so he was kind of just getting his like the feel for jujitsu and they just kind of started going off and as soon as I saw him throw a punch I was like all right, that's it. You know, because people who know me like I'm very caring but at the same time like I'll definitely stand up for what's right. Like you know, if you come into the gym and you try to disrespect, you know it can go beyond what just competition jujitsu can be for myself, but at the same time it's, you know, I teach in art and I try to be as professional as possible. But there are boundaries that if you cross then there's actions that will be taken, for sure, definitely.
Speaker 1:Now, do you think that you've kind of learned over the years on, like how to read people a little bit better, since you've had instances like that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure, for sure, and usually with them. I try to kill people with kindness, especially if they're overaggressive, right? Because at the end of the day, no matter how hard they're going, if my jujitsu is good, then I know that there's really not much they can do, no matter how angry they are, how many fights they've had, it's it means nothing, you know. So I could, I try to, you know, be nice and calm and cool them down and try to see that, hey, if you just slow down, everything will make sense.
Speaker 1:so, yeah, you know, juno, I don't want to miss this opportunity because you're visiting us from the land of enchantment oh yeah, you know you, you always like freaking, dominate me like when, like whenever you're on the mat and you let me know you're always like freaking, dominate me like when, like whenever on the mat, and you let me know you're from new mexico, like you. Like you call it out like nm, like no, I'm just kidding, no, but uh, no, but like. So, tell me something about you that most people don't know about, and like what aspect? Just say anything. So last time we were here, man, we learned that mike got shot when he was 12, running away from some gangbangers. And then I think Mike, like receptively, you had gotten some feedback from people that didn't know certain things about you. I haven't had a chance to really get to know Juno that much. I mean I have, but I haven't. You've been gone quite a bit. So what about you is something that most people don't know about.
Speaker 1:Fuck that's a hard one.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm a super kind guy. Anytime I beat someone in a tournament I always feel super bad. I just feel like I don't know how to explain it. I just feel bad for the person I just beat because I know how it is to feel that way. So I don't think people see that part of me like how I feel inside when I beat someone.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh man, Are you like super celebratory, like after you destroy someone? It depends you just kind of just get up quietly.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I just get up quietly. It depends on how I win, If I submit the guy I'm getting up.
Speaker 1:And it depends on their moxie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. And if they're doing some dirty stuff during the match, I think I'm going to rub it in their face a little bit once it's over. But it's all love. You know what if they're a rival.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, that always feels good.
Speaker 2:You got rivals, huh, I mean just guys that you've fought before. They may beat you. You beat them. It's been a close match and you guys just kind of meet up again. You got to go at it. But I mean, I'm just a really nice guy. At people see me, they kind of think I'm like, uh, like an aggro kind of guy. I'm kind of like I don't really seem like approachable to some people, but I'm actually a really nice guy I think you're a nice guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, once you get to know me, you see that part of me. But like I don't, even first, I don't even have to get to know you.
Speaker 1:Like I just feel like you just seem like a nice guy, like even even if I don't know you. Like you're always smiling and shit and like I try. Yeah, very, very humble guy too Very humble Do you? Do you think that your personality is is kind of um, your former training partners, your former coaches have kind of rubbed off on you like with your personality and stuff, or just is that kind of just how you have always been?
Speaker 2:No, I think I get my personality from my family, like Mike, my, my brothers. We're all kind of like the not the same person, but we all kind of speak the same act, the same same characteristic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. So when you're dealing with ego, because you guys are nice guys, but but when you are dealing with ego, how do you? What's your approach to dealing with that in yourself and in dealing with others?
Speaker 3:in a brazilian jiu-jitsu setting, I think if someone comes in and they're going really hard sometimes, sometimes you have to just kind of let them know who's the boss, if you will, right, but just strictly using technique right, Showing them that there's nothing you can do that can save you. I don't care how, like I said, I don't care how mad you are, how angry you are, there's nothing you can do. So you kind of like the goal right, you know you're going to come in, you're going to have an attitude. Then you know I could nicely you're in a submission, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I like to always say that if you are at a high level, you can always bump down to a lower level, but if you're at a low level you can't bump up to a higher level without getting yourself or someone else hurt. And so that's and like in the law enforcement side of things and military side of things that's how I've always seen things is you're expected to be better than everyone else and then kind of train down to people enough to where you're bringing them up with you, not just completely destroying them. Do you see that you say it's pretty accurate?
Speaker 3:yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And also notice too, you can judge people by their personality, because I always tell my students, like your personality is an indicator of how your jujitsu is. If that makes sense, someone's a nice guy, they're going to be, they're going to be really good at jujitsu and they're going to like, be caring right. We're a guy who's, you know, like aggro right there. You're going to tell right away if they walk in, they got that like bro style attitude. They're going to have like that bro style jujitsu as well, you know. So I think that's. That's something I try to look out for too. If someone has a weird personality or something I already know, like, oh, this guy's gonna try to go hard, or I know I'm not to put him with new students or something, I'll keep it with the higher belts and stuff.
Speaker 1:So what was your? What was okay, because I'm gonna lie when I first came to your gym, you were concerned about me. I, I knew you were. Yeah, I knew you were. Were because you were. I noticed you watching me because I came in as a Pro Belt unknown, yeah, but I get it. I understand why. Like I understand why you would be concerned. Would you say that that's pretty accurate. Like for most, like higher belts that come in for the first time, you're a little bit apprehensive and then you kind of back out from that.
Speaker 3:What I worry about is the safety of my students, you know, right, because a lot of times a lot of these people are, you know, they're not competitors, right? You know, my, my, my competitor base is super small. So for someone to come in who's trying to learn and someone comes in visiting and they're like, oh, another blue belt, right. And then boom, hurt this guy, he's got to go to work. He's why I'll always all right, let me see how this guy does and then we'll go through. You know, because you got to have some type of empathy. You know there's levels to jujitsu. There's high level competitors and there's your everyday hobbyists and the balance in between there is just finding, you know, the common ground with technique or using more strength, right?
Speaker 1:And just getting it out, you know. So, yeah, no, I completely understand. I've been to like so many different gyms in my time unwillingly, because I've moved so much that sometimes, like we're literally walking in strangers, we don't know each other. So it's important for you to protect your students. They got to go to work tomorrow. Yeah, all of them do. Nobody's really a professional fighter and it's like you know, that's the most important part, like like you just mentioned, and juno, I don't want to leave you out of this conversation, man, but, uh, I want to get into some trending topics with the Brazilian jiu-jitsu culture and get your young self and your opinions on this, because it seems like today's influencer side of things in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, what's your take on the growing social media influencer side of the sport?
Speaker 2:I think it's cool. But I mean, I think you got to be careful on who you follow. Obviously there's guys who just kind of put out videos for clicks, for clicks, right right. You don't really know if that works or not. So obviously go look at what, what they've done, and like competition, and then go from there. You know, some people just kind of post videos and they're just like bullshit videos. I'm just like bro, what like, what is this? Like some of my students are like some people I give like privates to, they'll like show me a video. I'm like, bro, like please don't ever do that or ever show me that again, ever. Yeah, so it's a nightmare, but if you follow the right people then yeah, it's very I think it's legit for sure.
Speaker 1:Do you know some of the people that that you follow, that that you would recommend, who are authentic?
Speaker 2:there's this guy, john th Thomas. I follow a lot of his videos online and he hasn't really even competed. He's just very knowledgeable of the game and he's been around a lot of people who are really good, like Espen Matisse and Sebastian Serpo, those kinds of guys, but he's very good. I watch a lot of Cabrinha videos, still to this day.
Speaker 1:Andrzej Spunovski I mentioned him earlier but Ke keenan, all those guys, all the guys who've done stuff, I'll watch their videos. I know they've proven it. They've proven what they know and it actually works, yeah, yeah, mike, what's your take on?
Speaker 3:it with the influencer side of brazilian jiu-jitsu. I mean I like it. I just think sometimes it puts like a false narrative where people, you know, I see these like influencers and they're getting high up in belts and you're like, dang, they haven't been training that long, you know. And it just you wonder, are they training just private lessons? But they're getting promoted right, are they putting in the hard work like everybody else? I mean, there are levels, but I think at the end of the day, like as long as everyone's learning jujitsu, you know it's it's it's positive for everybody, regardless. You know I may not always agree with certain stuff, but you know, take what you want. You know, if it works for you, it does. If not, just don't use it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to ask you guys too and it's kind of a personal question that I have for myself because, like for me, like I really think wrestling is an extremely important base when it comes to grappling an extremely important base when it comes to grappling, and like I've always kind of prided myself in being able to hold positions and transition over submissions but is that kind of the wrong take or is that just a way? It's not the way, but it's a way to look at it conceptually.
Speaker 2:It's a good way to get a base, like, I think wrestling is very important in jiu-jitsu and all aspects of scrambling, being able to stay on top and all that stuff. So and plus you need to secure a position before you get a submission. Obviously there's like flying triangles, flying armor, so you can hit, but mainly you're going to try to get to a dominant position, hold it, control it, get inside position, then try to finish the match.
Speaker 1:Right and and I always feel like pressure is my thing too, like, but I also do train, not just for sport, but I train for like real life too. So, like it's, it's like I want to make sure that I can hold and I can pressure, and I can take, fight away and replenish energy. But is that just a way, or is it the way, or what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3:Well if you think about it, right, wrestling is a really good foundation. Right, because you're starting on your feet, make sense, yeah. So in the instance you want to protect yourself, how many guys are going to pull guard in the street? Right, you've got to protect yourself. So if you're super good, you've got to know how to wrestle, especially to add it in, because at the end of the day, you never know who you're going to run into.
Speaker 3:You could be a jujitsu black belt of you know a bunch of years and you're super good. You run across a guy who wrestled in high school, a state champion. You might not be able to take him down yeah, but he could take you down. And in the street there's no mats, you can't. Oh, you, you pulled my finger or you poked me in the eye. All that is now out the window, right, headbutts, everything. The danger goes up. So to know wrestling jujitsu you're, that makes you just a way more deadly, because you can dictate if it goes to the ground or not, right? Yeah, then if it hits the ground, you can, you have the option to attack submissions. So wrestling is a very good base to start, I think I guess for me.
Speaker 1:Sometimes people ask me what my opinions and my pieces of advice are. Like I don't feel like I'm worthy enough to like give advice and things like that. So I'm just like that's a personal question for me, asking you like your thoughts on it because it's the way that I conceptualize things. I guess it's like pressure and like positioning and transitioning, and and then the stupid easy submissions are going to present themselves to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. You know what I mean. So that's kind of why I wanted to ask that question. But the age old question man versus no gi Um yeah, both, I agree.
Speaker 3:Right, I used to love no gi when I started. I started no gi and then I started getting choked out all the time in the gi and then it changed my whole perspective. Now I don't even I do not like no-gi. Well, I do it, yeah, but I'm not a big fan. Do I love it? It's still jiu-jitsu, no matter what right, it's still, you know, wrestling no-gi, jiu-jitsu, jiu-jitsu, sambo.
Speaker 1:As long as you can, you know, still roll and hunt the submission, I'm all for it regardless.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you know do you think that one has more depth? Oh yeah, the gi for sure. There's so many more grips, more variables, especially from the guard, like in nogi you want to be on top 100 and in the gi you want to be on bottom. Yeah, so it's just different. But yeah, the is way deeper, way more stuff to like, deal with for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I, and, and, and I noticed even with myself, like sometimes when I'm, when I'm sizing people up in real life, I'm looking for a belt, a leather belt around the waist. Oh yeah, Because that that simulates a lot right there for for me to grab a hold of.
Speaker 3:A lot of a lot of parents come in and they say, oh well, you only do the uniform. I say yeah, and they say, oh no, we don't want to do it. Then we want no gi because we want it for self-defense. And that boggles my mind, because I'm like, well, every fight I've been into in my entire life I was wearing clothes, right, literally. I don't think I've ever fought someone, unless I'm showering and someone comes in and they're naked too and we have to start fighting. Then maybe for myself that'll come in handy, but until then, I mean I'm, I've always. I mean everything you wear could be, you know, especially if you're used to the grips. It's, it's crazy, yeah for sure you know.
Speaker 1:so you know it's crazy for me because I have a real life story about that and, um, I you know you want things to be instinctual. When they happen like I should be like two to three beers into something, feeling a little bit of a buzz, but not completely drunk, and be able to be reactionary. Yeah, and I actually had that happen to me once where a guy tried to jump in on a friend of mine and he went, she tried to blow past me like I grabbed all of him, simply just judo, threw him to the ground and then, naturally, without even thinking about it, thumb inside of the polo shirt, the reinforced collar of that polo shirt, oh yeah, cross-collar choke. And it was like and afterwards, like all my other friends are, they were calling me a trunk monkey because I came out of nowhere. And they're like, oh, how'd you do that? It was so instinctual. And I'm like, yeah, that's training man, that's how you want it to happen, that's how you want it to go down Muscle memory.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and at the end of the day, a lot of us train jiu-jitsu because we do tournaments and it's fun to do, but at and think of all the rules that are in the sport of Jiu-Jitsu are all taken away. It makes Jiu-Jitsu very deadly. Yeah, very deadly, because you can I mean you can end it quick. You could end it. The options are endless.
Speaker 2:Especially because we train full blast. It's hard to train any other martial art full blast without major injuries. Like if you train stand up full blast, you're going to go home with headaches. Right, we can go into jiu-jitsu train full blast every single day and we'll we'll be fine. So we get to train at like a higher intensity. So when it actually goes down, we're gonna be sharp.
Speaker 3:And the good thing about jiu-jitsu that a lot of people don't realize is versus, like, let's say, striking or something is there is no puncher's chance in jiu-jitsu. Right, right, you can train a little boxing or have muay thai, but if, let's say, the guy you're fighting is a decent street fighter and he's got some hands and you, you're gonna get punched in a fight, right. But if you never train jujitsu and you fight someone who knows jujitsu, you ain't gonna get lucky and be like oh I, I hit a sweep, or there's no way. No, there's no way. So far off the charts.
Speaker 1:I mean you know, and I definitely agree with that, you're right. I mean you could take a swing and get a lucky hit. But I mean it's hard to do that in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu if you can't even put yourself in position to win.
Speaker 3:You can't bridge, you can't hip escape, you don't know how to deal with grips, jiu-jitsu, especially with the uniform, right that you're. You're light years ahead of a normal white belt, who's not even a white belt yet, right? They're not even taking that step to be a white belt, right?
Speaker 1:so yeah I want to ask you guys man, there's been some controversy about uh allowing heel hooks and leg locks with lower belts in their divisions for some of these tournaments. What's your guys' stance on that?
Speaker 3:I'll let you take it.
Speaker 2:I don't really know. I mean, I think it's hard. I definitely don't think whites or blue belts should be doing it, but in purple belt you're starting to get elite level. I think purple belts could do it. But it just depends on what gym you're at, because our gym we don't really teach that much in class. We don't really do much no-gi at Mike's gym. So it's like if our guys go out there to go compete and all these other guys are doing that, then our guys are going to be behind. But I mean, they just got to be universal. You got to know what tournaments we're going to do, got to train to that rule set Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. What are your thoughts on that, Mike?
Speaker 3:I mean, I think it's good, it keeps everyone safe, but I think you should still teach your students so, if they ever because, like I said, not everything is always going to be in the street, I mean in the, in the arena, right around the mats. So you got to almost prepare your students for everything in a way. But no, okay, well, this is what you can and can't do, right, but if you have to, you can use this, right. So those are things I think you should go over with them. But safety is always an issue too, because sometimes people don't know how hard to go. But that's why you have to teach them and say, hey, you can't do this, but this is how you do it.
Speaker 2:Or you escape, especially because if you start teaching white belts how to heel hook and they're going to open mat somewhere else and this other white boy doesn't know how to heel hook and he obliterates his knee now that's a nightmare yeah, and then, like I said, a lot of these people are hobbyists, so they're not trying to, you know, and then they have to go to work and it's just, and they're not going to train jujitsu, probably anymore.
Speaker 3:They're going to be done. They're going to say my wife's not going to let me train, so or whoever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to kind of kind of echo, like off of what you're saying, because I have personally trained at so many different gyms and I've seen like the wild west and I've seen controlled competition training as well and for a lot of folks out there, a lot of white belts out there, some of them are so untamed they're like a wild horse, yeah for sure, and you have to really be careful with that, you have to really watch that and, like you said, you have to protect your own students out there. When you hit the mat for training or competition, do you think there's a switch in your head that flips with your overall mindset? Like when you, when you guys, get into competition mode here, you're getting ready to go to Vegas to go compete. Is there something when you hit the mat? That's a personal mindset that you like to take in?
Speaker 2:I just like to be like I guess how they call it flow state. I just try to clear my head, just control my breathing, just stay calm, and I'm going to go out there and my body's going to do what it does.
Speaker 1:I guess everybody's a little bit different. We talked about that last time, don't we? So, outside of the technique, what do you try to instill in your students or some of the younger guys that are in at your school? What's some of the, I guess, personality character traits that you try to instill in some of the kids? That you have Grit.
Speaker 3:How to face adversity. Yeah, just like, have the dog, yeah, you know what I mean. Like they say you can't teach that, but I've. We've had a lot of people walking to our gym and I've seen complete changes in them. Like I'm talking, it's just such an amazing thing. So I think teaching people how to have great adversity, like just, yeah, we're known to go pretty hard at our gym, like we have really tough guys. So they, you, just we either pick it up and run with it or you end up leaving.
Speaker 1:So yeah, no, I've seen a lot of guys grow over the years, man. I've seen guys come in as soft as pillows, and now they're, and now they're as tough as nails. Yeah, sure, absolutely, sure, absolutely, absolutely. And I'm like, and here I am just getting older, year after year. These guys are in their thirties, like getting ready to reach the reach, their peak, you know. So I want to, I want to take a pause right now and see if I can switch this screen over, because I want to do a couple of um, uh, commentaries. Sure, with this.
Speaker 6:I don't know what this one here. No kids were hurt on this video, that's the wrestler right there.
Speaker 3:I thought I had him. All I know is form tackling, but his technique started to take over.
Speaker 6:I was the most tired I've ever been in my life. Yeah, at this point I'm playing football.
Speaker 3:I was done after this, but the crowd hyped me into another round, so we went again and I got cooked yeah, that's technique right there, regardless, love though it's a humbling experience when you, you know, never been in contact with a sport like that wrestling or jujitsu or judo and you face even a woman or a little kid and they whoop your ass and you're like, damn, I just got my ass beat by a 13 year old and that never happened to me.
Speaker 2:But I've seen it happen. I've been the 13 year old.
Speaker 1:That's been pretty nice yeah it is true, so watch this one here. This is, uh, you guys know, wes watson oh god, I I think I've seen this.
Speaker 7:This guy's a real douche took, did his jujitsu on him. Then the guy's gonna come back and duct tape his family. Okay, you don't want to fuck with the wrong people, and the wrong people out here in the world are not pro fighters. You guys need to wake up. These are very big time squares. Pro fighters are the epitome of squares. They're like come in the ring and I'll fight you. The people I grew up with and went to prison with. They don't give a fuck about a ring. They don't give a fuck if they're on camera and give a fuck if they have to fucking live the rest of their life in prison. You will not beat them. They will not take a loss. You guys live in a fantasy world where pro fighters aren't the biggest squares on the planet. Ufc fighting is gay. Like all that shit, like MMA fighting and all that shit is for people who never really were in fights, like they never whooped ass their whole life. So they're always like I'm going to train and fight, like I've always just handled shit.
Speaker 1:So I'm convinced that a lot of these guys cause this guy here is part of a group of influencers that just say shit. They just say things, they put it out there and they don't care if it even makes sense or if it's even correct.
Speaker 2:Deep down. That guy's a pussy bro. 100%.
Speaker 1:Oh, he totally is Like I don't care if he's been to prison or not.
Speaker 3:The thing is, how are you going to say professional fighters? That's what they do, and a lot of those guys who are professional fighters can also take it the same distance. Yeah, professional fighters could also take it that same distance. Yeah, not only. And think about this, they may have a gang right. These guys that train jujitsu. We have all our teammates train, right, we have friends who train. We. We, technically, are a gang right. Right, like you want to battle a bunch of guys who've been to prison off. If you've been to prison, that's fine, but it's having that mentality of, oh, just because I went to prison, I've been in a few fistfights, that that makes me super hardened and tough. That don't make you shit. Training breaks you down, builds you up, teaches you how to be losing every day and come back this guy don't know shit. That guy has an ego. I would actually like to fight.
Speaker 3:This guy bare knuckle at any moment. So if I run into him, please, I'll fight it Anytime.
Speaker 7:Because I always just extinguish the problem, however I had to. So the point is is like that's for people who, like, never could really fight, they had to go learn to fight. I mean people who just handle business, they don't have to learn to fight. There's a difference between fighters and violent people. You should really stay away from violent people, because it doesn't matter how good you are at fighting, when they want to take it to the level, they'll take you out, and so there's a huge difference here. You guys have it all misconstrued. Fighting is some weird sports shit. That is all these people do and it has nothing to do with violence, because a violent person will end your life, and this is the thing. You guys need to quit thinking that ufc people are going to be able to fuck around with violent motherfuckers, because a violent motherfucker won't lose, he won't take it and you'll be like wait, put the gloves on and he's not going to hear it and it's going to be a problem for you.
Speaker 1:This guy's never trained a day in his life. He would he like he would be humbled. Why? Are you talking?
Speaker 3:about gloves. If a pressure, if a professional fighter goes outside with you and there is no gloves, you're going to go bare knuckle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, meet Nick Diaz out in the street. He's not going to say put on the gloves, I'm going to say bare knuckle, fight you, or they might even pull out a gun and shoot you too.
Speaker 3:There's still people who cause violence. Elbowing someone's face with technique is violence. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Like suplexing someone on their head is violence. Yeah, this guy sounds scared like if you, if mike tried to fight him, he'd probably pull out a gun and try to shoot.
Speaker 3:Well, usually, though, when that's like what they call peacocking, right, where someone tries to be like, say stuff and be real brash, those people are the softest people around. You know, people who talk shit the loudest usually are wimps, right? So people who are quiet and humble are the people you want to worry about. You know, because they're, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:They got nothing to prove, no doubt, so I'll show you this next one here. I don't know if you guys have seen this one or not.
Speaker 4:This guy used Brazilian jiu-jitsu to defend his daughter from aggressors. Imagine if he didn't know how to fight.
Speaker 2:Yes, this is my dad. They're fighting right now, my dad, just I'm 19.
Speaker 3:Think about it, just control.
Speaker 2:That was really nice of him what he did, he could have turned that situation extremely violent. You know, I'm saying like oh yeah, yeah, that guy didn't train, he probably started throwing punches. Probably not that guy out, maybe kill him somehow. Yeah and it goes to prison. But no, he controlled. It, controlled the situation. Family safe, he's safe, that guy's safe.
Speaker 1:I want to show you this out. Show you this one right here too. All right, this guy trains at the gym. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know here what's what's up, break my arm you're getting charges from gas out.
Speaker 3:Hold it and look at it, fully depleted of all new tricky jobs no, I fucking been supposed to be why?
Speaker 1:because I own the fucking building okay, I gotta recognize you're getting evicted now, really just relaxing on top, just kind of hanging out there.
Speaker 3:But you guys see that that's actually kind of funny.
Speaker 2:I don't think either of those guys trained, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Yeah no, I mean. But I mean, for the big guy actually did a pretty. Yeah, he was all. They had him some dude, you know. But so this one here I got into. I got into some uh, trouble with online because I, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I want you guys to watch this and I want you to tell me what you honestly think about this. This person posts a lot, and I'm not saying they don't know what they're doing, but I think there's a difference between, like when someone is posting something because they want clicks, versus they're posting something because they believe it really works. So tell me what you think about this.
Speaker 5:If someone grabs you, like this step to parallel with him. Now bring your arm straight above your head and back and the key is to grip just above the elbow joint, palm to palm, to break that arm. And if you don't have the angle to go for this, it means his elbow is perfectly positioned for you to pull it the opposite way. Now hyperextend the elbow for the break. Stay safe out there.
Speaker 3:I don't know about that one. I can it working, but you would have to, your timing would have to be so perfect and that's like.
Speaker 1:That's like just basic, like jujitsu old school fundamentals, if I'm not mistaken right like so this, this is my take on this right here and this and you guys are way more advanced than I am, but to me, like if you get to this spot right here and you go to do this like loop-de-loop thing under stress and anxiety, under stress and anxiety, you've got like 0.3 seconds before you eat a fist from this other arm. That's just hanging there.
Speaker 3:You're a hundred percent right. It's almost, but it's almost like she's doing it, like it's like a sport, like, oh, he's not going to punch me, right? These are things that you want to close the distance as close as possible Right here, If he has your hair, yeah. Or look look at his head and her face there's a headbutt, oh, exactly Five, ten inches away, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, and now he has an underhook, so now he's in a body hugger and suplexer, he can pull her closer, say that like she's not showing anything.
Speaker 3:That could work. But I mean, that's nothing that I would show for self-defense, that's especially to a woman. Yeah, I mean, if someone grabs your hair like that, you would want to get as close to them as possible. You don't want them pulling your hair out or controlling. You'd want to be to where they can't yank you. You'd want to be body locking them or to their back, especially if you know jujitsu, that's we'd want to be.
Speaker 1:That's going to be the spot we could put him to sleep, you know another thing, too, is like when you're teaching like self-defense and things like that, you want to get people used to getting loud and yelling because if you're like in a dark alley or around the corner or something, you want to wake up the neighborhood like you want to. You don't want to quietly wrap your arm around somebody else's a much bigger man's arm and think that you're going to give them some half-ass, like kimura that. So I made a comment that this was not real and like literally there was probably 300 comments back to me saying that I was just an asshole and I'm I I don't know what I'm talking about and I'm just like come on, man, I'm not going to let you do that to my arm. Yeah, I'm going to underhook you and I'm gonna throw you and slam you on the ground and they're not just going to grab your hair.
Speaker 2:Someone actually wants to take you. They're gonna wrap their arms around your body. Yeah, try to slam you, take you somewhere or pull you backward yeah, grab here and let you stand up.
Speaker 3:They're gonna grab you and yank you to the floor, knock you off balance. Like I said, not to say that it's not something that could work, but the cleanest thing about that video was the elbow, and the elbow you'd want to throw from, just like a Thai boxing position. You know it is what it is.
Speaker 1:And that was kind of my point to that was but of course all these other people was, you know, making these comments on it or whatever. So, okay, cool. So I'm glad you guys kind of agree with me on that one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I just want to know what you guys think about these new little boot camps that are popping up.
Speaker 4:That's like the, it's like those navy seal like right up over there, sick of this shit, spent the fucking hour. You guys don't want to listen right over here our soldiers or anything.
Speaker 3:They're just doing this.
Speaker 2:You guys haven't seen this no, never you guys haven't seen this. No, never you guys haven't seen this. No, this looks really fucking stupid. It does. It's pissing me off.
Speaker 1:So this is the new craze.
Speaker 1:They've got these fucking Navy SEAL guys, special Forces guys, and what they'll do is they'll make up these little fake boot camps and there's some here in the Inland Empire and I've argued with people about it because I think this is bullshit and so you've got these guys that never served in the military, never have done anything tough in their life, and what they'll do is they'll pay these former military people to put them through a makeshift mock-up book like Navy SEAL training boot camp or some shit like that, and they'll just degrade them the whole time.
Speaker 1:And they pay like $10,000 to do this, and I thousand dollars. Dude, they pay big money for this shit. We can do this, dude, and so, so, anyway, so it's, it's like, completely degraded. The thing is there's a difference, because I have a friend who went through one in florida, but the one that he went through was religious based, and so what they do is they put you in teams and you're expected to come together as a team to overcome obstacles. These things here which I'll show you, they literally just, they just like.
Speaker 7:Southern California weather. You told your family I'm going to sunny Southern California. Look what happened. Talk to people in your life that don't need to be there. Even if it's your father, your mother, fuck that don't don't need to be there. Even if it's your father, your mother, fuck them you don't need them.
Speaker 4:You got us. You don't fucking need them anymore that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Hold on. I mean, these guys have got to be the most, not even beta like charlie males and these are guys that just like. Why would you pay for this bro?
Speaker 3:go, just go lift weights. Or go to a jiu-jitsu gym or fuck it. Go learn karate.
Speaker 2:I guarantee you take these guys who just got done with this, put them in a jits class. They can't even last two rounds, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean honestly, if I met this guy face-to-face, I would tell him that this is bullshit, this is ridiculous, and I've actually gotten into it with people before about it, people that defend this kind of stuff and I'm like, no, I mean, look, absolutely stupid at the end of the day, you can spend your money doing whatever you like, but that's supposed to make you an alpha.
Speaker 3:That's gonna make you a douche. I got you another one right here.
Speaker 6:Look at this you don't fucking deserve to be here fucking quit.
Speaker 4:You, piece of shit. I want to be a better man. I want to be a better husband. I want to be a better father. I want to be a better man. I want to be a better husband. I want to be a better father. I want to be a better. You fucking whiny piece of shit. I mean it's not a.
Speaker 2:You deserve to be here. That's how I teach classes.
Speaker 1:Dude, I mean these people. I mean I don't know if it's $10,000. I mean people pay good money. I'll look it up, but people pay good money for this. And they will put for like a week or so. Make you a real man come out. Still, you better move with a fucking purpose. Belly what. Look at that feet. You know the sad thing is.
Speaker 3:You know the sad thing is, I know, I know guys that would probably take up this offer right here I mean no offense to these guys, but, bro, this is like the opposite of alpha, this is like beta male shit.
Speaker 3:This is like them peeing and spitting on you and you paying them money yeah, they're supposed to make you a man so you can go home and be a good family man and respectable. You're going to be a father after doing this shit. Go to church, go to Jets Exactly, you're good. You need Jesus in your life guys Gosh.
Speaker 1:This is what tells me that the human race has reached its apex.
Speaker 3:Those guys are making a full-blown living driving raptors and shit, doing this to people.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. Yeah, this is back. No, hurry up. Look at the guys doing it, though feet, it's back.
Speaker 4:Get over here. Have them on the podcast. Where's you, you fucking slow? Get over here, fucking.
Speaker 7:I'm joking never, heard of that shit sit down, sit down right here, maybe chris you two are gonna share this.
Speaker 3:this is crazy to me All of you start crawling, Start crawling.
Speaker 7:Start shrimping, start shrimping, you're going to crawl and suffer until you're done with that cookie, until the both of you are done sharing that fucking cookie.
Speaker 1:Start my own cookies. The sad thing is that there's people that I know that think this is cool.
Speaker 3:And they think that this would be cool to sign up for. I'd rather go on a camping trip with my buddies. Don't do this here you go yeah, well, so they do a little jiu-jitsu. I never experienced that. It looks like it, yeah. So I mean, I just said I never experienced. Did he really say that? Yeah, oh, look at the instructors, bro, they probably they're just, they're just destroying them. Oh, is that what they? Yeah, those are the instructors beating these guys bitch and the beast.
Speaker 4:The bitch is the inner critic, the beast is the advocate. The advocate supports you, roots you on, cheers for you, but the critic, your inner bitch, is always doubting you and telling you that you can't and that you've done enough, and to set lower goals and expectations of yourself. When I go into into the gym every morning, I go to war with my body. I go to war with the weights. I go to war with my mindset, with that bitch voice in my head that says put the weights down, you've done enough sets and reps. And I know you're like damn bro, that sounds intense.
Speaker 2:It feels like they're making followers instead of leaders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, isn't that weird? And you know that that happens here, like right right out here in the inland empire there's, there's a place out there maybe I'll check it out I don't know. I thought that. I thought this one was funny and this one's uh, I know this guy.
Speaker 2:I don't know him personally, but I know like his instagram and shit.
Speaker 7:I don't know who needs to hear this but I'm not going to your 6 am fucking jujitsu class. What are you? A fucking vampire? No, I guys know who that is. No, I sleep bro. I got things that go on throughout the day.
Speaker 3:Six AMs for me, bro. Yeah, I'm sleeping.
Speaker 1:I just thought, that was funny.
Speaker 3:Oh, that guy's funny. I like his videos. He's really cool. Yeah, oh, here we go, here we go.
Speaker 1:This is what every dad needs. To see this right here. Every dad needs to can see this because this is this is right here.
Speaker 3:When somebody just slaps your kid like that. You know I've seen another video where that something like that happens. Could you imagine? Yeah, I don't do?
Speaker 1:what would you do if someone smacked, smacked your daughter like that right? Right in front of you, it'd be over probably kill her.
Speaker 3:Yeah, probably go to prison. I'd be very upset, honestly, you know. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't like that's why that, you know.
Speaker 1:That's why I appreciate the dads that actually I shouldn't say dads the moms too. Um, that then, the parents that just train, they don't just send their kid out there and yell stupid shit from the sidelines, but they actually know. Like, does that annoy you ever? Like whenever, whenever parents are yelling things that they really don't understand themselves, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Professor Lucas used to have a thing that said if you want to coach your kid, you got to take some classes first. So if you've never trained jujitsu, you can't sit here and say it because you don't know the hardships it takes to do jujitsu. Right, just get up, get the kid off you. Well, the kid's been training a while, he's your kid's not getting up, right, it's his third class. You gotta he's gotta be patient. You gotta be encouraging to your child, right? Can't? Oh, you should have just got up and tried, okay. Well then, let me get on top of you and you get up and try. I had a buddy.
Speaker 1:I had a buddy like that who, uh, whose kid would wrestle? And when he would yell at his kid and the guy never wrestled before. And I'd tell him, like you know, you've, you don't even know what you're talking about, you're just screaming.
Speaker 3:You're not even saying anything. I mean, having passion for your kid is good, but one thing if they're out there and enduring it and going through the hardships and you have to be supportive, you can't be a jerk. They don't not want to do it.
Speaker 1:You know exactly all right, let me. Oh, you know, I didn't know I could just do this. This is funny, that's right, you got someone.
Speaker 7:You got someone your shirt, that's right. What do you want? I just wonder what we did in math.
Speaker 3:Well, that's funny. All those shots he's hitting that dude will do nothing but piss me off. Let me see, I'm dead serious. Legit there it is. That last one was actually the last one was the most legit thing he did it was yeah, actually, you know how to get up properly.
Speaker 1:That's some funny shit. All right, let me check out one more. Oh, I want to show you this one, and then, and then, and then. This will be it, this will be it. Watch, look. And I just want to get you guys to comment on this. Okay, I just want to think okay, so you got pepper sprayed. This is, this is, uh, some type of law enforcement training like for corrections or something. There's no sound on this one, not even I mean. Yeah, so have you guys been pepper?
Speaker 3:sprayed before, never. I accidentally pepper sprayed myself one time so I got.
Speaker 1:So I I've been oc sprayed before and involuntarily it does shut down, it just shut down, it just shut your eyes. So like when I went through my scenarios, I had to like hold my eye open like this and then like use the baton and you got to fight through it. You know what I mean. But in this case, right here, like she just like I mean that just looks really pathetic, like she completely swung and she missed with the baton. Her hand hurt, her hand hurts now from hitting the fucking pad, like you know you're fired. Like like if this was real life, like you really would be just dead right. Yeah, and I know there's no volume on this one, but this one here they're like cheering her on and stuff, just like. I just want to take it back to the beginning, though. Over here, like the guy overseeing it.
Speaker 1:Exactly that's funny look at that, like he's an instructor here. I'll show you how it's done really. I mean, he's like three people all in one set of clothing. I'm gonna be mean, but like, bro, like where's the standard set? This is what you put in front of your people. I don't know this. This whole scenario just bothered me. I wish there were some actual sound on this one, but there's not, sorry oh, you're good, that's funny bro all right.
Speaker 1:So anyways, in closing, I'm gonna make sure I clean up all those, all those uh videos and and do a little smoother next time, and uh that we're do it. Juno yo, before we round things out, man, what do you think of the pod, of the pod of being back in la your upcoming competition? This?
Speaker 2:pod is dope, bro, this room is sick, but uh, being in la is nice, man, it's always good to come back, train, teach, be at the guys out here. No, I miss all these guys out here, but gotta be back with my family right now. But it's been good, bro, can't wait to compete. Haven't competed since February. Just kind of had some bad luck lately with being sick or injured. So yeah, mitch, and get back out there. Are you how long in town for? Probably till Monday, sunday, monday.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you stopping by, man and let me give you a quick interview and everything. And you know, hopefully, if down the road, man, you never know, maybe we can Mike gets into a bigger spot, we'll set a podcast studio in there and we'll have everything set up. And yeah, that'd be dope.
Speaker 2:I was kind of nervous for this one. But no, why, I don't know. Just ever been on a pod, never had a microphone in my face, cameras in my face, you look good man, it's a little different. You look good, I think. I think it went well.
Speaker 1:Do you have, do you have any messages for anyone that uh listen to this. That's part of your, a part of your crew.
Speaker 2:Just my brothers. Man, I love my brothers, you know they're in it with me. No, we're trying to open my brothers AJ and Jesse. What's with the name? The name Farallon. It means high, dwelling like steep cliffs. It's kind of a metaphor for jujitsu Always climbing the cliff, trying to get higher, get better.
Speaker 1:So is your gym open now or no?
Speaker 2:No, still trying to talk to the investors and all that stuff, but the ball should get rolling pretty fast soon hopefully.
Speaker 1:So once you do get started, we'll talk about that next time, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of things that you don't know, that you're gonna know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of uh bumps in the road I'm sure to come, but gotta overcome it yeah well, you're in great hands with uh magic mike over here oh yeah, definitely got a good mentor yeah, what do you think, mike?
Speaker 3:I love it. I love everything. I mean I'm. I love california. You know I the gym has brought in nothing but great people, including yourself. You came in random and everyone I've great friendships with. Having Juno always down is great, because when he comes down he always teaches. Everyone loves to learn from him, so it helps me out and, yeah, makes everybody better. You know, like I said, it's, it's been a family thing for us our whole lives. You know my whole family trains, yeah, the way from my uh youngest niece all the way to my oldest nephew, so we always uh got it covered.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, man, no, I really. I really appreciate both of you for letting me come into your gym and train. Uh, like I said, I found you because, uh, I was picking up a pizza. I didn't know. I think you just opened up, you didn't have a banner up yet, even no. So it was uh, and things happen for a reason, absolutely things happen for a reason. So one last question, and we'll round it off here. But, uh, do you know if you had to walk out for a super fight, what's your anthem?
Speaker 2:oh, that's a hard one, something kid cuddy probably. I'm a big kid cuddy fan, hey at night. Yeah, that's a hard one, something kid cuddy probably. I'm a big kid cuddy fan, hey at night that's a good one, seriously or king wizard I was just kidding, I'm a little bit of wizard myself. Uh, or something by drake.
Speaker 1:I'm a big drake fan we got magic mike the magician, and we have juno the wizard, or judini is what they like to call me. That's right, they called you that last time.
Speaker 2:But yeah, gave you a shout out, shout out, nate, you just got his purple, belt. Yeah, he got his purple belt last night. He's the boy, what.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he got his purple belt last night.
Speaker 2:He's like family.
Speaker 1:Nice. I'm proud of him.
Speaker 2:He's like a brother.
Speaker 1:That's awesome oh yeah the redheaded, yeah, the redheaded sibling, yeah, congrats, nate. Good job, man. Shit, nate's a tough dude.
Speaker 2:For sure, bro Nate's gonna be a savage. I gotta get my licks now till he's banging with me soon.
Speaker 3:So yeah, absolutely he's gonna be. He's gonna be. Trouble is right now actually. I mean, yeah, he's already trouble, I know.
Speaker 1:I gotta turn it up to kind of put it on him he's tough. What's your anthem, mike? Super fight. You're walking out jeez, probably lmfao.
Speaker 3:No, you know, maybe I mean no, probably. Uh, maybe california.
Speaker 6:Love by tupac oh yeah, that's a good one. You know, I like it.
Speaker 1:I like to claim california now as my own, so yeah, dude, those old school riffs, man, they, they have never been replaced, never. The kids today are listening to them. Yeah, damn right, all right guys. Well, hey, I want to say thank you for joining me on the podcast. Man, we're going to have you back again. I hope you guys are willing to do it again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's some of them here for sure.
Speaker 3:Clean up the videos a little bit and we'll put together a playlist and uh and do some commentary. Let's go. I love it. Thanks for having us man appreciate it. It's always, uh, you always make us feel really welcome and, you know, really appreciate it. Thanks for believing in the, in our journey as well.
Speaker 1:So and yeah, too easy, man. You guys are both like great guys, man. You guys definitely. I think you gain a lot more respect for people when you get on the mats and you have them whoop your ass and and so it's like it's I look at people differently, man, you know, oh yeah, but anyways, hey, for everyone else out there, thanks for joining us. I hope you guys learned a little bit more about juno, judini and uh and mike. So thank you for joining us. I appreciate you guys. As always, I want you stay tuned, stay focused and stay motivated. Warriors fall out.