Full transcript
0:00I still don't understand Australian
0:01English well, bro. That's why I speak
0:03very slowly, okay?
0:04>> [laughter]
0:05>> No problem.
0:07How are you? I've been meaning to talk
0:09to you for a long time. We've all We've
0:10went back and forth a couple of times
0:12just over social media, um you know,
0:14congratulating each other with fights
0:16and there's always been respect there.
0:18Um but it's great to actually chat to
0:20you properly. Well, I guess not in
0:22person, but
0:24sort of face-to-face even though it's um
0:25you know, it's a it's on on FaceTime or
0:28whatever you want to call this. It's
0:29just so actually have a chat with you.
0:32>> Yeah, good to see you, man.
0:35Everything is changed right now. Now is
0:38the welterweight. No more this
0:40cutting weight. Feel good. Enjoy the
0:43fight week. Enjoy all camp. And almost
0:46finished. Almost
0:47>> Nice.
0:50That is something I wanted to
0:52That is something I wanted to chat to
0:53you about with with being at 170.
0:56Uh you know, just so the weight cut. We
0:58know as far as how
1:01the weight cut can can take its toll a
1:03lot on the body. And just how is it How
1:05is it actually eat what you you can or
1:07we cuz we will get into some Dagestani
1:10foods and whatnot. I want to ask you
1:11about that sort of stuff. But I mean,
1:13how is it to actually be able to eat
1:15better food training at
1:17It must feel amazing for you.
1:20>> Yeah, honestly like the camp is changed.
1:22All the camp is changed because you
1:24know, you can spend the time with I'm
1:26I'm here with my like all all all
1:28teammates, like 20 people and I can go
1:32with them in restaurants somewhere.
1:33Enjoy every moment, you know, because I
1:36remember when I fought in lightweight,
1:39no food, sit in hotel, just do
1:41interview, you know, just cutting
1:43weight, focus always focus on the
1:45cutting weight the fight week. But now
1:47it's everything is changed, you know.
1:49Now I can eat. I can like training. I
1:52can go outside somewhere to walk, you
1:54know.
1:55It's good.
1:57>> Very good. So, while we're talking about
1:59food,
2:00cooking with Volkanovski, I want to I I
2:02obviously want to do a cooking with
2:04Volkanovski. Where are we going to do
2:05this? Australia or Dagestan?
2:08>> Bro, I told you. I messaged you. I don't
2:10like Australia, bro. You give me a hard
2:12time there, bro. It's better to come
2:15Dagestan. Bro, you know, you can make
2:18your your nutrition team, bro, cook for
2:20us in the fight week, bro. Make your
2:22nutrition team and please give us good
2:25food because the my nutrition they give
2:27me food no salt, no pepper.
2:30Very hard to eat.
2:31>> Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, the the diet
2:33is a little bit different fight week.
2:35What is a go-to then? What would we cook
2:37if I come to Dagestan? We're in the
2:38mountains, we've got the the the
2:40campfire, you know, a a nice fire lit.
2:43What are we cooking? What's a What's
2:44something that we would cook if we are
2:46in the bush?
2:46>> Oh.
2:48What about hunt? You like hunting?
2:50>> I love hunting. Let's talk about
2:52hunting. What would we eat and what
2:53would we
2:55>> We will go to the mountains.
2:57Catch one big deer
3:00and we will do somethings better.
3:03>> All right.
3:04>> We we can go to my farm. I have like a
3:06lot of ships. We can cut one ship, like
3:08do some steaks, but it's not good. Let's
3:10go to the mountains, do real
3:13real hunting, real
3:15real
3:15>> Mate, look,
3:16I've I've talked about this for about
3:18you know, you hear that the saying, one
3:19of my favorite sayings, "Spend two,
3:21three years in Dagestan and forget." I
3:24might not have two, three years, but I
3:25will have a I will have two or three
3:27days. So, a two, three days hunting in
3:29the mountains, cooking
3:31>> Two, three days is not enough, bro.
3:33>> Not enough?
3:34>> days we just go we just come to
3:35mountain, bro. You have to stay at least
3:37two, three weeks, bro.
3:39>> Two, three weeks? Two, three weeks in
3:40Dagestan?
3:42>> Yes.
3:43>> Yeah, but I'll I'll have honestly
3:46had these conversations with my team and
3:48we definitely want to get over there.
3:49So, that is definitely going to happen.
3:51Um and I did want chat to you about
3:53>> Don't say like
3:55Demetrious Johnson tell me in the last
3:57interview, I have to ask my wife.
3:59Don't say that.
4:00>> [laughter]
4:02>> I don't I don't I don't I won't say that
4:04to you, but I will have to actually ask
4:06my wife. But, she's she's she will love
4:08it. Now, I've already chatted to her.
4:09>> Come bring your princess daughters and
4:12come.
4:13>> Yeah, I will do. So, there's a couple of
4:15things that I did want to touch on. You
4:16did bring up some of your animals, but I
4:18will talk about the the daughters. I I
4:20haven't thanked you again over social
4:22media. Thank you for the presents and
4:24gifts for for my daughters. They
4:26absolutely loved them. Um, it's funny.
4:28It's like how quickly
4:30like uh I have good laughs with my
4:33daughters, you know, where and we you
4:34know, we're we're quite playful in that
4:36sense where we've a bit of banter, just
4:38jokes. And uh when she
4:41>> When you I have two sons, one daughter.
4:44Daughters is different.
4:46>> Okay, yeah. Yeah, so that she made that
4:48that joke and then once you
4:50Obviously with my opponents, she doesn't
4:52really she obviously doesn't hate my my
4:54opponents, but she absolutely loves you
4:58now because you gave her the gifts. Now,
5:00she's like, "Oh, he's love." She loves
5:01his love. We even uh every morning at
5:04school, you want to know what we do
5:05every morning at school? I put put music
5:07on. I drive past. It's pretty much every
5:09morning I'll do this. And uh it sort of
5:11embarrasses her in front of all her
5:12friends and that, but I'll sit there and
5:13I'll go past. I go like this. I go I
5:16drive past and I'll do this. I just go
5:18with the song. And um sometimes I'll do
5:21it back, but a lot of times when they're
5:22with their friends, they're like a
5:22little embarrassed.
5:24Um, yeah, so there's a lot of a lot of
5:26history there. Obviously, we've spent
5:29big history together. And um yeah, it's
5:32pretty special to me as well. But, I did
5:34want to touch on
5:35the animals.
5:37The horses.
5:38You have horses.
5:40>> Yeah, I have too many horses.
5:42>> Do you Do you
5:44>> Two of them like special for racing. One
5:46of them I buy in auction in US, bring
5:49from all the way from US to Russia.
5:52For two horse I have special for racing.
5:55I have for hunting, for the mountain
5:57special horse like maybe 30 horse I
5:59have.
6:00>> So you hunt with the horses?
6:03>> Yeah, yeah, you go by horses. You take
6:06with you food, guns, like everything you
6:09need horse.
6:10>> So I So when I come
6:11>> culture, bro. It's our culture in the
6:14you know, where we from Dagestan. We
6:15have a lot of mountains and we have a
6:17lot of villages mountains. Before we
6:19they don't have road for the car. They
6:22all have horses to go home, to go
6:24somewhere, you know.
6:26That's why we like horses with
6:27>> So what
6:28to Dagestan for the two three weeks and
6:30we go hunting, we're taking the horses
6:32out hunting.
6:33>> Yeah.
6:34Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
6:35>> That is going to be insane.
6:36>> Usually what we did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
6:38We will
6:39>> Okay, well we're going to we're going to
6:40we're going to definitely make that
6:42happen. But I wanted to ask you
6:44with the horses cuz I've uh now I'm
6:46going to get a little technical when
6:47when when I talk about technique.
6:49Obviously I'm a big fan of your work and
6:51Khabib's work.
6:53And I've always used a lot of my my
6:56obviously hips, but knees. Like I use a
6:58lot of for control. I like to you know
7:00the inside push like in a squeeze with
7:02the knees and for control. And I've
7:05always noticed that you guys did a great
7:07job with that. Is
7:08does riding horses help with that? Do
7:10you got to use a lot of pressure
7:13and squeeze in with the knees?
7:15>> Because this the question. Khabib don't
7:16like ride the horses. He have horses,
7:18but he don't like how to ride the
7:20horses. But you know, it's our our team
7:23technique, I think. We have good
7:24grappling, but we're not grappler. We
7:25have good grappling, we're not grappler.
7:27We change the uh
7:29grappling for MMA. I think we have like
7:32kind of some technique for MMA, not just
7:34grappling, you know.
7:35>> Mhm. Yeah.
7:36>> That's why, bro. Next time don't bring
7:39this Greg Jackson to your camp, bro.
7:41Bring some Dagestani guy. [laughter] He
7:42teach you more, bro.
7:45>> Uh it's uh it's funny. It was uh
7:48um
7:49something obviously after that fight. Uh
7:51I I cuz I've chat I chatted to Craig
7:52Jones and he mentioned uh
7:54uh when you
7:55had a chat and he goes, "Oh, you got to
7:57teach him how to
7:58learn how to get out of the body
8:00triangle." Um and like he made the joke
8:02and he told me he was like, "Well, we
8:03have worked on that. We have worked on
8:05that." So, ever since that fight, I have
8:06a lot of go-tos that I wish I had when
8:09we fought, but I do want to I do want to
8:11touch
8:12>> you back to the wrestling all this stuff
8:14grappling because your next opponent
8:15also he have a lot of good takedowns, I
8:18think too. Wrestle you rolled in this
8:20camp.
8:21>> Uh yeah, for sure. Are you were training
8:23by Did you train with Movsar?
8:25Or you have trained
8:25>> Maybe a couple times in in the gym
8:28somewhere we meet, but when when
8:30he's he's from Ingushetia. We are from
8:33Dagestan. It's by car maybe 3 4 hours by
8:36drive. We're neighbors.
8:37>> So, where is he? Is he from Dagestan or
8:39What did you say he's from?
8:41>> He from Ingushetia.
8:43>> Ingu- okay. All right.
8:44>> I explain to you. We are border Dagestan
8:47is border with other country,
8:49Azerbaijan.
8:50>> Yep. Yep.
8:51>> Azerbaijan.
8:52And our republic is the first one.
8:54Dagestan after that like it was
8:57Chechnya. Chechnya.
9:00The Khamzat Chimaev from Chechnya.
9:04Chechnya, you know? It's Dagestan
9:05Chechnya. After that Ingushetia. We're
9:08like three neighbors. And like from
9:10Caucasus, but
9:12still it's far, you know, by car 4 hours
9:14by
9:15>> Yeah. So, yeah
9:17yeah, you're right. That that camp that
9:18I'm going to be doing is going to be a
9:20pretty similar camp. Obviously, we know
9:22he's
9:23he's wrestling heavy, so that's that's
9:25always
9:26tough camps when you're wrestling pretty
9:27much the whole time, but yeah, it's
9:29definitely it's not signed. It's not
9:31signed, but it's pretty obvious that's
9:32what it's going to be. So, I don't know.
9:34We We much just,
9:36you know, pretty much broke that. I
9:37don't know if that's probably going to
9:39get me in trouble.
9:40But anyway, I was going to say my what
9:42my favorite fight a lot of people ask me
9:44what's my favorite fight and even though
9:47I lost like you know to you I lost you
9:50that fight I still say that's my my
9:52favorite fight. Obviously it was my
9:54first fight to be able to fight in
9:56Australia in a very long time and you
9:58know that atmosphere and whatnot but not
9:59only that the fight itself and you're
10:01talking about you know the Dagestani
10:03grappling and all that. I've never
10:05really had someone
10:08take me to those levels. So a lot of
10:10times like say we fight I've got a
10:11counter then you will counter my counter
10:13and then it will just you know we had so
10:15many good layered scrambles that a lot
10:19of people won't usually get me that far.
10:22So it was just it was just such a a
10:24great experience for me like you know
10:25I'll do something I'll have my go to and
10:28then you would have an answer for that
10:29and then I'll have to go to something
10:31completely opposite because you shut
10:33that that down and just being able to
10:36experience that and and do that in a
10:38fight at the at the highest level was
10:41just one of my favorites for me. So
10:42that's why it is one of my favorite
10:44fights.
10:45>> for me also is the hardest fight the
10:47first time in Australia and after that
10:49fight I learned a lot of of course
10:51because you know
10:52I'm in the last like champions round I I
10:55was tired you know. I was tired it's
10:57very tough you always like pressure me
10:59we fight every second we not stop.
11:02>> Yeah.
11:03>> I know bro after that I know I'm going
11:06to fight 25 minutes what happen doesn't
11:08matter I'm tired I'm like miss the hard
11:12punch or something crazy happen but I
11:14will fight all five rounds you know.
11:17After that fight I improve on my like
11:21on my like everything you know like
11:22fight IQ everything I just
11:25I feel I'm come to other level.
11:29>> Yeah. Well I mean you're absolute on an
11:31absolute tear like the you know to to be
11:33able to move up. Obviously you've got a
11:37real good record against Australians and
11:40New Zealanders.
11:42>> [laughter]
11:42>> But you know it was obviously it was
11:44hard for hard for me.
11:45>> Again bro, Mandelina did same mistake
11:47bro. Why he bring Greg Jones bro? Bring
11:50Dagestani wrestler to your team is
11:52better. I told you.
11:54>> I said
11:54I'll make the joke that sometimes I go
11:56when I you know if I come to Dagestan
11:59bring bring Greg Jones but I don't know
12:00if he's going to be very well liked over
12:02there. I'm not sure so cuz he likes to
12:04he likes to make jokes right?
12:05>> Not many people Not many people like
12:07him.
12:08>> Yeah he
12:09He's obviously loves to prank and loves
12:11to you know make jokes. And
12:14you know I don't know how some people
12:15are going to take it. So I might not he
12:16might not be able to make it to that
12:18trip. But that's something that's
12:20definitely going to happen. I'm coming
12:21to Dagestan. We're definitely going to
12:22get some training. We're definitely
12:23going to go hunting. I did want to touch
12:25on the fishing. I sent you down some
12:26fishing. I love my fishing too.
12:29Is there some fishing we can do?
12:31>> Dagestan from my house we step outside
12:34we can do everything. Hunting, fishing
12:36very easy. Biking, horsing, everything
12:38bro. Because you know just
12:42John Michael Dmitri Johnson make me
12:44upset. He asked me it's safety. Bro it's
12:46safety. Nobody like just people love you
12:49you know. It's very safety country, very
12:51safety republic you know and welcome
12:54anytime. I just want to some of them
12:56like like you or Mighty Mouse come to
12:59Dagestan and show the people Dagestan. I
13:02want some like high level athletes come
13:05to us training with us and they will
13:07understand you know.
13:08>> Yeah for sure. Well yeah it's it's going
13:10to happen. Like I've already talked to
13:11my team and we definitely want to make
13:13that happen. Look I don't want to wrap
13:15up. I don't want to take up too much of
13:17your time. But
13:19honestly it was so great to to chat to
13:21you.
13:22With this fight coming up I did a break
13:23actually did a break down. You know
13:25I'm obviously picking a, you know you to
13:27win.
13:28I just think you're going to come to the
13:30grappling and he's showed some decent
13:32defense, but
13:34again, I've experienced that the layered
13:36grappling and the, you know, the
13:38positioning, you know, the understanding
13:40of positions that some people have the
13:42techniques. It's just It's all the
13:43little battles that some people miss and
13:46you're just, you know, when it comes to
13:47your team and you guys you're just the
13:50the positions and then the mechanics,
13:52all these little battles.
13:54I just think that's just going to be too
13:56much. So, I I can't wait to to watch
13:58this weekend. Good luck with everything.
14:01Wish you the best and I cannot wait to
14:04come to Dagestan and spend some time
14:06with you Zabit.
14:08>> Thank you, legend. Always good to
14:11speaking with you. Thank you, bro.