00:00and he's been very active you got him at ufc 332 coming up this week in salt lake city anthony
00:05went joining us here once again as he has been very active in his uh ufc career he just made
00:13it
00:13to the ufc then he got himself a nice submission win anthony thanks for the time again man appreciate
00:16you man brandon is uh it's amazing to be on the show again man like you said we're still undefeated
00:21still pushing and still being able to feed my family through taking hands off so man i'm excited
00:26can you uh recap your last win for me it was exciting it was a it felt like did you
00:31did
00:31you have jitters when it all happened and then everything that led to that that that submission
00:36win what do you recall from it man i make this statement all the time on my instagram it's like
00:41it's gonna look like it happened overnight and it looked like it happened overnight man we go from
00:45contender to obviously the career i had before on the regional scene uh going against harry
00:49chapman probably in my opinion the best fighter i've fought thus far especially on the feet um
00:54um and the game plans went exactly how i thought it would go terence is not a guy for lack
00:58of a
00:58better term that i wanted to go in there and fight which i could have i could have went and
01:02fought him
01:02chased 100k bonus got a knockout which i very much think i could have did but then i wouldn't be
01:07sitting
01:08here fighting what is it 30 days later 40 days later i think a submission was the route to victory
01:13um jitters i probably got the most backstage when i'm back there warming up um i'm not afraid to say
01:18as a grown man i go back there and cry i'm about to go to war i'm about to risk
01:21my life to go out
01:22there and fight in front of some people half naked but once i got out there man i tried to
01:25own the
01:26moment as much as possible man i felt the crowd salt lake not salt lake but sacramento was amazing
01:31and um obviously we got it done and now we're standing here with you now so what was the process
01:36into getting this one i mean obviously you you last time we talked you told me you weren't going
01:39to be shy about being active but what led to get into this fight at salt lake man this one
01:45came to me
01:45um obviously i'm always open to fighting i had to talk with my coaches dita and robbie and obviously my
01:50agent they wanted to more so wait till november obviously madison square with me being with the
01:54jets was a car we were on if we could get on there obviously it's a it's a car that's
01:58high on demand so
01:59it's like yeah if they want to we'll get you on there but then um i don't know who called
02:03my agent
02:04they called about this show in october um obviously we like the matchup we like that they like us and
02:10want us to be active and i think at that point the car was kind of falling apart so um
02:14i think when you
02:15show up to work and you are a person that the uc can call and you answer you build a
02:20good reputation
02:20for them so when you start to ask for stuff it's like i scratch your back you scratch mines and
02:25if
02:25i'm a big risk and reward guy obviously i'm not i'm not too unhumble to say that if it would
02:31have
02:32been like a bigger name or a bigger fighter like we need more than four weeks to prepare for this
02:36guy
02:36but for lucas armand who is undefeated who i have to respect i already got the tools to beat him
02:42and
02:42we don't have to sit in and work on our jiu-jitsu and do this and do that to be
02:45able to get the job
02:45done do you do you find i mean you're a confident person based on the conversations we've had clearly
02:52but do you sense even more confidence now being in the ufc like the idea that you've this has
02:58obviously been a goal and a part of your journey but now that you have made it do you feel
03:03a different
03:04sense of like yeah i'm at that level or did you oh is it the same it was on the
03:08journey up how do you
03:09handle that mindset of confidence if i'm being honest it's the same um i think you you build your
03:15mentality in the gym uh if you come out on fight i mean obviously some guys on fight day are
03:19better
03:20than they are on the gym some guys are better in the gym than they are on fight day so
03:23i'm i'm gonna
03:24agree i'm gonna go backtrack i've established the fact that i can compete in the ufc but i still got
03:31work to do but man i already had that confidence going with gregory rodriguez i already had that
03:35confidence being able to spar rdr brendan allen emavov um you name them a bunch of good middle
03:41mates and and 205ers and getting there with guys who usually put guys to sleep and i'm i'm applying
03:46pressure and being able to take that pressure well so i was able to build that that confidence there
03:50but you know and uh on the 22nd of august i was able to establish myself of like okay you
03:58can show up
03:59the big show and not went to bed uh i had recently uh your teammate on luis hernandez who just
04:04had a uh
04:05very impressive win obviously then quickly turned around for his ufc debut what did you think of his
04:10uh his performance man absolute superstar obviously it's a it was a match made in heaven
04:15um i say that all the time and you gotta be able to fight but you gotta be marketable as
04:19well it's a
04:20lot of guys and like i said i'm different than ufc fighter i can say there are guys who on
04:24paper are
04:24better than me who are not in the ufc there are guys on paper who the ufc may not push
04:29as much as
04:30they push me but because i know english and i speak on the mic and i understand how to sway
04:34a
04:35conversation some guys don't know how to do that luis is a superstar because not only can he fight
04:39not only can he finish not only did he answer the call but man he went out there and entertained
04:43the fans that he's building he's seeing the fruit from it and you know i've had conversation with
04:47him after and we have plans to be able to blow up miami you know kind of how you saw
04:51mass at all
04:52do kind of how you saw kimbo do kind of how you saw how you well do when they were
04:55in their prime
04:56times and i think the miami south florida florida in general is is due for a new way where fighters
05:02come through so that we can we can be well represented in this sport hey man you you just
05:07took the next question out of my mouth because i was just going to ask you about that like it
05:10does
05:10feel like obviously my you know south florida has always been a hotbed of training like everybody
05:15comes down here to train but for you guys to be miami guys it does feel like there needs to
05:19be that next
05:19era of guys from miami to to to be back on top is that something that you guys have spoken
05:25about
05:26i mean we've been thinking about since he showed up and did his job now he done his job he's
05:29ain't no
05:30i mean you know i hopefully got one i'll be nine no soon we can just keep it rolling but
05:35at the same
05:35time we still got to develop as well we're not sitting here uh saying that we're we're established
05:41superstars we're legends in the making or we've done this this and that it's going to take a long time
05:45for me to get to a place where masvidal is or the the representation yoel has built or some of
05:50the
05:50great talents that's come out of miami that we don't even get to speak about because they didn't
05:53make it to this place i like i said i'm not unhumble enough i'm not too proud for to think
05:58that i'm the best guy in the world i'm the best guy in the world because that's where i am
06:01right now
06:02and i have the potential to do that but there are so many guys outside of ufc in miami that
06:06people
06:06don't even know about because they haven't made it to the stage so we me and louise are happy to
06:11be
06:12able to represent miami and be able to sound alive in miami because i think they're going to be more
06:15more to come motivated by what we've done so far i want to get your thoughts on this um you
06:21know
06:21pretty recently uh a highly touted prospect who is undefeated like you uh gable steveson just lost in
06:27uh in in one of his i think it was the second ufc fight what did you make of that
06:32a lot of people
06:32have a lot of opinions on hey was it too much too soon i'm curious as a guy who's on
06:37his rise himself
06:38uh what what did you make of that did you think it was just a simple mistake that happens
06:41in fighting because obviously uh you know it seemed like it generated a lot of reaction from
06:46the ufc fans man personally for me it was unfortunate um i look at things in the moment
06:53but also grand scheme as well my job is to make big fights and it takes two to can't tango
06:58so i was
06:58looking at gable not from a place of animosity or malice but man i wanted gable to become what was
07:04he for no to get to a no to get to 12 or no and then when meeting him at
07:08the peak of our career
07:09that makes the most sense then i could be the person to take that all away from him um but
07:13i
07:13did train with sean sheriff i knew that you know there were ways that gary gable could take advantage
07:19of him but also you know this is the big dude who can punch hard i don't know if gable
07:22took that same
07:23approach but that's for gable and his team to to go back and reevaluate at the end of the game
07:27was
07:27still a one-of-a-kind blue-chip talent obviously he gets a bad rap because of allegations that he's
07:32had
07:33but one thing i said on the podcast man it takes a special type of man to step in that
07:36cage and be able to
07:37humble himself and i'm gonna get it i'm gonna get naked in front of people and try to fight
07:41um and i think mma fans in general but people in general give superstars or stars in the main making
07:47too much heat because of what they've done in the light because we're people like if i go do something
07:51today if i get pulled over it's gonna be the biggest thing in the world but i sit here and
07:54say
07:55to everyone listening what does god what does the community have against you if they know what you've
08:00done in the dark the things that haven't come to light the things that you've said and the things that
08:04you put your your your face on the line for and if we judged you for that how would you
08:08feel so i
08:09can't sit here and judge gable because of one performance or one thing he may have did when he
08:13was 19 years old because i truly believe that gable stevenson is the fighter i think he is he's
08:19going to come back from this he's going to have a rude awakening for the division i'll be more than
08:23happy to face him when that time comes so what's been going on in salt lake this week man it
08:27looks like
08:27you've been uh you've been pretty active did you get to go to a blacksmith what the hell was going
08:30on
08:30your social media i did man that looks badass dude hit me up and you don't see him better hit
08:36me up
08:36like hey we're gonna record you on monday surprise to me i was like yo i got recovery in the
08:40morning
08:41i got a training at at six it was like what are you doing between i think i might go
08:45inside see
08:45they're like all right well what are you doing but right after that my coach hit me like hey no
08:49more climbing mountains no more doing this rest your legs i'm like all right what am i gonna do my
08:54teammate emper he looks up a blacksmith we go and do that first time ever doing it it looks fun
08:59um
09:00on my instagram if you saw it on there because that's a little minute and a half segment it took
09:04us a whole two and a half hours to figure it out so it's not something i would recommend to
09:09people
09:09if you don't have patience but that's the same way life is a sword is a great representation of
09:14the welding and the the steel hitting the fire and the biggest thing they told me is that when you
09:20start
09:20it's not gonna look like how it's gonna post look it's gonna be ugly and you're gonna question the
09:25fact if i know what i'm doing and that's the same way i think my relationship with god sometimes
09:29if i told you five years ago i knew i'd be sitting here with you as an undefeated fighter in
09:34the ufc
09:34i would you would have laughed i would have laughed because it did look like i would beat it i
09:38was
09:38homeless i was crazy out of my mind i was broke but god knew what he was doing he just
09:42kept putting me
09:43in the fire and taking me out and now you see the sword that we have now and the crazy
09:47thing is it's
09:48just going to continue to get sharper and sharper so that was a great experience obviously it goes well
09:52my brand and i'm excited man to be able to cut another head off on saturday i don't if you
09:57mind
09:57talking about i don't know how much you you like getting into your past but uh as as far as
10:02that's
10:02concerned like what was the moment like was there a moment in your life where you're like man i gotta
10:07turn it around was it spiritually i guess bound upon you did it something that happened in your life
10:12that felt like i needed something to change oh man i um i first came to my relationship with
10:18god or at least got saved for lack of a better term in college i got a really bad breakup
10:23my
10:23junior year in college which made me not want to play football anymore and i was for lack of a
10:27better
10:27term to start playing a team on the defense at least and i didn't want to play because i felt
10:31like that
10:31was the the the purest form of love i knew at that point and obviously god uh uh presented himself
10:37to that point i started to build a relationship with him but i'll tell you what my turning point
10:40was as far as like this journey i'm on now back in um i think 2021 i was about to
10:46leave my pro debut
10:47um no i was going to make my my pfl debut against abraham badly who at the point was three
10:53you know
10:54and like i said i'm a dog so they called me up and said yo this is what we're gonna
10:57do let's do it
10:58they gave me a one fight deal because i wanted to be in the ufc and it was like hey
11:01you beat them you'll
11:02be free and a week before the fight i got staff and from there my leg blew up i had
11:08to get it taken
11:08out and because of the lack of sleep i had um narcolepsy and i i developed psychosis so i couldn't
11:18sleep for like three to four days great and that developed into me hallucinating and me being out of
11:22my mind i got out of that so that was like a six or seven week process of me being
11:26in the hospital out
11:27hospital me being in a a cycle whatever hospital where they take away my phone coming out going
11:33back and i came to a place where i was like god cannot i can't sit here and believe that
11:38god
11:38that i'm playing for me because i could still be crazy right now and that's the story i've never been
11:42able to tell but that was probably the moment where it's like okay i really feel like there's a devil
11:47there's an opposition there's a force only not wanting me to get where i'm at and since i got out
11:52of
11:52that situation still had my job still was able to train got to the point where i was 2-0
11:563-0 4-0 i
11:57was like yo what is there that can stop me because the devil for lack of a better term really
12:01tried to
12:02kill me in that season man that's uh that's some powerful stuff there anthony look man we're looking
12:07forward to your fight coming up go watch on one of miami's own ufc 332 live on paramount plus
12:12in salt lake said i believe this was on cbs too as well so you guys can uh check that
12:17on out anthony
12:18eight and oh seven finishes fiu zone homestead zone go check them on out we appreciate the time
12:25man uh it's been uh it's been a joy watching you so
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