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00:00Welcome back to Against the Cage. Scott Fontana here again with native New Yorker Jared Gordon,
00:04who for the second time in his career will fight at Madison Square Garden when he faces
00:08Melchizedek Acosta in lightweight action at UFC 334 on November 14th. Now, Jared,
00:15you get to fight at the Mecca for the second time, obviously. The first one went amazing.
00:20First round TKO of Mark O'Madison three years ago. Did you think that you'd ever get the chance to
00:25have like this second opportunity to fight in that building where, of course, your grandfather,
00:29Salforello box several times? I thought it was going to be tough, especially
00:35with this last year, how my career has gone. But I saw Sean Shelby in Philly when they had the
00:44fights there and he was like, hey, who do you want to fight? And I was like, he was like,
00:49oh, I was looking for a fight for you today. I was like, oh, cool. And he was like, who
00:53do you want
00:53to fight? And I'm like, do I have, do I really have a grounds to stand on and ask for
01:01opponents?
01:01And he's like, he's like, dude, you're a veteran. I was like, oh, made me feel a little,
01:07a little better. And I was like, oh, I could fight next weekend, which I could have at the time.
01:13And he's like, well, it'll probably be later October. And then, you know, MSG is beginning
01:17of November. So, and I was like, oh, well, obviously I'll take that. He's like, all right,
01:22great. I'll get you something for that. And then a few weeks went by and I didn't hear anything. And
01:26then they, they announced the MSG card, the whole card, or it was 12 fights. And I was like,
01:34all these people knew that they were fighting. Obviously I haven't heard anything. I must not
01:39be fighting on the card. And then like a week later, I got the call. So turn, it worked out.
01:46And yeah, of course I'm pumped. There's no other, there's no other way to put it.
01:52Is it as special this time since you've already done it before?
01:57Oh, for sure. Definitely. It even feels like more special. Also granted my, my opponent is,
02:06it's not like I'm fighting some new guy or some, someone that's not doing well. Like he just
02:11fought in the main event, Malky. And he was ranked at, you know, number 12 at featherweight.
02:18Granted, he's moving up to lightweight. So that really doesn't hold any water, but it's still a good
02:23look, you know? And it's a great, really tough opponent. And so yeah, it's super exciting. I can't
02:31wait to get, I'm going up there early. I'll be there Friday. I have a lot, I have so much,
02:37so many things to do. Fight week, pre fight week, and then fight week. It's going to be madness,
02:44but I'm like pumped for it. I can't wait, I can't wait to get out of Florida. I'm sick of
02:47this place.
02:49But I mean, are you getting pulled in different directions too? Cause you're, you know, I know
02:53some of your family has moved, but you must still have people up in New York.
02:56My room's coming up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all, all my other extended family's there. All my friends
03:00are there and my parents live, you know, a few miles from me here, but they still own
03:07their home up there. And, you know, we're, we're all born and raised there. So, uh, everyone's
03:14coming up, my brothers, parents, and yeah, I'm getting pulled in a lot of different directions.
03:21I've, I actually have a lot going on, uh, right now. I'm probably not supposed to say this,
03:25but I'll say it anyways. Um, having a documentary filmed on my life and, uh, like a really big
03:33production actually, like, they're not just like, Oh, we're going to do a documentary on,
03:37you know, like some guy with the, with a gimbal, like they're like a real production team. Uh,
03:42they've done like a bunch of really cool stuff and have been very, very successful. And the guy,
03:47the director is sober. He's been sober for like 12 years. So his partner was like, you should do a
03:53documentary on MMA. And he's like, nah, that sounds terrible because you know, who wants to
03:58watch a documentary on MMA, unless you're a diehard MMA fan. Sure. MMA fighter, like all the MMA
04:03documentaries have been garbage, but, um, he was like, I want to do a documentary on recovery
04:12and you put that on there, not disturbed. Sorry. And then, um, they were like, Oh, let's do a
04:18documentary on a sober athlete and they found me. So it just worked out, you know?
04:25And obviously I'm sure you can't say too, too much right now, but that's interesting that you've
04:29got that going on. Um, I do actually kind of follow me all week. Yeah. And I have to like
04:35do
04:35stuff pre fight week with them, like film in my old neighborhood in Queens and, uh, I'm doing the
04:43seminar. They want to film that I have to, you know, all the, all the stops I got to hit
04:49with
04:49them. So. Sure. Sure. Now, obviously the last fight, you know, you've alluded to this, maybe
04:54it wasn't your strongest year, right? You're not coming into this fight on the greatest plane for
04:59your career. Um, that last fight against, uh, Jim Miller, obviously he's got all sorts of UFC
05:04records and he's been with the company 18 years and all that having had time to decompress from that
05:08fight, but what was your takeaway, uh, and you know, lessons that you can apply kind of going
05:13forward. So I lost to Hoffa Garcia, got hit by a car the day before the fight. He did great.
05:22He did great in the fight, but I was hurt. I sprained my MCL and my ACL. I got MRI.
05:27You
05:27know, I said, I got hurt in the fight and they sent me to, to get looked at. Uh, so
05:33yeah,
05:34literally right after Ryan's got hit by a car, that didn't help my case at all, obviously.
05:38And even after the fight, Cup Swanson came up to me, uh, Hoffa's coach and was like, you're
05:42injured. Huh? Like, yeah. He's like, I knew it. Uh, granted I was also wearing a knee
05:47sleeve. I don't wear knee sleeves. I never had knee problems. Anyways, it is what it is.
05:51I go, I fight Jim. Um, and it was just weird the way that fight played out. I don't know
05:59if you really recall what happened in that fight. I'm not trying to take anything away
06:03from Jim guys. It's been around forever. You don't just stay in the UC that long, have
06:07that many records and wins. Uh, if you suck, you know, or the people were like, Oh, you're
06:12he's old. Like I'm like three or four years younger than him. So it's not like I'm like
06:1727 or something, you know, I'm fighting a 42 year old. Uh, so like, but that fight was
06:26weird, man. He came out, he threw a kick, he kicked me right in my nuts through a left
06:30kick, kicked me right in my nuts. And he knew he kicked me. And he was like, Oh, when he
06:33kicked me and I ran through, I took him down and I was in like a front headlock.
06:38And I, and then my nuts went into my stomach and I had to stop. I went to the
06:43corner. Everyone's booing, you know, they're in Jersey. We're in Jersey. So
06:47everyone's rooting for Jim. Sure. And Jim knew he was like, whatever. He's a sportsman.
06:55He's good. Yeah, of course I should have. I love him. I should have took more time.
06:59I didn't. You're in the fight. Chaos, adrenaline. I go back in. He throws the
07:04same exact kick. The first strike he does is throw the same exact kick. Instead
07:10of, I caught it again. Instead of running through him, I, I ran the pipe and I fell
07:14onto his left side, which is a strong arm for the guillotine. That's he's caught
07:18everyone on that left side. And we knew don't shoot to his left side. We knew
07:24that's all we trained all camp. Shoot to his right leg, shoot to his right, head on
07:28the outside, head on the, head on the outside of the right leg, or, or, you
07:32know, shoot a single with your head on the inside on the right leg. Don't shoot
07:34to the left side. We drilled it a million. What, but who could have possibly
07:38trained for that scenario or, or thought, oh, maybe this is a situation where
07:43something like this could happen. It's just something that was unforeseen. And
07:46yeah, I was devastated. I was like, holy shit. I gave what I thought was like one
07:51of his best ways to win. I mean, of course you could have won any other way, but I still
07:58think I win nine out of 10 times. He called me on the, he called me on the one night
08:01and
08:02good for it. And you know what? Like people want to say, oh, you like you suck. You lost
08:07to Jim Miller. He's old. And it's like, dude, did you not watch the fight? I can't expect
08:13people to understand that kind of scenario and the way it's unfolded. So it's like, it is
08:20what it is. I got caught. I mean, and Kalayev got caught in the last second of a fight
08:25with Paul Craig. How many times does they fight? Is Paul Craig, is, is then Kalayev
08:32going to win? It's not going to go that way very often. This should happen. It's not
08:36like we're playing, uh, you know, it's not like I'm Tom Brady and I'm playing in a football
08:41game. You know, who's going to win. It sounds like you're feeding into almost like a lot
08:44of the, the, the negatives that come out of the, what I took from it, what I took
08:50was like, yeah, it was a bit, it was, it was shitty thing that happened, but that's
08:54not who I am. That's not my last two fights have not been me at my best or in situations
09:04that don't favor, like none of those situations favored me in the car. And then the nut shot
09:10and all the shit. So like, I know I'm better than that. And I proved it. It's not like I'm
09:15fucking some bum. I've been in USC 10 years also. It's not like, you know, I suck. So
09:22I, it's all in the past and I'm happy for Jim, man. I heard that he was struggling financially.
09:27His son had cancer. Then I spoke to Jim. I said, listen, I don't know if you believe in
09:33God, but you know, if he needed to use me for you, then I'm happy for you. And someone
09:43said to me, one of my friends, cause I was obviously down and out about it. And he was
09:46like, you know, you always ask God to use you and then you get mad when he does. And
09:50I was like, fuck you. And I was like, yeah, use me, but for my benefit, not for someone
09:57else's benefit. And he was like, he's like, that's not how it works. So that's it. It's
10:02in the past. I can't change it. Nothing can be done. Uh, this is unfortunately, not
10:08unfortunately, this is who I am. Like I come, I have my back against the wall all
10:14the time, like ups and downs, ups and downs, things happen that are out of my control
10:20consistently in fighting. And that's also just the nature of the sport. Uh, some
10:25other things that obviously happened where I couldn't control either, where it was
10:29like, I thought I was clearly the winner and you know, not just the Patty fight and
10:32the Nassar out fight, like a lot of weird things, man. The headbutt with Bobby Green
10:35were in a fight. I'm, I'm winning fluke too. Yeah. I'm winning that fight. I get
10:39headbutt no contest. So, you know, it's been a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of downs and
10:45some ups and I'm fine with that because that's been my life. And, uh, like I just
10:51need to find consistency. And like you said, there's a big opportunity here against
10:55a cost. It's a loss. It's a different weight class, but at least it's, if this is
11:00somebody who's been kind of in the upper levels of the division and recent too, he's
11:04also not even that old, he's, he's 30 years old. Um, when, when they presented
11:08his name in particular, I know you're excited for it based on that, but like, were
11:11you a little surprised that it was him given the fact that he fought it?
11:14Not necessarily. He's coming off a loss. He missed weight. He's moving up to 55. Um,
11:22and I think they think it's probably going to be a, uh, uh, you know, bloody,
11:27gruesome fight, like, which is like another thing, like my style of fighting, I have to
11:33wade through the fire to get where I need to be. Like I'm not the fastest and my
11:39styles to come forward and get in your face and punching, hurt you and take you
11:43down and drink, you know, drip. So that's my life though. My life mirrors my fighting
11:49style and, uh, and my career and all of the other shit. So it's okay. And I'm fine
11:54with it because I have so much going on outside of fighting that not that I don't, I
11:59love fighting and I want to continue to do this. Uh, but this is just a part of
12:03my life. It's not who I am. It's something I love to do something that I have great
12:08passion for. I don't miss a day of training. I train year round. Um, I love
12:13martial arts. So for me, this is just another opportunity for me to, you know,
12:17get a little further on.
12:19And Costa is interesting here too, because he's done something that you've done
12:22throughout your career too, is he's kind of gone between 55 and 45 at different
12:25points of his career. You've made the move, a permanent move up to lightweight
12:29before ostensibly. That's probably what he's doing here. How much kind of different
12:34are you expecting him to be because of the weight now that he's not going to be
12:38cutting those 10 pounds?
12:41So like you said, I've done this before where you're like, Oh, I'm fighting at 55.
12:45Now I can make weight easy. It's 55. It's 10 more pounds. And then you get huge.
12:51And the weight cut is the same as it was. So it's either he was on point and he
12:56didn't let that happen. And he's going to come in and maybe he'll be more durable
12:59and, and in better shape. And that's the, the milky I'm expecting because I don't,
13:04I can't expect him to be an off point. I need to, you know, expect the worst or the
13:10best milky. So, um, that's the two scenarios. So it doesn't matter though, because
13:22we're going to fight each other and that's it.
13:25We alluded to it already. Obviously there's an age difference here. You're, you just
13:29turned 38 a month and a half ago. Uh, he's 30 years old. You've got 15 years of fighting
13:34under your belt. Do you, and I know you'd love to train still, but how much have you
13:38kind of evolved or changed the way you train to kind of account for the fact that you are
13:42getting older?
13:44Uh, so like the volume hasn't really changed. It's just, well, I shouldn't say that. So
13:50what I've really changed is first of all, my diet, I don't blow up anymore. I walk around
13:55at one 73, one 74, the most year round. I used to get up to one 85, one 90 easily.
14:02I can
14:03be a slob in a month after a fight. So that's been huge. So I can train better, more consistently.
14:10I don't get injured as much. I feel better. Um, I look better. So that goes a long way.
14:18Also, I'm not just doing rounds to do rounds. I don't just go to the gym. Okay. We're going
14:23to spar seven rounds. I don't do that. It's like, all right, I have to fight. I have a
14:28fight in a few months or a month and a half or a month, whatever it is, even in two
14:31weeks.
14:33I'm not doing five, six rounds. I'm not doing it. I'm going to do a warmup round and I'm
14:38doing it all on the mat because I'm fighting three rounds. If I was fighting a five round
14:43fight, then yeah, I would do more rounds because you have to get ready for that. But I I'm
14:48choosing when and when not to like, all right, today I'm only going to grapple for three rounds
14:54or today I'll just drill. Today I'm just drilling. I'm not going hard today. So when I'm feeling
14:58crappy, I'm like, all right, I'm resting where I used to say, Oh, I have to train because I
15:04got a fight coming up and I didn't know any better. No, I'm just training. Also, I do
15:08like, I'm a, I've been a fanatic with strength and conditioning and my cardio. So I got, I
15:16follow strict regimen when it comes to certain cardio regimens, my strength and conditioning
15:24regimen. I have two different strength coaches that I work with separately. And so that's been
15:31like a huge part. Also, um, just like, and your wife's big on fitness as well too, right?
15:37What's that? Yeah. My wife, uh, yeah, she's a freak too. Um, she's all she ever did. She was a
15:43gymnast, a D1 gymnast. And then she was on the show American Ninja Warrior a few times. She always
15:50in the gym. So we're always in the gym. My daughter now too, is she's hanging for, she's not even
15:54two
15:54years old yet. She's hanging for a minute on a bar. She's got her leg up in the air like
15:58this on a
15:59bar. She's 22. Yeah. So, um, but I just love it. It's not even about the fight. I just, I
16:07love
16:07training. I love lifting. I love being better, pushing myself harder card. When I'm done fighting,
16:14I'm going to be doing like endurance runs or something like that. Like, I don't know what
16:17I, I have the vision of me being a powerlifter. Like I just love all of it. I love strength
16:24and
16:24conditioning. If I could, if like, if I was in a fighter, I might've been like a strength and
16:27conditioning coach or something like that. Um, so yeah, I've been obsessed with that. So that's
16:31also like, you know, huge for your body. Like when you lift, you just stay strong, your ligaments,
16:36your tendons, you don't get injured as easy when you're, when you, when you're not cutting all that
16:40weight, you feel better. You're not sucked out in the gym training, you know, slogging through
16:47workouts, get injured easy. You feel like shit. Cause you're in a deficit. I'm never in a deficit.
16:52I just ate like a 10 ounce steak and a bunch of rice and vegetables for lunch. And I'll have,
16:58I'll have two or three more meals today. Uh, I already had two, I had three already. I'll have
17:03three more meals. So, um, I feel great. And I feel like I'm the best I've ever been. And I
17:10feel like
17:11even though I haven't been able to show it in my last two fights, I mean, I thought the Hoffa
17:15Garcia
17:16effect was fucking great. Uh, we slugged it out, but you know, I wasn't at my best. So
17:23it's just the way it goes. And I don't give a shit, to be honest, Scott, I really don't fucking
17:27care about what happens in the past because there was a one point where I couldn't do five pushups
17:32because I was literally shooting Coke and heroin. So it does nothing matters. Nothing matters except
17:40this moment. So, uh, I'm going to, I'm going to forge through it and get the W. That's it.
17:47And obviously you already mentioned this before, you know, this is just a part of your life. You've
17:50got other things going on. You know, you were also, you just had your, uh, color commentary
17:54debut on CFFC, your old stomping grounds. I know you had that. How, how did that go? By the way,
17:59what was your debut? Like, did you like it?
18:00It was great. I mean, um, the first like fight or two was a little weird because you're not used
18:05to
18:05doing this type of thing. And then I got into the rhythm and you know, your feet off, off, uh,
18:10Scott, Scott Morgan. He's like, help, you know, so it was great. Uh, I'm actually getting inducted
18:16into the CFFC hall of fame in December and they're having me commentate the night after also. So,
18:22okay. Okay. So it's business and a little fun too.
18:26Business and some fun. It's all fun, man. That's not business getting inducted into a hall of fame.
18:31That's fun. So, uh, yeah, I got cool things going on. I'm opening a,
18:35uh, drug treatment center as well here in Florida. That should be open.
18:40And obviously that's near and dear to your heart.
18:42Yeah. The UFC helped me actually build out the gym. Uh, I got fight story with Angela Lee.
18:49That's like mental health thing that we're doing for fighters. That's coming along very well. It's,
18:53uh, just came out of like testing the pro the platform. And, uh, so yeah, I got a lot of
18:59things
18:59going on. Like this fighting is just something I love to do and I devote my life to it. But,
19:04um, it's not who I am. It's just what I do.
19:08Do you have a target in mind? How much longer you want to do this? I mean,
19:11it seems like you're still enjoying the process. So at least there's that, but like,
19:14you know, some athletes, they get a point in time where they're just like, you know what?
19:17I think there's a number.
19:18No, I want to fight till as long as I'm healthy and doing well and I'll continue to fight till
19:26I'll, I'll fight till I'm 42, 43. I don't go. I love it. I love it. I don't want to
19:32stop.
19:33You know, sometimes at the end it can't be like, Oh, I'm over this. But now man, because
19:39when I watch fights or when I see other people doing it, I'm like, ah, I want to do it.
19:43I want to do it. So, um, I know when it, when it's not exciting anymore,
19:50then I'll know it's time, you know? So.