So my name is James Jimbo aldrop I was born in New Albany Mississippi so here I moved to DeSoto County and I lived there for a while and that’s where I kind of got into the martial arts but then I just moved back to New Albany this year and started New Albany human
Academy so I supported I guess you call it MMA sort of mixed martial arts which is like and it’s like all the the martial arts Sports put together so they’re all like kind of melded into this one pot and what’s going to happen with it is like
So you have boxing you have kickboxing you have Judo you have wrestling you have you have Jiu Jitsu you have the different karates like there’s a bunch of different ones and basically what’s happened is like they the original UFC like the original mixed martial arts organization like what they
Were trying to do is to see which sport was the best like for like I guess you say like self-defense or just like you could you put these guys one-on-one no weapons like who wins started that way in like in like over time it’s like become this
This thing all on its own we’re like people come from like division one wrestling Champs will come in and like Glory Kickboxing Champions coming in boxing champions coming in and what they’ll do is like they now it’s like it’s not really like which sports the best like which is boxing
Better than wrestling is wrestling better than grappling or whatever you know what’s what’s happened is it’s these guys like I think I want to take this technique from boxing I’m going to take this technique from Judo and take this technique from Jiu Jitsu and they’re putting it together and then
Like you’re testing yourself in front of you know millions of people so the sports become so they call it mixed martial arts because it’s like it’s everything together and um the reason that uh that I really like it is because that creates a sport where well one there’s
Weight classes so like you know something that would frustrate me so I used to coach football and something that would frustrate me a lot with uh with coaching football is like I remember going to a coach’s Clinic one time and Nick Saban was there it’s like
One of the greatest coaches of all time and he basically just straight up told us like look if you know you could be the best defensive end in the nation if you’re not six foot three then you’re not coming to Alabama we don’t care you know what I mean they’re like it’s
Literally like you’re you have to fit these these really strict like these attributes these physical attributes in most sports so that’s baseball football basketball you know like it was just a hard thing like we I’d have kids coming up and like their dream is to go to the NFL and like you
Know you’re looking at their pants and like it just feels like you know my heart of horse was the right thing to do is like to just be honest with them and say look I know that’s what you want to do but it’s not going to happen and if you want
To be if you want to do a professional sport you’re gonna have to pick something else and maybe soccer if this football thing isn’t going to work out you know what I mean just if you’re gonna be five foot seven there’s not much options for you you know and so
I don’t know I guess like yeah get that same in during the same time like I was uh I don’t know kind of like having trouble like I didn’t really want to keep working out at the gym like it’s kind of like losing motivation you know
You get older and it’s like your bench press Max and stuff doesn’t mean anything I needed something like some way to like keep exercising but make it more fun more fun and uh I was talking to my wife about a an MMA gym that I heard of
And she was like why don’t you go try it and I walked in and like freaking fell in love with this I would have killed of uh had a sport like that when I was younger because what’s cool about MMA is it’s uh there’s weight classes so like
It doesn’t matter how tall or how short you are like or how you know big or small you are like you’re going to fit into a weight class you’re going to be competing with guys that are your size and what’s fun about it is like that
Does mean that there could be like a six foot two guy that he is like really really skinny and they get into a 145 pound weight class and I’m five foot seven that means we would be in the same weight class but I’m bigger and he’s skinnier and like it changes how we
Would approach the fight you know what I mean like this is kind of getting into the weeds but like if that was me going into that fight then I would be working really hard on wrestling and he’d probably be working really hard on kickboxing just being the taller guy he
Was trying to keep range and so what went up what ended up for me you think why kind of fell in love with it is um I realized pretty early on like I had thought that fighting was like like a really uh like mainly like you
Have to be like a really physical guy or whatever you know you got to be really like Whoever has the biggest muscles is like that is going to win but I realized very quickly that was completely wrong you know like when I came into the gym the first time
I think I was like 200 pounds like the biggest I’d ever been I was working out really heavy and I got paired with this little 135 pound guy and it called they call it like rolling especially sporing so like you put a mouthpiece in slap hands like we’re
Fighting you know you know and uh this little 135 pound guy was just throwing me like repeatedly over and over and over just throwing me on my head and I just couldn’t believe like how could this little guy you know do this to me and um you start to realize like from there
That like oh wow this sport is crazy because like it doesn’t really matter how big or physical you are like you can always find a way to win it’s just about who practices the most and so that’s my favorite thing about coaching it is why
We want to open in New Albany is it’s really fun to be able to take guys and like be honest with them like in football you know you you can’t be honest and say like look you work as hard as you can like you can get your
Dreams you’re lying to them that’s not true you know most of them will never make it to the NFL or you know NBA you’re playing basketball or MLB or playing basketball but in Mitch martial arts you that is the truth like you tell them if you work as hard as you can and
You practice every single day like it’s not just you might make it it’s you’re guaranteed to at least get a shot now it’s up to you whether you know you you finish that shot or not but like in Mississippi like we recently just had I don’t know four or five guys in this
Last month that got called up to the you know major leagues or whatever it’s like how many guys we know that you know make the NFL it’s not many you know very few a guy from my school that I was coaching he made the NFL but
But um that’s why I kind of fell in love with it and then on top of that like once you kind of what you kind of start to realize or what you kind of started to see is like you go into these these MMA gyms and you’ll see these guys that are like
I don’t know any other word to say like they look nerdy kind of you know like they’re uh really intellectual type guys whatever they’re like working as a lawyer working as a doctor or something like that like really really smart and they will absolutely destroy you out
There you know like you can you could be the best box you could do this kickbox or whatever these guys like if they can get their hands on you like they just murder you and it’s just it’s just confusing to you you know because they’re uh they look like somebody that
Would never have played a sport in fact like a ton of guys that do the sport have never played a sport can um it’s like it’s just that what that to me is what kind of Drew me like holy crap like this is a sport where like literally anybody can become good at
This like anybody in the world can become good at this if you look at like the if you if you look at pictures like the top guys in each White Collection guys are the champions of the world or whatever in their weight classes like half of them look like you would have no
Idea that you played a sport when they have a t-shirt on or something you know they’ll take their t-shirt off and there’s tattoos everywhere and stuff but like you know what I mean that’s what I thought was cool and then on top of that it’s like it’s
Not just it’s not just about making it to the top of the sport like this is a sport that’s like it’s for as far as you know men are concerned it’s like I don’t know how to explain it it’s like it’s really Primal like it’s a it’s
I think every guy like in the world like this sport is like one of the most intimidating things you can possibly do you know it’s it’s really fun like I was saying earlier anybody can learn it but where it gets hard is you’re you’re gonna have your ego tested you know with
Another man in front of other men and like every time it happens what it’s symbolizing is like if we were in a real fight like then I I just got Beat to Death you know he would if we were if this was we were in Ancient Rome or something
Like I’m dead you know what I mean and like so it’s hard for guys to be able to deal with that but what’s good about that the reason I like that for for young young men especially is um if you just do that repeatedly because it it’s honestly terrifying and like my
First time walking to gym I was absolutely terrified and like I joke with our guys that come to our gym all the time like look I know it’s scary it’s still to this day like when it’s time to put the gloves on and start sparring like I still get nervous like
Every single time like every single time I get nervous because you know what’s going to happen you know you get hurt like you get black eyes and like all this stuff or you get you get knocked down in front of your friends or whatever is going to happen
Um but if you can do that repeatedly what it does is like then like ordinary interactions that might be a little bit make you a little bit nervous like speaking in public or like just walking up and talking to somebody you don’t know become like nothing you know it’s
Like you just because you know like that later on that day you’re fixing to do something that’s like insanely hard you know really really really difficult and um it’s beautiful like I don’t know how to explain it like I’ve seen guys that uh you know just didn’t have a lot of
Confidence like very and I mean boys specifically but they’re very timid and then you get them into the gym and like they’re terrified they don’t want to you know they like maybe their parents we’ve had guys like their the ads are making them do it because they want to toughen them off whatever
And like they get in there and we in our gym like we’re very forward so we don’t uh we don’t we try not to Baby anybody like we go ahead and throw them right in like you think we our view on this kind of they need to know right now
Like if they’re gonna like this or if they’re it’s not for them you know so when you immediately throw them in a spawn and so far we thought we we’ve had uh we’ve had guys like get black eyes on their first day or like you know get
Bloody lips or bloody nose their first day but we’ve never had somebody say I hated this like that what’s always happen for us so far is like these guys that we actually guys that literally never even played a sport before because like their parents are trying to keep them safe and then they
Come to us put them in boxing gloves they get beat up pretty bad or whatever but what they realize is like oh my gosh like I can take a punch you know and I’m alive I’m okay you know and like and then they realize like after a week or
Two like they get a little they get a little better and then like a new girl coming to the gym and now they can beat this guy you know what I mean your comedy starts to rise up rise up rise up because it is just a weird thing among guys like
Like if you don’t know how to fight and I do we don’t have to talk about it but there’s like an unspoken like I just feel like I’m 100 comfortable you know what I mean like in this situation and so it’s fun seeing guys like come in
With no confidence do this super hard thing and then walk away with like a huge sense of confidence I always used to tell my students back when I was teaching them like you know when I was when I was growing up I never got bullied or anything but I remember people getting bullied
And like thinking like I should probably say something right here you know like this is kind of messed up like you know when somebody’s getting bullied they didn’t deserve it you know and uh but I was scared too I didn’t want it to turn on me you know but if I’ve been doing
Something like this then I think I definitely would have you know and that’s the whole the cool thing about it is like it it’s not it’s not trying to take guys I’m like turn them into like Fighters where like they’re all you know they’re just gonna fight through every person or whatever
It’s like the idea hopefully is that you actually don’t fight as much but you have the confidence to step in when you need to that’s kind of what we’re looking into so we uh like me personally and like the guy that I that I on the gym with like we both of
Us are a little older so we’re in our 30s so it’s a little hard to like to get in the UFC that level or whatever but that’s not why our humor is doing it all like we would love to see some guys get in the UFC for more Jam but the main
Thing is just like trying to take some some young guys that like just need a little help in the confidence Department stuff and like getting them to that level because it really does like it’ll it no matter what you know job you want to get out there like
It’s just it’s just a true fact like you’re going to go farther faster if you have that confidence behind it you know if we’re in an argument like I know that if it comes down to like I can handle this you know what I mean it’s a it’s a
Really cool thing so that’s why I like it and then on top of that is like it’s just it’s such a crazy sport because you’ll have these guys that have like train their entire lives and like in let’s say in MMA so they’ve been working like on all the different disciplines and
Then you’ll have this guy that’s like training his whole life in wrestling you know and you put them in a cage together and you would and like the guy’s been doing wrestling like if he can get a hold of them you know what I mean he takes them down and wins the fight
You know even though he doesn’t know anything about boxing or he can go vice versa you know like the boxer like is able to you know punch the wrestle before he gets there so like it’s literally endless like we uh I don’t know I probably spend he probably takes me
Three or four hours every day to like learn the content I have to bring in to teach because you can spend your entire life on just one of these disciplines by themselves and you’ll never learn them that’s what’s the crazy thing about it is like it’s it’s it really is like
Chess like there’s endless moves and endless counters and they and like in discipline by itself and then you throw all those disciplines together and it’s like you could do this your entire life and never learn them and that’s to me what’s you know as you get older is something
That’s a really cool thing it’s like if this is something that that you’ll never get approach stagnant like you can forever and ever and ever like keep learning and learning and learning and you know another thing that’s cool about that is like we like we have some
Guys that are older you know they’re like they’re talking about how like they’re starting too late but like my first instructor he was a DA agent and then he was I think he was in his 60s had both hips replaced I don’t know if he’d have a
Near place but he’s an older guy you know and uh and he did like like he could kill anybody in the gym as this older guy you know and it’s like man they’re like I hope I can be that good one day and he would tell us like well I
Didn’t even start till I was 44. it’s just like that’s kind of mind-blowing I Like Us a 60 something year old guy could be you know beat a guy like me that’s like younger and like a lot more athletic and stuff like he and he can
And I don’t know that’s a cool thing and then and then on top of that like just like I wish like more teachers would do it and more police officers firefighters like really anybody that’s in the service center should be doing this I remember like the school I was working
At we had like fights I don’t know just about every week it was kind of a poor School they’re good kids but just a lot of fights and the first time ever recorded a fight before it was before I started training and I remember just like just
Being like a whirlwind like I couldn’t figure out where to where to grab or like what to do you know and uh you know it ends up getting worse than it should because nobody knows how to stop it you end up like just this crazy like jumble
Of people whatever and I remember like after I’ve been training a couple months there was a fight that broke out Us in my classroom and I walked out and like one of the principals was already like trying to break it up and like he had already fallen on the ground was rolling
And stuff and I just like walked up to one of them like grabbed you called Ridge control to grab risk control and like just kind of picked one of them up and walked to the side and set her back down I was like and she was like swinging stuff you know
And I was like like I had a controller to live and I was like right she’s like yes there and I was like someone let you go and we’re good she’s like yes sir and I want to go you know I’m like her dog’s like damn like holy crap you know like
We this is important you know because like the way that that kind of stuff works is like if they’re if it’s like a big fight with these kids in school um the kid actually has a teacher you just don’t by accident like they’re in huge shows that you know
Whereas if the teachers knew how to stay control really quick like you can break it up without you know potentially without even a kid even hitting another kid and nobody getting in trouble you know because you don’t want to see that it doesn’t help anybody for two kids to
Get in a fight and like one has a good alternative Center for six months or whatever like that they’re gonna fall behind and just know what you want so it it is something that I think is really helpful just like in everyday life so I don’t know like I
Guess I could I could talk forever and ever and ever but I think the main reasons that I like really love this sport is um is one that that you don’t have to be like this big bad Savage person or whatever to be good at it like
You can literally be nerdy like one of my favorite Fighters there is this kid named Mikey mucho mentioning he’s autistic and he has he wears these big thick glasses and like you he’s like really smiling he only eats pizza and like he’s just a little little tiny guy
And he’s famous for fighting these big giant bodybuilder type guys you know it’s like it’s just really it’s just crazy it’s just it’s kind of mind-blowing this little nerdy kid can like take on these giant humans you know that just look mean and I don’t know that’s just something like that I
There’s no other sport that I see that’s like it’s cool like that like you know and then and then also being able to take guys that like they’re really timing this stuff and show I’m like look we can like you can go way further than you think you can
You can you know or you can handle like way more conflict than you than you know you can you know I mean like we’re gonna and we try to show them that they can get through it you know that’s that’s a big thing is like just learning like you
Know like you’re boxing for the first time and like this somebody’s punching unit it’s not it doesn’t feel good you know like it like to get punched and you’re you got your hands up and you’re trying to Shell and they’re just beating you up or whatever you know like but we
Kind of you’re trying to you can kind of show these kids they’re like but if you just can keep your hands up you know and like move around enough like you’ll survive you know if the timer’s gonna go off and you’ll survive this and then next time
You can learn like a little better like some counters and stuff but like just teaching them that like look you really can like you you might feel like you know you’re a weaker guy or like you didn’t grow up playing any sports or something like can you know you can get through this
Like not only can you play sports like you can do the most Savage sport there’s ever been you know it’s like I don’t know I wish more people did it again like I think that trying to think that where it stopped at but I think it was like every single president
Was a wrestler up until like I think it’s like the last I don’t know 20 years something like that like every everyone in wrestled like uh Abraham Lincoln was a state champion wrestler so we used to have you know that was like a big thing between guys like where
I want to actually it was like it wasn’t much conflict because everyone was kind of trained and like you know there’s a consequence to conflict you know I mean like like if uh if me and another person get into an argument like the argument can get really bad because
Like neither one of us feel like an actual fight’s gonna break out but when there’s two guys that are trying like if you were in our gym like me and the other guy that owned it like we are you all the time but it’s always very like it’s just like light arguing
Whatever because we both know that like if if the level raises like there’s there’s consequence to it you know like there’s is it going to be just like I’m mad at you and I’m mad at him you know there’s going to be physical conflict that comes after and like it really does
Like change the way you talk to people you know it makes you not want to be disrespectful it makes you like you want to choose your words want to carefully you know and like and also at the same time like it helps you like when somebody’s being disrespectful towards you and like they
Don’t know you know about any of this fighting stuff like just just easy to kind of let it roll off you know just not bother you or they don’t understand you know I mean so I don’t know I kind of wish that more that we they were kind
Of into it more like I remember uh it was one of my like was it President Roosevelt like he would even like he was a wrestler too but he would even like invite people to the White House to box him back when that was illegal it’s like
It was it was coming it was like boxing I think used to be America’s biggest sport I had a professor in college I managed to read a book on house also but it used to be our biggest Sport and it was illegal though the entire time so they
Caught but they were quite a prize fighting so it was like awesome and they would build these like the mob would build these giant like 100 000 person stadiums back in the day like right Jack Dempsey the fight it was illegal like the sport was if the police showed up
They could take everybody to do and they would have a hundred thousand people it was just crazy I don’t know I guess like that’s like a kind of reminiscent of like because it’s just like when I when I started coaching stuff like started getting really hard because like
You have to be careful like you you can’t talk to kids a certain way like you can’t you’re starting to see this kind of stuff for like you know I yell at a kid and like they get upset they tell their mom and their mom’s mom’s school and
They want to talk to the news and like you’re like what is going on here you know I kind of know how to fighting thing is like you don’t ever have to like I don’t ever have to yell at a kid I don’t ever have to like
Really get on to a kid because it’s just understood you know I mean like they can’t beat me in a fight so like they’re not even gonna mess with it you know what I mean like it’s just that it almost sounds like mean or something I guess but
You could be there and experience you can see like it’s actually a really beautiful thing you know it’s like it just feels like that’s how it was supposed to work like kids today are like the like physical like and I don’t necessarily agree with corporate punishment or anything like that but
Kids today are like because that physical aspect has been removed like they are kind of enabled to like challenge adult Authority whereas like that wasn’t you know the thousands and thousands of thousands of years you didn’t do that because yeah there’s like serious consequences like that adult is an adult and you’re a
Kid and they can hurt you you know you know so I don’t know like I wish I wish more kids did it because I do think it would help a lot of kids gain respect and stuff I’m like I don’t know I feel like we’re not headed in like in
An awesome Direction like where I do like I don’t necessarily like the idea of like paddling kids and stuff like that but at the same time especially for boys like I just feel like boys like we had this weird need like we want to challenge authority you want to challenge you know whoever’s
Whoever’s the leader of the pack or whatever you kind of want to challenge I’m like you can’t actually do anything physical that becomes like clashing arguments and like things that like really as a teacher like which I you don’t think you said your teacher did as
Well but like you know me in the classroom especially like I eventually started getting the point where I didn’t want to argue with anybody I was telling like look if you’re wanting to like show the glass how manly or you’re more than welcome to get a mouthpiece and
Come to come to the gym tonight but other than that like let’s just like I’m not I can’t do anything to you again maybe they just stop stop this you know and uh but you know as a teacher you start like this if there’s becoming a problem we’re like where um
Like you have 30 kids in the classroom and like 28 of them really when two of them don’t and like you literally can’t teach the 28 because you’re having to sit there with the two and like it’s really frustrating to like see with the the boxing thing it changes
That a little bit um because they will listen to you I don’t know what that is with boys but they will listen to you when you have that respect kind of thing and we’re really big about like you know we tell the parents like we’ve had a co-pants bringing kids saying that like
They’re being disrespectful and like you know I mean we we let them know like in the you know in a safe but not like easy way like we don’t disrespect parents you know what I mean they don’t do any of that kind of stuff or they’ll bring them
In so much their grades aren’t good enough and like you know we put them through it and make them not want to do that anymore you know and and it seems to help them a lot so I don’t know I just I think I like the sport so much because it just it
Instills so much character and discipline and confidence and then uh it’s something you can do like for the for your entire life and I would have killed or done this when I was young I didn’t start till I was 28 so it’s amazing thing I don’t know
I don’t know tell me about the community support for this like where are you um fighting when can people watch the fights yeah so I mean it’s it’s a it’s a blossoming sport you know I think I was in high school when the first UFC fights started happening at first it was
Illegal for a long time you know and there’s still states that don’t allow it but um because it’s you know it’s a savage or it’s brutal or whatever you know which is true which is why but that’s what I think a lot of people like it but
There’s a lot of promotions around me and like I got out in the gym with we actually like commentate fights so like we bring all this live streaming equipment to find some like set up and like uh commentate their their fights but there’s boxing promotions around kickboxing promotions around Jiu Jitsu
Promotions around MMA promotions around and they all get on TV and like like I said we already have like think there was five guys in this last month or two that just got um to the they were getting their shot at the UFC it was just like the NFL was fighting
It’s pretty exciting but you know as far as the community it’s like it’s one of those weird things like um when we started the gym like me and the other guy both had full-time jobs like it’s one of those things like anybody tell you um you’re not going to make any money
At doing a uh having a business like in the fighting now martial arts is a little different you know because like it’s it’s they kind of advertise it towards kids more and stuff like that but fighting is is like there’s there’s no way around it it’s every single day is insanely hard
You know you’re gonna you’re spending three hours and it’s not it’s not like doing drills like that you know with the coach where it’s like the whole time you’re getting you’re getting hit or you’re hitting or you’re wrestling or whatever it’s like just extremely difficult and like just wears on your
Body and there’s lots of injuries and all that stuff and so um because of that and because we Spar every day and stuff not many people like are brave enough to step in like that’s why I always tell the guys like because I was the same way
I was afraid my first time too and I was telling like look you know you you got the hard part out of the way like just step into the doorway is is the difficult part once you’re in here like this is you things are gonna be okay for me you’re
Like if you’re bringing up together the door but as far as like people trying the sport yeah it’s like not many people want to do something like that you know you know not many people want to like want to get off work or get out of
School and then go right into a gym and get beat up in three hours you know it’s just build a dudes it’s we’re great for and it’s awesome but um it’s just not one of those Sports we’re like it’s not one of those things we’re like
People don’t pat you in the back for for doing a good job whatever you know it’s it’s very like like you’re nobody needs to tell you if you’re doing good or bad because you’re 100 aware you know like like I mean they’re getting beat up where I’m or I’m
Beating him up and there’s no in between you know whereas like karate or something like that you know like you’re getting builts and like and um or stuff like that so this is just it’s just not the same you know and we’ve had like you know I I hate it for him but
We’ve had some some guys come in from some of the martial arts schools around and like and you’ll almost hate to even say it like this like I think uh a lot of these like karateins like that is um it’s I think it’s great for Fitness I’m
Like if you like the way if you think it looks cool and stuff or you like the tradition of it and stuff I think it’s great but we’ve definitely had some some guys coming to the gym that karate for seven years and like they were wanting to test themselves you know they’ve been
Told that this was going to work in a straight fight or something like that and like you know pretty bad origin you know and so as far as like like it’s also really good for self-defense because we don’t do any there’s no like it’s just instantaneous technically a
Customer this is what they call it they call it Bushido like it’s there’s a lot of like stuff you see like in movies or like like um social media like you’ll see videos of people like disarming with knives and guns and all that stuff and like that
Looks so cool you know how they do they do these crazy Karate kicks and it looks so cool and stuff you know but like the difference in that and like mixed martial arts is every single day you know you can learn all that stuff and like it might work for you might it
Might not but every single day we’re gonna put gloves on and like we’re gonna mouth pieces in and touch we touch gloves and like now you’re you’re gonna see if it works you know and like and if you tried and like it doesn’t work then
You know to throw that away if you try and it does work and you know to keep it but a lot of these martial arts theme I don’t explain it they’re like they’re showing them these these moves like look this is how you if somebody comes after
The night the money grab your wrists and do this whatever but the problem is like and even with school or police too you know we have police officer training with sometimes I’m like the stuff they learn in the academy where somebody shows I’m like look grab the wrist like
This and then do this you know like it works when someone is letting you do that to them but you try to like if you if you’re trying to grab my wrist or something like I’m not just gonna let you have it you know what I mean so you
Have to learn how to do it like against somebody who doesn’t want it done to them and that’s where this sport is different it separates from the other ones you know like can you you know you’re really good at karate can you kick me if I don’t want to be kicked you
Know like or can you kick me if I’m allowed to kick you back hard you know what I mean like it’s it it really like you can see in people’s eyes like it’s just it’s it is very visceral like it’s very like holy crap this is not what I
Thought you know like my first time ever sparring with somebody like I’ve been hitting the punching bag and like felt like I was uh like if I got in a fight I would do really well you know and my I mean like the first one was born you know didn’t
Even realize we were going hard or whatever but I mean I got knocked out the first time it ever happened like it was like you know like kind of like realizing what just happened to me like what the like that was not the way that I thought that
Would go in my head you know but you learn pretty quick that like yeah I was hitting the punch bag and stuff but I wasn’t learning like the punching bag doesn’t punch back and so you got to be able to punch and move your head you know you’re like that punching bag
Doesn’t do that kind of stuff you know if you’re doing karate like uh you can’t like you can’t like you if you have your hands like below your face like they’re gonna punch you in the face you know you gotta your hands have to be up so I don’t know it’s just
I think that’s I think that’s what I like it is because it’s real like before like when I was playing like sports and stuff I’m like uh a lot of my friends joke with it now like guys that are in fighting they call those all the other sports they call them fall Sports
So it’s like a bunch of guys playing with the ball you know like that’s cool you know but like this isn’t it but that’s a game you know like football’s a game basketball is a game like this is a real like it’s a real thing you know
This is like as Primal as you can possibly get to you know like just human versus human like no there’s nothing else involved just what can you do and um that’s that’s why I think that like I kind of fell in love with it and like I
Don’t know I’ve never been like a tough guy or anything like that I’m like it’s almost funny now like just hearing people say that like like you know jimon’s a MMA Jammer you know some fight or something like that it’s like just just even hearing that sounds weird to
Me because I just didn’t grow up that way like I grew up you know I really enjoyed school you know like I have a badger degree I love science I love reading books like I love lots of things in the educational intellectual space but I would put this sport into that
Space even though like most people like including my parents like don’t understand oh you’re like seed as like a Savage like remember my dad comment one time my redneck sport or something like that you know just funny like I think he’s kind of starting to understand a little bit more now
You know but um it really is like it’s a very intellectual just I don’t know there’s nothing there’s not much else to like it there’s there’s especially in a world today where it’s like you know everything’s virtual like you’re seeing things through screens and like Things Are
Like they were not having as many real experiences you know like you can virtually what Google is instead of like actually go in there I think that’s what’s cool about it is like this is like super real thing you know like people thousands of years ago were doing
This exact same thing in the exact same way you know it’s just a I don’t know it’s just a cool thing it just makes you feel like you’re connected and then on top of all that like I would say that my favorite thing about this kind of sport is
What you start to find is like the guys who stay so you have a lot of guys that come in and try it out you know what I mean some of them get punched and like nope not doing this anymore you know and some of them get punched and they end up
Liking it and they want to learn you know how to get better and uh over time like when you’re when they’re when you’re in this room with these guys like every single day and like you’re just every single day you’re you’re because there’s no uh established hierarchy you know you know so you’re
Always trying to be the next guy like can we and we like preach and preach and preach to our our athletes that like you know just because I’m better than today as a manner than I’m better than tomorrow so you should never come in here like expecting to lose you know
Come in try to win every single time that’s how we all get better but what ends up happening is like when you have these guys that love you enough to like literally they’re like they’re trying to hurt you so that you don’t get hurt you know in a cage or somebody someone
Who doesn’t care about you it just it just forms this crazy behind like it’s like a super strong like tight bun with all the other guys I’m like you know like I said like we’re not we don’t really nobody really makes any money in
This sport but what you do is you end up dating a family and like you know like if I need like if I need something done like there’s probably a guy in the gym you know that does like he’s a contractor and he does this so like I’m gonna use
Them first whatever you know it’s like that’s like my family and like as a guy um they think that was something that was like I was struggling with for a little bit like when I got College like you know you kind of like lose touch with your friend group whatever
And just like I would joke with my wife all the time you know like my wife’s my best friend by far you know but um just as a guy like sometimes you just feel like you have to be around usually like to be around some guys like
My wife will joke with me now like if I’m getting on her nerves or something like take it at her she’ll say you’re gonna have to go to the gym you know because she knows like that’s what we’re doing like we’re going there and I’m gonna I’m gonna mess with all them
They’re gonna mess with me and like we get to be just boys again or whatever that’s something that’s also fun as well like because you can’t like at my age like where I’m not I mean I have a family I’m not gonna go you know to the
Bars or you know something like that like just it’s just too I’m too old to be doing childish things like that you know and um so this is like to me it’s even better but it’s like the next best thing you know it’s like oh my God our
Guys your your your boys whatever you know get in the room and like like go at it with each other and talk about life and stuff like that and then you know you just walk out the door and like all the life stresses like that just feel like they’ve kind of waved off
You’ve kind of had like a some counseling session you know with your friends you know or like there will be times when like because like I was saying earlier such a visceral your ego is so involved you almost can’t stop it like there’s days where like where I go in
There and like a bunch of other guys too and like so when he beats me up it’s like that I’m not used to getting beat up by or whatever you know I got all right I just was all for something like that and like even if you know that like that’s not a
Big deal like it’s insanely emotional like this wave of like you still because I don’t want to explain it it’s like you’re mainly just got checked in front of everybody you know and so you have this wave of emotion and like it does it makes you like makes you want to cry and
Stuff like that or whatever you know but you you eventually learn to get over it but like it what ends up happening it’s kind of funny is like guys who like will have that emotional feeling whatever they just like open up you know like about
Their job or like oh me and my wife or you know me and my whatever and like they just like open up on these things and everybody come and you’re with all your friends like everybody’s giving advice and like trying to help build them back up or whatever because you
Want to come back in the next day you know so it ends up being like therapy for most of the guys I’ve never been to therapy but I’m assuming it’s something similar you know you just kind of open up about whatever’s bothering me so we do that every day you know
I don’t know it just it does seem to it seems to really make life a lot more enjoyable I don’t know everything just seems easy you have to do something like that so um are there any rules like you can’t and they’re kind of weird rules you can’t headbutt you can’t bite
You can’t like gouge you know you can’t like stick your thumbs in somebody’s eyes um there’s some kind of weird rules like if somebody falls on the ground like you can’t kick them in the head if they got their if their hands are still touching the ground like you have they
Have to be able to get back up and then uh you can’t elbow people in the back of the head I think I think so there are some rules but they’re like it’s really just that you’re just like so to try to like you can’t prevent all the injuries you’ve been like stupid
Ones like of course you can’t get out somebody’s eyes like they’ll never they would never find it again and like that’s also a a something that people like to use like oh well you know and then I don’t know that for self-defense because if you’re in a real
Street fight then you can they can I want to learn how to couch eyes or whatever it’s like okay well that’s really easy to do you know you just stick your thumbs in their eyes you know yeah so there’s some rules um just trying to keep people from getting like
Where they can’t keep finding you know but but injuries and stuff like I mean I’m excited to getting surgery on my gosh if I rupture my bicep two weeks ago I don’t know it’s I think I think it’s a good thing not having quite so many rules because
It is like as far as self-defense like probably the best sport there is just because you like boxing you can’t really wander and that’s not realistic like if you’re in an argument with somebody like can they grabbed a hold of you like you need to be that’s why that’s good I think
Is it timed is that how they yeah yeah and like each promotion like has their own they get to kind of sound like their own rules and like that’s kind of the part of the fun of it too is like you can decide like what route you want
To travel so like in typical MMA like amateurs have three three minute rounds with a minute rest and then was uh like in the UFC like the championship round like the they call I guess like professional rounds they do five five minute rounds but then there’s like boxing where you’ve
Got like 12 rounds you know or like wrestlers on that one round but it’s like continuous like the clock’s starting to stop and YouTube has like I think they do like 30 minute just whoever loses first like it just doesn’t stop till the end so it there’s
A lot of different rules here at the surface it kind of depends it depends on what organization you might travel down because it’s a at the end of the day it’s prize fighting so there’s you know NFL is like that’s a that’s a game and like
But it’s a and it’s a team sport or whatever so you have to join a team that’s an organization that has rules set this is more like it’s just it’s your own thing and it’s like you and like this organization offers this much this amount of money or this amount of
Conversation and like they have this rule set this one has that rule set and you kind of decide which one you want to go um how so there’s judges I’m like that’s a big I mean you know like and that’s what I was saying earlier like with the
Different uh rule sets and stuff like there there’s a lot of people that are like very uh like this shouldn’t be judges should never decide like you know we’re trying to do this like Gladiators you know like it should be until one person like like either they can continue or they
Say like I’m done I can’t you know I can’t find it anymore so there is promotions that do that kind of stuff like whether it’s like like I’ve seen with the juju thing it’s basically like the two guys they put two guys together and they do this little
Handshake thing and then it started and like it doesn’t end until somebody essentially like says like you would have killed me you know what I mean but there’s other people that like that that I don’t know it’s like they want to incentivize like I don’t know how you say it’s like
Action so the reason that there’s uh rounds and like time in between is because they want to give the fighters like enough this Probably sounds really Savage but they want to give Fighters like five or three minutes because like you’ve never thrown a punch you for three minutes it’s really hard to do
Extremely hard but then I want to give you this minute rest because what they’re trying to get you to do is like your energy levels come back up and stuff so that like when you come back out again they want you going as hard as possible because like if you’re if you
Know you’re going 30 minutes or an hour with no stop then like you’re not gonna be throwing as hard as you can or like you’re not you’re going to be trying to pace yourself to see that like like especially the UFC they’re looking for fan interaction
For most fans that don’t know much about the sport they want to see somebody get knocked out or like bleeding and stuff like that and so that’s the reason why I did three minute three minute rounds of women at rest is because they’re trying to keep you like
Have as much energy as possible so you’ll go like try to kill other guy you know the whole time then the judges are there that’s the reason the judge is there is because it’s like if it ends and you don’t get a knockout or a submission then then like whoever was
The aggressor is usually going to be the one that wins the fight so like it incentivizes action I guess it’s just one of those rules like it’s just that’s another one like you know some I don’t necessarily just love that the idea of that you know
Because of what you’re kind of what you end up with is you’re kind of incentivizing the guys to try to do damage to each other for the fans you know because they’re they do it by pay-per-view you know the more fans will watch their money that comes in so that’s kind of a
Hard thing but I understand why they do it because you know just it’s just kind of how fans are like just in any sport like casual observers that like especially in today’s world you know it’s like everything’s fast and like you want these dopamine heads you know they want
To they most people don’t even watch the fights they just want they’ll just watch The Knockout new compilations of them I understand why they do it um so for now is your jam kind of like a venue for fights it’s not even you four fights right now
And that’s a weird thing like and I really you could give me the weeds but you know uh it’s there’s probably like probably there’s probably not a world that’s not Untouched by some sort of like regulation body or whatever you know but um there definitely is like you know like
In the in the beginning like like uh the mafia with one of their one of their uh the easiest way for them to like launder money or like to to make money or whatever it was they were fixed boxing it’s like they were that was kind of how the professional
Boxing organizations got started like originally it was prize fighting he was like bare knuckle like just two gosh I’m refactor like this guy’s the best of this Factory and this guy’s the best of this Factory and they were just they would just meet up in a place and fight
You know but eventually the mafia kind of got involved and like started creating these you know you’re gonna have you have to go through these regulations and these regulations and like even like you know the government got involved and they probably do a lot of things like that
You know that’s I can it’s like you can see the argument forward like they’re saying they want anything to be safer but what it’s kind of caused is uh like if if I wanted to start a promotion these other guys that already have a permission have to agree but why would
They agree if I’m going to take more there part of the audience see I’m saying and it’s just kind of a weird thing and like the the board is appointed by the governors they’re not voted you know it’s like they’re I don’t know so that
So that part’s kind of kind of weird so like we don’t the the venue type stuff whatever but it’s not that big to do but that is kind of weird like in boxing they were having problems right now because the the best guys never fight the best guys because the promotions like they’re
It’s like creating celebrity you know like they create a star like Floyd Mayweather and like you can’t lose or else they lose their stars like he’s only going to fight guys that he can be kind of sucks you know but it is what it is I’m like I think we’re kind of trying
To start to move past that we’ll see there’s definitely a lot of politics you talked about um commentating how can people watch the things that you’re doing yeah there’s different ways so I guess we commentate for a promotion called uh TCB and then my my partner he’s just started like a
He’s trying to start like a media company he calls it slice fighting Network and he interviews the fighters and stuff like and that that’s another like it’s like the coolest thing to me about it is like because it’s one-on-one it really is like Gladiators like like when like this past weekend there’s
These two guys fault and one’s name was Israel how to sign the other guy’s name is Sean Strickland I’m like when they fight like the fans that are that are watching sport or whatever I mean they know like all their whole background like were they trained at and like where
They came from and how they got there for both sides you know like one guy is from Nigeria which is like crazy that he even got to UFC and like he was a undefeated kickboxer and he’s like this giant tall guy and like he’s really like like he’s like a modern day Samurai
There’s always crazy flips and stuff and then you got this other guy who’s like a drug addict they grew up in a tough home bonds MMA like to get out of his addiction so it ends up becoming good at it and he’s just like this just it’s like some guy you’ve seen in
Bars and like his brawler type guy or whatever you know like you know there’s people have been following one of them went all the way up all the way up and then they fight you know at the very top and like it’s just crazy that’s
I don’t know it’s fun I should have fun I think I forgot what the question was well where can we where can people watch yeah so like we stream on Facebook a lot on YouTube so like I said my my partner’s he has a media company called
Slash fight network but I don’t know right now most people are kind of working through Facebook usually is there a page like uh what’s the name of the page yeah here’s a slice right now okay yeah use that promotion like it’s just some friends bars that um started a boxer permission
And there’s one called Summit Grappling Championships there’s another one called Summit Fighting Championships and they have hosts like Regional MMA right here so pretty cool and then there’s like I was saying earlier I do not used to train app um they have a guy fighting this weekend
For like his it’s like the way that you have like the it’s kind of like the NFL of fighting uh the way it works is like they have like the giant organization and then like underneath is like the I don’t know like feed your organizations like so you you do good in
Like the one I was saying TCB or Summit fighting or whatever in Mississippi and then they’ll call you up to the next one which is like identified container series with it if you do good there then they call you up to the UFC which is where like you’re
Making a lot of money it’s like you don’t make any money in the beginning in fact like you you know you you’re you’re making you get paid zero for your fight and you have to you know train on stuff you have to pay your coaches your gym membership
And if you get hurt you have to pay for for you know to get your injuries fixed and all this stuff and so it’s like I think that’s the reason people like it so much is like is a it’s a very like Glory driven sport it’s like the guys
That are doing it they’re not in it for the money like everybody knows that if you want to be a fighter you’re going to be broke until the very end you know and then you see these guys making like Floyd Mayweather’s the highest paid athlete sports but he was broke you know
For the first 15 years of his career you know it’s like I don’t know it’s it’s I think that’s a good thing about it because it it seems her for for the time being like because the way it is like guys who are like really money focused seem to be
Going to other sports the guys here just like just yeah like I wanna I wanna be the best fighter in the world you know like those are the ones that we have so I don’t know I think that’s cool like I I like the idea of
Like our gym we have two two fighters that are coming up we fight in November and uh every gym is like this like the gym owners don’t make any money usually it’s like they’re just trying to break even or so and then the fighters don’t have any money and they’re always
Working full-time job and they’re trying to train on the side and have like one of our guys has kids you know like so what ends up happening is like the gym kind of comes together and tries to like okay look we can you know we put our
Money together we can get you as many off things or whatever you know what I mean we try to put our money together to get them some training time you know and uh like I said earlier that’s probably becomes like this really tight on I mean
Most guys like if they have their shirt off like they’re gonna have their their gym logo tattooed somewhere you know it’s just it’s almost like a gang or something so it’s it’s definitely like as far as like Community like not the like the City Community but like the the
Actual gym Community is like insanely tight like really really really close and and what’s cool about that is like you start to learn like because there’s probably I don’t know 40 gyms in Mississippi you know and most guys are going to know almost every guy and every single one of those gyms
Which is hundreds and hundreds because like you have this weird respect thing you know like where I can walk like I know what you do this like if I if I want to go to Tupelo Jiu Jitsu you know I can just walk in the door and they’re
Gonna let you train or whatever you know it’s like you’re in this uh like fraternity Brotherhood type thing oh you know if you if you train and like then I know we’re gonna be you know I know we can ride in the car together we’re gonna be fine which is a it’s
Genuinely a cool thing because it really is like that there’s not many things that like right I can have like no clue anything about you but if I know you train then I know that we can sit together in a basketball game we’re gonna have fun you know I know that like
Our wives can hang out and it’s gonna there’s not many other things that are like that what’s the name of your jam New Albany MMA Academy so you’re right on Bankhead Street two doors down from Bennett you know we don’t know we don’t know how what how that’s going to go how it’s
Going to go or not we just kind of taking a shot at it so we’ll see if you’re always big enough to have a gym right now it’s going it’s going good we’re having a lot of fun so I’ll say this for sure is the I think that was
Probably one of the hardest thing about our hardest things about our sport is well I think it’s probably similar to like uh drinking a movie or doing art or something you know you know like you can’t really is it like R is an example like if I’m looking at a
Painting like I can’t really know understand the work that went in unless I’ve like done it myself you know like like when I’m looking at it like when I look at the painting like I don’t see the the brush Strokes or the techniques you know involved like where there’s
Other people that look at it like good gosh but this took you know like weeks and weeks you know to complete whatever so I do remember like trying to watch Boxing or trying to watch MMA and it looked to me like just two guys like they’re just trying to hit each
Other as hard as they can and that’s it you know like as you once you get into and start training like you’re seeing like every little every little head faint or whatever you know there’s he starts wearing the moves and it starts making more sense especially wrestling we’re
Trying to get wrestling into Albany but um man I remember watching wrestling and saying like what the heck they do and you know like what are they trying to do here they just literally grabbing on each other after you start training a little bit it starts making more sense
But it is one of those Sports where like if you just walk into our gym and trying to just watch what’s going on like you won’t there’s no way to understand you know it’s like it just it’s really confusing which I think is a good thing because
Where’s like it makes it hard for our sport to grow super fast it kind of keeps the sport where like only people who train watch it which makes it a lot better than like you know you go to a football game there’s just the ads that like never played and they’re like
Screaming like throw the ball throw the ball you have no idea what you’re talking there you know whereas our sport like they know they don’t they don’t know and like they’re not going to say it because they don’t want to you know somebody because like it that’s a very
Common thing for somebody to to throw like a criticism of somebody and then that person said why don’t you come out here you know what I mean it’s like no I don’t want to do that so it’s I don’t know it’s it’s it’s definitely like like if if somebody like saws interview
And like want to go like look up YouTube videos whatever I’m just gonna I’ll just preference by saying like you’ll have no idea what’s going on the only way if you get a grasp of it is like to walk in the door and do it which is one of the
Scariest things you know you could probably ever do I think you would be grateful for it but I don’t judge anybody for being a nervous about it because I still get nervous like I’m going to the gym today like I’ve already been thinking about assistive support
You know what what’s going to happen and what we’re going to do it’s definitely a it’s a niche Sport and you either like you’re either all the way in like obsessive about it or it’s probably not gonna be here
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