0:00
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0:03
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0:12
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0:15
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0:20
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0:24
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0:26
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0:30
[MUSIC]
0:40
This is a Daunted Life, a man's podcast.
0:50
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
0:51
Let's get into it.
0:52
All right, guys, today we got a special guest on the podcast.
0:54
His name is Gerald Harris.
0:56
And Gerald Harris, I guess the best way to introduce him is he's a
0:58
thrice retired MMA fighter because the dude has retired from MMA and he just keeps coming back.
1:03
But this is a guy who has competed in mixed martial arts all the way from his 20s.
1:07
And now he's on into his 40s and he's still competing at a high level.
1:11
But this guy as well, he is the all-time leader in wins for Cleveland State University wrestling.
1:16
And like a lot of wrestlers, he did make that transition into MMA.
1:20
He was an MMA fighter and he still is an MMA fighter, but he's fought in the UFC and Bellator,
1:25
the world series of fighting, dream, he's fought in a lot of different organizations.
1:29
And we certainly talk about that in the podcast, but the dude has 26 wins in MMA.
1:33
And regardless of the organization that you're in, to get to that level,
1:37
to have those many wins is incredibly, incredibly impressive.
1:40
But even beyond that, this is a guy that has had some of the most spectacular knockouts
1:44
that you will ever see in the history of MMA.
1:48
So I'm really, really excited to talk about that.
1:50
And we certainly get into that here in this podcast.
1:52
And here's the other thing, I'll just give you a little peek behind the curtain here.
1:55
So this is a guy that he was introduced to me by a friend.
1:58
And so we got him on the podcast.
1:59
So this is a guy that's not, you know, it doesn't have a whole lot of expectations.
2:02
He's done a lot of these interviews before.
2:05
But around the time that we scheduled this interview was right around the time,
2:09
the coronavirus stuff really started to ramp up.
2:12
So everyone scared about COVID-19, everybody's freaking out.
2:15
But here's the other thing is Zoom went from about two or three million users
2:20
to a week later having like over a hundred million users.
2:23
So we initially tried to do this interview over Zoom, didn't work out.
2:27
We had to, you know, kind of throw a couple of Hail Marys.
2:29
It took about 20 or 25 minutes for us to get on to something.
2:32
So we got on to Skype, which is not the greatest interview platform,
2:35
because the audio sometimes cuts in and out.
2:37
But then right from the beginning that, so that was awkward.
2:40
That was weird.
2:40
It's like, dang, dude, this guy's going to think we don't know what we're doing.
2:43
And blah, blah, blah, this isn't our fault.
2:44
Yadda, yadda, yadda.
2:45
And so we moved on from that.
2:46
But then at the beginning of the podcast, it doesn't go as cleanly and as smoothly
2:51
as it normally would, right?
2:54
Because we try to do things very well at this podcast for you.
2:57
We try to show you the best parts of what we do for this podcast.
3:00
And you know what?
3:01
I just decided to leave it in there.
3:03
I could have edited it out and made it all clean and made it all nice.
3:06
But it didn't start as great as it could have and as clean as it could have.
3:09
But, you know, that's just kind of the deal.
3:11
Gerald's like, dude, you should probably leave that in there.
3:12
And I agree with him.
3:13
So that's exactly what we're going to do.
3:15
So guys, without further ado, let's get into it.
3:19
Gerald Harris, welcome to Undaunted Life of Man's podcast.
3:22
You're welcoming me.
3:26
I thought you was talking to people listening.
3:27
No, no, no.
3:28
Okay.
3:30
I should probably leave this in.
3:32
But this is me welcoming you to my podcast.
3:34
So feel free to respond.
3:36
What the heck?
3:37
Yeah, man.
3:38
You guys be going like from regular conversation right into radio mode.
3:42
Me throwing me off a little bit.
3:43
Hey, that's what we got to do.
3:45
I try to stay as real as possible, but sometimes it goes that way.
3:48
So I will ask you again.
3:49
Are you ready?
3:50
Yeah, I'm ready.
3:52
I am now.
3:52
I was just like, is he talking to me?
3:54
I am talking to you.
3:56
So here we go.
3:56
Gerald Harris, welcome to Undaunted Life of Man's podcast.
4:00
Hey, what's up, man?
4:02
We got to keep that first part.
4:03
That was fun.
4:04
Yeah, we might keep that first part for me.
4:06
You guys, just in case I do edit this out later,
4:08
he didn't know I was talking to him a second ago in the interview.
4:10
So we worked out well.
4:11
But and we really appreciate you coming on the podcast.
4:13
We're going to talk a lot about a lot of cool stuff today.
4:16
But the first thing I'm going to kind of get into is kind of how we got it.
4:19
We got connected because I got connected to another guy
4:21
that's been interviewed on Undaunted Life of Man's podcast before Hard L.
4:24
Moore obviously has a lot to do in the wrestling community.
4:27
But for you, I guess a good place to start would be,
4:29
what made you want to start wrestling?
4:32
You know, how early did you start?
4:33
What was it about wrestling that was attracted to you?
4:35
It wasn't the sport that attracted me.
4:38
It's the fact that I sucked at everything else.
4:40
I'm not kidding.
4:41
I cannot play basketball.
4:44
And I was so keen football.
4:47
It was a good running back.
4:48
But I have a really bad vision.
4:51
People don't know.
4:52
I'm like, I'm propped one lens away from being legally blind.
4:54
Like I'm really, I cannot see.
4:57
I'm not kidding you.
4:58
You'll see me squinting and fight some time.
5:01
So my vision is really bad.
5:03
I'm super uncoordinated.
5:05
And I'm not saying this to knock wrestling.
5:07
And I didn't play on playing sports at all.
5:09
I was an artist.
5:10
I would draw.
5:11
And I was a jokester.
5:12
I cracked jokes and I draw.
5:14
And I went to a wrestling practice with a friend.
5:18
And while I was there, somebody grabbed me
5:20
and they were joking around and I slammed them.
5:22
And this was at a little high school,
5:24
you know, about a mile away from my house.
5:26
And they're like, who are you?
5:28
I was like, I'm just here with him.
5:29
He was my brother's football coach's son.
5:32
And they're like, man, you should try this sport.
5:35
And I was like, nah, you know, I don't know.
5:38
My mom would feel about it.
5:39
And I don't even know what it was.
5:40
And I came back to practice the next day.
5:43
And I was in, I was seven years old when I started.
5:45
Well, that's, that's the thing you get with a lot of wrestlers.
5:49
Is it is kind of funny?
5:50
Like it did sound like you were dogging on wrestlers there
5:52
for a little bit, like it's calling yourself not an athlete.
5:54
But it is funny.
5:55
There are certain people that, you know, they can't shoot baskets.
5:57
They can't hit a fastball.
5:58
But for whatever reason, wrestling just makes sense.
6:00
But obviously over your, your life and starting at the age of seven,
6:04
you ended up doing well enough to where you were,
6:06
you ended up going to college for wrestling.
6:08
So kind of take us through why you picked Cleveland State University.
6:11
And by the way, since you probably weren't going to mention it,
6:13
yourself, you do still hold the record for the most wins
6:16
in Cleveland State University, wrestling history,
6:19
since I knew you were going to talk about it yourself.
6:20
But how did you pick Cleveland State University?
6:22
And what was that experience like?
6:24
It was fun.
6:25
Uh, there's times where I wish I went to Oklahoma State or OU.
6:28
I just don't think I would have accomplished this much.
6:32
You know, I think Cleveland State was a good fit for me.
6:35
I wasn't highly recruited, but I was really good.
6:37
I lost to Shane roller in the state finals,
6:39
which there's no shame in that.
6:41
He was the number one wrestler in the nation.
6:43
So out of all the kids in the whole country, all weight classes,
6:47
I got the number one guy in the country at my weight.
6:49
And I lost to him in a decent match.
6:52
I mean, he controlled the whole match.
6:53
And I, you know, kind of got overlooked.
6:56
I wasn't recruited by anybody.
6:58
So after that, I went out to high school nationals,
7:03
which is a big tournament.
7:05
Kids from all 50 states come out and are placed,
7:07
which was surprising because I was never a state champion.
7:11
I was a state runner up and I'm beating three time state champions,
7:14
two time state champions.
7:16
You know, I remember pending a three time state champion
7:18
second round and boom, all the letters start coming in.
7:22
Right.
7:22
Yeah.
7:22
So I kind of blow those off.
7:25
I don't know much about college and I go to another tournament
7:29
called junior nationals in Fargo, which is huge.
7:32
Right.
7:33
Right.
7:33
And I go out there and I'm literally tech falling everybody.
7:37
I probably went 9 and 0, straight tech falls.
7:39
I get to the semi finals.
7:41
Mind you, this is a state runner up from Oklahoma.
7:43
And I lose to the eventual national champion, Robbie Waller,
7:47
who's also number two in the country behind Shane Roller.
7:51
So I lost to him and Josh Lambert.
7:54
And then right there at that tournament,
7:58
I met Alan Freed and Jack Efner.
8:01
And they're like, hey, we're at a college called Cleveland State.
8:03
We like you.
8:05
We saw you wrestle.
8:06
We want you to wrestle for us.
8:07
And I was like, yeah, all right.
8:10
I had already spoken to Oklahoma University and Lindenwood
8:14
and kind of committed to both of them like a dummy.
8:16
But eventually, you know, division one university
8:20
gave me a full ride pretty much.
8:22
Oh, you didn't have much money to offer.
8:24
And Cleveland State showed the most interest
8:26
and gave me the most money.
8:27
And I wouldn't take it back for the world, man.
8:29
Well, it's awesome when you find a place,
8:32
because sometimes whenever you're looking at a college,
8:34
you're looking at, you know,
8:35
maybe there's a little bit prestige looking at that team.
8:38
And if it's another sports like, oh, they play that on television.
8:40
But at the end of the day, it's where you're going to fit the best
8:42
and where you're going to have the best opportunity to succeed.
8:44
But yeah, a very successful, obviously college career.
8:47
But then you did what a lot of wrestlers do.
8:49
A lot of really good collegiate wrestlers do.
8:51
You transitioned into MMA, but some guys like, you know,
8:54
our mutual friend, Hardell Moore,
8:55
he didn't make that transition to MMA.
8:57
It wasn't as big when he was getting out.
8:59
So for you, why did you decide you wanted to transition
9:02
into mixed martial arts?
9:03
I did, and honestly, man, it's kind of funny how a lot of things
9:07
that happened to me happened by accident.
9:09
I hadn't had a street fight since the sixth grade,
9:12
and that's because I got jumped on my back.
9:14
I did not want to fight.
9:15
I've never been a fighter ever.
9:16
Honestly, I've never punched anybody in the face.
9:19
So I was teaching in Florida, making really good money,
9:24
moved back to Oklahoma, and they didn't accept my certification.
9:27
So instead of making, you know, 40 grand a year,
9:30
which I was making as a teacher, which was good in Florida,
9:34
I come to Oklahoma and I'm making $7 an hour, man.
9:37
And that's bad.
9:38
I mean, I'm making 350 every two weeks.
9:41
It was bad.
9:42
And my car broke down, didn't have a car.
9:45
My friend said, hey, my friend, Jason Nicholson,
9:49
if it wasn't for him, none of this would be possible.
9:50
He's the one that got me into the sport.
9:52
He goes, you needed me, and the car was $600.
9:57
He knew it was his friend, a little raggedy car,
10:00
a little raggedy Mustang.
10:01
Never forget it.
10:03
He said, you need $600 for the car.
10:05
I can get you a fight for $600.
10:07
And I said, no.
10:08
He said, well, you can do some roofing,
10:10
but that's going to take you, you know, weeks to get that money.
10:13
Right.
10:13
So I'm like $600.
10:15
He's like, yeah, I was like, one fight.
10:17
So I go in there, I fight to do the guy hands me the money.
10:20
He goes three and three.
10:22
I said, what is that?
10:23
He said it was 300 to fight, 300 to win.
10:25
I said, oh, man, that's some BS.
10:27
He tricked me.
10:28
I didn't know about loss.
10:30
I got to have my money.
10:31
Right.
10:32
And so that was it.
10:35
I was like, I'm done.
10:36
I got my money.
10:36
I got my car.
10:37
Then they called me and said, we'll give you $1,000.
10:40
I was like, OK, $1,000 boom.
10:42
I go fight.
10:43
I win.
10:44
I'm in a tournament, man.
10:45
I'm in a tournament.
10:47
And I'm going from making $600 to $2,000 for the grand prize,
10:52
which was a lot back then.
10:53
Sure, yeah.
10:54
The championship fight was one in one.
10:56
I made $2,000 in one night.
10:57
And my next fight was against Curtis Stout.
11:01
UFC veteran, mind you, I had only been fighting for a few months.
11:05
I started training in September.
11:10
I fought UFC veteran Curtis Stout.
11:13
I think, dude, when was that?
11:16
Maybe I don't even know when it was.
11:18
I have to look it up.
11:19
You know, he had fought Anderson, Silverfield, Baroni.
11:22
He fought some bad ass in the UFC.
11:23
And I didn't even really know what the UFC was back then.
11:26
You know?
11:27
And I knocked him out another two grand.
11:30
So I'm like, man, I got to do this.
11:32
I quit teaching.
11:33
I start training.
11:34
And I get a phone call.
11:37
I'm 6 and 0.
11:37
And it's from the IFL.
11:39
You know, remember back then, the IFL, the team fighting?
11:42
Of course, yeah.
11:43
And they go, hey, we got this Brazilian guy.
11:46
His opponent backed out at the last minute.
11:49
They said, $185.
11:50
We'll give you $10,000 and $10,000 to fight.
11:53
I'll say, you'll give me what?
11:56
The Fabio Lipoto fight paid $10,000 plus $10,000 to win.
12:01
Unfortunately, I lost my decision,
12:03
which I shouldn't have lost.
12:04
I beat the hell out there, dude.
12:05
And that was it.
12:06
I mean, 10 and 10.
12:08
I was like, oh, this sport is amazing.
12:09
You know?
12:10
It kind of sucks.
12:12
That was 16 years ago.
12:13
And the pay is about the same or even worse.
12:16
Yeah, yeah.
12:17
Yeah.
12:17
But yeah, that's how I got into it.
12:21
Basically just a way to feed my family.
12:23
And I started training in 2006 and by 2000 and two years later,
12:28
I was in the Ultimate Fighter.
12:30
Actually, a year later, I was on the show.
12:32
They started filming in February of 2018.
12:35
And within three and a half years,
12:38
I was in the UFC, you know?
12:40
That's pretty awesome.
12:42
Well, that's one of the amazing things about guys that come.
12:45
You get these guys that just come out of nowhere,
12:47
because most guys don't start their career at the UFC.
12:49
Just about nobody does that.
12:50
But yeah, you were part of the Ultimate Fighter 7,
12:52
which was one of my favorite Ultimate Fighters ever,
12:54
because it was Forrest Griffin and Rampage Jackson.
12:56
Yeah, and we fought to get in the house.
12:59
Right, exactly.
12:59
And you fought to get in the house.
13:00
The other thing that I loved about it is I loved Forrest.
13:02
And at the time, I hated Rampage,
13:04
because he knocked out the way Chuck Liddell.
13:06
I'm like, sure, Rampage.
13:07
I don't want to--
13:08
But then Rampage was so entertaining to watch on the show.
13:12
But I want you to kind of take us through the process
13:14
of what it was like getting on the show.
13:16
What was it like training under Rampage and his coaches?
13:18
And then also, what was it like eventually having to watch
13:20
those two dudes throw down Forrest Griffin and Rampage Jackson
13:23
after the show was over?
13:24
Well, it was cool, because I started training in 2006.
13:29
I wasn't really training.
13:30
I was in my garage.
13:31
I wasn't rolling no Jiu Jitsu.
13:33
Nothing.
13:33
I was in my garage punching a bag,
13:36
and I was pushing sleds at this guy's gym.
13:38
Old guy named West.
13:39
He's a football coach.
13:41
Some only MMA coach was my high school wrestling coach,
13:44
where I was helping out with the team and a football coach.
13:47
No boxing coach, no grappling coach.
13:51
So a year later, literally, a year later,
13:54
I'm on the Ultimate Fighter.
13:56
Ed Herman gets me on with a phone call.
13:58
I'm a janitor at my apartments,
14:01
because it helped me save money on my rent.
14:03
I pack my whole family up.
14:05
I'm like, I made it.
14:06
I'm in the UFC.
14:07
I pack my whole family up, man.
14:10
And I take them to my mom's house,
14:12
because I'm like, yo, I'm about to be on this TV show
14:14
for eight weeks, six to eight weeks.
14:16
Y'all stay here while I'm gone.
14:18
You know, I couldn't afford to pay for them while I was gone.
14:20
So I drop everything.
14:22
I get to the show, I get on,
14:24
and I pull up to the venue.
14:27
I'm like, oh my god, this is unreal.
14:29
You know, I'd end up saying, do you want to be a fighter?
14:31
We pull up.
14:33
It's a van next to us, man.
14:35
We're like, what are those dudes doing here?
14:37
We didn't catch on to it.
14:39
There are some guys that knew.
14:41
They didn't say anything.
14:43
So I'm like, why is there another?
14:44
You know, it's only 16 guys.
14:46
We walk in another 16 guys.
14:49
There's 32 dudes in here.
14:50
I'm like, oh man, this house about to be packed.
14:52
So they're like, they like, no, man.
14:55
You, um, y'all got to fight these dudes to get in the house.
14:59
And everybody starts freaking out,
15:01
because think about this.
15:02
No, man, I quit my job.
15:05
I moved my family out.
15:06
I canceled my lease.
15:07
Guys quit jobs at colleges.
15:11
That everybody thought they made it in the house.
15:13
It was done.
15:13
And back in them days, you got in the house, you got a fight in the UFC.
15:17
Everybody remember everybody was guaranteed a fight on the finale.
15:21
Right.
15:21
So it was, it was okay to quit your job.
15:24
You know, it was finally time to be a full-time fighter.
15:26
I went in that fight, I go in.
15:29
I lose the eventual winner, Amir Saadallah, and they don't give us a finale fight.
15:35
And that's mind you, I didn't make any money on the show.
15:37
We only got $500 a week.
15:39
That's $3,000.
15:40
We got $500 a week and I come home with $3,000.
15:45
That's it.
15:45
I didn't get any money from my fight.
15:47
And it was just, man, it was a depressing time.
15:51
You know, so from 2008, after I filmed that show,
15:55
I promised Joe Silva I'd make it back in the UFC.
15:58
And he told me, no, he literally told me,
16:00
anybody that loses on the show is not going to make it in the UFC.
16:05
Wow.
16:05
What she was extremely wrong about.
16:08
Look at Matt Brown and look at other guys that, you know, didn't make the show in still.
16:11
Anyway, and, you know, long story short, I had a prank call on Dana White about two years later,
16:19
in 2009, actually, at the end of 2009.
16:21
And that's kind of opened the doors and put my name in his ear.
16:25
And boom, he got me a fight like 10 days later.
16:28
Now, wait a minute, Joe, you can't just glaze over that story.
16:30
That's a great story.
16:31
So because you literally, you just about literally tricked yourself into the UFC.
16:35
So you got to tell my listeners, how you made it by getting into the UFC with the prank call.
16:39
My last official loss wasn't a risk of dollar because I was an exhibition.
16:44
My last loss was, I lost two fights in a row.
16:50
I was six and oh, I lost to Leopoldo and I was just a horrible fight for me.
16:58
I wasn't ready for me.
16:59
Bigie Radik was a UFC veteran, bad ass knockout artist.
17:03
He TK old me and knocked me out and they knocked me down and I didn't even know how to get up.
17:08
So, you know, I hadn't really sparred anything.
17:11
So anyway, I was six and two and then I go on like a nine fight knockout streak, you know.
17:19
I think I had one decision and eight knockouts.
17:23
And so I called Joe Silver.
17:25
I'm like, yo, Joe, I'll take a fight on five second notice.
17:29
And Joe was like, no, man, keep winning fights.
17:31
I was like, Joe, I got eight knockouts, dude.
17:33
Like, come on, man.
17:34
I was six and two on the show, I'm 15 and, you know, two now.
17:38
Like, my record was good.
17:40
And he's like, no, I may need some more wins.
17:42
So, I called, uh, Daniel White was all MMA junkie, which is super rare.
17:47
It's from December.
17:48
And I called probably 400 times.
17:51
I'm not kidding.
17:52
I just kept calling and calling.
17:54
And I finally got through and I was like, I can't just ask this dude to get in the UFC.
18:00
And a lot of people don't know.
18:01
I do prank calls.
18:02
You can kind of look them up on YouTube for fun to clean ones.
18:04
And I just got this weird idea to talk like a British fan.
18:09
And I started talking about myself.
18:12
He's like, Oh, I like hairs, hairs is tough.
18:14
I was like, why don't you put him in the UFC?
18:16
Well, in my British voice.
18:17
And he's like, you know what?
18:20
I like that.
18:21
I said, well, we're talking to him right now.
18:22
I switched my voice on him and the whole studio went nuts.
18:26
There's like, Oh, like, you know, it was pretty funny.
18:29
And boom, he called me five days later.
18:32
So you want to take this fight?
18:32
And I said, hell yeah.
18:33
And I fought, um, John Salter on 11 day notice.
18:37
Yeah, and you won.
18:39
You won by TKO and that's that's kind of one of those deals where Dana says it all the time.
18:43
It's like, if we open the door for it for you, you better walk in.
18:46
And that's the thing with the UFC is like, you may not get a whole lot of chances,
18:50
but you obviously went into the UFC at a good career in the UFC.
18:53
But I want to talk about a couple of things that you did in the UFC
18:55
because way back at UFC 116 back in 2010, um, there you pulled off one of the biggest
19:02
slam knockouts in MMA history.
19:04
And then you actually did it again back in 2017 against Matt McKeon.
19:08
But I mean, David Branch is a real dude.
19:11
I mean, there, there are some, if you're in the UFC, you're a real fighter,
19:13
but David Branch is a really bad dude.
19:16
But the thing is is, and if most of the guys listening to this that are MMA fans,
19:19
you've seen the slam KO before, because you kind of ended up in your standing guard
19:24
and you kind of post with your left elbow on his throat.
19:26
And then you just drop him.
19:28
But I just want to kind of get an idea is like, was that part of the,
19:31
was that part of the plan?
19:32
Did you train that?
19:33
Did you just feel it?
19:35
Because you did it again seven years later against a different dude.
19:38
It's almost the exact same knockout.
19:39
I mean, what did you see there?
19:41
How did that happen?
19:41
I wasn't playing.
19:43
I do drill slams.
19:45
Um, not that one specifically.
19:47
Uh, from the beginning of my career, I was always picking people up and throwing them down as hard as I could.
19:52
That was my strength.
19:53
I was a wrestler.
19:53
I did the same thing and wrestling.
19:55
I will pick people up, put them on their back.
19:57
So I kind of took that into MMA.
20:01
Uh, never drilled that position.
20:03
I hadn't rolled much at all.
20:05
And I, uh, I, um, I don't know.
20:09
It just happened.
20:10
I knew if I put that form on that neck, then that, that, that, that, uh,
20:13
that'll put him down.
20:14
You know what I'm saying?
20:15
I didn't know exactly what was going to happen.
20:18
Uh, that was the first time I actually got one that clean.
20:20
I mean, he was asleep.
20:22
I hated that fight because he was so good.
20:24
He was a black belt.
20:25
You just want to hit my race.
20:26
Mind you, Hindel Gracie corner.
20:29
My first loss against Fabio Leopoldo.
20:30
So I'm like, oh my God, not this guy again.
20:32
Um, but by that time, I had some good boxing.
20:36
I had a new boxing coach.
20:37
I had a real trainer.
20:38
I had a wrestling coach, a jujitsu coach.
20:40
I was a real fighter when I got in USC.
20:42
But mind you, I had only been training for two years, two, three years.
20:45
You know what I'm saying?
20:45
Right.
20:47
I mean.
20:50
I didn't look for the knockout.
20:52
I just knew he would have trouble taking me down.
20:54
And I had hands.
20:56
I was like, if he gets me down, I'm being trouble.
20:57
You know what I mean?
20:58
So I was like, this guy's used to everybody.
21:01
He fought.
21:02
He just bullied him.
21:02
Um, that his weakness was wrestling.
21:05
He was athletic, but so was I.
21:07
So I think I surprised him with my takedown defense and my heavy hands.
21:11
I caught him with some good shots.
21:12
Well, that's the thing with, you know, you see this with a really good jujitsu
21:17
practitioners.
21:17
Is there a lot of times it's like, well, if they get the fight on the ground, you're
21:20
in a lot of trouble.
21:21
But if you can't get the fight to the ground, then it's where we're
21:25
entirely Woodley Daimin Maya territory at that point, where you shoot 40 takedowns
21:29
and you get none of them.
21:30
And it ends up being one of the worst fights in UFC history.
21:32
But the interesting thing about that, that knockout of David Branch,
21:36
but also several of your other knockouts is you will knock a guy out.
21:40
But then you actually will not follow up with punches.
21:43
And you might see, you know, machita's done that a couple of times.
21:46
You see some guys do it randomly, but it's happened to you a lot where you
21:50
see the guys knocked out and you just do you don't follow up with punches.
21:54
How do you have that much restraint in a moment like that, where even the referee
21:59
tells you in the back, Hey, you don't stop until I pull you off.
22:02
The coaches are like, Hey, man, don't stop until the rep pulls you off.
22:05
I mean, how do you have that restraint in those moments?
22:07
I don't know.
22:08
It might be a wrestling habit because when I when you pin people in wrestling, it's over.
22:12
So you put some out of move and a referee goes, BAM, it's over.
22:15
And it just seems like when you knock people out, you can tell sometimes, you know,
22:19
I'm always in a pretty dominant position.
22:21
You know, so if I hit you and you go out, you know, like when I when I hit,
22:26
I hit God, what's his name?
22:29
I hit Curtis out with a hammer fist.
22:31
Oh my God, he he just stared into the sky.
22:34
I hit him with a hammer fist, BAM, he was out.
22:36
I never knocked anybody out before, but I knew he was out.
22:39
And I just jumped up and walked off.
22:41
I didn't have to hit him anymore.
22:42
You know, it was pretty crazy.
22:45
And it was just something that was embedded in me from wrestling.
22:47
Once you pin somebody, it's over.
22:48
Now, I'll tell you this.
22:49
The one time I hit somebody after I knock them out, they woke up and kicked my ass.
22:54
Uh, the guy from Bellator, damn Russian, I knocked him out cold.
22:59
And a lot of people don't know that if you if you knock someone out, you can wake them up.
23:03
Like if someone is asleep, dead sleep and you slap the hell out of them,
23:07
you can't knock somebody out that sleep.
23:09
You literally wake them up, you know, um, and I knocked this guy out from Bellator.
23:14
He was 28 and two.
23:15
He was a badass Russian and I freaking followed up with punching and woke him up.
23:21
And he freaking kicked my butt.
23:22
But, uh, yeah, that's what I get for getting greedy, man.
23:26
That is what you get.
23:27
Well, that is interesting.
23:28
I'm always, uh, kind of wondering what's going on through a fighter's brain
23:30
whenever they have that moment.
23:32
So you've had, you've had a lot of fights.
23:34
You've had a lot of wins to date, whether it was a win or a loss.
23:37
I don't really care.
23:38
Who was the toughest guy that you face?
23:40
And you can take the word toughest to me, whatever you want.
23:43
Who was your toughest opponent of your career?
23:45
My, the hardest hitter was, um, was Josh Birkin.
23:51
He hit me the hardest guy that hit me so hard.
23:53
Uh, I don't know, man.
23:56
I'll tell you, I'll tell you the best fighter I ever faced was Jorge Santiago.
24:01
That's the best I ever felt in the fight.
24:03
I was so prepared for that fight.
24:05
And you won?
24:06
Yeah.
24:06
And I mean, I fought the hell out.
24:08
I fought him with a broke hand.
24:09
I broke my hand the first round.
24:10
Really?
24:11
Oh, I had to rely heavy on the wrestling.
24:13
I had no intentions on wrestling, but people understand you locked in the cage for 15 minutes
24:17
with one hand and gets Jorge Santiago.
24:20
Yeah, I got a wrestle when I'm going to try to kickbox with him.
24:23
No, he's going to kill me.
24:24
So yeah, he was the toughest fighter I ever had.
24:27
Just mentally, I was terrified of him.
24:29
I was literally scared of that dude.
24:31
And we even trained together.
24:32
He beat the crap out of me and frame.
24:34
And I was like, man, this is not going to go well.
24:37
So I just my cardio up.
24:39
I worked on my footwork and I beat him.
24:42
And I think he was surprised.
24:43
Yeah, that's one of those things is you can't take anyone lightly,
24:47
especially in any organization, because you fought for the UFC for Bellator World Series
24:52
of Fighting Dream.
24:52
You fought for them all.
24:53
But the thing is, is you don't get to those places and be terrible.
24:57
You might be you might be green.
24:58
You might have some things you need to work on.
25:00
But I mean, all these dudes are bad dudes.
25:02
But another guy that you thought that ended up becoming a champion is
25:06
Rafael Lovato, Jr., you know, another Oklahoma and you stepped in as a last-minute replacement
25:11
to fight Rafael Lovato, Jr. Were you surprised that he went on to be the 185-pound champion?
25:17
Because he beat, you know, one of the best 185 verse in the world in order to win the
25:22
Bellator, 185-pound championship.
25:24
I mean, did that surprise you?
25:26
No, that was a great match up for him.
25:28
I was just trying to knock him out.
25:30
Man, people are saying I was on the couch like I was chilling.
25:34
I had no intentions on ever fighting again.
25:36
They gave me a great offer financially.
25:38
And I knew that it'd be an interesting fight.
25:41
People would get excited for it.
25:42
And they did.
25:43
And then Fedor was on the car.
25:44
How do you pass that up?
25:45
Sure, yeah.
25:46
So I jumped in there and no offense to Rafael Lovato.
25:49
But he's probably most likely not going to knock you out.
25:52
So I don't think I would have took that same fight against Douglas Lima.
25:55
You know what I'm saying?
25:57
Right, right.
25:58
There's a different type of danger with Lovato.
26:00
I'm like, okay, I actually have a chance to go in here
26:02
and try to knock this dude out before he takes me down and taps me out when I'm tired.
26:06
Now with a Lima, that'd be dangerous.
26:09
I mean, that's brain damage.
26:10
You saw what we did in Michael Bend and Paige.
26:12
Oh man, that's one of my favorite knockouts ever.
26:14
Because I cannot stand Michael Bend and Paige.
26:16
No offense to Lovato, but he's just not a knockout artist, you know?
26:20
That's like saying, you know, do you want to fight Anthony Johnson?
26:24
Or do you want to fight what's his name from?
26:27
Anybody else?
26:28
Anybody else other than Rumble?
26:29
No, what's the guy named from the Jake Shields?
26:33
Same way class.
26:34
They both were 170.
26:35
I'd rather fight Jake Shields, you know what I'm saying?
26:39
Because you and everybody else.
26:41
Yeah, but you see what I'm saying.
26:42
So they like Lovato.
26:43
I'm like, yeah, I actually have a great matchup for a heavy-handed wrestler.
26:48
You know what I'm saying?
26:49
I could actually connect with this dude.
26:50
And he just hit me with some some wizard stuff and tapped me out.
26:54
It was weird.
26:55
Never been tapped out before.
26:57
Yeah, I got to say, I was really surprised that he beat Musasi.
27:00
And I obviously think that he won the fight.
27:03
I had it too, too, going into the fifth and for whatever reason.
27:06
Musasi, yeah, Musasi backed up to the cage right from the jump of the fifth round.
27:11
And, you know, he just cut himself off in the middle of the cage,
27:14
which is really, really weird.
27:15
But another thing that's interesting about your MMA career is you're kind of typical
27:20
in that you have retired from MMA several times only to come back.
27:24
You keep coming back.
27:25
So, man, I don't come back, man.
27:27
They keep bringing me back.
27:29
Well, but you keep saying, yes.
27:31
So how is it that they keep enticing you to get in there?
27:33
Money.
27:34
Yeah, man.
27:38
The first time I retired is because I was going through a divorce.
27:40
I had no intentions on retiring.
27:42
But legally, I retired because it was an issue.
27:45
If I was fighting while divorcing, it could have came up in court.
27:49
So I stopped fighting for three years.
27:51
It took me three years to get divorced.
27:53
So when I came out of retirement the first time, it was on purpose.
27:56
It was because I could not go through.
27:59
I was going through a custody battle.
28:01
Man, I lost my kids.
28:02
I got them back.
28:02
I mean, I was going through a lot of it.
28:04
When I fought Santiago, I was in a divorce literally in the court, all kind of stuff.
28:10
So I was going through a lot of stuff personally.
28:13
I didn't have to.
28:13
I didn't just have the energy to train.
28:15
So I took three years off, man.
28:17
I didn't I didn't do anything for three years.
28:20
And then this Oh, you know, it's funny when I came out of retirement, the guy called me out on Twitter.
28:24
Oh, really?
28:26
Yeah, he called me out on Twitter.
28:28
He called me out.
28:29
He said, uh, uh, Aaron Cobb.
28:32
And he goes, it's funny.
28:34
I wish I a screenshot that I did.
28:36
He says, Hey, I heard you looking for a fight.
28:38
You're coming out of retirement because I recently did an interview with junkie.
28:42
And I was like, not really.
28:44
And he was like, I'll fight you.
28:45
And I was like, you got to be kidding me.
28:48
Hey, you got to shoot your shot, I guess.
28:51
Yeah, pretty he shot it.
28:52
And then he said, uh, I said, be careful what you wish for and then boom.
28:57
That's what it literally happened.
28:58
He's got the fight.
28:59
And I bet he regrets it because you knocked him out with another slam because, of course,
29:05
of course, that's what you do.
29:06
So, um, you've obviously had a lot of fights over your career and you started at a young age,
29:11
but you know, how has preparing for fights changed for you as you've aged?
29:16
Because you had fights in your twenties and in your thirties and you're looking to get fights
29:20
now in your forties, you know, how is preparing for a fight?
29:22
Just the, just the training camp aspect changed for you.
29:25
Anybody to tell you my age, then you start the train smarter.
29:29
I'll tell you this.
29:31
Other than the Jorge Santiago fight, the best I've ever felt in competition
29:37
was when I fought, um, the last guy I won, because I was on a three fight losing street.
29:42
I beat Buzzinski, who's amazing. A lot of people overlook Seth Buzzinski, who beat Neil Magne.
29:48
Um, but Seth Buzzinski was extremely tough. He was a veteran.
29:53
I was told to go beat a UFC veteran if I wanted to get back into Bellator to UFC and I did that.
29:59
And it wasn't easy, you know, if anybody knows Seth Buzzinski, he's a gamer.
30:04
He can beat anybody. He can also lose to multiple people.
30:08
So he, um, he calls me out and I mean, not, he doesn't call me out.
30:14
I look for a fight and they're like, I know Seth Buzzinski will fight you because he'll fight
30:17
anybody. And boom, it happened, but I trained my butt off for that guy.
30:22
And that's because I'm older. I'm smarter. I'm not as athletic as I was when I was 26. I mean,
30:28
but I don't have the mind. I wish I had the mindset I had now back then.
30:32
I would do a lot of things differently, but that's life, you know what I mean?
30:35
So I just, you just fights. You learn how to train smarter. You know, you don't kill yourself
30:41
and training. And that's what what it used to be back in the day. You just worked out three times
30:46
a day and you ran 50 miles a week and it was just, you do as much as you could. And I've learned
30:51
how to train smarter. Well, that's awesome. And the thing about that, we talk about a lot on
30:56
Adanta. We talk about spiritual, mental and physical resilience. And with physical resilience,
31:00
as you age, the ability to bounce back does get a little bit tougher. But I do want to transition
31:04
a little bit here into a personal story that I'm just interested to hear kind of how this
31:10
all went down. But obviously, if anybody knows anything about your story, they know that your
31:14
brother actually died in a car accident. And after he died in a car accident, a week later,
31:20
you fought, you went in and you knocked a guy out in the first round. And just, I mean,
31:25
there's so many people that are just thinking about their brother right now and the thought of,
31:29
you know, getting, getting back to work, if they work at an accounting firm would be tough,
31:33
much less stepping into a steel cage to fight another human being. But when we as human beings
31:39
feel, you know, extreme loss or even extreme highs, it can kind of lead us to be very
31:44
introspective, especially on spiritual issues when we lose somebody. I'm curious for you,
31:49
when you were going through that time and leading up to the fight and losing your brother,
31:53
did you have any kind of those deep level introspective conversations in a spiritual manner about
31:59
kind of what was going on in that situation? No, it was kind of a blur. He died of Saturday,
32:05
March 21st. And I'm also an event coordinator. I put on comedy shows. So that week, my parents,
32:12
they went out to Atlanta on like Tuesday. I didn't go to his viewing. So we planned a
32:18
homegoing service back here until I was home and what I did, I did all the work. I found a church,
32:23
I got the food together, I got the everything set up. So I worked on the funeral while getting
32:29
ready for the fight. And I did that because I knew my mom didn't want to do it, you know what I mean?
32:33
So I, I don't know, it's kind of a blur. I didn't, I didn't cry till after the fight. So I kind
32:40
of broke down after the fight. But it's kind of crazy that my last fight was March 21st, you know,
32:45
last Saturday, I was supposed to be fighting again. And I forgot that was the anniversary of his
32:52
death. So I almost fought on his, I almost fought with that day, which was crazy. But no, there's,
32:57
there's nothing I didn't talk to myself all week. I literally blocked it out. And as soon as I
33:02
wanted to fight, which it was a one punch knockout. And I was fighting the guy with the fastest
33:07
knockout record in Oklahoma. So I was a little nervous. But I hit him with a jab, he was sleeping,
33:13
and then I just broke down in the cage. That was it, kind of let everything out. And then a funeral
33:17
was the next day, man. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's heavy. And now that you've had some time,
33:25
even years have gone by over decades gone by since you lost him. Have you changed your kind of
33:30
perspective? Because at the time, you know, you just got to get your lunch pay on, go to work.
33:34
But would you change anything from that time period? Would you have, would you have maybe not
33:38
fought like, have you, have you changed your opinion on that time period at all over the last
33:42
decade, plus? No, man, I call rent page and said, what do I do? And he said, look, man,
33:48
and know a lot of people notice he said, how much you're gonna get paid? I don't know how much it
33:52
was back then. And he said, I'll give you the money. And you don't have to fight. And I say,
33:57
you know what, I'm gonna fight for my brother. And that's what I told him.
33:59
Wow. I've never heard that story about rampage. That's, that's crazy.
34:04
Yeah. So it wasn't, I wouldn't tell that story, you know, it was kind of personal with him. But
34:10
yeah, I was like, you know, I was like, you don't have to do that. And yeah, he, he said, you sure
34:17
you want to fight? I said, yeah, I'm gonna fight for my brother. I said, if I don't fight, I'm just
34:20
gonna sit around, think about it the whole time. And he's like, okay. And then I knocked the guy out.
34:24
And even the coolest story on top of that, the same year, my brother died. I called Joe Silva.
34:32
This is before the print call and all that. And I said, Joe, you know, I won another fight. And
34:36
he's like, keep winning. I'm like, all right. I said, what do I got to do to get in the UFC?
34:40
He goes, you need to beat someone with the name. So I told Joe, the next person that gets cut from
34:46
the UFC, I'm knocking them out. That's what I told him. And it was, it was Nissen Osternek. So
34:52
Nissen Osternek loses to Jake Roashord, I believe, for somebody. I don't know who he lost to.
34:58
He gets cut. He's out of the UFC. And I call shark fights in Texas. And we get a five round
35:07
fight, title fight, 185. And I'm not came out with one punch, man.
35:11
Yeah, you didn't need the five rounds. So that worked out better for you. But hey, man,
35:16
if you're going to call your shot, you better, you better come out on the other end of it. So
35:19
that's awesome. I appreciate you sharing some of those personal stories. But oh, go ahead, go ahead.
35:24
That was on my brother's birthday that day. Are you serious? Yeah, that was September 12th.
35:28
Dang, dude. I knocked out Nissen Osternek on my brother's birthday. I still have the belt. So
35:36
really cool bell says shark fights. They actually try to buy it back from me. But yeah, I knocked
35:41
them out on my brother's birthday of all days. So I fought seven days after he died. And then I
35:45
fought on his birthday. That is amazing. Dude, you can't plan that out. Yeah, I mean, you obviously,
35:51
you couldn't plan that out. So obviously there was something else going on behind the scenes
35:55
there. So again, appreciate you sharing that. So as we kind of wrap up here, I've got a bunch of
35:59
just MMA related questions for you. And so you don't have to feel the need to go into two terribly
36:04
long answers. But I'm always curious what guys think about. So the first thing is I'm assuming
36:08
you would say wrestling is the most important form of martial art in order to be successful in MMA.
36:14
So I'm going to give that one to you. But aside from wrestling, what is the most important
36:17
discipline to master if you're going to be successful in MMA, according to Gerald Harris?
36:21
Okay, it's gonna sound kind of weird. But I think that wrestling is mostly mentioned for
36:28
the physical part. But I think that mentally wrestlers are just a different breed of people.
36:34
True. You got to be crazy almost. I mean, we've been through a lot, nothing gets football players
36:39
or basketball players. But not a lot of athletes have been by themselves in the positions that we've
36:45
been in. So I think that the wrestling mentality is very important. Now when it comes to a physical
36:50
skill, I still always go at wrestling because you can be the greatest striker in the world. But
36:56
if you can't stop my takedowns, I take away your strength. Right. And that does vice versa for a
37:00
guy that can stop my takedown. But that also means he has good wrestling. So wrestling nullifies
37:07
Jiu Jitsu nullifies a lot of things. And Jiu Jitsu is good. But I know Jiu Jitsu guys that get a bug
37:13
kick if they can't take you down or they can't get to the ground, you know. Right. So aside from
37:19
wrestling, would you say that, you know, kickboxing is the next, what's the next most important? If
37:24
you got wrestling off the table, what's the next most important? Yeah, I would definitely. I would
37:29
go with you, Jitsu. I know it sounded sound sound the same. I love striking. I love it. But if you
37:35
watch a lot of fights, very few fights are striking oriented. If you're getting to a street fight,
37:41
you go to the ground, you're gonna end up grappling. Right. I'm talking about submissions and stuff.
37:45
I would go wrestling, Jiu Jitsu, then striking, just striking period, knees, kickboxing, all that.
37:50
Okay, good deal. All right. Next question for you. Who is the best wrestler in MMA right now?
37:56
Henry Sehudo. Henry Sehudo. Well, it's kind of hard to pick against him. Now, since you said
38:03
Sehudo, what do you think about him fighting Josay Aldo? Josay's 0 and 1 in that weight class,
38:08
and all of a sudden he's getting a title fight. What do you think of that fight?
38:10
Nice. I'll let you, man. You can't really knock the guy. There's no, there's no real.
38:19
This is what I don't like about MMA. There is no real, um, way to get a title fight. You know,
38:25
look at Brock Lesnar comes in and wins a fight gets title shot. Right. You know, it's based on
38:30
popularity. There's a lot of, there's a lot of factors that play into getting a title fight
38:36
that we don't know. So I wish that there was a clear path to it. You understand what I'm saying?
38:43
Right. It was like it would be easier. It was like a bracket, like a bracket, like a, you know, state
38:48
wrestling tournament or something like that. But yep, there's a whole lot of other things that are
38:52
factored in. So next question for you. Who is your favorite fighter of all time? Oh gosh, MMA.
38:58
MMA got to go MMA. Okay. If I had to go with one fighter, I'd go in and so he's all just, he just
39:09
changed the game, man. Okay, yeah, it's kind of hard to go against him. I feel like he changes
39:14
the game the moment the front of his foot connected with Vitor Bellfort's chin. That was one of the
39:19
most ridiculous things that I've ever seen. We've seen more front kick knockouts since then, but that
39:23
was, that was incredible. So that's your favorite fighter of all time. But who is your least favorite
39:27
fighter of all time? Oh God, um, damn, I wanted to say, uh, with a guy that just fought, uh, you,
39:35
you know who he is. I just can't think of his name right now. I can't stand his personality,
39:40
but he's a damn good fighter. Uh, my most, uh, uh, I've never really thought about that. Like,
39:46
like the person I don't like the most, like the fight. Yeah. Well, you can take it either way. I'll
39:51
tell you what mine is to. So maybe that will give you a little bit of a little bit of an idea.
39:55
Like I hated Michael Bizbing. Like for whatever reason, I see, but now I seem to like him better
40:02
now that he's retired. But while he was fighting, I just couldn't stand him. And I also couldn't
40:06
stand the Diaz brothers. I didn't understand why people thought the Diaz brothers were awesome.
40:10
I thought they sounded dumb. They fought dumb. So the, but those for me, like those are my least
40:14
favorite fighters. So, but it was just, I didn't like how they talked and, you know, Michael Bizbing's,
40:18
what, whatever, I don't want to talk trash on a guy that's tired to defend himself. But you know,
40:22
who's your least favorite fighter of all time to watch or to follow?
40:27
Oh gosh. Let me think. You know, what was his name used to be? Sodium Boring. Let me think.
40:35
God, I don't think who's the, or I saw people down to the ground. I can't even think of them now.
40:42
You know who my least favorite fighter to watch fighting was? I can't think of his name. He was
40:48
like 155, 145. He was a grappling guy. He pushed people up against the fence. Oh, Habib? No,
40:54
hell, I love could be. This guy's name is weird. He was supposed to fight BJ Penn recently.
41:00
Oh, I know, man, there are people screaming at both of us right now because neither one of us
41:06
can remember the news. I can't think of his name. You know what? Well, Gerald, we'll come back to
41:10
that question. Maybe you'll hit both of us by then. So the next question here, who is the most
41:15
underrated fighter ever? Oh man. Underrated. I'll say the most unappreciated fire was myself.
41:27
Underrated. Let me think, whoever, when I say underrated, I would say they just didn't get to
41:40
ever reach their potential. I'll say this. I'll say this. I do wish that your I favor had a UFC title.
41:46
I think that's the only thing that he misses off his resume. And I think that his his talent is
41:55
overlooked because he never was UFC champion. So I would definitely say you're our favorite.
42:01
And the guy named that I could not stand to fight was Nicholas. I hate
42:06
Nicholas. That's right. I hate watching that game fight. Well, luckily, we don't have to do
42:12
that very much anymore. So cool. I'm glad you remembered that. So you gave us your most underrated
42:17
fighter ever. Now, who is the most overrated fighter ever? Oh, that's a hard question. I don't know.
42:23
Damn, let me think. Overrated? Oh, no. I wouldn't. I would say overrated because in the sport
42:33
MMA, your hike train can be because look, look, look at, look at Hector Lombard. I thought Hector
42:39
Lombard was the Hulk. Right. This dude is going to go to the UFC and knock everybody out. Oh, wait,
42:45
wait, let me go back. The most underrated fighter in the history of Nick's martial arts has been
42:51
asking me. I would say unappreciated would be your favorite because he was a man of his time.
42:57
He just got caught up with the sport caught up with your I favor. I just wish he had a UFC title
43:02
as resume. Right. I hate how people disrespect been asking. I hate it. They think his record is
43:08
padded. He ain't fought nobody to do beat Doug's Lehman a five round fight. I don't even dare
43:12
him when you fought Doug's Lehman. Five rounds with him is hard. And you saw that with Rory Mcdonald.
43:18
Sure. Going back to that would be him. But yeah, under under. I don't know. I can't ask a good one.
43:29
I've never thought of that one. We might have to go back to over it. We only got a couple more
43:34
and then we'll circle back to overrated. Now, this might be easy. This might be difficult.
43:39
But everyone kind of talks about their Mount Rushmore, right? Mount Rushmore, basketball,
43:43
Mount Rushmore of baseball, whatever the thing is. I got it. I got ADHD. So you got to bear with
43:47
okay. Are you're good. I give me your overrated. Dan Hardy is extremely overrated. He never,
43:53
in no offense to anybody, he got a title shot gifted to him. He never beat a ranked opponent
43:58
to get a title shot. It's because he was from the UK. He's extremely talented, but he didn't
44:03
deserve to fight GSP. That's all I want to say. There was people with better wins and more wins
44:08
before he got his title shot. He got his title shot because they were pushing the UK at the time.
44:13
That's why they were pushing the UK. Yeah, he had the look. He had the black and red hair.
44:19
And the thing is you can't doubt his toughness. How many guys have not tapped to a submission
44:24
from George St. Pierre and lived to tell about it. I mean, that dude almost got his arm broken
44:28
completely off and he just wouldn't tap. So tough guy, but I'm with you. It was a little bit
44:32
of a head scratcher at the time. So got a couple more questions for you here. Now, I want you to
44:37
give me your MMA route Mount Rushmore. Okay. And to give you a second to think about it,
44:42
I'm going to go ahead and give you my MMA Mount Rushmore. Okay. With very, very little explanation.
44:47
George St. Pierre, I think he's the greatest fighter ever. And then even in lieu of the latest news,
44:52
John Jones, if we have to send anybody in to fight somebody at another, on another tribe or
44:59
something like that in representative of America, we only get one of them. I'm sitting in John
45:03
Jones. Then I got Daniel Cormier. You know, he did loose a steep A, but his, his record and hit,
45:08
you know, the people he's beat is absolutely insane. And then I put Conor McGregor in there
45:13
just because we've never had no, no, no, no, listen, listen, listen, we've never had a star like him.
45:19
Dude, I asked several people this same question. And they told me Rhonda Rousey.
45:23
Now, it's supposedly for the most accomplished, not the most popular president.
45:30
Who's a compliment? Gregor, who's the first double champ?
45:34
If you're going to do that, you're going to put Donald Trump up there.
45:37
He was the first up champ, Gerald. He was the first double champ in the UFC. He did accomplish
45:41
something. No, no rush more, but I got GSP, John Jones, DC and McGregor. Give me yours. Yeah,
45:50
you got three on yours. I'm not hating on McGregor. I love McGregor. I think he's amazing what he's
45:54
done, but he has done enough to be on Mount Rushmore. And all those guys you named have hello resumes,
46:01
like crazy resumes. Anyway, I probably definitely go with you got it. You just forgot all about
46:07
Horace Gracie, huh? Well, I didn't forget him, but I just know that Horace Gracie and his prime
46:14
gets mauled by GSP and his prime. So, you know, it's kind of one. No, that's not fair,
46:18
because I know it's not fair. It's not supposed to be fair. Yeah, whatever. That's like comparing
46:24
or running back from the 50s. So running back from 2020. Hey, I'm not. I hate not hating on them.
46:30
But he's not on my 50 years from now, there's going to be a John Jones guy doing backflips off
46:36
the case. So I'm going with Horace Gracie. That's going to be one for sure. I wouldn't put,
46:42
okay, I'm going to do not actor fighters. Okay. Yeah. So because I would obviously put DC in
46:49
what John Jones are too. But I will go with Horace Gracie's one as bad as I want to put
46:56
BJ pin on there. I can't. You definitely got to put GSP on there. Right. And this is, this is,
47:04
I, I wish I could put Ken Shamrock. I just can't. He hasn't done enough. Right. So those two would
47:11
be my old schools. Okay, I'm going to go with people that retired. I'm just going to go ahead.
47:16
I'm going to go with Gracie. GSP, GSP, BJ pin, because of what he accomplished. And my fourth one
47:26
would be damn, somebody that's retired. Oh, you know what? Randy Coattour, man. Randy Coattour.
47:32
That would be my retired ones now. If you go for now, I can't, you, you throwing in John Jones,
47:39
Cormier, I mean, you, you throwing in a McGregor in the conversation. You got, you know, if, if
47:45
New Year's keeps whipping ass, I mean, no, I'm going, I'm taking an easy way out and taking retired
47:50
fighters. Okay, that is easy way out. I didn't figure you would do that. But hey, it's, but it's
47:54
I've only got one question left and you kind of knew where this was going. Last question of the day.
47:58
Who is the goat? The greatest of all time to me is this is why I said, not just because he was
48:06
a first. The reason why I say that Horace Gracie was the greatest of all time is because of what
48:11
he did when the sport first started. It's almost like Muhammad Ali. I feel like Muhammad Ali is
48:16
the greatest fighter of all time because on top of him being a great athlete and of his time,
48:22
the best that he could do at his time, he was fighting a pressure. The man with the prison for
48:26
not going to the war. I feel like Horace Gracie went into a sport with no rules, no weight classes,
48:33
no time limits. We couldn't do that now. Let me in these fighters up. Like I said, you can't compare
48:40
football players from the 50s to football players now that they're just a different breed. He's got
48:43
look at Francis Gano. I mean, come on, man, that wasn't happening in 1993, you know, no, no. So
48:50
imagine no weight classes. You want to see Francis and Gano fight Henry Sehudo? You know what I'm saying?
48:59
Like, come on. So the sport has evolved. The sport has evolved so well that you have to have weight
49:05
classes. You have to have time limits. You got it. Who wants to get pushed into balls by Francis
49:11
and Gano? You got to have rules. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, drug testing. There was
49:17
no drug test back then. Yo, he was fighting people. It was [inaudible] like a street fight
49:22
with a bunch of people watching in a referee. That's true. That's true now.
49:26
Now, Gerald, you've made a lot of good points. You've made some compelling arguments,
49:31
but he's not going on my Mount Rushmore. He's not making it on my Mount Rushmore, but he is a good
49:36
dude. What about Matt? Which one? Oh, twin. Matt, uh, yeah, I got hurt in the train. Oh, Matt Hughes.
49:47
Matt Hughes. That's another good one. See, that's that's another guy that he was,
49:52
if his career had ended before GSP had come on, like it's, but he just he happened to get in there
49:59
with GSP and his last fight against GSP just did not look good. So he was, yeah, he was coming down
50:05
as GSP was ascending. But the thing about it is with, with Matt Hughes is the guy's about his
50:09
legendary as a human being can be because of what he did in wrestling and collegiate wrestling,
50:15
you know, just his, you know, his propensity for strength and things he was able to do.
50:19
I mean, picking a guy up that just had him in a submission and running him across the cage
50:24
and signing them down on the other end. I mean, that's legendary stuff, but that is kind of a
50:28
weird thing that he was in this weird time period where the greatest fighter of all time was coming
50:33
up in his division. And, you know, but about it, John Jones and Rashad Evans to think he happened
50:39
to him. Right, exactly. You know, it's funny. I met John Jones the week he fought Rashad Evans.
50:44
I had a job in New York City and we were so excited to watch that fight. And there was all the bad
50:49
blood from the, from the team and all those different things. And so that was crazy. Well,
50:54
Gerald, we've talked about a lot of different subjects here. And I'm so glad we've had you
50:58
on for this amount of time. But that's all for me. Is there anything else you want to get off your
51:02
chest? No, man, I had a great time. Appreciate you having me. Absolutely. Gerald Harris. Thanks
51:07
for coming on Daunted Life on man's podcast. Hey, hey. There you go, guys. Hope you enjoyed
51:14
the interview. Before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost. As you know,
51:18
by now we are men's ministry and our mission is cultivating manly resilience.
51:21
Specifically, we do that by providing content that for just spiritual, mental and physical toughness.
51:25
So for you today, I've got one video and it's the only video you need. It is a video of the top five
51:30
Gerald Harris knockouts. So do enjoy that. All right, guys. Thanks so much for listening to the podcast.
51:35
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51:51
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52:27
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