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1:18
This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast.
1:22
I'm your host Kyle Thompson, let's get into it.
1:25
Alright guys, we got a very special return guest to the show that is Hicks and Gracie.
1:28
So Hicks and Gracie is actually a ninth-degree Red Belt and Gracie Jiu Jitsu.
1:32
We actually talked about that at the beginning of the episode because back on the last podcast that he was on,
1:37
so he was on episode 242 of this podcast, he was actually an eighth-degree Red Belt.
1:41
And so I think in the interview, he said that he is now a ninth-degree, but basically he's 65 years old
1:47
and has been a black belt for 45 years, which makes him a ninth-degree Red Belt.
1:52
And so this guy is just absolutely incredible.
1:55
He is the son of the godfather of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
1:58
That's a Elio Gracie.
1:59
And Hicks is considered to be one of the greatest Gracie fighters ever, and he's the Gracie family champion.
2:05
And he is a pioneer in the sport of Jiu Jitsu and mixed martial arts.
2:08
Whenever he was fighting Valley Tudo, that was kind of an early form of MMA.
2:11
He's undefeated in that.
2:12
And guys, I've said that before, that on my Mount Rushmore, he's on there.
2:15
So a lot of people will put his brother, Hoyz, up there because he won the first two UFC events.
2:20
UFC one and UFC two.
2:22
And he kind of started the revolution of Jiu Jitsu in terms of its popularity in America.
2:26
But even at that time, everyone knew that he was the better fighter by a long shot,
2:31
including Hoyz.
2:32
And we talk about that a little bit in this particular podcast.
2:35
But he is the author of the book called Breathe, A Life in Flow.
2:38
So that was his biography that we had him want to talk about here a few years ago.
2:41
But his newest book is called Comfort in Darkness, The Invisible Power of Jiu Jitsu.
2:46
So the interesting thing about this book is this is kind of like a life lessons book,
2:50
but it's applicable to guys that are into fighting and guys that aren't into fighting,
2:55
which is interesting now because he teaches a lot of people that are not competitive Jiu Jitsu fighters.
3:01
These are not MMA fighters.
3:02
He's teaching just people basic life lessons and he's using Jiu Jitsu to do it.
3:06
And so in this particular podcast, we talk about a lot of different things.
3:09
We talk about the differences in the two books.
3:12
Basically how there is a literal kind of matte focused lesson in each one of these things
3:17
that he's talking about, but also a figurative, more metaphorical one for life.
3:21
We get into a spiritual breakdown because he talks about spiritualism a lot in his book.
3:25
And like I've said before, like demons are spirits, so we got to be a little bit more specific.
3:28
So we dug into that a little bit more as well.
3:30
We talked about how he developed his mindset because even as a kid growing up in the chaotic,
3:35
greasy family, and there were fights going on constantly, he didn't just want to be a fighter.
3:39
He didn't just want to be a champion.
3:41
He wanted to be the greasy family champion and there's a lot of differences and nuances
3:45
in that.
3:46
But then we talked about how there was an experience he experienced very early on when
3:49
he was a young teenager that led him to understand that I've got to find a way to find comfort
3:55
in darkness.
3:56
And so we get into that story.
3:58
We talk about how his first fight in Brazil, his first valetuto MMA fight, how he felt
4:02
like he didn't break physically or mentally, but he actually broke spiritually and how
4:05
that has basically taught him how to comport himself as he moves forward in life.
4:10
But also how you if you're getting better at something that is a fighting style like
4:14
jujitsu, how humility needs to be involved with a lot of that.
4:17
We talked about his final MMA fight against food, Naki, where both guys basically came
4:21
into the fight with, I'm not going to tap.
4:23
We're not throwing in the towel.
4:24
It's either death or we win that type of an idea.
4:28
But also he is currently in the middle of his toughest fight of his entire life.
4:33
And that's his fight against Parkinson's disease.
4:35
And so he was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2021.
4:37
And he brought that up a lot in the interview and I asked him specifically about that towards
4:41
the end.
4:42
And then we talked a little bit about, you know, he fantasized about fighting Mike Tyson
4:46
back in the day when he was in his prime.
4:48
But if he was in his prime right now against the current crop of MMA fighters, who are the
4:51
guys that he would want to test his metal against?
4:53
And I really, really enjoyed his answer, but also just the difference between jujitsu for
4:57
competition and jujitsu for self-defense or fighting and how we kind of have a little
5:01
bit of a watered down sense of our abilities if we're only sticking to competition jujitsu.
5:05
But guys, I mean, I think I mentioned this last time, but when you're talking to this
5:08
guy, it's like, wait a minute, your family invented the thing that I've like dedicated
5:11
my adult life to now, which is, you know, learning the sport of jujitsu.
5:15
And you know, now as a brown belt, it's like, you know, you're kind of knocking on the door
5:18
of black belt, but black belt is almost like going back down to white belt, almost like
5:21
you're just starting.
5:22
And so when you get to talk to a guy like that, an absolute lion of the sport, an absolute
5:27
pioneer, it is always something that I will, you know, definitely not take for granted.
5:31
It is an incredible opportunity.
5:33
I'm just so glad he was able to make some time for us this time around as well to talk about
5:37
his new book.
5:38
I will always take advantage of being able to chat with the one and only Hicks and Gracie.
5:41
So guys, without further ado, let's get into it.
5:45
Hicks and Gracie, welcome back to Undaunted Life of Man's podcast.
5:49
Thank you, my brother.
5:50
It's great to be here with you.
5:51
Hey, I'm so psyched to have you now.
5:53
I got to say I got to ask you because I'm not really keeping up.
5:56
But the last time we had you on the show was when we were talking about your book breathe,
5:59
I think at that time, you were a ninth degree red belt in Gracie, jujitsu, is that still
6:05
where you're at now?
6:06
What's your current level that you've gotten to?
6:08
No, actually I'm making 65 years old this month.
6:13
And then I have the 45 years old of black belt to get the 90 degrees.
6:17
So at that point, I was still eight degree from my birthday on, I want to be nine degree.
6:24
And it's just simply incredible and for guys, I mean, we've talked about jujitsu a lot on
6:28
this show.
6:29
I mean, just I've talked about before, I just got my brown belt this year.
6:32
And so by this time, thank you so much.
6:34
By the time I get to a black belt, which, you know, hopefully next two, three, four years
6:37
or something like that, it's like I'll be a black belt, but then there will be guys that
6:41
have been training for longer than I've even, you know, they've been, they've had their
6:46
black belt rather for longer than I've even been training.
6:48
So it's, it's a wide swath of different experiences.
6:51
But a good place to start, I guess, Hixen is obviously you're on here to talk about your
6:56
new book.
6:57
It's called comfort in darkness, the invisible power of jujitsu.
6:59
I just finished it a couple of weeks ago.
7:01
I thought the book was absolutely fantastic.
7:04
I remember reading breathe and being so enthralled with all the stories.
7:08
And you had a lot of that still in this book, but let's just start there.
7:12
What's different between your first book, breathe and this new book, comfort and darkness?
7:17
Yeah, breathe was the life, my life story, my, my, my biography.
7:24
So tell everything about happiness with me and my life and with my family.
7:29
This second book comes more towards how I deal with problems, you know, how I deal with
7:34
my actual, I get parking some few years ago, and how I deal with my health, how I deal with
7:40
my stress, how I deal with, to use jujitsu in a visible aspect, to facilitate my life,
7:46
to overcome problems and emotional disturbance.
7:51
And I really enjoyed how, because a lot of those stories, because when I read breathe,
7:55
I knew some of those stories, but I didn't know a lot of those stories about your life.
7:57
But then when they came back up in comfort in darkness, I kind of had an idea as to what
8:02
the stories were, where they were going.
8:04
But you did apply some of the things that you learned as a part of that.
8:08
So I thought that was interesting.
8:09
Now the subtitle of the book is the invisible power of jujitsu.
8:13
And you refer to invisible jujitsu throughout the book.
8:16
So in the book, you talk about the different interconnected elements of physical, spiritual
8:20
and mental.
8:21
And we talk about that on the show as well.
8:23
But you also talk about the jujitsu litany of base and engagement and connection and leverage
8:28
and timing.
8:29
And if you've done jujitsu, obviously you know how important those things are, but you said
8:33
with each of those, those two definitions, there's kind of a literal one for how you use
8:38
it on the mat and then more of a figurative one or a metaphorical one for life.
8:43
So can you explain to us how invisible jujitsu applies when we are on the mats, but also
8:48
when we're off?
8:50
Yeah.
8:51
What I call invisible jujitsu is the tools you can have in the spiritual water arsenal
8:59
to become a warrior, to become practical and warfare.
9:04
So it's not all those elements, not all those tools are physical and technical.
9:10
Some are spiritual, some are more emotional.
9:15
So we have to deal with all the tools in order to be able to pass this information, this
9:23
knowledge to life itself.
9:26
Because if you're too much in the sport of jujitsu, you devote yourself to how to pass
9:31
a guard, how to submit somebody, how to throw somebody, how to keep surviving.
9:38
And a much more physical experience.
9:40
So you become more like an athlete.
9:44
But if you try to become a martial arts, martial arts doesn't have rules of engagement.
9:51
So if you know jujitsu, if you are a good experienced jujitsu competitor, you're not
9:56
thinking you want to fight on the street and find the same environment can be against more
10:01
than multiple attackers, can be in an environment you're not controlling the weather, can be
10:06
a slippery, can be dangerous in many different ways.
10:10
So you have to be a martial artist to capitalize on the information you receive, you leave
10:16
the now and then you can say, okay, it's not good for me to fight here.
10:21
Better go to the dry land, it's better go to do this, it's better apologize now and come
10:26
back later with my guys.
10:28
So martial arts becomes more complex because you're dealing with life.
10:34
And another for you to do completely comfortable in that unpredictable situations, you have
10:40
to be comfortable to use the concepts, the tools of martial, of the spiritual water in
10:46
order to achieve complete view of the scenario.
10:50
Better for you to be able to conquer what you need, the challenge you have.
10:57
Not only because if you take physically only, you can make a lot of mistakes, you cannot
11:02
use a big part of yourself.
11:05
So I start with breathing.
11:08
Breathing can be a great help for fighters, for athletes, for any athlete who evolves
11:17
in physicality, know how to breathe, it will help you tremendously in terms of cardiovascular
11:27
endurance, in terms of keeping the momentum, finding the rhythm.
11:33
But breathing also helps you in your emotional.
11:37
Breathe also helps you to relax yourself because the lung has the unique capacity to connect
11:43
yourself with your brain and with your heart.
11:48
And the brain and the heart are the only organs in the body who can give and receive information.
11:55
So you normal and home, happy, you got a male, you're going to lost your house in a month.
12:00
So you got to stress how this can happen.
12:03
So emotionally you're completely disturbed.
12:05
If you don't know how to relieve that disturbance, that's problem, you're going to stick with
12:10
that feeling, that anger, that sensation through the day, sometimes through weeks, because
12:16
you cannot just physically clean yourself from this kind of burn.
12:23
So by knowing how to breathe, you can have a relaxation breathe, a meditative breathe
12:32
and can calm yourself up.
12:33
And then when you come back from the breathing, you're going to look for the same problem.
12:38
You're going to say, you're going to still have the problem, but you're not more emotionally
12:43
involved.
12:44
You're relaxed, you have to deal with this with a different piece of mind.
12:50
So the idea of having the breathing to help me, not only in fighting but also in life to
12:58
accommodate myself is a big deal of difference.
13:02
Same thing when you do, when you're talking about base.
13:07
This can be a very physical base to not let yourself get off balance, to be strong in
13:15
yourself, to be capable, to capitalize on your opponent's mistakes.
13:20
But base means you have base to talk about podcasts and networks because you've been
13:26
involved.
13:27
I have no base for that.
13:28
And that's, in a matter of form way, feels like I'm off balance.
13:33
I need to learn.
13:34
I need to respect.
13:35
I need to give the props to the other person because that shows not only respect, but put
13:41
yourself in a good balance and in your position.
13:46
So when you have base, when you believe in your base, you believe also, you're not having
13:52
the same base.
13:53
Have something you have to learn to be humble, to be nice.
13:57
So put yourself, when you have the base as a matter of form for life, put in a balance
14:04
with the reality of how you feel about many different subjects.
14:08
Timing.
14:09
Timing is another subject, very important because the timing can help you to deflect
14:14
a punch or a go for a throw or a take down.
14:19
But also, the timing for you to talk with your wife about some subject, sensitive subject,
14:25
you have to get a good mood for her, you have to have the good time to speak, the timing
14:30
for you to get to raise, talk about raising your salary with your boss.
14:36
You cannot get the time he's upset, you have to have the time he's in a good mood.
14:40
So the timing for you to make a trip, how to get, how well you're going to get in the
14:46
airplane and the airport to get the plane.
14:49
So timing has a lot of, a lot of objectivity in life.
14:55
You have to be punctual, you have to know when you speak and when you shut up, you have
15:00
to know how to punch and how to deflect the punch.
15:03
So I respect timing in a conceptual way and many different subjects.
15:09
My time has to be perfect, not only to approach a business proposition, but also to fight,
15:18
but also to know my health.
15:20
So time is an important subject in general, strategy, strategy is a great tool for the
15:27
spiritual order because every thing you do, even happiness, it's not going to be sitting
15:34
in your lab, you're not going to be happy for no reason.
15:38
You're happy because you want a car, you're happy because your kid going to school, you
15:42
have because you get out of sickness, you have a reason, but that happiness is not going
15:48
to stick with you for long, five years from now, other things are going to bring you happiness.
15:53
If not, you're not going to be happy because what brings you happiness 10 years ago is
15:58
not going to make you happy today.
16:01
So strategy is a part of you who is going to be always escalating, always pursuing happiness.
16:11
What I need to be, what I need to be more happy, what I need to be in the good direction.
16:18
So all this idea coming from strategy, in order for you to buy a car, you have to know
16:25
how much money you have in the bank, what car you want to buy, how many men's you want
16:30
to pay.
16:31
So you have to organize a good strategy to be able to buy the car, keep the car, use
16:36
the car and be happy with the car.
16:38
If you buy a too expensive car, you may want to get problems in the future.
16:42
If you got a car too cheap and going to broke down on you, you're not going to have a,
16:47
so the good strategy has to plant the seeds for the future.
16:53
So strategy, same thing to pass a guard and after the pass a guard, if you got turns around,
16:59
I go for the ZKL, I go for the new move or old move, I go for a foot lock.
17:04
So what I'm going to do from there, cannot be thank, take it for granted.
17:10
I cannot allow myself to be lucky.
17:13
I don't believe in lucky at all.
17:16
Lucky is to find a parking space in front of the movie theater.
17:20
But I don't, I don't put lucky on my endeavors.
17:24
I don't put lucky on my, on my, on my objectivity, on my training.
17:30
I always strategize who is going to, who are going to compete against, what's going to
17:35
happen.
17:36
If, if, so visualization is a great tool for the water.
17:41
If you don't visualize, if you, if you're in a sport or in a profession, like if you
17:45
are Navy SEAL, for example, you have to visualize getting to the land, take over, kill everybody,
17:54
do everything perfect with all your friends alive, that's a perfect deal for you.
18:00
It can be a last deal.
18:01
You can have the same objectivity.
18:02
You can win the same way, but you can lost two or three guys in the endeavor or you can
18:08
get shot or you can even get killed.
18:12
So in your visualizations, you have to visualize all the perspectives could happen in your
18:17
endeavor.
18:19
Even death for a Navy SEAL, he has to accept death as a natural thing in the job.
18:26
You don't want to die, but he has to know what he's doing could possibly kill him in
18:31
any time, like a fireman.
18:34
How you can be a fireman thinking about saving a kid from the dead, flawed, and fire and
18:40
not thinking you can, you can die, die trying.
18:46
Any situation for a fireman can be a life threatening.
18:50
So if he's a good fireman, he has to know he loves his family.
18:54
You know what he'll do, he knows all the roses and the bombs and the pumps, but he also
18:59
have to have visualization about the problems he may have and how to escape from a fire,
19:06
how to do something.
19:07
And if he doesn't have escape, I'm going to die.
19:11
And if I die, I die trying something good and proud of it.
19:14
So every tank is on the perspective.
19:17
They cannot forget something.
19:18
They cannot not visualizing.
19:21
So all the tools, the spiritual order are there to help you in life, in action, and also in
19:28
spirituality.
19:29
Well, Hixen, that was one thing that was so apparent and what made comfort and darkness
19:32
such an interesting read for me is obviously I loved all the jiu-jitsu stuff and all the
19:36
valetudo and MMA stuff that you talked about, but it was the dual applicability of what you
19:42
were talking about, how this applies if you were training jiu-jitsu or how you're doing
19:46
this in life.
19:47
But just to go a little further on the spiritual thing, just to make sure people know what you're
19:50
talking about, you're talking about, when you talk about spiritual, you're talking about
19:53
the things that we can't see in the book, you talk about panic, endurance, acceptance,
19:57
hope.
19:58
And I'm going to read a quote from the book because this is your first fight in Brazil
20:01
against King Zulu.
20:02
So it's a very interesting quote.
20:04
When I fought my first professional fight in 1980, I was overconfident and learned a harsh
20:09
life-changing lesson about the difference between a professional valetudo bout and competitive
20:14
jiu-jitsu.
20:15
Within seconds of the opening bell, my opponent, a big, scary, seasoned pro fighter, dragged
20:19
me into deep, uncharted waters and made me fight for my life.
20:23
Everything had been theoretical up to that point, but I learned a life-changing lesson
20:27
during that fight.
20:28
Sometimes you don't break physically.
20:30
You break spiritually.
20:31
So I want to talk a little bit more about that because you do talk about God in this
20:34
book.
20:35
I don't really know exactly where you land because you don't talk about Jesus, but you
20:39
do spend a lot of time talking about the ethereal, about the spiritual side.
20:43
So how does your personal faith really align with not only how you lead your life, but
20:48
how you would fight when you're still an active fighter?
20:52
Yes, for me, I could achieve because in jiu-jitsu, we have the triangle and my family tradition
21:02
logo was a triangle.
21:05
And that represents the balance, the perfect balance.
21:08
You don't see a triangle fall off balance, it's always going to fall in base.
21:13
And that's for me for a long time, was a explanation as simplifying the idea of jiu-jitsu of being
21:24
balanced.
21:25
But it was at that time, much more physical balance than actually the balance I devote
21:30
right now because once I was into the triangle, in the trilogy of the experience, I start
21:38
to understand from a picture I took from the Buddha, from the shy Buddha, I started making
21:45
designs, I put a design to make a logo over this shy Buddha picture.
21:50
And eventually, he got in the triangle, but it was a triangle who has motion, who has
21:56
different pieces connected, it's not one triangle simple.
22:02
My design of my logo is like three different pieces of movement which makes triangle.
22:09
And for me, those three pieces are connected because it's body, mind, spirit.
22:15
The idea of combining your body, your mind, your spirit, it starts to become very clear
22:21
in my mind.
22:22
I could not be the best I can be if I just take care of my body.
22:28
I cannot be the best I can be if I just take care of my mind.
22:32
And I cannot be the best I can be if I just be spiritual.
22:36
The combination of the three will make me powerful because I know what I want.
22:42
I know my problems, physical, but I can accept, if I have acceptance, if I have faith, if
22:52
I have hope, I can really become a different piece because I will be much more reliant
23:00
and things I cannot see, I cannot, but I have to believe.
23:04
If I cannot believe, if I don't believe I want to outcome my opponent, I don't want
23:08
to win the fight, nothing I will do will resolve the matter.
23:13
I have first to believe and then put the beliefs into actions, into performance and to physicality
23:20
and to emotional control.
23:24
And thank for my emotions, if I'm not thinking, I'm accepting that as a regular outcome from
23:31
a mistake, I'm not to be comfortable to get problems there.
23:36
If I got problems there, I will chicken out like I did in my first fight.
23:41
So my idea of having problems, my idea of having, like in my last fight with finaki,
23:48
I got a orbital fracture and I still calm and my brother told me to stand up and I thinking
23:55
about what he's saying and said, "No, I cannot stand up now, I'm blind."
23:59
So 45 seconds into the fight, into that problem, I get, I recover the division in one eye and
24:06
then I could keep fighting and then I win my opponent.
24:09
But it's up to me to make a poker face, don't let him know I'm in pain and I still feel
24:16
confident even though I was a problem, I visualized in this before, I never used it, but I visualized
24:22
I'm in trouble.
24:23
And if I'm in trouble, I will try to fix the problem.
24:27
And if the problem has no fix, my brother has to throw the towel or I'm gonna set death
24:31
because I'm not thinking about quitting him, quitting is not an option.
24:37
So all those combinations between the spiritual, the emotional and the technical make me feel
24:45
like I start to creating solutions and acceptance to become unbreakable, regardless the outcome
24:52
of the fight, regardless the outcome, I have Parkinson's now.
24:57
Parkinson becomes my new opponent and I'm not allowed to allow the doctors just to care
25:02
of myself and give me one pill, give me cardiovascular exercise and tell me for me to leave with
25:09
my life.
25:10
I start researching all the situations, all the doctors, all the people who can help
25:15
me.
25:16
And so far now, I haven't changed my life in tremendous.
25:20
I stop eating meat, I stop eating, drinking any alcohol, beer or wine, I fasty, I do
25:28
it.
25:29
Physotherapy protocols every day, I do good nutrition, supplements, all the supplements
25:36
I can put my hands on, mushrooms from places, special places.
25:42
So I become focused and do it strategically, everything I can do to beat Parkinson's.
25:49
I'm not sure if I'm going to beat Parkinson's, if Parkinson's going to beat me.
25:52
But my mood now is quit is not an option, accepting the sickness take over and I do nothing,
25:59
it's not an option.
26:00
So I will be resilient, I will be completely comfortable and dealing with that problem
26:07
and start accepting my degrees in physicality, but I'm not a step to do nothing about it.
26:13
So I'm fighting with all my guts, all my heart, comfortably happy through the end.
26:21
So I'm just accepting the situations, but I don't relax on it.
26:26
I'm just fighting my exercise.
26:28
So to them feeling happy because I'm more motivated as never to teach and talk about
26:35
invisible jujitsu and Parkinson's is like I kind of establish, it's not evolving too
26:44
much.
26:45
So I feel like my symptoms are kind of stable.
26:49
I feel very happy in my conditions right now and my situation, how I deal with my life,
26:55
my health, my work.
26:58
So everything works good for me based on that kind of martial arts spirit, which is positive,
27:05
which thank you for the next level.
27:08
When I remember reading in this book about your fight, which ended up being your last
27:12
valetuto or MMA fight with Funaki, how when Funaki woke up after you had put him out after
27:18
he went limp, he was so thankful to be alive because you two both went into that fight
27:23
thinking there is no tap, there is no throw in the towel.
27:27
It's either win or death.
27:28
And for both of you, luckily you both were able to make your way out of that fight.
27:32
You were the only one that got your hand raised.
27:33
But one thing you're talking about, Hixon, when you're talking about resilience and you're
27:37
talking about mindset is literally, you know, the title of the book, but it's finding comfort
27:42
in darkness.
27:43
And so I want to read a quote because it's a very funny story.
27:46
Well, it seemed funny.
27:47
It probably wasn't funny at the time, but I've shared this with a lot of people to kind
27:50
of let them understand where I'm coming from, whenever I'm explaining things, but certainly
27:54
how you explain in the books.
27:56
Here's the quote.
27:57
My first experience with a rational fear occurred at my father's academy when I was barely
28:01
a teenager.
28:02
A big man caught me in a tight head locked.
28:04
And as I was, as I began to work my escape, his hot stinky ghee covered my head, suddenly
28:09
I got claustrophobic and was overcome with a fight or flight sense of panic.
28:13
Instead of calmly escaping from the hold like I had done so many times before, I tapped
28:17
out in front of my brothers, cousins and friends.
28:20
And literally when I read that sentence, I was like, Oh, it's like I could feel that
28:23
that moment that you're having ashamed and disgusted with myself.
28:27
When I got home, I knew that I had to face my demons.
28:29
So I asked my older brother, holes to roll me up in our living room carpet.
28:34
I told him to leave me inside for 10 minutes, no matter how loud I screamed.
28:38
As the hot, mildewy carpet began to envelop me, I thought for a moment that I might die.
28:43
Then I started thinking about the beach, a sea breeze and a cold coconut water.
28:48
My claustrophobia passed because I found comfort in darkness.
28:52
And you describe how you did that a couple of more times to really challenge yourself
28:56
mentally.
28:57
I remember during your career fighting in Japan, you would go into cold water and submerge
29:02
yourself but not in just like a cold tub, like in a rushing river of cold water that's
29:07
in a documentary that was made about your life and things as well.
29:11
So for normal folks that aren't MMA fighters or jujitsu competitors that are maybe just
29:16
working a job and trying to do well for their family, why are you wanting people to find
29:21
ways to where they can find comfort in darkness?
29:27
As average people feel the same problems.
29:30
They have the same level of stresses and doubts and insecure state of mind, fears.
29:37
So the emotional, the physical, maybe the physical is not intense as a fighter because
29:44
you don't put your physicality 100%.
29:46
But emotionally the responsibility for your kids, your job, lack of money, health, sickness,
29:53
all this can bring a lot of problems for the individual.
29:58
And I believe in order for you to deal with problems, you have to be a champion, you have
30:03
to have the mentality of a warrior.
30:06
You cannot take life, take you from the by the hand and lead you to any hope they want
30:11
to put you in.
30:12
You have to fight.
30:13
I don't want to go in this hole.
30:14
Oh, this one, I like it.
30:16
I like to be in the jakus but I don't like to be in the.
30:19
So you have to make choices, everything is about choices.
30:23
So my advice for anyone is first find a purpose in life without purpose.
30:28
You don't have discipline.
30:30
You don't have interest that in follow up, no, no, no strategy.
30:35
So finding a purpose is not easy is maybe the most difficult thing, especially a purpose
30:41
who can give you somehow a life, generate money for you and generate the life.
30:48
Because if your purpose is running on the grass, you're not going to get rich, you're
30:52
not going to have family.
30:53
So there's no purpose on that.
30:55
But if your purpose is being an engineer or a lawyer or working with kids or so you're
31:01
going to find yourself directing this purpose, not only to fuel your life, but also to have
31:08
be able to to provide for yourself into your family.
31:12
So finding a purpose is important matter.
31:15
Once you have that, you can connect with all the elements you need to enforce the this
31:22
purpose, your discipline, your strategy, your hope, your faith, without those elements,
31:31
without you, I don't have to be a champion to be hopeful.
31:36
I don't have to be a champion to be faithful or to believe in visualization for example.
31:47
Even I have a job has to visualize that I have to go to work, I have to bring money
31:51
to my family.
31:52
I have to raise my kids.
31:54
So but if my kid has problems to learn, I have to put him in a special lessons.
32:00
So you have to deal with problems you have strategically correct, you have to play the
32:05
problems you have emotionally in control, you cannot get panic, you cannot get afraid.
32:11
So there's always for you not be not being a champion and still having yourself emotionally
32:17
under control.
32:18
There's always for you not to be in a physical monster, but it's you have under control,
32:23
you still have been healthy eating nutritional values, eating well, doing protocols of exercise.
32:30
So you are a health life, you're not an athlete, but you're a healthy guy to raise your face.
32:35
So if you don't care about what you eat, chances are you're going to get sick too soon.
32:41
If you drink every tank, if you eat sweets, if you eat junk food, eventually you're going
32:47
to get sick.
32:48
So it's a good strategy for you, if you want to raise your kids and be happy with your
32:53
kids 20 years from now playing soccer, you have to eat well, you have to take it.
32:58
So it's a lot of tools of the spiritual water, which I believe I suggest for people, average
33:06
people to start to use it.
33:09
Because what I see today, in general, is the humanity being dehumanized.
33:17
The robotics, the technology, the internet, make you feel like you are alive you well,
33:24
but you're not feeling things, it's completely virtual.
33:28
So you post off yourself the best pictures you can find, but you don't show when you
33:34
look ugly, you see every tank on the internet, what you want, what places you want to go,
33:42
but you see it in the culture or lay down in bed.
33:46
So this guy who virtually knows every tank, when he goes to the street, he gives the hand
33:53
like soft hand, he don't look the guy in the eye, he don't know how to approach a girl
33:58
physically and talk to her because everything is a quick fix on the internet.
34:04
Living alive, alive, living there now is very important for anyone.
34:11
That's why even for you as a brown belt or even if you are a beginner in jujitsu, when
34:16
you get into the mat in jujitsu, you can get into the academy with full problems in your
34:23
mind, family problems, business problems.
34:27
When you get into the mat and guys start to try to choke you, you forget everything and
34:32
just thinking about survive, there's no other option either survive or putting pressure
34:37
on your opponent.
34:38
So you start to play a game who brings you to now, living there now is very difficult
34:45
for people today and living there now is a very easy thing for jujitsu practitioners.
34:52
Right, I think it comes down to mindset, Hicks and I wanted to actually ask you about that
34:56
as it pertains to jujitsu people because for you at an early age, you had guys storming
35:02
your father's gym and you had to have a family champion to answer the calls for different
35:08
fights for your family and you didn't just want to be a fighter, you didn't just want
35:11
to be a jujitsu guy, you wanted to be a champion and so your mindset was being formulated at
35:17
such an early age.
35:19
So how do you feel like that applies to what we were talking about just now?
35:22
And not only early age but in a very wild environment because for me to represent what
35:29
I believe, I have to visualize my opponent with no weight division, no time limits, no
35:38
rule sets with gear without gear can fight on the street on the on the spot on the concrete.
35:45
So the idea of being unpredictable for me was much abroad than just being a jujitsu competitor.
35:52
I was a jujitsu representative against anything, anyone, anytime.
35:57
So the challenge was bigger than was unpredictable.
36:03
So how are you going to deal with something unpredictable without hope, without fate,
36:08
without patience, without acceptance of you can get killed?
36:14
So all those spiritual water tools were inflicted in my mindset very early because my goals
36:23
are completely different than other people's goals.
36:26
I want to be representing jujitsu regardless.
36:30
So if Davo in self-coming and say he don't believe in jujitsu, I have to fight the guy.
36:37
I have to fight the monster.
36:38
So in order for me to feel comfortable in that sense, rule set, I have to create a
36:44
spirit of value which transcends that kind of commitment.
36:49
Hey guys, real quick, do you remember during the pandemic when you basically couldn't get
36:53
anything shipped to your house?
36:54
All this manufacturing that was supposed to be taking place in America had been shipped
36:57
overseas and you just didn't notice it.
36:59
And I remember a bunch of companies saying we're going to do everything we can to make
37:02
sure that we bring manufacturing back to America and almost none of them followed through on
37:06
that promise.
37:07
But for me and for all of us here at Undaunted Life, I wanted to make sure that I partnered
37:11
with an American company that actually did want to prioritize American workers, their
37:15
families, their communities, and a company that would keep their word.
37:19
And that's why I want to remind you that we are partnered with Origin.
37:22
Origin is an apparel company based in Maine.
37:24
And what do they make?
37:25
They make the best jujitsu geez on the planet and the only jujitsu geez that are made completely
37:31
in America.
37:32
They also make jeans.
37:33
Yes, they have stretchy jeans.
37:34
They also have work jeans and boot cut jeans for you guys as well.
37:37
They make amazing hunting gear.
37:38
And here's the thing.
37:39
You guys like some other hunting brands, but those companies are American companies that
37:43
use overseas labor to increase their profit margins on their gear, not to help you or
37:49
Americans out.
37:51
They also offer handmade leather boots.
37:52
That does include steel toe boots and mock toe boots.
37:55
And they also make workout clothes and everyday pants and shirts and almost indestructible
37:59
hoodies.
38:00
And they're launching new apparel all the time guys.
38:02
If you haven't already tried Origin stuff, you need to check them out and support a company
38:06
that supports Americans.
38:08
Try Origin out today by going to www.originusa.com that's originusa.com.
38:15
Use the promo code undaunted to get 10% off your order.
38:18
Again, that's originusa.com promo code undaunted to get 10% off your order.
38:25
And I think in addition to that, there's there's an element here that people can go one way
38:29
or another when they do jujitsu.
38:32
They can either learn the skill set and get really cocky about it or they learn the skill
38:36
set and what's more likely is you realize that there's always someone out there that's
38:41
better than you.
38:42
There's always someone out there that's bigger, stronger that one of these days, you're not
38:46
going to be the hammer.
38:47
You're going to be the nail.
38:48
And there's actually a quote from the book that I love that kind of speaks to this very
38:51
little changed in my day to day after I won in Japan.
38:55
After a short surf trip, I returned to L.A. and resumed teaching and training at my academy.
39:00
Now people treated me like a powerful person because of my recent victory in Japan.
39:04
I did not allow this flattery to affect me.
39:07
I did not cure cancer or usher in an era of world peace.
39:10
I was neither a king nor a saint and never allowed myself to lose sight of the fact that
39:15
I was a mere mortal who happened to be good at jujitsu.
39:19
Now here's the thing.
39:21
You are one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time.
39:23
You're a pioneer of MMA.
39:25
Your family invented the sport that I've dedicated hundreds of hours to and that a lot of my
39:29
friends, we've collectively dedicated thousands and thousands of hours to, but talk to me
39:34
about how jujitsu, just training it and going and constantly keeping yourself accountable
39:41
to what goes on on the mat, how that actually helps you remain humble even as you get better
39:45
and better at the skill set.
39:47
Jujitsu is a compliment for life.
39:52
So you engage in jujitsu, you start to become more understandable about your physicality,
39:58
about your emotions, about your heart beats, about your panics, and you start to get negotiating
40:06
better emotionally and physically and technically.
40:10
We follow those disturbance, all this uncomfortable situation.
40:14
And those eventually is not going to be more uncomfortable.
40:17
They become like acceptable and eventually will become transformed to comfortable.
40:23
So jujitsu has different objectivities.
40:26
I can have a student who I'm going to plan to make a champion of him because he has the
40:32
ideas, the interests, the competitiveness, the toughness, the physicality.
40:37
But the majority of my students, I don't see them as champions, but I see them as, from
40:45
average people, they start to become more confident in their efforts and their results.
40:51
I can change people, they can be a better father, a better police officer, a better doctor,
40:56
a better lawyer, because he's more confident in approaching scenarios.
41:01
So, so jujitsu can help in any level people to bring them grounded, to making them strength,
41:09
to bringing them in a sense of comfort, to deal, to negotiate life itself.
41:16
Well, I got to tell you, Hixen, for me, you're exactly right when jujitsu just kind of reveals
41:22
who you are.
41:23
You talked about whether you're mean or whether you're violent or whether you're cowardly.
41:26
For me, there was a lot of insecurity when I started training because I started training
41:29
at the age of 30.
41:30
And so I'm like, well, crap, I didn't start when I was a kid.
41:33
I'm starting as an adult and I had played ball sports.
41:36
So I had played, you know, baseball and football and basketball and just anything pick up and
41:40
I did a little bit of wrestling.
41:42
And so, you know, you go up against somebody that's maybe smaller than you, maybe you don't
41:46
see them as athletic as you and then they beat you.
41:49
And especially in those early days of jujitsu, I would just respond, get so mad and storm
41:53
off the mat.
41:54
And it's just I look back on that person and think, I don't know that I could have done
41:58
anything, Hixen, as a hobby.
42:00
That would have taught me the lessons of humility that jujitsu has because you're embarrassed
42:04
at how you acted, you embarrassed at how you responded to a teammate, but then you got
42:09
to go back and train.
42:10
You know what I mean?
42:11
So I don't think golf is going to teach you that.
42:13
I don't think, you know, trading cards is teaching you that or fantasy football.
42:17
I think jujitsu is very unique in that.
42:19
But with that, Hixen, there's obviously disappointments that come when somebody is training.
42:24
That could be losses, it could be injuries or whatever.
42:26
But for you, you elucidate in this book, as you did in your first book, Breathe, about
42:31
the disappointment that the family did not pick you to compete in UFC one, that they
42:36
picked your brother hoisin.
42:38
It was that they didn't feel like they could control you, but they could control him.
42:42
But they were kind of keeping you as the backup in case something went wrong with hoisin
42:46
that you would kind of write in because everyone knew at the time, including hoisin, including
42:51
everyone in your family, that you were probably the most dangerous man alive on a mat that
42:56
had you done UFC one and UFC two, it would have been an even more dominant performance
43:02
than what we saw out of hoisin.
43:04
And that was very perplexing to you and very confusing and very disappointing.
43:08
So for you, how did you deal with the disappointment at that time of kind of being passed over
43:13
by your family and then fighting in Japan, which you did well and made a good living
43:17
over there?
43:18
And then when you look back on that time period now, how do you look at that as a teaching
43:23
moment for how you've been able to overcome disappointment?
43:27
I think that moment was a very dramatic moment in my life because I felt like I was trying
43:34
and fighting to represent the family and then hard and which was the boss at the time organizing
43:40
all the business.
43:41
He creates the UFC and because he was jealous or not jealous, but he was not, he wants me
43:49
to help him more than I was doing.
43:51
I was separating myself from him.
43:54
And he said, he believes more in hoisin to teach you to fight for him than myself.
44:02
So his intention is to able to put hoisin and he's too controlling hoisin as he wants
44:08
to control me and he couldn't.
44:10
So hard and we're creating this separation and I accept that as something which is life.
44:18
I get a little upset, but pass on.
44:22
Just after that, I was invited to go to Japan and I start to make him a professional career
44:27
in Japan, which for me was great and get this sour moment with hoisin.
44:37
But I think life kind of just, I believe solutions coming without explanation, you know, things
44:44
are created in a very holistic way which you cannot explain.
44:50
So just by being peaceful, just by an accept what Hoisin did to me, immediately I get
44:56
an answer from the other side and offer me some.
44:59
So I was immediately following my road and then Japan was my land for a long time.
45:07
I become very successful in Japan and the UFC becomes huge and everything was okay.
45:16
And I see the evolutionary process of all this.
45:21
Make UFC becomes more like a national sport than actually martial arts event becomes a
45:27
very competitive sport, very tough guys.
45:29
But somehow I lost the interest to see UFC as much as I used to watch.
45:37
Well, I remember you talking about fighting in Japan.
45:39
You liked fighting for the Japanese fans because you felt like that a deeper understanding
45:43
of warrior culture, how warrior carries himself, kind of that samurai spirit, a much deeper
45:48
understanding of martial arts.
45:50
But you also talk about in the book competition, jujitsu versus jujitsu for self-defense or
45:57
for fighting.
45:59
And you have some quotes in here about how a lot of a lot of people can train jujitsu
46:03
and be really good at competition jujitsu, but they would be terrible in a street fight.
46:08
They would be terrible in a situation where they needed to protect themselves or somebody
46:11
else.
46:12
So a lot of schools don't even focus on takedowns.
46:14
And so if a fight starts on the feet and you're really good at all this guard stuff and all
46:18
this, these random interesting moves, but you can't get the fight to the ground, that's
46:23
going to be problematic for you, especially in a very heightened scenario.
46:28
So talk to me a little bit more about how you see the influence of MMA as a sport, as
46:33
an athletic endeavor or competition jujitsu as an athletic endeavor, perhaps leading to
46:39
people not being as good at self-defense or applying that as they maybe think they are.
46:44
Yes.
46:45
I believe when you stop learning self-defense, jujitsu self-defense, you stop learning how
46:54
to position yourself, how to approach yourself in a regular, common, aggressive situation.
47:01
And then you start to losing perspective of how this can be dangerous, how this can be
47:05
surprising, so you start to say, oh, I like to only play on the ground, guard passing
47:12
using the ghee, sometimes without the ghee's to slippery.
47:15
So you start to put yourself in a scenario which you control the environment.
47:20
You don't have strikes, you have just slippery moves.
47:24
So you're happy there.
47:26
But if you go transform yourself for MMA fighter, you're going to see how many problems you
47:31
have to deal to cope with the needs of being a professional MMA.
47:40
So the idea for you to be complete has to embrace martial self-defense because self-defense
47:48
will give you the sense of how to approach, how to clinch, how to have base and movement,
47:54
how to defend against the strikes, how to defend kicks and punches.
47:59
When you mount how to keep your position and be able to capitalize on the guy's mistakes.
48:05
So mixed martial arts is a completely different monster than actually jujitsu competition.
48:14
And you have to be practiced this in a very natural way.
48:16
You cannot be only focused on sport developments or rule sets.
48:23
And with the martial arts, with the self-defense coming regularly in your activity, you start
48:29
to become creative, you start to become improvised, you start to become more adapted to the street
48:34
fight, adapted to the octagon fight because you have your open mind for whenever happens.
48:42
So you can see guys with much less technique, but with the martial arts vision for the fight.
48:48
So sometimes the guy coming from Africa without too much techniques, but he's a giant.
48:54
He knows how to hit.
48:55
He knows how to keep up, he knows how to create distance, and he can make a lot of success
49:01
without having the perfect techniques.
49:04
So the idea of engagement requires from you using techniques, but open your mind for what's
49:11
there, what is out there for each of you comfortable about it.
49:15
You have to be a martial arts in a complete spectrum, not only physicality.
49:22
Well no, that's what I think about whenever, sometimes when I train with some friends,
49:26
we will throw in some palm strikes, maybe we'll put on big gloves.
49:30
And so you're trying to work a mount escape, but the guy on top is just kind of keeping
49:34
you honest, throwing like 50% strikes and things like that.
49:38
But one thing that has kind of been a through point of this entire interview and certainly
49:41
in the reading of the book is what you've mentioned several times, and that's your hardest
49:45
fight of your life, which is currently your fight against Parkinson's.
49:48
So you're diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2021, but I want to read this quote from the book
49:51
because I just, I absolutely loved it might be my favorite quote from the entire thing.
49:55
In life and in jujitsu, sometimes you are the hammer and sometimes you are the nail.
49:59
When you are faced with unexpected challenges, you can either quit and submit without a fight
50:04
or you can take a deep breath and engage.
50:06
While I might not be able to reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease, I will never seed
50:11
an inch of ground to it without a fight.
50:14
Like my father taught me, you can't defeat a person who never gives up.
50:19
And so Hixen, you're talking to guys in this audience right now that they might be struggling
50:24
with a disease or a sickness or they have a loved one that's struggling with a disease
50:28
or sickness.
50:29
And there are a lot of people that would just tell them, oh, it's okay if you just kind
50:33
of take it easy and just kind of accept it or, oh, you've lived a good life or, oh, you
50:36
know, there's going to be better days for you or something like that.
50:40
And they don't have that fight that is required inside of them to actually do to do better
50:46
to have a better mental approach to the experiences that they're having.
50:50
So what would be your message to people like that based on your own experience right now
50:56
with your fight against Parkinson's?
50:58
It's such a be grateful, such a be thankful and grateful for the opportunity to be in
51:04
the earth until today and respect that tomorrow.
51:08
If you don't die tomorrow is a time for celebration because people think, oh, I'm going to die
51:14
in a month and start to depress yourself instead of this thinking about you want to
51:18
die tomorrow.
51:19
And if you survive tomorrow is a big day for super celebration.
51:24
So changing our perspective of how much you need to be alive.
51:29
Change our perspective of how grateful you are to be alive today and how much emotions
51:35
and how much thankful you are to being up today enjoying your life, your family or health.
51:41
So we start to see instead you see the negative perspective, change everything for the positive
51:49
perspective because we all going to die.
51:53
No matter what, if it's today or tomorrow, and I eat 10 years from now, we all going
51:56
to die eventually a majority of people going to get sick, going to sometimes spend some
52:02
time on bed.
52:03
So things are natural.
52:05
You cannot see this as a natural.
52:07
We don't control time.
52:10
You may have an agenda, but you're not sure about your agenda we are from now because
52:14
you're not sure what's going to be.
52:17
So you can have appointments one year from now, but you're not sure if you're going
52:21
to be there.
52:23
So you cannot be disappointed by having something in your agenda.
52:27
You have to be optimistic about something you can accomplish today.
52:32
So short of your perspective of life more intense has to be your capacity to be alive
52:38
and be serving in being happy and being at positive mode today.
52:46
So if you find somebody who is happy, regardless if you're going to die or not, he passed
52:55
to you happiness.
52:56
He passed for you gratitude.
52:58
So you can go in a hospital and talk with somebody who is in a terminal problem.
53:04
He can be very spire, very happy, very much accepting his destiny or he can be very healthy
53:13
and healthy, but can be sick on his mind.
53:16
It's so much problems, emotional problems and mental problems for average people.
53:22
So you can see people who has no problems, seems like they have all the problems in the
53:27
world, negativity, depression, anxiety, stress.
53:35
So if you don't start from within saying God, thank you for being alive.
53:41
Thank you to be able to be alive today and talk and serve and call and inspire somebody.
53:49
So of course, it's not easy.
53:52
Of course, it's not something for you to be happy to be doing because you're in a terminal
53:58
phase, but at least take you from the focus of the negativity and put you on a spiritual
54:07
level of acceptance and solidarity, which becomes bigger than your end, becomes bigger
54:19
than you wait yourself, go to the end.
54:24
In another words, you inspire people to become like you even when you're sick.
54:30
Absolutely, and you've seen different people and we've all had examples of individuals
54:35
that while they were sick, they showed tremendous courage and they showed that warrior like spirit.
54:40
I mean, I've seen that in kids.
54:41
There's videos that bring me to tears every time of a seven year old that doesn't have
54:45
any hair and all that and they're giving perspective.
54:48
I remember this one young man that was like, I'm glad God allowed me to have cancer because
54:52
that means it didn't happen to one of my sisters or something like that, which that's not exactly
54:57
how it works.
54:58
But to that kid, he's like, I can be a happy warrior and I'll do this just so another kid
55:03
doesn't have to suffer.
55:04
Hickson, we've gone everywhere in this conversation.
55:06
We've covered a lot of ground in comfort and darkness, but I got one last question for you.
55:10
You mentioned in comfort and darkness about how when you were fighting, you always fantasized
55:16
about fighting Mike Tyson.
55:18
So at the time, you know, Mike Tyson was at his absolute prime, the scariest human being,
55:23
maybe everybody, anybody had ever seen, but obviously just a boxer.
55:27
So boxing range and MMA range and jujitsu, that's all very, very different.
55:30
So at the time, you always fantasize about what you do in that fight.
55:34
But what I want to know, and I know you don't follow the UFC as much right now, but is there
55:39
a current MMA fighter that if you were back in your physical prime, right?
55:44
So if you if you were in your physical prime right now at your best fighting, fighting
55:49
weight and fighting ability, is there that one fighter that you would want to test your
55:54
skills against that's that's a currently active fighter?
55:57
There's so many different good ones like John Jones, like this new guy, Brazilian striker
56:08
under some silver, some guys, they very they put themselves in a good lab of being skilled.
56:18
And for me, I was not in regard to the MMA rules.
56:25
I will never fight anyone of them in those rules because for me, if I fight John Jones
56:31
reached about 30 or 40 pounds heavier than me, something I'm going to need is time.
56:37
Yeah, I want to be able to survive for the first and then eventually capitalize on the
56:42
missed.
56:43
That's what I believe could happen.
56:45
I start to survive.
56:46
He can catch me.
56:47
Of course, I'm not saying I'm going to win.
56:48
But in my hopes and my beliefs, my strategy will be survive, make him get tired and capitalize.
56:56
So that's my my vision.
57:00
Of course, it's just my my site and people cannot believe on that.
57:04
And I never felt like disappointed with my vision in regard to all my opponents so far.
57:11
I fought great fighters.
57:13
I fought big wrestlers.
57:14
I fought tough guys.
57:17
And I felt like my strategy always prevail.
57:21
So I believe I could fight anyone those heavy.
57:25
I always think about the heavyweights.
57:27
I don't think about people in my way division.
57:29
So if I'm engaged with John Jones, for example, I would love to engage with him.
57:39
But the possibility for me, I just want to have a chance if there's a no time limit fight.
57:46
I never will fight with him without with limits, three rounds, five minutes, no, no way.
57:52
Because it's too easy for them to spin, go all the energy and then rest and then spin
57:58
again.
57:59
And it's very hard when you spin it, making crazy things.
58:04
Until you get tired and make mistakes, your spinning gets a lot of results.
58:10
So I will help to allow the guy to spin it many times and for me to survive and eventually
58:16
he's going to get tired.
58:18
If he's a lonely, short rounds of five minutes, the guy can fight with me forever.
58:24
So the idea of capitalizing the guy's mistake has to come in with a different rule set.
58:31
I will allow the time not to be, I mean, it will be a long time for fighting.
58:37
And no, another important point is the cage.
58:41
Fighting on the cage, the cage is the third element there.
58:46
And if you're a great fighter, you're not accustomed to fight on the cage, you're going
58:51
to have problems to free yourself from the cage.
58:55
You're going to have problems to stand up using the cage.
58:57
You're going to find yourself in many problems because if you're accustomed to use the cage,
59:03
you are accustomed to use the cage against your opponent.
59:07
And your opponent has to be accustomed to make you dealing.
59:09
Take your head off the cage, moving.
59:11
So it's a lot of details.
59:13
So if I'm going to fight him for him, I will fight him for him with no time limits and
59:18
no cage, either an open match or either a cage where it's no cage, but it's just like
59:24
walls make you feel inside.
59:28
So that way, it's not cheating on the using the walls.
59:32
For me, those are two problems I could not resolve without the pratix.
59:37
And I feel like I feel happy if I could use my jujitsu.
59:41
But today's the rule of engagements of the UFC becomes very sporty, very entertaining,
59:47
but there's no technique.
59:48
There's no martial arts.
59:49
There's more like two super outlets engaging with each other.
59:53
It is certainly different watching guys now versus guys back when you were fighting just
59:58
the approach.
59:59
Obviously, even in pride where you had a 10 minute first round and then you went into
1:00:03
the later rounds, it's obviously very, very different than where we are today.
1:00:07
But Hixen, it's always a pleasure to get a chance to talk to you and to talk to somebody
1:00:11
that has helped invent the sport that has revolutionized my life.
1:00:14
But that's all for me.
1:00:15
Is there anything else you want to get off your chest?
1:00:17
No, my father, I want to thank you very much for the support.
1:00:20
I hope you like the second book and we talk soon.
1:00:23
Okay.
1:00:24
Thank you.
1:00:25
Very good.
1:00:26
Thank you.
1:00:27
God bless brother.
1:00:28
There you go guys.
1:00:29
I hope you enjoyed the return appearance of Hixen Gracie on the show.
1:00:30
But before I let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost at a daunted life or
1:00:33
mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual mental
1:00:36
and physical resilience.
1:00:37
So I've got two links for you today.
1:00:39
I've got a link to Hixen's website and I've also got a link where you can pick up his new
1:00:41
book, comfort in darkness.
1:00:44
Thank you for listening to this podcast.
1:00:45
Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five
1:00:48
star review.
1:00:49
If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, shoot me an email
1:00:52
to info@undonton.life.
1:00:55
That's I N F O at undonton.life.
1:00:57
Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for everything else,
1:01:00
including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way.
1:01:03
Just go to www.undonton.life.
1:01:05
And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing us to use their music for
1:01:09
our content.
1:01:10
The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua, which is off their self titled debut album
1:01:14
on Face Down Records.
1:01:15
The links are in the description.
1:01:17
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
1:01:19
Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience.
1:01:26
Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
1:01:44
in the next video.