JRE MMA Show #100 with Cody Garbrandt

Joe Rogan 0:02 (drumming music plays) Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays) Hello, Cody.

Cody Garbrandt 0:15 What's going on, bro?

Joe Rogan 0:15 Good to see you, brother. What's happening, man?

Cody Garbrandt 0:17 You too. Enjoying Austin.

Joe Rogan 0:18 Yeah. So you're coming here?

Cody Garbrandt 0:20 Possibly.

Joe Rogan 0:20 Are you letting ... Do people know? About-

Cody Garbrandt 0:22 Not yet.

Joe Rogan 0:22 Did I blow the ... ?

Cody Garbrandt 0:23 Not yet, but I'll let 'em know. They're gonna know now.

Joe Rogan 0:25 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 0:26 I think so. I mean, it's probably the, you know, move we spoke about earlier.

Joe Rogan 0:29 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 0:30 But, uh, I've always loved Texas, like we spoke earlier. I, I got signed here to the UFC. Was on it for so many years. Came out here during fight, fight camps for a week, and kinda just unplugged but focused on training and had a good time out here. It was always, always a pleasure.

Joe Rogan 0:44 Yeah, it's a beautiful place. Uh, I'm enjoying the shit out of it. Dude, first of all, congratulations on your comeback. Uh, that ... (sighs) You know, you're a great guy, and when there's someone I like who loses a bunch of fights in a row, and you get into this skid, it's ha- it's hard to watch. I can't imagine what it was like being you.

Cody Garbrandt 1:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:05 You know, to have a, a young child and to be dealing with all of this going o- ... I mean, it's like y- ... Losing your to- ... But then to come back the way you did, against a really fucking tough guy in Assuncao and get, arguably, the KO of the year. I mean, you gotta be feeling pretty fucking good.

Cody Garbrandt 1:24 I feel great, you know? Um-

Joe Rogan 1:25 Back from the brink.

Cody Garbrandt 1:26 Back from the brinks. I mean, that time in my life, that timeframe and period and, and going through that f- ... You know, from on top of the world, world champion, uh, to three-fight skid, honestly it feels like a, a lifetime ago. I feel like I'm just a different person, um, where I, where I was at from there. You know, removed, and the things I'm just doing differently, thinking differently, you know, how I was able to approach the game, picking myself back up time and time again. I mean, (laughs) it's ... Internet is a horrible place to get, get knocked out on, you know? Especially-

Joe Rogan 1:56 The internet's fucked. (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 1:58 You got the trolls, this and that, you know? It's-

Joe Rogan 2:00 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 2:00 But besides that point, you know, um, just coming back to that and having a love for it. A lot of the times I got to the fight and, um, not to make excuses, I was just ... I didn't feel myself. I didn't feel like, um ... In the training and leading up, I felt physically I'm always ready to fight. Like flip the switch, I'm always physically ready to fight. I think mentally, going into those fights, I was just, um, out of body. I wasn't ... Uh, I felt like I was going through the motions. You know, my passion wasn't there. I wasn't waking up every day like, "What's your reason why?" Like I was just trying to find that, and I think the reason why I w- had so many people, um, infiltrated in how I should train or how I should live or what I should do to get back there, and really it wasn't nothing that I needed to learn new. I didn't have to reinvent the wheel. It was just doing the Slight Edge Theory, like getting out of your comfort zone. Like you're doing your sauna sessions, like you're pushing yourself to go in there and, and just be uncomfortable. Um, you know? So I had to go out there and with that comeback, you know, I moved to Jersey, did training camp out there, and I split time between-

Joe Rogan 2:58 Yeah, I wanna talk to you about that.

Cody Garbrandt 3:00 You're talking now?

Joe Rogan 3:00 I'm a big fan of Henry.

Cody Garbrandt 3:01 Dude.

Joe Rogan 3:02 Mark Henry's a bad motherfucker.

Cody Garbrandt 3:03 H- he's great. I, I love ... I enjoy him so much, his passion for it, his love for it.

Joe Rogan 3:07 He's so interesting too, his crazy codes.

Cody Garbrandt 3:10 Oh my gosh.

Joe Rogan 3:10 And the fact the dude makes pizza on the side. (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 3:12 Dude, I was so nervous going out there 'cause I heard of the codes and, and, like, you know, I was with Lance. So Lance would kinda give me a little insight on it, on, on everything. I'm like, "Damn, codes?" And I just fight, dude. Like I don't have really set things. I kinda go off of my instincts and, and game plans, and he was trying to, you know, brief me on it. When I got to the first two weeks, holy shit. We'd go down to his basement and he has, like, pizza scrolls from the pizzeria where we have off- ... About 50 things that we're working on, um, before camp. And then we-

Joe Rogan 3:40 So what does he write 'em on boxes?

Cody Garbrandt 3:42 Pizza scrolls.

Joe Rogan 3:42 Pizza boxes?

Cody Garbrandt 3:43 Pizza scrolls, like the just, uh, basically white paper and he-

Joe Rogan 3:46 Oh. (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 3:47 ... rolls it down and then tapes it there to the wall. You have, like, Cory's fight camp. You have, you know, Frankie's and-

Joe Rogan 3:52 Wow.

Cody Garbrandt 3:52 ... he had all these codes. And you have ... You know, he's working with 14 fighters at one time.

Joe Rogan 3:55 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 3:55 He knows all the codes.

Joe Rogan 3:56 And all different kinds of fights too.

Cody Garbrandt 3:58 All different kinds of fights.

Joe Rogan 3:58 Like he's got Zabit there, he's got Frankie.

Cody Garbrandt 4:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 4:01 It's like all these different styles.

Cody Garbrandt 4:03 Different styles, yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:03 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 4:03 Different styles and we'll kind of ... You know, what I like about that is he'll try things that Zabit does. Zabit does these crazy double jump scissor kicks and-

Joe Rogan 4:12 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 4:12 ... spinning. You know, the Russians are really good at spinning shit. You know, so we threw that i- into the, into the game. And it, it's, it's ... You know, it was nice to get that kinda ... And then stuff that Frankie's done and had success over the years. Um, so we meshed that together. Um, he got to know me really well. Uh, we worked, you know, extensively with Ricardo Almeida up there as well. Um, but yeah, Coach Henry is just, uh, there's noth- ... He's obsessed with winning. But what I loved about him was the first thing that he said to me, um, was that his job is ... He's competitive. He wants to win at all costs, but his job is to get us back to our family. And, um, I watched your podcast with, uh, Andre Ward, and he said the same thing about his trainer.

Joe Rogan 4:49 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 4:50 And I ... Once he said that to me, and I have a child now, my whole thought processes has changed, you know, and transitioned in there. Like, I wanna be able to be around for my son's life. I wanna have, you know, um ... Speak to my grandchildren, I'm not drooling, you know? That's what cut down-

Joe Rogan 5:02 Right.

Cody Garbrandt 5:02 ... Coach Mark from. I don't want you drooling when you're, you know, you're 50, 60 years old and, and I kinda ... The style that I fight, I can punch and move and I don't have to brawl with these guys.

Joe Rogan 5:10 Right.

Cody Garbrandt 5:10 You know? And, um, just reiterating the defensive part of the technical offensive part with him is I could go in there and hit a six-seven punch combo. Dude, he would, he would care less. He's like, "What did you do after? You moved after. Your head was off. Your hands was up." Like, the-

Joe Rogan 5:26 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 5:26 He's all about defense and, you know, I think he just helped me out a lot with saying that. Like, getting me home to my family safe.

Joe Rogan 5:33 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 5:33 Like, that's what I wanna do.

Joe Rogan 5:34 It's such an important approach, to be defensively sound. And, and yet there's so many fighters who don't think like that at all. They just think about offense. And if you ... You know, it's, it's a really ... Like in jujitsu, like, Hicks and Gracie had a ... I had a conversation with him once about jujitsu, and one of the things that he said is that the most important thing is defense. He said, "Because I'm always safe." This is what he said. He goes, "I'm always safe."And he goes, "In every position, I'm always safe."

Cody Garbrandt 6:03 Sure.

Joe Rogan 6:03 Like, he lets guys on his back with a fully locked in rear naked choke, and he'll start rolling like that.

Cody Garbrandt 6:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:09 He, he's always safe. So he never... And that's interesting also, I read that about the Danaher death squad, John Danaher's guys, like, you know, Gordon Ryan and all those guys, they all start in really bad positions all the time. They train constantly in bad positions, so they're always defensively sound. And that makes sense with striking as well. So many guys are so concerned with offense. And, you know, you've had so many spectacular knockouts, like the Thomas Almeida fight-

Cody Garbrandt 6:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:35 ... that it's just, like, you probably just want to blast guys.

Cody Garbrandt 6:38 True. I get... I gotta, like, pull the reins-

Joe Rogan 6:41 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 6:41 ... back sometimes. I'm like, dude, I'm so amped up to just get in there and get to fight, you know. Like, forget the walk out, forget the, you know-

Joe Rogan 6:47 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 6:47 I, I want to, I want to get the first blow. I want to get that exchange, and then that's when the fight unravels. Sometimes I think I get so amped up that, you know, taking it back, you know, doing that kind of... Having defensively sound sets up your offense.

Joe Rogan 6:59 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 6:59 And my uncle was training me my whole entire life, and (laughs) this is what he said, "Your offense sets up your defense and vice versa." But okay, like, my offense was so good, and then you get to this point where your people are breaking down your footages and your films and, you know, your speed and power. You know, you have to have that... You have to be defensively sound if you're so offensive. I'm a, I'm a forward fighter.

Joe Rogan 7:17 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 7:17 I can fight going back. A lot of fighters can't go. I can feel I can fight positional. Um, like you said about Danaher's guys, Chris Holdsworth, um, has adapted into a phenomenal coach. You know, he's my right-hand guy from martial artists to the tee, and he makes us start in horrible positions like that when we're dog dead tired, and then get up and we're shadow sparring each other and then going back to the ground. Like, really fight simulated things to where you're feeling uncomfortable in those positions. Like, yeah, I can go in there and, and knee wrestle all day during jujitsu and I didn't get tapped out. I didn't tap anybody. I was safe, but I didn't put myself in those positions when the fight really happens, you have to see how, you know, your grit. You gotta be able to fight off the hands, fight off the body, try and go fight out of those bad positions so you're comfortable wherever the fight goes. And I feel like that's where I'm at now. I've transitioned into that fighter. I was so green when I got to Alpha Male, and, and a lot of my speed and power catapulted me to the top where I have to kind of draw back a little bit and do the correctional errors. Not reinventing, not new things, but the defensive part of things. Like, you know, I was up and training in Jersey and I knew I had the good head slips and movements, but some of the slips... Coach was watching me and I would get caught on the, you know... Not the first or second, I usually would get hit with the fourth punch, you know, like a combo puncher. So I would slip, slip, and then I would slip down this way and I would get hit with the, the jab, like, every time. He's like, "Dude, just bring your hand up a little bit when you're slipping to the right, or moving to the right." And I... You know, he's like, "How you feel after sparring?" I'm like, "Dude, I feel great. I don't have a headache." (laughs) I'm not getting my ass kicked. Like, I'm not getting hit really. And, like, my defense has gotten so, um, solid working with him and just constantly. And, and Chris is the same way and my coaches out in Alpha Male are the same with hands up, hands up, hands up. But I was just, at that point in my life, I was just so aggressive and angry.

Joe Rogan 8:56 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 8:56 And, and just-

Joe Rogan 8:58 Well, you had so much success-

Cody Garbrandt 8:59 Argh.

Joe Rogan 8:59 ... atta- attacking that way too.

Cody Garbrandt 9:00 At, at doing that. But this last fight, I was honestly... Joe, when I was, you know, doing those feints on Assuncao and Coach Henry said, "Hey, don't feel like these feints aren't gonna work. Like, he's defensively sound. He's a great fighter at, at that respect. Keep doing these feints. They will work." I'm feinting this guy, dude. I'm feinting, I'm feinting. He's not really biting. He's not really coming in. But I kept on the feints and we... You know, I started catching him with some, some shots that I saw in his eyes were hurting him, and then feinted, did the Tyson two, was overhand right, dropped him. And I knew once I had that range and the power and speed in his timing that he would come in with something. So, uh, you know, .......................... Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:35 That, the KO, the way you did it, where you dropped your hands and looked to the side and waited for him to move, oh my god, that was like one of the best walk off KOs ever.

Cody Garbrandt 9:44 Ah, it felt great, because the first round, I kind of had myself to the cage and coach... Man, he, he'd probably kick my ass being on the cage, like, "Get off the cage. Get to the, you know, movement more. We're movement fighters." You know, he made me. Um, and I know my back was against the cage, but I saw and, and the, the round was ending, but I saw Assuncao, like, "Oh, here's my opening."

Joe Rogan 10:01 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 10:01 I saw that in the first round and I... The second round I was staying off, I was moving, I was feinting, I was switched, you know, stances. Um, but towards the end of that I heard the clappers and I'm like, "All right, I'm back against the wall. Let, let him come in." I kind of leaned towards, and he kind of like feinted on it, and then he chased me down. When I level changed, I kept my eye on him, and he threw the hook because he was going southpaw. And, uh, I knew, like, I had the hand, my hand on the cage to know where my distance was to... He was coming with a kick after, I could lean back. Uh, I just had my range and my timing and-

Joe Rogan 10:28 There it is right there.

Cody Garbrandt 10:28 ... once I threw it, man, I knew when I felt it from the hip, it was, it was over.

Joe Rogan 10:32 Dudes. (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 10:34 Yeah. I know.

Joe Rogan 10:34 And that, that guy is so fucking durable.

Cody Garbrandt 10:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 10:37 That's the thing. I mean, this guy is so tough and so, so durable. For you to catch him and KO him like this-

Cody Garbrandt 10:44 Yep.

Joe Rogan 10:44 ... that had to feel so good.

Cody Garbrandt 10:46 That was good, you know. Back against the wall, I mean, that was-

Joe Rogan 10:48 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 10:48 ... a pivotal point in my life. But I knew leading up to that, I needed to get in octagon. I kept... Like, hey, Sean, Dana, and then obviously in the beginning of the year, I had that kidney infection that landed me in the hospital. I had to remove myself from the fight.

Joe Rogan 11:00 How did... What, what happened there?

Cody Garbrandt 11:02 Dude, I had the, um, I guess a staph or cellulitis that I didn't know. My shin was so sore for weeks. I would, you know, tape it with a knee pad, put a knee pad and tape it and spar and grapple, but there was no, like, infection, no nothing, no cut. Um-

Joe Rogan 11:15 So you just thought it was a bruise?

Cody Garbrandt 11:16 I kicked, kicked this dude hella hard and I just thought that my leg was just bruised that bad. Like, you know, sometimes you hit your shins-

Joe Rogan 11:22 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 11:22 ... and, you know, um, caught an elbow maybe a knee, and I was transitioning back. I was in Jersey for a month, then I was back here for, in California for two weeks, then I was going back to Jersey and just training hard, you know, and, um, to where my body just started shutting down. Like, I remember telling Coach Mark after training one day, I'm like, "I'm just feeling horrible." Um, and then by that night, I kind of just started feeling really bad and started urinating blood, so I went to the hospital. And, uh, they checked everything out and like, "Oh, you're good." Like, the doctor came in, he's like, "Here's a surgeon's number. Like, you're gonna have to get your lymph nodes removed," because my lymph nodes were swollen so much in my groin. I couldn't even walk. I was, like, like, crawling in there.And, like, everything checked out. They did all these tests. I was there for like majority of the day.

Joe Rogan 12:05 Why, why wouldn't they just remove them?

Cody Garbrandt 12:07 Just, that's what he said. And I'm like, "All right." So I was like, drove home, to J- um, dr- 'cause I drove there the first time, and then drove home. Chris is actually flying out for the week to help me train, and I was like, "Chris, bro, I don't feel good. Um, there's something going on." Like, you know, but I just had everything checked out, so I'm like, "I'm not gonna be a pussy and go back to the, to the hospital." But progressively during the night, it just became like towards just straight blood when I was this- was urinating. So I'm like, "This is not good." I couldn't eat. I had the cold chills. Went back, Ubered back to the hospital. And, um, they admitted me and I had a ki- really bad kidney infection from, um, (clicks tongue) I guess cellulitis. That was in my leg.

Joe Rogan 12:42 So how did they find out that you have a really bad kidney infection? Did they do it-

Cody Garbrandt 12:44 I did-

Joe Rogan 12:44 ... for a blood test?

Cody Garbrandt 12:45 I did blood cultures. I was doing... I did probably 26 labs. I was in the hospital for... They didn't know why I was c- what was caused from it. Um, I had a team full, a team of doctors, surgeons, um, you know, uh, s- infectious disease doctors, like, all these, like, trying to do these tests. And, and, like, we didn't know what was going on. And then they gave me antibiotic and I was on, hip-ho- hooked up to penicillin for six days, an IV the whole time.

Joe Rogan 13:10 Jesus.

Cody Garbrandt 13:10 Like, it was the first few days in the hospital, dude, I couldn't eat. I couldn't even urinate myself. The l- the lady had to hold the bucket to where I was jus-

Joe Rogan 13:16 Oh.

Cody Garbrandt 13:17 I was just dying. I think I was training myself. You know, it wasn't a diet thing, you know. I was eating right, correct, taking supplements, like, just training hard and then I guess I just trained my body to-

Joe Rogan 13:27 Well, if you get s- that's the thing about people that get sick while they're training. Like, people that are in... Like, if you're in fight camp, your body is... You're, you're constantly breaking yourself down. That's why guys get sick all the time in training.

Cody Garbrandt 13:39 For sure.

Joe Rogan 13:39 'Cause you're so tired all-

Cody Garbrandt 13:41 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 13:41 You train so hard. If you get sick, bad, while that's happening, you can get really fucked up. And there are so many guys out there running around with staph infections that don't know they have them.

Cody Garbrandt 13:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 13:52 I've seen guys at the gym and they have, like, this little thing on their arm, and then someone's gotta say, "Hey, dude, have you got that checked out?"

Cody Garbrandt 13:58 Right.

Joe Rogan 13:58 Like, "That thing looks like a big boil. Like, you got staph, bro."

Cody Garbrandt 14:01 Right.

Joe Rogan 14:01 And they're like, "Is that staph?"

Cody Garbrandt 14:03 (laughs) Right.

Joe Rogan 14:03 "Is that, did that, is that s-"

Cody Garbrandt 14:04 Yeah, it looks like staph, yeah.

Joe Rogan 14:04 People don't know.

Cody Garbrandt 14:05 For sure.

Joe Rogan 14:05 But that shit gets systemic-

Cody Garbrandt 14:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 14:07 ... and then you could die.

Cody Garbrandt 14:08 Yeah, it was... Yeah, I had to go and do, you know, I had to go to a kidney specialist. They-

Joe Rogan 14:12 Fuck.

Cody Garbrandt 14:12 ... went to Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, uh, did all these tests. They wanted to do a biopsy, um-

Joe Rogan 14:18 Staph is fucking scary, man.

Cody Garbrandt 14:19 So I, so I texted Dana like, "Man, like, I had to pull out of my fight." And then he was saying that he was going to have the fights. I'm like, "Well, I need to fight." Like, I just need... My soul needs to get in there. I need to turn this around. I'm on three-fight skid. Like, I was excited. I was fighting in Columbus, Ohio, my hometown. I was gonna start the comeback there. And then, and then Martial Arts, you know. I was back to my visualization, focusing on fighting. Like, I was so far removed from that. Um, not because I was losing. Like, even when I won the title, I was just, like, so far, like...

Joe Rogan 14:45 You weren't visualizing then?

Cody Garbrandt 14:47 I wasn't. I mean, I ended up injuring myself in the fight with Cruz, with my knee, and then I ended up having the back procedure in Germany, um, leading up to the TJ fight. It took me out a whole year.

Joe Rogan 14:56 Did you get that Regenakene stuff? Yep.

Cody Garbrandt 14:57 Yep, I did. And it, and it worked. And there's shelf lives of it. You know, I still feel, um... I learned a lot, like, doing obviously yoga, PT. You know, as much as I'm training, I'm still doing five days a week of PT, you know, and, and, and mobility work.

Joe Rogan 15:09 For your back?

Cody Garbrandt 15:10 For my, just-

Joe Rogan 15:11 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 15:11 ... overall mobility.

Joe Rogan 15:12 What was the exact extent of the injury?

Cody Garbrandt 15:14 It was an annular tear, um, in my-

Joe Rogan 15:16 Of the disc?

Cody Garbrandt 15:17 Of the disc, yeah. So it was kinda just protruding. It was just hitting that sciatic nerve and-

Joe Rogan 15:21 Mm. Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 15:21 ... just locking up.

Joe Rogan 15:23 They're doing stem cells in discs now, and th- they're having great results from that.

Cody Garbrandt 15:27 I have to check it out.

Joe Rogan 15:27 You know, I know a dude who had severe sciatic pain and a, a dropped foot. Like, his foot was, like, going numb and, and he got it completely fixed with stem cells.

Cody Garbrandt 15:37 Wow. That's great.

Joe Rogan 15:38 Yeah. Regenerative medicine is the future, man. It's really fascinating stuff.

Cody Garbrandt 15:41 Um, part of it's pulling from your own self to heal you and mix with some other stuff?

Joe Rogan 15:44 Yeah, some of it. And some of it they're doing from umbilical cords.

Cody Garbrandt 15:47 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 15:48 When a, a young, like if a young woman gives birth, uh, they, they take the umbilical cord and they make stem cells out of the umbilical cord.

Cody Garbrandt 15:55 Nice. Yeah, that's great. I'm-

Joe Rogan 15:55 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 15:56 ... I'm all for it. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 15:57 Dude, it's, uh, it's incredible stuff. But, so you w- you, you, you... Ta- talk to me about the visualization stuff. So this was something that you had concentrated on earlier in your career?

Cody Garbrandt 16:08 Really, my whole entire life without knowing what law of attraction was and, and having these, you know, people teach me this kind of stuff. I remember writing on my planner in, in grade school, in, in c- junior high and high school, like, I was gonna be a state champion. You know, that's what I wanted to be. You know, our mom always gave us Christmas presents at the Jerome Schottenstein Center to go watch the state wrestling tournament in Ohio. And everybody knows the Ohio State Tournament is... You know, you beat a state champion in Ohio, you're, you're elite in, in the nation.

Joe Rogan 16:34 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 16:35 It's, it's a tough state. So that's what we were... You know, our first sport we fell in love with was wrestling. We, we traveled all over, uh, once our mom, you know, put us in it. Traveled around the country packed in her minivan, driving to all kinds of... You know, Iowa, Maryland, Florida, just, that's what we did every weekend, you know. It's what we, uh, enjoyed to do. So I started visualization there with, you know... I saw the announcer's name, you know, hearing that.

Joe Rogan 16:56 So this is just in your... Like, you were almost-

Cody Garbrandt 16:58 In my mind.

Joe Rogan 16:58 ... like just daydreaming?

Cody Garbrandt 16:59 Just daydreaming, yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:00 Just thinking about what you want.

Cody Garbrandt 17:01 Yeah. Not paying attention in school, like writing it down. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 17:03 But not like a, not like a form, like, like a formula. Not like a-

Cody Garbrandt 17:08 I didn't really know a formula.

Joe Rogan 17:09 ... formal style t-

Cody Garbrandt 17:09 Yeah, just I would write down my weight class-

Joe Rogan 17:11 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 17:11 ... my name, what high school I was representing, and I would just r- read that when I was in school and read it over and over again. And I would hear the, the guy, the announcer's name at the Jerome Schottenstein. He had a distinguished voice. And, you know, "Freshman, you know, Cody Garbrandt from New Yorksville, Claymont," you know, "to match two," like, "you're running out." I'm like, it's seeing you wrestle in front of 22,000 people.

Joe Rogan 17:32 So you just think about it in your head?

Cody Garbrandt 17:33 Just, yeah, manifest it. So I was like, "I'm gonna be a state champion my freshman year." And I did it. And I think if, like, anything that I visualized like that and really put myself in those kind of uncomfortable positions now, like, I wanna be a royal champion. And to be a royal champion, you have to put yourself through some misery, some, some straight pain to get, you know... Your goal is to be at the top, 'cause everyone's going to... Everyone's fast, everyone's tough, everyone's strong. It's like that slight edge theory. Like, what are you gonna do that they're not going to do?

Joe Rogan 18:01 Right.

Cody Garbrandt 18:01 And I think, you know, you know, going back to the three-fight skid, going to Jersey, I needed to get out of my comfort zone.

Joe Rogan 18:06 Right.

Cody Garbrandt 18:07 I had to... I'd never been away from my son more than a week, you know. Like-I had to go and, and, and reward myself with coming back to my family, coming back to my son after being away and dedicating myself to this, you know, this life that I chose to do. But, you know, rewarding myself with a win, coming back, enjoying my son. Um, so every time I was away from him, I'm like, "This is, this is my deposit. This is my deposit to get back to my son, to have these good times, uh, h- have, make a great future for him." Things that I didn't have. You know, I'm fighting for him, you know, and, and things for his future, good schooling, um, (clicks tongue) you know, things like that. So getting out of that comfort zone, going to Jersey in the dead of winter from California, uh-

Joe Rogan 18:46 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 18:46 ... is not... You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 18:47 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 18:48 New, new training partners. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 18:49 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 18:49 Like, dude, I feel like once you're a champion, like, you have that X on your back. Like, everyone wants your best and everyone's gonna give you their best. And I'm all for that. I'm, hell yeah, let's, let's, you know, let's do it. And so having those new guys on you, trying to just, you know, earn your respect. And I had to go out there and have them earn my respect to be, "This kid is the real deal. This guy is the real deal. He's a real world champion. He's making himself come back." And, um, going out there, like Frankie Edgar, those guys are great. Eddie Alvarez, Ricardo Almeida, Coach Henry, uh, the whole top guys in, in Jersey are kind of... We laugh and joke like they're the Team Alpha Male East Coast, basically. You know, we're such s- similar styles, wrestlers that are turning into strikers, and just the mentality of the, you know, hard work kind of, um, everyone, it's a co-op. Everyone's helping everyone out, like, "Oh, you're gonna, I'm gonna hold some pads with you." Like, Frankie was great. He came in and, and helped me out when there was only four or five people in the gym. He would give me sparring rounds and, uh, just a great dude, great camp to be with, and I needed that. I think I, I don't need cheerleaders, you know what I mean? But I need people that I respect that's gonna push me-

Joe Rogan 19:52 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 19:52 ... that extra round to the next, uh, you know-

Joe Rogan 19:55 How did you-

Cody Garbrandt 19:55 ... just to the breaking point.

Joe Rogan 19:55 Wh- how'd you choose Mark Henry?

Cody Garbrandt 19:57 Um-

Joe Rogan 19:57 Did you guys have a conversation?

Cody Garbrandt 19:58 I talked to Coach Henry years before this and, and anyone that knows Mark is not, uh, he doesn't give out compliments. Like, he's, you gotta earn his respect. And I remember him telling me, uh, you know, he's like, "Dude, we really love you and enjoy you. We feel like you're gonna be a world champion in a few years." And I was only 1 or 2-0 in the UFC. And I was like, "That's high praise from a guy that's worked with Frankie and built him up and all these other fighters he's worked with." I was like, "I appreciate it." And we s- we kept in contact, you know, mutual respect, you know, at the fights and, and seeing him. But Ali, my manager, was like, "Hey, like, I'm not..." You know, he's given me some of my best life advice. I know people have this perception of him, but he's honestly helped me out so much and my family. But he was the one that was like, "Look, I don't wanna tell you what to do, but I truly believe that Mark is something that you need in your life. Um, he's a great mentor, um, he's just a great guy to be around, happy-go-lucky. He wants to win. You know, he shows you a, a, a good life and, you know, just things that he's been through in his life." Um, so he's like, "I think you should go with Coach Mark." And I'm like, for me, change, I was always, I, I re- I didn't like change, but some change is growth. You know, I looked at it differently. Um, you know, going out there and, and battling myself to, you know, get up and be out of your comfort zone, going out there with Coach Mark.

Joe Rogan 21:08 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 21:08 So Ali's kind of the one that kind of set the, the staple to go out there. I reach out to Coach, uh, Mark and Frankie, I'm like, "Hey, I just wanna let you guys know I wanna come check you guys out, and would love to, would love to work with you. I'm still gonna be here with Team Alpha Male, my guys that has brought me up, but I just need a, a head coach, um, a guy like Coach Henry, um, that showed me a lot about breaking fights down, watching more fight tapes." Like, my guys Chris and my coach out there, they do the same thing. Um, but Coach is just more hands-on on that way, like breaking it down and, and repeating it, like, "Here's what we're doing. We're working 10 rounds today, 10 five-minute rounds. We have 50 combos that we're going over." And then that's outside of camp. Then inside of camp, we're kind of limiting it to 30. Um, so that's what we're working on for the whole camp of, you know, getting ready for your, your adversary, what he's doing and what you need to work with him. Um, so breaking that down, just constantly working was just, um... He's got a mind that's like no other. I mean, I've never met a coach, um, quite like him, that, that thinks like him. You know, there's people that are on, on his level for sure. I feel like Chris is, uh, 'cause Chris is right there on a full spectrum of martial arts with the grappling. I mean, Chris, he's a bad motherfucker. I mean, we do one-on-one private sessions and it's like... (clicks tongue)

Joe Rogan 22:18 No, Chris is a beast.

Cody Garbrandt 22:19 They're horrible.

Joe Rogan 22:19 No doubt.

Cody Garbrandt 22:20 They're horrible.

Joe Rogan 22:20 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 22:20 That dude's like a wet blanket on you, especially you go from pads to take downs, now right now you're grappling. He's putting you in those bad positions, you gotta fight out of this guy. It's, it's, it's bad.

Joe Rogan 22:28 So let me ask you, what was Mark's initial, uh, approach? Did he, did... Was it concentrating on defense? Was it feints? Like what, what, what did he want you to do different? Obviously you're a, a tremendous offensive fighter.

Cody Garbrandt 22:41 Correct.

Joe Rogan 22:41 And that's always been-

Cody Garbrandt 22:42 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 22:42 ... the, the key to your success. But what did he, what did he look at, he said, "This is what you're lacking." Or, "This is what we can improve upon."

Cody Garbrandt 22:51 Um, just obviously the feints, the defense. Um, you know, timing them. Sometimes my speed is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes I'll feint, feint twice and they're still, you know-

Joe Rogan 23:02 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 23:02 ... off the first feint and then I'm hitting the combo so it's like I have to kind of dumb it down a little bit, read more feints, do more high feints, you know, just feints with the feet, movement wise, you know.

Joe Rogan 23:11 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 23:11 'Cause the speed is just, just unreal, you know, for, for Mark. You know, he's like, "You, you're fast." Like...

Joe Rogan 23:16 You're probably the fastest guy I've ever seen in the Octagon. No bullshit. Your hands-

Cody Garbrandt 23:19 Oh, I try to be in there. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 23:21 When you hit asansol, that's one of the things I said. I said, "I, I don't think there's a faster person in the sport."

Cody Garbrandt 23:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 23:25 Like, you have crazy f- fast hand speed. But that is true, right? Like power and speed are sometimes people just rely on them so much. You know like, uh, I always go back to Roy Jones Jr. The Roy Jones Jr in his prime-

Cody Garbrandt 23:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 23:37 ... was the fastest fucking human being that ever lived.

Cody Garbrandt 23:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:40 He was so fast. But because of his incredible athleticism and ability, he developed this style that was just so unorthodox that it, it wasn't fundamentally sound to the point of like, like, like the way Bernard Hopkins fights or the way, you know, some other fighters fight-

Cody Garbrandt 23:56 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 23:56 ... where they didn't have to be as fast.

Cody Garbrandt 23:58 Right.

Joe Rogan 23:58 You know, 'cause Roy's thing relied so much on his speed.

Cody Garbrandt 24:02 Speed and, and precision, you know, and setting up, being in the right, hitting the quick shots and getting out-

Joe Rogan 24:07 Mm-hmm, yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 24:08 ... and then coming with other stuff. So I feel like, well, Coach helped out a lot. If you look at a lot of my losses-... I would load up-

Joe Rogan 24:15 Right.

Cody Garbrandt 24:15 ... and put my head first. And then, like, well, why am I gonna give him a high-

Joe Rogan 24:18 Well, get, get back to the TJ fight, right? The, the two fights. Tho- Those, you were more emotionally invested in those fights than any fight you've ever had, right?

Cody Garbrandt 24:26 Definitely. And that's not me. I don't have to... Joe, I love to fight. I can fight in your studio right now. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 24:31 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 24:32 I'll kick Jamie's ass, you know. (laughs) If, if, you know, uh, making fun of his pants.

Joe Rogan 24:35 Hey.

Cody Garbrandt 24:35 Making fun of his pants earlier, you know.

Joe Rogan 24:37 (laughs) Oh, wait. Oh, wait. 16? What's the game, team? 16? 16?

Cody Garbrandt 24:40 Same team, same team.

Joe Rogan 24:41 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 24:41 Oh, yeah. So, I never... Like, for me to go in there and kind of have that, you know, just an example of-

Joe Rogan 24:47 Right.

Cody Garbrandt 24:47 ... "Oh," that. I don't need to do that.

Joe Rogan 24:49 That you just want... Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 24:49 Yeah, you know? And, you know, it was great. I was a world champion, felt like I had to defend it, a lot of other stuff, you know, the backstory of it and the injury coming off a year. I was just so, like I said, not mentally ready to go in there and fight that I physically was, like, overcompensating for it.

Joe Rogan 25:04 The emotions that go into a fight with someone you don't like, it's always extremely difficult. But for you to go into a fight with someone you don't like, who you used to be tight with-

Cody Garbrandt 25:14 Right.

Joe Rogan 25:15 ... and used to train with-

Cody Garbrandt 25:16 Right.

Joe Rogan 25:16 ... that's got to be, like, doubly difficult.

Cody Garbrandt 25:18 It's not like I said I didn't, didn't like TJ. I don't agree with a lot of things that happened. Um, but that's so far in the past, I'm that, you know, past that. But yeah, definitely taking that in there, it was my, my, my mental state was not what it should have been to go in against a guy like TJ, you know. And we can fast-forward to where, you know, he got popped and this and that. TJ can be on that stuff. He can be on that stuff, and he still can't beat me when I'm focused and I'm, I'm mentally there, I'm in there, and I'm excited, you know. Like, I'm glad that he's coming back. He's got to prove to himself, you know. And that's a big fight for me to come back to, you know, in the future. There's, it's gonna, that's gonna happen, you know. And I feel like TJ caught me at a time where mentally I was not in the best state of mind to go in there and, and, and be a champion. And that's why that was taken from me. You know, I wasn't doing the right things, you know, the slight edge things.

Joe Rogan 26:08 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 26:08 I wasn't doing those. And, uh, you know, he capitalized, and, and I look back on it, I, I kept going back in those fights. And a little bit of insanity, you know, you gotta be insane to repeat the same thing, thinking a different outcome. And that's what I was doing in there. I was... I always train hard, I always prepare ready, but what was, what was... There wasn't nothing new that I needed to do. It was just the slight, slight edge things.

Joe Rogan 26:29 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 26:29 Little work this, work that, like. And looking back on it, it's, it's hindsight's 20/20 always in a fight. But, uh, I'm thankful for that. I have to feel like if I would have went off and defended the title, and I probably wouldn't have been as hungry and motivated as I am today. And that's gonna help me out for the next five years of my career, however long I want to fight for. You know, I always kind of break my life down into five, five-year increments. But, uh, I'm excited for it. I'm more hungry than ever, 'cause I know what it takes to get back to the top.

Joe Rogan 26:57 So when you said that you stopped visualizing for a long time and now you're doing it again, are you doing it now in... Do, do you have, like, a, a rigid format? Do you have, like, a, a, do you have a, a disciplined format of visualization, or do you just spend time alone thinking about things? Like, how do you do it?

Cody Garbrandt 27:14 Um, yeah, I, I do a, do a format, write things out. I write out goals, three months, six months, a year, five years, what I want to accomplish, whether it's financial, whether it's, you know, athletic, whether it's personal growth, spiritual growth, family growth, things like that. So I try to prioritize, um, what I'm lacking or what's the lower grade that I give myself and try to focus more on that, so it's all balanced. I feel like I'm trying to balance my life more, as far as being... I grew up in chaos. You know, I feel like I can... I do well in that, but I'm at a different place in my life and what I want for my son and my future, I want to have that balance of you're not so 100% in this and, you know, lacking this. You know, I want to make sure it's kind of balanced across of my goals. But I feel like, you know, going back to talking about getting out of your comfort zone, like doing things that absolutely suck, and you got to mentally put yourself in that position to be like, "All right."

Joe Rogan 28:03 Were you in your comfort zone when you were champion? Like, when you say getting out of your comfort zone, I know you trained hard.

Cody Garbrandt 28:09 Right.

Joe Rogan 28:09 So, like, what is different?

Cody Garbrandt 28:11 I think that I, I removed myself after, um, winning the world title. I, I didn't feel like it was everything that I thought I was going to be.

Joe Rogan 28:19 In what way?

Cody Garbrandt 28:20 Just the whole prolific... You're a world champion, you're the best in the world. You know, I didn't... I never expected a lot of things that would happen. I just focused on-

Joe Rogan 28:29 What did you think it was going to be like?

Cody Garbrandt 28:30 I, I don't know. I don't think I had any expectations when I feel like a lot of things changed around. Like, "Oh, man," like, "How's it feel?" Like, I'm, I'm still the same person. I just gotta... You know, I'm just the number one person in the world at what I do, you know. I, I don't know. It just didn't-

Joe Rogan 28:42 Did you think that, like, in achieving such a great goal that you would feel satisfied, that you would feel like you made it?

Cody Garbrandt 28:48 I wasn't satisfied. Maybe, maybe, 'cause that's what... At the light in the tunnel, since I was 12 years old, and I was... Man, just through the journey of getting to where I was at, looking back on it, I was like, "Man," like, "What's next?"

Joe Rogan 29:01 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 29:01 I didn't have the what's next.

Joe Rogan 29:03 Isn't it interesting? Like, this is the thing that gets brought up all the time about fighting is that so much of it is mental, especially at the elite level-

Cody Garbrandt 29:10 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 29:11 ... like at your level. So much of it is how you're approaching all aspects of your life, how your relationship is going-

Cody Garbrandt 29:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:18 ... how your friendships are going, like what, what... How you... What's your relationship with your family.

Cody Garbrandt 29:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:23 You know, there, there's so much of how a fighter fight- And then what is your focus on? Is your focus on adulation? Is your focus on doing interviews and letting everybody tell you you're the shit?

Cody Garbrandt 29:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:35 Or is your focus on continual improvement and then recognize, like, yeah, you might be a world champion, but there's a bunch of hungry lions climbing up that hill to try to get to the king.

Cody Garbrandt 29:44 Yeah. You, you see it. I have... You know, Chris Holdsworth, my coach, my trainer, my good friend, he travels with me. You know, we put through hard workouts, you know. This morning, we're going after your podcast. And that's the thing, doing those, balancing that. Okay, I might have, you know... Coming on your show, absolute honor. I gotta train. I gotta... You know, I can't take this week off. No. We're here, you know, looking at homes and doing other things with PNP, my, uh, other business partners. So just prioritizing what's important. What's your goals? How are you reaching those goals? What are you working towards? Are you reading help books, self-help books? Are you reading, you know, books to help your, your mental fortitude to strengthen that? You know, are you doing yoga? Are you doing... Uh, there's so much resources.

Joe Rogan 30:20 And be- and staying enthusiastic too.

Cody Garbrandt 30:21 And staying enthusiastic.

Joe Rogan 30:22 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 30:22 I think that's the main thing.I wasn't enthusiastic. I felt like I was just going through the motions. And there's a lot of other things-

Joe Rogan 30:28 That happens to a lot of fighters.

Cody Garbrandt 30:29 There's a lot of things that can transpire. But I'm solely putting the blame on myself, 'cause that's all I can control, what I do, how I react to things. And I wasn't the person that I am during those kinds of, you know, tribulations or trials in my life.

Joe Rogan 30:44 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 30:44 You know? And I've grown from that. I was 24, 25 years old. I'm 29 years old now. You know, I look at the game, um, just differently. You know, I'm still a savage. I'm still gonna go in there and, and, and try to kill you. And, and Dana's gonna give us a b- extra money for a knockout blow.

Joe Rogan 30:59 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 30:59 Sign me the fuck up, bro.

Joe Rogan 31:00 Do you like the extra money, the bonus b- thing? I, I f- I f- I don't even like win bonuses. I, uh, it drives me crazy.

Cody Garbrandt 31:07 I, uh...

Joe Rogan 31:08 I feel like a fighter should get paid.

Cody Garbrandt 31:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:10 Like, I don't think you are trying to win anymore if you get a bonus. You're a, a professional cage fighter. There's, there's... It doesn't make any sense to me.

Cody Garbrandt 31:19 There's only one time in my professional career that I didn't get my second check. And that shit sucked.

Joe Rogan 31:23 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 31:23 I was, man, I was... Uh, 'cause you're banking on it. I mean, we've-

Joe Rogan 31:26 Right.

Cody Garbrandt 31:27 ... we make our money through our fights, you know? And luckily, we have some good sponsors if you're, you know, able to be sponsored by that.

Joe Rogan 31:32 And-

Cody Garbrandt 31:32 But we fight, that's how we make our money, you know?

Joe Rogan 31:34 And then there's bad decisions, which is even crazier.

Cody Garbrandt 31:36 (sighs) They're what I'm not trusting.

Joe Rogan 31:36 So it's not just that a bad decision give you a loss, but it could cost you half of your paycheck. That's insane.

Cody Garbrandt 31:42 And we don't get to run it back next week.

Joe Rogan 31:43 No.

Cody Garbrandt 31:43 We gotta recover. We might be banged up. Dude, that was my first time after the Sun Cao fight since the Cam Izagaki fight that I didn't get injured. I tore tendons and ligaments and-

Joe Rogan 31:52 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 31:53 ... stem cell's out for eight weeks to, you know, re- and then-

Joe Rogan 31:55 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 31:56 ... you know?

Joe Rogan 31:56 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 31:56 So I was like, man, I was back in the gym Monday, hungry to go, and then fucking COVID.

Joe Rogan 32:00 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 32:00 Get COVID. Get title shot, I'm like, "I'm about to fight Figi at 25."

Joe Rogan 32:03 And you got COVID bad, right? Were you, did you get COVID in the... Were you in the middle of training when you got it? Like, were you worn out?

Cody Garbrandt 32:10 Dude, dead. I was doing one training session, and actually I started the Whoop. And I was like, man, like my recovery score is 1% in the morning. My HRV was like 13.

Joe Rogan 32:19 1%?

Cody Garbrandt 32:19 It was 1% for like a week. And I would only do one workout, and then I'd have to cancel on Chris and Milat, I'm like-

Joe Rogan 32:24 1% is dead.

Cody Garbrandt 32:26 Dude, but I, but I-

Joe Rogan 32:26 That's crazy.

Cody Garbrandt 32:27 But then I was like, you know, I'm just gonna go ride the bike, you know? I was getting on those bikes doing, you know, 50 to 100 mile rides and just suffering 'cause I had vertigo really bad, so I couldn't get in those uncompromised positions that-

Joe Rogan 32:37 When did you start experiencing vertigo?

Cody Garbrandt 32:39 Vertigo was my first symptom of COVID, not knowing. And then I had that for go-

Joe Rogan 32:42 Did you think it was head injury related or-

Cody Garbrandt 32:43 I thought, but I, my, uh, my doctor I went and saw, he's like, "Oh, it's a concussion." I'm like, "Dude, I didn't get hit hard in sparring. My fights, like I worked on defense a lot. Like I know, I would know if it was a concussive blow that gave me vertigo."

Joe Rogan 32:56 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 32:57 And, um...

Joe Rogan 32:58 What, did you experience it after training? Did you experience it-

Cody Garbrandt 33:00 Honestly, it was during grappling. I was like grappling.

Joe Rogan 33:02 You didn't like collide heads or anything?

Cody Garbrandt 33:04 Nope.

Joe Rogan 33:04 Nothing?

Cody Garbrandt 33:04 Nope.

Joe Rogan 33:05 Damn.

Cody Garbrandt 33:05 Just went into a scramble, and next thing you know, I was just like fighting the hands off and the whole room was spinning. And I was actually training with Uria, and I was like, "Man." He's like, "You all right?" I'm like, "What's going on?" I was like kinda like didn't wanna end it, end the round, so I just kinda like closed my eyes (laughs) and like held onto his hands so he wouldn't choke me, you know? He was, he was taking my back. So I was finished the round, and I was like, "Man, I just don't feel good." And I was nauseated for a few days. Um, so I went to my doctor, he was giving me like anti-nausea medicine that was making me so much more tired than I was 'cause I was fatigued from, from training. I was still trying to train through it. I was like, "I have a world title coming up in eight weeks. Like, I have to get down to 25." And my weight was good. Um, I wasn't restricting any calories or nothing.

Joe Rogan 33:42 But you felt something was off with your body besides the vertigo?

Cody Garbrandt 33:46 Yeah, I felt... My body felt like I just was for, uh, three-week period when I was training and going, I didn't feel like myself at all, and just mental clarity was, was gone.

Joe Rogan 33:54 So do you think during that time you had COVID the whole time?

Cody Garbrandt 33:57 I think so, you know?

Joe Rogan 33:57 That is crazy. And th- that makes sense that it hit you so hard-

Cody Garbrandt 34:01 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 34:02 ... because you never gave your body a break, and you were beating yourself up while you were fighting off COVID.

Cody Garbrandt 34:07 Well, that, I think what h- happened was the kidney infection in the beginning of 2020. I was on all those antibiotics.

Joe Rogan 34:13 Mm.

Cody Garbrandt 34:14 I was on five different antibiotics. Two, people don't even know this, two weeks before the fight with the Sun Cao, the infection came back. So I had to go to another infectious disease doctor that my Doctor Hill found in Sacramento. This lady was amazing. Did two blood cultures, found out, got all the reports from the hospital in Jersey, the reports from the, the specialist in Cleveland, studied those all in a day, got a blood culture. I was on the wrong antibiotics. They didn't kill the infection, just basically put a bandaid over it. So I had to go 10 days to a IV fusion center to get an antibiotic drip for 10 days while I'm training two weeks before the fight.

Joe Rogan 34:45 Oh my God.

Cody Garbrandt 34:46 Um, I didn't let any of the UFC or anybody know. Um, I told Ali what was kinda what was going on, 'cause I just needed to get in that octagon. I was like, "Dude, just put me in that octagon. I know that it'll happen. Like, get me there healthy, and I'll be good."

Joe Rogan 34:55 So but th- that fucks with your endurance in a big way. The-

Cody Garbrandt 34:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:59 ... IV antibiotics are ruthless.

Cody Garbrandt 35:01 Yeah, it, it was tough, man. It was, uh... And my strength and conditioning coach, we were having the hardest time. I was hovering around, you know, I was getting my heart rate up 187 in a ... I couldn't get it below or like s- hover at 150, which I'm fine at staying at 150 and going up and being in that 150 to 180 zone that I can be there for a while. But we're working on the aerobic system, so to drop it, you know?

Joe Rogan 35:22 Right.

Cody Garbrandt 35:23 I just couldn't drop it. It took about the last week of training before I flew out to the fight week to finally get my heart rate in like 35s, like after a hard like a minute 30 push and then drop it down. So I noticed something, like that was it, but mentally I was like, "It's good. I'm gonna ask her out."

Joe Rogan 35:38 So, so two weeks out, you did, you had to do a 10-day cycle of IV antibiotics?

Cody Garbrandt 35:43 And then a 10-day of, um, oral.

Joe Rogan 35:47 What?

Cody Garbrandt 35:47 Yeah. Dude, I was on antibiotics for literally five months almost. From Jersey, I was on five different antibiotics from the hospital.

Joe Rogan 35:54 So, uh, from the, uh, Sun Cao fight, how many days did you have where you weren't on antibiotics before the fight?

Cody Garbrandt 36:01 I mean, I declared that I had an- ... I was on antibiotics all the way up to the fight. You know, I was taking-

Joe Rogan 36:05 Jesus Christ.

Cody Garbrandt 36:05 ... probiotics, antibiotics. Yeah, I was, it was tough.

Joe Rogan 36:07 So you were taking probiotics to counteract the effects of antibiotics in your gi-

Cody Garbrandt 36:11 Dude, I was taking a lot of, a lot of probiotics, yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:12 What were you taking?

Cody Garbrandt 36:13 Um, Frankie Edgar's wife sent me, uh, she would... They, dude, they were, they took care of me when I was in Jersey, like hooked it up. Like, Coach brought me pizza in the hospital. He was like-

Joe Rogan 36:21 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 36:21 It was during COVID when it happened.

Joe Rogan 36:22 But you eat pizza, but don't you have to cut weight?

Cody Garbrandt 36:23 I don't cut weight to 35.

Joe Rogan 36:25 Really?

Cody Garbrandt 36:25 Dude, I, I'm like right now probably 144, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 36:28 Oh, wow.

Cody Garbrandt 36:29 Like, I don't, and I, and I stay, you know, strong and fast, and this is what I feel good at to fight 35.

Joe Rogan 36:33 Mm, yeah, which is-

Cody Garbrandt 36:34 I have to just diet a little bit like everyone else does for 25, that's why everyone making this a big deal.

Joe Rogan 36:38 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 36:38 Going at 25, it's not. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:39 That was a very interesting fight. You, you going down at 25 was very interesting.

Cody Garbrandt 36:43 I'm so excited for it.

Joe Rogan 36:44 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 36:44 Especially watching the Moreno and Figi fight last fight.

Joe Rogan 36:47 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 36:48 Um-Great fight, you know, awesome. It was entertaining.

Joe Rogan 36:51 Far out, far out.

Cody Garbrandt 36:51 But a lot of holes, a lot of holes, a lot of, a lot of things that I can, you know, take away from both fight, whoever wins this next one. But I'm not gonna sit idle.

Joe Rogan 36:58 Are they fighting again?

Cody Garbrandt 36:59 Yeah, they're rematching each other. That's why I'm not gonna wait.

Joe Rogan 37:01 Really?

Cody Garbrandt 37:01 It'd be eight months till I get a title shot. So that's why I'm, you know-

Joe Rogan 37:03 Didn't Moreno fuck up his shoulder in that fight?

Cody Garbrandt 37:06 Uh, he did something, yeah. I know he had to do some, some kind of like-

Joe Rogan 37:08 What a fight though, what a fight.

Cody Garbrandt 37:09 Yeah. Great fight, yeah. I mean, I thought Moreno did great. I think that if he had more pop to his punches, Figu would've been in some trouble, you know. The take-downs looked great, you know. I think matching that, getting Figu worn out, you know.

Joe Rogan 37:20 I felt like in that fight, Deiveson really put himself on the line, in terms of like, he threw himself into the fire. He didn't, he didn't fight like, like he was worried at all about Moreno's firepower.

Cody Garbrandt 37:34 Mm-mm.

Joe Rogan 37:34 He was just trying to smash.

Cody Garbrandt 37:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:35 And Moreno is a tough motherfucker.

Cody Garbrandt 37:38 Yeah. It's like that dude-

Joe Rogan 37:39 He's tough.

Cody Garbrandt 37:39 He's that dude that's been in the gym for so long getting his ass kicked, now it's finally like, I'm starting to, you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 37:44 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 37:44 'Cause he-

Joe Rogan 37:45 I know what you mean, yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 37:46 He's just one of those dudes that just-

Joe Rogan 37:47 Gritty.

Cody Garbrandt 37:47 He's like a Darren Elkins.

Joe Rogan 37:48 Yep.

Cody Garbrandt 37:49 That guy gets his ass kicked and he'll kick ass too, but in the, when it comes down to the fight-

Joe Rogan 37:54 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 37:54 ... this dude is, he's, he's all in, you know?

Joe Rogan 37:56 Like the Mirsad Bektic fight.

Cody Garbrandt 37:57 Oh my gosh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:57 Perfect example. That was one of the greatest comebacks I've ever seen in my life.

Cody Garbrandt 38:01 Yes, definitely.

Joe Rogan 38:01 'Cause Mirsad Bektic is-

Cody Garbrandt 38:03 It's...

Joe Rogan 38:03 ... so technical, so fast-

Cody Garbrandt 38:05 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:05 ... so, so precise. I mean-

Cody Garbrandt 38:07 And-

Joe Rogan 38:07 ... the d- the kid looked like a world champion for the beginning of the fight.

Cody Garbrandt 38:09 To hold Elkins down, to hold Elkins down and do-

Joe Rogan 38:12 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 38:12 ... that ground and pound to him. Elkins is the number one fighter in the featherweight division with the most top game percentage per fight.

Joe Rogan 38:17 Really?

Cody Garbrandt 38:18 And, Mirsad, you know, was on top of him. And I've grappled with, you know, Elkins is not, you know, easy to, to hold on. He's an Indiana wrestler that's just like gritty and just like, "Let's go, dude." You know, he's-

Joe Rogan 38:28 Isn't that s- amazing about the sport though, that a guy c- like, you gotta know how much gas you got. You gotta know when you can hit the gas-

Cody Garbrandt 38:36 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:37 ... and when you gotta back off a little, when you gotta pace yourself. And if you try to empty out, and that guy, like, a guy like Elkins who's so fucking tough, if he's still there, you got a real problem.

Cody Garbrandt 38:48 Dude, it's, yeah, it's, um, you know, when you crack someone with your, you know, with some of your best shots-

Joe Rogan 38:52 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 38:53 ... and they're just like covered in blood coming forward, you're like, "Fuck, well get me a baseball bat. Let me hit this guy."

Joe Rogan 38:57 Elkins.

Cody Garbrandt 38:57 You know, Elkins.

Joe Rogan 38:58 He's s- he's such a savage.

Cody Garbrandt 38:59 Such a savage. Yeah, it's great, he's a great guy. I mean, he leads by example. He's not, you know, brash and out- ou- ou- outlandish talking. He just gets in, blue collar guy, he's a pipe fitter, you know, comes in and, uh, when he first moved out here, he had to go back. He was still at UFC fighting, and then ha- part-time he'd have to go back and get his union hours in, and then stay for six months and come back and fight.

Joe Rogan 39:20 Wow.

Cody Garbrandt 39:20 And so then, till he finally, you know, retired from pipe fitting and moved his whole family out. Just a, just a great guy, great family, um, tough, tough as hell. But-

Joe Rogan 39:28 But yeah, that is the g- kinda guy Moreno is, that just g- blood and guts, gritty guy.

Cody Garbrandt 39:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:34 And I think Figueiredo pr- I mean, Figueiredo's so good. I think he probably thought he was gonna get him out of there.

Cody Garbrandt 39:39 He did. I mean, especially with his, his win over Alex Perez that quick, and the quick turnaround.

Joe Rogan 39:43 And Benavidez, two knockouts on Benavidez.

Cody Garbrandt 39:46 Benavidez, yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:46 Which is gigantic. Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 39:46 He's flying high, you know. He's, it's, it's good eyes on 125, but, mother of fuck, that bantamweight division. I can't leave that one yet. You know, like this is, it's-

Joe Rogan 39:55 There's so much going on in both divisions though.

Cody Garbrandt 39:57 Let's go. I'm like, "I'm staying here."

Joe Rogan 39:58 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 39:58 Like, "I'll cut the weight for, you know, if you want me to fight this." But, god, that, that division is stacked at 35.

Joe Rogan 40:03 So, you basically beat your immune system up while you had COVID, and then because of that, you got COVID really bad.

Cody Garbrandt 40:12 Yes.

Joe Rogan 40:13 Yeah. So tell me what it was like.

Cody Garbrandt 40:14 Uh, it was horrible. I mean, I had the vertigo was the first symptom.

Joe Rogan 40:17 Right.

Cody Garbrandt 40:17 And then-

Joe Rogan 40:18 When did they test you for COVID?

Cody Garbrandt 40:20 I didn't get tested till I went down to Mike Tyson's ranch. We were working with the Smart Cups company, we're all sponsored by them, doing digital videos. And it was our first kind of getting the athletes together, 'cause they started doing fighters, boxers, and some wrest- WWE, Kurt Angle was there. So we had to do like a rapid test like we just did here. And, um, I waited and waited a while, and then they're like, "Hey, we want you to do another one." I'm like, "All right, cool." Like, "We just didn't see some things we liked." And I was like, "All right." I'm like waiting for an hour, do another one, I'm like, "What, what did you guys see?"

Joe Rogan 40:48 Another test, you're saying.

Cody Garbrandt 40:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:49 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 40:49 "Like, what'd you guys see?" I'm like, "Oh, you f- you failed the first one." I'm like, "Well, that's a subtle way of t- telling it." Like, I wanna stay away from everybody, like, you know, everyone's coming up to me.

Joe Rogan 40:56 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 40:56 And, so I got tested there in August. Um, and then I went, you know, quarantine. Went home, did the whole...

Joe Rogan 41:03 What, did you do any medication? What did you do on day two?

Cody Garbrandt 41:05 Um, I did a Z-Pak. Um, I got on an inhaler 'cause I had pneumonia. I got-

Joe Rogan 41:09 Oh, jeez.

Cody Garbrandt 41:10 ... I had pneumonia. Um, vertigo, and then I did a, like a 21-day, 'cause I had it so bad I kept getting tested like every three weeks.

Joe Rogan 41:17 And you kept having it?

Cody Garbrandt 41:17 And I kept having it. I did molecular tests, which is like nine- you know, some of the best ones to do.

Joe Rogan 41:22 Is that the PCR test-

Cody Garbrandt 41:23 Yes, yep.

Joe Rogan 41:23 ... that we talked about? Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 41:25 And just kept negative, negative, and my doctor's like, "Hey, we're gonna quit testing you." You know, like, "You're-"

Joe Rogan 41:29 You mean positive? You kept testing positive.

Cody Garbrandt 41:31 Yeah, I'm sorry, positive, yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:31 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 41:31 Yep, positive for it.

Joe Rogan 41:33 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 41:33 And I'm like, "Dang, this is, this is crazy." I mean, and I had started to have the symptoms going away, like the pneumonia was fine, my lungs were good. Like, I felt it, like I was r- that's when I started cycling a lot. Um, so I was out there just pushing the lungs, and that's what my doctor said was the best thing to do was riding that bike th- that much was getting those lungs to keep working, 'cause you have pneumonia really bad.

Joe Rogan 41:53 Jesus Christ.

Cody Garbrandt 41:54 I was like, "Wow." I'm like, "Yeah, I felt horrible." I thought cycling was one of the hardest things to do. You know?

Joe Rogan 41:57 Isn't it funny, because you would think, like most people would think that a guy who's a world championship caliber fighter is the type of guy who would get COVID and it would just burn right through his system. But because you were training while you had it and beating yourself up, it just got deep into you.

Cody Garbrandt 42:12 Deep. I mean, it, it, it took over my body. But, I think honestly from the kidney infection, being on an- antibiotic, my immune system was so weak.

Joe Rogan 42:19 Yeah. How much time was there between the kidney infection and the antibiotics and then getting COVID?

Cody Garbrandt 42:23 Dude, I literally got out of the hospital and I texted Dana like, "Hey, I heard y- you did a press conference about having to fight. Um, my kidney levels are good, I'm waiting for, maybe have to do a biopsy. Um, but I wanna fight." And he's like, "All right, work on it." And I was like begging Sean.

Joe Rogan 42:36 So you got COVID right away?

Cody Garbrandt 42:37 Um, so I, and then I d- uh, after the fight?

Joe Rogan 42:39 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 42:40 I had, uh, so June to August.

Joe Rogan 42:42 Oh, okay.

Cody Garbrandt 42:42 But, uh, so it was from the kidney infection, the fight, two fight camps, you know, basically.

Joe Rogan 42:47 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 42:47 One didn't happen. Uh, recovering, I had been building myself back up from where I was at, to getting ready to fight, uh, Santsal the first time in March. You know, I literally had to start walking on a treadmill for a couple weeks to get my... I was in rough shape.

Joe Rogan 43:00 Wow.

Cody Garbrandt 43:01 Rough, rough shape. And, uh, started training at my business partner's house, he had a home gym, 'cause everything was closed. Our, Uriah's gym wasn't open. He said, "Dude, I got a treadmill and I got weights, kettle bells." You know, Ana kettle bells.

Joe Rogan 43:10 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 43:11 And, uh, so I went over there and just started to, to train. And I'm like, "I'm getting myself ready." And it was brutal.... brutal, brutal training getting back in there, so I was-

Joe Rogan 43:18 And this is pre-COVID?

Cody Garbrandt 43:20 This is pre-COVID. This is right after the kidney infection.

Joe Rogan 43:22 This is a kidney infection?

Cody Garbrandt 43:23 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 43:23 Jesus Christ.

Cody Garbrandt 43:24 And... But-

Joe Rogan 43:24 So your body was ob- obviously already compromised?

Cody Garbrandt 43:27 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:27 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 43:27 I was... Yeah, very compromised. Still on antibiotics. They still had me on antibiotics, uh, to clean out the infection. I was on it for, like, a 30-day antibiotic from the hospital.

Joe Rogan 43:35 So August you get COVID.

Cody Garbrandt 43:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 43:37 How long before it clears your system? How long before s- before you start feeling good?

Cody Garbrandt 43:42 Months. Like I literally... I went to Miami and worked with this company called Amino Wells, and they did, like, kind of injections, um, where we talked about like kind of stem cell injections-

Joe Rogan 43:49 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 43:49 ... throughout my body, arms. Um, and I kind of started feeling a lot better at, like, the week after. Then I did a, a month on the injections with the three milliliters of, uh, a week, and I felt really good. Body felt good. Um, clarity went away. I actually had to go to Arizona to the Mayo Clinic. Uh, Dana thought I had Meniere's disease, so I went and saw his doctor that did his surgery, um, that gave him a shot in his ears. Did all these testings, hearing tests, um, where they just like-

Joe Rogan 44:17 Did you have ringing in your ears?

Cody Garbrandt 44:19 I had ringing bad in my left ear. And there's, um... I have a loss of, uh, hearing in this ear and they don't know why. I think maybe because I'm... This is my lead, lead-

Joe Rogan 44:30 And you get hit in the left ear a lot?

Cody Garbrandt 44:31 I get hit. That's all I can say. I'm like, "I don't know. I haven't shot a gun without, you know, anything like that." You know, trying to just figure out (laughs) wh- why it's ringing. It makes like this popping noise.

Joe Rogan 44:39 Oh.

Cody Garbrandt 44:40 Um, and I was just getting so, like, dizzy, I couldn't even do anything. Um, so they-

Joe Rogan 44:44 So that probably-

Cody Garbrandt 44:45 ... did all these tests.

Joe Rogan 44:45 ... contributed to the vertigo for sure, right?

Cody Garbrandt 44:47 Um, they said it wasn't officially-

Joe Rogan 44:48 'Cause usually it's ear things that give you ver-

Cody Garbrandt 44:49 Yeah. They said, like, crystals. I had vertigo before. I worked with, uh, UPMC. I was out for a whole year at my pro debut, broke my hand, and had, uh, vertigo from crystals being out of the ear and went to the UPMC.

Joe Rogan 45:00 Crystals in your-

Cody Garbrandt 45:01 Crystals, yeah. It was that irregular tube that was throwing my equilibrium off, which basically is positional vertigo.

Joe Rogan 45:06 Oh.

Cody Garbrandt 45:06 A lot of it's... That's the most common one. You know, a lot of people just, you know, they can sneeze wrong or s- do something-

Joe Rogan 45:11 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 45:11 ... sleep wrong on their neck and they have vertigo. And there's a maneuver you do to put it back. But it wasn't positional vertigo, it was just literally COVID had, had me so messed up.

Joe Rogan 45:20 So your body was so compromised from the antibiotics-

Cody Garbrandt 45:23 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 45:23 ... the kidney infection, d- uh, a second kidney infection. So you were just b- basically getting your hea- your health back, which is crazy that you beat Assuncao in that state.

Cody Garbrandt 45:34 Yeah. That was, uh-

Joe Rogan 45:34 'Cause you cl- you had to be clearly compromised. There's no way you could have been 100% if you were going... if you went through that much antibiotics before that fight.

Cody Garbrandt 45:41 But I think that goes back to the... my mental state where I was at. I knew that I needed to get in that octagon and change this around. I was not living life like this.

Joe Rogan 45:49 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 45:49 I was tired of living on a three-fight skid. I was ready to just get back in there. And when you know... Like, for me, like, I... Like we talked about earlier with the TGS fights, I don't have to go in there and be angry and, and upset and wanna rip to shatter a guy or hate this guy. I have hatred for this guy. It's a flip the switch. Like, when you know, you have it in you or you don't, you know?

Joe Rogan 46:05 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 46:05 And I... And that, that's been bred in me. I've have it. Um, so I just needed to get in there. I was like not taking no for an answer. I mean-

Joe Rogan 46:11 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 46:11 ... my coaches and stuff are like, "Ah, we don't know if you're gonna make it." You know? And Coach Mark, I'd call him, 'cause we basically (laughs) did... I would s- film my pad work and my sparring rounds and send it to coach on WhatsApp, and then he would break everything down, "Do more of this, do less of that. Looking good, looking fast on the... You know, your, your left toe counter off." You know, things like that.

Joe Rogan 46:29 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 46:29 So we b- did virtually, you know, f- c- camp through there. So then when we came out to... I s- kept working the codes to... "Keep working your codes, keep working, you know, and m- make sure you're doing under nine," things like that. Um, and then when we came to fight week, it was just...

Joe Rogan 46:47 So talk-

Cody Garbrandt 46:47 Smo-

Joe Rogan 46:48 ... me through you getting... You got COVID-tested-

Cody Garbrandt 46:50 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 46:51 ... in August at the Tyson-Joe. You knew that you had it. When, when are you free of it? Like-

Cody Garbrandt 46:59 This is the first test that I've, I passed since.

Joe Rogan 47:01 Really? Today?

Cody Garbrandt 47:02 Yes. My, my doctor quit testing me.

Joe Rogan 47:03 February?

Cody Garbrandt 47:04 February. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:04 Jesus.

Cody Garbrandt 47:05 You see how excited I was? I was-

Joe Rogan 47:06 Yes. (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 47:07 ... mic'd up in front of everyone. I'm like, "Dude, I'm free. I'm free of it." It was literally, you know, a couple months of having it, testing it, to where my doctor's like, "I'm t- I'm not gonna send out any more tests," 'cause they were 72-hour return ones, and, um-

Joe Rogan 47:17 Every time you did it, you had it?

Cody Garbrandt 47:18 Every time I did it, I had it.

Joe Rogan 47:19 And this is for months?

Cody Garbrandt 47:20 Um, tested my son, he didn't have it. I mean, we were... I was good for months.

Joe Rogan 47:23 Your wife didn't get it?

Cody Garbrandt 47:24 Um, she ended up getting it, um, but it wasn't as severe. It was, it was a couple months ago that she got it. Um, two months ago, her and her twin got it, and it was kind of... You know, they were sick, but not like what I had. Like, I was just... It-

Joe Rogan 47:37 Yeah. Well, you're a perfect example of... Y- you know, obviously you're a super healthy guy and, and, uh, an elite athlete, but when you put yourself through training camp, you're... There's only one way to get in shape-

Cody Garbrandt 47:48 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:48 ... you gotta beat yourself up.

Cody Garbrandt 47:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:50 There's no, there's no other way around it.

Cody Garbrandt 47:51 That's true. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:52 And when you are so tough that you push through even though you had COVID, and you let that shit get deep into your system, there's a lesson in there for people. You know, because there's tough. Tough's important.

Cody Garbrandt 48:04 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:04 You ha- You don't get where you get without being tough. But there's-

Cody Garbrandt 48:07 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:07 ... there's also you, you gotta be-

Cody Garbrandt 48:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:09 ... you gotta be able to take a step back and go, "It's not wise to push sometimes."

Cody Garbrandt 48:16 And I think, honestly, if I got tested before having COVID, then, I mean, before I first-

Joe Rogan 48:21 Before it got bad?

Cody Garbrandt 48:21 ... had the first... Like, "I've had this before. It's vertigo."

Joe Rogan 48:23 You probably would've never got it.

Cody Garbrandt 48:24 I probably would've been as worse.

Joe Rogan 48:25 You probably would've had it for a couple of weeks or whatever, and then-

Cody Garbrandt 48:27 And... Yeah, exactly.

Joe Rogan 48:28 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 48:28 It wouldn't be as... It took over my body, then I came back and I hit pads the first time, I'm like, "Dude, I'm in, I'm in great shape," 'cause I was cycling 100 miles, you know?

Joe Rogan 48:35 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 48:35 We had a hard pace. We were riding four or five times a week, you know, building the legs up. And, um, so I started hitting pads again. I was excited, like, "I'm back in the gym. I can be around people." 'Cause on the bike, I was just on the bike trail on the road, just, you know-

Joe Rogan 48:46 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 48:46 ... suffering on the bike. Came back, hit pads the first time, and man, I... My bicep was so sore, uh, and then I remember going to sleep that night and waking up in excruciating pain.

Joe Rogan 48:57 Wow.

Cody Garbrandt 48:57 And my bicep was... Just filled up with blood and like... 'Cause I thought I tore my biceps-

Joe Rogan 49:00 Oh, no.

Cody Garbrandt 49:01 ... so I went to my doctor, and he ultrasounded it, and he thought it was a distal bicep tear. You know, he deemed it that. I'm like, "Fuck, I gotta call Dana and tell him, like, 'Hey, um, just tore my bicep,' and go..." And then get the MRI. Get the MRI, nothing's torn. It was a, uh, again, then I had to go get a urgent ultrasound. I tore my vein in half, and it ripped in half from-

Joe Rogan 49:20 Oh, wow.

Cody Garbrandt 49:21 And then I had-Three blood clots, so I was immediately-

Joe Rogan 49:24 Oh.

Cody Garbrandt 49:24 ... they started injecting me with blood thinners. I was on, I've been on blood thinners for, you know, since ... Man, I'm-

Joe Rogan 49:31 This is because of COVID as well.

Cody Garbrandt 49:33 Three months. Because of COVID, yeah, it's linked with it. Blood clots.

Joe Rogan 49:33 That's another thing that happens with people with severe cases of COVID. They get blood clots.

Cody Garbrandt 49:37 Didn't know. And my business partner, Jeremy Perkins, he owns, uh, PNP Medical, which they work with COVID, or they work with, uh, blood clots. They have, you know, some ... The devices they sell to doctors and hospitals. And the whole time, he's like, "Dude, I think you have a blood clot." I'm like, "There's no way I have a blood clot." But that's the number one silent killer in, in the nation is, is blood clots 'cause people don't know they have it.

Joe Rogan 49:57 Hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 49:57 I had three of them in my arm, didn't even know.

Joe Rogan 49:59 That's crazy.

Cody Garbrandt 50:00 I just had, like, my arm was sore for a while.

Joe Rogan 50:02 So you're on blood thinners now?

Cody Garbrandt 50:04 I just finished up my last. I was on blood thinners for almost three months.

Joe Rogan 50:07 So how do they know when to get you off them? How do they know that you're okay?

Cody Garbrandt 50:10 Um, so I was going every month. After I did a month of blood thinners, um, I was getting ultrasounds, re-ultrasound. I mean they were literally going from ... 'Cause I literally had my ... My vein was like an electric cord, hard, like a rope.

Joe Rogan 50:24 Whoa.

Cody Garbrandt 50:24 I couldn't even set my arm down it was so sore, like driving the console.

Joe Rogan 50:28 And this only manifested itself when you started hitting pads? You didn't-

Cody Garbrandt 50:31 After, after I hit pads, like, my arm-

Joe Rogan 50:32 You didn't feel that before that?

Cody Garbrandt 50:34 No, like, it-

Joe Rogan 50:34 Nothing?

Cody Garbrandt 50:34 It blew the vein.

Joe Rogan 50:36 Wow.

Cody Garbrandt 50:36 It ripped the vein in half.

Joe Rogan 50:37 So your body must have been ... See, that's the thing too, right? Like, I'm sure when you came back, you tried to rip-

Cody Garbrandt 50:43 Oh, dude, I was, fuck-

Joe Rogan 50:44 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 50:44 I was horny. I was so horny.

Joe Rogan 50:46 You wanted to smash those pads.

Cody Garbrandt 50:47 Oh, I was like, I was like feeling good. I was in great shape. My conditioning was on another level, world-class it always is, but I'd-

Joe Rogan 50:53 All that cycling.

Cody Garbrandt 50:54 Ener- yeah, and I was not getting tired. And I would just ... You know, like-

Joe Rogan 50:58 Oh, no.

Cody Garbrandt 50:59 Yeah. And usually my biceps hurt after I hit strikes. I'm just, just hooking and just, for the first few times if I don't hit pads in a while, but this was another pain. I woke up and my brother just moved in with me. Um, and I woke up in the middle of the night and it was at 6:00 and I had Chris's class and I literally hit my arm on the side. And I was like, "I don't think I can go do jujitsu." I'm like, "I'll, I got hill sprints. I'll, I'll go do hill sprints in the afternoon." Texted my doctor, I'm like, "Hey, can you check my arm out?" And he was like, "Holy shit, man. This is not good." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 51:27 So how long were you on the blood thinners for?

Cody Garbrandt 51:29 Uh, it was almost three months.

Joe Rogan 51:30 Geez.

Cody Garbrandt 51:30 Yeah, I just got off. I actually go, when I go back, uh, from here, I go to the hospital and get an ultrasound to see if the ... 'Cause the one blood clot reabsorbed, but I still had one blood clot since the last one and it was a superficial vein. So, um, I learned a lot about health and, and-

Joe Rogan 51:45 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 51:46 ... this year from the-

Joe Rogan 51:47 I can imagine.

Cody Garbrandt 51:47 ... kidney infection, the blood clots, and, and now I just did a blood panel. So every camp before, I'm gonna get a blood panel of things checking what I'm low on, maybe a vitamin or supplement can help me out, not break my body down 'cause, dude, we're training two, three times a day. We're, we're ...

Joe Rogan 52:01 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 52:01 You, you understand it.

Joe Rogan 52:02 Yeah. No, I do.

Cody Garbrandt 52:02 Like, a lot of people who don't like to just to get to the fight-

Joe Rogan 52:05 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 52:06 ... is amazing. But to be able to peak on that night?

Joe Rogan 52:09 It's an art form.

Cody Garbrandt 52:10 It's an art form. Yeah, it's-

Joe Rogan 52:11 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 52:11 ... it's scientific. You have to really know your body, and I usually do.

Joe Rogan 52:15 When you train with Mark Henry, does he have any, uh, different approach to strength and conditioning? Does he leave that to other people? Does he advise you in that? Or is he just technique oriented and-

Cody Garbrandt 52:24 You know what he, he harps on and brags about and it's so funny from, uh, a boxer? Like all boxers like talk shit about wrestlers. Like, "Oh, you're in those singlets." And then he's like, "Get your wrestling in." He's like, "Get, make sure-

Joe Rogan 52:35 'Cause he's fucking smart.

Cody Garbrandt 52:36 Dude, he knows. He understands.

Joe Rogan 52:37 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 52:37 Like, I mean, Ruckers is right there, so we have the Ruckers and the New Jersey Training Center, so we go to train with those young, hungry college kids who are trying to fuck you up. And then you have the, the-

Joe Rogan 52:46 I'm sure. (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 52:47 ... uh, All-Americans or you have the, uh, international wrestlers that have, uh, uh, they're on the training center. And it's just a dog fight, man. You get those kids, they're ... You're hand fighting for 10 minutes with these dudes and r- we're live wrestling, like ... And we all have wrestling backgrounds and it's funny when we get into MMA, we kind of dip away from wrestling so much-

Joe Rogan 53:04 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 53:04 ... 'cause we're focused on striking and jujitsu, and what got us there was those grinding wrestling matches when you're just ... Oh, man, it's miserable. And, uh, so he always says, "Hey." Every time I get off the phone with him, when we're about to hang up, he's like, "Hey, get your wrestling in." I'm like, "All right, cool. Yeah, for sure." So, it's great. So he, he, he harps on that. Obviously strength and conditioning is big as well, but, you know, don't, don't, um ... See, what I do, I do strength and conditioning outside of camp. That's when I re- rebuild my body back, you know, everything that I need to do that's gonna get torn down in a fight. So I build this armor in camp and then I push the first four weeks-

Joe Rogan 53:39 Outside of camp.

Cody Garbrandt 53:40 ... outside of camp, then when I get in camp, the first four weeks are brutal. You're sore, you're hurt, you're ... And then the last four weeks you just kind of modify your workouts to where you're-

Joe Rogan 53:48 So you don't do much actual strength and conditioning while you're in camp?

Cody Garbrandt 53:51 I do. I touch the weight. I touch the weight. Um, it's more for aerobic skill, skill work. I have a ... My, my coach, uh, Amadeo Novella has worked with, um, Danny and TJ and Joe, so these, these guys see new methods that we're doing and Danny always walks in and is like, "Wish I had this when I was, you know, there." I was a guinea pig, you know, over-trained.

Joe Rogan 54:11 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 54:11 So he's learned so much and has us peaking at, you know, a strength weight and, uh, aerobic and just using all your different systems to formulate in MMA, because you know like anybody, MMA training is so much different. When you go in an MMA fight, you have to be a conditioned boxer, conditioned ... You throw kicks in with boxing now.

Joe Rogan 54:30 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 54:30 You're talking about a whole different cardio. Then you gotta wait for ... You got a guy like Khabib trying to fucking just take you down and-

Joe Rogan 54:36 Maul you.

Cody Garbrandt 54:36 ... be a wet blanket on you.

Joe Rogan 54:37 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 54:38 And then you have to get back on your feet and fight him. Like-

Joe Rogan 54:40 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 54:40 It's ... The cardio and the conditioning I think is, uh, it scares me. Dude, I, I get scared before my workouts.

Joe Rogan 54:45 Do you get scared?

Cody Garbrandt 54:45 Like, I know what I ... I go there an hour before and everyone's like, "Oh, you're here early." I'm like, well, I have to mentally prepare myself to put my body through that. And I think that that's, going back to the slight edge there, I see a lot of my teammates, they're walking in, they're late, they have no urgency. I'm like, I just couldn't do it. I have to mentally put myself in there what I'm going to do. I might pass out. I might ... I'm probably gonna throw up. I'm gonna push my limits to where I'm gonna feel like I'm gonna pass out or I'm gonna be sick after. And I feel like that's a slight edge to where you have to do and just getting to that point, because, dude, how embarrassing would it be that I'm better than this fighter, but my conditioning was worse and that's why he beat me.

Joe Rogan 55:20 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 55:20 Dude, being exhausted-

Joe Rogan 55:21 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 55:21 ... having fatigue will make a, you a coward in any circumstance.

Joe Rogan 55:24 Vince Lombardi, right?... fear m- fatigue makes cowards of men.

Cody Garbrandt 55:28 Fear makes cowards of us all. Yeah, yeah. That's, uh, that's my favorite quote. We had that in our wrestling room. And I didn't even know what fatigue was when I was a kid, and I would always, always see this in our high school wrestling room where we grew up in it. We're homegrown from kids tying shoes on the first time on the mat to, you know, wherever you go to college after and, like, the same wrestling room. The same coach was there for 30 some years, Eric Tokanen, and he was just old school, old school, and had quotes and... I'm like, "Fatigue makes cowards of..." But that one stuck with me, and then I figured out what fatigue was and I'm like, "Well, I'm not gonna be a coward." I knew what a coward was, I didn't know what a fatigue was, but-

Joe Rogan 55:58 (laughs)

Cody Garbrandt 55:58 ... but I'm not gonna be tired (laughs) . I'm not gonna be a coward, so I always stuck with that one.

Joe Rogan 56:02 Talk to me, talk to me about the cycling, because I think that's really interesting that you developed all this endurance from cycling. I mean, I mean, I go back to when Nick Diaz was in his prime, and one of the things that separated Nick from everybody was his elite cardio. That Nick, Nick has swam from Alcatraz five times.

Cody Garbrandt 56:18 Yeah, motherfucker's crazy.

Joe Rogan 56:19 Maybe more since then. 'Cause I remember I said, "Twice once." And he corrected me. He goes, "Five times." (laughs) Like, oh shit-

Cody Garbrandt 56:25 I only did it one time.

Joe Rogan 56:26 Five fucking time-

Cody Garbrandt 56:27 Shark-infested, yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:28 That's shark-infested waters.

Cody Garbrandt 56:28 Yeah. Dude, I know, I would go to the beach and I'm all for it. My son loves the beach, always wants to go. I, I gotta have to see my feet in the water. I can't be out too far.

Joe Rogan 56:35 Ah, gotta see my feet.

Cody Garbrandt 56:37 The, the, the wife, she's out there, she's Thai, so she's like, "Oh, I'm out in the deep end." But, uh, yeah, that world-class cardio-

Joe Rogan 56:42 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 56:42 ... that's what I think separates it, like...

Joe Rogan 56:44 Yeah, there's something about that, right? There's something about people that are-

Cody Garbrandt 56:47 The running, the swimming, the riding.

Joe Rogan 56:48 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 56:48 And I think 'cause you're so alone in yourself, you know, you're swimming, you're swimming. What are you doing in your, you're, you're on the bike, you're in your thoughts-

Joe Rogan 56:55 You have to push yourself, yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 56:55 You're running, you're in your thoughts, you're pushing yourself.

Joe Rogan 56:57 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 56:57 You know, and then you get into that, "Well, I've done defeated myself. I've done pushed myself past these limits where I wanna give in. Now I have another human that might have some will, that might give a little eye or body language that he doesn't want to be in here." Now you start getting that confidence.

Joe Rogan 57:12 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 57:13 And I feel like, for me, going into a fight is my confidence comes through my hard work, knowing that I left no, um, you know-

Joe Rogan 57:20 Stone unturned.

Cody Garbrandt 57:21 ... stone unturned. And I feel like that just al- it... But you have to be smart with it. Now I'm older.

Joe Rogan 57:25 Are you gonna do that in all your future camps now?

Cody Garbrandt 57:29 (laughs) So I-

Joe Rogan 57:29 Or leading up to it? It's 'cause it seems like it was very effective for you.

Cody Garbrandt 57:33 Yeah, I, I feel like I just did my, uh, VO2 testing and it was the highest it's ever been. And I'm, I feel like I'm, I have world-class cardio, especially when the rounds get deeper. I feel like I get better in the fight. As I get tired, I get sharper, I feel, when I'm, when I'm, you know-

Joe Rogan 57:47 In great shape.

Cody Garbrandt 57:47 ... putting the work in. In great shape, of course. Um, so definitely, I think I have to tailor my cycling or I'm not gonna be... 'Cause I have back problems, you know, I've had some back issues. Being in that bike for seven hours riding 100 and some miles in that crouched over position, like, it locks you up. Um-

Joe Rogan 58:03 Do you... Have you ever talked to Volkanovski?

Cody Garbrandt 58:05 I haven't, no.

Joe Rogan 58:05 He, uh, had a pretty severe back injury and his back would blow out during every camp, but then he got a really good strength and conditioning coach and worked with him on strengthening his back and he's never had a problem since. Because a lot of what happens with people that have back issues where sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad, is the muscles around the back-

Cody Garbrandt 58:24 Are weak.

Joe Rogan 58:24 ... aren't conditioned to maintain posture-

Cody Garbrandt 58:26 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 58:27 ... maintain the training camp, and then they give out. And when the muscles give out, then you hurt your back again.

Cody Garbrandt 58:32 Then the big muscles lock up, yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:33 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 58:34 So my strength and conditioning coach, um, Dale Nivela and my PT, Russ, uh, Downin from Kind Performance, they work with a lot of baseball players who throw a lot like fighters.

Joe Rogan 58:43 Mm-hmm.

Cody Garbrandt 58:43 So I don't do a lot of front loaded squats, back loaded squats. I do split stance, you know?

Joe Rogan 58:48 Okay, right.

Cody Garbrandt 58:49 Single leg, a lot of single arm, single leg.

Joe Rogan 58:51 Lunges, that kind of thing?

Cody Garbrandt 58:51 Just to mo- you know, get the weight evenly distributed so it's not heavy load on one side. And I feel like that's been, um, a huge advantage as far as strength where I'm not getting my back locked up. I can still do these dead lifts, I can still touch this heavyweight 'cause you need to build your body and those backs up.

Joe Rogan 59:06 Have you ever seen that, uh, harness system that Louie Simmons from Westside Barbell created? It's... He's in Columbus. You know Lou-

Cody Garbrandt 59:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:13 ... Louie? He, he-

Cody Garbrandt 59:13 Yeah. Marcus Marinelli, you know, Steve Basecoach has one we used to train on.

Joe Rogan 59:16 That thing is amazing.

Cody Garbrandt 59:17 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:17 I got one in my old gym and-

Cody Garbrandt 59:19 What do they call that?

Joe Rogan 59:19 It's like it drops down.

Cody Garbrandt 59:21 It drops down.

Joe Rogan 59:21 Belt squat?

Cody Garbrandt 59:21 Belt squat, yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:22 We have one at the old gym in California and then now I have one in my house, but, uh, from Sorinex. But it's, it puts all the weight on your hips.

Cody Garbrandt 59:30 Hips. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:30 So your bo- your back doesn't take that load.

Cody Garbrandt 59:33 Yeah, we have one at the gym. It's called a Pit Shark. And it's, uh, yeah, the same, same thing, just puts it on the hips and you can just-

Joe Rogan 59:39 Yeah.

Cody Garbrandt 59:39 ... rip it. So yeah, we've utilized that a lot. Obviously, the machine that you gave me or told me to get-

Joe Rogan 59:44 The Reverse Hyper.

Cody Garbrandt 59:44 ... Reverse Hyper, that's what's up.

Joe Rogan 59:45 That's another Louie Simmons. That guy's a fucking wizard.

Cody Garbrandt 59:48 That's where I've helped out so much. And then the machine that you just kind of like lay there and it kind of elongates, um,