JRE MMA Show #106 with Leon Edwards

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:02

      (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. NANarrator0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) Leon, what's up?

   4. LELeon Edwards0:13

      I'm good. How are you?

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      I'm... Dude, uh, first of all, fun hanging with you last night.

   6. LELeon Edwards0:17

      It was a good night.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:18

      It was good time.

   8. LELeon Edwards0:19

      Definitely the first time seeing you, um, live. I, I was saying to my, my man- manager, he's so eff- effortless. He's, like, talking, right, but it's still funny. It was like, if you can approach fighting like that, like make it eff- e- um, effortless, then that... You're doing a good job.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:34

      Well, I think some guys can at certain stages, right? Like, there's moments in fights where... Don't you feel like you're in a zone sometimes and it just... Everything's flowing?

   10. LELeon Edwards0:43

       Saturday night.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:44

       Saturday night, yeah.

   12. LELeon Edwards0:45

       Saturday night, I'm like, I felt good. All backstage 'cause, um, leading up to the fight everyone's like, "Ring rust, ring rust." So I was kinda waiting for some feeling to say, "Where's ring rust?" Right? But I felt great backstage and I preferred fighting with, with no crowd.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:59

       Did you really?

   14. LELeon Edwards1:00

       Yeah. I, I... 'Cause y- you get, you get to the, to the apex and it's like you get there, you wrap your hands, you warm up, you fight. There's no hanging around for five hours backstage and just... It's like a gym, right? You just... You get there, you warm, then you just go compete, so I, I preferred it for sure.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:16

       Did you prefer it because of the- there's no noise, no distractions, no nothing?

   16. LELeon Edwards1:22

       And you can hear your coaches clearly.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:23

       Oh, yeah.

   18. LELeon Edwards1:23

       Yeah?

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:24

       Yeah.

   20. LELeon Edwards1:24

       Instructions clearly and-

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:25

       Yeah.

   22. LELeon Edwards1:25

       I'm, I'm, I'm a very good listener to my coaches, so I wouldn't say I prefer it, but it was... I, it was good. I enjoyed it.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:32

       You have been in a very interesting position over the last few years where you are one of the top UFC welterler- uh, welterweights. But just be- be- because of bad fortune, just things just haven't totally lined up correctly.

   24. LELeon Edwards1:48

       Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:48

       Fights have fallen apart, injuries and sicknesses and a bunch of shit went down and you're... Until Saturday night you, you had been kind of ignored by a lot of fans.

   26. LELeon Edwards2:00

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan2:00

       Like, a lot of people don't understand what level you're at. They don't understand. I think they saw it for the brief moment-

   28. LELeon Edwards2:06

       That happened.

   29. JRJoe Rogan2:07

       ... that you fought Saturday night, but then unfortunately there's the injury. You know?

   30. NANarrator2:11

       Yeah.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Um, just coming from…

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      what specific life experiences?

   2. LELeon Edwards15:01

      Um, just coming from where I came from, you know, um, a lot of ups and downs as I came from some... H- u- ups and downs is, like, the norm to me, right? I, I, I, I, I look forward to, to, to facing ad- adversities. When I do face it, I know I can get through it and so that, that, that's what it is, really. I look forward to adversities, so I know 'cause I've been, I've been here before (laughs) , I've been doing this since I was a kid, you know, so, um, it's... I, I, I look forward to it.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:28

      When did you get started in martial arts? How old were you?

   4. LELeon Edwards15:30

      17.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:31

      17?

   6. LELeon Edwards15:31

      Yeah, yeah. Like, straight into, into, um, MMA. I didn't start late.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:35

      Oh, really?

   8. LELeon Edwards15:36

      Yeah, I didn't do nothing before. I was, like, hanging around on the, on the street with your friends and getting into martial arts, so.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:42

      That's interesting 'cause when you watch you kick, you would swear that you had, like, a traditional martial arts background.

   10. LELeon Edwards15:46

       Yeah, I did, I did. Everyone said that (laughs) , everyone said that, so I had my gym, but I did nothing at all before. I went straight from, um, hanging around on the street with my friends to one day a gym was getting built, um, in my area. My mom said try it out, I tried it out and I was... stuck to it.

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:59

       Wow.

   12. LELeon Edwards16:00

       And fell in love with it and... I fell in love with the striking first, um, even though I was doing all of it, but the striking just caught my attention and then, um, then the grappling came later.

   13. JRJoe Rogan16:09

       It's so interesting now that you're seeing, like, a whole crop of kids that are evolving that came straight-

   14. LELeon Edwards16:15

       Straight.

   15. JRJoe Rogan16:15

       ... into MMA, nothing else.

   16. LELeon Edwards16:16

       Yeah. I can-

   17. JRJoe Rogan16:17

       Yeah.

   18. LELeon Edwards16:17

       I can imagine, like, another, like, 20 years 'cause my son now, he's, he's doing martial arts, he does kickboxing and, um, jiu-jitsu, so I can't imagine, like, their generation, what they're gonna be like, right? 'Cause-

   19. JRJoe Rogan16:26

       Right.

   20. LELeon Edwards16:26

       ... every, every fight, every year there's, like, a new technique that's coming out and, like that, that calf kick? That's, like, a new technique what lasts, what? Couple years-

   21. JRJoe Rogan16:35

       Yeah.

   22. LELeon Edwards16:35

       ... they've, they've been using it?

   23. JRJoe Rogan16:36

       Four or five years, yeah.

   24. LELeon Edwards16:37

       Yeah, exactly. So I'm looking forward to see how far MMA goes and what, what's the next things that's, that's gonna come.

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:43

       Did the calf kick... Did, like, did that surprise you, like, the popularity of it?

   26. LELeon Edwards16:48

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:49

       How quickly it became, like, an-

   28. LELeon Edwards16:51

       (sighs)

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:51

       ... so, such an important technique 'cause you land a few of them, just three or four of them and then the-

   30. LELeon Edwards16:56

       (laughs)
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   They're all gonna try…

   1. LELeon Edwards30:00

      for them. You can, um... I was saying before, you couldn't, like, swap them out. So when, when Khamzat fell out, I was like, "Okay, put anyone in 'cause they're all, all gonna do the same thing anyway. So just drop another one in," and that- that's- that's what it was, uh, th- so normal.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:14

      They're all gonna try to grapple him-

   3. LELeon Edwards30:16

      Yeah, I didn't, yeah, I didn't try to grapple, but that means nothing to me. You know, I've, I've, I- I feel good when I'm grappling, I feel good with the striking, and, um, I just can't wait to show, show my skill set and show what I'm about. I- I haven't done what I could yet in, in a game, but I wanna show it, and I'm gonna show it.

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:33

      When you put, when you put together a camp, like say if you get a Colby fight...

   5. LELeon Edwards30:36

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:36

      And do... Who designs your camp? Do you design everything yourself in terms of like when you do strength and conditioning, when you run, when you spar, when you hit mitts?

   7. LELeon Edwards30:45

      Um-Yeah. I, I, I don't got a head coach. Uh, ain't like-

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:48

      Really?

   9. LELeon Edwards30:48

      Nah. I ain't got like one coach that I said, "This is my head coach." Right? I got like coaches for diff- different martial arts and they all come together and, um, all, I put them all, all together and they communicate like that. But I don't got like one person that say, "Okay, you have to do this. You have to do that. You have to do that." I prefer it that way as well, because I feel with, with head coaches, um, from my experience, it's like you do it my way or no way. You know what I mean? You can't train 10 guys the same way.

   10. JRJoe Rogan31:15

       Right.

   11. LELeon Edwards31:15

       I think that's what coaches do. Like, well, if you've got one person, you train them all the same way. But I might be different. I'm tall and southpaw. He might be short and orthodox. You can't train me the same way you train him, you know? So, um, that's, that's what, that's what I do, and I feel comfortable. I feel, I feel good doing it that way, so each to their own. I don't think nothing's wrong with it, just for me, I prefer, um ... Obviously I talk back and forth with my coaches and, um, we run game plans together, you know what I mean? So if I don't agree with it ... 'Cause l- let's say they come- my coach, my striking coach come to me, be like, "Okay, for this fight you need to throw a head kick." I be like, "Yeah, but I don't want to throw a head kick this fight 'cause I don't think it's gonna work f- for this guy." You know? And, um, if I watch him and see what he does, so this ... That's, that's what I do, right? I watch a person and I break 'em down and say, "Okay, ev- everyone got habits, right, that they do?" Um, some people like to pass to the left. Some p- people like to pass to the right. So if you can, if he's good at passing to his left, if you can make him pass to his right, where it's not good, then you're gonna have more success. And that's what I try to do basically in, all over the game. So, if he's good at jabbing, um, if you take away the jab just by moving, um, out the way of it, then he has to throw something else, which is not natural to him. And that's the way I approach the game, really, is just try to, try to throw them off for what they're, what they're good at, but take it away from them and then let them use what they're bad at.

   12. JRJoe Rogan32:35

       And so, if you put together a camp, so you basically just have all these people that you work with. You work with the wrestling coach-

   13. LELeon Edwards32:41

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan32:41

       ... jiu-jitsu coach, striking coach-

   15. LELeon Edwards32:43

       Yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan32:43

       ... and then just you decide how the, how the fight's gonna play out based on how ... You're watching tapes. You're watching things.

   17. LELeon Edwards32:49

       Yeah, yeah. I watch, I watch tapes. No, th- they send information as well, you know. I'm not, not just like mastering it all myself.

   18. JRJoe Rogan32:55

       Right.

   19. LELeon Edwards32:55

       They send like, "Okay, this is what he does." And then I'll look. I'll be like, "Okay, what would you do to, to counteract that?" And if they tell me, they tell me, I'll be like, "Okay." If it feels good to me, then I'll do it. But if it doesn't, if it's not natural. I think it has to be a natural movement, right? If you're kind of like forcing yourself to, um ... Like f- for example, this fight with Belal, my coach was like, "Okay, you need to throw the uppercut, the back uppercut 'cause y- he dips into it." But in sparring, I wasn't fu- sorry, or we're in, uh-

   20. JRJoe Rogan33:22

       You can swear.

   21. LELeon Edwards33:23

       Oh, I can swear?

   22. JRJoe Rogan33:23

       Yeah. It's the internet.

   23. LELeon Edwards33:24

       (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan33:24

       Fuck yeah.

   25. LELeon Edwards33:26

       (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan33:26

       Um, for, f-

   27. LELeon Edwards33:27

       That's hilarious. (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan33:29

       (laughs)

   29. LELeon Edwards33:30

       Um, yeah. But in sparring I was trying to, tried to do what he, what he told me to do, but every time I was throwing an uppercut the guy was catching me, um, over the top with a, with a, with a hook. You know? I was like, this doesn't, this didn't come natural to me. So I does, as I said to my dog, don't use that technique (laughs) for, for this fight, 'cause every time I'm trying it in sparring I'm getting caught with shots and, um-

   30. JRJoe Rogan33:50

       In boxing that's what happens, right?
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Right. …

   1. LELeon Edwards45:00

      tired, I know I'm tired, I'll have a day off and... And that's... I mean, that's what it is. There are coaches sometimes... Like one head coach will be like, "No, you have to... You have to come training. Be tough. Do this, do that." You know? But I believe-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:11

      Right.

   3. LELeon Edwards45:11

      ... you should li- you should listen to your body. If you are tired that day, have a day off. You... I think it's more mental, right? Like everyone thinks, "Ah, I need to train and I need to do this." But you don't. If you're... If you're tired, you're gonna be way more better if you had like one or two days off and then come back and train and fight. So, um, I think it's more mental than anything.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:27

      So this is like trial and error? You've-

   5. LELeon Edwards45:29

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:29

      ... figured out you-

   7. LELeon Edwards45:29

      Yeah, I figured it out-

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:30

      ... know your body well?

   9. LELeon Edwards45:31

      ... over the years. Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:31

       Yeah.

   11. LELeon Edwards45:31

       I figured it over the years and like I said, it's... I think it's mental 'cause for example, look at... especially with diet, look at Floyd Mayweather, right? I was watching, um, Countdown the other day. He's like having like McDonald's and shit.

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:40

       Yeah.

   13. LELeon Edwards45:41

       I was like, "What the fuck?"

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:41

       He eats a lot of McDonald's.

   15. LELeon Edwards45:42

       You know? It's like... Well, it's like-

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:44

       I think he eats really good too though.

   17. LELeon Edwards45:44

       Yeah. No, I... I think so but-

   18. JRJoe Rogan45:46

       It's... Part of that is like to show people-

   19. LELeon Edwards45:48

       Nah, no.

   20. JRJoe Rogan45:48

       ... like, "I don't give a fuck."

   21. LELeon Edwards45:49

       (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan45:49

       "You're eating a cheeseburger and I'll still beat people's asses."

   23. LELeon Edwards45:51

       But some people will do that and like it will fuck them up mentally. Like, "Oh shit, I had a burger. I'm gonna lose the fight." I was like-

   24. JRJoe Rogan45:56

       Right.

   25. LELeon Edwards45:56

       ... "You can't lose the fight, bro. Just chill, do your thing."

   26. JRJoe Rogan45:59

       Yeah. Yeah.

   27. LELeon Edwards46:00

       (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:00

       Do you use anything to monitor your recovery? Like do you use a whoop strap or anything like that when you ch-

   29. LELeon Edwards46:07

       Um-

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:07

       ... check your...
5. 1:00:00 – 1:02:39

   Oh, really? …

   1. LELeon Edwards1:00:00

      in life. Yeah, yeah. Just I'm b- I was, I was born in Jamaica, obviously. Um, came to the UK when I was 10, 11. Um, my dad was in, was a basically gang leader, basically.

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:12

      Oh, really?

   3. LELeon Edwards1:00:12

      Yeah, in Jamaica. So basically in Jamaica it's, like, um, streets, right? We call it lanes, but it's, like, streets. But it was, like, um, where one street fight with, like, the n- ne- the other street down, like, three streets down the road. Um, in my area, my dad was, like, the leader of the gang, right? So he came to the UK, um, before us. He was, like, he was, like, sell drugs and wait, whatever he did to bring back money back into the community to buy guns and do what they, do what he does, you know? And, um, I came from that, then from there he ca- he brought me, my brother, um, and my mom to the UK, um, to obviously for safety, obviously. And then both in Birmingham. And then he passed away when I was 13, 13 years old. So I was in, I was in the UK for about two to three years, then he died when I was 13. And then-

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:01:02

      How did he pass away?

   5. LELeon Edwards1:01:03

      Um, got shot, got killed in, um, in London. Um, when I got a phone call I was, like, 13 years old and (laughs) I remember, like, being, being in bed, right? And my mom got a phone call at 2:00 in the morning. And so I heard the phone ringing and she's like, uh, I heard her crying, right? I was like, "Oh, shit." So I was like, she woke, she woke me up said, "Your dad, um, just got killed in, um, in London." Well, it's like a weird feeling, right? 'Cause I've seen, since, since I, I knew my dad he's, he's always been the same person, right? He's always-... been in, in that life, you know. So, um, I wouldn't say I s- I expected it, but it, it wasn't like a shock, right? Because I knew what he did. I know that's life. That's the life, right?

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:01:51

      Yeah.

   7. LELeon Edwards1:01:51

      You know, and, um, so it was, uh, it, it was mad. It was mad.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:01:56

      What is it like growing up when your father is running a gang? It's gotta be fucking crazy. Like, just-

   9. LELeon Edwards1:02:04

      Um.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:02:04

       ... knowing-

   11. LELeon Edwards1:02:06

       As a kid, it's like, uh-

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:02:08

       Did it feel normal because you-

   13. LELeon Edwards1:02:09

       Yeah, I s-

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:02:09

       ... that's all you knew?

   15. LELeon Edwards1:02:10

       Yeah. It's just normal, right? Everyone... (clicks tongue) I, I, it's fucked up because I liked it as a, when I, when I was a kid, right? Because I had all, like, the latest shit 'cause he, he was like sending shit from the UK and like, having like a bi- I'm, I'm like a bicycle when it's in Jamaica and like a remote control car as a kid. That was a big deal, you know, and I, I had all, all, I had all that and, um, obviously everyone around the area know who I was, and so as a kid, it's like, my dad is this guy, you know, so-

Episode duration: 2:05:52