JRE MMA Show #70 with Aljamain Sterling

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Boom, and we're live.…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:02

      Boom, and we're live. You're the first guy with a high top ever to wear these mi- I was wondering whether or not the microphones were gonna sit, but it's perfect.

   2. ASAljamain Sterling0:09

      Yeah. It's just right in there. It's like a little crevice.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:11

      It's, like, fluffy, like a little rest area.

   4. ASAljamain Sterling0:12

      (laughs)

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      (laughs) Does that h- does, does having that much hair on the top of your head, is there any benefit of that?

   6. ASAljamain Sterling0:20

      I think when you get, like, elbowed-

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:21

      Yeah.

   8. ASAljamain Sterling0:21

      ... or anything like that, I think it helps out a ton.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:23

      Like, if someone, if you have someone in their guard, and they're trying to elbow the top of your head, I would imagine...

   10. ASAljamain Sterling0:27

       Yeah. There's a little cushion on it.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:29

       Yeah.

   12. ASAljamain Sterling0:29

       So, it, I think it protects you, and I kinda grew out the beard for that, kinda that same reason, but it doesn't get as burly as I kinda want it to, but it works.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:36

       I think in boxing, they used to make people shave their beard.

   14. ASAljamain Sterling0:39

       Yeah. That's probably why. Impact.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:41

       Yeah.

   16. ASAljamain Sterling0:41

       I, I, you know that kid, Desi Green? I used to live with him. He's in the UFC also.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:45

       Mm-hmm.

   18. ASAljamain Sterling0:46

       And, um, whenever I put that guy in the guillotine, 'cause he has these big dreads, he would always get out of them, because the dreads were, like, it gave his head, it made his head appear like it was bigger, so you wrap around it, and you squeeze the cushion, and it just compresses, and then he just, his head just slides out of it, completely out.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:01

       Ah.

   20. ASAljamain Sterling1:02

       So it's like a cheat code.

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:03

       Slippery, slippery dreadlocks. I would also imagine, though, that having a bald head, if you get sweaty, would make it a little greasier. Like, if you have stubble, like, on the top of your head, that would provide, like, a little bit of friction.

   22. ASAljamain Sterling1:16

       Yeah. That makes sense. I, I, I follow you. I follow you on that.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:19

       (laughs)

   24. ASAljamain Sterling1:20

       (laughs) I haven't had a bald head though, so I don't, I, it's hard for me to, to, to know.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:23

       Do you, I like how your shirt even has a gold chain on it.

   26. ASAljamain Sterling1:27

       I was gonna wear the big boy chain today, but, uh-

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:28

       Why did you not?

   28. ASAljamain Sterling1:29

       I don't know. I don't know.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:31

       Do you only carry that out when you fight?

   30. ASAljamain Sterling1:32

       I usually do. I try to keep it not, like, too ridiculous all the time, you know?
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Yeah. It's like she's…

   1. ASAljamain Sterling15:00

      and then boom, boom, spinning back kick out of nowhere.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:03

      Yeah. It's like she's a weird combination of Muay Thai and karate.

   3. ASAljamain Sterling15:06

      Yeah.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:06

      Like, she's got traditional martial art techniques but, like, rock solid Muay Thai too.

   5. ASAljamain Sterling15:11

      It's the dancing, I think.

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:12

      Hmm.

   7. ASAljamain Sterling15:13

      Her, her system.

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:13

      Yeah.

   9. ASAljamain Sterling15:14

      I think it's the dancing.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:15

       Well, you know, that's Lomachenko's secret, that's one of his secrets-

   11. ASAljamain Sterling15:19

       Prettier than her.

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:19

       ... other than her amazing boxing technique. His dad made him dance, like, traditional, I think, Ukrainian dancing. Make, make sure that's right. I don't wanna fuck that up.

   13. ASAljamain Sterling15:27

       (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:27

       It's, like, some kinda traditional Russian dancing for, like, four years.

   15. ASAljamain Sterling15:31

       Yeah. Now, I heard that he's made him stop boxing for a bit so that he could focus on-

   16. JRJoe Rogan15:36

       Yeah.

   17. ASAljamain Sterling15:36

       ... dancing.

   18. JRJoe Rogan15:36

       That's what he did for four years.

   19. ASAljamain Sterling15:38

       Yeah, that's, uh-

   20. JRJoe Rogan15:39

       Crazy.

   21. ASAljamain Sterling15:41

       (inhales) Makes sense, I guess, the footwork and everything.

   22. JRJoe Rogan15:43

       Who the fuck is gonna do that though?

   23. ASAljamain Sterling15:44

       It just-

   24. JRJoe Rogan15:44

       If they said, "Aljamain, listen." How old are you now? How old are you now?

   25. ASAljamain Sterling15:46

       I'm 30 at the end of this month.

   26. JRJoe Rogan15:48

       Okay, 34 is your prime. "This is what we're gonna do. Next four years, you're just gonna dance."

   27. ASAljamain Sterling15:52

       (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan15:53

       He'd be like, "What?"

   29. ASAljamain Sterling15:55

       (laughs)

   30. JRJoe Rogan15:55

       "Like, what the fuck are you talking about?"
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Oh. …

   1. ASAljamain Sterling30:00

      "I just don't understand the whole necessity behind needing that." But I'm no, I'm no physical strength and conditioning doctorate or anything like that. But from what I've seen that works for me, I just try to mimic everything that I feel in a fight and implement it into a workout, and I figure out which ways I could do that, whether it's bands, push-ups, box jumps, wall sits. I do wall sits get-ups with two plates.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:22

      Oh.

   3. ASAljamain Sterling30:22

      So I'm sitting down on my butt and I'll do, like, a technical stand-up. And I use the wall and I push up, so it's a lot of leg works, a lot of core work.

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:29

      Hm.

   5. ASAljamain Sterling30:29

      And-

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:29

      With two plates?

   7. ASAljamain Sterling30:30

      With two plates. It's fucked up. It's ... Man, sometimes I, like, I come there ... And I can do it by myself in the morning. I go to LAUMMA by myself, 9:00 AM, and I'm like, "Why am I putting myself through this?" Like, I ca- It could be so much easier and more simple, like, just to do the other stuff like the plyometric stuff and ... Which is a little not as much impact on the body, but this is what I enjoy. I think this was what translates to the fight, 'cause this is what I feel. And I feel when I do this, I notice a drastic difference from one sparring session to the next. But to answer your question, like, I adjust it. I'll do it if, um, my legs are on fire and I feel like they're really beat up from sparring, I'll do more upper body. And then if my ... I feel my upper body's more beat up, I'll switch it off to the lower body. And if I feel like I'm fresh, like, I had a good week, I'd ... Maybe at the end of spar, um, on a Saturday and I come in fresh on a Monday, I'll hit it hard and do full body everything, and I'll give myself five rounds of pushing it. But I'll separate it into rounds. Simulate the fight with rounds.... I do every single minute, but I'll do about 40, 40 s- depending on how far I am from, from the fight. If I'm like just starting training camp, I don't wanna kill myself.

   8. JRJoe Rogan31:30

      Hmm.

   9. ASAljamain Sterling31:30

      I wanna ease my way into it. So, I'll start like anywhere from like 30, 35 seconds to like 50 seconds, and that 10-second window or that other 30-second window is my time to recover and get to the next station. And I'll just rap, whatever I'm doing, burn it out, burn it out. I'll do, um, the med ball between my legs, I'll do the foam roller in my arms and I'll squeeze it and I'll simulate the rear naked choke, and I do it for two-minute intervals.

   10. JRJoe Rogan31:53

       Whoa.

   11. ASAljamain Sterling31:53

       And I'm just squeezing the piss out of it. And obviously, you can't do it, but you do it to failure. And your arms get tired, you switch and go to the other side, and you switch your legs, you figure-four it, you scissor the legs. So, you give yourself different type of stimulation to your body to kinda account for everything that you may possibly be in for the fight. And you never know, it's like some- this fight I did a lot of grappling, but I also did a lot of punching because I was- I thought to myself, there might be a chance I- it might be a, a possibility that I do not get Pedro to the ground. And I, and I was happy I didn't force the takedowns 'cause that would've fatigued me even more. I was like, "If it comes, it comes." But we did a- I did a lot of output just burning out the arms, getting that muscle endurance, kinda dos- using that Floyd Mayweather structure of a workout, just getting that- that heavy bag count, like high punch count in- in a five-minute round, and I would do that for a couple rounds. And we'd do that a couple times a week, and I- I think you implement that with the- the lateral footwork that we do in the cage, and just staying on your bike and having people like, like stalk you, and like sh- just not going crazy but it's, it's controlled. Like they're throwing punches like hooks or they're throwing, um, a one-two and you gotta like bounce side to side and get out the way. So it's a lot of like... at- at least I think it's practical for what you're gonna actually see when you get in a fight. And I think sure enough, a lot of the things we did pretty much happened in the fight, just-

   12. JRJoe Rogan33:04

       I think long-

   13. ASAljamain Sterling33:04

       ... on your toes.

   14. JRJoe Rogan33:05

       Long squeezes is a great idea.

   15. ASAljamain Sterling33:06

       Oh, it's insane.

   16. JRJoe Rogan33:07

       Because, because that's something that comes up often in a fight where you maybe got a guy in an arm triangle or something like that, and it's that close to whether you get it or he escapes. It's like-

   17. ASAljamain Sterling33:16

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan33:16

       ... how much squeeze, how long can you keep it down? You know when you're caught in something?

   19. ASAljamain Sterling33:20

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan33:20

       And it's like you're almost gonna tap and the guy lets go, you're like, "Woo!"

   21. ASAljamain Sterling33:23

       Yeah. (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan33:23

       You don't know, close.

   23. ASAljamain Sterling33:24

       If you just held it a little bit longer.

   24. JRJoe Rogan33:26

       Yeah, long squeezes. Uh, like my friend Scott Epstein, E- Einstein, he teaches at, uh, 10th Planet, West LA, he's always been a, a big fan of slow, slow workouts. Like he'll do chin-ups like this, like super slow. I think that's what they call it, super slow.

   25. ASAljamain Sterling33:41

       Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan33:41

       And he'll do chin-ups like he's doing a chin-up, it might take him two minutes to do a fucking chin-up.

   27. ASAljamain Sterling33:45

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan33:46

       For the entire time. So like when you're grappling with someone, it's like you're trying to squeeze it and pull them in-

   29. ASAljamain Sterling33:50

       And you're just still.

   30. JRJoe Rogan33:50

       ... but you've got that long-term squeeze endurance, you know?
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Oh my God. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      technique that I taught Anderson."

   2. ASAljamain Sterling45:01

      Oh my God.

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:01

      It's a front kick, bro.

   4. ASAljamain Sterling45:03

      (laughs)

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:03

      That's a front kick. Everybody knows that one.

   6. ASAljamain Sterling45:06

      (laughs)

   7. JRJoe Rogan45:06

      That's day one white belt class.

   8. ASAljamain Sterling45:09

      Oh, man. That ... I, I can't believe people bought it for so long. It's almost like the Ronda Rousey thing, too.

   9. JRJoe Rogan45:14

      Yeah. There he is. There he is. Look at this. Ooh, karate chop-

   10. ASAljamain Sterling45:16

       Dead.

   11. JRJoe Rogan45:17

       ... to the head, son. Imagine these dudes standing there while he practices all this shit.

   12. ASAljamain Sterling45:22

       (laughs)

   13. JRJoe Rogan45:22

       There's Georges. Georges had ... They all had to do it with a straight face. Like, Anderson's, like, the ultimate troll. Look, he's practicing it.

   14. ASAljamain Sterling45:29

       (laughs)

   15. NANarrator45:29

       (laughs)

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:29

       Anderson's practicing it.

   17. ASAljamain Sterling45:31

       His acting is so good, though.

   18. JRJoe Rogan45:32

       Oh my God.

   19. ASAljamain Sterling45:32

       It's so good.

   20. JRJoe Rogan45:33

       This is like a ... You know what this is like? This is like, like, a, a-

   21. ASAljamain Sterling45:37

       Break the wrist?

   22. JRJoe Rogan45:38

       ... circus clown given Dave Chappelle comedy technique.

   23. ASAljamain Sterling45:43

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan45:43

       Like some dude who's a ... Who's like a ... Who's like, "Hey, so you gotta get a nose." Honk, honk.

   25. ASAljamain Sterling45:47

       (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan45:47

       Dave's like, "Okay, okay." Honk, honk.

   27. ASAljamain Sterling45:49

       (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan45:49

       It's really what it's like. It's like Dave Chappelle getting comedy technique from a clown.

   29. ASAljamain Sterling45:53

       The, uh ... That reminds me of the N- Napoleon Dynamite when he's like, "Would you want to get kicked by me in these pants?"

   30. JRJoe Rogan45:59

       (laughs)
5. 1:00:00 – 1:00:06

   Oh, the ZYPPAH. I've…

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      uh, Z-Y-P-A-H.

   2. NANarrator1:00:03

      Oh, the ZYPPAH. I've heard that one.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:04

      ZYPPAH.

   4. NANarrator1:00:04

      I've heard the, uh, the commercial-

Episode duration: 2:36:16