Name: Cory Sandhagen Describes Chito Vera Fight as a Psychedelic Experience
Uploaded: 2023-04-07T17:15:19.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Cory Sandhagen Describes Chito Vera Fight as a Psychedelic Experience' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-07. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Cory Sandhagen Describes Chito Vera Fight as a Psychedelic Experience' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-07. Transcript available.

- The Joe Rogan Experience.
- That was, in my opinion, one of the most technical
and one of like the finest performances in that division.
That 135 pound division to have a guy like you
and Marlon go after it like that.
That was a fucking great fight.
- Thank you. - Really great fight.
And you're like on top of it right now, man.
It's really exciting to watch.
- Yeah, I'm getting pretty good, you know?
- Yeah, for real.
Like I've really been just plugging up some holes,
like figuring some stuff out.
I feel like I'm at the part in the martial arts journey
where I've gotten really good at being a really good learner.
Like I can learn super fast and super efficiently now.
And it's like big time paying off.
Like not only that, but I also,
the space I was in before that Cheeto fight
was unlike one that I feel like I've ever been in in my life.
- How so?
You know, have you read like a decent amount of sports psych books?
- Yes. - Where they'll sometimes talk about
how you're almost having this out of body experience
where you're almost like floating above the court
or the field or whatever.
It was almost like that, except I wouldn't use the word
like floating above, but I got to a space in that fight
in that fight where I felt like all of the thoughts
and all of the distracting things that sometimes happen
in a fight were completely ignored.
And this like higher being, better version,
like best, no thinker, just actor was running the show.
Like it's almost like I was watching the thing happen
while I was in the fight.
And there would be bits of me hopping in and being like,
"Hey, throw this combination.
Hey, take a little bit more of a risk.
Hey, do this."
And then that would get completely just watched.
And this, whoever was fighting that night
that didn't even feel like me was the person that was fighting.
It was fucking cool, man.
- Wow. - It was cool, dude.
It was like, you know, like a psychedelic experience feeling type of thing.
It was cool.
What do you attribute that to?
How did you get to that mindset?
It's a lot of, you know, messing stuff up.
Like I remember the last time I was on was right after I had beaten Frankie.
And I was in, it's just a bunch of different parts of the journey.
And in that part of the journey, I was really in this space where
if I could make myself more war, if I could make myself more angry,
if I could make myself be up here, I would have success.
That kind of stopped working a little bit after like around the TJ fight
and then kind of during the Yawn fight.
And then definitely I tried to be that guy against Song.
And it was like too much of a distracting feeling
where now my mindset's going into the last fight
because it was such like a distracting feeling.
Just feeling like I have to get myself to a point of anger or upness
before a fight where it just became distracting,
where it was helpful before it became distracting in that song fight.
I bailed on that and I just tried to be as mindful and as present as I possibly
could.
For like, and I know that those are like kind of corny words now, but there is
some real substance to them
when they're like really done well.
And I would say maybe about six weeks before the fight, I had this moment where
I was sitting on the couch
because I put a lot of pressure on myself and I want to be a world champ real
bad.
Where I was to the point where I wasn't enjoying any part of the camp, any part
of the experience of fighting or anything.
And I was sitting on the couch and I just like, I think I was crying a little
bit.
And I was like, I can't fucking do this for the next five years of my life.
You know, like I can't do this for the rest of my career.
And I was like, well, what's got to change?
And I was like, I got to lose, I got to take this pressure off of me.
And I got to start enjoying every day a lot more than I am right now.
And from that, like six weeks before the fight, I started doing that.
And I really think that that carried into the fight and it made me be a lot
less tense, a lot less tight.
And it made me be able to fight with just like a completely free way of being.
Wow.
And is this something that you had previously thought that you could get to
that space or wanted to get to that space?
Or is this something that you kind of experimented along the way and found this
path?
I'm a self learner.
And I think that I think that there's ways of being in life that like you just
kind of have to be at certain times.
Like when you're a young kid, like you have to be like going and hitting it
hard.
Like you have to remember all of the hundreds of thousands of people on the
other half of the world that are trying to accomplish the same goal as you.
And you have to be a little bit, in my opinion, you have to be a little bit on
the neurotic side of like, am I doing every single thing correct?
Am I putting the right amount of pressure on me that that's totally a part of
the journey, but I'm kind of more in the part of the journey where I've matured
a lot as a fighter.
I'm getting married this year, like I'm a little bit older, we're looking at
kids probably in the next couple of years.
What's sustainable?
Like what's like a sustainable way to continue doing what I love, but also
becoming like a more mature adult.
Um, and that's just part of the journey that I'm in right now.
And, uh, I don't think that anything was wrong with the way that I was doing
before, but it just is like a moving target all the time.
So it's like you're just finding new ways to approach it and then realizing
this way is better than the other way, even though the other way was effective,
this is even more effective.
So you're constantly trying to tweak it.
Yeah. And I, and I think that, uh, everything kind of has its purpose. Like, uh,
in those times where I would, I was really embracing this like war mentality,
this like very like bloodthirsty, vicious type of fighter that I was trying to
be when I would go into the cage that totally had its place because I had to
experience what I've, what I thought that had to feel like in order for me to
be the best martial artist that I can, because I do feel
like I've pointed all of my energy in my life and my mind and my spirit and
everything towards the direction of being the best martial artist that I can be.
And so going through that had its purpose, man. Like I had to figure out what
it was like for me to be like a vicious killer, you know, because in society
that's like not cool, you know? So like almost like, uh, the shadow self or
whatever, uh, is like the subconscious term for it. Um, I had to like
experience that I experienced it. I figured out
that it was no longer serving me. It was being distracting. So what do I need
to do now? Now it's like, okay, you figured that part out. You can be that guy
whenever you want to be that guy, but now we're being present. Now we're
enjoying it. And you don't really need to be that guy until you walk into the
cage. And even when you do walk into the cage, you don't need to be this like
really dramatic, super emphasized, like vicious guy, like be that guy, but you
don't have to overdo it. And when you're learning something, I almost feel like
you have to completely overdo it in order to learn like where that cutoff is.
like even in technique, like if you could do an arm bar and win every single
time with an arm bar, why would you ever stop doing arm bars? Right. It'd be
stupid. So like you figure out how to like do something way overdo it, figure
out where the cutoff is and be like, ah, okay, I can't do it in like those
situations. You pull back, you figure out what situations you need to do it in.
And then you move forward. What was this? What happened? What happened? I lost.
Can you hear me? My, uh, headphones.
Headphones cut out. Hold on. Check, check, check, check, check, check, check.
Something happened over here, Jamie. I don't know what's going on, but I lost
the, uh, headphones. We'll be right back folks. Sorry about that. No, that's
okay.
So, so, so what, where, where were we at? Um, so what was it about the other
way you were approaching it where, you know, last time you were here, you had
just embraced this idea that you went in there with the intention to fuck
people up. What was distracting about that?
It's, it's, it's like a, it's like a hot burning flame, you know, like, uh, I
feel like it's, I can only hold onto it for so long. Like I can't really, uh,
like it's a lot of energy to be that up. And so when I would be in the back and
warmed up, because you kind of, you don't know exactly when you're going to
walk.
So I try to be ready, you know, like 20 minutes before I'd spend like 30, 40
minutes warming up, trying to be that guy. And then for 20 minutes trying to
sustain that guy. And that's like a long time to be that up, you know? So even
in the, in this fight, uh, because there's no preparing for that last hour
before you go walk. Like, I don't care what type of guy you are, how Zen you
can be or how confident you are that, that last hour before a fight, like your
mind's going to fuck with you a lot.
And it's going to go to you thinking that you're the God of the universe to you
thinking that like, you're about to go get slaughtered. And, uh, in the back
before, if I started to feel like I was, you know, having those like impulsive
thoughts of like fear, or you're about to go get slaughtered. I try to just
cover that shit up real quick by getting like real pissed. Um, and that's like
a lot of energy to do. So before the Cheeto fight, I was super proud of the way
that I was able to handle those feelings because
those feelings are like real as hell when you're in the back. And how do you
handle them? Well, I just watched a man. Like, uh, I just realized like, ah,
okay. Like I'm having,
I'm having the sense of fear in me and I would just kind of sit there and be
like, okay, well, I'm not really fighting right now. So just let the fear be
there. Right now,
your job is to get warmed up. And so I just took it. Okay. Right now I'm
getting warmed up. Okay. They said 10
more minutes till we walk. Okay. I'm having the sense of fear still. That's
okay. I'm still in the back and
then step by step by step. Okay. I'm, I'm, I'm walking out now. Cool. Okay.
Looking across from them. Okay.
Touch gloves. Now we're fighting. It's literally, it sounds super fucking
simple, but it's just step by step by
step, man. Just like, okay, I'm having that sense. I'll just watch that and not
really, I mean, you acknowledge it, but you don't, I didn't, I don't try to
cover it up or I don't try to like be someone else.
I just kind of watch it as if it was just someone else. It, it happened into
someone else and then just move on.
It doesn't sound super simple at all. Not to me at least. It's, I know what you're
saying. And that feeling has got to be like riding a wild wave.
Like you just got to maintain your balance and to watch you go into that fight.
What was so impressive, um, besides the fact that you're
fighting a world-class guy in Marlon Vera and you were, you were controlling
the action was the overwhelming,
like the amount of information you were throwing at them. You were constantly
changing levels, constantly
threatening takedowns, constantly switching stances and everything was, you
know, there's fighters kind
of sometimes they'll fall into a pattern and you can kind of predict that
pattern. There was no pattern
with you. It was all over the place and it was so overwhelming when I was
watching, I was like, Jesus
Christ, like, this is so high level. And I don't, I mean, for like a casual, I
don't know if they're
seeing that, but for someone who watches a lot of fights and has been around
martial arts, you know,
my whole life, when I was watching, I was like, this is about as high level as
it gets.
Thank you. Like you were mixing shit up so well, like the way you were choosing
your attacks, whether it was the low kick or whether it was punches and the
switch stance to punches, the, the, the shot.
It was amazing, man. It was really fucking good. It was really fun to watch
because it wasn't just that you were doing that, but you were doing that for
five fucking rounds.
Like you never varied. You never slowed down. There was never like breathers.
It was just a full on assault of all of his reactions and all of his, uh, his,
you know, ability to read you.
It was like attack, bang, hit there. Okay. Trying to settle. Boom. This coming
in. Now there's a shot. It was like, there was no, there was no breaks.
Yeah. It was pretty awesome, man. Like a fucking wild. Yeah. It was pretty wild.
Uh, I think that that's always going to be one of my stronger points is that I
can make decisions a lot faster than other people. Um, I, I honestly think that
that's what makes good people from great people because good people can do,
they can make the right decisions and continue to make them continue to make
them continue to make them. But, uh, at some point, the person that's better at
doing those things is going to surpass that person. Eventually it might not
happen early, you know,
like it could take some time and against some of the best guys in the world, it's
going to take some time, but eventually your processing speed will out power
theirs, you know? And I think that I do that really, really well. I think that,
um, my training has a lot to do with that too. What is different about your
training? Um, so all of the conditioning that I do or almost the, the
conditioning parts that I take really seriously, um, are the sparring days. I
used to like hit mitts real hard and I still do like a,
strength and conditioning workout once a week um that's like you know 30
seconds 30 seconds 30
seconds minute rest you know stuff like that but um there's no getting tired
like there is getting
tired and sparring so i'll do if i i usually do 10 week camps the first week i
just knock the rust
off you know and then i do two seven weeks or two seven round weeks so we spar
tuesday fridays i do
seven rounds those days and then the next two weeks i do eight rounds both of
those days and then
i'll do like six and then the rest of them five because i want to get used to
five but in those
seven round weeks and those eight round weeks those are hard as man like i get
like i try to get so
tired where i'm just like i can't i don't feel like i can make decisions
anymore and i really think that
having the concentration to focus for those 40 minutes makes it way easier for
me to focus in
the 25 minutes you know like uh it's you know i don't really know if that's
science or not but
i definitely think that if i can stay focused for 40 minutes 25 minutes will
feel like nothing
so i really like really push myself there

Cory Sandhagen Describes Chito Vera Fight as a Psychedelic Experience

- The Joe Rogan Experience.
- That was, in my opinion, one of the most technical
and one of like the finest performances in that division.
That 135 pound division to have a guy like you
and Marlon go after it like that.
That was a fucking great fight.
- Thank you. - Really great fight.
And you're like on top of it right now, man.
It's really exciting to watch.
- Yeah, I'm getting pretty good, you know?
- Yeah, for real.
Like I've really been just plugging up some holes,
like figuring some stuff out.
I feel like I'm at the part in the martial arts journey
where I've gotten really good at being a really good learner.
Like I can learn super fast and super efficiently now.
And it's like big time paying off.
Like not only that, but I also,
the space I was in before that Cheeto fight
was unlike one that I feel like I've ever been in in my life.
- How so?
You know, have you read like a decent amount of sports psych books?
- Yes. - Where they'll sometimes talk about
how you're almost having this out of body experience
where you're almost like floating above the court
or the field or whatever.
It was almost like that, except I wouldn't use the word
like floating above, but I got to a space in that fight
in that fight where I felt like all of the thoughts
and all of the distracting things that sometimes happen
in a fight were completely ignored.
And this like higher being, better version,
like best, no thinker, just actor was running the show.
Like it's almost like I was watching the thing happen
while I was in the fight.
And there would be bits of me hopping in and being like,
"Hey, throw this combination.
Hey, take a little bit more of a risk.
Hey, do this."
And then that would get completely just watched.
And this, whoever was fighting that night
that didn't even feel like me was the person that was fighting.
It was fucking cool, man.
- Wow. - It was cool, dude.
It was like, you know, like a psychedelic experience feeling type of thing.
It was cool.
What do you attribute that to?
How did you get to that mindset?
It's a lot of, you know, messing stuff up.
Like I remember the last time I was on was right after I had beaten Frankie.
And I was in, it's just a bunch of different parts of the journey.
And in that part of the journey, I was really in this space where
if I could make myself more war, if I could make myself more angry,
if I could make myself be up here, I would have success.
That kind of stopped working a little bit after like around the TJ fight
and then kind of during the Yawn fight.
And then definitely I tried to be that guy against Song.
And it was like too much of a distracting feeling
where now my mindset's going into the last fight
because it was such like a distracting feeling.
Just feeling like I have to get myself to a point of anger or upness
before a fight where it just became distracting,
where it was helpful before it became distracting in that song fight.
I bailed on that and I just tried to be as mindful and as present as I possibly
could.
For like, and I know that those are like kind of corny words now, but there is
some real substance to them
when they're like really done well.
And I would say maybe about six weeks before the fight, I had this moment where
I was sitting on the couch
because I put a lot of pressure on myself and I want to be a world champ real
bad.
Where I was to the point where I wasn't enjoying any part of the camp, any part
of the experience of fighting or anything.
And I was sitting on the couch and I just like, I think I was crying a little
bit.
And I was like, I can't fucking do this for the next five years of my life.
You know, like I can't do this for the rest of my career.
And I was like, well, what's got to change?
And I was like, I got to lose, I got to take this pressure off of me.
And I got to start enjoying every day a lot more than I am right now.
And from that, like six weeks before the fight, I started doing that.
And I really think that that carried into the fight and it made me be a lot
less tense, a lot less tight.
And it made me be able to fight with just like a completely free way of being.
Wow.
And is this something that you had previously thought that you could get to
that space or wanted to get to that space?
Or is this something that you kind of experimented along the way and found this
path?
I'm a self learner.
And I think that I think that there's ways of being in life that like you just
kind of have to be at certain times.
Like when you're a young kid, like you have to be like going and hitting it
hard.
Like you have to remember all of the hundreds of thousands of people on the
other half of the world that are trying to accomplish the same goal as you.
And you have to be a little bit, in my opinion, you have to be a little bit on
the neurotic side of like, am I doing every single thing correct?
Am I putting the right amount of pressure on me that that's totally a part of
the journey, but I'm kind of more in the part of the journey where I've matured
a lot as a fighter.
I'm getting married this year, like I'm a little bit older, we're looking at
kids probably in the next couple of years.
What's sustainable?
Like what's like a sustainable way to continue doing what I love, but also
becoming like a more mature adult.
Um, and that's just part of the journey that I'm in right now.
And, uh, I don't think that anything was wrong with the way that I was doing
before, but it just is like a moving target all the time.
So it's like you're just finding new ways to approach it and then realizing
this way is better than the other way, even though the other way was effective,
this is even more effective.
So you're constantly trying to tweak it.
Yeah. And I, and I think that, uh, everything kind of has its purpose. Like, uh,
in those times where I would, I was really embracing this like war mentality,
this like very like bloodthirsty, vicious type of fighter that I was trying to
be when I would go into the cage that totally had its place because I had to
experience what I've, what I thought that had to feel like in order for me to
be the best martial artist that I can, because I do feel
like I've pointed all of my energy in my life and my mind and my spirit and
everything towards the direction of being the best martial artist that I can be.
And so going through that had its purpose, man. Like I had to figure out what
it was like for me to be like a vicious killer, you know, because in society
that's like not cool, you know? So like almost like, uh, the shadow self or
whatever, uh, is like the subconscious term for it. Um, I had to like
experience that I experienced it. I figured out
that it was no longer serving me. It was being distracting. So what do I need
to do now? Now it's like, okay, you figured that part out. You can be that guy
whenever you want to be that guy, but now we're being present. Now we're
enjoying it. And you don't really need to be that guy until you walk into the
cage. And even when you do walk into the cage, you don't need to be this like
really dramatic, super emphasized, like vicious guy, like be that guy, but you
don't have to overdo it. And when you're learning something, I almost feel like
you have to completely overdo it in order to learn like where that cutoff is.
like even in technique, like if you could do an arm bar and win every single
time with an arm bar, why would you ever stop doing arm bars? Right. It'd be
stupid. So like you figure out how to like do something way overdo it, figure
out where the cutoff is and be like, ah, okay, I can't do it in like those
situations. You pull back, you figure out what situations you need to do it in.
And then you move forward. What was this? What happened? What happened? I lost.
Can you hear me? My, uh, headphones.
Headphones cut out. Hold on. Check, check, check, check, check, check, check.
Something happened over here, Jamie. I don't know what's going on, but I lost
the, uh, headphones. We'll be right back folks. Sorry about that. No, that's
okay.
So, so, so what, where, where were we at? Um, so what was it about the other
way you were approaching it where, you know, last time you were here, you had
just embraced this idea that you went in there with the intention to fuck
people up. What was distracting about that?
It's, it's, it's like a, it's like a hot burning flame, you know, like, uh, I
feel like it's, I can only hold onto it for so long. Like I can't really, uh,
like it's a lot of energy to be that up. And so when I would be in the back and
warmed up, because you kind of, you don't know exactly when you're going to
walk.
So I try to be ready, you know, like 20 minutes before I'd spend like 30, 40
minutes warming up, trying to be that guy. And then for 20 minutes trying to
sustain that guy. And that's like a long time to be that up, you know? So even
in the, in this fight, uh, because there's no preparing for that last hour
before you go walk. Like, I don't care what type of guy you are, how Zen you
can be or how confident you are that, that last hour before a fight, like your
mind's going to fuck with you a lot.
And it's going to go to you thinking that you're the God of the universe to you
thinking that like, you're about to go get slaughtered. And, uh, in the back
before, if I started to feel like I was, you know, having those like impulsive
thoughts of like fear, or you're about to go get slaughtered. I try to just
cover that shit up real quick by getting like real pissed. Um, and that's like
a lot of energy to do. So before the Cheeto fight, I was super proud of the way
that I was able to handle those feelings because
those feelings are like real as hell when you're in the back. And how do you
handle them? Well, I just watched a man. Like, uh, I just realized like, ah,
okay. Like I'm having,
I'm having the sense of fear in me and I would just kind of sit there and be
like, okay, well, I'm not really fighting right now. So just let the fear be
there. Right now,
your job is to get warmed up. And so I just took it. Okay. Right now I'm
getting warmed up. Okay. They said 10
more minutes till we walk. Okay. I'm having the sense of fear still. That's
okay. I'm still in the back and
then step by step by step. Okay. I'm, I'm, I'm walking out now. Cool. Okay.
Looking across from them. Okay.
Touch gloves. Now we're fighting. It's literally, it sounds super fucking
simple, but it's just step by step by
step, man. Just like, okay, I'm having that sense. I'll just watch that and not
really, I mean, you acknowledge it, but you don't, I didn't, I don't try to
cover it up or I don't try to like be someone else.
I just kind of watch it as if it was just someone else. It, it happened into
someone else and then just move on.
It doesn't sound super simple at all. Not to me at least. It's, I know what you're
saying. And that feeling has got to be like riding a wild wave.
Like you just got to maintain your balance and to watch you go into that fight.
What was so impressive, um, besides the fact that you're
fighting a world-class guy in Marlon Vera and you were, you were controlling
the action was the overwhelming,
like the amount of information you were throwing at them. You were constantly
changing levels, constantly
threatening takedowns, constantly switching stances and everything was, you
know, there's fighters kind
of sometimes they'll fall into a pattern and you can kind of predict that
pattern. There was no pattern
with you. It was all over the place and it was so overwhelming when I was
watching, I was like, Jesus
Christ, like, this is so high level. And I don't, I mean, for like a casual, I
don't know if they're
seeing that, but for someone who watches a lot of fights and has been around
martial arts, you know,
my whole life, when I was watching, I was like, this is about as high level as
it gets.
Thank you. Like you were mixing shit up so well, like the way you were choosing
your attacks, whether it was the low kick or whether it was punches and the
s