Name: JRE MMA Show #83 with Firas Zahabi
Uploaded: 2019-11-27T20:00:05.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #83 with Firas Zahabi' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-11-27. Transcript available. Joe sits down with the head coach of Tristar Gym, Firas Zahabi.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #83 with Firas Zahabi' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-11-27. Transcript available. Joe sits down with the head coach of Tristar Gym, Firas Zahabi.

JRE MMA Show #83 with Firas Zahabi

if you're listening to this uh an audio version you were denied the beauty of
my salmon covered
colored t-shirt beautiful tri-star you look good in it i look very good in your
shirt thanks for
coming here brother pleasure glad to be here pleasure to have you man i use one
of your
expressions all the time the touch of death and there is no better example than
what we saw
saturday night with deontay wilder jesus christ can that guy punch i had him
losing all the rounds
yeah me too and uh i thought one round was really close could go either way but
i had it six to none
and that right hand my god it's so crazy it doesn't even make sense when you
look at that shot
it landed it above like kind of like in the forehead this area not even on the
chin no
usually here if you're a powerful puncher you could daise a guy yeah put him
out the way he did
yeah wow and no wind up too no wind up just right from here that's touch of
death crazy like nobody
ever think about that guy's record 41 knockouts one decision one draw it's
incredible undefeated
41 knockouts in 42 fights i mean that is bonkers and he was getting out boxed
like he's not the best
boxer well he doesn't care to box yeah yeah that's right he just he knows yeah
yeah like it's such a
crazy strategy because out of anyone that has ever fought in the heavyweight
division he is the one guy
that literally can shut everyone's lights out with one shot everyone's a knockout
artist foreman was a
knockout artist frazier tyson of course was a knockout artist but not like this
guy this guy's got it's like
another level of craziness i would agree i mean he knows himself that's what's
so beautiful
if he was less strategic he would have started fighting really early and maybe
maybe zap that power
he has but he knows he knows exactly he didn't care he lost six rounds he had
no he had no qualms
about it and he got hurt just before just before he knocked out uh luis he was
hurt and he stayed
calm he's like oh now you're gonna come for it now you're gonna walk into the
right and bang yeah it's
incredible well i think he also knew that from the first fight ortiz started to
fade and the first
fight was very similar in that the first few rounds there was very little
action and then it started to
pick up but then ortiz started to fade but ortiz put it on him in that first
fight if you watch that
first fight you're like wow this is a crazy rematch for him to take but in this
fight he just fought a
perfect strategy just waiting and people oh my god i was on twitter reading
people this guy can't even
box like did you not see what happened you say he can't box he's undefeated he's
the heavyweight
champion of the world he has he tied muhammad ali for the most title defenses
ever did you really
just say he can't box in fact he's a professional boxer go in there with him
then go in there if i
laced you up before you would be like oh you'd be so petrified you would turn
white and faint the way
he punches is so strange it's so strange and you know when he fought tyson fury
he told me he weighed
209 pounds oh really 209 that's it that's it wow crazy wow wow he's a
phenomenal like all humans are
not created equal some people just have a beautiful hand of cards yes that guy's
got four aces and he
puts them right in your face boom he understands what he's good at and he
fights that way which is
brilliant yes i always tell my students it's fighting is two things it's one is
level you got
to get to a certain level and then the second thing you have to figure out your
style like you have to
know everything about what you do like for instance if you look at ali and tyson
they fought totally
differently two equally in my opinion like okay we could split hairs and say
who was better let's say
they fought it would be very competitive whoever you think would win in that
fight it would be very
competitive ali fights the total opposite of tyson ali circles supposedly the
wrong way if you look at
the book of boxing they tell you don't circle towards the power side he doesn't
care in his style it makes
sense he's up on his toes he's jabbing he rarely ever throws a body shot he
throws he's thrown a handful
of body shots in his entire career whereas tyson is the total opposite he marches
forward he has that
peekaboo style he has that you know he's got the gloves tied up to his chin and
a totally different
style if tyson tried to fight like ali he would lose you know but they're at
the same level but
they figured out hey what am i good at what what advantages do i have
physically what disadvantages
do i have physically and that's why at one point you have to figure out your
style and i feel that's
where most fighters fall apart they never figure out their style they're trying
to do what some trainer
told them they're trying to do what the guy they the most admirer in the ring
does they never find out
exactly how they what's best for them that's such a good point because it's
such a creative art form
in that way and i i do believe that martial arts are an art form i really do
because to me it's so
beautiful like even that right hand that dionte landed that to me was gorgeous
there's never been a
prettier sunset or a more beautiful mountain just black watch that spray that's
the the way you see the
spray the sweat come off his head and then ortiz crumbles and dionte walks away
like this
chest up like you're not getting up he knew he wasn't getting up he knew he
knew he knew when he
dropped him he walked off right away like he knew he was calm the way he walked
off too yeah it's just
like he knows you know god damn that guy's got crazy power but that but what
you said is so important
because it's a creative endeavor you're you're trying to figure out how to land
shots and you're also
trying to disguise what your ideas are what your tactics are and you've got to
figure out what works
best for your body type and that's so open-ended like martial arts are so it's
so open-ended once
the referee says fight there's all this creativity involved and that's
something that i think a lot of
people don't really appreciate a hundred percent sometimes you have a trainer
who kills that
creativity because he tells you look this is how you fight right and if you go
outside of that mold
no no you're reprimanded yeah so me me if a fighter wants to drop his hands
should you drop your hands
in a fight or should you hold them up well it depends what kind of guy you are
if you got incredible eyes
and you see shots coming from a mile away and you're you're successful with
your hands down or one hand
down per se let's say then keep doing it but you gotta that's why i think sparring
is so important
because when we spar we actually try it now we're testing we're testing hey
does this airplane fly
or is it going to crash and burn well we better test it in the gym before we
take it out in the
arena and find out it doesn't fly and i always tell guys look if if you're if
you're fighting with
your hands down show me in practice that you're successful then i won't i won't
say anything
negative i won't say i won't change your style i'll let it be but first we have
to see that you're
successful because theories is one thing but then when you get in there and try
it it's a whole other
well wonder boy thompson's an excellent example of that exactly he fights so
well with his hands down
and he is to me the consummate karate style fighter that has made the perfect
transition to mma because
he fights so well with his hands down you don't know where stuff's coming you
don't know whether it's
coming up whether it's coming around whether it's going straight at you and you
don't see it until
you're looking at his body and these things are coming up from his hands being
down like this and
he's standing sideways you can take him to the wrong trainer and ruin him let's
say he was really young
and he was forbidden that style because some trainers do that they forbid a
certain style they
forbid a certain type of uh maneuver or or or style altogether like for
instance in the 70s most
trainers would not train a right hand a left-handed boxer they'd switch you
around no no i don't train
left-handed you got to be right we got to convert you but that's a that's a dexterment
to the fighter
because your trainer is limited and when he only understands fighting in one
way now i'm going to
limit my fighter it's it's it's totally wrong in my opinion what do you think
about fighters who say
that even if you're a right-handed person there's an advantage to fighting as a
southpaw because you have
your most dexterous hand the hand that you have the the most control of is your
lead hand and you're also
fighting in this unusual stance that is only like what is southpaws like maybe
two out of ten people
something like right right here in the west yeah yeah if you go to asia it's a
lot more but is it
really yeah the asians are more supple i think uh you know the the wheel of the
cars on the other
side oh and there's stick shift i don't know it's like a left-handed world
almost a lot of things are
the other way around huh yeah like uh they drive on the other side of the road
the the driver's on the
other side of the car so i don't know maybe maybe it affects the way you're
developed but uh i agree
like i think i always tell fighters try both sides and see which one you like
better i can't tell you
which one you're more comfortable with maybe one of your eyes is the stronger
so when you're like this
it's kind of killing you so you need to be like that you never know until you
test so i like to let
the guys figure it out so when people tell me do i grab it like this or like
that in some instances
there's a right way and a wrong way as far as we know one way is right one way
is wrong and sometimes
it doesn't make a difference i tell guys grab like you're comfortable because i
do it the way i like to
do it i don't do it the way my trainer showed me so in this particular instance
i say it's a question
of comfort like people freak out if you grab a kimura like this with your thumb
i don't in some
instances i grab the kimura with my thumb in some instances i don't so i just
show people both and
i say look that part it's up to you you certainly can finish it by using the
thumb sure and in some
instances it's stronger with the thumb in some instances yeah because you have
better hand
control sure yeah you know just clamping down on it you're actually isolating
it yeah i mean some
people have just ridiculous grip with their hands too and that that should play
a factor in there as
well do you remember uh semi schilt yeah semi schilt had hands that are as big
as his table and he'd
grab a hold of guy's wrists and they'd be just like if you were in his guard he
just grabbed your wrist
like yeah he did that with fedor he was like this is you for the whole round he's
like
venom page did that with the lima yes you remember that yes yes crazy grip yeah
well that's a great
fight too huh lima that's that's an argument for me that lima is one of the
arguments for me where i
feel like there's got to be as a fan i want to see lima fight the best 170
pounders in the world so a
co-promotion i know the ufc never wants to see a co-promotion because that
promotes up it pumps up
bellator but right now lima especially after he just decisioned rory you know
and the way he knocked
out michael page i mean nobody nobody's done that to page before and the way he
did it like that guy
can put anyone to sleep can i ask you who who did you give round one to page
versus lima i thought it
was 50 like i was right around the middle i'd have to watch it again because
all i remember was lima
starching him in round one no no no i mean when when did it end uh round two
round two yeah but he got hurt
right before he knocked him out like he got he got a little wobbled and then he
kind of got his base
again and then low kick boom uppercut yeah yeah vicious yo he's he's so
dangerous he's so dan