Name: JRE MMA Show #27 with Robin Black
Uploaded: 2018-05-22T21:35:53.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #27 with Robin Black' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-05-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #27 with Robin Black' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-05-22. Transcript available.

JRE MMA Show #27 with Robin Black

Four, three, two, one.
Robin Black, ladies and gentlemen, what's up, buddy?
Hey, man, it's great to see you.
Are you fresh back from Singapore?
I am. Yeah, I was in Singapore like 48 hours ago.
Did they make that special shiny silver one for you?
Because that looks like that's designed for you.
No, it's, I mean, yeah, it does kind of look like it's designed for me,
which is why I wanted it.
Yeah, it's a rock and roll one championship, one FC championship.
So what's it like over there, man?
So let me explain to everybody.
One FC is like the Asian version of the UFC.
It's a gigantic organization that has been going on for how long now?
2011.
So solid seven years and really high-level fights over there.
Amazing, amazing fights.
Singapore itself is wild.
So I went over there to chat with them.
So Chhatri Sityatong runs it, and he and I had been chatting,
and I love kind of how they see martial arts.
So they don't call it even FC anymore.
It's just one championship.
They don't even use the word fighting, really.
It's martial arts.
And the way I see it and the way I study martial arts and share it is an art
form,
like painting or yoga or, you know, things of that nature.
Less spectacle.
That's always how I've seen it and always how I love it.
And that's how they see it, and that's how they present it.
And it's presented from this sort of inspirational, own-your-history kind of
way in Asia.
And that was what attracted me to them right away.
I mean, it's definitely an art form.
It's values-based.
Like they're kind of seeking to inspire people through these athletes and
artists.
It's pretty fucking cool.
Really?
So what's motivating them to take this sort of radical approach?
So it's wild that you say that because to me, this is the approach.
So I think what we do or the way that we present it in North America is radical.
I think martial arts is an art form.
Martial arts is this inspiring thing.
I mean, you take, say, for example, Aung Laun Sung.
He is their 185-pound and 205-pound champion.
He's from Myanmar.
They have never had a world champion in any sport ever in their history.
I don't think they've had a gold medalist in the Olympics.
They've never had that.
This guy's a two-division champion.
That will – and when I talked to Chhatri about it, and he was talking sort of
about why he sees it this way
and why he's proud to present it this way, he's like, he knows without question
that there are kids.
And he won his 205-pound title in Myanmar, in a stadium in Myanmar.
And he said he knows without question there's a kid in there going to become a
lawyer one day because of that.
And they can feel it.
And it's real.
It's not like a marketing strategy.
Like this is how they see martial arts.
And it's how martial arts is viewed in Asia.
Martial arts – I get to travel so much now.
It's viewed different in Russia.
It's viewed different in Brazil.
How's it viewed in Russia?
Russia's wild, man.
I got to work for ACB.
You know, ACB, awesome.
It's another big organization.
Another big organization.
So in Russia, it's very masculine.
And it's about victory and about showing your power and your strength.
And it really – and Russia is like that.
You know, it's a reflection kind of of Russia.
Yeah.
The martial art thing I absolutely agree with you on, that it is an art form.
But I also think it's a fight.
Like Gilbert Melendez versus Diego Sanchez.
Yep.
That's an art form, but it's a fight.
Yes.
That was a fucking wild fight.
And there's no way that's just art.
That's art and a fight.
It's both things.
But a fight is art.
In a way.
It's an expression of who you are.
It is in a way.
You know, it's an expression of your personality, your individuality, your
heart, your fearlessness.
100%.
But it's a fight.
I'm not scared of the word fight.
No, I'm not either.
Like I like it.
I like that word.
But it is an art form.
Yes.
Fights are art.
Yes, definitely.
I mean, like Anderson Silva's second fight with Chael Sonnen.
The way he landed that knee to the body on the ground.
I mean, that is just art.
That's art.
You know?
I mean, if you go back to Lyoto Machida just landing that front kick on Vitor Belfort.
That's art.
Yeah.
Big time.
Especially for someone who practices martial arts.
You see the beauty in that.
You're like, oh, it's like a flower blossoming or just a sunrise.
Or just something perfect.
The impossibility of it is what's so beautiful.
Like these guys are so unwilling partners.
And they have such like a desire to accomplish what they want to accomplish.
To kick that guy in the face from that position.
Vitor has a lifetime of this.
A lifetime of being able to not let you do that.
And for you to first be willing to be free enough to try it.
You know?
And to express it in that moment.
It is definitely art.
But I'm with you.
Fight doesn't intimidate me at all.
You know?
A fight is a beautiful thing.
A fight is...
We fight for things all the time.
You know?
It's a metaphor for life itself when you fight.
I think people, rightly so, are concerned with the idea of violence against
someone who's an unwilling participant.
And that's how they think of fighting.
They think of it as this thing that they want nothing to do with.
They don't want any violence in their life.
They don't want anybody to hurt them.
And I completely understand that.
I understand that position.
But that's not what it is when it's a competition.
I mean, it's a tired expression because I've said it too many times.
But my perception of what fighting is is high-level problem-solving with dire
physical consequences.
Big time.
And the physical consequences are what make it so special.
Yes.
You know?
No question.
Yeah.
No question.
The hard times make the good times better.
Yeah.
You know?
And the possibility that bad things can happen to you and do sometimes happen.
And even to the great ones.
You know?
I mean, you see great fighters have been KO'd and come back.
And, you know, there's something about that where you realize, like, hey, even
Fedor can
get knocked out.
Yeah.
You know?
I mean, hey, even, you know, Anderson Silva can play cocky and get caught by
that Chris
Weidman left hook.
I mean, this is just the game.
And, you know, I think in Asia in particular, but there's different pockets of
how this is viewed
and how the philosophy of connecting to martial arts and fighting is viewed.
And in Asia, you would see, a certain amount of the fighters would see losing
badly is an opportunity, a chance.
Because to come back and win again or to come back and show that you're able,
you were given the gift of trying and failing.
You know what I mean?
I do know what you mean.
Yeah, that's a great way to approach it.
It's a great way to look at it.
You know what I mean?
That there really is a lesson that the average person can take in their life.
Like every time a person does have a bad thing happen to them, it's that
terrible feeling is an opportunity to rise from the ashes.
Yeah, and winning when it's – when you're just winning at everything and
things come easily to you, that I'm sure still feels good.
But when you've gone through really hard times or when you've been challenged
by something or you've dropped lower, the high of the success is so much higher.
It's so much of a longer journey.
Personally, when we've spoke before and when we talked about CM Punk when he
was fighting the first time, I was like, this is stupid.
You know, this guy is pushing, stacking himself into a position to try to not
fail by making the challenge so difficult that even if he fails, he don't
really.
But this is fully different now.
Like now I'm cheering for him because he was humiliated.
Like he was – he didn't just fail.
He was humiliated.
He – in front of everybody was shown to be – people would judge him as weak
or people – the judgment that he would feel is bad.
And he said, I'll go do it again.
He – we are now in a completely different context because that's a guy who epically
failed in front of everybody and then dealt with that and now says, I will try
the journey again and this will make me a better person.
And I now – I fully endorse this.
I'm cheering for him now.
Well, he's now fighting a fighter who's commensurate in talent and there's
nothing wrong with being a beginner in martial arts, but there's something
wrong with thinking that you can be a beginner and fight Mickey Gall.
Big time.
It was a foolish venture.
And I – my approach to it was this is going to be a very good lesson for
people that are fans of positive thinking and they think that's enough.
That shit is not enough.
If you weigh 110 pounds, you get positive thinking way to the bank, Francis Ngannou's
still going to punch your brains out.
There's just no way around it.
And a guy who has really very little experience in martial arts and has rudimentary
control of his body.
I mean, that's what I saw when I saw him training.
100%.
When I saw him training, I was like, oh my God, this guy's going to get killed.
He didn't belong there.
He did not belong there in that context.
And I –
But he belongs here.
Yeah.
And that's – and everything's contextual.
Like, just because I thought that was stupid, it was stupid.
Right.
It was stupid.
But that doesn't mean in this context I can't look and go, there's a guy who
didn't need to – he doesn't need to come back.
He doesn't need to try again.
He doesn't need to go into the gym.
And I've been there.
You're in the gym and everyone's going, oh man, you did good.
I didn't do good.
I fucking failed miserably in front of everybody.
And then show up there, clean the mats and work really hard and say, I'm going
to try it again.
And yes, that fight still, him and this guy, still should take place somewhere
else.
A hundred percent.
It should.
I mean –
It shouldn't even be on the Tuesday Night Contender Show.
No.
No, it shouldn't.
It should be in some amateur event somewhere.
Because that's really what they are.
They're guys learning how to compete.
Yeah.
They're in the first fight in the pay-per-view.
Yeah, that's –
It's fucking crazy.
But that has nothing to do with them.
That is a reflection on the company.
You're a hundred percent right.
That's a reflection on the choices that the machine makes.
They probably also gave him a juicy contract.
Yes.
You know, in order to make that valid or viable.
Right.
You have to make money off the guy.
But that, again, I think it makes it deeper and harder and more chances to fail
epically.
And I lost twice in a row and then still wanted to fight again and still
because I really wanted to.
And it was important to me and it meant something to me.
And I was going to change as a human being by doing it.
And I was ridiculed.
I can relate to what he's going through.
But I did it on a little show in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
You know what I mean?
Right, right, right.
I would never have put myself in that place to look bad.
But here he is and here it is.
And I'm cheering for him as a human being in a weird situation that has been
put himself into a deep, dark, hard spot and saying, my way out of this is to
try really hard and really go in.
And the chance, all that I would want for him if I knew him and he was my
friend, is to fight your way through some adverse situations, to be able to be
in it and find when it's hard, you discover, yeah, I can handle when it's hard.
I can get up when I've been dropped or I can fight through not being able to
breathe.
If he loses and does that, it will have been worth it for him, no matter how
much ridicule he'll take, it will have been worth it for him.
What was really weird watching him walk to the cage was that he was approaching
it like a pro-wrestling fight because he had done so many of these pro-wrestling
matches that he was walking to the cage with pro-wrestling mannerisms and
everything.
And I was watching this and I did like an internal head shake like, oh, fuck.
Like this, you can't, it was a terrible idea.
Like whoever on his side said that he could fight Mickey Gall, you're out of
yo