Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Bam we’re live. Hey, uh, um, uh, you you’re in a new spot?
Caleb Beaver (00:09):
No, I’m in the same spot.
Sevan Matossian (00:10):
Different camera,
Caleb Beaver (00:12):
Same camera. I changed the flag in the back.
Sevan Matossian (00:14):
Oh, you did? What, what? It was a, it was a different, uh, us flag.
Caleb Beaver (00:18):
No, I had like a, um, like a Maddie Rogers flag said, uh, I can’t remember what it said, but I put it in the gym instead.
Sevan Matossian (00:28):
You’re good, dude. Public gym. Like the gym on base.
Caleb Beaver (00:31):
Oh no, it’s my own like garage. Gym.
Sevan Matossian (00:33):
You have a garage gym. Yeah. Dang. It’s got a boss. And you got your star wars in the background. Yeah. How old are you?
Caleb Beaver (00:41):
Only 26.
Sevan Matossian (00:42):
Wow. AJ, look at, look at your, oh, you’re a year older than AJ
AJ Fletcher (00:47):
Year one year,
Sevan Matossian (00:48):
One year. Um, AJ, this is, this is nice, buddy. This, uh, you at the, with the apex of the triangle over your head, the back kind of mysterious you well lit. You
AJ Fletcher (01:01):
See that? You see that little dude right there?
Sevan Matossian (01:03):
Yes.
AJ Fletcher (01:03):
Creepy. Huh?
Sevan Matossian (01:05):
Yeah. Is that like, is that like some tribute to some soldier? What is that like? MERF or something
AJ Fletcher (01:09):
Kinda it’s. Uh, have you ever heard Joe Rogan talk about, uh, gua Parker?
Sevan Matossian (01:14):
No, from,
AJ Fletcher (01:15):
Okay. So it’s a command chief, the last like command tree, kind of war chief, I guess. I don’t wanna go off on a, on a whole tangent, but he’s a cool dude. Real cool.
Sevan Matossian (01:24):
Oh, I, I want you to go off on a tangent before, but first I wanna say one thing, guys, we’ve done a podcast with AJ Fletcher before. Uh, since then the podcast has exploded. I’m so excited. I went back and looked at the last podcast. We did. Holy cow. Were we primitive back then? Um, I didn’t even have this beard, um, this guy, um, my biggest concern about AJ Fletcher is that him and my other favorite in the 1 71 are some gonna have to meet up. And it is Jack Dayla Magdalena who
AJ Fletcher (01:54):
It’s a scrap brother.
Sevan Matossian (01:55):
Yeah, these you’re looking. Um, these are two of my favorites. I, my favorite part about the next level of taking my UFC fanship to is to jump on bandwagons, um, B before
AJ Fletcher (02:10):
That’s more, man.
Sevan Matossian (02:10):
What’s crazy is even when I do jump on the AJ Fletcher bandwagon, you already have this huge, like catalog behind you, of fights and, and battles and it’s nuts. But, um, uh, AJ, we did a podcast with them. Great guy. Uh, he’s smart as biology major. Uh, he uses an Android, makes me hate him, but know that he’s smart. Um, and he is fighting on March 12th against the guy who this guy’s a handful. This guy is a handful. Uh, Matthew SEL Emberg, uh, he, he, I think he destroyed Jason Whit, who I had on the show who I really liked. And, um, and, and, and there’s, uh, even though AJ is a large man at five 10, uh, this guy is a giant, uh, for the weight class, uh, eight inch, uh, reach differential, which, uh, AJ doesn’t respect the, um, the reach, uh, statistic. I saw your podcast. What
AJ Fletcher (03:11):
So not at all.
Sevan Matossian (03:13):
And, uh, and these are two extremely, extremely powerful men. And when a, um, wins this, it is going to do something very interesting to his career. I, I would, I normally don’t have any interest in interviewing the matchmakers, but this one I’m so curious because you are, um, a, uh, you’re beautiful man. Um, the cameras love you. You’re yes. Yes. You’re extremely talented. Um, you’re physiques just screams all sorts of crazy. And, uh, and yet they’re just putting you right away with this, uh, with the guy who’s been around a little bit more in, in, in, in the UFC. So, um, I mean, both you guys, the it’s a tough sport, right? Every fight is like the super bowl. There’s no homeostasis. You’re either going better or worse.
AJ Fletcher (03:59):
Exactly. Dude, each fight from here on out. And I mean, really from the beginning of your career, if you’re doing it right, each fight’s gonna be bigger and bigger and bigger, that’s what you want. That’s what you come to expect. And for them, like you said, Matt’s a tough guy as to have as a debut, you know? And I feel like for them giving this,
Sevan Matossian (04:16):
You are considering this, your debut, sorry to interrupt. You’re considering this, your debut. Yeah. Okay. Do that. Okay.
AJ Fletcher (04:21):
I, I got the contender fight, but I don’t know. I, I want that first UFC win under my belt for me to really like, you know, feel like I’m in that thing. And for them to kind of give me somebody like Matt right away with some win, some knockouts under his belt. Yeah. It’s a big, you know, it’s a big step. It’s a big, uh, big risk, I guess some people would say, but it’s also a big opportunity. And I’m glad that, you know, they’ve seen my skill level. They see what I bring to the table and they think that I match up well with somebody like this, getting to, you know, be the feature prelim on my first, my, my debut, like how many people wish for that, you know? And it’s coming true. So I feel like I’ve done the work to get here and I feel like I deserve it. And you know, I know Matt’s a tough test, but I feel like I’m right where I belong.
Sevan Matossian (04:59):
The dude you fought Leonardo is a Savage too, in the contender series. That’s why it’s kind of hard to say that that’s not a debut. That guy was no joke.
AJ Fletcher (05:08):
Oh yeah. He could. He, he, he could, he could swing some hammers, bro. Boy hit hard.
Sevan Matossian (05:13):
So, so tell me about this guy in the background. Um, can you pull up, can you spell that word? Uh, Caleb, whatever that guy’s name was the, the net lemme throw
AJ Fletcher (05:21):
On the light. So you can seem a little bit easier.
Sevan Matossian (05:23):
All right. I was gonna call him a Navajo, but that was, that was the, um, racial Manche. That was what they used to call. Did, did you ever see the movie young guns?
AJ Fletcher (05:32):
I don’t think so. Uh,
Sevan Matossian (05:33):
Oh, it’s so good. And, and one of the I’m trying, uh, what’s that actor’s name? He’s a, um, what is that actor’s name? He was in Baba, but anyway, he plays a native American in it. And the whole time the other guys are just keep calling him Navajo, NA like as a, as a racial slur. So as I said, it I’m like, oops. Um, but I, but I’m exempt. I, I look like Osama bin Laden. I can say whatever I want.
AJ Fletcher (05:58):
Fair enough.
Sevan Matossian (06:01):
Kawanna Parker was a war leader of hold. Hold on, hold on. Caleb. Don’t get squirrely. He was a war leader of Kawai, Ando band of the Kamachi he was likely born into. Okay. Okay. He did something. Tell us, you’re gonna have to give us the cliff notes. Yeah,
AJ Fletcher (06:16):
I can give you the, I can give you this bar notes. Basically his mom, they say it there. Cynthia Ann Parker was, uh, she was a frontiers lady, I guess. Um, kind of when the west was being settled and back then the command trees, a lot of times they would go and they would raid a lot of these forts and take captives and stuff like that from, you know, from people kind of coming in on their land. And one of the reasons that the book says that they did this just like a little aside, the command trees rode there, they were notorious like horsemen and horse women. Like they were just lived on horseback, probably 80% of their lives, just following the Buffalo herds and all that. But what it did is a lot of the women had had trouble child bearing. So one of the ways that they would keep the population numbers in their tribe up is they would go and they would raid. And then, you know, take women. Cynthia Parker was one of those women and she was a young girl whenever she was taken eventually like, um, as she kind of lived with the tribe more and more, she became assimilated in some way into the tribe to the point where I think three separate times, um, settlers had capture, been able to capture her and make trades for her or something. And she refused to go to, you know, civilized life, to European life. She, she wanted to stay with, with the Indian way of life. And, uh,
Sevan Matossian (07:27):
That can happen to kids too. If you raise them as Democrats, I was raised as a Democrat and I escape, but it can, a lot of us don’t escape. A lot of us don’t escape you the
AJ Fletcher (07:34):
Lucky
Sevan Matossian (07:35):
For you. Yeah, I, I escaped. Yeah, but go on. So, but she did, she didn’t escape. Okay. Go on.
AJ Fletcher (07:39):
Right. So she, she, uh, I think she ended up marrying, uh, like one of the war chiefs or, uh, you know, a soldier or something from their tribe then ended up beginning Keana Parker. Uh, he grows up, becomes like this hum this the face of, I guess their military, if you will, um, you know, a Savage war leader, stuff like that, uh, over time in his life. So
Sevan Matossian (08:00):
That guy, guys, 50% Whitey, that guy that we’re looking at right there, that’s 50% you, 50% native American.
AJ Fletcher (08:06):
Yeah, man,
Sevan Matossian (08:07):
Man, he looks
AJ Fletcher (08:08):
Probably is the,
Sevan Matossian (08:09):
Wow. Okay, sorry, go on.
AJ Fletcher (08:12):
No, you’re good. He was, uh, anyway, like as they started, as we started kind of, you know, moving everybody into reservations and you know, starting to head that direction a little bit. He became, he, he transitioned from this Savage war leader and figured out, you know, taught himself English, taught himself all these different things and essentially became a, a fighter on the, what would you say? Political front? I guess he was able to, um, carve out opportunities for them. He was able to make sure that they got the fair end of the deals at at least in some ways, obviously they still got, you know, massively screwed over and everything. But, um, yeah, just, uh, he he’s, to me is a guy that embodies like the whole like warrior ethos, not just of, you know, blood and guts, but also brains and, you know, being able to fight verbally and you know, those little mental battles, I guess as well. So super cool dude. And the book is the book about him and his mom, Cynthia Ann parkers called empire of the summer moon. It’s really, really good.
Sevan Matossian (09:08):
You read it.
AJ Fletcher (09:09):
Oh yeah. It’s awesome.
Sevan Matossian (09:10):
You you’re, you’re a, you’re a, what, what, what do you call people who read a lot died? Acts? Is that, is that a word,
AJ Fletcher (09:16):
I guess maybe
Sevan Matossian (09:18):
Is that a word Caleb? You’re smart.
Caleb Beaver (09:22):
I don’t know about didact,
Sevan Matossian (09:23):
But didact. Isn’t not what you call people. Like you read a lot didact. I remember that from the last emperor of the, what
AJ Fletcher (09:29):
Emperor or empire of the summer moon,
Sevan Matossian (09:31):
Empire of the summer, someone told someone recently, uh, DME is like, dude, you guys talk about so many good books in your podcast. Please put them in the notes. Okay. We’re gonna try to put that one in their empire of the summer moon as suggested by AJ Fletcher, as we like usual on this podcast, recycle content from Joe Rogan. Thank you, Joe Rogan, the semi podcast recycle Joe Rogan content. Well
AJ Fletcher (09:56):
Send everybody Ralph.
Caleb Beaver (09:59):
It’s a bili file.
Sevan Matossian (10:01):
It’s a Bilio file. What’s a DAC.
Caleb Beaver (10:03):
DAC is a per person over inclined to instruct others.
Sevan Matossian (10:08):
Oh yeah. That’s me. God. Can you imagine living with me? Um, Lou diamond Phillips. Thank you, Adam. Uh, Richie VA. I think he played rich. I think Richie Vains is a singer and uh, Lou diamond played Richie Vains right. Richie Vains is lab Bombo. Okay. Yes, yes, yes. Righty, righty. You um, you do, do you have any choice for the fight? Um, AJ, you’re just kicking it and, and someone calls you. I know you it’s been six months and when I talked to you before you it’s maybe even seven months by the time you fight, right?
AJ Fletcher (10:45):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (10:45):
And that was a longer, longer wait than you wanted.
AJ Fletcher (10:48):
Oh, absolutely. Man. I wanna, you know, I wanna be in there. I want activity. I wanna feel like there’s no, uh, no way to kind of, you can train, you can kind of get ready for fights and all that. And we have been, I was gearing up for something in December the, I ended up not coming to fruition and just kind of rolled that into, you know, getting ready for March. But yeah, I’m somebody who likes being in there. I like feeling that canvas under my feet and I like, you know, feeling those little butterflies walking in there. I don’t, I don’t think there’s anything that can rep replicate that. And the more you’re in there, you know, the more, I think the more comfortable you get, the more experience you get, the more, just everything, man, you can’t beat it.
Sevan Matossian (11:23):
And where are you guys fighting?
AJ Fletcher (11:24):
It’s gonna be in the apex in Las Vegas.
Sevan Matossian (11:28):
And the week after that they’re going do do, are you a fan of the sport?
AJ Fletcher (11:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
Sevan Matossian (11:34):
So, so you’ll watch the fights tonight. Oh,
AJ Fletcher (11:36):
A hundred percent. A hundred
Sevan Matossian (11:37):
Percent. There’s some guys that just aren’t fans of the sport. And I always wonder about that. We’re about to have Alex Cera on and he says he doesn’t watch the sport at all that he’s not into sports. But I wonder like if in the beginning, like how did he even find out about it? Like in the beginning, did he watch it?
AJ Fletcher (11:53):
I don’t know. He could have been one of those guys who came from like a traditional, especially Alex from remembering his background. Right. Came from a traditional martial arts background and then kind of blended into MMA.
Sevan Matossian (12:03):
Um, and he was a street. He was a street fighter too. There there’s there’s footage of him, like, you know, doing the, a lot of the backyard. Like the Jorge used to do
AJ Fletcher (12:11):
Is there really. I haven’t seen that go scrounge
Sevan Matossian (12:14):
Up. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s it’s it looks, um, those scenes look scarier to me than actually fighting you’re in some dude’s backyard. There’s 200 dudes back there. There’s dudes like pushing you back into the center while you’re fighting. It’s like high school.
AJ Fletcher (12:29):
Pretty much, dude though. Have you ever seen the old videos of, uh, Kimbo and I mean, when George back then? Yeah. That’s some real stuff, dude. That’s some real stuff.
Sevan Matossian (12:38):
What was the one video of Kimbo? He’s like fighting a cop and like they’re, they’re like in a kitchen. I mean, it’s organized, there’s like five or six people there, but he fights this giant New York city cop giant dude. And they’re, they’re like fighting in like a they’re fighting inside, like in a small enclosed area. It’s nuts. Yeah. And they go to war, they go to war.
AJ Fletcher (12:59):
Oh, you
Sevan Matossian (13:01):
We’re gonna get No, no, this isn’t the, this isn’t the one I, this isn’t the one I was referencing, but that looks like the dude again. Oh, you’re gonna get us kicked off of YouTube. Kayla. Um, AJ, do you feel stronger than the other guys
AJ Fletcher (13:22):
At one 70?
Sevan Matossian (13:23):
Yeah.
AJ Fletcher (13:24):
Um, I’d say I feel about average. I, I do feel like in certain positions, my body frame is stronger than, you know, stronger than most, especially like a guy like Matt, for example, he’s gonna have his strengths, but my, how would I say it? My, uh, I’m stronger than him on the inside when I get close. And I feel like his strength has to have more room to, to be able to work if that makes any sense.
Sevan Matossian (13:46):
Yeah. Like
AJ Fletcher (13:47):
That to a lot of one 70 guys,
Sevan Matossian (13:50):
I get this impression from watching your fights, that that people are when you grab them that there’s like an, oh, factor that they get like, oh this doesn’t, this doesn’t feel like the guys I trained with. There’s a, there’s a thickness. Or, and you’re not, it’s not like you’re short, but there’s a thickness and a rottenness to you and a and a, and yet an athleticism that doesn’t, that they, that they weren’t able to train with. That you’re very unique athlete.
AJ Fletcher (14:16):
I think so. And I think that goes yet. Like, yeah, it’s part of my strength, but it, it it’s part of, you know, how I squeeze and stuff like that. But it’s also understanding how to get them in positions where it’s a hundred percent of my body weight and my strength versus 20%, 30%. So even bigger guys, I’ve gone against 300 pound guys and made them look like they were like 125 pound females just because know how to put them in positions where they’re compromised and they can’t use that strength and I can use mine. And there’s a certain way of, of riding that lightning with other strong guys so that they put themselves in that own position where I’m not using my strength. I’m just kind of flowing. I’m a big wet water blanket or whatever, just letting you move. And then when I get you in that spot, then I clamp down. And when I clamp down, well, good luck homeboy. You’re in for a rough night.
Sevan Matossian (15:03):
Yeah. And it seems like you’re comfortable. Sh it seems like, you know, they always, the, the announcers say this all the time and sometimes you see it, sometimes you don’t, but you definitely see it with you. This you love, you’ll love standing up and punching, but your thread of your take down is like, for real, it’s like that. No one’s ever safe. Like you just, and, and you’re so fast and you don’t have a wrestling background, do you?
AJ Fletcher (15:28):
No, I just did soccer and football about it.
Sevan Matossian (15:31):
Yeah. It’s nuts.
AJ Fletcher (15:33):
Yeah. Its nuts. Go ahead.
Sevan Matossian (15:36):
Um, I’m, I’m just wondering how you were able to cultivate that so quick. Like they would, you know, you would think, you know, they show the videos of all these great Russian, you know, guys and they they’re wrestling at three and four and five years old. And, and yet you’re you’re you were grown. I mean, when you cultivated that skill.
AJ Fletcher (15:51):
Yeah. Well, so I think it’s, uh, I think there’s a couple parts to it. I think the first one is that if we look at a traditional wrestling background, the distance that they start from is very close. Usually they’re shooting takedowns from, you know, hands on their head or they’re touching each other already. MMA. If you look at the distance we’re shooting from three or four feet, two or three feet, two to five feet, I’ll say longer than a traditional wrestling shot. So if you try the, the usual wrestling shot where you drop your knee on the ground and you know, you try to drive your knees or whatever, you’re probably gonna get stuffed in an MMA fight. But if you adapt that you learn the wrestling, take down, you learn all the things that make that work. And you adapt that with a football tackle where you’re driving your legs, you’re push.
AJ Fletcher (16:33):
You’re, you know, you’re moving, whatever. I feel like that’s kind of the best. Um, the best one for MMA. It transfers over the most. And having that football background and having a student mindset of, of going deep into the wrestling and figuring out what parts of a wrestling, what parts of wrestling need to be implemented, what parts of a, a football tackle needs to be implemented and all that. And then combining that with, like you said, I’m comfortable my feet, whenever you have somebody that can close that distance very fast. When you have somebody that can strike on the feet, when you have somebody that can take you down when they’re punching or when you’re punching, it just causes so many different questions and all those different questions create little microseconds in those little transitions that were do between punching to kicking or catching, to kicking, to punching or punching, to wrestling all those little microseconds add up. And they stack in my favor just because he is worried about so many different things. And by the time that happens, man, it doesn’t matter if you’re a D two wrestler or a D one, all American or a high school football player. If you get in on somebody’s hips and you know how to drive, gonna take ’em down, especially if you got good timing,
Sevan Matossian (17:38):
The, the second you get taken down as a, as an MMA fighter, what should you do?
AJ Fletcher (17:43):
Get on your hip, push the head, start, find, find to the fence, get your knee on the mat and go
Sevan Matossian (17:49):
It’s some guys. I feel like when they go down, they start dealing with being down and some guys, and I’m naive. Like I don’t fight. And some guys, I feel like when they get taken down, they stand up. And I know that sounds like an oversimplification, but they’re these guys that seem like that they’re trained that no matter what happens when they go down, the next thing they need to do is stand up. And I know you gave some steps to it, but then there’s other guys who start dealing with being on the ground. Like, like, and I, the guy who pops in my name and it’s kind of unfair to use him as an example is like Izzy, the second he goes down, he is getting back up. Like he does. There’s no, like he’s not around down there. Yep. There’s no. And I feel like a lot of, uh, um, I feel like that that’s always the best strategy. The second you go down to just like, like literally as you’re falling down, start working on getting back up. Don’t even try to with the guy, like at all, if you want to go down, take him down on your own, on your own terms.
AJ Fletcher (18:44):
Yeah, no I’m with you. I think. Uh, and you’re starting to see that more and more, you know, I think as the game progressed, as guys are not willing to accept that, take down, not willing to accept that position. Um, I think jujitsu guys, guys with that kind of background are more willing to accept being on their back because they’re just used to it more. They’re used to triangles and arm bars and stuff, but now the game is in a spot. I think where most people have at least a decent level of ju to, to where when you start adding punches in that, if you accept being on your back with somebody on top punching, you understand jujitsu as well. It’s not as advantageous as it was maybe seven years ago to just accept the take down. So now guys like Izzy, especially strikers and stuff, you’re seeing, they have that more of a wrestling mindset where you’re, you’re scrambling.
AJ Fletcher (19:30):
As soon as your butt, the mat, you’re trying to get up, you’re using your energy, whatever, but there’s also a bit of a trade off where, okay, how early is it in the fight? How much energy do I have? How much energy am I willing to expend on? Not accepting this take down. Whereas if I accept the take down, can I get up in a stepwise manner that maybe, you know, saves my arms a little bit for later in the fight, there’s all those kind of little, what would you call ’em little, little transactions, I guess that go on in your head, little judgment decisions. And those are like finely tuned with how you train. So it’s, I guess it kind of depends on, you know, what somebody’s base is, what somebody’s conditioning level is, how early it is in the fight, how late, whatever. Um, there’s a lot of things that go into it. I think.
Sevan Matossian (20:10):
Do you train that? Just getting right back up soon as on takes you down. Yeah.
AJ Fletcher (20:13):
Yeah. Hell yeah.
Sevan Matossian (20:15):
I wonder if that standard high school wrestling too,
AJ Fletcher (20:18):
It’s gotta be right. Because as soon as you hit the bat, I mean, as soon as you hit the mat, you’re you want your down two points, then two, somebody’s trying to pin you. So I assume that, you know, that’s the way it goes.
Sevan Matossian (20:29):
Um, you do do people are, is your, um, at, at five 10, what is that in the 170 pound class? Is that, is that average? Do you know what the average height is in that class?
AJ Fletcher (20:41):
It’s prob I’d say five 11 I’d say is the average, unless I’m five, 10 with Sox on. Okay. They didn’t ask whenever the
Sevan Matossian (20:50):
UFC.
AJ Fletcher (20:51):
So I was like, you know what? I’ll give myself a little Liberty. Okay. But no, I guess on a shorter side for the weight class,
Sevan Matossian (20:56):
That’s interesting. And what do you walk around at again? AJ,
AJ Fletcher (21:00):
I can get up to mid one nineties, but generally I’m 87 88.
Sevan Matossian (21:06):
And what’s the heaviest you’ve been in your whole life?
AJ Fletcher (21:09):
When I was playing high school football, I got up to 2 0 7, 2 0 5 around there
Sevan Matossian (21:14):
Is. It’s crazy to think that Vulcan Osky was two 40, huh?
AJ Fletcher (21:17):
Yeah. It’s nuts.
Sevan Matossian (21:19):
I think. And now he’s 1 45.
AJ Fletcher (21:22):
I think he said two 14 and the off I know. Cause the two 40 thing I kind I got ran with and I think he addressed it in one of his interviews. Oh, okay. I was like, oh, okay. That makes a little bit more sense, but
Sevan Matossian (21:33):
Okay.
AJ Fletcher (21:34):
A thick boy
Sevan Matossian (21:35):
That, that reminds me of, uh, one time, uh, I, I, I used to work for CrossFit Inc. And the owner said that the eco, the CrossFit ecosystem was worth $4 billion and then Forbes magazine published it. That CrossFit was worth $4 billion then from then on it just ran with it. Yeah. And was like, all right, it. Why correct it. Yeah. It two for two 14 is still nuts. He’s tiny. Right? I mean, he’s probably like five, five.
AJ Fletcher (21:58):
Yeah. He’s a 40 fiver dude. It’s crazy.
Sevan Matossian (22:02):
Um, when you’re on a dude and um, and you’re submitting him and he’s do you stop or do you wait until the ref comes over
AJ Fletcher (22:13):
Ref for sure. They’re in there for a reason. If they’re not in there, then I know, I know what I’m trying to do. And it doesn’t stop at, at that in training. Yeah. A hundred percent. I’ll get you in a submission. And I I’ll refrain from doing the last 10% of a submission. I like getting people, an armbar, Chemours, whatever, and holding the position like where their, their arm needs to. If it extends two more inches, it’s gonna pop. But I don’t do that. I just hold that position as long as I can. Yeah. But in a fight, bro, you’re cranking that sucker. I don’t until the RAF comes and I feel his, his hands on me or he steps in, it’s getting cranked on.
Sevan Matossian (22:50):
Literally. It’s funny. Cause I, I was talking to, um, Nick Rodriguez about this, the guy from who trains in, uh, with B team, do you know who that is? A jujitsu guy. And I was like, Hey, do you really, do you really try to snap their arm and break their arm off? He said, yeah. I’m like really? You don’t just go and like, know you’re in a good position. He’s like, no, you’re just, you’re trying to tear their arm off. And it, you can’t even, what’s crazy is that’s so Savage. But from the viewer’s perspective, you can’t even tell what’s happen. You, you can’t tell that that’s what’s happening.
AJ Fletcher (23:20):
That that’s the motive. Right?
Sevan Matossian (23:22):
Well, I would just think that we would see more arms just like I’ve never seen. I mean, we saw what happened to, um, Tony Fein’s arm. Right. We saw and backwards a little bit and, and hyper extend and then he didn’t tap and, and the fight went on. Yeah. But, but you would think that some of these positions, you guys put the guys in that actually we would see it actually fold the other way, but you never see that
AJ Fletcher (23:46):
I’ve seen a, I think a shoe in the past year, it was weird. There was a string of ’em like over a span of two months, there was like two or three arm breaks from arm bars that were just disgusting. Um, but
Sevan Matossian (23:59):
In the UFC you saw them.
AJ Fletcher (24:01):
Yeah. I think one was, uh, was it Ja Ray? Maybe Jare was one. And then there was one other guy, at least maybe two.
Sevan Matossian (24:09):
Oh, that’s right. Someone did it to Jare that’s right.
AJ Fletcher (24:12):
Yeah. He’s a newer guy too. I think. Uh, got him from an arm bar from the back. He, it was actually that same guy. I think. I think he did that to the guy before he fought. Uh, man, I can’t remember his name.
Caleb Beaver (24:24):
Oh, Andre ESE.
AJ Fletcher (24:25):
Yes. That’s the one did he went by armbar before Ja Ray too.
Sevan Matossian (24:32):
Good job, Caleb.
Caleb Beaver (24:34):
I have no idea, but I found the video.
AJ Fletcher (24:36):
Yeah. Let’s think gnarly.
Sevan Matossian (24:40):
You gonna get us kicked off again, Caleb? Yeah,
Caleb Beaver (24:42):
Probably I’ll take it down
Sevan Matossian (24:44):
Unless you want, unless you wanna go straight to the part where the arms break. Um, so, so you can’t tell your manager, Hey, it’s been six months. It’s been like two months. I wanna get back in and they call someone over there.
AJ Fletcher (24:56):
They do. But it, we, when we did a lot, it was just, you know, for, for December I was trying to get on Dustin’s card and it was a lot of, yeah, we’re looking, we’re looking, we’re looking, we’re trying, we’re trying, we’re looking and just kind of staying on my manager, like, Hey, make sure we’re, you know, we’re, we’re keeping that little bug in their ear that we wanna fight. So then it was January. We’re looking, we’re looking then it was, you know, I think in late January I found out that they had matched me for March and I was like, all right, well screw it. We’re gonna rock with March. Um, but I can kind of tell ’em to put that bug in their ear, but at some point they’re tired of that little being in their ears. So you don’t wanna do it too much. Right.
Sevan Matossian (25:30):
Right, right.
AJ Fletcher (25:32):
But definitely you let ’em know that you’re ready.
Sevan Matossian (25:34):
I wonder what the math is on that. I think I heard there’s like 550 dudes on the roster. You could, you could probably do the math and then, and then if there’s 20 dudes who fight, I don’t know. Or there are 20 matches every Saturday. Yeah. Probably 20,
AJ Fletcher (25:51):
Probably around 12 to 15, I’d say,
Sevan Matossian (25:53):
Okay, let’s say 12 for, uh, the sake of the math. So there’s 12 dudes. So that’s uh, 12 matches. That’s 24 guys. And let’s say that they fight 40 weeks a year. What’s 24 times 48, 800 and something eight 80 is that let’s say it’s eight 80. So that is kind of, every guy gets to fight twice. Yeah. Right.
AJ Fletcher (26:16):
I hope you get a little bit more. Cause then there’s also injuries too. You gotta think there’s, you know, there’s visa issues now and all that too. Um, and there’s at the big, at the, the Paperview events. There’s definitely more than 12 fights. It’s just like on the fight nights, the, the ones in the apex it’s usually yeah. From what I found 10 to 12 or so
Sevan Matossian (26:34):
Are, have you had to fight out the country since this thing ha this whole, um, pandemic thing. So called pandemic thing happened?
AJ Fletcher (26:40):
No, I have not. Oh,
Sevan Matossian (26:41):
Have, have you gotten the medicine for it?
AJ Fletcher (26:44):
Uh, I guess you can call it the medicine, but no, I didn’t.
Sevan Matossian (26:47):
You didn’t get the yeah. Right. Um, what are you gonna do? I was just, I’m having Cody Durden on the show and he’s going to fight over in England. And he said he got it to, he got the medicine, um, to, uh, because he’s going over there and that he had to bite the bullet and do it for his family. Would you do that if they told you to fight overseas, would you take the medicine?
AJ Fletcher (27:07):
No, I would not.
Sevan Matossian (27:08):
Yeah. Did you see, um, Nova Jovi?
AJ Fletcher (27:12):
I saw, is there any recent developments with him? I saw that stuff, I guess a couple months ago.
Sevan Matossian (27:17):
I mean, BA I mean basic he’s, he’s a, he’s a Serbian. I think the Sur, I, I think the being president even said about five months ago, he got on the air and he dressed his people and he said, Hey, either I watch CNN every day. And it’s so funny to see, see the Serbian president say this. And he goes, either their bat crazy, or I’m bat crazy. But one of us is bat crazy. I’m gonna go with their bat crazy. And we’re lifting everything that we’re not doing. That is no coronavirus in, in our country anymore. It’s just, it’s the cold and what, yeah. Right. And, uh, and this guy, um, and this guy is, uh, Nova is Serbian, right? Is he he’s Serbian, right. Caleb he’s Serbian. And what’s crazy is, you know, he has 20 grand slam wins. I’m not even a huge tennis fan. And then Feder has 20 grant had 20 grand slam wins and Nadal had 20 grand slam wins. So you got these three guys tied for the three greatest tennis players of all time. And that sport is nuts. Yeah. I, I’ve watched a little bit of it. It’s nuts. And to be that good. And, um, and, and they won’t let ’em play in Australia because he didn’t get the injection. It, I,
Sevan Matossian (28:26):
Him sign a waiver. He’s an adult.
AJ Fletcher (28:29):
I know
Sevan Matossian (28:30):
Be responsible if I die from COVID in your country.
AJ Fletcher (28:33):
It’s it. I it’s one thing too, if it’s maybe say it’s rugby, right. You know, you’re rubbing up on each other and all that attacking each other. Right. Tennis you’re I mean, you’re across the court. I know there’s, you know, there’s other different things or whatever, but I don’t know. It’s it seems like of all sports, the one to like, draw that line on is tennis. You’re like, come on, dude.
Sevan Matossian (28:52):
How about these in the NFL? The play, you have to be vaccinated, but they had those people in the stadium, all kissing up on each other who, who don’t have to be vaccinated. It must suck to be a professional athlete when you don’t have a, um, I don’t care what any, anyone says bad about Dana white, although I’ve always liked him. And, and I met him once and he was nice as. But, um, the fact that he’s standing up for the athletes, or at least in, in what’s doing what’s right. And freedom.
AJ Fletcher (29:20):
Yeah, no, I
Sevan Matossian (29:21):
Agree. That’s enough for me.
AJ Fletcher (29:22):
I’m I’m with you on that. I’m glad we have a choice. I’m glad he, you know, he doesn’t can anybody, what they have to say. He doesn’t anybody with, you know, what they wanna put in their bodies or anything like that. He’s, he’s letting us do what we do. And, uh, it’s nice to see. It really is.
Sevan Matossian (29:38):
Why the, um, how did you get the nickname? The ghost? Sorry if I’ve asked you this before.
AJ Fletcher (29:43):
No, you’re good.
Sevan Matossian (29:44):
Pick up your ghost shirt today at AJ Fletcher, mma.com. The fighting spirit never dies. Why how’d you get the ghost?
AJ Fletcher (29:54):
Uh, Tim gave me that going into one of my amateur fights. He like posted a little something on Facebook and it was of me.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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