#415 – Ricky Simon

Sevan Matossian (00:00):

Bam more live. Oh, now I can hear you. Oh, it’s cause my headphones on you’re running the show from a coffee shop.

Caleb Beaver (00:05):

Yep. God you’re badass. <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (00:10):

Around here. Say that again?

Caleb Beaver (00:11):

I said there’s a lot of ’em around here.

Sevan Matossian (00:13):

Oh. Oh. Where are you?

Caleb Beaver (00:14):

Knoxville still?

Sevan Matossian (00:16):

Are, are you working the Mac next week too?

Caleb Beaver (00:18):

Yeah, I’ll be there.

Sevan Matossian (00:20):

Um, I don’t know how we’re gonna do that. I got so much crazy stuff going on. Uh, Greg’s coming into town. He’s giving some lectures. I was looking at the schedule. I, you guys might have to do it without me.

Caleb Beaver (00:31):

Don’t be scared. Step on podcast without

Sevan Matossian (00:34):

No, it wouldn’t be Ricky. What’s up. Good morning, dude.

Ricky Simon (00:38):

Hey, what’s up? Going on guys.

Sevan Matossian (00:40):

Is it, is this, are you in, uh, LA

Ricky Simon (00:43):

Uh, uh, Vancouver, Washington.

Sevan Matossian (00:45):

Oh, okay. So you’re west coast too. It’s earliest shit for you too.

Ricky Simon (00:49):

<laugh> yep. Yep.

Sevan Matossian (00:50):

I, I I’m always surprised when people on the west coast take the podcast at 7:00 AM.

Ricky Simon (00:56):

<laugh> yeah, no worries. I’m usually I’m just drinking coffee and stretching anyway. So I was like, why not jump on, get, get a conversation going.

Sevan Matossian (01:03):

Oh, you the man, you the man, I didn’t even, you know, when, when I scheduled this, I didn’t even know you were fighting Jack.

Ricky Simon (01:11):

Yeah, I think it, I mean, it kind of all came together quickly the last couple weeks. So I think right around the time we were scheduling

Sevan Matossian (01:18):

Crazy.

Ricky Simon (01:19):

Yeah. Crazy. Crazy, crazy. That’s good.

Sevan Matossian (01:21):

One crazy. Yeah. Holy shit. Um, I hope people realize what’s amazing fight. That’s gonna be, I mean, you guys that’s too savages colliding.

Ricky Simon (01:32):

Yeah. I mean, it’s, we’re kind of, I feel like we’re very similar in the, in the grappling, at least in the wall wrestling. Uh, and he’s 16 to know. So it’d be nice to, uh, put a one on his record for sure.

Sevan Matossian (01:45):

<laugh> yeah.

Ricky Simon (01:46):

<laugh>

Sevan Matossian (01:47):

Hey, are you born in, um, are you born in, uh, in, in Oregon?

Ricky Simon (01:52):

Um, yeah, actually, yeah, I was born in Pendleton, Oregon. I’ve lived in, uh, Vancouver, Washington, like my entire life.

Sevan Matossian (01:58):

And, and where is, uh, Kenton or Pendleton with

Ricky Simon (02:02):

A D uh, Pendleton.

Sevan Matossian (02:03):

Pendleton. Yeah,

Ricky Simon (02:04):

There’s a D D in there yet.

Sevan Matossian (02:06):

Oh, uh, where is that?

Ricky Simon (02:10):

Um,

Sevan Matossian (02:10):

Is it north? Is it, is it you’re in the south? You’re in the south of Oregon now, but no, no, uh, yeah. Wait, you’re in wa sorry. I’m all confused. You’re in, you’re in Washington. You’re in Vancouver, Washington, which is just north of Portland.

Ricky Simon (02:24):

Yes. This is very close. I, I train in Portland, so I was like 20 minutes to the gym. Yeah. So I’m just right on the right on the border. And then, uh, Petton would be another, you know, four hours probably east,

Sevan Matossian (02:39):

Um, in, in a, in a, in a normal town. Uh, you could probably like beat up everybody, but in Portland you could beat up any five guys at the same time.

Ricky Simon (02:49):

<laugh> man, I try to gym in Portland. That’s about it.

Sevan Matossian (02:54):

Well, when I think of Portland, I spent a bunch of time there in the last few years and I watched one of the greatest towns, uh, in, in the world just completely take a fucking shit, nose, dive. What, what, what a tragedy, what happened there between the politics and the drug use. But man, it was, it was like a place of such creativity. And there were so many, like, it was where the cool hipsters were. And then over the last couple years, it just fucking went completely woken drug addicts, and I’m just, and the dudes aren’t even dudes there anymore. It’s just bizarre. I don’t know if you, if you see that, but

Ricky Simon (03:29):

It’s crazy. I know it’s everywhere, man. It’s everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Especially the homeless and tense and just taking over like plots of land, you know, um, in the place not being able to do stuff about that. So it’s, it is been, it’s been getting worse and uh, yeah, I, I, I train in Portland, but that’s about the only reason I go to Portland.

Sevan Matossian (03:49):

<laugh> do they, do they in the gym there, you train at, um, America top team there

Ricky Simon (03:55):

Under, uh, FNO sch.

Sevan Matossian (03:57):

Oh, and you just got your black belt in December from him. Congratulations.

Ricky Simon (04:01):

Oh yeah. Thank you.

Sevan Matossian (04:03):

Yeah. Uh, I got, I got a picture of that. Do you see that Caleb? If not, I can pull it up too. Yeah. That’s awesome. How long were you working to get that?

Ricky Simon (04:13):

Um, must have been like a little over 11 years. So it’s been, I never even really thought thought about the, you know, they say not to think about the belts or whatever, and I wasn’t, I was just, you know, doing MMA and dude juts, you know, I love it, but you know, then the belted ceremonies would come up every year, so, or whatevers, and I know you see people getting their black belt and you’re like, damn, that’d be a crazy moment after all this work, you know? And it kind of was, it was, it was great to get at my black belt from coach Fabian were super close and it, it was a good moment for sure.

Sevan Matossian (04:44):

Let’s see. I got it here. And, and do you even know?

Ricky Simon (04:52):

Uh, no, I didn’t. No. I, I, I, um, had like a one more degree to go on my brown belt, so I thought I was gonna get that and then maybe, you know, in a year or so get the black belt. So I was, I was a little surprised

Sevan Matossian (05:05):

<laugh> and, and, and do you, and do you talk to him afterwards? Oh, shit. I’m all over this. Do you talk to him afterwards?

Ricky Simon (05:10):

My only fans. Uh, yeah, of course. <laugh>. And,

Sevan Matossian (05:14):

And what, what does he say anything to you? Words of encouragement, tell you how great you are. How does that play out?

Ricky Simon (05:20):

Um, I think, I think specifically that night, I mean, it was just, you know, congratulations and stuff like that. And, um, you know, um, you gotta come in here and wear the GE more often too, so <laugh>, oh, those are the conversations

Sevan Matossian (05:36):

Because, um, you do, you’re just almost strictly Nogi,

Ricky Simon (05:40):

Uh, well for, especially trading for fights and stuff. When you got, you know, three workouts a day, it’s just hard to, uh, add that in, add in, you know, GI a couple times a week or, or whatever, but, you know, it’s definitely, you know, beneficial. It’s always, you know, it’s, it’s part of it. It’s fun.

Sevan Matossian (05:57):

Uh, why, why even WGE, I’ve only been following this. I I’ve been following, uh, UFC, just, you know, dedicating every Saturday to it for fucking seven years. Right. Okay. And then about three or four years ago, my boys got into juujitsu. I have two, five year olds and the seven year old. And, and then I started getting into like the, the, all the, um, the Nicky Rodriguez and his brother and Gordon ride and sort of like watching all that stuff on flow. And it just seems like everything is going more and more towards no G

Ricky Simon (06:28):

Yeah, it does. It does. It seems to be more popular for sure.

Sevan Matossian (06:32):

And does isn’t more

Ricky Simon (06:33):

Functional? Yeah, I think so. They, they like to, you know, say like, you’re not always just gonna be wearing, you know, like the minimum clothes, like if you’re gonna get like in a street fight or something, you’re gonna be wearing sweatshirts and, and jackets and stuff like that. So, you know, you’re gonna have more, more to grab on too, but I mean, I definitely prefer it, especially for what we’re doing, you know?

Sevan Matossian (06:54):

Yeah. There’s no sweatshirts or jackets in, uh, at your day job.

Ricky Simon (06:58):

Yeah. Yeah. Never

Sevan Matossian (07:00):

Just, just booty shorts.

Ricky Simon (07:02):

<laugh> yeah. Finding our underwear. That’s about it.

Sevan Matossian (07:05):

<laugh> uh, this is my, uh, work outfit. Mom, can you wash this? Just a fucking Bekin <laugh> You’re and, and he says, so why would a 19 and three who has 22 professional fights go to a belt ceremony? Aren’t you too big time for that? Shouldn’t you, they’ve called your name? Ricky Simone, your black belt. And like your son autograph somewhere.

Ricky Simon (07:33):

Not quite like that. Not, not in my gym, at least. I don’t know. You don’t get that kind of, you don’t get that kind of pull, but, you know, I mean, it is good. We’re definitely like a family over there. So, I mean, I, I wanna be there, definitely not too big time for something like that. I wanna see the guys, you know, get rewarded for their, for their hard work.

Sevan Matossian (07:52):

Yeah. That’s cool. Shit. Uh, so you’re born in Pendleton and you, uh, tell, tell me about that. You got, you, you, you born with mom and dad at home. How many siblings? All that stuff.

Ricky Simon (08:05):

Yeah. Um, well just, we weren’t living in Pendleton at the time. It was just, I think the closest hospital, but we live, we were living in a Milton Freewater, Oregon. It’s a small town, probably like 30 minutes out from Pendleton. Um, grew up with three other brothers. Um, yeah, I mean, we all wrestled meet each other up every day. We’re all pretty like close in age as well. So I had plenty of wrestling partners and sparring partners growing up. I kind of felt like <laugh>. Yeah, those are those ugly guys right there.

Sevan Matossian (08:34):

Which one are you?

Ricky Simon (08:36):

I am <laugh>. I am at the left

Sevan Matossian (08:40):

With the black shirt.

Ricky Simon (08:41):

Yeah. Yeah. With that nice button up.

Sevan Matossian (08:43):

Are you the oldest?

Ricky Simon (08:45):

I am the second oldest.

Sevan Matossian (08:47):

Which dude’s the oldest? The dude next to you? Just in the, uh, like with the 49ers Jersey or something?

Ricky Simon (08:53):

No, the, in the middle, the top, middle he go, it was him and then me and then the far right. And the Jersey and the bottom, uh, one.

Sevan Matossian (09:00):

And what is that age spread? Right? There

Ricky Simon (09:04):

Seems like every two years or so. <laugh> because my brother, me. Yeah. Every, about every two years.

Sevan Matossian (09:11):

Same mom and dad.

Ricky Simon (09:13):

Yeah. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (09:15):

Wow. And are, are your parents still together?

Ricky Simon (09:18):

No, they’re not. They, they separated when I was in high school and my mom had two more kids, another boy. And then she got a girl the very last attempt

Sevan Matossian (09:27):

<laugh> so, so there’s six of you all together?

Ricky Simon (09:30):

Yep.

Sevan Matossian (09:30):

Holy cow. Um, and are, are you close to the, are, are you forced pretty close?

Ricky Simon (09:37):

Yeah, I would say so pretty, pretty close. Always hanging out. Usually our tra still get some training in together as well.

Sevan Matossian (09:43):

All, all four of you dudes fucking scrap.

Ricky Simon (09:46):

Yeah. They don’t, uh, really compete. The youngest one will compete in jujitsu, but we just mostly just train. And, uh, we got like, um, a gym in one of, in my older brother’s garage and on Sundays, uh, we’ll go out and get, get, get some training sessions here and work out some positions that maybe, um, someone was running into during the week. I have another cousin who’s a professional fighter as well. So he comes over and I’ll just kind of work.

Sevan Matossian (10:12):

No shit. So you could, so before a fight, you could go over there, you could call the boys over, go over and be like, Hey, um, like I heard that, uh, um, I don’t know if, how true this is, but it seems like it’s the, the truth. I heard Vulcano went over to B team and they were just fucking sinking in, um, guillotines as deep as they could go taking turns on ’em and then starting the match there so that he could deal with Brian Ortega. So you could do that with your, you got five guys, so you could just call up, meet me at the fucking garage, put me in this position and, and I’m gonna work out of it. And they’ll just they’re game.

Ricky Simon (10:44):

Oh yeah. They’re always game. Yeah. That’s why, I mean, during like the early stages of the pandemic, I would run like jog over to my brother’s house a few miles and they’d be, they’d be ready. And I’d like, have them, you know, wrestle me in certain positions or even like spar me, like <laugh> for more, for fun for me, but <laugh> so yeah. I mean, I always good. Always good work with those guys.

Sevan Matossian (11:07):

Um, you, you don’t, you don’t have any kids yet, huh?

Ricky Simon (11:10):

No, no kids for me. Not yet.

Sevan Matossian (11:13):

Um, you have no fucking, I have three boys. You have no fucking idea how amazing your mom is.

Ricky Simon (11:20):

<laugh>

Sevan Matossian (11:21):

You have no dude, you guys must have wrecked shop in the house.

Ricky Simon (11:25):

I think about that all the time. Um, yeah, we were, we were crazy breaking, breaking everything, putting holes in everything. Yeah. Yeah. I, I definitely, as I, as I got, I’ve gotten older. I feel, I feel bad from my parents what we put on third, for sure.

Sevan Matossian (11:38):

Yeah. You ate everything. You guys wrecked shop. <laugh> you guys. I mean, if my kids aren’t outside something bad’s happening. If they’re inside, like they’re like taking apart, like something, you know what I mean? They’re outside. They’re like take, they’re take, like, they’re trying to like see who can throw a rock at the side of the car as hard as they can. I’m like who, who came up with that game? You know?

Ricky Simon (11:57):

<laugh> yeah, yeah. That was a common phrase in our household. Like, just go outside, <laugh> go, go outside.

Sevan Matossian (12:05):

Um, and uh, at, at a very young age you started wrestling.

Ricky Simon (12:10):

Yeah, probably some I some sometime in elementary school, probably around like eight or nine or something like that,

Sevan Matossian (12:17):

Whose idea was that?

Ricky Simon (12:19):

Um, I had a buddy doing it and I loved WWF at the time. And I thought that might be some WWF wrestling. And my dad took me to the practice and it was way harder than that. And it wasn’t the same thing, but I loved it. I <laugh>, and I was good at it right away. I was a little chubby boy and I still would like double a people and pick em up and pin em <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (12:40):

Here. You are at 13 at 135 pounds. And now you’re 16, 16 years later were fighting at the very highest level that can fight on planet earth at the same weight.

Ricky Simon (12:54):

Yeah. That’s funny. Yeah. Like I said, I was a, I was a chubby boy, but yeah. Yeah. That’s funny. I think about that. I’m like, damn, I’ve been the same weight class forever.

Sevan Matossian (13:03):

<laugh> um, did you eat like shit? Is that why you were chubby?

Ricky Simon (13:07):

Uh, growing up at a Mexican household? Probably all the tortillas and everything like that. I don’t know. I don’t know. Yeah. He like shit.

Sevan Matossian (13:16):

Uh, um, both your mom and dad are Mexican.

Ricky Simon (13:19):

Uh, just my dad, just my dad, my dad’s from Mexico. My mom was from the Idaho area.

Sevan Matossian (13:25):

So you’re your first generation on your dad’s side?

Ricky Simon (13:28):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Sevan Matossian (13:30):

Did your dad grind? Did he work his ass off?

Ricky Simon (13:32):

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I was talking about that. That’s how, that’s how I learned how to work hard for sure.

Sevan Matossian (13:37):

Oh, what do you remember about that? What did he do? What were his hours?

Ricky Simon (13:42):

Oh, they were always changing. I, I remember that. And you know, it could be, I remember he would switch his hours, like, um, depending on what, which season we were in for sports, you know, and, and he wanted to make it to all our stuff and he usually did. So he’d be working swing shift or graveyard and some crazy hours for sure.

Sevan Matossian (14:01):

And doing what?

Ricky Simon (14:03):

Um, he worked for a, um, well, when I was younger, he’d go to Alaska and work on the, uh, fishing boat. Oh

Sevan Matossian (14:09):

Shit.

Ricky Simon (14:11):

Yeah. And then, um, then he landed a job over here in Vancouver, Washington, um, for like, um, a paving company, um, and like asphalt and gravel. And, and then he became, started becoming like a diesel mechanic and that’s kinda like what he’s been doing for like, for forever. Now,

Sevan Matossian (14:29):

Can you imagine the stress and the pressure on your dad with four boys and a wife at home? I mean, it’s nuts

Ricky Simon (14:41):

And they were young too. They had, they had, they popped out four kids, early twenties. So like, I think about that all the time. I’m in my late twenties. I don’t have one yet. And I’m like, dang, you guys are, yes. Took it all on right away. <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (14:53):

You know, it, um, I, I, I’ve been thinking about this more and more like a lot of people say like, Hey man, you can’t have people running for office who are 75 years old. Like, this is just fucked up. We get there, you know, you can’t be present until you’re 35, but there should be some rule. Like you, you can’t be present if you’re 80 or whatever. But another thing I think about all the time, like if you don’t have kids, like, there’s a, there’s a part of you that just doesn’t doesn’t see the world right. Yet. Like when, like it’s hard to explain, but once you have kids, there’s, there’s a whole shift. I mean, he wasn’t, he, he sure as fuck, wasn’t gonna go to Alaska and fish that shit, if it wasn’t for you for, I mean, you know what I mean? That’s like all for you guys mm-hmm <affirmative> right.

Ricky Simon (15:37):

Oh yeah, for sure. Huh?

Sevan Matossian (15:39):

Yeah. It’s nuts. Um, is he, does he trip on how far you’ve taken it? What’s what’s your dad say about, about that? You’re a professional athlete at the, at this, in this crazy sport.

Ricky Simon (15:50):

Yeah. I mean, he’s, he’s probably the reason why I got into it. I mean, he would rent like pride in the early UFCs on the VHS, um, from wherever he could get him, you know, he’d buy ’em rent ’em. Um, and then we would just watch ’em all the time. I’d watch, um, you know, the tournaments and just be like hours of fights. And, you know, I, my older brother and my dad loved it and I just thought these guys were kind of a little crazy, but as I got older, I definitely like kinda, you know, I got better at wrestling and I, you know, I loved to fight and then started training right after high school. And my dad was always super supportive. He was like, he always thought I could like, you know, make it. And I, you know, I, I didn’t have that kind of confidence, especially when I was that young.

Ricky Simon (16:33):

I was like, I’m not even sure, like, if, you know, if I’m gonna go pro and this and that, and he was always like, you know, you definitely should, you definitely should do this. Keep going, you know? And he he’d always be like, yeah, you’re gonna make it. I think. And yeah, that was always super, like nice to have. Cause I come from my dad because you know, you got, you got people, especially like this is, he’s not an easy sport to come up in telling you, Hey, you should probably, you know, go back to school or you should probably, you know, go, go do this instead. You should probably stop, stop playing around with the, the sport. You’re not going nowhere with it. You know, have plenty of people kind of tell me that because of where MMA was, but never from my dad.

Sevan Matossian (17:08):

You, you re you are a, a, a, a beautiful young man with a fucking insane record. And, and you’re in the very top of the league and it, it, it doesn’t look easy. I mean, you are a very special looking character. I was digging through your Instagram. I mean, like you could fucking be in movies. I mean, you look like, uh, like you fell outta some fucking, uh, native American warrior movie in some of these pictures with your fucking bullet. It’s fucking nuts. Oh, I wanna, I wanna come back to that confidence. I, I took a note here cause I wanted to ask you, but go ahead, pull that up. Caleb. I wanna ask him about that, that picture right there. Do you have, um, are, are you gifted, genetically? Do you have abnormal, uh, wingspan look, look at how long from your shoulder to your elbow and then your elbow to your fingertips. It’s like you have the torso of a, um, of like a du six, three on a duty five, five. How, how tall are you?

Ricky Simon (18:03):

Um, I like probably like five, six on a good day. Okay. They’ll say five, five. Give you that one inch

Sevan Matossian (18:08):

Five, six. Okay. I’m five, five. So five you’re, five you’re giant.

Ricky Simon (18:11):

At some point I just stopped like growing this way and I just started, kept growing this way.

Sevan Matossian (18:16):

<laugh> I mean, look how broad you are. You’re like a flying squirrel. Do you know what your wing span is?

Ricky Simon (18:22):

Uh, 70 inches go back. The UFC gets me a 69 to 70 inches.

Sevan Matossian (18:27):

Okay. So, so, so that’s you, so you do have the wingspan of a guy who’s five 10.

Ricky Simon (18:33):

Yeah, I think it’s like the way my, me and all my brothers are kind of built my dad’s very like that short and just shoulders are super stocky. <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (18:44):

Yeah. Crazy. Um, Caleb, can you pull up any pictures of him? Like just where it’s just him and his Molet and he just looks fierce. Like he looks like he should have a spear in his hand and on a horse. Has it PE people tell you that all the time, right. That you look native?

Ricky Simon (18:57):

Yeah. Yeah. <laugh> I get that often.

Sevan Matossian (19:00):

Yeah. You have such a great look. Hey, what’s the most you’ve ever weighed in your life?

Ricky Simon (19:07):

Um, I think after my, uh, first UFC fight, uh, like a week later, I was like 178 pounds.

Sevan Matossian (19:17):

You never broke. You never cracked 200?

Ricky Simon (19:19):

No, never cracked 200. No, but definitely close to like about 180.

Sevan Matossian (19:24):

Do you start freaking out when you get that heavy?

Ricky Simon (19:28):

Uh, yeah. Well, that was like younger, like younger in my career, for sure. Like, I I’m good at keeping it, keeping it, um, lower for sure. These days living a healthier li lifestyle and, um, trying to bloom up so much, but it is not easy making 135 pounds for sure. But with the high height disadvantage at, in these, like, uh, in the UFC, especially when all these guys are so good and know how to use that reach, um, that I just feel like 1 35 is the best way to class for me, but it’s not easy to make. It’s not fun to make. Um, but you know, we’re, we’re spoiled now with the UFC. Like they give us nutritionist and send us out food and fight week. They cook all our food for us and everything. So it’s, it’s been easier these days

Sevan Matossian (20:09):

Could, could, uh, could trifecta make me, I, I I’m 5, 5, 1 65. I work out every day. Could trifecta make me 1 35? I would love to fucking get a, see what, what I look like, like that, like this.

Ricky Simon (20:26):

Well, I think what you could do first is what they, when someone’s thinking about going to a new weight class or something, the UFC will put you in like one of their deck of scans or they, and they’ll weigh your like muscular skeleton and see which, what weight you should be fighting in. And then you’ll take the, you know, you’ll have the right diet. That’ll tying you up to get, get you down to lowest possible weight before you do a water cut.

Sevan Matossian (20:50):

I can’t just, um, I can’t just, uh, uh, call trifecta or go to their website and say, uh, I want the Ricky Simone, uh, diet. I want the Ricky Simone body.

Ricky Simon (20:59):

<laugh> no, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. Think it’s specific for me and I’m not sharing the secret. Sorry. No, I’m just <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (21:08):

Hey, so literally the, the weeks leading up. So, so it, it, I think in there you say you went from, uh, I wrote it down like 1 68 to 1 35 and six weeks. Is that correct?

Ricky Simon (21:22):

That, that sounds like, sounds like maybe me being a fat boy. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (21:26):

Okay. Sorry, sorry. Sorry. You go from one 60. Thank you, Caleb. From one 60 to one 30, uh, 4.8 in, uh, seven weeks. So they, you don’t have to do shit. You just stay on your training regimen and they just, they just send you boxes of food and that’s what you eat.

Ricky Simon (21:41):

Yeah, for the most part. And I like, I like, uh, you know, sometimes fresh food and sometimes I can get boring, um, eating the same meals that get sent over, you know, um, dry, frozen or whatever. Um, so I I’ll cook or add, or substitute a carb or add a protein or, or whatever, how for whatever practice I’m going to. So, but yeah, that’s, that’s usually, that’s usually the case and, uh, they make it way easier on us. <laugh>

Sevan Matossian (22:09):

Yeah, that, that’s awesome. That must take a lot of stress off. What do you think when guys don’t make weight? Like, do you see, do you have compassion for it or are you like, yeah, I can see how that happens or are you like, fuck you,

Ricky Simon (22:20):

Um, or both, it’s definitely annoying. I mean, kind of, kind of both kind of both, I’ve never missed weight in, in wrestling or in, um, in my fighting career. So, um, I definitely think there’s like, no excuse for it, but I mean, people are pushing the limits. They’re cutting a bunch of weight. It’s just weird when they miss by like several pounds, you know, like the one pound, the one and a half pounds, always like, yeah, I’ve been there where you think like, I can’t sweat anymore, you know? But like when you’re coming, like some of these guys come in missing four pounds, five pounds, plus it’s like, man, you should be heavily fine. And, and like, what’s the percentage of these guys that miss weight like that. And when I think it’s pretty high, so it’s definitely,

Sevan Matossian (22:59):

Um, that would be an interesting stat. Yeah. And, and it’s, uh, it took, and this is the kind of stupid things that like took me five years or seven years to learn. I’d be like, what’s the big deal if he weighs a couple pounds more, but the big deal is, is that he didn’t have to go through the struggle and do the damage to himself to lose the weight. Right. It’s not necessarily that he’s heavier it’s that he didn’t put the strain on his body to lose the weight. Right.

Ricky Simon (23:21):

Yeah. That’s definitely part of it. Yeah. Yeah. And then they’re gonna be, you know, they, they didn’t suffer that extra. Sometimes that, that extra four pounds, it takes people different different times to get it off or whatever. So someone might have been struggling for two hours trying to get that last little bit off. Why the other person just decided to show up on the scales overweight?

Sevan Matossian (23:45):

Um, I don’t think a lot of people realize, I know, I didn’t realize till I started talking to more and more UFC fighters that also, like, there becomes a point like where Oliver was, where you’re 1 55 0.5. And I can’t imagine this, but, but I, but I believe it that you can go in the sauna fucking jump rope and you still won’t break a sweat. I mean, I break a sweat getting out bed and walking over to the coffee maker, but I guess you guys get so fucking dehydrated that not a drop will come out.

Ricky Simon (24:10):

I mean, yeah. I mean, it I’m, I’ve never really gotten to that point where like no sweat would come out, but it took a long time. <laugh> it took a long time to start the sweat, you know, you’ll be in, you’ll be in the sauna, like, or doing whatever cooking for, for too long, trying to, trying to get that sweat going. But yeah, it’s tough. It is tough, especially if you don’t, if you miscalculate the weight during camp or maybe you ate too much. So the week before and your weight’s higher or the travel messed something up, it’s a lot kind of goes into it, especially fight week.

Sevan Matossian (24:43):

Um, if you think, I, I don’t know the exact details, but if you think about what happened to Oliver, right. He, he, the psychological implications too, so he misses weight and he has the title strip from him. So I think right there, maybe he like loses like 30% of his purse, right?

Ricky Simon (24:58):

Yeah. I think, I think, yeah, usually it starts at 20% and then depending on how much it can go up from there.

Sevan Matossian (25:06):

And then, and then maybe he lost supposedly from just what the, the, the dumb shit that I know only the champs get part of the pay per view. So then he lost that.

Ricky Simon (25:16):

Oh, did he really,

Sevan Matossian (25:17):

I don’t know I was speculating, but then, you know, for the next fight, when he fights the title, he’s probably is not gonna get, I mean, he probably lost millions of dollars cuz of that, or at least at least close. Right.

Ricky Simon (25:28):

I heard that’s why, that’s why you don’t ever see me missing weight. I’m too stingy with my money.

Sevan Matossian (25:32):

<laugh> are you good with your money?

Ricky Simon (25:35):

Uh, try to be for sure. To try to be, I just purchased a, a house right now. Good on

Sevan Matossian (25:40):

You.

Ricky Simon (25:41):

Yeah. Been, been dealing with that last, last couple weeks and, and stuff like that, but it’s definitely a learning curve when you’re, when you’re in this kind of profession. For sure.

Sevan Matossian (25:50):

Um, what, what interest rate did you get? Do you know?

Ricky Simon (25:53):

Um, like 5.6, I believe.

Sevan Matossian (25:56):

Holy fuck dude.

Ricky Simon (25:58):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (25:59):

Um, be it’s just CRA it’s just crazy. How it’s um, just a couple years ago or a year ago it was like two, 2.8

Ricky Simon (26:08):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yeah, that kicking myself <laugh> I was waiting too long. I was like, I don’t know. It seems kinda like a crazy time to buy a house during

Sevan Matossian (26:15):

Yeah. It is a crazy

Ricky Simon (26:16):

Time, but, but learn, I guess I was just ready to make the move, I guess.

Sevan Matossian (26:25):

Yeah. I think it’s smart. E I think it’s smart E either way. I think it’s smarts because that’s the money that, um, that you’re not gonna spend that money. You know what I mean? Now, every, I just think of mortgage payments as saving money.

Ricky Simon (26:38):

I like to hear that <laugh>.

Sevan Matossian (26:40):

Did, did, um, are you married?

Ricky Simon (26:43):

Yes, I am. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (26:46):

Did she do all the, does she do all the adult stuff? Like, do you just be like, okay, I want that house. And then she does all the paperwork and all that stuff.

Ricky Simon (26:54):

Um, yeah, basically. I’d like to say,

Sevan Matossian (26:56):

Oh, good. <laugh> that’s how that, yeah. That’s so good. You don’t have time for that shit. Like they, they bring this whole stack of papers and they’re like, you have to sign every sheet. I’m like, honey, can you just talk to this dude and do all this? She’s like, okay.

Ricky Simon (27:09):

Yeah. Yeah. My, my brother-in-law is, uh, um, a lender. So we, we, uh, we went through him and they just made it so easy on me. And I have a sponsored, uh, Graham Gentry. Who’s a real estate agent. So between those, those three, they just killed it. And I just got a train and, and helped move

Sevan Matossian (27:28):

<laugh>. That’s awesome. Yeah. I saw that you threatened that, uh, he, he was threatened with a, a left hook or something. If he didn’t get the, <laugh> find, find you the right house.

Ricky Simon (27:37):

Yeah. I was ready to hit him in the body for sure.

Sevan Matossian (27:40):

Uh, and, and you know what, that makes sense too, because I’m hearing a lot of people in my area getting over 6%. So it sounds like they got you a good interest rate relative to how fucked up everything is right now.

Ricky Simon (27:50):

Yes. Yeah, I think so.

Sevan Matossian (27:53):

Um, when did you realize, uh, you said when you were younger, you didn’t have the confidence you have now. Can you tell me what the definition of confidence is in how you either cultivate it or how it grows? Or, you know, when I was a kid, I always heard the word focus and I still, it wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I was like, oh, shit, that’s what focus means. Like, people be like focus, focus, but I never thought what it meant. I’m guessing confidence is kind of like one of those words too. Like, you don’t realize that you lack confidence until one day you get a little, like, you’re like 17. You’re like, fuck I’m I’m. Oh, shit. I didn’t realize how insecure I was.

Ricky Simon (28:31):

Mm. Yeah. I mean, I, I would think I was always like confident in my abilities and like in my pre preparation, but I just never really, I, I kind of, cause there was no, there was no blueprint on how to make it to, uh, to the UFC at the time, especially, it seemed that way. So I just didn’t like think that it would, you know, that I would be able to make it to the UFC. It seemed so prestigious at the time for sure. But, but, uh, I mean I had, I had a really good amateur career and it was kind of a quick one and then it went pro and I was just kinda like, um, you know, building up that experience in the cage. And I think with that, and then always putting the right team around me. So I got the confidence from the experience and then I got the confidence from the preparation.

Ricky Simon (29:15):

And then after that, I mean, I, I, and I’ve, you know, I’ve won plenty of fights and then I’ve lost some fights. And so I’ve kind of felt like I’ve dealt with, with it all, you know, as far far as, you know, winning and losing and, you know, I’ve lost, I’ve lost some big fights and I won some big fights. So I’m just at a point in my, in my career and in my life where I’m, I’m so confident in my abilities. And, and like I said, in preparation and, and, um, I have the experience of this go around, especially on the come up, uh, in the ranking. So I don’t know, just, I feel, I feel very comfortable and very, uh, confident lately.

Sevan Matossian (29:50):

I mean, even as a young man, as a, as a 13 year old, uh, wrestler, um, what, when you stepped up against someone, did you know you were gonna win or what was.

The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.

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