The Grind-Cast “Special Guest Dalton Rosta”

Young's town oh, hi, yo

Was cracky y'all

What's up gang welcome to another episode of the grind cast get ready

It's a new day and get ready for my man Dalton Rasta in the house. What's up big dog?

Nothing much. What's up ready to rock and roll man ready to expose some some folks to the future champ

So my man Dalton Rasta new castle Pennsylvania product

Undefeated and boxing currently undefeated in MMA

23 years old and an absolute humble beast

So I want to introduce some folks to you that never have heard about you and heard from you

Why don't we rewind the tape and and start off with?

Where you know where you were born where you're from little bit about your upbringing and how you got started and everything

I'm from Newcastle PA. I was born in Sharon

I

grew up in Newcastle until about my third grade year right at the end of the school year

I moved to Arizona when my mom my mom my dad got separated and I was there for about three years

Then first opportunity I had to come back to live with my dad

I did which was sixth grade and I was here pretty much ever since except for there was two times where I was in Arizona again

My freshman year I wanted to start wrestling again and my dad was trying to get me into

Laurel high school which is right outside the Newcastle school district and

He wanted me to wrestle there. I wanted the wrestle, but the whip you wasn't gonna let us

So I played football because you didn't go to school there. Yeah, I didn't yep

So we were trying to get the like the co-op going and they wouldn't let it happen

So we were gonna transfer now before that were you wrestling before that?

I started off wrestling whenever I was younger, but I got out of it my brother

You went to Arizona. You got out of it. Yes came back to Newcastle. You want to get back in it?

Yes, it didn't have a wrestling program. Uh-huh got you and actually if you want me to backtrack a little bit

I started boxing when I was like 11 12 years old whenever I first moved back with my dad

That's the first thing he got me it. There was no wrestling clubs or anything around Newcastle anymore

It was all for the younger kids and everything that was here when we initially lived here before we left kind of like

Faded away. Yep. So he got me in the box in 11 12 years old did that for about two years

Then he got me into Jiu-Jitsu and

Kind of like a time time issue with him working. I couldn't do both

So I was doing Jiu-Jitsu right after I got done with boxing and I did Jiu-Jitsu with Mike

Themko and Newcastle for about two years and

Sixth and seventh grade I boxed. Yep eighth

Second half of seventh grade and eighth grade. That's when I started I started Jiu-Jitsu

Okay, and I started with Mike themko and Newcastle and then that really Jiu-Jitsu really wanted me really made me want to get back in the

wrestling so that's whenever we come to my freshman year. I'm trying to wrestle. I play football at Newcastle and

I couldn't get into the lower order wrestle so my dad had an idea

Send me to Arizona where my mom was living her school district had a wrestling program

So I moved out there as a freshman year. Yes went to Arizona. Yes, which your mom has started. Yes, yes

moved there as on a

Wrestling for the whole wrestling season there then after wrestling season summer came I moved back here came back

Yes, started playing football in Newcastle again my sophomore year then

Wrestling season came around again

Still couldn't get in the lower they were still trying to whip you all roles

They wouldn't allow me to write transfer. They're against suspend me for a year

so it was there as ona again and

I mean this time my dad was looking for houses in laurels areas that you could wrestle in yeah

Let's just stop right there. That's crazy. You know, this is one of the biggest things that stuck out to me about

Some of our conversations, you know, I remember you tell them me this and I'm thinking you know what kid in high school

As a freshman in high school with all the distractions going on you know the main girls friends

You know all this stuff says you know what I'm gonna leave high school and I'm gonna go move somewhere that I haven't been around these

These kids and just so I can wrestle that that's how committed you were to the game and then would come back

again

To play football and then boom couldn't wrestle

I'm gonna go back again as a sophomore very very rare

That you find somebody with that type of focus and ability to block out distractions

What do you remember about that period of your life thinking you know what what because I don't think many people would do stuff like that

They would find well no wrestling is I'm just gonna stick with this

You know the main thing you got to go back and forth that had to be uncomfortable going to a new school

You don't really know people like that, you know to talk to me about that

Yeah, I mean once I started individual sports like I like I said I rest when I was younger

But I kind of got out of that whenever I initially moved to Arizona whenever I came back and I started boxing

I just found love with individual sports like the the work ethic and the grind for it is a lot different than that of a team sport

I mean I love team sports who I love football. I loved football

That was my first love but I found love with the competitive aspect of individual sports

So I mean this is like when you box when you wrestle when you do jiu-jitsu when you fight them and man

These are sports that you're

How good you become is truly dependent on what you do. Yeah, nobody else

I mean you could find help coaches supporters

Family training partners, but it's solely based off of what you're doing and what you're gonna do to become the best

If that's truly what you want to do yep

and

Like I said, I went from boxing then I did jiu-jitsu and I just like every single everything I was trying

I just loved it. So I mean I remember wrestling whenever I was younger and jiu-jitsu just sparked that again

So like I really wanted to try started to miss it

And you loved it. You want it like man. I'm willing to move. Yeah

It was we were trying to find different outlets to get me into wrestling

I was going to wrestling clubs here before wrestling. See season even started before I could even get on a team

Then we he came up with the idea. He's like why don't I send you back during the winter?

You could wrestle and you come back here and then like I said my sophomore year when

We were

Whenever at wrestling season came along came around he was trying to find houses for the following year

So I could rest whenever I came back

I didn't have to do that again

I didn't have to go back to Arizona to come back to Newcastle

Didn't have to go back to Arizona to come back to Newcastle

So he was finding houses

He finally found one when I was wrestling in Arizona my sophomore year. So I moved back

Instead of playing football at Newcastle

We just completely transferred to Loro high school played football at Loro

Wrestle that Loro and I literally dedicated everything I could I wanted to become a state champ

That was that was my goal with wrestling

I wanted to be the best in the state. I wanted to be the best in the room first

That want to be the best in the county

Best in the conference best in the section best in the whip you'll best in the state and

I kept getting better and better and better in the offseason

I was going to two three wrestling camps my that was sending me places like he'd even have money to send me

He was like digging up money left and right however he can get more money to send me these places

he would and I mean like I literally he wouldn't be able to buy himself new clothes

He would he would literally take money out of zone pocket to eat just to send me these places because camp yeah

He wanted me to win he's seen that I wanted

That you wanted yes, yeah, so he was sending me these camps. He would literally get off work. He would work

cement so he works CBS and

He drove truck for CBS. He'd work. He'd get up at 5 a.m. Go to work

Start at 5.30 and then he'd be gone till 5 p.m

5 p.m. Rules around he's coming home. He's picking me up

He's this is the offseason. He's driving me to rental high school, which is in Greenville

Which is 45 50 minutes away from Newcastle Tuesdays and Thursdays to get to practice that day only Russell Tuesdays and Thursday

So now he's looking for other places to take me on Monday and Wednesday

Yep, this is when camps are around. Yeah, Monday and Wednesday he found

Boardman high school like in Ohio

So then he's taking me 35 minutes 40 minutes over to boardman Ohio

He's taking me to these wrestling camps quest wrestling camps trying to literally doing all this research

Now what and what made you dad get you into boxing?

You said your dad kind of had you boxing early and you know when you were younger. What was your dad?

Was he from Newcastle and

Was his background? Yeah, he was from Newcastle and he grew up

He did Taikwondo he boxed. He was in the martial arts growing up too

He was like he was really big in the fight

And he was the type of guy that like any time I mean not that it's a good thing in the streets or anything

But like anytime there was opportunity for conflict like

At a softball game or something whenever he's having fun. He's competing

He what he went shy away from it if you if you wanted some he was all for it

He wouldn't go out and start it himself

But if if you stepped across a certain line like that literally brings back a story where I was I was

Six years old watching him play at a softball game somebody he hit a home run and he set a run in the first base

And just jogging back home because in softball you can do that

He jogged all the bases so he was jogging from third to home somebody another dog out said something like a smart comment

So my dad said something back dude came out of the dugout and they were going back and forth

And my dad was like you know what I'm tired of all talking and he's like well, I'm sure that he drew a line with his foot in the dirt and

He was like you stop if you step across this line

I'm knocking your teeth down your throat and dude stepped a lot stepped across the line and dude

He had to do dude literally crumbled like just fell fell straight time

You remember that at six. Yes. Yes. I was already in you

Yeah, you already seeing that you're wrestling your boxing your dad was aggressive

Mm-hmm, you know like that and was in the martial arts

So that's kind of how it came about. Yes. Yeah, and like I said

I mean back to the wrestling like Monday Wednesday at me appointment Tuesday Thursday

He had me around old to send me to wrestling camps. He was taking me he was doing research online

Her just sisters aggressive too. Well, Bernie told me your sister likes to get down

We'll keep that for another time, but

Yeah, so he was he was sending me a request wrestling club down in Washington like literally driving an hour hour and a half

Send me up to do boys. He'd research these guys. I remember Tom Sley

Undefeated my junior and senior year

One of the better wrestlers in state contacted his coach like hey can we come up and wrestle my son wants a wrestler who best and

I'll go up there wrestle next thing. You know, he has guys in there from pit in Penn State like training with him too

I'm like this is what I need so I would go up there on Friday nights. He would get off work at five Friday night

Yeah, we drive how are you?

16 17 how many kids want to spend a Friday night like that? Yeah, not man. This is what people don't see not many

Was years and years and years before you get to where you're going mm-hmm that nobody saw Friday nights

16 years old

Sacrifices being made from you your father. Yeah, and it's just it's not just me. How did you how did you handle the distractions?

You know 16 years old, you know who wants to go on a Friday night and do stuff like this?

See on Friday nights. I mean in high school

Everybody's about partying and they want to go out and hang out with their friends

You know everybody having their little basement parties where they put on music their dancing and stuff

You know the girls grinding on the dudes

That's what everybody wanted but I wasn't I was never really attracted to that like I

I just wanted to be I just wanted to play sports. That's what I loved

You know on a on a Friday night. I didn't mind going to practice. I mean

I don't know what it is my dad kind of instilled

Mindset in me like to be the best at whatever you want to be the best at you got to put in the work you he

I mean I learned that growing up young and I truly just wanted to be at best and

I mean so on Friday nights. That wasn't that wasn't a hard decision for me at all

That wasn't I mean I'm never drunk. I've never smoked in my entire life still to this damn 23 years old

Come on. How to sip alcohol ever a day in my life?

There's a lot of people that there's a lot of people that cannot say that no and I have one for you today

You know, I'm saying you ain't got to do it. I handled it for you

Yeah, but that's great man. That's great discipline

Yeah, so so you were doing that 16 was that junior year? Yeah, junior junior

You're driving back and forth finding anywhere you can to get the best training

Just got my license to so I've every excuse to just take my dad's car and go somewhere on Friday night

I got new cat. I mean my dad was yeah, my dad was lenient my dad's trust me

He didn't he didn't give me a curfew. I mean I can sit there and say my dad was strict my dad was strict as how but he he

Trusted me he wouldn't if I wanted to stay out past 11 of all this day out till 12 11 30 even the curfew was 11

He was fine with that he trusted me, but he knew I was gonna be at any party drinking. Yeah, he knew that like

I mean honestly out of all the years like I've been around with that

I've never seen a beer in his hand ever never talked to him about it never knew if he actually drank or smoked or whatever

Not but I've never seen in his hand. Yeah, never seen in him never would never beer in the house. Yeah, nothing

So I mean that played a part in it. So I mean you got to like

Monkey see monkey dude

Yeah, so I mean everybody can like sit their parents can sit there and tell their kids like don't drink don't smoke

But if they're doing it themselves, what type of rule what type of rule model are you no doubt?

So and I mean just like the effort that my dad put in the making me better to it made me I knew I knew I knew what the effects of alcohol and

Smoking and nicotine and weed and you know everything else. I knew what drugs

The fact they had on your body. I did like did all this research. I was doing this young my dad told me about it

So when I'm trying to be best. I don't want to do any of that stuff and like just to see the time that my dad put in to me

Like literally when I tell you he would get up at 5 a.m. Be off work at 5. We drive two hours

We want to get the practice of seven practice was start at 7 30

We'd be there till 9 30 10 o'clock next you know we're driving two hours back to Newcastle midnight

He doesn't get to sleep until 1 a.m. He has to be up at 4 30

He's getting three and a half hours sleep to sacrifice time for me to get better

Like it has nothing to do with him right to do with him

He's literally sacrificing sleep. He's sacrificing gas money. He's sacrificing his time

To make me better. So how selfish would it be for me

Not to put in that effort for him to be putting in all this effort to make me better and then me not want it

Is bad as he wants me dad want it. Yep, you know what I'm saying so I mean just how did you transition out?

So that was junior senior year you're doing all that when did you start taking

Boxing matches what you know when did you start?

right in MMA, you know, how did that all transgress?

Okay, so my junior senior year, both years,

I got hurt right before post seasons.

So my, that kind of scratched my dream of being a state champ.

So but I mean, I was still there.

I was still good enough.

I was still going to tournaments in the off season

after states beating state champs, major decision,

type some of them, tech fall.

Literally, I'm like, I'm there.

Like everybody's like, this kid is good.

Like, why hasn't he won a state championship?

And it's just like I was plagued with injury,

just wrong place, wrong time, working too hard at times

with my body needed to rest when I wouldn't listen to people.

Like I was hard headed growing up still.

I was hard headed and that's part of the reason why

it worked so hard, but at the same time,

it came around to bite me in the behind a few times.

Right.

And I ended up getting hurt.

So after that, I still had wrestling scholarships.

I mean, the college is new, how good I was.

So I went to college and wrestled.

I wrestled for a year, transferred to young sound state,

played football, got hurt after I got hurt,

got back in the fight.

Then I started to get to what made you,

do you remember what made you transition

to young sound state and start playing football?

Young sound state was one of the places I had my eyes on

for football after high school.

I mean, I had high school, I had scholarships

for football and stuff too.

And that was that was one of the places I wanted.

Would you play in high school?

Linebacker running back.

Okay.

And I mean, that was one of the places I wanted to go to.

So after I got done wrestling at Seaton Hill,

my dad was calling up Youngstown.

He got emails and stuff.

I got in contact with a couple of coaches.

I'm like, is it still cool if I transfer over

and still come back and play for you guys?

They said, yeah, they'd love to have me.

So whenever I played, end up getting hurt,

came down with another knee injury.

And I was like, I mean, I only had a couple of options

at that point.

It's working my way back up the depth chart,

which we had 12 middle linebackers.

And I was all the way at the bottom at this point

because I missed the rest of the season.

It's all spring ball.

Yep.

Or I was like, I can get out right now

and chase my dream being a UFC fighter.

Going to UFC because that's something,

my dad used to, that's nothing.

My dad used to watch UFC fights all the time together

in our living room.

And that's something we always talked about.

And it's an individual sport.

It was packed into individual sport thing.

And so that's what I decided to do.

And got back into Jiu Jitsu, got back into boxing,

was training really hard, training twice a day

at this point, working, training, and going to school.

So, I mean, it was hard, but it was a good work.

Working, training, and going to school.

So the things that I'm already pulling from this is,

the sacrifices, the discipline that you've had,

the sacrifices that you would make to do all of those things.

You know, a lot of people would make excuses

to not be able, I can't go to school, I can't work,

or I can't, you're working, you're training

two times a day,

going to school, you know, that type of stuff.

And I know recently just graduated not too long ago.

Yes, yeah, I graduated in December

with a green finance.

You're penguin, right?

Come on, love it.

All right, so now you transitioned out of there

and how did you start taking your first,

what came first, MMA or boxing?

My MMA debut came first.

And right after that had a boxing match.

So this is how it worked out.

I got back into Jitsu, got back into boxing,

and I was training hard twice a day, like I said.

I was working just enough to get by,

just enough to pay for training,

just enough to pay for my gear,

just enough to pay my car insurance,

femur bill, gas, eat, stuff like that.

And I mean, I'd look around and my friends,

they'd all be going on vacations for spring break

and stuff in college and all buying new clothes

and all this stuff, but I mean,

that's a choice I was willing to make.

I was willing to give up that stuff now to see it later.

I think that's a thing that life is all about.

I know I preach constantly,

but very few young people get this.

You know, I think that short-term sacrifice of things

in anything will lead you to that long-term payoff.

So you gotta give up anything in life

that you wanna be great at.

You gotta give up something in order to go up.

In order to get to the next level,

you always gotta give up something.

And a lot of people wanna go up,

but they don't wanna give up.

And so what was it in your mind?

You know, if you had to teach it to somebody else,

you know, what are you thinking about saying,

you know what I'm willing to sacrifice,

you know, right now for the long term?

I mean, if it's something they want right now,

I mean, a lot of people like overspend as it is already.

And I mean, they're just saying,

if you can't buy it twice right now,

you don't need it.

Discipline.

Yeah, it goes to discipline, like you said,

and a lot of people want that stuff right away.

They want immediate gratification.

They want immediate results, but that's not how it works.

So they have to understand that if they put that

to the side right now and sacrifice a few things

to get where they wanna be,

all that stuff that they want will come later plus double.

No doubt.

Yeah, it'll double in the future.

Get interest on that.

Yeah.

So, I mean, a lot of people don't understand that

and it's just like impatience.

It's not being disciplined.

Like a discipline, yeah.

So the biggest things having discipline,

having belief in the process and being patient.

Come on.

So you jumped in, got started training MMA,

started to get, took your first MMA fight

and then boxing thereafter, right after.

How did things turn out?

My first boxing, my first MMA fight was in Columbus.

And at this point, I had all my coaches,

all my trainers, like my Jiu-Jitsu coach

and my boxing coach at the time.

And once I took my first MMA fight,

like everybody was all for it

and we got a week out from the fight

and everybody's bailing on me.

Like I don't got a corner man.

Like everybody's like, I can't go.

I got this, I got this, but they were all for it.

And so I defined a corner man.

I ended up one of my buddies that I was training

with Steve Jones at the time.

He offered to come and corner me.

So he came and corner me and went out to Columbus by ourselves.

And I mean, with no corner man,

just my buddy corner me, not knowing any more than I know.

And MMA, we got the third round TKO.

It was a tough match.

It was against the guy who was three and a half.

At the time, it was my debut.

He was like one of the top ranked guys in the region.

And I thought they were throwing me to wolves.

They were trying to feed me to the student.

And I ended up getting the TKO, beat him up pretty bad.

And I mean, then a lot of people started helping their eyes.

And then everybody wanted to, all right, I want to help out.

I'm going to be at your next fight.

It's like a deal.

So then I had my boxing match.

Max, I was waiting for a MMA fight to come up.

And I had another boxing match or I had to put my first boxing match.

And I was a little nervous about this.

Because even though I started out boxing, I'd never just boxed.

So like I knew in MMA fight, I got trouble.

Yeah.

And if I got an MMA fight, if I got in trouble,

I got that double leg in my back pocket.

It never fails me.

So I know if I get in trouble, that's my go-to.

So I can play around with a few things.

And I'm in a May fight.

And I got to this boxing match.

I'm nervous.

This kid has like 10 fights.

Everybody's like in my head.

Like that's a big deal.

10 fights is a lot for boxing, which it's not.

It's not at all.

But back then, a lot of people were in my head.

They had me thinking it was.

So I go to the boxing match.

I'm warming up and stuff.

I mean, I barely had any sparring going up to a deal.

And I'm just nervous.

I was taking energy shots before the match and my heart's racing.

I can't breathe while I'm boxing.

But I go in there.

And I get it done.

I ended up getting the win by unanimous decision.

And that was one of my only, where was it at?

That was in Youngstown.

And that was one of my guy fought against from Strong Style too.

And it's a big gym.

So I'm like, wow, this is really a tough situation for me.

So I was a little nervous.

This was one of the only times I was nervous in my career.

I'm sorry.

But got out, went out there, got the unanimous decision win,

then started training hard again.

And I was like, wow, I've really liked this boxing stuff.

So I went and got another boxing match before my next MMA

fight and won the second one by knockout.

Not as many nerves.

I mean, there's pressure, but not nerves.

You know what I'm saying?

It was a little different.

And got a knockout in the second round.

Then I went and had another MMA fight.

First round knockout.

Then I went and had another boxing match.

First round knockout.

Went and had another MMA fight.

This one's my third.

It was in Mansfield.

It was against a guy that was four and one at the time.

And everybody was talking him up saying he's like,

brown belt and Jiu-Jitsu don't go to ground with him.

Maybe in a wrestler.

I'm like, all right.

I'm gonna go to the end of going to the ground one way or another.

But believe it or not, I was trying to straight up.

I mean, a good wrestler.

You know, I've been training Jiu-Jitsu 10 years.

I'm a brown belt and Jiu-Jitsu.

You know, they don't give out belts and wrestling, you know what I mean?

So I know, you know, if you're a real good wrestler,

I mean, that's almost like being a black belt.

You know what I mean?

In a lot of cases that people don't understand.

Yeah, with the top pressure and positioning and stuff like that.

But you still gotta go and learn submissions.

You gotta learn the defenses too.

Like the legs, the legs, the legs, the locks.

Yeah.

The heels, the gillotine.

That's the go-to for a new wrestler.

They start sticking that neck out.

Gotta break that muscle memory.

I'm witchy.

So what happened?

Yeah.

What's the difference, Phil?

Went to Mansfield with this actually cut down the 185.

So all my other fights were at 205 and 200 for my boxing matches and my MMA fights.

I cut down the 185 for this one because I believe or not, I couldn't find a fight at 205 at

this point.

I'm two and no.

They can't match me with somebody that's seven and another commission won a prove eight

and no.

So they're trying to find me a lower level guy with less fights, but nobody will say yes

to it.

And so I got this guy.

This guy was looking for a fight.

I was like, all right, I got to get on the 185.

I'm like one opportunity for another fight and went down and I'm the underdog for this

fight.

And I go in and all first round, I'm just striking on my feet, like piecing them up,

striking, doing a lot of damage.

And he starts trying to take me down.

And at this point, I knew I had him side.

kept striking away, kept digging him up a little bit.

And he kind of ran into a couple of takedowns of mine too.

He just ended up in my arm.

So I went for the big slam, got the crowd going, you know, and I made it seem at this

point, it seemed like he wanted me to take him down.

He wanted the punishment on the feet to stop.

And once we got to the ground, like all that talk everybody was doing about jujitsu and all

this, like believe it or not, a lot of that stuff cancels out with him.

And we have punches raining down on you with top pressure from wrestling.

Not everything will apply.

Yeah, and then you really start believing in your wrestling too whenever you're on top

against somebody who's a mainly a bottom jiu jitsu guy.

They aren't used to that pressure.

They're comfortable when they're good on bottom, it's because they're comfortable.

Once you put them in a zone of comfort, then they are discomfort.

They really, really start panicking.

They start making mistakes.

And it just really opens things up for you.

Long story short, I ended up getting the TKO at the end of the first round.

And due to doctor's stop, it's actually there's a lot of blood.

And after that went on to have another boxing match.

I think I won that one by unanimous decision if my memory serves me right.

So how many fights have you had now total?

I remember you told me you had 13 to 15 months.

Three boxing matches and three MMA fights at this point.

Okay.

Then I went and had my fourth MMA fight against another Newcastle native.

Joe, Joe, I worry he was undefeated at the time too.

And I was really hyped up.

We had like all of Newcastle there.

I mean, for both sides, a lot of rooting against me, a lot of rooting against him, a lot

of booze, a lot of cheers.

Yep.

Same things.

Yeah, it was, it was really fun.

There's a lot of crap talk involved, but I mean, it made it more fun.

And then the day I got to knock out for that one too.

And then I went on to my first title fight.

And then this is where it gets like a little tricky in my career for me.

I tore my meniscus again in my right knee.

And I couldn't run anymore.

Like every time I would run my knee would swell up for like a week, a week and a half.

And I couldn't do anything.

But I already sold a hundred tickets for this MMA fight.

So I'm like, I'm in a sticky situation at this point.

So I continue to train through it.

And you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to just spar more for this fight coming up instead of running since I can't run.

And so I was sparring, sparring, sparring, sparring, three, four times a week.

And I said, you know, I got my ribs cracked.

Got my ribs broken eight days before my fight.

Wow.

Couldn't sit up out of bed.

It didn't even breathe.

Hard to breathe.

Hard to breathe.

Couldn't sneeze.

Couldn't cough.

Couldn't laugh.

I hated when people were making me laugh.

That whole week, I hated it.

You would never thought you would have never hated something funny in your entire life until

you break your ribs.

And long story short, I go into this fight, like not even be able to like get out of bed.

I had to put my feet on the ground and roll out of bed because I couldn't sit up.

So I'm like, if this fight goes to the ground and I end up on the bottom, it's a really bad

situation for me.

So I go into this fight with cracked ribs and torn meniscus.

Unbelievable.

Yeah.

So I out of throw a lot of adversity going up to his fight.

And it's actually against a kid that I wrestled in high school.

And he was tough.

I beat him in high school, but he was a tough wrestler.

He placed it state in PA, which is a really good feat.

PA is one of the best.

The best, not one of the best.

I'm not going to low ball anybody.

The best wrestler in the state in the country.

And really good wrestler, really good at Jiu-Jitsu.

So I was like, all right, I'm going to have a tough one here.

And I battled through it.

I ended up getting the first round knockout.

Got on top and got to TKO.

But I mean, that was one of, I was really proud of myself at that point because I battled

through so much stuff leading up to that fight.

And I still came out with the win.

After that had another box match, another knockout.

And I had my second title fight.

This one was at Rivers.

I believe you were there.

I think this is how we ended up meeting.

And that fight ended up getting a second round knockout.

And that was four weeks after my knee surgery.

I ended up going and getting knee surgery after that last fight.

And this was four weeks after.

I'm literally four weeks fresh off of a knee surgery.

Still found out that I wasn't in as good shape as I thought I was in four weeks.

Takes a little bit longer than that to get back in the swing of things.

But I ended up getting a knockout there.

And then I had another box match which I won by knockout.

And then I had my last amateur fight.

But right before my last amateur fight, that's whenever I got a call from Bellator.

And well actually got a call from Dom Mazada.

My teammate and he was like what are you doing right now?

And I was like eating hotheads.

So what's up?

Like I just got done training.

Went to hotheads, got a rice bowl with some steak, some vegetables.

And he's like, you have a second to talk.

And I was like, yeah, so we got to talk.

And he said he got a call from a really important person.

And so I'm like, all right, it's up being around the bush.

Who's this important person?

He ends up telling me it's Rich Chow.

Who's the head matchmaker for Bellator.

And he wants to talk to me.

Long story short, I ended up getting signed.

But this all the whole process started

before my last amateur fight.

So I had a lot of pressure.

This is what, 18?

2018?

Yes.

Yes.

And I'm about to go into my last amateur fight,

which is against Cody Brundage, who is a NCAA

All-American wrestler.

He's tough, another tough opponent.

All about testing myself.

So I try to put myself up against the toughest guys.

Yeah, because I don't want to regret it whenever I turn pro.

But so I have a lot of pressure on me at this point,

because now I have Bellator at my door.

And I still have another fight against a really tough guy.

So I have a lot of pressure on me.

And I ended up, there was a heated weigh-in.

We had weigh-ins.

We were in each other's face pushing each other out weigh-ins.

We weren't too fond of each other.

And I ended up, where did he wrestle at?

Newberry.

And it's Division II.

And so he was a pretty good wrestler.

But I ended up, I out-wrestled him in the fight.

And the striking, he had a weird funky stance.

So something I had to adapt to during the fight.

Like all training camp, I was getting used to this.

I was preparing for this upright, normal stage.

Yeah, and like anybody else.

But he came out real low.

I'm talking lower your level, double leg penetration.

Hard low.

Hard down.

Yeah, really low.

It was really weird.

In the front arms, dangling out here,

just reaching for range.

And then he's throwing an overhand right.

So what I think, what goes in my head at this moment in this fight,

I think he's either trying to catch me,

because I'm aggressive fighter.

I'm right in your face, striking you,

taking you down, whatever.

I'm always forward.

I'm always pressing you.

So I'm thinking, their game plan,

since it's amateur rules, I can't kick the head.

Let's get in this low stance.

Throw it, catch, if he comes straight in,

we'll catch him with an overhand right.

Or if he comes straight in and misses the right hand

and gets over extended,

we're already low enough to just shoot a double leg

and no lower in your level, it takes out half the movement.

Yep.

Yeah, so it was a good game plan thinking on it,

but I mean, I figured it out.

So I was playing a little safe on our feet,

just like trying to set up my shots,

and he tried taking me down and second round,

didn't get it, he warmed himself out,

trying to take me down against the cage.

And at that point, I look at him after I get away from the cage,

and he almost took me down against the cage twice, almost.

But after I get away, I look at him.

It literally looked like his soul left his body.

And she stopped him twice.

Yes, that was the whole game plan.

Yes, yes, that was the whole game plan, and like he was tired.

It looked like his soul left his body.

And at that point, I knew I won the fight,

and I didn't want to get too excited right away.

So I kind of like play with my strike in a little bit,

a little bit more, but I could tell he was still tired.

He looked over in between rounds.

I'm good, standing straight up, not tired at all.

He has his hands on the fence, head down.

Really, his coach is like doing this,

telling him to breathe, something like,

I got him, so I go out, and right away,

I throw a double jab right hand, shoot a double,

like put him right against the cage, took him down, like that.

Easy.

And got on top of him, passed his guard, got the full mount,

and ground up on to, got the...

So tell me what, right now you have one fight in Bellator,

right, one to know, first round knockout,

first 30 seconds, first minute, pretty much the other game.

What things other than, you know, I think your skill set is good,

that probably came from work ethic

and putting in the work and the sacrifice.

Other than that, anything's outside of you,

I'm just good, where do you think you win?

Where do you think you get an edge?

You know, what do you think's different about

the way you prepare versus how other people prepare?

It's just relentless work ethic.

It's like I'm constantly like in the back of my mind,

I'm like, I can't, I have to work as hard as I possibly can.

I believe doubt only exists when you know

there's a possibility that somebody's working harder than you.

Come on.

So, if there's a thought in the back of my head

and I knew I gave any inch during practice getting ready

for that fight, any inch if I was like,

oh, I'll come back tomorrow, I'll do a little bit better

or add a little bit more in me that I didn't give,

then that's when doubt starts coming in.

It's like, what if my opponent didn't do that?

What if my opponent pushed himself to absolute max

every single time he was training?

And now he's gonna beat me.

Now he's the chance to beat me.

So, you get a mental, you get a mental edge

by knowing that I feel like I'm out working my opponent.

I know that there's no way that they're doing what I'm doing.

So, you start to already win the mental battle

through your preparation in a way that you're getting ready.

Yes, and MMA is one of the things

where I don't believe you could be the best at anything.

You can't, or everything, you can't.

So, even John Jones, somebody who's like,

they can't say I'm the greatest MMA fighter

all the time.

He has flaws, everybody has flaws.

But the good thing about him is he's smart inside the cage too.

He uses his head when he's fighting.

He doesn't just go out there knowing he's the better fighter

and just try to get the knockout.

He's real technical, and a lot of people

be criticizing him lately because of the way

like that Thiago Silva fight.

He didn't go in for the kill when Thiago was hurt.

Thiago still has knockout power.

He's playing it smart.

He's out thinking people.

He's exposing their weaknesses before they expose his.

That's what it's all about.

You're not gonna be the best at everything in a moment.

You might be a best striker.

You might be a better wrestler.

You might be better at Jiu-Jitsu.

But chances are you're not gonna be better at every single thing.

Yeah.

Work ethic and grinding, including your gas tank included.

You're intellect during the fight, your fighter IQ included.

So one way or another, the way I look at it,

as long as I'm working hard,

as long as I'm out working them during the fight,

they're not gonna be better than me at everything.

I will find out what their weakness is,

and I will expose it before they find mine.

Before they find mine.

One to 10.

You think, say one is I'm kinda interested.

10, I'm obsessed with being the best.

I'm obsessed with my game.

What would you say you're at one to 10?

Obsessed.

I mean, there's no other way for me.

I mean.

I think it's difficult to be the best at anything

if you're not obsessed.

Sometimes people, no matter what it is,

if you wanna be great, there's gonna be times

where you gotta do crazy shit.

You gotta do stuff that nobody else is willing to do.

You gotta be willing to drive hours and no sleep.

And three days of three times a day,

and almost obsessed yourself,

where people look at you and like,

man, what's wrong with you, man?

Why are you doing this?

What's, I don't think you can do anything great

in accomplished greatness without going to the place

of I'm obsessed.

Would you agree with that?

I agree.

There's the people that are great,

the champions, the people that people remember,

the millionaires, if your goal is money

in this world, billionaires are the people

that go places that others don't wanna go.

And like, you can't be the best without being

obsessed, period point blank.

And if I wanna be the greatest,

I gotta work like it.

Everybody, everybody on this planet,

starts without working everybody.

Yeah, everybody on this planet is human.

So if somebody can do something,

if somebody can knock somebody out every fight,

why can't I?

If somebody can choke somebody out

or the rear naked choke

or tap them out with an arm bar,

why can't I?

Why can't I get perfect,

near perfect at that arm bar like they can?

That's their signature move.

If they can do it, why can't I?

Yeah, why wouldn't a person?

Why wouldn't, why do you think somebody wouldn't?

Yeah, I mean, are you asking me that?

Yeah, I'm asking you why wouldn't somebody else?

You know what I mean?

It's usually they don't put in work.

Yeah, they, I mean, like the idea of what they see.

Uh-huh, and it's just,

How many reps does that take?

Yeah, and it's like whenever they get to us,

they face adversity, they get to that spot

where they're like, they're realizing how much work

it's gonna take to get where they wanna be.

They're like, yeah, I really want that.

But now I'm at this cross road where I really want it,

but it's really hard.

So it's like, which road am I gonna take?

Is it really hard?

Anything's really hard.

Yes, yes, they go together.

You start to separate yourself.

Yeah, so it's like, which road am I gonna take?

It's really hard.

Or that's really great.

I want to be really great, or that's really hard.

So they come to that cross-rub where they start to rate

away the pros and cons.

And it's like, what's the pros if I get this?

Recognition, money, belt, fame, whatever their goal is,

or the cons.

My body might be messed up.

My, I might never get to do any,

like if I get hurt during the fight, I could die.

I could lose a limb.

I might not be able to do this.

It might affect the rest of my life.

I might lose my girlfriend.

I might lose my friends.

They start playing with all that.

So it's like, at what point do,

everybody comes to that point

at a different time in their life.

But like, it's like, at what point are the people

willing to keep going and what people,

what the point are the people willing to quit?

And like, it's usually at the point

where people have to give up too much time.

It's like they realize how much time is taken.

Like, I'm not talking about time at practice.

I'm not talking about the amount of reps.

They, I'm talking about the time,

they have to give up sleep.

They have to give up personal life.

They have to give up their time with their girlfriend.

They have to give up time with their friends.

They have to give time with their family.

That's the stuff that makes people not wanna,

makes people not wanna do it.

Time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I mean, it's hard.

It is really hard.

But there's some people that could get past the pain,

that can't get past losing that other stuff.

They aren't willing to sacrifice anything.

Sure is it.

They're not.

And it goes with anything.

Same thing in business.

You know, it's all, it's all the same.

It's all connected.

What sacrifices would you say that you,

that you know you've made?

What have you sacrificed?

Like I said, money early in my college

and MMA career money.

A lot of my people, a lot of my friends were working.

They were just going to school and working.

I could have worked full time, worked 40 hours a week.

Probably got a job making 20 bucks an hour somewhere around here.

And worked full time and, you know, had a nice car

and probably had a place in my own.

And I'll have to worry about anything but school and work.

But I didn't want to do that.

So I gave up money.

I gave up going on vacations with my friends.

I gave up having nice clothes.

I just give up going on vacations with your friends

just didn't have the money.

Didn't have the money.

And I mean, it's time away from training.

I mean, don't give me wrong.

Don't get me wrong.

Yeah, don't get me wrong.

Everybody needs a break.

Your body needs a break sometimes.

But I mean, there's points like you're literally

just taking that vacation just to take the vacation.

You're not taking a vacation because your body needs a rest.

You're taking it for that vacation.

That's the sole reason.

Right.

It's not because your body needs a rest.

So that's another sacrifice.

Another sacrifice is time with your friends,

time with your family.

That's time with your girlfriend.

That's a...

Have you ever had somebody that a friend, family member,

girlfriend, anybody that's like, man, look,

this is too much.

I can't deal with this much time away.

Or you ain't spending enough time over here

or doubt what you're doing or talk about

and put you in uncomfortable situation

because of what your sacrifice under now.

Yeah, I had family members that literally told me

that I needed to stop playing around with other guys

and rolling around, sweaty man and get a real job.

And I mean, I heard that several times.

And it's like they didn't understand.

How do you deal with the naysayers?

You also have that in anything too.

I had the same deal.

Because my business, I started out straight commission.

My first year, I made 187 grand,

I come from a single family.

Single mom didn't have no money growing up,

nothing like that.

And I had a ton of people telling me, man,

what are you doing, your straight commission,

what do you think in the amount of hours

that you're putting in, same type of deal.

What about stability,

where's your financial stability, stuff like that?

They start asking questions like that.

How did you handle that mentally?

I mean, mentally, I just ignored it.

Because I knew deep down if I'm working hard

and I'm pushing myself every day, like I do,

then I'm gonna make it.

And it might take time.

I might have to sacrifice money here and there.

I might have to sacrifice a nice car.

I might have to sacrifice the clothes, the vacations,

all that stuff that I already talked about.

Can you be great without sacrificing?

No, you can't.

Do you think that there's some level of,

the greater the reward, the greater the sacrifice?

Yes.

And I do too.

Yeah.

And a lot of people just don't get

that you can't have everything in life.

You can't.

They want the time, they want the money,

they want the fame, they want the greatness,

they want everything, but you can't have all that.

Yeah.

You want to start at once.

Right now.

Yeah, at least you can't have it at once.

Yep.

I mean, it's hard for anybody to have all that,

but you definitely not having it all at once, all at once.

So, yeah, but with the naysayers,

I just, I just ignored them.

Like it was my own family.

Oh, yeah.

I'd literally come home at night

and trust me, not my dad.

My dad would never say anything like that.

But my own family, my mom, my grandparents, my aunts.

Let's talk about your dad for a minute.

I know your dad passed.

How old were you when your dad passed?

I was going into my sophomore year in high school.

It was during the summer.

I was 19 years old.

So I was pretty young.

And I mean, it was pretty hard.

Now you ended up wrestling junior and senior year.

Yeah.

At the place he was trying to get you to go, right?

You're of high school.

Didn't you say your dad was trying to find a place to live?

So you can rest or there?

Yeah, we can have a program.

Yeah, we ended up going to Loro.

We ended up living in Loro.

Yes.

But he wasn't with you.

No, he was with me in high school.

He was with me in high school.

He wasn't with me in college.

Gotcha.

And my freshman year of college.

Gotcha.

So he passed your sophomore year of college.

Yes.

Okay.

And this is fairly recent then.

Yeah.

So what are you 23, don't?

Yeah.

Three, four years ago.

Okay.

And three years ago.

But anyways, he passed away.

And it was really hard because like I said, I was already done with a lot of sacrifice in

my life.

Sacrifice in a lot of time, a lot of money.

All these other things to train.

Sounds like he was your rock.

Yeah.

And he was one of the people that showed me that.

And I really wanted to have my first MMA fight.

And I lost four, seven months before then.

And I was literally like, we were talking about how I was going to have my first MMA fight.

And then he got in a motorcycle accident.

He was in the hospital.

I mean, he was besides broken bones.

They were doing surgeries on his lower extremities on his lower body.

And I mean, besides that, no hand trauma.

So, threat of injury or threat of death or anything like that.

We were just talking about it and there was no thought in either of our heads that he

wasn't going to be able to be at my first fight.

But there was complications with the surgery and he ended up passing away.

So he went in for surgery and wasn't expected to have any life-threatening issues.

No, and it was his sixth surgery.

He had five before that and it was within a week.

Then he went into, they put him in a medically induced coma because his blood pressure

and his heart rate and everything started racing.

Put him on a lot of antibiotics, a lot of pain medications, everything.

Then his organs started filling.

I was asking, I actually got kicked out of the hospital.

I flipped out.

I picked up a chair.

I didn't throw it.

I was about to.

Were you saying eat?

No, this is a press B.

Okay.

And he got life-flated there.

The accident was in Newcastle and they life-flated in the Pittsburgh.

He was in the press B for two weeks.

He was actually asking to be transferred to Allegheny because he didn't like how he's

being treated there.

I remember the first night in ICU when we went and seen him.

The nurse tripped over his cord and ripped all of his IVs and everything out of them.

Literally the day, right after his first surgery in ICU.

I mean, I seen him myself.

So you were in 1920?

Yeah.

So how did you think you, how did you get through that?

I don't know if you ever get over that, but through that.

How did you handle losing?

Sounds like your best friend.

I mean, it was hard.

I still think about it now.

I mean, 1920-year-old people don't make it out of that sometimes.

Yeah.

I mean, it was tough.

I still think about it a lot.

I try to keep my mind off as much as I can, but sometimes, whenever I got the call from

Bellator, first person I wanted to call was my dad.

And I literally found myself going in my phone and clicking on my dad's name and going to

call him and the next thing you know, I remember.

And it's like you literally forget.

In like this moment to joy, you literally forget what happened.

Seems like you use it as motivation.

Yeah, I do.

And I see you bring it up a lot.

I think when you win, when you're preparing, how often do you think about that during preparation?

Do you think that you were able to turn a negative into a positive at all?

Do you think you've used it as a way to extra give yourself some fuel?

How did you get through that and how have you been able to use it if at all?

I mean, anytime I practice when something gets hard, where I really, really dig in deep

where I don't feel like I have anything left, nothing in the gas.

Take my muscles to her and my lungs are failing.

I'm getting beat up at this point where I've got fresh guys on me.

And I'm 10 rounds deep.

And there's three guys each round coming on me.

And I'm on a third guy in the tenth round.

And I'm really trying to push myself to get up or get a take down or a scramble, I think

just like like my dad would be yelling at me at practice to push myself or like I just

think of his voice in the back of my head.

I still remember his voice.

There's many times where that opponent I had for the MMA fight, Trent Zadarco, the one

I wrestling high school.

I remember specifically the wrestling match where my dad knew like towards the end of wrestling

match.

And I had a hard, I conditioned, I would always push the pace so much that I get tired.

And I was up like six and nothing in the second round, then in the second period.

And he's seen that I was tired.

And like my coaches, no matter how many times I would tell them if they're short time

left, let me know.

I don't want to give up a point.

I'll hang on for dear life to hold him down and not give up a point.

They'd never do it.

And I talked to my dad about it.

I hear my dad screaming from the top of the stands.

10 seconds.

10 seconds, Dolan.

And I mean, just every single time something goes wrong or I hit a bump in the road, I think

of that.

So, I mean, I do use him as motivation.

I know he'd be proud of me right now.

I go and see his grave before every fight, make sure I stop over and visit.

And love it.

Love it.

Yeah.

So right now, how many amateur fights have you had boxing and how many MMA?

I had six amateur boxing matches, seven amateur MMA fights.

Have you lost any?

Have you lost any?

13 to no?

Yes.

So far.

Any last second tips you think you would leave somebody, whether it's football, MMA, Jiu Jitsu,

boxing, wrestling or pursuing something great in life or in business, what tips do you

think you would give somebody your advice on just being the best, just winning?

I mean, if you want to do.

If you want to be the best, you just got to work.

Like you said, you got to wake up every day and grind.

And there's going to be sacrifice involved.

There's going to be things you don't want to let go that you love doing that you love

just period.

There's things that you love, but you have to give them up.

You have to give them up.

If you truly, truly want to be great, there's going to be things that you love that you

have to let go.

You have to.

Truth.

And that's just part of it.

It's just work ethic, sacrifice and patience.

Work ethic, sacrifice and patience, man.

I agree.

Hey everybody.

Follow my man, Dalton Rasta.

Is it that way on Instagram?

Dalton underscore Rasta.

Dalton underscore Rasta.

Follow my man and his journey.

I truly believe, and I was telling him today that I've been around the game for ten

years.

And there's been a lot of people that I've seen pursuing this journey.

And I haven't felt this confident in many people that have crossed my path on where I think

that your future is headed in the sport that you've chosen to pursue greatness in.

And you're definitely one of the best that a lot of people don't know.

So do yourself a favor and start getting on the Dalton Rasta train right now, man.

Keep on grinding, Dalton.

Proud of you.

I know the whole area is proud of you, man.

Keep on hustling, keep on grinding.

You represent the grind.

That's what this is.

The grind, the grind cast.

You represent the grind, man.

I see you grinding and training and with the best and still traveling all over to put

yourself in the best situation possible, man.

So good luck on everything.

We support you here.

Keep up the grind.

Keep up the good work, brother.

Thanks for coming.

Thank you.

Count money, man.

Money that grits is.

I'm trying to told him I'm a beast, but.