8 & 0 in Bellator, Dalton Rosta

Count money, man.

Money, man.

Stacked riches.

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

What's up gang?

Welcome back to another episode of The Grindcast.

Get ready.

It's a new day.

We got Dalton, Hercules, Rosta, and the building again.

Today, no stranger to The Grindcast.

What's up, Dalton?

What's up, bro?

How's it going?

Good.

Josh was, you know, telling me, you know, I got series of things that I want to ask.

And I think of add value to listeners, but because you've been on a couple times, he

was saying maybe just some casual conversation.

So I'm going to throw some curveballs at you.

Josh said, well, maybe some, you know, whatever you guys would normally talk about, you know,

when you're by yourself, you know, that you wouldn't mind, you know, getting out to

the public.

I said, I don't know about that.

I don't know if we can...

That might be pushing a little bit more.

So we'll see.

I think one thing that I would like to open up, you know, talking about, for those of you

that don't know, Dalton, Rasta, Eighth Know, undefeated professional fighter and mixed

martial arts, currently number four ranked, Bellator fighter in the world, 27 years old.

Yes, sir.

Now, right, 185 pound prospect that is starting to get a lot of notice around the world,

Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and you know, had some help on the way, but really has done a

lot of it, you know, in an individual sport, a lot of it, by himself.

There's only so much somebody can help you with at the end of the day, you got to put

in the work.

And, you know, one of the things that, one of the things that inspired me about you Dalton

and maybe want to stay connected and invest it into your life and believe in you was your

work ethic and your discipline, you know, two things that I think are critical to win

in sports and win in life.

And I watched the discipline that you had, you know, and I've been around the game.

I'm no professional fighter, but I've been around the game for, you know, over a decade.

I've been around people and people that say they're going to make it or think that

they're going to make it, you know, what separates from what I've seen the people that

make it is the discipline in the work ethic.

When it's not comfortable and I watched you have that discipline and work ethic over

the years, even when there was, maybe we can open up, you know, Josh said he wanted

some in between the lines.

We'll keep it in between the lines, but, you know, like as an example, you know, I remember

when you were younger going through sometimes where Dalton don't drink, Dalton don't smoke

no drugs, you know, no, no nothing.

So first off right there, I thought that was super unique, you know, about you, that

for a young person to be so committed to what they're doing, to not drink, not even

smoke a cigar, like just nothing.

Being in your life was focused on, does it, if it doesn't make me better in my pursuit

of what I'm trying to do then I don't have any time for it.

But there was some moments, you know, as a young man that I remember as an example of

times where you did the walk of shame.

Why don't we walk out?

Why don't we, do you feel comfortable talking about the walk of shame?

Sure.

Why not?

Sure.

Come on.

I'm fun today, okay?

This was PG, pre-Gena, but me and Dalton he's so stubborn.

So we would meet at the gym and you guys know I'm an early, I'm an early riser, right?

And so we would meet at the gym early in the morning during, during COVID, you know, COVID

happened and we had to have this underground gym because they wasn't letting people

in the gym.

So we're going to leave the gym undisclosed right now, but we had a gym that Dalton got

access to where we were able to still hit the gym and it was a little bit of a drive away.

And you know, I remember one time, a couple times, you know, we're meeting at five o'clock

in the morning, six o'clock in the morning, and Dalton walks in at five o'clock in the

morning in the list of, and he got on a button down shirt and like some of the things

some nice pants on and some dress shoes at five o'clock in the morning.

So you obviously didn't wake up in the morning and say we're going to go to the gym, I'm

going to put on button down some nice dress pants and some shoes, right?

So my man was just just getting home, you know, from from somewhere, but still showed up

at the gym, you know, you remember that?

Okay.

So what was going through your head when you said, you know what, I'm still going to show

up in a button down and some dress shoes to the gym because that's the whole thing

that I had to do the next morning.

You know, one of my goals waking up and in this case, just staying out, let's put all

a nighter, but waking up, working out, getting my day started and then I usually back then

whenever I was training in PA, I was doing three days and four days, you know, before

I moved to American top team, but there was a couple scenarios whenever we were working

out at Southside Borbale and Newcastle.

And I remember one time that the, I think there's the first time I pulled in all nighter and

I came in, I came and worked out with you.

We were planning on working out like five 30 AM, we met there five 30 AM and this is

whenever you were meeting up, reading, you were reading the scripture and stuff first and

then we were working out after and this was when stuff first opened and it was like, well

it opened in Cleveland.

So it was like maybe mid April, they tried the first opening and my friends from Newcastle,

Mike Mullen, Dmitri Martini, a couple others, they were like, let's go out.

Like we've been cooped up for a month and a half, we haven't been able to go anywhere, we

weren't allowed out of the house, there was curfews, everything else.

So let's go to Cleveland.

I was like, okay, I'll go with you guys, because they wanted me to be D-D, you know, they

all drink, I don't drink so whenever they go out and they need a D-D, you know, they

hit me up, it's not so much they want to hang out with me, they want me to drive for

them.

So I was like, all right, I'll go with you, but I need to be back by one AM, you know,

so we'll go, we'll have like an early night, we'll leave at like 11 30 midnight, come back

because I got to get it, at least a few hours of sleep, I got to work out at 5 30 AM, get

up at 5.

All right, all right, all right, we'll be back for sure.

And the way they were acting over the next like 30 minutes, I had a good feeling

that we weren't going to be, but I was being hopeful.

We went, we actually left probably like 2 30, so would have put us back in Newcastle around

3 30.

I wasn't going to get any sleep still, you know, but maybe I would have been able to get

like a half hour worth of sleep and just a little nap.

And on the way back, we stopped at a gas station, or we stopped at a McDonald's where there

was a gas station right next to it.

And I wasn't paying attention to the gas gauge whatsoever.

So we were right next to a gas station and we didn't get gas because I didn't think we

had to.

There was no like, there was something wrong with his electrical, his electric in his

car.

And the dash wasn't showing like the gas lighter, anything.

There was no sound like no alarm going off like another other cars and just kept driving,

got back on the highway, kept driving.

We were about 1 mile from the Mitchell Road exit in the Shannick and the car just stopped

like let me press on the gas, shut down and started slowing down.

I pulled over to the side road.

I was like, we're out of gas.

Mike's in the back.

He's like, you're bullshit.

I was like, no, I'm not.

He's like, stop fucking with me.

I'm like, I swear to God, we are out of gas.

Dude got out of the car, came around the front checked because he didn't believe me.

Sure enough we were out of gas.

Everybody started calling people in their phone but granted it's 3.30am, 3.45am, who's

going to be up.

So we're calling everybody in our contacts.

Finally, the Metri gets a hold of somebody and they come, they drive out to us and the

Metri goes with them to a gas station.

They get one of those little gas carriers, fills up a couple gallons of gas, brings it back,

brings it in this probably 4.15 at the time.

I drop them off, I just get home as soon as I get home, drink a bang, I never drink this

whenever I was big on the bangs and go straight to the gym and we got to work out it.

That was one of the first times there were several other occasions.

The one you're talking about, we were LA fitness and this may be May because that's the

thing.

So that's the one where you had to button down.

Yeah.

That was, I was out with a cabalor my friends from Pittsburgh, Cool Masek, Adam Pintor,

Dustin Sleeva.

This is probably early to Mid-May that that happened because we were out in Pittsburgh

and I would drive all the way back to Newcastle and then LA fitness comes down there and I showed

up in my jeans dress shirt, dress shoes.

To LA fitness.

Yes, and I walk in.

Even better.

I walk in.

You're on elliptical.

I look over, I see your ass recording me all the way walking in.

I got to dig that up.

I got to dig that up with a big smile on your face.

Recorded me the whole way over it.

I'm walking in looking for you.

Your ass was probably recording me for a solid 30 seconds before I spotted you.

Recorded me all the way over and I'm like, this is never going to let me live this.

Because Josh, what we do when we're by ourselves is we argue after time.

That's what we do.

Don't like, I told him, if he wasn't going to be a fighter, I call him Dr. Rasta.

Think about nutrition.

He'll argue with you to the death.

Over and out.

But he knows his shit though.

But he knows his shit.

So I start calling him Dr. Rasta.

He knows more than most doctors when it comes to a lot of the stuff.

You could have been an attorney, too.

He could have been an attorney because you love my brother to argue.

And that is probably one of the motivating factors that you would probably show up and

rather do the walk of shame at LA fitness than to not show up.

As you know, I would have never, ever, ever let you live that down if you had to call

me with some excuses.

Listen, I made a commitment.

I love it.

I was going to work out with you.

So those things make me even believe that those moments, even though they're funny, make

me believe, they made me believe in you even more because I know what that mindset has to

be in order to still show up like that because that's something that I would have done, you

know, too.

And those are the things that I think over time make you special.

I think another thing that sticks out to me is part of the game is handling injuries.

And you haven't had a crap ton, but you've had a couple injuries in between fights and

stuff like that.

Your whole life has been centered around training for years and years and years.

So when you're taking that, when that gets taken away for a couple of weeks or you get injured,

you know, to where you got to, you know, not train as much or so.

How do you handle, you know, what's the mindset when you're like, all right, I'm injured, you

know, where you know like I'm injured, what happens from that point forward?

So the first day, I'll just speak on a little bit of the injury I had last time.

I tore my LCL and my Mineskis just two months ago, roughly.

Maybe a little bit longer.

I was sparring with Josh Silveradon at ATT.

I was getting him ready for help him get ready for his PFL fight that he had coming up

beginning in April.

And I threw a kick to his body.

He caught it and tried taking me down when he was trying to take me down.

We were in a crack down position.

You're aware of it, wrestling position.

And when he had my leg, I reached on the foreside on his hip and was like scooting to his

back, but he still had my leg, but I was going to try and slip that leg in and like take

his back.

And as I was doing that, my knee just popped and I heard it.

He heard it and he was right by my knee and he heard it and his reaction was worse than

mine.

So right away, you know, you I can hear it.

Did you send me to video?

Yeah.

Like you're in pain.

I like reach it.

My name.

I'm like, but like he's like, oh, oh, like and he's doing it.

Like, and I'm when I show people this video, I'm like, I just want you to know that this

is not me.

This is him that's continuing to say that I'm not that much of a pussy.

So he keeps doing this and then he the coaches come in the camera shut off at that time.

They shut the camera off.

But like, I felt like I couldn't like move my knee at first and I didn't want to like,

I was scared to, you know, some like fuck.

I'm like, I haven't heard a pop like this.

And it's like high school when I had my last knee surgery.

Why had I had a few sense, but my first knee surgery.

And I was just scared to move my knee.

I was scared to like get up and put weight on it.

So like right away, like the fear sets and I'm like, I start thinking like fuck, like, is

this bad?

Is this going to be my ACL?

Am I going to be out for a year?

So those things start running through your head at first.

Eventually, I got up, started putting a little bit, I hopped out of the cage and then

I sat down with ice on it.

I eventually got the courage to stand up, started walking around a little bit, was limping,

but I was able to put pressure on it.

So I'm like, thinking, okay, that's good.

But like, this could still be bad, you know, people have torn their ACL and been able to

walk.

So I was already scheduled to go back to Pittsburgh, like a day or two later, but I switched my

flight to a day earlier just so I could see Bernat, Dr. Bernat right over here regeneration.

And so I went and seen him.

He did all the tests for my ACL and I'm an Eskis and he said it was a great three ACL tear.

He did some stem cells and PRP, some peptides and started the recovery process right then

and there, but over the course of the next five, six weeks, I started training again.

I just got to remind myself, you know, to be patient and look at this as an opportunity

to like rest, give myself a mental break from training.

I was training so hard.

I was dealing with other like nagging injuries.

So I gave myself a chance to heal otherwise, gave myself a little mental break and I wasn't

like, at this time, I wasn't even like watching fights.

I wasn't like.

trying to study up stuff that I could do like visually training, you know, and mentally

training. I wasn't watching videos on techniques. I was like, I'm going to give this, give

myself this time to completely get away from fighting. So that way, whenever I do come

back from this injury, I'm all in. I'm not burnt out mentally. I'm not, you know, depressed

because of the injury. I just took time to like, enjoy myself and get away from fighting.

And there's people out there that might do the opposite. But I found the way that

I did that to be more beneficial to me. And I came back from training whenever I came

back. I was like ready to be back. I was excited. I was like, you know, on edge, like

I couldn't wait. And I ease back into it. You know, I started boxing at first, was wearing

a knee brace. It was still a little bit, like it wasn't stable yet. And I was using the

knee brace just box. I couldn't move a lot. I couldn't cut angles. Certain punches

I would throw would hurt. So I just, you know, listen to my body. Next week and a half,

started throwing a little bit of kicks with my left leg. Another week goes by, started

throwing on my right. Another week goes by, start drilling wrestling. So I started what

I felt like was the worst for my knee. I kept pushing it off till last. And I started

easing the things that were a little bit harder on my knee. But I felt like I was ready

for the step. And if I was ready for the step, I'd do that for a little bit. And then

I'd ease into next part, which the last part was wrestling live grappling, which I spared

this past Tuesday for the first time I sport Saturday. But I did some grappling on Wednesday.

Some positions for my knee didn't feel stable. But I rolled with the mat factory on Sunday

with you. We rolled this morning. That's why I'm here, by the way, for anybody listening

because healing lets you on the podcast. You work out with him early in the morning. And

we rolled this morning. So now, now I feel like I'm pretty close to 100%. I feel like I'm

about 90%. I'm going to give it another couple of weeks before I take the knee brace off.

The whole entire time is just about being patient, you know, knowing, especially after

I got all the tests done, I got to stem cell, the PRP, knowing that it's a matter of time

and it's just being patient. I'm not going to need surgery. I just can't mess it up worse.

I can't come back to training too early because I'm getting too excited or I'm getting

too bored. It takes discipline. Yeah. It's the opposite side of training. You have to

have discipline to show up for training and training two to three times a day and have

a certain schedule and eat certain things during camp. But you also have to have discipline

to know when you got to take time off and let your body rest. Let's talk about scheduling,

you know, what your schedule is, you know, when you're getting prepared. But also before

that, you know, story I wanted you to tell was the one we were talking about recently

about, you know, when you were coming up as an amateur, when your rib was busted up and

you still fought. Yeah. Talk about that a little bit.

So we were talking about this other day on the way to the mat factory. We were talking

about some of the people that are good there. Good to roll with, good at Jiu-Jitsu. And

we were talking about Trenzadarco and Trenzadarco, somebody that I wrestled in high school, good

wrestler, good fighter as well, good at Jiu-Jitsu. We went over that, but I also got to fight

them too. I fought them as an amateur. It was my fourth or fifth amateur fight. And

this was, I got the announcement eight to ten weeks out. It was my first title fight. It

was a big deal. I sold a bunch of tickets, like three to four thousand dollars worth of

tickets. And was it at? This was at, it's in Cannon'sburg. It's the ISOplex, I think,

it's called. And this was for pinnacle FC, back when pinnacle was around. And like I said,

that's all three to four thousand dollars worth of tickets. So so many people spent money

on these tickets. There wasn't a guarantee they were going to get their money back. They

might have just got credit for a, for a, for a next show in the future, you know, a future

show. But on top of that, I was in college. I was training two to three times a day. There's

only so much time that I could work to pay my bills, to pay for gas, to pay for food. And

I was doing security on the weekends, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, losing sleep. But I

was still getting up in the morning, training on three, four or five hours of sleep sometimes.

And I was training two to three times every day. I had 19 credit hours. And then I would do some

electric work throughout the week for a company that worked for a new castle. So I was doing everything

I possibly can, but I was doing 19 credit hours working on weekend during the week and then

security, six hours every night, Thursday through Saturday and training two, three times a day.

Yep. Every single day, except for I would take two days off because I had class all day long.

And then I had night class and I only had like a three hour break in between.

So doing all of that, but still trying to make enough money. I had to make sacrifices. Like,

I had to sacrifice how much money I was making. I had to sacrifice my grades a little bit,

but grades were important to me. You know, I wanted to be successful in that aspect too.

Second only sacrifice some enough to give myself enough time to train, to give myself to make

just enough money to get by. But even at that point, my math was off. I was still falling behind

on bills. I was falling behind on rent. I was falling behind on gas. I was overdrafted multiple times

on my bank account. So this fight, I mean, a lot of these amateur fights, they give you commission

for ticket sales, depending on how much you sell. So they have like a certain, they'll have like

brackets like you sell up to a thousand dollars, you get like 10%. You sell up to two thousand,

you get 15. You sell up to three thousand, you get 25. You sell up to four thousand, you get 35,

above that, you get 40 or whatever. So I was getting probably 35 to 40% of these ticket sales

at the time commission on them. And I needed the money back. You know, like I was down bad and

I ended up getting an injury. I was sparring with a heavy weight. There was 270 pounds and I'm

200 pounds at the time. 10 days before my fight. Granted, I wanted to be known. I already had a

maniscus tear before this. I ended up getting knee surgery after the fight. But every time I would

try to jog, do sprints, any type of running, my knee would blow up. I'd be down for three, four days

to let the swelling go down just so I could back to training. So all of my conditioning was just

pad work and sparring. And that's it. And I couldn't do much grappling. There was only certain

positions I would do. So we do positional work. And Trent is a very good wrestler, very good fighter,

very good at Jiu-Jitsu. So I had a tough task in front of me. And then this last sparring session,

10 days before the fight, I got cracked in the ribs hard. And I ended up finishing the round,

but I wanted to take a knee, you know, kind of like we just seen in the Ryan Garcia fight. I wanted

to do that, but I didn't. I continued the rest of the round, but after the round, I was done. I sat

down, talked to my coaches, they're like, oh, you probably just bruised them, whatever, you'll

probably be good in a couple days. I was sitting down for five minutes. I go to get back up.

Can't breathe like already super stiff. I can't like twist. I can't like sit up.

Next few days, like every time I would get out of bed, the morning I got out of bed for my fight,

I had to put like my feet on the ground like this and roll out of bed. Because I couldn't

magically sit up. That hurt. Yes. To get up out of bed, you had to crawl around like that the day

of the fight, but it wasn't even just pain. You know, it was the fact that like my muscles weren't

actually strong enough to do a sit up out of bed. If I'm sleeping on my back, I literally can't get

up like this. It was like, I had so much shit going through my head. I was like, man, like this

is a really bad position, but I need this fight. You know, I can't pull out. I don't want to pull out.

I sold so many tickets. These people are looking forward to the fight. They might not get their money

back. I need the money too. Was your dad already passed at this point? He was already passed.

So on top, how are you 27 now? No, when this was, I was 21 or 22 or 21, 22 years old,

lost his dad, dad passed away. Yeah, no parents around. My dad and I were going to see me. No parents

around. Nobody like to lean on, you know, as a parent, you know, or anything like that. Do just

out here on his own, making it happen. Rolls himself out of bed. And as it can verify all this, he

had me doing cat cow exercises. He had me coming in and getting the 10s unit on my ribs, icing it.

He was doing a bunch of therapy, the cold laser, all that. He gave verify this. It's time this before

Trent was training at the mat factory with us. And like I said, let's rewind to the fact that I was

rolling out of bed. We were, I got to the fight show. We were warming up in the back. And

coaches like, let's just do some pummeling, you know, just to get you warm up. Let's see what we can do,

what we can handle. We are against the wall in the back. I went to pummel once to get an underhook.

I couldn't even do that. The pain was so excruciating. I was like, you know, what, maybe with adrenaline

going during the fight, I'll be able to go through it. But it was, it was bad to the point where it

wouldn't even let that go. So I was like, I was like, I got a knock about, you know, I got to get

the finish because if I don't, and he takes me down, and he's a good wrestler, he has the ability to

take me down. I ended up beating him in wrestling and I believe him about a wrestler than him. But

he's good enough to make it competitive. Where if we end up in a position where my ribs start

hurting, you know, I'm going to get taken down. There's only so much I can do. So I'm like, I got a

knock him out. Got a knock him out. So fight started, you know, I start walking him down,

pressuring him hard, you know, waiting for the shot. Just kept throwing the lead right hand.

He shot on me within 15 seconds. I sprawled, got the front head lock, ended up getting on top of

him. I got to TKO within two minutes, I think. So it was a pretty fast fight. I was, you know,

I was lucky in a sense because that fight could have went a lot of other ways. Could have won a lot of

other ways. And I was not in any shape to fight. I had a torn meniscus, had ended up getting

surgery a month later after the fight. Most people would have never even showed up, you know, for

something like that. Yeah, I mean, getting an occasion fighting is, it's on its own. Yeah.

Now you add the fact that I had a torn meniscus and then you had the fact that I had broken ribs

and the fact that all these people from my hometown came to watch me, you know, probably a couple

hundred people there, you know, like expecting me to win this my first title fight. You know, I got a

lot of hype behind me. There's just so much pressure. It's like the pressure of just fighting. Yeah.

Then the pressure against fighting somebody good, somebody that wrestled against before, somebody

that knows a good wrestler, good, good at jujitsu, good fighter, also undefeated, I believe at the time.

And then the pressure of my knee and then the pressure of my ribs. And I have all this going through

my head and I'm like, this is a really bad situation. I start having doubt in myself. You know what I mean?

Like this, everything could go wrong, you know, I know I have a chance to win. I know I can knock them

out. I have the power to knock them out. I know I have the wrestling. So how do you control that doubt?

Like, you know, do you remember any points on your journey ever of having feelings of fear at all

and how you got through those moments? Feelings of fear? Yeah. I wouldn't say feelings of fear, but yeah,

there's feelings that like you don't always have an ideal situation. And you know, when you're going

up against adversity and adversity is strong. And you also on top of that, you have a, in this case,

a very good talented and skilled opponent in front of you. You know, it's the doubt.

You had any fear though on the journey at all. Like I was watching a video at Tyson and

and it's here's your friend. Yeah. Fear is your friend. Yeah. Without fear. Yeah. Have you had any of

those ever feelings or no? I'm never had any fear. There's always people that say in like if you

don't have fear, if anybody's saying they don't get scared, they don't get nervous before a fight,

they're lying. I'm not lying. I don't. And it has to do with the fact that I put everything in

the training. I don't leave anything out there. So I feel like where people start getting nervous.

And of course, I can get knocked out. Anybody can get knocked out. We're in four ounce gloves. I'm

185 pounds or 200 pounds by the time we're fighting. There's a lot of power behind this punch. There's

a lot of power behind those kicks. I know there's a chance of that, you know, a little bit of Luxe

involved in that some skill. But I know there's that opportunity. However, I know that all else

barred that included if I work as hard as I possibly can in the gym, every single practice, leave it

all there. Do everything I can for recovery. Get my sleep, eat right. And I'm doing everything

right. And I have no doubt in my mind that I outwork my opponent. And granted, this also doesn't

guarantee you success. But I have a much better feeling about myself going to that cage knowing I

outworked the guy across from me. You know, I outworked you. I might not be better than you. But I got

15 minutes to figure out how to beat you. If it's a title fight, I got 25. And I worked my ass off

till this point. So I know you're not going to outwork me during this fight. And I'm going to try and

figure out how to put you down before you do. What's what's a typical schedule for you training schedule

was. I throughout the week. So you still getting in 15, 16 training sessions. I mean, we'd have to count

while I'm naming this. I don't go by a whole week cumulatively. But don't I'll just go my camp

schedule. Monday morning, we have wrestling. It's about two hours long. Then rest for a couple of

hours. Come back five thirty five thirty to six thirty or five to six kickboxing class. Then

six thirty to seven thirty is a MMA drilling class. So there's three three practices four to five

hours worth of practice during the day. Plus the recovery stuff right after I'm doing, you know,

sauna cold bath cryotherapy, getting massage. Sages going to see a chiropractor twice a week. So

there's a lot of hours spent in recovery as well, which I count as a part of my job. No doubt.

This ends up being a full time job. Now Tuesday rolls around. We have sparring in the morning.

Sparring usually lasts for an hour. After sparring, I usually go for a run or hit the bag or hit the

bag and run or hit pads with my coach right after sparring. So sometimes that lasts for about two

hours total counting sparring. Then go back at night have jujitsu class from five to six. It's a

drilling class. Not anything hard, but sometimes then the practice will do a 10 minute push where

it's like up down drills where like the person on bottom builds up. You return them, submit them,

and you keep doing that. Don't you never let go. You always have your hands on them. Whatever,

it's really hard. Anybody that's ever done it knows knows it's hard. Now after that, I usually do

strength conditioning. My strength conditioning usually lasts last two hours. So I give myself about

15 minute breaks, 65, 55, same day. Same day. Yeah, that's four. Yeah, no, this is

three. Well, yeah, if you count the running and the pads and everything after the sparring,

and you don't count that all as like one practice, I don't really take a break in between,

then yeah, it ends up being four. But my last one ends up at being like two hours long,

my strength conditioning. So we're looking at two, three, this is probably my longest day,

ends up being probably about six hours of training. Wednesday rolls around. Most of the

time I take a break, like a midweek break, but sometimes if I turn around, like if I'm

going to spore Saturday, because we have two, three, Thursday, Saturday, if I'm going

to spore Saturday, and instead I'll take Thursday off and Wednesdays, because there's a lot

of classes on Wednesdays. There's a kickboxing class at 10am, kickboxing class at 11am, grappling

class at 12, that ends at about 12.45. And then there's boxing class from six to seven at

night time. So there's a lot of opportunity for classes. Then recently I've been doing

the 10am class, and then right after going to 11am, and then doing some drills at the 12

pm class, but not doing the live. So I'm like doing three back to back. But recently in the past,

I was doing the 11am class, and I would do the 1230, and then I would do the six pm at night.

And so another three on Wednesday, yep, and then I would take Thursday off. Friday rolls

around. We'd have just grappling in the morning. There's nothing mandatory at night. I mean, nothing's

ever mandatory, but they don't have actual classes at night. So I'd either try to get pads in at

night time, or sometimes they run a circuit. I would do that Saturday, spar right after sparring,

running in her pads again, Saturday night, or Saturday afternoon, lift, Sunday off. And Sunday

usually I get my bodywork, my massage, more cryotherapy, more cold tub, sauna, and stuff.

About 14 sessions. Would you say you like the pollen on three, four training sessions, and then

giving yourself the two days off versus maybe taking two per day and taking less days off?

You know what I mean? Like if you went just six days or seven days, but less volume,

or do you think it's better to have the three, four, and then have a day or two off a week?

When I do the three or four, I need a day. I need one's air Thursday. It's not about like

wanting. But if I did two a day, I could probably go six straight, but I need the day off. You know,

as soon as I start training too much, this injury that I got on my knee, I was training two to three

times a day, six days a week. Who do you think right now are some of the best fighters out in the

game? UFC or Bellator? Who would any weight class like anybody in the past year? John Jones.

John Jones, the greatest fall time. Light heavyweight, I think, Vadim Nemkov. I mean, he just beat

Corey Anderson. I thought Corey Anderson would have been up there. He came over from UFC on like a

four fight win streak. He beat Glover to Shara, who was the current champion in UFC. I think he came

over and lost a Vadim. Then in Bellator? Yeah. So you have somebody that beat who at the time was

the current champion, Glover to Shara. The person who beat him came over to Bellator on a four fight

win streak, decided to come over for money purposes. He can't pay more by Bellator and then comes over

and loses Vadim Nemkov. Emma, don't add up. That's something I think people don't understand,

especially people that aren't really involved. People think everything's the UFC. If you do

MMA, everything's the UFC. You see people on Instagram all the time in the comments.

Like, oh yeah, because anytime a Bellator fighter claims that they're best in the world,

or you see somebody else like a reporter, journalist or whatever. There's a lot of fighters in

Bellator that are better than fighters in the world. Listen, we all train together. I tell people

this all the time. If you go to any big gym in the world, you got Kyl Cliff, which used to be

Sanford, which used to be hard knocks. You got ATT. You got Jackson, Wink and Albuquerque. You got

AKA and in California. You go to any of these gyms. All Bellator fighters, all one FC, all UFC,

all of PFL guys train together. Like, I don't know if like fans think about it like, okay, you got

Bellator guys. They probably train together. You got PFL guys. They probably they all, I don't

know if they think we all train separate, but we all train together. So the fighters know.

The fighters know that there's no difference in level between these promotions. These promotions

are still the highest in the world. If we're talking about viewership, we're talking about broadcasts

and we're talking about production. Of course, the UFC is the best. They reinvest in the product. They

have the most money in their product. You know what I mean? But Bellator pays their guys a lot more. So

people are like, oh, if he was the best, he got to the UFC don't know that a lot of the fighters

in Bellator get paid more money than a lot of the fighters on the UFC. A lot. And on Instagram,

Twitter, whatever, if he was really the best, he'd go to UFC and prove it. No, these guys have families.

They have to make money. They need to make a living. They need to invest into the retirement.

They need to have they're trying to set up passive income. You know, whether they're investing

real estate, whether they're trying to open up their own gym or other businesses or whatever. But

Bellator gives a lot of these fighters the opportunity to do that because they're paying the more

than the UFC would at their level. Now the UFC you got guys like the champions like Israel,

Sonia, Conor McGregor, John Jones, the guys that are making big, big money. But typically unless

you're a champion in UFC, Bellator is going to pay you more in that top 10 range. And a lot of these

guys are leaving the UFC to go to Bellator for the money. And there's a lot of guys that are

going to Bellator for the money when they could have went to the UFC. And the reason being is the

money. They got families support. So the comment that people make is like, oh, if they were the best,

they'd be in the UFC. No, they wouldn't. You know, people choose where they want to go for whatever

reason that they need to. Maybe they like Bellator more. Maybe they like the way they're treated more.

Maybe they want to make more money. Maybe they don't care about the fame that goes along with the UFC.

It really doesn't matter. People fight because they love fighting. You know, some people fight because

they have to. Everybody has their reasons. But you see these comments like that. You see these people

saying that Bellator is a BLE. It's PFLs of BLE. It's one of these BLE's. UFC is the pinnacle of the sport.

It's true to an extent. But if you look at it weight class wise, I think 170 is better in Bellator.

I think 185 is better in Bellator. At 185 you got UFC. You got a lot of one trick ponies. You got

Marvin Vittori wrestler. You know, not very good one. Derek Bronson wrestler. Not a very good one.

Is Rada Saun in Striker. But he can't wrestle. He has no Jiu Jitsu whatsoever.

I mean, you know how Jiu Jitsu all the time. You know what I mean? When you were fighting against a

striker that has no grappling. You in like guys that sparred, stout or other gyms and come with a

mat factory trying to train with you. You ragged on. You know what I mean? There's a lot of guys that

they think because he's in the UFC that he's better than everybody else. And if there's guys in

Bellator better, they'd come over the UFC. No, Dana's not going to sign these guys out of the

out of Bellator. He doesn't want to pay him. You know what I mean? He wants them to come in the UFC

and work their way up. A lot of these guys don't want to do that. And I think Bellator is 185

pound divisions better. I think Robert Winner occurs the only like well-rounded like good MMA

fighter. Everybody else is good at something, but they're a specialist. If you look now on the 170

years, lava, mausole, good at everything. He doesn't think he'd beat everybody in UFC at 170. And

then you got 135 where it's super deep, super deep division. I think it'd be super competitive.

If anybody in the top 10 could win on any given day, it's up in the air. But it's super competitive

to the point where I think the depth would have to go to 130, the 135 pound division in Bellator.

205 I also believe is more competitive in Bellator now. At least the top six of the division

than the UFC is. I mean people can't name five UFC fighters in the 205 pound division.

You know, and look how big the UFC is. That should tell you enough. Now UFC has heavy weight.

UFC probably has 155, 145, 125, and then the girls divisions. But there's guys in PFL like

Maga Met Caramoff is really good. Put a lot of guys away in the UFC as well. You see it in

all types of weight classes. Anything that you see on, you know, obviously it makes you who you are

to this day. So you just like, you know, I got no regrets and all that. But is there anything that

if you can go back and do it again, that you would do different in your journey at all?

I'm going to be honest with you. I say this all the time. People are like, oh, you needed to do that

or you might not be where you're at if you didn't do this. But I wouldn't get a college.

College was a waste of money and it was a waste of time. I put myself in debt going. I didn't

never used my degree. Even whenever I got my degree and I was granted out a 3.8 GPA. I have different

accreditations with my. And that's why you had to work and you know, do it out of other stuff.

And I had it. You've Dr. Rosta. You'd have been over a 40 no doubt. Yeah, I had a finance degree with

a minor in accounting and then I put different lots of accreditations to go along with a 3.8 GPA.

And I just I couldn't even get an interview anywhere when I was just trying to get a job just to work,

you know, just to train while I was fighting something that like I get paid weekly and like I have

a guaranteed income so I can at least, you know, set up like kind of budget myself. Like okay,

I have this much time training I could take care of my bills with this. I know I have this coming in

and it's all with the goal to make it to the ballatory of the UFC, you know, to make it in fighting.

And I couldn't even get a interview, bro. I couldn't get an interview with all this shit.

Everything I did in my life couldn't even get an interview. It ain't for everybody.

Yeah, you don't mean some people need that and it's good for them or some people don't.

And as a college graduate myself, you know, oftentimes, you know, in business environments,

even in our business, you know, for the insurance business, you know, people ask me, what do you

think I should do? It's like, man, I never want to get I don't want to be adverse to your parents

or if you promised your parents, you were going to graduate, you know, I'm not out here telling kids,

like don't go to college. You know what I mean? But if you look at this back as a, are you're

looked at as the bad guy? If you do that, you know what I mean? But if they ask my honest to God's

opinion, depending on the situation, depending on what's going on, I'll tell them the same stuff,

you know, as like man, four or five years of some places are 25, 30,000 a year, right?

More than that, some places. So you go $150,000 in debt and then you come out with no job, right?

And if you just would have worked for those five years and let's say you made 50 grand a year,

which is not that hard to do if you go to work. So 50 grand a year over the next, you know,

five years, you would have made $150,000, right? Or $250,000 over five years, $250,000 to the positive.

And then you got $150,000 to the negative of $400,000 swing, right? Would know experience, you know what

I mean? Because a lot of times experience will even trump, you know, the degree, you know, a lot of

times. So I couldn't agree with you more. I think that makes a lot of sense. And that's another point

to the working. If I wasn't in college, granted, like we talked about the debt, but I would have been

able to spend more time working a full time job and would have been able to get up. I know my schedule,

you know what I mean? Especially if I'm on an hourly job. Know my schedule. If I'm working

nine to five, which I wouldn't want to do long term, you know what I mean? But it would be just

to put myself in a position to do something else. No doubt. I would work out beforehand. I'd

work out after, you know, and I have my schedule. Practice, work, practice. You see it, you see it here.

You know, it's not uncommon for people here, 22 years old, 21 years old to make a couple of

hundred thousand hours a year. And people are not us, you know what I mean? Or they'll knock it for us,

like man, if a kid can go to the military and so much respect for people that go to the military

and fight for this country, to give us the opportunity to do what we do in my opinion in the greatest

country in the world. But if they're old enough to go fight for this country, you know, 18, 19,

20, 21, 22 years old, and that's okay. People can't knock somebody that's 21 or hate on somebody

that's 21, 22 years old, making six figures. And because they're not doing it, they got to knock

that person, you know, that's doing it because we got a lot of those people here, you know, doing

that stuff with high character, you know. A lot of that has to do with people that they want the

money, but they don't want to take the risk because they know they know the opportunities there,

but they know the risk is they can turn it, they can end up in debt and end up with nothing if

they take the risk, but if the risk pans out, you know, and they get the reward, they can end up

a millionaire. And but that risk versus reward isn't worth it to them. They're like, all right,

I got financial stability. I know how much I'm going to make. I know the hours I'm going to work.

I know for sure I'm good. I know I'm not going to put myself in debt unless I make dumb spending

decisions or I can go try to open up a business. I can go try to do something like this. And,

you know, run a lot of risk, possibly not make any money, possibly put myself in debt. And then

I have to start from nothing, you know, or or that and they don't want to do that. They want the money.

They decide they despise the people that had the courage to go and take the risk and end up

making the money and they want the money, but they didn't want the risk. I think that's fine if

people just don't hate, you know, the main slide. But that's why they hate it. I don't when I see

somebody that let's say their teacher, police officer, firefighter, you know, or something like that,

I never look at those people if they make 50 grand or 70 grand and ever in my brain, it never,

ever registers that I think that I'm better than that person. You know what I'm saying?

But that's how they think that you think. That I'm better than that person. And it's crazy,

man, sometimes, you know, the other day, I was driving. You want to talk about conversations off the

radar. I was driving with one of the young guys in our business, John and we were we had to drive

downtown for the Steel City Cigar event that we did to fundraiser for the youth program. Thank you

for taking time out for that. I had the Rolls Royce and we had to top down. It was a nice day.

We were driving and you can hear somebody two lanes over screaming,

if you, you know what I mean? By the way, screaming at me and John, you know, in the car with the

top down, that could only be hate. Like, I don't know who these people are. What'd you do just because

you're driving a Rolls Royce? They got to be screaming after you. That guarantee, you know what I mean?

That was the type of, you know what I mean? Vib that I felt. You know what I mean? And it's like, man,

and sometimes those people got no,

and it's no poor me,

just like you don't go to the poor me,

but your life,

then if somebody really walked through your life, man,

like you didn't have it easy,

I can show you the house that I grew up in,

not supposed to make me better worse than anybody,

but the fact is the house sold for $11,500.

I grew up on the East Side of Youngstown.

I had great grandparents, I got exposed,

I went to Ursula, you know, to play football

and I had great things,

but the fact that a matter is the people

that would pass that type of judgment on me,

I guarantee they couldn't walk a mile in my shoes

or have any idea where I came from

to get to the point of where we're at right now

to be able to drive a Rolls Royce.

That my mother had to,

the car would stall out in the middle of the road,

and I would be embarrassed to even have her take me to school.

Been there.

Because the car, we're pumping the gas and hitting it,

hitting the thing is like, man,

just drop me off around the corner.

You know what I mean?

You know what I mean?

You know what I mean?

Like a gun went off.

It was our car trying to make it.

You know what I mean?

Our car was like an old-ass man trying to run a marathon.

You know what I mean?

Every time I was getting dropped off at school

and then I got somebody driving by a screaming

derogatory things that probably they wouldn't want

to see me in a street fight.

You know what I'm saying?

And just judging the whole scenario.

You know what I mean?

So I think in my end, what I've learned,

you look at companies like Google or some of these big companies,

the Apple, you'll find that people that were just loyal

to the process that weren't necessarily the founders

or the entrepreneurs or owners,

but they stayed loyal to the process on their come-up years later

they became millionaires.

I think a lot of times, because I'm an entrepreneur

and I talk a lot about business,

you don't always only have to be an entrepreneur to be great.

I think you can plug yourself into a business and add value

and if you add extreme value and you do it consistently over time,

there could be a very, very large payoff.

Like my highest paid salary person here in our business

makes multiple six figures and started out with me

at 10 bucks an hour, working part time, you know, 20 hours a week.

Dalton, over the last maybe five years of your life,

you know, what would you say, what area of your life have you grown the most?

Like can you point to an area of your life that's like, man,

me at 27 and me at 22,

this is where I think that I got better at not fighting.

Like what area of your just personal life do you think that you've grown in?

I think maturity, for sure.

You know, I was forced to grow up young because my dad passed away.

I don't talk to my mother. She lives out in Arizona.

We've went over this before.

We got a little bit of hate back for that.

I got hollered at. I got trouble.

Yeah, but yeah, I would say maturity, man.

And along with that maturity, it's like learning to let things go

and let people, you know, be how they are.

Like you're talking about like people hating on you

and like this story about how they're just screaming FU

just because you're driving a Rolls Royce.

And you have to understand I know now that that stuff

is derived from their own insecurities at the end of the day.

That's why people hate.

They want what you have.

And like you said, you never feel better than any of those people

that make 50 or 70 grand just because you make more money.

You never think you're better than them.

But that's the way they think that you think.

They're making that assumption.

They're making that insinuation because that's

their insecurity.

And they're head, they're thinking that you're better than them.

What you're not, you guys are both the same people

you guys both have your career successes

defined in different ways.

But they think that you think that because you make

more money than them because you drive a Rolls Royce.

If you want to drive a Rolls Royce and you have the money

to do so.

And that's something you want.

Everybody has a dream.

Everybody has a dream car.

Everybody has their dream career, their dream house.

You know, if that's what you wanted to drive your whole

entire life and now you became successful enough

financially to do so.

You should be allowed to do that.

People shouldn't be insecure to the point where they're

screaming FU at the top of their lungs when you're driving

just because you're driving a Rolls Royce

a car that you wanted your whole entire life.

When if you flipped a script and you were that person

and they had the money to buy a Rolls Royce,

they'd be buying a Rolls Royce.

There's all these people that's always saying

like tax the rich and to get me by no means don't get me wrong.

I am not rich.

I mean, I'm doing well for myself but I am not rich.

But I'm not going to sit here and be one of these people

that say you should tax billionaires and millionaires more.

The government first off never does anything good

with your money, you know, they're just shitting it away.

Second off, why do you want to penalize somebody that's successful

that already gets taxed more than you?

They're already in the higher tax bracket.

Why do you want to penalize them even more

just because of successful?

I guarantee if you were making a million dollars per year,

you wouldn't say, oh, the IRS,

hi, I'm making a million dollars a year.

I want you to take more of my money.

I worked so hard for this million dollars a year

and I want you to take 600,000 of it.

Nobody saying that.

Nobody just wants to give it away.

You donate your money to charities.

You're helping out.

You have the still city impact.

You're constantly making an impact in your community.

And you're not even from the Pittsburgh area.

Like you said, you started that inspire in mind

in young style and then you felt the need

to do something in Pittsburgh.

You're constantly making strides towards helping the community.

You're making your donations.

You're creating these foundations

and you're doing these fundraising events,

trying to help these kids out

and give these kids a better chance

because you knew how you grew up.

But there's a lot of people that grew up better than you

and they grew up in a middle class home.

And then they went to college and got a middle class job.

And they're still envious at people that started that nothing

started less than them and ended up more successful with them.

And now you're trying to give back

and you're trying to help those kids.

But for some reason, they still find a way to hate.

And at the end of the day, it makes me angry.

I'm going off right now about it.

But you have to learn, and this comes with maturity,

that you can't sit here and give every single one

of those people a lecture on this.

Because you could tell them to your blue in the face

and they're not going to change.

They are setting their ways.

You know, like I said, they didn't want to take the risk.

They're not going to reap the reward.

They think that the government should take more of your money

just because you're more successful than them

with if the roles were flipped, if they were switched.

And they were the person, they wouldn't want to be given

the money away.

They're in the position that they're in,

it's all about perspective.

Yeah.

So you'd say you've grown in the fact that you've learned

to block out haters more.

Do you think people that look at you or whatever

and just ridicule what you've got going on?

You think you've changed that over the last five years?

People are always going to have something to say.

I heard you in here before I walked in and did this podcast.

You were talking about on your last one

and you were saying that you have to learn

to block those people out because if you were next 185 pound

UFC champion, world champion, and you lose once,

there's going to be memes.

People are going to be knocking you.

People are going to be talking about you.

They're going to be making fun of you.

And that's the truth.

That is the truth.

You could have all this success in the world

and you fail once and you fail hard.

You will fail hard.

You got to be ready for that.

But a lot of these people that take the risk know

that that's part of it and they're ready for that.

They're not thinking, all right, I'm going to go in and lose this fight.

All right, I'm not going to fail in business.

I'm not going to put myself in debt this week.

I'm not going to do, I'm not going to have more expenses

than I have revenue this month.

But they know that's a risk.

They have to accept that.

They have to come to terms with that.

And they have to do everything in their power

to not let that happen.

And other people's influence and other people's opinions

and haters isn't going to change that fact.

You know what I mean?

They're not doing it to please those people.

They're doing it to be successful themselves.

And they know what people are going to say along the way.

Speaking of which, man, what was crazy,

was cool to watch happen was you call

your shot, bro, of your fight with Romero Cotton.

Was that too fight to go?

Too fight to go.

Too fight to go.

I got to be there in person.

I remember how bad you wanted that for so long.

Over a year might have been going on two years.

Yeah, you were asking for that one of that so bad.

Three time national champ, you know, wrestler.

He was also undefeated.

Looked the part, you know, had the resume, big as hell.

And you were wanting that fight, you know, for so long.

And to me to date, you know, it was like,

that was one of your better performances.

For sure.

And was cool to see you ended up with the Superman punch.

Speaking of memes, you know,

I think Josh put a couple nice ones together

for the for the grind cast, you know, for the for the agency

on it.

And that was dope, bro.

So what gave you that level of confidence leading up to it,

knowing that he was three time, you know,

national champ wrestler undefeated, you know,

all of that stuff, what like you were so confident coming

into it.

I then today all that's good.

You're a good shit talker.

I mean, you this this dude can talk shit for sure.

When Josh was like, man, what do you guys normally,

we just verbally spar with each other.

And he talks about how short I am and shit, you know what it means?

I try to come up with new material, you know, all the time.

But that's what we normally do.

So I laugh when it's somebody else's turn to take the verbal abuse,

you know, when you start talking stuff to somebody else,

but what gave you the confidence, man?

Like I said, first off, it's all the hard work.

Second off, I know those accolades are three time,

NCAA champ, the four time finalists, all it is is just that,

you know, it's and that was in wrestling.

This is MMA.

It's different.

On top of that, I know the pedigree of my own wrestling.

I know the level I'm on and I knew I could wrestle with him.

Even if he was a little bit better than me,

I knew I was going to make it competitive.

And I know I'm on that level, but I, you know,

I ended up transferring to play football instead of wrestling

in college.

I'm not going to sit here and make excuses.

I'm not going to be a husband.

But I know how good I was at wrestling.

So that that first, second, my hard work.

Third, game planning.

You know, I believe in my coaches.

I believe in my, believe in myself.

I have good sparring partners.

I have good training partners.

And I knew we were going to come up with the best game plan possible.

Another thing is that I just, I've just always

been a confident individual.

You know what I mean?

It's like I've always been the person.

If you think you can beat me, whether it was wrestling, whether it was fighting,

whether it was boxing, that you're going to have to prove it to me.

You know, whether it's in sparring, whether it's in a fight,

it does not matter.

You're going to have to prove it to me.

And you know.

I proved to you in that curl competition that we had.

When we had the curl off competition, that was that during COVID, too?

Yes.

And I think tell that story.

Tell that story.

OK.

So we started off.

I don't know how much way.

I'm just going to throw arbitrary number out there.

40, 45 pound dumbbells.

We're doing concentration curls inside of our leg, sitting down on a bench.

Start off like 10 reps.

You know, solid 10 reps, too.

Like we normally do arguing with each other.

Who's going to do more?

Then I noticed the next set, he did 11.

I counted and he did 11.

He didn't say anything out loud.

But I see and he did 11.

So I was like, OK, I'm going to do 12.

And I did 12, the next set.

And he noticed I did 12.

So that I see and he did 15.

And at this point, we're like, OK, we know what we're doing.

So we just kept going up.

We went up and wait.

We start going up and reps.

And he got to the point where these reps weren't even actual curls.

We were using our whole body.

We're swinging to get these reps up.

And we're going to like 70 reps.

And we're just, we're killing time.

We're probably spending half hour in there.

There, then we have to.

And we're just sitting there trying to do as many curls as we can,

just to compete with each other.

And we were there probably a half hour doing that shit.

We ended up 70, like, and reps.

And we're like, OK, yeah, let's just call it a truce.

What would you say are some of the best supplements?

I know you're a supplement taker, anything to get an edge.

Some people say supplements are a waste of time.

You just pee everything out.

What do you think are some useful supplements?

Well, I mean, everybody knows what's responsible for glass

and they have different formulas and everything

that they put together.

I don't think they do know.

You said it's glaxen.

Glaxen, supplement company.

Some of my favorite, I take a test officer in booster.

And a lot of people are like, Jalen does this all the time.

He's like, oh, I don't want to take testosterone.

I'm like, bro, it's not testosterone.

It's a formula that's supposed to naturally

boost your testosterone, your free testosterone.

It's a bunch of adaptogenics and herbs

that have potential to boost your testosterone.

And I'll take the alpha 365 by them, which has like,

maca and it has tribulus, fenugreek,

all things that have been shown to have potential

to boost testosterone.

And it also has tonkatole, it has boron,

which is shown to free up your free testosterone

and bound testosterone.

So you have more floating throughout your body

to use for your tissues.

And then on top of that, I'll take a Phidogia

Aggressedus supplement, which Dr. Huberman

talks about a lot.

And I've been doing a lot of research on myself.

There's a lot of clinical studies showing

that it has a significant effect on your testosterone

and your free testosterone as well.

So I take all of those.

I think those are very important because as we age,

even somebody like myself 27 years old,

your testosterone starts to decline.

And as a professional athlete, I can't take TRT.

I think TRT is a viable option for a lot of people.

And if it's going to enhance your quality of life,

there's nothing wrong with it.

But I can't do that as an athlete.

I wouldn't qualify for it yet either.

But I'm trying to do everything I can between the way.

I'm eating supplements, everything.

So at first things first, I would say testosterone boost

just alpha 365.

It's a good formula.

There's other brands out there that have

good formulas beyond raw.

It has a good one.

It's called DTF, which is dynamic testosterone formula,

not what you think it stands for.

There's a few other ones.

Axon Sledge has a good one.

And pretty much the companies that are

known for producing good supplements

are usually going to have a good testosterone booster

as well because they know it's very vital to building muscle.

So you believe in the testosterone?

Yes, I believe.

I believe.

Even if it only makes 100-point difference,

that's a big difference here in testosterone,

your total testosterone.

Other ones, creatine.

Huge on creatine.

It doesn't matter what brand is long as you're getting creatine

on the line.

I'll come around on that.

Yeah, I'll come around on that.

I used to...

How was anti-creative for a while?

I was worried about you.

Yeah.

And it helps with your brain.

It helps with muscle size.

It helps increase lean muscle mass.

It actually helps with hydration.

I remember you thought it was dehydrating you.

So it brings muscle...

It makes me cramp.

Yeah, it brings muscle into your cell or it brings water into your cells and actually helps

retain water.

So a lot of the time after I cut weight, I'll kill the creatine along with electricians.

You have to be drinking electrolytes as well, but there's a lot of people out there that

think like hydration is just water.

If you're drinking just water and a bunch of water, you're going to pee out all your

electrolytes.

You know, you have to be drinking electrolytes too.

So if you're drinking a gallon of water a day and you're taking creatine and you're starting

to cramp up a little bit because you have a hard routine with lifting, it's not because

of the creatine.

Because you're not adding any electrolytes in.

Electrolites are also very important for muscle function.

Magnesium is very important for muscle function.

You know, you've got potassium that's going to help with heart health.

It's going to help with muscle function as well.

Sodium and calcium.

There's other ones, magnesium zinc.

But I think electrolytes, creatine, test boosters and obviously protein.

There's a lot of people that don't get enough protein a day.

Whether they're not eating enough meat, they're on a vegan diet.

You need to supplement with protein as well.

And I would say a full amino acid, full spectrum amino acid, meaning not just the BCAs and

not just five EAs.

There's 20 amino acids out there known that you can put into an oral amino acid formula

where you can absorb all of those through the drink.

There's a lot that you get through means that you get through your diet.

There's some that your body produces on their own.

But the essential.

What about a multi vitamin?

I don't think it's very necessary if you have a good diet.

If you're eating red meat, you're eating fruit, you're eating vegetables, you're good.

But if your diet's not there, of course, you're going to need a multi vitamin.

Or if you're dieting hard, you want to lose weight.

You're on a weight loss program.

A multi vitamin might help.

How about any, thank you for that, man.

What about any misconceptions you think are out there about you that you could debunk,

like anything that people you've heard is said about you or anything that you think people

think of you?

I mean, I don't really care too.

I hear shit about myself all the time.

Me too.

That's news to me.

Me too.

I hear it all the time.

But not saying that I'm a big deal or anything.

Like when you're having some success and you're in the spotlight, whether it's on your

local scene, a regional scene, whatever, there's going to be a lot of people talking about

you.

There's going to be stories that are made up.

There's going to be some truth that's being stretched.

That's mostly just people that don't have very good social skills.

They find somebody else that doesn't like you and that's their way of talking to each

other and getting along with each other.

Yeah, you get that a lot.

Right.

I'm not too worried about it.

People that know me, if they know me, they know it's not true.

And those people can spread the lies as much as they want.

If somebody asks me, of course, I'll clear my name to that person, but I'm not going

to go to a great extent too.

Amen.

Okay, I'll tell you.

You don't believe me?

It's fine.

You know, I know one is the testosterone thing.

You know, I think you, you're so ripped up.

Yeah, people say it's very interesting.

You know, in big people say you're on steroids all the time.

I don't even know why I didn't think you're last fight.

I was there.

I was arguing with somebody in the crowd about that.

Right.

Every time you go to watch Bellatour's posts on Instagram anytime they post a video of

me, anytime they post a picture of me at weigh-ins, the face offs, every single time you'll

see like trolls.

Yeah, I and Jettna D into my stomach sub queue.

There was, you can see the little bumps on my stomach during the one weigh-ins because I

was super lean and I was always doing the same two spots.

You know, sometimes there were teams from my legs, but you start developing a little bit

of a scar tissue and there was somebody on there.

His gut comes out a little bit if you look at him from the side and he has those bumps

on his stomach.

He's definitely taken HGH.

That's growth gut that he has and you can see the lumps on his stomach for where he injects

it at.

And I'm like, okay, whatever.

I'm not even going to argue with this person.

Right.

I don't care steroids.

I get drug tested by Bellatour, not by Bellatour by the athletic commission and the fight

that which we fight in.

So if I'm fighting in Connecticut, Connecticut's athletic commission will test me.

And those athletic commission is they use the water testing list which is the same list

used by the Olympics, the same list used by the UFC.

So the UFC is they have a third party testing agency called Usada.

Usada has the same band list as water, but they just, they can show up at your house.

They can show up at the gym.

They have your location at all times.

So they can drug test you whenever.

I only get drug tests when I have a fight coming up or if I'm at a vet for a press conference,

somebody that got drug tested recently sitting the outlaw ended up popping for a couple

of different peptides that you're not allowed to take.

And he got banned for six months to a year, I believe, suspended.

And he wasn't allowed to fight into the Grand Prix which they're having in his weight class.

So if anybody has a doubt that Bellatour test you, that should be, and that was out of competition.

He didn't even have a fight coming up and he got tested popped.

And people get popped after the fights all the time.

We get drug tested.

There's people that obviously might cycle on and off, you know.

It's not something I'm worried about.

People want to say I'm on steroids, they can do so.

I'm not, I do everything right.

My diet supplements, training and I have good genetics.

I've been this like this my whole life.

I showed people pictures when I was 78 years old, flexed and had a six pack biceps, everything.

They're going to think what they want at the end of the day, like I said, I could tell

them to glue in the face.

No doubt.

Not going to change their mind.

No doubt.

To close out, you know, I think we touched a lot on, you know, I think one thing that

you have to do on your come up, you know, if you're going to get successful at anything

is you got to learn that the higher you climb, the more people that are going to talk about

you, you know, the more people.

And typically, you know, there's a saying out that says, you know, you usually won't find

a hater that's doing better than you, you know.

So usually it's the people that haven't gone as far as you've gone that are going to

hate on you.

And I think that is one thing that everybody out there that is pushing for greatness, that's

on their way to greatness, just has to get comfortable with and learning that that's

going to, it's going to happen.

You know, you got to get used to that.

We talked about that.

Any other closing things, you know, that you would give to somebody out there, whether

it's people that are pushing to get better in MMA or have a dream in MMA or a dream in

business or whatever it is, any words of advice or anything that you would share with those

people to inspire those people or anything that you've learned on your journey, you know,

in closing that you would give to those people.

Yeah, it doesn't even have to be with just MMA itself.

It could be with anything business sports, whether it be football, MMA, if you want to

go be a doctor, whatever, there's going to be people that are going to doubt you that

tell you need to be realistic.

There's going to be people that talk behind your back that won't say it to your face,

but you hear it from other people anyways.

And there's going to be people that might not say anything to you, but you see the smile

or the look on their face, whenever you say that, you know, you're going to be the next

UFC champ or you're going to be, you're going to go to the NFL.

You have to understand that that's a part of it.

These people grew up with you.

They don't think that you're capable of anything great.

Anybody who's ever been great, Mike Tyson, you know, went to a normal, probably went to a

normal school, a normal high school, grew up with friends.

And before he was a big name, whenever he was just Mike Tyson to them, and he was just

their friend and a guy from around the corner, if he said he was going to be World Champion,

they were probably laughing.

You know, they're probably thinking like, oh, Muhammad Ali is somebody that is a World

Champion.

That's somebody that if they said they were World Champion, people would believe it.

But Muhammad Ali started off just like Mike Tyson.

He was just a normal kid around the corner that cash is played.

Yeah, everybody, everybody knew, you know, as cash is clear, they just knew him as that.

He wasn't a boxer.

He wasn't a World Champion.

He started from the bottom and worked his way up.

And you have to understand that that's going to be like that no matter what you do.

People going on belief.

Yeah, don't let that deter you.

I had family, you know, telling me I need to be more realistic.

More realistic.

I had people telling me I need to stop rolling around with sweaty men in my family because

that's not going to get me anywhere.

You know, and I still have people to this day touch up on this a little bit.

Demetri told me that I talked to you about this that a couple people in a shop, not going

to mention their names, what they knew who they are.

If they watch this, that saying that I can't beat Israel to Sonya, they're saying that because

they know me, they grew up with me.

They're from the same town as me.

They idolize Israel to Sonya as the best fighter in the world.

And they think there's no way that Dalton Rosta from Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and he fights

for Bellator, the B leagues that could be Israel to Sonya.

There's no way, you know, and then one day whenever I finally do fight them and I want

to finally do beat them, they're going to say that they believed in me.

I heard the comments I was here for, I remember them.

It's not motivating me and it's not discouraging me.

I told you this before I don't let it have an effect on me because I have my motivations.

I have everything set in place for why I do what I do.

And them saying that isn't going to affect me, but I will remember it.

Yeah, no doubt.

That's just how it is.

I tell people, you know, I heard before I like, I want you to talk bad to me to my face

and good about me behind my back.

Right?

I'd rather tell you, I'd rather tell you, keep it real with you and say some bad things

to you that I feel and be real with you and then support you and talk good about you

behind your back than the people that talk good to me to my face and then talk bad about

me, you know, behind my back.

I think, you know, I know that you're stance.

A lot of time being you, we just agree to disagree.

But I know that's how you feel.

I know that's you say that all the time that the what people say don't motivate you or

demotivate you.

It is what it is because you're already motivated.

It doesn't affect you either way.

Yeah, my motivations in place is already there.

Me, I love the, I do get inspired and motivated by a little bit of shit talk.

I do put that as fuel when I hear, you know, people talking about me or when adversity comes

in my way.

I almost like I've learned to need that in a sense.

I like that little bit of and put that away for myself for when I need it, you know,

in the future.

But that's okay for some people.

If you need that, that's fine, you know, but even if you didn't have that, you have

your goals.

No, no.

No, no.

No, no.

You have the reason why you do what you do.

That motivates you a little bit more.

Nothing wrong with it.

You know, I mean all the power to you, but even if they weren't there, you know, Dan

well, you'd be doing the same shit.

Facts.

And how would people go about following you?

It's just regular don't like don't.

Just don't miss on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.

Followed a journey.

Just follow the don't and Ross the journey.

If you ain't on the train, get on get on the train now and other than a couple curse words,

you know, out there.

I don't know how many people there, your people are going to find with a better person

to look up to and admire as a young person.

By the way, that you live your life, you know, I see the way you live your life behind

the scenes, bro, and somebody should be jumping on the endorsement bandwagon ASAP, you know,

for you, man, because they ain't too many cleaner people out there, you know, for people

to look up to and admire and young people to look up to and admire.

So proud of you, man.

Keep up the good fight.

Thank you for coming on the grind.

I'm going to pass again and every time we get a chance to see you in the burr brother,

we're excited to have you.

So proud of you.

Keep going, keep grinding, keep hustling.

Thank you, bro.

My dog.

Hey, thanks for joining us on another episode of the grind cast.

Get ready us a new day.