Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads, similar to how Carli Judice stood after her collegiate softball career, searching for a new direction? Our latest episode is a riveting exploration of Carli's remarkable leap into the world of MMA, and it promises to inspire anyone facing personal challenges or a career pivot. As Carli reveals her journey from the softball diamond to the UFC octagon, her story is a testament to the resilience and dedication required to make such a transition.
This episode is a treasure trove for fight aficionados and novices alike, as Carli walks us through selecting a fight style that capitalizes on her strengths and the emotional trek from amateur rings to the professional spotlight. Her first pro fight victory tale is as electrifying as the bout itself, and when we touch upon the spontaneous excitement of the Contender Series – where dreams are made under Dana White's watchful eye – you'll feel like you're cage-side, cheering her on.
Carli Judice's rapid climb to the UFC showcases not only her tenacity but also the inclusive spirit of MMA. Whether you're a lifelong martial artist or someone who's discovered their calling later in life, Carli's insights into the varied backgrounds of UFC fighters will resonate deeply. Plus, we examine the crucial recovery time needed post-fight and how the UFC ensures their athletes are in peak condition for their next battle. Strap in for a no-holds-barred conversation that invites you into the life of a fighter on the road to ultimate glory.
AcadianaCasts Presents: Carli "Crispy" Judice.
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Thanks to our sponsor Krewe Allons, official NIL Collective for Louisiana Athletics!
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Want to get involved with the show as a guest or sponsor, or have ideas for future guests? Send an email to info@acadianacasts.com
"AcadianaCasts Presents" is the Flagship Podcast of the ACADIANACASTS NETWORK. Lafayette, LA based host, Carter Simoneaux talks with entertainers, business owners, athletes, chefs, and more - anyone who can help tell the story of Acadiana.
If you want to watch this episode on YouTube, check out our channel!
Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads, similar to how Carli Judice stood after her collegiate softball career, searching for a new direction? Our latest episode is a riveting exploration of Carli's remarkable leap into the world of MMA, and it promises to inspire anyone facing personal challenges or a career pivot. As Carli reveals her journey from the softball diamond to the UFC octagon, her story is a testament to the resilience and dedication required to make such a transition.
This episode is a treasure trove for fight aficionados and novices alike, as Carli walks us through selecting a fight style that capitalizes on her strengths and the emotional trek from amateur rings to the professional spotlight. Her first pro fight victory tale is as electrifying as the bout itself, and when we touch upon the spontaneous excitement of the Contender Series – where dreams are made under Dana White's watchful eye – you'll feel like you're cage-side, cheering her on.
Carli Judice's rapid climb to the UFC showcases not only her tenacity but also the inclusive spirit of MMA. Whether you're a lifelong martial artist or someone who's discovered their calling later in life, Carli's insights into the varied backgrounds of UFC fighters will resonate deeply. Plus, we examine the crucial recovery time needed post-fight and how the UFC ensures their athletes are in peak condition for their next battle. Strap in for a no-holds-barred conversation that invites you into the life of a fighter on the road to ultimate glory.
AcadianaCasts Presents: Carli "Crispy" Judice.
*******
Thanks to our sponsor Krewe Allons, official NIL Collective for Louisiana Athletics!
*******
Want to get involved with the show as a guest or sponsor, or have ideas for future guests? Send an email to info@acadianacasts.com
"AcadianaCasts Presents" is the Flagship Podcast of the ACADIANACASTS NETWORK. Lafayette, LA based host, Carter Simoneaux talks with entertainers, business owners, athletes, chefs, and more - anyone who can help tell the story of Acadiana.
If you want to watch this episode on YouTube, check out our channel!
Hey guys, it's Carter Simino with Acadiana Cast Presents. If you've been following along, listened or watched any of the episodes or clips, you know we haven't been putting anything out for a little bit, took a little bit of a hiatus at the end of the year to shore up some things, do some other things with Acadiana Cast, but we're now back to releasing this show once a week for the foreseeable future. 2024 is gonna be great. I apologize for the hiatus but I appreciate you guys tuning in and if this is your first time, welcome. I got a really exciting episode today with Carly Judis. In a little bit We'll go to the intro of that, but I just kind of wanted to clean up a little bit from the hiatus and just address that I am actually wearing the same shirt that I am in that episode.
Speaker 1:Didn't plan that, but so much for continuity, because I think the background is completely different, as you'll see in just a little bit. But we are back. Enjoy the show. Please like, comment. Subscribe helps us grow. That's the easiest way for us to do that and I think you're gonna really enjoy this conversation with Carly. Don't think anything's out of date. We interviewed her back in November but she is probably training right now for her first official UFC fight. We're gonna get into all of that in just a little bit, but with that being said, ladies and gentlemen, this is the main event of the evening, sanctioned by absolutely no one, hosted and produced by Carter Siminoe, with technical production and editing by Jai Benoit. Our judges scoring the contest in their car, at home or at work, you, the audience. Our referee in charge is, of course, the internet. Please don't cancel us. This championship fight is brought to you by Cruelon official NIL collective for Louisiana athletes. Go to Crueloncom to join the crew today.
Speaker 2:More on that later on in the episode.
Speaker 1:For UFC and podcast fans around the world. This is the moment you've been waiting for, pre-recorded at the Acadianic Cast Studios in the heart of Cajun country it's time Five rounds for the undisputed podcast Flightweight Championship of the World. Introducing first, fighting out of the red corner, a Southpaw scrapper holding a professional record three wins, one loss. She stands five feet seven inches tall, weighing in at 125 pounds, fighting out of Lafayette, Louisiana, through Head Kicks, MMA, Presenting, making her UFC and Acadianic Cast presents debut.
Speaker 2:Carly Crispy, judeans.
Speaker 1:Hit the music. Hit the music.
Speaker 3:Hit the music, hit the music, hit the music. I could go from being playing softball to kicking people in the face.
Speaker 1:So, whenever you left the team, left the program, what was going through your mind? What was the plan?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I didn't have a plan. I moved home and I tried to go back to school. I went to SLCC for a little bit and I was just working at a restaurant, and when you work at a restaurant you get free food. So I was just sitting there eating blooming onions and bread and butter and I was just gaining a bunch of weight. And I've always been active my whole life, so it was weird for me to just, like you know, be not doing anything, go from playing softball to doing all this, to coming home not doing anything. I just kind of felt lost and just felt bored with my life and not sure what I was going to do next.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I feel that all the time except I don't you know choose to go get punched in the face when I'm bored. But you know, to each his own, I guess. So how did you get into fighting?
Speaker 3:My brother trained at the gym that I trained at now Head Kicks Martial Arts on Johnson Street and great name, by the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it Right.
Speaker 3:It's so fitting for all the athletes that fight out of head kicks. It's like our signature move is head kick. So, yeah, my brother was we live in like a little countryside thing and my house in New Iberia and my brother was on the punching bag in the backyard like kicking and punching, and I walked out and he was saying that I remember he had no shoes on, just like dirt in his feet. It was kind of gross. He was trying to get me to throw kicks and they were awful, god awful. But then he was like you should come to the gym try it out. And then I went the next week. I started a little two week trial and I just stayed there ever since. That was in 2020.
Speaker 1:So I'm sure you had a lot of time during that year, to you know, just sitting in a gym and sitting at home and hit a bag.
Speaker 3:I think I started about two to three months before COVID hit. So I started in the gym, kind of got introduced to all the basic techniques and then whenever we went into quarantine I was just kind of left with all of that so I could work on my own. I think I did this challenge where I ran two miles every day for 30 days and every I would run two miles and then I'd go work on the bag and just work on all the basics that I was introduced to when I first started a head kick. So it was. It was like a perfect timing to just really focus on all those little things, because you tend to like especially in fighting, you tend to go straight to like power and just trying to throw everything with everything you have. But there is, just like any other sport, there's technique and there's skill behind everything you're doing and reasons why you want to throw technical things instead of just power. So I really spent that time learning how to do everything throw punches and stuff.
Speaker 1:So, besides, you know the technical aspects of the crafts between softball and MMA, what is the difference in training, as far as you know, lifting or calisthenics and things like that, what is, what's the big difference between those two sports?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean especially, I don't know, it's just like. It's so different. Like fighters, you have to work like there's no way around it and then, on top of having to put in that work to make sure your cardio is there, your strength is there, everything you get you're getting hit in the face. It's like softball. You don't get hit in the face Like as a catcher. I would get hit in my arms if I would try to like block balls or people would. It would miss off the bat wrong and it would hit me in my helmet.
Speaker 3:But I don't wear a helmet to fight. You know we wear gear to train but we don't even wear shin guards. And you know, certain once you're a pro, you don't wear shin guards to fight. So it's just, you're just living off of, off of adrenaline. So the training is different. You know I softball. I just went to like one practice a day as a fighter, especially a professional fighter. Now I'm going to two practices a day. I'm lifting three times a week and so there's just so much that goes into it to make sure you're ready to step in the cage, because it's huge. Someone's trying to take your head off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Before you started fighting pro, you're an amateur doing amateur fights. You did, like what? Three of them before you Four. You had four fights. Did you have any plans to fight professional? Was it just still kind of like feeling out the sport and just, you know, trying to get better at this one thing that you're, you know, now paying attention to for the first time?
Speaker 3:Right, I think, two fights in to my amateur career. We kind of started to like, okay, well, maybe I can, you know, make a career out of this one day Once we got past my past my fourth fight and my fourth amateur fight. We were trying to find local fights and fights around and we couldn't find any. So that's when we decided to just make the move to pro, because it's so hard to find, you know, girls that fight, much less girls that fight in Louisiana or just the surrounding state. So that's when we decided, when we couldn't find any fights locally.
Speaker 1:So I mean we do have a growing and pretty good scene. You know we have. We have several fighters that have come from Lafayette. Obviously, you mentioned that you're the first female, but you know obviously Dustin Poirier, dana Cormier and some other guys I can't remember their names right now, sorry, phyllis, but when it comes to like these small scale pro fights that they have, do you think there's a market here in South Louisiana, especially if Lafayette keeps spitting out fighters for the? Do you think there's a market to grow some of those smaller fights that you were doing before you got this UFC contract?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, for sure I think so, and I think as a more and more fighters come up and they bring in their group of people like, I'm sure, my friends that watch softball or that have played softball with, never heard of or never watched MMA until I started. So I'm bringing in new crowds and more and more fighters that come, younger fighters, they're bringing in their type of people, their crowd, and I think you know it's going to continue to grow and, like you said, we have amazing talent around here and I train with a bunch of them, so we're all on the come up.
Speaker 1:Choosing a fight style. How does how does that work? Do you try different elements, different things? Do you do any sort of groundwork? Are y'all kind of stand up Like how do you determine what is best suited for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I work all of it obviously because I have to be ready if someone ever tries to grapple me.
Speaker 3:but I love to strike. You know, I think that comes with just my athletic background. I love to move. I don't really like to, you know, choke people out and do all those things. I really soared and striking because that's where I put most of my time and energy to when I first started. I like to jump around, bounce around, like I grew up on a trampoline doing backflips, you know, beating up people and trampolines. So it's definitely one thing that I put a lot of energy into striking. And I think, just as I train boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, and I try to have a mixture of kickboxing and boxing and make it my own style. So everything that I learn, I try to put it together in a different way. You know that feels good to my body and my mind and I just try to mix it all together.
Speaker 1:So, after you decided, like I want to do some of these pro fight, how does the first, what's the process of getting a pro fight?
Speaker 3:Well, I have a management team. They're a bigger scale management team so when you're fighting really local, you know sometimes they don't get involved with that. They help you to get to the big show. So my coaches reached out to local promotions and trying to see if they had anybody that would fight me pro, because there's more women in the pro pool than there is amateur, so it was easier to find local pro as opposed to amateur. So, yeah, I fought. My first fight was in Morgan City on October 15th of 2022, my first pro fight.
Speaker 1:Wow, Okay, and we have some footage from it and we're going to get you as we play it. This is your first fight. I believe this video.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:You can tell me if I'm wrong here, but let's go ahead and play it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is a 17 second fight right here. It wasn't that much to it. Boom yeah, my signature head kick. I love that. I'm always working it, I'm always starting it in practice.
Speaker 1:In the gym.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:Okay, what's going on here?
Speaker 3:Same thing. Anybody that knows me knows there's a head kick coming at some point.
Speaker 1:I think this is the knockout right here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Some people were saying there was rumors that I broke her jaw right there, but I mean I didn't talk to her after they said she was holding her jaw. But yeah, that was a crazy one. That felt awesome. That was my first pro fight and one of my first actual hardcore knockouts. I've had some TKOs and stuff like that, but that was awesome. That was a good feeling.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, yeah, I bet On top of the world like freaking savage. Oh, yeah, for sure, like strongest of the fit. It's true, just like primal human beings like I get to eat today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there's so much work that goes into fighting and it's like you work, you hear your sayings, you work a thousand hours to work for 15 minutes, or, in that case, 17 seconds, and it's like to have an outcome like that is like, okay, well, it all paid off. But don't want to be wrong. Sometimes you lose and it's like, okay, that didn't pay off, but I mean, I mean in the fight you didn't win, but in other ways it paid off. So you know.
Speaker 1:So what was the moment like whenever you saw that? Because I believe you told me on the phone like, and you got asked was it a last minute addition to the contender series? Let's just let's just talk about that from you being asked to get into the contender series. How does that work?
Speaker 3:So usually it's set, you know, eight weeks to like three months, four months in advance. They know it's a series, so they know season one, two, three, four, all the way up into, I think, 10 seasons. So they know way ahead of time If you're fighting uh, I wasn't on that list, I only had three wins they usually don't even take you, uh, as an option for the contender series until you have four wins. So, um, we weren't even thinking to get that call.
Speaker 1:And to be clear, what is the UFC contender series?
Speaker 3:The contender series is pretty much a you know, a show that you get one fight, uh, to Dana White sitting cage side to watch you and he's handing out contracts to people that impress him, Most of the time the winners of the fight, um. But sometimes there's been times where the winner doesn't get a contract just cause, like it was, he thought it was a boring fight or, you know, he wasn't too impressed. But, uh, they called me. I wasn't even planning to, I wasn't even supposed to fight on there. And then the Saturday before the Tuesday, 10 days before, I got a call from my manager and, uh, he was like, hey, they got a fight, a contender series fight. Um, would you be ready? Will you be able to make weight? And I called my coach and, uh, just acting like this is a good idea, Is this dumb to do, you know? But he, uh, he said we should do it. You don't pass up an opportunity like that.
Speaker 1:Sure yeah, that's good sound advice. So then I guess you just lock in to that time between when you find out to the, to the, the fight, the training goes.
Speaker 3:You got to, I mean training. I had a actually the Thursday before that Saturday. I got stitches on my lip, so I already was planning on. Uh, my coach was like no sparring for two weeks and I'm like, all right, well, no sparring for two weeks, but I fight in a week, you know so it was like whatever you got to do, you know. So I think I even got my stitches out, like my sister came and clipped my stitches out two days before the fight. And then the contender series.
Speaker 3:So, you really do just like it doesn't matter what happens. We're fighting, no matter what.
Speaker 1:So you, you lose in a split decision and you know normally that means like nah, it's over. You know back to the drawing board. You know see what happens. But you find out that Dana gives you a contract. How do you find out?
Speaker 3:Uh, I found out live just when everybody on TV. You know we were watching on a little phone in the hotel room and um, just to see like I thought he might compliment the fight and say some things. But I had no idea he was going to.
Speaker 1:So is it? Is it after, like after all the fights, or you just go to like a green rumor? Okay?
Speaker 3:It's after all the fights and they they actually put us on the little loser bus and rolled us back to the hotel.
Speaker 1:I felt like dude.
Speaker 3:I know I was looking out the window like tears come from. I felt like it was like a TV show, like something really sad just happened. It was a yeah, like you said, go back to the drawing board. But when you lose at the biggest, like that's the biggest stage anybody could ever be on and I lost and it's like that's your only chance, right.
Speaker 3:It's like, do I even go back to the drawing board at this point? Cause that was, you know, that was the biggest thing ever and I just screwed it up. So I was, I was feeling pretty low, but when we got that, when we watched it on TV, it was a crazy. I had no words, I just kind of froze.
Speaker 1:Now, how do? What's it like for other fighters, or even women? Uh, do they have similar backgrounds as you do? Or some come up into the contender series. Have been been trained their whole life and mixed martial arts or I mean, everybody has different backgrounds, most people that cause it seems like you did it so quick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, it was a three years was crazy. You know, I was very active. I fought a four amateur fights in, you know, probably I think, two years. Most people fight like three to four fights a year, but I was rolling and I even had surgeries.
Speaker 3:But as soon as I could get back in the gym, I was back in the gym, cause I know so I'm not really old, but I know that to get to the UFC, I knew it would. I thought it would take a while, so I just wanted to keep, you know, keep getting better and keep getting my name out there and keep getting wins, and that's what I was trying to do. But yeah, people like, I think, the person I thought, uh, she's been in the gym since she was like 10, you know, and I started when, I think, was 20. So there a lot of people that I've fought have so much more experience in me, uh, and has have been in the gym since they were little, and most people in the sport have. But there are like a handful of people that have just started, like me, and just put in the work.
Speaker 1:How long ago was this?
Speaker 3:About seven weeks ago.
Speaker 1:Between that announcement into your first UFC fight. What is that timeline?
Speaker 3:They're not, like you know, knocking on your door two days after the fight. They're asking you when you're going to fight again. They understand you have to let your, your brain, heal all your injuries and they know that, uh, the sport is full of injuries, so they're not rushing you to finish your contracts and do all that stuff.
Speaker 1:But also, I imagine, from the contender series going up to the main level, um, they realize that a lot of these fighters like yourself were, you know, uh, training part time because they have to supplement their income with another job, and so I imagine they probably understand that and need to give you time to, like, get your life together so that you can prepare to start training Right.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, um, I'm going to try to fight in January or February, so it's about, you know, like a three to four month turnaround that I'm aiming for. But it's really whatever you know, your managers and coaches and you all agree on when you want to get back in there.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Well, that man, yeah, the, the UFC and how, how those they line up fights and the timelines, and it's always like throws me for a loop. I'm like man, there was some fighter recently who like just got out of a fight and then like someone dropped out and like like there was. Like two weeks later he came and started fighting again. I remember who that was recently.
Speaker 3:Probably Volkanowski, if I had to guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably Volk, or is easy as a quick turn arounds too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, I mean a lot of people try to fight three to four times a year. So that you know, especially the lower fighters where they're not making as much as a. You know we got to. We got to do it because whatever paycheck we made from, say, our first fight is going to last us till our second one. You know, because most people try to quit their jobs and be able to train full time because that's what it takes, you know.
Speaker 1:So they determine at least for new fighters, like when they get pay per view fights compared to, you know, just like regular ESPN. I know that ESPN now has, like fights for for free, I guess.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:That's not pay per view. How does that? How does that determine just through you being a good fighter and performer for a couple of fights and then they'll throw you on a main card or something like that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, like doing good or even like some people that you know or have a high presence in social media, they'll do, they'll sell well on pay per views. So it's really just sometimes they even like choose people to build up and push, you know, because that's they're trying to build superstars and they can help people do that through social media because they have a huge following. So, yeah, the main it's the main cards as opposed to the prelims. The main cards are what people pay for, that's a pay per view, and there's about like five to eight fights that are prelims and those are always most of the time free fights that you can watch on ESPN plus, and then the pay per views which you got to pay for and that's the goal.
Speaker 3:You want to be on a main, a main card.
Speaker 1:Good money, yeah, okay, social media what's what's your big? What's your biggest platform that you use?
Speaker 3:Instagram, but it's still trash.
Speaker 1:Well, we're gonna help, Okay. So I'm gonna help you right here. We're gonna get you a nice clip. This is going to be you talking to the camera. This is who your audience. We're gonna post it on social media telling people to come follow you. Why should folks come follow you?
Speaker 3:Y'all, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Please, just please, follow me, I just please.
Speaker 3:I need a following. I will. I will post videos and be training, if you even care, but uh yeah, good fighter, not good promoter.
Speaker 1:We'll work on that, right, yeah, so, okay, let's. Let's rewind a little bit, because something that always fascinates me and I've heard pori talk about this on Rogan, about how brutal cutting weight is. So you fight at 125, right, what do you? What are you walking around at?
Speaker 3:I walk around at between 140 and 145.
Speaker 1:By the way, people, this is like the only time you can ask a woman how much they weigh, so I think I'm following the right protocol here.
Speaker 3:And I'm actually kind of getting mad. Why'd you?
Speaker 1:accept. Please don't hurt me. I cannot defend myself. So yeah, what is that process like?
Speaker 3:Well, usually you cut from like a six to eight week period and you, you know, just go on a strict diet and you're training so much that you know you're just burning calories. So you're, you're just dieting, trickling down to the weight. But when I went to Vegas, it was a 10 day cut and I cut from about the same you know weight that I would have started an eight week camp from.
Speaker 3:Oh, my God so it was intense, it was, it was crazy and that was the biggest thing is my coach said can you make weight? Cause, if, if I sign that contract, you know, saying I'm going to make weight and I'm going to be there if you miss weight for a UFC opportunity, they're going to be like this kid's like like why would you sign the contract? You know so you have to like, be sure you're going to make weight which we weren't sure.
Speaker 1:But I like what's. How do I phrase this? At what point did you get it Like hit that weight? Was it like day of weigh in?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's always the day of weigh in. So the way it kind of works I'll try to summarize it is it's mainly diet. So you're diet. If you're not, if you don't have time to diet down, you got to suck everything out of you. So carbs hold water, salt holds water and you're trying to just get water like out of your system all the way, like you're trickling down until weigh in day. So you, I, stopped eating carbs to a certain point in the week. When you start to get closer, I stopped eating salts and I'm drinking water. So that way it's flushing out those salts and carbs. So you know, and any my nutritionist will probably get on here and saying I'm wrong, but I'm just saying what I. You know a rough estimate of what I am think, what I think is happening.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, the day right before the night before weigh in, you weigh in, we weigh in Friday morning. So Thursday night we stayed up a little later and you would, I would rotate from the bath to a sauna blanket and just sweating. Just, I sweat for like three to four hours and I it took me three to four hours to sweat out, I think, two and a half to three pounds. So I went to bed next morning Friday it was Friday morning of weigh-ins. We weighed in at nine, I think. I woke up at five and I cut the rest, so I had three more pounds to go. So it's brutal. I even think my ears started to pop like once I got down to 125, because I don't even. I don't even know the science behind that, why I just did not feel great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but we made weight, so that's all. That's what the goal was. I didn't know if I was going to be able to make weight until I stepped on that scale and I made weight and I was like we did it, you know.
Speaker 1:But a lot of great feeling.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you just have to like mentally. I had to mentally lock in because I never I'm one that does not cut weight. Well, like in the past, I've had to really take my time on it. So this rush weight cut was so different.
Speaker 1:What is? You have like a. You have like a headaches during that time. Yeah, Just being dehydrated, I imagine.
Speaker 3:Dehydrated, hungry. I think I was eating like a thousand calories a day Once you got really to the end of it. You're not eating much, but you're still training twice a day. So it gets like your body is like I'm about to drop dead, like why are you doing this to me? But if as long as I stay locked in mentally, I got there.
Speaker 1:So you make weight and then how long after? The official weigh-in to the fight is like two days next day.
Speaker 3:Next day, so 24, about 24 to 36 hours.
Speaker 1:So once you hit that requirement, are you heading to like a Chinese buffet? What are you doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah Well first. First they say you're supposed to drink water first, so your body can still get back up before you're even ready to eat food.
Speaker 1:So there's like a system to everything. Yeah, it's probably really dangerous. Just go pick out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I was. And then your stomach gets full fast because all week you know you're eating very small portions. So when you try to go eat a big portion your stomach does not stretch out to that.
Speaker 1:So Laura, guess, right before you, brian, my loss on your boss, one of your bosses at Great Harvest for now. But he talked about how he was at any time, fitness and you know, training some folks and then eventually he went off on his own. It was a hard decision, but people over there were happy for him and imagine he's very happy for you that you're making this transition, right. But so what is what does that full training look like? That's, your full-time job is to train.
Speaker 3:Right. So I already, you know, train two times a day, about five or six days a week, depending on how my body feels that week. So really, all you know full-time training means is I have more time for, you know, film, study, rest and recovery. Most of my practices come I'm leaving work and before I went to work I had a workout. So I'm so exhausted by the time I get to practice. Sometimes I am not like checked in all the way. So I'm just excited to be like fully in the moment of every practice now and have energy for everything I'm doing, as opposed to starting the practice already drained and eight hours of work in a workout. So I'm excited to give everything I have into every practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean doing this professionally. You know that's a hell of an incentive, that paycheck that that comes with it, especially if you get success. And you know, speaking of getting a paycheck for your athletic work, we're going to talk real quick to our friend, john Akin and me, but at a computer with Kruegelon. We'll be right back, we'll be right back to the episode in just a second, but we want to talk real quick with our friends over at Kruegelon. Joining us now is John Akin, president of Kruegelon NIL Collective supporting Raging Cajun athletes. John man, this is so exciting, this collective. You know we had you on the show before but we want to just get you on every now and then real quick to just keep in mind folks about this collective. What do folks seem to know? How do they get involved?
Speaker 4:Man. Thanks for having me, carter. Yeah, there's so much momentum growing and awareness. The best way to get involved is to go on to our website, wwwkruegeloncom, and when you go to there, there's several different things. You can join the crew. There's some links to join the crew. You can pick your level. You can donate a dollar. You can donate up to $10,000. There's an FAQ section. There will be a section for our board, so that's a great place to find out information and to get involved.
Speaker 1:Alrighty. And what is this? What is this collective going to be doing for Cajun athletes? That's different from other collectives, Sure.
Speaker 4:So a collective is different from a lot of the giving that goes on on campus, really, and that this directly goes to the student athletes. So every dollar that is given to the collective will directly enhance the experience of UL student athletes through the monetization of their NIL name image and likeness. That may be appearances, that may be opportunities on social media, partnering with businesses, and so ultimately the collective is just partnering with different individuals and communities in town to help monetize and educate and create brand recognition for our student athletes.
Speaker 1:All righty guys. You heard the man go to wwwcrueloncom, that's K-R-E-W-E-A-L-L-O-N-Scom. John, thanks so much for joining us and for all the work you're doing for those athletes. Thanks, brother, thanks Carter, thanks John. So that was just me tossing to an ad real quick. It's good. Yeah, thank you, professional over here, just like you. So what are you most looking forward to as part of this process of doing it full time?
Speaker 3:I'm excited to be able to have more time to rest and recover, because I feel like trash most of my practices. But I really think that once I'm having this extra energy and focus, I will be able to grow so much more and so much faster than I have in the past three years. I feel like I've grown so much in the three years with working a full time job and I picked up coaching shifts and I would go clean my sister's house every Thursday. So I've been trying to make ends meet for the past three years but also try to get to a professional caliber level while I'm still doing all those other things. So I'm just excited to see how my growth is going to change, being that I can put everything into it.
Speaker 1:So we kind of mentioned it earlier and then like how you didn't even realize you're the first female fighter out of Lafayette to go to UFC. Yeah, I kind of don't like when, like, people ask athletes, you know, like, you know what are you doing this for? Some athletes will come and say like I'm doing this for the next generation or whatever. But you know it takes so much dedication and focus just to compete and be successful at it that sometimes you know, thinking about the larger picture, it's hard to do, especially as you're brand new. But now, knowing that you are the first female fighter out of Lafayette to UFC, does it weigh on you at all? And I'm thinking that, like how many I could help, potentially be inspiration to other girls who want to get into this. Or you're looking for a different outlet. Especially, you said you like fighting or you had a temper, so this is a healthy outlet for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I have a lot of nieces and nephews and I see a lot of girls at the gym that I train at and even like the teens, and I really want to inspire them and show them that you know, especially MMA, it's a male saturated sport.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 3:And I've been a fighter coming up and a lot of times, especially when I first started, I was intimidated by all the men I was training with. They were always stronger than me, you know faster than me, better than me, but I was able to, you know, catch up to some of them or, you know, be as good as them. The people I was, the guys that I was intimidated by, and now I go to gas stations and I'm pumping my gas. I'm like, try to attack me, attack me.
Speaker 3:You know, I have confidence going into stores and I stare at people like I'm going to beat you up if you attack me and I feel like you know these kids coming up, they can. I just want them to know that you can. Girls can be what they want and girls can be a fighter. Girls can be strong and powerful and yeah, so I'm excited to show that to people and girls around me and even if, like, they're not wanting to do this professionally or even on an amateur level.
Speaker 1:I think just learning, you know, self-defense skills like this could be super, super important and helpful for girls.
Speaker 3:For sure, especially the jujitsu side of it. You know as much as I like to strike, you know sometimes I can, you know, scissor sweep or butterfly sweep a man that's so much bigger than me and that's what jujitsu you know. The good thing about it is, sometimes you can use balance and like mess up their balance. It's not all about strength and jujitsu. So I would recommend I try to get my sisters to put her kids in jujitsu and stuff like that, so I do recommend that for sure.
Speaker 1:Man. Yeah Well, I'm excited to see and I love watching some of these women fights. In fact, my roommate, who's a massive UFC fan I watched him almost at the verge of tears when I made a new name. He was kind of like a surprise to almost like he got punched in the stomach. But yeah, we've had some. Who do you study as far as fighting goes?
Speaker 3:I'm studying a lot of. I like to look at a lot of Southpaw fighters. You know some of the better ones, like all the higher level ones. I can't think of some Cody Sanhagen. He's a good Southpaw striker. He's tall. I don't consider myself tall anymore now that I fought the girl that was taller than a giraffe. But I usually consider myself tall, but not anymore. Yeah, but being in the UFC now I try not to fangirl over the, my weight, my division, because I am, I'm trying to consider myself on that level and to that you know that level. So I'm not trying to fangirl over them too much.
Speaker 1:Well, but as far as you know, looking at film and watching film just like any other athlete, I imagine either you're studying you're studying people who are the highest echelon of the sport but also looking at people in your division, just for you know some sort of competitive advantage. Do you do things like that, or is that in the plans to study some of these opponents?
Speaker 3:For sure. Yeah, I like to especially keep an eye on everybody that I may fight and even like it's not even just studying the higher caliber, because it's like I don't consider myself the highest caliber, but I do stuff better than some of the fighters do. So everybody has their thing that they they excel in and that they're really good at, you know. So yeah, I'll study some strikers, that I mean some grapplers that I don't think strike better than me, but they're grappling is way better than mine. So I'll look at things like that.
Speaker 1:All right. So I've got a bunch of dumb questions for you. One is what's it like punching someone in the face?
Speaker 3:It's the best feeling ever. It feels so like feeling their nose just crunched on the other side of your knuckles.
Speaker 1:Oh God, you're terrifying.
Speaker 3:Right, but getting hit is it sucks? Yeah, I bet.
Speaker 1:Oh my God. So whenever you're fighting because I was watching some of your videos and even that one you know you hear your coaches in your corner and you know coaching you up, yelling at you. What are you? What are you actually hearing during that? Are you, are you retaining anything they're saying? Because I would always think like they're coaching me or they're yelling at me or whatever. I'd be like shut up, let me. Let me focus.
Speaker 3:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I imagine they're seeing things that you can and you got to trust their guidance and whatnot. That's what a good coach is for.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I hear about a half, if not sometimes three-fourths of what they're saying. You know like if they're saying a whole sentence I'll probably hear every other word or every two words, because you just pick up and you're trained to hear their voice, because they train you in practice. You know you're hearing their voice all the time, so you think you'd hear the other person's coach and the crowd, but you really don't.
Speaker 1:There stands out, it's familiar.
Speaker 3:Right, you got so much going through your mind, you, anything that you can hear from your coaches you'll try to pick up in a split second and do it until you hear the next thing that that pops out to you, so and then you try to pick it up, but, like in the, the contender series, sometimes you you go through fights. That is like it's so crazy and it's just like the contender series for me was. I didn't hear my coach as much like every once in a while. I heard knee, I heard elbow, I heard some. You know a few things that I did in the fight, but it was just, it was. My mind was blank, it was I just saw red.
Speaker 1:That's really interesting. Yeah, they talking about how you're training with this, this person, and so their voice is the one that sticks in your brain and I imagine a good coach probably also like because you you said like I only hear every other word or something like that, every third word. I imagine there's a certain like coach speak. They're almost like an art to talking outside of the octagon.
Speaker 3:Right and I think, and they also know, a lot of my coaches are fighters, so or have fought before. So they know that if they give me too much information, like you said, like we're also in there and we have to, like we have decision making, that we have to, you know, play and if they're telling something else that I'm thinking, it starts to, you know, starts to clash. So my coaches do, I think, a really good job of just giving me tips and helping me, but also letting me work and find my timing and rhythm.
Speaker 1:Don't want to give away company secrets here, but what is what's been the ailment that has been the hardest to get over in your career so far?
Speaker 3:Define ailment.
Speaker 1:As far as, like you know, your knees, ankles you know, and any sort of struggles with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've had my last two amateur fights. I had two back-to-back surgeries. I broke my whatever this bone is. I failed school.
Speaker 1:Pinky.
Speaker 4:I was home school, yeah.
Speaker 3:Pinky, whatever that is. And then I broke whatever this bone is. So back-to-back surgeries it kinda sucked. I think the second time I broke my arm I started crying, not cause I hurt, but because I was like, are you kidding me? Another surgery. I knew exactly what was gonna happen and that I had to be out and that just frustrated me cause I felt like I was on a tight schedule, Like I had to go pro. I had to try to make it to UFC as fast as I can. So, yeah, I've had a few injuries and recently, since I went pro, I've been dealing with foot injury, but it's getting better. So I'm excited for me to be back to 100%, especially coming into my UFC debut. Especially, my little foot is my prized possession and I've been frustrated with it, but it's been feeling good lately and I'm ready to smack some people with it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, my biggest ailment is my brain and the many times it farts on me. Okay, so I had a couple more UFC questions. I wanna ask you some South Louisiana type questions. What was the last UFC thing I was gonna ask? Riding injury? Nope, all right, it's great, it's gone. Okay, so from New Iberia, what's the go-to restaurant?
Speaker 3:Jane's Seafood.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, shout out Jane's oh yeah, shout out, jane's. For those, for the uninitiated? What is Jane's?
Speaker 3:It's a seafood restaurant, but they serve Chinese food. Do you help me? Yeah, they're wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you can get bold crawfish which tastes amazing, some of the best crawfish in the KDN, but also low-main.
Speaker 3:Yeah right, yeah, fried rice, crawfish fried rice. Like where can you get that? You know?
Speaker 1:When you're not training, what are you doing for fun Eating?
Speaker 3:eating. I'm playing with my dog. I have a toy Australian shepherd he's my best friend. Yeah, I'm not doing much, though I always am training.
Speaker 1:Right, not much time for fun activities. That comes later, after the success, I imagine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, training is fun too, so a lot of times that if I'm not getting my ass kicked, then training is fun, you know.
Speaker 1:You found something you love. It's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:That's really cool. It's inspiring, does do rather good English. Do tomatoes belong in gumbo?
Speaker 3:No, not ever, Not ever.
Speaker 1:Okay, no, not ever Do you put. You put what's the? Not sweet potatoes. What am I thinking of?
Speaker 3:I put boiled eggs in my stew.
Speaker 1:Boiled eggs in your stew. I mean my gumbo, yeah, in your gumbo.
Speaker 3:Or stew, but okay, well, my question to you Potato salad.
Speaker 1:Yes yes, potato salad in the gumbo.
Speaker 3:Right, but no tomatoes in the potato salad either. My question to you is gumbo or stew?
Speaker 1:Well, so I'm from Covington and so I didn't really have as much stew growing up, although both my parents are pretty good at, you know, cajun Creole cooking. But I would, so I'd definitely say gumbo, and it definitely means more to me. Uh-oh, what's going on here. She's leaving, damn, you just gotta walk out. I don't know. I mean cause I need to, I guess, have more, like a good More juice, yeah, more gravy, I don't know. I just it's not something that I really grew up with that much. But also, like every Christmas, my mom makes a gumbo and so like there's like the sentimental value to that, I guess.
Speaker 3:True, it's really the same thing, except I think stew is just thicker, it's more roux. I mean, you could eat it like a gumbo if you wanted to just put. You know, it's just thick, it's probably like extra greasy, extra oily. But that's my thing, bro, that was our first walk out.
Speaker 1:That was pretty nice. I thought you were committing.
Speaker 3:The door's that way, though what?
Speaker 1:happened? Yeah, you had to walk right back. So, getting close to wrapping up here and I appreciate you sitting with us and talking about it what was something that surprised you the most about post-announcement of this contract? What has been the most eye-opening that, like a casual UFC fan would find interesting?
Speaker 3:What do you mean?
Speaker 1:I don't know, maybe just about how the sport works or there's logistics of it. I don't know if you're allowed to talk about pay or anything like that, but what's something that like a casual fan wouldn't know, that you've learned since, kind of now working with the UFC and getting this process started.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think what's different? Like when you fight locally, you know you're at home. You go to Wayans, you go back home to a hotel I mean to your house and you're going to local restaurants. But when you're in the UFC it's I'm not in the UFC, I haven't had a UFC fight yet but just go into the contender series. They treat you like you're the Queen of England, like when I got to the airport there was someone there with my name on it, put me in, like a black suburban in a suit, driving me around making sure I have everything I need. They give you clothes to wear, all the merch, everything. So it's new to me and I haven't even been to my first UFC fight. But even going to the contender series is like you wouldn't think. Going from local to this is a huge jump and I'm excited to see how they treat actual UFC fighters, because I wasn't one when I was in Vegas.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah man, yeah right, carpet got to. I mean, you guys are putting your body, and sometimes life, on the line doing this and so, yeah, they should treat you with utmost respect.
Speaker 3:Yeah For allowing them. That's crazy. It's like, even at the lower level that you've put in the most, most of the time you put in almost the same amount of work. It is that the UFC fighters are putting in like so it's just like it's crazy how it works.
Speaker 1:So local promoters, take wind of this. Treat the fighters well, and then the crowds will come.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a lot of local promotions that do the best they can with what they have Limited budgets and things like that, right yeah but they'll do. You know. People will give you gift baskets of like after your fight like with candy and snacks and shirts. So they do what they can to really like. Show that they see us and see what we're doing.
Speaker 1:Are you a big candy person?
Speaker 3:Yeah, sweets, cake, brownies that's where my nickname came from Crispy Cream.
Speaker 1:I was just about to ask you where does that come from?
Speaker 3:I grew up in a cake shop me and my seven siblings. We lived right behind my grandma's cake shop growing up, so we were constantly eating cookies. I remember being in high school eating cookies for breakfast yeah, and high school was like one year ago, so All recent. I love sweets, I love candy and all that. So after my fight I will indulge in anything.
Speaker 1:Awesome, you deserve it. So the whole nickname thing if you go to like your ESPNcom UFC profile, it says your fighting stance, your weight, height and whatnot, but also your nickname says that for all the fighters. When is the nickname bestowed upon you?
Speaker 3:I don't even know. That's a good question. Someone just said I've been having it since, like my second amateur fighter. Yeah, I've been having it since the beginning and fighters just have nicknames. That's been for the longest time. And somebody just mentioned it one time and I was like that sounds that rhymes. That sounds great, because it also is like yeah, I love sweets and it comes with Crispy Cream, but I want my fighting style to be crisp and clean and smooth and fast, so there's like two sides to it. So, yeah, it works out good.
Speaker 1:So obviously it's great nickname. I hope it lasts. It should stick, much like Crispy Cream doughnuts. But I also asked chatGBT to give me 10 alternative nicknames. I'm gonna read them all to you so we'll see if we like any of these Lafayette Lightning, cicelynn, judisse, bayou, brawler.
Speaker 3:Okay, that one's good.
Speaker 1:That's the one I like. That one Mystic Maven Cajun Cyclone. One for five fierce firebird.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, that one is the worst Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought so too. Pelican pounder yikes lethal on yip the swamp stormer or the Ruger Rumbler.
Speaker 3:Since I forgot all of them, will go with the last one, okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, according to chat GVT, your new name is the Ruger Rumbler. Thanks for that, thanks for nothing. Chat GVT Once again.
Speaker 3:I'll hold on a pelican pounder, though Pelican pounder, that's I've.
Speaker 1:Peter might come after you for that. So, as we kind of wrap up here, what are the ways that order, ways that people around to katiana and you know, internet worlds, people who watch your fights, how can they support you best?
Speaker 3:Yeah, just follow my Instagram, Just be up to date with what I'm doing. I love to have people that are watching me and that care about how I'm doing, and, yeah, so I appreciate everybody's support and love. And if you, even if you, just care a little about what I'm doing, that means a lot to me, to you know, to know that I'm inspiring people and that people are, you know, looking out after me and making sure that you know I'm still in it, working.
Speaker 1:Have you chatted with pourier?
Speaker 3:No, we actually were in the same. He came to our gym to spar one time and we didn't even make eye contact, like for a whole hour we were in the gym, we didn't get around in or anything, you know. So, yeah, I know I haven't even said hey to him or nothing.
Speaker 1:No man, we gotta get. We gotta get Dustin gassing up miss crispy over here. What about Daniel Cormier?
Speaker 3:No, I've never even met him. I don't even know if he still lives around Louisiana. No, I don't think he does.
Speaker 1:I think he only really started claiming Lafayette like years later. Yeah, but that's neither here nor there. I don't know what I'm talking about. Don't hurt. Don't hurt me, daniel. So people following you on Instagram watching your fights best way to support you. What do we need? I mean, you're new to this world, but what do we need to happen for a UFC main event to happen in the Cajun Dome?
Speaker 3:Bruh, I don't know. I know some of the Louisiana guys like Brendan Allen, dustin Poirier. They're all. They're pushing for a New Orleans show. Yeah which I think would be crazy. I would love to be on that. You know, we have other UFC fighters in Louisiana.
Speaker 1:It's the biggest market.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, so it makes sense to do it there for sure, like we have a some fight, even female fighters that I go train with in Shreveport, so that I feel like we could put on, you know, a great show, all of the Louisiana fighters in New Orleans, or, you know, the Cajun Dome and, but I think the Cajun Dome could work.
Speaker 1:I mean, obviously, lafayette, we do have a good tourism sector with, you know, festival International and all the different things that we have going out throughout the year, but we're right between New Orleans and Houston, so I think you could draw a pretty big crowd and be massive for the city. But I don't know if the Cajun Dome has, I don't know if you have. See, whatever they would look at the market be like nah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know what that would take. Maybe if we just keep knocking on the door they'll come somewhere just enough fighters coming out of Lafayette Maybe yeah a full-on card of Lafayette fighters one day would be absolutely nasty. Yeah, that'd be awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, I've probably said it like three or four times, but I appreciate you joining us. Is there anything that we didn't discuss today that you want to let the folks know about?
Speaker 3:No, not that I know of Think I know, but you did mention that I'm new to this world.
Speaker 1:I don't get it. Well, I meant like the perfect, like UFC yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought you meant like literally this world. Oh no, no, no, I'm not four.
Speaker 1:You're a quarter century years old. That's plenty of time.
Speaker 3:Thanks.
Speaker 1:So thanks, dude, she I can't tell if she likes her hates me. So, final things what we do to end every single episode. Carly, we know we tried it once earlier with the, the marketing ploy that didn't work for social media, but this is something different. You're gonna take a look at this camera and this could be a word, a phrase, a mantra, something that you Tell yourself, maybe advice, something you're looking forward to, anything that you want to end the episode with, to tell the folks out there Floor is yours.
Speaker 3:So thanks everyone for watching and supporting me and yeah, just stay tuned to me chasing my dreams and hopefully I can put on a great show for you every time I step in there.
Speaker 1:So Do you have a inspirational like or like a mantra that you tell yourself as you're walking into the ring?
Speaker 3:No, I just tell myself, you know, even if you sometimes I don't believe it that I'm the best in the world and that I'm meant to be Wherever my feet are. You know, it was like when I was in the cage for that fight I was, I knew I was ready and I knew that that's where I was meant to be, and everything in my life led to that moment and all the big moments in my life. So I'm ready for whatever the future holds.
Speaker 2:Let's go. Hey, thanks for tuning into the show. Since you made it this far, might as well Give us a like, a follow, a subscribe. You know whatever you got to do to alert you that there's a new episode out. Look, it helps us grow and it allows us to give you the content that, well, you deserve. If you want to be a sponsor, if you want to be a guest, if you just want to berate me, hey, all goes in the same place. Info at a cadena cast comm. Email info at a cadena cast comm and For more local resource podcast, go to a cadena cast comm. Bye.