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00:00Let's talk about it right out of the gates, you know,
00:02was that the plan to come aggressive right out of the way?
00:04Because, you know, sometimes it's a feeling out process,
00:07of course, less with the BKFC.
00:09A lot of times, given that you guys only have two minutes,
00:10but I mean, it's about three to four seconds
00:13of you guys staring at each other,
00:14and then you just mauled them.
00:16Yeah, I mean, honestly, Brian,
00:18I was really surprised he backed up right away.
00:21The plan was always to get him to back up.
00:25And that's pretty much the plan with anybody
00:27who I'm fighting in there.
00:29And he backed up right out of the gate.
00:34So I'm like, all right, well, if you're backing up,
00:37I'm going to come forward, which is always my plan.
00:41So I was really surprised that he backed up.
00:44And, you know, I just, look, we were working entries.
00:50My team and I, Chris Dalkus, Kyle Dalkus,
00:53and John Mercurio, Dalkus brothers,
00:56obviously most notable for fighting in the UFC.
01:00We were working entries, and we had specific set-up entries
01:04that we knew were going to work on Zach
01:06based on how he responded to certain strikes
01:09in previous films that we had watched on him.
01:12So I kind of knew, like, his hand placement
01:15and what he was going to do for certain,
01:18you know, like I said, for certain strikes.
01:20So we had things set up and in place
01:23that we had repped thousands of times.
01:25And everything kind of went exactly according to plan,
01:29other than, I was kind of, honestly,
01:33I was kind of hoping for more of a fight.
01:39Look, I just, I don't know, man,
01:40I want a little more of a fight.
01:42And, like, it was, like you said,
01:45there was a lot of people there, 17,000 people.
01:47And if anyone didn't know Zach or, you know,
01:52the success that he had had in bare-knuckle
01:56with being on a four-fight win streak,
01:58if anyone didn't know any better,
01:59it looks like I just walked in there
02:01and mauled a guy who shouldn't have been in there.
02:04You know what I mean?
02:07But, you know, Zach's an extinguished bare-knuckle fighter.
02:12Like, he's won some fights, man,
02:17and he was on a tear.
02:19And it just, it was a little easier than I thought.
02:25Or, I mean, it's hard to say.
02:28I wish, you know what I mean?
02:30But I'm happy with the outcome.
02:32I just, there's that little bit of me that says,
02:34like, they're shit talkers, you know?
02:36The people who talk shit.
02:38And, you know, they say things like,
02:40oh, you know, you went in there
02:43and beat up a dude who was out of shape.
02:45And it was like, no, I didn't.
02:47I went in there and... performed at an elite level
02:52against an accomplished bare-knuckle fighter
02:56on a four-fight win streak.
02:57That's what I did.
02:58It's not like I just went in there
02:59and just beat up... Kevin off the streets.
03:05That is true.
03:06Zach was on a four-fight win streak.
03:07I mean, we were talking to him before the fight about,
03:10I mean, do you get in the top five rankings
03:12if you get this win?
03:13Five in a row, he had four finishes.
03:15So it was definitely not a pushover,
03:16not some bum that they just picked to make you look good.
03:19But you did look good.
03:21I like, you know, we saw the video there at the end,
03:22you know, just the one, two, one, two.
03:24That's just like the speed rounds
03:25at the end of a workout on the bag
03:27that, you know, just trying to get that extra cardio in.
03:29I said, even like, oh, I have to look for my openings.
03:32It just went everything your way,
03:34despite Zach being the tough guy that he usually is.
03:37Did you know after the first knockdown,
03:39the early knockdown that you had about 15 seconds in,
03:41that it was going to be your night?
03:43Or did you still have to, of course,
03:44give respect because of how tough and powerful he is,
03:47but did you feel like you were in control
03:48at that point already?
03:50No, no, I knew that Zach could take a beating, right?
03:54I knew that Zach could take a beating.
03:55So I knew one knockdown wasn't going to do it.
03:59So after I knocked him down, you know, again,
04:01I just went back to my training
04:03and I just went to a different entry, right?
04:06Like my first entry was a two, three,
04:09and then that second entry that I went into,
04:14my first entry was a three, two.
04:16My second entry was a one, two to body, three at top, right?
04:20Which, like, it sounds like you're just saying numbers,
04:22one, two, three, right?
04:24But like, there's specific head placement, right?
04:28There's foot placement.
04:29There's range, where you are with your range.
04:32There's a lot that goes into an entry.
04:35It's not just like throw the punch, right?
04:38Throw a two, throw a three.
04:40It was like every single detail as to that entry was wrecked.
04:46And where my feet are, where my head is,
04:49where my hand placement's going to be,
04:50where my range is,
04:53what am I doing on a follow-up, my recoil, my hand placement?
04:57Am I bringing it back to my face?
04:58Am I bringing it back to my chest?
05:00Where am I going?
05:02Everything was really specific.
05:04And, you know, look, it worked, right?
05:08And after the knockdown,
05:13I closed the distance again, and I re-entered.
05:16I knew he was going to still throw back, right?
05:19So you could tell, like, there was a couple moments
05:21where I was expecting the return, right?
05:24And I stepped back, and there was a couple where
05:27we were training getting back in, right?
05:29Like, we actually trained, like,
05:32listen, get your hands on the ropes
05:34and get chest-to-chest with him
05:36because he's just going to throw wild, right?
05:38And if you're in that tight, he can't land anything.
05:41And then step back out, and then get back to striking.
05:45We also worked striking from an angle,
05:47so getting off to the right of him
05:50and throwing that uppercut.
05:51Like, everything you threw, I was repping.
05:53I was working.
05:55My partners were holding mitts, and I was training and sparring.
05:58So it's not like what you're looking at
06:02is just a wild man throwing punches.
06:05Like, those were accurate, calculated strikes
06:09that I'd been training specifically for.
06:12So, um...
06:15I thought the ref probably could have stopped it
06:18a little bit sooner.
06:20You can hear me in the one clip yell at the ref,
06:23stop it, like, because I could have done that,
06:27and I could throw punches like that
06:29for another three minutes.
06:31Like, I can...
06:33Like, I have videos of me, like, literally training
06:37that sequence over and over and over again.
06:41I could do that for, you know, two rounds, three rounds.
06:46So, um...
06:48I'm happy with the result.
06:50I wish it would have been a little bit more of a war,
06:54but that's just for the naysayers,
06:55not necessarily because I want to get beat up.
06:58But, uh, just for the people who told me it and say that,
07:03you know, he beat up a bum.
07:04But I guess I really shouldn't care what people think.
07:06I got my hand raised in front of 17,000 people, so...