Transcripts For KQEH Equal Time 20160813

And an honorable title. Correspondent justin san diego explores the lives of mma fighters. Jose palacios has been devoting his free time to mixed martial arts for the past fourteen years, starting at the age of nineteen. Now he fights and trains for unlimited mma in milpitas. Ive always want to be a fighter since i was a little kid. Martial arts kind of became a way of helping me keep grounded. So, on monday, wednesday and friday ill, i usually run you know between three to five miles and then ill do a lot of form and stretching, right. And during the night time ill do the drills and then the sparring, but it turns out to about maybe a four and a half hour work out a day, sometimes five. Some of these fighters sweating it out daily say mma helps them make the most out of every minute of their day. I mean i do this so much to where you know you keep on kicking something over and over and over and youre going to temper your body, which meaning like youre going to get used to it and your tolerance kind of builds up. Human body is amazing. It heals up and it adapts incredibly. You got to have a rest day because if not, you know your bodys going to shut down. 230 right now, im trying to get down to Walking Around 190, 185 actually. But i dont know what it is, as soon as you get a target date, everything in your mind just changes and that one cookie you wanted to eat earlier, you just dont want to eat anymore. You got to eat to where you have enough fuel in your body, but at the same time you dont want to overdo it and then when you get closer and closer to the fight, then you start cutting things out. You start water loading which means youre drinking large amounts of water, just so your body is used to flushing everything out. I used to cut weight pretty crazy, like 20 pounds in a day and half or two days. Ill do like elliptical or run first and then ill do the sauna. Ill put garbage bags or sauna suits, albolene, everything. In order to make a weight class, many fighters put their bodies through extreme conditions including dehydration and starvation. It takes like an hour just to cut a pound. Two hours just to cut a pound. Now usually the last two to three pounds are the hardest to cut. So youre just there like stressing. Usually the last four days, usually at i mean i try to minimize my eating to about 500 calories a day. Many fighters have friends and family who may discourage them from pursuing a mma career because of these safety risks. As far as the friends that ive acquired now, all of them support me, because thats how they met me, this is what i do. My baby, my woman they support me to the fullest whether or not i fight, whether i fight or not. So when its time to go, i have full support now. So that really makes a difference. Its like its one of those weird things, when youre in a ring with someone, all your fears, all your drama, every issue you have kind of leaves the window. You dont have time to worry about what your teacher said or what your friends said or who snapchatted you something because someones about to punch you in the face. Thats what martial arts taught me man, that if youre able to move, be grateful, take advantage of it and do something. Because one day man we wont be moving anymore. Were all going to die, bro. Mixed martial arts is a sport that helps many young adults improve in many ways. People here at the gym say, it helps them build camaraderie, strength and endurance. When we come back well investigate the injuries and the mentality it takes to be a fighter. Stay with us. [ music ] [ music ] welcome back, weve seen how mixed martial arts can benefit young adults, but now we can also see how the sport carries many risks. Justin san diego continues our coverage. Ive had plenty of injuries. Ive had both my hands broken more than a few times, my collarbone, my sternum, my ribs, my shoulders, broke my feet. Yeah ive had a acl tear and i had both my shoulders pop out in a fight, but you know that didnt stop me from competing so. Robert cornejo has been in the mixed martial arts industry for 16 years. Recently he coaches kids and adults and also the cutman who helps Heal Injuries during competitions. Im a cutman also, so i work the corners with the coaches. So usually they get swelling. They get elbow cuts, anything i try to make sure that i try to stop it before the referee will stop the fight. The worst injury that i have seen was a cut actually during a fight. One of our fighters was fighting in vegas. He got elbowed and got cut. It was on the eyebrow and then on side of the forehead down. I moved it and i seen like his freaking skull, i was like whoa. Injuries such as a knockout or a concussion could put fighters on a medical recovery and prevent them from competing. Man it varies, depends on how bad you know. Sometimes oh its a, whats the minimum now . I think your minimum 60 days or something, i cant remember what they really are. But if its like a really bad knockout, like boom, where they have to bring a stretcher in sometimes. I know promoters who say its procedures and its but some of them were really bad man and they might be like okay, i dont know if you can take another shot like that. I ended up breaking this guys jaw once, right. And when we fought in the rematch, i didnt have that same like im going to break you, like we did the first time. Fighters maybe empathetic when causing serious injury to their opponent. I didnt pull the trigger like i should have because i thought i did enough, right. And i lost the fight. I slammed him and give him two elbows in the face. So i broke their over bone and then he had to get like a metal plate in their, underneath their eye and pretty much ended their career. He was the hometown favorite and coming out that ring, everybody was throwing waters at me, throwing glass, throwing everything, booing and you know i knew that i had to prove a point. You know someones going to lose so its either going to be him or me. So, i showed no mercy when i go in that cage. So its a fine line, its a line sometimes with some fighters will reach and then learn how to deal with that experience. Where you know that guys defeated, do i go there and kill him or just take him and risk some serious injury . Jose palacios attempted to walk the line between showing mercy, but securing the win during his past fights. Because a lot of these guys thats how they make their living, but right now luis put this guy in commission so now he cant feed his family because he has to now he has to figure out a way. So granted thats still an action that he decided to take, but i just dont wish serious injury upon anyone, especially if this is the means of income. Mixed martial arts has many benefits, however many people concerned with the safety risk, may think that the sport may need more rules and regulations. When we come back well sit down with three mixed martial artists. So, stay with us. [ music ] [ music ] welcome back to this edition of equal time. Today were going to talk about the risks of mixed martial arts. Lets meet our guests. My name is jose palacios, el matador. Hi my name is luis light year vargas, well known as the number one ranked amateur fighter. My name is sonny crazy eyes singh, im 29 years old and been doing it for about five years. And my name is justin san diego. I am the san jose state journalism major and correspondent for this episode. Very good and i guess in the spirit of all im bob the balding one and well talk about mixed martial arts. I want to know what the public doesnt know about your sport. So first lets talk about what they may or may not know in terms of basic details. What are we talking about mixed martial arts . What does that mean . It just means its a variety of art forms of, you know, fighting all mixed up into one. And they are, give me a list of some them . We have kickboxing. We have wrestling. We have boxing, jujitsu, theres you know karate, taekwondo. Theres its a vast list that goes on and on and on. Theres just not on specific you know art form, theres many and theyre all you know balled up to one really, really good fighter. Very good, and sonny was saying you have a specialty that you like, but you have a passion for this in general, why . Yeah its just you know, exciting for me. Its just gets your heart pumping. It just makes you want to be the best you could be. For me, this sports given me so much discipline, you know, inside and outside the ring. Its kind of a stress reliever. Kind of, you know, makes me put everything together and you know keeps everything together for me. Very good, and justin why did you want to do this story . I think its just a cool sport. You know theres unlike any other sport, you have two men in the ring or two people in a ring and ones going to win and ones going to get hurt. You know whether by suffocation, a joint being twisted, somethings going to happen and it really is like a test of strength and endurance. Okay lets open it up because i want to hear your stories and jump on in guys, but i want to hear how you would like to describe this sport. Why you do this . Why do you want to do this . Cant really explain it. You really really cant. Ive been doing this for a while now. Im 33 years old, got into it when i was 19 and when i first got into it, very similar to sonny, i didnt know what i wanted to do with my life. Military, or get fat, or go to, i dont know what it was. So i was like you know what, i want to get into something. I found mixed martial art and it just kind of kept going and going, but through that i actually ended up going to college. I went to college, got my finished. So all these things that i never thought i was going to like even think about, it opened up so many other doors. So that and martial arts aspect of it was been fantastic. Now as a fighter, thats a different story and that i cant really explain. Its in there, i tried retiring a few times, you cant do it. Ill be gone for a year and then im you know be like i got to do something. And i end up taking a fight. You cant really explain it, you really cant. You ask any fighter why you, we really cant really say. We love it, we love it and hate it at the same time. Now luis was telling me that before the program started and you love and you have deep passion. Yeah so actually i started off little bit different. I started off wrestling. You know ive never been in a fight in my whole life. I was actually a smaller guy, i was skinny. I was like 80 pounds in eighth grade. You know, even from my freshman year in high school i was like not even 100 pounds. So you know i would come in, you know, the smaller guy, you know, and so i actually picked up wrestling. And so ive been wrestling, you know, from seventh grade and from there i was actually coaching at a mma gym. And so, you know, one day they invited me to come and watch. So i watched them and i said, whoa that looks like fun. You know it looks like pretty pretty easy, you know. So i feel its, you know, its i think its the purest art form because its one on one. You know, its like the gladiator of this generation, you know. One persons coming out the victor, you know. So i think its just really amazing and its a different experience. You know, youre in there and its like its like the mentality, its kill or be killed. So thats why it brings you to the like the peak of your, you know, everything. Your adrenaline is kicking in. Your, you know, your endurance has to be really high. You have to be, you know, well trained. Your mind has to be, you know, clear because if you go in with like a lot of things in your mind, youre not going to compete or youre not going to you know do as well as you wanted to. So, i just feel like its the purest, you know, form of competition that, you know, a person can do. Now you talked about being slender when you got into it, whereas sonny you were telling me you did it to get in shape, but you also did it for other reasons. Why did you go into it . I was you know, i was a little bigger. So you know i did the running, the ellipticals, the weights, everything and i just it wasnt working for me. So i wanted to do something a little bit more exciting. Started kickboxing, actually muay thai, thats my specialty, muay thai. Started doing that and weight dropped off, dropped off, dropped off and, you know, i noticed i was, you know decent at it. Took it to the next level. Started sparring, oh, im decent at it and so for me its everythings been little baby steps. You know, okay, tried sparring, im good at it. Did an amateur fight, im good at it. Okay, got a title, okay, im good at it and so everything just for me, just been step, after step, after step. So i mean and are you shooting to become a pro or whats the goal . Yeah, so i have one more fight. Im actually fighting next week in sacramento and that will be my last amateur fight. And from there ill be pro. Very good and you mentioned also that you are engaged. Yes. How does your fiance feel about this . Shes a, shes dont orgasm, im going to ask you to. Alright. Shes great, shes, i love her. Shes a very supportive. She kicks my butt into, you know, gets me back into place when i need to be, you know, if i pick up a hamburger or something and shes like nope, put that down, slaps it out of my hand. So shes great, she she supports me. She comes to my fights, shes kind of like my good luck charm. I havent lost a fight when, you know, every fight shes been to. So, you know, thats great. So how does she react when you are like physically hurt . When you get punched in the face . She is very smart because she even though i know she might worry, she might have this you know uneasy feeling, she doesnt show it and so for me that helps me, because thats if im fighting or if im training or whatnot, its one less thing i have to worry about. I dont have to worry about her emotions or her not being comfortable with it. Shes 100 supportive, 100 behind me all the time. You know, and if shes not feeling easy about it, she wont show it. Shell say go out there and get them sonny. But do they know about the potential dangers, the health risks . See the thing is the type of woman thats needed to be with any athlete is its not every person can handle it. You know, not everyone can handle even maintaining a friendship with with a fighter. It changes your lifestyle completely. So you see friends that kind of dwindle off and you make new ones, right. Is the same thing with your woman. Your woman needs to be really strong. She needs to make because she knows youre going to be cutting weight, she knows all that. All the time, we dont have the regular schedule. Where 8 oclock at 9 oclock at night, you know, you guys can go out on dates and do all that. The fighters training, you know, here were training in the morning and then at night, were training well into 10, 11 pm sometimes, depending where you are. You get up, you rest, so theres no really no, no time to fool around if you really want to get to that next level. You know what i mean . This is where experience kicks in. For the more and if you look, having a stable relationship at home really does help that get to the next level. So its important for a woman to understand her position as well. Well do you understand that they worry about your safety, oh yeah. Your health . I do, she, my girlfriend, obviously supports me a lot and shes, you know, if not my number one fan. Shes always there, you know, especially like how you said, you have to have a special type of girlfriend because they know you can go in the ring and get hurt. And then, you know, whats going to happen after that, you know, who knows. But they have to be there because my girlfriend whenever i need a cut weight, i tell her, hey i got a fight coming up. Okay you know, shes like alright were on the diet now and shes like lets go run. Hey what are you doing . You need to go run. You need to go workout you know if im just being lazy at home and also when im weight cutting, weight cutting is i think if not one of the biggest things, you know, for a fighter because if youre you know one, you know, 160, 170 and you got to be at 155 or 145. You know, you have to really stress on cutting the weight and so for me you know my girlfriends like alright, you know, if we want to go to the sauna, lets go or ill be in the bathtub with like you know doing like a bath salt to lose some weight. Shell be sitting there talking to me, keeping my mind off of you know the whole weight cutting thing and so thats but all of you seem to be avoiding the question of what about the dangers . I mean you could be seriously injured in any of these actions right . Yeah i mean dangers are real. I mean theres serious risks. You can go into that ring, you can have a fight. You could even win the fight and still get badly damaged. You get worse. You get carried out in a stretcher you know, but thats why we prepare so much. Thats why were in the gym till 10, 11 at night. We want to put ourself in the best spot available to come out successful with a win and come out more importantly, healthy. Justin, what are the possible dangers . What could actually happen to them . When i talked to the guys at the end you know theres the sauna, theres the dehydration, theres the sort of starvation of your body. I know i talked to one guy he says he eats like 500 calories before his weigh in. You know and trains five hours a day with that 500 calories of intake. How does he survive . How do you live with that . Well you cant hold that for that long and if you do, youre not going to be very efficient in the fight. Youre going to be too weak. So, this again where experience comes in. Early in the fighters career if they dont have the proper team, all that were talking about, is youre right. Theres absolute danger even if youre in the best shape possible, you could die, literally. Theres a waiver that says heres my life, here right. And you have to sign that . You sign the waiver. Before you go out there . Of course especially when you turn pro. Why would you do that . People at home are probably thinking there are many other things you could do to be excited in life. So why would you put it on the line, your life . Because we dont focus on that, to be honest with you. I read that and i dont sit there and i dont go, oh my god, i could die i dont sit there and freak out on that thing. You dont have time. You dont. The more yeah, the more you focus on that. Its like oh man, it takes all that. You dont train in there to go and die. You train yourself to be prepared to like im not tapping. Im not whatever, right, you prepare, but that takes the fear away from it, so you dont really want to focus on the fear that i could get hurt. Because most likely you will get hurt with that mentality. Its happened to me you know so. But its worth it because . I think one of the risks, the biggest risk that not all people, its overshadowed by the fighting, is actually the weight cutting because if you dont do it properly like he said, you could liver failure. You know you can be dehydrated, you have to go to the hospital. Like me personally, like im 62, but i fight at 145. So i cut a lot of weight. You know, ill cut anywhere from 20 to 25 pounds. Hes looking at you. Sure thats right . You say 62 . 145 . Im 62, 145 yeah. You fight at 145 . I am, i think the tallest, biggest 145er. Are you freaking kidding me . Yeah, so thats thats the, you know, the reaction i get from a lot of fighters, you know, but when they see me at 145, theyre like oh my gosh theyre like oh my gosh, you are sickly, you look weak, you look like youre going to pass out and the truth is thats how i feel. You know, but i know thats how you actually feel . Thats how i feel, but the truth is, you know, it doesnt bother me to have to go through all that just to fight because you know im pretty good. So i know im going to win. So the weight cut is, you know, just a little baby steps that you have to get through. The obstacle is you have to jump to actually get in that next, you know he wants to say something. How old are you again . Im 24. See thats why. See when i was, you know im 33. The weight cut now, oh hell pardon my language, no way hell no. Uhuh. Back then your body, youre now youre still young brother. You still feel that, youre 62 you be that all, like oh, just push through. The older you get, your bodys not going to be able to bounce back the same way naturally. We were talking about that earlier. Yep. You know somebody, you know somebody, 54 years old i think you told me, was still doing it. Why would you do that . I mean. Your body can only take so much. You, i mean like jose say, he cant really explain it right. Its almost addictive, like you love it so much, you want to do it. You dont do it and you kind of get this itch you want to do it again. I havent stepped away from it for long enough to feel that, but i mean i can understand it. See and see this is where we can easily get into another topic from here because yes, something inside of us, but there does come a point where its like i cant do it anymore. But sometimes fighters do it because they have to and thats thats a whole different conversation right there. Some fighters, literally, thats how they make their money. Thats the only way they know and thats unfortunate. In my opinion, thats unfortunate. Whether they love it or not, whether their bodies cant handle it later on in life, i think thats a problem. Thats a whole different other subject. So would you say like in some crazy way fighting gives you like a peace of mind, a psychological benefit . You know what, i could say yes, even spiritual i could say. You know we have that, we all whether we think of us a human beings, right. Im going to get a little bit deeper in here than most people actually think and thats another stereotype most people think. Its that oh we cant think this deep, thats not true. This being challenged and being pushed to the level where you feel you cant continue. We literally feel like, oh my god this guys on top of me. Where you literally your ego gets demolished, it changes you. It changes you, you got to keep pushing and you take certain things for granted, you know. But you want to be pushed to the end . You want to push to the end. Thats where you i feel you find out who you are as a person. You know thats where youre pushed to your limit and then if you know you have the ability to fight back, you know, you become you know a better person in you know a sense. Yeah. Because if youre, you know, getting beat, you know. Say if you have youre in a fight and you got beat up two rounds and, you know, youre like i cant do anything to this guy. You know this guys punching me. Hes, you know, on our feet, hes beating me. On the ground hes beating me. You know, what am i going to do . Its where you have to dig deep inside of you and see what kind of person you are. So if you can come back in, you know overcome and actually you know submit him or knock him out, you know, then you find out, oh wow i can really do it, you know. We have about a minute left and i want to see if sonny wanted to add Something Else to this. I mean i was going to go back to the weight cut issue that you were talking about you know. Im cutting weight right now for a fight i have next week. Its almost i mean, its probably the worst part of it. I feel like nowadays in the level of competition, you have to cut weight in order to just to stay competitive. I mean youre Walking Around at what 170 now . About. If you could fight at 170 you would, but if you fought at 170, the opponents would be 190, 200 pounds. Im in a similar situation, im 6 foot, i fight at 155 pounds. I walk around at about 170. So if i fought at 170, my opponent would be way bigger. So just to level out the playing field, thats something you have to do. Very quickly, were almost out of time. Is this a very costly sport to be involved in . Yeah. Give me a general range, real quick. How much can you spend on this . You can spend easily five, six grand a month depending on how a month . You want to go, you know . Wow. Like an athlete, like type of vitamins and type of food. Where you travel, do you got to drive far, do you travel all that, all that, all that if you dont have a really regular steady job or sponsors. That comes out of pocket one way or another and if you cant maintain that to get to that next level, you pay in other ways, but its expensive. It could be anywhere up to that or it really is expensive. I cant really put in gym memberships, you know, the supplements you take, if you take any, dieticians, your training partners. Blood work. Yeah, blood work, you have to do physicals. Theres so many, the list is just on and on and on. But thats why you get sponsors and thats why you try to get endorsements. And, you know, thats why you try to be the biggest you can. These are some of the most dedicated people ive ever heard on this set. I mean. Do you agree . The most important part is having a good team around you though. Exactly. Yeah. You have a good team around you, a solid team. I mean, it doesnt have to cost 5,000 a month or whatnot. You have a good supporting team. You know you have a good diet. Take care of yourself. Take care of yourself. I dont take any supplements at all. I do all natural food and i think thats where you get the best supplements is from your food. Right. Were out of time, so were going to have to wrap it up. Guys youve educated me, im sure the audience learned a lot about it, mixed martial arts. Thank you justin for putting this story together. Thank you. And thank you for joining us. We hope youll come back for another edition of equal time. [ music ] [ music ] kenney there are legends that tie the people of hawaii to the islands of tahiti. Come along with me, ed kenney, and maui tauotaha as we trace these bonds and find the secret behind his favorite dish poisson cru. There are so many reasons why i became a chef. Every dish has a story. Food brings people together and has the power to conjure up cherished memories. I was born and raised in the hawaiian islands, one of the most Diverse Communities in the world. In this show, well meet a guest from hawaii, learn about their favorite dish, trace it back to its origins, and have some fun along the way. Man higher so we can chase the moon announcer major fungredien was provided by the corporation for public broadcasting. Additional funding was provided by the hawaii tourism authority,