Axel Sola Talks Division in French MMA, Strained Relationship With Father, Development as a Fighter — Transcript

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1. 0:00First guest of the day, 20 year 28 years
2. 0:03young, former Aries lightweight
3. 0:04champion, has had a great first year in
4. 0:07the UFC, 3-1 and is coming off an
5. 0:09incredible finish on Saturday, knocking
6. 0:12out FZ Yam in just a minute and 40
7. 0:14seconds. Uh quickest win of his career
8. 0:16and uh it was brutal stuff. Got the
9. 0:18performance bonus for it. Uh Ferez down
10. 0:21on the mat, eyes open. Thankfully, it
11. 0:23appears as though he is okay, but a lot
12. 0:25of people are excited about Axel Sola
13. 0:27and what he's been doing. He's kind
14. 0:28enough to join us right here now to talk
15. 0:30about it all.
16. 0:36>> We're going to do the whole interview in
17. 0:37French. Okay.
18. 0:39>> Okay. Let's do it.
19. 0:40>> No, my my audience won't like you, but I
20. 0:42just like to try to flex on them a
21. 0:44couple times, you know, when I can.
22. 0:47>> Okay.
23. 0:48>> No, but it's great to have you on.
24. 0:49Appreciate the time and congratulations
25. 0:51on the big win on Saturday. It's been a
26. 0:54year for you in the UFC now, almost
27. 0:55exactly to the day. Uh if we would have
28. 0:58talked before your debut four fights ago
29. 1:00and you know I would have known how this
30. 1:02was all going to play out this year
31. 1:03would you have been content? Are you
32. 1:05happy with where you're at? Are you a
33. 1:07little bit you know underwhelmed? How
34. 1:08are you feeling about this first year in
35. 1:10the promotion?
36. 1:11>> You know the the old resume of the of
37. 1:14this first year is mostly dependent of
38. 1:16the last fights.
39. 1:17>> Um how it will um play out will
40. 1:21determine a lot how it feels. But so far
41. 1:23so good. you know this first years it's
42. 1:25been only finishes one fight of the
43. 1:27night for the fight I lose um and that's
44. 1:29good because uh it's just helping me to
45. 1:32pursue my dream inside the UFC and today
46. 1:36the goal is just to fight as much as
47. 1:37possible and establish myself in the in
48. 1:40the division in the organization and and
49. 1:43you know to fight as long as as I'm able
50. 1:46to to perform.
51. 1:47>> Uh when you were offered this fight
52. 1:49against a fellow Frenchman, how did you
53. 1:51feel about it? We were talking about
54. 1:52this yesterday, whether we liked it or
55. 1:53not, but for you being in that spot
56. 1:55fighting in France. How did you feel
57. 1:57about that?
58. 1:59>> Um, it was a great opportunity because
59. 2:02he was better ranker than myself. Um,
60. 2:06also I knew this fight will create a lot
61. 2:07of um interest especially for the French
62. 2:10public because you know when you are
63. 2:12fighting someone from Milan, there is
64. 2:14always the special taste because um your
65. 2:16own public know your story, know your
66. 2:18story. So it just make the things more
67. 2:21spicy
68. 2:22and yeah it was great opportunity
69. 2:24because fighting him that close it help
70. 2:27also to increase my the quality of my
71. 2:30relation with the UFC because they see I
72. 2:32want to be active. I'm ready to fight.
73. 2:34I'm ready to fight a lot to make weight
74. 2:36and uh and to take risk also and that's
75. 2:39something very important
76. 2:41and yeah like nothing to lose you know
77. 2:43nothing to lose and uh I was confident
78. 2:46in my ability to win and that's how it
79. 2:48goes.
80. 2:48>> Did you have any or do you have any type
81. 2:50of relationship with Farez? Are you
82. 2:52friends? Have you trained together?
83. 2:54Um yeah, we like uh we don't know like
84. 2:58we're not close friends but u we know
85. 3:00each other from for a while. First of
86. 3:03all, I've been following his journey
87. 3:05inside MMA all along because we are the
88. 3:08same age, but I was in the UFC way
89. 3:10earlier than myself because of his
90. 3:12choice of career. And so I always been
91. 3:15following him and you know like uh
92. 3:20uh the first time we met it was
93. 3:23at the national tie boxing championship
94. 3:26for the university and he was fighting
95. 3:29in king boxing and I was fighting in
96. 3:30white. So that was the the first time we
97. 3:33met 10 years ago.
98. 3:34>> Wow. Wow. Wow. And so um the way in
99. 3:36which you knocked him out, like I said,
100. 3:37it was a vicious knockout and it felt to
101. 3:39me, correct me if I'm wrong, you weren't
102. 3:42quite sure how to handle it in the
103. 3:43moment, like you didn't want to
104. 3:44celebrate too much because someone maybe
105. 3:46that you knew was was kind of out cold
106. 3:48like that. How were you dealing with
107. 3:49that? How were you feeling when you saw
108. 3:51the way he looked on the mat?
109. 3:55It was a mix of emotion, you know,
110. 3:57because I highly respect the fighter,
111. 4:00but uh I really wanted to win, but u you
112. 4:03know, I would rather go for a submission
113. 4:05if I could change the history, but uh
114. 4:09yeah. Yeah, I was very happy, but I
115. 4:10don't know. I was also feeling bad
116. 4:12because uh um it was it was uh hurt
117. 4:17pretty bad. So, I don't know. Axel, can
118. 4:19I ask you in in the post-fight
119. 4:21interview, uh, you you you sent a
120. 4:23message to the crowd to try to be more
121. 4:25united and you said the same in the
122. 4:27press conference. Can you tell us why
123. 4:28you felt compelled to do that? What were
124. 4:30you referring to when you were talking
125. 4:32about those topics?
126. 4:34>> Not really united. I just uh called
127. 4:36people to bring support to files because
128. 4:39the the best of his fight is coming and
129. 4:41and then I was asking UFC to realize my
130. 4:43dream. I would like to be fighting on
131. 4:45the same card as my friend Virgil Logan
132. 4:47which is undefeated middleweight and and
133. 4:49that's it.
134. 4:51>> Okay. So there there wasn't anything
135. 4:52because my understanding of the
136. 4:53situation was you were telling them like
137. 4:55you know to to there's just one flag and
138. 4:57and and maybe because some people may
139. 4:59say he can't
140. 5:00>> you know all that.
141. 5:01>> Yeah because it was mostly the after the
142. 5:05in the press fight postfight conference.
143. 5:08>> Yeah. uh because you know I've been
144. 5:10fighting in arrest against uh one fellow
145. 5:12man French fighter
146. 5:14um from Chenya you know and um around
147. 5:18this fight a lot of people were kind of
148. 5:21throwing
149. 5:23a massage to Topal at this moment and
150. 5:27and they they asked me to talk about it
151. 5:30after the fight and um something kind of
152. 5:34the same energy happened with Fis and
153. 5:36yeah I saw they they asked
154. 5:39What do I think of this comments? And um
155. 5:43as always u I don't support that.
156. 5:46>> Is this a is this a prevalent issue in
157. 5:48the French combat scene?
158. 5:50>> Um
159. 5:53I don't know like uh it's hard for me to
160. 5:56to see because I don't follow the the
161. 5:59fights and everything around uh deeply,
162. 6:02you know. I'm very disconnected of uh of
163. 6:05all this outside
164. 6:08my fights. So, but it feels like there
165. 6:11is a trend like this where there is a
166. 6:13kind of division inside the support in
167. 6:16the fan
168. 6:18and yeah, people get hated. But, you
169. 6:20know, I think it's kind of the case for
170. 6:22every sports. Mhm. And so when you say
171. 6:25that you're disconnected, you don't pay
172. 6:27attention to like online stuff, you
173. 6:29don't follow the news, do you try to be
174. 6:31>> No, I've been fighting all day long, you
175. 6:34know, so when I get home, I just need to
176. 6:36think about something else.
177. 6:37>> What do you like to think about? What do
178. 6:39you like to to get your mind off of
179. 6:41fighting?
180. 6:43>> So piano, I'm like right now I'm blue
181. 6:46belt in piano, so I'm going for the
182. 6:48black belt. And um I really enjoyed the
183. 6:51pedagogic aspect of uh the piano for
184. 6:54example because we know how to make
185. 7:05from scratch to take someone
186. 7:08uh which is uh there is a structure in
187. 7:11the training like a cabin you know from
188. 7:13nothing. So also in the piano, so of
189. 7:17course I like the the music, but I like
190. 7:19the pedagogic aspect and the training
191. 7:21sports and I get inspiration for my own
192. 7:24training in anime.
193. 7:25>> Okay. So I've seen you uh on the piano
194. 7:28um through social media and whatnot. How
195. 7:29long have you been practicing this?
196. 7:34>> This is amazing.
197. 7:35>> I've been starting three years ago.
198. 7:39>> Yeah. Yeah. like uh I'm blue belt you
199. 7:41know but uh uh I'm not in the rush to
200. 7:44become good one day so day after today
201. 7:47uh also it's a different way to work my
202. 7:49discipline you know and my mental uh
203. 7:51skills because it require a lot of focus
204. 7:54a lot of dexterity and that's not that
205. 7:56easy
206. 7:57>> so you say you started 3 years ago
207. 7:59that's around you're 28 now so I guess
208. 8:01when you were around 25 usually people
209. 8:04don't pick up an instrument in their
210. 8:06mid20s what propelled you to do
211. 8:10I was playing guitar when I was younger
212. 8:12and um later when I was uh I was not
213. 8:15really into it but uh when I get older
214. 8:18uh I wanted to to go again for the music
215. 8:20and you know I've been watching this
216. 8:22anime piano
217. 8:25um and just give me the will to try with
218. 8:27piano and I just fell in love with the
219. 8:29instrument.
220. 8:30>> Are you a big chess player as well?
221. 8:32Uh I tried to because I was playing a
222. 8:35lot with my grandfather but uh I had to
223. 8:37stop because at certain point I was
224. 8:39training really good. I was making very
225. 8:41good progress but once again I've been
226. 8:43fighting all day long and I was going
227. 8:45back home spending hours fighting again
228. 8:48in my mind you know and it was a little
229. 8:50bit too much and I needed something um
230. 8:53that really get me out of the onetoone
231. 8:55fight. Okay, I understand that. You
232. 8:57know, um I I was reading a lot about
233. 8:59your background and and I I I would love
234. 9:01to ask you a little bit about it. Did
235. 9:03you spend a lot of time in Monaco when
236. 9:04you were younger?
237. 9:06>> Uh not specially, but uh I used to train
238. 9:08boxing there because my boxing coach
239. 9:10while I was there, but u I'm not eager
240. 9:13to go there more often. I will go more
241. 9:14to Dagistan and China for training than
242. 9:17Monaco soon.
243. 9:18>> Okay. Have you been to Dagistan or
244. 9:20Chinya for training? Yes, I've been one
245. 9:22time in Chin, two time in Dagistan in
246. 9:25Makkala and uh yeah, I plan to go back
247. 9:28over there. I would like to go inn
248. 9:31before the end of the year. So most
249. 9:33probably October, November we go there.
250. 9:35>> Did you train with Khabib and his team
251. 9:36in Dagistan?
252. 9:38>> Not with KK team. KK Dagistan.
253. 9:42>> Yeah,
254. 9:43>> it's um one UFC fighter is the
255. 9:49is the grappling coach over there. and a
256. 9:51lot of great fighter, you know, still
257. 9:53not in the UFC, but u you will see a lot
258. 9:58of them coming in the coming years.
259. 9:59>> The reason I asked you about Monaco was
260. 10:01I guess I saw an interview that you did
261. 10:02with an outlet based in Monaco and you
262. 10:04talked about your background. Um you
263. 10:06used to play hockey as a kid as well,
264. 10:08right?
265. 10:09>> Yes, I did.
266. 10:10>> So, you seem to be very active, very
267. 10:12athletic as a kid in addition to
268. 10:13>> Yeah. Yeah. My mom was uh making myself
269. 10:15do a lot of sports. So combat sports I
270. 10:18was doing karate, I was doing go,
271. 10:20tennis,
272. 10:22um music and football. So I did all
273. 10:26these sports and u generally it's very
274. 10:28good for the kid to not specialize in in
275. 10:31one sport too early you know like you
276. 10:33need 10 years to master something. So
277. 10:35you need to look at the at what age you
278. 10:38are you picking your performance inside
279. 10:40that sport. For example in MMA it's like
280. 10:4432. In gymnastic it can be between 20
281. 10:4822. So regarding this aspect of the
282. 10:51sports in gymnastic you need to be
283. 10:53specialized at 10 years old but in MMA
284. 10:55you can specialize kind of late. So
285. 10:58before the moment you need to specialize
286. 11:00it's very important to make the kid do a
287. 11:02lot of different sports because you will
288. 11:03then develop his ability to learn new
289. 11:05things.
290. 11:06>> Okay. Wow. Uh I never really quite
291. 11:08thought of it like that but it makes a
292. 11:09lot of sense. So you're 28. Do you feel
293. 11:11like you still have four years before
294. 11:12you reach your prime?
295. 11:15Yes.
296. 11:16>> When did you start MMA training?
297. 11:19>> I was 15 years old.
298. 11:22>> And who introduced you?
299. 11:23>> I was 15 years old.
300. 11:25>> Sorry.
301. 11:25>> Who introduced you to MMA?
302. 11:27>> Oh, the my uncle introduced me to MMA. I
303. 11:30was stopping hockey because I wanted to
304. 11:31do a sports where the the win or the
305. 11:34lose only depend of my work and not the
306. 11:36work of the other. I needed that to in
307. 11:39order to be in a context where I put the
308. 11:41best of myself in the in the training in
309. 11:44order to find my discipline and team
310. 11:46sport was not my thing to to get the
311. 11:48best out of me. So combat sport yeah
312. 11:50because I was doing karate but I wanted
313. 11:52to do something more exotic and my uncle
314. 11:55bring me to MMA and I fell in love with
315. 11:57the sport straight away.
316. 11:58>> Did you like watching MMA as a kid as
317. 12:00well?
318. 12:01Yeah, the first MMA fight, the first UFC
319. 12:04fight I've been watching was John Jones
320. 12:05John against Vtor Belfor.
321. 12:07>> Wow.
322. 12:08>> Crazy fight.
323. 12:09>> Yes. UFC 152 in Toronto. He almost got
324. 12:11his arm snapped off.
325. 12:13>> Yeah. And it was like a lot of striking,
326. 12:15the wrestling, the jiu-jitsu. Like I've
327. 12:17seen it all in this fight and uh this
328. 12:20fight really strike me and since then
329. 12:22I've been watching UFC.
330. 12:23>> Okay. So you watched that fight and you
331. 12:24said I want to do that
332. 12:27in so many words, right?
333. 12:28>> Yeah. Like u I don't know. I needed to
334. 12:30prove myself that I could live out of
335. 12:32it. So I really took my time. For
336. 12:34example, if you look at some someone
337. 12:36like Sadin Parnas very early, he was
338. 12:38sure about becoming a champion and
339. 12:41training like a champion. And he make
340. 12:42his pro debut at 17 years old and uh and
341. 12:45today he's very advanced in his um
342. 12:48career. Uh for my part, I needed more
343. 12:51time, you know, to to be sure what I
344. 12:53wanted to do and and u to really get
345. 12:57professional about my training and
346. 12:58everything. I needed more time. My
347. 13:00maturity level wasn't enough um when I
348. 13:03was younger to go fully into it. So I
349. 13:06had to take confidence and I did it with
350. 13:08the amateur fighting and after the
351. 13:10amateur I finished my study. I was
352. 13:13studying sports and after the master I
353. 13:17just tempo and I've been uh going 100%
354. 13:21about it.
355. 13:22>> So you you come across and you strike me
356. 13:23as a very thoughtful and analytical
357. 13:25person. uh you don't strike me and not
358. 13:28all fighters are like this as a very
359. 13:29sort of aggressive person, someone that
360. 13:30like craves violence. And so where do
361. 13:34you where do you find that killer
362. 13:35instinct in you? Where does it come
363. 13:37from? How how do you sort of tap into
364. 13:38that? Because everything about you
365. 13:40screams the complete opposite of that.
366. 13:44>> Um
367. 13:46I think when I was kid, uh when I had
368. 13:48too much emotion, I was like exploding
369. 13:51like screaming and eating everything
370. 13:53around me. And um my parents really
371. 13:57teach me how to keep it inside me this
372. 13:59anger that I could have. And I guess uh
373. 14:02MMA is um it's um
374. 14:06it's something it's a way to to express
375. 14:09it in I would say
376. 14:12with the social validation. So okay I
377. 14:16couldn't I couldn't most of the time but
378. 14:18through MMA I've been allowed to to
379. 14:21express it. Uh, you mentioned your
380. 14:24parents. Can I ask you about your
381. 14:25father? I'm sorry that uh he's no longer
382. 14:27with us. How old were you when he passed
383. 14:29away?
384. 14:32>> I was 19 years old. 19 years old. And um
385. 14:35it's been like two years I was living
386. 14:37with him and um that's the two years I
387. 14:41start to really know about him because
388. 14:43the relation was kind of distant and
389. 14:46this year were long fights where I was
390. 14:49me and my family were fighting together
391. 14:51to help him to to go over his demon but
392. 14:55uh unfortunately we failed. He
393. 14:58>> he had he failed. He had mental health
394. 15:02issues.
395. 15:04>> Um yeah, kind of kind of. And um
396. 15:10not all his life. He was um I mean um it
397. 15:15was someone it was very um how to say
398. 15:18pleased to live with but uh when the our
399. 15:21part of his mind were striking but it
400. 15:24was like uh not the same um comfort to
401. 15:28be alongside him. How did you handle
402. 15:30that? How did that affect you seeing him
403. 15:32suffer like that?
404. 15:34>> It just helped me to grow because it was
405. 15:36a like a valuable lesson of life, you
406. 15:39know, to be around this. I learned a lot
407. 15:41of things about humans and relation at
408. 15:44that time and it just uh made me a
409. 15:47better person.
410. 15:48>> Were you close to him before he you know
411. 15:51started to really suffer from these
412. 15:52issues?
413. 15:54>> Uh yes and no. No, it was very hard to
414. 15:57be honest to be in relation with him.
415. 15:59Um, we've been sharing the the musical
416. 16:01aspect of his life with me and that's
417. 16:03most most probably why I'm keep going
418. 16:07after music.
419. 16:08>> But, uh, yeah.
420. 16:11>> Was he a sports fan?
421. 16:14>> Not really. He was not really a sport
422. 16:15guy. My mom was the sports
423. 16:17>> Okay.
424. 16:18>> the sports girl of the team. I I I asked
425. 16:21that because I was wondering if now that
426. 16:23you're having this amazing success at
427. 16:25the at the top of your sport if you
428. 16:27sometimes wonder how he would, you know,
429. 16:30react to all of the amazing things that
430. 16:32you're doing.
431. 16:33>> I never thought about it.
432. 16:36>> Not once.
433. 16:38>> No.
434. 16:38>> Okay. Um do you think that he would be
435. 16:41happy? Do you think he'd be proud of
436. 16:42you?
437. 16:43>> Yeah, mostly he would be happy and um
438. 16:46very supportive.
439. 16:47>> How about your mom now?
440. 16:50Oh, my mom is uh you know the goal of my
441. 16:53mom was to make a kid able to follow
442. 16:57their dream and and she made it. So now
443. 17:00I have all the weapon in in me to follow
444. 17:03my dream and to fight for it. So
445. 17:06yeah, she's um she's very proud.
446. 17:08>> Was she at your fight on Saturday?
447. 17:10>> Yeah, of course she was there. You know,
448. 17:13the first fight you've been um watching,
449. 17:18I've been knocked out the first round,
450. 17:20but I survived. But it was like terrible
451. 17:22match. It handed in a draw, but yeah,
452. 17:25that was the first match. So, since that
453. 17:27that match, it cannot be worse than
454. 17:29that.
455. 17:30>> Oh my gosh. Wait, so because you broke
456. 17:32up there, you said since that match she
457. 17:34can't be in attendance,
458. 17:39>> cannot see um a worse match than that.
459. 17:42Okay. So, it's easier for
460. 17:43>> Okay. Okay.
461. 17:44>> I already see the the worst the worst
462. 17:46scenario. So,
463. 17:48>> you got the bad part out of the way.
464. 17:52>> Yeah.
465. 17:52>> Okay. Um, by the way, sometimes I
466. 17:54noticed that when you celebrate, you
467. 17:56have a like a unique pose. What does
468. 17:58that represent?
469. 18:04>> This right here.
470. 18:09>> Oh, I don't know. like um
471. 18:22nothing special, you know, just uh he's
472. 18:25screaming my name. Just want to be uh to
473. 18:28be beautiful for the camera.
474. 18:30>> Okay. All right. And I think you you do
475. 18:32a good job of that.
476. 18:33>> Yeah, I hear you. You were breaking up a
477. 18:35little bit. You uh you froze. Your
478. 18:37picture froze, but I think we hear you.
479. 18:39Do you hear me? Hello.
480. 18:40>> Do you hear me?
481. 18:41>> I hear you.
482. 18:42>> You hear me? Okay. But I think your
483. 18:43picture froze. Is this picture frozen?
484. 18:45>> No, you're back. You're back. Um, what
485. 18:47about the blue tongue, Axel?
486. 18:51>> It's uh, you know, because um, I eat a
487. 18:54lot of trouble,
488. 18:56you know.
489. 18:57>> Oh, what? The smurf.
490. 19:00Yeah. And I eat a little bit too much
491. 19:02before the way and that's it.
492. 19:04>> Is that is that like a a custom of
493. 19:06yours? Is that a tradition?
494. 19:10No, not really. Like I like I like
495. 19:12shroom, so you just give me shroom. But
496. 19:14if I too much in a very close time, I my
497. 19:17tongue go crazy.
498. 19:18>> Okay. Uh I hadn't heard that uh word
499. 19:21before, TR, but that's uh I think Smurfs
500. 19:23here. Do you like uh Tenten? Are you a
501. 19:25fan?
502. 19:27>> Tenten.
503. 19:28>> Tenten. You know, Tenten, the the
504. 19:29cartoon
505. 19:31tent. No, not really. Uh, I don't know
506. 19:34if I ever ever read one full.
507. 19:37>> Really? What about Oelik?
508. 19:42>> Yeah, this one. Asterics and Obel.
509. 19:44>> Asterics. Screwed it up. You read that
510. 19:46one?
511. 19:47>> You know my friend Virgil again is Oelix
512. 19:49and I'm Asterics.
513. 19:51>> Oh, you know what? I see it. I see it.
514. 19:53Okay, now it makes sense. They need to
515. 19:56sign him.
516. 19:58>> Yes, he deserve it. But, uh, it's not
517. 20:01about deserving it. It's about context.
518. 20:04>> Sure.
519. 20:04>> Having the opportunity.
520. 20:06>> I thought it was very uh honorable of
521. 20:07you and and very nice to see that in
522. 20:09your great moment, one of the first
523. 20:11things that you thought of was to give a
524. 20:13shout out to your friend and and make a
525. 20:14plea for them to sign him as well.
526. 20:17You're a good friend.
527. 20:24Stoic as well.
528. 20:26Yeah. You know, when you're in position
529. 20:28to maybe ask something doesn't mean you
530. 20:30will get what will happen.
531. 20:32Axel, how quickly do you want to return?
532. 20:36>> Uh to be honest, any time because um now
533. 20:39fighting at 70 kilo for me it take a lot
534. 20:41of energy and uh unfortunately my
535. 20:43training load cannot um it's not uh
536. 20:47enough to develop my physical ability
537. 20:49and my technical development is very
538. 20:53um it's slowed from the diet. So I've
539. 20:57been in there since since January almost
540. 20:59um all the month since that point. So
541. 21:02now I think I need like two three months
542. 21:04to make a great physical development and
543. 21:06technical development in order to to be
544. 21:09um hopefully making a lot of fights in a
545. 21:12very short period of time because in
546. 21:14sport they need to see your face often
547. 21:16and you need to fight often meaning you
548. 21:18need to make weight often. So in order
549. 21:20to have a long period with making
550. 21:23weights, I need to have a long period
551. 21:25making progress.
552. 21:27>> Yeah. No, I can understand that. And and
553. 21:29again a very thoughtful and analytical
554. 21:31approach to your career. Would you like
555. 21:32to fight in the States? Thus far, you
556. 21:34haven't fought on this side of the
557. 21:35world. Would you like to fight here?
558. 21:39>> Oh yeah, definitely. I would like to
559. 21:40fight anywhere. You know, like u
560. 21:42fighting in UFC is such a great
561. 21:44opportunity. If I could if I could fight
562. 21:46every month, I would go. But you have to
563. 21:48make weight.
564. 21:49>> Is it uh is it true that before you got
565. 21:51into this MMA stuff uh you you had
566. 21:54dreams maybe aspirations, thoughts of
567. 21:56being in the special forces?
568. 21:59>> Yes, I wanted to but um I didn't because
569. 22:03uh for different reason but I think
570. 22:05mostly like in the special force it's
571. 22:07once again team team sport. It's not
572. 22:10really like individual sport. your own
573. 22:12development is uh is not as great as if
574. 22:15you were the the only one acting.
575. 22:19>> You want all the pressure on your
576. 22:20shoulders. You want to be the guy who
577. 22:22dictates your own future. No one else.
578. 22:26>> Yeah. And I think in term of uh I mean I
579. 22:29need that in order to to to be to have
580. 22:32the discipline to get the best out of
581. 22:35me. In team sports, I will have the
582. 22:38tendency to do less because there is
583. 22:41people who do.
584. 22:42>> Okay. And by the way, uh, congrats on
585. 22:44another bonus. I believe that's two in
586. 22:46the UFC so far in four fights. Pretty
587. 22:49damn good, especially in 2026 with it
588. 22:51being 100k US.
589. 22:53>> Yes.
590. 22:55>> New new piano maybe.
591. 22:57>> Yes. It's uh it's great.
592. 22:59>> New piano.
593. 23:00>> Not new piano. Um I don't know. With the
594. 23:02first bonus, I've been uh buying a ice
595. 23:05cream machine.
596. 23:07So, for the second one, uh I mostly
597. 23:10invest in my training, you know.
598. 23:13>> Well, uh it's a lot of fun seeing you
599. 23:14>> maybe find a gym in the US or
600. 23:16>> Okay.
601. 23:19>> What are you saying? What you
602. 23:20>> No, no. I I was saying I wanted you to
603. 23:22finish your thought. Sorry, there was a
604. 23:23delay there. You say find a gym in the
605. 23:25US.
606. 23:27>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. because if I'm
607. 23:30fighting in the US in the coming years,
608. 23:31I need to be to have somewhere to train
609. 23:33there, of course. And um yeah, it's uh I
610. 23:37need to find a place, you know, because
611. 23:40uh so far when I'm traveling for
612. 23:42fighting, the problem is when you go
613. 23:44somewhere, you're there for like four
614. 23:46weeks and it's good from to make
615. 23:48sparring, it's good to see uh how is
616. 23:51your game because you test it against
617. 23:52new person. But u
618. 23:55for for for
619. 23:59development is not the best because uh
620. 24:02the coach u they will not have the same
621. 24:05look on you that will have on the people
622. 24:08that is there all year long. So I really
623. 24:11need to find a place where I go off and
624. 24:13then you can start a relation with the
625. 24:15people training there and the coach and
626. 24:17I think you can you can progress more if
627. 24:20you have um a knowing of the people uh
628. 24:24of the people you train with. So um
629. 24:27yeah, I think uh in for 2027 to find a
630. 24:30place in the US where we go um a couple
631. 24:33times in a year to to make camp felicit,
632. 24:36a great first year in the UFC, Axel,
633. 24:38great win on Saturday. Uh a great start
634. 24:41to your career and I'm very excited
635. 24:42about what you can do in the future. So
636. 24:44I hope you're able to enjoy it. Thank
637. 24:46you for coming on. Great to meet you and
638. 24:48I'm wishing you all the best.
639. 24:58Melba Melben. Yes, there he is. Axel
640. 25:01Solola kind enough to join us. Uh, a
641. 25:02little choppy there at the end, but
642. 25:04hopefully he got the sentiment and, uh,
643. 25:07a name I think to remember in the 155b
644. 25:10division. He's won two in a row. Three
645. 25:11wins in the UFC, beat Reese McKe, Isma
646. 25:14Bonfim Fzy on Saturday. The unanimous
647. 25:17decision loss that he spoke of, that was
648. 25:19against Mason Jones back in March. got a
649. 25:22bonus for that, a uh fight of the night
650. 25:24bonus. So, uh not a bad start and almost
651. 25:27exactly a year in between his first
652. 25:29fight and his fourth fight, the one on
653. 25:32Saturday. Thanks for watching this
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