You didn't break his jaw, but it looked like you'd broken his jaw on the night.

Mm.

Yeah.

Um, he's...

You have to respect his, his mentality going in there.

You know? That, that kill or be killed attitude.

He either finishes guys early or he gets finished early.

Yep.

At what age, Rob, did, did, uh, did you get into MMA that you, you make that pledge, you said, "This is what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life"?

You know what? It's, uh, uh, it's a bit of a split story because, like, so I grew up, I g- I grew up poor in Australia, you know? And when, when...

I feel like if you grow up a little bit underprivileged, you try to look for different identities.

You don't wanna be just the poor kid.

You know what I mean? So I try, I kind of sh- circled to being a martial artist and then a fighter, and I wanted to be the fighter, you know, the tough guy.

I wanted to, I wanted that as my persona, my profile.

But, uh, as I grew up and then I entered the Ultimate Fighter house and I came through that, and I realized I could put down my day job and I could make this, like, a proper thing, that was when everything hit me and I was like, no, I need to be, like, an elite athlete.

For me, wrestling and jujitsu costed me more like, like mindful practices, like having to pay attention to every detail, do a lot more reps, you know? It always, it took a little bit more for me to, for me to get there, you know, in the wrestling part.

so we can't overgeneralize, but did you sense a difference? Is the power different? Is, is the, is, is, is fighting with that extra weight different? How would you describe the experience now fighting as a light heavyweight?

Oh, mate, it's...

It is different.

Um, but it, it, it also isn't.

Fighting is very much the same thing.

So the, the nerves in there, the nerves leading into there, the, the feel of the fight itself.

But, um, I guess I, I trained extensively for months, uh, with the impression that I was gonna fight a boogeyman, and that every touch of his gloves would send me to, to, to sleep.

You want that.

Yeah

... like some of these light heavies are.

But, um, I, I am naturally heavy.

This is my natural weight.

I am, I'm still, like all the ...

You, you saw the, the, the fighter photography photos yesterday and whatnot.

I'm, I'm, I'm 220, you know? And I'm eating, I'm eating pretty clean, making sure that the weight cut isn't too crazy.

This, this is it going forward?

Did it come out of health or necessity as in looking at where you were in middleweight?

So the last few camps, I just have not enjoyed them.

I have not enjoyed them.

The camp starts all right, but then as the food gets leaner and the weeks go by and the weight comes down, I start to feel fragile.

I start to really gas out and flatline a bit in weeks four, three.

And then these last two weeks, I'm just miserable.

My family's usually not there, so I'm homesick.

Listen, any of the interviews I've been

Mm.

There wa- it was really just budding, especially w- especially when I was coming up through, um, through the ranks and whatnot.

So everyone had to leave.

You had to go to the States or Canada, et cetera, et cetera.

So I did some stints overseas then.

But I found that there were...

I don't know.

Yeah.

Was there any talk of you being on this card originally?

Um, so after last fight, I was talking to my family and stuff, and I knew my wife was due around November, and I wanted to take some time to just separate myself from the game a little bit.

I think, I think, uh, the last, last couple camps haven't been super fun, so I've just been trying to bring that back into, into the game and just focus on some different things.

'Cause I wanna focus on-... other things, such as the gym and everything else, and broadcasting and stuff whilst in camp, I feel like the split in attention would, would- it's not giving the game enough respect that, e- enough respect.

So yeah, having that time away, doing these things, these side gigs, working with the, the, the broadcast team and stuff like that is, is good, but I'm, I'm about- just about ready to get back in there.

Why June?

That, that, that's just the date.

I want to, um...

'Cause you beat Chimaev, now you're fighting for the belt again.

Yeah, it's, uh...

This is what I do.

This is what I signed up for.

This is my duty to my family.

You know? This is how I put bread on the table.

And, uh, I take that role very responsibly.

Yeah.

Uh, is this part of the calculus as well, as far as you saying two more years? Like, you just wanna be more present as your kids get older?

That's the primary focus.

It's, like, the only reason I fight right now is for them.

You know, I, I, I wanna show them...

Like, I wa- I wanna lead by example.

I wanna show the kids, show my kids what I can achieve, you know, what you can achieve, what, what hard work and grit and determination does, and, and, and where it gets you.

In every fight, I provide for them a little more and push them, push them further in, you know, in, in anything that they want to do.

Even though the MMA fighter is... you guys are just boxing, it's just, it's completely different when you're going against an MMA fighter and a, and a pure boxer?