#72 - Which Country Has The Scariest Grapplers? | ADCC Trials Preview

Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Flow Grappling show. As always, I'm Trey Robinson. We got Big Uncle Reed right there, Joey Gilps right there. Today we're talking about trials. I think, I think there's a little more we could talk about too, to be honest. You know, I saw there's a CJI announcement out in the nether regions. There's uh the GP coming up, but you know, we got to preview this trials that's going down this weekend. And with that, I think we're going to get Andrew Spay in here a little later to talk a little Dag. A little Dagestan if you will, you know. Spay's our resident Dagestan expert, so we're going to bring him in. But just overall, you guys got any thoughts leading into this uh European trials? Speaker 2: Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, super excited for this set of European trials. This is always uh really exciting portion of the ADCC season. The second uh continental qualifiers are happening, regional qualifiers. So that means the women's uh tickets are also up for grabs. Uh to me, this is really when things start kicking into high leverage and high dodge in and I am super excited to watch every single division. A lot on the uh the line here for everybody. Pretty good uh uh first trials. I think it's going to be even better for the second trials. Speaker 1: European Jiu-Jitsu on fire right now. You know, we just got And boys just stomped our our boys, huh? Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they did. Speaker 1: Actually, you know what? I'm not excited for Euro trials. I got a bad I got a bad taste in my mouth. Speaker 2: You're out on the Euro grapplers now. But no, obviously we just had Polaris. We're just out in Wales, got to kind of see a lot of these these guys who are going to be competing at Euro trials and everything. And obviously the Polaris squad showed out. Owen O'Flanagan looked incredible. Taylor Pearman looked looked awesome. Uh really excited to get to see those guys again, you know. Um well, we got some other Oh, yeah, I guess we just had the IBJJF European uh championships. Now we're doing the Euro trials. So January has just been all Euros on on Flow Grappling here. And uh you know, this is a really great way to kick it to kind of like cap cap the month off here. And um you know, out there in Serbia, kind of crazy. I've never been to Serbia. Speaker 1: For sure. Speaker 2: Oh, really? Yeah, let's go. But um you know, out there in the uh middle of nowhere Serbia. I don't know too much about it. But uh Speaker 1: I Spay could talk Serbia too, to be honest. Yeah, we might have to ask Spay. Speaker 2: He is the he's the leading uh geography expert of Flow Sports, the current daily reigning uh geography expert. Speaker 1: Yeah, we've we've been playing Map Tap and we got a Map Tap leaderboard going now. Spay's number one. Honestly putting up bonkers scores. Speaker 2: Yeah, really tough to reach. Speaker 1: I I had a major blunder on today's map. It was embarrassing. Speaker 2: I have been reading actually a lot of uh or not a lot, but I have been reading about this uh Serbian history and stuff like that recently. But No way. You won't have to get into that. Speaker 1: There's no way you're reading about Serbian history. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. Um. Speaker 1: Wow. What's some Serbian history? Speaker 2: Well, I don't want to I don't want to talk about it. Maybe it's not uh you know, the best stuff to talk about. Speaker 1: Well, in the in the same vein of uh you know, Flow Grappling being all about European Jiu-Jitsu for the start of 2026, I wanted to take it back to IBJJF Euros because we did a podcast uh kind of like right at the start of 2026 before Euros and everything. We made some predictions. Do you remember any of those predictions we made? Speaker 2: Not off the top of my head. Speaker 1: One of the predictions I made was that a European was going to win the Europeans, IBJJF Europeans. Because I wanted to because I wanted a quick one to be either reproved right or wrong right away. And Denise Kron. Speaker 2: It happened. Denise Kron. Speaker 1: Yep, German. Got the Dovsky. So I want a little credit because I thought the comments were going to be firing off about Trey called it, you know, oh my God, Trey's Tradamus. Trey's the future. Trey knows it all. I didn't see nobody comment to that. My boy Froggy, silent. No comments from him. All these other guys, silent, you know. These dudes are always pointing out when we're wrong. Nobody could say when we were right. Speaker 2: You got to pull the clip. Well, you got to make that into a a reel or something like that. Speaker 1: Call it that? Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: All right. Yeah. Speaker 2: Got to let the people know. Maybe your boy had a froggy in his throat. Speaker 1: Yeah, true. You hear that, Froggy? You hear what he just said? But you know, maybe yeah, I mean a lot of great athletes competing on here. I think maybe the the first storyline is like Joe mentioned there is um, you know, the the women getting to punch their ticket now and and Annamire Domo, I think is is kind of like top of the list of of people I want to watch this weekend. Um, you know, this is her third trials, I believe that she's going to be doing now. Um, we've so we've seen a lot of of, you know, great action from from Anna on the ADCC trials mats, but this is the first time that she'll actually get to punch her ticket, get the opportunity to punch her ticket if she wins. So a little bit more on the line here. We'll see if that affects anything, but obviously I think Anna the kind of the favorite here to to to watch. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: And also going into this last European trials, the first European trials, she was all subs. So, I think it's kind of like, I'm not just excited to watch Anna. I think if you're, you know, she's got to be the clear favorite, obviously, you know, it's like there's no way you could say she's not at this point. But I'm also like, man, can Anna follow it up now with the second European trials, go all subs again? Like that would be incredible to do both trials, win both with all subs. So, I definitely think big things are on the horizon for Anna at this trials. Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely on the table uh that Anna would be able to submit her way through this bracket as well. A lot of tough girls, but it's a very tough field last time. It's very similar field with a lot of the same names. Speaker 1: Who who do you think is there is there one girl in there that you think might be like the toughest uh test for her or or Speaker 2: I mean, you know, she's beaten Ashley Bendel, who who would be somebody who I think would be uh uh you know, one of the more difficult tests in there. Fiona Martel is world ranked at 135 lbs. She's in the mix. Uh there's women in there who I think are just very gritty, like Cara Duplessie uh is very gritty. Uh up and comers like uh McCall Bali is a good up and comer in that division. Just off the top of my head. Uh so there's definitely like some fun ones, but I feel like with what we've seen from Anna, European trials, North American trials, IBJJF Worlds, Nogi pants, she has just put together such a body of work over the last year that I don't see why she's not going to come in here and and look stunning. Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like obviously anything can happen at trials, but I think for me this is one of the main divisions where I'm like, it's hard to envision Anna not coming out and getting the win, you know? It's like, I know there's always tough girls like Speaker 2: That would be bad news for the girls in the North American division by the way. Speaker 1: 100%, yeah. She's about to rack up another one. Speaker 2: They're crossing their fingers that Anna punches. Speaker 1: Let's get this done. Yeah. Speaker 2: Pack it out over there. Speaker 1: So yeah, I definitely think she's a clear favorite here. Any what's a what's another division that kind of has stood out to you so far, Joe? Speaker 2: Sure. For uh the men, we could bump to men's minus 88. I think that's the best men's weight class. Uh Ferris is in there, Marlon is in there, Santiri is in there. Ben Bennett, who took silver here last time is really good. Uh Linus Von Shank uh is somebody who's been on WNO before. Really deep division, full of really tough guys. Really excited to watch Marlon. I know we have a technique video with Marlon coming out really soon. So uh uh make sure you guys keep an uh an eye out for that. A lot of good stuff in the men's division. Speaker 1: And what we know about Santiri is that he just does not lose at these ADCC trials events, you know? He's he's a a dominant force usually in that 88 kg division. It'll be fun to see Ferris. But yeah, I think the real wild card has got to be Marlon Tajiek there, you know? He had a great performance at the last European trials. Speaker 2: Took third. Speaker 1: Um and I think we've seen him kind of just like bump up levels here these past couple, you know, six months or so, it seems like. And so you you really got to put some chips on uh on Marlon Tajiek here. Speaker 2: I I think one of the wildest parts about this division is that Owen O'Flanagan went up to under 99. Speaker 1: I was I was thinking the same thing. I thought that was a crazy thing. Owen's a big boy. We've all seen them photos of him looking, you know, jacked and juicy, but I didn't think he was that big to go 99. Like that seems like a huge jump. Like when you look at Santiri and you look at Owen O'Flanagan, Santiri seems like insanely bigger than Owen. So I thought that was wild, but obviously, you know, Speaker 2: Much larger. Owen's tall. Speaker 1: Yeah, these these dudes these dudes do kind of like they play the divisions a little bit. He obviously sees something in the 99 division where he's like, all right, I can go out and leg lock all these fools. Speaker 2: He needs a height issue, right? Cuz he did he did under 95 for Polaris and I don't think we really saw him cutting weight or anything like that. So. Speaker 1: Wow. But it's also a Ferris issue, right? Like he wants to leave Ferris, Elaine at minus 88. Speaker 2: Ferris is also huge. Speaker 1: Ferris is also huge. He's shorter but he's like jacked. But all right, there's some interesting names in here too. So we're bringing in our Dagestan expert Spay. We are you do you want to talk Serbia with Spay? Do you want to stay and talk Serbia? Speaker 2: No, no, no. All right. Snoop Daggy Dag himself. For for a lesson in Spayology. Speaker 1: All right. I thought you guys were going to go Serbia for Serbia. Speaker 2: From FRL FRL's own Andrew Spencer Spay from wrestling company. Speaker 1: You might know him from Spay's stupid podcast, Andrew Spay. Speaker 2: Yeah. That was that was uh been nuked. Speaker 1: Oh, damn. Speaker 2: That doesn't exist anymore. I was I figured out a way to erase them. Speaker 1: You deleted it from the internet? Speaker 2: So it's no longer there. I have that power. Speaker 1: All right, we got Andrew Spay here. Spay, you know, you know a lot about geography. We started playing Map Tap. You're the current leaderboard, uh or number one on the leaderboard, as well as, you know, a wrestling officionado. You can talk about it. We've never seen you do it necessarily, but you know, I'm kidding. But you also know a lot about Dagestan. And so one thing about this European trials bracket is there's a bunch of Dagestans in uh Dagestan dudes entered this time. I feel like every now and then we see one or two. And actually last trials, it was a Dagestan guy who won 77. You remember his name? Speaker 2: Possible. That's right. Magomed Sharbaev. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Sharbaev. Okay. Yeah, Magomed, very common. John Q Magomed in uh every corner of uh Dagestan in that part of the world. Speaker 1: So we wanted to, you know, enlighten the Flow Grappling show audience with a little bit of Dagestan history. So just what are the what are the general points that someone needs to know about Dagestan? How it came to be, some, you know, historical moments in the history of the country. What what do people need to know about Dagestan? Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's it really is something that you can just, you know, what I know is is surface level of what you can know. It just it's spiral deep deep dive. You can go down a Dagestan deep dive. Um, so what I would say to all the uh lovely viewers out here, first of all, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: Yeah, of course. Speaker 2: Uh, but that is a long time. Speaker 1: First time, long time. Speaker 2: First time, long time. Uh, that Dagestan is basically the hinterlands of Russia. So they'll compete under the Russian flag, or at least they did when that was more acceptable. Um, but they're not Russian the way you'd think of stereotypical Russian. Speaker 1: Like they're not in a hurry. Speaker 2: They're yeah, they're not yeah. Speaker 1: Oh, come on. Got him with the first Russian joke of the show. Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, you're Russian? What's your hurry? That's a good one. No, I like that. I like that one. Um, so, you know, the the average Russian person would be from Moscow and that's the center of the uh the Russian area. Dagestan is very much on the periphery. It borders uh former Soviet Republics, Azerbaijan, uh and then Georgia's right there and then Armenia. That's the Caucasus regions. Those are the Caucasus Mountains. They're on the north slope of the Caucasus. And that whole region was really a mix from going back to the, you know, the Middle Ages, something like that. It would be a mixture of Turkish and Persian influences. Those were the empires that kind of ruled that area. And then starting around 1600, 1700, the Russian Empire started uh uh expanding. And, you know, England is an island, so they uh their empire was all little island nations that they took over overseas. They used their navy. Russia's a giant landmass and they use their army to take over uh places that they could get to that were overland. And so going south, uh their big rival was the Ottoman Empire at the time and they would be taking chunks at a time going through the uh once they passed the Volga River, then it was just time to take over all these predominantly Muslim areas. And you might think it's like kind of like, oh, the Middle East is um rather uh uniform or homogeneous, but it's actually incredibly fragmented. And Dagestan's a wonderful example of that because uh the further you go into the mountains, the more fragmented it gets. And so you start um, you know, uh so Dagestan's one little it's a constituent Speaker 1: You're talking about like the different cultures within Dagestan itself? Speaker 2: That's right. So I mean you have Speaker 1: Like kind of separatist upon separatist upon separatist. Speaker 2: And not all of them want to be separatist and that's what's so interesting about the it's a crazy quilt of ethnicities and languages. And if you look up, I mean there's some maps that, you know, various people have done where it's the ethnolinguistic map of that region and it's just a million different colors and splotches and it's all intertwined and intermingled. Speaker 1: Yo, our audience isn't going to know most of these words, just so you know. But including myself. Speaker 2: It's uh it's a big mismash of various peoples. Uh and it's not so, I mean, just Speaker 1: Let's bring it down one more notch. You're saying same same but different. Speaker 2: Yeah, so Iran. Yeah, you got the Arab countries and that's different than Iran, which is Persian. Speaker 1: We'll look into that. Speaker 2: And then there's Turkey, which are the Turks. These are all vastly different cultures with different histories and and everything is is uh very different there. And then you have Dagestan, but that's even more different. So Dagestan, a lot of the people there are related to the Chechens, but they're different. And then there are other Turkish groups that are also different. And then next door there are these guys called the Ossetians. And they're even more different because they're actually one of the Christian minorities of that area where it's mostly Muslim or predominantly Muslim. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay, so bringing it back to the whole point of uh these podcasts and uh is to talk about the sporting aspect of it. And that whole region, the Caucasus region is crazy for combat sports. Basically, you name the combat sport. They like invented their own. Speaker 1: Much like how others might be for Kuku Puffs. They are Kuku for combat sports. Speaker 2: Exactly right. Yeah, they are like what uh Speaker 1: Why are they so crazy for combat sports? Speaker 2: So that's, I mean, that's uh that's just how their culture has evolved. You know, you you could probably say like, oh, it's just part of what being a a Dagestan person is or uh you know, being a Chechen or a Georgian or Armenian, like they just that's just how they grow up. Where it's like everybody in the US will go through T-ball and then Little League or, you know, Pop Warner football and like the NFL is just part of your day. Over there, they have soccer and they have combat sports. And so you name the combat sport. MMA is is gaining more and more popularity there as more guys get into that. But wrestling is huge, freestyle wrestling, Olympic wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling is freestyle and Greco. And then Jiu-Jitsu, Nogi Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, I mean, you name it. Speaker 1: Sambo. Speaker 2: Sambo, that's the that's the combat sport that is indigenous to Russia. They basically invented it and have big tournaments that uh mean a lot to people in the Russian in the in the Russian influenced area as well. Speaker 1: So one time Khabib historically said, if Sambo was easy, it would be called Jiu-Jitsu. At least he wore it on a shirt. I don't know if it came out of his mouth. But what what do you what side of that do you stand on? And you don't have to pander to us. Speaker 2: That's pretty rude. No, I think uh Speaker 1: I would like it though. Speaker 2: But yeah, but I do want to just just to make sure I get invited back. Speaker 1: All right, all right. You have an open invite. Anytime you want to talk. Speaker 2: Don't let me abuse that. All right. Uh I you know, like uh I'm not a big Sambo guy, but I do uh and I'm also not a giant Jiu-Jitsu guy, but I have learned a lot more just being around you guys and just absorbing it through. Here's another big word, but I can't help but use it. Just through osmosis. Speaker 1: Ah, Osmosis Jones. Speaker 2: Another great movie. Speaker 1: Great show. Speaker 2: Yeah, great soundtrack. Um and uh I would I would say Jiu-Jitsu is probably more cerebral. I don't know how tough they are. I've never done either of them. But I think Sambo you can get away with just being just relying on quickness and strength because there's a lot more striking and some some pretty crazy moves. Whereas Jiu-Jitsu, the way I understand it is, you know, it's a chess game that you're the opponent fights back. Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I like to describe it as like, you know, in Jiu-Jitsu, you can just lay down at some point. And you're like doing a good job. Like you just lay down and it's like, dude, that guy's killing it right now. Look at him. Speaker 2: And it's not frowned upon. Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's like he might be the best in the world if he's the best at laying down a certain way. So, pretty big difference there. Speaker 2: Yeah. I I would say also you said why uh why is combat sports so popular there? And I think one thing is the the history of those areas. You can, you know, when you're a bunch of different peoples and you're used to uh fighting amongst each other. So, you know, the Dagestans, they'll fight amongst themselves, they'll fight the Chechens, they'll fight the Ossetians, they'll fight the Georgians and and whatnot and the Circassians. But then when Russia comes in, they get it they get united against an enemy. And now they're part of Russia. And so some people like it like that. I mean, you're going to have to talk to individual people to decide whether it's good or bad that they're part of Russia. Um, but there's been a cultural resistance. And so basically it was a, you know, 50-year period in the 1800s where they're like George Washington, their their uh um, you know, cultural folk hero, but he was real was this guy named Imam Shamil. And they still wear T-shirts about him and he's like the one guy that unites all of Dagestan because they all speak different languages, they all have different backgrounds, ethnicities. Sometimes they mix, sometimes they stay separate, sometimes they're in the mountains and they don't talk to anybody that's in the other cities. Um, but Speaker 1: So he's like an epic party animal or something? Just like everybody agreed was a super chill guy. Speaker 2: He was uh if if partying is like leading a rebellion for like 30 years through like the mountains and the snow, I mean, it was a party. Speaker 1: Pretty similar. Pretty similar. Speaker 2: And so he's revered for that. Speaker 1: That was Van Wilder 3. Speaker 2: And uh yeah. They they finally made a sequel uh to to get into the the Caucasus Mountain uh demographic. Speaker 1: It was about time. Speaker 2: Yeah, somebody had to make it. And so that, you know, that has stayed with their culture and uh and and so when you're a little kid, a lot of guys will play soccer and then uh everybody else to determine if you're, you know, going to be a hot shot on uh in your high school or whatever, it's like are you good at combat sports? Speaker 1: Okay. All right, so I have a question for you. And you know, this is caveated with Spay doesn't have like a super deep cut knowledge of the Jiu-Jitsu world and everything going on. But I just want your broad take on this, you know, your broad knowledge to I guess give a specific take if you will. You pull up to ADCC European trials. All right. And I want you to stack rank, I want you to stack rank these like I'm going to give you five countries that your opponents are from and you got to stack rank from your least scared to most scared to have to fight in a Jiu-Jitsu match. Speaker 2: Would love to. Mhm. Spell that out for me. Okay. I like that. Speaker 1: All right. We're going the UK. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: We're going Dagestan. Speaker 2: Yep. Speaker 1: Poland. Speaker 2: Yep. Speaker 1: Spain. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: What's one more I should throw in? Speaker 2: Turkey. Speaker 1: And Turkey. Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah, so I assume it mirrors uh wrestling a little bit and I'm Speaker 1: One is the most scary. Speaker 2: Yeah, so the most scary, um, it's going to be Dagestan. Okay. And I would say that the UK or Spain, uh, they would be fighting for four or five here and it just depends on if they're uh a transplant or have Caucasus Mountain uh transplant like uh heritage. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: Which is very common in wrestling where you'll see like a guy representing like Spain, but his last name is like Magomedov. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, free uh something that ends in a in a V, a val and then a V. Speaker 1: Like like Shishabakov. Shishabakov. Speaker 2: Shishabakov is definitely from that region. Speaker 1: Yeah. Ramazan Shishabakov specifically. Speaker 2: Oh, Ramazan is a very common name over there. Uh gold medalist that uh in the Olympics at 86 kilos was uh Ramazan Magomedov. So there you go. Speaker 1: Okay. So so least scary, you're going UK, Spain. Speaker 2: I would go UK and then Spain. Not that UK doesn't have a lot of practitioners. I know that there's a lot of uh UK guys that are like big into Jiu-Jitsu. Um a lot of the media guys that work for United World Wrestling, the international governing body are Jiu-Jitsu/wrestling people and will like be practicing Jiu-Jitsu while wrestling events are taking place. Speaker 1: So who's who's three and two? Speaker 2: Uh and then the other options were was it Poland and Serbia? Speaker 1: Poland and Turkey, right? Speaker 2: Oh, Poland and Turkey. Uh Turkey cuz it's in that region like the the Middle Eastern Caspian Sea. That's that's usually a little bit tougher. But Poland is I think getting better at a lot of different combat sports. They're on the rise in wrestling. Um they're there are some some transplants every now and then they get into Poland, but they have some some local guys, some homegrown talent too. Uh and plus they're hosting ADCC. I know that. Uh so I think they're going to want to put on a show and they're going to want to not they're they're going to want to uh you know, uh show how tough they are. Speaker 1: Fair enough. Speaker 2: And then uh yeah, and then number one would be Dagestan that region there. Speaker 1: Do you want to know how I would rank it just to compare? Speaker 2: Yeah, no, let me know what I'm missing here. Speaker 1: I would probably go most scary, I would probably say Poland, then UK. Speaker 2: I would agree. Speaker 1: Okay. Then maybe Dagestan just cuz like I don't think they're necessarily going to be great at Jiu-Jitsu. I think they're just going to be like physical, tough dudes who can like win a decision, you know? And like and daddy don't want to wrestle that much, I'll be honest, you know? Those dudes don't lay down and that's messed up. We all agreed, right? Earlier on we said Jiu-Jitsu you can lay down. Right. And the Dagestan dudes, they aren't doing that. And so that's messed up. And so I'll go Dagestan and then Spain and then Turkey. I don't know any Turkish grapplers. Speaker 2: Poland wins. Yeah. Speaker 1: No, I threw that one as kind of a wild card cuz they have like some better. Speaker 2: They have their own form of wrestling, the Turkish oil wrestling. If you ever look it up, it's like a thousand years old or something. Speaker 1: Yeah. No, we're into that. We know about that and we're into it. Speaker 2: That's something that this podcast covers extensively. Extensively. Speaker 1: On our on our own time. But and then okay, if I throw in Chechnya, where do they where do you squeeze them in? Speaker 2: Sometimes for weeks on end. So, unfortunately, Chechnya is going through like a little bit of a uh uh a rough patch. Speaker 1: Cuz I think there are some Chechens in this bracket. Speaker 2: And so in inside Chechnya, it's tough to advance because it's run by like basically a a warlord, a dictator since the end of the second Chechen war in the late 90s uh and then the son of the Speaker 1: Ups the scary factor. Speaker 2: Yeah, so so Kadyrov doesn't really allow for much freedom on. Speaker 1: Another Ramazan. Speaker 2: Yeah, another another Ramazan. And uh but there are tons of Chechens that are all over the place. So in the 90s, uh there are a lot of refugees from Chechnya because the whole area Grozny, their capital got completely flattened. And so in France, in Belgium, in the there are a lot of guys with Chechen names. In the US, there's some good wrestlers. Speaker 1: Sweden too. Speaker 2: Sweden too. Yeah, that's um what's his name? Hamzat. Speaker 1: Hamzat Chimaev. Speaker 2: Hamzat Chimaev. Yeah. That's a good example of that. Um and so and they kept that, you know, their culture with them as they went and that was a fighting culture. So what they did, they, you know, in the US you you wrestle in high school because that's the one combat sport you're allowed to do and they, you know, they encourage it. Speaker 1: Mhm. All right. Speaker 2: Good stuff. Speaker 1: You got yeah, another follow-up or something? Speaker 2: I actually do have one more question. I know our time with Spay is probably uh uh you know, I got a lot of looking at maps to do. I got to get back. Speaker 1: I know you got a lot of maps, but uh uh we're talking about ADCC trials. Somebody won ADCC trials uh for the Asian trials, Riota Unraku. He was the second uh number two on Japan's ladder at minus 65 kilos for freestyle wrestling. As a subject matter expert, can you put into perspective how good that probably makes him? Speaker 2: Of being number two at 65 kilo men's freestyle. Yeah, so uh uh Kyuka is I think their number one. And um oh, I got to remember what he did. But Japan lightweights are uh if you make the team in Japan, you are going to be like a top five, at least a top 10 guy in the world. Um they and the last 10 years, Japan has also uh improved a lot. So all the young guys coming in are really good. And now Japan figured out like, hey, I can come to the US and get paid to go to school and wrestle. And it's a little bit different styles, but they're taking advantage of everything. They're they're they have a very advanced system. It's not as popular a sport in Japan, but um they anything they do, like the Japanese country, like they'll get good at. If they decide that like, okay, wrestling's the thing, like they they have uh uh um they're known for their dedication. Speaker 1: Yeah. They're not showing up out of form. Speaker 2: Yeah. And they're and they're conditioning is legendary too. So the US has got a high reputation for conditioning. The Russian, the Dagestan guys, not so much. So sometimes they get a little bit dragged for their for conditioning. And sometimes it's fun to watch them like kind of, you know, melt down. Speaker 1: I to be honest, watching wrestling, I feel like a lot of times they kind of give up. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that or not, but Speaker 2: And then they're also known for not fighting up their back as hard as like an American would. Speaker 1: Bad for Jiu-Jitsu. Speaker 2: But exactly. Yeah. They're ruining the cardinal rule of Jiu-Jitsu, which is when the going gets tough, just lay down. Speaker 1: Exactly. All right, Spay, last last thing here and then we'll let you go. If you had to give your number one attribute that you bring to a grappling setting, what would be your main attribute? Speaker 2: My main attribute? Oh, I have no problem laying down. Speaker 1: Yeah, like like mine's like brute tenacity. Okay. Yeah. Speaker 2: So there we go. Speaker 1: So that concession? Willingness to I will go out there and uh if I if it needs to be, I'll just lay down and then if I lose, I lose, but, you know, we'll uh Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: At least we'll go out with honor. Speaker 2: I'll make sure it's not a walkover. Speaker 1: He has a good understanding of where the geography of the fight should take place. Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh yeah. I'll I'll I'll do the lunch run for all the people that will actually be competing cuz it won't be me. Speaker 1: All right, Spay. Thanks, Spay. Appreciate you coming on. Yeah, talking Dag. Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, hopefully this was interesting. Anytime. Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting. All right. Speaker 2: All right. Yeah. From one flannel to another. Speaker 1: Nice. Speaker 2: I did see you guys you guys walked into today like the same time and it was like, oh, cute, they got like the same thing going on. Speaker 1: Yeah, we did we did match a little bit for you. Got the memo. For sure. You put Poland as number one. Speaker 2: I was I was going to say you were you were making faces whenever I say that. We're going off scariest. So it's like you Yeah, I you you're going UK number one. Speaker 1: And UK as number two. Speaker 2: No, I'm going Dagestan guy number one. Speaker 1: Really? Dagestan guy not going to tap me though. Yeah. A Dagestan guy isn't going to. Speaker 2: But just like if like knowing nothing about the guys, you know, knowing nothing about like stepping onto a mat against a Dagestan guy, like Speaker 1: But I do know about the guys. You know what I mean? I'm not saying I know about uh let's find a random name I don't know. Speaker 2: Polish guys are nice. Speaker 1: Polish guys are cool. No, but all of we gave all of them nicknames like the knee reaper and the Polish punisher and stuff for a reason. Speaker 2: Shupkinov. Speaker 1: The freaking the hand of God, you know what I mean? Speaker 2: I think you're wrong. Speaker 1: The devil's lance is a Polish man. Speaker 2: I think you're wrong. And then well, my my my story about The soul drinker. Do you remember the soul drinker? Yeah. One of them's nickname is the guy who breaks your leg and you never walk again. Speaker 1: The soul drinker. Speaker 2: Well, I trained with a Russian guy in Japan when we were in Japan and he was from, I believe, Dagestan and stuff like that. And he told me that if you win a tournament in Dagestan, if you beat a guy in Dagestan, then after that, you're going to have to fist fight him outside the arena. So if you beat a Dagestan guy, you're then you're going to have to fist fight him outside the arena. Speaker 1: Why was he in a hurry? So you beat six Dagestan guys. No, for sure. You're right. That is a scary thing. But but genuinely like you know the best the best Polish grapplers out there, you know what I mean? And I would say like maybe this is my bias for like I'm a big Mateusz Szyszynski fan and I also think Mateusz Szyszynski is one of the scariest grapplers on earth. Not just because he's incredibly good, he looks scary if you don't know him and he breaks people's legs just all the time. That's like his whole thing. So it's just like I just know the Polish dudes are so good at like straight ankle locks, they're so good like kind of everywhere at this point, you know. I think Polish dudes are the most scariest in this in this setting. And then I think I just I guess what my whole point is like I don't it's a little bit like what Joe said. I don't think Dagestan dudes are good enough at grappling to like injure me. I think like, yeah, am I going to be puking into a trash can afterwards because this Speaker 2: I can see it. I can see it.