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Ep. #78 – Louis Cosce

Louis Cosce is a mixed martial artist training out of Lost Boy Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai who competes as a Welterweight. The undefeated Cosce has won all of his six professional fight by way of first round stoppage earning him a spot on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series.

Transcript

Louis Cosce:What’S up man, hello, how are you doing how uh how’s your day been going? It’S going good just got done, training um. How is uh, how is this whole pandemic thing been on you in the uh, the training obviously exciting news coming up here, but how is that? How has training been and what sorts of adjustments have you had to make uh the past few months to make sure you’re getting the proper training in uh the train’s been going really good man, it’s kind of just been less bodies, but our team, i’m, like kind Of like the only pro that’s in this situation, right now on my team, so a lot of the practices have just been based around me. So it’s it’s pretty cool! It’S been nice, it’s just pretty much been a whole entire camp. That’S based on me is to have like a regular practice. You know yeah, i mean obviously news coming out here, you’re fighting next week. How does it feel to uh to know that you know what you’re one step away from from getting that call? You know it’s. You know one big performance and you’re in how does that feel that feels awesome? It feels it feels good to even get the chance and opportunity. You know all the other fights i mean all kind of led to this moment, but this one definitely means a lot more. That’S for sure, there’s uh, i mean the the contender series is so so unique uh, given the fact that there’s so much on the line. A lot more pressure, uh people watching you and have you given much thought to you – know how you’re going to have to perform, knowing that a performance means or a finish means so much more than just a decision. Obviously, all your all your fights have come by a way of dis uh finish anyway, but do you think that there’s added pressure to go out there and get a knockout or submission or you’re just gon na fight your fight, i’m just gon na fight, my fight, I kind of fight aggressively anyways and i’ve always told myself in the get-go that this is uh. That’S the whole point of a fight. You know i i don’t see the point of these guys, trying to be all technical and win by decisions that doesn’t make any [ __ ] sense to me uh. The whole point is to try to knock each other out. Of course you don’t want to take too much damage and stuff because there’s always the next fight, but you als you’ll always want to win like impressively. You know, because style points do add up. You do get noticed, so i definitely look to fight like that. Like every single time it just just kind of how i started off from the get-go, and i just it’s always been like that. So do you feel like i went by decision, but it just hasn’t been there yet do you uh? Do you feel added pressure knowing that dana white’s there and and the opportunity to get a contract is, is on the table as well? Uh? No! No! Not really! I don’t know if i feel the pressure than i have the fight honestly, but as of right now, i know um to be honest, it kind of feels like a relief. It feels really good to actually even get the opportunity and chance to be able to do this right now. Another thing that uh i’ve spoken to a few fighters about a lot of them say like i, don’t even notice it um, but some have said like it really affects their performance and that’s the that’s the empty arena. Um. How do you feel, like that’s gon na affect your performance? That’S someone who’s exciting. Do you tend to feed off the crowd, or do you manage to somehow drown that out? I really don’t care to be honest, the fight’s, a fight. I don’t really think about what everybody’s saying to me. The only thing i can kind of think about is that guys trying to knock me out, so it’s like. I don’t want to get knocked out by that dude and i’d rather dish it up and take the beating, that’s for sure, but the fact that people not being there and being there doesn’t really matter to me. Do you do you feel like hearing the other team’s corner and the comet and commentary, and all that may influence your performance, or do you manage to just drown that out regardless, i’m not so sure, but it’ll be pretty cool to hear kind of hear everything you Know i’m excited for it. How i mean i i pers, i’m speaking for myself here, but throughout the pandemic i’ve falled up, i put on put on an extra few pounds: uh how’s, that weight coming down uh. How are you feeling a week out? I feel awesome. Bro, i could have made weight like two weeks ago, so i feel i feel great. I want to take a trip down memory lane here and kind of talk about what got you into the sport i’m up in canada. So here we don’t really have the luxury of having uh like wrestling and stuff offered to us in high school or junior high. So usually people who end up picking up the sport pick it up later on in life, um yeah, there’s much uh, you know offered. I guess so what got you into it? Oh, my dad my dad for sure he’s the one that kind of uh got me into wrestling and he pretty much just forced me to stay with it until i fell in love with it, and then he forced me into boxing and i fell in love with Boxing right away and then uh, he kind of like started doing his own thing, sort of bounced down a little bit more. But i i fell in love with the sport, so much of mma and all that stuff. I had a body that was doing it and so i kind of fell in love with it and kind of just disciplined myself and kind of turned into a hobby. To be honest, i didn’t have anything really better else going on, so i just started doing this. [ __ ]: how did you find the transition into mma i’ve spoken to a few wrestlers who were like yeah. It was great until i started standing up. I was getting hit in the head. Didn’T like that. How did you find incorporating both jiu, jitsu and muay thai and all these other different different disciplines into you into your craft uh? Well, i started off wrestling first and i got into boxing in the seventh grade and honestly, i fell in love with boxing mike my coach. He passed away uh quite a while ago, but um. He always emphasized a good defense will open a good offense and a lot of head movement and stuff, letting your hands go, find the right, punches and stuff. So i fell in love with boxing right away and i kind of just got thrown out there with grown ass men that [ __ ] being 14 13 years old. It was just not a lot. Other people are smart, other than grown men. So it’s pretty much. Just keep your chin tucked and [. __ ] go for it, but it was not really that much of a difference i felt like wrestling helped me the discipline wise, but i actually like my hand, i’m when i first started my hands, definitely weren’t there, but the more. I did it more. I did it the better i got so. Do you feel like having a brother compete? Next to you, that’s alongside you really helped to help your growth and and really drive to you in terms of you know, keeping you motivated keeping you disciplined as well as having that competitive aspect. Well, yeah growing up with the bigger brother. When he’s trying to kick the [ __ ] out of you, [ __ ] it i mean it definitely makes you want to work harder. So you don’t get your ass whooped but yeah, absolutely as kids and stuff it was definitely competitive wise nowadays, it’s more! I just want to see my brother do good. I would have been happy if he was the future fight fight, two of the [ __ ] they’re, calling it the main event whatever you want to call it for the night. I i would have been happy for him. I [ __ ]. I want ryan to win more impressively than i do. This is how it goes, but nowadays it’s about just trying to push each other and see each other like reach the limit. You know because this is the dream and and all that other stuff all the competitive. I mean it’s still good to compete with each other when we’re uh working with each other. Just because then you’re always pushing you know, you’re always trying to reach that next level. Do you feel um? Do you feel like a little bit? I can imagine. I have an older brother as well as a younger brother brother. I can imagine going out there and competing after my brother, because, if i’m not mistaken, this is the first time you guys are going to compete together on the same card as professionals right no we’ve uh, i think uh, two or three fights ago. We were actually on the same card down in san francisco and uh. I thought, like i think, two fights before he did not even three fights before he did. I think i was on the prelims of the card or whatever you want to call it, and then he was on the main part of the card but um. No then we fought an amateur circuit together, multiple times and then we’ve always competed together on jiu, jitsu, tournaments and uh wrestling tournaments and uh. No, i don’t feel no pressure. No, my brother doesn’t definitely doesn’t for sure it’s just it’s not good to feel pressure and get all anxiety about it, because it’s gon na [, __ ] with your performance, whatever happens happens, he’s got hope for the best. Do you feel like part of it? Is you know, do you feel like, as if one of you lost and the other one won, it would feel as if it wasn’t really a true win, like you feel, as if both of you really need to win to feel like the full joy of being? Like all right, we both did it yeah, i think so for sure. You know, because i want my brother to win and uh yeah. Absolutely. I feel like i feel like that yeah i i definitely both want us to win. If one of us lost, i feel it’d be like 50 50 complete. How did you uh? How did you get the news that you were going to compete on the contender series? Was it something that you got separately or was it something that you were both given? The news at the same time, i think at the same time i’ve known about it for a while. Now it’s just kovitz pushed it back, so it was only a matter of time when and where and when it was going to happen. So now it’s finally happening, unlike unlike his opponent, is undefeated, unlike that you have an opponent who has some losses: um and that’s both a pro and a con, because i find a lot of fighters once they have a loss. They learn from it. They grow but at the same time it gives you something like okay, this is his weaknesses. He’S had tends to have these tendencies. How have you gone about like digesting and and kind of like dissecting, his performances to really uh to really like analyze, and do you think that those losses um are something you can break down, or do you think that you know it’s probably better to drown those Out because he’s a better fighter because of those losses uh both i dissect it where he’s lost and where he’s weak at and then um, i even just take the fights where he wins that you know so you always got ta pick and choose where you think He’S gon na be good at. I don’t really think he’s better than me anywhere. I mean we’re gon na fight to [, __ ], see and prove it but uh the fact that he does have experience on paper. He does have it he’s older than me. So that’s for sure, but i i don’t think he’s gon na be better than me anyway, but he definitely has those losses to learn from and stuff and um, we’ll see where it goes. One of the uh one of the biggest things here is the welterweight division is absolutely stacked. Where do you fit in in this division? I mean there’s so much talent. There’S like it feels like there’s over 100 guys on the welterweight roster alone. Do you feel, like you, have to go out there and really put on remarkable performance to get that contract simply because you’re, a welterweight like i feel like if you were a flyweight or or even a heavyweight you’d, even get you know, just a win would probably Do it, but as a welterweight i feel, like you have to make a much bigger statement. Do you agree with that statement? I don’t know – maybe maybe you’re right uh, i’m definitely going to try to put on the performance of a lifetime just because uh, like i said, stop points that up and you know it’s always pays off to look good so, but i never really thought about. It. Is like that, i don’t really look at the top guys and sit there. I’M like man, this guy’s just so much better than me, or this [ __ ] guy. Just i don’t really said that. I look like that. Anybody to be honest with you. Nobody really stands up that much to me. Nobody looks like [ __ ], bruce lee out there yeah, i mean use man, just [ __ ] stomped on one guy’s toes for five rounds straight so that it wasn’t that cool to me that was kind of a [ __ ] back performance. Is there a? I kind of built this platform based on uh, making matchups and making predictions for fights. Is there someone in the the welterweight division that either runs rubs you the wrong way or someone that you think is super impressive? That you’d like to someday, maybe match yourself up against or someone you idolize that you think. Maybe you know what a guy like robbie, lawler or steven wonderboy thompson like these are guys i idolize like. Is there someone that you want to test your skills against whether it be out of respect or because you don’t like them? No, i don’t know anybody, so i can’t say i don’t like them. Even then uh, i don’t think i’ll, have any beef with anybody just because it’s business in the end. You know i can’t hate on anybody just because we’re all trying to chase the same thing of being the champion and nobody wants to [ __ ] lose. So i can’t handle everybody for that they’re trying to do what i’m trying to do and stuff so and uh. I don’t sit there and look at anybody like they’re too impressive. To be honest, some people have knockout power. Some people have good stand up. Some people are just all good all around and then some people are just really good wrestlers. So but nothing’s like too remarkable. To me to be honest, i’m going to ask you a couple more questions and then i’ll uh and then i’ll. Let you go. There’S a big fight this weekend, uh dc versus steep a3. I don’t know how much you’re looking into it, whether you follow them at all but uh. What’S your what’s your prediction for that fight, my prediction: um! I don’t know it’s tough matt cause. They both knocked. Each other out, so i mean uh dc – is gon na, come out tough that first two rounds anyways like he’s pretty goddamn good, the first two, and if he can implement a pretty good game plan to mix up his wrestling, he might just [ __ ] maul Uh steep a but the same time that stipe comes out with a really good game plan too. He might just [ __ ] put dc back on his ass. Again i mean they both have the power to put these charlie’s lights out. So i don’t know to be honest with you: that’s a tough one and i’m going to ask you uh. So obviously there’s a lot of siblings in the ufc current and past. You’Ve got the burns brothers anthony pettis and sergio perez the shamrock brothers as a as a sibling as a sibling duo, we’re both looking to someday achieve that goal. In your mind, who is the best sibling duo to ever compete in the ufc? I think the most successful in the uh who’ve reached stardom, maybe not reach championships, is obviously the diaz brothers. You know nick hasn’t fought in like five or six years, but you bring his name up and he’s still a [ __ ], the dude’s, still famous as hell and nate diaz. It’S that went over mcgregor and stuff and the fight with jorge and like he’s a star, so i think those two are obviously the biggest games by far you know they come from nothing. So that’s pretty cool to see two guys that just worked hard. There was no science behind it. It was this [ __ ] run jiu, jitsu and box and pure fighters like they’re they’re, fighting fighters. You know they’re, not martial artists, they’re, tough, pretty from [ __ ], a rough neighborhood and stuff. So it’s cool to see people like that compared to people are like born, like good households and [ __ ] [ __ ] they’re doing making. Well, i mean that’s always good too, but i think those two by far like the biggest all right and uh last question for people who haven’t watched you fight for people who haven’t uh, maybe seen your performance. What can they expect from you next week? I would tune in for sure i’m exciting all my fights i’ve ended in the first doesn’t mean this one will for sure, but i definitely go out there and go get it man. I definitely don’t try to [ __ ] foot around and play slap ass out. There i feel, like a fight, needs to be finished just because as an entertainer and stuff and um just for myself man, i want to prove that i’m better and some i wouldn’t mind a dominant performance too, if it was for three rounds, but i ain’t got Ta sit there and just try to do a [, __ ] point game. I’D rather [ __ ] go out there and just see if i am better or not the only way. By doing that is touching this guy’s chin as hard as i can. I, like it man, i can’t wait to watch you fight. I’Ve been a fan of both yours and others for a little while so glad to see you guys get the opportunity and all the best. Thank you brother. It’S a good talk. All right! Man stay safe. All right, thank you.

Sergio Pineiro

Sergio Pineiro is the Founder of FighterPath.com and host of the Quarantinecast podcast. Based in Canada he is both a sports journalist and MMA enthusiast. He practices the sport but has a passion for the individual stories of training, fighting and living the fighting lifestyle.

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