Orion Cosce is a mixed martial artist who competes in the Welterweight division. He is undefeated as a professional winning all six of his fights via stoppage to earn himself on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series.
Transcript
Orion CosceSo how’s your day been man. How are you, how are you doing? I’M tired, tired, honestly, the wake up you know: um most fighters just start to get to them, but it’s just more so of a physical thing. It’S not a mental tiredness. It’S right! Now! It’S just usually when i cut weight, it’s hard for me to sleep, so it’s one of those things we’re just trying to get sleep. When i can yeah man, i mean i’m speaking for myself here, like throughout the pandemic, i’ve put on an extra few pounds. How did you find the weight cut this time around? Did you end up putting on some weight, or did you end up? You know kind of staying staying in shape, despite not being able to get 100 training um, i’m actually getting 100 training. So most people that are making excuses like oh, i haven’t been able to train in gym. It’S like dude train outside. Like that’s what i did. You know, i went hiking swimming um. I was doing my sprints outdoors. I was still working out with bodyweight exercises and i was finding ways um to make sure i was still staying in shape, shadow boxing visual training and when i got back to the gym i felt like i was doing better. You know i felt um better than before, just because i was staying active, but that’s how i’ve always been. If i you know miss a morning practice or an evening practice, i’m still going and working out somewhere and doing something all the time. So there’s no excuse for anybody right now. When it comes to the mma world. You know the people are saying: oh, i haven’t been able to get the quality training. I need it’s like with covid. You know everyone, especially if the ufc has a gym, that they can go to they’re, just making an excuse not to fight right now, yeah, as as someone with uh with two brothers. I can. I can kind of relate to her in the sense that, even if the gym’s, not there you’ve got that competition at home that that someone you can train with how important has he been um, not just for your career but like for this camp in particular, um? We’Ve actually got to train a couple of times together only so i live down in sacramento and he lives up in humble. So when he travels down here, we’re able to work out together when i travel up there, we’re able to train together, but for the most part um we’re always making sure that if either one of us or both of us have a fight that we’re always there For each other, for at least you know two weekends during the training camp, how does it feel, knowing that uh, that he’s going to be on the same card as you we’ve are we’re used to it? We’Ve done it multiple times before. So it’s one of those things where it doesn’t really bother us at all. Do you um? Do you feel like an extra like obviously you’re, both super successful? None of you have had a loss in your career. Do you feel, as if one of you were to lose um next week? It almost feels like not complete, like even if one of you get the win and the other one doesn’t do you feel like it’s, not not a full-on win. It’S not really a true win unless you both do um. You know we haven’t thought about that because of the fact i don’t think about losing ever i’ve never thought about what happens if i lose, i’m always just visually training myself to be ready to win. So i mean a lot of people say you know: you’ll you’ll, do what you see, you’ll you’ll, repeat it in real life and that’s all i’ve been doing in my fight. So when i go out into the cage, i actually don’t think because, when you think you’re taking too much time, if you have to think about something, it means that you’re hesitant yeah. Instead of just you know doing what you naturally do. I train every day. So it’s one of those things where it’s like, even on a sunday i’ll, find a way to just do some shadow boxing, even if it’s live, but i’m always visually trained, maybe just like a past opponent or possible future opponents and my brother does the same thing. So we’ve never ever seen ourself losing to an opponent. Do you um? Do you feel going into this fight? Like you said you don’t really think a whole lot, it’s a lot of it’s just on instinct. You’Ve done it so many times, but one thing: that’s going to be kind of unique is the fact that there is no audience do you feel like that’s, going to play a factor in this fight being able to hear both corners. The commentary you’re not going to be able to hear the audience. Are you someone who feeds off the crowd’s energy or do you think you’ll be able to drown all that out? Honestly, i don’t care about the crowd. I all my family and friends. Whenever you know i fought in front of them, or you know fought over in wisconsin, i i really don’t care if there’s a crowd or not, it kind of just reminds me of like it’s pretty cool. It’S, like my brother, said it best he’s all it’s like. Just meeting up after school with somebody and then just being ready to beat the [ __ ] out of them, but there’s just gon na be a few kids watching. So i mean the fact that there’s a camera doesn’t bother me either in wisconsin. They had a camera um at bear river, there’s a camera and a lot of people. You know they’re, saying like oh, be ready because the camera’s gon na be in your face, oh be ready, because during your wake up, you’ll have to do interviews and it’s like. Okay, so i mean there’s no difference still getting ready right, no matter what you just have to get ready for a fight, there’s just a few extra things so um, it doesn’t bother me at all. Do you do you feel any added pressure knowing that guys, like dana white and that the the ufc contract could potentially be on the line? And i know you you and your brother both like to get finishes anyway, but do you feel, like you know, you you’re gon na, like change your style to try to get that finish or you’re just gon na fight your fight, regardless of who’s in the crowd? Who’S watching what’s at stake, no, i’m not gon na change, my style, my style, is to always get the finish. That’S what makes me my brother, exciting fighter, so we don’t trust judges. We think judges are shitty nowadays and um. Actually, the reason why i have a hard time with judges, because a long time ago, my very first amateur fight was held in a tournament style where you can win prize money. So it’s 25 bucks to enter and if you win, you can win 500 750 or a thousand dollars, depending on how many people were in your bracket. So unfortunately my first opponent forfeit. So i, instead of making a thousand dollars only made 750. So that was a bummer, but this is my first amateur tournament. It was fun, but my first opponent that i actually got to fight i went out. I took down like in three minutes. I think got like eight or nine takedowns and i was you know controlling on top i was dominant. I was on for submissions, i was ground and pound uh, he didn’t lay a single strike and i won by split decision for that round. Yeah, the promoter came up he’s. All we found out, which judge did that we already fired them and hired a new judge, and i was like all right cool and then the next round was a championship. But i ended up knocking out the guy, but you know at that moment i was like. Are you [ __ ] kidding me like? Not once did this guy land a single punch, i outstruck him and i got the takedown advantage and i was beating him up on the ground and i win by split decision for the round. So ever since then man, i was like [ __, ] judges. I don’t care if they’re voting for me if they thought i won a round or if they thought i lost around, i’m never gon na leave it to the judges. So, even if it you know, i’ve had two fights under the third as a pro and i’m still pushing the pace to finish the fight. If the fight goes past, the first round, i’m telling myself okay, i won that round. But what do the judges say? I got ta finish this. It’S a it’s unfortunate that that’s the reality of this sport. I mean it’s it’s great for fans because it forces fighters to go out there and perform, but that that what you just described isn’t just happening on the amateur circuit like it’s happening in the ufc at bellator at the highest of levels. It really is something that needs to change um. How do you? How would you like suggest if you were to be, if you were the person that made the decision on on how those uh how to change the? Judging? What would your suggestion be? I would say you get former mma fighters, former mma fighters who have recognition in the sport or have former mma fighters who aren’t totally batshit crazy um, you know get together, have dana white start, his own commission of judges or even bellator. Do the same thing. Just mma in general, like the nevada state, california, new york and every other country like brazil, um, especially brazil, but you know the athletic commissions they need to start instead of hiring people who just sit on their asses. Don’T know what the [ __ ] they’re talking about, they need to hire former athletes who understand the rules of mma, understand the structure of okay. The majority of the round took place on the ground, but if the guy got a takedown, did he do anything with it or was the guy on bottom more active like for me, even though i’m a wrestler if a guy gets a takedown and i’ve seen this In a fight before guy got a takedown, they just held on the bottom guys throwing elbows and they landed a bunch and then on the stand-up. The other guy who was on bottom got up, but they gave it to the other dude because of control on the ground. So what technically is control on the ground? That’S something they need to restructure and i think if you had people, you know like boss, root and chuck liddell a couple other people that, throughout the history of the sport, maybe even fedor get a couple of different people who are known to be legends in the Sport and then get other athletes that you know are fairly recognized in the sport as well to be the new judges that way they can have a criteria they set and say hey. This is the criteria, because even then you have a choice, whereas i feel like mma. You know. Judges now are kind of like locally biased or they’re state, biased, we’ve seen it with diego sanchez. He got his ass whooped and somehow he pulled off the win. Still yeah got his ass. What but he got a split decision win, and then you find out that two excuse me: two of the judges hired are also from the same town of albuquerque, whereas one judge from new mexico he’s from another uh city. So it’s just one of those things where they need to have some new for reform and uh, get a bunch of people together, uh present or past fighters have them create a plan that way stuff like that, doesn’t happen again, and you know it’s never going to Be perfect, just like the nfl, you know they brought up the whole entire uh. What was it the past interference replay call and they barely ever called it, even though it’s late in past interference, so i feel like that’s, never going to happen, but i do feel like the ufc should bring yellow cards and red cards yeah. It’S it’s interesting because you think about the commentary team, like they’re filled up with, like dominic cruz, daniel cormier dan hardy, like why not have some of those guys also, you know, be referees or be be judges. I think that would go a long way. Um and i i agree with you. 100. I think that’s a that’s a great point. Um reason they don’t have them as uh referees is because the bias you know, maybe one fighter who got knocked out really bad or you know, got a tko one time and you know felt like it wasn’t stopped early enough if they were to ever uh. You know go and rough a fight and they see somebody get dropped but they’re recovering, but then they don’t stop it too soon and we’ve had a couple of those too. You know it’s about what you see and if you know it’s, it’s all up to discretion of the person who’s either reffing or judging, but they need to work on that. You know they need to be able to watch past videos and be like okay. Should this fight have been stopped, or should they have let it keep going yeah yeah? I want to talk a little bit about your uh, your fight, i mean i want. I want you to talk a little bit about your opponent and he’s also going into this fight. Undefeated um. I was talking to you to louis yesterday about his opponent, who has some losses, so it’s a lot easier to be like okay, you know what there’s some you know. He made a mistake here and that’s it’s a lot easier to pinpoint someone’s um flaws when they come off a loss, but when someone’s undefeated it’s a lot harder to like break them down and try to find out their mistakes. So what have you been doing to try to figure out how you can beat him? Well, first and foremost, i took a look at my pacified videos, um they’re kind of hard to find, but you know you have to dig deep to find them and uh. When i was watching my past videos, i was realizing my own mistakes and how i can capitalize off that, and so when i was watching them, i was like alright cool. I could have finished the fight here, but i allowed it to keep going because, instead of doing this, i did this instead, so i started practicing what i should have been doing, instead of letting my body just naturally want to go for, like a haymaker ko. So now it’s more methodical in the sense of if i damage an opponent. I can just take my time with it rather than be, like oh blood rush, yeah um, but when it comes to fighting someone who’s undefeated, i’ve done that before um joe croft shot. I was 3-0 at the time he was 4-0, he was undefeated and i did the same thing. You know i knew he was gon na have a good ground game. I knew that he would um have a decent stand up and what i did. I was studying everything he did. I studied for everything and then i picked him apart on the stand up. You know um, unfortunately, that video got taken down, but i don’t know why, but even on the ground, you know like it wasn’t that he did anything impressive. It was just that he capitalized on the mistakes i made and then once i realized, hey man, stop being a [ __ ] idiot. I was able to control the rest of the fight, so in the first round he ended up taking my back, but i was just thinking too much, and so i told myself yo man, you got ta, stop thinking, he has your back, and so i ended up Getting up getting out and from there i just controlled the rest of the fight, but with matt i’ve seen his fights and you know he’s athletic, i’m not going to [ __ ] on a guy who’s, undefeated he’s for a reason, but i do feel like he’s A little stiff he’s a little slow, whereas you know i’m gon na be a little bit more versatile uh. He has repetitive combos i’ve seen in his fights and i’m not gon na sit and assume that he’s gon na throw those same combos. But history has a tendency to repeat itself when it comes to that with most fighters. You know it’s a it’s a theory for him that it works. So why change something? If it’s working, you know if he gets hit, he does not like to get hit, whereas i don’t mind just sitting there, letting somebody hit my arms, i’m not taking damage to the head. My arms are taking damage, but i’m so used to covering up and letting somebody work that i can counter back right after without feeling tired or having my help. You know. If someone throws an elbow, i don’t really feel it because during the fight so much adrenaline is going on. You don’t feel that pain. You don’t feel until you know after the fight, and so i’m going to go out there and uh capitalize on that he’s slow. He likes to switch his stance, so he can set up his left kick or he’ll, throw like a step. Uh front kick just to the legs, though he likes to try to kick to the caps, but every person he’s fought, hasn’t, really checked his kiss and then the one person that checked his tick. He didn’t really throw anymore and he doesn’t check chicks either. He just kind of uses that to try to set up those takedowns like i said when he gets hit if he gets a hit stiff once or twice he’ll back up, he’ll back out and then he’ll wait to shoot for the takedown, whereas i’m going to keep Pressing the pace, i know that takedown’s going to be coming once i’m capitalizing on those crosses or those uppercuts. You know coming in heavy with the knees and clenching them up, putting them against the fence. He’S never had somebody put him in a bad situation because most of the time he’s doing the pressure and the other guy’s just allowing it to happen. So this is going to be the first time for him. He’S fought somebody who’s willing to pressure him, and i want to talk a little bit about that because if he takes you down, you’ve been getting some high level training over there at team. Alpha male describe what it’s like to work with those with that group of guys who’s high level when it comes to guild teams, probably the best camp in the world for guillotines as well, as has my opinion, one of the best coaches um all around. In your eye of favor, so what’s it like been uh? What’S it been like training there? It’S awesome, you know um, it’s an amazing crew, they’re they’re, good people, um they’re, definitely fun to train with, and we all after practice, kind of sit around talk. [ __ ] together, and it’s just one of those things man where it’s like you know when i was up at lost voice. It was kind of the same thing. It’S like that family feeling you get to know certain people, so you hang out. You start that camaraderie and it becomes a good time and that’s really how training becomes better is once you get to know somebody how you can get better by being able to critique them in a positive manner, while also taking critique from them and understanding, hey they’re. Just saying that to help you out so um, it’s been really cool. You know like having those people be like: hey man, try it like this see if you like it or try it like that, if you don’t like it, maybe set it up this way and when it comes to the uh the ground game, it’s perfect. You know. I just got done yesterday. It was a smart day, so i went lying just did drilling, but i had a couple of guys who were just willing to. Let me work my moves. You know they still threw at me and they made me work, but you know during that weight chat. I decided to fast and be like. I want to see how i feel already gassed out before i start and i i was able to push through you know. Instead of three rounds, i did four rounds and it was just one of those things where i was just grinding and pushing and pushing and pushing so it was good um to have bigger people. My size, though, is always a blessing, because you hear a lot of people talk about how team alpha male is notorious for having small people, but there’s some people there too. So it’s good yeah like when you think uh team, alpha male, you think the bantamweights and like cody and uriah or featherweights and chad and darren elkins, but you don’t really think about the higher weight class. So it’s good to hear that they are getting some uh. Some bigger guys there and and some guys that you can train with yeah. You know um nino’s, unfortunately uh his last performance uh, his ufc debbie, didn’t go the way we wanted it to. But you know he was working his ass off and he made no excuses for it um. I was in there every day with him, and you know he had a good game plan going in. It was just one of those things where he just didn’t pan out, and i mean if you look at him now he’s ready to get right back into the gym, and you know i have nothing but respect for people like that. You know i was training with him and he’s giving me pointers on. You know setting up takedowns, and so i was doing pointers on the stand up and you know he’s a cool dude, we’re all watching that fight, but we also have to move on to the next fight. You know we can’t just roll on the last one. We have to continue to move on each and every one. So even when i win a fight, i don’t dwell on it. I’M already thinking: okay when’s, my next fight, like i celebrate that night and then you know the next day, i’m like hey man when’s. My next fight, so after this fight when i went and when my brother wins i’m going to be telling dana, why hey cool contract, but let’s start getting the first fight off this contract done, let’s get the second fight down. We negotiate. Let’S keep the ball rolling. I wan na i thought three times in five weeks before and a lot of people are like well, the ufc is different, you know they’re higher level athletes and it’s like well, the ufc is different and anything can happen at any given time. I’Ve seen high level athletes getting knocked out by people i feel like do not belong in the ufc and then eventually, after that huge knockout. Those people end up getting kicked out of the ufc because they go on maybe a three or four fight losing streak. After the one big win, so it’s all political to get into the ufc. You have to know the right people. You have to be with the right management. I’M not going to sit here and say that’s not true. I mean i was never even looked at by the ufc. Until i got a manager i was staying with my brother. We were never looked at by the ufc until we got management i’ll. Ask you i’ll ask you a couple more questions and then i’ll and then i’ll like. Let you go there’s a big fight this weekend, i have to ask your prediction on it: stipe dc3, possibly the biggest heavyweight fight of all time. What’S your thoughts stipe round two, i love it short and sweet. Do you think it’s tko submission, i’m assuming tko, i think, instead of being knockout, i think he’s gon na um. I think he’s gon na go back to the first strategy of going to the body which is smart, um. You know cormier over the duration of the fight. Once he got that good liver shot, he was never the same and then when stipe realized, uh cormier doesn’t really have a strong core. That’S the one thing i’ve noticed, though you know. Maybe he does now. Maybe he’s training his core even more, but it’s one of those things too. Where stipe i feel like he’s gon na take advantage of that i mean, if you look at him, he’s cut down, but he looks shredded he’s. Looking lean for this fight, so he’ll be a faster um and stronger stipe, maybe not as strong as he was when he was heavier. But i feel like he’s gon na have enough to. You know just make sure that the fighting stays technical on the stand up and he i feel like he’s gon na throw a lot of tips uh to the stomach. I don’t feel like he’s gon na allow for me to get those takedowns like he did in fight two, where he did a really good job at defending those and um yeah. I feel like he’ll, first round pick up the barty and then the second round. He’Ll finish it with some body shots and then followed it up with some punches all right, i’ll. Ask i’ll ask this this one. I’Ve asked your brother. I want to see if you guys are in sync in this answer: um greatest sibling duo to ever compete in the ufc maine lewis. I love it. I love it um and i’ll end it on this um for people who haven’t watched your fights. What can they expect from you next week? It’S been a fun fight. Man i mean um, even if it goes all three rounds, i’m never gon na stop fighting. I don’t stop pushing the pace. I’M always looking to finish uh same with my brother he’s always looking to finish, we’re mean so when we’re going out there we have. You know that intent to hurt people and uh. You know, there’s been fights where i already knew. I was going to win the fight, and so i just started touring you with my opponent, so you know if that’s a possibility in this fight, i’m going to toy with my opponent, but at the end of the day i want to get a finish. You know. I want to finish my opponent as fast as i can. Every person wants to be able to do that and uh just look forward to a finish. Man just look forward to a fun night. The fights look forward to the cozy brothers, getting those contracts signed and then look forward to them being fighting in the ufc a lot sooner than people expect. We don’t like to wait. We hate waiting, we’ve already kept the weight our weight’s already going to be down. So, what’s the hold up anyway, you know we can’t fight this saturday because the you know the seven day rule or whatever bs. They have then put us on the next. You know wednesday uh fight night card or the next saturday fight night card, all right man. Thank you very much for the time all the best, i’m rooting for you guys and uh stay safe awesome. Thank you. I look forward to talking to you again. Alright man, all the best
