The Primal MMA podcast brings together coaches, athletes, and sports scientists to discuss training and practice design for Mixed Martial Arts. Exploring the science of skill acquisition, human motivation, and sports psychology, the podcast seeks answers to the question, can we get better quicker?
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A podcast where we will discuss the training, teaching, health and education of mixed martial arts. Hosted by Sonny Brown, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt, competitor and coach who is also a 3 times Australian MMA Champion. He also runs the Sonny Brown Martial Arts YouTube Channel which breaks down MMA & Grappling competitors matches and careers. The podcast aims to provide insights to anyone looking to learn more about the teaching and training of martial arts.
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Embodied Grappling Philosophy & Practice With Andy From School of Grappling
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I talk to Andy from School of Grappling about the rising trend of the ecological approach in BJJ coaching and its implications. We explore the interplay between culture, coaching methods, and individual motivation in training. Andy shares insights on the limitations of singular approaches and the need for a holistic perspective in creating supporti…
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#51 - Beyond Eco! - Sony Sahota on bridging Ecological Psychology with an Active Inference Framework.
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Send us a Text Message. Today I welcome Sonny Sahota from Praxis Gym in Canada. Sonny, a judo black belt and manager of Kensington Judo Club in Vancouver, shares his insights on integrating Ecological Dynamics and the Active Inference Framework (AIF) into martial arts coaching. Sony introduces some of the tenets these approaches, discussing how the…
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#51 - It's complex, keep it simple! - Coach Rob Cole on playing the ecological long game.
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Send us a Text Message. Coach Rob Cole joins me today to talk coaching within an ecological dynamics framework. Rob is a long time mixed martial artist, globetrotters BJJ coach and a regular coach at Ascension Athletics in Connecticut.
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#50 - Exploring Eco Psych and perception - Gray Thomas of U-Con on ecological Psychology and it's implications for practice and development.
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Send us a Text Message. Gray Thomas joins me today to talk about the Ecological Psychology side of ecological dynamics. Gray is a PhD student at the university of Connecticut where he studies and researches Ecological Psychology. I enjoyed my chat with Gray and learn more about eco psych. The ecological approach really hangs on the theory of direct…
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#49 - Pitching and Punching - Pittsburg Pirate Coach John Baker on an eco approach to Baseball, BJJ & MMA skill development.
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Send us a Text Message. Today's chat was with Pittsburgh Pirate's coach John Baker John is a former MLB player and current performance and skills coach alongside Andy Bass in the Pirates Baseball organization. Also a BJJ purple belt, Ecological dynamics advocate and MMA fan. We had a fun chat covering all things eco, baseball and combat sports.…
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#48 - Hot Off The Press - The Boys from Emergence talk about their recently published Ecological Approach to MMA Journal Article.
1:35:55
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Send us a Text Message. The boys from emergence are back to discuss their recently accepted and published paper on "Applying an ecological dynamics framework to mixed martial arts training". This paper followed their previous publication from 2023 "(Re)conceptualizing movement behavior in sport as a problem-solving activity". Both of these papers w…
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Ecological Approach to MMA Striking with Scott Sievewright
1:48:10
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In this episode of The Sonny Brown Breakdown, guest Scott Sievewright discusses his ecological approach to coaching martial arts. Sievewright emphasises the importance of live, unscripted sparring from day one to build relationships and develop skills, arguing that traditional techniques taught in isolation do not effectively transfer to real-life …
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#47 - "ACTION ~ perception" Coach James de Lacey on building action capacities for combat sports.
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Send us a Text Message. In this episode I talk with Coach James de Lacey of Sweet Science of Fighting. While most discussions on the podcast have been biased toward the perceptual half of the perception-action loop. Coach James talks about how we can support the action side through science informed exercise programming. While James doesn't offer a …
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#47 - All Choking Aside - Dr Andy Bass talks about self-talk, attention and focus and how these can interfere with us all on game day.
1:35:03
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Send us a Text Message. Today I talk with Dr Andy Bass. Andy is a researcher, educator, former pro baseball player and is currently a performance coach with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Andy talks about both the mental side and motor learning side of skill development. How the two can be separate but also generally integrate. I have linked several episo…
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#46 - The gimmicks of the Gram - Coach Jon Mackey returns to discuss agility ladders and other questionable training tools.
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Send us a Text Message. Today I chat with Irish National Kickboxing Coach Jon Mackey about the role of training tools in striking sports. We'll explore whether these tools actually support skill acquisition and debunk some of the popular training gimmicks that are flooding social media. Coach Mackey brings not only an extensive coaching experience,…
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#45 - Game on! - Kit Dale and Greg Souders on ditching the drills to become better quicker!
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Send us a Text Message. Today I welcome Kit Dale and Greg Souders on to the show. Kit is well know in the jiu-jitsu world for his rapid development in the sport and his achievements at high level no-gi grappling in a short few years. An advocate of 'learning through trial and error and one that has been preaching the anti-drilling message for years…
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#44 - A student's perspective - Standard's Noah Shaffner talks about learning to grapple at the black temple.
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Send us a Text Message. Today, I chat with Noah Shaffner from the Standard Jiu-Jitsu Grappling Team, mentored by Greg Souders. Unlike my usual guests who are coaches or academics, Noah stands out as a student who has embraced the ecological approach to skill development. Despite being only 17, his insights into the sport and its methodologies are p…
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#43 - Managing Expectations - Rory Singer on playing the long game in developing Mixed Martial Artists.
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Send us a Text Message. Today I talk with Coach Rory Singer. Rory is the younger brother of Coach Adam Singer and together they have run and coached MMA in Athens Georgia for several Decades. Rory is an UFC Vet and lifelong martial artist. In this convo we spoke about the expectations we have for new students entering the sport and particularly tho…
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#42 - Demystifying Strickland's win over Adesanya - Shawn Myszka joins me to discuss last week's UFC title fight.
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Send us a Text Message. Emergence founder, NFL skills coach and MMA superfan Shawn Myszka joined me to discuss Strickland's win over Adesanya last week. As stated during intro. Must of this analysis is somewhat speculative given we are not privy to the innerworkings of both fighter's camps, preparation and day to day training methodologies.…
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Ecological Approach vs Progressive Resistance with Greg Souders & Priit Mihkelson
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I talk to Greg Souders and Priit Mihkelson, two of the most forward-thinking jiu-jitsu coaches today, about their philosophies on training methodology and practice design. Greg advocates for an ecological approach focused on constraints and foundational functions, while Preet comes from a background utilizing progressive resistance. We have an in-d…
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#41 - Grappling with memory and perception - Ed Ingamells on
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Send us a Text Message. Today I am chatting with Ed Ingamells. (Aka the Partybear). Ed is a black belt and coach at the Institute of Grappling in North London, UK. As a former Neuroscience PhD student, Ed has a deep understanding of cognitive psychology. Ed talks about his shift in recent years to a more ecological approach and how ecological psych…
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#40 - On the shoulders of the "Aliveness" Giant! - SBG's Adam Singer on alive training environments.
2:12:20
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Send us a Text Message. Adam Singer joins me today to talk coaching, culture and continuing the SBG philosophy of aliveness through an ecological lens.By Scott Sievewright and Ben Schultz
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#39 - 'Second Guessing the Traditional Approach' - Coach Josh Root on doubling down on the Ecological Approach.
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Send us a Text Message. Today I am joined by Coach Josh Root from Gravitas Martial Arts in Arkansas. Josh has recently re-visited an Eco D approach to grappling after initially abandoning it due to uncertainty. With a deeper understanding and support from Standard's Greg Souder's, Coach Josh is not looking back and has been all in on the approach. …
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#38 - 'It takes two to Tango' - Professor Alan Dunton on 'information rich' training practice to develop metastability.
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Send us a Text Message. Professor Alan Dunton is back. Alan is a lecturer and researcher at MTU Cork, Ireland. With a PhD in Skill Acquisitor and having been a long time martial artist himself and a National TKD team competitor, Alan is well informed on both the theory and practical sides of the sport and training. Alan and I discuss developing met…
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#37 - 'Light for Learning' - Coach Jon Mackey on Kickboxing Training and Sparring Culture.
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Send us a Text Message. In today's podcast, we're honored to have Jon Mackey as our guest, a celebrated coach in both Taekwon-Do and Kickboxing. With a career that began in 1987, Jon has trained numerous national, European, and world gold medalists in Taekwon-Do and Kickboxing, including Amy Wall, Lauren Bradshaw, and Robyn McDonnell. As the founde…
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Jiu-Jitsu Games For Teaching Kids & Adults With Kabir Bath
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I talk to Kabir Bath, A Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt under Rafael Lovato Jnr, who runs Kaboom Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He runs an excellent kid's program using only constraints based learning games. We discuss how he structures his class and programs for kids, how he does the same for his adult's jiu-jitsu classes, and how it benefits their information retenti…
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#36 - Developing wizards from Oz - Ricky Pachon on taking his Gracie comp team ecological.
1:52:03
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Send us a Text Message. In this episode I speak with Coach Ricky Pachon . A young coach from Gracie Barra, Bondi Beach, Australia. Ricky leads a successful youth competition team and is himself an avid competitor on the Australian BJJ/Grappling scene. Recently a parent of a student of Ricky reached out to me to introduce him. Following several year…
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#34 - On the other side of the mic - My interview with Brian Willis talking about Primal's approach to practice design for striking and MMA.
1:11:24
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Send us a Text Message. This episode is the first of two interviews by Brian Willis of the Excellence in Training Academy. Brian reached out to both myself and Standard Jiu-jitsu's Greg Souders to talk about our application of Ecological Dynamics to Striking and Grappling respectively. With Brian's blessing he allowed me to share these interviews h…
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#35 - The Black Temple's Greg Souders - Coach Souders interview with Brian Willis.
1:07:28
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Send us a Text Message. This episode is the second of two interviews by Brian Willis of the Excellence in Training Academy. Brian reached out to both myself and Standard Jiu-jitsu's Greg Souders to talk about our application of Ecological Dynamics to Striking and Grappling respectively. With Brian's blessing he allowed me to share these interviews …
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#33B - Battling the Biases! Josh Peacock on resistance to change in combat sports training.
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Send us a Text Message. (PART 2) Today my guest is my friend and fellow podcaster Josh Peacock. Josh is the host of the Combat Learning Podcast and a fellow advocate of an ecological approach to combat sports training. A real student of the science of skill development, teaching methodologies and the history of combat sports, Josh is also a 4th deg…
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#33A - Fighting the fallacies! Josh Peacock on resistance to change in combat sports training (PART 1 of 2).
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Send us a Text Message. Today my guest is my friend and fellow podcaster Josh Peacock. Josh is the host of the Combat Learning Podcast and a fellow advocate of an ecological approach to combat sports training. A real student of the science of skill development, teaching methodologies and the history of combat sports, Josh is also a 4th degree TKD c…
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#32 - Embodied and Embedded! Danny Hatcher talks about Ecological Dynamics and how we learn skills.
2:24:17
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Send us a Text Message. Danny Hatcher joined me to talk more about ecological dynamics for sport. Danny is a Podcaster, youtuber, educator, coach and sport scientist from the UK. We connected after I watched his terrific youtube video on Ecological Learning. Among his many endeavors, Danny has spent a lot of time researching in the areas of psychol…
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Teaching Jiu-Jitsu Without Teaching Techniques With Greg Souders
1:26:50
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I talk to Greg Souders, A Jiu-Jitsu black belt who runs his Jiu-Jitsu academy without teaching any techniques. Instead, he uses the ecological approach to skill development which has a substantial body of evidence for its effectiveness when used in motor learning. We discuss the benefits of teaching and learning jiu-jitsu in this manner and focus o…
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#31 - Another Drill Ditcher! Kaboom's Kabir Bath talks to me about going full ecological!
1:44:57
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Send us a Text Message. In this episode I welcome on Coach Kabir Bath, founder and owner of Kaboom Jiu-Jitsu in Surrey, British Columbia. Kabir is a Raphael Lovato Jr Black belt/affiliate and was a Lovato associate coach of the year 2017. As Kabir explains in the episode, he recently and abruptly shifted to an ecological approach while abandoning t…
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#30 - The Reddit Technique Debate! Greg Souder's clarifies some misconceptions.
1:59:41
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Send us a Text Message. Today I welcome back Standard Jiu-Jitsu's coach Greg Souders. Greg and I were chatting about a very recent reddit post aptly named, 'Training at a gym that doesn't teach technique'. The post was specifically posing the question about Standard's training approach and garnered many perspectives and opinions. Greg, and I decide…
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#29 - Shifting the Red line! @Doctor_Kickass on increasing physical capacities.
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Send us a Text Message. On this epsiode, I welcome Dr Mike Piekarski aka. @doctor_kickass about to talk about S&C for MMA. As I discuss with Mike, I've believe that in being so focused on skill development in practice, I've been guilty of undervaluing the role of S&C, in particular when it comes to competition. My concern with not cutting into valu…
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#28 - If Fred learned to fight! Professors Blau and Wagman discuss their new book, 'Introduction to Ecological Psychology'.
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Send us a Text Message. On this episode we delve a little more into the underpinning science of Ecological Dynamics. I recently read 'Introduction to Ecological Psychology' written by Dr Julia Blau and Dr Jeff Wagman which was a terrific read. The book was just recently published in the summer of 2022. Had this book been available years ago, it mig…
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BJJ Training Progress, Evolution & Control Points With Chris Paines
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I talk to Chris Paines, who recently released an instructional titled "How to Defend Against Everyone". We discuss his thoughts on teaching and learning Jiu-Jitsu through the use of heuristics focusing on control points and how that can emphasise defensive principles as well as optimising offence. We also discuss the importance of providing context…
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#27 - Play the whole game every day! Greg Souders is back to talk about practice design.
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Send us a Text Message. In this episode, I talk with again with Coach Greg Souders of Standard Jiu-Jitsu , Rockville MD (Maryland). Greg is a black belt who founded Standard Jiu-Jitsu several years back following many years of training and competing with Team Llyod Irvin. A product of the high repetition and traditional development approach, Greg l…
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#26 - Pugilist turned Professor! Dr Andy Lane, chats about developing psychological skills for combat, in and out of the ring.
1:16:58
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Send us a Text Message. Andy Lane is a professor and researcher in sports psychology at the University of Wolverhampton UK. Andy joined me to discuss strategies and methods for developing and building psychological skills in training and competition. A former boxer with 50 fights, Andy is an advocate for responsible and ethical training/sparring an…
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ADCC Training At New Wave Jiu-Jitsu With Luke Martin
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I talk to Luke Martin, a Jiu-Jitsu coach currently preparing his athletes for the ADCC world championships out of the New Wave Jiu-Jitsu camp in Texas with John Danaher, Gordon Ryan, Gary Tonon, Nicholas Meregali and the rest of the New Wave ADCC competitors. In a special emergency broadcast edition of the Sonny Brown Breakdown podcast, he gives us…
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#25 - Thoughts on Coaching! Dr Tom Parry talks about his recent twitter thread on effective coaching.
1:40:56
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Send us a Text Message. Dr. Tom Parry is the founder and owner of Kestrel Performance Psychology. He has a Ph.D. in Human Performance from Indiana University with specializations in Skill Acquisition and Psychology. He wears many hats including Professor, Father, Coach and Consultant. These roles have blessed him with a detailed understanding of h…
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TLC For Training & MMA Padwork With Mittmaster Matt Chapman
1:12:42
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I talk to Mittmaster Matt Chapman, a martial artist for 35 years who has a wealth of experience teaching & training Jeet Kune Do, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu and MMA. Matt discussed how it's important to be nurturing and caring with new martial arts students, so they stick with it and master the art. Also, he detailed how this style of coachin…
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#24 - Raising the Standard! Greg Souders on an ecological approach to elite level jiu-jitsu.
1:46:39
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Send us a Text Message. In this episode, I talk with Coach Greg Souders of Standard Jiu-Jitsu , Rockville MD (Maryland). Greg is a black belt who founded Standard Jui-Jitsu several years back following many years of training and competing with Team Llyod Irvin. A product of the high repetition and traditional development approach, Greg largely aban…
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Quality Jiu-Jitsu Instruction, ADCC & BJJ Competition Teams With Jeremy Skinner
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I talk to Jeremy Skinner, a Jiu-Jitsu black belt, coach & competitor who recently won the ADCC Oceana trials, which will see him compete at the 2022 ADCC World championships. We discuss his preparation for competition while managing his coaching responsibilities and how he can determine quality in jiu-jitsu instruction and teaching. We also discuss…
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#23 - 'Show up, have fun, figure shit out' UFC Coach Greg Nelson on developing fighters from scratch to the big shows.
1:44:26
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Send us a Text Message. For 30 years, Coach Greg Nelson has overseen the training and development of thousands of combat sports athletes at his gym The Academy in Minnesota. Among these fighters and champ that he has helped produce, Brock Lesnar, Kaitlin Young, Brock Larson, Sean Sherk, Dave Menne and Nick Thompson. He is also a regular part of UFC…
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