Why MMA Fighter Raufeon Stots Wears Xero Shoes
Why MMA Fighter Raufeon Stots Wears Xero Shoes
– The MOVEMENT Movement with Steven Sashen Episode 144 with Raufeon Stots
Raufeon Stots is an American mixed martial artist and graduated collegiate wrestler currently competing in the bantamweight division of Bellator MMA, where he is the current Interim Bellator Bantamweight Champion. As a wrestler, he is a two-time NCAA Division II champion. As of June 28, 2022, he is #10 in the Bellator men’s pound-for-pound rankings.
Listen to this episode of The MOVEMENT Movement with Raufeon Stots about why he wears Xero Shoes.
Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week’s show:
– How Xero Shoes are appropriate for all different kinds of athletes.
– Why the way you move is an important part of mixed martial arts.
– How being an MMA fighter can impact how you attack different parts of your life.
– How Xero Shoes help you discover the mistakes you’re making when you run.
– How Xero Shoes allow Raufeon Stots to run better, train better, and spar better.
Connect with Raufeon Stots:
Guest Contact Info
Twitter
@RaufeonStots
Instagram
@raufeonstots
Facebook
facebook.com/raufeonstots
Links Mentioned:
Xeroshoes.com/subscribe
Connect with Steven:
Website
Xeroshoes.com
Jointhemovementmovement.com
Twitter
@XeroShoes
Instagram
@xeroshoes
Facebook
facebook.com/xeroshoes
Steven Sashen:
A lot of people ask me if Xero Shoes are appropriate for professional athletes. Why don’t we have professional runners or various other people who are wearing our shoes? Well runners, of course, because they get paid to wear other shoes and we don’t have that kind of cash. But we have a lot of athletes who are using our shoes, even if they’re not competing in them, for training. And we’re going to talk about that in something that even if you’re not into this particular sport, you will find it fascinating in just a few moments on this episode of The MOVEMENT Movement, the podcast for people who want to know the truth about what it takes to have a happy healthy strong body starting feet first because those things are your foundation.
And where we break down the propaganda, the mythology and sometimes the flat out lies you’ve been told about what it takes to run, or walk, or play, or to yoga, or CrossFit or things that you’re going to hear about on this episode. And to do that enjoyably and effectively and efficiently. And did I say enjoyably? Trick question, don’t answer. Of course, I did. Because look, if you’re not having fun, do something different till you are. Because otherwise, you’re not going to keep it up anyway, just FYI. I’m Steven Sashen from Xeroshoes.com, your host of The MOVEMENT Movement podcast.
And we call it The MOVEMENT Movement because we, and that includes you, I’ll tell you how in a second, are creating a movement about natural movement, letting your body do what bodies are made to do. And the way you can participate in the movement of The MOVEMENT Movement is go to our website, www.jointhemovementmovement.com. Don’t be confused, there’s nothing you need to do to join, there’s no membership fee, there’s not a secret handshake, you don’t even need to opt in. But that’s where you’ll find all the previous episodes of the podcast, find the different ways you can engage with us, where you can find the podcast. And of course, you can opt in, and subscribe, and like, and give a thumbs up, and share and all those things. Basically you know the drill. If you want to be part of the tribe, please subscribe. All right, let us jump in. Raufeon Stots, it is a pleasure to have you here. Do me a favor, tell people who you are and what you’re doing here.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. So Raufeon Stots, I’m a Bellator World Champion. I’m a two time national champion in wrestling. I’m also a father, a husband. And yeah, I’m here because we have announced that I am partnering with Xero Shoes. I’ve been using Xero Shoes for probably like six months now. I had a championship fight in Hawaii. I’ve used my whole camp to prepare for my fight and I’m here to talk about how much I love Xero Shoes, what the benefits I feel like for me have been. Because I do get the questions too all the time like, “Hey man, are you wearing the shoes or are you just getting paid from Xero Shoes?” And I’ve also gotten shoes for my training partners, my coaches and things like that because they see the benefits, they see the strength and the things that I’m building and the things I’m able to do. And they see the benefits, so they want in it, you know what I mean? So yeah, I’m just here to talk about that.
Steven Sashen:
Okay, well I guess we’re done. Thank you so much for being part of the podcast.
Raufeon Stots:
Perfect.
Steven Sashen:
Oh I’m going to back up, and pick apart some of the things you said one by one because they’re really fun. So for people who don’t know, wrestling is one thing, Bellator is MMA, what’s the word I’m looking for? Not branch, group. Come on, give me the word that I-
Raufeon Stots:
Sport? A niche?
Steven Sashen:
Well no, the MMA is a niche thing, but Bellator is its own little substance.
Raufeon Stots:
Oh yeah, Bellator is an organization. Bellator is an org. So the sport is MMA, right? So wrestling is a sport, MMA is a sport, basketball is a sport. So the organization I compete in is Bellator. So basketball is to MMA, the NBA is to Bellator.
Steven Sashen:
There you go.
Raufeon Stots:
So that’s what it is. So MMA is a sport just like UFC. The UFC is a different organization for MMA, the MMA is the sport. Mixed martial arts is the sport.
Steven Sashen:
And now again, like I said, if you’re not in a mixed martial arts, if you’re not hip to this. First of all, many of you might have the immediate reaction when you just see Raufeon and just hear him talking. He’s not what you would think of when you think of an MMA guy. He does not seem like someone who’s just ready to punch you in the face at any given… Yeah, Like that. He’s not doing that face. Now when you see pictures of him fighting or working out, this guy is clearly in shape for doing that, but one of the nicest guys you’re going to meet. And I think that’s an important thing to highlight because people do have ideas about MMA that they don’t understand or that aren’t accurate. And it’s funny, there’s a word for boxing. There’s something, the-
Raufeon Stots:
Pugilism.
Steven Sashen:
No, but there’s another word, I can’t think of the phrase. But it’s basically about the art of boxing, which sounds like a crazy thing. But when you start to understand boxing a little bit, you really get the art component. MMA, same thing. It can look like just two guys going at it, but it is much more than that.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
So I want to back up before we get back to the Xero Shoes part, I’m just really curious.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
How did you get to MMA at all? And you started with wrestling. Yes?
Raufeon Stots:
Yes. I started with wrestling. And to be honest, my entry into MMA was a lot like my entry into wrestling. It was the curiosity. Curiosity and learning new things, that’s what really got me hooked. And so I did wrestling. I started wrestling when I was a junior in high school, which is really late for wrestler to begin. And then I won nationals, all American. I did really great things, especially for starters in LA because I dived into the art of wrestling like, why I’m putting my foot here? How I’m manipulating somebody? And then that carried over to mixed martial arts.
So mixed martial arts is wrestling, it’s boxing, it’s kicks boxing, it’s Muay Thai, it’s any martial art that you can think of mixed into one. Pretty much taking the best techniques you get to compare them versus all of the techniques in martial art another person can bring. So that was what hooked me to mixed martial arts. I had no idea about how to box, I had no idea about how to do jiu-jitsu. And me learning these techniques was really fun. It’s a rabbit hole of techniques and things that I can learn to manipulate somebody else. It was just super fun to me in the beginning.
Steven Sashen:
And when I watched an MMA fight, and to back up, the thing about UFC ultimate fighting Championship, the way that started was literally some Brazilian jiu-jitsu guys wanted to prove that they were the best fighters. And so they were staging these fights between different martial artists, Aikido guys against wrestlers, boxers against Muay Thai guys. It’s one after another. And of course, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu guys just wiped everybody on the floor.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
So it was great marketing is what it was. But it’s evolved. I don’t follow it really, really closely, but I’ve been tracking it. Geez, I just realized it’s been over 30 years, holy smokes. Because I was doing Aikido and Tai chi, but not the way most people do those, which is, Tai chi, they look at, it’s like old people relaxing. We did fighting art and a sport. Same thing with Aikido, we were going to just dance around and throw ourselves on the ground. I worked with a bunch of guys and women who we just wanted to see is this thing for real or not? Which by the way, got me into a lot of trouble when I found Dojos that were not interested in that-
Raufeon Stots:
But applying it in real life against or in a self-defense situation?
Steven Sashen:
Well, I’ll tell you something funny about that. But more it was, look, if you watch Akido, it looks very dancy. And a lot of times people are just… The person who is being attacked will do some move, and the person who was attacking goes with the flow instead of what would happen in a real fight where they’d come back after you. It was just all different games. We attacked people for real, and we wouldn’t throw ourselves on the ground if they didn’t get us to fall on the ground. And we wouldn’t just let go for the ride, we’d come back… And like you said, it was just fascinating. It was really, really interesting.
But annoyingly, that’s going to sound a funny way of saying it, I never got into a fight. And I say annoyingly because I was always curious. My Tai chi teacher was a 27 year old guy who’d been doing Tai chi since he was five. And when he was 20, he said to his teacher, “What about the fighting part?” And his teacher said, “It’s all just built into doing the form.” And so he would go into these biker bars and just pick fights with people just to see what would happen, and he never lost.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
I was not that crazy. But there were a couple times living in New York City where someone, they were wanted to pick… A cab driver cut me off on my bicycle. I yelled at him, he jumps out of the cab and yells, “I’m going to kill you, man. I’m going to kill you.” And I’m thinking, “I’ve never been in a fight. I’m doing these martial launch for five years.” And I went, “All right, give it a shot.” He’s like, “What?”
Raufeon Stots:
“Let’s try.”
Steven Sashen:
I said, “Give it a shot.” Yeah. And he goes, “No serious, I’m going to kill you.” I said, “Yeah, yeah, I know. Come on.” Because I just wanted to see what would happen. And then he said, “Ah, if I should ever see you again,” and he gets in his car and leaves, which was actually a great fight, so.
Raufeon Stots:
You know the crazy thing about when I started learning martial arts, because I go to schools and I talk to children about getting involved in a martial art. And the martial arts that I have trained in, you do a bunch, not fight simulation, but you’re applying a lot of the things that you do. So like in boxing, we’re punching at each other. We go live rounds, or in jiu-jitsu wrestling, you’re trying to beat one another with the grappling. Learning all that, and then also probably because I get in fights for a living, it builds a confidence when I’m in situations like that. I feel like most fights happen because of the unknowing like, “I want to prove to this guy that I can beat his butt because he doesn’t believe that I can beat his butt.” I feel like most bar fights, and things of that nature happen like that.
But from me doing martial arts and things like that, I know that I’m going to win those situations. I know it. And I don’t feel a need in those situations to prove that to this guy because this guy doesn’t know it. I know it, so I’m like, “If something comes at me, I’m definitely going to handle myself. But I’m not seeking out those things because it’s not as exciting to me to beat up somebody who doesn’t really know what they’re doing.” You know what I mean?
Steven Sashen:
Do you ever hear Mike Tyson talk about this? Oh, he says, “I’ll be in a club or bar or something, and someone wants to pick a fight with me.” And all I could think is, “You don’t understand. If I punched you once, you would die.” Just knowing that, he just chuckles and walks away.
Raufeon Stots:
This has been countless situations. And in those situations, I find myself laughing, which it didn’t help in all of my situations. Because most of the times when I end up laughing, they are more agitated or they feel more a need to prove themselves to me. And I’m like, “Please don’t. I’m joking right now, but if you touch me, that’s not going to be good for you.”
Steven Sashen:
And hold on, how tall are you?
Raufeon Stots:
I’m only 5’7″.
Steven Sashen:
And what do you weigh?
Raufeon Stots:
I weigh probably 160.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah. So that’s the thing. Bigger guys might think, “Here’s someone I can go.” And if you’re just chuckling at them, that’s going to be very upsetting. That’ll be really-
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. Very upsetting, yeah.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
It’s funny-
Raufeon Stots:
I’ve definitely got into fights because of that, but it’s nothing that I seek out.
Steven Sashen:
I had a thing once where some guy, I was on the bike path and I went around someone and I didn’t yell, “On your left,” because I went around him by 20 feet and he started screaming at me that, “You’re supposed to yell on your left.” And I stopped my bike and I said, “Do you really want to argue about this? Is this really something you want to get into?” And I was really tempted to say just for fun, “Do you know Brazilian jiu-jitsu?” And you would of course go, “No.” I went, “Oh, then you should come to my school.” I don’t. I don’t even know BJJ.
Raufeon Stots:
But that would give him a second thought.
Steven Sashen:
Exactly. And this guy was good. He was like 6’2″.
Raufeon Stots:
I really want to be engaging.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah. Just to do that pattern interrupt to make people go, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. So-”
Raufeon Stots:
“Let me think about this.”
Steven Sashen:
“If this guy who’s 5’5”, 145 is willing to challenge me, something is wrong here.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. If it looks too good to be true, it might not be true. Yeah. Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
I think that sums it up. What was it like for you when you went from wrestling and added these other martial arts? Most people in MMA, they do have a specialty that they rely on, but sometimes that specialty isn’t really the best thing for a fight. What was it like adding these other things in the mix?
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, so when I started, I was actually in between. I was thinking about going to the Olympic level and wrestling on a senior level for wrestling. At that time, a fighter by the name of Jen Pulver, who’s the first UFC champion, was starting a gym in the same town that I was wrestling out of. He asked pretty much for me to come to his gym to just show the MMA guys some wrestling. So I went there pretty much just for a job. I was just going to show the MMA guys how to wrestle. Then eventually, he got me to do some kickboxing classes and then he got me to do some jiu-jitsu classes. And then that’s where it peaked my interest. I would come to these classes and I’d be like, “Man, I didn’t know that.” Or, “Man, that’s cool to do.”
And it had gotten to a point in wrestling where I was at the top level, but it wasn’t a lot of learning. There was still fine tuning and stuff like that, but there wasn’t an abundance of learning new things. When I came to the MMA, there was an abundance of learning. My eyes were wide open with all the new techniques and ways to think about manipulating somebody in a fight. Yeah, so he got me hooked with that. And then it took a while, took six months or so for me to get a fight. Because he got me to the classes and they were like, “Hey man you might as well try out to fight now. You know all the things now, you might as well try out to fight.”
And I did an MMA fight, and no lie to you, so I finished this guy in a standing… This guy was like 6’1″, I’m 5’7″. I had him in a front headlock, and it’s called a nanny gonna choke. His legs were dangling in the air. And then I let him go. He tapped in the air. I let him go and he was unconscious. And I thought I was the biggest deal or the baddest guy on planet earth. And that feeling hooked me. I was addicted to the learning new things. But then that feeling of winning a fight, I was hooked. I thought I was the bad. I felt so strong. I felt like I was the baddest guy on earth. Granted I’m still an amateur, and I don’t really know everything. And me to this day would trash the guy that I was.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah.
Raufeon Stots:
But yeah, that feeling, I was like, “Man, this is super fun. I want to do this more.” So that’s how I got into it.
Steven Sashen:
Well, in some worlds, having that first thing that you do go that well is bad news because it’s not always like that. So this is comedy for a living, and people say the worst thing you can have is a good first set because your second set is going to suck. Or stock traders, the worst thing you can have is a good first trade because then you think you’re smart. So did you have any of those rollercoaster things, or just given your wrestling background, I imagine it might have even out the curves?
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. Given my wrestling background, I had wrestled at a high level. And I had taken Ls and I’m takings Ls all the time or throughout wrestling, because also, I started wrestling late. So a lot of guys knew a lot more than me, were better than me. I hadn’t practiced enough techniques. So I didn’t necessarily fall into that, “I am the best.” I knew I wanted to get better. I knew I wasn’t where I needed to be, and I was addicted to the learning part. So I was more of a gym rat. So trying to be there early, be there late for the technique and the mindset of fighting. And I think that paid dividends for me because that’s what ultimately I can rely on now is the knowledge that I gained while I was coming up, or the willingness and wanting to learn. It helps me out to this day.
Steven Sashen:
Oh my God. No, that’s a huge thing. I just thought of a weird thing, during COVID actually, I watched a lot of Brazilian jiu-jitsu videos. I don’t know why, I found it really fascinating and it did look like it was really fun. I think of BJJ and MMA to a certain extent, it’s like a three dimensional chess match with two.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. Yeah, And that’s how it works. Or I looked at wrestling at that way before I found jiu-jitsu. But yeah, and just like in a chess board where there’s just so many different ways you can go to get to the same goal. Yeah, exactly. A 3D chess board, that’s exactly how I see it. And it’s so fun. It’s so fun to figure it out, okay, maybe this guy is stronger than me, but I have techniques I can do for that. He goes left, I can go right. Or I can either use his momentum or push against his momentum. Yeah, it’s just super fun. it’s just fun.
Steven Sashen:
Did you by chance, see, I think it was on HBO or Netflix, I can’t remember which. It was a show that was on during COVID, they’re waiting for the rest of the first season, and hopefully a second season, called the Old Man. Do you know about it?
Raufeon Stots:
No. Uh-huh.
Steven Sashen:
So Jeff Bridges plays a way retired CIA guy who gets dragged back into something. And in the first two episodes in particular, there are fight scenes where there’s a lot of stuff that’s very MMA-ish. And from all the stuff that I watched and listening to the commentary, I learned just enough about how to watch MMA or watch BJJ. And I knew certain things about what you want to do in that chess game. And what was amazing about that show is, there’s a time where I’m going, “Oh you got to lock his leg right there,” and then suddenly he locks his leg. “Ooh, you got to get guard on there,” and suddenly he does that.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
So it was for real.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
So that’s a prelude to asking to this weird question. For someone who doesn’t know anything about MMA, if they’re going to watch, what would you ask them or invite them to look for so that they could get a little bit of an understanding that might make them want to find out more about either just watching it or maybe even trying any of those different martial arts?
Raufeon Stots:
When it comes to the grappling, I feel like the grappling is the hardest point to know when someone is in control or when someone is winning. So-
Steven Sashen:
Well hold on, let’s pause there, I want to highlight. Because, and feel free to add in or correct, a lot of times, the guy on the bottom is in control.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. Yeah exactly.
Steven Sashen:
And that’s just not the way we think about a fight.
Raufeon Stots:
Exactly, Exactly. Yeah. So for the naked eye that has no experience in MMA, I would look at control, whether it be from top or bottom, I would look at who has control of the situation or who has the ability to disengage if they want to.
Steven Sashen:
Oh, that’s interesting.
Raufeon Stots:
That’s a big one too. If someone has the ability to disengage, then they have the control of the situation or where their situation is. And even that, that’s hard to do watching from the naked eye.
Steven Sashen:
It’s hard to do. But just giving someone an idea of something to look for is going to give them some guidance in how they perceive things. You’re going to find them saying to everyone else, you’re going to find sometimes you think that someone is in that situation they’re wrong. Or sometimes were in that situation for the moment that you thought it and then it changed. But eventually you just start to notice patterns, and these patterns are really, really fascinating. So I got to ask, coming from wrestling into MMA, what was it like the first time you got seriously hit in the face?
Raufeon Stots:
Oh, there’s a ringing and a surprise that you’re not accustomed to, and obviously pain. The pain and just the shaking, and the pain of it or buzzing, they call it sometimes. I think getting used to that is not normal.
Steven Sashen:
You think?
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. And I realized that fighting, a lot of the things that naturally human nature tells us to do is the opposite of what you have to do in fighting to be successful. You know what I mean?
Steven Sashen:
Give me an example.
Raufeon Stots:
You say what?
Steven Sashen:
Give me an example.
Raufeon Stots:
So for example, if someone is punching you or in the range to punch you, so if you want to re-attack or if you want to commit offense, it’s better for you to block and not absorb, but attack the attack. To attack the attack while loading your attack, that’s the fastest way to commit offense when someone is offending on you or committing offense on you. You know what I mean? A human nature is to run away, right? Where there’s benefits to run away, but it takes more time to develop your offense. If I move away from you, then I can’t hit you back is what I’m saying.
So that’s one of the things, like human nature, someone throws a strike at you, you run away or you move away. And in MMA, how you move might open up something else. Like you might move your head back, but your legs are still there. So they’ll kick your legs and you’re not in a position to defend. Whereas if you stay postured forward and absorb the shot, then you’re ready to check legs, you’re ready to hit back, you’re ready to wrestle. But that’s opposite of what human nature tells us to do.
Steven Sashen:
I hate to ask this question, but I’m going to.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
And it’s obviously a little different in wrestling, but when you start really getting familiar with, I don’t want to say comfortable, familiar with doing things like stepping in to an attack so you can attack back, did you notice that that had any impact on the way you do anything else in your life?
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, I think so. Well, fighting in general definitely has had an impact on how I attack different parts of my life, because a great deal of it is mentality. And I don’t know if I’m more aggressive in the rest of my life, I don’t feel like that’s the case. But definitely, I feel like I go about things more intelligently or deliberately, I should say deliberately. I do things more deliberately once I start figuring out like, the way I’m fighting should be deliberate. Every step I take, every thing I do should be deliberately. So how I handle my finances, how I handle my children, everything is deliberate. I’m deliberate.
Steven Sashen:
One way that occurred to me as you’re saying that, it seems like you have a different kind of willingness to engage.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And in fighting, that is true. I don’t know, maybe I do, I do.
Steven Sashen:
I don’t know. Maybe not.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, that’s a good question, I got to think about that. I don’t know if I do.
Steven Sashen:
Well I realized for me one day, and again look, I’m way older than you are and I didn’t realize this till not very long ago. I’ve been an individual sport athlete my whole life and I don’t know if what I’m about to say is true, but it’s a pattern that I identified that in business, I tend to think of what I’m doing in the same way that I think about how I compete, which is, best man or best thing wins.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
I’m wrong because that’s not the way it works in business. I’ve often had people win a fight, if you will, because I had the best thing, I was the best man. And rather them just going, “Hey, we lost.” They do something when they’re backed into a corner to get out of that position, to disengage. And the thing that they did screwed up my business. Just with Xero Shoes, we had a multi-billion dollar company get a big order with a retailer canceled, an order that we had canceled because they didn’t want us in that store because we were already beating them in another store. And it would’ve never occurred to me in a million years to call a store and say, “We don’t want that brand, that Xero Shoes, we don’t want them in there.” And then of course the store went, “Okay.” Because that was a multi-billion dollar company.
Raufeon Stots:
Right. And then they will gain more from that.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah. So it’s taken me a while to learn my natural inclination. Again, I don’t know which came first, this idea or just being an individual sport athlete. But the idea of best thing wins, I’m constantly having to check that because I could lose that fight.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. Well for me, the way I look at martial arts, it’s always been about self-progression. So most times, that aligns with being the best. But ultimately, I have to focus on my self-progression before any of that matters. So if I look at a camp, if I’m starting to fight a camp, I have an opponent. So I’m practicing self-progression, progressing in everything I do within the mixed martial arts realm pretty much all year. All year long, I’m focused on getting better, tighten things up, learning new things, getting better. Once I have an opponent, I’m then also fighting on or focusing on getting better. But there’s smaller window of things I have to be better at because of the opponent.
Steven Sashen:
Right.
Raufeon Stots:
So a lot of the stuff like my finance, for me, I mess up a lot. I mess up a lot.
Steven Sashen:
Part of it.
Raufeon Stots:
So as long as I’m better than I was yesterday, I’m going to be all right in the long run, and that’s how I looked at mixed martial arts. I can mess up and still win, but as long as the more things I can make better, the more things I can make a little tighter, I’m going to be good in the long run. But yeah, it starts with me. I don’t necessarily compare myself with a lot of other fighters, which I’ve been told I need to do more of, like watching film on all the greats and things like that, I don’t do that. Which that could help with my self-progression, but I’m so focused on, “Hey, I’m doing this right now, how can I do it better?” Or, “Why can’t I do this right now?” You know what I mean?
Steven Sashen:
Right. Well, looking at the greats, I’ll come back to business. People have called me every now and then and said, “Hey, we have this opportunity to go to Richard Branson’s island and hang out with Richard Branson. Do you want to go?” And I say, “Why would I want to do that?” They go, “What do you mean? It’s Richard Branson. Imagine what you could learn.” I said, “I can tell you what I’ll learn, I’m not Richard Branson.”
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly, that’s how I feel. Yeah, that’s exactly it. I feel like the great in mixed martial arts is Demetrious Johnson, but I have not watched a lot of Demetrious Johnson fights when they come on. I watch him, but I’m not studying how he’s doing things because I’m not doing those things. If I wanted to do those things, then I would have to start from fresh and start being him. I got to be a little shorter. I got to be quicker.
Steven Sashen:
Well, here’s another proof that just watching other people to try to figure out what they’re doing doesn’t necessarily work, and this is getting in the weeds a little bit for people. There’s a Russian boxer named Lomachenko, it’s his last name. And a lot of people-
Raufeon Stots:
Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Steven Sashen:
Vasiliy Lomachenko. A lot of people have watched him because what he does is amazing.
Raufeon Stots:
Extraordinary. Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah. You don’t even know anything about boxing if you watch him, it just looks like magic. And I don’t care how many people have watched him, they will never be able to do that.
Raufeon Stots:
Nope. Yeah, yeah. Nope. Nobody will be able to do it like him. No.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah, it’s fascinating. One last thing that occurs to me I’m really curious about is the MMA or even the wrestling community. And I asked this because I went to the Atlanta Olympics, let me rephrase that. I went to watch the Atlanta Olympics, it’s not that I was in them, and I was going to see things that I know nothing about because I find that interesting. And I knew nothing about wrestling, and this was Greco-Roman wrestling. And for people who don’t know, the thing with Greco-Roman wrestling, basically it’s everything above the waist. So there’s no leg locks, you’re not going in scooping people’s legs. It’s about as old school as it gets.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
And so what was really fun is I think I was the only person in that room who wasn’t either a wrestler or family of a wrestler. And what was really fun is they all knew each other. And what was really fun was that on that one day, one of the Polish wrestlers was just having a really great competition. And everybody in the stands, no matter where they were from, no matter whose kid they had, who was about to fight, they were all suddenly Polish. They’re all just screaming, “Polish Scott.” Because they know, on any given day, it could really work for someone and not for someone else, they were just so happy that for this guy it was really working. I was crying. Everyone was just so generous because they’ve all been on every side of that equation. It was-
Raufeon Stots:
Exactly. And everybody there, especially at the highest level, more often times than not, everybody that was there was there when they was kids, was there all the way growing up. Or if they’re at an Olympic event, they’ve been at this family member’s freaking high school matches, middle school matches, out of season matches. And so they understand what goes into it, what heartaches are. Some days you don’t have it and you know what that means. So I want almost say the elitist group, but that’s definitely not the right term. But every-
Steven Sashen:
Well, it’s… No, go ahead.
Raufeon Stots:
Is that the right term?
Steven Sashen:
It’s similar? Basically, yeah. When you’re at an elite level, yeah.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. Well, each one of those groups I feel like it’s a small, close knit family. Even if they’re rivals, they see each other a lot.
Steven Sashen:
They understand you.
Raufeon Stots:
They understand each other. Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
I met a guy two weeks ago who’s a three time Olympic gymnast, and I was an all American gymnast, but I never got that level. And we were just talking on the first day that we met, we were just sharing stories. And on the second day, I came up to him, I said, “Look, I want to apologize if my stories from way down here, not trying to compare my stories to your way up here, stories.” And he said, “Are you kidding? Just the fact that I can talk to someone who understands this is so much fun.” And that was really very sweet. And I imagine there have been times where you or your family comes up to… I don’t know, what’s your record by the way?
Raufeon Stots:
18 to one. Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
So on that one, I imagine that there were people who… Well, I’ll say it this way, during the 18 that you won, I imagine that you and/or people who know you or family members came up to the loser and congratulated that person, appreciated that person. That time that you lost, I bet they did the same thing to the guy who beat you.
Raufeon Stots:
Yep, yep, exactly. His coaches. Yeah, actually his family members came up and was like, “Hey man, you’ll be all right. It is just a stepping stone.” Of course at that time, you’re like, “Ah, whatever.” Well yeah.
Steven Sashen:
But yeah, it happens. I’ll never forget when I was a gymnast in high school and our coach said to us. We were competing against some team, there’s some particular gymnast we’re hoping to beat and then he screwed something up, something doesn’t go good. And we went, “Oh yeah.” And he said, “Don’t ever do that. Don’t ever do that. If you’re going to win, you want to win because you beat someone, not because you didn’t do your best. And all you want to do is do your best. And if you don’t do it, then you don’t want them doing the same thing to you.” And that was a big life lesson for us.
Raufeon Stots:
Profound. Yeah. Oh yeah.
Steven Sashen:
All right. So let’s move into the part that you started with your awesome promo. Thank you. So how did you find Xero Shoes to begin with? I don’t even remember.
Raufeon Stots:
Man, how did I? It was Everest, I believe.
Steven Sashen:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Raufeon Stots:
Everest. He just had me try them out, I think.
Steven Sashen:
So Everest is your manager?
Raufeon Stots:
Yep. Everest is my manager.
Steven Sashen:
And so let me back up. So clearly when you’re fighting, you’re not wearing footwear, but there’s a whole lot of training where being barefoot is not going to be the thing to do.
Raufeon Stots:
Exactly. So I run on a treadmill often. I run outside often. A lot of the strength and conditioning I do, the circuits are on turf. I’m doing on heels. I’m doing stuff on sand. I’m doing stuff on concrete. And because I feel like I sweat a lot and I’m barefoot a lot, my feet aren’t the roughest thing in the world, you know what I mean? So I just can’t do those things barefoot if I wanted to.
Steven Sashen:
Oh no, it’s fine. And so let’s pretend that it was Everest who found us somehow and thought this might be a good idea. Did it take convincing or did he just buy something for you? How’d that happen?
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. No, he bought something for me and had me try. Or I think you guys have sent out something for me to try.
Steven Sashen:
Oh yeah.
Raufeon Stots:
And I was just going to try running in them for a while and just see how they felt. And then yeah, I went from running to doing my training in them. Because before, I just tried the running. And when I started the running, I started noticing the difference. That week I started notice the difference.
Steven Sashen:
What did you notice?
Raufeon Stots:
And what I noticed was… Huh?
Steven Sashen:
What did you notice?
Raufeon Stots:
I noticed that I had an imbalance and strength in my both legs. And also probably talking to Jessie Graff, I probably went too hard when I first got the shoe thinking like, “Oh, it’s just a different shoe.” And so I was running, what was it? Like 18 minute for three miles. So seven minute miles, I was running three of them after training, and I was doing that three times a week and I was doing that in the shoe. And after that first week, my feet were less super way sore than I’ve ever had them be sore, and right underneath my calf was super sore. At the end of that week, it hurt to walk.
But I understand injuries and soreness, soreness from muscle fatigue pretty much. And so I was like, “Obviously these muscles have either never been worked or they just are getting cheated some type of way.” And when that happened, I was like, “Yeah man, I like the shoes. I need the shoes.” Because at the very least of what happened, I wanted to be stronger or harder to kill in that way. If I needed to run somewhere barefoot, I obviously can’t do it for a long time. So I was like, “Man, you got me.”
Steven Sashen:
Now of course, this is a brilliant insight into the way your mind works because many people in that situation, which is just called doing too much too soon will go, “Oh, see this doesn’t work because look, I got sore and it’s just going to be bad.” And the problem with the too much too soon ideas, of course you don’t know you do too much until you do too much.
Raufeon Stots:
Yep, yep.
Steven Sashen:
And I will add, calf pain is optional because it’s as much about learning to relax in the right way as it is about getting stronger.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
Because in fact, the more important part is the relaxing part, the getting stronger, it happens over time. But the relaxing part is something you can do almost immediately if you pay attention.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. And I was running on my tip toes, I feel like, when I first got them. I feel like the shoes were so light, I was like, “Oh man, I could just run, my heel will never touch the mat or never touch the treadmill and I’ll just run.”
Steven Sashen:
And that’s an interesting and common misconception. People hear that, “Oh, you’re supposed to land on your forefoot or the ball of your foot.” Because some people actually teach this, that you’re supposed to just be on your toes and your heel never touches the ground, which is not the case and that can cause some serious calf strain. The first time I ran with someone who was over striding and reaching their foot way out in front of their body and then pointing their toes to land on the ball of their foot, I was like, “What are you doing?” She said, “What you’re supposed to do.” I was like, “No, no, no, no, no. You’re supposed to land with your feet underneath your body. And when you do that, you can’t help but land on the ball or your foot or your forefoot and then you let your heel relax because you just don’t want to be spending more energy than you need to.” And she’s like, “No.”
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, yeah. See, I never knew. I never knew that. Yeah, there’s a lot of things I just did. And that’s going back to, I always want to be a little better than I was last time. So that type of stuff is stuff that I like needed. When we had the partner thing with Jessie Graff as she talked about foot training, or muscular training in your foot and things like that, I was like, “Man, that’s something I need to learn because nobody is teaching it, nobody is teaching me how to run. I just kept running for 30 years.”
Steven Sashen:
Well, the good news is that if you pay attention, you tend to figure it out because your brain is not stupid. And if something’s painful or something feels awkward and you pay enough attention, you’re going to make adjustments to not do that thing that’s painful or stupid. My first barefoot run ended with a big blister on the ball of my left foot. And I’m going, “How come my right foot is fine?” And on my second barefoot run, I paid attention to my right leg thinking that if I stopped doing whatever caused the blister, or basically if I stopped doing what hurts because I got a gaping hole on my foot, then I’m probably not doing what caused the blister. And after nine minutes and 30 seconds of agony, my brain figured it out and my form changed, and everything was easier, smoother, more fun, faster. And it’s like, “Oh, I didn’t even know I had until I got that feedback.”
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. So you got to mess up to get right, so.
Steven Sashen:
Well, there’s no choice. You can’t learn something new perfectly on day one. And what people also forget is that the frustration that it feels in trying to learn something new is not a sign that it’s difficult and you can’t do it, it’s a sign that you’re laying down new neural pathways to be able to do it.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. Yeah, true.
Steven Sashen:
And I can only imagine you’ve had that same thing, especially picking up boxing, picking up more tyres. You don’t even know what you’re doing wrong at first because you can’t feel it. And then eventually you get a little smarter and it’s like, “Oh.” And then you keep getting smarter mostly because someone hits you and you go, “How the hell that happen?”
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. “But I’ll figure it out.” Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah. I’m curious about something, I just remembered this. In fact, when I was in high school, my gymnastics, this will be funny to say it this way, my gymnastics coach’s ex-wife’s husband, he became really good friends with because the guy was a professional athlete, he was a boxer. And he came into the gym one day and said, “All right, I’m going to show you how we do what we do.” And our coach Jack says, “Don’t hit people.” He says, “I’m not going to hit anybody, just going to show you that people don’t understand this sport.” And so he put a quarter on the top of our head and he goes, “I’m going to try and take that quarter off your head, you just try to block me. And you can try and do it however you want. I’m going to start with my hands at my sides and I’m just going to grab the quarter, you try to stop me,” and none of us could. It’s like we were flailing.
And it was only years later that I realized it’s literally impossible. The amount of time that it takes for him to move his hand to grab the quarter and then move his hand back, it’s not possible to process that information into your brain and then send that information to your hands to block him. So clearly what’s happening, to be able to block him is we’d have to see that he’s telegraphing the move and then anticipate what he’s doing, and he just didn’t telegraph anything.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
And so I imagine at first with some of these new things you were picking up, coming back to that, at first it was like, “How the hell did they just do that?” And then eventually you learn to see these subtle things, your eyes-
Raufeon Stots:
You learn where the movement is or where stuff is coming from, yeah. Especially in punches.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah.
Raufeon Stots:
Because a lot of times, you don’t want to focus on the hand, you want to focus what’s going on around because the tails before the hand comes up to hit you in the face. And especially if you’re doing it right, there’s a lot less or not as many tails.
Steven Sashen:
Right. There’s fewer things you’re paying attention to. You’re basically learning what not to pay attention to.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah, that’s interesting. So backing up to feet, because what the hell? So you got some Xero Shoes, you started having this experience of like, “Oh this could make me stronger.” Now that this has been six months or so, what else have you noticed, if at all, I’m not trying to lead the witness. How have you noticed the translation of what’s happened from spending more time using your feet naturally into what you’re doing in the ring?
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. So I’ve noticed, especially in my strength and conditioning. Well actually no, I noticed it too in my sparring. So sparring is where I test out my techniques and the things I’ve been working on against somebody else, like play fighting.
Steven Sashen:
Yeah.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. Sparring. So in sparring, I’m noticing more balance in kicks. And that’s another misconception. A lot of the martial arts are based on balance. Being able to manipulate your body in a fashion where you still have a base underneath you is super important in mixed martial arts, because if I’m balanced then I can do all things. Once I’m off balance, the things that I can do are limited. And I never want to be in a situation where I’m limited against somebody else who’s not. So balance is huge for me. So I’ve been practicing different kicks. A specific kick is a front kick, and I’m noticing my balance on the leg that’s not kicking is super important and it’s better. So I used to be able to throw a flip kick, but now I feel like I can throw it without having to worry about my balance. So I can throw it a couple times now. So things like that. Obviously the running, I’m able to go longer, I’m able to run without there being pain in my legs now. What else?
Steven Sashen:
Well, I would assume also from wearing Xero Shoes, your mortgage rate has improved, your kids are acting good.
Raufeon Stots:
Oh yeah, I got better libido, my kids love me more. No, no. But that’s the things I noticed and that’s the things that are invaluable to me. But for what I do, I need those things.
Steven Sashen:
This presents a bit of a challenge for us professionally because, A, we’re happy to be supporting you. And B, we want you to do really well. And C, we want to get Xero Shoes on everybody, but we don’t want them to have the same competitive advantage.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, exactly, I know. I was thinking about that. Because I was doing interviews and I was talking about Xero Shoes. I was thinking about, “What if my opponent start figuring out that he needs Xero Shoes? Then everybody is going to figure it out.” And it’s going to be too late, I would be past.
Steven Sashen:
There you go. Yeah.
Raufeon Stots:
I’m six months ahead now. So even if he starts now, he’s behind.
Steven Sashen:
We’ve actually been having this conversation with an NBA team.
Raufeon Stots:
Oh yeah? I was going to say though, that’s part of the deliberateness and the rest of my life. I feel like when I find out the right way to do things, I’m like, “Why did I waste so much time doing it the wrong way? If I would’ve known this before.” And that’s how I feel about my shoes now, I’m like, “My shoes should be doing what I’m doing for…” You know what I mean? “My shoes should be helping me. Why don’t I have them on if they’re not helping me?”
Steven Sashen:
Yeah. Look, this is the thing Dr. Irene Davis, she was at Harvard. She often says, “We just need to get kids wearing shoes like Xero Shoes, because then by the time they’re adults, we won’t be treating them for the problems that adults currently have.” So there’s always that, “If I only knew.” But in some situations, that would be horrible. We always love to say, “If I only knew in high school what I know now.” It’s like, “Oh no, you would’ve been dangerous. You would’ve been arrested, I assure you.”
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
But there are things where there’s no way to know before you know. And there’s things we’re trying to do to make it so that this is not a question anymore, because it becomes the new normal that this is just the way it is, is using your feet naturally.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah.
Steven Sashen:
So we’ve only got a couple minutes, so I want to jump into the more important thing. You’ve got a big fight coming up, we are happily part of that. We’re going to be announcing a really fun promotion that we’re doing for people who want to be able to come out and train with you for a day, check out the fight, get some Xero Shoes as well. But the big thing is to hang out with you for a day. So talk about what’s coming up and what you’re doing to get ready for that.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. So I’m training, and I have a fight December 9th in Connecticut, Mohegan Sun Casino. And I’m in a tournament, so this is the semifinals of a million dollar tournament. Of course I’m the champion of Bellator. I’m the interim of Bellator Champion, because the champ which was one of my teammate, that’s another story for another time, is hurt right now. So I’m the champion. I’m defending the champion in the semifinals of this million dollar tournament. And yes, the biggest fight of my life. There’s a lot of crap talking between both of us and it’s going to be a fun time. And yeah, we got lots of fun stuff planned for some people who want to come out and train, come to the fights. Yeah, I don’t know if we can announce it yet, but it’s-
Steven Sashen:
We can’t yet. Coming soon.
Raufeon Stots:
Okay. All right. Yeah, it’s going to be huge.
Steven Sashen:
For people who want to hear about this, to have a chance to go to the fight, hang out with Raufeon, et cetera, make sure you are following us on social media. Go to Xeroshoes.com/subscribe because it’ll be in our newsletter coming up. It’s a very exciting promotion with a number of other people. And now when you say million dollar event, if you win, you don’t get a million dollars.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah. No, if I win, I get a million dollars.
Steven Sashen:
What the…
Raufeon Stots:
I get a million dollars on top of what I make to fight. So this is life changing for my family. Say that again?
Steven Sashen:
No, I knew that you actually did. But it was fun saying you can’t be getting a million dollars, like holy moly.
Raufeon Stots:
I know. Even me thinking about it now, it’s like, what? Yeah. For people who don’t know, when I started fighting, I would go through the same process of a camp. My first fight, I got $250 to show and then $250 to win. So I got $500, which was pretty much I had to put back into my training. So I was making no money for fighting, you know what I mean? And this is every three, four months, that was what I would make. So I was struggling for a long time. So to even think that this is a possibility is huge.
Steven Sashen:
It’s awesome. It’s amazing. So backing up to trash talking, what do you do, if anything, to get into someone else’s head?
Raufeon Stots:
I try to keep it light because at the end of the day, this is a business and there’s no real beef. For me, there’s no real beef. But I’m going to say things that are true, I’m going to probably make light of situations that you think are serious and I feel like that gets under people’s skin.
Steven Sashen:
It does.
Raufeon Stots:
And what I’m basically trying to do is distract you from how good, or how much I’m preparing and how serious I’m taking this. So that’s literally my trash talk. I’m not talking about families, or religion or things like that. I’m pretty much distracting you, getting under your skin, talking about things that shouldn’t matter but you find important, so.
Steven Sashen:
I can think of two versions of this. One is, did you ever watch the movie, Pumping Iron?
Raufeon Stots:
No.
Steven Sashen:
Oh my God, you got to watch it. This is about Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno really. It was their rivalry in the seventies and eighties. And the way Arnold got under Lou’s skin, it was like they’d be having lunch and he’d say something really offhand to Lou like, “Oh Lou, I thought you were working on your traps,” and Lou would be like, “What the…” It’d just totally get to him. Or you could do the exact opposite where you could really get someone, it’s like you could watch someone and go, “Oh man, I should have been working on my kicks”.
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’m doing. So, the opponent that I have, he’s a wrestler and he likes to grapple, and most people call grappling boring. So I just make fun of the fact that his fights are boring. And then I’m sure that will insight him to maybe not go to his best route to win the fight.
Steven Sashen:
No. So here’s me pretending to be you. So there’s this thing, “To prepare for this fight, I watched a lot of your fights because they helped me get to sleep.”
Raufeon Stots:
Yeah, exactly. I said that, it’s like, “Man, it’s perfect Nyquil for me.” I think the other thing I said was like, “I have kids that throw tantrums all the time and I’m used to somebody coming up thinking they’re better than we are. So I let them do what they want to do because they’re a child,” so.
Steven Sashen:
Oh man.
Raufeon Stots:
But that type of stuff piss people off, so it’s fun. That is so fun.
Steven Sashen:
I think one of my favorite things I’ve ever seen in a pre-fight standoff wh
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