university, welcome to this edition of equal time. i'm your host, journalism school director, bob rucker. how would you like to be in a cage getting attacked, while people cheer? >> he got elbowed and got cut. it was on the eyebrow and then on side of forehead, down. i moved it and i see like his freaking skull, i was like whoa. >> this is what it feels like in mixed martial arts. we'll explore the phenomenon on this edition of equal time. [ music ] mixed martial arts have grown more and more popular in recent years. the sport enables fighters to improve physically, while earning money

and an honorable title. correspondent justin san diego explores the lives of mma fighters. >> jose palacios has been devoting his free time to mixed martial arts for the past fourteen years, starting at the age of nineteen. now he fights and trains for unlimited mma in milpitas. >> i've always want to be a fighter since i was a little kid. martial arts kind of became a way of helping me keep grounded. so, on monday, wednesday and friday i'll, i usually run you know between three to five miles and then i'll do a lot of form and stretching, right. and during the night time i'll do the drills and then the sparring, but it turns out to about maybe a four and a half hour work out a day, sometimes five. >> some of these fighters sweating it out daily say mma helps them make the most out of every minute of their day. >> i mean i do this so much to where you know you keep on kicking something over and over and over and you're

going to temper your body, which meaning like you're going to get used to it and your tolerance kind of builds up. human body is amazing. it heals up and it adapts incredibly. >> you got to have a rest day because if not, you know your body's going to shut down. >> 230 right now, i'm trying to get down to walking around 190, 185 actually. but i don't know what it is, as soon as you get a target date, everything in your mind just changes and that one cookie you wanted to eat earlier, you just don't want to eat anymore. >> you got to eat to where you have enough fuel in your body, but at the same time you don't want to overdo it and then when you get closer and closer to the fight, then you start cutting things out. you start water loading which means you're drinking large amounts of water, just so your body is used to flushing everything out. >> i used to cut weight pretty crazy, like 20 pounds in a day and half or two days. i'll do like elliptical or run first and then i'll do the sauna. i'll put garbage bags or sauna suits, albolene, everything.

in order to make a weight class, many fighters put their bodies through extreme conditions including dehydration and starvation. >> it takes like an hour just to cut a pound. two hours just to cut a pound. now usually the last two to three pounds are the hardest to cut. so you're just there like stressing. >> usually the last four days, usually at i mean i try to minimize my eating to about 500 calories a day. >> many fighters have friends and family who may discourage them from pursuing a mma career because of these safety risks. as far as the friends that i've acquired now, all of them support me, because that's how they met me, this is what i do. my baby, my woman they support me to the fullest whether or not i fight, whether i fight or not. so when it's time to go, i have full support now. so that really makes a difference. it's like it's one of those weird things, when you're in a ring with someone, all your fears, all your drama, every issue you have kind of leaves the window. you don't have time to worry about what your teacher said or what your friends said or who

snapchatted you something because someone's about to punch you in the face. >> that's what martial arts taught me man, that if you're able to move, be grateful, take advantage of it and do something. because one day man we won't be moving anymore. we're all going to die, bro. mixed martial arts is a sport that helps many young adults improve in many ways. people here at the gym say, it helps them build camaraderie, strength and endurance. when we come back we'll investigate the injuries and the mentality it takes to be a fighter. stay with us. [ music ] [ music ]

welcome back, we've seen how mixed martial arts can benefit young adults, but now we can also see how the sport carries many risks. justin san diego continues our coverage. i've had plenty of injuries. i've had both my hands broken more than a few times, my collarbone, my sternum, my ribs, my shoulders, broke my feet. yeah i've had a acl tear and i had both my shoulders pop out in a fight, but you know that didn't stop me from competing so. robert cornejo has been in the mixed martial arts industry for 16 years. recently he coaches kids and adults and also the

cutman who helps heal injuries during competitions. i'm a cutman also, so i work the corners with the coaches. so usually they get swelling. they get elbow cuts, anything i try to make sure that i try to stop it before the referee will stop the fight. the worst injury that i have seen was a cut actually during a fight. one of our fighters was fighting in vegas. he got elbowed and got cut. it was on the eyebrow and then on side of the forehead down. i moved it and i seen like his freaking skull, i was like whoa. injuries such as a knockout or a concussion could put fighters on a medical recovery and prevent them from competing. man it varies, depends on how bad you know. sometimes oh it's a, what's the minimum now? i think your minimum 60 days or something, i can't remember what they really are. but if it's like a really bad knockout, like boom, where they have to bring a stretcher in sometimes. i know promoters who say it's procedures and it's -- but some

of them were really bad man and they might be like "okay, i don't know if you can take another shot like that." i ended up breaking this guy's jaw once, right. and when we fought in the rematch, i didn't have that same like i'm going to break you, like we did the first time. fighters maybe empathetic when causing serious injury to their opponent. i didn't pull the trigger like i should have because i thought i did enough, right. and i lost the fight. i slammed him and give him two elbows in the face. so i broke their over bone and then he had to get like a metal plate in their, underneath their eye and pretty much ended their career. he was the hometown favorite and coming out that ring, everybody was throwing waters at me, throwing glass, throwing everything, booing and you know i knew that i had to prove a point. you know someone's going to lose so it's either going to be him or me. so, i showed no mercy when i go in that cage. so it's a fine line, it's a line sometimes with some fighters will reach and then learn how to deal with that experience.

where you know that guy's defeated, do i go there and kill him or just take him and risk some serious injury? jose palacios attempted to walk the line between showing mercy, but securing the win during his past fights. because a lot of these guys that's how they make their living, but right now luis put this guy in commission so now he can't feed his family because he has to -- now he has to figure out a way. so granted that's still an action that he decided to take, but i just don't wish serious injury upon anyone, especially if this is the means of income. mixed martial arts has many benefits, however many people concerned with the safety risk, may think that the sport may need more rules and regulations. when we come back we'll sit down with three mixed martial artists. so, stay with us. [ music ] [ music ]

welcome back to this edition of equal time. today we're going to talk about the risks of mixed martial arts. let's meet our guests. my name is jose palacios, el matador. hi my name is luis "light year" vargas, well

known as the number one ranked amateur fighter. my name is sonny "crazy eyes" singh, i'm 29 years old and been doing it for about five years. and my name is justin san diego. i am the san jose state journalism major and correspondent for this episode. very good and i guess in the spirit of all i'm bob the balding one and we'll talk about mixed martial arts. i want to know what the public doesn't know about your sport. so first let's talk about what they may or may not know in terms of basic details. what are we talking about mixed martial arts? what does that mean? it just means it's a variety of art forms of, you know, fighting all mixed up into one. and they are, give me a list of some them? we have kickboxing. we have wrestling. we have boxing, jujitsu, there's you know karate, taekwondo. there's -- it's a vast list that goes on and on and on. there's just not on specific you know art form, there's many and they're all you know balled up to one really, really good fighter. very good, and sonny was saying you have a specialty

that you like, but you have a passion for this in general, why? yeah it's just you know, exciting for me. it's just gets your heart pumping. it just makes you want to be the best you could be. for me, this sports given me so much discipline, you know, inside and outside the ring. it's kind of a stress reliever. kind of, you know, makes me put everything together and you know keeps everything together for me. very good, and justin why did you want to do this story? i think it's just a cool sport. you know there's unlike any other sport, you have two men in the ring or two people in a ring and one's going to win and one's going to get hurt. you know whether by suffocation, a joint being twisted, something's going to happen and it really is like a test of strength and endurance. okay let's open it up because i want to hear your stories and jump on in guys, but i want to hear how you would like to describe this sport. why you do this? why do you want to do this? can't really explain it. you really really can't.

i've been doing this for a while now. i'm 33 years old, got into it when i was 19 and when i first got into it, very similar to sonny, i didn't know what i wanted to do with my life. military, or get fat, or go to, i don't know what it was. so i was like you know what, i want to get into something. i found mixed martial art and it just kind of kept going and going, but through that i actually ended up going to college. i went to college, got my finished. so all these things that i never thought i was going to like even think about, it opened up so many other doors. so that and martial arts aspect of it was been fantastic. now as a fighter, that's a different story and that i can't really explain. it's in there, i tried retiring a few times, you can't do it. i'll be gone for a year and then i'm you know be like i got to do something. and i end up taking a fight. you can't really explain it, you really can't. you ask any fighter why you, we really can't really say. we love it, we love it and hate it at the same time. >> now luis was telling me that before the program started and you love and you have deep passion.

>> yeah so actually i started off little bit different. i started off wrestling. you know i've never been in a fight in my whole life. i was actually a smaller guy, i was skinny. i was like 80 pounds in eighth grade. you know, even from my freshman year in high school i was like not even 100 pounds. so you know i would come in, you know, the smaller guy, you know, and so i actually picked up wrestling. and so i've been wrestling, you know, from seventh grade and from there i was actually coaching at a mma gym. and so, you know, one day they invited me to come and watch. so i watched them and i said, whoa that looks like fun. you know it looks like pretty -- pretty easy, you know. so i feel it's, you know, it's i think it's the purest art form because it's one on one. you know, it's like the gladiator of this generation, you know. one person's coming out the victor, you know. so i think it's just really amazing and it's a different experience. you know, you're in there and it's like it's like the mentality, it's kill or be killed. so that's why it brings you to the like the peak of your, you know, everything. your adrenaline is kicking in. your, you know, your endurance has to be really high. you have to be, you know, well trained.

your mind has to be, you know, clear because if you go in with like a lot of things in your mind, you're not going to compete or you're not going to you know do as well as you wanted to. so, i just feel like it's the purest, you know, form of competition that, you know, a person can do. >> now you talked about being slender when you got into it, whereas sonny you were telling me you did it to get in shape, but you also did it for other reasons. why did you go into it? >> i was you know, i was a little bigger. so you know i did the running, the ellipticals, the weights, everything and i just it wasn't working for me. so i wanted to do something a little bit more exciting. started kickboxing, actually muay thai, that's my specialty, muay thai. started doing that and weight dropped off, dropped off, dropped off and, you know, i noticed i was, you know decent at it. took it to the next level. started sparring, oh, i'm decent at it and so for me it's everything's been little baby steps. you know, okay, tried sparring, i'm good at it. did an amateur fight, i'm good at it. okay, got a title, okay, i'm good at it and so everything

just for me, just been step, after step, after step. so i mean -- >> and are you shooting to become a pro or what's the goal? yeah, so i have one more fight. i'm actually fighting next week in sacramento and that will be my last amateur fight. and from there i'll be pro. >> very good and you mentioned also that you are engaged. >> yes. >> how does your fiancé feel about this? >> she's a, she's >>don't orgasm, i'm going to ask you to. alright. >> she's great, she's, i love her. she's a very supportive. she kicks my butt into, you know, gets me back into place when i need to be, you know, if i pick up a hamburger or something and she's like nope, put that down, slaps it out of my hand. so she's great, she -- she supports me. she comes to my fights, she's kind of like my good luck charm. i haven't lost a fight when, you know, every fight she's been to. so, you know, that's great. so how does she react when you are like physically hurt? when you get punched in the face? she is very smart because she even though i know she

might worry, she might have this you know uneasy feeling, she doesn't show it and so for me that helps me, because -- that's -- if i'm fighting or if i'm training or whatnot, it's one less thing i have to worry about. i don't have to worry about her emotions or her not being comfortable with it. she's 100% supportive, 100% behind me all the time. you know, and if she's not feeling easy about it, she won't show it. she'll say go out there and get them sonny. >> but do they know about the potential dangers, the health risks? >> see the thing is the type of woman that's needed to be with any athlete is it's not every person can handle it. you know, not everyone can handle even maintaining a friendship with -- with a fighter. it changes your lifestyle completely. so you see friends that kind of dwindle off and you make new ones, right. is the same thing with your woman. your woman needs to be really strong. she needs to make -- because she knows you're going to be cutting weight, she knows all that. all the time, we don't have the regular schedule.

where 8 o'clock -- at 9 o'clock at night, you know, you guys can go out on dates and do all that. the fighter's training, you know, here we're training in the morning and then at night, we're training well into 10, 11 pm sometimes, depending where you are. you get up, you rest, so there's no -- really no, no time to fool around if you really want to get to that next level. you know what i mean? this is where experience kicks in. for the more -- and if you look, having a stable relationship at home really does help that get to the next level. so it's important for a woman to understand her position as well. >> well do you understand that they worry about your safety, >> oh yeah. >>your health? >> i do, she, my girlfriend, obviously supports me a lot and she's, you know, if not my number one fan. she's always there, you know, especially like how you said, you have to have a special type of girlfriend because they know you can go in the ring and get hurt. and then, you know, what's going to happen after that, you know, who knows. but they have to be there because my girlfriend whenever i need a cut weight, i tell her, hey i got a fight coming up. okay you know, she's like alright we're on the diet now

and she's like let's go run. hey what are you doing? you need to go run. you need to go workout you know if i'm just being lazy at home and also when i'm weight cutting, weight cutting is i think if not one of the biggest things, you know, for a fighter because if you're you know one, you know, 160, 170 and you got to be at 155 or 145. you know, you have to really stress on cutting the weight and so for me you know my girlfriend's like alright, you know, if we want to go to the sauna, let's go or i'll be in the bathtub with like you know doing like a bath salt to lose some weight. she'll be sitting there talking to me, keeping my mind off of you know the whole weight cutting thing and so thats- >> but all of you seem to be avoiding the question of what about the dangers? i mean you could be seriously injured in any of these actions right? >> yeah i mean dangers are real. i mean there's serious risks. you can go into that ring, you can have a fight. you could even win the fight and still get badly damaged. >> you get worse. >> you get carried out in a stretcher you know, but that's why we prepare so much. that's why we're in the gym till 10, 11 at night. we want to put ourself in the best spot available to

come out successful with a win and come out more importantly, healthy. >> justin, what are the possible dangers? what could actually happen to them? >>when i talked to the guys at the end you know there's the sauna, there's the dehydration, there's the sort of starvation of your body. i know i talked to one guy he says he eats like 500 calories before his weigh in. you know and trains five hours a day with that 500 calories of intake. >> how does he survive? how do you live with that? >> well you can't hold that for that long and if you do, you're not going to be very efficient in the fight. you're going to be too weak. so, this again where experience comes in. early in the fighter's career if they don't have the proper team, all that we're talking about, is you're right. there's absolute danger even if you're in the best shape possible, you could die, literally. there's a waiver that says here's my life, here right. >> and you have to sign that? >> you sign the waiver. >> before you go out there? >> of course especially when you turn pro. >> why would you do that? people at home are probably thinking there are many other things you could do to be excited in life. so why would you put it on the line, your life?

because we don't focus on that, to be honest with you. i read that and i don't sit there and i don't go, "oh my god, i could die!" i don't sit there and freak out on that thing. >> you don't have time. >>you don't. the more yeah, the more you focus on that. it's like oh man, it takes all that. you don't train in there to go and die. you train yourself to be prepared to like i'm not tapping. i'm not whatever, right, you prepare, but that takes the fear away from it, so you don't really want to focus on the fear that i could get hurt. because most likely you will get hurt with that mentality. it's happened to me you know so. >>but it's worth it because? i think one of the risks, the biggest risk that not all people, it's overshadowed by the fighting, is actually the weight cutting because if you don't do it properly like he said, you could liver failure. you know you can be dehydrated, you have to go to the hospital. like me personally, like i'm 6'2", but i fight at 145. so i cut a lot of weight. you know, i'll cut anywhere from 20 to 25 pounds. >>he's looking at you. >>sure that's right? you say 6'2"? 145? i'm 6'2", 145 yeah. >> you fight at 145? i am, i think the tallest, biggest 145er.

>>are you freaking kidding me? >> yeah, so thats -- that's the, you know, the reaction i get from a lot of fighters, you know, but when they see me at 145, they're like oh my gosh - they're like oh my gosh, you are sickly, you look weak, you look like you're going to pass out and the truth is that's how i feel. you know, but i know -- >> that's how you actually feel? that's how i feel, but the truth is, you know, it doesn't bother me to have to go through all that just to fight because you know i'm pretty good. so i know i'm going to win. so the weight cut is, you know, just a little baby steps that you have to get through. the obstacle is you have to jump to actually get in that next, you know -- >>he wants to say something. how old are you again? >>i'm 24. see that's why. see when i was, you know i'm 33. the weight cut now, oh hell -- pardon my language, no way hell no. uh-uh. back then your body, you're now you're still young brother. you still feel that, you're 6'2" you be that all, like oh, just push through. the older you get, your body's not going to be able to bounce back the same way naturally. >>we were talking about that earlier. >>yep. you know somebody, you know somebody, 54 years old i think you told me, was still doing it.

why would you do that? i mean. >> your body can only take so much. you, i mean -- like jose say, he can't really explain it right. it's almost addictive, like you love it so much, you want to do it. you don't do it and you kind of get this itch you want to do it again. i haven't stepped away from it for long enough to feel that, but i mean i can understand it. >> see and see this is where we can easily get into another topic from here because yes, something inside of us, but there does come a point where it's like i can't do it anymore. but sometimes fighters do it because they have to and that's -- that's a whole different conversation right there. some fighters, literally, that's how they make their money. that's the only way they know and that's unfortunate. in my opinion, that's unfortunate. whether they love it or not, whether their bodies can't handle it later on in life, i think that's a problem. that's a whole different other subject. >>so would you say like in some crazy way fighting gives you like a peace of mind, a psychological benefit? you know what, i could say yes, even spiritual i could say.

you know we have that, we all whether we think of us a human beings, right. i'm going to get a little bit deeper in here than most people actually think and that's another stereotype most people think. it's that oh we can't think this deep, that's not true. this being challenged and being pushed to the level where you feel you can't continue. we literally feel like, oh my god this guy's on top of me. where you literally -- your ego gets demolished, it changes you. it changes you, you got to keep pushing and you take certain things for granted, you know. >> but you want to be pushed to the end? you want to push to the end. >>that's where you i feel you find out who you are as a person. you know that's where you're pushed to your limit and then if you know you have the ability to fight back, you know, you become you know a better person in you know a sense. >>yeah. because if you're, you know, getting beat, you know. say if you have you're in a fight and you got beat up two rounds and, you know, you're like i can't do anything to this guy. you know this guy's punching me. he's, you know, on our feet, he's beating me. on the ground he's beating me. you know, what am i going to do? it's where you have to dig deep inside of you and see what kind of person you are.

so if you can come back in, you know overcome and actually you know submit him or knock him out, you know, then you find out, oh wow i can really do it, you know. >>we have about a minute left and i want to see if sonny wanted to add something else to this. i mean i was going to go back to the weight cut issue that you were talking about you know. i'm cutting weight right now for a fight i have next week. it's almost i mean, it's probably the worst part of it. i feel like nowadays in the level of competition, you have to cut weight in order to just to stay competitive. i mean you're walking around at what 170 now? >> about. if you could fight at 170 you would, but if you fought at 170, the opponents would be 190, 200 pounds. i'm in a similar situation, i'm 6 foot, i fight at 155 pounds. i walk around at about 170. so if i fought at 170, my opponent would be way bigger. so just to level out the playing field, that's something you have to do. >>very quickly, we're almost out of time. is this a very costly sport to be involved in? >> yeah. give me a general range, real quick. how much can you spend on this?

you can spend easily five, six grand a month depending on how >> a month? you want to go, you know? >>wow. like an athlete, like type of vitamins and type of food. where you travel, do you got to drive far, do you travel all that, all that, all that if you don't have a really regular steady job or sponsors. that comes out of pocket one way or another and if you can't maintain that to get to that next level, you pay in other ways, but it's expensive. it could be anywhere up to that or -- it really is expensive. i can't really put in -- >> gym memberships, you know, the supplements you take, if you take any, dieticians, your training partners. >>blood work. yeah, blood work, you have to do physicals. there's so many, the list is just on and on and on. but that's why you get sponsors and that's why you try to get endorsements. and, you know, that's why you try to be the biggest you can. >> these are some of the most dedicated people i've ever heard on this set. >> i mean. do you agree? the most important part is having a good team around you though. >> exactly. >> yeah. you have a good team around you, a solid team. i mean, it doesn't have to cost $5,000 a month or whatnot. you have a good supporting team.

you know you have a good diet. >> take care of yourself. take care of yourself. i don't take any supplements at all. i do all natural food and i think that's where you get the best supplements is from your food. >> right. we're out of time, so we're going to have to wrap it up. guys you've educated me, i'm sure the audience learned a lot about it, mixed martial arts. thank you justin for putting this story together. >> thank you. and thank you for joining us. we hope you'll come back for another edition of equal time. [ music ] [ music ]

kenney: there are legends that tie the people of hawai'i to the islands of tahiti. come along with me, ed kenney, and maui tauotaha as we trace these bonds and find the secret behind his favorite dish-- poisson cru. there are so many reasons why i became a chef. every dish has a story. food brings people together and has the power to conjure up cherished memories. i was born and raised in the hawaiian islands, one of the most diverse communities in the world. in this show, we'll meet a guest from hawai'i, learn about their favorite dish, trace it back to its origins, and have some fun along the way. man: ♪ higher so we can chase the moon ♪ announcer: major fungredien" was provided by the corporation for public broadcasting. additional funding was provided by the hawai'i tourism authority,