JRE MMA Show #81 with Dave Leduc

Joe Rogan (0:00)

Three, two, one, what's up, Dave? How are you, brother?

Dave Leduc (0:04)

And we're live, bitches.

Joe Rogan (0:05)

Yes, indeed. You wanted to say that, huh?

Thanks for doing this, man. I appreciate it.

Dave Leduc (0:11)

Thanks for having me.

Joe Rogan (0:12)

Dude, I've watched you fight a bunch of times online, and Lethway is probably one of the most brutal combat sports in the world, and it's so interesting watching a guy like you. Quebecois, is that what you say? Quebecois, you're good.

Dave Leduc (0:27)

How's your French?

Joe Rogan (0:28)

It's not bad. It's terrible.

It's way worse than, I don't know anything in French. But how do you go from Montreal to being the king of Lethway?

Dave Leduc (0:37)

Yeah, it's a crazy journey, man. And in a way to, it was, should we go there right away?

Joe Rogan (0:44)

Let's go there right away.

Dave Leduc (0:44)

Yeah, basically, when I was, I used to play baseball. I was a pitcher in Pennsylvania. I was doing a bunch of university baseball traveling team. And then I got into a fight with my father.

Shout out to my father.

Joe Rogan (0:59)

A fist fight with your father?

Dave Leduc (1:00)

No, it never went physical. But it was going very hard. And they said, both my parents said, Dave, please leave.

You're kicked out of the house.

Joe Rogan (1:08)

Whoa, how old were you?

Dave Leduc (1:10)

17, 18

So I had no money, and I was almost, industry, it was minus four Fahrenheit. So for you guys, minus 20 degrees Celsius. It was like, okay, I called my friend, come pick me up. And I couched her for a few months. And finally got a place, got my shit together.

But then I had like a fire, you know, we didn't speak for many years. Now we actually have a good relationship now. But so then, and I believe that nothing good comes out of comfort, right? Like hardship. So I was, I had a lot of, like I said, fuck baseball, like I wanted to fight.

Joe Rogan (1:42)

Because of that?

Dave Leduc (1:43)

Yeah, I guess.

Joe Rogan (1:44)

That's so crazy. So because of getting angry at your dad, that's what made you want to learn how to fight.

Dave Leduc (1:49)

It's like, I resume it maybe like that a little bit. I hope it doesn't take it the wrong way.

Joe Rogan (1:54)

Well, it worked out, so you shouldn't take it the wrong way. I mean, it all worked out well.

Dave Leduc (1:58)

True. And then actually, funny enough, my first love was grappling.

I did a lot of competition, like no gi.

I won some in gi, but it was mostly no gi. And then I actually had my league called the SFL. It was like a submission fight league. Once a month, I had guys organize. I was not fighting, I was just organizing it. And I got the guys fighting, and submission only, not IBGTF.

Joe Rogan (2:21)

Where was this at?

Dave Leduc (2:22)

In Quebec, in Quebec, near Montreal.

So then we're doing this. And then I sent my coach, my Sifu, Sifu Patrick, again, shout out to my coach.

He said, I said, I never want to do anything other than grappling. He said, well, you're tall and you're good reach, maybe you should consider. I said, no, I only want to do no gi. He's like, okay.

He lets me do my shit. And then, yeah, eventually I started doing, I come from Sanda background.

Joe Rogan (2:47)

Sanda, right? Which is a style of martial arts.

Dave Leduc (2:49)

Yeah, so Chinese martial arts, all the army in China does that pretty much, and it's pretty cool. So wide stance spinning attacks and cool stuff. A lot of throws. I was actually with Kung Li in San Jose last week.

Joe Rogan (2:59)

No shit.

Dave Leduc (3:00)

Yeah, we did some nice headbutt videos. We need to do one together after.

Joe Rogan (3:03)

All right.

Dave Leduc (3:04)

Have you done a headbutt before?

Joe Rogan (3:06)

No, not really. I've never headbutted a person.

Dave Leduc (3:08)

On the pads?

Joe Rogan (3:09)

I fucked around and headbutted the bag, but just joking. Like I've seen your pad routines where you incorporate headbutts into the pads.

Dave Leduc (3:17)

Yeah, I feel like you fight like you train, so if you don't train it, how the hell are you gonna throw it in a fight?

Joe Rogan (3:23)

Do a lot of people headbutt pads?

Dave Leduc (3:26)

I'm teaching them now.

Joe Rogan (3:27)