Learn English the MMA way!

Ding ding ding ding!

Look, looks like the gloves are off.

Mr. E has had it with me.

When you've had it with someone, it means that's enough, I'm not going to take this

anymore, it's fight time!

So, today's lesson is going to be MMA the English way, or English the MMA way, and you're

probably asking, "What is the MMA?"

MMA is mixed martial arts.

It's very popular in North America.

One of the biggest proponents or guys who talks about it is Joe Rogan, he's got the

Joe Rogan Experience.

That podcast is similar to - it's actually on YouTube like we are, and they talk about

different things, and he's a commentator for the MMA, and when I was watching his podcast

one day, I noticed a lot of the words he was using, people are using on a regular basis

in regular conversation, so mixed martial arts, the martial arts of fighting have now

come down to the street and people are using it to communicate.

Now, when people usually use MMA language, it's to communicate the difficulty in a situation

or how hard it is to do something, okay?

So, I'm going to go to the board and start giving you a lesson on how you can use English

the MMA way to improve your cultural understanding of what we're saying and how to express yourself,

alright?

So, first of all, this lesson is for Ray Scott and Josh Stewart, two great teachers I used

to work with.

I used to love Ray because one of his favorite songs was "Nobody speak, nobody get choked"

- into jujitsu - choke them out.

Okay, so quote of the day is "Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth."

- Mike Tyson.

Now, you won't use that in your language.

If you walk into your boss and go "Yeah boss, you got a plan but it ain't gonna work when

you get punched in the mouth!", you're probably getting fired, don't do that.

But I will teach you how to move through a conversation and how certain phrases are used

about combat or mixed martial arts that tell you when you're at the beginning of the situation,

you're in the middle of a situation, and when it's the end of a situation.

What it means when someone says it to you, or what it means when you say it to other

people.

Round one, ding ding!

Okay, so let's talk about throwing one's hat in the ring.

The ring - when you're boxing or wrestling, it's a square place - so this makes no sense,

but it's considered or called a ring - and when you throw your hat in the ring, it means

to accept a challenge or become a part of a challenge.

A lot of times now, politicians use this when they say, you know, Obama's throwing his hat

in the ring, or Joe Biden is throwing his hat in the ring.

George Bush is throwing his hat in the ring.

That means they want to be part of the political race to be president or some position, so

they throw their hat in the ring, saying "I'm part of this contest, too."

So, when someone says, you know, "I challenge a guy, I challenge Ezekiel man, I'm going

to go at him!", it's like he's throwing his hat in the ring to fight Ezekiel.

So, when you throw it in, the fight has not started but you're saying hey, I want to be

part of this, whatever the situation.

Running for a political office or a challenge of some sort, you say you want to be part

of it.

Spoiling for a fight.

Well, spoil is a very funny word.

When something spoils, it goes bad.

So, you can think of spoiling for a fight is somebody really wants to fight and their

attitude is getting bad, like they're going from "Yeah" to "YEAH, let's go for it!".

They're spoiling, so they're spoiling, ing, moving, they want something to happen.

It doesn't have to be physical fight, it can be an argument, but it means they are in the

mindset that they want to get engaged in a fight or an argument.

So, if you say they're spoiling for a takeover - no, they're spoiling for a fight, they want

to have a competition for you if this is in business.

So maybe Adidas and Nike are spoiling - Nike's spoiling for a fight, they want to complete

with Adidas.

This is two businesses going together.

So please don't think everything I say is about fighting, but understand that these

ideas come from fighting and we use them in regular conversation to tell you something

is happening, usually some kind of combat, argument, competition, alright?

And by combat, I mean fight.

Come to blows.

When you come to blows, it means it's gone from the situation of talking from moving

into hitting.

Now, military talk about that.

Countries can come to blows.

So, they've tried a negotiation and it didn't work and it goes "Now, it's fight time!".

Remember what I said, this is Round 1, this is before the fight starts, or you're actually

getting into the fight.

Right, so when countries come to blows, it was like "Okay, okay, let's go, now we're

coming to blows".

The gloves are off.

Okay.

The first three - okay - we're talking about getting ready for the competition, looking

for a fight, starting a fight, when the gloves are off, like Mr. E?

Okay, we're fighting with gloves, you hit me in the "ding ding", the place I don't like,

I take off the glove and go "No more Mr. Nice Guy.

No fair fight, we're going - I'm doing everything."

So, when the gloves come off, it means the rules don't count.

So, when the gloves are off, it means the fight has started and the rules don't count,

we're just going straight into combat.

So even if two people are fighting and then somebody does something really bad and they

kick their "ugh" area, you might see the other person go "Nah!" and then they go crazy and

you say, "What happened?"

Gloves are off.

If you're Mike Tyson, it means biting an ear.

"Ah, I got your ear, Evander Holyfield", anyway, just joking Mike, because you know I respect

you.

I'm afraid of you too.

I respect you, okay.

So, we talked about round one, before the fight and initiating the fight.

Let's go to fight time!

Now, you're in the middle of the fight.

Fighting is not a sport for the weak or people who don't want - don't like blood and don't

want to get hurt.

So, we're using fighting terminology, you know nothing is ever - it's a fun time for

everyone!

No sir.

So, when we start using a lot of these idioms, we're talking about difficulty or being beaten,

which means not winning, okay?

Very few terms, funny enough, are about you doing well in the fight.

It's usually - someone's getting beaten and that's why you're doing well in the fight.

No holds barred.

When there's no holds barred, it means no rules.

Everything is allowed.

So, when, for instance, Microsoft and Apple computers had a no holds barred fight, no,

you didn't see Steve Jobs and - the guy - Bill Gates, two of those guys wearing their polo

shirts fighting.

No, what it meant was they got their lawyers out, they dropped prices, all the rules - traditional

business rules were gone and we're going to have a fight or a battle, okay?

And yeah, I'm trying to have you imagine those two fighting like "Okay let's go.

Are you ready, Bill?

I knocked your glasses off, I knocked your glasses off!"

I'm not tough either, I wear glasses too.

Anyway, so, no holds barred.

Fighting tooth and nail.

That tells you when a fight - because in boxing, okay, in boxing, jujitsu, karate, taekwondo,

there are forms where you are fighting, there are rules, there are techniques to fighting.

When it's tooth and nail, I'm talking this and this.

[roaring] I mean, we're talking animal fighting, you're fighting tooth and nail, it also means

you're fighting with everything you have.

Forget elbows and stuff like that.

You're now scratching, biting, Mike Tyson again!

You're doing whatever you have to do to win.

We usually say its savage.

So, when you're fighting tooth and nail, it's everything you have plus the basic things

you came with as a human animal, okay?

So, you know if they're fighting tooth and nail to survive, right?

People fall out of an airplane and they're on a mountainside and there's ice everywhere

and they're fighting tooth and nail to survive means everything they have.

They're not taking out their little cutlery and being all civilized - like, whatever you

have to do, okay?

Now sometimes, they say tooth and claw because we think of animals.

These are no longer nails, they're claws, and it means even more savage or barbaric,

which means more like primitive man, like oh, Cro-Magnon, alright?

Sometimes, people talk about claw when they refer to women, because women have longer

nails, so like claws.

Uphill battle.

Hm, now I'm not into jujitsu, it's not that I'm not into it, I don't study it or understand

a lot of it, but an uphill battle is when you're in a bad position and you have to fight

to get up.

So, you're not in a good position, so you're - say, because I think in jujutsu on your

back fighting is not such a bad thing, but for the average person, of you're on your

back and there's a really big person on top of you and you have to get them off to win,

that's an uphill battle.

It's going to be really tough for you to do.

So, the uphill means the hill is going this way and you're trying to push your car uphill.

Very difficult to do.

It's easier to go downhill, alright?

We'll do that on another day, because that's another meaning, but an uphill battle means

it's very difficult for you to win.

Remember I talked about the ring and how the ring is square, okay?

And the fighters are here and there's another here and this is it and the two fighters are

in here?

Okay, when you're on the ropes, and some of you may not remember this, but there was a

guy called Mohammed Ali.

He floated like a butterfly and he stung like a bee.

He had a rope a dope defense, and what that would mean is these ropes here, he'd lie against

the ropes and let someone punch until they ran out of energy and they got tired, and

then he'd get off the ropes and hit them back and they would be too tired to fight.

But when somebody's on the ropes usually, and they're not Mohammed Ali, being on the

ropes is like you're tired and you can't fight anymore and someone's just beating you up

and you're like "Oh God, please somebody stop this.

I can't take anymore."

And you're on the ropes; it doesn't mean it's finished.

Maybe you're there like Mohammed Ali and you're holding on going "Okay, two more seconds,

this person gets tired, I will fight back!", or at you're last - last place of energy,

you're about to lose and you're trying to hold on, just to survive.

So, if you're on the ropes, or a company is on the ropes, everybody is saying they're

going to lose, it's just a matter of time before they're gone, but you're not out yet.

Which leads me to one of my favorite ones: go for broke.

A lot of times when you're on the ropes and there's nothing much you can do, you will

take a serious risk and go "If I do nothing, I lose, so I'm going to do everything I can

right now.

I will go for broke, so maybe I'll take this one chance and I will win."

Maybe.

So, when you go for broke, you put everything you have in a situation to take an opportunity

to win because you're losing anyway, so you go for broke and say if I get it though, I

will win.

I'm going to lose if I don't, so I might as well try.

What does "broke" mean?

You guys usually think "broke" means "doesn't work", yes?

Well, in English, broke means "no money".

When you're broke, you've got nothing.

You've got nothing left to give, nothing left to lose.

So, when you go for broke, you give everything.

If you don't win, you lose everything.

But when you're going for broke, you're usually on the ropes, on an uphill battle, so might

as well go for broke, because otherwise you lose anyway.

Cool?

No, it's not cool, it's not cool at all!

It's a terrible situation, but hey, you have to go for broke.

I already explained your situation, you might as well.

Anyway, now, we started at the beginning of the fight.

We talked about how someone throws their hat in for the challenge, we talked about someone

spoiling, looking for the fight, and how the blows come and when the gloves come off and

we're in the situation.

Now, we've moved into the fight, alright?

We've talked about what the rules might be, how you have to fight to survive, how it's

an uphill battle and you might be on the ropes going for broke.

So, how does this end?

You saw how it began in the first round, you got fight time.

This is the omega symbol.

For those of you who like comic books, I believe it's the Darkseid who has the omega symbol.

Not Thanos!

Omega is the opposite of Alpha, which is the last letter of the Latin alphabet, so it's

the end.

Omega means end.

So now, we're at our end round, the last round of the fight.

You've gone through the beginning, the middle, so let's talk about the end.

And this is where Joe likes to talk - Joe Rogan likes to talk about tapping out.

He tapped out, he tapped out early.

It was tough to get him to tap out.

Tapping out - this is the tap - and out is this.

Tap out.

When you tap out, it's usually in martial arts, that the technique being used is so

painful you tap and you say, "I give up, I surrender, please stop", to tap out.

So, in martial arts like jujitsu, because they choke you, if you tap because you can't

speak when you're choking, you can't talk because they're choking you, you can't breathe,

you have to tell them you give up by tapping.

So, it's universal.

Someone taps, they're saying "I give up", you should stop.

So, that's an indication, if you've tapped out, it's done.

The fight is over.

Throw in the towel.

This comes from boxing.

If you've ever watched Rocky, you know Rocky, Sylvester Stallone?

His corner man, or the guy he would train with, he would throw in the towel, and that

meant "Stop the fight!".

The fighter may not want to stop, but his trainer or partner is saying "The fight is

over, he's too hurt, stop!" and you throw in the towel.

And once the towel would hit from your corner, the referee, that is the person watching,

would say "Okay, fight over.

They've thrown in the towel".

So, when they didn't tap out, maybe they couldn't tap out, someone would throw the towel.

It would be really funny to see the boxer run and go "Here's a towel, my person's gonna

kill me!", it's never happened.

Someone else usually throws in the towel.

But you can personally throw in the towel and it means to give up.

You are giving up.

It is similar to tapping out.

I throw in the towel, I don't want to fight anymore, okay?

Remember I told you that there are not many idioms with winning?

When you win hands down, see what this is?

It means you won easily.

You killed them, you destroyed them.

It's not just winning, when you win hands down, it's like you pushed them down to nothing

and you won, yay!

Or the joke would be "You won, you were so good, you didn't even have to get your hands

up, and you won with your hands down.", which is terribly embarrassing for the other person.

So, to win hands down means to win very easily.

And finally, when we say, "Take it on the chin", this is your chin.

Now, when you take it on the chin, it means you get hit.

It means for the person getting hit, it's not a good situation.

But it has two meanings, which is funny.

When someone takes it on the chin, it means they take a bad situation and they get hit

by it, but it also means you are strong and courageous.

You got hit on the chin and you took it like a man.

So, when someone takes bad news on the chin, they don't cry "Oh, my girlfriend left me!"

- he took it on the chin like a man, he said "Yeah, she left me.

I have to get another one.

It hurts but I'll still continue."

He took it on the chin, right?

You didn't fall down and cry, you took it and you stood there.

So, this is like losing and winning at the same time.

You lost and it hurt but you were like, kind of a hero.

You didn't cry or whine about it.

You still lost, though.

So, these are - winning, and you can see, unless you win - win, that's the only way

to win.

People might give you a little bit of "Yay, you lost but you look good!", but you still

lost.

Okay.

So, we've done all of these and what I want to do quickly is, where would you use something

like this?

I gave you this one, usually it's used for politics.

Spoiling for a fight can be used in a romantic relationship, girlfriend and boyfriend, you

might say "My boyfriend was looking in this state, he was angry, he was just spoiling

for a fight.

He was looking for a reason to fight with me."

And that's argument, it's not always physical.

Coming to blows usually means physical but can use it in a financial sense if you're

writing.

See, I'm teaching you this, because if you're writing, this is a great way to make your

writing very interesting.

It really puts energy into it because fighting is exciting, it brings people to, like, what's

going to happen next?

So, if you say countries, so this could be for politics, this could be for business,

or for people physically fighting each other, and the gloves are off can be in a conversation

that went nicely, then you were being insulting - what do you mean I smell like cheese?

The gloves are off now, we're going to have a fight.

It doesn't mean physical, it means I might be rude to you too, okay?

And these ones in fight time: No holds barred, once again, can be talked about how the rules

were dropped because what the person had done was so bad and that could be a physical fight,

that could be an argument.

Fighting tooth and claw usually can be used about survival, so it doesn't have to be about

a physical fight.

You can be talking about in Venezuela right now, people are fighting tooth and nail to

survive the bad economic situation.

That really tells me, as a person listening, how desperate these people are.

If you say they were really trying hard to survive, I get it.

They're fighting tooth and nail, remember I told you, it's like going back to being

a basic human, you're doing everything you can using everything you have.

And even just saying it, I'm like "oh!".

Uphill battle can tell you the difficulty, like, if you were a poor student from a poor

neighborhood who wanted to go to Harvard, and you say "Oh, I came from a poor African

country and I had no money and my parents had no money and we had to work day and night.

It was an uphill battle to get my education.

It wasn't easy for me.", right?

On the ropes.

You can talk about a company, you can talk about a country, you can talk about your relationship

was on the ropes.

Like, it wasn't finished just yet, but it almost felt like it!

You know, I feel like I'm dying here, but maybe it's not over yet.

And going for broke isn't always negative.

Let's just say you're on a race or - I played soccer when I was a kid - and sometimes they

were down 3 - 1 and we're like "What can we do?" and we'd just go for broke.

We'd do everything we could the last five minutes going "We're going to lose if we don't,

so we will try as hard as we can."

And it sounds like the story of a hero, even when you watch comics, they go for broke,

like the planet might be destroyed, we may die, but we will do this, we'll go for broke.

We'll take this opportunity and risk, cool?

Remember we talked about "Tap out"?

Sometimes, tapping out is funny, because sometimes when you tap out is when you've been drinking.

You've been drinking - me and Ezekiel hanging out at the bar, we're drinking, he's up to

10 drinks, I'm at 11, he goes "I'm ordering three more drinks!" and ok, I'm tapping out.

I can't drink anymore, I'm done.

You can drink, I will die if I keep drinking.

Notice this has nothing to do with being violent, it just means I've come to a situation, and

you will see people do it at the bar like, okay, I gotta go.

They're tapping out.

"Oh, you're tapping out already man?"

"Yeah, I can't do it anymore."

Alright?

Throwing in the towel, maybe you're working on an assignment or something, you don't think

you can get it done, you'll throw in the towel and go "I quit, I leave", and people go "You're

throwing in the towel, you can't do it?"

You go "Yeah, absolutely."

I'm taking these away from violence because I don't want you to think because I say "speak

the MMA way" that it has to be violent, but we use it, once again, to show how intense

something can be, how much work we're putting in, or the difficulty.

So, using these combat words doesn't mean you're a violent person.

You can see how people use it for business into bars to just spike some interest and

make things a little bit more exciting in our conversation and writing.

Winning hands down, that's just there.

You can use it for anything, from playing cards, playing pool, and actual combat.

And to take it on the chin is almost like a compliment that you give to somebody who

has lost.

You know - let's just say, I don't know, Donald Trump loses in 2020, and he was like "Well

you know, I tried my best, and the competition - Hillary Clinton did a good job and she won."

And he's very very mature about it, you say "Hey, he took it on the chin.

It was a hard blow to lose to her and here he is, being like a real president - ex-president."

Okay, so what I'm saying is that could happen.

Okay, another example of taking it on the chin is if you're going for a girl and you

don't quite get her and all your friends know and they knew you had special plans and you

didn't get it and you say "It's okay guys, we can go on and hang out tonight."

"Hey man, you took it on the chin."

And you go "Hey, well, life goes on."

And then all the men are like "He's such a soldier, he's such a man, such a mensch!".

Okay, so, I've done that, and as you know, it's time for us to do the quiz.

Gonna throw your hat in the ring and see how well you do?

Let's go!

Well, it's time, as we would say, "Ding Ding Ding", let's go to it!

Right, so I have six sentences here and nothing else.

Why?

Because you're going to help me figure out which phrase goes with which sentence.

Which would be the best way to use the phrases we learned.

There were six I taught you, so we're going to go six to the board, starting off with

number one: They really want to fight with somebody.

What is the best phrase that works with that sentence?

Okay, if you remember, it was in the round one category, and it was "Spoiling for a fight".

You could say they were spoiling for a fight.

Why?

Remember, I said they really want to do it, their attitude is going bad, they're spoiling

for a fight.

They really want to fight with somebody.

They're looking for a fight or argument.

Number two: I ate too much and had to stop before I was sick.

So, I ate too much and I had to stop before I was sick.

That's a hint, I'm helping you.

[tapping] Or... okay.

We can use one of two here.

You could say "I tapped out.", like I'm at a buffet, I'm eating a lot of food and I'm

like "Oh, I've eaten so much food, I'm tapping out, I'm done.", or I can "Throw in the towel.",

and some people when they're eating, they'll pick up a napkin and they throw the napkin,

they throw it and are like "Oh, I'm done".

They've tapped out or they're throwing in the towel.

What about number three?

[roaring] That's right.

You fight with everything you had, remember I talked about tooth and nail.

To go tooth and nail is to fight with everything you've got, right?

It's not just my hands or my elbows, it's now tooth and nail, down to the basics.

Number four: She said she wanted to enter the race for president.

El presidente.

Hm.

If I were wearing a hat, I could do it, but I don't have one.

Remember we talked about throwing your hat in the ring, it means to enter the competition,

and I told you a lot of times people talk about throwing their hat in the ring for competitions,

yeah?

Okay.

Number five: They knew this was the last opportunity to win, so they put everything they had on

the lottery.

On the lottery, you know, buying a ticket to buy a billion dollars, or 200 million or

50 million.

I forgot to get my lottery ticket today!

Which one is the best phrase you learned that could be used here?

Remember, go for broke?

When you go for broke, you say they went for broke, when you go for broke, you give everything

you have and you're maybe left with zero dollars or have nothing left, but you hope if you

take this opportunity, you might win.

And number six: The competition wasn't ready for them, so they won easily.

Correct.

If the competition's not ready, they don't see you coming, so it means it's easy to win,

you win hands down, right?

So, it's very easy for you, you don't even have to try.

And you guys did a pretty good job because that is kind of tough.

I didn't give you any kind of help or anything to look at, so if you were able to do all

six before I was done, congratulations, you are a contender for the MMA the English way!

And if you needed some help, well, you know where you are.

We talked about taking it on the chin and other things like that.

But if you took it on the chin, at least you finished the test with me.

Now, before you go, I want to give you a bonus, as always, and in this case, the bonus is

going to be some things that you hear people talking about, and these are the opposites.

And what I mean by opposites: if you hear one, the other means the exact opposite meaning.

So, the first one, we'll start with an iron jaw.

We used to talk about Iron Mike Tyson.

He had an iron jaw.

You hit him, nothing would happen.

If someone's got an iron jaw, or a tough jaw, or a tough chin they say, it means they've

got a strong jaw, they can take a hit.

So, you guys go "That company's got an iron jaw.

It will be hard to beat them because they're tough.

Strong."

A glass jaw is like, you hit it and it breaks like glass.

It shatters or breaks.

If someone has a glass jaw, it means they're weak; easy to defeat.

If a company has a glass jaw, it means it's easy to break them or beat them.

Lightweight / Heavyweight.

Some of you right now are going to think heavyweight is like "250lbs!!" or "220 kilos, heavyweight

division!", but that would be like 400lbs... okay, so 125 kilos!!

But it also has a different meaning.

So heavyweight means bigger, lightweight means small.

Sometimes you see little fighters like "De de de de de de" and they're really tiny and

they move really fast, they're lightweight division.

But it also has another thing.

When you say somebody's a heavyweight, if you're in business and you say "Oh, you know,

Amazon is a heavyweight in the electronic business - the electronic movement business."

or what have you.

Heavyweight means strong, big, and tough.

So, it's not just that they have a lot of weight, they're heavyweight.

They have a lot of power.

That's why you call them heavyweights.

A lightweight means not much competition.

It's a lightweight firm, right?

When you look at James - me versus Amazon, I'm lightweight.

They're a heavyweight contender, right?

So heavyweight means strong competition, lightweight means not much competition.

But it also refers to the size of the person you're talking about.

Lightweight is tiny, heavyweight is big, but when people and companies are usually talking

about heavyweights, they talk about Microsoft, Nike, James ESL and Mr. E, one day, one day!

Okay.

Now, the last pair I'm going to show you is "running on empty" and "gas in the tank".

In martial arts, gas in the tank means cardiovascular.

It means you have a lot of gas in the tank, it means you have a lot of energy, you can

keep going, alright?

Sometimes they say you don't have any gas in the tank, which means the opposite.

Not a lot of cardiovascular, you can't go on, you're tired.

But generally, when we say, "You've got a lot of gas in the tank.", think of your car.

If you put gas, or some of you will say petrol in the tank, you can go a long way, that's

why you have gas in the tank.

I can take a long trip.

When you don't have any gas in the tank, one of the things we say is "running on empty".

Now, running on empty is not exactly the same as not having gas in the tank.

It means you're working but you have no resources left.

Here's an example: you haven't had food in three days, you haven't had sleep in two days,

you haven't had water in one day, but you get up to go to work.

That's right, you're running on empty.

There's nothing keeping you going, but you still go.

And sometimes, when people are fighting and they're running on empty, you can see they've

got nothing left, and they keep going.

That guy's running on empty.

Now sometimes, they'll he has no gas in the tank, but their opposites are "gas in the

tank", full of energy, "running on empty", there's no resources to be used and they're

almost finished.

So, I've given you some opposites, you've got some phrases that you've learned.

I'm going to give you one more little piece you can use, okay?

We're just going to the homework.

So, what I want you to do is some homework, and doing the homework, I want you to create

a three sentence paragraph and tell a quick story with Joe Rogan, remember, the guy with

the Joe Rogan Experience, being the main actor in it.

So, go check out his YouTube page, come back here, and then use a story using what I gave

you from the first round, during the fight, and the omega, the last round, or you can

use some of these opposites I just gave you and create a very interesting story.

And don't forget to do the quiz!

And where will you find the quiz?

Well, you're going to go to www.engvid.com , where there is the quiz and several other

videos that you're going to enjoy doing starring not just myself but other teachers who are

really good at what they do.

Anyway, listen, it's been fun and as always, thank you very much.

Don't forget to tap the like or subscribe button, and I'll see you in the future.