Raf’s Recollection | Don’t any of you let a word of this get back to Kev, but I might be moderately proud of the guy.
No seriously, not a word to him. Before we know it, the compliment will go to his head and then we’ll all have that to contend with. Fortunately, he never reads these things, so I’m usually at liberty to insult him as I please.
But this week is a little different. On this week’s podcast, we talk a little bit about Kevin’s jiu-jitsu game and discuss his experience at a US Grappling tournament in Virgina last week.
Over the past year and a half, Kev has developed and refined his competition game. And under the fine direction of the folks over at BJJ and MMA Training Center, he has been able to meet and surpass a great deal of his competitive goals in a relatively short time span. It’s a testament to both his team and his own dedication to the craft—and, while I might be speculating here, I think we may just be hearing the beginning of it.
We spend a great deal of time insulting one another on the podcast, but when it comes to competition, I don’t kid around. I’ve never quite been the type that thinks the competition is defined solely by wins and loses, but my overall hope is always that he does well and that he meets and surpasses his own competitive goals.
I will, however, become absolutely get pissed if I don’t get results fast enough.
When I finally got the good news about the tournament, I was momentarily happy to hear how he placed—and then, moments later, really pissed it took so long for me to get a goddamn result (do you not get 4G on the East Coast?!!!)!
Anyway, this week, we rightfully acknowledge his hard work and then get right back to calling him an idiot (that will conclude the one compliment I pay Kevin per year).
But that’s not all we’ve got this week. Our pal, Gilbert Jamal Smith, returns to the podcast to talk about his upcoming fight against Jason Lee for Prize Fighting Championship on Saturday, July 13th.
What we like most about Jamal is not only his ability to respond to a joke (he tends to respond to internet trolls on Twitter with kindness), but also the honest and candid ways that he responds to our questions.
He never ducks a question, he’s honest to a T, and there’s always a memorable sound bite or three that comes out of an interview with him (my personal favorite comes towards the end of the interview with his response to a question about a “game plan”).
Not only that, but he’s willing to be silly and doesn’t take himself that seriously—demonstrates as much by playing not one, but TWO games with us on the Podcast (one of which was an entirely new segment, created just for Jamal).
Nonetheless, we wish Mr. Smith all the best as he gets ready for his fight in two weeks and hope that if you live in Colorado, you go support the guy in action. And if you can’t make it to Colorado, be sure to drop the man a note on the Twitter and let ‘em know what you thought of his appearance on our Podcast.
Until then, we’ll just be waiting for results, Jamal. And, as I’ve denoted earlier, I’m really bad at waiting for results. So I’m gonna want to hear from you how it all goes down. From your pals at Verbal Tap: Best of luck to you, good sir!