1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Fighting at Your Natural Weight + Hall of Fame Consideration: September 3rd, 11:25am

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Fighting at Your Natural Weight + Hall of Fame ConsiderationAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to one-on-one with DP. Brought you by Canopy Street Market. On 937 the ticket and the ticket FM.com. Oh, rejoice. Rejoice. We are back in the days where we can cheer, John Cena, and America's better for it. America's better for it. Bach likes to heal Cena.

Bach likes, so Bach, let me tell you who Bach. Bok roots for the bad guy. Okay. Right. I can respect that actually. It's up in the crowd. Yeah. I think I can respect that.

Like we got, when they came to PBA, we got front row seats. Bach, of course. Every bad guy. Just going crazy. Every heel. And the listeners are like, Bob.

And then they were like, it's fine. Like we get it. We get it. We kind of understand. Have you been to a WWU event? Oh, dude. They roll out the red carpet for me. It's amazing.

My kids love it. Jay Uso threw some sunglasses, one of my kids. Dominic Mysterio and Ray and I, we have a mutual friend. And so anytime I go, they'll come out and they'll bring some t-shirts. And yeah, it's awesome. They take really good care of my kids. So, Bach will inform you. Do not have me around Dominic Mysterio.

I will kick him in the baby towel. Just right in the baby towel. I don't want to hurt him. Oh, he's a nice guy. I don't want to hurt him. But I do. He's a nice guy. He really is a nice guy.

I would have fully imagined that he is, but you're in the storyline. He kissed Ria, man. Like, what are you? Like, that's also your girl. Like, Like, what do you? And then live.

Like, right. How, how dare him? You, you don't get all the dessert, bro. Like, you don't get. You can't be rich and famous and with Ria Ripley, right? Right. That seems unfair. Like, yeah.

And then live on a diet of chicken McDonald. Okay, that's actually true, too. Right. Like, you can't have. He's also a child. He's not very old either. And, oh, your dad's a hall of fame. Well, in 10 years he won't be eating chicken nuggets all the time.

Right. But, and your dad's a hall of fame. That's true. Yeah. Some people get all the look. Bach? Some people get it all. Bach, are we in a full understanding now?

I can understand it, but I still embrace him. He gets the most booze. That makes me cheer. I just, you know, it's just who Bach is. I fully understand it. We're talking about, I mean, you as a fighter, and the science behind your body versus the decisions you have to make, for your body. That sometimes if you follow the code,

your body doesn't respond the way you want it to or need for it to. So then you have to make adjustments. And sometimes those adjustments cost you. It costs you. How did you land on 205? When did you know that 185? Yeah, you like the idea of having that. Right? Right? Right. Yeah, you're like, yeah. Of course, I would love to be a 230-pound man. able to suck myself down to 185 and then compete at 100% the next day. Right. And just a great idea.

Beat up on 185. Yeah, just beat up on children. Little guy. Boom. The problem is when you get there, you're not 100%. You've, and that's, you know, I had a, uh, I was doing something the other day and I kind of spoke to Brian Ortega a little bit. Ortega's been, that's a story.

He's been sucking himself down to 145 pounds for a long time. Well, come on, come on, dog. You're 37. You can't do that anymore. more. Like you've got to move up. And I was trying to like explain to him the benefits when you walk around and can able, you're able to compete at your natural, at your closer to your natural weight. It's a night and day difference. So could we get down to that low for sure? We can do whatever. Our bodies are amazing things. And we have amazing minds. And like you say, we're barely human.

Yeah. Can I get there for sure? Absolutely. Can I compete in 24 hours at 100%? Not even close. Because the belief is that you bring 235 pound power down to 185. Well, what do athletes do? Generally, what do athletes do? The idea is to try to gain any advantage that you possibly can within the rule set that you're allowed.

So if you can get down there, then you, you know, wise men would tell you that the larger man, if you have two people that are comparable in technique and skill level, the larger one is going to win. When you run into problems is when you've depleted yourself all the way down. Now the,

the negatives are now outweighing the positives that you gain by being the larger man in a fight. So I just had to move up. It was that or retire. Because I just couldn't do it anymore. I was killing myself. And was there ever in a consideration to fight heavyweight? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Right. Let's see what this is. That's 205 got hard too. Right. Because you saw

Cormier Jones make the move. They can do it. Yeah. I could do it. Right. And you Again, you're walking around at 240. So, yeah, that's really a thing. Your body would probably appreciate it. They don't walk around as big as some of the light heavyweights. Right heavy weight is a weird weight class because we're kind of stuck because we don't want to fight the Cyril Gons, the Francis and Ghanu's, the Tom Aspinals. Those guys are 300 pounds.

Yeah. And they don't have a choice. They have to bring themselves down to 265 because it's the highest weight class you can be at. Right. But the next day, like Derek Lewis is 285. all day. Every time he fights, 285, 290. So I don't want to fight those guys. But like Johnny Walker, 250.

Dominic Reyes, 245. John Jones walks around a 245. Alexander Rackage is 255. Rampage was 255. Chuck Lel was 250. Like, light heavyweight's a weird weight class. Because we're stuck. You're like, you're either make 205 or you fight someone who's cutting to make 265. You're kind of stuck.

What would it take to get Dana to say, let's add a weight class in between or above? I mean, at this point, it would take a act of Congress. He just doesn't want to. Yeah, but he didn't want women fighters, but money ultimately changes mind. For sure, definitely. That was because he had a superstar to build off of. Who's the superstar at 165? Well, but you just named, you've named a bunch of fighters who could fight at 220.

for sure right and a whole other set of matchups right and ideally i would have been better off if those guys went to 220 i would have stayed at 205 because i'm i was the smallest 205 in the entire division i'm 240 right now i'm no larger now than i was then right so and i was the smallest light heavyweight so i would have benefited greatly if they would have went to 220 or heavyweight johnny walker would be much better at 220 like alexander rackets would be a better heavyweight. But this is the thing. Is that the evolution then, that the 205s just mature up to heavyweight? Eventually, yeah. Right? If I would have stuck around too much longer, I'd ended up at heavy weight. It's crazy in the space. You mentioned Brian Ortega. And for folks that don't

know, that way in with Ortega scared me. Yeah. And we've talked about weigh in the whole process that way in mornings are just, it, it's, he's one of the worst I've ever seen in person, multiple times, too, it's not just once. I've seen multiple times. He's one of the worst, worst, worst weight cuts I've ever seen. And Johnny Walker's pretty bad too. Well, but to show it, right,

where the public gets to see what fighters go through. And that's, they, that's just because they couldn't hide it. Because he's got to come out and get on the scale. Yeah. If they didn't have to put him on the scale in front of the public, they wouldn't have. Because he looked off. but I've been there.

I know exactly, I could look in his face. I know exactly how you feel. I've been there. He wasn't there. No. Oh, no. And he doesn't care about the fight at that point. Like it's taken all the fight.

You've taken all the fight out of you at that point. I was getting to the point where I couldn't have cared less how the fight went the next day. So you spend, like I think we talked about this a few weeks ago. You spend eight, nine, ten weeks building your body into a hunting machine. and then the day before the fight, you absolutely destroy all the work that you put in. And so, like, I used to be, I don't even know why I do this.

I might just show up off the couch. Because now I just, I might end up healthier. And I might end up better. Right. I might end up better because I won't be so banged up from an entire training camp. So I may not have the six-pack, but I'll bet I'll feel better.

Corbier said that. He literally said that that was his advantage was that he was fresher. Yeah. there was less stress. And he talked about the emotional and mental stress of losing down to 205. Oh, you're in fat camp.

Right. In a real training camp. You're in fat camp. And every single day, the second you wake for 10 weeks, every day you wake up, it's how much do I weigh, how much I'm going to eat for breakfast,

then you train, then you check your weight, and then you have to go to another practice, and then you eat a little bit, then you check your weight. And it's monotonous. I don't know who said it, but they said that you get paid for the weight cut

rather than the mental stress. If you got paid for the mental stress, it would set the value system at a different level. For sure. Right? Right. That you spend your 10 weeks of camp. It's about weight.

It's not about preparing for the fight. A lot of times. The opponent, your own self-management or otherwise. It's about weight. It's about, like, and he said, the mental stress of worrying, not worrying about weight, allowed him to focus on the skill.

Oh, I was so much better when I moved up. Like on the crap. I mean, I moved up, fought three times. I fought for the title. If that's, that's the difference. And, you know, kind of bounced my way around the top 10, top 15. You lived in the top 10. Once you got there, you got your mail down.

At 85, though, at middle way. I kind of bounced around in the, you know, from 10 to 15 for a while. I do really well. And then I moved to 205 and it was to the roof because it was easier. I didn't have the stress. And aren't there fighters that you can think of right away that if they moved up away class? Look at Michael Kiesa.

That dude was on his way out the door. I, for somebody that was built on cardio and tenacity, the lower weight drained him. It did. It was too much. It drained him. And now he's on a run. What do you think is next for Mike?

I mean, what happens there? Is that? I mean, I don't know that he'll make a title run. Yeah, he's a little too old probably at this point. But he's having fun. He's just having some fun fights. He's got a good relationship. with the UFC and he managed his pay correctly too because here's what happens you end up

i was always chasing it like chasing the highest paycheck i'm oh i want i want the most money yeah well then when you get it now there's a there's no going back on your opponents they're not giving me any like if i take a loss or a tough one they're not going to give me a build back fight i'm paid too much to get any easy ones so if you get you out the door at that pay rate exactly so that's what At my pay rate is how you end up with 23 and 24 year olds every single fight. So like the young nasty one. Right. Like they're not giving you the cupcakes.

No. They're literally sending you the young life. To the killers. Yeah. So, but Kiyasa's in a position where he was like, you know, I just want to have fun.

I want fun fights. I want fights that matter that like legacy fights. Yeah. Don't necessarily care so much about the paycheck. So is he a Hall of Famer? Kessa? Yeah. Probably not.

No, probably not. Do you, have you given that thought to yourself? No, no, I'm probably not a Hall of Famer. the the the longevity in the moment yeah you have you have you have three fights that you could you could put in that yeah then the fight wing there's probably a couple we i could probably i mean there's i probably have two or three chances of getting in on and in the fight wing like a hall of fame fight like both of us individually probably no yeah but you i mean i don't know if you i know you had the record you still have the record for most successful blood tests uh well in mma yes yeah i believe so um

Um, Kormier has the most past USADA test. But it's because he's been in the USada pool since he was like 17. Because it was through wrestling. He got his driver's license. He got his driver's license. And then went straight to the doping pool. When I retired, I was the only, when I was the, when I retired, it was the only guy with over 50 professional, or with over 60 professional fights that was still ranked in the top

10 or ranked in the world. Yeah. It was, it was me, Alexi Olinik and Massvedal. And then both those guys retired. So I don't know, maybe. Did Maspedal officially retired? He did. It sounds like he wants to come back, though.

Well, that was the thing because he thought he mentioned White House. Yeah. Right, that he wanted to be a part of that. He would, if he, if that's really what he wanted, he absolutely would. And he had to get back in the president does love Massadol. He really does. He really loves Massville. Yeah, all fair.

I tell you the story outside the arena. Yeah. You got caught up in the wash. It happens. It happens. I got caught up in the wash. I got caught up in the wash of Massadol. Oh, man.

Masvedal says, hey, man, you want to come over here and hang out? Nah. No. I did that one time. I'm done. Bach, it's this wave of energy. Not all fighters and their crew have it. But Masvedal in Miami.

Yeah. I did not have a choice. And I ended up in a place. No, they don't really ask a lot. That part. They don't really, like you'll walk by, hey, hey, sit down. Like, no, I got something. No, you don't.

You have nothing else to do. You have nothing else to do. You had the guy from the Hells Angels. He was there. So again, one and one arm, one on the other. You must come with us. Yep, you're coming with us. And I want to go to break.

I want to ask you about a movie that's been made. and it is the story of Mark Kerr. Oh, yeah. And the force behind the story is a part of the story. But the fact that Mark Kerr and his life in the game, I think it's important to talk about it because there's some real lessons on how this thing really works and the effects, the cause and effect.

Yeah. It is a, it is a Bach, I don't know if you've heard. heard this story, but we'll have Anthony tell it when we come back to the ticket. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 937 the ticket and the ticket FM.com.