Bussin' With The Boys - A Bussin' Christmas, Nebraska Talk, Raiders Talk, Michael Chandler

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

Recorded: December 14, 2020 Happy Victory Monday! We have a PACKED Christmas Episode today with the boy Will, and two special guests. To start things off, Will gives us an update of what he's been doing without the pod the past couple of weeks, he answers some fan questions from Twitter on the current state of Nebraska and Head Coach, Scott Frost, along with the firing of Las Vegas Raiders Defensive Coordinator, Paul Guenther. Finally, he reflects on 2020 and all of the opportunities he's had this year. Next up, Corey Levin joins Will on The Bus (socially distanced) to go over a ton of Christmas topics, childhood traditions, and Will opens up a couple of gifts that were left for the boys by some Tier 1's. Finally, to wrap up the pod, Will is joined by 3x Bellator Champion MMA fighter, Michael Chandler via Zoom to discuss his recent signing with the UFC, what happened in his meeting with Dana White, and who he wants to fight in his UFC debut. This is our last current episode of 2020, so Happy Holidays from The Boys to all of the Tiers! Make sure to be on the lookout for our "Best Of" episode next week that features some of the best clips from every pod in Season 2! Enjoy! ----- SHOP: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/bussin-with-the-boys FOLLOW THE BOYS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bussinwtb/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BussinWTB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BussinWTB/ Website: https://www.bussinwtb.com .For more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, it's us The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying.

You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come until he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your

You had those conversation with Dana. Everybody's fired up. Signatures are on the dotted line. So what do you feel like's coming? What is on the horizon for you? What's going on in your world right now? So Ferguson's kind of off the table. Alvara has now put his name kind of in that top five mix.

Dan Hooker's in the top five mix. But Justin Gage is the fight that I with. With the Boys. We are, it's the Christmas pod. I'm excited to be back. The boy is back. I'm running this episode because, number one, this episode of Bustin with the Boys is brought to you by Barstill Sports.

Josh, make sure we don't. Make sure we don't put the little clip in the beginning. This episode of Bustle Boys, the Boys is presented by Barstles Sports. Now that I said it in the beginning and the intro, anytime you hear it in those first five minutes, you don't need the clip. Got it.

Okay, good. We had a little coaching segment. You're going to see it on Under the Hood. I heard it in the last one, and I about lost it. I about lost it. I had to keep my composure. But exciting day, Christmas time.

It's the end of the year, dude. The boy Taylor, he needed a vacation. He wanted to go, what's it called, Breckenridge, Blackwater, Blackberry Farms. He wanted to get a little getaway, take a little vacation. I guess he's done two episodes, so he's very, he needed to get away from, you know, doing a couple episodes. And doing his ACL rehab. I was like, yeah, you know, the boy, I got it. I'll handle it.

It'll be fine. I've done it before. subscribe rate and review if you haven't subscribed to the boys already please subscribe to the podcast we love it throw a little review down there rate five stars as always tell your friends subscribe on subscribe research all that fun stuff but bus and wtb.com if you want to see all of our other stuff follow us bus and wtb all that fun loving stuff dude merch gear up gear up for the playoffs the boys merch merch we're restocking we hear all of you guys saying hey when you're gonna restock this when

you're gonna restock that the boys had a good uh Black Friday through Cyber Monday sale. So we're out of a few things. But we are going to get restocked up and make sure you guys prepare for these playoffs because the boys, we're coming. You know, I can't talk too much. I can't talk Titans too much like the boy Taylor. But you got to be ready to go.

And speaking of Cyber Monday, if you're listening to this and you haven't gotten your Cyber Monday video, I do not want to point the finger, but that's Taylor's fault. I've done all my videos 260. I gave Taylor a cool 190, 200. He's got a folder. If you haven't gotten your video, because I've seen, oh, I got my merch and not the video, that's weird.

I've done my videos. Now, if I can't get much more out of the boy, I will go in that folder and start doing them myself because we're going to grind here, dude. But again, I'm not pointing the finger at all, Taylor. It's, it's Taylor's fault. But we're not going to move on. Let's catch up on a few things.

A few housekeeping things. We got to get straight. My week, as I'm sitting here talking, we just got done beating Jacksonville. So fired up, obviously, when you drop a game against the Browns and you play like we did in the first half against the Browns. And you have a good second half. It's all about recreating that second half against the Jaguars and putting together four quarters. The boys did a good job putting together four quarters. Now we got to keep – we just got to stay consistent.

We got to find a rhythm. Get hot in December because that's what it's about in the NFL. It's about getting hot and getting in your rhythm come December time because you got to be on a roll going into the playoffs. You see it with the NFC East. People want to make fun of them, call them the NFC Least, all that stuff. But the Eagles, the Washington football team and the Giants, they're all kind of in it.

And they're all catching a little bit of a weird stride here at the end. It's all about getting hot in December and getting that steam rolling going into the playoffs. Arthur Juan Canobee had a big game, had a phenomenal catch. He gave me an all-time match. He gave me an all-time meme now to have Victory Monday Lattees with his little, with his little bobble catch look where he's got that crazy-ass look going on. That's a hilarious picture. But Arthur Juan Kenobi's crushing it.

And I do want to say I notice the Titans. They like to piggyback on what the boys do. I personally love it. I love it because they shout us. You know, everyone knows where the ideas kind of come from. They just make the idea a little bit better. The graphic they made of Arthur Juan Canobe is phenomenal. with the little blue lightsaber.

Whoever drew that, who drew that? I want to shout them out so we don't, we give some credit. Because I know they tagged them. Click on the, click on the Instagram thing, because I think they tagged them in the bottom left corner. That bottom of the picture. Click on that. Who's that?

What's that say? Haley. Haley M. Draws. Shout out Haley M. draws for the phenomenal drawing of Arthur Juan Kenobi. I'm telling you guys. guys, the Arthur 1 Canobi, we need to get it to stick. I need Arthur 1 to do a couple more things. I know he shied away from the force choke and push and the force push at the

Indianapolis game because he did it, but the camera didn't necessarily catch it. I talked to him and Darren Bates about it, about their execution. I thought Arthur 1 could have held the force choke a little longer before the push. And again, guys, I understand that Arthur Juan Canobi, that's a good guy. We want to play off Obi-Wan Kenobi and all that stuff. and oh the force choke that's a that's a sign of the dark side i get that for me it's about people understanding what's happening if you do a force choke i feel like that's the most noticeable for people for people in star wars fans around the world to understand oh he's getting there

he's force choking them right now so i feel like that's what stands out if you sit there and do like a lightsaber battle or something like people don't know if it's swords they don't know what it is i think if we're going to hit the star wars lane we have to do the force choke and i was telling him in db that db you got to sell it long You got to be you got to get choked out a little longer and Arthur won you got to do the force push you got to hold it a little longer and then do the force push after that DB you got to sell the force force push a little more They got a little upset hopefully you know we get that selling in the tank because again I think if that celly hits I think he hits that selly dude It's gonna be big time. It's gonna be big time. He's gonna be Arthur Ron Canobie for life It says we have a note Titan stole it. I you know whatever I don't care I know Taylor gets on

on people for stealing our stuff. I enjoy it because it's extra little, it's extra branding and stuff. Like people know where the source comes from. Now, do I think we deserve the paycheck that goes to the Titans PR and their media team? A little bit. And then we need a little bit of percentage.

Nate Bain, I'm talking to you because you use, obviously the boys. I've seen the wolf being used before, wolf pack stuff, Arthur Juan Canobi. I get it. We're all working together. We are all one team, but I do think we need to see a little percentage of that money. somebody's got to somebody's got to help give these boys bonuses for Christmas time

because it's not coming out of my pocket. You know what I'm saying? I'm sorry Gary and Josh that you had to find out this way. What's this moved up to the one spot in number seven in USA Today power rankings? Is that like the Titans? Yeah, I believe so. Oh, we're not, hey, we let the media do that stuff, dude.

It's all, it's one game at a time. We got the lions coming up. But by the time you hear this, we've already played the lion. So hopefully I'm sitting here slinging a victory Tuesday, Monday, latte again. Predictions. I'm not going to get in predictions. That's a no-no.

That's a no-no in the variable world. I got to stay. The boys got to stay in his lane. You know what I mean? I don't want to talk too much out of my ass. You say a few things that you might regret. There's no predictions here. I just, I believe in the boys.

I believe in the grit, the grind, the determination, the resilience of this team that we have. Because when we do slip, the boys bounce back. The boys always respond well. The messages are always articulated very well throughout the week by the coaching staff. We paint a good picture of what we have to do. And the boys, you know, we find a way. We just got to continue to keep doing what we're doing. And, you know, just put our head down at work, man. We're a tough football team. The boys, I'm fired

up. I'm fired up to see what ends up happening this year with the boys. Crazy Monday night football game last night. Again, by the time you listen to this, that's why I wish we could turn shit around ASAP. But the Monday night football game that I'm talking about is the Lamar Jackson one where my man runs inside and takes a shit. I don't care that he says he was cramping. That's, listen, we've all had the cramp world, right? Now, you might have been cramping and like, oh, I got to go take a shit. I'm cramping. I'm going to just jog, do my little limp jog while I go over to take a shit. No matter what you ended up having to take a shit, you had the runs. People get him. We understand it. What a baller. My man wipes. Probably doesn't wipe that well.

You know what I mean? So he comes off the toilet into the. the game throws a touchdown. Cleveland bounces back and then Lamar drives him down the kick of field going to the game. My man goes from the toilet to making plays. And that's not even with a fully wiped. That's not even with a fully clean whispering eye, dude. That's going out there with a little mud butt. You're probably chafing a little bit.

He's probably got some kind of rash right now after doing, pulling all that off. But my man went from the toilet to making plays out in the game. That was crazy to see. And it was also crazy to see. a Baker bounced back, drive down, and put together that drive. And then the thought is, oh, is there too much time now for the Ravens? Ravens go down and kick a field goal to win the game. I mean, you can't make that shit up, dude.

And the way the production, the way the Monday Night Football Crew production team set that up where Lamar was coming off the pot and then they go to commercial right as Lamar Jackson's running out. Dude, it's like a WWW. You're on the edge of your seat. By God, it's Lamar Jackson. Holy shit fire flames are coming out you know what I mean the music you drop the stone cold music on that dude that's TV and kudos to them for everything kind of worked out shout out to Lamar for having the runs I know it's a tough day I get you when to say you were cramping um we've all kind of been in the cramp

game so listen we we all saw the little the little the clinch butthole jog you had going to the locker room it's all good it makes it even better forget to cramping run with the I was shitting, I run with the, I had the runs and I was shitting down my leg. I had to go get the rest out of it and half half ass wipe and go out there and throw some touchdowns. That's what the people want to hear. What do we have after that, dude? Yo, we got, we got gifts. Listen, we had a, we had a great episode.

Obviously, it's a Christmas podcast. I'm already on a rant right now. We had Michael Chandler on. We talked about all of his fights coming up. And I butchered, I can't believe I said the wrong name, Gachie. What is it? Justin. Justin Geichi. I said Gathe. What an idiot.

But we talked to Michael Chandler about what's going on, how he transitioned from Belator to the UFC. The man's got an awesome journey, and it's been incredible seeing him blow up and get his chance in the UFC because he's a three-time Bellator champion. Just an insightful cat, dude, really inspiring, really motivating, a great follow on social media because he's always posting his workouts, his inspiring stuff. He's one of the good guys. He makes you want to be a better person. But we have him on and he gives us all. all the nitty-gritty details of what goes on about him transitioning to the UFC. Corey Levin also came by to help to help be with the boy and run the Christmas,

Christmas topics. We had a great time talking Christmas topics. I, I didn't necessarily want to go about it all my own because I feel like it's better having these conversations. Like when we go top Christmas movies, I don't want to sit here and be the only one that makes up the list. I need some banter.

I need somebody to go back and forth with me, go back and forth with me, bring up things that I'm not thinking about. So I had Corey on. Now, Corey came on and the boy, I personally have to be careful with all the COVID rules and intensive protocols that you've heard about in Taylor's podcast recently. But we didn't take any chances. Corey sat on the couch. We were six feet apart. We wore masks during the segment because, again, you don't want to do anything to get the team find or do any of that stuff because, you know, it's a very, the NFL is very buttoned up about it.

And you just don't want to take any chances. So the boy, yeah, I'm looking a little ridiculous. I look like Sub Zero for Mortal Kombat. I got the little medical grade mask on sitting in Taylor's seat. Corey's at the end of the couch. But we have a great time talking about Christmas stuff. This was a great pod. And again, we're going to still talk about it because we want to get to, I did a hashtag

bus and mail. And we're going to answer some questions and we're going to do some things. Before we do that, though, we got to read an ad read from our sponsors. Before I drop this ad read, I just want to wish a very Merry Christmas from our Bustin family to you. I hope you guys have a great week. Spend a lot of good time with your family. Open up some good gifts.

Enjoy the victory week. All that fun stuff. But I just wanted to wish you guys are Merry Christmas from the Boys. This episode of Bustin with the Boys is brought to you by Georgia Boot, the world's most comfortable boot. Georgia Boot is America's hardest working

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I love it. Georgia Boot offers the best workboots, wedges, and loggers around. Whether you need a waterproof boot, steel toe, soft toe, square toe, met guard, non-puncture shank, non-slip. They've got it all. Head over to GeorgiaBoot.com and use code busin for 20% off. That's BUSS-I-N at Georgia Boot.com for 20% off. All right. So, um, yeah, dude, we're, we're in the Christmas spirit, dude.

I did this a hashtag last night to get people to see what questions they might want answered. Ask the boy anything. Um, because we've had it. It's been an awesome year. You know, I'm careful to say that because obviously there's a pandemic going on. You've had COVID. Uh, but I'm a glass half full, always kind of guy. I'm always optimistic. Um, what I like to do after at the end of every year, every, every, every season, every kind of, uh, situation. I'm in, you always want to reflect back on the year you had because as stressful as it's been and as much as everybody's had to adapt and we've all had to kind of do our own thing and figure out our own stuff. You always want to look back and see the things you've overcome. If stuff

has worked out the way you wanted it to, if it has, why do you think so? You know, what was the good energy that was happening around you that you want to continue to manifest? What was the bad shit that, you know, that's made you anxious or giving you anxiety that you don't necessarily want your life, you know, for the next year? Those are things I like to reflect in when thinking about my year. But I did this hashtag to let people ask us, whatever. Because again, it's been an incredible year when you're being optimistic. I want to say, before I get into the bus and stuff, I do want to talk, you know, this year was a year of perseverance for sure, for everybody.

I think before COVID starts, or as COVID is hitting and we're locked down and you kind of had those first several weeks of like being in your house and be like, yo, what in the hell is happening? everybody started to be like you finally get that moment when you're at work or when you're doing your every day to day and you're kind of caught up and the monotony of everything. You're like, man, I wish I just had time off to do whatever I wanted and to take time and work on whatever's in the old noggin that you've been wanting to work on. And everyone pretty much got that opportunity when COVID hit. We all had that pause in life to sit there and be like, okay, now I do have time to do whatever it is that I've complained about or whatever. So a lot of us hit those crossroads of being tested. Did you do something with that time? Or did you, you know, just kind of drag your feet?

And then you kind of play into the victim of, like, having that bad year because you go through a lot of stuff. And I get it. Some real shit happen. People have lost jobs. People have been furloughed. People are going through a lot of shit. But when shit hit fan and your back is against the wall with your family or anything that goes on, that goes on with you, you get to that point to where you you learn a lot about yourself um you learn how you react in

those situations are you somebody that you know that's going to find the good or figure out how you're going to bounce back because bad shit happens to us all the time like i my life's solid like i got cut earlier this year and it's worked out for me now but when i got that call you know obviously you're bummed or when you're not on a team when i didn't get picked up and put on a team in uh in the springtime like i was wanting to um yeah you get you get you're You doubt yourself a lot, man, and you're in like this vulnerable state because you put yourself out there a lot. But when your back's against the wall and you're, you have all those options to make, man, are you going to fold and succumb to what people are saying about you or you're not this and you're not that?

Or, you know, you lost your job. Are you outlooking? Or are you just going to play, you know, become a victim of whatever environment you're in? Or are you going to find the good in whatever it is? Are you going to attack the next day? because no matter what, the sun sets, you can pout as much as you want. And the sun is going to rise the next day. And you have the choice to, am I going to get up and put into this next transition or this next day?

Or am I just going to float along? Because the world goes no matter what. Like, you know, again, it's been a tough year. But you see companies and brands and everybody, you see a lot of optimism. people are adapting new jobs are being made new jobs are being created that you wouldn't even think are being created we're in a spot to where the restaurant industry is like yo we never we never even thought that this might happen this wasn't even something we thought of but you see businesses adapting and trying to figure it out are you going to be like one of those people are you going to be people that

continue to try to you know figure out or or blame everything and say this is why i'm where i'm at because of x y and z a finger pointer or you can be a thumb pointer and be like yo this is on me I got to bounce back or if I don't bounce back, I'm going to be a victim to my mentality because I'm just going to feed myself when I'm wanting, what I'm wanting anyway. I'm just going to tell myself, oh, that's not working because of him or her or anybody or all of that stuff. Or you're going to find something new to do. But I went on a little TED talk right there, and I apologize for that.

But I get fired up at the end of every year because I like looking back on how far we've come. Podcast-wise, we went up and down with COVID because of listenership and this, that, the other. We're a big podcast that have people on the bus. You love to have that connection of people on the bus. We got a wrench through in us because Taylor and I couldn't be around each other. So we each got to run the pot solo. So you work on Zooming guys in.

We're getting crafty on, you know, I brought Corey in. You got the masks and stuff. But again, it's like, it's like figuring it out, dude. It's like, I enjoy those times because you learn a lot about yourself. And you're hopefully you're sitting there and you're like, yeah, I did. I didn't learn a lot of shit about myself. I ended up doing this with all my free time. I created that.

I'm starting to dive into this new job. But I hope you look back on the year and you're very optimistic about it and you're proud of yourself because no matter what's happened, you got to give yourself credit for getting through some shit like this because we're, I mean, we're still in it. But, you know, it fires me out thinking back on stuff, boys. I apologize. You know, how is your guys as your been? Did I kind of, did I miss anything? I know I kind of went everywhere with that little tech. talk but hopefully I was hitting some kind of course I mean you guys you guys now have a job with us

whether or not you're fired up with that Josh I know you in the beginning of March we put out an internship opportunity um and there were 300 people that were inquiring about it you were one of them and you you stood out because you continued to write every day even if it sucked or it was raw but you continued to be in front of my eyes you know what I mean and I would look and be like oh this is shitty but I do love that he's literally doing this every day he's trying to to make himself seen. And you're working in another job. You're working from home. And you're thinking in your mind, you saw this opportunity. Here's what I'm going to try and go after. And you're a self-taught kind of person. You've learned how to edit. You've learned how to get references. Josh, who I'm speaking

about, all the videos you see where the heads are on the bodies after every victory we have, Josh is the one who's taught himself how to do that. He was somebody who found an opportunity and wanted to make the most of it. You were a free intern for how many months? around six six months before we actually started paying you you know what i mean which is like we should have done it sooner but all i'm saying is you were looking at that opportunity in that moment in a shitty year where shit is up in the air working for free busting your ass and i don't know man like stuff like that i feel like you got to look back on and you got to think like yo i'm a persevering son of a bitch because i i'm figuring this out you know what i mean yeah definitely

man like you said i mean it's like i mean you get put in a pretty bad situation i mean i had a lot better than most people because I was able to keep my job when everything happened. But I mean, you see an opportunity and you got to take it. I mean, if you're not happy in your situation, you're the only one that can change it. So I love that. And you really do fire me up, man. I really applaud you and everything you do. I know we bust your balls at times, but obviously that's what the boys do. Yeah, we're all busting balls. But I hope you do. I hope you take time to look back on your year, your visions and goals that you had, how they got upended and how hopefully you had new visions and goals and you've either attained those or you're on your way to attain those.

And if you're somebody who's not, you know, hasn't written stuff down or actually thought about that, I would tell you to sit with yourself and look in the 2021 and find the optimistic shit that you can be doing and the good energy you can put in your life, the good people you need to surround yourself with, eliminate the bad stuff. And when I mean eliminate, you don't just, you don't just eliminate distractions. We're adults, we're men, you deal with distractions. We're grown men and women. You don't just want to eliminate distractions. You want to deal with them.

You want to figure out why they're bringing you down or anything like that. You want to learn how to deal with them and then you eliminate them. But, you know, I would, you know, ask and push all of you all to, you know, do that stuff because I'm a huge believer in that. You know, this is why I believe that we have the bus, that we have the pod, just somebody who sits down and journals a lot and writes a lot of shit down and tries to manifest a lot of things that I have written down. I'm just a huge believer in that stuff. But all right, on to the bus and mail and, you know, the topics that we ask Twitter and we want, people want to answer. How's the wedding planning going?

The wedding planning is going well. We are wondering if, you know, how this COVID stuff is going to continue to progress. Hopefully, all the vaccine stuff and everything, it all goes well because we're getting married in June. So we still got time, but you're also standing like, man, I hope this doesn't drag out all the way to there. Because if it does, you know, you're going to have to, you know, you're going to have to, adapt with that thing. But all in all, it's going good right now. We have a question. People were asking about Scott Frost and Nebraska. All right. I will dive a little bit into this. Now, me personally, I don't eat, sleep, breathe,

all the Nebraska football stuff like I know a lot of the fans do. Just because I'm not in Nebraska, like I have the stuff going on, I kind of watch the boys from afar. And I'm always rooting for them. because, you know, Nebraska cornhousers, black shirt, all that stuff. You want your alma mater to do awesome. It does suck seeing the boys struggle and lose. But there's a couple ways you can shape it.

You know, Scott Frost, I am a fan of Scott Frost. I think, you know, people are like, you know, let's go, let's find somebody else. He couldn't do it, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, number one, contractually, you're married to him until I want to say he was on a big deal. He got extended in a second year. So Scott's going to be the guy no matter what.

and I think Scott is still the right guy for the job because who are you going to go out there and find that understands the history, the background, you know, and what Nebraska is about other than somebody like Scott Frost. Scott Frost was a quarterback for them. He won a national championship with them. He was in the 90s with them.

The dude understands what it takes to be a winner because he did it in Oregon. He did it at, what is it? I'm drawing a blank. UCF? Yeah, UCF. USF, UCF? Yeah, it was, yeah, not enough.

He was a winner there. He turned that program around. And, you know, we talk about, oh, you got to give him time. You got to give him time. I know he's been under on the hot seat this year because it's been three years. And we haven't came really close to a winning record or putting a great product on the field. But you do, man. I think we have a good guy in the seat at Nebraska because he understands it.

If you go and get somebody else, like, number one, who are you going to get? And are they going to turn the program around because they understand what it takes at Nebraska. Scott does because he's he's done it. He's breathed it. He's there now. Like you don't think that man doesn't want to turn this program around. He's turning over every stone he can to figure it out.

He is. I do. I think he's the right. I think he's the right man for the job to do that. If you look at it, if you dive into some of the stats, and I'm going to pull one up. But I was texting with a couple buddies.

And we were kind of talking about everything. And he pulled up one of my boys. He pulled up a good little stat. And it's talk about winning games, right? If you have Bo Polini, he had 95 games in Nebraska. Now, me, I played for Bo. I played all my years with Bo. I never thought that Bo should have got fired.

I'm a Bo lever, as some would say. But Bo had 95 games in Nebraska. He had the amount of one possession games with eight points or less. The total was 30. He won 57% of those games, where there were eight points or less, one possession games. You're 17 and 13. You look at Mike Riley. He had 38 games at Nebraska.

He had a total of 18-1 possession games. Eight wins, 10 losses. He won 44% of those one-score games. Scott Frost and 31 games in Nebraska, one-possession games. It's came down to one possession or less 16 times for him. He's only won four of the 16. So he has a winning percentage of 25% compared to the others who have 44, Mike Riley, 57, Bo Polini. So if I'm being optimistic, right, and you got those games, I know I'm diving into these little-ass stats,

but one possession, there's only a couple plays you're sitting there coaching. I know as a coach because I've been in the meetings. But it's like, you turn this around. It's a one-possession game. You end up winning the game, right? So if you win some of those close games, your record looks different. Everybody's feeling different about Scott Frost, and I feel like that's how close he is. I do think it is harder now for Nebraska.

And I'm just now coming on board with this. because I was big into us going into the Big Ten. I do think going into the Big Ten probably hurt Nebraska recruiting a little bit more. And here's why I think so. And again, I was talking with a buddy of mine, an ex-teamate who played in Nebraska. And he was kind of explaining this to me. And I was like, that's actually, that actually makes it a lot of sense to me. He was somebody that was in Texas.

And when you're in the Big 12, the farthest drive to a game is Nebraska. If you have your kid and you want to send him to a school and you send him to Nebraska as a parent or a family in Texas, because Texas is a huge state to recruit in. The farthest driver travel you got is going to Nebraska, basically. A lot of games playing in the Big 12 are down around Texas, in Texas, Oklahoma. A lot of stadiums are within three hours of the Dallas airport. So you fly in the Dallas. A lot of those games are right there.

So families are able to see their kids a lot. Now you move to the Big Ten and everywhere's far. Your closest game is damn near Nebraska. all those kids that you're recruiting in Texas and you're pitching to those families, hey, you know, we can see any of this goes that. A lot of those families aren't going to be able to afford flying and watching their kids play.

At least when they're in the Big 12, you got to compete in Texas a lot more for those big star recruits because you were able to see them play more. People talk about talent a lot. I made a joke. There's too many white guys on the field. Obviously, that's a clear joke.

But if we feel like the talent isn't up to speed to where we have four and five, five-star recruits. Any business company, brand, whatever, if you got a lot of three-star players, a lot of three-star talent and below, are you going to be a winner? 90% of the time you're not going to.

So to get these big dogs down in Texas around the south, I do feel like that. We were able, it hurt us going into the Big Ten because of that. Because now you're competing against the Northeast. When you're competing against the Northeast, why would you travel farther and skip over Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan,

state and all those schools that you can go to. Iowa now, all the Penn State, all these schools that you can stay in the northeast for families can be closer. Nebraska is now the farthest away. You know what I mean? And the tradition wasn't built in the Big Ten. Our tradition was built more with the Big Eight before the Big 12, but in the Big 12

in those Southern schools. We always got a lot. We got a lot of California kids. We had a lot of Texas kids. In Florida, when I was on the team, I don't know what it looks like now, but I would assume that it is harder recruiting the spots like Texas or the South because families aren't going to want to send their kid up north. I'm talking a lot about Nebraska,

but I just want to kind of go on that rant because I know Nebraska fans listen to this podcast, and a lot of people are very curious about Scott Frost and what I think and what Nebraska can do this, that, and the other. I'm optimistic. We're married to Scott Frost. I want him to be the guy. I think he can be the guy because he understands what it takes,

and he has been a successful coach coming all the way up to Nebraska. He's got a great resume. I think he's the guy. I'm sticking with the boy. I'm optimistic. We're going to get it rolling. Again, we're also in a pandemic. It's not like we're all professional.

We're all not adults and professionals. We've been dealing with, you know, college kids, 18 to 21 that you got to worry about. So it's been a tough year for everybody. You know, we got to, again, I know you hate to hear it. We got to give it more time and got to let that come. Moving on, because the boys, you know, we got to get into our segments. We got a long pot. The Raiders parted ways with Paul Gunther.

A lot of people asked about this. I played for Paul. I actually had a... I got this question from Raider Cody. Shout out Raider Cody. What's up, comp? It's your boy, Raider Cody, and I got a no bro.

What was going on with Paul Gunther and this Raiders team? It seemed to never work, yet he got three seasons to try and figure it out. Run fits were messy, blown coverages, and I believe we have some pretty good talent on this roster. Raider Nation wants to know, man. Or the boys. The boys. Shout out Raider, Rader Cody.

I love that little mesh. I like that little at the boys at the end. You know, without going too much into certain stories or details or anything like that, I ultimately think the Raiders made the right decision parting ways with Gunther. You know, my time there was awesome. I had a great time there. I like Coach PG. But when you think about the ups and downs that have been there, you had to make a decision at some point.

You're either, you know, you blame, you're blaming players, you're blaming coaching, all this stuff. I will say, you know, it was interesting being there at times. because that you felt, when I was taking Tahrir's job, you felt like they were throwing Tahrir under the bus a little bit. And being a player that was in those meetings during the game, understanding how the headset works and all that stuff, there would be blamed pushed around that. You just hate seeing because you don't want to be playing the blame game

in the middle of the year. It's, you know, it's take responsibility and accountability. And when you look at, and again, I'm not a coach. But being around,

being around football for a very long time, what you want to see in the coach is is somebody who can coach, who can teach, who can teach game plans, who can help players understand why you're building a scheme in the first place for game planning. You want to be able to inspire your athletes.

Like you want to be relatable to guys. You want to be optimistic. You want to be somebody you go in and, like, you know is going to have a good attitude because you're all going to figure it out together. And you want to coach it when bad stuff happens, somebody that you see take blame. Now, again, I don't want to get into too much of stuff,

but PG didn't in my opinion he didn't check a lot of those boxes he was uh you know there would be times where the communication would be off kilter there would be a there would be a jam in the middle of communicating

throughout the week um you know there's a lot of stuff you didn't understand why we did things an entire game plan was open on game day whether or not you worked on it in the week I remember sitting there I was in um I was on FaceTime with Charo my fiance and I was I was, I was gearing up to play.

I want to say it was my first start. And again, I'm still trying to catch up to a lot of stuff. And I'm sitting there like going over our third down playing. And I'm like, you, we got about 25, 30 calls on just third down defense, which is a lot for a defense because you only have so many plays to run during the week. And when you're game planning and practicing, you have about 30-ish plays that you run during practice. You know, 15 of those, you might be working on third down on Thursday, one day a week.

You're working specifically on third down. You tie it all together on Friday and Saturday. You do a couple of plays. but to get through a lot of the game planning, it would be hard because you run a lot of the new calls and stuff. And then when you get in the game, the entire book was open. It was like a Madden playbook,

which was hard because you're trying to remember a lot of the communication. And then when you win, lose the other, you know, you just, it would be if you didn't play well, it would be, you know, guys, I can't open up the entire playbook. When we're winning and playing well, I can open up the entire playbook. I have all these calls at my disposal. And it's like, I mean, you know,

when we're playing well, it's because players are executing well. It's not because of calls, this, and the other. You want guys to play fast, efficient, and communicate. You want guys to be able to communicate quick and understand what's happening and what the offense is doing to them right out of the huddle. You don't want a lot of this stuff in your head, blah, blah, blah. You know, you're thinking, you're double thinking a little bit more. You're like, oh, should we have this check or is it that check?

There was just a lot going on. I will say he was on the hot seat a little bit last year. Defense ended up communicating and playing well toward the end of the year. I'm not going to chew my own horn. you know, I'm kind of just doing it. But we played well toward the end of the year. I think it saved him a little bit because I do think he was on the hot seat last year. And again, I haven't been around a lot.

I don't want to, you hate talking about because I liked being around the Raiders. I enjoyed my time with the Raiders. I know PG, he was all ticked. I didn't come in the summertime because they had offered. It was a minimum deal. And I was like, look, I don't have to go anywhere because it's a minimum deal. Like if I end up on a team, it's going to be a minimum deal anyway. skip camp, not put all this wearing tear on my body,

and just wait until somebody needs a linebacker. I don't have to put my body through another training camp. And, you know, he's trying to talk to me in this up. But I enjoyed my time there. I like PG. That is just my take. I do think the Raiders made the right call. We'll see what goes on from here.

I'm a big fan of Gruden. I'm a big fan of the Raiders, the boys at the Raiders. You know, I hope they get back in the thick of things, man, because I'm always rooting for him. And I love seeing the guys have success there. But that's, you know, that's kind of my take with Gunther. We are going to get into the Christmas pod. Corey's coming on in a second.

We got to get geared up because, again, we got to put masks on social distance. Don't trip the boy too much. And then after that, we have Michael Chandler. So enjoy the rest of the episode. Merry Christmas. I hope you all get what you want. I hope you're in the gift-giving season,

dude, because it's the best time of year. Put you in a great attitude. Play that Christmas music, dude. Have that hot chocolate. Drink those hot lattes. And again, Merry Christmas from the boys to you. Next week will be a best of. So we won't be doing an updated pod.

But again, thank you for the year. It's been a phenomenal year for the bus. with the boys crew. We've went through the ebbs and flows, the ups and downs. We've persevered. A lot to look forward to in 2021. We're doing a lot of cool stuff with Barstool.

But again, about to have Corey on, hit these Christmas pod topics. Going to have Michael Chandler on. He was phenomenal. Big hugs, tiny kisses. That might have to be it. We might vote and find another one. As you guys see,

I'm now in a mask. We had Corey come on the bus. We're just taking all precautions in the world. But let's get into it, man. Christmas. Hey, Josh, ask your question that you asked me earlier. Christmas or Spooktober. Here's my answer. That's a tough.

That's a great question. Because the boys, we love Spooktober. I feel so ridiculous with these masks on looking at you. I feel like you're just looking at me. Like, what? I know, I see those eyes. I've seen them before. I know that guy behind the mask.

But is it really him? I'm not sure. But spooktober. Spooktober. sets the stage for later in the year. September sets the stage for the latter part of the year. It sets the scene for the weather changing. It gets a little dark sooner.

You know what I mean? Leaves are changing. You're starting to get into a different vibe because it's not all bikinis and swim trunks and beach bodies and I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to get my summer body and barbecues and shit. That it's kind of done. No question. Now you're getting in the tailgate season.

You're getting in the Spooktober. It is a great time of year because you know football is in full effect. Yeah. But the reason I think Christmas beats Spooktober is because you just can't help but just be in a great mood come Christmas time. When you start putting your decorations up, dude, and your tree is up, then you're in the giving season. So when you're giving to people and thinking about, oh, how am I going to wow my wife, my girlfriend, whatever, my boy. Like my family, you start getting in that giving mentality. And you're just in a better mood because you got you got cookies.

You got some comfort food coming. There's a different glow about it. Yeah. A different aura or whatever. It's just like a happy, happy fucking feeling, you know. Like you said at Christmas tree, just fucking lights your house up just the perfect shade of white or whatever. You decorate your house? Oh, dude, it's been decorated forever.

My tree's about to fucking die, dude. We got it so long. When did you start decorating? Man, man. This is a hot topic. This is a hot topic. Before Thanksgiving, we started putting some things out. I showed you that village.

That's all right. I sent you a picture of. I got to take one of these guys. And Brad. The joke's over. I got to take one of these off. Yeah, me and my wife, we started decorating before Thanksgiving. So same, same.

I started decorating the second week of Thanksgiving, second week of Thanksgiving. People get fired up about that. They do. They're like, yo, you got to respect Thanksgiving. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's just a meal in the, in the lions play. Like, yeah. Christmas is, Christmas took precedent this year a little bit.

We went before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is necessary, though. It is necessary. I love it. You can't just sell out Christmas for two months long. I get the decorating because it puts you in a good mood. But Thanksgiving is necessary between the two because, number one, here's why I decorate second week. week of November.

You got to give yourself a week to mourn, Spooktober being over. Right. You know what I mean? Like, Wifee, she's like, hey,

we got to take the decorations down. You don't want to. Stuff. You do it one day at a time. It's tough, dude. I'm trying to take off the blood stuff that I am scraping with the wind decks and stuff off the windows.

And it's like a sad day, right? Yeah. And you just need time. She's like, when we're going to put the stuff up? And I'm just like, hey,

not now. I don't want to hear it. Like, I don't want to talk about it. Yeah. Like, it like this just happened like let's give it some time you just took some stuff down i can't even right right can't even stomach something yeah but the but around that second week and you start you hear that first

christmas song like that maria carry what's that what's something like that gets in your ear dude and it's like those little those little jingle bells those little piano notes they start playing in your year and you're like it's time you want to start getting in the spirit i'm talking lights everywhere Christmas tree. Are you a real tree guy or fake tree guy? Real tree. Real tree. I respect that.

There's something about it. I mean, growing up always had a real tree. It's not like we fucking went and chopped it down or anything. We got it like Home Depot, but still badass to have a real tree nonetheless. So you're going to lose a little respect for me. We have a fake tree. It's okay because I understand that, though. It is like, both things.

Please don't judge me by that sentence. everybody growing up my parents said a great example we would go out every year to a little uh little uh what what would you call a little christmas tree yeah tree farm we go out my little brothers and i we we'd pretend like we're playing deer hunter so two two of the brothers are deep your dad shoot your ass or something no no it's just the three of the brothers you know what i mean because we kind of you don't want to go you're like gosh damn it mom and dad like we don't want to do it we want to sit at home and play video You know what I mean? It's like you got to go do the family thing.

Yeah. So, but our parents, we go to a tree farm. The brothers and I were out. We're playing deer hunter for on each other. Somebody's the hunter at the other two of deer and you're kind of running this. How do you get shot? What's your, what's your what? Like is it air bullets?

It's air bullets. Yeah. You just make the noise and you just, you basically argue. I got you. The oldest brother definitely dogs. Yeah. No, like, no, you didn't. No, you did you hit that tree.

And then it's finally, boys, get over. here like the boys the parents they find a tree my dad's down you know on a knee he's got the little plumber ass he's got his jeans going a little low you know the little dad when they take a knee yeah the bontar butt crack showing a little bit he saw on the tree so we grew up saw on trees getting the family tree right getting the hot chocolate the candy canes and stuff at the you know up at the little shed when they net it yeah yeah they call it they put it in the little they put it in the little like condom deal the net the net it's like a fish net but for a tree that holds it on the top you go on clark griswold yeah exactly you carry it up you carry it up the stairs to get it in your house

you got all the uh you got all the sticky stuff from the pine and things like that yeah the sap you put the tree on you decorated my mom so you spent a lot of time on decorating and putting the little nativity sets around it we did that growing up multicolored or white lights my mom was a multicolored light gal me personally i'm a white light guy yeah but I grew up on the different color lights. My mom always handled it. My mom, she'd climb up on the roof. She's like the griswold.

She's like, I'm going to get it done. My dad, he's chilling. You know what I mean? He goes to work. You know what I mean? He brings home the checks. My mom does every other manly responsibility that there is, too. She fixes cars.

She's on the roof. She's putting up light. She's making the whole machine go. But that's what I grew up on. So don't judge me for the fake tree. I'd like to say my background and my resume. Right. I grew up on the fucking Home Depot tree.

Oh, so you've always been a Home Depot guy. You've been, let me go buy it for your, you know. Let me get it ready to go. It's, we, my family when I was younger, it was Home Depot. And I want to say for like two years, two, three years, I can remember a fake one. Yeah. But it was like a badass one that had a remote that could switch from like white to multicolor. It could have a timer on it, so like that.

Oh, that's that privilege tree, dude. Yeah, the tree was nuts, dude. That's that privilege tree. It was like a Cadillac. It was fucking dope. But then we went back to like a fake or a real tree because I want to say it just over time got like dusty fucked up a little bit. And then me and my wife when we started living together, we've always done a real tree. Yeah.

Your voice is so funny to me. I'm like, yo, is he banged up right now talking to me? You're like leaning back in the couch. Oh, man. And your sins is really low. Like fake tree. I just love Christmas. Oh my God, you know what?

What? Hey, Taylor, Taylor fucked around with me and threw a, no pause. Pause. Came by my house and just threw a Christmas tree in the back of my truck. Fuck yeah, man. It might fit on this.

I apologize for cussing. Bleak that one out. Bleep the second one out. Not the first one, bleep the second one out. We're not cussing anymore. I'm trying to get better. I'm trying to get better. Yeah.

I know. We definitely want to cuss, you know what I? Shit. I got a potty. That tree might fit on the bus. You want to try it out? Yeah, I want to try it out. Let's go.

Get the camera, Garrett. Yes. We're really going to go get it. Just five minutes, dude. Women, ladies, wives, girlfriends. Look how good that tree looks. If you are a girl that are for the boys, look at that tree.

It does not, you do not need to plan an all-day thing with your significant other. You can get this done in five minutes. So, call the voice. So we took a quick break. I realized Taylor threw a, uh, a Christmas tree in the back of my truck as like a little prank. Like, hey, I have an extra tree. You throw it in the back. Weird flex.

Like, I have an extra tree. Whatever. I was like, yeah, I'm not going to use it. It's too small for my mind. Just realized mid pod. I got this tree in the back. It might fit on the bus. boys have to take a quick break

go get the tree we put it in here if you're watching the video pod or anything else I'm sure we're going to post pictures we got the tree up it looks beautiful we have it sitting in uh we have it sitting in one of our bus and helmets as the stand on the bottom we got a little bust on the boy's tree topper

we got a little mask as an ornament we got a bow as an ornament some socks the gifts that we got with the cigars we got some cigar ornaments as ornaments up there I'll tell you what we are in the spirit this is a this is the Chris's pod Josh, what do we have next, dude? What do we get to talk about next?

Is that a fucking day? 10 days until Christmas. Best and worst gift? Yeah. Best and worst gift you got. Dude, I'll tell you what, I'll call my mom out right now. Every year, you know, you put a little list together. You start figuring out that your parents, you know, your parents, I don't want to spoil anything.

There we go. Do you remember when you found out Santa wasn't real? Hopefully no. young years are listening to this or for the little boys, but hopefully the little boys aren't listening to the pod. But you figure out it's your parents, right? So you're putting together these lists. You know, you're, I'm like a white kid growing up in high school.

You want to get the, you want to say back in that time, USC was hot. You want to get the affliction shirts. You know what I'm saying? From Buckle, you want to walk into Buckle. You feel like that's where the kids who, you know, who have some money. They always get to shop. You had your friends. They got to shop there all the time.

So I'd have a list of stuff from Buckle, you know, same. little simple, simple white boy, Hollister. You know what I'm saying? Never went Abercrombie. Always a little pricey. But, dude, we get to Christmas. We get the Christmas. And my mom's got me wearing Aeropostal and shit.

Damn, mom. 84 or 87? Dog, when you're walking around an aeropostle, you're walking around, everybody's got their Hollister, their buckle, their affliction, their Abercrombie. You're walking around like the great value. This is like the great value brand of clothes.

You know what I'm saying? Mom hit the four for 20. Dog, yes. Oh, no. She saw that four for 20 deal. You got every color. Bro, we would go on, uh,

Oh, man. You know how you go on field trips and you'd hit the mall, like in the middle of the field trip, like the school would stop at a mall. You go shopping. My mom would give me like 30. I can't say I ever did that, but that sounds fucking dope. It was dope. And unless your parents give you like 30 bucks.

You know what I'm saying? Like everybody's going nuts and you're trying to fight. You're in aeropasta. Look at them four for 20 deals. You know what I'm saying? You get one slice at Sabaro for lunch. Yeah. I got to walk out of like the.

The nice branded stuff with like one pant leg or something of jeans. Damn, boy. Four for 20, man. Did you say one slice of Sabaros? In the food court. Greasy and shit. You're walking around like, hey, you got to find a way to eat. You're eating all them little Chinese samples around the spot.

Like, hey. Hey, there goes Will again. Taking a laugh. Taking a laugh. In his new ass shirt. You can see it a mile away because it's orange as fuck. You got the kids that going. change into their new shirt right away like in the bathroom.

Aeropostal used to have that logo, dude, with his dog. He goes one in his new shirt. They're going to laugh. Yeah. They used to have a logo with a dog. I swear it. Wait, who? Arapostle.

It was like a little bulldog. And instead of the fourth leg, it looked in the way of the shape, it looked like a fucking penis, dude. You got to pull it up. I'll tell you what, man, Aeropausal. You, oh, damn, you just didn't feel confident. I swear to God. In the mall of Georgia, they'd been going out of business for fucking 10 years.

For 10 years, that bitch just said clearance going out. Going out of fucking business. They've been hanging all, bro. They've been finding away. They've been scrapping. Four for 20s. I'd be standing there. You'd have the Aeropassal T on.

You'd have them big-ass cargoed shorts on with the, hey, with the material belt. Corey, you remember the material belt? It wasn't like a level, but it was like the one that kind of. Like frayed at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Freight at the end. And they had the two buckles. And you got my little shell necklace on, dude.

Tell me that's not a dick. It's waffle with a dick, bro. That's hilarious. Oh, shit. You know, that is, that is hilarious. But that would be my fit, dude. And then your little, what's like, pika shell? Puka.

Puka. I think we talked about that before. Yeah, I had a little Pukeshell necklace. You looked and bleached tipped your hair. Bleach tipped my hair. Oh, my God. What was I doing, dude? You always look back on some shit and you're just like, what do we do?

God damn it. Then you go to the phase where you grow your hair out long and the blonde tips are like stayed. So then the blonde tips kind of, you just see the roots and shit. Oh, my God, dude, I was a loser. Never did that. Oh, back to Christmas though. Mom, I apologize for calling you out, but it always sucked, man.

When you had a list of like actual clothes, like when you finally came around to the idea of wearing clothes for as a gift, you start buying in. here's what I want if you're going to get me clothes. Yeah. And then when you just give me the JC pennies and shit of the world. I'd say that's about eighth grade. Seventh, eighth grade is when I probably started Karen. Like seventh grade.

Yeah, yeah. Sixth grade, I still rocked like jerseys of school and shit. What was your, uh, when we- Picture day. I wore my football jersey. What was your best and worst gift? I don't know about my best yet. I got to think about that.

Like, I don't want to, like, worst gifts is obviously, like, if you get like boxers or something. Like, if you get them in the stock. Fucking cool socks, boxers, whatever. But if you wrap that shit, like, why would you wrap fucking socks and boxers? You know what I mean? I mean, yeah, my parents. My parents do.

They still do. They still played as a running joke. I get a pair of socks and Haynes underwear from Walmart or Haynes boxers at Walmart. I still get that as like a gift every year. Terrible. I mean, I'm not going to lie. I mean, I always got pretty decent gifts other than like socks and boxers. Best gifts.

Oh, so you had it. You were like the man. You were the friend that everybody wanted to be friends with. I was a youngest child, dude. like they always I was always spoiled but like I don't know it wasn't I'd say the best gift it was pretty sick in my first cell phone

yeah when did you get your first cell phone I was in like seventh grade yeah that's when I was too I mean when I first Xbox was pretty dope the first PlayStation when I was a kid when I got the PlayStation 2 I remember that being a big deal hey that was yeah not you say that

that was a huge deal when you got the PlayStation 2 and you got the little memory card I had a blue one. Yeah, bro. And you take your memory card around like, hey, Corey, you coming over? Hey, bring the memory card. The PlayStation 2 is a huge deal because that's when games started getting real, I feel like. Yeah.

You get to go to Blockbuster. Every Friday you get to go on the weekend. Hey, it's Friday. Mom's going to take us to Blockbuster. Right. You're wandering around the aisles, pissed off and you don't see a certain game behind. How many of those games did you keep just forever? Nah, we always return them.

I feel like I have one or two. just never got returned. Really? Yeah. You just bought it. Smart move. I mean, you do think about it. Like, what are they going to do?

You're out of business. They keep charging you. I don't know what happened. Wasn't charging me. I wasn't. Yeah, PlayStation 2 was probably a big one. PlayStation 2 was big. Sega was huge.

I do remember when Cody and I got our parents' cast. I never had a dream cast. We got to Sega Genesis when it first came out. So we're playing Sonic and shit. We got the first PlayStation. I had my parents did solid early in my career yeah and I always got cool shit too like my dad got me like a golf set when I was like seven

I was pretty sweet yeah dude I got a full golf set you're privileged dude I mean not really I mean you got a golf set in seventh grade I was seven oh seven hey that's what I'm saying you're seven with the golf he's just like to play golf if you want to play golf with this son I'll probably do the same thing. I'm not going to push it on. I was like, hey, if you want it, you got it, man. Go play some golf. Yeah.

When's you get your first golf set? I know you play golf. I had one at like five. Yeah, I at least have one club. Gary, your parents are divorced, so you had two Christmases. Damn. Just come right out. Hey, hey, good Christmas. They're divorced. Two Christmas.

Holidays. What's her? G is pretty. stressful honestly for you yeah for sure why both still in Nashville yeah they're both still natural I mean you just got to travel too far you got to play the game right both both people have to have enough time and it's just no feelings can be hurt during the holidays but you get double the gifts yeah but I almost not really I almost feel that way of being married like I don't want to hurt her family's feelings or my family's feelings so like we're going down to Georgia

this weekend and then we're going to do Christmas actual Christmas up here yeah so you feel bad I don't want to hurt anyone's feeling I gotcha I gotcha I got you I got to see both yeah I gotta like pack up my kid think about packing up my dog and taking home to Georgia too yeah it's like he's pretty easy he can stay outside he's got electric pins yeah I want to get back to Garrett traveling for Christmas yeah so did it become stressful when you got to older when you were younger it was probably love right uh so when i was younger it was a little better because my younger siblings still believed and so it was easy the planning was easy i would stay at my dad so we could wake up at the crack of dawn and then in the

afternoon i would go to my mom's house because all my older siblings would sleep in so that was easy but as i've gotten older and everyone's sleep in it's just kind of got to pick your poison yeah when did you when did you finally figure it out? When did you stop believing? I feel like it was pretty soon for me with them being split because I would hear a conversation of like, all right, I'll do this, you do that.

How old do you think you were? They had to divvy up for four or five. Oh shit. Yeah, probably. That makes a lot of sense now. So like. How long so? So you lost the Christmas here early.

it never really grew within you yeah exactly that sucks dude so do you like christmas i i like christmas it's just all the so me up here me up here going on and on you just think i'm full of shit no i love christmas i can't wait to do christmas like myself when i'm older and like with my crew create your own traditions yeah you are older do it you are you gonna are you gonna are you gonna make sure your kids believe as long as possible? Yeah, absolutely. I don't think I found out until I was 11.

Man, I was in sixth grade, I was 11, dude. I was 11 and 6th. I think it was 5th. I think it was 5th. Man. I think 5th grade is when I found out. You sounded like a nerd, dude.

I was probably like a third grade. I would be ready to go to the dirt with kids who said that it was fake. Here's why. Give me your, give me the, I know you have it in your mind. the same exact reasoning, argument, everything. As everybody, yeah. So at initially growing up, my parents, we all lived with my grandparents at first.

My dad, when we were shifting jobs and stuff like that. So we would be at my, we would live at my grandparents' house. Yeah. And Christmas would come around and my grandpa would be Santa. So when I was young, like four and five and shit, my mom would wake me up in the middle of the night and be like, hey, you have to stay quiet. to stay quiet. He's here. And I'm like, what? It's scary as fuck.

Yeah. But it's Christmas. You know what I mean? It's light. Yeah. It's not like, it's not like, hey, we got to get out of here. There's someone's in the house. But she's like, hey, she's like, hey, you got to be quiet. Santa's here. And I'd be like, oh my God, are you serious? And you know, I kind of get up out of bed. And we'd be tiptoe. And you know, I'm a little kid. So I'm like really trying to tiptoe. And like, you're trying to not breathe. And she would crack the door. And my grandpa would be dressed up as Santa putting presents down. And I was young.

You know what I mean? She's like, all right, we got to shut the door. You just get a quick glimpse? Yeah, and I'm like, okay, okay, okay. That's the reddest suit you've ever seen, wasn't it? Dude, it was, it was Santa. In my eyes, Santa came to my house. Yeah.

So when I got to witness that, and then I went to bed and the next day you're opening presents, like, you just believed that you saw Santa. No question. So when people, you're arguing at school, and kids are ruthless, man. And the kids who know, they're trying to shit on your Christmas, bro. And I'd be like, I'd be arguing on that, yo, I would be pulling out all the swears. You know what I mean?

Like when you're a kid and you're just swearing on everything. Be like, I have seen him ready to go to the dirt with anybody that Santa is real. And then we would, growing up in the Catholic family, you go to midnight mass every year. We go to midnight mass a couple of years. We come back, presents would be under the tree. And I wouldn't know how to explain it. even when my friends are like doubting like getting getting putting doubt in my head like letting doubt creep in the devil's like all my shoulders like hey sand it's not real sand's like and a little doubt creeps in your head you're like trying to figure out okay i'm gonna find out this year if santa's real or not we come on from midnight mass i got the whole family with me at midnight mass ain't nobody so i didn't know how we did it or how my parents did it because we also had a mixed uh pit bull like a rescue so he was aggressive

anybody. You know what I mean? Unless it was us. He was aggressive. His name was buck. My dad found him hunting on Thanksgiving. He had duct tape around his collar. He was, you know, he was abandoned. And he found him turkey hunting. They played with him a little bit. And they're like, all right, we got to go, go to our stand. And him and my dad and my brother, they drive to the spot to where they're going to set up to hunt. And they're sitting waiting on turkey. The dog Buck follows him the the whole way for like two miles and finds them and comes up to him in the tree and kind of ruins the turkey hunting. But they take Buck home. So we take Buck in. but he was a nice stuff but anyway he's there man buck put the presents there that's what you're

your fucking kid mind is thinking buck put these presents dude i'm thud for and at this point i'm eight nine like i got you know you're starting to try and figure some stuff out 10 years old you're coming home from from midnight mask midnight mask and your parents are with you midnight ass yeah i'll come back from get some midnight ass dude but midnight mask yeah and you come home and you're just thinking how in the hell did they did did the santa swing this how'd santa police shit on this time because buck is in the house my fan was with me i had my woes with me you know what i'm saying my fucking we come we come back cookies are gone presents are under the tree you can't you i couldn't explain it how close did

you live to the church so walking distance bro dad growing up we we went we went uh we went to catholic school first through fourth grade so we'd walk three blocks and we'd walk every day to school I took a break from during Mass and walked home and did everything. No, not when I was 9 and 10. What was it? My dad's good buddy would come over during midnight mass. And he would just have, he would have treats and stuff like because he knew Buck. Like he knew he was aggressive that he might have to, you know, swing on him.

But he was able to evade Buck and put presents down. It just threw me for the biggest loop, dude. Dad's out there. Need to take that. I'll tell you what. My parents, my parents said a good example. Yeah, like if you got a friend in need, like they're, they got kids eight, nine years old, they might not believe anymore and you want to keep it, you know, do you want to give them,

buy them some more time of belief? Help your friend out, man. That's a good story. That was wholesome. That was wholesome Christmas story, dude. My parents did that stuff right. I mean, obviously I found out late that it wasn't happening. And then it was kind of like you just had to come to grips.

There's no time for tears because you're becoming a man. You know what I mean? You're at 11. You're becoming a man a little bit. So you can't. There's no like, damn. then you got to kind of keep it a secret for Wyatt who was young there's no transit and also you don't know how long

girls have stopped believing so like you don't want to look like a little bitch yeah yeah dude beg you believe in saying it and like you get i was around like no i'm like 10 and you're kind of like i don't know i have my stories i have my truth yeah you know what i mean i know things i don't want somebody to ruin my truth but that's when i stopped when did you stop believing man i don't have i i'd have to say i was like eight or nine there's no specific deal that i i remember but you know you don't have a tail like me no man i did believe hard though because of the cookies

and my mom and dad would set out fucking carrots for the reindeer in the yard and those would be eaten in the morning and there would be like flour with like boot steps going down our like front porch and you can see like boot imprints and stuff so i believe pretty good yeah and then i've even heard of people you know like throwing basketballs up on top of the roof above where the kid's room is yeah and crazy shit like that but i i mean i'm sure some fucking dickhead in elementary school ruined it for me or something yeah you know that's usually how it happens yeah what else we got so we're good it seems like we killed we killed the christmas topics dude some good storytelling. Corey,

thank you for coming. If there's when it comes to that point, if we're all still in Nashville and I need a Santa, I'm going to need you to be my Santa. I can be a Santa, dude. I can come over to where you're at, Westie, West Nashville. And be your Santa, dude. Would you die the beard?

Huh? Would you dye the beard? No, bro. So, it's crazy. I have a full Santa suit. Because I thought I was going to have to be. But do you have like the wig and the beard and shit yeah i got it all i thought i was going to have to be santa for my kid to take pictures this year yeah it's his first christmas but we found the santa for him to take picture with so i mean i got it man i can be your santa i can be over there in 15 minutes you know you're the best man appreciate you coming appreciate you coming by the bus dude yeah

I appreciate you, invite me to the bus. Before we get into this segment with Michael Chandler, it's a phenomenal interview. This interview by Bussing with the Boys is brought to you by Acorns. Look, you do not have to be rich to start investing. I'm going to say that again. You do not have to be rich to start investing. With Acorns, anyone can save and invests in the background of life.

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Acorns.com slash busson and start investing in your future today. Mike? Yo. Can you see me? I can. Let's go. I apologize for my producer. Oh.

That's right, dude. The world of Zoom. I was just screaming at him while he was trying to figure it out. I'm just kidding. How you been? Good, man. Just down here getting after it. All right.

I know you got a you got bodywork coming up in 30 minutes huh I do it's I can I can push it a little bit I should be okay do are they coming to you or you got to go to them no I got to go to them shit how far up a drive 20 20 minutes so I got to get rolling that's what that's what you're telling me that's what you're telling me pretty much all right here we go I'm going to introduce you on bus with the boys ladies and gentlemen we have Michael Chandler in the lightweight division in the UFC new UFC 4th fighter. He came from Bellator. He's a three-time Bellator champ. He was also an NCAA All-American coming out of the University of Missouri, not Nebraska, but that's okay. But Mike, welcome back to the pod. We've had you on a couple times. It is good to see your beautiful face, dude. Good to see you too, man. I wish I was there on the bus with you. I know. Here we are. The miles between us won't stop us from having a good conversation. Exactly. You're like, it looks like by the looks of your spot. Number one, grungy-looking spot. I love it. It looks like you're in a bit of a trailer like you're in Russia in Rocky 4 and you're preparing for the for the battle, dude.

That's what I did, dude. I've been been trotting through the snow in Russia and I got myself a nice little camper out here in the middle of the Russian wilderness. Now, I didn't. I got a VRBO here in Florida. Nothing spectacular, man. I got a bed. I got an oven and a refrigerator. That's all I need. That's awesome. I love. love it. So I want to dive right in. You went recently from Bellator. You had a, you, it was Henderson, you knocked out. And right after that fight, your final fight in Bellator, you were a free agent. You set yourself up very nicely in free agency and you had a decision to make. Take us through, walk your boy through that process because we texted about it a little bit,

but I would love to know how all of that works. Because you've got to be excited going into free agency after a knockout and getting set up for, you know, now you're in the UFC. But walk me through how that works. Yeah, you know, the, you know, about a year ago when I was on the bus, we were talking about, I only had, you know, two fights left on my contract, three fights left on my contract. And you want to, you want to get through them, just like in football, just like any other sport, you want to, you want to have a good showing inside of your contract, the confines of your contract, but you always want to end on a high note.

Each time that my contract was about to be up with Bellator, they always made me an offer that was hard to refuse. And I also always looked at the landscape in the UFC. Each time that my contract was coming up with Bellator, there was always something kind of weird going on, or there was a log jam going on, or Connor was going off fighting Floyd Mayweather, or there was some kind of weird thing happening.

This time, everything worked out perfectly for me to go into my last fight and essentially bet on myself. So I went out there, knocked out Benson in the first round. Then I became a restricted free agent as you guys call it in football where the current promotion I was with had right of first refusal. They had matching rights. The UFC could have made me an offer and Bellator could have matched it and I would have henceforth

been kind of stuck with Bellator, if you will, but Bellator didn't match the UFC offer, which worked out really well. But it was a couple of week process where I was fielding offers from all the major promotions in the world. Obviously the UFC was where I always wanted to end up. I just didn't know if it was going to present itself in the most advantageous position for essentially being a good offer. And the offer was great. Sat down with Dana White and Hunter Campbell, the UFC brass.

And I've laid it out to them what I thought I could do in the UFC lightweight division. They laid it out how badly they wanted me. And here we are. Damn, that is crazy. So did you have anxiety through that process at all thinking like, because I didn't know you were restricted to a agent, But did you have a little bit like, damn, you know, I hope the UFC offers something that Bellator doesn't match?

Yeah, I was. You know, and it wasn't anything against Bellator, but I mean, it's probably similar to all kinds of different, you know, sports, sports franchises. You know, I was with Bellator for so long, and I fought some of the same guys, you know, twice, some guys three times. I held all the, you know, most of the major records in Bellator, mainly because of my tenure with the with the organization was there for nine years. There wasn't a ton left to accomplish in Bellator. I still feel like I'm the best lightweight in the world at that time when I was making

that decision. So I decided to bet on myself, you know, and, you know, for me, the biggest thing was, okay, I want to get offers from all the major organizations, of course, because it raises your stock, but mainly from the UFC. And, you know, I'll be honest, the UFC wasn't the biggest offer. There was a lot more money being thrown around by a lot more, a couple different other organizations around the world. But the UFC seemed like the best place for me to, A, go compete against the best guys in the world. B, know that someday when I retired, I'm going to be able to put my head on my pillow at night,

sleeping soundly, knowing that I gave everything that I possibly could. And I took a chance on myself, just like that little young 18-year-old Michael Chandler, who was getting offers from the smaller schools. But I decided to walk on to the University of Missouri because I wanted to bet on myself. I wanted the opportunity to go Division I, ride the bench, if I have to be a training dummy if I have to end up quitting and and puttering out, taking the chance of all of those possible scenarios happening. But if I didn't make that leap, if I didn't take that leap of faith,

then I would have never known what could I have accomplished. Same thing here with the UFC. If I never went to the UFC, how would I sleep at night someday saying I was a pretty good at fighting, but I never fought the best guys in the world. I never fought in the biggest organization in the world. And the offer came in. I was ecstatic. I said, give me a pen.

It's time to sign. And here we are. Oh, let's go. Did you're getting the blood flowing. You're getting me hype right now. So you are saying that UFC has the best fighters. Is that what you're saying? 100%.

And for a long time, for a long time, you know, you want to be, you want to be honest about the divisions. You want to be honest about the organizations. But you also, you know, you want to pander to your current employer as well. So the last thing I was going to do is say, yeah, I fight and bell at war, but I really want to fight those U.S. Right, right, right, right. They're much better than Belator guys. But that's not to say that there's not some standout guys in the Bellator organization.

I believe that some of the champions in Bellator could very much give the UFC champions a run for their money if you select guys. But as far as depth of roster, as far as worldwide recognition of the major sports organization that the UFC is, they are a well-oiled machine. And that has been very apparent since day one. Since day one that I signed with them, I got 25 new sports organization. contacts in my phone of people who are high functioning individuals that are getting stuff done from Dana White all the way down to the gophers who are just kind of coming on to the UFC staff. They are well-oil machine, you know, probably similar to it probably somewhat rivals what a NFL organization team looks like. They have set it up that way and it is absolutely amazing.

So you're saying that that's one of the big differences you've seen from Bellator and the UFC is the organization and the way that their machine kind of functions and tailored tours tailors towards guys like you are tailors towards their fighters yeah 100% I mean I think uh you know and that's not to downplay what bellator has accomplished bellator has accomplished a that legitimate number two spot with some really great standout fighters they put on great shows scott cocker's a great promoter uh but they run more of a skeleton crew compared to the ufc you know I was over in abo dobbobie in October and they had a hundred something people there on staff. And that's just absolutely the exact opposite of Bellatory. They don't have a huge

staff, but they do a really good job with the staff that they have. But the UFC is just a well-oiled machine. And there's a lot of pros, and there's a couple cons to that probably, I'm sure, that some guys have kind of gone through. But for me, thus far, signing with the UFC has been a huge eye-opening experience. It's been nothing but amazing. The platform is huge. Immediately, the the growth of my platform, the growth of my name, the growth of everything happened overnight. And it somewhat has worked to my, you know, I guess detriment in certain regards because there was so much hype that is, that has been me signing with the UFC and then becoming the backup fighter for that October 24th world title fight that people feel like I've been signed with the organization

for six months, eight months a year because they've heard so much about me. But it's only been a little over three months now. And in that short period of time, we've gotten a lot of stuff done, built a big platform and I can't wait to step into that octagon. Dude, I know it has been truly amazing to watch because obviously we got to know each other over the last year, year and a half and it's been awesome to see kind of you transcend into the UFC and stuff like that. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the timing has worked out very well for you on now being the right time to sign into the UFC because you signed, you've been with Bellator so long that you kind of turned into their poster boy and now you

the timing just seems right to go into the UFC. Do you feel like guys who are deeper on like the UFC roster? Do you think guys who aren't in line for title fights and stuff like that should maybe look at the road that you've kind of taken to get to the UFC because you've got to accomplish so much and become one of the poster boys for Bellator? You can kind of get spotlighted a little more since you're not in the running for all these title fights in the UFC. Yeah, 100%.

You know, and everybody's got their own path and their own, you know, their own way that they want to go. as I've said, the UFC is the premier mixed martial arts sports organization in the world. They are not losing any ground. If anything, they are doubling and tripling in size. So they will continue to dominate. But so every young guy that I'm training with at Sanford, MMA down here, or every young guy I come across, all they want to do is get those UFC gloves on them.

They want to get that UFC fight kit on. They want to go out there and they want to fight in front of Dana White and fighting that octagon. trust me, I haven't done it yet, but it's going to be the highlight of my career the first time I step into that cage and then so on whenever I win that world title. But there is something to be said about the patient route that you're building brick by boring brick. And trust me, I've had to swallow my pride thousands of times. I've taken pictures for fans with my UFC fighter friends. I've been around my people like, hey, man, you train MMA? I'm like, yeah, I'm actually the belt to a world champion.

but whatever man yeah here let me take a picture of Ryan Bader you know it's and I've had to swallow my pride now I've also been rewarded for that patience you know I'm now I've gotten a great contract with the UFC I've been thrusted into a top five opponent um right away is is what we're looking at and what I'm not settling for any less than um and I made a great living with bellator the goal and this goes with any industry your industry you know football any sports industry, any corporate industry, make yourself an indispensable asset. And once you've made yourself an indispensable asset, your stock is risen so high that you can either continue in your course of action with your current company or be the hottest free agent on the market. And it works out

extremely well for you. And that's kind of where I was. And I was one of the biggest free agent signings in mixed martial arts history. And that's what we've kind of seen over the last couple months and it's been a great ride and and and i and i owe a debt of gratitude to bell ator and those guys who there who gave me a chance gave me the platform but then i also owe it to my coaches and my training partners the guys who have helped build me up um and now here i am i still feel like the best version of myself my last performance was arguably the best performance of my career so how do you how do you argue that i can't go out there and compete with the best guys in the world was that your pitch when you're sitting down with the ufc and you because you mentioned earlier you were kind of like

telling your story about how you can make, you know, how you would make waves in the UFC. Put me in that conversation. Is that how you're kind of pitching yourself to Dana White? What's the strategy behind it? Like what is going on in your mind? What makes the most sense if I'm the UFC talking to you about this negotiation? You know, for me, it was, and it was funny too. I was so nervous because you're nervous. Oh, hell yeah, bro. You know, it's Dana White is the UFC. This is what the culmination of all the hard work that I put in. I knew eventually I was going to get to this point and get this opportunity. opportunity. So don't screw it up, right? So right. You know, I texted my father-in-law and I was just like, hey, you know, say a prayer for me. I'm heading to the meeting. He sent me John 1-5. He who lacks wisdom asked for it and God will give it to you. And that's really what it was, man. I just said, God, give me the wisdom. Give me the wisdom. We're just, chest, proud, chin up, letting these guys know that I'm going to be their world champion in the next 12 months. We had a great, I had a great conversation with Hunter Campbell, who's the number two in command in the UFC.

the legal counsel, Dana White's legal counsel, he goes to him on everything. The one other guy in the organization who can make the big decisions aside from Dana White. We had a great conversation. I told him I was going to be a world champion.

I told him what I wanted to do. I want to be the good guy. I want to be a good guy for the brand. I know you got all these guys who are pain in the rears to deal with. The heels. The heels. Trust me, I want to be a good thing for your organization.

10 minutes later, Dana White calls me. we have a five minute conversation. He essentially hangs up on me because our conversation was going so well and he got so pumped up. He hangs up on me, calls me back two minutes later. And he said, listen, I just talked to Hunter. I said, give him whatever, whatever the F we got to give you. So nobody else.

Did you say that? You said that's what he said. Oh, that's what he said. I was going to say. He called me back. Did you drop the F bomb? No, he did. No, he did.

And, you know, and really it was for me, I'll tell you what my, it wasn't a sales fish. It came from the heart. I told Dana, I said, listen, listen, Dana, you don't need me. You know, you have built the greatest mixed martial arts sports franchise in the history of the sport, the culmination of this sport. And you haven't paid me one dime.

And your name hasn't been on one of my checks over the last 10 years, but indirectly, your name has been on every single one of the checks that I have cashed because of new bootstrapping and quarterbacking and building this whole sport of mixed martial arts. I owe it to you. all of the money, all of the, all of the success that I've had is all be off the coattails of what you've done. And he's like, oh, that's awesome. And he basically hangs up on me, you know. And you need to be an agent when you get done fighting. But the funny thing is, like, it wasn't a sales bitch. It wasn't tell this guy what he wants to hear. Like I, before I

knew Dana White, I admired him for what he has done. Um, before I ever even signed with the UFC, I truly, I truly believe that there are these, there are these thought leaders and the shakers and movers in your industry that are paving the way in building sports, building organizations, building pathways, building tech, building whatever industry that you're in. And that's what we talked about, you know, because he was like, I think you can do this here. I think you can do that here. I think we can do this for you. It's just different. Trust me, it's bigger than all these other organizations. And I'm like, trust me, I believe it. I haven't not fought for you because I didn't want to. It just never worked out that way and worked out perfectly. Now he's my boss.

So now I can't wait to go out there and fight for him. That's amazing. I love hearing that story. So you go from that conversation. Now you're with the UFC. You've been posting, your brands, been growing like you're Michael Chandler. People are ready to see you fight. Now, where you are right now? You're in Florida. You're in the middle of a training camp.

You're grinding, basically, but you don't exactly know who you're going to be fighting. You had those conversations with Dana. Everybody's fired up. Signatures are on the dotted line. Now you're in the middle of a training camp, and you're not necessarily known what's next. What is next? What is coming up for you? Is it Gathe? Is it Ferguson?

What do you feel in your gut because you haven't really heard anything yet? So what do you feel like is coming? What is on the horizon for you? What's going on in your world right now? Yeah, so originally when I signed, we had that fight October 24th in Abu Dhabi. Khabib was going to fight Gai Chi for the world title. They wanted me to fight in the co-main event against Tony Ferguson or Dustin Porey. I said yes to both of those names.

They both said no. Turns out it worked out perfect for Dustin Poree. Now he gets the counterfeit. a nice big money fight, big high profile fight for him. Tony Ferguson, not so much. He just had to be kind of pushed into that December 12th card, which I guess was what he wanted. He lost to Oliveira now.

So Ferguson's kind of off the table. Alvara has now put his name kind of in that top five mix. Dan Hooker's in the top five mix. But Justin Gachy's the fight that I want. Justin Gaci, when he came over from World Series of Fighting a couple of years ago, he got a top five opponent right away. Justin Gachie is the most highly ranked guy in the top five. We match up really well against each other.

We're actually cut from the same cloth. He's cut from our cloth, man. He's a, he's a fucking wolf. Yeah, he's a small town wrestler. Like, I got to meet his mom and dad. They both came out. They're both humble beginnings. You know, his dad works in the copper mines in Arizona.

You know, we run with the same crowds. We're very similar. And then our fight styles are similar. We want to bite down our mouthpiece, come across that aqua gun, and get into a fist fight. I think it's a perfect way to introduce myself to the UFC fans. finally give them what they want, which is me actually stepping inside that octagon. And I haven't not stepped into the octagon because I didn't want to. I wanted to fight October 24th.

I wanted to fight Ferguson-O-Pori. It just didn't work out. Justin Gatesy's my number one. My number one goal right now is to fight him. And I would love it to be January 23rd on that Connor Poree card. They might as well have another lightweight fight on that card, another high-profile lightweight fight on that card in case anything weird happens with injuries or COVID or whatnot. You always got to have a backup plan in the era of. COVID right now. So that's best case scenario for me. And I'm training like that's when I'm fighting.

So we'll see. Is it is a difficult training not knowing exactly what's about to happen because you're obviously in the middle of a training camp preparing like you're going to fight in January. Is it weird? Does it make it difficult when you don't exactly know who your opponent is when you're going about your training? The funny thing is if you would ask me that three months ago, I would say, yeah, it's hard. But I've actually had an even harder scenario was me training. six weeks down here away from my family to be the backup fighter for Khab and Gachi. So I'm training for both of those, but knowing there's probably a less than 20% chance that I'm actually going to fight one of these guys.

So I signed on the dotted line to go to Abu Dhabi and be the backup fighter. You know, I don't get my full purse. And there was a very small chance that I'm going to fight one of those guys. So I kind of felt like, man, this sucks. I'm away from my family. And I'm probably not going to fight. This time, I feel like I'm actually going to fight. I'm down here training for in a training camp that will culminate in a fight.

I don't know if it's Gaecchi. I don't know if it's Hooker. I don't know if it's Olavera. I don't know if it's Connor Roporier. If one of those fights, you know, falls through in the next week or so, who knows. But either way, my body, my mind, my spirit needs to be ready January 23rd. So that's what I'm laying the groundwork for, laying the foundation for. So I have a goal in mind.

And that's going to be a fight January 23rd. The opponent doesn't really matter too much. You know, they're 155 pounds. They got two arms. They got two legs. They have certain different attributes and idiosyncrasies and habits that they all possess. Game plan is always going to be pretty much similar for all three of those ones or all five, six of those opponents in the top five. And just train and be the best me I can be when I show up in the cage inside that octagon January 23rd, hopefully.

When you eventually become the lightweight champion of the UFC, are you bummed? Were you bummed to see Kibaba? retire? Were you, did you see that coming, knowing the negotiations you were having? Like, did Khabib keep that so close to the vest that he didn't announce it until that moment? Or was that something you were prepared for or understood going into this contract with the UFC? No, I did not know that. And truthfully, you know, you never quite know, you know, what is true or whatnot. But I mean, talking to the UFC brass that night right after, right after Kibb retired, they didn't even know what was coming, you know?

Damn. So I don't know if it was just in the moment thing, you know, to lay the ground or to lay like kind of the groundwork backstory, he had just lost his father a couple months before. And it wasn't just his father. It was his mentor, his hero, his coach, his everything. To COVID too. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, he, I think he was just carrying the pressure and the weight of all of that and wanted to step away. He is absolutely the best lightweight of all time, possibly pound for pound best fighter on earth in the history of mixed martial. arts. He's ever, he has failed to ever look even close to beatable in any of his fights. And, yeah, I think the first moment being there, Caged side, and it worked out perfectly too. I had a mic on. I had a camera on me to get my reaction and kind of break down the fight as it was happening. Yeah. And then it was just, we were, we were all kind of just in awe, to be honest, that, that he was making this speech that he was talking about walking away. He had just got done finishing Justin Gachie, you know, one of the baddest dudes on the planet in the early in the second round and starts retiring and it was almost like the pressure and the weight that was on his heart,

on his soul was getting sucked out of that octagon and he was just letting it, letting it off because he has been carrying that burden and the pain and the pressure for, you know, six, eight months leading up to that fight. And so part of me, my first thought was, man, this stinks, man. I want to beat that guy. That's the guy. If that's the number one guy in the world. If that's the number one guy in the history of the lightweight division, that's the guy that I want to compete against. But also, I was also in all of the spectacular career that he had had. And I kind of took my competitor hat off and put my fan, my fan hat on and just enjoyed the moment. So I think Khabib is a man of his word. He has also said he can come back with his mother's blessing.

I think we'll see Kibb compete again inside the octagon. And I hope I'm holding that belt when he does. or I hope, you know, I'm fighting him for his belt when he does. Yeah, that would be, so you think he'll be back? It's hard, man, because I, he doesn't need the, he doesn't need the money. You know, he is, this is, this is the guy who rubs elbows with Vladimir Putin. He is, he is, he is the biggest sports superstar over there in that country. And he is the biggest, he is the biggest Muslim athlete in the world right now. He's starting his own fight promotions.

He's starting online training. He's, the guy is, for life. He's even said, and I truly believe in when he says it. You know, some of us guys, also, us as fighters can say, oh, I'm not going to fight Connor. He doesn't deserve to fight me when really, you know, behind closed doors, we're saying, hey, I'm taking that money fight. But I truly believe when he says he doesn't want to fight Connor for the money because he doesn't think that Connor deserves it. I truly believe it because the guy's set for life. He doesn't need to fight. He doesn't, and if he doesn't want to fight, he doesn't have to. So we'll see. But I think

I think 29 and 0 is just an interesting, almost just weird number to end on. You might as well make it even 30. You know, I think that's what we all thought. We all thought he would make it to 30 and 0 and then retire. So I think he's got one fight left in him, if any. But then again, you never know. This sport, when it's taken away from you, you know, for a short amount of time or a long period of time, you get that it's pretty quick and you don't know it until you get there.

Right. When we're talking about all this real fighting happening. when you look out into the mainstream of social media and everything else and you see the likes of Logan Paul calling out Connor McGregor yesterday. We're talking right now. I don't know if you saw that yesterday, but just an obnoxious video calling out Connor McGregor and stuff like that. When you see that kind of stuff going on, what is, what goes through your mind?

What goes through your mind when you kind of see these influencers or like, you know, the Paul, I mean, really, it's the Paul brothers trying to put these fighting promotions and all this stuff together. like from a real fighter's perspective like what is going through your mind did you see Nate Diaz react I did yeah I saw that he said he needs to ask me for free yeah that would be that would be a good fight I wouldn't be surprised if that happens so number one I will always say I will never hate on another man for making a living for doing his thing doing it how he wants to do it do I does my does my moral fabric line up with with uh you know Jake Paul absolutely not would Would we be friends?

Absolutely not. But I'm not going to hate on the man for what he's doing. As a real fighter and a real sports organization and a real competitive bracket where we're all trying to just become world champions, it scares me a little bit because the eyeballs are there. The hype is there. The paper view buys is there. Right. There's, you know, Connor goes out, beats Porier. I go out there, beat Gachie, Oliver, whoever.

and he's got a $100 million fight against Jake Paul, he's probably taking $100 million to fight against Jake Paul. I'm not going to fault him for it. As a guy who wants to provide for his family, I would fault him for it as a legitimate athlete. As a legitimate athlete, you don't take those fights whenever you have good fights on the table. But then again, like I said,

if you and me are having a conversation, you know, if I got $100 million fight on the table, probably going to go ahead and take that, you know? So it's scary because just like I said, I didn't sign with the UFC years, you know, two years ago, four years ago when my contracts were up because there was log jams and there was weird stuff happening. And Connor going over to fight Florida.

And now Connor talking about fighting Manny Pachial. And then now you add in some YouTube stars who can sell, you know, millions of paper views. You're just like, dang, man, it's hard out here for the legit athlete. Yeah, yeah. all the grind. Yeah. Walking on the University of Missouri,

scrapping the way you've scrapped all the way to get, finally get to this point. You got some, you got some influencers. And you're right. Like, it's hard to hate on somebody trying to, doing what they're able to accomplish and do. They've obviously built those platforms for themselves,

but it does got to sting and suck like, hey, I'll fucking clawed for this shit, dude. Yeah. I apologize for cursing. I know you're not a big cursor. I got to get better to. No, you're good, man.

No, the, but it's funny too. Like, think about if they started NFL Blitz that you know like the same rules as that game NFL Blitz we used to play with kids yeah yeah be able to suplex people and punch them yeah I'm like if they started a league like that you'd be like well that's not legitimate but people are watching that because that's sensationalism it's crazy yeah that's the same exact thing you're like we're legit we're legitimate football players over here trying to make a living doing what we're doing um and it's uh you know it's it's

it's it's a little bit scary like I said because the call out was real he brought his wife into it. He, you know, he, dude, I know. That's what I did. I wasn't like, I, again, like, I wasn't necessarily hating on the, like, like Jake Paul. He beat Nate Robinson.

He looked good. He's, doing it. Yada, yada. He's doing good. Like, that's awesome that he's able to do that. But when the whole, the wife stuff came out and everything else, I was like, man, what, what are we doing? Like, no, that funny thing is that's exactly, that is exactly what I said.

Like, what, what are, what are we doing? What is, what is, what is the fight world? it is, you know, but then the pay-per-view numbers come out and you realize they're selling pay-per-views. And it goes back to, you know, I'll go back to my past a little bit. When I was with Bellator, you'd have, you know, if you remember, this guy named Dada-5,000 fought Kimbo Slice. Dada-Five was like in an underground fight club league and was on YouTube and was on YouTube. And Kimbo Slice was a YouTube star and they fought each other. And you had Ken Shamrock coming back and fighting Hoist Gracie. All these like freak show fights, they called it. But they got the most

views, you know, and I benefited from it because I was always usually the co-main event and I got a lot of eyeballs. But you're like, man, what are these freak show fights? And then now you got, you know, Connor versus Floyd was, you know, they're both legitimate athletes, but there was no way in a million years that Connor was ever going to even come close to to being Floyd Mayweather unless he carried the fight, unless Floyd carried the fight like, kind of like you did. There's no way in a million years that Jake Paul beats Connor McGregor, but people are going to watch if it happens. I know. I know, dude. I'm hoping like obviously Connor, he's fighting again, so I hope he gets back in the mix and the UFC and stuff,

but obviously there's money everywhere to be made these days. These guys have huge names and eyeballs and stuff like that. When you become the champ, the good guy needs to call out the bad guy, and you need to try to get Jake Paul into the octagon with Michael Chandler. I'm down with that, man. So we'll see. We'll talk to Dana about it. Like he had some choice words for Dana, you know, so we'll talk to Dana about it.

Oh, that's true. He did have some choice words that. I forgot about that. He did, you know? And you just like, dude, just sit back in your YouTube mansion. and just, I mean, it makes it like, why, why Connor, though? Why you got to go all the way straight to the biggest global, you know, combat sports superstar?

Yeah, you know, I get, you know, you couldn't fight someone else. Like a Diaz would be a good, good option, maybe a little bit more on the skill level, right, if you will. But then again, if you're Jake Ball, go to the top because the chances of you getting what you want are highly, a lot more likely than a lot of the rest of us sometimes. I think it'd be cool if, like, Connor literally paid him. no mind. Like literally does not, does not ever speak his name or talk about it or anything. Yeah. I haven't seen a response. Yeah, I know. Is he in a camp right now? In Conner, he's probably

gearing up to fight. So I hope no, it'd be cool if he just says nothing. You know what I mean? Like pay him zero attention. I was thinking it'd be hilarious if you're like the neighbor of Jake Paul and you're like sitting up on the floor and you kind of look out the blind and you just kind of see that video and promotion going on. You're just saying, yeah, what the fuck is going on out here? Well, no, if you're Jake Paul's neighbor, you're like, oh, Jake's being Jake right now. Like, that's what you're used to. At least a stop showing up and raiding your place. At least he's just doing stupid.

Right. Yeah, no doubt, dude, no doubt. Well, I know you got to go. You got to get some body work. You're in the middle of camp right now. Thank you so much for joining the boys. A lot of good shit, dude. You know your boy is always rooting for you.

What do we got to do to get a little team busing and a little team busing logo on the, on them shorts? I'm trying to get on them trunks. Team busing. or just put the boy the wolf whatever you want to put on there but if we get a little little busing thing on there you know what you think yeah you know what stinks now is is now that I'm with the UFC we can't put anything on our shorts oh really should have done it for the last fight yeah you can't do it on the shorts so the shorts are essentially I'll have monster because

monster I'll have monster on my shorts because I'm a monster athlete and monster is one of the main sponsors of the UFC um and then I have my name Chandler on them and that's that's it that's all they do but we could uh you got yeah you got to send me some merch I'll wear it I'll wear it fight week yeah I got you man That'll be dope. You're definitely our fighter for busting with the boys. So we're rooting for you, bro. Go get your body work in.

But thanks so much for coming on. Appreciate you, man. Love all the success that you guys are having, man. It's awesome. It's well deserved and the boys are headed into the top. Let's go. Thank you, brother. When you get done winning that next fight,

you'll have to come on in January or early February. You'll be right here next to me. I'm ready. I'm ready. Let's do it. All right, brother. Okay. See you.

See you, man. Big shout out to you guys. If you enjoyed this episode and love and support you, support Bustin with the Boys, go to whatever podcast platform you're on and subscribe to us. Leave a review, rate five stars. If you're already subscribed, unsubscribe, and resubscribe again. It helps the boys climb the charts. And again, we wouldn't be doing this and can't do this without you guys and all of your support.

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