MMA Fighting - #454 – Sijara Eubanks, Randy Couture, Cat Zingano

Episode Date: October 23, 2018

Luke Thomas speaks to Sijara Eubanks about the UFC canceling her women's flyweight title fight with Valentina Shevchenko and her now upcoming fight with Roxanne Modafferi at UFC 230 (18:30); Randy Couture to discuss the latest on getting the Ali Act extended to MMA, Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz 3 (37:00); Cat Zingano about her featherweight bout with Megan Anderson at UFC 232 and Cris Cyborg vs. Amanda Nunes (1:13:25). Luke also looks at one big reason Tony Ferguson is the toughest challenge for Khabib Nurmagomedov on the Monday Morning Analyst (54:47), and he also shares his thoughts on the suspensions given out for the Lakers-Rockets brawl and how that relates to MMA on The Weigh-in (2:18). We also answer your questions on the latest in MMA on A Round of Tweets (12:30) and Sound Off (1:33:11). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. This is the MMA hour right here on MMAFighting.com. We will give you the usual, as we always do, the way in, a round of tweets, the Monday morning analyst, the sound off and so much more, plus a trio of guests at about 1220, Sejorie Eubanks will be here. She was going to headline UFC 230. Now she's not, but she's still on the card.

We'll talk to her about what happened there. At 1240, he is the natural, a two-weight division, or two-weight world champion in the UFC at some point, is now working with the PFL. Also with the Ali Act. We'll catch up with Randy Couture at about 1240, and then at about 115 or so, we'll check in with Kat Zingano.

She is going to be taken on Megan Anderson in a featherweight bout at the end of the year, so we'll talk to her about why she's doing that, what she anticipates, and a whole lot more. But then the sound off with you donkeys, where you are my guest, as always, number to call 844-866-2468. We also have been taking your questions, comments, and other remarks using the hashtag the MMA hour. Yes? Yes, in fact, we have.

All right, not a moment to waste. I appreciate you guys joining me. Let's check in with my man in the back. I believe he is ready. The arroz to my frioles, the arqueapite to my pan. Danny Seguera. Hi, Danny. How are you?

How's it going? It goes well, my friend. You had a good weekend. I did. Very chill weekend, right? Not too much going on in the world of MMA, but... No. I guess sometimes that's good a little bit. It's often very good, actually. It's not even rarely that's good. It's usually good. Yeah.

The tweets and the calls, give me a sense of things. They were very good, and for some reason the calls were very music-oriented. Music-oriented. Yes, you'll find out. Is that because you screen them in a way that makes them music-oriented? No, I think that's just the type of calls that we got. people were either, you know, dropping in there, some people, we had some people freestyle on there. We had some people play guitar. I mean, very musical.

Interesting. All right. We'll get to that. And towards the end of the show, we started a little late, so I don't want to mess with the show clock too much. So we'll check you with you a little bit later, my friend. Sounds good. All right. With that being said, let us get going. It is time now on the MMA hour for the way in. So I don't know if you guys noticed this or not. There wasn't a whole lot of MMA over the weekend. There was PFL 10 in my hometown of Washington, D.C. But there was not otherwise a great deal happening, but there was something kind of instructive that happened over the weekend. Namely, there was a brawl in the NBA. LeBron James, now a Los Angeles Laker. It was the opening night in the Staples Center against the Houston Rockets, another team out West that are very,

very good. I know MMA fans are wondering, why are you talking about this? This is an MMA show, because it's related, and I'm going to tie it all in. So give me just a moment if you can. But there was this brawl that happened. There's a lot of different factors at play. Brandon Ingram, a man who appears to be incapable of fighting his way out of a wet paper bag, is part of the problem. And then these two other gentleman, Chris Paul and Rajan Rondo, got into it after Rondo allegedly spit in Chris Paul's face. You can see some of the highlights here. And then, of course, Chris Paul pushes him away.

Rondo throws that punch. And a whole melee ensues. Brandon Ingram comes back in looking like an idiot, and he throws a punch. And so there you have it. Now, it got separated quickly. LeBron James, there you can see who was friends with Chris Paul in real life separating them. All right. Now, you're asking, as you look at some of these highlights, what on earth does this have to do with anything?

And I think the answer is it actually has a lot to do with UFC 229. Now, the events are not related in the sense that one caused the other. I don't mean that, but I mean the reaction more widely and how it was handled tells us a lot about MMA, the UFC, and then the fighters involved from 229. And everyone's had an opinion about the brawl, but we haven't seen any brawls subsequently in other sports until this time, although Joseo Marino out in the English Premier League also getting up and losing his mind, which was hilarious to see. But let's talk about this for just a second.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, a couple of things. Look, all of the various players, quite literally, or some of the other stakeholders involved in this brawl, they all came out in the coaches talking about how regrettable it was and how sad they were to see it and how unfortunate it was and there's never a cause for it, all of them doing the common things that you're supposed to do to save face in the public. Right. And there aren't any real concerns that this is somehow indicative of how the NBA is. Some people were alarmed that this happened like on the opening night at the Staples Center, but you don't see the same kind of hand-wringing.

Connor McGregor gets in a brawl with Zubaira Tugugov. And yes, this one over in the UFC was a little bit worse and a little bit more involved. And certainly a lot more heated. This was a little bit spur of the moment. The one of the UFC was a lot more involved and simmering and longstanding. But nevertheless, you don't see these cross. eyes and these clutching of pearls that the world is ending because a couple of grown men wanted to settle a dispute through violence.

Grown men often want to do that. They're just not allowed to do that. So it was interesting to watch the media reaction. The media didn't really beat up on the NBA. They didn't really beat up too much on the players. No one really got hurt all that bad. So if you're wondering what the media reaction was, certainly the UFC got the worst end of it, but for maybe reasons you could understand.

You could understand that a melee that was. involved outside of the octagon and inside of the octagon would be frowned upon. You can understand that in a fistfighting sport, when the contest leads to real fistfights out beyond the confines of the sport itself, that people get naturally alarmed. So that part to me, while unfortunate and maybe a bit of a double standard, kind of makes sense. But that's not actually why I brought it up. I brought it up for not those reasons. I brought it up because I wanted to talk about how the league handled it and what that means for the UFC. So did you guys see what happened? The league within about 24 hours, maybe a little bit longer than that, weighed in. And they brought all of their

hammers down. They gave Chris Paul two days. They gave, I think, Rajan Rondo three, and they gave Brandon Ingram four. In a public release, they explained why. They took out each person's game check So it looks like Chris Paul got fined half a million dollars, but it's just what he would get for two games. Same for Brandon Ingram. Same for Ray Jean Rondo. So they acted quickly. They explained their reasoning.

And, you know, the coach of the Rockets came out and said, oh, this is too much. And Luke Walton of the Lakers was like, there's nothing wrong with our locker room. Everyone is going to say the things they need to say to support their players and save face. But I'm pointing here that the league acted quickly. The league acted with authority.

the league acted, what I would say is, almost in a lenient way, but certainly authoritative enough to let it go. Now, the UFC doesn't have the same problems that the NBA does. The NBA is not regulated by the Athletic Commission. So the UFC is going to say, well, look, they're already going to get punished by these people. Do we really want to heap things on top of them? And I can understand that from a structural standpoint, you don't want to go to a space where you're just being,

super punitive. That's an advantage to a degree that the NBA has in situations like this. At the same time, however, they acted quickly. They came out and explained their reasoning. They came out with statements. They came out and acted like a professional organization that tries to shun these kinds of things that tried to put the lid on top of the pot before it boiled over again and other questions remained, rather than just deferring to somebody else. They took control, is my point, of the situation. They have more control to take, but whatever leeway they had, they took. I didn't see the UFC do that.

Not saying it's the end of the world that they didn't, but there's a difference there. But to me, it was the real difference here is how the players were punished. Now, the NBA has a degree of latitude. They can not do whatever they want, but there are things written down and a degree of flexibility. they have in awarding punishments. But a lot of that stems from the collective bargaining agreement. The players, as a unit and a union, put down on paper with the league what they could be punished, in what ways they could be punished, what the league can do, what the league can't

do, what rights they have, and so forth. So, for example, if they had wanted to, it's written in the CBA that before you get suspended, you have a right to meet with the NBA and have them look at the video and explain why no punishment should befall you or that it shouldn't be that bad. You have rights. You have abilities. You have things you can do to mitigate the worst of it because they collectively bargained for it. They made it work in unison.

And as a consequence, that probably saved them a little bit of the worst end of the punishment that they maybe could have gotten. Now, do they exercise all of their rights? I don't know. But here's my point about this. People keep blaming the UFC, and they could have acted with, I think, they could have taken more control

of the situation of UFC 229 if they had wanted to. But the bigger point to me is really about the fighters. Look, there's a lot of things that pass with the words MMA journalism on it that don't get, don't deserve to be called that. There's actually very little MMA journalism that ever exists anyway. most of the time it doesn't even really exist.

There's very, very few guys actually practicing it at the high end and the low end. People often wonder why MMA media has a, there's a low opinion of them. It's because y'all won't ask the questions to the people in power that you need to and you won't voice your opinion for fear of retribution, whether it's a fighter or somebody else. That's why the opinion is low. But if there is one issue where they have absolutely done their job, If there is one issue where they have hammered at home, it is with this one about the benefits of being employees, about the benefits of getting together, about having your own collective bargaining

agreement, and what that might mean. And would it solve all the problems? I don't know. Would it even have solved this problem? Hard to say, here's what I do know. At least you'd have some kind of procedure. At least you'd have some kind of protocol to follow. At least you would know what kind of things would befall you.

There'd be a degree of flexibility involved. The commission would still take their pound of flesh, but there would be some kind of understanding about these processes because you would have picked up on it. And the reason why people are upset about Connor not getting suspended and nothing should happen to Habib is because no one wants to take ownership of this situation, not the UFC and not even the fighters.

You can get mad at the media for a lot of things. This ain't one of them, folks. This ain't the hill to die on, because you will lose that argument. The reality is we have shed in the media as much light as we possibly can about this. And the fighters have decided collectively to this point to do nothing about it.

So I got to be honest, I'm a little bit tired of hearing arguments that things are unfair and that you weren't treated right this time and that things were unequal and it could have been better. If that's the way you feel, then do something about it.

Get off your ass and sign a Project Spearhead card or don't, and then just keep living under the whim of people who have all the leverage over you. I can point to the things UFC did and the things UFC didn't. I can do that all day. But in the reality, they don't have as much leeway as leverage, frankly, or excuse me, leeway as the NBA. They don't have as much freedom to act as they do. They're a little bit of an indifferent situation. You guys are not.

You guys can do something about it. and you continually decide not to and then wonder why the stars get special treatment. You know why the stars get special treatment? Because you enable them to get special treatment. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the way in it. All right. With that out of the way, it is time. And I believe we have new graphics, ladies and gentlemen, for a round of tweets.

Amazing. All right, clock starts when the first tweet goes up. Let's do it. Let's do it. Here we go. All right. Habib versus Tony over under 600,000 paper viewbys. Ooh, that's a good one. I will say, man, I'll say under, but just barely.

I will say under. I'll say 500,000. But that's a great question. That's an interesting thing to ponder. Next. Is Connor versus Anderson actually a possibility? Well, anything's a possibility, right? Me versus Connor is a possibility.

I think what you're meaning is, is there a degree of probability to it? And to that, I would say, almost assuredly no. However, we live in a world where Connor fought Floyd Mayweather. So what do I know? Next. If McGregor fights Silva at a catch weight of, let's say, 180 pounds, as rumored, or even 179, I heard, what should I do first? Do shots of bleach or rewatch the Kimbo-Sliced Dada-F-Thousand-Fight.

Well, don't do shots of bleach because there's no reason for you to suffer any more than you already have to. but certainly re-watching Kimbo Slice. That out of 5,000, the fight I was there live for, is always for a time to lighten the mood. Yes, rest of peace, Kimbo Slice. All right, next. How come chili and mashed potatoes

don't go together, but they go with everything else? On what planet do mashed potatoes go with everything else? Like, how does that make? Oh, yeah, here's my mashed potato and flan or cheesecake soufflis. That sounds terrible. Or how about, here's my chili.

Let me just dump this on top of my paella. I mean, if your paella is at all worth a damn, you just ruined it with some chili. So the question's nonsensical from the outset. Next. If DC happens to lose at UFC 230, does he still get stripped of the light heavyweight title for the Jones versus Gustafs in fight?

Now, he is saying this week that there's a chance he wouldn't be. because they don't bargain for anything, and because they're all at the whim of the UFC, the answer is no one can possibly know. So, congrats, fighters. Next. Your prediction for El Classico, well, you know, at the start of the season,

when everyone was healthy, Lippertegu had his, you know, had his mojo. I would have said good things, but they are looking like Basura, my poor Real Madrid team. know what? They've won three of those champions leagues in a row for the last five. It's time for a smaller club like Barcelona to enjoy a little success. So I'm always going to cheer for Rail Madrid, but it's a bit of a down year. So there you go. Not much of a prediction.

Will Kane fight again? If so, when and who? I'd like to see a Verdoom rematch. Well, Verdooms on ice for two years. So that ain't going to happen anytime soon. Will Kane fight again? My guess is yes. But honestly, who the hell knows when, man? I would have sworn he would have been back by now. And we actually had Chal Sondon discussing Fador's legacy on the show. Was it last week, I believe? And in that space, he was discussing how the debate has kind of changed because of Cain's absence. I don't know how much the Sondon win adds to Fador's legacy.

I don't know how much the Mier win adds to his legacy. But here's what I do know. The absence is adding to Kane's resume and not necessarily in the best way. It's not the same as having a loss, obviously. But you have to do more work. and there's just not enough done to have a high grade. What we saw was incredible, but what's left, I don't know. So in 2019, I would say 50-50 shot.

Next. Do some divisions in the UFC have too many fighters? They can make more divisions, but some, I think, are too overloaded. Yes. You need, I was told you need about 25 fighters. You can do it with 20, but you need about 25 fighters to make a division. And so that's the bare minimum you would need to get. it off the ground. Some of those divisions barely scraped by on that, and you've got others like

the sweet spot of lightweight and welterweight that are super overloaded with it. Yes, they can make some in between there, I would say, as sort of 165 next. What fighters would you like to see participate with each other in a specialty martial arts match? Example, Ortega versus Habib in a grappling match, or Adasania versus Till in kickboxing. Well, we know Adasania can do kickboxing because that's where he comes from. The Habib grappling one to me is more interesting. how good his grappling is just for MMA or how good it is in overall grappling. Obviously, he comes from combat samba, but the strikes in that one as well. But in a scenario where he has no strikes, how good is it?

That's one I would love, love, love to see. So I would say the Ortega Habib one would be more interesting. By the way, shouts to Gilbert Burns, who competed over the weekend and looked pretty good at CBD. All right, next. Thoughts on the upcoming fight with Anthony Smith and then Volcan Ouzdemeer. Seems like it could be a good one. Here's my thought. Ustamir had an amazing run, and then, of course, lost against Daniel Kormier.

I think he's looking to reassert himself in that division, and Anthony Smith beaten not one, but two legends of the game. And as a consequence, is needing to prove that he didn't just beat some over-the-hill fighters that he's that guy. And so as a consequence, this is a big one for him. Can you beat a ranked contender who's still kind of young? Right? That's the issue here.

that's somebody this high level at that age. He hasn't crossed yet. All right, what's the situation with Ms. Eubanks? All right, we're getting on the line. Now, I believe. We're going to speak to Ms. Sejara here. I'm looking forward to it. She comes from my neck of the woods

and is now over with, I believe, Mark Henry's guys, and Mark Henry himself. And, of course, she'll be taking on Roxanne Motifery at UFC 230. That'll be, I think, on the... I want to say the prelim portion, but not the fight pass portion of the prelim card. But remember, she was going to fight. Valenti de Chivchenko was going to be in the main event, and then that all changed.

All right, it was a whole thing. So let's see if we can get the facts, you know, straight from the source here. Joining us now on the hotline is the top ranked women's flyweight contender and a jihitsu black belt and the whole, everything in between. Sejara, Eubanks joins the show. Sejara, how are you? I'm fantastic, man. How are you doing? I'm doing quite well.

still mad at me, Sajara? Man, I don't know. So, listen, we're going to be okay because one of your guys called me Sarrata on your after show and then you corrected him. So that, I'm going to let you off the hook. It's Sajara's everything to everybody out there been messing it up. So we're good. We're okay.

Okay, I appreciate that. How often do people mispronounce your name, by the way? All the time, since I was a kid. I can imagine. You have one of those names. Go ahead. Yeah, it's one of those names. one of those things. Once you say it, once you get it, it's not that bad. But if you just look at it on

paper without, like, without hearing it, it throws people off. But, you know, you know how it is. I've been correcting people my whole life. It's okay. All right. There's so much to get to here. So let's jump right into it. You're taking on Roxanne Motifery. It'll be UFC 230. So that's the end of the conversation. Let's start at where it began. Tell me from your perspective how the fight offer against Valentina Shevchenko came your way? It came out the blue. Ali called me up. I said, man, my weight's good.

And he was like, you're fighting for the title November 3rd. And I was a static. I was through the roof. I had a feeling when Nico got stripped that Valentino was going to want to turn around and fight soon. And so after Nico got stripped, I kind of had it in the back of my head. like, do you know what? I think something's going to happen.

And I was like, let me just stay in shape. Let me just train. Let me just. And I had a fight signed already, so it was pretty easy for me to stay motivated. And then they had signed Valentina and Joanna. And I still kind of was like, I don't know, something isn't quite settled here. And I'm going to just stay positive. And Ali called me out the blue one weekend and was like five weeks.

You're fighting for the title of Madison Square. And I was jumping around. I was super excited, biggest moment of my life. And I was pumped. Honestly, I didn't even ask if it was Valentina. I just was like, let's do it. And then it was like two days later. I was like, yeah. I was like, all right, cool. Did you sign a bout agreement? Yes, I did. I signed about agreement. Wow. Okay. Now, you signed it the day you got called or the 48 hours afterwards. Like, how fast did this all happen? It happened pretty quickly.

So I first got the call And I signed a bout agreement within two days So not quite two days later But I believe it was It was within like 24-ish hours And when I got the call Okay So then you're thinking

All right, five rounds, main event I'm wondering your reaction To the reaction out there In fact, Joe Rogan saying He didn't even know who you were And there were some other people Looking back on it What did you make of the response

Once that fight was announced? I didn't care I knew people were going to like it and their fans are spoiled and we're in kind of a day and age the we're kind of in a day and age of the end in May where the super fights

are what sells and not so much like people working through the ladder and improving their things so I mean I knew people weren't going to like it but why not I went out there and antagonized people a little bit and it's the biggest opportunity of my career at that point offered to me how do you how do you say no and then when people kind of gave me

negative backlash. Like, to me, it just, to me, it was just setting up what, what I had planned to be the most perfect Rocky moment. But, like, the underdog gets signed for this huge bout against this super supposed dominant champion. Like, no one's counting. No one thinks she's going to win. Everything she's going to get smacked. Everyone hates this.

And I think the biggest backlash is just the fact that we were the main event. I don't think it was so much that I got the title fight. We were just mad that we were the main event. And I didn't care. I went on Twitter. I poked out a bunch of people. I talked a bunch of shit. Because at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter what anybody thinks.

You know, I'm here to do, I'm here to accomplish my goals and achieve my dream. So it is what it is. Did you ever, by the way, get a chance to reach out to Joe? Usually he's pretty friendly about stuff like that if someone reaches it out. I tweeted him. He didn't tweet me back, but Joe's going to know. Joe knows who I am. He knows who I am before I said it.

He didn't have to say that on his blog. I thought it was disrespectful. Me and Joe still, I'm not happy with Joe. Logan and he can't avoid interviewing me one day. One day he's going to find himself in a case with me in a mic, and I'm going to let him moan that'd be how to fit. All right. Well, that should be an interesting day.

All right, so how many days, I can't even remember the timeline now, how many days passed before that announcement was made? So you versus Valentina at MSG before everything came, okay, you got the motor fairy fight, but in terms of the main event before everything collapsed, how long were you expected? How long did that take place? about seven or eight days. I don't know exactly, honestly, but I remember it had to been about eight days.

I remember I signed about on a Monday when we had just under five weeks left. And then I found out on a Tuesday because I was teaching my cardio kickboxing class. And I remember my cousin, my cousin's flying up from Florida to come to all my fights. And he's like, bro, your fights canceled. And I'm like, nah, no way. I would know if my own fucking fight was canceled. Like, you're bugging. He's like, nah, I think you're fucking fights canceled.

And I go on the Twitter, my fucking fight is canceled. So I remember that being a Tuesday night, so we're going to say eight days. So eight days, I was preparing a fight for UFC Flyway title. Okay. So once you found out it was canceled, did you call anyone from the UFC? Did they eventually make contact with you? Maybe your manager did? Like, what's the process there?

So I hit up Ali, and Ali didn't answer at first, and my heart dropped. I was like, oh, man, because people. I figured he, Ali kind of found out the same way I did. And so when he didn't pick up, I knew it was bad news. I was like, oh, man. And then I just started bowling him up and picked up. He's like, man, I'm sorry. And I was like, listen, let me speak to Dana White.

I want to speak to Dana. He's like, you know, I was like, Ali, put Dana white on the phone. So I ended up speaking to Dana. I ended up more like yelling at Dana. I have a pattern of yelling at Dana, I guess, in any of our interactions. I just screamed at Dana and I let him know. men, like, not only you're taking this away from me, but you're taking it away from me in a fucked up kind of way.

And I told him, I told Dana, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell everybody. Y'all, y'all fucked up because y'all passed up on what was going to be the biggest upset in probably women's in May history. I was going to put Valentina on her ass. I was going to show up and show out at Madison Square Garden. I was going to get my fucking belt, and I was going to shut everybody to fuck up, and I was going to have a blast. It was going to be fucking amazing.

I was like, y'all passed up on something fucking major. You just dropped the fucking ball major. and that's your fucking fault. And you've got to fix it. You've got to fix it. And I went back and forth with Dana. I went back and forth with Nick. I think they liked what I said.

We went back and forth with Ali. And we kind of just, we kind of tossed the ideas around and make phone calls and, and, and, and made a lot of hoo-ha for the next couple of hours before we settled on, on Roxanne. Okay. So when you were, when you were, uh, yeah, it doesn't sound like it, nor would I expect that from you. But when you were saying those things, what was he, was he firing back? What was he saying? He was kind of laughing. He thought it was great. I was like, the fuck, man. I was at, I was teaching. I trained down here in Nick Cotone's and I was at the gym. I was in the parking lot,

patient and screaming, beans going out of my forehead. And honestly, at the end of it, he tried to, he said a few things. I just kept barking. And at the end of it, he laughed, and he was like, I love it. And I love you. Let me see what I can do. Let me see what I can do. But from the little bit that me and Dan have interacted from what I know about him, I knew he liked what I said. I knew he was happy with the way I reacted.

I think if I had just rolled over and taken it, I'd have got fucked over pretty bad. And I just let him know I'm not that tight. I'm not going to take it like that. Not only did you do, and not only that, not only did you send like that. I've always wanted to be a good to see world champions, but to be able to fight as an underdog at Madison Square Garder, as a headliner, like, come on, my man, like, that was a world perfect dream scenario.

And not only that, but you know I'm about to get ripped and ragged on Twitter. I said, these fools on Twitter about the rags me in. So I think he liked what I said, honestly. And he did right by me as best he could after that. Yeah, so to your point, so then the, She goes back, Valentina does, to 231. She fights Yuanita and Jacek. And then, of course, it's announced eventually that you're going to be fighting Roxanne

on a ferry. What was the reaction when that fight, the one between Valentina and JJ, got rebooked? Did people blow you up then, too? No, I mean, people blow me up on Twitter all the time. They still are, so whatever. Yeah, I mean, it's whatever. Like, I saw, I think Valentina and Joanna got rebooked before I signed the Rock End. I think that's right.

Yeah, people, you know, yeah. I think, I mean, people, I see what people say. Like, oh, oh, that's the real fight to make. That's the one. Finally, this is the right thing. I think it's the dumbest option ever. I think it's stupid, and I think the fight's going to be boring. But it is what it is happening.

And, you know, that's how life goes sometimes. Let's follow up on that, actually, for a minute here, because I'll be honest, I did not think that your fight with Valentina, if it was going to take place, was the appropriate choice as a headliner. but I didn't think it was a bad fight to make for that division. And I actually think I'm with you. I don't, look, I don't know what's going to happen in Valenciana versus JJ, but I don't, I look at it a bit like Musassi versus McDonald.

Why is it that you think that's a dumb fight to make? I think, I think, I think one, Joan is not a flightway. So, you know, we're trying to build a division. I get that we're in the superfight era, but it's a brand new division. And like a lot of the guys will have big super fights for title built. But, you know, at the end of the day, you're in a scenario where if Joanna wins, is she going to stay? Is she going to stay a flyweight and is she going to defend the belt? Or is she going to say, oh, hey, this is cute.

Let me go back to straw weight. I don't think she is. I think she wants to handle her business who rules. And I think she wants to go back to 115. So if Joanna wins, we're right back where we started, where the whole division is held up now. A brand new division is held up. And this girl is the chance. And she don't even won defend it.

Now, Valentina wins. Okay, Valentina is a chance. Everybody wanted that. Woo-whoop. hopefully she'll fight soon. She seems to be a pretty active fighter. So best case scenario, Valentina wins, but you're rushing her into a belt.

Valentina doesn't have any more fights at Flyweight than any of the rest of us. We're all sitting at two or three fights at Flyweight because it's a brand new division. So you're rushing her to the belt, and I just think a super fight in a brand new division is silly. And on top of that, they're both multi-fighters,

and a lot of times when you have the same styles match up, the fight can be boring. I think they're going to dance around for 25 minutes and jab at each other and paw at each other and see what happens. Neither one of them has really been known for their finishing power of prowess or aggressiveness per se. So I think just stylistically it's not the most exciting fight to me either. Like unless they're going to do true more tie, like tie and stand in front of each other and fucking bang. And I don't really see that happening. If they do, I'll shut up.

I'll be wrong and I'll be happy. But I don't think they are. I think they're going to dance around and pitter pat and. and, you know, he's kicked their weight to whoever wins the thing. All right, so that brings us back to you. Now you have this fight with Roxanne Motaferi. You took the fight.

Can we infer from that that you like this fight? Yeah, I like it. I like this fight. Why not? I fought Roxanne before. She's still top ranked in the division. It's short notice. I like this fight.

I like it. Yeah, I'll be honest, when it was first offered to me, I was so fired up about being stripped from the title fight that I was just like, whatever. But, you know, I had to really quickly change my mind on it and focus because at the end of the day, it's a fight, and you want to go into each and every fight at your very best and mentally at your best, physically, at your best,

technically, it's the best soul. I like it. It was offered to me. I looked at the numbers. I talked to my coaches, and my team likes it, So I like it and I'm ready to go. Now, does that mean, do you believe that if you beat Roxanne,

let's say very quickly, like super authoritatively, the whole nine, let's say if that happens, do you believe you should get the winner of Valentina versus JJ? Absolutely. I think I should have got the winner of all these title shots. Based on strategically how this division was built, it was through the ultimate fighter. I ripped through the division. All right, I was supposed to fight Nico.

I fucked up the weight cut. I felt like Nico asked me to be her first pilot, It didn't happen. They gave it to Valentino. Nika got stripped. I beat Lauren in the meantime to prove that my weight is good. And I feel like, based on how this division is coming along, I should have been next in line anyway. So if I beat when I beat Roxanne, then why not?

Like, I don't see, like, what more case do you have not to give me a title shot now? Like, what else are you going to tell? What? I've made the weight twice. I beat, I beat Lauren, who was the top-bring fighter in tough. She was a top ranked fighter at a tough. I ran through the rest of the division. Now I beat Roxanne in the tough tournament.

She was number one at the time. She still top 10. I beat her again. Like, come on. Like, what else I want me to do? Where do you think Nico is now in the division? I think based on her performance in the house, she's got to be up there. And she's in a kind of similar situation where I was,

where she's proven that she can beat some good girls. Now she got to prove that this is the proper weight class for her. But I would put her top of the division. I think her first fight back should be someone to keep her in the heat of things. Now, are there any weight cut concerns heading into 230, especially given the relatively short notice? No, I'm in good shape. I've worked very closely with BFCPI, Clint and Bow and all the good guys at the PI.

So, no, we're good to go. I did exactly ever since what happened last year at the tough finale. I've worked directly with the USC in regards to my nutrition, my conditioning, and things of that nature. And I'm right where everybody wants me to be. I'm actually a little bit ahead of schedule, my 2 pounds ahead of schedule. So, you know, we're good to go. All right. I always like hearing that.

I like heard fired up fighters. We're a little bit short on time, but this is a question that's been lingering in my mind. You know, you and I are from the same neck of the woods, right? We're pretty close. You are from Maryland. You were training with Team Lord Irvin. And you ended up in New Jersey with Frankie. and, of course, I call him the East Coast Super Friends,

Ricardo Al-Meda, all those guys, and Mark Henry. How did you end up there? I don't even know the story about that. Okay, quick history. I'm actually born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. Always got to give a shout out to my true hometown, Springfield, Massachusetts. I ended up in Maryland doing judicious for 10 years under Team Lord of it.

And, like you said, I ended up leaving Team Lord of it, not too much, right after my Aspen Ladd fight in January. and shortly after that they announced the ultimate fighter. I went into the ultimate fighter kind of like a Ronan, kind of like lone star fighter, let's figure things out. And I kind of prayed and put it out into the universe that whatever happens at the ultimate fighter, I'll find my next team.

I want to find a team that's close-knit, that's loyal, that's hardworking, and I'm just pray that I find that when I go out to Ultimate Fighter. So I saw Justin Gage. I know he works with Trevor Whitman. I saw Eddie Alvarez, and he's a Mark Henry Ricardo-O-Meda guy, So I was like, man, both those squads are good. So we'll just leave it up to the fight guys, whoever picks me. And Eddie picked me, and within, like, the first 24 hours are working with Coach Mark,

I knew that was my guy. I don't know if Mark knew I was his girl, but I was like, this is my guy. I love Mark. I love Mark Henry, and we clicked right away. I met Jamal Patterson, Ricardo Almeida. And so as soon as the show wrapped up, really after I met them, like, early on into the show, but I didn't want to stay in front of the cameras and, like, make it a thing. We kind of, you know, spoke off to the side and was like, you know, I'm following you guys back to Jersey when this thing is over.

And they were like, yeah, we'd love to have you. I met Martin Mariahs, a lot of good guys. So, yeah, after the show wrapped, and it lined up perfectly because my fiancee, my girl is from New York. And so she had relocated to New York while I was filming tough. So I had a place to stay right away. So I crashed. I moved in with my girl in New York City. commuting back and forth to Jersey for the first couple of months.

And now I'm living full-time in brick. So it's just everything fell in the line quite nicely. And I love, I love Jersey. I love Mark. I love Ricardo, Jamal, Henzo, and the rest of the guys on the team, it's great. Well, I have to talk to you more about that when I see you for Media Day out in New York City. But thank you for spending some time with us, Tajara. I look forward to your fight with Roxanne.

I hope you get what you're looking for, and I can't wait to see you fight. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you for having me. All right, there she goes. Appreciate her spending some time with us. All right, we go from one great fighter to one who is a great commentator, great fighter. I mean, this guy does a lot.

He is one of the best to ever do it, quite frankly. I want to catch up with him, see how things are. And he joins us now via Skype. One and only Randy Couture is here. Hi, Randy, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Randy, one time I stopped by your gym.

I doubt you remember it. It was in Vegas. It was a long time ago. and we had like an hour-long talk about USA wrestling and what it would take to compete. And sure enough yesterday, the U.S. team went four for four at the World Championships. Jordan Burroughs getting a medal, Jaden Cox, I believe, getting a medal. Let's see, David Taylor getting gold. It was truly, Ben Ascran was saying one of the best days in the history of the men's freestyle team.

You've got to be on Cloud 9, huh? Yeah, amazing. Amazing to watch. I feel like right now we have the best rules for USA wrestling and USA wrestling style of wrestling, some of the best athletes on the mat at this time, and we're in position to make history and win back-to-back world championships,

which would be remarkable. When was the last time the men's team did that? I don't think we ever have. In fact, I think the last time we won the world championships was back in 1995. before last year. So we're definitely on a roll like a hunchback doing somersaults right now.

I've never heard that one before. I'm going to take that one with me. All right. So you're with the PFL. Let me ask you, the championships will be New Year's Eve Day, but the regular season and the playoffs are now over.

Your impression so far of how the season has gone? Well, you know, I've been very, very impressed with these athletes and how they've stepped up, They've embraced the grind of this format. And really just it's been so much fun to watch to talk about and be involved with this year. So many great fights. So many guys stepped up and just really put it on the line.

And it's been very, very exciting. The benefits of the tournament are guys like, let's see, Ray Cooper coming out of nowhere. Two Jake Shields wins and, of course, some other ones as well. I'm wondering, though, from your vantage point, if you could make a couple of tweaks to how the system works, like I see a lot of belly aching about the first round being the tiebreaker.

Is that the best way to adjudicate things, do you think? You know, I get why it was set up that way. I mean, you've got to establish some criteria if you're going to fight a two-round fight. There's a chance that those fights are going to end in a draw. And you know what? Why not first round? you can make a case, come out strong, get after it, make it happen.

Now, the downside to that is some guys have recognized that they've won the first round clearly, and then they shut off in the second round. They coasted out. They're okay with getting the draw, knowing they have the criteria in the bag. So that's something I think we maybe need to look at, think about. And, you know, obviously these fighters are game. If we lay it out there, they're fighters. they're going to figure out a way to make it work for.

You know, one of the things I love that this tournament is revealing is that you get a guy like Vinny, Magalach, right? He'll be fighting Sean O'Connell on the light heavyweight finals. He's got one fight to win a million dollars. Same with Sean, by the way. And Sean, I work with at Sirius XM. But you've got Vinny and Sean one fight away. And in the case of Vinny, he's not trying to be somebody.

He's not when I think he was in the UFC, some slug it out on the feet kind of guy. He's in their pulling guard. He's getting back to his roots. He's fighting the way he wants to fight. I think the tournament format works for him. Not everybody works in every organization's format, I think, is my point, Randy. And a guy like Vinny is thriving in the PFL rules. Yeah, you know, what I like about this format is there ain't no amount of smack talk.

You know, if your style is a Sean O'Connell style, or you're going to try and instigate that firefight and hope to land that left hand and put a guy out, then this is your format. If you're a guy like Vinnie Magaless, who is going to try and find a way to put you on the ground and use his strength in that jiu-jitsu to submit you, this is the perfect place for these guys. They can go out, beat themselves, and it's merit-based. It's about winning and fight

and finding a way to get a guy where you need to get him to beat him. Okay. A couple of things I wanted to check in with you about, and I look forward to seeing those finals on the 31st. The commentary gig, you're really good at it, Randy. That's no news to anybody who's been watching you do commentary for a while. How much are you enjoying it? I'm having a blast.

First of all, it's a great crew, a great group of guys from David Gibson and George Greenberg, John Trottis, all these guys all the way down to the guys I get to sit at the desk with. How can you not be excited sitting next to Boston? The guy's energy is contagious. Todd Harris is an absolute professional. Eve Edwards, Caroline Pierce. they do an amazing job, kind of bookending us, and everything flows. It's just a lot of fun.

Would you say that PFL is an organization that is based on what fighters want an organization to be based on? Sorry, repeat the question. Yeah, no worries. I'm saying, is it fair to characterize PFL as an organization that if fighters had their way and wanted to create an organization, this is basically what they create will create. Is that a fair characterization? I think that's a pretty fair characterization. I think if the fighters had their way,

they might have a little more time between fights, maybe not have to turn around quite as quickly as they're turning around at, you know, at six weeks. But I think they've adjusted. I think they figured it out and dialed it in. And they're certainly getting after it. So again, I think you eliminate a lot of the best. BS, you don't have to talk smack, you don't have, I mean, if you want to do that, you can do that.

But to make it based on winning fights and the merit of your ability to go out there and do what you've trained to do, I mean, that's the way a fighter would want it, for sure. All right. So let's transition if we can. What is the latest that you know of with the Ali Act to MMA? My understanding is that the lobbyists with the UFC, we're very clever, got to some people, and they kicked the OLLI Act and our motion to get it amended to a different committee now. So we're basically in a position where we're kind of had to start all over, door knocking and doing it now instead of with energy and commerce, which is where the original OLLI Act was, and where we have been working for the last two years and made great headway, we're now kind of kind of starting over with a whole different committee. It's something to do with education,

which doesn't make any sense to me, but, you know, so many other things in politics don't make sense to me either. So we're basically back to talking to congressmen in that committee and trying to get it put up to be voted on in that committee. Is there a timetable? I mean, we've been at this for two years. we're pretty tenacious.

We're a fighter's organization, so I think we're going to be at this as long as it takes. Anyone we really speak to sees it right away. It's a no brain. Why shouldn't we enjoy the same protections that Blocuters have been enjoying since the 90s? To protect us from promoters, that are outside to take advantage of the fighters. It's pretty simple. So I just think it's a matter of time,

How much time is there's no way to tell? I didn't know about that committee that it got moved like that. When did that happen? That just happened in the last few months, as we've rolled into this year and then the new Congress, it got kicked out of energy and commerce where we've been working. Now, I know this sounds like an unnecessarily political discussion. I don't mean to make it that way. Does do the results of the impending midterms at all affect the chance of that being moved through committee or no?

I don't think anything that happens with regard to which side of the aisle Congress and the Senate fall in and these midterms really affects it because we had a ton of support on both sides of the aisle. It's interesting if you're talking to somebody that seems to be on the Democratic side of the aisle, start talking about health care. These fighters making more money and being, and being, you know, having to fight less, which is better for their health. They're taking less shots to the head. They're in the hard training. Less person on that side of the aisle gets it right away.

We start talking about a free and open market, competitiveness, all those things. That's the conversation I'm going to have with a Republican, somebody on the other side, a bit more conservative side of the aisle. But both sides of the aisle, see it clearly, see that it needs to be amended. And, you know, so you just have to kind of know your audience and who you're talking to and what those button issues are for folks, depending on which side of the aisle they're on. When did Joe Kennedy, the third, get involved? Joe's been involved from the start.

He's been a big advocate. He's friends with Mark Wayne Mullins. They train together at the gym there. and so Joe has been a sponsor of the amendment since the beginning with Mark Wayne Mullins from the Republican from Oklahoma. Interesting. I thought it was relatively recent. That's quite an interesting pair, Mark Wayne Mullen and Joe Kennedy III. But I guess that's what you're looking for, right?

Bipartisanship. Well, I mean, yeah, absolutely have to have bipartisanship. And again, I think Joe gets it. He understands. He's a fan of the sport. and certainly fighter safety and fighter health care or something that he understands. Randy, real quickly, what do you make of the efforts

of Leslie Smith and Project Spearhead? Have you guys had any discussions together at all about anything? I've spoke to Leslie a couple of times. Obviously, she was involved with the MMAFA early on, and then she's kind of jumped to a couple different ships all in a way to, I think, attempt to get a collaboration. collective bargaining agreement for athletes that are signed with one of the promotions, obviously, the UFC. I think that's short-sighted.

I think it's not taking into account all the other fighters that aren't signed with the UFC. I think the union model doesn't fit with 1099 independent contracting employees. We're not employees. Collective bargaining agreement and a union suggests that we're employees of the employees of promotion, that does nothing but solidify the UFC's monopoly in the sport if we got a collective bargaining agreement and tried to form a UFC union.

So I just think that's short-sided. It cuts out a lot of fighters like these fighters that are fighting in the PFL or fighters that are fighting for Bellator that won't enjoy the protections that they deserve from coming together. I think a fighters association is a model that fits a lot better. Where does Bellator come down on the efforts of extending the Ali Act to MMA?

I've heard a lot of different rumors. What do you know about their involvement or lack thereof? I think been supportive. Obviously, my son fights for Bellator. I've done some brand ambassador stuff for Bellator in the past. They've at least verbally been supportive of the movement. Obviously, about 90% of the revenue in the sport comes through. the UFC and Bellator,

PFL, these other organizations are fighting over the other 10% of the fighters and the revenue that come in. So anything that levels that playing field makes it more competitive. I mean, why shouldn't the Bellator a heavyweight champion, whoever wins this fight

between Bader and Emiliano Anko coming up in the Grand Prix, be able to market and pursue a fight against the heavyweight champion from the UFC? That's a free and open market. That's what would happen in boxing. But that because of the exclusivity of the contracts in our sport

and the lack of protection that the Alley Act provides, that will never happen in our sport. And that would be a huge fight. That would be an amazing thing. All right. Speaking of interesting fights, I've got to get your opinion on this. As you know, two of your former foes, Chuck Liddell and Tito are going to be fighting.

I looked this up. Did you realize that Chuck is older than Oscar de La Jolla, who was the one promoting the contest. I didn't even realize that until I had verified it. But your impressions of their, like, I don't know how to ask this question other than, what do you make of what's happening? Well, I mean, I'm not too concerned about the age, honestly. I fought right up to where Chuck's at right now at a high level.

My only concern with that is that Chuck hasn't been competing, hasn't been sparring, hasn't been doing anything in the fight realm. other than regular strength conditioning for the last eight years since he retired. So that, you know, puts the pressure on him to get back up into fight shape, back up and get the timing back that we're used to seeing Chuck have going into a fight. And he had that style where that timing was very, very important. It wasn't that he's the biggest, strongest, the best athlete. He had a very unique timing to find you right out on the end of one of those long levers.

and make it a short night. Now, whether he still has that timing, that's the question. Now, Chuck, Nertito, rather, has been active. He fought twice last year. He fought son and he's been in some big fights with Bellator. He's been very active. He's still in fight shape and in fight mode. So, you know, it's going to be interesting.

I think there's still huge names, both of them, marquee names that anybody who's a fan of the sport recognizes. And, you know, maybe. Maybe this is the start of the master's division of MMA. Did Golden Boy contact you? Have you been approached to come out of retirement? I actually spoke with both Chuck and Tito. I'm friends with both those guys,

and they're interested in me possibly commentating the fight, which would be fun. I would have to get an exception for my PFL contract to be able to do that, which I'm not opposed to asking for. I think it would do anything but help the PFL and get more exposure as Golden Boy kind of starts, you know, and this may be a one-off with Golden Boy, who knows,

I'm hoping it's successful for both these guys and the promotion, because it doesn't hurt to have more options, more places for fighters to go and be a professional fighter. And who wins on November 24th? Well, like I said, you know, I think that the onus is always on the guy who won the first. and obviously the first two fights, Chuck won. What's he going to change? What's he going to do? Now, the real hard question is what kind of shape

and what kind of timing is Chuck going to bring into this fight after being off for the last eight years. So I think the challenges are really there for Chuck Liddell. Is he capable of getting in there and getting it done? Absolutely. I think anybody who knows the sport is crazy if they can. count him out, but I think he's up against it a little more than Tito is. Tito's been way more active, had some big fights. Will he be able to go out and implement his game plan, which has got

to be getting in Chuck's face, finding a way to get Chuck on the ground and take some gas out of Chuck, certainly not standing and trying to trade with Chuck and find out if he does have that timing. So I think it's going to be interesting. All right. Well, I hope you there commentating. No one knows those two quite like you. And you've been doing a fantastic job for the PFL. I've really enjoyed your commentary. I cannot wait to see the finals on December. New Year's Eve Day here at New York City. So congratulations on all your success. I'm glad you're still relevant in the community and keep us updated on the Ali Act. We're looking forward to seeing what happens with that as well. Thanks, man. Appreciate you having me on. Anytime, Randy. All right. Let's do it. It is time now,

ladies and gentlemen, for the Monday morning analyst. All right, donkeys. Oh, Why don't you put it so I can get around? All right, here we are. Time now for the Monday morning analyst right here on the MMA hour. We are a little bit short on time, so let's get to it. There was PFL over the weekend, but there was nothing I really wanted to break down. So I decided to go a different route. And I was thinking and I was thinking and I was thinking.

I was trying to find a number related to Tony Ferguson and what he offers that would make a fight with Habib Numbra-Gamidov interesting. And what I mean is the fight's already interesting, but maybe there's some kind of, statistical representation of that. And I thought maybe it's this takedown defense, but I looked at it. It's about 77%. You look at the guys that Habib's fought. Edson's got like 80. L.I. Quint is right in the same ballpark. It's not remarkable in that sense. You know, a number of finishes, not remark. I mean, yes, it's a high level, but it just nothing statistically stood out, except one number. However many fights, Habibnevinov's been in, what, 10 plus in the UFC? How many rounds, that is? I mean, you know, we've got to be close to 20 or more.

There was one number that stuck out to me about him, which is how many times in a fight in the UFC has somebody attempted a submission against Habib Numergumadov? And the answer is one time, one time in all those rounds, in all those fights. We can go now to the screen. I'll show you which one that was. It's apparently from the Michael Johnson fight. Now, you're going to say, Michael Johnson fight, when did he attempt to? submission. This is it. He goes for a takedown. He gets stuffed and I'm just going frame by frame here.

I'm not playing video. So chill out over there. You see him go for this and number of him is he's trying to use that overhook to shove him up against the fence. And you're going to see Johnson just jump to guillotine here, right? Not really a strong position. Yes, you want the head tucked, but it's not tucked enough. I don't know what kind of grip he's got underneath. There's just not enough here to give me a great degree of confidence. He didn't lock his feet up. You want to be more on a hip, but you're next to the fence.

So like you've kind of jumped to the position where you've limited your mobility around the body to properly lock it up. It's just not enough there. It's kind of high. He's kind of his own shoulders kind of tucked versus kind of driving down a little bit. And there's a lot of different ways to finish with the arm inside on the guillotine. I'm not going to go over it. but look what happens as soon as he does this. He tries to lock it up.

It's not really there. You can see it's not really there. You can see you want to be covering all of that, man. You're like on the crown of the head. There are varieties. Like Jeff Glover's got some variety where you can do on the crown of the head, but, you know, Michael Johnson's not Jeff Glover. So in any case, it's just not, there's just nothing there.

And Nirmugamato is going to break this pretty quickly. Let me move on, just so I can move this. So he breaks it, like, he pops his head out. Come on, pop your head out. There it is. He pops his head out very quickly. All right, it's 324 on the clock, right? Watch this.

I'm just going to jump. Now it's 319. Hold on. 320. 322, he stands. What have I always said? Much easier to pass on your feet than on your knees. You can pass on your knees.

Always easier to stand on your feet. So what is never going to be enough do? He stands on his feet. Then he breaks guard. He's going to open it and he's going to put a knee in between. And then he's going to, let's go back a little bit here. Watch this. This is just ridiculous.

I'm going a little too fast. All right. So he puts the knee in between, right? And then he just does a knee cut through, shreds the guard, and then goes right to side control here, like it's nothing. Okay, remember, it was 324 when he jumped. So, let's see, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17. Eight seconds later, he's in side control.

Eight seconds is all that took. You can call that a submission. attempt if you want in Nurembergav's career. But to me, it's like, and if you just keep going further, it's like, here you are, 12 seconds later, and he's in mounted crucifix. Yes, that's technically a submission attempt. But what's the lesson here? The lesson here is that nobody attempts submissions on Habib Numbra Gamedo. Now, there's one clear reason for that. They're constantly worried about the takedown. They're constantly worried that they have to defend themselves, and they don't want to be down there. And once they're down there, he's already working from an

advantageous position, but Tony's not really like that. Tony Ferguson's very different. He's, first of all, he averages more submissions attempted per fight than almost anyone else that Numergamedov has fought, notwithstanding Havel Dos Sanjos. He's got a really, really high level of that. And in fact, he has many submission wins. He's got a couple of weird naked chokes. He's got many darses. He's got a lot of different things. But there's basically going to be two scenarios, if you really consider it, two scenarios where a submission is probably I should say where a submission is more probable than others. One is going to be standing, some kind of guillotine dars variety, or on the feet with his, excuse me, on his back, using his

feet and hips to create something from guard. My belief is, and I'm going to give you some reasons to look at this, my belief is that his best chance, Tony's chance, is going to be some kind of guillotine dars combo. But the key issue for me is, how is Tony different than anyone else that Habib Nirmigamed of his fought. Lots of different ways. One of those ways is he's going to have a much greater submission threat. And not because Tony is, like, people just say, oh, Tony's good at submissions. That doesn't fucking mean anything.

Yeah, that doesn't mean anything. Who, like, I'm good at being tall unless I'm sitting down. Like, that's not relevant. If you're not put in a position where you can use them, who cares? Or if you don't even want to use them, who cares? Maybe you're good at certain submissions that this person is really good at negating. Who cares? Being good at submissions doesn't tell you anything. I need to know in what scenarios you're good at him, which is why Tony has a takedown defense rate of 77%. Look, he's going to go in his

back, folks. It's going to happen. So the question is from guard, what can he do? And when he stuffs a couple of takedowns, because he misses on a few before he gets them, what can he do from that, from that front headlock position? Those are your two, I would argue, likely most common scenarios where something like this is going to happen. Here's what I would submit to you. Tony can do a lot. He's the only guy I've said who can create gold from alchemy. But as far as I'm concerned, the chance of him getting a submission from guard is going to be very, very low. Number one, Habib's got good passing, as you've seen.

And I think his defense there is really strong. I don't think that Tony's best submissions are there. But I do think that from that front headlock, he is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Let me go through and paint a picture about why I think that to be true. We can skip all the rest of this. So this is going to take us to, this is Tony Ferguson versus Kevin Lee, as you can see here. What are you going to notice? He's working from full guard here.

This is still in round three, about midway through. He's going to attempt, as you see here, an arm bar. I don't like Kevin Lee's posture here. His knees and his, look at the weight of Kevin Lee, right? Look at his weight. It's moving this direction. Yes, so why is that important? Because everything's not, you don't want to be totally vertical, but you kind of want to

be short and stacked. When you get, when your hips get pulled up, when your back gets pulled forward, this is where submissions begin to happen. This is where you can frame underneath. You can turn and the elbows, excuse me, the arm bars begin to happen. In fact, that's exactly what you're going to see happen here. Watch this. You always kind of want to have your elbows tucked and you want to have your posture down and tight. When you start bending over in guard, that's when all the bad stuff begins. You can get triangle there. You can get arm bar there. You can get, you don't want to be stretched out. You want to be kind of vertical and compact. So watch, he's got one foot on the hip here.

He's just going to push him over and he's going to frame. He misses on the first attempt, but then puts the head to the side. And now he's got an arm bar. Now, you can see there's already a bit of a, I believe this is, I believe this is, I could be wrong about this, but I believe this is Kevin trying to block. But it doesn't matter either way, because here's what ends up happening. Tony stretches him out, which is fine. and then he does this.

What have we talked about? Right? That's the problem. This has to be on the back of his head so that he rolls and you can come up on top, Jujiketami, Ron de Rousey style. So he doesn't do that,

so what are you going to imagine he does? And we saw this against Vinnie Magalach in PFL. Someone tried this and it didn't work, but not everyone's Vinnie Magalach. He's going to helicopter around, right? Yep, that's exactly what he does. Look, he comes around and he just helicopters.

And he comes over. He tries with Omoplaata, but it's not really there. And so he just comes around, here we are, and he goes back to guard, sticks his arm in, two arms in, and he lives to fight another day, right? Not a whole lot there to show. Now you get a little bit closer. I mentioned before I didn't like Kevin Lee's posture in that first scenario. Here's another one, right? Look at this. This is, if you're Kevin Lee, and remember he had the staff infection, the bad weight cut. His posture to me right now is terrible, terrible, terrible posture. Joe, do you know why? Right, look at this. Look at how he's got two feet in the the hips, meaning he's got your neck control, he's got your posture down. With those two feet in the

hips, he can lift you, he can push you, he can turn you. He can direct your weight and your body wherever he wants to go. Look at your weight all the way forward. He can create the space and then whip up underneath for if you want to go to deep half, he could do that. For arm bar, he can do that. For triangles, he can do that. Your posture should never be this, never, unless it's super tight and it's in control. But then what you notice is look at the arms here in just a second of Kevin Lee. Hold on. Like, look at, this is Herb Dean here.

Look at our Big John. It's kind of spaced out in front of them, right? They're not, the elbows aren't tight and compact. He's not T-Rexing. So it's just a lot of problems all compounding each other here. And he eventually gets triangles here. Look at this. Feet on the hips.

Look, he's not on his toes. Weight's bent forward. I mean, it's terrible. terrible, terrible positioning. If you see somebody like that, you know, you can't move as fast. You have to move on your knees to get around or to get to your feet. You'll actually lean into your opponent to like jump to your toes. And then you're trying to move. And it's just a problem. So he's got no live toes, weight bent forward, arms kind out in front of him. He's not T-Rexing up. Everything about this is bad. Tony's hips. Look at Tony's hips off the ground. Yeah? He's not flat. Number one, people always like, give me some good advice if I want to start jiu-jitsu. Do that shit. Have your hips off the ground, off the ground. Off the ground. ground makes them mobile. It can change the angle. It gives them dexterity. It gives them speed. It gives them lots of different things. That space off the ground. And he's able to do it because he's got his feet on his hips. Remember Demetrius Johnson having the feet in the hips in the first fight against Henry Sehudo? What did he do? Got him off of him. If someone's got your feet and your

hips, you have to fight that immediately, immediately. It's like the same thing they always tell you. If you got, if you're on top of somebody in guard, let's say, and the person underneath reach through to grab your collar, bro, that is the first order of business. You need to start breaking that collar grip, especially they get deep inside where they can get the tag behind and they can begin to pull you and then they can just come across for all kinds of cross chokes and whatnot, right? That's what you need to do. Foot in the hips, problem, problem city. Anyway, so what does he do? He frames out here. He can't get the hand inside. He goes to a triangle. Right? Let's just look at this. He goes to the triangle. Come on, though.

God damn it. Oh, my computer's frozen. That's fun. Hang on. He's shitting me, Joe. I mean, can I get a raise? Can I get a raise? Hold on.

Hold on. I'm going to fix this. For fuck's sake. Oh, for crying. I didn't even get to show the good submissions. Hold on. Do I have time to restart? I do, don't I?

Yes, I'm going to restart. Hold on. Let me hard restart here. Here's what I'm going to do while we're getting this set back up again. Give me a second. He gets the triangle. I'm going to go back to this in just a second. And the reason why I'm going to do that is because you've got to see how he finishes the triangle.

It's a nice finish because he had to dig deep. Remember Tony been taken down a number of times. You remember the first round, you even had Kevin Lee taking mount. There's a lot of issues, right? Here we go. Let's get this back up. Get this back up in firing player. Here we are.

Bro, it wouldn't be a show with me involved. if there wasn't some kind of catastrophic fucking here we go all right let's see if we can get this working now we got it let's go back please if we can there we are all for f's sake hold on here we are all right see that go back go back please go back there we are oh for crying out loud no i don't want VPN dude this is so low budget it's sad it's sad my career is satire of an actual career All right. Let's see if I can get this going without it moving. All right, you get the idea here. Now watch.

He finally locks up the triangle, yeah? Let's move this to a spot that makes sense. Okay, I want to show you this. Tony moved the arm to the outside of the body rather than having it across. I'm not sure why I understand what he did that. That may be a unique finish that he knows. I don't know that finish. Can't say it's wrong.

He gets the tap. But that's usually not what you want to do. Remember, we had last week Vinnie getting the Camora when someone goes behind the arm. so I don't quite understand that one, but again, it works. So far be it for me to criticize. But this is what I want to show you real quickly here. I mean, just what the fuck, Lord. Why? Why? Why God? Why? Why? Why me?

All right, I can't. I don't know what's going on. No, I don't want you to give my passwords. Do we understand why life is this way? Why? Why does it have to be hard? It doesn't actually need to be this difficult. For fuck's sake. All right, one more time. I'm put the money more hand this one more time. I'm going to restart this bad boy. And we're going to get this one more time. The point being is if you look at the particulars of the triangle itself, which you're going to find, it's just just death, death from above 1979.

What you're going to find is that you had Kevin Lee with his arm this way and Tony pulls the head. This side of the neck was totally exposed. That's not to say it's a bad triangle. the triangle works, it's fine, but the triangle should close both sides like a rear naked choke. It should have everything collapsed, and it didn't. And that was the problem. So to me, it's like, you got the triangle, but you got it in a way that was suboptimal. In fact, you'll notice Tony goes to the arm bar, doesn't get it, goes for the triangle, gets it, but gets it on an opponent who I think was severely compromised. And he even attempts a bit of a leglock in the Landovenata fight. In the Landovinata fight, you're going to see him.

I'm not going to go through it now because Lord knows my computer will shit the bed. But the point being is, no, I don't care. I'll tell you when to cue it up. Don't put it up just yet. The point being is, with his legs, he can get submissions done. But against the guy like Habib who's passing, who's got good balance, who's got good posture, who's got good sub-defense, it's really not going to work. The bigger issue for me is a different scenario. And that's getting it to work with him on his feet using.

his guillotine d'ar setups. Now, if I can set this up without this thing collapsing on me, I'm going to do it. Let's see if I can get it. I'm going to go right to it. Here, I want to show you something. Go back up real quickly. Hopefully this works. Gary is attempting a guillotine choke on Lando. Lando spots it and stops it. You see that? This whole side of the neck is exposed. He should be able to breathe just fine. But Tony recognizes that, snaps him back in, and then switches the sub watch watch how he switches it guillotine guillotine

blocked blocked blocked blocked come out over the top behind the arm which the guy will give you and watch he's choking with the left arm with the guillotine right watch him feed the right

and swear for Christ's sake fuck off feed the right and now lock it up on the other side you see that so he was coming with the left and with the right couldn't work, lets it go, comes around the back,

and then uses that to feed into darts. Why is that important? This is a scenario that he could easily find himself in with Habib Numer Gamedov, number one. Number two, this is the key for me. When he's on the ground, he can go from different forms of control. But with the 50-50 he tried on Landauvinata

and the knee bar, that it wasn't a whole lot there. With the triangle, I think he got a severely compromised opponent with the arm bar. he got it and then I lose it, lost it, and tried to go back from guard, but it didn't really work. With these front headlocks, he can go from submission to submission. He can chain them together and he can get into position very quickly. You don't have to make many mistakes.

In fact, your defense sets up his next move. I didn't necessarily see that with his guard. Tony's guard is good. It's very good. But his dars is one of a kind. His dars setups are one of a kind. His guillotine to Dars is one of a kind. That to me is your much more likely scenario where something bad happens for Habib and something good happens for Tony Ferguson.

I'm sorry about the technical difficulties. This is still a work in progress. But there you go, ladies and gentlemen. This is an interesting stat to keep in mind. Only one time has he had to defend it, Numerga Madov, and it was a terrible, tactically ill-advised attempt from Michael Johnson. This guy can go much better in that regard. I would like to see it. Tony Ferguson is the right fight for Habib Nubrigamade of.

Fuck all that Connor McGregor talk. That's the guy who should be fighting because that's the guy who poses an interesting challenge. There you go. That's the Monday morning analyst. All right. I believe as I ready my headphones. All right, Danny, tell me where we are. We have Ms. Zingano on the phone.

All right. Okay. Let's see. We're joined now by a lady who has an important, I should say, a featherweight, fight coming up when she takes on Megan Anderson. This will be here very soon for UFC 232. The one and only Kat Zingano joins the show. Kat, how are you?

I'm good. How are you guys doing quite well? Thank you for making some time for us. I really appreciate it. So let's just jump right into it, Kat. Why did you take this fight? Why do I take it? I don't know.

I mean, why? I guess I'm a fighter. Fighters fight. I don't know. I was feeling pretty good. And I had, you know, I was seeing that, you know, that fight between Amanda and Chris is going down. And I really, you know, that fight's been on my radar between one of each of them for a while. And then, you know, they were saying something regarding having an alternate for that. So, you know, I raised my hand.

I said, let me know if you want me to start getting ready because I will. And then, I know pretty shortly after I get the phone call. telling me to get ready and then another phone call saying, you know what? How about putting me on that card? So, you know, Megan, I think Megan is someone that, you know, I've kind of also thought for a while, too,

you know, that'd be an interesting one. The 45 Division isn't that bigger established yet, you know, and she's out there and she's big and she's tough. And, you know, there's been a lot of hype behind her. I know that she was rather accomplished and evictus stuff. So, you know, also a good test. I just really want to get out there and get my hands on people and kind of figure out the hierarchy of the sport with the women. And I thought it would be a good match to when they threw that option out there.

I was pretty excited for it. And my coaches are excited for it. And, you know, it all aligns. So there we go. That's a good reason as any. Let's backtrack here a little bit. So you were looking to get the cyborg fight and the two did you get ready? Or they, like, what, did you specifically request an opponent or just a timeline?

No, I mean, they had already announced that they were doing Cyborg Amanda. And then they were, I believe it was Chris that was out there saying that she wanted to petition for there to be an alternate training to get ready because she was worried Amanda was going to pull out. I see. And I'm sitting there, I get it. You know what I mean? I don't know how many times Amanda has been pulled out or has pulled herself out. enough for it to be a concern. And so I was like, well, there is a likelihoodness there.

And maybe, you know, that's what's up. I'll join in, see what ends up happening, you know, get ready for it. Like, I've wanted to be in camp. I've been feeling antsy. I've been feeling like, you know, stationary right now has been kind of hard. So, you know, I had goals of wanting to get a third fight within the year. And, you know, that's really what was open. So I wasn't sure that it was going to happen.

I was hoping it was going to happen. but, you know, this is what's next. And I'm just excited to have something on the calendar right now. I'm feeling on fire. I've been feeling excited to get my hands on people again. Like, I've been good. Everything's been right lately. So it's like I just want to keep that momentum.

Fair enough. So many questions. Let's get through them a little bit here. Do you believe that, let's say something happens to Amanda, that you'll get the call up to the main event and not Megan? Yes. did they tell you that yes I do

I mean that's the the house originally started so I'm going to assume and yeah I mean that it's it's clear I mean and I believe I was trying to

say that it would be tournament style so maybe me and Megan would be the number one contender fight the title fight so our winner fights their winner is kind of the vibe

that I'm getting but you know I guess we'll see. We'll see what happens. Results talk, you know. So you've always been really, really strong at 135, maybe the strongest competitor physically in that division. That gives you an advantage in going from 135 to 145,

but I'm wondering how you think you match up against the 145ers physically. I mean, I'm a really big 135er. You know, I've cut down from 160. You know, I have incredible plans set in place for that. It's something that I've, you know, I've been cutting weight since I'm 12 years old. You know, my body is not too happy with doing it, but it gets the job done. And so to be able to cut and stop at 145 versus stop at 135, like, that's amazing to me.

I still have plans and designs in the 135 division. But, you know, I really, because, I mean, at this point, it's about girls my size. So that would be girls 135 and girls 145. Like, ultimately the goal would be to have the strap in both divisions. But yeah, going up, like, I get to lift differently. You know, I get to lift way heavier, work on different dynamic and explosive movements that might have put on size or weight. Yeah, go ahead.

Sorry. And those are all things that I don't know, I get to implement and use now that I get to, you know, use that extra 10 pounds. So, no, it's going to be fun. I'm watching myself with my coaches, just be excited having me do other things. And it's exciting, I think. I look forward to it a lot. All right.

So Megan Anderson did great in Invicta and then had the fight against Holly Holm. Have you seen it? And if so, what do you make of her performance there? I mean, she's a large girl. You know, she definitely has the length and the size in her division. Or, sorry, in her back pocket. But, you know, depending on. opponent strengths and stuff.

I mean, I like those long legs. That's a whole lot of legs to grab onto, you know? And I felt like she, you know, I can definitely move faster than her. I think I'm stronger. I think I have a lot more weapons and tools to use. Like, you know, she got that UFC rest off, so she knows what it's like to be in there now. And I expect that it'll be a much more exciting fight,

but I'm not sleeping on her. I think she's a really tough opponent. And, you know, she's a game. She's got that look in her eye. And I think it's going to be, you know, I think it's a very interesting, very good matchup. Yeah, it certainly is. Let's backtrack here a little bit.

You got the win over Marion Renault back in July. Now, that stopped the three-fights skid. You won that one convincingly. Can you describe how important that was for you to come out on top there? I mean, it was super important. Like you said, I was comfortable. way off of three losses and all of those losses of people that I could have beaten, you know, but life happened.

And for some reason, that was the way the path went and the way my body and my mind went for those fights. And, you know, like I got to just take them one at a time and learn from each of them, which I did and make the adjustments that I needed to, which I did. And it ended me back up in the W column. So now I have a recipe for how I'm fighting now, what's normal to me, like what I can do with my, you know, camp in my body that are going to have me show up optimally. So that's what I'm doing. And there's a lot of relief.

You know, I'm excited training for this item. I'm pumped to feel like a little magician, you know, running around with my skills and my confidence. So it's, yeah, it's a great win. I realize there's work to do and I'm doing that work. So it's, you know, really just time. When you say magician, what do you mean? That's interesting. I don't know

there's you know finding the ways to be elusive moving just feeling happy with it like excited with it and enticed

to be putting on a show like you know the entertainment but at the same time the passion like there's so much purpose in it to me and to get through

all the things I've gotten through that like make every little success so much more worth it and worth it for me but also worth it for the fans

so I'm just you know I'm living in the moment with all this. I'm having a good time putting it together and putting on a show. Like, I loved how it felt to not only beat Marion, but to have fireworks with it again. You know, that felt great. And that feeling in itself is very addicting. So, you know, I'm here for those. Did I hear you correctly in saying that the goal is to be the first women's champ champ? I mean, I'm not sure I said those exact words, but I mean, yeah, I want to, I want to know the hierarchy with the women.

Like, I want to know what's up. Like, who's the greatest of all times? Like, who can figure out how to beat everybody? Like, what's regardless of the style, like how, how, I mean, it's one thing to be a great fighter. It's another to be a great athlete, you know, and when you have both and you're working on both, like, those are, are ways to find out, like, where you are and what position among everybody. Like, I have high, high respect for every girl in this division, but we are in this sport. But, you know, what we're all doing here is trying to figure out where we are, you know,

in all of this. And, like, I want to be on that mountaintop, you know. And I have every intention and every ounce of my body working to get there and then to see the vision once we're up there. Like, I am excited. and I think I can beat and figure out every single woman in this division. And, you know, obviously that's talk until it's done, but I'm excited to be doing the work. You know, what's interesting is if you do well in this fight,

maybe you get a title shot, but let's say there's some kind of complication, don't you think it's possible that a strong performance at UFC 232 also helps your chances of getting a bantamweight title shot? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, that Amanda's up at one, or that fight that 1.35 or 1.45 right now. You know, I'm at 35 or going up to

45. Like, I understand that this is a lot of views. This is a lot of a lot of people looking at, at this fight with, okay, what would happen if they were at this weight? Well, what happens now that they're at that way? Well, how, you know, she gave up this or she put up that or, you know what I mean?

There's so much, you know, quote-unquote, math to do here. And results are, basically going to be something people think of, you know, and it's, you know, it's very interesting. I think it's a super interesting tournament, if you want to call it that between the four of us, because, you know, there's a lot of components that are different than normal, you know, and so it's all, it'll be a great fan event for sure to see those fights that night. You know, it's interesting to me. I don't know how you feel about it, Kat, but I felt like, you know, look, Rhonda had a great run, but your fight against her was not really representative of your uppermost ability.

And I wonder if you feel like now that you're on the back on the wind column, you still have some time left in the sport. You still have time, do you agree or no, that you can still show exactly how talented you are. I don't know that you've actually done that yet in the UFC. And this is one of those steps to get into that kind of place. Yeah, I mean, one thing that I know of myself, when I've told them, myself is like, man, like these last five years, they're definitely not the best years of my life. You know what I mean? That is, uh, within that, I mean, there's the cliche.

Like, I definitely not owning or buying that like your best years are behind you. That's not. Like, all I've done is grow and heal and work and experiment and put things in towards finding me and my best self and my best circumstances and my best, um, you know, personal life and home life and doing everything that I can to just grow as a person from the things that were the worst things in my life. So to consider that I could possibly have this great athletic career sitting alongside the toughest, hardest, craziest years of my life, like, I can't consider that that is all, you know. And the more that I recover, the more that I grow,

the more that I actually get to see the muscle memory come along with the confidence, come along with the clarity and the closure and being completer with things. Like I'm watching myself get better at the things that I'm passionate about. And that is exciting to me. And when I'm excited, this is all easy. Like everything about this is easy. I never started this sport to be famous or to make money. I started the sport because it's creative and because I got to play.

And I feel those things again. And it makes it just so much more, I don't know, it's more me. It's more me and I feel more me. And that ends up being what makes me so dangerous. So if I'm reading this right, this is not necessarily at 145 a one-off for you. You could go back and forth, you think, for perhaps a while if the opportunity is right. I won't even say if the opportunity is right. I mean, my goals are to have the belt at each division and beat both girls at each division, beat both division of all the girls.

and, you know, whatever that ends up looking like, like, should I just end up sticking to what I have as far as my goals and as far as what I think I'm capable of? Like, that's just time and what it's have. Obviously, you know, my goals were to come up through the 135 division, win that, and then go 145 because I was the champion at 125. So to have them be in order with my vision, but not a damn day of this entire journey has been to the standards of my vision. And so for me to go from 35 and then maybe get the 45 belt first, you know, however realistic that is at this moment and then to go to 35 or whatever, like I don't care. Like the object is the game. You know, the journey is what, you know, is malleable. So, you know, however that ends up looking, like I'm not trying to be too controlling of it.

What I'm trying to do is just do the work and see where it lands me. And so far, that's been a great plan for me. You know, you're one of the few women, one of four only, to get a win over Amanda Nunes. What do you make of her chances against Cyborg? Yeah, I mean, I have no idea. I know Amanda hits hard. I know Cyborg hits hard. I know, I mean, if either of them decide to go to the ground, who knows what that looks like,

like, I don't know, you know, she's, everybody's grown. Everyone's done work since Amanda fought, since I fought, you know, we both have changed a lot within training camps. and living arrangements and, I mean, life, you know, in general. And, I mean, she could have improved. She could have stayed the same. She could, you know, when I fought her, she was very good. She almost stopped me in the beginning, but then I came back around and crushed her. And that, you know, that's a good fighter.

So I don't know. I mean, everyone at this level is very good, and you're never guaranteed a night. So it's very possible, I mean, to beat cyborg. you know, it's a very possible. A cyborg keeps her rain. So I don't know. It will definitely be interesting. A lot of work has been done on both women.

And then certainly I'm be remiss if I didn't ask about your general direction you took. You know, a few years ago you moved out to the West Coast, I believe. You're out there with alliance. From social media, it seems like you're quite happy with the choice. Reflecting back on it now as you venture into this big fight at 145, are you satisfied? Did you get out of the West Coast what you were looking for? Yeah, I mean, I wanted a fresh start.

I wanted something new. Colorado is amazing, and it's my home. And, you know, like a lot happened there. And it was, I feel like I wasn't able to, like, really grow any more than I was. I got to my best there, but I hit a ceiling, you know. And it was time to make some changes both for me and my child. And so we did. And we drove west.

who came out here. A whole new set of, like, things to have no idea what to do with, you know, but that ends up being an incredible canvas, you know, found, just kind of followed the paths and went to the places that they led and, you know, learned more, did more, found what ended up being the right fits for me as far as coaching and as far as friends and where to live, put them in school, all of that, you know, so life has definitely changed. very different. But the number one goal was, you know, I have put so much time and effort into this career.

Like, I want to be all in. I want to have known and done when I'm 80 that I walked away from this, having been 100% committed to seeing it through, you know, and also showing my son what that kind of commitment looks like regardless of, you know, what happens along the way because this is something I've been passionate about my whole life. And that in itself was, you know, the drive I needed. And there's been lots of ups and down, lots of curves I didn't expect, you know, some stops I didn't really look at too happily.

But at the end of the day, like we're happy and we're healthy and I'm finding what it is that makes me my best. And, you know, he's got a smile on his face. And I'm grateful for all of that. And the rest of it is, you know, still to be written. Real quickly, a lot of fighters won't even entertain the idea of what a loss would have meant for their career. And again, you won that Marion Renaud fight soundly, unanimous decision, but it was an easy call. But if you had lost that fight, had you given any thought to what that might have meant?

No, it doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. There's no meaning to that. It's me continuing to try things. And then when they work, awesome. Okay, try more. and when they don't work, awesome. Okay, try more.

You know, like, I don't see it as these, like, deal breaker events that are going to tell me what to do with my life. Like, I know what I'm passionate about it. I know I'm going to see it through. Like, the past of the wins don't matter. The past of the losses don't matter, like, when I'm in it and I'm in it. So all of that has no meaning to me. Fair enough.

All right. Well, I got to tell you, I'm really excited about your fight at UFC 232. I cannot wait to see you back in the octagon. Three times in one year. That is a healthy clip of activity. And thank you so much for spending some time with this cat. 232 can't get here soon enough. We really appreciate it.

Awesome. Thanks for helping me, guys. Have a good day. You too. All right. There she goes. Cannot wait to see that. That's going to be such a fun, fun event and a fun night.

All right. We are done with the Monday morning analyst. We are done with the guests who call in. We are done with the tweets and the opinions. and all that kind of stuff. It's time now for you to be a guest on the show. It's time now for the sound off. And joining me, as always, is the Chambaya to Mahala.

One only Danny Sigura. I'm a little tired with the things. How are you doing there, Dan's? Man, you got to get creative. I know, I needed a better one. But you know what? You won't appreciate this. You're the...

How about this? You're the Tsar face to my action Bronson. How about that? Okay, I'll take that. Yeah. All right, you have screened the calls. Yes. And, of course, everyone can leave those calls at 844-866-2468.

If you're from out of the country, the MMA Hour at Fox Media. And all right, my man. Let's do this. I would like to add that this was probably the funniest batch of calls that we got this week. I like hearing that. I think for the most part, you know, it's all been serious. Like, yo, Habib McGregor, right, all about that. but since there hasn't been going much,

not a lot happened last week or this week, and I think fans got really creative. All right. Let's take a listen, shall we? All right. Hey, Luke and Danny. My name is Jonas. I'm from Norway,

and I have a question regarding walkout music. Who in the UFC has the best choice of walkout song and who has the worst? And please don't say Darren Till because Sweet Caroline is an amazing song. It's not. You're an idiot. Also, I have a bonus trivia question for you.

I'm going to play a guitar riff. and you're going to tell me which song this riff comes from. I'm going to give you a hint. I believe it's one of Luke's favorite songs. What song is that? That's the official soundtrack of like divorce and sadness and starvation and murder. Everything that is wrong with this world is encapsulated in that guitar. It's like anytime there's a murder, there's a guy somewhere playing Face the Pain.

That's what they all, you know, I've seen those dolls? No doubt. You pinprick them and then like somebody gets an injury? Yeah, yeah. That's where like famine comes from. Someone, some idiot in their garage is playing. Something bad happened out of us playing this. Yeah.

Sorry, world. Okay, best walkout music. And the guy's not idiot. I'm just saying that because of the Sweet Carolina is one of the worst walkout songs you can imagine. I know they do it. I think it suits there until. I don't know. No, it doesn't.

It feels derivative to be perfectly honest. I know it's an homage to what the other combat athletes do, but it feels derivative to me. The song is terrible. It's what, you know what it is? And here's why I don't like it. It's the national anthem of suburban white people. That's who that song is for. Shocker, that they play it in the most racist city in the north in Boston.

That song has no value to anybody who's not that. So I would say, I gotta be honest, Connor McGregor's walkout with the foggy do thing and then switching to Notorious. I like it. It's pretty great, man. It's pretty great. It's up there.

Any walkout song that's super cultural. Hawaiian kickboxing. For Max, BJ Penn's, Braday's song, that kind of a thing. Yeah. I always enjoyed Akiyama's. I always thought it was super nice, like going into battle with Andreo Ocelli. And the way he came out, he was usually like with the ghee holding hands with, you know, his team. And he came out very, always very calm.

So I really enjoyed that walkout. And if you're talking about notorious B.I.G., Frankie Edgar's is up there. Kicking the door wave in the 4-4 is pretty great. That's an amazing song. Yep. Who's got a really bad? Oh, and by the way, shots to the Jim Miller. for any kind of CCR he has. Who's got a bad one?

Again, Tim Boch giving up the Conan and the Barbarian Anvil of Crom for Kid Rock. It's totally unforgivable. That's up there as well for bad. This is not UFC related because the question was under UFC, but I'm going to go over to Belator. I forgot for what fight,

but King Moe was going to walk out and fight and they played the wrong song. I don't know if you remember. They played last night by the strokes. That's that sad boy stuff that you don't like. And, you know, it's totally not King Moe. And, like, it must have been like, what?

He was looking around and, like, I think he threw his hands up and he's like, all right, F it. I'll just walk out to this. That is so funny. Poor King Mo, that sucks. Even I wouldn't want to come out to that. I would just go back to the locker room to Yon. Dan Henderson. Or Chal Sons and Beltar, they come out to these country music songs.

You know, I'm not a big country fan. Yeah, you know why? Because you have ears. That's why. Way down yonder on to Chad. Chattahoochee. Yeah, just go drown. Unless it's Johnny.

Go drown in the Chattahoochee. Would you consider Johnny Cash country? Yeah, but that's like a rockabilly blues difference. Not exactly the same. Yeah, I always enjoyed Johnny Cash walkouts. They're always badass. Yeah. All right.

Let's go down to the next question. Actually, you know what? Let me say, that was a great question from Norway. Really? Yes, it was. And under, was it, 39 seconds? With the guitar riff? Exactly.

Parsimonious. Solid question. All right. Let's keep going. Hey, Luke Thomas. This is David calling from Toronto, Canada. This is the home of your favorite rapper, Drizzie Drake. I got two questions for you.

Number one, an M.MA question. Number two is a personal question. So the MMA question is this. There's lots of big fights coming up. John Jones, Gustafson. We've got right here in my hometown. We got Max Holloway versus Ortega. Yep.

And even in boxing, we have Mr. Josh or not Joshua, sorry, we have Mr. Fury against Dante Wilder, which is your favorite fight coming up by the end of 2018? So that is my first question. So it could be either MMA or boxing. And my second question is this is a personal question. And this is both for you, Luke Thomas, and this is both for you, Danny Cigura. I'm currently dating a woman from Bogodak,

Columbia, we've been going out for about eight months. What do I need to know about keeping a woman from Bogota, Colombia, happy? Thank you so much, Luke Thomas, and Danny Seguer. As you were, have yourselves a good day. Wow. That's a big question, man. A bit of a long question, but it was good, right?

That's not just a good question, it's a big question. So which one do you want to tackle first? Let's go the easiest one first. Fight we're looking forward to most. I'm going to say, now it's boxing or it's MMA. Yeah. Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury is honestly very exciting to me. It's not Joshua, though.

No, it's not Joshua. I will say, though, it's got to be Ortega and Holloway. That's just two guys in their prime. Never seen it before. John Bone Jones and Gustafsins a close second, but there's a lot of just unknowns that make you wonder what it might be on the bad end. So I'll go Ortega and Holloway.

You? Yeah, same. And, you know, for the same reasons. One, we've already seen Gus and Jones. And also, you know, they haven't fought in a while as well. well. So, you know, I mean, they can go and show good performances, but, man, as you said, Ortega and Holloway are in their prime. They've been active. They've been killing it on active streaks, and they have very different set of skill sets. You know, Gustafsson and Jones, they're both

very rangy, and we kind of know what fight will play out. We think we know. We think we know. We think we know, that's right. But I like when there's always contrasting styles. And you know, like, okay, if this guy goes to the ground, this means that. If this guy does that, you know, And the questions around Max and his health are huge. That's true as well. That's the only concern about this fight. Look, if he's fine, he's fine. But, you know, you just don't know.

Now, as for the second part, wow, that's a deal. I'll let you go first because you're married. You know, here, when it's also a little bit different, right, because you are Colombian. And as the resident Gringito up in here, my perspective is going to be very different than yours. Because a lot of what you need to do, it will come effortless to you, right? You'll just know it because you'll have grown up around.

it. But for me, a lot of Americans, he's Canadian. They don't teach you much about Latin America in schools. Like, if you seek out Spanish language in high school or in college, Spanish literature, you begin to get something of an appreciation. I came into a blind. I knew nothing about Columbia. Here's what I would say. Here's what's worked for me. Number one, just shut the fuck up because talking ain't going to do any good. But in all seriousness, I would say be really engaged in their culture. Now, that for me came easy because I naturally gravitated to it, Danny. But like, I learned about food.

I learned about culture. I learned about customs. I went and visited. I'd been there a gazillion times at this point. I've tried to learn Spanish. That's an ongoing challenge, but I'm trying. You know, I'm making an attempt. I know, whenever I go there, people are surprised that I know things about Columbia. Like other Colombians, that is. Because I think most Americans go there. and you know the truth, they go there to Rumba, dude.

They go there for the gozadera, you know as well as I do. And if you go there to actually engage with people, I have found that they treat you very differently. That's been my, and by the way, takes salsa lessons. That will always do you right with a Colombian woman. Yeah, salsa is very important. I would say, but this is just fits in general. Just be nice, just be sincere, you know, just be yourself.

But as far as, you know, Taylor made for this specific case, I don't know how it is in Canada, but here in the U.S., it's sometimes hard to get a hold of, you know, good Colombian junk food. It is. So if you can get your hands on some barrilettes or some chocoramos, some chocolatina jet. I had some jet yesterday. Best chocolate around. Yeah, it's really good. I mean, you got a plus.

And definitely try to learn some Spanish. A little bit, a little bit. A little bit. A little bit is a long way. This is something I don't always get. I feel like most of the conversations that surround romantic languages is always obviously French, Italian. But Spanish, I feel like doesn't get thrown around enough.

If you learn like just a couple of phrases, you know, you just look at her dead in the eye, you go, My amor, my life, te quiro, you're all for me. Nisiela. No I can't hear without you. Here's what I would, I think, I think that's right. Here's the last thing on this, Danny. Yeah.

Know the things you're not supposed to say. So, for example, don't make cocaine. Cain jokes. Not a good idea. I know so many people who meet my wife, they'll be like, so, um, is it snowing in Colombia? Bambampamp, b'am, b'am, b'am. And as the Colombians will be quick to remind you, it's not their coke, it's ours.

They might make it. We're the ones snorting it. So there's that as, for number one. Yeah. Number two, don't make jokes about the FARC. It's a bit of a touchy subject, right? I think you can all agree to that. Uh, and then, what's anything the last?

Oh, I will say this. y'all are a little racist. I don't know about that. You're a little racist. Here's what I mean. Here's what I mean. If I go down there, I think the word gringo is racist. Do you agree?

Okay, no, I know what you're trying to say. We're not PC. No. They'll call you... But I don't know about racist. They'll be like, where are you from? They'll be like, oh, Korea. They'll call you El Chino.

Yeah. They will not... Koreano, they will not say. They'll call you... Where you from Japan? Okay, El Chino. Like, that's what they do. But a little bit uneducated on some...

Yeah. But the point being is, I think, the word gringo is racist because here's the truth. Gringo can be neutral. Oh, look, there are some gringoes over here. That's a neutral way to describe it. You have never, in Colombia, you have never heard the expression, wow, look at these gringoes. I'm so glad they're here. They're wonderful dancers. You've, it's never been uttered in the history of the Spanish language. It can, for sure. No, yeah, can. These gringoes, they are such great to us. If you're, if you If you're with someone and let's say, you know, they're American and you're introducing them, oh, some gringos, you know, they're from America.

Yeah, but you don't go so in Estabunianzis. Hold on. Hold on. The truth is, and you know this is well as I do, it can be neutral. But it's usually dismissive. It's usually dismissive. Could be, yes. Yeah. Okay, enough of that. Let's move on. All right. So now let's actually talk some M.A. Okay. Bader.

Bader's been killing it. Let's talk about, you know, what it means for, you know, for him being in the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix final. and, you know, how he would do if he were still in the UFC. Hey, this is Brandon Quintana from Rosemey in California. How was your morning made so far, Luke? Terrible. Well, that's unfortunate. Anyway, Ryan Bader is a great success in Ballytor. It's a great at light heavyweight and was even better at heavyweight.

Although it was great in the UFC, he always seemed to struggle with the top five. Is this a success that Balletor due to leaps and bounds in his games and leaving the UFC? or are we seeing the result of a drop in level of competition? And what does that say about a double-champ versus double-chap match against C-C? Give me your thoughts. So loaded question.

Tons to talk about here. First of all, is Ryan Bader's success meaning something that says something about the divisions and the kind of fighters about Bellator or about his improvement? Where do you... He's 35. I don't think he's improved very much. I think it's just a lower level of competition.

but look, here's the point. So what is the answer? So what? If it's a lower level of competition, you at least, number one, get to appreciate Ryan Bader in a new way in terms of what he's done at light heavyweight. And the whole point about the heavyweight tournament

is it makes you reconsider how talented this guy is. If you're just going up against buzz saws like Anthony Johnson and John Jones, people don't really get a good sense of who you are. It's actually when you go into these other competitions. I mean, those are important and they matter. You can't discount those either. But the reality is Ryan Bader, doesn't get to show off how good he is against Anthony Johnson or John Jones.

He does when he gets to go up a weight class in Bellator. He does when he gets to fight at a Phil Davis or Linton Vassal. And Phil Davis is a very close fight, but he does certainly here. So the point being is, did he get better? Well, no. Is the competition less? Why is that a scandal to say? It's, of course, it's less.

That's not the point. The point is, this guy is freaking awesome, and you haven't had really a chance to get to enjoy that. Enjoy it. Now you do. And I mean, when he left the UFC, he was already like, what, top four? I would even say, four, top five, yeah.

So that's already... They're putting him in fights in Brazil against Lil Nog. Like, what's that going to do for him? It's not... You don't get to appreciate him in that way. Now you get a different chance to appreciate him. But I would disagree in one thing. I do think he's gotten better,

not, you know, maybe crazy, you know, jump like Aaron Peak or something like that. But I do think fighting in a new organization, fighting in an organization where he doesn't have to go out there and call people out. I feel like that's done a lot of well to his overall game. I feel like he's improved in that area. I couldn't argue that necessarily.

I just don't think it's been, if it's been a change, not much. For me, it's just that the guy's been exceptionally talented, and there are ways to reveal that. This is a way to reveal that. Yeah, especially going up to heavyweight. Now, let's move on to a different promotion across the pond. So about Eddie Alvers.

All right. Hey, Luke and Danny. This is Brian from Philadelphia. What do you think is a fight to make for Eddie Alvers one championship? Take it easy. So very quick question. To be honest, I don't know much about the roster over at 1.

Newsflash, nobody does. Yeah. But something that I did want to bring up regarding this question, I've seen already on Twitter, a lot of people throw up, you know, Ben Askerr versus Eddie Alvers, the possibility. What do you make of that? It seems like a terrible fight for Eddie because he's got good takedown defense, but Ben is just relentless in that regard and would have the size advantage.

when you're talking about a guy who was an Olympian. You know, whatever you think of his striking, who cares? He's going to be able to close the distance. And whether he gets on top or not, I don't know. So I would say I wouldn't mind seeing it because you would be matching up somebody to have under talent, under roster anyway, in Ben. And Eddie is obviously Eddie.

So I guess the answer is yes, but doesn't... Look, the point about Eddie going to one is so Eddie can do things that Eddie needs. like get money that he should have been getting a long time ago. Get a belt. It doesn't mean fuck all for the fans. And so the fans be like, who can he fight? I don't know.

Shiniaaki, I don't know. Some of the don't know. It's not what it's about. Honestly, I would watch, I would rather watch that trilogy than a Ben Ascgren fight. To be honest, the Ben Ascran fight doesn't do anything. Yeah, sure.

I agree. Doesn't really interesting. By the way, a whole smoke shinia the next time they fight, so. Most likely. But still, that heel hook. You never know. Fair enough. Fair enough.

All right. Now, let's talk about scoring in M.A. All right. Hi, Luke, long time listener. My name is Abdel. I'm calling from Burkina Faso. Wow. So my question is, why do you think we don't really see as much draw decisions in MMA today?

Do you think that the judges have some kind of pressure on them to score a fight in favor of a fighter, even if a fight is close enough to be a draw? I wanted to hear your opinion on it. So thank you for your response. and Sean Price is the best. Take that. Take that, you little Uzi Vert fan in Danny Zagora. Little Pump. Little Pump, whoever that gentleman is.

I do not know. I am old and white. Takashi. Yeah. Sorry, I lost track of what he was asking. Please refresh my memory. So why don't we see enough that many draws in M.A. I think that's a fantastic question.

Yeah, the answer is that commission members is the one thing they'll actually admit and referees do it too is that, because they know as well. Commissions don't want them. They pressure judges. Not like, you should score that round X, Y, Z, but in this general sense,

they really ask you to find a winner. And, you know, look, I actually don't, there's this, if you watch two of my buddies, I'll give a shout-outs to him, Grant and Danny, they host the Midday Show on 1067 the fan in Washington, D.C., and they absolutely hate ties in football games,

American football games. And I don't love ties, but sometimes two teams are just equally matched. Now, the Canelo and Triple G first time scorecards were fucked up, which is why people got mad at the draw. But in the general sense, do I mind if fights end in a draw? I really don't because sometimes one guy can't beat the other. The answer is that the commissions don't want to be a part of this indecision,

quite literally. They want to be a part of judgment. And that judgment calls for an X or Y. I think that's so unfortunate because, like, in soccer you see draws all the time. You see in sports just draws all the time. I feel like in M.A. we don't get enough. Like, let's be honest. Do you really think Darren Till beat Stephen Wonderboy?

Certainly not. Nobody won that fight. You know, my whole thing with the whole scoring is like, Darren. Yeah, no vice versa. Exactly. Like, nobody won in that fight. Come on. Like, if you could make an argument for either or, you're really splitting hairs there

because, let's be honest, no one really did much. And I feel like a lot of fights, you know, that happens. I feel like we rounds end and we're wondering, oh, who won? Who do I give the 10-9 to? If you're wondering that question, it should be a 10-10 automatically, at least on my book. I agree, yeah, sure. All right. Let's talk about now Habib and Tony.

Abib. Surprised, right? Hey, how's it going, guys? My name is Pedro. I'm calling from Southern California. It's one of that I ask you guys a quick question. So do you guys think that a fight between Kabib and Nervi and Nervu? Magamato and Tony Ferguson

could be promoted as to see who is the best lightweight of all time. If so, do you guys think that that can be promoted like that to the casual audience as well? Or

would they just rely on Kabid's, I guess, our power and millions of followers and not promote it that way and just think that they're going to get big numbers anyway? Thanks. So the question was worded a little bit off.

It's a good question, but here's the problem. With Penn having a title in two weight classes, it makes a discussion of goat a little bit. I'm not saying that Penn's the runaway choice or that, you know, clear number two behind Habib or whatever, but he's certainly in the conversation being a two-weight division champion and Tony's never held one. Now, Tony competed in a different era and he was the interim champ, I understand.

Here's how I think you can position it. It is a question of his story. importance. And I would say it's the two best lightweight fighters ever fighting one another in terms of their talent level. Because Goat is a question of accomplishment. I think you can pitch it like that. Dude, name a fight where you can put two guys in their prom.

I don't know Tony's in his prime, but certainly two guys who are at the top of the division together for a title in the UFC. And you're talking about that maybe one of the best fights that weight class has ever seen. That's super rare. I think that's the way to go about it. some weird way, teasing it that this fight has never been able to come to fruition, it's also part of the story. Because it really is ridiculous to think that these two guys have been on crazy win streaks.

They're down to fight anybody, anywhere, and yet they still can't make it to the same fight night. And here's the best part about it. They've tried to make it four times and failed. They're trying to make it now a fifth time. And the fifth time is the most important one, even counting all the other four attempts. Like all those other four attempts, it's not just because it's not just because it's, the latest one because now there are title implications. The stakes keep getting higher.

Each time the stakes get higher. That tells you that you must, you must make that contest. And not only that, but their win streaks just keep, you know, growing. And they even look more badass, you know, with their performance. They might literally be the two most talented lightweights ever. Honestly, if that fight never happens, that'll be like the worst fight. That would be the worst, one of the worst case in it. How bitter are McGregor fans for me, not including him in that conversation?

Yeah. Super bitter right now. Guess what? Hashtag, don't care. All right. We got time for one more? We got time for a couple more. Okay.

So let's bring in McGregor. There you go. Right on cue. Hey, what's up, guys? This is John from New Jersey. Now, listen, I know this isn't a fight that a lot of casuals want to see, but me as a hardcore fan. I want to see Tony Ferguson and Connor McGregor get it in

because Kabe's probably going to be out for a while, and Tony Ferguson deserves a big payday. Like, forget the bell for. a second. If Tony Ferguson fights Connor, he gets the biggest payday of his career, right? And if he wins, of course, you know, he's fighting for the belt. But if Connor wins, then he deserves a fight for the rematch

against Kavid. So it's like a win-win for the UFC and for Tony. Because Tony has so many wins that lightweight, he deserves a big payday. And, bro, Connor's the payday. It's better than fighting for the bell at this point, bro. So I'd rather Tony fight Connor and the winner fights Kabib again. It's a win-win for the fans and for Tony, bro. He deserves it.

What do you guys think? Love your show, man. Good night. Thank you, Daniel Cormier voice guy. Yeah, so how do you feel about that one? I'm torn. I would love to see Tony get a big payday. Yeah. I would love to see him get a big fight and be in the big spotlight.

I think if anyone deserves it, it's him. Shout's to Tony Ferguson. Thank you for this again. I don't know. It's just that that fight between Habib is so important for so many reasons. That matter for the sport, you know, that make you feel good about what the sport can offer. And frankly, I've got to be honest.

It's what the sport is about, the best fighting the best. I think Tony is a tougher matchup for Habib than he is for Connor. Because given how nasty Connor is early, you know, and the way in which Tony fights guys against his own strength sometimes. And Tony has been cracked before. Yeah, by the way, Tony could still win that one very easily, too. Like, it would be very foolish to count that guy out. I'm a little bit torn.

I just think that the Habib fight is so important. Now, if he's going to be out for a while, to the caller's point, well, then that changes some things. Yeah. But if he's going to be a relatively active, man, that's the guy. That's the guy. Tony's been waiting. Look at his win streak.

Look at the guys he's beating. Look at what he's capable of doing. Look at the matchup as I showed during the Monday morning analyst, man. It would be a crime for that fight not to happen. I'm with you 100%. That's the fight to make. And anything that stands in the way of it or jeopardizes, even if it's a big fight, even if it involves Connor McGregor, I don't want it.

I want Tony Ferguson versus Habib. So we'll see what happens. If he's out for a while, if Habib does end up, you know, staying on the sidelines for a bit, I still wouldn't like to see it just because I'd like to see Connor not get an easier fight, but, man, like, fighting Habib and then Tony, like, back to back, I don't think that's good. That's not good for your health and...

Yeah, you know what Connor McGregor needs? He needs a tune-up. He needs a tune-up. That's what he needs. And it's hard to give a tune-up once you're such a big star, right? Who cares? Find a way to do it. He needs a tune-up.

He needs a tune-up. By the way, Habib got an accidental one in the Darryl Horcher fight and did him some good. Yeah. Connor needs a tune-up. And by the way, you'd be like, oh, Connor's too good for tune-ups. No fighter in boxing is too good for tune-ups. Even the great Juan Nile while Marquez got tune-ups late into his career. Everyone takes those. It's okay.

I think that's what he needs. I really do. I think so. We got time for one more? Yeah, let's do it. All right. This one is for you. I mean, I got something going on right now, but not to your level.

All right. Howdy, Luke? My name's Alex, aka the beef, calling from a glorious Orlando, Florida. Nope, just Alex. A quick question for you. If any, what products do you use in that glorious bearded of yours? Are you more of a fan of the oil, the bomb, maybe your wash?

Let me know. Kind of curious. Thanks. Okay. Danny, you have what I would call the facial hair starter kit. Okay. Right? It's a fair way to put it.

I'll take that. I mean, this is only. about a week? Bro, that's like two hours for me. I understand. I could sneeze and grow that. I would say, here's what I do. I wash my beard with either my head shampoo if I'm out,

but I typically have my own beard shampoo. You can get it at your local fine men's grooming lounge or any kind of place like that. You don't have a specific brand? No, I kind of experiment. I've never really found one that was demonstrably better than the others. I used conditioner on it a few times. a week as well. Here's the reality, though. I don't like the beard oils. I am against those.

Now, you need to put liquid in it. Why? Because your scalp naturally produces the kinds of oils that make your hair shine and give it some bounce and some depth. Your face does not. That's why your face hair, if you doesn't treat it right, looks like pubs. To be quite candid with you, that's why it doesn't. There's no nurturing from the skin. So I don't like the oils because if you touch your face, then it looks like you ran your. your hand through, I don't know, jello or something. Like your hands get all mucked up.

I like balms. And cremo is a great one. Cremo balm. It's white. You put it in there, makes it smell nice, and it gives it some nice, you know, a life. And by the way, also, you need a beard brush. You need a beard brush to comb that thing. Often do you brush?

Once a day. Is it painful? Only if, like, I've gone to Jiu-Jitsu and everything's tangled. And then I shower and then I let it. it dry naturally and I try to brush it out, then I got a bit of a problem. But other than that, no. And as Kimbo Slice told me, if I take care of my beard, my beard will take care of me. Shout out of Kimbo slice. No.

There you got. That's a Kimbo slice. Rest in peace. One of the greatest beards in M.A. I think it's him or Erlowski tied. Oh, I would say Kimbo's was better. Yeah. Kimboz was better.

Definitely more fuller, but Erlovsky just fits with his... Yeah, yeah. It fit the profile, yeah. Yeah. But in terms of just like straight up beer. majesty. That's your re right there, for sure.

Anything else? I mean, that's it. I mean, we've got a couple more questions, but we can always save them for later shows. Let's say them for later shows, because I got things to do, as everyone well knows. Danny, great job today.

As always, it was nice to see you. And we'll be back next week, won't we? It will be kind of fun. All right. As always, you can send us those calls. 844-66-24-68. Use the hashtag the MMA hour, or you can email us.

if you will those calls, TheMMA Hour at Voxmedia.com. Thank you guys so much for watching, and until next time, stay frosty.