MMA Fighting - #469 – Anthony Smith, Stefan Struve, Valerie Loureda, Matt Mitrione

Episode Date: February 18, 2019

On this episode of The MMA Hour, Luke Thomas speaks to Anthony Smith about his UFC 235 main event fight against Jon Jones, his issues with Colby Covington, more; Stefan Struve about his upcoming bout at UFC on ESPN+ 3, his career, more; Valerie Loureda about her successful pro debut at Bellator 216, her martial arts background, more; Matt Mitrione about his Sergei Kharitonov main event bout at Bellator 215 that ended in a no contest due to groin shot, what’s next from here, more. We also take your questions on the latest news in MMA on Sound Off and A Round of Tweets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Monday the 18th of February 2019, and this is the MMA Hour. Welcome, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. I'm the host of this program. I appreciate you guys joining me. What a show we have planned for UDONCs today. First of all, all the reaction that you want to get from Belator 215, Bellator 216, and UFC on ESPN1.

We're going to have a ton of that. Plus, well, more than a few guests joining us, the co-headliner for Bellator 215. Matt Mitreone is going to be here. Our gentleman who has a very important fight in his UFC career coming up next week, Stefan Stroove will be here. All the rage from UFC, or I should say, Bellator 216, Valerie Lareda will be here. That's kind of interesting.

And then at the end of the show, he's going to be headlining UFC 235, looking for the opportunity of a lifetime. Lionheart returns to the show. Anthony Smith, plus you're going to be here. You're going to be my guest, two different ways. Number one with your tweets using the hashtag the MMA hour, as well as with your phone calls at 844-866-24-68. We'll do that in the soundoff. I'm told there were a gazillion of both of those.

I always appreciate when you guys call and contribute. I like doing the show with you. It's fun. Welcome, everyone. Hope you had a great weekend. I am so tired I would like to, what's the word I'm looking for? Die? Yes.

I am so tired I could die. I normally like those Sunday cards when I'm just a fan. But when you have to have a show ready the next day, they cut into your hours. Plus last week was a hell week for me with my other job, and I'm tired. But you know what? I'm also caffeinated.

Vox Media has the worst coffee on earth, but I'm going to drink it anyway because it puts me in that mood, this liquid magic to get going. One little fact about caffeine that folks may not know, this is apropos of nothing. It's one of the few performance-nancing substances that across different kinds of sports, it has benefits. So if you're looking for explosive strength, long-distance running, and everything in between, caffeine's one of the few that is good for all of them.

That's why I was initially banned. Folks may not know that. Here you go. Okay, delisioso. All right. As always, don't forget, the Monday morning analyst is going to be exclusive to YouTube. We're going to get into it here, but if you're listening on the audio platform, don't worry. We won't run through all that stuff in that platform and make it hard for you to understand and listen to.

All right. It is time now for a round of tweets, ladies and gentlemen. All right. Clock starts when I see the first tweet. Would you agree that a lot of main events, Bellator Invicta Cage Warriors UFC over the weekend had unexpected endings? Yeah. It was, I didn't see the Invicta card. I'll just be candid with you.

And I didn't see the Cage Warriors one either. So I can't speak for them, but certainly for Belator and UFC, you had three events. And there were some good fights. Don't misunderstand me, but there was a lot of weirdness this weekend. It just sometimes the stuff flows and sometimes it doesn't. That one was one where it didn't. I think for both parties, actually, I would say. Next.

What was the biggest upset this weekend? Nganu's Winner-Cain or Herona upsetting Real Madrid. What's your opinion of Vinicius? Great show, by the way. Listen from Brazil every week. Vinicius has, there are idiots out there who keep telling me, that Karim Benzima is not having a good season. He is having a good season, but I will be candid with you and acknowledge that's in a large part due to the help of Venetius.

If you could close the whole tab, Joe, thank you. Biggest upset, though, has got to be, yeah, it's probably the Real Madrid upset, but I would say second is definitely for Francis. That was a huge win for him. Just fold it over. Yeah, just fold it over. It'll shut it off by itself. Next. Hi, Luke and Danny and assorted others.

This is from Brittany. Wow, female. This is amazing. Can you please explain why Angano was credited with the key? KO versus a TKO in this instance. Love you guys. Love the show. And stop watching. We'll stop watching Never, thanks.

Um, I don't know. That's a good question. I'd have to ask a referee about the proper way that that is answered. I don't know. And I'm not going to pretend that I do. It's a good question. It's a great question. I'm sorry that I do not know.

Next. Can we talk about Brian Barbarina and Vicente Lucke? Lucke is one of the most underrated fighters in all of MMA. Again, I said this on my post-fight show yesterday. I'm not saying it's the exact equivalent of being the Douglas Lima of the UFC. It's not quite right because I think Lima has ascended to higher heights. But there is a sense of these two quiet guys that just go in there and put on violence don't quite get the respect that they deserve.

Certainly that's the case. And then Brian Barbarana, my God, his ability to withstand that. Woo, that was incredible. So fun. I know Brian moved out to Tennessee. Again, he ran to Pete Rubish, one of my favorite. power lifters, but he's still with the lab. So, you know, what to make of that, I don't know.

Here's what I do know. Vicente Luque is asking for a top 10 opponent. It is about time he gets one. He has earned it. Next. How classy is Kane for bringing Inganu back to the microphone and praising him so those pinheads and attendance would stop booing him? They even booed while he spoke of a death in his family.

Worst crowd ever. Yo, Phoenix, y'all sucked. I'm supposed to get on here and just say nice things about everybody so they don't get mad at me. Sorry, y'all were terrible. One of the worst audiences I've ever heard. Now, standard low-level primate wooing, which is done for people who have no lives and simply need to have a moment where they can make it all about themselves in public. and there's been great audiences. I'm sure are good MMA fans, rather, in that area.

But as a crowd, y'all and Phoenix, terrible. One of the worst ones ever. And I have no problem saying it. Y'all sucked. Next. Who do you think Paul Felder fights next in the lightweight division? Also, after these two losses, what does the UFC do with James Vic?

Does he remain main card material? I suppose it depends on the matchup. For folks who may not have heard, Paul Felder punctured his lung last night. Apparently, sometimes doctors believe in the third round. He had to stay in the hospital last night. We were looking to get him on the show, but obviously that wasn't going to happen. So a tremendous win by him.

Dude, I am not ready to close the door on James Vic. There are things he has to work on. He got a little bit ahead of himself. Obviously, the Gait Chief fight. He was very competitive in this Paul Feldor fight. And, yeah, there are some things that have to be tightened up. But in fact, I was a little surprised he didn't wrestle more, to be honest with you. So maybe switching some things up that he's doing.

But yeah, and he has to reset the level of opposition he's fighting, but I'm not closing the door on that guy at all. Next. What's your take on a fight between Ortega and Crone? If Brian Ortega kept it on the feet, he would destroy him, I think, to be candid with you. And I saw a lot of people being like, oh, you should do Ryan Hall versus Crone Gracie. Okay. No, you don't want to do that.

Ryan is probably going to keep it on the feet where he has the advantage. And on the ground, they're going to stalemate each other. Do you all watch high-level black belts compete? It's boring. It's boring. High-level black belts typically, in MMA, you know, it can be a little bit different. But outside of that, they just neutralize each other and they went on advantages. No thanks.

Have them fight people who are less than them in Jiu-Jitsu. One more, very quickly. One more. Dominic Cruz mentioned all fighters will have a different definition of fight IQ. What is your definition? Yeah, first of all, Dominic Cruz is my favorite commentator in all of MMA. If you don't like Dominic Cruz as a commentator, it's because you're the kind of neighbor who doesn't mow his lawn. You're the kind of person who talks closely to your coworkers at the office.

You chew food with your mouth open. You talk in movie theaters. You're just wrong with the world. But I disagree with his idea that everyone's going to have a definition of fight IQ. Fight IQ is making good decisions and fights. That's what that means. Who makes smart choices based on what's available to them? Now, those choices will differ based on opportunities.

challenges, and skills, but nevertheless, you're either getting towards a place where you're winning or you're not. Fight IQ is a good demonstration of that. All right. Do we have our next guest? All right, we had to shuffle things around. We shall shuffle. This gentleman returns to the Octagon. I am very, very, very excited about this. I haven't seen him in a while, and he makes his return this Saturday, I believe.

He is the finest out of the Netherlands when he takes on, of course, UFC on ESPN 3. He'll take on Marcos Hogerio de Lima. The one and only Stefan Strove is here. Hi, Stefan. What's up, Luke? Are you? Good, buddy.

How is Beaverwick? Everything's good, man. It's good to be home for a while. I've been doing my camps in Florida for the last seven fights, and this one I was at home. So, yeah, everything is good, man. It's good to be here a little longer for a change. What do people do for fun in,

Beaverwick? Well, usually this time of year, February, it's freezing cold and there's snow, but right now it's in the 50s. So it was actually nice to be outside for a change for fun. Well, it's not exactly beach weather, but, you know, what do people do for fun right now this time of year? Normally ice skating, making snowmen, but right now, not so much. Are you a big eye Ice skater, Stefan Stroove? I haven't done so for a long time. No, I haven't. You'd be like a giraffe out there.

I'd make it look good, though. I believe you. I believe you. You're very athletic. I believe you. Hey, so why did you decide to go back to the Netherlands for this one? Or has that been more recent? You know, I've been traveling a ton the last couple of years back and forth to Florida.

And I was in Kazakhstan for, to corner a teammate of mine in December. And then the fight got announced. I signed a fight. And I was like, you know, I'm in Kazakhstan now. I couldn't make it into Florida until like halfway January. Then I would have to travel back to Europe halfway February. So I'd only have like four weeks to train.

Plus I'd have like three jet legs in a row. It just didn't make sense for me, you know. And at first I wasn't sure if I would have the right amount of training partners, but that turned out great, and I'm very pleased, very happy with how the camp went. So where are you training, like the gym where you started or someplace new or what? Yeah, also training with my longtime coach, Bob Shriver. I trained a lot with Timu Sasi, who have a bunch of big heavy weights. Yeah, you know, made my way around a couple of gyms and made it work like that. So. And Holland is small, right? You can drive

end to end in like a few hours. Yeah, like north to south in like three, four hours. So, you know, it's not big at all. So you have to make it work, train with each other. And it was actually nice to train with the guys always used to work with for change. Although, you know, like the change has got nothing to do with the quality of training or the team in South Florida because the team over there and the coaches are everything a fighter could wish for.

They were tremendous the last seven fights And as I said Got nothing to do with this change But now and then it is good to change things up a little bit It's very nice to be home And it's very nice because I'll I only have to travel 19 minutes To Prague tomorrow to be there

So it's awesome Yeah, that has to be a bit of a relief So let's talk about you for a second man You're in an interesting position It's no secret You're coming off three losses in a row here I believe that's like That's never really happened for you before

Let's start with a few things. How hard has it been mentally to deal with that? Very frustrating, of course. And, you know, I was in all those fights. I had good moments in all those fights. And at the end of the day, the coin flipped that way. And they were better that night. But I know for sure that I could beat all the guys I fought those nights.

You know, I just, you know, fight a little more aggressive, fight a little higher pace. There are, you know, some reasons why I wasn't performing, no excuses. But I believe that this fight, I'll get my hand raised again. You don't have, and again, I can only know from the outside looking in. I've not been in your camp. I don't know your life. So that's why I'm asking these questions. There are no lingering health concerns, right?

Well, you know, my, it's not really a concern. I've been fighting my whole life with the heart disease, you know, like that's just the thing. I've had that my whole career. So normally it is found in kids when they are young, and then they are told that these types of combat sports aren't the best decisions because one day they would probably need surgery and you'd be on butt thinners and all that and there be hard to quit. And, you know, for there, you know, there's erosion in my heart. The aerotic bulb will decay faster than probably when I wouldn't train.

But that's not, you know, for sure either. So there's just an abnormality in my heart. But I'm doing pretty damn good with it. So, you know, like I wouldn't do anything else with it. You know, it is what it is. It's part of me. And you obviously have to get medical screenings. so I'm not worried about that.

You feel fine, right? Oh, yeah, always, man. I got checked two, three times a year for that, and it's been very stable since I've been on the meds. Everything is just doing fine, you know. Yeah, it's absolutely no concern for me. What is your mental posture heading into this contest? Everybody wants a win every time, obviously.

Do you think of it like, I have to get back in the win column, or it's just another? fight, like when you think about what's the best way to get you back into the wind column, what mental posture do you take? Well, you try to not be, you know, in a spot where you're worried about, you know, winning, although you always need to be worried about winning because that's, you know, that's why you're going in that cage.

But it's frustrating that I, you know, I lost three fights in a row. But at the end of the day, I treated just like any other fight, you know, I believe in myself. feel good. There's no, you know, there's, there's nothing in my head that holds me back. So I just, you know, need to fight hard and, you know, go in there and get my hand raised. Simple. Let me ask you a question that a lot of people have asked me. You obviously have some great wins. You have a win over Steppe Miochich and a stoppage win at that, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, right? But here's one thing that people have always asked me. Understand, I don't know what you know. So I'm going to ask this from a position of relative ignorance.

But some people have brought this up, and I think I've seen it too. They make the criticism constructive or otherwise that you don't fight tall. You're very tall. It's not like you don't really love, you have a jab, but you don't like stick behind the jab. I'm sure you may have heard this before. What do you make of whether or not your fighting style optimizes your limb length and your stature? Well, I agree with it partially. I think I got on way, way better with it.

But in the beginning of my career, I didn't really fully understand how to use my reach, how to fight long. You know, I always came forward and was looking for a fight. And I was looking to be the aggressor. But, you know, now I really understand that if I fight like that with smaller guys who are more explosive, I'm going to end up on the short end. You know, it's simple as that. So I really have to develop that. And I think I got on a lot better with it.

Unfortunately, in the last couple of fights, he didn't always show. But that was actually, you know, I didn't really get caught as much in those fights. It was more the takedowns in the last two fights that cost me the fights. Almost, you know, knocked out Tibora in that last fight with a head kick and I was doing pretty good on the outside. But he was sharp with his takedowns. You know, I believe that fighting tall. and just being smart with it will be one of the things this weekend that's going to get my hand race. So let's talk about your opponent.

Brazilian heavy-handed has gone, I think, a bit back and forth with weight classes. For a while they're fought at middleweight, but he's back at heavyweight now. He has one win since doing that over Adam Wiesoric. What do you make of your opponent? When you think about what the hurdles are, you have to clear to win, what are they? Yeah. Well, the one thing, as I just said, I need to be. to be aggressive, but smart aggressive.

Like, I need to have him on the outside, because if you fight him on the inside, he's going to land something, and he hits like a truck, you know? Like, there's no secret to end up. So, just be very smart with it. I believe that

he hits very hard, but he's very hitable himself. He's open to take downs, and when you pressure him on the ground, he gives up certain things, certain openings for submissions and ground and pound. So, So I believe that if I fight smart and, you know, don't end up in a ball with him, this is my fight. So.

Interesting. If I had to ask you what your goals were for this year. So let's say we talked a year from now. So what is it, February 18th? Imagine if we talked February 18th, 2020. What would you have liked to have accomplished in that time? It's fairly early this year. So, you know, I always like to fight.

like three or four times a year, but let's just say three times this year. So what I want to do is win three fights this year. That was my goal last year. Unfortunately, it didn't go that way, but three wins this year is what I aim for. This is my last fight on my UFC contract, so we have to renegotiate after this. My first choice is to stay with the UFC, but there's also interesting players outside of the UFC. And at the day, we fight for money, you know. So that's going to be interesting for me after this fight. Another reason to get a nice win. Yeah, and for the rest, man, it's all about winning, you know, weighing and not getting here in there. So are you looking for a pay bump? A way? A pay bump, a rise in pay? Of course. Yeah, you don't want to drop in pay,

you know, like, this is not what I'm going to sign. I've been fighting for a long time. Here's the thing, Stefan. I'll talk to fighters and they'll be like, yeah, I want to bump and pay, but it really matters that I want to be with a certain organization or I want a certain fight. Believe it or not, I actually hear that a lot. It's changing, you're right? More fighters are like, eh, I'd rather get paid. I just wanted to clarify that that's all I meant by that.

Well, you know, I'm very, I feel very good with the UFC because you know you get paid. You know, there's a couple other big organizations out there where you know you will get paid, but there's also organizations out there that say they pay a lot or will pay a lot, but, you know, I haven't dealt with them. So in the end of the day, I want to get paid to fight. You know, it's, I've been fighting for a very long time.

And I think the next couple of years, the years where, you know, I get paychecks that are serious. And that's what I'm aiming for. You know, I still like doing this. But at the day, I'm also doing this for the money. So, you know, a good performance on Saturday will definitely help with negotiations. In a perfect world, what would you do with the money? Like if you got the right amount of money, right? Oh, I love this contract.

It's great money. Career is over, however many years that is from now. What would you do with the money? You just probably invest in real estate so that when I'm done with my career, I could sit back and, you know, choose a profession I like, do what I want, and not have to worry about things too much, you know. My house paid off probably. Yeah, I don't need a lot every money.

I don't spend a lot of money. So I would just like to have a nice comfy life doing what I'd like to do. Let me ask you a bit of a different question. You fought a bunch in 20 or twice in 2014, once in 2015, 2016, 2017, and then once in 2018. But you did have that injury layoff for a while. This is the heart condition. We saw Kane Velazquez come back last night. He was gone since UFC 200.

I wonder, A, what you made of the fight. And then, two, how hard is it to come back from layoff? Now, everyone's situation is different. Some people have catastrophic injuries. Some people just have life going on. But in general, what did you make of the fight? And then what do people not understand about making a comeback after time away? You know, for him, it was a long, long time since he was in there.

And then to have your first fight against a man like Francis and Ghanu, there is no time for you to just smell the octagon and feel, you know, comfortable again. That guy's coming at you with everything he's got. He's going to try to knock your head up. And if he touches you, he's going to hurt you, you know. And he caught him off guard because the punch he landed wasn't crazy hard. But that man's got so much power and he just walked into it. And then unfortunately, you know, he blew his knee out.

So it's just very unfortunate for him because I do believe he's got a lot more in the tank. But coming back, especially against a guy like that, man, there's no easy task, you know. But at the same time he's came for Lasquez, they're not going to give him, you know, and nobody to just, you know, make a return. You know, they gave me Alastra O'Brien for my return when I came back after like 22 months with the heart issues and all that, you know. And then I was going to fight Mad Mitriot and I had to blackout in the locker room and all that because of the medication I was on.

And then like five months after that, they gave me Alistair O'Brien for my comeback. You know, it's you cannot hesitate. You cannot be, you know, just feel. Feeling the octagon and feeling everything again and fighting someone like that. Because if you're not 100% focused, you're not going to win that night. Well, I got to tell you, I'm really excited for your return, Stefan. You're always an exciting fighter. And you're right, man.

Some of these losses, they've been just a little bit, just a little bit out of your grasp. But it feels like a couple of changes here, a few switches there, and you should be back in the win column. Plus, I hope you get what you want with your next contract. man, I'm really looking forward to Saturday. So best of luck to you. You don't need it. But thank you so much for your time, man. Yeah, of course, no problem.

Good to talk to you, man. All right. And enjoy Beaverwick. Thank you. We'll do. I'm not hating on Holland, by the way. It's like the perfect country. We're pretty close to it anyway,

relative to Los Estatus. You've ever been to Holland, man? First of all, if you're an English speaker, it's great because everybody speaks English, which is true of Europe generally, but especially true of Holland. They have little plazas everywhere where you can sit outside

and you can have a beer and you can chill. There are coffee shops and then coffee shops and they do different things. It's just a cool place, but I've never been to Beaverwick. All right, let's go now to our next guest.

She made an explosive pro debut at Bellator 216. There were waterworks everywhere, but totally understandable. She's a Taekwondo standout and now we'll see how things go on MMA. Valerie Loretta is here on the show. Hi, Valerie.

Hi, everyone. How are you? Nice to meet you. Likewise. I like the Burberry scarf. It's very fashionable. Where are you, by the way? I'm in New York, actually.

After my Friday, I came, I took the train. I'm going to be until Wednesday just to relax two days and then back to training. Oh, if I had known that, I would have invited you in studio. But, okay, maybe next time. How about that? Oh, my God. That's awesome. Yeah.

I'm here actually right here on Broadway. Now, what are you doing in New York? Just seeing the sites? Yeah, I've been here a lot, but just enjoying because it's two hours from Connecticut. It's just going to stay in a nice place here and just enjoy a little bit. I need a little two days vacation. All right, yeah, you certainly earned it. So let me ask you this.

In your mind, before you fought on Saturday, your pro debut probably looked a certain way in your mind. Ultimately, it played out the way it did. How close were they relative to each other? Well, you know, honestly, I had everything planned out for a while about how I wanted to look for certain days, for media day, for my way. I tell my designer my clothes, I design my clothes. I like everything being perfect, but it's because that's the way I am with my brand. And that's who I am as a person. And when everything goes the way I see it and it's right, that's when I perform the best.

So I've had that plan So everyone was like wow It looks like everything was so nice I'm perfect I'm like because that's how I made sure of it right And then during this week I was telling my parents I'm like everything's been going as I planned

And nothing could be better The only thing is I have to win tomorrow night You know But that was never a problem for me Tegas I always in my head I was like there's no way that you could come out of this fight Losing with the camp that you had The work you put in

I couldn't have put 5% more into the training that I did. So I was just confident in that. But of course, on fight day comes and you get very self-conscious and you start doubting yourself. But I just, I kept telling my family members, I go, the moment I see one opportunity, this fight's not going past the first round. I'm going in there. I'm not going to be patient. I'm going to go in there. I'm looking for my knockout. And exactly what I said was going to happen, happened. And it's funny because I was talking to my coach at home, I was like, I knew it was going to be Jack Cross, hook, liver kick, because I've done it so many times and finished so many people training doing that, but it just turned out perfectly.

I couldn't be any more blessed to have my girl debut like this. I want to circle back to the fight itself because there was a bunch of things I loved about it, but let's talk about what happened afterward. Obviously, you were overcome with emotion. And you can understand why, but I would just like to hear it in your terms. What was it about the moment that made you feel that way? It's like, it's like for so long, I'm the only one in myself. that even when I only did taekwondo and I moved to MMA,

like my parents didn't understand. Nobody understood. They were really just relying by what I was saying. I was like, just trusting me. I have a feeling. I have a gut feeling that this is the right thing for me, you know? And it's just one thing to believe in yourself and trust myself and train and be amazing every day, but it's another thing to see the result.

So when it happened, if you notice, all I keep saying is, oh, my God, I can't believe this. Oh, my God, I can't believe this because I was in so much shock because it's literally exactly. everything I said word by word is what happened. Okay. Let's talk about the fight here just a little bit. Your opponent came forward a lot. I'm assuming you were expecting this. No. Really?

She shocked me. Yeah, I didn't. I thought she was going to just, I thought she was going to pick up the pace, but not like first five seconds going like four, four, four, you know. So I remember I've also like only fought in a smaller cage amateur and like tequondos and octagon, but it's, It's not a cage. It's different. So I was like going in there. I was ready to like take my time. Just just feel the floor first. Feel what I have to deal with before having to react. But she went in there. And I was like, well, I got to counter. I got a, you know, a response right away. So she didn't give me time to think. So she didn't go to job in that aspect. It will never happen to me again. It was my first experience. But I just needed like a minute to warm up and then I was good. All right. Here's what I loved about the fight. Let me tell you. Number one, there was a lot of interesting kicks.

I don't think I've seen a real axe kick attempt in years. Maybe Mirko Krokoop was the last one. My question for you is, how much of that is you believing I can do axe kicks in MMA? And how much of that is I'm a little bit on autopilot because the opponent is rushing me, and that's just what I know best. No, everything I do is to hurt.

Everything I do is because I know it will be effective. Nothing I do is just, well, it is muscle reaction. as well, but not really. I have a strategy always. And when I train, I train only specific kicks that I know will be effective in the cage that, for example, that, and different timings that I won't, my leg won't get caught. You know what I mean? Things like that. Like, I've been training my timing and my efficiency with my kicks perfectly because at the end of the day, I'm very explosive. No one could, no one could catch my kicks. How did Bellator find you? What's the story there? So my last amateur fight, I just, I fought against a very tough competitor.

And my three amateur fights, I went all the way into all of them. And nothing, I just, I love the fact that I went all the way in my amateur fights phase. I knew how to endurance. And I learned a lot. I got a lot of bring time, which was so important going in pro. So I did get a lot of ring time. And after my last amateur fight, it just, I had a beautiful performance. and it was just evident that me and all my coaches knew I was ready to go pro.

So I had some offers that my manager just worked and I looked for when I heard the name and I saw the story. I just knew why I knew that that was going to be my home. Have they talked to you about what their plans are for you this year? Actually, no, my manager called me. He was like, Valerie, you did amazing, but back to training, you know, and I was like, no, like, I'm super hard on myself. after I was watching, I watched my fight a hundred times. I go, well, I got hit there.

Why did you get hit badly? And I think over a hundred times, you know, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my fighting as well. But I'll get back in there soon. I'm young probably in the next two, three months as soon as possible, really. What grade would you give yourself? Don't ask me. I'm really hard at myself.

No, I'm really proud of myself because I, the finish, and I train soon. hard. There's nobody that works harder than I am. So I'm happy for myself, but I'm just upset that I gave her any type of confidence at the beginning of the fight that then I tell myself that Al-alue was also your pro-fight. Like it feels your first one. Like you were in a big cage. Like you just need a little time. So I have to give myself credit. I would give myself like I think like a B, a B plus maybe. That's pretty good. That's a very fair self-evaluation. Just because also you have to, understand that it was a lot of first.

You know, it was my first pro experience. My first time by fair, like, speaking to, like, the commissions, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, like, it was a lot of first. Like, and then also, like, being on a main event right at my first pro fight, you know, my first knockout, like, it was just so many first. So I'm just so proud of myself for overcoming that and just rising to the vocation. Okay. The Taekwondo world, how, how, let's back up here a little bit because I've never met you before.

So when did you get into Taekwondo? How did that happen? Okay, so my father's had a Taekwondo school since 1985. My dad's a big martial arts guy. He's an 8th and grandmaster in Taekwondo. So I had no choice but to start Taekwondo, like there was no option. And my dad wanted, he wanted a son and I was the first born daughter. So the daughter, you sure as hell is going to be a fighter.

Okay. And what did you accomplish in Taekwondo for folks who may not know your body? What's like, give us a sense of what you did in that sport? So, growing up young age, I just, I was always fighting the national qualifiers and I was always winning. I would win the girls' division. And after I would win the girls' division, because it was too easy for me. My dad would say no, and you would put me in the guys' division, which you're not even not supposed to do, but I would be making the guys cry for national upper qualifiers.

Obviously, you're not national. It's a thing, but my dad would throw me in there. Like if I was a guy, like literally just fight and I would make them cry. I would back to break their ribs. And I would embarrass the men, you know what I mean? And then just then I would go to nationals. I won every nationals growing up. And that's when people saw like, damn, this girl's, like, actually really talented.

And then I started traveling all over the world internationally because I had the Olympic dream. My father and I had the Olympic dream. But I didn't, and my mom got sick when I was in high school and I was training. for the Olympic qualifier. I never got to fight an Olympic qualifier because my mom got diagnosed. Like the whole story behind our family is really hard, but I just realized that it just

wasn't the Olympic dream that was my dream. My dream was to make it to a platform that would recognize me because I knew I was special and different and Taiwan was very point style and it was just not my style anymore and I saw MMA on the TV I was like

how can those women be recognized for fighting and I devoted my whole life to this. I could fight like that. It could be better than them. I could win there. And that's when my my hunt started to be the best. Was there a particular fight or a fighter that you saw there? You were like, either you admired or you wanted to do that. Just, just, you know, people have these moments. Just all these, yeah, the woman fighters. Like, I saw the way they were being recognized with being pretty and fighting. And I was like, you're joking. Like, I was like, and like, my blood was boiling. I was like, so, like, I was, you could ask my family. I was trembling.

I would watch them on TV and I was like, no, please don't tell me. Like, I was just insulted. I was insulted because I know that I was born for this. And I am the, I just feel like I'm the most well-rounded female martial artist. And I will be the best. And I just knew it. And I've always known this since I was little. There's no one else that there's no one else that could possibly have fighting in their blood the way that my dad raised me to fight.

It's just, there's no way. So I just wanted to get in there and as fast as I could. So I just started training four times a day, like an animal, catching up, learning jiu-suitzu, like just being so hard on myself to get to this level as soon as I can because I deserved to be there. You had sort of noticed something kind of interesting. I talked to some women fighters and some like it, some don't, that yes, your skills and your accomplishments matter, but how you can be more. marketed for how you look also some like it some don't. It seemed to indicate you don't have a problem with that.

But it's not that I don't have a problem with being marketed. The thing is that I don't want to be recognized for being marketed because before anything, I'm a fighter and I've always told myself this. Valerie, yes, you can be pretty, you can be a woman, you can be feminine. But if you can win,

if you don't knock out, if you don't fight there, you're no one in this sport. So that's always been the biggest thing in my head. I need to be the best fighter. Anybody in front of me, I have to be. And that's why everyday training, I treat to failure. I train to put myself in the worst positions so that I can overcome that in a cage. I'm not just a pretty face. And that's what I'm trying to tell the world. It's like, yes, that's who I am. Like, I love everything perfect. I love my banner. I love being creative with my brands because it's my Loretta signature.

I mean, but I am an amazing fighter and anybody that's trained with me my whole life, whether it be taekwondo or now knows that this, that I'm a true martial artist. And it's made me cry so much because so many people who just have passed by my dad's school and trained me. They're like, yeah, I remember when Valerie, she had kicked. and cracked the whole side of my face when I was like 10 years old and I was so embarrassed to go to school to say I got beat up by a girl, you know? That's how I am.

And I would train. I would fight out spar. And two hours later, I was in my dance company practice to compete at the dance nationals. And I just have always transformed. And I just felt like that was an aspect of me that the world has to see that they haven't been able to. There has historically been tension between the traditional martial arts communities and then the mixed martial arts communities.

I'm wondering what kind of resistance you ran into as you decided to make the switch. Oh, my God. So when I decided to make the switch, it was, wait, can you so soon? Your face is frozen, but there you go, there you go. Okay. So when I decided to make the switch, it was just hard at first because I was just looking at the screen. I was just, when I would go train, I would just do taekwondo, like in an MMA school. Like people were just trying to change my style.

Like, oh, don't do that. That doesn't work. But, like, they would just take Ta-Taguanos as a joke. And I feel like that's what just gave me more of that fire to really just blow up, blow this thing up, and just portray Tequando in a cage. And it's not like I just do Taekwondo. Like, the moment I started boxing, I just started boxing amazing. I just felt it.

I just felt it. The moment I started clinching, I fell in love with the grip and the grapple. I don't know. I just, there was a lot of tension at first, but everyone's known. I'm just very aggressive. I will never back down in my life. How about your dad? What do he say?

That's an living story. My dad, they weren't happy. Remember, my dad's a big Olympic guy. He's an Olympic dream guy, you know, and that was always our goal. So the moment it wasn't about the Olympics anymore, it was really hard for him, you know. And actually when I first started MMA, he goes, you want to do this? Okay, Valor. He took me to an MMA gym in Miami, like another one in a corner.

And he told the guy, hit her as hard as you can. Knock her out if you have to do whatever it takes. She needs to see if this is for her. I'm there. I'm sparring. I didn't even know what I was doing at that point, like boxing rights or anything. And the guy spinning hooks kicked me, and I saw the stars. And I saw the stars, and my dad thought I was going to like,

cry or just stop. I got up punching and I was blacked and I was throwing and trying to kick and come up and that's one of my dad was like shit like this girl she was born for this. Just like one day I was like I've never

been put to sleep. So I tell them someone put me to sleep I just want to feel what it feels like for one time because even from the beginning I had a good sense of defense for grappling and nothing. They're like okay, put your hand up. I was like, okay, and I one, two, three. And when I woke up, I didn't know what's happening.

And as soon as I realized that someone had put me to sleep, I got up and I was ready to kill someone. And everybody around me was like, and then I just, I love it. So does your dad, what role does he play now in either training or cornering? My dad's always in my corner, because my dad knows me better than anyone. but I did leave my family home at 20 years old,

and I found a job as a wait. I'm a full-time student too, but I needed to find a way to live in Coconut Creek, so I found a job as a waitress that I've never done or never thought I would have to do in my life, but I had to do what had to do. And I just did that for some time, and I was able to pay rent with a roommate in Coconut Creek,

and I had a successful camp for my last fight. And then after that, I found another job, whatever. But I live alone now, in Coconut Creek and my parents still have their house in Miami because they run the school over there. But my dad, no, I talked to him every day about my training. He tries to come up at least once or once every two weeks to watch my sparring. And when I go down, I do train Tacono and my sister to keep sharp. So, no, my family is just very involved. Just I do have a separate camp and team now at Coconut Creek for MMA specifically, which is why I just feel like I'm getting

really well-rounded. What do MMA fans not understand about taekwondo? I feel like they see, like, when you Google Taekwondo, you just see, like, the Olympic point style, like the tap and the cut. And, like, that's not my style. And that's why I left Taekwondo. I was losing because of that style, you know. I just want, like, I just feel like they misinterpreted Olympic style Taekwondo

with real taekwondo, which is what Scott did growing up as well. Like, we have that same rough taekwondo. style, the type that you have a chest protector, but you're kicking under that chest protector and you're breaking that rib, you know what I mean? Like, that's real tequando, not the point style, the cut cakes, like the tap, the electronic.

That's not tequando. That's what, like I did that as well and I was successful to a certain point as much as I could be, but with an aggressive style like me, I grew up doing real tequondo, which is what my dad's school, Master Painstokane's Academy has been showing, I mean, he has been teaching his fighters.

Also, I'm not, I will confess, I don't know much about the Taekwondo world. Aren't they also rocked by some kind of scandal involving, I think it's the Lopez brothers, if I'm not mistaken? Oh, yeah, but no, they're very good friends of ours. And that's none of that is true. They're actually super supportive my career. They're all Olympians. They're a beautiful family. We actually won.

I went to London Olympics. I went to watch them. He gave us tickets. Gene Lopez. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't. know, I just, I just know that they've been amazing to me and my family and they're very supportive of my career. All right. Again, I don't know much about that either. I would just, I wondered if you had any thoughts about it. And then lastly, you, you, you, you, oh, do we lose her?

Oh, no, no, no. There she is. There she is. Okay, one last one. I appreciate your time. I know you, I want you to go sightsy, lovely, uh, the big apple. No, no, I'm, I'm excited to do. Okay. So you fought at women's flyweight. That's a no problem weight class for you in terms of weight management, right? Like, you're not one of these girls who's like, oh, I'm, I'm really a one-fifteener. You're a true 125er. Okay. In taekwondo, I used to cut weight for 147 pounds. So when I saw this sport on TV, I go, well, there's no way I'm going to fight those big girls because it's just not an advantage for me.

So I go, if I really want to do this, you got to lose weight, girl. So I just started dieting. And I just really wanted it really bad. And naturally, my body should never be at that way. That was just, I don't know why I did that or I fought at that weight and I won. I fought a woman 6-4, 6-3 international. I fought every single type of body type you could imagine. And then when I started my name, I go, I need a fight on my proper weight class.

I'm going to be explosive. I'm going to have a shape that I'm ready for anything ready to come. I mean. So naturally I walk around that like at 147, 146, 150 if I'm reading really, really bad. And I do drop weight. I diet very hard. very intense. And I have my nutritionist, Louis, that he's a blessing to me. And this fight was, I weighed in the lightest I have in eight years, 123 and a half. And it was the best thing that

I could have asked for. All right, here's my only piece of advice for you as you walk around New York City. Don't eat the pizza in Midtown. They'll claim it's real New York pizza. It's not. Oh, okay. I got it. I got it. You got to go downtown a little bit to get the better pizza, okay. Where, where? Where's a good place? Go to Bleaker Street. Bleaker Street pizza. Go there. That's a good one. All right? I haven't had pizza since my fight, so I'm holding you to that one. All right. Well, you know what, Valerie? You seem like a nice young lady. Congratulations on your win. Can't wait to see what's the score for you, and this is amazing.

Thank you for your time, so thank you for being interested in my story, and thank you for telling it. All right, there she goes. Valerie, thank you so much. There she is. Valerie Lorena. What's the word? getting, we're going to work on getting Mr. Mitrione. Out there just kicking people in the balls, Matt. What's up with that? I know it's an accident. I'm teasing. Very quickly, let me make a comment, if I may, about,

not the Bellator show exactly, but the UFC show, if I can. The UFC show yesterday, I had noted on the first ESPN Plus show, which this was on proper ESPN, I'm just making a point, that they looked like he had just ripped off the Fox logo and put on an ESPN logo. And they didn't make a ton of, of adjustments yesterday, but I could have sworn I saw two of them. Now, one, I'm not sure about, one I'm definitely sure about because I went back and I looked. One is, I think they shrank the desk

a little bit. I can't be sure about that, but it did look a little more intimate. I don't know if that's true. Here's what I do know is true. Before they had that blue and yellow that they were borrowing from the Fox setup, this time, did you guys notice on the desk and on the color schematics for all the production elements? They had a little more black and red for that ESPN. Loved it. Love it. See, this is what I'm talking about. People like, what kind of change were you expecting? Not the world. I wasn't expecting some kind of massive, oh my God,

unrecognizable product, but I was expecting, yeah, make some changes. It is a new broadcast deal. It is a new situation. It is a new entity. And so as a consequence, there should be some kind of refreshing, even if it's the same outfit,

the UFC producing it no matter who the broadcast partner is. And there were some changes in that regard yesterday. Plus, shouts to Megan Olivie, I thought the thing they were doing where they were going more to her and including her, and as she was walking into the octagon and going out of it and just her position in there, she did a great job with that.

You could tell her voice was jacked up from whatever reason, probably if you talk for a broadcast living, it will get messed up over time. She was gutting through it. I loved that addition. I thought that was really great. I thought yesterday's show went really well. There are people out there who breathe through their mouth

who don't like Dominic Cruz. I don't know what to do about that. hashtag Jedmishu. All I'm saying is I thought they had the right commentary team. I thought they had the right production updates. I thought Megan Olivie was put to good use. Yeah, they did a really good job. I thought Bisping and Evans and Karen Bryant also did a great job. Like, they took, it looks to me like they learned a lot of lessons by being on Fox and have applied them in this new venture over at ESPN and the product is really getting streamlined. It's really getting organized. They're just doing things the right way. So I really appreciate that from them. And I want to make a note of it.

Certainly, it was also great to hear Mara Rinalo on the call over at Belator. But here's the thing about it. I had Creed 2 on with my wife. My deal was I could watch Belator on my laptop on DeZone. And I had Creed 2 up on the screen. So I had to mute my Bellator feed. It's not my choice. I had to make a compromise. And by the way, if y'all have not seen Creed 2, it's pretty good. I was very skeptical. You know me. I'm a world-class hater. And then I was pleasantly surprised. It is what it is. It's a Rocky movie, right? But for that, I'm not telling you it's high cinema. It's not Akira Kurosawa, but it's pretty good. It's good fun. That's what I would say. It's good. Fun. And by the way, shouts to Patrice Harris from Headbanger's Gym in Washington, D.C., they got him to hold pads for Michael B. Jordan in the scene where he switches gyms early on.

So, you know, it's a nice touch by the moviemakers and also nice to see a guy from my neck of the woods out there getting, even just a little bit of shine. It's great. All right, Danny, what do we want to do? We want to wait or we want to just go to the sound off and try to get him later? What do we want to do? All right, we're going to give him one more minute here, and we're going to try. Any other production notes or any other notes from last night? Obviously, we wish Paul Felder a get-well situation. We'll talk more about Kane, I'm guessing, and what this means for his legacy in the soundoff, so I don't want to necessarily get into that. The Bellator show was interesting on Saturday night.

With the main event, I thought that they reached the right outcome. If I can be candid, I thought that MVP won three rounds to two. but there was something a little bit unsettling about it all, a little bit, not majorly, but I've been trying to put my finger on why I had weird feelings after it was over, and understand I'm a disowned customer. So I'm going to speak as a disowned customer, not as a media guy here. I'm going to say this as somebody. I have a right to feel the way I do about the product because I pay for it.

And so I think that entitles me to certain levels of feedback, which I will now give. Here was my issue after it was over. I wasn't, by the way, if you listen to my radio show, the idea that Paul Daly was going to shoot was entirely predictable, and we predicted it on the air. So did Douglas Lima. That should not have been a surprise, number one. Number two, it just, he had to go far out of his comfort zone to get there.

But I think the thing that stood up for me is, when it was all over, the next big dezone show is not till April. So to me, they've got a couple of problems. One problem is that they don't have enough content to really get you to go back. In fact, I don't really go to the DeZone app unless I have a live event reason to do so. Now, FightPass is kind of similar in that way, but at least they have the Fight library that I can go in research or look up or whatever. DeZone has that too, but I don't find myself drawn to it yet in that way.

And I think they're still working out some of the kinks in the interface. So there's that. the other part about it for me is look they have very good fighters and you have and Belator does have premium talent you don't want to mistake that and you don't want to take that from them but it was clear to me when it was over it's like you had two guys who were

you had Daley who was competing outside of his comfort zone and you had MVP who yes he's an incredible striker but it's pretty clear that his ground game is not properly situated for the elite of that division and if Douglas Lima goes after it, it's going to be a problem for him. And so my thought was, I didn't mind that the fight played out the way that it did, but if you're not going to have enough content on DeZone

to keep me going there all the time, and you're going to have slightly less than the highest, highest, highest level on your fight as your main event, that's okay if it makes up for it with an entertainment quotient. But if the entertainment is missing, which is not Beltor's fault, they did the best they could. I certainly recognize that.

I said as much right before the first. fight that this was a this was a good fight they put together but if you're that's just not that's just bad luck on their part you can't fault them for that it's part engineering part luck and that luck failed them there but they engineered the way they did but if it's not the the highest premium end and i'm paying for this i'm paying for this product and i'm not getting much of it again they're just getting started you got to give his own time to sign other properties okay i'm simply saying as a paying customer, I kind of need a little bit more from them. I kind of need the premium end to be the premium end.

If it's not going to be, and there's no entertainment value on the other end, it's going to be a bit of an issue for me. All right, let's go to our next guest. This gentleman was in a very unfortunate situation on Friday. I'm sure he feels terrible about it. He is a good guy. I want to at least catch up with him and see how he's feeling after it all and where we go from here.

It's the one and only Matt Mitrione. Hi, Matt. What's up, brother? How are you, Lou? You've had an interesting weekend, huh? Yeah, a little bit. A little more interesting than I expected to be. A little bit nuts, you know? I knew it.

I knew you were going to do something. I didn't know what it was going to be, but I knew you were going to do something. All right. So let's get to it here for just a second. The fight kind of is self-explanatory, I suppose. You were trying to throw a kick, I guess, to the inside of his leg, and it just what? overlap the top or the bottom half of his waist.

How would you explain what happened? Yeah. I mean, really, like, he, I think I said it, like, after the, after the fight, he, he was, he threw one body jab before. He threw another body jab, had to lower his level, came in, and when he saw the kick coming in, he kind of rolled his hips in. So it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, I was intending it to land on his mid to upper thigh, which, because, because primarily it takes away a check.

And also, it's really sensitive up there. It's a really delicate area. of your body. And those kicks make a lot of difference as far as power generation and tenderness. So that was part of my plan. Go ahead and touch on his legs. And I felt like he was sitting back a lot. I felt like he was sitting on his rear leg. And I kind of felt like everything he did was rather telegraph pretty quickly. So I thought I'd be able to touch his legs a little bit, get him to be a little bit more tender about throwing that body jab and then kind of act from there. All right. So the kick landed. Did you know it was bad when it landed?

you know like, oh, that was bad? No, I've never kicked him away in the nuts before. And so I didn't really know if it was a normal kick or not. I have no idea, like, as far as how it landed. I know I've got some juice on my leg kicks, you know, so I don't know, like, if a normal cup can absorb that or not. I think most, and I actually thought most fighters wore tie cups where there were steel cups, so that something like that wouldn't happen.

But, yeah, man, it sucks. It's, apparently he got a hemorrhoid out of it. out of the deal. He was in that, from my understanding, he was in, when he was on the floor of the cage, he was, um, writhing around and saying that one felt soft, that it felt flat. Um, and then, and that's why I was like, well, that's the case. It's not going to go any further. He's not going to fight anymore. And then, uh, and that's, that's the reason why he waved it off after like 20 or 30 seconds of, of riding around. Now, what did you hear about his physical condition? We saw him the next day on the broadcast. He seemed to be in better spirits. I know he was in the hospital. I know he was in the

hospital and out and then got readmitted. What all have you heard? Well, I heard that it was a little bit of swelling, not much, but it was a little bit that they got released with like some ibuprofen or something like that for some discomfort. And then went home that night or went back to the hotel that night and then went back the next morning and said he had a lot of pain once he stretched out his leg or something like that. And that's when they find a hemorrhoid, I guess. How do you get a hemorrhoid from a ball kick, man? You know, that's a really good question. I don't know enough about the internalization of internal intestinal power or whatever.

I don't know, man. But it seems, hey, look, if it happened, it happened. I don't know. I don't know. That must have been really uncomfortable. I mean, I used to have hemorrhoids, and I used to deadlift and power lift and squat all the time. And I don't ever want to have that experience ever again. It's pretty much the reason why I stopped lifting weights.

I just don't want to ask with hemorrhoids. Yeah, they're not money. They're not money at all. All right, so hold on. Let me figure this out. Now, what did the commission say to you? What did Bellator say to you after they waived it all off? Well, they were all cool about it.

You know, their response was, look, dude, this thing sucks. And, you know, it's unfortunate that it was such a fizzle. But, you know, we understand it was unintentional. I don't think anybody except for a couple ignorant fools on the Internet. I thought it was intentional that I was trying to get out of a fight or something. something like that. Wait, wait. Jose,

did people hit you up accusing you of this being intentional? Oh, for sure. Like, yeah, for certain. And then I go, like, not a bunch, but probably like,

four or five people, like, you never throw kicks and all of a sudden you want to kick this guy in his dick. Like, well, I never throw kicks.

Like, I'm probably the most kicking this heavy weight we have. Like, I don't know any, I don't even know many other kids heavy weights to throw kicks other than me and Crow Cop.

But, yeah, so that's, that's the word, brother. All right, so what did Belator say? Obviously, they weren't happy, but, you know, accidents do happen.

Yeah. I mean, really, that's pretty much what it was. Look, it's not awesome. We're not really happy about it, but, you know, like, you went out there, and it just sucks. It was at the very first connected strike of the entire fight. And I told him, I was like, look, man, if there's any way that he can fight tomorrow, which would be Saturday, or any situation, he's the only guy I really want to fight. I think it would be great. I think that the fans really want that fight, so if we can get it and run it back really quickly, I'd do it. And then they said they didn't know if he'd be able to do it or not.

And then that's when the conversation of May 11th came up in Chicago. And obviously I'm from Illinois, and I live in the Midwest. And I feel like if I got to fight Caratown off in Chicago, I'd bring a thousand people there. I think it would be absolutely bananas. My hometown would empty out and where I live at now and empty out to come up there. So hopefully that's a case, if that situation, if not, then I get some family stuff. my mom has some issues I had to help her out with and help my family out with. So I think I might be wrapped out for a little while with some of that stuff.

But hopefully I can get back in soon. Does it have to be Herettonoff? Who else makes sense for the fight? I don't know. You versus Congo would be kind of interesting. Yeah, I guess. But didn't they say that Congo earned a title shot if he beat whoever won between him and Minniko? Yeah, I mean, he's on an eight-fight win streak. I'm just saying, like, I'm thinking out loud. I don't know what they're going to do.

I don't know what Bader's going to do. But he's supposed to be getting the next crack. But, you know, you never know with these things. You do. I agree. Let me turn this off here. I'm sorry with that. Yeah, I don't know.

I certainly fight Congo again. I mean, I don't think Congo really fights much at all. I think he just backpedals and runs cage defense. But when I saw he was trying to, he threw my name. He had my name in his mouth this weekend when he was trying to argue with Bader. But, I mean, if that's the case, I mean, I'm not Congo, I don't mind. I mean, he runs away a lot.

So I think that, I think it's almost like Congo's a refresher for judges to have to remember cage control and presence. And you can't cower away and run away from a fight and still claim to win it. I just don't think that makes sense. But, I mean, hey, if you want to say my name out loud, I'll punch him in his mouth for it. I don't mind. So I get paid to do. What do you make of how, now that it's all over, I haven't had a chance to talk to you.

I'm sure you've commented on it, but I wanted to get one here. now that the heavyweight Grand Prix is all over, how did it go in your mind? It's a very, very complicated question, Lucas. That's why I asked it. I wasn't a fan of the heavyweight tournament. I was vocal about it initially. I felt like I had earned a title shot.

I felt like there should have been a situation in which, or I think there could have been a situation. I think I positioned myself to have a different conversation. I think that inviting light heavyweights into a tournament that's for heavy weights doesn't really make much sense at all. I think they're completely different animals. I think that they're primarily wrestlers. And I think heavy weights, that's the reason why Kane was so unique.

That's the reason why Curtis Blades is so unique because most heavyweights don't shoot, don't wrestle like that. So it's a rather undeveloped skill in a lot of aspects. And I think that's the reason why people like heavyweight so much because there's not a to dry hump in and getting another dude pregnant. A lot of it is throwing hands and, and, uh, and letting power speak for itself. And so I think that I was, I was, I was somewhat against it initially. Uh, and I was against the way Bader fought me.

I didn't like it. Uh, I didn't think it was, I didn't think it was worthy of a heavyweight tournament, uh, or heavyweight fight, but in that same breath, he came out and he knocked Fader out faster than I did. So if Bader fought Fador, the way that he fought Fador, the way that he fought me, then I would have been on my podium or platform talking about this is, this is embarrassing and blah, blah, blah. But he didn't.

He went out there and he threw hands and he did a great job. And he won up me. So if I were salty about Bader being the heavyweight champ, then I would just be sour grapes. So I feel that Bader did a great job. If there was ever any question of him being invited to that tournament, he answered them. And he vindicated Mr. Coker by going out there and throwing hands and winning. And I'm proud of Bader.

As a friend, I'm really happy for him. Professionally, I guess I'm jealous because he bettered me in a skill set that I've never developed. And he did, and he won't up me by knocking out Fader a faster than I did. So I'm happy for him. Bader stylistically is the worst matchup I could possibly have. And he capitalized on it. So that's kind of how I feel about it. Are Champ Champs good for Eminem?

Pretty much just as honest as I can be there. No, that's a great. I really appreciate you. That's why you're on the show because you're candid, and that's what we need more of an MMA for better for worse. So do you think like champ champs, are they good for MMA? Is that a good thing that we're doing this? No, I don't think it is, actually.

I think about it, right? Like, I'm happy for those individuals. But I don't. I think that classes are classes, and I think that heavy weights are an animal all amongst themselves. So I think there can be interdivisional fights, and I think it's great for the fodder of what if,

for fantasy stuff. But I don't think it's great for the evolution of the sport. I don't think it is. I think it muddies the waters and it negates. Like, for example, if I were in Bellator, I mean, if I didn't lose a Bader, pretty good chance I'd have a title around my waist for Bellator. And I'd be, what's that, I don't know,

assuming that I didn't, this fight never happened, I'd be 4-0 or 5-0 or something like that in Bellator now. But now I think 4-1 in Bellator and my only loss is to a light heavyweight, right? So that still counts as a loss on my record, even though it wasn't really a heavyweight fight, but it was because it was a light heavyweight that made heavyweight. So, I mean, it's just, I feel like it's just a totally different animal. For example, when Roy McDonnell had tried to fight Musassi, where McDonnell is not an 85 or he's a 70 year

Masaski's an 85er that fights a 205 sometimes but could absolutely go out there and demolish somebody like that because wrestlers typically have that skill set that has been developed whether an 85 or a 70 founder or even a 205er like I said heavy weights typically don't have that type of defense now I'm saying that and I'm obviously biased because I never developed that skill set it was something I didn't do in college

I was obviously never an all-American in wrestling multiple time for that matter and I learned everything I know on the fly just coming up from the UFC. So, I don't know, like I'm salty about light heavyweights being invited. I think Bellator's tournament was exciting enough with the heavyweights that we had on the roster. I don't think we need to add name value to it. Let me ask you this. What was this thing you put on Twitter from, I can't, I mean, this is my life.

I mean, out here talking about ways in which to cleanse one's, genitals, ballwash.com. So is this, okay, so hold on, you have these services. KIP, for example, is for teeth brushing. You got like Dollar Shave Club. And the thing is, they send you one like every so often for either, you know, to whatever the service is. It's just this one that's renewal.

You have one now. Yep. Here we are talking about your balls for your balls, Matt Mitrione. You know, how amazing, how incredibly ironic was the fact that my prime sponsor was a ball wash and I kicked it in his balls, right? Like, what kind of great advertising could ball wash ever have paid for? I think there should have been an incentive, like a hitter. Like, if you get two million views on this one, on this blip or whatever, I get extra kickers

on that. Okay, so what is this? Got the best advertisement money possible. What is this? What do you get with ball wash? And they're not sponsoring a show. I'm just curious. Yeah.

They send out, actually, you know what? they've got some really nice fragrances for your scones. And it's funny because what's it called? What's that? The Old Spice? Like they started running those commercials. Like men have skin too, you know, because not everything that smells good is just for women. And I was like, absolutely.

So this is great. So look, it's for your balls, your butt and your body, baby. It's dready. This is the evolution of dude wipes, huh? You know what? Had I had dude wipes on my butt and ball washers? my junk. Who's going to sponsor my chode?

I don't know. That's a real question. You know what? It remains a mystery that we will have to ponder. Like Confucius. We got to find something here, you know? There's money to be made. That's prime real estate, baby.

All right. I can't top that. Matt, we got to keep the show moving. I hope you get back out there soon. Stop kicking people on the balls, Matt Mitreone. I'll do what I can, brother. Hey, I promise it was unintentional. And if Karatana can get down or finds it in his heart to fight me again, I'd really appreciate the opportunity. Thanks, boys.

I know it was an accident. Thank you, Matt. Really appreciate it. Oh, you know what? Let me tell you something. For folks who may not know, my family does not know what I do. They don't even know I have the show. My wife knows, but like my Thomas family, I love them,

but they don't know that I do this. They've never seen an episode of it, so I can just say this stuff without any consequence. It's not like they're not proud of me, but they don't really care. And sometimes I get, I'll be honest, sometimes I get a little sad that they don't watch. It's like, oh, you know, I feel like I'm,

I've invested a lot of time to get what I've gotten in MMA. And it'd be nice if there was a little bit more commitment to it. But I get it because they don't really like MMA. And then there are interviews like that where it's like, yeah, maybe it's for the best my family's kind of checked out on my career. All right, it's time now for the sound off. Let's go to my friend Danny Segura. Danny, do your parents watch this show?

Sometimes, yeah. Are they going to... My parents barely speak English and they watch the show. Well, my family speaks fluent English and they don't. So there you go. That tells you about why I'm perpetually sad about my existence and why you're a very chipper kid. Hug your children, ladies and gentlemen.

All right, let's move on from this one. Let's get to it. The calls, sir. Now, yesterday was weird because you and I were kind of waiting to solicit the calls until the event. was over, but I got a bunch of people who hit me up when I got up this morning being like, oh, I submitted a call, don't forget. What do you say?

Yeah, the calls came in, a lot of them came in early this morning. I'm guessing, you know, the fight's finished kind of late, you know, yesterday, and I guess people wanted to go straight to bed. Some people had to work today, so, you know, they chose the call early in the morning. All right. So, yeah, but we did get a good, good batch, so we'll be playing those days. All right, set them up, sir. High energy.

Let's see it. Yeah, dude, I'm on three hours of sleep. So, by way, something that I feel very passionate about, which you brought up. The Vox Media Coffee, man. It's so bad. It's so bad. What are they doing? It's trash.

I don't know, but I've actually talked about this, like, for a while. Like, I'm like, how can you have a media company and have, like, coffee is bad? Hold on. Here's the deal. The coffee in D.C. is good. Really? Yeah. It's just the one here that's bad.

Yeah, I don't know. It's weird. But, yeah, being Colombian and being spoiled with good coffee, man, it just makes it rough. Can't go back. Yeah. All right. All right. Let's get, I think the biggest controversy, there was so much controversy.

There was a lot. This weekend, it was kind of weird, but the biggest one was probably cane, knee, uppercut, who knows? So let's talk about it. Hey, Luke, how you doing? This is Rob, calling from South Florida. I just wanted to ask you, I just finished hearing the press conference, and Kane, you know, right off the bat mentioned that he didn't feel any punches,

that pretty much he didn't get hit, and that it was just his knee buckled and, you know, he took his toll, he fell down, whatever it is. I wanted to know if that's how you guys saw it. I thought there might have been, you know, a little bit of a contact on the right uppercut. Nonetheless, I don't think it was a clean TKO, anything like that, but I think it does make a difference. And aside from that, I personally felt like Courtney Casey got robbed against Calvillo.

You know, Calvillo fought a good fight. She showed a lot of movement, but I did think Courtney won two out of the three rounds and managed to put more damage on her. Okay, okay. I'm a fan of the show. I hope you guys get me. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate the call.

Thank you. So let's parse that a little bit here. Yeah. I kind of gave my initial impression. You saw some of the footage on the Monday morning analyst. What is your sense of what happened in that main event? When I saw it in real time, I was like, oh, my God, Francis and God, it was a beast. This man is scary.

I mean, the way he landed those punches, the way he was moving. He just looks like a scary dude. And King Velasquez is, you know, he's not a big heavy way, but nonetheless, He's always been able to, you know, like even against Brock, he was able to impose his strength. Yeah, he's not a small fry either. Yeah. And, yeah, and the way like, you know, and Ghana was just moving around him. I'm like, whoa, this is, this is quite crazy.

And I thought he got clipped and that's what it was. And then people were saying he didn't even get punched. Everybody was replying. I tweeted something out and I was getting a bunch of crazy replies. So I'm like, okay, maybe I did jump the gun in this comment. Maybe I should wait to see the replay. You saw what I put up. on the Monday morning analyst.

Yeah, yeah, of course. But I'm saying on Sunday. Yeah, last night, real time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then I'm like, maybe I jumped the gun. So then I waited until the replay, and the replay just confirmed what I thought. I don't think Kane was out.

I mean, clearly he's not out because when he falls back, he kind of screams in pain a little bit. So, you know, you have to obviously be aware to do that. But, I mean, his head snapped back from that uppercut. It's not like Francis threw something and then nothing happened.

His head snapped back, and then he kind of just fell. And I've seen that play out so many times. I think probably the one that I remember the most, or a good example would be Hensel Gracie getting clipped, I think, by Dan Henderson coming in with an uppercut. We're like, you're like, wait, what happened? Wait, how did he get knocked out?

But dude, it landed. So, yeah, I think, dude, Ingano landed, connected, dropped them, you know, slightly, just enough to get his legs underneath them and then unfortunately injury happened. Here's the thing. Do I think it hurt, Kane? No.

Do I think... Slightly. Well, when I say hurt. I mean like, oh, I feel pain. Like, if you get knocked out, you don't feel any pain. Right. So when I say pain, I mean like, I'm conscious of the discomfort. Right.

Not do I remember it? Here's the thing. He was on adrenaline. This is his first time back. People were screaming his name. It clearly made contact with him. Yeah. And it wasn't like the foot just slipped out of nowhere.

It made contact and it was only a problem when the weight began to quickly descend underneath him. Do I think that Kane being on adrenaline felt it like it hurt him? No. Do I think Cain being on adrenaline? Maybe even remembered it. Probably not. Dude, the tape doesn't lie.

Yeah. It did make contact with him. Now, here's the thing. Remember, when he finally rolled over and you could see him writhing in agony and holding his knee, he looked to be all there with it. Yeah.

It was a flash knockdown. That's all it was. It was a flash knockdown. So, like, did Francis bludgeon him, bah, bah, and then he was out and then he, you know, it was one of those clean, NTKOs? No. But it clipped him. It hurt him. Again, hurt in the cognitive sense.

Yes. And he dropped. His knee gave out and then that was the end of the fight. So it's a it's, yes, it's a combination of Francis having the most terrifying power I think I've ever seen. But it wasn't a full-on shot. But it was enough to cause enough problems where then the joint integrity of his knee gave out. I made this point last night. How about Miracle Krocob? Now, he got knocked all the way out when he fought Gabriel Gonzaga. Remember his foot got twisted underneath? Yeah, it looked ugly. So go back in the way. look at what Herb Dean did. The first thing Herb Dean did when he stopped the fight was pull up Mirko's leg so it would unwind back into normal position. Sometimes when these guys fall,

they fall at awkward angles. That was, that was a different one. He went all the way out. Yeah, yeah. And it was a, it was a, my only point is I'll wrap up here. It was a miniature version of that. Yeah. And you made a great point about it on your, on your post-fight, like, special. I got to tune into it for for a bit, where it was like, once you get clipped and your legs go under you, there's no technical fall like you doing Jiu-Jitsu or anything like that. You just fall wherever you're at, you know? And, you know, it just so happened to be that he was

kind of shooting for the shot. So, you know, it was just bad look. Terrible look. It sucks. I feel bad for Kane because if you're Kane, you're like, I could have rec- Kane didn't think he got hit. Okay, he did. But that was a recoverable shot if he doesn't get injured.

Because then he can just dive on a leg. Yeah. So the thing is, it's like, did Francis knock him out? Well, partly, but also there was bad. luck because he really could have recovered from that and didn't get the chance by virtue of the knee issue. I think that's the issue for me. And this is no Sehuda Dillashah either.

It's not like, you know, like for that one, it's like, all right, well, he was already really hurt. Like, Kane looked, you know, he was a little hurt, but he looked, like, we've seen guys get out of that millions of times. So, especially, you know, he has a great chin. So he probably could have fought out of that, maybe. Okay. What's next? All right. Let's talk about the loss and what

it does to Kane's reputation. Yeah, this is Josh, Colin, from Long Beach. My question is, going into this fight, Kane Velasquez was billed as one of the greatest headlights in M&A. I'm just wondering if after this most recent loss to Anganu, if that changes anything at all for Kane as far as, you know, the way he's with it. Thank you. So here's my thought on this one. I've been thinking about this a little bit, and my opinion might change over time.

First of all, let's see how injured he is and how quickly he can come back. I think that's a big component of this, number one. Number two, what I would say is if he can come back and add additional wins to his resume, then you have to not, I just don't want to jump the gun. Because it's two different questions if he calls it a career today versus if he gets five more wins and becomes champion again. These are two, these are so radically different and still possible, it's hard to know. Here's what I do think he's in jeopardy of doing.

if he does not really get back to what he was before, if he either calls it quits or can't get another real big win against somebody of note, then the wins he have has will be a function merely of his era rather than some kind of transcendent resume. And those are not insignificant. That's still really big. But rather than being one of the best heavyweights ever, he would just be one of the best heavy weights of that time.

and you could say there could have been the potential for more, but injuries derailed him, and that would be a real thing. Kane Velazquez gets injured more in fights than just about anyone I've ever seen. A lot of people get injured in training. Dominic Cruz gets injured in training, not in fights. Kane Velazquez is the exact opposite. He tore his rotator cuff and his labrum in the,

I think the Brock Lesnar fight. Here he tears his knee or whatever happened with his knee in this one. So to me, it's a question of we still have to see what's out there, but if he doesn't make a real move in this next, chapter, the no, you simply cannot call him that. Yeah, it's definitely a setback. And going into this fight, as the caller mentioned, like, it was all about, like, you know, is Kane the goat, you know, what can he do in these next few years, you know, can he

solidify his position as the goat? This has to be a setback. And, you know, especially with the knee, if maybe it would have been, you know, something else. But again, as you said, the story's still yet to be, you know, written on King Velasquez. We'll see how he bounces back. but I mean it was it was a setback for sure we'll see what we'll see what it not just a setback

it could be defining we just don't know yes exactly exactly like this is the fork in the road it could go it could go either way from you that's exactly correct really go either way it's exactly correct yeah so I guess it's just wait and see at this point all right well we talked about the fight let's talk about what's next for both guys

hi there Danny Luke this is Cole a New Yorker calling from Italy I think a lot I want to ask about Francis and Donius Victor I think a lot is going to be made about his crazy handspeed and power and how he knocked out Cane Flaskas with what seemed like a two-inch uppercut.

But I wanted to ask you about his mental strength, and you've seen any fighter be so honest about being afraid, the impact a loss has had, and actually be able to come back. You know, I read articles about

the, not why, fighters have to tell themselves to stay mentally fit, but it seems like Francis and Ghana was totally honest with itself. and his own assessment of his mentality and has come out stronger for it. I'm sure it helps when you're a 250-pound man to retain that confidence.

But do you know any other fighters who have been so honest about being afraid in the ring and being in such a dark place and having come back so strong? Sure. Love the show. Happy to hear what you think.

Yeah, so I lied to this is now about what's next. But sort of about Francis and Ganu's comeback because a lot of people were writing him off and it seemed like he was kind of done in a lot of people's minds. Here he is on a two-fight win streak. Well, even I was a little bit concerned. He just didn't know if he was done. I mean, there was the comments.

You heard rumors, and Dana White says what he said to the media about his, you know, psyche. I mean, I don't put any stock in that. But here's what I did see. He loses that five-round fight to Stipe Amiochich, and it reminded me of the beating that David Lozzo took against Rich Franklin. The David Lozzo did get wins after that and is a credible, talented, and a martial artist who should be respected. But as a fighter, he was never the same after that loss.

I don't mean that to be disparaging. I can only call the facts as I see them. And that one is pretty clear. If you take a prolonged beating in a situation you're not prepared for, not always, but very often it can alter a person. Stephen Mocko in the documentary about Iowa wrestling before he became an Olympic wrestler and before he became a fighter and trainer,

was asked why he likes wrestling. and he said he liked to abuse his competitors to the point where he changed their personality where they became different people. Now, he's a psychotic man, which I say also. But that's what can happen if you get that kind of Steve Mocko guy on top of you. So Stipe goes in there and just beat on the guy for five rounds

and you have to ask yourself, is this really a good idea? Then comes back out of that and has an absolutely dreadful showing against Derek. And not just a dreadful showing, he didn't throw. The telltale sign when somebody is done typically, not always, but typically, is that they don't throw. They are scared to engage. And you're like, wow, that is a bad sign. Then he gets out there against Curtis Blades and wiped all of that away.

And it was only 45 seconds, but he was proactive, stuffing takedowns, landing in short range. You're like, that's not much, but that's good. He did the exact same thing here. Look, people treat acknowledging vulnerabilities as a weakness. That's the dumbest thing in the world. If your arm is broken and you go to the doctor, you don't pretend your arm isn't broken. Nothing gets better. You say my arm is broken.

I would like to seek treatment about it. Your mind can play tricks on you. People think your mind just needs to be steeled all the time. And there is a moment for that. Your mind cannot learn to steal itself unless it learns to overcome its vulnerabilities. You cannot overcome vulnerabilities long term unless you acknowledge they exist and then seek to tackle them. I applaud Francis for doing that. George St. Pierre was another one who did the exact same.

Of course he was terrified. Of course he was scared. It just didn't stop him. That's what courage is. Yeah, it's amazing to come back. And regarding what I said about Dana's comments, it was that plus the performances plus his own comments as well, that made you wonder like, oh, wow, is he still in this, you know,

was that lost, like career defining? But he said, he's like, I got surprises for you guys in his post-fight interview. And dude, I'm excited. It seems like he's back, and he might not, regardless of whether how good he's gone into wrestling, what matters is that the dude is not gun shy, as you mentioned. The dude is going in there to knock you out. And essentially, that's what got him so far up to this point. Just consider this.

He only needed to stuff one take down, maybe two attempts against blades. And you can say what you want about the stoppage, but he clearly had him hurt. And here again, you can say what you want about the injury. Sorry, he had Kane hurt, whether Kane wants to acknowledge it or not, or remembers it or not, The tape shows what it shows. Dude, he needs... You know, force equals mass times acceleration, right? That's the physics principle.

That doesn't apply to it, for instance. It does. It does. Here's the difference. Do you remember Bruce Lee used to do... I one time saw this documentary about Bruce Lee, and it talked about a scientist watching him do the one-inch punch. So he would line up with someone like this

and to put his chest one inch from his fist, and he would like flinch his whole body. and it would knock the guy all the way into the seat. Now, you've seen all these hokey martial arts demonstrations, but that's not what it was. The physicist was like, oh, I don't know what this is. But look, force equals mass times acceleration. If he can accelerate his body enough where the mass he packs in his hands

can reach the force it needs, yes, it is physically possible. Dude, who is the real master of the one-inch punch? Francis! Francis is the inheritor of the Bruce Lee one-inch punch. He won't just sit you down on a chair. He'll knock you out to another dimension. And he only needs that much space to do it. Holy shit, dude.

It's scary. How do you defend against that? Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. And, dude, this just speaks volumes to how good steep it is, right? I mean... Remember his head getting whipped a few times?

You know? And also, how hard does Cormier hit that he laid him out that fast? Heavyweight Cormier is a real thing. Dude, it's like, there's so many... I mean, people have been saying, I don't know if you have any questions to this effect? Do you have any questions about Cormier versus... Francis? Not yet, but about what's next for both. All right. So I'll save it for that, but like, Cormier versus Francis, I'm, your boy is

chips in the middle, buddy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All in. Take my money. All right. So let's talk about that, actually. So here goes. Hi, Luke, just like to say, I'm Josh from UK. Yeah, loving the show. Yeah, I just wanted to ask what you think now that happened last night between Francis and Garno and Camulasquez, what you think is next for both of them, really? I personally think a rematch with Stepe would make sense before he goes for the title. But yeah, thanks again. I look forward to listen to the show again.

Cheers. There we are. All right. Thanks for the call for Swab. International callers. Just the UK. Yep. I would say for both.

Are you about that in Ganu Steeper rematch? I'm not. At least not now. I mean, sure, it's a fine fight, but. Okay, so tell me why you're against it. Well, because I just think this whole time we've been talking about, you know, Kormier and, you know, Brock and steep end. That was sort of the equation, right? And Jones, too.

You know, he's definitely a player in all of this. But in Gano, man, he just snuck into that race. And I feel like he's a live horse here. I mean, there's a storyline here, you know, defending the heavyweight title against Francis in Gano, right? One of the biggest heavyweights, you know, D.C. not being the bigger heavyweight, avenging his buddy's loss, you know, King Velascus. I think there's a storyline there. Plus, like, dude, you beat Kane Velasquez and you beat Curtis Blades. That, to me, is enough to grant you a title shot.

So I'm all for it. Meanwhile, so, like, you know, Francis de Gaano fought for the title, right? And then since then he got back on the horse. You know, he fought Derek Lewis a very boring fight, but then got two victories. You know, he's been active. Steepa, on the other hand, you know, and I respect Steepa a lot, and I think he's a fantastic fighter. I think he's one of the best heavyweights out there. but since he's been sitting out, you know,

so I think at this point, who's more deserving? Dude, a win over King Velasquez does a lot. So, I don't know. I'd love to see that in Ganu, D.C. fight. To be candid with you, I think you make great points. There's just a part of me that feels like if we saw another Steepay versus Francis fight, and it's just a hunch, and that's worth not much. Yeah.

I kind of feel like the fight, there's a part of my brain that's telling me it's going to be different the second time. Could be totally wrong. I can't prove that to you, you know what I mean? Someone's like, I don't agree. What am I supposed to say? Right. But I don't know. I got a weird feeling about that one.

Stipe Inganu or DC in Ghana. One's a fresh matchup, so I would go with D.C. Yeah. But I wouldn't hate if they did the Stipe A rematch, to be honest with you. I hear your points, fair. I wouldn't hate it either. I would do. I prefer D.C.

But yeah, dude, I'd be all right with it. I'd be all right with it. If D.C. wants to sit out and fight, you know, and fight, you know, Brock Lesner and wait for that fight, I'm totally fine. and then make, you know, Stepe Inganu number one contender. All right. Totally cool with that. But I mean, Inganu has my attention.

So, yeah. All right, let's switch gears a bit and let's go to, you know, Belator. Okay. Tons to talk about there. All right. Yo. Yo, what's up, Luke? My name is Daniel McNameh.

Just call me Danny Mack. And I'm calling Danny Mack. And my question is to all the MMA fans who are just, complaining about Paul Daly, you know, wrestling MVP. I mean, it was pretty obvious to me that Daley was outgunned on the feet. I mean, you want to get him to get knocked out, highlight real style like Cyborg did with a flying knee. I mean, you guys are all complaining about it. But anyway, Luke, I just want to hear what you thought.

That's what the fight was all right, you know, for what it was. Wasn't very technical, but Daley did the smart thing. And then, peace up. Have a good day, guys. The problem with the fight was that you're right. And again, I don't know why I love Chale, but he was like, oh, he won't shoot. I'm like, dude, it's highly likely he shoots. Dude, I didn't see that coming, to be honest.

Really? Dude, on my radio show, I went over this in detail. Paul Daly's takedown defense is decent and his offensive takedowns are a little bit better. He actually has them when he needs them. And you got to think, well, like, who against that does he need? Other wrestlers? Well, no. Yeah.

Other strikers? maybe, including confusing ones that are doing all the stuff that he was doing. And so to me, that was entirely predictable. I saw that coming a mile away. Yeah. The issue was, for me, he had to do so much of it that he was just so far past what he's normally good at. Yeah.

Like a couple of takedowns, and if he could have held them for longer, fine. But he had to keep going back to the well. And it was just too much of an ask outside of his core competencies. and that ultimately was the problem and why it kind of slowed the fight down and did what it did. So I didn't mind, again, I didn't look, man, promoters try. They try. They try to put on the fights that everybody wanted to see. That's all they can do.

Everybody wanted to see this. You cannot fault Belator for that. But what you can say is if you've got these guys who are in a position where this far into their career, they have to resort to other parts of their game and those other parts of their games are not really well developed. It causes problems. That's the issue for me. Yeah. All in all, I didn't think it was a bad fight. I just think there was so much expectation that it didn't live up that people were saying,

yo, this fight totally suck. But I didn't think it was a bad fight. It was competitive. It was back and forth. And there wasn't a clear winner until the very end, which, you know, that always draws some interests. But it wasn't like you didn't leave going, wow, that was. No, but I mean, dude, we've seen fights that are way worse than that, way worse than that. You know, but I didn't see it coming.

I thought daily, you know, I know daily is a vet, but man, you know, like, for example, fighting Nick Diaz at his own game. Like, Daly's one of those guys that, like, he'll not back down down down. You know, if you're down to scrap, he's down to scrap. So I thought he was going to play a little more. I mean, it wouldn't have surprised me to see a takedown here and there. But the amount of time he spent wrestling, that's when I was like, whoa, you know, I didn't see that coming. And he was pretty good, actually.

You know, he got several takedown. So he was pretty sick. Yeah, but like even then he wasn't setting him up with strikes a lot of times. He was just diving. Yeah. You know, oh, Luke, could you do better? No, I would do significantly worse. but we're just talking about

what's the highest standard look like. The question is how far from that are we? There was some considerable distance. You've Ben Askron, of course. Oh, my God. You see Ben Askron on Twitter on Saturday night? I mean... Dude, that man's Twitter is always on fire.

Ben, no chill Ascran, boy. He will let... If your wrestling is not up to snuff, boy, he will let you know about it. And again, you know, you've taken that with a grain of salt too. But he does make a point that's like, you know, we're talking about people in the tournament. The wrestling's got to be a little bit better

if you're going to rely on it. Anyway, just a point to consider. All right. One more? I got time for a couple more. My life is a series of just races. Hey, what's going on, guys? My name's Alex,

and I'm calling out of Stockton, California. Oh, shit. I just wanted your thoughts on Kong. He's UFC debut. He looked really good. And, you know, I just wondering what you thought might be next for him.

He said he wants somebody in the top 10. Could you even see someone as high as maybe buying him? I think that'd be definitely a fun fight. So yeah, I just wanted to talk on that. Thanks, guys. Let me just put it to you this way.

On the ground, he has no peer in that division. Ryan Hall is probably good enough. Probably the closest. And to the point where, when I say no peer, I mean the level of difference between Crone and Ryan is so small that you and I wouldn't be able to detain. People want to see that fight. What a terrible idea that is.

Really? I'm about it. You are going to see a fight that you don't want to. you are going to see a fight that you don't want to see. If it goes to the ground, they will negate each other. It will not be filled with scrambles. And Ryan Hall will do everything he can to be on his feet and kick at range. That is the worst idea ever. Really?

Yes. It's terrible. I'm still down to see it. I'm all for bad ideas. All right. Fair enough. Here's the thing. Anybody where Crone can body lock with them and then get to the ground, they're all dead.

I mean, the thing with Crohn Gracie is like, if you kind of pair of, him up against the striker that, you know, has all right, take down defense. Like, we kind of know how that's going to go, I feel like. Now, with Ryan Hall, I feel like, you know, right Hall is pretty good on the ground and might be able to just fight him off. He's a lot better than pretty good. He's amazing. He's really good, yeah.

And, you know, he might just be able to fight him off just enough and he has way more experience fighting M.MA that, you know, that might sort of leap over and then we might see something interesting there. So I'm kind of about it. Here's the thing. anybody who is a good fighter in the featherweight division that has a good jab and good clinch breaking skills That's who you want to see

No, that guy's going to give Crone problems Yeah Do Crone stand up is literally And this is intentional Like I think he would tell you it's intentional When you're doing that leg raising thing And Diveyloose was doing that in UFC one Hickson was big on that

That is how they train Somebody who's going to be Who has a good jab and can good movement and can clinch break, dude, they're going to, if that's the way he fights, they're going to chew him up a little bit. And I'm not trying to be a hater. I just, I don't know how you can look at that and think otherwise.

Yeah. So I would pair him up with somebody who gets incrementally tougher. Let's see somebody who can fight off a couple of takedowns, make him work for it. Because we kind of know, once it gets to the ground, bro, you don't have a prayer, you know. So let's see somebody who does on the feet. Yeah.

What are your thoughts on him, like, wanting to, like, jump at the top five or, like, the top 10? He wants a real high-level opponent. I thought the Alex Caster's was great to, you know, get him started in the UFC, and he kind of wasn't okay with that. He was saying, like, Cub Swanson or something like that, like, you know, that's up there. Here's what I would say. You ever seen Inglorious Bastards?

Yeah, of course. Do you remember Brad Pitt's character? Yeah. I forget his name. Captain, what was it? God, what was his name? Captain, I'm looking it up here. Brad Pitt, yeah.

Hold on, hold on. I want to look up his name. because this is the best part. I got it here. Hold on here. Oh, God damn it. Here we go. Hold on.

I got it here. I got it. Lieutenant Aldo Rain. Yeah, yeah. Like, I'm Lieutenant Aldo Rain. And I'm not comparing these people to Nazis. That's not what I'm saying. But there was one scene where someone was like talking about this guy wants to die for

his country. He's like, oblige him. My attitude is if he wants to fight guys, top five, no. Because those guys deserve to be working. for total opportunities. Yeah. But top 15, top 10. Oblige him.

I would want to see how that looks. Honestly, and it's kind of part of the Gracie brand. Like, you really want to see him get built up? Nah, just throw him in there again. Dude, you're not doing anything to Crone that he doesn't want. He said he wants someone who's going to go after him. Try to kill him is what he said. Yeah, exactly.

Oblige him. Yeah, but definitely an interesting addition, fun one to that division. All right, one more. All right. Pick, so you want to talk about Holloway Ferguson rumors? or what's next for Aljiman Sterling. Also, top prospects of the weekend. No, let's do Holloway and Tony F.

Cool. Let's address that. Hey, Luke and Danny. This is Marcus calling from San Diego. I was wondering what you guys make of these Holloway-Ferguson-236 rumors. And also, is there any word on where this thing is going to take place, U.S. 236? Thanks a lot. Keep up the great work. good. That was a nice, high energy, right?

He hangs up like my dad does. Goodbye, you know. I don't know anything about what 236 is going to be. I don't think that they know. Yeah, no, they haven't. All right. Here's the thing about that. First of all, let me make a point. I've been trying to get, I'm just going to pull back the curtain here a little bit. I've been trying to get Tony Ferguson on this show.

We got close once. But there's a reason why he doesn't do interviews. No one can get him. Yeah. And so let me just put this out. A few other key lightweight players want to go on the show, but nobody wants to talk yet until there's some sort of... Oh, no, no, here's the thing.

Let me just put this out here. Be respectful. Put the camera on me, please, back there and the boys. I want to make a plea to our listeners. If you guys want to see Tony Ferguson on the MMA hour, I am even willing to go and fly to Oxnard, wherever he is, and film him at his gym. I have told him this, okay?

If you guys want to see Tony Ferguson either in that capacity, or on Skype on the MMA hour, respectfully, kindly tweet him. Let him know. Let him know that this is the place for him to talk because I've been wanting to talk to him since the Pettus win. We were supposed to get him on, or he got the time wrong,

and we haven't been able to get him back on since. I have such respect for Tony Ferguson. I want to see him on the show, and I need your help to convince him to come on. So please tweet him or Instagram him. Be respectful, be kind, but encourage him to do it. Now, to answer the question about what the guy was saying, look, man, I am all in on a Tony Ferguson, Max Holloway fight.

You can't hate on it. It's impossible to dislike. Dude, you cannot do that to Dustin Poirier. You cannot do that. It is so unfair to do that. I, of course, would love to see Tony Ferguson fight Max. Are you kidding me? The dreams come true.

But at some level, you've got to pay people what they are owed. And dude, Dustin Porey has been out there thugging it in that 155 pound division. He has owed either an interim opportunity, a number one contender opportunity, something, something clear, definable, and it needs to be now. Yeah. If what you're doing is an interim title, I think Ferguson versus Dustin Poreer is the way to go. Those two are the most deserving contenders at the moment. If Holloway wants to come up to 155, I'd love to see him get a fight before he actually gets a title shot. So, dude, Nate Diaz, Connor McGregor, heck, even the Anthony Pedest rematch at 155,

Cowboys Sorona, you name it. Holloway versus anybody's a fun fight. So the UFC doesn't really have to worry about that. But I do think it's a little extra to put them up in an interim title fight against Ferguson when you got so many deserving guys, especially Dustin Poria out there. I agree with you on that. By the way, Volcanovsky needs an opportunity at somebody big and other guys at featherweight. Dude, there are, yeah, he's got contenders down there, too.

it normal for just a little bit longer, just a little bit longer. All right, man, I don't have time anymore because I have to go do my other job, but you did a great job this whole weekend. I know you're tired as balls. I am too. Coffee, cafe will keep us alive, my friend. It really will. Good job, but thank you so much.

I appreciate it. All right. Let's go now to the Skype machine. Our next guest is the co-headliner for UFC 235. The biggest card of the year already, and he's going to be fighting for the light heavyweight title. Lionheart makes his return to the show. Anthony Smith.

Hi, Anthony. How are you? I'm good, Luke. How are you? Anthony, how is it that you're a fighter who trains every day? I'm a lowly media loser, and I look like death. And you look fresh as a daisy. Look at you.

Ready to go. Yeah, fresh off a plane back here in Denver and going to finish up this last hard week of camp. Okay, so you went home for the weekend? What do you mean? I go home every weekend. Do you really? Wow. Do you fly? Do you drive? How do you get there? Yeah, I fly. I fly. I leave Friday night after sparring, and then I'm back Monday. And so you're trying to do the dad and the husband thing or something, right?

Yeah, yeah, man. I love it out here in Denver, but I don't think that I'd be able to stay out here for eight or nine weeks or whatever it is without seeing my family. I'm kind of a cissy when it comes to that. So I do. I travel back. forth every weekend. What is the trade-off there? On the one hand, the positives are obvious, right? You get to be with your family, you get to see your kids. So that's a no-brainer. How much of a tax on your life and your energy and your well-being, is it? I don't think it's as bad as a lot of people would expect. My jih-too coach still lives in Omaha, and I still have my strength conditioning program and my boxing coach at home. So I don't really miss anything training-wise. I guess the trade-off would be it's just a pain in the ass to travel twice every weekend do you have that global

entry thing where you can just waltz through the airport no i don't actually dude my wife got it it's a game changer is it i need to do that i need to just get it out of the way just set it up and get it done all right man so let's talk about it here a little bit i want to talk about john jones specifically but let's talk about the training out there in in colorado now you're at factory as I understand it, right? I am with Mark Montoya. Yeah. Tell me about Mark in your relationship. How did it get started and what keeps it together? Well, I've always had a connection with Chris Camozzi and Chris was one of Mark's first fighters as far as MMA goes. And, you know, a couple years ago, I was looking to to kind of switch things up. I knew I needed a little bit more than I was getting.

and I've always heard about how great of a coach Mark was. So I came out, I checked it out for a week, and Andrew Sanchez was our first fight together. And I really think that, I think that not only in fighting, but in life in general, everything's about your connection with other people. And Mark and I's connection is solid.

I think he just understands me better than anyone else does, and it's working out really good for me. What is it that he understands about, you, your strength and your weaknesses and how to raise one and combat the other? Like when you say that, what do you mean exactly? You know, he doesn't treat every fighter the same. You know, as he gets to know you, he gets to know what works best for you. Like, I mean, as far as motivation goes, you know, what he says to you in certain moments,

you know, we've gotten so tight and we've spent so much time together that Mark can look at me during training and almost see exactly what I'm thinking and he'll stop the session and we'll have a conversation about whatever's going on in my head. it's almost like we see the same things. I don't know. It's really strange, but it's really working out. All right. You know, it's interesting.

When you get to a huge spot like this, I would imagine the teammates play a pretty critical role, not merely in getting you ready. But I wonder, do they say things like, oh, man, this is the big one, this is it? How are they treating your opportunity day in, day out when you're with them? What are they like about it? Yeah, it's kind of split down the middle.

kind of the older guys, you know, that are, I wouldn't say old, but the older ones that are around my age, you know, it's almost as live, we all got this opportunity, you know, and we're getting ready for it together. And it's really just, we've all put our head down and just grind it towards us. But I can definitely tell that the younger guys have a little bit, you know, the up-and-comers, the guys are trying to get into the UFC or the guys that have just got there. They're just super stoked, you know, it's something. that they don't really know they're not that far in their career yet to where they're pushing towards title fights or whatever so those guys are just super amped you know and they're really excited and they want to know what it's like and and you know it's kind of long along those lines but kind of the older grizzled veterans you know we kind of know what to expect and it's more just uh i don't know it's just we're just grinding you know because they want to be they want to get me as ready as anybody so it sounds like it's helpful um but you You basically, you know, not, I mean, this is your first UFC title shop, but not essentially your first rodeo.

You've had many, many fights, right? Something like that. Yeah, yeah. So the guys that are closer to where I'm at in my career kind of know what's going on and what everything looks like. And the younger guys are just super pumped. How different has this camp been from, let's say, previous camps at light heavyweight? As far as the train, I mean, it's similar, but it definitely has its differences. everything is much more, it's much more, I would say,

it's specifically focused around John, right? So most of my other camps, it's really, you know, we kind of look at what my opponents do well, where they may have some holes, and really I just tried to get better everywhere generally. We didn't really focus too hard on any specific things. John Jones is a different beast. There's a lot of things that you need to focus on specifically.

So, you know, the training is a lot more specific on certain things. And then, you know, we really kind of dove in head first into really making sure that my conditioning is taken care of. You know, we kind of went out to California and did a bunch of testing before the fight was even announced, kind of expecting that this was going to happen. And kind of my entire training camp has kind of really been based around my heart rate and really targeting times. and specific places that I need my heart rate and ranges. So I think that that's probably been the biggest change is just really making sure that cardio-wise that I'll be fine. Let's talk about your opponent, John Jones, if we can hear.

You know, one of the things that really frustrates me is I don't know what to make of all the run-ins he's had with anti-doping authorities and various other authorities as well. Here's one thing I do know, I think if you look at the tape, and I'm certainly no expert, but I don't think you have to be. You just have to call a ball on a strike. he has very, very high fight IQ. He makes really good decisions. He's a smart fighter.

So in preparation for that, do you watch tape of his, I guess first you grew with that assessment, and then second, do you watch tape of his more recent fights? Have you looked and examined at how he competes? Well, first, yeah, I absolutely agree with you as far as his fight IQ on the skill set goes. But honestly, I haven't watched my coaches. I have watched a ridiculous amount of John Jones film from the beginning all the way until recently.

But honestly, I've watched him fight Gustafson, and I haven't watched it live, and I haven't watched it again. I don't want to wrap myself up, and I don't want to get lost in what John does, what he doesn't do, what I'm, you know, because in my head I'm going to start rolling through all the stuff that I've seen, and then we're going to be in front of each other, and I'm going to be expecting certain things. I'm going to be thinking I see a tell, and maybe I don't really see it, and maybe I'm making stuff. up in my head. I don't even want to get wrapped up into that. So my coaches watch it. Mark watches it specifically. And then we just work on the game plan that he comes up with. So honestly, I really, I haven't watched other than watching him fight Gustavis and live, I haven't watched John

fight in a handful of months. So then how does one strategically prepare for this, right? I mean, is it the idea that you can't look at his old fights and discern where everyone else went wrong? Like how do you know what the right path is strategically without, or I know your coaches are viewing it, but I'm asking you for your own, let's say, comfort at night. How do you know you have the right strategic approach given all those other contexts? You know, it sounds really, really goddamn silly, but I just believe in Mark. So if he says that this is going to happen or this is not going to happen or, you know, this, whatever technique is going to be open and here's how I want you to count.

it, then I just, that's all I think about. I just think about what Mark is put in front of me. And then I just, that's what I focus on. You know, I have my, I have training partners that we, we mirror him as much as we can. And then we just train it over and over and over and over. And I just hope that when I see it, it'll be familiar. All right. So let's talk about this.

You have been one of the guys who has typically been really good. No, no, it's interesting. I don't, some people interpret my hum as condescending, but it's not that at all. It is, I have to think about that more. It's interesting. I hadn't considered things in certain ways. I don't know anyone in my life who I have that much trust in other than my wife, but she doesn't have that kind of advice for like my own profession.

You know what I mean? Like, I don't, I don't have that person in my life that you do. Does that make sense? So when I hear a fighter say they had such deep faith, it's, I don't know what that's like. It's not any different than any of the other fights that. have had with Mark. When I was younger in my career, I really put a lot of time into obsessing over watching film. And then I would get in there and it would just freeze me because now I'm looking for something that hasn't happened yet. And as I've gotten further along in my career,

I figured out that if I just trust in Mark to put those things in front of me when I need to see them, when John does it, then I'll know exactly what he's talking about. And it kind of sounds like it's a little bit of a game and it kind of is to me you know like you know in the in the he said over and over and over he was going to kill me with leg kicks you know that he was going to just rip the leg kicks over and over and instead of watching hector do it i just i just waited for it and and they came and because i didn't buy into what mark was saying i kind of didn't even consider it was going to happen so that was kind of my learning experience uh that i just need to trust what he says. All right, fair enough. You normally like talking to the media. Has it been a little bit

different this time? I mean, certainly you're gracious with your time. That's not what I mean. What I'm suggesting is when you were on that rise up this past year, all the questions were a lot about like, hey, how's it going. This is great. How awesome. And now it feels like the questions, the tenor, as I look at our media brethren, they've switched a little bit, right, because of the nature of the matchup and because there is this, let's be honest about there's the lingering doubt about some of your upside here. Has that been annoying as a change? No, no, no.

I always enjoy talking to the media, but you're very right that instead of the, hey, great win, what are you looking to do next, or what's your plan in this fight or whatever? It's more, all right, so everyone thinks that he's going to kick your ass. How does that make you feel? That's kind of the rhetoric that's kind of going along. But I don't mind it all, man.

And I expected this. You know, I expected when I started talking about fighting John when I was getting ready to fight Shogun, I knew that the topic of the conversations were going to be much different. And the questions were going to be formulated a little bit differently. If I had to ask you what this fight is about, what would you say? I mean, a belt, more money, status, respect, legacy, identity, self-actualization. Like, why are you, what does this fight about? It's about the world title. I wouldn't be, I feel like I'd be preparing and I feel exactly the same way if it was Gustafson or if it was Cormier or whoever.

It's not about John Jones. And I think that that's what's kind of throwing everybody off is I'm not attacking John Jones. I'm not attacking who he is as a person. I'm not even attacking about the things that he's done wrong because I don't care. I really don't. This is about the gold belt that he has around his waist, and that's it. That's all I care about. Yeah, interesting.

I saw you had a run-in on social media with Colby Covington. He was out there. He's out there poking the bear as he normally does, and you didn't appreciate that. I'm wondering why you even responded at all. And then what was the situation that you referenced there where you had, I think, suggested that you guys had a face-to-face meeting, and he did not respond favorably to it. What was that all about? Well, the only reason I said anything in that situation to Colby is because, I mean, a month ago when Colby was going off about his losing his own title shot, he threw me under the bus is almost to defend himself for needing one.

Like, well, Anthony Smith got one and he's a piece of shit, so why can't I get one? And I just, it's the same with the Luke Rockwood thing. Like, I just hate people that are just assholes for no reason. Like, again, I don't have any issue with Colby. and I've never had a car. I've never had any issue with Colby. The Chicago thing that I was talking about was when Colby started really trash talking everybody that wasn't in his lane, it kind of changed how he has to act around people because he doesn't even remember who he's offended

and who he's upset. So he can't do the things that regular fighters do, like train in the host hotel with everyone else. So my manager owns a gym in Chicago. So when we were both there fighting on that card, I just trained at my manager's gym because it's more comfortable there. Typically, I would stay in the host hotel with everyone else. And it's not anywhere close to where the hotel was. It was a significant John away.

So I'm there working out, and then Colby comes in because he has to find somewhere as far away from UFC fighters as he can get to train, not knowing that it's owned by one of the managers of some of the guys in the UFC. And then he gets there, and he's the most skittish person. I've ever seen. He looks like a scared cat when he's not around all the cameras because he's, and I understand what he's doing. I get it. But he can't, he's put himself in a position where he can't just be a normal person in normal places anymore because he's pissed everybody off. So he has to hide off in the corner of the gym the whole time and keep looking over his shoulder because he doesn't

know who wants to come in and slap him in the back of the head. And that's, that's how he is away from the cameras and everyone else. So that's, and that's my only issue is that he's just attacking people that's not in his way. And, you know, it'd be like me, you know, attacking 55ers. Like, what's the point of that? You know, I don't understand how that puts you forward in your career anymore. How much of this fight, and it doesn't sound like there's much, but maybe you can, maybe you can tell me differently.

You mentioned it was about the world title. Okay, fine, I believe that. Is there any impulse you have to suppress about this creeping either idea or emotion in your body that, oh, you know what? Yes, it's about the world title. Wouldn't it be sweet to stick it to the haters? Is there any part of you that has to wrestle with that? Yeah.

Yeah, a lot. A lot. Again, back to Mark, he tells me all the time that I need to worry about oppressing myself and no one else. And that's the piece that I'm going to struggle with a little bit. I would venture to guess it's going to be really hard for me to stay humble talking to Joe Rogan afterwards. Because the outpour of hatred has been incredible. It doesn't necessarily bother me too much, but it is a little bit shocking. Like how so many people can care so much one way or the other, it just below my mind.

But there is a little bit of the, you know, sticking into the haters feeling there for sure. On some level, though, there has to be a little bit comforting. It's like, oh, this is what people talked about when they said, you know, more money, more problems. This is exactly what they meant, isn't it? sure for sure when it first happened i was it was a little bit shocking when i first started but honestly at this point i've kind of gotten used to it and and as the fight gets closer and closer i do see that it's changing a little bit uh you know i don't see as many john jones is going to beat your ass you pussy comments as much anymore i i see a lot of guys hoping i don't see a whole

lot of believers but i see a lot of a lot of people that really really hope you know what i have a theory about that. You want to hear it? Yeah. I mean, I'm going to tell you anyway. My theory on that is the posture you have taken, which is this is about me and my opportunity and my dream and this challenge. I don't care about John's pica grams. I don't care about this. I don't care about that. I am solely focused on this and I'm going to be a professional about it. I think that has disarmed a lot of people who are otherwise ready to pull the knives out. Some people will pull the knives out no matter what. There's nothing you can do about that. the other people who were kind of on the fence, they're like, you know what, all right,

how can I really hate on that approach? That's my theory. You know, I was listening to Joe Rogan's fight companion after it was all over for the event last night. And I kind of got that same vibe from Brennan Schaub. When this fight was first announced, Brendan Schaub was just all over me. Like, what the hell is this guy doing here? Like, this is not smart.

You know, this kind of throwing me into the bus. you know, and then, you know, on the fight competing, his kind of attitude has changed a little bit. Like, you know, I really like that guy. You know, I don't know if he really is a believer, but it's definitely changed. And that's kind of overall as a broad spectrum. That's kind of how it's been.

And I understand it. And I'm looking forward to winning and changing everybody's minds, that's for sure. Or before I let you go, last question about this. Not every athlete's the same in this one. So I wonder what your method is. A, do you do any visualization, and that can be any number of things, scenarios, pre-fights, what a face-off's going to be like, what a way-in's going to be like, all that stuff, including the fight itself?

And then if you do visualizations, do you allow yourself to visualize what it's like post-fight? Yeah, yeah, I do. I do a lot of visualization. Most times it's not like, I know a lot of guys visualize a lot at night and kind of before they go, asleep, they think about what they want to do. I try not to do that. I try to keep my visualization of the fight. I try to keep it kind of rained in, because if not, it can kind of consume you if you're just constantly going over the fight and how you think it's going to go in your head. So I try to make sure that I shut it off. But I would say mine is also

a little bit different because I don't always visualize myself in the best positions. You know, I try to make sure that I kind of think of the worst case scenario and then visualize myself working out of it. Post fight is a little bit different because I don't really know, you know, I've never won a world title before, so I don't know what that's going to look like. I've thought about that moment in the octagon a lot afterwards,

you know, kind of when the crowd's going crazy and that just look of stupor on everyone's faces, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. And that's kind of as far as I can get, because I don't know what the rest looks like, but that's kind of how it goes for me. Actually, I lied. Last one.

This is my last one, I promise. because I know you've got to get stuff to do. There was over the weekend before yesterday's fights, Kane Velazquez was asked by TMZ. And by the way, TMZ, if you haven't heard the audio, they just stick a camera in his face. And they're like, could you beat John Jones? And he's like, I have groceries.

I'm going to my car. Sure I can. You know, it was one of those things. Anyway, John responded and was like, you know, my heavyweight days are inevitable. Well, now Kane loses. Do you make anything out of this? Maybe you could say, well, John had his sights on this one.

and now that's gone up in smoke. Does any of that whole thing matter to you at all? No, not at all. I learned really quickly not to put too much weight in anything John says. You know, when I was at the presser, I figured out that anything that John says is very calculated. He doesn't just say anything for no reason. He has a reason behind everything that he says.

even his subtle, you know, his passive aggressiveness at the press conference, just little stuff like that that I noticed and that I'm just not going to put any time into. I'm not, I'm not anyone else that he's fought, and I'm not going to play his stupid mind games. And I think that this is just another one of those, you know, it's just a distraction. All right. Well, there you have it. I would be there at the fights, but my wife's going to have a kid, so I can't. But I wish you nothing but the best of luck. You don't need it, but I just say it anyway.

Thank you so much for your time, Anthony Smith. Really appreciate it. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us on March 2nd. Awesome, man. Thanks a lot. There he goes. Lionheart. Well, one of the impossible to dislike in the sport. All right, I think we have to get out of here.

Let's get out of here. How about that? I don't know if the boys in the back are ready for it, but we need to do it. All right. Thanks to Danny in the back. Thanks to everybody who watched. Keep sending those tweets. Keep sending those calls.

Thank you to all the guests. And until next time, stay frosty donkeys.