MMA Fighting - #474 – Stephen Thompson, Kevin Lee, Maycee Barber, Jack Marshman

Episode Date: March 25, 2019

On this episode of The MMA Hour, Luke Thomas speaks to Kevin Lee about jumping up to welterweight, facing Rafael dos Anjos, more; Stephen Thompson about his knockout loss to Anthony Pettis at UFC Nashville, what’s next for him, more; Maycee Barber about her comeback win against JJ Aldrich over the weekend, her young career, where she goes from here, more; Jack Marshman about his recent win over John Phillips, leaving the army without permission to compete at UFC London, 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

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and use promo code sports for 20% off. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It is Monday, the 25th of March 2019, and this is the MMA Hour. My name is Luke Thomas. Thank you so much for joining. I greatly appreciate it. Boy, we had a pack show today, y'all. Wow.

Let's see. Wonderboy's going to be here in about 20 minutes to talk about everything that happened in Nashville. I appreciate this time. Macy Barbara will be here to talk about her big win also in Nashville. Kevin Lee is jumping up to Welter. her weight, so we'll discuss that with him. And then Jack Marshman had a nice win at UFC London,

but there was some issues with the weight cut, with the military stuff. So we'll talk to him about 120 or so. Plus, you're going to be my guess, not one, but two different ways. Number one with your tweets. Using the hashtag the MMA hour, we'll get to those a little bit later.

Plus, as always, on the sound off, with your calls, 844-66-24-68. Happy Monday to you guys. Hope you're doing well. Real quickly, a listener made this for me. There's no way to zoom in, I don't think. I can take this out. This is from a gentleman whose company goes by the name of Shadow Rabbit.

You can see he made a clay... Oh, no! My hand fell apart. Oh, no! Well, he did make a claymation doll, and I think it got roughed up in the mail. We'll fix it. Nevertheless, he made a little metal stand for it,

and it all works in there. So we've got to get the hand fixed. But other than that, it's pretty cool. Shadow Rabbit. Sorry Shadow Rabbit that the first time I pulled out the case, I busted up, but I'll fix that here in just a minute. So, big thanks to them. All right, we have to change things up today. Got to do things a little bit differently because of the way the show is structured.

So normally, I do the Monday morning analyst. Today we're not. Let's jump right into it. We'll do the Monday morning analyst just a little bit later. Right now, let's start things off with the sound off. All right, there he is. Danny Seguera. All right, Danny, let's pile through these as fast as we can.

We might have some time later in the. show depending on how things go to get more calls in, but let's assume that for the moment we don't, we got to jump right through these. You're doing well, my friend? Yeah, yeah, good weekend. Very good. Glad to hear it. Yeah. All right. Let's get into it. A lot of things happening everywhere, but especially in the bantamweight division. So let's discuss that. All right. Hey, what's going on, guys? This is Bobby from Providence, Rhode Island. My question is with this T.J. Dilleshore news, do you think this taints his legacy? Do you think maybe it was just something to cut weight to make it down to that lower weight class?

Do you think he's been doing stuff all the time like Cody Godbrant's saying? I'm not going to lie, guys. This really sucked when I found out. Apparently he's calling to the middle of a monsoon, which is unfortunate. Yeah. Or he's just an extreme mouth breather. He is an extreme mouth breather. That is that opportunity as well. All right, so you go first on this one, since this is a topic that I know you probably have a lot to say on. What do you say?

Yeah, well, this is a very unfortunate situation for T.J. Dillashal. We still don't know what he popped for, so we kind of have to reserve some judgment because of that because we don't have the full truth, obviously. But we do know he's going to be at least out for a year because he was suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission for a year. We still don't know what you thought is going to give him. but man, I kind of felt like T.J. Dillishaw was finally coming into his own. And I know he was coming off a loss, but like, I don't know if you remember

when he was out of the title picture and he was also working to unionize. Him and the UFC kind of weren't seeing eye to eye, and I felt like with the Sohuda fight, with everything going on, a bantamweight, all that was kind of fading away and he was kind of entering this era where he was going to define himself

as one of the best bantam weights ever, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters ever. This is a huge setback for him. So, yeah, it's tough for Tiji Dilla Shah. I don't know what happened. My sense of things is, you know, there's that infamous photo now that we've all seen with him sitting down eating that salad and he has like a million products in front of him. You know, I know that weight cut was not easy and it was probably very scientific. They probably rely on a lot of supplements here and there to, you know, make up for some of the nutrition.

And, you know, in the world of supplements, man, every time you take something, you're rolling a diet. so I think it has to do something with that. Here's what I'm going to say. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. When you have a job like this one where you have a show and we're here to discuss topics, here's what any producer or program director will tell you. When you crack that mic, Luke, you got to have a firm position.

You got to stick to it. You got to make it with all your heart. But here's the reality. We don't know anything. Other than you sought to confirm there was a positive test and in competition test, we know that, and we know that he got suspended by New York. Now, I find it highly unlikely that

it's marijuana, because I think if it is, he would have addressed it and he would have said something. But I can't rule that out, because based on everything we know, that still qualifies. Look, it could be the worst-case scenario. But I don't think he would get suspended for a year and you work for marijuana. Why? Nick Diaz nearly got suspended for life by Nevada.

And they dialed it back, well, let's be reasonable. Let's only give him five years. These primates who have the worst judgment on earth. So I don't know that. I mean, look, again, my hunch is that's probably not that, but I don't know what the answer is. I don't know what he took.

I don't know what he got caught for. I don't know if it's a tenant supplement. I don't know if it's just straight up, you know, steroids right in the veins. I have no idea. Dude, this is a serious issue that could badly, as you noted, affect his reputation. So here's my answer. Don't know. Don't know.

Going to wait until there's more information. So there you go. By the way, we reached out to his management about talking to us. Hopefully they do. So there you go. All right. Well, that leaves his division and interesting. standpoint because Sohudo was supposed to come up and have that sort of, you know, fight with him.

So let's talk about what, you know, goes next for that division. I'm Parker calling from Houston, Texas. What's up, Luke? I was just wondering if you could give your insight on what you think about the UFC Bantamweight title picture. We know that T.J. Dillichel was suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission last week. And he's going to be out for a year. So, you know, you have guys like Marlon Morayas, Al J. Main Stern,

Henry Sehudo, Pedro Munoz, and you know, you obviously need to make a title matchup, so the vacant title can be... This question goes for about another minute, so thanks for calling Parker. And let's just... Yeah, shots out to Houston. Cool city. Yeah, I've been there. My aunt lives in the woodlands, which is like the suburbs of Houston. No, it's a cool place.

I've been there a couple times. It's nice. I like people. Yeah. All right, so what do you do at Bentham? I hate the Suhudo Morise fight. Bro, me too. I hate everything about it, bro.

I hate it. I can't stand it. Now, am I here to tell you that it's going to be a bad fight, Danny? I have no idea what it's going to be like. It might end up being the best fight of the year. And is Henry Sehudo an amazing fighter? Of course. Is Mara Moraesha deserved a person in its position?

There can be no doubt. He's the most important ingredient here, period. Yes. He is for sure a guy that's going to be in that equation no matter what. Yeah. But you were doing the Sehudo at the 135 thing because Dillishaw wanted to run it back. Yes. Dillishaw should have never been down at 125.

Yep. It went disastrously for him, as we've all now seen, in addition to these other insult to injury kinds of scenarios. Now, he's out. The whole reason you were going to have him at 135 is ostensibly removed, and you're just going to do it? Yes. It's like, I don't get that at all.

By the way, they're both repped by the same manager, which is kind of, which we've seen before because Carlos kind of fought Tyron Woodley, so it's not unheard of, but that's kind of weird. It's like, I don't, I don't know, man. It's like, I'm not telling you it's a bad, fight, but Al Jemaine Sterling should be in that position 1,000% even if it's not as sexy a fighter or whatever. Yeah. I actually think Pedro Munoz should be in that equation because Al Jemann Sterling not so long ago lost to Marlon Moraysh.

And then a pretty, you remember, he got knocked out pretty bad. Pretty bad. I think you, I think what I'd like to do eventually, like ideally would be keeps a hoot at 125. I think, look, if you're going to put that division down at some point, fine, do it. but at least squeeze some more title fights out of it. I think Joseph Benavides is a deserving guy, a guy that has been a company guy since day one. He's done everything right.

He's been a top contender for forever. He's got history with Sehudo. So make that fight happen. Now 1-35, I'd like to see. I know Marajesh versus Pedro Munoz. I know that doesn't feel as big of a fight as the Sehudo fight, but that's just the way I would take things. And maybe do like a Peter Jan,

Algeman Sterling for number one contender or something. I can live with that. What I can't live with is, you know, Well, let's just... Or, or unless you want the Houdor to move up because you're getting rid of flyweight. In that case, okay. But here's the other part about it.

You just over the weekend, Juicy or Formiga, who was already the number one contender. He beat Devison Figuero. People were like, who's Devison Figuero. Oh, I'm sorry. You mean the guy who was undefeated and ranked fourth in that division heading into Nashville who also now just lost?

You mean the guy that has the haircut of God of War? I forgot about that. But it's like, dude, what does that guy got to do to get a title shot down there? I mean, you know, We're just living in crazy land. So they're just going to do what they're going to do. But I hate both of those fights.

Sorry, I do. And you know what's funny? Dana White, I think, on, you know, after UFC Nashville, he was asked about the whole situation. I think he said, oh, yeah, I think Joseph Benavides fights, for Miga for the number one contender. And if anybody drops out of the bantamweight title fight, then, you know, they'll fill in.

But I'm like, wait, so are they fighting at 125 or 135? It's a mess. No whole situation is just a mess. That's why I think either you get rid of the division or you don't. You know what I'm saying? Like this weird limbo doesn't really work out. All right. Now let's switch topics into something completely different.

Oh. That usually is ominous. Hey, Luke and Danny. This is Kenneth Ladev from Chino, California. Really admire both of your work. Keep it up. So there's this stigma in our society regarding cannabis, medicinal cannabis, and even CBD. Anthony Pettis has started incorporating CBD gummies and,

into his diet to aid and sleep and says it has been a game changer. And it got me thinking lots of athletes and fighters have started realizing the benefits of CBD or lowering inflammation, relaxing muscles, etc. But are fighters overlooking the gigantic benefits of having proper sleep? Love to hear your thoughts and hey, maybe some quality sleep a day or two out of the week could really help you out, Luke. Perhaps slow the grain that you got going and haven't enjoyed it. Also, shout out to Mr. Sugga, favorite new Twitchhammer.

Okay, take air, ladies and gentlemen. People act like I choose not to get sleep. It's like, would I rather get a good snide of sleep tonight or maybe not? What is it you think I'm doing up there dancing in the street with raccoons and stray animals? Rather than trying to get a good night. I'm trying to get a good night's rest. It's just I live with an insane amount of anxiety and pressure. So I just get, and I have to get up balls early to come here.

So no. Have you tried CBD? Yeah. Here's the thing with CBD. I have tried gummies. I've had no success. I've tried rubs. I've had no success.

I've tried oils. I've had no success. Now, here's the thing. There's the deal with this, and there has been, this is not, this is not up for debate. There really are no longitudinal studies that prove any of the benefits of CBD. Which you do get are a lot of anecdotal stories. Hey man, I tried it. It was a game changer.

I'm not here to say that those people are wrong. They could very well be right. All I'm trying to say to folks is there isn't any to date scientific data that justifies even a tenth of these claims. Now, that's partly in the process of changing. there are studies now being done. So we'll see what they have to say. It might turn out that it works for a certain kind of person

and doesn't work for another. Another problem is it's a totally unregulated marketplace. So you could have a friend that has a great company that makes super killer stuff and it all works for you. Maybe I just keep buying the loser CBD. I don't know, but I have not had any success with it at all. But hey, man, if Anthony Pettis is getting better sleep at night because the CBD, dude, keep doing it.

Yes. Sleep is, they'll tell you this. in any kind of bodybuilding form or even powerlifting or even weightlifting, the most important things are the kind of foods you eat, and obviously how much hydration, how much sleep you get, and then at the very last is supplementation. But sleep, diet, and hydration,

the most important things in fitness. Yeah, for sure. I've tried CBD as well, the gummies and the oil, and I didn't feel anything. I don't know if maybe it did work, because I also know it reduces inflammation and all that. Maybe it did work, And I just, you know, I have a hard time picking it up.

Yeah. But I didn't feel anything. Also, fun little story. Alexis Villa. You remember him, right? Poor Alexis Villa, yeah. He's been fighting for forever, you know, Olympic wrestler. Yeah. Crashed into an airport.

That's true, yes. I asked him once after a fight, you know, he was already deep into his 40s and, like, still, you know, kicking ass and ask him, you know, what's the key to, like, you know, be so, so, being such a great shape at such a, you know, late age. Being Cuban? one being Cuban, yes, having those Cuban genes, man. And, you know, the other one, he told me sleep early. He's like, sleep early. He's like, by 9 p.m., I'm already, like, crash. He's absolutely right.

Sleep is so important. Sleep is so big. But no, I mean, just so it's clear, I don't choose to not get sleep. I'm trying. I've cut out alcohol big time. It's just hard. It's hard, man. Yeah, it's hard to get a good sleep.

All right, well, now let's talk about some of the action that happened over the weekend. Obviously, Anthony Pett is picking up a pretty important win for his career. But, you know, now sort of the path, his path is not too clear. Maybe 170, 155, so let's discuss that. Hey, Luke, this is Matt calling from Boston. And just after what happened this weekend, Anthony Pettus now seems to have fight offers in three different divisions. But it seems to be come and go wherever he ends up weight-wise. So I was just wondering where you would like to see Anthony Pettus land.

If he had to pick one, what would your choice? B. Thanks and thank you for the show. All right. So I don't know what the third away class was because I don't think he's ever doing 45 again. I guess he does have a top 10 win in each of those divisions. Yeah. But he's not, there's no beck and call back there. This is real simple. For now, look, you just beat the number three, number four guy.

There is no reason to get out of that division. See where it takes you. You never know. I do think he was losing that fight up until he was winning, which we'll talk about in the Monday morning analyst. but nevertheless, it's a great win. It's a killer, killer win. No one's ever done that to Wonderboy. You just got to say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Now there's some things to clean up, obviously. So look, see how it goes. Here's my theory about this, Danny. I asked a bunch of people to tell me every time someone has jumped up and wait whether it went well or not went well. What you find, I don't have any hard data on this. This is, again, anecdotal, or at least incomplete.

Just observational. Observational. What I have noticed is it is very, not easy, but it is common, it is not uncommon for someone to jump up and wait and initially make a big splash. What it is hard for them to do is jump up and wait and have a sustained effort of success. Yeah.

It's why you see these guys come up and wait for these champ champ fights and they just brutalize somebody. But then you see cowboy, he went up to 170, he looked great, but then you kind of run into some pretty clear dead ends at that point. Yeah. I mean, he looked good for like three, four fights. I think he picked up at a world tour. It's not that he can't compete there.

He's obviously competitive there, but it's hard to make the argument. That's his best division. Yeah. So like Pettus might be competitive at 170. You will have to see. My hunch is that eventually he's going to find his way back down to 155. I see that situation kind of like in soccer when they bring, you know, certain managers specialize in just, you know, helping teams avoid relegation.

And it's not really the fact that the manager is all that good. It's just the fact that there's change, period. And then, you know, people, when there's change, people just react positively to that, you know, for a little bit. So you bring in a guy for like four or five games just to avoid relegation. and, you know, they just managed to get a few points, but it's really mainly just because of change, because they're, you know, changing things around and they're not stuck doing the same thing.

So it kind of reminds me of that situation. But look, I hated on this matchup when it was first announced. I mean, I made my thoughts pretty clear here on the show. But, man, now that it happened, it was a pretty big gamble from Anthony Pettis, but, man, what a great decision. Because, look, things look pretty murky out lightweight. You don't know how, you know, the title picture is going to sort out.

Kind of same at Walterway. but at least you got both options. So when it goes worse than the other, you can just stick to whatever division is a little bit more clear. That's right. I mean, it's safe to say he's the top five in each, you know, technically, you know, beating number three, right? Yeah.

Pretty smart move. Write it out as long as you can and then make a decision on how far it goes. Also, there's plenty of lightweights that have moved up to 155, so technically you won't really have to fight like a legit, you know, welterweight. So there's that as well. All right.

Let's take one more and then I'll call Thompson. Okay. What's going on, guys? It's Ricardo from Toronto. So Petters just made a statement and in terms of match making the opportunities seem endless now. But I think the fight that most people

including myself want to see is that Connor matchup. You know, Connor tweeted after the fight and obviously about people talking. They're both lightweights. They're both looking in return in July. You know, plus Connor's in book. in that Diaz trilogy isn't going anywhere.

So what do you think? Connor, Madsvedel, RDA, what makes the most sense for pedis right now, guys? Thanks. Who should Petits fight next? Any top welterweight in the top five? You don't like the Conor fight? And it's like people like Connor versus a gorilla.

Who doesn't want to see? Everyone wants to see Connor fight and virtually any permutation. Yeah, of course. Do I think that's the best way for him to move forward in his career? No, I don't. somebody at 155 is what he needs to be doing. But like a Pettus fight, would that be cool? Sure, dude, there'd be an amazing striking bout. But just thinking realistically about what's a good way to advance,

no, that's not the best way for him to do this. I want to see Connor versus Nate Diaz. I think that whole thing needs to wrap up fairly soon. So, no, I wouldn't like to see Pettis versus Conner. For some reason, it just doesn't intrigue me all that much. Yeah, look, again, if you saw him across the cage with each other, you'd be like, wow, we're about to get it on. Yeah, for sure.

Again, it's the same thing with Sehudo Marais. when they're across the cage with each other, I'm going to be a little bit nervous because those are two amazing fighters. But that doesn't mean that we're doing right by the divisions and the fighters inside those divisions. So there you go. But we're in the streaming era.

All bets are off, Danny. Yeah, yeah. All right, I'm going to leave you with one question. This is specifically for you, and I'm going to get Mr. Thompson. Sounds good. Hey, Luke, this is Neil from Calgary, Canada. I'm just wondering about your analysis on your fights.

I like them. They're great analysis. I'm just wondering if any fighters actually ever get upset at you for giving away their fight plan or game plan. Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes. Thank you for your time. Yeah. That was the longest pause ever.

Yeah, sometimes. I've had a couple messages about that. Typically, not really. But you guys have to understand about the analysis that I do, which I really appreciate. I do think it sets me apart a little bit inside the media space relative to other media members, not so much obviously coaches. is that there's a, one, a certain kind of perspective that I bring that is different than how a coach might see it. And then two, there's a lot of small details I don't get to, part because I don't see them, part because I don't have enough time. There could be a lot of missing pieces there that, you know, a coach might look at what I'm doing and say, oh, you know, I had the coach of a really famous fighter reach out and say I got like 90% of what they were doing correctly.

but the 10% that I missed was pretty critical. So, you know, what do you want to say? The reality is what I always tell you guys. I don't present it to you as the best analysis or the only analysis or even the complete analysis. I present it to you as mine. I give you like a big picture overview with some grasp of the details.

And then we go from there. All right, let's go to this gentleman now. I really appreciate his time. I was even hesitant to bring them on because, you know, you get these guys in a tough spot. You want to be respectful with their time. but I also wanted to talk to him. I just wanted to see how he was doing and check in,

and so he is gracious enough to give us some of his time. We're joined now of you, The Magic of Skype, by the one and only Wonderboy himself, Stephen Thompson. Hi, Stephen. How are you doing, my friend? Good. How are you feeling, first of all? I'm feeling good, man, feeling good. You know, a little bummed, but hey, man,

it's the way the game goes sometimes. It's when you're in the game long enough, you know, Sometimes this stuff happens. So I'm feeling good, though. So by the way, just to medically get the final wrap up here, did you have to go to the hospital or anything? Or once you were in the back, doctors took a look at you and you were good to go? Yeah.

So I actually, they took me to the hospital. Got some x-rays done of my left leg and a CT scan. So we were there until 3.30 a.m. in the morning before we got back up. We got back to the hotel around four. So we're there for a little while. So everything's good, though. Brain's fine. Foot's fine.

No brakes. Just a little banged up down there. So, but everything's good. All right. So let me just say this, man. I know, obviously, Saturday didn't go your way. But to go that many fights in a game this dangerous. And for that to never happen, kind of miraculous.

Like on some level, I know the streak is over. But you do have to be proud of that streak, right? You know, I am. And I'm in close to 80 fights and never been, never been knocked out. Yeah. But it's crazy. You know, it had to be this time. Like, why this time?

We had a whole bunch of people there from our hometown, you know, supporting me. But it is what it is, man. It happened. So the only thing I can do is get back on that ball and keep moving forward and go back to the drawing board, you know. Let's talk about the fight before the ending. Look to me like you were winning.

How are you feeling about it? Yeah, you know, I think I was piecing them up, you know, especially with my jab. He threw a few leg kicks, nothing that really, bothered me at the time. I remember the first round very well. I don't remember the second round very well. But I remember going back to the corner and having his blood, like little, I'm looking down at me. I got his blood all over my chest. I'm looking at his, he's like leaking from his nose. I'm like, man, then I break his nose, you know, what's going on. I just remember saying,

he's a tough guy. And then after that, kind of blank. I literally come to in the back. I see Chris Wyden. I see my mom. I see my brother. And I don't remember being out in the cage or walking to the back, taking pictures with everybody. I don't remember that at all. Wow. What was the game plan heading in there? Again, it looked like you were executing it pretty well for what you remember. But what was the thought? Because there was a bit of a height disparity. I thought he was going to go a lot to the body, which I guess a little bit he did, but he went much more to the legs. Yeah, you know, I figured he, I didn't expect him to stand right there in front of me, you know, right off the bat. I was going to go to him, get him backing up,

but he actually met me in the middle, started coming at me. And he did throw a lot of leg kicks, but I remember thinking, you know, his strikes were punches were kind of slow in the first round. Like, man, oh, this is good. This is not going to take long at all. That's what you get for thinking. But yeah, I felt like his hands were fairly slow. He did throw a lot of leg kicks out there. But the game plan was, you know, to really pump the jab, you know, get him backing up a little bit and then look for the knockout from there. He did keep his hands up fairly high, which made that fairly difficult. So I started going to the body as well with my own body kicks. So to try and get him to drop those hands just a little bit.

You know, in the later rounds, I figured that those body shots would definitely wear his body out, him dropping his hands. And then the knockout would be a little bit easier. But we never made it to that point. You know, I felt good about my performance. And I went back and watched the fight several times, especially the knockout. And I'm like, you know, it seemed to me like, I know I've been hit harder than that. I know tyrants hit me harder than that.

You know, why did this punch affect me the way it did? And the only thing I could think of was it just being right on the money, right on the spot. Sometimes that's all it takes. Yeah, you know, I actually went and I looked at every, yesterday. My wife was real happy with me. I went and I looked at every time you've been knocked down in the year. UFC. And all the other times you got knocked down, it was a huge punch, like a huge, like Tyron Woodley, just loading up. Let me see what you think of my guess. My guess is that

there was a slight, slight, slight delayed timing on it. And a Superman punch, as you know, often comes real linear. His was almost arcing like in this way. So between the delayed timing and the trajectory, I don't think you were expecting it. Fair? Definitely fair. You definitely fair. Because I went back and watched that. I threw a sidekick that kind of glanced off of him. It kind of put me at a bad position. Right. Where my right foot was fairly to the outside of him,

which put me closer to him. And I know he was up against the cage. So all he had to do was lunge forward. And, of course, when you're throwing a punch with your whole body behind it, it makes it that much more, that much more powerful. And the last, you know, three or four inches is where the power comes from, you know. So his whole body being behind it and throwing that straight punch right down the pipe, I think that's, that's what that's what, that's what,

did it and um you know it took me a while to actually figure it out and go back and watch it like why you know it didn't look like it was that much you know especially after tiring putting me down and not not not not putting me away i'm sitting there thinking why was that you know but you know it doesn't take it doesn't it doesn't have to take a uh you know a gorilla of a punch to put you away just you put a right on the spot that's all it takes you know something else i noticed i went back and i checked this with a fight metric for the anthony peddice um he targeted your head the least amount he's ever targeted an opponent in his career and he targeted your legs more than he's ever targeted an opponent in his career it was the opposite of what he basically

always does to what extent was that surprising you know um i figured that he was going to try and keep the distance i knew that uh being after me coming off uh from a knee injury from the fight before he probably was going to go for the legs a little bit more so i mean in in our game plan in our head, we figured that was going to happen. I didn't, I didn't think that he was going to not throw as many punches to the head, but I figured he was going to target my legs more. So that kind of threw me off a little bit. He mostly kept his hands up. So maybe that was kind of smart because he knows I'm a counterstriker. You know, I's got the longer reach and that I was going to try and counter him once he started throwing punches. And, you know, I think it was smart on his

part. He definitely kept his hands closer. By the way, if things had kept going the way they were going, do you feel like you would have gotten the finish in the third? I know it's all at this point, you know, speculation, but nevertheless. How were you feeling? It was headed in that direction? It was heading in a good direction. Yes, yes.

I believe so. I mean, that was only the second rounds, and we had three more rounds to go. So, you know, the damage that I was causing to him leads me to believe that I would be able to finish him. but, you know, some, you know, ah, ah. I know, I know it's kind of tough to talk about us. Let me ask you this thing. I, um, yesterday on Twitter, I'd put up a, uh, a question to folks.

I said, list for me all the times somebody like, you know, not just right regional MMA, but like a high level MMA where somebody jumped up in weight class and maybe it went well, maybe it didn't, but just list for me all of them. And I noticed something, again, I could be wrong about this. I just know from what I read. It is. easy. You can make a jump up in weight class and make a big splash. Making a sustained effort at that weight class, maybe not so much. But that one time, and you've seen it now with these champ champ

fights, these guys come up one time and they just tear apart somebody out of nowhere. But then if they stick around the weight class, you know, they run into some brick walls that someone like you probably wouldn't, you know, staying at Walterweight. What do you make of that if you think that's true. You know what? Now that you said it, I kind of see it. You know, like, you know, Cowboys Soroni made a huge splash. So did Mazvedal. I mean, Michael Kiesa, his first fight up to 170, he submitted Carlos Condent. Connor, Amanda Nunes, all these people. Yeah, Connor, Amanda Nunes. There's a lot of people who has made that jump. And it may have

to do with, I don't know, the weight cut, not having to cut that way, not depleting yourself. You know, you just, I think you may feel more confident in that situation or that that one time that you're moving up and you're not having to deplete yourself is just a good feeling. I'm not really sure why that is, but it, I can kind of see that now. Now that I go back and I think about it. So, yeah, man, I don't know. Everybody's been asking me, hey, do you remember that at 85? Butaker's still the champ. You never know, man.

I'm not a big welterweight either. I walk around about 185, 190, and a lot of these guys walk around over 200 pounds. Like Robert Winterford, when he moved up, I mean, he's doing work, and he did. And he walked around at a heavy weight. So, again, I know it's just Monday, but what are you thinking about

for what this does for you in the welterweight division? You know, I don't know, man. I got to go and look at the rankings, see where I'm at. But now I do know that rankings really don't matter at this point in the UFC's, you know, in the UFC. You got a lot of guys who are still being bumped up and fighting champions at, you know, ranked number five. And I don't know, man.

I got to go back to the drawing board and see what happens. I know there's a fight in my hometown coming up in three months. And we're going to see how we feel in two weeks. I'm not going to push it at all. You know, after our knockout, especially one like that, I don't want to jump out there too soon. So I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it seems to me, though, like, look at what Pettus did, right?

He kind of had some ups, had some ups, had some downs, and he got this weird offer to go up a weight class and just took it. It's like, like, I've told folks, like, the best way to get ahead in the rankings, even if you stay inside your own division is to just take a fight late notice because then they have to slot you win against somebody really good. And then another way to like rebound after a loss is sometimes to take a weird fight. I wonder how you feel about that. Yeah, man. That is true. So, I mean, the first thing right now, obviously, before we start jumping to that is to make sure, you know, this is the first time I've been knocked out. So I'm taking it super serious.

Yeah, of course. I'm like, it's like 12 o'clock and I'm still in the dark in my bedroom, you know, not on my phone, just kind of chilling here. So, you know, Dana White and those guys, they still want me to fight in three months. But, you know, I want to take it slow. I want to make sure everything's right before I do that. So, you know, I got the best doctors looking at me. I got a lot of MMA fighters getting him some really good advice. So I appreciate them, you know, getting in contact with me and let me know what's going on.

So everything is going to work out, man. And you have not seen the last of Stephen Wonderboy talks that I guarantee you. This right here has definitely fired me up, man. It has put a flame in me that I think the last time. I felt this way was when I tore my MCL or my ACL like 10 years ago. So I mentioned the bits, get back to the gym and get back to the drawing board. You know, you have to, you know this as well as I do. You're the competitor.

I'm really the observer, but I have observed, dude, this is a, this is a rebound, second, third chapter sport, if ever there was one. You just need that one right opportunity, boom, and you can hit the ground running. Look at the last two weeks. Jorge Maswell has had a million ups and downs and then boom. Same with Pettus. And then here we are. So, you know, you know that as well as I do.

There's a ton of opportunity for another chapter. Oh, definitely, 100%. And that's, you know, looking at Pettus and those guys, they're actually giving me the confidence to, you know, to keep pushing forward, man, to keep that grind going. And a lot of these fighters, you know, Diego Sanchez hit me up on Instagram, letting me know his story and how his ups and downs

and how, you know, you saw his last fight, which was phenomenal. And he said he's been in my situation, man and just keep moving forward and stay positive. And so I'm taking these guys. You still there? We got you? Yeah, there he is. Okay. I thought we lost you there for you. Oh, yeah. Did I go off?

No, no, you trailed out for a second, but it's all good. So let me just ask you this last one. We'll let you go because I really appreciate your time and I don't want to take up any more of it. Looking back on it, I want to ask this as politely as I can, I'll ask it plainly. Do you regret taking the fight? No, not at all. Not at all. I mean, Anthony Pettis is one of the best strikers, best fighters in the UFC, and that's why I'm here. I'm not in it for the money. That's all, that's a bonus. I'm in for the honor and the glory and to face the best fighters in the world. And he got a big name, got a big following, and I've been a fan of his for a long time anyway. And, you know, we've been chatting back and forth the past few days. Just, you know, we've been chatting back and forth the past few days. Just, you know, we've got a big name. We've been. wishing each other luck in our in our career. So yeah, man, I don't read it one bit, not at all.

Well, let me just say this one, we'll let you go. I know on these shows like this, the common thing is to bring on all the winners after a Saturday. But, you know, look, man, you're a class act. You're going to be back. And I just felt like it was important for the public to hear from you. Obviously, it requires your compliance. You know, I can't make you do it. But I'm glad that you got a chance to speak.

And, you know, man, look. It's a setback, but as I mentioned before, you know as well as I do. This is the sport of rebounds if ever there was one. So I want to thank you for your time. Get some rest. And I can't wait to see the next version you got for us. Hey, I appreciate you, Colin, man. And it's definitely a pleasure being on with you.

And don't worry. Like I said, you haven't seen the last of me. And I will be back better and stronger than ever. Guaranteed, man. I appreciate it, sir. Can't wait. Get some rest, Stephen. Thank you so much.

Thank you, sir. Bye-bye. There he goes. All right, I appreciate that. I struggled with whether or not to bring them on because you want to give these guys their space. But I also wanted the public to hear from them. So there we go. All right.

Speaking of hearing from others, now is my turn to hear from you. It is time for a round of tweets. All right. Let's do it. Five minutes on the clock. And then we will get to your tweets. Let's see. Let's see.

There's the timer. Show me them tweets. All right, here we go. Hit it. All right, Wonder Boy is contemplating making the jump to 185 pounds. Yay or nay. I think what I would say is

certainly after speaking to him, let's wait a second. I would say it's probably okay with the right matchup. Maybe not a huge middleweight because as you noted, he walks around 185, 190. Folks, I know lightweights that walk around

at 185, 190. I know lightweights that walk around heavier than 190. So not saying no, just saying let's see how things shake out for his ranking position. Let's see what that 185 pound fight is and see which one makes the most sense. Next. What do you believe is the bigger factor for the CO in the Pettus Wonderboy fight? Is it a product of the non-weight cutting fighter retaining power by not depleting themselves

or the weight cutting fighter dehydrating the brain causing them to be more susceptible to a K.O? No, I don't think it's got anything to do with a. He might have had more power. I'm going to show you why. I'm going to show you why in the Monday morning else that was the case. Basically, it was, I looked at every scenario where Wonderboy has been knocked down in the UFC and what the commonalities are. And this situation fit all of those to basically a T.

It was a moment where Wonder Boy operates under a set of conditions where he has success when those are established. If you can take away usually two or more of them, then you can land some pretty significant shots. I think Anthony Pettus had three taken away. I'll show you that later. Next. Out of the following three, which matchup would intrigue the most for Anthony Pettus? One, Cowboys, Soroni, at 155.

They've already fought, so no. Connor McGregor at 155, maybe. Robbie Lawler at 170. Definitely McGregor in that case, because Lawler's too big, and they already fought Cowboy. So I guess Connor, if those are the three options. Next. Luke, can you please unblock me?

Yeah, maybe. Danny, make sure you hit me up about this later. I'll unblock them. All right, next. Here's the thing about blocking people. I just want folks to know. Some of y'all like drinking water out of the tap. Some of y'all like drinking water out of the garden hose.

I prefer to drink water through a filter. All right. Do you agree with Chale that in striking the smaller guy has the advantage? Well, I would need to hear exactly what Chale says. There can be a lot of scenarios where the smaller guy has an advantage, but if it's speed and with those little gloves, and if they're not cutting weight as much, you can well see that there is a ton that they can do

in terms of making up the ground. The weight cutting really has more to do with somebody who's going to lean and lay and grip up on you versus someone who's going to strike. Because if you're primarily concerned about striking, you have to be fleet of foot, fast, quick, agile. You don't want to have your brain messed with too much. so you can imagine a scenario where yes, you're smaller, but you don't have any of those other factors working against you.

You can get some things done. Next. As a metal head, do you pay proper respect to Metallica? Love the show. It sounds very cliche to be like everything after and justice for all sucked. But everything after and justice for all kind of sucked. Not everything, but most things. I actually appreciated more than anything their S&M album

that they did with the San Francisco Orchestra. But, you know, And Justice for All, Ride the Lightning, their debut album, Master of Puppets, these are, you know, kill them all. These are the seminal pieces of work. Saint Anger, or even their last one,

you know, death magnetic, whatever their last one was. I haven't even kept track. You know, they're fine, but they're not great. Next. Don't you think Connor, that's not how you spell Connor,

calling out every fighter after a fight's getting weird now? I think he's just keeping his name. in the mix. I don't read too much into it. Next. Luke, I've heard you say many times that you don't watch fights as a fan anymore, which is true. What exactly do you mean by that? Are there any upcoming fights or potential matchups that excite you enough where you can watch and enjoy it as a fan? No, not really. Maybe Lamont Peterson, who retired yesterday, because he's a DC guy, I watch as a fan. I really watch MMA for it. Like, I want to see high-level action. But as a fan, you get invested.

Sometimes you can watch as a fan like that. But I guess what I mean when I say a fan is, I don't cheer for Tony Ferguson because I like him so much. I mean, I do like Tony. But when I watch him compete, I'm looking to see his skills. And I don't want bad things to happen to these guys. But I'm not there to root for the good either. I'm there to let that process play out naturally and then observe and then comment.

I don't have like a rooting interest. I don't have a fighter T-shirt or anything like that. So I watch it a little bit differently. Let's get one more in. With CTE becoming a more. prevalent concern should there be cause for concern when fighters who have been caoed receive one or two extra blows to the head once they're out yes there should be plenty of concern but I guess the bigger issue should be post-fight and pre-fight medical

screening that's really that's really what we what we want out of this we want we want just to put ourselves in the best position to handle those kinds of concerns all right do we have macy what's the word on that all right apparently we are waiting on one macy Uh, all right. Everybody always hits me up once I go on the air. What is that all about? Like no one, my phone is silent before the show. The minute I go on the air,

you know, just kind of crazy. In any event, yeah, this is one thing I've been talking about, like, even with my own way we would call them, or north unorthodox views on performance dancing drug use. I think even if you agree with me, and I know many of you do not, here's one thing I think you probably, I could get you to agree with me on. even if, let's say, the world changed tomorrow, like Thanos, I could snap and have it how I wanted.

I don't think you could change any rules in the direction that I want to change them without adopting more rigorous pre-fight screens. And then as well, post-fight screens. I think the bigger issue is not trying to manage advantages, but managing health. And even if you don't agree that we don't need to manage advantages, you probably could agree that we could always do a better job of managing health. I don't think we do as good of a job on that as we can. I think another thing that folks should consider is the UFC has been a active participant, as well as, I think Beltor as well, but certainly I know the UFC has, with the Cleveland Clinic brain study.

And no one really knows what they're going to find, probably that nothing good happens when you get punched in the head. You can well imagine. But that's not what I mean. I guess what I would say is one of the benefits that MMA has over traditional stick and ball sports is that in the stick in ball sports, you'll start playing at a very young age, which is why they get better by the time they're in their 20s

than a lot of MMA fighters, because you can't literally compete legally until you're certainly a pro license, until you're 18. So here's my point about all this. There might come research that shows once you take enough damage and they can measure it, there should be no more fighting for you, period. That actually might be something

that we have to contend with in the future, a different thing for a different time. All right, is she on phone or Skype? What's the word? All right, let's do it now. We go back to Skype because we are joined by the future. The future is now, ladies and gentlemen,

she had a big win at UFC Nashville over JJ Aldrich. Had a little adversity at front, but wound up winning in the end. Macy Barber is here. Hi, Macy. I'm doing quite well. It doesn't even look like you were in a fist fight. How are you feeling?

I'm feeling great. Just a couple bumps and bruises, but I feel really good. Compared to the last fight, I actually got to walk and have my legs be feeling great. What do you mean? Oh, because of the weight cut? Yeah, a little bit of the weight cut. And then the fight before this one, you know, I was battling with a little bit of a knee injury.

Oh, right. Or I got one in the fight. No, this one I came out feeling pretty great. All right, so give me a sense of things. What kind of grade would you give your performance? Obviously, there are mistakes that I made, but I'm happy with the way the performance went. I couldn't be more happy with it because just like I told several people, you know, I feel like I needed to show that side of me. The fact that I got dropped and the fact that, you know, I took a couple of hits.

Obviously, there's not what we want to do. But I'm happy with the performance. All right, so talk to me. I showed a lot of things. You certainly did, which I want to get to. but let's talk about the strategy ahead of time. What was it? Strategy was definitely to use our movement,

use our range, and, you know, just out-move her and obviously not get hit with the strikes who we got hit with and to wait on her for the counters, but also just go out there and be myself. Now, the counters were working a lot better in the second round, which we'll talk about. Why was she having some success in the first? When you diagnosed the fight,

what do you attribute to her landing a little bit and of course dropping you once? Well, one, she's a great fighter. She's solid. And then two is I didn't feel like myself quite until the second round. And I don't know if that was more so that I was giving her more respect

or a lot more respect than I have in the past for other opponents. But I definitely was a little more cautious So I knew that she could hit, you know, and I just didn't quite find my rhythm yet. And she was having more success than I was, for sure. And I also was like, I was in Southpaw, which all through camp, I felt fantastic, felt great in the South Paz dance, and I didn't feel very good in the Orthodox dance. And then when we switched rounds, I ended up going to the Orthodox dance, and I felt way better,

even though through the entire camp, I didn't see myself fighting this fight. in an orthodox dance. That's interesting. So you got, when you got knocked down, what went through your head? Like it was over, you know? And I've never had that happen to me, really. I've had a few girls catch me where I was like off balance. And that's because I do.

I threw a lot of naked kicks. And that's something that we have to continue to fix. And that's a bad habit that I have had in the past vice. And these girls are getting my number on that. So I definitely had to fix that. But some people were like, oh, well, she just caught you off balance or whatever. But I don't remember necessarily like that would be emotion that I had other than it's not over. Like I didn't feel like it's over and I'm not going to quit.

I just felt like I had to get back up. And I was surprised, you know, if I was in her position, I probably would have put a little more pressure on it and not let me get back up quite like she did. But I'm glad she let me get back up or I continue to try to fight to get back up as long as I didn't take any shots on the way up. What did your coach Mark Montoya say to you between rounds? Those guys are just someone telling me, put your, throw your hands before your kicks. You know, he wanted, Mark wanted me to lead with the hands, not with his feet. And that was, that was what they were all telling you.

You know, he's like, you know, you got to set up your hands to your kicks and blend those to your kicks. And then he also wanted me to set up the takedown. And, you know, I was a little confused at first. I was like, oh, okay, I'll get that. And, but I more so heard them during the fight in, like, a subconscious, you know, when they said to switch to South Park. Because once I switch from Southla to Orthodox, they're like, keep it up, keep it up, keep it up. And then they told me to pressure. And I don't know if I necessarily, like, heard him and it was like, okay, that's what I need to do.

But it was kind of like a subconscious. Like, I felt them say that. And that's what we did. So the second round comes out, went a lot better for you. Here's what I noticed. Number one, the resiliency in the first round, which is an important test for a young fighter. second round the accuracy was good but here's what I noticed

between you and her looked to me like there was a pretty clear power differential in your favor you seem to just hit a lot harder I definitely hit a lot harder she's accurate with her strike but she's not the hardest hitter I've ever been hit by

Hannah Seifers by far is the hardest girl I've ever been hit by but I hit way harder than all those girls all of them hands down I know my power I know the power I possess and I definitely have it. Yeah, well, so once you stung her, man, the fight just collapsed so quickly.

Right, right. And you were winning the, you were doing that bit where the shot was coming and you could see the whole torso follow along. Like you were torquing into that thing. When you landed that one shot where she kind of stumbled and covered, did you know it was over at that point? Well, as soon as I landed that first one, that first cross, and she kind of like started to back up and then right before she clinched up with me, I knew that.

I knew that was the one and I knew that her reaction was going to be to try to tie up with me. And that's also another tell that they're hurt. You know, when someone tries to tie up with their opponent, you know they're hurt because that's like the safety. I need to get to safety so I can let my brain recover. But yeah, as soon as I hit her with that one, I'm not like, oh, it's over.

But as soon as I connected that one, that's a good feeling because you can just feel it, you know? Yeah, it was over from there. So did you hit her in the eye? I went back and I watched the fight today and prep for this interview. It looked like there was one shot along the fence line when that's when she covered up and then stopped reacting.

Do you know what punched? What was that? I know there was two that landed really solid. It was my right hand. I doubled it up. So I hit with almost like a hook and I threw a straight right after that. And both of those landed first

and then she covered her face and then that knee came up. And I don't know if I landed that knee. I didn't feel like I landed it. I didn't even know I threw it. Everyone was like, you threw that knee. It was brutal. And I'm like, I watched it back a couple of times.

I didn't see that it landed that hard. But those two hands, that right hand that I doubled up definitely hit. And then those hooks, just the repetitive ones would be in. Continued, you know, that's what stopped it. Because as soon as like the rest starts to come in, I feel like it's less about the power, power shots, and the more just about like keep ripping. them as fast you can and as hard as you can because you don't want to take too much time

in between because it looks a little bit less I guess damaging yeah well Keith Peterson she wasn't reacting so I mean Keith Peterson had little choice at that point you know what I mean so if I had to ask you what test you passed with this fight what would you say I passed the test of you know if I can come back from one losing a round because that's I think that's the first round I've ever lost in the fight was the first round of that fight and uh I knew I lost it but it wasn't like crap I lost that fight like I lost that round I didn't let that emotion get to me I try to keep a level head so knowing that I lost the round and I didn't let that get under my skin at even the slightest bit like it didn't change it anything in me you know I was still going for the finish I'm

still going to go and fight and fight like I'm I'm winning the entire fight um so I feel like I passed that test of can you come back from a round that you've already lost and not let it get under your skin. And then I also feel like I passed the test of can she take a hit and get dropped? Not that we want to see that, but can she take a hit and get dropped and come back from that? You know, because a lot of girls, obviously that's not, that wasn't like a terrible like she got dropped and it was bad. But, you know, it was good to see that I got hit a few times in the head and I kept coming and I didn't shy away from punches after that. You know, I didn't feel like I was flinching a lot.

But I definitely, it looked like I was slinching because I remember hearing her corner say, oh, she's biting on it, she's biting on it, she's biting on it, and I knew that, that they were saying that because I wasn't necessarily biting on it. It was just more so, you know, she would faint and then I would faint and then she would faint and then she would faint and then I was more so trying to get her to throw that hand so that I could

counter off of it. But it was a little bit of a back and forth, but definitely the resilience, like you said, and the keeping the level head in the fight. You know, you made a point to distinguish yourself from Ronda Rousey, which I thought was kind of interesting. You seem to have a real sense about who to model yourself after. So, for example, you have said you wanted to beat John Jones's record to become the youngest champion and that you are not, you know, the next Ronda Rousey. So who is the appropriate model for you?

Is it John Jones? Yes, you're trying to beat him. But is that from a professional standpoint, forget some of the issues he's had, but just the encaged stuff, the accomplishments. Is that who you're modeling yourself after? Like when you look to somebody for a kind of path, who is it? I don't know if I have a specific one. I couldn't give you an answer because there's so many athletes that their styles are amazing. You know, Demetrius Johnson has a great style.

I'll fight anyone anytime anywhere from Cowboy. John Jones and his ability to maximize his range and his fight style and the youngest fighter. Rhonda's confidence in herself. Like there's so many bits and pieces that I study a lot of people. and I don't just study their fighting style. I study their mindset and all of that. And there are good things and there are bad things, and I try to take away from all of them.

So if I'm trying to model myself after any of them, it's almost like I'm trying to take a piece from everyone in the sport. I try to take something good. What is one thing that fighters at your stage of their career get wrong that you know you should not do? Am I staged in their career? Yeah, so you're seven and those. I feel like they get a little too excited about the success.

about the, probably just get caught up in the success and the, oh, look at me, I'm finally making money and I'm right on the edge of that. You know, I don't, I'm not the kind of person that, you know, as soon as I start making, making and having more success that I'm just going to, you know, try to take it and be like, all right, let's go, let's go buy a new car. Let's go buy this. And I don't know if that's what every, every athlete does, but I know that that's what some young people do, especially guys.

and they kind of get, you know, caught up in that of like, oh, I need to do this and this and this for the fame or for this. But honestly, you know, I know that the fame is going to come and the success is going to come from there. But the main thing is, you know, taking what I make and taking all my success and returning it, it's putting it back into the bank of, okay, I need to go and elevate this. I need to change this in this training camp. I need to make my camp a little bit smoother, you know, because as good as my camp was,

it can be way better than it was. So I feel like I'm almost the extreme opposite of, you know, I don't want to take a time off. I don't want to take a week off. I don't want to go on vacation. I just want to go and I want to make, I already wrote down notes of, you know, we need to fix this in the camp,

this in the camp, we need to talk about this. And just, just wait to elevate. So I feel like everyone's like, oh, I need a break. You know, they're like, I just spent the entire camp and now I just want to chill

and to go on vacation. And I feel like that's the thing I'm a little. but different on. So it's kind of funny because I spoke to Israel out of Sonia, right? And in one year's time. So from like February 11 to the next February 11, the dude had, what, five fights and he won them all? Or that this crazy level of activity? Is that what you're going for? Yeah. I feel like the more active you are, the more, the faster the success is going to come. And it also helps you mentally to stay there. You know, when you're consistently in the gym, when you're consistently, it's hard to fall off track, you know, when you're around the

the people that know where you're going. If you have a goal and you set it and you're a motivated person, you can't let yourself get sidetracked and lose focus of what you're trying to go after. And it's a time critical sport. You know, we can't just take these fights and go slow and go slow through our career because injuries are real. And, you know, if you take a fight and you fight once and then you get injured, well, you can't fight those five fights.

So as long as you're healthy, I feel like the more you stay consistent fighting, you're just maximizing your time in the ring because at some point, you never know if an injury is going to come up or something is going to come up where you can't fight. So as long as you're healthy, you should just do it. Do you, how much does each fight, you've only had two in the UFC now? Well, we had the Dana White Tuesday night contender series, but two like official UFC cards. Yeah, right?

So here's the deal. Like, are you feeling the increasing weight of, things yet? Or are they still relatively, these are still relatively modest growth periods? I feel like the way, and if you're meaning like pressure, like, in terms of that, I definitely took a lot more serious. So I took the, my first five in the U.S. be super serious. Don't get me wrong. But I feel like as each one comes, I will get more and more in tune to what I need to do and a little more focused on, okay, I'll put a little, I'll put a little bit more, like I'm a little less energetic and in some areas

or I'll need to breathe a little bit more but it's mainly because I'm just trying to keep a level ahead for the fight. You know, I just know, okay, I can't get my nerves up here. I need to get it up here. I can't get my excitement up here. I need to get it up here. I need to save this for this time and place in the camp. And just figuring out the timing of when to let it happen.

So that's I think that's the only thing that I've learned that I need to continue to change as this career goes on. So one year from now, what are we talking about for your career? What will have happened? Imagine this is the next Monday one year from today, right? What's the headline on MMAfighting.com? Well, one year from today will be almost 22. And I will be in the – I will definitely be in the area for that time.

title fight. Sometime within that year, for sure. So that's something that will be probably popping up at some point. If not, maybe sooner, maybe not. I'm not trying to brush a title shot at all. I'd like to continue to keep this success. But I still have the two, almost three years. And yeah.

Are you looking to fight on an international fight week? Like, target me your next position on the calendar? I would like to fight international fight week in July. Now, when that would be, I don't know what part of the week or the opponent. I don't know yet. I just got out here to Vegas, actually. So I got here last night. And I'm going to spend a week out here, talk with everyone, do some medical stuff and figure it out from there.

With the UFC, the PI, all that stuff? Yeah, yeah, I'm headed there in like 10 minutes. Well, look at that. No rest for the weary. Well, I'll tell you what, that was a real important win. Showed a lot of grit, showed a lot of ability, and you're on your way. Congratulations. I can't wait to see what you guys have in store next.

Say again? Thank you so much. I said, I appreciate your time. You guys do a great job. Well, there you go. Thank you, Macy. Have fun. Thank you.

All right, there she goes. Would we have Kevin Lee on Skype? What do we have on Skype, right? All right, let's go back. We have everyone on Skype today. I can't believe this. This is what do I owe the honor? This is one of my favorite interview.

in the sport, independent of weight class. This guy is jumping up, speaking of weight class, to Walter, he's going to fight Hafeldos Anjos. Let's go to him now. The Motown Phenom is here. Kevin Lee, hey, Kevin. How are you? What's going on, Luke? How are you doing, my man?

Good, man, long time, no speak. How have you been since the Iaquint to fight? You know, smooth. Everything's starting to fall back in the place. It's like the perfect time for me to get ready to go back into a training camp. everything else in my life outside of it is, it's starting to finally come around.

So I'm excited about this one. It was one that I've been, I've been kind of, like, hesitant about moving up to 170, but now seeing, like, especially how the rest of the division is looking, I'm fucking excited. All right. So what was the impetus? What finally made you say, you know what, man,

F this lightweight nonsense. I'm going to go to welterweight. Was it the opponent, the timing, as you mentioned, some of the other people? Give me the explanation. Really, honestly, it was the timing. I just wanted to fight. It didn't matter who it was, when it was,

what weight class, any of that. I needed to fight, and everybody kept playing games at 155. I kept offering myself to guys that were way lower in the rankings to me, guys that were completely unranked, you know, they approached with the fight and, you know, nobody would, nobody would accept.

So we ended up finding RDA out there. RDA has already fought the who's who of anybody. So, you know, he accepted without any hesitation. So I'm like, okay, cool. I come in at about 178, 179 on fight weeks, even when I'm cutting down on 155. So, you know, I'm excited to see how this, this weight cut is going to go and how much different. I'm going to feel stepping into the cage with like a little bit more full energy and full of strength. Let's rewind if we can. Before we talk about the step ahead, I want to talk about the step behind.

There were a lot of things that went well for you in the eye of quantified. Obviously, it didn't go your way in the end. Looking back on it, how do you feel about it? you know, I take it as a learning experience. That's all I really can do. I think I still approach that fight pretty wrong. I think there were some things that needed to fix it in my corner, especially. I think if the corner work and the way I approached, especially those last two rounds would have been different

than that fight would have been completely different. But I take it as a learning experience. That's really all it is, especially against a guy like Al, you know, he's tough. He's going to keep pushing. the problem is I didn't see him as much of a threat as big of a threat as I should have and you know that that's just one thing that you learn through experience in this game and by continuing to fight and continuing to get these types of opponents so you know overall I'm not really like happy with it obviously I mean it is what it is I ain't really

even watched the fight since it I'll probably watch it in a little bit just to get a better understanding of everything, but, you know, it is what it is, right? So you're switching up your corner? Yeah, I'm removing a guy that I had in before, but mostly we're switching up the way that we're going to approach it in our communication and just, you know, because this is fighting. It's very personal. It's not like any other sport to me. So, you know, when I need to be told certain shit in the corner, especially when the time

are real tough, then, you know, my. corner needs to know, like, go ahead and just tell me. And I'm not one to really, like, spare feelings anyway. And I feel like they were trying to, like, you know, kind of playing me a little bit. So, you know, sometimes I just need to be told straight. Like, hey, look, get your shit together. Like, let's pull this out, you know, and you can bitch and whine about it later. And I felt like, you know, maybe they didn't do that and need to make the adjustments.

And it's me, too, that need to make the adjustments for myself and be able to see those things. How hard is it to get into that kind of a trust and understanding? with a corner where they know what works well for you and what doesn't? I mean, it takes years and it's, you know, because you have so many guys in the corner, too, it's about how each of their energy feeds off of each other. So it takes a long time to get that bond and that relationship going and that many fights. And, you know, sometimes you just got to go through those little hiccups here and there. But you learn from it.

You get better as a, you know, even though this is totally individual. It's still kind of a team sport and it's still kind of, you know, we all kind of learn at the same time. So it takes years and that's just that's just what it is. That's just the game. You know, I'm still real young in a sport. I'm still learning a lot about it. I feel like going up to 170 is going to be huge in me and keeping that same energy in those last couple rounds and then keeping my mind completely clear. So we'll see how this whole thing check out.

170 is in a bit of a shakeup scenario, right? because you just saw what Jorge Massadol did. You just saw what Pettus did. The champ just lost. The whole thing is being shaken up. Is that part of the reason why? It's like double dutch. You ever seen the girls do double dutch?

And they got the ropes going and you got to find your time and you just got to get in there at the right moment, you know? Yeah, I mean, I even was kind of looking at it. You know, I approached this fight before any of that even happened. And, you know, once I mean, I was like, okay, yeah, sure. I'm going to go up and just kind of do my thing because I wanted to fight anyway. And then I was going to kind of see how I was going to go. The thing that always kind of made me hesitant about moving on 170 is 155 had the bigger fights. You know, Khabib was out there.

And that was kind of the fight that I really was pushing for. But when Uzman beat Woodley, that kind of shook everything up. So, you know, I'm only focused on one man at a time. You know, RDA is really somebody that I can't look through. He's somebody that is definitely going to get my full attention. But after this fight, it's giving me. me a little bit of excitement. It's giving me a little bit of like, you know, pepping my step in the morning. I'm like, okay, well, you know, we got some fresh blood in here. So I'm here to shake

things. I'm here to shake shit up even a little bit more. Okay, so there's a few questions here about welterweight. First of all, what is your walking around weight? Like today, what are you? I'm about 181. So, you know, normally this is, you know, I used to get much heavier, but I've been about 180, 180s for the past like year, year, year and a half, dinner. All right. So you'll be you know, fair to say, you'll be on the smaller end of Walter Wade. Yeah, yeah. I mean, when I look at other guys, maybe, but, you know, Pettish just showed, too, last, this last Saturday.

You know, sometimes that size really don't matter, you know, especially when you talk about speed and durability, that size necessarily, I mean, I feel like I can out technique a lot of these guys. You know, when I see even a lot of their wrestling at 170, it's like a lot of it's very basic. So I feel like technique, speed, and durability will outlast the strength. I mean, I'll let you know after May 18th exactly how it all, though, down. I'm kind of figuring the shit out with you.

Here's what's weird about this whole thing. Did you watch the Garcia-Spence boxing match? Yeah, of course. Of course, yeah. I mean, he killed him. So I'm watching, you got Mikey Garcia, who is a hell of a boxer and an amazing technician. And, okay, Spence might just be one of the best boxers we have right now. but there was such a clear difference in power.

Now, you do see fighters like Pacio who collect a bunch of weight belts or Mayweather, but those are like all-time greats. It seems to me in MMA, man, you can jump up 15 pounds and make a splash pretty quickly. Why is that? You know, I think it's just because there's so much other things in it. You know, it's more of a complete art,

whereas boxing is, you know, it's a science. So there was no way that, you know, there's only so many places that you can go in boxing. You know, Mikey Garcia tried to fight him on the outside, was getting killed just because Spence was so much longer, and he, you know, he's throwing such straight punches and knew how to move in and out so well. But then he was killing him on the inside, too.

And really in boxing, you know, you really only got three, four areas that you can fight a guy in, and Spence just outclassed him in every one of those areas. Whereas opposed to MMA, I mean, you can fight a guy in 12, 13 different areas maybe. So I think that might be the difference And smaller guys I think have more You know we spend more time on the technique

And because you kind of have to You got to you're going against heavier guys You're going against guys Where you got to use the leverage And you got to use the technique behind it Whereas maybe bigger guys I don't know I mean In that fight in particular

I mean Garcia just didn't stand a chance He just he was getting out class From start to finish But in MMA That would have been a different show It would have been, you know, Garcia could have had a couple more weapons to use to where some in the middle rounds, okay, this ain't working. We can go to something else. So, you know, I think that's where the biggest difference.

I think that's why MMA is a little bit more exciting to. That's actually a pretty good explanation. All right. So let me ask you some other things. You know, I have been watching your career for a long time at this point. And I can't quite tell what posture mentally you have to adopt for success because sometimes I see you come out. super agro, F this, F that, and you go and just dominate a guy, right?

But then other times I see you adopt that posture and it doesn't go so great. And then sometimes I see you take a humility and then you go and dominate. Have you figured out where you need to be in a competitive mind space to be your best? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I see the same thing that you're saying.

So I don't know. You know, I kind of just go with the win and I kind of, you know, I listen to the universe and I just go wherever it tells me to go. And I feel like, you know, even when I lose, I still win. So I really don't, you know, it don't be no skin off my teeth, really. I just, I think that's just kind of what life is. It's, you know, I change from fight to fight.

Each fight is completely different. But then I feel like I change day to day, too, in my approach to certain things. And I just kind of go with it. I don't, I'm not one necessarily to kind of hide that fact and that kind of hide from what I see is the truth. So I just go out and, you know, and I don't know. If I feel like talking some shit today, I'm going to talk some shit.

If I don't, then I'm not. And I don't really like, you know, I think people have a different idea that I, like, plan these things or where I'm thinking about it or I'm sitting through and like, no, I'm just kind of going to how I feel and I'm going to take whatever energy that other people give me. So I'm going to take whatever energy the RDA is going to give me.

We're going on the on sale. I'm leaving here from Michigan over to New York on Thursday for the on sale. So I'm going to see RDA there. I'm going to see what type of energy you give me. If he gave me some, you know, if he give me something to play with, then we can play. If you want to be cool and be, you know, we can play that role too. We can play a humble, cool role too. So I don't know.

We'll see. Let's talk about RDA as a competitor. And then we'll see how that folds over into the fight. Sure. Let's talk about him as a competitor here for a second. He's a guy who, man, he has, you know, he's had some ups, had some downs, but he has fought the toughest of the tough and can kind of do it all. But you saw in the Usman fight.

Now, Usman is a monster welterweight. Okay. But there have been some wrestling shortcomings. I'm wondering if you have identified those as well. Yeah, I mean, I've seen a couple things. You know, I've been watching a lot of film on him. He's got a lot of film out there. He's got a lot of fights, especially in the UFC.

So, you know, breaking down the film with him is. been fun. There's a couple things in there that I see as being some places that I can take advantage. But I'm definitely not, I mean, RDA can't be somebody that you underestimate. You know, he's fought way bigger

guys. He's fought smaller guys. He's fought a lot of South Falls, a lot of authorized guys. He's fought a lot of people. And it's never out of a fight. You know, nobody's ever, even in the fight with Usman, you know, RDA had a couple moments in there to where he's not going to get completely

dominated. So a fight like this really kind of get me up. I think these are the type of fights that I love that, you know, are the biggest challenges. You know, you speak on the Iacquinta fight, and just to go back, and I'm like, I didn't see him as that big of a threat to me. But RDA is. You know, RDA is somebody, if you give him the moment, it don't matter if he's lost three, four in a row. He'll come out and he'll put your lights out. So, you know, I got to make sure I'm on my P's and Q's the entire time. And that kind of excites me a little bit. So him, competitor-wise, RDA is definitely up there with the top.

I mean, he's ranked in the top five of two different weight classes for a reason. Have you given up hope on 165 happening anytime soon? Yeah, man, I don't know. I'm going to let them, you know, Ascran is out there doing my dirty work for me now. So I'm going to let Asker and see if he can get in Dana's head a little bit and keep making some noise about it. But, you know, I ain't going to keep beating no dead horse. and just know when it comes. It's not even a matter of if.

It's a matter of when, when it comes. Just know I'm in there and I'm always going to be the top dog. So I'm going to let some of these other guys kind of do to chirping. Yeah, there's a lot of chirping out there. So the good news is you can tag team. They can take over for the moment. Let's talk about lightweight for a second, man. You know, you're going to Welterweight as you mentioned Askeran.

There's another new addition to the whole situation that's changing things up. but lightweight man the top of it's a bit of a mess we don't really know what's going to happen with habib you got pori and max which is a great fight but we don't know what's going to happen with max at featherweight and then you got tony who obviously is having some legitimate uh real life uh struggles i don't want to um you know i want to be respectful of those you know it's like yeah what do you make of the division right now it's the marquee division but you can't really showcase really a lot of parts of it yeah i don't know a lot of it kind of went stagnant uh and we we which is a real shame, like you said. I mean, it's always been one of the best divisions in the UFC. There's just so many ups and so many questions. And, you know, and part of me was like, you know, this is where I said I wanted to be. And this is where I started and where I'm going to finish, especially with fighting the beat. But when I looked at it, I'm like, okay, I'm not going to sit around and wait for these other guys to fight and try and, you know, it's too many politics going on.

And like you said, Max is now fighting Dustin. you know, Tony's sitting out, which I'm sad about that whole situation. And, you know, all these other things and nobody wants to fight. And guys only want, like, these certain fights just to push them up. And Conner's kind of calling a shot still. And I'm like, you know what, fuck all this. You know, I'm mostly worried about me anyway. To me, I'm the top dog.

So it's what's best for my career and going forward. You know, those fights are still going to be out there. I still am 100% confident. I can make 155 again. But, you know, we'll see at the, at their, I prefer this fight at 170. 155 is, you know, they need to get their shit together. That's all. I think it'll come together towards the end of this year.

But, you know, I wasn't about to sit around and wait for him. Would you be willing to go back and forth? I mean, we'll have to see how to shake up. You know, like you say, you got a pettus look great. Mazur all look great. You still got Ascran out there. You got Ponzi and EVO. You got Leon Edwards.

And like I said, Uzman's not a champ. So, you know, Mama Woodley warned him. So I'm here. I'm coming for him. So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. There's been nothing but respect between me and Uzman.

And I kind of want to still, you know, I want to honor that. But as a competitor, I'm probably going to be on his heels. We'll see. We'll see after this fight. Yeah, that's an interesting way to put it. How long have you known, hard, by the way. It's been a couple of years, you know. There are certain guys that, that, like, right out the gate, you kind of, you kind of make notice up. And we kind of both, you know,

kind of did the double take at each other at the same time. I want to say I met him, I was at his fight with RDA, but I met him maybe like two years before that, you know, he's been in and out of training. And, you know, I kind of see him through the gyms. And there's just certain guys that you just kind of know as a competitor you like oh okay you know we we cool but you know okay i see you you see me you know you you got that look like i see you you see me so you know we'll see uh all right so let's ask about you here one more time so you got this fight with rda coming up in may jumping up a new weight class coming off of that loss making some changes in the corner so are you in a rebound period are you in a growth period are you in a

no label period. When you think about what this is, what this next fight is about and what it says about you, what is it? It's growth. If I had to put, you know, those words on it, I would be more, more likely to say no label just because, you know, it's so hard to to get a grip on it. But, you know, for me, it's growth and it's going to be showing, you know, regardless of what happens, regardless of how life don't hit me, I'm going to keep coming back and I'm going to get stronger. So that's all that I think that people are really excited to see me fight either way. You know, as soon as this fight was announced,

I've got more buzz about this one than any other fight, even including the title fight before. So I think, you know, it's about me coming back and just showing, you know, that I'm still out here, that I'm still, you know, still just as strong, even stronger than before. And especially with the right mental space, there's not going to be a man that can stop me. So, you know, I kind of want to do it for, for everybody else too.

You know, I did something a little bit on Instagram. I don't really talk too much on there, but, you know, sometimes I kind of want to shed some light on some real issues and some real things. You know, Instagram would be so much about, you know, putting out there what you want people to see and to make yourself look good and all that. You know, but I've been dealing with some stuff personally with my brother, my youngest. brother being in jail. I've got two brothers. I'm out here in Michigan right now. My middle brother, he's getting ready to fight, which

I'm super proud of him. He's getting ready to fight on Wednesday, which is going to put some new life into me. But my youngest is kind of going through those little trials and tribulations. So, you know, I'm going to make sure that I put on for him, do this fight right, and make sure that everybody

see, you know, it's still a really bright future out there no matter what happens. So just real quickly, did you relocate, to Michigan, or are you there just to deal with this particular episode? No, I'm there just to deal with this. I'm only out here for three days, and then I'm straight back to Vegas. I just got here yesterday. I leave on Thursday, and then back to Vegas.

Well, you know what? You have made something of yourself, and I know it's just the beginning. There's a lot more ahead, including this Dos Anjo's fight. Last question for you. Fighting on streaming service. How do you feel about that? Yeah, I don't know. it's new.

I think it's something that was coming. It's something that they should go all the way in on. You know, they're already offering like the paper views. You can only buy them through ESPN Plus. I think you look at like that the zone, you know, they do it without having to buy the pay-per-view. So they should just go all the end on it. I think it would be a better, it would be better for everybody.

It would be better for us fighters too. Because, you know, paper view is starting to kind of die off. You know, you really only get no. those really, really big pay-per-views. And I feel like, you know, they use those numbers to kind of hold against a guy when it comes times to negotiate, and you're not really seeing our true negotiation power as fighters.

You know, sometimes I feel like they hold that against certain champions who only, you know, you only sell X amount of pay-per-views. But it's like, you know, that's a giant medium. So we can use something like these streaming services and kind of, you know, I think that could be a little better for everybody, if they get it right, they just got to get it right.

So, I mean, I don't know. That ain't my job. I lead that to them to do. The UFC is great. They do what they do. They've been the top for a very long time for a reason. So, you know, I kind of go with the flow. All right.

Well, I can't wait to see your next fight. This will be May 18th at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York. Newly minted welterweight, Kevin Lee. Looking forward to seeing it, Mr. Motown, Phenom. Long and strong. You can't wait, boy. Thank you so much, Kevin. Thank you, sir.

There he goes. One of my favorite interviews. All right, let's go to this gentleman next. Did we have him on Skype as well? I can't believe. We have everyone on Skype. It's like hitting green lights every time you're driving down the road. You can't believe it.

All right, so this gentleman, I had a great fight at UFC London, but there's a lot of different questions swirling about things that happened before, things that happened afterwards. So we thought we'd get them on to see we can get some answers to them. We are joined now by Jack Marshman. Let's go to him here on Skype. There is. Hey, Jack.

You're right? Yeah. How are you? Those are some well-quaffed eyebrows. Yeah, I'm trying to look after them. All right, man. So let's talk here just a little bit. You may not know much about me, and that's okay if you don't.

I also served in the American military. So part of the reason why I wanted to have you on was because I felt like I have always a little bit more of a connection to fighters who either have served or do serve, just to set the context here. So you won at UFC London. You had a great win. You beat John Phillips.

It was a close fight in the end, but you certainly won. And then this news broke that you had not told your command that you were leaving to go do it. And but you still won. So talk to me. What happened after the fight? Yeah, it was sort of like that, but a little bit different. My officer in command knew that I was fighting. And he had basically okayed it, but it came.

from above him that I wasn't allowed to fight and they tried to, basically the day I was going to fight week on the Tuesday, I had a text message off my RCEMO telling me that I wasn't going to be fighting in, so I was like, so, yeah, sorry about that. I'm trying to ring me.

Yeah, so the RCRMO wasn't fighting and I just sort of went with it anyway. All right, can you put your camera down just a little bit? As good as those eyebrows. There it is. Yeah, all right, very good, very good. Okay, so but when you got back to, are you stationed active duty somewhere?

Like, what happened? Yeah, well, I'm in, I'm in Colchester right now on my camp. So I got, I actually got a disciplinary over fighting on the weekend, which is ridiculous, I think. So, like, did they take your pay? Did they do anything like that? I got an agi, which is like a formal warning. And if you get that, another one in a year, you can be. discharged from the army.

Whoa. Whoa. And that goes on your... I'm leaving anyway. I've given my years notice because on the 4th of November that'll be my 12th year point.

So that's me signing off now. So you decided to leave the military? Are you deciding to get out of the military for what reason? I want to continue fighting. I've been doing this for like 12 years.

you know, I'm fighting at a really high level. You know, I've made it to the UFC. I've just been offered a new contract and I go really far. But at the minute, my job is a soldier. I'm a professional soldier. I'm not training the same ways as everyone else, you know? So, okay, so you've been doing a record of 23 and 8. So, like, how much do you think, like, I was in the military too, as I mentioned?

There were a lot of great things about it. There were a lot of things I hated about it, if I can just be candid. and only service members really understand that. So I'm sure it's been good for you if you've been there for 12 years, but you're saying it's really impacted your training? Yeah, of course. That's what I'm saying. Exactly how you explained it then is some really great parts of the Army.

That, you know, I'll get to train with the boxing team quite a lot and I'll be working away and stuff like that. But then it's other things where I'll go on a six weeks exercise or something. And, you know, I won't train for six weeks solid, you know, because I'm doing other things. And then obviously the facts of like active tours and stuff there's like six, seven months of the time, you know, and you're not getting any training out there, you know?

So it's definitely impacted my training. So in the UK, you can give a notice of a year and then you can get out? Yeah, yeah. So you do a minimum of three years. And then after you've done three years, at any point then you can sign off, which gives you like a year until you leave. but I wanted to wait for my 12 year point to get my half pension.

Man, they don't do that in the American military. You sign up for four, Bucco, you are in for four. They don't let you get out after a year. That's pretty cool, actually. Yeah. Now, what are you doing the military? I'm a paratrooper, so infantry. Oh, you're a grunt.

Yeah. So you jump out of the planes, eh? Yeah, my... My first nine times I ever stepped on a plane, I jumped out. And then the 10th time I got on a plane, I flew to Afghan. So some pretty shit plane journeys. Yeah, you have not had enjoyable plane rides. Now, how many times have you been deployed?

I've done two tours of Afghanistan. How was that? Yeah, pretty. It's what we join for, really. You know, especially your first tour when you're young. You know, you look forward it. And when she's obviously got a missus and stuff on my second tour, it's a bit harder then.

But, yeah, it's what I joined the Army to do, so I love it, really. Now, were you into MMA before you got into the military, or what did it happen while you were in? No, I had a couple of amateur fights just before I joined the Army. And then I just pursued it. I boxed for the Army for a long time. So, obviously, I was mainly working on my hands then and getting better there. And then all of a sudden, MMM.

started taking off and I started taking more fights and stuff. So I just went from there. Now, when you fought at London, I guess which I aired on BT Sport and all that, when you came back, did all of the other service members you work with? Were they giving you high five and backslaps? Yeah, yeah, they love it. They've been supporting me for years as in all the blocks that I work with. They turn up to all my fights all over the country and they love it.

they do. I got a massive support from the, from the army. You know, here's what's weird. You know, Tim Kennedy, I'm sure you knew who he was, when he was fighting here. Now, he had something called the world-class athlete program, but the American Army has a division where they can let you do what you do, and you can go and fight and you just sort of represent the military. Does the UK not have anything like that? Yeah, they do, but as we're stuck in the past, MMA is not a recognized sport in the army. If I was just doing boxing, if I was boxing as a professional boxer, I'd be on that professional

athletes contract, but MMA is not recognized because they haven't got the governing bodies and stuff over you the same. So it's really difficult. In five years' time, I'd probably be on that. I'd be on that athletes program for the rest of my time in the Army, but we just been stuck in the past over yet, to be honest with it. Yeah. So for example, if you were like a super high-level boxer,

you'd probably be fine. Yeah, yeah. The British Army got a fishing team, you know. It's like any sport you can actually think of they've got a sport today, but they haven't got an MMA team, which is ridiculous, you know. It's the fastest growing sport. That is. Have you ever talked to, like, any of your Central Command about establishing something?

Yeah, yeah. I've tried, and there's been talks about it, and they come back with these, like, a creative. rule set of MMA, which is like ridiculous. It's like, you know, basically like some taekwondo show, I think. It's like, like I said, it's a bunch of old guys that don't fully understand the new sport coming through. Like I said, they got a team for everything you can think of in the army, and they support

them. We got, like, I'm in the 3rd Battalion Parish Regiment. We've got, we've got Olympic bobslayers and stuff like that in our battalions, and they're fine, but, you know, fighting in the UFC for them don't mean nothing. That's crazy. By the way, what is the relationship, I don't know what's up with this connection.

You still there, Jack? Did we lose him? He froze? Oh, the magic. Oh, I knew we were going to have one of these. I knew. I knew. It was inevitable.

We're going to try to call him back one more time. I had a couple more questions for him. Dude, that is terrible. Think about that, man. The United States Army, the Army Combatives. Brian Stan, you can ask him about it. I trained a little bit to the Marine Corps martial arts program.

It's not nearly as good as Army Combatives. Army Combatives is much more hierarchical and there's a real curriculum to it. Marine Corps martial arts program is just a bunch of grunts, fist fighting in the backyard. But that's a little more than that. But, you know, it's not as developed a program. But the point being is if you are a high level, you know, UFC level fighter in either of those services, chances are you would probably get some kind of accommodation for it. Now, there's no guarantee.

Tim Kennedy was Special Forces level. so he gets obviously a lot of extra consideration that the average grunt might not. But if you're a paratrooper, like, that's pretty good, man. That's pretty high level. So dagger, man. That is really unfortunate. So now he has to be in a position where he has to, like, jettison an MMA career or fight. All right, let's get him back one more time.

I've got a couple more questions for him. Jack, you there, bud? Yeah, yeah. There is. Sorry about that. Just a couple more questions for it. I appreciate your time. Um, did you see this, did you see this note that Darren Till put out on social media about you?

Do you reply, week? What did you make of it? Yeah, it was just really respectful because I think, you know, all fighters understand what fighters go through, didn't they? So it's just, I really appreciate him going out and he's going to do it. It's not he can have to, did he? But I think he fully understands what we go through. Right on. Uh, all right.

I'll, I'll end on this one. so you're in the army, right? The British Army? Yeah. So how much better are the Royal Marines than the British Army? That would be ridiculous. How many British Marines in the UFC? Oh, there was one.

There was one. There was one. Ooh. He's no longer in there, but he did come through. The bald guy, forget his name. Martin Stil. Maybe that's it, yeah. Yeah, but you only got on the fight now.

Yeah, maybe so. He's only got on the fight for a little. So that's, I just tell him. He's only one part of me that, though, so. Well, look, you're a credit to the military. You're a credit to MMA. I'm sorry for some of the troubles you've gone through. But, you know, you're doing great things one way or the other,

and we really appreciate your time, Jack. Thank you very much. They really appreciate it. There is. That's on me on. Yes, sir. I would say Semperfi, but he's Army, so I'll just say, what do they say in the Army? Hula?

They say other made-up words, something like that. But that sucks, man. You'd be in a position like that where, you know, you got to make a choice between things you love, 12 years in the military and walking away. It's a long time, man. It's a long time. Not very fair, unfortunately. I think I was going to end the show here.

So let's do this. Let me just say thank you to everyone who watched today. Listen to the podcast. subscribe to the channel. Thank you guys so much for watching. Keep sending those tweets using the hashtag the MMA hour. Keep calling 844-866-2468. And until next time, stay frosty.