MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Anthony Pettis On Rematching Stevie Ray Just Weeks After Shocking Sub Loss; Sam Alvey On One Last UFC Shot

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

PFL lightweight contender Anthony Pettis and UFC veteran Sam Alvey join the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. As he prepares for his first shot at the PFL playoffs, Pettis addresses his shocking submission loss to Stevie Ray in his final regular season matchup and how his own errors approaching that fight ultimately led to his demise. Pettis will also discuss what it’s like to get ready for the exact same opponent as he prepares to face Ray again on Friday, just weeks after their first meeting in the PFL. Sam Alvey also joins the show to detail how the UFC offered him the chance to finish out his contract with one fight remaining despite a lackluster resume over the past few years where he’s amassed just an 0-7-1 record over his last eight fights. Alvey reveals how the UFC gave him the chance under the assumption that he would retire afterwards but he has other ideas. He also discusses his recent work on TikTok where he’s amassed a very loyal following with more than 130,000 people tuning in to get his thoughts on fighting and a behind the scenes look at the UFC. All this and more on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible.

Fox Media Podcast Network. Welcome back to the Fighter versus the Writer. I'm your host, as always, Damon Martin. If you can't hear it in my voice, I am under the weather. I went on my first vacation in three years to San Diego Comic-Con. had an incredible time being around friends and seeing people and being back there for the first time in three years and then I come home and I test positive for COVID. So thankfully, I'm feeling pretty well.

You can hear it in my voice. There's a bit of congestion. I'm still a little under the weather. But I still have a podcast to do. So you're still getting a couple interviews this week on Fighter versus Rider. Hopefully I'll be back to full strength next week for a regular episode. I was actually going to have Matt Brown on this week to break out everything that unfolded at U.S. 277, but unfortunately, just not quite feeling up to it today.

So I wanted to get this episode out there with a couple of great guests. Do the podcast since we've been off for a couple weeks. And then hopefully by next week, I'll be back to normal, or at least some sense of normal after dealing with my first bout of COVID-19. So with that being said, we do have two great guests on the show today. We're going to talk first to former UFC champion and now PFL lightweight contender Anthony Petis as he gets ready for his rematch with Stevie Ray, a fight that actually comes just five or six weeks after their last fight where Stevie Ray submitted Anthony Pettis with one of the

craziest, weirdest submissions we've seen in the sport in recent years. So we're going to talk to Anthony about the submission, about the immediate rematch, and a few other things going on with his career. A little later in the show, we're going to welcome in Sam Alvey, who has actually become one of the most polarizing figures in our sport, mainly because Sam. is 07 and 1 in his last fights in his last 8 fights, but yet he is getting another fight in the UFC

coming up this weekend at the UFC fight night card in Las Vegas. Now, a lot of people have complained. A lot of people have argued why is Sam Alvey getting this opportunity when other fighters get released after one loss, two losses, three losses. He's on an

07 and one streak and yet he's still getting the chance to fight out his contract with one fight remaining on his contract. So we're going to talk about that with Sam. We're also going to talk about his recent explosion on TikTok. I don't know how many people out there are on TikTok, but I actually ran across Sam Alvey's TikTok account a couple months ago. And he actually has some really cool content on there, a lot of behind the scenes stuff for UFC, a lot of questions being answered about what happens at UFC events and how

UFC fighters get paid and all these different things. It's a really interesting thing. I like TikTok a lot, and I was really fascinated here about how Sam Alvey kind of became a bit of a TikTok star. He's got like 140,000 followers are ridiculous like that. So a lot of conversation to have with him about that. But first things first, let's talk to the former UFC lightweight champion, now PFL lightweight contender. As he gets ready to compete in his first ever PFL playoffs starting this Friday in New York, here is Anthony Pettus.

He is one of the top lightweight fighters in the world, and he will continue his quest for a million dollar prize in the PFL coming up on August 5th. I am always happy to speak to Showtime himself. Anthony Pettis. Anthony, how are you? Good, bro. About a week away, just getting everything locked in and everything finalized for this playoff spot. Absolutely, absolutely. Anthony, of course, we talked after your last fight, which is, or you should be two fights ago going into your last fight. And, you know, I know you talked about the season, how difficult the season of BFL is, how hard it is on you.

Of course, that fight ended up not going your way. And then the way things played out, you're actually getting an immediate rematch, which is so rare in this sport under the best. best of circumstances, but especially something like this, where it's basically six weeks later you're fighting the same guy again. I know you didn't want the loss. I know you wanted to go out there and when he caught you, that's just a sport. It happens. But were you even kind of like, wow, this is kind of weird.

Like we're going to go into an immediate rematch basically six weeks later. Man, it was kind of weird going into that last fight. You know, I think me and my coaches, we kind of wanted to play it safe and not get injured. Because I mean, we had to fight six weeks, you know, after that fight. So the game plan really was, you know, to stay at my range and, you know, pick them apart from the range and obviously not trying to get in some big exchanges with them. And I was doing that good in round one. And then, I don't know, round two, I just went for that single leg outside trip kind of sloppily. And that started the ground exchange.

And, you know, big hats off to him. You know, he had a move ready for my escape. And during that fight week, I posted, I was like, it works every time. It was like a back escape that I always do. I mean, I've done it to Nate Diaz. I've done it to Charles Alvara. Tony Ferguson, you know, Ben Henderson, and the who's who were grappling,

and, you know, he must have been watching. You know, he had a trap waiting for me, and, you know, he caught me in it. You know, it's kind of weird because when that submission happened, I think the entire world was kind of like what happened because it was such a weird position. And I think those, you know, because I don't think you get nearly enough credit

for how good of a grappler you are. You have incredible grappling. Everyone knows you as the knockout guy. We know he's the flashy striker, but you have incredible grappling. You have a ton of submissions on your resume. So I don't think you get enough credit for your grappling.

So when you got caught in that, I was like, it had to be bad because Anthony Pettis doesn't get caught, you know, and then I rewatched. And, of course, you know, he's talked about it, you know, with the body triangle, kind of like the weird twister position. I only know, you know, all these different things. It kind of reminded me, do you remember that fight back in the day Ivan Salivari? Everyone always brings up the Ivan Salivary body triangle where he had the guy mounted and he had him in the body triangle. And he was basically crushing his ribs is what ended up getting the submission. Can you walk me through that, like what you remember of that and rewatching it? Because it's one of those things where, like, I don't have.

even feel like you got caught. It was just like the weirdest position ever. Yeah, and I actually, he caught me, man. Like, so, you know, when, when, when we, I changed the ground position. I went for the outside trip with my left hand because he's a south ball. We ended up in like a weird, like, not 50-50, but I had his knee in between my legs and he, you know, he was almost to the back. And in my head, I'm like, okay, I know my reverse. So I know if he takes my back, I'm going to end up on top. So I let him take the back. I let him put the body triangle in. And I mean, I was fighting the body triangle at my feet and obviously defending with the choke with my hands like I always do and I thought I got enough room to twist around and now when I twisted around it like sent him up his body triangle where he had

his uh you know the the top leg under my right right calf yeah it was under my right calf yeah was under my right calf so I turn it and I'm like halfway out halfway in you know I thought I had enough space to actually make make the twist happen and then he went over my neck with his arm so my arm was in his arm my neck was in his armpit and then he went under my other my arms so like he kind of had me locked in like his uh triangle position and the pressure was on my ribs but I felt it mostly on my neck. You know, my neck was like getting cranked. So when he, when I used, I watched it again, his coach was like crank him, crank them. So they definitely were practicing that move. You know, once he started cranking, you know, I felt the pressure on my rib, but my neck as well.

Like my neck was going in a weird position, like obviously shouldn't go that way. And I knew I had a fight, you know, a week, you know, six weeks apart. I'm like, yo, I had to make a decision at that point. And I've never been in that position before where I had another fight booked during that fight, you know, so it was like, I didn't want to get too, I didn't want to get hurt too bad. You know, so I was like, yo, I'm in a bad spot. You know, if he cranks harder, it probably pop a rib or pop a neck. So, you know, I was forced to tap out.

Is that kind of the weird part about this season? We talked about the last time, and it got a lot of attention. And rightfully so. You said, you know, this is a whole different animal being into PFL season because four fights inside of basically six months. You know, you can't get injured. You can't. There's so many variables that go against you and why it's so hard to get to that final match

because all these different things were. I mean, look what happened to Clay Collar. One judge got the score. He's out. He's out. He's done. You know what I mean? That's a fight we all want to see again.

You know, that kind of thing. He's out of the season because one judge, actually two judges got the wrong score. But you know what I mean? Like, basically he got tossed because he lost a fight. Is that one of the weirdest oddities of a fight like this is like you said, like maybe you fight, maybe you continue fighting that chook. Maybe you just, you know, let him, you know, basically put you out or whatever you want to say. But you know in your head six weeks from now, you got a fight again. It's a weird dynamic, right?

I was definitely, man, because I was guaranteed a playoff spot, you know? So, like me and him fighting, it was kind of like, like I said, me and my coach was like, let's play it safe, let's strike him from outside range. I mean, I didn't go for that kill like I usually do. Like usually I go in there, I'm trying to, I'm out for blood. This one was like, you know, let's play it safe and not get hurt. And that was my first time actually going into a fight with that mindset. And it's the wrong mindset to go into a fight with.

You know, after the fight, I look back at it. I'm just like, yo, like my training camp, was we were trying to survive. You know, we weren't like, let's go finish this guy. Let's go pick him apart where he's bad at. And, you know, it backfired on me, man. But, you know, I knew I had that playoff spot, you know, cinch. It was like, it was kind of one of those things.

Like, do I go and, you know, try to finish this guy and get him out immediately? Or should I go out there and, you know, play it safe and get to my playoff spot? And, you know, I chose the wrong option. I should have went out there and try to, you know, finish this guy and, you know, it backfired on me. Do you feel like, and I know the mindset's going to be different going into the rematch, but is that something now that you've recognized that, that you recognized what you did wrong, and that's not to take anything away from Stevie Ray, but you know you didn't approach it the way you probably should have approached it, recognizing the error, so to speak, that you made,

does that give you more confidence going into rematch, knowing that maybe if you had approached it with that kind of, you know, killer be killed attitude that we always know you go into the fights with, that it may have been a different fight. That's not to take away from what he did and his accomplishment, good for him. But do you feel like it's a much different animal going into the rematch. I was definitely. You know, I think, you know, he knows what happened on the first round striking, you know, and that was me like at me just playing around, honestly, you know, I was like out there

throwing jump, jump ax kicks and butterfly kick on the first round. And I'm not, I'm not, take nothing away from him. But, yeah, I was, you know, I was being very playful in that first round, you know, I usually don't throw kicks just, just to throw them. But I think, you know, it was an amateur move on my, my behalf going for that takedown the way I did. It was a sloppy move, and it cost me to fight, man. And then luckily for me, I get to.

rematch, you know, six weeks later, five weeks later. But, you know, I think this fight plays out totally different. You know, when I go out there and I'm looking for the kill, you know, he'll feel the pressure. If I'm not mistaken, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I got it. The only rematch you've ever had in your career is Benson Henderson. Is that right? Did I miss anybody?

Cowboys Serroney. Cowboys Serroney. That's right. Cowboys Serrone is the other one. Yeah, Cowboys Serrano is the other. So you've not been a guy who's had a ton of rematches. But this one's even weirder because you generally don't get back-to-back fights against the same guy. Some people would say, you know, if you beat a guy, you'd say, well, how can I do it

better than I did it? On the flip side here, you know, you know, you got caught. You know, you know, he got you. Okay, that's good. But is it, is it exciting? Are you happy to like, normally we'd say, oh, man, maybe you'll get him in the finals. You know, maybe you'll get the rematch them. You get him right now. You get six weeks later. You get to correct that mistake. Is that, is that exciting for you? Are you happy that you don't have to wait for the unknown, meaning will he make it to the finals? Will you see him next season? You're. You're get it right now. Yeah, it's been a while since I actually had to submit in a fight, bro.

I think, you know, most guys give me on decisions, if you look back in my career, you know, so he actually caught me in submission. So, yeah, I definitely want that fight back, you know, and I know it was my fault. And I went into that fight with the wrong mindset. You know, I went in there, like, survive and get to your playoff spot without any injuries and it backfired, you know? So, like, it's kind of a blessing. I get to do it right away.

And it's what's the cool thing about the PFL, man, this season format is anything could happen, man. like we could you know Steve he probably thought he was done and not going to be in the playoffs he he had to finish me and it and it worked out in his favor he had a submission waiting too like I can't take that away from him he had he had that that submission in his back pocket you know he knew like if I was going to go for that reversal he was looking for that body triangle and whatever whatever that submission is called he you know it was it was definitely a submission you know I was forced to tap out but yeah I'm I'm glad I get to run it back you know I

think you know I get to write that wrong immediately and uh show that I'm better than this guy I know you're not taking him lightly, so I don't want to make it seem like that, but knowing that you had the wrong approach, you went in thinking, I need to be safe, I need to not get injured, I need to just get through this and then get to the next round, get to the playoffs. Knowing you had that mentality, do you feel like, you know, this is going to be the fight we should have seen the first time? And that's not to take away what he did. He got the win. He'll have a win on his record forever. Good for him. There's nothing.

It's not against him. But do you feel like this is the fight we should have seen the last time? just because you are approaching it with a different mindset. Yeah, I think we're going to see a totally different fight. You know, I'm not going to go out there and beat throwing, you know, fun kicks and just playing around with this guy. I'm going to go out there and look for the kill. And I fight South Falls very well. You know, most of the South Falls I fought, I beat that open side stance.

And I hit him with some body kicks. I already could tell he didn't like that. And I even hit him with a question mark kick, you know, got him wobbly a little bit. And I didn't go for the kill. And that's what I usually do. So I remember that part of the fight. When I hit him with that question mark kick, you know, he wobbled a little bit. And I still played it safe.

that won't happen in this fight. You know, if I, if I see any blood in the water, I'm going for that kill. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And you mentioned, you know, you talked about, you know, and I think that's why that last fight surprised me. I'm not going to lie to it because when we talked after the first win, I said, it feels like this is a different Anthony Pettis. And you said to me, you told me, you said, hey, I moved my camp out to Vegas.

I've kind of built the camp around me, kind of like what the boxers do, you know, what boxers, you know, building a camp around you and not, you know, not to say you don't love your team, you absolutely love your team back in Milwaukee, but you're building a camp around you for this season. because that's what this is. That's what you're supposed to do as a professional athlete. And it felt like you were in a really, really good place.

It feels like maybe this is where you need to be. And again, I know the loss was unexpected, but does it feel like this system is still working well for you? Oh, most definitely, man. Like I said, that last fight, you know, the way I performed, I mean, I watched the fight. It was an amateur mistake on a takedown, and I let him take my back,

and I tried a reversal that I've done a million times, and, you know, he had something that was waiting for me. So I can't take that away. He definitely practiced that submission and had that ready because I heard his coach, he can say like, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. So they definitely knew what they were doing. But, you know, he's going to fight a totally different fighter right now. Like, I win this or I go home.

And that's the mindset I'm going in there with. Finish this guy, win this fight, and make it to that playoffs. And this would be like the first break I get this season, you know, because you can right after that fight, I went right back to work, knowing that I had a fight five, six weeks away. You know, but, like I said, I can't take nothing from him. But this fight, I'm going to be. for, I'm going for the kill. Like, I'm going to go out there and try to finish this guy.

Yeah. We said the last time how difficult it is to even get in this position in the, in the PFL playoffs, because I don't think a lot of people give enough credit to this format of how difficult it is to even make it this far, much less the finals. I just mentioned earlier, Clay Collar, a guy that, you know, Clay Collar was a guy, thought, man, we're going to see that pedisory match. I can't wait. That's going to be a good one. I can't wait for it. And then Haush Manfio, last season champ. I was like, man, we need to see that because there's such a close fight. A lot of people felt you won that, you know, man, we're going to see. that again. They're both gone. They're not, they're out. You know what I mean? And we got

Olivia Alvin Mercier, of course, and then, you know, Alexander Martinez on the other side, that's not the matchups we thought we were going to see. We absolutely know one. Stevie Ray, same thing. I don't think many people would have picked Stevie Ray to be here. He's at right now. Do you feel like what you said to me the last about how difficult this is, how difficult this format is, how difficult is to get to this point? Like everything you said in our last interview was just proven true by the four people who were in this, in the finals of lightweight tournament because at least three out of the four and absolutely no disrespect to any of those three, I don't think anyone was necessarily targeting those three guys to be the other three in the tournament

next to you. Yeah, not at all, man. Even when I was watching the playoffs, like, I mean, the last fight before the playoffs, you know, I saw, I saw Housh lose. I saw, you know, Clay Carle lose. And I'm just like, man, like, that could have went either way. Honestly, that those are those two fights, well, not how we should, but Clay and Martinez, that fight could have went either way.

I think that ground exchange is what gave Martinez the advantage. But yeah, man, this season format is different. You know, scoring these points and getting these points if you get to finish in the first round. You know, luckily I did what I did in the first fight, you know, to get my six points and guarantee myself a playoff spot. But, yeah, I mean, it's definitely different than just going in, getting ready for a fight. And having the back-to-back fights, you know, you got to be a tough dude to go fight six weeks later and five weeks later. After the fight, you can't tell the commission like, you know, this hurts, this hurts or, you know,

trying to get some time off. Like you're literally right back in training camp. So, you know, I'm, I'm halfway through this season. I'm ready to go out there and get this playoffs finished with and, you know, get my spot and getting in the finals. Yeah, absolutely. It's funny because, you know, you throughout your career, you know, you've earned your nickname very rightfully.

So is Showtime, both inside and outside the cage. You know, you don't mind being a talker. You've done press conferences. You don't mind being the showman when you have to be the showman outside the cage. PFL takes a lot of that away in terms of, like, you know, getting where you're at. You know, this isn't a Connor McGregor situation where, you know, he's just the biggest guy in the sport. So immediately he's going to get the biggest fight. And I get it.

I mean, I totally understand. He is the biggest draw in the sport. I totally understand that idea. But, like, when they were talking about Connor coming back off a broken leg and in fighting for the title, and I'm just like, are you kidding me? Like, I think Connor's amazing. I think he's an incredible athlete. But you can't have a guy off two losses and a broken leg jump into a lightweight title fight over guys who have been earning it for the past, you know, year and a half two years.

I always thought that was crazy. Now, of course, we know that's not the way it goes. but there was talk about it. And it wouldn't have shocked me. I probably wouldn't have shocked anybody when they said, yeah, we're going to give them the title shot because that's just how it works sometimes. Do you prefer this format, even though you've had so much of your career, you know, built on accomplishment, but you are also showmen, you know, I think that's a compliment to the work you put in to the star power you've built.

Do you prefer this kind of format where everything is earned? There's nothing given. Like I said, ideally, it would be you and Clay Collard in a rematch. It would be Haush Manfio, you know, be you guys battling and hopefully see some cool rematches. and big final and all that. Basically none of that's possible now. Of course, you and Stevie Ray is a great rematch. But do you like this better than the, you know,

than the other side of it, which is, you know, maybe it's not always what's earned. It's more about, you know, who talks the best or who builds the most hype for a fight. You know what I mean. Yeah, popularity contest. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I was kind of victim to that too.

You know, when I was a champ, everybody was like, oh, Pettis is getting the Dana White favoritism, you know, and this fights that I was getting into. But even when I coached the ultimate fighter show against Melendez, you know, they were like, oh, but just getting, you know, special treatment because he hurt his knee. But this format, you know, takes away all that. It takes away, it takes away, it takes away, star power. It takes away what you did in the last fight.

Like, nothing really matters except for what you did in that current fight. So, yeah, I think, you know, earning a title shot in the PFL and winning a title shot, winning a title on the PFL is way harder than, you know, building a way up, you know, because once you the champ in your races, you know, next year starts over. we're all back in the right back to the beginning. You know, we all got to earn our spots again and try again to go for that championship. And the way the fights work, you know, it's five, six weeks back to back.

You know, like, there's no time for breaks for getting fat or having injuries and recovering, you literally are right back to work. Yeah, so I would say this format is definitely different. And I like it. Even my coaches, like, well, we're starting to fall in love with this. Obviously, we got the rematch, so it played out in our favor. But we're like, you know, we like this format. We like staying busy.

We like having the fights guaranteed. you know, it's on how I perform. Yeah, absolutely. And there's an argument to be made for both. I get it. You know what I mean? There's nothing wrong with, you know, with the popularity contest, so to speak. You know, just when it comes to the expense of other people, I think is where other people

complain where you're like, oh, you got a shot you didn't deserve, you know, that kind of thing. But again, the PFL takes a lot. Like I said, ideally, I'm sure the PFO would love to say, hey, we're going to do the Clay Collar and Anthony Pettus rematch because we know how great that fight's going to be. Didn't work out that way. And that's how sports works. I mean, I'm sure in the NFL. you know, they'd love the two most popular teams to get to the Super Bowl every year,

so that way they have the biggest ratings of the most fanfare. But that's just not how it works. At all, man, this is what it feels like. You know, I feel like I'm part of a season. You know, like even in this rematch, it's like, it's something like it happens in NBA, NFL, baseball, you know, like teams are guaranteed. You know, they lose. They get a play again the next Sunday or the next, you know, the next baseball night.

So, like, getting this rematch is it definitely just shows that this PFL formats, you know, some different. It's a totally different beast. Can I ask you about the other side of the bracket, of course, you know, Olivier Aubin-Mersie and Alexander Martina is really interesting matchup. And, of course, I know your full focus is on Stevie Ray and avenging that loss and getting the win. But of course, you know, you win, everything goes well in August 5th. You'll face the winner at that fight. Can I get your thoughts on that matchup?

And if you lean one way or the other in terms of who you think is going to come out on top? Well, honestly, Alex Martinez surprised me in the last fight. You know, I think, you know, most people pick Clay Collar to win that fight. And, you know, he went out there and just got after it. bro. His, his like Taekwondo range, you know, he has like a good striking range. He has very good grappling. He's not afraid to mix it up with the takedown. So, I mean,

he's definitely a tough opponent. OAM, you know, picked apart, you know, Haouche, very, with a smart game plan, and what I expected from. You know, he has a great corner. It's going to be interesting to see how that fight plays out. I can't even pick a winner on that fight because Martinez is definitely surprising people

with the style of fights he's bringing. He's entertaining, he's entertaining, too. You know, Martinez is an entertaining guy. OAM's a very strong. smart fighter he has he you know he's been he's been in there with some some killers already um and you know he had a great game plan against haoo so like it would be hard to pick a winner on that fight but i'm the main event so i'll see i'll see who uh you know i'm fighting next before before they will see it yeah yeah i love it i love the you know the potential end of those fights and

and you got to know like i said everyone ever almost everyone that fights you know chances are they're going to come in they're going to say they're going to do one thing and then they're probably going to die for a takedown and you got to know probably either one of those guys absolutely nothing against alexander martina's or o a m but uh kind of seems like that would be the style, but I know you embrace that. You embrace everyone. Whether you want to take me down or you want to, you know, stand in the strike, you embrace that kind of fight.

Because you got, you know, you know, 95% of people are not going to want to stand on the outside and trade strikes with you. So you got to, you kind of know, going into it, no matter who wins in the other matchup. You know, there's probably going to be a point where they're going for your legs. That's what the crazy thing is, you know, like in the Stevie-ray fight, I initiated that take-down that caused, you know, the submission to happen. And usually, I don't initiate takedownsdowns. I let the other guy shoot and then we end up on the ground.

So, yeah, it was something I was frustrating, you know, after watching that fight, seeing the amateur mistake I made, I'm like, you know, that was a dumb mistake, and it won't happen again. Yeah, real quick, before I get you out here, Anthony, I was going to ask you this last time. We got into a great conversation. I forgot to mention it, but I didn't want to ask you. You know, you've had a lot of big wins in your career. And guys, you know, I'm one of those guys. Like, when I have a great sports team, like, I'm a Bengals fan.

When my team loses and in the playoffs, let's say, I kind of root for the team to beat us, because I'm kind of like, you know what? I want to see them go on to do great. because it proves that my team was, you know, good. The best team to be my team goes on to win. I'm kind of rooting for them. And, you know, I know you've had a lot of big wins throughout your career. But one guy I'm particularly wanted to ask about a guy you have a win over is Charles Olivera.

You know, you had a big win over him when you went down to featherweight. And now you've seen you were one of the last guys to beat Charles Olivera because the guy's gone on an incredible streak. Do you – like, have you been impressed to see where he's gone on and been able to do since you fought him? You beat him. Again, I think it's you and Paul Felder. I'm pretty sure the last two people to beat him. it's kind of crazy to see what he's going on to do but do you look at a guy like this

say man like in a way like obviously you're not in the UFC anymore but do you look for him to kind of root for a guy like that yeah man you got to bro like he's like a vet you know he's been around for a long time he does have losses on his record but he turned it around and that's the crazy thing about mixed martial arts it's not it's not like boxing where you have one loss and you're out of this thing like you can turn it around

and you see guys do that um you know when i fought olivera he uh he uh he was i think he weighed in at 143 pounds and i was 146 he was he was under the feather weight, you know, weight limit. And then, yeah, Paul Felter, my teammate, you know, so we, we, as teammates, we were the last guys to beat Alibara. But to go on, to see what he's doing right now, man. He's well, well-rounded martial artist, bro.

His striking, I already knew was a problem when I fought him. But now his jiu-tzu, totally different level than most guys, man. So, yeah, it's amazing to see what he's doing. And for me, it's always, it's always awesome to see guys do well financially, you know, like, how much men of feel when in that last season, he was able to quit his job and, become a full-time fighter. I experienced that in my fight career so I know how that feels

and I guaranteed Alvarez on a totally different level than where he was at before and that's cool to see man so it sucks that he lost his belt due to that weight cut and I heard a lot of rumors about what happened on that scale

but right now he's the best 155 in the UFC roster yeah absolutely and let's not forget you have a submission over the guy with the most submissions in UFC history there's a little feather in your cap too

if you know just throwing that out there I mean you know I don't you have a lot of submissions but that's got to feel good right Most definitely, yeah, I know what he's doing now. Yeah, I got him with the guillotine. And I hurt him with some body kicks as well, bro. So, like, you know, he came ready for that fight.

That was a war that I had to dig deep on, you know. I thought I dropped him, knocked him out early. Then I punched him in the head and he woke back up. And then I'm like, oh, shit, now we're changing on the ground. The crazy thing is I do that back escape Talavera, like two times, you know, that my signature back escape. So I guarantee Steve was, you know, watching those fights and he was ready for it. So, yeah, it's crazy how MMA math works, bro.

Like, you know, anything can happen in these fights. Yeah, well, you mentioned earlier, like with Olivaire, like the way that he's had some losses. And when he lost to your teammate, Paul Felder, people were probably thinking, well, he's just not going to be, he's never going to be that guy. You know, he just got, you know, he got knocked out and he got, you got, he had some loss of featherway. He had this big loss of lightweight. Maybe he'll never be that guy. And it goes on this incredible streak. And we have a terrible tendency in this sport of writing people off way too soon.

You know, we have a terrible tendency if you lose one and suddenly you're done. Great example. You had a couple lost of the UFC. Immediately people said, well, Pettus is done. Yeah, he's done. He's not the same Pettus anymore. Which is utterly ridiculous, you know what I mean? Like I said, I thought coming out of your last fight, you would look better than you'd

ever look. You look confident. You look like you had things together. Credit to Stevie Way for catching the way he did. But we have a terrible tendency in this sport of writing people off way too easily, like when they're not done. And I feel like, you know, you're in a different kind of curve in your career. And kind of like Oliver, like you could easily go on another run where you win,

10 or 11 in a row. Like, it's not impossible to do that. And I hate, there's one thing I hate about this sport is we are way too judgmental, way too quickly. For sure, man, I hate seeing it, too. I see fighters fall victim to that all the time, you know, they're, they get like a little popular on social media. All the fans love them.

All of a sudden they lose and their confidence is gone. You know, social media, everybody's talking crap about them. You should retire. You know, like, I've experienced that and I've seen a lot of fighters go through that. And it causes, like, these guys go into depression. I, my biggest advice for Sergio was like, you know, with this injury, find out who you are outside of fighting, man. Like, you are a different person outside of Sergio Pettus, the fighter.

And, you know, I'm glad my little brother is getting experiences without losing and finding out that person because it is, it's like a lonely road, man. It's like a dark road. You can either, you know, come out of it with the light or you can, like, follow that road and start believing the hype and start believing what everybody's saying. But, yeah, I experienced all of it, bro. I was on the title fight win streak, the four fights out of a title fight, moving down to 45 in I experience

moving up to 70. I experienced pretty much all of it in this sport and you know, you just got to listen to yourself and your coaches and make sure you're true to yourself. Look, Alvara. Like you said, Olivera, you know, lost a lot of fights in a row and now he's killing it. Now everybody's like, oh, he's the number one pound for final fighter. And I think, you know,

he's very close to that to taking that title as well. Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, we have a, the tendency in this sport is we build people up and then we love to tear them down, you know what I mean? Like that's the, I think that's the downside of the sport. We love to build them up where you're the greatest thing and they'll tell you man you're the greatest ever oh my god you're the greatest light whatever you're the great you lose one fight man what a bum i cannot believe

this guy is such a buck it's a horrible thing with this sport every single time it drives me insane it is man it's it's definitely um i think fans are just we get so many fights and we got so many fighters now that it's like you know they they they take it for granted like some of the greats man like even anderson silver to see what he's doing right now everybody wrote him off like oh he's done and look at what he's doing boxing man he's like i still think Anderson silver was the goat, you know, of martial arts. Like, to see what he's doing in boxing, what he did in the UFC, you know, for me, that's one of, I'd say he's one of the goats.

He is the goat. Yeah, I'm happier. I am happier for Anderson Silva than I could be even, like, I could even express. Like, see, he looks so happy out there doing what he's doing, and he's doing amazing. Like, I'm so happy for that guy, because he is. He's a legend. He's an icon. Like, I got so excited to watch him fight Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.

And get that win. Like, I was so happy. Like, he looked like he was having the most fun of his entire career. And then I see him falling up at Ortiz, man. I'm like, man, he's just in a great spot right now. And that's awesome. And I don't know how old he is right now. You know his age?

I think he's 47. 47 years old doing that, man. It's amazing, you know? Like, that's, like, most people take it for granted. They don't understand what it takes to do that at 47 years old, let alone what he did in the UFC, you know? Like I said, me, and his sister was, you know, one of the goats. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Well, Anthony, I always appreciate the time. I cannot wait for this rematch. I look forward to it. I look forward to the play out. Are you happy? This is in New York and not London. Not to say you wouldn't have loved to fight in front of the London crowd, but not as much travel. I know you've traveled all over the world during your career.

I imagine you probably appreciate when you don't have to travel quite as much. Man, I love, I was supposed to fight in New York. I was supposed to fight Kiyosca, but that Connor McGregor bus situation happened and Kiyahsa got cut. Remember like that? Absolutely. So that was my first time actually scheduled him about to fight in New York. So this is my first time fighting in. in New York. So I'm very excited. We have a lot of

Puerto Rican fans, a lot of Hispanics in New York. So I'm expecting a full crowd, and I'm going to go do what I do best. I love it. Well, Anthony, it's always a pleasure. I appreciate you taking the time for me. As always, best of luck coming up next week in the fight, and we will talk soon, okay? Appreciate it, bro.

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A big thank you, of course, to Anthony Pettis for coming on the show. Definitely appreciate him. Always appreciate chatting with him. He's always one of the fun guys to talk to. Always something interesting to say. I really enjoy what he said about Charles O'Levara as well. Of course, he's one of the last people to actually hold a win over Charles O'Levara when they fought at Fedoway a few years ago.

So really fascinating stuff there, looking forward to his rematch with Stevie Ray as he looks to move on and become a millionaire through the PFL playoffs this season. Up next, as I mentioned to the top of the show, we're going to talk to Sam Alvey. He makes his return to action this weekend at the UFC Fight Night Cart in Las Vegas at the apex. Of course, as I mentioned, Sam has become a very polarizing fan. figure because he has continued to get fights in the UFC despite a lacking resume, let's say, an 07 and 1 record in his last 8 fight. He's still getting one more fight, at least one more fight, in the UFC this weekend.

I've never quite understood why anyone advocates for fighters to get fired. Never really made a whole lot of sense to me. You can argue and say, well, this guy or girl got treated unfairly and they got released, but I promise you, and you'll hear me talk about this in the interview as well. The UFC never gets rid of anybody that they don't want to get rid of. of. If they want you around, they're going to keep you around. They're not going to say, oh, yeah, I mean, do they purge the roster from time to time? Absolutely. If they have too many fighters on the roster, they will go on a streak where they release a whole bunch of people in a row.

But if they want you on the roster, they're going to keep you on the roster, just like when they released Kevin Lee. If they wanted Kevin Lee around, they would have kept Kevin Lee. They got rid of Kevin Lee for whatever reason, even though I didn't necessarily agree with it. They got rid of Kevin Lee. Didn't make a whole lot of sense with the potential in the things that he showed, but ultimately they decided to get rid of him. Then you look at a guy like BJ Penn, a legend of the sport. He continued to get chance after chance after chance, even though he was having really bad performances.

Again, legend, I understand Hall of Famer, but they continued to give him opportunities until they just couldn't do it anymore. With Sam Alvey, yes, he's not a BJ pin. We all know that. I don't think Sam Alvey would compare himself to a BJ pin in any way, shape, or form outside of maybe in terms of experience, because he's had, you know, a lot of fights in his career. But Sam Alvey's a guy who stuck around, took fights when he didn't need to take them, took opponents we didn't need to take them, stepped up in different weight classes, so on and so forth.

And I've never understood the idea that, you know, because the guy is getting a shot that somehow it's his fault or the UFC should have dumped him in favor of someone else. Because I promise you, that's not how it works. If the UFC wants you, they're going to keep you. If they want to get rid of you, they're going to get rid of you. That's just how it works in the UFC. There's a reason Nate Diaz is fighting Hamzaa Chama on the final fight of his contract. when, you know, does that fight make any sense whatsoever in any sense of the word? Absolutely not. But we all know what's going on there.

They want an ADS to go out on a loss. We all know that. There's no shock there. It's not new business that they're doing this. This is old things the UFC has done for years. So, again, they didn't want to get rid of Sam Alvey. They wanted to allow Sam Alvey to have one final fight on his contract. And we'll talk to Sam about that, about his hopes for the future,

maybe coming back to the UFC or fighting elsewhere. and of course we'll also talk, as I mentioned at the top of the show, about his growing TikTok business, which is pretty interesting. So with that being said, let's talk right now to the one, the only, smiling, Sam Alvey. He makes his return to action against, and I practice this. Hopefully I can get it right. Mikhail Oleg Seychek, I think I got that right.

Always fun to speak to my old friend, Sam Alvey. And I say old friend, you're not old, but we go back a long ways. Yeah, man, I'm getting older. In fighter years, I'm like 103. Well, Sam, I appreciate you. That's funny. I texted you to set this up and I was like, man, we do go back a long ways. Like, I was trying to remember the first time we ever spoke.

And I think, I don't know this. I remember doing the feature on you and your wife years ago. But I was like, I can't remember the exact first time because I know we go back a long ways. It was before the ultimate fighter. I just can't remember when it was. Yeah. If it was with my wife, it was probably King of the Cage up in Lax de Flambeau, Wisconsin, maybe. That might be it.

I always remember we did a future. I remember I called it was so generic, but it was cool. I called it the Beauty and the Beast. I'll never forget that feature on you guys. And I'll never forget that feature. Yep, yep. That must have been like the Flambeau up in that King of a Cage. I like it.

I like it. So Sam, obviously, fight is a matter of days away. How is everything? I know it's a very generic question, but how was training camp now that everything's pretty much wrapped up and you're just getting ready to fight? Shoot, everything went great. And as of now, my opponent is still my opponent, so that's good news. There's usually, somehow it has three or four fights. It's been the week of my fight.

It gets changed. So there's still time for it to change on me. But as of now, everything's still going according to plan. Yeah. Now, before we get to the fight stuff, this is fight related, just fight adjacent. You know, I noticed because I, listen, I have to kind of live my life on social media. It's kind of required for my job. You know, we have to be on Twitter and Instagram and all these kind of things.

But I never imagined what I would see is Sam Alvey, the TikTok star. Now, you have quite a following on TikTok. You have like 139,000 followers, more than that on TikTok. And you have, I'll be honest, I've covered the sport for 20 years. And you actually have like a really fascinating, interesting TikTok. I love it. Oh, I appreciate that. You know, I love TikTok.

I coach kids, or I used to when I lived in California, and one of the kids' parents said, Sam, you should do TikTok, you'd love it. And I said, ah, I'd need another social media like I need a hole in my head. And I said, I'll give it a shot. And it was almost immediately I was addicted to it. I just love it. It is so impressive how talented random people are

and how many skills there are that I would have never even thought was a skill. And so that I get to go and be part of, be part of that in any way. I've just jumped at it. Now, and I realize I've, I've fought, God, I fought so, for so long now, I've got so many fights under my belt that I have some unique stories, some unique perspective to what I do. So a lot of my, I mean, obviously a lot of my TikTok is behind the scenes of what happens at fights, what happens at training and stuff like that.

And I've really enjoyed doing it. It's, uh, I love it. My girlfriend turned me onto it. she kept trying to get me on there. I was like you. I don't need to be on TikTok. I was like, why do I need to be on TikTok?

How is it that different from Instagram or Twitter? And then I got on there and I'm addicted now. I'm on there like every night I carve out like a half hour to just watch TikTok videos. But I ran across yours. I ran across yours a few months ago. And like one of the things I love about TikTok is like like you said, like I'll follow people in like, I love movies and TV and I'll follow like behind the scenes people telling me like how it works. how the how the sausage gets made, so to speak.

And you do a lot of that for the Biden industry. And I'm a guy who's covered the sport for 20 years. And even I learned stuff watching your TikTok. Like it's a lot of fun and kind of like an inside look at the sport that you don't just get through interviews or or even like, you know, normal stuff you see on TV. Like it's really fascinating. Yeah, I really have taken a shining to this little formula. I mean, it's in one minute segments, I'm amazing. If I get past the minute, then I, then I'm like, start.

boring you a little minute segments i i really got something to tell people i i love interacting with people it's a much more personal uh experience i have on ticot than any other of my social media's yeah have you it looks like you're having fun too like it's not just instructional things you also kind of react to other videos and and do the you know you stitch yourself but it's it seems like you're having fun yeah it's i really enjoy it uh it's really helpful bring up my game and everything else. It's actually, so I do YouTube now too, and YouTube's hard. And I really had no interest in doing it until I got into TikTok.

And now I kind of like, you know what, this little minute idea I had on TikTok, I've got more to say about it. And I've been able to put that into some of my YouTube videos now too. And so TikTok has helped my other social medias. I wish all of this was around when I was a younger fighter. But I, you know what, I'm getting older, but I'm still loving it. Yeah. Can I ask because, again, I said I learned things, even though I've been around the sport,

I learned things. Like, one of my favorite one of your TikToks, which I was aware of this one, but it still cracked me up, was the one you did about fighter meeting. Someone's like, what is the fighter meeting? Basically, you said, it's somebody yelling at you to go out and earn $50,000. And I cracked up because I think people always have this misconception when they are fighter meeting, like, it's this big important thing. It's basically them shouting at you, like, to go out and $50,000.

go out and have a good fight and be entertaining and don't curse on TV. And you said that basically that was exactly what you said to crack me up because I think people always have this misconception what these fighter meetings are all about. And you said it. And I was cracking up laughing because it's exactly what you said. Yeah, no, that is. I got a big response to that too because people expected it to be more. I said, no, it's either Sean Mick or Dana coming in and trying to cussing at us for four minutes to do a good job.

You know, if there's $50,000 you could win, or possibly $100,000. Yeah. Now, there's one thing I learned on your TikTok, and I got to ask you about it, because this is one of the things I learned. You were talking about the rules thing, and you said the most important contribution that John Jones has ever made to the sport was the change they made to the rule about hands up versus hands out. And they call it the John Jones rule. Now, to be clear, we all, media, fighters, everybody knows and have gossiped or talked about John Jones with the eye poking. We all know it. John's addressed it.

We've all seen it. I know people have talked about it. But you actually said, and I was completely unaware of this, that the judge or the referees or whoever is giving you the instruction, they have actually dubbed it the John Jones rule? Like when they give you the, when they lay out the rules to you, they actually say that to you? yes yes yes now the I mean the rule has been in effect for years now and so the further we get away from the birth of the rule the less they say it but for a long time because oh it's john jones rule you know you can't have your fingers out anymore they've got to be uh uh and they that's they called it the john jones rule uh and it was the referee i mean trying to remember which referees

it where i mean herb dean i'm sure has said it uh i haven't i haven't had big john in a decade yet. But a lot of the referees, closer to when the rule first came into about, they all called it the John Jones rule. And it was because of him. And it's almost unfair because he hasn't poked anyone in the eyes in a while now. He's fighting less, but it hasn't happened in a while. But it was because of him that was told to me that the fingers are not allowed to be that way anywhere they have to be up. Yeah. It's crazy because that is something we, because I pox are so relevant in our sport. And unfortunately, you've been a victim of that very recently in one of your fights, you know, you've been a victim. And we all, because I'm a big proponent, like I say this

all the time, when guys get iPod, because 99, 98% of the time, it's preventable. Guys are, you know, putting their hands out. Guys are reaching things like that with their fingers out. And that's when it happens. And I'm a big, like, I'm always like, why is the referee not taking a point away? is that's such a dangerous move. And we've seen it recently. A couple of fights have ended from eye pokes. And rightfully so, listen, I am by no stretch of the imagination of fighter, not going to pretend to be a fighter.

But in the relative times I've trained with grappling, I remember one time I got a pinky in my eye. And it sucked real bad. I couldn't see for the next day. It took me like 24 hours to get my vision back and actually opened my eye. And it was just a pinky to the side of my eye. So it sucks real bad. But like, this is a real thing.

Like people, I think people don't understand how bad, an eye poke sucks and like that little rule change of not putting your fingers out versus putting your hands up that's a big deal it is it is and i and i'm with you i think one ipok should be an immediate uh point deduction if happens twice the fight should be off and it should be disqualification i mean i i i did think that the most relevant one recently is uh shan o'malley and everyone's oh it doesn't hurt it doesn't hurt it's over the island it hurts a ton uh earlier this week i had a buddy of mine, he punched

and I actually dumbed myself in the eye and it was dumb on my part in a fight. It should have been no one's fault. But it was over the eyelid just kind of hit the top and it took me out for a minute. I mean, I couldn't get my eye to stop water and I couldn't stop blinking. It just hurt a ton. And

a simple eye poke will change the fight. It turns out a lot of people don't understand I mean, everything I read was he, what was it, Munoz? Munoz didn't even take us five minutes. With I poke, you don't get five minutes.

With eye pokes, if you don't say you're fine, the fight's off. And it's really hard to say you're fine because you're a slight eye poke means you're not fine. And not only does it hurt, but it changes the way you fight.

I've been, not my last one, but like three prior to that, I've been poked a bunch. And it's, you'll watch, I'll go from taking the lead in the cage to get an eye poke to I'm laying back

because I'm scared of getting poked again. It's one of the, of the, I wish I was, especially against the Wellington tournament fight, I wish I was smarter, I wish it would have stayed down. It would have changed the outcome. It would have changed everything. I would have made a lot more money. But it's one of those things.

One ipope will change the way you fight can change the outcome of a fight. Yeah. Fighters are incredibly tough, and we know that. And fighters are sometimes their own worst enemy because you want to fight. You know, guys will go in compromise because of something like that. that. Maybe you heard, did you hear they're trying to make a rule change now where you do get five minutes for the eye poke? I hope it happens. Like I, listen, I absolutely think you should get five minutes for a growing shot too. But like the eye poke in a weird way, like a lot of times it's worse. Like I've been kicked in the junk before. Now it sucks real bad. But usually I, you know, unless it's a real, real bad one, you know, I can kind of shake it off a little bit. You know what I mean? Like, but getting an eye poke, like even a small eye poke, like it takes you a few minutes to gather yourself and not see double or not see. blurry vision. Like, it's a pretty messed up thing to happen. Yeah,

I, you know, I've been, I heard there talking about it. My coach, uh, Joe Danny Stevenson, he was telling me about it. And I got to think about it more. I'm not sure I like it. I kind of like that if you don't say you're okay, they stop the fight. Because five minutes, I mean, you get poked in the eye hard or glancing or what, it hurts. It will

change the way you fight. Whether you have five minutes or 10 minutes or, you know, you're still in that cage. You're still, Five minutes from the time of the poke, you're going to be blanking a little more, you're more aware that flinch reflex is going to be in you, whether you want it to be or not. You're going to start shying away from that poke. I've been looking, but I can't find the number. But I would suspect that people that have been eye poked lose most of the time. I can't find the number.

I'm just judging by what I've seen over the course of my career. but I would suspect people that have been the victim of eye poking have lost, I'll bet you at least 75% of the time. Yeah. Well, I think the bigger rule change would be, you know, counting it as a point deduction. And if a fighter can't continue, it's a disqualification.

Like we've seen it a couple times. I know Mike Jackson had his fight, and we rewatch that one. Like, I called it an eye gout. You know what I mean? He full on had his finger, like digging at the guy's eye when he got disqualified. But we have that tendency when they say it's an accidental foul.

Well, it's not accidental. put your hand out, you know, you're jabbing at a guy, whatever the case. Maybe it's not accidental. I think that also needs to be conditioned as well. Because if you can't continue, why should you lose half your money? Like, that's my bigger issue. Like, you know what I mean? Like, why are you now have a, why do you have a no contest on your end? The other guy gets away or they at least have the point deduction or be more quick to do a point deduction. So if they do score, they can say, okay, well, he's out or is a disqualification. Like, not that I want everyone to get disqualified, but it is a foul. I mean, it is illegal.

Yeah. Yeah, I tell everyone, I've got over 80 fights, and I have never once poked anew in the eye. It's a very easily prevented foul, and I've never done it. I'm just one guy, but I've got a lot of fights. I've got more fights than most two guys, and I've never poked anyone in the eye. So accidents happen, I guess, but it's in the ring. It's your job to make sure the accidents don't happen. Yeah, but I was fascinated at John John Rule.

That was a new one, and I had a laugh. Not that it's like laughing matter, but like I had never heard that like referees actually called it the John Jones rule. I was like, wow, that's pretty fascinating because again, TikTok can be very educational. Yeah, it's a lot of my students, my younger students, they use TikTok when they use Google. Like if they want to learn something, they go type it into TikTok and they find the answer that way. Now I, because I do follow a lot of MMA people and I watch a lot of MMA videos on there, I run across a lot of the pseudo-MMA people teaching self-defense, teaching weird things on there. And I was actually talking to another fighter, I'm sure you know, Matt Brown.

And Matt Brown was trying to get more active with his YouTube and TikTok. And I said, I'd tell you what, Matt, like if you want to make videos, like they don't need to be some grand, you know, giant a production. Just go on there and show people how to do things and, you know, instructions, things like that. And they're going to dig it, whether you're, you know, whether you're putting on a $5 million production, you're just filming it on your phone. but does it ever drive you crazy? And it doesn't just, it doesn't just fall to YouTube, but it can far as, excuse me TikTok, we fall to YouTube or Instagram. But as a fighter, do you ever get driven a little crazy when you see the,

the instructionals from people who, at least from my judgment, probably have no idea what they're talking about or if they think they know what they're talking about, they're teaching completely the wrong things. And this is from a guy who's just watched the sport most of the time. I'm like, what are you teaching people? What are you trying to teach people? Yeah. You know, on TikTok, if I see something like that, I can stitch the video.

I can show it and then correct it myself. So on TikTok, I kind of like those videos because I can make a point of pointing out why they're wrong. And so that adds to my content creation. So I kind of like that. But watching so many people say the wrong thing and then getting a big following because of it. Who is it? The Detroit, the Detroit self-defense guy. Oh, yeah.

He's always got the guy. I'm sure you've seen his stuff. Yeah, he's one of those guys that you watch it and he's like, dude's going to get someone hurt someday. But then I can take it. I can edit it and I can make it my own in a way. Yeah. It's kind of crazy because you're right.

I see some of those. Like it's always the, this is what happens if you're in a street fight thing. And I'm just like, you're really going to get someone hurt. He trying to teach these people what you're trying to teach you. Like it's always really, and it's really bad. Like, and someone kind of freak me out because I see they have like 200,000 likes on a video, and I'm just like, I hope people are liking it because it's funny, not because they're actually going to use this in real life.

Yeah, I love that. I love the bad self-defense, you know, street fighting thing. Most of the time I can edit that with a real simple saying, listen, the best self-defense you have is a real good pair of running shoes. Fighting hurts. Try not to do it. If someone's coming at you, be faster than I'm in you'll win. Yeah. Sam, you've been a professional fighter for a lot of years, but I also, and I say this to you as a compliment,

you're also one of the nicest guys. You got your nickname Smiling Sam Alvia for a reason because you are genuinely a happy person. You never strike me as the kind of guy who goes looking for trouble. Have you ever been in a street fight? I'm 0-1 in the street. Yeah. I was, I was a bouncer. And it was the slowest night of the year. It was St. Patty's Day. Nobody came in until like 11.45 at night. And then a bunch of Native Americans came into this bar I was working at. And they were already pretty lit. They were well up.

And I was handling one thing inside the bar. My manager was handling two guys on the outside. And I saw them shove my manager. So I went out that way, shoved him again. I double-legged them. So knock us off. And as I did that, everyone that was there came outside. First guy came running up.

You kicked me in the face. And that was pretty much all their way. I don't know who got me. I more or less woke up 10 minutes later talking to police. It was the weirdest thing. I came to my senses talking to police. Like I don't remember the police getting there. I don't remember standing up or chatting with it.

But all of a sudden, I was up and there was cops there. And the first thing I remember saying is, I don't know who kicked me, but I want to press charges. And they said, we have no idea who kicked you either. But yeah. So I counted as a lot of. I'm 0-1 in the street. How long after that did you stay a bouncer?

A while. Like that was the, it was kind of a shitty bar. It was always slow. So it's a real easy gig. And I worked around my training. That was like the only problem I've ever had there. And I lost it. But, yeah, see, that's the other danger when people tell you,

self-defense in street fights because you don't account for the three friends in the corner or the other guy you're not watching behind your back or you know the guy who's got you know cowboy boots on you know there's little things you don't account for in these self-defense courses oh yeah yeah as soon as there's two people as bad ass as I am two people's two people I just need one of them to grab me the other hit me and I it's it's it's over yeah and there's always the second man always but I do I do get a kick out of some of the viral self-defense ones like I'm sure you saw, you remember that one, I think it was from last year, the wrestlers, and I think it was an Oklahoma in the bathroom.

Did you see that video where the guy got mouthy? And, like, the one who was really short, and he was taking on, like, a football player from Oklahoma, and he ended up double-legging him and slamming him to the toilet. Do you remember that video? And he just beat the hell out of this guy. It was like a little shoot. It was like a 5-foot-7 wrestler against, like, a 6-foot-3 football player. And the football player started mouthing off, and the dude literally picked him up and dumped him

him on his head. And I was like, well, that's what you get from him. messing with a wrestler. I said you can for, oh, man, that would happen in the cage, too. God, everyone hates wrestlers. Sam, let's talk about this fight because coming out of your last one, you posted, I think it was on Instagram, and you were very honest. You were very honest.

You said, you know what? I think I'm probably done. You know, the UFC's probably going to let me go. And, you know, that is what it is. But then you talk to them and they said, we're going to let you fight out your contract. And you were, you were honest about it. you were kind of emotional about it. And I love that, you know, honesty about it.

Can you, I don't want to make you restate what you stated, you know, here we sit seven days out from the fight. I don't want you restate everything. But I love the honesty about that because you are, because you are on social media so much, you have a chance to address people. And you know, people are going to address when you're off a couple losses. They're going to say, oh, my God, why are you getting another chance? I'll never understand that because you getting another chance doesn't mean somebody else

got sacrifice, which is ridiculous to think because the UFC, if they, if they, want to keep you, they're going to keep you. If they want to get rid of you, they're going to get rid of you. And you and I both know that. You could have 20 fights in the promotion. You could have one fight in the promotion. If they don't want you around, they're going to get rid of you. It doesn't matter whether Sam Alvey's on the roster or not. But you were very honest about that. I love that. Because you kind of what we do, like the emotion of that moment, just knowing that you're going to get this fight and fight out your contract and they gave me that opportunity. You kind of earned it. You've been around for a while. You fought when you didn't have to fight. You took on opponents on short notice. You stepped up when you didn't have to step up. And I think that's why they're giving you this opportunity. Am I wrong? No, that's what they told me. I was walking into a YMCA, Mick Maynard called. My wife happened to be walking out. So I grabbed her real quickly.

We went to the car and he chatted with us. And it was, I mean, my wife and I knew we were going to get cut. It was just there's no two ways about it. And he decided not to cut us. He said, listen, we've talked to Dana. We've talked to everyone. And these are the reasons. They kind of said, listen, you've taken.

taken a lot of fights that most people would not have taken. The short notice, you've gone across seas, you've done this, you've always showed up. And your fights are always entertaining. And he said, on top all that, said, you are a joy to work with. He said, when you come to fight week, when you come to the API, when you do anything like that, your team is always somebody, everyone's excited to see, everyone's excited to work with. You bring a positivity with you that most fighters don't. And he said, we appreciate that.

So you've got one fight on your contract yet. He said, we, we, and he said it kind of, he said, we recommend you retire afterwards, but, you know, we'll let you fight out the last, it was kind of like, you're probably not going to retire, but we're going to say we recommend it. And so, we'll see, we'll see what happens. I'm going to go out. I'm going to, I'm going to fight to get re-signed. They were very nice about it.

I've been with, I think this is my 25th fight in the UFC. I've been there for the last decade. I've had a lot of good fights, a couple of the night performances. and most as of like my they also said they said and that you have had a lot of judge decisions that they don't quite agree with um so between all of those reasons and we're going to let you fight out your contract and i said well thank you so much you've just made my day i'm going to go around on the treadmill get ready for the next one um and uh that that's what i've been doing ever since that phone call i've been re-energized re-hyped and uh it's it's a chance i i'm fighting for for the

future of, you know, smiling Sam. Yeah. You, uh, when you look at the record, immediately, people say, well, you haven't wanted to fight in a while and not that you need anyone to tell you that. You said that in the video. I know I haven't wanted to fight in a while, but you have, I think this is the problem when we have bad judges decisions or, you know, things like an eye poke ending the fight. Sometimes we lose perspective of how a fight plays out. We just look at the winner of the loss. And I say that all the time. We can sit here and complain all the day about a bad the judge's decision, but six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, somebody looks at the record, they just see loss.

They don't necessarily remember that it was a split decision. They don't necessarily remember that everybody in the world gave you the fight and nobody scored it for your opponent except for the judges on that night. Right. You've had a couple of bad luck things happen in there. You had a split draw. You had a couple split decisions. And listen, there's, again, take nothing away from like Brendan Allen.

He got a legitimate win. Good for him. Like, there's nothing wrong with that. But when people look at your record, is that probably the toughest pill to swallow is that we do lose perspective on why you've had the run you've had on? Not to say every fight, I'm sure you'll take full responsibility for a couple of those fights. I just lost the fight. But there have been some other circumstances. And you can say, yeah, I got the bad end of a decision or this happened.

That happened. It's just too easy to look at the record and say, well, yeah, I want to fight in a while. That's it. And I think that's the problem. We lose perspective on why things happen. and not just that they happened. Yeah, it's given me an opportunity to try to come up with some funny one-liners to get back at them to, because you can't say, well, go watch all of my last eight fights.

And you'll see, I probably won four of them. I can't keep saying that. So I don't. I try and come up with some way of, well, just wait till the next one or stuff like that. I'm very excited to get off this, this long, miserable skid I've been on. and just leave the internet speechless. That's kind of what I'm looking

forward to. Looking forward to. The only comments that really bothered me is, oh, you can't listen to this guy. He's on a seven fight, Terry. He doesn't want to fight since whenever. So that doesn't, it's like, come man. And it's you just feel it's like, guys, I do this every day. I may not

have won, but I train. I understand the sport. I have done more with the sport than most people ever will understand. I understand what's going on in there. And for you to now not take anything I, any opinion I have, you know, credibly is that those are the comments that that stick with me a little bit. So I just, and then I got to remember, they're helping the algorithm. So if they're going to comment bad, whatever, just comment and you'll help my algorithm one way or another. Yeah. For the most part, the comments have been positive. Most, most people do enjoy, do enjoy, do enjoy

need to enjoy my fights that they understand that that fight you know bad luck happens and i've been i've had some bad luck and some bad skill and some um but uh it it it does i'm looking forward to getting this next win under my belt so i can say oh yeah well i won my last one don't don't look at anything before that yeah so how do how do you approach this one sam in terms of you know your own expectations because obviously you want to go out there and win but you said like when the ufc They're saying, we're going to give me this last fight in your contract. You know, retire. Maybe I retire afterwards, whatever the case may be.

And you just said, like, I'm fighting to get resigned. I'm not fighting just to fight by last fight and be done with the UFC. I want to fight and they're going to give me a new contract. How do you approach this? Because, again, that does put pressure on you, though. I mean, you want to win no matter what. I don't think there's anything I could say or the UFC could say or the fans could say that that makes you want to win more than you already want to win.

Because I know you want to win. I know that. That's a ridiculous statement to think anything anyone's going to. the city is going to make you want to win more than you already want to win. But does that raise the expectation? Does that raise the pressure? Do you welcome that pressure saying, I know I need to win here because I do want to get re-signed?

I want to get that in the back. I want McMander to come up and say, we're going to give me a new four-fight deal or whatever the case may be. You know, pressure is the wrong word. There's always pressure. I mean, I'm the provider for my family. So every win, every fight, everything I've got going is I'm putting, I need to win to provide from my family. So the pressure

of getting re-signed or not getting re-signed, I've got talents outside of fighting. So even if, you know, worst-case scenario, I break my toe on the way into the cage and it's automatic whatever happens, I will the good Lord's on my shoulder, whatever comes next, I will be

successful at that as well. However, this fight is what is next for me right now. And I'm just, I have trained my ass off. I know what I've done. I know who I'm supposed to fight as of now. And I know I know that what I have done to to prepare for this fight

has been more than enough. I know I have pushed myself sweat hard enough, blood enough times that this is the time my stars are lining. I'm going to show up. I'm going to perform. I'm going to listen to my coaches. I'm going to listen to my wife. And I'm going to go out there and get the win. So I don't feel

that I don't feel any more pressure than I normally would. I've done more in this sport than most people ever will. I'm very proud of what I've been able to do. I'm going to be even more proud when I get this, you know, when I break this skit. Yeah. So when you say it, like your approach to this fight saying, I'm going to win and then I'm going to get that new deal. I'm going to get a new contract.

I'm going to get the UFC to resign me. That's the way you're approaching and not I need to win this fight or I'm out of the UFC. It's I'm going to win and I'm going to get a new contract. I'm going to win. I'm going to make a lot of new fans doing it. I'm going to get this new contract. They're going to, you know what's going to happen? The UFC is going to resign me.

say, you know the fight we want to see, you know the fight that people want to see, they want to see you fight Nick Diaz, Sam. That's what people want to see. They want to see Nick Diaz fighting old legend. They don't want to, they don't want Nick Diaz to fight the young bucks. They want that, that's what they want. That's the fight I'm fighting for this time. Now, there you go.

I like that a lot. Now, hold on now. Now, Sam, you're like the incredible inflating and deflating man because I remember when you fought at 170 on the ultimate fighter. I remember going back to those days, you cut into Welterweight, how much fun that was. What weight would you fight Nick Diaz at? Because you're 205 right now.

What are you going to get? I can't have had. I know Nick's fought at 1.85. What weight are we talking about here? My upcoming fight is 85. That's right. I'm sorry, 85. Excuse me, 85.

No, it's, yeah. My last fight was supposed to be 85, too. It was a 2 o'clock. Yeah, he said, all you've got to fight up. Yeah, no, I, if he, his last fight was supposed to be 70, I think the week of he changed it to be like 190 or something. I'll fight him wherever he wants to if that's a fight that the UFC wants. If that's a fight he wants,

I think it would be a fun fight. I think he'd have a good time with it. I don't think there's any reasons he would say no to a 185 fight. And I would be honored to share the cage with someone like him. Yeah, I love that attitude, you know, because again, I think that some people, and you know this as well as I do, I think some people go in with a little bit of a defeatist attitude saying I'm fighting, I'm fighting. not to get cut. They're not fighting

to get resigned. They're not fighting to, you know, I'm going to get a new four-fight deal. They're fighting because they don't want to get cut. And that's a different attitude, right? Like, that's a different approach. That's a different approach to fighting a fight just to save your job versus fighting for the future, if that makes sense.

I have had I've had I have had fights where I was fighting to get into the UFC. This is just another one of those fights. I am fighting to get into the UFC to get that new contract. into the UFC. And it's a wonderful feeling.

I'm not worried about getting cut. They can't cut me after this. My contract's up. But I can win. I can impress them and I can get a new new contract. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well, Sam, I'm glad you're back.

I'm always happy to speak with you. I appreciate it. Keep up the good work on TikTok, not to take distraction away from your fight. Can I hope? I know you get real busy during fight week. And one of the videos you did actually talking about weight cutting, which I thought was fascinating,

like the long road of weight cutting. I think you said you cut 29 pounds over a period of time. You get your body conditioned to cut. Wait, another fascinating video. Are you going to make videos during Fight Week? Yeah, oh, I always do. I have so much fun and take back during Fight Week because I do everything. A lot of fighters, they show up to Fight Week, and they go from the bathtub to their bed, to the food blind to the bed.

They're very, I have fought everywhere in the world. I've been everywhere in the world. And I always experience wherever I am. this time I'm in Vegas. There are no COVID restrictions on me. I'm going to go out. I'm going to see the city. I'm going to enjoy the city.

And I'm going to make videos the whole week about everything I'm doing. I love it. Keep it up, man. Like I said, it does take a lot to stand out on a platform like TikTok because there's so many people out there. But yours is really fascinating. I would recommend anyone that's on TikTok to follow you because it is. It's an educational experience.

Like I said, I've been covering this sport for 20 years. And even I learned something on there. So I love it. So keep up the good work there. Best of luck in the fight, Sam. I'm sure we'll catch up afterwards. And thank you, as always, for the time. I really do appreciate it.

Hey, I appreciate you, my friend. And I wanted to say, so I follow you on Twitter. And after every fight, you are the Twitter feed I go to to find out who won everything, who won the bonuses, who did that. And it's always been really nice having you gone there because whatever question I have in my head, your Twitter usually has just covered it. So I appreciate that about what you do too. I appreciate that.

I try to keep everyone informed as best I can. So I appreciate that. So yeah, see, social media works, right? Like, we're both connecting on social media, and it's not just a toxic place to call names to people. Yeah. When I fought Julian Marquez, I won the fight of the night bonus. And nobody had told me, I heard something.

And so the first thing it is, I went to your Twitter feed to see if I won it. It was your Twitter that told me I won the extra 50 grand. There you go. Oh, my goodness. There you go. See? Works out.

Well, I appreciate that, Sam. And like I said, I appreciate you always taking the time. Can't wait. Like you said, win-luser draw. We know when you step in there, it's going to be a fun fight. And I think that says a lot about your character. And one of the reasons people always want to see a fight because when we know when Sam Alvy fights, it's going to be a Sam Alvey fight.

And I mean that is a compliment. So go out there and have a Sam Alvey fight. and I can't wait to see you back in action in just a matter of days, my friend. Hey, I thank you so much, sir, and we'll see you then. All right, talk to you soon. All right, we'll talk to you soon, buddy. A big thank you once again to Sam Alvey for coming on the show, as I said. You know, you don't have to love Sam Alvey, and I understand if you don't.

I understand if you don't like that he's gotten so many shots in the UFC, if you don't like his politics. Listen, I don't agree with this politics necessarily. Some of the things he said, you know, we don't necessarily agree with. but I'm a big proponent for, you know, you're never going to find middle ground with anybody if you can't ever try to just, you know, you like we don't necessarily need to talk about every subject in the world

to have a conversation. And, you know, like I said, you may not like Sam Alvey. That's fine. You may not like him at all. You may think he's a terrible fighter. You may just don't like his personality. You don't like the EOC's giving him a chance to have a fight after a, you know, a seven fight losing streak with one draw.

I don't know. whatever the reason may be, you're entitled to your opinion. But I've always liked Sam. I've always got along with Sam. I've always liked Sam's demeanor when it comes to fighting. And I think he actually is a really, really good mind when it comes to a perspective on fighting because he's been around so long. This guy's been around since the early days. And he's stuck around.

And I like that. And I always like talking to the kind of OG guys. I mean, this is the guy who grew up training with Dan Henderson, you know, in that camp out in Temecula. So I always like talking to Sam. I always like his perspective. Again, don't always agree with him. that's okay. That's not my job to agree with someone. That's fine. But I always enjoy talking to him. And hopefully you all enjoyed that interview. It was a lot of fun talking to him about his fight,

about his TikTok, and of course about what may be his final fight in the UFC, depending on how things go on Saturday night. A big thank you once again to everyone the tunes in each and every week to the fighter versus the writer. As I mentioned, sorry for my voice. I am under the weather dealing with COVID-19, but I'm feeling a little bit better. Hopefully going to feel better each passing day. So hopefully next week, I'll be back to normal or some sense of normal and a regular episode next week. So stay tuned for that. A big thank you once again to Anthony Pettis

and Sam Alvey for coming on the show. Make sure you check us out on all your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and of course you can always find us over on MMAFighting.com. We'll see you guys next week for another edition of the Fighter versus the Rider. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you then.