MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Belal Muhammad Expects Khamzat Chimaev Next; Corey Anderson Confident He’s Now the No. 1 Light Heavyweight in MMA

Episode Date: April 19, 2022

Belal Muhammad and Corey Anderson join episode 32 of The Fighter vs. The Writer to discuss their fights from this past weekend. Muhammad joins the show after a statement win over Vicente Luque in the UFC Vegas 51 main event, which also avenged a loss from their first meeting back in 2016. Muhammad will address the game plan he used to beat Luque while also discussing what comes next for him in a busy welterweight division including a potential matchups against Khamzat Chimaev and why he believes that will be his next fight rather than Colby Covington. Corey Anderson will also stop by to detail what happened in his fight against Vadim Nemkov, which ended in controversial fashion following an accidental clash of heads that led to a no contest. Despite the anticlimactic ending does Anderson still feel like he did enough to prove himself as the best light heavyweight in the sport plus when he expects to see Nemkov again in the rematch. All this and more on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify Read More: MMA Fighting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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select retailers, you get in-store products for in-store prices, and the only thing that isn't in-store is you. That means you could order in-store products at in-store prices while you're in sweatpants, in spin class, in stuffy work meeting, in anywhere but in store. So download the app today and get $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. a podcast network. Welcome back to the Fighter versus the writer. And the man I'm welcoming in today is not only co-hosts to the show in the past,

but he's coming off a monstrous win over the weekend. Avenged a pass loss. Gotta be honest, look better than ever. I mean, goodness, gracious, what a performance. Let me speak today. Welcome in. Bilal Mohammed. Bilal, how are you?

I'm good, my brother. Thank you for the introduction. I appreciate that. Absolutely, man. Looking fresh. What a performance, man. I got to say, like you've had some. strong performances. Your fight over Wonderboy was incredibly impressive. Your fight over Damien

Maya was incredibly impressive. But man, the way you fought Vicente Lucke was so incredibly impressive. You completely took him out of his game and you and you basically put your will on him. Man, just congratulations. What a performance. Thank you, man. Yeah, honestly, a lot of work went into this camp, a lot of hard work, a lot of you know, there's a lot of stress and anxiety and overthinking this whole camp just because fighting a guy that's being you before, I was like, I cannot let this happen again. So I worked twice as hard, push myself to the limits. My team, my coaches, we studied more than ever.

And we figured out the perfect plan to be the guy like that. And, you know, he's a monster. You know, Luca, I think he's still one of the best guys in. division and I proved that I'm one of the best guys in the division now. Now there's like no other excuses for anybody else to hate on me or call it on me now. You know, I went out there and I beat a guy that finished me before, a guy that's finished plenty of other guys before and took some of his best punches, gave him some of my best punches and, you know, just fall perfectly, I think.

Absolutely. I agree. Can you give me a sense of going into the fight? What was the game plan? Like when you guys studied. him because your movement and the way you kind of made him chase you and then you were hitting him and he just, again, we'll talk about the third round when he basically landed the one really good punch he had in the fight, but the entire fight, he's trying to chase you, he's trying to cut up the cage, you never allowed him to do that. Your movement was giving him so many problems and then you were hitting him, hitting him, hitting him, and he just could not find a home for anything. Was that just the game plan? Did you see something in his game that kind of told you,

hey, this kind of movement's going to give him problems. Yeah, you know, literally we're nothing but footworking, footwork and movement, the whole camp, because he's very good at planting his feet. And when you're in front of him, he'll hit you hard because he plants his feet and he finishes a lot of guys that way, that they get in a lot of brawes with them. He's not afraid to take one to give one. And, you know, going back and looking at the Wonderboy fight, Wonderboy did very good at hitting and moving, hitting and moving. Even Kiesa did very good at side shuffle, side shuffle, then sprints it in with his

punches. And I think that our game plan was to hit him. And then when he thinks we're going to stick to hitting him, that's when we shoot on him. When he thinks we're going to shoot on him, that's when he thinks we're going to bang with him, all right, we're going to move. When we hit him one, two, we're going to keep moving after that. Then when he gets frustrated, that's when we shoot, take him down. You know, I think it's like, like I said, I feel like I'm working with some of the best coaches, best team in the world. And I think that we just came out with the perfect plan.

I just figured, man, I was like, at some point he's going to break because I was hitting him some very good body kicks. And my kicks are hard. And I was like, one of these guys, he dropped this guy, man. But he wasn't showing no facial expression there at all, man. But I'm like, this guy is tough. Yeah, I heard maybe you can confirm this for me.

I heard after the fight that Gilbert Burns actually came up to you and told you the body kicks made a huge difference in the fight. So maybe he didn't show it during the fight. fight, but did he say something to you afterwards? It was Luke. Luke A told my coaches. Yeah, Lucke told my coaches after the fight. Yeah, man, those body kicks

hurt, man, they changed a lot. And, you know, Lucke, like I said, even after the fight, Luca was just like so respectful, man. Like, as I said, like, such a good guy. He was like, yeah, I prayed for Palestine, man. And it was right after the fight. And I was like, you know, you don't expect that for somebody

you just went to battle with. And that's why I love about the sport. I love about being a real martial artist. a lot of respect for him. Yeah, absolutely. And the body kicks were nasty. And the striking, too, you know, going into the fight, a lot of people, I know you said this at the post-fight presser. A lot of people said, will it be your grappling against his striking? You've shown great striking in the past. But we know how dangerous Luke is. I mean, the guy's got one-punch knockout power. And you went out there and you were out striking him, you were out grappling him. Like,

again, I'm sure you would have loved a first round knockout that would have been sweet. but at the same time, like, the way you dominated him for almost the entire five-round period, like that has to make you feel good because you beat him pretty much in every facet of the game. Yeah, honestly, like I said, regardless, I'm still going to have the trolls and the haters that don't respect my game, but I think that I got a lot of respect from a lot of high-end fighters. I've got tweets from Justin Gage, Suh, Saudo, Frank Edgar, all these guys, my peers that respect my game, to respect what I've done. and they see that how I'm growing and getting better.

And respect from people like you who understand the sport and understand what it takes to be the guy like Luke A and see the little things and beat them on the feet or beat them on the ground. You know, it's telling me that all my work is finally paying off. And, you know, like I said, I worked super hard, man. I literally bleed for blood, sweat, and tears for this, this whole camp. and I'm just glad it paid off. Absolutely.

I got to ask you real quick about the takedowns too because your wrestling has always been a great weapon for you, but you were taking him down in the middle of the cage. We just don't see that that often anymore. Like there's so many takedowns that happen against the cage, even the best wrestlers in the sport rarely hit a really good double leg and put it in the middle of the octagon. You did that several times, and that blew me away because one, Lucke's not super easy to take down, but just the fluidity at which you were dropping your levels, driving through the take down and putting him down in the middle of the cage.

Again, you had to be happy with that because that's not easy to do. Yeah, I've said, man, so many people underestimate me. Like I said, I'm not the best striker. I'm not the best grappler. I'm not the best wrestler. But I put it all together better than anybody else in the division. And my IQ is better than anybody else in division. I think that my timing is better than anybody else in division.

I think that for me, I practice at all. And I like, I don't, I don't leave no stone on turn. So, like, we knew that he was the type of guy that's going to be in my face. He's going to pressure me forward. With Wonderboy, I was able to pressure him forward and position against the fence to take him down that way. So I knew that I was going to need different takedowns for Luka, because that's how Luka does. He stands forward, stands right in front of you.

And he has my back against the case. So this whole camp we were working on just different wrestling, different takedowns and seeing the open map. and I was, even with him, you know, I was hoping that he would give up his back at certain points, and I'd be able to throw the hooks in and get it finished. But he was doing a very good job of getting up properly and getting up the right way too and making it difficult for me to hold him down longer than I wanted. Yeah, I mentioned that third round. He did clip you with a good shot in the third round, which was kind of, as again,

this is not, you know, this is just a testament to the performance you put on. Really, it was the only solid shot he really caught you with almost the entire fight. not to say he didn't land punches, but that was the only seemingly clean punch he landed. But you recovered really well. You kind of backed off. You never allowed him to overwhelm you, which is that's what Vicente does. That's what he does. He waits for you to make a mistake and then he feasts on it.

You never did that? Like, did you always have your composure in that moment? Like, did you ever really feel buzzed? Or did he just catch you with a good one and then you recovered pretty quickly? Because, again, he never followed up, which is that's what he does. That's what Lucke does. He's like a shark in the water. Yeah, yeah.

You know, he called me, but I feel like I recovered really quickly, really got right back into it, was just trying to get back into my movement. And then for me mentally, it's like, dang, is this happening again. This is not going to happen again. And also it's like, you want to get that one back. So like, he just called me or something. I'm like, all right, I got to get that one back a lot of the time. But my coaches were very good at telling me, all right, move, move, move, get back to defense.

Discipline, discipline, discipline, that was the biggest key. for this whole camp was just being disciplined with my defense because, you know, like I said, all it takes the one shot from him. So we did a whole lot of work on just keeping my hands up. You know, I used to have bad attributes of dropping my hands, keep my chin up when I'm moving and things like that. And, you know, this whole camp, we wanted to make it just subconsciously. The hands are always up, hands are always up, hands up, discipline, discipline, discipline. And my coach were screaming to me and I was able to recover thankfully and end up getting a take down in that third run as well.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, you said it to me before the fight below, you said, you know, when you beat Damien Maya, people were trying to discredit you and said, well, he was on his way to retirement, whatever. You beat Wonderboy. They said, oh, well, Wonderboy is past his prime. He's not the same Wonderboy. He said, what excuse are they going to have when I go out there and do that to Vicente Lucke coming off of four or five wins in a row, four finishes in a row, you know, finishing the former champion tire, would they go out there and having that crazy good fight with Michael Keyes? All the things he's done. Do you feel like that was the exact kind of statement you wanted to make in a fight like that? Because, again, first-run knockout, yes, it would have been great. It would have been sweet, all those kind of things. But I think the way you dominated him for five rounds, you never allowed him to get in the fight. Said a lot about who you are as a fighter and doing it in a main event. Do you feel like that was the kind of statement you wanted to make? And as you said on Saturday night, what do you got to say now?

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I felt like that was the performance I wanted. was the performance I wanted, obviously you always want to finish. There's always going to be doubters, no matter what, they're always going to hope and pray that I lose and fail. But I think that I earned a lot of respect from a lot of people and a lot of people now have their eyes open with me now, and now they see. And when you're looking back at it, this last 15 months, this is going to be, that was my fifth top ranked opponent that I fought, three top five guys that I fought, even though Leon Edwards was at a full fight. It was still a top

five guys that I accepted to fight with. And there's a lot of these guys that are in top five that aren't fighting, top tenors that aren't fighting anybody that's top ranked. I have two wins over top five guys now, three wins over top ten guys now in the last year. And I'm the only one out here saying yes, the fight the best guys. And I think that it's more so now, whereas people are realizing that, you know, all right, this guy's not going anywhere. This guy's staying at the top.

There's, you know, we try to give him this. That didn't work. That didn't work. That didn't work. Right. Let's give him the guy that knocked them out. Fudge, they didn't work either. So now they're like, I don't know what we had to do.

I think that they're trying to start to figure out that, you know, I think this guy's going to end up with the belt around his waist. I don't know how to stop this guy. Yeah, I love it. We, years ago, we did a story. I'm sure you remember, we did a story about, I think it was when you were going to fight in Abu Dhaban. We talked about the dedication you've had for the Palestinian people

and always giving that a lot of a time. attention and necessary attention. Let's be honest about that. You took the platform you had on Saturday night main event, you got a captive audience, and I'm a big, big believer, and you know, use that mic time, man, whatever you're going to use it for, whether you're calling somebody out or calling somebody to a cause. We saw last week with Mike Mallet when he talked about his coach, who was going through a really tough time with his daughter with cancer, and then that GoFundMe blew up. You use your mic, people will pay attention. How important was it for you? Your first big main event like that coming off a big main event win to uh to use that platform and and kind of you know

kind of shout that out something that people don't think about a lot honestly it meant the world to me that uh and i appreciate ufc giving me that platform and that opportunity to to give me the the mic and let me say those things because it's i tell myself all the time i have to be a voice for the voiceless like the people they don't know about uh the world will cry for Ukraine, the world would go nuts for them. And it's, uh, I pray for those people as well. I pray for all these people that are, uh, you know, being mistreated. And the Palestinian people, for so many years, they, it happens every time. They're, they're, it's the same for them as it is for these people now that you're just starting to notice it with the Ukrainian people that

Palestine has been going through it for hundreds of years. And, you know, it just started re-escalating again, right when Ramadan started. So I knew that every Romanov, It happens and it happened literally the week before my fight where it started getting worse over there. And like I said, I literally just pray for peace and coexistence. And being a Muslim, I don't have hate for anybody. I don't have hate for any religions. I just want people to be humans and to see us as humans and, you know, to know that we exist. That when I carry that flag and people tell me, all you're American, it doesn't matter.

I'm carrying the flag for people that they don't have an opportunity to carry that flag for themselves. They don't have anybody that can do that for them. So for me to be able to do that, it just means the world to me. And for me to get that win and to know that I'm getting messages from people from Palestine that are saying that they love me and that win meant so much for them and they lost their home and everything. And just watching me win made their day and made their month. Like, it's heartbreaking for me, but it's also just so satisfying. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I thought it was really cool. You did that. Also, everyone talked about it. I feel like I keep bringing up past things we've done Bilal, because I'm just saying I was ahead of the curve on everyone else Bilal in terms of your career. I'm just saying, like I've been shot up Bilal Mohammed for many, many years. Going back a few years, we did the story,

we talked about fighting during Ramadan, because you're one of the only guys who does it. And again, I have nothing but the utmost respect for any of the guys who don't do it, because it's not easy. And I put up a quote on Saturday night, and you said, you always look at it as a way to make yourself better. And you said because everyone says I'm having a hard training camper, I'm having the best training, but I know my opponents aren't fasting.

I know my opponents aren't going through what I'm going through. You kind of condition yourself. And I know you said after the fight, one of these days I need to stop doing this. But it is kind of your thing now, right? Like, this is like a third or four time you've done it. Yeah, I know. I'm literally, I'm telling my, I'll eat no more, no more during Ramadan. because it's like you said it's it's harder but also it just makes me want to you know it makes me

more mentally strong during that month and pushes me I know to different levels but also I got to just give more respect to to to just focusing straight nothing on the religion or nothing everything out of my head but the month should be just dedicated to the religion so for myself I want I can tell myself all the time like I need to stop doing that because that's what it's supposed to be a holy month. It's supposed to be a holy month of nothing but religion, faith, concentrating on that, bettering yourself as a Muslim and, you know,

having a fight and concentrating, you know, you're overthinking too about fighting too and things like that. So no more after this, but, you know, who knows? If you call me again for another mania-ma-Mahma-Bahma-spot, I'm always going to say, yeah. I'm saying it right now, watch, it's going to be the title fight. You know that's going to happen, right?

They're going to call you, be like, hey, we got a title fight for you, but it's going to be during Ramadan. You know that's going to happen, right? Oh, man, 100%. Why? It's going to be, and it's going to be like in Chicago, the United Center. Like, hey, we have this final. Water. And you know what you're going to do?

You're going to say, yep, give it to me. For sure. You know, of course, you know, coming out of that win, you know, in terms of where you're at the division, you know, we kind of look at the layland. Now, of course, afterwards, you called out Colby Covington, and it's kind of funny right before the fight. I did a store and you talk about how you still wanted that Colby coming to fight. I joked on Saturday. I said, you're literally going to the entire nice guy division after Damien Maya, Wonderboy, Neviscente Luca, you've wiped out the nice guy division.

And by the way, and I mean this is a true compliment, Balau. You are an incredibly nice guy yourself. You can trash talk, you can have fun, but you actually are incredibly nice guys yourself? So before I get to anything else, have you solidified yourself? Are you officially the NMF? They say the nicest mofo champion? Have you officially, because you've now. taking out all three guys. I don't do it. That's a, that's a perfect, really good point right there.

I'm like, I'm sitting there like, man, people, I get tweets all the time, people like hating on me. And everybody's like, bro,

because you're beating the freaking nicest guys in the UFC. They have the nicest fan base. And, like, you're beating their, their favorite fighters. And I'm like, oh, that's a good point.

And it's like, I get out of my brother's like, oh, why you talk trash to them? Talk trash to them. Like, bro, I'm not going to talk trash to Maya. I'm not going to talk trash to Wanda. it. Like you said, I'm a nice guy myself, so I don't like to fake it.

So, you know what, now there's some scumbags up at the top that I would have some fun to talk trash to and going back and forth with. Yeah, well, you are the nice guy champion for now, but that's all going to end very soon because you mentioned the guys that are at the top of the division. You mentioned Colby Covington and Amy won. I know Hamzot is the other guy out there. You put the tweet out there saying, hey, July 5th, Hamzider, Colby, I'm ready to go. I know you called out Colby

And I think the call, a lot of people said why you call on Colby because they already said they're going to make the Hamza fight. I got to be honest. And I think you know this, Bilau, and I think a lot of people will agree with me. There's no guarantee Colby's going to take the Hamzaa fight. Let's just be completely honest about that.

We don't, that fight's not signed. It's not done. Nothing's been, you know, nothing's been official. So, but in a perfect world, what is the better fight? Is it Colby or is it Hamza? Because Hamza's got the hype right now. He's got all the attention in the world.

Coming off to Gilbert Burns fight, Colby is the guy I know you don't like. You've been calling out Colby Covington for the past two years in interviews we've been doing, so I know you really want that fun on our personal level. What would mean more to you? Yeah, you're right. I tell people that, I'm like, they're like, oh, well, Condo's going to fight Kobe. I'm like, Kobe's not taking that fight. Look who Kobe's fighting.

Look who Kobe's calling out. He's calling out 55ers. Now that his tooth is broken, he's probably going to be on the sidelines for a couple of years. until he gets some money from Masbynob. But for me, it's either one of those fights. Like both of those fights, I feel like the buildup would be pretty good. Comza was one of the trolls that tweeted out. Luke ain't knocking me out.

So I had no respect for him. I'm down to fight him. That fight would mean a lot to me to beat a guy like that where everybody thinks is invincible and is untouchable. Obviously, he had a great fight against Gilbert Burns. It was nothing but respect. respect for both those guys. But definitely want to beat him.

I want to be the guy that stops him, the guy that I don't want to have no excuses over the next guy that I beat that they say, oh, well, this guy still here, he's going to get the title shot next. Like, I know that being Luque, I know that Kamsa was still there. So they were going to, if Kamsat beat Gilbert Burns, I was going to be stuck in that. Well, Hamzaat's still going to should fight Usva next. So now it's like, I want to fight if Hamzaa fights Kobe and I fight somebody else, if Hamzaa beats Colby's getting a title shot before me. So I'd rather just skip all that, fight him,

five-round fight, winner gets a title shot. It makes a lot of sense to me, I think. No, I agree. I agree. And again, you know, you've been the guy who, you know, since day one, you've been calling for the Hamza fight. You know, you were supposed to get him in London. We talked about that. They offered it to you, except it, unfortunately, it ended up happening. And I know you talked about it before the fight that, you know, you were impressed by Hamzaa's performance, but you're not Gilbert Burns in the way you fight. And I can't see you going into a Hamzod fight and just biting down in your mouthpiece and swinging punches into one of you falls over. Now, Gilbert Burns, listen, I can't say enough good things about that guy.

That guy's a monster. He's a warrior and, you know, all the love in the world of that guy. I talked to Gilbert last week. I mean, again, I can't say enough good things about that performance. But I know you're not Gilbert. You're not going to fight him the way Gilbert fought him. Do you like that matchup in terms of style, especially now that we've seen a little more out of him? Because before there just really wasn't much to judge on.

Like, it was just such dominant one-sided performances. We really didn't know much about him. Yeah, honestly, like, that was the perfect thing. That's what I wanted out of that fight. I was like, you know, I like Gilbert, so I was rooting for Gilbert in general just because we're boys. But I was like, I want to see at least three rounds. I don't care what happens. I just don't want it to be a quick knockout on either side because I want to see what happens I really got in him.

And, you know, we got a lot of tape on him now. Now we've seen things. Like I said, when I was training for him for the London, fight when I thought I was going to fight him in London. I watched tape on him already and I was sitting there looking at openings and the openings that I saw from watching those tapes, I saw on the Gilbert Burns fight as well. So I see a lot of openings and like I said, I think I'm very good at breaking down fighters and analyzing what it takes to beat those guys. And I do see a lot of ways for me to beat Hamza. And like you said, Gilbert's one of those guys that he's going to be in there.

Let's bang it out. You want to throw? I'm going to throw. For me, I'm going to throw. I'm going to figure out, it's, for me it's chess. You want to play chess? I'm going to take you to places where your queen can't go. I'm going to, you're going to think that I'm doing this, but I'm going to do it that. And that's how I beat a lot of these guys because I'll smart them. Yeah, absolutely.

In your heart or hearts, do you feel like it's going to be Hamzot? Because I got to be honest, Bilau. I talked about Colby not taking the Hamza fight. I don't know that Colby would take a fight with you either. Yeah, as I said, I don't think Kobe's going to take a fight. with either of us, he's looking for somebody off of losses or he's looking for a 55 or I think he's going to probably call out like a Nick Diaz or Nate Diaz. He's going to wait on the sidelines for one of those type of fights.

And I just don't think he's going to take any tough matchups, really. So like I said, I'm a guy that likes to stay busy. I like to stay active. I like to stay fighting. I know Hamzaa likes to stay fighting, stay active. So I think coming off back-to-back weeks of us fighting, I think that one makes a lot of sense, especially with the title fight looming. Yeah.

You mentioned July 5th. You mentioned, you know, coming up in July, we know that's going to be international fight week. You mentioned that the presser, you know, wanting to fight on the same card as Usman and Leon Edwards, if that gets done because, you know, you're just waiting for the moment when Leon somehow doesn't get to fight and you end up stepping into the main event. But is there part of you that if it ends up being the Hamzot fight, and again, it could be on a pay-per-view because they've done it.

But do you feel like that's got to be five rounds? Because the party says, I want that as the main event because three rounds just doesn't, because your cardio, your condition, the way you push the pace, I would be very interested to see how Hamza would do in a fight like that because you do approach a fight like that in a different way. Yeah, I think it has to be five rounds. I think me coming off this fight, five-round fight, I showed that I could go full five rounds.

I think for Hamza for himself, you know, he was telling Gilbert, yeah, let's go five rounds. So I think that he would want a five round fight too to test himself before our title fight in general too. I think that we do fight each other. The winners for sure going to get a title fight. So I think that he would want a five round fight himself to test himself and see where he's at. And I think it makes the most sense. You've seen big fights in the UFC like in Nate Diaz and a Mazved all go five rounds or the Porreux fight goes five rounds. So they made coming events and stuff five round fight. I think that they would make this fight a five round five for sure if it goes through.

Yeah, absolutely. I agree. I agree. Let me throw out one other just small caveat to this because, again, we know Hamza, we know Colby. The only other guy out there would be Gilbert, and Gilbert's the only other guy in the rankings right there. Would you have any desire to visit that fight only because he is coming off a loss? And again, I know there's maybe a bit of a storyline because of the Gilbert, because of the Eccanee-Luke thing. That's his best friend, his brother, all those kind of things.

Or are you kind of keeping your focus on Hamzod? or Colby because they are coming off wins and I would imagine a win over either one of them would pretty much guarantee you a title shot. I mean, Gilbert was cheering for Lucke in the crowd. I was like, come on, Gilbert, I thought we were boys. But yeah, you know, obviously,

like I don't think he lost any momentum by losing to happen to that. That was a great fight. But for me, honestly, I feel like I'd rather fight one of the other two just because, you know, like I said, I've trained at Sampeter before. I would want to get training in with the guy, like Gilbert, if I'm fighting comes up.

I would want something like that because he's been in the cage with them. And, you know, we're cool on that point where we would train with each other. I don't think he would be mad or anything about it or any animosity towards it. So, yeah, I'd rather they train with their team instead of fight their team again. Because I like their team. Jared Gordon's down there. My boy, Henry Roof is the man. I love, you know, watching his tapes, talking to him all the time, too.

So, you know, like I said, if it happens, it happens. but I'd rather fight one of the other two that, you know, I could actually get riled up for it and talk trash to it, you know, go back and forth to us. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And listen, I, you know, like I said, I like either matchup and I don't want to put Colby completely out of the thought process here

because, again, I know that's one you've wanted forever. But I'm just playing the odds here. And I think odds are, you know, I don't think he's, I personally don't think he's going to take the Hamzaa fight. I just don't. I don't think that's a fight he's going to want to take. We already know he's, I mean, even if he beats Hamza, there's no guarantee they're going to just give him a third fight with Usman because he already

lost twice. So it's like, what, you know, I, what does he gain outside of a big risk of getting beat? You know what I mean? So it's like, you know, I agree with you. Nate Diaz, Nick Diaz, you know, whatever. I see that as a much more likely scenario than him taking the Homzaa fight. And then, again, Hamzaa need somebody. You're coming off a main event win, you're coming off several wins in a row.

That does kind of make the most sense, if I'm being honest. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I feel like it's a clear path and it's a clear number on contender fight, honestly, if you're really looking at it. And to me, either one of us win this fight is, like, no denying us to title shot. Yeah. Can I ask you, you mentioned, of course, the Leon Usman fight. Let's just play devil's advocate and say it does happen, you know, as it's scheduled. You know, Gilbert told me when I talked to him after the fight with, after I talked to him after the fight with, with Homsman.

thought he said that he actually thought, you know, Leon would be a little tougher matchup for Usman than a lot of people imagine because of his footwork, because of his striking. But I don't think anyone has told me they're going to pick Leon Edwards to be Usman. I know you're not the biggest Leon Edwards fan in the world. I don't think you have any kind of beef with Usman outside of wanting to take his title. But do you give Leon a good shot against Usman or do you think that's going to be one-way traffic? Honestly, to me, I think it's going to be one-way traffic. Like feeling Leon in the first round that we had in the grappling sequences we had, like he didn't feel strong at all.

And I think that Usman, the way that he's getting better and better every single fight and the way that Leon's not fighting at all and not really competing at all, I just think that coming to his last fight, a win was against guy like Nate Diaz. I think that Usman is just going to be too much for him coming off two big wins against like Mazl and Kobe Covington. and Leon's coming off of a three-year layoff and a win against Nate Diaz. I think that Oussbaum, it's going to be, I think, a replay of the first fight. I think he's going to take him down, control him on the ground.

And Leon is fast on the feet. He has good hands, good for work. But I think that Oshman will be able to grab a hold of them and be able to control him the whole time. Yeah. It's so funny. You mentioned it after the fight. And listen, I get, listen, there's a lot of, I do. There's some things I feel bad for Leon because, again, you are he.

didn't start the pandemic. He didn't cancel the fight with Woodley. He didn't try to get COVID when he was going to fight Homislavus. So there's been some misfortune that's kind of befallen him. But at the same time, he has been out so long. And again, his biggest win in recent years has been the Nate Diaz fight, which was a fight afterwards. Everyone was talking about Nate because of the fifth round when Nate almost came back and beat him.

And I know you said that afterwards, but like at this point, it feels like it's a done deal, but I know it's not a done deal. But like, is there a party that's like, hey, should the UFC revisit who actually gets the next title shot because in theory Homzot's winner Gilbert is bigger than the fights that Leon's had recently now I like I listen I have nothing against Leon Edwards and like I said a lot of what's happened to him I do feel bad for him about

but is there a party that's like hey or are you just like not even trying to think about like okay they're giving the title shot let's just do it and move on like yeah like I want to say that and honestly if you're looking at it but it makes me I don't want people to have anything I bring up Leon's name people are like, oh, cry baby, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada. But, you know, literally, like, who is he beat that's in the top 10? Who is he beat that's ranked? Nobody.

I know he has a lot of wins, but like I said, I've fought five ranked guys in the last year, beat three or four top 10 guys in the last year. And he's beat a 55er. And before that, he's been nothing about 55ers. And I know Dana White promised him this title shot. but like I said, you go back, you look at it. I think Dana needs to revisit a stomp process. I know that a lot of that has to do with Leon having the same manager as McGregor.

But, you know, McGregor's on the sidelines. I don't think McGregor's going back anytime soon. So maybe you can just tell Leon to kick rocks. Do you think that actually plays influence in terms like, you know, Connor maybe touting for Leon behind the scenes? I don't know. You know, you never know. You get Dana White privilege when you're connecting.

the Irish Gap. Well, like I said, we're all acting like it's a foregone conclusion, but you're right. Nothing's done. Nothing's done deal. But I do think if they're going to do Usman versus Leon, I think you and Hamzot is a five-round co-main event. That sounds pretty enticing to me. Yeah, that sounds amazing, honestly.

So now you mentioned, of course, you're still, of course, you know, honoring Ramadan right now. So you mentioned after the fight, you're not going to be able to pig out or anything right now, you're still fasting during the day, during daylight hours, those kind of things. Are you going to be able to celebrate? Are you going to enjoy this victory a little bit? Are you going to kind of just get right back in the gym? Yeah, honestly, as I said, it's like the perfect,

it's actually worked out perfectly because, you know, right after a fight, you want to just eat nothing but trash. And now I have to sit there and wait until 7.30 to eat this trash. So it works out better for me because the week after the fight I take off. And, you know, I'm just sitting down watching TV, watching that, And, you know, when you're watching Netflix, that's when the snacks come out. So now I'm going to be sick. Hungry, starving.

And when it becomes time to eat, my stomach's already going to be shrunk. So my body's probably going to be thinking I'm cutting weight against. So it's probably going to get stuffed after one meal. So I think my weight's going to be pretty good. Yeah, I'm definitely, like I said, I always go back, watch the tape, see what I need to work on differently, see what I need to fix, see what I could change better. And like I said, now that I moved up to. the rankings now like you said the window smaller of who i'm going to fight so now i start

looking at these guys start breaking down each one of these guys uh the way that i would fight each one of them because i don't know which one they're going to call me for but i know it's going to be one of those top two or three guys yeah i agree i agree and like i said i don't want to just you know i don't want to put all the eggs in one basket but i think the comms that fights the one that's going to it's just going to happen i just honestly believe that because when you look at the lay of the land i think that's the one they're going to make but again i can be wrong i've been wrong before. I'm not imposed to being wrong, but like I said, I think that's the matchup they're going end up making because I just don't see Colby taking that fight. Yeah, and you know me, I'm the

guy that's never going to say no. And I doubt he'll say no, so it makes the less to get it. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well, Below, I truly do mean it when I say, what an incredible performance man, enjoyed this victory because you earned it. That was, uh, I mean, just incredible strategy, incredible execution. Again, knockout would have been nice, but I honestly think the five-round performance was better because you got to beat him in every facet of the game over five rounds, no excuses, no lucky punches, none of that garbage. So incredible performance, man. Congratulations again.

Enjoy the victory. And I look forward to chatting again. Get you back on the podcast. We'll have you back here playing an analyst before too long as well. But for now, enjoy the victory. And thank you, as always, for taking the time. You know, I appreciate it. Thank you, brother.

Appreciate you. Appreciate your time. Absolutely. We'll talk soon, okay? All right, brother. All right, bye-bye. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe, but this time, why not look a little further?

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I want to say a big thank you, of course, to Bilal Muhammad for joining the show today, just a couple of days removed from his big win in a main event over Vicente Lucke. Right now, we're going to move on to another interview I conducted on Monday talking to another man who fought this past weekend. Unfortunately, he had a different kind of ending to his fight, an inconclusive ending, let's say. It's always a pleasure to speak to this man, and in my opinion he is,

number one light heavyweight in the sport. If there was a question about that, I think those answers, those questions were answered this past weekend. A lot to talk about, of course. So welcome back to great Corey Anderson. Corey, how are you? I'm good, Dan. How are you so?

I'm fantastic, man. I appreciate taking time and over only a couple days removed from the fight. A lot of talk to you about, but let me ask first, how are you feeling afterwards? You know, it seemed like, again, you were pretty dominant in the fight. Didn't come away any injuries? How are you feeling today? I mean, just sore pretty much, you know, But the way to fight went, the way it ended, I didn't sleep much.

So, you know, I was up drinking and hang out of my friends. And, like, throughout yesterday and the day before, I was, like, the sore-ness was kicking me as I was up. So I'm real tired, you know, kicking me trying to keep my mind off the way it ended and the travel and whatnot. So I'm sore. I'm tired. But nothing real serious, nothing where I need time to, like, heal or anything. Just going to take some time off and just let the body calm down from the soreness and get back from training pretty hard. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, let's start, you know, before we talk about the ending, let's talk about the fight itself, because, you know, it was a really strong performance from you, you know, fairly close first round, and back and forth. Obviously, you had your shots. He had a couple in there as well. But then second and third round were pretty lopsided in your favor. Third round in particular, beyond the stoppage, which we'll get to in a second. How do you feel you did in the fight?

How would you kind of grade your performance? It was. Is that what I'm supposed to? First round, I mean, I'll think, I give that like a B minus. The plan was the weather to storm a little bit, but I was a little flat. I was very, very flat coming out in the first round. I don't know what it was. My best friend was in a crowd, one of my trainer partners, he said.

It just seemed like you were flat, but at one point, we hit like a quick fake, and then shortly after that, you started getting your bounce back. But other than that, like, the performance went exactly like I said it was. So to everybody, like, I know he's going to have a kick game. That's about it. He's going to come out fast. He's going to be bouncing nonstop. He's going to throw that jab.

And just everything I knew was going to happen. happened. It's just I was a little flat at the beginning and got caught with a few shots that shouldn't have hit with. The kick game, you actually kind of took that away from him because it seemed like after that first round, he didn't really throw anything because you had the threat of the takedown. Once you got him down, it seemed like he just didn't want to kick anymore. Did you notice that? Yeah, I mean, I was part of it. We knew the kicks would come and we knew eventually if we get the timing on the takedowns, that would probably stop you, you know, because the chance of getting taken out a lot higher if I catch a kick as you're throwing and you're off balance.

It's a lot harder to keep your balance on one foot than it is too. So once we started attacking, I felt those kicks would slow down eventually. And they did. Yeah. Second round, you got your takedown. Third round, you got your takedown. And again, dominant in both rounds. I won't say easier because that's the wrong word.

But, I mean, was he easy? When I say yours, I don't mean as an insult, was he easier to control on the ground to what you meant to what you expected? Because you were pretty dominant. Like he couldn't really get out from under you. You were passing his guard. And again, you're a very dominant fighter, but, you know, we've not really seen Nimcoff get kind of dominated that way.

Did you kind of see it going that way? Are you surprised how easily you were able to kind of move around his guard, move him around, kind of control him from the top? I actually thought I was a better moving around a lot easier, to be honest. Like, I told the coach this first time I said in the back, like, yo, he was a lot stronger and I expect. Like, I knew he was going to be strong,

but not in the fact, like, string strong, but like his jiu-jitsu guard and his Z guard and his frames. were stronger to pass, like the time I was trying to smash his legs to just get into, like, a three-quarter amount, was a little harder than I expected because we never seen him in that position. Like you said, nobody ever seen him down there. Usually he just turns his back and wrestles the way up. So that's what I expected for him to do, but he actually played the judicious game the right way, keeping the frames, which made it harder for me to grain off my ground upon like I wanted.

Yeah, but you were still very dominant in the second round. They're the third round you come out, and you actually hit him with a couple of shots. the right hand in particular, I thought he was hurt pretty badly. Now, you tell me in the moment, again, I literally watched the replay again, like 15 minutes ago just to make sure it was fresh in my head.

But you hit him with that left right, but you hit him at the right, and I think the right really hurt him. You tell me, like, did you feel like he was wobbled in that moment? Because it sure looked like he was. Yeah, he was on stanky legs. He covered up well.

He played it really way. Got a good game face. I hit him, and I saw his knees to kind of, like, go a little bit when I first hit him, and after he started running outside of the cage, and I started cutting him. take away his running room. I knew he's going to throw a big shot or a big kick or he was going to shoot as I cut him off on his cage.

He did exactly that. He forced that shot. Yeah. You get him down. And this time, not only you're dominating, but you're really landing some hard shots. There was one elbow in there that made me cringe a little bit because it was pretty nasty. You hit it with a couple. I mean, did you kind of feel like before the stoppage, like you would really, like that was kind of the beginning of the end?

I understand. We still had two more rounds to go. I understand things can change. I don't want to, like, you know, completely negate what he could have potentially done, but did you feel like that was starting to become the beginning of the end in terms of what you were doing to him, the punishment you were dishing out in that third round?

Yes, 100% of it felt like everything just drained away slowly. You can't tell him for that chuck. I can't have heard the second and third when he got that choke. But after he got the little choke on the cage, and I got out of that, I felt from there that was like his laugh. He used everything he had trying to squeeze that choke off trying to get the finish. And I felt once I passed, he was just kind of like, he was just going with the flows, like, survive like that moment. Like, he wasn't trying to get up, but he was trying to keep me from laying and shots on his face where the ref wouldn't stop it.

Yeah. So let's just go ahead and talk about the ending because, again, I rewatched it just before this just to make sure I had everything fresh in my head. And the way it went was basically you went to throw an elbow, you went to throw down, and he had moved his head out of the way. And that's really what led to the clash of the head. You were diving down with the elbow, and he had shifted the other way to try to avoid it. and that's where the clash of heads. Have you rewatched it, like, since the fight, I know there was a lot going on that night.

Did you rewatch it and see, like, how it ended? Yeah, I rewashed it. And what you said, same thing I saw. He got his little frame with his legs. And when I went to drop the elbow, he felt us coming down. But instead of staying his head here, he kind of shifted.

And when he shifted, he got to push my body. I saw, like, more of a sprawl. I was sprawling down to smash his legs and trying to drop all my weight at the same time. So it was like, I feel. But when he kicked my leg, out my head went down first and his head shifted over so we collided right at the eyebrow eye eyebrow area i hit about here and it hit him here yeah you uh in that moment and i know you talked

about the post fight press conference you said you know you were a good sport because you immediately you know showed frank trade you tapped her head that it was a headbugs i know he winced and he kind of you know you saw him kind of wince and then you went like this you tapped your forehead and then obviously they paused it's three seconds left now hindsight is 2020 course We all understand that. Like, in the moment, you're being a good sport. And you talked about that in the moment. And at the post-fight, you said, you know, I was a good sport.

I told him what happened. Looking back at it now, can you give me your thoughts on how that play that? Like, is there any regret that, like, you did? Because, again, it's three seconds. It ends. They go to the scorecards because there was three seconds left. They didn't go. I mean, it was the weirdest, like, chain of events, I guess is what I'm getting at.

Yeah. I was talking about this for my wife. if you asked to come back from airport. I don't know if I would be happy if I had the belt because three seconds went off, you know? Because people are going to always say, even though it was dominating, we all saw the fight with it going.

People are always going to say, you actually didn't finish him. There was two rounds left. There was still two rounds left. You never really finished a fight, so you can't say, you know, I would have been happy at least to be the chance. And then they could have made a rematch still.

You know, they would have probably made a rematch get away because the way it ended. But I don't know how I would feel, to be honest, because I don't have the belt and I don't have the million and safe. But like I said, I've been thinking about it. Like, if I had the belt, if that three seconds would have ended and the fight was over, like, I'm confident with the fact that I was going to just do the same thing the next two rounds if it even went that far.

But at the same time, I would love to have that clarity to just show like, without the head of butt and not, I went out there and dominated. At the same time, I don't know if it changed my feelings. Right now, if I had the belt sitting right here behind me on the interview with a million-dollar checkup on the board, you just don't know until it happens. Yeah. Do you regret, like, basically signaling to refer to the referee that you had to clash heads.

Like, I guess that's the bigger question, right? Because if you don't, the ending may have still come. They may have just done a replay in the show of the clash heads and that's it. But do you regret actually being a good sport? Because you were a good sport. You were like, you were honest. Like, you told him, yeah, it was a head clash. I do and I don't because one thing about it.

I'm just a good sport, you know. As a former college wrestling coaches, teach my kids, always be a good sport, no matter what, no matter what, always do the right thing, be a good sport,

and that's just the way my mom raised me. And again, that's just something. I've been thinking about, like, would I have not said that? Because Frank Trigg told me, keep going,

keep going, why he stopped? Like, he said it, and he watched back at the first when it was 10 seconds when it landed, and I keep going, keep going, why he stopped.

And he came around and he said something again. That's how I said it again, that's how I had butted him. Like, we clashed head. That's all. And even with Mark Henry, like, keep growing.

It's like, just fretting around. Like, I'm even looking back at him, like, I'm like, I'm just, that's just the type person I am.

You know, I could have kept going and played on. Like, no, no, we never hit his, but I would be in fair, you know,

I don't want to win anything cheating. I'll never do steroids. I don't ever cheat any system. I don't do anything to get an advantage. I want to go out there and show, I'm the best just physically, mentally,

everything I do, I'm going to win it fair and square. You're not going to say Corey cheated any kind of which way or form. Yeah. And I love that about you, and I think that says a lot about who you are as a person, because we got to be honest, there's a lot of, and listen, I get it. If you

said, hey, the end of the round, and then you tell him, like, I wouldn't, again, I understand that. Like, I'm not, you know, that's the heat of the moment. And sometimes, you know, honestly, you may not know what happened. I mean, you know, you did clash as you did feel it. But again, heat of the moment, adrenaline pumping, maybe you don't know. The fact that you did do that says a lot about your

character, because I guarantee you there'd be a lot of people who wouldn't, and I don't think the world would freak out. and say you were a dirty fighter because you just didn't realize what happened. Like I said, it says a lot about your character that you actually did tell the referee. And again, you had no idea that it was going to stop the fight, of course. You know, you have no idea that, you know, the cut's going to be so bad. And that was also, again, credit to the ringside physicians, credit to everyone there. And the cut was bad.

Don't get me wrong. It was back. Were you surprised? Because they waved it off, like, immediately. Like, they just looked at it two seconds and they said it was done. Were you surprised they didn't, like, try a little harder to see if they could, like, you know, close up the cut, let it go on? that definitely surprise.

Like you could see when it was announcing a no contest and I was looking at him, like I faced him and just looked at and wanting him to look me in my eyes so I can get a clear look. Like I know, like they put Vaseline in it when he sat down and stopped bleeding insulin. Like it wasn't like it was flowing profusely anymore.

You could have put the Vaseline on there. Like you could at least try to go back, you know, at least doctors try to put the vasselin and try to do something, have a cut man working to see if something would happen. But it was literally, he stood up. Doctor looked like, oh. It was like, now that,

that did bother. I'm like, at least give him a chance. Like, give him an opportunity. At least ask him, see what he thinks. See if it's going to keep bleeding. And you know, it is what it is. Yeah. Not even if you all work good.

Yeah. You said at the post-fight press, sir, you said, you know, one of your coaches, you got that advice years ago, you know, you got five minutes to sulk. I think you've actually said that to me in the past. We talked in past interviews. You said, you know, you get five minutes to salk and then you move on. But I can't lie to you, Corey. I mean, the emotional moment, here we are two.

days removed and I'm still feeling. I'm like, man, it just kind of breaks my heart because you were, you were winning dominantly, dominantly winning the fight. And again, three seconds, all these things we look at in hindsight. But is your emotion today any different than it was on Friday in terms of how you feel about the way everything played out? A lot more at ease, but it still kind of burns. That was my moment to finally get my belt, you know, the thing I worked for forever, you know.

And I just think I got to do it again. and the biggest thing I've got to go through camp again, not just for me and the family, but coaches got to travel again. I got to get training partners to fly back out again. I got to put my teammates through the same ringer again, you know. It sucks all around, but at the same time, I'm already got my mind set on the camp.

You know, I'm fast up. I'm not going to say here and keep thinking, I should be a chance, oh, I want my belt, blah, blah, blah. I just got to go out there and do it again, and this time do it even better. Yeah, absolutely. So, again, it's not the definitive ending you wanted, and I know you'd feel a lot better right now with a million dollar paycheck in your bank account, but do you feel like you still answered a lot of the questions people had going into this fight with your performance? Again, it's not the ending you wanted, but you were dominating and you were really pouring on the punishment in that third round especially.

And again, I want to be clear, we yes, there were two rounds to go. We don't know. Weirder things have happened. We totally understand that. But do you feel like at least in some way, you did answer the questions people maybe had about you going into that fight? People who thought maybe Nimkoff was the best in the sport. Nimcoff was kind of like the best light heavy way, whatever they wanted to say. Do you feel like you did at least answer some of those questions for anyone who was, you know,

questioning where you were at in terms of your placement in this division? I 100% believe I answered that, but about 90% of people are believers. You know, still people messaging me coming, oh, you ain't dick. good, he was just something happened or, oh, you end up cheating and get to the fit above, blah, blah, it's people always going to talk. But I know, I want to have to prove exactly what I said I was going to prove. I said it. The media was saying, Bellator, when they little promo, can Corey go out there and beat the untouchable

Nimcau, who is 9-0, or 7-0, whatever he is, who's been untouchable and hasn't had anybody that can really compete with him yet. Like I made a caption yesterday, the media said he was untouchable. Over time proves that was a lot. It was like, I wanted to do everything I said I would. The same thing, everything I said was going to happen in my fight breakdown. Every time I told somebody happened, John McCarthy asked, when does the finish happen and how? I said, a fourth round.

By the end of the third, I'm going to drain them out, and the fourth round, I'm going to turn it up. As you guys saw, it was coming to an end. The fourth round, it was going to happen. Just like I said, I was going to take him down. I was going to drain them. And I was going to do exactly what I do to everybody. Round and fine, you just can't handle that weight, that force to drive. And I keep the same cardio on pushing, pace the whole thing.

pace the whole time. So anybody that's doubting my skill now, they just a hater of Cory Anderson. It's not like they see any performance or anything I did it wrong. They just don't like Cory Aniston, no matter what they do, they're going to keep knocking me,

no matter what I do. So at this point, you know, like I said, I'm done. I stopped doing it for the people a while ago. I do it to prove it to my stuff and just show what I know. I'm just not done show it. Like Mark Henry said after, like, bro, one thing I can say,

at least we finally got to show these people what we already know. everybody's seen what we finally been able to do in practice because I was telling one of my boys, the guy that was there in the crowd, my best friend, like, bro, if you think about it, I really haven't had to fight since the Johnny Walker fight.

You know, I knocked him out. The next fight, I went out there, I got knocked out. I came in a belliger, I beat a man hoof. He didn't hit me. The next guy, he hit him a couple times the first time. After that, I demolished him, Bader with 51 seconds. This is the first time somebody was actually coming,

at me and making me show my martial arts skills to show I'm not the same dude there fought February 15th or 19th, 2019 when I lost a young block for the second time. Like, things have changed. I'm not the same person I was in 2014 or throughout my whole career. Y'all just haven't seen what I've developed to be yet. And I still didn't get to show it off because a lot of things I didn't have to do. Yeah. I got to go a lot more of what people don't know.

you were and we talked about this pre-fight core you were already you know in your head you believed without a doubt you were the number one light heavyweight in the sport and kind of the same thing you just said right there if you didn't believe so you're just being a hater because you had the dominant win over glover to share but do you feel like this even though the ending is weird and then again we're going to have to run it back like do you feel like you did beyond anything else you cemented yourself as that number one guy in the sport and no there's going to be people who are going to say no because you're not in the ufc or some weird thing like that. I get it. I'll tell you right now, we do our own rankings. I'm going to put you

number one. I don't know if that matters to anyone else. That's fine. They could say I'm stupid. I don't care, whatever, but I think you're number one. I'm going to put you number one. Do you feel like that, if there were questions about that, you just cemented your spot. Like they said, oh, well, you know, you lost the yawn, so you're still not number one. You just dominated for the better part of three rounds, you know, a guy who was on an incredible run. Nimcom was on a great run, man. He looked incredible so far. in this Bellator run. And you went out there and dominated him.

Weird finish, unfortunate finish, but do you feel like you did cement yourself as that number one guy in the world? Oh, what I was saying? I told you, when we talked last time, when I come back,

when I'm talking to you can say, I am the best in the world. Now, I just said, but the best. And I'm out there and show me, man. I felt, I truly felt to believe it. And now I really,

really truly and believe it. Like I said, I expect that fight to be a tough one. Let's be honest. Like, I'm not going to say I went out there, it was like an easy fight, but at the same time, I made it look like I was the best.

Like, I made it look like I was a champion. I went out there and fought and did everything I was supposed to do. So like I said, if you go out there, you're still knocking me now, you're just a hater. There's people before that fight. Like, oh, there's no way you're going to come close to beating him. He's so good. You won't even touch him ever.

He's so good on the ground. If you didn't take him down, he's going to submit you. He's going to take you down. Now, all of a sudden, all he's supposed to be quiet. It's just because they just don't want to see me shine. And that's all right. That's okay. Just say that.

You don't have to go out there and knock my skills. Just say you don't like me. I'll take that over anything. That's fine. We need haters. I need haters in this world. But don't start there and try to knock my performance just because you don't like me and try to get other people to believe your phone.

So, yeah, we are without a doubt. 100%. I know it. I believe it. But now it's like there's no question. Like, I'm my adult. I was thinking like, I wonder how Dan & White feels now. I wonder if he saw that.

I want how he fit, you know. Granted, he might not have a scene. I just wonder, like, I just wonder, does he regret, leave, letting me go? They just regret. They didn't put that energy to promote me like they did other guys. Now they see what I can do with a little love behind me, with a little to feel like I actually belong somewhere, like they actually want me. You know, I think about it.

I don't miss the UFC, but I just wonder if they ever look back and wonder, man, I wonder what if we actually put their promotion behind for it, what could have? because now they see the world sees like core he is the best man you can't knock it you can't say nothing about it just let me keep doing my thing it's funny you say that because I was actually on a completely different

conversation I was having before we talked today I said that to somebody I said you know what I was like listen I know you don't regret it I know you don't regret your choice of going to Bellator and I know you don't regret getting paid what you're getting paid and the opportunities you've been given but I said whether they'll admit it publicly or not I can't imagine

the UFC doesn't regret that because when you look at the, you know, when you look at what you've been doing since then, you know, I just, I again, I know you probably don't even care because you're happy where you're at, but like, I can't help but wonder, do they feel like they made a huge mistake letting you go considering what you've been doing? Like, there's a lot of guys who leave in free agency. We all understand that. And a lot of them do leave towards maybe the tail end of their career or whatever, but I think you're the one guy that are going to look back on and say, man, we really, we really bone that one up. Yeah. They left before I even hit my prime. You know, I think I, you could have

had a kid that literally started his career there and finished his career. And if you put the right time in him, who knows what could have him? They show love, but the fact that I was spent all my time there fighting with them, and I feel like I left at the right time, you know. I was at a crossroad in my career, right, for my opportunity to fight for a title, I lost. But I hadn't even peaked yet. I hadn't even hit my prime yet.

There was times things I hadn't even learned yet. If I hadn't left and went to D.C. and trained with him at the same time, It's just like I learned so much for him, not just about training, but mentally. And that brought me to another level of my career. And then at the same time, I feel like I hit that age or my body started to develop more. I got stronger and things started to make more sense. So it's kind of like they let me go right in a transition stage or who knows. I came back.

I might have got, you know, a little second wind. And they probably would have like, oh, this kid's actually a lot better than we thought he was. And they would have saw something in me. But we never know. We'll never know because not we go on. Yeah, yeah, it's one of those things I always scratch my head about.

I'll never quite understand the logic, but again, I'm glad you're happy. And we all saw, you know, the disclosed paycheck, you know, not making a bad payday. Should have been a million dollars. That's a whole other story for another day. At the post-fight presser, you know, again, we don't know the extent of the injury to Nimcoff.

I know you mentioned, you know, maybe a broken orbital. Scott Coker couldn't confirm that, but he said they're hoping summertime. Again, I know this is two days removed. Ideally, would that be better for you? I mean, again, we got to find out what's going on Nimcov. Would you hope to get this settled sooner rather than later? Yeah, I don't want to get too comfortable in, out of camp,

and just get to get busy. Then my schedule fill up, I don't have time to, well, I mean, I'm going to make time to train, but I have to cancel other plans already made. I talked to them, actually the next morning, me and the family got up, we went and found a place to give breakfast. And Scott and Mike Colan was actually in there as well. They were leaving when we walked in. And Colvin came with me and confirmed, like, they sent them in and got them all checked out there.

The border was not broken, just really beat up and a really bad cut. So they say, once the cut is healed, we're running it back immediately. As soon as his cuts is heel, we tell them, we run it back. Get back and can't. We're doing it right away. So it shouldn't be too long. It's not going to be as long as we thought. But they said, we've got to get this over with it so we can move on with the division.

It's already been a year that the title has been in the tournament. So now it'll be longer than a year, get this title finish and figure out what's going on. for me. Yeah, and I assume, I mean, I think I know the answer, but like, everything will be reset, meaning the million dollars will be back up for grabs, all that kind of stuff in the rematch. Yep, everything is back to the same. Go back to your contract, where everyone's going to get paid. I don't know if it goes to go the same thing for contract paid, because that's not having another

fight in. And each fight it goes up. But the million dollars in the belt, both belts will be on the line. Yeah. Let me ask you, you know, real quick. And again, I'm sure we'll talk again when the rematch actually. gets booked and there's a date and all that kind of stuff. And you've been to, you've had a couple, you know, you've had, you've had a rematch before.

You understand that. But like, does your mindset change at all in terms of how you approach a rematch with Nimcoff now that you know how you did against him the first time? I mean, you were very confident you were going to do exactly what you did in this fight, but you just went out there and did it. Does anything change in a rematch in terms of your approach in terms of how you feel about, you know, fighting for Deneemkoff again? Well, this is just a continuation.

I never ended. You know what I mean? That's like the Yom's fight. I went out there and we dominated him and got my win. It was no presence about it. And like I said, media and the press all throughout fight week. Like, when I went back into that fight, that was a fight, it was hard for me to get motivated for. You know, I didn't want that fight.

Yeah, I literally said they made no sense at the point, but like my manager said, like, we can sit and you're next for a title fight, but if Yom comes back and fight again, he gets the win, they might give it to him. So if we go out there, we take this fight and just beat the crap out of him again, and we can't. crap out of him again, he eliminate him from the equation. So, you know, I took the fight, but I never really was, like, pumped for it. I never was excited to go out there to fight him again because it's just, I felt I was way better him. And that's why I went out there and striking and trying to, I play games instead of going out there doing what I was doing, should run out there and wrestle.

But instead, I was like, I'm just going to strike with him this time because he can't beat. And it cost me. This one is, I never got my hand rate. So the same fire I had before was even more. You know what I mean? I got pictures with the belt. I've seen the belt. I've held the belt.

I need that. So I'm not going out of a comfortable thing. Like, oh, it's in the bag. I'm going on to, like, he's going to be even more dangerous now because he knows exactly what's going to happen. He's felt it. So he's got time to prepare for it. So now I have to prepare for he did well

and even more things that could come. So I'm just, I'm not as like, I feel like I'm more dangerous. Now I'm going to be more dangerous the second time I was the first time. Because now I'm like, not angry, but I'm fired up for it. Yeah, I agree. I totally agree.

We talked briefly about this going into the fight, Corey, because of where you're at, you know, and again, I'll say it now, number one light heavyweight in the sport. You know, you don't have a vested interest in the UFC anymore, so I totally understand that. But I know we talked about before, like, you always kind of root for your past opponents to do well. And I said that about Glover going into the year fight. Can I ask your opinion on that fight? Like, do you believe Glover will be Erie? And I'm asking that because, you know, Glover doing well only makes your wins continue to look better. I mean, you dominated him thoroughly,

and I'm not going to revisit that question again, but is there part of you that feels like, you know, Glover is going to prove he's the number two guy in the fight with Yeary? Yeah, 100%. He's a, man, and as, like, Glover is more like, I just got respect for Glover, man. All my point is Glover.

Like, even I was in Vegas training the PI with Amaga, Anka-Lead before his last fight. Glover came in, and we were, like, wrestling, like, joking around talking. So I got a different respect for Glover. I don't even see the U.S. I see Glover. I see Glover.

always going to be in global this corner. You know, granted when people are asking, oh, how do you feel about like I beat Glover? Yes, I did. But I still respect, Lover. With a message here and there, we're trying to get together and train because he's only two hours here from me.

Now that my fight for his fight for his fight with Yuri, or my opponent fought Yuri and Yuri fall my opponent. So, you know, we might just get together and train for that. You know, help each other in that aspect. But I feel he's just going to, we've seen them cough take Yuri down when others in risen, but Nemcoff doesn't have the jujitsu that Glover does. And Glover gets you down, you usually don't get up.

So I feel like he's going to take him down and take his neck on, whatever he want, and put him away early. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think a lot of people are counting Glover out, and it's kind of ridiculous, especially when you see the struggles the year he's had on the ground, and Glover's a whole other animal on the ground. I mean, I think that's the guy you cannot allow to get on top of you.

Look what he did to yawn. You cannot allow that guy to get on top of you. And like I said, that's a different animal. And I just, again, I think people are completely underrating Glover, to share going into that fight. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. People don't really, you don't do their research, man. They see you're excited with this spinning and all that extra weird stuff he does,

but you have to look back and know somebody's, what their weaknesses. And his biggest weaknesses is wrestling. He doesn't have good wrestling. Nimcroft took him down multiple times. Yeah, he kept scrambling and whatnot, but Nimcrop doesn't have a solid jujitsu base. Now, you go back and you watch any fight with Glover,

he takes you down. get up. And if he does take you down, you get up, you take you down again. And next time he finished him. I know when I went to that fight, that was the one thing. We knew he hit hard, but we knew no matter what we do, don't end up on the bottom. Like, if you take him down, don't get swear. If you start dinner and sweep you, get up. Do not end up on a bottle. And we knew that because no matter how good my jujitsu is, he is that much better, you know, and I'm not going to say, I'm way, president. Yeah, no, I'm not going to close because you just going to do it.

He's good at doing the MMA. Most people aren't. He's a great MMA jujitsu participation. practitioner. And if you end up on the ground, so if you really do all that spinning and let go over and take him down, it's a rat. Yeah, I agree. I totally agree. Real quick, before I get you out here, Corey, wanted to ask you just because this was something related to your team. And I know he had left and was training down the American top team, but I know you saw the news this past week. Your team and your friend, Marlon Marius, announced his retirement from the sport. And you know, you worked in the same team with Marlon for years. Obviously, you're like heavyweight. He was a band way.

I can't imagine you guys were sparring together, but you know, Marlon, very well. Can I get your thoughts on Marlon, his career and him, you know, decided to retire? Marlon, I had a heck of a career, man. I hate the way his career started to go down at the end, you know, but we talk. He messaged me that morning of the fight. I text him there, congratulate him for career, and I hope all the best for your future with him and his family. But, yeah, he was definitely, he was one of my coaches on the awesome fighter, you know. He was an assistant coach, he was there.

He helped him a lot of things. I never really learned how to throw kicks, and he always showed me the motions of kicks, like the things that you need your core to throw the kick and checking. I remember when I first got here, Mark used to make me, after I was done spawning, move around with Marlon. Not throwing points to him,

but let him just throw kicks at it and learning how to check and block, you know, and that was a good lesson that I needed because I had never thrown kicks, so I didn't know what to expect. So, you know, Mom was a huge part. He was close to my family, his wife, and my wife was always talking, and chit-chat and hang out.

out when I was sick or hurt or whatever, he would come by and check on me. My own was always a great guy, you know, and I always have love for him and respect for him. And if he decided, it's time to hang up his love, I respect his decision, and I hope he finds something to make some happy and feel that boy in his life. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Corey, like I said, man, it doesn't give you the million dollars. It doesn't give you the championship. I know none of that, you know, that won't be fulfilled until you get the rematch and you get in there with Vadim again.

but personally, and listen, I know you know I've said this to you before. I'm just going to say it to you again now. Again, for anyone, I agree with you, anyone that doesn't, you know, wants to discount your performance and say other things. They're just being haters because if anyone had a question about who's the best light heavyweight in the sport, I think you answered that on Friday night. You are the best lot of heavyweight in the sport. Again, unfortunate ending.

I wish it had gone the extra three seconds and it would have just been over. But again, it is what it is. You're going to get the rematch. You get a chance. But I truly do believe, man. If anyone's questioning it, I think you answered those questions with the performance you had. You are the number one light heavyweight in the sport. I told you I'll rank you that way.

I guarantee you I will. I look forward to that. And I look forward to the rematch, man. So I know you're probably not getting a lot of downtime right now, right? Like if they're going to rebook it in the summer, are you going to take a week off and just chill or how are you going to do it? Yeah, I'm going to take a couple weeks here. You know, I've been going nine stops on April 14th, you know, since the camp for April 14th. So the first fight was April 14th.

And I have been training, what, since the new year for that? So I've been nonstop, avoiding vacation and stuff. So I told the wife, we're going to take a little time here. But we got the RV. We're going to try to load the RV up by the end of this week, whatever. Did it? I'll hook you up and probably hit the road next week. Do a week road trip, go down south and come back.

And then her best friend gets married the next weekend. We'll go do that. And yeah, we get back into it. But in between, I'll be like hitting the bike and moving around and stuff to keep my shape and the right shape and my sweat going and keep my mind right. You know, if I'm sitting too long, not doing it. I just feel like I lost everything I ever learned in the camp. So I'm doing little stuff, like running and doing movement around, ride my bike or whatnot.

But we'll get back in a camp camp for within like two or three weeks. We go back full gun blown six days a week going hard. No hunting in between? I'm going to be hunting during, you know, because I already had trips. Like I said to Mike Koch. I got two months of like scheduled different hunts, like hog hunts and different things,

different things that go with the outdoor show. So I'm going to have to do those, but it'd be more on the weekends, you know, so just make sure I can get my train session a run and something while I'm there. But the stuff is already scheduled and paid for, so I can't really bail out on it. But when it get close to it, within the six to eight weeks,

when I get a four date, six to eight weeks, everything else to stop. You know, I had to clear my schedule. Anything I paid for will just be washed because I got to get this bill. That's more important anything. You have to take it out on Vadim Kopp for making it miss out on some hunting trips, Corey.

Hey, this performance would. I already missed some stuff because of this can't. So now I've really got to say I've already paid for Now you really got to feel it. Anything I miss out on, I'm going to take it out on now. I love it. I love it. Corey, again, I know it's an unfortunate ending.

I know it doesn't give you the million dollar prize, but it was an incredible performance. I think you did submit yourself as the number one guy in the sport. Again, anyone is questioning that. I think they are a bit of a hater. But again, really enjoy the performance. Take a little time off. Enjoy some time of the family.

Look forward to catching up when they rebook this fight. And thank you again for doing this. directly after the fight, sometimes, especially in a situation like this, you probably just want to decompress and not deal with it. So thank you for doing this with me today. I really do appreciate it.

No problem, Damon. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate you. I appreciate your words. And I always being a real one. Thank you. We'll talk soon, okay? Yes, sir.

All right. A big thank you, of course, to both, Bilal Muhammad and Corey Anderson for joining the show with me today. Of course, very thankful, you know, days removed from their fights to stop by the podcast to chat with me about everything that went down over the weekend. Looking forward to whatever comes next for them.

Of course, later this week, we've got a ton of fights coming up. Two more Bellator events, including probably my most anticipated fight of the week. Patchy Mix taken on Kioji Horaguchi. Kind of wait for that one. Of course, the UFC's got an event coming up this weekend as well. And also a big boxing match with Tyson Fury taking on Dylan White. So lots of fight stuff coming up this weekend. Lots of combat sports.

Keep it locked in at MMAfighting.com. We got you covered. And make sure you always check out the podcast, The Fighter versus the Writer, and all your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, and you can always find the podcast over on MMAFighting.com. A big thank you once again for everyone tuning in

to another episode of the Fighter versus the Writer. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you then. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line, But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.