MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Beneil Dariush Growing Frustrated With Charles Oliveira, Junior Dos Santos Happier Now After His UFC Exit

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

Beneil Dariush returns to The Fighter vs. The Writer this week to discuss his growing frustration with Charles Oliveira as the now former UFC lightweight champion decides what’s next in his career while teasing his interest in a showdown with Conor McGregor. With a seven-fight win streak and a past fight with Oliveira that already fell apart, Dariush details his problem with “Do Bronx” suddenly targeting somebody like McGregor rather than accepting a fight against him or Islam Makhachev to crown a lightweight champion now that the title has been vacated. Dariush will also give his thoughts on Oliveira’s win over Justin Gaethje and an update on his return to action. Also on the show this week, ex-UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos stops by to preview his upcoming fight against Yorgan De Castro, which serves as the main event for Eagle FC 47 on Friday. Dos Santos will explain how he ended up with Eagle FC, his expectations for the future now that he’s returning to action and he’ll also address his exit from the UFC and how he’s found a new kind of happiness with his freedom to fight whenever and wherever he wants. 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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in a main event against Jorgad de Castro, former UFC heavyweight champion. Junior Dosanto is going to join us here shortly. But first, we're going to talk to the man who is one of the top lightweights in the world. He is waiting for his chance to come back later this year. And I think he's getting a little frustrated with the current. or the man who should be the UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliver. We're going to talk.

He was the guy who did our preview show for UFC 274. Of course, his name is Benel Darius. And we're going to talk to him about his situation coming back. The Olivera fight with Justin Gajee, the possibility of him fighting Islam Makachov and everything else going on. So let's talk first to Benil Darius. He is one of the top lightweight fighters in the world, and we cannot wait to see him back in action.

and I have a lot to talk about with this man because we did the preview show for UFC 274 now coming out of that. He's one of the major players in this division. Welcome back. Benil Daryush. Benil, how are you? Good, brother.

How are you? I'm fantastic, man. Thank you for taking the time for me as always. Of course, we chat it. We did the preview show for UFC 274. Of course, we saw how things played out. Let me ask you, what did you think of the card? What did you think of the performances?

Let's see. So the, let's go to Tony and Chandler. I thought Tony looked really good in the first round. He was, he showed a really good set of skills in countering the kicks and moving in and out at the right time. And obviously doing pretty good off his back too when he got taken down. I actually scored the round for Tony in terms of damage. and then in the second round, Chandler just found that kick out of nowhere.

I mean, it was the only thing he threw, and it was all that was necessary. So credit to both guys. They both look good, but, you know, credit to Chandler. That was a great kick. I didn't see that coming. I'll be honest with you.

And then, to be honest, the common main event, I don't want to bag on them too much. So, you know, my opinion isn't so much different and then everybody else is, they were both very tentative, and it wasn't much of a fight.

And then finally, the main event, man, Justin and Charles, it kind of went, those were the options, basically. They were going to either try to kill each other right off the bat,

or one of whom was going to fight smart. And they went for the kill each other, and when it's like that, it's 50-50. That could have been Justin's night, You know, it was just, it just, that's how, that's how fighting goes. When you, when you just swing further the fences, anybody can win. Absolutely, absolutely. Let me back to him, because, of course, we broke down the fight.

We had kind of a similar opinion that it could go either way, but we both picked Justin. Again, nothing against Charles the time. But before the fight happened, we had the controversy coming out of the way-ins. Of course, Charles missed weight by half a pound. They stripped him with the title. Now he's technically the number one contender. what did you make it? I mean, you weren't there,

so I'm not going to ask you, like, you know, play investigator on, like, what happened with the way end? But, like, what did you make in that whole situation? Because I've heard, I've heard mixed things. I heard one side say, well, he missed weight. He deserved to be stripped. I heard the other side say that, listen, you know,

we've seen the commission kind of, you know, they're not always completely accurate on the way in. So, I mean, what did you, what did you make of that whole thing? At first, I was like, you know, it's not fair to Charles to strip them. But then you have to think of it. a little bit more logically and in terms of putting the belt on the line. If Charles wasn't stripped,

they couldn't have fought for that belt that day. I don't know if that makes sense. Because Charles didn't make the way for 155, there's no way for them to fight for the belt. But by stripping Charles of the belt, it allowed just engaging an opportunity to be the champion of the lightweight division. So while it seemed unfair to Charles, it was the only way to actually be fair to Justin

and give him an actual title shot. Because if they didn't strip Charles, win or lose, Justin wouldn't have gotten the belt. So I think looking at it now, you know, it actually made sense what they did. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think we all feel for, you know, when you see the outcome,

and Charles wins, I think that's where you kind of have to feel bad for him a little bit because he goes on and has a performance like that. And I personally don't think that half a pound made or broke him in that fight. I don't think he would have lost, you know, if he would have cut that extra half pound or whatever. But you kind of feel for the guy in that way because it's like, is anyone questioning if he's, you know, truly the champion right now or not yet he doesn't have the bell? I think that's kind of like the problem everyone's dealing with. And I understand it.

You got to make the weight. Justin made the weight. The other guy's got to make the weight. that's part of the job. We all understand that, too. You know, so I get both sides of it. Yeah, I mean, I felt, I feel bad for Charles, too. I think he should be champion right now.

I think he should be carrying the belt. There's, uh, that, but I also understand that in order to give Justin an opportunity to win the belt, they had to strip Charles. And because, um, and the whole scale thing, I'm going to be honest with you. The UFC constantly tells us, don't sit on the scale. Don't touch the scale. Don't press any buttons. Don't mess with it.

Like constantly are telling us this. And I am constantly getting on it and checking it. Oh, it's kilos. Oh, I got to switch it back. So somebody messes with it. So I got to mess with it back. And then I wouldn't be surprised if people like, you know, sit on it and do all the things that they tell us not to do. So I can understand how something could have gone wrong there.

And it is what it is, you know. So the whole thing sucks with the scale. but I think UFC really did try to do the most fair thing. Yeah. You know, you were, we talked about this beforehand. You were one of the,

one of the only people on planet Earth when Charles was fighting Dustin Porre to pick Charles to win that fight. And the way you said he would win the fight is exactly how he won the fight. So you know this. You understand this for it. And you, just to be clear,

even though we both picked Justin Gagey to win, you 100% gave Charles a great chance in that fight. You said, you know, you're completely underrated. You lean toward just. Justin, but of course you gave Charles a lot of credit. Were you impressed or should I maybe even say not surprised that the fight played out the way it did with Charles surviving a couple of knockdowns, which is, you know, an incredible thing to do against a guy like Justin Gagie, and then coming back, scoring a knockdown

of his own and then, you know, getting the charge. I mean, the fight lasted three minutes and 22 seconds. It felt like, you know, way longer because they were just going back and forward, but it actually only lasted a little over three minutes. So I wouldn't say I was surprised by Charles. because you know Charles has this has this great weapon

and being dangerous off his back it's a super good weapon because when he gets hurt he can just go to his back and a couple of times Justin hurt him so Charles went to his back recovered a little bit got back up

the thing that surprised me was Justin being so emotional I would say he was looking for the killed with every single strike he threw. I was expecting him to go in there, to use more feints, to move and circle. But he just kept trying to run down.

He just kept trying to run down Charles. And I mean, he did twice, but like, you know, third time he got cracked. It's, I didn't understand why he fought like that. I felt that Justin could have just picked his shots, move side to side. and I think he actually would have had a way easier time, especially after dropping him two times. I think Charles was, you know, was in a tough spot. But that's the thing that surprised me most.

I wasn't surprised by Charles. I think Charles, it's his game. This is what he's been developing for so long. And he didn't really have any other choice, but to get up and go forward. It was either break it or get up and go forward. and so he got up and went forward. So no surprise in Charles and his grittiness. But I was surprised with Justin and his being so, so like stiff in his game planning,

unwilling to kind of change and move side to side and trying to out tough Charles. Yeah. Do you think we have finally answered the questions we've all had about Charles in terms of like, you know, his tendency in the past of, I won't say looking for a way out of fights, but we all know the characterization he had for the longest time was, is that when the going got tough, you know, he did not react well. Now, we have seen him, you know, get tagged a couple times by Dustin Porre. We saw him get dropped by Michael Chandler. We saw him get dropped twice by Justin Gachy, come back and win. Do you feel like we have answered those questions about

Charles in terms of his heart, his durability, all those questions we all had, do you feel like those questions have been answered now? Yeah, I think so. I think the real question is going to be, can he go five rounds and do all of that? Because he seems to be able to do it no problem for a round or two, but can he do

that for five rounds? Can he push that crazy pace that he's pushing for five rounds? Because he's looking for a finish every second of the fight, which is great. But what happens if you don't get a finish? What happens if a guy can grapple with you? What happens when a guy can you know, stop your sweep, stop your submission, stop your attacks, and he keeps going.

That's going to be the next thing you want to see if the champion has that in him. And I think, you know, to see that, I think I'm the guy that's best suited to find out. But yeah. So let me shift gears to that point, because immediately afterwards, you know, right now, technically Charles is, quote, unquote, the number one contender. I don't think anyone really looks at him that way because, listen, he's proven himself. He should be the champion. We all know the weight cutting issue, but again, he's the number one guy right now.

Immediately afterwards, everyone says, well, they got to make the Islam Makachev fight. We got to make it right now. Habib goes on Twitter. We got to make the fight, Daney have no other choice. Now, I put out of Twitter, I know you're not real super active on social media, but you can go look at my account, maybe you saw, maybe you didn't. I put it out of Twitter. I said, listen, I get it.

I get it. I get it. I understand everyone talking about it is. I get it. I said, but can we not forget about Benile Derry? Huge. The guy's on a seven-fight win streak, four finishes, you know, has, in my opinion, nothing against Islam, the bigger wins, you know, in the division.

Like, you're not that guy, Abiniel. We know that. You're not the guy to go out there and go on Twitter and Instagram and try to make crazy statements and all those kind of things. But does it anger you or frustrate you that immediately afterwards Islam is, you know, immediately getting in there to try to get a title shot when we all know that the matchup that was going to be made was you in Islam to determine the number one contender? No, you know, that doesn't bother me because it's human nature.

You want to, everybody wants to jump in front and get the, get, get, get what's deserved. What actually is really bothering me is Charles Olivera, man. He's talking about wanting to fight Connor, you know, and he's how he talks about how these guys never gave him a shot when he was, when he's, he was outside the top five, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We were supposed to fight October of 2020. I have a fight contract. You know, I can post a picture of it. I was supposed to fight Charles, and he pulled out of the fight, and then a couple of months later, instead of fighting with me,

he fought Tony Fergus. And, you know, he said something about family issues. And, you know, I never, I'm not going to say, oh, he had to fight me. I can't believe he didn't do that. Family comes first. I understand that. But, like, the same thing people did to him, now he's doing to me.

Like, he was supposed to fight me, bailed. When in Fat Tony Ferguson. And now, instead of fighting actual contenders, he wants to go fight Connor? He wants to go fight Nate Diaz. I think this is hypocritical, man. This is the only thing that's bothering me. I get Islam wants to not fight me and go straight to Charles. Well, you know, there's an easier path for him if you go straight to Charles.

I get that. But like, I don't understand why Charles is all of a sudden trying to skip us. Like he's doing the same thing he was complaining about before. Yeah. Yeah, that's like, your name has rarely ever come out of his mouth. And the one time it did was when he said you should fight Islam. Like he said, you guys should fight each other. And listen, I understand, listen, we all, you're, you've got a family.

We all understand we're all, you know, this is a prize fighting business. You know, you all got to make money. We totally get that. But yeah, it is a weird one. Like, listen, I understand the attraction of fighting a Connor McGregor. I get it. especially if you get a new contract, you get a lot of money.

I understand all that, but how in, how in any sense of, like any sense of the word does it make, does it, does it make logical sense for him to fight Connor or Nadeez when you and Islam are clearly the number one and two guys right there? Like,

if you want to make an argument for Islam, great. You want to make an argument for Benil, great. But not one of you two guys, doesn't make any sense. Yeah, and that's where I'm at. And listen, if I have to fight Islam, cool.

I told the UFC, I'll be ready in August or September. I've been told that Islam wants to wait right now for the Abu Dhabi card. Okay, whatever. If I have to wait till then, I'll fight then too. I'll fight him then. But if Charles is just waiting to fight Connor, that makes no sense. We're here. We're both ready.

We're both ready to fight for the title. I think it's annoying. So right now I'm just waiting to see what's going to happen. You know, I'm rarely frustrated because I understand the whole, it's all a popularity contest and there's a lot of politics in the game. I get it, but like I'm more, this is the first time I've been so frustrated with another fighter. Like you're literally saying things or doing the things you said. other people did to you, so I don't get it. Yeah. Does it bother you more? And I know we've talked about

this a lot in the past, but I don't want to keep rehashing it, but does it bother you more because you were going to fight Charles? You were scheduled. And not that you need me to say this, I've seen the contract. I know there was a bout agreement with your name and his name for October 20th, I believe was the date in 2020 for you guys. So it wasn't like just a rumor. It wasn't like, you know, they were saying, hey, maybe we'll make this fight. Like there was a bout agreement in place. Does that make it that much more frustrating that you were supposed to fight him for whatever reason it didn't happen? And now, you know, here we said two years later, you know, and you're clearly one of the top guys of division, yet, you know, it still seems like he's not,

I want to say, interesting. It just seems like he doesn't want to mention your name by name. You know what I mean? Like, bro, like, yes, this is the frustrating. This is the most frustrating part. I'm, uh, I understand the media has their thing. I mean, I understand the UFC has their part. But for him, like, to be chasing a unicorn, it's just super frustrating. There's two, there's two clear contenders in front of you, and you're trying to chase a unicorn. And no one knows when Connor's going to fight again.

The guy, like, the guy might not fight even this year. He might just be like, ah, you know, the leg's taking too long. I'll fight. I'll fight next year. Whatever. Like, what is going on here, you know? Like, make it make sense. It just doesn't make sense.

Yeah. Is there any part of you that, and again, again, I understand the money side. I do get that. I get the money thing. Is there any part of you that feels like, and I'm not saying in any, let me be clear, I'm not saying anyway Schaeberhorn, Charles Oliver is ducking any. I'm not trying to make it sound like that. But is there any part of you that feels like he's trying to kind of eliminate one of you guys?

Because in theory, the two toughest matchups for Charles right now in the division, are you in Islam because of two key factors? Let me explain real quick. and I sure you know this, but just for people listening. Islam, of course, we know as an incredible wrestler, incredible grappler, incredible top control, very similar style to his mentor and friend Kabib Narvigna Madov. You have shown incredible knockout power. We know your striking's on point.

You've shown that one-punch finishing power, and we know you also have an incredible ground game. You're a Brazilian jih jih jih Tzu black belt, multi-time grappling champion, all these kind of things. So you present a different problem for a guy like Charles than, say, in absolutely no offense to like a Dustin Pore. That's not Dustin's game. has got great submissions, but that's not his game. That's not what he's known for. Do you feel like there's any part of you that feels like that's why he's trying to get you in Islam to fight?

Because in that way, he kind of eliminates one of you. I think so. I think that could be it. That could definitely be it. I mean, logically, it makes sense. And, like, I really don't know what else there is. Like, why aren't you, you not even saying that our names, man. Like, I never even hear him say my name as far as, as far as the fights go, man.

I'm, you know, I'm frustrated with him. I'm frustrated at myself, man, because if I hadn't been injured, all of this wouldn't be happening. So I'm a little bit frustrated with myself. So there's that to it as well. But I think it's possible, yeah, that he wants one of us to knock the other person out. So he only has to deal with one person. Do you do you believe I'm right in my assessment of that you and Islam are the toughest possible matchups for him? I think stylistically yes, because even if you look at it, the fight with Kevin Lee,

Kevin Lee was not doing that well with Charles, but he did his best work against him on the ground when he stayed on top. I think he may have won one round by just being on top by holding Charles down for a round. So, like, and no disrespect to Kevin, but Kevin doesn't have the jiu-jitsu, the submission grappling part down as much as myself or Islam. So I think stylistically we're a nightmare matchup for Islam, I mean, for Charles. I think a nightmare match, both of them. Is there, okay, so, you know, you said, and you said this beforehand, when we talked before the fight, before any of this happened, the weight, miss, any of that, You said, probably going to be Islam, probably going to be October. I know he really wants to fight Abu Dhabi.

You know, I'd rather fight August, September, but if that's the way it works out, you were okay with that scenario, and you knew that was probably potentially going to be your next fight. And I know it sounds like you're still okay with that. But is there, I mean, I think there's a case to be made, and this is not, like, discounting Islam in any way, shape, or form. But in there an argument to be made that you should fight Charles, like just fight Charles now? Like, couldn't that argument be made? I think so. I think as far as deserving, I'm the more deserving guy with 20 fights in the UFC.

I have 20 fights in the UFC, 7-5-1 streak. When I beat, for example, when I beat Drak Close, he had never been finished. I finished him. When I beat Scott Solzeman, he'd never been finished. I finished him. When I fought Diego Ferreira, he was on a six-year undefeated streak. I think it was 7-0 or 6-0 in the UFC. I beat him.

And then I went on to beat Tony who was the ranked in the top five. So I think I've had a tougher path. When I beat Drew Dober, I think he was his seven and one when I beat Drew Dover. And I was the one or five in one or something crazy like that. And I was the one guy who beat him. So like, I don't know. It's a little frustrating. Yeah.

Again, I know you're not that guy. You know, you're not the guy to go crazy on social media. trying to get attention for that, and that's part of the reason why I want to talk to you, because I know you're never, you're never going to be that. You're never going to be disingenuous to who you truly are, but Neil. I appreciate that about you that you're not going to go outside yourself and suddenly try to be Connor or some other guy just to get a fight. But at that same time, you know, you said you understand Islam push it for himself.

And here I am kind of advocating for you saying, listen, you know, there's a great argument, much like I made on Saturday night, there's a great argument that you should be the guy to fight Charles. That's not a knock on Islam. That's just a compliment to the work you put together. And when I compare your resume to Islam, again, Islam's on an incredible windstreet and very, very dominant. But I think you have a couple more key wins in there that kind of put you a little bit ahead of him in my mind. But again, it's not even about you in Islam, really.

It's just about one of you guys fighting Charles. I guess is what I'm getting at. You know, the way I look at it is instead of talking about myself, if I've done it properly, the right people should be talking about me. So that's the thing. If you don't see me, you know, getting on Twitter or Instagram or whatever the hell kids use these days

is because I don't, I don't need the field to talk about myself. Somebody else should be doing it. If I've done the work, somebody else should be talking about me. And so, you know, if not enough people are talking about me, then I'll get out there and I'll make sure they're talking about me. I just, at this point, I'm just looking for a fight.

So ideally, I would get the Charles fight. If not, I would get the next person available. So I don't even know who that is. He's a Chandler. Because if I don't get the Islam fight, I mean, the Islam fight, I'm assuming because he's fighting Charles. So the next person available would be who? Chandler or is it Poria.

It's one of these guys, right? That's what I was seen. Yeah, which I think Poria is ranked higher and then Charles would be, or excuse me, and then Chandler would be right behind him. Yeah. So this is where I'm at. At this point, I just want to fight somebody, and I want to know who they're going to give me.

So I'm the most frustrated with Charles just because of the things he says, and then he does the same things that he complains about. But as far as getting out there and talking about myself, man, I rather have other people to it. If I'm doing my job the way I should, other people should be talking about me. Yeah.

As much as Charles has mentioned, the Connor fight, and he has. He did in his post-fight speech. He's done it other times as well. I personally, now maybe I'm wrong, and trust me, where the UFC and Connor are in, you know, where they come, I can't always predict what they're going to do. I honestly don't believe they're going to give Connor a title shot coming off of a broken leg and two losses to Dust of Porier.

I just have a hard time believing they're going to give him. And especially with Charles missing weight, you know, not to say he's in the doghouse by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm sure there's a little bit of unhappiness there that, you know, they didn't get to, you know, crown their champ and all those kind of things. I just, I don't think it's going to happen. Am I wrong? I just don't think they're going to give Connor that fight.

I just don't, now he can call for it all he wants. I just don't think it's going to happen. I don't think they're going to give Connor the fight just because it would, the backlash, I think would be really, really big. I think, I think financially it makes sense for the UFC, but the backlash would be so bad that I think they might not do it. That's the only reason I think they won't do it. like you said, I don't see them doing it.

And then to be honest with you, like Dana wants to give Connor title shots, but all Connor has to do is win one fight. So in my opinion, what they're going to try to do with Connor is set him up in a fight where he can actually win and then place him right there as the number one contender. To just throw him in there to fight for the belt, it looks bad in the media. It makes the fighter, like the rest of the fighters,

look bad and it makes the UFC look bad. It's not a good look, but here's the thing. You put him in one fight against somebody he can beat. Then all of a sudden, he's the number one contender. The UFC can use that as an excuse. It looks way better for them. You know, it makes way more sense. So I definitely don't see them putting Connor straight into the title fight.

It just doesn't make sense. Yeah. Now, Charles has said he would like to fight in December. which is a typical, you know, kind of a typical timeline for champions. They fight about every six months. That's on average, May, December would kind of make sense. I know Islam has said once you fight in October Abu Dhabi. That's the date you mentioned to me in our previous interview,

that that was, you know, potentially what was going to happen right now in your head? I know nothing's been signed. I know that it's been determined. In your head, what do you feel like is going to happen? If you were kind of predicting it out, what do you feel like it's going to happen next for you? I don't know. because if they set me up with somebody, let's say, like Chandler or Poirier for August, then maybe I can fight for the title in December or whatever the day is.

But if they make me wait, no, I don't even think, if they want me to fight Islam, then I would fight Islam, but then I don't think the turnaround will be quick enough. if they would find somebody else, not by me, but by the UFC. Do UFC likes to plan everything further ahead. So if I end up fighting Islam in October, there's no chance of me fighting Charles in December or January or whatever the date is. And the reason why it is, because the UFC plans three, four months ahead. They wouldn't let us fight to be number one contenders and right away goals.

for the belt because it doesn't give them enough time to plan things out. And the UFC has gotten really good at planning things out way far ahead. Yeah. I know October seems to be the day that Islam wants to fight, but I think, you know, if they could match you guys up in August, you know, early September, it would make more sense, right? Then the winner could get Charles, right? Like, if that's the way it plays out, that could be the way it plays out.

Right. Yeah. So those are some of the options. I'm trying to like I'm trying to be as objective as possible if they don't give me like if if they give the fight to Islam then and they fight in December then I'm fighting August, September one of these guys right? I have to fight somebody, someone, one of the current guys that's in the top five.

So but then if I get the fight in December, then it changed. Then now it's Islam's turn to fight somebody, one of these guys in the top five. I think that's how it's going to go. Yeah. You know, I had a conversation. I was on a conference senior, a press conference in the air, and I would go over to share who fights coming up on June 11th. And he was kind of, you know, he wasn't, you know, he was saying, you know, he doesn't

necessarily have a problem with trash talk, but he kind of, he kind of dislikes the way the sport is going right now where it's all about attention, social media, that kind of stuff, and not as much about martial arts. If you know Glover, you ever met Glover, he's like the old school martial arts guy. legend, you know, he's never going to say a bad word about anybody. He's just going to go in there and look phenomenal and be one of the greatest fighters in the world and, you know, currently UFC champion. Do you feel like that's a little bit of what's kind of happened to you right now,

Benile, because, you know, you're on this incredible win streak. You put on fight of the nights, performance of the nights. You're constantly an entertaining fighter. You're, you know, top five in the world. All these kind of, all the things that say you should be the guy. But because you're not, you know, out there, you know, saying crazy things and cutting these wild promos and all these kind of like do you feel like that's part of what is hurting you right now through no fault of your own by the way none of this is your fault but like do you feel like that

is unfortunately where the sport is kind of going you know yes there's no doubt that it's hurting me but um having glover i i met glover before i know i know him a little bit we don't know like we're not very close but having glover and as an example of someone who got the title at the age that he did and he did it the way I would like to do it, it just reinforces everything I believe already. I don't need to jump into this Twitter thing. I don't need to jump into this fighter bashing and all this stuff. When I have an opportunity, when I speak with you or speak with somebody else,

I speak my mind, but I don't know. I don't need to turn it into Twitter. and animosity. And I want to speak the truth. If people hear it, cool. If people don't hear it, whatever as well. Just give me an opportunity to fight. I will eventually get there, just like Glover did.

He eventually got there. So I see Glover as a big example, and I really appreciate him. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, I love what you said before. Like I said, and I do agree with you. Like I said, I think you and Islam are the guys. You know, I know Chandler's called for it. I love Michael Chandler.

Incredible win. But, you know, again, he just fought Charles a year ago. wouldn't make sense for that rematch. Of course, Dustin's not going to get it right away. I understand, again, I understand the idea of wanting to get a big pay date to fight Connor, but again, it just doesn't make sense. It's your Islam. It's got to be, or again, have you guys fight, and that, because that's really, that's what was going to happen anyways. I mean, that was kind of the plan ahead of time, right? Like, that was kind of, that was going to be the plan. Charles was going to fight Justin. The winner of that would fight the winner of you

in Islam. Like, that's kind of the scenario we were looking at. I'm okay if it ends up being you. I'm okay, but it ends up being Islam, but again, anyone else just doesn't make sense. I agree with you. And as far as him and I fighting to be number one contenders, like, if they're willing to do it in August or September, then we can have a turnaround and fight Charles. But if they're not willing to do it at those dates, then, man, it's just, we'll see. There's so much going on into this. It's one of those things where you just step back and you just let God figure it all out.

And that's kind of where I'm out. I'm just, I'm at peace with it. I'm just waiting for them to call me and give me a name. Yeah, it's funny, Vanil. We've done so many interviews over the years and you're such a happy guy, smiles all the time. You're not the guy to get what I would call angry. And I'm not sitting there saying you're angry right now, but like, I don't know that I've ever seen you be quite as, let's say, frustrated with anybody as you've been with Charles Oliver because of what, you know, dating back two years to when you were supposed to fight.

And again, I'm saying this word because that's not who you, you know, you're not the guy who typically like evince that, but it feels like if there's one guy that's going to bring it out of you a little bit right now, it might be Charles because it feels like the frustration is starting to boil over a little bit with them. Listen, being angry is actually easy. It's easy to get angry. It's easy to get frustrated patience and kindness. That stuff I work hard at.

So, yeah, but yes, with that being. said yes this is the guy that's definitely doing it out of everybody right now like i get nobody else is mentioning my name but like bro i mean i had a contract i had a signed i signed my contract i had like your name was on it and you you said family stuff and i said okay i understand family comes first but then two months later we were supposed to fight in october two months later he goes and fights uh uh tony ferguson so how did that like what that heck. Yeah.

That's the frustration. And as much as I try to keep a piece about it, it's a little bit difficult when I played it in my head. So yeah, definitely the most frustrated I've been in a while. Yeah. Well, whether it's you and Charles, Islam and Charles, or you and Islam, I think it's got to be one of those three scenarios. I don't see another one that makes any sense.

Absolutely no offense to anybody else out there. It's got to be one of those three. If it's you and Islam, great. The winner goes on and fight Charles. If it's Islam in Charles or it's you and Charles, I think that's the only scenarios that make sense. And I'm not going to advocate against Islam. I think Islam's an incredible fighter.

I want to see you in Islam fight at some point. But I think it's got to be one of those three things. I don't see any other scenario that makes any sense whatsoever. I agree with you 100%. 100%. Well, Benil, I always appreciate you taking the time. I know, again, we just talked before the fight, but with everything going on,

it just seemed to make sense to talk now because again, you're not that guy. And I appreciate that. I actually really appreciate that you're not the guy who's going to suddenly try to be someone you're not just to get attention. But at the same time, as I said on my Twitter on Saturday night, let's not forget about Benil freaking Darius.

The guy who's on a seven-fight win streak, four finishes, two top ten fighters in his last two fights. Come on now. Again, I, you know, listen, I'm not going to be Khabib. I'll never be Khabi. But I'm trying to be your Kibibreep right now, Ben Nile. I'm like, come on. You got no choice.

Give Benile the shot. Thank you, brother. Benil, it is always a pleasure to catch up with you, my friend. I appreciate it. Enjoy some family time. Look forward to seeing you back in action. Hopefully we hear some news relatively soon. Sounds good, brother.

I hope so, too. Take care. We'll talk soon, all right? Bye-bye. Bye-bye. It's week two of Canadian Tires' early Black Friday sale. These prices won't go lower this year. So you're lying on the floor?

Save up the 50% November 13th to 20th. Conditions apply, details online. When holiday prep means cleaning every corner, reach for Pine So, original pine. Pine Soul is the only one you need for multiple surfaces, cleaning floors, counters, stoves, toilets, and showers while killing 99.9% of germs. With long-lasting freshness and an iconic pine scent, it's sure to give you that fresh holiday feeling. Shop now and get your home holiday ready with Pine Soul. Use as directed. A big thank you, of course, to Benile Darius. Always a pleasure to catch up with him. You know, Benile's not the guy to ever really

kind of show anger necessarily. I wouldn't go as far as to say he was angry right there, but frustrated is probably the word best described for that entire interview. Of course, he said that word several times, and I think that's a fair statement. So will we see Benile Dereu against Charles Olivera? Will we see him against Islam Makachad? Will we see him against Desta Porier or Michael Chandler potentially? I think all those are options.

I hope we see one of those fights before too much longer once he's healthy and ready to return in August or September. Right now, we're going to move on to an interview with the man who will headline Eagle FC 47 this weekend is returned to action for the first time since leaving the UFC. Junior Dosanthus, of course, is a legend. Always love talking to him. We're going to talk to him about that fight with Jorgon de Castro, signing with Eagle FC, his future in MMA versus boxing versus all the other things he might have going on in the future. So right now, let's talk to Junior Jos Santos. He is the former UFC heavyweight champion and he finally makes his return to action.

and the main event at Eagle FC 47 this Friday against Yorga de Castro, the man with the best smile in all of mixed martial arts. I am always happy to speak to Junior Dos Santos. Junior, how are you? I'm doing great. Better now talking with you again. I appreciate it, Jr. I say that because, you know, it's funny.

You're the guy who, you know, you go in the cage. You're always so serious. But, man, you love having fun. You have the best smile in the sport. You're like the guy like, if Junior Dos Santos, isn't happy, then something's wrong with the world. That's what I say. You know what I mean?

That's right. You know, I'm a happy man. And I think, you know, in life, you've got to be happy with what we, what, what, with the things that you have around you, what you already have, because people are always expecting something to get happy. No, I'm a, I'm a happy, happy guy with everything in my life or my daily routine because I have so much man and I'm a blessed man. Absolutely, absolutely. So as I

mentioned, of course, your fight is just days away now, fighting Jorgon de Castro and Eagle FC. Of course, last time we spoke was earlier this year, you were going to fight in the trailer, you're going to fight the Triad Combat. Of course, unfortunately, the event got canceled. You ended up joining Eagle FC.

So kind of give me a sequence, like how this whole thing played out, because I know you were excited to kind of do the boxing crossover, and now here you are back in MMA. Yeah, that's true. You know, the boxing world is amazing. You know, I really want to try myself over there, and I really think I can do a good job over there, you know, I trust very much on my hands and my ability, especially my speed as a heavyweight. So I think I can do a great job on the pure boxing, let's say. I had this match with Corrad Pulaf. You know, it was supposed

to be February. But he got. canceled and they postponed the fight, you know, and they should be in May and then they didn't have exactly date for the fight. So then we would have this card on Eagle, FC now in May. And we decided we all talked about it. And we decided that would be a great one to be part of this one. And even if it's not boxing, it's MMA again. I love, you know, to be a fighter. I'm a M. M. M. A. M. Fider. I would try myself in the boxing world, but I'm a M.M.A fighter. So back to the roots, you know, and doing what I love to do, which is there and fight. Yeah. Now, do you plan on, would you like to revisit that fight-in-triller, you know, get that rescheduled at some point down the road?

Oh, of course. I'm looking forward to eat, you know, especially because also I had a great opponent, Kourbaud Pulev. He's a great, you know, boxer. He only have two losses on his career, which is for Vladimir Eklitchko and Anthony Joshua. So there's nothing wrong with that. You know, the guy's a very tough guy. And that would be a great experience for me, you know, a great challenge. And I'm looking forward to it. You know, I hope we can make it happen in near future. Yeah.

So, Jr., when you became a free agent, we knew you were going to be a very hot prospect to land a lot of places. We talked about, I know at one point, the potential of fighting Fador, Emilian Inko and in Bellator. Of course, PFL is out there. One championship, they have a big heavyweight division.

But Eagle FC, you know, they're growing. Of course, we all know as Kabib Narragam-Metals organization. So what was it about Eagle FC that made you want to go there? Because I have to imagine, you know, you probably have a lot of offers.

I mean, everyone wants to work with Junior DeSerto. So, I mean, what was it about Eagle FC that made you want to go there? Well, we had a great conversation, actually. All the people around, all the people on the backstage of Eagle FC are amazing, especially their president, you know, let's say Kabib Nomagumadouv, which is the greatest, you know, MMA fighter, you know, ever. The guy has an amazing, amazing career. He's an amazing guy, you know, with a very good attitude.

And also they came with a good offer, you know. The date of the fight was also something very important, you know, because it was a great date for me that was waiting for a fight, waiting to fight. And even the trailer car, they were thinking, at first, they were thinking about moving the fight to May, which would be good for me, you know. And when they said it couldn't be in May anymore,

so I said, man, we have this ego fight. championship in May, let's do this one, you know. And the offer was also great. All the people around this, you know, is good people. I've been, I'm having good times over there, you know, they're very organized people. And the structure they're building on this show, man, I'm impressed with everybody I've been seen, everything what I've been seen. And I have no doubts that in a near future, you know, Eagle of Sioux is going to be one of the biggest. shows in the world. Absolutely.

I'm curious, because, of course, you were in the UFC for so many years. Did you know Khabibh very well? Like, had you met him and talked to him at the UFC at all when you guys were fighting in the UFC together? I met him, you know, I admire him as always, as everybody, actually, especially for the game that he does, you know, it's something incredible. And, but we never really talk too much with each other, you know. the time of just seeing high

or shaking hands, things like that, you know, very, a very quick communication. Yeah. Now, you've been around promoters. You, of course, worked for Dana White for a lot of years, and I got to say, everything I've seen about Khabib so far has been fantastic because

not only is he a great promoter, but he's a fighter. He knows what you go through. He knows what it's like to cut Wade and to deal with Fight Week, and deal with promotion, and deal with interviews, and all the things that go into it. And I've talked to a couple of other guys. I think you can talk to Kevin Lee, talked to a couple of other guys for Eagle FC,

and they really liked working with Khabi, because it's different when your promoter is also a fighter. He knows what it's like. So how has it been for you? I mean, again, you're a legend. You've, you've done everything in the sport, one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, but how has it been working with him as a promoter? Yeah, like I just told you, you know, not just him, but all the team around him, you know,

because they know that you're completely right. They know the real routine, you know, and how important a fight is for a fighter. Because, man, we dedicate our lives for those things, you know, for to be there fighting, you know. And there's too much things in the line. For you to get prepared for a fight, it's so hard, it's so difficult. And you spend a lot of money. And also, you got to go through injuries. You got to go through mental issues.

You know, it's a bunch of things that when you get there, you know, you need to be respected and you need to be valued, you know, for being there and putting a good show for the fans. So Kabib understands that very well and all of his team as well. So they're doing a great job and like I said, I'm having good times with these guys, you know, and I really like everything what I've been seeing from them, you know, and I tell you more, you know, I have this, I signed this fight with them with, for this one, you know, only this one. But I'm looking forward for the future

because I really believe, you know, this show is coming to stay and stay strong because the guys are very well organized. And like you said, you know, Kabib, he's a good guy, good person. He understands the world, the world of fighting. He knows how to go through all this process that I just told you. You know, so he, nobody can understand better our world, world, then somebody like him, you know, and he kind of spread that knowledge through all his,

his, his partners in Eagle FC. And the work that they've been done over there, it's, it's beautiful. So I'm looking forward actually for the future. You know, I want to be part of this future on Eagle FC as well. Yeah. So you said one fight deal for now, but you think you will fight for them again. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm telling you. This is a, I sign for only this fight now, but I'm looking forward and all, actually,

did you see their belt? I did, yeah. I think that's the most beautiful combat sports belt ever. You know, it's so beautiful. I said, man, I need that thing on my life, my house. I love it. I love it. It's a beautiful belt.

And also, you know, man, they're heavyweight champion and don't know. So right there. Man, there's so much opportunities over there. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, Junior, from the day you arrived in the UFC,

your career has kind of been nonstop. You know, even as champion, you never really get a break because it's kind of one fight to the next to the next. And we talked back in February about the unfortunate ending your UFC career where you're kind of getting rushed into fights and you weren't getting the proper time to just rest and prepare and all those kind of things. It's now been about a year and a half since you last fought. Can you kind of give me a sense of like how healthy you are right now, how happy you are right now,

just that you got that break that you were able to kind of take a step back, get your body right, and what we're expecting to see out of you coming up on Friday in terms of your body and your health as you go into this fight? Well, you can expect to see 100, I'll be there to give 100% of me. to put in a great show, you know? In terms of happiness, man, I'm so happy because all this time I was able to spend more time with my family and dedicate myself a little more for them, you know, and dedicate myself a little more for myself as well to understand

that this, my first question was, should I continue fighting, you know, and once I decide I should continue to fight, I went back to the gym and I said, man, I need to keep doing this. I love this thing. But fighting is not an easy thing, man, because it takes a lot from you. It's a lot of dedication, not just from you. It's from everybody around you. You know, so once you decide to get a fight or anything like this, I think other sports,

I cannot talk about other sports, but, you know, in the fight world is like this. Everybody in the house is involved, you know, because they being part. So you're deciding to put your family in a challenge. That's what it really is. So you decide to put yourself in a challenge, but you put everybody else around you because they leave your routine, your daily routine for a fighter.

It's very hard and very dedicated. It takes a lot of dedication. So once you decide to put yourself on that condition, you know, it takes a lot. It takes a lot from you. And I'm feeling good. Once I decided I had the support of my whole family. And I decide this way because I really believe, you know, I can do very well, you know,

and I can beat all these guys, all of them, you know, doesn't matter who, you know, all the guys, even those ones that I lost my last fights. You know, man, I think I'm better fighting than them. You know, they got succeeded on those nights. on those fights but I really believe I can bid them, you know? So that's why I'm here

and I decide to keep going and I'm taking care of myself. I changed my whole training, my whole preparation. I was doing only boxing. I was finally to fight on trailer. I was waking up like 5 a.m. in the morning. My first training, I never did that.

My first training was 7 a.m. in the morning. So I was running every day, you know, taking care of my cardio a lot, you know, and also not worrying about taking my supplements, you know, things like vitamins and everything every day. Because I can tell you, after that thing, we happen with the U-Sada thing that they called me for diuretic, a cheap hydrochlorotiazida, something like that. It's a very cheap diet that you can find anywhere. And they took me out of a fighting world for one year because of that. You know, my mind was always under pressure. And this time I took for myself, it was very important. And now I can tell you, like the answer in the question, I'm feeling great.

It doesn't mean I'm learning from the experience I had in the past. I think I learned a lot. I understand myself better. I understand my challenge better. It doesn't mean that I'm going to get there and have the best performance ever. But it means that I can go there and try my best and try the best that I have to offer.

And that's what people can expect for me. You know, 100% of Junior Los Santos to get you guys excited for that fight. I love it. I love it. Let me ask you, you know, I'm not going to backtrack and talk a lot about the UFC. We had that conversation before. But seeing how happy you are and seeing like the offers that were out there, whether it was Triller, now with Eagle FC, and I mentioned, I'm sure there were others that we haven't even heard about.

I know things didn't end the way you wanted necessarily with the UFC, the way you left. But in looking back, as you prepare for this fight now just days away, do you feel like it was just better for you not to be there anymore in terms of your happiness now? It seems like you're just in a better place. Yeah, I feel like that too. Yeah. Thank you for asking that actually. It's important to say because I was very nervous. I was very sad right after it went out of the UFC.

I was thinking, my gosh, because my plans were to finish my career over there, you know, and becoming champion again. That were my plans, you know. It didn't happen that way, of course. But so then I was out of the UFC and I didn't really know what to expect from the outside. But, man, the outside is beautiful, you know. Like I'm talking to you, I'm talking to you about a one-fighter. that's going to be about on Friday.

And I'm also talking with you about another opportunity and another show, another event against another kind of fighter, you know, that's the possibilities we have on the table. We can go anywhere we want. You know, like on this big organizations, like the UFC, you have to sign a contract with eight fights, four fights, eight fights. And you know, everything was going to happen, each fight, you know, all the money

you're going to make in each fight. I'm not saying it's bad, you know. But the way it is, it puts a lot of limits on our path, you know. So to be on this position that I am right now, feels good. You know, I'm impressed, you know, with everything

I've been seeing out here, you know, especially with this opportunity. having now with Eagle EGO FC, which is a great one. And I'm looking forward for the future. And it brings me actually more motivation. It gives me

that extra will to keep moving forward. You know, I'm 38 years old now. So I feel I can go more and more, you know. So back in the day, back in the right after I went out of the EFU, I was thinking about stopping fighting. and now I'm thinking about the future

and I'm having more fights. Well, it's great you said that because I was going to say, because you mentioned to me right after the UFC thing happened, you said, you know, you were thinking about that's it. Like, maybe I'll retire, maybe that's the end of it. And then you went back in the gym, you realized how much you love this. And, you know, age, you know, age is a weird thing

because, you know, some people, I mean, we've seen fighters retire at 31 or 32. We've also seen legends like Randy Coutour go to 45, 46. So there's no right or wrong way to do it. But just listening to you right now, Now, Junior, it sounds like, man, Junior's like this is Junior 2.0. Like, it feels like you're ready to go. And there's a lot of big opportunities out there for you right now.

Yeah, that's true. And I'm happy that you can see that because that's what I want you guys to see. Because it's a very important move, you know, for my career, for my life. And like I said, nothing is, there's no certainty on your life. so you got to always try your best and I feel I can still deliver the best of me, you know, and even great performances,

I can still deliver great shows for all the fans out there, you know, and no doubts I'm going to do that. You know, as soon as I have the opportunity, which is the first one is going to be now on Friday. Yeah. Now, one of the things that, you know, again, not to circle back to the UFC,

but one of the things that kind of bummed me out about the way that ended was the way that they were kind of trying to force you into fights when you weren't ready to fight. Now that you are a free agent, junior, and you can kind of do things on your own time. You know, you got this fight coming up on Friday. Obviously, if everything goes well against you're going to Castro, you go out there and put on a classic Junior DeSanto's performance, you get a knockout of those things we love seeing from you. You might fight in two months or you might fight in six months. Is that part of the joy right now is that you do have the freedom to choose when you fight?

Like, you don't have to fight anytime. You can choose right now when you fight. That's another great aspect, you know. And also we got a, it's like it is in boxing. You negotiate every fight. If that's good for you, you go do it. If you don't, that's not good or interesting for you. You don't go do it.

You don't need to do it, you know. In boxing, you're not good. it's like that. It's, you know, normally you negotiate your, your manager or something. It goes there and negotiate each fight for you, you know, which is not like this here in the MMA these days, you know. So I'm in this position right now, and it feels good. You know, I don't know what's going to be the future, but I'm open to talk and to

hear from the organizations and from the opportunities they have there for me. me, you know, and I'm looking forward to them, you know. So, and like you said, if there's nothing interesting, interesting for me, you know, I don't need to take it. I can, I can, you know, stay by on my side, doing whatever I want to do. It's, it's good. I feel that, uh, that, uh, the feeling is that, um, freedom, you know, you can go the way you want, whenever you want, where you one. Absolutely. Now, we mentioned, of course, the Triller deal, and I know boxing has always been something you've wanted to do. We've talked about this for years, Jr. You've always wanted to cross over into boxing, and we have seen more and more guys do it. One guy in particular,

of course, unfortunately, his fight just got canceled. But Anderson Silva, of course, legend of the sport goes over and has incredible boxing matches, has looked phenomenal, almost like, again, he's kind of like had a career rejuvenations since going to boxing, and I've loved seeing it. I know Triller wasn't quite full boxing. It was a mixed rule set where you were going to fight Kubra Apula, but do you think we will eventually see you make that move to boxing? Is that still something you have a desire to do in the future? Yeah, 100%. That's the, that's still my, the biggest goal, you know, to go try myself. I gotta do it, man. I love so much this, you know, this boxing was always my main thing, you know. The grappling,

the grappling, the kick is, the kicks, the jiu-jits or everything else. I really like those, but I feel they are not very natural for me. You know, when I'm training boxing, man, I go like, doesn't matter how many rounds. You know, I feel good doing that, you know, it's very natural. You know, there's some guys that they do grappling very well, and it's hard for them to get tired doing that because it's natural for them.

And boxing, I feel it's natural for me. So I'm looking forward to an opportunity over there, you know, in the boxing world. But one of the things that it's also interesting about is that because you have to negotiate every fight, it's also a little harder to close a good fight. Because some of the guys, they can accept or they don't want to accept or something like that. You know, it's hard to really find opponents, you know, to really have a fight that makes sense. So, but I think we're going to get there. If we don't, I'll keep moving on the MMA, you know, which is, I, man, like I said, I have an MMA fighter, you know.

And, but I really believe, and I really want to try myself in the boxing world because I know I can do very well. Yeah, you don't need me as a promoter, junior. You got a great manager behind you, but let me just throw an ID at you. Can I do this? Can I throw you an idea real quick? Well, for 100%. Double, double headliner card.

Anderson Silva versus Jake Paul and Junior Dos Santos versus Logan Paul. Come on. How would that not be fun? How would that not be fun? That's perfect. We talked about that back in the day, you know, on doing something like that. Because the polls, they're pretty big guys. You know, they're pretty big guys.

And they have pretty good skills, you know, for YouTubers. You know, they're doing a lot of noise over there. So I think this kind of fight card would be amazing. And let's see it. Maybe it's possible to happen in the near future. Yeah, I would love to see it. I know they've talked a lot about Anderson boxing Jake. And I think you and, because Logan's big, I've seen Logan.

He's a big kid. He's not fighting like 170 pounds. He's a big kid. So, I mean, I think that would kind of make sense for you and you and Logan. Come on, Anderson and Jake. How would that not be a monster event? I completely agree with you. It would be a great show, you know, and great fights as well.

You know, I saw some of their fights, you know, they have good skills. Yeah, absolutely. Before I let you go, Junior, let me talk to you real quick about the fight on Friday, which is Jorgon DeCastro. Of course, Yorgon is a UFC veteran, much like yourself. Big heavy, hand-heavy weight. Of course, he's been working really easily with John Jones, which there's no, you know, no shame in that. course, one of the greatest of all time.

But let's be honest in this fight, Jr., the pressure's on you. I mean, you're the former heavyweight champion, one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. Absolutely nothing against Yorgon, but he's kind of a newer guy. He only had four fights to the UFC. Do you welcome that kind of pressure in a fight like this where the expectations are on you? I mean, not to say he's not dangerous. Yorgon's a very dangerous guy.

But we're all kind of watching and saying, man, Junior's coming back. Junior's back. He's fighting the champ, all these kind of things. Do you embrace that kind of pressure on you in a fight like this? Yeah, I feel like this is the kind of pressure that it's a good pressure, you know, because they are expecting you to come back and to put in a good show for them, you know? They're not putting pressure on you to take fights because you're hurt, because you just fought like you got a concussion from a fight,

and then they want you to fight in 20 days again. It's not that kind of pressure. It's a good pressure, you know, because they want to see you fighting again. you know, especially like when they put Yorgen de Castro there, I said, I was watching some of his fights. He has some strong kicks, you know, strong hands as well, you know, a little shorter than me. I can take advantage of that, you know. Fight is fight. It's always dangerous, you know.

So you have to always be very careful and put in a good performance, you know, to win the fight. I'm coming to win this fight. I get prepared. I don't take anything away from Yorga de Castro. he's a tough dude and my preparation was was in those terms you know I did a great

I'm still doing a great preparation for this fight and I'll get on Friday night ready to knock him up yeah and it's always dangerous right when you fight a guy not to say there's nothing to lose because of course you knocking a guy out there's something to lose but again you know he's trying to build his name off of you

he's trying to become a bigger star by beating Junior Dos Santos because that means so much so there's always a danger with a guy like that, right? Yeah, that's, yeah, that's much, that's more, that's, that's, that's more, let's say, it's better for him than really, uh, for me. But I think, uh, like I said, you know, it's, uh, the most important, uh, is to fight because I'm one year without one year or something, almost one year and a half without

fighting. And if I want to continue fighting, that, that was one of the, uh, the reasons we took this decision to fight on the, you know, as soon as possible. Because if you want to continue to fight, you've got to be fighting. You know, there's a different thing. You can know all the tech, the great technique in the world. You can be the best on techniques and do this and do that on training. You're a monster.

But there's a thing called timing of fighting, you know, which is putting your good skills, your skills, your fighting skills to work during a fight. You know, you can do that on sparty sessions, but it's not the same. You've got to be, like, constantly fighting, you know, to be on a good timing of fighting. So that's what I want to recover, you know, the time of fighting. And this fight now with the Oregon, the Castro, I'm coming, you know, strong against him, you know. And, of course, to fight in a smart way. I'm not going to go there and try to show that I'm better on,

I'm better on this or on that and just throw bombs like crazy guy, you know, because you can get knocked out because of that. So one of the things that I mentioned that I'm learning is to understand myself better and use everything what I have better because I was always focused, putting my focus to use my boxing skills, avoiding using my grappling skills, my kicks and everything. And I want to change this. If I really fight the MMA, I want to use all my arsenal.

I have so many things. I have wrestling. Not the best, but I have wrestling. I have jits. I have kicks. I have everything. You know, I do a great training at the gym. So I want to show all this techniques, you know, for the people.

Who can forget the spinning wheel kick knockout, Jr.? Come on. We all remember the spinning wheel kick knockout with the greatest knockouts in history. So we know you got the kicks. That was a good one. That was a good one. Junior, it is always a pleasure to catch up with you. I really appreciate taking this time on Fight Week.

I know you're a heavyweight, so you're probably not cutting weight, but I appreciate taking the time out of the schedule. Everything goes well on Friday. You know, I don't want to put too much pressure on you or anything, but everything cut you got to come back and maybe we'll do a little Metallica karaoke because I always like hearing your sing, Jr. You got to come back out for the fight. We'll celebrate a little karaoke.

How about that? That was the best celebration ever. You know, I love, like you said, as you said, you know, I love singing. and have fun with the friends, so let's do it. I love it, Junior. Thank you as always for the time. Best luck on Friday, and I look forward to chatting again soon, okay? Thank you, bro.

Take care. Bye-bye. Bye. A big thank you once again to Junior DeSantis for joining the program this week. He fights on Friday night at Eagle FC 47. That is free on the FLX app through EagleFC.com. I've got to give one bit of praise to Eagle FC. Well, a lot of praise is actually, because I've covered both the Eagle FC shows

to date and their shows have been a lot of fun and beyond anything else I've got to praise the production if you've ever watched MMA shows for promotions that are fairly new let's say promotions that aren't as established as let's say the UFC or Bellator or other organizations like that you'll generally get a lot of production hiccups whether that's streaming problems whether that's camera work whether that's you know bad effects whatever the case may be you do generally get a lot of growing pains

and Eagle FC has been stellar. The streaming has been stellar, the promotion, the, the production has been stellar, and the promotion also. I mean, they've done some really cool promos and videos leading into their events. Of course, you know, it doesn't help

to have the greatest lightweight of all time. It could be even by the Megamette off behind the organization pushing things. But I've got to give a huge credit, a huge shout out to Eagle FC for all the work they're doing in terms of production and actually putting on really, really quality shows because you can have the best fight in the world.

But if people can't watch it, it's buffering, it's bad production, wherever the case may be, you're not going to be able to see it. So the fact that they're pulling it off and doing it so well with only a couple of cards going so far in the United States, there's a lot about the future of this organization. And as we've seen with some of their signings from Kevin Lee to Ginger DeSantos, Diego Sanchez, some other names they've got on the roster, they're definitely going to make a big push in 2022 and beyond.

A big thank you once again, the junior, for coming on the show also. as earlier in the show, a big thank you to Benile Darius for joining us. Looking forward to whenever he comes back, hopefully later this year in one of those big fights in the lightweight division or potentially even in the title shot, depending on how things play out. We'll be back next week with another edition of the Fighter versus the Writer. Make sure you check us out on all of your favorite podcast platforms,

Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, all those places, and of course over on MMAFighting.com. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode. We'll see you next week. Thanks for doing it. 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. Hi, I'm Sophia Loper Carroll, host of the Before the Chorus podcast. We dive into the life experiences

behind the music we love. Artists of all genres are welcome. And I've been joined by some pretty amazing folks like glass animals. that was the idea was to try something personal and see what happened. And Japanese breakfast. I thought that the most surprising thing I could offer was an album about joy. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and remember, so much happens before the chorus.