MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Kevin Holland Reveals Latest Superheroics, Logan Storley Responds to Criticism from Michael ‘Venom’ Page and Scott Coker

Episode Date: May 24, 2022

On the new episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer, UFC welterweight Kevin Holland and new Bellator interim welterweight champion Logan Storley join the show. Holland will discuss his latest heroics after he rescued a truck driver from an overturned tractor-trailer in Texas. Beyond moonlighting as a superhero, Holland will also detail his move down to welterweight and how he’s feeling now that he’s fighting regularly at 170 pounds. He’ll discuss his upcoming fight against Tim Means and the toughest matchups he could face in the welterweight rankings as he seeks to eventually become a title contender. Fresh off a win over Michael “Venom” Page, Logan Storley will respond to the criticism he faced following that victory, which included his opponent and Bellator MMA president Scott Coker. Storley will also address reigning Bellator champion Yaroslav Amosov, who is currently fighting for his home country of Ukraine, and his hopes for a rematch after they battled to a razor-close decision in their first encounter. 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

Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation, here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation.

Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPline members on equipped flights. Sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. It was just another holiday party until Michelle arrived with a chocolate basque cheesecake.

Two rich cocoa's caramelized top, which Michelle claimed to have just whipped together. But the evidence told another story. An empty PC box, a receipt in her purse. Oh right, Susan, I bought the PC chocolate basque cheesecake. It was just $11. Can you stop true craming me? Can I have another slice? Try the season's biggest hits from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. versus the writer. I'm your host, as always, Damon Martin. This week, we have a great show coming up. A couple of interviews. Of course, one of our guests is Kevin Holland. He has a big fight coming up at UFC Austin on June 18th. Makes his return to action and a big fight against Tim Means. We're also going to talk to the new Bellator interim welterweight champion Logan Storley. Logan has taken a lot of criticism lately about his performance and his win over Michael Venham Page. We're going to talk about that. Maybe some of the perceived biases in that fight and the reaction, so to speak, he got from.

VP as well as his boss, Scott Coker. So we're going to talk about that as well. But before we get started with the interviews, I just want to give one thought. Because we're doing more interviews this week and not necessarily debate stuff or breaking down fights. I want to talk real quick about the fight over the weekend between Holly Holm and Kettlen Vieira ended in a split decision. Of course, Kettlin Vieira got the win overall.

And I was one of a very few handful of people that I actually scored the fight for Ketland Vieira. Now, I'm not going to say to argue the merits of whether she won or lost necessarily. But one thing I want to say, and I've kind of gone back and forth to people on Twitter about this and I've had some discussion with some other media members about this. I just want to throw this out there. I cannot implore to you enough to please, please, please go read the scoring criteria from top to bottom. I've posted on Twitter a couple more times and I'll post it again, I'm sure. You can just look at it.

I just type in MMA scoring criteria in Google and you'll see. I think it's like the second hit is from the California State of Athletic Commission. They have it listed there of all the criteria. I really want everyone to read that. The reason I'm saying that is because I really feel like there is still such a misconception of what scores in MMA, especially when it comes to cage control time and what are quote-unquote significant strikes. Two things about that.

One, well, first and foremost, in terms of scoring, know and understand that damage and offense counts more than anything else. Damage is number one. Damage is the number one criteria when we're talking to me again. And we can also be talking about submissions when we say ground control, like in terms of dominance on the ground, damage, submission attempts. That's also counting. But damage is number one first and foremost in scoring criteria. Now, once that is even, let's say, then we start digging into the other parts of their criteria.

And much further down the line are things like, you know, aggressiveness and cage control. And it actually says in the criteria how low on the totem pole that should be. Now, a big argument of what happened on Saturday night was Holly Holme, working from the clinch and landing a lot of short inside punches and elbows and knees to Ketland-Vierre, and that racking up a lot of points, so to speak. The problem I have with that is, is the most impactful strikes, the most impactful punches landed throughout the fight were mostly from Ketle-Vier on the feet. Now, volume-wise, yeah, you could say that, you know, Holly Holm home had more strikes

overall, sure, but that doesn't tell the story of the fight. If you go back and rewatch the fight, and it wasn't a great fight, so I don't know how many people are going to run out and do this. But if you go out and rewatch the fight, the most impactful strikes landed, for the most part, round after round, were from Catlin Vieira. Yes, Holly Holm had the push kick that kind of knocked her off her feet, but it's not a legitimate knockdown. She didn't knock her down. She wasn't hurt to the point where she was knocked down. She got caught with a sidekick off balance and got pushed back, got right back up again. That's not the typical definition of what we would call a quote-unquote knockdown.

Also, the other thing I can't say enough is please stop staying and paying attention to what stats are going up on the screen. They put up these stats all the time in the UFC and other organization. PFL lives and dies by stats on the screen. Please stop paying attention to things like quote unquote significant strikes or total strikes. It's fun to talk about. I put them in articles all the time. Such and such fighter landed so many significant strikes. Such and such fighter landed so many total strikes.

It's a fun conversation. I've used it. A lot of journalists have used it, and there's no problem with using it as a tool when you're describing a fight. What you don't want to do, however, is actually use those stats to try to drive a narrative about who won or lost. And the reason I say that is, right away, just look at the two stats they're putting up on the board at the end of a fight. They're putting total strikes and significant strikes. Significant strikes don't exist. It's a made-up term.

Okay, let's just get that out of our vocabulary. It's a made-up term. What is a significant strike? They're saying the more impactful strikes are significant strikes. So does that mean that the knee on the inside that Holly Holm landed is the same impact as the punch on the jaw that Ketland Vieer landed earlier in the fight or later in the fight? You know, like there's no measurement. And that's what I'm getting at. That's why we have things like knockdowns versus something like, quote unquote, significant strikes.

Significant strikes are nothing more than somebody on the outside of the cage hitting a button and saying that was significant, that was not. It's human error. There's no such thing as significant strikes. It's just something that a person has observed and they believe it's continued or, excuse me, quote unquote, significant. Get that out of your head and get those stats out of your head. Am I saying it's never important? Sure, there's times when it's important to pay attention to like total number of strikes

land and things like that. I understand why we have those stats in the sport. I'm not even opposed to seeing and talking about those stats. What I'm opposed to is using those stats to drive a narrative, about the outcome of a fight. Just because Holly Holie Holmout landed Kettlin Vieira doesn't mean she landed the more impactful strikes.

The more impactful strikes throughout the fight, the ones that actually did more damage that changed the course of the fight more often than not, were the strikes landed by Ketland Vieira. When she would land a good combination, snap Holly Holmes head around, Holly might close the distance, look for the clinch.

These are all reactions. Things like this are what's happening in there. And Ketland Vieer was winning the majority of those exchanges. Now, also, let's be quick, the one other thing I want to throw out there is this is a 4847 fight. It was a close fight. It really all came down to round three, how you scored round three, and I scored round three for

Ketland Vieira. And if you go over and read, there's a great article on MMA fighting right now from Alexander Kaylee called Robbery Review, and he breaks it all down. He breaks down round three in particular, and he breaks down the scoring. At the end, he says there's no robbery. It's true. This was not a robbery. We can't call robbery every time there's a close fight, and we don't like the way it went.

I mean, again, can you make an argument that Holly Holieholm won? Sure, you can. There's a lot of people I respect who scored the fight for Hollyholm. But at the same time, you can't really say it's a robbery just because Ketla Vieira won. It was a very close fight that really came down to one round in particular in how you scored that one round. It wasn't a five to nothing blowout, and it certainly wasn't a four to one blowout. When it's a three to two fight and the one round that makes the difference is really close and you got to argue about who won it, that's not a robbery. Just because the majority of people scored it for Holly Holie Holm does not necessarily mean it was a robbery.

It just means that one round was really close. And upon further examination, you may come down to a slightly different ending and how you thought it scored or how you thought it played out. All I'm saying is is that the overreaction of certain things with scoring in the sport get overblown. A big one, again, stats, get them out of here. I understand they're important in certain situations, but they're not necessarily important in scoring. Don't use that to drive your narrative because it's just not going to work and they're misleading. Significant strikes is not a real thing. Just get that out of your head right now because it's just not a real thing.

And number two, as I said, understanding the scoring criteria is so key. And I think a lot of people, and listen, Daniel Cormier, friend, love him to death, we'll love him forever. He fully admitted he's going to a judging seminar. I just went through a judging seminar with the California Statletic Commission recently. You're going on one of their meetings where they're breaking and scoring. talking about scoring different fights round by round things like this it's hugely educational now i understand that's not going to be out there for the average everyday fan but the reason i'm saying it on this podcast and the reason i'm hoping that guys like daniel cormi and of course michael bisming

other guys who are you know big voices in the sport and part of the sport will go out and actually start educating people more often than not on how to actually properly score a fight because it is confusing now i'm not sitting there saying i'm the expert i'm not sitting there saying i know all and i've never been wrong because I have been wrong. But I try to reread the criteria every great now and again, so I fully understand what I'm looking at, and I go through these seminars, so I fully understand what I'm looking at,

what the judges are looking at, and what I should be looking at when I'm scoring a fight. Ultimately with this fight, I guess my biggest point is it's not a robbery. It's a close fight. It's a close fight. I scored Catlin Vieira winning in the moment. I'm completely okay with my scoring in that fight. 48, 47, and I scored round three

for Catlin Vieira. The point being is it's a really, really close fight. There's no robbery. The people who went so up in arms and saying Holly got robbed, she didn't get robbed. She lost a close fight. That's what happens in close fights. Unfortunately, that's the name of the game. And just again, read the criteria, get significant strikes out of your head because they don't exist.

And just remember, when a fight is close, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a robbery. All right. Sorry, stepping off my soapbox. Now I'm going to go to the interviews. Let's talk first to the man who will fight on June 8. against Tim Means. He returns to action after a successful Walterweight debut in the UFC. So let's talk right now to Kevin Holland. I'm always happy to speak to my next guest when he's not fighting. He's out being a superhero

in the streets of Texas. I'm happy to welcome back. Kevin Holland, Kevin, how are you? I'm doing pretty good, my man. How have you been? I have been fantastic, and I appreciate taking the time for me, as always. You know, I'd love to talk about fighting with you. I'd love to talk about a lot of things with you, but have you stopped any more crimes? I was kind of surprised you didn't show up wearing the cape with the S on your back today. No, no, no, no. So what I've learned talking to a good friend of mine, she actually has a fight coming up,

was that she said, my boy, when you do ratchet hood stuff, you take your glasses off. When you do good stuff, you keep your glasses on. She said, you're reversed Clark Kent. And I like that a lot. So I might start calling myself Clint Clark. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I mean, no, there was a guy

flipped the 18-Wilter. I got out, helped that guy. Other than that, nothing else has happened. Okay, now hold on. I got to ask this story now. Flip an 18-wheeler. Tell me this story. Come on.

Dude, I'm driving the regal. You know what I mean? My old school, I'm in, you know, I'm kind of like a Batmobile. Everybody knows Batman is my favorite character. That's probably why I interview me in all these things. Driving down the road, you know, enjoying some good old 80s and 90s music,

just cruising. You know, it's fast, but for some reason I was cruising. I look over to the right-hand side. This guy looked like he's trying to get on the freeway pretty quick. I look back straight. I look back over to the right-hand side, and he's doing this. Yeah, I'm sliding sideways.

I'm like, oh, gosh. I pulled the regal over. I think I put the new brakes on there. Hopped out, ran over there, jumped on top. We ripped the door open, got the guy out. I'll check this out. I get the guy out. There's fluids falling out of the car and stuff.

I get the guy out of the truck. I'm like, I'm scared. I mean, every other time things have happened, I've been like, comp, this time I'm scared. I'm like, well, the truck's going to blow up, you know? The guy gets back in the truck. truck and it's like, I need my phone. I'm like, bro, I got a second phone in the car. You don't need your phone, bro. We got to go. He's like, no, I got to go get my shit. So I help him get out the second

time. He's like, bro, help me out. I help him out the second time. I'm like, bro, we have to go. He's like, I think I need something else out of the truck. I'm like, bro, I'm leaving. So as I turn around, there's a cop there. And I'm like, hey, what's going on? He's like, no, you tell me what's going on. Who's driving? You or him? I'm like, no, no, no, no. My car is down there. I have nothing to, yeah, so that was one of the situations. I probably should stay my ass in the car. That's crazy. A jackknife 18 wheeler.

That's scary enough. Was there any cars involved or just that, just the truck? Nah, he was, it was a lot of cars on a freeway, but he was entering the ramp, but he was still on, like, if you're, if you ever live in Texas, he lived in Fort Worth, you kind of know how our ramps are, it's a long way to get on the freeway. So he was, you know, doing that. And then he slid. He slid perfectly on the grass.

He's like, on the grass, a little bit of a hill. He's just sideways. I think the dude fell asleep while trying to get on. there. Who knows? You know what I mean? Uh, so I know how it is when I'm driving. I'll be tired too. So I feel it. Yeah. I just swerving. I, you know, I tell you what, you get in those situations and listen, I don't fault any, listen, it's not easy. I've been in those situations before where, you know, you see a car. I've actually stopped for like a car flipping over in front of me in the highway before. But, uh, but yeah, you see those situations. Not everyone's going to stop.

Let's be honest. You know what I mean? Like, there's something different to built in you when you're ready to stop and help somebody like that because a lot of people would just like, oh man, that's crazy. Or they'd slow down and watch, take a video on their car on their phone or something and they just drive on. Yeah. Well, I got off to the side because I didn't want to cause traffic. I ain't that guy that likes to have traffic all over the middle roads. We got off to the side and I got a lot of family that drives trucks. And had I not been a mixed martial arts, I probably would have been a truck driver. So I feel for the truck drivers when they're on the road. I hate when they jump in front of me, but I feel for

when they're on the road. That's crazy. So the guy was okay, obviously. He's trying to back for his phone and everything. The guy was okay. The guy was perfectly fine, but when the officer pulled up, all of a sudden, he was like, oh, and I was like, yeah, bro, like, you're playing. I was like, bro, I'm about to get the car. Oh, my gosh.

That's crazy, man. That's good. Like, do you ever think, like, how do I keep ending up in these situations? Bro, I got another situation that's way more a while than that. I'll never speak on it. So, like, yeah, I, after that situation, I was like, how do I keep getting put in these

situations. But, you know, when I was young, I wanted to be a superhero, so you got to be careful what you asked for. You know, you ask for certain things, and then they start to happen, and you start to wonder why these things are happening. You got to be careful what you ask for. Now, you have an established nickname. You've used this nickname for many, many years, but listen, nicknames are, I know the tradition in fighting is nicknames are given to you, not, you know, not taking you don't give yourself your own nickname. Listen, I like the Clint Kark nickname. I'm thinking, like, the Dark Knight, you're a big Batman fan. I just, I'm just, listen, nothing wrong with Trailblazer.

Absolutely nothing wrong with Trailblazer. But, just saying. Troulazer gets the job done. I see something happening. I'm just saying. I'm just saying, though, you know, you're a Batman fan, like the Dark Night. That could be a new one. I'm just saying, if you want an extra nickname, you know, hollert your boy.

I can help you out. All right, Ben. I'm a hollia about boy. I got you. So, Kevin, I appreciate beyond being a superhero, of course, you are a fighter. You know, when you're not saving people's lives, you're actually a fighter. I don't know if people know that or not. You're return in June 18th, and actually this one's going to be in Austin, Texas now.

I know you train a lot down in Houston. For people that don't know, Texas is huge. I've been to both places. I actually really love Houston. I love Austin, too, as well. Great place. But being in your home state, like, I looked at your record. It's been since 2018 since you fought in Texas.

You never fought Texas in the UFC, and you've been fighting these apex fights because of the pandemic. So, can I give you, like, are you excited to be, like, not only back with the crowd, but do it in your home state. Look, I don't know who the main event is. I do know who the main event is. It's a cater and embers or something like that. But look, it don't matter. You know what I mean?

The people's main event, I don't care who else they put on the car. We all know what the people main event that night is. It's me versus Till Means. Till Means is an OG in the game. He's beat a lot of guys that live in Texas, from Texas, train out of Texas. And me, you know what I mean? I'm from California. let's not ever get it confused Ontario, California at that, Rancho Coupa, Munga, Ontario Hills.

But let's get back to the point. I've been in Texas since I was 18 years old, some say 17. I know it was 18. And I just know how it goes, man. I've been here for a long time. I love it here. When I go to H-Town, I get super beautiful love when I'm in Fort Worth. I get a crazy weird love, but I still love it.

When I'm in Dallas, that's still Fort Worth. I get love all over Texas. I'm excited to be there. the people were excited that I get to be there. I'm excited to see the people while I'm in there. I'm going to be talking to the crowd. I'm going to be fighting Tim Means. Big Mouth's going to be full effect.

Trailblazer is going to go out there and do what Trailblazer does. It's going to be a magical night. Nothing's stopping it. I don't care what they say, what anybody does. And if Tim means, if you can't make it, UFC, find somebody for the backup. I'm fighting on that night. And it's going to be, the roof's going to blow off.

So I need a new roofing sponsor. It might be result roofing. So they might have to plug me in after this one. blowing a roof off and they're going to have to come fix the building. I promise you that. I love it. I love it. I did. Let me correct myself. I said, home state. I should have said, adopted home state. Because you've been in Texas for a long time. I always forget. You're actually not from Texas. You just have called Texas home for a very, very long time. That being said, Kevin, you know, getting the chance to fight here. Now you, listen, part of the joy of the pandemic,

if there's been one thing that we liked about the pandemic, not that we liked much, but there's one thing we did like about the pandemic. When you were in the apex, we got to hear the full Kevin Holland experience. Because, We got to enjoy hearing you in the cage and things like that. It was actually one of the fun parts when you're actually talking to guys outside the cage, all the kind of things you do. Now there's going to be a crowdback. We lose that.

If there's one thing I'm going to miss about the pandemic, it's that. We don't get the full Kevin Holland experience. Well, you know what? You get the memes still. You still get the memes. Even with the crowd, you still get the memes. You get thumbs up moments, which is viral. And you still get great walkouts, you know.

And you may have to wait a little while, but the UFC has great. microphones and they have great lip readers so it might take a couple weeks but when it comes out you always get to see what I said in that cage so you get to watch my fight twice once wondering what I said and twice knowing what I said so it's a good feel at the end of the day I double the views and it's still a fun time have you ever seen those videos they do on YouTube I can't remember the company that does that they do the the lip reading for movie parts and they're like they replace what people say with like what it looks like they're saying it is it is freaking hilarious I feel like that's gonna have to be like go back when it's over. I know you got, listen, I was going to ask you about this anyways. I know you got an only fans, which was surprised me. And at one point when you announced your fight with Cowboy Olavera, your manager, he said, you know, Kevin's got a fight announcement. I was like, awesome, where is it?

And he said it's on his only fans. I was like, all right, I got to sign up for an only fans account. And I got to, someone's going to tell my girlfriend that I signed up to see a Kevin Holland fight announcement because I was like, I don't want to get busted going to only fans for something else. This is the thing. The way the OnlyFans is now changing their platform is not going to only be for what you used to see it as.

It will be for real fans to interact with real people like me and others that are now joining the platform. And I don't want to say multiple names because I don't know everybody's name that's on there. But it's like on OnlyFans, you may have a higher chance of getting a message back from me and having a conversation. They have this little donation thing you do.

so you can put one sin in there, two sent in there. It doesn't matter. But the message comes through in a special inbox, and we might actually get a chance to interact a little bit more. So you do get that only fan true experience. And on top of that, and on top of that, check this out. You get the log on the only fans and blame Kevin Holland for it. Why not, right?

Let's go. I love the concept, though. And, of course, your fight announcements are kind of becoming legendary at this point. You know, I mean, listen, I'm not going to say you can't, because, again, you're a Trailblazers. That's what you do. You can't go back, though. You can't just go back to, like, regular fight announcements now.

This last one with Tim Means was fantastic, hilarious. So you can't go back now. You understand that, right? Yeah, well, you know what? I have a great management group. I got, when I say management group, it's really one man that's building a team. But, you know, I got a great team of people behind me all the way around the board,

great ideas. And, you know, and me as well, you know, sometimes I sit back, blaze my rifa, and think of some of the greatest things in the world. But, you know, it's like we come up with some great ideas and Orange never shy to tell me what he's thinking and I'm never shy to do it. So, yeah, I don't think we're going to stop giving, you know,

crazy announcements. Only way we won't give a crazy announcement is if a fighter that I'm fighting beats me to the announcement. But if they beat me to the announcement, they're just killing the buzz that we have all going anyways. I'm making it a little greater, a little, you know, little greater. That's all I'm saying, a little greater.

I'm making a little greater on them. Yeah. Now, I know coming out of the cowboy fight with Alex, Levera, let me be clear. You actually had talked about maybe fighting Cowboy Soroni. That was one you mentioned as a potential fight. Now, actually, you guys are going to be sharing a card here. I know Cowboy has said he has two fights left in him. Joe Lozahn, of course, who actually shares the same manager as you. They're going to be fighting on the same night as you. He has one more

fight. Do you still have interest? Would you actually want to be Cowboys retirement fight? Is there any interest there? I mean, I don't want to, I don't want to pigeon all you before a fight happens, but I mean, would you have any interest to be in that final fight or would you not want to be like the guy that sends him out on retirement. Look, everything goes well. I don't mind sending a lot of guys out on retirement. And I'm not trying to be funny here. I just don't mind sending a lot of guys out on retirement.

Look, a year ago, a year and a half ago, you probably would have been like Kevin Nett has his mindset. You're right, I didn't. So I don't mind sending these guys out of retirement because at the end of the day, I'm going to be the champ. Mark my fucking words. You know what I mean? I'm going to be the champ.

I pop some shrooms about a couple weeks ago, and I had these visions, you know what I'm saying? And I'm like, I'm going to be a champ. My first time popping shrooms and they said you see the future. I see in the future. I'm going to be the fucking champ. So, yeah, we're ready to fucking do it. I was out of competition when I did,

so it didn't fucking matter. So, yeah, I'm ready to go out there and do everything I got to do. Put it in the work, swim those extra labs, ride the bike for those extra miles. I'm not running, because I ain't no runner. I don't run from shit. You know what I mean?

But, yeah, getting it done. I'm going to be that guy. So if I'm your last fight, don't worry. You're going out against a legend. Not yet, but I will get there. More viral knockouts, more viral moments. It's one thing I'm going to do.

So I'm not stopping until I'm done. And that's just the way it's going to go. And I got a feeling I'll get it by 34, have to hold it for two years until I'm 36. I say I was going to retire at 34, but I'm giving the people what they want. I'll stay in this thing until I'm 36. And then I'll go shoot some movies. I love it. I'll fix the gap for the movies, guys.

I won't fix the gap until I get in the movies, okay? So leave me alone about the gap. I love it. I love it. You know, it's funny when we talked about, you know, when you were making your Wells Way debut, we talked about going down to Wells Way. And you said very honestly, you're like, listen, I didn't take it seriously before. I was not cutting weight the right way.

You know, I was, you know, doing things kind of crazy to get down to 170. Now, listen, I know you've said, I'll fight a middleweight. I'm not afraid of going back to middleweight. I'll fight a middleweight. But I got to be honest, Kevin, you look fantastic in the old Verified. It was nice seeing, like, obviously, and again, you know, size, I mean, listen, we've seen guys who fought a welterweight and do well. Kelvin Gaslum is a great example of that.

We've seen other guys do it, of course. But I thought you, yeah, I thought you, yeah, exactly. Robert Whitaker's a great example. But I thought you looked great at Welchway. Now, again, I know you're still willing to. to do the middleweight, but would you say that you found your true home now at Welterweight? I mean, if you watched my pro debut way back in the day at XCO, very, very first fight, I came out and said I'm the president at 170 pounds.

And still till today, I still do feel like that. I've always been the president of 170 pounds. When I'm there, I make waves, I make moves, and I make it look fucking good. I can do good things at 85, too. But the things I do at 85, it's funky, you know what I mean? it's funky because it just has to be funky because I'm not the big guy there. I'm not the dominant guy there. I'm just the funky guy making things happen.

But at 170 pounds, yes, it's comfortable to say that I'm a full-blown athlete, full-blown mixed martial artist, full-blown martial artist, period, when it comes to 170 pounds. Because I have to put in the work and I have to truly put in the grind. You know, I can't cut any corners. I have to do things the proper way. I have to stay on top of the diet. So if I do end up getting messed up for a couple of days and I can't train for a couple of

days that I'm still on task. So everything about 170 pounds requires me to be that guy. So, yeah, I'm the president of 170 pounds, and it's always going to be that way. There may be some hitters down there. There may be some, quote, champs and some legends, some goats and all that stuff. But presidential, Presidente, that's me. I love it. You said in a different interview you talked about, like, making the, you know, going up the

ranks, so to speak, at Weltsway. And you said, you're on your Sean O'Malley tip, you know, going, you know, give me all the cans. Now, listen, we all know, Tim. means is anything but it can. The dude's been around forever. Tim's a super tough guy. I mean, you don't get shot and come back to fight like whatever it was, like two months later, whatever crazy thing he did back in the day. If you're not a tough dude.

But if you want to be champion, of course, you want to rise up those ranks. So it kind of give me a sense, like, again, I'm not looking past Tim means because, again, Tim means super tough guy, three fight, win streak, very good fighter. But like, how quickly do you want to start, like, looking at that? Because again, if you want to get to the Kamar Usman's of the world,

you know, and I would argue, and again, please feel free to disagree with me. He would, I don't plan on getting it while Camaro's champ. Tomorrow will lose the belt before I get there, and I'm not trying to be funny. When I say lose the belt before I get there, either he'll lose the belt in competition, he'll just simply give the belt up and go elsewhere and do other things. Camarro's seems like he's at the end of the past. And I have about a year to go, a year and a half to go at the most.

So, that being said, I'll take whatever path they give me. If they want to slow row me or slow row me or slow row me. If they want to get me four or five fights these years, all guys not ranked in the top 15, that's perfectly fine. That's what they want to do. If you want to put it off for the fans, here they got another fight car coming in Texas as well. They want me to fight two times this year in Texas

and then back door and go get a last minute of Vegas fight. Whatever they want me to do. I'm a company, man. I keep saying it over and over again. It's whatever. When the ranked opponents come, the ranked opponents will come. People say I had a tough time with Marvin Maturie and Derek Brunson.

I mean, they're big boys and they did nothing but laid on me and try to pray on me. So, yeah, I think I'll have a phenomenal time, no matter who the guy is, to 170 pounds, whether they're a great wrestler or a great striker, I think I'll be okay, especially at 170 pounds. And 185 pounds, you know, I might want to put a little bat in my back pocket and pull it out, knock them over the head when they keep pumping me like that.

But other than that, yes, I think I'm good to go wherever. So when the time comes, I'll truly be ready. Until then, I'll just keep affecting my craft with whoever they give me. So if they give me somebody out of the top 15, I'm not saying that they're bums. I'm just saying that they're not that. top 100 athlete in the road, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think I asked you a variation of this question. We talked right before your last fight, when you fought Alex Olivera, we did the interview

after your fight had been announced. And we talked about, you know, the delay of the land at Welchway. And I kind of asked your opinion on like the Welterway division as a whole. And I'm going to kind of redo that here because now that you're officially in the division, people have their eyes on you, you're going to be in a big fight coming up on June 18th. And we always got, you know, people come in division, people are always kind of watching, like, okay, this is the guy we need to watch.

Well, of course, Kevin, you're a guy. we always need to watch. So when you look at Welterweight, like, who do you see out there that you like? Like, do you like, not saying matchups, we're not saying you're calling out names and that I should do that. When you look at guys, like, I think I remember you mentioned, and last time you mentioned Hamzot. You know, you mentioned Usman, of course, at the time. But like, kind of give him to lay like what you think of the top guys of Walter Waite. Because eventually you're going to get there.

You're going to go through the Gilbert Burns, the, you know, the Colby Covingtons, the Hamzot Tamayevs. Again, if you mentioned Usman, I agree. I think this was probably at the tail end of his crue. career a couple three more fights and he's probably going to be out of here. And listen, I'll say right now, I think Usman might be the goat. But again, he is at the tail end of his career. So kind of give me your lay of the land. Like, what do you think of the guys you will eventually go through it well to wait?

I think GSP's the goat just off the base off the way he defended the belt. He went against, you know, several different opponents, not the same person twice. So I felt, I felt Bilal Muhammad when he said that. But no, the lay of 170 pounds, not that much better than a lay of 185. To be honest, with you, some pretty good wrestlers down there. There's some grimy guys down there. There's some guys, it's probably safe to say that the guys slay the outside the top 15 are probably tougher

than the guys in the top 15. Just my opinion. That being said, a lot of those names you name just right now, to be honest with you, I ain't worried about none of them. You know what I mean? And then freaking, and then Superman finally looked human, you know? Superman finally human against Gilbert Burns. Same guy that Uzman knocked out with a jab.

You know what I mean? Final of human against Gilbert Burns. So, yeah, I mean, I think styles make fights. I think, you know, as long as I'm putting in that work, my style's tailor made for anybody in that division. Yeah, that's the dangerous thing about hype. Like, I think, listen, you go out there and have a war with Gilbert Burns. Like, Gilbert Burns is incredible.

I'm a huge Gilbert Burns guy. I think he's a phenomenal fighter. But, like, when you go. Oh, incredible dude. I mean, incredible. You follow him on Instagram. He's actually working with a kid right now who was dealing with, I think he was, I want to say it was like a brain situation. He had a brain thing and he was like, you know, having trouble walking and now Gilbert's training him in Jiu-Gilbert's just an incredible dude. But in terms of fighting, though, he's an incredible fighter. But we said, and I'm not saying that Hamzat's not good. I'm not going to make that. I'm not making that accusation. But like I said, that was a big step up. And we saw, like I said, danger with hype. You go in there with a real dude. You get to that top 15 level. It's a different story because he hadn't really fought those guys yet. And again, I'm not. not saying that Hamasel's not great. He may be a future champion. I have no idea. But again, that's a big step up. And like I said, that's when you kind of realize, like, there's, there's hype and then there's reality. Yeah. I mean, the hype was high, but the reality of the

fact is the kid did still get the job done. And, you know, it was a war, but he still got the job done. And it was entertaining and it was good. I'm not going to knock anybody. You know what I mean? I'm definitely not a hitter. So, I mean, props to everybody in the vision, they're doing a great job. Nobody is where they are without putting it work. I think they're all doing four. phenomenal, but like I said, in my mind, what I feel, styles make fights, you know, and I always felt like my style can give anybody a problem, take care of that wrestling shit. My style is a huge problem. So, yeah, you know, and my team out here in Fort Worth, they're finally coming together. My little trips to Houston really work, and my guys out here in Fort Worth, they're finally,

you know, pulling it together. So, I mean, yeah, it's fucking, it's going to be nice. It's going to be beautiful. If 22 ain't beautiful, 2023 will be motherfucking fantastic. I promise you that. You might start seeing mountains in Texas. That's how beautiful it'll be. Well, I know 2022 is still looking pretty good. And Tim Means, you mentioned when you first came into Welterway, we talked about

the guys you wouldn't mind fighting, and you mentioned a couple of legendary names. Of course, we already talked about Cowboys Sroni. It was a guy that you potentially targeted. You also mentioned a guy I know very well Matt Brown, another Welterweight kind of legend like that. Tim Means, I mean, Tim Means doesn't get that tag a lot, but when you look at what the dude's done, like he's a

super tough dude. He's like that old school. Yeah, that old school fighter. Like he's not the guy's going to talk to you. He's not the guy who's going to tell you what he's going to do. He's just going to go to do it. He ain't playing with you. He ain't going to play with you. Guess what? And anyway, I think a lot of people haven't realized I ain't going to play with Tim too much either. We dropped that one video for everybody to see what was going on. I shot several videos that day. I just did a commercial before that. So I understood the course of really shooting a video now. And we got some good video done. But I'm not going to play with Tim either. You know what I mean?

Tim's an OG. I respect that. So Tim don't play. I don't want to play with Tim either. We getting there, like I said, I will be talking to the crowd. I won't be talking to Tim. I'll be talking to the crowd, but I will be fighting Tim. And no disrespect to Tim.

That's just how I get down when I get down. So I'm looking forward to it. And the earlier you said, Kamar Ouzman was a goat. No, I hope I said this already, GSP. And then you did ask me about the Cowboy Soroni fight. Would I like being his last one? I got on this long-ass field. The answer is yes.

If he beats Joe Lazon, somebody from my man. the same night that I fight, he looks good, I look good. Why not? Let me be your last bang. I'm anybody's good first fight. I'm anybody's good last fight. I was Buckley's first fight in the UFC and I groomed that man into a beautiful young man and you see he'll be on the card, my son. And now we have Cowboys Sthroni, O.G, somebody who I once said that I would like to take that mantle of somebody who fights all the time and stays active like a true cowboy. I've been in Texas for a long time. I like to think I got that yaha to myself. So yeah, I wouldn't mind taking that title. Yeah, I love it. You also, I know, listen, you said, you know, you mentioned, of course, July 30th. They're coming back to Dallas. That would literally be in your backyard. I mean, Austin's not that far away, but you would literally be in your backyard. But do you, do you, do you have the ability? I know, I know it sounds like you do. I know, again, fighting a 170 is. But, I mean, you know, again, fighting a middleweight. You didn't have to cut a ton of weight, fighting a middleweight. Can you keep that same schedule being a welterweight? Can you do that? Like, getting down to 170 constantly?

Yeah, that's the thing about it. So the thing about it is, is I don't cut a lot of weight to get the 170 pounds either. You know what I mean? Like, as soon as I get on the diet, my body goes down to 192 like that. As soon as I get on the diet, super heavy and start working out a lot, sometimes after a training session, I might be close to 188 pounds. You get what I'm saying? So I was never cutting a lot of weight to get the middle weight. I was just simply eating more tacos to stay above where I need to be. So that's just me.

Yeah, I can make 170 pounds fairly easy. I questioned myself last time when I was cutting the 170. I didn't look sucked in. I didn't look drawn in. I finally did a weight cut the right way. I still had plenty of left in me. I had a shake the night, and I think I had a little breakfast that morning

before I wouldn't wait in. I could probably make 155 pounds to take Charles on a Bearers belt from him. Nobody else can do it. But I like Charles, and I'm not that type of guy who wants to get that skinny and look that slim. So 70 as far as I will go.

And if you come out with a 75-weight class, I will go there. And yes, I would love to fight it 185 pounds. So if you need to fight in Dallas, and nobody else where he wants to do it that soon, I'm pretty sure somebody in middleweight wants to do it. Yeah, I love it.

And you, like I said, you're that dude. You know what I mean? You're that dude. You're a superhero on the side. You're the dude who will step in and fight whenever they need you to. Like I said, man, next time, I'm telling you right now. So, listen, only fans, all the things you're doing, your management, takes well, good care of you, great manager, and love them to death.

Only thing you're missing, like I said, I got to get on him. He's got to get you that cape. You need a cape, Kevin, and you need a cape. The next fight video might have a cake. All right? Next fight announcement, we were doing a new fight. video, it might do a cake, might look like I'm flying in the air and everything. I got you. I'm just

saying, like I said, it's the only thing is missing right now. There's one thing I got to say it's missing, Kevin. It's the only thing you need right on the S or a K or something on the back. I'm thinking a silk cake with an O on the back and people are going to think it stand for only fans, but I just think it's the hero from Ontario. You know what I mean? I like doing that goes. There you go. There you go. Kevin, it is always

a pleasure to catch up. I really appreciate taking the time. Enjoy the rest of your training camp. I know it's a short trip down to Austin, but enjoy the trip to Austin, enjoy the fight, man. You know I always love chatting with you, and can't always see you back June 18th? Hey, you too.

Hey, and if anybody got motorcycles, and if anybody has old schools in Austin, Texas or near Austin, Texas, I'm gonna try and set something up Friday after way ends. Let's get up, let's find a place to meet, and let's swang and bang up and down the highway before I go out there and fight so we can have some real Texas tradition shit going on.

No, you said motorcycles. You said motorcycles, motorcycles. Yeah, old schools and mortars. motorcycles because the sound of the choppers and then the old school of cars to the sound of the engine is just flooding down the road. Yeah, let's do it. I'll bring the regal out there. Y'all bring y'all things out there. Let's swing and bang. I want to be somewhere in the middle or somewhere in the front or somewhere in the back. I don't care. I just want to swing with you. Kevin is always a pleasure, my friend. We'll talk soon. Yes, sir. A big thank you to Kevin Holland. Really looking forward to his second fight at Walterway to see him makes his return to action against Tim Means on June 18th at UFC Austin down in 10. Texas. That is actually a really solid card. If you didn't get a chance, I dropped it on Twitter over the week in the main card. It's actually really, really solid. And I love that main event between Josh Emmett and Calvin Cater. We're actually going to have Josh Emmett on the show next

week. So stay tuned for that. But yeah, really looking forward to that cards. A really, really solid, kind of underrated. The fight night card's got to be honest. They've not been great lately. They have not been strong beyond like a main event and maybe a co-main event and even that lately. I mean, there was one card where they had two guys coming up the Contender Series who we're fighting in the co-main event, never, like never had any other U.S. experience or fighting each other in the co-main event while that happened. But the fight night cards have not been fantastic

if we're being completely honest with ourselves lately. So the U.C. Austin card is actually pretty good. So, you know, enjoy it while you can because we may not get those all the time, and we may not get those very often anymore. So look forward to that one. Cowboys-Sorone, Joe Loz-on on that card. Really, really solid card.

so I'd highly recommend looking forward to June 18th. My next guest, a very polarizing figure all of a sudden in the sport, and considering he's actually an incredibly nice guy, but Logan Sterley is the new Bellator interim welterweight champion of the world. He scored a split decision win over Michael Vindon Page at U.S. Or see, at U.S. Bellator, London. A couple weeks ago, and I don't think, and maybe I'm wrong, I don't think anyone's really talked to Logan yet,

so I wanted to talk to him, have a conversation about the fight, the reaction he got from Michael Vennon Page, from Scott Coker. And to be clear, I scored the fight for Logan. I thought he won. It was not a great fight. I'm not going to say it in lie and say it's anything that you should probably run out and watch over and over and over again. I don't think he would probably tell you to go out and watch it over and over again outside of he wants to watch it to see his crowning achievement of becoming a champion for the first time in his Belator career. But that being said, we're going to talk to Logan about the fight.

Of course, about his reaction to what Michael Vennon and Page has said. what Scott Coker said after the fight. And of course, the other big subject right now is the other champion, Yoroslav Amosov, who is over fighting for his country in the Ukraine. He's got bigger things to worry about than a Bellator championship right now. Logan and Amosov had an incredible fight not that long ago. Ended in a very close decision, went against Logan Storley. And now hopefully he'll get a chance to run it back in the future.

Assuming everything, you know, stay safe with Amosov. That's far more important than any title belt, any Bellator fight. but we're going to talk to about that as well. So here is the new Bellator, Walterweight interim champion of the world, Logan Storley. He is the new Bellator interim welterweight champion of the world coming off a split decision win over Michael Vindam page just days ago in England.

And now he is my guest today. Always happy to speak to Logan Sorley. Or should I just call you champ now? Which would you prefer? You know what? Either one works for me. Logan, congratulations on the win, of course. I know it's been a long time coming.

We've talked many times about getting to the title, the moment you would get here. Can you kind of give me a sense of the feeling of finally having your hand raised, finally having that belt put around your waist? Yeah, you know, it's a long career. But it's not just my MMA career. You know, when I started at the collegiate level was 2011.

You know, I had some shortcomings in the semifinals. I was like, you know, competing against the best in the world. And so for me, it's been a long time. It's 11 years or 12 years. And so it was a, this one meant a lot, you know, all those shortcomings finally, I finally got there and got it done, got it over the hump. And so it's important to me. And this one means a lot to me.

And I think all those maybe at the time that hurt my feelings and it's like, why is this happening to me? I think it was for this moment, you know, this past weekend. Yeah, it's funny you say that. I remember having a conversation with Daniel Cormier several years ago when he became UFC champion. And he had kind of a similar thing because, of course, he was, you know, he had Cal Sanderson in his division when he was in college and then he had two Olympic teams.

He had, of course, the situation the second time around where he got booted after the way in thing with his kidneys. And so getting to that, you know, the top of the mountain, so to speak, becoming champion meant so much more to him because he had gone through so much trying to be a champion in wrestling. I imagine it's similar. Like I say, it's a different level of competitiveness to go through that and then to finally kind of reach your goal, right? Yeah, you know, I was lucky enough to win six state titles in high school and be successful and win the junior Dan Hodge and thinking I'm going to college.

And in my mind, I want to win four national titles and to come up short every year that stings every year, you know. And as a team, we got second, third second, you know, we're always there. So, you know, this one, I think it was a long time coming, and it was a lot of heartaches along the way, but we finally got it done. And I'm happy about it, you know. Yeah. Before we get to the fight itself, I did want to ask you because I didn't get a chance to talk to you right before the fight, which is, you know, the situation, how this comes about. Generally, when we see an interim title getting introduced, it's because the champion's injured. You know, that's generally the case.

They're injured. They can't fight for a year, whatever the case may be. this, I think, has got to be a first time ever. We've had someone literally fighting in a war to crown a champion, which is, again, the most insane situation you'd ever imagine. Can you kind of give me your thoughts on this? Because I know that you have a lot of respect for Amasov. I know we talked about that, about getting that rematch eventually. That's the only loss on your record is a very close fight, very good fight.

But kind of the circumstances around this, because it is really strange. Like, you're not competing for it because he can't fight because he hasn't injured knee. he's literally fighting for his country in the Ukraine. Yeah, you know, me and Dave talked. I think it was guy I fought Neiman on Saturday. I flew home the next week. We talked on Tuesday, two days after, and I just said, you know, what are we going to do? You know, I think the war started not long, like a few days after my fight with Neiman.

I just said, this is a weird, weird situation, you know, I was like, I don't really want this. I said, but I guess if they call, it is what it is. And all of a sudden, two weeks later, you know, they called. And it's like, I can't control that. You know, I have obviously, like, we have nothing, no control what's going on in the world. And then it's like, you know, really it comes down to is they want MVP at home to the chance to win a belt. That's what it comes down to. And when they called my name, of course, I want that opportunity.

I want that rematch with Amasov. But I respect Amasov. You know, I have a lot of respect for him. But at the end of the day, I'm fighting for a world title. It doesn't matter what's going on. Like, I can't control that. I'm going to win a world title, and that's all that's in my head. And when that bow gets signed, that's all I'm worried about.

I'm focused on MVP, and I had to go and take care of business, and that's what I did. Yeah, and I'm sure you will anxiously await the chance to welcome him back. You know, when everything, hopefully everything goes well, he comes out safe and he returns to action or returns to the returns to the cage, you'll be more than happy to welcome him back once he's ready. Yeah, for sure. And like I said, I said it before, he's going through more than, you know, I, me personally can deal with right now. I'm back home in South Dakota, you know, life's good. He, you know, he's fighting for his country. And I respect the hell out of that. And I respect him as a competitor, you know, and I do. And me and him both have a lot of respect for each other. And, you know, the last fight was a back and forth fight. And, you know, I thought I did enough to win. And, you know, I thought I did enough to win. And, you know, he thought he didn't have to win and one judge saw it differently. So I want him to come back safe. I want him to come back at 100% ready to fight. And I want to see the best on us out because I've changed a lot since that fight.

And he knows I have. And so we'll see. Yeah, absolutely. So Logan, let me talk about the fight itself, of course. Now, you just got back to South Dakota, you mentioned. Have you had a chance to go back and rewatch the fight with MVP? Yeah, I got to watch it a little bit. I got to see some, I got to see, you know, parts and bits of it, a little bit that the night right after.

I was laying in the hotel room, and so I wanted to watch, you know, some of it. Here's what I'll say is you go and look at all the betting odds. You go and look at what every MMA media person says before the fight. It was, and Big John, Josh Thompson, all these people said, wrestle, wrestle, get in tight, get to your position. You have to be in your positions. Logan has to be in tight. Logan has to grapple. So then I go out there.

I do that for, you know, four of the five rounds controlling. And it's like, then people are mad, you know? And it's like I did exactly what I was supposed to do. Just two months ago, me and Neiman Gracie stood up and beat each other up for 25 minutes. I have a brain and I know how to calculate things. and I know where people are good. But I did what I had to do, and I have the belt, and I'm back home, and I'm world champ.

So anyone that has a problem with that, like, I'm sorry. I always want to put on exciting fights, but I did what I had to do to win the belt. Yeah. I'll be honest, I scored the fight 4847 for you, and I could see it going 4-1, but I thought 48-47 was a pretty fair score.

Didn't think there was any controversy. If anything, I guess my biggest criticism of the fight would be, that I thought, you know, listen, understanding that you are a wrestler, you know, there is also a certain responsibility to the other guy to be able to get up or outstrike or stay on his feet. If that's what Michael Vennepage wants to do, he wasn't able to do that for the largest part of the fight. And I didn't really think there was a whole lot of controversy. But again, I admit I'm a wrestling guy.

I'm also the guy who said on numerous occasions there should never be a stand-up in mixed martial arts. If he can't get up, that's on you. Like, that's my time. I've said that a million times. But when you look at the fight itself, when you look at your performance, like, I know, listen, you said, in your head you would love to put on a crazy exciting fight every time. But in terms of you looking back, are you happy with your performance? I guess my question is this, is me and Amasov was a grappling match for 13 and a half minutes. We scrambled back and forth, back and forth.

Me and Neiman, neither of us really wanted to go the ground, so it was back and forth. He didn't want to get up. He didn't want to spend that energy. if I stood on the feet for 25 minutes, I guess my question is, would anyone complain if he just punched me for 25 minutes? Can I sit here and say, like, well, why is he punching me the whole time? It's like, why is he wrestling the whole time? It's like, because you can't stop it. And he didn't. He didn't want to get up. He didn't want to scramble. He didn't want to put himself in any situation. You know, he held the wrist. He was good. I'll give him credit. He was good at

holding wrists and staying long, but like he didn't really want to get up. So, you know what? I think he's a great dude, and he's a hell of a fighter, and I respect the hell of a MVP. But at the end of the day, you couldn't stop a takedown. You couldn't stop anything I was doing on top. You couldn't stop the takedown, and you couldn't get away from me. And so I don't know, you know, anyone that has a problem with that, I don't know what to tell you. Yeah.

There was a comment that he made on the MMA hour on Monday, and he said, said that something to the effect of, you know, you were trying to survive not to win. Now, my argument to that comment is, wouldn't there be an argument that he was trying to survive on the bottom? Like, he wasn't doing anything really to get up and he wasn't really doing damage. He was holding on, you know, he's holding on trying to not take, you know, not get, you know, beat on the ground. Isn't that also survival?

I mean, that's not a knock on him. I mean, understanding, like, he knows he's got a world-class wrestler on top of him. There's only so much you get, is there some, you know, criticism going that way as well, right? Well, I stood up with you for probably 10 or 11 minutes of the fight. Why didn't you drop me? Why didn't you hurt me? I gave you all the time in the fourth round. We were both tired.

Why didn't you knock me out? All he said before the fight was it only takes one second. Why didn't you do that? That's my question. If you're so good, why didn't you knock me out in that one second that it took? And like I said, I think he's a great dude. Me and him had a lot of great talks, but you can't sit here after the fight and tell me, come up with all these excuses, and I stood on the feet with you for eight to ten minutes,

and you couldn't hurt me. So, you know, if you're the world's best striker and you're so dangerous and only takes a split second, well, you didn't find it. Yeah. To that point, you know, in terms of what you did in the fight, in terms of your dominance with your wrestling, you know, listen, there's no giant secret what you do really well. It's up to your opponents to stop you from doing that. And we've seen it with other great wrestlers.

We saw Ryan Bader did to check Congo. We've seen what other great wrestlers have done throughout time. In terms of that, do you feel like you did show improvement and did show different parts of your game in that way? The way you were able to take him down, the way you were able to control him, the way you kind of negated his striking because I think a lot of that also goes to fear the takedown. I say it all the time. When guys are afraid of a takedown, they won't let their hands go. They won't let their striking go.

and it felt like he was kind of adhered in the headlights in some of those moments as well. Yeah, you know, I think after he felt me get a hold of him, I hit that little fireman's dump in the first. He felt my pressure. Then I think he kind of slowed down a little bit. But yeah, I think I did a good job of just composure, you know, and that's what I feel every fight.

You know, the Neiman fight was a totally different, a totally different fight of 25 minutes standing up that I grew a lot as a fighter. and this fight was in an enemy country, you know, 12, 13,000 people booing you the whole time, and I had to keep my composure. And you're fighting a guy like MVP that's, you know, broke cyborg skull, knocked Derek Anderson's nose in, has caoed all these people. And I was able to be in there, keep my composure, get to my positions, not get exhausted,

take my little breaks when I had to on the feet, and he couldn't hurt me. And that all came from those last few fights. That's how much I grew as a fighter. And when this next fight comes up, you know, I think every time I get in there, I'm growing. And I've grown a lot in the last two fights. Yeah. When it was over, where was your confidence at not only that you'd won, but did you allow it to creep in your head at all at that moment that I'm fighting in England? You know, I'm fighting in his backyard.

Now, the judges aren't necessarily from there, of course. They bring them in from other places. but I've been in arenas. I always bring this story up, and it's because I was there cage site. When Diego Sanchez fought Martin Camman back in the day in Louisville, Kentucky, I thought Martin Camden clearly won the fight, but Diego was throwing a lot during that fight. He missed a lot of punches, but the crowd was roaring. Every time he threw it, it looked like he threw a big punch, and he was missing, but he was throwing.

And he ended up winning, I think, a split decision. And I thought it was an awful decision, nothing against Diego, but I clearly didn't think he won that fight. But I think the crowd played a part in the judge's reaction. So was there any of that in your head? Like how confident were you that you won? But was there a little bit of doubt saying, oh, man, right now I realize I am fighting in his backyard. No, I was pretty confident with round one, two, I thought, you know, three, I thought I won. And then four, it's like I knew that was to him.

And then round five was clearly me. I knew that, you know, that's why I was, I was sitting over there. I was kind of smiling the last five seconds of the fight because I knew everything I had, Robbie, you know, You know, Lawler sat there in the corner and said, you have to have a sharp round right away. You have to get after it right away. Do not leave this close. Go out there, do your job, got to my takedown right away, put him in the middle of the cage, put him on his back. And there was no question of my mind.

And then all of a sudden, it was taking a little bit to get the judges in there. And I said, first judge, it was like, and the first judge scored, you know, 48, 47, or story. It was like, we're doing this again. And I knew it was because we're in England, but I heard 49, 46. I was like there's there's no doubt in my mind I knew that was me um but yeah I guess it is what it is you know each judge wants it's a crazy sport you know judges are seeing different stuff and um all of us fighters whether we're stand-up guys grappling guys wrestling guys we've all been part of fights we're like what the hell is that you know how is that even not nobody thought

that but this one judge yeah absolutely absolutely to that point you know we we talked before you had your first fight, we've talked during your career. And I know you've had an incredible relationship with Bellator the entire time you've been there. So trust me, I'm not trying to stir up controversy, but I do want to ask if you heard Scott Coker's comments afterwards. Listen, he's entitled to his opinion. Everyone's entitled their opinion. And I'll give you mine.

I don't know if you want it, but I'll give you mind. I think there's a certain level of investment that's been made in a guy like Michael Vinham Page. He's supposed to be kind of like the, maybe like a little bit of the Israel Adasania, like the star striker coming in. You know, we think he's going to be a champion. he's going to be all this now. Adasanya, I think, is one of the best pound-for-pound guys in the sport.

Maybe MVP just didn't turn into that. I don't know. There's a lot of investment in that. I don't know if that's the reason. Maybe it is, I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But you tell me, what did you make of those comments? And do you take any offense or do you just kind of, you know,

just shrug your shoulders and just move on from it? I mean, to each his own, I think Scott scored it 48, 47 page, but which two rounds are you given me? Like, if you're going to give me two rounds, why not give me the other two? like you're just guessing at this point you know and i respect scott me and him have a good good relationship but you can't just pick and choose rounds that that um oh MVP won this and like well you know like the first one two three and five that was clearly me it's like so which one rounds are you giving me um and like i said i respect scott and we have a good relationship and

Bellator's done a lot for me, and I love working for those guys. But at the same time, I get it. You know, Neiman Gracie, that's a big guy of theirs. I beat him up. Then you have MVP in the UK. You got the UK draw. I beat him up. So, yeah, if you want to be mad, be mad.

But I just, I don't care. You know, I'm a world champ. And if they're not happy, then I guess put whoever you have in front of me next. Yeah. Now, one thing that MVP did say, on Monday that he, you know, he said, listen, whoever won this fight, I believe is the champion. Now, he wasn't saying that necessarily is a negative to Amosov. He was saying it, like, I don't look at this as an interim. I think you're a champion. And he said, you're the champion. He said, you know,

listen, I may not like the result of the fight, but Logan Sorley is the champion. How do you feel about it? Like, I know there's unfinished business with Amosov, but we also go look at the reality of the situation. We don't know when he's coming back. I hope he's safe. I hope all this turns out okay. I'm glad his family save all the, like again, some things are bigger than fighting. So probably the least thing he's thinking about right now and should be thinking about. But how do you view the title? Do you consider

yourself the true welterweight champion? Do you consider yourself having a piece of the title? How do you feel about it? You know, first fight with Amasab, I thought I did enough. And like I said, I respect him. But this was a fight that got thrown at me and

was for a world title. Interim, Undisputed. I don't care. You're world champ. That's what it says, right? So I don't care if it was Amosov. I don't care if it was MVP. Whoever they put in front of me, I'm fighting for a world title, and that's what I took it as. And so right now, yeah, it didn't matter me who was in front of it or what words were in front of that belt. Because if MVP would have won that belt, I'm telling you, everyone was said he's undisputed world champ. Yeah, absolutely. I agree, 100%. Do you believe in your heart of hearts? And I know you can't predict the future Logan, but I do want to ask, like in your heart hours,

do you feel like you will run into MVP again? Do you feel like he's good enough to get back in there and earn a title shot against you down the road, whether that's one fight, two, fight, three, fight. Do you think you'll ever cross pass with him again? I will say this, is that his distance and speed is unlike anyone I've ever felt in there. But obviously, you know, like we've seen Daly and Ross Houston did a good job of getting him the ground. So I don't know. It depends on he hasn't really thought many hardcore wrestlers.

You know, there's some good wrestlers in our division. You got Amasov, Jason Jackson, Korshkov, Khrushkoff, Khrushmer, all these guys that are Joey Davis. So it's like, where are we going to send them? And are they wrestlers or non-wrestlers? Because there's some hard-nosed wrestlers left in that division. So if he can get past that, then yeah, I think he'll be fine. But I don't know.

I guess he supposedly said if he fixes his wrestling, he's the man. So it's like, well, yeah, man, you're 30, you know, if we all fix one thing, we're the greatest fighter in the world. But guess what? It takes a long time to get to that, to perfection. And none of us will ever achieve it in any one aspect. And so it's like, I just think it's kind of arrogant, you know. I really respect him. I think he's a great dude, but guess what?

I don't have the 20 years of boxing like I do in wrestling, and I understand that. So I'm going to go to my skills, and I'm not going to say I won't ever beat Canello, right? I don't have enough years. I just don't have enough years. And so it's just, it's funny when I hear fighters say, if I fix one thing, then I'll beat this guy. I was like, well, okay, man, well, I wish you the best of that. Yeah, if you would have fixed that one thing, before the title fight, we'd be having a different conversation. Once you get to that level,

I think at that point, you got to, you know, you just got to admit you just, the other guy was better than you in that particular thing. I mean, that's it. Because if you had got knocked out, I don't think you'd be showing up today telling me, man, but I just had one boxing lesson, man, I would have knocked, you know what I mean? Like, I don't think that would be what you'd be telling me right now. No, because, but I'm, I'm honest, right? I get it. I've spent, I've been wrestling since I've been five years old at a super high level, you know, well over the 10,000 hour mark. And it's like, that's my perfection. That's what I've done my whole life. That's my craft. You know, that's my profession. And so it's like, yeah, you're not going to catch me.

None of these guys, really, I don't think will ever catch me. And I think my MMA wrestling is better than my regular wrestling. And it's like, I've started that a long time ago and been watching MMA since I was a, me and my dad used to watch Chuck Liddle, you know, on FSN. And so it's like, I've been watching in sport of MMA for a long time. And I think I have a lot of years and I knew that I could do well. And, you know, obviously it worked out well for me. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. To that point now, let me just throw out this idea.

If you ever do have to rematch MVP down the road, not again, I don't know if it'll ever happen. I don't know if he'll ever earn the shot. But if he does, here's the suggestion. They made you go to London. He should have to go to South Dakota next time. Does that not seem fair? Yeah, they can all boo them the whole time, you know. No, sure, he can come over. Like I said, he's a hell of a fighter. He's much better than I expected with what he could do on the ground. And I think I was much better on the feet than he thought. He thought he could hit a knee or hit one of his punches or elbows and drop me. And it's like, it's not that easy. And he did a much better job on the ground than I was expecting right away. And so props to him, like I said, behind the scenes, no.

showmanship. He's a great dude, and I respect the hell out of him. But you want to go on whatever talk show and talk shit, good for you. I don't. That's not me. That's not me. And I don't have anything bad to say about him. So he can say whatever he needs to to make himself feel better. Yeah. Now, with that being said, Logan, you know, for the longest time and what you've been throughout so much of your career is you've been the guy chasing that title, chasing the championship. From the day you showed up in Bellator, you were chasing that championship. Now, you're the guy with the target on your back. You're the guy that everyone's gunning for.

Is it a weird feeling? Is it a fun feeling? Like, you know, because again, you now know you are the guy. Everyone is going to be gunning for you. Yeah, you know, I think it's something I dealt with, you know, in high school. I dealt with in college. You know, I was always a top three, top four guy. Being at the University of Minnesota, a top number one, number two, number three ranked school.

I dealt with that, you know. Like I said in all my interviews, since. I started this sport day one when I was five and all and nobody knew my name is I'm a competitor. And I know how to compete better than almost anybody out out there. I just do. You know, at the highest level every single weekend, and I know how to compete. And really, at the end of the day, finally I got my, I accomplished what I wanted to, but I'm not done yet. And so there's a lot more to go.

And now it's just, now it's exciting, you know. Now it's, I kind of got to where I wanted to get. and now there's there's another few steps to really get where I want to get. And I saw that pound for pound new rankings came out and I was number 10. I don't know if I agree with those. But yeah, I want to put my name on number one on those. And that's the next step, you know. Yeah, absolutely.

Now, again, when your champion, it's a little different in terms of your level of activity. And your days removed. So I don't want to pitch it all you and say you got it to give me a timeline. But like, do you think you'll fight again this year? Are you going to take some time off? Just kind of see what the lay of the land is in the division. Where is your, I know, again, it's kind of hard to ask you this question, you know, two days removed from a title fight,

three days removed from a title fight, but like where's your head at right now in terms of time? Would you like to get one more in this year? You're just going to kind of wait and see what Bellator comes with you with. You know, right now I will say this is that when I got back into that camp for MVP, I was tired. No, you know, obviously my body. It was a 10-week camp for Neiman.

there was a lot that there was a lot of process that went into that camp because I knew how dangerous Neiman was everywhere and my face was beat up my body was beat up um I got a two and a half week break and I went right back into an eight week camp and I I felt the ups and downs during that camp um so this camp was you know it was a little scary kind of going into a title fight um enemy territory all that um but the moment I stepped in that cage and they're chanting MVP booing all this but I was super comfortable because I just fought, what, two months ago? You know, I felt that comfort. So, you know, I'm going to take a little, I'm taking three, four weeks back in South Dakota.

I'm taking a break. I'm going to go do some camps and see the South Dakota kids and hang out with my family and friends. And I think I deserve that. I haven't been home since December, November. But when Bellator calls, I guess we're going to look. I would like to fight before the end of the year. And, you know, I want to defend this belt. Yeah.

Now, I don't, again, you know I'm not the guy that I try to get you to say controversial things and try to stir controversy. But when you look at the lay of the land at Welterway, you know, there's a lot of guys out there. But I think a lot of people are going to be targeting right away. The fight coming up in July, your teammate, Jason Jackson, one of the guys' division. We talked about Jason before. He's one of your closest friends, one of your closest teammates. Does it make it harder? I'm not going to sit here and ask you, will you fight up all those kind of things, although feel free to tell me.

But does it make it harder now because you are champion? Because you are the guy in the division. And unfortunately, one of your closest friends, one of your biggest teammates, is also one of the top guys in your division. Yeah, I think, you know, him and him and Lima are going to go fight June or July, whatever it is. And may the best man win, you know? Obviously, I'm cheering for my guy.

Deep down, I want Jason win. But at the same time, it's like there's a, it's hard when you go back into the gym and we see we saw it with kamaru and gilbert it was it was tough on the gym it kind of split it in half um you know at this point i think we're both professionals to me i'm not moving i'm not leaving florida um i have all the faith in the world and henry hoove kami barzini robby luller jason gregg jones those are my coaches i'm i don't care i guess if someone has a problem i'm not leaving like that's where i established myself i left home to go to florida I moved to Phoenix, Vegas, and I end up in Florida, and that's my home, and I'm not leaving.

And I have a lot of good friends that are teammates. And so we're going to be men and figure it out. But yeah, those guys have got me through now being a champ. So if it comes down to being Jason, we will sit down like men with Henry Hooft and the rest of the coaches and figure out what's better. We have the same agent and Dave Martin. you know he represents both of us so yeah we're gonna you know business is business and and i said that from the start um i respect the hell out of jason and coach his son and we're teammates have helped each other he helped me with neman i helped him with neiman um he helped me with this fight

but business is business and i we both want to be compensated for it and we both have a goal on yeah i know i talked to gilbert uh right after his fight with hamzaa shama and he actually told me about Camaro coming back to the gym and he had told me like, you know, you know, it did. Listen, it's just the nature of the sport. You know, Camaro ended up leaving going out to Colorado, but he came back and he said,

Camaro was actually in the gym training. You probably were there when it happened. And he was just like, it was good to like kind of put that all behind us. And he's always considered Camaro a friend. And he was like, yeah, we've kind of put all that behind us. And, you know, Camaro's a great guy. It was always a great teammate. And hey, listen, you know, it's the nature of the business.

You both want to be the best in the world. But nobody has to hate each other for it, you know? and I was glad to hear. Weirdly, I was, like, happy to hear that, like, Gilbert and Kamaro were, like, kind of friends again. You know, it was kind of like, too, I'm glad they were able to kind of put that behind them and become friends again. And Kamara actually came down and was training a little bit down at Sanford again. Yeah, you know, the Gilbert and Kamaro thing was, you know, there was all kinds of stuff going. I'm obviously, uh, I helped Kamaru with a lot of, with the Colby fight and this, you know, this and that.

And I respect Kamaro, you know, but Gilbert's my guy. But I'm honest, you know, Gilbert was my guy. and I was I was with him in Vegas for the Camaro fight when Camaro left. And it's like Gilbert stayed at Sanford. He never left. And I always say it straight up. Gilbert's my guy. And he's the first one to congratulate me to be there.

You know, thank you, brother. You know, like he's always the first guy. He's one of the greatest dudes in the gym. And, you know, with Chameh of and Stephen Tom's, all those, you know, I want to see Gilbert get to where he wants to get. And because he's a great human. being. And so, but yeah, when Kamar came back in, I think everything kind of got figured out. And it was good to see all the former 70-pounders kind of get back together and be able to

help each other. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Logan, enjoy it, man. Enjoy it. It was a phenomenal victory. You should enjoy it. Excuse me. I'm sorry. I'm going to be back to champ. Enjoy it, champ. Enjoy it. Enjoy the belt. Enjoy the championship. Enjoy some time off. I know you're a workhorse time off is probably not your thing but uh you know enjoy a little time off enjoy the championship enjoy south dakota uh i've been to south dakota in the summer it's i'll be honest i have no desire to go back there in the winter but it's a beautiful place in the summer uh i love being in south dakota and the summer we're camping there after my senior high school so i love south dakota in the summer so you got a great summer ahead of you i enjoy the win my man uh

again appreciate you taking the time right off the plane and everything and uh again cannot wait to see you uh defend your title and look forward to chat until you again later this year All right. Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. We'll talk soon, okay? All right. We'll see you later. A big thank you once again to Logan Storley for hopping on the show with me. I really do appreciate. Of course, I know I don't think, as I said, I don't think anyone's really had a chance to chat with him much since he returned from London

to talk about it. Again, I stand by it. I thought he won. You know, again, we're talking about damage, as I said to the top of the show, damage versus control. This is one of those fights where you look at the scoring criteria, damage being the number one, and you go down the list. effective striking, effective grappling, things like this. You can argue all day and say it wasn't effective. He basically took takedowns and held him down. Sure.

And there are rounds where it looked like that. But when nothing else is happening, when Michael Vennon Page lands nothing, nothing impactful, nothing else really happens, that's where you score it. That's where you do. That's where things like control and effective, quote unquote, effective grappling, effective striking, you have to drill it down. You know, if Michael Vennon Page is doing nothing and Logan Storley is getting a takedown and controlling him on the mat.

Yes, it's not the most exciting fight in the world. Nobody's going to call home and tell anybody you need to watch the highlights. None of that. I get it. But in those moments, it doesn't mean he's not winning. When it's that specific, when it is that specific to where there's nothing else happening in the round. And the one offensive move is a takedown and ground control. That's where you score it that way.

And that's again, that's where you understand the scoring criteria. Logan Storley did not have his best performance. I don't think anyone's ever going to say he did. Neither did Michael Vennon Page. And let's also remember for as much criticism as you give Logan Storley for holding down Michael Vennon Page, you also have to give a little bit of criticism to Michael Vennon Page. He couldn't get up. He couldn't get out from under Logan Storley.

He got trapped there. And again, this is just part of the sport. I'm not saying you have to like wrestling. I'm not saying you have to like takedowns. And I'm not saying you have to like ground control. Would I like to see, you know, Logan Storley turn into Khabib Nabat-Metov where he's laying waste to opponents on the ground? Sure.

I would, you know, that's, that's real vicious ground and pound. That's the most legitimate ground and pound you'll see in the sport. Guys like that are a guy like Makachov who takes you down and just malls you on the ground. Yes, that's a different level. I fully admit, different level of grappling, different level of ground control and ground damage being accumulated. But again, part of the responsibility isn't just on the offensive guy. Part of the responsibility also falls on Michael Vennon and page to scramble, to get out, to throw up submissions, to make Logan's story work to stay in that position.

And when you're not doing that, you're not threatening him. You're not giving him a reason to do more. Then, again, it becomes a problem. So criticize Logan for being a dominant guy on top and right. You feel, again, I'm not saying don't criticize the guy. 100%. Everyone's open to criticism. But don't forget, some of the blame has to follow Michael Vennon Page

because he couldn't do anything in those situations. And that's a problem. I mean, at the end of the day, that is a problem. I want to say a big thank you to everyone that tunes into the the fighter versus the writer each and every week. We'll be back next week with another episode of the show. Check us out on all of your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher.

Of course, you can always find us over on MMAFighting.com. Thanks again for tuning in. We'll see you next week. See you then. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.