MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Matt Brown Reacts to Conor McGregor Passing on Comeback Fight and Cain Velasquez Sentencing

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

On the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer, Matt Brown and Damon Martin react to the latest with Conor McGregor after he passed on a comeback fight as he focuses on his run to become President of Ireland but does this really seal the deal that he’s done with his competitive career? Plus we discuss Cain Velasquez’s sentencing and the expectations for Patricio Pitbull making his UFC debut against Yair Rodriguez plus more. Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome back to the Fighter versus the writer. I am Damon Martin. He is UFC legend Matt Brown, and he is back from his trip across the world

to rejoin us here on the podcast. We actually had last week, I didn't interview with Misha Tate on the show because Matt was traveling. Matt, you're officially back from your travel craziness. How was Thailand and Europe, a lot in Europe? So you're like all over the map. Yeah, Thailand, Ireland,

France and UK and three, four different gyms in the UK, so all over the UK. Yeah, how was, now, when we obviously did the show while you were still in Ireland, how was France? Because that was where you were going next?

And were you in Spain, too? Did you go to Spain too, or no? So it was in Marseille, France, which is pretty close to Spain, though. Okay, how was it? It was awesome, man. It was really cool to hang out with the French people, see the, you know, just see the culture, right? And eat some real Italian pizza, you know,

because it's closer to Italy, right? So it had some real Italian pizza. Yeah, just really cool, seeing the culture, man, it's always cool seeing other cultures and how people live and how they train. And, you know, there's a lot of talent over there, actually. So, um, people were Uber, Uber, nice. It's funny because you always hear that, you know, French people are rude and like not welcoming or kind of or, you know, something. Like, you hear different. You know, different things like that. And I thought they were awesome and very friendly. And add some great food and some good times with those people and got some good martial

arts training in. Yeah, I saw a lot of posts on Instagram about it. A lot of people were like excited to have you over there, which is really cool because I mean, I know people do seminars all the time, but you know, guys from the States don't always travel that far to do seminars. So I'm sure they were pretty excited to have a guy like you over there. And, you know, maybe not, maybe not big, huge breaking news or anything here. but we are locally about to get our second

immortal martial arts center here in the Columbus, Ohio area. Yes, sir. We're working on it, man, trying to grow and span this business and touch more people. And, you know, that's really what the gym is all about. You know, it's interesting that when I opened the gym, I thought about having such high-level training and having all my buddies come in, beat each other up,

have fighters and all these different things. And then after owning a gym for a few years, you're like, you get burned out on that real quick and start learning the actual business. And you're like, man, helping these kids become bullyproof, you know, watching someone lose 40 pounds, watching relationships get better. Man, it just, it's so much better than, you know, even if a fighter won a world championship, like, it's so much cooler to just see people's lives improve. And martial arts touches so many people. Fuck, it's such an amazing thing, man. blows my mind and I think we should just get rid of churches and recovery dinners and rehabs

and just put fucking martial arts everywhere man it's funny um when people hear gym like a fighter owning a gym you immediately think like you know who you're going to train to get to the UFC and obviously you train guys who have fought the UFC but the reality is your gym survives and thrives off of the guy who comes in after work and he wants to just learn martial arts or the kid who as you said might be getting bullied and he wants to learn martial arts or somebody wants to get in shape. Your gym is not built on the one or two guys who want to fight the UFC. It's built on the 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 people are like,

hey, I just want to learn martial arts. I just want to know what jiu-jitsu is. I just want to know what Muayt is. And that's where your gym thrives at. Like, yes, of course, you are Matthew Immortal Brown, UFC legend, but that's really where your gym thrives. And that's probably who you deal with on a much more daily basis than like the kid who's like, you know, two fights away from the UFC.

Yeah, for sure. Not only does it survive and thrive off of those people, you know, never mind 20 or 100 people. I mean, we have over 400 members now, right? So, you know, it's not always surviving and thriving off of those people, but really it's so much more inspiring, too. I mean, that's it's what makes the gym meaningful, too. Again, not even just the survival part or thriving part, just the actual. the motivation of having a gym, right? It's a lot of work, man. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of grinding, monotonous, boring work. It's a lot of struggles, you know, opening a business and building it up. Even, you know, with a good name like mine and everything, like, it's still a fucking grind, you know. And there's always, like, gym politics, you know, there's a drama, there's gossip.

There's, you know, you get 400 people coming together. Like, there's going to be some fucking. problems, right? A lot of testosterone, a lot of people think they're badass. You get all kinds of different walks of life. And yeah, so you have a lot of problems. Like, it's a grind. But again, what makes it worth it isn't getting a guy to the UFC. You know, it's getting a guy losing 50 pounds, right? It's getting a guy sober. You know, I've just seen so many amazing stories. I mean, we could, I'll be in a, I think like a great idea, day like just do a documentary on like people that go to martial arts gyms that you could interview

hundreds if not thousands of people probably millions of people for keeping it real and just the the way that lives have changed from martial arts it's just a it's a daily occurrence I mean I don't train anymore and I know don't get on me I know I should but uh when I when I was doing jiu-jitsu pretty faithfully uh in college and they right after college I always I was I always tell the story. And it came up recently. I'm sure you heard the story about the FBI, potentially partnering with the UFC and bringing in guys to train FBI agents.

And one of my best friends in college went to the Navy and ended up leaving the Navy, but ended up getting into the FBI. And he was like getting ready to go to the academy. And he's like, you train jihitsa. Again, this is years ago. So, you know, UFC wasn't quite what it is today. And he's like, could you teach? Could you like, could we roll?

Could you teach me a few things? Like, before I go to the academy because I don't know what they're going to teach me. Because he was not really a fighter at all. He was a in-shaped guy, but he wasn't like a fighter. I was like, sure. And we rolled, I mean, for like three months straight, I just, you know, taught him to basics. And we just rolled. It was just a blast.

And, like, when he went to the FBI, he told him he was like, I was so much better prepared than most guys that were there because, like, a lot of guys just like, they knew how to maybe box and not throw a punch, but they had no idea, like, how to subdue a suspect or how to, like, do a takedown or how to, like, you know, control somebody. And, like, those are things I taught him. And I was not, trust me, I was not like a black belt or anything, but I knew the basics. you know what I mean it's like I was too pride in that I was like you know like I helped this guy like go to the FBI and like you had a little head start on on some of the guys and so you know I could I could I mean I could literally tell you probably a hundred stories just off top of my head from people I've seen in gyms right you know for example when I was in Ireland I mean there was a guy that had lost his leg in accident and I guess I mean he wasn't overweight when I was there you know he was in shape and everything but apparently you know when he lost his leg like he was overworked and he was overweight and I guess um I mean he wasn't overweight when I was there you know he was overweight and everything but apparently you know he lost his leg like he was overwere weight and depressed and maybe like suicidal right like you know lost the freaking leg right thought

his life was over and he gets to the gym and start training jiu-jitsu start lifting weights now he's like a personal trainer he went to um college for you know whatever uh kinesiology or personal training you know whatever it is um sports science he's something along those lines right um and now he like trains fighters he's like training all the time he's jacked like he was you know was in there lifting and he was in there lifting for like two, three hours. I mean, you know, stories like that are just a dime of dozen at these gyms, man, everywhere you go. So it really blows my mind the stories that you hear.

Yeah. I don't want to make any assumptions, but I know when you said when you were tired, you were able to finally put kind of more of your focus on the business because, you know, just, again, you didn't really have the time. Is this like, is this kind of like the evidence of that expansion of your, you know, availability, like being able to open a second gym. Because I imagine if you were still in the thick of your fight career, you probably couldn't do that. No, exactly.

That's exactly right. I've been working very hard on the gym and put a lot of focus on it and learning the actual business part. Because, you know, I hope maybe a gym owner is listening. And, you know, one of the mistakes. I think we all make this mistake at the beginning. We open and we think that, okay, we just say our rents like five, thousand dollars a month and we're charging 100 bucks a month for membership so i need 500 member or 50 members to cover the rent okay my electric is or you know my utilities are another thousand so i need another 10

members for that i got to pay you know this amount for overhead altogether right maybe seven thousand dollars so i need 70 members and everything else is profit and it just works nothing like that like Not even close. And, you know, the best thing I ever did was I hired a business consultant team that they have 150 gyms that they consult for. It's called the Maya Group, MAIA. Anybody listening can hit me up and I can get you in touch with them, get you a deal with them. You know, we basically, I basically started working with black belts in the business of martial arts. and we've done so many good things with it.

And after looking back, I think about it, I'm like, well, if I was going to start jiu-jitsu, like I wouldn't just train by myself and assume that I'm going to do it, right? You go hire a black belt. It's the same business. Yeah, 100%. Well, it's awesome to hear. I'm glad to second. Have you, like, long term, would you ever want to do, like, expansion, like, affiliate schools?

Like, would that ever be, like, a dream to do? Or is that kind of like, would you want to keep it all in-house? I'm not sure if I would be interested in like an affiliate program type thing. I don't really like that model so well. I get why people do it. You know, it's more, honestly, it's like more for the name value. I don't think you get it out of being an affiliate. Maybe I'm not totally understanding the value of it either.

And maybe someone could teach me differently. So I'm not going to necessarily discount it. but off the top of my head, that wouldn't necessarily be an interest. I'd rather have something locally and have maybe like 10 gyms within Columbus and just take over the whole city where I can go into each building, meet the students in each place. I get to know people personally in each place, right, not just go out once a year for a seminar and say hi and then leave.

You know, actually get to know people from each local. I think that's way more meaningful for me. Well, I think, and I know we go back years talking about this, like Columbus is. I think people don't realize how big Columbus is. Like, Columbus is a massive city. I mean, it's bigger than Boston in terms of people. And there's just, there's never been like a truly, like, I don't want to, I'm not trying to knock anybody has a business here, but it just seemed like it was right for the taking of

like someone to come in here and really build a culture of martial arts. And I know we talked about that years ago. and you are still very much in the deep of your fight career, but you doing that. Now it's finally happening and getting to a second location is awesome. And that's just the beginning of the complete immortal takeover of Columbus, Ohio. And I like it, because Columbus is huge, man. Like I said, like when someone's like, yeah, dude, you got to go out to Reynoldsburg.

I'm like, that's like 35 minutes away. Like, that's not a short drive for me to go to Reynoldsburg, which is like for people who don't live here, it's like the very far east side of Columbus. Like, people who live out there, it would be a really long drive to go to your current academy. You know what I mean? So like as you open. People to drive from out there, right?

And sometimes, especially with traffic, I mean, it's like 45 minutes. And the east side always has traffic. So you're looking at like 45 minutes. So again, my goal ultimately be to have like 10 locations here in Columbus. Yeah. You know, just take what, you know, each suburb have its location. Just take over the whole fucking city, man. I love it.

I love it. Well, like I said, two down. Eight, eight more to go. Well, the second one hasn't opened. Yes. We can't have said it stays you down. On its way. On its way.

Yeah, on its way. And the nice thing about this one is we'll actually learn how to open a new gym. I didn't do it right the first time. We're actually learning the process of opening a new gym where you can become profitable pretty quickly or even before you open. Sometimes that happens. So then the next ones will just simply be a matter. of having the staff available. And as soon as you have the staff available,

bam, you can open it up and they'll start going quicker and quicker as we expand more and more, right? I think it'll compound the growth. It's just like when you were talking about this is going back, whatever year and a half ago on the podcast, when you were flipping houses, like what you do to flip your first house, the mistakes you learn, and you're like, okay, let's not do that again. Then you do the second one, it's like, you know, it's like butter.

You figured it out, you know, the process, but you have to go, you have to, you got to break a few eggs to make an omelette. So you had to go through that the first time. And so now as you get to the second gym, you're kind of more ready. And then by the time you get to three, four, five, you're going to be like totally prepared.

Yeah, to some extent, right? You never fully there, right? Like, you're always making mistakes and always learning from the next ones, but it gets better every time at least, right? And faster and through there. Like I've got a flip going right now, that's been a fucking disaster.

It's just been, it's just been a fucking mess. We're still going to make money on it. Well, I'm still going to make money on it. It's still going to turn over. It's going to work out well still, but it's just taking way longer. And my profit's going to not end up being worth the time and effort that's actually been put into it. Yeah.

Well, you never know. I guess that's business, though, right? You're living a lot each time. Yeah, that's it. If you won every time, if it was that easy, then there'd probably be a lot more. people are doing it right yeah i mean hey the richest guys in the world they got to fail a whole lot before they succeed that's the reality of you know what i mean so that's a fact this is yeah good no good good yeah i was just say you know this is a lot of people may not realize this is actually like

my fifth or six business this gym you know um you know had hell i even had a gym before i think i told jess story right where i oh yeah yeah director and then you know yeah yeah things got went from bad to worse. You know, so I failed many times of business before. Like this isn't like, you know, I didn't just walk into this business and and it started taking off and doing well. So yeah, like you said, it's,

that's part of growth, you know, that's, you know, stress is what creates growth, right? When we go to the gym to get bigger muscles, like we stress our muscles. That's what creates the growth. And the most growth, you know, comes from failure or at least near failure, you know, when you're talking about muscles and in life in general. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, yeah, again, you know, you live and you learn. And now you've got a very successful gym and working on number two. And, you know, by this podcast time, maybe two years now we're talking about podcast. We'll be talking about gym number six or something. So, you know, we'll see how it grows. That is the plan. I love it.

I love it. Speaking of moving on and, you know, again, you having this a lot of, lot of this happening after retirement. And being honest and saying this probably wouldn't have happened had you still been active in your fight career. I know people get sick of us talking about it, but we always talk about Connor on this show, Connor McGregor. And the only reason I bring in this up is because for all the times we've talked

about our belief that Connor is never going to fight again, specifically your belief, even stronger than mine. I have come around to your way of thinking. But, you know, two years ago you were saying I don't think Connor's ever going to fight again. But Connor did the BKFC show over the weekend down in Florida or last week. and somebody asked him about that, and I'll read you what Connor said. I don't know if you saw this news.

Connor's apparently going to run for the president of Ireland, which for those who don't know, and I'm Irish, my family's Irish, but I don't live in Ireland, so I'm not going to pretend I'm Irish as in I live in Ireland. But from all the research I've done, the president of Ireland is largely like a figurehead position. It's like being the queen of England, you know, like it's a title. It's not like you really have a whole lot of power. But anyways, Connor wants to run for that office, and he said, and I'll quote you here,

Like I said, I got two fights left on the contract. I'm in negotiations. Last week, something happened to me. I went to the White House of my country. My heart bleeds for my country right now, so there's a lot of stuff going on back home. I'm happy with what I've done. There's something else for me that's in my gut right now, and that's kind of where I'm going, so we'll see. He said he was offered a fight that was coming up in Alcatraz in June, which I know there's a boxing event they've been talking about doing there.

Turkey Al-Shake was talking about that. I don't know if the UFC is thinking about doing it. Maybe so. I don't know. But he said he passed on. basically said they came to me and it wasn't my worth as a fighter we got to know our worth but him using the phrase like I'm happy with what I'm done those are those are kind of telling phrases and again Conner's 36 I think he's going to be 37 this year if I'm not mistaken

I know we like people get sick of us talking about it because we already kind of hammered the first couple nails in that coffin already but Conner's kind of continuously denied it like I'm going to do BKFC, I'm going to do this. Him saying that phrase, I'm happy with what I've done. Does that start to like kind of finally get the message across that we probably have seen the last O'Connor McGregor as a fighter? Bro, he told us like what probably 10 years ago what he was going to do. Like, do you remember him talking about it?

Yeah, yeah. I'm going to come in. I'm going to take over. I'm going to make money. And I'm going to get the fuck out. You know, he said something along the lines, you know, his game is brutal and you don't want to be in it too long. Like he told us, however many, you know, eight, ten years ago, I mean, like, when did you debut in the UFC? Like 15, 14?

Yeah, I was going to say, it was like, yeah, 12, 13, right around that time. So, yeah, around the time. Yeah, yeah, right around then. He literally told us, and he has done it. And, you know, I default back all the time to, like, if you had 500, or mill in the bank, you wouldn't fight either. You know, and I've heard some of the arguments like, well, LeBron keeps playing.

And it's like, he's not fighting, bro. He's not put his life on the line to throw a fucking ball in the hole, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, like, this is not like surprising at all, right? He's just finally actually, you know, he loves being in the news, right? And, you know, he loves staying relevant. in and putting his two cents

into everything and he's kept his voice out there and we've all paid attention and we're still talking about it. And he's done a good job of that. Good job playing the media. I told you before. He's done. And I think he's just confirming what

we kind of already knew. You know what I? Somebody said this to me. I was doing a live chat last week with my buddy Kevin Ioli and we are we both like when we brought up Connor, we're both basically like yeah, he's never fighting again. Like we just said it right at the top.

And I brought up your thing. I said, you know, I do a podcast with Matt and I said. And one thing you've always said is like, it's hard to let that go. Like that attention, that spotlight. And that's kind of what, that's what Connor doesn't want to let go of. Like, he still wants to be in the center of attention. And I understand that. And one thing Kevin said to me that I agree with.

He's like, I don't think it's a matter of him not wanting to fight as much. I don't think he wants to go to a training camp at this point. He's like, I don't think he wants to put eight to ten weeks of putting everything else in his life on hold to go just put in training camp to get ready for a fight because he's got a millionaire things, million other opportunities going on right now. And he's just like, I don't think he wants to do that anymore. He's like, there's a lot of reasons you can say Conner's never going to fight again, but I think that's one of them. And I was like, yeah, you're probably right. Like when you think about it because you can't half as a training camp. Well, you can, but the results will show.

But like everything he's got going on, like he doesn't want to, he doesn't want to stop doing what he's doing. He doesn't want to stop promoting BKFC. He doesn't want to stop traveling and doing that kind of stuff to move back to Ireland, do a hard 10-week training camp, get off whatever he might be on, I don't know. You know what I mean? Like, there's a lot of factors. It goes beyond just one thing. And I think this latest, you can call it a stunt.

I think he's serious about running for the president of Ireland. I don't know that he has a great chance of winning. Everything I read from the people in Ireland say he has zero chance of winning, but you never know. I mean, people told Donald Trump back in 2016, he had no chance of winning, and he's now on a second-term president. but it just seems like that has kind of captured his attention in a way that like he's still very much in the spotlight he's still very much like kind of the center of detention but he's just not fighting you know what I mean like I think that's I think you're absolutely right like Connor Connor wants to be in the spotlight and I get it I understand that but he's found a new

way to kind of stay in that spotlight without actually having to throw punches does that make sense what I'm saying like absolutely yeah and good for him you know again would When you have 500 million in the bank, like, what do you do with yourself? And he's doing something. And look, I don't really understand the whole president thing in Ireland. You got touched on a little bit. It's not an actual president, like the way that we think of a president. They explained it to me when I was in Ireland, and it still didn't really make sense.

I'm like, well, what does he do, you know? And apparently he doesn't really do much of anything. He's kind of like a, what would you say, like a brand ambassador, so to speak? He's like a, he's like a, he's like a symbol. Like I said, like the Queen of England is like, yeah, the Queen of England, or the King England, I guess now. It holds no real power. Like, they don't make any decisions, but they're the King of England.

Like, it's kind of like that. Like, he's the president of Ireland, but he holds no real power. Like he doesn't, like when Trump signs an executive order here in the United States, they carry it out. He doesn't have any power, really, in Ireland. It's a figurehead position. And I feel like if he can, like, he's a really good speaker, right? Like he's a very sharp, witty, good speaker.

His reputation may not be up to par with someone you'd want representing your country. But in terms of like his speaking ability and who he could be as a person, like, I bet he would actually be really good at it. Unfortunately, like he's kind of ruined his reputation a little bit. You know, whether or not he actually did the rapes or not, right? he has the charges or the alleged whatever I don't know how fuck you say the allegations the allegations are out there allegations yeah it's out there right um you know that's tough to put someone to represent your country then like hey it's out it's allegated is that the

legend that he did these things and uh boy my vocabulary is all over the place today I think that makes it complicated But my point is Like I think he Like it Had none of that stuff happen Like he'd be fucking great for it You know

And that's where I kind of almost feel bad for him Because I don't know if he did that shit or not So I give him the benefit of the doubt And it's it until proven guilty He didn't do it right But he's put himself in the situation Where now those allegations are made

Right So he's made some mistakes for sure and now he'll probably miss out on this opportunity to do something I think he would actually be really good at if he put his heart and soul into it. Yeah and you know it's funny I think I think it's also that but I also think like what he's doing BKFC because when you see him in a BKFC event he's running around he's fist pumping he's he's jacked up as a promoter like he loves it

you could tell he loves that and he gets to have he gets to do all the fighter stuff without actually doing the fighter stuff he gets to run in the ring put a belt on a guy, celebrate. You know, he's like the ultimate promoter. Like, they've kind of made him to face a BKFC. And I'm like, he does a tremendous job at it. Like, whenever Connor shows up, people pay attention to every day. Hang on his every word.

You know what I mean? When he says, like, BKFC's the best show in town, we're better than everybody. People care when Connor says that kind of stuff. So I think he's kind of found, like, his niche. He can stay in the spotlight. Now, again, I don't know if he's actually going to win the presidency of Ireland. But, like, I think the BKFC thing, like being the promoter. and then this potential run for president has kind of given him that second stage in his career

where he could be like, I'm on top, I'm in the spotlight, I'm on top of the world, I'm just not fighting anymore. And I think Gat goes back to your original point going back three years ago, whatever it was, when he was injured and coming back, he was like he didn't want to give up that spotlight. He didn't want to give up that attention. Well, with BKFC or maybe running for president Ireland, he doesn't have to give up that attention. He's just not fighting anymore. And so he's kind of like found that kind of balance.

And when he says things like, I'm proud of what I've done or whatever that quote is, he knows. He knows. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Like you said, but he's really good at the BKFC thing. And he's actually the perfect fit for it. He's the perfect guy to be doing that. You know, the fans love it. He's got the mouthpiece for it.

He's got the energy for it. So, you know, I think it's great for BKFC. I think it's a pretty cool sport. So I think it's pretty cool, actually. You know, I hope that he uses that as an opportunity to maybe get off the cocaine, right? Maybe take care of himself, right, and represent himself in a positive manner, right, and help grow the sport. Yeah.

And I think what gets missed sometimes because we get so enamored with Conner's fight career is like, dude, he's got, I mean, if you really think about it, Like, you can, we can nitpick all day in the FCO, you can nitpick anybody's career. You can nitpick John Jones career if you really want to. If you want to be like, well, you know, whatever. He did it all. He was a two-divate, first ever two-division simultaneous champion. He came in and literally just changed the world when it came into, like, as far as superstardom in this sport. Put Ireland on the map in terms of the MMA became, I mean, he hasn't fought in over four years.

And we still call him the biggest start in the sport. We don't even like we don't even contemplate calling someone else the biggest star this world. Connor is still the biggest star is for four years later. He has nothing left to prove. The only thing he didn't do was defend the title. Yeah, but I'm saying like in terms of like, yeah, no, he did. Yeah, you're absolutely right about that. But like, again, that's what I'm saying.

Like outside of that, though, like he did, he did things no one had ever done before. You know what I mean? He sold more pay-per-views. He made rivalries bigger than they'd ever been. He got the sport, you know, on a worldwide level that had never been before. So, you know, if you really is done, like, I mean, he's a UFC Hall of Fame, guaranteed. Like, no doubt about that. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, is he the greatest of all the time? No, but he could have come back in 403 years. Probably would have never came close to that. Even if he came back and won the title again, he's still probably not going to touch to John Jones and George St. Pierre's of the world. But, yeah, like, who cares? He did a shit ton. He did a lot.

Like, we talked about with Rhonda Rousie. Like, you, I know, not to bring up Ronda in a bad light, we were talking about Rhonda during that whole book tour thing. You said, you know, Rhonda, we want to love you. Like, we want to love you. Just like show us a little humility, show us, you whatever. But for the four years she was in the sport, holy shit, they were everything she did in four years.

I mean, she was only in the sport for like four years. Look at everything she did. So, yeah, like, if he walks away, dude, he's got nothing to be ashamed of in that regard. As far as his fightker, he could be ashamed about a lot of things, but his fightker, he didn't really have to be ashamed of. Yeah. I hope that he does a lot of great things

and that he represents himself well, right? And, you know, maybe this presidency thing, maybe he'll end up getting it. And maybe it'll motivate him to look, I'm representing my country and I need to represent them properly and not do cocaine while I'm doing interviews. And maybe, you know, not go to crazy parties and pull girls' hair and shit. You know, like just take care of yourself, represent yourself while maybe it'll help improve his life, man. That's what it's what it's all about, man.

You only live once, you know. You should take care of it. and try to, you know, leave behind a good reputation. I hope that he does that for himself. And again, I'm just saying this, you know, people in Ireland are probably going to flip out when I say this because I don't live in Ireland. I'm not to pretend that I do.

But like I said, when everyone's like, he has no chance, people said the exact same thing about Donald Trump. And so you can't say no one's got no chance because when he did announce his president, everyone laughed out and I thought it was a joke. He's like, oh, come on, he's a reality TV host. So he's like a win.

Well, you know, fuck around and find out so you just never know so maybe connor maybe connor pulls it off you never know but yeah he seems content so good for him and you know like i said i'm you know i'm weirdly happy like dude i just i didn't really think he needed to come back so here he is why he found his niche he's happy good for him yeah he's not coming back so am i confirmed yet to just be you know the correct predictor on this you were right way you were ahead of the curve way ahead of the curve on this one you knew this one like you knew this. You called this one way

ahead of time. It was like you predict the Super World Champion like five seasons ahead of time. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know about that. Yeah, it wasn't a difficult one man, but again, he told us. Like, I don't know why nobody listened. Like, he literally told us.

So it's like when someone says something, you know, I guess maybe not always, but whatever. He said it and I believe him. Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at finish line. But first... There, the last one.

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Eulgence, precision crafted to navigate every corner of my mouth, all for just $18. Okay, okay. Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Please feast responsibly. Yeah. While you were gone, and this happened last week, literally, like the day we would have put out the podcast while you were traveling. I know it's a week old now, but I do want to touch on it real quick. And I'm not trying to retry the case or anything, but I'm sure you saw the news that came to Alaska as he finally had his.

sentencing last week got five years in prison. And again, just to reiterate, I'm sure everyone probably knows at this point, but if you do somehow just get your news from our podcast, I'll tell you again. He got credit for time served and good time, so he's probably going to end up doing less than a year in prison, a year maybe some change. It's going to be around a year, maybe some change of doing a year in prison. The judge in the case literally was like brought to tears saying, like, I know the biggest punishment of taking you away from your family,

and there's multiple victims in this case, not just the guy who got shot, it's also your son who was molested and all these kind of things. I know a lot of people, you know, free Kane, and I understand that movement, and I'm trying to put as positive to spend on this thing as I possibly can because I feel for him.

I like Kane. I think he made a bad mistake, but he, again, and I mean, I've said this multiple times. Like, I'm not a dad, but even hearing that makes me go into a rage, so I can only imagine if it was actually my kid. And when I say best case scenario,

the best case scenario is Kane doesn't do a single day in jail, but that's not the reality we're living in here. If he goes for a year and comes home what was originally potentially life in prison, that was the maximum penalty for what he was charged with. I think it's not the worst thing in the world. I wish it was sooner. I wish he got out tomorrow and he could just be home with his kids and he apologized. And I really do think he is, you know, I don't think this is like a fake apology.

like I'm just apologizing so I don't get a bigger sentence. I think this is like legitimately like I mean again we're all guilty that right you think about road rage like someone cuts you off you flip them off and then next thing you know you're in a fight in the middle of the highway it happens like rage happens um so yeah my heart breaks for man but I'll put it to you because as a fighter and a father like we all sympathize what Kane went through yeah the only thing I would disagree with everything you just said was that he you said he made a mistake and he did not make a mistake.

The only mistake he may have made is they didn't kill the guy. So I think the guy survived, right? Well, the guy who got shot was his stepfather. It wasn't the guy who was accused of molesting his son. It was his stepfather who got shot. So, yeah. Oh, yeah, it wasn't even, yeah, you're right. Yeah, so that was the mistake, right?

In some sense, other than the fact that, you know, his sentence probably would have been heftier, had he actually killed the guy. but, you know, like no real man would have not done what Kane did. You know, congrats to him for getting it done. And then you, the courts have to do what they have to do, where there are laws and they have to follow the laws and go through the trial and everything. And then you have to accept that sentence.

And I think any real father would accept that sentence. Like I would take life in prison, you know, to kill a guy who molested one of my kids, like a thousand percent, right? I wouldn't even think twice about it. So, again, I don't think he really made him mistakes. I think he did the right thing. And other than the fact that he didn't get the right guy, right? But, you know, maybe the stepfather deserved it, too. I don't know.

But, you know, the fact is, I think we all feel the same, right? you know, we wish came the best and we're glad that the courts did the right thing because how often do they fuck everything up, right? And, you know, they say did the right thing this time and he's getting the lightest sentence possible and he said he'll be

out in a year, year and a half. And, you know, good for him. It's the best case for him too. And I got to throw this out there. I don't want to say this because, again, I'm not justifying. I'm not. I don't want people coming on me and say, oh, you're saying what you did was right. What I'm saying is like the circumstances. We talk about the court system being messed up. The guy who is accused,

and again, I got to say accused because he hasn't been convicted yet, but the guy who was accused of molesting Kane's son, you know, was up for bail, and the prosecution said, don't let him out, and the judge let him out anyways. And then from my understanding, the people involved in the case are supposed to be notified if he gets released. And they didn't notify him, apparently. And that's when he found out. And that's when he apparently decided to go after the guy, because they didn't even notify him. He was up. out of jail. I guess you found out, from what I hear, you know, you found out secondhand. Again, I don't have kids, dude. I have dogs. I love my dogs. Like, you know what I mean?

But I've always joked, like, you want me to go to jail? Like, hurt one of my dogs. Like, you'll find out real fucking quick how quickly I will go to jail. Um, and that, you know, like, I don't have kids. I couldn't even imagine. Like, I can't even fathom. I don't want to fathom to be honest with you because it's just a dark place I don't really want to travel to. But like, again, I'm not saying you should do it. I'm just saying I, there was a joke years ago. I'm not trying to make a joke of a serious situation, but there was a joke years ago Chris Rock

on one of his comedy skits and he's like, I care what crime he was talking about. He's like, I'm not saying he should have done it, but I understand. And I was like, that's kind of how I feel like. I'm not saying he should have done what he did, but I understand. And yeah, like, I mean, listen, let's be honest, Matt, best case scenario is he doesn't do a day in prison. I know that's not the reality we're dealing with here.

but yeah and I hope with good time served and all that kind of stuff like it's even less. I hope he spends, you know, less than a year ends up being six, seven months and he gets to go home because, you know, his family has to be without him right now. And that's a horrible place to be. And when I listen to Kane, like I truly believe, like, you know, again, he did the moment, what happened, he looks back on it. And, you know, he's like, man, I should have done this or I shouldn't have done this. And I'm sure somewhere deep down inside, he wish he had better aim, whatever the case may have been.

but um if he has any regrets it's probably just that he didn't kill the guy right i highly doubt that he regrets a single thing that he did you know and yeah okay there's spending a year away from his family or how long's it been total he's been locked up well he was he was in jail for eight months without bail and then he got house arrest so basically three years total but two and a half of that two out two years two years and plus was house arrest so he's been at home with them yes I think any parent would take that sentence, the total thing, to fucking kill the guy that fuck with your kids. Yeah. You know, like I would do that in a heartbeat.

You know, I mean, I would just accept life in prison. You know, if something fucking my kids, I'd kill him in a heartbeat. So, again, I think it's a great scenario for him. And, you know, his kids should love the shit out of them and be very thankful and great. that they got a great father, man. Like, what a great dude, you know. I've never been to prison, thankfully, and I hope I never have to, but I do have a lot of family who've worked in the prison system.

My brother was a lieutenant warden. My dad worked in the prison system. I have a lot of family worked in the prison system. If the guy who is charged with doing what he did to Keyneson, again, I want to be clear about that, he's a legend. It hasn't been proven, has been convicted. if he gets convicted and goes to prison. He's in for a rough time because if you've ever heard the stories,

for all the horrible, awful things that people go to prison for and get sent to prison for, there's one standard in prison is you do not fuck with kids. That doesn't end well for them. So I'm just throwing that out there. Like, you know, maybe the worst punishment for him would have been just a quick out to say it in those terms. If you've heard the stories about how bad it goes for guys who hurt kids in prison,

from what I've heard, it's true. That's not like a fake TV story. Like, I've heard plenty of stories. That does not end well for them. I've heard the same. And that brings a smile to my face when you say that. So, you know, I hope the dude gets fucked every day in prison. Fuck it.

Just, just, yes. And I hope he wishes that that boy landed right in his head, you know? that's what these kind of people deserve, man. Again, allegedly, right? Innocent, he'll proven guilty. Maybe he didn't do anything. But if he did, yeah, I hope his life is the most miserable existence imaginable. Yeah, like I said, there's worse punishments than just, you know, quick out than, you know, go and spend the next 10 years in prison where, you know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to, you know, I don't need to say it here.

know what I'm talking about. Like it's just, like I said, there's one universal truth in prison that you don't mess with kids. So, yeah. Like, you want to do it. A hierarchy in prison. A hierarchy in prison is don't mess with kids. Like, that's pretty much the standards. Yeah, there's some morals in prison, right?

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Real quick, before we get out of here, Matt, we got U.S. 314 coming up next weekend in Miami. Incredibly stack card. The reason I bring it up now, we'll do our preview next week. Diego Lopez, Alexander Volcanowski, of course. We got Patty Pimblit and Michael Chandler. We've already kind of talked about that. We lost one fight.

Carlos Prattis and Jeff Neal unfortunately fall off the car. Jeff Neal got injured, so that fight is no longer happening. But still, an incredibly stack card all the way around. And I wanted to bring it up because when we do these breakdown shows, a lot of times, we can only kind of like take a deep, deep dive on a couple of the fights just because we just don't have time to, like, you know, spend the entire show on, give 20 to 25 minutes to every single fight. But I wanted to mention one fight a little lower on the card,

and I think it's actually going to be the fight to open as a pay-per-view, is Yaya Rodriguez taking on Patricio Pitbull. Patricio Pitbull, of course, the former Bellator champion, and you could argue maybe the greatest Bellator fighter of all time, two-division champion. I'm curious, Matt, because we've seen this before, guys coming into the UFC and finding success, and then we've seen the flip side,

where guys come in and they don't find success. Now, Patricia Pitbull, 37 years old, usually not a great sign at that point. He's getting in a little older and he's taken on a beast in Yaia Rodriguez. Can I ask what your expectations are for Patricio? Because when you talk about the all-time great, there's no doubt he's an all-time great. But again, you know as well as I do. The UFC is a different animal. You never fought the UFC, and they're not handing him a fight he's supposed to just win.

Yaya Rodriguez is a beast. So what are your expectations for Patricia Pitbull? coming to the O.C. I think he's going to do great, man. I think his age is, like, the main factor, especially if those lower-weight classes. We all know the stats and those lower-weight classes are tougher when you get older, but I think he has all the skills to be a champion. I can't wait to watch how he does.

I'm surprised they put this on the undercard, right? It's not. It's on the main card now. Oh, I thought you said they put it on the prelim. Originally it was now. It's the first five on the paper view. So it is on the paper view. Well, I'm surprised they did originally have it on the prelims, because I'm, you know,

I mean, Patricio legitimately has a chance to be the champion in that weight class. I don't think there's any question about that. You know, Patricio, I'm sorry, is a perfect test for him, right? I think it's a, you know, Yajir is a dynamic guy who's going to give him trouble everywhere. But I think stylistically, I think it's a, Patricia should be able to beat him. But it's a great test, right? Like, see, are you ready for the UFC? see, here's the guy to tell us if you are or not.

And it's also great for Yair, right, if he's able to go in there and win. But, you know, I'm picking Patricio in this fight, and I think he's going to do great. You know what I like about this one as well, Matt? And I'm not saying Yair is a finished story. Let me be clear about that. Like, he's a young enough guy. He's not a finished story. But he's had a couple opportunities at the top of the division didn't end up well for him.

I'm certainly not rooting. And let me be clear about it. I'm not rooting for it. But a Patricio Pitbull win does inject. a little bit of excitement, right? Because he's a former champion. And, like, obviously, you got Diego Lopez fighting Alexander Mokonovsky. You still got Moser Evloev out there who's a monster who's kind of like waiting in the wings.

We got other good featherways, especially now that Tepori and Holloway, I mean, just take away two of the best featherweets in one fell swoop. Topori and Holloway are both going to lightweight. You need a guy like Patricia Bipold now to, like, kind of inject some more excitement in that division. If he could come in and beat Yaya Rodriguez, which I'm with you, I think he can, I think he will, that's awesome for the division because we kind of know who Yair is. I'm not saying he's a finished product, but we kind of know his stealing a little bit,

at least a little bit. We don't know what that is. We don't know what that is for Patricio in the UFC. It could be championship. He could be the guy who wins the title. So I think that's kind of injecting a little bit more excitement if he goes out there and wins, right? You know what I mean?

Yeah, it's going to be interesting because, I mean, we know Yai'eer's previous stealing. That doesn't mean it has a race since, right? Sure, 100%. hitting better all the time. And again, that's where my biggest, uh,

questions with Patricio is, right? Like he is 37. He's older. Um, you know, he's been through some wars. Like,

he's had some fucking battles, man. He's battle tested, battle proven. And, uh, but, you know,

he's taking damage over his life, uh, in Bellator. Um, but so is Jair, but Yayir is a lot. How old is Jaya? He's got to be,

what, 26, 27? He's young. Uh, Yire is. Hold on. Let me find that old. Yeah, he is.

Definitely under 30, right? No, he's 32. Mm, I would have. 32. I thought he was younger too. I thought he was like 29. So, yeah, he's like, he's 32. So a little older than I thought he was.

Yeah, so, well, Yairir should be coming into his prime. You know, usually I consider about 28 to 34, the prime for a MMA fighter. You know, obviously it's a little bit different for everybody. So, you know, we could all argue, you know, different stats on that and stuff. But I think it's a pretty general consideration. He could be in his prime. And so Patricio better be on his fucking A game, right? But again, I'm concerned mainly with that age of him.

I just, you know, just we know how it is with those lower weight classes, especially. You know, there's so much speed. And you're a fast guy. Very, very dynamic and tricky. But, man, I think Patricio's fundamentals are so much better that if he stays fundamental and uses his skills, I think he should be able to take this. But, you know, like, you were just saying it, too, right? We know the UFC is just a different animal.

You know, I tell all my fighters, like, dude, it's really, it's all the same, right? And, like, you know, you're just getting there. It's just another guy fighting. You know, the UFC's more smoking mirrors, right? They make it seem like it's a bigger thing than it is. But the difference, though, is the one difference is the guys in the UFC, are just bloodthirsty fucking lions man and and Connor kind of changed

that game you gotta give him props for that right like like we see after Connor we seen the potential that you could have in this sport right like I think he was kind of the type that or he kind of made the Sean O'Malley types

right where you know guys see the bigger picture now they see the business part of it and Connor was really one of the first guys not really the first but you know the first guy to take it to the massive levels. And, you know, the point is, I think a lot of people see this now. And these guys are fucking hungry, bro.

They're bloodthirsty. And, you know, Patricia was Belator champion. He was fighting some savage son of bitches, too. But not UFC guys. It's just the where Bellator was. You know, you're talking the, yeah, here's probably the toughest guy that he's fought yet, right? I'm trying to think of someone maybe at that level that he fought in Bellasor. I mean, he definitely fought good guys.

I mean, obviously he fought, you know, like, I mean, he did. He did. Probably the best, right? I mean, he did knock out Michael Chandler, to give him credit. He did knock on Michael Chandler over there. But, like, when you look at his record, like, yeah, yeah, you know, beating A. AJ McKee, I think that's a quality win at Fed the Way. I think AJ was always a better.

You know, that's a good one. You know, obviously Adam Borge is a good fighter. Juan Archelette is a good fighter Yeah, and matchup-wise, like, you know, he hasn't fought someone as dynamic as he a year, right? No. A lot of people haven't, right? Yeah.

But I would say Eir is probably his toughest test, right? So, yeah, man, that's going to be the big difference, you know, and how hungry is he at this point in his career? Is the UFC, is him coming in the UFC going to revitalize him, you know, and send some energy into him and he's going to, you know, just be hungrier than ever? Or is he maybe going to be a little bit, is he kind of overwhelmed?

And now that, you know, it's kind of later in his career and maybe it's a little too late, too late for all this, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, we'll find out. And like I said, you don't, I mean, they're not giving him a fight he's supposed to win. I mean, you're not giving him, Yaya Rodriguez, I guess and think, well, here you go, man. Here's a, here's a layup.

Welcome to the U.S.C. They're like, you want to fight in the Eos? Your fucking Yaya Rodriguez for your debut. So, yeah. Do you see the odds for that? I haven't seen. I haven't seen the odds. Let me look real quick.

Let me just see what the odds are for that. Just see where we're at here. Let's see. Yeah, I'm kind of curious about that because that's, I'm not sure how I would do the odds if I were a bookie on that fight. Let's see. Patricio, you know, I'm picking Patricia to win. I'm not sure that I would.

right now now there's only a couple there's only a couple lines open on this one just to be perfectly clear like we're not deep into this um right now yaya rhodorega is about a minus 200 favorite so he's favorite yaya rodriguez is his favorite to win yeah so i'm not sure that i would even though i'm picking patricio like if i were a bookie i'm not sure that i would put them down as a favorite yeah it's not it's not it's not an easy fight and and you know like we always talking about this. I agree with you. The UFC's not rooting for anyone to win. The UFC doesn't need, you know,

we've seen it. Like I said, they've had their most successful years these past three years when Connor wasn't around. So they don't need anyone to win. But for me personally, would it be fun to inject a little bit just different look of a guy like Patricia Pitbull is in there? Sure. I mean, the guy I want is the guy I'm still going

to have to wait for is Aaron Pico. I want Aaron fucking Pico in the UFC. That's who I want. 28 years old. The absolute prime of his career. But, yeah, like I said, I mean, it's interesting to see, you know, how it all plays out. But, I mean, again, I don't think they're wrong. Yair being favored by minus 200. I mean, Yair's fought everybody, beating a lot of them.

Very dynamic, very good guy. Long, rangy. He's going to have size and reach and linked on Patricio and he's been there and he's performed under the bright lights. You know, again, we've seen that. Like I said, man, I'm not knocking the guy. Let me be clear about that. But remember Will Brooks, man. Will Brooks took out Michael Chandler a couple of things.

times he looked like he was one of the best lightweights in the world and he just never found his footing in the ufc he had one win and he just got he just he just did not it just never no i'm not saying he was like a transformative athlete but he was the best lightweight in bellator and he came over here and it just did not work in the ufc so he also win the lightweight division too yeah yeah that's true but you could argue listen chandler doesn't have the greatest record but you can't say Chandler doesn't perform every time. Like, he may lose, but he's going to put on a fucking fight. Right.

And, you know, I guess there's the argument of like, what does that mean, right? Like, you know, put on a great fight doesn't mean shit if you lose, right? So, you know, there's different ways to look at that. But, yeah, and look, I think it's not out of the question that year comes into his prime and his own. And, I mean, he could get back to a championship for sure. Like, I think he has all the qualities to do that. you know he's just got a there's something like in his game just a little touch missing somewhere you know what I mean he's like just a

just a little step missing somewhere in his game that they got to figure out yeah when you look at yire's record he said two losses in a row he got submitted by brian ortega and he got knocked out by alexander volkenowski he beat josh emit beat brian ortega that was the injury one lost to max holleyer the way beat Jeremy Stevens. You obviously beat the Korean zombies. So he's had, you know, coming up a couple losses. I mean, like I said, you know, I mean, we'll see, you know, I mean,

I'm not going to say, again, never going to say do or die for a guy like I like I-R-R-R-Rodriguez, but he certainly doesn't want to lose three in a row. Like, he doesn't want to be the guy to welcome and Patrice people and goes out of a loss. So it's a big moment for him. Like I said, and by all accounts, I think Brian Ortega is leaving the division, too. So there's another guy kind of gone. So, you know,

if you're out here, Rodriguez, this is a golden opportunity. If you can go out there and just absolutely lay ways to Patricia Pitbull, you're suddenly right back in the mix, even though you've had two losses in a row. So big, big moment for both guys. Yeah, it's going to be an exciting fight, man. You know, I think your year is like, I can't necessarily pinpoint. I'd have to, like, study his fights really close, but there's like just a little touch missing somewhere, you know, where I think all those were winnable fights for him, but there's just something he's got to fix, and I don't know what it is. Yeah. Well, we'll see. Like I said, it's a tough fight. You know

Patricia Pitbull is going to come in and come after him. And so, that may end up it like I said that entire card is insane I mean it's an incredibly great card even the prelims are great on that card but yeah I'm kind of curious to see how it all plays out you know once it's all said and done because I think it's a really really interesting matchup

but you look at the rest of that card I mean like I said we you know Bryce Mitchell John Silva what a great fight that is Nikita Krylov Dominic Reyes Dan Egey Sean Woodson that's really interesting Jim Miller Chase Hooper

I mean Julina Rosa and Darren Elkins, how's that not going to be a war on the prelims? I mean, there's some really good fights on this card. There probably aren't going to get as much buzz because they're not on the main card. But, yeah, that's a ridiculously good card. It's an embarrassment of riches. And that's coming up this weekend, right? Next, next weekend, next weekend.

Okay, okay, yeah. So we'll definitely have to talk more about this because there's some big fights coming up on that, right? Yeah, this weekend is Josh Schmitt, Lorone Murphy. That's actually a pretty fun fight. The car's not great, but that's a pretty good fight. fight. I do. I've always liked Josh and Lorone's been on a good run, so that's a pretty good one. I talk to Josh before the fight, he had taken off a year because he knocked

out Bryce Mitchell and, you know, turned him into we don't know what Bryce became after that knockout apparently, but he knocked up Bryce Mitchell and took off a year and I asked him and he said, Josh, you've been gone for a year? Like, what's been going on? Did you get injured? He's like, no. He's like, I just need the time off. He's like, I went down to Mexico and he got stem cells and he just got his body healthy. He's 40 years old now, and he's like, I just want to get healthy. and he's like, I feel better than ever now.

He's like, I took time off. I got, you know, stem cells and just let my body rest and just recovered. And I'm just, he's like, I feel like a million bucks now. And I'm like, good for you, man. Like, that's awesome because he's like, no, nothing wrong. I just actively took a year off to just get better, get healthy. That's cool. It's an interesting time to take a year off at that age, you know?

But, yeah, good for him. Maybe he'll come back even stronger than ever. I mean, he could definitely knock out anybody. So being even healthier now, I don't know what entries he's doing with, right? But, man, he's always got that X factor. When was the last time you watched out, Bryce, an initial knockout? Jesus Christ, that one still haunts my dreams whenever I think. But the sound of that fist hitting and Bryce just slumping over.

I mean, good God, man. Michael Johnson, remember that fight what he did to Michael Johnson in that fight? Like, good Lord, man. Like, Josh Emmett might have the most one-punch knockout power in featherweight that we've ever seen. Yeah, yeah, I agree. He's just built for it, right? And he throws it well. So, yeah, that's cool that he got healthy and he's feeling good and coming back.

Like I said, it's kind of a tough age to take a long break like that, you know, when you're when you're that old. So, you know, we talk about, you know, these lighter guys, man. It's just so hard, you know, when you're getting older. And, man, what's that stat that, you know, I keep thinking about? Yeah, it was like over 35, no one under, no one from lightweight and under has been champion, I think is what it is. I think it's like that's the lowest weight at over 35. No one's ever been champion. I think is what the stat was.

Yeah, that's tough, right? It is. And you can see it too in these guys, you know, like, but the nice thing for Josh Emmett, though, is that his power will stay, right? So he's always going to have that X factor for a long time, whether he has the reactions, and the speed still, you know, we'll see. That's to be seen. There's a reason why heavyweights are able to trend older because of the power. Like, that's the last thing that goes is the power.

And so heavy weights, I mean, prime heavy weights are like in their 30s. Like generally, you don't think about, you know, your prime years being in your mid-30s, but that's heavyweights. And power is what Josh Schmitt has going for him. He was not a finesse guy. He was not a, you know, outspeed you guy. He's a guy who he hit you with your right hand, your heads in the third fucking row. So maybe, like I said, maybe, you know, and maybe just getting the time. And, you know, and when he talked about being all, like, he's just little nagging things, just, you know, body just being beat up and just taking the time to recover.

He was still training. He didn't stop training. He just didn't have to go through a training camp. He just wanted to get the little nagging injuries good. So maybe he'll come back better. I mean, hopefully he does. Like I said, when he's at his best, he's a monster. So, interesting, interesting, you know, time for him.

And obviously rolling right into Volcanowski, Diego Lopez. That's kind of like a tale of the old champion against the young hungry contender too. We'll talk more about that next week. But that's a really interesting fight. And Diego, I don't know if you did this or not because you were gone. The NCAA wrestling championships, I'm sure you saw Wyatt Hendrickson upset and pulled off the huge upset of Gable Steeveson. Down at Oklahoma State, I talked to David Taylor, the coach down there. Diego Lopez went down to Oklahoma State for a few weeks and was training down with the wrestling team.

Wasn't doing MMA, wasn't punching. He was just wrestling with the wrestling team. and Wyatt Henderson told me he's like, dude, I was impressed. He's like, he didn't. He didn't like, he had no, he was going with our wrestlers. Like, he was not fucking around. He was going with the wrestlers. Dude, that's big, man.

I did some of that myself, spent time in Ohio State and with some Olympians. People don't realize how good that actually is for, especially if you've never wrestled. Like, it's completely different if you've been wrestling since you were a kid and you kind of got your go-to moves and you kind of end up sticking with just what you know, right, that you learned as a kid. It might be good for you. maybe not. But especially like guys that the kids, you know, solid skills all around. Now adding in that wrestling,

I promise you that's going to add into every part of his game is going to get better now. Yeah, and he was working with good people. I mean, David Taylor's an Olympic gold medalist on Columbus Day. I mean, that's, you know, you could pick a better group of your own. Yeah. Yeah, so I love it. I love it.

I love it. So we'll talk more about that next week. We'll talk about Diego Lopez and title fight and everything next week. Matt, what else you got going on? people want to check out now that you're back in the States and you're done, you know, fucking up some French people. What do you, what do you got going on over here now?

I don't know. I got some seminars coming up, opening the gym, you know, kids, life, I don't know, everything, man. Band? What's going on with the band? You can play the band? Yeah, I mean, we practice, you know. Practice be playing just about every day. Probably more than I should be.

Like, I got to, like, I got to force myself to chill on the guitar because sometimes, you know, you get started, and it's like four hours later. And you're like, fuck, bro, I didn't do anything that I plan on doing today. You know, other things start suffering. So, yeah, we're having a really fun time with it, man. Maybe we'll get a gig pretty soon. You may you can come out and watch us. 100% are I should go on to a show next week.

Do you ever hear of Barry tomorrow, British metal band? I've heard of them. I never listened, but I, yeah. playing they're playing her next week i'm jazzed about that show i'm going to that one next week so then i got machine then i then i got machine head and inflames the end of the month dude i cannot wait for that one oh you see actually you know i want to go see i think it's in april see if you recognize the name victor wooten oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah where's that at uh here in columbus somewhere i'm not not a not a big not like schoenstein or anything it's

like a, I think it might be the ace of clubs thing. Is it a king of clubs? Oh, you're king of clubs. Yeah, that's a place. Yeah, I think it's there. So either way, that'd be fucking cool, man. Like Victor Wooten's a man. We got, we got King of Clubs and we got Ace of Cups.

There's two different places. Oh, okay. One of those. I don't know. Yeah, I just went to Ace of Cups for a show about a month ago, a band I like called Ghost Kid. They're from Germany, and I saw them play down there. They're a metal band from Germany, and they played it.

Ace of Cups, which is right down on Ohio State's campus. So, yeah, we got Ace of Cups and King of Clubs. Yeah, and then, of course, we have the Sonic Temple in May, which is as a sick lineup this year. So that's going to be nice. Only going to one day. Only going one day. You are, which one for you?

Thursday, so I can see Bad Omen's. Bad Omen's is playing on Thursday, and so I'm going that day. They're the second. I don't, we've had this discussion before. I'm not a big festival guy anymore, but for that one day, because there's a lot of bands on that one day. So I was like, all right, I'll go to that one day. Yeah, yeah, I might go down

Like that Trivium will be there So I'll see if I can go hang out with Matt a little bit I think Heybreed might be there this year too Also, go see if any hang out with Jamie Oh, they're there, maybe I did it up Jamie and see I haven't talked to Jamie a little while Maybe I'll hit him up and see you I can't remember if they're going to be a Sonic Temple

Or incarceration Yeah, I was going to go to incarceration Last year because bad omen's played And just the last minute I was like, dude I don't really feel like driving To Man's field and dealing with the fucking parking and everything out there. When I do Sonic Temple,

I can get my girlfriend to just drive me down and drop me off so I don't have to deal with the parking and then just like, however pick me up, so I'm just like, I just go down and do it that way because I've done the parking down there and like Jesus Christ,

you park like fucking four miles away and you have to walk back. And yeah, so I'm going, I'm going that one day, though. I'm just going to go for the one day for bad opens.

And like, I know Lincoln Park's playing there. And there's some pretty good bands that I just, dude, I'm not a festival guy anymore. I'm like, if I can't see a full set,

I don't want to go. I want to see a full set, you know? Yeah, I'm the same, bro. But, yeah, we'll see. Clear that schedule. Do clear that schedule, go to Machine Head with me, man. Come on, Machine Head in flames. Come on.

Clear that schedule one night and go. I'll see what I can do. I'll see what I can do. Cincinnati, Ohio, our shared kind of adopted hometown. Like, come on. Yeah, I'll see what I can do, man. We'll see. All right.

Well, as always, man, I want to say a big thank you to everyone to tunes in the show. make sure to check us out on all your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and of course over on the best website in the world, mMAfighting.com for Matt Brown. I am Damon Martin. We'll see you guys next week for another edition of the Fighter versus the Rider. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you then. Podcast Network.

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