MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Matt Brown Reacts To Rousey Saying She'd Be Booed At UFC Events, UFC 302 Picks & Predictions

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

Ahead of UFC 302 on Saturday, The Fighter vs. The Writer returns as UFC legend Matt Brown and MMA Fighting senior reporter Damon Martin break down the biggest storylines from the card. First things first, we react to the latest from Ronda Rousey after the former UFC champion said she felt vilified by the media after her exodus from combat sports and how she expects she would get booed if she actually made an appearance at UFC events. Does Rousey have a point about how she was treated or is she still struggling to face her shortcomings at the end of her career? Brown has his take on Rousey’s exit from the UFC and the string of comments she’s made about her losses after releasing her autobiography. We’ll also get into the biggest fights at UFC 302 including Islam Makhachev defending his title against Dustin Poirier in the main event. Does Poirier have a great chance to pull off the upset on Saturday or will this be another dominant performance from Makhachev? What about Sean Strickland returning against Paulo Costa? What does Strickland need to do to win and how can Costa thwart the former UFC middleweight champion? All this and more on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer! 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

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

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

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

you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. Available now, only from Audible. Welcome back to the Fighter versus the Writer. I'm your host, as always, Damon Martin alongside UFC legend. Matt, what's going on? How's your part of the world today?

Well, I spent most of the day. recording some guitar work so you hopefully I don't know what we're going to do with it but you might see it coming out and I don't know somewhere in social media or something soon

so I heard it I can't I obviously can't you know tell what it's about or what's for I've heard you play guitar many times through social media and I think you played at your house before when I've been over I was super impressed dude I was like damn that's got some guitar skills

like I thought you're just kind of like you know fucking right a little bit. Like, I listen to that track and it's like, damn, Matt's got some guitar skills. Well, when you have the recording software, everything's set up, you take your time, you get the takes, you know, it's a little different thing, right? You can edit a little bit, you know, cheat a little bit, slow it down if you have to. Yeah, I thought it sounded pretty good in the end. I thought I came up pretty good. Did it? It sounded great. So let me ask, you would never give up what you had as a fight career. Your fight career is it, but in another world, in another lifetime,

Would Matt Brown Rockstar be the other profession he wish you could have had? I don't know, man. Probably, yeah. Or maybe that would be the next chapter in my life. Yeah. I'll go from F.C. fighter to Rockstar. Yeah, I did. Get into a band, start playing some gigs and shit.

You never know what could happen. Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely good enough. Like, I can play better than a lot of pros. Like, I know really good pros, and I've played with them before. and they're like, dude, they're like, you're better than most of the people would play with. How did you learn how to play guitar? Well, I got grounded a lot when I was a kid.

And I was also in a very small town and it just really wasn't anything to do. So I'd pick up the guitar and fiddle around with it. And then, you know, just got used to it. My mom played like gospel, you know, played for like the church and shit. And I was like, Man, that's pretty cool, you know, so she taught me some stuff.

Well, she taught me like the basic chords, you know, and then I learned a power cord and I haven't really touched those chords since. Can you read like, can you, can you read sheet music or no? I mean, I can not like quickly, you know. Yeah. I tried to play guitar. I tried to play guitar and I just, I don't know, man. I just, I could never pick it up.

I could never, I could never get good enough to where I feel confident like playing it for. I learned a couple songs, but I also never learned how to read sheet music or anything. But, like, yeah, it's not easy, dude. So that's pretty awesome, like, almost being self-taught like that. Like, that's pretty insane to be doing it like that because I know hard it is, man. I tried. I tried real hard for, like, a year straight trying to learn how to play guitar. It did not work out well for me.

Did you have a teacher? Sort of. I had a friend who was in a band I was in who tried to teach me. And, like, he was kind of like, he was self-taught too, but he could read music a little bit better. so he tried to, but he tried to teach me his way of playing, and I just think that was just, you know, he had a very unique way of playing. And so he's like, this is A, this is C, this is, you know,

he taught me that way, like showing me on the guitar. And it just never, I don't know, it just never clicked. I don't know. I tried and it just, it never clicked right way. So I just kind of gave it up and, yeah. Yeah, never learned. But he probably said, like the wrong teacher. Like, it's like anything, man, it's just the skill that you develop over time.

But honestly, when, um, when I hung out with Heafi, Matt Heifie, a few months ago, or last month or a few weeks ago, some shit, whatever it was. You know, he taught me some things that completely changed my entire game. Like my, you know, when you get with the high-level pro like that, like someone that's been doing it for a living since he was a fucking teenager, I mean, he gave me tips that, like, if I told someone those tips right now, I mean, they could be a 10 times better guitarist next week.

Yeah. And for people that don't know, Matt Heifie is the guitarist in Trivium, the band Trivium. So, um, awesome band. Actually, it's funny. You think you. It's really funny. I woke up this morning. I was getting dressed.

I almost wore my Trivium t-shirt today. Not kidding. How fucking funny would that have been. On the podcast, I rock my, I have a Trivium t-shirt in there. I almost put it on today, but I didn't do it. So that would have been really funny. I had no idea going into today that you're going to talk about Matt Heafi. That's funny.

Yes. But, yeah, if people don't know who Matt Heafy is or Trivian, you know, they start, what was he 16 years old when their first album came out? Yeah, they've been around for a while. Yeah, he's like, he's like close. I want to say he's like 38 or close to 40 now, I think, if not. But they've been around for a long time. Yeah, but I mean, the first album, I want to say, like, they were still in high school. Like, that's how good they were.

I mean, I remember when I first heard about him, I seen the metal maniacs. Remember that magazine? Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, and they were on the cover And it was like, this is the next Metallica You know, and these kids were teenagers Being promoted as the next Metallica So yeah, he's pretty fucking good

I was a late arrival to Trivium I didn't get into like five or six years ago When I really, really started getting into different kinds of What I guess now, I don't even know I mean, it's all metal to me Everyone likes to define metal as different categories But it's about five, six years ago I heard a Trivium song

And I was like, ooh, this is really good And then I just, you know, when I find a song I like, that was like how I got into In Flames. Because I got into In Flames the same way. I heard a song and I was like, ooh, I like this. And then I just start digging. And the next thing you know, I'm fucking 10 albums deep and buying the vinyl and T-shirts. And, you know, I'm way into. That's Trivium and In Flames were two very similar bands.

We heard like one song. And I was, I was like, ooh, I was like, ooh, this is good. And then just dive into the pit of music and never come out again. Yeah, because both of those are kind of not really accessible bands to. you know. I'd say especially in flames. Like Trivium has some very accessible music, but In Flames,

they got some stuff that's kind of accessible, but for the most part, like they're very unique. You know, it's not easy to just hear it the first time and get it. Yeah, yeah, that's good. I love In Flames. They just recently re-released a bunch of their old albums

on vinyl, and I've been collecting them slowly but surely getting all their albums on vinyl they released. So they had their last couple on vinyl, and then a lot of their older stuff was out of print. to pay like two, three hundred dollars and I'm just not going that far for a vinyl record, but they started re-released in them about six months ago, I think it was.

And so I've gotten like seven or eight in flames albums now, just collecting all their vinyl records. How many vinyl records do you have? I probably, I don't know, maybe like. Probably got shit ton, don't you? If I was guessing, probably like maybe like, I don't really know the numbers. It's hard to tell, but I would probably say like, I don't know, five, six hundred vinyl, something like that. That's pretty badass, bro.

I got like 20. I'm just a I used to if you can tell behind me I'm a bit of a collector so I used to collect when I was a kid I collected comic books and I kind of stopped that and now I'm kind of like into horror shit as you can clearly tell I host a horror podcast in my spare time called Rwanda the Living Dead and then and then vinyl's my other vinyl is my other vinyl stories here in Ohio and so I've really gotten into vinyl and so that's kind of my preferred way I listen to now I have a vinyl player right next to me and I have another vinyl player in my living room that I listen to you and you just just nerd all around. I am, dude. I am. But I was, again, later, what's funny is I listened to vinyl when I was a kid, because when I was a little, little kid,

vinyl was still around. And my older sister listened to vinyl. And then everything shifted to tapes and CDs. When I was a kid, it was all CDs. Like, everything I had with CDs. And then, I don't know, it was maybe like 10, 15 years ago. I started buying a vinyl here and there. And I had, like, a little shitty record player.

And then over the last, like, I don't know. six, seven years, I just got really into it. And now I go vinyl shopping like twice a month and always come on with something new. And I like everything on vinyl now. I buy everything on vinyl. Like if it's like the new Bring Me the Horizon record came out this week. And I love it. And the vinyl doesn't drop until September, but I already preordered it.

Like I have to get it immediately. So. Nice. Nice. I love it, bro. Well, I know what to get you for your birthday, huh? Yeah, I'm a vinyl junkie, man. I love it.

So people that tuned in, this is not the Kerrang Pong. podcast. This is actually the Fighter versus the writers. Kerrang, there's another, there's another metal magazine. Remember Kerrang magazine? Revolver. Dude, revolver. Kerrang was always the one that I'd pick up at the store because like if you picked up Kerrang, you were like the cool metal kid because that was like the foreign metal magazine. So you're like, I know some shit if I pick up Kerrang magazine. I was like metal maniacs, you know?

Yeah. I had revolver too. I did have a lot of revolvers, but revolver is more accessible. Like you can only find crane Like when they first dropped an issue You have like one issue in Barnes and Nobles You had to buy that one issue Or you'd never see it again I love it Love it good old days

But now we just go on Google Yeah exactly Yeah I do I tell you what That's actually part of the reason Why I think I collect vinals Because I miss the days Of going to a record store Because I used to work at a record store

That was my job in college And I used to go into a record store I loved shopping in record stores That's not an experience you have anymore Like there's just no you know, you don't go see you shop anymore. That's what got me into vinyl. Like, I love going to the store and just, like, digging through.

And you can't all, like, right now I could go on Apple Music and just download every freaking album that I wanted. But I got to go and, like, make a choice, you know, how much money am I going to spend today? And I usually end up spending way more than I should. But, you know what I'm saying? Like, you got to, you got to make some choices, actually. Like, okay, how much do I want this one? How good is it?

Yeah. Plus, it's cool when you run, like I remember I ran across, I was just at the record store one day, just kind of like, tell them into records, and I found a tool anime on vinyl, and I had never seen that on vinyl before, and that's my favorite tool record. And I freaked out, oh, my God, they have this on vinyl. It was an import. It was from Germany or some shit. And I bought it, you know, it was like 40 bucks, but I bought it. And that's one of my favorite, that's one of my favorite records, period, but my favorite tool record. And I had freaked out because I had never seen it before.

So, like, there's just little things you run across that you just don't know you're going to find. or, you know, and so you see it. And yeah, it's just immediately like, and when I went and saw a band called Dark Divine, they're a metalcore band, and then they opened up for Blackville Brides here in Columbus last year. And I really liked them, and their album had just come out, and I went to their merch stand.

They had the vinyl record. I was like, got to buy that immediately. So I'm just about, I love it, man. I love fun, cool, unique vinyls, man. I'm all about it. Yeah. So speaking of metal, did you go to the Sonic Temple show? I did not.

I did not. I'm not a big festival. I am going to, I am going to incarceration for one day in July, but only one day. Fair. Did you go? Nope.

I'm not a festival guy either. Yeah. We went a couple times. You and I went a couple times to Sonic, or it was back at Rock on the Range, and there was Sonic Temple. We've gone a couple times, but I'm just not a festival guy, man.

It's just not an experience I really enjoy. Yeah, it's like once you do it once, it's enough or twice. You know, like you do it a few times. It's like, all right, I know what this is about. And I don't need this shit in my life. I'm fucking 40 years old, you know. And I don't drink. I don't really enjoy standing in the sun.

I don't really like drinking beer all day and seeing fat people take their shirts off. When I was a kid, I used to go to Oz Fest every year. That was my thing. but looking back now I don't know how I did it because I would go there at fucking 11 o'clock in the morning to see the very first bands and I'd be there until fucking 10 10 3011 at night until Black Sabbath played or zombie played

or whoever was playing the final closer and I think 12 hours of that and you know you stop and get a piece of pizza or whatever you know you get drinks you sit down you don't just stand there the entire time but like I look back because I always had multiple stages so I'd go back and forth you know I'd go see like I remember going to see

machine head on like one of the smaller stages than coming back over to see somebody else. And I think back about that now and I'm like, I could never do that now. I'm too fucking old for that. Like there's no way I could stand out there. There were 12 hours to see 18 different bands in a festival. I just don't have it in me anymore. Yeah, now I got to have a nap at by like 2 o'clock. Eat that piece of pizza.

I'm going to need to fucking take a nap, man. Yeah, dude. I got like three bands in me at a time. And that's like on a good night. If I get one band and then the band I came to see like one opener in the band, that's pretty much the extent of where I'm going. Right, right. Well, what's, speaking of other things, what's going on in May world this week, Damon?

Well, a little event called UFC 302 takes place in a couple of days in Newark, Newark, New Jersey. Of course, Islam Ocatchev, defending his title against Dustin Porrier and Paulo Costa taken on former champion, Sean Strickland. But before we get to YOC302, we haven't talked, we haven't really talked about the yet. Actually, it's been all over the place over the last like four or five months is Rhonda Rousey's back in the news again. Now, Rhonda Rousey released her autobiography a couple months ago called R-Fight, and I actually saw

her when she came here at Columbus, Ohio. She came here to do a Q&A, and I sat in on the Q&A and recorded it, and it was interesting, to say the least. We locked eyes and she said hello to me. She definitely knew who I was because I've interviewed. She wrote my car before I drove her place before here in Columbus when she was in Strike Force, so She definitely knew who I was. And it had a very awkward like hello because I don't think she expected the MMA media to be there covering her Q&A.

But she's had, you know, she's revealed a lot in these last few months, particularly about her concussions that she had and how that affected her career. So dramatically, particularly in the Holly Holme fight. And then just recently she had an interview that came out and everyone's going to cover it today, basically talking about how she feels like she's been vilified. So I want to read you a quote, I don't know if you've seen this or not, but I want to read it for anyone who hasn't seen this. This was an interview she did with a podcast or a show called High Performance.

This is what she said. Ask the MMA media why what I gave wasn't enough. They're the ones saying it. That I was a fraud and I was hype and I was exposed and I was never anything and just lucky at all these things. That I was ungracious or I was a loser or every other thing that I assume at this point because I don't take the time to read it. Everything that could be said that was negative was said. And I feel really vilified by the MMA media at this point and not really welcome back, which is why I haven't gone to a UFC fight since I retired.

I'm pretty sure if I walked into the arena, I'd be booed. That's how it feels. So, Matt, I'm the MMA media. You're not the MMA media. I guess I'm the one who should respond. But I know we all got an opinion on Ronda Rouse. She's had a lot to say recent and not even how much you've paid attention to it. When you hear that quote, what do you think about old Rhonda Rousey kind of the way she feels she's been vilified in the, in the press?

I mean, the first thing it comes to my mind is what's the problem? Like, is she complaining? I mean, that's what's the problem? Okay. Maybe people have said bad things about you. Like, welcome to being a human. You know, like, welcome to being famous. what you expect?

Like what did you expect? And you know, it's not like she was out, you know, I don't know. It's not like she was out saving babies and shit, you know? Yeah. I think she wasn't out there putting her best foot forward all the time. So, you know, what, what do you expect? I don't want to sit here and say I'm answering for the entire roommate media

because if there's one thing that bugs me is when, that we all get lumped together like the MMA media. If I say something that you don't like, call me out. I got no problem with that. But don't just say blankly the MMA. That's like saying all UFC fighters are the same. You know, like, oh, the UFC fighters said this. No, not all UFC fighters

said that. You know, Bryce Mitchell sounds like a jackass. Not all UFC fighters. Here's what I'll say, because I was around what's that. Hey, don't know, Bryce. I just threw that out as an example. Gotta love Bryce.

sometimes he does go out little he goes a little far out in the ledge sometimes but you got to love the guy come on he's he's a little out there sometimes I'll give him that he's a little out there sometimes uh with ronda I was around and actually at like her rise because when I joked about her when I said about her ride in my car when I first met ronda rousey they had come here to Columbus to promote her fight with misha tate which was in March during the Arnold's and that January the you UFC, that was after the UFC bought Strike Force, they had brought them here to Columbus to do like a media tour for radio and do like the local like ticket sales kind of thing. And the UFC called me and said, hey, do you want to come down and interview Rhonda and Misha?

And I said, of course I would. So I go down there to Nationwar to the Hyatt in downtown Columbus. And I every mission, now I knew Misha for years. I know Misha for many of me years. So we were very friendly and very familiar with each other. I had never met Ron. I think I had interviewed her once over the phone, but I had never met her before. And the disdain between those two is very real.

there was nothing. Like, they didn't want to be in the same room with each other. They really didn't like each other. But we did the interviews, nice enough, whatever, and then they were going to be guests at the Columbus Blue Jackets game that night. And it was January, and it had to be, like, negative 12 degrees here in Columbus. It was so freaking cold. And if you remember the high...

Like, I remember specifically how cold it was. Yeah, it was so cold. And so the arena is like a half a mile walk from the height. It's not far. It's down a hill. But it's a walk. You have to walk there to get there. And I was like, well, listen, I got my car.

I could drive you guys to the arena and drop you off by, like, the media entrance where you guys are going to go in so you guys can get your seats. And like, okay, great. So I pull around. Ronda jumps in the front seat. Misha has to get on the other side behind me. That's how badly she doesn't want to be around Ronda. Like, she has to sit in the backseat behind me on the opposite end of Ronda Rousey. And Ronda, me, are just chilling.

We're chatting and playing music. She's just a friendliest person you could ever imagine. And then I was at a couple of fights to the UFC, and I didn't, I wasn't there when she lost to Holly Hallie Holm, that was in Australia, but I was at her fight with Amanda Nunes, which was ultimately her last fight. And I think the biggest problem that Rhonda Rousey had towards the end of her career, let me be clear about this. Rhonda Rousey deserves all the credit in the world for being a dominant champion and she is absolutely a UFC Hall of Famer. And I do think we need to stop having revisionist history in saying that Rhonda was never any good and she wouldn't survive in. today's MMA. You can say that the sport has evolved, but you can say that about Hoise Gracie. You can say Hoyst Gracie wouldn't. It's a different game now to win Hoyst Gracie fought.

When Rhonda Rousey fought at the kind of infancy of women's MMA in the UFC, yeah, she could get away with things that she probably couldn't get away with now. That's not wrong, but that's no different than saying that, you know, Hoyst Gracie wouldn't survive. That's not a knock. That's just the reality of evolution of a sport. But where Rhonda Rousey went wrong, was she was on top of the world. She was Connor. It was her and Connor. They were the two biggest stars in the world.

And when she had her loss, she never faced it. That's it. Like she never faced it. And though she said that she had a concussion and she could never reveal why her fights didn't go that way because she had concussion, she couldn't reveal that because they would take her out of fighting.

I get that. But I'll never forget being at the UFC event, the night the dominant crews got styled on by Cody Garbrandt. Remember that card? Cody went out there. It was one of the greatest title fight performance

of all time. And Dominic Cruz came to the back and did the interview in the post-fight press conference and you, like, it was one of the best post-fight press conferences

ever. Now, in Rhonda's case, I understand not showing up to the post-fight press. You got your head kicked off. You're probably concussed, broken jaw. I understand all that.

You don't have to show up. I'm not saying you have any obligation to show up to the post-fight presser. But four months later, talk about it. Be honest about it. Be honest about what happened. Be honest, what went wrong?

Her problem was that she kind of buried her head in the sand and never faced defeat. And then when she did talk about it, it was with like one very specific reporter who never really pushed her on anything. She just kind of like said what she wanted to say. And that's what they printed. Like here's how I felt. Never like what went wrong. What, you know, no questions really. Just felt like here's what I had to say.

Here's a statement. And then that was. was it and then Amanda Nunes's fight week comes in she doesn't show up for media day she doesn't do press conferences doesn't do anything that every other fighter on the card has to do just doesn't do any of it way in day she literally shows up storms in weighs in charges out again like you know you know it's like the morning way in's hiding from the UFC says give me five seconds and everyone takes their photos none of that for Rhonda in wait in bolted gone fight over when she loses to Amanda Nunes fight over boom gone just left and that's the

last we ever saw Roder Rousey. She never owned up to her performances. She never owned up to what went wrong. She never once sounded humbled. Like even Connor McGregor, I remember being there the night Connor got choked out by Nate Diaz. And I talked about the post-fight press conference. Yeah, it changes two days later and he becomes Connor again.

But in that moment, Connor is like, yeah, this sucks. Like, maybe I go back to Fedowate. You know, I don't know what I'm going to do next. Like, this was a pretty humbling loss. Like in that moment, he was very, very humble. She never had that. She never had that. You never, in a moment, felt like she'd ever been humbled or she ever found any, I mean, any level of humility, in my opinion.

And now I've heard to come out years later and say, I was vilified. You brought this on yourself. You brought this on yourself, Rhonda, with the way you exited and seemingly didn't give a shit that you exited. And if you don't give a shit, why should I do what else give a shit? You seemingly just like, you bounced to WWE seem perfectly happy over the, there and you were perfectly fine moving on with your MMA career and didn't care what anyone thought about you. So why do you seem to care now? I don't understand it. Yeah, well, you got a lot to say about that, Damon. It bugs me. Yeah, I get it. I get it. I mean, rightfully so. I mean,

you are probably one of the people she's, you know, lumping into that MMA media, right? And you did good things for her and you cared about her, you know, even as just as a person. like you knew her a little, you know, at least a little bit personally, you know, so I get where you're coming from. I mean, I kind of get where she's bitter and, you know, can't accept the loss, but blaming it externally is always the wrong thing, even if you were injured. I mean, and I can relate to this because, I mean, it's happened to me, right? Like, I've been injured in fights. I've been sick. I've had the flu in fights. I've had, I've got a lot of fights.

You know, like you don't have 50 fights and you go right every time. You know, and that's why that's one of the reasons why, you know, we have so much respect for guys like Chavez who won like 84 fights in a row. You know, or I was going to skip over Floyd, but I'll mention Floyd, right? He did win 49. bro. Like, at some point in one of those fights, like, shit's not going to be right and you're going to have to fight through it. But so for her to think that she's special because, like, she had a concussion is just silliness. You know, it's like it's like I could look at a loss and I could give you all the reasons why I lost. But anytime you say it out loud,

It's an excuse, right? Like, it's just purely an excuse because you don't know what the other guy was dealing with. Like, when she fought Holly home, like, I bet if we talk to Holly, she'd be like, yeah, I had this injury and this injury. You know what I mean? Like, how do we know she didn't have a concussion?

So, yeah, so it's just silliness. But I feel like it's kind of one of those things. We shouldn't, we should almost just, ignore it. You know, like, it's one of those things like I almost don't even want to feed it. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't help the situation. And it's, it's unfortunate because she was a real, the one thing I would disagree with you about is I think she could do better today than people give her credit for. I think she would be dominant today. There are certain matchups. I shouldn't say dominant, but there are certain matchups that are just bad for, like Holly Holme, for instance.

but anybody that she can take down, like she's, I don't, there might be one or two people that she does an arm bar. Oh, and, oh, I agree.

I agree. Yeah, like, I, like, do I think the sport evolved beyond her in terms of, like, her style?

Sure, because she was never a great striker. She was incredible a judo. And I take does. Yeah. Maybe that, that's where I disagree a little bit. I don't think it has evolved past her style.

There's just been, there has been better athletes come in, right? where that match up poorly with her, whereas in her day, there simply just wasn't a, which maybe that's the definition of evolution too, right? Well, it's also what I mean by that, yeah, let me be clear about this. When I say that, I'm talking about the top top, like, she was champion. That's what I mean.

Like, of the Amanda Nunes level, like, that's where she started to struggle when the Amanda Nunes is of the world and the Holly Holmes showed up who were, you know, stylously. Like, she, I don't know, I mean, the women's band to weigh division outside of, Kayla Harrison and a couple other people right now is pretty bad. But in her day, like, there were a few people around. So, you know, I think I always thought Chris Seibor would be an awful matchup for Ronda Roussel. Like, that would be, like, one of the worst matchups in the history of the sport were giving her Chris Seibor. I understand why she never wanted that fight.

And I think Kayla Harrison's another one. Kayla Harrison's on higher level judoka. Like, that's a bit. But so I'm just so at the tippy top. Do I think Ronda Rousa could come in right now beat the number five, number six level Bant's weight in the world? Probably. Like there's no, there's still that.

I'm just talking about like, when she lost that title, she never had interest in coming back and building herself back up again. She lost to Holly, sat out for two years, came back, lost to Amanda and pieced out. And I just don't, I don't think there was ever any lessons learned from that. I don't think she ever really evolved or changed or got better from that. I think that's very true. And it's just sad because, like, she's got to live with that, with herself.

You know what I mean? Like, that's the sad part. I mean, like, I got losses. I got way more losses. than Rhonda. I fought a lot more times than Rhonda. But like you don't want to go around living that way, like blaming other people for the way your life is or the way that you're portrayed. And I don't doubt for a second that she could reconcile everything. Like she could walk in and just show a little bit of humility, like you said, just show a little bit of fucking humility

and everybody would be bowing down to her again. If she was just cut like, hire a fucking PR person. You know, like just hire a fucking halfway decent PR person, tell you what to say. Just say the shit. And the world is yours again. Like you're fucking back at the top of a celebrity list. But no one, no one wants to hear the shit that she's saying. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, there's a reason why a guy fighting this week at Dustin Porrier, I don't know how many losses he has.

Was he have six, seven lost on his record or something like that between, you know, all his career. Does anyone give a shit? No, we love Dustin. Dustin. And Dustin, he loses. He loses a fight. What's that? He's not a one-fight win streak, right? Like he lost last. Yeah. And no one cares because Dustin has been that dude. Like we all know who Dustin is. We all know what Dustin's made of. And Dustin has faced his biggest victories and he's faced his biggest defeats. And we all love him for that. You know, we never shy away from that. He is like I posted a photo a couple weeks ago. that popped up on my Facebook feed with my memories thing of like when he fought the Korean zombie down in Virginia I driven down to cover that car of the UFC on fuel back in the day

or WC I care what I do is UFC on fuel and he lost at a fight that he was supposed to be his win and then he gets a title shot he had to losing the Korean zombie and I remember talking to Dustin afterwards and like you could see it like he was tearing up and you know it hurt like it fucking hurt but he faced it now I'll say it again I'm not saying you lose if you get knocked out we need you to show up to post fight press cars that That's bullshit. I'm not saying that all. I actually tell people don't do the post-fight press conference.

But at some point, a couple weeks later, you know, come out and talk, do a couple of interviews, talk about, you know, I mean, Dustin does that all the time. He's, he's come out and done interviews with me. He's done interviews with Aaron Hawani. Like, face, and that's all, like, people want to see that there's a little bit of humility in that. Like, you know, Michael Chandler, his record's not perfect. Why do we love Michael Chandler? He goes out there and puts on fine fucking fights every single time he performs. and we know what we know what we're getting with a Michael Chandler fight

Justin Gage, you just lost to Max Holloway. Do we lose any ounce of respect for Justin Gajie because he ended up being highlighted by one of the craziest moments in UFC history? No, we love Justin Gagey. We don't give a shit that he just lost in that one fight. That's the difference. You build up that goodwill. We really don't even care if you talk.

If you want to go hide and cave somewhere and just be alone, I think we totally get that. But if you do talk, you can't blame others. Yeah. Like that's like I don't care if you're just a regular person on the street that I meet or, you know, if you're a girl I'm going on a date with or a friend. Like just a friend at a barbecue. If they start complaining about other people or start blaming other people for their problems, like you instantly get a vibe from them. Like this is not someone I want to be around.

Yeah. And that's in the fight world. and you know this, in the fight world, when you lose a fight and then come out afterwards and say, oh, my knee was injured, my back was injured, blah, blah, blah, no one, you immediately, yeah, you immediately get backlash because that's not what you want to hear. Because, again, as you said, I guarantee your opponent you can come out and see the same shit. I was going through a divorce, my kids were getting taken away from me. Everyone's got something.

And no one goes into a fight 100%, whether it's health or personal life. No one goes to them to a fight 100%. That's not totally true. We do go into fights 100% sometimes. Sometimes. Yeah, I kind of, I don't like people saying that. Like no one goes into a fight 100%. Like other than the weight cut, well, sometimes you guys don't even have to cut weight.

Like sometimes you're healthy and you feel great and everything. You're clicking on all eight cylinders or firing on all eight cylinders. Like it happens, you know, but it's you can't expect. it. That's the difference, right? You can't expect that that's going to be, you can expect when you turn on your TV and you watch a UFC fight that both those guys are 100% healthy. The chances that there's some injuries going on are way higher than chances of being healthy. And you know what? The one thing I'll say about Rhonda, and we'll move on from this, I don't want to spend half the show talking about her. But here's the one thing I haven't heard,

Matt. She's talked about Holly Holm, the loss a lot. Concussions. She got hit once. I just did, I wrote a story from that Q&A in Columbus. She got hit in the mouth to start the fight and doesn't remember pretty much anything after that because that, you know what I haven't heard? Man, Holly Holm had a great game plan. Holly Home, man, she really knew how to defend my takedowns. Holly home was ready for my judo.

That head kick, man, I just did not see that coming. She was so ready for my takedowns. And when I turned and she gave me that head kick. Kudos to Holly, man. Congrats, Holly. What a great job. I haven't heard that once. I haven't heard that once.

Yeah, it's pretty silly. last thing I'll kind of say on is so we've talked about I'm going to do my own podcast at some point right and one of the things we're going to do is kind of break down my old fights the wins and the losses and I may go through some of the

well I'm going to go through you know what injuries I did have and what I was going through during my life at that time give everybody an inside scoot so I got to be clear that when we do this that's not going to be me making it excuses either, right? But that's,

but that's my whole point, what I'm talking about, like, you just, you can't go out there. I mean, when someone brings it up and the first thing you talk about is how injured you were or something, like it's,

even if you're trying to make it a reason, it's an excuse. That's all there is to it. Like, I got, I'm not going to say which fight, so it doesn't sound like an excuse, but like,

I got knocked out in a fight in the first round, one time and I fought all three rounds. Like I was seeing double, the room was spinning, and I fought all three rounds. So it's like, and I'm not, you know, anything special. I mean, I don't know, some people I guess might say I am, but like the point is it happens to a lot of people. Like I fought people and talked to them after it. And they said, dude, like, yeah, you knock me out at the beginning.

And I don't know what happened the rest of the fight. I mean, this is not like some profound thing that happened to her. Like, I remember when she went on the Ellen DeGeneres show and was like after she said, I think it was on Ellen. And she said, after my loss, I was having suicidal thoughts. And, you know, the whole crowd and everybody in the world was like, oh, my God, what's Rhonda going through? And it's like, bro, every fighter has that. Every, like, I guarantee 99% of fighters when they lose,

especially a big fight, but even like smaller fights, you feel completely worthless. And you're like, dude, fuck my life. What am I doing? Like, I just spent the fucking last however many years and sacrificed all this shit, and I still suck. What the fuck am I doing? Why am I on this earth?

Get me out of here. Very common. Yeah. And, like, like the point is, you know she puts it out there because she's got such a big voice and everyone hears it and reads what she says and thinks it's something special i was like this is everyday fighter shit like you're just not a fighter yeah it's uh if they interviewed i guarantee if you went on to ellen degenerous after one of your early fights when you lost you probably say the same kind of shit i had a terrible

i felt horrible afterwards it's because at that point they didn't hear that the ellen crowd didn't hear that's like, oh my God, Rhonda, are you okay? Yeah, because everyone goes through it. I'm not saying it's not we shouldn't care. We should absolutely care. That's not serious shit. But when you, like, that's one of the reasons I hold fighters as that's how I. Regardless, you put your life on the line and you put months and years of work into one

fight. And when it doesn't go your way, you don't get to turn around and have another game the next night. You don't get to turn around and have a seven game series. You have one night. And when that one night doesn't go your way, it fucking sucks. And speaking on the media thing, like when you win, you get a hundred calls the next week and everybody wants to interview you. You lose.

You're sitting in your room alone drinking fucking Jack Daniels, you know, eating a pizza and wondering what you're going to do next. And no one's calling you. You know, you close friends and stuff, you know, they say, hey man, sorry or, you know, keep your head up. You know, we still love you, bro, all that shit. And they know it doesn't do anything. But, you know, we always appreciate it. But it's like she didn't go through anything that anyone else hadn't went through. Other than she did it, of course, it happened to her on way, way bigger stage than most,

which is what I think really is what got to her. You know, she wasn't mentally prepared for that type of stage and just didn't handle it. it well and maybe didn't have the right people around her or the right people to talk to you know maybe too much femininity you know like I don't know I've never heard anything about her dad like just her mom giving her advice

I don't know if she even has a dad around her dad her dad passed away when she was a kid I do know that yeah her dad passed away committed suicide when she was a kid so yeah yeah so I think like having a masculine figure around a proper you know masculine figure probably would have helped a lot of that stuff, you know, someone to maybe, you know, have a little bit of stability and, you know, cry on his shoulder or something. You know what I mean?

Rather than crying to the whole world. Yeah, I don't know. Like I said, I just, this whole tour that's been going on, like I feel like if she was, there, you're absolutely right. There is a way that she could have come out and said all the right things now. And she would be welcome back with open arms. We'd say, great, Rhonda. Thank you for finally addressing all this.

and, you know, saying everything you said, welcome back, go to event, let's have you back, let's see you out there. But everything she's doing right now, she's only isolating herself further from the people. And I don't think, I think at the end of the day, the reality is she says she's been, you know,

she's been vilified. I don't think she wants anything to do with us. I don't think she wants anything to do with the sport anymore. I really don't. I don't think she wants to go to UFC events. I don't think she wants to go, you know, I mean, I don't think she wants anything to do with us anyway. That's why she's saying, if she really wanted back in,

she could easily do it, but she doesn't want to be here. So I think that's also part of it. And I think she doesn't realize that I think most of the MMA world wants to love her. Like she's a perfect, what would you call it, like role model, not role model, but, you know, a statue type. It's a perfect figure for us all to love and attach to. You know, like she has all of the right qualities. But she pushes us away. and I say, oh, it says, like, I'm not a fighter anymore, right?

I'm looking at a fan. But even me, like, she pushed me away. But, like, you know, I mean, she pushes that away from her. Like, I think every, every fan wants to love her. Am I wrong on that? No, I just, I don't think she, I think she prefers the position she's in than she wants to be loved. I think she wants to be, she wants to have the Ronda Pity.

party and not be welcomed back with open arms and be embraced by the MMA world. I don't know this year ever really wanted to be embraced for the MMA world to be honest. I don't know. Unless it goes back to, she's kind of things she might be kind of living in the past where before she got knocked out

she was loved and adored and everybody thought she was the greatest thing ever. She's talking about she could beat Kane Velasquez and Floyd Mayweather and shit like this and look, there's people that fucking believed it, right? Like they're like she had so much hype oh excuse me and she wants to get back to that right so she wants to tell

everyone like like hey i had a concussion i'm still that person i just had a concussion on that one it's like no it's that's not working you need a PR person yeah i agree i agree it's just it bums me i think it's honestly the worst part about it is is i i do agree on some level saying that i don't think she gets the credit she deserves now because we do all live in that revision history where like oh ronda was never that good ronda was damn good ronda was really good you don't get to her love without being really good it wasn't like this was ancient history when i say hoist crazy this wasn't 20 years ago this is you know a decade ago and she was that good she's still one of the greatest of all time there's no doubt about that but she's done herself no favors by coming out and

saying all this stuff now because like i said the one thing i haven't heard is well done amanda nunez well done holly home great job you guys really knew how to fought me fight me you really knew the style blah blah i've heard concussion and concussion and concussion and and this and that and this and that. And all, as you said, excuses. I've yet to hear, man, what a great job, Holly Holie home. Man, Amanda, you really have my number that night. Congratulations.

So, you know, it's hard. It's hard to, it's hard to embrace her when she's like doing everything possible to push you away from embracing her. So I'll move on. We've got to move on. I just, it just, that's been in the news and I'm just like, God, Rhonda, just, as you said, hire a PR person. Stop. Just stop. Uh...

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your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. We talked about Dustin Porre before. I'm not going to get too deep in the woods on this one because we talked about this fight pretty in depth a couple weeks ago. Go back and listen to the episode because I asked you, Matt, like your advice on how Dustin should approach

the fight with this on Makachev. And actually, there'll be an article out data this week on MMA fighting with you breaking down like how you think he should fight it, which I thought was really, really good and really, really, really analytical advice. And I really love that second that we did is two weeks ago on the podcast. But now it comes down to prediction time.

And I know Dustin is even, I'll tell you what, Matt, one thing I didn't love, and I know D.C. talked about this. Daniel Cormey talked about this. Dustin said in an interview ahead of the fight, you know, this may be it. When or lose. This may be the last one. And D.C. said, I hate that.

say the truth, Matt, I don't love it either when a guy says that before a fight, like when it's a title fight. It's not like he's, you know, like Jim Miller has said when I retire, I want to say I'm retiring so I can just have that one last hurrah, enjoyed embrace it, and then walk away. This isn't that. He's about to fight for the UFC world title. I don't love it when guys have that like, well, maybe this is it mentality. Maybe I'm right. You tell me, am I wrong into overthinking that? I think it could go both ways, to be honest, because he could be embracing it as his last one. And look, I'm leaving it all out there this time.

But Dustin kind of does that every time anyway. Yeah, it's true. I'm not sure that's going to be the, you know, a big differentiator in this fight. But, you know, maybe in training camp or, you know, something like that, he's going to leave a little bit more. Maybe, you know, he's going to take, I don't know, maybe he's going to go run another mile at the end of practice.

you know, that's where I think it could actually potentially be a pro. And I don't think there's as much cons to it as most people do. I mean, I think, you know, once it, see, I've been in enough fights I know. And, you know, I would think Cormier would say the same thing, but apparently not. But, you know, when that bell rings, like, you're not thinking about that you're going to be retiring. you're not thinking about anything except for just the fight itself. So I don't think it really has a bearing,

you know, by time the bell rings. Now, again, leading up to it, it could be a pro or it could be a con too where maybe he doesn't really think that he's going to win. And it's kind of like, yeah, you know, I'm just going to go ahead and set myself up for the retirement now.

And, you know, and if I win, you know, it's probably going to be luck or something. You know what I mean? Yeah. But the, I don't, I don't think it's as bad of a thing as most people I think would. I felt that way before. I'll say this too.

You said it before and you're true. At this stage in Dustin's clearly, he's kind of said this a lot before his recent fights. And I think he knows he's in his getting to his late 30s. He knows he's probably on the tail end of his career. I think he, I mean, I think we all probably acknowledge that most guys that their late 30s are probably at the tail into their careers.

And when you go through a fucking hard, I've been around Dustin during his training camps when I went down to American Top Team. I know how fucking hard he works and you put your body and your mind through hell getting ready for a big fight. I was down there before he fought Eddie Alvarez and he was grueling and sparring

and just putting in fucking hours upon hours a day and you feel beaten up and broken down and all these kinds of things to get yourself ready and I'm sure at some point during that cave you're like fuck this why am I doing all this? And then you go in the fight and you have a great fight and even after he lost the Justin Gagey,

and said maybe I won't fight again. I think it's just a normal emotion. motions. Like, you know, you go through all that. And then, you know, he fought Pigechi. I might not come back. And then three months later, Benoit Saint-Din, let's fucking go. And he goes out and does does the pourier shit again. So, you're probably right. Like, this is, I think this is just Dustin's process. You know, I think that's kind of like his process of getting ready and coming out of a fight, win, lose, or draw. That being said, I love Dustin. And you know, I love Dustin, one of my favorite guys in the sport, one of the truly good people in this sport. But I'd be remiss if I

didn't say that I still think this is just stylistically a bad matchup for him. I think Islam is just a monster right now. I think his striking has come a long way. Now, you know, could that play into Porre's favor a little bit if Islam decides like, hey, my striking's got a lot better. Let me throw down with Dustopori on the feet. Maybe.

But I think Islam's smart enough to know where he's better and where he's better is on the ground. And he has a blueprint to beat Dustin on the ground. We've seen it. Michael Chandler brought this up to me. He said, you know, Dustin concedes the takedown a lot. You know, either goes to the guillotine or he just kind of, you know, he's kind of, he doesn't have the greatest take down defense. And that's just the worst thing you can do against the Dagestani Mahler like Islam.

So I love Dustin, man. I think we all love Dustin. But I just, man, I think he's just, he's like the number two guy. And he keeps running these fucking Russians. And they're just not going anywhere. That's exactly right. Yeah. Like you said, we all love Dustin Poirier.

I hope that he keeps fighting. after this, you know, but if it makes them happy, right? Like, you know, I want him to live a good, happy life. And if that's what makes him happy, I hope he keeps doing it. I can tell you from my own personal experience, my best fights, I felt like retiring, you know, like three, four weeks out of the fight. I'll say, dude, there's no fucking way I can do this again, right? When you're working that hard and it's that focused and, and, you know,

basically for me, there was always, I bet a lot of fighters go through this. where there's like a wave through training camp, right? Where at first you get real excited and you kind of push a little too hard. Okay, then you calm down a little bit. You might have to take a week off. I would get sick a lot of times because I push so hard those first couple weeks at camp as soon as you sign the fight. And then things, you know, you start settling in, slowing down a little bit.

Okay, say, okay, you know, we still got a long way to go. You know, this isn't next week or anything. And then you start getting a. that grind and then you start getting you know four or five six weeks out and then you start it's okay now it's starting to be crunch time we got to pick it back up so you start picking it back up but now you're you know five six weeks deep and now you got to pick it back up and you're like okay I'm not fucking doing this shit again you know like I already picked it up and came down like I'm fucking over this shit but then you start bringing it down properly for the fight right tapering down

and then things start feeling good again, right? You start getting your energy back a little bit. You start visualizing the fight a lot more. And then, you know, hopefully you did all that stuff right and you get in the fight and you feel great. But it's very, very common I've seen from a lot of guys in that like six to three week range. Everybody's like, dude, I'm not fucking doing this shit no more.

This is too much. So, you know, there's nothing wrong with Dustin Phil in that way. But I get the feeling that it's probably a little deeper in his brain being that, you know, he's probably not getting another title shot if he doesn't win this fight. And to me, I think that's probably got more to do with it. Whereas if he wins the fight, I think he knows he's probably in an uphill battle to win this fight also. Yeah. So are you going Islam?

I think, I mean, it's hard for it to make sense to not go for Islam, you know, just on paper, right? I mean, there's not really anything on paper that's saying, okay, Dustin's going to win this fight. Like, they're he fought, and Islam took care of him pretty easily, and Islam's been on a role. And I said, Dustin's on a one-fight win streak. There's nothing on paper to say that Dustin's going to win this fight. But it's Dustin Porriere. So picking him doesn't make sense. And winning does make sense.

How fucking hilarious. Well, I want to say hilarious. How crazy it would be if he guillotined fucking Islam? He'd be fucking amazing. Wouldn't that be like the most poetic ending ever if he guillotined? Islam to win the title? Oh, man. I just, dude, I think Islam is the real deal.

I think Islam's a monster. I think, I think Arm and Sauru Kian will be a very interesting rematch. I think that's a really interesting fight if that happens next. But, yeah, I just, I don't. it's like John Jones. Like I just, I matter how many like, oh, he does this well,

he does this well or he does this well or he does this good, this, whatever, I still can't pick against John Jones. And that's kind of how I'm with Islam. It's like, yeah, Dustin's got this,

he's got that, but it's Islam. So until I see something that tells me Islam's starting to slip or, you know, is reaction time slower or some shit like that, I just don't have any reason to pick against him. I just don't.

Yeah. And really, it's got to be a Sarukian type of guy that's going to take him down. right? Like it's going to, you got to be able to handle those wrestling. Yeah. And that means you better have wrestled for a long time. You know, and you better be a strong son of a bitch.

Like, like you got to have a lot of qualities to make that happen. You know, on paper, Dustin doesn't have those qualities, right? I guess it's just all there's to it. No disrespect to Dustin. That we all love him to death. I wouldn't pick myself to beat him. I don't have those qualities. So.

Yeah. Um, Paulo Costa, Sean Strickland, the co-main event. This is really interesting because Sean coming back, you know, from, you know, from the title loss and obviously we know how good he is. Paulo, you know, coming off to the battle with Robert Whitaker, had a good start and then kind of faded a little bit later. Yelina one way or the other in this one, Matt, because this is interesting. It's also three rounds, which I think actually favors Paulo more than it does, Sean. Yeah, I agree with you on that, man. I think this is a really tough one to call, but I lean towards Sean just because,

I mean, he's done a lot of really great things, you know, beating Izzy. You know, DDP was a tough matchup, but, you know, he did a lot of good things in that fight, right? It was a close fight. You know, Sean surprises everybody, man. If he can get his jab going, there's not too many fights that he's not going to win, right? Like, he can make it a boring three-round jab fest to a lot of people. and Costa seems to me like the type of guy that he can do that too. So, yeah, I've got to lean towards Sean personally.

Yeah, I'm with you. I lean Sean as well. And I think he's, I know this sounds weird to say this, getting ready to go into a pay-per-view, but I think he's got to make this a boring fight. Like, he can't engage with Costa. Costa's got those big explosive movements. And, you know, he hurt Whitaker.

You know, he hurt, you know, almost everyone he's fought, with the exception of Israel out of Sanya, He's hurt at some point with those big explosive moves. Now, the difference is can he follow up and get to finish? Sean's just got to avoid that. If he can avoid that, stick a jab in his face for 15 minutes, I think Sean wins his fight. He just can't fuck around.

He can't go out there and just decide at some point for 30 seconds. I'm going to bite down my mouthpiece and throw down Apollo Costa. And Sean doesn't strike me as that kind of guy. Sean seems pretty analytical in the way he goes in there and fights and doesn't get stupid and doesn't fight outside himself unless he's taken on some random YouTuber who's dumb enough to step into a cage of professional fighter and say, hey man, I want to throw it down with you. That's a bad idea.

But Sean Strickland's a smart guy. And yeah, as long as he keeps this a Sean Strickland fight, and I know that sounds like I'm insulting him, not. Keep it boring. Keep it basic. Keep it simple. And you'll go out there and probably bust up his face a little bit, out jab him 100 to 10 by the end of the fight.

And you win a 3027 decision. Like, I think that's how he should win this fight. Yeah. And the tough thing with Costa is he's just kind of, what we said, a little bit inconsistent. I feel like sometimes we see a version of him that you're like, dude, this guy's going to be unstoppable. And then it seems like the next fight, he's just kind of in there just to be in there, you know. You know, still do some explosive movement stuff, but, you know, it's like his head's not really into it. So I think that's why it makes it a hard fight to call.

because honestly, I think Costa at his best and hungriest if he's in his prime and he trained properly. If all the pieces are aligned for him, I think he goes out and wins his fight. But if he allows it to be a standard Strickland fight, which is probably more likely going to happen, you know, it's going to be a long night for him. His face busted up from a lot of jabs. I think Costa's got to take chances. And not that he doesn't take chances. of his thing is taking chances, but I think he can't go in there and let, you let Strickland dictate the pace, you're going to eat 100 jabs by the end of the third round.

You're going to sit there and just get pop-shotted all night. He's got to take time. Maybe go for a takedown. Maybe, you know, do something surprising, throw a fucking spinning wheel kick, something. Just go out there and throw something that Sean doesn't see coming. And I think maybe that's how you win this fight. But again, I think if I had to put money on it, I got to leave Sean Strickland. It's just, you know, there's guys.

Sean Strickland, like I said, I don't think he's the best guy in the world, but he's a frustrating motherfucker to fight. And if you don't take him out of his game, he's going to be... I mean, you could argue, like I said, the DDP fight was razor close. If not for a couple moments there, I think he could have easily won that fight. And I think a lot of it came down to the thing you hate so much, which is the quote-unquote damage. He had cuts on his face and shit, and people are like, oh, he got really damaged. But, yeah, like you just can't let, you can't let Sean do that.

And even, like I said, even when you beat him generally outside of Alex Pereira, you're not doing it in an exciting way. That's just how Sean Strickland fights. Right, yeah. So is Sean the favorite in this fight? I think he is favorite. I don't think it's a big, I don't think it's a huge odds, but I think he is favorite to win, yeah.

Yeah, that would make sense. And, you know, it's one of those that we pretty much, again, I think if Costa can come in really on his game, I think he's got a good shot. But, you know, because Strickland, the one thing about him, the difference here is like he is. is consistent. We know what you're going to get every single Strickland fight for the most part. Right? I hope that's doing some little things here and there, but you know what you're going to get.

Costa, not so much. I mean, you know, and that's, I think, what about the, if we get the standard Costa, you know, I think it's a pretty cruise night for, for Sean Strickland. But I think Costa has the, the, the skills and the ability to go in. And, you know, he needs to, make us a dog fight. He needs to push and he needs to, you know, use those explosions to set things up and, you know, maybe go for some takedowns here and there. And, you know, I think if he plays his cards right, this is a very winnable fight for him. Yeah, remember what he had that fight with Yol Romero when, because we all know Yol is kind of like the guy who likes to sit back and wait and then kind of explode in those moments and has really odd fights where he's losing, losing, losing, he just comes out of fucking nowhere and blast him with a flying knee.

Costa just came right after and said, fuck it. Like, I'm just going to come after you. and we're just going to throw down. It ended up being an incredible fight. And it was a very close fight, but he's just like, I'm just going to throw it. Like, we're just going to go. I'm going to make you fight me. He ended up winning that fight.

He's got to do that to Strickland. He can't go in there and fucking try to, he can't go in there and fight strictly. He's got to brawl with Strickland. He's got to go in there and just try to overwhelm Strickland, do what Pereira did. We just fucking come after him throwing bombs and do not let him just stick his jab in a straight for 15 minutes.

Otherwise, you're going to walk out of the busted nose and half your paycheck. Well, it could definitely end up being a real fucking war, too. definitely watching. Also, I got to mention my boy Mickey Gall was going to be fighting on this card, so I'm pretty excited to see that. I don't know anything about his opponent. Never even heard the guy's name. That's the kid.

That's the kid. I was saying, you do know that kid, actually. That's the kid that stepped in. Remember when your guy was going to fight Jack Della Madalena and he got pulled out of the fight? That's the guy who ended up fighting JDM and actually went to a pretty close decision with him, wrestled him for about 15 minutes. Basil Hafez is his name.

That's the guy who replaced. is Josiah in that Jack Delah Madelana fight. Had that one fight. He hasn't fought since then. Okay. Yeah. So he came in on very, very short notice. Yeah. Yeah. So. Interesting.

Only UFC fights that one fight. Yeah. Okay. And where's he from? You know, I interviewed him before that fight, and I can't remember where he's from. He comes from a wrestling background. I cannot is, I want to say, maybe he's a Kilcliffe. I can't remember. Maybe I'm making that up. Maybe I'm just totally making that up.

Mickey's down at Kill Cliff. But I mean, is he from like Brave FC maybe? Where is he from? Hold on. I'm not to look it up here. I can't remember. Let's see. The whole Google thing right there. Yeah, I know.

I'm like, why am I just not looking at? I interviewed him before his one fight in the O.C. But that was the only time I talked to him. Let's see here. Where is he from? I know. Where's Jamie out? Where's Jamie out here?

Let's see. Mickey Galleries. Basiloph has. before he was in UFC he fought in Fury FC is where his last couple of fights were and he also fought in CFFC out in Jersey so he's from that area and yeah he fights out of Pennsylvania that's where he fights out of so yeah so that's where he fights out of and I do see if it was for some reason no no yeah no he I'm trying to think like where he where does he train out here he trains uh well he was training with uh with your boy Neil Meadow I see him doing post-to-potes of Neil Magny out there. So, yeah, it looks like he was training with those guys out in Colorado. Okay. Yeah.

So, yeah, he was out in Colorado. It'd be an interesting fight. I mean, it's, you know, certainly not one of the premier fights on the card, but, you know, I've had inside word, Mickey's looking really, really good, the best, you know, I know that he's healthy, recovered from a lot of injuries. So I'm pretty excited to see how he does, you know, being all recovered and having a good training camp. I love Mickey. Mickey's one of the coolest guys.

Like, I met him when he first got in the UFC around the whole C& Punk thing. And super good dude, really nice guy. We actually texted last week. I was going to try to get him before the fight and just, we didn't end up connecting before the fight. But yeah, I'm looking forward to him coming back. This is a good fight. Tough fight. He's been out for a little while.

So I'm with you, man. I'm looking forward to that one as well. It's a pretty good card. I mean, it's top heavy. The two top fights are definitely the big fights. But there's some pretty decent fights on this card. I mean, you know, there's a, we got, let's see, 302. We got Kevin Holland against Mikhail Olisejuk.

He's going back up to middleweight for that one. That's an interesting one. Jelton Almeida against Alexander Romanov. That's interesting. We got Randy Brown against Elyzio Zoleski de Santos. That's a pretty interesting fight. Roman Coppilov against Caesar Almeida is really interesting because Caesar Almeida is that kid who's from kickboxing. And Roman Coppulov is obviously a kickboxer, too.

That's interesting. Grant Dawson against Joe Selecki. that's a pretty decent fight. Phil Roe against Jake Matthews, that's a pretty fun fight. Nico Price against Alex Marono, that's a pretty fun fight. So, yeah, not bad.

It's not bad. And then obviously Mickey and Basil Hophas, Jocelyn Edwards, and Aileen Perez, and then Andre Lima, that kid who got bit in his UFC debut, he's taking on Mitch Raposo.

So, yeah, it's not a bad card. Yeah, not a huge name card, but those are some really, really good matchups. Like Sean Shelby did it, and McManor did a good job on this one. Yeah, I like this card a lot, actually. It's a sneaky good card. It's not going to be as headline worthy as some cards, but this is pretty good.

And obviously, I mean, I think, I think Islam's one of those guys. Islam and Dustin are two pretty big names. You don't really need a lot of supporting cast around them. So you kind of sell the card based on those two guys alone. But yeah, it's a pretty solid card. Yeah, and then what we got coming up in the next upcoming weeks. So we got next week is UFC Louisville. That's the one with Jared Canaanier and Nassardine Imavall, which is a really,

really fun fighting and Dominic Reyes coming to back. What's that? To the fight. What's that? Are you going to go to the fight? I am not. I am not. I am not going to that card.

I went to the UFC Louisville card before, but I'm not going to this one. But yeah, it's cool arena. KFC Yom Arena. It's a pretty funny name for an arena. But yeah, that one. And then Dustin Jacoby against Dominic Reyes, which I think is interesting. What Dominic Reyes are we going to get? And we know Dustin Jacob can bang.

So that's a really interesting fight. And then after this. That, I believe, I'm not mistaken. Hold on, let me look and make sure I'm right about this card. I think the next one after that is Alex Perez against, oh, God, why am I forgetting that? Tassirah Tira, that's June 15th. And then June 22nd is the card in Saudi Arabia,

and that's going to be Robert Whitaker against Hamzaa Chayev, and that's a fucking fight. There we go, that's a fight. I thought Connor and Chandler was in June. That's the last week in June. Last week of June, UFC 303. And also,

I don't know if I'm sure you saw the announcement. Ian Machado Gary against Michael Venom Page got added to that car too. That's a really, really good fight. I'm really stoked to see that. Yeah, that's a good one. And then obviously you got Carlos Oldberg

getting a step up in competition, taking on the former champ, Jamal Hill. That's a fucking fun fight. Oh, I didn't hear about that. All right. Yeah, so it's pretty good. Usually, usually they don't,

really put a lot on the Connor cards and they're like Connor can just you know it's Connor we just put fucking anybody on there but that's two pretty good fights on a Connor card man Iamachado Gary Michael Vin and Paige Angel Malhill and Carlos Oldberg that's a fucking banger and is that in Vegas yeah that's T-Mobile yep

all right cool well we got some good fights to be talking about in the next few weeks in some good breakdown dude June June's gonna be a good month I'm excited about June so yeah we got a lot coming up so UFC 302 this weekend make sure you check out all the coverage over on m-m-a-fiting and obviously a big thank you.

As always, everyone that tunes into the show. Matt, if people want to check you out what you got going on because even though you're quote unquote retired from fighting, you're not retired from working. Well, I'm the immortal social media on Twitter and Instagram, The Immortal Matt Brown on Facebook. And last thing I'll mention before we get up here is the next two weeks.

I, well, okay, at least the next week, maybe next two weeks. I am going to be out because I, will be on a bear hunting trip in Canada. That's a new one. I forgot it was even happening. I seen it on my calendar the other day. We planned it like six, seven months ago, and I forgot about it.

So I'm going up there with the guy named Buckingney he's a big YouTuber hunting channel or been on like outdoor TV, whatever, and I'm going to be his guest for the week and we're going to go find some bears. That should be interesting. Well, don't get mauled. you're up there don't get you know fucking mall by bear

that would not be gonna have a gun so hey that may not save you that's fucking bear you know you never know you never know I think well I'm I'm trusted in the dude right I'm not experienced hunter I love hunting I'm not experienced hunter I got a trust old dude to take care of me I saw that grizzly man documentary dude I'm not fucking with bears I'm not going anywhere near bears well

I hopefully I don't have to go very close to well we will welcome you back when you when you return maybe you'll be wearing like the the fucking bear outfit like the head on your come back full on like fucking you know Forest Ranger Matt come back with the you'll come back blood on your face and fucking bear the bear

the bear mange on your head and shit like that so I think it fits out pretty good you hang out of you guys in Canada and shit so it'll be good I'm down bro let's go Brock all right folks well that's our episode of this week we'll be next week with another addition to the fighter versus the writer. Make sure you check us out on all your favorite podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and of course over on the best website in the world,

mhmafiting.com. For Matt Brown, I am Damon, Martin. We'll see you guys next week for another edition of the show. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you then.