MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Pearl Gonzalez Talks MMA Fighters Crossing Over to Boxing, Equality in Combat Sports, Anderson Silva vs. Tito Ortiz

Episode Date: September 7, 2021

BKFC fighter Pearl Gonzalez joins the podcast this week to give her thoughts on the recent trend of MMA fighters crossing over to boxing, equality in combat sports when it comes to MMA vs. boxing, and breaking down the upcoming Triller card featuring Anderson Silva vs. Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort vs. Evander Holyfield. Follow Pearl Gonzalez @PearlGonzalez Follow Damon Martin @DamonMartin Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And this week, I am joined by UFC Veteran, InvictiFC veteran, and BKFC superstar, Pearl Gonzalez. Pearl, welcome in. How are you? Hello, I'm amazing. How are you? I'm fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time. Obviously, with the podcast, we're talking to fighters from all over the podcast.

place and we're going to be talking a lot of boxing stuff this week. Obviously, we got Vitor Belfort fighting Evander Holyfield. We got Tito Ortiz fighting Anderson Silva. And last time we spoke, of course, coming up for your big win and your BKFC debut, you actually told me you were thinking about crossing over into boxing as well. Yes, yes, absolutely. I think that right now boxing is so hot, you know, overall, it's just a really, it's really popular.

It's, I mean, it always has been. But I think crossovers is a better way to. put that crossovers right now and these super fights are just so popular right now. And I'm having a blast. I would absolutely love to at some point have a pro boxing fight. Obviously, all I train now is boxing for a bare knuckles. So I'd like to test myself professionally as a boxer. And I'm sure many others feel the same way.

Yeah. We're seeing it so much now. Let's just get into it right now and talk about this because we've seen it so much lately. We just saw Tyron Woodley cross over and fight Jake Paul. I was at that event. It was so much fun. It was a blast. It was just awesome to be there.

The crowd was great. I said it before the youngest audience I can ever remember seeing it a boxing show. It was just a lot of fun. Obviously, we've got, you know, Vitor Belfort about to make his boxing return. Actually, he had a fight years ago, but I'm kind of saying his return this weekend for Evander Holyfield. We got Tito Ortiz, fighting Anderson Silva. Anderson, of course, had an incredible performance early this summer.

And I think it's, I don't know. know, it's weird, like, all of a sudden this is happening all the time. And I'm kind of, I don't know, I'm not sure if it's, like, there's a, there's an interest, obviously, there's an interest in doing it. And I think a lot of fighters have that interest, just like fighters who are wrestlers, they want to win Olympic gold in wrestling, and they want to win gold in MMA. They also, you know, they're people who are interested in boxing, who loved the challenge of doing it. I remember Chris Lytle did it years ago. He went over and crossed over and did boxing and had fun with it. But we're seeing it so much more lately. And obviously, there's a money factor. We can't deny there's going to be money made in some. of these big fights, but it's also a lot of people are just interested in doing it. I don't know. What do you think, bro? Like, why are we seeing so many mixed martial artists suddenly? Is it just the opportunities there? Like, what is it? I believe it's the opportunities that are there. I think that right now, especially after going through the pandemic and having kind of a halt to everything, you know, I think us as competitors, me as a competitor personally, I can speak from. I need competition. I want competition.

and if there's an opportunity to present itself in another area of my sport, which has predominantly been MMA, you know, I can work on my striking and my stand-up and the opportunity presented itself here with bare knuckle. And so I moved into boxing. And I think that there are fighters, too, that may not be able to grapple, that may not be able to do MMA or just would like a change, a change-up and to test their skills in another way. And that's the beauty of our sport at MMA is there's so many arts. There's so many pieces to the puzzle that you need to get inside of there and compete in MMA. And so, you know, taking a portion of that, taking one piece to the puzzle and working and focusing on that, I think, is what to me sounds like is intriguing about it. I could see celebrities, you know, just who are also athletes, I'm sure, and competitive in their own nature, can want to test themselves in something like boxing. And it is a lot safer in boxing than it is in, let's say, MMA.

You don't have to learn the grappling and the balance and everything else that comes into it. You can focus on one skill. And so I think that that is why we're seeing more and more of these fights. It's funny you say that because what I'm about to say is going to piss off every boxing purist on the planet right now. And I don't mean this offensively to boxers, but the reality is a mixed martial artist, who has all the skills, striking, grappling, wrestling, all that, it's easier for them. And when I say easier, I don't mean it's easy.

I'm saying it's easier for them to go cross over into boxing because you're already boxing. Now, obviously, it's a different thing. I'm not saying that, you know, Tyron Woodley's going over and boxing Canelo Alvarez. That would be such an incredible mismatch, you know, and Canella is one of the best. What I'm saying, going over just like boxing Jake Paul or going over in boxing, you know, what we're seeing with some of these other matchups, you know, V-Tor. at his age, he's boxing in Vanderholyfield. He was going to box Oscar de La Jolla.

He's not boxing Tyson Fury. But I think it's easier for a mixed martial artist to say, you know what, I'm going to take out all these other things. I'm going to stop doing the grappling. I'm going to stop doing the wrestling. I'm just going to focus on boxing because boxing is something every mixed martial artist does anyways. Maybe not to the level of, you know, fighting professionally,

but they're doing it anyways. It's easier to cross over and do that. And there's a reason why you're not seeing the reverse. you don't see boxers, you don't see Canelo saying, you know what? I feel like going over and fighting into UFC because I really feel like getting choked out next week. That's just, it's just not going to happen. It doesn't happen that way because there's so much more to learn. It's so much harder to transition than MMA from any other sport.

I mean, you can say wrestlers have the greatest base, and I believe wrestlers typically have the best base for mixed martial arts. But there's no guarantee to success. Ed Ruth, who is a phenomenal college wrestler, you know, he came over, he's had several losses in Bellatory. He's great fighters still, but like he didn't immediately just win championships. You have to grow and develop and learn. And I think transitioning to boxing is easier than the other way around. I think that's why you see a lot of MMA fighters at least testing the waters.

And again, they're not taking on the best of the world. But am I wrong? Like, I feel like, I know boxing people are going to lose their minds to be saying it's easier. I'm not saying championship level, but I'm saying it's easier for a mixed martial artist to say, I'm going to just throw my hands for eight rounds. then anybody's saying, you know what, I'm going to cross over to MMA because we know you can't just do that. We know you can't. Absolutely.

I think that, you know, and you're right. The word easy may not be the right word because boxing there is in detail. And as for me and from personal experiences, I am learning and growing and boxing. There is, there's just so many tiny pieces and tiny little details that as a mixed martial artist, you don't have that luxury to learn and to home. And yes, that is what defines, you know, the champions and versus the regular boxers is them mastering these pieces to, you know, all the pieces that go to that puzzle. But I do think, for instance, grappling, and grappling, you know, people are pulling on your limbs in opposite directions. They're choking you out. They're trying to literally snap your joint in half.

And for me, as, you know, competing and grappling and being, you know, kind of favoring my. my grappling all of these years to now just focusing on boxing, there's a big difference there. There's not that it's not as, there's not as much contact, physical contact in boxing as there is in grappling, as there is in MMA, which, you know, has all of these pieces. And I think that that makes a big difference. I think that you see more injuries in wrestling. You need more balance. You need, you know, to be able to physically take your body and move someone else's body and use

their energy to take them the way that you want to take them and manipulate their limbs in this way, you know, compared to throwing your strikes and figuring out your range, but never quite getting to that point is very different. I wouldn't say it's easier because there are so many pieces and details into the puzzle that you can spend a lifetime learning and boxing and mastering. But to me, I feel like the physical part of it is much easier on the body than wrestling. then grappling, then MMA. Yeah. Now, let me shift gears real quick, Perl. And let's talk about a subject that is a bit taboo with some people

when you talk about women in combat sports. And I've said this time and time again with women in mixed martial arts. You know, we're so far removed from the days when Dana White said, a woman will never compete in the Octagon. Because now women are some of the biggest stars in mixed martial arts. When you look at, you know, when you look at, you know, the way we talk about somebody like an Amanda Nunes, who is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in a sport,

regardless of gender. When you think about Ronda Rousey and her prime, she was right there with Connor McGregor in terms of star power and appeal and all those kind of things. So we're so far removed from that. But again, I was at Jake Paul, Tyron Woodley,

and your teammate, your training part, your teammate, Amanda Serrano was the co-main event. Fantastic fight. Fantastic performance. Everyone, of course, believes she's one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.

But, like, I don't follow boxing as much as I follow mixed martial arts. But when they did two-minute rounds, I was like, what is this junk? Like, what is this two-minute round crap? And then I've seen it, like, it's kind of the reverse what we were just talking about with mixed martial artists going into boxing.

We've seen Clarissa Shields, one of the best boxers on the planet, two-time gold medalists, all these great things she's done. You know, she's transitioning in the MMA, for one, to test herself. But I've talked to her, and she said women's boxers don't get the respect we deserve. We don't get the promotion. We don't get the pay-per-view slots. We don't get the push behind us that the men do. And so she's coming into MMA because,

MMA is really kind of like the equality thing is not as far apart in MMA as it is in so many other sports. It's kind of crazy to me that is like so, so different in boxing versus mixed martial arts in terms of how far women can go

and how women are treated in the two sports. Yes, I think, you know, I think, I don't know, I could be crazy for thinking this, but if you look at the uniform of a female MMA fighter and you see what they're wearing it's typically shorts sports bra you know the shorts are tight think about the grappling the positions we're in like appeal wise you know visually appealing personally i believe that mma female athletes are more appealing to the eye than than a female boxer it's not as again the wrestling

and the grappling it's not as intimate physically as it would be an m m ms and i do think one that plays a piece to the puzzle but also you know has boxing really got behind or believed that a woman could have that star power. Has a woman demanded it? I mean, you know, when Rhonda Rousey came through the door, she wasn't asking for her for her spot. She wasn't asking to be in the O.C. She demanded that. She came in and she broke doors down and broke barriers, you know, she wasn't. And I don't know, has a woman yet kind of come onto the, into the boxing side to hone that and do that and break down all doors. And my teammate Amanda, she is to me the greatest of all time. She's such a hard worker. She's so talented. She's

a beast, you know. And to see, to see, she got more exposure in this fight than I think I feel she has in her career. It was amazing to watch that. And she shined. She shined so bright in that light. So I think that it's, it's coming. I think that MMA,

thankfully MMA got on board and they are 100% behind women. We headlined their cards now. You know, they're big supporters of female MMA. And because of that, I think that they, that the UFC is the leader in combat sports. They are the leader in all sports to me personally.

But, you know, so they're leading that. And hopefully boxing will, you know, soon follow and, you know, put the women where they, where they deserve to be. Yeah. It's kind of, it kind of, it just bugs me because, like, I see how talented a fighter like Amanda is or you look at, you know, Clarissa Shields. And it just bugs me because I feel like, you know, if you promote them in the right way and you put them out there in the right way, people,

will follow them. Boxing has a real issue with this, and I brought this up numerous times, and I know people are going to get mad at me for repeating something I said on last week's podcast. I know you weren't there, Pearl, but I said, you know, if you put 100 people in a room and put up, you know, 10 pictures and said, pick out Vasolomachinko, 908 of them would say,

I have no idea who that is. I have no idea which guy and Vasolomachinko is one of the best boxers on the planet. Boxing has a problem with promotion in general, but it's also woefully behind the times and learn it in, and, in, and how they promote the women. Because, again, mixed martial arts, it really is equal. I mean, women, you know, you don't hear about, like, I mean, obviously star power and appeal will somewhat beyond championships even determine your pay.

We got to be honest about that. You could argue all day your organization, BKFC, you know, Paige Van Zant is 0 and 2 in BKFC. But we know she's getting paid in arm and a leg. And listen, rightfully so. She brings the eyeballs. People paid, people are paying attention to her because she's built an audience. and people are paying attention to pagevansant. Good for her.

I'm never going to begrudge anyone making that kind of money. But that's the point. She brings an audience. I don't feel like boxing has done a good enough job. I mean, it's just crazy. Like Amanda Serrano is like seeing her like talk about how amazing it was to get that spotlight on the Jake Paul card. Jake Paul's a star and good for him. And kudos to Jake for like putting shine on her.

I loved seeing that. That was awesome. And talking about making sure she got paid and all these kind of things. But it kind of irritated me that where she's at in the spot. sport. She's done all these amazing things, won all these titles, one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. And there were people who were just seeing her fight for the first time on a Jake Paul card. That's a problem. That's a huge issue. Like, that's a major, major problem in boxing because by the time you get to be outside, let's say, let's take

Ronda out of the equation because she was a bit of an anomaly. But you think about like Misha Tate, she had to fight her way up to strike force, strike force title, UFC, UFC title, like all these building. But you knew she was a bit of an anomaly. But you knew she was a bit of an anomaly. But you think about, she was because you saw her competing on these big cards. Same thing with, you know, Amanda Nunes. And again, go down the line from, you know, Yawanna and Jacek, all the great fighters out of the Rose Domi Yunus, great example. Boxing doesn't do that.

And it kind of bums me out that, like, if I mention Katie Taylor to someone, I guarantee you, I'll be able to who? Who's Katie Taylor? Clarissa Shields has more followers now from her one PFL fight than she did win her boxing. That's so bizarre to me. You know, I think it's the sport. I think it's the sport and and MMA is what's hot. It has been.

They've been working really, really hard to build this sport up to make it the greatest, most popular, their biggest sport in the world. And they're doing it. They really are. They're working really hard when COVID was shut down. You know, everything was shut down. The UFC was the only sport going for a while there.

I mean, that says so much about how much the sport is growing. And the fact that they had a card every weekend, like how huge is that? So in general, the sport is. huge and and like you said like it is 50-50 and hopefully hopefully boxing does see the value in women and does see what what you know the marketing and and the levels that the UFC and MMA are reaching they'll follow suit and they'll they'll jump on board and and you know in the sense bring boxing and make it popular and big and one of the best and greatest sports there is out there again yeah you've done obviously you've done analyst work on your own podcast and doing

and things like that, Pearl, but we see it, you know, I say it all the time, but, you know, I'm a journalist from the outside looking in a lot of times, and I talk to fighters, you know, every day, but again, there's things the fighters are going to know, which is part of the point of this podcast, the fighter versus the writer, you're going to know more than the average writer in terms of what fighting goes, but I always like to bring up the equality point with mixed martial arts, how, you know, this is the one sport where it really does feel like it's equal, you know, you see all the time. There was this big controversy like a year ago with the women's American women's soccer team.

You know, they weren't getting paid nearly as much as the men's team. We see it with WNBA. You see it a lot of sports. Now, I understand part of that is driven by interest. If you don't bring in the viewers, they're not going to be able to justify paying someone $10 million a year if you're getting, you know, $200,000 of people to watch your show. I get it.

I understand all that. But there's a lot of other things when you think about, like, accomplishments, you look at, like, women's tennis. I think women's tennis and mixed martial arts are pretty much the only sports where it truly is equal. There is no gender gap in terms of, like, the way women are treated. And I'm bringing this up to you because you've seen it. Obviously, you've been in it, you know it.

Am I wrong in, am I wrong in arguing that point? The UFC and mixed martial arts in general, when you look at Bellator, you look at, you know, Chris Seiberg over there, you look at PFL, Kayla Harrison is the face of the PFL. I mean, anyone that tells you how different is lying to you. Is UFC, is mixed martial arts, I see you keep saying UFC, Is mixed martial arts the model for equality in sports? I believe so.

I think it's definitely at the top of the list. The fact that we headline cards regularly, the fact that we have the opportunity to make just as much money to have just as many endorsements, get just as much coverage as the men do, yeah, I believe that we are the leader in that. And I think that's one of the reasons why we are the most popular in one of the greatest sports to date.

you know, in the world. Yeah. And it's the same thing I mentioned, obviously, your organization, BKFC. Like, I talked to Dave Feldman, the president over there a few days ago, and we were talking about all the different fights they're working on. And the one thing I couldn't wait to talk to him about was the women's tournament to crown the new 125-pound champion because I feel like the women in BKFC have really become the true stars.

When you think about yourself and Paige and Britton Hart and now Beck Rawlings coming back and all these different things, like it's crazy to think, like, a few years ago, wasn't bare knuckle boxing. Now barrenuckle boxing is a big deal and women are really the stars. And again, I don't want to take anything away from Tiago Alves or any of the other great fighters over there. But like women have become the stars there. When you look at UFC, you know, I mean, again, I understand Connor is still the biggest star in the UFC, but you look at what Ronda Rousey did. You look at, you know, Misha Tate coming back. You look at, you know, Rose Nami Eunice and Zhang Wei about to fight. That's going to be a big fight. We knew the rival between

Rose and Yowana. That was a big deal. We see it all the time. You know, Holly Holme is obviously a big star. And you look at Bellator. Chris Cyborg is one of their, if not their, biggest star. I mean, you could argue Chris Seaborg is their biggest star. And it goes down the line. And it's just kind of crazy to me, like how mixed martial arts has figured it out,

yet other sports can't. And I understand it's marketing. I understand there's going to be an interest level. But it's just crazy to me how a sport where the president of the UFC went 10 years ago that women will never fight in my octagon or 15 years how long ago it was. We've come from that to now where women are on par with the men. And you can't really say that about any other sport. I say tennis is probably the example because there are a huge number of huge women stars in tennis.

But I can't think of another sport where it's this level of a playing field. Yeah, I agree with you. And, you know, we're evolving. MMA is evolving so much and growing so fast. I keep saying that and it's awesome. It's awesome to see where the sport is going. And obviously, you know, Dana, like, did a great job of evolving really quickly. He saw the value in us and, you know, went full throttle with that, which is incredible for us.

Because here we are today, you know, talking about this. So I agree with you. We are one of the best. And I believe, like, this is just the beginning. Like, who knows where this goes? Yeah, absolutely. Let's bring it full circle before we get out of here. and let's talk about the big boxing matches coming up this weekend.

I say big boxing matches. You know, no titles on the line. You know, no WBA, B, WBC, B, O. I don't know what all the different belts are. All the weird, all the different weird belts. But the big boxing match this weekend, Avander Holyfield at 58, is coming back to Phi Vitor Belfort. And then Tito Ortiz is going to make his debut against Anderson Silva,

arguably one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, and coming off a huge win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. So I want to get your opinion first, Pearl, on these, like, are you excited about these fights? Are you going to tune in to watch these fights? Are you interested in these fights? I mean, absolutely. You know, Anderson, Anderson Silva was one of my,

he's like one of my all-time favorites, all-time greats. You know, when I first got back into the sport, I was 21 years old. It was the very first time the UFC had come to Chicago. and he was like in a store in a sports authority. It's like a, you know, like a sporting good store downtown. And I had just got back into MMA and I had, I was actually at the store like buying gloves or something. And he had came in and I had saw him and I was like, oh my God. I had like his book at this time.

And it was just like the coolest thing. And I asked him for a picture. And he took a picture with me. It was just, it was so cool. It's a memory that I'll never forget. And it was one of my first experiences with like a superstar in the U.S. But, you know, I grew up watching him. I bought his book, his striking book, back in the day, and studied that book for years.

And Vitor Belport, you know, I was really excited for the and Belfort fight, you know, to see Delahoya come back after all of his challenges and to see him persevere and get back into the room. It's huge. This is a cool story. And Vitor is a beast. He's a beast. So, you know, yeah, I'm interested in watching.

I love watching, especially MMA fighters, how they transition into boxing, obviously, because I'm, I have personal, you know, reason to, because I'm doing the same. But it is really cool and unique. Boxing, the stance, the structure, the fight IQ is is so different from MMA. It's still very challenging. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome coming from an. MMA background. And so it's kind of cool to see how they transition into the sport. So I'm super, I'm super stoked. And Holyfield. How can I forget about Holyfield? Holy Daddy. 60 years old. And he's like fighting. How insane is that? But it's so inspiring at the same time and so cool to me to see

that they're still testing themselves in this way. And in a sport that I believe is, you know, these are good fights. These are good matchups. These aren't scary, you know, like one-way fights here. So I'm really excited for them. Now, I'm going to disagree with you a little bit there, Perl, because I do think there is a little bit of, there's a little bit of one-way traffic, and I'm going to say this. Listen, it's a fight. I've been around the sport long enough to understand it's a fight, anything can happen. But I feel like Anderson Silva is probably going to use Tito's head like a, like a, like a beach ball. And I'm sorry. I don't mean that disrespectful to Tito. He's a legend, Hall of Famer. He's not a,

He's, Tito has never once, outside of his knockout over Chuck Liddell when Chuck was, you know, 49 or whatever, no one has ever looked at Tito and said, man, he's got the best hands in the sport. That guy's a boxer. If Anderson doesn't go out there and just dominate this fight, then it's just surely out of Anderson losing interest because I don't see how this isn't just a one-way traffic for Andrew. Am I like, I don't, listen, I love to, I really do mean this. respect Tito so much. Tito, I grew up, like before I was a journalist, I was a Tito fan. I watched Tito. I loved watching Tito. He was the guy who brought the show into the fight. Like, he was the guy who made it an entertaining show. He made it a show outside of the fight. I love that about Tito. Tito's not a boxer, though. Tito is not a striker. He's never been a striker. And literally, unless he just

goes out there and clenches with Anderson and just tries to, like, muscle him around the ring, or Anderson just looks like he has zero interest in being there. I have no, I don't understand how this is not like a completely lopside of fight. Well, I mean, I think that Tito does have, he has the ability to hurt Anderson. He has the ability to sit Anderson down. We've watched Anderson, you know, sit, has, he's been knocked out. He's been dropped several times later on in his career. Now, skill-wise, I agree 100% with you.

Skill levels are completely different. But like you said, it is a fight. And it, you know, Tito can land that one punch. I don't know. I'm, I'm optimistic. You never know. Do I think, do I call Tito winning this? I don't.

But there is that chance. And you're right. Anderson can come out and look like shit, or he can come out and look amazing and be improving. And maybe we see a glimpse of the Anderson. So we used to see the one that was, you know, was so motivated. and, you know, committed to training and fighting

and seeing him in the boxing world, you know, maybe this is a new challenge and kind of a revival for him. Did you watch his fight with Houdio Cesar Chavez, Jr.? I did watch a portion of it, yes. I didn't get to see the full-on, but I got to see the highlights and stuff. He looks incredible. He looks so happy in there. Like, he looked genuinely happy.

And, like, I feel like this is a bit of a career, like, you know, 2.0, which is weird to say he's 46, but like it's a weird 2.0 version for him. But he looks like he's having a blast out there. And I just have a hard time believing he's going to go out there and play it safe against Tito. I think he's going to use Tito as a springboard to, you know, maybe he fights Dela Hoy or maybe he, I just, I don't see him. Like, I don't, I just don't see how, like, maybe it goes to decision purely because Tito ends up having a great chin and he might have some weight on Anderson. But otherwise, like, and listen, I'm going to watch because.

I love Anderson. I've been in a, I'm like you. I grew up. Like, I love Anderson Silva. I'm a huge Anderson Silva guy. So I'll watch. I just, I don't give Tito a lot of, you know, outside of the whole like, anything can happen in a fight outside of that. I don't give, I don't give Tito a great chance in this one. You know, I'm going to, I'm going to go for Anderson in this one as well. I, uh, I love him. He's super skilled. He's got great footwork, his head movement, especially in his last fight, the movement that he had, the head movement, like he had a good rhythm. That's what he's always had great rhythm. But like for boxing, it's it's it's it's and it's and it's great in boxing and he looked great. And like you said, he was happy. It was like a dance.

And that was from what I remember when Anderson was at his best, it was a dance for him in a sense, you know, more than it was an actual fight. It was a dance for him. It was just this incredible way that he moved. No one else could move like him. And I did see glimpses of that in his last fight, you know, in that movement. Tito is very straightforward, stiff, you know, but a heavy hitter. He's been in the sport a long time. We know he's game 100%. And let's see, maybe this is something that can spark him and get him, you know, to want to be, you know, great at something again. I think he's going to get sparked. I don't know if it's going to spark something, but I think he's going to get sparked. With that being said, real quick, let's talk about Vitor and Evander because unlike Tito and Anderson, the line on this one, the betting line has Vitor is the favorite.

And he was favorite over De La Jolla, too, which is a little crazy because Oscar is a legend and Oscar. But Evander's in a different situation. Evander's taking this fight on short notice. Now, I've heard of Vander's training. we've all heard that Evander was trying to set up the boxing match with Mike Tyson, so I think he's in shape. 58, though, taking on short notice. And obviously, Vitor, we've seen, I'm sure you've seen, like, he looks ripped, he looks ready.

I don't know that I can give a prediction on this one, though, because I don't know what, I don't know what we're going to see. I really don't. It's interesting. I think that the, I think that the, the Delahoya and Belfort was a, you know, that was a really, That was a challenging fight on both ends. That was a really good fight. But I do give the edge to Vitor in this.

Not only as a younger, he has been training for Delaware, who is much faster, much, you know, throws many more punches at one time, more combinations, a lot more movement out of Delahoya than Evander. But Evander is a powerhouse. We also just, we haven't seen him in a while, a long while. And so that's what makes. this fight kind of interesting.

He can land that one hit wonder, though. We know that. He can. He's a powerful man. But I definitely think that this is going to be in the favor of Vitor. I agree. I lean towards Vitor, but I also, like, I remember watching the Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr. fight, and I was like, good Lord, what are we going to see? These guys are both, you know, I mean, listen, I mean, there's not, age is the greatest enemy of a fighter. We all know that.

But then you look at Anderson at 46 doing what he's doing. When I saw Tyson out there, I was like, good Lord, you know, Tyson looked awesome. Like, it was amazing. So if Holyfield comes out looking like that, maybe Vitor will have a bad night, but I'm with you. I think Vitor will win. I'm picking Vitor, you know,

just because I think he has some advantages with him already being trained and ready for a fight and all that kind of stuff. But if Vander comes out there looking like Tyson did, it might turn into a bit of a war. I'm kind of excited for the possibility. I agree with that. I, I, he, Vander's a powerful man. He's a powerhouse. He can take a shot. We know that. I mean,

you know, we haven't seen him in a while, and that's what, that's what just kind of worries me a little bit in this fight and makes me hesitant on where this fight goes. But I do know, you know, Vittra looks great, like you said. He looks great right now. He's in great shape. He took his fight very seriously, was training hard for Delaware, was training hard. It was a big fight for him. And, you know, he's a good striker. He's a good boxer for an M.S. A fighter, so I see Vitor, who I thought was the slower fighter in the Delaware fight, being the actual faster, more elusive fighter in this fight. Yeah, all that matters, though, is we're going to tune in.

And that's all Triller cares about. That's all they care about. They want us to tune in. You know what? I'm interested. I can't lie and say I'm not interested to see what's going to happen. They put on a show over there, and it's fun. I can't deny it's not fun.

Pearl, before I let you go, obviously you are always. busy. I talked to Dave Feldman last week. He hinted that you might be making your return in November. And he mentioned maybe Britton Hart as an opponent. So I'm not going to nail you down on anything here. But are you excited to make your return in BKFC later this year? 100%. I am 100% excited and I cannot wait to compete. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm actually on my way to Las Vegas. I bought an RV two weeks ago, and I originally went down to Miami, and I drove it down to Miami from Brooklyn,

moved out of my apartment in Brooklyn. And I'm actually, I'll be training with George Rubio, who is currently in Las Vegas training field female Lopez. So that's where I'm off to to do my camp with Sir George Rubio. And I actually had the opportunity to stop in Houston here, and I was training at Main Street boxing in Muay Thai with Bob, who was absolutely incredible. I got to see Lauren Murphy.

Like, it was just, oh, my God. One, it was so nice to be in an MMA gym again and to be around it. But they have a stable of boxers down here. And it was, it was, I had such a great experience here. This is my first time visiting Texas. So I'm stopping. I stopped along the way, stopped in Biloxi, got a good session in with Alan Belcher, some weight training and some,

some, you know, athletic movements with him. And then the next day was in Houston training at Main Street. And so it's been a great experience. I'm already, already, you know, I try to stay training and stay focused on my skills and stuff. So my eyes are on November 12th. That's my priority. And yeah, I'm back to work.

I'm back at it and ready for whatever is in front of me. And this tournament, I love it. It's going to be for a championship. And what a better way. Like I said, I think the women are kind of stealing the show in BKFC. and I love a good tournament. So this is going to be a lot of fun. I know we haven't heard all the names that are going to be in there,

but I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I know, like I said, when I talked to Dave last week, that was what I was most excited to talk to him about? I was like, oh, what's going on with the women's tournament? What's going on? I had to, like, pull it out of him to get your fight. So, of course, you know, I'm like excited. So, yeah, Pearl, thank you for jumping on and being to co-host for the day

for the fighter versus the writer. This is kind of a rotating thing we have everybody different on. I hope you will come back and visit me again. maybe give us a tour of your RV next time. I'm very interested in this whole RV thing now. Oh, my God. So I think I'm going to be touring, doing a tour. And I think I like it.

I didn't get the RV I wanted because I was like, I don't even want to drive this thing. Like I'm learning everything. A week ago, I had no fucking blow out of using an RV. So it's been a learning process for me. But it has been such a great experience already. And I definitely will be back here in Houston to train. I'm on my way out now.

I'll be stopping in Albuquerque next. So, yeah, it's been a great experience, and I'm really looking forward to working with George Rubio and Theo Fimo. I think this is going to be an incredible camp for me. I'm super stoked for this. And, yeah, I look forward to talking to you again. Absolutely. Well, Pearl, thank you so much for doing this.

I really do appreciate it. Safe driving, please, across country. Look forward to the training camp in Vegas. And definitely look forward to having you back on the fighter versus the rider. All right. Well, thank you so much, Damon, for having me on. It was a pleasure. Absolutely. Talk to you soon, okay? All righty. Bye. Bye-bye.

There you go, folks. Pearl Gonzalez, one of the top fighters in BKFC, former UFC, former Invicta Fighter. Now she's going to go out and train with Tiofima Lopez. That's awesome. So obviously a big thank you to everyone that tunes in each and every week here to the fighter versus the rider. We'll be back next week with a new co-host and new topics to talk about. obviously we're going to be rolling into the return of the UFC next weekend with Anthony Smith against Ryan Spann. I'll have an interview with Anthony Smith separate from the Fighter versus the Ryder that will also go up on the MMA Fighting Podcast channel next week. So stay tuned for that. Make sure you are subscribing and rating the show.

We are over on all your favorite podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, all the different podcasting platforms you could possibly find. and if you have questions, comments, or maybe a guest host you'd like to have on the show. Hit me up on Twitter. You can follow me at Damon Martin. We will see you next week for another edition of The Fighter versus the Writer. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you then. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.