MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer: Tyron Woodley Defends Paul vs. Tyson, Reveals Comeback Plans For 2024

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

On the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer, Tyron Woodley joins the show to break down what happened in the Jake Paul vs. Mike Perry fight and why he still likes Paul facing Mike Tyson next. Woodley also teases his return to action with hopes to book a fight before the end of the year. Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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He's also working with the PFL. And I always love his insight in the sport and everything else he's got going on. It's always my great pleasure to speak to Tyron Woodley. Tyron, how are you? Man, I'm doing good, man. I'm just kind of downloading. I had a crazy weekend. I'm just getting here doing a comment.

for the Perry, Paul fight, and then I'm about to wind it right back up. So I'm just kind of like get my mind clear real quick before I go on another sprint. I love it. I love it. So obviously, step it into commentary. I know you've been doing this for a little while, but, you know, I said this off air. I'll say it now. Like, I think you did a phenomenal job, and I know that's an easy gig to get in there,

especially when you're doing a whole card, you know, several hours over a pay-per-view and prelims and everything else. But I thought you did a phenomenal job. Did you have fun calling the fights on Saturday? I had a blast calling a fight. And, you know, as funny as I just like to show people that I'm instant, I can respond quickly. It was a lot of things that y'all didn't see. My earpieces were coming out.

The sound completely went down, and you never can tell on television. So, yeah, you're right. It is not an easy job. And it's completely separate of analyzed in a fight. When you're behind a desk, you got a script. You guys know exactly what you're talking about. You know exactly what's coming up. Or you just saw it.

And it's easy for me to speak to what I just saw. But when you got on-forecasted, things that are happening at the moment, at the same time, they're cutting off. The guy's about to yell out the wait, and you were in the middle of a sentence. So, yeah, I enjoyed it. And even for the Dazon group, they brought me in this time. Last time, Nikisa, Jay Paul's partner MVP, brought me in, actually the submen for the PFL prospects in Orlando last year.

and then this time the zone themselves to reach out and it was it was just a good experience and I was only supposed to work the main car and he said what's you doing I said I'm ready you need me I'm here so he said all right go out there go out there and commentate this this fight against Green versus Spence I said bet I just I just got them talking to Spence's coach I got a couple bars from her coach so I'm gonna go run out there

so I ran out there and hooked my own mic shit up sat on the side and I just jump right in and start commenting the fight and they was looking at me like, who the fuck is this dude? No, man, I love big picture producing. That's all this is. When we're producing an image, a picture, we tell them the story of why this fight makes sense

and why you should watch it and what are the stakes here in this bout? And I feel like it's a new bag for me. Now, I got to ask the million-dollar question I asked you for our audience, Tyron. Did you make Ariel do the, the push-ups because you called the fight. He said to say, you said knockouts.

I mean, I expected Ariel on us, because he understands how important it is to key, I'm putting them extra on area right now. He knows how important it is to keep your word as a man. And I did say in a suit. So I didn't technically say he have to give me the push-ups right now, but I try to get him to. So next time, Ariel's in a suit,

I feel if he's a man of his word, he was just immediately dropped down and gave me the push-up. But the thing about it is, he's lucky I didn't call the own-command push-ups. I got this from Rashad Evans. You make a bet,

and it's not a very meaning push-ups, so if I say, I bet you four on-command push-ups, right, that this fight ends by knockout. That means that when I see you, I can take all four at once, three, two, I can text you, I can call you, I can send smoke signals.

But when I say, bow, you have to stop. It don't matter if you're in a urinal, in a nightclub, inside of the pool. You have to, don't move your feet. At that point, you got to stop right there and give me the push up. Or two or three or four. So that's what I

should have did, because it would have been more funnier, but on air, I kind of move quick, but I'm not the guy that always knows all the indicators, but for some reason, I get people a lot of money in bedding. Well, you called, you called

And listen, I'll be the first to admit tire going into the fight. Like, listen, I'm more of an MMA guy than I'm boxing. I'm never going to lie about that. I watch boxing, but I'm definitely more of an MMA guy. But seeing what Mike Perry has been doing recently, he's been knocking people out, his aggression, his power. I was like, this is going to be an interesting fight. Obviously, he stuck around showed incredible toughness, but it wasn't particularly close. I mean, you know, Jake was obviously a lot bigger.

I know Jake said he only outweighed him by 10 pounds. I think that's a bit of a bit of a crazy number. But, yeah, but like, it played out. I'm not shocked that Jake won necessarily, but I honestly thought Mike Perry would give him a tough fight. And I think it really came down, in my opinion, to Mike's defense. He just went out there with his hands down and didn't have it. It wasn't even Mike defense.

It was, you know, it's funny when I gave my, I gave my thoughts on what each guy's keys to victory was. And Mike Perry, his key to victory was almost, I mean, he used, like, this is the bad thing. You can use the style, but the drills that, took to develop those muscle memory and an actual I'm trying to say the reaction time, right?

Think about this. Mike Tyson. He's one of the most mimic styles when boxing coaches want to train. A lot of these boxing coaches have never boxed. But they show you the end product of what we call a peekaboo style. And I know Mike has been training that style before

he even got to the UFC. I've watched all these videos. I hear him talking about the Mike Tyson, Pekaboo style, right? And what that means is that as the person's punching, you're going to slip in cover ground. You're going to buy real estate, right? So off of a jab, off of a cross, if you, if you, if you were good enough to see it and slip it, right? You have to be good enough to see it a step inside as well, because Mike Tyson was a lot shorter than a lot of his other opponents and most of his punches came from hooking punches, Mike Perry.com, right? So Mike Perry didn't

slip and get inside. He didn't slip hardly at all anyway. He was getting hit with jabs, and it was kind of like a rock-com-sockham. And I don't think the bare-knuckle boxing guys don't have technique. I think they do have technique. But when you are trying to posture your body to get the most power on punches, right?

You have to drop your hands a little bit, open your guard up a little bit, and I think for that format of combat is okay. But you can't bring that over into boxing. And really, you can't bring that over to MMA. There's too many kicks and spinning back fists and things that have come right above those gloves. So Mike Perry had his hands very low. He definitely didn't slip and step inside.

He got here with jabs and then he didn't have an answer for the jab. Mike, he's a victory for Jake was stick and move. I say, Jake's going to fight Mike like he fought me. He's not going to walk me down. Jake ran for me the whole time, both fights. I probably got three miles in each fight. I chased him down, moving him forward because he understands power. But the thing about it, you got to do it with a guy that's very aware of the power.

But at any point in time, he can pump the brake, stop, pose his eyes and swing with enough to knock you out. So you've got to walk a person down that can do that to you in any round. Even if Jake gets tired, Jake was tired the first time I fought him. He was tired the second time I fought him. And in sport, people don't recognize that if you get tired and you can't recover, that's the only time getting tired is a problem. If you get tired and you recover,

I learn this from Dominique Cruz. See, yeah, my stomach poking out. Yeah, I'm huffing the problem because I just fucking threw a 10 pounds combination and defended a shot. Took the guys back, tried to choke him out. My arms burnt out and he flipped over and I had to get off my back and I'll be back on our feet. But am I going to recover?

Yes, my cardio and my heart rate allows me to recover. I was the same athlete. I can explode in the fourth round. He sought against Wonderboy. It doesn't matter if I'm breathing as long as I recover and I can go back and do more damage. So I think that's what Jake Paul, he has that anaerobic burst. And he was puffing at the end of the first round, right?

And at the end of the day, Mike Perry did exactly what I said he should not do to win. And Jake did exactly what I said he should do to win. The overhand, the jab to the body, the left hook, the straight right hand. All of those punches were set up off what? A jab. right an unanswered jab so i'm not surprised had mike perry slipped inside got close he would have had a better chance he landed two or three shots on on pa that was decent shots but the the story of the fight was just his him not making a read on what he should do in the ring made it

look like a mismatch it made it look like he got outclass and it made it look like jake just had his way with somebody we thought was destructive But the real signs behind what happened is Mike didn't step inside and cut the distance as he did that peek-a-boo style. He did the peek-a-boo style in the same area where he started. So if he's right here and he's moved to the side or do whatever, he's still right here, which means he's still far away from throwing a hook, an uppercut, or an overhand. Those are hooking punches. It's shorter distance.

You've got to almost be able to kiss somebody on the forehead to land it, if that makes sense. So that's what happened. I don't know if that's what his coach just told him to do. I feel like when I'm commentating, it was a couple of times I was around Mike, and I just wanted to just tell him, man, like, dude, he's going to run because you got to be perched and slip inside, get close. Don't punch.

Like, it was a couple times I said, Tyron, don't punch until Jake's punch. Don't punch. Don't even think about punch because he's just the same monster as you. Right. When Jake punched, I moved in. Sometimes it ended up looking like a double leg, down. Remember I kind of ducked him under like a wrestling shot? That's what Mike

did because he got in close, but he didn't, he didn't capitalize. So I didn't say nothing to Perry because I feel like I want the fight to be even. You as a fighter need to see what you see. Your coaches need to see what they see. Y' game playing, you execute. I'm just asking you

what you think about him, him think about you and I stand back. I ain't got no horses in a race. So I know, I don't think I know that's what happened in the fight. So it's not, if he fought him and executed that game plan, he actually has a chance to knock out Mike Perry. I mean, sorry, Mike Perry has a chance to knock out Jake Paul if he fought that style. Yeah.

Can I ask, Tyron, like you obviously, like to this day, and I don't want to take you away from Tommy Fury, but like to this day, you're the only guy who's ever really, truly hurt Jake in a fight. I was at that fight. I got to hurt Jake. Tommy didn't hurt Jake. Tommy didn't, Tommy, Tommy didn't beat Jake. Media beat Jake. Press conferences, skits, you know what I mean,

reels, promoting products, and fighting at 3 a.m. in the morning in a different country, be Jake. He's doing too much for us. It's not too much for him, but for to us, it's doing too much. But for a human body, when you got to be on at all times and you got to be in the camera at all time and you're promoting stuff and you're doing gags

and pretty much his, he's like the guy that his whole life got, basically, video. I don't know when they turn the camera off, maybe when he enters his bedroom. So that's a lot. And then you've got to go out there and fight and live up to what you said to a guy that's thinking, if I don't beat you, my whole family's making me go change my last name from Fury. Right? So Tommy was fighting out of fear. He was jabbing him to keep him from hitting him with the overhand right.

He kept that perfect distance and kept a jab. He didn't hurt him one time. It was nothing that anybody ever is going to go back. Nobody's even talked about his win, right? It was just a fact he beat him. But after that, like, what has he even done? What has we talked about? I think he reached his life goal or something.

Yeah. I'm not impressed with Tommy Fury, by the way. Tommy Fury was asking me, and I respect him because he just said, no. He didn't make no excuse. He didn't try to say the money was low. Tommy just said, no. I respect you for that. I'm not impressed by your style, but I respect you.

But can I ask Tyrone, like when you watch Jake now, and I know it's been a little while since you fought it, but are you seeing dramatic improvements in Jake Paul's game? Dramatic improvements. People have enough said. But, yeah, he's punching high, he's punching low. He's not just relying on only an overhand right. He could have did the job with a left hook, right?

his jab was stiff. And he may be a heavier guy, but people have a hard time understanding that just because you're a big, dumpy, heavy punching guy does not mean your weight is a half. Look at Robbie Lawler. Robbie Lawler was not that heavy,

but he had that strength of someone that was bailing hay and doing manual work that grew up. Like, remember hands of steel from Stryford's? He worked in a steel mill, right? Which made his hands more dense. You know what I mean?

So Jay Paul has those heavy, dumpy hands. I don't think that the weight was a difference because if Mike Perry gets in close, he can't use, he can't use that dumpy power, right? He's going to have to deal with Mike throwing uppercutts, hooks over hands, short right hands, and shovel punches or hybrid punches. And nobody want to deal with Mike in that.

That's what all of Mike's knockouts in Barrono came from that exact distance. Nothing came off of a jab or rarely crispy clean straight right? No. It came from these punches that he can put all his weight on. But for you to do that, sometimes you've got to square up a little bit.

And in boxing, that's not a good look. Because you are a wide open target. I can see the bullseye, a lot clear, and I see all these other numbers, these triple 20s and some other stuff that may not be right at your chin, but if it's your stomach, if it's a side of your temple, if it's the back

of your neck, them add up as well. Yeah. So let me ask you entirely, like the biggest question coming out of it, you know, and I mean, this is nothing new. It's not like I'm saying anything that hasn't been said for the past like two years is, you know, Jake getting that, that next level of competition. And obviously, like, Saturday night, he calls out Alex Pereira. And I, you know, listen, I, I understand why you do that. Alex isn't going to get to fight him. We all know that. He's in the UFC. That's not going to happen. But obviously the question keeps coming back to like, when are you going to fight, you know, Roboxia?

And obviously, listen, he's got Mike Tyson in November. I love Mike Tyson. You love Mike Tyson. We all love Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson is 58 years old. I'm still not a fan of that fight. You're just not going to convince me that's ever going to be a great fight for Mike Tyson. I'm a fan of the fight because Mike Tyson is 60, but are you trying to see Mike Tyson?

I'm not, no, I'm definitely not trying to see Mike Tyson. So he still got the same fear in your heart that he had a long time ago. He is not, he doesn't have dementia. he's not really lost style he may be a little bit more made back but what I was saying earlier people will see this rock and salk him style but they don't want to do the drills

Mike Tyson is who I was speaking of he did thousands tens of thousands of the same drill we watched the way because I'm going to train to him he was a trained machine of his specific body type of his specific height his specific attributes of special power

and they develop a style for him specifically. They basically engineered a style that didn't exist before him, right? Even the way he had his hands right here. He wasn't like this. He was right here, right? Because if you take a shot, he's going to take it to the forehead. He's not going to get knocked out by a forehead punch. And then when he slipped off line, right? Sorry about that. When he slip offline, guess what happens? He's in that distance that Perry needed to be in. But people watch it and just try to do it. When you don't do the drills, right, you're missing steps. You're missing small techniques. You're missing the minimal things that make it a major thing when you try to do it

in real time, right? So Mike Tyson has not forgotten that. If he have a flashback of a moment of a past fight and do that shit to Jake, it's a rap. So that's a fight. Yeah, the age is the only reason why Paul even has a chance. That's why it's kind of an even fight. His age, youth, and just ability to have a screw loose and Mike's experience 60

pro fights, you know what I mean? World titles against killers and just been a feared, probably the most feared combat competitor ever. Yeah, absolutely. John Jones is the best in the MA fighter, but walking up

and down the street, he may sing to you. He may do something, you know what I mean? He may, he may not scare you. Mike Tyson was scary at fucking tigers and shit. You know what I mean? So, so, so, yeah, that's a good fight. I understand why some people can't get down with it, but I still won't.

I would have watched it even if Mike Perry knocked out, Jake. Yeah. Just because it's a ballsy move, it's crazy. And then he always does a fight that make you be like, hmm, you know what? Anderson Silva. was technically known as a better boxer than Tyrant, and he's heavier.

Let's see, maybe. He kept doing that. Only time he did that when he fought the dude in Puerto Rico that nobody really knew, and the dude he fought in Orlando, Andre, that wasn't really well-known, they had decent records. But if we were starting a boxer before 10 pro wins,

we would build him up the old-school showtime way anyway. So he's never going to catch a break. I feel like he's always trying to poop. people wrong. Don't try to get a break. Keep letting everybody doubt you because it's propelled you. I mean, the second I stop having to prove people wrong and everybody started giving me the respect. You had a piece, remember that little series? All that people talking about what's been fed to them about me, right? Yeah. And it was after I beat Darren Till, I finally started to get treated, quote-on-quote, with the risk.

respect. And that's what I fought Usman. I wasn't used to that. It felt like somebody was going to jump out the wall. That was an uncharted waters for me. For me, it was always being the underdog. I was the underdog and half my title fights.

Right? Everybody said I couldn't do it, or I was doing too much or whatever. And I used that. Unfortunately, that's not the right thing to do. You should use, God gave me these gifts. I want to prove my family right, my coach is right, my trainer's right. it's less than 10 of those

versus 10 million people you're trying to prove wrong that you'll never see that are never said to your face, right? So my approach to being motivated to win was wrong.

But I'm telling you it's something behind it because when I went on that terror I won four world title fights in one year I was like, oh you think this motherfucker Till can be me? I told Dan I'll say I'm going to beat him like a fucking drum. I'm going to beat him up so

bad and it's going to be on your hands. I said, the blood going to be on your hands. You want me to fight this kid in three weeks notice? You think he can beat me? Don't fucking talk to me. I'll see you guys at the fight. Watch what I do to him. You heard me in the press conference? He was like, a dog need new trick. I said, no, a dog's going to do work on you. You're going

to see him Saturday. I'm going to beat you like a drum, and he didn't land a punch. Takes me back to the Robbie Lawler fight, too. That was another one. He didn't land one either. Neither one of them landed a punch. Robbie didn't even land a gust of air by my face. But you're saying the UFC

took over to Snapchat three days in a row with all Robbie fees because they want to get everybody on board where him going in the Hall of Fame individually before me, not to fight. They're about the inductor. Why should I tell you? He's going to be in the next class of Hall of Famers and to show the people why it makes sense to do

they're going to do that because he's going to go in before I go in. Yeah, it's kind of wild. It's pretty wild. I said it started with the interview. One of the greatest welterweights of all time. I mean, absolutely. I definitely had the realest ring. That's my coin turn.

Nobody's trying to steal it because I did it with obstacles that others never had. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And to your point about the Mike Tyson list, the one thing I said to begin, Listen, the age thing, I'm with you. Like, that's the one thing, and you're right. That's the one thing. But I'll say a couple years ago, he did look good against Roy Jones Jr.

So, you know, you never know. And like I said. I mean, that's what Jake Paul got his start, right? Yeah, yeah. So now you got the storyline between you gave me my start. Now I'm going to give you your biggest bag. This would be the most money Mike Tyson has ever made in the fight. Right?

Yeah. Yeah. Netflix foot the bill. The most money he's ever made in a fight when he's been out of the sport for it, eons. So they kind of basically, the storyline I see is you gave him a shot. He's giving you a shot. And now this fight, it wouldn't have made sense back then. We wouldn't have never watched Jake Paul fighting against Mike Tyson on that Sherlock

card. Nobody would have, nobody would have tuned in, right? Now you both have given us a reason to tune in. Yeah. You may end up, you may end up working and calling that fight. Hey, hey, Nikita, you better give me some, I need some credit for marketing this. fight for y'all. I was going to say now, I'm not going to ask, because you may

end up calling the fight, so I don't want to sit here and put you on the spot and say make a pick, but you said, very honestly, you believe Mike Tyson can absolutely win this fight. This is not a mismatch in your eyes. I think, man, like, I know everybody can do rah, rah, rah,

on their Instagram in 18 seconds, and you're like, ooh, but when you really count a lot of, like the most out of shape person can be rah, rah, rah for 18 seconds for the post. We don't ever think about that when we watch it, we just think, oh, he's killing it, right? But even with that being a potential chance, right?

We watched him with Hafa-Kadera. We never seen a, we never seen a three-minute straight video. That's a four-round of him training. We've never seen that, right? Right. And we don't want to see that. Attention span doesn't want to see it, right? So now, even with that as a possibility,

I still think Mike Tyson has enough in him to not check out. could Jake win? Yeah, Jake will have to fight Mike Tyson the same way he fought Mike Perry. Jab high, jail, low move. Because you remember, Mike Tyson has his hands right here. Not going to change that in this fight. So when you jabbing right in the middle of these two gloves right here, right?

I'm holding the phone. I can't do it. If you jabbing right here, it's at very minimum going to push Mike back. And pushing them back keeps them out of that range that Perry needs to get into. If Jake fights him that way and maybe land some good body,

body jazz, body punches, and start to deplete him, get him frustrated, get him swinging crazy, right? He could maybe tire him out and then look in the later round and try to finish it off. That's the game plan, and that's the only way I see Jake beating Mike. I see a lot of different ways of Mike beating Jake. I love it. I love it. You get me interested. Like I said, man, hearing you call the fights on Saturday.

You definitely know what you're talking about. Jake has never been hit in the body that often, but when I was fighting him, study says he don't like the body shots. A lot of people told me to work his body. I typically, you never seen me in a fight working somebody body like that, you know what I mean? So I typically don't do it.

I thought about it a few times, but it didn't come natural. Have you ever seen Mike Tyson work about him? Yeah. Him and Tank Davis are two fighters. The only two fighters I can pick off the top of my hand that has many knockouts with both hands with every punch can be thrown. Jab knockouts, right-hand knockouts, left-hook knockouts, left-up cut knockouts, right-up cut knockouts,

overhead knockouts, body knockouts. Tank Davis and Mike Tyson, right? I see a lot of different ways Mike Tyson can win a fight. I love it. I love it. Yeah, so. It's interesting. It's interesting.

You're starting to convince me, Tyrone. You're starting to turn me around on this one. So I... All right. Before I get you... If I didn't fuck with the fight, I'll tell you. I'm not a hater, but I'm not a... I'm not going to just...

I'm not going to be a jock sniffer. I was about to say something that wouldn't be appropriate. But I'm not going to be a jock-s-s-sknifferer. I'm in a position in my life, but I'm just trying to be real. I don't have no reason to... hate on nothing. I don't have no reason to act like I like something if I don't. I don't care about clout. None of that's important to me right now. Peace is important to me and just

having a life worth living is important to me. So I'm just trying to have as much positive energy and only involve myself that I need to be involved with. Unfortunately, I'm involved. I've been in there with Jake more than anybody. I'm the only one that heard them. So anytime Jake has brought up, people want my insight on it, right? So I'm involved with it I want to be or not. Yeah, well, I mean, and that's one of the reasons beyond just, you know, obviously you got a great mind for the sport, but like listen to the fight, watching the fights on Saturday night. I was just, you know, you called it down. Like you literally called, you know, what exactly was going to happen there.

You saw it coming. I saw it was brilliant insight. To that point, Tyron, you know, your other job beyond being a boxer, beyond being a commentator, of course, as I said earlier, one of the greatest welterweights of all time. Your old title's going up this weekend between Bilal Muhammad and Leon Edwards. Leon Edwards is a guy you were going to fight a couple years ago when the pandemic hit. Yeah, you were geared up for that when you were going to England to fight him. And unfortunately, you know, the pandemic happened. You never got the chance.

Can I ask your opinion on that fight? Because I think a lot of people are kind of underestimating Bilal Mohammed. Leon's been on a bit of a run. But I think Bilal's a live dog here. I just don't think he's, you know, the way he's looked like it. Do I think Leon can win? Absolutely. Leon can win. But I don't think it's, I think a lot of people are thinking this a bit more

of a lopside of fight than I think it is. Maybe I'm wrong. It's like this. Leon there was a sharp. He's hard to take down. He gets up real quick. You're surprised you and take you down when you least expect it. He has power with his left hand, definitely. He's very accurate. He's like a little sniper. He's in good shape and he seems to be focused. Once you start getting money, especially your goal is to get money, fame, girls, whatever your goal is, once you start achieving those goals, some people lose the desire and the hunger.

I haven't seen a performance where I saw that in him where he lost the desire and hunger. But not only being a live dog, but Balal is just a dog in general. And he finds a way, if you powerful on this side, straight left, he finds a way to hug the right side. If you're powerful with the right side, he finds a way to hug the left side.

He never saw his moving. Him and Ben Asking are very similar. His pace is maybe 2.2 ticks faster than Ben, right? But he can keep that for six, seven rounds straight, right? His movement and him being active stops him being steel and getting hit with real flush shots. Like Leon does best when he freezes his opponent and his sniper, freeze him pop or catch him slipping pop, kick him in the head, right? you don't never see Belaw not moving.

Object in motion stays in motion. He found that when he stays in motion, he's more fluent and he flows better. When he's still, then any speed, any speed difference between them is going to show, right?

When somebody, like, I was watching this boxing fight here, do, Corey Markler was fighting against what's a dude name, Davis, whatever his last name was. in his boxing fight. They fought for the fourth time.

Dude fought him twice in amateur. The last fight was a draw, and this was the fourth fight to end a chapter, right? The person that started off clean, quick jab, body angles, fading, punches, punching. He was catching the target,

watching, looking, waiting on a speed. You wait on the speed, you can't even get off your own punches, right? Because you're too busy waiting and thinking about, let me read his body when he goes punch, you're not thinking of offense, right? He started making a fight ugly. He started getting close.

Start punching them. So I'm sorry. Pushing at the same time. He started slipping and punching. He started punching, defending, then punching again, right? He won four or five rounds in the middle of the fight because he switched the game plan to that. So when you're looking at the person you asked me about before,

Belaw can do that. I know I've trained with Belaw. He was at Milwaukee for a very long time. He's from Chicago. You should drive up. Ramadan, no eating, no drinking water, driving from Chicago to Milwaukee, just as far and drove back. Right? That's what I'm trying to tell you.

So that's a dog. And now he's confident. Now he's got more ring and cage experience. And I feel like he wants, when he started to fight, he just loved to fight, wanted to be good, want to make money, want to work his way up the rank. now you got a bala that want to be a champion right his his his motivation changed right which is i want to be a champion right so i don't know i give him i don't know what the odds talking about but i got a feeling if i saw the eyes just from knowing mahomet i wouldn't agree with him yeah yeah it's interesting you said earlier you talked about you know the motivation

changing yeah that was leon for a long time he was the underdog counted out he was going against Usman's nobody you can't beat Usman Usman will beat you up four you can't do it pulls off that head kick and it seems like it's confidence of sword I don't think Colby went in there to really fight him I think that was a weird really weird fight and you know it wasn't I don't know

I didn't think it was a great fight but obviously Leon won but I wonder like you know Leon seems really confident he's going to be Bilau and I just think Bilau's one of those guys you cannot underestimate him he will come after you for five rounds I like Belaw Belaw is my dog but I got to keep it real

I haven't watched. I missed the last couple Belaw fights. Sorry, Belaw. So I can't. I can't really speak on his growth. From what I saw, the last, I saw a fight and the last I trained with him, that's a person that, with the game plan, I just said, could be a Leon Edwards of that era.

I can't even afford not to hear about Leon because he's a champion. And Leon knocked out Usman. Then Leon beat Usman, right? So now the fight's coming to me, whether I didn't buy the pay-a-pview, I wasn't tuned in, right? But the fight is making it to me anyway, unlike Belaw's fight, right?

So I feel like Leanna has gotten better, better in the sense that he's getting comfortable with the five rounds. He's getting comfortable on what to do the winning championship fight and how to win a round, how to win moments, and, you know what I mean how to pace the five rounds. It takes a little while to do it, right? Right? As I did it, the more I did it, the better I got it. So with that said, I feel like I can't speak on the growth of the law.

But at that time, after they had that no contest, at that time, I would have to say yes. So I would have to watch some more film, watch his last couple of fights and see what he's doing different. Yeah. It's an interesting matchup. I said, I am looking forward to. I think it's a really interesting matchup. Tyron, obviously, you're a very busy guy, man. So let me ask for I get you out here. What's next for you?

As I said, hearing you call the fights this past Saturday night. It was awesome. I loved seeing you out there doing your thing. What do you got coming up next? I know you're always very, very busy. Man, I want to fight now. That's what I want to do. Like, I've been watching these fights, and I'm like, I start training again.

And I was just like, man, I never retired, by the way. I never retired from Eminem, never retired from boxing. I took one year off. and then after I took that one year old, I had to. I had been an athlete from the age of 10 to the age of 40 with no breaks. I had 30-year zero off-season, zero breaks. I've been in the pain since I was 10 years old. I never wrestling football track, wrestling football track, wrestling football track, wrestling year-round, wrestling year-round,

MMA, MMA, MMA, MMA, MMA, I never stopped. So I had three decades of being a high-level athlete, and my mind was fired. I needed to be normal for a year. I took that for myself. And then I had a fight set up with KSI, um, 20, 23 January. He,

he fucking took Dylan Danes when I'm not fighting him anyway. Then I was supposed to fight Floyd. And then Floyd took Gotti instead of fighting me. And then it got to the end of the year. It's hard to replace a big fight like that. When you got two big majestic seven-figure fights, you don't just, okay, let me go to the next opponent. When you're in the middle of your career, you can do that.

Yeah. You can maybe be able to fight a Jay Kellen and then say, okay, no, I can't fight him. Okay, we'll fight him Martin Catman. Okay, I can't fight him. We'll fight him Matt Brown. It was so many options at the level for the same pay, the same difficulty opponent, right?

When you're trying to make that pay seven figures plus, it got to be a big buildup, a big moment, a big pay-per-view, a big draw, right? A real storyline behind it or two dudes in a prime just trying to go crazy. So I just took that time towards the end of last year, to put the nail on the coffin, a lot of stuff I'm doing in the Middle East. My promotion company called The Realist International Promotion,

we're promoting all things art, and I just Mix Marshall. And I put that time into that, start nurturing it, did a reality show in Dubai with Luke Rockhold. While I was over there, I advanced the company further, business license, gold visa, and partners to do what I need to do with. And then now I feel like those seats are on the ground. They've been watered a little bit. If you've been in Dubai, lately it's probably hot as hell, so all that watering.

They're probably getting the sun they need. But now I think it's time for me to get into a training camp and get an opponent. I like the Chavez Jr. fight. I like a fight against Nate. I like a fight against Jake and MMA. I like a lot of those fights that are exciting. It's funny, Dan Hardy, I talk to him. He has fighting boxing too, yeah, or MMA, either one or both.

Yeah, I talked to Dan Hardy a couple months ago. We were talking about you, maybe you saw the article. He's like, I think Tyrant Woodley against Jake Paul and M.A. is a fight to make. He's like, I think that's the one to make. Now, I'll be honest, Tyron. Like, I like Jake. And I really, I really have nothing against you.

I think you and him and MMA is a bit of a mismatch. Like, you know, it's a lot to ask. No. You know, I wait 183 when I fought him. No, fuck that. I had no boxing fights. My only two boxing fights ever in my life was Jake Paul. Two big showtime, two sold out arenas.

Cleveland and fucking Tampa. That's pretty crazy for a person that never boxed before. No, come on over to this side. Where, we're, where, we're, I, he's talking about doing it. He's saying, oh, well, maybe we can do bare knuckle or MMA to Mike Perry. No, no. I'm the one that saved the card. Nobody was buying Christmas gifts.

And so I stepped in on two weeks notice and took that fight the timing fear he didn't take. No, so I feel like I'm not calling them out. I'm not like trying to make him do MMA. But I would like to see some boxes come over to our world because the only reason why it makes sense to them for us to box is what? We make way more money. The payday is higher. So, of course, they should.

What happens if I can get the boxers pay more in MMA to fight me in the Middle East than they would ever make them boxing in their life? They have no excuse because their reason now is to come over because they make them what? Money. More money. So I did my show, make sure you guys go on and subscribe, watch real right quick with me and Evan Rosenblum. We've turned it up. I did a show and a piece.

I want these guys to come over. I want Canello to come over fighting M.M. For way more than he's ever met. I want the Charlo brothers to come over and fight MMA for way money than we ever made. I was talking to Winky Right yesterday. He said, man, you know, you guys are animals and yeah, yeah, so dangerous in the realm that's you guys in. But boxing's a different realm. It's a different layer.

And it is. We don't, us, MMA fighters, just because we strike in such a big part of it, no guys really making us keep our hands up, turn our hips over, because they know we got to defend shots, which is okay to be a little square four. We got to check leg kicks, right?

And we got different attacks coming. A boxer can be super linear, super long, all his way back and all his front leg wide open to what would be a calf kick in heaven for a Henry Hoove guy. Boxers don't ever have to worry about that. So it's hard to make those justness. You know what I mean? I'm thankful to have my coach Gerald Tucker GT.

He, he, the level of growth that I had with my striking and my accuracy and my timing just from two training caps to fight Jake is exponential. It's probably 10 years of work. And if I can go back and apply that, I would have had double the amount of knockouts in the MMA. Because I never had my hands up. I never turned my right hip over. Go look, Google Tyron, would they knockout? And this time you see your right hand coming forward,

you will see my left hand at my waistline because I'm so confident in my time and did I see the punch and I know you don't think I'm close enough to hit you. I don't have to have my hand up to block because you ain't going to hit me with nothing. And boxing, I would have, right? Also, you'll see my back leg pointing back.

You'll never see my heel pointed to the back, hips turned over. So imagine if I, and I never thrown a punch 100%. I never swung more than 50% in any fight is more of a time. I said, get it. You got to take a little power off to get their quick.

Because when you power up, you show your chest and your body opening, and then if somebody's reading body language, they're going to move. So I had to get there quick, so I had to take a little power off. So now I've learned how to mix it all together. That's one thing that makes it different.

M.M.A. is harder on your body to train. You in your back doing jiu-jitsu like a pretzel, when you're doing hand cleans. Right, now you hunch over in the weird position when weightlifting got you in a perfect erect position, pause, right? And now you got your back hunched over to wrestle. And then now you want to try to strike

and lift up in the middle of all things after you've already jogged three miles and then you sprint it, right? And then you did whatever crazy training you saw on the internet flipping tires on the sled, doing battle ropes, right? All of these things don't agree with each other. And now we've got to spar three days

and act like it's a real fight. No, it's harder. Yes, it is harder. I'm not saying it's more difficult, or a skill set is more, it's just more, it's just more in it. It's like, if somebody got two kids and somebody got 10 kids, right?

It's harder because I got eight more kids than you. I mean, I'm a better parent, my parenting skills are better. That's my comparison to boxing. They got less to worry about. Absolutely. But in terms like, You said obviously, like, I love the idea you and Jake and MMA,

but you are still open to boxing as well, if a good opportunity comes along. I'm open to both. I do think for what guys blessed me to be able to achieve in a sport, and I do think for myself, I need to do a proper close to the MMA partial. So they either, that's either closing it or a second, a big, big bout to send it off for the bank.

And that's what I feel. The boxing thing, as long as I'm feeling good, good and in shape, you know what I mean, and not feel like people were just faster and I need to sit my eyes down. Nobody has shown me that Leon Edwards is still not faster than me, right? If these young fighters start looking so much more skill, fast and hunger here, then I need to walk away.

Right now, I don't see that. When I watched, if Chavez Jr. stood in front of me like that, I believe I would have knocked them out. I mean, and I don't think Yerai Fah all did bad, but Yerai Haile was open and honest and I love it's transparent. and I love his transparency. He said, I'm taking all my tools away. This is fight for me, it's for a challenge myself.

He's got 60 fights. He's a war champion and fighter. You know what I mean? Look at your eye. Moses finishes with those kicks, spinning wheel kicks and side kicks. And, you know, that part of his martial arts. He's the kickboxing world champion, right?

So at the end of the day, he went in there to challenge himself. I thought he won. I thought it was close. But I feel like if I were to fall Chavez, and I saw what he was doing in Uriah, and I saw what tricks he, He was setting up with tricks just to get punched down the middle. He was throwing left hook to the body to set up a left hook to the head.

Right hook to the body set up a right hook to the head. That's it. So all you do is punch straight down the middle. One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, two, two, two, one, two, one, two, one, one, two. Over and over again. And then if you ball up and get hurt, then you throw hook and punches. But he was out of shape. He didn't look, he didn't look bouncy.

He didn't look like Yerai was fighting a war champion So I like Chavez fighting boxing Let's do it I think you I was gonna say

You and him on the Tyson card I think you and Nate Diaz boxing Do it do a combo I think that would still be It would still be a good fight I think I think I think I think I talked to Nate's manager a couple of times

Nate's not against it I was sitting to get him The fight Just on a Just specifically to fight In the Middle East on a promotion that I'm doing, but we didn't have to fight each other.

But now it may make sense. I think just because I feel like, I feel like at the end of the day, he got all the respect, he got all the respect that he got just because he, um, he, um,

fought. Sorry about that. Can you hear him? Yeah, I hear you. Yeah, I feel like he got the respect that he got because he fought Connor first. But I feel like prior to that, he was kind of a 500 fighter at Walterway. You know what I mean? He was tough.

We loved the bad boy and we love the submission with his, you know, me middle finger up, but he wasn't a body. We was thinking about fighting for a title. Like, think about this. This, the ultimate proof that we're not in sport, we're in entertainment, is the title don't matter. The person that people want to watch fight more than Leon Edwards and Muhammad Belaw is Michael Chandler and Connor McGregor is something different, right? They want to watch one of those non-title fights.

Maybe people that fought in 45, 55, 55, right? Fighting it's heavy just because they don't want to cut weight just because they know that people want to watch the fight and it's more entertainment than let's get to weight. Let's win this fight. Let's move on. Let's go up the ranks. Let's get the number one contingency of fight. Let's fight for a title.

No, that's fight. We got a name. I got a name. We're going to build it up. The promo are going to be fired, and we're going to make a lot of money. Those are the fights that people are going to watch. It's entertainment.

So entertainment-wise, Leon Edwards is not going to, he's not going to yet. Because people said I wasn't going to. So I'm not going to push somebody down. Currently at this moment, he's not a person that's going to make people have to watch because of the entertainment value.

Right. His fight style is interesting. He's a great martial artist. He's a great sports move. And I think if you're a true martial art fan and a sports fan, you're going to watch him. But you are also excluding the entertainment fans. You've got to find a way to bring them over too.

And I feel like, you know what I mean? With some focus on that category, maybe he will down the row. But the fight against Nate, the fight against Nick, the fight against, you know what I mean, Chavez, the M&A fight against Jake, the motor top priority fights for me.

And I was saying commentate the card. Let's just see a fight on the card. I was talking about commentating the Tyson guard. Let's see a fight. If you're honest, I can't share. But I was offered a fight on the July 20th card to fight on it. Because I hit the keys and said, all right, well, because, you know, I studied Mike Tyson in depth.

He's the only athlete I've ever, I watched every single Mike Tyson fight that he's ever had many, many times, right? When I was fighting Carlos Condon, right? I watched, to get myself to stay on a treadmill, I would do three miles before every practice. I stay on a treadmill, and I watch 30 minutes on Mike Tyson on my TV in a gym. Axeem Thomas.

Because I remember I was doing an interview with you, and you hit me and you said, well, nobody can knock out Carlos Condent, knock him down, something like that. He was like, so how do you plan on beating him? I said, don't you ever disrespect me like that? And I told you that. I remember because it was you.

And I went out and I basically the only one that knocked him around like that. And, but yeah, I was watching those fights. So it's not just about me being in there with Jake, but my body type, how I was always shorter than everybody else. And similar power, I watched Mike for reference, right? So I would have paid, I would have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in my prime to have Mike come in.

show me, not coach me, not whole past, show me the drills they had you do. Put me through all the drills and I'll do these thousands of times so they become muscle memory. I would have paid big money. I paid $100,000 for training camp to be Wonderboy. $100,000.

Raymond Daniels, Adrian Poudin, sage, North Cud, my dog Chris Bang. I had all these guys, Duke Rufus, Dean, Tom, Miss Eric Thomas. I brought in the fucking guy from Boston, a taekwondo, a U.S. coach that drove from Boston all the way to Milwaukee in the snowstorm and got stranded

just so we can beat this kid. You don't think I would pay a big amount of money for Mike Tyson to show me the drills at Kusamana show him? Hell yeah. I love it. That's all right. That's the Francis Nganu, man. He got to train with Mike.

I was mad. Yeah, no, I seriously. I love it. I love it. But I do listen to you like. I love what you do in the commentary gig. I think you're doing a phenomenal job. I did a great job calling the fights on Saturday.

But I'll be honest. I'm biased in saying this, but I like see you back in there doing your thing. Maybe on that Tyson card. I think it would be fun. Yeah, man. I want to fight on the Tyson card. I want to fight one more time after that

because that fights in November. I would like to fight in December. I would like to fight a big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, MMA fight in the Middle East. That's my goal. And then I'm a, I'm a praying, ask God, what he got for me and what's next? because I had a lot of stuff for myself.

And some of it worked out, and some of it didn't work out. So I'm going to do that, and that's my goal. So in the meantime, I'm just stay active, stay busy. Like I told you, I just started back training. My hips are hurting, but I did see my abs this morning. First time in a long time when I hold my stomach in. So, yeah, I'm feeling good. I'm in a positive space, too.

I love it. Well, Tyerman, thank you so much for taking the time. Like I said, you did a phenomenal job calling the fights. Man, can't wait to see you back in action. I was going to ask you that question anyway, so I'm glad you brought it up because obviously I think we all want to see back in there. I gave you a couple names of spent out there.

Chavez Jr., Jake Paul, MMA, Nate or Nick Diaz in boxing or MMA or both. And if any box is going to come over in this world, and I'm not just saying it. I'm saying come over and make more money to fight me in MMA than you ever made in boxing. That's something in Tyson. So Chavez, you know, you can do it too.

with Nello, you can come to M&A. I'm not fighting no Canelo and Boxing unless I'm making it. Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, money, because that dude crazy with it. Charlo brothers, anybody want to come on the M&M and get smoked, let's do it. I love it. Tyron, thank you for the time, as always, man. I really appreciate it.

Hopefully next time we chat when you got a fight booked, and I appreciate you, man. We'll talk soon, all right? All right, my man. I appreciate you. All right, bye-bye. Bye.