MMA Fighting - Heck of a Morning | Reaction To Pat Barry & Rose Namajunas Interview, Chandler's Star Power, Houston Alexander Joins the Show

Episode Date: May 12, 2022

Rose Namajunas and Pat Barry recently joined The MMA Hour to react to Namajunas' loss to Carla Esparza at UFC 274, and it's certainly been met with a lot of opinions. On this episode of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck answers questions about that interview from Wednesday's show with Ariel Helwani, along with Namajunas' post-fight comments regarding the scoring of the bout. In addition, listeners ask about what is next for Charles Oliveira, if the UFC should still move forward with a planned matchup between Islam Makhachev and Beneil Dariush, Michael Chandler's star power following his sensational KO of Tony Ferguson, recently announced fights, and more. Finally, former UFC and Bellator fighter Houston Alexander (56:08) joins the show to preview his BKFC Fight Night: Omaha bout this Friday, and his motivation to continue fighting at the age of 50. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR 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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Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money, and agents, so you can transform tomorrow. Workday, moving business forever forward. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Thursday, May 12th, 2022. Yeah, it's 22 now. How about that? And it is indeed a heck of a morning here on the MMA fighting Twitter Spaces. And soon to be on the MMA fighting podcasting network, I am Mike Heck. Thank you for having us on.

There's so much to talk about right now on this Thursday because we are still dealing with the aftermath of UFC 274 and everything that has come out of that. Most notably from the top of the card, Charles Olivera, the weight miss being stripped of the title, submitting Justin Gaichie, the conversation of where does Charles Oliver go from here. Was it the right move to strip him of the title? And there have been a lot of opinions on this. And let me just say this right now, because I've had, I had people DMing me after Tuesday

show saying that I'm, I'm a little short-sighted on this, that my opinion is wrong. I even had somebody, we, we've discussed this after. I'm not going to say this person's name, but this person actually told me, I should, he basically laid out a scenario based on my opinion on the situation. and then I didn't respond right away. And then he responded by saying that I should go consult Ariel before I come back with my retort, so to speak. And that got me.

That got me. You wanted to fire me up. You fired me up. So I came back and gave my opinion. And in the end, we talked it out and we were all good. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. No matter what side of this equation you are on,

you're not wrong. You're not wrong. If you are on the side of, you know what, rules are rules, a half pound is a half pound. You know, if he misses by a half pound, I don't care who you are or how many pounds you miss by. If you miss weight, you miss the contracted weight, you should not be the champion anymore. If that's how you feel, that's fine. I'm not going to call you a name or anything. I'm not going to tell you to go consult somebody else.

That's how you feel. And that's the beauty of MMA. You can have your opinion. You can have your thoughts. can have matchmaking thoughts and maybe you have a different person than, then I have at mine for a particular fight. It doesn't make you wrong or make me right. And on the flip side, if I feel that Charles Oliver being stripped of the title and

this whole situation is dumb, that doesn't make me wrong. That's just how I feel. So again, nobody's wrong. You can have your opinion. That's why they're called opinions. That's how you feel personally. And even if someone says you're wrong, screw them. Screw him.

That's why you are who you are and you have your opinion. So again, I'm standing on the mountaintops. I think the Charles Oliver stripping is dumb. But I will say this. In the end, it has made this whole conversation a little more interesting, right? Because it creates different opportunities. It puts more names into this conversation. Because if Oliver makes weight and he steamrolls Justin Gachie and all this stuff,

we're probably waiting for Makachev versus Darius to happen. I know that fight's not done, but it is being discussed for October. I don't think that's a secret to anybody. I'm not breaking any news here. But if Oliver just goes in, excuse me,

and just runs over Gaichi and retains the belt and all that stuff, we might be waiting for a Charles Oliver fight. We might be waiting until the beginning of him next year until Charles fights again or the end of this year. But with this situation, if you're a fan of Charles Oliver and you want to see this man fight, as often as possible,

there's a chance we might sneak in a second fight here before they do Machachev versus Oliver. Excuse me, Darius. Now, there is a very good chance that the UFC just pivots and does Oliver versus Mockachev. And if they do it in Abu Dhabi, it's kind of a tough draw for Oliver because he just fought. Just remember, that card on that card,

this past salary is supposed to be in Brazil. So they're basically giving, it was being put together as a home, coming of sorts for Charles Olivera. Then it gets shifted to Arizona, which is the hometown of just engaged, just engaged against the hometown fight. And then if you're going to do Olivera versus Machachev in Abu Dhabi, you're giving Machinchev a hometown fight.

So you're kind of just kicking Olivera while he's down a little bit. But that makes things interesting. Again, like I said before, if you do Macha Chef versus Daryush, it's not the end of the world. It's not the end of the world. Can I just say this? And I've seen this on Twitter and I didn't respond and I really, really wanted to. Stop saying fighters or ducking other fighters.

You really think that Charles Oliver is ducking Islam Machachev. That is the silliest thing of the world. And you could have an opinion on that. And like I said earlier, this goes against what I said earlier, how you could have an opinion and you're not wrong. You would definitely be wrong if that's your opinion. If your opinion is that Charles Olivera is ducking Islam Machachev, you are out of your mind. You're out of your mind. You're wrong.

And you deserve to be chastised for that, for that opinion. But lots of opportunities for Olivera. We'll see what happens. Michael Chandler is another guy with a lot of options right now, with all the callouts and everything that he's done. No sells Justin Gaichi. Apparently Nate Diaz is now in the conversation, although I don't think that fight happens because Nate wants to fight in July,

and it appears that Chandler won't be ready in July. I thought Chandler's interview on the M.A.R. was really interesting. He kind of low-key shaded Bellator a little bit because he was asked where these promos are coming from. And he said he wasn't going to cut him in Bellator because it wasn't the premier organization. Not a lot of people who are watching or listening to their programming. And they don't have the best fighters in the world. So I thought that was a kind of interesting take from Chandler as well. But lots to discuss.

We got two cards coming up this weekend. We got Bellator 281 in London coming up tomorrow interim welterweight title on the line in the main event between Michael Venom Page and Logan Storley. It was supposed to be Michael Venom page challenging Yaroslav Amosov for the undisputed title. Amosov, of course, Ukrainian fighting for his country against the Russian invasion. So he is not fighting. And Bellator goes in and does an interim title here. I've already given my thoughts on that. not a big fan of slapping an interim title on the line in this case because Michael Channler

excuse me Michael Page could fight anybody in the main event spot in London and the reaction is going to be the same the buzz is going to be the same you could just do Michael Venom Page versus Logan Story's number one contender fight and it does exactly the same thing I don't know how much more money these guys are making if it's a significant amount I get it but I just feel like in this situation, with everything happening over there and their part of the world, not a big fan of the interim title in this situation, but still a very interesting fight. We got the retirement fight of one Paul Daly. He was supposed to fight Andre Koreshkov on that car, which was a really interesting fight.

And now he's going to fight Wendil Jekamo in his retirement fights. And he's Kielholtz versus Kata Watanabe on that card, and Leon Bacchita versus Fabian Edwards on that card as well. And then Luke Traynor is back to fight Simon Bayong. And yeah, it's not a bad card. It's not a bad card. If it's a Friday afternoon, why not? Fans are going to be up.

They're going to be ready. They're going to be fired up. It should be good. And then the UFC, of course, is back on Saturday. And the main event of that card is Jan Buhlovich taking on Alexander Rackich. interesting fight. It's a big one at 205, especially depending on what happens less than a month from now when Glovertecherr, defense against Yuri Prahashka. Co-made event, I am going to take the A.K. Lee stance on this. Not really a co-made event, more like the second to last fight. The penultimate fight, if you will, Ryan Span versus Iwan Kutalaba should be exciting. Not really a co-main event.

Louis Smokha versus Davy Grant should be fun. Caitlin Chukagy and Amanda Heboss. Frank Camacho, Manuel. as Jake Hadley makes his UFC debut against Alon Nassimento. Featured prelim, great fight. Probably the most interesting fight on the card, in my opinion. Viviani Araujo versus Andrea Lee. Michael Johnson is back,

fighting Alam Patric. Verna, John Jaroba, fighting Angela Hill. That should be fun. We will now get the debut of Tetsuro Taira in the UFC taking on fellow debuting UFC fighter in New England's own Carlos Candelario.

and Nick Maximoff Nick and Nate Diaz protégé opens up the show against Andrei Petrosky, which is interesting because Nick Maximoff was in the quote-unquote co-made event in his last fight. Now he's in the quote-unquote curtain jerker. And I wonder if Nate Diaz is going to be in town for this. Maybe there will be some discussions, some meetings

between the UFC and Nate Diaz and his team about maybe getting him into the Octagon for one last fight. but lots to talk about. We can talk about whatever it is you want to talk about. We're going to go for about 30 minutes because Jorge Mazdal is actually back in the courtroom. I don't know if he's physically going to be there or on Zoom, but it's going to be a status hearing.

Lots of discovery. I'm sure you guys have seen all the articles about that you saw the photos with Covington and the missing tooth. They're going to talk about the brain injury that Covington allegedly suffered from this alleged attack from Mazadol. They're going to talk about medical records, but watch all sorts of interesting stuff. So I will be on that.

So stay tuned to M.A. fighting for any updates on that, if that is your kind of thing. But let's go to the peeps. Let's go to the callers. Let's go to Hussain to get us started on a Thursday morning. Hussein, what's up, buddy? Make sure you unmute. Hey, so a lot of fights announced recently,

a lot of exciting ones. Just would like to know which one is your favorite. but also, Darren Till versus Jack Hermanson, particularly, I'm not feeling good about. Just how he did against Brunson last time with a grappler heavy fighter, I just don't see it being a good day for him. Maybe the Smash Bros combination has helped him improve his grappling game, but is it at the level for him to take on Jack Branson? I don't know. Thank you, Hussein. Yes, that is a lot of fights on the docket over the next couple months.

That is one of them, Darren Till versus Jacker Manson. And look, I think Darren Till is probably being, basically getting mauled by Hamzat Shemayef on a daily basis. It's probably going to make you a better fighter. I'm sure Hamzat's work ethic has carried over to him a little bit. All-Stars is a tremendous team. So he's going to get a lot of good work over there, not only working with guys like Hamza, he's working like guys like Guram Kutata Latsay. He's working guys like Alexander Gustafson.

So he's getting working with several good fighters. I don't, I mean, I don't know if, you know, spending nine, ten months with those guys is going to change your ground game or your wrestling and things like that. But I'm sure it's going to motivate him in a different way. And plus getting up sort of a hometown fight, fighting in London is going to be a very big deal for him. So I think it's going to be a pretty competitive fight. It's a must win for Darren Till for sure. But it's also kind of a must win for Jack Kermanston if he wants to stay in some sort of title conversation. But Darren Till, here's the thing about Darren Till.

If Darren Till goes out there and just runs over Jack Hermanson in London, it's crazy to even say this, but he could get a title shot next. It's just because of his star power and people care. Meritocratically, it makes absolutely no sense, and he should probably need to win like four more fights before he fights for a title. But again, if he gets Israel to Adasani's attention and Adasani beats Jared Cannonier,

don't be surprised if we see something crazy like that. because Adisani is starting to run. I understand we get a Sean Strickland-Alex Beheada fight coming up, and the winner of that will probably fight for the title, but Daren Till makes that short list, and maybe a win away, or he's on deck at least, because of just Adasania's strength of schedule and things like that. In terms of the other thing,

where all these different fights are being announced, look, there's a lot of good ones. I love the Moreno-Kai-Car-France fight. Am I a fan of the interim title? not particularly, but I get why they're doing it. It's not the end of the world. More money makes the fight with Figgi even bigger. Like if Kai Karfranz wins, there's no argument.

There's no discussion for a fourth fight at this point. And if Moreno wins, he did what everybody wanted him to do. Go get another win, then fight Figgi for the fourth time. And he does that. And it makes that an even bigger fight. So I like that fight. But to me, it's Volkidovsky Holloway 3. That's the one I have circled.

I love that fight. It's so good. I love the first fight I didn't love. I thought it was a clear win for Volcanovsky. The second fight is one of my all-time favorite fights. And it doesn't get enough love. It's just so close. It is literally the closest title flight you will ever watch in your lives.

And if you haven't seen it from UFC 251, I implore you to go back and watch it. Even if you have a certain feeling about that fight, if you scored it for Holloway. And again, there are times on Twitter where I get blasted from my opinions. The opinion I've gotten blasted on the most in my entire career covering this sport is that I said Volcanovsky beating Holloway at UFC 251 was not a robbery. I didn't say Volcanovsky won. I just said it wasn't a robbery. And people absolutely lit me up for that

opinion. But I implore you once again to go back and watch that fight because I've watched that fight probably a dozen times. And I've scored for Volcanovsky every single time. But it's not like a clear cut win. It's something you have to just kind of needle and pick apart and look for different things. I just felt that Holloway won the first two rounds and I thought Volcanovsky won the last three rounds and they were all super-dober close.

So I can't wait to see how that fight plays. And if Volcanovsky wins, holy cow, we have a lot of options for that, man, whether it be a 45 or I like the idea of maybe him going up to 55 in fighting Olivera for the bacon title will we figure out what's going on with Mokachev and Daryush. That's how I would do it, a chance to have some fun and do some different things. But I love that fight. I can't wait for it.

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Tristan, what's up, buddy? Hey, Mike, what's going on? A couple of things real quick. I don't know if you watched yesterday in Victor F.C. 47. That was the Cote v. Zabatella fight. It was a pretty good card. But I want to give a shout out to Fatima Klein in the Strohawait Division. I think she's someone to watch as she's.

goes out through her career. It was a pretty good card. Dakota versus Salabatella. Salvatella, moving on from Adela Away to challenge for the Strawway title. Very controversial at the end because she didn't want the fight to be stopped. But DeCose just caught her with a nasty punch. It cut her eye. So good card overall. I don't know if you got to watch, but it was pretty good.

And then I want pretty much your thoughts on Pat Berry's interview with Ariel Havana yesterday, explaining what happened in that fight, particularly what he said, because he kept saying that Rose kept slipping on the canvas more than once or twice, so that's why she was very conservative in her approach and wanted to stick to the game plan. One of the thing that he really,

that when I was reading the article, was Trevor Whitman and, you know, Perry's taking a lot of heat because they felt like Trevor Whitman should be the only one that should be in that octagon giving Rose some instruction and him being in the background. So, but, you know, obviously he said he doesn't care. He's not, he's not

listening to the outside noise. One of the thing that was interesting, what he had said was, and I do remember, because they did went to the corner, they were saying, all right, let's go, open up a little bit. You know, let's open up, let's freestyle a little bit. Let's, you know, put some pressure on her when they were about to start round five. But Rose kept saying, no, no, no, no,

I'm going to stick to the game player. No, no, no. and stick to the game plan. So my, my thing was, was she aware what was going on here? You know, that's where the self-awareness, I started, now I'm questioning kind of the self-awareness of what was going on because she did, I think she probably watched the fight over because she did say, oh, man, I screwed up. Because they were thinking, when they were telling her, like, open up a little bit

and let's freeze down, put some more pressure and do some different things, I just don't, I'm not sure she was self-aware. that's why probably, you know, she was saying, no, no, no, no, you're trying to trick me. Let's stick to the game plan. So, you know, that's where I think there was probably a little bit of confusion, which is surprising on her part because Rose has been fighting for a long time. So I would think she's more software as normal. So just your thoughts on her, on Pat Barry's interview about the whole situation. All right, Mike, thanks.

Thank you, Tristan. Yeah, I think if that was a crazy MMA hour yesterday, I will admit, I was kind of over that interview, about 15 minutes into it. It was just all over, it was just kind of all over the place. And there's just a lot of self-awareness mysteries going on there with Pat, with Rose. It was, I don't know, it was just a weird one, if we're being honest. If you want to go back and watch it go right ahead, it is kind of fascinating in a certain way. But, man, Rose is just an interesting character.

And I've said this a few times since Saturday. There's a lot of fighters that I want to see a 30 for 30 on someday. John Jones would be an interesting story. You could do the Connor McGregor, Nate Diaz rivalry. That would be a really interesting one. Just what happened that year. Everything that went down. Or just that whole year in general.

That whole year in the sport of MMA would be just a wild 30 for 30 to watch because everything that happened at UFC 200, Connor and Nate, it was supposed to be Connor RDA, everything that happened that year. The sale of the company, 2016 was probably the most interesting year in the history of the sport. And then Connor was right at the center of all of it because of the two Nate fights. Then he has maybe the all-time greatest championship performance against Eddie Alvarez to become the second to win the second title. I mean, 2016 was a wild year. And a 30 for 30 just on 2016 in the UFC would be really, really interesting.

A 30 for 30 on Rose Namibunis would be just ultra fascinating to watch. Her career has just been just wild. It's been a wild, wild ride when it comes to just everything that, just everything. Really? It's just crazy. the way she performs when she's not the champion compared to the way she performs when she is the champion I mean there's just so much context there

I have to go back and watch that fight I am not in any rush to go back and watch that fight on Saturday and I'm sure a lot of you are like me good for Carla Sparza and I don't want to take anything away from her because she won the title and she came all the way back and she's the champion good for her I don't want to take anything away from her

the fight's bad. It's one of the all-time worst title fights ever. I don't place a lot of blame on Carla. Most of it goes on rows. But at the same time, the reason why I want to go back and watch it is because, one, the Canello fight was going on at the same time,

so I wasn't, like, completely invested in it. I wasn't watching with everything that I had with all of my attention. So initially, when I first watched it, I scored the fight four rounds to one for Rose. And you might think I'm crazy for saying that, but literally nothing happened. Like, nothing happened in the whole fight.

Even the fourth round, the biggest moment in that entire fight was the reverse waistlocked takedown from Carla Sparza. That was the most, that was the biggest move in the fight. And Carla had her back momentarily, but then Rose got right back up and she punched her in the face. like with probably the biggest shot she landed the whole fight. So I gave that round to Rose. And there were other rounds where it's just like Rose landed like a shot or two more.

But I could be crazy. It just depends. Like the takedowns meant nothing to me. They meant absolutely nothing. And there were certain rounds of Carlos landing leg kicks. But I took the takedouts completely out of it. I took them out of it because they amounted to nothing. It was basically just a positional change.

but nothing happened. But yeah, the wherewithal, just Rose's mindset heading into these fights, even in the middle of them. When she's the challenger compared to when she's the champion, it's just unbelievable. It's night and day. And Jed Bichu made a great point in our post-fight show that Rose, Rose when she's chasing the title is a much different fighter than Rose when she has the title.

And we saw that on Saturday. So, and then the Invicta card, I did not watch it. I like to separate from the sport when I can. I mean, there are certain nights where I'll work till five, but I'll be doing different things trying to confirm news to like nine or ten. I confirmed a fight when I was off the clock last night between Mandy Boehm and Victoria Leonardo. But when I have a chance to take a break, I take it. And I saw highlights.

I saw Emily Tocote win against Alicia Zapatella. By the way, I know Invicta likes to go back and give Alicia Sapitella rematches. do not do that here. Don't do it. Please, for the love of God. I saw Gillian de Corse's knockout of Lindsay Van Zant, which is very difficult to do. Lindsay is as tough as they come,

and that was a nasty knockout. Sarita DeHeses, who I have known for many years, got a nice win, so I paid attention to that. But I will admit I didn't watch any of it live, but I did see some of the highlights of it. Let's get Christopher in here. What's up, buddy? Amy? Yeah, there you are. What's up? Good.

Yeah, I guess I kind of wanted to go back to last weekend, right? And I was watching Brandon Ravall fight, and I've been a huge Ravall fan since he was in the LFA. And I think all of us in here, you know, if you're in a heck of a morning space, you're probably a diehard MMA fan. I struggle to, I would struggle to name you maybe 10 or 15 fighters I find more exciting in the UFC than Brandon Rival in the entire. roster. And I think what makes him so exciting is the fact he could knock out Figaredo next week and he would probably lose to

Jalga, Shumagulov, like the week after. Right? The guy's so exciting and it's just the way he fights, right? And he had that great quote where he was like, he walks out of the fire of like a tan, right? So I'm just wondering what you think the ceiling is on this guy.

And yeah, that's pretty much it. Thank you, Christopher. I'd take a sip of my giant ice coffee here. Listen, I have been, for those who fall by career before MMA fighting, you know how high I am on Brant-Royval, and I've been that way for a very long time. And I do feel that if we're talking about, we talked about Rose being a fascinating character in the sport and just the mindset of a fighter. I think Brin-Royval is like the male equivalent. The way Brin-Roy-Val looks at fighting is one of the most fascinating things ever. When I interview Brin-Royval, it's not about

how exciting of a fighter he is. It's not. about his fights. It's like an episode of Dr. Phil. I am so fascinated by this guy. Because at the core, at his core, he hates fighting. Hates it. The moments when he's about to walk out, he's having an inner dialogue with himself. He's talking to Mark Montoya. And he's just like, I hate this effing sport. I hate it. And then he gets in there and he slaps the mat and does whatever. And he's in there and he just knows he's got to do what he's got to do to survive. Matt Snell seemed to be a perfect foil

because that fight was going to be really interesting to me because I thought Matt Schnell is going to kind of slow things down a little bit if you slow Brandon down that's what it makes things real interesting Matt went right after him and I was like oh boy this is not getting out of the first round because if Matt doesn't finish him here Brandon's going to

but if you could sit there and put Brandon in a methodical paste fight If you can slow him down, keep space, just land leg kicks and things like that, and don't let him get into a firefight. Then Brandon has to think a lot in there. And if Brandon doesn't like to think what he's in there, he just likes to immerse himself into the chaos of what a Brandon Royval fight is like. And we kind of saw that in Royval's last fight heading into Saturday. But this is a quintessential Brent Royval fight. I love the guy. He's great.

And if you listen to On to the next one, if Menel Cap beats Argerio Bontarine on June 11th, you do Minel Cap versus Brando Rival. That fight absolutely rules. It's tremendous. It's fantastic. And everybody will be happy. So let's just hope Manal Cap makes it to June 11th.

Let's hope he wins. And then we get that fight placed upon us. And of course, Brando Royval basically broke the news of this interim title fight. I mean, I told you, guys about a month ago, I think maybe on the first episode of the show, that the UFC was looking into Moreno versus Kai Kaher, France. I didn't know there would be an interim title on the line, but Brano-Royevil kind of broke that news on Saturday. Said he heard there is an interim title

fight coming up between those two guys. And sure enough, that is what is happening on July 30th at a location TBD, although it looks like Dallas could be the frontrunner. I know Boston is in discussion as well. But if I was a betting man, that card is taking place in Dallas. So, you'll be surprised see a lot of, a lot of Texas fighters

on that card. We could see maybe Nunez Pania ends up with the, I don't know. I don't know. But Dallas looks like the, Dallas looks like

worth that fight's going to be. But Roy Vos great. Interesting guy. And the more he fights, the better we all are. Let's go get, let's get Donkar Emmanuel into discussion

this morning. We got about 15 minutes to go. What's up, man? Make sure you unmute. I didn't see that I was here. Anyway, I have two questions for you, Mike. So first question. When I listened to Rose's post-fight interview,

is it possible that this notion that to be a champion, you would have to beat the champion, played a role in her mindset that she thought that made her think she was winning? the fight easily. And my second question is, so in a hypothetical situation, if Olivier has a very bad injury, like in the case of Inganu and has to sit on the sidelines for a long period of time, right now that he's not the champion, which means that they can't be an interim title, what happens to the lightweight division?

what do they do with the title? Yeah, so that's it. Thank you. Dunkar, appreciate that very much. So the first part of the question, yeah, and it seems like there are a couple of things you said that really stood out

that are kind of false narratives when it comes to title fights. One, to be the champ, you got to beat the champ. like you have to legitimately beat them, there's just no truth to that. There's just no truth to that. And I know with some of the decisions that happened

and the early, sort of the early stages of title fights in the UFC and the early stages of judging. And look, I see Aaron Bronsetter here, who's actually been very, he's very, one of the guys that I look at when it comes to judging fights,

especially while they're happening. He's very good at that. He has immersed himself into judging and how things are scored and the rules of judging. And there are a lot of fighters who have not done that. They just haven't. And they sort of have these two notions that, one, to be the champ, you get to beat the champ.

That means like, so with that mindset, you're saying that if Carl goes out, wins 48, 47, she's not the champion because she didn't win an extra round. That whole thing is just, it's a silly narrative and it's wrong. So if you're a newer fan and that's the way you look at things, This isn't like boxing or anything like that. This isn't the WWF where if you only win by pinfall or submission, you're the champion. No.

No, we just saw it with Al Jermaine Sterling. You won the title by DQ against Piotr-Yod. That happens. So that whole thing is right. And then another thing she said was, I don't get points for defense. No, you don't get points for defense. You don't. But I thought that was maybe the most interesting part of the post fight was I don't get,

was the question that I don't get points for defense. No, you don't get points for defense. You just don't. So, yeah, that was really interesting. And then heavyweight, yes, Ingano is still the champion. And I still believe, even though Ingano is hurt and he's on the sidelines, he is the most interesting story of the year right now. Because what is going to happen come December 31st, heading into 2023?

Is he still going to be a UFC fighter? Because from all accounts, from what everybody's saying, once this year ends and Ghanu, that championship clause everything he has off the table he's essentially a free agent and he can do whatever he wants

he can take his talents wherever he wants he wants to go box Tyson Fury and go box Tyson Fury if he wants to resign with the UFC you can resign with the UFC if he wants to go to Belator or PFL or one or wherever he can do that

so now we got to figure out what we're going to do with the championship situation and it seems pretty clear that we're going to do John Jones versus Stepe Meitchitch for an interim title. John Jones has showed up on the CES MMA broadcast on Friday and basically said, looks like September 24th and he hopes it's in Vegas. Now, from conversations the MMA fighting squad has had with Team Steepay,

that lines up pretty well with when Steepay wants to return. And I know a lot of people saw the war room. screenshots from that interview with the pivot and we all got excited and a lot of people thought that those fights were gospel because they were on a wall on pieces of paper. They were talking about July 30th, but Dana White was right when he says that

a lot of those are placeholders. These are what we're thinking. Can we make this happen? That's why you saw Nate Diaz versus Hamz up there in different things. Although I wouldn't, I still at this point would not be shocked to see Nate versus Hamzot

because I think Nate would literally fight anybody at this point. You give Nate an opportunity to fight anybody. Hamzat and Ganu, it doesn't matter. I think Nate's saying yes to anybody at this point, just so he can go off into free agency because he has one fight left on his deal. And I think we all know why Nate hasn't booked a fight. They want to keep extending him and they don't want to put him into a fight unless he extends his contract, resigns, adds more fights to it. And Nate doesn't seem like he has any interest in doing that. Now, would it shock me if Nate did do that and signed an extension and stuck around and, you know, maybe they can have a profitable relationship for years? I wouldn't say I'd be completely stunned by this, but I would be surprised.

I would be surprised. Think of all the money that this man can make outside of the Octagon. I think there is a world where he could have an MMA promotion or he's seeing what other fighters are doing right now. maybe in boxing and the Jake Paul fights right there for I mean there's lots of lots of things that Nate could do plus Conner's contract

there's only a couple of fights left there too so I think what the UFC wants to do is they want to do McGregor DS3 just so they could cash it on that before it's too late but if I'm Nate I like exactly what Nate's doing right now

just stick to your guns feed in the sand don't take the Connor fight because in his eyes, I could fight Carter outside of the UFC in our own promotion. We could do our own thing. And we could do it in any sport.

We can do it in boxing. We can do it in kickball. We can do it wherever. And people are going to spend lots of money and they'll reap all the benefits. They don't have to give a percentage to the UFC. They get to keep it all. And I know the UFC knows that.

They're smart. They're smart business people. That's why they sold the freaking company of $4.2 billion. $10 six years ago. They know what they're doing. Donkar, I guess, might have another question. So why not?

We got nine minutes. Let's go. What's up, buddy? Because I think you got my question a little bit wrong. I was actually talking about Olivier, that if Charles Olivera has a bad injury and he has to sit on the sidelines for a long time, right now in the Lightway Division, there is no champion,

so that means they cannot have an interim champion. So then what do they do in this situation? You're right. I didn't misinterpret it. I just went off on my own tangent, which, you know, being a person who was born and raised in Boston and spent 30 years there, it's typical. Typical things that we do. So if all there is hurt and he's out for an extended period of time, they'll just move forward. They'll move on.

All there is not the champion. The whole thing's dumb, and he should be the champion. at least in my opinion, but he's not the champion. So if he's not available, let's just say he goes home to Brazil, he goes back in the gym, and he tears his ACL and he's out for a year. The UFC's just going to move forward. They're going to, there you go. They'll do probably Mokachev versus Darius for a vacant title.

And as soon as Oliver is ready to come back, he'll get first shot. So they'll move on. There's plenty of things they can do. There's plenty of fights they can make, and they can throw whoever they want in there. they can throw Chandler in there, they can throw whoever they want in there. They can wait until Connor comes back to Chandler McGregor for the

vacant title. They can do whatever they want. It's their title. And then when Charles is ready to come back, Charles gets the first title shot. So, yeah, that one's pretty clear cut because Oliver is not the champion. If Oliver was the champion, do the same thing they're doing with in Ghana. Still be the champion. They would do an interim title.

And then they would unify the belts once Oliver is ready to come back. back. So really interesting times at 155. I don't know what they're going to do. There seems obvious ways they can go about it. But again, I am on, I chose chaos at UFC 274. That's why I picked Oliver to win, especially on Friday night after the weight miss and after the title being vacated. There's just no doubt of my mind that Oliver was going to win because when chaos begins, it's usually followed up by more chaos. And it just seemed like that's the direction this world was going to go. And as I said on the preview show, I'm picking all of air to win. I have no idea why. I had no technical evidence

to support my theory. It was just, I chose chaos all the way. And I'm still choosing chaos. I'm still sticking by my guns. I'm still sticking by the fight that I want to see happen. I want to see the UFC go forward with Machachev Darius at October, clear-cut number one contender fight. I think whoever, they make that fight, whoever wins, whoever goes on to challenge for the title becomes that much bigger. Because what's the problem? We feel like Machachev is the best lightweight in the world, or very well could be the best lightway in the world if you don't think that way.

What's the rush? If he goes out and beats Dariush, then we have no questions. We have no questions. There's no options. It's him and nobody else. And same thing with Benil. If he goes out and beats Mokachev, there's no questions. There's no options.

We're not throwing Chandler in there. We're not even talking about Connor in this discussion. The winner of that fight is the guy, and that's it. And it becomes a much bigger fight for whoever is the champion. So the UFC has an opportunity here to have fun with this and do some different things and think outside the box. Because let Dariusabakic fight like we originally thought. Let's do it in October. It's a very big deal.

It's a huge fight. If you want to make it five rounds, you can make it five rounds because it's your promotion. You can do anything you want. Whoever wins that fight, fights the champion, whoever that may be, early 2023, and it is a gigantic fight. Gigantic. Right now, if you booked Oliver of Machachev, we're talking about it. It's interesting. The styles can Oliver, what happens if the fight gets to the ground?

Machachev's not going to be afraid to get to the ground. How will the striking translate in this fight? It's an interesting stylistic matchup, but that's what we look at more than anything. But if Mokachev has that Darius win on his resume, they were like, oh boy, can Charles even beat this guy? That we're having those kinds of questions, and the fight becomes much bigger. So I like the idea that I had, and again, this is my opinion. You could disagree if you would like. If Volkadovsky beats Holloway July 2nd, let's just have some fun.

Volk wants to stay active this year. if he goes out there beats Holloway and he can come back in like September or something, let's just do that. Oliver versus Volkodovsky vacant title, because it doesn't hurt Volk

if he loses that fight. Yeah, the winning streak ends, but it's not like he's undefeated as a fighter. So we don't get lost in the zero. We get lost in the UFC zero. We get lost in the long winning streak he's on.

But I mean, Jimmy Rivera was on like a 21 fight win streak. And that was cool. But once it was over, it wasn't like, oh my God, his winning streak's over. And then Vol could just go back to 145 and do his thing. But here's a chance to have some fun and put an interesting fight together that otherwise we might not get for a long time.

So that's my thought, again, but that's a big if. That's a Volkovsky beats Back's Holloway, and that is a very big if. We'll take two more quick ones. We'll get Matt Sherwood in here, and then Tadagic Bay, you'll close the show. Matt, what's up? You just got to unmute if you haven't. Mike? There you go.

I just have two quick comments. One on your last comment. that interestingly in my opinion for those sleeping on der euse i think that's the biggest contest you'll see the russian face i think if he beats him he'll beat even easier or more easily the champ i think darius has got more skills than what the next step will be and that's why i want to see that fight not necessarily because it makes sense but because i think that's the hardest time the russian will have i think he'll walk over the belt um and really really Real quick, back to Francis, I think that a lot of fighters, particularly like this situation,

are using the UFC's marketing to include their communications on their shows to build themselves up when they weren't known before or without the UFC to make a bunch of money somewhere else. If you look at Francis and Step 8, they both kind of killed the heavyweight division. The heavyweight division should be drawn everybody to buy pay-per-views as opposed to just a lightweight division. So, in my opinion, don't extend Francis' contract. Cut them loose. That's all I have, Mike. Oh, thank you.

Interesting take. The Stepe one, I guess, I don't know. I mean, Steve has been some big, but the steep. I covered UFC 220 in Boston when Steepa fought Francis and Gano, and you mentioned those two guys. That was a very big deal. Boston was buzzing for that fight. And usually Boston buzzes for their local guys.

And there were local fighters on that card for sure. But, I mean, the buzz in the air for Inganu Stepe, and this is like the surge of Francis. This is before the Francis that we've seen on this incredible run he's on now. It was a humongous fight. The heavyweight division is always the standout division just because it's heavyweight. You see Inganu on a piece of paper. You see him just gigantic. how can you

how could you look away now if we're going to compare star powers like you throw steep against random heavyweight might not do as well but Francis I think Francis is a draw for them I do I think I think they can still make a lot of money with Francis

now I do agree that Francis doesn't want to be there and the UFC doesn't want him there like just let the man go but there can be petty at times and they're being petty here but that's who they are and that's why they make billions of dollars

they're not just going to let Francis they're going to be smart about it if they see a light at the end of the title they're going to just extend them and it doesn't really matter here anyways because Francis is hurt and he's not fighting anyways but you get to the end of the line

Francis doesn't want to come back you let him go the machine rolls on you still make a ton of money without him same thing with Nate Nate's a star Nate draws a lot of eyeballs Nate draws interest to the company

But it doesn't hurt them long run business-wise to lose him. It's a dent. It's like a leg kick in the overall grand scheme of things. But the UFC is not going to go out of business because Nate Diaz isn't there anymore. Nate fights very infrequently. And Nate still has ties to it. I mean, it's just a weird situation, especially with the deals they have with the SPN right now, how much money they are making with this deal with the SPN.

It's all a guaranteed money that they're getting. So if you lose Francis, you lose Nate, it stings, but the train will still roll on. You know, it'll still roll on. In our world as fans, we'd love to see the UFC keep both of those guys. Now, if I was a betting man, and I'm not, I would say Francis will probably stick around. I think they will find a way to have cooler heads prevail in this situation.

If they want to let him box Tyson Fury, I mean, I think they'll realize that, listen, this might be a stupid move and Francis has no chance to win. But if we let him do it and take a piece of the pie, I mean, who does that hurt? You get money. Francis does what he wants to do. Now you get a happier employee. Now, the long term, you might have other fighters say, well, I'm not doing this until I box this. this is a different situation because Usman was calling out Canello and nobody wants to see that in the world. Besides Usman, Ali and his family and maybe Usman's teammates, nobody else wants to see it.

Canello would be the easiest night of his life. The easiest night of his life. And he'd probably make $50 million to box Kabar Usman and he would destroy him in a boxing match. And even Canello doesn't want that. Even Canello doesn't want it. Tyson wants this fight with Francis Gatto. They all want it. Everybody at least seems to have some interest in this.

We all know what's going to happen. I think we learned our lesson from the McGregor Mayweather thing. Like anyone who watched combat sports with an intelligent eye knew that Connor had zero chance to win that fight. We all knew it was going to happen. We all knew Floyd was going to win. But there was, everybody was still in. interested in it. I knew Floyd was going to win. And I knew Floyd would win, run it away. I predicted the fight. Exactly. But I still watched it. I was still interested in it. And I feel

like we would get that with this Fury and Godot fight. I know we're not getting that with Usman Canello. That's for damn sure. So I kind of hope Usen moves on. But with this situation, everybody at least seems interested in it. So why not? Why not just let it happen? Make them happy. Keep your heavyweight champion with a smile on his face. Everyone makes money. I don't see a problem in that. And everybody seems to have some semblance of interest in it. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe. But this time, why not look a little further to Dubai, a city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination. From world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers, and epic

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Canada Life has flexible plans for companies of all sizes, so it's easy to find a solution that works for you. Visit CanadaLife.com slash employee benefits to learn more, Canada Life, insurance, investments, advice. All right. Tadjit Bay, final word, my man. What's up? Hey, Mike, yeah. Yeah, so a couple of comments here and other great space, you know, happy to join every time. So I think Chandler Chandler's win is something that His recent win, I think has solidified him as an A side essentially

Against anybody. He is a shot caller Right now and he Essentially can any make Make any fight happen right now And he has all the cars in his hands If he wants to fight If he wants to fight the champion He can fight a champion

If he wants to fight Conor he can fight Conor It doesn't really matter Nate Nade. So I think this last win has solidified him as essentially an A-side against anybody and somebody who is from the UFC's perspective is actually not a problem either because he's very marketable. He is very media-friendly. And his objectives, you know, coincide with UFC objectives. So in a lot of ways, he is probably the best signing that UFC has had.

I mean, I would say all time, probably top three. And yeah, that's awesome. And that's where the kind of the Mahachov issue comes in, because from the marketability standpoint, it's really hard. And that's why he has to go through this route of beating everybody in front of him. And of course, recent event in Russia, I think, don't really help Mahachov's case to get into the title shot. So I think a lot of interthings things to unfold here. But, yeah, we really have to wait and see what Chandler decides, what's next for him. And it's great to see him kind of succeeding in this type of fashion because I think he deserves it.

Yeah, and I agree on Binel and Machashev. I think that has to happen. And, yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. Yeah, here's this interesting. I'm looking at this from a, from a UFC perspective. Like, what are they thinking here?

And I think with there, I, here's, and this might be a hot take, but I'm going to say it anyways. I think Michael Chandler has a better shot of getting the title fight than Islam Makach does, does right now. I just think there's, and it's for the exact reason you said. There's a buzz behind Michael Chandler, and they just want to see this guy fight at this point, which is crazy. Even Jed Michoud, who has said on many of our programs for the last year and a half or more, once Chandler was a free agent, once he signed with the UFC, he was not a Michael Chandler guy. He's even said that he thought Michael Chandler sucked. And after Saturday, he no longer feels that way.

So I think a lot of people who looked at Chandler with a kind of a rolled-eyed, roll of the eyes view, I don't think they feel that way anymore. The guy just brings it. And he's a great, I mean, he's been so good for the company. The guy gets it. He's a promotional machine, puts the company over all the time, he puts Data White over all the time, has nothing but good things to say. And then he goes out there and just has these incredible fights. There is a very good chance. in my opinion

that Michael Chandler fights Charles Oliver next but again like you said Chadrick Bay he's got a lot of options they could do Connor they could do Porre

even though he doesn't seem all that interested in Porreier they could do Nate he is in a tremendous spot right now the problem is let's see how he is physically I know he's got some injuries here at his foot

he talked about a hand injury while he was warming up up, which by the way, we had heard as well heading into that fight. We had heard when Chandler was making the walkout. That was something that was being floated around amongst the staff members. So we weren't really surprised to hear that, if we're being honest. But let's see how he feels.

I know he's supposed to go see doctors and get some things checked out. It doesn't look like July 30. It's going to be an option. But September maybe, I don't know. he's got so many options right now. Talk about a two-and-two fighter in a promotion who just has all the chips in his favor. It's crazy.

And good on him, because he's a great dude. He's a great dude. And, you know, even we all knew he had this in him. We all knew. I mean, he's had some crazy fights at Bellator, for sure. But he also had some, how should I put this? He also had some workman-like performances as well, where he wrestled and, you know,

grinding out decisions and things like that. But if you interviewed Chandler, 2014, 2015, 2016, these promos that he's cutting now, these aren't surprising. He's always had the gift of gab.

He's always good at selling fights, and that's why he was the face of the promotion. And he should have been, because he's that good with the mic, with his fights, all that stuff. And then just the whole thing with Machachiev, and this is no fault of Machinchev's at all, because he's been put in big fights,

just for some reason he just has bad luck, Either he gets hurt or the opponent gets hurt, and he says, I'll stay on the card. And then he goes and fights. I wonder how much, I thought it was a big blunder back when it happened, the whole RDA situation, putting out those tweets, whether you're joking or not. And then when you have Dana say, we offered him the fight and he didn't take it, and we know how petty they could be, I think that silliness is going to keep him out of this title fight. I think they're going to, I think Dana is such a big fan of Mokachev Daryouche.

It's going to happen. And I'm fine with that fight. Again, there's no need to rush Mokachev into this title fight. Let him, if he goes out there beats Darius, the same way he's beat everybody else. Again, there is no other name. There's nobody else. Right now, we can throw out three or four names for all there. We're talking about, at least for me, I'm talking about taking the featherweight chance.

be a moving up to fight to lightweight. If he beats Darius, I'm not having that discussion, that's it. He's the guy. If Darius beats Mockachev, that's it. That is it. It's one name, one name only. It's option, not options. That's it.

And it's a bigger fight, it's a more interesting fight. Play the long game. There's nothing wrong with that. If they book Mokachev Oliver now, cool, I'm watching it. It's still a really interesting fight. But you get Mokachev that signature win, then he goes into that fight

and we're talking we're having a different conversation we just are the interest levels rise but if you ask fans right now what does like if you just say right now what does better on pay-per-view if this is a main event olivera macachev or olivera chanler olivera chanler is the correct answer

it just is oliver chanler is the correct answer but maca chaff gets that win we might be having a different conversation. All right, we got to go. I got to get out of here. Mazadol is about to head into the courtroom, maybe virtually. I don't think he's going to do so physically, but I think he's going to be there virtually. So follow on M.A.Fighting.com. We'll give you updates on what's going on with the status hearing. I think this might be the

most interesting status hearing ever in M.A. with everything that was discussed in the last hearing, the findings, the discovery that we could find out about this whole situation, these alleged situation with Mazadol and Covington and the watch and the medical records and the brain injury stuff. I am

I'm very fascinated by this whole thing. So we'll be back tomorrow, everybody. 8 a.m. Eastern, we'll do it again. Another edition of heck of a morning. And then tomorrow we will have the live way and show. We will be doing a live way and show for UFC Vegas 54 because Jose Young's, our guy, will be on site.

So I think it's just going to be myself and AK, we're going to have some fun. By the way, BTL, 3 p.m. Eastern, you may have seen this new podcast in our network called No Betts Bard, which stars G.C. Connor Birch from the M.MA hour and our own Jed Mishu. So we're going to split those boys up today on BTL. It's going to be Jed versus GC, BTL, 3 p.m. Eastern Time, live on the M.A. fighting YouTube channel. Casey is off. So we're going to still stream it.

It's not going to have the bells and whistles that the show normally has, but we're just going to power through and we're going to make this happen. So a busy weekend ahead of us, get ready, Bellator tomorrow. Lots happening. So we appreciate y'all.

Check it out this space. Have a heck of a morning. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention this. If you're listening on the podcast network, you get a little bonus. My interview with Houston Alexander. Remember Houston Alexander? The guy is still doing the damn thing at 50.

He's going to be fighting at BKFC tomorrow night, which is just wild. But what a positive guy. So if you're listening on the podcast network, you will hear that interview with Houston Alexander right now. For those not listening on the podcast network, if you're listening live, have a heck of a morning and a great rest of the day, everybody. All right, let us welcome Houston Alexander to the program, former UFC fighter, former Bellator fighter. And this man is still doing the damn thing. At the age of 50, he's going to return to the world of big. Aronuckle fighting on Friday at BKFC fight night in Omaha, Nebraska to face Jason Fish.

Houston. It's very interesting to hear the word 50. I mean, I'm sure you hear that. I never thought I would get to this day where someone's would say I'm 50. But man, that is so crazy, man. It's, it's wow. I bet you don't feel 50 though, right? It's one of those.

No, I don't. I actually, I don't feel 50. Especially when you try to, you know, on days, I guess. you do feel 50 when you're when you're aching and paining. But, but, you know, if you're maintaining, as I spoke before, if you take care of your body, man, you know, you know, I guess, you can, you can, you can, you can, you can, you can, you know, fight father time for just a little bit longer, you know,

even though we know father time is undefeated. Right. You mean, you can ache and pain at, you can ache and pain at 38, 39. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you don't take, you know, you don't take care of yourself, man. That's what happens. Yeah. Well, it's great to have you here.

So here we are. You're back in the BKFC ring this Friday. And it's been a while since I've spoken to you. I think the last I spoke to was probably like seven years ago. It was a long time ago. But it seemed like you had taken some time off. It appears from the combat sports world. Your last MMA fight was almost five years ago.

And I could be wrong. This is just what the internet tells me. A few years go by and we see you back, BKFC 21 September. and you knock a dude out in 34 seconds. So how did this happen? When did you decide? You know what? This BKFC thing seems pretty interesting.

Let's go out and do it. I guess we have to go back to square one. I've been, first of all my life. From the time I was a kid in East St. Louis to the time I've been a kid in Omaha, Nebraska. I've been fighting on my life. And it just seems that street fighting is my specialty. and I just happened to I just happen to be good with these hands

so so you know in between learning how to actually use them with boxing, kickboxing and all the good mix mixed martial arts I've been doing over the years it just made it probably made me a better fighter but for for me to see bare knuckle one online and for me to be asked to be involved with it

I was like hell yeah let me be involved with it because you know why if I'm in the job gym still are competing with other people at the highest level, I don't need to be sitting there not getting paid. So, you know, why not get paid for competing at the high level that I'm still competing at? So until somebody knocks me on my ass and sparring or knocks me, really knocks me on my ass where I'm just done, I don't see any reason why I should stop if I enjoy doing it. So, you know, the next 50-year-old might not be able to do it. But you know what?

Damn it. I'm able to do it. So we mentioned the magic number 50 earlier. And, you know, I'm curious with the motivation behind all this is, because obviously money, cool, like you get to do you like and make money. That's not really work. It's something, it's the dream almost. But most people will see, you know, Houston Alexander's fighting. You know how combat sports fans can be. And they immediately become concerned because of the age. And, you know, you had some stoppage losses at the tail end of the MMA career. Comes from a place to love and respect, though, Houston. Deep down inside, people just don't want to see you get hurt. So what's your response to those people, those critics who are just like, this guy's still doing this? What is he thinking?

Well, you know what? According to my MRI, I'm just fine, you know, and according to my EKG, I'm not doing this. So, you know what, I have all my more. motor skills. So again, and I'm still, I still think I'm fast. So, so you know what? I think it's just the drive that I think my competitive nature. It just, you know, I just, I'm not a quitter. And for me to actually keep doing this, it's because I want to.

You know, I don't worry about what other people say. And it's funny. The contrary, when people see me, they ask, what is the next time you're fighting? I'm like, you know what? So if people are still looking for it, you know, and they're not, they must not be concerned, too concerned about my age because they're like, when is the next time you're fighting? So I know. And so this is a great opportunity for my hometown of people who actually want to see me

if I get to see that. You feel that fighting at 50 is a pro or a con in your eyes? And the reason I ask that is that, you know, maybe you seem physically like you're 30, like you're 30 right now. Like you're in a great place. You're a great place mentally. your great place physically. You know, and maybe, like you said,

father time takes away, at least chips away at the physical attributes that tend to fall off over the years. But the wisdom you've gained far surpasses even the most athletic, 22-year-old super athlete. So what do you think? Like fighting at 50,

especially where you're at right now, is this a pro or a con? I think, you know what? I think it's actually a pro. And, you know, again, as you said, the knowledge, you know, the fact that I, you know, I've been there before. You know, my body knows that this is the ring or octagon or a cage.

They know, my body knows that this is a familiar place. And so I think, I think that the knowledge that I've gained over the years and physically, you know, besides aches and pains, I actually feel, I actually feel just as good. Or are you probably even better with all the things that I've been doing, you know, West Summerhawk cryotherapy. And, you know, I've been fasting. and doing those things to take care of the body and fine tune it to make sure that it's running right. And I just really think that I'm in a good place mentally and physical, like you said, because, you know, I've gained the knowledge to know better. Being in this world, you have to be in really good physical condition,

but it seems like maybe you've turned the corner over the last few years. When did you know that, you know, I mean, plus technology and science in 2022 is ridiculous right now. Yeah, man. And again, I'm a YouTube. And it's funny because I take information from different sites, and, you know, especially with the web being, you know, making the world so small. If there's issues that you might have with your body or if there's things that you might want to know mentally, the information is out there. And as long as you, you know, you sort out the information.

And again, if there are things you can do to take care of your body just a little bit better than what you do, what it was yesterday. the information is out there. So, you know, the internet is the gift and it curse. And I like to use the gift part more so than the curse. That's a tremendous way of putting it. Yeah. You step in the ring last year in September.

Yeah. You're in there for all 34 seconds. What did that moment feel like for you? What do the punch feel like? Everything. Can you put it into words all this time off? You get in there. You're at home.

and you land a 34 second knockout. It's crazy. You know, with their bare knuckle fighting championship, they gave me that opportunity to do it. Of course, I took it. But to be in the ring,

and I felt light, you know, there was no restrictions with, with gloves. For some reason, when the gloves are off, you're just a little bit faster. And for, you know,

for me to be in that moment in front of the crowd, and it was a good feeling. I don't think it was a good, feeling for me personally. I think it was a good feeling for the people that supported me all of the years. And for me, you know, to do have done what I did. And it was to me, the hardest part is all the training that you got to do with the coaches and all the, you know, the things that you have to do outside the rain. Once you get in the rain, you know, it's easy.

And at that particular moment, you know, it was easy. So, so, so, and, and, and for my opponent at the time, you know, I, you know, I, I think I lost it just a little bit at the end. But, you know, I think you understood and everyone kind of understood that, you know, this is a new score and you just got to get adjusted. So, I mean, I'm a good, I'm in a good place and I can keep repeating it. I'm at a good place mentally and physically. Did it feel different compared to the other fights or was it sort of the same feeling as you're walking in, getting the big entrance, you get the intro. Did it feel the same or did this feel different?

No, it felt a little different. You know, fighting in front of your hometown always feels different. So, you know, fighting in front of people that love you or hate you, you know, it feels, it felt a little different, you know, being here in Omaha, Nebraska. So, yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it anytime, you know, and I think it's not more so, and I keep saying this, it's not more so for me. It's for all the people that, that supported you, whether, whether support in a, in a positive way or non-support or negative way, you know, at least you're getting supported.

See? You know, some, you know, most, most times some publicity is better than no publicity. Yeah, there's no such thing as bad press, right? Well, I don't know. If you're a child molest to that, damn money. Yeah, I was going to say. That might be bad press. You don't,

nah, you don't want to go that right. Yeah, you don't want to, you don't want to be attached, attached to that thing. You don't want that type of press. No,

nobody wants that type of press. What's the buzz like this week in Omaha? Are people, are people, you know, I think everyone's fired up. You know, the second time this promotion has come here.

And we've got a lot of great athletes. So we got Dakota Cochran, who was there was, was our headliner, who's, you know, we've been to the gym before. He's a great athlete,

got a lot of great athletes on the card that's had, MMA experience all the way around the board, wrestling, boxing, all the people that are on this card put together by my man, my man trained in Nate or bare-knuckle boxing,

and trains with DC management. Putting together this card was easy because all the people are already in place in Omaha. And in the end of the, this whole Nebraska area because we've got a lot of great athletes on this car. And guess what? Everyone has their own individual fans. And the buzz has been really crazy because when I got people either emailing me,

texting me or calling me for tickets, that's when you know they had a good time in the last flight. Because going back to the last Barrennuckle Fighting Championship that came here, I just remember being in the back room going, wow. a lot of these, I think about there were 13 fights and there were 13 TKOs. And I think that might have been the first in the promotion. And I just was back there going, I am not going out there to get my ass kicked in front of the hometown. So, you know, lots of broken hands that day. But one thing I've done over the years that I've done the squeeze, the squeeze thing for the past 15 years or past every single day for the past 15 years.

So my hands are pretty good. And if you go watch your footage of me, it's fine. I'm actually hitting pads with no gloves. So, and then the buzz around the area for this weekend's fight is tremendous. Great to hear. You're going to fight. All they say that. Right.

And you're going to fight Jason Fish. You're going to fight Jason Fish. It's his third BKFC appearance of members serves incorrectly. And he's been around the game for a while now as well. He's been fighting for over a decade. Do you know much about him? I don't know much about Jason, but I just know watching some of the film,

but he's a strong guy. He's speedy, and he's bald. You know, we just happen to have the same barber. So, yeah, so, hey, man, I expect for, you know, two veterans to go on there and just go at it, man. So, and, you know, I know what I bring to the table, so hopefully I'll come out on top in my efforts. But it should be a good battle for the fans,

both online and offline. You have mentioned many times throughout this conversation that this isn't about you. It's about the fans, it's about the people who are going to be in the building. So is it more important for you to get the win or just being a fun fight that the fans are going to like? Well, first off, no one likes losing.

I hate, I hate losing, but I want to win. But, you know, on time, but, you know, the fans deserve to see a good fight as well. So win first and the fans get to get the good fight second. Fair enough. Are we at this point in your career? Are we in the prediction game or is that, is that just? I'm not bad, man.

Let's go out there and just, you know, just just, just look on each other. You know what I'm saying? Let's go out there and give the fans what they want. And forget all the predictions and all that crap. You know, that's when you know, you're old. But you're like, you know what, let's just go off there and fight. No, let's just go fight. Let's get it over with.

You know, let's get in the ring. And let's get it all the week, you know? So obviously when people look at your resume and they think about the guys that you have fought throughout your career, the one name that really stands out is the late great Kimbo Slice, right? And we've seen the growth of the sport of Bear Knuckle and BKFC over the last five or six years. And do you ever wonder what things would have looked like if the sport was where it is now 13 years ago? Like maybe we could have got you in Kimbo in a Bear Knuckle thought?

Like, that just seems like, man, like, if you could go back in the DeLorean. Yeah, that would have been crazy. But, you know, and it's funny that you mentioned the Kimball fight because I think even back then, you know, reliving the fight, the judges back then, I don't think they were just, they were as educated as the judges are nowadays. So, you know, because if they had the, if they had more educated judges back then, they would have probably gave me the actual fight because of how many times I kicked it. And just notice that they're counting kicks nowadays.

They're really counting the kicks nowadays. So if this sport was in the time zone there was, that would have probably been a great fight to see. You know? But, you know, I still think I hit harder though. I don't, you know, I don't think he hit as hard as everyone thought he did. So when I got, and, you know, press the piece to Kimball. A shout's out to his family. But, you know, I don't, he hit me a couple times and I'm, I was like, you know, this is it?

What? You know, he was wrestling. He was wrestling with you. That was, that was just, I remember watching that. It was such a, it was a great fight. And it's funny because, you know, the takedown, you got, you know, I think he just, you know, I don't think he caught me off guard. I think, you know, I was kind of loose in the way I was engaging with him at the time. And so that's when I got when I got to, I got to take down.

You know, of course it didn't hurt because I'm a B boy. I'm a break dancer. But, you know, it probably looked, it probably looked worse than what it did. Because, you know, right after that, you know, I slipped out of the back door and, you know, and again, you don't, I don't know if you don't get points for all that. So they don't, they don't, they don't, they don't give you points for all those. And they don't give you, you know, I don't think, again, they weren't as educated as they were as they are now back then. Yeah. I mean, the rules of scoring were way different back then, too.

And now damage is like, it's always damage. Damage is number one. Take down. Always damage. And I believe damage is still number one. But, but, you know, they could at least count at all the damn kicks that I, I can't have, man. Yeah. It just shows the evolution of the sport now.

You know what I mean? Like people. I guess, I guess. I guess. I guess. and to see the see guys like Connemagreger run from their, literally run from their opponent, and they said I was running by circling this guy. That's funny.

I know. I mean, you probably, I mean, you probably fought at the right time because MMA fans are ruthless now. It's so ridiculous. It's not a big deal. You know what? You know what Saul's ruthlessness winning. 100%. 100%, brother.

I would be remit. By the way, are you, I saw, I scrolled to your Instagram real quick. Are you on the ones and twos these days? Are you out here just getting the peeps up and moving? What's going on? You know what? I was DJ Houston Alexander. I was DJing longer than I've been fighting.

Really? And that's the thing. And, you know, obviously I work for a radio station for for X amount of years, but I was DJing even before that. So, you know, I was DJing on Technic 1200s. before all the technology and everything like that. So, but, you know, I've been, I've been doing graffiti art. I've been a B-boy.

I'm still a B-boy because I'll still teach classes at Genesis on Sundays. And I was, again, I was doing a lot of these things before MMA. MMA just happened to be something that I was really good at because I was a good street fighter. And the tenacity that I show street fighting, you know, the promotion that I first fought for saw that. And so hip hop is my first love, brother. And Friday is my second love that I just happen to be good at. Yeah, it's interesting the similarities we have because I like you DJed for a long time. More than half my life.

Weddings. More different than you're doing. You start on the 1,200s? Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. I mean, the equipment back then, it was like a thousand pounds. It was ridiculous.

And now it's just like a laptop, a mixer, and like two, speakers and that's it. Like before is like, just remember you had the tape, remember you had back in it back in the day, you had to bring the crates. You had to bring the craze, the albums, man. So, you know, I love, I love technology

in that regards to where you can be, you know, you got all your music in one folder, you know, a couple of folders. And then you got, and the equipment is a little lighter than what it was. But, you know, but, but you still have to have skill. You still got to know the music and you, and you, and you still got to understand how to rock

crowd, you know? Yeah. You have to read them. None of that stuff will change. Never. Yep. You got to read the room and it's not easy to do. People think you can just go in there and put an iPod together.

It doesn't work that way, Houston. If I put you, if I put you in a room for the 60-year-olds, what will be the first song you play? Quiston's shout. There you go. So, you know, you got that old. And again, that's how I know you're a DJ because, yeah, that will be a great song to start off in a room for the 60-year-olds.

Oh, yeah. ABC by something by the Jackson 5 and then we move on up a little bit. Maybe we throw in some fire. Yeah, we just kind of, we got a test of waters a little bit in the ageful. So you know, Democrat. Yeah. And then when you see him get tired, then we slow it down and we get them back up. We don't let people sit down in Houston for very long.

We, as soon as they get up, we slow stuff, but they all know the words too, and then we get them back going. We hit a shout. You still DJ, don't you? It's been a while. It's been a while. I haven't done it in like a year. But I remember, I'm getting flashbacks having the stars.

Hey, just go get out of, man. But you're doing this now, too. So that's a good thing that you're adding this to your resume. Absolutely. Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about the Houston Alexander Foundation, which I could see right behind you. Can you talk about that, what it means to you? And just what's going on with it currently?

And for the many years, people probably didn't see me fighting. This is something that's been working, we've been working on and been working really hard with me and my staff. going into the schools ever since 2003 here in Omaha, Nebraska. We've been going into the schools teaching the kids about hip-hop culture. Because a lot of

times kids hear music on the radio and think hip-hop culture is just about rap. When they're, you know, hip-hop culture, obviously as you know, it's about music and it's about dancing, it's about the art. And so we're going and take a whole assembly of kids,

the administrator, the principal, and we go into these schools, and sometimes 600, 800, 500, 200, 200, 200, 200, 200 kids, and we teach them about the origin of hip-hop. We bring in DJs, poppers, lockers, B-boys, the people that beat box, and we teach the kids about what the culture is about. And I think that's a lot of times, you know,

the culture gets lost because of all the imagery that people are portraying. And any time you got moms, how, you know, the, you know, the moms calling dance hip hop. That's when you know that, you know, you really have to teach the culture because hip hop is the culture. It's not a hip-hop is not a dance. Bring dance again, popping a locket.

That's the dance. That's a dance. It's not, you know. That's a dance. Yeah, that's a dance. All that stuff. That's great. So, you know, our job is to go in and teach kids about the culture.

And other aspects is that, you know, I train people for free. know, the elderly and young people who don't know how to work out at the public speaking with the youth and just a little bit of everything, man, just to get back to the community. No matter where I go, I just try to get back. That is amazing. Is there a website or anything that people could check this out or social media? You know, or you just go to any of my social media sites. I'll try to stay active in social media because, you know, no matter what people say again.

The internet is the gift and a curse. I'd rather use the gift side and actually putting out good information and putting out good vibes because I saw something the other day that says your energy is the first thing people see. So, you know, hopefully my energy over the years have been the first people, first thing people have seen and they know that I'm, you know, I'm a half a decent guy. Yeah, I would say that's the understatement of. of 2022, though, as far, Houston. I appreciate you doing this. 40 hours away from this fight, a little more than that. I really appreciate it.

All the best to you, the rest of fight week at home. I think that makes life a little bit easier as well. And I'm excited to see you back in there on Friday. Well, I appreciate it, man. And condoluses to your uncle, man. You know, I know you're going through a lot of things. And for you to be doing this podcast with me. And it's, you know, I really, my condoluses to you and your uncle and your family.

Thank you so much, Houston. I really appreciate it. No problem, brother. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one.

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