MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat: UFC 249 fight week, Ferguson vs. Gaethje, Cejudo vs. Cruz, more

Episode Date: May 6, 2020

For this episode, Brave CF flyweight Jose Torres joins José Youngs and Petesy Carroll to discuss some of the top stories in mixed martial arts. Some topics include the upcoming UFC 249 card on May 9 in Jacksonville, featuring title fights between Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje and Henry Cejudo vs. Dominick Cruz, and Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik, as well as the planned cards on May 13 and 16, featuring Anthony Smith vs. Glover Teixeira and Alistair Overeem vs. Walt Harris. Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Petesy Carroll: @PetesyCarroll Follow Jose Torres: @ShortyTorresMMA 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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Pizzi, I don't have to just explain to you. You're, of course, the biggest professional wrestling fan on the site, am I right? Of course. A little bit of course. Followed closely by the most pot most. You're the biggest baseball fan on the site, too, if I'm not mistaken. But anyway, this is the Aight LiveJet here on MMAFighting.com here with a regular Wednesday edition. My I'm, of course, Jose Young's, the host.

joining me is my Wednesday partner in crime, Ptzee Carroll. I think he's below me this week. Sometimes he's above me. I think Casey is to the left of me on my screen and joining us back by popular demand. My fellow namesake, Jose Shorty Torres is back. I think he has now officially been the most tenured guest host on this show. So Shorty, welcome back. How's quarantine life?

It's good. I'll miss you guys. I feel like the only reason I'm back is because there was no one on the schedule. They're like, oh, man, we need someone. Shorty, come out back, yeah, you can fill this hole. So, hey, I'm happy to be back. Sure. No puns intended.

But I'm also waiting for my crystal still. During this quarantine is probably the most beat up. I've been throughout this whole, if you want to say camp. For people who don't know, I've been spout with Edson Barboza getting them ready for, is it Daniga? Dianagi. Dude, I'm exhausted. You know, I always like to mess around and be like, man, ATT is going to kick me out of here any day. I don't think they like me.

We have this little group chat where they tell you what partner you're going to be with, whether it's for sparring or wrestling. And they're like, hey, Shorty's going with Edson. I'm like, is this a setup? Is this a trap? Or am I just that fat? Like, does no small guy want to go with me? Why not both?

Dude. Yeah. Yeah. Edson. Yeah, it's actually very true. I don't think about that. Edson is probably one of the whole, like, handful of people that I've ever sparred with. And I've sparred with phenomenal legends.

He's one of those guys where I was actually like tingling before I got in there because I was so excited but also so nervous because you watch, if you don't know him, if you just type in his name on YouTube, the highlight real is just ridiculous. You know, so I'm like, oh, man, I got to stay close, mouth him and I also got to be just like his opponent. So it does change my game style a little bit. Man, I learned so much throughout these two, three weeks. And it's been a lot of fun, but I am definitely beat up.

That's why I'm dressed up. I'm trying to implement the look good, feel good. but I'm dying on the inside here. Are your legs? My legs are actually, thank you, by the way. My legs surprisingly are well because I was trying my best to be like, you know what? What are his biggest strengths? Obviously, his leg kicks are the biggest thing, so I have to stay as close as possible.

But he learned so much inside boxing game. I was like, oh, okay, you know what? I got to try to take you down and trying to take him down how much, you know, again, you do feel the size advantage, even though he's not trying to implement that on me too much. you feel the size of strength advantage, him getting back up. And the scariest thing is his knees. You know, it's like, cool, I'm going to be close so I can muff his leg kicks and I don't know where he would fake and I just grab a clinch and just start kneeing away.

I'm like, oh, my God, I'm going to die. He literally, he's such, he's a very, very phenomenal practice partner, but he just kind of shows you the knees that he's going to hit you in the face, but he never throws him. And you just look at it and it's just kind of like that slow motion. You're like, oh, it's over. It's, oh, it's definitely over. Who's the most brutal training session you've ever, the sparring session you've ever been in there with Shorty?

Like which one when you think about, you're just like, shit, that was awful. I've scrapped with a few people. I think probably some of the most intense I've ever gone with was TJ. Because TJ is known to just kind of go 100% if you can't take the fire, get out of the kitchen type of thing. So him and I have gone back and forth scrap. And I know when he was getting ready for Leniker, I was with him pretty much for a full month of, I think, three days a week just sparring with the small puffy gloves. So we were just cracking each other. And it's, it definitely was one of the most painful experiences ever.

Was that down in Florida? Jesus. That one was down in, uh, or up in Colorado when he was at, uh, the muscle farm, um, and he was, you know, with Dwayne Ludwig before training lab ever started in Anaheim, California. So it was a good time, but it was funny because I'm like, oh, man, I'm, I'm trading with them back and forth. And you hear Dwayne, he's like, he's finding Leniker. Don't throw any jabs. Don't throw any straight punches.

Just do this. And I'm like, that just means I'm going to get hit that much more. Cool. Thanks, coach. We'll be. And it was, I think I had a black eye at the end of every single week. I've heard a lot of stories about T.J. T.J. J. J. Dachal and how he trains.

And it's basically, yeah, it's basically a fight. He's just super intense in the gym. Yeah, no, he's, I mean, some of the best in the world. You can talk about. basketball like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or you can talk about MMA fighters or boxing, they hate losing. So they do everything possible to win.

And T.J., whether you hear the rumors or the actual stories of him punching after the bell or doing this, he's done it a couple times, but that's how much he's committed to winning. Like, he just hates losing that much that he just goals all out. And if you saw happen to be knocked out, again, if you can't take the fire,

at least with T.J, stay out of the kitchen. Is there anyone you've trained with that? You'd be like, I'm never training with that guy again. That's never going to happen again. I haven't had that per se, at least sparring-wise. I know, like I've rolled a Moikano a couple times. And his level Jiu-Jitsu is just here.

And Moikano doesn't have the control button sometimes when it comes to rolling with someone his size to rolling with somebody smaller. He treats everyone like their heavy weight. So he is tossing you around like a ragdaw. Dude, his level of jihitsu is just so belittled right now by the U.S. that it's, again, it's a whole different thing practice, but I've never been man-handled like that before. Wow.

You ever spar with Curtis Blades? I've actually spar with Curtis Blades a bunch of times. He keeps ducking me. He, oh, he does another one. So shout out Curtis Blades. If you want to make a celebrity, there's a reason why he faced Anthony Rumble Johnson in that sumo wrestling matches because he denied me, you know?

So, you know, he definitely doesn't want to see. Curtis does not want this. This is why he's in Colorado. He's not with me down in American Topton. We'll make it a story where you're, he's holding back the, uh, all that, uh, monetary gain from those T-shirts you guys put out, right? So you guys got to spar up in the money. I just want to say, talking about those T-shirts, that guy did no work about that.

He's like, oh, cool, you can put my face on it and never promoted it. Put it once in a store and I think he took it down like two hours in. I'm like, um, you know, this is all my money, right? I get to keep this. I just want to say that. But now he's a good guy, even though I will mess him up any day out of the week. There you go. Shorty, what's that fine line when you're training between, like, maybe a guy like T.J.

Between the guy that's a really good training partner versus, you know, really intense training partner versus a guy that's, he's just going to hurt you. Or you're just like, you know, you don't want to break your toys, basically, during training. Like, you definitely don't want to break your toys. But, you know, for me, if I'm smart with somebody like T.J. or sparring with somebody just in general, I'm going to go as hard as you go with me. I usually let you throw the first punch

and I go, okay, cool, you're kind of clocking me. All right, I can throw it back. But then you have some practice partners like Barbosa or even Marlon Marais. Him and I went the slowest, most technical sparring run I've ever had. We're hitting each other, but we're maybe throwing 30, 40 percent. Some of the times you still land clean

and you're just like, oh, that would have sucked. All right, cool. And then you just keep on moving. But when you go with a guy like TJ or even, even like Pedro Munoz and I have scrapped a couple times. We're like, yeah, we're sparring nice and then we're just like here. And then, you know, we somebody lands clean and then the eagles start to come into play. And I don't know, we're just like lineering this whole place.

It depends on who you're going with. But I mean, I've seen, I've seen some brutal sporn matches. I've seen some, like Yawanna. Yonah is one of those people that, again, she hates losing, but she wants to make the sparring matches as competitive as possible. And so there'll be times where you know Some of the bigger guys would go with there and kind of move But they'll go light

And then she'll just start swearing at them And you're just like whoa whoa Like you want to relax She's like you'll punch like a whatever And just like Dude just sock her Just hit her as hard as possible And see how she reacts

And dude she fires back She gets hit clean I don't know She's hitting you with like a 10 piece combo She's a savage man She's such a fucking savage For a woman She talks the most smack to all the men

Like, I can I swear on the show? I don't know if I can swear it. Yeah, please. Do it. She's like, you punch like a fucking bitch and you're just like, well, I started getting a bigger bigger accent. But I was just like, holy crap. Like, dude, gut shatter.

And then I don't know her, like somebody will gutshot her. And she just comes back even harder. You're like, all right, cool. She's backing up the words, you know? She's not just talking smack and then doing whatever. But I've seen, I've seen guys sparred with Leniker talking smack and him. Like, ah, nothing doing the, like, the Philly shuffle or, you. you know, the garden and all the stuff,

and then I don't know, you can drop by body shot. And you're just like, ah, this is why you shouldn't talk smack. So it gets pretty crazy. I've seen, I've seen people get knocked out. I've seen people doing some really, really dumb stuff. And then I've seen some very, very slow but technical sparring. Did you ever train with, did you ever train with Hector Lombard? Oh, so I remember.

I've heard many legends about him and the sparring. By the time I got here, he was already gone. but rumor hasn't he's broken like two jaws they're inspired you know and then he ended up leaving or i don't know if he got kicked out of ATT or left ATT again i don't know i wasn't here and he opened up a small little training facility down the block so he was working with um another Valerie that was in the UFC now in bellator uh yeah so um they were working together and he wanted to show moves on me because i was helping her i was being her practice partner and dude He was just manhandling me, but he's like, yeah, you do the move like this and you do that.

I'm just like, you know, you're like 10 weight classes above me and you're just jacked. You know, like he, that guy, and he gets, he gets, he has a temper. He gets angry very, very fast. But, no, I never sparred with him. I never want to spar with him. He scared the hell out of me. But he is one of the nicest guys in the world, but definitely scared the hell out of me. Well, we were at, what was that jujitsu thing we went to in December case?

Oh, Quintet. I don't know if you watched that, but he was part of. I think was it the Pride team? And it was like elimination style. So like the first matchup was like UFC versus Pride and Sugar Sean tapped Gomi. So then Gomi leaves and then like Hector Lombard just like walks out to face Sugar Sean who's like a 1.45er. And then Lombar just throws him down and like heel hooks him in about 30 seconds.

It was pretty unbelievable. It's a massive man. Dude, he gives zero flux. He's like, oh, we're competing. All right, cool. He just starts going like his ego. At least a training. I think that's why he's bro.

broken multiple jaws here is just, it's through the roof. We also saw him in line for Starbucks, and he's, I've never seen a bigger contrast in a group of individuals in my entire life than Hector Lombard, who was getting ready for a jiu-jitsu tournament in a line for Starbucks at like the Red Rocks, which is like a resort and spa. So, and then Casey goes, oh, it's Hector Lombard. I go, where he goes, oh, don't you see the giant ass over there standing in line? Like literally his ass, like literally his ass. Hector Lombard does have the best ass in MMA.

I'm just, I mean... Oh, that's it. I'm going to put my... Yeah. Shorty, I mean, you're a close, like, third, fourth. I'm a number. I'll take that.

I'm a number, it says. We haven't even got any fan questions. We've been talking about Spark for about 15 minutes. So Casey, as usual, I'm sure we have a million questions for Shorty. I'm sure he saw most of them on Twitter. Do we have... For our viewers out there, Yeah, we've had a few people saying my volume is low, so hopefully it's fixed.

So leave nice comments if my volume is okay. Or maybe I should turn my volume off. Maybe that will make everyone happy. First question. First question from KDock MMA. Question for surety, how often would he train strictly BJJ and what are his go-to positions to play half guard, ex-guard, etc.? hashtag the A-Sad? So you're talking about sparring.

K Doc wants to know how often you strictly train BJJ and what are your top positions? I strictly train at least twice a week on it. I wish I would do it more, but I've been working with Dean Thomas a lot more on MMA Jiu-Jitsu, throwing combinations, take downs to specific round and pound and changing the position and making the opponent pretty much move and put himself in a submission instead of trying to play BJJ versus BJJ.

You know, if I go with Alejandro Pantoja or H. trying to morize with some of those black belts here. If it's just BJJ, they're going to just, they're going to tear me apart. But now I can start throwing punches, I mix it up. So when it comes to straight BJJ, for sure, once a week, but if not minimum, two times a week. But it's, it is a little difficult for me. I prefer, I'm more judo based.

So for me, it's my three styles are boxing Muay judo. So I like the box. People don't like the fire. I get to do the Muay Thai clinch. They don't like that too. I get to set up. beautiful throne, I usually land in side mount. Side mount is 100% my go-to thing.

If I can land in side-mount, I'm going to stay there and I'm going to beat you up. But if I'm landing in half-guard or guard, I'm more than likely trying to get back up because these T-Rex arms, I'm not the best I get out of guard. Who is, I don't know how to phrase this. Who has been, like, when I interviewed Frank Mirr once and I was talking about like sparring or training, BJJ rolling, and he was like, Like, it's pretty unbelievable. Like, when he, he rolled with Damien Maya once, and he was just like, I couldn't do anything.

And he was about 130 pounds lighter than me. Who makes you drown the most when you roll with them, I'll say. All right. So the funny most, I guess, embarrassing sparring story for me, at least, was I didn't know who, like, honey, yeah, yeah, was. I didn't know anything. I don't know anything about him. Like, seriously, some Brazilian came in. And he looks a little older and he comes in.

And I was like, whose dad is this? Like, who's, am I just kind of helping some dude spar? Sure, I'll move with him. And we're with big gloves. We're doing MMA sparring. And we're sparring. I know he merely shoots for a take down. I'm like, oh, cool.

Okay, this guy's, you know, got the grown man strength. He takes me down and I'm a scrambler. So I kind of wait for you to try to throw a submission. I'll get out. I'd never been stuck in a position knowing what's going to happen and just it happened. Like, I didn't let it happen, but it's one of those things where you're just like, oh, cool, I know the arm's coming up. I know what I'm going to do in that.

I don't know where I'm just like losing air. I'm like, okay, cool. All right, top, tap. And then we get back up. I'm like, all right, you got one cool, man. I got you. Then I start going at it again. He takes me down again.

In 10 minutes, he tapped me out with big gloves. He tapped me out seven times. Whoa. Jesus Christ. And I'm like, and again, I really do have high level defense and scrambling. So I'm like, who the fuck is this guy? Dude, I was livid. and we have a sauna here

so I'm just like you have married your sparring's over I take off my stuff I'm all moody I go in the sauna and legit I just wanted to cry

I'm in the sauna just about to tear up and then honey fucking walks in and he's like oh brother good job I'm just like yeah you too

go fuck yourself yeah like I don't even want to talk to me and so he leaves he leaves first and the Formico walks in and I'm just super grumpy all just I don't want to talk to anybody and Formiga's like

Shorty what's Ryan I was like man, honey, he's just, he beat the shit out of me today. He tapped me out like seven times. He goes, he goes, Shorty, how about this? How about this? Your jiu-tzu, here. My jiu-tzu, here.

Honey's here. It's okay. It's okay. I'm just like, you know what? I feel a little better than I looked up how many world championships he's one of jih jih Tzu's like, all right. I feel a little better. And then I kept rolling with him.

And now it's hard. Like, he's still taps me out, but it's much harder for him to tap me out now. So I'm like, okay, cool. As long as there's some progression, awesome. but dude he like over-emphasizing the fuck he fucked me up she ever seen the video of um ben ascran and marcel garcia roland it's unbelievable it's it's unbelievable it really is um because ascran's like obviously a incredibly decorated wrestler but he he's he's rolling like this is a jitsu round but unbelievable man

marcella garcia this tiny little dude is like yoda or something it's just it's one of the best clips I've ever watched just in terms of highlighting the power of elite elite jiu-jitsu. It's unbelievable. I'd recommend it's all on, it's on YouTube. You should check it out. It's unbelievable. Like, it's honestly like open your mouth. Like, what though is going on here? Unbelievable

stuff. It's crazy because he was telling me, he goes, stand-up wise, I get exhausted like that. But he goes, on the ground, I can roll around for hours. For some reason, he just never gets exhausted. And so when we're going with him, I was like, all right, cool, he's going to tire out. And it just seemed like he just got

stronger and stronger and stronger. And it was, it was a very, very horrible moment for me. So if his level of BGJ is a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, where are you at? If that were the case compared to him, I'm like a 4 and 4 mega's a 7. You know, like, that's just, that's just, and I really do like I can, I'm not, I'm not the big tap out artist, but I can definitely scramble, get out. And especially for MMA ground the pound, which that was MMA sparring. Dude, he wrecked me. He wrecked me technically at my own game and he it was it it was literally the

moniker of like black belt versus blue belt you know it just it was bad and I I've rolled in competitions where I rolled as a brown bow and I tapped out some black belt but this guy was just a whole different level of black belt he just had a draw

right was that his last fight in Brazil Enrique Barzola which is funny because Enrique was here and he was like my next door neighbor roommate type of thing and him and I used to share, he would cook food and he would make a syvice,

Peruvian savice, which is amazing. I love Mexican-Savica, Peruvian Cevich is just that much better. Sorry, guys. But, dude, it has so much better. It's so much better. But I was like, oh, hey, honey, I'm having the Peruvians coming over. This is when our Enrique is already gone.

I was like, you want some Peruvian-Sav-Sav-Chi? No, nothing-Proven. You say Brazil. Brazil, Brazil, Brazil. Brazil is like, oh, you team Brazil? Brazil. Oh, damn, I'm going to go to my room. I'm going to go to my room. I'm like it got real tense during fight week.

It sounds like you get picked on down there in ATT. Oh, dude, I get bullied so much. That's why I miss Curtis because I get to bully him. We're going to how that works, right? And then he looks like my enforcer next to me, so I never get bullied. Casey, are you still there? He's a big dude. Did we figure out?

No, he's torn off his body and remember? Oh, right, right, right. Voli. Casey, do you have another question for Shorty? I'm sure Casey's like, I have so many questions to ask Shorty right now. What, he can't? Someone ask him. Because whenever we talk about sparring and stuff, Casey gets all excited. Seriously, from Gerardo on Twitter at J.C. Dulo's 1.

Seriously, why do people think Connor has a chance against Mosvidal? Did they not see what he did to Till sending him to the shadow realm? Hashtag the ace side. So, P.C., I'll start with you, since this is, of course, a question about a little Irish fighter named Connor McGregor. Why do people think Conn McGregor has a chance against Horace Mazudal says Gerardo on Twitter?

I guess because it's a fight that's taking place within his wheelhouse, right? Like, I mean, we know what Masvedal's going to do. We know what Connor's going to do. And, you know, people who are fans of Connor think, like, he's the most powerful

fighter who has ever lived. You know what I mean? So, I mean, if he has a chance to land his left hand, they think that he he has a chance to win that fight. So I guess that's why people think it's a, it's a good fight for Connor. Whether it is or not, it's hard to know,

especially at Welterweight where Masvidal's an absolute beast. And, like, I mean, even the Diaz fight, I mean, I know people debate what, what could have happened,

but what did happen was pretty fucking crazy. You know, it was pretty astonished. And I thought he was banging Nate Diaz around the octagon. Really unbelievable stuff. You know, I think you could pretty much match Connor with Brock Lesnar right now and people would be like he's going to win the fight. You know what I mean?

That's just the way his fans are. They're ravenous and they're very, very passionate. I think I'd have to favor Marsved al at that fight went down. Shorty, ATT guy in this question. Why do people think Connor have, Connor has a chance against your teammate, Jorge Mosvedal? Technically, everyone has a fighting chance, especially in the first round. If I were to fight Mazuadol, watch you come up here and just soften the face. I technically have a fighting chance in the first round against Mazadol.

But here's the thing that we have to look at, it's just two different weight classes. Like Connor is technically a lightweight. Yeah, he's made by the way before, but his home is at lightweight. Him bump it up to 170 was him fighting two lightweights. I don't know if he fought Toronia at 170, but I know the Dias fight was at 170. So he fought two small guys around his weight class and just didn't want to cut weights. so they decided to bump up. Mazaro, on the other hand, has to go down.

He is a big guy who technically cuts to make 170. So the power is definitely different. But Connor has an amazing left hand, and he's very strategic with his punches. The problem is, after the first run, I think Mazaro's size and power, if he lasts, which I believe will be very easy for him, he's just going to dominate that fight. And we saw against that Diaz fight, Mazuro is no joke, man. He can put it on people. I think people underestimate Michael's gas tank.

A lot of people talk about his power, but I was talking to him off camera at USC 244 at Media Day, and he was just talking about triathlons and like these long endurance things that he's done. And I'm just like, see, everyone's talking about your knees and your elbows and your boxing. But, I mean, you could just drag someone to the fourth and fifth round and just beat the soul out of him, too. That's why this argument that Nate was probably going to come back and win round four and five. I'm like, that's like, myswell's gas tank. He's way up there too. So, and I'm sorry, Pizzi, but your countryman's gas tank is not the greatest.

How dare you? How dare you doing this to be on live goddamn streams? Respect Ireland. But no, look, I'll tell you one thing. If they made that for you, it would be absolutely enormous. That's one of the biggest spice I can make right now. We were like, this is a monumental occasion if these two meet right now. Maserald's got all the juice coming off.

these amazing knockouts he's put together. I think it's an unbelievable fight. I think the two personalities go brilliantly together and I think it would be one that the fan base would absolutely lap up. I can remember at the post-fight press conference after the Soroni fight, Dana was talking about Connor and Habib

and Mazved al and Usman and me and you were looking at each other, Jose going, I should just make Masvidal and McCrigger right now. I don't think, I don't think like that a lot of people ran with the article about the, um, Dana White, um, saying, you know, it's something that could, could happen. Like, I, I, I, I feel like it's still a long, long, long way away from happening, to be

honest. like I'd love it to happen, but that just in me, my own gut, I just don't feel like it's, it's going to be next for either than them. I mean, that whole fight week was like, Masudal launched his requirdo, his mescal. And then me and you interviewed him and he was like, what if it was like a stake in proper 12 versus a stake in requirto he's like fuck it let's do it like my as well I was saying all the right things

I don't like how he wore that robe to the fights because it was the exact same robe Connor wore to like I think it was like when he was getting his hands wrapped before the Mayweather fight he was like work out for the Mayweather for yeah and then even Connor was like why did he do that like I don't understand what he I don't get it and then everyone in the room was like I don't get it either

it was just what he was wearing so even if he had just destroyed Nate in New York, I bet that fight would happen, but Connor's like, there's too many questions for that, after that BMFT, but I want it. I like that fight, but I agree with Pizzi. Probably a long ways away.

Shorty, have you tried Requiredo yet? I have not. Mazurro has not come in and given free samples yet, so I'm just waiting on that, and then from there, we'll go upon that. It is, even we got free samples. I'm like, oh, that's messed up. I haven't tried, but what's,

with Connors, the proper 12. I haven't tried that. I haven't tried Mazurals. I've been drinking as monster and I'm still waiting for Hansel. You know, give me that call, you know, whatever. I saw you tag him in your Instagram story. Dude, I've tried so hard. I'm pretty sure he's blocked me. I'm pretty sure he's blocked me. Well, as someone who's tried proper 12 and requirdo, I personally like Requirdo a lot better than the proper 12. though I had about me and Pee-to when we interviewed Jorge, we walked into the Requiredo launch and we ran into Abe Kawaz's manager and he's like, if you want to interview me, if you want to interview him, you have to try this, try this so you could talk about it.

And we're like, all right. So we did like one shot. And then we're waiting in line and we interview Jorge. And then Jorge walks up and taps me on the shoulder. He goes, you got to drink this right now. I'm like, I just had one. He goes, drink it. So we both took another one.

And then on camera, he's like, here are two more. And so we had about three shots of his drink in about 15 minutes and there was no food there. And there were just boiling hot lights on us everyone. I was like, this is this interview is not going to be great. But 10 of 10 interview, I think. Stivo crashed it too. It felt like a fever dream. Like, Steveo just walked in in our interview too.

It was quite the scene. It was quite the scene. It was. The only thing that I've seen be crashed here is my brother decided to drive my car all the way down from Chicago to Florida, which is amazing. and then comes in and I go, hey man, number one rule is put your phone away. Don't take any photos of anybody. If you want a photo with somebody, come to me first and I'll ask them politely. My brother ignored everything.

Start to film everyone even while they were sparring and then walked on the mat. Dude, he walked on the mat while Dustin Porre and Mazurah were sparring. And right when they finished the second round in their minute break, he walked up in between them and took a selfie. Yeah, brother sounds like a legend. Dude, the worst thing about it is that it all worked out perfect for him. Yeah, like, somehow when he walked out, like, usually somebody walks up to him, like, dude, I'm sparring, like, leave me alone, give me, you know, my break, and then I'll come take a picture with you.

He walked up to them. I'm thinking they're going to punch him or somewhere, push him off mad or yell at him. He walked up to them. Both of them were like this, posing. And I was like, oh, God, you're not helping me, man. I'm trying to get him to follow the rules. You guys are just antagonizing him. I can hear Casey's blood boiling, like, through the speakers right now, probably.

Like, at someone who he's probably, like, like, cringing right now. I'm going to look for this photo, though. Yeah, I can't wait to it. I'm, like, all tensed up listening to that. Like, I remember when we had, uh, when Danny Segaro worked there and he went down to ATT, he was telling me all the rules and stuff. And just hearing, walking on the mats, like, stresses me out, too. Like, I'm when I see that.

I don't know if you guys could see it. Oh, my God. That's amazing. You just walked up to them I was like Dude I can't leave you a load of this building by yourself You're like Shut out Mission D-Tech on Instagram

Oh God Oh my God Casey do you have any other Any more question Well we have a million question What's our next question? Thank you Gerardo for the question Oh

Boot, boot boop Boop from user YouTube user Oliver Ursell What happens post-USU-SU-C-249 to the 135-pound division? Talks are that Sterling and Sandhagen is being discussed for June 6th, Jan Marais, the week after. What happens if Cruz wins? So, Shorty, I'll ask you, I'll start with you because it's around your weight class. Also, Henry Sehudo was the champion of your weight class before he relinquished the title.

What do you, first off, before we answer this man's question, what do you think of the fight between Sohudo and Dominant Cruz, the former band of weight chairman coming off three-year layoff on getting the immediate title shot right away. I think it is a fan entertaining fight and I think it's actually a more competitive fight than what a lot of people expect. Dominic Cruz is a phenomenally smart man. You hear him one commentating and you hear how he just breaks

down fights and strategizes what's going to happen next. His loss against Cody Garbrand was Cody got into his head and he decided to completely divert from his game plan and just attack, attack, attack, which Cruz is not an attacker. The benefit for him is,

Suhudo is. Suhudo has now become this aggressive fighter. He's not just the wrestling anymore. And Suhudo's gotten so much better from being knocked out in the first round by DJ to last in all five rounds and winning the controversial split decision, knocking out TJ and being Marlon Mori, switch that one. That's the fight that got my respect because I'm not a huge fan of Suhudo, but man, after that fight, you have to respect him as a person, as a fighter, and just his performance in general.

Not the king of cringe for Henry Suhudo. and I think it's a lot closer to fight. I still give the edge to Hudo, but I would love Dominicruz the win, just legacy-wise. I think it's a great thing for him. We'll see what happens, but if Tujo loses, what's going to happen next? Does he get an immediate rematch?

Does he have to fight one of the up-and-comers? Or does he decide to go, you know what, I will cut the weight. I'm going to go back down the flyway and try to keep this division alive. I think it will 100% depend on how the fight plays out. If it's razor thin, I bet they do the rematch,

but if Cruz just goes out there and 50-45s him, like Cruz has known to do to many of an opponent, I doubt they could give a rematch. But who knows? Andrew Sehudo is obviously one of the more talked about fighters of this division. What do you make of this fight, Pizzi, between Suhudo and Dominic Cruz? Yeah, it's very interesting.

There's no doubt about it. But what happens if Cruz wins, I'd say Jose Aldo gets very pissed off. Because Henry Suhudo is constantly putting his name in the mix, Volcanovsky, all of that stuff. I don't know. I think Cruz can win.

I just feel as though the performance against Dillishar when he came off the shelf and he won the split decision, that's nearly like a once-in-a-lifetime storybook moment, right? Yeah. I think he's an amazing boy. I think the greatest 135 of whoever lived. But I think that against TJ, I think that's the storybook situation there for Cruz.

If you can do it again, it's wild. I'm not completely ruin them out by any stretch of the imagination. It's just, it's just a big ask, I feel. But what an amazing story would be. Like, shorthy, I wanted to ask you, like, how much will height play a part here? Could that be a big advantage for Dominic here? Like, I mean, I feel like he has a lot of height over Henry Zuto. And one of his training partners, Brendan Lachnine said he feels as though it's going to be a big thing in the fight

because of the way Dominic fights. Yeah, and the length, when he's defensive, when he's playing his game, he's extremely hard to hit. The problem is, can you take him down? Yes, but that length also plays a game. It plays a factor. That's why it's extremely hard to take down John Jones.

That's why it's extremely hard to do certain things against John Jones because he's just at a different height limit against everyone else. I hope cruiser shocked the world. I really, that's my ultimate goal, and that's something I want to watch. but Sehudo, what I see this fight or how I see this fight playing out, it's going to be a wrestling match. I don't think Segoo is going to be able to tag him as much as he wants. Segoodo's become this phenomenal boxer on the inside. I mean, we saw his fight against Malamara.

He was finally doing some work. The only problem is every single fighter that Sevudo's thought has been around his height, if not an inch or two different. Dominic Cruz, I don't know the height difference, but the length is substantial. So being able to work that inside game against Cruz, Cruz doesn't stand still. You're not going to be able to hit him in the face cleanly. Can you hit him in the face? Sure. But I honestly think if Segudo does win this fight, it's going to be possibly a, you know,

you're going to have a decision kind of how Sehudo beat Sergio Pettis, where he's just, you know what, I don't want to fight the stand-up game. Let me just take you down, hold you down, and win a fight. And I would like to point out two fighters with ties to Arizona. shout out to Arizona. And even in the main event, Justin Gatchi from Arizona. So three of the four title fights ties to Arizona.

Shorty, I want to ask you this. What would be harder, taking three-year layoff and coming back against T.J. Dulleshaal or taking three-year layoff and coming back against Henry Suhudo? Coming back against Henry Suhudo. And the reason why I say that is because

T.J. Dillishaw is going to stand and bang with you. And yeah, he's going to mix it up. But naturally, I think he is a smaller guy, a smaller build than Ariah Suhudo. I think the hardest thing to build conditioning-wise on, especially if you have that ring rust, that huge layoff, is a ground game. If I want to stand in and trade with somebody, at least there's a 50-50 chance,

but getting taken down, especially against an Olympic gold medalist who's going to be able to hold you down. He's held some of the best down. I just, that is easily the hardest thing. So coming back to fight, T.J, there's a fighting chance. Those styles are very similar. Now it's literally polar opposite, where one guy definitely wants to take this fight down to the ground. If I was fighting Dominic Cruz, My goal would be to take him down because I don't want to mess the length, nor I don't want to waste my energy trying to hit him and attack him. Well, I can tell you one fight I want to see it. If Dominic Cruz wins, Jose Aldo versus Dominic Cruz, I've wanted since the WEC days. Like, I've wanted, I keep talking about Cruz versus Frankie Edgar.

But once Dominic Cruz got this title fight, I started to think like, God damn it. Like, I've interviewed when Dominic Cruz fought, no, when Jose Alta fought Connor, they did like this. a bunch of like a media day for a bunch of fighters not on that fight in that weekend but had fights coming up and this was before Cruz fought Dillosh. So this is a month before in December. And I asked him how he felt about a WEC champion, former WC champion headlining like the biggest card in UFC history. And he talked about Josie Aldo for about 20 minutes. And I asked him one question. So you just, you know Cruz has so much respect for Aldo that it would be so interesting to watch that. I want to watch that fight very badly. I like the frame.

who you think would win that fight? Oh, man, I don't know. I mean, Cruz has looked pretty unbeatable at 135 outside of that Cody Garbrandt fight, but it's not like he got destroyed and I think Aldo beat Malamores. That's hard for me. That's super, super hard for me. I want to see how Cruz looks against Zahudo first. We're making this hypothetical, this matchup and the fight hasn't even happened against

Zahudo. I hate doing that. But I would go with Aldo. Although those late kicks would definitely change the game. it's good to see so much movement that 135 now now that we have a few fights

and now it's like Marais and Jan and I talk about Aljo and Sandhagen as well right? Yeah. Like that for me is a great little tournament you know what I mean? Like that's a brilliant

couple of fights there I think. Yeah, we had Brian Keller on and we basically finished the match to make a Bellator Bellator, Bantam White Grand Prix. So let's make it happen

UFC. But Casey, next question. I'm not sure I'm not Oh he's back But you guys can hear me But a little sneak preview

We have a Ryan Hall interview Coming out on Thursday And in that Ryan Hall interview Do you know who Ryan Hall's What bit of his dream matchup is Jose Auto I was like Man Ryan Hall Josei Auto

I'm in voice Did you pass out from pure Ecstasy Casey? Yeah I woke up like five minutes before we started the broadcast Oh wow So for those of you couldn't hear Casey. He said we had an interview of Ryan Hall, and Ryan Hall says he wants to fight Jose Aldo too. Sign me up for Ryan Hall v. Anyone. And I'm down to watch it. From Trumbo

on the site, which fight of the night, U.S. 249, which fight is sleeper contender for fight of the night, not Tony versus Justin? I'm so excited for these fights. So Shorty, I'll start with you. What is your sleeper pick for fight of the night? I feel like everyone is pulling up this card right now. Yeah, I got to, is it on UFC's page? It should be on Wikipedia. I personally like Charles Rosa, Bryce Mitchell. I think that's a pretty under the radar fight that people aren't talking about. Is Charles Roses still down at ATT?

Yeah, yeah. He's still down here. And he, him and I have been talking about a lot. And that's something he's very, very excited about because it is a very good stylistic matchup. And he's fighting a kid who's going to try to feed off his name. And it's vice versa. So I think he's trying to break down this hype trend. It's got to be Nico Price and Vincento Luka.

That's what I was. I assume everyone was going to say. Oh, you are excited? That shit, okay, hang on. I think everyone, that's the one everyone's going to say. It's like, Nico Price is just a bundle of energy. I think what, it's not, I don't know if it's going to be a great fight, but I fancy, I'm really fancy in Jorgon de Castro to pull off a big upsayer.

It would have been an upset? I don't know if it's an upset. I don't know if it's an upset. But, but I feel like with the casual audience watching on, they expect something that happened here in these Greg Hardy fights because a lot of people feel he's been getting softballs and I think Yorg and DeCastro after we saw what he did in Melbourne holy shit man I'm excited to see the rematch

versus Seroni and Pettis yeah you know that's something that's really really big and you know Seroni's like dude he landed a body shot and it just it shut me down there's nothing I could do about it but I think seroni's grown so much from that fight and Pettis I believe is become a different athlete since that day. I don't know if Pettis is still in his heyday

because he has some amazing performances still, but then he has been shut out in some, you know, some fights. You know, so Saroni's style has improved a lot. I'm giving the slight edge of Seroonian on this one, but you never know. Talking about Jiu-Zetzu, Oletseo-Lenik versus Fabricio Ver Doom,

that's a... Imagine it to be E. C-Kills where Doom. Holy God. My God. I mean, I think it's impossible. but I mean, the way that guy latches onto jokes, he's just standing in front of you like, and you're watching him do it.

And you're like, what's going on? Come on, mount me. I don't care. Just go ahead, mount me. We're not even, not even mount like, I remember who did, uh,

was it albini that he like got it to him standing and then just like felt he pulled guard, he locks it in in the clinch and then just pulls guard to his back and chokes him out that way. So didn't even need. That's the weirdest one, right? That was the weird one. But I am just,

I forgot this fight was on the car, but Jeremy Stevens v. Calvin Cater. Oh, yeah. That fight absolutely rules. Someone tweeted, I can't remember who it was, but it was like Calvin Cater versus like Shane Burgos and USC 220. Like that fight happened too soon. Like they were still like prospects and they fought now.

That fight is like their their careers were parallel and they fought on like it was before the fight. It was before DC versus Vulcan in Boston. And like everyone was talking about. how that card was so top-heavy. I'm like, Calvin Cater of Shane Burgos is on that card. This fight is not top-heavy,

and then I quickly realized that that fight happened too soon. Like, it would have, I wish that fight, that fight has to, that fight has to be run back again. And apparently Jeremy Stevens, like,

pulled, like, we have another interview with Calvin Cater coming out, and Calvin told the story how Jeremy Stevens, like, found him at a UFC event,

pulled him aside, and then brought Sean Shelby into the meeting. It was like, we're fighting. Like, that's how that fight was made. was Jeremy Stevens meeting up with Calvin Cater in the UFC event asking Sean Shelby.

There's a few nice Stoyles matchups, isn't there? I mean, there's Asparza on Waterson. There's Jack Array and Uroyo Hall. Like, they're always worth to watch. You know, I love these, the Stoils flash. I think they always kind of result in an exciting fight. And Ronor, too. Like, that was supposed to be a five-round fight.

I am hesitant to say that won't go all three rounds because I said that a million times. it, of course, has happened, but I can't imagine that fight goes overly long. Anyway, Casey, next question. I see you trying to tee up another one. From Joseph Boza on the site, Dana was on Barstool Sports the other day. He's saying now that they may strip Steepay

because Steepay is playing games. What are your thoughts on the latest Dana v. Stepe mess? That's a disaster. I have a lot of thoughts on this. Imagine a world. And I don't even have to imagine this is very well happen. Imagine a world where Dana White strips of not just a heavyweight champion in the world,

but a first responder during the coronavirus pandemic. Like, Stipe is out there. Like, actually, he is an essential. And like, he has an essential, not just an essential job. He is a first responder going to help people. His state, Ohio, is in lockdown. He cannot go to his gym. He cannot physically go to his gender train.

So what is he doing instead? He's a firefighter and a first responder amid a pandemic. And Dana White might strip from the heavyweight championship because he says, well, probably won't fight till fall or winter. Imagine a world where that is a good idea. Just imagine shorty. I could talk about him. Excuse me. He's poking out.

He's poking out. He's like, you know what? I don't want to defend this belt. I'll take more hours. Let me take more hours. You know, it's, no, and that's the crazy thing that people don't look at. They don't look at behind the scene stuff. That's why there's always so much smack talk, but no one knows the facts behind him.

He is the first responder. The guy is technically saving lives. He is busy being an essential worker, especially during this crazy time. These fights, in my opinion, shouldn't be happening, but they are. And if you're going to, you know, get mad at a person for helping the community and helping his people, then shame on you. I don't think that's the best thing you should be saying. But hey, you know, so be it, fans want to say what they want to say. The internet's always somehow going to win.

But I believe it would be complete disrespect and dishonorable for, for Steve A to be stripped of his belt because he's busy at the moment. Pisa, your thoughts on this, Tom Foolery. Terrific. I mean, it's just the worst look ever if they try and do this. Like, I mean, Jesus Christ. And we've been through a few worst look ever is over the last month or so. So I think it's time to just leave it. alone, you know what I mean?

Like, putting that guy on their unnecessary stress in this situation where he's out saving lives. I mean, Jesus Christ. Yeah, I think it's an awful look. Absolutely disgraceful. Thank you for the question, Joseph Bosa, and for getting my blood boiling early. What is they supposed to do? Like, save someone from a fire and then pull them on, be like, hey, I'm getting ready for this fight.

Can we spar really quick before you step in the ambulance? Is that okay? Spar and COVID. Just real quick, real quick. he's like spotting him 10 times before he takes out of the house Stepe also in that interview buddy shots into that interview Stepe did on ESPN though like 10 out of 10 backdrop it was like he was like in a library

with like glasses perfectly quaffed hair 10 out of 10 backdrop stepe looked more like a like a professor than a UFC heavyweight champion of the world from at the seaside glad to have pizza back and especially want to hear which fight he predicts will be the most have the most social distancing hashtag the A's side. So PC, which fight do you think we'll have the most social distancing on this card? I assume he means which fight is this going to be a lot of circling.

Dominic Cruz, man, the king of movement. But if I was fighting Gersinio or Francis and Ghani, it would be as far away from either of those guys as possibly could be. Yeah, so I'm going Dominic Cruz for the social distancing champ of UFC 249. Shorty, which fight you think has the most social distancing on your YouTube? I'm looking at it right now. That's, that's a very, very smart answer.

Dominic Cruz is literally going to put you a punches and then get the hell out of there. Unless he gets taken down to Hudo, King of a Cringe, he's going to do completely the opposite of what the government tells him to do. He's going to smother him to death. But, you know, that, yeah, no, Dominic Cruz is easily the best answer. He does not want to play nor does he want to get sick. I think it's going to be Ryan's fan, Sam. Malvey. And I don't think it's, I don't think it's going to be like one of those boring fights,

but I think I've seen a lot of Sam Alvey fights where it's like two and a half rounds of just like of him doing this looking like he wants to punch and him just like this kind of looking at each other. And then he just lands one punch. And like he either gets knocked out or his opponent gets knocked out. So I think it's going to be Sam Alvey Ryan's phone. Casey, do you want to add anything? Yeah, yeah. You just popped in to just give us a disapproving look. Dominic Cruz is going to fight with his mask on and so have it on by the time the fight's over. That's how much he's going to get out of the way.

I think Pete you is right. If Dominic wins, it will be a socially distant fight in a good way. Yeah, it's really interesting. A negative thing. No, not at all. As soon as he was going to walk in, just cough on his hands. Let's go. From Sports Week MMA.

on Twitter. I saw recently you said, I assume this is for Shorty. I saw recently you said that you felt like you were replaceable body in the UFC and a lot of that had to do with the way the UFC sees the flyweight division as a whole. What is the biggest example you can point to of how the UFC disrespected you personally or the division? So Shorty, you can answer this whatever you want, but this is specifically for you. What's the biggest example you can point to of the UFC treating you as, quote, a replaceable body? Well, a replaceable body, you look at my resume for people who don't know. I was a two-time world champ, 25-and-1 as an amateur, 25 straight wins. I was 7-0 in Titan FC, five fights. I did what Kahnem-Morger did at 14-2 and 2. It became a double-weight class champ and defended one in the process. I defended both my belts a total three times. And enter the UFC at 7-0, I believe, on a 34-fight winning streak total in MMA,

and they signed me on a UFC ultimate fighter contract. They literally paid me the bare minimum against Jared Brooks, and they go, hey, this was the ninth call, ninth or tenth call that they called me for a last minute of that. And they go, you either take this or we're not going to call for a while. It's like, dude, I've been trying to fight for Dana White's look for a fight. I denied the contender series multiple times because I don't believe at the time that I needed a show like that, especially because of how brand no it was. It really wasn't building people as they are now. and I just wanted to be respected. If I was any other weight class,

I would have been signed for definitely, I believe, a respectable amount of money, but also given a proper training camp. And I wanted to be the Justin Gage, if not the highlight of the Flyway Division. And sadly, I took this last minute fight saying, screw it, I think I have to. Nine-day notice they gave me the ultimatum.

If I take the fight and miss weight, I'm automatically cut. Doesn't matter what my contract says. Cool, even though other people have missed weight, I believe McKenzie Dern missed weight by like seven or eight pounds. Nine. Yeah, excuse me, nine pounds a few weeks before, and she was still in the UFC. So, you know, never mind my resume.

And then I ended up winning the fight on an Occidental TKO. And then it was on the Erie Huanian show, talked about that. And then literally they go, cool, you're not going to fight until December. This was in July. I was like, all right, cool. Well, I'm going to be fat. I'm going to enjoy myself and help all the bodies down here. then they call me again last minute.

They go, hey, you're fighting Alex Perez. What do you think about it in 20 days? It's like, no, man. I don't mind fighting them, but I want a full training camp. I took one last minute to fight. If you had to do the favor, let me do this. They go, okay, cool. Well, if you don't have this fight,

you're not going to fight until sometime next year. Next year does not mean January. And I'm like, huh, well, this is July. Dude, that's, you know, six months pretty much. All right. And that's maybe six months. Okay, cool. Take the fight.

And then same thing. California told me I'm not going to fight because of, I was red flagged because of a last minute weight cut. And then somehow the UFC still put me in to fight and was able to correct it. I thought immediately lost. So be it. And you go, you're not being released by the UFC. Because I did this YouTube video about speculating that UFC might be releasing some people in the flyway division because DJ was being traded. They didn't like the promotion that I gave the UFC and they released me because of it. So it's one of those things that they didn't care about my fighting. They literally used me as a body replacement and then immediately right after that started

cutting people. Jared Brooks took two last minute fights and cut him right after his contract was over. Justin Skaghan's a veteran in the UFC immediately cut him and just started releasing people. So it wasn't just me that they cut. It cut a lot of people and it's one of those things that for me it really made me look down in the OCs because they're the NFL to me. They're the NBA. They are the Premier League, but when you work so hard to achieve something like that and be a UFC fighter and then immediately get cut like that, not because of your performance, but because of what you say or because of your division, that's extremely unfair. You know, so it's, for me, I am 100% expendable body.

That's disgraceful. And correct me if I'm wrong, but that short, that late notice replacement fight against Jared Brooks in Utica, you were actually getting ready to fight for the 145 pound title, a titan, right? weren't you trying to go for a three, three champion, three division champs? So you were not only, you were bulking up and then had to cut down to 1, 125 on like nine days, right? Yeah, so it was funny. I fought Pedro Norbert, who was 18 and 2, a UFC veteran.

He only had one fight and got roommates, but in UFC vet. And I was like, cool, I'm playing Pedro Nobri. I just won the belt. He went to distance to Tim Elliott, which at the time went the distance to DJ. So I was like, this is going to be a great fight. I knocked the guy out in 86 seconds. He's never been finished this whole career. And then the UFC calls and they go, dude, we love your performance,

but we want to see you come back from adversity. I'm like, what? You don't want exciting fighters who can knock someone out who's never been knocked down 86 seconds. Okay. And then I was like, you know what? Let me bump up. Let me do something different.

I bumped up, one to 35 pound out with a broken hand and torn MCL in the first round. And they go, amazing job. Okay, cool. Like, am I going to fight? Like, yeah, actually, you know, yeah, you will fight. I'm like, all right, I can't fight. This is, I think this was in probably like June. I was like, hey, I have a broken hand.

I have a torn MCO. I'm not going to be able to compete or at least start training until September. McManor calls me in June. Hey, do you want to fight in two weeks? No, I don't want to fight in two weeks. I physically cannot fight. All right, cool, my bad, my bad. Hey, do you want to fight in two more weeks?

It's like, no, I cannot fight. I physically am not cleared to fight. Oh, yeah, my bad, my bad. And then multiple contender series fights where it's like, I don't want to fight in the contender series. I deserve to be called up. No one's a two-way class champ at the 25, 30-pound division in the entire

world. And no, okay, like fuck me. All right, fuck me. And then there was just multiple instances where I was supposed to fight. And Dana White's looking for a fight. And that's where Eli Garcia ended up fighting. And he got the last minute notice because he was already so small

and dining that he made the weight, no problem. I was supposed to fight on that card. I ended up getting injured and that was a another nine day notice that cut like 20 pounds. I was like, dude, give me, give me some type of notice. All my 9, 10 calls by the UFC were 9, 10 day notices. And, you know, for people who know me, I weighed like 155 naturally. Hell, I weighed 160 the other day, Sparring Barbosa, you know. So it's just one of those things that unless you give me a camp, I'm not going to be super, super

strict in a diet to fight at 125. I might be in shape, but more of a round type of shape. That's crazy. Trust me, my thoughts on everything that's happened is very, you know, it's discouraging. You know, it sucks, but it's mainly because I got signed to a dying division. And even right now, everyone's like, oh, the flyway division's back. No, it's not. There's still only 15 people in division.

And all of them, all of them are ranked. That makes it completely unfair for myself, the guys fighting in one FC, the guys fighting in other promotions that should be ranked higher. but because they are the UFC, the Premier League, they're automatically ranked top 15 in the world. Jesus Christ. Yeah. It's political. It's political.

We knew who Shardy was in Europe. Yeah. It was on LFA. You know what I mean? We even knew about him in the OIMAF days. Was that you? Yeah. Like, I mean, it's crazy.

It's ever two-time champ. And that was before they made the junior division, senior division. Yeah, I fought technically the senior division. So it was a little. little more notable, but man, it's, it was tough. You know, I did stuff that that people have never achieved before. And, well, I'm still trying to do that now with Brave, trying to be a two-belt champ, but things obviously haven't worked out in my favor when it comes to fighting. But it's one of those

things that, you know, it's hard when you work so hard for something. And you literally have the resume to prove it. But they go, you know what, I like this guy better. I like his personality. He has more social media followers. So I'm going to hire him instead or give him more money instead of all this hard work that you've been able to accomplish. So that's the hard part that I have. Or even you look at, again, some of the fighters that were kept, some people were coming off losses and

still got to be, you know, saved in the division. But you look at Dustin Ortiz is probably the most notable. He was fighting Joseph Benavides. It was the number two, three matchup. If Dustin would have won, he would have got the title shot. And Benavides was on that little limbo where even if he won, it didn't matter.

Joseph Benavitas won. Dustin got cut. dude he's a u.c veteran and he was an unbelievable fight winning streak yeah it was an unbelievable it was exciting you know i think he was in a three fight winning streak and he got released and it's like wow they're really cutting people but when you have louis smoker losing four times in a row and then doesn't get cut and so his contract is finally up then he gets cut and then like he's out for the uc for so many months takes a few fights in hawaii and then gets called to fight in in china at bannamway and then he's

still in the UFC. So it's one of those things that it's very, very political of who you know, and I wasn't that guy to be like, hey, I know I'm great at my job, but let me also kiss a ass. That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to be great on my job and put on a show. Was Mick Manor the one standing between you and

Jared Brooks in the Stairdowd and Utica? I believe so, yeah. Was that weird? Does that how you met him? It's technically that's how I met him. I met Dana when I fought for the UFC when went to Woodo Fall, DJ, second time.

And that's when I met Dana. But it was just, it was weird because both of them, even, dude, it's crazy. I was down in Houston where Mick Mader's from. I got his number and he's like, hey, man, hit me up. We'll do some personal training. We'll have some fun. He likes to work and, you know, he practices himself. I would text him almost like three times a week.

Like, hey, man, let me know your schedule. And he would always duck me. I was like, you literally ask me for personal training and now you're ducking me. All right, cool. Fuck me. Fuck me. So it's just one of those things that, you know, it is very, very different. But that's why I also don't respect this game too much where you have to go through a manager to talk to the higher-ups.

That's why I really do enjoy Brave, where I have everyone hire, you know, all the higher-ups numbers that I can get problems resolved immediately through me and then have my manager, you know, come meet in the middle somewhere if I need to help. But it's hard. It really is a very, very political sport. well thanks for the question sports week m m i hope shorty answered literally everything that was amazing he's all fired up he lost five pounds sweating there's Greg hardy i'm gonna fight him now he's in enough we get oh there's bob ross let's go let's go no

from at aaron 1981 on twitter hashtag the acea good afternoon everyone while it is still morning over here in arizona uh excluding this weekend which title fight Do you think will happen next? Also, do you predict more interim belts being used due to the current climate? Well, excluding this week, we already know which title fights happening next. That's Amanda Nunes versus Felicia Spencer. I assume they don't mean that one, too. So which title fight out of fights not booked do you expect next?

I'll start with Pizzi. I'd say, Chefchenko and Calder would be made as soon as Valentin is not injured. And because that was meant to be going down in June, right? in Perth. I'd say that's a good one. But just on the second thing about interim bells, I don't know about interim belts, but there's going to be a shitload of opportunities right now

for fighters in America, for fighters in the US. I think it's going to be very bad for the fighters in Europe. I don't think, I think they're going to get, you know, just through this travel situations and stuff like that, I just don't think it's going to be good for them.

I know that's why international, I mean, fight Ireland is being made for apparently, because international fighters will be able to fly in without any restrictions but I do feel as though Paul Feltr spoke about it

on Eurobash this week he was like there is going to be opportunities all over the place like look at Cruz even against Suhudo is an example of that and obviously Dominic is a legend not taking that away from

but you know it was an opportunity based on the fact that Alah was meant to fight Suhudo and I expect that to happen a whole lot man I really do I think there's going to be huge opportunities to leapfrog you know other contenders going at the moment and that doesn't look good

for the likes of Peyre Yan and Leon Edwards at the moment particularly. Well there's also some champions like Volcanowski Wiley Zhang, Israel Adasani They're all international champions so like who knows when they'll be able to defend their title

there's still a flyweight championship out there that hasn't been claimed. Figurados versus Benevita obviously Dana White wants that rematch but who knows if Figurato can get that fight. I'm just trying to go through all the divisions in my head. Featherweights, international, lightweight. Habib's on the shelf. You get the interim title fight.

Welterweight maybe. Mazuidal, Usman, or Usman fight someone. That could happen to. Middleweight, no. Light, heavyweight John versus Reyes, because like they can, Jan Blahlovich, probably not going to get the shot due to an international fighter. Heavyweight, Steepie obviously said he wants to wait till fall, fall, winter. And then, and then, you know, there's two belts in the women's division. So, welterweight maybe? I don't know, unless they start just pulling contenders out from like,

like you said, like farther down the rankings just to get fights. But I have absolutely no idea. It's going to be a cluster fuck. It is going to be a cluster fuck to say that. I just hope there's no interim belts given because the interim belts are already being belittled. And especially

during the time, they just start giving hardware out like that. Yeah, it just wouldn't, it wouldn't to look good for the promotion. I don't think so at least. No, after this interim lightweight fight, I don't want to see any more interim belts for a while, but I feel like

we see that every year. I mean, we did remember for one of the, I think it was the 226 press conference, Dana White got like the key to the city from Las Vegas, and a fan just goes, it's the interim key from like the crowd, and even Dana White laughed at it. So like even he's in on the joke at this point.

But I don't, again, I don't want to hear the I word anymore brought up. If we're talking about championships. I'm actually pro interim belt. I think just hand them out to everyone. Everyone gets a belt except the champions. So whatever. Sure.

Maybe you should you do like everyone has an interim belt. And if you lose, you have to give your interim belt to that guy. And whoever has the most belt at the end, like wins the actual belt. Like whoever collects 10 belts automatically wins the belt. A trade in value 10 interim belts equals one regular championship. Sounds about right. Yeah, need you get a little card, you get a little stamp once you win the fight, you know. Little ribbon and stickers.

Yeah, a little star. I like it. Case, I know we've run over a little on time. Do we have any more questions? I feel like all of our answers are very long and detailed for this episode. So do we have any more than we haven't got to? We're good. We're good?

All right. Well, because I'm going to piss myself. Shorty, I'll give you the floor is yours. Of course, you know the drill. The floor is yours for whatever you want to say as the guest of honor this week. I appreciate it. I'm the guest of honor. Oh, my God. Always. I thought I was the guest of something. I just didn't expect honor. Um, so guys, again, if you want to follow me, IG, Jose Shorty Torres, and I do answer questions. I do reply back to all fan mail. And I have been making technique videos for you guys on the punchy bag or shadow box. And so if there's anything you all want to see, let me know. I'm more than happy to put it out there for you guys. And, um, Instagram or excuse me, Facebook and Twitter Shorty Torres, MMA. And if you want to help my foundation, one of the 100% of the proceeds on my website, Teamshorty.com, go to help

people, kids, team, the young adults, stay inside the gym and off the streets, especially during right now, I'm actually going to be making a lot of masks. And what I will be doing is every time somebody buys a set of masks, I will also be donating a set of masks to a certain charity,

whether it's an actual hospital, a charity center, a homeless shelter, or even detention facilities down by the border. So if you guys have any questions about that, it's something I'm going to be doing very, very soon, just trying to get the designs all set up and as safe as possible. But guys, I appreciate all love to support. Let me know if you guys have anything else.

Pee-T, anything you want to add before we sign off this week? No, just go and follow all the things. I show you just told you to follow. That's what I'd say. That's right. I'm going to boy, I need some money. Chris goes up. I survived my week in Jacksonville, guys.

Come on, Jose. You can do it, baby. I got this. I don't have any. Jose, that's Casey. That's Psy. That's Shorty. We'll see you probably Monday because we got Wednesday on Friday again.

Woo! We're out. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.