MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat w/ Angela Hill
Episode Date: September 16, 2020For this episode, UFC strawweight Angela Hill joins Esther Lin and Alex Savas to discuss some of the hottest topics in MMA. Some topics include fallout from UFC Vegas 10, NUTS: Ed Herman vs Mike Rodri...guez, groin shots, games, the next batch of fights in #FIghtIsland and some of the women's MMA matchups coming in the next month. The three will also look ahead to UFC Vegas 11, which features Colby Covington and Tyron Woodley finally facing off in their long-awaited grudge match. Follow Esther Lin: @allelbows Follow Alex Savas : @alexsavas Follow Angela Hill: @AngieOverkill 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Hey, we're live.
So, this week, no Jose, but we've got me, Esther, and Cool, Alex Savas, and our special co-host for the week, Angela Hill.
Hey.
Welcome to the show, Angie.
Thanks for having me.
So, first, before we get it.
into all of the things.
How was your weekend?
Sorry.
It was fun.
I don't know.
It was a really long week.
And then it felt good to finally get the fight over with and move on to the next thing,
I think.
But yeah, I'm still pissed.
Of course I'm pissed.
even though this fight was a lot closer than the last one,
I still,
I just feel so screwed over and over again by the judges.
Like if you look at my last five losses,
four of those losses could have or should have gone my way.
So it's just crazy to me to just keep racking up these fucking Ls over and over again.
It's just so annoying.
So, but I think after after a day of sulking,
I've felt a lot better and just seeing
my teammates and my coaches and just
brainstorming with them on how to get
closer to finishing fights and
how to even just be more convincing
in the final round
just to convince the judges
better because my last two fights
even though I did more work
I guess I wasn't convincing enough.
Obviously I wasn't convincing enough. That's why they
scored it for the other girls. So I need
to, you know, like
when I punch, like give them action sounds and, you know,
bam, sing, you know, do stuff like that.
And I don't know, just just switch things up a little bit more and not just rely so heavily on my boxing.
So yeah, on to the next one.
How's your weekend?
My weekend was okay.
But I just wanted to just to reiterate for anyone who's, you know,
joining the show now.
This week, Jose is actually traveling to Woodley versus Covington.
So we have a all ladies cast of the A side.
Our usual co-host, Alex Zavas, and myself filling in for Jose.
And I didn't, I should have put a cool accent over my name or something so that I could be a little more like Jose.
We're live, pal.
Yeah, I should have said that.
And then we've got Angie.
So I actually just wanted to ask you a quick question about your house renovation.
Oh.
Before we get started into the fan questions, how is that going?
Because it looks very involved.
Yeah.
The house we bought, you know, I live in San Diego and everything's super expensive here.
So we were actually able to find something that was under 500 after we went and saw how much work the place needed.
Like the house that we bought, the guy who lived there, he died in the house.
So it's an estate.
What do you call it?
It was an estate cell or whatever.
Or no, somebody sold his state.
I forget what it's called, but it's a term when the owner dies and there's no one to pass.
the house down to so they were able to sell it in his in his honor or whatever so in his memory so we were
able to go to this house and check it out and the guy who lived there he hadn't updated it since it was
built so all all the like power so pockets only had two prongs they didn't have three so it was like
crazy stuff like that so we just been renovating it for about two months and now that my fight's over
I can actually go in there and do stuff myself.
Like I've pulled my bicep, like pulling up carpet.
I don't know.
One day, like two weeks before my fight, I was like,
fuck, I need to stop fucking around with this house.
I'm happy that I can finally, you know, afford to injure myself
while I renovate my house.
And yeah, it's fun.
It's nice.
It's therapeutic.
And I feel more proud of myself when I do it myself,
as opposed to just paying someone to do it.
So yes, it's been a fun little project so far.
Are you watching YouTube tutorials or how do you even know how to go about renovating a house?
I don't know.
Like I start yanking at stuff and then like anything I want to get rid of.
Like the whole place was covered in carpet.
But if you pulled the carpet up, it was beautiful hardwood floor underneath.
So that was the first thing we did ourselves was yank up all the carpet and pull the nails out of the hardwood
and try to preserve the hardwood as much as possible.
But then we watched a few tutorials on how to like finish the hardwood and wax it and sand it.
And we're like, eh, we're going to pay someone to do that.
So I can do the easy stuff.
Like painting, I can handle taping off the edges and painting stuff and not getting paint everywhere.
I can handle that.
I try to stick to the easy ones.
That sounds like fun.
Yeah, it's been pretty fun.
Yeah.
So now you are a homeowner.
Yeah.
Do you feel more like an adult?
Oh, yes.
I read newspapers now.
Yeah, I feel more like a responsible adult.
I feel more like a citizen, I guess, now that I have property and not renting.
I'm still in my rental right now, though.
Like, it's not ready to move in yet.
So it hasn't really hit home yet that I'm a homeowner.
But as soon as we get in there, that's the one thing I was, I was dreaming about my entire
fight camp was just sitting on the porch in a rocking chair, you know, with a beer in my hand
and like Adams in another rocking chair playing guitar.
Like this is really cheesy, cheesy homeowner fantasies.
Well, so the A-side is like a live chat show, and we take fan questions from both our website and, well, actually, from lots of sources from all the social videos, where people submit questions on Twitter, wherever, and also from YouTube.
So, why don't we get a question up and start answering some questions?
Sure.
All right. This is from YouTube.
And we have, Kuning says, Kimmer's are quite right.
rare nowadays, right?
So can we make conclusion that nutshots are a good setup for those such things?
Oh, man.
Yeah, fake the nutshot, fall over, bait them in to your side control or to top control
and then, wha!
With that Camara.
I felt so horrible for him.
We were backstage warming up when that fight was going on.
And we saw the knees and we're like,
well, let's see the replay because a lot of times you miss it.
A lot of times the knee hits, like the knee will hit the stomach,
but then the foot will flick up and hit the cup on the way up.
And I'm like, okay, maybe something weird like that happened.
But it was clean.
There was like two clean knees.
And I know how that feels like when I've,
when I've been hit in the liver, like in training and stuff, never happened in a fight.
But I know how that feels when you get hit in the guts and then it takes a second,
and then you, like, crumble in pain.
So I believe his story where he says he didn't know what happened.
It just, he just felt pain.
And, like, guys have told me that you fill it in the groin as well.
I wouldn't know.
But, that was horrible.
Excuse me.
I got to think of my throat.
Yeah.
I think Dan stepped up over the athletic tweeted chesticles.
Because that me seemed to go right up in his chest and somehow somehow.
Yeah, that they're the rough called it nuts.
Oh, man.
And you're experiencing, Angie.
I'm not like a fan of that rough either.
A lot of his, a lot of the fights that he's been roughing recently at,
I only pay attention because one of my teammates fought on August 22nd, and he almost murdered this guy.
Like, he dropped him, he kept hitting him, kept hitting him, kept hitting him.
And the ref just kept saying, fight back, fight back.
And my teammate, Dwight Grant, he gassed himself out, trying to knock this guy out, and he survived.
But then when the table's turn, because he was so gas, the guy got up and just swung as hard as he could, dropped Dwight a couple times.
But like he still felt, it still looked like he was in the fight.
And so I always felt like that ref, like, he'll kind of pick a side.
And then he'll give one side a long time to recover, but he won't give the other side the same benefit of the doubt.
So after that fight, I've been paying attention.
Every time I see him roughing, I'm like, and then he just totally screwed up with this way.
I don't know if you're allowed to look at the replay as a referee, but that definitely should have been brought to his attention the fact that it wasn't a nutshot.
Like, I don't know.
It's kind of weird one.
In your experience, like, what chance do you think Rodriguez has as overturning this loss?
Do you see that happening for him?
if anyone has a chance it's him like i remember when uh who was it um it was an invicta fight and there was
an arm tanya evanger she was going for the tanya avenger and yanna yeah and yanna she was in an arm bar
and she put her knee on yanna's face to break her arm free and the ref was like no no no don't
knee the face and it wasn't she wasn't like hitting her with her knee she was just using the
pressure of her need to free her arm.
And then when she
stopped doing that, she got arm barred
right at, like immediately after.
So she was able to get that fight
overturned, which I thought was really fair
because the referee totally
interrupted the flow
of the fight.
So I feel like he
definitely has a chance of getting that overturn.
It'd be ridiculous
if he couldn't. Like, it's so
clear. It's so easy
to prove, like,
yeah the referee fucked up and that's why it should be at least a no contest if not a knockout um so so yeah
hopefully hopefully he's able to rectify that but if not people will remember oh this was one of those
weird instances where he didn't really lose right in some ways i feel like fighters too are just
competing for like any way to get your name in the headlines win or lose sometimes that's you know
gaining followers sometimes even more important.
I'm sure you know that.
Yeah, I don't even care about losing anymore.
Nobody cares about my record anymore.
But I do think that it makes a big difference
when you don't have that many losses on your record.
Like imagine if that guy was undefeated
and then that was his whole schick.
Like I'm undefeated.
I have all these knockouts.
And then you take that all away from him.
That's a big selling point for him.
So I don't remember what his record is, but I don't think he has, he has like maybe two losses or three losses.
Like, yeah, it sucks.
It sucks to do that because that's your permanent record.
And anytime you get a loss, that's you taking, getting part of your, I guess, not marketability, but that's your stop going down.
You know what I mean?
So not in the short term, but in long term,
when people don't remember, oh, yeah, that guy didn't lose that fight.
They're just going to be like, oh, he's something and something.
Like, he shouldn't be fighting for a title or this or that.
But, yeah, I don't see that happening in this case because it's so obvious
and it was on such a big stage that everyone saw it happen and Dana White made a huge deal about it.
So people will remember, oh, yeah, that was stupid and that ref sucks.
But what would you do if the ref would, like, kind of favored you in that situation?
thought that you got
poked in the eye or something
or whatever,
and you're going.
And I didn't.
I'm not that type of fighter, man.
I know everyone says,
oh,
I would never do that.
But I really wouldn't do that.
Like,
there's a photo of me getting,
spinning back kicked,
like right in the fucking cooch,
you know,
like right in the vagina.
There's a photograph of that.
And I still think back,
like,
man,
that was a close fight.
Maybe I should have milked it.
Maybe I should have acted.
did like it hurt me.
So like they at least knew that when I fell over, it was a groin shot.
So they shouldn't count it on the scorecards or something.
Like maybe if I get a replay, they're not going to be like, oh, she got knocked over.
Like they'll be like, oh, she got hit in the crotch.
Like that sucks.
Give her a second.
And then I could have gone back and won the round.
But, but yeah, I'm just, I've just never been like that.
In the heat of the moment, I never, I never go for the,
I never milk the fowls or act like something happened that it didn't.
I guess I'm just so honorable and respectful.
So we got a question from the YouTube comments related to this.
And Angie, you probably might be more poised to answer this.
But Captain Sexman would like to know, nuts.
even though groin strikes are illegal for both men and women,
why does it seem like only the men get groin struck?
I think we have a smaller target.
Yeah. I would say it's a smaller target.
Yeah.
We don't have something hanging off.
We have protection.
You got to get up in there.
Like it has to be like right at the right moment.
Whereas like, whoop.
and pull, you know.
Yeah.
It's less likely that we're going to get a, like, a stray toe.
Like, Angie was saying earlier, sometimes it's not even the knee or whatever.
You need someone and the bottom of their foot flicks up and hits the cup or something.
That's never, that's not going to, that's not an issue.
Yeah.
Because we don't want to dangle.
Most of us.
Some of us dangle, you know.
You know what?
Everybody's different.
Everybody's different.
Everyone's bodies are different.
But for the most part, almost, you might even say sometimes actually the cup is like a thing to hit, you know, because it's like sticking out or whatever.
So it was weird because just over the weekend, there were so many nutshots this past weekend.
And it was crazy that the biggest story, we lost Angie for a second there.
Oh, not sure.
Oh, okay.
The biggest story, the weekend was a not shot that didn't actually happen.
Whereas on, do we get it back?
Can you guys hear me?
I can hear you, but I can't see you anymore.
Oh, I don't know why.
Oh, no, you got it.
Taking us out.
This show is canceled.
I'll just take over.
Okay, here we go.
The internet seems to only not work
when I have to do this.
Of course.
Shoot, what was I talking about?
The biggest story in the weekend was a nutshot that wasn't actually.
Right, nutshot.
It didn't actually land because we still had like the over in Bellets where two fights were known contests due to groin shots.
Yeah.
Dang. I only saw the one. I saw the one where it was the guy that, I always forget his name, but the guy who beat Wonderboy.
Oh, Raymond Daniels with a spinning back. Oh, my God. That was so sad. Yes, Raymond Day. He's so painful. Oh, yeah. That was horrible. And then Peter Stonononick, his opponent was just like, I think the worst part about it was hearing him cry. Just like, fetal position.
on the canvas crying.
I was just like, wow, that is the most pain
I've ever heard anybody in inside.
Yeah.
And he wasn't upset either, or not upset,
but he wasn't like angry.
Like Daniels went over and was like, oh, I'm sorry.
And he's like crying and he goes,
oh, it's all good, man.
Oh, you know.
I don't know why it made me laugh,
but I just, oh, I felt so bad for it.
guy. Like it was just the, it's probably the worst nutshot in history to have it happen in succession
like that. And for it to be like those, I don't know, just such powerful. Oh, I lost you guys.
Oh, no, I didn't. Yeah, just such powerful kicks one after the other. And he probably shouldn't
have kept fighting. Like you could tell that he was already messed up or he was still messed up from the
first one, but he wanted to fight.
He really wanted to fight.
And like, as he's getting ready to start again, we're like watching it, like, oh, man,
he's not ready yet.
Like, he needs another second.
He needs to bounce a little longer.
Like, you could just see it in his, in his posture.
And literally, like, right as they started again, bam.
It was so painful to watch.
And I think somebody was saying, like, oh, it's going to happen again, like one of the
commentators.
something or maybe one of my
teammates. But we were watching it and we're like, oh man, wouldn't it suck
if that happen again? And it was like literally two seconds after
after that was said it happened again. And poor guy,
it looked like he got shot in the crotch with a shotgun. It was horrible.
That's a good segue into another question, I think.
I could probably take a non-growing related question.
Nick
Lolo Dice or Lola Dice?
Not sure, but
says, I think
I'm pretty sure that for Angie,
you do a great job on the analyst panel.
I look forward to seeing you on it more.
What's been the hardest part
of analyzing and talking about fights?
Oh man.
Thank you, Nick.
I think the hardest part is not saying
um too much.
Just doing the research.
I think knowing the people who are lesser known is a tough part because you don't have the millions of interviews.
You haven't been introduced to them over and over again during fight nights where they have like the background stories.
So a lot of the research that you have to do for the for the newer fighters and for the, I guess the fighters who haven't had that much press is like, I don't know, I feel like a detective.
trying to figure out what gym is this guy at and who did he fight beforehand and what was his
amateur or what were his fights like outside of the UFC so i think that's probably the hardest
part and then just making it common knowledge like being able to rattle off uh information about
these people on the spot and not have to think about it too hard uh but uh but yeah once i
get to know the people like i honestly feel like i'm i'm looking these people up and
and figuring out who they are and getting to know them.
Once I get to know them, then it makes it a lot easier to just talk about them freely
as if I was talking about one of my teammates or myself, you know.
So, yeah, I think that's the hardest part, but I figure a way around it.
Do you ever find it's difficult to criticize fighters publicly as an analyst?
Are you ever worried that they're going to be mad at you?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I have to look at these people in the eye, you know.
I see them.
I see them on a daily basis almost.
So it's definitely hard.
I don't know how Dom is able to, like,
commentate during teammates' fights.
Like, I think that's insane.
I can never do that.
It would be so biased.
Just like, what is it?
Why are they looking at them?
What is it?
They's fine.
Why they stop the fight?
I think Dom maybe has the advantage of caring what people think of him a little less
than everyone else.
Yeah, he definitely, yeah, he's definitely pretty upfront with his opinions on things.
But yeah, yeah, I worry about it a little bit, but I just started.
So I think the more I do it, the less I'll care and people not care about what I'm saying as well.
But yeah, I still get mad at people.
Like I'll hear a commentator say something about me while I'm fighting.
And I'm like, fuck that guy.
You know, for like a good year until they say something nice.
And then I'm like, all right, I guess they're all right.
Then they say fuck it up again.
I'm like, fuck him.
It's all about balance.
Yeah.
Did you ever ask Tom for any advice on how to do the gig?
Yeah.
When I first told him about it, he gave me his little.
pointers on what to do or not what to do but on I guess the steps that he usually takes when he's
looking at fights like just research is is the main thing research make sure you know what you're
talking about don't try to just go in there and freestyle it you know like do your research
know your facts know the no the lesser known fighters because that's where you can really
educate people and and I've heard this from a lot of people but dumb as well
just giving them information that as an analyst you wouldn't have, but as a fighter, you would have.
So if I know something about like, you know, recovering from injuries or something about like working
with certain teammates that that person knows or if I actually train with that person, all of that
is insider information that they bring me in specifically for because I'm a fighter.
So I don't like I have to remember I didn't go to journalism school.
I'm not there to be like an analyst analyst.
I'm there to be the fighter perspective.
So ham that up a bit.
And that always helps because then I'm like,
it lets me relax a little bit.
I feel less like I'm pretending to know what I'm doing.
I'm just talking like a fighter.
Okay, that makes a lot more sense.
Yeah.
We do have a non-fight related question that popped up.
From Cynthia Vance, what's the most addicted to a game you've ever been?
And so I'm actually going to ask Alex Savas first, because I'm going to start from left to right here on the screen.
Do you play games, and are you at all addicted to any?
I don't anymore, but when I was a kid, the game.
was 007 Nightfire
on PlayStation 2
I was so addicted
I didn't even own the game
it was like back in like
blockbuster days
when you could like rent the video game disc
and I was like constantly
going back to renew it
and I just I remember coming home
from school once and I looked at my mom
at the kitchen table and I was like
I just had the urge to kill someone today
and I think she got like super concerned from now
like mom I'm talking about 007
like duh I don't even
I would love to play that game because I'm sure
the graphics are just like god awful
but for some reason I just couldn't take my eyes off that game.
That's so funny.
What is the game you've been most addicted to?
Dude, I have so many.
Like as she was the answer and I was just like,
oh man, which one is the least embarrassing?
I think, well, the very first game I got super addicted to
and didn't tell any of my friends.
was a game called Sim Ant on Super Nintendo.
Oh, when I was a, when I was a kid, I don't know why I got obsessed with this game.
It was basically like an ant simulator.
And the whole goal was to like make a really strong, like you start off as the queen and you find a place to burrow your aunt, aunt farm.
Laying eggs.
and then like the first aunt is born
and you get to choose whether it's a worker
or a soldier
or a drone
and then the whole thing is he had like this
cast system and it was really
intricate for like a
Super Nintendo game
you would like
attack spice and stuff
and yeah
I probably beat the game like 10 times
so I was really obsessed of that
and it was one of those games
where like when your friends come over to play games,
you like rip it out of the console and put Mario part.
Like, oh, yeah.
Don't mind me.
It just wouldn't end the game that I play all the time.
So yeah, I think that was the first one.
Sandy Pam asked Angela.
Oh, pretty good.
Nailed it.
Angela, which fight are you looking forward to seeing
when you are in Abu Dhabi?
Oh man
There's a lot of good ones
I think
I'm obviously I'm most looking forward to
Atisanga versus Costa
I think it's just such a cool
stylistic matchup when you do like the
precision versus power kind of things
It's going to be interesting to see how
Adasanya deals with Casa's pressure
It's going to be interesting to see if Costa
eats a bunch of shots coming in
You know
So it should be a really
really exciting fight.
So I'm looking forward to that one.
And what else is there?
There's a lot of good fights on the prelims, I think.
I know Loma Lookfammy is fighting Jingy Frey, I believe, on either this card or the October one.
And then Home Aldana is slated for October 3rd as well.
So, yeah.
Yeah, I'm really excited for.
for Aldana, I think
Holm is the perfect test for her.
And yeah,
I really think that Aldana has a chance of
at least get into that title shot with her last
knockout of, who is it,
Caitlin Vieira? Like, that girl's on a tear.
So, yeah, I'm glad to see what that
matchup looks like.
And, yeah, I guess I'm kind of biased
towards the women. I see the matches
and I'm like, ooh, this is going to be
interesting, you know, and excited for Jane Frey making it into the EOC.
She's an Invicta fighter.
And, yeah, Invicta girls have been doing pretty good lately in the U.S.C.
So, yeah, cool stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, this past weekend, there were, you know, four Invicta fighters on the card.
Yeah.
Or the two women's bout.
So, yeah.
Although for me, I actually would have given El Dana the title shot, just because
there, you know, Bantamweight doesn't have.
have a ton of contenders at the top.
And then,
Ketland was just one of those fighters.
That makes everybody look bad.
So the fact that Aldana was able to even finish her and be impressive was,
to me, should have been enough to get her that title shot.
And also, what happens if Holly Holm wins?
Were you going to give her another, a third, four?
How many title shots?
You know?
So, yeah, I was trying not to throw.
too much shade because
you know I'm just going to sound better
because Jackson's fighters
are all fucking assholes
but
I mean Holly
to be fair
Holly is like the sweetest person alive
but yeah but
aside from that
that that shouldn't being super nice
shouldn't shouldn't also determine
whether you get a title shot so
yeah I feel like people think
because I call everyone bitches and
holds that I'm not nice.
We're all pretty nice.
I think we're all pretty nice.
Instead of realizing that you're just...
Yeah.
I guess all my friends, way worse.
But yeah, I think just her style of fighting is not fun to look at.
And I think, but I also think that it's good to know how to
fight that style because let's say
Alana does get the title shot and she wins
and then her first match is against Holly home
and you know if she can't get past that type of person
who is just so good at playing the game
and so good at like just smothering people
and then picking their shots and getting in and out
if we can't deal with that
then she's going to lose that title
and once you get the title shot
I feel like it's really hard to get another one after you lose it.
Like you can have like an immediate rematch.
But if that doesn't happen, like look at Yohanna, she's, she got her rematch and now,
or she got her title shot.
And now that she doesn't, as long is it going to take for her to get back in title contention,
just because people are like, oh, you already had the title.
We want to see somebody else.
Like, yeah, get out of here.
You're old news.
Yeah.
I think it's good to go in there fully prepared for anything.
And the more you fight, the more that's going to happen.
So I think Elana should do our right against Holly.
I think it'll be, if anything, a good lesson for her.
If she isn't able to deal with that, that.
But I think she's ready.
And I think if she can deal with Holly's tactics,
then it's just going to make her even.
more ready for the champ.
It's for Angela.
But did you, I know, I know every fighter gets this question, but I'm kind of, I want,
but I'm still interested in the answer from you.
What do you think about no fans versus fans, you know, that adrenaline or maybe, I don't
know, how, how is it fighting 25 minutes and just hearing corners and no one yelling,
you suck or kill him or whatever?
I don't mind it at all.
I think it's, I think if anything, it makes you.
more in the zone.
Something, well, I guess I don't really,
it doesn't happen that often to me,
but a lot of times if someone,
if nothing's really happening
and you start hearing the woo's
or you start hearing like people bullying
and it can make you
get going before you're actually ready
or just do something,
uh,
kind of,
uh,
do something.
It can make you like act impulsively when
you,
you shouldn't, you know what I mean?
Like it'll make you just like be, be reckless just because you're like, oh shit, this fight is
boring.
Let me get a little reckless real quick.
And that's always a good time for your opponent to like, you know, capitalize.
So I think, I don't know, I like, I really don't mind not having it there.
But it's really kind of jarring when you walk out of the cage and no one's there, you know?
Like, it's almost like when you're fighting, you can almost hear the crowd because they've been in there so much with the crowd.
So, like, if I land a big punch, I can hear them go, oh, or maybe it's just like, maybe it's like, you know, lamentators.
Or maybe it's like our corners going, you know, after a big strike happens or, you know, a takedown or something.
But when you walk out, it's almost like a surprise, like, oh, shit, there's no one here, you know?
Like, you're so in the zone.
Like from the second you got to the workout room to the moment you're in the cage and fighting
that as soon as like it's all said and done and you look around and there's nobody there,
it's kind of anticlimatic.
And I think because both of my fights were losses, it was even more inamatic because it's like,
they're like, okay, get your shit, get out, you know?
There's no interviews or photos or anything like that.
Like they only do that for the winners.
So, yeah, it's just a little strange when the fight's over.
When you can actually pay attention to that stuff,
and you're not just trying to block it out and stay focused
and keep your eye on the prize.
So yeah, I think that's the worst part is just leaving and not seeing anyone.
No one clapping you out.
No one like shaking your hand.
Like the only fan connection that we get after we fight is on the internet.
that can be accessible.
Like fans in person are so gracious and so dope.
I know.
Like fans in person are the best people.
I've never had anyone say shit to me in person or be rude or just not be appreciative
with the fact that we've gone on the show.
But online is like the total opposite.
So I just because it makes you a appreciate.
appreciate the sport and appreciate the fact that you're putting so much into it when you see the looks on their faces when just being able to touch their hand, you know, just they're so excited.
They're so happy to take a photo with you, like an inappropriate fist pose.
I think those interactions really bring home like why it's such a cool thing to be doing.
So I do miss that part.
But in the fight, I don't even notice.
Question for Angela.
A main event is a big deal.
What other MMA milestones are you expecting to reach for your legacy?
Hey.
I still feel like the title fight is within arms reach.
I think the way the strong vision is right now,
so many, the people who are
are winning and losing
a lot, you know, just because
a lot of us are very evenly matched.
A lot of us are
you know, just good at what we
do.
But as soon as one
person gets like two knockouts in a row,
two finishes in a row, then
everyone's saying, oh man, this person
should fight for the title.
Just even Rebus, you know,
she fought Paige Vennan on
125, but
I think most people are pretty sure that she's a strawweight contender, you know, just because of her last couple of wins.
So I think it's a really, whoever gets those matchups and whoever is able to dominate, I think it's a really quick, quick rise to the top.
So that's why I got to get better at finishing because the finishes, even if I won those decisions, they're still not.
making me stand out as much as a finisher.
Is someone who goes in, they get some knockouts,
they get some submissions, like first round.
Like, that's who people end up talking about.
So I think just working towards that,
working towards being a quick finisher,
just a more dangerous fighter,
I feel like if I get two or three finishes in a row,
then that's an easy shot right up to the title shot.
Is there anything else you want to share before we leave?
Is there something
otherwise
I'm just going to say
thank you for
calling in and being a co-host
for the day?
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Always happy to help.
Thank you so much.
Yay.
Thank you so much to Alex.
And thanks to all the fans
who stuck with us through some of the technical
difficulties we're having.
Tune in
to this podcast.
You can actually hear
it recorded on iTunes,
identify all the places you would
know.
So this is Esther Lynn
for the A-side with Alex Navas and
Angela Hill and we're out.
You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast
Network.
