MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat w/ Cory Sandhagen

Episode Date: April 4, 2020

For this episode, UFC bantamweight contender Cory Sandhagen joins José Youngs and Petesy Carroll to break down some of the top storylines in the world of MMA. Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Petesy Carroll: @PetesyCarroll Follow Cory Sandhagen: @cors_life 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What is up, everyone, Jose Youngs here with amafiting.com, here for another, what is it, Friday edition of the A-Side? God, these days just blind together since this quarantine. Yeah, it is Friday, isn't it? So another Friday edition. Are there days of the week anymore? Let's be honest. Is it just, yeah.

As Sean Al-Shady once said, time is a flash circle. Still don't know what that means. But anyway, joining me above me is Pete Caryl, usual suspect to the, my, I don't know what, angle he's at is Casey Liden, director. And joining us this week is UFC Bans and Wake Intender. Corey Sanhagen. Before we get into the fan questions, Corey, how you've been handling quarantine life? I know we talked a little bit about it before we went on, but how's life amid this pandemic?

Yeah, not too good. I've been watching a lot of reruns of The Survivor. You guys watch that show? The Survivor? What is that? Yeah, like this, it's called Survivor. CBS is like a really not really old show but it's been around I think since like 2000s but dude I've been I've been like cranking those seasons out oh the reality the reality show

yeah the reality show dude bro it's good show would you want you ready are you ready to go into the wilderness huh would you be ready to go into the wilderness from what you've learned from this survivor show would you recommend it in case there isn't a poctyliptic situation here where we have to start like lighting fires and stuff It's not like that bit. Did you guys hear my ringtone? Yeah, that's beautiful. What did we got?

What's the ringtone? Dale Tiffin by Mike Jones. Oh, Mike Jones. Yeah. Houston's own. Yeah, I just changed that because the other day I was so bored. We were just me and my girlfriend and my roommate. We were just watching a bunch of old 2000s rap videos and shit.

And that song came on and I was like, damn, I love that song. Yeah. Still tipping up fo'hose. Yeah, I got you, man. Well, Derek Lewis would be proud. I'm sure I have a reping of Houston-based ringtone from a Colorado fighter. But anyway, Pizzi, what's been going on with you besides apparently you have a bad haircut this morning since we last saw you? Can we see it?

Can we see it, Pizzi? You talk a big game. Yeah, yeah. Do you want to have a bit of a... There we go. That's just got it all oil. here. I'm trying to make it some type of shape for you, but I can't. It's just, yeah, it's pretty bad, man. This is it. This is pretty good. Actually, I'm actually quite impressed, though. If I knew it was

going to be this good, I wouldn't want to wear a hat. But yeah, but besides the haircut, yeah, I'm starting to crack up a little bit. I'm going to be 100% honest with you. I know a lot of us are already here, but yeah, it becomes, um, irritate to stay inside a whole day after a while, I guess. Don't matter how many PlayStation games you're buying. How many books you're read or how many Netflix subscriptions you can absolutely like just rinse through. It's just that, yeah, it's starting to get to me a little bit. So I'm very happy to be here talking with everybody again. Well, it's been tough for me considering I know, Cori, you live on this, in this part of the world up in Colorado. I don't know how the weather is up there. But right now in Arizona,

it's that perfect time where it's not a thousand degrees outside, but it's not in the 60s. It's about in that mids to high 70s. And I can see out my window and I want to go outside and participating activities can't do that these days I don't know how the weather is up there in Colorado right now though yeah we just had a snowstorm uh bro it's worse it's worse to have it snow because now you're just like well I can't I don't even have the option of going on a walk outside locked inside man Jesus so I know you don't have a fight coming up but how have you been able to stay active at all during this pandemic yeah dude so I've taught my girlfriend how to hold

the uh the little taekwondo paddle paddle thing did you guys ever do taekwondo yeah the big pat the like the the the round pad kind of the hand on the has got a pad on it yeah yeah yeah so I taught her how to hold that for me so I've been doing a a shitload of just kicks and spin kicks and uh bunch of that because you can't hold myths

because uh I hit like a cannon and her little puny arms can't they can't she can't hand it. So I've been doing a ton of that and then I just haven't been having her like kind of move around and then I'll just like fit in on her legs for like takedowns. And I've been trying to do that for like an hour a day and then in the morning I'll try to do some kind of like weightlifting or running or biking or something. But yeah, dude, it's mostly just training with my girlfriend who doesn't know anything about biking. That's the best, the best kind of bonding for a relationship I find is to get into random jiu-jitsu matches when she's not expecting it.

But of course, this is not our show. This is the fan show. You guys can ask any question you want, MMA or non-MMA-related. I know we get in a lot of random tangents lately. Michael Gates talked at length on hunting Bigfoot and fighting bears and mountain lions and all that stuff. I don't know if Corey has an experience.

Corey, before we get on the questions, do you believe in Bigfoot? Fans got to know. I believe that there might be like some weird type of type of like bear hybrid wolf that could possibly be out there that we haven't really discovered because it's so good at hiding maybe you know like I know that mountain lions only really get caught on like those little those little trap cameras that get put off by a sensor so I suppose that there could be something intelligent enough out there to like maybe get away from those things you think it's

the answer we want to hear but you think it's a pack of them that room or one single one it's probably It's probably a mom, a dad, and then just maybe one, one child, one infant. Solitary. A little. Sasquatch. Yeah, Sasquatch. One tiny Sasquatch. What was the name of the animal we discovered the other day with Mike A's what's name?

Skunk ape Cor? Skunk ape is terrifying, Corey. Why ain't you get into it? That's a rabbit hole that I only began to go down? It's like a real one or it's not real? This one is real. It lives in the corner of it. It lives in Florida in the Everglades, and they actually have a photo of it.

It was in someone's bushes, and they took a photo, and it is absolutely terrifying looking, because it's like, it has the red eyes from the camera, and it's like scowling and, like, hiding away in the bushes. So definitely look up skunky because it's going to bring you down a rabbit. It's going up on the camera right on the video screen right now. That's more terrible than my hair coat. That's how these diseases start, though, man. It's people go on for stuff like this, and then they get a.

attacked by something and then they bring back all the shit that it had. Skunkabe, Boyer, is coming soon. Just stay in the city, dude. Just stay in the city. And this skunkabe's in Florida, exactly where they want to hold of MMA fights. So I don't want to something. But anyway, bring on the question to anyone. Casey will see them up.

You can ask anything and everything. I know Corey, I know a lot of fans are going to have questions for Corey about fighting, but you can ask anything you want. So Casey, director. Right. First question up. Let's get the boring fight questions out of the way. Here we go. From longtime commenter Trumbo, Joseo versus Henry Sehudo. I'm going to say Henry Sehudo versus Joseo Alto because Champ gets top billing. For Corey, who do you favor in this matchup whenever it happens? Which of the two would you rather fight and why? So yes, UFC 250 is supposedly going to have Henry Suhudo put his bantamweight title on the line against former featherweight champion Jose Aldo.

So this is in your weight class, Corey. Who do you like in this matchup and who would you rather fight between the two? That's a tough one. I think Suhudo is probably going to win just because Sehudo is more in his prime when Aldo is, obviously. Who I would rather fight more. It'd be really tough to say no to a Jose Aldo fight, but also I think that like fighting Sehudo when he's kind of, how old is Sehudo? 31, 32? Early, I don't know exactly, early 30s.

I don't think he's that much younger than Joseo Alto, considering Joseoaldo started very young and he's been fighting for so long. Yeah, I mean, but he's probably got a lot of wearing tar on in the years of fighting. But I think I'd probably rather fight Suhudo just because I think he's more in his prime. He beat DJ, and I think DJ is the man. It was still really a close fight. I think DJ probably won. Yeah, Suhudo just because I think that he's better.

you know well they're they are exactly the same age that's 33 uh actually henry sehudo is older if you go by months he was born february night uh in 87 and uh no auto's older aldo's one year older this is just not updated yeah aldo one year older but only by a few months he might like a full calendar year older uh so it's that close uh i know josie aldo did an interview with us and he said he's only concerned about making the weight because he could beat Henry Sehudo with his hand tied behind his back. So I don't know if that's just talk or just confidence from Jose Alos part. But I like that fight, but I do want to ask you, when they actually booked this fight

as someone in this weight class, what were your thoughts considering Jose Alos technically coming off of, not even technically, he's coming off two losses and he's 0 and 1 in your weight class. Yeah, I mean, I know that I should care more than I do. Oh, really? I don't really have an opinion about it. I think that I wasn't going to be next, so I could really care less who. who was going to get it because I knew that I wasn't next. I knew that me kind of shooting for a shot was going to be a long shot.

And so I didn't really care. I know that I'm still probably one or two fights away from there. Excellent question, excellent answer. Casey, what do you got? Oh, Corey, actually, because I know the question, because we don't have this later, but what did you think of auto just going down to 35? Do you think that's just a good idea? Because, I mean, I feel like before everyone was like, hey,

Otto go up to 55, and all of a sudden he kind of goes, no, I'm going down. and we're like, that's crazy. But he made weight, and he fought an incredibly competitive fight. So what do you think of- A lot of people actually beat Marlon? Yeah. Yeah.

But what do you think of just Otto's decision to go to 35? Honestly, man, I think it's probably a pretty good idea because I think Aldo probably knows that he doesn't have a ton of more fights left in him. And making $1.35 a couple times probably isn't going to be too terrible. you can probably just toughen that out for the next two years. But if you're a guy like me and you're thinking about going down a weight class and you still have six or seven more years in the sport,

I don't want to do that for six or seven more years. But if I had two more years and I had a shot to win a title, then I would for sure take advantage of that. So, I mean, I don't think it's a bad idea. I think Frankie's doing the same thing. I think that they're both smart about doing that. They know that they're not going to have to do it too many times and they just have to suck it up.

and there's a light that's closer to the end of the tunnel than someone who's younger like myself. So I think that it's a good move on their part. Thank you very much. What's our next question, Casey? From Eduardo Bueno. So, Corey, what exactly happened between you and Dominic Cruz? Did the UFC really offer you this fight? So on one of our new shows, what the heck with Mike Tech, Dominic Cruz spoke at length about this.

He said that he was off, that he's, you said, said he said that he turned it down. I'm trying to get this right because there's a lot of like he said, she said, and even Dominic Cruz is like there's a lot of miscommunication here. He said that you had said he turned the fight down, but he had never spoken to you. And he was told by Sean Shelby that if he, Sean Shelby went to him and said, what fight do you want? And he goes, I want the fight that will get me closer to the title.

Sean Shelby said, that's Peter Yan. He said, then I want to fight Peter Yan. And then he said, well, he's fighting Marlon. He goes, well, I want to fight whoever wins that fight because I want to fight for the title next. And then he says, we want you to fight Corey Sandhagen. He goes, that's fine, but I want to fight for the title next. And if not, I want to be 100% if you want to make me fight a bunch of times before getting the title. So as Dominic Cruz says, it's a lot of he said, she said, a lot of confusion on his part.

And in the fans' mind, so what exactly happened between you and Dom and this rumored Dominic Cruz fight? Yeah, so me and Al Jermen were talking about. of fighting after we knew that Marais and Jan got both. So I was all for Al Jermaine. I was like, okay, cool, this is a good fight. Al Jaman is ranked number two. It makes sense. People are talking about him being a contender.

So that makes sense. And then my manager or my agent told me that Cruz sent a message to Shelby saying that he wants to come back for that San Diego card. Whether that's true or not, that's what was relayed to me. is that Shelby said that Cruz wanted to come back and fight in San Diego, and that the fight that was most exciting would have been me and Cruz. Granted, I think I've been pretty outspoken about how much Cruz has been helpful and inspiring me a long, long time ago to get into martial arts. I've been really open about that.

I was really excited to do that just because I think it would be so cool to, because 10 years or so ago when I was watching the WEC and, I mean, I was just watching Cruz and that was one of my favorite fighters. So I remember sitting on the couch and be like, damn, like, this is what fighting can look like. This is cool. This isn't what I see in like the basketball locker room when I'm in high school. You know, like this is different. So I think that it would be cool for like the knee that was 10 years ago watching cruise on television stand across from him in the cage now. You know, like that that would be maybe a dream.

true, you know? So, um, but that being said, I, I was really about it, right? So, um, when he told me that, I was like, all right, let's, let's hope that Cruz says yes. And then a couple days went by and I said, uh, I said, hey, is there any update on what's going on? And, um, my agent told me no. And I was like, okay, well, maybe I'll just make a post and just be like, hey, uh, because I wanted to, I wanted an answer. So I just made a post. I said, hey, Cruz, I said, yes, it'd be an honor to fight me, uh, waiting you or whatever I said. And then that next day or that day, I think I got a text for my agent just saying that Cruz changed his mind about fighting in San Diego. And that's what it was related to me.

So whether or not that's true, I actually appreciate that Cruz didn't just like call me a dumbass or like maybe. That like what Shelby said was true or whatever. So I actually appreciate how he answered that interview question because he didn't just like brok me. you maybe had the opportunity to. Because anytime you get like an opportunity to like say a narrative about anything in this sport, guys like take it as far as they can. Look at someone like I think Tony and Khabib, like, I mean, Tony is feeding this narrative that Khabib ran away and this and that.

And it's like, man, that's not true, bro. You know, like, could be just scared to fight you? I know that like that's the narrative that you're feeding people and like a couple people will bite that are your big fans, but it's a silly narrative. But I don't know why people do that. It seems silly to me, like, why you want to throw your peer under the bus like that? But, yeah, so I appreciate Cruz not calling me an asshole. For assuming that everything that I was being told was true.

It must be a really frustrating situation that you're in, Corey, because on the face of it, you're doing everything perfectly, right? Like, I mean, you're winning all these fights. You're fighting spectacularly. But you're kind of become the boogeyman now where people are kind of like, oh, well, that's a big risk fighting that guy, right? Like, I mean, all these guys like Frankie, the fight with Frankie that didn't come together. Now this one with Dom, fighting a guy like that would be huge for your profile.

Like, you know, so many eyes would bring to the sport. Is it just frustrating now? It seems like a very tentative next step. You know, you're really want to go. We're in this pandemic. And you seem like you're just about to take. Floyd basically in the division and everything's just at a standstill and you can't get these big guys to commit to a fight day with you.

Yeah, I've had a strain of bad luck, I guess. Yeah, man, so that fight in January that was supposed to be with Frankie was supposed to be my coming out party. It was supposed to be my your eye of favor to Peter's Yon's fight, you know. That's what it was supposed to be for me. The scars didn't line up that way and like what am I going to do just bitch about it and complain and you know, like I'm a really high risk fight and a really low reward and you know, you Really, there's nothing to blame that on other than me, myself, not making myself a higher reward fight, which is, one, my own fault.

And then, two, it's just the nature of the beast, you know, like I was supposed to fight Frankie. Didn't happen. I was supposed to fight in May against Salman. Batman may not happen. So it's just how the scars line up. Man, I'm not tripping over it. Every day I just try to get better. And I have a lot of faith that if I just keep doing that, then, um, I'm just keep doing that.

I'll be where I'm supposed to be when it's supposed to happen. Do you ever feel that pressure to maybe hammered up, get the old drama going? Like, I always talk to Leon Edwards about this as well, whereas he knows, like, he probably would be rewarded for that behavior, right? But he doesn't want to jeopardize who he is. Like, at the end of this, he wants his son to be able to watch this and go, yeah, my dad did the right thing there. You know, like, things like that.

Is that how you feel about it, too? Like, there is a quick book to be made from talking a lot of noise, right? I would love to be able to do that by hand, man. I like, I really, I can't. I would, I would come off like such an asshole, bro. Like, it would look so terrible. I'm just not good at that, man. Like, I'm not good at that.

I'm good at, like, being polite and genuine and honest. And that's what I'm good at. You know, like, I'll shoot it to people straight. If I think someone's being an asshole to me, I'll call them an asshole. But I have a lot of respect for the people that are around me. I have a lot of respect for, and what's the point of hating on people, man? And like, like, the, all the hype, I've been struggling with this, if I'm being honest. I know that the UFC and all the fans are really on board with pitter yon, pitter yon, you know, which,

what am I going to do hate on him for, like, him for like him, you know, like, that's fine, man. I'm like, me and him will fight one day and, uh, and then we'll see who's the better man, you know, but I'm not going to get too caught. That's a lot of energy, bro. That's a lot of energy every day, you know. That's a lot of energy. Jealous energy is a lot of energy to be given up, and it can go in a different direction.

Do you ever look at a past fighter? This is from the outside looking in. It seems like you're in kind of in a similar position as like Kamar Ouzman was a while ago, where you have this big string of wins, and all of these veterans don't want to fight him because, A, he's not relatively known by the masses yet, and he's a super dangerous fight coming into his prime,

and you don't want to risk your position in the rankings fighting such a dangerous opponent, and he is basically taking any fight and then he's offering the step in. He cuts weight for them, even though he's not going to fight to possibly fill in for Darren Till versus Tyron Woodley. And then he offers to fight in the January card that eventually fell out like a month after he fights. So he's basically offering the UFC all of these, this help maybe cutting weight when he

doesn't have to, offering to save a card, fighting in Chile. Maybe he knows not a lot of people looking. And all of a sudden, now they're granting him. a title shot. Do you ever look at stuff like that? We're like, how can I help the UFC? Because then down the road, maybe they'll help me. Absolutely. I'm cutting work right now. So I'm ready for that March of that May 9 fight in case Jose can't make it back into the States, man. Like, wow. I'm doing that. You know, like I'll be ready. If they call me on a week's notice, I'm going to be ready for that fight. It'll kind of suck not to have any training partners

I don't want to be in a position where I'm like, nah, I can't because I was lazy. That's not happening. That's going to happen for me. So, yeah, but as far as Kamar Usman, man, you look at like a lot of the great guys that have done that. Look at Max Holloway. Max Holloway, he's been a champ for a really long time, but he went through the same stuff.

Kabib. Kabib had a million fights before he got a title shot. So for me, it almost seems a little bit like in, in, titled to even, where'd Pete go, bro? Pete, where did he? He just, like, had to go, I don't know what he's doing. Oh, his computers die. Oh, you're on camera, Petez.

What's going on? We called you out, Peecee. What, fuck, Pete. You didn't want to listen to my story, bro? He wanted the charger because you don't want his computer to die in the middle of your story. That's what he wanted. You know, I'm going to, I'm going to go to a solo shot of a PT right now just to really put it on him. Can't even hear us talking, which.

just even funny. We'll just wait for me. Yeah, forgot me charged there, that. Sorry about that. We're talking about 30 seconds. It was so interesting that answer as well. I was snapping I had to go. I was like, shit.

Oh, sorry about that, guys. Yeah, but anyways, man, you see all that this has been the situation for a lot of the great guys. And that's why, man, I think that skills speaks louder than any words and any action or whatever, you know, like as long as I got the skills, when I need the skills, And as long as the opportunities keep coming up and I put myself in a position to take advantage of all of those opportunities, I know that good will come for me. I fight with a lot of, I fight and train with a lot of passion. I wake up every morning and I tell myself I'm getting better today.

And I know that if I do that for the rest of my career, there will be no doubt that at the end of it I'll be one of those legendary fighters. Well, I don't, we're going to end that question on that way. How the other questions? I don't have a follow up for that one. We done all the Floyd stuff now. Let's get on the Tiger King. Yeah. You guys and Carol did it, bro?

Absolutely, man. There's absolutely no doubt about it. How could you question it? Are we going to Tiger King or are we throwing away the questions? Are he just going to? How does it, how does Carol kill someone, though, dude? Like, she doesn't like knife them? Like, what does she do?

She poisons them or what? Truck them first, man. And then just, you know, I don't want to ruin it. Jose still hasn't watched it yet. even though it was his homework for this week. Yeah, absolutely. You drug them first. Then, you know, you can do whatever you want and just drag them in there.

But, like, how do you think she did? You think that she, like, strangled them or what? No, you know what she did. She has those animals, Corey. She just, she just, she just, she just drugged them and then just dragged them in there. And it was like ringing the dinner bell, baby. In they go. Yeah, you might be right about that.

Because I was like, man, she can't kill no one, bro. What is she going to be? She's not the most physically. fit person in the world. That is correct. She is definitely not. Even if someone is drugged, bro, what is she going to do? Like, strangle them to death? Like, do you think that she has that in her, bro?

I don't think so. I've done some pretty weird shit when I've been drugged. This is the blonde woman I keep seeing all over social media, right? The one that's like an animal rights person I keep seeing? Yeah. I still haven't seen it. We got all these questions about it. Jose, there's no.

fights to watch. You literally have nothing to do all week. You have nothing to do all week, Jose. What are you doing? It's a trash show, dude. It is a trash show. No one is good in that show. I didn't leave happy at all. I was like, everyone I just

learned. Everyone that I just built a bunch of rapport with sucks. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't actually feel like that. As it unravels, you're like, oh, well, I mean, within a four-story minute, you're like, these are all horrific people. It ends the same. It ends the exact same.

I just, I wanted to watch it. And then I kept seeing, like, the tigers in Florida, like, in cars and stuff. I'm like, this is going to stress me out. Like, I feel so bad for these animals. I can't watch this right now. Yeah. Everyone's bad in the show. Yeah.

Yeah. It's pretty trashy. Well, maybe I'll watch it this weekend so we can talk about because we're just going to get more questions. Like, last week, Cori Ann Chalmers asked us, what are we going to, like, who would win in a fight between, like, this person and this person. I'm like, I don't know what any of this means. So, please it has.

have at it. We're basically fantasy match making a MMA card based on characters from the show and I was like, this is all you guys,

I don't know what any of this means. I bet the sequel the video in the second series, I bet you it's a complete flop because we won't be in a pandemic but the time it comes out like nobody's going to watch it. What the fuck do we watch that?

You know? The timing was very good for the release. I don't know. It just felt like it was the right show at the right time. Do you think Carol's behind that too? Wait, Carols are behind the pandemic? Yes.

Yeah, of course, yeah. That's it. Well, you're saying that, you're saying that, you know, Corey thinks that she drugged someone, so maybe she's good with, you know, the science. We don't know. You know, she's got a lab and making these viruses just to prop up, no, her reality show. She's probably a producer in the show. We don't know. A serial killer version of Hoisenberg, nearly.

Good. God, anyway. Casey, we got any more questions for Corey? Or not fight related? Ooh, there's a, okay, a couple more fight ones. Let's get these out of way. Hashtag the A side from Sean Danny at Denny at Denny Rens' long time submitter. How would the current top, oh, this is an interesting question.

How would the current top five 135ers have gone on in the WEC? So, Suhudo, Marese, Aljo, Yon, and Corey. any dream match matches you like to see slash compete in so you did mention the wec core how does this top five of the u s right now stack up to the top five of w paced past or are there any like matchups that might probably won't happen in 2020 or 2021 and beyond that you would like that you would have liked to see between this top five and that top five oh i don't know man that's a that's a good one the wc guys are the o gs though man like go uh like even favor I remember when I was watching the WEC and like first getting into M&A and stuff. I remember being like, man, fighting favor would be cool too, you know, like, uh, uh, yeah, I don't know. The top five, who else was in the WC? I remember. Uh, we had Cruz at 35?

Wait, a 35. I'm sorry, yeah, sorry. We had Brian Bowles, Eddie Weinland. Demetri. Dmitris. Cruz was there. Demetris. He's a third neighbor.

Scott Jorgensen was, was really good. right yes scottorgensen and eddie wineland i really liked those guys too uh i was also a really huge fan of cowboy uh but yeah i remember i think specifically edy wineland i was like damn that guy's cool uh favor i thought was super cool cruise i thought was cool and uh scott jorgensen i remember i think it was really really cool Miguel torres was the long-reigning yeah yeah that's right yeah before there was domitouacruz pound for pound in the world for a long time. Yeah, he was the man.

Was it, what, what did he fight? Did he fight at 135 when he was in the U.S. Yeah, he fought 135. Yeah. He had like 40 fights, right, but at the time he came to the U.S.C. He was already like, definitely on the back nine anyway. Like, I mean, back three, maybe. Yeah.

You know, like, he had already been to the top of the world a few times, and then he came to the UFC, right? Like, I mean, he was a long-standing champion. Yeah, he was the original dominant cruise in the sense that he kind of, he was the first kind of established the 135. division on a national level yeah I can remember with the with WEC like I mean we had we didn't have it on TV over here so but the time it came to it was on TV like we're aware of the fights we'd be reading the articles about say Faber was the poster boy and so

then Aldo forcing the scene he was taking care of everyone and I can remember they started showing them then after after all the guys got signed they started playing them on European TV on extreme like at three o'clock in the morning we'd be all staying up to watch them every night trying to catch up on all the all the all the foot that happened. It was a brilliant organization. I mean, Jesus Christ, like the flagship for all, all the lighter weight divisions, you got to remember that a few years before that, the UFC didn't want even the lightweight division there. And then they go and buy up this organization that's just lighterweight fighters at that time anyway. I know it did once have

all the other way divisions. Absolutely unbelievable. And the stars that come from it, like, I mean, they're still active in the divisions. It's a brilliant organization. Yeah, Eddie Weiland's still in the UFC. So that's a fight that could actually happen. Yeah. Swings bombs, man. Wasn't he scheduled one recently? 81. I don't know off the top of my head.

I think he did. I think he has been pretty active. I think he has been fighting. I don't know that he's been fighting. Or maybe he did have to fight. I know that he was scheduled fighting someone, but you know what those guys should do is they should create their own little WEC after in about five years when they're officially all retired.

And then they have like an old man's WEC. I would watch that. Oh. You like that idea. I can remember Coker. They were saying that to Bellator for a long time. They're like, why don't just start a Veterans Grand Prix or something because people are getting so annoyed about, say,

to like, say, to like, hoys Gracie being at the top of the card when he's in his, you know, toilet years essentially as a competitor. Like, I mean, do you like the idea of a veterans pool fighting each other? It's a bit of a wild one. I hate that idea. I hate it. It takes away from, it takes away from, like, publicity. that us younger guys could have, you know?

Do it out of audio. Crystal behind you, bro. That crystal is getting in the way of the frequencies. Okay. It's going to get to this. It'll be the power. I was getting... Whoa.

We have a lot of listeners on this show, specifically, who are very much into crystals. I mean, we have a loyal listener, Jessica, who has sent us, who mailed us crystals. Crystal Queen. She mailed us Crystal in the show. See that salt lamp behind Pizzi? This is the story behind that salt lamp.

He went to cover out. Was it Cage Warriors or Bellator? Bellator in Dublin. In Dublin. And a fan snuck that into the arena and gave it to Pizzi. Solicist watches this show. So we've asked a lot of fighters about their feelings on crystals. Brian Keller was on this show.

And Jessica sent us crystals. And we gave a crystal to Brian Keller specifically because he asked for one. And one hour later, he gets bumped up to the main card of a Connor and Greger fight card and then wins a performance. bonus. So I don't want to say it was, but it's 100% of the crystals. So proof for what are your thoughts on baby crystals right now? Jessica, sent me some crystals too. I want to get bumped out. I'm going to level up too. I think the crystals, I think religion and spirituality and crystals and esoteric type stuff like that, I think I'm pretty interested in. The crystal stuff, I, I,

I think that they are just There you go, nice feet. You feeling better now? I'll feel like to see it. All right, bro. Take your hat off. See if it healed that haircut. Wow.

It's still fucked up on the day. I think that the I think that the crystals and stuff are they're just good triggers, right? So like I think that I think that if you tell yourself that this crystal means love and when you carry it around, you remind yourself that you should be full of love, then cool.

But I don't think that the crystal itself has any meaning. I think that you could probably take, I don't know, like a paper clip in your pocket. And if you assign it the meaning of like you showing compassion to the people that are around you, then every time you feel that paper clip, that's going to be the case. So I think that that's kind of more the psychological part of it, maybe. I don't know. I set little reminders on my phone. So if I like, right, suddenly today, right, we'll call this rock.

We're going to call it Corey from now. And I'm like, all right, every time I touched this crystal, my hair gets better. Will that make my hair better if I believe it into existence? No. All right. Well, that's a good question. No. No.

All right. So that's a good question. Does that part actually enter into like a physical realm? Will it trigger it? Will it make it happen? Take it over long. Because here's we gave Brian Callagher. I gave him a random crystal. This was right after official way in. So this is when. It was not random. It was toy grizzly. Okay. It was not. No, first of, first we thought it was pyrite. Because I don't know if you've seen Jared cannoneer carries around pyrite around his neck and he has crystals in his pocket. I gave him a crystal what I thought was pyrite. This was right after official wands. And then later on, we're. And then later on, we're. And then later on, we're. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And. And we found out it was Tiger's Eye. And we were reading the, what each crystal does. Jessica sent us like a pamphlet of what each one is supposed to do. And it said it will bring like monetary fortune and luck. And that's why I'm saying like an hour later, he bumps up to the main card and then wins the $50,000 bonus. So I'm not saying it was the crystal, but it was 100% the crystal. Basically a double blind test there is what we're trying to say. We sent him in thinking he was going to get the healing power of Pyrite. Turns out the tiger's eye gave him well.

up and stands. So, I mean, the proof is in the poison. Once again, Corey, we're going to get you some crystals. We'll give one to every fighter after they weigh in, and then we'll see if there's a performance bonus for each fighter on the card, and we'll see. You know, it might put us, we did. So, Jessica, send us all of your tigers out because we're running low. Empty the quarry. Casey, we got any more?

Yeah, we sure we got a couple. Now that we had this audio, was someone in the comments, like I'm saying the audio is now crystal clear. Thanks for the that's my words. All right, what we got here? This is kind of a semi-serious question. Well, yeah, it is serious, but yeah.

Okay. From Trumbo on the site, Fighters Health Insurance question. For Corey, do UFC fighters only have health insurance for the UFC related for the UFC related to fighting or booked fights? During a health crisis like this, this seems to loom large. Do most UFC fighters have their own health insurance

plans is usually doing anything for fighters with regards to this current situation if you are at liberty to say. So very interesting question, Corey. I don't know if you want to say. So yes, we went from talking crystals. Hey, do more famous fighters get more interesting questions than this? No, I'm just playing. I'm just playing.

I have my own health insurance because I don't want to get like a car accident and then or something weird happened and then me need that but I have like the lowest of low paying health insurance that someone can buy but yeah the UFC will take care of you really good after your fight and anything that happened in the fight so they've done everything

that I've ever needed for I broke my thumb in one fight I broke my nose in another fight they cover all of that you don't have to pay for any of that but no if you were to get like terminally healed and I think that that would be on you. So that's why I have health insurance. Christ.

What? I just laugh at it. That was pretty morbid answer to the question. But, you know, the health insurance question, the question itself, that was already making me chuggled because I could see you looking at it and going, well, look at his eyes lining up to talk about this. Oh, yes. Actually, I got a question that's on the, from the YouTube comments right now.

Here we get. It's going to be on this. Can you read that on the screen? Look at this. From Oliver Ursel on YouTube comments with coronavirus damaging future U.S. defense for the next two months, would you rather wait for, or Habib versus Ferguson, guys, champion gets top billing? Would you rather wait for Habib versus Ferguson for five months or wait for Suhudo versus Aldo? Personally, I would want Al-Sahou.

out of the way? Yeah, I don't know. You know, like, I think that the UFC has really cool opportunity with all of this. I think that they already canceled the NBA season, so they're probably going to cancel all of the other seasons in sports. So I think that what the UFC is probably, I mean, they have a really cool opportunity to be the only live sporting event on television because I don't think that they depend on, they depend on the, whatever it's called when people come, the door, doors, how much did the, was the, what's the

direct terminology? The gate, there we go, yeah, the gate. I don't know that they necessarily depend on that as much as the other sports, especially basketball where they're having like two or three games every week. So I think that that's why they canceled that. Baseball is going to be in the same boat. And I think that football will probably take suit to who's going to want to watch football if there's no crowd, but I think that MMA is a little bit different. There's no home team. There's no away team. There's no real team that you like.

You have favorite fighters, but it's not really team-based. So I don't think that there's a huge necessity for an audience. So I think that probably for the rest of the year, or at least until, I would actually probably estimate until the rest of the year that the UFC is not going to have an audience. and they're going to be played on television and they're probably going to be the only live sport on television, at least in the U.S. So I think that they have a really cool opportunity if they play it smart,

but I mean I would rather just wait five months to watch Khabibib-Fergusin fight. I think that they're going to go on with these fights. I think that they should probably wait until most of these shelter and places end though until we can actually start training with training partners and not the girlfriends in our basements. So I think that when that kind of happens, then that will be the best decision from the UFC

to wait probably until June or July so that guys can actually train and actually look good in the fights. You don't want a ton of guys gassing out and fights being more boring than sometimes they already are. So that would be my statement to the UFC is I would like to see that happen. And then for the rest of the year,

The UFC is going to be the only live television show. So, I mean, that could really blow up MMA, I think, if they do it in the right way. So you're telling us you don't care about Henry Suhudo and Jose Aldo. Not really, bro. I still have a couple more fights, bro. I at least have one more fight. But like I said, I'm still going to be on wait. So if Aldo can't make it back into the States and Suhudo has no one else to fight,

and I'll be there waiting for him if he wants to. I don't know that you'll take that fight now. Would it be weird fighting in an empty arena for you? Probably, yeah. I really like the lights. I really like hearing what people are saying. I think it'd be weird. But I don't know.

I guess I haven't thought about it too much. I think that there would probably be some different types of psychological things that you could maybe do. where like the judges could maybe hear the punches land a little louder. The judges would probably be able to hear our corners a little bit more. We have our corners kind of coached the judges a little bit, coach the referees a little bit. So I mean, I guess it could be beneficial. But yeah, that would be weird.

It would be like, I don't know. Do you think anyone would even cheer in there? Do you think that like Dana White, Sean Shelby and Mick, Cage side would even make any noise? Yeah, I don't know. if you saw that video, but Mick, Mick, Mick Maynard for the UFC Brazilian card was doing like the woo chance and the stand-em-up chance. And he's like, I'm filling in for all the fans. So he was doing all of all of the chance solely by himself, off to God's up to God's up.

All right. Well, I guess as long as Nick wasn't biased against me, then like, yeah, I'd be, I'd be down to that. Well, it was also feel it off the Crayoutan-all-Cory. Like, I mean, you, you know, when you're very creative when you're, like, I mean, is it methodical for you as in like, this is going to be the way I'm going to about my business anyway, or do you feed off the crowd as in, because sometimes you're getting very loose in there, right? Like, I mean, you can see it. Is that, is that you feeding off the crowd, or is that you just enjoying your dominance in the, in the fight? I try to just do whatever I want, you know, as much as the other person will let me, I try to do what I want. So until, you know,

and that's like what the looseness is. It's like, I've had a lot of fights where I fought really timid and I was really unhappy with myself afterwards whether I won or lost. So to me, it's like, all right, well, why are you doing this? And it's, well, it's because I want fighting to look really cool and I want fighting to look really efficient. And I want it to be mine. So if I'm going to go out and fight kind of like a bitch, you know, like what what what what fun is there and that? You know, like cool. Like if I get hit good, then cool. If it knocks me out, okay, maybe I'll change something, but, you know, but it's not relying on the crowd, though. No, it's, it's me, it's honestly, man, like, the only thing I really care about is my, me and my

performance, you know, am I happy with it? Am I, am I doing what I think martial arts can look like? Um, and I kind of got lucky in having that point of view and, um, because I, I do want martial arts to look cool. I don't want it to look like I'm taking someone down, holding them and then just squeaking out wins. I don't want that. I want martial arts to look cool. And that's what I try to make it look like. Do you like watching yourself back when you, like, replay your fights?

We had Anthony Smith on this show and he said every time he watches his fights, he thinks he sucks at fighting. Even when he knocked out Shogun, he goes, I'm terrible at fighting. Like, do you have that same mindset? No, dude, I'm my favorite fighter. Yes. I'm my favorite fighter, bro. I work too hard to not be my favorite fighter. I'd love to watch myself back of where it was Corey.

That would be amazing. I don't think that I'm the greatest in the world. Like I think that I still make a handful of mistakes. But I go out there and I take a lot of pride in me being able to do what I want in there because I've worked so hard. And I know that I can get myself out of whatever trouble I find myself in. And I like to watch that against another person. And I like to watch like, oh, look, I knew more than this guy or, or I must be doing things really right in order for me to be able to do that to this guy, you know? So I'm, I was being a little sarcastic on me being my favorite fighter, but I do really like watching my fights.

That's a good answer. Well, we got a case who's notified that we're going to do rapid fire for the last few questions. So Casey, what do we got? Hold on. All right, here we go. Keep it kind of quick. we're going to restrict ourselves like five seconds yeah all right from godzilla hard drivinson on twitter in theory if the average life expectancy

goes up significantly in the next 100,000 years how old would the oldest M&A professional be then older than Ken Shamrock except three next question I don't know what this question be yeah you guys send me these questions goes up significant i don't know man i don't know pass from jones eats cornea d and d champs greetings a b and c sides thanks for keeping the content up so what d and d classes with the current uc champs being why the people want to know p s esther is the best so yeah shout out to esther lynn behind the scenes photographer extorring there

uh so cori i don't know if you're a big fan of dungeons and dragons but oh shit so i know i know nothing about it even know what it is you don't know what dunds and dragons pizza? No. Man, well. Next question. Yes is the answer. Next question. All be fighters. I know that.

Because that is a class of Duns and Dragons, by the way, fightings. Yeah. And our final question is, where to go, here we go. Final question for Corey. I've been doing a good job with these Rob before, no? There you go. Jose.

Someone says, Jose, ask Corey who he thinks is the all-time UFC goat. Oh, George, bro. GSP. He's a goat. So do you have a top five in the UFC or just MMA in general?

Of all time? In the annals of time. Oh. All those up there. GSP's up there. Khab's definitely up there now. DJ's up there for sure. Absolutely.

Is Fade are in? A lot of lower-weight class. in your top five ever. Yeah. Well, I've always watched sports just to learn from sports. I don't really watch sports a ton for entertainment. It's always been so I can learn something. That's why I used to watch basketball.

Not because I liked any team. It was just because I wanted to get better. But last one, I don't have maybe not an MMA fighter, but a boxer that I really like watching is Pernell Whitaker. Yes. He'd be up there in my top five. So no John Jones in your top five? No, man.

To me, no. I was going to ask, right? I was going to ask, because there's no Anderson, there's no John Jones, and these are all guys who have popped. Is that word or not on the list? I think that there's, to me, this is more than a sport. It's more than just being good at something. I think that if it doesn't transcend into real life,

then what's the point? So not to say that there may be living wrong, but I think the guys that I listed are, for sure. Artists, you know, they're artists in the cage, but also outside. So what about a fighter out? Like a lot of people argue over who the greatest heavyweight is a lot. I think the kind of the default answer is either Fador or Kane, and now Stipe and D.C.

are up there. So where do you classify someone like Fadour, never fought in the UFC, but a lot of people hold him in high regard? Yeah, that's a tough one. Fadour, uh, yeah, he's up there, man. But to be honest, man, I don't really enjoy watching a ton of. heavyweight fights. I just don't feel like that.

That's shade. That is shade. I mean, once your last fight was headlined by the heavyweight championship of the run. That is shade, but I don't know, man. I like watching to learn. Hey, that ain't shade. That's truth. Roy it up, guys, right it up.

Corey John Hagan hate UFC heavyweight. Either the heavyweight fights are either the best fight in the card or the worst fight. Yeah. I sometimes wonder if I'm like, man, Would I rather be a heavyweight than a light guy? But then I think that the amount, like if I get hit, I might. Like if I get hit good, I might get knocked out. But for the heavyweights, if you get hit good, you are getting knocked out.

So like for me, it's like, do I want to walk into a fight knowing that? That would suck, man. You know, so they have their challenges too. Imagine all the pizza though, Corey. Oh, that's true too, bro. That's true, too. So pizza getting knocked out. That's the balance of life right there.

What about a fighter... That's a lot of knowing in Ireland, man. What about a fighter like Israel-A-Sanya right now? Do you think he's kind of on the cusp of being in this great, this all-time great conversation, and he's still a few wins away? He is undefeated. He is the champion.

He's racking up these wins, but maybe not there yet. Yeah, it's too soon to tell. I really like his... Yeah, he came out to Colorado and trained for a couple of weeks, so we got to get to know each other just a little bit. bit, but I think he's a good guy. I think that for me, like, for you to be one of the greatest of all times, you got to be one of the greatest for a really long time. He's only been the champ for maybe a year or two. I don't know if it'll last for another five years. If it does,

then yeah, he's definitely in that conversation. Well, we're running up on time. So, Corey, as per usual, on the show, the guest of honor gets to say, plug, talk about anything they want. It doesn't have to be fight-related. So the floor is yours, Corey. Yeah, no, I don't have too much, man. Just listen to my podcast, okay? Punchlines podcast. It's on all of the podcast apps and stuff. So I'm not the greatest salesman, but I think it's a pretty decent podcast.

I'm getting better at interviewing people. I know that I'm not the greatest at it yet. But I'd appreciate it if you give it a chance. Get that I'm on some crystals. What's your question for the media guys? if you're Mr. interview. Yeah,

yeah. You got any questions? Do you want to flip the script? Where is your hair so shit, Pizzi? Yeah. Yeah, so, all right.

So, well, I guess, yeah, let's ask two, one more general, one, one,

a little bit more for myself. But I guess the one for myself is, I'm, oh, shit. Oh, this name does that sometimes,

bro, I just moved into this house, bro. It's like crystals, dude, I need some crystals. Oh, It's a haunted house right now.

What you got? Let me go out. Back to the 90s. The transnations back. Yeah, so, what is it? I forgot. Yeah, so I'm fairly good at listening to people. I feel like I can do that pretty good, but I have a lot of issues coming up with the next

question. Are you guys consciously thinking about the next question, or how does that work? So when I do Media Day, at the beginning when I first started, I would write a lot of the things I wanted to talk about down. And I found myself sticking to that script where rather than listening to what the fighter is saying, so they could be saying something super interesting

that I should have fed off of and continue with that. But in my mind, I'm like, I got to get this question it. So like I was talking, like, for example, I was interviewing Gay God and Rusasi. And he was like, yeah, I might drop down the welterweight. And when I replayed, I was like, wait a minute. I didn't even register. in my mind. He wants to fight Lima at Welterweight for the Bellator championship. But in my mind,

I wanted to get this next question. And I completely missed that. So I would say, listen to what they're saying and maybe have a bullet point in your head, but you don't have to stick to it. That's just me personal. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That's exactly what I do. I'll have like say for you today, Corey, I'd say the one question I think, you know, because you're not doing it for yourself. You're doing it for everyone that's consuming the stuff. So everyone that sees you on today, knows that we had the Dominic Cruz article yesterday. They want some clarity on that. That was the only question. I was like, oh, we need to get Corey to comment on that. And then afterwards, shoot the shit. In fact, usually shoot the shit a bit first. So they're cool with you.

They can have a bit of fun. You get a bit of momentum going and then hit them with the question of people won. And then after that, just go back to shoot and shit. Yeah, okay. Yeah. I'll say those two, with those two guys said, have your maybe just two, three topics you want to hit, but really the most important part is to listen. Because once, you get kind of caught up and like I got to ask these six questions. No, they're going to say something like, no, they've never said on camera before and you just blow right by it because you're so occupied what next question is your head in your head. So it's just takes practice and just a lot of listening.

You can see you guys. You can see you guys getting sick of it when you ask a generic question. Like, how did you get into the sport? Corey? You're like, oh, fuck's sake, here we go. It's just like a straight away to like, oh, for fuck sake, what if that answer? this shit question again. Yeah.

Hope that helps. Yeah, that actually does help. What, okay, how about, how about if, um, if, uh, shit, what was I about to ask? This always happens to me, man. Oh, dude. That's the worst when you get hit that block and you're like, is your, like, you're going to ask question and just everything goes. Like, you're like, I don't even know this guy's name.

Like for somebody. Uh, okay. Yeah. So, uh, so, so, so what's the most. efficient way of like, do you guys think that social media is the biggest way to get everything out there? Do you guys think that, uh, like, what are you guys looking for to put out onto, on social media? Because, uh, if that is even the biggest way, or is it like, it can't just be word of mouth or is it like advertising? Is it like paying for posts? What do you guys think is

like the most efficient way to get the most kind of publicity on, on the podcast? Well, we're looking like the fact that we're with my fighting, right? Because they have all this huge social media following straight away. So you're going to get a certain amount of attraction straight off the bat. But if it's not good, they're just not going to come back. And you're going to get absolutely annihilated for it. So it's like social media definitely has been for the spread of our podcast, definitely with a huge following like, my fighting has, you know, it's a huge, it's a huge factor.

And I don't like social media. I actually hate it. Like I don't like it. But I need to, you need to, these people actually like kind of, you know, they're supporting your career by tuning in. in and listen to your product. So, like, you know, you do have to, you know, interact with them to a certain degree because that's where your fan base is or your listeners, your following are all there. And they're the people that who are supporting your career. So I feel like

you got to, you got to stay up to date. Like, if there's something happening, they expect you to be talking about. So that's all I do. I try to stay away from that. Other than that, I just put a picture of my dog. Word. Yeah, I view social media as like the step in the door and then it's just the quality has is if the quality is on point they'll stick around. I mean, that's how Joe Rogan blew up. Like he at first it was like, hey, listen to my podcast. And then you listen to one episode and people got hooked. So I just use social media as the first step in. It's a good sound about too. Like, because if the people that listen to you will tell you if it's shit one week. You know, it'd be like that wasn't great. I didn't like that.

I didn't like that interview. You know, they'll tell you that. Like, I mean, you just, if the people who are listening to it every week are seeing problems. Like, I mean, that's, that's good intel, right? Like, that's something, like, it's constructive criticism. I think some people fly off the handle. I deal it awful lot myself. It's also how I figure out when the audio is like, when I used to run board, I'd be like, the audio was bad last week, so then that's how I know when to fix it.

Yeah, yeah. Criticism is tricky. You really have to look for good faith criticism because, I mean, I mean, I'm, I go through all the comments while we're doing the show and like 90% are just ridiculous. But then... Domester for her. Yeah, so it's really, it's really, it's really, really trying to it's getting a good filter for you know criticism of good faith behind it but yeah cool

our final i just want to throw this one our final question then we'll go off the air right here guys here we go nicholas and jeremy what's your max bell oh damn that's fucked up i know i know why you're asking that too that's fucked up boy what was she asking that tell us because i'm skinny bro I got no pecks, dude. I got no muscles. That's why. 0.7, Nicole. I can't remember the last time I had bench pressed.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know when the last time I'd bench pressed, but I don't know. It's probably around like 500. Yeah, 700, 600, 700. Yeah. That was a rep, right? Yeah, just one rep.

Yeah, one rep. Probably around like, yeah, 600 probably. All right. Yeah. So. Well, before we go, also, Corey, Jose Shorty Torres wanted to say hello. He was on the show last week. Said, that's shade.

That's shade. That's shade. Right it up. Oh, my God. Last episode, Pizzi was trying to get a book a fight between who is a man out cape and Shorty Torres simply because Shorty didn't recognize the name. And it was all right. It was a lot.

It was a shade. Oh. The whole place descended into the darkness, there was so much shade. Well, Jose wants to say hello, but for Casey, that's Casey. That was Corey. Corey, you were great. We'd love to have you back on the show. We have a lot of time coming up.

We have more questions. Jessica, send Corey some crystals, too. You can be officially part of Team Crystal. But for Jose, that's Petey, that's Casey. We'll be back Monday. Thanks so much, Corey. We're out. Hell yeah, thanks, guys.

That's fun. to the Vox Media Podcast Network.