MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat w/ Joe Lauzon

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

For this episode, UFC lightweight veteran Joe Lauzon joins José Youngs and Alexander K. Lee to break down some of the top story lines in the world of MMA. Some topics include UFC 249, Khabib Nurmagomedov stranded in Russia, a possible fight between Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje, and more. Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Petesy Carroll: @PetesyCarroll Follow Joe Lauzoj: @JoeLauzon 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 Youngstaker, the MAAfighting.com here with another Monday edition of the A-side Live Chat. Now, we're still in quarantine. We're still under this pandemic. So as always, we're doing more on Mondays and Fridays and we're trying to get more fighters on. So joining us this Monday is, of course, our Monday co-host, Alex K. Lee and the man joining the two of us needs to introduce. And U.S. Lightway veteran Joe Lozon, who was on time. only on time but early.

Excellent crystal clear picture. So 10 out of 10 hosts so far, Joe, we haven't even got any questions in. On time. I get good internet. We're good. I can have that good internet for gaming. So there you go. Yeah, he was gaming before we got on.

Before we get into the questions, we spoke briefly on it, I know our fans are going to probably want to know. How are you dealing with quarantine life and amid this pandemic? Quarantine life is not that different than like week after a bad fight life. Like for the most part, like I just, you get beat up. you don't want to see anyone. You're just staying and play video games. You're kind of cut off in the world.

Pretty similar for the most part. I'm basically just staying home and playing with my kids. I've got bouncy house set up over to my left from my kids for our downstairs room. So that's been going nonstop for like a week. But it's good. It's all right. It's not bad. What do you tell your young kids if they ask about what's going on in the world right now?

I'm sure they're not in school or they can't go hang out with friends. They're probably asking like, why can't I do this? So what do you tell a young kid like that? So if Joey would give you a lesson all about the coronavirus, he's six. He's like, we have no school because there's a virus. It's called the coronavirus. It's very contagious. You have to wash your hands.

So, I mean, they get it. I mean, they understand. You know, like it's no different than them. And honestly, like a typical summer, like they don't have school. They don't have whatever. You know, every day he's like, do I have school tomorrow? Like, no school tomorrow. Probably another month or so.

You know, it's, but, you know, they understand. You know, kids are smarter than people, you know, think sometimes. Well, they sound like they're smarter than half the world already with that, that coronavirus lesson you gave us. But of course, this is not our show. This is the fan show. You guys can drop on Twitter. You can go on the site. You can ask Joe, me, or Alex, if you want to ask us any questions.

That'd be kind of weird. But you can ask any questions you want, MMA or non-MMA related. I say that because, Joe, we had Michael Keyeson. We had about a 30-minute tangent about hunting Bigfoot with Michael Keyeson. Sanhagan kind of got into a tangent on Crystal Healing and everything. So there's no rules on the A-Side Live chat. So Casey, our director, is in the background. Everyone's favorite moustachioed hipster.

Excellent coffee talk. If you haven't watched it, go watch his coffee talk about Wima. But Casey, do you have any questions teed up for Joe? Yes, we do. Hold on one moment. Here we go. Question on the site from longtime commenter Trumbo. Question for Joe first.

Just want to say, I'm a huge fan of Joe, both his fights and the and the way he conducts himself. Thanks for all the amazing fight so far. Question, what's the biggest difference for you between the UFC when you came into it and how it is now? So not specifically about yourself, but I guess the promotion organization in general, what's the biggest difference I can imagine the Reebok deal, ESPN, and so on and so forth. There's any real thing that stands out to you that's so dramatically different that maybe fans haven't realized? To me, the biggest difference is like the personnel difference, right?

So there's obviously different people doing different jobs. But there's like each person has a much more specific job. Like when I, so I got to the UFC, it was UFC 63, 2006. And at that time, Sean Shelby was designing posters. And he was the guy that was there that was basically when we signed the posts, he would like go on to the next post and go on the next post and go on the next post. So you know, like it's, you know, but Sony Hill had so many different jobs. Whereas now there's so many shows that there's like, there's like 10 people on the medical team where there's

usually just be one person, right? So it's, um, there's like, each, each person is like more more specialized, I think, for whatever their job is, whether it's doing media or doing this or doing that or doing media, but this particular thing, or doing photos, but these particular photos, or doing social media or doing this or that. It's just like, there's a lot more personal. Which obviously, it makes sense, right? You have a lot more volume, a lot more workload. You got to hire people. Like, don't have, you know, 10 people do 10 different things, have each person do one or two things. Joe, does that make things easier for you? easier, more difficult.

Like you said, they're more specialized now. So like you said, back then, you kind of knew everyone, but now at least you know, maybe you don't know everyone, but you know at least know they have specific departments for things. So easier, harder, same. It's a little bit harder just because, like, before, like I had, like, personal relationships with every single person. I knew every single person.

Like, I knew exactly, like, if I had anything to do with medicals, I just asked this one person. Anything about media, I could ask this one person. Now it's like, it's, and the roles change. Like, the people change all the time, too. So, like, what's going on for this show is different than what's going on for the next show or, like, what one person was in charge of, you know, for this week is different than in a year for now or whatever. So it's a little bit different, just kind of like, you know, before it was like it was kind of easy. Like, I knew exactly who to talk to, who to go to.

Now I was like, I don't really know. Who do I? You know, so I just, I reach out to like three or four people like, who's the best person for this time and figured out. But it's all good. You know, it's just, that's the nature, right? Things get bigger. We want to be more successful. It's become more successful.

It's gotten bigger. There's more fighters. There's more fights. growing pains, but it's good. It's really good. Would you say there was a certain, like, charm to the way it used to be, or is that not the right word for it? No, I mean, it's still just as good. I mean, it was, it was nicer before when you had, like, you had, like, you have stories. You had background with every single person you dealt with. So that part was a little bit nicer. But I think that, like, you know, kind of word just travels around. Like, I'm always been, like, since my first fight in the UFC, I've always been, like, I try to be super accommodating with the UFC.

I, you know, I see their point of view on a lot of things. I, you know, I understand the fighter's point of view. their point of view. I understand how things have to work as a business and as a show and everything else. And I've just, because I've tried to, you know, get along so well with everyone, I think that's kind of helped me even when new people come in. They're like, oh, that's Joe, you know, anything you want is just, just hub them out or, you know, do whatever. So it works well. Has it been, look, you mentioned there's a lot more specializes, a lot more responsibilities. That probably means you have more responsibilities during Fight Week 2. Like when you debuted, the social media was not where it is now. Do you miss?

the early days where you had less to do for the UFC during fight week and you can more concentrate on the fight at hand? No, I think it's better, you know, because a big part of it too is people don't realize how much media and stuff we do. And a lot of it doesn't even get used sometimes. You know, so I might have like 10 things and like certain clips don't get used or we do certain things that's not even used just because you have to get do so much stuff just to get a couple good things.

You kind of let the cream rest the top a little bit. So you scoop off all the best stuff. So like it's just good practice. It's great practice. So like if the first time you're ever doing some kind of media thing was like when you're a Khabib and you're fighting for a title, right? Then that's, you know, he obviously didn't have as much practice. You know, you want those guys to get those reps in just like anything else. So it's good.

It's good practice. Like, it's easy. Like I am a super introvert. Like I would rather like not talk to anybody. Like I would have no problem like just like staying in my basement playing Xbox for three months and not talk to anybody. You know, but it's, it got me to, you know, be better, more comfortable talking to people and more comfortable like being on camera and doing interviews. and because I was like, oh, if you say something, you don't want to come out, just let us know. We'll edit it out.

Like, I just, I've done so many live interviews and things like that. Like, I'm just, I'm not even, I'm not concerned about that whatsoever. And this might be a weird way of phrasing it, but I spoke with BJ Penn before he fought Yaya Rodriguez. And this was one, like, in the middle of one of his really long layoffs of fighting. And he said he, what, the fighting would come naturally, but he actually felt ring rust when speaking with the media. Like, he had not done it for so long that he forgot really how to do it and how to do it and

how to handle himself. Is that a reality for you? Like if you take a long layoff like you did and then you fight on the Boston card, you're obviously going to have to do more media because you're on the Boston card and you're a hometown favorite. Do you feel any ring rush speaking with the media? Not too much. I mean, so I run my gym. So I'm always teaching classes. I've been running like the three to five year old class now because my son's in the class. So like I'm used to dealing with parents. I'm used to talking to kids all the time. And like so that part was all pretty easy because I do it all the time. B.J. is like him, if I'm an introvert, BJ's like a super introvert.

Like, he does not, like, he's not, like, out there doing whatever. Like, he's, he likes nothing more. He just kind of laying low and hanging out. So, you know, but I get to see how that would be a little bit harder for him, for sure. How good your son? Although you said you're teaching your son. Is that right? Yep.

How good is he? He's not. He's, so he's, he does it because he knows that I want him to do it, right? Like, I don't make him do it. But he's like, I want to do a good job, so I don't have to do it again. You know what I mean? It's like, it's, it's, it's all like, the classes are half an hour. We go twice a week, two or three times a week.

It's mostly, like, just playing games with them and stuff like that. It's, like, very little jiu-too. Like, they're doing stuff that's all kind of around jihitsu, but, like, but he has, he has funds with it, but a lot of time he's like, I don't want to do this every day. Like, it's like, we do like twice a week, like, relax. It's for, you know, we spend like an hour, an entire week doing jihitsu, like, but he's, I think, I think you'll grow, I won't force him to do it. Like, right now, I kind of like, I don't,

I don't force him into it, but I kind of pressure him a little bit to do it. But it doesn't take a lot. It's just like, hey, you know we have tiny energy stay. Let's go. And he's good. So if he came up to you, say, in the year and goes, Dad, I don't want to do this anymore. Would you be disappointed? I only asked that because I spoke with Edson Barbosa.

And his son did the same thing when it came to Moitai. And he was like, he said, okay. But then he's like, I'm kind of heartbroken right now. My son doesn't want to do Moitai. Yeah, I mean, I would be a little bit heartbroken about it. But, like, I'm never going to force him to do it, right? I'm going to make him dip his toes in. I'm not going to ever make him jump in with both feet,

but he's going to dip his toes in for a little bit. He's going to get some kind of exercise. He's small. So my wife is super short. She's like 4'10. So she's really short. Joey, because of all that, when he was born, he was sick.

So he had chemo and all other stuff. So he's really short too. So that's like, he's probably mostly short because of her. But it didn't help with all the other stuff he had. So like he's going to need to be able to know how to fight a little bit. He's going to have to defend himself, stick up from himself a little bit.

He's not going to be a big guy. So he's got to learn a little bit. Like, I'll never make him, you know, like if he never wanted to compete and never want to do anything, I'm fine with that. But he has to at least do a little bit. You know, everyone should try to defend themselves a little bit. This being a pro-active dad right there. I feel bad for whoever tries to pick on his kid, think if they're, if he grows, like, ends up being short. And he's like, ha-ha, I'm going to pick on this guy.

And then don't know what's coming to them. Casey, any more questions we got coming for Joe? Thank you for the question again, Trambo. Always like hearing from you. All right, here we go. From Sean Denny. Denny Rantz on Twitter. This question is for Joe on Massachusetts fighting.

How much influence did the likes of Mickey Ward, John L. Sullivan, Marvin Hagelin, Rocky Marciano have on your fighting career. Huge fighting spirit in that era of the U.S. So yes, Sean Denny of Denny Rant's long-time commenter. Joe, you're from Hotbed of Combat Sports, specifically boxing. I grew up in province and I heard these names,

but I didn't grow up in Massachusetts. So these names are obviously royalty when it comes to not just Massachusetts combat sports, but all combat sports. You grew up in the hotbed. Did these fighters have any influence on you growing up? Not a ton. Like, I was never, like, my dad would watch, like, a Tyson fight

or a Holyfield fight or something like that. But, like, my family was never, like, super into, like, boxing or things like that. My family was actually super against me, even training Jiu-Jitsu and doing everything else from the beginning. You know, but, like, so our, where my gym used to be. So when I first started training, the name of the gym was reality self-defense, right? And it seemed like it was a decent name for, like, it was a karate school, basically, when it started. And then they had a jihitu, and that was when I came in.

And so, but the building was a nail factory. You used to be a nail factory, like, back in the day. And Rocky Mastiano was actually sponsored by the nail factory. And so, like, he would do workouts. He would do media workouts up in our space, right where our gym was. So that part was kind of cool. But I wouldn't say that they were, like, a huge influence. You know, obviously, like, you know, fighting spirit is obviously awesome.

but I think it's more so like the miserable winters we have out here. You know, we have like, you know, brutal hot summers and then miserable winters. Like, you get it. Like, you just can't get comfortable. Like, it's going to matter of it. I like the cold. Okay, well, cold's good, but now we're going to bake you. Or you like the heat.

Okay, we'll bake you, but then we're going to freeze you in, you know, three months later or two weeks later. It's crazy. Well, I think Joe Rogan said it the best way. When there was an up-and-win, if you're an up-and-com comedian, try to make it in Boston because everyone is miserable. So if you can make them laugh, you'll succeed. And I was like, nailed it right on the head.

But like that September to like early November range, range, that's the best. But then I remember when I was a kid, it snowed on Halloween once. So that could go out the window too. It's snowing. It was like my birthday. It was like my birthday is May 22nd. We had like, we had snow. It wasn't a lot, but we had snow.

Dang, it was crazy. In kindergarten. I'm up in Canada. I'm up in Canada. Yeah, you understand. Joe, I want, oh sorry, Jose, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Well, I was going to say, you know, Mickey Ward, was one of the names brought up. Most of us, I mean, for me, I'm sort of more casual boxing fan. Of course, we know about him from The Fighter, great movie that was made about him. A lot of names and that question that was asked, have had, you know, documentaries made about their lives. You've had such an extensive M.M.A. career. Do you ever think that, either, one, you'll have a longer, like, a full-length documentary made about your career. I don't know if you keep that kind of footage. I know you had a mini-documentary made a while ago. And or two, you know, if they make a movie about you someday, who would play you. I've never thought about if they're going to play me.

Who would play me if they'd something like that? I don't know. I mean, like, we've, we've had all kinds of, you know, people doing documentaries, things like that come and, you know, visited the gym and talked about different projects and things like that. I can't talk, like, specifics and anything, but we've had a few people come in and do, like, you know, film, like, some extensive documentary stuff, like, on, on not just me, but the entire gym and kind of the atmosphere.

Like, we have, like, so I'm super lucky because basically all the best guys in New England come to my gym every week to train. So we all get together on Saturdays. So I got, you know, Rob Fon, Calvin Cater, you know, really all the best guys. Devin Powell comes down from Maine. You know, we got all the best guys in New England all come to us on Saturdays. We all together. We beat the crap out of each other.

We spar. We show whatever. Like, you know, Nate Andrews fights in the PFL or, you know, and like, you know, he's showing me guilty and stuff he likes to do. And I'm showing them take down stuff I like to do. I'm showing them back control stuff. We just all, like, you know, everyone comes together and just puts everything together and gets to work out. So it's a really cool environment.

So we've had a few different people come out and try and film some stuff. And who knows if something's ever going to come of it, you know, that'll be solid. But there's always interest in that just, you know, having all the best people around all kind of come together. And like I don't care about getting attention to my gym. I don't care about getting attention for me. I just I want everyone around here to do really, really well. And it's just I think it's kind of like it's a little bit infectious about just trying to have everyone just help each other. You know, it's like no one's out there like, oh, well, you have to do this for me.

you have to do that. It's like just come and train and get better. That's it. Yeah. I think, Joe, I see a little bit of a Jesse Eisenberg, maybe. Does anyone else think that? That's not bad. Maybe a bit. A little prosthetics, of course, a little makeup. I know. I think he'd be, is he a Boston? No, he's not from Boston. No, he's not from Massachusetts. He's a Facebook movie. He could be the guy who played Zuckerberg could play you in a movie. Think about that. It could work. It could work. And I wouldn't say you look like Zuckerberg. So that's kind of weird. connect. I do think

I would really interesting. Yeah, exact acting. I do think other lot that would be like really interested

in hearing like more about your story, like you said, even just like kind of the guys you trained with and I bet they'd all

have all kinds of stories. You trained with everyone in the New England area. So yeah, that would be a very cool story. Okay,

we got another question from our YouTube comments. There you know. Right here. Can you read it? Best Boxing gangster movie Boondock Saints the Departed or the Town?

Ooh. I ride. Joe, I'll let you answer this one first. You can't go wrong with Boondock Saints ever. Why do you like Boondock Saints? I like Boondock Saints, but in terms of an actual movie, I do think, I think The Departed is the best one. See, here, okay, here's the problem I have with the town. And I watched this movie with my dad in theaters, and he loved it until this moment, where at the end,

if you haven't seen it, spoiler alert right here. At the end, when they're getting ready for the big heist at Fenway Park, and then he walks away and like the leaves are falling and everything. My dad was like, the leaves don't fall in Boston until October. And they're getting ready for a four-game series against the Yankees, which will never happen in October because it's the playoffs. So my dad ruined that movie for me. Right there.

My dad ruined it for me right there. So I'm going to say the departed. So the departing is great. I would say the repart is probably the best overall movie of the bunch, right? But if I can choose from watching one of the three, I would put on Boondock Saints every single time. It's like you have to laugh the entire time. It's just, it's so ridiculous.

They shoot the cat. It's just like, it's so good. There's so many good scenes. Like the, of those three movies, Willemdafo is by far the most captivating character. Of course. For sure. It was a fire, five. It was the whole movie was awesome.

The entire movie. I still haven't seen the sequels. I don't know if it holds up. Yeah. You never know who you need rope. You never going to need some rope. Joe, that was not a strong sell for people who haven't seen. seen Boondock say that there's a scene where someone shoots a cat.

There's more to the movie than that. The pieces don't do it against the product as a whole. The product is a whole. It's like there's always like, so the way Boondock Saints basically goes for people haven't seen. It's about some guys in Boston, some brothers. And they basically get into some trouble with like the Russian mafia or something like that. And basically it's like some kind of crazy thing happens, but they never show you the crazy scene.

They always show you like the aftermath first. So you see the aftermath and everybody's like, oh, what is going on? How did this happen? and like what is going on like guys shut up guys covered in blood all this other stuff and then afterwards it kind of it does like a flashback and you see like the insanity of like just ridiculous about how things happened and it played out it just like the movie's amazing it's so good uh i didn't see the second i heard the second one was kind of trash i haven't seen the second one but i know the story behind the making of the first one is also pretty out of control like the director pitching the screen play and everything so if you don't know that story that might be more interesting than the story itself because it's a like, I think they should make a movie on that. So I don't want to think of everyone. I haven't seen that. I'll have to go look that up. I'm going to see what's going on.

Because it's like, anyway. I think there's a documentary on the making of Boondong Sanks. There should be. I think there is actually. That's why, yeah. I'm not fine. Mr. Mr. Filmmaker, what do you say?

What's the best Boston mob movie, gangster movie of those three? Oh, Casey. Departed. There you go. Yeah. Boondog Sanks though, is a fun. It's a fun. It's a fun. It's a fun watch for sure.

Here's for sure. Here's another like the departed has another like soft spot in my heart because that that like chunk in Boston history. The Red Sox won the World Series in 04. They win the Series in 07. Patriots are defeated. Celtics win the NBA Chambers. This is all the 2005 to 2008 range. Drod Mayo wins. A rookie of the year for the New England Patriots, defensive rookie of the year. Matt Ryan wins offensive rookie the year. Where did he go to college, AK, that's right, Boston College, and then he gets drafted the Falcons. The Patucket Red Sox win the International AAA Championship, the Province Bruins when the H.L Championship.

And where did the depart to take place, Casey? And then one movie of the year, that's right, Boston. So Boston dominated that chunk of time. It's exhausting being in Boston fans. People don't realize how long our seasons are. Our seasons are always longer than everyone else is. Why did I agree to this show? Why did I agree to the show?

I knew I was walking into. I knew what I was walking into. A.K. is a big Raptors fan, and he was on the show after that debacle of an NBA championship parade. I'm like, I don't know what that's like because we have parades pretty much every year. So this is like we have a book in St. Paul to run it to run those parades. I'm not even a defendant. I almost died at that parade. So I'm not even, I'm not even going back.

No, you're right. No, it was a debacle. And I wish I'd never gone. Anyway, we could talk about Boston dominating everything. We can. Can we not? Can we not? Whatever. You guys got mooky bets. You guys can have them. Anyway, what's our next question, Casey?

No one has moogie bets because there's no sports right now. Next question. Oh, what do we got? What do we got? Let's go. Here we go. Um, at the seaside. Favorite season of the ultimate fighter and why? I think I know Joe's answer.

Well, he should have two answers. I mean, besides the one he was on. We had the best season. You can't even argue it. You can't even argue it. BJ Penn Jones, Culver's coaches, both great coaches.

Nate Diaz, Mating & Gembert, Graham, Maynard, Rob Mervet, Cole Miller, me, Matt Wyman. We had an amazing season. You can't, you can't even question.

I think we had the best season, for sure. Aside from our season, I really like the first season, just because I think that no one had any idea what was going to go on. Like,

there's something special about, like, guys that were fighting when I first started fighting, for me. Because there was no there was no like long-term career there, right? It was just like, you're

fighting because you wanted to fight. Like there was no like, now there's people that are chasing paychecks and they want to fight because they want the money and they want this, they want that. But in the beginning it was like guys were fighting just because they wanted to fight, right? Same thing with the ultimate fighter. None of those guys had any idea what was going to come of this.

You know, it could have been, it could have been canceled before, you know, the first episode was there. Like, you never knew. So, you know, so I thought the first season was really cool because the UFC didn't know what was going to happen. The fighters didn't know what was going to happen. The coaches didn't know what was going to happen. Like, oh, we're just going to go and train and we're going to film everything. We're going to see how it goes. You know, they made so many mistakes because obviously the first time you do something, you don't know what you're doing. They took the fighters like it was a kid rock concert or something. And someone was having sex in the toilet stall and someone else was making fun of the person for it.

And they were pulling their phone. I just the whole entire thing was ridiculous. And they had no idea. They were doing that. with no expectations of anything coming of it. Just hope and a prayer. Yeah, season one also had the challenges where I rewatched that where they would have, like, let's see if you could, like all the fighters team up

and carry Randy Coutor like on their shoulders. Like it threw the water. I can't believe we didn't get a serious injury after that season. Oh, they were crazy. They did the scarecrow drill, right? Yeah.

They totally did. The Diego climbed around someone for like 80-something repetitions or something and then the other team was like, all right, you know what? they win we're not going to kill our guys it's awesome

so I don't I don't disagree with you I do think five is the best in terms of like yeah there's no argument for me that five is the best I liked 14 I think that was

mayhem and Bisbing that had the introductions of the featherweight so that had like Dotson Dillishaw Diego Brando Dennis Bermudas I thought Marcus

Brimish I thought that was a pretty good representative of some elite lower weight class fights 10 I think is memorable well was the heavyweight season with Kimbo all right

Pete Kimbo. That was the highest rated season. That was the highest rated season. I like 15. That was the live season that John Anick always likes to bring up as his favorite one. That was the Cruz favor for the coaches. One of my guys, Joe Proctor was on that season. Yep.

There you go. No love for the debut of the Straw weights. So much talent came up there. I think anytime you have like the very bottom of the divisions or the biggest guys your talent pool is just less, right? Because not as many guys are going to be that lower, not as many guys are going to be that high. Like, I feel like the middle weight classes

are generally the more competitive. And you just pull up from a bigger pool of people. Like, more people can make 55 or 70 or 85. Whereas how many guys are going to, you know, realistically be at, you know, heavyweight or, you know, at a low weight class. I have a real soft spot for season six, the one right after Joe.

I mean, I think, I agree. I think Joe is probably top three. I think season five, I think season 10, as, as Jose mentioned, and season one. I like season six after it, but there was Matt Hughes and Matt Sarah, awesome coaches. They had a great, great kind of on-screen chemistry. There was some great personalities, but the talent drop off from your season to season six,

with respect to all the guys who compete on the Ultimate Fighter Six, probably one of the worst, like, as far as how much, how many UFC fights the guys had after, how much success they had. It wasn't great. It wasn't great. I think after you guys, we kind of started to see the cracks in the format as far as like how much talent, how much unsigned talent was left out there? I think you guys might have been the last like, holy crap. There's so much, so many good guys out there who need to get the UFC and there just

wasn't that weight class, right? And then they brought all you in. So season six, I liked, but it was a bit of a drop-off talent-wise. Yeah. There was still some really good guys on that season, though. But for sure. MacDonzie was great. There was no 55 division until shortly before that.

So like, when I fought at UFC 63, that was in September of 2006. So that was like the, that was like, I think me and Jen's might have been the first. 155 fights coming back for the most part. Before the show. Yes. So there was no lightweight division at all. So they brought in a whole bunch of lightweights that had been out there beating up everyone around the country.

And because there's no division in the UFC, like we all had to kind of be the best of the regional shows. And then we all came together. So then second time around, you're talking 170. A lot of the guys that, you know, were on the season at 70, they could have made 55.

So it's just, again, just a different depth of talent for sure. I did like the comeback season that, Matt Sarah won. That was a big, that one holds. Because that to me, I think Sarah beating GSP is still the biggest upset I've ever seen in anime history considering Matt Sarah was going up. Because people have talked about that. He fought a lightweight and then went up to Walterweight just to get a second chance

and then won and knocked out GSP. To me, that's still the biggest shock I've ever seen. So was that season four, I think. That was four. That one was big in my mind. Joe, I imagine you got to know everyone in the house pretty well. You guys are in there for so long and with really nothing to do. Like, how absurd is it to think?

that Nate Diaz, of all people, ever, ever, I mean, obviously he wasn't the star he is now. But him, I mean, really, a lot of you guys who are stars now, how crazy it to think like that. But him in particular, he's so volatile and so anti, it would seem like these kinds of concepts. How, like at that time when you knew him, did he seem like the kind of guy who, you know, was just ready to break out and did not want to be on that kind of show? Or was he a lot different back then, like, as far as you know. I love Nate from the start. You know, like Nate is like he's kind of like me where he doesn't really want to be around a lot of people. And he, like, he hates doing media and stuff like that.

He wants, he loves the fighting part. He doesn't want to do any other stuff. I don't mind the stuff that surrounds it. But he is very much, like, against doing all that kind of stuff. So, but from the beginning, like, Nate was one of the best guys in the house for sure. You know, he was kind of like, he wasn't like an outward, like, carry the flag kind of leader, but everyone kind of gravitated around him. You know, he was kind of, he was the guy that would sit in the back and everyone would kind of gravitated around him.

You know, like, whereas, you know, Gray Maynor was on my team. And we always did joke how Gray piss is excellence. You know, he was the first pick. It was like, Gray was the first pick. we would say that every single day. You know, Gray was kind of like more of like your team captain, like your guy that was going to lead the charge. Whereas Nate was like, he was the guy that was kind of sitting in the back

that everyone wanted to be around. He wasn't trying to be the leader, but everyone wanted to be around him. And Nate was like super talented. You know, like his brother was doing great. Nick was doing great. You know, Nate, like the very first day in the ultimate fighter, like we did like the trial. He like armlocked me like slick as could be like right away.

You know, and I was one of the better grapples was in the show and he effortlessly armlocked me like instantly. you know so i'm not surprised by any of this stuff you know like and he's so big about like the running and conditioning and triathlons and iron mans and all kind of stuff even back then he was in all that stuff so um it was never like hard work wasn't you didn't bother him getting in a fight didn't bother him training didn't bother him um he just like he just doesn't like doing media stuff he doesn't like doing his own thing and you know he doesn't want to he doesn't understand the importance of you know of everything i'm sure he understands it more now but back then he just didn't he didn't

deal with any of that stuff. You wanted to show up and punt someone in the face and let that be it. Joe, given that you two were to kind of the, I think one of the two of the more hyped guys going to that season, did you feel like you guys, I mean, it never happened, unfortunately, but did you feel like you guys were destined to fight on the show or at least in the UFC later? Like, is that a matchup that you kind of always saw happening, it was going to happen? I thought it might happen. You know, I could have seen it. Like, honestly, so Manny Gambarian is the one that beat me in the semifinals, right? So I made it to final four. Manny beat me by decision.

And then Manny was, I think he was beating Nate until his shoulder popped out, right? So you could argue that Manny was like the best in the house, right? You could argue that. But Manny was a sleeper. Like I didn't know who Manny was. I had no idea. I knew he was Cairo's cousin and I knew he must have been a badass once I knew that. But I didn't know who Manny was prior to the show.

Like I knew who Wyman was. I knew who Colt Miller was. I knew who Nate was. And that was pretty much it. So, yeah, I thought we were probably, I would probably have to run up against Nate. You know, when we were, you know, so like back then, like, we would basically, you know, they would have a fight pick. And then, you know, if our team had the pick or they had the pick or whatever. And I could just tell everyone was, we were talking picks.

Like, everyone was scared to fight Nate. No one wanted to fight Nate. I'm like, I'll fight Nate. Like, I'm okay. Like, I don't, I'm, he might beat me, but I don't mind. I'll try and fight him. Like, I think it'll be good. You know, I think that, you know, skill-wise, you know, I think it would have been competitive.

but I wasn't, I definitely wasn't scared though. Even I got beat up, I wasn't scared to fight him. I was all like, let me fight Nate right away. Don't let him knock off three of our guys. Let me fight Nate right away. But, you know, it didn't happen. You know, it won't happen at this point, I'm sure. But Nate was one of those guys I like Nate a lot in the house.

Like I like pretty much all the guys in the house, whether my team and the other team or whatever. So it just, I'm able to separate things, though. I think some people can't separate things. Like, you know, I have no problem. You know, like I can be best friends of someone and then fight them no problem and try to break their arm

and everything else. It wouldn't bother me. Do you think the Ultimate Fighter still had... I don't know how to phrase this, but we haven't had a season in a long time ever since kind of the introduction of the Contender Series. Do you think it still has a home in the UFC

or do you think the kind of the Contender Series has taken away a lot of the luster of what the Ultimate Fighter could have been? So the Ultimate Fighter is the Trash TV version of the Carnet series. Right? It's like, I like to watch it. You know, like, it's, it's a fun show to watch, you know, but it's like, it's all the drama in the house and, like, what's going to go on and, you know, whatever else.

I think the day and my content series is so much better because it's more about, like, less of a reality TV, you know, kind of trash show and more of a, like, a sporting event show. Like, it's just okay. Like, go and do your thing, you know, train at home, train with, you know, the best of your ability and then come here, which is like, it's almost like a minor league to the UFC. And I think that's better. I mean, why go and put guys in, like, a completely foreign. you know, atmosphere and environment and put them on the show, which is like, it's good for TV. It's good for trash TV, but it's not the best training environment. I was really fortunate because I had great coaches.

Like I had BJ Pan as my coach and Rudy Valentino and Reagan and Tony DeSuzza. And I had really, really good coaches. And I was lucky because for whatever reason, no one else on my team wanted to work with them. Like everyone just thought that like they were going to do their own thing. Like Wyman wanted to go and hit the bag and Gray wanted to go and hit the bag and run. And Emerson wanted to hit the bag. and like no one wanted to actually train with the coaches. So I was spoiled.

So every single day I would show up like, what do you guys want me to do today? And I would get like an hour and a half private with Tony in the morning. And then I work with Reagan for an hour and a half a night time. And then the next day I work with Rudy for an hour and a half. And the next day I were with BJ for an hour and a half. Like it just, it was awesome. And I was super lucky to get exposed to those guys and, you know, have that experience. But I think now like there's a lot more, you know, trainers that are around and available.

And, you know, there's all these super camps people go to and everything else. So I think that I think it's better doing it the Dana-Wy container series way, I think overall. That's a lesson, by the way, for all the kids out there. Use your resources and coaches and things like that because Joe has fought in the UFC 27 times. So clearly, I would say a lot longer than some of the guys, I think you mentioned, who had good UFC careers,

but certainly not the longevity of you. So kids, listen to that, all right? Listen to teachers, coaches, be a keener. Be a keener like Joe. That's our next question, Casey. Thank you for the question, C-side. From Corey McGeehan, I apologize if I mispronounced that wrong. Hashtag the A-side, if Gachy fights Ferguson, which shouldn't even be happening and wins,

how much of a shame would that be for a fighter of Tony's level to never fight for a full world title? So, Joe, this is in your way class lightweight. I'm sure you've heard a few times the Habib versus Tony Virgins'n's fight has fallen off once or twice. supposedly it's off again. Now the rumors are Tony Ferguson might fight Justin Gagey as a replacement. So to put that into perspective, Tony Ferguson hasn't lost since before women could fight in the UFC. His last fight, his last loss was pre-Ronda Rousey, and now he might have to go through Justin Gagee to fight Habib Nirmiga-Madavadavad down the road. So what do you make of this whole situation in your way class?

And how much of a, in this commenter's words, would it be a shame if, Tony Ferguson lost and we never got Tony Ferguson and Habib. For sure. You know, I think that, you know, the whole rankings thing is like, it's good and it's bad, right? So it's good because it lets the casual fan kind of understand who someone is. If they don't know, if they don't follow and they don't know who Gaichi is or who Tony is or whatever, like, you can put a number. Like, oh, number two versus number four or whatever it is. Like, it just kind of puts a little perspective on it.

But it's a nightmare for everything else, right? It's a nightmare for everything else. Like, how many people are like, they're chasing to be the champ, right? They want to fight for the tab. They want to fight for this. Like, you know, I would personally rather see the UFC just get rid of all the belts altogether and just pay fighters, you know, for their fights. Like, okay, you have this great fight.

Like, if you keep winning fights and you keep doing well and people keep tuning in, you get paid more and more and more and more. Like, why do we have to have a champ? You know, like, I think it's because I know it is. It's because a casual fan doesn't understand what's going on. So, you know, making someone a champ lets them know, okay, this person's really good. But it's so hard. Like, you know, it's really, really hard, you know.

And the rankings just make it a mess for everything else because the number two guy doesn't want to fight the number five guy. Five always wants to fight two, but two never wants to fight five. It's just, it creates a lot of headache

from, you know, from managers and fighters and matchmakers and everything else because you can't always have two guys that are fighting someone that's better than them that someone's higher rank. Like it just doesn't, mathematically it doesn't work.

If you're number two, you've got to fight number one of the champ. If you're anyone else, you're moving backwards, you're slipping backwards, you're fighting rank lower than you. It's a complaint. So, yeah,

It's definitely, it's a shame for Tony. Like, he should definitely be fighting for a world title. You know, like I'm, I'm, like I said, I dislike the whole idea of having champs in general. Like, I understand why it's necessary, but I'd rather just see, okay, like, Tony's going to fight for this and you're going to get paid well and he's going to do this and blah blah, and just let it go. Same thing with like when Connor comes around or whatever else. And there's all kinds of crazy rumors I heard, and I'm sure it's not true, but I heard something about like Connor was fighting someone on Reddit. Connor might be stepping in to fight something or it's just, it's all crazy. Who knows? Who knows? I don't think the fight's going to happen. Honestly, I don't think

249 will happen. I know the UFC's trying to do everything they can to try to make it happen. I just think with all this coronavirus stuff and all these shutdowns and everything else, like they must, I'm sure they have some kind of place that is some kind of tribal land or something that's someone that's willing to do the fights. But I don't know. It all just seems, it seems so crazy to me. So Peter Barrett is one of my guys. He trains me. He's supposed to fight like it's like two weeks after 249. Or, yeah, I think it's two weeks after. And like, so like, but they're talking about trying to like rebook flights and things like that.

And like, they don't even know where it's going to be yet or they haven't even told us where it's going to be yet. It's like, but like, now what do we do? What do we do here? Like, am I supposed to go and fly somewhere? My wife's in there. So I get two kids at home. She's just like, it's like, it's a big mess.

You know, so I don't think anything will happen. I think that they're holding out to last minute because I want to exhaust every opportunity and option. But I don't think it's going to happen. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. I am so glad, Joe, that you said, belts don't matter. Look, this is with respect to everyone who's won championships, of course.

It's an awesome achievement. It certainly represents something. You know, you've reached a certain level. So I'm not, you know, I know you're not and I'm not like crapping on anyone who wins titles. Yeah, of course not. But they are props. You know, and props can be useful. But they are, you're right.

They are props. They shouldn't be the be-all end-all of, you know, oh, did this fighter achieve something? Because, you know, we're talking about Tony Ferguson. There's going to be, you know, when people look at the history books, like you said, the casual fan is going to say, oh, Connor McGregor had a better lightweight career than Tony Ferguson because he won the title, which is insane, which is objectively insane. And that's what people are going to say, just because you're right, because of the weight that the company has put on titles and how, you know, fans might perceive them.

But I don't know if I'm for the abolition of titles in general, but I do agree that they need to, I wish they could kind of represent them in a certain way and not make them. like, Joe, when you were, like you said, you've been around since way before rankings. Did you ever, you know, when you were in the UFC, did you, I'm sorry, you're in the UFC, but during that, you know, your earlier days, did you ever think about like, where am I in the rankings and where is this fight going to put me? Did that matter to you when you were, like, taking fights? It never mattered to me at all.

Before I fought Pettis, kick me in the face, and I derailed that real quick. But I think I was ranked like number four or something like that. I think that was the highest I ever got. And he fought and he won the title in his next fight. So, I mean, I got kind of close, but I never really cared about it. thought about it to that point. It's just like it's so subjective. You know, like, how, how much would it suck if you're Tony Ferguson and your entire self-worth is dependent on, like, winning that world title? And you've done everything you possibly could. It's just it's taken from

you, it's taken from you, it's just not, it doesn't happen, you know? And like, one time was his fault, right? You could say because he tripped or whatever on the wire, you could argue the wire shouldn't have been there. That was, that was his fault, you know, he had to pull out that time. It wasn't an opponent, you know, like it's, um, but they could be pulled out because, you know, kidney stones or something like that. It's just like, it's, it sucks if you, you try to say yourself up as like, oh, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a successor, I'm a failure based on this one thing that's not in your control. It's just not. It's not in his control. He's done everything he could. He's won all these fights to beat all these guys. How could he not have

fought for a title by now? But he hasn't. So it's just, um, it's unfortunate, you know, but, and again, I agree. I'm not, I'm not saying, I'm not trying to take away from titles or anything else. I would, I would, I would personally like, uh, um, almost like a seasonal championship or something like that. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, who, who, who wants? the, you know, who won the summer 2020 title, who won the December 2020, you know, something more like that. Same as like anything else, like, you know, football or whatever else. Like, you have like, you have like a season.

You have a season and you have a champ. You have a season and a champ. You know, like it's maybe do the end of the year. Maybe you do it, like, one title fight a year for each division or so. I don't know how you do it. But something along those lines would be better because that way, like when Kibib, when he's, he's the champ, but he, but he's, if he's not going to fight, you know, next week, then someone else can get that title.

I understand, you know, not to take away from Kabib, you don't want to take away, but like the same time, anytime that someone is a champion, they can't fight, they're denying someone else's opportunity to contend for that title. You know, if the Patriots won the Super Bowl last year, and, you know, they can't, you know, they don't make it this year. You can't say, oh, well, you know, that's not going to happen this year because, you know, like, well, they can't be here, so no one can win the cup. So it sounds like you like the PFL format.

A little bit. I mean, I don't like how they structure and they organize the, like, the contracts. I think it's like it should be a little bit more set on what you're going to get paid. It should step up a little bit more considerably. Like, I think those guys are kind of screwed right now, right? Because, like, I think they canceled that entire season now, right? So those guys are all locked in for a season. Yeah, it's all been postponed.

And then now they, I think that there's something in the contract that says like they, you know, know, you're, you're locked at this price for this season, but, like, next season could be different. So if this is postponed or whatever, like, what's that going to mean for the contracts? Like, I don't like that aspect of it. And I, and I don't like the timing of it all, right? So, like, you're, you're stuck to, like, a rigid structure on when you're going to fight. Whereas the UFC is also, like, if you can't fight in this fight, you just put you in the next card or whatever. Someone says, ask Joe if you, oh, a quick question from Casey. I can ask you. I'm right here.

I'll go ahead. No, I was actually interested Joe. You talk about 249. I mean, outside of the just insane travel restrictions that are going on right now and are probably going to be increased as the weeks go on, would you yourself take a fight right now? Like if the UFC goes, hey, can you fight on 250 or 249 with all the training limitations and travel limitations and just the health crisis going on in the world, would you take a fight if offered right now?

Um, I don't think I would take a fight that fast. I mean, like, it's, it's kind of, because it's kind of irresponsible, right? It's kind of irresponsible because, so my wife, my wife's a nurse. So she's, she's seeing, like, the, the bad stuff that's happening, right? She's seeing all the stuff that's going on. Um, you know, we go to, like, we go to, like, we go to, like, we go to, like, we're, like, you're peer-elling everything and, you know, she's want to be going anywhere, right? And that's fine. That's why I've been, I've been home. I haven't been going anywhere. Um, it's kind of irresponsible if I want to go and, um, you know, try and fight somewhere and, like, you know, ask all my coach is okay, can you all go and can you come with me? Can you get all exposed to everything? And can you bring it all back to all your families and all the people that you're going to come in contact with? The people I would see even, even as the introvert I am, just with the UFC staff, it's like, you're going to see a ton of people. You know, like, and then, you know, I think it's a little bit irresponsible. You know, if I were going to do something, you know, I'm in a little different case because I could maybe like, okay, I'd be like, okay, well, I would get like my brother or someone to come and stay with my wife and help with the kids. And I would basically go

I have to find like a hotel or something for like two weeks or something and just stay away from everyone so I don't you know bring whatever I encounter back it's just the whole entire thing is really is kind of you know unfortunate it's a really bad timing um I don't know I think it's the whole situation sucks and it sucks for the fighters it sucks for everyone you know because I know that all the fighters they're not getting the best possible training you know um you know Calvin Cater supposed to fight Jeremy Stevens at 249 right so Calvin's one of my guys he trains with us um you know Calvin's doing everything he can I'm sure Jeremy Stevens doing everything you can, but I can guarantee you, you're not going to see the best Calvin Cater against

the best Jeremy Stevens. It's just, it's not going to, it's not going to be the case. You know, like, I'm both going to be ready to fight 100%. You give them either one of those guys 10 minutes notice with no camp, they would be ready to fight for sure. But, you know, and they would put on a great fight. But it's still not the same. It's not the same as having like a full camp. So like I would, it's, it's kind of good and it's bad for the UFC because right now there's no competition, right? So there's like anyone that's going to, it's going to tune in. Like anyone that's sitting home board,

if there's a UFC on, there's a live fight, they're going to watch that. They're going to find it. And they're not going to all go to their friend's house and watch the fight. They're going to sit at home and they're going to watch it. So your buy rates are going to be,

you know, even higher because of that. It's kind of like a golden opportunity for the UFC to kind of go in there and take advantage and, you know, make the best of the situation. But it's, it's a hard.

It's a hard call. It's a really nasty situation. I mean, you said your wife is a nurse. A big concern of mine. I've been kind of talking about is if they have it in the United States, I mean, these are fist fights and eventually someone will get hurt and will need medical attention. Do you think it's, like you said, it's kind of selfish to put medical resources into, you know,

voluntary price fighting right now? I mean, to some extent, I mean, like, it's a little different, right? Because I think the big, the big shortages is not necessarily like, it's a course it's going to be beds and things like that. But if someone's going to the hospital, they're going for stitches or something more than likely, right? It's generally not that big of a deal. You don't need, you know, the personal protective equipment is like a big, big deal. That's like, I think, it's something that no one's really paying attention to. That's a much, much bigger deal that people realize. You know, so like, you know, me going in with for stitches

is not going to affect that. It's not going to affect. Like, I'm not going to need a ventilator. You know, like, there's very like real concerns for all hospitals and all the health care stuff that is like I understand that yeah it's taking some resources away but it's not taking a ton of resource away it's not taking like those critical you know but at the same time if the system is stressed as it is like why at any undue stress but the whole thing just sucks agree it's a very bad situation everywhere that's to put it bluntly it sucks a lot yeah all right thank you for the question Corey uh actually question I think that's like seven weeks in a row we've had a Habib Tony questions I don't think it's anything hey you go another one I'm going to keep them. From Alerve 881 on Twitter, I believe that a combo of Connor versus Justin and Tony V. Habib does more than

Connor v. Habib. Do you agree? You also then have a potential third fight money of any canatation of winners and losers if you go with the first two fights. So I think he's saying like a combination of Connor versus Justin Gachie and Tony versus Habib. Is it on like the same card or like kind of a mini tournament style? I don't really know.

I think he's saying same card. Yeah, I think he's saying same card. So, like, you know, Connor and Justin is the co-main and then Tony and Kibb is the main event. Yeah, I definitely think that does better than Connor and Kibb. Right? You know, we've already seen Connor and Kibb. You know, like, I would love to see it again.

But we've already seen it once. You know, like, I would be super excited to see Connor versus Justin Gaci. And then, of course, we all want to see Tony and Kibb. So, yeah, I think it would definitely do better. And, of course, there's potential of a third fight, you know, based on the winners, you know, like almost like a mini tournament. You know, a main event, co-made event, and then the winners fight each other next car.

I think that would be awesome. I would tune in for that for sure. Everyone would tune in for that. I think it would make, see, it makes the most sense. I don't know if Dana White wants to put Connor McGregor and a co-main and a three-round fight. That's the only, that's going to be the only hiccup. Oh, I assume they meant he was the main event.

I assume they meant the key they would, they would break the rules. Put Connor over the title? I'm not even kidding. I honestly think that's what they can do anything they want. If they want to have a five-round fight is a co-made event, they can do that. They can do anything they want. You know, like, it's, it's, the commissions have, like, rough rule sets, but if the UFC wants to do anything, they're going to let them do whatever they want. They're going to change the rounds, do this, do that.

Like, they can do whatever they want for the most part. I just want to say, I think that question was phrased in such a confusing way because they knew Joe would be on the show. And Joe is smart. And we are not. I think if we had another, like, if there was no, if it was just me and Jose, they would have made it more clear, like, or they're just not asked at all because we wouldn't have been able to figure it out. Sure. So thankfully Joe is here. And I'll just say on that that, that I don't think, uh, Connor should ever be put.

Unless you're doing one of those New York super cards, like three title fight cards or whatever. But even that, I always think that's a waste. I always feel like if you're going to have Connor headline a show, that's the time to put lesser draws on the undercard because it's going to do big money no matter what. So Joe's right, though, for the fans, of course, it'd be awesome to have those two fights in the same card. But I do wonder sometimes for the UFC, but it's better to space these things apart, even though it's nice to have that better in their cap to say, like, oh, we did three megafights on one card. But business-wise, it never made sense to me. It's good a variety. It's good to switch it up and not do the same thing every single time.

Thank you for the question, LERV 8. Thank you for that, Matt, that word problem. Oh, sorry, I asked that one. From Trambo, Dillishaw. Do you think T.J. should, as he says, get an immediate title shot after coming off a two-year suspension for doping? So, yes, I don't know if either have you heard, but T.J. Dillishaw recently came out and said the U.S. he is targeting an immediate title fight for him when his suspension is up. So I'll start with the fighter on the show. you've already made your feelings known on how you feel about the actual championships,

but we do live in a world where championships are important in the eyes of fans and the UFC and a lot of fighters. So do you think TJ should get an immediate title shot after his two-year suspension? Hell no. I think anyone that's caught dopey, honestly, I think that with a combat sport thing, like it should kind of depend a little bit on what you get caught with, right? So if you get caught with something that's not as big of a deal, then maybe okay, it's not as big.

big of a penalty. But if you're getting caught, what do you get caught with? EPO. EPO, right? That's a pretty big deal. That's a big deal. That's like hardcore. That's not like a taint supplement. That's like a big deal. I think it should be like a lifetime ban or something like that or some kind of, you know, like that's how I feel about things. Like I don't buy the whole like, oh, he didn't know. There's, there's contamination things that can happen.

Like, uh, a lot of, like, I was getting caught with Austrian. Like, I know, like, so Tomlilal is one of my good friends. And he's like, he's like the most anti-submiment guy ever. He lived with me for a long time. He's like, he doesn't take eat supplements. But Tom will also go dumpster dive and eat cookies out of a dumpster, no problem. You give him anything. He'd be like, oh, hey, take this. He'll take a bite of it.

You know what I mean? So, like, I could see him 100%. Like someone's like, oh, try this new flavor drink I had. Him taking a swig and not thinking about it at all. And that's probably what happened with Tom, right? And he got it with like a two-year ban. And then the UFC kept him on the contract. And then they cut him as soon as it was over.

Like, so like, you know, in that situation like that I think Tom got kind of screwed a little bit, right? It was just like it was unfortunate set of circumstances with USADA and things like that. But if you're doing EPO, like you know exactly what you're doing. You're cheating. You're straight up cheating. You're punching someone harder. You're in better shape.

I do not. I would rather see like, like, maybe not to say a lifetime ban on everyone right off the bat. But like anyone that's caught multiple times. Like, see you later. You're out of here. Joe, Joe, can you explain for our fans what EPO is? Because I don't think a lot of people understand the difference between what, say,

it takes a supplement versus EPO. So EPO is basically, it's, it basically, it makes your blood, thicker, right? And you basically get like superhuman cardio. Like you just go forever. That's what Lance Armstrong was doing EPO. So basically like they, I think they take your blood that they treat it and they put it back in, I think. I don't fall super close. But it's like it's not like, oh, I took a shake and like there was a little bit extra in it or something that wasn't supposed to be there. It's like, you know exactly what you're doing. That's not like an accident. You know, accident and stuff I can see like it could happen. You know, like I could, I remember I used to go to like, I go to like jamma juice or

whatever, and I get like a milkshake or a smoothie or something. Like, oh, you want protein? Like, yeah, sure. They put in the protein, right? That could test positive for something. It could be something that protein that they're just buying whatever. And it's just like some like generic like BS brand. And I could get flag by you side of for that. And, you know, so obviously you got to be a little bit smarter. And like things like that can happen. I understand. I should have been, you know, you should be paying closer attention to what's going on. But something like that could happen. And you could say that's like that was like a harmless or a stupid mistake or whatever. It's different when they're taking your blood, spinning it up, adding shit to it and putting it back in.

and it's a whole different, a whole different level. I just want to say first that I said earlier, make sure to listen to Joe's advice, do not listen to Tom Lawler's lifestyle, apparently, of eating cookies out of, don't do anything. Tom Lawler,

a very entertaining guy, great fighter, great pro wrestler. Do not take any of his advice, life advice. That's strictly. So Tom living me for a while, a couple years.

And we used to go up lifting together, right? So we went up lifting, we're coming back, and we'd stop at like McDonald's on the way back, like, handmaking cheese or something like that, right? McDonald's. And so we're driving, uh, we're driving his car. And his car was like he just, it was like when he first moved, uh, moved up here. So he drove from Florida with his girlfriend and their cat. So like the car is like disgusting, right? Filthy Tom Lala, right? It's, it follows him.

So where we, we go to McDonald's and Tom, he doesn't want to combine, he doesn't want to eat two full McMuffins. He wants to take the top off of one and the bottom off the other and combine them into like a super McMuffin, right? Well, like he's driving though. So he does the most Tom Lala thing ever. He drops it on the floor. I'm like, oh, that's a waste. Like, that's, that egg's gone. He's like, bullshit, that's gone. Like cat hair and sand and, like, do it.

Put their own together and eats the entire thing. Like, Tom, there's so many nasty stories about Tommy and stuff. Just getting started. He earned his nickname. He earned his nickname. Filthy. Live the gimmick. Live the gimmick, he says.

So are you, are you a fan of Filthy Tom Lawler's pro wrestling side? Yeah. So Tom is, like I said, he lived me for a long time. No Tom forever. Yeah, he's got a way better personality for pro wrestling. All the interest is he done for the UFC and everything else. You know, like he should have been a pro wrestler from the start. Thank you for the question, Trump.

I know we're running up on time, but I'm sure we have more questions. Right, Casey? Yeah, we do. Oh, sorry, I asked that one. That was one that made no sense. I understood. I understood, no. from Suzanne fights

Susanna fights another long time commenter is it possible Habib had to leave the U.S. because his visa was expiring. Lots of countries have 90-day limits for visas and I think he was training in A.k.a. since the start of the year. So with that top 90 days end of March,

I don't know. I have no idea what Habib's visa situation is outside. I doubt anyone knows outside of his inner circle. I doubt it. I doubt that. I doubt that was the case. he's got a big fight kind of like that doesn't come up by surprise like that's like this is I think it was more of like a coronavirus thing that you know they got out like

they put California on lockdown everyone had to you know basically couldn't leave your house couldn't go to the gym couldn't do the stuff I'm sure it was more of that than a visa issue I'm sure oh Joe and Jose so naive have you not been hearing what our fans and what the beloved troll the beloved trolls I think as we know now I specialize in speaking troll I did it last week with I translated some troll comments for Lima last week and I I'm happy to be the troll. Kabee was scared, as we all know, an undefeated, an undefeated UFC fighter was too scared to fight Tony Ferguson because, you know, Tony Ferguson's El Cuccoe very scary.

I wouldn't want to fight a guy named El Cucui. So this visa, whatever, if it is a visa thing, no, that's all BS or whatever he said to the UFC that they said he, no, that's all a lie. He didn't want to fight Tony. Come on, guys, we all know this. I thought this was understood. I was troll on the underground since I was in high school. I used to go in the underground all the time.

Wow. I set up my own form so I can post it any person I wanted. I was the first troll. I was one of the original trolls. Did you have a troll accounts? Of course. No, I had better. I basically, I made a form. I legit did this. I made a form because I'm a computer science dork, right? So I made a form where if I plugged in like the thread ID and then I could drop in anyone's user ID and I could post as them.

So I would get two different people that weren't even me and I would get them arguing with each other and then they would pick up the conversation because they would think they couldn't forget. They forgot about the comment or whatever and they would start fighting. It was awesome. I could post stories. I could do it. You're a madman. You are a bad man. He helped build the current culture of online MMA fans that we see today.

This is the guy. It used to be submissionfighting.com and it was the underground. There was so many names. But yeah, I had it all done. You were one of the first fighters I noticed to be active on RMMA, too. So he's ahead of that game, too. I love Reddit. Yep.

I love ready. Wow. Wow. now we see the real man so this this whole internet boom is nothing is not a surprise for Joe Lowe's on

no he's on top of it and I don't get trolled by people like I understand if people are like they're trying to troll me I just block them I just move on like I don't I don't buy the um

no it doesn't matter there's a lot of crap going on doesn't matter do you block fellow fighters oh no I mean no one's like I don't really I don't really have a reason to block anyway like I've had like

I think there's been times in the past where like certain fighters were like harassing me nonstop about trying to fight. Like I think like, like so Gilbert Burns is pretty vocal about stuff. So he wants to fight anybody at any time. So like there was a while where he was like calling me out nonstop. So I think I blocked and muted him or something for a little bit.

But like, no, I don't care. It's, it's just like we get so many mentions and things like that like all the time and notifications that like, you know, when someone's just being like super annoying, it's easier to just block them.

It takes two seconds to block them and just at least eliminate that annoying notification. But there's really no reason to block anyone for the most part, unless they're just going out of their way to be annoying and then we block them and move on. There you go. That's it. Any more questions, Casey?

Yeah, one last question before we go to our promos. Hold on one moment. Thank you, Suzanne. She was wondering why all of a sudden we're on three days a week. She's like, is it always the same time and everything? So thanks for, from Mark Kasbrack. WrestleMania thoughts? Joe, did you watch WrestleMania this weekend?

I didn't. We're going to have to do another question. It can't be the last one. get another question. Any more questions, Casey? Oh, let me look at the YouTube comments. I used to watch, like, WWE and all that stuff like back. When I first started training, that's how I got into it.

Because me and all my friends get together, we watched like WrestleMania and all other stuff. And then we didn't have on my trampoline in the backyard trying to murder each other and choke slam and power bomb and everything else. But I haven't watched it like forever. Probably since I was like 16 or 17 years old. It's been a long time. Joe, what do you think about the fact that?

they're even like still holding events. So I don't know if you know, but they sort of, they sort of filmed WrestleMania this year, actually ahead of time. W.E has their own, they have their own performance center in Orlando where they can kind of do all this stuff. So, I mean, what do you think of that? Because it's still, yes, obviously, you know, they kind of had a small crew. They made the crew as small as possible.

There's no audience. You know, we've been very, I know a lot of us in the media have been very critical of the UFC kind of still wind to push forward with events. What do you think like hearing about, again, like WB holding events, some MMA promotions still overseas, holy events at Chelsone. Chelsonen just did some mission underground in like a missile silo or something. What do you think about everyone trying to push forward still despite all this stuff? I think it's, I think overall it's kind of irresponsible, but I understand at the same time.

You know, like if you're the WWE and you can get 20 people together and you can have like 30 people or 40 people together and you can have like this big like cornerstone event, then I think as an organization, you know, maybe there's too much money involved there to not do that, right? It's like if it's your biggest thing and traditional stuff, like maybe it's worth. doing it in that situation, right? But doing everything scaled down and in limiting as much as possible and all the stuff. When the UFC was talking about, you know, trying to make Tony Kibib, like, oh, it's

Tony Khabib, they've done it five, you know, they've tried to make this four or five times before. Like, of course they got to try and press on. You know, once that fight was off the table, I thought they were going to scrap the whole entire thing. Like, it's okay. Like, I even heard they were going to do just that one fight, right? And that makes, I would be in favor of that.

Like, okay, do just the two of them. There'd be 10 or 15 people there, you know, corners and a couple officials and judges whatever. Once that fight wasn't going to happen, then like, okay, maybe you, maybe you stepped back a little bit. Maybe you delay it and put it off. So, like, I understand the business side of it, but it's just, it's same new WrestleMania. You can't tell me they didn't do great numbers. Was it Saturday night, Sunday night, whatever was? It was two nights. It was normally, it was supposed to be in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Stadium in front of like 70,000 people. It was going to be a one night, like seven-hour show. But then they split it up between two and two,

and they basically pre-taped everything. They even pre-taped multiple finishes to stop spoilers from people coming in. They even have, I don't know if you saw this, but they had two matches that were filmed off-site as movies. They had like full scores and everything, like multiple camera shots. So it's easily, it might not,

I think it's going to do great numbers because like you said, no one has anything to do. It was the only thing on. It was two days, and it is by far going to be one of the most memorable wrestling. When did they film it? How long ago do they film it?

Like two weeks ago. Like two, three weeks ago. It was starting to like, that's a big thing too is like, it's like the time of everything. Right. So like 249 is going to be like they're saying that's going to, at least around New England, that's going to be like the peak. Like that's when we're going to be dealing with the worst. You know, for New York, Massachusetts, all those or stuff. Like that's when the peak is going to be. Like obviously like our peak is different than the peak of everywhere else. But, you know, it just, it's just, it just seems like it's not very good timing. Like if they did a show two weeks ago, three weeks ago, sure, go for it. Like I thought it was fine. They did the Brazil card. You know, like it was kind of like it was before it was down there. It was crazy yet. But now it's getting a little crazy. So I think it's, you know, but I don't know. I'm just a fighter. Well, I've been notified. I've been notified we're out of a question.

So Joe has- We got one more. Got one more? Do we? Very important one. Here we go. Here we go. Of course.

Of course. Of course. Anything about it. Yeah. Favorite quarantine snack from Amy Wee. So yes, we've asked a lot of fighters. It's what's your favorite snack during quarantine time? Favorite.

quarantine snack. I've been crushing Oreos. I don't eat a lot of snacks when it's not, like I don't buy snacks for me. It's my kids. Like my son Joe would be like, Dada, I got you an Oreo because I love you. I'm like, okay, so he'll give me

two or three Oreos and then he'll come back. I was like, I got you another Oreo. I got you another Oreo before you know, I've had 12 Oreos and like, I'm not hating on it. I'm not going to correct him and tell him to stop doing it. But it's, I don't have to go get him. I just sit here and he'll bring me Oreos. What's your technique, Joe? Are you dipping milk?

Do you just go straight? Do you break it apart? I mean, that's the real question. Depends how involved you want to get. So usually it's just the whole Oreo right in the mouth. Do it nice and easy. If I want to get a little more elaborate, I'm going to set things out. I'm going to make a special night.

I'm dunking the entire time. Yeah. Yeah. Get a dunk. But I'm not a twister. I think you just, you go as it is. Don't mess around. So you're saying if you come back, you'll be heavyweight Joe Loz on?

I eat like a fat kid all the time. Like, I can't gain weight. I cannot gain weight. Like I'm like 100 and probably like 171 pounds or something like that. Like the heavies I've been in my life is I got up to 178. And that was because I was like lifting like a maniac and I was eating on top of it. Like eating pasta nonstop. But I can't get like I have to really, really struggle to eat that, you know, to gain that much weight or, you know, whatever.

So I can't. I'll be 172 pounds when quarantine gets over and I'll be 1702 pounds when it started. It doesn't change. Living the dream. Well, that's our last question, right, Casey? Yes, sir. well as always the guest of honor gets to cut a promo whatever they want joe you can plug you can talk you can say whatever it doesn't even have to be m-m-a related you basically the floor is yours for the next few minutes if you want it

all right uh thank you for checking this out appreciate you guys coming in make sure you keep chunk of the a side's going what monday was it friday right now monday wednesday friday during quarantine days uh yeah if you're local you know come come check out my gym we've lost a ton of people during the quarantine so we can have lots of mat space so we'll keep that going my gym's in East and Massachusetts it's Lozon MMA.com but yeah

no but you know thank you guys for having me anytime man depending on how long this quarantine goes we'll have to have you back I mean I'm back I'm gone down definitely guess is your early good internet connection good answers you're clearly smart

but I got a good microphone right here oh we don't think we didn't notice he's the original troll Let's not forget that. He's well versed in trolling. Ready. Well, thank you so much, Joe. Thanks, Joe. For AK, that's Casey, everyone's favorite moustachio to hipster. That was Joe. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Google, YouTube, all the fun stuff.

But until Wednesday, we're out. All right, guys. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.