MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 160

Episode Date: August 14, 2014

Featuring Sensei Seagal, Josh Barnett, Tyron Woodley, Mauro Ranallo, and Bruce Buffer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix Colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for the show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. Introducing O-DU. It's the only business software you'll ever need.

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So great to be back for another two plus hour edition of the MMA hour presented by our good friends over at the U.S. Marine Corps. Check them out on Twitter. Twitter.com slash U.S. Marine Corps. Now, this is our third to last episode of 2012, and we have brought out the big guns, my friends, as this is, UFC on Fox 5 week. Obviously I said last week on the show, in my opinion, the best main card of 2012. And I'm just praying, praying up there. Whether it's Allah, Yud K Vovk, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, anyone, or just maybe the MMA gods.

Please, main card, remain intact. Six more days, five more days. That's all we need. a healthy UFC on Fox 5 main card. It is the best of the year, in my opinion. The undercard decimated once again. We've got Brandon Schaub, LeVar Johnson, off. Mavar Johnson injuring his groin.

We find out late last night. Mike Hayes, I was so excited. Oh, someone's talking to me. I was so excited that Mike Yiazza was going to fight on this card. He talked to us on this very show about fighting Key Arena in Seattle, Washington, his home state. He was walking there, empty arena, all that stuff. you remember from a few months back, and he's ill, he's off the show. It is a very, very sad turn of events as far as the undercard is concerned,

but the main card is intact. Later on in this program, in around 40 minutes, New York Rick will be giving you his Rick's picks for UFC on Fox 5. You can take him to the bank. He will be giving you his picks for the top three fights on the card. We'll talk about the card throughout the entire show. Also, second hour will be joined by the bipolar rock and roller himself. Moranalo will be joining us.

A lot to get to with Morrow. The new voice of Showtime boxing. So much to talk to him about. Can't wait to have him back on the show. Also in the second hour. The voice of the Octagon, Bruce Buffer. He will join us at 2 o'clock. So much going on in the life of Bruce Buffer.

A new iPhone app. He was at a NASCAR event recently. The guy's all over the place. Just want some crazy poker tournament in Montreal. A lot to get to with Bruce. We'll talk to him at 2. 220, the biggest name in the history of this show. the biggest name in the history of a podcast, the biggest name in the history of martial arts,

the biggest name in the history of mixed martial arts, the biggest name in Hollywood today, the Honorable Sensei Steven Segal will be joining us to talk about the Anderson Silva versus GSP, proposed superfight, Leona Machita, Dan Henderson, a whole lot to get to with the Sensei. We are honored that he would take out 20 minutes of his day to talk to us. Also, in the first hour, we'll talk to Josh Barnett, Strike Force, Heavyweight. has a new fight on January 12th, the what is believed to be the final strike force event. That's in Oklahoma City. We'll talk to him about that. And I want to remind you that you can hit us up with questions, comments, using hashtag the MMA hour on Twitter. Also, we're going to look to take some questions from the website. So if you're watching this on MMAfighting.com live, you can hit us up with questions or comments, and we'll try to fish through all of them and get some of the best ones out there.

and I want to let you know that the best question of the day will receive this DVD courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment, our good friends over there. It is ultimate submissions, and I thought it was appropriate to give this out as the prize of the week because the main event, UFC on Fox 5, you've got two of the best submission artists. I mean, as far as Nate Diaz is concerned,

one of the best at 155. Bendo is unsubmittable, essentially, and he's had some nice subs in his career, also BJ Penn on the card, etc., etc. So I thought it was appropriate. So here we have it. Ultimate Submissions, best question of the day gets this.

Join in the back, as always, by Isaac, Buzzkill Brendan, and New York, Rick. As I mentioned, we will hear from New York, Rick, later on in the first hour. But first, let us go to the Skype Machine and welcome in our first guest of the day. He is presented, or at least this segment is presented

by the Marines. it is the first-to-fight interview presented by the Marines, and he is Strike Force Walterweight contender Tyrone Woodley, perhaps not for long. Tyron, how are you? I'm doing awesome. How are you guys are doing? Very good to have you on the show.

By the way, where are you? You look like you're in a gym or something. I'm in a gym. I'm in ATT Evolution in the St. Louis, Missouri, the headquarters of T. Wood. So I'm here. I've been bouncing around quite a bit, so it was good to be back home for a couple of days. Oh, yeah, it must be great. And that's actually what we want to talk to you about first.

uh... you were in hawaii for a good amount of time with b j penn and the all-star crew that he assembled for his fight against roaring macdonald how did you hook up with the prodigy uh... hooked up with rich you know i go way back to the late xe days with him so it was a blessing of honor you know that they would consider me for this camp you know this where mcdon is no joke man that's not a guy that guys just call out to fight you know

and i think b j pan if anyone's gonna knock these young buck off he's a guy to do it so they want someone that can strike that can wrestle that can grapple there was a bigger guy, you know, to kind of compete with him. So, you know, I went in there and I gave him everything to handle so I can try to make sure I gave him a good look for Roy McDonnell, and it was an awesome experience. Was this your first time training with BJ?

Yeah, it was my first time training with BJ. I met him three or four times. It was just a high and by, but, you know, I'm always been a fan of his work, you know, as a legend in the sport, and, you know, what he brings to the table, you know, it's pretty, you know, unique. So it was great that I get a chance to know him on a more intimate level, we train with him, see those flexible. what hips that everybody talks about and, you know, get the chance to, you know, just some

sparring rounds with him. Obviously, a lot has been made of the fact that he's in great shape. You know, he's been posting videos. He seems to be in a good place. Said he was once 40% body fat, now 10%, and he's, he seems very motivated. And that's always a big question when you talk about BJ at 170. You were there. Give us the goods.

You know, no filter here. Tell us, what's it like with BJ right now? What kind of places he in? You know, one thing that I immediately noticed that his cap, is so in tune and so focused on one goal that task. It's a win on December 8th. You know, those guys are all on the same page. I'm talking about from the diet to nutrition

to when he's running, to who he's sparring, with, how many rounds, how many minutes. They really have it down to a science star, so, you know, I can really appreciate that, you know, from having several times, but I've ran my own camp and things like that. So to have that out of your mind and just be able to focus on fighting.

And that alone, man, it's a great, you know, a great thing not to have on your plate. So he seems to be a lot of your plate. So he seems to be able to be a fight. to be in great shape, man. You know, everybody keeps asking me, how is this conditioning? Is he ready to lick blood off gloves? You know, from what I saw, man, he got some pop in his hand.

You know, I know guys that trained with him before. And I'm going to say he threw a hard right hand. I got a hit with it a couple times. But, you know, anytime I'm training somebody, I've trained like Tiago Alves, Eve, Edwards, Dean Thomas. I've been in training camp with these guys before I even started fighting pro. So I'm a gamer. You know, I go in there.

I know what my role is. So, you know, I go on there and try to give him as much as I can. if he hit me hard, I shake it off and I keep rolling. So then when he goes in there, he gets an actual assessment of what he's going to send in the case. So he's ready to roll, man. He'll be his best as he's probably been in the while. From our perspective, it seems like he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder because he's talking about not being remembered as one of the greats and whatnot.

Since you were there training with him, did you get a chance to maybe sit down, talk to him about his legacy, about his career, and also get the sense that BJ is a little annoyed that people don't talk about him when they talk about one of the greats in MMA. One thing I immediately noticed is BJ is really laid back. He's a really humble guy. He's calling everybody, sir. I'm like, dude, I was watching you when I was in, you know, freaking college,

and I hadn't even punched a bag yet. So he just, he listens to everything. I mean, he's not going to take every technique and try to put into a fight, but he's listening. He's so humble. He's such a martial artist, so that's the first thing I noticed. And you watch him fight and knock people out and submit them and licking their blood off the glove.

you might not get that immediately, but what I saw is that he's, he's deserved the respect that he's getting. You know, he's one of the top guys of, you know, the sport of all time. And I went into his office in his house, man, just to see all those UFC straps and the World Championship medals and all these accolades and stuff like that. He just kind of got me pumped up and motivated, you know, to start training harder. So he's going to be remembered because he's a classy guy. You know, guys that go out there and, you know, kick blood, but talk a lot of crap, flick fingers, and do stuff. like that, every time you do things like that, it take away from your legacy. So he's going to be remembered for a long time. He's one of the first in Hawaii to do it the way he did. So he has a lot

of things on the side. So he's in a good position. Speaking of Hawaii, obviously we saw the pictures, the outdoor cage and whatnot. What's it like training like that in beautiful Hilo, Hawaii? Man, I left St. Louis. It was 20 degrees. So, you know, to go from a down coat to, you know, shorts and T-shirt was awesome. It was cool because it was just, it was really a serene setting. You know, everybody was there on one page, you know, Ben Ashken I caught up with him the last day he was there. You know, it was good to see him. Healy, Josh Thompson. So everybody was there trying to focus on how we can do better in each round to make him get the most out of every workout.

I mean, it was a little frog chirping in the back. I thought it was like birds. I guess they have like this, you know, influks generation of frogs that make this noise. So I'm out there hearing these frogs as I'm sparring. So it was great, man. Were you there at the same time? is tarryk saffodine? No, I probably would have roughed him up a little bit.

Why, you're not in good terms? I didn't get a chance. He was there, like, three or four days before I got there. I got there at the tail end of Ashton Shrip, so. Was that done on purpose? I think Rich might have. I don't really have anything against Terry. I just like how he always asked for a rematch on a fight

that was no controversy, but I think he just wanted to get the most out of BJ's training. It really doesn't make sense to have me, in Tarek the same week because if you spread those out, you have more weeks of quality training partners. Right. Now, obviously, you mentioned Eve Edwards, your good friend. He is also fighting on the same card.

Does that mean you'll be in Seattle as well? I will be in Seattle. Be in Seattle, getting ready. You know, Jeremy Stevens is the opponent that we were prepared for the first time around. So it's just good that Eve gets his bout, you know. I'm pretty sure nothing crazy is going to happen. This time would be unbelievable if he did. But he's ready to roll, man.

And he's got to start chopping out some of these guys. and make his run back at, you know, the 55-pound title. So, you know, he's one of the guys that's going to be the middle list. Will you be in BJ's corner as well? No, I won't be in BJ's corner. You know, I've contacted those guys and say, I'll be there with Eve. Anything you guys need me for to warm up. His corner is set.

His training partners are set. So his camp is ready to roll. I'll just be there. I'll just say good luck, and I'll see him after the fight. Now, you were in Minnesota with Eve for that weird scenario with the first Jeremy Stevens fight, right? Oh, my God. What was that like?

What was that like being in the locker room just waiting for that final word that the fight wasn't going to happen? Well, a lot of people don't realize that, you know, Eve brings me in, one, I'm a good friend of his, and, you know, I kind of know the fight game, but I really just neutralize a lot of situations for Eve. I keep him out of his head. You know, I don't let any negative stuff come. I just come in and I just kind of, you know, keep the thing rolling smoothly, you pick the restaurants we go to.

Eve didn't know he wasn't fighting. He didn't know that Jeremy was in, you know, the freaking had a situation come up. So what I did was I took his cell phone. People were texting them and tweeting them, and I tried to make sure everybody around him didn't say anything. Because one thing you can't do is have this kid in kill mode, ready to go out there and go to war, and then you might not be fighting.

And then guess what? Jeremy Stevens pulls up to the arena. Now you've got to get your stuff back in that mode. So what I did was, I took his phone, make sure he didn't know. He really didn't know what was happening to Danny White walking. And I said, hey, man, I tried everything I can. It's not going to happen tonight.

I apologize. But up until that point, he really didn't know what was going on. Wow, and then how do you sort of console him? How do you bring him from that hive about the fight in 20 minutes or so and then make him, you know, accept the situation? Well, you know, it's tough for him because he's a fighter. There's very few guys I can look out there. These guys are a fighter, you know, so he's ready.

You know, he'll die out there in that cage. So for me, it was more like, hey, man, you got to take the, you know, the bitter with the sweet. You should train as hard as you could. You know, you walk into this cage knowing that you did everything to prepare. Now all you got to do now is just continue to grow off that. All you're going to do is continue to get better. Have another camp, you're going to get better again.

So you can't control it uncontrollable. You can't control his situation. You know, from what I read and heard, he couldn't control. It was just an unfortunate deal. So, you know, it's tough. You know, I'm a fighter the same way. You know, I was supposed to fight, you know, possibly in November. And that thing fell through.

So for me, you know, I know how it feels to be ready to have been trained and ready to roll. And then something happened. So, you know, it took a couple days. But, you know, at that moment, he was kind of upset with Jeremy, upset with, you know, the whole situation. And we will get to your situation in just one second. I just want to ask you one last question about Edwards. Do you get the sense that he is going into this fight, you know, with a chip on his shoulder?

Does he feel animosity towards Jeremy because he was robbed of the first fight? No, and, you know, Jeremy and him, you know, watched the freaking Super Bowl together, you know, in the house in San Diego. So he is not a guy that's going in over animosity. It was just unfortunate at the time. He was like, man. You know, if they were going to, you know, lock this kid up, why didn't they do it Monday or Tuesday?

They were there all week. Why were they waiting to the day of the fight? He went through Wayans and went through everything. And I think it was something that the law enforcement thought was, you know, hey, we're going to keep this kid over the weekend. And that was kind of an idea. So he's not going in with any added animosity. It's a tough kid.

You can't take this kid lightly. He's a spark plug. He's coming under a bang, coming under a knockout, and he's just a tough kid. So Eve's coming in there with a competitive mindset that he has to take this kid out to go anywhere further. in this sport in this career. Now, finally, we are led to believe

that the final strike force card of all time will be on January 12th in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Will Tyrone Woodley be on that card? As of now, I'm not on the card. I've made quite a bit of fuss. Some people say, hey, what are you worried about? You're going to the UFC, you know,

you need to be in the UFC anyway. So for me, it's like, I didn't start with any other promotion. I didn't start on any other banner. I started from the undercar, where I was selling 200 tickets to make the card through the challengers to finally where I got an opportunity to fight for a world title. So to me it's kind of history.

I want to have a last first strike force gloves. I want to be on the last show. And I want to salute the fans, you know, with a great victory. I want to go over to the UFC with a W, you know, and not off my last fight. So for me, it was important. If it doesn't happen, then obviously, you know, my focus has to veer on to the next phase of my career.

Do you feel slighted that you're not on the card? No, I just look at the car. and it's called Strike Force Champions, and I would think that I would be one of their franchise fighters, and I'm looking on the car, and I don't even see them all on there. So I don't know if the UFC, and most of the stuff I'm not even, you know,

don't know enough information to speak on, but I don't know if they're like, hey, I don't want to risk this guy fighting, so I want to save him for the UFC or what they're trying to do. But, you know, I look at some of the matchups, and I won't name any of them off, but I'm like, really? Like, I'm not on the card,

and this matchups on the car. Like, what's going on? It is what it is. Has anyone in Zufa told you about what they want to do with you in 2013? No, I mean, I think they're really trying to figure out themselves. You know, all this stuff has happened very quickly. A lot of people don't realize that us fighters, we usually find out last. You know, things hit the Internet.

They hurt the airwaves. You know, I was in the middle of a meeting. And someone was like, hey, so, you know, let's do an interview about the UFC situation. I'm like, what are you talking about? So I'm like, I was oblivious into a hit sherdok. So for me, you know, no one's contact. to me. I think they're trying to figure out themselves what they're going to do. And I'm ready to fight, man. I'm just, I just told myself and a couple other guys, I'm going to be a position

where you just got to stay ready. You never know what's going to happen in this sport. You never know who's going to slip on a banana peel. And I'm just getting back to the old tire when I first started the sport that I was training like I had a fight tomorrow. And that's what my mind's are right now. So whatever happens is in God's hands and, you know, I'm just make the best of it. Obviously, the last time we saw you was in July, tough loss to Nate Markhart. How long did it take for you to get over the loss? Yesterday. No, I was just kidding.

It took a while, man. You know, Nate's a tough dude. I don't have any more respect for him now than I did then. I already gave him the highest level of respect as athlete. I just thought that for everything I was standing for, for everything I was holding on my back of my shoulders, my gym, my religion, you know, my family, the people that look up to me. And just this long process, it's been a long time for me to fight for that title, you know,

unlike some guys, and I feel like I've earned it, you know, I thought the Jordan men's and the freaking Terek Safedings and the Daileys and the Gavals. And, you know, I went through the weight class and then, you know, I finally got that opportunity to fight. And I think I surprised a lot of people, you know, a lot of people thought I was going to just wrestle him and whole position. And, you know, it was an all out war. It was a great fight.

And I just hate that I didn't end up on the, you know, top side of it. But, you know, it was a learning lesson. You know, I've grown. You know, I just took me a while to come to grip with what just happened. To me, I'm like, damn, I would have rather lost, like, two fights ago than, you know, for the big show. Well, you look at the guys who are out there at 170, Strike Force, UFC, let's assume they'll all be together

in 2013. Is there one guy in particular that interests you? This is a good guy to fight in my comeback now, post that title fight against Nate. I like matchups. I think certain matchups make exciting fights. I would love to fight Nick Diaz. I think that's an awesome matchup. I didn't get an opportunity to fight him in Strike Force, and, you know, it looked like I might get a chance to fight him in the near future.

I wouldn't mind fighting Johnny Hendricks. We got some old business from college wrestling, you know, the big 12 days. I wouldn't mind settling in a cage. I wouldn't mind fighting like Carlos Condon. I think I'm actually very well with these guys. And I don't want to come over and be fighting around Robin tournament. I don't want to be fighting these studs that are at the lower level of UFC. I want to come in.

I want to fight the top guys, you know. I don't feel like I was at the bottom of the totem pole and strike force, and I don't want to go over to the UFC fighting guys in the middle or the bottom. I want to be fighting some of the top. names, you know, like Condit or Johnny Hendricks or Nick Diaz. Those are the guys that interest me and those are the guys I want to fight. How exciting is it that you are, appears to be very close to making your UFC debut? I know all the Strike Force guys have thought of this for a long time.

Can you allow yourself to get excited about it? You know, I try not to because, you know, walking in that octagon, I've seen it a million times. You can get that adrenaline dunk. You know, you get, this is a UFC here. I got to do everything right. You know, everybody's watching me now. I try not to put that kind of pressure on myself. I'm a guy that like to open up a book and close a book.

To me, closing my Strike Force book is to be champion. So I'm going to the UFC a little bitter, man. I'm a little upset, you know, that I didn't finish his champion in Strike Force and then go over to the UFC with the belt. That way I can make a little bit more noise quickly. So for me, it's just like I want to go over there, train hard, and really take it as the next fight. Not that, hey, I'm fighting in the black UFC gloves.

I'm fighting in the Octagon. You know, this is the biggest platform. I'm really just trying to focus on getting better in between fights and really giving up the fans and my coach is what deserve what they need to see. All right. Final question. Great stuff, Tyron. Really appreciate it.

How do you see Saturday Night's fight between Rory MacDonald versus BJ Penn playing out? Obviously, you know, you train with him. You think he's going to win. But how do you see it actually playing out in order for BJ to win? Well, I think BJ knows what he needs to do to win. You know, and it's going to be within his grasp to win the fight. And, you know, if he decides to go out there and do it, he needs to do it. do he's going to win the fight. I think I don't think he's going to stop Roy McDonough. I think he's a

tough kid. I think us, the fans, and everybody that's going to be watching, he's going to see a lot of action, you know, a lot of, you know, a takdown attempts, take down defense, a lot of combinations, a lot of striking. So overall, I think he's going to, you know, get a decision. You know, if I had to be the judge, you know, I can't say this kid, Roy's a stud. He might get a round. So we might be looking at the 29, 28 decision, but I think he's going to get the job done. I think people are going to realize that he's still the real deal. By the way, we were talking about this off-air. Why do you have three O's in your Twitter name?

Man, somebody had T. Woodley. So I wanted to stick closely, but I probably lost a lot of potential Twitter followers just because they go on there and they follow the wrong person. But I'm thinking about changing my hashtag, you know, just kind of, you know, as I transition to a different situation, I think about changing a couple things that, you know, just sort of with a clean slate, a different image and, you know, just kind of roll it that way. All right, well, we can't wait for it. Good luck this weekend with...

obviously Eve Edwards, BJ Penn. Can't wait for your UFC debut. Hopefully it happens sooner rather than later. And who knows? This has been a crazy ride. Maybe you do end up on that Strike Force card after all on January 12th. Always good to catch up with you and we'll see you very soon. All right.

I appreciate you guys having me on. Take it easy. There he is. Tyron Woodley, top contender in the Strike Force Walterweight Division. Of course, lost in Nate Marquard for the title in July. He looks forward to his UFC debut in 2013. He has a big weekend for his friends, of course, on Saturday. night in Seattle. That was the first to fight interview presented by the Marines. We pause now for a word from our sponsor. On the flip, we talked to one of the greatest heavyweights of all time,

Josh Barnett. The mental preparation is, I think, what sets certain people apart. Your mind you control how much you can put your body through. Tactics to me is you've studied your opponent. A vision of play before it happens. When you put on your jersey, you're representing something that's less bigger than yourself. You have to continually push yourself. and try and outperform everyone else. On the mixed martial arts hour, thank you so much for spending your afternoon

or maybe it's your evening or your morning. If it's tomorrow or any of the other days, I can hear you guys in the back, by the way. As much as I want to hear you, just to let you know. So this is the MMA hour. Thank you very much to Tyrone Woodley. Thank you very much to the Marines. Let's move along now and welcome in our next guest.

He is the former baby-faced assassin. Now he is the war master. I think he's still the war. He is Josh Barnett. Josh, how are you? I do it well. Still a little more master. You know, I'm not wanting to be to change names all that often. Yeah, just twice in your career, right? Just once.

Well, you were the, well, I guess two names is what I meant, but yes, one change. Yeah. So, a big question for you, right off the top. Can you pronounce the name? What? What's that? Massive. Massive question. Are you starting with the hard-hating stuff right out of the bat, huh?

Well, you know how I like to do. Can you pronounce the name? of the man you'll be facing on January 12th? Nandor. All right. I guess that's right. I'm not quite sure. Wow.

You're going to test me on it. You can't even know what the connect pronunciation is. I mean, I've read plenty of Tolkien novels, so I think I'm pretty good pronouncing him like that. Have you ever heard of Mr. Nandor, at least prior to getting the fight, did you ever hear of him? I heard he has a fantastic chain of chicken restaurants all throughout.

The Hun. Wow. You're turning this into a sort of religious war. Religious war? Well, you know, are you making fun of his nickname, The Hun? No, no, no. I was thinking about the Nandu's chicken. Andor's chicken. It's like a pretty known thing. Yeesh. I'm not so the sauces here in the States, actually. I'm not familiar with that, brand. But seriously. You've never heard of Nando's chicken? Well, I suggest it's something, well, not to say that you necessarily pop over to England and all that often. but there may be some, actually on the East Coast. Is it kosher?

I don't know, you know. I hope not. Just to be spiteful, yeah, no, I just, we rub the chicken down with various grades of cheeses before they ever get your plate. Yeah, that's probably not kosher. So is this the kind of opponent that gets your blood-boiling? Because let's be honest, when this was announced, everyone, including the quote-unquote insiders, never even heard of this guy.

I had never heard of Nando, Nandor. But I'll be honest, anybody that thinks that they're just not fighting me and chooses to sign on that dotted line, I take it very seriously and does get my blood-boiling because they believe they can kick my ass. So something's got to be done about that. Are you the kind of fighter? I'm not sure if I've ever asked you this. Are you the kind of fighter that watches tape?

And if so, have you had the chance to do so? And if so, give us the scouting report on Nandor. Yeah, I've watched tape on him. I usually go over at least just a minor amount of tape, especially if it's someone that I haven't seen fight live all that often, or I haven't watched even do some training before. because I've been around long enough. But as far as what I think about him,

he seems to come off quite, for the most part, as a grappler. And he has a very intimidating look. He does. And that's going to be a blessing for me. It doesn't matter how good or terrible he may be or how unknown he is when people see this dude come walking out the gates looking like he's, you know, straight out of the army of orcs and Mordor,

people are going to be like, wow, bad dude's tough. So when I kick his ass, it's going to give me at least, you know, credibility with the people that don't know, you know, their MMA from their, well, hell, who knows, what they know. Now, the last time we saw you fight was in May, obviously a tough fight against Daniel Cormier. How long did it take for you to get back to 100% after that fight? You know, it probably would have come a lot quicker

if I had been training and not drinking, but luckily, you know, the thing about booze is usually there's broads involved, and that always associates the ego. So were you drinking your sorrows away because of the performance? No, I was just drinking the fact that I could no longer give myself a lefty for at least six months. A lefty? You mean you broke your hand? Yeah, well, I broke my left hand. And, you know, I broke that second metacarpal completely in half, like, shattered, like, just sheared it in half.

That bandit fracture they called it, which is cool because I'm into Army stuff. But I didn't run any hunts through with my panette fracture in my hand. Well, that's what I was saying. That's what I was wondering. How long did it take for you to get back to 100%? You say six months, the fight was in May. So you were only really cleared in around November. So to resume, like, full-time training, is that correct?

well actually I've been lifting I have plates I had the surgery about a just under two weeks after the fight okay and they put the plate in with the screws and then after a certain point

actually they're like well you know you're clear to already start doing some stuff as long as you're not gripping too hard and then each test's going to follow up I was giving the the okay to go harder and further

and I had some ways of getting around dealing with the injury after about the halfway point because I had broke a knuckle on my right hand before. So to let that heal, but to continue training, I have some wrist straps that are like that are hooks. So I can just hook, use the hook to hook onto a barbell or a dumbbell or something like that. And then still use the lift weights and have the load really carried on my wrist and not my hand. So that was the way that I could stay active and still continue to get some lifting in and so forth.

But actually, I guess I would say 100% probably was about four months, maybe four and a half months. At least I figured to take the time to let it heal as much as possible before doing the striking because I thought the striking was going to be the part that would be the most difficult on it. Was he better than you thought he would be? Daniel? Yeah. No, I expected the best out of him. In fact, I think I was one of the people that saw his abilities entirely and knew exactly how good he was

versus the rest of the populace, the press included. I think most people did not give him the credit. that he was due and deserved. Also, they still don't quite understand how good he really is. I say, besides myself, he's the only other person that could just walk right into the UFC and win the title. A lot of people wondering what the future holds for Josh Barnett in 2013. This is the last fight on your Zoufa contract.

What are the chances that we see you fight back in the UFC once this whole strike force story is done? You know, I think it's pretty likely. I think it's a good fit for a person like me. I mean, unless you don't want me to go in there and beat all those dudes up and completely throw your rankings out of whack and change a whole perception of who the best heavyweights in the world are. Now, if you don't want that, then definitely don't bring me over.

But if you just want to have the biggest and best collection of heavy weights in the world, then you've got to have me there. So that being said, you do want to run. return to the UFC, right? I want to go where the opportunity is best. And I like the idea of

that full roster over there, being my disposal to dispose of if you have it. But I've been in this game longer than the new version of the UFC has. So I'm sure that my

management and everybody will work it out to wherever fits best. will, that's where I'll be. Have they talked to your management about a contract extension or a new contract? You know, it's all been rather slow, mainly because they've been using carrier pigeon instead of like, and things like that. But otherwise, I think once they move along to telegraph, the thing we'll really pick up. This is kind of a tricky situation because everyone expects you.

It's almost like a lose-lose, because everyone expects you to beat Nandor. you're getting this last fight on the last Strike Force card you win that fight you have a lot of momentum and all right now you know people want to see you fight in the UFC if there's some shocking upset no one sees coming something crazy happens obviously you lose some leverage do you feel the same way like you almost feel like

you know because this guy I mean obviously he's not the biggest name in the world clearly in the last five or so years you fought way bigger names but this is a must win for Josh Barnett right must wins if you think that there's any fight that is not a must win then I think you've got the absolutely wrong mentality going into a bout. I don't know about you, but I don't really take too kindly to the concept of getting my ass beat.

That doesn't really sit well with me, let alone losing at anything. So the hell of that, they're all must-winned. This guy's got to go down, and he's got to go down hard. He's got to bleed all over this ring. He needs to be picking up his teeth when I'm done with him. and it doesn't matter if he was ranked number one or ranked 101. That's just the way it's got to be. And I don't really think about what that means to, like, a ranking or whatever,

because, you know, the day it all pays the same, too. And this guy, they came out, they approached whoever they approached to book this fight, and it was the one guy, at least that I know of, that said, yeah. I heard recently that you competed in the world famous Baja 1000. True story? He told you that. He's been spreading it. Talk about my business.

I have sources. But I heard that your performance, I mean, you talk about not wanting to get your ass kick. I heard you had a couple bumps in the road, pardon the pun. Oh, yeah, a couple bumps in the road. The whole road is nothing but bumps. Yes, exactly. It's like all of Baja got herpes and you drove over it. Wait, is it true that you're...

Didn't you like your car flip over and hit someone else and a whole bunch of like spills? All I can say is if the vivonic plague happened, Godzilla storm the shores, and, you know, a nuclear forehead went off in the middle of Baja. All anybody would say is that's the excuse for every horrible and horrendous thing and difficulty that can happen down there. Everyone just goes, well, you know, okay, well, your leg just got, you know, severed off by a passing truck while you were doing, changing the tire. And everyone just sort of shrugged and goes along. And then they're like, well, you got back in the car and kept driving, right?

That's pretty much the attitude that prevails down there. And it has to be because that race is the equivalent of being in a 30-plus round title fight and losing. It is so brutal and so hard. and there are moments like, yeah, when you roll a car over like I did, and you're sitting out there in the middle of nowhere, Mexico, with no one around you, and just hoping that the radio gets a whole huge chase truck so they could possibly just flip you over and get you back on again.

It's a new experience for sure, and I got to say that going through all of that was people are like, well, it was fun, right? Yeah, yeah, kind of. I would say it was fun and all things considered, but it was really just like a serious experience and such an adventure. I really want to do it next year.

I want to spend some time training for it, maybe pre-run if I get the chance, and then head down there and have more than an hour in a buggy for experience before going in racing. So did you get hurt at all? No. No, I didn't get hurt. It's just my, you know, battered, battered and bruised ego,

but otherwise... But you heard other people? No. Go ahead. You heard other people. Yeah, I clipped the motorcycle guy. He stalled his bike right in the silt, right in the middle of the road, and the edge of the road, they all dropped off at sharp, sharp angles,

so I couldn't, I tried to get around him, and I was, you know, pretty much driving at almost 45-degree angle as we're going by, and still, the tire clipped his peg and clipped his foot. Oh, no. He's okay, though. He's all right. And how did you even get involved in this? I got a phone call on Thursday before getting on the mats and got asked if I wanted to do something really stupid.

And, of course, I said yes. Are you allowed to do that per your contract? Don't know. Don't care. I'm trying to live the most interesting and full life as I possibly can. And auto racing is a big part of that. It's been a part of my life since I was a child being at tracks, drag race tracks, doing it. bracket cards with my dad.

And now that I'm old enough that I have the time and the connections and the wonderful friends and people that I've met along the way that I can afford the ability to go out and do things like this now in my life. And I only intend to get behind the wheel more and more and more. There was talk recently that you were going to defend your King of Pancras open-way title next year, but then it kind of got squash. What's going on there? Are you going to do it or not?

It would be an awesome thing to do because the idea is that, well, not an idea. It's going to happen. They're doing an anniversary show, I think a 20th anniversary show, 15th or 20th, I can't remember, because I've been around a long time next year, I believe, September. Okay. And they're trying to get together this all-star event behind it. And the idea that they would love to have me, of course, defend the King of Pancrys belt.

But, you know, I could say at the time was that, you know, I really like the idea that I fully support Pancras 100% and all the things they do. And that in whatever ways that I'm capable of, I'll be behind them. And, you know, it's just been, it would be great to defend the King of Pancorous Belt, but the trouble I ran into so many years ago is that we just ran out of people willing and wanting to fight the openly title.

So going back to my previous question about the UFC, are you okay with putting some of that stuff on the side? We know you like to do the pro wrestling, you know, an opportunity like this. Who knows? Maybe not even getting a chance to do the Baja race next year. Are you okay with putting that stuff on the back burner while pursuing one last run in the UFC

if they do offer you that contract? I think that, With every individual comes the opportunity to create the deal that best suits them. So I'm not thinking necessarily about what I'm not going to be able to do by signing with the U.S.C. I just think about just coming to the table and working something out. Fair enough. How's the fashion doing these days? I like the evolution of Josh Barnett's wardrobe.

A mustache for Movember. That's nice. To raise money. It was quite silly. instead of cutting all the hair off and starting anew, I actually did something different where I shaved the beard down into a Hulk Hogan mustache

and then did a pro wrestling mustache medley where I started with Hulk Hogan, went to Rogue Warrior Animal, then to Road Warrior Hawk, and then trying to grow it out to a full-on Rick Rood. Wow. I didn't ever, never got as far as Rick Rood, but I did give it my best.

and then as far as style well besides always an ever-growing collection of heavy metal t-shirts all in black of course we had a nice little event for Ricardo seats here recently for the LA Auto show and as a sponsored guy with Ricardo I brought my car down and was a part of the event

and I wore some like great gray denim with a black merino wool sweater and a nice white button down that was tailored. Actually, it was built from scratch. There's a great company out here, a great little tailor that will build you shirts for not super expensive. And I have insane measurements when it comes to shirts. I've got like a 38. 38.5 inch sleeve with an 18-inch neck.

So you can't really find shirts off the rack. way and then wore a nice black and silver and gray stripe tie. Well, now I'm just very excited. Oh, I bet you are. I bet you're just, you're just keep beside yourself. Just shaking you like I shouldn't have had so much energy drink this morning. I can barely sit in my little swivel chair. I'd knock over all your figurines.

Yeah, well, where's the Josh Barnett figurine? Oh, that's a good question. Yeah. Why did it just move? So, you know what? I think that BOTA isn't really too far out of reach. I guess if you can prominently display such a handsome, handsome molded piece of plastic, I could send one in your direction. I would be honored and happy to have you on this desk.

Let me ask you one last question. You're 35 years old. You just turned 35. Happy birthday. Have you put a cap? Do you have any idea how many more years you want to fight for? You know, I came up with the answer to this question a long time ago. Okay.

And the thing about it is I've been asked in health since I've been 30. And the more I thought about it, the more it really just came to a very stark and simple realization to come up with a number or a number of fights or a length of time or anything like that, I mean, you can't predict that sort of thing. You really can't. And if you get to, let's say, oh, well, five more bouts. And then you get to that fifth bout, but you're still able and you're capable, and you want all those five bouts, and everything's going your direction,

and you feel great. Like, why now your mindset has already gotten to the point that I'm supposed to quit, and you're already putting yourself, you're making decisions for yourself before you've ever even got all the data to fully make an informed choice. So the thing I just came to the conclusion is that I'm going to fight when I can't. I'm going to fight until I can't. And that's it. I'll know when that is.

I'll be honest with myself. But otherwise, the opportunity to do this is only one point in your life. And once that opportunity in that window is closed, that's it. You don't get to come back on that one. So might as well take the absolute most out of it as you can. and when it's done, then you can look back and say, well, I squeeze every last drop out of this one, and now it's time to move on to something else

because this chapter has to close. Always good to catch up with you, Josh. Good luck, January 12th against Nander the Hun. We look forward to it. Strike Force Champions is what they're calling it. In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the fight will air on Showtime. Good luck to you, and we hope you do end up in the UFC. I think it'll be fun to see you have one last run

in the big organization over there. Anything could work out and be fantastic, and we'll just have to see how it works out. But Nandor, that's all I can think of right now. All right. Literally, I don't know. No jokes, just Nandor. Best of luck in training, Josh.

Good to talk to you. Thank you, too. All right, there he is. The Warmaster himself, Josh Barnett, joining us, follow him on Twitter. Twitter.com slash Josh L. Barnett. Now, as I mentioned, this is UFC on Fox 5 week. Huge card, my favorite main card of the year,

and that means it is time for the oh-so-popular Rick's picks. As we look ahead to UFC on Fox number five, we are looking at three fights, the three main fights on the card. Is that correct, Mr. Rick? Yes, sir. All right, so let's bring it here. You've got a lot of believing. You've got a lot of people, doubters.

You got a lot of naysayers. Let's turn them into believers, as they say. Who we're starting with? Main event. Are we going backwards here? Yeah, let's do main event. Let's work our way down. Benson v. Nathan Diaz.

Who are you picking and why? Well, first, let's get the numbers. Yeah, yeah. Benson Henderson minus 155. Nate Diaz plus 135. Okay. I'm picking Nate Diaz. Before I explain why I'm picking Nate,

I'll explain that I think Henderson has more paths to Vick's. I think that he can take Diaz down, he can chop him down with leg kicks, he can grind out a decision counterpunching. There's a lot of past victory for him, but my most likely prediction is I see Nate Diaz overwhelming him with volume. I see him doing, I said this before the Frankie Edgar Benson Henderson fight, and I think that Frankie won that fight personally. I said that he was going to beat Ben with his volume, with his activity, because Benson kind of has this thing where he sits back a little bit. In the first round, he was destroying Frankie with those leg kicks. They were brutal.

And then he just kind of fell away from it. And he was content to watch Frankie come bring it to him. And I thought Frankie won at least three of the next four rounds, in my opinion, just based on his aggressive boxing. And Benson not going on the offensive so much. And that's, you know, against Frankie Edgar, that's a mistake. but against Nate Diaz, that's an even bigger mistake. It's huge. You can't let a volume puncher like either of the Diaz brothers just come bring it to you because

they're going to never stop. Their cardio is ridiculous and they're just going to keep punching you in the face until you either give up or they win a decision. So that's what I think is the most likely scenario. Even though I admit that Benson Henderson has a few more ways to win this fight, I think that if he gets Diaz down, he's not going to get submitted from the top by Diaz. He's just too good at avoiding submissions, even though Diaz's jujitsu is sick, amazing. So that's my pick for that fight, and I like him as an underdog.

It's a good value because I think it's pretty even, but I'm going with Nate Diaz here. All right. There you have it. The underdog pick to start off. Who says Mr. Rick only picks the favorites? There we go. All right. So a co-main event, we have Alexander Gustafson versus Maricio Shogun, who a huge fight at two of

five, give us the goods. Gustafson is minus 220. Shogun is plus 180. In this one I really like. Gustafsson's the favorite? That surprises you? Kind of. I think that's about right, honestly.

Maybe even a little favorable toward Shogun. I think that Gustafsson is going to win this fight. Honestly, Shogun has looked good and bad in the UFC. It's kind of been a roller coaster ride. he's either looked great or he's gotten beaten pretty badly. So in my opinion, I think that Gustafsson's going to be able to outbox him. Even though Shogun has a more dangerous arsenal other than the boxing,

I think that Gustafsons's hands are too good. His takedown defense is too good. Shogun has underrated takedowns, but I think that Gustafsin's takedown defense is just very, very high level for a guy that's not a wrestler. The way he was able to shrug off takedowns from Phil Davis and then start. of training with him to even improve that further. I think it's reminiscent of like a Martin Kampman, a guy that you don't traditionally think of as a

wrestler, but has really, really good takedown defense. So I think he's going to be able to keep this fight on the feet and he's going to be able to take Shogun apart technically. Even though Shogun, you know, if it gets into like a sloppy brawl, Shogun could knock him out. There's no

question about it. Gustafson, he showed a little bit of that in the Hamel fight. He took some punches in that one. even though, you know, he was able to end up winning that fight, he took some hits that if he takes those from Shogun, it's going to be a quick night. That said, I'm still sticking with Gustafsson on this one. And I think that the line's pretty good. I think minus 220 is pretty accurate. Finish?

Yep. Wow. I think that it's just going to be. TKO or KO? TKO. Straight knockout? That's too hard to call. I'm going to say TKO just because.

Earlier or late? it's not going to be late, but it'll be in the middle rounds. Gustafson Cardio is really good. I think that he's just going to outlast, and eventually those punches are going to add up. I like it. Yeah. All right, let's go to the big one here.

The big one, the one you've been waiting for, the one that when everyone first reacted to BJ Penn versus Roy McDonnell, New York Rick said, and we were all saying, crazy fight for BJ. Roy's going to smash him. Why is he calling Rory out? Roy looks like a stud, bigger than him, all this stuff.

Why is he coming back to Rory McDonald? There was one man and one man only, well, outside of the Penn Camp, who said, great fight for BJ, he is winning. Five or so months later, is he still picking BJ Penn? Nothing has changed. Wow. The pick is BJ Penn. Not only, let me give you the numbers on this, Rory is the favorite minus 275,

BJ is the underdog plus 235. Similarly to the Henderson-Diaz fight, I think that Rory has more ways to win. this one. He can grind out a wrestling decision. He can try to hang with BJ on the feet. I don't think that would go well. But he has more offensive tactics that could win him this fight. Whereas BJ's game plan is probably going to be keep him from taking him down and outbox Rory, which I think is a monumental task, obviously. Rory's looked spectacular lately. But I think that just the way BJ looks right now, the shape he's in and the motivation he has to

prove the haters wrong, is going to be all he needs to get in the best shape of his life, stop the takedowns from Rory, who I think is pretty, his takedowns have been a little overrated. He's pretty good, but I think that people are

pretending that he's GSP with the takedowns, which I don't think he's quite there yet. That said, they're very good, but BJ Penn's takedown defenses is otherworldly. We've seen him, there's that famous video where he's on one leg stuffing takedowns. That's, that's, you know, otherworldly stuff. And BJ has that in him if he, if he's motivated for this fight, which I think he is. So I think that he's going to be able to stuff the takedowns. And then on

the feet, it's not even going to be close. BJ is going to completely box worry up. Finish? I don't know. Yeah. You know what? I'll go with another T.K.O. on this one. Holy moly. BJ Penn v. T. You know what? Actually, this might be a submission. This might be. I thought you were going to. I thought you were going to. I thought you're going to say decision you go submission no no no no this might be a knock down rear naked choke kind of situation wow um the classic bj pen the rear naked choke um but i'm definitely picking bj i wouldn't be surprised with the decision but i'm going with a finish i like a finish in this one i like it by the way people asking where are you getting these odds from uh these are on best fight

odds um you can look on that site to get all the different um books that have different odds great site really good site they have like seven or so uh books there and then they give you the best underdog and favorite. And they don't have the odds yet for Matt Brown versus Mike Swick, which kind of flies under the radar here, but it's still a fun fight. Do you want to put out a winner just straight up? I could pick that one, but I don't have odds in front of me, so I'm not going to include it. We won't count it towards your record.

Sure. Who are you picking? I like Swick in this one. I think he looked really good. Brown is one of those guys that's, I've said this before about a lot of guys on this show that are tough. They have a super well-rounded game, but they don't particularly excel in any one thing

that would make them my pick to overwhelm the other fighter and win via that method. Whereas I think Swick's hands are going to be the key in this matchup. I think he's going to be able to avoid takedowns and avoid any clenches that are particularly dangerous

and be able to win on his feet. So I'm going, with Swick on this one. I haven't seen odds, though, so I can't, you know, I can't tell you who to bet on or anything, but I like Swick in this fight. There you have it. Rick's picks, lock him in. He's going with the challenger, Nathan Diaz. He's going with the favorite Alexander Gustafson, and he's going with the underdog, the legend. The man who thinks that a lot of us don't consider him a legend anymore. I do. The Prodigy BJ Penn. Great stuff there from Mr. New York, Rick. Now, let's go to Mr. Buffer a little early. Call him up. What's up?

How about, I give you one question. No, I have some stuff I want to talk about, and then we'll do the questions. Okay. We'll do the questions after tomorrow. Okay. All right. In a minute, we'll be joined by the voice of the Octagon, Mr. Bruce Buffer. UFC on Fox 5, as I mentioned, it begins at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific. You've got FX prelims at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 Pacific. And then at around 4 o'clock, it may be a little later now,

now that there are only going to be one Facebook fight because of the Mike Kiesa illness, he is off the card, Marcus Loves-Sir, going to be a backup, a standby fighter, too late to get someone on short notice, same kind of situation with Brendan Chob. There'll be at around 4. I'm guessing around 4.15 or so you'll get the Facebook fight. Then there will be six fights on FX.

then the four fights on Fox. That means that, you know, I'll be there doing my usual stuff for M.AFinding.com, but that means on the FX prelims, you will see Ariel Hawani, myself, and my big nose, live on your television screen in HD on FX. That is very exciting. And by the way, don't want to say anything, but just pay attention to the Fox Guard. Good things may be happening. It's all I'm going to say.

So a very big night at Ki Arena in Seattle, Washington. Can't wait for it. my first time going over there. And as I mentioned, I think this is the UFC's best Fox card to date. Yesterday, on the NFL on Fox, a short Dana White cameo during some comedy skit. And a lot of people are very upset that Dana was playing a homeless man. And I have to agree. I really do think that we're, I mean, of course, of course there are people who are struggling.

Of course there are people living on the. street. Of course, there are people who are looking for jobs and whatnot. But, I mean, he wasn't making fun of it. It was part of a skit. The whole skit was silly to begin with. You know it wasn't true. Relax. Everyone getting so upset over this. I mean, I'm not here to say it was actually funny, but it wasn't offensive. I think we're very, I mean, this coming from the same people who, I love the hypocrisy. Like, well, there's so many people who feel like, you know, They'll say stuff between their friends. They'll act one way between their friends and family, whatever.

But then, you know, they'll point fingers or something like this. It was meant to be, I think, I'm not here to stick up for them or defend them, but it's meant to be a joke. Oh, it's U.S.C. president. Good time for U.S. on Fox. He's there to say Cam Newton is a crazy man on the street saying that Cam Newton is pregnant. Some NFL joke. And that was it.

And I just think it's, I mean, I saw on some websites, people saying, oh, it's bad taste. It wasn't bad taste. It may not have been funny. But it wasn't bad taste, in my opinion. Comedy. They were trying to go for comedy. So I think we need to lighten up a little bit on that end. After that, the Road to the Octagon aired on Fox, and it was fantastic.

One hour of this sort of, it was very much like Fight Camp 360 in a way on Showtime, not so much like prime time, not so much like a countdown, sort of in the middle. And they previewed the top three fights, and I thought it was fantastic. Of course I'm going to enjoy the part where Roy McDonald and Mike Ritchie were shopping, but I thought the BJ stuff was great, Benson Henderson, Nate Diaz, all of it was great. And I love also a lot of people say, oh, you know, you're pro-Canadian and all this stuff. It's so ridiculous when you say, I'm not even defending GSP, like on the MMA beat and all that stuff. Even with Rory, I mean, we had tyrant on.

I've always respected BJ. One of the first guys who I interviewed, I felt like I was in the presence of a star. It just so happens. These guys are Canadian. There's a self-fulfilling prophecy, I feel like when people watch the media and consume it, where they want to feel one way, they want to think one way, and they're like, ah, I got it. There it is.

Canadian, I've been living in the U.S. for 11 years, almost half my life. I just got my green card. Get over it. It has nothing to do with where anyone's from. I couldn't care less. Just commenting on the people and the personalities. And I do think Rory has turned into a fascinating personality. And I think that it may not be in Georgia's best interest to take the fight.

et cetera, et cetera. Anyway, let us move along now to our next guest of the day. So excited to have the voice of the Octagon back on the MMA hour, the incomparable, the one and only, often imitated, never duplicated, Mr. Bruce Buffer. How are you, Bruce? I lost you for a second, but I was so endeared with that opening. My gosh. Thanks, Ariel. I'm going to send you the PR check next week.

Oh, my God, Bruce. You are a legend. you're one of a kind in this sport. The sport wouldn't be the same without you. So great to have you on the show. How's everything? First off, thanks again. Don't drive me to tears on this show.

I feel like on Jerry McGuire when they get the guy to cry at the end of the movie. I almost feel like you're my uncle, Bruce. You know, I really do feel like I consider you somewhat of a father figure for myself. You were one of the first guys on my show back in Syracuse University 11 years ago. You got the gray hair. You're a father figure to me.

I'm not ashamed to say it. I'll take it. You know what? I'm just happy to be alive. waking up, living and breathing every day, and just enjoying this life as much as possible. It's such an honor to be a part of this great team with the UFC. It's an honor to know you all these years. And we've said it before, and I'll say it again.

It's right. You know, you're a pioneer in this industry as much as anybody, in my opinion. And I do remember being one of your original guests. I do remember you being, you know, so gracious back then, so passionate. And you haven't lost that zeal. You still keep it. And that's what I keep. And that's what keeps us moving in this business.

And I think it's one of the reasons that we're growing so fast is all of us are so approachable. The fans have a great time. They can get close to us and they don't feel intimidated. And I can't stand arrogant, cocky people. I mean, I definitely walk around with a bit of a swagger. I'm a very confident individual. But I cannot stand people that think they're better than other people. So thank you for being who you are. And let's keep it up. Let's not lose this. All right. So a lot to get to with you, Bruce. First off, you were in my hometown last week, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. And it's a place where you can get very distracted, but you are not distracted, my friend. You were doing some business. I'm not a poker connoisseur like yourself, but apparently

you were doing good things in Montreal. Yeah, it was pretty exciting. You know, a lot of people know that I'm what I call terminally semi-pro. I'll never turn fully pro playing poker all the time. I'll probably lose my passion if I do. But I entered the World Poker Tour main event, which is the, aside from the World Series of Poker, is the second most prestigious poker event in the world. and it had 11, 1,700, excuse me, 1,273 top players from around the world, top pros you see on TV at final tables of the World Series, the whole nine yards. We battled for three days when I was there, 12 hours a day. It's like fighting.

You can go in to knock the guy out. What's going to happen when you do that? Either you get knocked out or the guy gets knocked out, right? So it's constant mental warfare. And I'm proud to say I came in 19th out of 1173 of the top people after three days. I was very excited. First place, get this, REO. First place was 750,000 Canadian, which on any given day could be more than a dollar American, as we know lately.

Yes, including today. I wound up winning, yeah, it's public knowledge. I wound up winning 17,500, which isn't bad for three days' work, in my opinion. It's quite good. And the money was one thing. I mean, I'll always cash the paycheck, but just the experience and the street cred and knowing that I can compete with the best of the best in the world makes me feel really good. Do you have to pay taxes on that? ask me that when we're off the air

I've always wondered about that yeah I you know you do I mean it's when you win this money it's public it's public knowledge you can go on the internet to like card player dot com or poker pages dot com put my name and under players and you'll see it'll register how much money I've won on the pro circuit

in the last five years kind of like when you look up a tennis player or even a UFC fighter how much money is it and about 300,000 wow that's unbelievable I don't know where it is, but it's believable. It's on paper. It's somewhere. I had a good time with it.

That's all I can tell you. Now, what about my city? Montreal, as I said, you can get very distracted there. It's a great city. A lot of people call it the Vegas of the North. What did you think? Did it treat you well? You know, I don't know if the Vegas of the North is really appropriate.

I think that it's one of the most amazing cities I've ever been to. I'm not going to butter your bread. You know me. I don't do that. But I will tell you that. There's a lot of reasons I love Montreal. I love it because of obviously the fans of the UFC and of mixed martial arts are incredible there, as they are all over Canada, probably are, you know, aside from Brazil and the UK are most rabid fan base per capita. And the women there are just absolutely beautiful.

REL, the girls there are so classy. The way they dress, they have fashion, they're nice, they're approachable. I mean, I live in the I live in La La Land, right? So this is the land of actresses and models and yada. I love L.A., but I have a lot. I'm not really a big fan of all the people here in L.A., to be honest with you. Okay. So up there, you're meeting beautiful girls that just don't have that, what I call L.A. attitude,

which is extremely refreshing. And that's always nice. The service is fantastic. I still have yet, honestly, to meet a rude Canadian. Wow. I've met a lot of inebriated ones, okay? But I've yet to meet anybody that's been rude to me, you know, which is cool. So the courtesy factor, the service, I stayed at the W.

hotel. They put me up there. Party poker flew me up and, you know, I was treated like just with grandeur. It was wonderful. And I ate at my favorite restaurant in Montreal, which is the, what do they call it, the Mark de Chival? Could the Chival? Yes. Could the Chival? Yes, across from the bell center.

Yeah. That means... Believe it. You know, that means that means horses' tail? Well, I felt like a horse when I left the place. I was... I don't think I passed that food for a week, man. I really filled myself up there. It was great. It was wonderful. Great wine the whole bit. It was my celebration, you know, after the big event.

And it was cool because here, we did the UFC in Montreal, what, two weeks ago? Yeah. Or three, whatever it was. So here I come home to spend Thanksgiving. And they wanted me to come up during Thanksgiving. I explained to him, I don't leave Mom on Thanksgiving. It's really that's mom and my loved ones. So then I go back to Montreal and I was excited to go back.

I really was. I love the city. By the way, that's all I get. I'm a little jealous because you're the first guest to join our show via Skype, who has or appears to have a better set than I do. What is going on behind you here? This is the most unbelievable thing. It's like a toy store for men.

Oh. Well, you know what? I'm a big collector of sports memorabilia over the years. I used to put on collectors gun and artifact shows in Las Vegas and L.A. where I'd have like 200 exhibits of exhibitors from all over the world that would come in. And maybe about anywhere from $100 to $200 million on display and find pistols and artifacts. I'm not a hunter. I don't hunt.

I can't shoot Bambi. I definitely shoot a 200 pound. and coming through my window to hurt my family in a heartbeat and have breakfast afterwards. But I've shotgun since I was six. My dad had me taking apart German Luger Pistols and timing me blindfolded when I was like nine years old, taught me how to play poker when I was eight. So, you know, I kind of like grew up with this appreciation of vintage memorabilia. And what you see behind me are lobby cards from movies in the 1940s and 1950s.

When you go to the theater, they would have these cards up on the wall depicting different scenes from the movies. These are an amazing investment. They go up 10% a year if you buy correctly. There's also wax packs of cards behind me that you buy for five cents with the gum. Oh, yeah. So do you remember a show like Hogan's Heroes? Of course. Okay, well, you could buy the wax pack of Tops cards, right?

Yeah. Five cents in like 1966. Today that pack is worth $650. Really? Unopened. Yeah. Unopened. And I have them, most of my cards are graded and encased.

special cases so they maintain their collector's quality. You know, whenever you buy something collectible, you always want to keep it in the box or the cards. You want to keep in the pack. I just got, they're all locked behind me because I've got to be careful when people come in and out of here. But I have my recent acquisition, which is really cool. I was born in 1957.

Okay. You know, the tops UFC bloodline cars just came out. Yeah. They do a great job. As a matter of fact, there's 22 of my, of 22 special cards in there you can redeem for a signed UFC fight card that is from my second set that I bring to the show. That's one of the special inserts in the new edition, and the cards look great. But behind me, in 1957, I just got the 1957 wax pack of cards that could have a Mickey Mantle,

they could have all these great players in it. And they're, you know, without mentioning prices, they're very expensive, but they're great investments. And thanks to eBay and sources I have, can sell it in one day if I need to. Now, speaking of eBay, you talk about these fight cards. You've also been putting some of your fight cards. And when we say fight cards, these are the cards that you're holding when you're like, you know, from the red corner, blue corner, Alexander Gustafsson, all this stuff with all your little notes.

And it's a fascinating look. And it's sort of like this, you know, this little nugget of UFC history there. You've been putting those on eBay as well. What kind of reception have you received there? Well, I've only done it twice. And the only reason I did it, it's kind of like why I made the app. I've been asked by fans for years now. to make an alarm clock, you know, and I held off.

We'll get into that in a second. But I've also been asked by fans, I get tweeted in emails from fans saying, hey, can you send me one of your fight cards? Even my partner on my podcast, T.J. DeSantis, you know, he's bent my arm backwards. He wants my 149 and 148, whatever it was, from Brazil. Yeah. So I always carry a second set of cards with me, just in case something happens. So I have my actual show cards where all my notes are on that I was writing during the fight.

Sometimes I'll judge the fight during the fight of my own head, or I'll write down the little notes. And when I get into the octagon to announce the winner, it looks like a bunch of scribble. But these work for me. This is, you know, how you have your notes, and we all have our individual notes. So when the fans kept saying that I scanned the original cards with all my notes, and I did a tester. I put the notes on with a program with a signed personalized Tops card and a personalized picture. Much of my surprise, Ariel, the bidding war started, and the first set, which was from Nottingham, England, sold for $202.

Wow. Right. And they were scanned copies of which I'll never make a copy. I guarantee there's only one copy and that's it. Right. And I signed, I even sent a letter of authorization, certificate of authenticity, stating that fact, you know, for the future. So what I do after every show, getting long-winded here, is I keep my cards,

I keep a program, I keep the video, I'll get the video, and I put it all in a packet, and I have boxes from the past UFCs at least from. in the last four or five years of every show stored like that. Wow. I still have my original cards from UFC 8, R.L. Really? UFC? Yeah.

Crazy. You ever sit down and pretend to judge a fight, and then you're getting up there to announce the winner, judge's decision, and then you get their scorecard, and you're like, what the hell is this? I have to go out and read this. This is ridiculous.

You ever have that moment? Well, I can't say that I have, and I'm only human, and I'm a fan for some for anything. And, you know, Dana White, God bless him. What does he always say? Don't let the fight get in the hands of the judges, with all respect to the people that are judging. But my role is not to reason why. My role is to do or die, according to Roger.

That still stands true, right? Right. So I'm the mercenary. I have to go in there. Don't kill the messenger. I have to do my job. Now, if I get out and I look at Stitch and I go, what the, right? That's my role as a fan.

Sure. Okay. And has that happened? once or twice. Now, I want to get to the app in a second, but I just want to ask you one last thing. I've been meaning to ask you this for a while now. You mentioned Brazil.

We were in Brazil for UFC 153 in October, and a phenomenon has caught on over there where the fans, particularly as the night progresses, they start to do your whole thing with you. And they have it down, and I haven't seen this anywhere. Even in Canada, as you mentioned, their rabbit fans, England, the fans in Brazil, and what's amazing

about it, obviously, is that they don't speak English. It's not their mother tongue. When you first heard this, especially in the main event, where it reaches this crescendo, what were you thinking while you're doing it? Well, first off, let me just say that, you know how passionate and a little emotional I can get when I'm working inside the Octet, right? So especially during the main event and the comains, I'm very, really for every fight. I'm focused on the fighters.

If you watch me when you're there rarely, unless I'm turning, do you see me take my eyes off the eyeballs of the fighter that I'm introducing. And I do that for a couple of reasons. It's on my own thing about looking at how intense he is at that given moment, because it's like looking into the eye of the tiger. It's like looking in the horse in the, in the, in that thing they come in in the Kentucky Derby before the gate opens, whatever you call that machine. The horses are in is the spit and snot and everything's flying everywhere, getting

ready to run that race. It's an amazing experience to look in the eye of the greatest warriors in the world and experience that where nobody gets to experience that except for me. right so I'm very much into that I don't listen to the audience right so the time it happened in Brazil I was so into what I was doing for Anderson and I get out and the great you know cut man stitch he looks and he goes buff did you did you hear that I go what he goes they all said it with you I go what he's talking about then I watched a video and I thought holy geez louise it's unbelievable I mean these guys speak Portuguese guys and these girls that are there and they're doing

that it's a greatest honor it's amazing now I've managed my brother the great Michael Buffer's career for 19 years now, give a take, right? I've heard the applause. I've heard everything, the amazing eruption that happens when he does his famous phrase. But I have never heard for anybody, and I'm not pitting myself against Michael. He's the greatest of all time. I'm the first one to say that, but I'm just saying from that experience, I've never heard an audience repeat that back. No.

And the beauty of this is that it happened naturally. I'm not phrase driven. I did not go in this business to create a phrase to create a T-shirt off of. its time came about in a natural, gestative evolutionary process, which really makes me happy, you know, because obviously the people dig it and what can I say. So that's the biggest thing to get asked. Aside from a kid coming up to me and asking me for an autograph or a picture, a little boy, you know, with his mom and dad or a girl and many other experiences with a make-a-wish and everything I've had the pleasure of enjoying this life. That's one of the greatest experiences of my life. It's amazing.

So I did hear it last time. Okay, good to know. Now, you have this amazing app coming out, which I believe it's coming out this week, right? I'll tell you what happened. Okay. It was supposed to be last week, and as fate would have it, and I got no harm saying this, Apple's very diligent in what they do. They want to protect trademarks. They want to protect IPs, which is short for intellectual properties. And if anybody understands, as I do, you know, because I've been the sheriff of the Rumble for 20 years, now I'm the sheriff of its time, forcefully so. they basically wanted a document saying that it was really me. Oh, wow. My attorney had to draw up another piece of paper, so it had to go through the, what do you call it, the regulatory process of iTunes and Apple again.

So it's going to be, the birth will happen any day. I'm just waiting for the day. It's going to be in the next week or so. Is it free? It's there. No, it's 99 cents. 99 cents. And what is the app?

Tell us about it. The app is basically, if you can see this, let me see if I can do this. I got the app here. to hit it and I'll play the opening for you. Wait. So it goes into, it just comes out saying it's time. But here, it goes into an alarm and it's got reminders.

It's got a countdown. It's got a game called spin the buffer when you spin it, then a motive. And here, let's see what the saying is they here's spin the buffer, right? Yeah. You see that? I do see it. Spin them. Yeah.

Right. So you got it. Or you go back to the alarm. and the alarm I got woken up this morning, as a matter of fact. So you wake up yourself? Yeah, well, I mean, you know, somebody's got to wake me up. So you've got this is the main event of the evening, but here's the, here's my, one of my wake-up calls. You ass out!

Wow, that must be unbelievable to wake up to yourself. Now, how many phrases or sayings are there on the app? There's basically about 160 on the first load. Okay. There's another 50 that are going to be ready to. to, you know, get there. And, you know, it has different sayings for, like, military. It's got even, like, sexual fun sayings on it.

Like, you know, this is not for you, Ariel. You're married with children. Yeah. I've met your wife, so disregard this. Okay. It's... You need to make, like, a video of someone using this in these scenarios. You know what I'm saying?

That would be a good little viral video ad for your app. I know. Well, you know, I do have a sex and relationship show on my It's Time podcast. I've heard. What do you talk about on that show, by the way? Well, it all started when fans were calling me for advice on dating and stuff like that. I don't know, I guess whatever they look at me for. They look up to you as well, like I look up to you. Thank God. I better keep up the right image, right?

Otherwise, I'm going to get a baseball bet. But they started asking me dating questions, and they started asking me, you know, how to handle certain situations. And it got so frequent that I thought, well, you know what, why not just devote one show a month to having people. people call in or sending me emails while still talking about the lifestyle situations of the world that I always talk about because I'm not an m-ma show you know that you're you're an m-a-show yeah and and much much I'm a lifestyle show we talk you know a lot of UFC a little UFC or a lot of you see a lot of us see and a lot about sex drugs and rock and roll which basically

is my term for life okay so we talk about everything so then Sam Phillips who's a sexpert here on in LA there is such a thing she's an old friend of and she's the next Penhouse Playmate. She's funny as all heck. So we got together and we created. Even I know that. Penhouse Pet, you just combine two brands. Combined two brands. Exactly. So I'm branding and marketing. You know, I teach branding

and marketing to companies. I do motivate speeches and seminars all across the country. But I love seeing people successful. I love seeing people happy. And I love seeing people have the answers to whatever they're questioning in life. I don't have a sheepskin on the wall. I'm not Dr. Drew. You know, I'm just, I'm just

and they ask me a question. I'll give them an answer. Simple as that. But when in doubt, always be safe. It's condom time. Now, Bruce, I want to ask you two very important things, and we're running out of time here. So let's get right into it. First things first, a nightmare scenario developing for you in a couple of weeks. You cannot be at a UFC event. It's finally going to happen.

Unfortunately, you cannot be everywhere. We found out that the great Joe Martinez, who does a fine job doing boxing, other MMA will be doing the duties in Australia. How much does it crush you that you can't be at both events that weekend? Well, I mean, you know, I've not missed an event since 1999 where I think it was 99 when UFC Japan too happened and it was a budgetary issue because at that time, I think the UFC was getting into its lowest point or entering it so far. So without going to a big explanation there, that's the only show I've missed in what,

16, 17 years? So if you want to count how many shows I've done, not counting. the 50 or 100 other MMA and boxing shows I've done. At first, it's like, I got to get there. You know, I mean, it was just months ago that I went from Atlantic City to Brazil. Right. And I did two shows in Bello Horizontz and Atlantic City. I did two shows in two hemispheres and two time zones in less than 24 hours.

And it really made me proud. I mean, I don't care. I'll go without sleep. I'll work my buns off. You know me, Ariel. I mean, I want to get the job. I love doing this. I'm not.

I am about the paycheck, but I'm not about the paycheck. I'm about a loyal. UFC worker, teammate. So now with this situation, and I love going to Australia,

it's just physically impossible. I can't, unless Star Trek can give me that machine that beams you from one place to the other, and maybe that'll happen in the next 40 years,

it's just impossible to get me back in time. And that was what was explained to me. And I'm all, I'm very cool with it. I mean, it have to be. I'm all about the show.

It's not, the show's not about me, Ariel. We know that. USC's not about me. I'm there doing my job. And I've been a consistent and will continue to be a consistent face for years to come. But, you know, Joe does a very good job. It's all about being right for the production.

It's one show next year. If it happens, it could be maybe one show. So it's not about me. It's about the UFC. It's about the tough finale for Australia. It's about Ross Pearson and everybody doing their thing down there. And they've got a very competent announcer that will take care of business. And I've got to be what is considered, I don't want to call it the more important show by any standards, but I'll be in Vegas for the tough finale there. Very happy to do. Huge news a few weeks back, and I don't know how much you can comment on it, but you altered your famous catchphrase to its fight time.

It's back to its time now. What was going on there? Oh, man, you're great, Ari. I knew you're going to hit me with that one. Best way it's scenario, West Bay put as I was dealing with a legal situation, and it forced me to look at a couple different avenues of marketing. and branding regarding my phrase. So dealing with that situation that I had to deal with, which has since been dealt with and

everything is cool, I own its time. Its time is mine, not to coin a rhyme, pun. So it's time is mine, baby. So then all I can tell you is that to deal with that, I wanted to look into a couple of scenarios. I wasn't happy with any of them. I will never want to say anything other than its time during a main event ever again, as long as I'm in the octagon.

that's my plan. And so that's all I can tell you. That is fantastic news. Bruce, always a pleasure. Good luck with the app. Let us know officially when it comes out so we can let everyone. Good luck with the tops cards. Congratulations on the poker win. We will see you Seattle for a huge event on Saturday, live on Fox. You're doing so much. Jamaica's proud. Great to have you as a friend. And congratulations on making the app into a reality. Oh, thank you. I mean, there's so much more in that app than what I showed you. You've got to have it in your hand to see. It'll be on the iPad and the iPhone and it'll be on what do you call it the droids next year

can I make one other plug? Sure I got the shot on sure you all know that I started the ITI company that's the logo of course right and we've got the shirts and everything you've shown them on your show the whole bit they're not for sale yet I basically have made them for friends

and such and don't get on my case ariel because you haven't got one yet because we definitely have a friendship but next year you're going to see some amazing things happen with this brand that's going to be one of the next things that I'm currently working on it, but you're going to see a lot of that in 2013. But mainly, I want to thank all your listeners for what they do for you. I want to thank them for their loyalty to the great sport of MMA and to the UFC and get

ready for one incredible show Saturday night. Ariel, BJ Penn and Rory McDonald. Oh, yeah, we've been talking about it. My blood is boiling. And by the way, we have to get you on very soon to talk about your book when it comes out in 2013. So this is just a taster of things to come for you and I in the next year. Always great to have you on the show, Bruce. We'll see you in Seattle on Saturday.

Thanks, Ariel. Anybody want to know when the app's coming out? Just follow me on Twitter at Bruce Buffer. There he is. Thank you, guys. Take care. The One and Only, the Voice of the Octagon himself, Bruce Buffer, joining us on the MMA hour. So we transitioned from one legend to another, honored to be joined by the one and only, the incomparable.

The Man, the Myth, the Legend himself, Sensei, Stephen Segal. Sensei, are you there? Yes, sir. How are you, sir? So great to have you on the show. Again, it's always a pleasure, and we really appreciate you giving us a few minutes of your time. I know you're very busy. So a lot of things that I want to talk to you about, a lot of things to get to here.

First things, first, one of the big stories in the world of MMA, as you know, involves your very good friend and your pupil, Anderson Silva. A lot of people saying that he should and will fight George St. Pierre, but now it seems like it may not happen. What's your take on this fight? Should it happen? I think it should happen. I think it would be a great fight. I think they're both wonderful fighters, amazing athletes, and great martial artists. I think it would be a good fight.

George St. Pierre are obviously a lot smaller than Anderson. Anderson fighting at 185 also has fought at light heavyweight, George at 170. Do you think he can hang with Anderson? No. To put it bluntly. Yeah, I think that, you know, in this situation, size matters, And I think that, you know, Anderson has a distinct advantage not only in size and weight, but also in his skill and his ability. So you think Anderson would run right through him?

I don't want to say run right from it, but I think he will decisively win. and I think that like I said to you before one of the things that a master looks at when they look at a fighter

is the history of the fighter and when you look at the history of the fighter you look at their very best fights their best work and they're worst if you

Anderson's worst fights they're not bad he still looks pretty good if you look at the GSP's worst fight you look at the thing that he did with Shields in Canada where I think you and I were there.

That was atrocious. And so I think that that also is very telling. But aside from all that, I think that Anderson just is a lot more skill. And I think that he would win

handily, I don't want to say easily, because whenever you walk into the octagon, it's always, you know, anything can happen, but I haven't been wrong yet with Anderson. I'm quite sure he would win and that he would win very well. You said something very interesting there. You said that you thought

GSP's performance against Jake, which was his last performance prior to the one just a couple weeks ago in Montreal was atrocious. He dominated him for five rounds. Why weren't you impressed? Well, you were there, right? I was there, yes. Yeah. I mean, I just didn't think that

the technique and the fighting skill was there in that instance. And I also saw him after the fight, and he wasn't looking or feeling very well either, which does have some meaning, you know. I think he got hurt in that fight, and whether he dominated or not,

I just didn't think he looked at it. I don't think you did either. He is considered one of the best of all time. Are you impressed with him? Like, you hold him in that kind of regard as a martial artist? I think he's a really nice guy. I think he is a good fighter and a good martial artist. But perhaps not a great one?

What I call him great, in my words, no. I just think he's a wonderful, very good martial artist and good guy. What is he missing to become great? What quality does he not have that maybe someone like Anderson does have? Well, you know, some people are born with greatness, and some people sort of acquired it, but I think that, you know, with time, he will become better and better. But that being said, you don't think he has what it takes today to fight someone like Anderson.

So if maybe you were advising George, you would tell him not to take this fight. Right. I would tell him not to take the fight. And this is just my humble opinion, sir. Just my humble opinion. Of course. But it's an opinion we hold in very high regard. That's why we want to have you on.

Yeah. Well, that's my humble opinion. We're trying to make sense of this situation because a lot of talk, a lot of banter, a lot of back and forth, we want to know if this fight is going to happen. And there are some people who believe, and I brought this up, I will admit, that all of a sudden this talk has come about between Anderson and GSP, once the real pressure from the fans and the media to see John Jones versus Anderson Silva's has come up. And maybe this is a more favorable fight for Anderson. What do you think of that matchup? Is that a matchup that you'd like to see for Anderson? No, I would not like Anderson to take that fight. And once again, I could be wrong, but I think that John is really heavyweight.

He's almost 6 feet 5. I think he's probably, and I'm guessing, walking around at, you know, 2.30, 2.35. And I think he cuts down to make that weight. And then, you know, by the time he gets on the Akkadon, he's put on a tremendous amount of weight. And he's got all that size, all that strength. his arms are, you know, almost twice as long as Anderson. Exceptually long. I think that, you know, Anderson has a disadvantage, tremendous disadvantage physically.

And, you know, whether he would win or not, I don't know, but I just think he'll be a very difficult fight. And I just think that John has so much more size and weight and reach, that it would not be a good bad fact. Kind of like him against GSP, right? It just wouldn't seem like a fair fit on paper, in your opinion. Exactly. I remember talking to you in Denver, UFC 135 after John Jones defeated Rampage Jackson.

You said you weren't impressed with John. He has fought several times since then, most recently against Vitor Belford in Toronto. Have you come around? Do you think he is a better martial artist than the one you saw in Denver a couple years ago? Yeah, I think he's getting better and better. You know, and I think that at his age and, you know, with what's going on in his life, he only would be getting better and better, you know, practicing more, learning more and getting more experience under his belt. Yes, he's getting better. Dana White likes to talk about the leeches and people who can affect a superstar.

And we've seen John go through some issues this year. I mean, you, you know, you've been sitting on top of the mountain for so long, Hollywood, martial arts. I mean, I'm sure you've met every kind of person. What kind of advice would you give to someone like John in order to, you know, remain focused with that much potential and not see it go to waste? I mean, I don't want to consider myself a guru to John or anybody right now, but if I had to give advice to anybody, I would just say, come to know the nature of your own mind, come to know yourself well first and be very, very careful who you allow close to you. Okay. Has this happened to you? Have people try to be leeches onto you? I would say that I can dwarf anybody's stories when it comes to that. How did you deal with it?

You know, I'm a Buddhist, and I kind of have these conflicting issues in myself where I try, you know, in some ways to be kind and compassionate to everybody. and that's part of my belief as a human being, but at the same time in doing that, I've lost millions and millions and millions of dollars, and I've lost faith, I've lost, you know, my reputation. In some ways, I've lost a lot by allowing people who are not just, you know, leeches or lying people, but also con artists, scam artists, you know, just people who are, will do anything.

They'll say anything and do anything to, you know, make money. And they all have scams, all these people, and some of them are very, very good at it. And what John will learn along with every other person becomes a celebrity, along with a great fighter or whatever the case may be, is that once someone has the name, a little person who no one knows from Adam can come along and say anything they want or do anything they want because they have nothing to lose. And all of a sudden, you know, with the punch of one little key on a computer, you know, something that John or any other person may not even know about,

may not have anything to do with me, have never going to happen. All of a sudden, you know, you're a demon, you're a monster. I remember recently I had a SWAT raid that I had to go on, and in that instance, it was a guy that I believe, you know, was involved in a cartel activity from intelligence. And, you know, we went there with SWAT. We made the raid and apprehended the gentleman without any incidents at all. there was no shots fired, and I never even saw a dog on the compound. But later on, the lawyers, see now lawyers, and people, people can say whatever they want.

It's not criminal. And maybe civil, it's not criminal. And the lawyer spread a lot of lies about the whole incident. But one of the things he said was, was Steven Seagal shot, you know, the individual's pet. And so all over the world, the students said, oh, shot this dog. And it didn't matter that it didn't happen,

didn't matter that we could prove that it didn't happen. Just somebody made up a lie and the lie goes around the world because nobody has ever heard of that lawyer and a lot of people heard of me. And it was all over the world. And so any of these brave young fighters and great young warriors that are coming up, they'll land the hard way that once they get a name and become famous,

they have to be very, very careful who they allow anywhere near them, like I said earlier. Now, the last time we saw Anderson compete was in October in Rio. Why weren't you there? Well, you know, I don't mean to be rude here, but I have never been wrong with Anderson. I've always told him when he is going to win, how he was going to win if he was going to win, whatever, whatever. I knew he was going to win this in the first round, and it's a long way to Brazil. So I just thought, hey, man, this is, you know, not even going to win. to be worth going to.

Did you speak to him on the phone, though? Did you offer advice in the days leading up to it? I don't think I really even got on the phone with them over this fight. I just told some of his trainers and guys what I thought was going to happen, and they kind of shook their heads and shut off what happened that way. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful to Bonner, just my humble opinion on how I thought things would turn out. A weird trend developed, but, you know, a lot of guys have actually been.

been popped for some kind of performance enhancing drug, much like Stefan Bonner was after the fight. Why do you think guys are doing this when they fight Anderson? I mean, I think that, you know, I'm just guessing that it could be that they want to beat him because he's a world champion and they're doing anything and everything that they think in their mind will give them, you know, an extra edge to possibly defeat Anderson. Right. Do you think that, I mean, you're not in favor of PDs, right? I mean, I'm, once again, I have to be very careful what I say, but I'm one of the only actors that I know that has never, well, I shouldn't say that. I know that in the action genre of movies, there's a lot of individuals who do mess around like that.

I'm not going to say, you know, who, where, one, and how, but I'm the only guy that I, I don't want to say the only guy, I know, I'm one of the only people out there, but has never done any type that I don't believe in any sense. like that at all. And I mean, you know, it's easy with that kind of stuff to cut weight. You could cut weight and look like Adonis in three, four weeks if you start, you know, shooting up the right stuff. But I'd just much rather be natural than, you know, do it like this. I commend you for that. Now, I'm wondering there was rumors that Anderson Silva was going to be in your next film, your next blockbuster hit. Is that in fact true? I think so. I've offered him two roles. I'm just asking you. I'm just asking you. asking you now to pick one and we'll go do it.

Can I get the other role? Let me give you a reading person, see if you can act. Oh, wow. After everything we've been through, I have to still go through the process like everyone else. Does Anderson need to audition, or does he get the sort of carte blanche? He already auditioned with me and Buena Fides. Oh, and is this a speaking part?

Yes, very much so. And when will the film begin shooting? We'll be shooting in the Mexico in the beginning of January And can you give us the premise here Like what kind of film are we talking about It's a movie having to do with You know these sort of drug lords and drug dealers

That have this kind of big hierarchy And they You know are all sort of Fighting for turf and trying to kind of take over not only the turf but certain people of their godfathers

and stuff like that and it's a kind of a layered you know mysterious movie that I don't want to give too much away but it's just kind of a I don't want to say gangster-esque

but you know sort of this kind of underworld you know very dark and sordid story you ever have a moment where you're like you know I've done all that I've conquered all that you know reached them out the top many times before

I want to do a comedy or I want to do something light. I want to do a kid's movie. You ever have a moment like that where you want to scratch that itch? All the time. Why don't you do that? Well, I think if I get the right

comedy offered to me or the right kid movie or right romantic comedy, I'd love to do it I'm just kind of... I'd love to see a romantic comedy. I'd love to get there. Well, maybe now we can get the ball rolling here. Okay. Now, I just want to ask you a couple more things

and then we'll let you go. We really appreciate the time. Recently, Randy Gattour, the MMA Hall of Famer, came out and said the only guy that he would come back out of retirement to face would be you. He wants to fight you. Are you honored, offended? What do you make of this? My sort of mixed feelings, I mean, first of all, I am a martial artist,

and I've been a martial artist all my life. I've been fighting on my life. And I believe that the essence of learning how to fight and fighting and being a warrior, and a martialist is to try to overcome the negative qualities that we all inherit as people and become a better person and to help others and help the world be a better place. You know, the martial arts should really be to defeat the demons in yourself, purify yourself, and develop yourself physically simultaneously. So that being said, you know, I really have to kind of wonder what his intentions or motivations may have been in saying that.

I always thought that Randy was my friend and a gentleman. I'm kind of confused as to why he would say that. And all I can say is what I've said to you before, I know, and that is that I'm here. Anybody can find me anytime and any place. if Randy really wants to fight me, he can fight me anytime he wants. It'll be for free and it'll be someplace where there are no witnesses. So not for the spectacle, not for the show, mono imano. That's right.

And I mean, I'm hoping that it wouldn't get to that in the sense that I don't know what that would accomplish or why that kind of thing would ever come about. but if that's what he wants, he can get it anytime he wants. But it'll be for free someplace where there are no witnesses. Now, would this be like an MMA match or no-holds-barred? No, I don't play by rules. So no-holds-barred. Will there have to be at least one person there

to at least witness that this match actually happened? I mean, I'm sure one person will walk out. What I'm trying to say is Can I be the one to tell my grandchildren and everyone else that this fight actually took place, is what I'm trying to say? Yeah, let's hope it doesn't get to that. And like I said, there will be no witnesses if it does. So you're saying only one man is leaving this. If you do actually compete against Randy Couture, I mean, did you find this to be a bit shocking?

You say you thought, you know, was your friend and all that? I mean, what's he trying to prove here? I have no idea. How would you see this playing out? I'm just very intrigued by the scenario. I mean, I'm not going to go there. I'm a man of honor. I'm a gentleman, but I am a warrior.

And if he needs to find me, he knows where to fight. Okay. Well, that is the response. One last thing I want to ask you. At UFC 148, you were at the media workouts, and you were doing some sort of thing, and I wish we had the footage here with Hafeel Fezhou, Cavalcanti, the Strike Force Light Heavyweight,

where you were sort of slapping him in front of. of the crowd and whatnot. I've never seen this before. I was blown away by it. What exactly were you doing? Well, he's my brother and he's my friend and, you know, we are family. And I don't know that they were really slaps, but they're open-handed strikes and they're just barely touching, but it's just, you know, sort of a way to show different strike angles and things like that, you know. And is this something that you do in training? Like, what exactly are we teaching here when we do this? Well, as I just said, you're teaching strikes, strike angles, and body position, stuff like that.

How much, are you, are you available, you don't do like private lessons and things like that, right? Like if there was a person listening, you do? Of course I do. Oh, wow. Well, what kind of rate are we talking about? No, no, it's free. I do private sparring and private lessons all the time. So if I came to Los Angeles, I can have a private lesson with you?

Am I, like, am I in... I don't know that you would enjoy it very much. What do you mean? Why not? They're not fun. I mean, the talking part is fun. The other stuff is, well, I mean, Hamilton doesn't enjoy it. You know, all he talks about is how much it hurts.

So, I mean, anybody, anybody knows that when you train and you train hard, it hurts. I can get hurt. You can get hurt. We all get hurt not seriously, but, you know, we all give you. each other the respect to make sure that we're using, you know, enough force to let everybody know that there's, you know, the potential for each technique. So, in other words, what you're trying to say is you don't think I have the sort of testicular fortitude to hang with someone like you.

Is that what you're trying to say in a kind way? What I'm really trying to say is I kind of have thought that you are more somebody who interviews fighters and articulate what's happening out there in the fight world. I didn't know that you're a fighter, but if you are and you really want a private lesson, we'll arrange that. No, no, no, I'm not a fighter, but I do believe that in order to do my job as best as possible, I have to appreciate what goes on, right? You have to learn and take it all in, so who better...

Well, if you, as you put it, have the testicular fortitude to get a lesson from I'll arrange that. And I will try to be very gentle with you. That would be an honor. Also an honor, you coming on my show once again, Sensei, thank you so much for your thoughts and your wisdom and all that stuff. Great to have you on the show. And we look forward to seeing you at an event in the near future.

It hasn't been the same without you as of late. Okay. Well, I unfortunately have to do other things once in a while, but usually when my guys are out there trying to get there. Well, we will see you at an event maybe in Anaheim. when Leonardo Machita fights Dan Henderson. That is close to your neck of the woods. And again, always a pleasure to have you on the show.

Thank you very much, sir. There he is. The one and only, the incomparable, the often-imitated, never-duplicated, Sensei, Stephen Segal, joining us on the MMA hour. Right here right now, you heard it first a response to Randy Cout's call-out of him recently. The man is not playing around. Now, we go from one legend to the final guest of the MMA hour today, December 3rd, our third to last episode of the year. And what a year it has been and so honored, I think we have saved the best for last, my friends, because we have on the line right now the new voice of Showtime boxing, the one and only, the man who in many ways revolutionized the art that is.

is Combat Sports Broadcasting, my good friend, coming at you from the great city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is Morrow Renalo joining us right now on the MMA hour. Mora, how are you? I just wanted to say what a tough act it is to follow Steven Seagal with acts being the operative word, my friend. Well, I thought you would appreciate that, so good to have you last. And I must say, good to hear you in the podcast world, because, and there's so much to get to

with you, Morrow, and that's why I wanted to have you on. last today because I didn't want any limitations here. In the podcast world, we haven't heard you for the last couple of months. First, let's get to this. What happened to the great MMA show? Well, the SCORE television network where I've been working for the last three years was sold to Rogers Media here in Canada, and thus the podcast, which was on theScore.com, is no longer in existence. So what is essentially happening is that there is no MFA show podcast.

at the moment. And the good news, though, is that I'm going to be endeavoring to work on a new project that I think is, dare I say, going to maybe even be better than the MMA show was in its long run. And I do want to thank people like yourself. And, you know, it goes all the way back to John Pollock when we first did Fight Network Radio. And he was the guy who discovered you and brought you on the show back in 2007. But for right now, the show is on what I will call an extent. hiatus, and it may in fact be done as the current format, but I am very excited about projects that I'm looking forward to getting into in the new year, and of which, of course, I hope you will be a major contributor as well. But at the moment, as you know, Ariel as well, I don't want to get into it too much personally. I think my story has been well documented by people like yourself, but I've gone through some health issues as well recently in terms of like you, and I think this is word to the

lives of everyone in our world. I was a guy who for many, many years, maybe, you know, most of my life, took pleasure in burning the candle at both ends. And while I've been very blessed to do something that I really just dreamed about, and I know on your Twitter it says living the dream, and I truly believe we are, especially when you look at what's going on in the world and the tough times that a lot of people face, I have truly been living the dream, but unfortunately, at the expense of my health, you know, the... the days of doing 20 hours of work and watching fights and trying to cover everything under the sun. And if anyone follows me on Twitter, you know that I literally try to follow almost everything on this planet.

I just needed a break, mentally, physically. And so it's almost a blessing in the skies of the way things have gone in terms of my professional life now with the show being on hiatus. I needed some moral time. I needed some me time to reconnect with my. Peter Chee, as aware, Ariel. And I still have been very fortunate, though, with the timing, and I'm sure we'll get into this, you know, with what's going on with Strike Force and everything else,

that the wonderful folks at Showtime Sports, who I owe everything to from a professional standpoint right now, saw fit to give me an opportunity to try boxing. And then, you know, it's been a got-that. I'm actually still, and, you know, Ariel, here we are, just hours removed from maybe one of the biggest milestones of my career, calling it a bed of Madison Square Garden in New York. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the way I've been received by the majority of the boxing community and even MMA fans who have been telling me that they're giving boxing another chance now that I'm calling the fight.

It's really been humbling to say the least, and I say that in all honesty and the support I've received from you and everyone in the community in light of my health issues and everything else is I can't put into words. So thank you all very, very much for your support. really meet it. I can tell that you have missed the free-flowing podcast forum, because you just answered five of my questions in your first... Some things never care, Jerry, or I apologize. But it is so great to hear from you, and I want to touch on a lot of the things you just touched on. First things first, when did you realize that

you were burning the candle, as you say, on both ends? I, well, again, as I mentioned, I have always been someone who, it's a fear of failure that I've always put my age in my career basket, as has been well documented in the interview that you did with me in August a couple years back, and I've been very open about my life story because I think it can hopefully maybe help even just one person. But I have always been someone who always felt, you know what, maybe I wasn't good enough, or no matter what I do, there's always going to be something to keep me from being successful. And then, And this may come as a bit of a dichotomy or surprise to because I did begin my career at a very young age of 16.

And yet, the more success I got, and I don't know if you relate to this now, Ariel, with everything you have going on, all the success you've achieved, the higher you get, the more, you know, I question it. It's like, okay, am I really this good, or do I deserve all that, all the good things that are happening to me? And then I think back and I go, well, wait a minute, this is all you've done. You sacrifice a family. You sacrifice a lot of stuff, and it's not a woes me thing. It's because this is all I know. But as I said to you earlier, I was just unfortunately doing too much. And when I say too much, and this is not hyperbole as I know I'm prone to doing some people's eyes when calling fights or describing things.

But in my real life, it was literally, you know, just everything was work-related. Was MMA? I still cover pro wrestling. I do follow boxing. pop culture freak, and yet, you know, there was no other meat time. And I was not eating healthy. I was not exercising properly. You know, it was where I finally had to take a look in the mirror and say, you know, moral, this stuff is all awesome. The success you've achieved is tremendous. And yet, your health has to come first. And again, because of the amazing support I've received

from family, friends, strangers on Twitter and everything else, I know that I've not always been every once cup of tea, maybe with my style of broadcasting or who I am, and a lot of people say that's a good thing because it means that you're not the proverbial vanilla. For me, though, it just showed me that at the end of the day, we're all human beings first and foremost, and I went through a tough time, Ariel. But again, thanks to my family at Showtime Sports, thanks to people on Twitter, thanks to you, thanks to everybody, I've reinvigorated myself. I've re-energized myself, and I realize, you know, more, you put 26 years into this, this already. You can stop and smell the roses

sometimes. You're not, you know, I think it was Frank Shamrock who put it best. He said, or maybe even you were, you. I think it was you where he said, you're not training for your first fight, man. You've been at the top of the mountain now for a while, relax and have fun. So that's what I'm wanting to do, and that's why I, you know, agree to come on your show today because I think I'm at a

point now where we're at to celebrate what we've all achieved and it's a holiday season. And I'm just looking forward to a really good 2013. As I've mentioned to you, Morro, one of the pieces that I have done that I am most proud of, at least interviews, if you will, was that piece that you mentioned in Houston prior to a strike force event. And I just think your thoughts and your passion and your emotion and how it helped people afterwards and the feedback was somewhat overwhelming because we talk about fights and

we talk about some of the superficial stuff. Rarely do we get to that. level. So I'm just wondering, and if you're not comfortable, I totally understand. Can you describe, or at least tell us a bit about the health? Because you disappeared for a while, and a lot of people were concerned, and they mentioned you on the Showtime broadcast. What were you dealing with? Yeah, no, thank you again. And I still, believe it or not, thanks to that interview, and thanks to other things I've done on my podcast in regards to mental health issues. and the fact that a lot of people are affected by them directly or indirectly, a lot of successful people, a lot of very well-respected people.

There may still be a stigma passed slightly, but I think we are beginning to see it dissipate, and eventually I hope we will see it disappear. I really truly, what happened to me was I just ran out of gas, and what had happened was with everything going on to with the, you know, the score being sold. and there was a strike force situation up in the air. And like everybody else, you know, you always wonder,

okay, well, what is happening? No matter how successful you are, you want to keep the good time going, and you want to stay employed doing something you love because I know how blessed and how truly lucky I am. And sometimes when you are reaching the level or exceeding levels, and I did that. I've exceeded all of my wildest dreams growing up of the success that I've achieved.

when you're there, you want to, and it goes back to people, you know, this is almost a fight analogy in a lot of ways. You do get addicted to what you're doing. There's no place that'd rather be than ringside, tage side, calling a fight, or on the radio or on a podcast, talking about fights. But there's also a bigger strength of me, and that, to me, is helping people. And it begins with helping yourself.

And what happened there was there came a date, it was days before I was supposed to be in Brooklyn, October 20th, for the opening of the Barclays Arena, on the Showtime Championship boxing event. And I just, I couldn't leave my place. I was prone to, you know, emotional crying fits, and maybe a bit of a breakdown in the sense that because of the mind bipolar effective issues, which I've been successfully combating for over a decade now,

and really truly believe that being bipolar is almost been a gift and a curse. And I fully say that because of the success I've achieved. But in this instance, with everything up in the air and we all deal with stress differently, I guess I kind of shut down emotionally, physically, and otherwise. And I needed to tend to some things. And I just needed time to rest. Frankly put, I needed a break. And I feel bad for, you know, what happened at the Showtime event in Brooklyn

and Brian Kenny in the classy shout-out, and I can't tell you, and I'll say this, you know, again, how much everyone at Showtime has met to me and my recovery and my growth as a broadcaster the same boat for the folks at the sports television network in Canada, great sense, Sony, and so many others that have been there for me. And we sometimes forget, Ariel,

as you were just mentioning, you know, talking about the superficial stuff. Well, you know, the fight game is not superficial. These are, you know, the most dangerous sport or the dangerous form of athletics, maybe there is, but it's almost, it's the most purest. And we get these amazing stories. And for me, I wanted to keep being, telling the stories. I don't want to become the story, but because of my situation, I am a little open in speaking about it because I want to help people. And I know there's the Silver Lining Playbook is doing incredible at the box office, a Claire Dave's portrayal in Homeland, and a lead singer-in-a-passion. mental health issues are becoming more and more accepted, I guess,

and people are beginning to see it's not just simply, oh, go outside and get some pressure, oh, what do you have to worry about? You're making good money. You have the perfect life. I wish I had your life. It can happen to anyone. And unfortunately, or fortunately, I live with it. But I'm going to say this to everyone out there.

I'm proof that you can't make it. You can't beat it. You can't fight it. So thank you. How are you feeling now, Morrow? I feel incredible, Ariel. And in fact, I'm emotional guy, but just coming off of the weekend, I mean, how else can I be? I'm a guy from Mount Leman British Columbia who, you know, grew up a New York Rangers fan,

a professional wrestling fan, boxing fan, knew what the mecca represents to our culture of athleticism. And again, you know, knowing that in March of the 1985, there was WrestleMania. one and of course June 14th, 1994, and I know I'm going to alienate a few people here, but my beloved New York Rangers winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years and just all of the

memories of what, you know, post-9-11 Bernard Hopkins and Felix Trinidad, and then again, coming full circle, my friend, you know, getting to make my debut at Madison Square Garden with one of the biggest draws in garden history and one of the all-time great Miguel Cotto

against a guy who has I put it on Saturday. It was looking to break free from the shackles of anonymity, working with Hall of Famer like Al Bernstein, and a revelation of Pauli Melanaghy and Brian Kennedy, Jim Gray, and the rest. You ask me how I'm feeling. I'm on top of the world, Ariel. How did you get this opportunity?

It's very interesting that you said this, and it never really hit me until you just said it. I said it on this show last week. I've told my friends, I mean, I was there at home, watching the entire card on Saturday. I feel like I've watched more boxing. in the last six months or so than I did in the last five years. And I've always loved the sport.

It's just, you know, working in MMA, things like that. It gets tough. Now I'm going out of my way to watch these cards. I'm reading the websites. I'm catching up on the news. And I think, I think you just nailed it. I truly, and I'm not just saying this, I think your debut as the voice of Showtime boxing for me was like my world's colliding. And yes, you know, I don't like to say, you know, the guys that we talk to, the fighters and whatnot friends.

but you're a friend, you're a colleague, you're a mentor, and to see someone like yourself in that role crossing over and doing just as good, if not better in a new sport was so inspiring and so exciting for me that I think it just made me love boxing all over again. So I go back to my original question. How did this happen? Well, thank you very much, Errol.

And again, I have to thank David Dinkins at Showtime Sports and Stephen Espinosa. And faith is what it is. And for whatever reason, I know that Gus Johnson just heard another legendary call of his on Saturday Coloss Football and the Huskers game in that run by Martinez. Just epic Gus Johnson. But his commitments, I guess, and his, you know, work with Fox, I guess, opened up an opportunity where they needed to find someone. And I know that David has asked me if I was interested. They wanted to give me a shot.

And I know there was a lot of trepidation, and rightfully so. I mean, I don't want to say I've been pigeonholed. I've been very fortunate in my 26 years as a broadcaster to do a lot of stuff, more than I didn't realize at times. So I'm not the one-trick pony as maybe some people think, but at the same time, I embrace the opportunity, and I remember when I came to New York without Bernstein. And, I mean, who gets to audition for the job of the lifetime

with one of the all-time greats, all-of-favor? And Gordon Hall, who's, you know, the man responsible for Showbox. how much he's meant to my career. And so what had happened was I auditioned, like I got a few other people, and they felt well enough to give me the opportunity. And then on September 8th at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas, and let's not. I'll interject right here.

I've been incredibly, incredibly lucky that the shows that I've broadcasted, and now I've come off my fourth event that I just did, the fights, the stories have been epic. And I've been a lifelong boxing fan, and I know a lot of people, you know, say boxing is, dead, and MMA's overtaken boxing, and there's some credence to maybe some of that. But for whatever reason, the matchmaking and just my luck, I mean, Leo Santa Cruz, and, you know, Lucas Matisse, of course, Canelo Alvarez with a million plus years in the main event,

and what we just went through this past Saturday, Ariel, you know, you look at Danny Jacobs, 25 years of age, coming cancer, my man, he beat cancer, who could have killed him. You have Salvador Sanchez the second. Sure he got blown away by Jason Veles, but to come into the building where his legendary uncle per spot. I mean, this is amazing. So how I got it was right place, right time, I guess, and the faith and I would like to think that I've earned it,

Ariel, to be honest, and I don't want to come across as cocky regatistical, but I busted, you know, my buck for 26 years, we talked about it. There's a reason I did sacrifice everything, and I'm not looking for sympathy or anything, because if you want to make it in this world, you have to bust your ass. And I say this too. I have a lot of friends your age, Gerald,

and look at what you've been able to do with your artwork. And I've got some very talented friends who feel, for whatever reason, that they're entitled to everything. This generation is a generation of entitlement, and that's not the case. You've got to work your ass off, and even then maybe things won't go your way,

but you have to be passionate. You have to be true to yourself. And so for me, I truly believe that, that this is just another part of my journey as a person, as a broadcaster, and I cannot tell you how incredible the feedback and the positive reaction has been. I'm overwhelmed, and I don't feel that I'm even half the boxing broadcaster I want to become. So again, it's re-energized me.

Let me say that. It's been an amazing journey so far and something that was totally unexpected. Boxing returns to network television on December 15th on CBS, a very interesting card. Will you be calling, will Morrow also be returning to network television to CBS, in particular on December 15th? Well, it's funny, sometimes you get a second chance, as we all know what happened the last time on CBS, never previewed the M.A. But no, as of right now, I'm scheduled to work the card with Al Bernstein and, like I say, a guy who, you know, people say what they want about me, but Pauli Malinacci.

The WBA WCA WCA WCA's WCA champion has been a revelation as an analyst. Say what you will about his, his brother-a-go and his stick or whatever you want to say. He's a charismatic guy. He's a funny guy, but he has been simply amazing. You know, a very big, not surprised, but I know everyone is really happy with how he has worked out as an analyst. But, yeah, Network TV, really looking forward to being back on CBS. And it's the first time in 15 years that, you know, boxing returns to CBS. It's interesting, and I saw the, and I want everyone that's listening,

and then you two are going to see the good son. The great band, boom, boom, my teeny story. I've got to see the documentary Friday in New York, and the reason I got him is because, I mean, he became a superstar. Of course, we know the tragedy there, too, but a superstar never TV. So, boxing coming back to the Denver TV, and I couldn't think of a better guy to headline the event and one of the most exciting fighters on the planet today in Leo Santa Cruz,

who has just been stimulating on Showtime, and it's the kind of boxer that the most casual boxing fans will be integrated by. Now, obviously, a lot of questions also about Showtime MMA. Is there anything you can tell us, Maro? You know, I've got to get all journalistic on you here. Is there anything you can tell us about the future of MMA on Showtime? A lot of questions and not many answers right now. Yeah, and again, you know, Buddy, I want to give you everything.

everything I can, but at the same time, I really, truly know what is out there. And all I'll say is this, that Showtime has been happy with the MMA ratings and everything else, but, you know, they've also gone through some bad luck. It's there for the, you know, the public to see it hasn't been all roses for Showtime in its MMA endeavors. And yet, I truly believe that Showtime, especially Strike Force, the shows have been some of the best in MMA over the last years. And yes, I know, and I'm not comparing to the UFC.

UFC's top one of the most incredible cars ever put together coming up on Saturday. It's like I'm a kid at Christmas time right now. But Strike Force, and the alternative or whatever you want to say is the number two promotion, had some incredible events, some incredible fights, some incredible athletes. And yet this year we saw what happened. The events cut back in half. We saw two shows canceled due to injury. I would say that the Strike Force future on Showtime, and I'm not breaking any news here,

doesn't look all that positive, but who's to say things can't change? I'm not in the negotiations. I'm an employee. I'm under contract with Showtime Sports.

Do I want to continue calling M.M.A. with Pat Militage, French, Shamrock, and the rest of the crew on Showtime in 2013, you better believe it. And I believe that the people of Showtime want MMA on the air, but it's going to take

something unique and something that, you know, hopefully it can have a longer run. It's just been, what it is. It's unfortunate that things have ended maybe the way they have, and I'm one of those people that I would love to have seen something work out, but

you know what it is like, Ariel, it's business, and it doesn't always end the way we want to, but I just want the athletes of strike force, so all of them to hopefully get an opportunity much, you know, better than this year with the injuries and everything else that went on. At the end of the day, it's not about showtime, Sprite Force, or anything else, the opposite since the baltha fighters, and I just want them to fight, and I want to be a

good show. So as of right now, buddy, everything you know, I know, but it doesn't look good, and then January 12th may be the final strike force show on showtime, but stranger things have happened. Finally, Maro, before we let you go, and we really appreciate the time. You mentioned UFC on Fox 5, and I'm getting all these good feelings inside, just hearing you back on the radio doing your thing. I got to ask you. I got to ask for your predictions.

Now you're on the other side of the table for once. Who you like it in the top three fights on Saturday? I have said it a thousand times already on this show. The best MMA main card of the year. I love the top three fights. If you haven't seen the UFC's Road to the Octagon that aired on Fox yesterday, you need to go out of your way and see it.

You will get that much more excited for the fight. Give us your predictions for the top three fights on Saturday night. And throw in the fourth one if you want to as well. Sure. Just quickly, I agree with you wholeheartedly. That's something. And again, maybe it's something. Showtime showtime showout, too. I just love

the features and the productions and the stories that boxing and MMA give us. And the Fox special yesterday was terrific, very well shot, a great human side of these guys, and that's what it's all about it. And you're right, really looking forward to Saturday night in Seattle.

And what a card. You know, man, again, predictions, and it's funny, I was reading something just the other day about, there is really the most ridiculous things. I don't know who came up with a concept of making predictions. for debate. But I really think that the main event,

Benson Henderson and Nathan Diaz, Henderson is just your prototypical fighter, man. He's not the greatest in anything, but he's very good in so much. And you've seen what he's been able to do, rise to the occasion and using his IQ. It's all about Benson Henderson's fight IQ. Whereas Nate Diaz, yes, we know, you know,

the bad boy reputation, but what a fighter and a guy who's a very good striker, in the pattern of his brother, Nick, and his jiu-jitsu is off the hook, and he has that innate anger that, you know what I mean? Like, he wants to fight. He is a fighter through and through. I think Nate Diaz is going to edge Benson-Henerson and become the new UFC light, a weight champion,

and what I hope will be five rounds of fistic fireworks and ventilating submission attempts. So I'm looking for Nate Diaz to pull, I guess, a bit of an upset in that one. I also think that we are going to have. a new challenger for the light heavyweight championship emerge in the form of Alexander Gustafson, and I know that's sacrilege to anyone who has ever watched Pride, and Mauricio Chauvin, who are one of my all-time favorites, yes, you say, were journalists. I don't care. I came up with the guy. I was there for his Pride debut. I watched him go through what Murderers Road to win the

Pride 2005-pound Grand Prix, Grand Prix at the age of 23, one of the best fighters of all time, and yet I think injuries. And yes, yes, you can discount hunger, but I think Gustafson has the owner. He's a young guy on the way up. I think Alexander Gustafson is actually going to stop or reach your show on his second round TKO. And as the same goes for BJ Penn and Rory McDonald,

BJ Penn does deserve to be in discussion as one of the all-time greats. His accolades are there for the processing and that if you're a fan listening to this show, you know what he's done. Rory McDonald, though, is the next big thing tomorrow of all even mind. I think Roy McDonald

is really going to use this to to break out even more than he has. And I feel he's going to dominate BJ Ben and send a message to the rest of the Walterweight division that the future champion is waiting to be crowned. Mara, I'm so happy to hear from you. I'm so happy to have you on the show again. I'm so happy for all your success with Showtime boxing.

Another great showing on Saturday night with Miguel Koto and Austin Trout, and I can't wait for your return on CBS. But more importantly, all of that, just happy to hear that you're okay. I'm happy to hear that you're back on track here. are feeling good and are now smelling the roses, but back to tweeting like a maniac, because that's what we come to expect. Well, hey, if you, I mean, come on, how can you not be tweeting what happened to Portlock Empire

and the Washington Dead? But no, Ariel, thank you so very much. And honestly, I want to just take a quick second on this forum because I know so many people listen and read what's going on at MMA fighting one of the top websites. Just thank you. If you're a fan, a critic, a friend, I don't care. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

You made my recovery so much better. And I just really, truly appreciate the support. And I look forward to, you know, just getting back on the horse coming up January 12th with Strikeforce MMA. January 5th, we got invicta. New Year's Eve, I'm going back to Japan. What? With Steve Quadros and Frank Chevro. We didn't even get to that.

But you know what? Let's save it for the next time, man. But, yeah, I'm going to be doing the glory. You're doing that card. Yes, sir. Wow. Found out so, but, you know, like I say, there's something, and this one I mean, Ariel, in light of everything that's gone on, I've never been busier with my play-by-play career,

and that's another reason why the podcast has kind of been pushed back, although I do miss it, and I do think that I'll be doing something in the new year, and we'll keep it going. But thank you very much, Harold. You're just an incredible talent, incredible friend, and thank you for being there, buddy. Until you get that podcast, this is your home. your home away from home. But I got to ask, where is that dream card airing? You know what?

That's a good question, my man. As of right now, I know they're trying to work on some kind of television production deal I know in Japan and in North America. And I would hope something like that would be broadcast. Otherwise, you know, maybe an internet production right now. But it's a, you know, this is the thing. It's funny in this business. One falls, another grows.

One falls, another grows. UFC is the giant. But it's, you know, even the UFC, I think deep down, have to feel that, you know, there has to be the stronger other organizations, or whatever tier to keep the sport growing and to keep the sport moving forward, because no matter what happens,

and I know it's been a tough year in so many ways for MMA, but when you look at what's coming up on Saturday, and even the January 12th Strike Force card, maybe not being what it originally could have been, there's so much great talent still to watch. And I can't wait. So, yeah, hopefully we'll talk to them on that. Good to talk to you.

you, Morrow, all the best. Thank you, Ariel. There he is. Morrow Rinalo, the bipolar rock and roller himself, the legend, the voice of Showtime boxing, the voice of Strike Force on Showtime, the voice of Showtime MM. And you just heard to hear first, the man who will be calling alongside Stephen Quadros, the Dream 18 slash Glory 4 event on December 31st, Saitama Super Arena. So good to have him on the show.

And as I mentioned, yes, you know, as I feel like I say every first, few months on this show. We can be neutral, all that stuff. But it is true. Morrow and his producer and my good friend, John Pollock, who works at the Fight Network, they're the ones that gave me my first shot. When I got that email from John, Thanksgiving 2007, after just launching my own personal blog, jerrypark.com, and it was alive for a month, asking me to be an insider, and I was not an insider. I just did maybe 20 interviews by then and put them out there on Jerry Park. When they asked me to go on Moro's Flight Network radio show, I remember saying to

my family that I made it. I reached a mountaintop. That's it. I am on Moro's show for 10, 15 minutes. Thanksgiving, 2007, I remember where I was at my parents' home, doing the interview. It was the greatest, it was the greatest moment of my life right there. As far as professionally, I was on cloud nine. I I couldn't even put it into words. And they were the ones that gave me an opportunity and kept giving me opportunities more and more. And Morrow's always been there for me.

And he is a very good friend and so happy to hear that he's doing well and back on the horse, so to speak. So great to have him on. And if you want to interact with him, Twitter.com slash Morrow Rinalo is the Twitter handle. My claim to fame is that I convinced him to go on Twitter way back when. And now he has turned into a real titan of Twitter, if you know what I'm saying. Now, we close up the show with some questions. We have a DVD to give away. Ultimate Submissions, courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Fitting, because we've got Bendo versus Nathan Diaz on Saturday night. Morrow, kind of agreeing with New York, Rick, going with two of his picks, not the BJ Penn one, but we know that that's a sentimental one for Mr. Rick back there. Do we have some questions? We do. The first one comes from the website. Oh, yes. I wanted to mention.

We are taking questions from the website. now. So I appreciate that we're fishing through there as well because I know a lot of people are interactive and don't have Twitter. So let's hear it. If someone has committed a crime and served jail time and is reformed, do you have a problem with them fighting or are there certain crimes that should never be allowed to fight in the octagon? I guess what they're saying is if they have a record and they've done something, but they've done their time, right? Yes. I don't have a problem with it. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, this isn't politics. you know, this isn't the educational system, things like that.

This is fighting. And if someone has paid their dues, done the time, isn't skirting the system, isn't dodging things, you know, I mean, yeah, if someone has, you know, done some unthinkable, unthinkable, unimaginable crime, and, you know, I probably wouldn't be the first one to sign him up to my promotion, even though he did, you know, It just, it really depends. It depends. Oh, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the beltor story. Yeah, it depends. I mean, everyone deserves a second chance. It depends on what the crime is.

But I lean towards, if you, if you've paid your dues, second chance. What are your feelings about this year in MMA? Where would you rank this year? If you, if you'd ask me, you know, give me one word to describe 2012 as far as the M.M. world is concerned. I would have to say injuries. Also, to a degree disappointment. I mean, this was a year where a lot of big fights were talked about proposed. And let's be honest, those fights can very well happen in 2013 to make that the greatest year. But in my opinion, 2011, as far as the 21st century is concerned, that was the best year for MMA.

From the fights, things that happened inside the cage, outside of the cage, Fox Deal, etc., etc. That was, in my opinion, and Beltor, Viacom, all that stuff. That was the best year for MMA in and out of the cage. This year, a lot of injuries. And the worst thing that happened this year was, I think, the trust of the people was broken. And it wasn't because the promoters didn't do their job. Crazy things were happening.

And what happened was that people stopped believing that these great fights would actually happen. And that's the worst kind of scenario. Because when you announce a fight, you want buzz, you want excitement, you want people talking about that fight. You don't want people saying, well is this fight actually going to happen well let's really wait and see i mean that's how i was feeling about ufc on fox five five days away i'm praying that the card remains intact because let's be honest crazier things have happened this year i mean i'm not comparing eve edwards versus jeremy stevens to bj versus rory but i mean who would have thought that would have happened you know so crazy

things have happened this year and it's been somewhat disappointing but i think what it does to put a silver lining on all this, it shapes everything up for a really big 2013 with the return of the likes of Nick Diaz and Alster Overeem and GSP Healthy again and some big fights being talked about for Anderson Silva and, you know, Bellator moving to Spike TV and, you know, UFC, I think really figuring out their relationship with Fox. I mean, there's a lot of things to be excited about for 2013. And I think December, really, as I tweeted on Saturday, shaping up to be, if it all, remains intact, of course, the best month. And it could have been greater with Chris Weidman, unfortunately getting injured, Gray-Mainer getting injured for UFC 155, but still, for UFC's,

Belvoir's final season on MTV 2 wrapping up. The Return of Dream, as Morrow just said, he'll be calling it. It's a fun card. You know, this past weekend, some great, some great sort of local MMA. I don't want to call local, but regional. You know, you got KSW, you've got a new slam promotion. I mean, you got a lot of great things happening in MMA. Hopefully, 23,000. brings us better luck than 2012. What does Rory McDonald do if he eventually becomes the number one contender and GSP is still champ? You know, that's what I keep wondering, because I don't think he's that far away from it. I mean, I think if he beats B.J. Penn impressively, you know, he could win maybe one or two more fights.

But then at some point, you know, you got to give the guy his opportunity. He says he's going up to middleweight. He seems to be big enough for middleweight. But I am of the, you know, I believe that when a guy does so well at a weight class and climb the latter. I hate to see him then jump 15 pounds and sort of build himself up there. I want to see him fight for the title. And again, I'll say it again. I do believe that if given the opportunity, Rory would fight GSP. I don't think, and not because he's afraid or whatever, I don't think GSP wants to fight Rory. The whole teammate thing, Farahabia talked about it on the show. And yes, it would be somewhat, you know, what's the word? Not disrespectful, but they did bring him in.

They took him under their wings. And they made him. Rory into a better fighter. There's no doubt about that. So then to go challenge GSP, if you will, would obviously be very awkward and could, you know, create a rift in the team. But forgetting all that, you're telling me you don't want to see Roy versus GSP. You're telling me you don't want to see that fight. That is an amazing fight on paper. It's a huge fight. It's, you know, it's the old versus new, et cetera, et cetera. So I think we're maybe two or three fights away from having to talk about that. But if you're asking me, if Roy climbs the ladder and goes three and own his next three fights,

I want to see that fight. Who are you picking that fight? Rory just versus GSP? Yeah. GSP. Hands down. I'll ask you that question in a year or so. It'll probably still be GSP.

All right. We'll revisit it. You know what's the thing that bothers me most I was thinking about today about the Anderson versus GSP fight? I want to see how long Anderson, excuse me, GSP can go. without being beaten. And even though they'll maybe have an asterisk on it, it's a super fight, whatever,

a loss is a loss for both guys. I want to see how long they can go in their way class undefeated. And then whoever does beat them, if there's someone out there who does, let them get that crown of being the first guy to beat so-and-so in so many years. So that's kind of the reason also why.

I just like guys staying in their weight class, doing their thing, Do you think it, excuse me, do you think Nate gets tired of often being compared as a lighter version of Nick? I don't. And I once thought of that of, you know, what does Nathan Diaz think of being in the shadow of his brother Nick? But remember on this show, recently, Caesar Gracie said two weeks ago, was it two weeks ago or last week? It was two weeks ago that Nate has always told them, you know, what better shadow to be in than my brothers? They are very close. They are...

It was last week. Is that Buzzkill interrupting me? I will slap you. No, it's finally. He actually talks. I always try to interact with him. He doesn't want to speak to me. Was it last week, though?

I think you're wrong. Because we had... Was it last week? Yeah, you're right. It was last week. Anyway, I'm just... Now I've been thrown off by Buskill's appearance.

Quick. Very cat-like, in and out. But he made his presence felt. I don't think it bothers him. I think they're very close. And I think, obviously, if he wins on Saturday, surely he will have surpassed Nick to a degree because Nick has never won the UFC title and could chape up for maybe dual Diaz championship 2013. But until we get there, I don't think he's tired.

And I'll ask him that question this week, but I don't think he's tired of it. What does Fox do if Diaz starts flipping the double bird during the Henderson fight? Oh, my Lord. I don't know if they could tape delay it. Maybe it's on a seven second delay or something like that. But, yeah, I mean, to be honest, I mean, it is the fight game. It is what it is. Obviously, you can't do that on national television.

But I have to say, one of my favorite finishes in recent UFC history was when he did lock in the triangle choke against Kurt Pellegrino. And then he first, you know, was celebrating and flexing and flipping everyone off. It was fantastic. I mean, it was right out of, you know, Stone Cold Steve Austin's book. So I hate to see a Nathan Diaz who is sort of, you know, suppressed by the man, so to speak. If he celebrates, I want to see the legitimate, genuine celebration. It's a big moment. It could be the first ever Diaz to hold a UFC title.

That's a big moment. But I have a feeling they'll talk to him. And I have a feeling that he will behave, if you call that kind of activity misbehaving. If BJ wins and Nate wins, do you see them fighting at 155? BJ may want revenge for the Nick fight, like the Rory GSP thing. I don't. I really get the impression. And again, I will ask BJ this this week.

I get to Seattle on Wednesday morning, media workouts on Wednesday, Thursday, press conference, Friday, Wednesday, etc., etc. I get the impression that BJ wants to ride out the end of his career as a welterweight. And as I've said many times, I do believe he is at his best. best at 155, and I would love to see that matchup. BJ versus Nate on the ground would be amazing on the feet as well, but I just don't see that happening. Who would you pick in that fight? I mean, probably a stupid question, right? 155, BJ, I can't pick against that. Yeah, I mean, he's amazing, except for when he fights Frankie Edgar. Oh, come on. He won the first fight. Get out of here. You really think he won the first fight?

I really do. Wow. All right. Well, you're biased. And then, unfortunately, I was in the arena for the second one. You were there? Sad night. Wow, we were both there. We did. didn't know each other. Yeah. I'm Boston, I believe. We were meant to be, yeah. UFC 118. The great James Tony made his UFC debut that night.

No comment on that. If Josh Barnett was able to get a UFC contract, who would you match him up against in his return? How would he do? Wow. Who would I match Josh Barnett up against in his return? Well, let me put it this way. I do believe Josh Barnett will beat Nandor the Hun on January 12th.

How about Frank Mir? I think that would be a good test for him. I think they're both in an interesting spot. I mean, if Daniel Cormier beats Dionne, I know it's not the kind of opponent that you would expect one to use as a springboard into the title picture. But, I mean, he should be one, maybe two wins away from fighting at heavyweight, for the heavyweight strap. I'd like to see Barnett versus Mir. It's kind of a UFC versus, you know, whatever. whatever other organization Barnett is associated with fight,

and I think that would be a fun fight. That's the one I was thinking as well. I mean, it just makes a lot of sense. Mere was going to come over to fight in Strike Force anyway. I like the matchup. It just makes a lot of sense. On the flip side, though, I can see them doing, you know, classic Joe Silva type matchmaking.

I could see them putting a Barnett fighter in there with a younger UFC fighter to maybe help build him up. guys like Travis Brown, Stefan Strove, you know, Estipe Miyocic, that comes to mind as well for a debut. Maybe they don't give him the Mier fight just yet. Maybe they go with Kormier Mier, give us that fight since everyone loved it. And if Barnett wins and he does get re-signed or, you know, his contract is extended into the UFC, which is a big if, maybe a fight like that makes sense. I'll agree with that. I just like where heavy weights at right now. Heavyweight's great. Yeah, heavyweight's great. I love the Mitreone-Nelson fight. We'll get to that, obviously, with the Ricks' Picks next week, because that's next week, by the way.

Ultimate Fighter finale in the U.S. and in Australia, back-to-back nights, Friday, Saturday. I love that fight, and there are some big fights. I mean, Overeign Bigfoot coming up, a lot of buzz for that one. Obviously, the title fight on December 29, so, yeah, heavyweight is very interesting right now. I believe the biggest problem in MMA is the referees, not judges, quick stand-ups and bad stoppages. Do you agree? I would say yes, only because. they're in there and they can

affect the fighter's health and safety. The judges are obviously often incompetent but you know all they're robbing the fighter of is a victory which is obviously huge money involved, career, legacy, all that stuff. Safety much

more important and when they mess things up not just with the bad stoppages letting fights go on too long not protecting the fighter all that stuff back of the head that's worse so yeah if I had to pick one I'd say the refs right now are probably a bigger problem for MMA than the judges. I'd probably disagree with that just because I agree with your premise that they're more impactful in the fight, obviously.

I can't disagree with that, completely agree. But I think that overall they do a better job. I'd think that the refs have a really tough job and do a really good job. There's some really bad refs. Yeah. There's some... There's some... What?

Really inconsistent? Sometimes. I mean, there's some things that leave me scratching my head, but I think as a whole, they represent themselves well, and they do a good job. There's occasional things here and there. There's plenty you can point to, but I just think as a whole, the judges really disappoint me a lot of the time, whereas the refs...

I'd rather be disappointed by a bad decision than seeing a guy like Cote get nailed five times in the back of the head. Completely agree. If you're going one to one, if you're saying they're both going to do a bad job, who would I rather have do a bad job? Obviously, the judges. So that's why if an athletic commission was going to put all their time and resources into fixing one first, which shouldn't be the case, but you know what I'm saying? You've got to clean up the referee. There shouldn't be five referees that are well known and respected and just recycled for the last like 15 years. I mean, when's the last time a great young referee came out

and people are like, this guy is great. And of course, refereeing is the kind of job where it's better not to be noticed. But even some of the greats haven't been doing a great job as a way, let's be honest. You know, so a lot of these guys get reused and keep getting opportunities. And you've heard my theory about when the UFC goes to a new market.

Let's say they go to Washington this Saturday and they don't go there often. And the commission there is like, oh, we want to give this guy a shot. Well, you don't get a shot to ref the big leagues in the NBA, NFL, MLB, NFL, excuse me, college football, all that stuff, NHL. You know, you have to work your way up. And I wish there was some kind of system that guys can go through in order to fully be ready

to be reffing high-level MMMA. And there just isn't right now. What would get you more excited? Another Canadian winning the UFC belt or the New York Knicks to win a championship? I mean, really? Is that the New York Knicks? Of course. The Knicks, I mean, again, I don't know if this is a shot at me and what I was addressing

earlier, but I don't really root for fighters. I don't really, you know, obviously there are guys that you have better relationships with and whatnot, but you don't really sit there and root for someone because you're doing your job and you're very focused on that and doing it the best that you can. The Knicks, for me, are my favorite sports team since I was a kid. I love them with all my heart. I am a diehard fan. I haven't missed a minute of a game thus far this year.

12 and 4, by the way. Yes, the doubters, including some in this very studio, are currently eating crow. But it is only 16 games. We don't want to get too excited. Colonel Anthony playing like an MVP. I mean, so many good things happening right now to the great orange and blue.

But, yeah, to answer the question, it would not even be close. Wow. I think we're going to have to take down that flag before the next show. No, I mean, listen, I'd be happy to put an American flag up here, by the way, just no one has given me one. This came from one of my best friend's wedding, which happened on Canada Day this past year, and they gave out Canadian flags during the

wedding, so I said, you know what, this would fit perfectly in the studio. Someone wants to give me a flag of the U.S., of Venezuela, of Argentina, of Brazil. We're very international here. We're very multicultural. This is just the only one I have. Sure. This is the last thing we had. You You asked people on Twitter which fight they were most excited about this weekend. Yes, I can't wait. I feel like a real freaking fan. I feel so excited about Saturday. You have no idea.

I can't believe I'm actually going to be there. You know, sometimes you forget. I feel very excited. Plus, it's Seattle. I've always wanted to be in Seattle. Key Arena, the former home of the Supersonic, such a great city. Very excited. And here we have Tarlerosa weighing in.

I asked the people, which fight are they most looking forward to? Yep. She was most excited for Diaz and Benson Henderson. that was the fight that people were second most excited about. Oh, yeah. The one that people were most excited about, B.J. Penn and Rory McDonald. Really? It wasn't even close.

It wasn't close. No. That's the one. And Gustafin and Shogun was far down the list. You know, BJ does such a great job of selling fights, and he's so sincere hearing him on the conference call last week and talking about his legacy and just the way he speaks. He always says your name. he just he comes from a very sincere place and then rory is like he doesn't have the same emotion when he speaks but he also feels very sincere because he just doesn't really care what you think and he's just telling it to you

and you're kind of bothering him right now but he'll say it anyway and it's just i just love that fight what a fight what a fun fight it's a great fight i just hope it happens oh well why i got to go and say that i know i know i'm sorry what were you going to say about it no that's it that's it you're done yep Who gets the prize? A lot of good questions today. I agree. Today was a great day for questions. Great day. I love to sort of take a step back and let's discuss type of feel. I liked a few. I liked Barnett and the UFC. That was a good question. Rory GSP. I know that one's close to your heart.

Why do you say that? Well, you've been talking about it a lot. If you watch the MMA beat, if you watch the MMA hour every week. We've talked about it before. When's New York Rick going to get a shot on the M&M. Maybe. Well, I don't know. Let's talk to whoever books the MMA beat. Let's have a conversation with them.

Buzzkill. Brenman. And I also like the question about Nate and Nick. I thought there were so many great questions. Did you have a favorite? You know, I really like the question about this year. How would I categorize this year? It is a bit of a negative question.

Well, not necessarily. That's your negative answer. Yeah, that's true. That's true. I like that one. Okay. I like that one too. Any other questions from the website?

No, they were mostly for a Sensei Sagan. They were mostly directly to the Sensei himself. Everyone wants to talk to the Sensei. Let me just read a couple here, just to let people know that we do look at the website. The NFL is going fine crazy on players doing late hits or helmet-to-helmet contact in order to protect players with all the new concussion info coming out. Should the UFC protect their fighters more by incorporating? fines for actions that can hurt their opponent.

It's a tough one because, as you know, the athletic commissions are the ones who are overseeing this. So once the UFC gets involved in something like that, they're going to shy away from it. I do suggest, we're a nice community here, I do suggest listening to Josh Gross's podcast from ESPN.com, Gross Point Blank. He had Nick DeNeon, who we haven't talked about on this show. He retired around Thanksgiving because he was a first. that his life would not be in a very good place in a few years because of repeated headshots.

He was knocked out a few years ago by Marlon Sandro and training at TriStar and just was afraid about his health. And he was asked about this if they're doing enough. I'm not sure if they're doing enough and I don't know if they can do more. I mean, that's what the UFC likes to say. It's in the hands of the commissions. Are the commissions doing enough? Well, they're putting in the suspensions and they're saying no contact and things like that. we'll have to see. I mean, MMA is a lot younger than the NFL and other sports. I do think

MMA does a better job. I mean, it's hard to monitor what everyone does in the gym. But, you know, in other sports guys get concussions. They come back the next day. At least here, we're being told this guy's out for 180 days, 45 days, et cetera. So I do think that is a, that is a positive, but always, there can always be more done to help the fighters, that's for sure. Let me just get another... Question for Sensei, question for Sensei. Question for Woodley. Anything?

Let's see. Wow. Oh, question Ariel, please. Oh, can you ask Sensei? Geez, other questions for Sensei. Question for Ariel. Oh. On the Fox 5 card, which fight does he think will be a barn burner?

Well, I think I've made it clear that I think all of them are awesome. I even like the Brown Swick fight that we haven't really talked about. I love that Swick. is getting another shot on Fox. I can't say enough about the UFC on Fox 5 card. I think Joe Silva has put together a great one. And it's the kind of card that really they needed to put on Fox finally. And it'll be interesting to see how it does with the Mani Pachial fight on Saturday night,

what kind of a rating it does. But you know what? It doesn't even matter anymore. It really doesn't, in my opinion. They're putting on a great product. If you want to watch it, watch it if you don't. Don't. But this is for the hardcore MMA fan, this is great.

I mean, this is, I mean, for free. We're talking about this great card. We haven't even mentioned it once, that word, the F word, it's free. And it's not even on cable. It's on free network television. Think of that. Five years ago. Would you ever get something like that?

No. Question for Ariel. No, no. Okay. For Sensei again. Geez. All right. Well, everything was for Sensei.

If you want to ask me questions next time, go ahead and leave them in the comment section. the winner of this great Ultimate Submissions DVD is the guy who asked about or the girl who asked about this year. I thought that was a good question. I enjoyed that. Next couple of weeks, we'll look back a little more at this past year. We'll also do one more MMA Beat episode looking back at the past year. I'm not really a fan of the fight of the year, all that stuff.

I mean, everyone does it. But we'll look at storylines and topics as we look ahead to what could be a very big 2013. Before we go, two bits of breaking news. Dominic Cruz, the UFC Bantamway champion, could miss another 12 months, first reported by MMA junkie also on our site, MMAFighting.com. He underwent a second major knee operation last week.

According to UFC officials, they announced that today to MMAFighting.com, Dave Meltter writing a story on the site. Apparently, the second operation was due to his body rejecting the original cadaver anterior. cruciate ligament placed in his left knee in early June reconstructive surgery. So horrible news there for Dominic Cruz. He appears to be out for a long time and that all but

confirms that Henne Burrell will have to defend his interim bantamway title against two is the big question. But that is very bad news for Dominic. We wish him well. And I guess the silver lining in all this is that we get to hear him do more great commentary on fuel. Maybe Fox FX all that good stuff. He is one of the best. as far as analysis is concerned. So very sorry to hear about that for Dominic and hope he gets well very soon. Also, as reported today on MMAFighting.com this morning,

King Mohammed Llewal will make his Belltour debut on January 17th in Irvine, California. That all but officially confirms that Bellator will be making its return to Thursdays come 2013. Of course, they will be making their debut on Spike TV come the new year. Will it be on January 10th? or the 17th on Ticketmaster.com.

They are selling tickets right now for that Irvine show. We don't know who Lawhal will be facing, but he will be a part of their light heavyweight tournament. There is no listing for a January 10th show, so we'll have to wait and see, but that is big news for the good folks over at Bellator. Oh, New York Rick angling over the internet to get on the MMA beat. And the funny thing is, I told them to try to get the people behind them,

and I have to tee him up here. I mean, it's unbelievable. You can only hold someone's hand for so long. If you want it, come take it. If not, you'll be watching like everyone else. Isaac, you can hit my music. A great show today on the MMA hour, December 3, 2012. My friends, we were graced by one of the true legends,

not only of the world of martial arts, but World of Entertainment, Hollywood, civilization, really. The Honorable Sensei Steven Segal was here. If you missed it, I suggest you catch the replay on MMAfighting.com, iTunes, Stitcher, all those good outlets. Speaking of the MMA beat, we hope you catched last week's episode. We now have, thanks to Buzzkill, our own iTunes feed as well, so you can download the audio or video portions of the show. Just go to iTunes, type in the MAP beat, and it's there for the taking for free.

So enjoy that. I want to thank Tyrone Woodley. Thank you so much to him. Good luck this weekend in Seattle. Jeff Barnett, good luck on January 12th. Final Strike Force card. Bruce Buffer, always great to have him on the show. Good luck to him with the app and all the other great endeavors that he has going on.

We'll let you know on Twitter when the app officially comes out. Sensei's a guy, what can I say again? Can I actually get a free private lesson from him? That is something that I will investigate in the days to come because I think I can learn a lot from someone like and quite frankly, I don't know if I'm worthy enough of getting such an opportunity, but perhaps I play my cards right. If there's a will, there's a way. And Morrow Rinaloa, thank you so much to him.

I mean, really, it was so great to have him on the show and to hear from him and to hear that he's doing well. We really, truly appreciate it. Thank you so much to the Marines for their support. If you missed any of this, get on iTunes, Richard, all that stuff. We'll see you next week, same Thursday, place. Peace. Come out of you. Sacks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's fine.

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