MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 161

Episode Date: August 14, 2014

Featuring Johny Hendricks, Pat Barry, Miesha Tate, Mike Ricci, Gegard Mousasi, and Liz Carmouche. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian 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 talk to each other. Introducing O-DU. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier,

CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-DU replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-U for free at O-D-O-D-com. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-com. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with a mixed martial arts hour back in your life on this Monday, December 10th, 2012. So great to be back here with you for our second to last episode of 2012.

Joining in the back, as always, by Isaac, Buzzkill Brendan, New York, Rick. So much to discuss on this two-plus hour edition of the MMA hour as we are less than 48 hours removed from UFC on Fox number four. Benton Henderson, retaining his UFC lightweight title over Nathan Diaz, Alexander Gustafson, defeating Shogun Huo, Rory McDonald, defeating BJ Pan Matt Brown, knocking out Mike Swick. What a great trip to Seattle we had. Yes, it was cold. Yes, it was cloudy. Yes, it was rainy.

But it was great. As I mentioned last week, I always wanted to go to Seattle. It was always on my wish list of American cities to visit. Big Sonics fan. I wouldn't say I was a big Sonics fan. They were kind of like my Western Conference team. And it was cool being there, going to the first Starbucks, the tight place market, all that good stuff. The crowd was amazing all week long.

They embraced the UFC. They embraced the event. And the ratings seem to have delivered. So a good weekend for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a good weekend in MMA. Beltor had a, well, they didn't have a great event on Friday. They had some issues with food poisoning and whatnot. But Jessica I, who you saw on this very show. a couple weeks back, performed greatly.

We'll talk about everything that happened over the weekend in the third hour. We'll also get to Rick's Picks for a loaded weekend of MMA action. Friday, you've got UFC on FX6. You've got the Australia versus UK tough finale. Hector Lombard versus Hussimar, Paul Harris. No one's talking about that fight. It's a great fight. George Soderopoulos versus Ross Pearson.

Then on Saturday, perhaps the greatest tough finale of all time. I mean, you've got Roy Nelson Matt Matreone. You've got the tough finale between. Ritchie and Colton Smith, Mike Ritchie. And then some great fights, Pat Barry, Shane Del Rosario, Jamie Varner, Melvin Galard, great night of fights on Saturday night. So we'll talk about all of that. Hit us up with questions, comments, hashtag the MMA hour on Twitter,

or you can place a comment or a question in the post. If you're watching this live and the MMA hour post, we'll get to that. Winner gets these bloodlines, UFC Tops cards. We'll tell you more about them when we give out the, answers answer the questions and whatnot. In the second hour, we will talk to Pat Barry, who faces Shane Del Rosario. Always good to talk to Pat, Mr. H.D., himself. We will also talk to Gaghar Musassi.

The Dream Catcher returns to action on January 12th against Mike Kyle. Looking forward to talking to him, Misha Tate. I think we'd be talking to Misha Tate this soon since her last appearance on the show, but a lot to talk to Misha Tate about. We'll also be talking to Mike Ritchie, who I mentioned earlier, is in the Tough 16th finale against Colton Smith, and Liz Karmouche, who faces Ronda Rousey in the first ever women's title fight in UFC history, UFC 57 on February 23rd. But first, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in our very first guest of the day.

He is one of, if not, the top contenders, at 170 pounds in the UFC. He is Big Rig himself, Johnny Hendricks. Johnny, how are you? I'm doing one for you. I'm doing great. Great to have you on the show. I know you've been very busy over the last couple of days. Lots to get to with you. Let's get right into it.

It appeared as though when Dana White said on Thursday at the UFC on Fox 5 press conference that GSP told him he wants to fight Nick Diaz next. Nick Diaz didn't even know about this. I'm wondering if you knew about this. No, I had no idea. You know, I was worried about it Silva. You know what I mean? GSP fighting Silva.

I didn't know that I was going to have to worry about somebody in my own weight class. What was your reaction when you found out? And I'm sure your Twitter blew up. I'm sure your phone blew up when you found out that it seems as though the UFC is going to go in this direction. You know, I've pissed if GSP wanted it. You know what I mean? Who cares what they say about you? Who cares about anything?

You know, fight the number one contender. You know what I mean? I did everything I could to put myself into that kind of position. And then, you know, just to get provoked or revoked away from me. me because of GSP wants something else. Would you be okay or would you have been okay if they said GSP versus Anderson is next? And this is a super fight that we've wanted to make for a long time, et cetera, et cetera. Is that okay in your books or is what's bothering you is that it's a guy in your division?

Yeah, what's bothering me is the guy in my division. You know what I said? Like I said, you know, Anderson versus GSP, yeah, that would suck. but I'm like, okay. You know, they're fighting to see who's actually the best and the best. You know what I'm saying? But not in this case. What do you think this does?

I mean, this year this has been a very interesting year as far as title shots and whatnot because guys have talked their way into title shots, other guys, you know, who may not have deserved it, et cetera, et cetera. Now GSP's the champion, and, you know, you could say that as champion you get some rights. What do you think it says as far as the sport goes if they go in this direction? Well, you know, it looks like the, man, that's a tough question, you know what I mean? Because, one, you're the champ. You do get some leeways, you know what I mean? But here's the thing, is that not whenever it's not that clear.

You know what I'm saying? Condon just beat Nate, or Nick, excuse me, and GSP just, he just beat Condit. So, therefore, he shouldn't be in title contention. You know what I'm saying? Now, if, say, if Nick beat Condent

got hurt, and then Connett was able to fight GSP, and then GSP beat Condent, okay. You know what I'm saying? Okay, cool beans, whatever. But it's the totally opposite. And, you know,

hear why he's on suspension. I'm actually fighting to get my title shot. And then all of a sudden, GSP throws his name out there in front of mine. You know, I'm actually more mad at GSP. I don't care about, you know, I'm not mad at anybody else, but GSP for calling somebody else out. Why do you think he did that? Yeah, I think that he's trying to stay away from me. You know, what other reason is there?

You know what I'm saying? You know, I try to analyze it every which way. and he said he talked trash. Who cares? I work out with guys that talk trash to me every day. You know what I mean? That's the point of our sport is people do talk trash, and it's all fun and games.

Who cares what somebody says over the Internet or what they say to your face? You know what I mean? You fight to prove your worthiness. You know what I'm saying? That's the way that I look at it, and I feel like I've proved that I can go with GSP and that I should go with GSP,

and here he is keeping me out of that. So, you know, you know that he's had a sort of long history with Nick and they were supposed to fight in the past. Can you sit back and say, okay, maybe he just wants some unfinished business, or do you truly believe that the only reason why he's doing this is because he doesn't want to fight you? Well, here's the thing is that he, you know, like I said, they had a chance.

Somebody didn't choke for press conferences and stuff like that. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, who cares? about the past. You know what I mean? Like I said, you know, just because you have unfinished business, that's with me too, you know what I'm saying? Because here I am supposed to be fighting you, and then you, GSP, takes it away from me. You know what I'm saying? So now I have unfinished business with GSP. So you're not the kind of guy who, you know, you don't talk a lot of trash and you don't go on Twitter and stir up drama and whatnot, but it seemed like right when this happened,

And you were very active, you know, asking the fans to speak on your behalf and talk to Dana White and even you were tweeting Dana White and whatnot. Did you feel like you had to do something drastic in order to try to save this title shot? Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's exactly. Here's my whole mindset was, all right, if I didn't finish Camden, if I didn't finish my last two out of three fights, would I be fighting GSP? You know what I mean? that's what I was thinking like honestly I was like man well because why would he go on the clearly the number one contender the rankings just came out I'm number two why would he skip me you know what I'm saying and then all of a sudden you know I'm like well his boxing coach is saying well you know Johnny Johnny's a big you know he's a big threat but we just have the unfinished business with this guy I'm like who cares you mean I earn my spot why won't you find you fight me, then your mind goes to, why wouldn't you fight me?

You know what I mean? And then whenever I break it down, that's the only thing that I come up with. Now, if GSC says something totally different, then okay. I'll hear what he has to say. But as of right now, that's the only thing that's logical to me is that I do pose a big-time threat to that belt. You know, I was in Seattle when Dana broke this news, and immediately the report is we're asking, well, what about Johnny Hendricks?

And, you know, they were saying there's a possibility you may not want to fight and wait until you get your title shot. And Dana was kind of a little bit dismissive. He was like, no, he's going to fight. He'll fight someone. But then on Twitter, when you were tweeting him, he said, yeah, you deserve it and you'll get your title shot. So what is going on here?

What's the latest? That'll happen on Thursday. Where do we stand? I don't know. My manager, hopefully, we'll be calling Dan. Dana today or Joe Silva today. We text Joe Silva yesterday because I know Joe really doesn't like to do too much. Mr. Silva doesn't like to do too much off of, you know, right after a fight.

You know, he likes to take at least one day off. So hopefully today we'll hear from him and just see what happens, you know, just more or less, I thought my heart got ripped out of me. You know what I mean? I go out there and I try to do so much to prove that I, I, I, and the one that should fight GSP, and then GSP takes that away from you. You know what I mean?

And all it's doing is giving me more drive to want to fighting. You know, that's an interesting point, because I was going to ask you, let's just say, you know, they go in that direction. They go in the GSP versus Diaz direction. Is there anything they can do to get you to fight again? Because then you're looking at a possibility of GSP Diaz, let's say he wins, GSP Silva.

I mean, you don't want to sit out for that long, do you? No, and you know, here's the thing. I don't. But it sucks that I'm even put in this situation. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's what really boils down to it. After that fight, I was so excited.

I was like, man, GFP won. I know he's a tough opponent. I know this. I know this. And I was excited to get the shot to try to beat GFP. You know what I mean? Because he's at the top of your division. That's all you can think about day in and day out.

all I've thought about that I've been in the U.S.C. is getting the chance to fight GSP, and here he is stealing it from me. You know what I'm saying? Just because, oh, they had, they talked a little, or somebody talked to a little trash

or did this or did this, and, you know, and not only that, but we don't know if the fight's going to happen because he gets off his suspension in February. So who's to say they, you know, that he gets off February, then five months later they fight, And then like you said, there's Anderson Silva.

But do you think that's right for me to have to take another fight? You know what I'm saying? Just because somebody else decided my fate, not the company. So at the end of the day, you say you're more mad at GSP, but you could be mad at the UFC too, right? Because, and I'm not trying to get you in trouble here, but they don't have to agree to what he's saying. You know, that they could say, look, this guy deserves it.

You'll get your chance if you beat him, you know, go through the number one guy. Yes, but what I've also thought about, too, is, okay, well, obviously, maybe the USC believes I can beat GSP. Oh. You know what I'm saying? Maybe they believe, too, that I have what it takes to beat GSP because then they're, you know, because like Dennis said, GSP hasn't asked for anything, and then I'm supposed to fight GSP. So, you know, it's a hard question, but what it all pulls down to, is GSP came to them.

You know what I'm saying? And, you know, like he said, is that, you know, hopefully if I'm champion, I mean, I would never do that. You know what I mean? Come out here and call somebody out that's not the number one contender. But, you know, you also got to say, okay, Dana, I understand that you want to keep, you know, your champion happy because what if, you know,

there is that, what if, what if I go out there and I don't beat GSP? And then, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Do you think they're trying to protect them? No, I don't think that. You know, but, you know, what if, like I said, if I go out there and I'm beat GSP, then GSP and Nick Diaz can fight anyways. Right.

You know what I'm trying to say is that if, you know, give me that shot. If I win, awesome, they can still fight. You know what I mean? If I lose, then they can still fight. So it's a win-win situation. How have you digested this news since Thursday? Because right now you sound like you just found out the news five minutes ago. You sound very fired up.

This was four or so days ago. I mean, like, how are you feeling now about the sport and your job? Because I try to put myself in your shoes if someone promised, or at least there was something on the horizon, and then I'm told, you're going to have to probably wait longer than you even thought to get this prize. I would be pretty bitter. You know, I am. I am, but then again, you know, my fans are keeping me insane.

You know what I mean? Because the support that I got that day was amazing. And, you know, it's just one of those things, man. Pretty much what I've been doing is a lot of praying, you know, absolutely be honest with you, is that because every day, every second that I'm training, all I can think about is, GSP, you know what has done here. And, you know, and I know you're saying that it could be, you know, it could be a little bit of the UFC's fault, but I'm not going to blame them.

You know what I mean? But, yes, every time we, every time this gets put into, somebody asks me, all I want to do is look across CGSP and punching, you know what I mean? Like, that's all I can think about is taking that belt or getting a shot to take that belt from him. You know what I'm saying? And it makes me like, even still today, I'm here training, I'm watching videos

to fight GSP, because I'm not going to give up hope. And I really, really true believe that I am the number one container. I should be fighting and hopefully he comes to his senses. Is there any

consolation prize out there? Is there anyone, you know, of any weight class, any name that you say, okay, I'll take this, beat this guy up, and then I'll get what is mine. No, you know, man, if it's not, if it's not the champ, there is really, you know what I mean, there really isn't, you know, we fight every day and we fight to be our best every night that we have a fight to get to the champ, you know what I'm saying? And here I am, I know that I'm the number one contender, I know this, I know this,

And so anything less is not a disrespect to anybody else, but it's just, you know, you see the end of the tunnel, and then somebody's trying to send you a curveball. You know what I mean? Send you off route. And that's there's really none, nothing more, I guess, and tagging or makes me want to fight them. Right. But then again, that's my manager's job. If there's somebody out there that I have to fight,

then I just leave that to my manager and my manager and Joe Silva, they say, all right, Johnny, you know, all I want to know is date and time and who. You know what I'm saying? I'm hoping, again, I'm really, really hoping that it is GSP, maybe April, May, whatever, and we'll see. By the way, Johnny, getting a good question from my friend Felix, from China online right now, and he's asking me, would you be interested in maybe fighting Nick

for a chance to fight GSP, like a real number one contender fighter? Does that not fly with you? Why should I have to fight somebody who just lost? Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's what really boils down to is a guy just lost and he's on suspension.

And, you know what I mean? Yeah. And, you know, every fight, you try to advance yourself. You try to advance yourself. You try to advance yourself. and I think there's going to be the first time, or maybe the second time, that a loser is going to fight a champion.

You know what I mean? Somebody who just came off a loss is going to get a shot at a champion. And, you know, if that's the case, then who's to say, okay, I take a fight? If I lose, do I still get a shot at the title? Right. Of course, Chelsen in Fighting John Jones in April. A couple more questions before we let you go. What do you make of Jake Shields trying to stir it up with you?

Oh, Jake Shields. I laugh. You know what I mean? Again, like I said, he poses nothing. He doesn't advance my cause at all. You know what I mean? My cause is to be a number one contender and to keep it. You know what I'm saying?

Where he was two and two, I think, in the UFC and won at 170. Yeah, something like that. And he just went out to 185, went up to 185. and he just went up to 185. What he's trying to do is, hey, I don't blame him. You know, I have a target on my back. So now people are going to start trying to call me out. You know what I'm saying?

And I like that position. I just want the belt in my hand. You know what I mean? So that way, whenever they do it, it means a little bit more. Final thing, let's just say GSP is listening right now. What's your message to him? Don't be scared. Fight me pretty much.

Please. You know what I'm saying? please put me in that very oxygen with you. And if you believe that you can win that bad, and if you believe that you can honestly win, bite me and prove it, and if you prove it, then I'm not going to sit here and say a word.

You know what I mean? I lost. If you're better than me, you prove it that night. I'm going to say, dude, he was better than me. He's a better fighter of me. I need to go back and learn, right? But don't take it away from me from, from throwing somebody else in there.

Good luck to you, Johnny. I think you put forth a very strong case. Feel for you. I know how fired up you are. I know how devastated you are, and especially if you can't get the title shot, but I think you represented yourself very well here today, and I hope for your sake that you do get what you do believe is yours.

Thank you so much for coming on the show, and good luck when you talk to Joe or Dana or anyone in the UFC trying to get some answers. We look forward to seeing what they come up with for you. Thank you so much. You have a wonderful day, okay? You too. There he is. Johnny Hendricks coming on the show, speaking from the heart, telling us why he does believe he deserves a shot at GSP next. And it's hard to disagree with him. It's hard to disagree with everything that he put forth and put on the table there. And I am very interested to see how this all plays out. Nick Diaz has yet to accept the fight. Nick Diaz has yet to have been offered the fight.

This is very fresh, and I think we'll start to get some answers sooner rather than later, a huge curveball thrown by UFC President Dana White on Thursday at the UFC on Fox press conference. All right, let's move along. I mentioned earlier in the show, very big weekend coming up for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. On Friday, in Australia, you will have the finals of the Smashes season. That is on FX. And then Saturday night in Las Vegas, the finals. of the 16th season of the Ultimate Fighter, Colton Smith, up against our next guest, Mike Ritchie.

Mike, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Hey, Mike, how are you? Did yourself? I'm doing great. So let's get something out of the way right off the top. I heard from your coach, Jonathan Chamber, that you think that I'm some kind of Fugazi, Montreal or something. Is that the case?

I don't know. I heard you were from Montreal. Is that correct? That is correct. Born and raised. What part? I grew up in Town of Mount Royal and then in high school at Westmount. Okay.

So now you believe me? Yeah, no, I always believe you're from Montreal. I just didn't know what part of you were from. And you grew up in NDG, right? Yes, sir. All right, so you're very proud. You're very proud Montreal. You're representing the great city of Montreal very well.

And the great country of Canada, you could be the first Canadian fighter to ever win the ultimate fighter. Is that stuff important to you? Like, did you even think about that stuff? Did you even know that going into this? Yeah, going into it, I knew, I mean, I didn't think that far ahead. Obviously, I had so many tasks at hand, but it was always on the back of my mind, you know, to be able to do something like that. And it's funny how things change.

You know, this time last year I was just coming off a loss to Darren Croshank. And fast forward one year later and, you know, I'm in the UFC, you know, on the co-main event, you know, to a big card and about to make UFC history. So, I mean, it's wild, you know, and I appreciate it and I feel honored that I'm doing that for my country. Why did you decide to try out for the show? I feel like it was an opportunity for me to get to where I wanted to go faster than, than, you know, the usual route, which is fighting on undercards and climbing your way up.

I knew that it was a lot of work that was going to be crammed into a short amount of time, but if I worked through it and was successful, I would get what I wanted to go. And I feel like I've gotten just as much exposure and moved just as far forward, fighting four fights for the ultimate fight as I would have fighting four fights outside of tough, but the time span is different. Those four fights could have taken me two years, and I did it all in the span of the summer. so I think it was a great opportunity, and that's why I did it. Correct me from wrong here, but it didn't seem, at least to me,

like you particularly enjoyed being in the house with those guys. Like, you had a goal in mind, you were there to finish business, but you weren't going to get involved in all the theatrics, the drama, and everything that goes along with being on a reality show. Is that accurate? Yeah, that's accurate. I mean, you see a lot of guys on that show losing their mind and going crazy and smashing things,

And don't get me wrong. You know, I felt the exact same way. I was just able to contain everything that I was feeling and all the emotions. But, you know, I was going just as mad in that house as anybody else. I just didn't want to embarrass myself in my gym and my country. You know, like people were in that house, and after a couple days, you don't realize the cameras are on you anymore, and you start to act out. I always knew what I was doing was being recorded.

So I watched my step. How did you remain sane? Like when you felt like you were going to lose it, what do you do to calm yourself down? Because you have no outlets, right? You have no phone, internet, TV. You can't do anything to remain sane. Yeah, you can't do anything. You just, you have no choice but to go crazy.

And I think that the house did make me a little bit off. You know, when I got out of the house, I really had trouble integrating back into society, as weird as that sounds, you know, only being away for two months. You think, how bad could it be? But when I got home, I wasn't used to anything. I didn't go on the computer. I didn't use the phone. I was socially awkward in big crowds or in a public scene.

It was very different for me. I was used to being in a very hostile environment, always sizing people up, always being sized up, always hiding my emotions, making sure I don't show weakness to anybody. And to deal with that for two months and come out, you become institutionalized to a certain degree. Would you ever do it again? No, absolutely not.

I would never do it again, no matter for us, for anything. I would never. I'm still about what I had to go through in that house and that whole show. And I'm looking forward to finally putting it to rest next week. It ends once and for all next week. You know, even when I got out, it wasn't over for me. I always knew there was this fight, you know, looming in the back of my mind. and never let me put it to rest.

And so after Saturday, it's over for me, and don't ever ask me to do the ultimate fighter ever again. You use the word upset. Why are you upset about the experience? It brought you to this point, and you're on the verge of winning a big UFC contract. Why do you use the word upset? I'm upset, you know.

I was taken away from my family and from my friends and from life itself. You're literally, you vanish. you're gone. There's no sign of you whatsoever. It's almost like to everyone in the outside world, it's like you're dead. You're gone. You know, there's no sign of you whatsoever. And, and vice versa, I didn't know what was happening with my people and on the outside. And it was upsetting. When I got out, I seen things had changed, you know, people had gotten new jobs or changed their hairstyle or or experienced different things, you know, that I missed out on. It upset me. It's still upset

me until the day when I hear about things that happened while I was in there that I missed, it pisses me off. You know, I'm really close to my circle, my family and my friends, and it's upsetting knowing that I was stuck in there and I missed out on my people. I saw a clip. It was sort of like a web extra or something where you were talking to Mike Hill about, and this is when I guess you guys were buddies before fighting, about you had never left home and been away from your family for more.

than a week. You didn't know how to do laundry. You didn't know how to really, you know, take care of yourself. Your mom still did your laundry. So why, given all that and how you feel, and there's nothing wrong with that, by the way. You know, it's always, the mom always does laundry a little better, let's be honest. But given all that, why did you even do the show? It sounds like it was a nightmare for you. It was an absolute nightmare. I wanted to sue when I got out of that house, to be honest with you. But no one forced you to do it. For psychological damage.

I was not the same person. Okay. I actually thought I had a case when I got out. I think I think I can pursue this and win. But I felt like, don't get me wrong, I knew what I was getting into. I knew how I was going to react. I knew. And even some of the producers in the house, towards the end, they said,

geez, you're like the most institutionalized fighter we've ever seen. 11 seasons and we've never seen anybody like you, you're like a robot now. And there's even a scene before I fight Michael Hill where it says, where I'm talking about the house being like ancient Greece and how it's trained, sleep, eat, train, eat sleep, train, eat sleep. And they're just throwing flashes of me in the house, me in the gym, me in the house, me in the gym. And it's like I fell into this system.

And it's all I knew, you know. you could literally wake me up at 2 a.m. and give me a pair of gloves and say go in the yard and do your three, five-minute rounds and go back to bed and I would like as if it was nothing. You know, it's all I knew. I completely disconnected from the outside. And I knew going into it, it was going to be like that. I knew that's how I was going to be.

But why I did it was your question. And because I knew that it was my chance and my shot to get my career where I wanted it to be. There's a lot of successful people around me. where I'm at McDonald's or St. Pierre, and I turn with these guys day in and day out, and I know where I deserve to be, and the ultimate fighter was when I take it. What was it like watching yourself on TV,

knowing how you felt about the situation? Was it hard to watch? Yeah, it was. I watch it, and it brings back a lot of emotion for me. It's hard to watch out. When I watch it, I don't even realize that, you know, minutes into the show. You know, I'm frowning and I got my eyebrows starts to get lower and I have this angry look on my face and I'm just like getting right back into where I was just by watching. But and also going in it with my situation, it made it even harder. I mean, I was the smallest guy in the house being a lightweight and looking the way that I look and being quiet and it just kind of made me, you know, a target for a lot of, you know, the jokes.

in the house and being picked on and whatnot. So it made my situation a lot harder. So all that being said, I do believe that, I don't know if this was intentional or not, but I think you gave the ultimate fighter its most intriguing moment of the year. And, you know, I'm sure you heard about the ratings and whatnot, but what happened between you and Mike and him thinking that you guys were pals and you picking to fight him and whatnot, that was reality television 101. Was that something that you plan to do?

Like, I need to stir the pod here, or was that that? just you being you? No, absolutely not. And I mean, the way they portrayed it, like, me and Mike Hill having dinner, that was the first night in the house. Once the teams were picked, and then let's get this straight, I met Mike Hill than there, right? Right.

So I'd never known him beforehand. And they showed us having dinner, and then after that, when he was picked on Team Nelson, we didn't spend very much time together. You know, we weren't, I was way closer to the other guys in the house and on my team than I was with him. and after my first fight with my first two weeks in the house because I fought fought after I fought on week three not as it aired but while we were there I fought the third week in the house in the first two weeks I was really unhappy I didn't train much

every time I go to the gym I tell the coaches I was sore or I was tired and I didn't want to I didn't want to train you know every night I was like always the first guy to open a bottle of wine I mean even though it didn't show me doing shots and you know chugging beers I was always having wine at night. I just didn't want to be there. I didn't want to fight. And after I fought Dom Waters, it just woke me up. You know, I didn't train.

I wasn't eating healthy. I fought this guy. I had a very tough fight. He was a very big, talented fighter. You know, I got the win. And then after that, I was like, you know what? This situation I'm in, I have to look out for myself because this is a real situation.

You know, I'm fighting here. People are trying to hurt me. And I didn't care about anything I said before that. I didn't care about any truths that I made. I didn't care about anybody in that house. I wanted to get out in one piece. I wasn't going home on a stretcher. I wasn't going to have my mother and my father received that phone call

that your son's face is broken. That wasn't going to be me. So after Dom Waters, everybody in that house was on the menu for me. You know, a lot of fans who may follow M.M.A. closely, may remember you from Belltor when you lost to Pat Cairn. After that fight, your first loss of your career, you didn't fight for a year. And I'm wondering if that was done on purpose.

Did you, you know, knowing just and talking to you for the first time here, you seem like an emotional and very thoughtful guy, was there a reason why you took such a long vacation, if you will, from the sport after that loss? Yeah, I mean, I quit. You know, I retired after I lost the pecker. And my year layoff is not that big of a deal to, you know, some people fight once and don't fight for a year.

that that happens quite often, but they're still in the sport. I quit. I retired. I was nowhere to be found in the gym, in any of the gyms in Montreal. I've never openly spoke about that year with anybody. It's a very intense year. There's a lot of people that are involved, Rory McDonald, Jonathan Chamber, Brasda Habi, played a big part of that year.

And it's a dark story. and I've yet to speak to anybody about it, but just to give you a vague description of what happened. After current, I retired. I disappeared. I didn't want to train. I didn't want to be around anybody. I hated the sport.

I hated my coaches. I thought I blamed people for what happened. And it was my first loss ever. You know, I was whooped and humbled on national TV in front of everybody. and I was ashamed and I brought a lot of ego into that fight. I was a young kid and I was cocky. And that loss kind of just was too much for me to handle. So I just left.

I retired. And what'd you do? I didn't do anything. I didn't work. I didn't train. I didn't, you know, I enrolled in school and went to two classes and then said, you know, forget this. I'm not going to school.

I just kind of lived in my mom's basement for a year straight, just doing nothing. I mean, you know, I have, like I said, I've never went public with this year. Maybe one day we can do, we can do something on it, you know. Sure. You seem like a cool guy from Montreal. Maybe one day we can talk about, you know, the year Mike Ritchie went missing. But, I mean, I'll keep it vague for now. Okay.

I didn't do anything. I wasn't doing anything. Who got you back on the horse? the three people who influenced me the most was John Chamber Rory MacDonald and Farax of the Habi those three guys were

played a huge part you know in that story and there was many phone calls and situations throughout that year between me and those three that were that I'll never forget you know defining moments and good and bad and eventually

I I found my way back. I don't know how, but... Well, I do know how. But I found my way back, and then they put Jesse Ronson in front of me, and from that point on, you know, it led to here. And in that stretch, you mentioned Dan Crookshank.

You did lose to him as well. How did you deal with your second loss? Oh, I dealt with my second loss very well. I got back on the horse, I mean, a couple weeks later. And I was training again, and I was fine. The Darren Couchang loss didn't stop me for a second. I booked another fight I fought. Then I got into the ultimate fighter.

So it wasn't bad, you know. I dealt with my first loss, and I knew I would never handle it like that again. I was very upset with how I handled the Packer-in-Loss. You know, it shows what kind of man you are when times get rough and things don't go your way. And I'm not happy with how I reacted after that fight. And I never wanted that to happen again. just a couple of minutes left here with Mike Ritchie fascinating stuff and we really appreciate your honesty and and your candor here you had a very interesting quote that was posted by the Canadian press after this win on Friday where you said the truth is I would rather have won by decision than do that to him this is your knockout win that got you into the finals and then you went on to say because it hurt and you were very emotional and you said that you know you you know what it feels like to be knocked out before and you didn't want to do that to someone it seems like you and correct me from wrong like it being a fighter is obviously something that you love,

but it brings out this conflict within you because you don't usually hear a fighter say, especially when the prize that you just received was making it to the finals of the ultimate fighters say that you didn't want to knock the guy out because you know how much it hurts. Is that a fair thing to say? Yeah, it was tough going into that fight,

spending those seven weeks with meal and eating together and hanging out together and training together and then having, you know, sharing stuff laughing and whatnot. And then having to disconnect from that, even though it was only seven weeks, having to disconnect from that and get into the ring and go to that place where you look across the ring from somebody and you want to kill them, you know, it's where you have to go mentally. And going there was something was different for me, and it was overwhelming, winning the fight

and knowing that the show was over and that I was released and free to go home and hurting my friend at the same time and knowing that that was me once was tough. You know, it was overwhelming and I got emotional. And for sure, fighting creates this conflict within me. You know, and it always has. That was always a big problem for me. But the ultimate fighter really took a lot of what I had left as far as humanity and remorse for this sport and people

and kind of took it away and made me realize how much the sport is just business. And the ultimate fighter really was exactly what I knew. needed in a lot of different ways, not only to bring me where I'm in my career, but to show me and put to rest, you know, my emotions that I had against M.A. You know, a lot of people have been wondering where this new Rory McDonald came from. He's, you know, people comparing it. I think we just found out where it came from. You are like a mere image of Rory in the way he speaks and the way he sort of verbalizes his thoughts. You're the reason why he's acting the way he is these days, right?

Well, I wouldn't take 100% credit for who I'm at McDonald's is. You know what I mean? He's his own person. I think that I've maybe helped him vocalize his opinions and his emotions better than he has in the past. We're very close. Me and Ari, we're like brothers. We share a lot. You know, we sit and we talk about everything. And the way I've had, him open up as a person, you know, now he translates that into his career and into his interviews. He's not scared to talk about how he feels and what he wants and what he doesn't want, what he doesn't like. So, yeah, I think I've rubbed off on him in that aspect, and he's

rubbed off on me in other ways as well as, you know, being a fighter and being able to go into the Octagon and win your fights and leave your dream and do what you have to do to win, which just hurt other people. He showed me how to focus and train hard, and we've really fed off each other in a lot of different ways. And I don't know how it works because we're very different, but it does. And I think it's cool and it's cool that we're both at this place now

and our friendship is documented in a lot of ways. I think it'll be cool. We'll be able to look back on it someday and last. Will he be with you in Las Vegas? Yeah, he's here in Las Vegas. I cornered him in his fight with BJ, and he's going to corner me now for my finale with Colton. Pretty amazing for two best friends to have a week like this,

him fighting on Fox, you fighting in the finals of the Ultimate Fighter. I mean, this is pretty special stuff, right? Yeah, I mean, I always joke with him, you know, because we've been friends for a few years, and I've always fought on local circuits, and he's been in the USC, and he's been a big name. and now I'm back from the Ultimate Fighter and I came back from the house

and the big things are happening for me now and sometimes I look at him and I go are you happy now? Are you happy? This is your fault. I'm doing this because you wanted me to and then we start laughing about it and stuff and I crack jokes that I only do it because he's doing it and whatever so but yeah we're both enjoying the fact that

we're having success now and we're training really hard we're working really hard and you know George is the leader at our gym and our number one guy and one day he'll stop fighting and me and Roy looked to carry on the legacy of TriStar and build it into

something big and great he actually gave you props when I spoke to him back at UFC 133 August of what was it, 2011 I want to play this quick clip it's like 30 seconds but he sort of foreshadowed all this and gave you props and I guess

you can say it is his fault that you here. Here's the clip if you want to relive it. You're wearing Air Jordans. I don't see a lot of M.M.A. fighters rock the Air Jordans. You came out to MC Hammer, Kent touches. You brushed the dirt off your shoulders after the win. I like this Roy McDonald's swag that we're starting to see here. Where's that coming from?

NDG. Montreal, very nice. Mike Ricci. No, I don't know. Who's teaching you? Who's your sort of guru? Right there. The guru.

Who is he for people that don't know? Gritchie. He's coming up. He's going to be the UFC soon. there you have it. So he predicted it almost two years ago, and now here you are about the fight in the Ultimate Fighter finale against Colton Smith on Saturday night live on FX. Mike, this has been unbelievable. I really appreciate you coming out and sort of wearing your emotions on your sleeve and whatnot. And I think we learned more about you in this 25-minute interview than we did in a full

season of The Ultimate Fighter. Fascinating stuff. And keep representing Montreal very well, Canadian in MMA as well, and I hope if you win on Saturday, you'll start to do your own laundry. I'll try, man. I'll try it. Best of luck to you, Mike. Really appreciate it. Thank you for having me, Ariel. There he is. Mike Ritchie, who meets Colton Smith this Saturday night

on FX, the finale of the Ultimate Fighter 16. You talk about a season that had its ups and downs as far as ratings and building stars. There's only one tough 16 fight on the finale. and that is the finals. How can you not be emotionally invested in that fight

after just hearing from one of the competitors? Mike Ritchie talking about almost quitting the sport, or at least he said he quit the sport, and then came back after the loss to Pat Kern and Bellator. Great stuff there. Appreciate the time. Let's move along. UFC 157 goes down February 23rd in Anaheim, California,

and it will be historic for many reasons, one of which is because it will be the first ever women's fight in UFC history. It will be the first ever women's title fight in UFC history. The champion Ronda Rousey, who was crowned on Thursday afternoon at a press conference in Seattle, will meet our next guest, Liz Karmouche, and she joins us right now on the MMA hour. Liz, how are you? I'm doing great, how are you? I'm doing great, and I appreciate the time.

How has your life changed? since this big announcement last Thursday? Non-stop smiles, there's a big difference. No, honestly, it hasn't changed that much. We certainly are getting a lot of press and media calls into work and people texting and calling and a lot of support that wasn't there before. I think that would really be the biggest difference. Did you think that this fight was going to be yours?

because there was obviously a lot of talk about Chris Cyborg, there was Misha Tate, there was Sarah McMahon. I know you were probably the only one campaigning for it, but did you actually think that you would get it right off the bat? No, I definitely didn't. I was dreaming about it, hoping for it, wishing for it, but I honestly thought I was going to be Cyborg or McMahon. Why did you go out there and campaign for it

if you knew that it probably wouldn't go to you? Did you feel like there was a chance you could steal it, or did you think, did you have some sort of hunch that for whatever reason the fights against either Cyborg, McMahon, Teut, etc., would fall through. You know, honestly,

it went back to something I had heard Dana White say before. He's that if you ask for it, they'll do his best to give it to you. So I figured the more that I campaigned and ask that, you know, if you ask for something, you can't fail.

I mean, certainly somebody says, no, at least you try it. But if you never try, then you would never know. So I had to try and give it all I had, and it worked out. Why do you think they picked you, though? I think because I was the only one that asked for it.

Do you feel, you know, there are some people who say, okay, you know, obviously Rhonda's getting the attention and, you know, she's fighting in the main event, crowning her the champion and all that, and all that. Will you get the attention that you deserve? You feel like you'll get it leading up to the fight? And this won't just be the Ronda Rousey show because Dana White told us on Thursday, this is the Ronda Rousey show. This is the Ronda Rousey division, and they're getting into it because of Ronda Rousey.

But as we know in the fight game, it takes two to tango, and you're only really as good as your opponent. So are you confident that the UFC will build you up as, you know, an equal opponent, or are you just going to be an opponent? I think it may be a little bit of both. I think to some degree, like you said, it's the Ronda show right now. She's the one that campaigned to get into the UFC and successfully did so. So I certainly think that they're backing her a lot,

but I know that they're certainly not going to completely fall short in support and build up my side of the fight as well. When you first got into MMA, did you ever think that you would someday fight in the UFC? I know, it was one of my dreams. My dream that I was like, I want to be the first ever women to a main fight in the UFC, but I honestly never thought it would happen, just like I never thought I'd get into Strike Force. But both of those things came true. Why didn't you even think you'd get into Strike Force?

Because when I started off, that to me was just an intangible thing. It's like the idea of going to the moon. You wish for any hope for it. it, but it just seems like that's something that can never honestly happen. So I started out, I was like, Cycles, that's a big show for women. I don't know that I'll ever be able to get into it, certainly not three fights later. But, I mean, I'm just wondering, as a professional athlete, you get into a sport, you strive, obviously, to be at the top.

You know, you want to fight in the biggest organization possible for talking MMA. Why didn't you even think that you would get there? Wasn't that the goal, and don't you get into it for the reason to get there? Like, if you didn't think that you can get there, why even do it in the first place? Well, I mean, just like when I joined the Marine Corps, I never actually thought that I would succeed the way that I had. I hoped for it, but I didn't necessarily set the bar so high for myself. I wanted it, and I worked for it, but there was no disappointment if I didn't succeed. And the same thing with fighting when I got into it.

I was told, hey, you know, you're going to have to fight for it a minimum a year before you can have your first amateur bout. And then after that, we'll see. So I was thinking, okay, this would be like a... a five-year thing before you can go pro or even more than that. And I just thought that it took a lot of connections to get in the strike force. And I didn't necessarily know if we had those connections. I know it's all very fresh, but have you allowed yourself to sit back and maybe daydream a little bit about what it's going to be like walking into the Honda Center in front of a sold-out crowd, you know, the history about to be made, Ronda Rousey, all that stuff, the Octagon. Have you thought about that yet?

I've definitely thought about that. I've thought of just about every possibility, but I think it's still in dream mode. I'm waiting to wake up from all her thoughts, so it hasn't fully sunk in yet. I heard that you found out about this opportunity from Dana White himself. He called you and told you about it.

Is that accurate? Yeah, that's absolutely accurate. Was that your first time talking to Dana? It is. You know, in passing, I got to shake his hand and say thank you for being a part of the first. fighter summit, but like I said, that was in passing. This was really the first time that he knew who I was, and I got to talk to him.

So how did that conversation go? Take us into that moment. Well, I looked out of my phone, and I realized it couldn't be anyone else but him. I was kind of given a heads-up on my management. I should be getting a phone call from the UFC. I just didn't think it became a white, and then got the phone call, and they're like, hey, this is, this is Dana White, and automatically, like, yeah, I know, I know your voice. trying to play it off

like I wasn't super excited and overwhelmed I just had this huge chitting grin that wouldn't go away to the fight that my cheeks were hurting and he said welcome to the UFC you're part of history in the first ever women's bansomweight championship fight against Ron Rossi and then he asked me how go ahead, sorry

no no he asked me how it felt and I said I'm super excited and just kept nonstop thank yous and he said you know just wait for another phone call you'll you're here for my shortly And then when you hung up the phone, what's the first thing that you did? Nonstop smiling. I was in the middle of shopping.

Oh. So, you know, I couldn't exactly do like my Snoopy dance or do my overexcited. I could have. I very well could have. But I probably would have knocked over a few things. I don't know. Go ahead. Sorry.

And I didn't know yet. I didn't know yet who I could tell. I was like, oh, okay, well, I have to wait for the press release. Right. And I don't know when that's going to be. So I just, I got to just played off. And I went back to the Marine Corps. roots and just did this stork face and just, you know, hold everything back.

What an unbelievable moment that must have been. But I don't know if you could, or if you did see the interview that we did with Dana on Thursday at the press conference. But again, he said that this was really the Ronda Rousey show. And I'm wondering, it's almost like this conflict because anyone who criticizes Ronda, at least in my opinion, in women's MMA, is off base because the UFC's admitting she opened that door for you guys. Now, there are plenty of women who are ready and able to walk through that door, but she did open it.

She was the pioneer in a sense. If you beat her, what happens? What happens to that division? What happened to the Ronda Rousey show? So how do you deal with that? You know, and that's still something I'm trying to wrap my mind around. And the only thing I can chalk it up to is I'm going to have to fill both shoes. And it's, you know, she's done a really good job.

I mean, like you said, a lot of people can give her shit for it and not support her. But in all honesty, if she hadn't taken stuff that she did, we wouldn't be getting CFC. I don't think that I think it would be maybe five more years down the road that this would be happening instead of right now because she's doing things right. So, you know, I definitely think that it's going to be difficult to take that place. I'm going to have to figure it out. But I know that with the support everybody to have in my life that I'll be able to do it correctly. Are you a Ronda Rousey fan? I know I have to be.

I mean, right now I have to be unbiased and I just have to go on. on there ready for the fight. But, you know, leading up to it before this, this occurred, I certainly was Roger O'Rowskin. How does someone beat her? How do you even game plan to beat her if thus far in her pro and amateur and roommate career, she has looked unbeatable? I mean, no one has really exposed any hole in her game. You could talk about her striking and all that.

But everyone knows what she wants to do and she's able to do it every time out. How do you game plan for that? Well, I think you said it right there. knows what she wants to do, and they let it happen. Instead of implementing their own game plan, they let her rush into them and take that armor. And that's one thing. And I think that, you know, everybody has that moment in the fight where you can see it where they freeze, and she sees the freeze and she takes advantage of it.

And the keys to not freeze. The key is to realize that it's going to be coming. That's what she's looking for, and to not let it happen. And hopefully that's exactly what's going to happen. Do you think she's a one-trick pony? I mean as far as only having arm bars? Yeah. No, I don't.

I think that she definitely has a lot of tools in her toolbox, and this just happens to be her go-to one. I mean, if it's worked for her this far, so she's using it, and I think it's just her signature card that she's using, but she certainly has other tools available. Obviously, you're very proud of the fact that you were, you know, a member of the Marines.

You're also very proud of the fact that you are a lesbian, and you talk about this openly. You are now the first openly gay fighter in the history of the UFC. Do you think that they will promote that? You know, I think that they haven't showed any negative, they haven't made a single negative statement against it. So I certainly don't think that they're going to be opposed to my stance

and they're not going to be going against it. I don't know that they're necessarily promoted, but I certainly don't think that there's going to be any negative repercussions from it. Neither do I. But I'm wondering, do you think that they will try to go out of their way and target that demographic, which for a while they couldn't because they didn't have anyone who was like you. You know, I hope that they do because I would be smart.

Most of the people that I know in the gay communities and the LGBT communities, they don't follow, and it for the most part, and they certainly don't know for each division who the champion is or any of the big stars are. So this is a demographic that is kind of untouched that they could really take advantage of, and when the LGBT community support something,

they do it full-heartedly. So it would be smart of them as they did. Are you comfortable being that kind of pioneer? Because history books, I mean, who knows what kind of attention you'll get come January, February, who knows what kind of media outlets will be calling? Are you comfortable with being in that kind of spotlight? Yeah, absolutely. I've certainly been in a position before.

We're being an open lesbian. And for my sexual preference, where it's backfired and I've been treated, mistreated for it. So I'm certainly ready to support it and stand up for it. Your nickname is Gorilla. Where did that come from? It came from a lot of different things, from climbing up the cage because it was locked and being silly and flipping over it, to bouncing off the cage, to picking up and throwing people

that outweigh me by 100 pounds in a way that shouldn't be possible. They decided that would, and then the combination of the faces, I make horrendous faces when I'm in the middle of practice or I'm in the middle of fights. So with that, they named me the gorilla. Do you remember what it was like after the loss to Marluse Kuhn? You almost shocked the world. You shocked the M.A. community.

You took this fight on short notice. No one was giving you a chance. And you almost beat her. And do you remember the heartbreak involved in that? And in a weird way, here you are about to get an even bigger opportunity and able to sort of wash away that memory and really cement yourself in the history books. And, you know, an all-time, legendary performance,

if you could pull off this upset. Do you believe in that kind of thing? Like, you had to go through that to get to this? Absolutely. I certainly think that the things I've gone through my life, the hurdles that they make me into the individual I am, and I certainly think I had to go through that hurdle to be prepared for this one.

And it did teach me a lot, because leading into that fight, I didn't think that I deserved to be fighting in strike force. I felt like I kind of jumped the gun. And I certainly thought that other people had a right ahead of me to be going for the title. and after that, it showed me that I deserved both to be in strike force and to be in that championship position. And without that experience, I might be doubting myself again in this fight.

You're a big underdog going into this fight, and again, all eyes are on Rousey. Why should people pick you? Because you always got to root for that underdog. I love being the underdog. It means that people have less expectations, so I can just surprise them a hell of a lot more than they would ever, ever intend for me to do so. So it's great. I love being the underdog. And even if people don't support me, they will after this fight. Will you bring in anyone special to help you train for Ronda?

I haven't spoke to the coaches. It's actually one thing we're going to sit down and talk to after this interview. But yeah, they definitely have people lined up. I'm not sure who yet. But I know that they're bringing a lot of people to kick my ass for this fight. Will you train for men for this fight? With men, excuse me. Yeah, I almost really get a chance to train with one.

It's usually always men. If they bring in a woman, that'll be amazing and cool. But if not, they'll just do the same old with new training partners that are men. And when does training camp start? It started already. Oh, it did. Wow. Yeah, the moment we had that phone call, I train every day just like we have a fight or not. And we've always been training for this fight.

So it was no different, but we finally put more focus into it. And it started as soon as we got the phone call. Well, Liz, congratulations. An unbelievable moment for you and for what? Women's MMA and for MMA in general, we look forward to it February 23rd, UFC 157, Ronda Rousey versus Liz Karmouche. Tickets go on sale, I believe, December 21st. And of course, the event is on pay-per-view at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

I'm sure we'll talk to you before the event. Good luck in training. Can't wait for February 23rd. Thank you so much. There she is. The gorilla, Liz Karmouche, joining us on the MMA hour. She gets the opportunity of a lifetime. when she meets Ronda Rousey on February 23rd,

and UFC President Dana White said at that same press conference on Thursday that Sarah McMahon turned down the fight. Chris Cyborg turned down the fight. Misha Tate turned down the fight. We will hear from Misha later on in the show. Liz gets the title shot, and she can alter history if she wins on February 23rd. A lot of time to dissect and talk about that fight.

First up, though, for Strike Force, they need to close the book on their promotion, and that will take place on January 12th in Oklahoma City. No one coming out and saying it's the end, but we know it's the end. The writing is on the wall, and one of the big fights that will be taking place on that card involves two light heavyweights,

Mike Kyle, against our next guest. Gagar Musassi, and he joins us via the magic of Skype to my left, right here, right now. There he is. Gagart, how are you? Good, thank you. How are you, Aaron? I'm doing good. Long time, no.

speak. Yeah, it's been a long time. So I'm getting back. Yes, and it is good to see you back, my friend. A very interesting year for you, a frustrating year, I would presume. You had knee surgery, you injured your ACL. What exactly happened? Well, it happened in training. It happened while the guy shoot on my legs and I turned and it happened. But now I'm recovered and I'm 100% so I'm ready to get back in the case When did that happen?

March, I believe February, something like that February, I believe. And you had to have surgery, right? Yeah. Why do you think so many MMA fighters are injuring their ACLs

these days? I don't know. It's tough to say. Seems like a common injury. Yeah. I think this year a lot of people got injured, but I think the couple years before wasn't that bad, but maybe it's a bad year.

For someone who liked to remain active and fight a lot, what's it like when you can't do what you love to do? You didn't get to fight in all of 2012. Well, I think it was good for me because at the end, I got also injured, I believe, because I was, how you say, over-trained, not motivated, not training well, I think that had something to do with it. So I think this year layoff got me hungry again, and I'm training really good now. So I think it was a good that maybe I'm making it a positive thing.

Why were you not motivated? Well, I just was fighting. And I won the belt in Dream. I won the belt in Stryforce. It was just, every fight was just a fight. So it wasn't something special. It was just getting in the ring and fight. So is that why you looked so bored when you walked into the cage?

It always looked like you were going to take a nap. No, I don't know. Maybe I didn't have a lot of motivation the last couple of years. years. But I'm really excited to fight, especially with the idea that after this fight, maybe I can go to UFC. So it's very motivating, and I'm training really well for this fight. We will get to that in a second, but I'm just wondering, now as you walk to the cage, will we see Gagar Mousasi like yell and scream and dance and things like that? Is it a new Gagarmusasi that's coming in 2013? That's for sure. But I believe because,

of my training because now I have coaches, I have sparring partners, so I'm doing it now everything right. Maybe this sounds weird, but I don't believe I ever trained for a fight. What? Because now every day I'm getting tired, I don't want to go to training. Back day, I used to run a little bit in the mornings, do a little bit sparring, and when I was tired, I was relaxing. But now I have people that are pushing me every day. So now I feel like I'm preparing for a fight. So I don't know.

If I go to this fight like I'm training now, I don't see how I can lose. Who are you training with now? I got some sparring partners from Germany. Ishi is here, the Olympic gold medalist. He has also a fight against him, Sylvia. I'm training every day with Ishi, and he's helping me a lot. I'm trying to help him. so it's nice to have a big guy like him training also with me.

You're 32, 3 and 2 as far as your MMA career is concerned, and you say you've done all that without really seriously training. That makes me think you could be undefeated. You could be what, 37 and 0? I don't know, but now the way I train now, the way that I'm getting pushed every day to my limits, I believe I cannot lose this fight. I don't know how I can lose this fight.

that's I'm really because when I compare my training with the training I did before it's it's uh it was very um amateur like so okay so I'm I'm really confident and I'm finally feeling that I'm training for a fight

I didn't know professional MMA fighting was so different very difficult training for a fight why did you so you were with an old team and now you're with a new team right no I'm I think I did have coaches that were pushing me. So I just had a very relaxed environment

and I was training the way I wanted to train. Now I'm not in a comfort zone. Every day I'm getting pushed to my limits. Every day I don't like to go to training, but I do it anyway. So I think this is a very different fight. I don't see this fight. this is going to be a

I'm very sure I'm going to win that's the only thing I care so so the coaches that you were with before you no longer work with now I never had coaches you just had guys that you just hung around yeah I'm cheap but now you have coaches

yeah for sure who convinced you to actually get some coaches well my last performance weren't that well I believe and I was planning to go and train in US but I'm working with Milton he knows exactly how to train so I can pick at the right moment and he's doing my strength and conditioning

and I'm also training a lot with Stefan Struth right now so he's helping me also a lot so I have good training partners, good trainers that have the best interest for me. So I'm ready. I can fight now. But I just came from training. I feel I'm already in top shape. But I have four or five weeks to go still.

Where are you now? What country? I'm at my mother's house. Oh, nice. How's your mother doing? She's doing good. Thank you. Does she watch your fights?

Not always, sometimes. Why does, like, I would think either she doesn't like to see you get punched or she just, you know, like, it's either one or the other, no? Or just when she's not bored, she watches your fights? She doesn't like to see my fights maybe because she doesn't want to get me get punched or anything like that.

But if the fight goes easily and I win, sometimes we watch. Oh, so she'll watch it. afterwards. Yeah, sometimes. Okay. And obviously the big question when people would talk about you, Gagard, is you're wrestling. How is your wrestling doing these days? My wrestling is doing good.

I think the King Mo Fight, I think that's one fight that looked me really bad in wrestling. And people since then think my wrestling is really bad. But I blame it on a lot of aspects of training, mental state. But I lost that fight. I'm not taking anything away from him. But I believe that wasn't the way I should have fought. So there was a lot of things that was wrong with that fight. Your new, what else?

What else? Yeah. You say there were a lot of things. Other than the fact that you lost the fight, what was wrong? I think my conditioning wasn't what it should have been. I think the way I was standing, I was going forward. I wasn't, how do I say, I wasn't, I wasn't, when he was punching, I was just blocking the puncher, so he was able to go for the takedown.

I didn't think about even take down defense in that fight. I was just wanted to hit him. And it was taking me down constantly. I think mental state, conditioning, I believe the training that I did for that fight, I was doing wrestling, but more Greg Roman wrestling instead of freestyle wrestling. I mean, yeah, not good. Now, your newfound motivation, does it have anything to do with the fact that you are, we at least believe, very close to moving over to the UFC?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I like to fight. this fight after this fight I want to fight as soon as possible in the UFC and I want to fight someone like Gustafelsohn he won so I like to fight him yeah that's who you want

yeah not because I want to challenge people but just because he's a good fighter and he's a top contender because he's at that top level that's why I want to fight him I would love to see that

I think that fight would be fantastic for the fans. What did you think about his performance on Saturday? Did you see it? I didn't see that fight. Oh, he beat Shogun. I don't know if you heard. But the internet wasn't working. Oh, gosh.

They need to fix that for you. So how do you remain focused on the task at hand because you still have to fight Mike Kyle in Strike Force? You have a very big prize, a very big pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. That's the UFC, but you still have January 12th. Yeah, I think... The motivation comes from training. I think the way I train now, I'm really excited to see how I do.

Well, I'm well prepared. So I think that's the thing. The way I train now, that's the motivation for this fight. I want to see how I do when I'm in my best condition. What do you think of Mike Kyle? Is he on your level, in your opinion? He's definitely a dangerous guy. I mean, he fought a lot of top names.

So yeah, he's a dangerous guy. You can win from anybody. So you can never... But I feel stand up, I'm good. Ground, I'm good. I don't feel that I'm in danger in any position. So I don't think... I don't feel on the ground, stand up, wrestling,

whatever it is, I feel I can handle it. What do you think about the demise of Strike Force? Are you happy that it's going away? No, I think. in the beginning was nice to have those big companies to UFC and Strike Force but

now fighting in UFC biggest stage, that's a possibility that's fine with that also. Do you kind of feel like you have been forgotten in a sense, you know, out of sight, out of mind. You're injured, no one talks about you. A lot of guys have come up this year. Alexander, of course, John Jones

doing a lot of good things in your division, Phil Davis, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, when people put out their top tens and when they talk about light heavyweight, they don't talk about you as much. Does that bother you? No, not at all. This is a sport that when you perform,

you get mentioned and when you don't, you're out. It's easy. So I've been out for a year and I want to come back with a convincing win and then from there on, we're going to see what's going to happen. I'm not worried about rankings or if I mentioned or not. I just want to fight and win this fight.

Another change for you. You just signed recently with Alchemist Management, who obviously represents the likes of Roy MacDonald, Mike Ritchie, Liz Karmouche. We just had three Alchemist fighters on this show back to back to back. Why did you sign with them? Stefan Stroof is also managed by them. And Nima is also from,

He's a countryman. He's also from Persia or Iran. So we talked and since I signed, they did a great job and they're taking care of everything. So I'm happy. I don't have that headache of management anymore. I'm just training. That's all I do now. I don't have to worry about this and that.

I don't have to worry about how I train that. all of those things my coaches and my management are handling so i'm just only focusing on training so that's the good part did you have to worry about that stuff before yeah always because uh i don't know dutch managements are not the best management i don't know if you heard about it but they're always uh i think american management there are more professionals you don't get screwed that much right that much. You still get screwed a little bit? I don't know, but I mean, I don't believe you get screwed. Right, right, right. No, no. Alchemists, great guys, and they have a really impressive

stable. And also, M.C. Hammer is a part of the team as well. You know who M.C. Hammer is, right? Can't touch this. Hammer time, exactly. Does this mean also that you're going to come train in the U.S. more? Yeah, for sure. I wanted to come for this fight, but I just, I'm going to, after this fight I'm going to come, then I don't have the pressure of fighting and then I can focus on bettering my skills. So I thought coming to this fight, but I had some issues that I didn't, that that's why I didn't came.

So, but other than that, after this fight, I'm going to come. Gaygard, sincerely, it is very good to see you back, my friend. Can't wait for January 12th against Mike Kyle. Congratulations on making. you get back and you look fired up. I can't wait to see you fight again. And congratulations on maybe getting into the UFC finally. I know that's something that you've been, you know, dreaming about and striving towards for a very long time. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And I'm just happy to be back. And this is going to be a good fight.

Thank you, Gaggard. We'll see you on January 12th. Thank you. Thank you. There he is. Gagar Musassi joining us, a reinvigorated Gagar Musassi. Really great stuff from him there. It's amazing. You do the rankings and you talk about the rankings and you talk about light heavyweights and Alexander Gustafsson and whatnot calling out Alexander Gustafson in a way there. And you forget that Gagar Musassi at 27 years old is, as I mentioned, 32, what is it? 32, 3 and 2. You know, unbeaten since that loss to Muhammad Lawal, defeated Jake O'Brien, defeated Tatsuya,

Mizuno, fought to a draw against Keith Jardine, defeated Izumi, defeated OSP, my mother telling me that she's liking our guests today, a strong string of guests to start the MMA hour, and we keep the train moving along here, because up next is Misha Tate, who has a lot to get off her chest, We talk about the Liz Karmouche versus Ronda Rousey fight and whether or not she did in fact turn down the fight. What's next for her? If you recall, Misha Tate was on this show after her win over Julie Ketze, and she said that was back in August,

and she said she needed some time off. You know, she may have felt like she came back too quickly after the Ronda Rousey fight. That was a tough fight against Julie Ketze in San Diego, and she just needed to take some time off, maybe even a year. So I didn't really expect to have her on the show in December, four months later. But she is moments away from joining us, and we'll talk about that situation. After Misha Tate, we will be joined by Mr. H.D. himself, Hyperdi, Pat Barry, who meets Shane Del Rosario on Saturday at the Ultimate Fighter 16 finale in Las Vegas.

The UFC returns to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casual. you know, for that event. And then the night before, UFC on FX6 from Australia, George Soderopoulos versus Ross Pearson in the main event, and Hector Lombard versus Hussemaar Paul Harris. Also on that card. Plus, uh, the, the, the smashes will, uh,

will, uh, we'll finish up. And I have to admit, I didn't watch a lot of the smashes, but I do know about that young man, Colin Fletcher. If you don't know Colin Fletcher, I suggest Googling him because the guy dresses up like some sort of clown, like a sad clown, like one of those freak show clowns. The kind of clown that I think our own New York Rick would like. He wears like the little hat tilted to the side, makeup on his face.

He's a very interesting character, and he is in one of the finals for the Smashes. So that's going down on Friday, and then on Saturday you have Tough 16. And then after, at around 3 o'clock or so, we're going to take questions and comments from you either via Twitter, hashtag, the MMA hour or hit us up on the MMA hour post if you're watching this live I know a lot of you have been doing that and we appreciate it very much the winner this week gets this UFC Bloodlines

box set from tops each mini box contains one autograph relic an autograph a jumbo relic a dual relic relic or a manufactured relic it's a lot of relics John Jones, GSP, I think it's something about like their countries

and whatnot. We'll have more on this when we give out the 10 mini boxes per Masterbox, five cards per mini box. There you have it. And we may, if there is a really good question,

we may even give out another prize and no, it is not a toothpick. The toothpick thing is so bizarre. What is going on? She just texted me. You're saying that we can't get in touch with Misha? Is that what you're saying? Oh, okay.

Now he's telling me to wait. The toothpick thing is so bizarre. If you've been living under a rock, Benson Henderson appears to have fought against Nathan Diaz on Saturday night with a toothpick in his mouth. And if you've seen my interviews with Benson in the past, you know that I often talk to him about the toothpick because he's always chewing on a toothpick. But just to think, like it actually gives me a headache and it makes my throat hurt, to think that he was actually in a fight, a fight like that, five rounds, 25 minutes, getting punched in the face. while he did more of the punching and landing, he was still in a fight. Where do you even put the toothpick is what I'd like to know?

Where does it even stay in your mouth so that it doesn't hurt you or your opponent? More specifically you. How does it not pierce through your lips? Very bizarre situation. Just makes his performance all that more impressive, though. He had a toothpick in his mouth as he was getting punched in the face. Just think of that.

I don't even know how, I don't even know where to put a toothpick in my mouth if I'm walking down the street, let alone getting punched in the face. And of course, that is highly illegal. I mean, it's not like a PD or anything, but if the commission, you know, knew that he had a toothpick in his mouth, obviously they would have taken it out. I'd like to know how he got the toothpick in his mouth and bypassed the commission before getting into the cage. Unbelievable. He deserves a title just for that. And I think he is my fighter of the year. I haven't really thought about it.

But you go 3-0 this year. Two close wins, yes. Three-and-0. More title fights than any fighter in the UFC this year. More, most active champion. I think he is the fighter of the year. But a little plug for this week's MMA beat. We'll talk about that kind of stuff on this week's MMA beat, our final one of the year.

For now, though, let us move along and welcome in our next guest via the magic of Skype. She is Cupcake herself, Misha Tate. Misha, how are you? Good, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Would you ever consider fighting with a toothpick in your mouth? That is a great, I don't know how he did that. Supposedly, he's just joking, but I think I would end up choking on it somehow or it would end up being, I mean, how do you keep it just in your mouth and not, you know what I mean?

It's very disturbing. And he did peer, I mean, there's footage and screen grabs and all that. If you go back and look, there was a toothpick in his mouth, you're a fighter, you get punched in the face for a living. how can someone fight with a toothpick in their mouth? It's unbelievable, right? He must just train that. I mean, like you said, he must just train that way all the time and just, I don't know. That's talent.

That's pure talent right there. He certainly deserves to be the UFC lightweight champion for that reason alone. Let's talk about you now. A very interesting last few days for you. It was announced on Thursday that Ronda Rousey will meet Liz Karmouche for the UFC bantamway title. History will be made on February 23rd in Anaheimpe. California first ever women's title fight. That day, Dana and Rhonda insinuated that you were offered this opportunity against Rhonda rematch and you turned it down. Did you turn down the fight?

Absolutely not. I was never presented with that. I had made it clear that I wanted to take some off after my last win over Julie Kedzi, but that doesn't mean that you don't make an exception to the rule when something like that is presented. I mean, clearly when I made those statements, If that was before women were coming to the UFC for sure, that's before, you know, it would be an opportunity to the headline. That's before it would be the opportunity to make history. You know what I mean? I felt like it was kind of a little bit of a slap in the face. My last fight, I got placed on the undercar.

And I was just kind of like, you know what? I'm not in a hurry to do that again. So, you know, give me some motivation if he would have said, hey, you want to fight Rhonda? You want to be in the UFC? You want a headline a UFC car for the first fight in history for women? I would have been like, hell yeah. But, I mean, it wasn't offered to me. So, and, you know, I mean, to be honest, I'm okay with that because I think that the big picture was that it's worth building.

At least that's what I was hoping. But then they kind of called me out and, you know, made it look like, you know, it was something that I wouldn't have loved to jump all over. And that wasn't the case. So I just had to set the record straight. You make a very good point because I agree with you. I don't think they should have made that fight off the bat. I know you wanted to be a part of history. but that's the fight they should have in their back pocket.

That's the big rematch. You lasted longer with her than anyone combined, and there's a lot of heat there. I mean, that's the money fight. You and Cyborg against her, those are the money fight, so why give it up right off the bat? But they kind of called you out. They, in a way, threw you under the bus there.

And is that what bothered you the most? That's exactly what bothered me. It wasn't that I didn't get offered the fight because I'm okay with earning the rematch. You know, I'm okay with working my way back up there and really feeling like I deserve that position. I'm fine with that. But I'm not okay with Rhonda saying, you know, that I'm basically afraid to fight her and that I turned that fight down and that she thinks it's funny that that happened because it never happened. If I wasn't offered to me and for whatever reason that is, I like to think that it's for a bigger, better reason, down the road.

That's not the case, you know, and it's not something that if the UFC had offered to me, I would ever even consider turning down. why do you think that was said i you know i don't know i i kind of want to you know ronda's one of those people who like to say things that get uh get attention and she likes to call people out she likes you know what i don't know if she really believed that or if it was just something that she kind of wanted to run with a little bit but um you know either way for me that's not important what's important is that i'm able to get my my truth out there and uh you know so that's that record straight, like I said. Because you did say that you wanted to take time off and why not, is it possible that they just looked at that, heard that, and said, all right, she's not ready to

fight? And I'm wondering, if so, did they even come back to you privately and not just look at your public comments and say, hey, are you sure you want to take this time off because we're going to do X and Y? No, never. That's the problem. I think, you know, I mean, I could say that maybe that's why they didn't ultimately decide is because I had, I had made it. clear that I wanted to take some time off. But I mean, like I said, you know, if they would have came to me and said, are you sure? Because, you know, we may have this on the table. I would have said, okay, that's fine. I forget the time off. That's something worthwhile. It's not the strike force undercard. It's not, you know, against a no-name opponent. This is a huge opportunity

and it's something I'd like to take advantage of. You know, that would have been my reply. But like I said, it was never presented to me in that way. So to be clear. I was never presented at all, actually. period. If Dana White or Sean Shelby called you up, you know, a week or so ago and said, we are offering you an opportunity to fight February 23rd against Ronda Rousey, 100% you'd take that fight? I take that fight. Yeah, I mean, you can't. I mean, who would not take that fight? I don't, you know what I mean? I don't see where anyone could think that I, any woman wouldn't want to take that fight. Any woman, that's like a huge, huge opportunity, you know, and if I was Liz, I would be doing the exact same thing that she is.

You know, I would be trying to get the fight and excited for it and doing all that stuff. I would take the fight, although, you know, I think it's not a good matchup for her. You know what I mean? I see where she is. You know, she's excited for that and as I would be. But like I said, I didn't even know that that was happening. You know, when Rhonda got signed, I figured it would, I figured it would actually be a lot further down the road than February when she would even get her first fight. So I'm, like, completely out of the loop here.

I didn't know that Rhonda was going to be getting signed so quickly. I didn't know that they were going to, you know, hand her a UFC belt at the press conference. And I didn't know that Liz was going to be announced as their first opponent or even that soon. So I really evidently have no clue what's going on. Have you talked to anyone in the UFC about this? About the situation, about why they said what they said, why she's fighting in February, Liz, everything. Have you reached out to anyone? I have, actually.

I talked to Sean. and I mean, he set the record straight for me as well. You know, he said, yeah, I know you weren't offered the fight. What's the big deal? Because I had text him, and he got the text when I landed, and right off the bat, he said, yeah, I know you were never offered the fight. And I said, okay, well, thank you. Can you help me set the record straight?

And then I also text Dane, and I said, you know, I just thought you should know that I wasn't ever offered the fight. And he kind of gave me the same thing. And I said, well, I mean, why is Rhonda going around saying, you know, specifically, and you guys implying that myself and Sarah McMahon were called and turn down the fight and and he kind of was just like well you know that that wasn't you know exactly what you know said and sometimes I have a poor choice and word and he just basically kind of told me you know it's all good in the big picture and so I just said all right cool you know thank you and

you know I look forward to fighting in the future does that make you feel better it did yeah I mean and I think uh if you see Dana's comments the day after the presser he kind of backpedaled you know and I think he realized um that he kind of kind of pissed me off a little bit. And, you know, you don't want a scorned woman running around there. So I think he was kind of like, all right, you know, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to clarify things and set the record straight. And so, you know, I was definitely appreciative of that because it's the truth.

That's what really happened. At the presser, Dana admitted that this is the Ronda Rousey show. He said it himself. They are getting into it because of Ronda. Does that bother you? I think they're putting a little too many eggs in one basket. I mean, what happens if she goes out there and she does lose to Liz for some reason or lose her first bite? I mean, then it's kind of like all this, all this that they put into it is all nothing.

You know, I feel like it's not maybe the smartest thing to just space everything solely off of Ronda. You know, and clearly there's more talent and, you know, I'm also right here too, you know, and I really feel like I was a big part of making history. You know, for instance, if I had just tapped out when Rhonda got me in the arm bar, it wouldn't have been such an explosive thing. You know what I mean? I feel like the reason that she's up for submission of the year is because of my stubbornness, because I made it that way. I didn't tap out, you know, until my arm was literally completely backwards in porn and whatnot, you know, but that was my doing and my choice, you know. I mean, she put me in the arm bar and I could have just like, oh, tap, tap, tap, and it would have been like, oh, okay, she got another arm bar, no big deal.

but the fact that, you know, I held off and, like, made it so dramatic, it really helped to build her hype and her legend. And, you know, I don't feel I get as much credit for that as I would like. But either way you look at it, I'm happy that women are coming to UFC. And if it's, you know, everyone says it's at the hands of Rhonda, then fine. I don't care because I'm there too. Are you concerned at all? Let's say if she does lose or if she needs to take an extended period of time off, Are you concerned that once that happens, there is no women's MMA in the UFC?

That's definitely a valid concern. I've thought a little bit about that, and it is kind of nerve-wracking because, like I said, it doesn't really seem like they're acknowledging anyone else but Ronda. And I don't see the point of building a division on one person. I really think it's important to have multiple stars so that if something did happen to her and someone else had to step up, you know, that we have some kind of a following too. It would be nice to have some mutual support coming into the UFC, but I don't know. I mean, they must just have a lot of faith in her.

I think she's beatable, you know, and when I get my chance to rematch her, I hope to be the first one to do so. Do you think that the powers at B are almost rooting for her, like they're a little too biased towards her? I think so. To be honest, I do. I think that they want her to win. I think they want her to have a long, healthy rain as the chance.

and I think that they think she's exactly what women's MMA needs to succeed, you know. And I don't know. You know, personally, I think I could do just fine in the same position. And, you know, it's up to me to prove that. You know, it's up to me to go out there, win the fights I need to win, win the rematch, and, you know, carry the weight of the world on my shoulders for a little while, you know, and I plan to do so. So I got a little bit of work cut out for me, clearly.

but, you know, I'm going to take the right steps and I'm going to do it. Have you signed with the UFC yet? I can't say. Oh, that's not fun. I know, it's no fun. You know, but I mean, I'm still under contract with Strike Force, and I'm not fighting in January.

So, I mean, if that gives you kind of any indication, you know what I mean? Yeah. I don't think my contract is just going to disappear. So now that you are not fighting, obviously, on February 23rd, are you back to the idea? that you want to take the year off? Well, I mean, a year goes by really quickly.

I fought the end of August, so I'm hoping to maybe make my return sometime in maybe May or so, you know, sometime in the spring. So it's not too far off. So the fact that you're finally going to realize your dream of fighting the UFC has not expedited things for you? Not necessarily. You know, because like I said, I think everything's still so. about Rhonda, Ronda, Ronda, that I think there's some other things that's really important

that I do and ensure in my future outside of fighting so that I can bring more to the table when I do return and when I do make my UOC entrance, I'm going to have a lot more hype behind me. There's a lot of things that I'm doing outside of fighting that I hope will get me more media attention, more coverage, more value, basically, so that when I do sign and re-sign that I'll have a little more weight to push around. Like what? Well, I recently just signed with Fighters Power.

It's a supplement company. We just made a commercial for the awards this year, the M.A Award. Working on some bigger deals, they just signed with Tom Call, a manager of mine that does 60% of his endorsements outside of the UFC. And there's just a lot of things that I'm working on, commercials, magazines, shows those kinds of things that I think add value to you as more than being just a fighter. I think everyone knows that, you know, I'm one of the top 135ers out there. I'm ranked number two or three in my weight division, you know, pound for pound. I'm in the top four.

And I'm tough, you know, and I go out there and I fight, you know, but what else do I have to offer beyond that? And that's what I've really been brainstorming about. And that's where I'm trying to advance myself. Like I said, so I have a little bit more weight to push around. When you were on this show... She was just on the cover of Oxygen magazine. She was just on all these other shows.

I mean, that's really what has skyrocketed in her star power. It's not necessarily just for fighting. It's a combination of both. Sure. And so, in her due so, it's been very motivating for me. When you were on this show back in August after your winover, Julie Kedzea, it was a fascinating interview that you gave us, and you talked about wanting to take that time off. Do you feel like in the last four months, like slowly but surely, you know, you're

accomplishing what you want to accomplish, or you're still? slowly getting the fire back, you're resting. Do you feel like, you know, it's been good. Having that mindset, okay, I'm going to take this little break from the sport. I know this whole thing just happened in the last few days, but are things going well for you, mentally, physically, et cetera? Yeah, absolutely. Ashley, I think it is exactly what I needed. And I feel refreshed. And I feel that fire and I feel that hunger coming back. And it's very rejuvenating. You know, it's refreshing. And it makes me feel happy. again. So that's what I was looking for, and I think I'm going about it the right way.

By the way, I know you were pretty vocal after George St. Pierre had some thoughts, and he was asked about it before his fight about women's MMA, and he wasn't, you know, he came out and said he's not a huge fan of it. I don't think he ever said that you guys don't belong or he doesn't want to see you in the UFC. He just said it's not his thing. He doesn't like to see women get punched in the face, and both you and Rhonda are very vocal. And, you know, expressed how much disappointment you had in those comments. Do you think that you may be overreacted, or do you think it was valid to criticize them the way you did? I don't think I overreacted.

You know, I wanted to make a bold statement. The fact is, you know, when I say that George St. Pierre is ignorant about women's M.A. I really feel that he is. I feel he's not educated because I can't understand how someone who loves MMA as himself and someone who's a competitor not understanding or. or appreciating women's MMA because it's really no different. I think that he's like he said somewhat old school, and I'm not disrespected by what he said, by all means.

But what I'm trying to do is challenge him to open his mind to a new perception. I've seen it happen time and time again. I don't know how many people have said, oh, I can't watch women fight, or I don't like to watch a woman fight, or women fighting's a bad thing, or whatever, whatever excuse. And then they sit down and they watch an Invicta fight card reluctantly, and by the end of it, they're a fan, a hardcore fan. And I feel like by him never having actually watched women fight, I mean, he doesn't really have an opinion on it then.

You know, I think if he would sit down and watch us fight, he would realize that we're not victims out there and we don't need protecting. And I think that's kind of where his natural mindset is about women is that they need to be protected. He's old school. He's like, women should their gentle little flowers. And I think that we get out there and fight and he'll see one girl crack the other girl hard in the face. And the girl that just got hit bounces around with a smile on her face. you can't tell me that these women don't, we don't get out there and love it and, you know, enjoy it. And I think that if he actually watched it, he would see that and he would come to appreciate the fact that we're warriors just like he is, you know?

So hopefully, you know, we could change his mindset. He's someone that I've looked up to for a really long time. And it would be nice to have his full-fledged support. You mentioned earlier that you don't like Liz Karmouche's chances going into the fight on February 23rd. Why not? because I don't feel that she's experienced enough. She started MMA somewhat late in her career. She's a very strong girl,

but I think in judo with her background, it's going to work against her. I think going out there and trying to muscle anything, you know, she doesn't have the best footwork per se, and she just isn't the most experience. And I've been in there with Ronda. I can tell you that she's very good at what she does,

and I don't see Liz's defensive skills developed enough. You know, I've watched her ground game, and, you know, she's definitely making improvements every fight. She looks better and better, but I don't believe that she's on Rhonda's level yet. And, you know, I think it could be a very difficult fight for her to win. But with that said,

I don't blame her for taking it, and I actually really admire her for wanting to step up and do that and take on the best in the world. It's going to be a big challenge. But either way, win or lose, it's a big fight for Liz. and it was a smart, smart career decision. By the way, where are you with that concrete wall behind you? You asked me that last time.

Oh, really? Remember I had a cell thing going on? Oh, yes. I was just thinking, you look like you're in a jail cell. And I asked you that already. I'm sorry. You did. No, you asked me that last time.

I'm actually in the basement. Oh. Don't let her lock up. Caged up. I got to keep her down here in the basement because you're hungry and me and you got to keep her cage in the jail cell. Fair enough. Hey, Brian, how are you?

I'm awesome, man. It's good to see you guys. Good to see you, too. How are you feeling? I know you have to pull out of the fight this weekend. How are you feeling? You know, I'm feeling a lot better. I finally got back to some hard training last week.

And, you know, it was really bummer. I had to pull out of my hometown, you know, my home state bite. But, you know, it's all good. Everything happens for a reason. And, you know, I'm just excited to get back in there as soon as I can, hopefully February or March. And against, you know, a top 10 opponent or close to a top 10 opponent. By the way, before I let you guys go, this is my last question.

I do believe that the biggest fight that they could put on for Rhonda on Fox, network television, the fight that would bring all the attention would be Rhonda Rousey versus Brian Carraway. What do you think, Brian? Oh, God, we're going to go down that route again. Battle of the sexes. Based on most of the fans, yeah, they probably would love that. They probably would love that. Would you do it?

Would you do it? Absolutely not. Oh, okay. That's a lose-lose situation. I mean, I go out there and destroyer and beat her up easily. Obviously, I know what it is to compete against a world-class level. My girlfriend was a former world champion. I know what the level is out there.

You know, so I go out there and kill her and destroyer. I'm a bad guy. I won't beat her. If I go out there and lose, geez, what's now? So there's nothing, there's no winning thing in that. All right. Fair enough. Well, good to see you guys.

I'm happy that we cleared the air here, Misha. And good to see you, Brian. happy that you're getting back on track. Good luck to you guys and looking forward to seeing you both back in the cage very soon. Thanks, Ariel. Back to later. There they are.

Misha Tate, Brian Carraway. Glad I got that last question in there. I still do believe that that is a money fight for the UFC. Battle of the Sexes. Remember Bobby Riggs, Billy Jean King, tennis match. Was it the Astrodome in the 70s?

That was a huge event. Of course, we had the back and forth between Brian and Rhonda back in the day. So anyway, the bottom line is I do think that even though everything was kind of weird how it was presented, Sarah McMahon also coming out saying she was never offered the fight. I did speak to Monty Cox, who is Sarah McMahon's manager, who said that even if they were offered the fight, which they weren't, they would have turned it down. So kind of, you know, works out in that sense. Chris Seiborgs saying she's not ready to go down to 135, but she could get there at 7.5. some point and opening the door for that massive fight, I do think that Liz almost makes the most sense because at the end of the day, if they're going to put this fight on pay-per-view,

and there's certainly a valid argument to be made that this fight should be on network television, but if they're going to put it on pay-per-view, the draw is Ronda Rousey making her UFC debut, the first ever women's title fight in UFC history. That's the draw. Now, in your back pocket, you have the big Misha Tate rematch, if she continues to win and look good. You know, you sell that first fight. They obviously have a history, et cetera. She lasted longer than all our fights combined, essentially. So you have that.

You have the Sarah McMahon fight who, you know, maybe one or two wins. You build her up and, you know, she's undefeated. Olympian silver medalist. You have the cyborg fight. So now you've got a list of guys or gals out there, I should say, who are ready to fight run Rousey and present intriguing matchups for her. So the Liz fight, I actually think makes the most sense because you build up Liz and tell her story, but at the end of the day, that's the draw.

It's Rhonda, and then if she looks good and wins, then you start building up these other competitors, and you have those matchups. Dana White has always said the talent pool is too shallow. Well, look, it's not shallow anymore. We have some intriguing matchups, and I just hope if Ronda Rousey loses, let's just say she loses.

It can happen. This is a real sport that they won't get out of the women's MMA business because you do have some talented 135 pounders who deserve to be in there as well. Now let's move along, and welcome in our last guest of the day. I believe it is our last guest of the day. The surprise guest that I was trying to get

doesn't appear to be materializing. But New York, Rick, why don't you check in on them one last time to see if that's possible for now? Let us go back to the Skype machine and welcome in Mr. H.D. himself, Pat Barry. What's happening, man? I'm last. Like, back at the bus?

No, save the best for last. Oh, like that. All right, just checking. Make sure it was that one. Well, it is good to see you, Pat. You're wearing a tuk right now I'm doing great You're wearing a tuk

What's going on under the tuk Oh nothing There's no party happening under there Oh no no no It's going But I just got back to Minneapolis And there's like three feet of snow outside So yeah we just came from outside

Wow man Okay we need to talk about this Because you brought out this video You showed me this video You were at Grudge You had the hair You've talked about for so long That you're not gonna shave your head

At least the top of your head until you submit someone in the UFC, and then they concoct this plan, they take you down, they shave your head, and you seriously seem depressed, devastated. Hey, man, you know what? They, they disliked it for quite some time.

I mean, I'll tell you it's not the greatest, uh, necessary, uh, piece of hair work, uh, on earth. I,

I'll agree to that. But they really, really did like it. I mean, because I mean, it was just, I haven't had hair since I was high school. I mean,

like once I'd lost a, a lot of, a long time. time ago, I had to shave my head for the first time, had to get a low cut. Other than that, after that, I was like, oh, I'm never going back to having hair again, man. I don't want to have to wake up and comb it and have to get out of the shower and dry it off and have to make it look all sexy. But, yeah, now, they couldn't stand it, man.

They couldn't stand it. I don't think they liked me coming around with borets and ponytails and little pigtails tied up. I look like Cindy Lou Who most of the time. But it's not their hair, and we're going to be playing that footage here of them, devising this plan and taking you down and ultimately shaving you, Brendan Shab, you know, locking you up and Nate Marquard shaving your head. But it's not their hair.

You could do whatever you want with your hair. Yeah, you know what? That was a guy named Cody, a guy named Josh, a big dude named Vinny. Brendan wasn't a part of it. Brendan, Brendan wasn't a part of it. So I just throw that out there before. Was he not? He starts to get some flight.

No, he wasn't there. But it was Nate. Nate, Vinny, Leicester Bowling, Josh. Oh, man. You know what? In the one outstanding line out of the entire, there was two. There was two lines, two quotes that people have picked up on. One quote from me saying, y'all about to be a bunch of dead white.

There was that one. But then the famous line that stood on more than anything else comes from Leicester Bowling himself, said, if you knew Jiu-Jitsu, you'd be able to get up. I mean, you know what? As upsetting and as depressing and as much as I didn't want that to happen, when it was going on, when he said that a part of my upsetness had to stop and go, hey, I was pretty good. That was pretty quick thinking on your board. Did you cry?

I didn't cry, man, but I was pretty burned up about it. I mean, that was whack. I mean, I knew they disliked it. They had talked about doing it before. I didn't think it was really going to happen, though. but more than anything else it was the fact that one there already is no oxygen in Denver

two if you listen to that video when they're devising the plan it sounds like lightning is striking in the background that's me kicking the bag I've been like burning out doing these power kicks on the bag blowing it up then they tackle me that's garbage but I couldn't one I couldn't stop it so if that was an alley I'd just be raped

I couldn't stop it like I wasn't able to like defend myself at all and the same time apparently I'm claustrophobic because I started having a little bit of an anxiety attack under there, man. I was, that was whack, man. And you know what? Maybe if he had done the whole thing,

but the fact that he did a quarter of the front, and I had to walk around for a day and a half like that, that was a... Now, why did you have to do that? Why didn't you just go cut it that day? Cut it with what? You don't have... They don't have barbershops there?

I don't know. I'm in Denver on a... I still had to go to practice, so it was like I can go and either make... myself look better, I can continue training for this fight of guy coming up, so. You didn't care. I had to make a choice, man. Had to make a choice.

You know what? Actually, I've got no shame, man, so I didn't mind necessarily walking around with them. Everywhere they went, I was just like, hey, guys. Like, I mean, I had the whole homeless role coming out of that, man. But, I mean, there's been one or two videos that have come out because of that, because of that little, that ball of hair missing on my forehead. So what was it like at the gym? was it kind of awkward for a second?

Because you seemed legitimately upset with them. It was, you know what? I think that you can see, you can tell when somebody's upset and you can tell when somebody's just joking. I think everyone knew that I wasn't joking around. So that was at the end of practice. They were all finished up. So it wasn't, maybe it would have been awkward

if practice was just starting, but the fact that they did it, and after they did it, they all left. So, yeah. So as much as I wanted to be a three-year-old, I wanted to just follow them all home and just be mad in their face the whole time, but nah, it was all right. Did you cut your hair yourself now, or did you go to a barber? Apparently, Trevor Whitman is the almighty Trevor Whitman.

This dude is not only a boxer, but a phenomenal boxing coach. He's a, he's an executive chef, and he's a barber all at the same time. Wow. So he cut your hair. Was it sad, though, when they finally cleaned it all up? You know what? It was sad, and at the same time, it was a relief. Like, it was sad.

because I think I'd gone almost 13 months without having my haircut. That was the longest my hair's ever been. But at the same time, it was a relief because I no longer had to say, all right, hold on in between rounds. Hold on my ponytail came out. I didn't have to worry about sweating all day and night because my head was so hot or anything like that, man. But at the same time, it was whack because I made a promise.

Yeah. Because of all... You know there are people actually telling me, hey, man, you said you weren't going to cut it, So yes, they shaved the fourth of it off. You should leave it like that until you get a submission. But, nah, I don't think there's any way the UFC would let me come on TV looking like that. I must admit, I actually thought you were going to leave it like that.

I really did. The whole missing? I really did. And you know what? If any part of me believed, you know what, in actuality, that'd be one hell of a distraction. I mean, you think you'd be able to fight somebody? I'm going to bite you if you come. I'm going to scratch you with a butt.

You know what I mean? That might have been like a pretty, that probably would have been an advantage to me in this fight coming up. And what more motivation do you need than looking like that to submit someone? I mean, that's the ultimate motivation to get that thing on your head. You know it. You know it, man. But I will say this.

And this is something that I've come to grips with. Yes, I said that I wasn't going to cut the top of my hair until I get a submission in the UFC. Yes, this is true. This is one hell of a goal. I'm not submitting anybody. Not going to do it, but as awesome as it would be, if Pat Barry submitted someone, that'd be amazing. But I just highly doubt, I highly doubt that if I ever, even if I get a guacamplata on somebody, that's never going to be as loved as much as if I put someone's brain out of the back of the neck.

Listen, if Brock Lesnar submitted someone, you could submit someone. Oh, no, I could definitely submit someone. But I'm saying, what would you rather see? Me submits a body and me to take someone's head off their body. Well, I gotta admit, I've seen you kick a lot of people. I think it would be a great sight to see you submit someone. It would, but it would be quickly forgotten. It'd be remembered because it was a joke.

But it's like, oh, man, Pat submitted somebody. We're really hoping he was going to knock someone out. Did it motivate you, though? Did you train more jiu-jitsu because you had this little promise and you wanted to get rid of the hair? Of course. Yes, absolutely. Besides the fact that I've got to train wrestling in jiu-jitsu anyway

because of my light years behind everybody, according to the rest of the world. But, no, I mean, having that, having that bushel on the top of my head, it was fun for a while, but, I mean, it became a little tedious. It became a little bit of work. Like yourself, for instance, man. We might be cousins nowadays. I like it.

When you wake up in the morning, do you really have to go in the mirror and calm it? No. You don't have to do anything to it. I don't even have to check on it. I don't ever have to go, hey, man, oh, oh, yeah, nothing's there. It's very nice. You know, thank you. When I spoke to you in October at UFC,

on FX5, you talked to me about the end of Death Clutch, and that you are now working with Greg Nelson and his team, but here you were at Grudge. So what happened? Did you split some time? How'd you end up there? Yeah, no, no, I did half and half.

I've always wanted to work with Trevor. I don't know if he likes this story or not. But I've always wanted to, I've been wanting to work with Trevor Whitman for a while now. Only problem was, I didn't know his last name. I knew who Trevor was. I knew what kind of coach you was. I had known all the stories about but I couldn't find him because anyone know Trevor? Okay, never knew what his last, couldn't figure out what his last name was until we got to the show.

But I'd always wanted to work with him. Now, ever since I've been back from Minneapolis, ever since I've been back from Amsterdam, it's also a known fact. And my striking has kind of near slow down a little bit just because the level of heavyweight striking out here in comparison to the level of heavyweight striking out with the Dutch is just different. I've always wanted to work with Trevor. I wanted to get back to my striking game, so I did have and half. Greg Nelson can teach you how to kill anybody.

Anybody, like with anything. He can, you can, he's got a wrestling jujitsu fight mentality and a fight game out of this world. Trevor knows the fight game in a different type of way, and more that I can relate to. Greg Nelson is going to show you how to punch, kick somebody, hold him down, pull out the jugular, like pull an ear off, replace it with the other ear. Like, he can show you how to completely dismember somebody. Trevor and I, we get along because we understand the punching, kicking game very well. So is that what you're going to do for the foreseeable future now?

Well, that's, man, that's what it seems like. I mean, I really, we, we like it here. We like it here in Minneapolis, myself and Rose. She's over there. Wait, hold on. Let me just. She's over there. Oh, hey, Rose.

How are you? Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. I got to admit, I follow Pat on Twitter and Instagram.

You two seem like you are incredibly in love. I mean, it's unbelievable that what it just jumps out. Man, the way he talks about you, like you could just see it. It's just unbelievable. Look at all that. Man, look at all that. Man, that's why. You are in love, my friend.

Well, oops. Yeah, so, no. So we are, you know, we both, we both like it here. We like where we are. We like the area that we're in. I mean, we moved here. For the most part, we moved here because I needed to train with Death Clutch. And that was the plan.

We moved here. They all fell apart and they all went on with their lives and did everything else. So naturally, everyone thinks, oh, see, where are you going to move to now? We're not going to go anywhere as of right now. We really like the Academy. Greg Nelson knows way more. I knew he knew a lot. But he's light years past what I thought, you know, that I could get from him.

He's saying things in a way that I've had 12 other. wrestling and jujitsu coaches say, but for some reason, the pattern of words that he uses just makes sense to me. She's learning a ridiculous amount. She's there full time. So will I be going back and forth between here and grudge with Trevor? Yeah, that's the plan for now. That's what's going to be going on. Will both Trevor and Greg be in your corner on Saturday? Yes, they will. Oh, that's great. Yes, they will. I'm trying to get Trevor to hold Greg on his shoulders. Just make up one big person with like a giant trench coat. That's what I'm going for, but I don't know if that's going to work.

Now, how did you get on the show? How'd you hook up with those guys? To be a coach. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, which caught, I had been knowing Shane, like, not really knowing, knowing him, but, like, every time we were at events together or the fan expos or what is the, the Fighter Summit, every time that we were at these things, we just got along really well. Like, as soon as we said, hi, the first, how are you doing, I'm Patty's like I'm Shane,

we shook hands. There was like some type of, some type of connection that automatically came there that was just, parent. It was obvious. So every time we're around each other, we just laugh and talk the entire time the whole time. Then the more we spoke to each other, the more we told each other about ourselves, the more we would have a lot in common. We both grew up

without dads. We both grew up, like, in certain areas of wherever we lived. We both got these types of moms. We've both got this mentality. We're really, really, really similar. He's huge, and I'm only kind of me. Like, that's the only the difference. But he wanted me to come out. He knew that I had a certain skill set that he felt like he could

infant from, and that I've also got a personality that I can get along with anybody. He's in a room with 10 strangers and 5 minutes. We're all friends. Like, he knew that, so he just brought me out, one for the personality for the show, but then he also wanted to do some work with me. By the way, the last time we saw you in action was in May, UFC on Fox 3. Why seven months off? I don't know. I was waiting for the phone call. I didn't.

So you were ready. You were ready to fight earlier. well after after after the, after the Levor fight I had a think like a what happened after Levor

did I did a thumb break hey anything break nothing broken in the fight with Levor huh I know my

my thumb was my thumb was I had a yeah right fractured right thumb right in the joint I couldn't man I gotta get out of this game

I couldn't even remember just now like something was broken I think yeah the fractured right thumb right in the joint that's what took it so long to heal

but other than that I was just waiting I was just waiting for the phone to ring, man. What do you think of Del Rosario? That's a fun matchup. I mean, also, Stryker. Do you like that matchup? Yeah, yes, I do a lot. One, because of his style of fighting in mind matched up together.

But two, we had some, we kind of know each other. Like, I mean, he's a really cool cat, man. I mean, he's a cool guy. We got along the few days that we were around each other, man. And he's, like, I haven't seen him ever. in a bit. But I think, like, from a fan point of view, that's the kind of fight that I want to see.

Like, the fight with myself and the other, if I were someone else, that's the kind of fight that I would want to see, is the two things that we can both offer. Why don't you get Mirko to be in your corner? He's busy. He doesn't really come out to these events, the corner guys, does he? No, he doesn't really do that.

But he, I mean, he's also, if he wasn't actively training and actively fighting himself, with the K-1 and the kickboxing or whatever promotion that he's dealing with nowadays, then I'm sure he'd be likely to do it. I mean, he's offered a million times, but every time he's fighting so regularly and training so regularly,

he's also a fan man, he's got two wonderful sons, a wife, you know, he's got his life back in Croatia. By the way, it seems like there's a bit of a resurgence in the kickboxing world. You know, K-1's coming back, glory's doing good things. Does that, you know,

does that bone ever need to be itch? Does that desire ever need to be satisfied or are you MMA all the time? Every day. So why don't you go back to it? Ah, it's just not where it's at right now. I mean, yes, of course, there's the resurgence of the kick. Yeah, but that just started. Let's wait up from it.

Let's see if that really happens. It came back, then it died. Then it started up again. It's big and it died. It's just right now I'm in the MMA world, man. This is where I'm at. right now. This is what I'm going to be swinging for and doing, you know,

like going the distance with. This is the plan. I'm not, I don't jump around that easy, man. Right. I left kickboxing because kickboxing was over. You know, and I got into MMA. That was the next, that was the next evolution of the fight sport. It was like, you know, all right, first you box, now you can punch and kick, and now you can punch and kick and squeak stuff.

You know what I mean? As soon as, as as soon as fighting with sticks starts in the next 10 years, I'll be there, but this is, this is the epitome of fight sport as it right now. But you think there's a chance you may go back at some point before you retire? I'd love to. I'd love to have a kickboxing match again.

I'd love to. You know what? Find somebody in the UFC who just want, let's just punch you kick each other until one of us quits or falls down. I mean, let's do that. But no, nobody wants to do that. They get punched once or punch flies past their face. And they go, ooh, no, wrestling is where it's at, except for LeBar. Right.

By the way, just a couple more things before we let you go. January 26th, John Dotson is fighting Demetrius Johnson for the flyway title in Chicago on Fox. Will you be there front and center telling all the boo birds to shut the hell up? I will for sure. I would love to be there specifically for that fight right there. And I'm just going to wait. I'm going to wait. I think if I can, I'm going to bring a bullhorn.

I'm going to catch him on the other side of the arena. It doesn't matter. Why are you doing? That fight, you know what? I think if anything, if people boo, it's because they can't see what's happening because there's going to be like a Dragon Ball Z fight where they're moving so fast. Right. And so much action is happening, they won't be able to, they won't be able to make any sense out of it.

Serious question here. Does Pat Barry have the fire? Do you have the killer instinct? Do you have the motivation to knock someone's head off when you're so in love? Yeah. You do? As a matter of fact, man, that's, that right there is the reason. Like, that's the, that is the.

a really big a really, a really, really, really, really. Oh! That's right there. That is a, ha. Don't look at it. No, man, that's a, that's a really big, a really big motivation for me,

a really big, uh, drive, a really big fire under my ass. I mean, like, like all around, man. Like, this is, this, it's, man. Man, if you, if you, if you've never, never felt this or anything like this before. If you don't love nothing in your life, then you're missing out on something. It doesn't matter what it is.

It doesn't even have to be someone else. It could be something else, just anything. But, like, people have this. They use this word way to, y'all, man, I love this, man. I love it. Really, would you die for it? That's just, that's different, man. You know what I mean?

So if you find, you've got to, if you don't have that, you don't, you're missing, you're missing a big hole. And it wasn't until I actually had it, that I actually realized what it was. I always heard about it. You always hear about it. Oh, yeah, I know. You know what?

I love being single man because I don't have to answer anybody. I can do whatever I want. Hey, you know what? Anybody who says that is they've never, they've never felt this. Now, no one will ever feel this. This is particular for me. But just in your own lives, whatever it could be. You know, you could love a slice of pizza.

When did you guys meet? but you oh man uh a few years ago she punched me in the face wow is how it happened are you ready you're ready you're ready for how it happened yeah this is this is how it goes all right this is this is this scenario oh man what is god that was that was harder than i thought it was gonna be i love you is that too early here just quick man all right don't punch me again i swear the guy and I fucking tried to about hit her once and really this is what the face

this is what the punch looked like when I landed a hammer on it she went just like this yeah that was it that was that was that was the first sign the second sign is when I saw it eat something so you've been together for a couple years because I only feel like I've seen you really talk about your infatuation

with your girlfriend for the last like few months well we didn't talk about it at all that was that was a whole uh that we don't. But now you're a lot more open. Now you're like an open book. Well, that's just because it's, I mean, she's all, she's having her pro debut, January 5th. Invicta.

And Invicta. She's had five fights so far, five, like completely one-sided. Holy, wow, you didn't have to hit that chick that hard fights. And so her name is getting out there and people see us in pictures together and whatnot. So it's not that we're making it a point to say, here, everyone, look at us. but it just in the beginning, it just, it wasn't necessary to,

you know, people, hey man, who are you, who's that? It's, gross, man, shout up.

Like, don't, you know, you see these people out there and there are couples in the limelight, man, they get this, all this attention that gets drawn to them.

You know what we really like? One of our favorite things to do, leave us alone. That's one of our favorite. Which is weird to say that because we tweet and send pictures and videos and we're putting ourselves out there in the media all the time, but we really,

really, one of our favorite past times is phones off computers off disappear from the world but she's coming up man she's going to be a very very very known name so i'm just you know how do you pronounce her last name how you pronounce her last name yeah it looks like namajunas yeah namajunas yeah namaiunus rose namuunus fighting in invicta rosa what way class f c4 115 115 yeah one 15 yeah she's and 115, but she's fought she's fought 1.25, 130, 135, 135, 140, and 142.

Dang. At 118 pounds. Wow. Fearless. She'll fight, too, if you got the same height. It's crazy. And she would kick my ass. First thing's first for the Barry's, if you will.

This Saturday, Del Rosario, on FX, looking forward to it. Always good to catch up with you, Pat. And I truly, my heart went out to you when I saw that video. I felt so bad for you. I felt like you were bullies. by these guys, but I'm happy that you've put it to bed at least.

You've made amends. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yes, I said that I made amends. Oh, it's not over. Okay. It's not over. If I could somehow figure out how I can get Neymourke court to wake up with dreads, I'm going to do it.

Like, somehow, I'm going to figure out how I can, like, miracle gross and, like, big curly, like, frolocks on his head, something. Something. All right. Good luck on Saturday, Pat. No problem, but I'll see you all that when you get another. Unfortunately, I will not be at this one. Man, I'm not going in.

What are you talking about? How are you not going to be at this one? Who am I supposed to talk to after the fight? Man, it hurts me. You don't know how much it hurts me. I love this card. I just said it was the best tough finale in UFC history. It hurts me not to be there.

Unfortunately, prior obligations have stopped me from going. All right. My obligations, man, bring it up with you. No, it's not that. It's not that. Trust me, I will be watching. I'll be watching very closely, and I'm sorry that I won't be there because it is an honor to always interview you after the fights. That's all right, brother.

Anytime, man. Hey, yo, now, ever since we've gotten this whole visual, the sky, and this is clear as a mug, man. Really, anytime you want to, I'm always up for it. I'm usually just sitting here. Well, maybe just in a week time after you pick up the big win on Saturday. Okay. There's your motivation. Thank you so much, Pat.

Thank you so much, Rose. Good luck to you on Saturday, man. No problem, man. Be cool. There he is. Pat H.D. Barry. and his girlfriend Rose, great to have them on the show. Any luck with our...

I guess no luck with that. All right, well, we'll try to figure that out. Had another guest lined up. Didn't want to spill the beans, if you will. No luck there, right, Eric? All right. Let us move along now. Let's take some caller questions.

Let's go to the phone lines. Then we'll go to Twitter. Then we'll go to... Actually, we'll take the calls. Then I want to do Rick's Pizzards. then I want to take the questions last, all right? All good. Let us first go to Spencer and Toronto.

Spencer are you there? How's it going? Hey, man. Hey, I was just wondering what you guys thought about the, I guess, WWES-Match making going on in the UFC, excluding the injury issues, obviously, because I understand a lot of those matches. But, I don't know, like, how do you think fighters,

like Johnny Hendricks or Kane Velasquez back when they announced Alasur-Overeign would be getting the shot? Like, I know that Kane's fighting. him now, but Dana keeps on coming out and saying all these fights that don't make sense, in my opinion, at least. I don't know. How do you think they feel about it not being, I guess, traditional structure or tournament structure? Well, I think for the most part, the UFC does a good job of, you know, building contenders

and giving those contenders the proper fights and whatnot. I think obviously the Chal Sun and situation was a unique one because of the ultimate fighter because of the trash talk because of what happened, you know, with 151 getting canceled and all that. I can understand why they would put, look, Johnny Hendricks definitely, you know, he brought a very strong case to the table here today and he's done so for the last couple days. And I feel for him, he is the number two welterweight in the world, in my opinion. He has done everything that they've asked and then some. I mean, he knocked out Martin Capman, knocked out John Fidd.

beat Josh Koste, he's done what they've asked, and he has earned the shot. Now, you can't deny, though, that the bigger money fight at 170 is Nick Diaz versus GSP. They have history. And Dana White says, you know, GSP doesn't ask for a lot. The only thing he seems to really ask for is Nick Diaz. He asked for it before, it didn't happen, asked for it now, and is apparently getting it. So I don't think it's going the WWRoute. And for anyone who doesn't believe that there is some aspect of sports entertainment or, you know,

theatrics and storylines and all that, you're kidding yourself. I mean, that's what it's all about. That's why Roy McDonald got on the microphone and called out Carlos Condit. You know, that's why Chal's Sunnan is as popular as he is. That's why people like stories and they like the Diaz brothers because they have an image. That's why people are getting more into Roy McDonald's because he has a gimmick, if you will. So there's some of that. I'm not worried that it's going to go down that path and the integrity of the sport is going to go away.

Remember, Randy Couture got a title shot coming off a loss and beat Tim Sylvia for the heavyweight title. So this has happened before. So, that's right. I really were by question, I guess. I just want to know what you guys felt about all these, like, fighters, I guess, coming out. Like, all these people that, like, I guess you wouldn't think of to be as emotional or, like, outspoken about certain subjects like that coming out. And, I don't know, like Johnny Hendrick sounded really tense about that. I've never heard him talk about that.

It's like a really upbeat guy. Sure. I don't know. I just want to know what you guys thought about that sort of. Well, you know, I love it. I love that there's a... This, to me, has been one of my favorite shows of the year hearing, you know, from Johnny the way he sounded, from Mike Ritchie. You know, even Pat just now, Gagher Moussese. That's what I love about MMA, the emotion and how honest these guys are and how, you know, forthright they are with their comments. And for Johnny, I mean, imagine that you were in a situation at work where you're, you know, essentially promised the... or you think you've done enough to earn a promotion.

And then a guy who you believe is, for whatever reason, less deserving of the promotion gets it because for whatever reason, the boss has a good or bad issue with him. You know what I'm saying? Put yourself in his shoes. He feels like he did enough. The thing is, though, the UFC never went out and promised Johnny the shot. I mean, initially when Dana announced the fight back in June, I remember at the press conference in Florida, he said, you know, this kind of like a mini tournament, Hendricks-Campman co-mean event,

GSP Condit in the main event. And then the Anderson stuff started to happen and whatnot. And it seemed like he wasn't going to get the shot, but we thought it was going to be GSP Anderson. Now we think it's going to be Condit versus GSP. So either way, he's losing out, and he's in a tough spot. What do you do? Do you go out there and you fight someone and you risk losing that opportunity? Do you sit out and risk not fighting for 2012?

It's a very tough spot. I sympathize with him. And that's why he's so fired up. This is their lives. You know, how many chances you get to fight the best for the title? Your life will change forever if you win that fight. Look at Matt Sarah. You know, he beat GSP.

His life never was the same, even if he never beat him again and didn't have another, you know, great run after that. So I can understand why they're so fired up. Yeah, I agree. You know, one more thing, Spencer. You know, the thing is about MMA fans that I feel like we often forget is that it's not rock and sock and robots. And we forget this sometimes.

This guy's injured. Put this guy on. Oh, yeah, 100%. You know, and we forget. forget that these guys are actual human beings who pour their heart and soul out and blood, sweat, and tears and all that good stuff. So we have to remember that. This is life, this is life for them. Oh. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Let us move along now and go to California, where Alonzo is stopping, is standing by. Alonzo,

are you there? Hey, Ariel, how are you doing? Hey, man. I just had a quick little comment about the whole Benson-Hen-Henthewpick controversy, I guess, if you can call it that. I personally don't think it's a very big deal. It doesn't take a whole lot of talent. I mean, I remember I heard an interview. Come on.

I heard an interview with whole clothing one time saying that they carry razor blades inside in their mouth for 30-40 minutes. I don't know if they do that. The wrestlers would put it in their, in their, they'd have tape on their wrists, and then they would open it, and there would be a razor blade there,

and then they would cut themselves. I don't know. I never heard them say they, That's one way. If you check out Michael Chavelle's interview with Hulk Hogan, he said that he's actually spent days with it and he's forgotten about it. Okay, that's 100%. A, that's 100% BS. B, Hul C, Hogan is not known to be the kind of guy who often, you know, tells 100% the truth. C, did you forget, that's pro wrestling?

This is an MMA fight. It's real. He's getting punched in the face for real. Of course, it's physical and it's active and all that. But there's a guy out there trying to literally beat the hell out of you. you're not in some sort of choreographed match. It's a big difference. People still take hits.

Come on. Of course. Hey, we're not getting into the wrestling debate. I mean, not everybody can do something like that. But I just think there's like videos being made about all this. And I think it's kind of giving a little bit too much credit. Come on. He's not like a savior here.

By the way, I don't think anyone's like saying, you know, he's a god for doing this. I think we think he's crazy. for doing this. That is not a very smart thing to do, in my opinion. I'm not saying that he'd, like I said, I joke before, like, they should give him a title. Obviously, it's a joke. I think it's crazy to do that. And I think the commission should make extra sure that there are no toothpicks in his mouth the next time he fights.

He may train with it all he wants, but in a fight, it's not only dangerous for himself. It's dangerous for his opponent. So, yeah, I mean, and I don't know if he maybe like sought off the end so it's less pointy, but no, no, no. If I was unclear before, I'm not trying to give it. him props and saying that kids should do this, but I do think it's unbelievable that he was able to fight like that and not injure himself. Just one little question before I go.

Do you think if he did have it in there and say it would have gotten knocked out or something that happened and would have hit somebody in the eye or what do you think the commission would have done in that instance? Well. If it was known during the fight that something happened like that, that he had it in his mouth. Oh, they definitely would have been a big deal. Oh, they would have had the referee taken out. out for sure. If they noticed 100%. Same way they, you know, that Keith Kaiser, if they are a

competent commission, same way that Keith Kaiser, you know, asked, I believe it was Mazogadi to wipe down, you know, the GSP or Anderson, whatever, they could do whatever they want. They can stop the fight and say, what the heck is that? So yeah, they would have stopped it. I think, I think they didn't know that he had it in his mouth because if they did, that's crazy. but I don't think they did. Yeah, cool. Thank you for kind of, I guess, opening my eyes a little bit. No problem, no problem.

All right, let's go to our next caller. We've got another caller. This is great. I love the callers. Let's go to Massoud in Toronto. No good, Massoud, your boy from Twitter. Oh, yeah, Massoud. You always like to cause trouble.

Well, that's why they call me no good. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Okay, so yeah. So obviously there's a lot of stuff that went on this weekend, you know, but before the weekend, I don't know if you guys talked about this already, but Rousie getting the belt,

don't you think it devalues the belt a bit and that little disrespectful for the guys on their journey, you know, trying to get the belt? It doesn't bother me because remember, Dominic Cruz, you know, he beat Scott Jorgensen and then he was named UFC champion. Joseo Aldo was given a belt in Michigan. I was there at Auburn Hills, and he was crowned the UFC featherweight champion. So there is a precedent here. I mean, she is the Strike Force champion.

They own Strike Force. Why should she have to go out and beat someone to be crowned UFC champion? It's, you know, the same organization owns both promotions. I agree, I agree. But I remember when you were speaking with Dana, the day or the day after they bought Strike Force, it was supposed to be business as usual. It doesn't seem like it's business. usual anymore.

It almost feels like it was never business as usual to begin with. You just figured this out right now? Stuff like this. It's kind of, sorry? You just figured this out right now that it wasn't business as usual? No. No, no. I'm just saying, I mean, it's almost like I can never, whatever he has to say is not,

but let's not go there. I'm not trying to get it in with your employer. Let's go to the next. Oh, with my employer? What do you mean with my employer? Yeah. Don't you work for him? No, I don't.

Oh, shoot. I never knew that. That's how you worked for him. Well, I work for Fuel TV, who is the broadcast partner. Oh, okay, okay. All right. So in that case, I mean, when he does tell you stuff like that, doesn't, don't you take it a little bit too hard?

That it's kind of like it was never, you know. Well, look, plants change, right? And I think that we all knew that the UFC bought, that's what he said, and, you know, the ink was barely dry. but I mean the UFC bought that organization to absorb it. That was their competition. They weren't interested in growing the Strike Force brand. You know, they didn't want to be in business with Showtime.

They had their issues. It was a bad deal for both of them. It was a bad marriage. So, yeah, business as usual kind of turned into a joke and, you know, whatever, whatever else. But once all the Strike Force employees essentially were let go and it was essentially like the new WEC where ZUFA was running it with their own employees, we knew that the writing was on the wall. and, you know, it lasted, what, it lasted a year and a half with Zufa running it, almost two years. It'll end in January, they bought it in March,

and that's it. And for a lot of these guys, by the way, the guys who are getting brought over from Strike Force to the UFC, every single one of them is happy about it. They want to be in the UFC. No one wants to fight for the, you know, the kid brother. And then there are some, who knows, who may not make it over, it sucks for them. Hopefully they rebound with another organization.

Okay. Okay, so that ties into my next question. and guys happy to be in the UFC. Let's look at Nick, right? Okay, Nick, Nick and Nate, I'm hearing a lot of, you know, crap from people saying, oh, you know, Nate didn't look very strong. You know, he didn't belong in there with Benson. I mean, ultimately, he may, maybe he didn't belong in there.

Maybe there were some other guys that could have been fighting Benson, but he got, you know, people in their seats. He got people watching. And that's what it is, right? I mean, Nicaez, they need to free him. They need to let him fight. This is ridiculous. This is stupid.

He's coming back. He's done. His needles in their butt. So what you're... He's needles in their butt looking like they're, you know, looking like they're, you know, looking like they're getting like six months suspension. This guy's just smoking weed for therapeutic purposes. Whether you agree with the weed or not, it's stupid that he's, like, you know, anyway. All right.

Yeah. So they need to let, yeah. And the other thing, my next question was, um, regarding, uh, my boy, Mike Goldberg, you blocked me on Twitter this weekend. And I kind of went off on him. Shocker. You're like top five most annoying people on Twitter.

Yeah, that's true. I'm going to calm down. I'm going to calm down. Why you always try to stir the pot? Well, now you guys are answering my phone call, so it worked, I guess. But I'll calm down. Hopefully he unblocked me. I kind of went off on him.

You mentioned my mom. Oh, God. So I was like, whoa. Like, you don't even know. You mean, wouldn't you enter, it's all funny games until you mention someone's mother. I know it, man. I know it, but I'm sure you were just an angel leading up to that point, weren't you? What do you think about announcers?

Like, I'm not, this is not a slight at him at all. But there's a lot of guys that could have his job. What do you think about guys, like, messing up words? Like, you know, the prodigy. I mean, the prodigy is the prodigy. Oh, stop it. He can't be messing up his nickname. I mean, come on.

Oh, come on. The guy is on the air for, like, seven hours. How many fights has he done? Come on, I mess up things. We all mess up things. And I'm not even on the level. Come on, we're not perfect. I see you forgive him, Ariel. I can forgive him.

Okay. Thanks, buddy. I'm sure you're busy. You've got to get back to this show. I'll give you guys a call next week. Maybe the week after. I'll hit you up on Twitter. Easy, bro.

I love you. All right, there he is. No good Massoud stopping by. He really is up to no good that guy. He's always starting things. I am shocked that Mike Goldberg would, would block him. Thank you very much for the calls. Let us go now to let us go now to the Rick's picks

and it was not a banner night for our own New York Rick on Saturday night. He did not do well and it was all highlighted by the fact that his idol, his favorite fighter of all time BJ Penn came out on the losing end. Really just going to stick the knife in there? It is what it is right. Just going to stab it right in there. Yeah. What was your record? How'd you do? I did one and two.

Wow. Below 500. Yeah, it wasn't a good night. Pick two underdogs and they just didn't come through. Is it possible that the people are putting pressure on you to not pick the favorites? No. Let me. One thing I didn't make clear last week that I think I should this week was I didn't think that BJ or Nate should be the fate. Like our, you know, if it's a 50-50 fight, I'm going to take.

Henderson and I'm going to take McDonald. But due to the line, due to BJ, especially, being a really, really big underdog, I thought that that was the play. Obviously, if I wasn't confident

in some way that he could have won, I wouldn't have picked him. So I'm not going to backtrack and say I didn't think he would win, but I'm just saying, you know, 50-50 fight, smart monies on McDonald for sure. That said, he looked way better than I thought he was going to look.

His striking was leaps and bounds better than anything we'd ever seen from him before. And hats off to him. He looked incredible. By the way, just a couple of things. I do agree about your note on Rory. He looked incredible. I love the call out. Carlos Condé went to the body, the kicks, all that stuff.

We have a new player. I forgot to mention this. The live stream player looks fantastic. I hope you're liking it. If it's giving you any issues, let us know in the comment section. How about this new camera angle for New York Rick here? is, I mean, the quality is crisp, but I have a feeling Buzzkill is out to bring down New York, Rick, because, I mean, his nose isn't as big as mine, but it certainly looks that way from that camera angle.

Wow. Let's just say that I wasn't happy with this choice either. I love it, though. I think if we change it, it's a huge mistake on our part, but it's just, wow, it's really cool. It makes the back broom closet there look a whole lot bigger. Yeah, it does. And as you can see, I'm going to move out of the way for a second. Oh, I'm going to be able to see Isaac wearing the same shirt as you.

No, he's not. Twins over here. He wishes. He wishes. It's like a Mike Reachie Rory McDonald's situation back here. How about that Mike Reachy, huh? Yeah, that was a very interesting interview. That may have been my favorite interview of the year on this show.

I mean, wow. Darkened, now you really understand where all this is coming from with Rory. Yeah, he's learning from the Sith Lord over there. Those Montrealers, they are so fascinating. All right, let's... Yes. I don't really need to address... Actually, let me just talk about it real quick.

Henderson... Are we going to relive the pain that was? By the way, I just wanted to mention, Aaron France on Twitter wrote to me at Ariel Hawani, re-listen to New York Rick's picks post-Fox 5. Wow. How bad. were they? So far off

and made me LOL at his picks. Hashtag, you're fired. It stings. It stings a little bit. But mostly because of the BJ loss. I get the impression that a lot of people are rooting for your failure. I mean, of course. That comes with the territory. I understand that. Okay. What's good?

You know that? Love the support. Love the haters. Love them both. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. I mean, I'll just address Henderson real quick, just saying that the reason I was reluctant to go with him in general was because he doesn't have the aggressive streak that we normally see out of

champions who go after the opponent stifle their game plan and take it to them. But in this fight he was on the offensive the whole time Diaz couldn't get off his boxing, which is what I thought was going to happen. I thought it was going to look similar to Edgar where Edgar was kind of touching him up on the feet a little

bit. Henderson came out with the same strong leg kicks. He abandoned those in this fight as well, which I wasn't happy about. because he's so dominant when he gets those off. If he had kept that up the whole fight, it would have been great. But outside of that, he still kept up the aggressiveness that I'd like to see from him. And with that streak in him, I think that he's almost unbeatable at lightweight.

If he can bring the fight to people like that every single time, I think that the sky's the limit for him. And now the big question is who is next for Benson Henderson. Of course, there is the big lightweight fight on January 26th. Anthony Pettis and Donald Soroni, I think if Pettus wins, you have to make that rematch. with the big win, WEC 53, the Showtime kick. I mean, that one sells itself. And of course, you have Gilbert Melendez there, but I'm not sure if Gilbert will be ready,

and quite frankly, maybe he needs one fight to showcase. Someone brought up the idea of Gilbert versus Eddie to find out who the best non-UFC lightweight was and give them the shot of the title. Of course, you may be killing off two contenders by doing that. But I'd love to see the Pettus fight. If he wins, and, you know, Sironi and Henderson had two great fights in WEC. He finished him off quickly at the pay-per-view,

but their first fight, which I believe was 43, was bananas. So a couple of options there for Benson-Henerson. Let's move along now. Or do you want to say one more thing? Nope, let's move along. We've got a very busy weekend in the world of mixed martial arts. On Friday, there's one more Bell-Tor event, and there's also UFC on FX-6.

Ross Pearson versus George Sutteroplas, Brad Scott versus Robert Whitaker, Colin Fletcher versus Norman Park and Hector Lombard versus Hussimar Paul Horace. Undercard is filled with a lot of the guys from the Smashes. That's the fight card that is at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Center in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Who are you picking on this card?

Well, there's two lines out for this card. There's Sateropolis v. Pearson and Lombard versus Paul Harris. So I'll pick those two. I have to admit I'm not very familiar with the tough smashes guys. Shocker. You're supposed to do your research if you're the Wow Yeah well I'm just saying

So after we do those two We'll jump to the next card And I'll make a few picks without lines on that one Because the lines aren't out for that yet All right Sotaropolis and Pearson I really like Pearson in this one He's a slight underdog at plus 105

Sotaropolis is the favorite at minus 125 Pearson's take down defense is Really good And his striking is really good I think that Sutteropolis is going to want to get this to the ground, although he has pretty solid boxing himself. His strength is obviously, as we've seen his jiu-jitsu. But I think that Pearson's going to be able to keep it from going to the ground. He's not dead in the water once there, but it's just a completely different level. Sutteropolis

is significantly better if he can get the fight to the ground. But I think that he's not going to be able to. And Pearson's going to either win a decision, which I think is most likely he's going to outpoint him to a decision or possibly TKO him. Sautoropolis has shown that, you know, he's not going to He can get clipped. Seaver did it. He shrugged off the takedowns and clipped him. Who was the last guy that beat him? I forgot Dosanos, maybe.

Dosanos, knocked him out. Right. So I don't quite see something like that, a finish like that. I think that Pearson is going to take a decision with his boxing. I'm just glad that Ross Pearson has gone back to 155. I don't think he was good at 140, 145. And it is amazing. We haven't seen Soderopolis since that knockout, July of 2011.

It's been a while. Remember, he was very close to getting a title shot before the Dennis Siever loss at 127. I think I let... Who's the favorite? The favorite is Soteropolis, minus 125, Pearson's plus 105. Does that surprise you? It surprises me a little bit, but, I mean, before that loss to...

Wow, I just completely blanked. Which one? Seaver. Before the loss to Seaver, he looked incredible. He was on such a tear. Yeah. And you really can't, you know, count out a... guy with his jujitsu. It's just so, he's so good on the ground. But I am a little shocked that it's a favorite, but it's not by much. I mean, this is pretty much a pick-em fight, and I'm picking Pearson.

All right. What about, this is a fun fight. Hector Lombard, Hussemaar, Paul Harris, how far Lombard has fallen. You remember his debut in the summer, you know, much publicized, a lot of attention. He wanted to kill me, cut my head off, eat my head for breakfast. And now here he is fighting Paul Harris on his home turf, his adopted home country of Australia. Who do you like in this one? This big 185 pound bout? It's no secret that I'm a fan of Paul Harris,

and I've been talking a big game about picking him, possibly picking him in this matchup before today. But after seeing the line at plus 175, I'm not ready to pick Paul Harris in this one. Wow. I'm going to go with Lombard

simply for the fact that we don't know if Paul Harris can keep his head on straight and and do anything other than try and grab some leg locks. His strike, he has the power as he's shown in numerous fights, including the one with Dan Miller, to do some damage on the feet. But it's just that I can't, I can't confidently tell you to pick somebody who is such a wild card. You don't know where his head's at going from fight to fight.

Whereas Lombard, I know that if, if Paul Harris can't get him down, Lombard's going to look for the kill and most likely finish him in. my opinion. Wow. Submission? No, not submission. He'll knock him out if he stays standing with him. That would be more.

So if Paul Horace can't pull off the submission, I don't think it's going to be very pretty for him. I think Lombard's going to win. If the number moves a little bit from plus 175, Lombards minus 210, by the way. If Paul Haras moved a little bit to maybe over 2 to 1, a little higher than that even, it might be worth looking at, but just at 175, I don't like it. I would fly to Australia just to see that stare-down. What a stare-down that is going to be.

Those two behemoths. Both guys, you can make a case for them. Well, they're both wider than they are tall. Yeah, that's why. I was going to say you can make a case for them really. They should be fighting at 170. But that is a fun fight. And definitely check out this Colin Fletcher guy.

Everyone at the UFC has said that the smashes season of the Ultimate Fighter was one of, if not the best, ultimate fighter season ever. Now, you've heard this before, but apparently it was very entertaining. You can see them online. This Colin Fletcher guy is very interesting. He's fighting in the lightweight tournament final, and then there's a welterweight tournament final as well.

Chad Mendes on the undercard, Joey Beltran against Igor Pocryich, also on the undercard. That's on Fuel TV at 6 p.m. Eastern, and then the main cards at 9 p.m. Eastern, and that's UFC on FX6 on Friday. Then on Saturday, you have the Ultimate Fighter 16 finale, which I think is the best tough finale of all time.

There have been 16. The main event is Matt Matrione versus Roy Nelson. Mike Ritchie versus Colton Smith. Pat Barry versus Shane Del Rosario. Melvin Galard versus Jamie Varner. Jonathan Brookins versus Dustin Porier. I mean, that's a pay-per-view main card right there. We've had worse.

Well, yeah, I mean, the lack of Ultimate Fighter contestants. That's the best part. Yeah, that, I mean, It sucks for those guys. I mean, you know, most of the time they can expect, oh, I didn't win, but I'll at least get a spot on the card if I did good enough during that season. By the way, isn't this better, though? The whole thing about the ultimate fighter was you're fighting for a contract,

and then everyone was getting a contract. Now, if this is the case, and it's probably the case because the season wasn't great, but imagine this really was the case and only two guys are fighting on the finale, one getting a contract, I feel like that would raise the stakes. I love it. I think that this is personally the better option. Yeah. I just, you know, you feel for guys who there's been so many seasons where it hasn't been this,

and then all of a sudden their seasons, the one where they decide, no, you guys aren't going to get fights on it. Yeah. But I, no, I agree. In terms of delivering for the fans, this is an incredible card. It is a great card. All right. So who are you looking at here? Let's go top to bottom.

So are there lines for all those? There's zero lines. There's no lines. I'm just going to give you my opinion, maybe, you know, what the line might be, not numbers, but just, just who might be the favorite, who might be the dog. Nelson and Mitrione, I think Nelson's going to be the favorite here. No surprise. But I think that there might be some value on Mitrione, depending on the line.

He disappointed me a little bit in the Congo fight because I was really high on Mitrione right before that. Oh, yeah. He looked great on his feet, and, you know, he's becoming a much more complete martial artist. I really like Matt Mitrione as a fighter. Not just because he's, you know. Not just because he's a friend of the show. and a great guy, but I just like Matt Mitrione. I like his game as a fighter.

And I think that he's going to come back strong. And I think that he might be able to outpoint Ray Nelson on his feet. If he's a big enough dog, I like that as a play. I like Mitrione here. Obviously, you can't discount Nelson landing one of those massive shots and taking him out because he can do that to anybody. But I just think that over the course of, you know, five rounds, Mityone's going to

prevail. You think Mittrione can go five rounds with Roy Nelson? I do. Wow. A Mityon who hasn't fought since October of last year. I do. I'm just trying to put it all out there. Absolutely.

Don't blame you for questioning it, but I really do like Matt Mintrione here. All right. But I'd have to see the line before I say, you know, that's a great pick or anything like that. Sure, sure, sure. The tough finale, the final fight, Richie versus Colton Smith.

Yep. I like Colton here. Whoa. He's shown that he's one of those wrestlers that just smothers guys. And I think that that's going to be a possibility. That said, Ritchie was probably the most impressive, I'd say, in the house out of all the guys. But this is a styles matchup, and I really like Colton Smith's style for grinding out a decision. How dare you?

Sorry. All right. What else you got? Pat Barry versus Shane Del Rosario. I love this fight, by the way. I think that this is a fun, exciting fight. Two guys who weren't afraid to mix it up on their feet. But the difference here comes down to Del Rosario,

showing that he's a pretty slick grappler. Pat Barry said it himself. He's not subbing anybody. So I think that Rosario might be the play here just because he's more well-rounded. But I think that Barry has a little bit of an advantage on the feet. I mean, he's incredible. When he stays on his feet, he rarely, you know, gets beat by guys. Maybe save for the Crow Cop fight, he was, you know, he was controlling that fight until he got hit.

So I really like Pat Barry on his feet, but I think that Rosario's more well-rounded game is going to be the difference. And I like Rosario on that one. Okay. Melvin Geyard and Jamie Varner. Crazy fight. Great fight. I think that I'm going to go with Melvin on this one. I haven't really given this one much thought, but just...

You haven't given a thought when you're going to make picks on live? I'm giving my quick judgment right now. I like Melvin in this one. I think that Varner's definitely going to look to, you know, grind, not grind, but take it to the ground and put Melvin on his back where he's been uncomfortable in the past, which wouldn't surprise me if he was able to do it. But I think that there's a high possibility

that Melvin could keep the standing and land one of those. huge shots that he's known to do. So I like Melvin. I'd have to see a line on this one. This one particularly, particularly I'd like to see a line on because I'd be interested to see who's the favorite and who's the dog.

Me too. And who's worth picking? Who do you think will be favorite? I think Varner, just because of how he's looked recently. But I don't know. I think it could be close to an even odds fight, honestly.

Yeah, I could see that. For some reason I feel like they'll give Melvin the nod. Well, there's always the, you know, the name. Yeah. Who he's beaten, who he's faced, how long he's been in the UFC, that kind of thing. There's always a little bit of a bump for that. But the odds makers are getting smarter these days.

So I think, you know, it'll be an appropriate line, in my opinion. So we'll see. A very important fight for Melvin. It feels like this is a real, I mean, not do or die, but I think he needs to win to remain relevant, at least for now at 155. I mean, just, it wasn't even that long ago that he was in like contention talks. He was in title talks and now, you know, he needs this one. Like Sauteropoulos.

Yep. All right. Very similar. Love this next fight as well. Of course you do. Big fan of Dustin Porre. Dustin Porriere and Jonathan Brookings, sorry. Complete styles clash.

Brookins is a wrestler who wants to, you know, put you up against the cage, grind on you a little bit, put you on the mat, grind on you a little bit. Porriet would rather. shake you off Lansom Chris boxing although his jiu-jitsu is extremely slick

as we've seen in the past but man this is another one that I'm picking right now I like Porre in this one I think he's going to be

the favorite I don't think there would be any surprise if he's the favorite but I'd say that if you can get Brookins at a nice number as the underdog I would play him

just because as I said about the styles Colton Smith as I said earlier those wrestlers that like to get on top of you and grind you, they're smart plays for betters. But I'm going to pick Porriere, if I'm getting a coin flip 50-50, I'm going to pick Porriere.

But I think that looking out for the Brookins line is something that you might want to keep in mind. All right. So there you have it. Ultimate Fighter 16 finale. James Head versus Mike Pyle, also on the Fuel TV prelims. Another interesting fight that's on the Facebook prelums. Tim Elliott versus Jared Papazian. I like that fight. Tim Elliott, I thought, looked very strong in his in his first UFC fight. A couple other interesting names on the undercard. Nick Coton is

fighting. Johnny Bedford is fighting. It's a very good card. The Facebook prelims started at around 530, fuel TV at 7 and then the main card on FX at 9 o'clock. Last question for Rick. Should BJ Penn retire? Well, let's get to the Twitter. Twitter. Maybe that's in there, something like that. Also, I'm seeing on Twitter just now Diego Sanchez is saying my next fight will be at lightweight. Oh, yeah. He's been talking about that for a while. Wait, he's just announcing that now? Looks like it might be confirmed. He's saying it on Twitter. Yeah, well, he asked for the Takenori-Gomi fight at Fuel TV 8 in Japan, which I think would be awesome.

Or how about Diego versus Nate Diaz? That'd be fun. Do we have questions? Yeah. All right. Let's start with the ones from the website. By the way, can you just say what's at stake here? Sure. Do you know what's at stake?

Yeah, the Tops cards. Yeah, but do you have the script? The script. Remember, I told you you have to read something about it? All right, let's, let's, uh... Are you going to go fish through your emails? Yep. Jesus.

I mean, you give a guy one job. All he has to do is read the script about the prize. He says, Roger, and he doesn't even have it ready. We got it. Flex. Do you have it? Yes. Tell us about these tops bloodline cards, UFC cards.

Ariel is holding the 2013 UFC bloodlines. These come out on December 7th, so that's already passed. So these are in stores now. They celebrate the diversity of the UFC and Strike Force and its fighters in cards that specifically honor various stars in their national heritages. So yeah, pick that up if you're a fan of anybody with a heritage other than American. Okay. Each mini box contains either an autograph card or a memorabilia card.

So collectors out there, get your hands on those. Fighters include GSP, Anderson Silva, Ronda Rousey, Roy McDonald, Shogun Huah, and many more. You can get more information on Topps trading cards and specifically that box at www.tops.com, Facebook.com slash tops. Follow them on Twitter at Topps cards. And that's the bloodlines. And just to let you know, there is a UFC Ultimate Heavyweight's DVD on the desk right over there, courtesy of our friends at Anchor Bay Entertainment. Just throwing it out there before hearing the questions, we may give out two.

It's the holiday season, two prizes, I mean. Holiday season, if you bring it strong, let's see what we got here, but I'm in a giving mood. We got a lot of questions. All right, here we go. Okay, the first one comes from the comment section. Oh, yeah. Given that Rory and GSP refused to fight, where does Aries stand in the welterweight division? Because he will not fight for the title until George is gone, he can't be matched with top contenders for fear that he'll spoil the hype of others potential title fights.

I get that, and that's why I don't think that they should book him against us, say, Josh Kostech, because Kostchak, of course, is lost twice to GSP, and it just doesn't make sense. The fight that makes sense is Carlos Kondit. that's the fight that makes sense. He lost to Carlos Condit. He wants revenge. And guess what? He asked for Carlos Condit. He called him out.

And I thought that was brilliant. For a guy like Roy, like Pete, some of us think that, you know, Roy doesn't get it. Trust me, he gets it. He understands what he's doing. He gets what he's doing as far as the dress, the comments. And then the first thing he says, right off the bat after beating BJ Penn, he calls out Carlos Condit. I mean, he knows what he's doing. He told me after the.

the fact that that fight has haunted him. He was embarrassed in front of his home province in BC. Could you imagine that fight in Montreal? Carlos just fought in Montreal, earn the respect of the Montreal crowd. If they do return to Montreal in March, that's the fight that makes sense. If not, I mean, I could see Johnny versus Roy, but I don't know if Johnny's going to take that fight. And let's just say something happens with GSP. Then the other fight that I think makes sense is Nick Diaz.

I think Nick Diaz versus Roy would be... Amazing. Bananas. But to me, it sounds like they're going to go to the Carlos Condit route. And I think it makes sense. And I think both guys are into it. Next question, also from the comments. Oh, yeah. With UFC on Fox 5 and UFC on Fox 6 being huge cards with tons of star power and title fights. And the recent news of Hennon Barrow defending his title on Fuel TV, do you think the UFC will keep this up and stack those free TV cards with big fights?

Well, I think what's happening is that 50% of the UFC cards are free now. I mean, there are six fuel TV cards, six FX cards, two tough finales, four Fox cards. I mean, I don't know what the math is there, but that's around 50%. You know, there are what, 15 or so paper views this year, 15 or so. I mean, so what you're getting is, you know, you're getting a lot of great fights on free television. And the other thing is, if there weren't so many injuries, I bet you we would have had even more. The UFC is going down that path.

and yes, it helps them out greatly that they got this deal with Fox and, you know, they are paid to put on this many cards. And, you know, of course, they're going to try to put on the best product possible and they could build guys up. I mean, I think they've really truly figured it out on Fox. And thankfully, the ratings delivered for them because hopefully we'll see these kind of fights like Benson, putting him on Fox makes sense. Putting Dodson and Demetrius, I think, makes sense on Fox. if not in FX. You have to get these guys out there to the public. And that's why I thought Ronda on free television

would have made sense because get people into her, attracted by her, what she does, captivated all that stuff, and then you want to pay to watch her fight. But they're going to the pay-per-view round, and let's see how that works. But, yeah, I mean, I think 2013, pray to the gods that everyone remains healthy,

I think it could shape up to be, as far as fights go, the best of the year with the talent that they have with the strike force guys coming over I mean guys like Gayguard and and Rockhold and Markquart returning and Gilbert Melendez the women's fighters coming over there's a lot of interesting things happening in the UFC

Last question from the comment section This is about the Bellator commercial during the UFC on Fox 5 Yeah What's up with that Ariel? How does Fox let that happen Since the UFC and Bellator don't get along? It was a pretty cool commercial though Now I must say I was obviously there I didn't see the commercial, did you? I actually did not see the commercial.

I did hear about it. A lot of people were asking me about it. Here's the thing. Belator pays. They can pay an affiliate. You know, they, let's say Fox 5 here in New York. They could pay Fox 5, VICOM, whatever, and then they get on. I'm surprised that there wasn't some kind of, you know, mandate not to let this happen,

but it's not that Belator is not paying Big Fox. It's not that simple. You know, every local market has their own commercials. Now, there are national commercials, but I have a feeling that the commercials, I have a feeling that the commercials that you were seeing were done through the local markets. And, hey, it was brilliant. It was a brilliant move. And we've seen this before.

We've seen this in pro wrestling, other organizations, whatnot. Smart move. I'm surprised it was allowed, and there wasn't some sort of embargo on that, but I don't even know if you can do that. Here's Ben Henderson. Yeah, this is our next question. This is from Twitter. I actually thought Ben Henderson asked this question. The question was posed by Ben's toothpick, but Henderson had a laugh at it, so we're going to read this one.

Oh, wow. So it was a question to us? Yep. Okay, good. Where do Ben Henderson and I go from here? Gilbert Melendez, Seroni v. Pettus winner. Aldo, if he beats Edgar, dos aanos. I do believe, wait, is he asking for half-al dos ayes?

I guess that might be it. Yeah, probably not him. Although he has looked good. There have been a few Ben's toothpick Twitter handles that came out after that, which is pretty funny. I mean, when I asked his coach, John Crouch about it after,

he was like, oh, no, I gave it to him after the fight, but he kind of had a smirk on his face. And obviously, you've seen the footage now. He fought with the toothpick, which is mind-blowing. If I were in charge, let's just say these turn of events happen. If Pettus beat Soroni, forget the fact that he beat him at WEC 53, forget the fact that he hit the crazy showtime kick, they have the history, all that stuff. He was promised a title shot after that.

It was insinuated, and now we're kind of used to it with, you know, what happened with, you know, it's happening here with Johnny Hendricks and a bunch of other guys, Dan Henderson, title shots. It was talked about after he beat Joe Loz-on at UFC 144. you can make a claim or at least make the argument that Pettus has had two title shots taken away from him. So if he wins on January 26th, I think he deserves the title shot. If Saroni wins, it's a tougher sell because he lost to him twice, but that wasn't WEC. I could see it happening.

But if Serooney wins, I think Melendez should get the title shot. So there you have it. I think if I'm Gilbert Melendez, I root for a Seroony win. if Pettus wins, I think he deserves a title shot. I like that. I'm down with that. Yeah. Next question. Can Ben Henderson surpass BJ Penn as the best lightweight to ever fight for the UFC?

I think so. I truly don't think Ben Henderson gets the respect that he deserves. He's finally figuring out how to cut weight. He's very big for a lightweight. He's very well-rounded. Has that quality that BJ had very hard to submit him. Solid on his feet, developing more. and more is a great striker. Obviously, we know about his wrestling. He's got an insane work ethic.

The guy is just unbelievable as far as work ethic is concerned. Cardio for days. I mean, what negative things can you say about Ben Henderson? He hasn't finished a fighter in a while. That's probably the only negative. I think it's five or six straight fights. He hasn't finished someone. And of course, the fans gravitate to that. If he finishes someone in his next fight, it will all be forgotten, but he needs to. Still, though, I think he has an exciting style. He's not boring. And I think there are interesting matchups for him. By the way, speaking of BJ, does BJ come up later? Yep.

Okay, I won't bring that up. But yeah, he has what it takes. In my opinion, though BJ is still the best ever at 155. Even though I hate saying things like that because that's like almost slighting Frankie Edgar. But BJ at his best at 155 was just so much fun to watch. But yeah, to answer the question, Ben has what it takes. Completely agree with you there. Even though you picked against him.

Oh, against Henderson? Yeah. Yeah, well, the thing that he was, you said, what was he lacking? The thing that he was lacking was aggressiveness, going on the offensive more. The only fight I can recall that he really did that, like, you know, amazingly was the Bochek fight. But when I saw him just- And he submitted Donald Serroney in like four seconds when they fought the second time. Remember that?

Okay, but are we talking like- Oh, well, I'm just saying. Are you talking UFC? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not talking anything WEC. He looked incredible. in WEC, but that was, you know, WEC. Those were different competitors,

different rankings, different, everything. So now, since he's come to the UFC, I'm saying, and especially in the two Frankie Edgar fights, I felt that he was too willing to try and counterpunch with Edgar. He wasn't initiating his own offense, except for the leg kicks, which were amazing with those tree trunks that he's got for legs. Oh, yeah.

You like those? Nobody else has that. It's unbelievable. He's one of the, most physically gifted and hardest working and well-rounded fighters. And the only thing that I felt that he was lacking was that aggressive streak. He needed to go after it and stifle the other competitor's offense with his own. And he completely did that against Nate Diaz.

And I think that if he keeps that up, it's just 155 is going to be shut down for a while. And I love how he always talks about breaking Anderson's record and having these lofty goals. he's doing everything right. Uh-oh. I almost don't want to read it. What's next for BJ? Should he retire or move back to lightweight? Here's the thing.

BJ Penn has accomplished everything in the sport, two-division champion. He's beaten them all. He's had his tough losses. He moved up to fight guys who are bigger than him, that he had no business fighting. He comes back out of retirement to fight this killer who is really, I mean, he could be fighting a 185.

He could have picked anyone, and the UFC would have said, sure, but he picked Rory McDonald. Again, I truly believe BJ Pan at 155 is still top three, top four, top five. BJ Pan at 155 is one of the greatest of all time. But what is special about BJ is that he always challenges himself, and he wants to fight the bigger guys, he wants to prove that he can do it, and he has done in his career. He has nothing left to prove. He doesn't have to prove anything to us, to himself, to the UFC. Would I love to see him back down at 155?

Yes. Do I think there's a chance? I do. But I don't want to see him fight at 170. I don't think there's a point. I don't see why he should be fighting these bigger guys. If he doesn't want to cut the weight anymore, if he doesn't want to do that, just retire. But it's almost sad that he has to retire at like 33.

If you could just cut those 15 extra pounds, B.J. Penn v. Ben Henderson would be unbelievable. BJ Penn versus Gilbert Melendez. B.J. Penn versus Nate Diaz. There are so many great fights for him at 155. I'd love to see it happen, but I don't know if he has that motivation anymore. Your thoughts? I mean, needless to say, I've always wanted to see him back at 155.

I think that's where he belong. And I think that that's where he's best. That said, I'm not so down on him at 170 as you are. The guys he's facing are just... He's two, five and one. I know, but look at who he's facing. Oh, sure. BJ never gets one of those tune-up fights.

He never gets somebody to- But you don't want to see BJ versus Joe Blow? I don't. I don't. I'm just saying that, you know, if he wants to be a 170 year, there's fights for him out there that aren't Nick Diaz, that aren't Rory McDonald, that aren't the guys that are fighting for titles. And I think he can still, you know, carve out a niche there,

being sort of even a gatekeeper. And that hurts to say for BJ. because, you know, he's my favorite always will be. But I think that at 155, I think he can be a contender, and I think at 170 he could, you know, stay there for the rest of his career, but never really compete for a title or anything like that. But I'd love to see him go on one last run. I think he has it in him.

He looked great. He surrounded himself with a ton of great guys. He takes damage, but he's not getting knocked out. You know, Diaz couldn't knock him out in a five-round fight. Rory, with all those big shots, couldn't knock him out. I mean, he's there. He hasn't lost a step in that regard. He's just fighting guys who are bigger and better than him at that weight class.

155, I still think he can hang. Gray Maynards of the world. There's so many interesting fights for him at 155. I'd like to see it happen. I think we won't see him for a year or so, and let's see what happens there. I hope he doesn't retire, and he'll probably get asked the question a thousand times

from us in the media. Just don't retire. Take some time off and figure it out and leave that door open if you want to come back at 155. Quick correction. I don't think the Diaz fight was a five-rounder, but point taken.

Was it not because it was taken on short notice? Yeah, I believe that that's what it was. I'm not sure about that. Okay. We'll check into it later. Okay. This is about BJ's legacy. Does BJ Penn still go down

as one of the greatest fighters ever, or has he irreparably hurt his legacy. This is bothering me. I don't like to get things wrong. I'm looking it up just one second. Here we have the live blog from MMAfighting.com. UFC 137. I mean, you know, we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.

Oh, you're right. We could just gloss over it. We could just skip it. How did I mess that up? Was it really three rounds? In any event, I think they may have deleted the last two rounds when they switched over to the new site. Sounds right.

Okay. Yes, he does go down because part of his legacy is that he was fighting these bigger guys as the underdog, and he won the welterweight title when he was a lightweight, essentially. He won the lightweight title. To me, the best run that BJ had was when he came back and he was on the ultimate fighter, he fought Jen's Pulver, and all of a sudden, I mean, he annihilated Jen's Pulver, and then he was just taking everyone out. Sean Shirk.

Prior to that, he took out Joe Stevenson. and then Sean Shirk and you know he had the Kenny Floreson fight and then he like goes before the Kenny Floreen fight he goes up and he fights GSP which kind of ruined that momentum. He never looked more dominant in my opinion that he did against Diego Sanchez. He completely tore

Sanchez apart, cut him up and I remember sitting there thinking we are looking at you know I remember that in Memphis Tennessee that was a great event and and I remember it fondly thinking we were looking at one of the greatest ever. We are looking at one of the greatest ever who is finally putting it all together

And then, you know, welterweight this, welterweight that, time off this, time off that, Frankie Edgar this, Frankie Edgar, that. And things change. But that stretch, in my opinion, was BJ's best. And I think he goes down as one of the top ten best. I really do. I really believe that BJ, he's the kind of guy that you can't look at his record and say, this guy, he was just that special kind of athlete.

And let's not forget what he brought to the table as far as passion and fans. I mean, do you see that crowd on Friday and Saturday at the Wands and at the fight and how much they hated Roy and how much they loved him? And there's just something about him. He takes off his shirt and he gets in there and he's so apt. He's so sincere when he talks to the media. And he's so focused all, you know, when it gets down to like the stair downs and all that, he is a special athlete.

And I hope we don't lose him in the MMA world. He's obviously going to be around it. It would be fun to see him, I guess, selfishly, one more time at 155. But if he doesn't come back, his legacy is just fine. well said yeah okay was rory macdonald

showboating during the fight with bj or was it martial arts like he said in the post fight interview i don't know i thought it was showboating that's why i asked it um i mean he was doing a lot of stuff he was

you know shuffling his feet and all that's not the kind of thing we have seen from rory in the past and it felt like he was soaking in the moment he's allowed to do that um you know that was a big win for him on a big stage

someone asked me was that a star making performance for Rory. It was a star making performance from beginning to end, the only thing, including the quote unquote showboating. The only thing that, you know, it was a drawback, he didn't finish him. Big deal. That's BJ Penn for you. So was it showboating? I mean, he said it wasn't, so it wasn't. But you know what? That stuff doesn't really bother me. If it took away from him trying to finish the fight, if you believe that, then yeah, it was bad, but it didn't bother me. I agree with that. I could see why BJ Penn fans were bothered by it, but that's the fight game.

I mean, at this point, it seems like Rory's going to go the heel route on us, and he's talking about not fighting for the fans and all this stuff. That's fine. Let him be that way, and it's working out great for him. The Thug Jitsu Master K.O. was great, but how did they rob Crookshank 155 of that K.O. bonus? Yeah, Darren Krookshank, the Detroit superstar. I totally agree.

I thought that was a lock for knockout of the night. It was an unbelievable knockout, but let's not forget. The UFC really does. I mean, ask any UFC fighter off camera, off the record, if you will. They hook you up. In a situation like this, you know, they can't set the precedent of giving out, you know, two knockout bonuses of the night and all that, knockout of the night bonuses. And Crookshank, I saw people on Twitter saying this, and he says,

I'm very happy, you know, no hard feelings or anything like that. That was an unbelievable knockout. Henry Martinez took, I mean, it's unbelievable that he last, that long. The only reason why I think that they may have given it to Eve was A, I mean, he's a legend, all this stuff, he got screwed in his last fight, and B, that was the first time Jeremy Stevens has ever been C-O'd or T-K-O'd, and that's a feather in Eve Edwards's cap. So it wasn't as impressive as far as what he actually did, but when you look at the big picture, it was impressive, and that's, you know, that's the way they went. Is Dennis Siever a top five featherweight after beating

Nam Fan. Who should he fight next? That is a very good question. Is Dennis Seaver a top five featherweight after fighting NAM fan? You know, the featherweight division is very interesting, and it's about to heat up, I think. On January 26th, there's a very interesting fight between Ricardo Lamas and Eric Koch. On February 2nd, the following week, very interesting

matchup, of course, between champion Josealdo and Challenger, former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. I can see and Chad Mendes is still up there, still number two in many people's eyes, because he only lost it, although he's fighting this weekend in Australia. I can see maybe a Dennis Siever versus a returning Korean zombie. He mentioned that in our post-fight interview, that that would be of interest to him.

Perhaps in Germany, he said they're coming back to Germany next year. Dennis Siever versus Cub Swanson would be interesting. Does Cup Swanson have a new fight? I wonder. I don't know, but that's the fight. I love. That's the fight you love? Yeah.

That is a great fight. Great striking, right? Both solid. That would be amazing. It would be fireworks. It would be. I wonder. It doesn't look like

Cups Swanson has a new fight. Maybe they'll go that route. Korean zombies should be coming back soon. He had shoulder surgery and they wanted him to fight him a cow, but I don't think Cubs Swanson has something. So those are the two guys that I would look at. And the Siever, I mean,

you know, he looked solid in his debut, Diego Nunes. He's supposed to fight Eddie Yagen, fights Namp fan. He's there. He's in the mix, if you will. The other one I could see is maybe the winner of the Brookens-Porrier fight if they want to move them along a little slower. But I think Featherweight's going to be very interesting next year. It kind of stalled with Aldo getting injured. But hopefully he comes back and they have that fight on February 2nd and we can keep it rolling here. Did you guys see the judge? Oh, excuse me. Did you guys see that judge scored the Siever fan fight 3024? I thought that was ridiculous. Should the UFC train the judges?

Well, the UFC can't train the judges, the commission. They're the ones who hire the judges. So it's not up to the UFC. Now, I do think there's something to be said for the UFC putting more money and time into training the judges and referees because at the end of the day, it is their product that is being affected. Of course, you want that neutrality and you don't want them to be involved, especially if there's a controversy.

30 to 24. I mean, yeah, there seemed to have been a lot of 10-8s on Saturday night. Sometimes they never give them out, and sometimes I guess they're too trigger-happy. That was a beatdown. According to fight metric, I don't have the stat here in front of me, but that was the most strikes landed in a featherweight fight in UFC history. Previously, the record was Jimmy Hedis over Namfan. So Namfan involved on the wrong end of two pretty interesting stats. So that was a one-sided beatdown.

I didn't really have a problem with it, to be honest. I don't think it was that bad, 30-24. Sure. That's brutal. But at the end of the day, what does it mean? I mean, they still got the guy right, so who cares? Yeah. You know what I mean?

There were a lot of 10-8s handed out, though, that night. Yeah, if this would have affected the fight, the outcome, yeah, but I mean, yeah, they were a little, they were a little, but what is the difference between a 10-8 and a 10-7 and a 10-9? You know, it's not clear-cut in M-MMA, so I can't really hate on the guy. for that. But yes, typically that's not a 10-8. Next question. Given Pac-Man's knockout and the end of a mega-million-dollar super fight, should the UFC put GSP Silva fight next to avoid a big mistake? I don't really think that you can learn a lesson from what happened with Pac-Yahu and Mayweather.

They were in the same division. There was a lot of buzz there. There just doesn't feel like there's a lot of buzz. I mean, when we reported the GSP Nick Diaz scenario that Dana brought up on Thursday, the fans were originally. The fans were so happy. The fans were not bummed out. I mean, the only ones that were really bummed out that I got the impression from were the Hendricks fans. And they weren't as vocal as the Diaz fans. I got a lot of positive feedback for that announcement.

So, yeah, I mean, is there a lesson to be learned? The lesson to be learned is when you have a big fight, make it. So really, you look at the cyborg Ronda Rousey fight. If Ronda loses, you. You may lose that fight. You know, you look at Gonzaga and Crow Cop. They didn't get the Crow Cop Couture fight, which was a big fight back then. And you may even look at Hendricks versus GSP.

Diaz versus GSP is a big fight. They both win. It's an even bigger fight. But maybe they want to make that fight now and not lose the opportunity. But to me, I just don't feel like there's a lot of buzz there for GSP and Silva. I really don't. What fight that isn't currently booked would you like for your Hanukkah presents? That is a tough one.

You know, I was going to say GSP and D.S. Because there's so much buzz there. But now I just kind of feel bad with Hendricks being on the show. And I just, I mean, he's so fired up for it. What fight? Let me think. One just came to mind. Does one come to mind for you?

Not anything. I mean, to be honest, I think it would be John Jones and Justin Silva. Whoa. No? Not for me. Really? I'd much rather see Silva GSP in my opinion. Really?

Yeah. I know a lot of people like the Jones and. Jones solo fight, but I'd just rather see the guys who have been doing it the longest, the guys who right now have the claim for number one and number two, pound for pound. You don't think Jones has a claim after what he did to those former champions, how good he's look? I have no, I completely agree that Jones has the potential to be number one pound for pound for a very, very long time.

It's just that right now, the guys who are the top of the sport for the longest time and who have the resume are GSP. and Silva. Jones, his year in, what was it, 2011 that he took out for,

or actually it was just a calendar year. It wasn't, it wasn't any specific year on the calendar, but in a calendar year he fought like four former champions, finished them all.

I have no problem saying that John Jones has the potential to be the best ever, but right now, Silva is the best ever, and GSP is the second best ever, and that's who I want to see fight.

By the way, it was in one year. Ryan Bader, Shogun, Rampage, Machita, all in one year. Three champions in a row. Yeah. And then you had the Rashad Evans one after that. Yeah, I go with Joan Silva. It's my Hanukkah president, all right?

Why are you trying to get butt in? What? He's asking me what I want for Hanukkah. And by the way, happy Hanukkah to all my people's out there. Next question. How can I acquire a Halwani nose shirt? And I think that the UFC needs to make Diaz versus Pettus. I'm guessing Nate Diaz versus Pettis, but that's not going to happen.

My friends, Halwani Nose is very, very close to happening. I got the first sample when I was away in Seattle. We've got three styles. I tweeted them on Thursday. You can check them out. One of them is on my Instagram at Ariel Hawani. You could find them buried beneath a lot of tweets since then on my Twitter at Ariel Hawani. Three styles.

It is looking fantastic. The proceeds are going to the colorectal Cancer Association of Canada. so it's all for a good cause and the people I mean the response has been unbelievable I was thinking of bringing a t-shirt in here but I don't want to jump the gun Hawani knows.com

it's almost done you can buy them there I'm not sure about the price I think it's going to be like somewhere in the $25 to $30 range and the fans the fighters Hennar Gracie wants one

Damian Maya wants one a lot of fighters want one and I really do think this is going to be this is going to be bigger than we ever imagine will you wear one Would I wear one? No, no, not you. I was talking to the people.

Yes, of course you. I would wear one proudly. Wow. We've got the white and red, the classic. We've got the yellow and red. And then we've got the black and white, perhaps a black and silver in honor of Bo Jackson. I'm contemplating that. And then I've got a real special one that I'm in production with.

It's going to be a plaid version, which is going to be a limited edition, maybe even $60 for that one. But yes, to answer your question, Hawani knows is coming, and the feedback has been unbelievable. This is our last thing. Oh, wow. My daughter just told Santa that all she wants for Christmas is to appear on the MMA hour with Ariel Hawani and New York. So there she is. That is the cutest thing ever.

People are really getting into this Twitter thing. She is so cute. Warms my heart, the little ones. What a beautiful thing. Well, Merry Christmas to you. What's this guy's name? You scrolled down. A Christmas story.

Wow, there you go. How fitting. I believe there's Ronda Rousey in his picture right there. Well, Merry Christmas to you. Thank you so much for the tweet. And I guess it's a happy Christmas for you guys, or Merry Christmas, I should say. I had a great line, by the way. Well, you heard it in my post-flight with Darren Crookshank.

I said, Darren, did I say Darren? Yes, I said, Darren Crookshank lit up Henry Martinez like a menorah on Saturday night. I heard it. It was beautiful. Isaac liked that one. All right. That's it, right? Yeah. Who did you like on this? I don't even remember.

There were quite a few. I like the Ken Ben Henderson surpass BJ Penn. Sure. Interesting one. Obviously, Ben's toothpick gets a nod. First off, I've decided we're giving out two prizes. Where is bloodlines going? I say to Ken Ben Benson Henderson surpassed BJ Penn.

You know, B.J. Henderson, bloodlines, all that stuff. That makes sense. Congratulations. You on the box. Now, ultimate heavyweights. Where is that going? I don't know. Maybe the last one of the day, not the question, but... Christmas? Make somebody's Christmas very happy. Why not? Merry Christmas. I was going to go with the Hanukkah one, but yeah, sure, why not? For the little one. I hope she enjoys it. Merry Christmas to you. That was the extra one anyway, so we can give it out. Right? Yep. All right.

And there you have it. Anything else to get to? We're done, right? Well, just a congratulations to you, Ariel Hawani. For what? For making your Fox debut. Oh, yeah. Oh, stop it. Stop it.

That is so, you know, that is empty. That is shallow. I came back. As you guys know, I was on Fox. It was my big debut network television, had a big interview with John Jones, your eye favor. Everyone's moving to Metro. My heart was beating.

It was a very exciting moment. I couldn't sleep the night before. And then I get back. I sit on my desk at my hotel. No, congratulations from New York, Rick. No, you did a great job. You look fantastic in your suit next to the champ and the former champion. Nothing.

Just run of the mill. You know, what are you doing? You know, oh, work, work, work. And I must say it hurt a little bit. So now here he is trying to make amends. I brought it up and he probably feels very bad about the situation. But it's okay. You can't take away my moment.

That was a big moment. They can never take away my one-minute cameo on, Fox television right before the main event. And if you look at the ratings, by the way, just throwing it out there, there was a huge spike after my appearance. For somebody who didn't want to talk about it, you kind of went on a while there. Well, I'm just saying, huge spike.

But congrats anyway. Oh, thank you. Hopefully many more. Hopefully I can coerce them into putting me on Fox. That was very exciting. I was on Fuel FX, Fox, and MMA fighting on the same night. And let me tell you, next week on this very show, our final show of 2012 in studio, perhaps our most popular guest of the year. At least the one that made us laugh the most, Pre-Beck will be in studio to give us a set, if you will, of great MMA

impersonations. You don't want to miss it. That will be our last guest on our last show of the year. We've got the MMA beat this week, recapping the year that was a lot of exciting things going on, and we can finally put this episode, this extra long episode of the MMA Hour to Bed, Isaac. you get my music. What a fun show this was. Really enjoyed it. Highlight, at least for me, was the eye-opening Mike Ritchie interview,

where he was dark and disturbed, talking about his year away from the sport and how much he hated the Ultimate Fighter and thought about suing them, which is a little strange because he chose to go on the Ultimate Fighter, but nevertheless, an interesting story, and you can see Mike Ritchie on the Ultimate Fighter 16 finale.

this Saturday night on FX. It's a great card. In my opinion, it is the best tough finale of all time. Really packed a lot into this show. I really liked it with our new player too. Look at that thing. It's crisp. It's HD. We are finally putting things together here. Think about where we started this year. Remember that show last year in that weird studio? Isaac remembers. Isaac, that was horrible. That was the worst day of my life. But we've come a long way. Thanks in large part to Buzzkill Brandon. And you're quick. And Isaac. And everyone here at SB Nation. All right, let me thank everyone before I go. Johnny Hendricks, thank you very much to you.

Good luck getting the title shot, and I hope it works out. Pat Barry, thank you very much to him and his girlfriend, Rose. Good luck this Saturday, the Ultimate Fighter 16 finale against Shane Del Rosario, Misha Tate, and Brian Carraway. Thank you very much, and I hope that we one day get to see Brian Carraway versus Ronda Rousey. Battle of the Sexes would be awesome. Mike Ritchie, as I mentioned, good luck to him. Thank you for being so honest and interesting with your comments. and Gair Musassi, the return of the dream catcher.

He is fired up. I like the fire out of him. And Liz Karmouche, congratulations on getting the title shot against Ronda Rousey UFC-157. Thanks to all of you for all your questions and comments. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Happy holidays. We'll be back next week.

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