MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 163

Episode Date: August 14, 2014

Featuring Eddie Alvarez, Vitor Belfort, Scott Coker, Stephen Espinoza, Ed Herman, and Dave Meltzer. 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 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. Martial Arts Hour with the Mix Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, January 7th, 2013. Yes, our very first show of the new year and it is so great to be back here in our New York City

studios sporting a bit of a tan as you can see longer hair switching it up here in 2013. So great to be back for another two plus hour edition of the MMA hour. And as you know or maybe you don't know, I'm a very anxious. person, my friends. I'm the kind of person who, I hate to say it, often looks at the glass half empty. And I'm the kind of person that when it's like a three-year anniversary show or episode 100, things like that, I know I have to deliver. I know I have to bring out the big guns. And that makes me very nervous. That makes me very anxious. It often makes me strive and pushes me to book the best kind of show possible. And that's kind of what this situation was. I knew we took a

three-week break. I knew a lot of you were very upset about it. I knew a lot of you were jonesing for the show during the holiday break. And all throughout the holiday break, I was wondering, how are we going to make it up for you, to you? How are we going to come out with the big guns? How are we going to start the year off on the right foot? And my friends, I sit here today, barring injuries, barring any no-shows, very happy with myself, I must say. We have brought out the big guns, my friends. Three people on this very show. show will break their silence. Three men who we've wanted to hear from for a very long time will be breaking their silence today right here on the MMA hour. Before we get to that, let us welcome in the

back. We've got Isaac. We've got New York Rick and we've got Will in the house replacing Buzzkill Brendan who's over in Las Vegas cheating on us with another website. Will, you may remember him from the Mayhem Miller interview in Central Park. Great crew in the back and a great lineup here on this very program. In the second hour, we'll be joined by Strike Force CEO and the founder of the San Jose Jose-based organization. Mr. Scott Coker, we wanted to talk to Scott for a very long time. Of course, this is the final week for Strike Force on Saturday night, January 12th, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They will put on their very last show ever. Name Markwar, Tarc Safedine. I want to talk to Scott, not so much about the negativity, not so much about the end, but about the legacy of Strike Force.

can't wait to have him back on the show at 225, my friends. You better get ready for this. If you've been following Eddie Alvarez on Twitter, if you've been following the saga of Eddie Alvarez, the free agent, you know that this man wants to speak. He has a lot to get off his chest. He said yesterday in a tweet that the gloves are coming up on this very show. He is going to speak his mind about the negotiations between him,

the UFC, Bellator, matching, free agency, all that craziness. We'll clear it up right here on this show. Vitor Belfort stops by in the second hour as well. He faces Michael Bisping in one of the huge fights of the first quarter of 2013. It's UFC on FX7, Sao Paulo, Brazil, the phenom stops by. Can't wait to have him on the show. Stephen Espinoza. He is the executive vice president of Showtime sports.

We've been wanting to talk to him for months, it seems. And for a long time, they didn't want to speak. And now with the end of Strike Force coming on Showtime this Saturday, Mr. Espinosa is stopping by. We'll talk to him about the last Strike Force show. We'll talk to him about the future of MMA on Showtime, much to discuss with Mr. Espinoza. And at 125 or so, we'll be talking to Ed Herman, very interesting. He is going to Strike Force. On their final show, he'll be facing Ronaldo Jacqueray Souza, and then he goes back to the UFC, kind of doing them a solid.

We'll talk to him about how that came about. Also, want to mention this DVD right here, there goes someone. This DVD right here, the ultimate 100, the greatest fights in UFC history on one little neat DVD, courtesy of our friends over at Anchor Bay Entertainment. This is up for grabs today, my friends. Best question of the day gets this. Had to bring out a great prize for the first show of 2013. Eight this DVD set over 25 hours of footage. There it is.

The Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights. So lots to get to on this show, but we begin with one of our favorite guests, a member of Team MMA Fighting, also of the Wrestling Observer newsletter. Who better to talk about the history of Strike Force's legacy than this man, joining us via the magic of Skype. He is Dave Meltzer. Dave, how are you? I'm doing great. How you doing, Ariel? Great to have you on the show.

And, of course, as I mentioned, who better to talk to about the legacy and the history of Strike Force than you? first let's start contemporary and then we'll move our way backwards. Saturday night is the final show in Strike Force's history. Is this good for MMA? Is it good that Strike Force is finally going away? You know, there's two ways of looking at it. I mean, as a fan for me, I like the fact that we're going to get to see, you know, we always get this tease, you know, like when Pride was bought and when, you know,

you know, elite XC went out of business and things like that, that we're finally going to get all the top fighters under the same roof, and they're all going to fight each other. And then when Strike Force was purchased, when you did the interview, it was like, okay, now all those matches that we want to see are going to happen. And then they, because of contractual reasons, they didn't happen. So now they're really all going to happen. You know, Gilbert Melendez is going to get a shot at the lightweight title

or at least put in contention where he can get the shot. And the world champions are going to be really, you know, as close to legitimate world champions as we've ever had since this sport ever started. So I think that's a good thing. I like competing brands. It's good for the fighters. It's good for the fans. I like the idea of fights on Showtime, and I hope that that continues.

But I think that, you know, given what's happened in the past year, I think this is for the best. We did that interview in March of 2011, so a little less than two years ago. Are you surprised it lasted this long, the deal between Zufa and Showtime? And are you surprised that it's ending when it is? I thought it had a chance to last for a long time. And then towards the end of 2011, I thought it was doomed. And then all of a sudden they had to come back and they made the deal. And then when they made the deal then, I thought, you know, and Dana White seemed on board for, you know, for the first time.

I thought that it might last for a long time. And then, you know, when it kind of started falling apart, you know, when they did the two canceled shows, I thought it was really bad for the fighters. You know, there hasn't been a show since August. most of these fighters haven't fought in a long, long time, far too long. And so at that point, it was kind of like, okay, let's get this thing done with and over with, and let's move on to the next chapter in the history of MMA. Which strike force fighter, when they all come over, will have the biggest impact in 2013, in your opinion? Impact, it's going to be Roder Rousey.

I mean, unless she goes to Liz Karmouche. I mean, as far as the other ones, the one, that's, you know, I mean, Cormier certainly has the shot to be in a championship mix. Um, Rockhold, it's going to take a few fights. Marquard will be in the mix, but I don't know if he's going to get to the top of the mix. Melendez has a good shot. Um, so yeah, I mean, Jacereseuze, um, I would say, um, Rousie Melendez and Cormier, those three. Last thing on today's strike force, uh, this is the second time essentially that MMA on Showtime goes awry, right?

They had the elite C deal and then they went away for a couple months. They came back with the Strike Force deal. both of those ventures, if you will, do not end in a positive way for Showtime. Do you see them getting back into the MMA game after this? You're going to know more than me when you talk to Espinoza. He's the one who's going to make the call. I think that if it's, you know,

they're having a lot of success with boxing, so they may just go look, let's stick with boxing. But the ratings for the MMA on Showtime have been good. And but at the same time, it's like, where are they going to get talent that's going to be at this level? I mean, there's, there's no, you know, before there was a, when Elite XC went down, there was a strike force and there were other people who were starting up. Now, I mean, where do you go? I guess, I mean, the one I see

is Glory, but then Glory says that they're getting out of the MMA business and they're going straight to kickboxing. So you don't even see that. And then they've got to, and they've got to deal with Spike anyway. So who is there? I mean, the guys on access, there's a lot of promotions there, but I don't see any of them ready to step up. I mean, maybe the best shot would be Invicta, and then that's a whole different ballgame, all women's MMA. I'm not sure that showtime is ready for that. And I actually think it might do pretty decent, but I don't think that that's the direction they're going to go. When did you first hear about Strikeforce? I mean, I was living in San Jose, so I couldn't tell you when I first heard it. I mean, I knew

that there were shows and I started going in the 90s in the kickboxing days. So I think that started going in 1998 to most of the shows. I mean, sometimes with nights that I had scheduled conflicts and everything, but they used to run at the San Jose Civic Auditorium and at the San Jose State. So one was a 2,500 seat building, one was about a 5,000 seat building. And I went to a lot of shows then when Cungley was a star and Alex Gong, who was a great kickboxer,

and they would bring guys in, John Floyd Laier. Sometimes we'd have some K-1 guys on the show. smaller kickboxers from all over the world. And they were fun marathon shows that were taped for ESPN2 before they got into MMA in 06. So yeah, there you have it. March 10th, 2006, the first sanctioned MMA event in California state history.

It's Shamrock v. Gracie, Frank Shamrock versus Gracie. Frank Shamrock versus Caesar Gracie. Can you take us back to that time? It feels like it was 30 years ago, but really, you know, a little less than seven years ago. A massive event for a Scott Coker and his crew. What was the buzz like in the Bay Area for this first event for Strike Force as far as MMA is concerned? It was huge in San Jose, and it really picked up in the last week.

I think that there was a combination of the novelty that people, you know, MMA was just getting big on with the ultimate fighter on Spike. So it was kind of a new thing. It was the first show outside of the, you know, a Native American reservation in California. The first one ever in our area, for the most part, that, you know, I mean, the closest that I remember going to be Lamor, which is three plus hour drive. And, you know, Frank Shamrock did a great job of promoting it.

The buzz in the last couple of days was gigantic. It wasn't the best strike force card ever by any means. It was, but the atmosphere was among the best for any shows. I mean, it was just like it was San Jose against the world, and it was a concept that worked. All the San Jose fighters were, you know, Josh Thompson, Daniel Puter, Mike Kyle, Eugene Jackson from Palo Alto, So, you know, obviously Frank Shamrock and Kung Lee were the big stars.

They were all, like, just so popular. And it was like, it was really a magical night. I mean, they turned away thousands when I went to the, we knew, I think, about a day or two before the show, we kind of, you know, it wasn't like it was an advanced sellout like a UFC show could be. This was something where, you know, I would get the ticket numbers every couple of days, and they were growing and growing. And then about a day or two before, it's like, you know, they may sell out.

And then I got there, you know, before the first match. and there was this, you know, massive traffic jam, and there were thousands of people turned away, and it was a really, it was an amazing scene. And at that point, it's like, oh, my God, they struck gold. And I was wondering, like, you know, I've seen shows like this before with wrestling, and it doesn't necessarily sustain.

And I was wondering, like, are they going to be able to sustain? It's just a one-time fluke? And, I mean, they pretty much, they didn't ever, they never captured San Jose, the Republican San Jose, like they did the first night. This was like, it wasn't fight fans. This was like the thing to do, San Jose. It was just a cool thing.

Guys out on dates, bringing girls. That's really what it was. And just seeing something that they've never seen before. That was really what the first show was. You know, they drew over 18,000 fans. As you mentioned, the buzz was great. The main event, though, after all that hype, Frank Sharmorak, Caesar Gracie, only lasted 23 seconds.

What was the aftermath like? You know, it reminds me of almost JDS versus Kane where in this day and age, everyone's like, oh, this is horrible. They'll never be able to rebound on Fox, all that stuff. What were people saying after that, they got built up for this fight and it only lasted 23 seconds. Did you think that the market may have died right then?

Oh, no, no, not at all. But it was, it was because the whole show underneath that, the people were just so into everything. It just felt like that this was like this hot new sport. And when the knockout happened so quick, I mean, people were like, whoa, wow, but they saw a knockout. I mean, it wasn't what they expected. I think that they wanted more of a match.

but I think that it was a realization that, well, that's what happened and it was a hell of a punch. No, I didn't think it hurt, but I do think that, you know, I was kind of hoping, you know, that we would get a ground game just because Caesar Gracie was so good on the ground. And Frank was good on the ground. But it didn't happen. Caesar went to stand, left himself open, and that's what happens. It wasn't a negative, no. Why was that market so good for MMA? You know, you say they never recapture that magic, but yet they still had the big shows like Shamrock and Brum.

Baroni and, you know, Shamrock versus Kung Lee and other fights. I remember being there in attendance for Melendez Thompson. I remember being at a Bobby Southworth versus Babaloo fight where that was the main event on H.E.N. But everyone stuck around to see two former kickboxers who were 1 and 0 or 0 and 1 in M.M.A. And they really stuck around for them. Scott Hooker was able to draw to his local market. That being said, though, why was that market, that tiny little area, Bay Area, why was that so good for MMA? I think just the fact we had A.k.a., we had a lot of good local fighters.

And you can't, it really was Frank Shamrock and Kung Lee, I think, and Scott as well. Scott as a promoter knew the market. I mean, they would send out mailers, you know, like, you know, we were on the mailing list from the kickboxing days. So there were lots of people who would, you know, find out, you know, in that way. They promoted very well. And Frank was fantastic at building up fights. When he thought it was always a big deal. and Kung Lee had his fan base going back

you know, Kung Lee was the first guy who I saw as a star in the original strike force in the 90s and he would be a guy who, you know, people around town knew who Kung Lee was. He was the, you know, he was the Vietnamese hero, but, you know, people knew that like, hey, you know, let's go to see some strike force and we're going to see Kung Lee German suplex guys and scissors takedowns and all those crazy moves that he used to do in the early days

when he was young and amazing. And it was like just people would come to see the Kungley show and he had a name locally. So when those two guys, those two guys were on the card, it was always a big deal. And then in time, you know, like Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thompson, I think that, you know, for a while there, those guys were popular. And it was just, you know, three, four times a year. It was a cool thing in town to do. We got to see Gina Carano and Cyborg. We got to see Fador. We got some really big, we got some really big shows in the market. It responded. You know, obviously the last strike four show in San Jose. It's kind of sad that that was the last one. And some

people have gone, isn't it too bad that this show wasn't in San Jose, that the final show's in Oklahoma City God only knows why. But to me, you know, the reality is, I'm trying to figure out with the real last Strike Force show would have been, to me, when, whatever the last one was that Kung fought on. You know, that still had the atmosphere because, like, the last one, it wasn't, it really wasn't the same. It just felt like a different animal. It wasn't, like, exactly UFC, but it just wasn't a big deal when they had the last show here with them and it was the third thompson melendez fight which the first two both drew very well and then you look at the last you know big mma show in that area was chris wybman versus mark munoz it was a wednesday night in july

uh the attendance for that one was not good at all rumors are now that they're going to return for ufc on fox seven but why has that market you know not been as healthy i mean did the ufc kill the market What do you think it is? I think that it was a market really dependent on local fighters. I think, you know, the first UFC with Dan Henderson and Shogun, and they also had Cungley on the show with Vanderlai. Sova, I mean, that was a very healthy crowd. It wasn't super, though.

I mean, compared to, you know, what UFC drew in other places, I think that what happened was is we got in the market early. We got a lot of shows. people all sought, and the two heroes got old, and it was dependent. The local fans were dependent on local heroes as opposed to national heroes, and the local heroes weren't there. The two big local heroes weren't there anymore. I really think that that's what happened.

Are you as surprised as I am that other upstart MMA organizations do not copy the Strike Force model? Build around local stars, you know, pick a market, just stick there, have a great relationship with the arena. Of course, this one, the owners own the arena. But, you know, just stay somewhere and build from the ground up as opposed to, you know, I mean, look at the last World Series of fighting event. There wasn't one local fighter on the card. There wasn't one fighter from Las Vegas on the card.

You're paying a lot of money to fly these guys in. You're not selling tickets that way. Are you surprised at the organization? I know Monty Cox, you know, quietly does his thing over there, but a promotion who's starting out doesn't look at this and say, okay, we're going to copy this model and do exactly what Scott Coker and his crew did. Are you as surprised as I am that people don't copy him? I mean, to me, it's the only way because you can't make money flying in the big names. I mean, it's already been proven. It's just not going to work.

The only way to do it is, but one of the things you have, because we had AKA, so we had a lot of great fighters that were living here, and a lot of great fighters who were in their prime all at the right time that were exciting fighters. So it was a unique situation. A lot of markets, you know, you go to, you know, just let's say Nashville, Tennessee, and I'm just throwing out of city. Did they have that kind of level of local fighters, you know, fighting in the area? probably not. And again, you know, Cung was already an established star here from kickboxing. And nobody had that because kickboxing wasn't big anywhere else. And Frank was a legend from the old UFC days who was able to market himself as the best in the world. Whether he was or he wasn't at that time, he was able to market himself and the people were willing to, you know, the people bought it at the time.

And you don't have that either because everyone knows the best in the world are the UFC guys. So, so as far as being able to go in there and do a big building, no. No, I mean, as far as like doing the 2,500 seat, building in town, using lots of local fighters. Yeah, to me, if you're going to build a local promotion, that's what you do. But the problem is that then you're a feeder system. And strike force was never, you know, in the kickboxing days and in later in the glory days here, the people that went didn't consider it a feeder system. It wasn't like, oh, you know, like if Frank does well, he wins three or four fights,

then maybe you can go to UFC and make money. It was like, these guys are our guys. I mean, it's a different mentality. You can't replicate the success that they had it. You can't do that now. But as far as, like you said, copy the thing on a smaller scale, yeah, it's the only way to go, I think. I'll put you on the spot here. Greatest fight slash moment in Strike Force history.

There are two different things. The greatest moment to me was when Verdume got the triangle on Fador. I was just, I mean, I don't know how long it was, you know, how many seconds it was. It felt like 15 minutes to me. It was the slowest time has ever gone in my life except for maybe when my wife gave birth was that moment when that triangle was on. It was like, because you just, is he going to get out?

Oh, my God. And at first you didn't even believe he could be submitted. His fador, he was a myth. Right. And then it was like, he's not getting out. He's not getting out. And all of a sudden it was like, then he tapped. So that was the greatest moment to me.

Greatest fight. There's so many. but I think I'm going to go with the second Thompson Melendez fight. I thought that fight was just one of the best live fights that I ever saw. So that would be the one. Off top of your head, how many Strike Force events did you cover in person? I mean, I went to everyone in San Jose, and I went to, you know, San Jose. You know, I don't know the number.

I was, I saw every one, I think, except for one in Fresno. I think that, you know, the one in Seattle I watched on TV, which was a horrible show. but most of them were very good. The Tacoma one, right, with Bob Sap? The Tacoma one with Bob Sap. That was a terrible show, but that was about the only bad one. I think there may have been a Denver one I missed, and I know that there was a Fresno one that I didn't see,

but I saw every other one. You know how many, I just looked this up. I don't know if you know this off top of your head. How many Strike Force events have there been? After Saturday night, how many will there have been? I don't know. And I haven't been in every challenges, although I saw every challenges one on television.

63. 63. So I would guess that I probably saw 58, 59, 60 of them. Wow. Will you be there on Saturday night in attendance? No, just watching on TV. That doesn't seem right. You have to be there. You're as much a part of it as anyone. Yeah, sometimes I feel that way. But you know what, though? I mean, this is not a knock to the sale because it was the right business move for everyone at the time. And I wish it didn't happen. I actually thought it was funny because,

when they had the show at the Meadowlands, which did the record rating for the first night of the heavyweight tournament, to me, you know, like there's a big difference between being a strong local promotion, which they were, and being a legitimate national force. And when they got the Showtime deal, they had to become a national force.

And that's a very difficult thing, and they never, I guess, quite got there. The night of that Meadowland show, when it was over, I emailed Scott Coker, actually right after the show, and I go, you finally made it. I actually believed, and this is before the ratings came out, and the ratings backed up my belief, the heavyweight tournament was a big deal.

It was a great show. And I thought, you know, not that they're going to beat UFC or anything like that, but you're finally going to be able to stand on your own and make it. And then it was a couple weeks later, I wake up and I've got a zillion text messages, and you better watch Ariel's on the thing with Dana. You better watch it right now, which I had no idea was going to happen. And to me, that's when Strike Force was done. I mean, and even though the name continued and I went to a lot of shows,

and some of the shows were very good, To me, once it's under ZUFA ownership, it was always ZUFA to me after that. And nothing against it, but that's what it was. All right, Dave. Well, we appreciate the look back at the history of Strike Force. Again, I try not to focus on the negativity this week because I do believe it had a fantastic legacy. I remember those shows. I got to cover many of them in San Jose, just the vibe, the press conferences, the arena.

There was just something special about them. And it's kind of sad to see it go. And hopefully those guys do well in the UFC, and it's good for the sport. but for now it's, I think it's an exciting time, but also a bit of a sad time in our sport. We appreciate the look back, Dave. Okay, thanks very much, Ariel. I really like to enjoy this.

There he is. Dave Meltzer of MMAFighting.com and the Wrestling Observer newsletter, a San Jose resident looking back at the history of strike force. Like I said, had the opportunity. And as I mentioned to someone last week, to me, the strike forces, the elite XCs, the afflictions of the world, the IFLs, I will always hold a very, very special place in my heart for them,

particularly those four, because when I started my MMA career, not too long ago, around five years ago, my MMA journalism career, those were the ones who welcomed me with open arms. You know, the IFL PR guy, Jerry Malani, Strike Forces PR head, Mike Afromwitz, who was very much a part of the sport with other organizations now. Now, those are the guys who credentialed me. Those are the guys who gave me interviews. Those are the guys who, you know, gave me the time of day. It took me a while to work my way up to the UFC, which there's no problem with that. You have to work your way up.

You have to start somewhere. And they really gave me an opportunity. I'll never forget that. I'll never forget covering my first Strike Force event, which was Melendez-Thompson in June of 2008. you know, getting to go to the Affliction Show, getting to go to that Elite X-C show in New Jersey with Kimbo Slice, those Strike Force events, and particularly the Shamrock versus Nick Diaz won,

the first one post the Showtime deal when they acquired all those EliteXE assets. I had just started working for AOL Fan House and versus.com. And for whatever reason, they didn't want to send me out. They didn't want to pay to send me out to San Jose to cover this Diaz Shamrock event. So I applied for a credential under Jerry Park.com, my first blog. It was kind of obsolete at this point, but I really wanted to be there.

I felt like it was history. And Michael Fram went to head of PR. He credentialed me. And I really truly appreciated that. And that was a magical night with Nick Diaz defeating Frank Shamrock and some of those strike force guys, excuse me, some of those elite. Dixie guys making their debut. I remember it was a big deal. Brett Rogers versus Abango Humphrey. The card was hit with injuries and there were some weird things going on

with Alistair and whatnot, but that was a special time. And like I said, I think it is better for the sport today, given the current ownership situation for Strike Force, that they are going into the UFC. I want to see those fights. I want to see guys like, you know, Daniel Kormier in the UFC. I want to see Luke Rockhold in the UFC. I want to see Gilbert Melendez in the UFC. I want to see Giger Musassi in the UFC. I want to see those guys in the UFC. It's still sad, though, that it's going away, and we won't have that anymore. In a minute, we will be joined by Ed Herman, the UFC veteran who will be fighting on the Final Strike Force event, which I will be in attendance for. I will be covering it on Saturday in

Oklahoma City. Again, as Dave said, God only knows why it's in Oklahoma City. Well, you know, Cormier, you know, was a star at Oklahoma State. So it kind of makes sense. And of course, they have to make up for the fact, I guess, that they cancel that first event. But it's an intriguing card, and I felt it's history. It's the last one. We want to be there. We want to cover it, so we will be there. And an intriguing fight on that card is the former Strike Force middleweight champion and Ronaldo Jacque Reza fighting a UFC veteran who is, I guess it's history,

it's an interesting footnote, the only guy to come over to Strike Force since it was purchased by Zoufa in March of 2010. Our guest right now, Ed Herman, who joins us via the magicist Skype. Ed? How are you? Good, man. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm so fascinated by this situation

because it kind of came out of left field. Jacqueray was supposed to fight on this card. The opponent gets injured, and all of a sudden it's Ed Herman versus Jacques Rae. No one saw this coming. How did you end up on this strike force card? You know, I told my manager and asked me and, you know, a little short notice, but, you know, I needed to fight. I hadn't fought since August. We've been, you know, asking him for a fight, and this is a great fight. It's a big name and exactly what I'm looking for. And they're letting this dude out a catchway, so that's even better for me.

What way it will be contested at? $194. So was that something that you asked for? Yeah, it is. You know, I think it was four weeks notice. They called me. I was a little heavy. So they were like, they brought it up.

But we accepted. You know, we weren't sure just because, you know, short notice fight. And they said, catchway. I said, no problem. Did you view it at first as a demotion or, you know, not as big time as the UFC? Like, did you have to think about it? Do I really want to go fight on a. strike force card when I'm a UFC veteran?

Not really. With it being the last strike force show, you know, not a big deal. If it wasn't the last strike force show, then yeah, I made a little bit better like that a little bit. But it's a last strike force card, you know, they said I'll be right back in the octagon after that, after this fight. So, you know, it pays the same. So let's do it.

So you had to get the assurance that win or lose on Saturday night, you're still coming back to the UFC after this, right? Yeah. My manager goes with that stuff. Right, of course. Now, the UFC fights in an octagon. You've been fighting there for a long time. Strike Force fights in a hexagon.

Did you have to prepare in a hexagon? Does that mean anything to you? I don't know what the hell of a hexagon. What is a hexagon? Ten sides? Yeah, ten sides. Okay, no, it doesn't matter to me, whatever. Okay.

As far as angles and things like that, it means nothing to you. No. I was having a discussion with someone What was that, sorry? I just, I don't know. It matters that much. You know, we're going to call you on your cell phone because the connection is a little wonky.

We're going to call you on your cell phone because it keeps cutting up, okay? Okay. Okay. New York, Rick, call him up on his cell phone now. There he was. Ed Herman and all his glory. We could have done the video,

Skype, cell phone thing, but whatever. We'll just get him on. I want to talk to him. So interesting there. They tell him you're going to stick around, win or lose on Saturday. And also interesting that he says that he, a big part of the draw, at least for him,

was that this was the last show. Gets a little more attention, as finale's often do. Last time we saw him, of course, was UFC 150. I believe we have him. Now, Ed, are you there? Yeah, I'm here.

All right. So I wanted to ask you about Jacare, who I was just talking to some. someone New York Rick on our team here before the show. He considers Jacqueray a top five middleweight, despite the fact that he lost to Luke Rockhold, maybe a guy who hasn't gotten the respect and the attention that he deserves because he fights in Strike Force. How high do you, Ray, Jacaray?

I figure he's in the top ten, you know, for sure. Most definitely. So I think it's a great opportunity for me. I was all the reason we took the fight, you know, is to get in there against another big name and have an opportunity to get a big win. last time we saw you fight was against a BJJ whiz and Jake Shields another BJJ whiz here last fight didn't go your way is this kind of your way of trying to make amends make make that wrong or right what happened at UFC 150

you know anytime you lose you want to come in and make a wrong or right so I just felt like against Shields I was a little flat I didn't fight you know my game plan I was too worried about maybe what he was going to do so this fight I'm going to come out and just do it got me to where I'm at, you know, and come to fight, my style, not let it, not fall into, you know, the other guy's game plan. By the way, I'm being told that a hexagon is six sides. See, I'm an idiot as well, so just, I don't want to screw you up there. It's six, not ten, so don't look for those four exercises. All right. Why do you think you look flat in that fight against Jake?

I mean, I was. I just didn't, I don't know, I just didn't perform the way I normally can. You know, I use that I'm a lot more aggressive. and I was just flat. It wasn't my night. I don't know. I don't know how I was to explain it. You know, it just wasn't my night. I didn't have my best performance.

You were fighting, I guess, in your adopted home state of Colorado. Did the pressure of it all get to you? You know, not that I know of, not anything that I was thinking about. I mean, there's a possibility, but, you know, nothing that I was overwhelmingly, like, you know, contemplating or thinking about in my head. sometimes things like that can't get to you without you even realizing it. So the fight eventually

was turned into a no contest after Jake Shields tested positive for a banned substance. Do you even know what he tested positive for? We still haven't gone the word. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was testosterone or something like that. He looked pretty jacked up

for that fight. You know, if it had been like marijuana, I'm sure he would have said that for people, you know, would know that it wasn't you know, something else. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty positive with some kind of performance enhancer. Obviously, I mean, he hasn't come out so we don't want to condemn him, but did you, like, when you were fighting him and you haven't fought him before, so it's hard to compare, but, like, did you notice, like, wow, this guy is a lot bigger or stronger than I expected him to be? Oh, not really.

You know, on the ground, he felt more just his good positioning, you know, along with the strength. I'm sure the extra strength helped him. If he was using a supplement to make him stronger, then, yeah, he was able to use that strength in there. But, you know, Shield is, like you said, one of the best grapplers in the game. So he just had really good positioning on the ground and just shut down a lot of my movements. And again, I was flat so I couldn't make any trap in where I normally can. Prior to that fight, you had won three in a row, three finishes, you look great, a lot of momentum behind you. how long did it take for you to get over the loss and feel like, all right, you know,

we'll get back on the horse here because a win over Shields really would have put you in the mix there at 185. Yeah, I was pretty bummed, you know, for sure I was bummed out. That would have been a huge win for me. But, you know, I was ready to go. I was back in the gym shortly after that. I had a couple small injuries. They're kind of kept from fighting again right away. But, you know, of course, you want to get that bad taste out of your mouth.

It doesn't matter who you lose to. It's still a loss. You know, you've got to get back in there as soon as you can and get that taste out of your mouth and try to get back on the winning side. What do you think of Jacare's striking? He feels hard, man. He's got a big right hand. He's a little wild and, you know, sort of unorthodox with his punches.

I think he has a false sense of security in it. He thinks that he hits hard so that, you know, that's good enough, but it's not going to be. So I'm going to exploit his mistakes that he makes on his feet And, you know, showcase mine And he's probably going to try and take me down once this happens So just end the take down and either get on top or beat him up on our feet So do you think he's gotten away from his BJJ? Like have you studied his tapes his last few fights?

Yeah, I have studied his tapes No, I don't think he's gone away from it He still uses it But I think he's comfortable on his feet And like I said he's confident that he can knock people out he just got a big TKL or KO his last fight. Right. You know, and he's got power in his hands for sure.

He's hurt just about everybody. He's fought even as he hasn't knocked out. So, you know, he knows he hits harder, and I think he's going to depend on that a little bit. And, you know, I can take a pretty good shot, which most people have seen in my last few fights or some of my side. So he's going to have to do more than just throw a big right hand at me

see if you're trying to stand. Yesterday on Twitter, you asked for a little help, a little boost, if you will, to get some followers. And so I retweeted you. Did any come your way? You know, I dig. I got a ton of people, man. I really appreciate that.

Oh, wow. I'm not the savviest with Twitter. So, yeah, any little props like that I can get were great. I got, you know, a couple hundred people within it within a few hours. Wow. So that was pretty sweet, man. I appreciate it. Oh, yeah, my pleasure.

Coming from a, you know, popular guy like you. Well, you know, I try. I try to give back to the people. Your Twitter handle is Twitter.com slash Ed Herman UFC. For this one, will you change it to Ed Herman's Strikeforce, or will that be too confusing? No, I'm not changing. Are they going to let you wear UFC gloves in the cage? I don't know.

I have no idea. That'd be cool. Probably not. Yeah. I don't care. I think it'd be kind of cool to wear Strike Force gloves. Yeah, it would be kind of cool. It would be.

It's a little footnote. Did you, like, did you train with them at all? Because they're a little bit different, no? Yeah, but I don't turn with USC gloves usually anyway. Oh. I wear like a safety gloves. I don't break my hands or injure my opponents. Right.

That's a... Yeah, you know. So I was following... When I was looking at you on Twitter yesterday, you were very excited about the Seattle Seahawks who beat the Redskins. Are you a big Seahawks fan? I am, yeah.

Super Seahawks fan. You know, they haven't been too good to the fans for a while. The last time they were any good was when they went to the Super Bowl and I was on the ultimate fighter that year, so I didn't even get to watch the Super Bowl because we were trapped in the house with my TV.

I was trying to get clues from the cameraman. So I missed that whole game in the playoffs leading up to it. So this is exciting for me to be able to watch them in the playoffs and doing well. Wow, so honestly, though, you're not just some frontrunner. You grew up a Seahawks fan? Yeah, for sure, man.

Being in the Northwest, you know, we don't have a lot of pro teams. We've got, like, the Portland Show. Blazers, you know, the Seattle Seahawks, that's about it, you know. So for sure. I mean, it's not like I was like a diehard going to every game. Sure, sure. You know, Seattle's a couple hours away of it.

For sure, they've always been my team. You know, in Colorado, the Broncos are kind of like my adopted second team. So I got a team in the NFC and the AFC now, both in the playoffs. That's pretty cool. What was it like to not be able to, your team finally makes it to the Super Bowl? They were bad for so long. You're on the show. They didn't let you even watch a second of it?

No, man, they didn't care. I was having to, like, book the cameraman, and they were giving me little signs with their hands and stuff because they were told not to talk to us and stuff on the show. So that was kind of funny. But it sucked, yeah, man, I missed the whole playoffs and the Super Bowl. So, wait, the cameraman, like, if you say something to them, they're not even allowed to say anything back to you?

They're not supposed to talk to us now. Wow. So when you're trying to talk to them, obviously you're on camera, how are they giving you updates on the game and not getting caught? Well, I mean, you're not, when they're filming at show, we're just doing our thing in the house type of thing, you know. And we would try and talk to them, and they would ignore us. Like, we'd be so bored, we'd sit there and mess with them, too.

Like, I'd talk to them, we'd get them in trouble for her so bored. You know, so there were some of the cool guys who'd kind of, like, give you a little sign, like, you know, three or seven or something, you know, try to give you a little hand sign or something without getting caught, because a lot of those guys were cool and, you know, probably so bad for us being, you know, locked down like that. Do you watch the show now? I do a little bit, yeah.

I don't watch all the episodes and stuff, but I do catch one here and there. Do you feel like some sort of sense of, like, this was where you graduated from? Like, do you feel a connection to the show when you watch it now? A little bit, yeah, for sure, being a one night of the show. You know, you watch the show and tell people to watch it. You know, I'm glad that it's still going.

You know, it's a little different now than it was. Is it really? My big beef with the show is that it hasn't really changed. It's like the exact same thing over and over again. And I think that that's one of the problems. Like, you know, you want to see something different. You view that you think it's actually different? I mean, maybe different just in the quality of the fighters coming in

or the difference in the fighters coming in. Back in the day, you know, there wasn't as many guys trying to do this now. You know, I was doing this before it was cool. Now you've got all the, everybody wants to do it, everybody wants to be able to the fighter, you know. So you got all these people in there, maybe in there for the wrong reasons, or, you know, you see people, you know, getting there and not be able to handle it, quitting and things like that. I don't know. It's just, so it's different for me in that sense, like the people on the show are different. That finale, when you lost to Grove, and you even lost your next UFC fight, was six years ago, amazingly.

Did you ever think you'd be in the UFC this long? Actually, seven years ago, I should say, almost. Right. I don't know if I thought that far ahead. Being a youngster, you know, back then, you know, I always hoped and dreamed of it, yeah. But, you know, and when I was on the show, I thought I was going to win the show. I thought I was going to beat Campbell Grove. You know, I was confident that I could come in and compete in the UFC. But I'm pretty, you know, blessed and happy to have been able to be in the U.S.

as long as I have and make a career out of it. but I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I'm sticking around another three years, four years maybe even. I can't remember now. Whose team are you on? Were you on Shamrock or Ortiz? I was on Shaquharov's game. Was he the worst coach ever in your, like, of your experience as a mixed martial artist, martial artist?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Why? I got totally ripped off. I got totally ripped off. You know, he's a decent guy. He's a little self-absorbed, so a lot of it was about him. and he was not show up for practices.

You know, he brought, the guys he brought on for coaches were really nice guys, but they didn't know anything about mixed martial arts. There was a boxing coach who had never trained in an MMA guy and like a bodybuilding coach who had never worked with an MMA athlete. And Ken trying to teach his kickboxing. So, you know, it was pretty bad. You know, I tend to nice guy. I feel bad like talking shit, but at the same time, you know,

I feel like I got pretty ripped off. At all the great coaches who've been on all the seasons, I got the worst of it. So do you think if you would have had Ortiz, you would have won that fight? I can't say that, but I think I would have got a better experience out of the show and learn more because he had some great coaches, you know, over on his team. So I feel like I would have learned more while I was there and maybe been a little bit more happy about being there.

And also you got to go home and train with your team before the finale and all that, right? Correct. Right, but maybe Shamrock, like, he instilled some bad habits in you, and that's what led to the loss and all that. Did you ever really like peg the lot? No, you didn't do that? No, no, I'm not going to say that, no way. When you envision this fight against Jacaree,

how do you see it playing out? How do you see yourself beating him? You know, there's lots of ways I could beat him. I could knock him out, you know, beat him up, grind him down, wear him out. He tends to get tired in the later rounds, you know, take him down, beat him up, crush him with elbows, cut him up.

I don't think he's going to like to taste of his own blood. So, you know, I'm going to try to break as well. Well, I've got to give you credit, man. I think it's awesome that you're coming over to Strike Force. I know a lot of guys didn't want to do it. I think it's cool. I think it's going to be a fun fight to see you versus Jacques-Rae on the last Strike Force card. It kicks off the Showtime portion of the broadcast, which is a free weekend, so anyone can watch it.

Even if you don't have Showtime, you can just find it on your TV. It's free this weekend. It's a preview weekend, if you will. Ed Herman versus Jacereseuza in Oklahoma City this Saturday night live on Showtime. Best of luck to you, Ed. Always good to talk to you. We'll see you in Oklahoma. Thanks, I appreciate it, man.

We'll see you there. All right, and you're welcome for the followers. Don't mention it. Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. There he is. Ed Herman, cast member on the third season of the Ultimate Fighter as he made. That's pretty crazy.

I'm a huge sports fan and whatnot. If I was not able to watch the Knicks in the finals, that would suck. But I guess he was on the show. It led to good things for him, getting on the finale, eventually losing to Kendall Grove. Kind of a funny story about that. I was working in TV production on the third season of The Ultimate Fighter, and the company that I was working for was hired by SpikeTV, Spike.com, to be exact, to produce like a pre-fight show for the finale. That was the first event, UFC event, that I ever saw live.

It was at the Hard Rock The main event was Kenny Floyd versus Sam Stout Ed Herman fought Kennele Grove Bisping fought Josh Haynes And It was awesome

The hosts were Stephen Bonner And Forrest Griffin They were the co-host We had this girl Laura Diane Laura Diane was like the roving reporter I wrote the scripts for them

It was a lot of fun My first live UFC event that was back in 2006. I apologize also for saying that the Strike Force cage was, obviously, it's a hexagon. Why did I think that was 10 sides? Ten sides is a decagon. That's what World Series of Fighting uses. Hexagon is six. Octagon is eight.

Decagon is 10. What is four sides? Quatro? Square. Is it a square? That's what it's called? That's a rumbus. Look at Will already making his presence felt on the show.

Buscoe Brandon would never help me out with the piece of info like that. But there's no like, there's no like sort of cool name for the four sides. No. Quatt. I think that's a, I think that's a triangle. No, it is a quad. Yeah, it is. A quad.

A quad. There it is. A quad. Yes, the quad. Yes. Busco Brendan better be worried. When you get piece of info like that,

when you get backup like that, that's huge. All right, so there it is. Quad, hex, octagon, decagon. Let's move along now. On Saturday night, as I mentioned, the final Strike Force event on Showtime. And for a very long time, we have been wanting to talk to this man.

Our next guest on the show, finally we can deliver him to you. He is the executive vice president of Showtime sports. He is Stephen Espinoza. Stephen, are you there? I am. How are you, Ariel? Great to have you on the show. Finally, Stephen, we've been trying for months and months to get you on the show. So pleased that... I'm sure you had much more important people. I've been on the waiting list for a while.

Absolutely not. I have the documents to back myself up, but we're glad that you are here. We're glad to finally start talking about a Strike Force event again on Showtime. And obviously, it is the last one. We're trying to celebrate Strike Force here. We're not trying to be negative, but I got to ask the question because, quite frankly, you haven't been available for a long time. Why is this the last Strike Force event on Showtime? Well, we had the option to extend for another year. We decided not to, and candidly, there's one real reason behind it, or one main reason. As any fan who follows Strike Force in the MAA generally knows, there have been some talent problems in the last half of the year,

and there had been injury problems throughout the sport. But given where the talent pool and strike force is, we really got decimated by injuries and suspension. And, you know, in the overall scheme of things, you know, we just weren't comfortable with the trajectory of where the shows were going. We didn't believe toward the end of the year that we were getting shows that were premium television-level shows. And we didn't see that situation getting any better. So, you know, I wanted to live up to the high standards that strike force had set with Showtime before I got here. And as the year went on, it was clear that that wasn't going to happen. Was a part of the reason why this relationship ended, the fact that for whatever reason,

Showtime could not get along with Zoufa? I mean, Dana White has said he doesn't want to talk about it, but it's clear something went awry. Could that union, that marriage just not coexist? Actually, I would take, let me take a little bit of issue with the question or the assumptions beyond the question. The relationship is actually fine, you know, as between Zoufa as a company and Showtime as a company. Dane has been pretty outspoken. He's outspoken on everything. We know he's passionate and he often speaks off the cuff.

And, you know, so I take what he says with a little bit of a grain of. assault. But outside of that, there hasn't been, you know, really any difficulties in the relationship once we got things sorted out way back in January. So, you know, the fact that Dana, you know, wasn't happy at times and sort of distance himself, that really wasn't a factor in the decision at all. Was Zoufa a good partner? As far as a TV partner is concerned? They were. They were a good partner. I think, and the hesitation that you hear is because, you know, we had an awkward structure, you know, doing this, having this promotion and operating the shows in the context of the larger deal that Zupa had with Fox and the limitations it put on us.

And, you know, the fact that a lot of our talent was stripped out at the start of the deal, really created some challenges in sustaining the organization going forward. But having said that, I think we put on some very good events this year with some very good fighters. as evidenced by, you know, the fact that UFC can't wait to get their hands on them. Yeah, you mentioned some of the talent leaving guys like Nick Diaz and Alistair Overeux. I mean, that was obviously a very big blow to the Strike Force brand. How did that even happen? Like, how was that allowed to happen because there were two separate entities?

Why didn't Showtime step in or could you not step in and stop this from happening? Well, when, you know, there were two sort of separate deals. there was a deal between Zupa and Fox, and then there's a separate deal between Strike Force and Showtime. When Zuma acquired Strike Force, tried to sort of meld the two together, and there were adjustments that we needed. There were adjustments that they needed,

just in the context of the deals, because neither of us anticipated this would happen at the time when we signed our respective deals. So in the process of, sort of reconfiguring that deal, there was give and take. In retrospect, you know, maybe we should have tried a little bit harder to hold on to some more talent, so we weren't going to be faced with sort of the challenges toward the end of the year. But, you know, you know what they say about hindsight.

Right. And obviously, we haven't seen Strikeforce on Showtime in a while because there were two events that were canceled in between, you know, now and the last event, which was in August. It was an event canceled in September. an event canceled in November, those two cards decimated by injuries. At the end of the day, I know you said that you know you want to give a premium product and sort of live up to the standards that Strike Force set on the network, but why pull the plug on those events, or was it not your call to pull the plug on those events?

It was definitely not my call to pull the plug. I mean, we don't run the promotion. You know, we set up cameras and televise an event and help market the broadcast. But the ZUFA really, once they acquired the promotion, they run the production, excuse the production of the event. They, you know, sign the fighters, they decide when there are events, when they're not events. You know, the decision that I have to make for our subscribers, you know, and for our company as a whole, is, you know, whether we're getting value for the money that we're paying.

So when we have cancellations and, you know, and fighter injuries throughout the sport, whether it's boxing or MMA. And when that happens, both sides try to reach a concession that makes sense that allows the event to go forward. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes it doesn't. Unfortunately, for those two shows, it didn't happen. What was the final straw, if any, for you as the head of Showtime Sports when you decided, all right, it is time? to go our separate ways here and end this relationship? I'm not sure there was a particular moment or event or conversation or anything along those lines.

It was, I think, a realization late in the year around the time of the second cancellation that this was this problem with the talent pool and the trajectory of the promotion going forward wasn't going away. It wasn't just a sort of a streak of bad luck for a couple months. it was a trend and we can look at it from the big picture and look at the trajectory of the organization Strike Force before the acquisition

by Zuffa and after and I think you know, with due respect everything that we did after the trajectory wasn't the same that became very clear by the end of the year in around October you announced that Strike Force was coming back at that point we didn't know it was going to be the last show but that there was going to be a huge show

was going to be called Strike Force champions. Everyone's going to be on the card, big names, injuries happen. It's still a very strong card. We'll be there, but not all the titles are being defended, et cetera, and there are some, including some on the Strike Force roster who believe fighters pulled out of that card

because they just didn't want to fight on the Strike Force's finale and they wanted to go to the UFC. Do you believe some guys just made up injuries so that they don't have to fight on this card? I don't believe so. I mean, I know, not to sing out any in particular guys, but I know Luke Rockhold and I know Gilbert Melendez, those guys are fighters.

I don't believe that those guys would, you know, would fake injuries or, you know, take advantage of a situation or alter your motives. I mean, I know medically both of their injuries in particular were absolutely valid. So, you know, it would be virtually impossible for me to believe they would have those motives. Was it hurtful to the brand when you had guys come out and essentially, you know,

some of them didn't want to say it, but you could tell they didn't want to be there anymore. Is that hard when you have your stars talking like that and ultimately hurting the brand when it's very clear they'd rather be fighting for someone else? Yeah, I think, you know, I think what that was was largely a lot of confusion about the messaging. And that's something quite candidly we struggled with from the very start. there hadn't been really a situation like this before where you have one organization running you know another organization and you know I guess the only I think I used in one of our prior conversations the example of not that it really is apples apples but when

WWF was running you know TNA as well WCW yeah that's why that's why that's exactly so under those circumstances but that's not you know that's a very different type of event obviously that's more scripted than anything else but aside from that, there's really not an analogy where you had two brands sort of co-existing within one umbrella. And for that reason, we all struggled. I mean, the executives at both companies, both Strikeforce and ZUFA, struggled with the messaging. And therefore, it doesn't surprise me that, you know, the fighters weren't entirely clear on how it was going to work either. Obviously, very happy that you're on the show and you're answering a ton of our questions,

bringing a lot more clarity to the situation. But why did you decide to remain quiet for so long and allow, and to his credit, I mean, you could kind of tell how he was feeling, but Dana never really wanted to talk about it, despite the fact that we asked him 3,000 different ways about the strike force situation. Why was there only one side speaking, and why was Showtime quiet in the last few months? Well, I think the primary thing is I don't like to come on and give half stories or tell incomplete versions of events. and we were sort of in the midst of trying to figure out what was happening going forward.

And so the conversation would have been, and maybe, you know, in retrospect, it's worth having anyway, would have been, you know, we've hit some bad luck, and we're not sure what we're doing going forward in terms of either more events or, you know, extending the deal. So rather than sort of, you know, cloudy and already murky conversation, I waited until there's a little bit more clarity to come out and address all these things, I think, at once. Now, here's the biggest and most interesting question. Is Showtime now out of the MMA game?

I hope not. There's definitely a lot of enthusiasm and a big appetite for MMA here, both me personally and the company as a whole. This company, this network has been a pioneer in the sport in many ways. It's been a huge supporter of the sport and done some of the most watched events in recent history. So there is definitely more appetite. Whether there is the right opportunity is still a sort of process of determining

that's still going on as we speak. I don't know what the future is going to hold, whether we're going to find the right opportunity or opportunities in combat sports. But we definitely would love to continue in MMA. Have you talked to any other organizations? We've had a number of conversations of the range of different organizations. You know, nothing that's really definitive or, you know, close to being fruitful at this point.

But we've been, you know, doing our exploratory conversations and doing our diligence ever since it was sort of decided late last year that we wouldn't be going forward. Who have you talked to? I knew that was the next question. And I don't blame you for asking, but that one I'm going to take a pass on. Fair enough. You've been very kind. You've got to try, right? Absolutely.

And just a couple of minutes here left with Stephen Espinoza, the executive vice president of Showtime Sports. Is it possible, Stephen, that 2013 comes and goes, and there will only have been one MMA event on the network, and that's the one coming up on Saturday? Is there a chance that you guys just, you know, don't air MMA events this year anymore? There's a chance. I mean, there's a chance that something happens to change circumstances, and we're back in business with ZUFA. It wouldn't entirely surprise me either way, not that there's anything on the table now.

I think the point of it is, is this sport and sports in general sort of take crazy turns that are somewhat unpredictable. If we could sort of look back and go back in time 18 months ago, no one really would have predicted that we'd be operating strike force under ZUFA and the UFC brand, you know, simultaneously. So I don't want to be, you know, I don't want to be too determinative of what's going to happen going forward. But, you know, it's a challenging marketplace. It's a critical time in the development of the sport.

there's been an epidemic of injuries in a number of organizations, not just strike force. You know, UFC has seen it as well. So finding the right opportunity or the right set of opportunities will be a, you know, well-thought-out process. It may take, you know, months and may take 12 months. You just slightly blew my mind there for a second. Just throwing out the possibility that Showtime would be in business with the UFC. Was that just you throwing out an example or are there even talks of this? No, should be clear, there aren't talks, but the reason I throw it out is because the relationship, you know, isn't nearly as bad or even bad at all, as some may, you know, suspect from the outside.

The relationship between the two companies is good. Again, my relationship with Dana is good. We have our differences in opinions. He's very outspoken on some things, but that doesn't mean we don't have, you know, a good relationship. you know, he can pick up the phone, or I can pick up the phone, and we can talk, and our companies are going to have

a great working relationship through this weekend. It'll be very collegial. And if someone asked me, would I get in business with them before? I'd say, absolutely, sure. So you mentioned that one of the reasons why you didn't want to put on that event in September,

and then in November, was because it just didn't feel like, you know, a premium product, one that you're used to putting on. You look out there, and it's tough. I mean, with Belator, you know, doing their thing with Spike, there are some upstarts,

but no one has the roster that even the depleted strike force had, names like Melendez and Rockhold and Marquard and Ronda Rousey and Cormier for a little bit. So when you look around in MMA, does anything even entice you? Like, can you even envision yourself working with any of these other organizations? That's a very stute observation. That's exactly the primary challenge going forward is, You know, you look at the landscape and there's sort of a dominant player. You probably put Bellator as the next most visible.

And then there's a lot of guys sort of at the next tier that really don't distinguish themselves that well from each other. That says one of two things. Either, you know, you wait for something to coalesce into, you know, another sort of worthy partner, or you do something where you are sort of bringing all the small entities together in some sort of umbrella organization and sort of grouping together all the talent pools. But the question of the available talent pool will be at the forefront of our mind going forward given our recent experience.

One thing I always thought Showtime could do was much like in boxing, you know, let's say promoter X is putting on a good fight, sign them up for that one fight and here we are. The next week it's promoter why out of Denver, sign them up, and could it work that way, or do you think MMA is structured differently? I think it could work that way. It hasn't

in the past, but you know, it doesn't mean it couldn't in the future. I think, you know, you may open the door to the types of inefficiencies and challenges that boxing has encountered, but I don't think that's

insurmountable. Boxing is certainly continue to operate and actually flourished, I think, in the last couple of years, despite those challenges. So that wouldn't be a bad way to go. It would require a lot of investment and time and effort and a lot of personnel. So if you're looking for a job, you know, you call me after you're out there. And I'm just curious, you know, I know you're new to Shotam are relatively new, but is there any bad taste in some of the employees that have been there for longer? Now this is the second promotion to go under that was under the Showtime umbrella.

Are there some people like, you know what, MMA just isn't healthy enough, it's not sustainable, whatever, are there people who are saying enough is enough with MMA in Showtime? No, I mean, honestly, there's some disappointment because we're sorry not to be in MMA, at least for the foreseeable future. But, you know, there's a lot of pride in what we have built. And I say we as a company because a lot of it obviously happened before I got here. But when you look at, you know, the names that you have listed, you know, I mean, guys like, you know, guys and women like Ronda Rousey or like, you know,

Gilbert or Luke or Daniel or a lot of these heads who are literally homegrown from challengers through to the Strikeport shows. there are a lot of people here who are going to watch Gilbert in UFC, ultimately, we expect, or Rhonda, or Overeem, or Verdume, and take a lot of pride in playing such a huge role in the development and actually the introduction of those stars. Is it true that before Rhonda signed with the UFC that Showtime tried to sign her for a new organization? Absolutely not. Not true.

All right. That's what I heard, at least from one source, but you were clearing that up, that did not happen. Absolutely not. Okay, and speaking of women's MMA, we were talking about this with Dave Meltzer. Invicta is one that has some buzz behind it, and it's very different than the UFC, so maybe there's a niche there. What do you think of an all-women's promotion? I don't want to say that we're talking about Invicti here, but do you think there's an appetite for that on a network like a showtime? I think there could be.

I mean, obviously, we've been a pioneer in women's MMA, and have built two of the biggest names. Forget men or women, but two of them. the biggest names in MMA recently. So there's plenty of enthusiasm for that. You know, looking at Invicta in particular, I like what they've done. They've generated a lot of visibility, a lot of noise. They had some outstanding fights a couple nights ago. So I think the health of women's MMA is very good.

And despite what, you know, others have said, I have no concerns about the depth. The depth is there. There's no question. Have you talked to Invicta? I expected that question, but I'm not going to answer that one either. Will you be in Oklahoma City? I will. Absolutely.

Well, I will be there as well. I hope to say hello to you. Really thank you for coming on and clearing up the air here. And I want to remind you that Strike Force is a part of the sports block and Showtime's Free Preview weekend, making it available to four times the amount of viewers than normal. You've got Showbox on Friday, Saturday's, Strike Force, first on Strike Force Extreme at 8 p.m. Eastern, then at 10 p.m. Eastern, you got the main card on the main Showtime channel. It is free to everyone, so enjoy it. Stephen, thank you so much. Always a pleasure, and I think I speak for everyone. We hope that Showtime sticks around in our little world called MM. Looking forward to seeing what you guys do next. Appreciate the support, Ariel. All right, there he is. The Executive Vice President of Showtime Sports, Mr. Stephen Espinoza, answering a lot of questions about the future of mixed martial arts on Showtime.

One of the true legends of the sport of mixed martial arts is joining us right now. He is on hold. Can't wait to get to him. He faces Michael Bisping, UFC on FX7, Sao Paulo, Brazil next Saturday night. That is January 19th, live and free on FX. He is the phenon, the old lion, the new lion, the young dinosaur. I don't know what he is. He is Vitor Belford.

Vitor, how are you? I'm good, man. I am the Benaya. You can call me Benaya. Benaya. Benaya. Denaya, yeah. What does that mean?

Oh, man, you got to read his story, and you know it. It's too long, but bottom line, he went in the pit on a snowing day and slay a lion and a pit on a snowing day. And then he got a Philistus, very tall with a long spear, so he was a warrior. So he defeated many giants, so he was a warrior. Naya was a man of war.

a mighty man of King David. So it's a pretty amazing story. And when I met that guy, I was in love and very attached to my life. Because our wars, you know, the many battles that we face is not inside the octagon. Inside the octagon is a great celebration day and the competition. but every human mankind has to face battles and many battles just faces in our privacy,

you know, in our mind, in struggles that we just got to stand firm and fight, you know, and don't lose the faith. So that's about it. Man, I don't even know what to say at this point. I feel like I should just say goodbye. How can I follow that up with any kind of question?

Dropping knowledge right off the bat here on the show That's why we love you so much, Vitor. Thank you, man. I really appreciate them as well. As well, you know, I really admire your work for what you're doing. And, you know, the way you bring the, you just hear you interviewing the vice president of Showtime. And you just bring a knowledge to the sport as well. It's very important that, you know, we just send the message to the fans.

and you guys really help the sport to grow because you guys are a very important piece on this puzzle just as the fighters, as the promoters. So we're fighting for the same root for the same motives. You know, we're here to, that's our milk and bread and we need to fight for that with all we have. Well, now I'm blushing, now I'm sweating, now you've got me all flush,

but I appreciate the words very much. coming from a legend like you, it means the world to me. So thank you very much, Vitor. I want to ask you about this fight in Sao Paulo against Michael Bisping, a very important fight for both of you. Are you so there? Yeah, I'm here. What do you make of this matchup?

Do you like this matchup against Michael? Yeah, man, he's a great, great fighter, a great warrior. You know, Michael is he face, he does a big fight, he face whatever they put in front of him. him. I have a lot of respect for him and looking forward to face one of the best guys on this

way division. And I'm very happy. I'm very blessed to still fighting on the level of of these fighters that I'm not talking about

age. I'm just talking about the season, the people on the sport. You know, I've been on the sport for 17 years and still fighting on this level of competition and keep it up. And I'm so motivated. I just today, it's the first time on history that I wait 195 after my practice. I just finished my sparring.

And so even in this week, this week I'm cutting weight, cutting the calories. So feeling young, man, you know, hearing from Rashad Evans and say, man, victory. It looked like 18 years old again, you know. So I'm very motivated and I'm very blessed to still have passion to work, passion to fight, and passion to perform. And everything that I do, I do as I'm doing for God, you know, so I'm doing my best. That's what I can promise to you doing my best every day. You know, we had Michael on the show recently. I asked him about this fight, and he had a very interesting thing to say, among many interesting things. And I want to play you this clip. It's like eight seconds long.

This is what he had to say about what he had to look out for when he fought you on January 19th. Here's the clip. I've got to watch out for his punches to the back of the head. You know, watch out for those radishes because he does like to punch people in the back of the head. So other than that, you know... So there he has.

He says the main thing he has to look out for is punches to the back of the head. What do you make of that? That's illegal. Is he calling you a dirty fighter? I don't even hurt, man. He's English so difficult, you understand. Just don't turn your head.

Just don't turn your head. Keep your head straight. Do you look out for that? Is that something that you try to do? I'm just trying to knock people out. You know, if you're trying that, you know, this is dirty. You know, that's the duty is to knock people out. That's my job.

So, well, people say whatever they want to say. And like if you want to give excuse, God will provide one for you. So maybe he already provided his excuse already. So I don't know. I cannot judge anybody. I only can judge myself.

And I'm very honest, fighter. When I step into the cage, that place is a holy place for me. And I respect my opponent. I'm very glad that he's there to perform with me. So I'll promise I will be there with

with full commitment so I'm preparing myself so I'm not here to talking anything to say anything the only thing I can say to you I'll be there with all my heart

with all my soul with all my spirit do you think Michael Bisping has a weak chin I don't think anything I just thinking about I just thinking about myself I don't know you know he's for me

he's a great fight a great water and I'm going to go and just be there, you know. Just do what I know and do what I'm capable to do it. That's the beauty of the sport, you know. Anything can happen in that cage. So I'm making sure that, you know,

in January 19, I ruled that cage. You see President Dana White said that if he wins, he's going to get a title shot, but they didn't really say the same for you. Does that bother you? It doesn't change anything in my life, my friend. God is my provider, and I have a fight, and I'm winning. That's the only thing I know I'm winning.

So I already told Dana, you know, choose another guy for Faith Anderson because he's not going to pass through me. So that's the bottom line, you know. I'm glad that Dana is not God. He's a great president of the sport, a great promoter, but that cage, I will have the dominium, and I'll have the chance. And that's what the beauty is sport about it. But, you know, that's his, that's his, that's his, that's his toy.

You know, the UFC belongs to him. And I respect that. And I, and I, and I, I, I'm very honorable to him and to Lorenzo, to the organization. When they need me, I'm there. When they, when they need me to feel spot, I'm there. They know what type of fight I am. And so I work hard for the organization. But bottom line, he's the one.

then make the decision, who fights, who, you know, what fight? Do we lose Vitor? I had a great follow-up. Is he gone? It appears though he's gone. Looks like he's gone on a call-em-back. Dang it. Great stuff from Vitor Belford.

I mean, I could just listen to him speak all day long. Comes out, talking to us about King David, this guy who beat up everyone, it's just amazing. True legend of the sport. Of course, the last time we saw Vitor in action was UFC 152 when he almost pulled off the arm bar of arm bars. against John Jones and actually wanted to speak to him about that because we haven't heard from him since.

And that was back in September. You recall one of the, it felt like, as Meltzer was talking about earlier, when Verdume had the triangle, it felt like time stood still there for a second in Toronto, and I believe we have him back now. Vitor, are you there? Vitor? Yeah, I'm here. Okay, sorry, we lost you just a couple minutes left.

I want to ask you a question. I notice you have a bit of a new haircut, like a mohawk. Any specific reason why you changed the hairstyle? I'm in this mood of a... I wish I could have paint my face as a warrior. I would have do that myself. I'm just in a mood off that zone, you know, off that zone to get ready for war. That's just something that come up, you know, just things that rise up

And you just do it. And that's about it. It's just getting like the, I call the priest. I have the priesthood outfit. You know, I'm serving. I'm, you know, I'm always helping people. But also I have the kingdom of the kingdom, you know, the king. You know, and if you study the kings in the past,

the kings, they used to go to war, you know, stayed on the front of the battle. So like William Wallace, you have all these guys They used to be Leaders So you got the Jesus You know, who lead people They don't tell people to go

Today a leader just tell them Hey, you do this, you do that I don't believe this is a real leadership So And then just something that rises up inside of me And I just I feel glad to do something That just get me on my mood

You know Just part of nothing special. Well, I love it. I love it. Yeah. I think it's great. That move, yeah. And the last time, as I mentioned, when we were trying to get you back on the phone, last time we saw you, of course, was in September. One of the great moments of the

year, you almost submitted John Jones with an arm bar. It was unbelievable. You fought valiantly. How often have you thought of that moment? What you need to do is just something a little differently? You could be the UFC light heavyweight champion. Is that something that you have thought about, stayed up at night, dissected? Do you still think about that moment?

No, the worst thing for a man, you know, to stay on the path. You know, the past is something that you have to learn. Your mistakes have to increase, you know, your failures. You have to use. You have to boost as a gas to your future. So the worst thing for a man is just to have, you know, regret has to make you go into the next level, not to stay on the same level. So I recognize that that was a day, that was a beautiful moment.

But, you know, that's what it is. You know, people say, victory and lost, you almost won. Just the whole attitude, you know, the whole thing, the whole history, you know. You know, I was in the cast. I was with a broken hand. I had a pin on my arm. And then I took the pin out. then the doctor released me to start training and hitting the pads and right after I saw these things

and I just positioned myself to fight you know I think I think it's a great challenge and I didn't have a lot of time to train but you know I took it is a challenge you know what I mean and I almost won so bottom line you know if you take the whole thing you try to digest the whole history so it was good you know it was overall was good and Just live it. You have to just recognize your mistakes. Go back home. You know, work it.

And see what you make the mistakes and what you can adjust. And we have to realize, too, you know, like Joan Jones stood it. And he took a, he really had a messed up arm. And he still maybe surfing with that thing. But he won. You know, we have to recognize he won and he did good. and and then and that's what we do you know we just keep pressing in and we're looking for new challenges and my new challenge is michael disband and i'm about to accomplish that mountain

you know i'm climbing that mountain and and that's we go next you know the next step is my vacation with my family two more questions for vitro and then we'll let you go i got to ask you this question a commercial came out from the combacha channel the combat channel in brazil Brazil, and it's one of the best commercials I've ever seen. I want to play it for the people first if they miss it, and then I have to ask you about it what it all means. Here's the commercial here. Vitor Belfort singing while playing the guitar.

It's unbelievable. Here it is. There's something happens in my Corroceran, that only when cruiser the Imperanga and Avenue is San Juan, is that when I came here, I never understood. What was that It was beautiful

Of desalekence is discretta Of course The UFC San Paulo It's in combat What was that I mean it was beautiful I felt like

melting in your hand But what exactly were you saying there It's just a famous Kaitan One of the famous singer from Brazil A great musician His music about

San Paul So They just Tread me say, hey man, trying to sing that song. I was such in a hurry and, you know, like I was, and then that's what it is, you know. It's beautiful. I think the only time I sing good is when I'm worshipping for Jesus, because Jesus doesn't look to your voice. He looks to your heart.

So I think when I'm worshipping, I sounds better because it comes from the heart. So when you don't know a song and you're trying to be a musician, that's not my gift. I understand that. And I recognize it. So that's the beauty. So when I'm worshipping, I think I'll do better. Well, I loved it. You don't have to give me any excuse.

I thought it was great. I loved seeing that side of you. Last question, Vitor. January 19, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Will you knock out Michael Bisping? Oh, man. Looking forward. All right.

Looking forward for that, buddy. I'm looking for it. And, and, area, I've got to say again, thank you very much for your kindness, your generosity to the sport, your classic. And let's press it in. We need to make MMA, one of the mainstream sport in the whole world.

Amen. County on you and January 19, big victory. Thank you very much. Thank you for your support, for the fans, for UFC, and I'm working very hard. I'm in the bad shape of my life. I never made weight so well in my life, and I want to thank Mike Docher, all my trainers and Black Zillions.

I want to fake my wife, my kids, my trainers, Gilbert. Henry Hoof, Maris Perry, you know, the whole Black Zealand team, and Glenn Robinson, I think a lot of people, Pedro, all my spiritual leaders, everyone that pray for me. And I'm very, very pumped by this fight. So looking forward to it. But let's win today, because today makes tomorrow happen.

There he is. A true legend, a true class act in our sport. One of a kind. Vitor Belfort. Thank you so much, Vitor. Good luck on January 19th. Thank you. God bless you, my friend. Bye-bye. The phenom stops by, drops knowledge like no other.

He is truly, truly often imitated, like in the studio, but never duplicated. He is Vitor Belfort. Unbelievable stuff from Vitor there. That is one of the best main events on free television. I mean, Michael Bisping versus Vitor Belford. I had a discussion with someone about this. As far as Michael is concerned, it's a tricky fight. It's a dangerous fight.

Someone who can strike like Vitor Belford, his quickness, even at his age as boxing. For Michael, you could make the Anderson Silva fight right now. I mean, no one would complain about that. He's been in the sport long enough. He's done enough. It's a dangerous fight with that title shot looming. For Vitor, he's got nothing to lose.

I mean, he fought Anderson. He fought John Jones. He's got nothing to lose in his home country of Brazil. A very dangerous fight, and it goes down January 19th, the first UFC show of 2013. Next Saturday night. All right, let's go and move along to our next guest. And arguably, the most anticipated guest of the day.

If you've been following him on Twitter, he has been dropping clues all week long. He said yesterday, the gloves are off. He wants to speak. He has found his forum, and we welcome him right here right now with open arms. He is the former Bellator lightweight champion. and the hottest free agent in MMA today. Eddie Alvarez joins us via the magic of Skype,

and he is just chilling, leaning back, all relaxed. Eddie, how are you, my friend? Good, man. Back at home in Philadelphia and awaiting to hear some good news. Well, there's a little guy there. No, no, it's not an Eddie Albert. as interview at home unless your kids show up in some form. I told you I'd come in studio.

He said, no, let's do it at home. This is my kid's home, not mine. I love the haircut. That's a sweet haircut right there. Thanks, man. Very chuckled. Well, it's good. What's his name?

Sorry, Ariel. No problem. What's his name? That's Alistair. Really? Like Alistair Overim? Yeah, Alistair's my youngest. Yeah, yeah.

Did you name him after Alster Overim? Look, look, people got on, I like Alistair Overim. He's a teammate of mine in Florida. I'm not some kind of closet crazy fan. I like this name, and that's as far as it went. I like this name, and it's not spelled the same, but I like this name. So it wasn't anything more than that, trust me. All right.

Well, that is good to know, and Alster is wreaking havoc right now. Lots to talk to you about Eddie. As I mentioned, on your Twitter E. Alvarez's fight, you have been dropping clues of all kinds. And yesterday you said the gloves are off. You want to speak your mind. What is going on? You are a free agent. Word came out last week that Bellator

matched the offer that the UFC presented to you. Where are you going to fight next? What's going on with this whole situation? So everyone 's heard that Bellator's matched or whatnot and

it's such a difficult situation. We We went to settlement maybe a couple days ago. We had a settlement meeting to where we were supposed to settle our differences and everything was supposed to get worked out. Long story short, I was sued 30 minutes after that after our settlement agreement was over. So there's some tension in the air and trying to try not to get too frustrated in the meantime of what's going on.

Okay, so you said a lot there. Did they, in fact, match the offer that the UFC offered you? No, we don't believe it was matched at all. And I want to be able to give details to you guys, but I'm not allowed because we're in the middle of a pending lawsuit, I guess. Okay. So what I can say is what I can say is what I said on Twitter the other day, if I wanted to go to dinner with one guy, he asked me to dinner,

and another guy asked me to dinner. And the intentions of guy number one is to take me to do a fine dining restaurant and to eat lobster. And the intention of the second guy is to maybe take me to McDonald's. Guy number two just believes that dinner is dinner. And dinner isn't dinner. There's a huge difference when you're talking. about McDonald's or some fine dining.

And the two we don't believe are comparable. And I think I've gotten some slack from fans saying that I sign a contract and that my management should have read the contract correctly. I did. When I signed with Bellator four years ago, I've read everything correctly. And I'm a man of my word and I'm willing to fulfill every obligation. when I signed a contract, and I did that. I've done that. I held up my end of the bargain.

I've fought every fight they asked me to fight. And the truth is that the matching is it's just not a match. A match in my book, in matches if I was a fight for one promotion and got paid $10, then a match would be the other promotion would pay me $10. And, you know, that's not what's going on here. And they're saying they match. They're going to media and saying that they match the offer. But in our opinion, this is not a match.

It's not even close. So the terms aren't the same? Terms are not the same. No, not even, no, the terms are not the same. And I don't know what the strategy is here because it's it to us it's pretty plain and simple, you know, our opinions, this is plain and simple. If this goes before anybody in court, they're going to see very, very fast that this is not a match. And I don't know. I don't know, man.

And I'm disappointed. The truth is I'm disappointed. I, um, you know, I, I gave, uh, gave my, a lot of my life to this, uh, to Bellator and to this promotion and, um, I've let them know how I feel and I don't get much back in return, you know. So right now, why are they suing you? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not 100% sure with the lawsuits for it.

Say hi, hi. Hi. Hey, buddy. How are you? Can you go upstairs, buddy? For right now, let me do this interview. No, come on. Okay?

All right. So, I'm not sure. I'm not sure what it's for. I'll find out very soon, but not sure what I'm being sued for. And the truth is, the past year or so, I've been threatened with lawsuits a couple times. This ain't the first time. By who? Belator.

you know this isn't the first time um i i apologize to everyone who's listening i haven't been completely honest um i've been smiling and i've been uh flying the flag and doing everything that i that i felt i was obligated to do as a fighter um and for my employer and the promotion but you know i'm under certain obligations and i can't say certain things but you know after the a yoki fight after the yoki fight I'm sure anybody who's a fan of mine seen this mini documentary

correct yeah the mini documentary that overeem yeah yeah elder yeah elder they all me elders elders elder's a cool ass dude man and he followed me for three days

and they gave him so much shit when when he was filming me in my locker room he was reprimanded like a child, you know? Hey, you can't film. We said, what do you mean? He's just filming me.

No, he wasn't allowed to film. And then when he let the film out to the public to see, we were threatened with a lawsuit. You can't do that. We said, what are you talking about? This is helping promote me. This is helping promote Bellator. What is the lawsuit for?

What's going on? Get that off. Get that off. Get that off of the air. We don't want that on it. We, I, I, I didn't understand this. And I, I, I, I, I felt like it was because I wasn't re-signing, you know, all I want to do is see what my, um, I want to see what, what I, I, what I, what I, what I, what I, what I, what I, I, what I, I, what I felt like, since my curiosity hurt me, you know, Like, they didn't want me to see what I'd be worth at the end of this.

So I go back to the question that I asked you after the Ioki fight, actually, after the pit bull fight, you ran out of the cage. Now, can you tell us the honest answer? Was that symbolic? Did you want to get the heck out of there? I told, I said at the press conference afterwards that I was looking for the exit. But, you know, a lot of it just, you know, this past year has been tough, man. it's been different.

It's been different than the three years before, put it that way. And I've been trying to keep my smile on my face and fly the flag the way I should and fulfill my allegations the way I should. But the truth is it hasn't, I haven't been very happy and I haven't been as honest as I wanted to to fans. And, you know, just like anybody who's at their job, they don't want to discuss their, you know, their problems with you know when when their boss is paying them and things like that but you know it's just not I don't feel like it's been fair

you were a Belator pioneer and and Bjorn always talked very highly of you and even you know throughout this process thus far I mean he always says you know we'd support Eddie all this stuff why don't you just speak to him you know can you not do that just be like you know let me go figure this out for myself let me go if you know I like this deal like you can't speak to a man to man after everything you've been through and he seems like a pretty you know reasonable guy i mean that's what he says to us about hector that's what he said to us

about you you can't figure it out that way there's there's two two completely different sides to this man you know and um over the past years i spoke to him just like that and i still do we still had some conversations and um you know i there's two different sides, you know, and I thought, you know, where I grow up and where I'm from, when someone smiles at you and tells you something, you believe it, you know, because if someone lies to you, if someone's a man of their word, then, you know, that's death, you know, where I'm from, you know, it's very simple. That, that's the reality of where I grew up and where I'm from. But, like, this is sort of a different ballgame, man. I get, I get eaten alive in this realm because what people,

people say means nothing, means nothing, you know? And being loyal and them sort of things, you know, that kind of goes out the window. See you later, Alster. They're going to pick Eddie up down the street. I'm wondering if you got the exact same deal from Belator truly the same deal, right, as you were getting from the UFC, which would you choose? Where do you want to fight? no if it was a match i i would i would be more than happy to honor the contract i signed that

contract so um i'm obligated to fulfill i have to fulfill my obligations it's what i signed i'm a man i understand that and i have no problem i'll go about it no problem if it was a match if it was a hundred percent match i would have no problem going to fight for bellator zero problem that is not my issue that's not my issue that's not my issue Do I want to fight the best in the world? Yeah. I'm just like any other fighter out there. Would I love to fight the Ben Henderson's? Yeah, tomorrow. The Gilbert Melendez, yeah, I'll fight any one of them. I've never, I've always wanted to fight the best guys. That's not the issue, you know? The issue has to do with being fair. And if, if the contract says at the end, we get a chance to match, at the end, we get a chance to match this contract. I'm, I'm, I said okay to that four years ago, and I'm accountable for that. And in our eyes, this is not a match, you know? This is the difference of a lot of money, a lot of money.

And it's hard for me to sign on a dot line. This is the difference of a lot of money. So is it like the show and win money is the same, but they're promising things like maybe paper viewpoints and all that? Because how can someone look at something on paper and be like, yeah, this is a match? And you say it's not a match. we're talking figures here. So where's the discrepancy?

I'm not allowed to... Gotcha. I'm not allowed to speak on the actual terms of the contract. Okay. Each and get too detailed. I can say that I'm a fighter, guys. You can believe a promoter or you can believe a fighter. I've never been...

Nothing but more than honest with everyone I've come across. I'm the most honest person you guys know. this is not a match in our eyes my management eyes and anybody who can see properly this this is not you know a match to me is one guy

one guy offers a certain and I would do the same way financially with one company and I would the other and this is not the way it would go so how is the UFC handling this situation are they helping you out what can they do in this situation they can't do anything

I mean the truth is the UFC is a business just like Bellator, and they can offer me the contract, and that's it. They can offer their contract and say, this is what we're willing to pay for you to fight an organization. It's sent to Bellator, and then Bellator, you know,

says they have the chance to match, and they say they do. And it's up to the court now, man. I mean, I'm being sued, and it's going to go before a judge, and I think it should be very clear what's going on. And the UFC has nothing to say in this. They're a business.

They offer me what they offer me. And we feel like the UFC's deal is much greater. Do you like that deal? I like that deal. Yeah, I do. I do. It wasn't a Hector-Lombard deal. You know, everybody thought it would be something.

it wasn't a Hector Lombard deal, but it was a good deal. And given the opportunity that you have, I consider it a good deal. And I consider a much better deal than the one that's, you know, that Bellator is often. And so what kind of timeline are we looking at here? I mean, is this thing going to put you on the sidelines for a year? Do you know when the court date is? Lay it out for us, if you can. I don't know.

That's what frustrates me, man. I have a family. I have kids. I have tuition to pay, bills to pay, and I just want to fight. I just want to be able to fight. And the past couple years, been every six months, they have me fight, you know.

By the time I go to fight again, I'm running on E. So I just want to get back in the cage as soon as possible. And this is where, you know, I tweet attacks and I Twitter, and I'm so frustrated that there's nothing I can do about this situation. So I try to keep my eye on just training, you know, because that's the only thing I can

I can control with my training and just getting better. But I would like to know when I'm going to fight again. I would like to know where my future lies. And I don't. I don't. It's frustrating. It's disappointing. Get angry.

So I don't know what's next. I'm not a lawyer or anything, but can you counter Sue Bellator? if they're suing you for something you don't really understand like how does that work i guess you're not a lawyer either right hey no no i'm not to be on law but i mean you know i am losing losing valuable time you know every day every day that i don't have a fight booked or i don't have a fight scheduled i'm losing losing time losing money losing you know a huge part of my career and i'm coming up to my prime i'll be 29 on july on January 11th, and I feel like I'm ready to compete.

I'm ready to compete with the best guys out there, and I'm ready, but I don't know if I can. And usually, and by the way, happy early birthday, usually you're very upbeat, you know, you're always kind of a positive guy. I get the sense, correct me from wrong, you didn't want it to come to this, right? I have a feeling that you didn't want to sort of air this out for everyone, but do you almost feel like you have no choice at this point? No, not at all. Look, I'm grateful for what has what I'm grateful for my life and what Bell Tour, you know,

employed me in the last couple of years. I'm very grateful and I'm very blessed to be where I'm at. I'm not asking anybody to lose any sleep or cry or feel sorry for me. I just, I want to move on. And that's, that's my biggest frustration. I can't move on. I'm stuck in this. I told my friend, this is the worst fight I've ever been in.

And I haven't thrown a punch. This has been the most violent, most tactical, most heartless battle that I've ever been in. And I don't even have gloves or a mouthpiece in. this is awful. I don't. Are you involved? Are you involved in the process? Do you ever say to them,

this offer does not match this offer? You can't give me what this offer is giving me. And what do they say to that if you do? I don't get an explanation. I get, you know what I get? We feel it matches. And what else do I get? We feel it matches.

the opposing contract wasn't written tight enough. We feel that there's some wiggle room. And at this point, let's say there is wiggle. At this point, can you even go back? I mean, you talk about two sides to Bjorn, you talk about how frustrated. Do you even want to go back at this point? I'm willing, believe me, I'm willing to take the offer,

and we try to set that straight, and we try to make it fair in a settlement meeting. We try to make it completely fair. We offered a number that we felt was fair. It was actually less than what our projected number we were to get at the UFC. It was less than what our projections were at the UFC. And it was, I mean, it wasn't even an afterthought. The phone was hung up within one minute.

It said, no way. No way. They said no way, not a chance. and I think within I think within a half an hour there was a lawsuit and you know I'm getting to the point where I'm kind of used to it

you know if I do anything that I do anything that isn't you know what they want me to do I'm going to get a lawsuit if I put a video out promoting myself

I get you know a lawsuit you know I have you seen some text messages and and some things you know, you know, it will blow your mind. It will blow your mind. You, the fans, it will blow your mind.

So is there a chance this puts you on the sidelines for a year, or do you think that it will get settled at some point this year? And what are you looking at? I mean, what are your people telling you? What kind of a process are you looking at here? They say a good settlement is always better than a bad settlement is, is always better than a good litigation. That's what I'm told.

I don't even know what their words mean. So you say, you know, you rather deal with settling, you know, with something that you're not happy with than going through the court for whatever. But, you know, I have a certain belief and I believe in something. and I have hopes and goals and dreams that they're more important to me than what's going on right now and I'm willing to stand up and fight for what I believe in and I just, you know, at the end of the day I just want to fight, you know, and I'm not able to do my job because of what's going on.

I'm just simply not able to. My hands are tied. You can call what you want, but I can't fight the way I want to. and fight the people I want to, and that's it. Final thing, Eddie, and I know you've said a lot. I know it's not a very pleasant interview for you, but anything else that we didn't touch on that you'd like to get out there to the people.

This is a great forum, everyone watching. Is there anything that you'd like to say about the situation that could maybe help it out or just to get your side out there? I know if fans have any questions, I'd love to answer any questions for fans. I see some fans Twitter me and write things, but it doesn't seem like they're too knowledgeable about how things go. And I would like to answer any question that any fans have, you know.

Some of them are under the misconception, and I can just go to the UFC. You know, like they say, oh, why don't you go to UFC? What are you scared? Like, that's not the way it goes, guys. these guys want you to sign contracts and you've got to abide by them contracts and you're obligated to them contracts. So it's not that easy. It's not as simple as that. I want to answer every question that people have out there.

I want the questions answered. Well, I think we've answered a lot of them here because I think a lot of people didn't really understand. I mean, they got the tweets. They got the sort of references, the dinner and whatnot. You can figure it out if you're smart. but I think now, I mean, we didn't know about any of this. So I think now it obviously clears up a lot. That's the sense that I'm getting.

So we'd love to know an update on the situation when you go to court and whatnot and we'll monitor the situation and give you the platform here. But I think we addressed a lot here. Yeah, I appreciate it, Arro. And even after this, I'm at E. Alvarez fight on Twitter. And I'll be answering questions for the next. hour so for anybody else who has anything further because it's you know you guys are you guys allow us guys fighters to fight and it's important that you guys know the truth about what really

goes on and um what you see in the media isn't always what's true and um you deserve to know the truth you guys are the ones paying you guys are the ones keeping the sport alive so it's important you're told the truth so there you have it it's true Twitter.com slash E. Alvarez Fight. He'll be online for the next hour. If there's anything that we didn't ask that you want to answer it, I think we clarified a lot. But if there's any question, Eddie's saying right now, he's in front of a computer. He will answer your question. So go online right now if you're watching this live and hit him up. And we wish you nothing but the best of luck. Always a class act, Eddie. You deserve to get what you deserve. And we hope it all works out for you one way or the other. Thank you guys. Thank you, everyone. It's E. Alvarez Pipe at E. Alvarez Fight on Twitter. I appreciate the fans and everyone, man.

God bless. There he is. Eddie Alvres, former Belator Lightway Champion, stuck in a bit of a pickle here between two promoters, an ugly situation, it appears, and we appreciate him coming on the show right now to clear the air as best as he can.

One more guest to go, and it's fitting that we end with this guest. Another man that I've been trying to get on the show for a very long time. We've been talking all show long about Strike Force's finale on Saturday night on Showtime, January 12th in Oklahoma City. He is the founder and CEO of the great promotion that is Strike Force. He is Scott Cocher, and he joins us right now, and I hear him laughing. Scott, how are you? Oh, good.

How are you? It's so good to hear from you, Scott. Wow. I mean, when's the last time we did an interview? I can't even remember. is very good to hear from you. We appreciate you stopping by. Yeah, I'm happy to be on. Well, I'm wondering, you know, someone who has poured so much into one thing, one company, it is who you are. We associate you with the brand. Five days away from the final show, what are the feelings that you're feeling right now?

You know, I'll tell you, it's been a long run. You know, we started Strike Force in 1992, actually, so it's been 20 years. are going on 21 years now. And it started as a kickboxing brand. We had an ESPN2 deal. And, you know, we promoted a lot of great fighters, a lot of great kickboxers, and even Cunnelie started on the All-Strikeforce shows, and eventually worked his way over to M&A. And, you know, but over the 20 years, we did some great fights,

and we did some big fights. We did some, I mean, it's just amazing, amazing events. And I'm so proud of what we accomplished. But, you know what? 20 years is a long run, and I think that, you know, this Saturday is a combination of all the hard work and effort

and to me it's a time to celebrate and celebrate the 20 years of the commitment to martial arts fighting whether it was kickboxing or whether it was MMA or Sancho or whatever I mean that's really been my mission statement is you know to make a contribution to the world of martial arts

and I think that I've done that so you're at peace with it no what-ifs in the back of your mind no I'm I'm at peace with it And like I said, I think Saturday is going to be a celebration. We've got a great fight card ahead on Showtime. And, you know, if you look at that fight card from top to bottom, I'm so proud of what Sean put together for our last show. And, you know, and then it's going to be time to move on.

So that's a very interesting last statement you make. Time to move on. We asked Dana White about this. He didn't give us many answers. What happens to Scott Coker on Sunday morning? Where do you go from there? Well, I wake up and I hit home and watch the NFL playoff games. No, but, you know, serious, you know, I mean, you know, I do have a contract with ZUFA, which, you know, I intend to honor, and so do they.

And so, you know, we're going to work together as far as the duties and regulations. I mean, duties and responsibilities of exactly what that is. Ariel, honestly, I'll probably fly to Vegas in the next, you know, 10 days or so, and we'll work all that out. you know, my effort really right now is focusing on having a great show on Saturday night. So, and just a couple more, like I said, with Dave Meltzer at the top of the show, contemporary questions, and then I want to, as you mentioned, celebrate and look back. Do you even want to stick around in the MMA business, or at this point would you like to do something else? Like, now that you've had some free time, there hasn't been a show since August.

Do you have any new hobbies? Are you doing anything else, new business ventures? What's going on in the life of Scott Coker? Oh, boy, I tell you, it's been an interesting time. You know, we've never really had that situation unfold in the past. But, you know what? This is something that it just unfolded the way it did. And, you know, we've been waiting and waiting.

And now, you know, they put together an amazing fight card. And if you look at from top to bottom, this fight card on Saturday, it's, you know, it's unbelievable. Yeah, we'd like to have Gilbert there to celebrate with us and Luke to celebrate with us. Sure. but, you know, they got injured, but, you know, to me, when you put on Gagard versus Mike Kyle and Jack Ray's going to fight Ed Herman and Nate's going to fight Terrick and Daniel Cormi is going to fight Dionne. I mean, Josh Barnett's on the card. I mean, it's going to be something that I'm going to be really, really proud of, and I'm so happy that we put together this fight, you know, that's so stacked.

And look at the end of the card. I'm sure you heard, you know, that we're going to have Roger Gracie fighting Anthony Smith, KJ. And KJ is a guy that I'm sure you heard, Earl. He started fighting for me when he was 16 years old as a kickboxer. And I had to get a note from his dad to allow him to fight in the state of California at that time. So here comes this kid. KJ. was 16. And I said, I can't let you fight.

And he said, no, no, my dad's here. And so I talked to the Athletic Commission. And they said, if the dad signs a waiver, you can allow him to fight in this amateur kickboxing fight. And that was the first time I met KJ. And he's fighting Ryan Koutre, which is another kid that's on the way up. up and, you know, making a name for himself and Tim Kennedy. And I'm really looking forward just to sit back, watch the show, and enjoy it. You'll be there, right?

Of course. Of course. Will you be there? I will be there, Scott. I will be there proudly. And as I mentioned... We'll have time to hang out. We will have time to hang out.

I can't wait. The Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. So I want to go back. You know, you mentioned the decades. and then you've been in the promoting business for a long time before you've even gone to MMA, but you know you made history March 10, 2006 with that first show, the sanctions show in California, it was Shamrock v. Gracie. Why did you even get into the MMA business?

What about it attracted you, and what about it made you think that you can actually make strike force into a viable MMA promotion? You know, I'll tell you, we were doing kickboxing at the time, and there was rumors that MMA was going to become legal in the state of California, because, as you know, prior to that, it was illegal to do an M.A fight in the state. And so in 2005, I was told in the very beginning that M.A was going to become legal by the state of California, and we'll have it done by June of 05. And so I started talking to, you know, some of the fighters, and I talked to Frank,

and I said, look, if M.A. is going to come to the state of California, I've had the longest license for 22 years, I believe, at that time, and I want to be the first one to throw it. And I said, I don't know what's going to happen or how it's going to take or what it's going to be like, but I'd like to be the first one to do it. And the M.A. has always been around this area. I mean, A.K.A. was around here for many years before it got into mixed martial arts, and then, you know, the Frank Shamrock era, and then, you know, Cesar Gracie had his great fighters here.

So in the Bay Area, it's always been a hotbed of martial arts and kickboxers and traditional karate stylists and many schools and mixed martial artists. And so, you know, it's always, it's always been around. So it was a gentleman by the name of Armando Garcia who had taken the position at that time. And I said, look, I want to do the first one. And then he cut pushed back. It cut pushed back. But as it was getting pushed back, I sat down with Frank Chamrock at the Starbucks right by here in San Jose. And I said, Frank, I really want you to come out of retirement and come fight for a fight for me because I want to be the first one to do this.

And so he said, okay. And then we identified Caesar Gracie as the opponent. We thought he had a high-profile name. And then we did the first show. And that show was a huge success, right? Over 18,000 fans. It was a great undercard. I mean, you had names like Cungley on the card, Nate Diaz, Gilbert Melendez.

I mean, it all clicked for you. the main event ended very quickly. What was your reaction to that? Like, did you think that that was going to be a problem? I mean, you never know how fans will react to when they don't feel like they maybe get their money's worth. What do you recall your reaction being? Well, you know what? I mean, mixed martial arts is a very fast, explosive, dynamic sport.

And that's what happened. I mean, Cesar got caught with the right hand and then the fight was over. But, you know, that could happen at any event. But I'll tell you a little story before that. But when I sat down with the arena, and I said, look, let's set this thing up for, you know, 6,500 people, because that's really what I thought it would do, 65 or 7,000. And they said, okay, we scaled a ticket price, and we did everything. And then we sold out of $7,000, probably two weeks out of the fight,

and then we had more seats, and we had more seats. We just kept opening the arena. And finally, the day, the day before the show, right before the way is, I got a call from the arena saying, hey, we sold out of our, of all the tickets. So we were pretty much sold out. And I said, wow, well, you know, once you just open up, you know, the back sections behind the stage at that time. And he said, no, no, no, you don't understand. We're completely sold out. And I said, really? I said, that's unbelievable. And I said, did you save me my seats for my guest? He said, no, I didn't. Wow.

Scraming around looking for tickets for my family and my guests. And so I just thought that was a pretty funny story because we had no idea how that show was going to do and how and how the fans were going to react. But at that time, you know, it got some press, but it also got some, a little bit of heat because, you know, it was a first

sanction. M.MA event in California. A lot of the local media had no idea, you know, what it's like. Because back then, think about it. The ultimate fighter was on Spike, I believe. But other than that, you know, there was no major television backing

it before that show, except for the ultimate fighter, and the U.S. shows on Fox, I believe. But, you know, people say, oh, is this a human cock fighting? Is it, you know, is it barbaric and fighting in a cage? And these are kind of questions I'm getting from legitimate reporters here in the Bay Area. And the sport has come such a long way in the last six, seven years that people forget. It wasn't that long ago that it had that little, you know, little taste to the mainstream mainstream media of what MMA was in their eyes compared to what it was in reality. What always impressed me so much about the Strike Force crew was it was a very small crew,

but a very effective one. Like for that first show, the first couple of shows, how many people were working for Strike Force? Well, you know, we probably had only a handful. I mean, you know, we probably had about a dozen people. But, you know, don't underestimate how powerful or how powerful or how powerful. how much strength a local sports franchise in their arena can bring to the table. Because now they're bringing all their resources to the table.

And they're bringing all their executives to the table. You're, you know, I'm going to executive meetings on every Tuesday management committee meetings with these guys. And, you know, there's three senior VPs, one president of the San Jose Sharks, and they bring all their marketing knowledge, all their, you know, their database. of all their ticket sales for their season ticket holder base. And they're bringing a lot to the table. These are really smart guys that have put on how many events in that building. And we get the benefit of all that doing the deal that we did with them.

What I always found to be so fascinating, what I like the most about Strikeforce, was that you were catering to your local market by putting on local draws. A lot of them were future stars, and they were great prospects. You had, you know, a mix of, you know, the house. household names, if you will, the older guys, you'd bring in a Vitor Belford and Alstair Overeem. You'd have a guy like a Bobby Southworth who was local, but also had some, you know, pub on the national stage, the ultimate fighter. You'd have a guy like Cungley. You just had this amazing mix of talent, which no other organization, you know, as far as building themselves up, outside of the UFC, of course, has figured out in North America. They just, they don't seem to be able to understand how to build up from the ground up and to eventually, you know, make your way onto the national.

stage. What was the philosophy? Was that always the philosophy of strike force, or did you realize at some point, wait, we can sort of cater to one sector of this audience and bring in these older guys and bring in these newer guys and kind of blend them together at Gilbert Melendez versus Josh Thompson, a perfect example of that? Was that always the philosophy of strike force? You know, I've always believed that you've got to have the local angle when you're promoting. And, you know, so we did a lot of that early on, and then, you know, we started building a little fan base and a bigger fan base and then we got to m may it was uh you know it was like explosion that first event was explosion and the explosive event and then what i did was i had a

good relationship with uh with uh pride at the time and we and that's how we brought alice robering to fight beatrice belfort in our second fight which i don't think a lot of people remember because it wasn't on tv it had no sponsorships if you if you look at our shows uh that those first two years they had no television distribution at all, and we were just a local event doing, I want to say, an amazing, you know, fight promotion with some amazing talent. And we were live event-based, which means that, you know, we rely on ticket sales to make our revenue. But I've always believed in a local angle, but then we had the benefit of, you know, bringing some fighters in from other organizations.

But I've always believed this. You've got to build, in the last 27 years of promoting, you can't just, just, you can't just, have one or two guys. You've got to keep building the next guy and the next guy and the next guy. And that has always been the philosophy, and I think that it's proven that we've been good star builders, because

look at Daniel Cormiers, the Luke Rockholes, the Ronda Rouse, the, I mean, the list goes on and on and on. These are just the recent guys, but, you know, with Kung Lee or Javier Mendez, who used to kickbox through me back in the 90s. You know, and you know, it's, and then beforehand

there was a guy named Francis Farley, Springer Hall of San Montgomery. And, you know, before that, there was, you know, a guy named Bad Brett Hefton that fought on ESPN1 during the PKK karate days. So you've always had to have that main event. So you better be, if you want to be a sustainable business in this field, you better be a good star builder. And then you, and then you can supplement that with, you know, buying a few stars here and there. Are you surprised more people in this business now don't copy that model? Well, you know what?

I think that one of the advantages that we had here was we had a tremendous talent pool here. And like Josh Thompson was already here. Gilbert Melendez was already here. Nate Diaz. Nick Diaz is here. You know, and the list goes out, Cormi is here, Guque Rock was here. And so basically it's, you know, pulling these guys out, identifying the stars, and then billing them. But we've always had the benefit of having the top gyms.

you know, around this area. And my first, my first experience of MMA was walking into the gym at Javier's at IK on Hillsdale and seeing Brian Johnson, this big guy, and going, wow, what is he, you know, what is this stuff he's doing? And, you know, he was wrestling, he was grappling, and he was, you know, big boxing. And then, and then eventually he fought in the original UFC back, I want to say, in 95 and 96. and then Frank Shamrock came, and then he developed this fight team, and then all those guys started coming when Frank was really in doing his M.A. And I remember the day he fought Peter Ortiz in 99,

and I was like, wow, this is going to be a great fight, and I had no idea what, you know, historic that would be. And, you know, again, it goes back to the Bay Area, I think being a hotbed for martial arts of all kinds and MMA specifically now because there's so many great gyms. out here in town. One of the early highlights of my career was covering an an M.MA event at the Playboy Mansion.

I went to the second one. That was a fun event. Joe Riggs was on the card and some other names Kazumasaki. How did you broker that deal? You had a friend of mine that was doing boxing over at the mansion, and he said, hey, why don't you come do an X martial arts show? And I said, sure, why not? Let's go try it.

So I talked to the guys at the HP, and I think logistics was probably the biggest challenge for that show, trying to get the TV truck in there, and trying to get all the production value done, and just to make it a nice show. And I think, I mean, you were there. I think we accomplished that. What do you think?

I thought it was fun. I liked it. There was a gimmick. You know, it's always fun when the venue is also part of the story. And I'm not sure how much money you made off it, but as far as visually, I thought it was fun, and it was great to cover it there.

Yeah, and, you know, to have you come out with his girls and getting in the front row. It was pretty fun. It was a great night, and, you know, It was one of those things that I thought that at that time really worked for us, and then we moved on to do the different shows and different venues around the country. And I think one of the things that I'm really thankful to my guys over at Silicon Valley Sports Entertainment, Jim Gartor, and Greg Jamestin and Charlie Foss, is that when they saw this M.A.

product. You know, these are traditional sports guys. They really saw something in it and said, hey, let's get behind these guys. And I brought them to pro elite opportunity when, you know, they were up for sale or they were, you know, they were having a little hard time, I think, in 2009 or 010. And, you know, and, you know, they went out and really committed to getting me out of sport. And that's how we ended up with all those great athletes. So we ended up on our roster, and it didn't, you know, and then it eventually got us to showtime in the CBS deal, and that really changed the dynamics of what Strike Force was from a regional show to a national show doing 16 fights a year across the country compared to four shows a year just in the Bay Area.

A real fun moment in the history of Strike Force, I thought, was Shamrock Barone. I love the build-up. I love the trash talking, the YouTube videos. I mean, it was really when the Internet was an MMA, it was being used perfectly by everyone involved. And it led to the pay-per-view fight. It was Elite X-C and Strike Force. How challenging was it to put on that fight? Considering all the nonsense going on behind the scenes, it looked like it came off well and everyone was happy. But behind the scenes, what do you remember of that whole process?

You know, I'll tell you, it was something I was really excited about because I knew Phil and Frank We're going to, you know, promote it extremely well. And there was at that time some genuine dislike between those two guys. And Phil can sell a fight and Frank can sell a fight. And so it was just great build up, great height. And it was a little challenging working with, you know, the old guard over Elite Ex C. And we part, I think we co-partnered on that show where it was a co-promotion. But, you know, we got through it.

And, you know, that's probably one of our, you know, greatest production, produced shows that I think that we've done. We've spent more money on the production of that show than any of the show I think we've done since then. And also another great one was Shamrock v. Lee. That was a very big turning point for the company. You look back. Is there a favorite moment? I mean, there have been a lot. You know, you talk about the first one.

The last two I mentioned, there's Verdume Fedor, there's the CBS shows, there's Carrano, Cyborg. I mean, we could list many here. here, but is there one moment fight that really sticks out as your favorite? You know what? I'll tell you. And I can judge it by the fan response in the building. And that was the Shamrock v. Cungley fight. And we sold the venue half to Cunz fans and half the Franks fans.

And it was so electric in there. I, you know, I've been to a lot of big fights. And this was right up there. And it was so loud you couldn't hear anything. and it was a moment that, you know, everybody thought that, you know, Cone was going to get his buttwop by Frank, and it was going to be no fight, there was no contest, and I remember talking to Javier, and I said, well, what do you think about this fight?

He said, I think that, I think Kong has a shot. Is he going to win? I don't know, but he has a shot. And so I said, look, I'm just looking for a fair matchup in a great main event, and it was, I think, one of the most electrifying, nights of of of of fights in in the HP pavilion, which is probably, I think, the greatest place to watch an M.A. event in the United States. That building is built for mixed martial arts with the screens and multimedia, everything, and I think Kong and Frank was probably the

pinnacle of that. But like you said, there's so many great moments. And if you talk about the pillars of strike force, really, it was Frank first in M.A. Kung? Gilbert, Josh. And then I would say the Corona-Syborg fight was after that.

But the first four pillars that I mentioned with Frank Kung, Gilbert, and Josh, those were the building blocks of our organization. And, you know, I'll be grateful,

you know, forever to those guys putting their hearts out and fighting their asses off because really, you know, without those four guys, I don't think we would have built

this company into what it was. Well, that is high praise. Is it fun for you, Scott, you see like Kung fighting in Macau against Rich Franklin and doing what he did there. And, you know, in the future you're going to get a chance to see Gilbert fighting the UFC, probably, and the return of Josh Thompson and some other Strike Force guys that have come over.

And Luke, who I know means a lot to you. I mean, when those guys are fighting now, now that you're in the position that you're in now, do you make it a point that you have to watch these fights? And does the fan and you kind of come out a little bit rooting for your guys? You know what? Honestly, the fan of me has never left, and that's one of the reasons why I got into promoting is, you know, I was saying, well, what if this guy fought this guy? Well, let's go promote it, if you happen.

And so when Kung fights, man, I woke up at, you know, 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., whatever it was, to get up and watch, I will never miss one of his fights. And same thing with all my other guys. And you know what? that really for the fans and for the fighters, it's really the beauty of the deal between Strikeforce and Zufo as far as the buy-up, because now as a fan, you'll get to see Gilbert fight the UFC champion, Ben Henderson, and you'll get to see Luke fight Silva eventually,

and you'll get to see, you know, D.C. fight, hopefully, John Jones, in the future. And I tell you, I like what I'm seeing out there with the results, of these strike force guys having great results in the UFC. These guys are amazing athletes. I'm going to be rooting for them. But now the fans get to see all the fights that they really wanted to see. Any regrets? Yeah, should have had more vegetables.

Just, no. I'm serious, no, I would say the one black eye that I regret that we definitely fixed the situation after was the natural situation, with the little thing with Maham Miller and the D.S. Boys and all that, I think again, when you do something like that, it really goes against everything that I believe as far as trying to propel what martial arts is, trying to propel what mixed martial arts is, and trying to get away from the stigma of the path of what people believe in mixed martial arts is and trying to put it in a first-class light. And here we are on the Tiffany Network, you know, and something like that happens.

It's just not a good thing, and I was, you know, I was embarrassed by that. But we made sure that that never happened, you know, after that, or even got close because we set some new ground rules and regulations that prohibited people that come into the cage. And, you know, a lot of fires weren't happy with it, but we definitely were not going to have that happen again, you know, to us with the fighters and, you know, getting to the cage and creating some type of altercation with each other.

Looking back today, would you do the Elite XC deal again? Would you buy those assets? Do you think that was a smart move for Strikeforce? Oh, absolutely. I mean, you know, now you end up with 34. You know, we probably ended up with 50 or 60 athletes, and I would say 30 of them were, you know, that's how we ended up with Gina.

We end up with Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler. You know, all of all those guys came from that. that contract or that that deal. And they were fighting for Al-Aidic Sea. And to me, that was the deal that really was a pivot point for us becoming from a regional, I would say a pretty, pretty, you know, top-notch regional show, you know, doing amazing things and switching the knob over to now becoming a national show. Like I said, on Showtime, on CBS with major sponsors.

and now we're doing 16 dates across the country and set out four dates just here in the Bay Area. We spoke to Stephen Espinoza in the first hour, the executive vice president of Showtime Sports. I want to get your take on this. What do you think happens to MMA on Showtime? Do you think it sticks around in some form? Do you think they'll hook up with someone else?

I think they'll be back. I mean, you know, those guys definitely are really smart guys, great television programmers. And really Showtime is what Bill strikes. force on their network and CBS. And without that, we wouldn't have the national platform to show all these, you know, fighters and their talents across the country. And I think that we did some great work as far as getting some amazing fights together,

did some great work together, getting some big ratings for Showtime. And I think it was just a great partnership. And, you know, I know that they believe in MMA. you know, at some point, I'm sure that, you know, they'll be back. Will Scott Coker promote some kind of fighting again? Will you be involved in the promotion of combat sports at some point in the future? Yes, and Ariel, I'll be involved in the fighting business this Saturday. So make sure that you're there and make sure you know your listenership to tune in

because it's going to be a great show Saturday night. I love that you're still a promoter. end of the day, you're a fan slash promoter, you're promoting the fights, January 12th, of course, strike force. By the way, one last thing before I let you go, what about kickboxing? Any chance you ever go back into that world? I mean, you know what? To me, I love kickboxing. I love

watching it. And like I said earlier, I have a relationship with Zufa, and I intend to honor it, and, you know, and let's see what goes from there. But as far as being a fan of kickboxing, I love it. And I'm going to continue watching whatever kickboxing I can out there. And, you know, and to me, it's okay to be a fan. I don't watch TV and watch it on, you know,

because honestly, I feel like I said, you know, 20 years of promoting, it's been actually 27 years, but the Strike Force has been, you know, been around 21 years. And after 21 years, I feel like, look, it's okay to sit back and watch some of these shows. Sure. You know, I don't have to jump in there and do it myself. I enjoy just sitting down and watching TV. In fact, I had a great time watching the Kane Velasquez fight on my iPad when I was traveling over the holidays.

I mean, to me, I don't need to be there sometimes. I don't have to beat every fight or watch every fight. But the fights that I get to watch, I'm definitely enjoying him. And, you know, I'm a martial artist first, and I'm going to continue to support martial arts and contribute to martial arts because it's something that I believe in and I've dedicated my whole life to trying to continue the growth of martial arts

and that's not going to stop Harold is just going to go into a different fashion that's all. Kane Velasquez, a guy who in October of 2006 made his debut in Strike Force. His MMA debut was in Strike Force, so good not there. By the way, you keep mentioning it,

just curious, I have to ask the question. How long is that Zufu deal for? When does it expire? Well, you know what? That's something I don't want to get into the intractual, you know, relationship. Of course, you know, I can't do that. But you know what?

Maybe we can chat about it on Saturday when I see you. I will be there with flying colors. And I have to say, just for a moment here, as I mentioned earlier, but I want to say to you both to you and to all of the members of Strike Force, Michael Frommowitz, as well, who one of the first organizations to give me my credential, to allow me to cover MMA events before other organizations wouldn't. It meant a lot. My first event was Melendez-Thompson won in 2008,

and there was something magical about going to the HP Pavilion, San Jose, the other corner of the country. I remember even when Brock Lesser was fighting Randy Couture and UFC, I couldn't go to that event. I couldn't cover it, so I was going to see Bobby Southworth versus Bavilloo and Kim Couture fighting for Strike Force. I was proud to cover those events. I will truly, truly miss them,

and I hope that you're around our sport for many years to come, because love covering you, love how much the fan in you comes out, love what you brought to the sport. I remember the moment with the iPad and the tournament and when you'd come on this show many times. You've always been very, very good to me, and I truly, truly appreciate it. And I hope you enjoy Saturday night because it is truly a celebration and a huge sort of party for everything that you've done for this sport. And you should be very proud of it because Strike Force, in my opinion, has a huge, huge footprint on this sport we called mixed martial arts. Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate it.

And, you know, I'll be in New York probably sometime in February, and I'll come by, and I'll come on your show again. We'll chat it up some more. Great. Thank you so much, Scott. Enjoy Saturday night. And once again, congratulations on an amazing run for your promotion. Thanks, buddy. All right, there he is. Scott Coker, CEO, founder of Strike Force. They closed the curtain on that promotion on Saturday night, January 12, 8 p.m. Showtime Extreme.

10 p.m. Showtime. That is Eastern Standard Time. And it is a very good card. And I like the card. Of course, it's not Strike Force Champions. It's not Gilbert Melendez, Pat Healy. It's not Luke Rockhold, Lorenz Larkin. But it's still Daniel Cormier and Nate Marquard and Tarek and Tariq Saffat, Mike Kyle, and Josh Barnett, Gaguerg, Gaguer Musassiam, and Ed Herman, Jacare. And that Showtime Extreme card is interesting. It reminds me a lot of WEC 53. The final WEC card where a lot of the guys were fighting for their UFC future. I mean, you look at Ryan Couture, KJ Noons, is it win or go home? You know, you look at Tim Kennedy, Trevor Smith. You look at Haja Gracie Anthony Smith. Pat Healy fighting, you know, I mean, a lot of interesting fights. A lot of interesting fights. Mike Kyle and Gaghan Musassi, it is a very interesting card and I look forward to being there

on Saturday night. All right, so two more things left to do. Let us go. Let us welcome back, Mr. Rick. We haven't heard from him all show long. Mr. Rick, are you there? I'm here. I have a very interesting thing to tell you. But first, let us look back quickly at UFC 155. How did you do at UFC 155?

Perfect 4-0. Really? Which fights were these? I picked Kane over JDS. I picked Miller over Lozon. I picked... What were the other... Forgetting your picks?

Forgetting what were the other fights on the other? card. Oh, I picked Filipu over Boch, and I picked Okami over Alan Belcher. You didn't do Leibon Brunton? No, because when we picked that, Leibon was still fighting Vemmala, who I picked. And then over

Twitter, I picked Brunson, but I'm not counting that. Okay, fair enough. Got to keep it above board. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so you went 4-0. Right now there are no lines for Strike Force, right? That's correct. Who are you favoring, though? Let's take a look at the main event.

Nate Marquard, Tarek, Saffedine, Walterway, title, important fight for Saffedine. It sounds like Marquart's going over one way or the other. Who are you picking in that fight? Nate. You're kind of down on this card, aren't you? I'm not loving it. I think that there's a lot of good fighters on it, but I don't think there's a lot of good fights. You think there's squash matches?

Yeah. A lot of them are squash matches. A lot, like, I mean, you know, if somebody upsets them, then I'll be looking at it with a whole new light. Oh my God, that was amazing, but I don't see it happening. So you view these fights as sort of showcase fights for like it's clear who they want to win? Absolutely. Yeah.

So does Marquard even, you know, does Saffanian even put up a fight here? Well, I'd say that that that fight's not one of them that I'm talking about in particular. I think that Saffanineen is a very capable fighter. I just really like Nate Marquart. I think that he's put it together recently and his, in the complete package that he has, the skills that he has are just going to be tough to beat. and I think that he's going to win. I'm not sure about easily.

This is not one of those matches where I'm saying it's a complete, you know, wash, but I think that Nate's going to take this one. Corbyn-Dion's starring. I mean, there's nothing really to say here. I last, right before we left, I said that Cormier is the best heavyweight in the world. Better than Cain Velasquez, after you saw what he did. In my opinion, I mean, nobody was less surprised by Cain Velasquez winning than me. I've been saying it all along.

But the only thing that was surprising was that he did. didn't finish him, not the fact that he dominated him from bell to bell. Do you think it should have been stopped in the first round? No. You like that, I heard it let it go on. I think that even though you can make an argument that, you know, Junior took unnecessary punishment, there was no way he was quitting, and I don't think that anybody should have stopped it. I think that what happened was what's going to happen in the sport sometimes where the guy is so tough and he's not going to quit, so let him fight. I got to tell you, the fight that I would pay the most money to walk. I want to in 2013. The most intriguing fight for me is Kane Velasquez versus Daniel

Cormier. And this is not me starting shit. This is not me stirring the pot. This is not me trying to be instigate or all that. It is a fascinating matchup. It is an amazing styles matchup. I mean, they look almost the exact same. They obviously trained together, but they're both great wrestlers who have developed into great strikers. Who's going to take down who? Who's going to stop? Who as far as take down the fence? I mean, who's going to get the better of who on the feet? I love that matchup. I wish we would. would be able to see it. It doesn't sound likely. Who'd you pick in that fight? Cormier is my horse, man. I'm picking Cormier in that way. I think Cain is amazing, but I think that Cormier is just a different breed of heavyweight.

The way he was able to make his hands look so crisp and just the way he was able to develop his striking game, coming from such a dominant wrestling background, I've never seen anything like it. He's an incredible athlete. Speaking of heavy weights, I mean, I mean, no one really knows who Nandor Gilmino is. That's Josh Barnett's opponent. I mean, he looks very impressive. But I think this is a very important fight for Josh Barnett. It's the last fight on his current contract. No word, one way or the other, whether or not he'll be coming over to the UFC after this.

I think if he wins impressively, he could make a strong case. Maybe he comes on the mic and says what he has to say. He loses to the, what is it, Nander the Hunt or something? Under the Hun. Yep. Yeah. He loses, I think it's trouble for him. I'm not expecting you to break down Nandor, but are you picking Josh Barnett?

I mean, from what little I know, I got to go with Josh Barnett. The thing about Josh Barnett is these are the type of fighters that, you know, won't really pose a problem for him. Like, until you reach the really, like, higher upper echelon fighters, Josh Barnett is just built to take these type of guys out. And now, you know, that's, full disclosure, I don't know much about. Nandor. So you have to take that for what it is. I don't think any of us do. So I'm picking Barnett, but, you know, what does that really mean? By the way, who's Smeagle? Do you know someone named Smeagle? Is that Lord of the Rings? Someone wrote good job getting Smeagel on the show. Oh, never mind, that's New York Rick. I don't even know. What is Smeagle? Smeagle's that my precious thing.

Is that an insult? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, well, that's not nice. I did notice earlier, you look like Tarek Safedian. I mean, we already established a support. When I shave and get the haircut going. It's amazing. You're like a chameleon as far as these MMA fighters. What about Mike Kyle and Geyer Musassi? This is an interesting one because I mean this one had been in the works for a while, right?

Didn't they shut this down like a bunch of times? I think Gagard is one of the most talented fighters. I mean, on this show, he confirmed that he barely was training at, you know, early in his career. And I just think that he's such a talented striker. And even, you know, from his guard, for example, in the fight with King Moe, um, Moe was on top, but Gaygard was landing such, like, devastating shots from the bottom. I think that his game is just so complete and he's such a good striker. I'm going with Gayguard in this one.

By the way, what about, uh, Isaac biting my style over there with the plaid? I think this has happened multiple times. I think right before the break, you guys were wearing the same shirt. Well, that means we're in sync. Now, earlier, before we went on air, you actually said, me that you think Jacerai Sousa is a top five midway, right? I do. You think he's top five. Where do you put

Luke Rockhold then? I don't put Luke Rockhold as high as Jacaray. And now I know he won. I'll say, controversially, I think that Jacqueray won that fight. Judges didn't agree. And I think it was close regardless. But I think that Jacaray is

above Luke, in my opinion. But it's close. I wouldn't say, you know, he's, Luke is so far from him. I just say that I think Jokorei, when he decides to use his jiu-jitsu, when he goes aggressively after it, rather than, you know, this is like one of the things that I'm accustomed to seeing because being a BJ Penn fan, this happens a lot, where he's just content to counterbox, which is what Jokkeray was doing against Rockhold, was he was just, okay, I'm landing

huge shots, so I'm just going to sit in the pocket and keep throwing these. And now that doesn't look great for the judges. And that's why I think he lost the fight. The level of activity from Rockhold was amazing. He was just coming after him nonstop. While Jokure was sitting back and landing hard punches, but it doesn't look good for the judges. So if it goes to decision, you're not really going to be favorable in that aspect.

But I think when he's being aggressive, when he's going out after guys taking them down and using his jiu-jitsu or coming with the strikes at them, I think that it's hard to compete with the package that he has, with the power he has in his fist and the level of grappling that he has. I'm very high on Jacaree. So you're picking him to beat Herman? Yes, yes, I am.

And you think he goes far? I mean, like, let's say, I think the number two middleweight in the UFC is Chris Weidman. You think he beats Weidman? I think that would be a coin flip. I would, I wouldn't, I'd have to, you know, look at it a little more, but I think that that's a coin flip right now. By the way, after what happened at 155 with Tim Boch losing, with Alan Belcher losing, and, you know, Okami, I don't think he's going to get another title shot. I don't think Costa Philip, but he'll tell you he's not there.

Jacare versus Weidman, upon Wydenman's return, that could be very interesting. That'd be a great fight. In fact, yeah, that's, I would look forward to that fight forever. I would love that fight. As soon as they booked it, I'd be waiting for it. That would be a great fight.

All right, so that's the main card. Once again, it's free on Showtime. If you have some access to getting Showtime, even if you don't subscribe to Showtime, you can still watch the fights on Saturday. That's pretty awesome. They kick off at 8 p.m. Eastern on Showtime Extreme, and then 10 p.m. Eastern, you've got the main card on Showtime.

Now, those were the picks. No lines involved, because there are no lines for these fights yet. Follow New York Rick on Twitter. Later on this week, he has vowed to give you his picks with the lines. But, I mean, based on who he picked, I'm assuming all these guys are the favorites, and it doesn't sound like he's going to change much on them. So this one's kind of, this one's kind of,

this one's kind of like a wash, if you will. Next week, though, it really begins for New York, Rick. Because I have decided, my friends, beginning with UFC on FX7, that I'm going to give New York Rick a fake $100 bill. I need your help, though. A fake one. I mean, yes. Don't go to the store. Don't try to cash it in, whatever.

I know you like to do that kind of. You're a swindler, as they say. But what I want New York Rick to do, because a lot of people keep accusing. him of not knowing what he's doing or the favorites, this and that, he has to turn that $100 bill into X amount of dollars. I don't know what that X amount of dollars is. That's where you guys come in. I want you to write to me or him on Twitter and let us know what that cap should be, what that number should be. And by when? Because I'm not much of a gambler. I don't really know how this stuff works. All I know is that by a certain time, I'm thinking April or May, if he hasn't

turned that $100 into, I don't know, let's say $500, New York Rick is gone. That's kind of a hefty ask. I mean, listen. That would mean that I'd have to bet on a five to one dog. You don't have to do it in one shot. No, I know I don't have to do it in one shot. Build it up. But that's the equivalent.

I mean, yeah, no, I want to build it up. I think that this is a... Listen, parlays. I mean, do what you got to do. All you have to do is to... I don't care what you do. You know what? Good.

Yeah. Yep. Go ask the people. Yeah. Give me a number. And let's get it started. Five to one is a lot. No, I said I'm just making that up.

To make five times my money, that's a lot. That's a lot of an ask, because I'm not going to be betting my whole hundred every time. Sure. You know what I'm saying? But you do a piece here. You could do 20 on this guy, 10 on this, whatever you are. Well, I will be doing that, but that's, all right. I'm up for the challenge.

It's a big ask, but I'm ready. Let's do it. Okay, so on Twitter, if you're watching this live, you don't have to do the right this second, but at some point this week before Monday's show, let me know what that number should be. And you can make the pitch next week as well. Think about it. Let me know what the fair number is. I don't know what that number should be, so I can't really, I don't want to be unfair,

and I don't want to make it too easy. But let me know what that $100 should turn into to prove to everyone that he deserves to be making these picks. All right? I'm ready, bring it. That's for UFC on FX7. Some of those lines are already out, so you can kind of figure it out from now. One more thing, as far as New York Rick is concerned. I was on the MMA report last week.

That's hosted by my good friend John Pollock on TSN Radio. And we were playing a game of unlikely, likely, likely for 2013. Like he was asking me things, you know, will Anderson Silva be the champion this time next year? Will New York host an MMA event, et cetera, et cetera? And one of the questions he asked me pertained to New York Rick, much to my surprise. I didn't expect to get a question about lowly old New York Rick. New York Rick. But there it was.

He asked me the question, and I wanted to play it for you all, because I didn't. I thought it was a fun little moment. And the final one, New York Rick, becomes the co-host of the MMA Hour. I can't even believe New York Rick's name is being mentioned with such a prestigious radio show. Rookie of the Year Award, I believe, in broadcasting. I'm a big fan of New York, Rick.

Really? Really? Wow. I guess there's one. Oh, wow. I mean, this guy just walks in, he thinks he could get more than 20 minutes of their time. fights have to expand the show because there's no way he's going to eat into the original two hours. I had to give him something on the back end. He's a great addition to the team, but co-hosts, I'm not sure. Rookie of the Year, New York Rick. Wow.

There it is. You heard that. What was your reaction? I mean, no big deal for me. It's just another day. Unbelievable. No, I'm flattered. Absolutely.

You know, obviously, it's great to hear that. It's good that you have one fan. I mean, you get so much hate. Somebody's out there appreciating instead of being like, oh, you look like smangle or whatever the hell. Whatever the hell these nerds are saying. Whoa. Very aggressive. Yeah.

But anyway, what you wanted to say was thank you to John Pollock for the mention. Yeah, no, absolutely. My new best friend, John Pollock. Yeah, there he is. It's a great show. It's the MMA report on TSN Radio. It's actually the only other MMA podcast that I listen to on a frequent basis. And I also love live audio wrestling, which I've been listening for many, many years.

That's also on TSNRadioFight Network.com, all that good stuff, live audio wrestling.com. So anyway, thank you very much for having me on the show last week. And New York, Rick, appreciates the shout out as well. Okay, let's get to the questions. Again, at stake, the ultimate 100, the greatest fights in UFC history. It includes 100 full fights, over 26 hours of historic UFC action. Eight discs. Eight.

Unbelievable. You know what's interesting? The sticker on the front of the DVD says 25 hours of footage. On the back of the DVD, it says 26. Unbelievable. Anyway, it's courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment, our good friends over there. And by the way, I also want to thank our good friends over at Round 5. We hooked us up.

What is this? Series 11? Yes. Series 11. Look at this. We've got Chale. No. Chale is from 10. Oh, okay.

I thought it wasn't chale. We've got Mark Munoz here, making an interesting face. This one is one of my favorites. Very fitting. Vitor Belfort. New Vitor Belfort. There was an older one, but this one, his hair is quaffed to the side. As you can see, like, the new Vitor.

He's got the Ultimate Fight of Brazil shorts. It's great. If you're listening to this via MP3 podcast, you have no idea what I'm talking about. But trust me, it's a great action figure. Now, here we've got, who's this? Is this the dominant? Carlos Condon.

It kind of looks like a fat Chris Weidman, if you ask me. Still cool, nonetheless. Well, of course, here we have George St. Pierre, one of the 9,000 they've made of George. And this is, oh, Johnny Bones. This is a way better Johnny Bones than the other one, right? Yeah, that's a good one. This is a good one. And, of course, how can we forget the great Brittany Pomp.

in her WC attire holding up the five for round five. There it is. And a little to her right, I'm not sure it's going to stay. It's not going to stay. There's my Elgoito mask that I got from Eric Perez. And if you look, can we see what's here, Isaac? Can we see? There it is, my friend's little preview, Hawani Nose.

Coming at you, February of 2013, Hawani Nose.com. A lot of you people ask me about it. There it is. The shirt right there. Hawaiian Nose is going to be available in three colors to start off. but we're expanding shipping everywhere. Don't worry. February 2013. Hwanda knows.com. It is coming. All right. Let's get to the questions. Here we go.

Okay. First one. This one comes from the website, from the comment section. Okay. We've had some variations of this in the past, but you just did the interview with Liz, so I think this is a relevant question. If Liz Karmouche beats Rousie and wins the title, do you think there is an immediate future for women in the UFC? I can't imagine Karmouche headlining the UFC event. You know, it's a very interesting question.

I sort of asked her this question when I spoke to her at 155. Obviously, she wants to win, but her win could be in the end of women's MMA. I think it's very interesting that they haven't booked another women's MMA fight. I mean, they're booking all these other strike force fighters. Where's Misha Tate? Where's Sarah McMahon? You know, what's going on with Cyborg? We just saw Alexis Davis fight for Invicta.

Sarah Kaufman's fighting on the next Invicta show. I'm very interested to see what they do with the women's MMA division. I was on UFC tonight saying that's my most intriguing storyline of 2013, at least to monitor, what becomes of the Women's Amendment Division in the UFC. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't book another women's MMA fight until that fight happens. It's going to be very interesting. Of course, this is MMA. Upsets happen, crazy things happen.

Karmouche could win the fight. I don't think a lot of people are picking her to win, but it would be very interesting to see what that means for women's M.A. if she wins. Let's just say she does win. I say they stick around maybe for a rematch. You know, you see what happens next to Rousey? I don't think they pull the plug right away. There's always a rematch that can do well. But I certainly don't think it's as healthy as it is today or as if Rousie wins. They love Ronda Rousey. I mean, Dana White says it's the Ronda Rousey show. Her banners there. I mean, they love her. They can't get enough of her. So that's going to be very interesting.

but to ask your sort of immediate question, if she wins, will women's ever made the UFC, you know, be done with? No, but I don't think it'll stick around much longer after that, if that happens. Our next question is about the Invicta card from this weekend. Also from the comments section. Why don't we say who it's coming from?

Okay. Ganji or Gangi? Okay, that worked that well for the first one. Online pay-per-views broadcasts haven't been working good for Invicta. Where can they go from here? They have a very strong thing. That's a very good question. I thought Saturday night was the first blunder for Invicta because their first shows had their streaming issues, but they were free and they all sort of

worked themselves out. This one, it was pay-per-view. You couldn't buy it. If you bought it, sometimes it didn't work. Once they lifted the paywall, it still didn't work, at least for me. People were watching illegal streams of a stream. It was very weird. I thought it was a mistake not to have a play-by-play guy. I think by-play. is great, he's a legend, but he's not a play-by-play guy. You know, you have to have a guy who's a traffic cop. You see why guys like Morrow, John Anick, Mike Goldberg, at least in our sport, are needed because they are play-by-playmen. They're great at what they do. They know what it takes to sort of direct traffic. Boss is a color guy. I thought that was a bit of a mistake. And I thought the

card was good. I mean, I thought it didn't have maybe that sort of intriguing lineup that the first three had. I don't know. Something felt off about it. I don't know what it was. They need to get it figured out. I think they need to get off the internet at this point. You know, you had your first four shows. They were all essentially free at this point. Why aren't we making a deal?

Why aren't we on TV? Is there no good deal out there? Well, if there isn't, how long can they last on the internet? I mean, interesting. You saw Stephen Espinoza, he knew they had a show on Saturday. He said he liked it. I mean, he certainly is paying attention. I think for Showtime, that makes all the sense in the world.

Maybe it's not every Invicta show. Maybe it's four a year, but to have four big fights a year on Showtime, I think makes so much sense. It's an alternative to the UFC. It's different. People are into it. I mean, my boss at MMA fighting, our editor, Brian Tucker, telling me that Invicta does great traffic on the side. People are into it. People are very interested in this concept and this brand. I think it makes a lot of sense for Strike Force, excuse me, for Showtime, especially with no other great alternative out there. But they need to get off. the streaming stuff. And if they stay with the streaming stuff, I mean, they need to figure it out. I mean, just figure it out. Pay as much money as possible to figure it out. It can't keep happening this way. Oh.

Got some Twitter questions. Okay. Going to win a DVD possibly. Yes. Okay, so the first question, was Hyper Die, Pat Barry, the best corner man ever at Invicta this weekend? Absolutely.

If you haven't seen that video, it's on our site right now. Did you see the video? I did. He's unbelievable. I mean, he is really one of the great characters of our sport. It's amazing of what he brings to the tale. Oh, still a better love story than Twilight.

There's the picture right there of them kissing in the cage. His enthusiasm, his passion, the way he celebrated his emotion. I mean, that's awesome. That's a great picture right there. That's a beautiful thing. He talked about Rose on our show. You could see how he almost cares about her career more than his. And I think it all just sort of.

adds to the legend of Pat Barry from the guy who, you know, had that big win at 104 when he was eating ketchup and rice and sort of worked his way up into this guy who just produces one fight of the night after another or knockout of the night after another. That's probably his proudest moment. That's great stuff right there. Makes me a little emotional. Our next question. Are wins for this week strike force fighters all about getting to the UFC or is there still some strike force pride on the line? I don't know if there's a lot of strike force pride on the line. That there are no, there are no, like, strike force throwbacks, you know, and at this point, these guys want to make money, these guys want to resume their careers. They want to fight in the UFC.

I mean, that's, that's the big dance right now. So I just think guys want to win, and then they want to go into the UFC. I don't think a guy, I mean, a guy like Ed Herman, it's kind of cool. He says, yeah, I'll take the fight. It's the last show. And, you know, that means something. People will remember it. I'll take the fight. If it was not the last show, he probably wouldn't take it. But I don't think anyone is, I thought it was cool that Derek Brunson was wearing the strike force sweatshirt at 155, but he was already in the UFC. So, you know, he could be nostalgic. At this point, I think all the guys want to move on. They want to see how they match up with the UFC fighters. And for that, I mean, there's no pride on the line, but a lot of these guys have

to win. I mean, a lot of these guys, not everyone's coming over. There are some obvious ones out there. I think if Cormier loses, he's still coming over. I think if Musasi loses, he's probably still coming over. But there's some other guys who won't come over if they lose. That's what's on the line. Interesting that you said that, because that was the next question, actually. So, I mean, we can just read it. Will Gagar Musassi end up in the UFC if he loses on Saturday?

If he wins, where does he stand at 205 in the UFC? Well, I still think if he loses, he's going over. I haven't changed my mind in the last minute. But where does he stand in the UFC if he won? wins. I could see him. I mean, I don't know if he goes into the top 10. He's probably in the top 15. That's for sure. Who's out there for Giger Musassi? I'm very excited, especially, I'm just excited to see him fight on Saturday because we haven't seen him in a while. Last two performances weren't that great. And now they're saying he's training for the first time, all this stuff,

I just think it's very interesting. I mean, a guy like Augustafson would be a great fight, but I think Gustafson may have passed him, at least for now. You know, it would be interesting. Like, why can't he fight like a Shogun Huah? I know Shogun's coming off a loss, but that can make sense, right? Here's my thing. Is Shogun going to take that fight? He just did that, you know, he just went through this same role where it was, here's

the young guy coming up. Sure. I don't know if he's going to necessarily want to take that fight. I would love to see it. And I agree with you that Gustafsson would have been a great fight, but you're definitely right that Gustafsons above that now. He's not going to be taking it. on some guy who just came to the organization.

He's in line for bigger things than that. I really don't know. I just love watching Gaygaard fight, though. So it doesn't really matter who he's up against. But Shogun's a good suggestion. I'm just not sure he would take that fight. How about this one? You know, if John Jones is still the champion,

Rashad Evans isn't getting a title shot. Rashad beats Antonio Higera Nogera. What about Gaggarra versus Rashad? I'd like it, but I think it would end up. Bad matchup, right? It's a bad matchup for him. Rashad's going to look like the King Moe fight. where Rashad's going to be.

Well, that's the problem. I mean, what are you going to do? Protect him? No, you don't protect them, but, I mean, you don't necessarily give him Rashad Evans. Rashad's still in the top five. Sure. There's also Phil Davis out there, but same thing.

Same idea, but I think that that would be a better match for sure. I think Gayguard versus Phil Davis is very interesting, because Gaygard's not like that easy to take down. It's not like anybody with wrestling can take him down. King Moe is, you know, the cream of the crop. And it's not like, you know, it was a lay and prey. Moe was trying to do damage. it was a great win for him.

I just think that Gaygard versus wrestlers isn't ideal, but I think that versus Phil Davis, who I'm a personally, I'm a big fan of Phil Davis, I think that that would be a pretty fun match, actually. Very interesting to see where they will rank Gaygard if he wins.

Like where they put him in, you'll know right away based on who he fights. That's the fascinating thing about this. Every time I see one of these Strike Force versus UFC fights, I get so excited about it because it does feel like Stephen S. Benoza said, W-W-W-C-W.

These guys that we've been thinking about, we're finally going to get to see them in the UFC, and that's pretty cool. Next question. Injuries aside, where does JDS being booed after an excruciating five rounds stand on the low points of 2012?

And then also a rubber match between Kane and JDS, yay, or nay. Was it really that loud? It was pretty bad. Really? Yeah. See, I'm in the back,

and I don't always hear everything very well, and the audio isn't great. when I'm doing those interviews. It didn't strike me as something that, I mean, I heard it, but it didn't strike me as like a real black eye. I got to be honest. I mean, I keep sort of making the joke on Twitter, fight capital of the world.

I mean, Vegas, to me, it's cool covering events there. There's a certain buzz. Everything's in one neat place. But from the officials that they keep choosing, the referees, the fans not really being great anymore, I mean, I could do without it, to be honest. I think they need to sort of maybe put that title of fight capital of the world on ice for a little bit.

I mean, I know it's the home of the UFC and all that, but you're booing JDS after that. What the heck are you thinking? That's horrible. As far as rubber match, absolutely. To me, what they do with the heavyweight division is a fascinating thing. Of course, Kane is a champion now. JDS probably, I mean, you could get away with doing the trilogy right away,

but I think they won't do that. It didn't sound like Dana wanted to do that. You've got Alistair fighting big first. which I kind of wish I just did Alster versus Kane at this point, but, you know, whatever. He has to get by Bigfoot, and that's not an easy thing. If Bigfoot wins, now you're in a real pickle. You know, where do you go with Kane next?

Because he won't fight Cormier. At least they say they won't. He already annihilated Bigfoot. Do you do the trilogy right away? I think you need to do one fight in between. If Alster wins, you obviously do Alster versus Kane, and, you know, will that turn out to be the same as JDS? versus Kane, you know, striker versus wrestler.

We'll see how Alster looks on February 2nd. But I still think that's the way they go. Alster wins, you go Alster versus Kane. If Bigfoot wins, I think you do the trilogy, if you don't want to do the Cormier fight. Am I forgetting anyone? I don't think so. I think that's how it shakes out.

Yeah. Our next question. By the way, let's not forget about Fabrice Over Doom, who I think would be a fascinating matchup for Kane, a fresh matchup, but, you know, he's fighting Big Nog in June, and it's kind of a bummer that it puts him on the sidelines for so long, but maybe Kane fights one more time and then Verdume,

if he looks great, is in the mix, as Dana says. If the UFC gets plagued with injuries again, do you think it might have a chance of losing popularity? Sure. I mean, I think that it hurt them very much in 2012. I think the biggest thing that came out of it was you lost the trust of the people to a degree. You know, you announce a great fight card and everyone was like, well, let's see if it actually happens. Slowly but surely, we're not seeing, you know, big impactful injuries. You know, UFC on Fox 5 remained intact, 154 remained intact, 155 remained intact as far as the main events.

You know, as of right now, no changes to the big main events of 2013. But people are waiting to buy tickets. They're waiting to make travel plans, et cetera, et cetera. That's where it hurts. and, of course, you know, a byproduct of that is popularity. So, you know, obviously, I think what Dana said about, you know, the training and how fight camps need to be built around a guy as opposed to just having 30 guys in a gym, you know, bumping into each other and kind of all is shuffled together. Maybe that's the future of the way guys are training. But

it's a real big problem. And I think if it remains a problem in 2013, it will hurt the UFC very much. but I think the fans have very, very short-term memories. And if they go on a stretch here of great fight cards, and let's not forget, I said at the beginning of December, that could be the best month of the year, and I think it was the best month of the year as far as fights go. If they go on this stretch here with some huge cards coming up with FX7, followed by Fox 6, followed by 156, and the Fuel TV 7, and then 157,

and then the one in Japan. I mean, it's a crazy stretch coming up in the first. quarter of the year, then GSP Nick Diaz. If all those fights delivered, we'll stop talking about this. Who do you think we'll headline the New York event if it does happen? I had such a big smile on my face when I heard Dana White talk about this. He said 20th anniversary. They already have a date book. MSG. Of course, they need to get legalized, but what a moment that would be to finally debut. They had fights in the state of New York, but to finally debut in MSG and to return to the state of New York. It would be something else. I think he says he knows the fight,

and I think the fight that makes the most sense, at least right now, is John Jones versus Anderson Silva. It's the biggest fight they could put on. John Jones is from the state of New York. He's from Endicott next to Ithaca, next to Syracuse, and Anderson is Anderson. That would be massive. That, to me, is the fight they put on as far as, you know, the biggest fight that, at least January, a lot can happen between now and November. but that's what I think they do. What do you think they do? No clue, but that would be humongous.

That's the second biggest fight in my opinion. As I said, I still think GSP Anderson is the number one. I said this before. I said that, you know, it has the history. Sure. But as far as a fight that you don't really know what's going to happen, to me, GSP, Anderson versus John is more intriguing. I actually disagree with that still.

I think that whether GSP can take Anderson down, is more intriguing than whether Jones can use his size over Anderson. I think that Jones would be more imposing to Anderson than Anderson would be to GSP. I think that it's a closer fight between GSP and Anderson, in my opinion. Wouldn't it be great if we get both fights this year? Well, that would just be 2013, the year of MMA. It would launch everything. Yeah, it would be great.

What else we got? Do you think that if, Big If, Eddie Alvarez, goes to the UFC, they should make Alvarez versus Melendez for the number one contender. I don't because I want to see those guys against UFC guys. That's kind of the intrigue. I think it would be cool to have the former Beltor guy against the Strike Force champ. I get it. I mean, I wouldn't be upset, but I kind of want to see them fight other guys,

UFC guys. It sounds like Gilbert may get a title shot. To be honest, I want to see Anthony Pettis versus Benson Henderson. I won't be mad. I mean, Gilbert deserves it to a degree. I mean, he has not been fighting in the UFC, yes. but champion versus champion, it's hard to look away from that. But I just think if Pettus wins on January 26th,

he has a win over Benson, the only guy to beat Benson in Zufa, he beat him in the last WC show, how do you not make that match? You can replay the kick over and over again. That sells itself. But if UFC on Fox 7 goes to San Jose, and by the way, I spoke to Dana about this late last week, he said, not a done deal, Benson versus Gilbert. I mean, who knows what they do.

But anyway, back to this question, I'd rather see them fight someone else. And I wouldn't be upset if Melendez fought Benson, but I think if Pettus wins on January 26th, he deserves it. Interesting. The next question. I think the winner of Pettus versus Saroni should get the next shot. Do you think the same or should Melendez get it? I think we covered that. Yeah, but what about Saroni is the question.

You know, he lost to Benson twice. one of the fights was incredible. I believe that was WC 43, and then when they fought on the pay-per-view was a lot shorter, I still think they can sell it. But I think it's weird, but I think if Soroni wins, you go with Gilbert,

if Pettus wins, you go with Pettus. If Eric Koch defeats Ricardo Lamas, should he be next in line for the Featherway title as he was meant to face Aldo at UFC 153, or does it depend on how he wins? I have a feeling he won't get it.

I have a feeling that at this point they go with Korean zombie against the winner of Aldo and Edgar but he is, you know, let's not forget, I mean, they could have put a lot of guys in that fourth fight slot on Fox and they put this fight for a

reason. Featherweight division is getting very interesting right now with Aldo coming back. I love that fight against Edgar and Korean Zombie coming back. These two guys are doing great things. Dennis Siever is down there, Cups Swanson, he's fighting him. I mean, it's getting very interesting. It'll be interesting. I think

I mean, he certainly deserves it. He got two fights taken away from him, one because of Aldo getting injured, one because he got injured. He deserves it, but I think the fight that will sell more, is just more popular. Let's see what happens on January 26th.

So I guess, yes. Second part of the question, it depends. Which co-main event are you most excited for? These are upcoming combing events. Machita v. Henderson, Condit v. McDonald. Oh, God. Rampage versus Tashara or Hunt v. Drew.

I love that commercial. I saw the commercial yesterday, UFC on Fox 6. Rampage returns. I thought it was great. I know some people were upset that they didn't mention the flyway title. To me, I mean, whatever.

They mentioned world title. This is on Fox. No big deal. I can understand why some people get annoyed, but who cares? They mention the guys. Get over it. Which one am I most looking forward to?

You may call me crazy right now. Machina Henderson is a great fight, but Cona McDonald loved that fight, but we saw it, so I won't give it to that one. Rampage to Chera, I mean, that's a great fight, and it's great, what can you say? I love it. I love everything about it.

Young versus old, rampage returning, but Hunt v. Struv is just so fun. In Japan, the size difference, the return to the KFC King, Struve looking so great, I think I may go with that one. What do you think? I like that one.

But mine is Rory and Carlos Condit. They're all great. I mean, these are all fantastic. That's why this question stood out to me. They're just great fights. These co-main events are delivering. Yeah. I mean, like I said, between now and April, the fights are incredible.

I just pray they all remain intact. Oh, God. I knew this one was coming. Had you heard of Tyson Fury before his ridiculous comments, should an MMA promotion entertain the idea to shut him up? I heard about him. I'm just so shocked. I can't even tell you how many times I've gotten this question about Tyson Fury, the British boxer calling out Cain Velasquez.

I couldn't care less. I don't care about this whole boxer versus M.M.A. fighter debate. We saw it once. Yes, it was with James Tony and they could have picked someone better, but I don't care. What does it mean? Does he want to fight him in an M.M.A. match? Probably not. Then I don't want to see Kane Velasquez in a boxing match.

It's stupid. He's trying to get attention. why do you all keep asking me about it? I don't care about it. Let him stick to boxing. And apparently he's like one of these guys who runs his mouth and calls everyone out. It's silly.

And we shouldn't give it any more time. I mean, good for him for trying to promote himself. But it's not going to happen. So it's stupid. This next one's a comment. Wow. Ariel looks like he was hitting the tanning booth with Snooky over the holidays. Well, I'm happy to say that it is all natural.

It's o'natural, as they say, in my, in my home province of Quebec. Yes, I was away. I was relaxing. I had a bit of a tan. As you can see, the hair is longer than usual. As you can see, oh, we've got some guests. As you can see, we've, you know, we've grown out the hair at the top here. As you can see, we grew up the beard a little bit. It's a bit of vacation aerial. I will clean myself up. I am going to Las Vegas on Friday morning for the World MMA Awards. Thank you very much to them for inviting me and for you all for voting for me third year in a row. And also, M.AFunding.com is nominated for a website of the year.

So that's very exciting. So, you know, you go out, I have that Middle Eastern skin. It's attracted to the sun. But absolutely no tanning for me. I'm not doing the air coke. I'm not doing that sort of thing. It's not my thing. But I appreciate you noticing.

Thank you. What do you think about the longer hair? It's not that long. It's not that long. You keep it. You keep it short. You keep it. This is the long.

I haven't had a haircut in two weeks. That I haven't gone that long without a haircut in over a year. Now, it's not Will over there with the ponytail, you know, Circa 86, but it's, I mean, it worked for him. But those, that's luxurious. Yeah, don't get me wrong. Those are locks. Those are locks. It works for him.

I used to have an afro back in the college days, but this, I don't know if you felt my hair. It feels like steel wool on my head. It is very thick. And I look forward to cutting it. But, you know, I just didn't have time. I was relaxing. I'm sorry. Oh, here we go.

Yeah, really slum in there with the, every two weeks. Next question. Yes. It's a good one. Yeah. Will New York Rick get his shot at co-host in 2013? Well, I don't know. Like, what do these people want co-host?

I mean, don't you get enough air time. First off, Joe Daddy here, a notorious troll. I don't know if you know this guy, but the guy is like, I mean, that there's no bigger troll online than this guy. So I'm sure he's an upstanding individual. He sounds like a very smart man. What does that mean? Does that mean you want to sit here?

Is that what you're saying? See, that's the thing. I don't know what that means. I don't understand. I don't even know what it means. It's just, it's just the... You want the attention. Yeah.

That's it. By the way, does Joe Daddy have the rights to put a Estherlin, MMAFighting.com pictures of background? I'll look into that. Our lawyers. I think we have enough lawsuits from this show today. That is true. Co-host in 2013, I mean, I don't know.

Let's find out. If he wins. our little, maybe, hey, I'll tell you what, if he wins. Ariel, don't do it. Don't say anything you're not going to mean. Wait a second. Wait a second. If he wins our little game here, and I've seen some numbers thrown out, $350, $400, maybe.

We have to think about it for next week, but maybe that means one show is co-hosts. I don't know who will do your job. You do so well. If he loses, though, you know, you know what they say about losers. You know, you got to go. You don't got to go home, but you got to get the hell out of here. That's what, I mean, there has to be something at stake. Yeah, I mean, maybe I'll just put my money on Dion Starring this week.

Yeah. That huge upset will get me at least 15, 20 to 1, and I'll be set. I'll be co-host by next show. Well, if you think Dionne's going to win, go for it. Although I did say that it's UFC on FX7. That's when it starts. You have to pay attention to the guidelines. But maybe that's at stake.

Again, a lot of people writing how much and all that, what it should be for, let me know what should be at stake. It's in your hands. We'll figure this out this week. We'll figure it out. That's it. That's it. All right. So who on the DVD?

We had a few good ones. Very good ones. I like the question about Gaygard-Musassi and the UFC. That was good. That was on our mind. The one about the UFC losing popularity due to injuries, relevant, right? now. Seroni Pettis, a fight that, you know, people are interested in.

I thought that bringing that back up was a good one. As far as the title shot. Right. Melendez. Over getting Eddie Alvarez or Gilbert Melendez. And I like the JDS booing one as well, just because that had to be talked about. That was just terrible, pathetic. Yeah, one thing I will say, I mean, I look at the website right now.

239 comments, a lot of them questions, you got to show the website some love. I mean, really. You only ask two questions for the website. Not all of those are questions. A lot of them are... Oh, they're not? Comments? Okay.

Yeah, comments, replies. I love that there's so much activity on the page. Just don't ignore the website. That's all I'm saying. All right? We got plenty of love for the website. Oh, someone says, much better, Ariel, keep it up. I'm assuming my looks is looking good.

Okay, so the winner is... What do you say? Who are you giving you to? 100 fights. I like the Gayguard one, but it's... You have a... You know what? It's been a Strike Force theme.

Yeah. Give it to Gaggard. Gaggar Musassi. Fighting Mike Kyle this Saturday night, live on Showtime. 100 fights. It's yours, courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. All right. I think we covered it all.

Let me just look at my little checklist here. Yeah, that's it. Again, just wanted to mention, thank you very much, everyone who voted. We are going to the awards on Saturday. We'll have the coverage for you on... On Saturday, on Friday. And then we'll have the coverage for you on M. MMAFighting.com, and then we go to Oklahoma City on Saturday to cover the final

Strike Force event. Isaac? Shout out to John Pollack. Again, how many, I mean, the guy even texted me during the show. Unbelievable. Well, there it is, my friends. A great show, an interesting show. We heard from three men that we haven't heard from in a very long time, all presenting sort of different vibes, right? You had Eddie, who's clearly upset. I mean, you go on his Twitter right now. He's doing a Q&A. It's unbelievable. Really sort of laying it all out there. Good for him. And my colleague over at M.AFighting.com, well, I'll just say that we're working on a sort of advancement of that story. So you got Eddie Alvarez. We wish him the best of luck.

Appreciate him coming out and sort of laying it all out there and speaking the truth. At least we think that's the truth. And follow him on Twitter, E. Alvarez, fight to get more on the situation. Then we had Scott Coker, a bit of a nostalgic feel. Appreciate everything he's done. Final Strike Force card on Saturday. Then you have Stephen Espinoza, who I think painted a nice picture for the future and even the past. I mean, it was a very positive interview and, and I'm curious to see what Showtime does next as far as MMA's concern. Appreciate Dave Meltzer stopping by. Check him out, MMAFighton.com. He's also on Twitter and wrestlingobserver.com. Great insight as far as Strikeforce's history. Vitor Belford, good luck to him, UFC on FX7.

Ed Herman, good luck to him, January 12th, this Saturday, the final Strike Force event, Chesapeake Energy Arena. Thanks for the memories, a great promotion. They say goodbye on Saturday night. We say goodbye. Today, we're back. Same time, place next week. Check us out.

iTunes, Twitter, all that time, peace. I'm out of you. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful. game right here in the U.S. From Deaf and Power wheelchair soccer to Beach and Futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem.

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