MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 165

Episode Date: August 14, 2014

Featuring Chris Weidman, Carlos Condit, Mike Goldberg, Muhammed Lawal, Karl Amoussou, and the UFC 156 conference call. 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 Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for the show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. Introducing O-DU. It's the only business software you'll ever need. 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-O-4-F-R-F-R-Frey. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-com. It's the mixed martial arts hour with... Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Monday, January 21st, 2013.

So great to be back here with you for another two plus hour edition of the MMA hour. And if you're listening to this in the United States of America, I wish you a happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. If you're listening to this in the United States of America, I wish you a happy inauguration day. If you're listening to this anywhere else, in our great world, I wish you a happy UFC on Fox 6 week. That's this Saturday night in Chicago, Illinois.

I'll be going there on Wednesday. Flyway title is on the line. Demetrius Johnson versus John Dodson. Rampage Jackson, will he be fighting? And his final UFC fight against Glover Tashara, we'll find out on Saturday night and maybe a little bit beyond. Showtime Pettis versus Donald Seroni.

Eric Koch versus Ricardo Lomas. Also on the main card. You may have forgotten that because it's not on the commercials, but it is there. United Center. Saturday night. We'll talk about that in the third hour as we update Rick's Picks Challenge. How did our own Rick do in week one of his challenge? You recall last week, I gave him $100 between now and April 27th. Ten events. He got lucky. I don't know if you know this, but another

event was thrown in there. UFC on Fuel TV 9. That was not one of the nine events that I counted last week. So now we got 10 events for him to choose from people saying, Not fair. People saying that it's too tough to convert 100 into 400 bullocks. I may have a boat to pick with him about his picks, but we'll get to that in the third hour. Also take your questions and comments in the third hour as well. And this week, the best question asker of the day gets this prize. You can see it on my table right there. It is an unbelievable shirt, courtesy of our friends at nomas.

Nomos.com. Actually, it's nomash-nysh-Nyc.com. one of my favorite t-shirt lines, one of my favorite apparel companies in the world. I mean, they're just so ahead of everyone else. Look at this Pride 10 shirt, Sakuraba, giving up the rear naked choke to a lovely lady. An amazing t-shirt. Pride 10. That could be yours.

All you have to do is ask a good question. In the second hour, we'll be talking to Mike Goldberg, the UFC Play-by-Playman, who returns to the quote-unquote broadcast booth on Saturday night. We'll talk to him about his brief hiatus. And this Saturday night's fights. We'll also be talking to Carlos Condit. The natural-born killer faces Rory McDonald in March. UFC 158.

Tickets for that go on sale this week. Big press conference this week as well. Will Nick Diaz show up? I think he will. GSP, Tom Wright, they'll be there in Montreal. I believe it's Wednesday in Montreal. Nick Diaz also scheduled to be there. UFC 156, it goes down next Saturday, not this Saturday,

next Saturday, next Saturday in Las Vegas, Super Bowl weekend. and the UFC once again tries to counter-program us. Once again, they try to steal our listeners and our viewers, but don't worry, we don't have an ego here. You know, we're cool with that. You want to put on something at the same time? We'll just join you, and we'll simulcast it. For at least 20 minutes or so,

we'll give you a portion of the UFC 156 conference call, which will feature Joseo Alto, which will feature Frankie Edgar, which will feature Alastair Overeign, Bigfoot Silva, Antonio Higero and Ogera, Roshad Evans, and UFC President Dana White. Happy to hear that his ear surgery went well last week. Carl Psycho Amusu, he faces our good pal, Ben Ascgren on Thursday, Beltor, Spike TV 2. We're not calling it that, but it is their second offering on Spike TV. Very good showing in their first offering last week.

He'll be joining us, and the big fight on that card, of course, is the Beltor debut of won King Molo. while he'll be stopping by as well in the first hour. But first, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in. Of course, the big news of the weekend was Michael Bisping losing to Vitor Belfort via headkick knockout. Thus, once again, mixing us all up as to what is next in the middleweight division. And in particular, Anderson Silva, and one man who has a very, very strong claim to the number one contender spot is the man joining us right now on the line. Our good pal, Chris Wyman. Chris, how are you?

you what's up wow look at this guy you know he wins the the breakthrough fighter of the year award can't even get him in studio can hardly even get him on the phone and then when you say hello to him it's like yeah i don't really care to be here you're kind of bothering me let's just get this over with is that what happens when you win an award i'm just too big time now man you're a little guy to me well you know according to michael bisman i thought you were chris sick note Weidman. So are you back? What's going on? I'm back, man. I'm trying to get rid of that nickname he gave me. Yeah. Were you bothered by it?

No, not at all. I think he's pretty funny. Honestly, Michael Bisman can't say one thing about me that actually piss me off. I actually think he's a good guy, and I think he's doing a good job promoting himself, and he says some funny things. And, you know, if I have a retaliated and say so he's back, it's just for good humor and just, you know, just have fun with this whole business to her, and, you know, which is some entertainment as well, so I'm just having fun. So I saw you tweeting on Saturday night about his loss and then saying that, you know, the timing would work out for a fight between you and Anderson.

What do you think of his performance on Saturday, and what do you think of Vitor's performance? Um, I thought, I thought, to be honest with you, even before the fight, I did think Michael Bisbing was going to end up winning the fight, and I thought Michael Bisbing had it down pretty good before the fight even discussed. like what he was in danger of and, you know, getting past the first couple of rounds and then he'd probably be good. And I'm going to say, I thought Michael Bisbing, you know, I thought he was doing pretty good. And I thought Belfort, I was looking for Belfort to explode more in the first, you know,

in the first couple rounds and have that chance of knockout. And I didn't want to see Bisping draw him into that fight where it's going to be, you know, touching him apart and Belfort's relaxing and all of a sudden he's tired and too late. You know, but Belfort stayed relaxed and he picked his time. who exploded, obviously it worked out. That one time in the first round, with the head kick of him again in the second round. And, you know, that's a way, that's a way

the sport goes sometimes. But, you know, and, you know, it's not like I was, you know, wishing, you know, bad on Bisbinger or anything like that out. I don't want the guy to, you know, I don't like wishing bad on anybody. You know, I just feel like it's almost like bad karma. So I didn't, I wasn't going crazy either way,

you know, whoever won. I didn't really mind. As you alluded to on Twitter, You know, after what happened at 155 with Tim Boch losing, with Alan Belcher losing, and now with Michael Bisping losing, this opens the door for you. And I don't know if you noticed this. I don't know if you got the same thing. But to be honest, before this fight, everyone that I got feedback from,

they wanted to see Bisping and Anderson. And I got a lot of Chris Wyman hasn't earned it yet, even though you're five and own the UFC. On Saturday night and beyond, I got a lot. It's time for Wyman v. Anderson. It seems like the fans, for the most part, have done a 180 here. and now they want to see you fight Anderson. Did you get that same kind of feedback from them? Yeah, I did.

It's pretty funny. It's kind of weird how it works. You know, people, you know, hating on me. They forget about me. You know, Michael Bisvin came out and said I beat up a fat Mark Muno's and everybody just uses that same line and I'm not worth anything. And then it seems like it's a clear path for me to fight. And everybody kind of wants to see Anderson lose it because, you know,

people, when you're up on the top that long, people want to see him be challenged. and I think people honestly could see that I would be a good challenge for them. So I think that's why they're kind of back in me now. So are you the number one contender in the middleweight division? I think so, yeah. So you deserve a shot against Anderson next? That's what you want next.

If I had to choose, yeah, but I'm not Dana White. And I think he did say he wants to fight in the summer. That's when I'll be back. But I definitely am no problem fighting someone else first if that's what they want to do. If it was up to me, I'd fight Anderson. I just, you know, I'm going to be in Chicago this weekend. I don't know what Dana and them want to do with the middleweight division.

I'm confused just like everybody else is where they're going to go with it. Obviously, you have the Strike Force guys coming over. You got the heck of the Lombard, usual comedy fight. So I don't know. Right now I think I'm the most deserving to get it if they want to make that fight right away. I just don't know if Anson Silva would be interested.

Will you sit down and talk to Dana, Lorenzo, Joe Silva, in Chicago this weekend to try to get those answers and maybe to make the final pitch, give me Anderson Silva. Yeah, I talked to my manager. You know, we definitely, I think, want to have a sit down, at least talk to them and figure out where their heads are at and try to get on the same page.

You know, no matter what's going to happen, I want to know where I'm at when I get back. You know, I'm not going to cry if I don't get the shot. You know, my goal is to be champion, and, you know, I just want to fight into so. Obviously, it's a guy who's been, he's had the belt since I even got to M. and I've always imagined eventually getting the chance to beat them. So that's a fight I really want, and I'd love to take it right away.

But it's going to be up to them, you know, ultimately. Do you need me to be in the meeting as well? Or do you want me to be in the meeting as well? Up to you. Yeah, I do, actually. I need you there. Well, that's nice of you. I appreciate it.

You're pretty good with this type of stuff, man. Well, you know. They're talented. You're a good multitasking. You're probably, you know, you're texting me. you're making me feel good about myself, and then you're texting, you know,

someone else, you know, saying the same thing to them. I'm like, damn it, this guy's good. He got everybody by the balls. The same thing I write to you, I write to Luke Rockhold,

Costa Filipu, of course. I mean, I write to all of the middle of a way. How do you think I get people on my show? You got to start, you know, greasing everyone's back. You are good, man.

We're from the same clock. You know what I mean? What do you mean? You know, we understand each other. But here's the thing. You know, you say that, okay, I'm good at it. Sometimes I'm surprised,

Like right now, honestly, I think you have carte blanche. I think if you make a lot of noise, I think you'll get the shot against Anderson. Yet, for whatever reason, and you're entitled to do that, you're taking the, it's up to them approach. Why take that approach? Haven't you learned anything from Chale? Haven't you learned anything over the last two years in UFC? You want something? Call them out.

You'll probably get it. Yeah, I see where you're saying. And I flirt with that. And I think I am talking more than I, than I'd, would like to, really. You know, but, you know, what I do look at is that every single champion in every single weight class, they're not that guy. They're not the guy who's talking all that much. And that's the person I want to be. I'm not the guy who wants to be, you know,

the talker and talk my way to the top. I want to be the guy who comes up the top like Cane Velasquez or John Jones. They're not bad-mouthing people. They're not, you know, storing drama. They're going there and they're becoming humble, humble champions. And that's my goal. I'm not here. to gain followers and, you know, and entertain people. I'm here to be champion. And with that, I'm going to have fun to entertain people and sell fights and do whatever I have to do with that.

But I'm not going to start saying, NISTSiv as a chicken and he's scared of me. And, you know, I do think I'm a bad matcher form. I think I really haven't beaten in a lot of areas. I don't think he's faith anybody like me before. And I also could understand from his view, point why he wouldn't want to fight me for a couple reasons. Why?

So I, you know, why do you think he doesn't want to fight you? I just, I think it's a, it's a lot of risk for a little reward in his mind. You know, I think he wants to fight. You know, I kind of take that back because regardless, the guy's going to make millions of dollars, you know. You know, everyone's saying I don't have a big name, but if you look at everybody's fought, he hasn't fought like the biggest names in the world, you know? And he's all fought.

I mean, I'm not putting anybody down, but no one, no one was like, like a huge name, I don't think. Chil Sona really made his name. I think he might have been one of the biggest names. I could be totally wrong. I'm not as good as you with this stuff, but like Kosei, Damien Maya, who else is he for? Tos Laites, Tos Lades.

If you go down the list, I mean, they weren't the best at selling fights. Are they the biggest names that they accomplished the most? I think I might have accomplished more than all those guys, you know, before they got to fight them. That being said, man, my goal is to become champion, become a humble champion and, you know, be a good role model for people. And that's my goal. And I really don't want to sell myself down the river, you know,

turning to something about that I'm really not. All right, that's fair enough. Now, if they don't give you Anderson, Silver, in my opinion, the only two options out there that makes sense right now because Hector is booked against Okami and, you know, we don't know what's going to happen in March, Luke Rockhold, who is the Strike Force middleweight champion coming over, or Vitor Belford.

Do you have a preference if you don't get Anderson who you fight next? No, I don't have a preference. Either one of those guys would be great. I think they're both awesome fighters. It would be a good test for me. Whoever the UFC decides with that, I'm good. I just can't wait to get back in the Afghan and just keep proving myself. And, you know, there's still a million dows out there,

and I love just proving them wrong. I just can't wait to get, you know, all these people that think I'm going to get killed by in this and silver eventually. I really want to prove those guys wrong. This is just really Even one of those guys Would be great to be honest with you But I would love to have this over right away

But let's see And I'll throw in one more I'll throw in one more If you don't get Anderson I think you versus Jacqueray Would be a fun fight as well Jacques Grey of course coming over From Strike Force as well

How's the shoulder You say it's summertime I mean perfect world All goes well now Give us an update But you know when could you Be ready to fight again Not training camp, be ready to fight inside the octagon?

I'm pretty sure, based on what the doctors told me, I'm actually going to see my doctor for the checkup tomorrow. But from the original diagnosis after surgery, what they told me was it was going to be 100% at four months. That's when training camp would start, which probably lead me to June for my next fight. And is there a part of you, you know, let's say you fight again in June. Let's say you're ready and clear to fight again in June, July.

That will have been a year since you last fought knocked out Mark Munoz, Part of you think in the back of your mind, it would be nice to fight someone, you know, after a year of layoff, fight someone else, not the champion. And then if I win that one, go straight to the champion, or do you not think that that time off will affect you in any way? I don't, I've done it before. I've had a hand surgery that I was off for a year and I came back and I actually fought the guy, Uriah Hall, who's, I think, on the ultimate fighter. Yeah. Now, and I did pretty good got a first-round finish. I've been through that.

I've got to the ring rostered for a tough guy right away. I don't think he's, you know, to be compared to Ansela or Rockold or Belford, but I'm not one of those guys who are just, you know, sitting on my couch and being injured. I'm in the gym every day. I'm around the environment. I'm learning new things every day. Even with my shoulder injured, I'm freaking basically like belcroing my arm to my side,

and I'm doing all different types of new moves with Longo. I'm literally just having a lot of fun with this, and I'm learning so much every day, even with this injury. and I'm going to become a lot better fighter from this injury. Like my kicks have gone a lot better. I'm becoming more tricky with stuff. My left toe, I'm really working on a lot of things. I only have a short career in this,

and I really am not going to let it slip by, and I'm going to do my best to meet my potential. You know it would be something else. I'm going to be beneficial. Sorry to cut you off. You know it would be something else as well. UFC talking about doing a 20th anniversary show at the Garden, just a block away from where we are right now.

And Dana says he has his fight in mind. I think it's John Jones versus Anderson, but John has a long list of guys waiting for him. New York zone, Chris Weidman against Anderson Silver for the title, MSG in November. Does that tickle your fancy? That tickles my fancy. That's my fancy.

But that's November. Yeah, that's November, so I don't know how that would work out. Maybe we give up, maybe we give Vanessa Silver an immediate rematch in the contract, and then as soon as I beat him in July. Wow. He could fight me right away in that November card in Manhattan. Wow. Maybe that, maybe that'll get him to accept the play.

See, you get me told. Finally. I'm just having fun with this guy. Don't get mad at me. This is part of the business. I'm getting people excited. But you don't really, I don't even get that for myself. I'm not having come up with that type of thing with myself.

It's like Longo said it to me once, and I'm like, yeah, we give him an immediate rematch in the contract. I'll take the fight. I like it. I like that kind of talk. That talk excites me. Now, obviously, last time I interviewed you, Chris, it was under a lot less positive times. You know, obviously what happened with Hurricane Sandy.

We were at your house. You were very nice to allow us to film over there. What is going on with your house? When can you and your family move back into your home? We actually moved to the second floor, and we just got doors on the first floor a couple of days ago. Our electric is going out every other. We're having the electric done on the first floor now, getting the floorings, put it back in. We won't have, like, a first floor probably for a couple more months.

But we're definitely grateful where we're at right now. We were at my parents' house for a while, and I used to live in the basement, which was like a nice little apartment I made for myself and my family, which got small. But my sister took that over, which is good for her. And so I had to go. We went in one room in my parents' house with the two kids and my wife, and that was too much. So I'm glad to be back at least to the second floor of the house.

So when is everything back to normal, the full house, you know, back good, you can live there? I don't know. I'm probably thinking another four months, four or five months. It's going to be almost a year thing, man, which is crazy. But I guess that's the way it worked. To deal with that, the injury at the same time and, you know, with your family and everything, Did you ever have a breaking point over the last couple of months where you just kind of lost it? I mean, that's a lot for one person to deal with.

Honestly, no, I didn't really have a breaking point because you have so many people around you that are doing so much worse, and you find yourself feeling bad for them and wanted to help them as much as, I don't know if that sounds corny or not, but it really does. You just see so many people worse, and you feel you'd be such a selfish person to look at yourself and start, you know, feeling bad for yourself. So I didn't really, there was not one point where I really felt bad for myself. You know, I had my next-door neighbor. He's 70 years, 70 years old, 75 years old.

It's not like that. You know, he worked his whole life, saved over his money, paid off his house. His house is basically completely gone. He had no flood insurance. He probably got to give away his house. And just in, like, these couple months that this happened, he could see his life at 70-selling years old just got turned upside down, man. and he has his wife who's sick right now.

I mean, it just, you feel your heart just goes out to people like that. And I don't know, I don't know where you can just see aged, age so much more just from this event. I just hate to see that happen. You know, you're in the last years of your life, like towards the end of the years your life, and you want to really enjoy it, spend time with your wife, and enjoy the fruit of your labor, and just something like that happens. And I just, it's just, me, I'm young. I could, you know, I have plenty of years left.

I could do so much. I could get a job, whatever it is, and keep making money. And him, I just feel so bad for people like that. And there's thousands of people like him. And so there's not one day where I looked at myself and cried and was depressed. Well, that is very good to hear. Looking forward to see you back inside the Octagon, Chris. And let us know how that meeting goes.

If you want us to come in, camera, no camera, advisor, no advisor role, whatever you want. I'm here to help. And I think... I appreciate it. You know, you know, it's pretty cool. Lorenzo followed me on Twitter right after the business fight. Whoa. Whoa. That's what you should have said right at the top.

That's big news. What kind of reporter are you? Well, how am I supposed to know that? How can I follow that kind of stuff? Wow. I don't know how long it. Two years ago would have been on top of that. You're freaking, you're really screwing up.

Wow. That is, that's the news bulletin right there. Lorenza Fortita follows Chris Wydennex. Immediately after the contender is knocked off Michael Bisping. We just got our answer. I don't know if it was immediate. I don't know if it was a media. Whatever.

Just go with it. Like 24-hour period. Just go with it. I don't want to. I don't know if it was a couple hours after, but... Well, that's huge. That's huge. Good luck with the meeting. Good luck in Chicago. We'll see you there, hopefully, or not.

Up to you. I'll be... Yeah, you need to be there, man. We will be there. We will be there. We look forward to it. I'll talk to my manager. Okay, fine. Keep us posted, all right? All right.

Muzzle Tulf. There he is. Chris Weinman. Thank you very much. Dropping the Hebrew, just to get in my good graces, of course. Looking forward to seeing him back in action. And could he be the number of... one contender in the middleweight division. We'll talk about that.

I'm sure a lot of you will be asking about the Anderson-Silva situation in the third hour when we answer your questions. For now, though, we must move along because before UFC on Fox 6 in Chicago, Bellator returns on Thursday on Spike TV, and the headlining act, in my opinion, is our guest coming up right now on the MMMA hour. Old friend of the show, King Mohamed Lawal. King Mo, how are you? Man, I'm good, man.

you know, let's be real. I'm co-headlining. You know, Ben Asher Defendants, though. People might not like him, but the dude still win. Yeah, yeah. Give me respect. But you're the drama, man. You're the reason why people are watching this one.

And no disrespect, but you're King Moe making his debut. We've been talking. Hey, Ben Ascran doesn't get a 90-minute special on Spike. Ben Ascran doesn't have a press conference to announce his signing. You're the real deal. I like the humility, but I'm just calling it like I see it. Oh, yeah, if you want to call it the way, you know what I'm saying? I'm still co-headlining, you know what I'm saying, the coming event.

All right. So, you know, it is what it is. Well, welcome back to the show. It's been a while. You know, you've been everywhere. OVW, TNA, Invicta, all over the place. It's good to see that you've remembered the little people back on the MMA hour. Ain't nothing little about y'all.

Y'all, y'all turn Hollywood, man, you know what? I call in. I call in and you're talking about disclaimers. Like, disclaimers just win. Well, you know. And that's Hollywood. You know, y'all made it big. Well, thank you. We appreciate it.

You know, people trying to sue us and whatnot, so we have to cover our back. But the big news, of course, King Moe, is it's your debut. Finally, a year after your last fight, after everything you've been through, at this point, are you, like, counting down the hours, or are you counting down the minutes until you could finally fight again

and make your debut for Bellator? You know, I've just been training, man. I ain't really counted down this thing, because I know, I know top flies real fast, you know what I'm saying? So I knew that this day would come, and it's here within, like, two or three days. two more days, and three more days, and somebody's getting knocked out by the name of,

I can't pronounce it, it's called him out. I was knocking him out. I was just about to ask you, can you pronounce his name? Honestly. No. No. Have you tried? I haven't even tried to. You haven't even tried.

I never. I did once. I did once, and that's why I'm like, man, I'm a calm coastal. Make it easier. Well, to be fair to him, I believe his name is Premisla, Misaila. What do you think of that? That was miserable.

That sounds miserable. What was your reaction when you felt? Because it seemed like most people when they found out King Moe's finally making his debut against this guy that a lot of people hadn't heard of, oh, he's just a can. Oh, Belator's just trying to get more to the finals. What was your reaction? I mean, is this a legit opponent for you in your debut? He's in the tournament, you know what I'm saying?

What comes down to, who over to the tournament, it doesn't make a difference because you have to win the tournament to get to get a chance to fight for the belt. So eventually, it doesn't matter who it is, you know, it could be him, it could be Calazia. It could be Jacob Noe, or it could be a male Newton. We'll all get the fight to this somehow, some way. You know what I'm saying? So it makes no different. I said that I thought this was the King Mo versus Babelieu tournament.

That's what they were looking for. There's the storyline there. He's obviously old veteran of the sport. You know, you guys have trained together, whatnot. He loses last Thursday. Did that surprise you? Well, you know what? I knew the McAll's

science was tough because I've seen a fight before It's just that, you know He's got a collar that's been back fist While I was trying to put a push kick And things happen in the MA, man One second, man And one thing's the way from getting knocked out

So, you know, it is where it is I feel like a lot has changed for you Most since we last talked I mean there's so much So many directions I could go on But the main one I want to start with is Why aren't you training at AKA for this fight? Well, the thing is, I was in Holland.

When I came back, I just went to Vegas worker, Jeff Mayweather. And then, you know, everybody else was training. Luke was kind of hurt at the time. He was really training. I'm going to go back to AKA, but I'm going to do a little more training here in Vegas. I'm working with Jeff and Roy Nelson and other people. I'm going to go back to AKA for some cancer, something like that. So you didn't leave on bad terms?

No, I don't think I really left. I just go through more time in Vegas because I get more time with Jeff. I've got a chance to play with Roy, and then I can go back to HakeA for camps. You mentioned Jeff. Jeff, obviously, the Mayweather family, you know, we all know what they have done in boxing.

Is it different, though, you know, boxing for MMA than just straight up boxing? Does he know how to adapt to that? You know what? You know how to teach the stand-up. You know, he can't tell him still kick if he knows the right proper way. ranges for you to get his combinations off,

shows defense. He's working with Drew Cooper. It was a kickboxer. Roy Nelson, and his M.M.A. I'm Castillo. M.A. and me. And the thing is that he's like, hey, I'm not any of the other than I was to tell you. Even Roger, and even his pointe who I've worked with will tell you, hey, I'm

a soccer coach. I can't tell you M.A, but I can show you offense or show you defense. That's why I'm pretty much just picking up a little bit. Have you worked with Floyd Sr. or Roger? I worked at Floyd, year before.

Rogers, I've worked with him but I've seen him all the time with the gym. Now, will Jeff be in your

corner on Thursday? Yeah, Jeff and Mike Passenier. Jeff, Mike Hogan and Mike, Big Mike Passine from Holland

will be in my corner. Wow, of Mike's Jim, right? Yep. And you got Mike Cogan in your corner.

What's he going to tell you? About your beer? Yeah, he's a little grappling, you know what I'm saying? I'm a little grappling.

You know, he's like family to me, you know, so... Of course. You know, you know, corner can help you. You can calm me down, but when it comes down to it, it's all about what you're doing the rain. Are you nervous?

You know, I don't get nervous. I get more nervous before, you know, if you have to go out there and, like, pro-wrestlers are more nerve-wrecking to me because you don't know what to expect. M.MA, I train, I train hard, and I know what to expect, you know what to expect, you know, because pretty much I have to go out there and do what I got to do. And pro-wessler, you you kind of know what to expect, but you don't, because, you know, the reaction, the crowd, the way, if they buy it to your character, your demeanor, that's a little bit different. So, the MMA's got knocked somebody out to submit them.

It'll be exciting. And you get a pop from the crowd. Pro wrestling is a lot different. I'm happy you brought up the pro wrestling. Obviously, I want to talk to you about it. Have you done anything on TNAs since you pushed Bobby Rood there on the ramp? No, no, not yet. But in March, I'll start making my match.

start making my in-ring appearances, you know what I'm saying? So I'll be wrestling in March. But will the tournament be done by then? Yeah, the tournament should be done by next. I'm going to fight next month. That's what I win. I'm going to fight again in March. Okay, so you'll only wrestle once the tournament is over, right?

Yeah, what turns over with? Yeah. Well, my bad, maybe April was when, you know, when I'm only doing my in-rear appearances, you know. I'm going to start working with Kenny King. in Vegas, you know, in Vegas, you know, with pro wrestling and probably go to Orange County and work with Chavo.

You know, so I had to go back to OBW to get to my matches and, you know, to bring time in there, too. But if people understand how hard pro wrestling businesses, man. It's tough of your body. Thank goodness I don't be doing house shows and being in the road with these guys

because it's too much. Was it tougher than you thought it would be? Yes, I'll remember why. watching tough enough on MTV. And I was like, look at these guys. He's got a week. How is that going to hurt you? Man, that ain't enough.

I can handle that. And then my first two weeks at OBW, I was like, man, what the hell am I doing here? My back is hurting. My neck is hurting. My heels is hurting. And my right side of my body from running ropes. It was all wrong.

You know what I'm saying? So it's just weird. I had headaches just like just from taking the bumps wrong, you know what I'm saying? because he gets to be he gets to take the bulbs properly if you take them wrong, you're going to miss yourself up and I was doing it I was kind of just like trying to power through it

and acting it didn't hurt that night time I had headaches you know what I'm saying so it made me maybe like rethink should I really be doing this really? After the first week you click yeah after the first we could click and I was like okay I got to bring my chin to my chin to my chest and really focus on that and cover surface area when I land

because if you're doing it if you're doing it you do it wrong, man, your head shakes, your neck sore, your back is sore, and, you know, people, they don't understand it until they go and take a bump themselves. So you thought about quitting? I didn't, you know, not quitting, but I was like, man,

what, yeah, you know what, I had doubts. I was like, I don't know if I could do this. I really had doubt. Wow. And, and, and you still have any of those doubts? Nah, no, because I picked up, the hardest thing was taking the bumps because I was doing it while I was trying

I wasn't paying no attention and I was like I was like looking at the people in class I'm like these people in class I could do what I can't but they had a technique down I wasn't even paying attention to technique I just saw them fall down

I was like okay and I was doing it and I was like why I'm so sore and you guys are sore and then I started paying closer attention and it's all the technique see here's the thing I watched your debut or when you

you know because you know I was going to watch right they didn't let you speak Yeah, yeah. They didn't let you speak, which bothered me. And also, here's the thing. You come out in an MMA and you wear, like, you know, you wear the crown and the cape and all that. And it's cool because you're like the fighter playing the wrestler.

But I think you can't wear that on pro wrestling. I think you need a whole different look in TNA. You can't do that. You understand what I'm saying? Because now it looks like you're playing pro wrestling on a pro wrestling show. It doesn't work. You feel me on that? Yeah, yeah, but the thing is that I'm not playing a pro wrestling because I'm just being myself.

But the other guys have better costumes than that because in MMA, it's cool to wear something like that because it's so different. But in wrestling, they've got these elaborate costumes and everything. It's a lot more high budget, if you know what I'm saying? Well, some of them do, some don't. You know, it depends on who you are. If you get right back, you know, what's his costume? Right. He's a single.

Right. You know, it depends on who you are. But the guys who have the accessories is what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, the thing is that I'm still a baby in the game, and we're going to make some change. I talked to the TNA wardrobe people. We've got to put together for me. Put it this way.

Trust me. I'll be off point. Jerry Lawler. Look at his crown. You need a crown bigger than Lawlers. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Trust you. I got that.

I got that. I'm working on custom crown right now. I'm just looking out. I'm just looking out. I got you. I got to. Over how many dollars? Like 400, you know what I'm saying?

Wow. Do they pay for that? I'm probably going to pay for it. After my fight. Oh. I'm going to use my fight and my ring appearances. What are you going to be wearing? Because, you know, at the tail end of your Strike Force career,

we kind of got away from the elaborate entrances. What are we getting on Thursday? Anything cool? I don't know. We'll see because I'm hoping that, you know, you know, with the adults or ring interests, it ain't that long. Right.

I don't know. I will see. I'm going to see what I'll get there. But are you going to have, like, the girls and all that? Are we going that route? I want to do something, you know what I'm saying? I want to do something, but it just depends, man. It just depends on the interest.

Because the interest is like three or four walks. They don't point you have a girl. Right. Let's get a camera to the ring. Would that be cool? Or maybe you could come in like on a camel sitting backwards like Bobby the Brain Heenan at WrestleMania 9? Edward, I can go ahead and go to camel.

I want to have some body built, like somebody else's camera in the ring. Oh, that'd be sick. I love that idea. That's great. That's all I want to do, but, you know, we'll see what we can get, what we can do. Now, what is Thackerville, Oklahoma like? Have you ever been there? I know, obviously, you're familiar with Oklahoma through your collegiate career,

but Thackerville, Oklahoma, where is that? That's, like, southern Oklahoma, like, kind of about the textbook on the border. I'll tell you this, the casino is, like, the biggest thing I've ever seen in July. I've never seen a bigger. Really? In a nation, yeah, it's probably the biggest one in the nation I've been. What's the biggest difference being a member of Belator than Zufa? Obviously, you haven't fought for them yet, but do you notice a difference yet?

I don't know, really. It's fighting to fight to me. I'm so far, Belator has been treating me good. I don't know. I really don't know. I guess I'll find out. I know that, you know, the Belator has been treating me pretty good, so they're respectful, you know what? Everybody has different experiences, but for me, it's been good so far.

We had Eddie Alvarez on the show. You know about his situation, right? And he said there's two sides. That's unfortunate, you know what I hope they can get it worked out. I know that somebody will be mad, either either AGOA me mad or either AGOA be mad or hopefully, I don't know if they can both work something out, you know what I think. I like Eddie's a fighter. He's cool, too, and then the Belator's who I fight for.

I like them, you know what I'm saying? So somebody's going to be unhappy in this situation, but that's business. He said there's two sides to Bjorn Rebney. Have you noticed that there's two sides to him as well? I mean, everyone has multiple sides, but he was implying that what you see is not what you get. What's your relationship like with them? It ain't been that way with me. It's like this, right?

We're doing promoters. Promoters out there to promote and make money. So you're always going to see, it's like Don King. You see two sides of the one that decided, oh, he didn't give me this much money, take care of me, probably first class, and then the other one, hey, what's all money yet? So it's promoters. And all them are the same to me, and they all will offer me something, but they want something in return.

That's your talent. You know what I'm saying? And when you sign contract, that's the way it gets all tied up. to me, Bob Aram, Dana White, even Sharon that, Don King, Lou Debella, Bjorn Rebony, Scott Coker, they're all trying to make money. They're all promoters trying to make money, so you can't knock them. True, very true. Now, just a couple more things that we'll let you go.

I know you're headed to the airport now. What do you think of that rating on Thursday? That was a pretty amazing rating for their debut on Spike, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, actually, yeah, I was, I was, Very impressive, you know what I don't know, because the MMA right now, to me, it's a standstill because they've had so many shows. And it's like, it's just, they're doing too much. MMA is too much in MMA now. And to get a number like that, by T. is pretty impressive.

Do you think they get a better number on Thursday for your debut? I have no idea. I hope so. I hope the numbers keep on going on. I hope that the debut was good. Second was good. I heard the first one is the second one. It keeps on rising.

That's what my goal is. Any problems with the knee? In other words, are you the same fighter or a better fighter than we last saw you against Lorenz Larkin or have you changed it all in the last year? I think I'm better, you know what I'm saying? I went to Holland, we're here in Vegas. I feel like I'm better, you know.

I'm going to come back with the vengeance and we're going to see somebody get knocked out that don't have brown skin. You can call me Django King Moe. Don't come out hard. I mean, you know anything about this guy? Like, do you even know what to look out for with him? Yeah, I study a lot of film.

I watch a lot of film. I watch a lot of MMA, mainly on YouTube and just links. And I watch people that I don't know. Yeah, I know what to watch out for you. Left hook, throw a head kick which don't set up. Camorra, as most as the way, he was most as well as a Camorra, some type of armlock. Tough guy. He's a good grappler.

I know he spent some of the 20. He was like, you know, I think he's like 30-something. he spent his early 20 drug rehab his formal in the main training did a little bit of judo and a little bit of boxing

in his youth age trust me, dog I got you a force Lynn as my homeboy we go to work when we come to doing research on people

we get it in wow that is impressive and we saw that on the King Mo special that Aaron Spike very good except they they tried to throw that

little angle there in at OVW which you know I appreciated it but let's not Let's not think that we really have a beef there with that guy, right? Hey, you mean, who's probably when people fought for it? Yeah, that's true.

People are like, whoa, are you really mad? I was like, oh, I'm a great actor, huh? I'm pretty good at acting. I got to ask you, I've been pushing this, and I know you have a very strong take on this. I've been pushing DC versus Kane. That's the fight. That's the number one fight I want to see this year.

Who wins? D.C. versus Kane. Yeah. The fans win. A.k.a. The fans, A.K. win. But actually, A.K. wins and loses because I don't know who's in the corner of both fighters. And, you know, you get two guys for A.K.A. in the spotlight, you'll win and lose, and the fans will see a great fight.

But Daniel will come to bring it and Camel come to bring it. You know, Daniel's a beast, man. He can be hard to beat for 99.99.99. 99 of the heavyweights in the world. And if you can make 205, same thing. You know what I'm saying? He'd be hard to beat in 205. So, Danelson, he's a hard, he's a man right now. Well, your road to the 205 title in Bellator begins on Thursday. Can't wait for it. And I wanted to play you something, Mo.

I know you're about to go on the plane. This is a new chapter in your life. And I found the perfect theme song for this moment. The perfect theme song to really sort of capture what this moment means to after the year layoff, signing with a new promotion, all that stuff. And I believe we have the song right now. Do we have it, Isaac? Here it is. For King Mo, my man.

Yeah. Man on a Yeah, man on a mission. Yeah, turn it up to moat, turn it up, guys. Turn it up, right? Perfect. Yeah, right. That's what it is.

Maybe you could come out to this. I mean, it's apropos. I can't come out to that though, though. I think I was to get my state. Oh. You know what I'm saying? Oh, okay. But anyways, I thought about it at night.

I was thinking, I was like, what's that? It's the song. I was going to go back to rap as crap, but we did that already. Mo. The rap is the jam, though. It was the jam. I love that song. I can listen to it. I put the smile on my face all the time.

But this is apropos. I'm looking forward to it, man. I'm so happy to see you back. Looking forward to it this Thursday, 10 p.m. Eastern on Spike TV. King Moe makes his Bell Tour debut. He starts his journey to the Bell Tour light heavyweight title, and it all goes down on Thursday night. Good luck, King Mo. We'll be talking to you after the fight.

Can't wait for it. I appreciate it, mate. All right, there he is. The king himself. He is back. Royalty in the house. Man on a mission right there. Headed to Oklahoma, Thackerville, Oklahoma, to be exact. And as he mentioned, as he corrected me, the main event on Saturday night, excuse me, on Thursday night, got to get used to that, is the Bellator Welterweight champion Ben Ascran, funky Ben Ascran, our good pal, against Carl Psycho Amusu, and Carl joins us right here right now in the MMA.

Carl, my friend. It's all very very good, Ariel, and you're Ah, it's very well, we're doing

all the interview in French. That's perfect, Ben. I'm ready for French. I want you to test your skills anyway,

so that's perfect. All right, well, thank you very much. You're on your way to Oklahoma as well today, right? Yeah, exactly.

I'm just at the airport now. Oh, well, we appreciate you stopping by for a few minutes. Very much looking forward to this fight as well.

It is the main event. And I don't know if you know this, but Ben Ascran, not a big fan of mine. He took exception to some things I had to say about him and just said his last fight I thought was not all that exciting.

As a guy who's about to fight him, what do you think of Ben Ascran style? He's been criticized. His fights haven't been exciting. Do you find him to be an exciting fighter? Well, to me, I'm very obvious, Vince I'm going to give you, you know. He's obviously not an exciting fighter. He's a very good wrestling. He's a very good wrestle, though.

And, I mean, what he does works, I would say, work still now. And yeah, he's good at what he does. He won that with the way he was fighting. So, yeah, I'm just going to put a final point to this and make him have his first defeat. But how do you get away from that? It seems like, you know, he's fought tough guys like Douglas Lima, Jay Haran, all these guys often say the same thing.

How do you not get caught in his game? You know, I think that way more more different angles of attack than all. these guys, you know. My style is very unorthodox, and you never know what's going to happen or what's going to hit you or what's the mission I'm going to come. So I think what's the difference between these guys and myself and also have great judo skills, which make me really, really dangerous. And you shouldn't be surprised if you see Hussein being taken down by myself.

Really? You're going to turn the tables on him. Well, you know, everybody's like already saying, how are you going to depend from your back and stuff? But, man, first you have to bring me on my back and first you have to see if you're not going to be the one put on your back. But why would you even want to go there? Because obviously that's where he wants to be in some form.

He wants to be on the mat. Why would you even think about that? Because I'm strong on the ground than him. His controls are very good. I know it, but my ground game, my jihad is better than his. Wow. So I really, even if he puts me on the ground.

my back. What's going to happen to me? I'm just going to submit him. If he stands, he's going to be knocked out. What do you think of his wrestling is his MMA wrestling? Is he a strong MMA wrestler, or is he just a good or a great collegiate wrestler who knows how to control people on the ground? No, I would say he's a strong MMA wrestler because I don't say he's a strong MMA father. I say he's a strong MMA wrestler because he knows how to adapt his wrestling to MMA. So he's obviously a dangerous support. phone on because of this. But that's it. And I'm not underestimating his boxing skills and his ground because I obviously know

he has been working on it, you know. So it would be a big mistake to go into fight and think that he cannot hit me and stuff. So, yeah, I'm really for anything. Do you consider him a one-trick pony? He's only good in one area of the sport? Well, as I just say, yeah, I kind of consider him as a one-trick-pony, but I know I know what he trained in other way. So I'm also ready for... I'm fighting him like I'm going to fight the best boxer, you know, and the best racer and the best jiu-suitziger.

So I'm ready for anything, really. What do you think of his demeanor? You know, he always says, you know, I don't care about the fans. I don't care if you think it's boring. You know, the fans are going to be disappointed on Thursday. I'm going to win again my typical fashion. Is that good for the sport? Do you need guys like that in the sport?

No, of course not. I mean, you have to pay attention to the fans. Of course, the first thing is to win the fight, obviously. Because, yeah, you just have to win the fight, but you have also to think about what the fans are going to think and try to be spectacular for the fans. But apparently he doesn't care about the fans, so, yeah, that's the thing. You know, you've been in the sports seven years.

You fought all over the place, all over the world. Have you stopped and allowed yourself to think what would happen? If you knock off this undefeated fighter and Ben Asperin, you become the Bellator champion, how much your life will change? Well, you know, it's obviously the biggest goal in my life for now, and I don't think about how my life would change. I think about how I'm going to get this belt. And that's my main focus, you know. What's going to come after? We see after.

But for now, my main focus is to get the belt around my way. And I've done everything to make this happen. I've changed really hard. Now I'm ready, you know, but that's my only focus. What percentage of your training was dedicated to wrestling? I would say probably 50%. 50. Just 50. Really?

Yeah, just 50. I'm smart on everything, you know. I would be stupid to just work 100% on my wrestling and forget the rest. So what's important is you're going in an MMA phase, in an MMFI, sorry. So, yeah, my main focus, as I told you, I'm fighting. I'm going to fight the best standard fighter. I'm going to fight the best wrestler and the best Ritchie two fighter.

So I'm ready in every part of the game and believe me, I'm more than ready and what's going to be tough for us. You know, you lost your Belator debut, but since then you've won four in a row. Prior to that, you know, you'd win a couple, you'd lose, you'd win, you were kind of bouncing around. Why have you gone on this streak?

What has changed for you in the last four fights? Well, I'm not sure it was just my training. You know, I was before. before I moved to Wutherlander, I was training four times a week, you know, and I still managed to go on to reach that level with only four training the week. So because I was working at night, you know, had a difficult job, and it was not easy for me to train properly. And now I think I became way more professional,

and I just needed time to adapt myself and to adapt my skills, you know. I trained a lot on my stand-up, because I'm, My base is judo, even though everybody thinks I'm a striker. My base is judo. So I had to work a lot on my striking and adapted to MMA. And I'm just getting, just get some experience, you know. So I think now I'm an experienced. My time changed a lot.

My mentality changed a lot. And, yeah, that's what made me win in the fight. What was that job that you had at night, that tough job? I was a cop. I was a cop in France. I was an undercover cop. Wow. Undercover cop. Yeah. Wow, that's unbelievable. Are you no longer a cop now?

No, no, no. I stopped one year ago exactly now, yeah. I stopped in December 2011. How many years were you in undercover cop? Since I stopped my job, I was for four years. Wow. For four years, yeah. You said since... After I stopped, I could start to train like two times of the day.

When you spent four times a week before, so that's a big job. difference in my career. What's it like being an undercover cop? I mean, what kind of operations were you getting yourself into here? Oh, well, it was really cool, you know, we were like, especially doing things about, like, drugs and all kind of criminality, but obviously we don't, in France, we don't have the same criminality as in the U.S., so I would say it's not as dangerous, but it's not cool. I really like this.

Now, where do you spend most of your time now? Do you spend it in France or in the U.S.? No, no, I moved to the U.S. to stay with an American top team. Okay. So, yeah, for like three last month, I was in American top team in Florida, and yeah, that's where I spend the most of my time now. So you live in Florida now? Exactly, yeah.

And why do they call you psycho? Well, it's because of my change of personally when I'm outside of a fight into a fight when I go into a fight, outside I'm like really cool and nice guy, you know, and as the door of the cage closes, I'm an animal. So that's really an extreme difference between my daily personality and the moment of that fight. So that's where I'm in my name. Did they call you psycho on the police, you know, the police force as well? Were you psycho over there as well?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, even like even the guys that are arresting off and recognized. me and they called me psycho and say, yeah, I was in the last fight and stuff. So it was pretty cool. But here's the thing, you're an undercover cop. You said you were a cop. Yeah, you were a cop. Exactly.

But while you were an MMA fighter, right? Sorry? While you were an MMA fighter, you were a cop, right? Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. So maybe a guy is a fan and recognized you. Did that ever happen? Yeah, yeah, of course. But yeah, it happens like every day, every day.

So how can you be undercover? Yeah. Hey, it was hard. It was hard. It's like in France. It's not exactly the same way as in the U.S. when you're undercover, but you like, of course, you're like your normal clothes and stuff. And you're like in the patrols with three of the guys.

So, yeah, guys can sometimes tell you a cop. But they obviously all know me where I was what. Are you wearing regular clothes or are you wearing a police? Yeah, exactly, regular clothes. Like, no, regular clothes, like, MMA outfit, cap and stuff. You know, you try to be like, yeah. the most undercover. Do you miss it?

Not really. Not really, to be honest. No, I really enjoy my life now, but I'm only training and fighting, but what I wanted to do. So I really enjoyed my time at the car, but I couldn't train properly. So now I'm fully, fully professional, and that's why you've seen the difference in my fight. What's going on over in France, as far as MMA is concerned?

Why is it still illegal there? Well, the government doesn't want to allow it because they apparently say it's too dangerous balls that the punches on the... What bothers them are the punches on the ground. They say it's like not correct to hit a down opponent who cannot defend himself, but I think they never watch an MMA fight

because you can obviously tell us that the gun is back can defend himself and offer all the things and just a bit, I think, a bit late about everything. It was the same with Thai boxing, where they legalize it, like, 10, 15 years after everybody. So, yeah, it's a bit hard. So do you think it's going to change anytime soon? Will they legal – is there a movement of sort of?

I know the UFC keeps talking about wanting to go there, Czech Congo, of course, yourself. I mean, do you feel like it's going to happen anytime soon? Yeah, I think so. My bigger brother, who is my coach, too, is president of a national MMA commission, which is working hard on legalizing MMI in France. And they have often appointments with the government and stuff about it, and they work really hard to have it legalized. So hopefully it will be legalized.

Bertrand, right? I'm sorry? Your brother is Bertrand. Yeah, exactly, yeah, Berthont. Now, that's a very important position. He also fought a couple times in MMA. Was he the reason why you got into this? Oh, yeah, you know, he was my first judo teacher.

And he had an amazing career in judo. And after that, he moved to M.MA, started to teach M.M.A. And when he fought in Friday, I was it for me. I wanted to fight MMA. I was also a huge fan of Vandale-Lis Silva. And it was just at the same time. and like him and Van der Le Simbabwe were my huge inspiration to start my MMA career. Obviously, my big brother has always followed the steps of my big brother,

and he has always given me all his techniques, and yeah, I owe him a lot about him. Were you there when he fought in pride? No, no, no. I was in school. You were in school. You were just a youngster. Did you watch it live? Yeah, no, we couldn't watch it live at this time. And so I unfortunately have to wait for his calls to tell me he won the fight. Yeah, but it was cool.

Yeah, he finished his MMA career one-in-one. Why did he stop? And the last fight was the Pride fight. Obviously, he's older now, but why do he stop after that? Because of the thing what was supposed to happen is what he was supposed to win and then challenge Yoshida. Oh. because there were like two judo guys at the same level at the same time

and the thing was they wanted to make the fight happen but i don't know why the fight didn't happen and and bett was was 38 when he when he already fought in fight so so yeah it was like really really not young you know and and and yeah and then he had no no of a fight of an interesting for position, so proposal, so here to stop. Will he be there on Thursday for your fight? Yeah, definitely. He's playing, he's in the pen right now, I think, from Fess. Well, that is great. So now going back to your fight finally, when you envision it, when you think about it, how do you think you beat Ben Asgren?

I think there are two ways. It's going to be a knockout or submission, you know? And even a decision I could win. You know, I really don't see him doing anything to me, but could stop me from getting my back. It must be exciting though, right after the big rating on last Thursday night for their spike debut, there must be some excitement now, being a Belator fighter, knowing that a million or so people may be watching this fight. Yeah, that's really cool, you know. I'm really happy that I can be on such a big fan of Spike. I watched the Spike event last week, and I saw quite a few trailers and stuff where I was in. The week before, I could watch my fight too on Spike,

and I was like, wow, that's really cool. Now I'm in the U.S. I can watch it live. And that's really amazing. And it's an honor to be on a big channel at Spike and be the main event. Well, you've come a long way, Carl. You deserve it. Looking forward to the fight on Thursday. Again, 10 p.m. Eastern from Oklahoma.

Ben Ascran defends his Belator-Walterweight title against Carl's Psycho-Amosu. Carl, first time talking to you. It's a pleasure. I enjoyed it very much. much. And good chance. It was a pleasure for me too. Thank you so much. It was much.

It was much. Good. All right. There he is. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Carl Lamousseau, joining us from the airport in Florida. He heads to Thackerville, Oklahoma, this Thursday to meet Ben Ascran. Ben Ascran, Ben Ascran, 10 and O, very dominant. And here's the thing about Ben Ascran, once and for all, I saw some people saying, I mean, I really truly, I wish you can all, and of course I've played it up a little bit, but I have nothing against Ben Ascreen. In fact, I dig his style. I dig the fact that he doesn't care. I dig the fact that when he gets on the Mike, he's not trying to make fans and be fake and all that stuff. I like that. I think that's good for the

sport. If you can't beat him, it sucks for you. The only time I've ever criticized Ben Ascgren was on this show after the Douglas Lima fight when I was talking Mike Chiapetta. He was here in studio. And I said, it wasn't an exciting fight. It wasn't. The same way I think, you know, the last Knicks game was not exciting. The same way I thought some movie I just watched wasn't exciting. The same way, you know, anything cannot be exciting. This show can be boring. Anything, right? And then he was like challenging me to a fight, calling me names. Come on. If he beats Carl Amuuu in impressive fashion submits him, knocks him out, something like that. If he's, something like that, if he, he's, he beats Carl Amosu, an impressive fashion, submits him, knocks him out, something like that. he wins not like he has been winning as of late, great. I'll be the first one saying congratulations. Well done, sir. You're 10 and 0. You've come a long way.

Good job. But you cannot tell me that his last fight was exciting. Can't tell me. It wasn't. And I think deep down he would agree to that. Carl Amosu saying a lot of big things there, saying he's going to submit him, saying maybe knock him out, wrestling, grappling better, all that stuff. Very interesting.

That's Thursday on Spike. Now, in a minute, we will be tuning into the UFC 156 conference call. On this conference call will be Jose Aldo. And a lot of people say, I mean, this is an amazing card. This feels like, in a way, an old UFC, and I say old, I said, you know, two years ago, when it was a full main card, pay-per-view stacked, top-to-bottom, amazing fights. I mean, look at this, look at this card. Joseph Benavides versus Ian McCall, we may get the number one contender in the flyweight division out of that fight.

Two of the best, arguably two and three if you want to make that case at 125. John Fitch versus Damien Maya is a great Walterweight fight. John Fitch coming off the big win over Eric Silva, Damien Maya has looked very good at 170 pounds. The return of Alistair Overeem. Alistair Overeign fighting for the first time since December of 2011, his second UFC fight against Bigfoot Silva. you recall, these two have been going at it for quite some time back in the Strike Force days. Rashad Evans looking to get back on track against Antonio Hoseiro Nogera. And then in the main event, the superfight that we've been asking for for a long time. It's not a super fight in a sense

because Frank Edgar is coming down to 145. His featherweight debut against the champion, Josealdo, who we have not seen in over a year. Last time we saw Josealdo, he was knocking out Chad Mendez and running into the crowd. It's a great card, really looking forward to it, and the undercard, not bad as well. Evan Dunham versus Glycin Tebow, Haran versus Woodley, Vokman versus Green, Eve Edwards versus Isaac Valley Flag. It's nice. It's a nice card. It's Super Bowl weekend. It's in less than two weeks. There's a conference call that will be airing in a matter of moments, and the top six fighters, as well as Dana White, will be joining us on this conference call. New York Rick will let me know when it starts, and we will jump in on that.

After the conference call, we'll be joined by Carlos Condit. Tickets for UFC 158 go on sale this week, and there's that big press conference. I cannot recall a time when a pre-fight press conference, a press conference, just to essentially officially announce a fight, a card, and more importantly, from a business standpoint, announce that tickets are going on sale. I cannot remember the last time a press conference was this intriguing. Because if you recall, the reason we didn't get to see GSP, Nick Diaz, actually we didn't get to see it in the end because of GSP's injury.

But, you know, Nick Diaz didn't show up to the press conference. That was for UFC 136. And they made it Carlos Condit versus GSP. We ended up getting that sometime later this past November. Now they are bringing Nick Diaz back, going to Montreal. It's very cold over there. I hear it's going to be like minus 41 with the winchhill. Will Nick Diaz get on that flight?

I think he will. I don't think there'll be a problem. But I'm very curious to see how he handles it. I'm curious to see if he shows up, obviously, but I think he will, how he handles it, his demeanor. He got the fight he wanted, and a lot of people now don't think he deserves it. At this point, I don't have a problem with it.

I think it's a great card. All welterweights, it seems like, for the most part. And like I said, the ticket's going to be. go on sale this week for UFC 15th, March 16th in Montreal. After Carlos Condit, who will meet Roy McDonald on that card, rematch, Roy McDonald's saying a lot. Roy McDonald telling BJPenn.com last week, I just want to do to him what he did to me.

I want to make him feel the embarrassment I felt in front of his family the same way I felt. I want to hurt him the way he hurt me, and I don't want him to ever forget the time that we were going to be in there for those 15 minutes. I want him to think about that for the rest of his life. And then Carlos Condit tweeting recently, I can't believe Bryce prefers Van Padden's card to mine. I'm so embarrassed and humiliated,

embarrassed and humiliated in all caps. That a line from American Psycho. So clearly, Carlos Condit has been listening to this, He is on the Canadian Psycho Banwagon. And then after Carlos Condo, we'll be talking to Mike Goldberg, the voice of the UFC. He returns to the broadcast booth. He returns Cage Side on Saturday, UFC on Fox 6. It's actually Fox UFC Saturday.

That's what they're calling it now. They've rebranded it to Fox UFC Saturday. And on Saturday of this past week, right before UFC on Fox 7, they played the road to the Octagon. And I thought this one wasn't as good as the last one. Still intriguing. I love the fact that they were so honest about the Rampage Jackson situation. I love the fact that they told you this could very well be his last fight. They let Rampage speak on that.

They let him talk about his sort of his beefs, his quarrels with the UFC brass. I liked it. I liked that it was honest. It didn't just feel like a promotional vehicle for the card. Could it be Rampage Jackson's last fight? that's against Glover Tashara on Saturday. And of course, the main event is Demetrius Johnson versus John Dotson. Now, on Saturday, as I mentioned earlier in the show,

Michael Bisping lost to Vitor Belford. I'm sure we'll touch on this in the questions section. And again, that's at stake right there. Pride 10, Pride 10, t-shirt, courtesy of Nomaz, Sakuraba, who fought Henzel Gracie on that card, given up his back to a lovely lady. about to get the R&C.

Probably the greatest pride poster of all time, I think. One of them. They had a lot of great ones. From 2000, 13 years ago. Almost 13 years. Amazing. Anyway, that's at stake. We'll probably talk about this.

But again, if you saw the MMA beat, which we posted on Saturday, and you can still see it on the site now, I asked the question, was the UFC playing with fire by booking this fight? I still think it's a fight that didn't have to be made. It was a great fight. I enjoyed it in the moment.

Vitor looked great. His post-fight interview was incredible. You clown. You get out of here. You're a clown. Move over. It was great. I loved it.

But I don't think it needed to be made. I really don't. I don't think it needed to be made. I think people would have bought the Michael Bisping versus Anderson Silva fight after the stand win. And now you've got a situation where there's no clear-cut contender. Anderson Silva has now flown to two events to wait to see who he's fighting next and both those events waste of his time. Went to Montreal for 154, not fighting GSP, went to this

fight, not fighting Michael Bisping. And I think Vitor, if he got on the mic and called out Anderson, I think there would have been some momentum for that fight. He didn't. He called out John Jones. I don't think he's getting that fight. I love Chale on the post-fight show. And by the way, If you saw the post-fight show, is there something brewing between Dominic Cruz and Chal Sonding? Because it seemed like Dominic was trying to get under his skin. And I thought it was fun. I actually enjoyed it. Chale was kind of brushing him off, but there was some good banter there.

If you saw the post-fight show, Chale obviously had a forum to get back at Vitor saying, you know, what is he talking about? Champion versus champion. What is he a champion of? Of course, forgetting the fact that Chale has been calling himself a champion for the last two years. I gave Vitor props for calling out Chale. I didn't really see him. Actually, let me take that back. I didn't really see him calling out Chale. I saw him telling Chale to move aside because he wants John Jones. Obviously, that's not going to happen. But people were saying, oh, he's calling out Chale. Chale said I accept. I didn't really see it as a challenge. I saw him calling out John Jones there. And he probably would have gotten a lot of buzz behind him, a lot of momentum had he called out Anderson. In Brazil, remember. He's probably number two to Anderson. as far as popularity goes. It didn't happen.

He called out John Jones, and I don't think it's going to happen for him. The only fights that I think really makes sense for Vitor at this point. Can you imagine Vitor Belford versus Hector Lombard? But I made a promise to Hector on this show. I'm not going to talk about Hector Lombard against anyone except Michael Bisping. I need to get back in his good graces. So Michael Bisping, fly him out to Japan.

Hector versus Okami, tough, tough fight for Hector Lombard. But if he wins that fight, we need to get on the Hector versus Bisping Banwagon. I made him a promise. I can't break that promise. I gave him my word. And then you've got Chris Wyman, and then you've got Jacaree, and then you've got Luke Rockhold. That's it. I don't see Luke Rockhold getting a title shot off the bat.

By the way, Anderson and his people are impressed with Luke. They told me that, but I just don't see it happening. I don't think he should get it before Chris. Chris has been fighting the UFC much longer, five and own the UFC. coming off a win over Mark Munoz. If Anderson is going to fight anyone for the title at 185 at this point, it has to be Chris Wydenman.

I saw my colleague Mike Chiapeta say on MMA fight. And what's going on with this press conference, by the way? 2 and I'm talking up a storm. New Rick, what's going on? Still music. I hear the music. Geez, we're going to get two minutes of this press conference because at 220 we've got to go to Carlos Condit.

But anyway, here I go. I continue to talk. My colleague Mike Chiapeta said on M.A. over the weekend that this is the time to do the Rashad Evans fight. Are you kidding me? This is not the time to do the Rashad Evans fight. We keep complaining that these guys coming off losses and Rashad has to fight Little Nog. These guys coming off losses are getting title shots, different weight classes. I do not want to see this sport and the UFC in particular turn into boxing. I don't want to see that happen. I don't, Rashad Evans has not done anything at 185. Great 205 fighter. One of the best. Quite frankly, I still don't have him. ranked at number two. I think he's above Dan Henderson. Just because you lose to John Jones doesn't

mean you should go down. Just because the UFC books a fight doesn't mean that that guy is the number two, you know, guy in the division. So Rashad is great at 205. He's in a tough spot because I don't think people are clamoring to see him fight John Jones. I do not want to see him go down to 185 to fight Anderson. That's a great style's matchup. Don't get me wrong. But Rashon needs to go down and fight someone there. Maybe Chris Wyman, maybe Jacques-Rae, maybe Luke Rockold beat them, and then, and then I'll say, all right, let's see him fight Anderson. But I don't want to see a guy come down from two. First of all, I mean, can he make the weight at this point? I'm guessing you can, but that's a big risk for a title shot. If Anderson Silva's fighting a 185 for the belt, it has to be against Chris

Wyman at this point. Jacare needs to win at least once in the UFC. Luke Rockhold needs to win at least once in the UFC. Lombard wants Bisping. If he beats O'C., Tommy and Belfort, I don't know, doesn't sound like he wants Anderson. And can you sell that fight? I guess you can. Someone asked me on Twitter over the weekend, what's the difference between Kane getting an immediate rematch or at least winning one fight and then fighting Dos Santos after DeSanto knocked him out in a minute? Why can't Vitor get that same treatment?

He's now won a bunch of times since losing to Anderson. He got knocked out in the first round. The difference is Kane was the champion when he lost. Anderson knocked out the challenger Vitor Vitor Belfort. Let me jump in here for a second. How dare you? I've been listening, you know... To the music?

To the music, but also to you. Right. Did I hear that you had an objection with Rashad dropping down and getting an immediate title? And now, weren't you the same person who didn't have a problem with Cormier doing the same thing? No.

I don't want to see Cormier John Jones. Oh, okay. Pay attention, son. I don't want to see Cormier John. What? I've been asking for Cormier, Cain Falasquez. Where have you been? Yeah, but that's heavyweight.

Yeah, I want to see him fight a heavyweight. I don't want to see Cormier go down to 205. Why? He knocked out Bigfoot Silva. He beat Josh Barnett. He beat Dionne starring, for God's sakes. Oh, Carlscault underway. Yep.

Okay, let's go ahead. Hold on one second. You have Cone for six. Conflictal going down right now. Still reaching out to connect to Brazil for Jose Aldo. So as soon as Jose joins the call, we will let you know. But in the meantime, we have Alistair, Antonio, Rejario, Rashad, and Frankie. Let's go ahead and open.

open it up for the first question. Thank you. And to ask a question today, please signal by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are joining us on a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Once again, that is star 1 to ask a question. We'll hear first from Stephen Morocco with USA Today. Oh, I just had a real quick one for Frankie and Rashad.

Have you guys given any thought to football in the past couple weeks and you guys have any picks or is fighting number one at the moment? For me, fighting is number one, but I definitely, I don't really follow teams too, too much, but I'm hoping Ray Lewis gets a championship, man. I like him. I think he's an intense

individual, and I just like the way he plays a game. Mayor Sean? Yeah, I've watched a little bit of football. You know, Ray Lewis, he lives not too far from here, and we get some trained and sometimes the other, so I'm pulling for Ray, hoping he gets it done. And also, I've got

another friend on his name too, so I hope that the rate will get it done. Okay, thanks guys. And next we'll hear from Steve Fytel with Asbury Park Press. Hey, my question is for Frankie. Frankie, the move to Featherweight. Obviously, it hasn't been a huge drop in weight for you, but have you had any noticeable differences training to get down to that weight as opposed to when you're fighting at a lightweight?

No, actually, it's been pretty much just positive. You know, when I was at 55, I was forced to. myself to eat more and lift a little heavy and try to put on size. Now I feel it's more natural. I feel like my conditioning is better. I'm actually a little bit quicker and it's just a little less stressful. So I'm going to worry about trying to eat every two hours. So you said it's been positive.

Are you pleased? Do you wish maybe that you had made the move sooner even taking out the fact that obviously you were contending for the lightweight title previously? Yeah, no, I'm happy the way things are going. You know, I don't want to change anything. So, you know, I think it's part of the time for me. Great. Thank you.

Got it. We'll go next to Damon Martin with MMA Weekly.com. My first question is to Rashad. Obviously, Rashad, the last couple of years for you have been really rough as far as timing. You've had injuries along layoff. And again, with this set out since April, how tough has it been on your body and mind that you're kind of probably in your peak years and you haven't been able to stay very active? Well, I mean, I guess.

I guess your PQ is it kind of decided upon, you know, how well you take care of your body more than anything. But I feel pretty good. I feel pretty good. I haven't been, you know, having time off, it allowed me to just allow my body to just feel better. You know, I think sometimes that fighters, a lot of times fighters just do camps and do fights have to fight as to fight it without letting the body get a chance to heal and, you know, give myself a chance of heal. and let my body heal up is actually, I think, you know, it's going to make my career go a lot longer.

And I know your focus is absolutely on Little Nog for this fight, but I'd be, you know, bad if I didn't ask this question, you know, after the weekend, there's been a lot of attraction, a lot of attention on you possibly facing Anderson, should you get past Nogar? Is that something that's still on your radar? I know you've expressed interest in that fight before, but it seems like right now it's wide open for what's next for Anderson.

Is that still something that interests you? You know, anything's a possibility, but first thing first, the only thing that's all my mind is getting past McGarrague, you know, he's a top competitor, and I'm excited to continue against him. So that right there has been taking my focus more than anything. And a question for Alistair, obviously Alistair, the last year has been, you know, rough on you with the time off and everything you had to deal with the commissions. Were you happy to finally be able to put that behind you and really just focus on your fight

and obviously start looking at that title shot again. Very happy, very pleased to be back. Yeah, it's just a matter of time in my sense. We still have one more mountain to climb that's Bigfoot, but to be honest, I do not see any problem. And then, yeah, it's going to be an exciting day, two weeks, 12 nights from now. And you've obviously had, you know, this title fight in your mind for a while, you know, whether it was Kane or Junior, it seems like it's one step in front of you.

Does that change anything, the pressure, the expectations going into this fight, knowing, you know, obviously there's a title shot looming overhead. No, there's, you know what the thing is there's always pressure, there's always tension. I like that. That is my fuel. But, you know, every time, every fight is, you know, it's the same. You just need to get the job done. And I just believe. You know, even if the title will be free fights away, two fights away,

I just, I'm always focused on my next battle. Winning the next fight is the most important thing. Maybe for a title or not. We'll take our next question from Dave Meltzer with MMAFighting.com. Yeah, this is for Frankie. I know I don't want to have you go too far ahead of this fight, but if you're successful here, is there any thoughts about trying to be a double champion

or go back if something happens in the lightweight division because, you know, you were very competitive there. A lot of people thought you actually won the last fight. And, you know, I mean, it's the division that's, you know, deep with named talent. You know, I got a pretty big feat ahead, and I really can't even look past that because that would definitely be a mistake on my part.

But, I mean, just in general, you know, as far as my career goes, you know, titles or non-titles, I just want to fight, you know, big fights, fight with the fans want to stay, they're going to definitely challenge. What's the biggest challenge in Aldo in your mind? You know, he's just one of the most dynamic strikers we have. He's very athletic and explosive compared to maybe some of the guys that's 40-1-50-5.

You know, I mean, one of the things with him is that his takedown defense has been really impressive in his fights. I mean, is, do you think that you have an answer to that, or are you just kind of looking at the idea that that may be a difficult thing to get? I mean, yeah, I'm ready for the takdown I'm ready to have to stand with them But I'm definitely going to test the waters for the takedown I call from wrestling background There hasn't been anybody I haven't been able to take down yet

So I'm going to go out there and definitely look for these takedown Okay, cool, thanks Thanks Next is Jeffrey Harris at 411 mania.com Yes First is for Jose Have you given any thoughts To getting a car as Dana White

has been talking about recently. You'll have a car to drive now. Jeffrey Jose's not yet on the call. Okay, I'm sorry about that. First question for, Jorgeio. It's been a little while since your last fight. Are you concerned about ringwrest and all going against the former champion like with Scott Evans? Roger, he's asking, he's asking,

that, you know, it's a time since the last time that's a lot of you're

worried with a rhythm yeah I know the fight for me

so I know he's a partner champion and very technical

very good but I've been trained a lot for almost six months to be

fight you know I can a good shape I think I'm in the best

shape in my life I think I think that is a good chance, but I expect him. And next question for Alistair, is it your expectation if you win this fight, you will go on to face Kambalaska's for the heavyweight title, or do you not even want to think about that right now after what happened last year? Alistair, are you still there?

Jeffrey will come back to Alistair and reconnect you on that one. Thank you very much. Let's go ahead and take our next question from Heidi Fang from M.M.A. Fight Corner. Heidi, your line is open. Please go ahead. Thank you. Thank you for the time. Is there any chance that Alasor is back on the line right now, or is he not available?

Heidi, it looks like he fell off. Alice, are you there? We are working to reconnect him at this time. Okay. That's all right. I'll move on to us. Thank you if that's all right. I know that you've brought in Edson Barbosa to this camp.

How implemental has he been and getting your striking up to par and prepared for Albo? Yeah, this has been, you know, a huge piece of this camp, and, you know, definitely a great new teammate. I think his more ties. It doesn't get any better than that. He's a little bit bigger, too. So he's got great day taking down the fence as well. So I think, you know, him along with one of his old teammates

who can come up training with us, Marlon Marias, those two guys, you know, doing round robins with them, on a daily basis, has gotten me more than ready. Thank you. And for Bigfoot Silva, have you put any consideration into maybe getting a rematch with Kane if you should win this fight against Ballister. I'm sorry, can you repeat that again? Is there any chance that Bigfoot would want another title shot to get maybe a shot at Kane

if he can get past Ballester? I don't care about the target of. I don't care about the title shot now. I think my Fox, the only, our side over in, you know, I want to fight him. I waited for this fight for two years, and my folks 100% and Ovary. After February 2nd, I'm going to speak on Cane Velas. Thank you for the time. Just want to cut in.

We do now have on the line. Alasdharam is reconnected, and we are joined by Jose Aldo as well. Sorry for the delay. So next up, we will go to Stephen Morocco from USA Today. It's a follow-up. I thought I'd get a thoughts, Frankie, on B.T. Belford versus Chil Sahn and the fight is sort of being rumored right now. You're like the one guy who didn't have to talk his way into a new division title fight

or a title fight in a new division. What are your thoughts on fights like that, like, you know, Belford's Sonan and or Sondon getting a shot against Jones? You know, it's not our job to fight together, obviously. I mean, Cody's job and Dan and Joe Silver, everybody in the UFC. the, you know, whatever fights are going to sell, that the way that they're going to put on, you know, and people want to see these fights,

so that's what happened. If you had gone to feather when you hadn't gotten an immediate title shot, would you have campaigned for one? No, you know, when I first went down, I don't think I was a show. I mean, I wasn't expecting a... All right, so there you have it. There's the UFC 156 conference call.

not terribly exciting after I was promoting how great this card was. But there you have it. No Aldo, no Dana White. You got Frankie there. You had Alster. You had, I think you had Rashad. Yeah, you had Rashad. Little Nog, a lot of guys there.

And it goes down on pay-per-view next Saturday, February 2nd, Super Bowl weekend, Mandalay Bay Events Center. It's the Featherweight title fight that we have been waiting for. for a long time. It's interesting is this weekend, the main card fight that has been overlooked as far as the promos are concerned is Eric Koch versus Ricardo Lama's. Huge fight for Lama's fighting in his backyard of Chicago, Illinois. And in Coke, remember, I mean, this guy has had the worst luck as of late.

Last fought in September of 2011 was supposed to fight Jose Aldo at UFC 149 in Calgary in July. Aldo, yeah, Aldo got injured, and then, wait, was it Aldo who got injured? No, it was Coke that got it? No, it was Aldo that got injured. And then they rescheduled it, and then, oh, this is what happened. They rescheduled it. Coke gets injured, and then Aldo was supposed to fight Frankie Edgar, and he gets into the motorcycle accident. Long story short, Air Coke hasn't fought in over a year.

He says that the UFC has told him that he will be fighting for the time. title if he wins. But I wonder. I wonder, you know, what do you do with Korean zombie? We've been talking about him for a long time. And I think he is probably the second or third most popular featherweight in the UFC. That would be a big fight. He looked very good against Dustin Porier. Speaking of which, he just got a big fight against Cup Swanson in February.

But I wonder if they don't give the shot to Korean zombie right away. Maybe it depends on how the guy wins on Saturday. Nevertheless, it will be good to see Eric Koch and his tan on Saturday night on Fox nonetheless. Also, as I mentioned big this week, the UFC 158. Tickets go on sale, the big press conference in Montreal, in Frid Montreal. And one of the big fights on that card pits Carlos Condit versus Roy McDonald. It's the rematch, the much-anticipated rematch. And we've got the natural-born killer on the line right now on the MM hour.

Carlos, how are you? I'm doing well, Ariel. How are you? I'm doing great. Great to have you on the show. Is this the fight that you wanted next when you were thinking about what's next for you post-GSP?

Was Roy McDonnell, the guy that came to mind? You know, not right off the top of my head, but when the opportunity arose, you know, everything got kind of just fell in line and, you know, it's a great fight. I'm excited. Were you watching UFC on Fox 5 when he fought? against B.J. Penn?

Yeah, I was. What do you think of his performance? He looked really good, man. Look really good. His stand-ups come a long way. You know, he's kind of developed a lot of new weapons, and, no, he looked great. I like the way he went to the body.

I thought he really developed that very nicely. He's really turned into a much better striker than the guy you fought at UFC 115. Would you agree? Yeah, I think more versatile. He has more tools in his tool belt. What did you think of his callout? You know, Joe Rogan asked him a question about the fight. He ignored it and went straight to you.

You're sitting there watching it. What do you think of it? I kind of, I had a feeling he was going to do that. You know, I know that his loss to me, you know, wasn't sitting well with him. and, you know, I was excited, man. You know, like I said, it's a great fight. I think, you know, we're going to put on a hell of an entertaining fight. So, yeah, it was definitely, you know, what I wanted to hear.

The evolution of the Roy McDonald character, in my opinion, one of the stories of 2012 from his new attire to his demeanor, his interviews and whatnot. you've noticed this as well. I don't think I didn't notice. You're tweeting out lines from American Psycho that we talked about earlier. So you've noticed this. What do you think? Is he interesting or is he just weird? Well, I think it's a fine line, right? You know, I don't know, man. You know, he's a young guy, man. I guess, you know, I'm trying to figure out who he is. I think we all go through that. You know, I, you know, I, you know,

That's kind of, I don't know, I don't really, I don't really pay too much mind to that. You know, my concern is, you know, the guy, the fighter that I'm eating the cage. When you tweeted, I can't believe Bryce prefers Van Pan's card to mine. I'm so embarrassed and humiliated. What were you trying to say? I just kind of, a little bit of a joke, man. I'm just trying to make light, you know, he's pretty serious and, you know, with his, he's going to embarrass and humiliate and all this negativity.

I was just trying to lighten up the mood a little bit. He uses very strong, like when he talks about BJ, when he talks about you, he wants you to feel the embarrassment that he felt when you beat. He uses, when he talks, you don't just get the sense that he's hyping a fight. Like, you get the sense that he thinks about this and is in a room and has pictures of you on the wall and he really wants to annihilate you. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah.

Yeah. I felt that vibe being around him, you know, kind of over the past couple of years, too. Do you think that this is an actor? Do you think it's all legit? I think it's pretty legit, man. Yeah, I think it's genuine. Have you ever had your hands wrapped while wearing a suit? Have I ever had my hands wrapped while wearing a suit?

No, I can't say that I have. you see that when they were showing him in the locker room getting his hands wrapped and he was wearing a very nice suit at the same time? Did you notice that? No, I didn't. I missed that. Oh, well, you should go back and look at it on the tape. It was quite the moment.

Yeah, interesting. Now, how do you feel about fighting in Montreal again, second fight in a row? You know, I kind of have mixed feelings. I would have liked to have fought closer to home, you know, maybe Vegas. But, you know, I loved fighting in Montreal, you know, in no, November. The fans were awesome. You know, it was, you know, it's a great fight town. So, you know, I asked for, I asked for the fight to be in Vegas. They said that they'd rather have it in Montreal. So I got over, I got over, you know, my request being denied pretty quick and, you know, kind of moved on to, you know, how I'm going to win this. As you know, Carlos, there are times when guys, even in defeat, their stock rises. And that's the sense that I got. from you with how you handled the loss

with the performance you put on the head kick all that stuff like no one even talks about UFC 143 and how the fans kind of turned on you after that fight is that the sense that you're getting I know you're active online and whatnot for the most part do you get the sense that your stock rose in the eyes of the fans after your fight

against GSP well you know I think people people like to see exciting fights fight with me and George was was you know was exciting you know kind of had a you know showed a lot of different aspects of the game.

So, yeah, you know, I definitely got a lot of love from fans. This is the first time I talked to after that fight, at least removed, you know, not on fight night. How many times have you watched it? I've only watched it once, man. Oh, really? Only watched it, watched it once. Yeah, I watched it right when I got home.

And, you know, I'm still, I'm still disappointed. You know what I mean? I'm moving on. You know, I got, I have, you know, I'm looking forward to the future and, you know, what I have in front of me. But, you know, it's still disappointing. You know, I may, you know, in training for this fight, I'll probably go back and, you know, see, see where I could improve. But, you know, so far, I've only watched it once.

How long does it officially take for you to feel like, okay, I'm over this and I'm looking to the future? You know, how many days, weeks does that take? You know, for me, it was pretty quick. You know, there's disappointment. of course but you know i put that in the back of my mind uh... and you know that i can't i can't uh... can't change it you know all i can do is learn from it and uh... and move forward and

you don't look to you know look to come back with a vengeance how close do you think you were to finishing him with that head kick in the third uh... pretty close uh... you know he he recovered pretty quick you know it had had the hard to kick been just just a little bit lower i think uh... i would have uh... you know he would have been days more, yeah, I would have been a lot closer to a knockout. George's, you know, you've got a lot of heart. You know, people say that he has no heart, and I, you know, I disagree with that.

And, you know, you can see in that instance that, you know, he wanted to, he wanted to win. And, you know, he came back well. Main event on that card is obviously George St. Pierre versus Nick Diaz. Nick Diaz last loss to you. Did they make the right call by putting that fight together? there and not giving Johnny Hendricks the fight against GSP? Hendricks deserve the title shot without a doubt. But, you know, UFC is a business,

and the fight with GSP and Nick Diaz is going to sell a hell of a lot of paper views and get people very, very excited, you know. So, you know, I guess there's two different ways to look at it. You know, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I feel bad for, for Hendris, I think he definitely deserves the shot, but it is what it is. There's a press conference in Montreal on Wednesday to kick off ticket sales and whatnot.

GSP and Nick have to be there. You're obviously linked to this story. Do you think Nick shows up? You never know, man. You never know. I think you will. I think he will. I think his people will go out of their way, go above and beyond to get him on the plane.

You fought them both? Who do you think wins? I'm going to go with George. You know, George, you know, when he fought me, he was coming off a long layoff. I think he's probably going to be sharper in his next fight. So I got GSP, but, you know, I wouldn't count Diaz out. He's got some, you know, he's just a very unorthodox style. And, you know, he may be able to use that to his advantage and, you know, pull it off, pull off the upset.

Final thing, I know a training camp just started. I saw on your Facebook. you got some great pictures up there, and I saw a lot of people commenting on your weight, your face and whatnot. How much do you weigh right now? Unbelievable. I didn't read any of those comments.

Oh, they call me fat or what? A little bit. They were saying, wow, they were worried you weren't going to make weight in the fights in the two and a half months. Yeah, well, having the holidays right after the hard weight cut, maybe isn't the best idea. But, you know, I'm only probably way around one, 190, just about

190. Final thing, how do you beat Roy McDonald on the 16th of March? I got I gotta be better than I was in the last fight and, you know, I he's coming in this fight with a lot of emotion, a lot

of anger and I really feel like I'm going to be able to use that to my advantage. Very interesting. I'm sure we'll talk to you before then. Great to talk to you as always, Carlos. Good luck in training, and we'll see you in Montreal in March. All right, man, take it easy. There he is. The natural born killer himself, Carlos Condit, going up against Rory McDonald.

As I mentioned, tickets go on sale this week, January 26th to the general public, between $600 and $85. I think that one sells out in Montreal. I think GSP versus Diaz, as he mentioned, is a huge fight for that market. I think have promoted correctly. If I think the Benson-Henderson versus Nate Diaz fight hurts it a little bit because Benson beat Nate so convincingly. Obviously, they're different fighters. I don't sense right now, and I know we're a ways away, and there's like still seven or so UFCs between now and then. I don't get the sense that the fans are as apt for it, but I think starting with Wednesday,

with the press conference, which I expect Nick to show up to and beyond, I think fans will get very excited. I love what Carlos said about the emotion that Rory has been showing as of late. Rory doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who uses that against him, who allows himself to fall into that kind of trap, but there's no doubt about it. This is a very personal fight for Roy McDonald, not as personal for Carlos Condit. Carlos Condit beat him.

He snatched a victory away from Royne McDonald back at UFC 115. Roy was a completely different person, different look, different demeanor, fighting, you know, still in his hometown, or at least his home province of British Columbia has since moved to Montreal, and now he is a completely different person. It's a great card. Johnny Hendricks is also on the card going up against Jake Ellenberger,

Jordan Meyen making his UFC debut on that card. Nick Ring versus Chris Komosey, Patrick Cotei versus Bobby Volker, Dan Miller, Jordan Meyen. Sean Pearson, Rick Story, a very underrated fight in John McDessie versus Darren Cruikshank. That should be a clinic as far as striking is concerned. Watch out for the kicks there. And Eve Jebouin versus Johnny Eduardo, that has been announced thus far for UFC 158. And most importantly, I get to go back home. And that's very exciting for me always.

Let me just let the people know. In a minute, we will be joined by the voice of the UFC, the longtime voice of the UFC Mike Goldberg. He was not calling the action at UFC 155. A lot of people wondering where he was, how he's feeling. and he will be back in the broadcast booth, Cajside, with his longtime partner Joe Rogan this Saturday for Fox UFC Saturday in Chicago at the United Center, home of the Blackhawks and Bulls.

And we wanted to get Mike Goldberg on the line to find out how he's feeling, where he's been. A lot of stories, a lot of talk about that. And then following the Mike Goldberg interview, we will take questions, comments, and find out how Rick did in. in week one of the Rick's Picks Challenge. Before that, though, we welcome in our next guest. Honor to be joined, as I mentioned, by the voice of the UFC, a man who had a very busy weekend coaching hockey,

and I'm sure he is very happy that the NHL is back, Mike Goldberg himself. Mike, how are you? I'm good, my friend. How are you? I'm doing great. How happy are you that the NHL is back? And how many hours did you watch this past weekend?

You know what? I watched pretty much every game I could, and I saw a game live last night with my 12-year-old son, and you know that I love coaching his team. We actually were in a tournament all weekend. Oh. Ariel. And so we lost in a championship, and I was very encouraging.

Probably doesn't surprise you to know I'm pretty vocal on the bench. So we had a blast, and I, my son went to the coyote's home opener last night against the Chicago Black Hawks. Hawks win, as Pat Foy would say, Hawks win. Six-four. We had a blast, though, emailed and text a couple of my buddies in the league. And, yeah, my son and I'll be watching. in NHL tonight, this evening, as we do every night and every morning, now the hockey's back.

By the way, I know 0.01% of our audience cares about this, but just curious, because this stuff interests me, like for youth hockey in Arizona, that's where you live. I mean, how big is it? For your son and just like the sort of system there, I mean, is it a big deal there? It really is. And what I've always said, because you have so many transplants, of course. I mean, I grew up in Ohio. My wife's Canadian.

and you could use that example throughout the valley. We have very good hockey. We just don't have as much as they do in Massachusetts or in Michigan or obviously in Minnesota. But what we have is very good. We had a great championship game this morning against a team from San Diego. We're a AAA team ranked in about the 40s, and the team we played from San Diego is ranked in the top 10 in the AA rankings. So here you have two very non-traditional hockey.

market, i.e. all the problems with the coyotes the last few years with attendance, but it was actually a very well-played hockey game. It was a lot of fun to participate in. And I love the people who are interested in that, because we do have a lot of hockey fans who also love the UFC and mixed martial arts. It's good. It's good. It's just not as deep as maybe where I grew up in Ohio. But our kids take it very seriously as do as coaches. Well, let's move along now. Obviously, the UFC returns to Fox on Saturday. It's Fox. UFC Saturday, and that also means the return of Mike Goldberg on our TV screens. And this has been a big story over the last six or so weeks.

A lot of people wondering where you were at UFC 155. More importantly, wondering how you're feeling, wrote the story on it, but obviously it's always good to hear from the man himself, find out how you're feeling. Take us back. Why weren't you able to call UFC 155 last month in Las Vegas? Well, as has been told properly, and thank you for taking you for taking the time to actually go to the sources that knew exactly what was going on, Ariel.

I ended up coming home from Brazil back in October with a virus, an upper respiratory infection, ended up hospitalized a couple of times for it just because they were making sure that we could get my lungs open. And just the complications of trying on asthmatic, I have been since high school, the complications with trying to get the proper medicines in my body so I could get rid of this virus from Brazil, by the way, not the first guy to come back from, you know, Brazil not feeling 100%. And it just kind of spiraled. To put it simply, it was the perfect storm. And what ended up happening is my immune system was never really able to get back in balance aerial.

And then complications came. My voice started to go. and I just wasn't able to get the pre-production done, and I wasn't able to voice it 100% UFC 155. Thus, I missed my first live show that I did not have a scheduled conflict for since I took on the job as the UFC Play-by-Played Commentator back in 1997. And no one, trust me, no one was more disappointed in me. And you were, despite the fact that your voice was shot and all that,

you weren't feeling well, for the record, as you told me, ready and willing to take the job if need be, right? Oh, absolutely. I was kicking and screaming, you know. As you well know, you do live television like you do. You know, there really doesn't matter what's going on. It's show night. So you perform if you're at 100%, like the coaches, like, say, 120% or you're at 80 or 70%

throughout my broadcast career, you know, 25 years plus. You played hurt before. I've had, you know, throat infections, chest infections. I've had a head cold during the 800 games or so. I called in the NHL and during the 200 UFCs or so that I've done since 1997. So, yeah, I'm a prideful guy. I consider myself, you know, a fighter as far as my broadcast spot. I wanted to be in my seat for UFC 155.

Thus, it broke my heart. I wasn't able to do so. But, yeah, I was kicking and streaming because I wanted to call the fight. I wanted to call the rematch. I wanted to be there for a big show, just like every big show in which I want to be able to be on my headset next to my partner Joe. And then obviously, you know, this comes out, you know, the reports you're ill and whatnot. It's obviously a big story because you are that much a part of the show.

But then in the days after, it snowballs into, you know, Mike Goldberg has this kind of drug issue. Mike Goldberg is here. He's there. I mean, I'm getting the hate for writing the article that I did. I know you are because I'm reading your Twitter and whatnot. Where did this come from? It came from one very irresponsible.

gossip website. No more, no less. And unfortunately, as you well know to, Ariel, and all of your listeners know, this is the society that we live in today. Everybody's got a Twitter. Everybody pays their 500 bucks to get a website, and all of a sudden, they're a reliable source. And some reliable source said things that were not true about me. And what disappointed me is how many reliable sources, not yourself, you know, not a Kevin Ioli, not guys who actually consider themselves and act like journalists, how many renegade websites, and then legit websites, just went with this gossip sites source and assumed the worst instead of checking their sources, which they teach you in journalism 101 and make sure that the story is true.

And, you know, it was disappointing, it was hurtful. but yet the outpour of support on Twitter by the majority of the people on social media was, it was very heartfelt and it was very appreciated. But people like to see, people like to see, people fail, people like gossip, people like to think the worst, and unfortunately that's the society that we live in when people hide behind keyboards and form opinions that aren't true. Do you have a drug problem, Mike? I absolutely do not.

Was this damaging to your reputation, to your brand? I mean, I can't imagine it not being, but how did your, you know, the people around you, your friends, your employers, the fellow fighters, I mean, how do people react to this news, these reports, if you will? They absolutely reacted the way I hope they would, and that is they asked to find the truth. And the truth is that I never have had a drug problem. I do not have a drug problem. I've never had any type of abuse.

I've never even had any problems with any kind of dirt throughout my career. You've never seen an article written on me prior to this one that was erroneous. They supported me because they wanted to find out the truth. And those are the people in life that you want to surround yourself with, Ariel. And that's what I appreciate is the people who did the due diligence to check with the real sources. Not me. I don't expect people to believe me, but check with the doctors. and those people who were caring for me,

and the people who did that found out exactly what it was, an upper respiratory infection that spiraled into the perfect storm and ended up, you know, making me well less than 100% and unable to do UFC for 55. No more, no one. How close to 100% are you now, other than losing your voice coaching your son this weekend? You know, like they say in sports, I'm at 110,

minus about 15 because we lost this morning. I was a little bummed about that. But I'm an energetic coach. I always wear the white hat. I'm the good cop on the bench. So I'm yelling at the voice board check, dump it in, dump it in. Take away this weekend of hockey, and I feel great. I feel back to myself and more so the rest, not only being, not so much missing UFC 155,

but the fact that we were in, we were in a four shows and six-week kind of swing anyway, including trips to Montreal, including trips all the way to Brazil and back. We had a busy scheduler with Joe and Mai doing so many shows on top of each other. Kind of, you know, it kind of went back to where we were before when we were doing 26, 27 shows a year. I feel great. My immunity system is back. My immune system, pardon me, is back in check. And I feel ready to go, and I'm excited to do the UFC on Fox.

I love the Fox cards because they're new. They're exciting. And you have a title on the line. You got Rampage in the Octagon at the United Center in Chicago. I don't know what to do it. And we will get to that in a second. One last thing on all of this. Will you do anything to, you know, the one site, the many sites that reported, this negative

stuff about you, this wrong information, or are you just going to let it slide? I don't know that I'll let it slide. I'm going to let the people who represent me determine the course of action. But I feel that it is my obligation to protect others who would be attacked erroneously. And I take that very seriously. and so it's not so much about me. It's about the statement that was made that just because you have a website, you can try to say things about people that are false and put them in the situation.

They put me in. I don't want to see that happen to somebody else. So trust me when I say that the people around me will determine the course of action, but I'm not just going to stand on the sidelines and let this happen. And just curious, do you have to take, like, are you 100% in the clear as far as your infection goes? You still have to be on. I've never had something like that, and I know you're asthmatic. So, like, how has your life changed since then?

Or is it just something you have to take, and now you're okay? Yeah, actually, I'm back. I'm back to my normal protocol. Okay. Cimbicoranthaler and singular. Anybody who has asthma knows, that's what we all take. The one thing unfortunate with asthma is in the last 50 years. I don't really know if they found something different, my friend.

Right. It's the same, you know, bronchial dilators. and I'm back to the exact protocol that I've had pretty much since high school, which in this case is it good. You mentioned UFC on Fox. It's this Saturday. You mentioned they're always special, and they still feel very special. It's only the sixth one, and I think they figured out the formula

what kind of cart to put on Fox. From a broadcasting perspective, I'm always interested in this kind of thing, and my job's different than yours. Is it different as far as pre-production, as far as the meetings, as far as what's going on in your head? Is it different when it's a Fox show or is it the same kind of show as if you're calling UFC 152? For me, it's different in the pre-production modes because, as you know, it's a different format. But once the headset goes on, other than kind of coming on camera before every fight with a throw from Kurt and Randy and Brian,

Joe and my job is the same on Fox, and that is to call the fights. And really with the format, yourself included, that we have on Fox, Ariel, the shows are less cumbersome because we have the support of the desk and the studio. And we have other guys breaking it down and analyzing as opposed to a pay-per-view, where once we're on pay-per-view, Joe and I pretty much have the ball and we run with it for the better part of, you know, three to four hours, depending on how long the fights are going in our broadcast window. So it is the same job, but format-wise, the way I do my sponsorship elements, the way I do my cards and my leads, they are different just because the format is different. But at the end of the day, Joe and I take two guys walking through the gate, and we talk about what happens in the Octagon. So that is very much the same as it's been since Ultimate Japan.

Are you the kind of guy who, when he's watching another Mayfight, a boxing match on HBO or Showtime, a hockey, e-game on any kind of channel, NBA, NFL, et cetera. Are you studying? Are you dissecting? Are you thinking about the announcers more so than the actual action? I have always, always watched TV like that. Even before I started to be able to do play-by-play, once I was interested in this business,

I never watched TV the same again. Absolutely 100%. That's the way I look at it. I know more who the announcers are on the game than sometimes the quarterback. I really do. Wow. And I'm the guy who looks at the USA Today and we see the matchups, and I want to know not so much who's playing, who's not playing, who might be injured.

I want to know who's announcing the game. And so absolutely 100%. I'm always listening to the announcers. I'm always seeing how the format is. I'm checking out how they handle replays, how they interact with each other. I watch the game as a broadcaster 100% of the time, which is fun for me because that truly is my passion. So if it's Mike Emrick and Eddie Old Check, or if it's Dave Strader and Darren Pang,

that's what I'm thinking about when I'm watching an NHL game. If it's the NFL on Fox, am I watching Joe Buck and Troy Aitman? Am I watching Moose and Kenny Albert? That is not so much if it's going to be the Cardinals and the Seahawks. Is it Dick Stockton today? What game is Dick doing? What sport is he doing it? Is it Tommy Brennam, the son of my hero, Marty Brennam,

the longtime voice of the Cincinnati. At this point, you're closing in on 50, right? So you've been doing this a long time, and I'm wondering, do you still feel like you take things away from these guys? Like, I feel like I do it now all the time. I mean, oh, he does it this way, he speaks this way, he does this, this way. Do you still do that, or at this point, you feel like you are who you are, you have your style, and you haven't changed for a while?

No, absolutely not. I absolutely agree with what you said first. You can get better every day, and the old saying in life is the minute you stop moving forward, you start moving backwards. So trust me when I tell you that every time I watch any type of broadcast, I try to learn something. And I remember when I was younger, Bob Costas was a guy I really looked up to, and also Gary Thorne, because I try to emulate kind of that excitement

that try to have that big voice and make people that aren't paying attention on the other side of the room, hear that, hear that excitement in my voice and go, well, I need to run to the TV right now. Something big is happening. That's the way I broadcast. the UFC. That's the way I called hockey games. Every other play-by-play I did, including, you know, if it's Arizona Cardinals, preseason football, if it's NFL Europe, whatever it is, those are the men I emulate, and I continue to do that every day. And as you see younger broadcasters come in,

yeah, you can learn from these kids because they're doing things differently, and you have to continue to evolve every day in life. And that is absolutely the way I approach it. It's not one of those, oh, I got it and I'm really good. I've done this much. When you start standing still, other people pass you. What do you think of John Anick? He's outstanding. He's educated. He's, he's classy, he's very polite, he's very respectful of me, and he's done his homework. He continues to do his homework. And what I like most about John Anick is that he gets better every show. And he is an example of what you just said. You can tell that he's a student of the game, and not just the MMA game. He's a student of the broadcast game. And because of that, you see John improve

and get more comfortable every time he puts on the headset. I'm a big fan of John Anicks, because John Anick reminds me and myself. You just pointed out I'm almost 50. I guess it was a couple of decades ago, but John reminds me and myself. And I hope that John would take that as a cop. You know, one of the big sort of talking points in MMA these days is how guys are talking to get title shots. You know, we saw what happened with Chil Sunnan and John Jones, Vitor Belford, trying to push Chil Sunnan out of the way this weekend in a post-fight interview with John.

Annette. Where does a long-time broadcaster of this sport, a guy who has seen this sport evolve a couple times since you started way back when? Where do you fall in this discussion? I mean, are you okay with guys going out there and trying to play matchmaker, or would you rather see less of that?

I love it. I love it. And you know what it goes back to? It goes back to George St. Pierre on his knees. Yeah. I want that title shot. Please, please. Dana, I want to fight for the belt. It goes on the way back to George, you know what it tells me?

These guys want to be in the biggest spotlight. They want to fight the best in the world, and they want to do it as soon as possible. I absolutely love it. I mean, Jail Sunnan has positioned himself to be in big fights and have the potential of his dream coming through, a dream that he promised his father, you know, when he was a wrestler, that he promised his father who no longer is with us, that he will be a world champion. I got news for you. Guys who want to fight the best in the world and be in the big fight.

fights. I love those kind of people because they're not hiding, they're not hiding on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to do it for them. We know the big guys. We know the big names. It's obvious that you love calling fights like John Jones and Rashad Evans, things like that. Is there a name who may be climbing the ranks, a younger guy who you're like, this is a guy that, you know, I feel privileged to be able to call his fights and sort of see him climb the ladder, so to speak. And I want to be there when he's fighting for the title. Is there a guy or two that you really look at as far as The new generation is concerned.

They really get too excited when you see the vouching. You're like, wow, he's on the card tonight. I had a feeling. I had a feeling you would say that. Yep, absolutely. And keep in mind that my wife is from British Columbia. Right, right. She grew up a couple hours away from Colonna,

where Rory was born and raised. My wife's from Christina Lake, British Columbia. And you had the story of this 19-year-old kid, kind of being the first guy to train in all facets of mixed martial arts since day one, those are the kind of guys that I root for. And when I see him have great fights with Carlos Kahn, the seconds away from actually remaining unbeaten in the Octagon and defeating Carlos, and now the rematch is forthcoming, those are the kind of stories that I enjoy to watch.

And it's the new breed of kids, and they are kids, by the way, that come into this sport as mixed martial artists since day one. Mike Ritchie, you know, his good friend is another example of that. You know, a wrestler at heart, but since we've really got down to, you know, to the nitty-gritty, he's been training in all the facets of mixed martial arts. Michael McDonald, some of these young guns, I absolutely enjoy watching them progress. And a kid who I really love to watch fight who just had a big win, you know, a couple of nights ago, is Edson Barbosa.

And if you ask me what was the greatest knockout that I've had the privilege of calling, you know, it was the wheel kick edge and Barbosa, Terry. That was sick. And I remember it vividly. Every time I think about it, I can see Terry going down. The kids got world champion written all over him. He's just in there with a lot of people who have world champion written all over there. But Royne McDonald would be the example of what you spoke of.

How hard is it to call a flyweight fight? You know, you got one in the main event this weekend. How do you call that action? How do you do it? You know what? You got to slow down because they're going fast. You can't try to call every punch because your voice will be gone, you know, early in the round. It's a different tempo, that's for sure.

It's a different temple. But it is in that regard. But it also makes me think about the first time Frankie Edgar was in there against B.J. Pat, all of a sudden, Frankie's footwork was so superior, his speed and his athleticism, that B.J, this legend of the Octagon, and he is one and a future Hall of Famer, he couldn't find Frankie. So it's the same as when Frankie and others like him kind of burst on the scene.

I think Frankie, you know, not to have people have a chance to make fun again, but Frankie was a bit of a changing regard when he first came on. He was able to defeat BJ Penn and shock the world and then go and do it again. The flying weights are just an example of everything. The speed, the athleticism, their technical fighting is oftentimes, much more brilliant than the guys who depend on their strength and their pure size, as you will see different matchups as you get to the heavier weights. I equated to the guys who have to be perfect in everything.

Their precision needs to be precise. They're dealing with clones of themselves. Two last quick things before we let you go, and you actually just alluded to one of my last questions, and we appreciate the time very much. You know, the criticism, the changing of the card, the precision needs to be. precise, all that stuff that you get.

It seems like, and I'm learning this, I mean, you're able to laugh about it, clearly, on Twitter I see the way you handle it. Was that something that you had to teach yourself, or were you always like that? No, I had to teach myself. Trust me. I definitely had to teach myself, and I still have to

because it goes back to what we were talking about before, is that some people do it in a fun way, and I poke fun at myself. If I didn't love and respect B.J. Penn so much, I could have said that Roy McDonald did turn the prodigy into a prodigy. I could have said that.

But I laughed when I said it, because I'm a human being. And that's what all of this has made me chuckle and sit back at all these things that were written and said. I'm a human being who loves what I do. And it's amazing. I had a sick day in the world wants to think that, you know, oh, my gosh, all these in huge trouble. Yeah, I'm able to laugh at myself because it's fun.

It's funny. I see some of these videos, and I go, that was well done. That was well played. It makes me chuckle. So, yeah, I'm able to laugh at it because I've done this a long time, and there's an old saying in life to consider the source, right? Right. Final thing, and we look ahead to Saturday night.

Will Saturday night be the last fight in the UFC for Rampage Jackson? I believe it will be. I really do. And that bums me out. That bums me out. And, of course, that's a bigger Dana-Lorenzo, Rampage, and his management issue. I have this gut.

It might be. That said, if Rampage comes in and he's able to, you know, throw up a highlight, real knockout finish of really a dude who has champion written all over him and Glover to Shira, does Rampage get hungry again and want another chance at John Jones or Chale Sunnan or whoever changes the guard by the time he would be back in, you know, the top contender spot, he might get hungry for that belt again. He might have the chain eye on my belt back. And I would love that because there are many guys that I love to watch fight, but there's a handful that I just know something brilliant is going to happen or has the potential of happening when they walk in the Octagon, and Quentin Rampage Jackson is definitely one of those guys. Mike, not only am I happy that you're returning to the broadcast booth, as I call it,

Cage site on Saturday. More importantly, happy to hear you're okay, happy to hear you're feeling better, happy to hear those respiratory issues are behind you. Thank you so much for the time. We'll see you in Chicago. Good luck on Saturday calling that action. I will see you in Chicago, and thank you for having the integrity of being a true journalist in this day and age. It does not go unnoticed, not just by me, but by the hundreds of thousands of fans you have.

You should be very proud of yourself as well, thank you. That means a lot. Thank you, Mike. Hey, bud. There he is. Mike Goldberg, the voice of the UFC returning to action, returning to call the action, I should say, on Saturday, Fox UFC, Saturday. that's what they're calling it. Chicago, Illinois, United Center,

John Dotson versus Demetrius Johnson for the flyway title. Rampage Jackson versus Glover Tashara. Donald Cowboy Soroni versus Anthony Pettis and Air Coke versus Ricardo Lamas. That's the main card. The undercard kicks off at 5 p.m. Eastern on FX.

There's a Facebook fight as well. Josh Janicek just reported by the UFC out. Now Michael Kiper has, I think, lost three opponents, so he's not fighting on the card. There are 11 cards, 11 fights, excuse me, on the card on Saturday, January 26th. Now, we look ahead and we appreciate the time very much from Mike. Last week, we announced Rick's Picks Challenge. Again, to recap, I gave New York Rick $100, $100, $100 fake dollars, to prove that he is, in fact, an expert better,

an expert predictor, prognosticator, if you will. And I told them that by April 27th or April 28th, after UFC 159, John Jones versus Chal's son, and he has to turn that $100 into $400. The challenge began with UFC on FX7 last weekend, or this past weekend, I should say. We welcome in New York, Rick, now. How did you do, sir? I lost $1.74. Total.

Okay, now here's the thing. And by the way, I think it would hear a bit of an echo there when you speak. I don't know if it's just in my headphones. You lost a dollar and what? $74. A dollar and $74. How much did you put on the line? How much did you actually bet going into it?

I believe it was $31. How did you lose $1.74? Explain it to us. I'll break it down for you. Okay. I put $10 on Bisbing. That was my loss for the night. I went three and one.

Bizbing was my loss for the night. I lost $10 on that. I bet $7 on Nirmagamadov. What? Okay. Anyway. What? Nirmagamadeov.

Nirmagamadov. Or Habib. On Habib. And got $3.78. So I won that one. Then I had Uri Alcantra and Barbosa parlayed. Now, what happened was, was Alcantra got, not disqualified,

there was a no contest in that fight. Right. So what happens is in that parley, it becomes only a bet on Barbosa. I don't get any action, nor do I lose any action on Alcantra. So essentially, I bet $7 on Barbosa to get $2.33.

Right. And I also had Alcantra in another parlay with Honi Marks. So similarly, I get the straight action on Marks, which is $7 to win $2.15. So that didn't quite match the $10 that I bet on Bisbing, which I lost, those three bets, so I lost $1.74.

So my question to you is, why you have to turn $100 into $400, right? Yep. Why are you making bets that are going to give you back $2, $3? How are you going to get that $400? Here's the reason that that's happening and the reason that $400 is a very unrealistic expectation for actual bets.

For 10 fights, 10 fight cards. Let's say 10 fights times, let's say there's 10 fights on the card, even though there's usually more 100 fights. Well, you're not going to bet on every fight. Well, you can. Of course you can, but my goal isn't to bet on every fight. Your goal is to continue making Rick's picks. Right.

You have to rise to the occasion. Sure. But I'm going to bet on, for example, the only bet that I actually made here that was a winning bet was Nirmagamadov or Nirmagamadov. There you go. However you want to pronounce it, however it's supposed to be pronounced, which was $7 to make $378. The other ones were going to pay more, but didn't. So the only one that we can actually analyze that was a winning bet was that one. The reason you want to keep it at a realistic number, for example, if I'm betting $10 on Bisbing, that's 10% of all the money I have to work with over the course of this entire time, 10% of that.

That's a very large amount to bet under normal circumstances. The reason I made it is because there's pressure to make the 400. Normally, you want to bet like one or two percent. But that's the challenge, right? Right. This is not normal circumstances. Well, you're asking me why I'm betting so low. But in actuality, I'm not betting low at all.

Those are actually very high value bets. Really? What do I know about betting? To me, when you say I'm making a bet and I stand to gain $2.31. But that wasn't the original bet. I would have gotten $4 or $5 out of that one if, you know, he was rightful, if Alconra was rightfully awarded that win, I would have made about four or five out of that one. So let's say, is it because you didn't like the card?

Oh, no, this is a very bad, this was a very bad card for betting. That explains it. That's what you should have said at the top. Well, you're going to see similar numbers. Like, I'm not going to bet $50 on anybody. That's just lunacy. It doesn't make sense. Why not?

Because if I lose that bet, number one, the first thing you have to know about betting, this goes for everything, is you have to be willing to lose. Sure. I'm not willing to lose $50 on one fight. But isn't that fun? I mean, people do it all the time. Sure, it's fun. You're the guy who goes to Vegas to bet $5 on a fight? Oh, here's my $5 bill.

I can't wait. No, because my bankroll isn't $100 if I'm going to bet on a fight. In this case, my bankroll is very low. My bankroll is $100. I can't bet half of that with the risk of losing. And then when I lose, what am I left with? I'm left with $50 to do what with? So then the reason the bets are so low in your eyes,

but they're actually not, is because the bank roll is so low. Let's say I had $100,000, then the number would be... Right. You just add zeros. Yeah, you would add zeros to it. Is it embarrassing for Ricks Picks Challenge when we go to your Twitter, which, by the way, has been growing exponentially since this was announced?

And I feel like I deserve some of that credit. Is it embarrassing when I go to Rick's Picks, New York, Rick, Twitter.com slash New York, Rick, and I see $3 on this guy, $7. I mean, I want to get my juices for it. I want to be like, yeah, ride, baby, ride. We can add zeros to it if that's what makes you happy. I mean, it's not going to change the percentage of the bet.

All it's going to do is change from, okay, so my bank roll is $100,000 instead of $100, and then my bet would be, I mean, my winnings would be, 20,000 instead of $2. All you're doing is adding zero. It doesn't change percentages. It's kind of like the price is right when they try to get it to a dollar. Like, why are they doing it 85 cents?

Why don't I make it $85? Exactly. You know, it's the same thing. It's the same thing. Listen, I give you credit for not succumbing to the pressure. People, I'm sure there are people who made fun of those picks because at first glance, I thought they were silly as well. No, I mean, you know, my goal is to make, for this card, my goal was to make a little bit of money.

The most I was going to make was, I believe, $22 or $23. risking 50. So this wasn't one of them that I was looking for any home runs or anything like that because I didn't like this card for betting. The upcoming cards, there are going to be more that I'm going to be putting more dollars down. But this one, my goal was to kind of squeak out some money. $22. I think I was, that was the maximum I was going to be able to make.

And I think that rightfully I could have won $3 or $4 if the Alcandra decision was Which was complete nonsense. A horrible night for Dan Merglietta. Dana White highlighted that on Twitter. I mean... And this is a reason why you don't bet $50 of your 100. If something like this happens, you've just lost half your money for no reason. You know what I mean?

Let's say I had put $50 on Alcantra and a parlay with somebody else. It's an unnecessary risk. You know it's got to suck, and I never really think about this, but those crappy decisions when you see crazy... And if you have money on those fights, holy moly, you probably want to shoot your brains. it's terrible. It's a feeling of oh, you won so much money and then instantaneously it's taken away from you. Do you think

that's why people don't bet on MMA as much as other sports? Yeah, it has risks like that. I feel like the odds makers haven't quite figured it out just yet. You watch a basketball game and it's like minus two and a half and it ends up being like a three-point game or a two-point game. I think that they've gotten

a lot better and I think that they're pretty close these days. I think that currently the situation is is pretty good. But you also have to remember that they're not predicting who's going to win. They're predicting the most money they can get on both sides of the line. Meaning, you know, if a guy is a fan favorite, that influences the line, and that'll change the number. They're trying to maximize people betting on both fighters, not predict who's going to win.

You always have to remember that when taking into account betting. All right. So right now you have what, $98 in something? Yeah, $98.25. Okay, you have 98, 24. 26. 26. You went 3 and 1.

Murgliata screwed you a little bit. Yep. And this weekend, great thing. You can rebound. We've got UFC on Fox 6. Now, you told me before the show that you are reserving the right to wait till an hour after the way-ins. That's the rule that we sit in to make your official picks, right? Just like last time, I wanted to wait until I saw weigh-ins to make official picks.

but I did make my picks before weigh-ins. I just wanted to make sure everything went smoothly and according to what I expected and then locked in those picks. I made those picks the night before, tweeted them out, and then whatever I saw at weigh-ins, reconfirmed what I thought,

and I just went with those same picks. All right, so on Monday, and he will be tweeting his official picks at Twitter.com slash New York, Rick, and now we're after the way-ins on Friday. On Monday, who are we thinking about? And you can do whatever you want. You don't even have to talk about the main card, you know, because you picked Alcantra, you picked Honey Marks.

Yep. Who are we leaning towards based on what's out there as far as odds? Okay. How about we just go fight by fight? Okay. You want to do the whole card? What are you trying to monopolize the show? The ones that have odds out, we'll talk about those first and then anything that I might be thinking about.

So we'll start with the main event. We'll start with Johnson and Dodson. Yes. Johnson is currently minus 225. He's the favorite, and Dodson is plus 185. I'm leaning toward Dodson right now. We're looking to make some money here. I think that it's a very close fight,

and I think that Demetrius is the slight favorite in my mind. I think that he will probably win, but I think that at 185, Dodson has some value. I think that he might be able to stuff Demetrius and knock him out even. I'm just, I think that Dodson's skill set and his talent is almost unmatched at those lower weight classes.

The way he can keep the speed that the other guys in his division have, but also have the power as he's displayed. I think that if he can stuff Johnson, and remember he has to do this for five rounds, if he can stuff Johnson and land one on the chin, I think he has a good shot here. So I think that even though I might lean toward Johnson as the winner, I think that there's value on Dodson.

So I might be putting a bet down on Dodson later in the week. But I'm not ready to, you know, make the bet yet. But that's what I'm feeling. By the way, I don't know if this is true, but this is unbelievable if true. Dashmas 3,000 says that he bet $300 on Barbosa to win via K.O. And Murgliata. Oh, no, no, no. Alcantra?

And no, on Barbosa. And Martin's tapped. So, you know, he tapped due to strikes. That's crazy. If that's true, that's crazy. Yeah, because that's considered a submission due to strikes. That's rough. I mean, this is why, as you were like, you know, why aren't you betting more?

This is the type of stuff that prevents you from doing that. It's an unnecessary risk, you know? So you don't want to bet all of your bankroll. And this is the type of stuff that happens. There's a reason that you can bet on a draw in a fight. Crazy. That's so boring to root for a draw. That's like betting the under.

Nobody does it because it's so rare. But, you know, let's say somebody had bet on a draw with Frankie Edgar and Grey Manard. they're cashing it. Okay, so you like Dotson. What about Rampage Tashara? This is another one where I think that even though I might pick Tashara to win, I think that there's value in Jackson. I think that he's being severely underrated at plus 245

and Tashara at a favorite at minus 290. I definitely don't like Tashara's odds. So even if I don't bet on Jackson, I don't see any way that I'm betting on Glover here. Is he overhyped in your opinion? I wouldn't say he's overhyped. I think that he's definitely a contender and the talent is there. And the hype is real in terms of he can be somebody to watch out for.

But I don't think that he should be this big a favorite over a guy like Rampage. There's no reason to believe that Rampage isn't motivated for this fight and doesn't want to go out. Let's say he's going out of the UFC. He's going to want to go out with a bang. Let's say he's staying in the UFC. He wants to stake his claim that I'm still here. I don't see any reason to believe that he's not motivated for this fight. And I think that with a guy like Glover Tashara who's been hit before and a little bit staggered,

Mal Donato hit him with some shots that kind of put him back on his heels a little bit, even though he completely dominated that fight, no doubt about it. I think that Rampage is, you can never count out Rampage to just dig in and land a shot on somebody. If Rampage isn't motivated for this fight, he'll never be motivated again. Completely agree. So I think that you throw out the motivation thing, which is one of the things in the past that you have to think about when betting on Rampage. I think that there's good value in him standing his ground and landing one on Glover's chin.

I think that there's value in that. Even though I might lean toward Glover, I'm not even sure I would do that. But definitely no bet on Glover, possible bet coming later on Quint and Rampage Jackson. By the way, a nice haircut. Thank you. Shave 2, lined it up nicely. Wow. Wow, look at you. I listen to the people.

I'm a man of the people. Yeah, that was a big complaint last week. You get the airtime. You got to look nice. High and tight, as they say. Looking around. All right, what else we got? Anthony Pettis, Donald Taroni.

This is an interesting one. Close one. Love this fight outside of betting. I mean, I think this is just a fantastic fight. They're both minus 110, meaning, you know, this is essentially an even-odds fight. Right now, I'm leaning toward Pettis, and I think there might be a little bit of value there. I think that he's being underrated because of his time off. I just think that people are forgetting how truly, like, talented and amazing this kid really is.

He, this kid, wow, I can't believe I just said that. People are forgetting how talented and amazing of a fighter he is. He has such a complete striking game and such a complete ground game. Even when he's on his back, for example, in the Clay Guita fight, he's always challenging with submissions, always going for the finish. I just think he's one of the most talented fighters in MMA. And I think that Soroni, similarly, is a very, very talented striker. and no disrespect to his submission game either. He's also a very good grappler.

But I think that Pettis is going to be able to bring it to him, whereas Saroni's more effective when he's dictating the pace and bringing it toward the opponent. For example, he was able to bring it to Melvin. Melvin clipped him, and he was rocked, and then after that point, Serooney was able to push his pace onto Melvin. I think that there's a possibility that Pettus can hang with Soroni on the feet. I don't think it's as big

a mismatch as some other people might think and even be able to implement some kind of grappling, some kind of wrestling game. Although I've seen some things in the media that Pettus is saying Seroni would shoot first. So I'm thinking, I can't tell if that's mine games, if he plans on standing, I'm not sure.

But I think that Pettus is good here. Now, that said, I don't know if I'm in a bet on it just because I could similarly see Seroni just pushing the pace and implementing his striking game the way I think that Pettus could. So I might not bet on this one, especially at even odds, but if I do, it'll probably be on Pettus. All right. And then the final fight on the

main card is Eric Koch versus Ricardo Lomas. I spoke about that. A lot on the line here for these two featherweights. Who you like? I like the value on Coke here at minus 140. Llamas has a very impressive resume. He's looked great lately. No doubt about it. But I think that another guy who, people are forgetting how talented he is due to injury. I think that's the theme here is Eric Koch is a supremely talented fighter and he was about to have a title shot and I think that he deserves a title shot

and he'll prove it by defeating Lamas. So I think that at minus 140 that's actually pretty good value on Eric Koch and I'm probably going to go with him when I do make my pick. All right. Anything else? The line is out for Wyman and Grant. I love this fight. It's on FX.

It's the main event on FX. Yeah, Wyman's the slight underdog at plus 100 and Grant is minus 120. I don't, I really don't know who I would pick in this one. I'm probably going to stay away from betting. I think that Grant's just looked absolutely fantastic since going to 155.

And I think that he's, as I said, when we picked Wyman and SAS, I was, I made a game time decision to pick SAS. I was originally going to go with Wyman. And I said that he's one of the most underrated. The same thing I said about Pettus, that he's supremely underrated, and I have a lot of respect for his skill set.

So I would normally pick T.J. Grant against, you know, mid-level 155ers, but I think that Wyman is up there with him. So it's one that I think right now is the odds are perfect. Plus 100 and minus 120 is essentially even odds. It's definitely where I think this fight is going to be. It could be anybody's game. I probably won't bet on it. I don't know much about betting, says Sharif Sure, but Rick is stalling.

Call him out on it. I don't even know what that means. Stalling in what regard? I don't know what that means. Hey, this other guy, Jetty Goodman says on Twitter, he bet $35 and won $870. The challenge would be over. Four-fight parlay on Nick Lens, CB Dalloway, Habib Nirmagamadeov, and Ildemar Al-Contra. Here's the thing.

I get a lot of people on Twitter coming to me like, oh, I made $10 million because I bet $100 on a $20,000 on a 25 parley. No, I believe them. The problem is, yeah, okay, now tell me about the bets that you lost. It's always fun to go back and be like, oh, I picked this card perfectly. I went 3 and 0. Yes, that's impressive. Congratulations.

We should all support each other. I'm happy that you made some money, but I'm being scrutinized on my wins and losses. So unless you know, unless you're showing me you're losing betting slip, too, I'm not really that interested. I love to hear the fans tell me about their wins, and I'm happy for them, and I support them 100%. But, you know, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Let's slow it down a little bit. All right. So there you have it. Follow him on Twitter. Twitter.com slash New York, Rick. Those are the picks he's feeling right now, but he's not making official picks, as we said.

That's coming an hour after the Wands on Friday in Chicago. So I have to follow him if you want to find out who he's picking. And by the way, if you look at the YouTube version of the MMA beat, a lot of support for New York Rick to make his MMA beat debut. It's pretty shocking, to be honest with you. It's not shocking at all. It's unbelievable. Like one of the top rated comments is New York, Rick, get New York Rick in there.

I mean, wow, unbelievable. So there you have it. A lot of people want to see you do it. I'm just worried that your $2.00 bets aren't going to get you to $400. That's all. You'll see more action. I wasn't thrilled about this card for betting. You'll see more.

Okay. All right, one more thing to do. That's the Ricks Picks Challenge. We got to give away this T-shirt, this amazing Pride 10 T-shirt, courtesy of Nomaz. Check them out. www. nomas. com.

Dot nomos dash NYC.com. There you have it. We can see it, right? Yeah, it's the Sakoraba getting R&C'd Pride 10 back in 2000. That is up for grabs. The New York Knicks are about to play the Brooklyn Nets. Let's hurry up on this, right? I'm just kidding.

I would never shortchange you the questions. Here we go. Questions? Let's hear him. The first one's from the website. Okay. A lot of people consider Steve Mazzagati as the worst ref because of short stoppages. Oh, how mean?

Would Dan Mergliata now be considered the worst because he doesn't know when to stop fights? Well, this is very mean. You know, you know what bothers me more, honestly? You know what bothers me more than the call in the Alcantra fight? and some of his other bad calls that come to mind. What bothers me more is the indecision, is not being sure of yourself. You look at the end of the Bissping-Belford fight, comes in, stops, comes out, goes back in. What the heck is that?

If you're a referee, a big guy like that, you've got to get in there, push the guy, end it. You know, you'll see this a lot in MMA. You won't see a guy like Big John do this often. If ever, you won't see a guy like Herb Dean do it, honestly. But I don't like the indecision. Honestly, Mazegadi does it a lot. Some of the other referees, I don't want to point fingers and whatnot. You know who they are.

Just be sure of yourself. It's a tough sport to call. We get it. Judgment calls. It's a fine line. It's not as clear as other sports. Go in there and be sure of your call. I just don't like the indecision.

I hate that. It looks so bad. When you get in, kind of stop the guy, then you come out, and then it just looks so bad. It looks horrible. It was not a good night. You know, if I was putting together my dream team, probably wouldn't be in it. But I do think there's something to be said for the criticism and having these guys start thinking and start over-analysing and looking over their shoulders and being afraid to mess up. That's bad. There's a fine line, but, you know, you have a bad day. You're going to get called

out on it. That's what happens in this sport. It was not a good day for Mercliata. And, you know, if you're wondering why he got the main event after the calls earlier, that's determined beforehand. And remember, there was a commission there, a Brazilian commission, their first UFC show that they were overseeing. But I'm sure the UFC had something to do with it. The UFC works with the I-MMAF, the international MMA Federation, that, you know, they're trying to do things overseas, Swedish-based. But they put in the good word. And right now it's slim pickings as far as MMA referees are concerned. And that's unfortunate.

No one. Think about the last five years. You know, who's come out and looked really good, a young guy outside of the same guys. No one really, and that's a problem. You shouldn't have to bring over Dammerglietta to Brazil in a perfect world. Sport is young, but you shouldn't have to fly

guy across the world to come call a fight. You should have local people there. Hopefully one day. Our next question, also from the website. Nice. Where does the Chris Widman hype come from? He is a great fighter. with a very nice set of skills, no doubt,

but I don't think beating Maya in a pretty boring fight, then smashing Mark Munoz is a definite call to fight the best fighter on the planet. Okay, this is a bit of revisionist history. You forget that Chris Wydenman took the Damien Maya fight on, what, 11 days notice, 12 days notice, had to cut 32 pounds, fought on Fox, beat Maya, who at the time I had listed as a top 10 middleweight, beats Mark Munoz, who many people had listed as a top five, top three,

maybe even top two middleweight, some people. Eh, let's say top four. All right, so those are his two wins. Beat Tom Lawler, beat Jesse Bongfeld, beat Sakara on what, two weeks notice with an injured rib. He's been out since July. He's undefeated. He's 5 and 0 in the UFC.

I don't understand why people are trying to discredit him. And yes, I know. And it's so funny. And it's actually, he mentioned the same thing. It's like Michael Bissing makes one joke. And people say, oh, you're all. all over Chris Weiman. Get the hell out of here.

It's complete nonsense. I'm as much of a, quote-unquote, fan. I'm not really a fan of anyone, but as much of an admirer of Jacaree, of Luke Rockhold, you know, Alan Belcher, I mean, a lot of guys. I was saying Michael Bisping deserved the shot even before the Vitor Belford fight.

He didn't have to fight that fight. It didn't make sense. Right now, if you're talking about who the number one contender is, at 185, it's Chris Weidman. For the simple fact that he is undefeated at 185. He's 5-0. He beat two guys who are in the top 10.

they may not be in the top 10 now, but they were when he fought him. And he fought Damien May on less than two weeks notice on Fox and had to cut 30 pounds. Give the guy a break. Yes, he's injured. Yeah, a win over Tim Boch or someone else would have up to stock. It didn't happen. But right now, after Belcher losing, after Boch losing, after Bisping losing, he's the last man standing. So either Anderson's going to fight at 185 for a title against someone who deserves to be fighting for the title,

or he'll wait and fight someone like John Jones. It's up to him, of course. but he is the number one contender and there's nothing that you can say that would make me think otherwise. Nailed it. Well, thanks. The next question also focusing around Chris Wyden.

Oh. Assuming Chris Wyman has to fight once more before he gets Anderson, what is the most intriguing fight for him at 185? There's a couple that come to mind. I mean, I alluded to them earlier. I think it's too early to do the Luke Rockhold fight. Rockhold's young.

He's a champion in Strike Force, but I don't think he is the champion with enough of a profile to where it's like Gilbert Melendez, he's going to get that title shot. So I think it's too early to do that fight, Rockhold versus Wyman. I could see that being a title fight in the future. And sure you could do the rematch, no big deal.

To me, if you're going to make a Wyman fight, not against Anderson, it's against two guys. Jacques, who I don't know is willing to wait to June or July, could be. I mean, look at the calendar thus far. It's pretty much booked all the way to April. So it's not that far off. Jacques-Rei versus Wyman is fascinating to me, or Belfort versus Wyman, and that's the fight that if Wyman wins, you know, he's the number one-conded-de-no doubt about it.

I don't know if Jacques-Rae gets him there because not as many people know who Jacques-Rae is, but from a styles match-up, it's fascinating. And, you know, Lombard, like I said, I'm trying to get you the Bispink fight. So those are the two names that come to mind. And like he said, he's available in June-July. You look at what the USC has lined up. they're booked like I said until end of April then they've got the big Memorial Day card they'll probably have another one in June and then you've got the July 4th weekend card which is turning out to be the UFC sort of signature event international fight week all that stuff

Anderson fighting on that card is a big deal so maybe they do it then or maybe they give him someone else in wait till MSG but if you're asking me who would be next not named Anderson those names come to mind our last question from the website comment section? Is the Dodson v. Mighty Mouse fight flying under the radar as far as public awareness goes? It seems to me that these two amazing skillful fighters that are about to fight are not getting the attention they deserve. I think it is.

You know, if you watch Road to the Octagon, they gave it a lot of attention. You know, sure, they're not. And we talk about this. We taped another episode of the MMA beat on Friday, which will come out Saturday. Actually, it will come out Friday night of this coming week. and we talked about all UFC on Fox 6 related storylines, and this was one of them about how they've been promoting this fight, calling it a world title fight,

not mentioning the fly weights and all that stuff. Look, I mean, if you've been watching the NFL on Fox and some pretty highly watched games, you've seen that, you know, it's not Donald Seroni. It's not Showtime's kick. It's not Rampage. He's mentioned, but it's really Dotson and Demetrius that are getting most of the attention.

Sure, they're not calling it a flyweight fight, but who cares? It is a world title fight. Same difference. I don't understand why they're not doing it. They think people would shy away from it because I guess people are so alpha that they think that, oh, if these guys are smaller than me, I could beat them up. That's ridiculous. Those guys alone would kick all our asses, all, what is it, four people in here with one

hand tied behind his back. I mean, it wouldn't even be close. But anyway, I think they're getting the attention they deserve. There are a lot of fights. You know, we just had the Bissping fight. You know, prior to that, you had Kane and those. Santos, you've got 156 coming up. There's a lot going on.

So it's hard to give everyone the attention that they deserve. But I think for the most part, they've been getting the attention they deserve. And it's a big deal to put them in the main event. That's a huge vote of confidence from the UFC. They only get four Fox fights a year. And they're putting those guys in the main event. What more can you ask for? We're moving on to Twitter.

But before we do that, Will didn't appreciate you saying people we're going to kick his ass. Oh, well, I'm sorry. Will, I don't know if you know these guys. They would probably kick her ass. I'm sorry. Okay, our first order question. Where do you rank Michael Chandler? I have him top five.

That's a good question. Mike Chandler looked amazing this past Thursday. He's the biggest star in Bellator, in my opinion. As far as champions go, I think King Moe probably has more fans fighting in strike force and whatnot. But Mike Chandler is a guy you build around. He is so talented. He beat Eddie Alvarez. I just don't think he's top five.

Heck, I have a hard time putting Gilbert Melendez in my top five. Why? because I believe that when you rank people, it has to be based in large part due to who they fought. You're only as good as who you fought, and more importantly, who you beat. And, you know, Mike Chandler fought Akihiro Gono, beat Eddie Alvarez, that's a top 10 guy,

and he deserves to be in the top 10. Top 5, though, I don't know. I mean, look who's in the top 5. Benson. You can still make a case for Frankie Edgar, but I guess he moved on, fine. Nate Diaz is in there. Gray Maynard should still be in there.

I still think BJ Penn to be on. honest is the top five guy. You know, Gilbert has got to be in your top five fine. Who else is in there? I mean, there's Jim Miller. There's all these guys who are fighting tougher competition. And that's no knock on Rick Hahn. That's no knock on Marcine held. You know, Dave Jansen, you know, he's doing good things there, but, you know, he was a guy who was in W.C. who didn't make it over to the UFC. But there's no doubt about it. Mike Chandler's a top 10 guy. I would love to, that's the only fight. I mean, Freddie Alvarez, that's the only silver lining. if he goes back to Belator, in my opinion.

I want to see him fight new guys, but if he fights Mike Chandler, too, that's a big fight for Bellator. You know, I don't know if it'll actually happen. Who knows the court cases this Friday? But Chandler is 100% of top 10, not sure about top five, only because he hasn't fought top five guys.

Next question. Will Mike, excuse me, will Michael Bisbing go down as the best fighter to never fight for a title? I mean, it's early to say that because he says he's not going anywhere. he'll be back and I think Michael Bisping is always the kind of guy who is one or two big wins away from generating enough interest to get a title shot. I really think, I mean, look at this last fight.

He's won and oh in his last, you know, that was his winning streak, essentially. You know, lost to Chale Sun and comes back, beats Brian Stan and was fighting for a chance to fight Anderson Silva. If he comes back and beats, let's say, Hector Lombard and then beats Alan Belcher, I mean, there's going to be, there's going to be people calling for that title shot. That's my point. people want to see him fight Anderson Silva because they want to see him fight for the title. I believe, off the top of my head, I believe he has the most wins in the UFC without ever fighting for a title. And he has enough fans. He built that UK market.

He was a big part of it. Outspoken, entertaining. People want to see him fight for the title. They want to see him against Anderson. You know, I wanted to see the fight just because it was bispying. He's been around and let's see what he can do, finally. So right now, you know, does it look like that, The big fights, yeah, he loses them.

Lost to Vitor, lost to Dan Henderson, lost to Chal Sunnan, lost to Rashad Evans. I mean, he loses those big fights. But I don't see him going away. He's still in his early 30s. And you can always turn that into a winning streak, you know, go three, four in a row and people will be calling for it. That's a great thing about our sport. Short-term memories, very high.

People forget what you do. I mean, look at the Forest Griffin situation. Got annihilated by Anderson, came back, fought Tito. It's like people forgot about that whole thing. next question was in the same vein. Dana criticized Kenny Florian for choking in number one contender fights. Do you believe Bisbing has that same problem? I mean, you want to call it choking, you want to call it not coming up big enough,

you want to call it fighting tougher competition? I don't know. I mean, choking is a very big term to put on someone. I don't want to be that rude. I don't want to be that mean-spirited. But, I mean, the proof is in the pudding. Every time he is close to fighting for the title, he loses that fight. I don't know if it's the pressure of the situation.

I don't know if he's fighting guys. He's just not that good. I don't know. All I know is that the proof is in the pudding. When he gets those opportunities, he loses. I thought he was going to win this fight as well. I thought he was due. I thought he was going to rise to the occasion, but he got caught.

And now he has to go back down the ladder, but I still think he's a contender. I don't think he's a gatekeeper, as people have been calling him. I still think he beats, you know, 85% of the guys at 185. He just has to figure out how to beat that next 15%. So I don't want to say he choked, but he needs to figure it out. I think that whole choking thing is silly for both Kenny Florian and for Bisping. For Kenny, too. I mean, Kenny is the kind of guy you look at him.

And he doesn't strike you as like, oh, Mr. Athlete 101. Of course, he played soccer and college and whatnot. He just fought tough guys. You know, he fought Sean Shirk when he was doing well. he fought BJ Penn for the title I mean he fought tough guys He fought Joseo When he can hardly walk fighting in 145

So I mean Well even for Bisbing I mean Did he choke in the Chal Senate fight? It didn't look like choking to me It looked like he had a case For even possibly winning that fight So I think that that whole thing is nonsense

Great point And Bisbing doesn't make excuses So you won't you know You won't hear anything from him He handled it like a true pro there I mean he did swear on national TV But other than that Even on Twitter fair play

I love when Brits say that. I mean, he handled it like a pro, and it's hard. He really has made a 180 as far as the fans are concerned. He's become somewhat of a sympathetic character and fan favorite after being, you know, the anti-hero for so long. You're right. He did handle it very well. Completely agree. Next question.

Thoughts on Lombard as the next opponent for Silva. Is he the best challenge for Silva at 185? Well, Lombard, I mean, he is. explosive. He is a lot of fun. I mean, we're BFFs again, as you saw last week. But he wants Bispeng. That's what he wants, and I want to see that fight. Can you imagine the Stairdown, Bisping versus Lombard? I think they wanted to do Lombard. I think if Lombard would have beaten Tim Boch, you probably would have seen Lombard versus Anderson, but he lost to Tim Boch. And then he came back and beat Hussimaras. Now he's fighting Okami, which is a tough fight in Japan for him in March. And then he wants Bisping. That's the fight he wants you heard him last week on this show.

So I think that's a fun fight because you never know what can happen with him. He's so quick and, you know, obviously he's such a great striker and he's an imposing fella, but I still think that Chris Weidman is a better challenge because what he can do on the ground, his wrestling, his grappling, he's developing into a solid striker. Obviously, he can't hang with Anderson right now as far as striking is concerned. But look at what Chale did with his wrestling and then you add Weidman's submission. to that equation, I think it makes for a more interesting fight. I don't necessarily agree that Weidman is equivalent to Chale in terms of takedowns and positional control.

I don't think the wrestling's awash in that case, but I definitely agree that his striking brings a different element to the table. What about his submissions? Chale's not as good as Jiu-Jitsu as Chris Weiman is. Sure, but I don't think he's going to be in a position to submit Anderson-Sovah. I think that's Siva's Jiu-Jitsu is... But I think he brings more weapons to the table right now. Completely agree with that. So what are you disagreeing me?

Well, you said that, oh, look at Chale Sondon and then add in Chris Widman striking. It's not really how it works. He's Chale 2.0. I said it. I disagree. I think Chale Sondon is a far superior wrestler in terms of timing on takedowns. And this is coming from somebody who really likes Chris Widman. I agree with you that his complete package is very imposing.

But I don't think that you're giving Chale enough credit in terms of his wrestling. You like him unless he's fighting Mark Munoz, of course. Who, Widman? Yeah. If you remember correctly, you were the one who picked Munoz on air to win. To all those people who say I'm a Wyman nuthugger, I picked Munoz to beat him. And I valiantly picked Wydenly to win. Yeah, I think that Lombard is a good challenge.

I think that there's a lot of guys that are a good challenge, and I don't necessarily put one ahead of the other. I think Jocchere is a good challenge. Lombard's a good challenge. Widman's a good challenge. So Silva has some fights lined up. All right. Next question. Are you surprised that Belfort didn't call out Anderson Silva?

It seemed like with some lobbying he could have gotten the rematch. That's what I said earlier. I am surprised. I mean, I think a lot of people would have gone behind that. I think a lot of people would have been excited to see Vitor at home. They would have gone crazy. Oh, yeah, Brazil. Anderson's there.

He was there. I mean, that was an opportunity. Would he have gotten it? I don't know. But he would have had a much better chance getting it than getting the Jones rematch. Say, oh, you hit me with that one kick. You know, that was a lucky shot, blah, blah, blah. Instead, he tells Chale to move out of the way.

way and he calls out Anderson. Wasted opportunity, I don't know. That's what he wanted. To who am I to say that it was a wasted opportunity? But I don't think he's going to get it. And I think I could see him getting someone like Wyman. I could see him getting someone like Luke Rockhold, maybe. I don't think he's getting the Jones fight.

So yeah, somewhat wasted. If Rampage wins by knockout on Fox to a decent sized audience, does Dana try hard to resign him? If not, does he go to Bellator or boxing? How about Jacob Vokeman saying on Twitter, someone said to Jacob, I wish you would have brought in Jacob Vokeman today for some post-inaguration commentary, what gives? And then Vokeman says, Ariel doesn't like my views. Geez, Louise, if there's anyone who's given Jacob Vokman a platform, I think it has been me.

But he's probably just trolling, right? Rampage Jackson. Honestly, if you'd have asked me seven days ago, if Rampage was going to, you know, cooler heads prevail, if he wins, he's coming back. I would have said, yeah, I think he's coming back. after his performance, his answers on the conference call, I don't think he's coming back. I really don't think he's coming back. I really think he feels betrayed by the UFC. I think he was hurt by the way they handled his situation post-144.

He said they knew that he was injured. They didn't appreciate it. They threw him under the bus. He feels unappreciated. He feels disrespected by the UFC. I think he truly feels this way, and I truly believe now that he does not want to come back. I think that his team was trying to get him back. I think he was open to it at one point, but I think he is done.

And like I said earlier, if he is not motivated now, the fight on Fox, he's still being promoted very well because he's a big draw, to beat Glover and then become a free agent. And I can't imagine Belltor not going after him. If he really doesn't want to fight in the UFC, what is he going to be motivated for? This is a huge opportunity for Rampage. Speaking of Rampage, I have some special. shoes. I bought a special pair of shoes for him that I will be wearing in Chicago.

So I hope to do an interview with him there. But yeah, I agree with Mike Goldberg. This appears to be the end. And it's unfortunate because I think there are still some fights out there for him. But when you're not happy, you're not happy. I was going to say something about buying special shoes for Rampage, but I'm just going to reserve. Why? What's wrong with what do you mean? No, no comment. Okay.

Next question. With Gustafson moved up to fight weeks before John. Jones is a fight between these two imminent imminent in the fall if both went. I mean, there's a lot going on at 205. Gustafsson has to beat Musassi. John Jones, honestly, John Jones, I think that if he wins against Chil Sunnan, they want to try to do that fight at MSG, John versus Anderson. And even if they can't get into MSG, I still think that they're going to try to do that fight.

So I can see Gustafsson. That's why I had, I was kind of like, really. Are we really calling that fight against Shogun a number one contender fight? I still think he may be two wins away from fighting for the title. True story. Where does, this is the final question, where does the Korean zombie fit into the featherweight division at this point? Were you not paying attention earlier when I talked about this?

Refresh my memory. Okay. So the Korean zombie, as I've been saying for a while, it seems like a lot of people have been asking about him. And that's my point. I still think that he is top three most popular. guys at 145. I still think there are a lot of people who want to see him fight for the title.

And at this point, he's been out, and the title fight's coming up next week, I could see them giving Korean zombie the winner of Aldo versus Edgar. So I'm not sure if Coke and Llamas are fighting for a title shot. And I wonder about Poria and Swanson. Swanson's look good, but do people want to see Swanson versus Aldo? Aldo beat him in like eight seconds way back when in W. So if you'd ask me right now, who's the number one contender, who's fighting the winner of Aldo Edgar, even before

Kokomas, I say it's the Korean zombie. He has lost a bit of momentum. That was a fight of the year candidate in May when he beat Dustin Porier, but I still think you got to go, especially at Featherway, with the most popular guys, and Zombie versus Aldo Edgar is a sellable fight.

That's a huge fight. That wraps it up. That wraps it up. So who wins the shirt? There were a lot of good questions today. You went off a little bit with the Mike Chandler one, the Lombard one, where he who were some contenders for Silva. And the rampage resigning with the UFC one

was pretty interesting as well. It was. What about Wyman at the beginning? I remember saying something about him. That was from the website. Sorry, guys. Oh, dang. Let's give it up for Mike Chandler.

He deserves it. Mike Chandler looking to get some respect, some recognition. Let's give it up to Mike. Well, at least the person who asked about Mike. Yep. That's what you win. Nomos dash NYC. You can get it there.

Is this on sale there? Yep. Okay. It's Pride 10, Sakuraba. It's a great shirt. And don't worry, we still have a lot of great gifts to give away in the coming weeks. We've got a Pettis, round five toy. We've got Carlos Condi.

We've got tons. Ariel, can you lift up the shirt so people can see it a little better? Oh, okay, okay. Here it is. This camera? Here it is. Sakuraba. Look at that.

I'd like one of these, to be honest. It's a large. I think it fits me. here it is, Sakaraba, Rear Naked Choke. Nomaz does a lot of these old Pride shirts, UFC shirts, and you know what's cool about these Nomash shirts? You get like this card here. Pride 10, Return to the Warriors, held August 27, 2000

at the Saibu Dome, marked several milestones for the then-fledgling Pride FC promotion. Let me tell you about it. The late Hein Gracie made his professional debut, knocking out Tokitsu Ishizawa, Gilbert Eiffel, destroyed Gary Goodrich in 286. seconds into the first round with a head kick. Japanese legend Kazushi Sakuraba truly earned his nickname the Gracie Hunter when he broke

Henzel Gracey's arm with the Camorra. But Gracie's legendary toughness was, excuse me, reinforced as well as he chose not to tap as a way, I think there's a typo here, as a way to penalize himself for his own tactical error. Pry 10 also set a new standard for unorthodox fight posters. the Japanese version depicted Sakuraba being choked out by a Pride Ring Girl. And by the way, only 500 of these. This says this is 281 of 500.

Right there. That's pretty awesome. Wow. How much is this thing? There's only 500 of these? This has got to be like 50 bucks. Anyway. There it is.

All right. So we are done. Isaac, you can hit my music. There it is. Fun show. people asking, I got a lot of questions about Kung Lee versus Angeon Silva. I'm just not sure Kung Lee is there just yet.

Remember Gus Johnson asked for it way back when, just not sure if Kungley's there just yet. But he is in that mix as well, knocking out Rich Franklin in November. Let's not forget about him too. Anyway, it was a fun show. Thank you so much for joining us, whether you were on break due to the Martin Luther King holiday, whether you decided not to go to work

because you wanted to watch the inauguration, Whether you're eating dinner, if you're joining us in Europe, thank you very much for stopping by. Really appreciate it. If you missed any of this episode or our past episodes, check them out on iTunes, the MMA Hour. Give us a good rating. Why not?

I feel like I never mentioned that. Or you can get the video portion as well, MAA Our video, also on Stitcher, or you can see past episodes on MMAfighting.com. I want to thank Chris Wyman for stopping by. Good luck that meeting this weekend in Chicago. Good luck trying to get that fight against Anderson. I want to thank King Mo.

He makes his debut this Thursday on Spike TV. Belator, round two. And Carl Amusu is fighting for the title. Very bold. I really got into that fight after he promised to defeat Ben Ascreen and finish him. Not because I want Ben Ascrant to lose, just because that's a bold statement from someone like Carl. So good luck to him.

Appreciate the UFC letting us listen in on the UFC Conference Call. Good luck to Carl's Condit. Looking forward to that press conference in Montreal. and thank you very much to Mike Goldberg for stopping by. That is it for us. Thank you so much for stopping by. We'll see you. Same time, same place next week.

Peace. Sacks 5th Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's finding the right gift or the right outfit. Sacks is where you can find everything. From the perfect Chloe bag for your hard-to-shop for a sister to a prodig jacket for a fancy holiday dinner. And if you don't know where to start, sacks.com is customized to your personal style

so you can save time shopping. Make shopping fun and easy this season and find gifts and inspiration to suit your holiday style at Sacks Fifth Avenue. Ever feel like your work tools are working against you? Too many apps, endless emails, and scattered chats can slow everything down. Zoom brings it all together. Meetings, chat, docs, and AI companion seamlessly on one platform.

With everything connected, your workday flows. Collaboration feels easier and progress actually happens. Take back your workday at zoom.com slash podcast and zoom ahead.