MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 170

Episode Date: August 14, 2014

Featuring Brian Stann, Tarec Saffiedine, Conor McGregor, Garry Cook, Darin Harvey, and Robert Sargent. 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?

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On this Monday of February 25th, 2013, it is so great to be back here in the wonderful city known as the Big Apple. New York City, getting warmer outside. My Sunday is over. If you remember at the beginning of the month, I said February, my most hated month of the year. Well, it is coming to a close. This is our last show of the month.

next month will be March of course and then it's March 21st spring and then we're really rolling Lesee le Bon Ton roulein as they say in French. All right, that's it for my weather report. Good to be here with you for the next two plus hours on the mixed martial arts hour right here on

MMAfighting.com. Join in the back as always by Isaac, Will the Thrill and New York Rick Will the Thrill has beaten up Buzzkill Brendan. He is no more new sheriff in town and we are looking very good as a result. of that addition to the team. Now, New York, Rick, you will hear from him in the third hour

as we recap Rick's Picks. And there's a rumor, there's a rumor going around the studio here that I actually made more money on Saturday night than Mr. New York, Rick. Fake money, of course, but still, we'll find out how we did as the Rick's Picks Challenge continues. Post-UFC-157, history was made, my friends, usually these days when I'm in the back doing my fuel T-PICS challenge, slash MMA fighting post-fight interview duties, I often don't even step inside the arena. I'm all hooked up. It's comfortable back there. I have my little monitor. I can listen to the commentary. I usually don't even go back there. This time, main event started. I had to go back there. And where we were positioned was a very interesting spot. It was right next to where

the fighters came out. So I got to see them as they were about to go do battle. And it was just, it was great. It was a real treat to see that side of things. Rousey came out, I had to go inside the arena, and it was unbelievable. People standing, the atmosphere was electric. It was just an amazing moment for our sport. And what was most amazing about it was the UFC couldn't have scripted it any better. UPS and downs, Karmouche had our moments, Rousie had our moments, Rousie wins via first round arm bar.

You couldn't have scripted it better. It really was a home run for the UFC. Now, we'll find out if it was a home run as far as business is concerned, the best attendance as far as UFC events at the Honda Center, best attendance as far as MMA events at the Honda Center, the gate was great, the crowd was great, had it do on pay-per-view, though. We'll find out in the next few days.

We're going to talk a lot about UFC 157 today, but first let's work backwards as we usually do. I told you New York, Rick and I will talk about it in the third hour. At around 240, Connor McGregor, Irish standout, making his UFC debut in April against Marcus Brimman, He's going to be on the show. This guy has one of the most loyal fan bases that I've ever seen in MMA. It's unbelievable how many people have asked to have him on the show

and how many people are excited about his UFC debut. He joins us at around 240. 220. Speaking of the international scene, a very international show this week, we got Gary Cook, who is a new member of the UFC. He's the UFC's executive vice president and managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa, formerly of Nike and Manchester City. A lot of people want to know what's up in the UK as far as TV deals are concerned.

France, Italy, all this stuff. We'll talk to Gary Cook about all of that at around 220. 2 o'clock. Brian Stan, my friends, you may not be a fan of his fighting style or whatever. This is a true gentleman. He is waking up at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning in Japan. He's in Japan right now, waking up at 4 a.m. to do this show live. from his hotel room in Japan.

Unbelievable. We appreciate that very much. At around 140, Ronda Rousey's manager, Darren Harvey, long-time manager, he'll stop by to talk about the big win. Tarak Safedin, we'll talk to him about why he turned down a fight against Carlos Condit and Dan Hendo's loss on Saturday, Team Quest, of course. Talk to him about that. But first, we're going to talk to Robert Sargent of MMA Rising.com.

Before we get to him, let me remind you. Hit us up on Twitter using the hashtag the MMA hour. leave questions in the comments section below. This week's winner gets the ultimate heavyweights DVD courtesy of our friends over at Anchor Bay Entertainment. Of course, big heavyweight fight on Saturday. We'll talk about that. UFC on Fuel TV 8. Mark Hunt versus Stefan Strove, big heavyweight fight.

In honor of that, we're giving out that DVD. All right. Let's go to the phone lines. Is he there? You didn't write me, New York, Rick. Is he there? All right. Let's go to the phone lines and welcome in.

A man, if you're talking women's MMA, you've got to talk to. to this guy. It's only fitting that we start the show with him because this man knows his stuff, and he's been covering women's MMA before it was cool, before it was en vogue, as they say. He is Robert Sargent of MMA Rising.com. Robert, how are you? I'm doing well, thanks. How are you? Good to have a Canadian brother on the show. Thank you for joining us once again. Last time we had you on the show, if memory serves me correct, was after Rousey's last win over Sarah Kaufman. This time, we're talking her win over Liz Karmouche. And I got to ask,

as I mentioned, you've been covering women's M.A for a long time. Your website, a great website, MMA rising.com, focuses on WMMA. For you, a guy who's been watching this from the small bingo halls, if you will, all the way to sold out Honda Center in Anaheim. Was it surreal to watch what happened on Saturday night? Just forget about the fight itself. Just that moment, two women inside a UFC Octagon. Yeah, it was a little bit, and especially with the way that the fight played out,

like you were talking about in your intro, it really couldn't have gone much better than that. they really couldn't have scripted it any better. So, yeah, for me, when I was watching the fighters just walk out, like, wow, this is pretty cool after seeing them compete for seven or eight years now. I've been following it, and you go from those small shows all the way to the UFC Octagon, and then hopefully there'll be more female fights coming up later this year, too. Would it have been a devastating blow to women's MMA, or someone who covers it so closely, you know the ins and outs,

had Liz pulled off that rear-naked choke slash neck, neck, neck crank. Ronda tapped. Would that have been a devastating blow to WMMA? Possibly for the UFC because we really didn't know how they were going to react after this. It was pretty much billed as the Ronda

show when that was it. So that may have really put a damper on the plans going forward. Like they could have changed them up so that they wouldn't have very many female fights going ahead and maybe they would have dropped the division by the end of the year. I think with the way that Invict is going, they're doing really

well in their own right. So I think that that would have continued on, and if they can get themselves on TV, then that would give the women another platform. But for the UFC, I can definitely see how that would have been a problem, because they pretty much built a division around Ronda and if Ronda had suddenly lost, that could have definitely caused some problems. By the way, you were once a pro wrestling fan, right? At one point, yeah, I haven't really followed it very closely for a while, but yeah, a little bit.

here's why I ask, I'm sensing, since you brought it up, Invicta, I'm sensing a bit of a Vinc McMahon slash ECW situation going on here where I feel like the UFC, like at one point I thought that Invicta was going to showtime. Now I'm confident they're not going to showtime. I feel like the UFC won't allow that to happen. They won't want that to happen. You know, you see, you know, Ronda's team wearing Invicta shirts and hats. You see the footage and whatnot, talent going back and forth.

Are you getting that sense that the UFC is in some way helping out Invicta? Well, I think they're kind of helping each other because if the UFC is going to start up this women's bantamweight division, they have to have talent and they have to have fighters who are coming off of key wins. And most of the ones that they've signed recently have fought for Invicta and have picked up pretty big wins. That includes Liz, of course. So I think it's kind of a mutually beneficial situation, at least with the bantam weights. There's no co-promotion with anything else as we've seen with Cyborg UFC's not willing to create any more female division. right now, but I think it kind of helps both sides. So I can get your reference for sure because it's one of those things where it's kind of

beneficial to both parties. But I don't think it's necessarily a one-sided deal where Invict is being helped out a whole lot because without them getting Liz fights, she would have been coming off the loss to Sarah Kaufman, and they couldn't have put her into the title fight against Rhonda. You know, you mentioned the Ronda Rousey show, and that's a quote from Dana White, and I was skeptical as well, but after this weekend, you could see how much, much Dana White enjoyed it. You could see, and of course it was a good outcome for them, and the fight played out perfectly. But it just, to me, it just felt like a breath of fresh air. Everything from

the primetime show, which, again, I thought was fantastic. Remember, there was no trash talk between these two, yet we were all very intrigued to see how it played out. How often does that happen in an MMA fight? And then I thought, you know, having the four other women currently signed that they're talking about, we know there's more now at the press conference available to the media, you know, they're front and center at the event. I became a lot more confident that the UFC, of course it's the Rousey show in the sense that she's a champ. It's the John Jones show at 205.

It's the Anderson Silva show at 185, and Rousey may get more attention, but I'm confident now that they're really into this and talking to some of their, you know, people behind the scenes and whatnot. It seems like they're fully behind us. Are you more confident in that than you were maybe a couple months ago? Yeah, I am, and I feel the same way. you i think it was really good that they brought in the four other signies and had them uh in

in attendance and then available for media and everything like that so i think if they continue to do that and if they continue to identify the fact that they have more than just a couple of female fighters on the roster and uh dana was was talking at the post by press conference about how they wanted to put up the the female rankings on the ufc page as well which i think is good good for doing that so they can at least get the names out there um but yeah as long as they they keep this focus on there and Dana seemed to be really, really interested in promoting more female fights going forward. He had a big smile on the space for most of the press conference afterwards.

So I think that they considered it a pretty big success. And as long as they consider it success, then hopefully they'll continue to put the female fights in prominent spots because you don't want it to be just on the, you know, the Facebook undercard or something like that. You want to have these fights on the main card. And if Rhonda keeps winning, then I would imagine that she's going to be in Maine event or co-made event spots from here on out. They should 100% have the women involved in the rankings.

I mean, there's no, they're a division now, same as any division. They should do that. Dana was interesting because he was all sweaty, he had the big sweat stains on his shirt, lost his voice, but yet it seemed like it was a very positive and enjoyable night for him. And, you know, it's interesting because I spoke to Misha Tate and Katzenegano after the fight. Misha disputing my claim that she wasn't very complimentary of Ronda's performance, and I said that she wasn't impressed by it. She never said that word.

I don't know if you saw the interview, and I'm going to play a portion of it later. They didn't give her one compliment. Other than the fact that she was there fighting in the first fight, they didn't give her one compliment. They talked about the holes in her game, giving up her back, et cetera, et cetera. I'll ask you, were you impressed with Rousey's performance?

Obviously, she wins in the first round via Arm Bar, but she was in the most vulnerable position that she's ever been in, in an MMA fight thus far. Were you impressed with her performance? Yeah, I was. I think there's two ways that you can look at that. You can look at it that she was put in a vulnerable spot, and that maybe shows weakness.

But on the other hand, she got out of it and won the fight. So you have to kind of look at both sides of that. I think the fact that she managed to finish a top opponent like Liz inside of one round is pretty impressive in itself, but the fact that she actually battled through adversity to do it is even more impressive to me. I think with regards to the comments from Mishin-Kat, they have to sort of talk themselves up and they have to identify the holes in Ronda's game in order to try to campaign for a fight themselves because they are in what may be the number

one contenders about. They want to be able to go on and fight for the title, so they need to start kind of campaigning in advance then go out and win their fight that's coming up. Do you think the winner of that fight deserves a shot at Ronda? Yes, but I would rather see Alexis Davis get the fight first. I think that's a much more interesting fight, and I think that Alexis Davis probably has the best chance of anyone in the division right now of beating Ronda Rousey.

Her submission game is really, really, really high level, and so it would be great to see that kind of a match-up on the ground. I think the scrambles that would take place on the ground could be very entertaining. But I don't think that Alexis necessarily needs a fight before fighting Rhonda. I think that she could go straight into it, and in the meantime, the cat and Misha, winner could then maybe have the winner of Ronda and Alexis after that. You know, I like that, and Alexis was very confident when we spoke to her on Thursday saying

that she wanted the winner, not really feeling like she needed a debut fight in the UFC. So you think she has a better shot than, say, Sarah McMahon who's been around, you know, way less time than Alexis in MMA, but yet has the Olympic pedigree, the silver medal, the wrestling, et cetera, et cetera. You think right now Alexis has a better shot than, say, Sarah? I would say yes, but I do think that Sarah McMahon has a good chance of winning that fight as well. She's actually the one that I've had in mind for that matchup for quite some time. But my understanding is they want to get her at least one or two more fights before she fights Ronda, just to get her more experience against high-level competition, which makes sense.

I think that's a good idea. So she's one that they could maybe continue to build up as well, get her a couple of fights, and if they have 10 fighters and soon to be 15 female fighters on the raw. then doing that shouldn't be a problem. But in the meantime, I would definitely like to see Alexis get the next fight, or at least, at the very least, have the number one contender spot. I don't think that she should have to wait two fights to fight for the title, because when you're submitting, like she became the first woman to ever submit to Tomey Akano

in Invict and then just choked out Shana Bazel. Those are two really big wins, and those are arguably two bigger wins than the ones that Liz got an Invicta, and Liz received a direct title shot. So I think that Alexis is more than proven that she's worthy of competing for the belt. And all of a sudden, I mean, you have Alexis, you have Sarah out there, you have the winner of Misha and Kat. They've signed some others. There's Julie Kedzi out there, Jermaine Darabia. I mean, all of a sudden, the criticism about women's M.A.

in this division of it being shallow, it's really not that shallow. It's no less shallow or more shallow than any other division. And it's very refreshing to see. Now, I do not want to see the ultimate fighter version of all this, in the sense, I don't want to see Rhonda be a coach on the Ultimate Fighter. I don't want to see her and Misha, all that stuff, on the Ultimate Fighter, because I feel like it just waters down the product, the fight, the buzz, and all that. And yeah, it's different this year or this season, but to me it feels the same.

It's still the same show. You may have changed the production, but it's still the same show. Do you want to see this? Are you interested in seeing a women's tough different? But I don't want to see Ronda and Misha be coaches for the men and then just use that as a platform to have, or Ronda or anyone use that as a platform to sell a fight. Do you agree? Yeah, if they were going to do another season of the Ultimate Fighter

and it was going to be for female fighters, that's okay. I'm not really too upset about that, as long as they only do one because the whole show's premise has been way overdone at this point. So I think they could do one for female fighters and that will be it. But I'm totally with you and that I don't really have any interest in seeing Ronda and either Misha or Kat or anybody, coaching male fighters just as a promotion because I don't think they need it. I think we saw leading up to this fight, they didn't need that.

They did all the promotion without the backing of tough aside from Ronda's one brief little cameo appearance on the show. So I don't think they really need to do that. And I think, like you said, it would probably just water it down and take focus away from the fact that it's going to be the women who are fighting, not the male fighters who are coming up and tough. By the way, were you as blown away as I was? Dana, he thanked the media after, and it's kind of not cool to do that because then it seems like the media is on the same side as Dana, and there's some criticism that the media was

like, you know, being spoon-fed this storyline and going gaga over it. At the end of the day, I thought the media coverage was a positive. I mean, I thought it was fair. There might have been some, you know, criticism out there, but they told the story of Ron and Liz, and they played this up for what it was. It was a historic moment. Did Liz deserve to be there first? Maybe not, but she stepped up and whether or not the others didn't or whatnot,

I think she was kind of the perfect person. She dealt with everything before and after the fight amazingly, professionally, classy, it was great, great backstory,

primetime was great. But were you surprised by, I mean, front page of the L.A. Times, CNN.com, you know, Sports Illustrated had a feature on Ronda,

HBO, etc., New York Times, all that stuff. Were you surprised how many people were interested in this? I was a bit surprised. Yeah,

I did think that there would be a fair amount of interest, but even up here, like there are lots of newspapers and things had full-page stories and stuff, and oftentimes the papers don't even cover MMA at all. So for them to have it on the front page and then to have feature stories about a female fight was pretty amazing, I think. So yeah, it surprised me a little bit, but I did think that there would be quite a lot of promotion for this. I thought that if they were going to have Ronda on the roster, they would probably put a pretty

decent amount of PR behind her and try to get her out there. But, I mean, credit to her for doing all those interviews leading up to the fight, as well. I mean, she's pretty much everywhere. So that's got to be tough when you're in a training camp for what's going to be your biggest fight to date. So definitely credit to both her and Liz for taking part in all those interviews as well. Yeah, they did a great job. In fact, I was so, I guess, worried about that and I was actually the last one that they had to talk to on Wednesday at the workout. So I was like, you know, maybe I'll ask some different questions. I think it was one of my worst interviews ever. I shouldn't have gone left field like that. But I just heard.

her answer the same thing like 30 times in a row. And at that point, I just felt bad. I felt like she was exhausted of answering the same thing over and over again. I'm talking about Rhonda. But I think that was a fail on my part. In any event, they handled it beautifully, and it was a pleasure to be around, and it was a pleasure to cover, and I thought they were a breath of fresh air. I'll ask you this one final question before we go. When do you want to see Rhonda back? Like, you know, no major injuries it appears coming out of this fight. Would you like to see her? It seems like up until July, they're kind of booked, how soon would you like to see her back? Yeah, if they're booked up until July, then probably July or August of the latest.

I think if they did go ahead and consider putting together a fight between Rhonda and Alexis, which, like I said, I think that would be the best course of action, and I think that will lead to the most exciting direct fight, then, yeah, they could certainly do that by July or August, unless either fighter gets injured in the meantime. but if they're going to wait around and have the Misha Kat winner take on Ronda next, then same sort of time frame because I think that the winner of that fight should be ready by July or August, maybe September at the latest, but I think that they don't want to wait too long. They've had a really good event here, and they've got a lot of positive buzz,

so you don't want to draw it out too long. You want to have her back as quickly as possible. So they can fit her in by July or at the latest August, and I think that would be for the best. By the way, I've got to ask you this, what's a bigger fight? Because I've been talking about it all week in Anaheim. Let's just pretend they can make 135. Bigger fight. Ronda versus Cyborg or Rhonda versus Gina?

That's a good question, actually. It's tempting to say Rhonda versus Cyborg is because there's been this war of words going on, and I think that that would probably help. But at the same time, I'm just not really sure how many people are behind Cyborg right now. like she definitely has some fans, but she lost a lot of fans with the steroid controversy as well. And I guess you could say the same thing about Gino after she lost the cyborg. There were some who just sort of kind of abandoned the bandwagon or whatever. But I don't know, Gina's been off in Hollywood.

She's been fairly successful for herself. She's been making a bigger name for herself in a new market. So that's a tough call. You could kind of make a case either way. But I would say that if that fight was ever going to happen, hypothetically, Gina would definitely need to take some time away from Hollywood and train like crazy because we saw at the end of her elite XC career. She was kind of split between too many projects.

She had American gladiators. She was getting into the Hollywood scene and stuff like that. She was still winning her fights, but I don't really think that she was at her best. And if she was going to come in and fight Rhonda, then she would need to be training crazy hours just like Ronda does. Which has a better chance of happening, though? It's another good question. I think the Cyborg one probably has a better. chance of happening because I think the gene is pretty content with what she's doing right now.

She has hinted it coming back, but I think as long as she's getting prominent movie roles and getting paid pretty big salaries in Hollywood, there's really no reason to give that up to come back to fighting, although I know she likes fighting. I think that she'll probably stick with that. So I would say probably the Cyborg one, but I don't think it'll happen at 135. I think they'll have to do a catch-weight, or maybe Rhonda would move all the way up to 145. Great stuff, as always, Robert. You can follow him on Twitter. Twitter.com slash MMA Rising. That's his handle.

Also go to the website. MMArising.com. He was doing it, as I mentioned earlier, before it was cool. He is the number one authority when it comes to women's MMA, and he is Canadian, so that makes him a good lad. Appreciate the time, Robert. Thank you, as always. We'll talk to you very soon.

Thanks very much. There he is. Robert Sargent of MMArising.com, stopping by to talk about the big Ronda Rousey win on Saturday night. Now let us move along and welcome in. you go from one former Strike Force champion to, I guess, a former Strike Force champion, the last Strike Force Welterweight champion. He joins us right now.

Tariq Safedine stops by. Tariq, how are you? I'm doing great, and I appreciate you stopping by. By the way, you know, to start off right at the top, I saw you, obviously in Anaheim you were with Dan Henderson. We'll get to that in a second. I noticed you were limping. Is everything okay?

Was that you just being cool? That's my cool working. No, I don't think I was really limping. Sorry, I made the wrong impression, but I don't think I was limping. That was your swagger. That was the Safedine's swagger. I could have sworn that you were limping, and then I was like, oh, he's limping. Maybe he has a bit of an injury.

Maybe that's why he turned down the Carlos Condit fight. Clearly, you're not injured. That's good to hear. So explain to us. You were offered this fight last week, right? Roy McDonald got injured. Why did you turn it down? You know, yeah, the main reason basically was, you know, I'm not 100% healthy.

I have a couple injuries that have been nagging, and I had to take care of them, you know, that I'm doing one night. And so I had to unfortunately turn down the fight. I was, you know, it was too short to heal my injury and, you know, be ready for the fight. You know, with a healthy and longer camp, I would love to take the fight. But unfortunately, that's the reason why I had to turn it down. You know, I was talking to one of your coaches about this,

and I said, even if you weren't injured, I wouldn't have taken the fight anyway. I mean, you're coming off the biggest win of your career. You're the last champion in Strike Force in the World Warwick Division. And on three and a half or so weeks notice, you're going to fight Carlos Condit, one of the best at 170, in your UFC debut, much different for Nate Marquart, who has been in the UFC, he's fought for titles, et cetera, et cetera. He, in some ways, has nothing to lose in this second go-around.

You only have one chance to make a first impression. So I wonder, even if you weren't injured, even if you weren't banged up, would you have taken the fight? Against Carlos? Yeah, against Carlos or anyone on such short notice. You know, in short notice, if I were not injured, you said, if I were injured. If you were not even injured?

Oh, if I wasn't injured. I don't know if I was in such a short notice. I think I would have said no either. I don't know, man. It was a tough call because I wasn't in the best shape right now, and it was a tough call to say yes. And at the same time, it was a great opportunity. was your opportunity I was looking for also.

So I don't know. I think what made the balance, you know, go through a no was, you know, my injury. So, yeah, you know. What exactly is bothering you right now? You know, I have a – I did MRI after my last fight, and I don't really want to disclose, but I had to do it with the UFC so they know about my injury. Okay.

And, yeah, so it's not a big injury, but it's been bothering me in training. So right now I'm doing some physical therapy, you know, to heal it up. When could you come back? You know, I would love to come back around April or May. I think I would have, you know, a good camp and a healthy camp at the same time. So, yeah, April or May would be good. You know, I know you wanted to fight in the UFC for a long time. How difficult was it when you get your first opportunity to turn it down?

Or was it an easy one because of, as you mentioned, the timing and the injuries? It was tough. I think, you know, it was tough to turn it down, especially, you know, fighting Condi. I know he's a big name and he's a really tough opponent, but it's not somebody that has to take, you know, lightly. You know, and it was hard because I'm really looking for. forward for my first fight to the UFC. And as you mentioned,

you know, I cannot, you know, you know, going to a camp and, I'm on short notice and, you know, going against a fighter like him, you know, with 30-tort notice. So, you know, I'm really looking forward for my next fight in the UFC and, you know, put on an exciting fight for the fence.

I've been really looking forward to that and I'll be ready. Speaking of the fans, what kind of feedback did you get? Because, you know, in this day and age, in the UFC, when it comes out that someone turns down a fight, even on one week's notice, you get called a whole bunch of names, people think you're scared, et cetera, et cetera.

What kind of feedback did you get from fans when news came out that you turned down this fight? You know, I had a lot of support. A lot of people understood that, you know, I turned down the fight. You know, of course, you know, you have people that, you know, don't understand and don't agree, but you always have, you know, both sides. you know, whatever decision you make.

I think if I would have to take the fight, you know, I would have, you know, people saying that I shouldn't have taken it or other people that would have, you know, happy with the decision. So, you know, that's something that you have to deal with. And, you know, I had a lot of people, especially also back home, you know, that support me on my decision. And, you know, I appreciate it. And, you know, for the people, you know, that disagree with it, you know, I'll make sure that they enjoy me next fight. You were in Anaheim for your friend and training partner, Dan Henderson.

Did you happen to talk to anyone in the UFC to try to explain to them in person why the timing wasn't right for you? No, actually, I haven't. I haven't seen, you know, Dana White or Joe Silva or, you know, Sean Shelby. I didn't have the chance to see them. You mentioned back home. I'm assuming you mean Belgium, right? Yeah, Belgium.

and, you know, France and, you know, a lot of people, you know, in Europe in general. Yeah. You know, since your win over Marquard in early January, do you feel like you're getting more attention as far as media and fans are concerned? Now that you're, you know, you became champion, it was such a great performance, all that stuff. Have you noticed a difference? Yeah, a little bit. You know, as far as media, as you said, and as far as, you know, the fans,

I have a little bit more recognition, I would say. especially back home, you know, you know, a lot of people support me and, you know, get to know me a little bit better. You know, when UFC 156 ended, Damien Maya, who had a great win over John Fitch, said that he wanted to fight you next. And now, obviously, you're not fighting at 158.

He's still out there. Do you think that's a fight that makes sense for you? You know, anybody? Oh. Oh. Are you still there, Tarek? Because I'm here. Okay, sorry.

You hear me? Cut out for a second. We didn't hear your answer. Okay, yeah. So, yeah, I think, you know, anybody in the top ten, I would love to fight anybody in the top ten, you know. And, you know, I know Damien is coming off from a great win against John Fitch. And if the fans and everybody else, you know, wants to see the fight, you know.

I don't decide the fight. I don't decide my opponent. You know, the UFC does. And, you know, whoever, you know, they want me to fight. I'll be ready. Do you like that matchup for you? You know, I think Deemian is a tough

opponent, you know, but that's what I'm looking for, you know. I don't want to, you know, an easy fight. I'll put on exciting fights. Oh, seems like a bad...

Yeah, yeah, it cut out again. Oh, sorry. So, yeah, I would say that you know, it's a tough opponent but I'm really looking forward to put on an exciting fight for coming into the UFC

so you know if the fans want to see a fight and if Dana White and everybody else in the UFC wants, I'm ready. But I would really love to come on an exciting first fight. By the way, as the UFC Walterway, what do you think when you hear that John Fitch, a top tenor gets released? When I heard the news, I was, you know, it's

you know, John Fitch is, I've been watching him for a long time and, you know, getting cut like that. I mean, I don't know what the reason behind it. I guess, you know, he lost two of his last three fights or something like that, I believe. And, you know, it's a tough business. And it's a sad to see, you know, gone into the UFC because it's such a tough opponent. It's still in the top ten. So, you know, it's just said that you have to work your ass off and, you know, put on an exciting fight every time you're going there.

And, you know, it's tough. It's tough to see him going on. Have you noticed the strike force fighters, for the most part, since coming over to the UFC? Saw it again on Saturday with Robbie Lawler. Nishon Burrell looked great. Have you noticed they've looked really, really good? Yeah, yeah, I guess the fact that we didn't fight as well.

Sorry, not as well, as much as we wanted to before, the strikes. I guess we were really, you know, I mean, they are really angry to, you know, to show what we are cable left doing and that will really come to the UFC to fight and put on good shows. So, you know, I've watched pretty much all the Strike Force fighter, and it's exciting to see them, you know, perform as well. Yeah, a lot of people were saying they wanted to now see Robbie Lawler fight you for the sort of, you know, the Strike Force title that no longer exists. That would be a fun matchup, right? Two great strikers. Yeah, I think that would be a really exciting matchup for the fans.

You know, honestly, I don't decide my opponent. You know, obviously I would love to fight somebody that's going to bring an exciting fight and, you know, whoever, you know, I'm down. Hey, by the way, where is the Strike Force belt these days? I think I'm in the living room, you know. Oh, great. Yeah, it's in the living room and it's right. And I can, it's really cool to have that belt in my house, and I'm really, you know, grateful.

And it's really rewarding to have it. Yeah, and no one's going to take it away from you. So that's the best part. So you were in Anaheim, as I mentioned. In your opinion, what went wrong for Dan Henderson against the Odomichita? You know, I had a quick talk after, you know, the fight with him. and really quick. He told me that he told me he said he won the fight.

I thought he won two rounds. I know he was a close fight, but, you know. And he said, yeah, I know, but I didn't perform as I wanted to. You know, I guess he's bummed out about his own performance, not really the fact that, you know, he lost. But just because, you know, he didn't perform as he wanted to match it as a tough, you know, it's tough to catch, he's tough opponent. pick your part and move well.

So, you know, I guess it'll come back stronger. You know, the fans were very upset, a lot of booing. Do you respect Machita's style? Do you have an appreciation for it? You know, I enjoy watching Machita. I think you know, the way

fought was smart and at the same time, you know, it was expecting to be a little bit boring because nobody wants to get in a brawl and Machita with them. you know and she does not a real brawler and he wasn't going to do it this against Dan so we're kind of expecting that you know that's why when I train with Dan I'm trying to mimic this style and just move around move wrong move away from his right hand and so you know

we were going to expect in it and that's what he did was Dan a hundred percent going into the fight then he's always 100 percent in his mind but his body you know it's you know, his body is, he wasn't, I don't know if I can say, he wasn't, you know, 100% healthy, but then it's always, you know,

100% whatever, his body, it's always 100%, you know, going to fight mentally. And, you know, when you're there, obviously it wasn't, at the end of the night, it wasn't a great night for you guys,

but when you're there and your UFC and you see now some of your strike force colleagues doing well, you must be more motivated now. It feels like, like you're right there, you're just about to, to,

get the reward at the end of the rainbow. Like, did you feel more excited than maybe in the past when you're, you know, coming to UFC event to corner a guy or to visit or to watch? Because now you're a part of all of this, right? Yeah, you know, it's, you know, I'm really, really exciting. Right now I'm in front of the gym. I can wait to go and train. And even though, you know, I'm more motivated than ever, just, you know,

just go and train and, you know, you know, can wait for my next fight. It was really exciting to be part of the UFC, and watching that event yesterday gave me a good bunch. You know, so many people watching, so many people there, you know, screaming and booing at the same time. You know, it was really pretty exciting, and I can wait to be there, you know, and fight. Are you guys moving to a new location, the team question? Yes, sir. We're actually going to close the gym we're training at, and then the... opening his new gym actually just down the road, you know, a couple miles away, and it's going to be nice.

And hopefully in the next few weeks we're going to open it. All right. Well, good luck to you, Tarak. Always good to talk to you. Hoping to see you back in action very soon. We appreciate the time very much. I appreciate it, Ariel. Thank you very much.

All right, there he is. Tarak Safedine stopping by for a few minutes here on the MMA hour talking about turning down the fight at UFC 158 and his return. a lot of talk out there. Robbie Lawler. Martin Capman was a name that was thrown out. Damien Maya has asked for him. So who knows? But his stock has never been higher. He is the last Strike Force Welterweight champion.

In a minute, we're going to be talking to Darren Harvey, the manager for Ronda Rousey. I want to play this clip. You have the clip ready, Isaac? Yeah. I mentioned it with Robert. Let's play just the beginning of my interview with Misha Taitan and Katzenegano on Saturday. Courtesy of Fuel TV, check it out. Fuel.tv. You could see the whole interview, YouTube.com slash Fuel TV.

They said that, or Misha said that I sort of described the interview incorrectly. You tell me what you think. I said they weren't impressed. You tell me what you think. Ariel Halwani alongside the next two women in line, the women who will face each other on April 13th at the Ultimate Fighter finale, Misha Tate. Katz and Gano, let's start with you, Misha.

We just watched Ronda Rousey defeat Liz Karmouche. You know Rhonda well. What do you think of her performance? It's pretty much what I expected, but she did get a little sloppy there, giving her back up, which is the habit I have picked up on a little bit. And, you know, I got her back in the first fight, and I guarantee you if I get in the second one, I'm going to rip her face off. So you think if you were in that position, Liz's dominant position, you finish her?

100%. Kat, what do you think of her performance? I agree. I feel like there's a lot that you can do to do. deal with the things that she puts out there. It's exactly what I expected. So correct me from wrong from both of you here. You don't seem all that impressed with her performance.

It's impressive because it's the first female fight in the UFC. And I'm very proud that we're all part of it. But, you know, I think that there's a lot of holes in the game that can be filled. And there's, you know, time we'll tell. So did Liz surprise you at all? Was she tougher than you thought she would be? I knew Liz was going to be. All right.

So that's the portion that I wanted to spotlight. You could see the rest of the interview. YouTube.com slash fuel TV, but correct me if I'm wrong right there, that didn't sound like they were impressed at all. Holes in her game, rip her head off, et cetera, et cetera. There was not one positive thing said right there. So maybe Misha didn't say the word impressed, but am I crazy? There was no, there were no accolades thrown around there, and they don't have to, but that was just the delicious I wanted to spotlight it.

And as Robert said, they should say that stuff. They may fight her next. So why not say that stuff? Build yourself up. Everyone wants to believe that you're going to beat her. And that's what you should say. I had no problem with anything they said. I was a little confused as to why Misha was saying kind of backtracking from the comment.

But she didn't say the word impressor for that. I guess I apologize, but I never put a quote around it. I was just kind of giving it a title. Anyway, let us move along now. We're talking Ronda Rousey and who better to talk to other than Ronner. to herself, then her manager. Longtime manager, Darren Harvey, he returns to the MMA hour. He joins

us right now. Darren, how are you? I'm great, Ari. How are you? I'm doing very well. Were you able to hear that interview, or were you talking to Eric in the back? I'm kind of laughing to myself, you know, because I'm listening, yes, I heard what Mishu was saying, and

I've heard all this stuff about holes in game. You know, I think as an MMA athlete develops themselves, and, you know, stepping away from judo, you're trying different things a little bit It takes a little while to work it out. But if Ron, and I don't believe this is Rhonda's best performance, but I believe it was one of her toughest opponents to date. And even fighting not her best performance and fighting one of her toughest opponents to date,

she's still finished the goal off in the first round. Right. So watch out, girls, that's all I have to say. So, and I'll ask you sort of the same question I asked them. You say it wasn't her best performance. Were you impressed her? Were you happy with her performance again? She guts the win.

She finishes her. But when you walked away there, were you like, you know, that was a fine performance by Rhonda? Well, you know, put it this way. Kamoosh did not take her back. Rhonda gave her back. So, of course, I'm not happy with that.

You know what I mean? But it's, you know, it's one of the risks of a judo throw, and that's what judicious people try to capitalize on. It's a very fixable thing. She'll never do it again. We can guarantee you that. And it was just, you know, and not,

I'm not going to make the pressure of the fight an excuse, because Rhonda really didn't show me that she was very stressed out. But I think, you know, the amount of press that she had to do, which is unprecedented, she didn't really get a complete training camp. And this is not anything Rhonda said. This is just something. I've seen what she's gone through. You know, she could not consistently train for anything, you know.

And it really, she's a very mental fighter. She gets her full heart and her mind into a fight. You know what I mean? And it was just the focus was so broken up this time. You know, normally I'll talk to the PR department, but we had a responsibility, and we developed the most important, I think, male or female history for me as far as my concern. Right.

So was there ever a point where you felt Rhonda was, you know, shutting off where she had enough of all the media? Was there ever a breaking point before the fight where you had to scale back? She just did everything I was asked of her, to be quite honest with you. Wow. She's a soldier. But was there ever a point where you were concerned this might become a problem? 100%.

If I had my way, I look at it two different ways. Obviously, you want to PR the fight. You want as many paper views as possible. You want to, you know, do all the press and get the word out there. At the same time, you have a fight to win, you know. So it's a very delicate balance. So, you know, I have two things. I want her to peel the fight, but also, my biggest concern is that she has an,

interrupted camp, and she goes in there and performs at our best. So, you know, when you look at this whole situation, I was talking to Robert Sargent about this, you know, it was a big deal, it was historic, it felt like a breath of fresh air, the prime time was great and all that, but I was legitimately surprised by how much attention she received. I mean, from every major media outlet before and after, it was unprecedented for a UFC fight. Were you surprised? I'm not surprised at all. You know, since day one, we have, from, First of all, the UFC has a stellar PR department,

and Ronda has one of the best PR people in the business that has been primarily focused on Ronda for the last year and a half. So our push and their push together, that's how we've been able to really accomplish all this mainstream stuff, coupled with an incredible story and an incredible athlete. Obviously, the greatest PR department in the world couldn't push something that isn't incredible. You know, she's a story.

You're generally... You get generally like a little anxious, nervous on fighting, right? Yeah. What's going through your mind when Karmucia's on her back, neck crank, it looks like a dicey situation. What are you thinking? Well, I thought that she's been training with Huron Gracie for this fight and I believe that, and they specifically were working on Rondo.

We know we don't need to work on your offense. You're very rarely put in a bad position. Let's put you in the worst possible positions that we can and go over and over and over. And that was 85% of their training together is them taking her back, them getting her inside control, them mounting her positions that she almost would never be in. So I really wasn't, you know,

I was worried about her pretty little face getting scratched up, but I wasn't worried about her getting choked out. Even in that position, you weren't more nervous than you were a minute before. She's tough as nails. I really, you know, I really wasn't. I knew that you would get out of it. Now, what about, yeah. Go ahead, sorry.

And guess what? I was right. You were right. You were 100% right. Now, another concern maybe, and we joked about this in our post-fight interview, you know, the fight against Misha, the shorts were too small. This time she had sports bra problems. What's going on with the attire? Why can we get the right-fitting stuff?

I think Janet Jackson's Super Bowl. Wardrobe malfunction. But that could, you know, for someone in a fight, you know, you're fixing your tire, that could be a problem, right? You're concerned about something else. We're kind of worried. You know, it's a very, it's a lulu lemon, very strappy back and sexy and we're probably going to come up with a better alternative. It isn't quite as flattering, you know. You know, it's funny you mentioned that because I was watching the fight with my wife yesterday, and she was like, is that Lulu Lemon?

I said, I have no idea, but she's right. It was Lulu Lemon? Your wife knows her a tire. Wow. That's good. I'll let her know. She'll be happy. But in the future,

we're going to make sure on your end that everything's okay. Like, did she not try this stuff on before? No, she tries it on, but next time it's going to be duct tape. I'll wrap duct tape around her. Very smart. Very smart.

Were you, I mean, in that moment, you know, before the fight, hour before, whatever, more nervous than the Misha fight, more nervous than her Strike Force debut, other fights? Did you feel the magnitude of the,

the moment? You know, it's really interesting. For some reason, I wasn't as, I felt that she was more prepared than ever. I thought she was going to knock, you know, because her boxing is looking so phenomenal. I thought she was going to go in and knock, uh, knock Liz out. You know, that didn't happen. And I think that's a bit of an issue. She started throwing the punches, and she was kind of focused on showcasing whatever other talents and, you know, got to what the judo is her strength, you know. Refresh my memory. When did you first meet Rhonda? Approximately three years ago.

I met her at GoCourse, Jim. Gene LaBelle brought her into my office. I had offices in that facility. And you've got to meet this girl, and I heard a bunch of, like, Manning and Karen and Southwark a bunch of the Armenian fighters, and you've got to manage hers. She's unbelievable.

Then I had an opportunity to meet her, talk to her, but trained with her, jack me up a little bit. And I go, oh, my God. There's something here. She's really hot. She's really smart, and she's, like, phenomenally talented. So that's three years ago, as you mentioned, we're now three years later. She's arguably top five biggest stars in the sport, just had her UFC debut, all this attention. Is she the same person today that she was three years ago when you first met her? Lost any of her humility at all. I think that she's, you know, when you put on the pedestal, when you put somebody on the pedestal, they'll only look down on you. and she has, she's been put on this pedestal,

she's not looking down on anybody, she's maintained her humility. Of course, she's a young woman, and it's incredibly challenging, faced confronted with all the success and all this fame, and it's happened. It's really, in a sense,

out three years as it's overnight, you know, in this business. It's happened very rapidly to make history, but she's handling it all very well. As her manager, what are you going to do to ensure that she remains that way, because it's only going to get bigger as long as she keeps winning.

She's getting more immediate attention, more spotlight, all that stuff. How do you make sure that she doesn't change? I can't really control any human being. You just have faith that they're good people. And at the end of the day, we're just God's children. And I think she realizes that. Nobody's more special than anyone else. It's not, you know, God's will to make her better than the other human being.

We all have special talents in our own ways. And she's really talented here. You know, that her stars are. and bright right now. And she, I think, knows that that could all go away, too. And, you know, I think how do you treat people on your way up, and at the top, determine how you're going to be treated. And she's aware of that.

Who do you think... You know, people build you up and knock you down. Absolutely. Who do you think makes sense for her next? I'd like to see Misha Dave again, you know, because I think anyone that makes it past the first minute, you know, viable competition. I'm sure.

Misha's improving and working in her game and improving all the time, and we have a lot of respect for Misha. I don't Rhonda doesn't like her, but we have respect for her. And I respect her. I've actually had an opportunity to talk to her, and I think she's a nice girl. Everyone that I've ever met, that knows her said she's really nice.

So I have to respect a nice person in this sport. It's so tough, you know? Yeah, absolutely. Has the UFC told you 100% that the winner of her fight against Kat on April 13th? I know Rhonda's going to be there. Have they told you that that's the number one contender? No one contender. I need to talk to John Shelby about that and see.

But right now we have no idea. You know, maybe it's Sarah McMahon. I just don't know. I don't even sure what Sarah was signed, right? Sarah was signed, yeah. But, you know, I think she's a good potential, you know, because they both have the strong, you know, grappling backgrounds. Sure.

And that would be a good one in the Olympic credentials. Oh, yeah. From the PR perspective, that's a very good story. When you think we'll see her back? I think we're going to play Ron about three times a year, so I would say maybe four months from now. Four months from now. So like July-August timeframe?

I think that's the possibility. You know, she needs to decompress, not just from getting ready for the fight, but all the press. Yeah. I just want to hit the whole team to Hawaii. I told everybody, I said, let me just, let's all go to Hawaii, apply all of us there, get nice,

just laying in the pool, lay out, get some sun, drink the Nicaradas, relax, and not talk about fighting, just get that. Where is she going to disappear? I guess you don't want to tell us, because, but she's going to disappear somewhere, right? You mean, where are she going to take a vacation? Yeah, I don't even know.

I know she's like after the fight. She likes to, she doesn't want to know. Everybody said after party, after party. But she said, I just want to sit in my hotel room and eat the buffalo wings. that is a that is a great post Buffalo wings yeah did she get her Buffalo wings she got her buffalo wings and she just

you know it's really funny I likened her to you know a method actor I think I've mentioned this to you before where they immersed themselves in this role and she's playing the role of a fighter which is what she's really doing and up to the fight she is in this intense mode

you know she's not the sweetest you know and I know I know she's in fight mode, you know what I mean? It's not fun and games. It's not warm and fuzzy, nor should it be for her. You know what I mean? She just, if you look at her eyes, it's the most intense look you'll ever see it in a human being. I can't even look at them now.

I'll have to look away if they're so intense. Any serious injuries coming out of the fight? Oh, I know her, you know, it's a bit of a neck crank and her, you know, the rumors about her biting Garmuzes on. The mouthpiece was pushed aside, and she was ramming her arm into Rhonda's teeth. What is she supposed to do, you know what I mean? But does not by any means a cheater, you know, or she does everything by the book,

from the way she eats to supplements to, you know what I mean, everything is by the book. We're seeing the business of MMA change a bit. You saw a head and shoulders on the cage on Saturday, Machita's sponsored by them. Of course, John Jones and Anderson Silva and Junior Dos Santos with Nike, Rampage with Reebok. To me, it seems like a no-brainer.

If these Blue Chip sponsors are getting involved in MMA, Rhonda should be at the forefront of all that for so many reasons. What kind of calls are you getting these days? We're getting calls. I'm not going to say, but we're talking to every big apparel to cosmetics to every category you could possibly imagine. And really, we're just trying to pick and choose and make the right deal. Because it's not just about the money. You know, when you make it do an endorsement deal, you want them to promote you, you know,

and you want to be part of their advertising budget where they're promoting you into the mainstream. So that's something that we want to take into consideration. And also has to be the right partnership, something that Rhonda believes in. But she doesn't believe in it. It's not going to be a good partnership. You know, I notice... So she's not because you could pay her a million dollars. If she doesn't believe it, if she doesn't use head and shoulders,

she doesn't... You know, she's not going to be wearing her shorts. I noticed that she was... And by the way, I think she doesn't use that. Right, right, right, of course. Of course, let's not alienate head and shoulders. But I noticed she was a UFC-branded athlete this time. time. You know, it was on her shorts and her top and whatnot.

Is this kind of like a John Jones situation where he was sponsored by them, but then the next fight, you know, it was kind of like a pit stop or maybe like a placeholder before the big deal? I think it was just really fitting. It's the first female in the UFC. It was sort of a, you know, I kind of was driving one day. And I go, what are we going to do? We had all these big deals on the table. And I talked to Ron, and I said, you know, I think we owe it to them to walk out with nothing but UFC. and giants, you know? Mm-hmm. And, you know, it just sort of shows gratitude,

and it makes a statement, she's a UFC fighter, the first female to ever fight in the UFC, and what's more fitting than to wear UFC on her shorts and on a sports? Do you think that in her next fight, she'll have a big sponsor attached her? I mean, we're talking to every major. I don't want to want the cat out of the bag.

Sure. One is represented by one of the top, probably the largest agency, you know, William Morris and Debra, and their endorsement department is working tirelessly along with my department, and we're working together trying to bring the biggest and the best deals, the most fitting deals. Everything is about fitting. It's got to be the right fit, you know? Yeah, absolutely.

So I would be surprised if we didn't, but you just never know. You know what I mean? You know, I believe Ronda's stock goes up every day, so the deal that we don't do today will be a bigger deal if we wait until tomorrow. Dana said at the post-fight press conference that the ship has essentially sailed on the cyborg fight, that this train has moved along without her.

Do you believe that? Do you believe this fight is not happening? I don't believe that it's not happening. I believe that Dana believes right now it's not happening, just like there'll never be a female in MMA, but they may decide. He's saying that because we're not doing catch weights. There's one division, it's 135 pounds,

There's no point in fighting, you know, just a super fight. It doesn't make any sense from a marketing perspective or from a, from any, there's no reason to do it. It's not a title fight. She's a 135-pound champ. That's what she's going to defend. And until they decide to come down to our weight, which I, you know, I believe that Cyborg can make, she can make 40, she can make 45.

By the way, Cyborg's very first fight in Invicta against, Edian Comez, that was Ronna's very first fight. And Comez weighed in five pounds heavy for that fight. I went ballistic. And Ronah fought on 145 pounds. Rhonda didn't think she'd be able to make 35 until she tried it. She bought Misa Tatea at 135 pounds. It was sort of untested for her, but she did it.

It wasn't easy, but she made it. She's a big strong girl, too. So you think it happens? She doesn't walk around like that point. Yeah, I mean, to say anything's impossible, it would be, you know, it wouldn't be the right. right thing to say. What do you think? To be honest, I just don't see it happening anytime soon, but what I'm wondering is,

and I know, it probably won't happen, but I keep bringing it up because I think it would be so fascinating. Do you think there's ever a chance she fights Gina Carrano? She adores Gina. Gina has, you know, pursuing a very, a very lucrative movie career now. I don't, it doesn't really make a lot of sense for Gina. Yeah. But, but Gina is a fighter in her heart, and I think she may want to prove to the world that she could be somebody like Rhonda, who's considered the best. And I'm very close with her manager Scott Karp, and we'll talk about it on occasion. And I kind of, I would never want to see a fight with somebody that I like.

You know what I mean? It's just, it's a very tough thing, but, you know, it is a business, and they would get in. And, you know, people, sporting partners get together and they beat the crap out of each other in the gym, so they certainly could do it for real. and I think from a PR and a pay-per-view perspective it would be a huge, huge monumental event. Which fight do you think would be bigger? No.

Yeah, or yeah, exactly. I think Carano because she's a bigger name, you know, in a movie star. Yeah. And they're both incredibly beautiful girls. But you know what's the difference? One, there's conflict. By the way, I'm going to say cyborgs not attractive here.

You know what I mean? I know, but there's conflict in the cyborg fight, and people are sometimes drawn to conflict, except prime time there was no conflict between Liz and Rhonda, and they seemed like there was enough buzz for that one. So, I don't know, maybe we don't need conflict. Well, I think it depends. You know what I mean?

Rhonda's not going to create conflict where there is no conflict. The reason it was conflict with Misha was Misha was calling her out on Twitter, went down to 35, and Ronda came down to 35. and I think I'm going to get a parking ticket. Hang on one second. A parking ticket. Yeah, I'm pulled over, so I don't lose a circle. Sorry, guys.

Sorry to be unprofessional. Oh, no. Are you saying sorry to us or to the cops? No, I'm saying sorry to you because it's unprofessional. No problem. But to answer your quote, what were you saying again? What do I think there needs to be... What I was saying is Misha, you know, called one down?

And Rodda was truly pissed off. Like, why tell me to do something? Then I do it, and you tell me I don't deserve it. You know what I mean? Why? And she's an Olympian. Right. She doesn't deserve.

He's proven herself, you know, her accomplishments beat for themselves. I think her first fight against Edian Gomez, who was six and one, Rhonda, she waited five pounds happy. Rhonda had stitches in her foot that she had stitched up two days before, and she beat Gomez in 27 seconds. I think that fight counts for 10. Okay, final question, Darren, before we let you go, hopefully you didn't get a ticket. Do you want to see her on tough? Do you care to see her?

I'm not so sure I want to see her on tough because I don't want to see her get watered down every week, all that stuff. Do you want to see her on tough? You know, I was talking to our publicist, Geneva earlier today, about doing all the presses or something to be said about doing a little less and being mysterious. I think it would be actually really good. I look at what tough has done for a lot of fighters and look at what it's done for the sport. I mean, without tough, we wouldn't probably not be talking because, you know, the Prettizers had invested $45 million in a sport of their own dollars, and until tough, that they were, you know, they were ready to shut the doors, closed down the operation.

So I think it would be a very interesting thing, and it would give people to see, have a different view of Rhonda, you know, to see the very sweet, loving side of her. And I think it's good to showcase both sides. So to answer your question, I don't think it would water her down. at all, I think it would be good. All right. Well, most importantly, congratulations. Huge win for you guys.

Unbelievable moment. The whole ride was very interesting to be a part of. Congratulations. Enjoy it, and looking forward to seeing her back inside the octagon very soon. Thanks for the time, Darren. Hopefully you didn't get a ticket. No, I didn't. I'm sorry.

I was so unprofessional. No, no, no, don't worry. Don't worry. I don't want to talk. A $40 parking ticket. In California, they nail you a quick. No problem. We appreciate it.

You're a mensch, and we'll talk to you very. soon. You are too. Thank you so much, Errol. There he is. Darren Harvey, manager for the likes of Ronda Rousey

and many other fighters. Check him out on Twitter, Twitter.com, slash Darren Harvey. All right. That's it for the Ronda block, if you will. Let us move along.

Do we have Brian on Skype? Not yet? Okay. In a minute, let me just tell you guys, right now it is 4 a.m. Tuesday morning in Tokyo. Brian Stan is in Tokyo right now,

gearing up for his big fight against Van der Le Silva on Saturday. It airs Saturday night here in the United States. Sunday morning actually in Tokyo, a lot of confusion about this. This is going to air like a UFC pay-per-view. 10 p.m. Eastern main card. The prelims and whatnot will be on Facebook. There'll be a preview show on fuel an hour before at 9 p.m. But this is the same old deal.

I know we've gone used to You know, Macau and London And these international cards Them being different time zones But this is going to air the exact same way As a pay-per-view 7.30 p.m. Facebook prelims 9 o'clock pre-show on fuel And then 10 o'clock main card on fuel

So Brian Stan is over there right now He's going to fight Van der Leis Silva in the main event Saitama Super Arena and it's an unbelievable card It really is one of the best free cards that the UFC has hooked us up with in a while. We'll talk about it in a bit. For now, let us welcome Brian Stan, 4 a.m. in Tokyo. I'm blown away. I'm humbled by this moment, Brian, that you would wake up at 4 a.m. to be on my show.

Thank you so much. Hey, man, it's my pleasure. It's the least I could do, buddy. We work together for a while now, and, you know, this is a great way to promote the fight. You know, there's been a lot of fights that have been kind of back-to-back right now, and I think this card may have been forgotten about a little bit, but they really put together a great card for free TV. I couldn't agree more.

I think it's one of the best free cards the UFC has put out in a while. It's top to bottom, unbelievable. And let me ask you, because the fight is taking place in the morning on Sunday, and I was talking to Misha Tate about this for her boyfriend, Brian Carraway, they're actually going to stick on Eastern Time Zone because they don't want to get all messed up. Are you doing the same? I'm not. I'm not.

I train in the mornings and I train in the afternoons. I train in the evening. So I will probably fight around 1.30 in the afternoon, which is really just fine for me. So for me, I just, wherever I go, I just start training at the time I'm going to fight every day the week of the fight once I get there. How long have you been in Tokyo for? So I just got in. I was supposed to get in yesterday.

Or actually, I got in yesterday. I was supposed to get in a day earlier, but there were some issues with my flight. but I landed last night about 4 p.m. Tokyo time, and then I went to bed about 8.30 p.m. woke up about 3 a.m. and then I'll probably go back and take a little nap, you know, around 4.30, 5 a.m. And then train this afternoon. Is that enough time to get acclimated to the time difference? Yeah, you know, it is for me. I really messed it up. When I went to Sweden, I did the wrong thing. I landed at 10 in the morning. And as soon as I got to the hotel, I just went to bed. and I slept all day long, and that was a real problem,

because once we hit Wednesday, we had all the media obligations, the open workouts, and I couldn't sleep during the day anymore, which was the cycle my body was on. And so before I fought Sakara, I had only slept for about four hours to two days prior to that fight. I had some real sleeping issues, and luckily, obviously, things transpired well for me, but I learned that lesson, and I waited at least, you know, until nighttime before I went to bed last night. So Japan has been much easier than Sweden. And here I am messing up your sleep schedule, so I apologize for that. Actually, you're not.

Ariel, I've been up since three. I woke up at 3.15 wide awake. So I'm going to do some reading. Yeah, I'm going to do some reading. I'll lay down for a little while longer. And then, you know, the most important thing is that I'm up and active, I think, by about 10.30 in the morning. I'll warm up and then I'll get a good sweat in around, you know, 1 p.m. this afternoon, which would be the time I'm fighting. You were born in Tokyo, right?

I was. I was. This is my first time. I was born at a Yakota Air Base here in Tokyo, Japan. I have never been back. We left when I was about seven, eight months years old. Wow. Or seven months old. And so this is going to be pretty cool. So, I mean, you don't, you don't have family there, right? I don't. I was born on a military base. But my mom, you know, she lived over here with my sister for a couple years. And so she's told me all these different stories. And she's given me a little laundry list of, hey, you know, try and get on the base. see this building. This is the hospital you were born. Wow. You know, she's told me stories. And as a child growing up, you know, a karate kid was real popular. So when, you know, a karate kid came out and I was born in Japan, you know, I was a man. I was running around my little headband on playing Daniel son.

So this is a pretty unique opportunity for me. And oh, by the way, you know, it's my first time main eventing for the UFC. And I get to fight a guy like Vandrelay Silva. So I'll be a little nostalgic after Saturday night's over. Are you going to stick around after the fight to take it all in? I am actually. So we fight Sunday afternoon. They don't have me leaving until Monday afternoon.

So, you know, I'll get a good amount of time to maybe do something that night and do some sightseeing. And then, you know, just to keep my body active, I'll probably do, you know, I'll probably get out and walk around Tokyo a little bit early evening this evening, just because I don't want to sit in my hotel room the whole week. So we've got a pretty light week when it comes to media because actually have the open workouts It's in the press conference on the same day this week. Oh, okay. So, you know, again, I know you addressed this when this fight was announced,

but I just want to talk about it briefly here for a second. This fight is happening at 205 pounds. You look very good at 185 since you dropped down. How much different is your fight week now because you get to walk around with 20 extra pounds? You know, it's going to be a difference for me. I mean, I did not put on any extra weight for this fight. I didn't feel the necessity to do that.

I've always been strong. I've always been powerful. and I think speed is more important than size against a guy like Vanderle. The only difference is now is that I don't have to drop. I drop around 22 pounds the week of the fight. So not having to do that is a major advantage for me. But I wanted to make sure that my body stayed the same size because, you know, who knows? If this all goes well six weeks from now, I could get the call to fight again.

I don't want to have to do a massive cut from 225 like I did the first time I made the cut. So this is, you know, it's just one of those groups. great fights where I considered a middleweight fight, but we just agreed not to cut the weight. Is there a chance that you look really good on Saturday, Sunday morning, you feel good, and you're like, to heck with 185, I'm sticking around at light heavyweight? No. No, just because with my style of fighting

and the guys that give me the most difficulty, going up a weight class to then have to wrestle with heavier guys, just doesn't make any sense for me. You know, at middleweight, a lot of people try to neutralize me, with wrestling and control against the cage, etc. I've worked very hard on defending that and not allowing that to neutralize my skills, and it makes sense

for me to be a bigger, stronger individual to do that. Did you get an explanation why this is happening at 205 since Vandreley has also been fighting at 185? You know, I read an article before this fight was even talked about, and you know, Vandirley had said, I don't want to cut the weight anymore. I've been

lifting a lot of weights lately. I've put on a lot of size. I feel good, and this. I wanted to fight 205. So in the UFC called and told me about this fight, I had a feeling, okay, I think they want me to fight it at 205, though, because I don't think Van der Leigh wants to cut the weight. And at that time, all the other middleweights were matched up, all the top 10 middleweights were matched up, or they were injured. There was really nobody out there that I could see. The only fights that I could see me getting was maybe some up-and-comers where I didn't have a whole lot to gain from that fight. So, you know, the Vanderlea-Silva fight made sense, even if it was just a one-off at a

weight class, you know, I still can't have a whole-comers. You know, I still can considered a middleweight fight. We've both been fighting at middleweight. That's where our most significant UFC wins are. So to me, in my mind, it's a middleweight fight. We just have a gentleman's agreement that we're not going to cut all the weight. You've been talking about this fight for a couple of years now. It never materialized in the past. Why do you like this matchup so much? Well, you know, I think there's a certain aspect or a certain trait in fighters that I really admire. And Chuck Liddell had it. You know, Chuck's the kind of guy that if you call him four days before a fight or four months before a fight.

He just said yes. He said yes before he even knew the opponent, and he was going to come out and he was going to go for the win. And Vanderle is, you know, he's from that same breed of fighters. Well, and he's a guy that, you know, when I was dreaming of one day even being a professional fighter and I was in the Marine Corps watching fights, he was a guy who I would watch fight, and he was just ferocious the way he fought, yet he was still very much a gentleman, very much a very nice guy outside of the Akkan. I always admired that.

And so, you know, they asked me one day who would be your dream matchup, and that was a couple of years or not all. You know, it would be a dream come true to fight a guy like Vandule and be a part of that storied career. And so I didn't expect to get that call for this fight, but I did. And I think it was just really timing for both of us. And, you know, here I am.

Very shrewd move on his part, because when this fight was first talked about, he said he didn't want it to take place in the U.S. because he was afraid he was going to get booed since you're beloved here in the United States. Now it's happening in his old. stomping grounds, Japan, Saitama Super Arena, sight of many of his great pride

moments. I mean, he kind of turned the tables on you, right? Oh, he absolutely did. He did. And, you know, when you're a guy like Vandale-Sovid, and you've done as much as you have for the sport, he deserves to do that, you know? And I'm proud to come back here and fight him, and

I'm happy that he gets that moment. I am sure these fans are anxious in awaiting his arrival, and the atmosphere is going to be very, very cool. Well, Sunday morning for me, Saturday night for you guys in the U.S. Do you think you'll get booed? I don't think so.

I don't think so. I don't think that's, you know, from what I understand the Japanese fans to be like, I don't believe that that's just their style at all. I think they'll appreciate me. I think they'll appreciate the way that I fight and, you know, they'll appreciate the fact that I'm going to go out there and try and finish this fight. Some of this talk has died down as of late, but every time Vanderle fights, and I expected to come up as the fight approaches, there's talk.

that this could be his last fight, that he isn't the same fighter that he once was. Do you think there's a chance you may be fighting Vandelaide in his last fight? Could you retire him? I would never want to say I'm retiring him. I do think that maybe this could be his last fight. You know, being that it is in Japan, I don't believe he needs the money anymore.

I just believe he does it simply out of the love of it. I would never say I could retire Van der Leigh-Silve, I think, you know, coming from me that may be deemed as disrespectful. But it could be. However, you know, I haven't thought of that because every fight that I watch him, you know, you hear people say he's not the same fighter, but even in the fights he loses, he still hurts his opponent. You know, you watch him fight Rich Franklin.

There were moments that some referees would have stopped that fight. Even when he lost to Chris Lieben in a quick fight, he hit Chris Leibon with a punch that, that I believe really stunned Chris. And then Chris came up with an upper cut end of the fight. So he is still very dangerous. And no matter how old Vanderlai Silva is, he is. he still throws very, very hard punches and kicks. Do you think, though, he is as dangerous today as he was four years ago?

No, I don't. He's still very dangerous, but no, I don't think he could absorb the same amount of punishment that he was able to four years ago. Very honest answer, and we appreciate that. Now, are you no longer with Team Jackson, Jackson Winklejohn, I should say? I am not. And, you know, obviously 2012 was a year that, that I am so happy to close the door on and not that we're forgetting

about the trials and tribulation that year, but that was by far the toughest year of my mixed martial arts career. And so, you know, I gave the typical answer the best training camp in my life, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was full of it. You know, I had to create a camp out of nothing in Atlanta,

and it was a difficult time for my family. And, you know, just being honest, there were things in my life that were going on that were much more important than fighting that I had to devote my focus to over fighting, yet I still had to fight because I got to pay the bills. And so since then, though, I have been able to put together something very special in Atlanta

that allows me to be a full-time father as well as a full-time fighter, and that's very important to me. And I've brought some guys in now where I was kind of my own head coach. Now, you know, I've got five or six head coaches at my gym in Atlanta. And I'm very fortunate that some people relocated and moved to Atlanta in late 2012

and that really helped me prepare for this fight. And so I am full-time training out of Atlanta. Who are your coaches now? So I have Rodrigo Artillero, who used to coach on the ultimate fighter with Vitor Belfort. He moved from Las Vegas. Raymond Jordan, who's a two-time All-American

from University of Missouri, was an Olympic alternate on the wrestling team in the Olympics last year. He moved to Atlanta. Jeff Bedard's another wrestling coach of mine. And then Minuantal is my striking coach. He's a six-time Muay Thai world champion from over in Thailand. And then Juan Carnaro, or Jukau, as he was known when he fought in the UFC.

He's one of Bigfoot's head coaches. He lives in Atlanta. He's one of my full-time coaches as well. And then obviously I train with, you know, Douglas Lima, the Lima brothers, Clint Hester, and all these Sunshout brothers. So there's a lot of guys that used to go to Coconut Creek to train, that used to go to different places New York City to train for their training camps

we all lived in Atlanta but we all would go elsewhere for our training camps and just train with each other in between and finally we just decided to all train together and combine to move some people to the area to help us all train for our fights

and are you cool with Mike and Greg now? Absolutely you know Mike Winklejohn's a guy that all always I mean he was he was more than a coach to me you know, he helped create me as a coach. And, you know, I miss him every day in my career. He's a phenomenal coach. And, you know, me and Greg have a great relationship.

There's no issues there whatsoever. It's just one of those things where, you know, there was a death in the family of violent and sudden death. And so I needed to be home. I needed to be with my wife. I need to be with my kids. I support her mom. I needed to be with her mother, you know, who had just lost a son. and at the time it was very difficult for me to spend eight weeks in Albuquerque.

You know, as a father, I have a five and a three-year-old. They go to school. They have soccer games. They do gymnastics. When I'm in Albuquerque, I don't see any of that. You know, I missed that stuff. I was spending thousands of dollars to fly home every other weekend. I would try and fly them to Albuquerque for two weeks at a time, which means I got to pull them out of school to do that.

It wasn't a feasible way to do business for the rest of them. my career as my kids got older and so this was a move made out of necessity. You know we were in Anaheim this past weekend for UFC 157 and it seemed like every interview either I brought it up or a fighter brought it up the talk

of the cuts in the UFC right? It seems like it's over everyone's head and a lot of guys it felt like for me on the undercard especially we're fighting with a sense of urgency. We saw some great performances and maybe different kind of performances had this not been hanging in the air. I don't think by any means you're

in danger of any of that, but let's be honest, you are coming off a loss, and, you know, it's a very competitive time in the UFC. Does this change your mentality going into this fight? Absolutely. You know, not only that does it change my mentality, the fact that, you know, coming off a loss, but the UFC put me in a main event. You know, they've put me in several co-main events. They put me in main events before, and I got injured. And so I take that responsibility very serious. And so for me, I think it's very important. that I go out there and fight that way. But, you know, look, they made a statement. With John Fitch being cut, it doesn't matter who you are, what your name is, what you do, or if you're

marketable or not, you know, when you get to a certain aspect of your career and you start making decent money, if you don't perform, there's somebody else who will. And that's no different than the civilian world. I mean, you know just as well as these other fighters, the economy's tough in America right now. And there's a lot of people getting cut from their jobs as well. We're not the only ones in the fight industry. How do you foresee this fight playing out? You know, it depends on what Vandalee comes out, but I suspect it'll be the Vandalee we've seen in recent years where he's a little bit more retreating in the first round comes forward to the second round, looking to counterpunch with a big right hand. Regardless, I'm going to set the pace rate away, and I'm going to be aggressive for, you know, five rounds. If it goes five rounds, we're both going to need plastic surgery.

I suspect it will go no more than three, and somebody's going to be unconscious at the end of this fight. You comfortable going five rounds? absolutely comfortable very yeah I mean I did nine last Thursday and collapsed so I'm very comfortable going five rounds you know I'll just

I'll look like a completely different person if I go five rounds of Vanderley as will he well I cannot wait for it as I mentioned one of the best free cards UFC has put on I'm not just saying that because I work for fuel I mean Mark Hunt Stefan Stroove Gomi Sanchez Kim CIR I mean

and this main event it's a great card the undercard is great as well Brian Stan versus Van der Le Silva from the the famous Saitama Super Arena site of so many great fights, so cool to have some of these old pride guys fighting on these cards again and a great opportunity for you. Japan's own, Brian Stan.

I hope they play that up, so they show you some love over there. Enjoy the moment, Brian, and most importantly, again, I know you woke up a little early, but I really do appreciate you coming on at this hour, and we cannot wait for the fight on Saturday. My pleasure, buddy. We'll see you soon. All right, there he is.

The All-American Brian Stan stopping by from Tokyo, Japan, site of... Oh, okay, sorry. Just getting your message here. I was like, what? Why? Site of Saturday nights UFC on Fuel TV, 8 card. One of the true class acts in this sport, and really appreciate him stopping by at 4 a.m.

New York, Rick, asking me, you wrote me, ask him, can you ask him about Aldo Pettis? A fan called it? Why ask Brian San about Aldo Pettus? What does he have to do? about what does he care about that? I mean, he cares, but it just didn't really seem relevant. I just alert these people.

All right, so there you have it. And I feel like when I was running down the card there, I forgot. Oh, yes, Hector Lombard, Yushinokami, Mizuda Hirota versus Hanayya. Undercard has Ricky Fukuda, Brad Tavares, Bryant Carraway versus Takeam Mitsugaki, Cristiano Marcello versus Kazuki Tokudumi. Bruce Leroy, Alex Kouseris.

Kyeonghoi Kang. Marcelo Grimardes versus Hiongoy Lim. I may have mispronounced the last two foreign names, but you get the point. A great card on Saturday.

And again, it airs normal time here in the U.S. 7.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Facebook prelims, 10 o'clock, main card on Fuel TV. Gary Cook, the executive vice president

of the United Kingdom, Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, Africa. Of course, United Kingdom is in Europe. He is the Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Europe, Middle East and Africa. I might as well get that right. He's going to be stopping by in a... Oh, I've done it again with these headphones. No, why'd I do that? He's going to be stopping by in a matter of moments. And then after that, we'll be talking to Connor McGregor. Damn it. Just screwed it up. There we go. I got it. We'll be talking to Connor McGregor, who'll be talking to Connor McGregor, who'll be talking to Connor McGregor, who'll be talking to. be fighting Marcus Brimidge, UFC on Fuel TV 9, April 6th, over in Stockholm, Sweden. Connor McGregor, featherweight and lightweight champion for Cage Warriors. What's going on back there? New York, Rick, having a meltdown. Can't concentrate. Looking like some phone issues, right? Oh. It's a weird time here in this studio, let me tell you. We're the only ones here. Out there, you may have seen this area where we tape the MMA Beat or other SB Nation videos. Out there, there is nothing.

It is deserted. They have moved to a new location. We're going to be moving to a new location at some point, too. They've kept this around just for us, and we're very thankful because if not, we would have no show. We couldn't talk to you about all these great fights. So out there, it's like there's like tumbleweeds. There's garbage on the ground. It's a little strange.

but it's just us here. So it's a very, it's a very romantic, quaint vibe, but it seems like everything should be working. Do we have, Mr. Cook? We do. All right, let's go to the phone lines and welcome in for the very first time, Mr. Gary Cook.

Gary, how are you? Hi, how are you? It is a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you so much. And as I was telling my team, before we went on the air, I don't think we've ever had so many fan questions pour in for a particular guest,

and we've had them all on this show, but there are a lot of people who want to hear from you. Are you aware of this? I do know that one or two people have got some questions. I would imagine some of them are good and some of them are bad like everything, Ariel, but far away, I'm more than willing to be as open and as honest as I can. Well, we appreciate that.

So let's talk about it. I mean, obviously there's a lot of sort of nitty-gritty detailed questions, but I want to take a step back before we get into that. How did you get this job with the UFC? Well, I've been following it for some time for quite a long time. I think not necessarily as an ardent fan of the sport itself, but any time something comes along in the world of sports, which I have been in for 30 years,

and changes the landscape of any sport, and this is really changing the landscape of sport, and you have to have an interest in that because it's changing lifestyle, it's changing culture, and I've been following it for a while. Ironically, we have some mutual friends from when I was in football, soccer, here in England. A couple of the board members are also engaged with the UFC organization,

and they know Dana, and they know the Fatita brothers. And so that was how it came as an introduction two years ago now. And by the way, we're very worldly here. We know that football is soccer when you're talking about it, so you don't have to sort of... I'm sorry. But we appreciate the effort very much. So did you approach them, or did they approach you? It was a mixture of both, but ironically,

when I left Manchester City, Lorenzo put a call in and said, would I like to come down to Las Vegas? And my first live bout was Anderson Silver Trail Sonnen. Oh, wow. Being a Portland, Oregon resident, I went in with both an emotional tie and an intriguing view of the event. But I was enamored by the event, which was at the Mandalay Bay, as you remember. And not only was I am enamored by it,

but I'd also followed it through football where all of the players, and in fact many, many athletes across the globe, respect the fighters for their commitment, their passion, their determination, and to be a great athlete, you've got to be committed. We all know that. You have to be focused. To be an MMA fighter and to be at the highest level with the UFC, you really have to have a different mindset.

And so they are ultimately respected by all athletes. And so when I was engaged in football, most of the athletes, most of the footballers all knew about the fighters in-depth, and they knew about their lifestyle, and everybody wanted to be as fit as the fighter, which I thought was an interesting concept. And they couldn't have picked a better event for you to go to for the first time. It was one of their biggest and a great showing. You mentioned Portland. So did you live there when you were working for Nike?

That's correct, yeah. I moved to the United States in 1984. Wow. I lived in Los Angeles, Nashville, Tennessee, Boston, San Francisco. And then I moved to Portland when I joined Nike in 1996, I believe that was. We're going back some time now. So you're more American than you are British. Absolutely right.

Spent more of my professional life in America than I did anywhere else. And you worked for the Jordan brand line, right? So do you work closely with Michael himself? Very much so. Very much so. You know, one of the greatest athletes of all time. And again, a great fight fan, actually, Michael. Yes.

You've seen him probably in Vegas many times. But he's, again, another athlete, they're a step above everybody else. I'm a great admirer and have the greatest respect for that man, not only as a person, but as an athlete, of course, everybody, that's well documented. But as a person, he's a good man. and I used to enjoy his company, and he's a thoughtful man and a great professional. Ever gamble with him? I hear he's quite the gambler. Put it this way, I played golf with him.

Oh, wow. Okay. Did you beat him? He doesn't allow that. There's two things about Michael. One is he lets you know how bad you are, and secondly, he lets you know how good he is. And that's a wicked combination if you're ever in his company. I've read that many times about him. Obviously, I'm a big basketball fan, so I was curious about that.

And then you went to Manchester City, and I'm curious, what's the difference between working like a brand where you're kind of the league in UFC? Of course, it's owned by, you know, two, three, four guys, but as opposed to just a team fighting with other teams. When you're on that team, the football club as opposed to the league, if you will, what's the difference there as far as the mentality that you've seen thus far? Well, being a league has a very different aspect because you're, as I said earlier, you're changing the face of sport, lifestyle culture. We've seen the recent additions of Olympic sports have come from sort of extreme areas. The world of sport is changing, and that's the difference here. We're actually writing history. We're writing the landscape.

We're very young. It's a young industry. It's a young sport. We're creating it. And I think that's unique. Those opportunities don't come along very often. Whereas at Manchester City, the football team was 120 years old. And what you do in there, not all you do, because that's disrespectful.

But what you do is you change the landscape of that part, which is the football club, where they are, what they do, how they behave, and what their future looks like. You can change that. But you've also got to bring with you all the history and heritage that is, football with with uh... with u f c as we've seen just recently uh... you know and at the the weekend ronda rousey you know the the the landscape is being written and and i always say to the guys here we're writing the history and and i think that's uh that's the biggest difference i think you know i i will admit i am a fan of football is actually an arsenal

fan as a youngster big terri-an rife and maybe because of my french background but i don't know as i mean we obviously know about josea marino and arson wenger and all that stuff and Sir Alex Ferguson. But as far as the personnel goes, it kind of stops there. When this news was announced, read about your background and whatnot, and I remember reporting the news, and we hear about hirings like this all the time. I didn't think it would be a big deal. And then it was, you know, we have a lot of loyal British fans, UK fans, European fans.

And my Twitter blew up. Obviously, a lot of people knew who you were. And I was shocked because usually a UFC hire someone to be an executive position. It's not massive news like this was. and then obviously read about your resignation and everything, and it was a very polarizing decision. What kind of feedback did you get from UFC fans right away? Because a lot of these people knew who you were from your Man City days.

Were they happy that you were joining their team, so to speak? Well, you know, the public domain, you're in it. It's an interesting world. Those that are not in it don't know what it's like. There are those who have an opinion for you, and there are those that have an opinion against you. and you live that life the same way as I did. You have to deal with both of those.

And so when I left Manchester City, there were those that were thankful that I'd played my part, and I was four years then. We wrote history. We were the Red Sox, if you like. We won our first title in 45 years. That's quite a feat for a team.

And fans are very thankful for that. And there are those, you know, it's almost tribal in as much as everybody supports a team, and there are those that didn't like what we did. In football, there are those, there's always going to be a critic of everything. And so you have to take both of those. But I wasn't, I try not to read the press, Ariel,

because I think it can cloud your judgment and it can send you off in a spiral. Dana and I talk about this a lot. You know, Dana is not short of criticism himself. and in some cases self-inflicted, and others not. He's got a point of view, and good for him for having that point of view. I tend to not do that, and that's just a personal choice. Yeah, you know, a lot of the American fans may not know you as well as the British fans.

Are you able, willing? I know it's a bit old news now, but for us it's kind of news to explain what happened with your resignation. It was a bit of a controversial moment for you. Yeah, I mean, I've not been... too well documented on it. I'm not going to go into any great detail. You know, I maintain a relationship with the owners

and the Aber Dhabi Abadabee Raw family. I maintain a relationship with you, so that should tell you professionally where we stand. We've all made mistakes in our life and some things were proud of and others were not. I made a judgment

and there was some errors in that judgment, and I think if that's the only mistake I make, I'd be probably naive to think it would be. If we're not making mistakes, we're not trying hard enough. So I moved on. It was the right thing to do. Whenever your personality and your person is the story

and not the success of the organization, the business, and in this case, the football club, then you really have to take a look at yourself and say, you know, am I serving the needs of the organization? And I didn't feel I was. And therefore it was my decision. that it was the right thing to do to step down. What did you do in that one year, because it was pretty much September to September, 11 to 12,

what did you do that one year away from the spotlight? Well, I was fortunate. You know, as I said, I stayed connected to the guys, the owners of the soccer team and their connections. And I worked over in Miami with Steve Ross, who's the owner of the Miami Dolphins, and he owns a company called Related, who's a wonderful man. and I was flying in and out of New York and doing some work for him, working with the Equinox gym business

that he's also involved in. So I was doing some consulting backwards and forward. I did some consulting for some guys in soccer over in Europe and kept myself busy. I didn't want to be sitting around doing nothing. And then started talking to Lorenzo and Frank and Dana very shortly after my, you know, more seriously, after my resignation, and that didn't materialize for another year.

It was, you know, I just needed to take some time out. As you know, those public domain roles, they can get you down after a while. That is true. So now when you got the job, and you looked around in for a while, we knew Marshall's Lasnik was the head of Europe and some of these other territories, when you got it, how did you find it? I mean, was the UFC in a good place in these markets? it's because last couple years, and I think Marshall did a great job,

and I think the team that he had behind him did a great job, particularly in England and building some stars there. Last couple of years, the fans over there, my impression was they felt underserved. So how did you find the situation when you got there? Well, like we were talking about earlier, you know, everybody's got a point of view. I know Marshall obviously very well, and we work together. And I could not say enough good things about the work that Marshall and Jackie, did it while they were here.

This is a tough market. They say it's a mayor. A mayor is not a place. It's actually a business term used by American business businesses. It's several different cultures. It's several different languages. In some cases, it's different currencies. And so when you come over here, as Marshall did, he was a pioneer.

Pioneers have to find out what the landscape looks like. They have to discover. They have to go out and find opportunities. was no television broadcasting UFC. And at the time, you know, we still weren't working with all of the commissions in all of the, and we were unregulated in most of the states. So it wasn't really fully developed in the United States either, as much as it was absolutely not developed in Europe.

The UK became a stronghold because there was an affinity for the sport very early on. That was noticed very early on, and when we started to put events on, that started to be up very, very quickly. So, you know, it was a small team. Marshall led a small team. He was, he rolled his sleeves up and he got, and he got down to, you know, in the trenches and he worked very, very hard and did a fantastic job. Now, how do, how does that work against you? Well, we've got some challenges. We know that television, we know there's a time difference. There's an eight-hour time difference with the West Coast of the U.S. and there's an East Coast time difference of five hours. we are primarily, and have been for many years, a U.S. television product that has to go out to the world, to the markets around the world.

So, 96% of our live events are after 2 o'clock in the morning in the European region. That's a very difficult challenge, you know, so you become a niche sport. And when you're trying to grow and you're trying to build, you need all the assets and the tools that you can muster up. The fans get restless because I think we went down to one event in 2012, and that, you know, they feel like they're not getting the best of the product. But everybody wants that title. Everybody wants to see, you know, the title fight. Everybody wants to see the great fighters, right?

Because that's our, where it's in our nature. It's our human nature. So what we're trying to do is trying to repackage it and rebuild it, but we are making great progress, and it's only off the, the work that Marshall's already done. Okay, and by the way, I must say I really thought it was nice the way Marshall spoke about you, and then the way you spoke about Marshall, one of the first things you said at your introductory press conference, you were very gracious as you are now, and I thought it was very classy on your part to do so.

Now, let's get to the nitty-gritty here, because this is when the people are getting, they're getting anxious, they're wondering when I'm going to ask you these questions. So let's serve this audience. Rumors about Sky Sports, rumors about the end of the ESPN UK deal. I'm seeing reports from BBC that ESPN UK was purchased by BT. What is going on? Where is the UFC going to land? Is it going to Sky Sports over in Europe?

Well, you know, I can't divulge any detail. You're not going to break the news right here right now. Wouldn't you love that? I have to be very careful. But I will say, I'll make a couple of points, and I hope that you can decipher from that. It's very clear that Sky have held a monopoly. in this landscape, particularly in the United Kingdom

for a long, long time. You know, prior to Sky and cable television, we had four channels and at best five channels. As a young man growing up, I remember that, and there was very little live sport

on television. So the landscape completely changed, and Sky got ahead of it, and they do a fantastic job, and everybody, you know, everybody looks to them. The competition has been sporadic. We had,

a company called Satanta out of Ireland. We had ESPN moved in. And it's all predicated, Ariel, on how much live sport content you own. And that's very much the same in the United States. You know, if you've got the NFL, if you've got the NBA, if you've got the MLB, and there's all, the parameters around that. So same here. Premier League Soccer rules, and you have to have Premier League soccer, okay? So Sky own that landscape, and they've done a good job with that. Over time, people have tried to buy some of that space, and there's a new company called BT Vision, and they own all of the landscape or hardscape, I should say, around the transmission process. So they have, you know, over 15 million telephone subscribers in this nation under BT,

which was once British Telecom. And so they've moved into the visual world, into the media television world. And so they are a competitor. This morning it was announced that they'd taken ESPN into their fold, and they are a serious competitor for the Sky Network. Now, we're limited by who we can work with. There are a couple of free-to-air partners that we're also in discussion with, but who we broadcast with is not as important as this point.

The broadcasting, 96% of it is after 2 o'clock in the morning. So if you want live sport, you've got to stay up in, during the night to watch it. What's really important for the UFC and its growth around the world is to be able to be a global company but be locally relevant. If you're locally relevant,

you need to tell the stories from a local level. You need to have a production element that talks about UFC in your country. Whether you have color commentary, not necessarily about the fights, but you're actually talking

and commentating on what's going on in the sport during the week. And so what we believe is the key to success for us is having a weekly show that captures the hearts and minds of the broader audience to create awareness and educate them about the UFC. And so whoever it is that we work with will have that element as a key component of developing our business. Do you have a better opportunity to air that kind of show on ESPN UK, the new ESPNUK, or sky sports? Well, Sky Sports currently

has a broader audience, but it's not just limited to a subscription audience. We still have free-to-air television, and I think it's a combination. In Brazil, Marshall is at the front of this. You know, to have a free-to-air component is a

strong additive to having a subscription component, and then in turn, there's a pay-per-view component. Now, that's the ideal world, and that's the ideal landscape. But The world here is changing. What's great is there's higher demand for UFC from the television companies in Europe today than the was five years ago when Marshall started.

So that makes it a little easier for everybody. The story isn't a new story. The story is a real, the future of sports story. And I think that makes it all that much easier for people to understand. We're in no rush to do a deal. We need to make sure that we find the right partner who wants to tell the story the way the story should be told because it is a performance sport at the very highest level, and providing we have a partnership that does that,

and then we have another partner on a free-to-air basis, then we'll find that that recipe will probably lead to some success. When does your deal with ESPNUK end? August the 1st. Okay, so there's a chance we may not find out any news until, you know, the summertime or the spring. I mean, what you're saying is, no news is going to come out in the next couple weeks, right, about this? Yeah, I think within the couple of weeks that would probably be pushing it,

but I don't think it's going to be much longer than that. Okay, so you're close to something? Yes. Ooh, and is it any, is it possible that it's someone that we're not talking about here? We probably shouldn't go down that path, Errol, because you're doing your job, and I appreciate that. I'm not being disrespectful to me, but I think we just have to be very careful. And now, obviously, you were just in London. You're going to Stockholm in April.

How many European events do you think we'll see in – and let's just not stop at European. International, say for Brazil, we know what's going on there, but the markets that you cover, Africa, Middle East, etc. How many of those events will we see in 2013? Well, in 2013, we're looking at three. We think that we'll pull that off. You know, Dana and the guys are talking about how to make it meaning. full. Every event has to have a purpose. I really believe that. I think the fans,

they don't necessarily want the very best fight, although that's nice to have. Every event must have purpose. We were very fortunate that the guys helped us to work on a title with Barrow MacDonald

at Wembley, which created a lot of attention, and we were very proud of that, the fact that we, you know, we had 10,600 people in Wembley Arena. We broke the record from a revenue standpoint from a sporting event in that historic event, historic arena. I think the other part of it is we believe that capital cities are a major focus for us

if we are to be meaningful around different parts of the globe. And so, you know, we're moving to Stockholm for our next event, sold out very, very quickly. And again, it's meaningful because Gustafson's on the card. and that's important, but, you know, that also brings the highest quality of MMA fighting to that Nordic audience, the Northern European audience. Where you go from there, what we really want to try and do, and Dana's been vocal on this, and he's a big proponent of it, it's got to be consistent. You have to be predictable to certain degrees. I'd like to have events in the same cities every year.

It's impossible to do just with our made-for-television audience, but we do believe that there's a demand level for UFC that might engage us in a local European fight product that goes out to the local markets. But again, must be on a regular basis. So you can plan it, you can predict it. Wouldn't it be great to have a regular event every year in London, one of the world's major cities, one of the world's major sporting cities, and you know that every year at the same weekend, it's UFC week in London. So you mentioned – go ahead, sorry.

Sorry. So that's – I think there's a compelling argument for that, and these are the things that we're working on. Now, we're all in the embryonic stages of building the plans, developing the opportunities, working through our partnership. with others to make sure these things happen. But these are great ideas, and I think they're very exciting, not only for us, but also for the fans. You mentioned three events in 2012. We know about London and happen. We know about Stockholm.

Which is the third? What's the city that's going to host that? Well, right now, we go backwards and forwards. You know, the UK has been such a strong market for us, and we know that landscape, and we know that we can build off it. So, you know, we've also talked about some other markets, and I can't divulge them because it sets the hairs running. But some markets that you would never expect us to be announcing.

But we may leave those until 2014. But there'll be one more coming up here. And I think we should look at the year for us for Made for Television events in the United States on a spring, summer, fall calendar. And then we'd like to try and add in and fill in pieces around that. So look for something in the fall. Can't divulge where it will be. but you know it's going to be in a popular market for us we think

we'll take up two more minutes of your time and we really really appreciate you've been so gracious and people are loving this there was some talk that you respectfully said that maybe Sweden is not ready for a women's co-main event fight Misha Tate Katsangano can you explain why you felt that way I am not against our women's initiative it's It's absolutely the right thing to do. You know, I live, having grown up and worked in college sports in America, Title IX, it's the right thing for sport.

And to give women the right to compete, you know, on an equal footing is absolutely the right thing to do. I think whenever you're making a business decision, though, Arrell, you have to figure out what the impact might be. The impact was not going to be in Sweden, although there would always have been those that did agree and don't agree, and we've talked about that, because it's the public domain. Opinion is what we live and thrive on. My concern is that Sweden is not Europe, nor is it Middle East, nor is it Africa.

And we operate in many, many countries, all of which we have issues because we are still building awareness. We currently have 9 to 10% awareness in most countries. As a sport, that's not high. And yet, in the United States, you have critical mass. Everybody knows about UFC. and everybody understands it. That's the most important word, is understanding the sport. In this country and in many other countries around our region,

it's not the most understood. The media world don't understand it and not that, you know, not professionals like you guys are. And therefore you have to be careful that you don't impact the sport negatively for the longer term because you want to make a statement in the short term. Will women fight in the European region? Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt. How, when, and what is the right approach to it, we have to be very careful.

That's all. That was the only conversation that we had. I don't make that decision. I think it's clear. I think we all know that the UFC, one of the reasons for its success, is that there are many people involved in all of the decision-making process. and I shared my point of view on how it could impact us. We're in the middle of lots of negotiations. You don't want that to be the story.

In London, we had a great, we had a sellout, we had a great card, everything was going well for us. Sweden, we were going down that same path. And I'm a big supporter of the women's fight, and I think it will be well received, but we just have to do it in the right way and in a considered front. And finally, let me end on this because they will kill me if I don't ask these ones, and I'll just go quick here. I'll just say a market, and you can tell me if you know when the UFC will return there, okay? Yeah.

Ireland. That's a big one. I think we'll be in Ireland within the next 18 months. Wow. Italy. That's a little challenging. We don't have a robust TV relationship, and the sport hasn't caught on there, and isn't catching on there.

You know, when you look at the number of... a market so we have to cover, you have to be, you have to prioritize, and we have to be very careful that we don't try and be everything to everybody. France? Obviously, there's some challenges there with regards to the regulation, and we need to make sure that we're on the right side of the regulators first before we just host an event. So no headway there thus far? Or major... They're working on it. Okay, Spain? Spain, again, not a priority market, although So, you know, that's one of those markets that we'd all like to be in. South Africa.

I believe that if you're going to be in Africa, which covers a multitude of countries, the gateway to that is South Africa. There's a couple of people down there who are doing some good work, and it's becoming a very popular sport, as you well know. We need to be in Africa. Two more, Wales? Well, you know, one day, I said to Dana one day there'll be a home championship maybe, Wales versus Scotland versus Ireland versus England, you know, at that point maybe Cardiff. Yeah, maybe.

Okay, I lied. Now I have two more. I got to ask you this one only for my own personal reasons, Israel. I think we have to be, I think, you know, the landscape in many markets across the globe, you have to be considerate. of the issues that face some of the nations. And that wouldn't be a priority for us right now. And finally, Abu Dhabi. Well, of course, we have a professional involvement with Aberdabia.

It's no secret. And the guys were over at the London event, and we're in conversations with them about what's next. Cannot thank you enough for the time, Gary. What a pleasure it has been to finally get to ask you these questions. I know a lot of people were looking forward to it. I was looking forward to it, most importantly. Hope you enjoyed it as well.

Hope to meet you in person one of these days. And again, welcome to the UFC. Good luck with your job. Now, I know you've got a lot on your plate these days, but for this first introduction, really enjoyed talking to you. It was great to talk to you, and I respect your show, and what you've done for the sport is immeasurable. So thank you very much.

It was an honor to be part of it. Thank you very much. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. Gary Cook stopping by. So gracious with his time. Join us for 30 minutes. Really appreciate him stopping by.

He's got a lot to do, and I hope we answered some of your questions there as far as Ireland and the TV deal and all those other markets that you asked us about a lot for him to get to and seems like a very competent man. That did a lot of good things with the Jordan Brand being told he essentially invented that concept. Man City. Yes, he had the controversy resigned in 2011, but now with the UFC, let's see what he does there. And Marshall's Lasnik and his team did a lot of good things before him. Okay, let's move along now. And another guest that you guys have been hounding me, you guys have been, I can't recall a non-UFC fighter

getting this much attention as far as requests to be on this show. We finally oblige in our sort of international feel this week. We go to Ireland now, and we welcome in Connor McGregor. There he is. The bearded one himself. Connor, how are you? Thank you so much for stopping by. Yeah, thanks very much for having me, mate.

Yeah, Conno's a talk to you. How are you? I'm doing great. I hear a bit of an echo. Can you maybe turn down the volume on your computer? Yeah, yeah. How about now? Can you still hear me?

I can hear you, yeah? Okay. I don't use this Skype. I only set this Skype up so I could go on this show with you. I don't really use this too much, you know what I mean? So I'm going to have to start getting used to these kind of things. Well, you look great, and you sound great, and I appreciate you stopping by. Yeah, that's good, man.

I like to look the way I feel, and I feel. and I feel fucking amazing. Really? Why so amazing? Because, you know, I'm living the dream, you know what I mean? And here I am, I'm just over five weeks out from the biggest fight in my life and things are going good and I'm getting great support at home. As you know yourself, you're at the same yourself, everyone's hounding you to get me on this show.

And the artists really, really get behind their athletes, you know what I mean? And I'm looking to go out there and impress. And that's it. That's why I'm feeling good, you know? All the years of hard work. and now here we are. Dana White was in Ireland recently and he was hounded about you.

They were asking him all these questions. I can't, I'm not lying. Every week I get tons of fans say, get the notorious MMA on the show, your Twitter handle, of course. They love you so much. Are you aware that you are beloved so much by your fans and especially Ireland?

It's grown. Each fight, each fight seems to get more and more, you know, but it's only going, it's only the beginning. You know what I mean? That's what I think. This is only the beginning. I'm here to take over.

I'm not here to shake no one's hand, or I'm not here to be the token artist guy in there. I'm in there to get in and win. And that's it, you know, I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to showing the people of Ireland the true martial artist, you know what I mean? Showing the UFC and the world of MMA and martial artists that they haven't seen before, you know?

Do they love you because you're the first, or do they love you because you're you? Well, I'm not the first. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. They love me because I love me because I love myself. You know what I don't know. I don't know what it is but I'm not the first guy either

you should know this you know what I mean you're the report you know Tom Egan was the first UFC 93 all right he was my teammate

we were only we were only kids back then he got he got a shot the fight and it was a little bit too soon for him you know what I mean we didn't really know what we were doing back then

and then we have another guy another Irish guy but he likes to carry the English flag you know what I mean so so I don't know maybe because there's an Irish guy in there carrying an Irish guy

carrying an Irish flag the tricolor you know what I mean that's why there's a big buzz going on, you know? And I apologize to Tom, you are right. I will admit, though, not as much buzz for his fight as opposed to your debut. So that's why it felt like the first 93 feels like years ago. You get my point, right?

Yeah, well, Tom was on the card basically because they were in the hometown, you know, and they were looking for a hometown guy to promote the show, you know. But I've built up a hype around myself with some good wins and some good performances. I'm not, like I said, I'm not just the token artist guy. I'm not on this show because I'm not here because they're in Dublin. I'm like you say, I'm fighting in Sweden, you know what I mean? So they want me and I don't want them, so to speak. You know what I mean?

So there's a good bit of hype. And I'm looking forward to going in and proving everyone right. Why do they call you notorious? My coach came up with that, you know what I'm, because sometimes I'm now to get into a little bit of trouble. Oh. I don't know, just because, just because, just because I'm notorious.

Where do you get into this trouble? Just over the years, you know what I mean? So growing up and that, I've been in and out trouble. I've been with my coach John Kavanaugh for a long time and there's been some ups and some downs and you know what I mean? This and that and but, you know, he stuck with me and he believed in me and that's basically where the name came from,

you know, because I was just getting into trouble and drifting off and doing other things and then coming back and, you know, but the past couple of years now, I've stuck with it now. now here I am, you know what I mean? So, I don't know, that's where the name came from anyway. Why'd you get into MMA?

When I was younger, it was always combat on my mind. It was always self-defense. I got in there to be able to defend myself just because just like situations that would happen, you know what I mean, where something would happen where, you know what I mean, just out on the street or whatever. And I just wanted to be able to defend myself, and that was it. And that's how I started.

I wanted to be able to defend myself on the street, and I started down some kickboxing, I started doing, then I've done some boxing. I just travel around, you know what I'm trying to do all martial arts, you know, ready for anything, you know what I mean? Stay ready so I don't have to get ready. You know, it seems like the Irish fans have been begging for the UFC to return to Ireland since the first and last event at UFC 93.

Were you there? I was there, yeah, my teammate Tom was fighting, you know what I mean? I was there. If they got an event in the OTO, it would sell out in seconds. What did your man say about the last time? Gary Cook because I couldn't hear it. Oh. I heard you saying Ireland. What did he say? He said he predicts they will

be back there within the next 18 months. Wow, I was thinking as sooner than that. Well, I wonder, I wonder will they think that when I go in and when I go in and put on a show now five weeks and make a name for myself. You know what I'm hoping to

drag them back to Ireland. You know what I mean? Drag them by the scruff of the neck back and get a show on. Because I have some teammates in the gym that are ready to go as well You know what I mean? It's not just me. There's a whole load of motherfuckers behind me waiting to go on. I'm going to kick in the door.

You know what I mean? That's it. I'm just going to kick in the door and drag them right back to Ireland. Well, I'm sure a dominant performance. As soon as this fight's done, I'm going to be on. Like George Javier going on his knees

and start begging for a, begging for a world title. I'm going to go on my knees, start begging for a... Come back to the O2, come back to Dublin Ireland. Well, to be honest, I'm not going to get on my knees.

I don't beg for no man, but I'm definitely going to be saying it a lot. I definitely want them to come back to my hometown and the summit. You know, we have a long history of combat in our country, you know what I mean? A lot of people are true fans of this game, you know what I mean? So it's about time to start coming back

and get the fucking act together and come back, you know what I mean? I mean, Dana even says it himself that he gets hounded. Well, if he doesn't want to get hounded, then let's do it, let's do a show, you know what I mean? I think they may erect a statue in your honor right now because of this talk. And if you get them to come back sooner than 18 months, you're going to be an Irish legend, my friend.

Yeah I am an Irish legend man I'm a living legend Yeah I see myself as the champ already Already You're the featherway champion already I see myself as the champ from day one Before I even started training

I saw myself as the champ That's how I've seen myself I've visualised myself already there I visualise everything I visualise this conversation I visualise the walk out I visualise everything going on I know I have shots picked out

That I'm going to throw in this fight in five weeks You know what I have seen everything in me head and now it's going to happen. You see it in your head. You're going to see it before your eyes. That's what I say. Could you fight tomorrow? You seem like you're going to jump out of the screen right now and fight me. Stay ready so I don't have to get ready. I'm ready to go. Oh my gosh.

I'm ready to go, yeah? And you're not just the champ. You are a two division champion for Cage Warriors. Featherweight, lightweight. That's obviously a big deal. When you won the last belt, did you know that, I think you fought, you fought like what was the New Year's Eve time around, you know, just a couple months ago? ago. Did you feel like, all right, it's inevitable. The call's coming. After that last win, did you know that your time was coming in the UFC? I felt, like I said, even before that, when I came out, my mother, I felt it.

You know what I mean? My mother always said that I came out, the doctor said to me, I came out with my hands up like this, yeah? And the doctor said to me, ma'am, you have a boxer on your hands. You know what I mean? I knew what I was going to do from day one. And here, And here I am, you know what I mean? I knew, even before the Butching of fight on New Year's Eve, I knew I was going to get here, you know what I mean? My team knew I was going to get here, my coach new, my family knew, you know what I mean? I had belief from everyone, I had a belief in myself, and now here it is, you know what I mean?

That last fight I felt at home, you know, each fight I'm learning, each day I'm learning, I feel like I'm growing every day. You know what I got? This couldn't have come out a better time for me, you know what I mean? I'm ready. Honestly, I am ready. Like I said with Tom Egan It was a little bit too soon

We were only kids at the time I didn't know what the fuck was going on Jumping in there in 0-2, 9,000 screaming people didn't know what the fuck was happening You know what I mean? Now we're ready If I have experience on some big shows I've had some big hype fights

for them two titles And you know what I mean There's a lot of successful guys That came from Cage Warriors And I'm now in the UFC Like Dan Hardy, Michael Bisping And a lot of those guys And none of them ever had two belts

You know what I mean I had the deuce. I was wanting around two belts. None of them guys had it. I'm looking to have as good a career as those guys, if not better. What's the scene like over there? Because, you know, we hear a lot about the English scene, and a lot of those guys now coming more to the US

because they feel like they need, you know, better wrestling, training and whatnot. What kind of training are you getting over in Ireland? Yeah, I'm training. I always train. I just train everywhere. Travel around. I like to travel around. And I try all styles of martial arts.

So I've been back and forth as well to Iceland with Gunnar Nelson and those guys from Iceland come over some good, good solid grapplers and some good solid wrestlers. You know what I mean? But see all this crap about going to America and all. People think they need to pack up, pack up and leave their coach. And like, see the way guys change coaches halfway through their career. You're in the wrong frame of mind if you're doing that.

You're in the wrong frame of mind if you're leaving the guys you came up with and going to some other gym and trying to start up. I mean, I've guys that I started boxing with that went over to the wild car gym with Freddy Roach and those, because the pro boxers and they're just another pro in there, you know what I mean? I'm with who I'm with.

And I'll certainly go around traveling and sparring and training and meeting new people, of course. But I'm with who I'm with, and I'm with them until the end. I mean, that's the frame of mind you need to be in. Not move away to somewhere and do, you know what I mean? It's not the answer, you know what I mean? So, people are always saying to me, oh, you've got to go to America

and you go to, I don't got to do fuck all. I'll go to America when I am going to America, you know what I mean? But I certainly won't be packing up and moving over. I'm from Ireland. You know what I mean? Ereda, and I'll be here till the day I die. So I'm keeping this on record. When you go on a five-fight winning streak or whatever in the UFC,

you're not leaving. You're sticking there. I'm not going to see you go to Greg Jackson or ATT or anything. You're sticking there, right? I would certainly, man, I would certainly travel abroad and maybe go training with those guys for a month. but then my home is Ireland. I'm not packing up and moving everything.

You know what I mean? There's no way in hell I'll ever do that. But I will definitely travel around, traveling around and meeting new people. And, you know, no matter what, even if you're trying to experience pros or beginners, like if you're traveling around and you're getting variety in your sparring partners

and your training partners, no matter what the level is, you always feel like you're learning and you feel like you're grown and you're experiencing different body types and things like that, you know what I mean? It's always a good thing. I certainly will travel around, but I'm from Ireland, and that's where I'll be basing.

I'm not jacking it in and moving abroad and thinking that's the answer to all my problems, because it's not, what you're looking for is not out there. What you're looking for is in here, do you know what I mean? Now, I do know what you're saying, my friend. Now, are you in Dublin right now? I'm in. This may be the greatest guest in the history of our show right here. Look at you, making news right here, making an impact.

That's what I was told about. What are you eating, by the way? Peanuts? Blueberries. Blueberries. Fucking delicious. Are you... Blueberries are good for leanin out.

You know what I mean? I'm a lean motherfucker as well. Lean as they come. Are you in Dublin right now? I'm in Dublin. I'm in my house. I was in training this morning. There's a guy from MTV following me around the past four days.

I'm getting a mad amount of press. I'm not really used to it. It kind of does me heading a little bit as well. But there was a guy from MTV following around for the past four days. He's making a documentary. It's going to be out this Friday if you want to retweet that shit. You know what I mean? No, you have a lot of followers.

Well, I'll see. I'll be out this Friday. I'll see if it's up to my standards. I was in today, done some grappling, then done some pads. Then now after this, I'm going to head back down and do some more grappling. And then that's it. Just carry on all day every day. Now, you're not getting a big head on us now that you're getting all this attention, right?

You're going to stay grounded. I don't know. I'm just me. You know what I'm not thinking anything. I'm just the way I am. I'm not going to be the, I'm always. going to be the same. You know what I mean?

It's just the way I am. When you walk around in Dublin, do you get a lot of love to a lot of people coming up to you, getting a lot of attention from the common folk? Yeah. Not really, to be honest. I don't really go anywhere. I wake up, I go to gym, I go get some field, I go back to gym, I go back to the gym, I go back, I go get some field, and then I go to bed.

You know what I mean? Sometimes I didn't have a tour session. I mean, that's what I do. I don't want to go anywhere to be seeing people or not, you know what I mean? But my mom from MTV following me around. I'm not really used any of that. And then there's a TV station called TV3. They were out.

It's like an Irish thing. You know what I mean? They were the news people and they were out doing a little thing on me. This is the kind of thing you have to get used to. You know, it's a pain in the ass. You know what I mean? Having to do all this stuff while they're training as well. But I'm definitely up for doing it.

If it's going to get me out there and it's going to get Irish MMA out there and it's eventually going to lead to these guys coming back and having a show here, you know, once a year or whatever, you know what I mean? And getting my team members. time. I mean, we're struggling. We're broke as a motherfuckers over here, yeah? All those guys training over here 24-7, I haven't got to pot to piss in. So I want to bring shows

over for all these guys so we can all get fucking paid. Are you married? No, I have a girlfriend. Just shoot me now. Oh, okay. I was going to ask what the love life was like, because you seem like a very, you seem like a good catch. What? You seem like a good catch? I seem like a good catch.

What the fuck? Yeah, he's a good catch. Yeah. I'm a good catch, yeah, well, yeah. No, my girlfriend, I'm with my girlfriend day a few years. Man, she keep, she put me, keep me head straight, you know what I mean? You need a good woman in your life. Have you got a woman yourself, already?

Or is this, or is MMA your woman? I've got a wife and a son, my friend. Nice, nice, good man. Is she good looking? She's very good looking. I appreciate you asking. Which, look at your face, I don't know. Oh, look at this guy.

I'm only mad. I know. Let me ask you about Marcus Brimidge. We haven't talked about him. A bit of a funky. character into the video games, likes to do the backflips, but he's looked very good in the UFC. What do you think of him?

Yeah, fair play to him. He's 3 and 0 inside the octagon. He's fought some prospects and that. I don't really look into what what these guys are at, you know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, there's no opponents, you know what I mean? You're against yourself in there,

so I don't really look too much into him. He seems okay. He seems like a nice guy. He seems like an okay. He seems like an okay little boxer and he's athletic but we'll see I think his movements I limit I think he's limited with his movements and I look to exploit that you know what I mean

I'm moving many different ways and I'll definitely be getting in there and looking to exploit that by the way are you on the main card I should be on the main card but I don't know this is my first time out you know what I feel like a wily veteran I'm gonna feel at home when I get in there yeah it's gonna feel like nothing see where everyone talks about being afraid and all I fear nothing

I'm gonna walk out there head held high, you know what I mean, hands up in the air and stomp out right forward for him. You know what I mean, not a care of the world? What's the most amount of people? What's the most amount of people that you fought in front of? Um, 4,000. Well, this is going to be different, my friend. Ready?

This is going to be different. There's going to be way more people than 4,000. Sold out Erickson Globe Arena. Are you ready for that? 4 million. I don't give a fuck. Makes no difference. It's me and him in there.

I'm going to go straight for him Hands in the air Open palm Chuck Norris style Yeah Wow How do you expect to finish him I don't know

I have a few shots picked He's a cell paw as well Let's see what happens He's tough You'll see what happens I am gonna finish him though There's no doubt me mind I'm gonna walk away

I'd like a nice bonus You know what I mean I'm in there to get paid I'm like I said We're all broke over this neck of the woods Not a thing gone for any of of us, you know what I mean? So when I get started getting paid, maybe get me myself a nice car or something, I mean, having even got a car at the minute and maybe

maybe some nice clothes or something, you know what I mean, a few suits and some shit like that. So I'm looking to get paid. I'm going to go for him and look to finish them anyway. By the way, what happens to your Cage Warriors titles? You wouldn't believe what happened to them Cage Warriors titles, yeah? When I won them titles, when I won the fourth one, I, uh, um, my coach John wanted me to bring, because he hangs all the belts we have up on the wall. and he's always saying, Connor,

bring down your belt and we're hanging up in the wall and I was like, oh yeah, yeah, I forgot it. I'll bring it down tomorrow and then tomorrow

I was like, I forgot it again. And that happened for months and then I wins the next belt and the same thing again. Can I bring down their belts behind him up my wall? I was like,

and then this guy got in touch wrote me a nice message he said like about, he wanted me to come down or doing some film and about a talk about suicide and bullying and you know what I mean? He said,

would I come down and say a few words and bring me two belts so I was like, man, of course I'll be, Of course I'll do that, man. That sounds great. So it brings me two belts down to the gym,

does the few words, leaves the belts there. The only time the belts are in the gym, and then Cage Warrior staff come over to film, one of my teammates was fighting for the title called Pendred. So the PR team are filming him. And I wasn't there. And didn't they take the two fucking belts back with them?

What? So now, right now I've no belts. And I was planning on not giving them belts back to me honest. When I came down to it, I was just going to delay it as long as I could, keep them belts and then maybe when I came down to it then probably just pay for the belts you know what I mean to say look I'll try is a few quid and I'll just keep them bells because to be honest I don't know I'm going to get them belts back somehow to be honest I don't know what I'm

going to deal but I will get them belts back that is a travestee you leave you leave something down for two seconds and it's a whip just like that that is a travesty you need to get those belts back I mean they're yours but are you the champion or are you now like have they vacated the titles I'm always the champion yeah no no one beat me no one beat me no one beat no took them belts off me. I'm the champ, yeah, I'm the two-way champ. Like, one-fifty-pound champ and 145-pound champ.

All right. But I think, I think, of course, of course, now I'm finding this, they're going to put two other bombs in there to try and fight for it, but there really is only one champ, and they know it as well as I know it. And his name is Connor McGregor. This might be my favorite interview of all time. I'm getting hit up here. People are loving you, my friend.

You know, I got to say, I think it's an apropos time to say this. You know, it's my favorite movie of all. all time? In the name of the father. You know that movie? Yeah, I know that. I love that movie. I was stuck in chair at a bombing, yeah.

That's all right. You didn't like it? I thought it was great. I really enjoyed it. No, it is a good film. There's some good Irish films out there. Yeah. It's actually a good Irish TV show at the minute I call Love, Hate,

and I'm actually betting to that's about Irish ganglands, yeah? From where I'm from, Crumlin and Dreamnet. It's a big TV show and it's having good success, but it's damn good Irish TV. not good. You know what I mean? When you see something good coming from our country, I like to support it.

You know what I mean? I'm not like one of those little negative, negative people that like to hate on shit. You know what I mean? I support good things that are coming from my country. And you know what I mean? And that is one of them,

that show. Maybe I don't know if I start getting my little celebrity up. Maybe I might see a cameo. Well, you are a good thing coming out of the great country of Ireland. He is Connor McGregor. His Twitter handle is The Notorious MMA.

You probably are a fan of his after listening to this interview. if you weren't a fan of his before the interview. So hit him up, follow him as he makes his way to the UFC. April 6th, Stockholm, Sweden, UFC on Fuel TV number 9. He fights Marcus Brimich. This has been a pleasure. I really enjoyed this.

I'm happy that they terrorized me to get you on the show, your fans. And I wish you nothing but the best of luck in your UFC debut and beyond. I'm sure we'll be talking to you many times, though. Brilliant. Thank you very much. I really appreciate them. Thanks for them, I'm kind words. All the best, too, and good luck on April 6th.

Thank you, man. Thanks very much. There he is. Connor McGregor stopping by. And wow. As I see on my Twitter right here, that was unbelievable. That might be one of our greatest guests ever. It's the best guest ever.

He's up there, right? No, it's number one. There's no other guests to talk about. This is the best guest and the best interview we've had. And I don't want to hate on other guests because we've had great ones. I mean, this has been a great show with Gary Cook and Brian Stan, et cetera, et cetera. But wow, let us know. Where does Connor McGregor rank as far as all-time great MMA hour guests?

And not only that first time on the MMA hour, comfortable, dropping lines, eating blueberries, laughing. I mean, he was outstanding. That was unbelievable. Thank you very much to him. And I appreciate all the fans who were, as I said, hounding me to get him on the show. you Irish fans are incredible, blown away by you guys. And I do hope that you get your UFC fight, UFC card in Ireland sooner rather than later. So he fights Marcus Brimidge on April 6th, UFC on Fuel TV 9.

And I hope he is on the main card. That would be a shame if he's not. So we'll have to wait and see for that. Okay. Thank you very much to Connor. Let's move along. I think it's time for Rick's Picks Challenge. Hey, by the way, weren't we supposed to have a theme song for this?

Well, I mean, the theme song I'd want, ideally, probably has copyrights and wouldn't be usable unless we bought it. Oh, come on. Do we really have to buy it? Come on, Ariel. Really? Why do we have to buy it? We're a radio show. Aren't we allowed to do that kind of thing? I'd have to speak to somebody.

Where's Buzzkill Breddenin? Well, what do you say? Can we use anything or do we need copyright or some sort of... Just do it. Just do it. There we go. All right. So what you're saying is we don't have a theme song.

Oh, I have one in mine. Okay. But it's not going to debut yet. What is the debut yet? This thing is going to end. Soon enough, you'll be off the show. All right, you know what? Well, as you can see in the chat that you're not reading today.

No. We have two callers. Oh, okay, okay. So you might want to hit those, and then we'll see what we can do about music. Okay, sorry. I'm just all flustered after the great Connor McGregor spot. Okay, let's go to the... Let's go to the phone lines.

Okay, let's go to Matt in Kearney, Missouri. Matt, are you there? Oh, sorry. Hey, bud, how are you? Can you hear me? Yeah. I'm good. How about you?

I'm doing great. I like how this time New York, Rick, actually, like, didn't just say Missouri, which would have been okay, but Kearney, Missouri, of all places. I said, Kearney. Oh, well, he spelt it the wrong way. It's about, like, 10 minutes north of Kansas City. Okay. What's on your mind?

Actually, I'll make this call quick because I'm cooking. What are you cooking? What are you cooking? Spaghetti. Oh, okay. Spaghetti at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Actually, it's like 2 o'clock over there. I guess it's lunchtime.

Fair enough. Okay, what's on your mind? I would not. Anyways, what do you think about the light heavyweight picture right now for the title? Like, do you think Leo and Machita deserves that title shot after that black-luster performance? Okay, very good question, and I'm happy someone asked it. Look, they said he's the number one contender. they said going into it that the winner of that fight would be the number one contender.

Dana White said out, and by the way, Dana had an out. The fans hated the fight. They booed him out of the building. He had an out to say he won, but we're not going to give him the shot. You need to do something more impressive to win. Now, I'll say this. I didn't really hate the fight. I really didn't.

I thought it was interesting. I was always on the edge of my seat throughout the fight because at any moment I thought, A, Machita may knock him out with a front kick or something. like the Randy Couture fight, or B, Hendo could do something like he's done many times before, H-bomb, all that stuff, and getting close, take him down, whatever, I always thought something might happen. And even if, even though something didn't happen, it was intriguing enough for me where, when it was over, I was like, eh, by the way, I didn't even think that I wasn't upset when this fight was in a main event fight because three rounds for me was enough. And I thought it delivered what I expected. So I wasn't as down on it as others were. Now, does Machita, does that, does

deserve a title shot after that, I never really thought that the Machita really deserved the title shot to begin with. I mean, he won once, got the title shot, wins again. Okay, now he's 2-0 since the loss. I think with timing, and if they're not going to do the Jones Silva fight, I think if Gustafson wins on April 6th, I think he deserves it. It's a fresh matchup. After that, he'd been Shogun, Musassi, you know,

has looked very good since the loss to Phil Davis. I'd like to see a new guy in there. So that's what I'm going to say. I mean, I know they said it, but it's kind of gone up in the air in the past, especially in this last year. If Gustafson wins, I think he deserves it. If Machita wins, then it's different. Excuse me, if Musassi wins, then it's different. But April 6th, if Gustafton looks good, I'd like to see him get that title shot if they don't do the Jones-Anderson fight, which could very well happen as well.

Right. Might have I add one more thing to this. Sure. Like, in a perfect goal for me, I would like to see maybe if Daniel Cormer went, him dropped down, and then give Leoto the winner of the guests in the Tossi fight. And that was the timing would kind of work out. Yeah. If everything worked out. I'd like to see Daniel.

Or even Glover. Well, Glover's fighting Ryan Bader, a UFC 160. Yeah, yeah. I see, again, I'm going to kind of. kind of dropped the whole Cormier, Kane Velasquez thing, and I know that, you know, people want to see him go down to 205, but does he deserve it right off the bat? I guess he would. He'd be one of those guys that deserves it, but can he make it off the bat? Does he need, like, a sort of test fight to be at his best? That's a big factor as well. April's a very interesting month for the

light heavyweight division, because you've got obviously the Gustafsson-Musassi fight. You've got, you know, even though it's not a light heavyweight fight, but you still got Kormier fighting Mier, and then you've got the title fight April 27th. So I think a lot of our answers, or our questions will be answered come end of April. Yes, it will. Thank you for taking my call, Ariel. My pleasure, man. Thanks for the call.

We appreciate it and enjoy the Piscetti. Thank you. Bye. Being told, by the way, that from a source close to the situation, Connor, not on the main card, UFC Fuel TV 9, which seems like maybe after this we can change that, but that seems like a strange decision. I mean, I understand it going in,

debut all that. And thus far, it's a pretty good card. It's not done yet as far as filled out. But him fighting on Facebook, I mean, I would pay 50 bucks to watch him fight right now. Just him alone. I pay 50 bucks to see him just walk around town, hang out with him at a pub.

All right, let's go to another caller before we get to Rick Spix Challenge. Let us go to our good pal, Mario in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mario? What is going on, Ariel? How are you doing today? I am doing great. How are you?

I'm doing fine, I guess. Just got out of school and going straight to you, man. I love talking to you. Well, I love talking to you, too. What's on your mind? Okay, so we've, I mean, it's been a topic over and over and over again. And like you say all the time, it's like beating a dead horse. But the thing with judges and everything, I want to, I mean, I know it's kind of difficult with a bunch, like to make any changes because of the athletic commissions and everything like that.

but what if fighters were made into judges? Like maybe they got whatever they got whatever licensing they needed, and their judging became more of like a jury-duty thing, you know? So they get like a little interview before the fight to see if there's any association with any fighters. That way there's no bias. And then fighters end up becoming judges for the fight. Well, you have some retired fighters doing it now.

I don't think that you can do that with active fighters because there are going to be, you know, you know, biased fighters, there's going to be affiliations, there's going to be problems. This guy doesn't like this guy because he doesn't like that guy. He may have fought this guy or fought his training partner or his coach. I mean, it becomes too incestuous then. You need refs, judges who are devoted to this, and that's what they do.

So I would not like to see if what you're suggesting is active fighters doing this because I think that will create way too many problems. Oh, you do? Okay. Well, what about the half point scoring system? I've been trying to look up all kinds of stuff online, and I can't find anything for it. Do you know if it's working? Because I know they were supposed to be testing it in California,

but I can't find any results or statistics on it. Well, they tested it with, I believe, amateur fights, but they're not using it in other commissions. I mean, I don't even know if they know how to use the 10-9 system. So half-points just makes it more confusing at times. I mean, look at Machita Hendo the first round, was a very tough round to score. I mean, really nothing happened.

You could have given that a 10-10. How many judges really use 10-10s these days? And then even the second round was tough. I use 10-10s on my scoring, but, I mean, I've got to try to think more like the judges now, which I hate doing. But don't you think they should give more 10-10s? Yeah, sure. I mean, you could.

I mean, I don't think it's a bad thing. I think they don't give enough 10-8s. Again, I've said it a thousand times 10-7 is like a unicorn. I don't think Grice Bermudez was a 10-8, honestly, that third round. He didn't drop him. Grice had some moments, but I don't think that was a 10-8, so I know some people called it a draw. And again, back to Hendo and Machita. First and second rounds were very tough to score.

Could a half-point system change that? Yeah, but at the end of the day, I'm not sure if they're – this is my problem in what I've done lately when I'm at home and watching the fights. I try to judge a fight based on how I think the judges will judge them now. And I feel like I kind of get it the way they do it, but I don't think they all use the same criteria. And I sure as heck don't think that they use the criteria that they're supposed to use. I think that they just, I don't know, it's a way I can't even explain the way I think MMA judges judge fights. I feel like I have a handle on it. Like I like to guess what they're going to do, even if they mess it up because if it's a controversial fight or whatnot.

But I think that I just don't know if they judge the way they should. And I'd like to start taking it. I know there was a course, a friend of mine was telling me about it. Sean Wheelock, who's a play-by-playman for Bellator, and a partner of his do these sort of referee and judging courses. They were in New York recently. I found out too late, I'd love to take something like that to educate myself even more. You know, here we are complaining, criticizing all the time.

Well, let's find out how this really should be done. And by the way, worth noting, only three referees reft on Saturday night. Jason Herzog, who I think is underrated. Big John McCarthy and Herb Dean And I put this out there last night I know the Robbie Lawler stoppage was somewhat controversial But honestly

I didn't really see any other big problems on the show And that could be a big problem But I think it was debatable I think I don't think it was a horrible call Other than that Look at that You put three pros in there who know what they're doing Why do you need more?

And it's amazing to me that over in Nevada The Fight Capital of the World We see so many problems all the time So kudos to California for having a pretty good night on Saturday. Yeah, I know. That's always good. What if they had, like, you remember how they used to have Eddie Bravo on the Lue office? Yeah, of course.

They used them as, like, Harold Letterman. Yeah. I think that would also be, I mean, not just not really like it's not going to make an impact or something, but that would be nice. And also, Judge is not scoring at ringside. I think, like Joe Rogan has said it many times, he'll rewatch the fight. He'll say on his own podcast. He said that he really watches the fight, and he scores the fight completely different than watching it ringside.

I mean, they probably shouldn't be scoring ringside then if it affects their decision-making that much, and how their frame of viewing the fight, too. You know, you bring up a good point. They should see how everyone else sees it. You bring up a good point with Eddie. I like when HBO boxing has their thing with Howard Letterman. He comes up. I love the way they always introduce him, like Jim Lampley, we'll go after the third,

six, ninth round, and he'll be like, let's go to Harold Letterman with his score card. Okay, Jim, 29, 28, Floyd Mayweather. I tell you, Jim. You know what I'm talking about? That's my Harold Letterman impression. You do his voice pretty good. Okay, Jim.

I liked it when Eddie was doing his thing, and maybe it doesn't work so much because the fights are shorter than in boxing, but I think it would be, I think it would be valuable to the broadcast, to have a guy come on and say what, maybe to give people an idea of what's coming. Often these guys are wrong,

but it's a nice little wrinkle, especially because judging has been so controversial as of late. Mm-hmm. All right, my man? All right. Thank you, Ariel. As always, thank you for giving me the time. I appreciate the call.

Thank you very much, Mario. We'll talk to you very soon. Okay, let's go to one more caller, and then we shall go to Rick's Picks and then your questions, because we've got to give away this UFC Ultimate Heavyweight's DVD, courtesy of our friends over at Anchor Bay Entertainment, 30 full-length fights. All right, let's go to John in Ireland.

Apropos that we're going back to Ireland. How are you, my friend? Hello. With Pettis refusing to fight Aldo, do you think they'll remove the title off of them? You know, that's a very good question. I'm happy that we're addressing it now and happy someone brought it up. I do not think that they're going to remove the title. I mean, Dana White said on Saturday, if you miss it,

that Andre Pettaneras, who is Aldo's coach, the head coach over at Novouni, he said that they don't feel like Pettus deserves the shot. And this is after, I mean, what is it, in two weeks or so since the fight was announced, but they met in London, and they're just not feeling the fight. They don't think Pettus has done enough to deserve it. So, and this is Pettis coming off a few wins. They just fought Frankie Edgar coming off a loss.

Yes, he was a former champion, but still. So right now, Dana said, like, Saturday night, they're refusing to fight. But he said, oh, they're going to fight or bad things are going to happen if they don't fight. So right now he didn't threaten that. I don't think they'll come to that. I think they'll end up fighting. But it's a very interesting thing. And I look forward to hearing from their camp as to why they don't think Pettus deserves it.

And why agree to it? Because I'm sure the UFC just didn't announce it like that and make it public and all that stuff. It wasn't just purported. It was announced by the UFC. I'm sure they wouldn't do that if they didn't talk to outdoors, camp. And do you have any more walk-and-talk videos lined up? Not right now. There's been a lot of events, so it's been hard to sort of carve out some time.

Obviously, as I mentioned on the show, there are a few guys that I'd love to do it with, but I can't say that there are any schedule right now. If you had your number one pick, which fighter would you like to be featured in that sort of light? Nick Diaz. Okay. Well, he is number one for everyone, it seems like. As you know, he's had some troubles with the countdown crew and whatnot. Dana said on Saturday that that's been nailed down.

He's done everything that they've asked him. At this point, Nate has been a bit of a different issue for them, but I think it would all get done. I don't think he's getting taken off the card and all that. Maybe when this is all done and you'll have less – because I don't think it's going to happen now. maybe when this is all done, he has less time. But I've thrown it out there, I've asked.

I was ready, willing, able to go, and they never responded, which, of course, I'm not the only one, but I would love to do it. He's number one on my list as well. Yeah. Can I ask you one more question? Absolutely.

What do you think is next for Robbie Lawler? Oh, that is a very good question. Next for Robbie Lawler. You know, the Safedin fight is an interesting one. Although I like seeing the Strike Force guys fight UFC guys. And I know Lala is a former UFC guy, but you know what I mean, the new Strike Force guys. That is an interesting one. You know, Camden's coming off the loss.

There's Mike Pierce out there. I'm not sure if he's ready. And I don't know if I would do it just yet, putting him in there with the McDonald's, the Mayas. Put it this way. I think they'll do Maya versus Safedin. I think that there are a lot of welterates fighting in, what, three weeks? I think they're going to wait to see what happens there. there, but an interesting one could very well be Roy McDonald.

You know, if Rory comes back in the next few months, that could work out. A lot of buzz behind Robbie, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do that. Maybe a Mike Pierce, or they just wait to see what happens at UFC 158. There are a ton of Walter weights fighting on that card. All right, my man. All right. Okay. Thank you very much for the call.

We appreciate it. And call in any time. Okay, let's move along. Now, I must say, on Saturday, I was kind of... kind of hanging out with the crew, if you will. And just for fun, just to have a laugh, we decided to predict who we thought was going to win at UFC 157. And we started this after the Facebook prelims.

So three fights were in the books. And we all picked. And lo and behold, and as I mentioned on this show, I'm not much of a predictor, prognosticator. I don't make bets. I'm not that kind of guy. I don't need that to get excited. But wouldn't you know it? I went 8-1.

8-1, and I have people there who saw it, witnessed it, who experienced it. 8-1. The one fight that I lost, pick Sam Stout, pick Brendan Schaub. Who am I missing? I picked Brendan Scha. Who else was on the damn undercard? Now I'm blanking.

One second. So you picked a lot of guys that you don't know anymore who you picked. Mike Jaisa, Dennis Bermudez, Cort McGee. your eye favor, you know, Machita, Honda Housie. The one I got wrong was Robbie Lawler and I should have known better,

I apologize, but it was a bit controversial, let's be honest. That being said, I went 8 in 1 and I was the champion that day. And so I ask you, New York, Rick, how did you do on Saturday night?

I had two bets going. One of them was a parlay with Machita and Dennis Bermudas. That was for 20. I bet 20 to win 15-ish, 1477, I believe it was. Was that the biggest bet you've done so far? That might have been.

Wow. I had to because Machita was kind of steady at minus 220 and minus 240-ish, and I thought closer to the fight, he was actually going to get better odds. I thought I was going to be able to get better action on him, but it didn't end up happening that way because I wanted to bet it all on Machita, actually. What do you mean bet at all? Like everything? Everything I had, I wanted to put on Machita.

but let's say I had put $50, it would have only paid about $20, so it really just didn't make sense to do it because I thought the line was going to get better for me, but it didn't. So what I did was I parlayed him with Dennis Bermudas, who I had a pretty good feeling about. That turned out to be a very close fight and a fantastic one. So I parlayed him with Bermudas for $20 to make about $15. The other one I put down $3 on like a long shot parley

with like seven fights. and that one got busted right away as soon as Shab and Johnson didn't finish inside the distance. So I ended up up $11 plus dollars. Wow. Big money. You got something to say? Well, I just mean, like, at what point are you going to pull the trigger on this thing and go for broke? And I got to admit, I was watching the Karmouche fight, and I was like, oh, it would be so funny if she won right now.

After I told you to bet on it. Of course, it didn't work out, so it means nothing. Right. So what does go for broke constitute in your mind? Explain it to me. Well, don't you want to win this damn contest? Tell me, tell me exactly what go for broke means, and I will tell you if I can or cannot do it. If you mean to put the entirety of the rest of the money on Liz Karmouche or a similarly large underdog, it's not going to happen because I don't want to lose right away. That's the way that you go broke. But let me ask you this.

at this rate winning $10 here you're not going to win this thing right right but I'm putting myself in a better position down the line so let's say I build it up to 120 140 or whatever I'm in a better position

to make a last minute bet maybe a long parley maybe an underdog at that time then I would be if I said oh my God I'm not going to make it so let me put all of it on Liz Carmush that you lose of course you're not going to do that she was a massive underdog

but at some point let's let's Let's roll the dice here, no? It just doesn't happen that way. You roll the dice and you lose. There's underdogs that you could bet on and make money. For example, Matt Riddle, I thought that was a good underdog to bet on. Robbie Lawler, that might have been a good underdog to bet on.

I personally didn't see that fight playing out that way, but that might have been somewhere where you can make up money. But you don't make it up like that. That's why the number... But you do see that at this rate. I mean, you're going to fall way short, and it's going to look like you kind of just played... You did patty cakes with us.

Like you were doing $10, $5, I mean, really? Come on. Let's roll the dice. So as I said, what would you have me do? Tell me the bet that I should make. Okay. Oh, I can't think of the fight, but I want to see you one day. What do you at now?

How much money do you have? 73 or 74, I believe. I want to see like a $40 parlay that makes you... Yeah, because... $200. Well, you're not going to see that because then I'm going to be done the next day. I'm going to come in on Monday.

Everybody's going to say, You're an idiot. Why did you bet on this guy? And that's it. That's the end of the competition. I would rather build it up and build it up slowly, make my $10 bets, take the heat, take all the criticism,

and then when I have to make the last ditch effort like that, then maybe put down the parlay. When I'm closer to the goal, for example, let's say I build it up to, 120, 130, 150, whatever the number is, then I have less of a distance to go. Right now, starting from, what was it, that I had

63, you have to put it on a much longer odds parlay than if I'm able to build it up slowly and, you know, then evaluate closer to the deadline what I have to do to make that money. Okay, but then promise me this, if you're at like 40 bucks on April 20, whatever, a couple days for the fight, you're going to let a ride

to try to win the whole thing. Of course. I'm trying to win. Of course. But, but, But you're like, oh, you know, bet this much, do this. But nobody can give me the answer of what I'm supposed to do. It's not as easy as, oh, you have to make it up all at once. That's not how you bet. All right. Well, as I mentioned, UFC on Fuel TV 8 is this?

So you're getting plenty of opportunities to do something. I'm just not quite sure. Oh, make no mistake about it. I'm picking fights poorly at this point. Okay. My record speaks for itself. It's not very good at this point. I'm picking poorly.

That doesn't equate to, oh, I should take this alternate strategy, which is betting on long odds. If my pick start becoming better and I start picking winners, then the money will increase. It's a correlation. I am picking poorly right now. Make no mistake about it. True or false, the Nicolrick persona, the slogan, the tagline, that's sticking, right? It seems like a lot of people like it. I think it's fun.

I think it's funny. And if it sticks, it sticks. I think it's funny. So what Rick is saying, he just wants to stretch it out because he wants the airtime, Shemp-lap said. That's not, you wouldn't do that, right? I want to stretch it out because I want to win. What advantage does it give me to bet everything on an underdog that's not going to win and then lose?

Well, how does that help me? Tell New York, Rick, I'd rather go out looking like an idiot than a, well, I'll just say a wussy, but he didn't say wussy. Well, congratulations. I have no response. I would rather not look like an idiot. All right. What are you looking at? UFC on Fuel TV 8. Can we agree this is one of the better free cards? Absolutely. One more time. Van der Leigh, Brian Stan. Mark Hunt-Stef, which when this was announced for UFC 146, I love this fight. I love it. And by the way, I tried to get the KFC King on the show this week. He, unlike Brian Stan, was not willing to wake up at 4 a.m. Just throwing it out there. Takenori Gomi, Diego Sanchez. Lombard. Okami, Herota,

Yahya, Baja Dursata versus Donion Kim. That's an amazing card. That is an amazing card. I love that card. All right, what are you thinking about? The odds are not out on all the fights yet. Okay. The odds are just out on Stan Silva, Hunt Struve, and Sanchez Gomi. So I'll address those first.

Okay. For Stan and Silva, Stan is the favorite, minus 240. Silva is the underdog plus 200. Look, my first reaction is I really like Stan to win. I think that he's got the chin and he's got the power to stand with Vanderle and take it to him. And if need be, he can take the fight to the ground and try and execute a more grappling-based game plan. I don't really see much value on either guy in this situation. I don't like Vanderle to knock out Stan, and I don't like Stan at that price.

I don't think that there's much of a value there. So it's probably one I'm going to stay away from, or parley Stan. But I do like Stan to win in this fight. But you're not going to touch it. Maybe in a parley is what you're saying. I might come around to it, but I just think at this point, minus 240 is, you know, about where it should be. I think that that's about right for this fight. Tell me you're touching Mark Hunt, Stefan Struth.

Yes, there will be a bet on this. Now, I haven't decided one way or another which guy is getting a bet, which is interesting. but it's a relatively close line. Hunt is an underdog plus 155. Struve is minus 175. He's the favorite. Now, my first reaction to this was Struv wins, easy.

I'm going to go with Struv. But then I thought about it a little more, and I thought, Struve is not the kind of guy who goes aggressively after the takedowns, isn't the kind of guy who takes the fight to the mat. Most of the time when he's submitting guys, it's because he was either rocked

and they were on top, and he submitted them from the bottom or he pulled guards, something similar to that scenario. So I'm not sure that he's going to come in with the game plan to take Hunt to the ground, which I think would be a mistake. If he wants to stand with Mark Hunt, I think it's going to be a mistake. Even though I was very impressed with how he did on his feet against Steepa, I think that standing with a guy like Hunt who has that pedigree,

that striking pedigree, and that power and that chin, because I don't see Struve putting Hunt out if he stays on the feet. I think that would be a mistake. So there might be some value in hunt, but my initial reaction is to go with Struve. He has the more diverse, well-rounded game, and it's possible for him to avoid the shot if he uses his jab properly. But the steep a fight, he was taking some shots that I didn't think it was necessary for him to take.

If he was able to put hunt on the end of his jab and keep him there, I think that it should be an easy fight for him. but if he stands and lets Hunt get inside the distance, it's going to be trouble. I think that Hunt definitely could take him out. No joke. No joke. Great fights this year and some good ones. I'm looking forward to Mark Hunt-Sept and Shrew as much as any fight,

and I'm not just saying that. I love the dynamic here. So happy to see Hunt back. I am concerned about his layoff, though, and the injury. That concerns me a bit. That is something to take into account. But I don't think it's going to affect this fight too much. It really comes down to the game plan of Stefan Struth, in my opinion.

If he can execute a game plan that keeps Hunt on the outside or is grappling-oriented, I think that this fight should be relatively easy for him. But if he stands in trades like Stephen Hunt, Stephen Hunt, Stefan Struve is known to do, it could be a bad night for him. All right. What else he thinking? So the next fight that they have odds for is Diego Sanchez, a minus 300 favorite over Takenore. Gomi at plus 240.

Sanchez hasn't fought since last February as well. Yeah, but at that weight and with his grappling pedigree, I think this is an easy one for Sanchez. I don't see Gomi being able to keep Sanchez off him. Sanchez is, when he fights, you know he's going to keep bringing it for all three

rounds. You know he's coming forward. There's guys who yeah, their wrestling is great and they can spam, takedowns and get the fight to the ground. But Sanchez is one of those dogs that just stays at it and stays at it, stays at it until he gets it. The fight that that encompasses this thought the most

is the Martin Campman Diego Sanchez's fight. He was getting battered for the better part of... Which I thought he won, by the way. For better part of two and a half rounds, but he relentlessly kept going after those takedowns. And the only guy I've ever seen who was able to

keep him off for an entire fight was BJ Penn at 155. Sanchez, and even in that Sanchez was still trying to bring that fight to the mat, still going after BJ. So I think that Gomi is not the guy who's going to be able to shake off those takedowns for all three rounds and land the bomb. He has the punching power. Sanchez has a chin, so I'm not really too concerned about that.

I see this being a relatively easy fight to predict Sanchez is going to take him down. And at minus 300, it's probably worth a bet, honestly, because I think it's such a mortal lock. I've seen people who like Gomi in this one, and I'm not seeing it, but maybe in time I'll be able to see what they're looking at when evaluating this line. But I think that this is an easy one for Sanchez. And at minus 300, maybe I'll parlay Sanchez and Stan. That might be the way to go. Two favorites right there. So those are the ones that they have picks for.

I'm an idiot, by the way. I actually thought Katman won that fight. I got confused. But I do agree way better at 155. Seems rejuvenated. Looking forward to this fight. And bigger picture, love that there's that, you know, you go to Japan, you got that pride field. There's Gomi there, there's Hunt there, Pride K1, there's Van der Leilis Silva there.

I love it. I think they put together a really good card for Saitama. I'm curious, not as much talk about the business. Remember last year when they went to Japan for the first time in a long time, we had Daniel Herbertson on. And a lot of talk was about the crowd, the ticket sales, all that stuff. Not as much to talk. And I do agree with Brian that this fight card has flown into the radar, unfortunately, because so many fights recently, I'm curious to see how it does business and attendance-wise on Sunday morning in Japan.

What else are you thinking about? I'm just looking at the card. The Okami-Lombard fight is going to be very interesting from a styles match-up. Okami's obviously going to – here's the thing about Okami. People, you know, consider him a grinder. And he definitely is, but his boxing is not that bad. And he's able to hang on his feet with guys. and keep it on his feet long enough for him to get the takedowns.

So I think he's going to be able to hang in there with Lombard, but it comes down to can Lombard shake off the takedowns, use his judo to maybe even execute takedowns in Okami. This is one of the more interesting fights of the year, in my opinion. I don't know which way I'm going to go with this. I'm going to have to think about it a little more, watch a little more footage. But I think that off the top of my head,

quickest gut reaction is that I think that Lombard's actually going to be able to to prevent al-Kami from having his way with him and and Okami has done that to some of the best fighters in the division the only guys he hasn't been able to take down and just absolutely control have been chal sanin and Anderson Silva everybody else he's pretty much been able to to take down and control even uh who was it that got the last minute knock out boch um he was controlling that fight before boch came back and knocked him out um so i think that lombard might be able to do it even though the as i said chal sonnan and and Anderson Silva are the only guys who haven't succumbed to his will, I think that Lombard might be able to. So that's a very interesting one. I'm not sure what the line is going to be, but I'm very interested in seeing the line for that fight. And now here's a question, which has, in my opinion,

raised the stake for this fight, raised the stakes for this fight. John Fitch was just released from the UFC, and one of the reasons why I was told, at least behind the scenes, I know Dana talked about his price tag and whatnot, but, you know, John Fitch is an interesting guy because he's not getting a title shot. anytime soon. As long as GSP's the champ, he's not going to get it. But he beats,

kills off contenders like an Eric Silver, right? Young guys who are climbing the ranks, who you need to sort of have them beat a John Fitch, but when John Fitch beats them decisively sucks for them. Lombard is, excuse me, Okami is kind of in that same position, right? I mean, Okami does not have an exciting stuff. If you think John Fitch is boring, you have to think that you should know Kami is boring. Ocami beats guys like Alan Belcher. I mean, he's climbed the ranks, fought Anderson lost, he's not going to get a title shot as long as Anderson's the champion. If Okami loses on Saturday, does he get cut?

After one loss? Does he get cut? I mean, if Fitch got cut, shouldn't Okami get cut? I get what you're saying, but is essentially, I mean, what you're saying is these are the guys that will be the roadblock to future contenders, so we should get rid of them. My feeling is beat them. If you can't beat John Fitch, then you don't deserve a title shot. If you can't beat Yushin Okami, then you don't deserve a title shot. then you don't deserve a title shot.

But at the end of the day with 100 spots, and I hate talking about that, I hate that people are asking, oh, has the UFC released who they're cutting from Saturday? I don't love that this is a talking point, but it has become one, and there are 100 spots or so that they need to clear up. You're going to keep the entertaining guys, right?

That's why Dan Hardy's still around. That's why, and he has earned his spot back in the UFC, I think he's fighting on the Fox card, but that's why, you know, Leonard Garcia is still around. Is Okami one of those entertaining guys? guys. I hear you. I don't think he's a very entertaining fighter. I got to be honest. I personally like him. I personally like Fitch. I have no problem with Fitch of style. And I think it's maybe just, I don't know, but I have no problem with Fitch's style.

But I think Ocami, as of late, Fitch, you know, Fitch Silva was candidate for fight of the year, in my opinion. But, right? It takes two. Okay, but here's, eh, that was quite the dominant performance, in my opinion. That was one-sided. That was 30 to 27. When's the last time Okami was in a fight like that, like a potential fight of the night. Let me look up his records. When is the last time? When was the last time, Okami? But what does that say? I mean, the reason that fight was exciting was because Eric Silva was able to strike back against John Fitch, threaten with submissions, and get up from the takedowns. To me, what that says is, O'Kami's just better at keeping guys down, which in my opinion is true. Okami is one of the best at controlling position.

So I think that's less about Okami not being exciting than more about Okami being more dominant than John Fitch respective to his division. The last good fight. Let's see. And by the way, I'm not here campaigning for the release of Yushin Okami. I'm just wondering if people will be calling for it talking about it, is it justified?

I mean, you see it here. You know, Belcher fight wasn't great. Finish Buddy Roberts, but that one kind of flew under the radar, but a finish is a finish. Lost a Boch. It's probably the Marquare fight is the one that was like pretty exciting. That was a good fight.

It was. The Munoz. Lin-Haris. Because Markhart came in as the guy who was about to get a title shot, and Okami shut that down and completely implemented his game plan. Marquard had his moments, but I thought that was a pretty good fight. Munoz was not so great. O'Kami completely controlled that one. I see, I get your point.

I'm not, believe me, I don't claim that he's the most exciting fighter, but I think that the reasoning behind, let's take this guy out because he's too good and is eliminated contenders. I'm not down for that. But that's not my... If that's the way the UFC goes, then that's the way the UFC goes. I have no problem seeing more exciting fights. But I don't like that line of thinking in terms of that's why we get rid of a guy.

All right, do you think about anything else? I'm interested in the Barajara and Stun Gun fight. What did you call him? What did I say? Barahzura. Baja de Zada. Baja.

Dhrzada. Kind of. Dersada. Dersada. Yeah. It's not so bad. Let's just call him Sire. Or C.R.

Or, yeah. Just call him the Afghani fighter. So Stungan versus C.R. I think that that's going to be an interesting one. Actually, it reminds me a little bit of the Okami Lombard fight, where C.R. is going to try and keep it on the feet, and Stung Gunn's going to want to take it to the ground. He's another guy who, you know, know, people give him a lot of flack for taking guys down and not doing much with it.

But I like that style, and I'd be interesting to see the line on that, to see how much of a favorite he's going to be. Because there's probably no way that he's not going to be a favorite. By the way, did you know that there's an actual Nickel Rick Twitter account? I've seen it, yes. That is crazy. Now, is he pretending to be you because I don't like that. No, no, no, no, no. He's just interacting and stuff.

He's not pretending to be me. Okay, okay, because that... But that is pretty funny. Yeah, it's fun. I commend you, sir. I commend you. Okay, so you touch on that. Anything else?

There's a lot of good fights, and I'll wait to see the car... The lines. Only three, and you're sticking to the deadline, right? What do you mean? Oh, an hour... Yeah. I have to. You have to.

You've taken away my... You've handcuffed me. Well, you asked for something. You didn't use it, so I'm taking it away. It makes no sense. What is, by the way, what is Will watching back there? I mean, really. Is it...

Are we boring? him or what? He was he was queuing up my music that we're not going to use. He's watching, right now? Yeah, he was queuing it up, but we're not going to use it this time. Oh, I thought he was actually just like surfing the internet. No, no, no, no, no. So why can we use it?

We got a message from Buzzkill, Brendan. He's listening? Shutting it down. He's listening? Shutting it down, but we're going to try and get it for next week. We're going to try and have it. Was this the song? Was what the song?

Was this the song that you told me about? Yes, yes, yes. Oh, that would have been great. We'll have it. We need a transition from just the general talk of the show to this segment, I think. I've talked to Buzzkill. We're going to get this sorted out. All right.

Okay. So what you're trying to say is no picks right now, but follow him on Twitter. Twitter.com slash New York, Rick. And it's going to be the same kind of schedule, as I said, even though we're in Japan, same kind of schedule. One hour after the way ends, in that time frame, you will make your picks. Correct. Okay. Okay.

Let's go to the questions here because we're already. we're making a habit out of this. And last week, I couldn't feel my tailbone for the two hours after the show. Let's go to some questions, and then we'll get out of here. And let me remind you that the ultimate heavyweights DVD is online here for the Twitter questions, courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. 30 full-length fights. Lesner, Carwin, Crowe Cup, Gonzaga, Lesnar, Lesnar, Mier, Wellish, Carwin, Verdum, Dos Santos, Couture, Lesner, No Gara, Frank Meier,

Duffy Hagan, many more. And the great Tim Sylvia versus Frank Mear fight. Okay. Our first question is from the website. Gangi or Gangi? Same as last time. Okay.

After his lackluster performance last weekend, do you think Lyoto Machita will get the title shot after Joan Sunnan? Or do you think to wait until after Musasi Gustafson to figure out who gets the title shot next? It doesn't seem like many are interested in Jones Machita, too, based on the fuel TV poll and Twitter. So before the show started, I said to New York, Rick, like, sometimes I'll weigh in on things.

Try not to ask me the same question as one that I've already addressed. And I believe this falls under that category. We already talked about this. Did we not? Hell of final. Someone called in about this very question. And I said, I thought that Gustavson should get a few wins. So let us go next.

All right. Sorry, guy. Geez, I mean, we're, we don't need to address it twice. Okay. Okay. Next question. Stanislav alias. Kind of addressed this as well.

But anyways, ask the question. What are you doing back there that you're not paying attention to? Well, I mean, you know, these people don't call themselves. Okay. Fair enough. Go ahead. Do you think the Kostchuk-Lawler fight was stopped prematurely? Koss was hurt, but I think Herb could have let it go a little bit longer.

I thought he could have let it go a little bit longer. But then when they showed the replays, it seemed like Kostchak went stiff. for a second, which is a sign that someone's out, and he could have kind of, you know, woken up after another punch. I thought it was a tad early, but I respect her being. I mean, look at the Grice-Bermuda's fight. He let that one go on, and it was the right call. What did you think? Did you even watch the fight? Yes, I did watch the fight. Okay. Well, wait, where was that? I don't know. What was that attitude? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I don't know what you're doing. Yeah, I watched the fight. I thought it was premature because as soon as

as cost check hopped up it looked like he was ready to defend himself it might have been the situation where you know he got hit a few times and came back and he was out and then he you know sprung back to life um but i think that we've seen quicker stoppages than that so in the scope of things it's really it wasn't that bad i if i was you know cost check i wouldn't complain too much about that if i was a fan of cost check i wouldn't complain too much about it um possibly a little early though in my opinion but it definitely not egregious or anything worse than some of the ones we've seen before. And by the way, Kostchuk went on Twitter afterwards and didn't really complain about it. So how can we have a problem with it?

Moving on. LG. MMA asks, should the UFC start cutting boring fighters? Dare I say we've addressed this as well. But in any event, I want to listen to you read this entire paragraph. Here's the thing. Do you want to give the fans a chance to interact? Do you want to let them be heard? Their voices be heard.

I want them to ask questions that we haven't addressed. Well, you're going to find that we get a lot of the same question. Okay. Let's say Lavaar Johnson fights two other grinders, aka boring fighters, and loses three in a row. There's a big chance he be cut, but who do fans want in the UFC?

An exciting fighter like Lovar or a boring one. I know that fighters should learn take down defense, but in general, do you think the UFC will send a message to boring fighters and cut one after they win a boring decision? I think they should. Well, you know, a lot of people thought with Brendan Schaubb going into this fight, he had lost two in a row, and he pretty much did what he had to do to win. I think he fought a smart fight. You know, what do we want these guys to do? Stand there and get their heads knocked off and then afterwards criticize them for not having good chins? So, yes. So do you think he should be cut or not, though?

Well, I'll get to that. I'm just saying I think Brendan in the past may have done that, but he went into this fight knowing there's a lot at stake, practicing jiu-tis-too. Obviously, he's not. a black belt or anything, and he fought a smart fight. He had to get the W. Now, as far as LeVar Johnson is concerned, first off, the heavyweight division is a lot thinner than other divisions. Lightweight, that's a very stacked division. They have to get rid of some guys, welterweight, et cetera. I think heavyweight is thin. You can use a guy like LeVar Johnson. I don't think he should get cut. I know in some cases, this hasn't gone a long way, but he did step up for the UFC. I think that should go a long way. So I don't want to see LeVar Johnson get cut. End of the as you said yourself, you have to be able to beat these guys.

You have to be able to beat wrestlers, take down the fence, all that stuff. I mean, if not, if you're just in this to just kind of get a few knockouts, sure, but I feel like all these guys are in this to go on a run and make some money and win titles along the way. You're not going to do that if you can't stop a takedown. So he has work to do. It's interesting. It's very interesting because fans want to see exciting fighters, but they also want to see winners. and, you know, Okami, if you don't like them, Fitch, if you don't like them, they win.

Recently, Fitch has been on a bit of a losing streak, and I think that that's what contributed most to the cut. But these guys do what they have to do to win. Like you said about Shab. Shob is not known for doing that, but he did what he has to do to win. Okami, he's facing, you know, a huge puncher in Hector Lombard. He's going to do what he has to do to win, which is grind out a decision. So I think that winning should be the thing that guys value the most. Exciting fights will come.

But if these guys are truly serious about their careers and chasing a title shot, they're not going to forego winning just to stand and bang for the fans. There may be guys like that who are lower tier guys, but the guys who are on the cusp of being great and being champion, I don't think that this should be a situation where they're cut because they're boring or anything like that. And what I appreciated from Brennan was that he flipped the script. He asked for this fight. He said he wanted to prove that he doesn't have a weak chin

and that he could stand with someone like LeVar, but he flipped the script. And he beat him. And he beat him and he exposed his weakness. So I say kudos to him. This is our last one from the website, from James Glory, regarding King Moe and TNA plans pooped.

Have you dressed? this one yet? I have not, but you know what? A very interesting conspiracy theory being thrown out by Clint Legend on Twitter. He said that last question was asked at 8.30 a.m. It's your crew, not the fans. What does that mean? Meaning that you're only grabbing the early questions and not looking at the more updated questions. Is that accurate? 100% false. Well, this one's 919. Times it now, 4 o'clock. So that was what's 7 hours ago? I don't know the timestamp on the other ones, but they were possibly later or possibly earlier.

The questions are... I'm just saying. Let me swash it. False. Okay. There we go. There you go. End of story. False.

I have not addressed King Moe. With the stunning K.O. of King Moe on last Thursday's Bellator, have the big plans to push him as an MMA champion, now had a proverbial spanner thrown into some planned TNA big storyline works. Remembering that Hulk Hogan first introduced Moe as MMA champion and Dixie Carter declaring love and support for Moe also on last Thursday show. The question ultimately is, has his loss cost him dearly in his wrestling midterm future?

I don't know if it's cost him dearly, but it was a big blow because they were banking on him winning the tournament. They could say whatever they want. They made a whole countdown show for him. They invested a lot. They made a big deal out of his signing. And that was a big deal for their organization. He was knocked out by Emmanuel Newton on Thursday. day and it was a stunning knockout.

It was a spinning back fist knockout. So it puts him in a tough spot because I always said that King Mo's wrestling future was based on his MMA future. I mean, if King Moe was losing MMA fights, he's not valuable in pro wrestling. Pro wrestling's a work so he can win, lose there, whatever goes to MMA, wins, looks like a killer, he's fine in the pro wrestling world. What I think they need to do after thinking about it, they need to address this. They need to turn this into a story.

You can't go in there and lie to the people and pretend, sweep this under the rug, and act like this never happened. Make this into a story. This is the guy who's down on his luck, was just knocked out, and is coming for revenge, and kind of blend those two worlds. And then you have something interesting. Then you have something worth watching. But if they have him come into TNA in April when they were expecting him to come in, they may delay that. But if that's still the plan, you have to address it. You have to have whoever his nemesis is.

You have to have him make fun of him and call him out and all that stuff because if you don't, then it's just insulting to the audience. All right. Moving on to Twitter questions. This is from Cola Arm Bar. Would a Liz Karmouche upset have been better for MMA than the awesome first round Rousey Bar? No, I don't think it would have been better for MMA. I think honestly, this was the perfect outcome for the UFC and for women's MMA.

You had Liz looking like she'd, deserved to be in there. No one believed her. The odds makers didn't believe her. The media didn't believe her. And she was such a class act throughout this professional and said all the right things and really enjoyed the moment on Friday, smiling afterwards. And what was great about it was it didn't come across as I'm just happy to be here. She went in there and had Rousey in her toughest spot secured her back, almost a rear naked choke, the neck crank. It was like it was like when Vitor had the arm bar. It was an unbelievable moment against John Jones, of course, UFC It was one of those holy crap moments

This might actually happen But then, yes No, I thought you were finished Okay, no, but then what happens is Rousie comes back so she She faces adversity She comes back, looks strong, and wins The way we wanted her to win as fans

And all that stuff, Arm bar I'm not saying we myself, but that's what you were expecting That's what you're almost paying to see Like a Mike Tyson knockout So she comes back, gets the arm bar first round so that streak is still intact. It was perfect. Liz looks better, in my opinion.

Her stock went up. Rousy face adversity looks good. Win-win for everyone. Now our next question talks about what you just talked about. Now, are you going to say I wasn't paying attention, or was this just good planning on my part that I thought? Our bud Michael is a good guy, so I like him, and I like his background. Look at that.

It's pretty nice. It is very nice. So I'll let this one slide. So here's our question from Michael Carroll. Bigger, oh, crap moment, Vitor's arm bar on Jones, or Karmouche's vicious neck crank on Rousey? Honestly, I'm going to go with Vitor. I really, I remember that moment, and it felt like life stood still. Because Vitor was like, got that opportunity.

You know, Rousie's still in the division. Karmu's still in the division, and we had time to digest the fight and think about it. This one kind of happened quickly, and after everything that happened at 151 and all that. no one gave Vitor a shot, much like they didn't give Liz a shot, but I remember that feeling when Vitor had it and it looked so tight and it looked more dangerous than the Liz situation. I got to go with Vitor. What do you think?

I think it's Jones just because of the context. Jones has already proven himself almost invincible in the UFC, whereas Rousey is coming over and hears her shot to make her stamp on the UFC and prove that she's as dominant as she, as she, as she, you know, has been hyped up to be. And if Karmouche had done that, there would have been things said like, oh, you know, she was never that good,

things like that. Even though I don't agree with that personally, there was more of a history with Jones of proving himself as this untouchable dominant champion, whereas Rousie was coming over, and this was the first time she was on the big stage and the bright lights. So I think if Karmouche had pulled that off,

there would have been more of an excuse made, not from Roussey, the way. I'm not implying anything like that. She would never make an excuse like that, and that's not what I'm trying to say. But I'm saying there will be a consensus out there that, you know, maybe the lights were too bright, all these

types of things, whereas Jones is already the established superstar. And I think that after this one, Rousey has that same kind of thing on her back where now she's proven herself, and now if the upsets come now, it's going to mean more. It's going to be more of a statement from the person who takes

it from her. By the way, Don't look now, but a lot of people on my Twitter are now noting the time that these questions were asked. So, you know, let's see what happens, what unfolds here, but I'm just throwing it out there. We can get into it if you want. We can talk about it. No, no, no, no, let's continue. Because there may not be anything to talk about. Okay.

Because we can get into it. But let's just continue. Yeah, let's continue. Oh. Malfunction. Bear with us. Interesting. After I bring that up.

All the questions have been erased. No questions for no one. Getting back to the questions here. As we approach the three hour and 12 minute of the show, all right, here we go. We're back. See them all loading up. Some good ones so far. Oh.

Our next one comes from Matthew Tyson. Thesson. Tyson, Tyson. Tyson. Do you think Gina Carrano will compete in WMMA again? if so in the UFC Honestly in my heart of hearts I'd love to see her back

I think it would be a great fight against Ronda Rousey but I don't see it happening she's in movies now she's getting paid a lot more to not get punched in the face I'm not sure if she can make 135 if she wants to make 135

I don't see it happening I think it would be great and this was the opportunity she was looking for she wanted to fight in the UFC but I just can't see it happening at this point in her life And if she comes back, does she get a title shot right away?

Is she able? Is she able to compete with these women these days? Can she make the weight? There's only one way class. Too many questions. So I'm going to say no. Our next question is from Brent Galloway. Was the Machita Hendo fight lackluster because of their conflicting styles matchup?

Do you agree with the call? I guess that's the final decision? When I was doing my prediction as to how the judges would score it, I predicted two to one for Hendo. because I thought he was more aggressive in the first round, although he didn't do any damage, so you could make a case for that being 10-10. And then I thought he won the second,

and I thought Machita won the third. So it could have been a draw, honestly, and I don't think many people would have disagreed with that. And yeah, I saw this happening. I saw this coming. Unless Machita was going to knock him out with one of those front kicks or something, I just didn't see Hendo losing his cool

and getting impatient. doing something stupid. And Hendo was going to go for that big, you know, that H-bomb. Not a guy who's going to, you know, try to leg kick you, break you down, things like that, even less so than a rampage. And it was very much like that UFC-123 fight, Rampage Machita. I just didn't see them kind of jelling the way a lot of people were. It was an important fight. It was the top five fight. You know, both guys are top fivers, but I just didn't see it happening. Agree with the call, I guess, at the end of the day, you know, meh, Machita was elusive. It was. It was. It was a lot of I guess it depends on how you score fight, damage.

But I thought Hendo was trying. He was aggressive. He just wasn't landing anything, and that's probably ultimately why he lost the fight. I mean, I don't see an argument for scoring it for Henderson. He was whiffing. He was hitting air almost the entire time. What he was landing was the kick that he usually sets up the overhand with,

the inside kick. And other than that, he wasn't landing much, whereas Machita was countering imperfectly. I thought that that was a clear 29, 28 for Machita. All right. Yeah. And they're sure as hell not given out 10-10s. I wish they would, but not happening.

What else? Our next question from Kevin Cutler. I believe that he was the winner last week. Oh, good to know. Do you see Josh Koshchek being cut following his loss to Robbie Lawler? No, I don't. I think Dana likes it. them and I think he has drawing power.

I think it still means something to have him on the card. He has finished guys as of late. He's still, the fans love him or hate him. He's not going to cut. There's no way. As you can see, I replied below. Oh, look at you getting in there. And I agree with you.

It wouldn't shock you, but you say it wouldn't shock you. It would shock me if he got cut. It would absolutely shock me. Well, I mean, what's the difference between him and Fitch in terms of... There is a big difference. People care about Josh Kosteck. Again, I wrote what I said. I put my feelings out there about Fitch,

but the general public, they either love him or hate him. He elicits a reaction, and he's had more exciting fights, and he's a character and all that stuff. He still a draw beating Kostchak still means something. Not to say that beating Fitch doesn't, but Fitch just, excuse me, Kostchik is, you know, he's just a character. So I think he's a bigger draw right now.

I see that. I can see that. Our next question comes from Buddha slash Jinn. Question, what's the beef between Dana and the A-Team Cutman? Please elaborate. This was brought up in the scrum this week and last week. You know, the UFC, if you look at what they're doing, they're putting on a lot of shows. Basically, Stitch and House and those guys, you know,

the regular Cutman haven't been to every UFC event. And the UFC kind of trying to maybe, you know, make the best financial decisions. and, you know, they don't bring the ring girls to all the events. They're getting local ones and whatnot. I just view this as the same kind of deal. And I never heard those guys call themselves the A team. Dana said they did, maybe to him.

But I just view this as this kind of deal. And it's cool that they're liked to where this is an issue for people. But I think there are other cut men out there who, you know, deserve shots. And, you know, if it's cheaper for the UFC to use them, they're going to use them. so I don't see it being some kind of big controversy. Oh, Brent Galloway again. Interesting. Weird.

Dana said that Jose Aldo is going to fight Anthony or he won't like the consequences. What do you think he means by this? I mean, again, I don't think he's cutting Aldo. I don't think he's stripping Aldo. I think at the end of the day, they'll figure it out. I think that was just his way of saying, you got to take this fight. This is the fight we want. This is the fight we made.

I have to think someone in his camp agreed to it. So I think that was just him kind of putting his foot down and saying, without trying to say anything too drastic, that this is what we want. And you should take this fight. And the UFC has been patient with Aldo. He fought once last year, gone into the accident and whatnot. I think he was just saying, you better take this fight. That's all.

I don't think he's threatening to cut him because if he was, he would have probably said it. This next question is from Jacob. Do you think the Emmanuel Newton-K.O. will help legitimize Bellator since a homegrown fight. fighter took out King Moe. Well, I'm not sure. Does this mean that the tournament is good or bad? They put a lot into King Moe.

Emmanuel Newton's last fight, first fight in the tournament, was on the un-televised prelims. That tells you what they thought of him. They put a lot into King Moe. He lost, isn't getting the title shot, and their light heavyweight titles on the line this week. So it's very much on the radar. So does this mean that the tournament is good or bad?

I think it's good when you need to build up a contender, when you don't have anyone an obvious choice. But when you sign someone, let's say they would have signed Fitch, they say they don't want him. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I guess I get it. Or Mo, I think you want to put those guys in the big fights right away. But I don't know. What do you think?

Does this make the tournament better or worse? I think that it's better in the long run. In the long run. You may lose out on a lot of big fights. I think what happens here is everybody knows that King Moe is still a legit fighter. and that, you know, this isn't some kind of blemish on his career. It's not going to be looked at as like the thing that was his downfall. So not only you keep King Moe as a property as a stock,

but Emmanuel Newton's stock rises by showing him knocking out King Mo. He can set up a rematch, all kinds of things like that. I think that for the price of sacrifice, whereas this was initially viewed as like sacrificing one guy to build up King Mo, I think now you have two guys that you can build up in the long run. I think that King Mo will get back on track just fine And everybody will not forget about it But it'll just be a piece of history And then maybe you can set up a rematch down the line

Things like that My take is You should make tournaments when needed But you don't need to have them all the time Can I agree with that The best What? Our next question is from Jason

What are your thoughts on same-day weigh-ins Or at least the limit on the weight gained after weighings? I like the second option better same-day weigh-ins. I don't know if the guys are going to be, you know, fit enough to fight hours after they weigh in. I do like the limit. There has to be some sort of percentage that you gain, you know, between the way-in and whatnot. I like that HBO does that. I like that HBO has, you know, okay, this is what he weighed in at. This is how much he weighs right now. I don't think they like spotlighting that because sometimes it's a drastic amount of weight gained. But I like that. I think that's a very interesting little wrinkle.

to fight and it's something we talk about and something we wonder, so why not put it into the broadcasts? And, or not even the broadcast, but just in general. Why not make that something that the fighters have to, have to follow that you can't gain this much because then it's an unfair advantage. Anthony Johnson, Charlie Brennan comes to mind. Anthony Johnson is fighting at heavyweight next month. Charlie Brennan is fighting at lightweight right now. Think about that. That's crazy.

It is crazy. It is. This is our last Twitter question. Okay. From Chris Riley. Are you worried about the next time you see the Diaz brothers? Their lawyer said you were instigating. No, no.

Their lawyer, his name is Jonathan Tweedle. I have a very good relationship with him. He, it was a smiley face. Stop instigating smile and face. It was not negative. At least it's not way that I took it. So I'm not worried. I'm good pals with the Diaz brothers.

I'm going to visit them in Stockton, California very soon. I look forward to see. seeing them next month in my hometown of Montreal. Hey, maybe I'll show them around Montreal. Maybe we'll flip the script on them and I'll show them around my hometown and then they can return the favor a little later on. Would that be something? Me and the Diaz brothers walking around snowing Montreal before the fight against GSP.

That would be a moment. That would be pretty sweet. But no, I think we're all good. We got one last thing. Okay. Ronda Rousey on her Instagram. Yeah. responding to your interview with Misha Tate and Kat Zingano.

So you sent me this and I got to ask. I think it's great. It's funny. And I think, you know, again, you saw the interview, right? I mean, I did. I'm not imagining things, right? They weren't impressed with their performance, right? It wasn't a direct quote, but...

But I never said it was a direct quote. No, I'm not disagreeing with you. It was a title. It was a headline. That tone was definitely there and I don't think you were reading too much into it to say that. Was it a stretch? Was I in the wrong? Not in my opinion.

Okay. But now with this picture, am I a hater too? It appears that way. I think it's just because it was, you know, two people on the side of the one person to make it fit. Because I kind of look like. That's Dave Chappelle, right? Yeah, that's Silky Johnson right there. So I kind of, I feel like I'm not a hater, am I?

Am I? I? I don't know. I mean, you're hating on me. That's for sure. That's true. But in this situation. No, in this one, I think that, you know, this was blown out of proportion. a little bit and I think she's just having fun with it

the same way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's, and she writes L-M-A-O. I think it was just, you know, she just fights has this great moment and then you have these two girls there and I asked their opinion. I wasn't setting them up, I wasn't instigating on any of that stuff and they said it. And I said correct me if I'm wrong.

It sounds like it, no one corrected me. So I guess I'm right. That's it. Who wins? I liked the V-Tor-Karmouche-Comuch comparison. Oh, yeah. That was a good one. And I also like the question about the legitimacy.

Okay. Legitimacy. Yeah. Of Bellator's tournament when King Mo got knocked out. Those were my two. I also liked, what was the last one we just had about? There was one about Diaz. No, no, no, before that.

There was one about. What was the first one you said? My brain is fried. The Vitor Jones comparison. into the Carmouche uh, rousy fight. Let's go with that. Okay.

All right. You have won the Ultimate Heavyweights DVD, 30 full fights, courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. We appreciate it very much. Great show, fun show, Isaac hit the music. Yeah.

I hit up everything I wanted to hit up as far as other notes. Really fun show. Really enjoyed this show. I love the international feel of it all. A lot of fun. And, uh, and, uh, and I hope you,

you enjoyed it as well. and if you missed any of it, the replay should be up later today, and also don't forget to get it either video iTunes, audio iTunes, Stitcher, tune in, all that good stuff. I want to thank Robert Sargent of MMARising.com. Check him out. His website is a great one, also on Twitter.

MMA rising is his name. Ask him anything you want to know about MMA or women's MMA. I shouldn't say, or there. Just say women's MMA or MMA. All right, I just said it again. You know what I'm trying to say. can talk about both men or women. Tarek Safdeen, good luck to him and his UFC debut.

Whenever it comes, we appreciate the time. Darren Harvey, thank you very much. Good to get some perspective on the business of Ronda Rousey after her historic win at UFC 157 on Saturday night. A great night for the sport. Brian Stan can't thank him enough for stopping by 4 a.m. in Tokyo. He makes his return to the UFC, his first UFC main event on Saturday. Fuel TV, Van der LeSilva, Bryant Stan.

Super Arena. Unbelievable. Gary Cook, it was great talking to Gary Cook. Wish him the best of luck in his new gig. Thank you so much for the candor and the responses. Really appreciated his time. And I hope we answered your questions. And then Connor McGregor, the notorious one. What an unbelievable spot.

If you missed that, do check it out. It was awesome. We'll see you right here. Same time, same place next week. Until then, I say to you, peace. I'm out of you. Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat

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