MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 177

Episode Date: August 14, 2014

Featuring Duane Ludwig, Vinny Magalhaes, Pat Healy, Malki Kawa, Sara McMann, and a check-in on the UFC 159 conference call. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It is so great to be back here with you on another maybe two and a half, maybe three. Who knows, maybe three and a half hour edition of the mixed martial arts hour. We've got a lot to talk about. Just got back from San Jose, California. UFC on Fox 7. What a show it was. Probably, not probably. It was the best.

the Fox card thus far when you include the prelims, the FX prelims, even the Facebook prelims, and then the main card, yes, I said it, the fans got spoiled during the Kormier Meir fight. I thought it was an interesting fight. Was it as interesting? Was it as exciting as Kormier knocking out Bigfoot Silva? No. But it was still fun.

It was interesting to see him and see how he performed. And let's not forget, in my opinion, he dominated a former two-time champion. He dominated a guy who's been in the sport a long time and who has dominated. the UFC heavyweight division for a long time. So let's relax on the criticism. It was a great card top to bottom, a little controversy at the top. We'll talk about that, of course,

and looking forward to hearing from you as well. As I know you guys have been hitting me up on Twitter using the hashtag the MMA hour. We'll answer some of your questions actually in the first hour, some of them in the third hour, and this week on the show, our prize, is this book, George St. Pierre, The Way of the Fight.

Now, we were actually supposed to have GSP on this episode of the MMA hour, and he canceled at the 11th hour. And just to prove that I am not the kind of guy who holds a grudge, just to prove that I am extending an olive branch to George. He wants to call in today. Sure, he can. But I'm going to guess that he's not calling in. But anyway, he has this book coming out. You can get it in stores, Amazon.com, all that stuff. And I got an extra copy, so I figured I hook you guys up.

So that's the prize for the best question of the day. we're also doing our pose of the day and some of these, and I said it on Twitter, I think we may have to retire the pose of the day contest because I don't know if we could top what's going on right now. It's big country pose, hashtag big country pose, and we are getting some of the best ones ever. There's really no way we can top this.

It's unbelievable. The best one of the day will get a special prize as well. Probably the Benson Henning. Anderson drawing that we gave out. We have a couple extra of those in honor of the champ. Defended his title against Gilbert Melendez, of course. That's the controversy I was referring to. So the best Big Country Pose will get that.

And if you want to submit yours, you still have another two hours or so. It's hashtag Big Country Pose. All right, we're joining the back, as always, Buzzkill, Will, Mike, New York, Rick, who is a little down today? Should I go there? We'll get to New York, Rick, a little later on, of course, as we recap UFC on Fox 7, and perhaps look ahead to UFC 159.

Now, who else is stopping by on this show? Well, in the second hour, in the third hour, actually, we'll be talking to Malikawa, who is the manager to the likes of Benson Henderson, who won on Saturday night, of John Jones, who fights this Saturday, of course, UFC 159. In Newark, New Jersey, the best part about it all is, I don't have to go anywhere.

I don't have to go on a plane. I'm so happy that the UFC is back in the tri-state area, and it's a pretty solid card. Just found out that El Gohito, Eric Perez, injured. Johnny Bedford, now fighting Brian Carraway. That's according to Mr. Bedford himself on Twitter. But it's a solid card, Belcher Bisping. We'll be talking to some of the big names on that card a little later on.

Dwayne Bang Ludwig, he'll be stopping by. He was arguably the star of UFC on Fox 7. and what was it? Menvinitas Shah, Chad Mendes, Joseph Benavitas, T.J. Dilleshaw, looking fantastic. Ever since he became the head coach over at Team Alpha Male, he has rejuvenated that team.

So Bang will stop by at around 240 to talk about his new gig over in Sacramento. Vinnie Magalesh, he stops by. He faces Phil Davis. As you know, they've been going back and forth for quite some time. That fight takes place this Saturday at UFC 159. Interesting light heavyweight bout.

At 2 o'clock, we'll be listening in on the UFC 159 conference call. Chale Sunnen will be on it. Dana White will be on it. John Jones, of course, will be on it. Alan Belcher will be on it. Michael Bisping will be on it. And I'm expecting something here. I mean, a conference call with Chale, John, there are beef.

I'm expecting something. We'll listen in on it for the first 20 or so minutes. Hopefully it lives up to the hype. We'll take some of your questions, as I mentioned, at around 140. I also do Rick's picks. Sarah McMahon will be stopping by as well. she makes her UFC debut on Saturday against Sheila Gaff. So a lot to discuss, but first, let us go to the Skype machine and welcome in a man who will be making his UFC debut on Saturday night.

A very important lightweight bout. He faces Jim Miller. He is Bam Bam Healy. Pat Healy joins us via the magic of Skype. Pat, how are you? I'm doing great. Ariel, thanks a bunch for having me on the show. Oh, it is a pleasure, my friend.

I see the beard is still going strong. You're still rocking it, right? Yeah, man. I always say it's a lifestyle, man. I don't just do it for fights. I ain't been clean-shaven and I don't know how long, so many years. But it's a lifestyle for me, not just a fight thing. So here you are less than a week away from making your UFC debut.

You started your MMA journey 12 years ago. You've been all over the place. A lot of fights canceled, a lot of uncertainty, some small organizations, some big organizations. How can you describe this, what this means to you? Five or so days out, about to make your Oct-Dar on debut, in your opponent's home state, this is a very big deal. Describe it for us. I can't tell you how excited I am, man. I mean, I've never had this feeling of excitement going into a fight.

You know, a few weeks ago when the nerves started to hit me, and I like to start thinking about the fight early, kind of get those nerves out of the way. I kind of realized, man, this is where everybody wants to be. This is what everybody in MMA is working towards a main card of a pay-per-view in the UFC with a big headliner with Chell and John Jones. So I'm just super excited and ready to show people what I can really do. So were you feeling more nervous than you usually feel before your fights? Yeah, I mean, I felt the nerves. Like when I first started thinking about it,

I try to really force myself to think about it early and kind of get those out of the way because I think if you put it off and you show up that weekend, man, that's when it can really hit you if you try to put it in the back of your mind. They're going to come. Everybody gets a little nervous,

so why not feel that early, you know, and embrace it, man, and just get it out of the way? What did you think when they offered you, Jim Miller? Because I must say, when I saw that this fight was put together, I'll be honest, I was happy for you because I know you were frustrated not getting the Melendez fight. You had to settle for Kurt Hollibaugh. You weren't happy with that in the last Strike Force event. And this feels like a big deal.

Miller coming off a very big win in December, in his home state, as I mentioned, on pay-per-view. It seemed like, okay, it's not a title fight, but this is a very, very strong way to make your UFC debut. And by the way, a lot of the Strike Force guys are kind of on the prelims fighting other Strike Force guys. It feels like they're giving you some respect here. Do you agree with that? Yeah, I definitely feel. I couldn't be happier with the fight. I certainly didn't even hesitate when they offered it to me.

I asked for a top 10 opponent, and, you know, I think Jim Miller's every bit of that. And, you know, I think he's, you know, proven that he's a top guy in the UFC. And, you know, I need to know where I'm at. And there's so many good lightweights in the UFC. I'd much rather fight a guy with a big name than just a tough guy in the UFC. middle of the pack, you know. Did you watch UFC on Fox 7 on Saturday? Yeah, yeah, I've definitely watched it.

Yeah, I'm sure you were very interested in the main event. What did you think of the main event? Who do you think won? You know, I thought Gil pulled it out. I thought with the round system, he won the first, second, and the last round. I thought Benson did more damage, but, I mean, the way the fights are scored, I gave him those rounds and I mean I could certainly see it going either way and I'm not shocked that Benson got it and I don't think it's a bad decision necessarily. Some of those rounds were super close and I just felt

kind of Gill edged it out. You know I agree with you I thought he won one two I thought Benson won four five excuse me three four five is a really hard round to score I watched it again last night and I could see why someone would have given it to Gil, I could see why someone would have given it to Ben. It was very close. I kind of feel like they deserve to have an immediate rematch. And I don't know if it was it hard for you to watch, considering

what you have said about Gilbert, considering the fact that you thought he was maybe ducking you, etc. Was it hard for you to sit there and enjoy because maybe if you would have been him, you'd be in that spot? Not really. I've always kind of said. I thought Gil made a business

decision and he made the right business. decision to, you know, to immediately get in there and fight for the title. I mean, that shows he was made a smart decision. So it wasn't hard for me to watch. I was, you know, I thought if he won, it would definitely help me get, you know, win my next fight. Maybe I'd be looking at that title shot with him. But, no, I wasn't hard to watch.

I mean, I don't hold anything against Gil. I'm not, like, mad at him. You know, I want to see the strike force guys do well, and, you know, I think he did pretty dang well. So are you rooting for those guys? Is it a fraternity in your opinion? At least to me it is. I know, you know, I know a lot of those guys, you know, you kind of develop, you know, a relationship with them. I've trained with Josh Thompson, you know, a couple of times now, and I was certainly rooting for him. And I was rooting for, yeah, I mean, I think it is a little bit of a fraternity. You want to see him do well. And, you know, everybody in Strike Force, I think, kind of felt that they were not by the organization,

but by kind of the fans treated as second-rate athletes. The whole time we were in Strike Force, we were all being compared. Oh, they couldn't match up to the UFC guys. So I think we're showing that we're every bit as good as any of them. So, you know, right now, as I mentioned, you're about to make your UFC debut against Jim Miller. But I remember when you won your last fight in Strike Force, You were actually asking for Joe Lozahn, who's the guy Jim Miller beat in that great fight at UFC 155. Were you bummed that you didn't get Loz on?

No, I mean, to be honest, man, I hadn't really thought that far ahead. And when, you know, you get those questions right after, I was like, and I just thought of their fight. I mean, that was an awesome fight they had. And I think it was only a few weeks before I had fought. So I just thought of that fight. and I was like, well, Joe Loh's on, you know. It wasn't like I had anything personal against him or, you know,

I just wanted somebody. I like both of the way those guys fight, and either of them take a step back. And I think, you know, especially making this debut at 155, I want, you know, somebody who's going to be an exciting fight. And I think either of those guys, you know, especially Joe or Dan or Miller would have made a great fight. win or lose on Saturday.

Do you want Gil? Do you still want that fight? No, I mean, I don't have anything like hinkering to fight Gil. I just wanted the title in Strike Force. That's what I was working for. It was like one of my goals I had written on my walls right when I got in the strike force to win the belt in 2012. And it kind of was lining it up, I thought, perfectly for that.

So it was never anything personal for Gil. I want the belt. I want the belt in the UFC. That's what I'm working for. I don't care who has it. You know, that's what I'm coming for. It's interesting times in the UFC. As you know, they need to trim the roster,

and actually lightweight is one of the more, I guess I could say, obese divisions, right? They have a lot of guys at 155. Is this a must-win for you? Do you have to win this fight to stick around in the UFC, in your opinion? I'm not really sure. I'm trying not to put that type of pressure on myself. I think what's really important,

important is I need to have a good performance. I need to have an exciting fight. That's kind of what I've been focusing on. Uh, not really, you know, obviously I'm, you know, want, I'm going in there to win. I'm going to win this fight. But I think the most important thing is that I go out there, let it all hang out, you know, making an exciting fight and, um, and, and, and get some people turn, turn some heads, you know, was there ever a point where you thought, you know what, it's, it's, it's a good career. I had some big wins, fought all over the place. I may not ever get to the UFC, and that's okay. Did you ever have to come to grips with the fact that you may never fight inside the Octagon? I might have had a couple of moments where I was like, man, is this ever going to

happen? But, uh, no, I mean, I'm in this for the long run, man. I mean, I'm not in this sport, like a lot of other people. I'm in this sport because I love to fight, man. That is the bottom line. I'm in it to be popular. I'm not in it to make friends. I'm not in it to, I mean, the money's nice, but I'm not in it for money. I'm in it because I love to fight. If it wasn't for fighting, you know, MMA, I'd be fighting all the time on the streets, and that's not a very good thing to do. So I love to fight, and anyone who knows me my whole life can verify that. I'm just glad that MMA is a popular sport now, and I can do it in the octagon. But then what do you do in your done, if you love to fight so much, there's going to come a time where you can't fight anymore.

Have you thought of that? Yeah, and, you know, I just got to rely on doing jujitsu. I mean, I think Brazilian jiu-suitzoo will always be a part of my life. And, you know, the older I get, you know, I don't want to, I don't like his fighting as much as I did when I was like 17, 18. So I think the older I get, it'll kind of start to fade. And as long as I keep combat sports in my life, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, you know, all this training, I don't think that'll be a problem. I see you're wearing a BJ pen shirt proudly.

Where did you train for this fight? I know you've trained with BJ in the past. Where did you train for this particular fight? I trained. I'm now with the sports lab here in Portland. so I trained the whole time here. It's been kind of a great change for me. It's,

although I've been winning, you know, it kind of rejuvenated me. And, you know, I think they have everything that you need from massage therapists to, it's the whole game, you know, strength and conditioning coaches.

They have multiple striking coaches that I work consistently with. And, you know, I think that's a huge asset. So, but you do everything. everything else there too. That's where you do your MMA training, right? Yeah, yeah. Who's the head coach there? Phil Claude, and he is a strength and conditioning coach, but he kind of coordinates everything.

He puts, you know, all the workouts together, you know, sets you up working with the other coaches. So I do my, the only thing I, my Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I do at Nemesis and Jiu-Jitsu here in Portland, and they work very closely with Sports Lab too. So it's like a big team, a conglomerate of coaches, and everybody kind of works together. So why do you feel rejuvenated? You know, I just think, I don't know if it's my personality or what, but, you know, you get being in the same place,

working with the same people for a long time. Like, things can get a little stale and, you know, like having a change and working with new people. just kind of brought all that excitement back to me. So was this your first camp with them 100% full time at this camp? Yeah, I worked with them with the Hollabaw fight also, but it wasn't the whole time. I was out in Hawaii working with BJ for some of that time, too.

So this is the first time I've worked the entire camp with them. Needless to say, you're going to stick around there for a bit. Yeah, definitely. and I'll always be going to Hawaii and training with those guys, BJ and them, and, you know, Hawaii's a tough place not to fall in love with

and want to be there all the time. But, yeah, I mean, this is, I'm really enjoying it right now. I'm loving sports lab. You know, when I think of this fight, I think of two guys wearing a hard hat, bringing their lunch to work, blue collar type of fight.

I mean, you both have that sort of gritty, tough style, you don't go away easily, you're just so dominant, you're so tough to finish. And it just seems like a fun matchup. It's like the irresistible force meets the movable object. Like who's going to be able to break the other guy? And will he be able to?

Or will it go to the judges and whatnot? But when you think of Jim Miller, how do you beat this guy? I mean, he's had some very, very impressive performances. Look at that fight against Joe Lozon, all the blood and all that. I mean, he's just such a tough, gritty, blue-collar type of fighter like yourself. In your opinion, how do you beat him? I just got to make him fight my fight. I mean, he comes forward.

We're going to meet in the center, and I don't think either of us will take a step back, but I think there's some positions I can take advantage of, and I need to force him into those positions and make it my style of fight. I have a pretty good feeling that he's going to try to mix it up mostly on his feet and use his, like, I know he's shorter me, but kind of that range.

of him staying in the pocket and swinging like he likes to do, and especially he showed in his fight with Joe. So I think I just got to force my positions, and, you know, we're both going to grind. I don't expect to break him mentally like I've done to some of my last opponents, and I've just got to fight a smart fight. Do you feel like you'll be able to have a chance to smell the roses? You know, you get there probably tomorrow, right?

In New Jersey, is that when you go out? Yep. whole process being inside the octagon on pay-per-view, almost sold-out arena, it may be sold out come Saturday. Will you take a moment to enjoy how far you've come? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the most of the, the best part of a sport we do is the experiences we get to go with it, you know,

and, you know, I want to soak those experiences up. And, you know, I always kind of think of Clay Gwita, you know, he was a friend of mine, and when he made his UFC debut, man, he was in that moment. He looked like he was having such a great time. And I remember looking back on that being like, man, like, that's what you need to do. And that's what I'm going to try to do, just live in the moment, enjoy every aspect of it. And hopefully I can have some time to pick up some shoes and do some shoe shopping while I'm out in Brooklyn. Oh, nice.

You're going to Brooklyn as well. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Newark, but I heard Brooklyn is a good place to go, so I'm looking to get over there, and I'm a big fan of shoes, man. So I've already been doing some research on the internet, finding the good shoe shops. Oh, man, you've got to talk to me. I know all the good shoe shops. I live in Brooklyn. I don't know if you know this, but New York is my adopted hometown now. So if you need any tips, I will hook you up, my friend. Oh, I definitely will be taking you up on that. Awesome. Well, I'm happy for you, man. Congratulations on making it to the UFC. I know you're not just content on making it. You want to have a big showing on Saturday. Very much looking forward to your fight against Jim Miller. We'll see you out in New Jersey this coming week. Thanks a ton, Ariel, for having me on, man. It's always good to be on the big show with you. Always a pleasure, my friend. Good luck on Saturday. Thank you. There he is.

Pat Bam Bam Healy. He meets Jim Miller. It's the opening fight on the pay-per-view on Saturday, and it's a great one. It's a very important one at 155 pounds. Pat making his UFC debut, and he's been doing this for a while. So it's cool to see. That's one of the great parts of the strike force merger with the UFC. Guys like him who, for whatever reason, were just kind of, you know, organization to organization.

We call them journeymen, right? and now due to the sale and then due to the merger, they get a chance. They're almost forcing the UFC to give them a shot. And then you get great stories like that. Josh Thompson returning, Gilbert's great fight. And our next guest is part of that great story. Of course, I think, I remember saying this in December on UFC tonight, the story of 2013 will be the UFC's introduction of the women's division.

And I think thus far, almost five months into the year, that is the story of the year. The women are taking everyone by storm. They're going to be on the ultimate fighter. The first two fights have been spectacular. And fight number three goes down this Saturday. It's on the FX prelims at the Prudential Center, New Jersey. Sheila Gaff versus our next guest, Sarah McMahon.

Sarah, how are you? I'm doing great. Thank you very much for joining us. I want to ask you the same question I just asked Pat. For someone who's been around combat sports for so long, and your position is different than his, because for a while women didn't have this opportunity, but now you do. What's it like knowing that in five days you will officially be a UFC fighter?

You will have fought inside the Octagon. I think it's really awesome. I'm excited for the opportunities that come with being with the UFC. And, you know, for my coaches, and this is like a dream come true for them, too, to be able to coach people at the highest level. So, you know, everybody's benefiting from it. It's awesome. When you got into MMA, this wasn't.

a possibility. Were you okay with that, or in the back of your mind, were you hoping at some point you may get this shot? I was okay with it. I know that that kind of thing is really more out of our control. You know, like, and I mean, I came into it, and Dana White was pretty adamantly against it. So I thought, it doesn't seem like he's changing his mind anytime soon, but I'm very happy that he decided to and that, you know, he looked close to at women's fighting. and specifically that my weight class is one of the ones that get chosen. If I'd have been higher or lower, I just would have been still fighting in other organizations. Can someone who's fight, like a 115 pounder, 105 pounder, even a 145 pounder,

can you make a good living being a women's MMA fighter in 2013 if you're not fighting in the UFC? I think you have to fight fairly frequently. it would also, I mean, that also is if you're young and you're not getting injured as much, but most people supplement it through training other people or teaching classes or, you know, in some kind of form of coaching, so it's pretty flexible too, but it's tough to do that, you know. I mean, you have to have excellent sponsors behind you locally. You know, I mentioned the first two fights thus far in the UFC have been great.

I know you were in Anaheim for the Ronda Rousee fight in February, and then just a couple of weeks ago, we had to be. the amazing Misha Tate Katzangano fight, you're on deck now, you're third up, and those are some pretty good footsteps to follow. In fact, they're huge ones. I mean, the expectations now seem to have risen

since before those two fights ever happened. Have you noticed that? It feels to me like everyone's now expecting something spectacular, and people are just watching, and they're so attentive during the women's fights in the UFC thus far. It feels like the spotlight is really on you guys as opposed to when, you know,

the men are fighting. Have you noticed that? Do you feel that pressure? I don't really feel it as much because I think that it's, I've seen that in women's fighting all along. Like maybe the UFC, you know, crowd or the rest of the world is just now noticing. But if you watch women's fights, almost all of them look like that. Like, that's just how we fight. We go after things, you know, we attack, you know, very, you know, very frequently. We set a high pace, you know, and it's a dog fight and it's a scrap, and you look at the Invicta cards, and you're going to see the same thing.

You know, so it's not like, you know, they did, they rose above what their normal level is. When I heard those fights were going to be announced, I knew that's exactly how those fights were going to go. So I think that UFC has done a good job so far, too, of, you know, matching up some really great fights, and Invicta does that also, but they should have high expectations

and all the girls are going to bring it. Why do you think people are so interested in the women's fights? Why is it so hot right now? I have no idea. Maybe it just could be like a novelty thing. I know I saw them some good cards whenever I was an amateur and when I was, you know, young in my pro career. And everybody remembers the chick fight. Like people would remember me, you know, two years later and they're like, I saw you fight.

And I know that they don't remember all the fights on that card. But I think it's kind of interesting and it's new. And, you know, I think that they're taken aback when they think like chickfight, they don't expect us to be as skilled and as tough as we are. And then they see, you know, what we already knew is that we've been training for years and years to become as good as we have. You know, we have excellent skill sets. And, you know, they're kind of taken it back. So I think that's what stands out more.

Did you, I'm sure you did, but did you watch the Misha Tade Zingano fight? Yes, I did. What did you think of the stoppage? I actually think it was a good stoppage. I know other people might disagree, but, you know, with that many knees and elbows, I mean, those are, those were hard. strikes and they were unanswered. And when, and when she dropped, I didn't think she was going for a takedown. I thought she fell. I thought she, you know, her knees gave out. So I think as far as like, you know, protecting the athletes, I think it was a good stoppage. You know, it was right on time

because any more hits and, you know, she had been taking unnecessary damage. I know in that fight, Kim Winslow was the referee, obviously a woman, but do you feel like sometimes the referees are quicker to pull trigger on a women's fight as opposed to a men's fight for whatever reason. They think, I don't know, you can't take the damage. They're just kind of instinctual. Do you feel like that's the case, or is that just, you know, something that people talk about? I think that that is all more like in the referee's, you know, discretion. Because when I fought for pro elite, I got kicked in the face whenever I was still grounded.

And I looked at the referee and he's like, it's okay. So I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and kept fighting. And then when I fought Raquel Paulu, he, you know, even other referees came up and they were like, wow, I would have stopped that fight, you know, two different times because I was just like striking her. I had full mount and I was just, you know, going to town. But it was the old school little Japanese pride referee. And I apparently have to like, you know, scar somebody for him to stop it. Like, ah, she's fine. So I was actually a little surprise.

So I think that it really depends on an each different referee. You know, some people let it go a little bit longer and some people step in right away. And I really do it as fighters. It sucks, but if you are in that position where you are getting struck and you aren't defending yourself or protecting yourself, you're putting the decision in their hands, you know, like move more, protect yourself more. You can hear them, you know, when you're in those positions, may say, you know, you got to protect yourself. when you hear that, that should be your signal to do whatever it takes to get out of position you're in because you're about to have the fight stop.

You know, they announced that the Misha Tate-Singano fight, Katzengano fight, the winner would be a coach on the Ultimate Fighter season 18 opposite Rhonda. After the fight was already announced, was that something that you were hoping to get? Yeah, well, part of me thought that would be really cool. You know, like, and that would obviously help with, like, things with sponsorship, and, you know, I mean, I just thought it would be a cool thing to do. But then part of me also, I have a hard time being away from my daughter that long. It's a little bit different.

And then also, I don't know if I'm actually cut out for reality TV. Why not? Why not? I'm more like, I don't know, just regular. And I'm going to say exactly what I think, and I'm not going to, you know, be sensational or outwe. or pretend, you know, I think that sometimes with reality, it's not exactly as real, and I'm kind of against that. But that's actually good.

That's reality. That's the way it should be. Yes, but sometimes reality is boring, you know, and they're like, oh, well, what do you think people should do? And really what they want to hear to become a great fighter is, I'm going to give you this top secret, quick way to become the best fighter. But really, that's not it. Dedicate 15 to 20 years of your life becoming great at one of the martial arts,

or all of them. That's how you become a great fighter. But nobody wants to hear that. It's not wonderful. So do you think that you can only become a great fighter if you do just that, 15 to 20 years of your life dedicated to the martial arts? Like for someone who gets in, you know, you have people who just get into the sport and five years later, they're fantastic. They may have God-given ability. Do you think that those people aren't great? No, I don't think that they're not great, but I think that that is the exception rather than

the rule. If somebody were just asking me for a regular person, I would say, you know, to be successful at the highest level when everybody is talented and everybody trains hard, it takes a lot of time, it takes muscle memory, and it takes experience. But there are people out there that are just unbelievably gifted that can go out and do it in five years. And I say more power to them, that is awesome. But, you know, like, if you look at most of the great athletes in the world, they started when they were very young. or they've been doing this for a really long time. I think that's more typical. So when this all happened with the strike force merger

and there was even some talk of you fighting Ronda at some point or people were clamoring for it, especially before the Karmouche fight, and when that was announced, and we had the whole thing of people turning it down, even though they didn't really turn it down, et cetera, et cetera. Sheila Gaff wasn't really in the mix, and then they announced,

we didn't even know she was signed to the UFC. How much did you know about her before she was signed and how much do you feel like you know about her now? I knew a little bit about her because I'd kind of seen her name in the rankings, but I'd always seen her at 125, so that definitely, like, when my manager is like, hey, you're going to be fighting, if you feel like at, I was like, really? Is she even my weight? I know a lot more about her now, you know, like having watched her other fights

and knowing that she fought at 145, so it's not such a huge stretch that she would, you know, meet in the middle and go 135 and be comfortable with that. Speaking of your manager, you're talking of Monty Cox, right? Yes. You know, I remember talking to him when this all happened, when they were searching for the first Ronda opponent, and he was very against you getting that opportunity right away only because he felt like this is a fight that should be built up,

you know, two, three more fights, tell your story, et cetera, et cetera. Do you agree with him on that? I do. We talked about it, and I really trust his judgment on things. He's been around for a really long time, and I really try to separate that out of my life. I just focus more on training and becoming the best athlete I can. And he takes care of all of my stuff with my opponents, my purse, I mean, everything, he arranges that. And Hector Castro does all my sponsorship, and I try to have minimal to do with that. You know, I just don't think that some fighters, I think, are good at being in the mix of those things and having a hand in it.

but for me I think it deters from me focusing on my part of the agreement. So I just, I decided I picked out who I wanted and I trust him and he explained to me and I said, you know what, you've been doing this a long time and, you know, helping people make careers of this. I'm down with the plan. You know what I like about this fight? It just feels like a fight on the card. It's not like, you know, I don't think we need a celebration every time there's a woman's fight because that makes it seem like you guys are getting special treatment.

I think you deserve to be there, like the bantam weights and the fly weights, et cetera, et cetera. But that being said, it's getting way less attention than the first two because of, you know, what was at stake. Are you okay with that? Yeah, I actually am. Part of it is that it's really rare that I get to watch the other fights on the card as a spectator, and so I'm excited about that. But I don't really need that much attention, you know. Like, I'm a little more low maintenance.

I want to go out there and I want to compete. And whether it's the first fighter, the last fighter, whatever, anyone in between, I'm totally fine with that. I just want to get out there and get my turn. And truthfully, I would rather be sooner than later. If I was the first fight on the card, I would be a-okay. Yeah, I think it's just my impatience. I'm like, okay, my turn.

Get out of the cage. I'm going to get in there and compete. So you don't care about the spotlight of being main event, You just want to get the actual competition out of the way. Yes, that's what I love about it, you know. It's just a, when it's time for me to go out there and compete, it's, you know, all my focus is on that. I don't feel like, I don't know, like, slighted or, oh, they don't think I'm so wonderful.

I never even fought on Strike Force, you know, like, I never had the Strike Force undercard that the other girls had fought on. and stuff like that. Like, people really don't know me as well. And, you know, there are guys who are out there that, you know, have fought for a long time and deserve to be higher up on the card and, you know, to get that different sponsorship opportunity and stuff. So I don't want it to be where, just because I'm a female,

I get exceptions that other fighters, you know, would have to pay their dues for. So obviously you love competition. I mean, we know about your background, Silver Medalist, 2004 Summer Olympic Games, in wrestling, of course. So it sounds like you love this. You're not in it for those other reasons, much like Pat Healy, but you haven't fought since July, and a big part of that is the strike force merger, and you were supposed to fight in November, the card got canceled, et cetera, et cetera.

How frustrating has that been for you? You couldn't get that buzz of competition. Has that been hard for you? Yeah, I definitely would like to fight more frequently. but I've kind of pacified that little part of myself by going up to try start a train and getting at Marcella Garcia's because when you step in those two environments,

it feels like competition. You know, like you're there. You know that you're a new person in the room. People are watching you. People are testing your skills. And it's all very healthy competition, but they're going to come after you and they're going to push you.

And you know, like you kind of have to prove your worth when you're there. So it's like all the benefits of having a competition about, you know, like the serious risk of injury. So, I mean, I don't feel like I haven't competed for a while. You know, when the UFC first brought the women to the UFC, they, Dana White said, this is the Ronorowski show. She was the one that got him interested. But now with the ultimate fighter coming up, and of course she's going to be on it, but it seems like they're investing in talent and, you know, the fighters that they're bringing in. the Sheila Gaff, the Rosie Sexton's, ones that weren't fighting in Strike Force or at least

signed to Strike Force, it makes me feel like they've now seen the light, and it's not just the Ronda Rousey show. Rhonda may have brought them to the dance, but now they're finding out that there are a lot of other women who are able to dance as well. Is that your take on all this? Do you feel the same way? I do feel the same way. I think that another thing that's helped out is Invicta. You know, like the fight that they put on, the way they're able to match those girls. up. Like, you can take two girls that are, like, kind of middle tier or younger and up and coming and match them against each other and make a fight of the night. I mean, they've done an excellent

job of showcasing women's fighting. And I think that that has, you know, along with the things that Rhonda's doing, she most certainly deserves the credit for, you know, catching Dana's eye and, you know, pushing us to the forefront. You know, this could have taken a couple more years for him to realize if she, you know, hadn't done the things that she did. But, um, You know, I do think that they are now starting to see that there are a lot of very tough women fighters out there, and that there's definitely even other weight classes too. So I'm glad that they're looking, you know, above and below 135 to find the talent. When you look at everyone in the UFC's Bantamweight Division right now,

do you feel like you are the only one who has a shot of beating her? No, I think that, you know, Alexis Davis is very good on the ground, you know. So I think that she's be somebody that, you know, would have more of a possibility of stopping the arm bar. And, you know, the same thing with, like, Kazangano, you know, very skilled ground fighters. So, and there might be a couple other girls. I think that somebody who's very strong that you just do would be able to stop the arm bar better than somebody, like, not really like being, you know, offensive towards a striker. But sometimes they invest so much in their striking skill set that it's very difficult for them to become. the thrust into the weight of the ground, you know, the feel for it and the grind and the

different way your muscles feel whenever you're having a strong ground battle. But what about a wrestler? She hasn't fought a wrestler with your resume, your pedigree, right? How about can't she take that person to the ground? If that's one of the questions we're asking, right? Well, I have pretty solid take-down defense considering, you know, I have 16 years of, you know, competing in wrestling to stop people from taking me down. throwing me, but, you know, like, so I feel really confident in that aspect of my fighting career, too.

So, I mean, I think that they all lend to the advantage towards me. And I think that other girls, I think even if it does, if she's able to take it to the ground, I think there are some other girls that are very strong on the ground that, you know, might be able to gain position or, you know, like, capitalize off of her arm bar attempts. You've competed all over the world on many different platforms as far as wrestling is concerned. Of course, the Olympics getting that silver medal a huge deal for you and your country in 2004. Where does this compare as far as achievements? You haven't done it yet, but you're very close to doing so.

Getting to the UFC, fighting in the UFC, and who knows what else happens. But just getting this moment and getting this fight, how does that compare it to the other stuff that you've achieved in your career? I think it feels to me like going to a world champion. You know, like extremely important, extremely good, you know, goals, you know, that set your goals on it, and you work very hard to achieve it and do everything right. And you have to be in top-notch form when you get there, you know. But I competed in like six, seven world championships. The Olympics was different, you know, like it was just a level above.

And I suspect that, you know, fighting for the title will probably be right. more the Olympic finals in my mind. I'm not sure, but there's going to be nerves. There's going to be, you know, different situations. You're going to have to work through and stuff. But I've done it a lot in my life. Do you feel like this maybe makes you more prepared than some of the other women? Because for them, just getting to the UFC could be their Olympic finals.

But because you've been on those big stages, you don't put that kind of pressure on yourself? No, I think that that's exactly what it is. There's pressure there, but I don't put the pressure on myself. And I even tell myself, like, strange things. Like, people wouldn't probably believe the way I at myself talk is before fights to reduce the pressure. But sometimes I'm just like, oh, you know what? Every fighter has a loss in their career. Like any way I can minimize losing being that, you know, scary of a monster, it takes pressure off of me.

I'm like, you know what, GFP's lost and Anderson Silva, and they're phenomenal. They just had to take a little bit longer road, a detour on their way to the top. So when I really feel those things and I think I take away that humongous fear of what a loss could mean and I make it like not such a bad thing, but like something I still don't want to happen, then I'm free to go out and perform to the best of my ability, I think. Wow, that's fascinating. So you almost prepare yourself for the loss just to calm yourself down.

Yeah, just to say, you know what? I'm not going to be be be be you know, thrown your wolves or whatever afterwards. A couple people are going to say, oh, that was a great fight, and it sucks that she lost. And some people are going to say, yay, we're glad she lost. And that's the worst that's going to happen. My pay will probably change a little bit

or my sponsorship might change a little bit. But even that, I mean, if you're someone that wants to reach the top, You know that they're going to be stumbling along the way, hard fights, you know, just it's not going to be a smooth, straight path. So, you know, I accept that. And then I think that it makes me fight without fear. You know, if you go in there and you fear losing, you can be a little bit stiffer. You can be, you know, your timing can be off. You're thinking about the outcome and not what you should do at each moment in the fight.

And that is your enemy more than an actual loss. You know, the next title fight is probably going to happen in December, given the ultimate fighter and whatnot. Realistically, how many fights do you think you are away from being in that discussion now? I don't really even know. I don't talk to anybody. Like, I've never talked to Dana White. I don't like, I'm pretty sure he could take me out of a lineup, but I don't know him really. And I don't, I mean, I've met Joe Silva and Sean Shelby before, but everything.

is through my manager. So they might, he might have an idea, but my job, I think, is just to train to get better and to be ready when those opportunities

come up. And he hasn't told you. He hasn't said, they've told me this or whatever. No. I mean, because I didn't even, we didn't even know

at first they were, like, who they were going to have with the ultimate fighter or things like that, you know, like, I think there's a lot of different things

that go on behind closed doors, and some of it is, you know, it's out of your control. So I take the things that I can control, and I try to focus on them, which is my level of improvement. And if they told me tomorrow,

oh, it's going to be the next fight, then I get ready. That's just the way I kind of work. How do you beat Sheila on Saturday? I think that my, I mean, I want it to be a good stand-up fight, you know, and for her to feel what it's like when other people attack back on the feet.

But, you know, like I, I think that also I want to be able to do a lot of damage on the ground, too. So, I mean, if it ends up being on the feet, it'll be a good little war because I know she's going to keep striking and keep attacking. If it goes to the ground, I want to finish. You know, one of the fun things about this strike force merger with the UFC is seeing the Dana Whites of the world notice new fighters. I remember at 156, you know, guys like Bobby Green and Tyrone Woodley got to go to the back afterwards, some big wins, and, you know, Dana's kind of glowing. It's like this breath of fresh air. And hopefully for yourself on Saturday, you get to be in that position as well. Making the UFC brass notice you, making the UFC fans notice you on a very big platform like FX prior to a major pay-per-view for the company.

I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a fantastic fight, and I'm really looking forward to seeing you finally debut in the UFC. Good luck to you on Saturday, Sarah. Thank you so much for stopping by. and we will see you on Saturday night as well. All right, thanks a lot. All right, there she is. Sarah McMahon, who, of course, makes her Octagon debut on Saturday against Sheila Gaff.

UFC 159, like I said, it's on the FX prelims, and she comes to the UFC with a very impressive resume. Like I said, 2004 Summer Olympic Games, silver medal, and that's why if she did potentially fight Ronda Rousey one day, it would be so huge from a pure athletic standpoint, a bronze medalist in the Olympics in judo, Ronda Rousey versus a silver medalist in wrestling and Sarah McMahon. And of course, she's won a bunch of different titles

and, you know, as you mentioned, the world championships and whatnot in wrestling. And then finally, a pretty young in her MMA career, fought in the pro elites and the invictors of the world, comes over to strike force, never actually gets the fight there. She was actually supposed to fight Liz Karmouche in November and Oklahoma City. That card got canceled. They make her stick around and she's fighting Sheila Gaff, the Germans.

So it should be a very fun fight, and I'm looking forward to it. And I kind of like the fact that it's not getting – it's weird. I think it should be getting more attention, but it's almost a bit refreshing that it's not because they're just on the card. And that's it. And I don't think we need to throw a party every time. But it is so great to have the women in the UFC. I find it to be a breath of fresh air, and I do find it to be the story of the year thus far. Now, before we proceed, I have to apologize to Pat Healy.

I am a huge idiot, a massive idiot. The story has a nice silver lining, but throughout the interview, I was mentioning that this was going to be his UFC debut. This is not his UFC debut. In fact, he fought at UFC Fight Night 8 many moons ago against Anthony Torres lost the fight via first round submission, and I completely forgot that. It completely slipped my mind. And I appreciate some people on Twitter mentioning this to me. I pride myself on my facts, and knowing my facts.

I used to be a fact checker back in the day, and I am incredibly embarrassed that I made that mistake. I do feel a little better because I was texting briefly with Pat, and he said to me, and I apologize profusely, and he had a very good line. He said, no worries. As far as I'm concerned, this is my UFC debut. I want to erase that last one from my memory.

So I guess he's happy I didn't bring it up. That being said, that's a huge mistake on my first. my part, and I apologize profusely to him and to you guys, major oversight. I should have known that. I did know that, and I can't believe I forgot. So my apologies

times a million. This is a guy who's fought the likes of Carlos Condit, and he fought on strike force against some tough guys, Jake Ellenberger, Ryan Ford, T.J. Walberger. I mean, a very impressive record. He's been around for a very long time, Paul Daley, Chris Lytle. The list goes on and on, and that was just a mistake.

And I apologize. So if you're listening still, Mr. Pat Healy, I apologize for forgetting your loss in 2006, but apparently you wanted me to forget. So maybe that's why I did it. Maybe it was a bit of a gentleman's agreement. Anyway, looking forward to 159. We'll talk more about it in the second hour with the conference call coming up in 10 minutes. And then, of course, Vinnie Magalesh and Dwayne Ludwig stopping by as well, Malikawa. Now, let us go to Rick's picks as we have 10 or so minutes before the conference. conference call coming up. And we'll probably get your questions now in the third hour, because we went a little longer with Sarah had a little more time there. And as you may recall,

we have been doing this Ricks Picks challenge for, what, three or so months now, started in January because a lot of people were questioning whether or not Eric in the back really knew how to bet. If he really understood how to make money, as far as betting on MMA's concern. So we decided, all right, there's only one way to find out. We'll get some fake money. We'll give him $100 and he has to turn that into four. Some of you complained that it was too much.

Some of you thought it was fair. Bottom line is there were 10 or so UFC events. And we got to last week where he had, what did you have? Like $1.50, $1.25? I had 115. So from January to April, you only won $15. Of course, you went all the way down to like 50 or something. You had your nickel Rick Day.

But at the end of the day, leading up to UFC on Fox 7, you only had $15, right? $1.15. Well, yeah, but I gave you $100. So you only won. You were only plus 15. Correct. Okay. And then you decided what?

I decided on, I believe it was Wednesday night, to put it all on Gilbert Melendez in the title fight. Why? Well, initially, when I broke down the fights on Monday, I had said that I really liked Benson in this fight. And that didn't really change much by Wednesday. What had happened was the line changed, and Gilbert had climbed all the way up to plus 255 at the time that I bet it. And if I had, I bet the whole 115, and at that point, that would have given me a little over the 400. I believe it would have equal to about 410. if Gilbert had won.

Now, as I said, I did favor Benson in that fight, but at that point, I thought that the odds were so far off. Benson had crept up to minus 300, I believe, in terms of being a favorite, that Gilbert was my best bet to hit a home run, to get it all in one shot. There were guys like Chail Sonnen and who will have on the show later Vinnie left, but I thought that Gilbert was the best of that bunch and the one who gave me the best shot to win it all at once. So I put it all on him. And I actually think that he did get it done, but it was close enough that, you know, there's no outrage or anything like that. So why did you feel

like you needed a home run? Why couldn't you have done like half this week? Well, people were asking me, why didn't I put it on Thompson, who I was very confident in and who ultimately ended up looking like, you know, aces last on Saturday. I saw the opportunity to get it all in one shot, whereas if I had put it on Thompson, I'd have maybe $100 left to go. And my thinking was, let me try and get it, let me try and get it all in one shot, my best shot, because you don't want to put it on parlayes, you don't want to put it on multiple fights, because you never know with MMA judges and just the volatility of the sport. Any guy can lose on any night. And it's just the more fights you spread it out over, the more chances you give yourself to win, but also the more chances

you give yourself to lose. So I said, let me put it all on Gilbert, who I think has a decent shot to win, but at those odds has a great shot to win, and ultimately it looked like a pretty decent bet. Wait, so if you would have put it all on Josh, would you have won or it would only have gone you... I would have had about $100 left to get.

Oh, okay. So I would have had to make that up on this card, 159. And my thinking, as I said, was the more fights, the more chances for the judges to screw it up, the ref to screw it up, somebody to get injured, and somebody to just have an impressive victory that I didn't foresee. So I thought, let me distill it down to one shot, one home run swing, and that was Gilbert Melendez.

And of course, Gilbert looked great. Some people, like you said, thought that he won. And I remember when you announced this Wednesday night, there were a lot of people who thought you were crazy, and he almost pulled it off. But at the end of the day, when you look at the won loss record, the champion, the reigning and defending champion, the and still champion,

is Benson Smooth Henderson, which means, hit the music. That's right. Briggs picks is done. No more. We don't have to listen to the nonsense. It's over.

I was right. He was wrong. He doesn't know how to bet. $100? $200. Can he double it? Can he triple it? He can't do anything. He's zero. What do you got to say for yourself?

I could only make myself look worse compared to that dancing. So I'm just going to let that speak for itself. It's just so great. I mean, we gave you this opportunity, opportunity of a lifetime. Well, here's the thing about the opportunity. If the goal was to just make profit, I would have... Oh, you're going to be... This is like, it's not an excuse.

It's just the truth. Tito Ortiz, is that you? I came out, I came out with a profit, and I, and I could have continued to make a profit over the course of this. But the goal was 400, so I had to go for broke. I went for 400. So you think if it was 200, if it was 300? I mean, 200 is not a year. I think that there shouldn't have been a number.

Why is there a number? How about just profit? It continues, and I make the money. For example, I would have bet on Thompson and made a lot of money. Yeah, but then you would have been 500. I would have what? Like, like, okay, okay, so if your record's 26 and 14 or 26 and 20, I mean, at the end of the day, we wanted to know, could you rise to the occasion? If you were given this challenge, as we dubbed it, could you prove that you could take this money and turn it into that money?

No, for sure. I fell short. There's no debate there. In hindsight, in hindsight, was your approach wrong? No. It wasn't wrong. No. Doing the $5 picks here that. I mean, here's what happened.

In the beginning, I was just losing. I was making bad bets. Right. Toward the end, I mean, I went from, I believe my lowest was like 60 something, I turned that back into over 160, a little over 160. So I had 100, at a certain run, I was plus 100 from where I was at one point. Right, but you lost a lot of money. What do you mean?

Like you had to kind of dig yourself out of a hole. Right. I dug a hole. and then I got back out of it. And that's because I started making better picks. It had nothing to do with the numbers I was betting or anything like that. At the end, I had to try to go for a home run.

So you have no regrets? No, no, no, no regrets. Wouldn't it have been amazing if Gilbert won? Holy moly. I think he won. But that's, you know, I won some on Sanchez, where Gohmey clearly won that fight, in my opinion. So that just happens in betting.

Sometimes the judges make the right call, sometimes the judges make the wrong call. Sometimes it's so close that there is no right or wrong call and everybody has a case. And I think that this is one of those times where it could have gone to either guy. Imagine if Chale or Vinny wins this weekend? Yeah, that would be rough. Who would you have bet it on? Vinny over Chale, for sure. I think that Vinny has a great chance to win this fight.

And his odds right now look even better. So I think it would have been on Vinny, but it would have been fun to bet on Chale. I'm thinking when it looked like Gilbert was going to win. I thought that I won. That was it. I thought it was wrapped up. And what you would have loved that? That would have been a great moment for you.

Well, I mean, it came down to this. It doesn't really prove anything if I even had won it. I made one final bet where I had to, I had, my point was making profit is different than, oh, this is the number you have to make win or lose. Because does it really prove anything that I put it all on Gilbert Melendez and he wins? It's the same as if he loses. It proves that I made one.

bet turned out to be a decent bet, but it doesn't prove much of anything. Going for X number doesn't really prove much of anything. So where do you go from here? What's next? I don't know. My life is in shambles. Well, I mean, well, oh, actually, can we, can we do something first? Oh, yes. Oh, it's very apropos, of course. We had, we had a fantastic artist named Chris, Chris Rini, come into the studio, and he made this in tribute to my picks. Unbelievable. As you can see, there's a nickel right here. for Nickelric. This is my classic pose.

In fact, I'm in it pretty much right now. Very appropriate that he would give it to you today as kind of a consolation price. The timing isn't, it couldn't have been better. Just if you're interested in his art, he's fantastic. You can find him. He does work for Fightland. He does an article, a feature every week, almost,

called Defining Moment where he carves things into wood that are from UFC past, have some significance. the UFC and you can check those out there. His Twitter is at Rini MMA, R-I-N-I-M-A. And his website is This Day in MMA.com. There you go. Well, it was a valiant effort. You gave it the old college try. But unfortunately, there's no second place here. You were shooting for 400 and as a result you would have been on the MMA beat. Unfortunately, you failed.

it to the MMA beat. Yeah? Oh, yeah. Oh. For now, we need to call into the conference call. We'll discuss this more. So let me know when the conference call starts. But I will tell you that I still haven't really,

I still haven't figured out because here's the thing. There was something at stake, right? If you would have won, he would get on the M.A.B. And, of course, you get the bragging rights and all that stuff. But if you would have lost, what's at stake? We never really quite figured that out. I mean, it goes without saying. saying that, I mean, we can't have someone on the show making picks when, you know,

they were given a challenge and they failed. Not just failed, but, you know, it didn't even crack the 200 mark. I may have to turn to the people. I may have to ask the people ask you, what do you think we should, what do you think we should do with Mr. Rick? I mean, certainly he's a valued member of the team. He'll be in the back there, but is it time to put him on time out as far as airtime is concerned. Is that the punishment? I don't know.

Not a punishment. But, you know, what do I gain from this at the end of the day? I was going to put them on the MMA beat. So feel free to let us know on Twitter. I know a lot of you are rallying, rallying for Rick, so to speak. But end of the day, it started January 12th with Strike Force. I thought the approach was wrong. I thought going $5 here, $6 there.

I just didn't think it was the right approach when your back was against the wall, especially during the lean times of February so. But slowly but surely started to creep up, but to go for the home run swing like that, I don't know. So we're still on hold for the conference call. We're still on hold, okay. Yep. I'm getting some people giving me their thoughts.

That dance was so awesome. Give Rick $17. Parlay of Vinicale wins $400. You are a cruel, heartless, evil monster. This is blasphemy. I quit. Give Malam a chance. Let the public decide the facial hair.

Rick has to support for a month. Oh, I forgot. We have an earring. I promised. Oh, yeah. I promised that. What was that? I just said that the fans could vote on what earring I have to wear.

And I'll wear it on next week's show, I suppose. So send some submissions. Someone says, and this is true, you said he'd compete each week with someone for control of the picks if he lost. But you know what? I don't know how to pull that off. It's going to be difficult to try and figure it out. I'm not sure how to do that. Yeah, I don't know.

We might be able to use a secondary service where they keep track of stuff like that. This is a great one. You'll keep Rick's picks because his analysis is interesting. You'll gloat unprofessionally first. So, of course. What's that? What was that? It's a better question.

That's all the fans crying, no more Rick's picks. I guess you could do it on Twitter, but maybe I should, can I put a lockdown on the Twitter? I mean? A lockdown? What do you mean? Well, I mean, you could go behind our back and make your picks there. Oh, well, here's the thing. I'm not going to officially make any betting picks.

Until you're reinstated? Well, I don't want to be reinstated. Oh, really? I'm done with this game. Oh. We play by my rules now. Oh, wow. Okay.

No, I'm just, you know, if people want to ask me something, tweet me. That, you know, but I'm not going to be every week after weigh in saying this is the picks. It was getting to be a burden. No, no, no. It was fun. I thought it was a great competition and it was fun. Oh, the conference call is starting, by the way. Okay.

Let's jump into. All right. UFC 159 conference call. We'll finish this up later on in the show. But here it is. John Jones, Dana White, Chale. A.L. And we'll go first to A.J. Perez with for sports,

potcports.com. And this is for Chale. Dana Lytte's a little fast a few days ago that you kind of had a run in with a fan at the tough finale. Could you talk a little bit about that and what transpired and kind of how that went down?

You know, I really can't. I don't know a ton about it. There was a lot of people around and my focus was just in five different directions. including on him. Ultimately, you know, he got upset and he went to take a punch and security grabbed him and they took him out.

I didn't miss a beat him. I was doing a few other things. I didn't like seeing him have to leave. He had very expensive and good seats, and I wish you would have seen the show, but, you know, at the same time, he can't do that behavior. Exactly. Do you see yourself?

No, do you, I know you don't want to become a time. But obviously you're very well-spoken and you can promote and sometimes I guess maybe in this case it rubs someone the wrong way. Do you ever think about that perception that may some people have it in? Well, I don't promote fights, but I do pick fights. And yes, I do, I am well aware of that perception and I enjoy it. And we'll take our next question from Michael Cohen, which appears he chose standard. Hey, this question is for John. John, this is about as close as you can get to fighting in your home state.

you know, what would it mean if you could ever eventually fight in New York and have your home stand see you up close? Oh, man. It's like the mecca place for fighting, I believe. You know, like Muhammad Ali got to fight there. Mike Tyson got to fight there. And I think it's like, I just think it's like a surreal place to be. I'm actually honored that I get to do the open workouts at the garden

because it's just a dream of mine. So to fight there, it would mean a lot to me, and I can't wait for the possibility. With the success that you and your brothers have had, what's the support been like in the Central New York area with all the ties to Syracuse and Binghamton and Rochester? Man, it's phenomenal, man. It's surreal.

You know, sometimes I don't think I realize how much of what we have. You know, I don't really... You know, it's just... It's huge. You know, it's bigger than, it's bigger than I'm able to, like, stop and realize. And it's a great thing, you know, I think when I retire from fighting, I'll open a gym, probably in the Rochester area because it is where I was born.

And I think I had a pretty, pretty successful program. So, yeah, it's just, it's overwhelming, you know, Syracuse worked heavily. So I get the football fans supporting me, and they get, you know, MMA fans. It's a lot of cross-marketing going on between me and my brothers. And last one real quick, John, you know, this is the time of year again where the State Assembly has that chance to pass the vote, you know, and, you know, there's been talk of that Madison Square Garden fight in November. What's your thought process this time around?

You're really hoping this is it? Yeah, man, it will be awesome if they go through with it. And if I come out of this fight, I'll get right back to camp. you know, be active. Thanks, John. For the November period. Yeah, thank you. As a reminder to our phone audience, that is Star 1 at this time if you have any questions,

and we'll go next to Damon Martin withbleacherreport.com. Yeah, first question is for John. You know, John, throughout your career, you really avoided getting into emotional battles with your opponents, no matter how much they tried to goad you in outside of maybe Rashad Evans, and we kind of know why that happened. And has this fight with Chale ever become personal? I know Dana made that comment.

I think it was last week where he said you told him you really wanted to hurt Chale and things like that. Can you kind of expand and talk about that a little bit? Yeah, I really don't want to talk about it. It's something that I said. But my emotions aren't like overly involved. Well, actually, no, they're really not. You know, I study Chale a lot. I study his interviews.

I study his personality and everything. And, you know, he's being himself. I'm comfortable with him. I'm familiarized myself with who he is and what he needs to do and what he tries to be. And it is just another situation. When I get in the fight, you know, I never fight over aggressively. I always stay calm and relax and composed. And that's what it will be.

You know, no matter what I say before a fight, what my opponent says, no matter if I appear to let someone in my head, which I enjoy doing, because, I mean, that's what the project is. You know, it's a huge homework excitement that I have. Well, he should be in my head. But when it comes to fight night, you know, it's relaxation, it's beauty, it's peace. It's martial arts. It's what God told me on this planet to do.

And you've said, obviously, in the past, that you have long-term goals of, you know, becoming one of the greatest champions, if not be greatest champion in the past, or in the future, excuse me. What do you feel like the fight with Shell does for your legacy? This fight would show, it ties me with two or two. As far as the career, the greatest light heavyweight champion as far as career defenses? Yeah. Okay.

Thanks a lot. Thank you. As a reminder, that is Star 1, if you would like to ask a question. And we'll go next to Dale DeSuzza with the MMA Corner. All right. Hi. First question for John. John, we've seen a lot in the past, you know, as far as child spots, I mean, like,

he loved to use his wrestling, and if he sees an opening for a submission, he'll obviously take it. I mean, has this wrestling been a concern for you at all of this entire camp? So I want to say I'm concerned with his wrestling. You know, I think I've worked in my bottom game a lot more than I have in any other camp because where I've fought and lots of rest thrillers in the pads, I think I have been able to mesmerize them and make them not use their wrestling

where Chale is a guy who shoots without really putting much thought into it. He almost does it all magically. He has great timing. So I have become comfortable with the ideal fighting off my back and I'm prepared to do so. But, you know, the storyline is always

his wrestling, his wrestling, his wrestling. It was that way of Matushchenko, Ryan Bader, Rashad Evans, and I don't think no one respects the wrestling at all. No one respects it at all. So, you know, I have a lot of pride going into this fight, and maybe I'll take him down more than you take me down. You never know. So I just, I just, I'm excited to go out there and prove my critics wrong again

about me being this inferior wrestler. I don't think people give my junior college acculate respect, and I'm going to earn respect in this fight. I have great takedowns, and I'm excited to see what you know has learned off of his back, you know, even the ground upon. No, show doesn't really damage anyone with his ground upon. Anderson's face was fine. All of his opponents his face was fine.

I think Brian Baker is the only guy who may bleed with his ground upon. Everyone that I take down, I cut them open right away. So I don't think anyone respects my grappling, my ground upon, or my wrestling. I'm excited and I'm excited to go out there and show people I do. Excellent, John. And question for Chale. Chale, you know, obviously there's been a lot of talk about this fight, both good and bad as it relates to, you know, you're challenging John. Do you feel any pressure at all to really times the critics that say that you really don't deserve to be in there with John?

Yeah, yeah, there's always pressure. You know, that pressure is earned. If you've never done anything in this sport, you're not going to have any pressure if he won a whole bunch of fights and been a marquee fighter, you're going to move to the top. You know, I want to talk about something John said earlier, though.

I always find it, you know, as great as John is, I don't think he understands how good he is. You know, for him to pay tribute to Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali earlier was a very nice thing for him to do. The reality is John Jones could beat up Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali in the same day, and when he says he wants to be the best ever, John Newsflash, buddy, you are the best.

And as far as tie-in Tito Ortiz, yeah, maybe he had a couple more wins, but he hasn't had the competition that you've faced. And, you know, that's not a secret. I'm not going to degrade John or what he's done. He's the world champion. He's the best in the weight class, and he's the best the weight class has ever seen. So if you're asking me if I feel pressure, yeah, there's a lot of pressure. You know, this is a tough guy in a tough environment, but, you know, that's the sport.

That's what it is. And you're saying I don't deserve the shot or however. Look, I don't earn title shots. Title shots earn me. I don't go after main events. Main events come after me. And that's it. And whether I earned it or not or deserve it, I'm a Republican.

I don't talk in those terms. I take what I want, and that's it. All right, excellent, Jill. Thanks, thanks, guys. As a reminder to our phone audience, that is Star 1 at this time, if you have any questions, and we'll go next to Stephen Morocco with mMA junkie.com. Hey, John.

Pretty nice things, Jill, just had to say about you. What do you make of those? Do you think they're genuine? Or do you think he's trying to sort of play games? I can't afford to worry or feel any type of feeling. of him trying to be in kind or anything, you know. The thought of someone taking my nickname away from me, and that nickname is Champs,

I think that very personal, I take that with a grand assault. And that's the way I need to keep my attitude, I need to keep my focus. Someone's trying to take away my dream. You know, the thought of going home without my belt it keeps me angry. And so I'll share if someone says something nice about me. And a quick follow-up, do you have any number in mind when you think of the number of title defenses you'd like to have as champion before you maybe start to think about other things?

For instance, maybe a move up to the heavyweight division? Well, one thing I've been contemplating is first tying Tito Ortiz and then and then establishing that very. record of the most wins in my next fight, maybe in November. And after that fight in November, entertaining super fights and happy-way fights. Would the Anderson Silva fight be the first super fight you'd target? I said what I said. Okay. Thanks.

As a reminder, if you have a question, please press Star 1. We'll go next to Jordan Curran with MMA Plus. Hi, this is MMI Plus. I've just got a quick question for Chale. Chale, I understand you've been doing a lot of training with Luke Barnett recently. He's a big name over here in UKMMH. I'm wondering if you could talk about the work you've been doing with him. Yeah, I've worked out with him every day.

I think I'm hearing an English accent there. We also got John McGuire out here in Oregon. And, yeah, we're working hard. You know, I never thought that a REACH mattered. But it's a problem. You know, I felt it going with Luke, and there is something there, and I thought I got to work in. But, yeah, he's great. He works hard.

He goes twice a day, every day. There's really nothing more you can ask for a workout partner. Thanks a lot. That's great. And we'll take our next question from Dave Debert with Post Media News. Hi, you guys. Thanks for the call. First one from Michael.

You talked recently about some nerds. nerve issues in your neck, in your arm. And I'm wondering how you're doing health-wise at this point going into the fight. Health-wise, going into this fight, I'm fantastic, you know. Fighters train hard, you know, and we accumulate injuries over the years. But nothing that is going to stop me from destroying Alan Belcher come next Saturday night. I've had a great camp. I feel fantastic.

Yes, you know, as I said, all fighters kind of carry a couple. couple of injuries here and there, but there's nothing that's going to hinder my performance and nothing on this planet that is going to help Alan Belcher. What do you see a win, if it were to come on Saturday, what does that do for you in the division? Well, obviously, it puts me back in the win column. It eradicated my last loss. You know, you're only as good as your last fight, and, you know, my last fight was a loss,

and I don't take that too well, you know. I want to win fights. I'm a natural competitor. And, you know, I win over Alan Belcher puts me back in the win column. As I say, I get redemption from my last fight. It's a win over a top-teteer opponent. And it gets me back in the mix for the title shop. You know, that's what I want.

And as long as there's blood, sorry, lies in my body, I will continue to try and get that title shot. You know, I'm a fighter. I want to be the world champion. And I ain't stopping until, as long as my body can do it, I'm going to keep trying. All right, thank you, Michael. Alan, I guess along those same, you know, thought process, what does a win over Michael do for you?

I'm back in the top of the division. And, yeah, we're both coming off losses. We both have losses in our career, wins in our career, and now we're going to see who the best is out of us, too. I don't care. I'm not really thinking about the ranks. I'm not thinking about what the fans think or about how confident Michael is.

I'm just thinking about beating him Saturday night. Let me just add to that. A win over me for Alan Belcher will be by far the biggest win of his pathetic career. Okay. There you go. Don't give the fuck about Alan Belcher. That's right.

So you better not lose to me. Hey, bro, I ain't going to lose to you, mate. It's in the bag. All I'm going to do is, it's a formality. I'm just going to show up, slap your little face. Take my check and go home. Yeah, we'll see Saturday night.

We're bloody real mad because you know it's coming, big man. Yes, I know exactly what's coming. Yeah. Alan, you know, I guess, you know, Michael, he, always, you know, very, very colorful, always is going into his fights. Is it going to be difficult, you know, separating, you know, any emotions? you know and staying staying calm in the cage and not

letting you know any any lingering emotions affect you the question for me? Yeah you're using too many big words there you've got a simple fight for Alan yeah no it no it is emotional for me and that's whenever that's whenever I perform at my highest

I have the most pressure on me I'm the most nervous for this fight ever the only fights that I've ever I've ever lost are the fights that I wasn't very excited for So this one, I want it worse than any fight in my whole career, and I'm focused on it, and I'll perform it at my highest. Okay, thanks. And if I could, just one quick one for Chale.

You mentioned earlier how you think, John, you know, I don't know if you were talking just the light heavyweight division or overall when you said best ever. But, you know, you've looked at him a lot leading up to this. You've been in the cage twice of Anderson. Who's the better of the two? You know, it's a tough sell, man. Look, here's the reality with Anderson. I stomp that guy, and you can pick up his little arm as many times as you want and call him the winner, but the fact is I whipped his ass for 30 minutes.

He got the jump on me for less than 30 seconds. He never knocked me down. I fell down. They say Anderson's the best pound for pound. He's not the best round for pound. for round. I have three 10-8 rounds in my entire career. I fought 49 men.

Three rounds of my whole life are 10-8. That's gymnastics equivalent to a perfect 10-10. It doesn't happen in this sport. I doubt anyone on this call even has a 10-8 round. I got three of them. They're all against Anderson Silva. So if you think John and Anderson are even close, I will run through

John because I ran through Anderson. Now, I don't think they're close. I think John is considerably better than Anderson. But, you know, sometimes I hear that I don't deserve this fight or I'm not the right guy, but then I hear that Anderson could beat him. Well, you've got to be kidding me. I stopped Anderson Silva twice. Okay.

All right. Thanks, Joe. Thanks, you guys. We'll go next to Zeus King with mMA opinion.co. Okay. You know, my first question is for Chale. Your catchphrase, beat me if you can. Do you like that more to the Portland's Grappler or to Tess from ECW?

Let me start with giving you a little business advice. Do not have a website called blah, blah, blah, dot com, backslash, UK. You need to simplify things. And secondly, I'm going to give that to the grappler. His name is Lynn Denton, and good for you for recognizing it. Thank you very much. I appreciate the business advice. The next one, the next one for Alan Belcher. All right, there's the UFC 159 conference call.

It started off a little strange with Chale Sunnan giving props and respect and complimenting John Jones. And it seemed like John, I don't know, John says he wanted a nude nickname. He wants to be called the champ looking. The most interesting thing at the beginning. beginning, looking to break Titor Tiz's record. He would tie Tid Ortiz's light heavyweight title defenses five

on Saturday if he went. He wants to break it in November MSG, I don't know, and then look at some super fights or heavyweight fights. And there wasn't much there. Only when Anderson Silva's name came up that Chale seemed to wake

up and start to get some fire under him. I don't know if he's playing mind games, but he continues to compliment John Jones Michael Bisping saving the day from a drama perspective and saying that a win for Alan Belcher over him would be the biggest win

of Belcher's pathetic career and that no one cares about Belcher and that's Michael Bisping being Michael Bisping. That's how you promote a fight. That was tremendous stuff out of Bisping. So I'm looking forward to that fight very much. Looking forward to the main event at this point. Just want to see the fight actually happen

and we can move on at this point. But that was a little bizarre. Let us move along now one of the interesting fights when you talk about a grudge match, if you will, some heat there. I think there's that in this fight, unless they're going to flip the script on me on this one as well. We've got a light, heavyweight bout

between Phil, Mr. Wonderful Davis, and Vinnie Magalach, and he joins us right now via the magic of Skype. Vinny, how are you? What about you, are y'all? The biggest troll in MMA joins us. Wow. Like, that is what you're talking about me or yourself. Look at you. I love it.

Where did this, is this, is this chale? Chale's influence, when did you become this way? Because you're just nonstop over there on Twitter and whatnot. No, there's nothing to do with Chale, like really. Like, that was before, when I start to like, you know, being myself a little bit more. I think it was before my last five for M1.

I think that's when I start to, like, speak up a little bit more, you know, like, let my words go a little bit more. And there's nothing to do with Chale. Of course, like, you know, sometimes Chale tried to do some advice, but, like, I don't think some of them are the best. Like, there was one time that Chiris said that I should have been calling out Little Nog.

And I was like, look, Cheyle, I cannot be calling out a guy from Brazil because, you know, I'm never going to be welcome there again, so that's not going to happen. That's the only time that Chell tried to give me like any kind of like, you know, consulting to be calling somebody out. But as far as like, this fight against Phil, like Chew was no part of it at all. Why Littlenog? Why do he want you to call Littlenog? You know, I don't know.

I think Chee was trying to mix things up, like, like beef that I was supposedly had with a big nog. So I think he's just trying to mix things up And that's why he suggests me To be calling a little knockout But I don't think like I should be doing it It's just like you know It's not a good thing

Like probably if I do that I'm not going to be like Back to Brazil ever again So you're saying that you were always this way But you just You just allowed us to enter your world To see the real you This is nothing new

No I'm not actually this You know Well it's like You know it started you put your your belt on eBay right And then you're like, no, I'm not really putting it up on eBay. eBay. That's a troll move, right?

It is, it is. You know, sometimes you have to do what you have to do to get what you want. Okay. And you see, like, with the whole, like, thing with the bell, like, I think it turned down pretty well, you know. Like, it got signed back to the UFC. I was really happy with the contract that Joseph offered to me. So I think, like, things just turned down to be, like, perfect. And I think the same thing happened with this fight against the field.

You know, at first, I just wanted a fight. fight. It was nothing personal. Like I didn't mean to like be like, you know, insulting, like, Phil Davis. I didn't mean to, like, take anything personal. I just wanted a fight. And I think that was the way that I found, found to take the fight to get the fight. And he just like fell for it. And then, of course, after, I'll be honest with you, he became personal just because, like, he couldn't control himself. And then he starts to, like, say, like, nonsense things. And then he becomes a little personal, you know, like, when he says, like, I can remember, like, where he said. I know that he was saying, like, oh, I'm a champ. And

what else? Jiu-situ is better than wrestling and it is in that. I'm not one of those guys that defends Jiu-Situ at all costs, but I think he just said like really dumb things and I'm like one of the willing to prove me wrong. So you think he crossed the line? As far as like comparing skills, I think anybody's going to be defending like their skills.

I think just the way he said it. And plus like to be honest with you, when the guy like Phil Davis said that he's going to submit me, that's a trip. That's like him like being like super delusional. Like he's not going to submit him. I've never been. being submitted like in a Nogi match.

And that's the closest you can get like in an MMA fight. Of course, in a grappling match, there is no, there's no like punches. But here's the thing, like, when you go to a grappling match, when you actually want to engage to grappling in an MAA fight, there's no punches either. You cannot like let go a choke to like start to punch people. You kind of like let go on arm bar to start to punch people. Once you engage to a submission, it's pure submission grappling, no matter if there's an MMA fight, if that's like a grappling match.

And in that case, there's no way. There's just like no way that Phil Davis can get a submission on me. So for him to say that, I think he's crossed the line there as far as being delusional. It's not about like respect me or being disrespectful to me. Just as far as being delusional when he said that, he's going to submit me. That's a trip. Why did you zero in on him? I mean, there are tons of guys that you could have called out and you really went on the offensive and it works.

So congratulations. As I said to you, you proved to everyone how to get a fight. But why him? Here's the thing. Like both of us are still developing our striking game. You know, like, I'm still, like, getting better my strike. And Phil's is still getting better as well. And, you know, and Benny has one thing that puts himself into my game, which is wrestling.

As far as, as much as people think that, well, like, you know, usually, like, high-level wrestling controls jiu-jitsu. Yes, usually. But when you're talking about guys like Den and Maya, Fabrice and Rune, myself, Roger Gracie, I don't think there's any advantage, like, in wrestling as far as wrestling versus jiu-tzu. When you get, like, those, you know, the guys at the highest level. And I'm one of those guys, you know. It's not about, like, bragging. It's just, like, the results tell us that, you know, tell that.

And I don't think, like, his wrestling would be, like, any kind of advantage on me. And if it is for us to keep the fight standing, I feel like I have a slight advantage in that area, too. So I think that's the perfect match. That's why I want him to fight him. He's had some funky submissions. What do you think of his grappling? He's good. You know, he's good, but he's not, like, excellent as people think he is.

Especially, like, excellent at a point that people think he can submit me. That's just, like, ridiculous. And for him to say that it's ridiculous, and for whoever agrees with them, it's even more ridiculous. Because these guys just don't know what they're talking about. It's just like, to have an idea, really all, like, the only guy in a submission grappling match that was ever, like, closest to submit me was Fabrice Verdum. Then he was the only guy who ever, like, locked me in a submission, like, in a grappling match. I'm not talking about gear.

I'm not talking about wearing pajamas and holding the game. I'm talking about, like, you know, the closest thing to, like, M.A. And Fabrice Vardum was the only guy who was the only guy who was. was actually locked me in a submission. You know, that was the closest. And we're talking about a guy who's being dominating the HCC for the last eight years, and way heavier than me, you know, like being in a black belt since I was a blue belt.

So it's like, you know, talking about the highest level. And there's just like, you know, Phil's not at that level and nowhere close to that level. So, you know, why would I worry about him? Do you think you deserve this fight in the sense that, like, with the rankings and where you're at in your career, his career, do you think you deserve this fight? There is a fight in the scar Chilsona versus John Jones, and I don't think a chair has fought a light heavyweight in five years, six years. I don't know. So I don't know what we're talking about as far as rankings. You know, there's no shit thing, Ariel. It's fighting, you know. Like when you ask us fight somebody, if they want to take the fight, they take the fight. It's not to do with rankings.

So there was a story that Phil put out that they actually offered you this fight at 155 back in December. Is that true? That's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie. Here's what happened. He thinks I called him out after he fought Prado. I did post on my Twitter one thing. I would like to fight Phil Davis at some point, which I meant. Like, eventually I want to fight him, especially knowing that he's well-ranked.

So eventually I wanted to fight Phil Davis. I didn't say that I wanted that to be my next fight. I didn't say that I want to, you know, to be like fighting next month or anything like that. Anyways, so Forrest got hurt. And when I found out that Farah got hurt, I just like tested Joseph and Dana, like at the same. same time. I told him like, look, I cannot take this fight in three weeks notice.

But if you guys want to match up like Phil against somebody, just give him like two months and then I can fight him. And that was it. That was the whole thing with the 155. It was me offering myself to fight him like in, you know, in the near future. And so Phil comes up and says, well, Vinie got offered to fight a 155. It's like, that's a lie. You know, I offered myself to fight him like, you know, since he, if he's a few years. And so, Phil comes up and he, didn't find an opponent for 155. And there was never, like, you know, the thing, like, Vinny, you want to take this fight or not? And first, if he had, like, I would say no.

I'm not going to take a fight in three weeks notice and weighing, like, 245 pounds. There's no way, especially against a guy who's good, like, you know, he's a skilled athlete. I'm not going to take, like, much things away from him, but many things away from him. He's a skilled athlete. But I'm not going to take a fight against a guy who's really good athlete who had, like, a full training camp to fight. When I had, like, three weeks, and I was completely out of shape. would just make no sense to me. It's not to do with, like, running from him.

If that was the case, I would not be fighting him now. But I would just have to make smart decisions for my career. Why haven't you fought since September? Well, I was supposed to fight. I was trying to fight in December. I was trying to fight in December. And since Joe said there was no fights for December, I just relaxed a little bit.

Then I started to help Cheo, like, on the show. And I had a class to teach at Syneka at M.A. And I was just busy teaching and, like, helping Chey on the show. So no fights from me in December. And I wanted to find February, but that's one of Phil was saying that, you know, he couldn't fight because he had like some other plans, family plans, like, you know, he had to do some charity event like out of the country. So he couldn't do it. So that's why I decided to wait for him. At that point, I didn't want to find anybody else, you know, especially because Phil was already sane that was running from him.

So I was like, well, you know, a mile's all just wait for him now and just prove that I'm not running for him and that I can fight him at any time. You know what's interesting about this? And, you know, I joke, you know, troll, whatever, and you called them out. But it seems to me now this is a personal fight for you. The way you're talking, you know, I've had you on the show before. We've talked to you before. You seem fired up. Is this personal to you now?

It's more for the fact that, you know, he's using lies to say that, you know, that I didn't want to fight him like, you know, 155. He's like, he's lying when he was trying to convince himself that he can submit me. Like, he's lying to people when he says that, you know, wrestling, it's always going to be. beat jiu-sitsu, like, it's just like so many things that, you know, if you put together, it kind of upsets me, it makes me want to prove a point. And I think that's why it gets personal. And I don't know if it's going to be personal after the fight, you know, but during the fight for sure, I would hope they could have, like, two referees, like, in a cage, you know, because if I get a chance, I'm going to, I'm going to pop his arm. I did that against, I guess Igor.

I tapped him out, and I kept hold him. And I think it's not going to be any different to Phil, you know, if I get him something, I'm going to hurt him, too. Wow. So you're looking you're looking to break his arm I'm not saying breaking I'm just kind of like you know Make him feel for a week Because like when I fought when I fought

Igor like I think three hours later He was still like putting ice on his elbow So I think it's not going to be indifferent with Phil But why? Because of what he said about you Because you started this right You were the one that called him out Well but I never questioned his skills Right when I called him out just because I wanted to fight

And then he starts to question my skills So like you know it's more for me to prove a point He shouldn't be talking like so much So how do you want to finish him? Do you have a specific way that you'd like to submit him? I just want to finish him. There's no such a thing for me like how I want to finish, just want to finish him. And I feel like I have this skill suit to do so, you know.

I can get him in a lagalach. I can choke him. I can submit it with an arm bar. I can knock him out. Like anything can happen. And as far as like winning this fight, I don't think I'm going to win a decision, to be honest. I'm not looking to win a decision. All my one is like an adult fighter.

All my one is like my professional career. I have all been by my finish. I'm just how I want. Do you prefer submission, though, over a TKO or knockout? I prefer myself, but I feel like, you know, it's getting to a point if I don't knock somebody out, like, you know, sooner or later, like, people are going to start to be question if I'm, like, involved in my game. So I feel like a knockout needs to happen, like, sometime, you know, could have been just

fight or not, well, who knows, but a knockout has to happen. So, like, you know, it's going to give, like, a little push into my career as far as, like, you know, showing to the fans that I have improved. Like a lot of people didn't see like two of my last three fights for M1 when I knocked two guys down. And people never saw this fight so they don't know that I have like, you know, got better. And so I think I feel like I need to do that in the UFC. But, you know, it doesn't have to be in this fight. And if it is, cool.

If you're not, like, you know, as long as I get a finish, that's what it matters. I know you dismissed the rankings before and I haven't done mine in a while. But I think last time I did them, he was like five or six for me. He's only lost once to Rashad Evans, all that stuff. You know what he's done. Do you feel like he's overrated? I'll just, I'll be going to spend a little time with this ranking subject. Look, there's like Ryan Bader, right?

Ryan Bader is like on the official rankings. He's number nine. Phil's number eight in the official UFC rankings. Who has Ryan Bater B to be a number nine? He'd be it, Rampage who was a former champion. He'd be Lurnaug, who's like, you know, he's being number 10. He's been like top 10 for, you know, for a while. and how can beta be behind Phil Davis

if Phil Davis has never been in a champion or a former champion like his career the only guys that he beat at a top 10 were Lurnaug which else the Bader beat and I think Bader was way more dominant in that fight than Phil was and he beat Gucebson when Gustafson wasn't even ranked before

he was like in his second fight in the UFC he wasn't even top 10 and that's the two guys that Phil beat like in the top 10 Then he's got like you know top 10 A middleweight which is Brian Stan Which was like you know he became a middleweight top 10 Like way after fighting Phil

Same thing with team Boch A middleweight who just became like top 10 after fighting Phil So like how can Those ranks don't mean anything Because like you know how can Phil be like a head of like Bader If Bada has like better wins in his record Just because his beta has like losses and Phil doesn't It's like Bada just lost the former champion too

He lost the Jones current champion he lost him a Chita and he lost a Tito even though like you know

losing to Tito like nowadays might not be so great clearly but he's just a former champion like one of the most dominant

champions like in a division ever so like you know those rankings don't mean anything and that guy who I really like

Glovertexiero he's not number I think number four or five in the official rankings he fought Maldonado he fought

Kyle Kingsbury and then he fought Rampage who also beta beat and how can be Glover like number four. Yeah. So how can I extend those rankings to me, you know, like, well, those rankings. Like, almost like the last guy in the ranking.

And Glover with like last impressive wins, it's number four or five. So it's like, those ranks don't mean anything real. It's more like, you know, what people think, like, or what people like, like, they buy the hype so they give the numbers. And, you know, so that's why, that's why I don't care. Like, I'm going to call like whoever I want to call out, could then be like, you know, I'll be honest with you. Let's say that I feel like after. feel, I'm going to have better matchup against the guy who's number, like, 34.

I'm going to be, like, beating Phil, who's number eight, and I'm going to call in all the number 34. I don't care. You know, I just want to get, like, easy fights. Just want to get, like, you know, get matchups for me. So you, you consider this an easy fight? Style-wise, it is. Style-wise, it is.

It can just go there and, like, you know, have, like, a horrible fight. Like, my fight against Mikkel's high, it. I went to the fight, I think it was going to be an easy fight. And I suffered until I got, like, you know, until I got the TKO. But, you know, I was having a horrible fight So, you could happen in this fight too But as far as the style goes, I think that's a easy fight Do you have any idea

Who your next target will be after this fight? Not really, you know, I'm just thinking about Field Davis right now But, you know, of course, like, you know, I have plans But, no, I don't have names for now By the way, I don't know how much you follow this show But we've been doing this competition on the show Called Rick's Picks Challenge Where one of the guys who works in the back

Who's actually a fan of yours I gave him $100 and he had to turn that into $400. He had to bet on fights and, you know, based on how he did, if he got the $400, he would win some kind of prize. And he was down, and the competition ended after 159. So it ended April 28th, right? And he had $150 left with two weeks left.

And it came down to, as you just said earlier in the show, it came down to either, you know, doing a home run shot on Gilbert, because he was the underdog, chale or you. And as of last week, he was thinking about you, but for whatever reason, he went with Gilbert, and we know Gilbert loss. How stupid is he to not bet on you? Because if you would have bet on you,

would have all that money, he would have won. You don't have made that money. Like, here's the thing, too, like, I've told a lot of people, like, even like my father-in-law, he's going to be badder on me. I'm going to put some money on myself before I leave Vegas, too. How much? How much?

I don't know. I'm not rich, Ariel, so I kind of put a lot of money, but I'm going to put some money on me. for sure. New York, right? Is there anything you want to say? Do you want to apologize to Vinny for not betting on him? I don't want to apologize, but he was number two.

He was number two. I was thinking about betting on Vinny. To be honest, you would have won the fight again. I thought I'd go won. I thought he'll won that fight. So, like, it was a good pick. You was a good pick. So have we made up now, or do you still consider me a troll, or are we good?

You are, but you're cool, man. Why am I troll, though? I'm a journalist. I take this seriously. I know, but sometimes you just post some interesting stuff. Like, Slow up when he got signed to be like back to the UFC. Who? Oh, like, when he's over like Bob Sapp, like God, Silva back in the UFC?

And I just like read like sarcasm, like an approach. Well, there's a difference between sarcasm and trolling, right? I don't try to trick people, but sometimes I have dry humor. Well, but some people might think that Bob Sap is a monster, you know? That's trolling. Well, those are the same people who are making those rankings. That's true. that is true too

well keep doing what you're doing Vinnie I enjoy even though sometimes I think you you take the trolling a little far but you know what I'd rather that

than be boring I'd rather that at least you're interesting and it's great following you on Twitter Twitter dot com slash Vinnie M you got the fight

that you wanted it's going down on Saturday I can't wait for it Vinnie Magalesh versus Phil Davis a huge fight at light heavyweight

good luck my man we'll see you over there well thanks man to see you there okay there he is Vinnie Magalash he called his shot and he got it

and good for him. I can't hang on that. He wanted it. He probably never would have gotten it. He asked for it. A thousand times. He bombarded Twitter with it. He kept going, going, going, going, going, and they finally gave in.

To the point where it seems personal for both of them. It's a pretty fun thing to see develop, and on Saturday, they're finally going to get it on. One of the more interesting fights on that main card, as I mentioned, the opening fight of the night is going to be Jim Miller. and Pat Healy, not his UFC debut. That's one of the interesting fights as well, Belcher, Bisping, Jones, Chil. It's a solid card in Newark, New Jersey. Now, that's happening this weekend. One of the big stories on Saturday night in San Jose was, of course, the dominance of Team Alpha Male.

And what did he call it? Menvinitas Shaw. And we interviewed every single one of them, from T.J. Dilleshaw to Joseph Benavides to then Chad Mendes, all on the FX prelims, all finishing their fights, all looking impressive, and every single one of them thank their new head coach over at Team Alpha Mail. Dwayne Banlugwood, and he joins us right now on the MMA hour.

Dwayne, how are you? Doing good. Thanks for having me out, man. I love doing their shows. Congratulations, my man. I tweeted on Saturday. Is Dwayne Ludwig the best coach in the history of coaches, the greatest coach in the history of coaches?

not even talking to MMA. What you have done with this team is amazing and how much they respect you and like you and keep thanking you publicly. It's an amazing thing to see. Did you think this would turn around? And let's be honest, they weren't like losing 10 straight or anything, but it seemed like they were missing something. Did you think this would turn around so quickly? Yes. Yes, I did actually, because I knew what I watched. I'm sorry, I shouldn't say yes, because you're not quite sure what's going to happen until it happens. But I had a strong feeling that it would work up this way because I knew what I had. had to deal with, had, you know, world-class athletes, easy clay to work with. I just never

personally worked with them until I did that first seminar last December. And when I first did that seminar, I've seen how open, just how open their minds were. And as athletically gifted as they are, I knew if the simple drills that I do, if I just, you know, plug and play with them, that they were going to make some great strides and type some things up. But like you said, you know, well, you know, they were very successful without me. So now with me, all I'm trying to do is, or all I'm doing is allowing them or helping allow them reach their full potential of athleticism, especially for the cage. So, you know, I'm getting, I think, a way more credit than I deserve, but I do deserve some

of it, but I definitely love the attention that they're giving me and respect and stuff. It's deserved, though, too, just the things I do here at the gym as well. I mean, there's a reason why they respect it because the way I tear myself and handle some things, and it's not, they have no choice to respect you, but I think he'd be an idiot not true just the way I do things. and they're their workouts athletes, and I appreciate them respect to me, but it's, um,

you're super round me and the way things happen, you would understand why. You're undefeated as, as head coach of Team Alpha male, right? Yes, sir. Uh, and like I said, it's been amazing. When you got in there,

when you saw what was going on, when you saw the talent, and, you know, let's also be clear, since you've taken over, they've yet to fight in, in a title fight, and that has sometimes been the problem with them,

you know, Mendez got a shot, Faber got some shots. Benavides, of course, got a shot, and they couldn't get over the hump. But when you got there, did you see anything around saying you guys are doing this differently? Of course, you've obviously helped with their striking overall mindset and putting it all together. But did you notice some glaring issues with the way they were training, preparing for fights? Glaring issues, no, I just tighten some things up and just put some ideas in their headness, allowing them to be their own athletes.

I'm definitely not here to show them how cool I am. I'm here for these guys 100%. So when I have a classic I did today, I have like 30 people in class. They just finished. And they got to make sure that there's specific rounds. There's a couple rounds go to this guy who's coming up. This guy who are a fight coming up. Then there's a whole bunch of overall drills that everyone needs to do anyway,

their style or their opponent regardless. There's things that need to be done. And we're just doing that, man. They're the other guy showing up. The other guy's putting in their reps. I'm just having them just putting ideas in their head and they don't figure things out on their own as well. But it's answer to great nothing glaring.

Just a few things. To the typical guy wouldn't be. glaring to me, to me there were some glaring things, I guess I should say, just because the difference in the way we train. Like what? They were training and how they're training now. There's types of things up as far as just the word they use. It's planned the ideas in the head when we're doing specific goals, what to look for,

what's going on before, during, and after, combination strikes, you know, for them take down shots, the jiu-jitsu game as well. There's just things that go on before, during, and after, and we're just registering those keys. Can we only truly assess how this experiment, or experience or just this venture is going until they fight in the title shot. Is that fair? Correct.

One percent fair. Okay, so right now... That's the hurdle. That's the whole thing. Without me being here, these guys are still winning these fights. They win them. How they're winning them? I don't know.

But that's the two tests to see if I can get these guys or, you know, and we get these guys the world title. That's my goal. That's our goal. What do you think... What has been the problem in your opinion, based on knowing them now, to them in those situations. Why haven't they gotten over that house?

The habits of the way of their training, some of the things that were going on. We've tightened up some things, and I explain it to them. They're like, holy shit, okay, I see it, yeah. So there's a lot of things that happen during training with training partners and sparring. There's a whole bunch of little things.

And so it wasn't one main thing glaring. It's just a whole bunch of little small things that just need to be tightened up as far as when you do drills. I guess one example, as far as the mental aspect. When you're in the guy's guard, you reach up for his throat, what is he going to do, Ariel?

What do you think he's going to do? If you're on the guy's card and you reach for his throat? Well, there's a few things he could do. He could try to hit you, right? Because you're opening yourself up. But primarily what he'll probably try to do is go for the arm bar.

Well, okay, fine. Yeah. Especially if you leave your arm hanging out there. Yeah, exactly. So with that, okay, so if you're in the guy's guard, you leave an arm hanging out there, reach a for a throw, he's probably going to go. for the arm bar.

Right. So you know what to expect. So with that in play now, we create a whole bunch of drills and scenarios. Okay, if we do this, he does that. We do this, this and this. So that's all we're doing. We're just role playing and just working with

typical scenarios, situational goals. And it's per individual. And we do a few for this guy. If you're good at these 10 things. Before them are going to work for your opponent. So let's rep those four a million times. Let's make this work. So that's just what I'm doing with them.

We're breaking out footage. I'm making sure this guy's good at this. You know, a few of these things are going to work in this particular fight, it's putting them in the reps. It's putting in quality reps. Who are your, like, obviously you're the head coach. Who's the assistant coach? Who else is on the team here?

Who deserves credit? A bunch of people that are, that's one of the things, too, is it's not just me. It's everybody. When I have, like, we're doing specific drills, the guy who's holding the match or being the partner, he's now the trainer. While he's the trainer, he needs to look for certain things,

here and here and here and here. there's openings here. Look for him. So the whole time we're training, like if the guy is holding myths for the other guy, he's not just holding myths. He's actually training as well

because the guy's throwing a strike center, basically. So he needs to build what I call the counter eye, looking for openings before, during and after strikes and combinations. Just making sure that we're finishing, we're finishing a position, good athletic stamp, opposite side, angles, and just using,

there's a whole bunch of little small things like that that I've just been adding to their mindset, I guess. Have you noticed a change in their mindset said in the last couple, because this has only happened for like three, four months, right? Have you noticed a change already? Four months. Correct. Yes. What kind of change?

Here to remind them. It's just little things. There's them registering the openings, registering the gaps, seeing where the openings are. When the guy jabs, typically, the opening is here, here, and here. Now these guys see that. They're seeing this now. Just because you've got to slow things down. Striking is so fast because we're doing split seconds and fractions of an inch. And I always say that. So let's slow it down so we can register.

so the gaps in the openings. Now, okay, I see the gap, the openings here and here and here. What are you going to do now? Those are openings. How do you want to attack those? Can you feel better attacking it like this? Okay, good. Go ahead and go.

Be your own athlete. Attack it how you feel you want to attack it. But this way might be a little bit better. Step this way. No, face your hip's this direction. Make sure you're playing over here. Make sure your head position is here behind the shoulder. Little things like that are just what I'm doing here.

Just small open for the information. Man, this is inspiring just listening to you. I feel like going out there and hitting Mitz myself. And I don't know if you know this, but I have some pretty devastating power. in these bad boys right here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a rumor around town.

Who has improved the most since you've been there for the last four months? Lance Palmer, really? Lance Palmer. Wow. So tell us about him because some fans who maybe UFC fans only don't know about him,

but he's a guy climbing the ranks. Yeah, Lance Palmer, he's a Division I, four-time All-American wrestler, and he just knows how to train. And he just, and he's made the biggest stride from where he was until now.

he's just shown up and he's putting in the reps. That's why I'm not quite sure what percentage of the credit goes to. I'm giving them the idea that they're running with it. I'm just sort of overseeing the operations and just kind of just playing director on the movie set, I guess. But, you know, the other guy's putting the reps, but he's making the strides, but he's a phenomenal athlete. All these guys are freaking world-class athletes, every one of them.

So they have no choice but to get better if they're putting in quality reps. They're making sure they're paying attention. They're putting in the quality reps. They're showing up on time. They're respecting each other. and there's a whole bunch of small things like that that's taking the place as well. There's a lot more.

Well, I don't, I can't say a lot more, but now we have a, there's a, I think I brought some martial art respect to the academy as well. So there's a bunch of small things like that. Just short, you know, not on time, but early. Make sure you're, if you don't have a fight coming up, the Benavitis is in here today helping out.

Like, that's just what needs to happen. We're all family helping each other out, and that's just what has to happen, or you just got to make some decisions, you know, you're part of the team or you're part of the team, you're not. in here should help with the other guys out. That's why they've been so successful. Also, they've already

been doing things like that, and they're continuing to do that just a little bit more. How does Master Thong mesh with all of this? Because I say... The name is Tong. Come on, baby. Tong. Well, you know... I actually hear people... I actually hear people say it both ways. Which way is it?

Is it Tong? It is Tong. It is Tong. But there's an H there. It's... Well, it's... The name is Tong or Tong lore, but it's just... Tongue. In English, okay. You know what? I wish you could see my computer right now because I just wanted to double check.

And then I saw the H and I was like, yes, it is. I'm an idiot. No, so the way you pronounce it, Tong or Tong is up to you. There's the whole master thing. Oh, right. Oh, that's what you. Master. Yeah.

Okay. I remember this. I was like, whoa, yeah. I remember. Okay, so you don't call him that anymore. No. It's just as a joke. I thought maybe he didn't understand the language we talked about this before.

Yes, yes, yes. He doesn't understand what it meant. But he does. He's just being silly. He's a good dude, man. I can hold the mitt. But how does he met? Okay, so he's still a part of the team, right?

Yeah, he's definitely part of the team for sure. He's still here. He still has his role. He's a really good mitt holder. The guy's still really well with him. We're keeping that. Okay. I want to make sure that's still here.

Well, I want to make sure that's still here for sure. They already have that good connection. Let's keep it. I'm not here to change anything. Look how successful they've been. I'm just here to add things. Add information. And I'm trying to, I'm helping them respectful potential.

And like, like, Mike, Pote said, you know, we have, like you have the potential, well, let's say it's a hard scale. And right now, what you're doing, you are using 95% of it. Well, I'm here to help the next 5%. Because that's the difference between, you know, St. Pierre and some of these other guys, St. Pierre knows how to tap the 100% potential. Somebody I just aren't, I don't think they're just doing yet.

Same thing like Anderson Silva. He has the opportunity to tap into what's called the zone. Maybe you don't hear athletes and people say, I don't know just in the zone. And since Simba has that ability to tap into the zone at will. And for other athletes, some people, they never do that. Some people, it happens to trigger certain scenarios or certain situations will trigger that or just come to them. And Central can tap into that whenever he wants.

Do you still have your gym in Colorado? Yes, I have an affiliate system, the Bangwood Thai affiliate system. I turn my gym into affiliate. Okay. My assistant coach is running the operation for me. I have, like, I send out detailed video curriculums to all my affiliates off the U.S., and I might have one that opening up in Birmingham, in England, and who I send out detailed video curriculums of what combination or what drill to do per round

from warm up to cool down. At this point, considering, I mean, I know we're early into it, but do you think it'll be sticking around in Sacramento for a while? At least one year, for sure. You know, we did a one-year deal. Why did it sign a contract yet? We're still finalizing some things. Okay. Man, you're in a good position now if you're still finalizing.

Yeah, I'm a good position. Yeah, definitely. And yeah, we've got to tie up some men and make sure we're all on the same page or some certain things. And that's happened. These guys are fucking love. Sorry, can I swear? Yeah, yeah, go ahead. That's the watch from. Okay, sorry. It just starts flowing. These guys are amazing to work with. You know, business-wise and aesthetically, they show up on time. They put on the raft. and what I asked for is it's coming, so it's good for sure.

At what point did you start to think or believe that you could be a great coach, that you could be up there with the guys we talk about so much in this sport? Was it recently? Was it early on in your career? Is this something you've always wanted to do? Since I was a child. Really? I knew, like, this is just what I am.

I knew as a child I was going to be a fighter, and I've been coaching people since I was 19 anyway, because I've been doing martial arts since I was 8. coaching people like ask as pro athletes pro fighters anyway since all of 19 so it's just something that I've just been naturally gift to with I say not that I'm the man or whatever but it does come to me pretty easy I pay attention to the detail I know how they explain the drills to people so they understand it you know it's the same English language but I can translate it differently in the gym okay you know just step here maybe this option is a bit better for you I just make sure

that these people can get the drills down but again it's easy because of the level of athletes that are here at this gym. So as we sit right now, you've got some, obviously, some high-level guys, and the talk of the MMA world as far as this past weekend was Dela Shah, Benavides, Mendez. We focus first on Benavides and Mendez. How far do you think they are away from going for a title again? I think Chad Mendez could be, and he's a network contender. I don't know what the actual numbers are how he ranks and on what poll, but it would be a safe. that he could say so they all though or the winner of the next fight between

and Bledo and Petter. Do you believe he beats him right now? Right now, we need to I'm never happy with it with like, okay, there's always improvement. That's hence the whole master thing. Especially with human rights, everything is always evolving. You can never be a master of anything. It's always evolving.

So I just want to make sure that when we do step in the cage for that title, that some things are, the gaps are just closer together. Now there's a smaller gap. And right now we have a few gaps in some certain areas. that need to be closed up, and when they're closed up, we will be wearing the belt. So there were some things on Saturday from these guys

that you weren't happy about? Yeah, always. I would say you happy. I shouldn't say that, I guess, but not a hard of a bit of something we have to fix is all. Trying some things up. What about that? Our opponents, these guys would be winning these fights anyway without me.

But, you know, and like, you know, the main hurdle is the belt. If they're not getting the belt, well, let's get the belt. And there's especially with Uriah, there's three things that we're fixed. and he's going to be wearing the belt 100%. Wow. What are they? Ah, that's the secret.

So you've pinpointed them. You know what they are. You've zeroed in on them. Now it's just time to make it happen. Yeah, put it in the reps. How long to take a little bit of rest? Yeah. And then putting them some... He was in here today, Shadowboxing. They can't stay out the gym. They get a kick out.

But it's awesome. I'm glad I don't have to babysit these guys. But especially with the United, we have three things we have to fix. It's not, just close the gaps on a few things, on three things particular, a few other things as well. And when he does that, when it's done, he's going to be wearing the belt. What about Benavides? Benavides. Well, he has one thing that he has to fix. Oh, really?

Chad has two. Two? What about Dillashaw? Dillashaw. He has, he could, he's, for that kid, I could take him to Holland right now, and he's put up rights with some of the top pros, 100%. In tie boxing. Really? He's very good.

In all areas, there's just a few, a few subtle things that he needs to fix as well. Now, how many guys... I have a number down. How many guys do you oversee right now? 30. There's been about 30 pro fighters, or 30 fighters, not all pros. Sorry, we have about 30 fighters. But my main focus is the top guys.

Okay, so are you... Or, you're right, when we have the gym going, whoever has a fight coming up, okay, you have these five guys that fight's coming up within a month. Okay, I'm focused on those guys a bit more. So are you going to corner them at fights on local shows as well? If the schedule permits, yes. Okay. And was it a benefit to you, or was it a little too much to have three guys fighting that close to each other on the prelims on Saturday?

It was the first time I had to do that three fighters at this level. So it was a bit of a hurdle, but I had some excellent help with Justin Buckel's gift from Nevada was out there as well. So that was awesome to have gifts to have the boxing coach for Benavitas. And he works with Meier and Hardy as well. That guy is. That guy is, I love that dude. He knows so much. He has so much information in the fight game.

I kind of warm the guys up. He knows what he's doing inside now. I love having him there. So it was definitely a blessing to have him there. Tong was there as well, the whole myth. Buckles was there. Lance Palmer was there. Danica Steele, they're all backstage helping out.

So it worked out. I should have delegated the roles a bit better, to be honest. Just to make sure on the same page, what exactly we were doing? Just so there's no, like, hey, you know, what am I doing? everyone knows up front when we're at that locker room, who's doing what at wind. And that's what thing is I'm good at just structuring and organizing things. And that's one of the main things here, too, at the gym,

just kind of tighten up some gaps, whether it be martial arts and, of course, short up on time and making sure we're here for each other. And that was a good case in point was on Saturday. Yeah, showed up and they helped. And it wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be, but it worked out. And now here's a big question. What about your fighting career? Are you still a fighter?

At heart, that will never leave. but we'll see what happens. I'm, I'm, uh, I will see what happens to come September when needs 100% healthy. It's not healthy. I'm not doing anything like my own training. But when I'm 100% healthy, I'll make the decision then. But right now, I'm a much happier human being, coaching these guys, living through these guys. I put too much pressure myself as an athlete.

And like I said before, if I had this opportunity to do this a couple years ago, I would have been fighting for the money, although I never made good money. And like, even off the last fight, you know, I'm made enough money to last or to, you know, live on for, like, about three months. So I'm glad you're I texted me when he did as far as being a head trainer out here. I was going to have to figure something else out. Go back to either being like fishing or, well, I was going to open up a school. My open area, I actually go into, that's one thing that why it worked out good is I don't want to turn my gym in Colorado into a pro gym.

Because we already have established pro gyms. They don't want to be put in the position of where you train there or you train here or just want to have any of that going. So it worked out best that I moved actually and just leave my gym as an affiliate and just wanted it for the pro fighters want to go. They can go and everyday people can go as well. So I wanted to make sure we weren't just competing too much. Is there a chance, though? You may never fight again. Oh, yeah, there's definitely a chance that I may never fight again.

Okay. Wow. I'm not 100% healthy or 100% loving the fight game for myself, just the way some certain things went down. What do you mean? You know, with me being a... So I just wish I had more money at times. I mean, if, you know, blew my knee out,

I had a year-long injury, blow my knee out. I was, I'm glad this job came when it did, basically, to coach these guys and make a living because I wasn't making enough fighting. And when you were an athlete, you know, a billion-dollar corporation, and you blow out your knee, and you have enough money to last for three months. I just think there should be, I got to be careful what I say, of course, but I just think the fighters should be looked after a bit better. Okay.

So you don't think they're making enough? Correct. Well, making enough. And it's, I don't know if there's like a base salary or some kind of union or something or so that there's an overseeing force, you know, a third party to kind of help delegate some things. Like a union or something, it would have been a good position. Would you be interested in getting involved in that? Probably. But I want to make sure that's got to be careful.

I know this is, you know, public and stuff and everyone's listening to it. But I don't want to piss off the UFC, but I feel I always be a little bit upset. You know, I have blood to freaking knee. I just wish I had some more help, to be honest. But I signed up for, you know, 100% Like you're a 1099, you know, employee, you're a subcontractor. So you get hurt, that's your deal. But if I ran a billion-dollar corporation

and somebody got hurt on my clock, I would take care of them a bit better. Medically with the bills. No, I'm sorry. So we're clear. My medical is 100% paid for. Okay, okay. I understand. From surgery to, yeah, that's 100%.

But, you know, as a fighter, for me, I never made big money. I wasn't in the total of attention either. So, you know, the money I was making is enough to that. I just said fight-to-fight, and you just get caught up in that. That's why I just kept fighting for the money. I should have stepped away, you know, while my heart wasn't into it as much as it should have been competing against these guys, the injuries that just add up. I was able to do the same things in the gym that I wanted you do in the cage.

I had the last few fights. I wouldn't, I could have, but it's freaking, it hurt. It hurts as far to, you know, just nagging injuries and stuff. So my timing was a bit off in the game that I play. I play a lot of counter games and, you know, looking for the openings. And when you're doing that, your timing has to be dead on. And when it's not, you get caught, and that's what happened with me. Especially with Hardy.

I can't, your timing gets off if you don't far. So, but then I'm taking, crazy, I've taken away stuff from Hardy, so I can't do that. But, you know, you start moving a bit slower, I guess, with the injuries sold up. That's for sure. Okay, two last quick things. Are you making a comfortable living now? Are you able to live off what you're doing now? I'm staying afloat.

Okay. Yeah. Well, hopefully they keep winning some big fights. That will change. And when will you decide your fighting future? We'll come to September when I'm 100% healthy. Okay. But, yeah, I'd rather to keep this role going.

I really don't really, I don't really have an itch to fire right now. I'm much happier in a human being. I put too much pressure on myself as a fighter. So just coaching these guys and reviewing videos and just coming here, run a class of form and just living with them, I'm much happier. I enjoy my life a lot more than I used to ask for, 100%. Well, that is very good to hear, Duane. Congratulations on your early success. Really looking forward to seeing what you could do with these guys. So much potential in that gym, so many

potentially champions, you know, potential champions in that gym with a lot of, who knows, untapped potential. And it seems like you're bringing that out in them. Yeah, well, untapped potential. So it's been great to see you did it on a very big stage on Saturday. And I wish you guys nothing but the best of luck as this thing goes forward. I appreciate Ariel. Thank you, sir. All right. There he is. The new head. head coach? Is he still the new head coach? I guess so for a few more months over at Team Alpha Mail in Sacramento, California, the legend. Dwayne Badd-Lugwood, he's been around in this sport for so long. He's getting a lot of respect now, a lot of attention, and we appreciate him stopping by very much

on the M.A.R. Okay, one last guest to go. We go back to the Skype machine. There he is. There he is. Dare I say, the most beloved man in MMA. Is that accurate? No. I don't want to be the most beloved guy in M.MA. You don't? Well, of course, we're talking to Malki Kawa manager to the likes of John Jones, Benson Henderson, Carlos Condett, first round management. Why don't you want to be liked?

Everyone wants to be liked. No, I want to be liked, but you make it seem like I'm like the most beloved guy. It's not really a good thing either. I mean, it depends on who it's coming from, I'd have to say. Do you feel... I want to be the most beloved amongst the fighters, but not really, you know, outside of that. When, you know, every time we talk or I have you on my show, whatever, I always get, oh, Maliki, you know, I always get this.

And you know, I've told you. Why do people not like you? Why do you think people in the sport do not like you? You know what, Errol? I really don't know and I really don't care. At the end of the day, I represent the best fighters in the world. I think I do the best job for my fighters. It shows time and time again.

And a lot of people seem to have a problem with it because I say it all the time. I go out there and I tell people that. Whether people like to hear it or not, it's just the way I am. And I think people don't like it. I rub people the wrong way, I guess. Are you cocky? Say it again. Are you cocky?

No, I'm not cocky at all. I mean, you know, when I first got into the business, you know, and I was just working and I started from the very ground level and came up doing this, you know, no one never really heard me say anything other than, you know, one day I'm going to be the best. One day I'm going to, you know, try to revolutionize the sport. One day I'm going to help fighters make way more money than they were making, you know, when I got into it. And I feel like I've been, you know, successful on that path. So it's not that I'm cocky. I'm just very confident, and I set these goals on what I want to do and how I want to do it, and I go and tell the whole world about it, and I feel like when I open my mouth and say something,

I have to back it up, no matter what it is with whoever. Have you changed a bit, though, over the years? Because I feel like you were a little more vocal, maybe a year or two years ago. No, you know what? I'm a little bit more calculated now. Before, I used to say whatever, and it didn't really matter, you know, what the outcome came from it, and I didn't really necessarily like a lot of the stuff that came with it. So now I'm just a little bit more calculated.

You know, I just say things I need to say, one I need to say it. But I'm still vocal. If I feel like, you know, there's something I need to say, I'll say it. You know what I mean? I don't have a problem doing that. I just guess I'm getting smarter with it as time goes on. I don't want to affect my clients in any way, shape, or form. You know, by saying something that maybe, you know, that they may take heat for

something to that effect. So I try my best not to, you know, get them cut up and stuff. But I'm still vocal. I'll still say it. I still think I'm the best manager in this business. I don't think number two is even that close. and I think it just goes to show some of the work I've done. And I think that that's, you know, the biggest problem in this business right now for these fighters

is the management and the people that's representing them. What do you mean by that? Why is that a problem? You know, remember the other day there was a fighter. He wrote like a blog saying about how, you know, he's not going to stand for the money. He's not going to take a deal unless it's the right deal and all that type of stuff. Chris Comozy. Yeah, right, Chris Comozy.

So when you think about it at the end of the day, this is the doing, of managers that for a long time didn't know how to sell their fighters and didn't know how to get the deals done the right way. So what ends up happening is that you get a guy like me that comes in and I'm trying to figure out why it's like this and it's really obvious and it's easy.

And these fighters have allowed it too to happen. 500 bucks here, a thousand dollars there. And then, you know, if you say no to that, now you're stuck with your guy not having anything. So I was proud to see Chris Komosi do that. The problem is that the manager, he was what, is notorious for being the type of guy that takes the...

first deals in the business. So at the end of the day, it's like, you know what I mean? It just sucks because then, you know, I go in. Here's the worst part about it. When I go in and I talk to a sponsor and they say to me, well, you know, you've got Ben Henderson and we're going to do a deal for him. We want to do a deal. And then, you know, I turn around and I'm all right, cool, let's do it.

Well, you know, we're getting Frankie Edgar for one-tenth of what you're asking for, bro. We're just going to have to pass. It sucks. It sucks because, I mean, at the end of the day, that just goes to show that, you know, one guy is selling it way cheaper and he's in the same title fight. or, you know, and it goes on with just everything from top to bottom on these cards.

So it's been hard. So, you know, there's, I got a lot of beef with the people in this business, a lot of, you know, just upset with the way they handle stuff. And at the end of the day, the only ones that are being hurt are the fighters. And it's almost like, you know, my fighters now are just so many fighters in the UFC now that if it's like, all right, well, Malcolm, you're too expensive. You know what I mean? So hell with it, we'll just move on to the next guy.

So now my guys, you know, are not getting the same deals like I was doing before. And it's not because of anything. I mean, we're still looking for stuff outside the box. I'm going to do a deal. You guys will probably hear about it by the end of this week or maybe beginning and next week once John's fight is over on another move that I make that I think is going to really change the way, you know,

this business gets done and it's going to really benefit my fighters and the fighters that are with me. And that's just, you know, some of the things I'm continuing. And that's the reason why I feel like, you know, it's just I'm not settling for what's in this space. You follow me? And I'm going to keep moving into things and into position to do things

and a much better and quicker and more efficient way. This deal, it's for John Jones? No, no, it's not just a deal. It's a deal. I'm working on something where I'm going to be doing business with some people that's going to take care of certain things. And you guys will get all the information about the next couple of days and stuff. But it's sort of a big deal because it's going to, you know,

I'm going to add about 10 guys to my roster of management. And, you know, the marketing is just going to go through the roof for all the guys. And we're constantly going to be doing. We're going to be doing a lot of things. We're going to change the way this business gets done. And we're going to change the way, you know, just a lot of those sponsorship level, everything, just in general. It sounds to me. Listen, what is expected?

Go ahead. It sounds to me like you're merging with someone if you say you're adding 10 guys to your roster, unless you're going on and signing a bunch of new guys in the next day or so. You have to wait and find out, brother. Wow. Well, I can't help but think. Didn't you merge with Glenn Robinson in the past and that go very poorly? Yeah, but I'm not making the same mistake twice, bro.

This is a guy who came into the business with nothing. And, you know what I mean? Had absolutely zero in a bunch of, you know, it's not even worth talking about. It's just not really worth talking about. It was something that I should have known better at the idea. The idea sounded good at the time. But the reality of it is that it was a mistake on my part.

I should have never gotten involved with it. It wasn't something that benefited anybody. You know, when you got two guys that want to be cooks, I guess, too many chefs in the kitchen type of thing, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. So I'm not doing, I'm not making the same mistake twice. How are you with Glenn right now? I don't talk to him.

I don't know. I'm perfectly all right. I got nothing to say to him. We don't talk. We don't, you know, anything. You know, I think he's doing a horrible job down there with the Black Zillians, to be honest with you. I think that, you know, his guys are just kind of like, you know, they're mismanaged in a lot of ways. I think that, you know, he's in it for the wrong reasons.

And, you know, that's his problem. What do you mean by that in it for the wrong reasons? You know, listen, he's one of those guys as a fanboy of the sport. And the reality of it is that he's, you know, in it to, I think he's got good intentions. I'm not going to say he's in it for the wrong reasons. I think he has good intentions. but I think he's in it he's a guy that came from another industry

making tons and tons of money and he comes in here and he's oh I need to do this we should do that pop pop pop pop pop pop half of the stuff he says he's going to do he didn't do he had to buy a bunch of companies that's how he supports a lot of these fighters and then you know he's probably going to probably

plan on spinning them off or some sort of big sale to recoup all his money and go from there so the reality of it is he's cool with these guys he likes these guys I just don't see the work really being done the way it should be done you don't see anything about the black zillions other negative press they lose fights

you know they go sign Kenny Monday, which is great. They signed this Cuban boxing coach, great. But again, you know, teams aren't made by just signing a coach here or there. You know, you look at, you know, the alpha mail, they should be commended because, you know, they've had the same coaches, and then they added a guy that they've known that they've, you know,

that they've interacted with in the past, that fits, and there's chemistry there. You know what I mean? And they're able to make more, you know, improve and now look at the team. You know, they're on a little bit of a tear, finishing fights with KOs and stuff like that. I mean, you know, they just look better. And you can see that. Whereas the other side, you know, hopefully for the

for these fighters that, you know, the boxing coach and the wrestling coach will do better for them. But I just think that, you know, when you get into stuff and you start paying everybody and you're just spending money left and right, you know, trying to, you know, make something out of nothing. At the end of the day, you've got to pay your dues, man, just like everybody else has. And when you don't do that, I just don't, no, no. What do you really get in that? Do you take some enjoyment out of their struggles? Are you rooting against them?

No, at all. You know, one thing I learned a long time ago is that you should never, ever, ever, have any type of hate in your heart towards anyone because that carmone will come back and bite you in the ass. I want to see them do well. I'm actually pulling for Rashad more than anybody in that entire organization because I think Rashad is the one guy

that this whole thing was based around. And I can tell you that when I was there, involved with them, you know, I had given some suggestions on how to handle the whole John Jones, Rashad Evans thing. And I really believe that if they were to listen to me, that Rashad would be in a much different situation right now. and again, it's just solely in my opinion.

What did you say? What was your suggestion? When John won the belt, and I analyzed the situation, and they were just talking about, you know, Rashad doing superfights at 205, whatever that meant at the time, you know, I actually suggested to Glenn, you know, why don't you try to convince him to drop to 85 back then? You know what I mean?

He would be the world champ at 85. We would have stayed probably together, and, you know, you would have had an 85 champ and a 205 champ. I really honestly believe that Rashad Evans, up until this last loss to Little Knod, You know what I mean? Had to be in the top five pound-for-pound fight list anywhere that you guys had out there. And my reason being is he only lost to Machita in a title fight where he got knocked out and to John Jones up until that point.

Everything else, he's either won or one draw. And then he ended up, you know, getting that draw back when he fought Tito again. So the reality of it is that this is a guy who's got 20-some plus wins. You know what I mean? Been in the UFC for a while. Has, you know, won all his fight beat rampage when, you know, just so much things that this guy has accomplished was the world champ. You know what I mean? It knocks out Chuck Liddell.

He just done a lot of fantastic things. And I really believed that at that time, had he dropped to 85 and challenged Anderson for the belt, what you saw Chale do to Anderson, I think Rashall would have finished the job. That's just, you know, my personal opinion, it's something that I saw way before Chale Fottom. You know what I mean?

It's something that I said that they should do. And then, you know, of course, at that point, everything unraveled and, you know, it was all types of other stuff going on. And, you know, me and Rashad fell out. But to be honest with you, I do want to see them do well. I want to see Rashad do very well.

I think he's a great fighter, and, you know, I wish him nothing but the best. To all the fighters, to be honest with you, all of those guys down there. A lot of him, I've got relationships. I like Vitor a lot. You know, every time I see him, you know, we always shoot the shit and we have a good time. So I like him a lot. I mean, some of the guys I don't care for, you know, at the end of the day, if they win or lose, you know, it doesn't bother me.

But I want to see them all do well. I don't really care. It's just kind of in a way. It just serves him right because this is what he gets because, you know what I mean? It's just the blueprint of what he does. He went about Jocko, and then he decided to get rid of the guy who owned Jocko. You know what I mean? It's just, that's Glenn Robinson.

So I got no beef with the fighters, man, or any of those coaches, or anything that they do there. I don't have no beef with Glenn either. If they win, they win, if they don't, they don't. It's not, you know, to me, that's up to them and what they do. But, you know, you know, you were mentioning the sponsorships and you're saying, you know, I'm going to go to this guy and ask for this much for Benson and they'll come back and say, well, you know,

Frankie Edgar is asking for this much. Was that an example? I have to ask because, you know, we've known that you had issues. with Frankie's manager in the past. Was that a specific example or was that just a hypothetical? It was a specific example, but me and Ali are cool, but I don't got no beat for him either. It's not anything of his call. I'm talking about our good pal, Ali Abdelaziz, right?

Yeah, it's a specific example. I can go down the list, bro. I don't think there's been one situation where a fighter of mine, I've been able to go in and say, unless it's a Facebook or a guy that just got to the UFC type of deal. I don't think there's any guy that I've ever had in any situation where a sponsor has been knocking on my door down because the price I gave them has been the best possible. So it's not a knock on him.

It's just that the culture in this industry is like that. You know what I mean? Guys are not realizing that people, when they're on Fox or when they're in pay-per-view events, that if people wanted to advertise, let's, for example, on Fox, a 30-second ad would cost them XYZ. So just because you don't like my fighter,

it doesn't mean that you shouldn't do a sponsorship with them. Therefore, when you go to sell this stuff, you've got to sell it. You've got to look at the discount. You're giving people already. So if I say to somebody, hey, I want $25 grand for somebody head to toe. And they're hell with that. Someone's taking it for $7,000. It's real.

They're not making that up to try to bring me down. I just, I'll pass on the deal. And they'll be like, okay, cool, have a nice day. Love your fighter, but we just won't do business. Then they'll hate me. They'll, you know, I hate Malky. He's an asshole. He will never do deals with us.

But the reality of it is that I find myself having a pass way more often than taking deals because they just don't make sense. but when the whole industry is like that, then I understand why. I'm the one then who doesn't make sense. Follow me? And that's where the problem is. So it's not anything with any one particular manager.

I think it's just the group as a general has allowed, you know what I mean? Because this guy says, hey, well, I'll get this guy for two grand. Well, you know, we have to go back to our fighters and show them something. You know, the good thing is, and the lucky part right come in

is that every single fighter I beat with, I tell them, you have to be ready to walk out to that octagon with zero sponsors if you want me to manage you. And they all look at me like crazy at first. I'm like, because I will not do it. I remember Misha coming to me with a particular sponsor. She's like, hey, they want to trade me this and that deal. I said, no.

And she was like, are you serious? I'm like, yeah. She's like, well, I could just take it and maybe, you know, we could sell it and get one out with Misha, we're not doing that. And she was like, all right, cool. And she gets it. And she understands it. If you go out there with two or three sponsors, it's better than having six that are

going to pay the same thing anyway. But then now you've got six sponsors that you've got obligations to. You've got to, you know, talk about them. You know, it just doesn't make sense. So a lot of them, they understand it. They may not be sponsored up and down. I don't really like doing that anyway. But it's just one of those situations where, you know, I think little by little,

you know, I'm going to keep making moves where I'm going to change the way this thing gets done, at least for my fighters. So if somebody's going to want to sponsor my guys, it's going to be different. It's not going to just be, you know what I mean? Hey, we're going to do this cash for $500 or $1,000. I'm not doing it. You know, we were just talking to Dwayne Love. And by the way, I'm happy to hear that you and Ali are cool.

So that's nice, that's a nice story there. That's a nice ending to that story. Do you want to talk about what happened there in Denver? Do you not want to... What? The story is not over. The story is not over. What?

Just we're cool because he's the matchmaker of World Series of fighting. He reached out to me. You know, we've talked to us and not really touched the subject. You know, we still got to figure that subject out. It's not over yet. Did you really get into a fight with him at UFC 150? What happened here? Well, he sucker punched me.

Let's just be real. What happened was I had my hands in my pockets. He said something. I turned around. I said something and it was... I congratulated him on the fight. I said to him, listen, don't be upset with me over the fact that the judges, you know, called it this way.

I think Frankie's a fucking tremendous fighter. He's a great guy. You know what I mean? And you should be proud of me. He said, yeah, yeah, okay, cool. And as I was walking away, I'm like, well, there's no reason to be an asshole about it. And he goes, what do you say?

And as I turn around, I said, you know, there's no reason to be an asshole about it. And my hands were in my pockets. And he took a swing. And Dana's bodyguard grabbed me before I could do anything after that. And that was really the end of the story. I didn't get dropped and he knocked out.

There was none of that bullshit that everybody tried to blow it out of proportion. Nothing happened to me. You know what I mean? he caught me, he swung on me, he hit me dead in the face, I'll give it to him. It didn't do anything to me. And I just was like, and I got grabbed. And then at that point, you know, Dan, I came out and screamed that everyone to knock the shit off.

And you know what I'm just, all right, you know, it'll just leave it alone. That was it. What is your relationship like with Dana and Lorenzo these days? The same as always. I mean, it's professional. It's cool. Me and Dana are cooler than, you know, me and Lorenzo, for example. But, you know, nothing bad.

Me and Lorenzo are cool. Everybody's cool. I mean, we see each other where everybody talks. We're all good. but I've got a more of a working relationship with Dana more than anybody else. So I was mentioning earlier, Banks said on our show that he would like, you know, he was talking about unions and the guys getting more money. I don't know if you were on hold for all of that. But do you agree with that?

Do you think that the fighters should be taking care of better? Union, do you think they should band together? This has been talked about a lot in our sport yet nothing really happens. Are you in favor of something like this or do you think it wouldn't help the fighters? It depends on what fighters you're talking about. the fighters towards the top of the food chain, it's not going to help them. Why not?

The guys, because you've got to remember, reality is that most unions, when they come into place, remember, I did this in football. So in football, there's a union, so I understand how it worked. They charge a certain percentage of the guys that's contracts. So, for example, if a union was formed tomorrow, guys on my roster like Frank Meir, John Jones, Carlos Condit,

Ben Henderson, aren't really going to benefit from a lot of the stuff that these guys are going to try and go get, you know, to collectively bargain with, the UFC, guys, you know, the ones that will probably see more of a, see more of a improvement will probably be guys on the middle level of the card. The guys on the very lower end of those pay scale are usually there because, you know, at that pay level, because nobody knows who they are. So they're, and they're still getting paid higher than everywhere else that there is out there.

So it's not like you're going to get a guy coming from, you know, one FC and, oh, I used to make more money. So I'm just going to stay there. Very rare cases does that happen. you know what I mean but also you got to understand like you know some of these guys if you know a lot of people

I always heard about because I'm boxing and boxing when you really compare a boxing card to an MMA card outside of like the big big biggest names and there's a huge difference between our biggest names

and their biggest names you know what I mean we actually as as a collective as a whole entire industry are making more money than the average boxer I just had one the other day came to me he asked me to manage him he's 21 and one

he's getting ready to fight for his first HBO card in the next two months and stuff, and he's making 30 grand for the fight. I don't have a fighter on my roster that's got 21-and-one record that's making 30 grand for anything, not even an appearance, but that's

the most he's ever going to make in so far in his young careers at this point. His next fight after, if he wins, he'll be in the top five, you know, will probably be six figures. But, you know, from my experiences with the UFC and from what Dana and Lorenzo do, is that every one of the guys, again,

I'm speaking from my roster, when they're on the upper level or they're fighting, you know, these big fights are getting paid very, very well. What you guys see reported is not what's going on. You know what I mean? And so it's kind of a tricky question because, you know, it depends on who you're really trying to help with getting a union. At the end of the day, again, let me go back to it.

The reason why that talk of union and all stuff is going on is because these managers are not doing their jobs when it comes to, you know, working with the UFC as well. They call, hey, I want to need this guy to take a fight. I need them to take a fight, you know, right now, and it's going to be for 10 and 10. Okay, cool, sure, no problem. They call their fighter, and it's like,

fuck, I'm only getting 10 and 10. You know what I mean? So what's going to happen is, and what I'm trying to explain to you is that when a union, what you do is you end up getting a guy to go in there and negotiate with Dana Lorenzo on behalf of everything, and they're going to set certain standards. So what are you really going to get out of it at the end of the day? You understand what I'm coming from?

I mean, there's only so much room that you can really work towards. So the guys that are negotiating the best deals are the ones that are getting the best deals for their clients. And that's why you'll see sometimes where you'll see a guy making $75,000, another guy making $15, and they're on the same level as far as being in the UFC or being in a big fight and all that type of stuff. And you can just tell that's an issue where sometimes the managers didn't do, you know, his job. Or it could be where they've got some other, you know, type of deal going on.

So you never really know. You know what I mean? So that's the reason why. And again, so there's pros and cons to it. I just think that at the end of the day, you know, when everybody screams and yells, oh, we should have this and we should have that. The reality of it is is that it's not going to change the way managers operate. It's not going to change the way the UFC operates. It might give us some standards to go by.

but the bad managers will still make bad deals and the good ones will still make good deals. So at the end of the day, you know what I mean? It is what it is. I'm lucky because I have a good and broad base of guys. So I kind of in my own way have my own little union. You follow what I'm saying? I know what each of my guys is making.

I know what they made before. I know why they were in a deal that they were in. I understand, you know, all these type of stuff. And that's why you always find me asking questions about other guys. Not because I always want to get them. I just want to know what they have because the information is really where the power comes in. So if you've got, you know, you can make cases with the UFC

where you say, hey, this guy's getting this and my guy's getting that, and here's the reasons why, and here's all the data to support it, you'll end up getting what you need to get. Are you going into boxing? I don't know. To be honest with you, I don't know. I don't know why, but in the last two weeks, I've been approached by two top ten guys who've asked me to manage it.

What's your names? One kid's name is Joey Hernandez. He fights here out of Miami. He's a 154 pound. I don't even know how the weights in boxing work. This is the issue with me in boxing. I'm trying to educate myself on it. So he's asked me to come in and manage his career.

He signed the Donking promotions. You know what I mean? And he's fighting for his first fight on HBO in the next two months. And then there's a kid named Juniore D'Ortecos, who's a cruiser way, which is a light heavyweight, I guess, for boxing. And he's 14-0, 14 knockouts. He's one of the four Cubans that came from Cuba. I think he's an Olympian, if I'm not mistaken.

And the kid, you know, has been fighting on Showtime and all this other stuff. And they say he's ready to go to the next level. And he came to me and asked me to see if I can sit there and manage him. But the reality of it is that I don't know the boxing game the way I should. And for me to really get into boxing, I'd have to still do more research and study it a little bit more before I just took somebody on. I don't want to hurt the kid by just saying, hey, I signed this kid. You know what I mean? It's got to be something that makes sense.

What's your take on all this talk that John Jones isn't promoting UFC 159? And I don't know if you heard the conference call earlier. But it was a little bizarre. It was like Cheo was giving him props. and there wasn't the heat that maybe some were expecting because chale was involved. I mean, how do you feel John has done in the buildup to this fight? Well, I think John has done phenomenal. I think the thing is that people don't understand is that what John doesn't want to do is make this more of a circus,

you know, make it more of chale circus. Because at the end of the day, all that is chale talking, talking, talking, all this, you know, I mean, things that just don't make sense. And John's not going to go buying into it, you know what I mean, to consider that promoting. John's done promoting it that way. He's going to promote it with the fact that he's already said. And you guys can go back and Dana said this and a lot of people, he said it to me. All right?

He's never gone into a cage wanting to hurt somebody the way he wants to hurt him. Why does he dislike him so much? You've talked to him personally. Why is there a beef there? I don't think that he dislikes him like that. I just think that it's one of those things where I think John's very motivated. This is an opportunity for him to tie the record, Tito, his record. It's one more fight before him

breaking the record. I think he's just, you know, Chale just says things and you know, he's got to deal with it every day. And John's the type of guy that if you say things or you do things to where he's got to start dealing with it, you know, from the media and fans and all that type of stuff, it just amps him up and motivates him. So he's, in his own way,

he's promoted this fight because he's letting people know, listen, that good guy stuff and and more friendly stuff that you saw in the show, it's not the case right now. The fact that, you know, I'm not going to talk is because I'm going to hurt this guy when we get in the cage. He said it many times. I'm going to finish this fight in a devastating

fashion. And, you know, this is not promotion by Josh. It's not hype in other words, but that's the way he's telling, he's promoting it. He's telling you guys, I am going to finish this fight in a devastating fashion. I mean, that's all you've got to listen to. He's serious. He's dead serious about this fight. He's worked hard as ever.

I mean... What is going on there? Come on. Are people calling you about the fight? Now, I know you're busy. Just a few more minutes left. By the way, so he says, okay, he wants to tie the record that would be Saturday, break the record in November, then he wants to talk about super fights and heavyweight fights.

What is he talking about there? Well, what's the scoop? What he just said? He wants to tie the record now. He wants to break the record sometime this year. And then he's done as a light heavyweight? He wants to drop the belt and go up? He didn't say that?

I'm not saying that. I don't know if that's what he wants to do. That's not what, you know. So November, does he mean, is he shoot? Like, what would be November? MSG, is that what he's talking about? Because they've talked about Anderson versus John Jones 20th anniversary show.

That wouldn't be for the belt, I would presume. Don't give me that smile. Come on. I'm just saying, I'm not giving me a smile. I'm just laughing at you because you guys are like, oh, he said what he said. He said he wants to break this belt now. He wants to tie it, you know, break the record by November,

and then he's going to entertain super fights. So what's the super fight you guys want him to see it? You want to fight Kane? You want to fight Anderson. You guys want to fight George St. Pierre. Ben Henderson, I mean, make up a super fight. I start saying that. I mean, he has to take everything wrong with it.

Does the UFC, is the UFC on board? I think here's the thing. thing with John. John wants to break this record first. This is the goal he set. Once he breaks that record, then after that, he's going to entertain everything else. Does that mean he's going to go to heavyweight? I don't know that. You know, you got to realize, let me try to break it down. George St. Pierre hasn't gone to 185 exactly because he said it many times. I have to put the weight on. I've got to develop that strength and I've got to go up there in a weight so he doesn't lose. I'm not going to say John, all right, buddy, we broke the record in November. Great. So

how about February? We just go ahead and fight, you know what I mean, Alistair Over him? Why don't we just go fight him. It's not, you know, it's not the way it works. John's got to obviously continue to add muscle. He's got to put on some more weight.

You know what I mean? And he's got to get to a point where he's comfortable being at 235, 240, you know, solid lean muscle before he makes a move to heavyweight. You know what I mean? But I think that, you know, John would be open to taking fights here and there

and doing different things. And whether that means he fights, you know, anybody, any other other champions or somebody at heavyweight or whatever, is something that we'll just have to take, you know, as a case by case basis and when the time comes.

Right now, that's one thing people don't really get about him is that he's very goal-oriented. So when you see his Twitter and he says stuff that sounds kind of like off the wall or crazy or whatever, it really is a goal. It's his vision board. It's the way he mentally prepares for everything that he has around him. Benson Henderson, did he deserve to win on Saturday?

Absolutely. Without a doubt. Are you surprised that the UFC is doing Maynard Grant winner against Benson next? Were you expecting that? No, I wasn't expecting it, but it doesn't surprise me. the UFC will do whatever they think is best. You know, listen, you never know. You never know.

You know what I mean? You never know. Gil might start, you know, getting some support behind them to get a rematch. I don't know. You know what? Who knows? Ben might wake up tomorrow and tell me, hey, you know, these fans are driving me crazy or he can say, you know, you know, I'm thinking about it. Let's just give the guy rematch. And then you never know how it goes. So I don't know. I look. I think he won that, you know, Dana had that fight, you know, scored for him. Most people that I've spoken to, um, that are not biased one way or another said that, you know, Ben won. And I got a lot of guys who told me that, that,

that, uh, the Gilbert won. You know, a lot of respect for Gilbert. I think out of everybody, you know, in that team, he's the most professional. He's the coolest one. He came over. He's like, hey, man, you know, good job. Congratulations to him. And I think, you know, what he said in the post-fight press conference was very classy of him.

You know, he said, look, man, it is what it is. He's a stud. And, you know, I just got to go back and watch the fight. And, you know, I have had a chance to go back and watch it. And, you know, I think one of the biggest issues here is that, you know, when I score these fights and when I look at it, you know, I look at, did he beat the champ to become the champ? you know what I mean? And I can't say yes to that.

Was it very close? I think there was rounds where you could have said it could have went either way. But I definitely think two, three, and four went to Ben. And I think you could toss up

the other two, either which way. What's next for Carlos Condit? A couple of different things. I don't know yet. You know, he wants to work on his wrestling right now and, you know, get better at that.

So that's what he's doing right now. So as soon as, you know, he feels like he's ready. You know, the UFC's got some ideas. You know, they've tossed around some stuff. And, you know, I'm hoping to get him some big, fights is really what it is. I want to get him in some of the biggest fights that are out there.

So who knows? Maybe we... What have they tossed around? Certain fights that, you know, I don't want to really say anything right now, but I can tell you the one that I'd like to see again is him and Nick Diaz one more time. I'd like to see that one go through. I just think that, you know, that might be enough to get Nick to come out in retirement, who knows. But I'd like to see them fight one time. I think, you know, Carlos, you know, might want to take that fight. I don't know. This is me saying, you know, I'd like to see him fight that fight. But there's always

that Martin Kempin fight, you know, where he lost it the one time. So you can get that W back. There's a couple of fights out there I think that he still has. There's a lot of 170 starting to get interesting again, so we'll see. What about Misha Tate? Misha Tate. Well, you know what? We're going to work to get her back in the ring real soon, in the cage real soon. In the cage, I keep saying ring.

I'm working with Sean Shelby. They've been busy since her fight. He's at the fight last week and then they got the fight this week. So I'll see them this week and we'll talk about it. But, you know, she's I think she's suspended a little bit for her nose once that gets taken care of. You know, we'll see what's going on. But I think that, you know what I mean?

I thought she did very well that fight just so everybody knows. Kazan Gano is a good fighter, she's really good. But Misha, I thought, did really, really well. It was sad to see that, you know what I mean? She was up on their cards, 2-0, going into that third round, and she had that fight. So we'll see.

Okay, I don't know what's next year. Last one, Frank Meir. Obviously, he fought on Saturday. Where do you think he goes from here? Well, here's the thing. Speaking to Greg and speaking to Frank, Greg said to me, you know, he asked me, he's like, how many fights do you think Frank had left

or years do you think Frank had left? left. And when I looked at him, I thought, you know, what is he probably got a year left, maybe? Really? Two, three fights left. Okay. That's what I thought. Personally, you know what I mean? That's what I said. And Greg said to me that Frank actually improved tremendously from the moment he got there to the moment that, you know, he left there. And he was, you know,

there for the entire camp up until the week of the fight. So he said he's improved enough. He said, for him to get the actual maximum, you know, and best Frank Meir, he probably needs another, you know, by the second or third fight of him training with Jackson's, he'll have the best. that's Frank Mir. So, in my opinion, you know what I mean?

And then he tells me, and he says, you're wrong. Frank will probably fight for another two or three years, you know, training with me because they've completely changed the way he trains. They've taught him some stuff. You know, the thing that sucks is that Frank didn't really get to show it, and he didn't have a good night against Cormier. But I really believe that what we're going to see from Frank in the next two or three fights is going to be a completely different Frank Mirr.

I'm more confident Frank Meir. You saw how, in what great shape he was in. so I think he's going to be, you know, in good shape all the time now. I think he's going to be a better fighter. I think he's going to be better all around. And I think that, you know, we're going to look to get him. I want to get him back in the cage. Asap, he took no damage in the fight.

So I'd like to see if, you know, Joe can flip something around for him to fight somebody. Fast, get him a win and then, you know, get him right back in there to fight somebody in the top 10 again and see if we can push for this title one last time, especially when, you know, Greg feels like he's peeking. Does Malkie Kowah poach talent from other managers? Why are you asking me that? I'm at Does Ariel Homani pay for his stories?

No, so I just want to know You asked me, I said no Do you? Okay Well, because you know, people have said that Well, listen, but define poaching to me Let me understand it If someone's signed to another manager, right?

You come up and say, hey, I'll give you this, that and that Come with me. That's poaching. Well, number one, number one, I don't give anybody anything. Well, whatever. I mean, you give them the pitch. pitch. Do I give them the pitch? Yeah.

Yeah, I probably do. I probably give a lot of guys the pitch. Listen, let me be honest with you. A lot of the fighters out, most of the time, I'm going to tell you, 98% of the time, fighters approach me about representing them while they're under contract or not. That's 98% of the time. So literally, nine out of ten guys will come up to me. They'll always be that one guy that I'll run into, be in an elevator with or whatever, and then I'll ask, you know, you managed by somebody in the Nassim, are you happy?

And depending on that answer, if they say that they're happy, I leave it alone. I'm not really going to start pitching somebody. So you don't go like, oh, this guy, Fighter X is a huge star. I think he's going to be a big star. I don't care who he's managed by. I'm going to sit down with him. I'm going to go take him out for dinner, whatever,

and I'm going to get him on my team. You don't zero in on guys. No, it doesn't work like that. I don't do that with just any fighter and represent by just any guy. There's a lot of management in this business. I do respect. And I'm not going to sit there and mess with their guys. You know what I mean?

I would never touch their guys. But there's certain guys that you know that are just, you know, I feel like I'm doing some guys a fucking favorite, because their manager sucks a damn bad. So that's the reality of it. That's the truth.

I'm not trying to poach anybody from anybody that's good. You don't see me going after fucking, you know, Ed Swarres' guys. You know what I mean? I'm not trying to poach

Anderson Silver or this guy and that guy. But now I'll tell you, I respect Ed Swartz to death. I think he's a good dude. Me and him are cool. But if Anderson Silva pick up the phone and said,

hey, you know, I'm thinking about, you know, changing management, I'm not going to be like, oh, shit, I can't talk to you because you got a contract or some shit, that's just not the way I would do it.

At the end of the day, you know, my business is to represent fighters, and that's what I do. And listen, Arrow, it's no secret. My fighters, my fighters, all right, are under a contract where they can cancel it any time they want. So if you think that these managers

are not doing it to my guys, especially with the guys I represent, then you guys are to your mind. The only difference is that, you know what I mean, I'm the one that everybody sees and I hear me and all this stuff. So it's all he's an asshole,

he's a jerk, but if you think that guys are not approaching my guys being offered money, all types of perks and stuff that I don't do. So I never signed, not John Jones, not a Ben Henderson. There's not one guy that I've ever gone and said, hey, I'm going to give you X, Y, Z amount of money to come sign with me.

But my guys constantly get offered that. A bunch of them do. And that's where, you know, that's why when I tell people I'm the best at what I do, it's because I'm not giving guys $50,000 to sign with me or $10,000. I'm not giving you a jaco deal the day you sign with me, you know what I mean, for $3,000 a month just because I'm your manager. I'm not doing that. You know what I mean?

I'm actually going out on working to get these guys deals, and if they're not happy with me, they can leave whenever they want. So what you guys, you know, when people sit there and see me with a guy for two, three, four years, it's because I've done the job. I've done the work. You know what I mean? There's no secret behind it. There's no, you know, 10-year contract.

I don't have anybody in a binding, you know, 50-year agreement. There's none of that type of stuff going on. So if I'm in an elevator with a guy and then he's sitting there and I know who he is and he's a good fighter, and I'll ask him. I mean, I've done it 100 times, and they've done it to me 100 times. So any manager sits there and tells you, oh, he's a scumbag and this and the other, fuck them. They're the same shit. At the end of the day, they do the same exact bullshit.

And it's been done to me 100 times. The difference is, is that when I actually go after these guys, I get them. So that's the thing. I don't really go poaching, you know, these fighters. Because if I did, I'd sign 20 more guys all day. I don't want to represent every guy. I don't have enough hours in the day to do it. It's a lot of work and it's a lot of time and it's not effective to have, you know, 50, 60 guys.

So the only good thing is that my brother's on board with me. and me and my brother are almost identical. He's just a little calmer, you know, younger version of me. So, you know, he's probably going to, you know, go grab 10 or 15 guys in the next couple weeks. I already told you, there's about 10 guys coming on board with us. And when you find out the things, you guys are going to be, you know, very, very shocked. But like I said, it's, you know, I feel like I'm the best of what I do because of the way I do it. I've got, you know, my contracts are set up the way they've set up.

My money is put where my mouth is. I got to go out and perform every day. Any one of my guys can leave me any day with no type of, you know, lawsuit, no problem, no anything. It just is what it is. It's the way we've set it up since day one. Lord have mercy on our souls, there's another Kawa in the world of mixed martial arts. That should be very... Hey, this is.

And he's better than me. Oh, wow. He's better than me. He's the only guy I'll tell you, but I got to get him there. So once he gets there and he's better than me, then you guys will have him on the show more than me. So you'll see. Always appreciate the insight. Good luck this weekend.

John Jones versus Chal Sun, and thank you very much, Malki. Thank you for having me on her. I appreciate it. There is. Malki Kawa, first round management. As I mentioned, managed the likes of Misha Tate. Frank Meir, Benton Henderson, of course, the UFC light heavyweight champion, Johnny Bones-Jones. All right, we got three things to get to before we say goodbye for this week.

We're going to look at your pictures. I've been really looking forward to these. I saw a couple of them, the big country poses, and we've got a great prize for that. We're going to take some questions. But first, let us go to the phone lines. And on line number one, I believe from the peg, from Winnipeg, is our boy Mike Tyson, right? Are you there, Mike? I'm here.

How's it going? Good, you? I always mispronounce your name. It's not Tyson. I say that as a joke now. It's Thyson? It's actually Tyson. Tessen.

I'm going with the Tyson. Like Tiffany Amber, right? Yes, exactly. What's on your mind? I'm calling because I want to make sure that you're not going to do something crazy and get rid of Rick's pick. Oh, God. You know, I figured there had to be something weird about why he, was so adamant. He kept writing to me on Gmail. Don't forget, we have another caller,

we have a caller. It seemed fishy. Why do you want it? What do you get out of it? Well, for me, it's my favorite segment in the show. Favorite segment in the show? I was a fan before, before Rich Pick, but it got better after. Okay. But, yeah, and I like your idea that you had with him losing the challenge. Oh. We're going up against someone else, and I wanted to do it.

Wait, wait, wait. Now, it sounds like, it sounds to me like you are, you want to take his spot. You don't really like him. I want to go up, I want to challenge him. I want to go up against him. You want to go up against him? Yeah. New York, Rick, are you there?

I'm here. What does this mean to you? This man wants to go up against you. What does that mean to you? I don't take it as an affront. I think that, you know, there's plenty of people that want the crown. Well, which crown? Who's wearing this crown right now? Me, currently.

Well, for what? For losing? Are you one of those guys who's in favor of like every kid gets a medal, four, fifth, sixth place? There's no crown right now. The crown is not being worn by anyone. Now, if you're saying you guys want to fight for the crown to regain the crown perhaps New York, Greg, I'll be, you know, I'll be interested in that and I'll take it under advisement. But how should we do this? So, Mike, you're saying basically that you can predict, you can bet on fights, you can make more money than Mr. Rick, right? That's what I'm saying. And, of course, New York, Rick, you don't agree with him, right?

Of course. But it's funny, because at first it seemed like he respected you. Now he's almost disrespecting you. I don't take it as disrespect. He's a good guy. We always talk on Twitter. Okay. But now we're rivals.

I'm throwing down the gauntlet. You can't just come in. and challenge me. What was that, Mike? And Rick unfollowed me on Twitter, so now I'm for sure told me. Whoa. You unfollowed him on Twitter? True story, true story.

Why? I unfollow a lot of people on Twitter. Why? Who are you to unfollow? Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what is this turning into? Wait a minute. Why? Why would you unfollow someone?

You thought he was good enough to follow, and then you unfollow. There had to be a reason. Happens all the time. Just somebody's tweeting too much. Okay, so what was the problem? here. Let's talk about it. I don't remember. Oh, come on. You do remember. I don't. Mike, what do you think it was?

I don't know. When did you notice that he unfollowed you? Oh, God. I only noticed yesterday. I was going to DM him to ask him when the best time to call in would be and I wasn't able to do it. See, now we're building a fight here. Now we've got something. Now we've got a competition.

New York, Rick, extended the olive branch, if you will. He followed you and then he took that away. took that on her away, and I think that's incredibly disrespectful, and now you want to take... So what you're saying is, you want to bump them from the show. You want this to be Mike's picks?

Sure. I'll go with that. Now, what kind of credentials do you have? Like, have you done this before? Can we see how you've done... I bet on the fight every card. I bet on the fight's actual money. Well, who know? I mean, where is the record of this? How do we know that you're not just one of those people

who says, oh yeah, I made a hundred bucks? Well, I don't... don't need receipts or anything. I can confirm that he bets on the fights. He interacts with me every fight card. Okay. So you believe it, even though you unfollowed him. I still see the tweets.

He tweets at me. Oh, okay. Oh, so you're kind of like rubbing in in his face every time you went. So do you think if I would have given you the $400 challenge you would have won? I did agree with Rick that the $400 was a little steep, but I think I could have done it. Yeah. You almost blew that opportunity right then and there. You should have just said yes.

One word there, yes. I would have won. I probably would have ended up with $800 just for fun. There's a good chance that I would have. I didn't like a lot of his picks in the beginning. Yeah, it was weird. I agree. And I don't know anything about this stuff.

Yeah, that's pretty clear at this point. This is interesting. I think I need... Okay, so this is the situation. I appreciate you stepping up. I appreciate you issuing the challenge. it's a good time to do this because, of course, we have UFC 159 coming up. But then we've got a bit of a break, right?

We've got the next one, the next big UFC would be May 18th, right? That would be UFC on FX8. And then a week later is UFC 160. I may do a mini tournament, if you will, for those two events, see who come out with the most. But I have to think about it. I have to talk to my people. I have to stew on it. What do you think?

Sounds good to me. So you feel like, what day is it today? April 22nd? I mean, you basically get a month to train for this, and this could be your big moment. Absolutely. All right. I will confirm next week if this will happen, but I'm thinking about it. How do you feel? Two-week tournament, UFC on FX8, UFC, 160, may the best man win.

I'm up for it. Sounds great to me. New York, Rick? In. All right. We'll see. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate it. that's no problem, thank

we'll keep you posted sounds good we know where to find you so there it is uh the as as as we lay ricks picks challenge to rest perhaps it can rise

again from the ashes in May I'm not sure you want to do this are you ready or do you need a break I mean it's kind of like we have to take thing do you need a break

do you need a mental break or do we have to figure out a way to do it oh this is going to be very easy What do you mean? Two-week tournament. Well, here's the thing. I feel like more people can get involved. It could be more than just a one-on-one thing.

Like almost every... Because there's a lot of people who were challenging me and saying. But let's be honest. Only one man called up and issued the challenge. That's true. You know what? At the right time. That's a good point.

When you were at your most vulnerable state. That's a good point. You know, there's a lot of people talking out there, but this man called up. You're right. You know what? One-on-one. With a great one. Did you unfollow Sean Sheehan?

He's telling me right now on Twitter. probably what happened to you all of a sudden 4,000 Twitter followers and you start unfollowing people what happened I unfollow a lot of people wow wait a second hey Archer a New York Rick unfollowed tournament he's proposing all of us followed but then unfollowed wait a second there's a major controversy that has just come to light here what is what is going on you're unfollowing people left and right I thought you were a man of the people And these are the people that are campaigning to have you remain on the show making picks. It seems like you've forgotten where you came from.

You used to be one of these people, by the way. You used to just be a fan of the show. Now you were on the show and you're unfollowing people. It's very disrespectful. Who am I supposed to follow? Everybody? Why did you follow them in the first place? Now, if you tell me, you could say, okay, I had to get in touch with them because they won prizes, DM,

and then, you know, I just did it for my job, and then I kind of clear up the situation I unfollowed. But you didn't say that. That would have been acceptable, by the way. Well, then you, I guess you nailed it right there, didn't you? But you didn't say that. You can't go with my theory. It's not a theory. That's what happened.

Why didn't you say that? I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings saying, like, oh, I followed you, and then I unfollowed you. But that actually makes sense. Yes, okay. Someone's saying Rick followed people so that they would follow him. Then after he got their follow, he unfollowed. No, it was the first one.

I followed people to get their interests. info to DM them, winning prizes, and then I unfollowed after that. Is this lost followers gate unfolding right now on the MMA hour? It's horrifying, Edwards Kim saying, you know what? I agree. So everybody, I want you to tweet at Ariel Hawani after the show to make sure you get your follow from him in. No, but he's going to be following people.

I'm not promising follows. Oh, I don't remember doing that either. Well, but you did follow. as I said to get the info to DM. Did you follow people to boost your followers? Is that how you've... No, they were following me first, but... Wow.

All right. I think we're turning this into a caper when... What's a caper? A caper? Yeah, I don't know what that means. They don't have that in Canada? No. Like a mystery that needs to be sleuth.

I thought it was like the little things that you have with the launch. It also is that. It's a homonym, but... This is... I have to say this is as big of a Twitter controversy as when GSP announced that he is not the one tweeting. Whoa, what's the controversy? You all of a sudden, out of nowhere, all of a sudden, wait a second, breaking news for my man, Kyle Haas. Kyle Haas, you know, he makes those great paintings.

He made the one picture, the one of me and Josh Barnett. He just wrote to me on email. I was considering following him, but not anymore. That's it. He didn't even say what this was in reference to. I'm heartbroken, but Will the people turn on you Like they did with GSP?

Change his name to Hollywood Rick Wow Going to sleep Wow Sean Sheehan correctly pointing out That I didn't unfollow him Of course I would never turn my back on people

If I follow you, it's for life All right Let us move along now As I try to digest all of this About time It hasn't been a banner day for the crew back there. Well, you only.

I mean, Rick picks. As I said, get those tweets into Ariel Hawani. Well, if I say I'm going to follow you, I'll follow you. Okay. Big Country poses. We have a caller. Oh, we do? I know you're all about, you know, talking to the people, so.

Okay, okay, okay. What do we got? We've got, I see you right here. Andrew in Marnsburg, West Virginia. Andrew? Hey, this is he. Hey, bud, how are you? What's on your mind? I'm pretty well, Ariel. How are you?

I'm doing great. Hey, I don't want to start any more controversy, but I take that challenge with New York, Rick. You wanted it to? I'd take it. Wait a second. Are you proposing a three-way dance right now? Oh, man, three-way main event? I'm TLC all the way, man. TLC, all the way, man. TLC, table, ladders, chairs. Wait, did you call in for this, or are you just trying to capitalize on the moment? Well, to be honest, I'm actually breaking my own rule here.

I called you guys on episode 100, and I'll say to myself, you know what? I'm going to wait until 200, and then they contacted here I am. Wow. You must have really wanted to say something. USC 159 this weekend. I went to 120, was it, 128 when they were back there a couple years ago? A great show, good times. Yeah.

I actually got to meet Matt Farah and Stephanie. in Bono before the fight, so it worked out pretty well. But I had a question about the future of one Shale Sun after his fight on Saturday. I don't see him getting another title shot. He's getting up there in age. He's just in an interview recently where he said he wants to fight until he's 40, but come on, how much do you believe that? The guy's already got a spot on TV. I mean, he's already got a cush job after fighting.

Do you see him fighting after this? I think it depends on how the fight goes. I, too, agree that he has obviously a job waiting for him at Fox, and they love him. I mean, witness the fact that he was there on Saturday. I was shocked that he was there a week before his fight. I had no idea that he was going to be there. And I'm curious to see how he looks in this fight.

There's a lot right. And, you know, there have been a few things like him praising John on the conference call earlier. Last week at the tough finale where he said something very interesting that I don't think I've ever heard Chale say this. He said, and I'm kind of paraphrasing here. I might go down, but I'm going to go down like a gangster. I might go down. And if you notice in the conference call, if you heard it, the way he talked about Anderson,

you know, it sounds like, you know, I want to see him fight Anderson tomorrow. But then when he talks about John, it's a different chale. I want to see what happens. I think there are some interesting fights for him at 2 of 5. You know, he was supposed to fight Forrest Griffin, you know, like a machita, those kind of guys.

I'm interested in seeing those fights. But I wonder, if he loses this fight, he probably won't get a title shot for a while. What's left for him? I wonder. I wonder if maybe he's hype the Jones side of it because Jones won't do it himself. I mean, the guy's a master in PR, so it seems to me that he's doing what John Jones won't do.

And I know you said you thought it was his best interview ever, but when you look that nonchalant on screen, I mean, Chale did everything you did too high to fight. You know what? I really did think it was good because there was people viewed the animosity as somewhat manufactured prior to that, or just non-existent. and in that interview, it felt to me like John wasn't acting. He wasn't faking it. He really didn't like the guy.

He didn't want to be there. It didn't look like animosity, though. It didn't look like animosity. You took it as indifference. I took it as, I want to beat this guy up, and I don't want to be standing. I don't want to be doing this, but they're making me do it. And I will sit here and I won't engage with him. I'll let my fighting do the talking, and that's okay with me.

There's a difference between, in my opinion, someone just kind of being, in that moment, in that, you know, 90-second interview on TV, You know, you get guys like that all the time in these interviews. That's not the same kind of stage, as much as I want to think it is. Yeah. But that's life. I felt like that was him saying, I'm not listening to you anymore. I'm not playing along anymore.

We've got two weeks to go at the time. I'll do my talking April 27. That's the way I took it, and I liked it. Okay. So I guess we expect the same thing then at the stair down, which is a no stair down. Well, you know, actually, Chale had a good response to that one on the post-fight show on Saturday. and he said, yeah, it's probably, you know, good reason not to look at me, but that's the way he is. You know, he's always done that.

He's done that maybe, he hasn't done that maybe once or twice, but for the most part, John does that. At this point, I just want to see the fight happen. I mean, they announced the fight like in September or something or August. It's been so long. I just want to see it happen at this point, and then let's move on. It feels like we've been sitting on this fight and talking about it for so long. I think, one more question real quick. Do you think that they need to give a week between pay-per-views?

This Fox card was just halacious, and it seems like a rather quick turnaround for something that's supposed to be hype like a pay-per-view. If you think about it, you only have to pay for five fights every couple months. Is it worth people to pay for these five fights when they didn't have to the last three weeks? You know, I think that's a very good question. And also, let's not forget about having to be home for four weeks. You know, like you're sitting at home on a Saturday. In the last three weeks, they were for free. I think the schedule goes like that.

You know, the next one after this is May 18th, right? And then the next one after that is the next week. It's just kind of the way the schedule goes. And sometimes you could say, well, it's good to have a big Fox show before a big pay-per-view because you're going to be in front of three, four million people and you can hype the fight. So hopefully next week they want to pay for it. You'll notice that. They always have a box show, a big Fox show before a big pay-per-view.

I guess the last question would be, what are you doing on Saturday? And it's any way I can need your autograph on the show. Absolutely. will be there. I'm a man of the people. You find me. I will be at the arena. I'll be at the Wayans. I'm very hard to miss. Do you do the outside expo before the event? Not really, because I have to be there pretty early doing all the, you know, pre-production fuel stuff and all that. But I will be at MSG. Oh, and this is a good time to mention this. I will be at MSG for the workouts on Thursday, but that's close to the public. But I do want to mention there's going to be

something called the Metro PCS Herald Square Takeover on Wednesday from 11 to 7 p.m. in Harold Square in New York City. Chris Wyman will be there. Uri Fabor will be there. Ronda Rousey will be there. Dana White will be there. Anthony Pettis will be there. Kenny Floreen will be there and I will be there doing some Q&A hosting things like that. So I will definitely be there on Wednesday from 11 to 7. All right, man. Thank you for the call. Thank you. All right. There he is. Andrew in West Virginia, appreciate it very much.

Okay, let's go to the questions. No, no questions. Let's go to the pictures first. Do we have the pictures? Yeah. Were these the best ever? Debatable. Wow.

Not the best ever. Also, there weren't a lot of submissions. Yeah, I figured that, but I thought they'd be good. They're good. By no means, am I saying they're not good, but it's just... Okay. First... What's at stake?

Oh, that's a good point. Let me bring it out. If you weren't watching last week, we've got this Benson Henderson in the likeness of cable from the X-Men by our good friend Scott Cohn. You can check out more of his stuff. As you can see, he does incredible stuff.

You can check out him on Twitter. Twitter.com slash Scott underscore Cohn C-O-H-N-D-S-O-H-Rt. Scott cone.com. blogspot.com and Facebook.com slash scott.com.com. Very nice. Amazing. And we have a couple of those left, but that is highly regarded on our part,

and we appreciate Scott for hooking us up with that. So that's what's at stake here. Here we go. Derek Blade won, Big Country Pose. These are great. Pulling out the gut. Very nice. This one's our first one. What is going on in the background there?

He put some country, I believe, is what he did. Oh, I like that. That's very thoughtful. Into the setting. Okay. This is awesome. Wow. You see, okay, well, you see, right now, as far as these two are concerned, the first one wins, because you got to go with the hands on the belly, right?

The rub. The rub. The rub. The rub. That is Roy Nelson-esque. So far, yeah. But Jared Harrison, well done. Wow.

This is incredible. Imagine someone is just, like, walking by the studio right now and they see this. This one's actually a two-parter. I believe this is taken in a Burger King bathroom because... Oh my God. Wow. What did that say? BK.

Sponsor Roy. Holy moly. Yeah. Just for fun. Rusty poor. These guys deserve to have their names mentioned. Poor Boy 101. Man, those fries do look good right now, don't they?

Yeah. I know you love that. I could go for that. Oh, my gosh. You went back to him. Yeah, just because I want to show the actual pose, even though he did put the Burger King thing. Very impressive.

Okay. I think this is a Burger King bathroom. So major points for going to Burger King, taking the picture and doing the fry art. Oh, my God. Is that real? Oh, this is real. Wow.

He says it's his time to shine. Holy moly. Okay, if you're listening to this only, this man has very long hair. The hair, the hair, seems to blend into the beard. Can we go full screen on these? This is full screen? No, like, full screen on the... Yeah, let me just... There's a task bar in there. Let me jump out for a second.

That's all right. You don't have to. Just so in case people are missing the beauty of it. There we are. So you can get the... Like, you don't need to see me here. This is all about these guys. They deserve it. Wow. Can we take the photo to one? Yep. What's that? No. It's up. It's on the... That's... Full screen. That's impressive. Okay.

He's got a great beard going. That works in his advantage. The hair and the beard kind of flow into each other. It's fantastic. It is truly his time to shine. The Wendigo is his name. Wendigo? Yeah.

All right. See, this guy, you know, I give him props. I give you props over Riem, Patty. Well, here's where he loses points. Where's the face? The face. 100%. These guys are putting their face out there.

You got to put your face. out there. This one's very good. That is a classic Big Country... Dan Devi. Look at that. Look at those chops.

So far, this and Wendigo are my two... Yeah. I gotta say Burger King guy is pretty good. Oh, that I forgot about. How could I forget?

Does Dan lose points because... It's not the belly rub? I don't think so just because of how well he's doing this. No, no, no. But does he lose points because he doesn't have the belly?

Oh, I see. Not big enough. Right. No. Okay. It's the effort that counts. All right. Wow. Now, he drew in a goatee with marker on his face.

What's going on under his head? I don't know. I don't know what that is. Did he draw something in there? I don't know. He's wearing like mittens that he cut, or not mittens, like, like, like, like, winter gloves, yeah. Fingerless gloves.

But they're not like MMA gloves. No. Yeah. Oh my God. Very impressive. This is amazing. This is the best one. How is this not the best one?

Rob Hill. Congratulations. Oh, this is your frontrunner so far? No, no. How is this pose, not the best one? You're not feeling it? Yeah. I think it's incredible.

Oh, my gosh. Now, you can tell that this guy's pushing the belly out, which I'd give extra points. Yeah. Because he didn't have it, but he's going for it. what I mean. He's really trying. Brian Pian. Pan. It's great. I don't know what else to say. Pushing it out. Wow.

Holy moly. Also, another Burger King. Okay, hey, hey, what jumps out you? The nipple ring, obviously. It just like smack me right in the face. You wish. Rhino Ridge. Only one, two. He only has one. I think we're focusing on the wrong thing here. He's doing a good pose.

He's doing a great. Where's the face? Where's the face? I agree. Loses. No phase? No, that's as high as it goes. Just. Only a half face. Rhino Ridge, I'm disappointed. That's, uh... Okay. Now, this is...

I just included this because there were so few today. So few. It's a good effort. I already feel like I got my money's worth. Yeah, it's a good effort. It's a good effort, but obviously you don't have the attributes. Yeah, clearly... You're too in shape, my friend.

And I believe that Tom won something last week. I'm not sure if it was one of the poses or something else. Recently, Tom has won something. He's just trying to show off his apps right now. No, he's really trying to. Yeah, I know, I know. Push that thing out. Come on.

Yeah, you got to get it out. It looks like he's sucking it out. Here, the next two are also people who are on the slimmer side, but are going for it in different ways. Now, he's stuffed his shirt. It looks like a pillow. Yeah. And he's sitting on the fence, Roy Nelson style. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I like that. See, that's what I'm saying. You got to be creative if you don't have the attributes. Yeah, this is a great one. Okay. Also, stuffed shirt. Stuff shirt and apparently a broken wrist or something. apparently injured.

Wow. I think our last one is up, which is our buddy, as usual. Our buddy Sean. Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Oh my God. And I also like the Red Sox shirt.

It's a nice Boston tribute. I had to do it since I have the gut, Big Country Pose, and Boston shirt too. So you know that's legit. Now, I will admit, one of the reasons why I was so excited for this one was because I actually saw this. I couldn't help myself.

Usually I don't like to look, but I saw that he that Sean submitted one and I had to. So my reaction may not have been as genuine as the others, but I mean, I just want to print all of these and put them up in the studio here. I just want to look at them every day. I think, I think we're going to pass on that, but let's choose a winner. So I'm going to go back through them. Okay. No. No.

Okay. No, no, no. No. In the running? No, no, no, no face. Oh, good point. No. He's in there.

Okay. Rob Hill is in there. No. No. I think he's got to win. He wins. I think he wins. Yes.

When dingo? Or when do you go? Congratulations. That is amazing. Congratulations on everything. Everything. On life. Congratulations to all of you.

Congratulations. I wish everyone could get a prize. Yeah. Wow. There were less entries, but they were really good. Wait, keep going, keep going. Okay. You know what?

How many more of those things do we have? I believe we had three left. Okay, keep going. And I think this is the first one, is it? No, there might be one more. Yeah. I think Burger King Guy needs to win. And when do you go?

Yeah, we give them two. Okay, there it is. There it is. I mean, come on. They went through the trouble. Absolutely. And we got to give love to our man, our man, Sean, although he lives in Ireland. And we hope that you live in the U.S., because that's part of the rules now that we have to abide by,

but it can only go out to American residents. But Sean's a Hall of Famer in our book. But those two were amazing. Those were incredible. I tip my cap to all of you. You have exceeded our expectations. and this fitch, this fitch post thing has, this fitch face thing, I should say, has, it has reached a mountaintop.

I think that was the best one. I don't know what he's talking about. Well done. Congratulations. You get, you get the, the Benson-Henderson drawing courtesy of our man, Scott, and we appreciate him hooking us up with that. One last thing to give away. Excuse me.

George St. Pierre, the way of the fight. Here it is. New book. He just kept on coming, it says, in the back. It's a big book, hardcover. Let's answer some questions and then go home. Do we have questions? Yep.

Cuing up the website questions first. All right. Wait a minute. I don't know. Is that public that comment that Will just made? Or was that only, oh, all right. Well, if you want to say something, say to the world, my friend. Will just sit in my ear and some of us have to work.

once the show's over. This is the work. This is all that you need to do. You just have to look pretty with your mustache. Could we get a look at Will's mustache there, or is the camera not configured properly? He's kind of far back to get that mustache. He's very shy.

Anyway, I'm going to go 45 minutes here with these questions, just to piss him off. Well, if we could get the questions up, maybe we could go home. Yeah. It's been a rough day. Oh, here we go. Question time.

First question. from the website. Of all the massive underdog title challengers in the upcoming events, which is the biggest dog, Chale Son and Bigfoot Silver, or Eddie Weinland, and who has the best shot at pulling the upset? You know, I would ask you this, because this seems like your territory, but unfortunately

you can't play this game anymore. I'm going to go with, gosh, who has the it's a tough one. I think as far as the public is concerned, well, Bigfoot got annihilated, but I think as far as the public is concerned chale is the biggest dog and i would i would agree who has the best shot of pulling off

an upset i'm going to say eddie i think that would be consensus i think you're right i think and i think most people would agree with that they all have tough tough hills to climb but i think chale first answer eddie second answer yep our next one from the website if sun and loses to jones do you like the idea of having Sunn and face Vanderlay in Brazil in a retirement match for the loser. W.W.E. style. That would be bananas. That would be crazy. I still would love to see, you know, we're talking about Sunen retiring. I still would love to see him face Van der Leyen, Vitora, because everything that has been said, both sides in the past from those guys, I would still think that would be, you can, you can sell a lot of pay-per-views, if done correctly. So I'm not saying

I want to see him retire, but I wonder if he will retire, if he doesn't win. But you know what? I've been told otherwise. So we'll see. I think it depends on how the fight goes. But would I like to see that? Sure.

That'd be awesome. I don't know if it has to be a retirement match. I just want to see the fight. Our next question. Is Dennis Siever a legit contender at Featherweight or will we get found out by a more well-rounded Swanson? I'm German and I think in order

for the UFC ever to come back here, we need a champion. Well, I think he is. That's why he's fighting Swanson. I definitely think that's why the fight was made. I view it as a bit of a mini tournament going on, of course. Lama's fighting zombie, Swanson, Siever, Edgar, against Charles Olivera, and you've got the title fight, Aldo Pettus. And I don't know if this is going to come up, but don't you feel like now, especially what happened on Saturday, don't you want to see Pettis versus Benton now?

I mean, after something like, now it would be the perfect time to see Pettus Benson. It kind of bums me out that we're not seeing it. That was actually one of the Twitter questions. Oh, okay. I'll get to that later then. Well, I mean, you pretty much covered it, but we'll see later on Twitter. This is our last one from the website. With three out of Benson Henderson's last four fights being somewhat controversial decisions are his Anderson-Silva-like aspirations of being a record-breaking champion a bit far-fetched.

What does it say about his reign or skill set, if anything? GSP at least wins his decisions without controversy, which we really can't say about our two-pick toting champion. Whoa. Bill Steinman. I don't think it says much. I mean, he's had close wins, close fights, but he's winning. At the end of the day, he's doing what he needs to do to win, and they're going to be Ws on his record.

So now we're saying, okay, what GSP does is okay. You know, I would say right now his fights are more entertaining than GSP's, right? His fights are more entertaining. I was glued to my seat. I was glued to the TV screen when I was watching him versus Gilbert. And yes, the TV screen. I didn't even step foot inside. the HP Pavilion on Saturday because I was in the back

the whole time. Didn't even see the crowd, didn't even feel it. But I don't think it takes anything away from his reign. End of the day, he's winning, someone needs to knock him off. And I think him versus Pettus, he lost the Pettus, that was his last loss. You show that kick over and over again, it would have

been brilliant. Now we're getting Grant versus Maynard, and I'm not sure if there's enough buzz for that. We'll see what happens. If Grant or Maynard have a huge showing at 160 next month, maybe it'll change, but Right now, I think more people would rather see either Gilbert 2 or Pettus 2. Here's our first one from the Twitter questions. Now, we've heard this one before, but maybe you have a new take on it.

Do you think there's a legitimate way to fix the huge problem MMA has with judging, Larkin being the most recent BS loss in his opinion? No, I mean, does someone ask about the judge in the main event? I believe so. Well, there's no real way. I mean, look, I find it fun to score fights based on how I think judges will score fights. I don't even know if that's the right way to do it, but I thought they were going to score it for Benson three to two, and they did. And I usually get it pretty right when I scored the way I think they're going to score it.

I also thought they were going to score for Larkin, excuse me, for Carmel, and they did. End of the day, let's be honest. I mean, Larkin had his moments and he was more aggressive and he was maybe landing more, but both guys didn't have a great fight there. Both guys, I mean, if there's ever like a loser in, you know, on both sides of the coin there, that's a perfect example. That just wasn't a great fight. And maybe it was because of Carmel, whatever. But I think Larkin had some opportunity to do some stuff, particularly at the end. I think it is what it is. But while I bring up the Wade Vieira controversy, I suggest people go to m.m.a.tv. And if you haven't heard, one of the judges in the main event, Wade Vieira, is a, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is a member of the Caesar Gracie team. He has a gym that's a Caesar Gracie affiliate. And of course, Gilbert Melendez has ties to Caesar Gracie. And Kierich, who is the brains and the founder of MMA.m.a.tv, the Underground, the U.G,

wrote an amazing article on why this isn't as big a deal as people are making it out to be and how MMA, especially judging, refereeing, could be sometimes incestuous in these early days. And I think he nailed it on the head. So I just suggest you go out and read that. It's the main story right now, and I think he nailed it. You know, you want fighters. We want ex-fighters and things like that to start judging. And they're all tied in some ways, maybe not as close as this one.

He did score for Gilbert, by the way. But I just think at this point, I'm so, I'm kind of tired of talking about the judging problem. It's not going to change. And it seems like every fight there's some kind of controversy. But this one, I don't know. I'm not going to cry about this one. It was bad. At the time, I felt it was kind of worse.

But after thinking about it, I feel like, like Larkin had his moments as well and you know it was just kind of a bad fight on both ends. I agree with that. But if we if we keep, you know, getting sick of it and just reserving ourselves to, that's MMA judging, it's going to be a bad situation because these guys put, you know, their livelihood on the line every single time. And at a certain point, this has to change. Like, it's just, it's ridiculous that somebody, you know, can take it away from you, even if it's pretty clear that it shouldn't be the case. Yeah, I guess, but what are we going to do about it?

Well, I don't have a solution other than better education for judges or bringing it. And here's the thing. People are so up in arms about the Vieira thing where he has some connections. Well, if we're going to bring in former fighters or former trainers or whoever else to be representing us as MMA judges, then we're going to have to be able to accept the possibility that they have to. some former ties to somebody or some other thing and just hope that they'll be objective when rendering their decision. Yeah.

But that's what I see for the future is bringing in people and they're going to have ties. So you can't be up in arms about this and then still also complain about judging at the same time. Yep. I'm just tired of it. Here's our next question from GK UFC RFC, G Kettle, 1983. What happens now with Melendez? a Josh Thompson rematch, perfect setup for a number one contender spot. I don't know.

I don't think Thompson now kind of, I want to see how far Thompson could go. You know, I don't know. You know, honestly, I mentioned the Gilbert 2 or the Pettus 2 fight. I would have been down to see Thompson versus Benton. I thought he looked amazing in that fight. First guy to finish, to finish Nate Diaz and the UFC, that's huge. maybe, you know, maybe the someone, who knows, if Healy wins, maybe that fight, even if Miller wins, I'd be interested in seeing that. There's Saroni coming up. You know, I don't think he should fall too far down the ladder. Again, I would be 100% down to see him fight again.

And by the way, I really have to give him props for the way he handled himself. Total class, post-fight interview, no excuses. I even saw him hugging Benson's now fiancé. in the cage after Benson proposed to her. He handled it very well in the Post-Fight press conference. Gilbert Melendez, and I will admit, at times, I wasn't sure if he was deserving of all the accolades and the rankings and all that stuff that he has received. He proved that he deserved to be there and to get all that and then some. And he was so close to winning.

And, you know, my heart goes out to him. He was heartbroken. He said it a bunch of times, but he dealt with it like a total class act. And that is how, in my opinion, someone should deal with a situation like that. And you know what? In our sports, sometimes it goes against you. If you bang the drum, you get what you want.

But I respect him for going that route. And I think he's one fight, maybe two away from being right back in there. Completely agree. And I think the same can be said for Frankie Edgar, too, who also... It actually reminded me exactly of Edgar in that same position with Benson. Exactly. Both of these guys, you know, the utmost respect for both of them. It reminded me exactly of Frankie.

Good call. Our next question comes from John Wilkerson. Do you think the Henderson-Melinda's fight should be ruled in no contest due to the conflict of interest with Vieira judging? Well, not really because Melendez didn't win, and he judged it in favor. He scored in favor of Melendez. So, no. California, I mean, it's no secret. They had their reasons.

Is it weird? Is it a conflict of interest? Perhaps. But again, go to m.m.a.tv. Read that article. He has his history. He's been around the sport. and you know what, I respect Kierich,

and if he says it's okay, I agree. Our next question comes from Darren Chung. After two successful showings on Fox, can Henderson headline a pay-per-view or should he still be promoted on Fox? I mean, I think he can. He headlined UFC 150. So, you know, he's done it in the last year.

I don't think they should put him back on Fox. I don't think you want to keep putting on the same guy over and over again. So I think he should go to a pay-per-view now. I wonder if, you know, Henderson versus Maynard or T.J. Grant could sell a lot. But, I mean, at this point, over almost 10 million people have seen Henderson fight

in the last five or six months. And I did think it was very interesting. You know, Henderson was at the press conference, and I have a lot of respect for him as well. And, you know, I have a lot, as I mentioned, as a champion, he deserves everything that he's getting. But it's interesting to see someone sit there and say, like, winning is in everything.

And, you know, there's more to this than just fighting, life and all that stuff, proposing to your girlfriend. And then you see Gilbert just, just heartbroken. And I can't imagine what was going through Gilbert's mind

listening to this. When all he wants is that belt, that validation, that gold, and then the guy who beat him very closely is almost kind of

not dismissing it but saying there's more to life than all of this. Very interesting situation to watch unfold at the press conference. Well, you could almost see that coming.

I mean, he did just propose to his girlfriend. Absolutely, but can you imagine how Gilbert felt? Geez. Well, as we said,

you know. Insult to injury. Great class from Gilbert and you know took everything in stride Yep Just sat there with his head down Here's our next question

Oh yeah Is Benson Henderson's Oh this is from Keith McAdden Is Benson's Henderson's Ruhah Is Benson Henderson's hair The biggest threat to his lightweight title That was weird

It seemed like it was bothering him More than usually It was all over the place There were times where it was Completely covering his face And he was kind of looking right through it That was That was surprising

I think it's actually pretty cool, honestly. It is cool, but it's a problem. He has toothpicks in his mouth. He has hair all over his face. Yeah, that's true. He just can't even stop him. You know, he puts his own obstacles in front of himself. Yeah.

Crazy. But, you know, you notice at times sometimes he'll do like a very, you know, a very exaggerated movement with his head. And that would just be to push his hair back. He's not playing around with it and all that like K.J. Noon's did against Nick Diaz. But I can't imagine it not bothering him. He definitely was playing around with it. Yeah. He was pushing it back a lot.

Why not just braid it? And if Gilbert would land a good shot, he'd brush his hair back and give him a like, that didn't really hurt face. And by the way, sometimes it works against you because if your hair is flying all over the place, it looks a lot more, you know, extravagant. It looks a lot more exaggerated than what actually happened. Well, he always starts with it ponytail or, you know, bound at some way in the back. But by the end of the, I think it was the fourth round it had come out.

But I definitely agree. like if Clay Gwida gets hit, it looks like, you know, a mess. Yeah. It looks like his hair is flying all over and his head got rocked. But I don't know. I think it's pretty cool for Benson. I think I have a feeling the next time we see him fight it will be different. By the end, like his ponytail was hardly even there.

Yep. Should braid that. Yeah, that was crazy to see. Here's our next question from Matt Pryor. With the winner of Grant Maynard getting the next lightweight title shot, how do you now feel about Pettus moving down to Fight Aldo? I got, like I just said, I mean, I really, I was saying this even before. I was saying this when the fight was announced.

I really want to see Anthony Pettis fight, Benson Henderson again. I think that fight sells itself. I think that could headline a show. I think that's a fascinating fight for all the reasons we mentioned earlier. And by the way, we don't know if Anthony can make 145. He's never made it before, particularly in the WC UFC, so, you know, recently. He's probably going to do a test cut, and it's 10 pounds, but it is significant. And I think there are guys at 145 who deserve a title.

Petis, like I said, I think the world of him, and I think he deserves a title shot. I just think he deserves it at 155, and I think it makes more sense. There's a story there. There's an issue there. There's a storyline there. Here, at 145, there isn't one. And I wish we were seeing that fight next. I also just think, you know, logically, he's the best chance to dethrone Benson.

He beat him already. It's the most interesting fight. Sure. And I think after these close fights, now is the perfect time. to be like, all right, here's the guy who beat you. Avenge that. This really set up for Petitus to be. Plus, he just fought on Fox.

So all those people saw him? Yep. Weird. Our next question comes from Alan Stark. Oh, yeah, my buddy Alan. Doesn't John's... Long day. Doesn't Josh Thompson have more of a claim to a title shot

compared to Maynard or Grant? I don't know about that. I mean, Grant has been doing really good things in the UFC. And if he beat someone like Gray Maynard at 160, you know, Maynard's top three. You know, Maynard's only coming off one win, and that was the Guido win. He beats Grant, you know, UFC rankings. They haven't listed as seven.

And is it an interesting that they use the rankings to justify this? And sometimes they say the rankings are important. That being said, I don't know. I mean, Thompson beat Diaz. I mean, it's kind of a six-in-one, half-dozen in the other. I think Thompson, one more win, he would deserve it. And there's really no one after those guys right now. So I'm curious to see what they do with Thompson.

Maybe they do the Gilbert fight, but I don't think this is the time to do it. I think how cool would it have been if Gilbert won on Saturday? They would have done Gilbert Josh 4 for the UFC ballot. That would have been a nice story. That's not happening now, but it could happen in the future. I can't say that he has more of a claim. He has an equally deserving case to make for that title shot, in my opinion. I actually agree with that.

Thank you. Our next question comes from J.D. Cook, the third. Do you think we are a little early on singing praises for Dwayne Bag Bang Ludwig's coaching skills with Team AlphaMail? No, I mean, when I say greatest coach in the history of coaches, I'm obviously joking, but he's undefeated. They've looked fantastic, and he's right. He's actually the one telling us to slow our role. You know, he said, you know, without me around, these guys probably win these fights. Without me around, they're beating this competition.

It's the next step. That's when we start judging. So I think he deserves it. They're not losing. They're not boring decisions, their finishes. But let's see when they find those title fights. And I'm very curious to see. So far, it looks like a brilliant move.

So I think he deserves it. Our next question is in regard to that. Oh. Did bringing Bang Ludwig onto coach team Alpha Mail do enough to push Uriah Faber and others because we had multiple iterations of this question over the top? Well, I don't think we can answer that. I think we're going to see.

And I think it actually, you know what it does? You know, we've said, oh, Faber, too many tile shots, all this stuff. It makes you want to see another favor title shot. really does. It makes you want to see that fight to see how he does with banged by side. I want to see Benavides versus Johnson. I want to see Benavides versus Dotson, maybe number one contender fight. I want to see Dillashad deserves some more love. I can't believe this guy is still fighting on Facebook prelims or, you know, lower ends of the prelims. And Mendez, I think that's interesting as well. Mendez has looked unbelievable. So I think it was a brilliant move.

I would not be mad at seeing any of those guys get another shot. Yeah. And Dill shot hasn't gotten a shot. Yep. Our next question comes from Nick Meal or Mealy? Hmm. After his performance on Saturday, am I the only one who's dying to see Chad Mendez fight Frankie Edgar? That seems like a good number one contender fight,

but let's not forget, Edgar has a fight coming up. He is fighting Charles Olivaire in the summertime. But maybe if he wins, I think that's a great fight. I think if Frankie wins, that puts him back in there,

and if Mendez wins, can't deny him. And of course, Aldo's fighting in August, so you think Mendez is going to want to get back in there. But although he told me in our post-fight interview, he doesn't mind waiting. But yeah, we've been talking,

talking about this one for a while, I would love to see it, if the stars align. Our next question comes from Mike Jones. Nate Diaz did not look like himself Saturday. Do you think he was feeling a hangover from his title lost to Bendo? I don't know about a hangover. I just think Thompson was on point. And I don't know if this is going to come up after, but I too don't think he should go up to 170.

I think that would be a mistake. I think Diaz is better at 155. He's hit a bit of a rough patch, but he lost to the champion. and he lost to a guy who perhaps has been underrated for a very long time, a former Strike Force champion. He didn't look like himself, but I think that's taking something away from Josh Thompson. I think Josh deserves the credit, and that was his night.

Gaz William, did you ever think you would see the towel thrown in to save a Diaz, brother? You know, I didn't, but it's almost, it almost makes sense. They're old school. Who thinks to throw a towel these days? And by the way, it was his brother Nick that threw it. and I don't even think the ref saw it. I don't think it meant anything, but it was symbolic,

and it was kind of nice, a brother looking out for his brother, their old school. It was, and on Fox, of all places, it just, it kind of worked in a weird way. But, yeah, I didn't expect anyone to throw in a towel these days. I don't even think you're, it means anything.

I'm pretty sure in the unified rules of M.M.A. The throwing of the towel, it's out. It doesn't mean anything anymore. I forget what fight, but it was this, it was in like, a year span. We were talking about this because I believe somebody else threw in the towel, and it actually does not signify anything.

It's just a symbolic gesture. I think it was the Ioki fight. Is that it? I really wish I could remember, but I don't. But this had come off. I think. Maybe I'm wrong. But throwing in the towel actually does not do anything.

The ref. Yeah. But that's why it was so awesome. Well, also, imagine he if you would have come back? Well, he wasn't even out. Which is like the craziest thing is like he wasn't like out cold. He took a lot of punches though. Oh, no, no, no.

I'm not arguing the stoppage, but by any means, that was clearly a TKO. But to really like knock out cold a Diaz brother, I don't think it's even possible. Yeah, I know. He took three head kicks and he still wasn't even out cold. Did you see when they showed the slow motion? Yeah. Oh, God. The slow mo cam was on fire.

It was. Especially since there were so many knockouts. Yeah, it was. Phantom cam. What a card. It was just. It was in a. amazing card.

Yep. Okay, our next question. Do you think Cormier was impressive enough to get an immediate title shot? At heavyweight? I don't know if you want it. I mean, I predict that Cormier is going to wait to see what happens with Cain. If Cain loses, it changes things. If Cain wins, what is he going to do?

But to answer the question here, I don't think so. I don't think he did enough. Well, who would you put in his place after? Meaning at heavyweight? Right. Who should be a number one contender? Who's after Bigfoot? Well, JDS.

I think that Cormier deserves it. Well, I mean, they're one one. I think you'll have a better chance selling, and by the way, he's not going to fight Cain. Well, no, I'm just saying in terms of getting the title shot, regardless of who it is.

Assume that, you know. But you have to in this case because if he doesn't want to go up. For sure, if I'm Daniel Cormier, what I'm doing is I'm taking I'm pretending that I'm going to 205, taking that cut, starting that cut, and waiting to see what happens with Silva and Kane.

And if Kane wins, I continue that cut and sign up for the 205. And if Bigfoot wins, I'd go right back into heavyweight. You're forgetting one guy, who I think deserved it before Bigfoot for Busea Verduim. Yeah. He beats Bignog. That guy's so good. I know, he just kind of fell off. He's been on the shelf forever because of the tough.

Yeah. Well, he'll be fighting June 8th, so that's like two weeks after 160. You're right. So, hey, how about this? Cormier wins? Well, he did win for Doom, number one contender, you know? I think, here's the thing. I think if you really want to stick around at heavyweight and JDS,

if JDS beats Hunt, I think he goes on. If Hunt wins, I think you've got to give him the shot. So that will happen. And then Verdume versus, you know, Cormier. And if he wants to go down, then I think he should fight Augustafson, you know, that kind of guy. I can dig that. Imagine Cormier versus Gustafson? I just don't know if he can make 205, but he seems confident.

I don't like that fight style-wise, but it would be a good fight rankings-wise. Right, rankings-wise. Our next question, what is next for Frank Mears? I thought his cardio was insanely good for him at 257. That's his weight. Yeah. But he isn't near a title shot. Yeah, and Malky's manager talked about it.

It sounds like he's going to keep going. I was interested when he said that only for a year or so, he thought, I don't know, I think let's wait and see. I don't see him coming back quickly, and I think there are some fights coming up that could make sense for him. You know, someone like a Travis Brown, even though he's coming off a win, I think still kind of makes sense for him. A Mark Hunt off a loss could make sense for him. A JDS off a loss could make sense. And actually, no, that was a pretty one side to fight. Um, Alster Overeign.

I like that. How about that? That's a good fight. Yeah. So I think there are a lot of options for him still. I think people still want to see him fight. Our next question. Hold on one second.

There we are. Rafael Ramirez. Matt Brown looked awesome in his comeback against Jordan Mian. Where do you rank them both now? I mean, he's on the cusp, but you look at the top 10 rankings right now, 170. Hendricks. Well, GSP, Hendricks, Condit, McDonald, Ellen, Berle, Maya, Diaz, Kentman, Safferdean Loller.

Who do you take out? Maybe Loller? Although he beat Kostchek. I think Loller can drop out. But who has Matt Brown beat in the top 10? Yeah. He's on a role, but who is he defeated? He's certainly in there.

I want to see him fight a top guy. I wouldn't mind seeing him fight any of those guys. Even Kosteck coming off, you know, Maya, a Kampman. I wouldn't mind see him fight any of those guys. Even guys who are coming off losses because he needs a top 10 win. Meen's young, and that wasn't a great showing. He had him with the body shot. Matt Brown recovered, and he told me afterwards that it really hurt.

So, you know, Mian took the shot on short notice and credit to him there. But Brown, I want to see him fight a top 10 guy, coming off a win, coming off a loss. How about Matt Brown versus Carlos Condit? That would be crazy. And I think that actually makes a lot of sense. That would be an incredible fight. Yeah. And more importantly, just kudos to him for coming back.

This guy was, you know, I remember seeing him in Pittsburgh for the versus show that ill-fated one with Marquard and Story. And he was like on some really bad losing streak. Now look at him. Two years later, he's Mr. Fox. Similar to Mark Hunt, who was also on a losing streak and then all of a sudden, resurgence. Yeah. Mark Hunt had the pedigree. Brown really didn't.

Kind of came out of nowhere. Our next question from Sterky. with the UFC and Strike Force going four and four this week, and they split their fights, was the gap between the fighters totally exaggerated. And by the way, I predicted that. I said four and four. Did I say that on this show?

You did someone else. Okay, I did. Now we don't know which four and four, but you did. Yeah, of course. Oh, yeah, that's right. It was on this show. Was it exaggerated? I never really thought there was a gap, to be honest.

I never thought there was a gap. So I don't think it was exaggerated at all. And I think Thompson looking good. Melinda's looking good. I don't think it was exaggerated at all. I really didn't. I always thought that the top guys in Strike Force can hang in the UFC, and that's what we're seeing right now.

Yep. And there's still more to come. You see Luke Rockhold? Yeah, I can't wait for that. Our next question comes from Michael McElroy. There I am again. In a card full of, oh, yeah. In a card full of impressive finishes,

who had the most impressive performance at UFC on Fox 7. Wow. Most impressive? The one that I was just like, wow, probably Josh Thompson. I agree. But, I mean, Matt Brown as well. Matt Brown, but I was like, wow. Finishing Diaz like that, wow. That was impressive.

I mean, there were tons. What a card. Top to bottom. It was amazing. Best card of the year thus far by far. It's up there with all-time great cards, in my opinion. But Thompson doing what he did after being out for so long, Thompson was the guy that you weren't quite sure about. Well, let the record show that I was quite sure about, Josh Thompson. Well, not really. The record shows you didn't bet on him. Well, that's because Gilbert paid better up.

Right. But yes, Josh Thompson. Our next question from Gilbert Martinez. Is Holly Holmes switching to MMA a sign of things to come for women's. I guess women's boxers. How do you think she will do in her transition? She's done okay. She's 3 and O, right?

But she hasn't fought top competition. Sign of things to come. I mean, I think right now, women's M.A. is a thousand times hotter than women's boxing. More people are talking about it. It gets more respect. It's on the big cards along with the men. I don't know if it's a sign of things come

that women's boxers are going to go and switch over to M.A. But I think younger women who want to get into combat sports will go this route as opposed to the boxing route. That's what I think will happen. And that's good for MMA. I'm curious to see how she does. I think she should get some fights in Invicta, build herself up. That's what's so great about Invicta

and the relationship they have with the UFC. Then let's see, I think we should calm down on the rousy stuff because she is primarily known for her striking. She is training at Jackson's. Very curious. She has a great background. women's MMA, like I said. Biggest story of 2013. Very interesting.

This is our last question. All right. Andrew Vaughn. If Chale beats Jones, will this go down as the biggest main event upset in UFC history? I think Sarah. Do you think Sarah's bigger still

coming off the show? But really, I don't know, one person picking Chale's son. It's up there. Yeah, it would be up there. It's so funny. People talking about like Jones is the champ, you know, it's like we keep forgetting that Chales the guy, you know, that he's fighting next.

It would be up there. I'd say it would be up there with Sarah, but for some reason I'd give Sarah the nod. Eh, depending on how it happens. If it's like a squeaker decision, different than an actual finish like Sarah did the GSP. But it will be up there and it will be UFC 159 this weekend. What's the best question of the day? There have been so many. We can scroll through them real quick.

Okay. I'll put them up on the screen. Great questions. Thank you so much. The Holly Holie Holm question. And I'm sorry if I went through them a little quickly. We're just way over here. It's 440.

Impressive finishes. Yep. Strike force split. Matt Brown. Frank Meir. Cormier. Throwing in the towel for Diaz. Diaz not looking himself.

Mendez Edgar. Hmm. Tidal shots for a bang. Bang's coaching. skills, Thompson compared to Maynard Grant, Pettis, Benson's hair, yeah, Benson on pay-per-view,

Vieira, yeah, Josh Thompson rematch with Melendez, and MMA judging. Let's give it to the guy who, because I feel strongly about this, the Pettus situation. It's a good call.

Pettus. You win the GSP book, GSP the way of the fight, there it is. Enjoy it. Give us a book report in three to four weeks. Let us know how it was. All right. Mike, you can get my music. There we go. Will's been waiting for it, dying.

Truth be told, I had to go to the bathroom at around like 130, maybe three hours ago. But I fought through it. And here we are. Three hours and 45 minutes later. Longest show ever, by far, right? I think. But it was a great show. Feels like a while ago when I messed up Pat Healy's UFC career.

But I like the quote that he gave me. I think that that actually made me feel a whole lot better about it. Made for a nice little story. So I apologize to him one more time, but I wish him nothing but the best of luck in his UFC re-debue on Saturday night, UFC 159. Jim Miller against Mr. Bang Ludwig. Great card. Unfortunately, no El Gohito, but there's some solid fights on this card. Coton Head.

Siler Hollabaugh, Garcia McKenzie. Hobby Lob against Medeiros, McMahon, Gaff, Balante, St. Prue, Carraway, Bedford, Miller Healy, Magalys Davis, Roy Nelson against Congo. We haven't talked about that much. Bissing Belcher and John Jones, Chelsun. I want to thank Mr. Pat Healy for stopping by. Thank you very much to Sarah McMahon. Good luck to her. Good luck to all the competitors at UFC 159, including Vinnie Magalesh, and I want to thank Dwayne Ludwig for stopping by. Congratulations him and all his early success. and Makikawa as well, getting me in some trouble,

seeing people tweeting and whatnot. Come on. Just because someone says something to me, it's not my problem. Next week, we have a good show already lined up. I'll tell you about it a little later on in the week. If you missed any of the show, check it out, iTunes, Stitcher, all that good stuff. Thank you so much for all the questions. The poses amazing.

We'll see you next week. Enjoy UFC one for tonight. Peace. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing O-Doo. It's the only business software you'll ever need.

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