MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 179

Episode Date: August 25, 2014

Featuring Eddie Alvarez, Vitor Belfort, Brian Bowles, Chris Camozzi, Julie Kedzie, and Ralek Gracie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

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Look at this, my friends. Finally, we have come home. This show has been going on for almost four years, four years next month. And we have been like nomads going throughout the desert, like my people. 40 days and 40 nights, finally, we have reached the promise line. According to my calculations, this is our eighth set in our history. We started in June of 2009. It's currently May of 2013.

Eight sets along the way, but we have reached the promised line, my friends. Look at this. Canadian Wood from the great province of British Columbia. round five figurines all over the place beautiful TV here we've got chachis all over the place we've got great photos for my good friend Esther Lynn all elbows

this amazing drawing from Kyle Haas Hollywood Haas a table filled with goodies the happy war I mean it's just unbelievable I walked in here today and the first thing that came to mind was

I'm coming home I'm coming home tell the world I'm coming home but I'm not just coming home I have arrived home It's unbelievable. That's the only one that comes to mind. I'm so happy to be here and my friends. We've got a pep in our step today. Because of this new era, because of this new set, we are bringing you the goods.

We've got a fully loaded show, and you're going to be a part of it in the third hour. Because in the third hour, we will reveal the 16 participants in the first ever Rick's Picks Invitational. You have tweeted me. It was an overwhelming response. We have picked the 16. and in the third hour we'll announce the 16 we'll announce the rules

and next week we'll announce the brackets it's going to be great and very excited about it all kicks off with UFC on FX8 May 16th over in Brazil is it May 16th May 5th 12 May 4th

11th May 18th May 18th in Brazil I knew something was wrong there we'll also take your questions and comments hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour. Now, as far as the guests go, we've got some great guests. Chris Camozzi joins us at 240. He will now be facing Ronaldo Jacare-Souza, or should I say, Honolado Jacques-Ré suza at UFC on FXA. You heard late last week, Costa Philippeau, injured. Incomes in Camosie, who's supposed to fight

Hafeel Sapo Natal, will talk to Chris about fighting in his first UFC co-main event. Vitor Belford, who fights in the main event of that card against Luke Rockhold. He'll be joining us at 220. Always is great to talk to the phenom. Eddie Alvarez has been making headlines for the last few days. He is involved in that legal battle with Bellator. Will he stay? Will he go? We'll get the latest from Easy Eddie Alvarez.

Brian Bowles, we haven't heard, or at least I haven't heard from Brian Bowles since his loss to Uriah Faber at UFC 139. And it seems like every week someone asks me, where's Brian Bowles? Where is this guy? Former WC. Bantamway champion, we finally tracked him down. He's going to be joining us. He's fighting later on this summer. Julie Kedzie, one of the true pioneers of women's MMA, she'll be stopping by.

She makes her UFC debut on July 27th. We look forward to talking to her very much, and I will remind you that, of course, in the back, New York Rick joins us. He will be a part of the Rick's Picks Invitational. We've got Mike back there. We've got Buskill Brendan, who did a fantastic job steering this ship, making this happen. We tip our cap to Buzzkill and the team here at SB Nation. And, of course, we've got Mike in the house as well. Okay, we've done enough talking.

Let's get right to it. our first guest of the day. He is the founder of MetaMorris Pro Invitational Jitza Tournament. It's not so much a tournament. It's more of a promotion, so to speak. And they have their second event going down June 9th at the famed Pauly Pavilion in Los Angeles on the campus of UCLA. There he is.

The Man, the Myth, the Legend himself. Hallick, Gracey joins us right now. Hallick, how are you, my friend? Oh, I'm good. Thanks, Serial. Thank you, man. That was a nice introduction. Okay, one second.

I can't hear Hallick right now. Gentlemen? Can't hear me? Oh, now I hear you. Hallick, how are you? Oh, I'm great, man. Sorry about that. Yeah, I'm really good.

And, you know, thanks for that introduction. That was really nice. Yeah, we're excited, man. June 9th. Oh, I'm excited about this. And you know why I'm excited because obviously we know boxing cards, MMA cards, even pro wrestling. They're kind of built the same way.

You know, you have your main event. You have a card. You've got some interesting players scattered. But I feel like the martial arts, if you will, the jiu-jitsu's, the rest. wrestling, those kind of martial arts, they haven't caught on. They haven't put events like this. And you guys are the first ones in the jiu-jitsu world, in my opinion, that are doing this. You did it with your first show. You have a great card coming up on June 9th.

Where did this idea come from to sort of take that model that we see in the other combat sports that do well and apply to jiu-jitsu. Man, great question. You know, I think my partner and I, Rob Zeps, we were doing, he was actually a private student of mine for some time doing just jih Tzu classes. and he's an absolute jiu-jitsu fanatic, and we would just do classes and sit around and talk, and essentially my thing and my approach was, and, you know, he agreed to it that there was nothing that really put jiu-sitsu on a pedestal and really created an environment for these top competitors

to really showcase their skills in a way where people would really pay attention. Because if you go to most jih T tournaments, you have six mats or eight mats and, you know, kind of like a wrestling meet, like a high school meet. and can you still hear me fine? Oh yeah, yeah. No, no problem. We hear you just great.

So, you know, essentially it's, you know, in essence, it's very hard to kind of focus on one match. You know, when you have six mats happening at the same time. And for us, we thought, you know, the most respect that we can do for the art is to create, you know, a place where only the best come together. And we have just one mat and we have the lights on that mat. And then we started just creatively just, you know, building everything. everything outside of that to the point where we felt like it was in alignment with that black belt philosophy. I like to call it the black belt philosophy where the production is black belt, the stream is black belt, you know, the experience of the fighters is black belt, everything from, you know, the hotel that they're staying in to their experience and dealing with me.

You know, I try to keep that integrity all the way through and, you know, make sure that they're really feeling like taking care of and make sure that they really, you know, get the respect they deserve for being at the level that they're at, you know, because you can't just accidentally go in. there and beat one of these guys. You know, you can't just go in there and get a knockout, you know, by accident. It doesn't work like that. You know, when you're going in there with a ghee or even no ghee, more so with the geon, you know, you have to be very technical and you have to be very sharp and you have to mentally and emotionally be so in check and so in alignment with yourself that, you know, it's something that, you know, we really appreciate, you know, and I think it starts with myself and my partner and our level of appreciation for, you know, just that really high level of jiu-jitsu.

Will these matches be contested in ghee or no-gi? So on this card, we have half and half. Okay. And, you know, we can pretty much do anything we want at this point. And, you know, we, you know, just depending on the competitors and just the organization as we move through the process and communicating with them, some of them prefer ghee more, some of them prefer no-gi for different reasons, depending on the opponent, depending on their training schedule.

You know, some of them are training for MMA fights. You know, Ryan Hall was training for an MMA fight, so he had done mostly no-gee. And, you know, we had tried to get him in a ghee match with somebody else, but then we had somebody who stepped in and said, hey, I'll do no-gee with Ryan Hall. Same with Brennan Shab. He trains most of his time, No-Gee, because he's competing in the UFC, obviously. And, of course, his ghee game is not as tight as his no-gee. You know, with the no-gee, you have more space, you have more freedom,

and there's less options for somebody to catch him a submission. And, you know, for him to come in and step in and do it, no ghee even is a huge thing, you know, because you're still out there with the only option of submitting somebody you're getting submitted. So it's pretty cool. You know, I said, I think it's brilliant that you're taking this model, having a card, and it's, you know, you lay it out and there are a bunch of interesting matchups. The second brilliant thing that I think you're doing is taking a couple of names from the MMA world to get guys like me who focused 100% on MMA. It's hard enough to cover that sport. I know who Brendan Schaub is.

I know who Shiniyaoki is. I know who Ryan Hall is because he's making his way in the MMA world. So you get my attention by sprinkling those guys in there and then putting in some other great jih Tzu players. Is that part of the process? Do you need to do that to get our attention in your opinion? You know, yeah, to be completely honest, yes. And, you know, of course, the answer also is that

Brennan Schaub really wanted to do this. He asked me, and I was like, hey, man, you know, are you sure this is pure jiu-jitsu? And he's like, no, man, this is a wonderful test for me, for my schedule. It'll work perfect for my next fight. you know, it would be a great way for me to stay sharp and to test myself mentally and, you know, for my jiu-sitsu. And, you know, I think it's really cool, man.

And I made a statement on our Facebook to the effect that, you know, a lot of UFC guys, pretty much everybody's claiming to be a black belt as far as I can see. And, you know, there's really no way for us to know if you just go in there and throw some punches and get a knockout. How do we really know the legitimacy of somebody's black belt unless they put it out there unless, you know, in the most top, you know, tier of Jiu-Jitsu. And I think, you know, I think it's honorable for him to step in and do that. And for any, you know, Shinaioki as well, you know, he's somebody who has a black belt in Jiu-Zitsu and in judo. And he's putting it to the test.

You know, he's not afraid. He said, man, I'll go with anybody in my weight class. And we put him with Kron. And Krohn's not, you know, nobody can sleep on Krohn, you know, he's just, so it's really cool to see these guys really willing to put it up there. And above all, they're just warriors, you know, they're really, they're serious warriors. and, you know, I can really identify with that being a competitor myself, being an MMA fighter, but also being a jiu-jitsu practitioner and lifelong, you know, jih Tzu student.

It's really cool to see the two kind of merging in a way where, yeah, man, you don't have to worry about getting punched, but at the same time, it still is a fight. You know, you're still going to have to go out there and impose yourself on somebody else, not give any space or any show any weakness and, you know, take the most that you can. And, you know, it's something of a battle that, you know, to me is very, in a lot of ways, It's very sophisticated, you know, it's very elegant to see these guys go out there and do this because they can't go all the way and just hit each other. They have to kind of have a certain disdain and still try to maneuver their bodies in a way where, you know, it's a chess game. And it's something

that, you know, it's very exciting when you really look at it and you really approach it in a way where you can really appreciate that level of it. It's cool. Are the competitors being paid? And if so, what kind of purse is we talking here? man these guys are being paid too much you ask me yeah these guys are getting paid man and you know we're I mean it really depends it depends on of course what they bring

it depends on and man I don't really know how I feel about releasing information but as far as an individual fighter's purse you know but I feel like um you know as a whole we're getting up in the couple 100,000 or if not you know 150 you know around that 150 to 200 thousand dollars in any of these guys so you know and that was a big thing for me you know and my

partner you know being funding this thing you know i had said to him like hey we really i really want to take care of these guys i really want them to feel like do we lose them just when we were talking mullah i think we may have lost hollick all right we'll call hollick back very interesting a little nugget he dropped there in the 150 000 range for for jiu jitzum oh is he there holic Yes, yes, sorry about that. You're back. You're back. All right. Here we go. Did we lose your video, though? Oh, no, no, you're there. You're there.

Okay. So you were saying that it was very important to compensate these guys fairly and treat them fairly. Oh, yeah. And it's a little bit of a risk for us because, you know, the jihitsu industry is very hard to gauge at this point. You know, there's a lot of interest and the jihitsu industry is growing very fast. And, you know, we know there's a lot of growth there, but nobody has really measured. measured it, you know, and we're kind of at the point where we're pushing it to, you know, to really test that limit. And, you know, at the same time, I'm trying to make sure that we're really pushing the way that we pay these people and the way that we, you know, approach their, you know, their purses and,

you know, even setting up exclusive deals from now on moving forward. We have a lot of competitors that we're talking to about making exclusive deals because we feel like nobody's going to take care of them the way that we can. and we can really build a synergy around marketing them and branding them along with the other top guys in the industry to really bring something that people can follow and the story can be built in a way that people can follow and we can continue to move forward making awesome shows

for the jiu-jitsu industry and inspiring people to train more jiu-sitsu and be aware of the gentle art on that level, you know, and see kind of a really top level that they can strive to beyond just being in a high school gym with six mats, you know? How many events you want to put on a year? Man, at this point, we're planning four for 2014. Four in 2014, or four between now in 2014?

No, so for a year, we're going to do one more after June 9th. We're looking at one more, and we're thinking about New York City, but we're not sure yet. That would be. What kind of venue are we talking about in New York? Man, it's tough, you know, there's not a lot. And the smaller venues, we're just like kind of looking into, you know, the smaller venues are cool, but we're a little bit concerned about, you know, not really having that environment of a bigger experience, you know, and most of the bigger venues are outside, as you might know, are outside or in New Jersey.

And Madison Square Garden is being used right now. It's being renovated. Or, yeah, it's being renovated. So it's not available for the next, you know, a couple months or six months, I believe. But we're, you know, we want to do something where, you know, as of right now, what we do is we get a venue like the Pauley Pavilion at UCLA for our next event. And we split the venue in half. And we build kind of like a theater, but we have the mat more in the center of that theater. And so it really creates this bowl around the mat.

And you have three sides, essentially, but the fourth side is some VIP seating on the floor. But ultimately, it's a very tight feeling. It's very intimate. it, and, you know, it's a 12,000 or 13,000 capacity building, but we cut it down to 6,000 for the event, cut it in half, and, you know, make it something that, you know, I think around 6,000 is where we're at right now with just, you know, where we're at and, you know, what we strive to be. But, you know, in New York, we're looking at 2,000, 3,000 venue max, you know, in New York City in these different kind of, you know, halls that they have available there.

But we're not really sure, so I don't want to say a name of a venue. That's fair. At this point. Can you run down the rules for us? Because I believe they've changed since your first event, right? Yeah, yeah. So in our first event, what we had was we had essentially no, we had 20 minutes and we had no point system whatsoever. And we had, if you didn't catch somebody in a submission, if no submission occurred within a match, both competitors would be considered, it would be considered a draw.

And the reason for that was so that people just go for submission. or they get a draw. And the draw for the competitor is a little bit of like a, you know, it's a little bit of a downer. You know, you didn't win. You didn't lose, but it's kind of like, okay, here we are. We're in a draw. And so it was great. The problem is, as far as building a, you know, a future for Metamoros and the campaign, you know,

it's hard to just give a draw when clearly one guy is completely controlling, technically, a match, you know, and being able to kind of keep that control throughout the match or show that overall they're just dominating. And dominating, not meaning just physical positions, you know, being on top of the fight, but really keeping the pace. And as you learn more about jujitsu, you can watch a match. You know, any purple belt or above can watch a match

and see how, you know, the sweeps and, you know, whatever the different techniques and the intricacies of how they're controlling that match and how close they get to submission attempts, all those things make a huge difference. and we felt like it would be interesting to bring in three judges so that we can actually get more towards creating winners even when there's no submission

and the three judge decision came up and I thought it was really interesting because generally you would think that three judges decision it would be like a boxing match but we don't want that. We don't want to create a system where it's 10-9 or 8-7 for a certain amount of control or a certain amount of this to where it would be very difficult to ever achieve a draw

And, you know, what we decided was that we would do something more esoteric. You know, we would say that these three judges would decide on a winner or a draw. And their decision would be based on, first of all, their own experience as masters in the game, but also in just overlooking the match as a whole and judging it as a whole, as well as in different parts and being able to analyze why one person was more superior in that match and on that night than another. And, you know, it's a little bit of a risky thing because it's never been done in jujitsu or, you know, pretty much in any other sport that I can imagine. And, you know, I feel like to honor the art, we don't want to put a point system. You know, we want to keep a certain openness to where you should be going for the submission.

And if in the case that there is no submission, you shouldn't be worried about why you should get a judge decision or you shouldn't be competing for the sake of getting a judge decision. You should be doing your best for the sake of doing your best and trying to achieve a submission because that's what's ultimately going to give you a belt. When we bring in belts and we bring in a championship format that we want to create, we want to only award belts to champions who win by submission. That's it. If you have the belt, you're not going to be able to lose the belt

unless somebody submits you. Interesting. So we want to really honor the submission because ultimately, you know, that's what's going to do it for you. and because we have 20 minute time limit, we have to have a system to where we can say, okay, this person was more superior than this person within this 20 minutes.

If we were going to do a no time limit setting on a different planet and we were all aliens, then it would be okay to just have no points, no time, no nothing, but we can't do that. And it's a system and the world works in systems. And we want to respect that. And moving forward, we have to make sure that we can, as a story, we can move forward.

And if we have a championship, you know, event, we can't, you know, afford to have just, you know, five draws in a night. Yeah. Now we can't, we don't know who to move forward in a certain category or who to put against who, you know, in a respectful way. So there's a lot of things, you know, there that, you know, we're considering. A couple more things before you let you go. Is this your way?

What's interesting about this is, of course, your father, Horian Gracie, founder of the UFC, was involved. We've discussed him. He was on our show a few months. once back. Your brothers, Heron and Henner Gracie, have done a great job of creating their own little thing. They're on Fuel TV. They have their great Gracie breakdown. They've really created a very nice niche for themselves in this world. Is this your way of doing your own thing? Because for a while there, you know, you had your fights. You didn't fight. You had your rap

videos. Those disappeared. And I want to ask you about that after this answer. But is this Halleck's way of creating his own little thing in the Jiu-Jitsu world and his legacy? Yeah, man. Yeah, man. I think, you know, in the world of commerce, you know, people only really see the tip of the iceberg, you know, for anything. You know, people do a lot of hard work and then at the end of the day you see a video or you see, you know, you see somebody compete or you, you know, so for me, my, yeah, my journey, it absolutely is intertwined with jiu-jitsu, you know, to the point where I can't even think about anything else. and, you know, I think of the world in terms of Jiu-Jitsu. You know, I see somebody do something, and I think about, you know, principles of Jiu-Sitsu

and how I would deal with that situation. So for me, you know, being able to do this with Meta-Moris is, it feels like the most natural thing in the world to me. It feels like it's, you know, beyond just like, oh, this is my, you know, my passion or whatever. It's a kind of a destiny, you know, and to be able to work with different competitors and know as a competitor myself from the inside, how I would feel and how what I would want being in a competition or being in an event like Metamoros, that's how I'm building it from the inside out.

And, you know, for me, man, it's, yeah, it's absolutely my thing, you know, full on. And my partner is awesome. You know, he's funding the thing and he's fully interested in Jiu-Jitsu. And Rob is a very brilliant guy and somebody who, you know, to bounce ideas off and build with has been an integral part in the business. And, you know, it's really fun, man. It's really cool. and yeah, you know, it's great. Two last quick things before we let you go.

Like I said, you last fought in MMA in 2010. You were a 3-0. You defeated Kazushi Sakuraba. Are you going to fight again? And two, I tried to find your rap videos to play them on this show, and they're all gone. They've all been either deleted or they're now private. What happened to your rap career? Yeah, good question, man.

So, you know, what I want to do is everybody's life, and I believe, and people in general work in cycles. You know, and I have my cycles in my life, and part of my cycle was to make those videos and to do my music in that way. At this point, I'm working on a whole different type and a whole different approach to my music. So I felt like, you know, I didn't have like a major push for my music. I released a couple of music videos, and, you know, I want to move forward and create a new version of my music. And, you know, I want people to have kind of a new experience, you know. So I feel like my music videos were cool, but it's not like, you know,

I'm not a professional, you know, rap star where I'm going to be touring the world right now where everything is about me making sure that, you know, I'm reachable in that, in that, you know, realm. For me, that was a pure artistic expression and an expression of, you know, different thoughts and feelings in my life in that format and that, you know, within that realm.

So it was great, man. But I'm still working on music and, you know, I produce a lot now more than anything, but, you know, I'm very inspired to write music in every way, but it's like I'm always constantly evolving, so I don't want to be limited by a certain, you know, previous concept or previous, so I'm already like, you know, my music and my style and my approach to life is something that's constantly changing. And, you know, I think that's normal. And I think, you know, going with that and creating more music and different music and creating different things, you know,

like I want to make movies and, you know, I'm already experimenting with our webisodes, Jiu-Sitsu connect where we create different, you know, ways of connecting jiu-sitsu to different aspects of life, you know, we have one on rugby, and we have one on, we have one on drifting, and we have one on, what else do we have it on, on fitness, strength and fitness, and we kind of focus on people and their connections and doing jihitsu and how that might help them. And so these are things that, like, you know, I'm expressing myself constantly, artistically, you know, with Metamoris, for me, it's a complete artistic expression. What about the fighting?

Are you going to fight again? Again, yeah, so fighting for me is another form of expression of art, you know, and jujitsu is an art, and I'm an artist, you know, at heart. And for me going in there is this complete spiritual journey and experience and being able to... Is that a yes? Is that a yes? Will you fight again? Yes. I will fight again. All right. All right. Absolutely. Good. I would like to do something really big, you know, like, do one fight that's just like, why is he doing that? You know, what? He was he fighting that person for. Good. And I'd like to see you and your brothers compete in MetaMorris, too. It's time that we see that as well. Maybe you, brother versus brother. Who knows? Everybody would love to see that, right? That would be very fun. To me, Halleck, you always be a G and a Gee. Don't ever forget that. That's how I feel about you. You're doing great stuff. Good luck to you. It's June 9th. It's Metamores Pro Jiu-Jitsu Invitational. It's at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. If you are not in that area at that time, you could go to Metamoros.com. You could order the

pay-per-view for 1995. The production is top-notch. It is a perfect stream as far as eye-paper-view goes. And the tickets, if you want to go to them, are on sale on ticketmaster.com. Good luck to you. We'll talk to you before the event, after the event, all that good stuff. Happy to support it, even though it's not MMA. There's a huge connection there, of course. And I wish you nothing but the best of luck, Halle. Thanks, Ariel. Thanks, man.

All right, there he is. Halleck, Gracie, joining us. Great to have him on the show. We wish him nothing but the best of luck with the Meta Morris Pro, number 2, June 9th in Los Angeles. Okay, let's move along now. One of the true pioneers, as I said, of the women's MMA game is up next.

And I said earlier this year on UFC Tonight, actually it was the last show of the year of UFC Tonight, 2012, I said the story of 2013 will be the rise of the women's division in the UFC and their explosion and how the fans will just fall in love with these fighters. And thus far, five months in, it looks like I'm spot on.

It looks like I nailed that one. Let's talk to Julie Ketzee about that. Julie, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing great. So did you ever foresee this? Because we've had three fights in the UFC thus far. Of course, the Ronda fight, Misha Tate, Katzenegano, and then we just had Sarah McMahon. Every time they fight, the women fight, the crowd is on their feet. They seem more engaged. The fights are fun. They're exciting. We're seeing finishes. You're coming up very soon, July 27.

We'll talk about that. But did you see this coming? Did you see the fans falling in love with the women's division like they had in the UFC? You know, I actually, I think I'm one of the very few that did have a lot of faith as this would happen. When you, fans fall in love with, I guess, sincere fighting and people who are absolutely completely committed to it. And so far, you know, the far the women's fights, you just see these women who just go out there, they sincerely want to throw down, they want to rip each other's heads off. And I think that's what fans connect you the most in fighting. And, you know, I think that there's a lot of honesty that's going on there. So you were kind of on the shelf, right?

You've been battling some injuries. That's why you're fighting in July. What exactly have you been dealing with? I tore my left labrum, and it was a pretty severe tear. It was during the tape fight. I guess I based on it funny or something, and it just ripped all the way through. And so I had to have it repaired. I had like eight anchors put in my arm and all these strange things.

So I was kind of on the shelf. I wasn't allowed to train for six months. And luckily, I guess, the U.S. had enough faith in me to bring me on board anyway, and so I'll be fighting in July. How do you feel now? I feel great now. You know, I have to train my body to train again. So it's hard, but I have a lot of time to get into this and to get a full camp.

So I'm actually very fortunate. I got this much notice on the fight. And, of course, you're fighting Jermaine, Darren Dami, July 27th. That is a pretty significant card for you, gals, I could say, because there are two women's fights on that card, and that is the first time in UFC history. We're seeing a lot of first. And I like the fact that it's almost like, okay, now it's no longer a celebration

when there's a women's fight on the card. It's just you deserve to be there, and there you are, and it's often the most exciting fight on the card. I'm wondering, though, because of your injury, has it been tough to sit there and see some other people, you know, get in in the octagon before you? Like, have you been getting a little antsy to get in there? Yeah, I have been getting very antsy. You know, in my head when I first started fighting, I always saw myself as being the first, you know, in the first female fight in the UFC, and it just didn't happen that it was me, but the women, Liz Carmuch and Ronda Rouse did an amazing job. And again, I was slightly jealous of Kat Zimbano fighting Misha because I really, really want to rematch Misha. But I think that things unfolded the way they needed to unfold, and it makes me hungry for the next opponent.

So, you know, I have Jermaine in front of me, and she's one of these people that I actually looked up to when I was a kickboxer. And so the fact that I get to battle her now, like having matured as a fighter, it's kind of exciting. And I think things happen the way they needed to happen for me. It's good that I don't, I guess, blow my load right away and, like, freak out. like, yeah, yeah, it's me, it's me, I'm going, you know, and instead have to sit there and watch and watch how these women, you know, how they perform, how they handle media, and, you know, just learn from their examples. Did you think there was a chance you wouldn't be brought over based on how you responded

a couple of questions ago? It sounded like you were happy to get the opportunity, but you weren't sure if you would get there 100%. Yeah, I wasn't sure at all. I had two losses in Strike Force. You know, ZUFA policy usually, they cut people after two losses. Now, I will say that my fight with Tate was an incredible fight. Like, you know, not to see my own horn, but it was a great fight.

Like, you know, even Dana White pointed out that it was. And I thought it was great. I feel like now I'm coming into my own as a fighter, but I would completely have understood if they didn't take me on. You know, I personally think I believe in the – or I belong in the UFC. I believe I have a place there, and I'm going to do great things there. I believe I'm going to be the champion someday. But, you know, I'm not the one who makes those choices.

That's the higher up. So, and I totally would have understood if they're. didn't bring me over. I'm honored that they did. You mentioned being excited about fighting Germain. You look at your record, 16 and 11, she's 3 and 2. Does she deserve to be fighting you? Is she on your level? Is this a fair fight? No, it's completely a fair fight. She's had over 50 kickboxing fights. I know that, but as far as MMA is concerned. Well, as far as MMA is concerned, again, I'm on a two-fight losing streak and what, you know, what better fight to build somebody off of than a veteran who has quite a few losses, you know,

for an up-and-comer in this particular sport, it would be a great win for her. Now, it's not going to happen. She's not going to beat me. I'm going to win. But, you know, in terms of building a fighter, it's not a bad fight for her to take it all. So you look right now at who's out there as far as I want you to put in,

and we're going to get to that in a second. You're sort of analyst hat on because I think you've done a fantastic job with Invicta. You look right now who's out there in the UFC as far as threats to Ronda Rousey's throne. Right now, excluding yourself, who has the best chance to be? her? At this time, you know, I think Katzen Gano's going to give her a pretty good run for her money, excluding myself, because I really think I'm going to be the one to take the title. I would say of people that are signed, I think Sarah Kaufman would do very well in a rematch against her. You know, the first time she froze, I don't think that would happen again. She's a very,

very determined person, and I don't think she would, you know, she would allow that to happen again. But, you know, I, and Misha Tate did very well against her. I wouldn't, you know, that against her. But I think everybody's eyes, and I think the question everybody's mind really is Sarah McMahon. I think Sarah McMahon being a former Olympian, you know, being somebody who's been exposed to professional sports as long as, as Rhonda has. And I think that Sarah McMahon is probably going to be one of the people who will give her the most of a challenge. It's interesting. Most challenge, I don't know if that was right. No, no. I got you, man. It's interesting, you didn't mention Alexis Davis, because a lot of people think considering her ground game,

she could have a good shot. You don't think so? you know actually i i honestly wasn't thinking about alexis davis just at this time just because she already has a fight scheduled but that does make sense i was kind of thinking because sarah doesn't have a fight coming up and and uh and uh both sarah don't have fights coming up that are scheduled but you know alexis davis you know provided she you know she does well against rsyx and i would think she would deserve the next title shot and we have some time right we have some time because ronda's only going to fight in december so i think things will have to play out between now and then and it's It's May now, so we have seven months or so before she fights.

So you're kind of hoping that no one knocks her off before you get a shot. How far away do you think you are from fighting Ronda Rousey? Oh, I'd say I'm three good victories away from that. Okay. I think that, you know, provided things go well on this fight, I would really like to call out the winner of Karmouche Tate. And then, you know, see how that plays out. And then, you know, see what happens after that. I think I would match up well against McMahon as well.

So, you know, it would be really interesting. I think that would be an interesting fight. Like, I'd like to have a shot at her. But, you know, first thing for it, I mean, Germain is what's taking up my mindset right now. But if I were to, like, plot things out as, you know, as a good, I guess, ladder to get to her, I would say that it would be, you know,

if I get through this fight, then winner of Karmus-Kade, if I get through that fight, then I would probably, I would think Big Man would be the next step and then, and then rowdy. Well, I like that plan. And, you know, when you talk about the rise of the women's division in the UFC, you have to give a nod to Invicta, Because what they've done since they've arrived recently has really, not so much like a feeder league,

but it's almost like when you watch an Invicta fight, it's the appetizer to the next big UFC event with a women's fight on it because the cards have been great, the action has been great, they've been building stars, they're building the right kind of champions. Everything's working for them right now as far as the product goes. We don't know much about the financial situation. That's a discussion for a different day, but part of that story is that you've done a fantastic job on the mic, on the call. Morrow, King Moe, it's just a nice little team that you guys have there. Did you know you had that in you that you could be such a great broadcaster?

No, first of all, thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it, especially coming from you, given your experience in this field. That really makes me happy that you say that. But no, I had no idea. Before the first convicted, when Shannon called me, I was freaking out. I was completely nervous. I was like, I don't think I can do this. I always sound like I'm on crack when I'm speaking on the microphone.

I'm way too enthusiastic. I'm over the top. I get, you know, crazy when I speak. And Greg's like, I don't know anybody, Greg Jackson, my coach. He's also my mentor in the sport. And he said, I don't know anybody who spends as much time watching female fights as you do. He said, you know, all of these women, you know, their styles. And you've spent so much time analyzing them when you're speaking to your teammates, you're speaking to me. He's like, why wouldn't you want to share that with everybody? And I, honestly, I think another, you know, reason for this is that Maro Renalo has just been, such a big mentor to me as well. You know, he really, really helped guide me as to where the conversation is going and, you know, and then I can look at Mo and be like, well, I don't know what this move is wrestling. And he, you know, immediately can call it out. And then he can reference some fight that happened in boxing in the 17th century that I've never heard of that relates to the fight.

We're watching that. Like, he's so smart. So, you know, I've been surrounded by incredibly smart people who have taken very good care of me within broadcasting and, and within, you know, the team that I'm on. So I've just been really, really lucky. And how about those face-off videos? And I've said this before. I feel like Invicta, and my pal Casey, who works with me on the videos and has been sort of my partner in crime, EKC on Twitter, that people may have seen me giving him shoutouts, works with you on this as well.

But the videos, the product, the stuff that you guys put out online, as far as Invicta goes, the candy, if you will, leading up to the fight is brilliant. And it's shocking that more promotions don't do this. And you're a big part of that. Those those face-off videos, particularly the one with Beck Hyatt before her fight, they're just great. What's it like for an active fighter, though, because we've seen them in boxing with the Max Kellerman's of the world. You're an active fighter. You know these girls. There's tension there, but you have to put your broadcasting hat on, and you have to steer the conversation in the direction that is interesting for the viewer. How do you like doing that?

Well, it's terrifying. It's time. And I was that it is. You do a great job. I'll say, oh, thank you. Well, I will say this about Casey. He is incredible, and he makes me look good. Like, I make a lot of mistakes, and his editing skills are great. Like, if I couldn't even speak English, he would make me look good doing that. Like, he's just so brilliant at it. But I will say that, you know, I don't actually feel a lot of tension with the 135ers,

with the girls in my way class. You know, and I'm like, oh, I could be fighting this girl, and I could be fighting this girl. But it could be just because of the women that we've interviewed so far in the Bantamovie. division in those face-off. I've either faced them before or I know them personally or we've all just because a lot of them are vets like me. We've just experienced so much that we kind of have a camaraderie that we can turn on and off within, you know, the context of fights. But I will say the straw weights, the 115ers, there is so much tension in the room every single time. And I honestly want to throw down. Like after the very first one we did with Carla Sparza and

Beck Hyatt, I wanted to start throwing chairs and jumping around. Like I was so tense after that one. I was so built up as a fighter. And then this last one was insane, where they just, they wanted to kill each other. Yeah. And I don't know how to explain it, but like those two girls like detention, it was, it was so palpable. It was so insane. Like I was trembling. I was just like, I was ready to fight and I didn't know who to fight. I'm not in my weight class. Like, I wanted to punch the camera. So it was, it was really exciting. I think it's good for me as a fighter, not just as an analyst, not just learning and going through the experience of dealing with different people's temperaments and emotions and bringing that out in them. But as a fighter, it's really good for me, too, because it helps me learn how to handle myself in serious, I guess, situations of drama and tension.

So it's a really good learning experience for me. You know, in the last few months, as Women's of May has been getting more attention, we've seen these sort of recap videos, I'll recap, sort of historic videos about the rise of women's M.A. The history of women's M.A. A lot of people have done them. The UFC even did one. And any time you put one of these out or you see one of these, there is always your fight against Gina Krano,

the first ever Elite XC show in February of 2007. And it couldn't have been a more perfect fight as far as introducing women's MMA to the masses here in North America. What do you remember from that? And when that ended and you guys embraced, did you think that you had done something special that could have really got the ball rolling on where we are today? You know, I think that the specialness of that fight is that it was a very pure fight.

And what I mean by that is, Gina and I just wanted to fight. I really wasn't aware of the impact that it was going to make before the fight. I was aware of it afterwards. And from a personal perspective, losing that fight was the best thing that could have ever happened for my career, ever. If I had won that fight, I never would have changed anything, and I never would have joined Team Jackson. and I never would have understood my strength and my power as an individual in this sport. But, you know, in the impact of it, Gina's just, she's such a good fighter.

She's such a strong fighter. And being able to make history with her like that is an experience, I think, that really bonded us. I don't approach fights. I'm very, very competitive. But I don't approach fights as necessarily a personal thing beyond what I want to do and what I want to show to people, what I want to prove about myself. And I want to destroy the other person, but afterwards, I really, you know, you could put a gorilla in front of me and I want to fight them. Like, I just, for me, fighting is it's not, it's not me trying to kill the other person.

It's me trying to kill whatever demons I have and just putting them on the other person. And Gina, she kind of understood that. Like, after that fight, she actually put a card under my hotel room, which I didn't see until the next day, just thanking me for the fight. Wow. I mean, she's classy as hell. I love that girl. and, you know, just thanking me for the fight and thanking me for helping make history, you know.

And, I mean, I just love her to death. And I feel like we fought against each other to accomplish something together, if that makes any sense. Absolutely. It makes total sense. Yeah. And, you know, it's not, that's just one drop in the bucket. Like, it was a significant moment in the sport. Liz Karmouche Ronda Rousey was a huge moment in the sport. There's always going to be these kind of these moments that you build from.

And you can't necessarily, like, as a fighter, you know, I look back at that fight and, you know, like I said, losing it was the best thing in the world for me. I hate losing fights. I look back and I was like, oh, I would have taken this and this and this. But at the same time, just being able to contribute in that small way to more people training, to more, you know, more women getting involved and deciding this is what they want to do. That to me, that means the world to me. And I'm just unlucky as hell.

I got to be there. Do you think we'll ever see her back in the cage? I don't know. I think she has a passion and a love for fighting, but I think that her life is taken on a pretty significant direction with the acting and stuff. I don't know. Like, you know, I know she still loved it.

I just don't know if that's where she wants to go. Yeah, I kind of agree. Right now I don't think it'll ever happen. I know you were at the tryouts, which is another big part of this story. Ronda Rousey, Katzengano, they're going to be coaches on the next season of the Ultimate Fighter, which debuts September 4th, on the brand new Fox Sports One channel. I know you were there.

You can't give away too much, and there have been rumors about, you know, who made the cut, so to speak. But is there one name, you know, we know about the Shane of Bazelers and the Tara La Roses, they tried out, and, you know, the rumors are pretty good in their favor as far as at least getting a chance?

But is there one name out there, a person out there that we're not talking about that we may not have seen on a major stage that you think could really make an impact, given this new opportunity of having women fighting in the UFC? Um, you know, I, I feel like if I answer that with a specific name, I could be betraying anyone. Okay. Okay.

Because, you know, just revealing, like, what I know about them, what I don't know. Um, so I, I would just kind of prefer not to answer that, but I will say that the women that are going to be chosen are going to be very, very good. And it's going to definitely be worthwhile to watch it. And, you know, the Shane of Bailers and the Terlerosis of this world, like, they're certainly not finished in this sport. And, you know, I hope to see great things out of them. By the way, what's it like having Tara at the Jackson's camp in New Mexico? She's so fun. She's so fun. It's so fun.

It's somebody who, like, we have, like, the same root in a lot of ways. Like, we've been through so many of the same experiences. And I make fun of her all the time because she beat me in a fight in, like, 2005 or 2006. I don't remember what it was. And we fought Pride rules. And she busted my nose and she faced down to me during the fight. And it's like, I give her so much crap because she's so sorry about it. I didn't want to hurt.

Like, I just, you know, I was just trying to win. And she can't remember that she was stomping on my face and stuff. And it's just, it's so fun. Like, I love giving her crap. She's an awesome, awesome person. She's a great training partner, too. You know, in your early days, you fought for hook and shoot. And there are some who banged the drum that say, you know,

when you talk about the history of women's MMA, particularly in this country, you could talk about Elite XC and Strike Force and Gina Ronda and now the UFC. But Jeff Osborne, who, you know, the brainchild of hook and shoot, It doesn't get the respect that he deserves, and he put on a lot of these women's fights before it was cool to do so. Do you agree? I think there's something to be said for that. You know, I try to honor Jeff as much as I can and give him shout-outs and thank him for giving me my start. I do think that definitely credit should always be shown to him and for the hook and shoot for starting at all.

I also don't think that we should ignore our history as women of the sport, but we also shouldn't disrespect what's happening in the future and what's going on now. So I think there's a balance. I think you have to pay honor to the people that came before you, and I think that you definitely have to keep your eyes open to the people that are ahead of you. And the future looks very bright with Invicta and the UFC now and your future as well. July 27th, UFC on Fox number 8. Julie Kedzi makes her long-awaited UFC debut against Germain, Darandami.

Looking forward to it. Good luck in training. Good luck in the fight and continued success with the broadcasting work. You're doing great stuff. I'm not just saying that because you're on the show. I truly mean it. It's a pleasure listening to you. Happy to finally have you on the show here, Julie.

Thank you so much. I'll learn how to use Skype next time, I promise. It's a deal. Thank you, Julie. We appreciate it. There she is. Julie Kedzi is stopping by. Great to have her on.

She's been in the sport for a very long time since 2004, and finally she will get a chance to fight in the UFC in just a couple of months. Okay, let's move along now. As I said at the top of the show, every few months or so, I get the same question on Twitter. Fans are asking me, happen to Brian Bowles? Why don't we hear from Brian Bowles? When's Brian Bowles going to fight next? When is Brian Bowles going to do an interview? Well, my friends, we finally got him on the show.

I've been searching all over the world for him. Really, I've been asking so many people to get him on the show. We finally got him. He is fighting May 25th against George Rup, and we are honored. We're excited to have him on the MMA hour right now. Brian, how are you? I'm doing great, man. How are you? I'm doing great. I got to ask you off the top. Where have you been? We really haven't heard from you since your fight against your eye at UFC 139 year and a half ago. Where did you go? Oh, I've been around.

I tried to get on the Atlanta card, and, you know, that was not able to happen, I guess, because Canada card fell through. And then I tried to take some time off. And, you know, and when I tried to come back, I kept her to. my back. I got staff twice and I got lazy again. And, you know, before I knew it, man, I'd been out for a year and hadn't, hadn't did anything. But I've been around. I've been trying back training hard since about October, November. And you've remained, and I know you're not the kind of guy who

seeks, you know, the attention and the media and whatnot, but you've remained very quiet. I mean, have you done any kind of media in the last year and a half? Because I haven't found anything. No, nothing at all. I haven't. It's pretty much like, everybody stays so busy with the next fight coming up. It's not like it used to be, you know, three or four years ago. People was always wanting to do interviews, whether you had a fight coming up or not. But it seems like more now that it's like if you don't have a fight coming up, you know, you just kind of, it's just a little more quiet.

So you say that, you know, you had the injuries. We'll get that in a second, but you got a little lazy. I mean, when you talk about getting lazy, how long are we talking for? I might be out for a month or two. But my problem is like I've always had problems with my back. And when I sit out like that and I try to come back, I just got to come back so slow to get my back conditioned to it that if I don't, I'll hurt myself, you know,

and that actually happened to me. So I just would try to come back too fast and then I would end up hurting my back and then it would put me down for another month. You know, so then before you know it, man, you've been out five, six months without doing anything just from trying to take off a month, too. And these injuries, were they serious enough that you consider not fighting anymore? No. I mean, you kind of get down on yourself, you know, when you're not training, and you just happen to lay around, and you're like, man, I don't know if I want to do this, you know, just, I guess it's sort of like just been depressed because you're a fighter and you can't train, you're not fighting, and you're not making money, and you're not making money. You know, like you said, not doing interviews, you're not doing anything.

But, no, as soon as I got training hard again, I realized how much I love it, man. And this is where I belong, this is what I want to do. How does someone who hasn't fought in a year and a half who makes a living doing this, how do you survive? Where are you making money? I haven't been. I've just been the money that I acquired. Like, I don't really live an extravagant lifestyle, man. drive an old used truck when I bought it.

A truck, I bought a used truck, you know, and I just rent. And I invested some money and some properties and stuff, and that's paying a little bit. But, you know, other than that, and I've just been living off what I have. And I've been teaching some classes and doing private here and there. But, you know, any substantial amount of money I haven't really been having coming in. How close to 100% as far as your health is concerned are you right now? I'm 100% now. I mean, actually the time off gave, you know, like, you acquire these just little,

little nagging injuries when you're on the ground all the time. If you're on the ground, it's solid for a year, and you've got three or four fights in that year, but you've got, you're like, wrist will be hurting, your rib will be hurting, you know, your knee. And, you know, I had all those little injuries that was just nagging at me. And, you know, all those are gone now. So it may have did me some good. You know, I'm 100%. I feel really good.

I'm more motivated in the gym than I have been in a long time. I feel really good right now. Why is that? Do you think the time off reinvigorated you? I do. I think I was just, sometimes when I was going in the gym, and I was just like, it wasn't fun to me anymore, and I started doing this because out of fun, you know,

I didn't start doing this thing like, yeah, I want to fight in the UFC, this is what I want to do. You know, I just started doing it for fun. and then, you know, when it became my job, and all the pressure got on me, it quit being so much fun, you know, and just the grind of it, you know, that little bit of break,

you know, just got me refocused, man, and I really enjoy it now. I'm back to where I used to be. I just, I really like training again. What's interesting is, and this is, you know, a credit to how good of a fighter you are, but maybe a credit to how shallow the division may be

at this current time. You're still in the top ten. People still consider you. in the top 10, even though you haven't fought in a year and a half. And I think a winner two, you're very much in the mix because the guys who are at the top right now, you haven't fought, particularly the Hennon Burroughs of the world and Dominic Cruz in the UFC. So do you think that you know, you fight one or two more times in the UFC you do well, those feelings could come back because the pressure is going to come back.

The spotlight is greater now in the UFC. Are you afraid that you may get a little burnout like you did, you know, a year and a half or so ago? No, because now I realize what it's like without it, you know, and I don't want to feel that again. You know, I realize, you know, when all that's gone and, you know, like I said, I was just sitting in her house doing nothing that, you know, I need to be out there fighting, and now that I'm back, I realize that, you know, it was just stupid of me to be getting lazy like that. And I think it just got me refocused, you know. So right now as far as your fighting future is concerned, you have this fight against George Rube. How far away in your mind, have you even thought of that?

How far away do you think you are to be involved in that discussion of fighting for the title? I probably say at least have to win three fights. And that would depend on how well I do. And if I go out there and knock everybody out in the first round, you know, it's going to come a lot quicker than me winning decisions. So it's just on who my opponents are and how I performed during them, but I would say it's at least going to take me three fights. Were you aware that so many people were asking about you?

It was amazing. Particularly around the Hennon versus Michael McDonald's fight, and the division was very much in the news. People kept wondering, where is Brian Bowles? Why isn't he being talked about? Why doesn't he have a fight? Did you know about all this? You know, I've heard about it,

But I've just been staying off Twitter and off Facebook. I just haven't really been on there much. But, you know, my friends would all tell me, and I would hear at the gym, and people I'd be on private widths, they would be asking me, or if I'd go out somewhere, and I'd run into a fan or something, they'd be asking me all these questions. But, you know, I really haven't been reading it,

but, you know, I've heard about it a little bit. Why did you decide to stay away from all that? I don't know. Sometimes I just get tired of all that. There's a lot of nonsense on there. But I realize it's part of the game, and you've got to do it. You got to make yourself more famous. But if I had my choice, I would just fight, you know, and wouldn't never have to worry about that. But I know it's part of the game, and I've got to do it more. Do you miss the WEC days when, at least before he became the champion, you could fly under the radar a little bit? But, you know, it's like I was, it's kind of give and take, man.

He's like, yeah, I like just being able to cruise around and do whatever I want and go out and just not being bothered. But then again, you know, like you kind of like being recognized sometimes. And you know, you make more money when you're more famous. So, you know, there's a give and take there. How do you, I mean, I'm sure you've watched some of these fights. What do you think about what Henne Brow is doing? It's done good, man. At first, I was just like, you know, I wasn't quite sold on him, man.

He's been tearing people up, finishing people. So, I mean, you can't not respect somebody if they're competing the way he is. You know, you go in there underestimating somebody like him, you'll get him getting knocked out or submitted. You had an exciting fight against Dominic back in WCA. Unfortunately, you came out on the losing end. He has been out for a very long time due to injuries as well. if they fight to unify the belt, who you favoring? If they fight each other to unify the titles,

who do you think wins? If Cruz hasn't been out of year, I would say I'd be leaning more towards him, but now if he just straight come back for the title of fight, I'd put my money on Barrow. That's interesting. Now, you know, part of your history, at least in Zufa, some might say that you have been injury prone.

Do you think that's fair? Yeah, I have a little problems. It's mostly my back, man. It's just I have two degenerative and two bulging discs, and I've got to really stay on top of rehab in it and strengthen it. And if I just get lazy on that a little bit, then it puts me down. And I just got to stay on top of it. I mean, really, even if I'm taking time on,

I've got to stay on my back and keeping my back strong, and then usually it's not an issue at all. What about the hand? Because if memory serves me correct, it kept injuring as well. Yeah, I broke my hand three times. But the last time I broke it was Cruz, and I've fought three times since then. I've been training since then.

I've really tried to work on punching technique and trying to not, like, the reason I broke it a cruise, man, I just threw an untechnical punch. I hit him with the side of my hand and just broke my point of your fingers knuckle off. I've been trying to take off my power and realize I don't have to hit everybody as absolutely as hard as I can. And, you know, it's just, I don't like sitting out all that time, you know. And just to be clear, what exactly is the medical issue with your back? What are you dealing with? two bulging and two degenerative disc in my L like L4 down on the lower part of my back

pushes on my sciatic and that's a big issue and is there a chance you may need surgery oh I'd really rather not do that you know I've heard a lot of bad stories about all that but like I was saying man if I'm doing all my stability work and all my prehab and just really staying on strengthening my core, it's really not an issue at all. And I don't go in. I can't go in and squat 300 pounds. That's just never going to happen for me. But as long as I'm staying on strength in my back, it's really not an issue. So George Rup looked good in his return to Bantamweight in his last UFC fight. He's 6'1. It's amazing that the guy could even make Bantamweight, considering how tall he is in his frame. You're 5'7. What do you have to do to

sort of neutralized his size advantage that he'll have against you on May 25th? I mean, it's the same old story against, you know, shorter guy, I guess, tall, tall, long guy. You know, I can't stay out at the end of his reach and eat his jazz. He likes to throw them head kicks. You know, I got can't eat those. I just got to be in close where I can connect and, you know, and taking him down, and scoring takedowns, and just, you know, he likes to get you going back at the end of his jab and kicks

and keeping you at that range. I've got to close the distance and get takedown. Well, Brian, it's good to have you back. It's good to hear from you again. I'm really looking forward to this fight. I think it's a really fun fight. It's UFC 160, May 25th later on this month in Las Vegas on Memorial Day weekend.

The return of Brian Bowles versus George Rup a very important fight at 135 pounds. Good to have you. back, Brian. Thank you very much for calling in, and we'll see you in a couple weeks in Las Vegas. Yeah, thanks for having me on. There he is. Brian Bowles, the former W.C. Bantamoy champion, if you recall, a few years back, his knockout of Miguel Torres at W.C. 42. One of the highlights of that year, that was a fun weekend. It was UFC 101 on Saturday night, and then there was a WC event in Las Vegas on Sunday night, and a lot of people weren't giving Brian a shot in that fight,

went out there and knocked out Miguel Torres, and that was kind of the beginning of the end of Miguel Torres in Zufa. And another highlight that I remember about Brian Bowles, an amazing little sort of fact about his career. Fought Damasio Page at WC.35, August of 2008, submitted him with a guillotine choke at three minutes and 30 seconds of the first round. fought Damasio Page again in his UFC debut in Louisville, Kentucky, submitted him with a guillotine choke at three minutes and 30 seconds of the first round.

Exact same time, exact same round, exact same opponent, three years later. That's amazing. That's something that you could put in your cap, a feather, if you will. Good to have him back. Thanks to Brian for stopping by. All right, let's move along now. we've got a very interesting guest coming up who is very excited to come on the show, I presume. He has been tweeting a whole lot over the last few days.

He's involved in a bit of an ugly legal battle with Beltor fighting championships, Beltor MMA, as they are calling themselves right now. He is the former Beltor lightweight champion. He is Eddie Alvarez. Eddie, how are you? John McElwreau. It's good to have you on the show. So, Eddie, as I said, last few days just kind of out of nowhere, You just went on a Twitter rampage.

Your Twitter handle is E. Alvarez Fight. If anyone wants to check in and see what you've been tweeting about, and you just kind of exploded about this situation that has been ongoing for a very long time. We've covered it at length. You've been on the show. Bjorn's been on the show. You're back on the show now. You tried to come in when he was on.

He didn't want to talk to you. Where did this come from? Why did you feel like you needed to sort of open this up again and get the people listening to you? Well, it wasn't, I haven't been on Twitter for a little while. I actually, I needed to, I sold an investment property recently, and the property sold a lot faster than what I thought. And I'm transitioning down to Florida. So I'm having my old tenant that was in the house that I sold moved into my home. And I wasn't ready for him.

So I had to go downstairs. I took a sledgehammer to the garage, and I knocked my whole garage out. I put tile down, and I made the downstairs of the living area, so my tenant had somewhere to stay. And I've been doing that construction project. I've been on it for about six, seven weeks, 14 hours a day on my own, to get it done just so I can make the transition that I'm about to make and get that house. that I need to make. So I apologize for being absent from everything, period. And when I did come up finally from the project and they were able to breathe,

you know, as soon as I was able to get back to like my everyday life, I heard that via common with people at Spike where trying to get my charges thrown out. They went to the judge. They went before the judge and tried to get my charges thrown out. And luckily the judge was competent enough to tell them, no, I have that, you know, I have legitimate claims. I have a legitimate case, and that, you know, they're not going on. So they're, I believe they were trying to get them thrown out, and that was denied by the judge. How did you find out that they were trying to do that?

My, I have a friend who's also part of my management team. He called me when they did it, and my attorney called it and said that they tried. try to get all my charges thrown out. The judge said that there's not a chance, no way. It's Monday, May 6th at 2 o'clock. It's 2.03 p.m. Eastern Time. Where do we stand right now as far as your fighting future? What is the latest on this case?

The latest on the case, I believe that we're going through the discovery phase. I don't know a whole lot about, you know, law and what's going on here. But I believe it's a discovery phase. or they ask us a bunch of things. We ask them a bunch of things. We're obligated to answer them. They're obligated to answer them. And that's where we're at, and we're trying to get a trial date.

And I was told by my attorney that he'll know something within the next week or so. So I'm waiting on a trial date. Did your attorney tell you what kind of timetable you're looking at? In other words, let's say this thing plays out as long as it can. Regardless of whether or not you'll fight in the UFC or Beltor, just when you can fight again. Do you have any idea? No, I really don't.

But, I mean, I was told that if someone, you know, I was told by a number of legal, a number of lawyers that if a promotion was willing, that I can fight tomorrow. That Bellator wouldn't necessarily win an injunction case. Really?

that if a promotion was willing to take me on and invite me, and I go fight, that they wouldn't win them in Junction case, that there would be no way. So, I mean, that was interesting to hear. But, you know, my hands are tied now. I'm trying to do everything the right way. And it just seems, you know,

the people from Spike and Viacom are getting in the way. And I believe they had every intention on doing this anyway. You know, it was clear how it's all playing out, and the things that are going on, it's becoming more clear than me that they had every intention on blocking me from going to the UFC from the very beginning.

How is that becoming clear? One big part of it was when the UFC sent their contract all for over for me to fight the champion, Ben Henderson, Belvoir right away, change the structure of their whole organization.

Now, you didn't have to go through a tournament to fight a champion. Was that just coincidence or was it because the UFC put it in my contract, you know, that I got to fight their champion? So right away, the ultra puts out, oh, now you're allowed to fight the champion. I've been asking for that rematch since the fight happened. I've been asking to fight Mark Chandler and get that rematch. They said, no, no, no, you can't have the rematch.

I had to go through the tournament first. and then right away, when I get a contract offer from another company, saying I can fight their champion, Belator, and the, well, I think Viacom took over, whatever, they say, oh, well, we're going to change the whole structure of our company. No longer do you have to go through the tournament. Now a champion, former champion can fight a champion. Right. So you think that's in response to your deal.

You mentioned that... 100% was in response to the deal. So how much of this is Viacom spike in those guys, and how much of this is Bjorn? Because at first, it seemed like it was the sort of heat was directed towards him. But lately, like I said on Twitter, you keep saying that this has nothing to do with Bjorn. He has no more power. So in your opinion, is Bjorn not the one standing in the way? Is someone else standing in the way of you getting this deal done?

No, no, it's not Bjorn. I believe it was Bjorn because that's the one I always used to deal with. I always use the deal with Bjorn. I spoke with him on the phone, text message, everything. But it's beyond him. You know, I went over Bjorn's head, spoke with Kevin K. And spoke with these guys and told him exactly how I feel and told him what was going on in his own company. What they said?

I got a too bad. We're sorry. I guess it's going to get ugly like Dana said. They actually respond to you and said, too bad. We're sorry. I guess it's going to get ugly like Dana said. not too bad we're sorry but I got that exact quote you can quote me on that

I guess it's going to get ugly like Dana said I got that 100% that's the answer I got so and I said well go ahead all of I'm asking for an opportunity like you had Kevin Kay is the president of a company he worked his way up he worked his way up through the lower ranks got a little bit higher a little bit higher to become president

I said that's all I'm trying to do with my own career, my own life, my own everything, is to work my way up. The same way Bellator started on ESPN Deportes. They moved to MTV2, they moved to wherever they moved to, and then they got to spike. They just moved their way up so they can become as highly ranked as they can. I'm doing the same thing as a fighter, but they're stopping me. So when you tell him now, what does he say? I don't get a response. Oh, you know, too bad.

You know, UFC should have wrote their contract tighter. They should have wrote it tighter than what they did because there's some gray area there, and they're using that gray area to hold me. What's interesting about this is we had Kevin on the show before the spike debut, and he said he had nothing to do with your situation, and it was a sort of Bjorn-Eddie deal, and he was kind of staying out of it. What you're saying here is quite the opposite. So you're saying he very much has something to do with this.

He knows everything that's going on. I stopped speaking with Bjorn because I thought that Bjorn was just a mouthpiece. After a while, I got to feel that Bjorn has less power than what he acts like he has. So I said, you know what, if I can just speak to Kevin, maybe he'll understand. Maybe if I speak to the person that Bjorn answers to, maybe he'll understand me. Maybe he'll get a better grasp on what's going on here, and that this is going to be bad for them, and it's going to be bad for their company. And after telling them, I got no different response.

I got no different response. Actually, since I told them that, I got the opposite reaction than what I thought I was going to. I thought I was going to get a sense of understanding. Yeah. And maybe this thing would get settled, and maybe they would actually, you know, even if it wasn't a point of me, them letting me go and go to the UFC, maybe they would say, okay, we're going to pay them the same thing. thing that he deserves to get paid, that he would have made. But it wasn't even that.

It was no. No, not going to happen. And we, like Dana said, I guess this thing's going to get ugly. Okay, man. When did this happen? When did this conversation happen? I mean, maybe, I mean, I can't be 100% but maybe about two months ago. Okay.

A little more than two months ago. But I haven't been completely. open with, I haven't been completely open with the public because we're still on settlement discussions and I thought that, you know, maybe they would end up doing the right thing. Maybe they would end up compensating me the way that, you know,

that would make a match, you know, but no, it's, you know, not that way. And what I'm willing, what I was willing to settle on, believe me, was nothing compared to what I would have got paid with the UFC. So I'm not being on I'm not being close to unreasonable. I'm being super

fair, and it's nothing. It's like, no, I'm not getting much of no budget. I heard recently that after this initial sort of, you know, news cycle came out about your issue and you guys going to court, that there was

actually discussion about settling that you would get the Chandler fight and that there was an effort being made to make amends here and that you would return to Bellator. Is that what you're saying is, did you guys sit down recently? You had an idea in mind. You threw it out to them. You said you were settling. It wasn't quite what the UFC was making. And still at that point, they weren't in favor of it? 100%. I said yes to the Chandler fight.

So they offered you. They wanted the Chandler fight. They want the Chandler fight. That's what they want. They want Mike Chandler. They want me and Mike Chandler. Because they... I'll give him him Mike Chandler for nothing. They want it for free. You know? It's like, it's unbelievable. I'm like, hey, man, I'll give you the fight. I'll give you what you want.

Just let me go. No. No. You got to, you got to, you got to, it's so frustrating, man. It's so frustrating. So what do you say, Eddie, you're saying when you say, It's like dealing with a woman, you know. You don't quite know.

You're saying you'll give it to them for free. What do you mean by that? You want to give them a one-fight deal. You want to agree to a one-fight deal. You fight the channel fight and then you leave? Yeah, yes, yeah. But what if you're, what if you become the champion? You can understand why they don't want you to be the champion and leave, right?

Yeah, I don't care. I don't care about being a champion. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it a three-round fight. Okay. I don't care.

I don't care about being a champion. I don't care about it. It's way beyond that. I could care less. We can do it a three-round fight. It don't have to be... I've fought a lot of non-title fight. I'll do a non-title fight.

It doesn't matter at this point. But is it safe to say that... I want an opportunity. So when you say that, it's safe to say that at this point right now, that's off the table. And even if they give you the exact same deal that the UFC has given you, considering what has happened in the last few months, that you do not want to fight for Belator anymore, that you are done with them?

No, no, no. If they come the terms and they match, like is agreed in my contract, not match material terms, they match all the terms. Yeah, no problem. No problem, man. I agreed to this. And this is one thing that I keep hearing on Twitter, and I keep hearing people say it's his fault.

He signed the contract. He agreed. You guys are completely right, and I'm not arguing with anybody who says that. But you have to understand. I signed a contract that said that Bellator had to match all the terms when the match in Pierre was coming on. Belator sent me my early release, but they changed the wordage in my early release. They changed the all term to material terms, which has a completely different meeting.

And if I was to sign it, then everyone who's saying that I signed it, and it's my fault, then I would say, you guys, I would agree with it and say I did. I signed something, and I deserve to be going through what I'm going through. But they tried to change the contract in the way. When they gave me my early release, they sent me another contract and changed the words in it and hoped I'd send it back quickly to get to get the release on it. But my management and my attorneys caught them trying to change the words in the contract from material terms, from all terms to material terms,

because they know they can't match all terms. They know that. They know they don't have the same opportunity as the U.S.C. They know all this. So they tried to make that small change to make their case, basically a lock. That would have made their case a lock. I would have never been able to

go anywhere if I signed that. And they got caught. They got caught in the middle of doing it. Nobody asked Bjorn in the media yet. Nobody is Aspioran. Hey, when you sent Eddie his early release and did him that huge favor, he did him that huge favor of that release.

Why did you change your words of his original contract? why did you change material to all terms? Because that's the match right there. That's what this whole case is about. So the contract that you signed way back when when you started with Beltor, when they wanted to give you the early release to go out and negotiate and get a better deal out there to whichever organization, you're saying they tried to sneak one by you, they tried to change the words of the contract,

hoping that you would sign it, and then they could say, look, it says material terms. Is that what you're saying? Because that seems like a pretty, I don't know, to change a contract that, that wouldn't fly because you'd probably have to date when you signed it, right? That's exactly what happened. My original contract says all terms. Okay. It says that they have to match all terms during the period.

Via Common Spike took over, and they gave me an error release, and then now all of a sudden the new early release says that they only have to match material terms, which I believe they did. they know that's all they can match is the material terms. The win, the show, the whatever, but they can't match Fox.

They can't match the pay-per-view. They can't match the opportunity and the money that I was, that I was going to be given by the UFC. They can't. And that's why they change it. They also would never have to change it. They could have kept the contract the way it was.

So they tried to sneak one by you, and when you caught them, what did they say? They act very nonchalantly and said, oh, no problem, no problem. And still let the error. least go. And I believe what they did was they took a shot

and if it went through then great. There's no way I could argue. But if it didn't, they still have some great area to play with. I think that's what that's what they're thinking was. But you asked them, why did you change a very important part of the contract? And if so,

what was their response to that? I'm sorry? You know what I get? I never get an answer. You know, I never get an answer. I never get a straight answer. They kind of move around it, you know, and start talking about something else. The weather.

It's pretty good. Yeah, it's pretty good how they, how it's, I don't even know. They kind of tricked me. I'm like, wait, did they answer it? Did they not answer it? Kind of. So you never signed it, though,

but they still gave you that, quote, unquote, early release? No, no, I never signed that. You know what they did? I told them to deal with my manager. and they sent the new one to my management, but then sent the old one to me that said all-term, that said material term. So they sent that to my house.

They sent the new one, the one where they change it to you, hoping that you would sign it, but your manager would see it and be like, oh, this, so they gave you two different ones. Yeah, they sent my management to one that said, okay, we made the correct change, which says all-term, and they sent the one that said material terms. directly to my house. Hoping maybe I'd sign it, put it in the envelope, send it back. Wow. But you read it?

Yeah, I read it. I said, hey, I called Glenn. I said, hey, I got the material terms one right here. He said, don't touch it, put it down, don't even. Wow. And when was that? How long ago was that? That was in the beginning of all this, you know, when the articles came out saying

Bell Tour Match. So why are you just saying this now? I said it before. I said this before. About the two different contracts? Yeah, I said this before. But the thing is is that people are forgetting about. They're still arguing that I signed a contract.

I signed a contract, and I'm obligated to that contract. And I agree with you guys. But you can't change a contract in the middle of a contract. They can't do that. They're playing on fair, man. They're playing on fair. They're kicking in the balls, and I'm trying to play by the rules. They're lying to the judge.

They're changing the contracts. I can't play like this. So if I sound bushleg to you guys, I apologize, but they're not leaving me any really choice. I'm not leaving me any choice. If you're not giving me the balls, eventually I'm going to kick in the balls back. Do you get the sense, Eddie, that this has really nothing to do with you, and this has something more to do with the VICOM, UFC relationship, the war, if you will, between Spike and Fox, all that stuff.

that you're just the guy in the unfortunate position to have had his contract come up at this particular time, and they're just using you to mess with each other. Exactly. This is a Viacom thing. This has nothing to do with Spike Bellocor. This is Viacom, you know, doing whatever it is they're doing. And I got that sense exactly when I heard the words, oh, I guess it is going to be, this is going to get ugly, like Dana said. Once I heard that come out of his mouth, I said,

This has nothing to do with me. This is a big, uh, part of my friends is a big dick swing in contest between two, two companies. It has not, it don't have, I have nothing to do with this.

So considering that, why do you even want, even if they match it, why do you want to work for people like that? Cause there's no one else to work for, who else you work for? Who, who else you work for? If they're all the same,

then you work for the guy who's paying the most. Right. Have you, have you, have you talked? No one's different. You work for the person who's going to offer the most benefits. That's it. Every fighter out here needs to worry about themselves, you know? If all them are trying to pull fast ones and do this and do that and try to get the best of you,

then you've got to work for the guys who are going to offer you the most benefits. You really don't have a choice. Does the party you wish, if the UFC just could have offered me a bit of a better deal, this never would have happened, like they kind of put me in this position? No, because I think regardless, this would have happened. Even if they offered you the greatest deal ever? What would have been the greatest deal ever? I don't know, but you're saying regardless.

I mean, if they would have offered you a million dollars a fight, you think Vycom would have matched that? No, no. No, no, no, but, you know, how can you offer me that? Right. You know, that's not, you know, that's crazy talk, you know? They could offer that, but I mean, business-wise, they'd be stupid. But you didn't get as much as Hector Lombard.

No, I didn't get as much as Hector, but, you know, I got a cuttle shot right from the beginning. And at the end of everything, with the paper-view cards I were fighting on, I was offered two pay-per-view cards, which were the George St. Pierre card and the Chalcone card. Do you think, in your professional opinion, me and Mike Kamer would have did the the same amount of pay-per-views? No, obviously not. Okay. I mean, you're talking about a serious difference of money.

Right. Serious difference in money, retirement money. You know, where I can go home and tell my kids, yeah, I've been a pain me ass the last 10, 15 years, and I know this has all been kind of shitty, and I've been leaving and went through this and went through that, but now the investment paid off, you know? It paid off. How's paid off.

You guys can go to college. You can do some cool stuff. You know, like, that's the one, two, three fights in a fightish career where they can say that they're invested time and everything that we did. And how unsecure that this, like, profession is, how we can say, all right, it was worth it, you know? And the one time where you get the opportunity to do that, you know, the company jumps in the middle. Does Zufa know about what's going on? How much do you keep them abreast on the latest developments in this situation? I don't, yeah, I mean, they want to keep abreast they can.

I'm not bugging them with my situation, you know. I don't really look at it, look at it, you know, of like the Zufa anything, you know. They put their business, they put an offering, you know. They didn't want to get involved. I don't think they want to get involved in this stuff. They put an offer in, and they put a good offer in. and it's an offer that I want it. Will you look to fight elsewhere?

You said you could do that and maybe get away with it. Will you look to do that now in the meantime? I don't know, man. I don't know. Right now my back's not against the wall. Like I said, I did really good selling an investment property, and I didn't want to sell it, and I didn't want to use that money to keep me afloat,

but that's the way the situation is going right now. and, you know, I'll do it. I want to fight, you know. I want to fight. I want to get back in a cage and fight. But my hands are sort of tied, you know. I have to do what I'm advised to do with, and I listen to people who are a whole hell of a lot smarter than I am,

and if they tell me, hey, I can go fight or whatever, then I'll go fight. This never happens. You never have to sell that property. They forced you to do something you didn't want to do. Oh, 100%. I need it to sell property in order to stay afloat financially. Like, there's no way I can go, you know, seven, eight, nine, ten months without fighting. That's great.

I'm not making millions of dollars. I've got fired. Me and my wife and three kids, one who's in Catholic school. You know, I got expenses bills like anyone else, just like anybody else. And I don't live extravagantly, man. I'm like, I'm really, I'm really frugal. I don't waste my money. If I do have any voices, I, I spend too much money taking my kids and my wife out doing stuff.

I don't have any, like, you know, crazy expenses. I live according to my pay. Final thing, Eddie, and we do appreciate the time and the candor. When, in your heart of hearts, when do you think you'll fight again? Do you think 2013 is lost, or do you think you'll have a chance maybe at the end of the year? No, I think there's a chance of the end of the year. I really do. All right.

I'm headed to Florida. I really think I'm headed to Florida in a month. I'm already going to start training here in Philly. I got all my, every other obligation out of the way. I got the check from my property. It's in the bank, so now I can just clearly focus on getting ready. So, I mean, if anybody got to fight for me. I'll be ready.

And is there a big date that we're looking at? As far as the court is concerned, is there a date that you're looking at the next step in this process? No, nothing to that. I'll let you guys know immediately, but my attorney said give him a week or so. All right. He is Eddie Alvarez.

We do appreciate it, Eddie. We wish you the best of luck. He's on Twitter. Twitter.com slash EA. Well, it's actually E. Alvarez fight. And he's very active there. Yep. Go ahead.

Ariel, one second. My cousin, Eric, I think he's at EFEC. He made me an app. He made me my own app. Okay. He does. He creates applications for iPhone, things like that. Well, he made me my own app.

So go check my app out. All right. He literally just did it. And it updates itself. There's all the updates on there, videos, everything like that. So check it out. That's cool. We will check it out.

Thank you very much, Eddie. Keep us posted. We appreciate you stopping by. Thank you. All right. There he is. Eddie Alvarez, the first. former Belator lightweight champion.

Ugly situation could get uglier. We do appreciate him dropping some knowledge on us here on the MMA hour. Okay, let's move along. The next big UFC event goes down in less than two weeks. It goes down in Brazil. The main event is former Strike Force middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold, versus our next guest, the phenom, the king of kings, the old lion, the young dinosaur, Vitor Belfort.

He is back on the show. Vitor, how are you? I'm good, Ariel. Thank you for having me, man. It's great to have you, and we apologize for being a little late there. Ugly situation with Eddie Alvres, and he was kind of pouring his heart out to us. I'm sure a veteran like you, you sympathize with him, right? For sure, man.

Especially we trained together in the same team here. Yep. So I feel for him, I really, it's bad, this situation, and it's really, really bad. But, you know, God knows. You know, now it's coming to the end, and I think he's just actually focused on what is ahead of him. much was in the past. As a veteran, as someone who has seen it all in this sport, what kind of advice do you give someone like him?

He's clearly frustrated. You've dealt with all kinds of promoters. You've been everywhere in this sport. What kind of advice can you give him? Just by listening to him, it's just like, you know, you have to surround yourself with people that you can trust and people that can speak to your life. And like you said, be humble, live for his family.

I know he lives for his family. and he has principles, and that's what it's about, you know. One day, we're all going to be histories, and not a lot of guys are going to be remembered because champions is always going to be a new champion, but it's just how you carry yourself and how you see yourself and what's the most important things in your life. You know, this is our job,

but you just keep your integrity and keep focus. don't live flesh and having the right people around you. I think that's the key. You know, worship God first, you know, be faithful for the things you believe and live for that. You know, that's what it is. Be truthful. When you were offered your fight against Luke Rockhold, how much did you know about this guy? Yeah, it's good.

I know he's a young guy and he, you know, he's learning a lot of jichitsu. and kick boxing and good wrestling background. And he, you know, I kind of followed this strike force a little, but not much. But I knew he had pretty good skills, and he trained with a good team. And, you know, I don't pick fights. I accept fights. That's what it is about. You know, he just is a good challenge, you know.

I think it will be a great matchup for me. Your last couple of fights, obviously you recently beat Michael Bisping, now you're fighting Luke Rockhold. It seems like your opponent is flirting with a title shot when he fights you, but you don't get those same terms. Do you think you'll ever get another shot at the title? I think the things that you don't control things. I just trying to don't waste my time and things I cannot control. I respect a lot of UFC. You know, Dana White, he's a promoter.

And that's his job, man. And my job is to be ready, you know, to fight. I was yesterday, man, I was just thanking God that I have a job that I can perform, still perform with my age and with everything I accomplish. That, you know, that I fight for the best fighting organization in the world. And just be thankful, man. And the time will come and just be happy with the things you have.

And, you know, of course, I'm focused on what's next. But it's just living in the present moment, man. You know, tomorrow will take care of himself. It's just living today. And today we'll bring tomorrow, for sure. Luke Rockhold recently did an interview with M.M.A. Fight Corner, and he said this, most of all, I got more heart than Vitor. I think I'm more of a man than Vitor.

What do you make of that? Is he right? I think he's wrong, but, you know, what are going to say, man? People say whatever they want to say, you know. You know, if he doesn't know me, I don't know how he can say that. But we will see, you know. I don't describe, you know, you cannot judge. You cannot, I think it's too arrogant to say you're more of a man.

And I don't know if you know. He doesn't know what a man is, you know. He doesn't have any kids. He doesn't have a wife. And I don't know what he's thinking. You know, he's talking about courage. I don't know what he did in the sport. I think this is disrespectful, you know, the way he thinks.

But it is what it is, man. You cannot control a mouth. It cannot control people. And my conversation with him will be inside a cage. And I'm not going to have to talk. We're going to fight. And that's what it's about. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm.

Don't need to pull anything to anyone. You know, I did a lot of things for the sport, and I'm still doing, and facing these young guys, and I'm bringing the heat, man. You know, I'm bringing. He will come to a jungle. He'll face a lion, man. It's a sport. I cannot control results, but I can control my attitude to the results.

I'm going to win, buddy. That's what I can say to you. You know, he has said a lot about you, and I want to ask you about one of those comments in a second, but do you think in the buildup of this fight that he has crossed the line, has he made this personal, in your opinion? Nothing for me.

I don't fight on that level, you know? I don't even know what he's said, what he's talking. I don't even care, man. You know, that interview is about me, it's not about him. And, you know, whatever he said is on him. You know, words, you know, have power. and I think when you're proud, when you're arrogant, when you cross the line, you've got to deal with what you said, you know.

This can do the same thing. And guess what? You know, people talk, man, you know. People talk and they're trying to promote fights. And now I think Chelsea Sonny kind of letting this, you know, people say, wow, I can do the same thing. And I think you can get attention, you know. I think Charles Sonny has some kids. kids around the blocks.

But it is what it is, you know. Everyone choose a path and everyone choose how they want to describe themselves, you know. I'm glad that I've been able to call attention talking smack and losing disrespectful. Martial arts for me is totally a little respect, and this is a sport. You know, I didn't come from WWF, and I never watch it. I never really kind of enjoying the sport. You know, I like the real thing. You see from me is the real thing.

And I have a lot of respect for my opponents and train hard and fight to win. And that's what it's about. The teacher is about, you know, fight, not talk. After your last fight, it came out that you were on testosterone replacement therapy. Can you explain to us why you need to be on this? It's hard, you know. I cannot explain why you need something. Just the doctors, you know, just, you know, they said that I needed.

And I said, I did everything by the book, you know. I went to the commissions, the UC, and I never hire anything from them, you know. So they knew what I was doing, you know. And I believe everyone has your personal things, you know, and everyone has to do your, my health is my personal life, you know. But they came a lot of people on PRP. They don't tell them, you know, whatever. But my case came out because they got a guy in steroids and they thought it was me.

And then, you know, they just opened the books. But they knew I was doing everything with the boxers with UFC together. They never hired anything and opened up, man, just opened books. with me. Nothing was cheating. I never cheat. You know, everything was by the book, and it is what it is. Dana White said recently that anyone

who's on TRT will have to undergo extra testing leading up to the fight. Have you been involved in that? Yeah, I did. Everything is normal. My ranges are even lower than the normal. You know, I did everything. I should do it, you know. What do they make you do?

You do a blood test, you know, and the day, and you go there and do the test, they check your levels. How often do they make you do that? To just ask, they call and say, oh, you have to go this and have to do the test. No, but how many times have they asked you to do that? Many times. Really? Is it a nuisance?

Yeah. Is it bothersome? Not at all, man. It's good. It's good. I don't need to spend money in the blood work, you know? So you think it's important to do this. You're okay to do that to sort of, because you know, I think it's Yeah Listen man Whatever is good to make the sport Clean

And because It's always like There are people cheating Looking for something You know It's I agree man This is I think

Dana White is doing the right thing You know I think the more we are Because we're going to separate Who's doing the right thing And it's So it's important I think it's important

You know The good doctor doctors around. So it's involved a lot of things. I think this brings the sport in a different level. TRT has become somewhat of an ugly word in our sport. Do you feel like you are being mislabeled a cheater because you're on this? Are you being treated unfairly by the fans in the media? You know, people don't know about it. That's why. I think what they, you know, people like, it's easy men to just talk, you know. It's just easy when you talk bad and when you talk gossip, you know, that's the world, man. That's sell things, sales papers, you know, self-fights, you know.

That's what people love, you know, gossip, you know, talk and this. And they need something to entertain themselves, you know. So I think everyone has to, you know, just live what you like, you know. I don't judge. I don't like it. I don't like to talk bad about people. I don't want to talk about people. I like to focus and doing the right thing for myself and learn and improve, correct my mistakes.

And it's when you point the finger, man, it's forefinger point back to you. So it's just got to be, you know, you've got to be smart and just got to be wise. And just this, I think, is just, just you cannot control it. That's the world's system right now. It's the Babylon system, man. You know, people like it. You know, why don't talk about people, they do TRT and they lose in the first round, you know? Right.

Because, you know, TRT doesn't win fights, man, you know. You know, doesn't win fights. You know, look, Charles Sonny, you know, I mean, he's on TRT and he lost fights in the first, second round. It's not doesn't win fights. You have to have skills to win fights. That's what it is. A lot of guys there are in it, you know. I think they should release everyone there who's in it

because that will be more legitimate in the sport, you know, and people, UFC doing the right thing and passing people. So I think we're on the right path. And if you lose, man, you know, you just accept. Everyone gives excuse, you know. It's a fight sport, man. One win, one lose, and one overcome and win again, and that's what it's about.

Luke also said this in the same interview with M.M.A. Fight Corner about your TRT usage. He said, I think it's a crock of shit personally. I don't understand it. I think it's just crap. But at the same time, if they're not going to punish him, I will. And I believe it hurts you in more ways than it helps you. Do you agree with that? Does it hurt you more than it helps you being on this? I'm glad that he's not my doctor, man. I'm glad that and I don't need to listen to him. You know, it's like, I'm glad, man. I'm glad, man. I'm glad that. I have a good team, good trainers, good, good coaches, good doctors, good people around me, man, and that's what he's about, you know. I listen to the right people. Imagine if I listen to what he said, man. I would be miserable if I listen to my acquaintance. I will be living a miserable life, my friend. There are some who believe that you have to take TRT because of, you know, you've had some other issues with the commissions in the past.

Does this have anything to do with some of those issues in the past? past? I don't know, man. You know, I really, I'm not a doctor. You know, it's hard to tell you what it is and kind of go on that. It's more a doctor's thing and that they know what it was, you know. Like, they know sometimes things happen and you just got to treat it. Like, you don't know when you're going to catch a flu.

You don't know when you're going to catch a something. You know, people don't know when they're going to have cancer or not. They can avoid it. Why they, you know what? So I live a clean life, you know. So if I did something, you know, I'm not ashamed to treat myself. By the way, go ahead. As long as you, just be free, man, you know, be free and just do the right thing, you know.

You just got accepted. By the way, how did you think Chale did against John Jones last weekend? I think, you know, the NBA is going good, man. You know, I'm looking for a good final. What? The NBA is being good. What do you mean? And by the way, if you want to talk NBA...

My NBA, you know, I like Miami Heat. I think he's going to win. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm a Knicks fan. I think the Knicks are actually going to beat the heat in the next round, just to let you know. Yeah, so... You got to see you, man.

Wait, wait, so you weren't impressed, is what you're saying. Yeah, you know, everybody knew what's going to happen. Right. It is what it is, man. You know, you just got to step there, and I think he did, you know. He went after him. But you did much better against John Johnson. He did.

I know it was both the loss, but you almost had him. He was not really in the game. Yeah, I know. Everyone leaves your foot fingerprints. Some, they live in one way, some in the other ones. Some fingerprints are more than the mouth than on the etiquette. So it is what it is, but you just got to judge by it. You can only judge what you see.

Have you been... Have you been annoyed with Michael Bisping? He's accused you of a lot even after the fight. No. What I'm going to think about that guy, man? The guy doesn't respect himself, my friend. Why do you say that? Because when I think the way you talk,

I think the way he perceives himself. And then he comes to my coach, tell Victor I like him. I talk smack, you know. That's the way it is. but he's great. You know, he deserves the win. You just entertain people.

That's his job, man. Did his dad come after you, too, on Twitter? What? His dad, I think, was coming after you on Twitter, too, right? I don't know, man. I don't listen. I'm not a gossip. You're more into that than him.

Everything you tell me, I don't even know. I don't live in that world, but I'm sorry. I cannot answer anything that I don't know. Two more questions, and then we'll let you go, and we appreciate the time very much, Vitor. Always a pleasure. You've been in the sport a long time, but you're only 36. Do you have any idea how long you want to fight for?

How much longer? Tough questions, my friend. You've got to add this kind of question. It's hard, you know. I have passion, I have joy, and I'm doing what I do, man. Just the time will come. I'll accept it. And just enjoy the ride, man.

I have a fight in two weeks, and I'm so happy. I'm fighting a young guy. I'm a very talented fighter, and I'm looking for a win, man. You know, that's what about, man. The sport, I love the sport. I love the step in that canvas and just a challenge, and great. It's going to be great. So you don't even have a date.

You don't have an age or X amount of fights. You're just going to go with the flow. It looks like you know, man. I don't know, man. The way you talk, you just want to retirement today. No, no. I just wanted to know. You know, you're a guy who's very, I know you don't.

like to look to the future too much in the past and all that, but you're a guy, I feel you're very smart and you have things planned out. You have a good team behind you, your wife, you have a good foundation, so I was just wondering. So we're ready to fight. We're not ready to retire. I have everything in my hand. So we're ready to fight. You know, I don't know when. I'm just, I'm ready, man. You know, we are ready to go, man. Are you hoping that Anderson... No talking, just acting. Are you hoping Anderson beats Chris Wyden on July 6th that may be... you could get another shot against them.

We see, man, you know, we see what's going to happen. It's hard to talk about something in the future that you don't even, you know, happen now. You know, we see what's going to happen, what's going to be the whole thing. And this is a job that I'm glad I'm not a promoter. I'm glad I'm a fighter. And my job is to fight and get there and be the contender and fight for the championship. That's what I'm looking for. So I got a win.

to be there. You know, it's about winning. Okay, this is the last one. What are we going into this fight as? Are we, what are we? Because he's young too, but are we the young dinosaur? Are we the old lion? What is the symbol that we're going in with?

The symbol is always the same, you know? We are the lion and the lamb, but in the day we're going to be the lion. The dinosaur is a different type of animal. It's a different jungle, so it's just something the lion is always the main thing, you know, the lion is something that just show respect, you know, he knows how to live in community, you know, his hands, that means that, you know, protecting the range, you know, he respect, but you don't, you don't step on the range of the lion, and that's wild

in that cage, that's my range, you know, that's my, my jungle, and looking, we're going to win, you know, We're going to take out of the jungle, and it's going to be awesome. It's going to be fun. It's going to be joy. It's going to be a great night. It goes down May 16th, May 18th, I should say, at Arena, Yaruguay. How do I say that? Yaragua.

Yadagua in Jaragua-Dusole, Brazil. Nice place. I've never heard of Jaragua-Dusole. Is that nice over there? Yeah, Brazil. The south, north, everywhere. though it's beautiful. Wow.

Awesome country. It sounds very exotic. I look forward to it very much. Vitor Belfort, Luke Rockhold. Okay, my friend. It's a pleasure, Vitor. You guys should be, what, TZM? TZM?

What's the gossip thing? TZM? Never heard of them. What? Are you talking about the heat, the Miami Heat? No. No, the gossip program, the TZ, TZ Y, whatever. You mean NBA basketball?

No. You see what I'm doing here? I'm doing the same thing you did to me before. TMZ. I could play that game. I could play that game. TMZ. You know all things around, man.

You know what's going on everywhere, man. Is that a compliment or an insult? I don't know. Yeah, it's good. Oh, okay. You know everything. Like, the way that job, man, I'm telling you. I think you're one of the best of the job.

You're following everyone. You know everything. When you need to, if you know the thing, you know, the father, the mother. even what's up with a dog, you know, maybe. You've got to know. And I've respect, I have so much respect for you in the sport that I have to do my research. I have to live and breathe this.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, you know everything, Ariel. You're impressive. Oh, thank you. You're being good. From you, it means the world to me. And you do with respect. Thank you.

With respect. Thank you, Vitor, so much. I appreciate it. Good luck to you in just a couple of days against Luke Rockhold. Thank you. Thank you. I know I got you in my corner.

There he is. The phenom himself, the legend. Vitor Belfort. He fights Luke Rockhold in one of the more anticipated fights of 2013, May 18th, in Arena, Yaragua, in Yarragua, in Yarraguas du Seoul, Brazil. I love talking to Vitor. It's, you're talking to a real legend there when you're talking to a guy like Vitor Belford. And, you know, he answered all the questions. I know there are a lot of you who have your doubts about the TRT usage. He answered them. He was there. Didn't try to change the subject all that much other than the NBA question, which that was actually about Chale, which was a little strange, because he brought up Chale before. And then he had to go piss me off and say the heat. You know, I have so much respect for the guy. I think he's a smart guy.

But to say something like that clearly proves that he's not dealing with a full deck right now, as far as basketball is concerned. And the co-main event on May 18th is very interesting. These guys are linked. Luke Rockhold beat Jacaray Sousa to become the Strike Force middleweight champion. Jacaray Sousa also making his UFC debut in the co-main event. He was supposed to fight. Jacques-Well, Jaceray Sousa was supposed to fight Costa Philippa,

who injured his eye just a few days ago. He suffered a cut underneath his eyebrow above his eye, so he's out. And in comes in Chris Komozzi, who was also fighting on the card. Chris Komozzi was fighting Sapo Natal. Now Chris Komose is fighting Jaceré and Chris Komosey joins us right now on the MMA hour. Chris, how are you? I'm good, man. How are you doing? Good to have you on the show. We appreciate it very much. I'm doing very well.

You know, Sappo and Jacer at the end of the day, their foundation is Jiu-Jitsu. But a lot of people would say, at least right now, Jacaree, much higher ranked than Natal. When you were offered this fight, did you have to think twice about it? no no not at all um it took me about two seconds really really um yeah you know it's a cool opportunity um you know they they bought me up to the co-made event and i get to fight uh jacqueray somebody who i followed for a long time uh he's in the top ten and uh you know that's what i'm here for i'm here to make a name for myself so i'd rather fight the better guy so what was your reaction I mean, was this like winning the lottery?

You move up the card. You're fighting a guy who's highly ranked, highly regarded, former champion in Strike Force. Were you ecstatic when you heard this news? Oh, yeah, man. Everybody at the gym knew, you know, I went to the office. You know, I just walked off to Matt

and was showering and changing, and then I looked at my phone, and I had a bunch of missed calls. So from my manager's, my manager, so I went and called. him, you know, I knew it couldn't be good, so I went in the office and called him. And when I came out, man, I had the biggest smile on my space apparently because everybody was like, what's up, what's up, you know, and people knew that something good had happened.

So that fight is going down in 12 days. Obviously, you were going to fight on the card, so it's not like you're out of shape. But do you have to do anything differently in training now that you're fighting Jacare and Not Sappho? You know, I was training for a good ground guy. Right. A lot of it will stay the same. I mean, obviously, like you said, Jockeret is a lot more decorated of a grappler.

But, you know, a lot of the stuff stays the same. And that's just a lot of footwork, a lot of movement. I'm in great shape. I'm in better shape now than I was March 16th from my fight with Nick Ring. So even better, you know, I think the main thing when people take short-noticed fight is the worry is always that they're not in shape, you know, that they're not going to be ready. You know, and I wish this fight with five rounds. I'm ready to go five rounds if we needed.

Have you watched that fight that you had against Nick Ring in March? There are some who believed that you didn't deserve to win that fight. Do you think otherwise? Have you watched it and 100% think that, yes, you did deserve to win that fight? Yeah, I do think I won the fight. I watched it. It was closer than I would like. But, you know, I think I did enough to win.

I was more active. I think I would land in the better shots. I don't think he ever hit me with anything, you know, that hurt me at all. I landed some good knees to his face, and I think I pushed the pace. So, you know, in the end, I think I controlled the ring and deserved the win. So that win was your fourth straight in the UFC, and this is your second go-around in the UFC prior to that. A bit of an up-and-down tenure, what's been the difference for you?

Why are you on this winning streak right now? Well, for me, you know, I just did a blog not too long ago on my website, Chris CamosieMMA.com. A lot of it is just, you know, my transfer. training partners. I'm bringing in better people all the time. My gym's growing. Since I've been on the streak, you know, I've gotten in all the coaches I needed. In the beginning of my USC career, I didn't have a whole lot of training partners. I was in the process of switching gym. You know, I just had a moit Thai coach. And now things are coming together, you know, now I have wrestling

coach, a jihitsu coach, a moitai coach. And I've got tons and tons of big guys to train with. So it's really just piecing everything together in the gym and everything's slow and nicely now for me, and I feel like I've hit my stride. You mentioned your website. It's Chris Komosey MMA.com. And around the time of that Nick Ringfight, you made some headlines because you had this very interesting blog post about MMA sponsorship these days and why you know you're not interested in just, you know, putting anyone on just to sort of sell space for $100 here or there. And how, you know, it needs to kind of evolve.

and you were kind of taking a stand. Why did you feel compelled to do that? It was just getting to the point where, you know, I was moving up on the card, and the money, the sponsorship money was even less. You know, some people were trying to offer free gear and stuff. And, you know, I'm in this to make a living. You know, I'm not saying this is my only option.

I'm not one of those guys complaining, you know, that I have to do this for my family or anything. You know, I know I can go get a job anytime I want. But, you know, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do a full go and I'm going to make the money that I need to make. And it's just a matter of, you know, people lowball them because other fighters will take it. You know, and I don't blame the sponsoring companies. You know, that's business.

If somebody will do it super cheap, then take it, you know, that's their job to save as much money as they can and get as much exposure as they can. But it's a lot of these other fighters that are lowering the bar for all of us by, you know, wearing their shirts for free t-shirts and stuff, you know, and that kind of ruined it for everybody else as far as trying to make a living because these companies are like, well, why do I want to pay you this if so-and-so will do it for a free t-shirt? And I just think all around it kind of messes it up for everybody, whereas if all of us decided, you know, no, we're going to get paid. I mean, those companies, they have to be in the UFC, they have to advertise in there or

they'll go under, you know, so they'll find the money, you know, They pay the tax. They pay everything else. They have all this money. But, you know, they don't want to give it to the fighters, it seemed like. So for me, I just figured I'd make my own shirt. I'd sell my own shirt. You know, they're up for sale now on my website.

Again, Chris Comodze, MMA.com. They're for sale and performance MMA. And now, you know, I made more money off that than I was offered as far as a walkout shirt. Wow. You know, if need be, then I'll do it myself. The other side of it is loyalty. You know, a lot of these people, these companies, they don't want to sponsor me unless they find out I'm on the main card or anything.

I mean, you wouldn't believe how many calls we've gotten since I got moved to the co-main event. And, you know, some of them we turned down because if you didn't want to work with me in the past, you just want to work with me because I'm in the co-main event, then, you know, I'm more interested in building relationships with companies and, you know, working together rather than a logo placement and where I am on the card. I was actually just about to ask you that, you know, now that you've moved. up, you say you got more calls. Well, isn't this your time to cash in? Why don't you take advantage of these companies? And, okay, you're getting a better placement. You moved up the card.

Why don't you just take their money? Well, you'll see. I mean, as far as sponsors that I will represent, are people that either we've worked with in the past or people that we've talked about working with and still have a talking relationship with, you know, they are offering a good amount of money. you know these companies that all be representing will

there'll be people we've had contact with and that have had interest in me when I was on the undercard even you know so I am still cashing in I'll still make money and I'll still make really good money you know I have a great management team behind me and great media and you know I just think we're doing it right were you surprised by the amount of calls you got once you got bumped up to the co-mate event did you

did you get a taste of how things may be different in that position as opposed to, say, the prelims? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it makes their job a little bit easier as far as being able to pick and choose who we're going to go with, and we have a few more choices and stuff. But, yeah, I was surprised. You know, I guess I expected it. The more exposure you get, the more people want to work with you.

Also, around that same time, you had to cover one of your sponsors the hate breed, right? And I saw on a Dana White video blog recently, I believe you two were conversing, and he was like, you know, sorry about that and we'll get that strained out, et cetera, et cetera. Where do things stand now with hate breed,

which is a ban, right? Yeah, hate breed is a band. I think a lot of it had to do with the name. People don't understand. You know, and they just make a judgment call off the name. I don't necessarily know if it's the UFC. you know, because Dana's worked with Jamie Josson, Hey, Bree, before. They did the soundtrack for their ultimate knockouts, I believe, the first one forever ago.

And, you know, they've done music for Ander Alasky and, you know, a few other guys. Shane Carwins used their music before. I think part of it is the culinary union kind of attacking the UFC out of nowhere and just making this big fit about stuff and looking for, you know, small things to jump all over. I don't know that, but that's just my assumption because, like I said, Dana has worked with them before, so I don't see why he would have a problem with it. And I've even used Jamie Jost's music before.

So I'm not sure, and I haven't heard all the details on it yet, or if Jamie Josta and Dana had a chance to talk yet, but I hope they did, and I hope they worked it out because Hey, Breed and Jamie Jost are great people. I enjoy working with them, and they've supported me for a long time. and hopefully we can continue to work together in the cage. So will they be a sponsor of yours for your fight on May 18th? As far as I know, I think we're trying to find out if it'll be approved. And if it will, you know, I see them definitely want to work with me.

If not, I'll continue to support them on my social media and stuff, but, you know, I understand them not being able to do anything if they can't be in the cage. but another good thing I guess I should mention is that even though their stuff was covered on my banner and my shorts and I couldn't use their music, they still paid me. Wow. They still held up their word even though it was out of my hands and I couldn't use their stuff.

Well, that's certainly impressive, and I'm sure a lot of other companies wouldn't do something like that. Now, considering your strong stance on this subject, do you think a change in the way fighters are and the way they are, I guess, for lack of a better term, unionized, do you think that would help, in other words, would a fighters association of sorts, would a union, would that help you guys deal with this stuff better

and not have people sort of bastardized this system, taking things for much cheaper for free, and then hurting the other fighters? Do you feel like that could help the situation? No, I don't think we need a union or anything. I think it's just more of these fighters and managers, you know, just hold your ground and hold your stance. And if you don't get money from this company, then find another company that will pay you. Don't just sell out to these companies because in the end they need us more than we need them.

Because I can tell you 100 clothing lines that have come through, 100 gear companies that I've seen throughout my career. But, you know, the fighters are there and there's only so many of us, you know, that are giving them the exposure that they need. So in the end, I think the companies will give in before the fighters need to. All right. So we'll see how that plays out. And it's funny because we actually had Malki Kaua on the show recently, who I know is not your manager.

But it seems like fighters and managers, people are starting to smarten up about this. Like the sport has reached a point, and whatever point that is, that people are starting to speak up more about this stuff and get educated and not feel like they need to take things for free. you know, just kind of, you know, grow up a little bit and play hardball and see what you're really worth as opposed to just taking something and be honored that someone is reaching out to you. So I feel like we're getting there, slowly but surely, and people like you speaking up helps the fighters and helps the sport become better and more and more professional.

And in the end, fighters can make more money. That is really how I feel. Yeah, it's definitely true, you know. And people that disagree, I think, just haven't tried hard enough because, you know, my brother, Brian Komosy, he's had two pro fights now. Not a ton, but, you know, he's getting paid by sponsors as it is. He's not fighting on TV. His fights, some of them aren't even streamed online. You know, nobody's seeing them, but, you know, he has a monthly sponsor that pays him a salary.

He's got a few other paying sponsors per fight, you know, and this is in grain media, my management company, you know, they're able to find these deals for even, guys like Brian. So, you know, when you're in the UFC, your fight's being seen at the least on Facebook by millions of people. You know, there's no reason that he should be taking free gear for trade. Yeah, I agree 100%. By the way, what weight class does he fight in? My brother right now, he's 155, but I think he's going to have to go to 170 here soon. He's a he's a huge 155er, and he's still growing. You know, he's 21, and he's the same high as me, He's 6-3-155.

He's just a little skinnier than me, but he's starting to put some size on as he gets older. So the fight goes down May 18th in Brazil. The biggest fight of your career, in my opinion, and it's the biggest fight of Jacare's career. Even though it's not for a title or anything, this is his UFC debut, a lot of eyeballs on it. How do you beat him?

How do I beat him? I think I take the fight to him, you know. I can't give him too much respect as far as fighting. I have a lot of respect for him as a fighter, but in the cage, you know, I can't give him an inch or he'll take a mile. So I think I need to get in his face, take the fight to him, push the pressure, and, you know, show him that I'm there to fight. I don't know if he has it in his head that he thinks it'll be a walkthrough or not.

But as far as I'm concerned, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain on this fight. So, you know, I think that's the most dangerous opponent. I never like to fight people that have nothing to lose. You know, and I feel like all the pressures. actually been taken off of me with the opponent switch. That's actually very interesting because Sapo was calling you out, and you were the guy on the winning streak and all that,

but now since you were bumped up, it really does feel like the roles have been reversed for you. Yeah, I agree, you know. I think most people expected me to beat Sapo, and, you know, I don't know what the rankings were as far as us, but I think I was ranked higher than him. My record is better in the U.S. season, and so I was expected to win that.

Going into this fight, you know, I love the fact that, from what I see for most people, they don't think I have a chance, which is the best way to go in there. You know, throughout my career, I've been brought into fights, you know, by promoters where I can only assume they brought me in because they expected me to lose, and I always win those fights. So, you know, I feel great about this. I don't feel any pressure, and I feel like it's only upward from here. And you are the UFC's Mr. International, my friend. You just fought in Montreal. You fought in Rio before that. You've also fought in Sydney.

In between that, when you were trying to work your way up, you fought in Mexico. I mean, you've been, oh, New Mexico, excuse me, but you've been everywhere. I see what I'm saying Mexico. You've been in Canada. Prior to the UFC, you like that? Especially as of late, you like fighting all over the place? I mean, you've even been in Atlantic City. That crazy hotspot.

Yeah, Atlantic City is crazy. You know, I do love it. One of my favorite things to do besides some, fighting is traveling. So, you know, some of these experiences I've had are things that I'll tell my grandkids about and things that I'll never forget. Getting to travel to these countries and fight there on a world stage is something that, you know, a lot of people will never get to experience in their life walking into these

giant arenas in Brazil and Australia and everything. It's crazy to me. I'm still shocked, you know, when I go to another country and people ask me to sign something. It's awesome, you know, and I feel. I feel really, really fortunate to be able to do this stuff. And if the UFC wants me to travel every fight, I love it. You know, I've been asking if they're still going to go to Milan. I remember that rumor for a while.

I'd love to fight in Italy. You know, that's where my grandparents are from and everything. So I would love to make a trip there and fight. But anywhere is really cool with me. Every time I see the UFC talking about a new market, I always cross my fingers and hope that they'll take me there and put me on the card. Well, you get to cross another one off the list.

Arena, do you know how to pronounce it? I just learned, by the way. Do you know how to pronounce it? I believe it's Zaragua. According to Vitor Belford, it was Yaragua. You don't really pronounce the J. Oh, okay. Yaragua, du Soule, something like that.

Brazil. Basically, it's Brazil. I'm looking forward to it. You're going to Brazil. That's really what you have to know. and you're fighting a fellow Brazilian, a fellow Brazilian, of course, of Vitor Belford, Jacare Seussah.

It's going to be a great fight. It's the co-made event, UFC on FX8. May 18th, of course, it is live and free on FX here in the United States. Chris, very happy that you got the opportunity. Good luck on May 18th. We'll be watching. Awesome. Thank you, guys.

All right, there he is. Chris Komosi stopping by his website again. Chris Komosey MMA. You can catch him on Twitter. At Chris Komosey. Gets the opportunity of a life. lifetime after Costa Filipu got injured, suffered that cut above his eye. He now faces Jacereseuza in the co-main event next weekend, UFC on FX, the next big UFC event.

And that is a perfect segue, my friends, to the Rick's Picks Invitational. This is kind of like, this is like if you're familiar with Selection Sunday, the NCAA tournament, where they announced the seeds and the schools that will be involved in this big 68 team tournament. This is what this is like. And last week on the show, I said that we were going to go to the people. We were going to ask them via Twitter why they should be involved in the Rickspix Invitational. And I said it was going to be opened up to eight participants. But what happened, Wednesday afternoon of last week, the response that I received was

so amazing, was so overwhelming, was so inspiring that I decided to expand it on the spot to 16. 16 participants will vie for the crown to be called the better of all betters. It's the toughest tournament in the history of tough tournaments. That's what I'm dubbing it as. And this is going to be a lot of fun because I have come up with the rules for this. Now, Rick, are you there? I'm here. I got the rules and I'm pretty excited about it. Now, I just want to say to you,

this is like when someone calls into the show back in the day, I believe the speakers are on because they hear feedback. You'd be correct. How's that now? What kind of operation is it back there? This is something that you have to say

to callers when they call on their cell phone, not to the members of the team. So, as you were saying. All right. You're like Vitor Belfort, dodging the tough questions. Okay, first off, what do you think of the set? Incredible.

Incredible. I mean, I love it. Are we tooting our own home? by saying it's incredible or is that okay? The feedback I've seen has been mostly positive. Mostly? Maybe like one person who didn't like it. Why?

What would they say? I don't know. It's funny how you can get like a thousand good compliments or a good compliment would be sort of what's the word I'm looking for? Redundant. But one negative one and you just kind of harp on that. But I think it's, do we have a nice tight, wide shot?

Again, that's like an, what, an anonym? Antonym? Antonym. It's been a long day. my friends. Do we have a wide shot? We're on the wide shot right now. Are people able to see what's going on here? Now we should say

that yes, I do look a little small on the wide shot and I think maybe some rejiggering of the camera shot, maybe a little raising. We've been talking about raising this. It will look perfect next week, right? Hopefully. I mean, I think it looks great now, so it can only improve.

Yeah. I think it's awesome. It's really a lot of fun. We've got this great picture right here From Robert. Robert. Robert Pearson. Robert Pearson, who actually, can I say this? Why not?

Who he works for? Oh, yeah. I don't think that's a problem, but. Well, he works for the great documentarian. Reveal it? Sure. No, go ahead. Oh, I'm revealing it?

Morgan Spurlock. Yeah, Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame. So he works for him, and he's a big fan, made us this great picture. Whoever said an hour was only 60 minutes, the MMA hour, hosted by, three-time, three-time, journalist of the year, Ariel Hawani Mondays at 1 p.m. Eastern.m.com. Actually, I actually met up

with him at USC 159. How was that? That's cool. We've got these great pictures. We've got Hawani nose. We've got this over here, which I'm kind of blocking, but I mentioned it earlier. It's just a lot of fun. The desk is a little different, but it just feels like home. I know I said that a few times. Anyway, I know people are very excited about this.

They want to know if they made it. Here are the rules. I figured out the rules. There are 16 competitors. right. There are going to be two brackets, kind of like the NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, eight, eight, right? Winner of each bracket meets in the finals. This is what's happening. Each competitor is going to be given $100, much like Rick was when he was involved in the Rick's Pigs Challenge squandered that major opportunity, which got us to this point. So each competitor is going to be given a fictitious $100 bill, all right? And, because,

beginning with UFC on FX8 next weekend, you will have to bet on the fights any way you want. If you want to bet on one fight, if you want to make the parlay of all parlias, do whatever the hell you want. It's up to you. The point is to have more money at the end of the event than your competitor, then your opponent, right? So let's just say you make a $30 bet, you lose, you have $70. If your opponent, who you're matched up against, has made a $40 bet, and he lost, and now he has $60, you win. You're moving on to the next round. You beat him out by $10.

But here's the kicker. When you move on to the next round with $70 in your pocket, that's all you got. It doesn't start up again. This is real life in a fake kind of way. So you'll have $70, let's say, against the guy who hit the jackpot, won $500. You have to figure out a way to beat the guy who now is $600 in his pocket. 70 versus $600. You beat him, you move on with that amount in your pocket.

Last man standing now we will truly find out who knows how to bet, who knows how to use his money wisely. Who knows how to bet on MMA? What do you think? I think I'm about to win, that's what I think. Oh, yeah. I think the swagger is back finally. For a minute there, it seemed like you were doubting yourself. Let me point this out too, while we have a second.

Before we announced the invitational, I said when this started up, that I was going to wear an earring of the fan's choice. Yes. Now, we had two people who did actually send in earrings, and I'm wearing one right now. Can you see me, Ariel? No, I can't. Can we get me up on the screen?

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, I can see you. Wait, let me see. Wait, turn your head. Here we go. This is the first one. Wow. So this is from... Who sent this to you?

All right. Don't worry about it. I'm getting to that. This is from our friend Ash at a girly MMA. Oh my God. What is going on with you, too? I notice a lot of Twitter back and forth. Can we discuss this or what?

She's always like all up in your grill. What's happening? She's a fan of the show. All right. It just seems like she fit... I mean, it's like you could be a fan of the show and not just be a fan of one person. Well, I mean, I'm the best person on the show, so it goes without saying.

All right. actually sent you an earring? So this is the one. It has an E. It has a pair of headphones, much like the ones I'm going on now. And it has a little charm in the back that says believe. So I want to say thank you to her for sending this in. There's a bit of a delay, so I can't really see on the stream from when you're talking. So it's a custom earing. She made this? I imagine she just put some charms together on some kind of metal thing, and it's a stud in my ear right now. Now I can see it. Okay, this is great. Way to think on the ball. I kind of like this right here that I get to see you.

Have you been wearing that all show? No, I just put it on halfway through because we had some trouble finding it, but Buzz Kill Brendan delivering. Wow. Wow. How does it feel? It feels like it's weighing down your earlobe. I got to tell you, it's heavier than my diamond.

Yeah. So it's a little weird. Can I see it again? Because I didn't get to see it. Oh, my dear God. So this is, so she's a fan, yet she held you up to the bargain of, I said I would do it. I'm a man of my word. Wow. Now there's going to be a costume change at some point. And the other one will be... What do you mean a costume change? I have another one. Oh, wow. So that'll be done at some point, probably between the invitational and the question segment. Do you still wear earrings? I don't notice you wearing earrings.

My stud? Yeah. I take it off to play basketball, but other than that, I'm wearing it. Do you think it's time to maybe retire it in general? It's time to retire the stud and wear this full time. Yeah, that would be awesome. And did we determine... how long you have to wear that for? I'm wearing it for this show. Just the show? Yeah. Why not the whole tournament?

To remind you of how you squandered an opportunity. You know what? Maybe I should because it's in support of me. Okay. I think so. It's a good luck charm. Yeah. You know what?

We'll do it. I don't have any problem with that. So someone else sent you one. Oh yeah. We'll get to that. All right, all right, right. But let's get to the invitational first. Okay, yeah.

Let's get to our competitors. Okay, but I just wanted to ask you, are you okay with the guidelines? I don't have much of a choice. So, yeah. But I mean, and I'm ready to win it, so I don't really... You've been known to bitch. I mean, do you have an issue? No, no issues.

Let's just do it. And by the way, talking's done. We give props to our man Scott who hooked you up with that wood thing in back of you. Scott? Oh, Chris. Chris? That was Chris? I forgot to mention that.

Yeah. No, Scott gave us the Benson Henderson. There's so many designers that have come through these doors. That's a good call. I forgot to shout out Chris Rennie. at Rini MMA. He does some pieces over at Fightland, and he made this for me, this nickel Rick.

I showed it last week. It's not in focus right now, but it's going to stay there. It's had a home behind me. It's amazing. It's perfect. You picked the best spot for it. Well done on that.

I mean, thank you. I have an eye for it. All right, let's do this. Okay, so you got it. Everyone understood 16 competitors, two brackets. Next week we will reveal the brackets, but now we will reveal the 16 participants who will be a part of this.

They came to us via Twitter, and we're going to show the tweet how they got in, why they got in, and give you a little bit of a backstory on these people, or at least the backstory that I've made up. Now, we're going to put them on the...

Yeah, we'll put them up on the TV. Oh, right, all right. That way you can see them as well. And then we'll go full screen just to give them their dues. Yeah, so let's put them up, and then we'll go full screen out. My palms are sweaty.

I'm nervous for these people. This is a big moment. This is like Selection Sunday. I picture them all in their respective, you know, little rooms on their laptop listening to this or watching it. And in any corner of the world, it's international, and they're just waiting for their name to pop up.

This is a big moment. You feel it? I'm fine. Cool as a cucumber back here. All right. So first up, Boxfather TM, Metra. How do you even pronounce it? I have no clue.

But he's calling himself the box father. Okay, he's the box father. And here he is. Rick's picks are ridic. Ariel, he's a fraud. Bring in someone legitimate. it box father's picks. And you posted a picture.

Yes. Stats Matter, by the way, hashtag. I eat New York Rick for breakfast. That's great. And then my favorite is blah, blah, blah, blah. Excuses, blah, blah. And then he shows two picks where for UFC on Fuel TV 9, he won 240 points, whatever the heck that means. Well, here's what I found a lot of people doing,

which is, I think, advantageous for me. They're showing pickums. They picked the winner out of two fighters. That's not really... Yeah, come on. It's not that hard. Yeah. Especially when the last couple of cards have been...

Come on, Musassi over Latifia. Yeah, come on. You know... So I'm not impressed. He does say 10 of 13 picks, and then... Yeah, he got 10 out of 13, and I'm not impressed by your performance. Wow. Well, he's in...

You know, I thought it was very... It was very creative of him to come up with this picture. Oh, he... This is my favorite submission because of the eating me for breakfast, the blah, blah, blah, excuses. By far my favorite, I'll just say not impressed by the picking record, my friend. Wow. Trash talk already, I'll be sure. And by the way, if you're wondering who the selection committee is, of course, I pick these people.

I will also be picking the matchups. I'm playing Joe Silva here, all right? I'm going to be the matchmaker. Now, this was the most creative one that went through. Someone put out a vine, but he deleted it. Very unfortunate. Like an idiot. It was great.

He put out a vine. He was picked right away. He deleted it. You're out. All right, so let's move on. We got the box father. He's in. Next guy, our best friend, Sean.

Sean, who, by the way, was all week long campaigning, almost threatening me to get in on this. And then at one point, he says he's going to the cinema. He's going to the movie. And I better not do this whole thing during his film. I better not ask the people for, so that was my cue to actually do it during his movie. Because I wanted to see just how committed he was. And he responded when I sent it out on May 1st. I should be in the betting competition because I got a friend to ring me in the cinema when you sent that tweet so I could enter.

That, my friends, is dedication. I think he deserved a spot regardless. Yeah, but Sean is... We had to make him sweat a little bit. Oh, yeah. So there you go. But he's in. Sean's in.

Sean is in representing the great country of Ireland. Now we have a female competitor. So here we go. Laura Toledo, La La Land 999. She writes, because I am a female and know more about MMA than most men. Opinionated, competitive, feisty, can throw some nasty elbows. The rise of women's MMA in our sport, and particularly in the UFC, has been a great story this year. We had to get some females in there.

Laura Toledo, congratulations to you. Nothing about betting. Interesting. Yeah, but you know what? It's about being creative. You have to catch my eye with these. No, this is interesting for me. Oh, from competition perspective, it's something to do. take note of. Yeah, yeah. Okay, this guy, you know, this guy

want to bet UFC had the amazing Twitter icon. He's got the gift there of counting the money. His background is money. He's all about the money. And I said last week on the show, he would be a shoe-in for this. And he writes, put me in Rick's Picks, Coomite. What the heck does that mean? Isn't that like a tournament kind of competition thing? Whatever. Because A. At Ariel Wani suggested it on the MMA hour, I did. And B, I have documented over $10,000 in profit betting MMAC timeline. Now, of course, I didn't see that because I had better things to do.

Well, he was so cocky. Did you see it? I've interacted with him before. He posts on Sherdog, and I can confirm that he has a sharp. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to bet. Most prominently, off the top of my head, he was really heavy on Gomi against Diego Sanchez when I particularly wasn't.

And that turned out to be pretty accurate. But I can confirm that this is going to be tough competition with want to bet UFC. What I like about this is that you have some guys who are so cocky. I mean, his name is want to bet UFC. So you need to get those guys who think that they are the bees' knees. It would be fun if they lose in the first round to like Laura, right? It can happen because that's what, it's betting so volatile. It's just so much fun.

It's going to be fun. I love this. All right. Here's our next one. Okay. Manuel Valverde. And, you know, see, some people were very smart. They went to my heart. and all he wrote was because I'm a Knicks fan

and with that he was in he was smart he didn't tell me about his betting technique he could be great for all we know but he wrote because I'm a Knicks fan everyone knows I'm a big Knicks fan you're in my friend and he could even be lying but he was smart his name is Mavs real for all I know he's a Mavericks fan this is a terrible entry

fat selection my man Kyle Kyle Haas is telling me Kumitai blood sport Kumi Tai. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? He spelled it wrong. Anyway, or maybe he didn't. Maybe he's just spelling it out. I don't know. It was dumb. But Manuel, great job. You're in. Terrible. Disagree.

Okay, here's one. Trent Dosier. Trent underscore Dosier is his Twitter name. He wrote, because I bought all three Halwani Knows shirts. I invited you to my B-Day dinner. That is a fact when I was in San Jose a couple weeks ago. I've only been gambling less than a year. The Underdog. And I like the fact that he's calling himself the underdog. He's recognizing it. But he's been betting for a year. So he has that experience.

And he's a great supporter. B-Lawainty-Nose shirts and invited me to his B-Day Party. You're in, my friend. I love that selection. That's a great one. Less than a year. That's perfect. Yeah.

Also, awesome icon, got to say. Picture with Don Frye. A-plus. A-plus. Okay, here we go. Brendan Irish. At Irish Rule 15. I've been following the show from day one and have been a

loyal fan. I should be in the invitational because your son is the best. I mean, the beginning was cool and all, but he said your son is the best. I mean, come on. You know that all I had to read was your son. I mean, if you would have said something disparaging, that would have been one thing, but yeah. Very smart,

Brendan. Congratulations to you. You're in, my friend. I can see you're a daddy as well. Or maybe not. Maybe you just like to hang out with little kids. But great job. You're in, my friend. And I think we may have our second Irishman in the attorney. It could be just his last name, though. It could be Notre Dame. We don't know.

Yeah, that's true. Our next entry. Sean Ashby, and this is a very interesting one. This is a bit of an MMA celeb, if you will. I am a degenerate MMA gambler living in Las Vegas, and I was the matchmaker for Ronda Rousey's first two amateur fights. Pick me. So I love this.

We've got a guy who lives. lives in Las Vegas. He calls himself with degenerate, which I think most gamblers are, and he was the matchmaker for Ron Rousey's first two amateur fights, which I believe was with the tough enough promotion. This is great. Ash B.LV, you're in, my friend. Congratulations.

Kudos to you. Our next one's our buddy, Stephen Archer. Okay, Stephen Archer. Who called in last week. Of course he did. He said, I suggested the unfollowed tournament last week and this week's King of the Hill. besides, I called from an inside, from inside a storage container last week. We didn't go with those two suggestions, but long-time fan of the sport, long-time fan of our show,

and he called from a storage container last week. We give him an entry into this tournament. Stephen Archer, hey Archer, you're in, my friend. Moving along, this is a great one. Patrick Blake, at Big Kick, and it was legit. He told me that he was replying to this. He gave me a couple tweets saying why he should be in. But the kicker was, replying to this is my first tweet.

And in fact, it was his first tweet. That series of tweets that he sent out to get into the Invitational were, in fact, his first tweets. He was kind of a lurker on Twitter. He came out there. He made himself known. He told the world that here I am, I'm ready to take down Big Bad Rick. And I give him props for that. Patrick, Big Kit, really coming out with some panache.

really coming out with big balls, I thought, to put his first tweet out about this tournament. I give him major props for that. This is our next one? Okay, our next one. Now, Kyle Marley, I will admit, I actually thought about taking him out of the Invitational at the 11th hour, because he has been talking a lot of trash. He apparently is some kind of bandwagon Indiana Pacer fan, and he's been talking a lot of annoying trash about the current Indiana Pacer, New York,

Nick NBA playoff series. And, you know, that just, you know, I block people when they make fun of the Knicks or try to disparage the Knicks. I don't care if that's inconsiderate. I'll just block you. And I thought, but you know what? He was very cocky. This is one of the cocky ones who was telling his fans on Twitter or his followers to get him

into the tournament. So I thought, let's give these guys a shot. They'll probably lose in the first round anyway. He says, pick me because your fans deserve to make money while they watch fights. I'm the guy to make it happen. I'll win and show Rick how. it's done. Now, you take that as a personal challenge, a lot of guys gunning for you.

Well, they would be. Of course I take it as a personal challenge. All right, all right. Just saying. There he is. Kyle Marley, you're in, my friend. Now, this guy was one of the last people to enter, one of the last people to send in a tweet before the buzzer sounded, if you will.

He writes, Peter, of course, his name Peter, NC17, at NC17 is his Twitter name. I def one in, long-time listener, and MMA betting is my special I'm ranked 20th in pound for pound out of 1,000. And he shows us this thing that I don't know what this is. Do you know what this is?

No clue. No clue. No. It doesn't look to be that impressive, whatever it is. Yeah. Anyway, he's in Peter NC17, and I like Peter a lot, because if you look at my Twitter, my only favorites, the only favorite tweets that I have are regarding Peter.

You can check that out on my Twitter right now. good guy and he's been through a lot and happy to have him in the tournament. What do you want to say? I'm happy to have him in the tournament too. He's a big fan of mine. He's on Twitter right now talking about how big a fan of mine he is. That's what it's about for you? Yeah.

Geez. I love it. It's all about being a fan of yours. Pretty much. Congratulations, Peter. You're in. What do we got next? So Darnell almost squandered his opportunity to be on the, in the invitational because he deleted his tweet.

and I asked him this morning, you better tell me a good reason in the next 30 minutes why he deleted that tweet. He gave me the good reason, so he's back in. He did send the tweet in the lot of time, I assure you of that. He writes, because I've been a fan of the MMA hour since day one, and it would bring a tear to my eye to be on my favorite show. That's all well and good. He adds, go expos. Very smart. He knows the key to my heart.

He knows about the late great expos. He respects his past, his present, his future. He knows they're returning. I give Darnell props. He almost squandered it. He deleted the tweet, but we gave him a shot to make good here. Longtime fan of the show, you're in Darnell.

Darnell Giovanni. I believe this is our last one. Get out of here. This one right here. I've gone through 16 already? Well, no, there's two, me and... I've gone through 14. Oh, yeah, we'll get that in a second.

We'll get that in a second. Now, this is apparently our last one. Lee MMA only, a long-time fan of the sport, long-time fan of the show as well. He writes, the reason why I should be in Rick's Picks. Rick's Picks is because I'm Irish. We got another one.

Oh, and I think your mom's great. Hashtag MMA Mom. And again, you talk about my mother, who is watching right now, who is a diehard M.M.A. fan, who is a long-time fan of mixed martial arts. Well, maybe not a long time, but she is a great supporter of our sport and myself, most importantly. She's my mother, for God's sakes. and he gave her a shout out there. Very smart.

You're in my friend, Lee MMA only. So that's it. I think that's it for the 14 computers. Are you sure? Go through them. Okay, let's go back. This one's one. Yeah.

Two. Yeah. Three. Yeah. Four. Yeah. Five. Yeah.

Six. Yes. Seven. Yes. Eight. Eight. Nine. Nine.

Ten. Ten. Eleven. Eleven. Twelve. Twelve. Twelve. Twelve.

Twelve. Thirteen. 13. 13. 14. 14. And now we've got Mr. Rick. You're in it, of course.

And of course, Mike Tyson, who has been calling you out on Twitter. He made his Twitter icon. You versus him as a face-off of sorts. That is the only first-round matchup that we know of, because that's been brewing for a long time. There's a lot of bad blood there.

The rest of the matchups I'm going to make this week, and we will reveal the bracket next week on this very show. I like it. What do you think of the competition? Wow Wow No I'm just kidding Anybody could win this thing

It's Betting is volatile And I'm gonna win But anybody could win Well it starts with UFC On FX8 It will continue So what do we got? We've got 16 then 8

Then 4 then 2 Four events right So it will start with UFC on FX8 Followed by UFC 16 May 25th, followed by UFC on Fuel TV. That will be June 8th. And then it will end in Winnipeg.

Perfect. Which, by the way, your first round opponent, Mike, is from Winnipeg. I'm sure he wants to win the crown in his home country, in his home city. That's unfortunate. Yeah. This is going to be out in the first round.

So there it is. It's going to be great. It's the toughest tournament in the history of tough tournaments. It's the Ricks Picks Invitational. Congratulations to the 16 who entered and got in. Thank you very much to everyone

who applied to be a part of this most prestigious tournament. I know a lot of you are upset. I know a lot of you are heartbroken that you didn't make it. But here's the silver lining. If someone doesn't get in, if someone doesn't get their picks in on time, there may be a chance to come in as an alternate. So hold your horses.

If that opportunity arises, we will reach out to you and hopefully you can get a shot. Now, as far as the picks are concerned, it's going to be the same thing. You have to get your pick in within an hour of the weigh-ins. So let's say the last person weighs in at 4.30? You got until 5.30 to get your picks in. Is that fair? Mr. Rick, are you there?

Yeah, sorry. Is that fair? If you're saying one hour after the final person steps off the scale. Should we do that, or is that too hard to monitor? No. You don't have to send in your picks, so there'll be a timestamp. So they send in their picks, and which line are they going by? The one I've been using for my picks, so that'll be the one we'll use, is five dimes.

Five dimes. So you can go on bestfight odds.com, and you can find the first column is five dimes lines. And as you can see, I switched to the thing, to the new earring. Oh, you did. Can I see it? I did. Oh, my gosh. Let's throw it up.

What is that? Now, this one is she crocheted a little pouch here, right? Who made this? This was made by Lindsay Proctor. Wow. At Banded Octopus on Twitter. It's all women. Got that kind of appeal, bro.

Okay. So inside, for the folks at home, it was a nickel. Oh, wow. Look at that. Inside the little pouch. By the way, it's better to go further back, because the closer you go, you're right.

There you go. Nickel Rick. So I want to thank both of the submissions. That one is actually very impressive. That one's better than the first one, in my opinion. I'm not playing favorites. There's an actual... How heavy is that on your ear?

This one's a little lighter because it's not metal. It's yarn or some kind of fabric. But wasn't the stipulation that you had to wear it for the entire show? Yeah, but I didn't come on camera for the entire show. So how do you know I didn't? I didn't even know that you guys. got these. This was a major surprise. I changed it up a little bit. And how did they get it in time?

They sent it last Monday. Oh, wow. Look at that. Very loyal fans. That one, you're keeping that one for the rest of the show. This one's going for the rest of the show. Okay, yeah, that one's incredible. So it's Best Fight Odds, right? Well, that's where you can view the lines from five dimes, because otherwise you probably have to have an account. So you just go to Best Fight Odds.com. The first column will be five dimes lines. Okay. And where do they say? send the submissions. I'll go through this next week too. We'll make a catch-all email for it.

That way they can send them all in. There'll be timestamps on it and then everything will be organized. So you have to send it to this email. Yep. By that amount of time that we said, hour after the winds, you go to bestfight odds.com, you make your picks, you got $100 and then we'll monitor it. And then on Monday, and you'll probably figure it out for yourself.

You'll know who will be advancing. And you'll know who you'll be facing because next Monday will reveal the brackets. And I think that covers it, right? That's it for the invitation. Yeah. I'm excited. That's great.

Kumate. Kumate. That's what it is. Kumatee. Bloodsport. Did you see Bloodsport? I saw that like 400 years ago. How am I supposed to remember that? Is that something I'm supposed to know? Kumete.

Do you know what that is? I've heard it, but I don't know. Don't pretend like you knew. Did I say that? No, you said you heard it. I have. heard it. First of all, I saw a blood sport, but I have heard it, but

I'm not sure exactly what that means. All right. Well, there you have it. Akuma to all of you. Congratulations on making it into the Rick's Picks Invitational. We will announce the brackets next week. I'm very excited about this. All right, do we have some questions to answer?

Yeah. All right, here we go. These are the first ones up from the website. The first question about the Diaz brothers style. Is it time for the Diaz brothers to change camps and try and relearn the game and add new skills to their arsenal. It's been made pretty clear with the recent losses of both the Diaz brothers that the blueprint to beat a Diaz brother is out there.

Fighters will either wrestle them, neutralize their jiu-jitsu, or attack and move so they don't end up brawling playing into the Diaz brothers game. Perhaps they can improve their wrestling and footwork to be a better fighter. Your thoughts. Well, here's the thing. First things first, first, Nick Diaz, as far as we're concerned right now, is retired. So why does you have to change his camp?

Now, if we're assuming Nick Diaz is going to return at some point, which I think most of us are, yeah, it's possible. And we're starting to see some slight changes right now to the camp. You know, Nate Diaz has a new manager, Mike Kogan. That's a big change. Caesar Gracie no longer managing him. And I think over time, it reminds me, who does it remind me of? It reminds me of someone. Excuse me.

The sport is evolving. They've been in the sport a long time. I still think that they can be major players. I certainly don't think Nate Diaz should go up to 170 pounds. I think he's better at 155. And again, it just could be matchups. You know, Benson Henderson is the champion for a reason. And Josh Thompson, very underrated, and this was his big return to the UFC.

Nick Diaz fought GSP. Very bad matchup for him. And Carlos, there are some who think he, you know, they think he won the fight. I don't think we should make too much of this. Have they evolved as much of others? Well, they are who they are. and they have a style that works and sometimes they're on, sometimes they're off. Do I think they need to drastically change their style?

No, do I think they will? No, they are who they are. So I think at this point, you're going to get what you're going to get with the Diaz brothers. Against those wrestler types, it's going to be a tough night. Against the Donald Soroni types, it will be a good night. I don't think you're going to change them at this point. Our next question, with all this talk of Pettis wanting simultaneous featherweight and lightweight belts and McGregor expressing a similar ambition,

in your opinion, would the UFC ever allow one fighter to be the champion of multiple weight classes, or would this mess with the progression of the respective weight classes too much? You know what? I don't think they should, honestly, and this is another reason why I don't like the Pettus fight at 145. I mean, on paper, it's fun. It's a great matchup.

It's two of the most exciting fighters in the UFC. I just don't feel like it makes all that much sense for the growth of the development. divisions because Anthony Peders is saying this is just a pit stop. After this fight, he's going up. And what I like about the UFC is that you have now, what, eight divisions, nine, including the women's division, and you know who's the champion. It's very clean. It's very neat. You know who the contenders are. They're moving up the ranks. They're moving up the ladder, so to speak. It's just all very clean. It's very different than boxing. It's very hard for someone to sit there and

say all the champions in boxing, the white classes, unless you're a very hardcore fan. And our sport is very clean. It's very neat. Now with up and down, it's very different. Now, it's up and down, all that stuff. I just don't like it. I think it's confusing. And I don't want to see someone holding up two divisions. That's why I didn't want to see GSP versus Penn, too. I liked Penn at 155, and I just didn't see the need for it.

So I want to see you guys stick to their own division, and especially when you have a fight like Anthony Pettis versus Benson-Henerson, how do you not do that rematch right away? Our next question, does it make sense for top fighters to take a fight on short notice after their opponent gets injured. Jacari is now fighting Comozy, and Musasi had to fight Latifi. It seems like Jacari is in a lose-lose situation, and that doesn't get him closer to a title. Jackaray had to take this fight.

I mean, there weren't that many middleweight fights on the card. Camosie's on a winning streak. What's he going to do? He's fighting his home country. He wants to fight in the UFC. He's finally made it to the UFC. He has to take this fight. He's not in a position to turn down this fight.

And if he's that much better than Chris Camos, he's going to win the fight. and if he's that much better than Chris Comozy, according to the rankings, he just got an easier fight, right? Costa is ranked higher than Chris. I think Chris brings different things to the table, though. Point being, Jacare is not in the position to turn down an opportunity like that. Chris is obviously going to take it. UFC debut, you have a chance to make a splash, take the fight.

And I don't view this necessarily as a lose-lose. Jacques-Rae, as talented as he is, is not a household name just yet. So it's not really a lose-lose, in my opinion. There are more people in the U.S. who know, in my opinion, Chris Komosey, than Jacques-Rae, because of the ultimate fighter, because of his time in the UFC. Is that a crazy statement? That might not be a crazy statement, but I definitely think you're not analyzing it from a ranking this point of view. I mean, the people who make the matches know that Jaceret is.

where he stands in the division compared to Chris Camozzi. So a win over Camozzi, you know, on short notice, obviously, is impressive. But I definitely understand what the person who asked this question is coming from. I understand where he's coming from, no doubt. I mean, you want to fight the biggest fights. You don't want to be in a situation where it's a bigger win for your opponent than it is for you. But I just don't think Jacques-Cé, in his UFC debut, is in a position to really make it sucks. but them's the brakes and it's better than not fighting.

You've been out of the game, you've been out of the spotlight for a long time as far as not fighting on the big stage that is the UFC. How are you going to turn this down? I think the thing here is you're right, you can't turn it down. And if he's so much better, he should be able to finish him relatively unharmed and get a fight right away right after that, you know, one that makes more sense ranking wise. So, yeah, I don't have a problem with him taking it. I think it's fine, but I definitely understand the implication.

Yeah. Our next question, do you think it would be dangerous for the UFC to promote McGregor v. Park fight using the political angle? As someone who grew up with conflict, I think it has no place inside the oxymn. You know what? You know what? I'm happy you pick this question because yesterday we posted the Norman Park interview in a separate article on MMAfighting.com. And I got some people who were saying, shame on you, Ariel. First of all, I had no idea that there was any.

kind of issue, if you won't even call it that, between Connor and Norman Park. If you recall, Connor was the one on my show who brought this up. So, of course, this, this again goes back to the whole instigating thing. So, so Connor McGregor is on my show. He talks about Norman Park. Brings him up, alludes to him in our first interview. We talk about him in the second interview. Norman Park's on my show.

You don't think I'm going to ask him about Connor McGregor? And Norman Park, if you look at the tweets, asked me to be on the show. I'm very happy that he was on the show. It was a great interview. He gave us a great interview. You don't think I'm going to ask him about this. And I think he gave us a great answer. And when Connor was on the show talking about him, it wasn't too political.

It wasn't too, you know, aggressive as far as that is concerned. But Norman brought up some things about the past and all that. And people were, shame on you. Shame on you for me. Disgusting. I said he's not interested in it. That's what the headline was. I asked him about it.

He took the high road. And that's it. You don't think I'm going to ask him about it? it? You're crazy. People have to understand what our job is. Our job is to get answers. When someone says something about someone, your job is to go ask that person about what he said. That's not being an instigator. That's being a good journalist. That's actually doing your job. And then I get the history lessons about the conflict in that part of the world. And guess what, guys? Sometimes you know what's going on, but you need your guest to explain it. Would you

Do you want me to sit here while someone's on the show and start waxing poetic and telling you what I know? Why don't you hear it from the horse's mouth? Why don't you hear how he feels about the situation? He's living it. Go educate yourself. People are crazy. Anyways, to answer the question, if they did that fight, of course they wouldn't go that route. The UFC never goes that route.

Now, it could come up in interviews. It's like Rockhold and Belfort. The UFC is not promoting it as Mr. Clean versus. the guy on TRT, but it comes up in interviews, so it adds another layer. This would probably add another layer. Connor was saying, you know,

he is a guy, you know, flying the wrong flag, all this stuff. That would come up in interviews, but the way it's promoted will be very different if they actually fight. And by the way, they're in two different weight classes. Probably not happening anytime soon. That was it for our website questions. Okay. We're moving along to the

Twitter questions. Our first one comes from Michael Beaumont, where would a decisive win over Luke Rockhold at UFC on FX8 leave Vitor Belfort in the middleweight title picture? That's a very good question, and that's what I was wondering when I spoke to him. It seems like Bisping was going to get a title shot. If he beat him, it didn't happen. Rockhold could very well get a title shot if he wins impressively. I think if Vitor Belford wins, he's got to be right there.

He's got to be pretty close, right? when you look at the division, I would still love to see Chale Suna versus Vitor. I mean, you saw it right there. He didn't want to talk about Chale. And yes, that would almost be a fight where I think it would mean more for Vitor than Chale as far as rankings are concerned

because if Anderson still the champ, I think Vitor has a better shot of getting a second shot against Anderson as opposed to Chale getting a third shot against Anderson. But that being said, I still think there are interesting fights for Vitor Belford at one of the first. 85. There's Okami out there. There's Jacques Aix if he wins. I think that's very interesting. Philip who may be.

And Chale, of course. So I think if he wins, impressively, he's probably one or two fights away from really banging the drum. He could be next... I don't see that happening. I don't think the UFC would give it to him a win over a rock hole, especially if Anderson wins, because I think they may want to try to do something very big with Anderson after that. but certainly one or two away.

Our next question from Anthony Marchetto. Do you see Connor McGregor becoming one of the faces of the UFC if he wins the title? I mean, that's very much in the future. He's only had one fight in the UFC. He looked fantastic. He's very charismatic. He's very marketable. He's smart.

I mean, he really does have it all. Let's see how far he goes. And now you're starting to see people call him out. Akira Khorasani called him out just last night. and he actually said on Twitter, he has his fight already for the UFC on Fox Sports One show, just the contracts aren't signed. So it's going to be interesting to see how far he can go

and how he does when he climbs the ranks. If he does win that title, if he does beat the person holding the featherweight title whenever he gets there, yeah, I think he could be a pretty big star, particularly in Europe, first European to hold the UFC belt, to be a UFC champion.

That'd be huge. So yeah, he has that potential. it's all about realizing it at this point. He's doing great so far. Speaking of Khorasani, our next question from Asian Sensation 81, do you think Akira's challenge to McGregor is the best way to get a fight or should they go for the sun and route? Well, I feel like that is the sun and route.

Does he mean that because he was respectful? That's what I think. That's what I took from the question. Yeah. You know, okay, I'll tell you this. and if you follow Kira on Twitter you would know this

I was walking around Williamsburg late last week I bumped into Akira Koresani and he was coming out of Roger Mamadov's Williamsburg MMA school

which is very close to where I live I saw Kira we were talking and I asked him what's next and he said he's looking to fight maybe in August or something like that maybe Fox Sports 1 and then we got to talking about

Connor McGregor the rise of Connor McGregor he was on the same card as Connor's UFC debut back in Sweden last month. And about that could be an interesting fight and all that stuff. And he was very respectful and had a lot of respect. And he said, you know, I'm not the kind of guy who wants to call people out.

I'm not the kind of guy who goes that route. And I said, that's fine. I totally respect that. It wasn't trying to convince him to do anything. But we were just sort of talking, shooting the breeze, you know, personal conversation. And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, Sunday night, he puts out this video. Weird. Are you saying that you pretty much created.

this matchup if it comes to fruition? No, no, no, no, I'm not saying anything. But I think maybe discussing him, talking to someone on the other side of the fence, got him thinking, look, we're talking about Akira Khorasani right now. We would not be talking about Akira Krasani. How do you not put out that video, right? True. In this day and age, in 2013, you have to take the bull by the horns. You have to call your shots. The UFC says they like it. They respond to it. Why wouldn't you do it? And he did it in a respectful way. He didn't insult him.

He didn't talk trash about him. He didn't disparage him. Connor responded in a way saying, I have a fight. If that falls through, we would love to fight. Game on. But what do you think about doing it that way rather than... I don't care the way you do it. Just call your shot.

I don't care. I don't care the way you do it. Just call your shot. Stop saying it's up to the UFC. Call your shot. It's better for everyone involved. Our next question from Sean Brum. Brady? How is

Husamar Palhara's drop to 170 going to benefit him? Will his skill set or size translate into more wins at that weight? Now, is this 100 and 10%? I'm not sure. It sounds like he's leaning in that direction, but the question is let's just say he goes down to 170. I think it will

benefit him much like it would benefit a Hector Lombard. They're big guys, they're top heavy, although they both have fairly big legs, but I mean, Tocino has a massive upper body, and he's small for 185. He needs to shed some of that weight, that muscle mass. I think it will benefit him. And now he could, if he could cut the way properly and still be effective come fight night, he's going to be bigger than some 170s. So now

he has that advantage. So I think this is a good move. What are you going to say? I was just going to say I agree with that. I think this is a good move. And it's kind of long overdue. Well, as you always said also, it's just a new coat of paint. New coat of paint. 100%. Changing weight classes, it's a new day, and he's kind of stagnant right now, 185, and he's just big. He's like lumbering with that body of his,

especially that upper body. I think he could be one of the bigger guys at 170 as opposed to a big, small guy at 185. I think it's smart. Our next question comes from Stephen Firo. Can you think of any reason why Kostchek versus Maya makes sense? this fight is all risk, no reward.

Well, it's funny because Kosteck is still considered to be a top tenor, but he's coming off a loss, a pretty brutal loss, and a one-sided loss to Robbie Luller. I was surprised when this fight was announced. I would have been way more surprised if it was announced before the Tarek Safedine, Robbie Loller, Jake Ellenberg, Roy McDonald fights were announced for a UFC on Fox 8. I think Maya deserves to be in one of those fights.

I think Maya versus Saffedine, Maya versus Loller, Maya versus Roy, Maya versus Jake. Maya versus someone coming off a win makes a whole lot more sense than Maya coming off fighting someone who's lost his last two. I agree. But then you look at the top 10,

who should he fight? Carlos Condit also lost his last two. Who should he fight? Martin Camden lost his last fight to Johnny Hendricks. You know, in the top 10, that's it. Hendrix fighting GSP. I think Condit is a bigger fight, though, and that to me makes more sense

than the Kosteck fight. but there was no one there. There's no better answer. Do you agree? I do agree. But I do think that, I definitely think that it's a bit of a weird one. He goes out and wins. It's a nice, you know, a notch on your belt.

Harkening back to what I said about, you know, the people who do the rankings know where these people are. Cost check is still, you know, a very... He's a highly regarded. Highly regarded fighter, exactly. So even though, you know, it might not make sense numbers or whatever, people know where relatively where he stands. It's just very rare in the UFC

that someone who's on a multiple fight winning streak would fight someone who's on a multiple fight losing streak. Our next question comes from Margarito Roman Jr. Whose resurgence is more impressive? Mark Hunt or Matt Brown? This is a very good question. This is a very good question.

I'm going to go with Mark Hunt because it seemed like his career was really going nowhere. It was stagnant. It was pretty much non-existent at one point. And because of the story of him getting into the UFC because he had some fights left on his pride contract, UFC just wants to kind of buy him out. He says, hey, just give me a shot. Let me go in there.

Loses to McCorkle the way he does, and we know how embarrassing that is. And then he goes on this amazing winning streak, and now he's fighting JDS and potentially one win away from fighting for the belt. Matt Brown turned his career around. He's coming off a big win over Jordanian, but you could say he hasn't beaten the top 10 guy. It's very impressive. They're both very impressive, but if you're asking me to weigh them, I think Mark Hunt, because of that backstory, because what he's done as of late,

and because he's the KFC king, gets the nod. Do you agree? This is one who's really tough for me to decide, just because also Matt Brown's in the toughest division in the UFC, in my opinion. 170 is just a buzzsaw of top-level guys. Not that he's been taking all these guys out or anything, But just hanging around in that division and then going on a run is just really impressive to me. That said, Mark Hunt is doing it in quite impressive fashion the way he's just demolishing guys right now.

And as you said, he's won away from a title shot. Gun to my head, I guess I'm going with Hunt, but I think I'm highly impressed by both. Can't say that enough. You know, Mark Hunt's last four wins is winning streak. Chris Tushar, Ben Rothwell, Congo, Stefan Struth. The last three, impressive. Yeah, although the Rothwell fight wasn't his best, but you got to win. For Matt Brown, it's five in a row.

Chris Cope, Stephen Thompson, Luis Ramos, Mike Swick, Jordanian. You know, one's longer, five versus four, but I think, Hunter, considering the backstory, gets the not. I wouldn't argue with that. Good. Our next question from Gilbert Martinez. Do we have the best champions in the UFC at this, I guess, today, rather than any other point? in UFC history. Now, by the way, I really like today's questions.

I feel like people brought it. It's very interesting that you mentioned that, Gilbert, because if you look right over here, what's fun about this new set is that we have all these different little wrinkles. Like, you really need to analyze what's going on. Here we have the championship corner of the set. Courtesy of our friends at Round 5,

we've got Dominic Cruz, Benson, Henderson, GSP, Anderson Silva, John Jones, Kane Velasquez, all wearing belts. We're missing Joseoaldo. I'm told we're getting that soon. So in his place we put Bruce Lee, championship. So we look at this. We look at this lineup right here.

Cruz slash Barow, Aldo, Benson, GSP, Anderson, John Jones, Kane Velascus. I say without a doubt. Without a shadow of a doubt, it is the most dominant and impressive group of champions throwing Ronda Rousey in there as well. It's very impressive, without a doubt. Jose Aldo coming in the next series from round five,

so that will be filled in. I think he'll do a Ronda Rousey one. or is that off the record? Do you not know? We'll see. Okay. All right. Our next question comes from Gerard Faf.

With all the success, we've seen the 135 women's division. How long do you think it will be until more women's divisions are added to the UFC? Another good question. You know, I don't think any time soon, honestly. I think that they're really going to devote their time, their effort in the bantam weights. I really think that they want to, you know, really expand that. they're doing a great job. Credit to Sean Shelby,

who's the current matchmaker for that division in the UFC, with the eight women that are going to come out of tough, I think that's brilliant. With the women that they have now, the fights have been great, the matchups have been great,

I think they really want to focus on 135. As the UFC continues to grow, expand, wouldn't be surprised if, I don't see 145, but maybe like a 115 or something like that. Maybe. Right now,

I don't see it coming anytime soon. I love that division. It's so much fun. I think it's brought such such a breath of fresh air to the UFC. It's great. And if it wasn't for honor roussy, we would not be talking about it 1,000%.

Our next question comes from Matt Dunck, or Dunke. Do you think that when Floyd Mayweather, excuse me, do you think that when Floyd Mayweather retires, MMA will officially overtake boxing as the world's most popular combat? Another great question, because you know what? I'm so tired, and people may expect this for me, but I'm so tired of the boxing is dead argument.

I think it's so off-based. I think it's so wrong. Floyd Mayweather, he draws a lot. He's a big deal. No one draws more media attention, more interest. No one makes more in combat sports. Heck, maybe in sports in general than Floyd Mayweather. But there are other guys out there.

There are other names out there, and boxing is doing a good job, if not a great job these days, of building some new talent. You got the Adrian Broners of the world. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. when he comes back. You know, Abner Marys, you know, the undercard on Saturday night for the Mayweather fight, that was good. They're finally getting their act together. They're finally putting on relevant fights. Leo Santa Cruz, Klitschkos, you know the same deal.

But there are some young guns out there. Guys coming up, Canel Alvarez. I mean, there are names. There are names out there. and I think when Floyd Mayweather retires, he still has five fights left on his contract with Showtime. He signed a six-fight deal. Won his fight against Roberto, Robert Guerrero on Saturday, The Ghost, and defeated him. It was not the most exciting decision win, but Floyd is who he is.

You kind of know what you're going to get with him now. Still, he's a huge straw, and I think others are coming along, and I think the key now for Floyd is, make new stars, put them on your card, build them up, people are tuning in to see you, but hey, you got to see this co-main event. You got to see this guy fighting in the third fight of the night. And they're starting to figure that out. I think the showtime, showtime has been great. I think what they've done, they're not in the MMA business this year, at least for now,

but their broadcasts, I think, are a breath of fresh air. I think Morrow does a great job on the call. Al Bernstein does a great job. Pauli Malinaghi does a great job. I love having Brian Kenny up there on the set. it's just different than HBO. It's not as hoity-to-dy. It's not as country club, if you know what I'm saying.

And HBO is fine, but I like what Showtime's doing. And Golden Boy is putting on some great fights. Boxing is in a great place. Mayweather goes, I think it'll still be in a great place. And I think we have to stop trying to compare it to. It's natural. I get it. But I saw Jose Canseco saying,

boxing's dead. Boxing's done after tonight. It's not done. It's not going anywhere. And we shouldn't root for this. that in my opinion. Oh yeah. Our next question from Gaz Quilliam. Did Ariel Hawani's son get any MMA presence

for his birthday? It was my son's birthday last week on Tuesday, turn one year old, I can't believe it, and yesterday was his birthday party, and it was a lot of fun, and if you saw on my Twitter or Instagram, it was a Knicks cake, and it was done by the

amazing B-cake-N-Y. Check them out on Twitter or Instagram. I have to give them a shout-out, B-cake-N-Y. it was the most amazing. I didn't want to touch it. I don't want to cut it. I'm dreaming about it right now. We still have some left over. It was out of this world. BKKKNY. And it was a Knicks jersey with Halwani won, a basketball. It was just great. It would have been one of the more epic days of my life had the Knicks beat the Pacers later on that day, but unfortunately they didn't. Did he get any MMA presents for his birthday? He did not. You know, he's only one-year-old,

so there's not much I can give him at this point. He likes to play with balls, Elmo, trucks, that kind of thing. Even that's a little advanced to trucks. He doesn't quite get that. But don't worry. Soon he will be getting a lot. I can't wait for my son to be older. I could tell him about the great sport that I cover,

maybe introduce him to some of the great people that I cover. I always was, as a child, impressed and looked up to, you know, athletes and people in the sports world and wonder what it's like behind the scenes. And now I'm involved in the sports world, and I can't wait if you're. He's interested in it to show him what it's like and to, you know, he can tell his friends, my daddy is working in sports. That's pretty cool. Not to say that, you know, my dad worked very hard and he had a great job.

And if it wasn't for the work ethic that he taught me, I would never be here. But not a lot of people get to work in this, in what is their hobby, where people watch on the weekend. And I hope he will take interest in that. So right now, I know MMA presence, but maybe one day soon, he'll be sitting right next to me. and he could take all these toys, do whatever he wants. I went very overboard, by the way, with the party. It was kind of like Billy Madison when he passed the third grade. You remember that?

Yeah, that's a great movie. Yeah, Billy past the third grade. Oh, what a glorious day. Remember that? All past the third grade, the Billy Madison way. Anyway, we had something like that. We had the clowns, the magician, the bunny, Rabbit was there. It was wild.

It was great. It was a great day. Thank you for asking. Happy birthday to Oliver. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thanks to everyone who tweeted. Happy birthday. It was very kind. It touched my heart. This is our last one. All right. Oh, yeah. What was New York Rick's Rick's picks theme song supposed to be? What was it supposed to be?

It was supposed to be local New York native. Mayno. That's the artist. It was supposed to be high hater by Mayno. but unfortunately we couldn't get that together we couldn't work it out but that was supposed to be it what happened just legal stuff behind the scene stuff

couldn't get it done unfortunately is there a chance that we can we can get it done for the tournament there's a chance that we can get a different song done wouldn't it be cool if every time you made your pick like you came out to your theme song yeah that is a possibility

or like if I was announcing what happened with someone else or a bracket then your theme song hits Yeah, and it's like, oh no, here he's coming. We may or may not be working on something like that. Oh, wow. Well, we know you'll be taking on Mike Tyson, and the rest of the pairings, the matchups, will be announced on Monday.

Now, we didn't announce what the – here's the thing. We didn't announce what the prize was because the good people at Meta Morris have given us two tickets to their upcoming show June 9th in, Los Angeles, right? Correct. But I think we need to make it more clear about where they live. I think that could be an issue.

So we were also given a prize from our good friends at Roots of Fight, right? Yes, we were. In honor of Halic Gracie being on the show, what is the prize? Well, we've got some Gracie-themed shirts from Roots of Fight. Yeah. The one I'm wearing right now is Grandmaster Helio Gracie on my shirt. And we also have another one. Let me grab it.

Bottom line is you're going to get the T-shirt, not the T-shirt. tickets because I feel like we need to save the tickets and make it more clear that you have to live in the area. Plus, we have some time before June 9th, so I think that makes more sense. So they can win one of those shirts. So there are two shirts at stake? There's one shirt at stake. It's just going to be one of those shirts. Gosh, great questions. Can we run them down? Yeah, let me run back through them. I really like these questions. Obviously not the one asking about my song. Yeah. I'm not going to go crazy. Okay, okay. Nice. Nicely done. I admire your restraint.

This one about Mayweather. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that one a lot, okay? This one about adding more women's divisions. Oh, I love this one, okay. This one about the best champions in U.S. This was a great one. This one about Hunt-Ewerp.

I actually thought this was going to win, but I don't know now. Kosteck and Maya. Yeah, yeah. 170 for Hussamar? Akira McGregor. Oh, that was a great one, too. McGregor becoming a superstar. Yeah.

Rockhold, Belfort. I feel like I was most passionate about the Floyd one. Okay. Go back to Floyd for a second. What was before it? What was, yeah, what was before it? Let's see. This one's Floyd.

Yeah, and then before it. Before it was more women's divisions. And then what was before that? Best champions. Okay. Floyd, who asked us? Oh, this was a good one, too. Who asked us about Floyd?

Matt Dumk or Dumke. Well, you win. Congratulations, my friend. You get the Roots of Fight, and it's fitting that it's not a MMA question per se, but, you know, with the roots of fight and their whole connection about the roots of fight and all that, you get my point, right? Yep. So we will, how will we reach Matt?

We'll DMM and all that stuff. Yeah, we'll find a way to reach out to you. And by the way, if you're waiting on a prize, we're a little backed up, you know, there's a lot going on here, but we'll get you, right? Absolutely. Just hang tight, but it will happen for you. All right. There you have it.

Can I just say one more time, I want to thank the two people who submitted your hands. Again with this. I'm just thanking them at the end of the show. All right, all right. I want to thank Bandit Octopus. That is a weird name. Lindsay Proctor. That's not a real name for this one.

It's a weird name. Okay, yeah. And I want to thank Adderly M.MA Ash for my other earring. Always good to have the women involved. Yeah, we have a female in the Rick's Picks invitation. We do. We do. There was one person who I believe was a female as well.

Her response was just Rick Who, and it was so great. but I had so many good ones I had to whittle it down she could even be a late replacement if someone bows out but there you have it the 16 are in and we'll let you know next week who you'll be facing in the first round

I believe that's it we're good Mike you can hit my music what a great day this has been christening the new studio the new set we finally made it I know a lot of you have made fun of me that we've been moving around too much and yes I don't like that as well

but it feels like we have have come home until, of course, we move in a couple of months. No, but honestly, there are no plans to move, at least in the near future. Look at this thing. Thank you to everyone who works so hard to give this to us. I hope you like it. I've seen your jokes about the sauna and about the Canadian lumberjack and the cottage on the prairie and all that stuff. I've seen them, and I actually like them. So you may be thinking that you're criticizing or you're insulting, but guess what? You're not. You're actually, just confirming my initial thoughts about this amazing set. Great show in our first set. Great show on our set for the first time. I want to thank Halle Gracie for stopping by. Good luck to him with Meta Morris Pro 2, June 8, June 9, I should say, in Los Angeles.

Julie Kesey, always great to talk to her. She's doing great work in and out of the cage. Good luck to her in her UFC debut, July 27, against Germain Derondami in Seattle. Brian Bull is so great to hear from him. He returns to action. UFC 160, May 25th, against Trump. George Rup, looking forward to that. Eddie Alvarez. What a tough spot he's in. We appreciate him stopping by and clearing a little bit of the situation up for us. Vitor Belfort, always great to talk to the old lion, the young dinosaur, the legend, the phenom, faces Luke Rockhold next week. And then Chris Komosie, good luck to him as well next week in Brazil. Thank you to everyone who submitted their entries to be in the tournament. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions, comments, all that good stuff. We love you so much. We'll be back. Same time, play same set. Next week. Peace. Support for this show comes from Chase.

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