MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 187

Episode Date: August 25, 2014

Featuring Steven Seagal, Chris Leben, Mark Munoz, Patrick Cote, Tim Kennedy, and Ray Longo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for the show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to talk to each other. Introducing O-DU. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier,

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A happy Canada Day to everyone watching in the Great White North. A happy Canada Day to my friends and family. A happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians, a happy Canada Day to the world. Because when it's Canada Day, my friends, it is a international holiday. That's the way I look at it. I hope you do as well. It's so great to be back after a two-week hiatus. We are back in the house.

And what a time to come back. Not only is it Canada Day, it's UFC 162 fight week. And this, in my opinion, is the most anticipated fight of the first half of 2013. It's Chris Wyden going up against Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title. We've been talking about this for it seems like a year. Ever since Chris Wydenman knocked out Mark Munoz, we're finally getting it. At least we hope, crazy things happen in this. sport, but it's just, what, five days away, MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

We will be there. It's UFC 162, Chris Wyman versus Anderson Silva, and that is a major topic on this show today. Of course, actually, this show has a very much middleweight feel to it. You'll see what I'm saying in a second. We're back in the saddle, as I said. Thank you so much for sticking with us, not forgetting about us. Last week, we had a best of show. Hope you enjoyed that.

But it's live here today, and nothing's better than live. in Living Color. Joining the back, of course, as always, by Buzzkill Brendan. We got Mike in the house, Will. New York Rick looking swelter than ever. He's wasting away in front of us.

I hope it's for good reasons. He's chugging along with the UFC UFC fit. I was going to call it Rick's fit. I was all confused. It's UFC fit, but it's really Rick's fit. Let's be honest. After this thing is done, we'll rechristen it.

And we'll talk to him about that experience in the third hour. Also hear from him as we take your questions and comments. hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour or leave them in the post below if you're watching this live on MMAFunding.com. The best Twitter question of the day gets a free subscription to UFC magazine. There it is. This is an old issue, but there you have it.

UFC magazine up for grabs. It's actually called UFC 360 these days. Now who's joining us on the show today? At around 245, my friends, we will be hearing from a legend. We will be in the presence of greatness. We will be hearing from the Honorable Sensei Steven Segal, of course, working very hard to help Anderson Silva prepare for the challenges that lie ahead in the form of Chris Widman. Sensei Sagao will be stopping by to talk to us about the game plan, what's at stake, and whether or not he thinks Chris Wyman is a real threat to Anderson Silva's throne. A man who knows a thing or two about Anderson Silva is Patrick Cote.

He fought and unfortunately lost Anderson Silva via gruesome knee injury at UFC 90. and he is now one of the coaches on Tough Nations. It's Canada versus Australia. Patrick Cote versus Kyle Noak. It goes down in 2014. That was announced a couple weeks ago. Congratulations to Patrick. He'll be stopping by to talk about all that.

And Canada Day. See the flag? It's Canada Day. 205. Mark Munoz will be stopping by. You may have seen those amazing pictures of Mark. Lost a ton of weight. Feeling good. Back from depression.

has worked his way back from that loss to Chris Wyman. He is back in action this weekend against Tim Boch on the main card of UFC 162 got bumped up after Ricardo Lama's was taken off the card and he has had a very interesting story leading up to this fight. So we will talk to Mark Munoz about that. At 145, speaking of middleweights, Tim Kennedy will be stopping by.

He makes his UFC debut against Hajer Gracie in a very interesting fight on Saturday night. We'll be talking to him about that. And then Ray Longo, who is the longtime trainer for one Chris Wyman. He'll be stopping by to talk about the game plan and all that good stuff heading in to this weekend's massive fight in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Ray Longo stopping by at 125.

But first, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in one of the longest-tenured UFC veterans right now, a veteran of the Ultimate Fighter season one. He returns to action this Saturday against Andrew Craig in the main featured bout on FX in Las Vegas at UFC. 162. He is, of course, Chris the crippler Leibin. Chris, how are you? I'm great. Thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much, Chris. So a lot of talk

going into this fight about you changing scenery, about you moving your family to San Diego after a pretty good run in Hawaii. And I know how much Hawaii meant you, and it felt like you were in a very good place there. And after reading about this, it seemed like this was something your family had to do because your wife was looking for, you know, a spot to kind of put her roots down due to law school and whatnot, and I'm wondering if that didn't come up, would you have ever left Hawaii? You know, probably not, but it's funny how things work out.

I'm here at San Diego now, training at Alliance, and, you know, I did not realize what I was missing. It had been so many years since I had been part of a hardcore training team like this. It's great and wonderful as Hawaii is. you know, I was kind of a little bit of the lone wolf out there. You know, I had some great trainers, some great guys to train with. But when it came camp time, it was really just me. And when I could get guys in, you know, to help me out,

then I would get into a workout with them. Did we lose Chris? Oh, I think Chris just hung up. All right, we'll get him back in a second. So Chris Leeman talking about leaving Hawaii and going to train with the, obviously very successful Alliance MMA team, home to the likes of, Dominic Cruz, Phil Davis, Alexander Gustafson. They got a great head coach over there, and Eric Del Fierro, definitely gaining a lot of

steam and a lot more recognition. Brandon Vera, one of the pioneers over there from that era, or that area, I should say. And it's interesting when you see some of these guys go off and do their own thing. Chris Wyman even talked about it, how for this camp, it was a lot more structured, having a coach, having someone to tell you where to be, what time to be at, who's going to be around you, and not having to. go out and gather the team and wrangle everyone and ask them to come help you train, that's got to be a major load off your back.

And with Chris Leibin going into this fight, losing his last two, three of his last four, had a very good run leading up to the Bryan Stand fight. That's got to be very important. Chris, are you there? I'm here, yeah. Sorry about that. I don't know what happened there. No, no problem. It was probably on our end. So you were saying, so now you're no longer the lone wolf. what's it like adapting to having a coach and having, you know, other great UFC stars around you

where you're not the boss, so to speak, and you kind of have to go by what they say? It's phenomenal. I mean, it's really, really great. You know, I mean, first I got here and when I was, you know, no yesman here, you know. Coach E, Coach Eric, you know, he makes me do my stuff. You know, if I wasn't feeling that great or whatever, maybe I could whine a little bit. you know, get a little bit, you know, get a little bit of a break for my coaches. And that just doesn't happen here, you know.

At first, I was like, man, they're, you know, they're pushing me hard. All right, I get it. I'm new here. They're testing me, you know, but then I realized that I never let up. They started pushing me hard and continue to push me hard. And, you know, I mean, in order for me to be able to train with these guys and compete, I mean, I had to do everything perfect, you know, from getting my rest to my, in my diet.

You know, every day you come in the gym, you know you're facing hard, intense training against guys that don't want to be the best, you know, what I'm out there training with, you know. Anyways, so it really forced me to clean my act up even more. I mean, my diet has been dialed, rest has been dialed, and then obviously in the gym, they've been pushing me harder than I've ever been pushed. and I've been able to kind of come into sync with the training, with the way they run things here, and I feel phenomenal.

I truly am in the best shape of my life, and I just can't wait to get out and showcase my skills, and really for me personally, you know, see where I'm at. I mean, there's all, you know, I've had some success, you know, obviously I've also, my career has been somewhat like a roller coaster ride. You know, ups and downsides, most, you know. But finally, for once, I'm doing everything right, both in and out of the cage. And I've got a great support group. I mean, I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful, you know, the team guys are and the coaches are here at Alliance as far as supporting you and pushing you and being motivating.

It's wonderful. I mean, really the move, truly a blessing in disguise. One of the most memorable interviews on our show was when you came on last year and really opened your heart and told us your story about your battle with addiction. How is that going these days? It's going really good. Really well. Still something that I deal with every day, you know, and still, you know, but I'm starting to get used to it. You know, my last fight was, you know, there was still a lot going on.

I was doing, I was starting to do everything right, but as far as the stress and the anxiety. anxiety goes and learning the proper ways to be able to deal with that. You know, I still have some holes in my game outside of the case as far as that goes last year. This year, so much better, in particular with the move, having a new setting, and everybody here knows what my deal is, you know, knows where I'm at, and everybody's been very extremely supportive. And I think it was just so good for me to, in that aspect. to get away from Hawaii, as much as I love it.

You know, everybody kind of still remembers the old Chris Leibon in Hawaii. But now with this new Chris Levin, you know, I need to get around people that know me for the new person that I am. Speaking of the old Chris Lebin, did you feel at first like you had to prove to the guys at Alliance, guys with belts around their ways, guys who've done a lot in the UFC that you are not that guy anymore? And did you feel like at first maybe they didn't really want to believe you? you had to have the sort of, you know, tryout process with them? Right. Absolutely, you know, when I was talking to coach, you know, I told him, I said, yeah, you know,

I came out and I knew Brandon, so I came out, I trained one day. I really liked the gym, and I was going to check out some other gyms, but after the first day, I realized the alliance is where I wanted to train at. So, fast forward a little bit. I called Coach E up, and I said, hey, I want to be, you know, I want to come out, you know, And he kind of told me, he said, all right, well, why don't you come out and train and we'll see how it goes. You know, and then that was it. It was a very short conversation.

And, you know, it is a lot, you know, especially, you know, being a guy with my record and, you know, with as long as I've been in the sport, you know, switching gym is kind of a big deal. You know, so I thought we were going to have a little bit longer conversation than that about, you know. but I realized now the way he was doing is he wanted to see where I was at. And so, you know, I came out early. I came out about 12 weeks before the fight. I haven't missed a single practice since the day I showed up. I've been hitting daily doubles for the last 12 weeks. My body feels no matter what's going on, I've made sure that I'm committed.

I've been very open with them about everything that's going on in my life. and, you know, just like anything, it took a little time, but realizing that I'm sincere, you know, everybody here at Alliance seems to be in my corner. You know, it's talked about a lot these days in the world of the UFC, but it feels like it would apply to this situation, considering your record over your last four fights, one and three in your last four, and how your last performance went. Do you feel like you need to win? Is this a do-or-die situation for you in the UFC on Saturday? You know, I think every fight is that way. Absolutely. I think it is, you know, whether or not they'll let me go, I don't win.

I don't know. But, you know, I'm coming off, I'm coming off a loss against Munoz and then a lackluster fight. You know, both fights I learned a lot from. And, you know, being a fighter, the only thing you can do is playing and prepare for. for Saturday night, you really can't look too far ahead. And, you know, the one thing I know is I feel mentally and physically better than I ever have. I'm performing better than I ever have in the gym.

You know, hopefully all that goes well on Saturday night. And the bottom line is I accept whatever happens. Whatever happens, I accept it. And afterward, I'll kind of look at the situation and then carry on accordingly. And that truly is all you can do with the fighter. You just do accept that, you know, when you get in there, you're in a fight, what's going to happen, it's going to happen, and you're going to deal with the outcome. So you're trying not to put too much pressure on your shoulders here?

You know, that's exactly, I think I did that a little bit on my last fight. But, you know, hindsight's 2020. We're in a new slot now, and, you know, this fight is very, extremely important to me. And, you know, I'm a firm believer that every fight is, at least in my career, every fight is won or lost before Saturday night. And what goes on before Saturday night. And having said that, I mean, the fight should be in the bag already. I've already beat Andrew Craig as far as the work that I've done to prepare.

So all I'm doing is waiting for these days to pick by so I can get this fight over with, get this money. money in my bank and get back to training. Whatever you do, no gummy bears on Friday night, all right? No gummy bears, no, sir. No, I mean, I have learned so many lessons the hard way, you know, and, you know, hopefully some of these

young guys can just listen to me, take my word for it, and they won't have to go through it, yeah. Yeah, no, you know. I don't know what it is about me and having to learn everything the hard way, but, you know, luckily now having the most fights

in the middleweight division being around as long as I'm, I have. Hopefully I've worked all to change out. What do you think when you see guys like Kenny Floreen and Forrest Griffin and Stefan Bonner retire guys that were on the Ultimate Fighter Season 1 with you? And did you ever think that you had outlast those guys? You know, I never really put much thought into it. It hasn't really been until the last few years in my life that I've really thought

about the future at all. You know, but when I look at it, you know, I realize that everybody is in a different spot in their life in their career. with what they're doing, what they want to do. And to some extent, I think, you know, it's great when a fighter does know his time and knows when to step away. But then on the other hand, me personally, I feel I'm growing and I'm performing better every, you know, every fight, every camp.

And I want to continue on and see how far I can progress and take this. You mentioned your quote-unquote lackluster performance in your last fight in December. who deserves more of the blame there. You are Derek Brunson? You know, I'd have to say Derek Brunson. I mean, you know, it was a little bit of a... I had an opponent switch. I was training for a left-handed brawler that comes at you.

Or a right-handed brawler comes at you. Then I got a left-handed wrestler that runs backwards. You know, and I went back and watched the fight a few times. You know, I was active on the bottom, looking for submission. They had some close catches. You know, but you and I both know in the UFC, you know, If you're on top, you're winning the fight. And as far as Santa goes, you know, he just really didn't want any part of that.

And me having, you know, time off, I didn't push to the level I should have pushed. So, you know, both of us, you know, made some mistakes, but I have to say him more than me. And what do you know about Andrew Craig? This is a guy who's obviously a very dynamic striker. I would imagine you like this matchup coming off a loss. What do you know about this guy? Andrew Craig's a tough kid from the fight side. I've seen him watch, you know, he's real scrappy, and you can never count him out.

You know, he's one of these guys. He's kind of transferring over, crossing over into MMA, and he's one of those guys that's actually a natural athlete. So, you know, his natural ability, his explosiveness, his athleticism, you know, those are the things that I need to watch out for. The other thing I need to do is make sure in particular that everything in my court is tight. My game is solid. You know, some of the fights I watched looked like they were getting the better of Andrew Craig all the way up until the third round when they started to relax a little bit and then got caught slipping. And I'm not going to get caught slipping.

Does a name like Andrew Craig get you excited? Absolutely. I mean, right now, you know, Andrew Craig, to his credit, he comes out and fights. And I love that. You know, it needs to strap anywhere the fight goes. So right now, at this point in my career and the way my body's feeling, I'm just so excited to get back in the Saturday night, get back to work. You know, I'm just really glad to have somebody that's going to actually come out and challenge me.

You know, I couldn't be happier that they've got me, you know, because I'm on Fox and I'm playing on Saturday night. Before I let you go, Chris. Before I let you go, Chris, July card, you know, it's the biggest card in year. Yeah, absolutely. And you've had some good memories on the 4th of July card as well back in the day. Absolutely. You know, in 2006, you fought Anderson Silva in his UFC debut,

and now he's going to be fighting in the main event, of course, of this card. Did you have any idea going into that fight? Did you have any inkling? Did you believe that he could turn into the fighter that he has become? You know, I did ask that question quite a bit, believe it or not. And, you know, obviously the answer there would be, no, not really. You know, we knew, you know, my coach at the time being Mahjum, who had seen at Ben Ringside for several of Anderson's fights, I knew he was a dynamic, explosive fighter.

I knew that the losses that he had kind of made him underestimated. We knew it was going to be a tough fight going in. but I don't think anybody could have ever guessed that he was going to do the amazingness that he has done. If you could give Chris Wyman one piece of advice, what would it be? Don't play into Anderson's game. Fight your fight. Anderson Silva is mortal and any mortal can be beaten. I think a lot of guys already have beaten themselves before they should.

Did we lose him? Just at that moment when he was giving Chris the advice. Are you so there, Chris? Oh, there you go. I thought we lost you for a second. Nope, still here. You said, so you were saying a lot of guys... I would say, I would say if I had to give white me any advice,

so it would be to play your game to go on and fight your fight. Anderson Silva is moral, he's human, he can make mistakes, he can be knocked out, and he can be submitted, just like anybody else. I think the biggest problem is a lot of guys have already beaten themselves when they step in the cage with him. Great advice. Hey, by the way, one last thing.

Speaking of the Ultimate Fighter 1, do you know what happened to Jason Thacker? It's Canada Day, so I thought about him. You know what, man? I don't. Maybe he's doing animation up there in Canada or South Carolina. I mean, originally he was into drawing Pokemon comics and stuff. So, you know, who knows?

Who knows? Maybe I'll see him when they have the Comic-Con down here at San Diego. Cool. I've always wondered what happened to Strange Brew Jason Thacker. What an interesting character he was. And since it's Canada Day, I thought of him. Absolutely. Of course you as well. Chris, I hope he's well. I hope he's doing. He's happy. Same here. Chris, always good to catch up with you. Good luck on Saturday. We're looking forward to it. And great to hear then you're in a good place heading into this fight. Right on. Thank you. We'll talk to you later. There he is. Chris, the crippler, Lieben. one of the true originals. He was on the Ultimate Fighter Season 1

back in the day. Going into this fight, of course, in his last fight, a very uneventful affair against Derek Brunson. UFC 155 lost that fight via unanimous decision. Prior to that, lost to Mark Munoz, and that was the fight that kept him on the sidelines

for a year. Comes back, loses to Brunson, and now here he is fighting Andrew Craig in the featured bout at UFC 162. And it is certainly interesting. I read there are only four guys left from that show that are still fighting. You've got Josh Kostech, Chris Lieben, Mike Swick.

Who's the fourth? From the first season of the Ultimate Fighter that is still in the UFC. Josh Koshchek, Chris Leibon, oh wait, is Chris Leban the fourth? Mike Swick, Diego Sanchez. There you go. Those are the four. What is going on? Of all people, did I give you the wrong number?

Eric having a hard time reaching Ray Longo, who is our next guest. Ray Longo, what number did I give you? Can you type it? Don't be shy. While we're waiting for Ray. Yeah, that's it. I want to play a clip from UFC 119. It's a video blog from UFC 119.

Matt Sarah was fighting Chris Lytle. in Indianapolis. And there was a video blog, the Matt Sarah video blogs were fantastic. We talked about them with him on this very show. And they were following him. And there was a great scene that is very apropos heading into this weekend, very apropos this week,

as we talk about Chris Wyden and his chances of pulling off the upset and dethroning Anderson Silva. Matt Sarah is training with Longo and the team and We don't know who Chris Weidman is. This is back in what, I believe it's 2010, UFC 119, the build-up to UFC 119, and Matt Serra drops a pretty interesting nugget, a nugget that maybe a week from today

will be saying Matt Sarah's a genius. I believe we have that clip. Do we have it? Here it is. The future, right here. That's a big difference right there, right? When I'm done, I'm passing the torch. I'm passing the torch.

I'm passing the torch. Look, the future. People are going to go back when he's champ. I remember him from the video, but... Isn't that amazing? People will go back. I remember him from the video blogs. Passing the torch, Matt Serra, who just retired, who pulled off the greatest upset of the mall.

Still today, the greatest upset in UFC history. UFC 69, George St. Pierre, Houston, Texas, knocked him out, beat him. That put Long Island MMA on the map. And then a month after Matt Sarah retires, Here's Chris Widman, who is in that video blog, who Matt Serra proclaimed would be the future, would be a future champion. Now fighting for the belt.

It's a pretty amazing thing. I don't even think Matt Serra could have drawn it up like that. Fresh face, Chris Wyman, looks pretty much the same, minus the black eye. And here we are again. I was actually texting with Ray Longo, who we're still trying to get here, who is, I guess, fashionably late. You think the coaches are the ones who are on.

time. And I was texting with them over the weekend and he said, another big one for Long Island. Massive one for Long Island. But the similarities are certainly there. They're going into this fight against the champ, trying to pull it off. It feels very much like UFC 69 all over again. Perhaps Wyden getting a little more respect heading into this one than Matt Serra did heading into that first GSP fight. And we do have Mr. Ray Longo on the phone right now. Ray, are we, are we, Are we very busy over there? We fashionally late. What kind of message are you trying to send here?

Fashionably late, as usual. Thank you for stopping by. I was recalling our text message conversation over the weekend where you said another big one for Long Island and trying to play up the similarities to the first fight against GSP for Matt Sera. Does it feel like this for you? Does it feel like that experience, or does this one feel different?

No, this one feels different. I mean, the nervous energy for me is It's another championship fight. But I think you were saying before is that, you know, Matt, nobody gave him the chance. I mean, walking in there, he was the biggest underdog in UFC history. You know, this kid, a lot of fighters are saying is going to win. And they see something in him that a lot of people, I guess, are missing. But so it's similar, but I think that's the biggest difference is that Matt was really given no chance.

And that was kind of fueling the fire. This time, you know, this kid just believes in himself. This is what he wanted his whole life. He's worked hard. I believe he's earned it. He's got the accolades to back everything up. And, you know, we're all excited about it. Does it concern you when you hear so many people singing his praises and saying he could beat Anderson Silva?

Do you feel like that might play against you guys and give them some false confidence heading into the fight? No, I don't think so. I mean, we're pretty seasoned that he's surrounded by some good people. You know, we're not going to let that have any, you know, any factor in that. I think, you know, if they were saying stuff that wasn't true maybe, but they believe in his wrestling, they see something in his stand-up. They like his attitude. I think it's well-deserved. He's obviously young.

I mean, he's been in the UFC a lot less than Anderson Silva, 9-0 in his career, 5-0 in the UFC. Do you, does a party you kind of feel like, I wish we had one or two more fights, you know, the big gap between the Munoz fight? I mean, you really feel this is coming at the right time, or in a perfect world, one or two fights away would have been? been better. I'm going to say in a perfect world, you know, I like, you know, being active, you know what I mean? So, but I look at some of the fights Anderson's had against really people that often no resistance at all. So he's not in much better shape as far as I'm concerned.

So, yeah, in a perfect world, I would have liked to have seen maybe some more. But, you know, this kid's ready to go, man. You know, we had some great sparring. He's had some wars in the gym, which were good. And I think he's, he just wants to get in. there improved everybody he belongs in. At what point did his training camp start? He's been out for so long.

He also had the shoulder injury. Did he have a normal training camp, or did the injury delay things? No, no, he had a great training camp. He's perfectly healthy, which is, to me, which is more important than anything. You know, I thought we did the best job. We could.

We brought in a lot of sporing partners that I think were as close as we could get to this guy for the stand-up. And And that's it. You know, his wrestling is his wrestling. He was back at Hofstra wrestling. We had great chukitsu guys to simulate, you know, what we thought was going to go on.

So his camp was phenomenal. He's healthy. And then I think that's the biggest thing with this guy is to keep him healthy. And that's all I'm happy about. I was just reading an interview. And by the way, before I get to that, there were some rumors that, and I doubt you'd even say it if it was true, but have to ask it, there were some rumors that he had or he re-injured his shoulder.

Can you address that? I mean, is there any truth behind that? No truth at all to that. I didn't read that myself, but definitely no truth to that. Yeah, and he told me the same thing, just had to ask. You know, I read a story on MMAJunkey.com earlier today in interview with Chris where he talked about how this was his most organized camp, how John Dan and Her really took a leadership role and put everything together, and it was a lot more structured.

What does he mean by that? I mean, did you have a lesser role? In this camp, what's going on here? No, no, definitely not, definitely not a lesser role. I think the fact that we wrote it down on paper, and I think it was the same camp we always had, you know, but whatever he wants to believe on that. But I don't know, Dan Hart did a great job,

and he did kind of, he did organize us, I mean, but we did the same thing we always did, you know, we had the same workouts, the same sparring that we always did on. And I think it was, you know, I was going to the city with him, which I never really did before, but he didn't do anything, I don't think, different than he did. But we were consistent, and we did all have a meeting, and we wrote things down. And every week we talked.

So I think it was more. I think that's what he's talking about. It was maybe the communication between everybody was a little better. I believe that's what he's talking about. But definitely not a lesser role. I talk to the guy every day. I think I basically see him every day or at least five or six days a week. I was concerned for you.

I thought Wydenman was trying to push you out or something. Definitely not happening. We had a good time, and Danahead did a good job. Dana had to do a great job. I thought it was fascinating that Stephen Wonderboy Thompson was there, who's obviously a very dynamic striker, long, lean, similar body type to Anderson Silva. How useful was he to you guys?

I could, Thompson was a huge, huge addition to this camp. He gave him a couple of looks that we couldn't get from anybody else. And I think he's going to take away the surprise factor that Anderson might have had. You know, the kids young, he's quick. He's got long legs.

You still there, Ray? Did we lose Ray? Is someone playing voodoo on us today? I think we may have lost Ray. Oh, yeah, there you are. You're back. Yeah, somebody must have texted him. But wait, I stop with that.

He has long legs. You were singing his praises. One of boys' praise. I think, you know, he's a professional. You know, you know, he knew how to, you know, he knows how to spar. You know, there was no ego involved. He's a great kid. I don't know if you've got a chance to talk to that guy, but he's a really nice kid, really, really, I think was a huge addition to the camp.

And he's also sparred with Anderson in the past. Did he give you some secrets about him? You know, we talked about it. I don't know, because there's no secrets in the fight game. But, you know, he gave us a better idea of what to expect. And I think that's going to play a major factor. The big X factor that no one's talking about is that Anderson will have the Honorable Sensei Steven Seagal in his corner. How worried are you about what he brings to the table and the knowledge that he can give Anderson to beat Chris?

That would be a zero for a scale of one to ten. Are you kidding me? Yeah, no, definitely not. That's rather insulting to the sense. No, no, it's not insulting. I don't think he's part of the train camp. You don't think? You don't think he's there figuring out the game plan and everything? I don't know. I wouldn't know. I never heard anything about it, but I don't believe that it will be any factor in the fight. So you're not concerned about what he will tell Anderson about Chris and the knowledge that he'll give to Anderson heading into the fight?

No. No. I just played that video blog from UFC 119 of Matt Sarah talking about how this is the future right here. This guy is going to be a champion. You'll remember when I passed the torch, and it's amazing with Matt retiring a month ago, and now here we are. Chris about to fight. When you saw Chris back then, did you think he had that potential as well? Yeah, I think I've expressed that deal in the past

when I thought about this guy. And I think from the first day I met him, I knew there was something different about him. I mean, I had never seen anybody do the things he did, and I think it's all going to come to fruition on July 6th. I hear a lot of people say, oh, he's in over his head.

He won't understand the magnitude of this. Vegas, the posters, the media, the fans. Once you get to the way-ins, staring him down, fight night. Do you get the sense that he understands what's about to hit him when he hits Vegas? You know, I think so, you know, but again, I think, you know, it's a well-taking common. I think you really don't know the magnitude, but, you know, he did.

So even when he fought Sakara, it was on two weeks notice, and, you know, he had a banged-up rib, and you all going to be in the UFC. And, you know, he passed that test pretty good. So it's not like he's, you know, unaware of fighting in the UFC. or being in the big show for the first time. You know, he's kind of gotten a glimpse of it. So I think if he stays in the moment and understands what's going on, he'll have no problem with that at all.

Do you guys talk about that stuff? I mean, since you've been there? You talk about how to deal with it and all that? Yeah, we're just going to, like, again, we're going to stay in the moment. You know, the way-ins to weigh-in. You know, I mean, that's all it is. He's there to fight. He's there to win, and that's it.

He's not there to get a spin. in contest with this guy or doing any other things that are stupid. He wants to go in there and you know, fight the best guy in the world, which is what he's doing. I think he's really excited to test himself. How about for you? How

exciting is this to be back in a title fight? All eyes on you and your team. You know, you haven't been in a title fight since UFC 83, that rematch against GSP. And, you know, for a while and now all of a sudden it feels like Long Island MMA is booming with all the prospects coming out of there and contenders like Chris Wyman,

for you to be back here and to see how the market, the region, Long Island MMA is doing these days. How exciting is this for you? I mean, it's pretty exciting. I mean, you know, as usual, I'm in worse shape than the guys I train. So I'm definitely feeling the excitement. It's a great thing. I just can't wait to get to Vegas and settle in and, you know, finish off what we started. Did you think this would coming? I mean, there was a moment there were, for a while, there weren't big fights for you guys. Did you feel like it was cyclical, or did you think that maybe there wasn't anyone coming through the pipeline? You know, we never really look for anybody.

You know, I think that's the beauty of what we do here. It's homegrown talent. You know, I mean, these guys are both neighborhood kids that had the first enemy fight with me. I'm not really, you know, we're not inviting guys in without doing anything. We just take what we have on Long Island and try to get the best out of them. And I think that's the story behind us is the homegrown talent that we're always putting guys in the UFC that, you know, I've started from just, you know, taking martial arts classes, really.

You know, and I think, you know, maybe after this, you know, we'll look to, you know, spread the gospel a little bit for right now. We're just happy doing what we're doing. That's why I think you see it's more of a family environment. Everybody's interwoven together. Everybody's friends. I mean, come on to this day, that's probably my best friend. I mean, I know the guy probably 15, 16 years.

You know, I expect to know widen in another 16 years if I'm alive. If you're alive, why do you have to throw that in there? Geez, depressing me. I'm just saying. I might be on the back nine at this point. Oh, come on. But you know what I'm saying? Sure. I mean, it's really been that type of thing.

I think that's what makes this team special. We're not really, you know, we're not pitching anybody to come to the team. We've really taken what we have and doing the best with it, you know. And I think that's a beautiful thing. I really, you know, my heart and soul always go into that more than if I invited some guy over after he had 12 fights, you know what I'm saying? It really won't. What happened with Costa Filipu? You know, you have to ask him.

I mean, I'll say on that is, you know, the guy was 5 in 0 with his last 5 fights and he was ranked number 5 in the world. So you've got to ask him. I think I did my job. And that's it. I guess he needed a change of pace, so, you know. But is there any truth to the rumor that he was trying to set up something with Chris in the future and didn't want to be training with him anymore? No, definitely not.

I would say there's no truth for that. Okay. And you mentioned your great relationship with Matt, who, of course, retired recently. How is he doing health-wise? I mean, we had him on the show like a month or so ago, but any update on him? I think he's doing pretty good. You know, he just had his third daughter, so he's busy and having a rib-reely-remoner. moved and going through that process,

I think, you know, he's great, man. He's got a great outlook on life, but, you know, he's, uh, you know, I guess it has to take a little toll, but he seems to be great. Every time I talk to him and, you know, doing, you know, on normal routine. But, uh, yeah, he's, he's phenomenal, man. He had that blood clot.

He went right back into the operation. It was, uh, he had, I think he woke up his, the plug broke in his armpit. He was back in the emergency. he roamed he just i don't think he could stop this guy i really don't and then a week later his daughter was born so wow you know he has a lot on his plate you know and uh he's a great family guy and i think that's what i you everybody should take out of this instead you know you know you do have to take care of your health and he's got a family he's got three young girls and he's

going to do what it takes to uh ensure they have a great future will it be weird not being there with him in Vegas? It'll be a little weird. You know, I think he's a part of my coaching. I think we go hand and air with each other. We've coached so many guys. It'll be definitely weird. I think that's why I was making the trips to the city

is to, you know, getting sync with Dana and her and making sure everybody was on the same page. I mean, it's, you know, Matt, obviously, I got a long history with him. And, you know, I love coaching with the guy, and I hope he loves coaching with me. So, yeah, he'll be missed. but we're going to get this job done.

And, like, again, you know, we had a really solid camp, and I think I got to know John better for the last two or three months, and, you know, we're going to be in sync tonight of the fight. One of the greatest things the UFC has ever done were those video blogs leading up to Matt's fight, and we got to see your relationship up close and personal. The content was hilarious.

Now that he's retired, are we going to see more of that? What's going on here? I feel like we're being deprived of great comedy. You know, I keep... Every time I run into the guys that do the blog, I actually keep saying they're pitching new ideas, but nothing's, you know, have become of fruition, but, you know, those those were pretty funny. Sometimes they even go back and look at them.

They are. They're incredible. Yeah, they're pretty funny. I was really happy with the last boat with channel. I thought that thing was hysterical. That was amazing. I'd love to see him do more of that. I love the interaction between you.

You still have that picture of you, you know, the sort of Godfather-like picture. You still have that? No, sure. Of course. About a hundred of them. I don't bring you one. You should, you know what? I don't know if you've ever seen my set here,

but we have a lot of knickknacks here, and I think it would be great here. It would have a very nice home here. That would be an absolute honor. You should bring them to the Fan Expo this weekend and sign them for people. Yeah, right. I'm going to be doing one thing focusing on

Weidman winning that fight. You know, all the other stuff could come after that, but I'm really, really so excited and pumped up for this kid. It's amazing. By the way, when you look at Anderson, from your perspective, guy who's been undefeated in the UFC, and other than the chale fight, has looked unbeatable.

Where are his biggest holes? Is it the obvious, in your opinion? Is it the wrestling? Because it feels like everyone talks about that. Now, obviously, he's working on that. He knows what's coming from that end. But when you look at his holes, what are the biggest ones in your opinion?

Well, I tell you why, I mean, the guy is where he's at for a reason. He's, you know, when I look at, the guy is absolutely phenomenal. We're not discounting anything. You know, the way I'm breaking the town of my head is that can a 40-year-old man stop this young, talented, strong, huge, technical, confident kid from dumping him on his head.

That's the way I look at it. This guy is a beast, and I think the age might play a little factor in this. You know, I'm not sure there's a guy in the United States. I could stop this guy from putting him on his head. Wow. I mean, he's that good, Ariel. He really is. He's a, and it's not just like, you know, bullshit.

He's technical, he's strong, he's confident. I mean, he's got the attributes that it takes to win this fight. And I think everybody knows that if that fight hits the ground, it's going to be a different story getting it there. Yeah, I mean, we're going to see what happens on July 6th. You know, We're going to get, he's a big, strong technical kid. You know, we've put him in with pro boxes, south four, six-one. I mean, he's passed the test, so he deserves to be here.

And, you know, like, again, everybody's going to find out something on July 6th, you know. I don't know who's going to be more surprised in the out of the guy on Anderson or Chris, but, you know, he's not going to be mentally defeated before he goes in there. And I think he's got the flight time now to get what he wants. So Anderson is 38, Chris is 29. Let's say Anderson was 29 right now. Is age the biggest thing, or do you think that you just put them up against each other? Chris is a better fighter?

I think, like, again, I'm not going to be repetitive, I think stylistically. You know, we believe that Wyden's a bad matcher form. That's true. So I'm not saying age is the only factor. No, definitely not, because when age comes experience, and if you watch his fight, this is a calm, calculated striker, very accurate, never gets flustered, always stays in the moment. This guy's no joke.

No joke. You know, I just believe the guys, he's been beaten or at Chris's level, standing up or on the floor. When you put your head on your pillow at night, when you close your eyes, when you dream about July 6th, is there a scenario that keeps popping up? Do you see this fight ending a particular way? I do see it ending a particular way, yeah. And what would that way be? We're going to hold that off to July. I want to keep in suspense. I'll write it on an envelope.

Yes. And we'll open it up after the fight. How's that? It's a deal. We'll do a crescent. with an amazing question on this I love it I can't wait you got me even more

I said it's the most anticipated fight of 2013 in my opinion and somehow you just got me a little more excited for it my heart is pounding out of my shirt right now I can't wait to see it

I can't wait to see it I hope I make it to the fight but you got pray for me when you guys I could have a heart attack no please enough with these heart attack jokes when do you guys head out there we'll even tonight

oh wow 7 o'clock yes it will be the right tonight, then we'll settle in and start, you know, doing everything tomorrow. Please don't go outside. I heard it's like 200 degrees. It's rain. It's pouring over here. No, I mean in Las Vegas. Over there. I'll be outside. I love to eat.

I'll see you by the pool, though. Absolutely. We'll have a peanut collater together. You have that Sicilian skin? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. A little Middle Eastern, of course. Can't wait for it, Ray. I wish you guys nothing but the best of luck. It's going to be an amazing show. if nothing else, it should be very intriguing. Can't wait to see what transfolds on July 6th.

Chris Wyman v. Anderson-Silva. Best of luck to you guys, and I'll see you out there in Vegas. Yeah, you're the best man. You're there from the beginning, so I think it makes it more special. Thank you, Ray. I appreciate it. All right, buddy, I'll see you out there. There he is. The great Ray Longo, unbelievable stuff from him.

One of the best in the business. So great to have him on the show as he prepares his guy, Chris Wydenman to face Anderson Silva on Saturday night. Cannot wait for that. Now, one of the other big fights on Saturday night's card, we stick with the middleweight theme is a couple of strike force vets making their UFC debuts. We've got Hajer Gracie. Of course, we know him against this man. Tim Kennedy, with a big smile on his face, he cannot wait.

Tim, how are you? I'm very well. Thanks. You're going to be fighting on Saturday, right? Because I thought maybe for a second there they might yank you with your comments that you had last week. I haven't heard from the card, but, you know, nothing would surprise me these days. You know, what was interesting about those comments, and of course, if you missed them, you could see them online. They're everywhere.

Tim talking about Fighter Pay. What was interesting about that was often we see people criticize the UFC for Fighter Pay when they're on their way out. You're going in. This is your first impression. What made you say this? And I know you later apologize and cleared it up, but what made you say this to begin with? Did you not apologize? I don't.

I think the UFC knew what they were getting when they got me, and that's an outspoken on a dude. And, you know, through the course of that interview with Grappler Talk, they, you know, we're talking about how many different people have second jobs. I am no different than most other MMA fighters. I have other sources of income because I can't live off MMA. And, and that was, that's what led into, into those comments, you know, it was just an honest assessment of, here's the deductions that usually occur in a fight. And it's a lot less money than most people think. This has been gaining a lot of steam lately, a lot of people talking about this.

Do you think something's going to happen here? Do you think there's a change coming? I don't know. Hopefully, you know, the, I would love to be able to, you know, fight. And I think most fighters would say the same thing, you know, at a level where we didn't need other, you know, I didn't have to run other businesses. I didn't have to be a soldier. I didn't have to, you know, whatever change.

car one, be an engineer, you know, we just, we could just fight. But, you know, it's hard. You know, it's hard to fight two, three times a year. And all of your income come from that. It's, it's not enough. You know, and I'm one of the better paid fighters. So that's, that's weird, tragic, but that's how it is. How much do you think you deserve to make? Like I said, so that I could train full-time, I didn't have to do anything else. I don't even know where I'm ranked right now. I know boxing's always had a tiered system of, like, of course, the top 1% making way more than the other 99%. But it's a little bit different in MMA.

We have so many marquee fighters. It's not just that top 1, 2%. You know, we have, like, most other fans are going to be one. watching all of the fights, you know, from the prelims, even from the Facebook, all the way through the pay-per-view. So, you know, that, that format doesn't really work. You know, something similar to, like, hockey pros or, you know, God, we should at least make as much as, like, golf guys, you know. Wow. No love for the golf guys. No. They don't get punched in the face for a living, and they don't have quite as, you know, as.

short of careers as we do. Very true. Actually, their careers are probably the longest of all the pro athletes. Yeah. You know, there's an obvious reason for that. Do you think if there was more competition, this would change? No, not necessarily. Do you mean more promotions or more fighters? No, no, no, more promotions, more places to go.

No, you know, the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, they've all been successful. You know, they don't have competitors. You know, they have multiple teams, lots of players. you know, like in some instances, athlete unions, you know, so, no, if it was just the UFC, the only one out there, and, you know, that might eventually be the case. I don't think it's necessary for there to be other promotions for, you know, like competitive pay. You know, like a bunch of athletes, short careers, only so many fights in a year have to figure out how to survive off of that money. So you mentioned those other sports, those sports have unions. Do you think MMA needs a union?

Oh. You don't know, you don't have an opinion on that. You have an opinion on everything else, not that? No, I definitely have an opinion on that. Oh, okay. Let's talk about the fight. Oh, okay. Well, you know, are you worried?

Are you worried that because you said what you said last week that you need to win on Saturday, are you worried that you might not be around if you lose on Saturday? Yeah, let's talk about me losing, Ariel. This is a fun interview. Well, you know what I'm saying. Did you put more pressure on yourself? You know the climate of the Zufa execs probably better than I do. How about I ask you that question?

Should I be worried? What do you mean? You think I've asked them specifically if this is going to affect your future? Is that what you're implying? No, I said you know the climate of Zufa execs far more personally than I do. So you would probably have a more intuitive response than I would. I don't know those guys. I'm going to go out and try to knock Hodger out regardless.

And the outcome, to me, in my mind, there's only one. That's me winning. So I don't care. Absolutely. I just felt like if you felt like you had more pressure on your shoulders these days, because I look at it from my perspective, if I was going into a job and before I signed that contractor before I performed on the first day and I openly complained about what they were paying,

me, I would think that I'm not getting off on the right foot in hindsight. Not saying you were wrong to complain, not saying anything you said was wrong, but I could see why my employer would not like that. I agree. So then when I brought up the statement you put out afterwards, you kind of said, oh, it sounded like you were like, I'm an apology. Was that not an apology? Did you not write that? Do you not believe in what you wrote afterwards? No, I believe in what I wrote. How about this? We've now I've been talking for nine minutes and 11 seconds, and we haven't talked about the fight. So I'm going to give you another 45 seconds to talk about fighter pay, and then we can talk about me fighting Quentin Jackson in a WWE match, or me, Katie Perry, doing zombie shooting, cooking, and anything interesting. I know you love talking about all these hot topics, but at some juncture, I'd love to talk about UFC 162 on Saturday when I'm fighting Hodger Gracie.

So, no, I believe everything that I say. I stand by what I said originally, and, you know, I'm not somebody that's, if I say something and I make my boss mad and they say, hey, you need, you need to say something about it, then I will. And I'll stand by what I said the first time and the reasons why I apologized afterwards. At first I thought maybe it was just an April Fool's joke. and none of it was really true. It was June when I said it, and then I'm fighting in July. I know. I'm kidding.

Of course, because we had a little conversation about that when you threw your name into the Musasi sweepstakes. Remember that? I do. That was a good time. Yeah. I didn't have much of a sense of humor those days. So you're fighting Hajra Gracie.

Do you think he's a one-trick pony? At UFC 162 on Saturday on pay-per-view. Do you think he's a one-trick pony? Some have called him that. Well, I think he is so dominant on the ground that, you know, his one trick is really, really, really, really good. No, I don't think he's a one-trick pony. I think his stand-up is underestimated. He's really good at using range.

And anybody that was only expecting to go in and have him try to take you down is going to have a rough fight. With that said, I don't want him taking me down, but I also have to be wary of, you know, him trying to stay at range for 15 minutes. You know, I'm the one that's going to have to close the distance. and get inside to do damage. What do you think of his standup? What do you think of how he's evolved as an MMA fighter? Every fight he looks better. You know, he's, um, his last fight, he looked fantastic.

You know, the first round, he was slow starting. Um, he was using his jab pretty well. Um, he's getting eaten up on leg kicks. But, um, you know, he has, he has a real weird tempo and a weird pace. It seems like it kind of throws guys off. So his, his standup has improved. every fight, and I don't, I expect to see yet again another improved version of his stand-up. I mentioned when the UFC booked this matchup, this one in particular, I don't like that

they're booking Strike Force versus Strike Force guys. I want to see you against UFC vets. That's what's interesting about the sort of invasion, if you want to call it, of the Strike Force guys. It's very rare when you have a whole organization fold into another. Were you bummed out when you saw this matchup? It's a good matchup. I like it, but I wanted to see you against, you know, Bispin comes to mind because he's like a UFC middleweight veteran. You know what I'm saying? I know that excites you very much.

But did you think of the same thing? This is a Strike Force guy. Yeah, I totally agree with you. You know, I want to do, you know, for so long, all the Strike Force guys were in this tiny little pool, this small stable of athletes. And, you know, we could only fight each other so many times. You know, like, I'd probably be fighting Jokre again

if we are still, you know, with Strike Force, or, you know, like, beat him, probably another rematch with Luke. There's only so many fights there for us. And then the floodgates were opened, and we could fight anybody in the UFC. And my first debut at UFC 162, Anderson-Widman Card, and I'm fighting the Strike Force guy. Yeah. So, yeah, I was disappointed a little bit because I've been wanting to fight so many of those guys for so long.

And, you know, but then, you know, like you said, I think it's a good matchup for me and stylistically. And, you know, an opportunity to fight another Gracie. Cool. For a guy who started his career in this sport around 12 or so years ago, was there a point where you thought, you know, I might not ever make it to the UFC. And if so, that's okay. Or did you have to make it to the UFC to sort of round out your career in your opinion?

No, it's always been about the opponent. You know, it's ultimately the guy standing across the cage from you, whether it's, you know, an eight-sided cage, a ring, you know, a five-rope ring, a three-rope ring. If, you know, you're fighting in Brazil, if you're fighting in Brazil, if you're fighting an Indian casino in California, ultimately it's just the dude on the other side of the cage and uh you know and i fought some great guys and that's what it's always been about for me like beating the best guy that i can get in

front of me uh strike force had a whole bunch of the best guys now we're in the ufc and my access to even more of the best guys are available so i'm excited you know do i have to fight in the ufc to round out my career, no, but I wanted to fight some of the guys in the UFC to round out my career. So yes. And then, coincidentally, you end up fighting a Strike Force guy in your UFC debut, but I'm sure you will get the opportunity to fight other UFC guys as your career goes on there. Do you feel like, you know, the moment, I mean, this is a pretty big card, July 4th, Anderson Silva fighting. I mean, this is not your typical Strike Force IFL event. Do you think you'll have a second to, you know, have to deal with that and check yourself and not get too overwhelmed by it?

No. I'm not one that gets drawn into all the shenanigans that go along with fight cards. You know, I'm there to fight. You know, ultimately, regardless of where I'm staying or how many fans there are, I'm going to walk out to the cage, I'm going to get in the cage, you're going to close the cage, and all the lights kind of drown everything else out. And now I've got to punch a dude in the face across me. you know maybe afterwards after the fight I'll be able to walk around

or you know I'll definitely try to make it back to see Anderson's fight because you know I've a vested interest in that and you know like to see the best MMA guy in my lifetime

you know fight are really hard to fight so I'm excited are you picking Anderson in that fight no I'm picking Wydenman my heart is picking Anderson

my mind is peeking wideman Why are all the fighters picking Wydenman? Because he's a freaking juggernaut. Have you ever trained with him? I was up in New York doing, I don't know, some photo shoot. And I went to their gym. You know, this was a few years ago before, I think he had one or two UFC fights.

And, you know, I was rolling around with him, and I was like, God, this guy's good. You know, and then, like, two hours later, and we didn't ever, like, really settle into a position. you know, nobody got mount, nobody got rear mount, nobody got side control. It was just scrambling for two hours. I was like, holy crap, this guy is legit. And then, you know, seeing his stand up, I was like, this is a fantastic boxer. And then, anyway, it's just thing after thing. You know, this is two years ago, I was impressed.

And I knew that he was going to make waves in the division, and he has. So a healthy Wydenman's a scary thing. But, you know, I hear all that. I think some of us are forgetting this, and not saying you, but some people when talking about this fight, it's Anderson Silva. It is Anderson Silva, after all. Like, all that stuff sounds great, but it's Anderson Silva. I'm surprised so many people are picking Wydenman. You know, he's, like I said, he's the best mixed martial artist that's existed in my lifetime.

Anderson Silva is, like, he's the go. You know, he's the best. He's also 37. He's also been a champ for a really long time. Complacency. There's just so many things to being a fighter. And in MMA, and you know just as well as I do, MMA's not like all other sports.

You know, like anybody can lose on any night. You know, and then just the percentages, the timing, the angles is what starts the small little battles, every single from head position, hand fighting. All those little things start making a difference. And stylistically, Chris is a tough fight for him. like Chale demonstrated a deficiency in Anderson's game, and, you know,

Wyden's just a way bigger, stronger, younger version of that. I don't know if you know this, but the first fight that I was ever credentialed to was you versus Jason Mayhem Miller, HGNet fights number two. And that was in Dallas, Texas. And I'm wondering, because you fought him twice, what do you make of what's become of Mayhem Miller?

life, man. You know, lots of little choices lead up to how and who we are. I'm not perfect. I make a lot of mistakes. I make a lot of bad choices. I try to make the right ones. Do I love that guy? He's always been an eccentric, unique personality. He's also been a centric, unique mind. and, you know, I'm disappointed that, you know, kind of like where he's going or where he's been, but, you know, I consider him a friend and I want him, I want the best for him. So, man, I don't know. Like, after some of the stuff, I was like, hey, do you want to come out to Texas and hang out here? And he's like, Texas is the last place I want to be.

I'm like, well, Austin's okay, you know, you'll have fun here. And so, I don't know. I hope them the best. It would be nice if there was some kind of, you know how the NFL Players Association have like a retired players association where they kind of look after you? I mean, it's not great.

There's still a lot of issues, but if there was something that would, these guys can get something afterwards where if your career is not over, it just doesn't end. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. The UFC does, I think they do a pretty good job of finding jobs and places

for some of the marquee athletes. You know, guys, like Forrest Griffin and Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell, you know, that have a position for them in the company. You know, that's great. That's fantastic. You know, like, what we were talking about earlier in the show, you know, our careers are so short. You know, the longevity of our competitiveness is, you know, is that pocket of that time is so small

that, you know, after our careers, you know, like we either made enough money to be able to do something or do nothing and, you know, like, enjoy life. or trying to get jobs as cops or like I said, garbage men or whatever else there is for us. And that's a scary future for an MMA fighter. So, yeah, I don't know what the solution is. You know, a retirement club sounds kind of scary, but I don't know. Do you still train at Greg Jackson's? Yeah. But you're in Austin now?

Yeah, I did, what, six weeks in Austin, or in Albuquerque, and I came back here two weeks ago, went to Houston for a week with Andrew Craig, and then came back a couple of days, or, yeah, two days ago to pack my bags and get on a plane tomorrow. On Twitter, I saw you write recently that the things you can't live without are one bacon, two donuts, three my phone, four Twitter, five MMA, six peanut butter, and seven chocolate. So no loved ones, no family, no friends. Those are the things you can't live without. Bacon, number one.

Things, things I can't live about. Oh, actual things. Yeah. Okay. I could have, you know, 140 characters is pretty limited. The hashtag that I was, you know, trying to capitalize on, which was things that you can't live without. I'm fairly certain my wife would murder me if I called her a thing. Right.

I missed the thing part. I apologize. I thought those were just like your top favorite. I guess things in the world, but you know what I mean. I didn't know that we were just talking about objects there. Bacon number one, though, interesting for a fighter who's in such good shape. When's the last time you had...

When you're cutting weight, you always want the things you can't have. And man, I haven't had bacon in like two months. That sounds so good. And will you have it after the fight? Not immediately, because I'm not exactly sure where in the MGM grand I can get bacon at two in the morning. Rather bacon, I would want to have.

Sure, sure. I could find bacon. Sure. in the next week following, I'm going to take a week off, you know, and I'll enjoy life. I'm not a guy to, like, you know, balloon up to 240 and be all fat. I'll be right back in the gym training and eating fairly clean, but I'll enjoy a week of normal life. Well, good luck in the fight. I'm looking forward to it. It's Tim Kennedy versus Hajie Gracey this Saturday, one of the more intriguing fights on this Saturday's card,

featuring a lot of interesting middleweight fights. I'm looking forward to that. The division is being spotlighted. very much on Saturday night. Good luck to you, Tim. We'll see you in Vegas, looking forward to it. Yep, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. There he is. Tim Kennedy is stopping by making his UFC debut. I mentioned a lot of middle-whites being featured on Saturday. We know about the main event. We just talked about that fight. How about another interesting middle-weight fight that's on the pay-per-view? It's Tim Boch versus our next

guest, Mark Munoz. Mark, how are you? I'm great. I'm great. How are you, Ariel? I'm doing great. How about Tim talking about all that bacon stuff? You, you, my friend, want none of that. No, no, I'm done with bacon, man. Done with bacon and onto like fresh fruits and vegetables. You know, it's very interesting. You have done a ton of media heading into this fight. Almost, I feel like you're out there more than Chris Wyman. Because of your transformation, you have this hashtag obese to beast.

You showed the pictures to us over the weekend, how you look when this fight camp started, how you look today. Why did you feel the need to be so open about your troubles after the Chris Wydenman fight and what you dealt with mentally. I mean, I just felt like it was something that needed to be shared, man. I mean, all my training partners here, I'm actually at practice right now taking a break from drilling. But all my training partners have expressed to me how amazing it was, my transformation,

and they're like, man, you should post it, you should do this, you should do that. So it was something that I felt like I needed to do. I mean, a lot of people need some added motivation. And for me, like, this is something that if somebody weren't to be able to help me out, you know, I don't know where I would be either. So, you know, I'm just letting everybody know that they can do it as well. You know, I came up from the depths of my lowest low and was able to be triumphant over.

And so, you know, with a little bit of discipline and dedication, I was able to get to where I'm at today. Why did you get so depressed? Because, man, I mean, I've been at the top a few times, man. I've been there, and due to some unfortunate, unfortunate, unforeseen things that happened to me, I wasn't able to accomplish my goal. And that's ultimately a world champion. That's what I want to become.

And, you know, that's something that I shoot for. And I'm a guy that wears my heart on my sleeve. Like, I take losses pretty bad. I mean, if you talk to my training partners, they'll test it at. But at the same time, I'll rebound quick and I'm resilient that way as well, and I'll learn from my mistakes. So not only from losing, but then having the most turbulent leader I had last year with backing out against Chil Sunnan and seeing him being number one contender and fight for the title and then rush back into it and fight Weidman. And then, you know, my elbow still bothering me.

then in the process, I end up breaking my foot, you know, and then the doctor telling me that my foot was so bad that I had to stay out for a year. You know, that kind of threw me for a loop, and, you know, I'm a guy that I'm a fighter, and this is how I make money, and I need to make money fighting, and if I don't fight, I don't make money, and I have a wife and four kids, and had a gym to support, too, but now I just needed this year to be able to be able to kind of just restructure everything, and it was actually a blessing in the skies that it happened to me that, you know, with the self-doubt and injuries, adversity and depression,

I was able to kind of like restructure everything and get to a point where, you know, my gym's in the black now and, you know, I'm more intentional with my kids and more thoughtful towards my wife and now everything's in order now, you know, and I feel like I'm going into this fight in the best shape of my life. I got the best team I can't possible with me right now and this weight cut is going to be fantastic and I'm just looking forward for the fight and we're looking at those before and after

photos that you posted over the weekend which are nothing short of incredible it's an amazing transformation to see you the way you looked at the beginning of all of this and to see the way you look now and I do agree you hear it a lot you do appear to be in the best shape of life what was the beginning of all that

like you lost to Chris Wyman and then right away did you feel like you hit rock bottom or was it a gradual decline for you? No, I was a gradual decline. I mean, I felt like that wasn't me in the fight. That definitely was not me. And, you know, for all my training partners that know me, they know that I didn't put my best foot forward, literally, you know?

My foot was broken in that fight. The doctor told me when I came back that my fifth metatarsal is broken, and that I need to take six months, six months to be able to recover, and then three months to be able to rehab, and then I'll be able to get back onto the scene. So the news right there just kind of was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. And, you know, to be on the shelf for a year, that was something that I wasn't, I didn't want to hear.

You know, and that was it. And I kind of just, you know, I was like fat bastard on Austin Powers. I was just, I was ate because I was sad and I was sad because I ate. And that's basically how it was, man. And I went to all my comfort foods, man. And when Tim Kennedy talks about bacon, I ate my fair share of bacon. I really did. And, you know, I went to some other things.

You know, my mom's home cooking in the Philippines. And I went to the Philippines and ate there. My family cooked a feast from me there and came home and just kept eating, man. and I felt like I couldn't train, so I might as well do something. But, you know, I mean, that's something that's kind of real, you know, that I think a lot of people struggle with. Yeah. Is when they get sad, they look for food.

And, you know, I'm just being more open about it. You know, I'm someone that's, you know, honest with what happens in my life. And I confront it head on, and I confront adversity, take it head on and take it as it comes, man. And that's something that was very real in my life. and now I can look at somebody when they say they're going through depression and look through eyes and look through lenses of compassion and be like, okay, yeah, this is how I was able to conquer it and hopefully this can help you.

So that's something that I want to be able to inspire and motivate people with, you know, to be able to help them because it was real, man. And I have the proof right there. You know, I was at my low and low and my height of high and weight. And, you know, I had to conquer that. You know, what's interesting about this story, especially when it applies to sports, is that when you hear an athlete go through something like this,

they often talk about drugs and all this kind of stuff. You're talking about food, which obviously is a major thing that people struggle with every day, but you're not talking about those taboo subjects like all kinds of drugs. Did you ever think about doing any of that stuff? No, man, I'm not a guy that does drugs or alcohol. I don't party or doing any of that stuff. You know, I got, you know, I've never passed my mind to do anything like that.

you know i've never i never ever ever in my life in my wildest dreams ever thought about you know sticking a needle in me or or um smoking a joint or anything like that so you know for me it was uh just comfort and foods you know that's what it was man so um and you know to be able to spend more time with my family and you know there was a lot of things in my personal life that i had to take care of and uh you know that's that's something that it was that's why i say it's a blessing in disguise because now I'm more intentional with my kids. Now I'm having more conversations, you know, reveling conversations that pertain to their age

that I can talk about and lead them through as a father and a leader of the family. And I can talk to my wife about things that pertain to our marriage and our relationship. And, you know, those were some of the things I needed to heal and get better. And I'm glad that I actually went through this adversity. You know, it sucked going through.

it, but now looking back in retrospect, I see the reason why I went through it. And everybody says everything happens for a reason. I didn't know why I was going through it, but now there's clarity in it now, and now I see why. And you have a lot of loving, caring fighters, talented fighters around you, your family, obviously loving and caring, your wife, four kids. Did anyone try to stop you and say, hey, you're getting out of control here? You don't look like yourself. You're not acting like yourself. Or did they just let you go and be you? No, man, there's a lot of people saying, hey, man, you're looking huge right now. How much you weigh?

And they, you know, they just didn't want to, I guess they didn't want to insult me, you know, so to speak. They're like, hey, bro, you need to start doing something. I mean, there was a lot of guys that were saying that to me. And I just, you know, I kind of just kind of shook it off and, you know, kind of gave in the hand a little bit. But then my wife goes, hey, once you step on the scale, see him what you way, and this was in January. stepped on the scale is 261. I was like, oh, my gosh, this is crazy. And I was tipping the scales before Wydeman at 247.

So 12 weeks before I accepted a fight, I was 247 against Wyatman. So, I mean, you can see that, you know, when something happens to me, I resort to food. I don't go to drugs. I don't go to alcohol. I resort to food. And that's what happened to me. So, you know, right now it's, you know, now I, you know, now I, see everyone that was kind of there encouraging me, telling me, hey, you need to get your butt back

into the gym, you start doing something. And now, you know, I have a great team behind me with my nutrition, with my strength and conditioning, with all my training partners. They know how it is now, and, you know, I'm using this adversity to be able to encourage them. So what was the turning point for you? How did you get back on track? The turning point was when I got on the scale. Wow.

And I took myself at 261, and then I went straight to my trainer. I was like, hey, I need to do something, man. And he looked at me. He goes, wow. He goes, before we even started anything, he took a picture of me. And actually, no, take that back. He's like, we need to start doing cardio and so we started doing cardio and stuff. And he's like, that's first and foremost.

And then about a week later, he was like, hey, man, I need to do, I need to do before picture because this is going to take the cake, man. This is going to be the one that triumphs every other before and after picture. Yeah. I go, all right, man. And he didn't show me my before picture until about 10 days ago. Wow. And when I saw it, dude, I was just floored.

I was floored when I saw it in. So I was like, man, I got to do something with this and be able to encourage and motivate him. eight people. Was there ever a point where you were afraid that you dug yourself in too big of a hole that your career was over, that you just got out of control, and that you won't get back to the 205 Filipino wrecking machine that we know? Yeah, you know, there was a lot of self-doubt in me, man. There was, there was some, you know, why, why am I doing this?

Like, you know, I've been to the top and wasn't able to cash in, and there was a lot of, there's a lot of that going on in my head, a lot of negativity, and I didn't want to to, you know, there's, there's times where I didn't want to practice and be like, you know, maybe I am done, you know, and if it weren't for my training partners and my trainers and everybody around me, I wouldn't be here today telling you that I'm triumphant over this adversity. So, yeah, there was a lot of that going on in my head. So we see how you look on paper via those pictures. Mentally, physically, how do you feel going into this fight five days away?

I feel amazing. I feel amazing. This is the best I've ever felt going into a fight. I've done everything right from, you know, right from here on now and now. And I was doing a lot of things wrong. I wasn't training right. I was over-training for sure. And if you ask any of my training partners that have been with me, they always say I'm over-training.

Well, I'm like, if you ain't over-training, you ain't training. And that was my perspective. But now I'm getting older. You know, the reason why my body was breaking down was because I was over-training. You know, I was, and I wasn't taking care of my body. I wasn't getting it worked on. I wasn't doing any of that stuff. And I was just grinding through everything.

So, yeah, so now, like, you know, I'm doing things smart, doing things right. You know, I'm making sure I'm periodizing my schedule, making sure I'm peeking towards every event now, and this is the result of it right now, and you're seeing the fruits of what's happening as far as planning and preparing. How much does it bug you that Wydman is fighting Anderson main event of this card, the card that you're coming back, is that a tough thing to swallow?

Yes. Yes, it is. And I, you know, like I said before, everything happens for a reason, and I needed this to happen to me. I really did. And so I'm thankful for it. So I'll get my chance. I will.

Is it that remind, like, you wish it you weren't on this particular card because he kind of signifies that beginning for you, that spiral to the point that you didn't want to be in? No, man, no, I don't take back anything that happens in my life. Everything happens for a reason, like I said. Yeah. And it happened. You know, there's things that happen to your life that I'm foreseen

that you won't ever see. And that elbow, I didn't see coming. And, you know, I dropped my hands and came in for a heater, and he caught me. And there's a lot of things in life that's going to happen that you don't ever see car accidents and cancer and all this stuff. but you got to keep a positive attitude in mind to go through it. And, you know, I like an MMA to life, man.

This is straight up like no other. And like this is unforeseen, but I'm going to have a positive attitude through it. And I'm looking forward to this fight to let everybody know that I've conquered my demons and now I'm back. By the way, when I heard this matchup, I thought it was the perfect matchup for both of you. Do you share that sentiment? it just seems like that a classic Joe Silva UFC type matchup, you're both coming off tough losses, similar styles tough, you know, it just feels right.

This matchup feels right. Did you feel that same way when you got it? Yeah, it feels right. It does. And, you know, this matchup will get us back to where we want to be a step closer to the title. And, you know, this is a great matchup, great fight. And by the way, Chris is the sexy pick.

You fought him, you trained with Anderson. Are you on the Chris back? Ben Wigan, do you think he beats Anderson? No, no, I don't. Although Chris possesses all the tools to be able to give Anderson problems, yes, he does. But I truly believe that Anderson is, you know, I've trained with Anderson. I know what he's capable of. And when he moves the way he's going to move in this fight, you'll see that he's definitely

the world's best. And what's a relationship like with Anderson these days? It's good, man. I went to his grand opening, his Anderson-Sillomortai Academy, grand opening. He's like, hey, we need to come train. And, you know, we just been able to miss each other. We missed each other. He's been in Brazil coming back and in everything.

So I've been here with my camp as well. So, you know, we're in good terms, but we just missed each other for this camp. Mark, I appreciate the time. Congratulations on making it back here and being in better shape than you were before all of this started. So happy to hear you're in a good place. healthy, looking forward to this fight very much. Like I said, it makes all the sense in the world to me, and very much looking forward to seeing you back in action on Saturday.

Good luck to you. Thank you, area. It's always a pleasure to having you having me on the show, man. And I appreciate everything that you do for the sport, dude. Thank you very much. Best of luck. There he is. The Filipino wrecking machine, Mark Munoz stopping by.

If you have not seen those pictures, do yourself a favor. Go online. Go to MMAfighting.com. Go to Mark Munoz's Twitter, his blog, and look at those pictures, they're amazing. I thought the before and after Rick's Fit pictures are going to be amazing from Schlupp to Superstar.

Here he is, Mark Munoz, a UFC contender looking the way he did before all this started and then looking the way he does now. And really, when you look at the way he does now, and this is before his cut to 185, and you compare it to how he usually looks at the way-ins, he looks way better right now. He really looks incredible,

and it's amazing considering what he has. has been through. And I remember I was at that fight in San Jose. In July of last year, Chris Wyden versus Mark Munoz, the elbow came out of nowhere. And I remember the way he reacted backstage. I was backstage doing my stuff for fuel. And he was very emotional and it was a very intense scene. And he obviously dealt with it very hard and then the news of his foot and everything afterwards, which he just spoke about, and to see him come back like that as a fighter at his age, I mean, this is not a very young guy.

This is a guy who has been in the sport for a long time, the guy who has competed for a long time. He is 35 years old, after all. We talk about Anderson Silva. He's 38 just turned 38. Munoz turned 35 in February. So it's tough for someone at that age to reinvent himself all over again.

If he beats Tim Boch, he's right back in there. In a way class, which a lot of the top guys are, you know, one and O in their last in the last fight, they're not riding very impressive winning streaks. Some of the, you know,

the Bispings, the stands, the boches of the world. You've got Philip who there doing his thing. So it's a very interesting fight for Mark Munoz and very happy to hear

that he is back on track looking forward to that fight very much. We continue with our middleweight theme and we welcome in our good pal, Patrick Cote, right now, to the MMA hour. Patrick, how are you?

I'm pretty good, man. Thank you. you for joining us. Happy Canada Day to you. What does Patrick Cote do on Canada Day? Actually, we are on the boat now, so doing us with some waste surf and enjoying the free time with friends now, so it's all good. So you're doing the interview on a... I feel horrible that I just ruined your boat day. That's very inconsiderate on my part. I'm sorry. No, no, no, you never ruined my day. You know that. All right. Well, happy Canada Day and happy that you are joining us. You know, some very big news came out about you recently, that you're

You're going to be a coach on Tough Nations, Australia versus Canada, you versus Kyle Noak. Did you have any idea you were in the running for this? Did you know that they were considering you to doing this? It had a pretty good idea when the news came out about Canada against Australia. I didn't campaign for it, but for sure I wanted to do it. But there's more like the fans and everybody, especially on Twitter and on the web, that they were cheering for me. and they wanted me as a coach.

But yeah, man, I'm very happy. It's a great, great opportunity, a lot of great exposure, and, yeah, it's going to be fun. When does it start filming? It's going to be in November. Okay. The tryout is going to be in September right after Toronto, the U.S. 165 fight card for three days. It's going to be the tryout, and after that in November, we're going to start to film that. And the filming, will it be in Australia or Canada?

It's going to be Canada. It's going to be here in Montreal or Quebec City. We don't know yet. We still don't know yet. There's still some things here with the Quebec City or Montreal. They still don't know, but it's going to be here in Iran, Montreal. That's amazing for you. You don't have to go all the way to Australia.

You really lucked out there. Yeah, it's good. And, you know, it's good for my assistant coach, too. So we're not, you know, as a coach, we're not stuck in the house like the contestants. So we're going to be able to continue training on our free time and taking care of those guys in the house. So it's going to be awesome. So it's welterweights and middleweights, right? The tryout is going to be welterweight and middleweight.

He still don't know if during the show that will have both divisions. But, yeah, the tryout is going to be the one of the different. and 17. And what do you think? Do you think Canada has a surplus of unsigned UFC fighters who fight at 171-85? Are you confident that you will have a good crew of guys to go up against the Australians? Oh, yeah. I'm 100% confident.

I think we're going to – I'm going to – I'm going to get to sweet this season. I'm going to win every fight. And, you know, we're going to prepare those guys very well. And I know there's a lot of fighters in Canada that they're very close to be part of the big show. and I hope we're going to have a big surprise, you know, some guys that we didn't expect, and they're coming, they're just still the show. But, you know, the bottom line, I'm pretty sure our team

in Canada will be very solid. What I find so interesting about this story was, you know, we were talking to you very recently when you were trying to get back into the UFC, when you were fighting in strange locations in Brazil, hoping to get another shot. Now here you are coaching. When you were on the show many years ago,

you're being spotlighted, you have this fight afterwards. did you stop and think, wow, I mean, it's amazing how things turn out, because for a second, you were on the outside looking in. It's just unreal, seriously. A year ago, I was in the middle of nowhere in Hamasen's Forest, fighting in Brazil and fighting my way back to the UFC. And as you said, you know, my UFC carrier is just insane. You know, start with the main event right away,

I get to the Ortiz, fought for the title, fought for the title, and the ultimate fight of season four. got fired, came back, and now I'm going to be the coach of this show. So it's just amazing. Did you feel confident the whole time? Obviously, not to be on the show as a coach, but did you think it would turn out for the better? Did you feel like, all right, I just have to go through this and everything will work out? Or was there a point where you actually thought it might end without a return to the UFC?

You know, if I were aware of thinking like that, I wouldn't go to Brazil to fight there. go, I wouldn't continue to train very hard and tried to win fight when I was outside the UFC. I always think that I was a UFC fighter even when I was out, and that's why I was training and

fighting almost anybody who wanted to fight me because I wanted to prove that I had still my plays in the big show. You know, one of the other reasons why I wanted to have you on the show today was you famously fought Anderson Silva back at UFC 90, and of course he is fighting this weekend.

And it's a very sexy pick to pick Chris Wyman. Everyone, it seems, is picking Chris Wyman. Mark picked Anderson, Mark Munoz. We just had him, Tim Kennedy before him, pick Chris Wyman. Who are you picking? Anderson Silver or Chris Wyman and why? You know what? I'll go with Anderson Silver.

You know, this guy is just one of the train is amazing. And, you know, I don't think Wyman will have this standard skill to scare as Sanderson Silver and be able to get close and wrestle him and put him on his back and going for submission or users wrestling. If he's able to do it, I think Shiva will be in trouble, but he has to be closed. He has to close the distance, and I don't think he's going to happen. So when you had your fight, obviously, it ended, you know, not the way you wanted to with the injury and whatnot. How often do you think about that now? Do you still think about this?

No. No, you know, I don't do any nightmare at night night thinking about this fight. You know, I knew that I was with the best fighter in the world, and I was fighting him, and I was still there in the third round, and I had fun, and I was still there, and I was able to exchange the best brought in the UFC history. So for me, that was a big honor to fight this guy, and I showed that to everybody that I can stay with anybody in the UFC. So, you know what, for me, it's just an experience, more experience in the bag.

I'm using it every day. So you never think, like, man, if I didn't get injured, I could have beaten him, I wish I had another chance, one more chance, all that stuff that doesn't play into your thoughts when you're thinking you're having quiet moments and whatnot? No, you know what? For sure, you know, I fight and I train to be number one. If my goal is to have another title fight, you know, right now I'm fighting at 170, but when I was, I came back to the year of Seattle's fight, my goal was still the same to have a title fight. And, you know, the thing is, I'm not saying that I was winning the fight, but I was still there and I had fun. You know what? I don't think about the past because I can do nothing about it.

So right now I'm just focusing to move forward and focusing more energy about having another title fight and winning fight. What kind of advice, if you could talk to Chris, because you've been there, you went into Deep Waters with him. What kind of advice would you give Chris about fighting Anderson and what goes on? surrounding fighting Anderson? To be patient. Because if you start to chase and to run after him, he's going to make you look bad because his footwork

is so good. And you know, it's very accurate. That's the hardest thing to do with Anderson Silver. It's so accurate. It doesn't throw, you know, doesn't show something with for nothing.

So, you know, just be patient and, you know, grab, jump on the opportunity to maybe close distance and put him on his back. But if he's too anxious and he's tried to run after Silva, he's going to make him look bad for sure, like he did against

Agnes-Barner, like he did against Forrest Griffin. Both guys, they wanted to go too fast forward, and you know, we saw what happened. Anderson is one of those rare guys who seems to be getting better as he gets older, yet there are some who believe, like, Chris is meeting him

at the perfect time. He's coming down. He's 38, 37, and Wydeman is 29, he's going up. Do you feel like Anderson is slowing down? Do you feel like he's getting worse as he gets older? Not at all. I think the problem with Silver is so confident that it's 10 time more dangerous because of that.

You know, what he did against Bonner that was just unreal. You know, Bonner is maybe he's not on the top of the food chains anymore, but he's still a legit fighter. It's still an awesome, awesome fighters. But what he did with Bonner was playing with him. That was just unreal. And, you know, that's why Silva is now so confident that it's going to be really, really hard to break him.

But I think Weinman is maybe one of the best guys who can do that now. But if he has a good game plan and he's able to close the distance, because he can't fight Silva, you know, stand up and, you know, trying to win the stand-up battle. A lot of people think that Wyman is maybe two or three fights. He needed those two or three fights to get ready for Anderson. It's coming a little early. Do you think that's the case? Maybe, but I think that the worst thing, he was out for a long time. You know, he just came back from my injury for surgery.

And, you know, getting back after a long lay offside, that against a title fight first, but against Anderson Silva, man, it's going to be hard. You know, the timing, it's up. Sam, you need a couple minutes to have the timing back at the high level, high level fighting. And I think that's a major problem

for Chris Wyman. He was out for a long time. So you think Anderson finishes him? Yeah, I think he can finish everybody in this division for sure. But like I said, once again, it's

if Weinman is patient and he's waiting the right timing and the right opportunity to close the distance. I think he has chance, but you know what? The Silvite's so hard to get in close because it's footwork and his rain and his accuracy is so good too.

I'm very curious about the Wayans when they stand there and look at each other. Did you have a moment when you did you feel like he was intimidating? Did you get a little nervous when you were facing off with him? Do you remember what it was like when you were squaring off with that? Oh, yeah, for sure. But, you know, this guy has a good president. You know, he's understood.

But I think for us and our game plans was very, very clear. We didn't want to show him that we're nervous or we're scared. We weren't scared, but just especially when we start the fight, we wanted to be in his face, but not running after him. We were up chasing him, but not getting over-excited. And I think that's why I had success in the first round, because I think you saw that I was there for real. And, you know, everybody before me were saying that in their highs,

there was losing right away before the fight was start. But, man, that's very hard to fight. That's complicated to fight this guy. And you got a second chance on the Ultimate Fighter season four. Now you're getting this opportunity. Would you like to see the UFC do another comeback season? I thought it was the most interesting season because we knew who you guys were.

We already emotionally invested. We know your stories, and then you come. It's like this tournament. You get a title shot. Do you think that would work, or do you think these days it doesn't work? You need new talent. No, I think it can be a really good idea.

You know, there's a lot of guys that, especially, you know, when I did that, you know, there was a lot of good guys in our half. I was going to Matt Serra and all those guys. And I think it's, now it's a little bit harder because, you know, that was in 2006. So it's almost like eight years ago. The sport changed so much. And there's a lot of young kids that push the old one.

They push the old ones to take their place. But, man, if they do that comeback season, another one, I'll check for sure. So you're fighting Colin Oak. Do you know when this fight is taking place? It's going to be at the finale, probably around April, March, April next year. Okay, and will it be in Canada or Australia? We don't know yet. We don't know yet.

Like I said, in the next 10 days, we're going to have more confirmation about the show where it's going to be filmed and the real day, the real way class, and about the place of the finality. And are we going to see a lot of tension, a lot of beef, a lot of hatred between you two? Do you not like Kyle Noak? Right now, you know what? Right now, for me, I don't know him pretty well. I don't know him and we'll see, but I'm going there first, I'm going there to win this season and help those guys to win fights, to win the team Canada to win this season.

But for sure, you know, at the end, probably some crazy things. will happen in the house and between our boat team. It's always like that. And, you know, it's going to be a little bit revivality will born in the house for sure. Final question, most important, will you have putteen today? Pardon me? Will you eat putteen today? Where?

Will you eat Putin today to celebrate Canada today? Oh, boy. I will. I will. Probably the best place to do it. It's at the Bancis in downtown. Yes. We're all downtown.

So that's the best putteen in town for sure. All right, Patrick, again, thank you for joining us. Enjoy your day off. Enjoy the boat, the water, all that stuff. Enjoy your Canada Day. And congratulations on getting the tough coaching gig. Thank you very much, right. Have a great day.

You too. There he is. The Predator, Patrick Cote, back at UFC 90 in Chicago, Illinois. It was 2008. I was actually on my honeymoon. I was in Israel. I remember I was flying back home from Israel. I was on a 10 or so day honeymoon,

and that was a very rare time in the UFC. where they had two shows back to back. It was UFC 89 the weekend before. Chris Lieben fought against Michael Bisping in Birmingham, England. And then the following week, it was Patrick Cote versus Anderson-Silvin. It was very rare that you'd have two straight weeks of UFC action, and I missed them. And I remember I was in the airport, and then I think the – was the fight starting?

I remember landing in New York early morning on a Sunday morning and reading about what happened to Patrick Cote. And it was a big deal of being a Montrealer, getting the title shot, all that stuff. And now here we are, what, five years later almost, I can't believe we've been married for five years. But really, five years since UFC 90, and Patrick Cote offering some insight,

it's interesting how when you ask people, what kind of advice would you give to someone fighting Anderson Silva, they all come up with the same thing about the intimidation, about, you know, not playing into his hand and all that stuff. and then it's a lot more easier said than done. And I feel like it's so interesting hearing the fighters talk about this fight because everyone praises Wyden and everyone knows what he can do and everyone knows how special he is.

But it almost feels like Anderson is not getting the respect that he deserves. It's a fascinating thing because going into Anderson's Civil Fights, he sometimes gets too much respect. I mean, if that's even possible, considering his body of work. But in this fight, when you hear people like George St. Pierre, and of course he's a little biased, he trains with Chris Weidman. Maybe he's even more than a little biased.

But you hear some fighters talking about Chris and talking about this fight and what he will do to Anderson, it's amazing. A lot of the guys who have trained with Chris will obviously vouch for him, but then you see some guys who are completely unbiased, I would think. I mean, look at someone like Tim Kennedy. He trained him in that one time, but he has no real reason to pick Chris. Wyman, and yet it's picking Chris, and a lot of them think that he can finish Anderson Silva.

This is Anderson Silva, who has the record for most consecutive wins, title defenses, a true killer. I mean, look what he did to Stefan Bonner. Stephen Bonner was punching him in the face. He was letting him punch him in the face, and he wasn't doing anything. He was just standing there. And then he

finished it when he wanted to finish it. I cannot wait. I think it's going to be a fascinating event, and what's so great about it is the intrigue. The intrigue. If you're on the fence, and you're thinking, should I buy this or not? It's just you have to invest your time

because this might be when he finally loses in the UFC. This might be it. The intrigue is what's so interesting about all of this. And it goes down Saturday in Las Vegas and a big part of who Anderson Silva is is our guest at this time.

So honored to have him back on the show. Sensei Stephen Sagan on the show right now. Stephen, how are you? Good brother. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for joining us. A pleasure, as always, to have you on the show. So it's obviously a big week for you and your good friend, Anderson Silva,

and I was just noting how a lot of people don't seem to be giving Anderson a lot of respect going into this fight. They think Chris could be the guy to throw him. What do you make of this talk? Well, I mean, you know, where I come from, we always say talk is cheap. And, you know, the proof is in, you know, how it goes. in the fight. I mean, if you all want my opinion,

and I assume the reason why you called is because you want my opinion. Yes. My opinion is that this young gentleman is, from what I've heard, a real nice young man, and I can see he's very good on the ground. He's got great grappling skills, great takedowns,

great guillotine, great, you know, arm, triangles, stuff like that, very good. And that's, you know, kind of what I can say about him. I think he's very strong and good at all that stuff. I think he's an offensive fighter. And I think that, you know, Anderson is a better defensive fighter, which automatically puts him at a little bit of a disadvantage in some ways. I think Anderson, you know, won't go on his knees,

so a lot of that stuff is not going to be easy for him to get. And he's very dangerous on his back. Whether anyone is smart enough to realize that or not, he is very dangerous on his back. People think, yeah, man, I get on top of Anderson and, you know, look what happens when they do. You know, all that being said, I believe that Anderson is a little bit faster. I believe that he has a lot more experience. I think that he has better timing. I think that he's a better striker.

And I think he's a better kicker. I think he has better kicks and better strengths. so, you know, people can say what they want to say and, you know, hey, in this world, man, anything can happen, you know. But I kind of feel like, you know, on paper, Anderson has the advantage and for me, in the real world he has the advantage. So those are my thoughts. Do you feel as though this will be Anderson's toughest test in the UFC?

I don't think so. I think he's had some pretty damn tough stuff, you know. You know, he's got five rounds to knock him out, and that's what I'm hoping for is a knockout. Hope Anderson will knock him out. And that's no offense to this young gentleman. I just, you know, that's my guy, and that's what I'm hoping for. And I think that, you know, Anderson's had some pretty, you know, some pretty tough times. You know, it was not a cakewalk with Chil Sownan when he was injured, you know, badly.

Right. That was a real tough time. I don't think, you know, it gets too much tougher than that. So do I think it'll be the toughest? No. But I think this kid's a great kid, great fighter, very strong, great ground game, wonderful fighter, you know, wonderful young man. Some have called Chris kind of this great white hope, this great white hype, if you will. People are trying to will him to beat him.

I mean, you view it that way? To be honest with you, that, forgive me for saying this because, Spending so much time in Detroit and Louisiana, you know, we don't look at color and great white, great black, why we got to talk about color? I mean, he's just a great young man coming up. It's a great fighter with great potential. And, you know, I don't think we need to be hoping for anything. Let's hope the best man wins. That's the way I look at it.

Do you feel as though Anderson is being disrespected, someone who knows what he is all about, his body of work? Does it bother you as one of his trainers to see people pick against him so easily? I mean, you know, we're living in a very, very, this is a strange pond to swim in. It's a very, very, very strange pond to swim. There's a lot of people who have no experience in the martial arts who are talking like they've been doing it for 50 years and talking as if they're masters. There's a lot of people who make up shit and lie through their teeth. There's a lot of people who have huge egos and, you know, huge mouth, love to talk and, you know, say a lot of stuff.

And then there's people who are, you know, really highly accredited people who have been in the martial arts a long, long time, who certainly, you know, we want to hear from them. They couch their opinions with respect, which I always try to do. And, you know, everybody wants to hear what they have to say. So we're swimming in a pond where there's the good, the bad, and the ugly. And what I try to do is tune into the good and stay around the good. And, you know, I hope that the UFC, you know, more and more as time goes on, you know, gets more and more people that are, you know, polite and, you know,

qualified, you know, to give their opinions. I mean, everyone has the right to their opinion, no matter who they are, but there are certain people that everyone, you know, feels that, boy, I really want to listen to this guy, because he has a past that I respect. You know, obviously, I follow you very closely, and I was concerned because I see you all over the place, and we'll get to that in a second,

but you're traveling a lot these days. How much time have you been able to devote to Anderson getting ready for this fight? No, to be honest with you, I've been gone a lot. I'm flying to see him in the next few days, and, yeah, hoping that, you know, that's going to be very fruitful. Will you be there in Las Vegas for this fight? Yes, I will. Yes, I will. When will you get there?

How much time will you have with him prior to the fight? Well, I'm hoping to have a few days, three days. So you haven't had a chance to talk to him at all as he prepared for this fight? No, that's not what I'm saying. Okay. We've, yeah, you know, been talking and, you know, we plan to spend a few days together working on strategies that we have. If your schedule was a little lighter, do you think you would have devoted a little more time to him in this camp and this preparation? I mean, you know, Anderson has a lot of great teachers and a lot of great coaches.

and, you know, I give him as much time as I possibly can, but I really have faith in him, and I think he's going to do well. I think he's a great fighter, and I think anybody out there really can say what they want, but we can't take away from him what he's done. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, his body of work is unbelievable, and that's why I was surprised that so many people were picking against him.

I had Chris Wyden's longtime coach, Ray Longo, on the show earlier, and I asked him about your influence on Anderson Silva, and he said, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'm worried about a zero as far as your influence on Anderson. Is that disrespectful? I mean, I don't know this individual. I don't know who he is. Is this guy have a background in the martial arts?

Has he been fighting? His whole life has he... I don't know who he is. I never heard of him. I don't know. He can call... Did we lose him? Oh.

I really did. don't care. Okay, I thought we lost to there for a second. I never heard of this guy. I don't know him. Maybe he's a great guy. Maybe he's not. I don't know. Now, if Anderson beats Chris, would you like to finally see him fight in one of these superfights? John Jones, GSP, we've been talking about this for what seems like forever. Sense? Oh, did we lose you? You're back. No, I'm here. Sorry, I lost you there for a second. John Jones, GSP. Any interest in that after this fight? Can you hear me?

I hear you perfectly. Do you hear me? I do hear you now, yes. Yeah, I don't hope for that at all. Neither one? No, I don't. Why not? I think, you know, I told you, I think John Jones is, you know, walking around, you know, at 2.30, you know?

I think he's a heavyweight, and I think Anderson is just, you know, considerably smaller than him. And, you know, so there's a lot of disadvantage there. He's going to feel pressure, though. I feel like they're going to try to put pressure on him to take this fight, and it won't be fair. Well, that's kind of my humble opinion. Yeah.

You will advise him not to do it. That's my advice, yeah. By the way, I noticed lately that you have a goatee. Why did you switch things up? I don't know. People ask me to grow up. for the movie and just didn't shave it yet. Which movie?

What was the name of that movie we did in New Mexico? Force of Execution. You just filmed it now? Yeah. I think it looks great. I think it makes you look a little more menacing, a little less approachable, but that's part of your charm, right?

Well, I don't know about that. I don't really think too much about the way I look. Now, were you aware, you were in Russia recently, right? Yes, sir. There was a clip of you dancing. Are you aware of this? That has become a viral sensation. I mean, it's been everywhere, and we're playing some of it right now.

It's just unbelievable this clip. I watched it myself maybe 20 times. Can you tell us what exactly is going on in this clip? What is this dancing all about? In the caucuses, you have, you know, English, Chetia, you have Chechnya, you have North Ossetia, you have all these different people.

Their dance, you know, the Chechens, these people, that is a war dance. You know, this is for warriors. And so,

you know, I don't know anything about how to do it or anything, but out of respect to my host, you know, I just tried to step up per minute.

And, you know, a lot of different cultures around the world. You try to, to, you know, respect their culture. And it's that simple. And you should know a little bit about that. Absolutely.

So that was the first time that you had ever done that before? Because it seemed like you knew what you were doing. No, that is the first time, sir. And did you know it became such a viral sensation back home in the United States? No, this is the first time I'm hearing that. But again, it's not very germane to what I think or care about right now. What do you mean? I could care of us.

if it's been viral, I could care less. Why do you think people are so interested in everything that you do, though? I have no idea. I'm just a simple country, boy, man. Nothing so much. Do you feel like you're more popular now than you ever were back in your, you know, your, I guess you could say when you were younger doing a lot more films? I have no idea.

You don't get that a sense of whether or not you are more or less popular? I have no idea. Can I ask you about the trip recently with some of the U.S. politicians that came over that asked for your help to open doors in Russia? Were you honored that they would ask you for that? I was. What exactly happened? What did you do for them? Well, I'm going to terminate this interview in a second, and I'm going to ask you to call me later so we can talk off the record.

But I basically have been someone that's devised. voted a lot of time to anti-terrorism. And we felt that a lot of the people in Russia were some of the world's leading experts on a specific kind of terrorism. And after the Boston incident, we were also made aware of the fact that these folks tried to warn us. and I, you know, was approached by one of my dear friends in Congress, and he said, I know you're close friends with Dmitri Lugosin,

who is the vice-prim minister, and you know a lot of the folks over there. Do you think you could take us over there and get us meetings with the folks in Fezboe, and Spets, and Dmitzegovza? And I said, yeah, I think I can do that. And so we were devoting that trip to, trying to, you know, glean information and exchange ideas and intelligence on anti-terrorism. They also asked me, Congress, if I could get them into Chechnya.

You know, I went down there and visited, you know, Ramzan, and hence you saw some of the film on my visit there. And I think most of it went well, and some of it was very political and very difficult. but we did the best we could. So it was successful? I think so. Okay, why do you want to terminate the interview so quickly? What do you mean so quickly? This is the longest interview I've ever done. Okay, all right. I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for taking up your time.

I'll ask you one final question, and then I'll let you go, and we appreciate it very much. On Saturday night, how do you see Anderson Silva defeating Chris Wyman? Do you think he finishes him? Do you think he submits him, knocks him out? What do you foresee? Well, I mean, I'm not a sootsay or anything like that. I'm kind of hoping and seeing a knockout in the third round. That's what I'm hoping for, but we'll see. I mean, they're both great fighters.

They both deserve a lot of respect. And I know you respect them both. And, you know, like I said, you know, in that pond, there's a lot of people who don't respect anybody. and constantly talking, you know, whether they know what they're talking about or not. But you and I have our opinions, and they're just our opinions, brother. All right. They're just our opinion.

A pleasure, as always. Looking forward to seeing you in Las Vegas. Good luck to you in the team over there at UFC 162. Thank you, brother. Thank you for everything. There he is. Sensei, Stephen Segal, stopping by, gracing us with his presence. Very interesting insight on Anderson Silva, Chris Wyden,

the fight that is going down this Saturday. Very interesting that he has had not a lot of time to train with one Anderson-Silvo because I'm wondering if that is something we must factor when we think about this fight now. He's been absent from his training camp. He says that he will be there in the days leading up to the fight, but I'm curious if that will play a part in Chris Wyman winning this fight. Maybe Ray Longo knew something that we didn't. By the way, when he said Terminate in the way that he said,

it, it made me very nervous. Most people don't terminate interviews. The way he said it with the conviction that he said it was very intimidating. Do you agree, Mr. New York Rick? Oh, Newarkerick is on the phone. That's just me. That was probably the most intimidating moment of my life. But we appreciate him stopping by very much. Thank you very much to the Honorable Sensei Seagal, and we look forward to his presence being there at UFC 162, and it's going to be interesting to see what he can implement in just a few days leading up to the fight. A few days is not that much time

for one of the biggest fights of Anderson Silva's life, career, and he only has a few days to really implement the game plan. I question whether or not there's enough time to do that. All right, let's go to the phone lines. We've got a few questions, comments. and then we will take some of your questions via the magic of Twitter and via the magic of the internet.

Twitter is on the internet, but I mean on our website on MMAfighting.com if you are watching this live. Let us first go to Kristen on line number one, who is a very lovely lady, a good friend of mine, Kristen Brown, on the phone. Kristen, how are you? I'm great, Ariel, how are you?

I'm great. So, Kristen, you, you sent me an email last week talking about a non-profit organization that you were kind of getting off the ground seminar coming up. Tell us all about what you're doing. It's for an amazing cause. You have a great slogan.

The website, of course, www. Live to Fight.org. Tell us about this project that you're dealing with. Thank you so much. First, thank you for having me on. I recently started a nonprofit organization. It's to raise money for people in the martial arts and mixed martial arts community who are suffering from life-briening illnesses.

It's called Live to Fight, and I'm really, really excited. I have some great people who are working with me. I have Chris Wydenman. You've been talking about them all day. He's one of my executive directors. I also have Octavia Bourdain, who's just amazing. And another person I have is Jeff Nader. And then I have some really great...

I have a lawyer who's working with me and an accountant, and Jason Perez, who is actually... the manager of Hensos, he's the one who's doing all of the great artwork that I have. But yeah, we're just getting off the ground, and this week is kind of like our inaugural web launch. Okay. And what are you, you know, what is it liftafite.org all about? What are you trying to tell people about?

What are you trying to educate the public on? What's the message here? Okay. Well, I'm a cancer survivor myself, and I'm very, very passionate about M&A. It's like, you know, one of my love's success with DJG. M.A. Many years ago, I had Hapton disease. And about, let's see, four months ago, I had a double mastectomy for breast cancer. And that really, really changed my life. I'm on a website, you know, The Underground, MMA.tv. It's kind of like a dysfunctional family. But they really, really came out with so much support that it just overwhelmed me.

and I saw so many people who were sick in this community, like so many fighters, people who train, so many fans and their family members, and who are suffering from cancer and other diseases, and I realized there's no sort of, there's no support, there's no organization that helps people in our community. And we are such a tight, you know, close-knit communities. So, you know, I really have two inspirations for the organization, a friend of mine who just has, the way, he was a special fighter, Reggie Cardiel, and my jufifty teacher's son just got diagnosed with pediatric cancer. So what I want to do is raise money for, you know, whether it's fighters or people who train, their family members, but people in our community who are sick. And the

way I'm going to do that is by doing probably about 10 seminars a year. The first one I have is that September 29th, it's at Henz O Gracie's, and it's, we're not really sure who's teaching yet, but I'm, you know, Chris is probably going to be there and hoping to get a really, some really great instructors. I'm also going to be doing an MMA fashion show, which I'm excited about. So I think it would be awesome to have a lot of, like, really cool brands and, like, B companies and have a lot of fighters model that and have them sponsor lives to fight. It's basically just trying to have our own community help, our own community.

That's an amazing cause, and obviously as someone who is part of the community and the way you're tying it all together. I think you're doing an amazing thing. So the first seminar is September 29th in New York, obviously at Hanzos here, just a few blocks away from where we do this show. What if you don't live in New York? How can you help? Well, you can help because I have my website, which is going up tomorrow.

It's www.w.livesdefite.org. We're going to be selling T-shirt. And I'm actually, I'm going to go national. I'm starting East Coast, but I'm going to go national. I'm hoping to do seminars throughout the country. We're going to be taking donations on the website and selling T-shirts. You know, it's just, I'm hoping to make this huge. I also am going to be doing something called MMA Make-A Wish, which is, you know, kind of like a play on the Make-A Wish Foundation.

But, you know, people send their stories in, and if you want to go meet a fighter or if you want to go to a fight, we're going to live to fight. It's going to try to make your MMA Make-Make-A Make-Wish come true. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty cool, right? Yeah, that's great. Thank you. I'm very, when I came up with this idea, like the first person that I thought of was Chris Wyden

because he is just one of the nicest people that I've met in this industry. And, you know, I thought maybe he would want to do a seminar, but it was his idea to become part of the organization. And, you know, he's training for the biggest fight of his life. And yet he's such a, you know, humble down-to-earth person. and I'm so excited for this Saturday for him. He's going to have my logo on his banner. Wow.

It's really awesome. Yeah. That's great. It's a good time to launch all of this. Yeah. What is your thoughts on the site? Who do you think is going to win? Oh, now you're turning the tables on me.

Well, I haven't talked to my resident expert, New York, Wannabat UFC. So I have to speak to him first to give me some advice. on the fight. I do want to say that, of course, a lot of people accuse me of being or driving the Chris Wyman bandwagon, which I think is highly disrespectful and insulting. I obviously

have had him on the show many times. We both live in New York, and I do think he is a great guy and a great fighter. I do think it is very surprising to see how many people are discounting Anderson Silva, discrediting all that he's is done and just kind of dismissing him so easily. I don't think it will be an easy... If Chris Wyman Wednesday,

this fight, I don't think it will be easy. I don't know if he'll be able to finish Anderson Silva. He'll have to win via decision. On the flip side, I think Anderson Silva can finish Chris Wyden given the right kind of circumstances for Anderson. So I'm surprised at how many people, how many smart people are picking Chris Wyman, and I don't agree that he'll be able to finish him. He might very well win, but I don't know about the finish.

See, I disagree with you. I see him finishing and not really, going for doing the decision. Wow, okay. Yeah, a lot of fans actually don't, you know, they don't know too much about him and the fights they've seen, they've seen all the short-notice fights.

Yep. You know, I've been watching him since the Ring of Combat, and people are talking about his ring rust. You know, when he fought Yariah, Uriah Hall, he was out, I guess, for a year before that with a broken hand, and that was his first fight back. So I think that Chris can do it.

I think he can finish it on the ground. I don't know about the stand-up, but I think if he closes the distance, I'm thinking, I'm predicting a dark joke. Whoa. Yeah. That would be insane. What a way to slay the dragon.

And of course, he has had some amazing submissions. You mentioned the short-notice fights. Those two performances, Alessio Sakara, Damia and Maya on the biggest of stages, were probably his least impressive performances. But again, very, very, very short notice. You look at his other performances, all finishes, all in spectacular fashion.

Like I said, it's the most highly anticipated fight, at least for me, of 2013 thus far. It's so intriguing. You have to watch it because there's that intrigue. There's that possibility that Chris may defeat him. So I can't wait for it, and I'm very happy to hear that he is supporting your cause, and we'll have the logo on his banner and all that good stuff. So the website is LiveToFight.org.

It launches tomorrow morning, and that's how people can read more about it, right? Yes, you can get, and you can go on Twitter. It's at Live to Fight Inc. My Facebook, LibtoSite, Inc. And I'm really, really hoping this. You know, I'd also love it. this to help get New York, you know, MMA legal in New York. I'm a New Yorker. I want to see MMA here. So I'm hoping this can have some big publicity and some positive publicity for,

you know, a fighter than MMA here. So, you know, it's not 100% altruistic. I want to see a fight at the garden. So do I. So do I, my friend. Continued success to you. I wish you the best of luck with this. Before the seminar, we'll have you back on to plug it one more time at September 29th in New York, so you have a bit of time there. Good luck with this project, and good luck to you and the rest of everyone who is cheering for Chris this weekend. Oh, thank you so much, Ariel. All right. Bye-bye.

There she is, my good friend, Kristen Brown, live to fight.org. You can check it out tomorrow when it hits the World Wide Web, a very, very good cause. And we just launched Helwani Nose round two today. And all proceeds for those shirt sales go to the colorectal Cancer Association of Canada, CCAC. they have a Twitter as well, Colin Canada. There you can see one. If you can get the wide shot there, you've got the blue and orange. The next colors, we also have a black and pink.

We also have a black and silver, the classic Bo Jackson one. And then, perhaps my favorite one, a gray and plaid version. And they're on MMA warehouse.com right now. And I was told that they're selling rather quickly. They're very limited edition. There's a very few amount. I'll tell you that. I mean, the last ones, they sold in like three days. So I made a little more this time, and this is probably it. I'm not in the T-shirt business.

All the proceeds, like I said, go to charity and switch up the colors a little bit. So if you want one, MMAwarehouse.com is where you can get them. And I know some have complained about the shipping costs, especially international. There's nothing I can do. I mean, like I said, I'm not in the T-shirt business. I'm going to sit in my garage and start shipping out T-shirts. So MMA Warehouse, in my opinion, the most trusted online store linked up with them, and there's nothing I can do about that. So I apologize, and I truly, truly, truly appreciate anyone who goes out and buys the shirts.

And if you do buy a shirt, please send me a picture. And I would love to gather all of them and make some kind of collage and put it up somewhere. I think that would be awesome. I got a lot of good ones the first time the shirts came out, and now hopefully we'll get a lot more this time and sell them out in one day. Wouldn't that be nice? So MMA Warehouse.com, search for my name, just write Halwani at the top of Halwani nose shirts. Get them while you can. Get them while they are hot, my friends.

Okay, we've got one more call, and then we'll go to your questions. We've got Dave all the way in Newfoundland on this Canada Day. How about that? Dave, are you there? I am, sir. Thank you very much for taking my call. I appreciate it a lot. Happy Canada Day.

Happy Canada, you too. I'm actually going to be going to your native Montreal. all in a couple of weeks. Oh, for what? Yeah. My favorite. I got really good friends that live there, so yeah. All right.

What's on your mind? Well, I just wanted to speak with regards to Anderson's wrestling and take-down defense. And I just want to raise a point. I think that there's way too much stock putting the first Anderson-in-chael fight as far as as take-down defense goes. I think it doesn't seem to get talked a lot about, but. His ribs, I can't remember, I believe, either broken or injured any which way in that fight, and I think he was a lot more hurt than what he's given credit for.

And also the fact that Chale was on steroids, I think, also adds to that. And I just think that his defense is a hell of a lot better than what everyone thinks. And I remember when he came to fight Chale the second time, I made this point to New York Rick a little earlier, that in the first round he came out, He got taken down, not much damage done at all. And when he went to the corner for the second round, then to the second round, and I'm paraphrasing, it's pretty close to word for word because I watch it a couple times. But his corner said, okay, you're warmed up.

You're ready to start the fight? Okay. When he comes in, you have to hit him with the knee. Faint more, defend the takedown. And then when he came out in the second round, you've either two or three times, Chale tried to get the take down and if you just go back and watch Anderson's technique and how he had it

Chale tried to take him down and he couldn't take him down and I feel like when Anderson was ready he put the fight away. I'm a little biased he's my hero in life but I feel as though there's way too much stock when he's take down defense there and I see him if things go as they should just rolling through

lineman. Really rolling through? Well I just, yeah, that's where I stand again I am a little biased Sure, sure. I'm a huge, you know. He is my hero. I tweeted, Rick, a picture of, you know, my living room just to get an idea of what's going on here. What is going on there?

Do you have like a shrine with all his pictures on the wall or something? Is it scary? It's just a living room and a nice shot of him in the Vitor kick. Oh, yes, the famous Vitor kick, which my friend James Law took, which I don't believe he gets enough credit for. But you know what's interesting? If you watch the documentary, like water, I'm sure you've seen. it, right? I've twice. How about my cameo in it? It was great, what?

Right? Of course. Yeah, it was great. You obviously see how injured he was. It wasn't something, I mean, how could they have known how it all play out and everything like that. He was definitely injured, and you see how the second fight went against Chale. I mean, the first round was very much like the

first fight, although I almost feel like he almost let him take him down in the first round. It just happened so easily. Mike Goldberg said that same thing. Yeah. Rogan always calls him on him, but a part of me totally thinks that way. I mean, the start of that fight, Anderson, uncharacteristically, took to the

center of Osgon and started launching immediately. And as you know, that's not how he does. He comes down, he'll feel it out, you know, gauge the whole distance and timing thing like he does, and then start up. And when Chale went to take him down, it was just, it was very controlled. He was very controlled going to the ground, I feel.

And at one point, because I was there alive, I made it a point to make that my first UFC event ever. to go, I was so sure. I knew he was going to beat him down this time. And I remember at one point watching live that Anderson was pointing to the back of his head. And I remember thinking, oh, no, Chales hit him in back of the head.

I mean, and no one stopping it. But when I came home and watched the fight, he's pointing at his head saying, this is nothing. This is nothing. And then, again, go back to what I mentioned about what was said in second round. They just stated, are you ready?

Okay, let's go. Defend the take down. And he did it. and put him away. So you're not more nervous for this fight? You're not more concerned for this fight than you were previous fights. This ain't no thing. Don't get you wrong.

Yeah? No, no, no. You're right. I don't want to mislead you. I definitely think Wyman's a wild man. He looks very strong and that sort of thing. But again, when I'm watching his highlight real, I mean, I have no disrespect to all the fighters he fought,

but it's just not the competition. I just don't think it's Ray Anderson's ask. Even when Mark Muna's was, you know, vying for that title shot, I didn't even think that he was necessarily ready to get in there with Anderson. And I think a lot of Wydenman's name, of course, you know, his name really blew up when he had that fight with him. So, again, it's just my take. Will you be there in Las Vegas? I think it's a point there.

I actually breaks my heart. It rips my heart out. I can't go. I had planned to go, and actually my brother and his friends and friends of mine are going. Wow. But I'm unable to do more commitments. So it's, you know, I'm bothered by it. Yeah.

But you'll watch it at home. It's a great seat, and you get great insight on television. Final thing, are you concerned when you hear Sensei Segao say that he has not talked to him that much, that he hasn't been there and he'll only have a couple of days with him. Do you think that will play a part in this fight? I've honestly, I have considered that. It worries me a little bit, but honestly, I completely lost sight of that whole thing with him when you showed him of the clip of him dancing. Yes. Yeah, all I can think about now is, you know, seeing him at Anderson's after party. I think that's pretty interesting. So, you know, I was.

I did think about him, you know, not talking to Anderson and it worrying me, but all I think about now is him dancing at Anderson's after party. There's a great clip of him training with Fajiao, and he's doing that thing. I wish I could do it. I'm trying to do it right now. Obviously, I'm not as skilled. But, yeah, he does the same kind of thing. This time he incorporated it into a dance, which just shows his versatility and how skilled he is as sort of even though he doesn't know what he's doing in that particular dance,

that country, he is able to adapt to the situation like water, as Bruce Lee once said. Absolutely. Yeah, no, I was blown away by that, too. I came out and believe that his first time he's done that. There's just no way. Amazing. Yeah, anyway, thank you so much, my friend. Thank you for calling, and good luck to the Anderson Civil fans.

I said good luck to the Kristen and the Wydenman fans. A couple of moments ago now, the Anderson Civil fans. It's good to get the two sides here. I appreciate it very much. Thank you. All right. There's my man from Newfoundland stopping by. How about that?

Dave and Newfoundland. New York, Rick, are you there? I'm here. Oh, here you are. Were you as scared as I was when... When he said, terminated? Yes. That was a little intimidating.

Has he called back or something? He said he needed me to call him off the record. I'm going to avoid that phone call. What do you think? Why do you think he was so upset all of a sudden? I think I think I... I think I reeled him back in, right? Yeah, you definitely did, but...

We ended on a good note. It's great. I mean, he just can't get out of that mindset. Yeah. He's a Terminator, so he's just, like, terminate... He's licensed to kill. Exactly. Was that a cigar movie?

Yeah. Yeah. How's UFC Fit going? I mean, I don't know if people can see it in my face. Yeah, I could see it. I feel... Why not? We're not there yet.

out there. We're almost there. We're almost there. All right, all right. Once I got Dolce's abs, which is a while away. Dolce's abs are on a whole other level. I don't know if I do that. Yeah, the guy's in tremendous shape. But as I've been saying every week, and it improves every week, I feel great. The foods I'm eating are fantastic. And the exercises have actually changed.

After the first three weeks, I had to do a different set of exercises. This one's more involved with plyometrics. So it's more like explosion and, like, jumping and getting off. the ground. So as, you know, it kind of plays into like the basketball that I've already been playing. It's actually more fun. The workouts have become more fun for me. That will probably vary by person, but in my experience, I've had more fun with the second set of exercises, which is week four through six. Now, what's tougher? The exercises or the diet? By far the diet. Really? The exercises, I can get through them. You know, I tend to do them late at night. I,

just because of the schedule I'm on and my girlfriend does them with me. So sometimes I don't want to do them, but I force myself to do them. And at the end of it, I always feel great because exercise makes you feel that way. So I can push through those, but it's definitely harder to not eat the things I want to eat,

especially when I'm like out and there's not alternative. It's like I was out in Long Island visiting my mom this weekend, and I ended up, instead of going out to dinner with her, I ended up going to the supermarket buying a frying a chicken breast, grilling them up at her house, with some mushrooms and put a little bit of soy sauce on it instead of going out to dinner like I normally would. So you're really dedicated to this. Oh, yeah. But the thing is I saw one vine, one six-second clip, which, by the way, now you've got to do it on Instagram.

You get 15 seconds, so hopefully we get that. Oh, that's true. Yeah. That's a good point. But I just don't feel like I'm seeing enough. You know, it all sounds good. It's kind of like Chris Lieben saying best shape of his life, right? I mean, you want to believe it, but we've heard this before.

Not from me. Not from you, but it's just, it's common. Like, what are you going to say? I'm struggling. Can I just see something? What are we at right now? This is, I just started week five. Out of? Out of 12.

Just started week five. I think around week six or heading into seven, something like that. We need to get together and have a little. little video session and really put something together here because I feel like... You know what? I'll do that. You'll do it? Let's do a real like video. Yeah, that's what I mean. I think it'd be fun. So you're down. You're not going to shy away. No, I'm into it. All right. Now I have another bone to pick with you. What's up? A lot of people were very into this idea of you building yourself back up. You working up the ladder. As far as picking goes, you know,

Kristen was asking me my take on Wydenman Silva. I had no take really because I don't have that inset anymore. haven't talked to want to bet yet, the champion of the RPI. And you seem down with it. And in fact, I got a lot of people on Twitter saying this was such a great idea working yourself back up. Yet you didn't do anything. You didn't bet on Bellator. You didn't bet on RFA.

You didn't bet on war. You didn't bet on anything. War? Or I didn't even see the lines for. Let me ask you something. Is this like when someone, like I remember when like, you know, baseball players when they get sent down and they refuse to be sent down? Or Alan Iverson when he didn't want to sign with the Dealey.

Is this your way of saying thanks but no thanks? you don't want to be the better picker guy anymore? No, no, no, no, no. Well, what is this? It's slap in the face. You had two weeks. Here, war, I'll admit, I didn't even look at the lines. I wasn't even interested.

Bellator, there was only one line I was interested in, which was, no, actually there were two. There was War Machines line because he was like a two-to-one favorite. And I just thought it's possible that he'd be upset because of the layoff, but I ended up not wanting to pull the trigger on that. And that one turned out to be right. but the other one I was interested in was I was fading Babaloo because he's pretty much done at this point in his career and now he's literally done at this point in his career but I just didn't sack up and do it

so you just did nothing yeah well I'm not going to bet on bad lines if I don't want to take King Moe at what was it seven to one or something like that for no reason but you realize the longer you delay this the longer you delay your entrance tree back into the big table. I mean, that's how it's going to have to be. I got a, I got a pick and choose properly. I got to be something. You got anything? Anything you're thinking about?

Anything you got your eye on? I think Invicta's coming up. So that, that, that, that, that, that card usually has closer fights, whereas, you know, Bellator is kind of like, when they have these cards, sometimes they're showcasing people. Um, Invicta usually is pretty good for betting. Um, so there, there might be something for there. I'm, I'm almost sure there will be something there. Next weekend, uh, Chris Sibber. versus Marluss Coonin, July 13th. Yeah, I got a mid-two weeks.

You know, I saw nothing. I checked the Twitter from here, you know. I'm not going to bet on Bobby Lashley. Why not? I'll wait. Just wait until the Invicta lines come out and then. And by the way, it's my discretion. Once I feel like, you know, it's kind of like the skipper, you know.

The guy does this thing in AAA, there's no... Calling me back up. Yeah, yeah. It's whenever I feel like you're ready. Cool. But this fight is so big that I am curious to hear. Do you think Widman has a chance? I think Wydenman does have a chance, but I think Dave actually

brought up, like, points similar to what I'm thinking, which is people are so enamored by the idea of Anderson Silver losing that they tend to build up the contenders to a point that they're not actually at. And I think Chris Widman is a fantastic fighter and one of the biggest threats to Anderson that exists. But I don't think he's as big a threat. as some people are making it out to be and I think Anderson Silva wins and I see him winning early

if I see him winning So you see him actually finishing I think that Why didn't if I see him winning Does this mean you see him winning? No I do see a chance for Wydman to win But you gotta pick someone But I'm but no no no

I make no mistake about it I'm picking Anderson and I'm picking him early Wideman's your guy First two rounds Look I'm rooting for Wydman Can't root against New York I would love for Wyedman to win That's just not how I see the fight playing out objectively

Widman's double leg, he doesn't have that explosive double leg where he just powers through. Chale will throw a few punches and then take five punches to the face powering through a double leg to get you to the ground. Whereas Widman, he's a little more cautious. He's a good chain wrestler. He's a good wrestler overall, but he doesn't have that I'm going to take you down no matter what balls to the wall power double. and to get inside on Anderson Silva and take him down the way he's taking opponents down typically is not going to be very easy. It's going to be very tough.

And Anderson Silva's takedown defense has been criminally underrated due to the first Chal Sun and fight, which is a point that Dave brought up. He's considered to have bad takedown defense. He has average to above average takedown defense. His reflexes are very good and he's able to. Sure, when people grab him by both his legs and dump him, he can't handle that as well as somebody like a BJ Penn who has otherworldly take down defense. But it's definitely serviceable and adequate. And I think that that'll be enough against Widman, who doesn't pose as big a threat on the feet as people are saying he will. In case you were doubting yourself in your analysis, which I thought was pretty good, my mother has texted me that she agrees with your take on the fight.

Well, that says it all, doesn't it? Although over the past week I was on vacation when my mother was her birthday, so I wish her a happy birthday over the air here. She has been banging the Bronx drum. She really does think Charles Oliveira for some reason

is going to defeat Frankie Edgar. Do you agree with that one? I don't agree, but I would love to see it and I wish her good luck on that. She wins that, she wins all the RPAS. No, she wins everything. Because if you look at the card, That's one of the, you would think on paper, one of the easier fights to predict, right?

Sure. I don't think Edgar has ever been this big a favorite. I mean, has he ever even been a favorite? He's always the underdog. In the early days? Yeah, yeah, no, I'm just joking. But recently, he's always the underdog and he always seems to shock the world. But, yeah, he's a big favorite.

I think four, five to one, something like that. Is he? Yeah. And I see it playing out that way. I don't see Olivera having much for him. Well, she's banging the jump. She thinks it's going to happen. She also thinks Anderson Silva is going to happen.

So if Rick continues to delay in getting back on the horse, we may have to call my mama and ask her to get involved here because if she gets those two right, I mean, the Anderson one. A lot of people are picking Anderson. Everyone, because I've been talking about all day, how all the fighters are picking Chris Wyman. But Charles Oliveira, that is a big one, my friend. Yeah.

We have some questions to get to. Yes, we do. Now, let me just say before we get to the questions that, We've got an amazing addition to our table here from our good friends over at round five. We do. We've got, why don't you tell us what we got? Because you know about it more than I do. Well, the one that's closest to Ariel right now is the T2RT's with the USA flag in the back.

Now, all three of the figures on the desk and the two more that are not on the desk right now are the fan exos exclusives for this year. Excuse me, Fan Expo exclusives for this year. Okay. So you can only get these on July 5th and 6th at the UFC Fan Expo at booth number 7101. Oh, wow. Those are the only place they'll be available. And each of those on the desk, there's only 500 of them made and they're individually numbered. So these are rare and we've got three of them right there.

And so we have, we have Tito with the American flag. There's also a Tito variant with the Mexican flag. Yes, this has the American. And this is from UFC 30, and it has an old UFC belt, like the old one with the guy coming out, whatever they call them, the Strongman. The Ultiman. UFC 30, it has the old logo back there,

and it says UFC World Middleweight champ. And then we have Kane Velasquez. Yep, that's the Kane Velasquez Championship Edition from, I think it's, what is it, UFC 155? Yes, when he fought. Now, if I could just offer one critique here, I just wish they had the Mexican flag on his fist as he comes out with it because he's wearing the walkout shirt.

He's wearing the affliction shirt. It's all great. And if was he, did he have a beard in that fight? I don't know if he, I think he may have grew it afterwards. Nevertheless, it's very nice. And then we got Andy. The pride version, Anderson Silva. You can see the blue gloves.

Yes, this is the one when he fought Rio Chonan. Is that right? No, I wish. Wouldn't that be funny? Imagine they had a Rio Chonan Anderson Silva one. Yeah. And there's also the other two that are not at the desk, as I said, are the Tito Ortiz, the Mexican flag one. And there's an Anderson Silva in a ghee from his epic UFC 117 fight with Chal Sonin. Oh, yeah. So be on the lookout for those at the Fan Expo in Vegas. I think it's at the Mandalay Bay.

Yes, it is. The 5th and 6th. Yep. Booth number 7101. I'll be walking around a little bit there and not doing too much. much and the way-ins if you're going to the Fan Expo are on Friday afternoon, of course, at Mandalay Bay. The fight is Saturday, MGM, but then because the expos at Mandalay Bay, they do the wands, and it's always a big deal. The last one that they did last year with Anderson and Chale was a

massive deal. I mean, there was like 5,000, 6,000 people there. So it's a cool scene if you're going. It's one of the best fight weeks to go to if you are a UFC fan. I also want to mention the little pick we got over there from my friend Cartoon Logos on Twitter. What does it say? It says, the moment fighters realize they're in the UFC. My mug right over there. What an honor that is to have that. Wow, I didn't even realize that that was a microphone and a camera lens. You didn't realize that?

That's what they're looking at. That's what they're looking at, the moment they realized. That is an intimidating moment, much like when Sensei threatened to terminate our interview. Now, one more thing, there's a lot going on in the world of the MMA right now. Chris Wyman has been making all the stops in New York. He's been meeting with a lot of media, doing a bunch of stuff. Our own Mike Chiapetta just had lunch with him, a bunch of other New York media. Anderson Silva is actually in Los Angeles.

He actually made it finally to the Media Day. And he's in Los Angeles meeting with other journalists. Our own Dave Doyle is there. And Dana White is actually meeting with journalists in Las Vegas. There are people meeting with everyone all over the place when it comes to MMA. And a couple of nuggets I'm seeing on Twitter via my friend Brett Akamoto of ESPN. He said that Dana is considering getting rid of the fight. night bonuses to help the undercard fighters get a little more cheta, which is interesting.

Just a consideration. It's not official. Also, it appears as though they are believing that if Anderson wins, he will get some kind of superfight next. Jones, GSP, maybe a catchaway with GSP. That's what I'm gathering here from these tweets. Also, he confirms that the plan, as I predicted, for the 20th anniversary show, was Jones v. Sylvan New York. Obviously, that is not happening. And a funny quote here on what he would be doing if Bonner Griffin 1 never happened, I'd be picking up cigarette butts at the Palestation parking lot. That's the Palis Station Casino over in Las Vegas owned by the Fertitas. So some good stuff that you can check out on M.AFighting.com.

I'm sure all the other websites will have it as well coming from today's media days. All right, let's go to the questions. One more thing. Oh, yes. Was I think Nick Ring was announced as out of his fight with Uriah Hall and Josh salmon will be taking his place. Kind of a bummer. I like that Nick Ring fight. And good to hear, speaking of that fight,

or that fight card that everyone is good. There was a chance that some of the international fighters, i.e. Kana McGregor, would have to be removed from the card because of this whole social security issue in the state of Massachusetts. But yesterday, Dana White confirmed that everything is okay

in all the international fighters, including the main event, Shogun, Osir Overeem, all those guys will be okay. All right, let's go to the... the questions and again the prize of the day a subscription to UFC 360. Okay our first question this comes from James glory these are the website questions alvarez's pre-trial misery what are your thoughts regarding the judge recently setting a court date for September 2014 for legal proceeding to continue this is nearly two years since his last fight is this likely to make other

aggravated fighters think twice before involving before getting involved in legal cases of this kind. Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind is it's tragic. It's tragic that a guy in his prime, Eddie Alvarez, fighting in Bellator, no Belator, UFC, no UFC, that he can't make money, that he can't provide for his family, that he can't advance his career. It is tragic that he may be on the sidelines for two years. Now, I believe, for whatever reason, maybe it's because I'm naive, I believe this will end before September of 2014. That is in a year and a half from now. I think the lesson to be learned here is that maybe Eddie Alvarez went into this situation thinking it would get resolved sooner rather than later took the last fight on his contract from my understanding

if he didn't take the fight he wanted to put himself in this position of course he wanted to fight money opportunity etc you have to look at all the possibilities and maybe he did not expect it to last this long I mean last time we spoke to him it seemed like he was getting frustrated and was hoping for the best, but was losing a little patience. I mean, I can't imagine what he will feel like come September 2014, plus talking about having to sell things and properties and whatnot. It's unfortunate. The biggest takeaway is read those contracts

and make sure you think five, six, seven, eight years down the line. Make sure you know what you're getting into. Make sure you do your due diligence. Make sure you read everything. All the points on the contract. and be prepared to have to deal with the contract once it's up. So it's unfortunate. I personally believe it will be resolved quicker for no reason other than my gut feeling.

And I'm sure everyone involved the hopes that as well. I would hope. Our next question comes from I Am the Great One. His question is about Cub Swanson versus Dennis Seaver. Do you think that Dennis Seaver is a step down in competition for Cub Swanson, given that his biggest win to date in the UFC is Nam Fan? And then Nampan lost to Leonard Garcia is his final statement. I don't think so because he is 2-0 as a featherweight.

He did battle some injuries. Remember, he was supposed to fight in February, had to pull out of the fight due to an injury. This fight was actually going to happen on the fuel card in February in England, and then Dustin Porre stepped in. This is a guy who's 2-0. I mean, he had a good win over Diego Nunes. It was not his most convincing win,

but very interested to see how Dennis Siever progresses as a featherweight. And my understanding was, as I reported on the site, they wanted to do Cubs Swanson versus Frankie Edgar. That was going to be the original main event of the tough finale show, but Swanson said he couldn't take the fight, so they ended up doing Uriah Faber versus Scott Jorgensen. So in my opinion, Cub Swanson versus Frankie Edgar is a sexier fight. And then Dennis Siever versus Charles Olivares makes more sense. But for whatever reason, and maybe we'll find out this weekend when we're in Las Vegas or this week, when we're out there covering the show why it didn't happen.

Swanson versus Edgar, which was the original plan, did not happen. And kind of interesting, they're both fighting on the same cart. So I don't think it's a step down per se. I think Swanson, if he wins, he's probably one win away from fighting for the belt. It's tough that he lost to Jose Aldo in just eight seconds. But I think that a win over someone like Dennis Siever, who is a veteran, has had some big wins at 155 as well,

man, that's not a waste of time. It's fine. A win over Frank Yeager would have been better and bigger, but as Dana White likes to say, is what it is. Now we're moving on to the Twitter questions. Our first one from Nile Bradley. If Silva wins on Saturday, what do you think should be next for him?

A super fight, a move to 205, or another 185 bout? It's a very good question. You know, I really haven't thought too much, and I hate when they talk about these. I know we ask it. I know we're the ones who bring it up. And we kind of create this scenario.

But I hate the fact that we're talking about super fights before this fight. I mean, let's not dismiss what's happening here. And that's how it always is in sports. You always want to know what's next. But I truly haven't really thought about it. I mean, for me, let's talk about middleweight first. If Vitor Belfort fights one more time, I kind of want to see that rematch at this point. He's been doing so well.

he's been fighting so well. He has been knocking guys out in spectacular fashion. I kind of want to see the rematch. Other than that, I kind of want to see Jacaree fight Anderson if he has another big win. I think a win over Okami could warrant that. I'm not quite sure if Costa Filip who is ready and I don't think he thinks he's ready. And there's always Michael Bisping out there. He's probably fighting in the fall time, maybe October or so, maybe on that match. Manchester card. And there's always that intrigue in seeing Michael Bisping fight Anderson Silva. So there are some interesting fights for Anderson at 185. Now, GSP is fighting Johnny Hendricks in November in Las Vegas.

Roy McDonald v. Jake Ellenberger is happening in July. I want to see the winner of that fight, fight, GSP. I want to see if Damie and I could get by Josh Kostech fight GSP. You know, there's some intriguing fights at Walter 8. And then with John Jones, that's the interesting one. but for me, John Jones going up to heavyweight is probably more interesting at this time, because if you look at the Light Heavyweight Division, I mean, there are still some interesting things for John Jones at Light Heavyweight, most notably Glover Tashara, if he beats Ryan Bader in September, I think if,

and the timing works out perfectly, Glover is fighting, you know, just a couple of weeks before the Anderson versus Alexander Gustafsson fight. So, excuse me, the John Jones versus Alexander Gustafsson fight. So there are some interesting scenarios for every one of those guys involved in those superfights in their own divisions, and what I'm getting at is, I like to see champions defend their belts. The superfights are fun, and I would be all over them, and yeah, it's great, but I prefer to see contenders rise up, get a shot at the title.

That's just me. If you'd ask me which superfight I'd rather see more, without a doubt, John Jones versus Anderson Silva. Do I think it's going to happen next? At this point, I don't know. I mean, Dana White just said today, he thinks so, but I'm going to say no before I say yes. our next question from Florian Gnp

considering everything that's happened to him last year do you think the layoff helped Wideman or decreased his chances I worry I mean I think that if he would have fought and defeated Tim Boch in December how could that hurt unless he got even more injured or injured himself you know wasn't injured going into the fight and got injured how can that hurt and that was in December how can not how can being active hurt

Now everyone says, oh, he's had more time to heal up. And sure, let's not forget, he's had a lot going on in his life. You know, he's had his whole life turned upside down. You remember that video, which is somewhat timely now, Hurricane Sandy, end of October of last year, his whole house was ruined. We were up there. He was gracious enough to let us go film. It was unimaginable what was going on.

And then, what, a month and a half later, he was supposed to fight. Tim Bochi got injured. Maybe that was a blessing. But he's had a lot going on. His whole entire family was displaced, changed his life. Now things are back on track. You wonder, was all of that good? Did it help motivate him, get him focused, or a distraction? We'll find out on Saturday. And we'll never really know if they only fight once how it would have changed. I think in a perfect world, if we're being honest, probably if Wydenman was 11 and 0, 12 and 0, it would be better for him. But you've got to take the chance when you can. This came up. Remember what happened here.

He was supposed to fight Boch gets injured. Bisping loses. Rockhold loses. Boch loses. All these contenders lost along the way, and he was the last man standing. He was the guy calling Anderson Silva out, kind of, after the win of Runez. Everyone loses in between, and then he's there not having to fight. It's an amazing story, and I wonder that as well. I think we'll only find out on Saturday.

beyond. Ryan Manahan. If Widman wins, do you think he'll get the credit or will people blame Silva's age? I really think he'll get the credit. And happy Canada Day to you, my friend. And someone on Twitter wrote to me, oh, no one's discrediting Anderson. They're just very high on Chris and maybe. But when you're the best, it's just, it's shocking to hear people pick against Anderson. Not because, honestly, I think Chris, and I've been saying this for a long time, I don't want to backtrack from that. I think Chris Wyman has the best chance to beat Anderson Silva of anyone in the middleweight division

and anyone up until this point, truly. Of all the guys Anderson has fought as middleweight champion, he has the best chance going into it. That's why I love this fight so much. And I'm not saying that people are, it's just amazing to see these skilled fighters completely discredit, not discredit, but just pick against him with no kind of conflict,

internal conflict. Like, that's just an amazing thing. And I don't think if Chris wins, and at least I hope not, because I don't think that's the case. If you look at what Anderson Silva has done, he has arguably been more dominant, more impressive today, now, in his last few fights than he has been over the course of his career in the UFC. You know, that stretch when maybe he was uninterested, not motivated, whatever,

now he's going out and he's doing amazing things. finishing guys. And it's an amazing thing to watch. So you can't say, you know, usually there are signs in sports. And usually the fighters, but the athletes don't get better with age. Anderson seems to be the opposite. He is getting better with age. I can't see how they can blame it on age if Chris wins on Saturday. Our next question comes from Amanda. Is it a bad sign when you have to use GSP and Rashad Evans to endorse or validate

Wideman in the pay-per-view commercial? I saw that and I actually thought the same. thing. That first one I thought was a little strange. Did you see that commercial when you had Gray Maynard and GSP and Rashad? Did you see that? Yeah, I saw the commercial. I didn't like that one.

I think the other ones have been better, the one with the Kanye West song. They've been better. I still think that they're missing the mark. I still feel like the promotion hasn't been as good as it could be. You know what I'm saying? I feel like we should see more about the Hurricane Sandy stuff and where he's been and he's come from and living with his parents. Who this guy is, All-American.

rising up, getting this opportunity, nine and no. I mean, I want to see more of that. And I guess you can only say so much in 30 seconds. But like with GSP, GSP is friends with them. I guess they don't tell you that. Gray Maynard has the same manager. Evans is part of that crew as well. I just, I don't put that much stock into it.

I'm kind of in the other camp in the sense that we've seen all those stories before the, you know, this is the guy's family, this is that, and then they build it up. I'm kind of more interested in what the fighters have to say. And if, you know, a lot of fighters, are saying that Chris Wydenman is the most credible threat to Anderson Sova's title. And the more we hear of that, the more I even start to believe it, even though I'm not picking him, it definitely creates doubt in my mind. When so many people go on the record and say that I've trained with this guy, he's more savage than anybody I've ever been in there with.

And they just continue to build him up. It's kind of a new approach versus I've already heard the sob stories. I've already heard the overcoming this great difficulty. This is more about, this guy's a tremendous fighter and other fighters are vouching for that and I'm much more intrigued by that.

So I'm kind of in the other camp actually. All right, fair enough. If that's the case, I would have liked to see, you know, like 10 fighters. Like, do it quickly. Weidman, why, why, blah, blah, but it just seems weird to have just like three random guys in a commercial that's that short

and not even hear from Chris. Definitely agree with that part. Yeah. You want to hear from Chris. and you want it to be a lot more fighters quick shot. Yeah. Obviously, Chris Wyman isn't as well known as other guys, so you need that.

But I didn't think that was the best of the bunch as far as the commercials are concerned. But interesting, I mean, you don't see that often. So I don't think it's a bad sign. It just probably, to answer the question directly, I just think it's probably the UFC thinking people need to be sold on this guy before we give them the real meat and potatoes of all this.

our next question comes from Sean Brady is olivera a big risk small reward fight for Frankie Edgar if Edgar loses where would he stand in the 145 division and the UFC overall well we should ask my mother that question because she thinks he is going to lose I don't think it's a big risk small reward I think this is the fight he needs you know Frankie Edgar has been fighting in main events since UFC 112

this is UFC 162 he fought BJ Penn twice had to fight great great deal Maynard twice, fought Benson Henderson twice, Fad Joseo Aldo, all those main events. Actually, no, the first BJ Penfight wasn't a main event. The rest of them were main events. All of the main events,

except for the first BJ Penfight in Abu Dhabi. A lot of pressure, a lot of attention, a lot of media attention. This time he's flying under the radar. It's all about Anderson and Wydenman. It doesn't matter really who he is. He just needs to get back on track. Remember, you know, he has lost his last

three fights in a row, officially. Two to Benson, one to Josado. He just needs to get back on track. This is a fine fight for him. I also think Frankie's earned enough cachet that, like, there's no worry about him going anywhere if he loses. People know Oliver is a rising prospect, and Frankie Edgar is a tremendous fighter.

So I don't think it's that big a risk. I think Oliver is a worthy opponent, and I think that Edgar knows what he needs to do. People will talk about it if he loses this fight four in a row, but remember those two fights against Benson were very close. The Aldo fight to a degree was close. He's not the kind of guy that you're going to get rid of. Absolutely.

Our next question from Anthony Marchetto, now that Hendo has dropped two in a row, does it make sense to complete the Pride trilogy and have Hendo Vandy 3? Honestly, that's a fight. I was saying that one or Lil Nog? After the fight, when I was talking on Fuel, I think those fights, and he lost Little Nog.

and pride back in the day as well, I love those fights. Although for Van der Le Silva, I really want to see him fight Chale Sunnan. And Van der Le says that he'll be ready to fight in December or so if Chale wins. And even if he loses, to be honest, against Shogun August 17th, he is a early favorite, according to the experts. I want to see that fight. I am tired of getting AMP for Chale-Sundan fights and then not getting the payoff. We seem to, you know, Chale talking about Vitor and Van der Le,

and then he fights someone that he has no beef with. And this one was a little weird how it came about, but I want to see Chale full blast, old school, like how he was against Anderson the first time, with some tension, some hatred, some beef. And I want to see him fight one of those guys. Vanderlay is the biggest of them all, and that's what I'm hoping for.

Our next question comes from David. Which Canadian fighter is more likely to be UFC champion, if not both? T.J. Grant or Rory McDonald? Wow, that is a tough one. That is a tough one. T.J. Grand fighting Benson Henderson, U.S.C. 164, August 31st, Milwaukee. Rory's fighting July 27th against Jake Ellenberger in Seattle, Fox 8.

I'm going to say just because he has a chance first, T.J. And his style is a good one to fight someone like Benson. Rory still has some hurdles to get through. Of course, Jake being one, and then will he fight? for the bell, 170. So I'm going to say T.J. Grant.

What do you think? Rory. Rory. Because I don't think T.J. Grant beats Benson. I definitely think he's capable. Yeah. And I'd say that's a close fight on paper,

Grant and Benson. I'm predicting that Benson will be a decent-sized favorite, but I think that Grant definitely poses a threat. But in the end, I see Benson winning that fight by decision. But I think if Rory

ever fought anybody at 170 for the title, no matter who it is, I think he wins. I think he might be the best guy at 170 by next year. Wow. So when he does fight for the title, I think he wins it. Roy versus GSP would be so awesome. I don't think he'd win it right now, but by the time he gets that title fight,

if it's one more fight or two more, I think he'll be one of the, if not the best, one of the top two or three best. So my pick is Rory By the way Mama Halwani thinks Rory as well We're just like this In sync

You guys are agreeing a lot I think timing is I'm very high on Rory Obviously I'd love to see him fight for the belt I think it would be fascinating The buildup Can you imagine I think that would sell at the Rogers Center

Again him versus GSP Just not sure about the timing Our next question comes from UFC face swap Oh yes Being today is Canada Day. Yes.

What has been your favorite Canadian MMA moments of all time? Tough one. Honestly, first I would have to say

okay, first as far as chronological order, my personal favorites, the David Loazzo Charles McCarthy fight,

the flying knee, spinning back kick to the gut. That was incredible. That was old-school crow. That was on the the UFC

intro Bob O'Reilly thing for many, many years. I wonder if it's still I wonder if it's still in there because I don't get to see it because I'm always in the back but anyways, I love that moment.

That to me, Crow was my favorite back in the day. Loved it. Then I also think about GSP defeating Matt Hughes at UFC 65. I was at Champs Sports Bar in Montreal.

I was just a lowly fan at that point and I wanted to see this fight and I went with some friends and there was a massive line wrapping the bar downtown Montreal, San Loren Street and I remember getting in there and watching the card and when he won when GSP beat

Matt Hughes with a kick to the face and the TKO ground and pound and all that stuff in Sacramento, UFC 65, the place erupted like the Canadians had just won this down the cup and that's when I realized or at least one of the times that I realized this is a big deal. This sport is a big deal.

This sport is going to keep going and gaining momentum. And there are other people like me. That was the first time I watched a fight at a bar. And there are other people like me that care about this. It was just a very cool moment. It was a great moment for Montreal or for Canada. So I think about those moments. I think about UFC 58, although it didn't end the way Canadians would have liked it to

with Blasso fighting Rich Franklin for the belt and losing. That was a fun USA versus Canada card. GSP versus BJPN1. Carlos Newton, you've got to give them props. Yeah, but those are some of the moments that I think about when I think of Canadian MMA. Our next question is semi-related. Okay. From Jack Brown.

Happy Canada Day. Oh, yeah. Question for today is the MMA hour. What was your favorite Canadian UFC event thus far? I love this. I love this Canada-themed show. I'm going to hold my flag here for a second. By the way, before I answer this, I have a little song that I picked out for today's show.

Do we have that song? It feels like a good time to play it. Oh, yeah. This is a great commercial in case you people didn't know. Maybe I'll answer the question with this playing under it. How about that? A great Moulson Canadian. Maybe I'll just let it play out.

Where I go, I am. Proud to be Canadian. People don't understand. This is Canada Day. This is our Independence Day. This is July 4th for us. Coincidentally, it's July 1st. Just three days before your Independence Day.

It's a very big deal. Canadians are happy people. They're friendly people. They're approachable. They're down to earth. They're very likable, is what I'm trying to say. And this day sort of encompasses all that. This song as well.

Let's listen to it. Tell you a funny story. I keep messing with the volume. When I was a student in Syracuse University, I was so homesick that I used to listen to this song while crossing the border. to remind myself that I was leaving a great place, greener pastures, to go to the not-so-great place, at least in my mind,

I was very homesick at the time, no offense to Syracuse, New York, but I didn't like it very much. And I would always listen to the song to put me in a good mood. So there you have it. I am Canadian. I am proud to be Canadian. Are there any Canadians fighting on Saturday? Yeah.

Are there any Canadians? Let me see. David Mitchell and Mike Pierce. Doesn't look like it. No. No Canadians. America. What a disappointment that is?

Anyway, back to the questions. Happy Canada Day question. Yes, my favorite Canadian UFC event. Ooh, that is a tough one. Hard to beat UFC 129. Roger Center, 55,000. Stacked. Great card.

I'm a little biased towards... Actually, I'm a little biased towards UFC 97, because that was the first UFC event that I was credentialed for. That was Anderson's. Silver versus Talis ladies. But let's be honest, it kind of ended on a bit of a sour note with that fight being very strange. There was a Shogun versus Chuck Ledel fight on that card that was quite eventful.

Of course, it was UFC 83 with GSP Matt Serra. That was insane. But I didn't have tickets. I didn't even have credentials. I didn't have anything. I had to watch that at home. It was also the first night of Passover. If my memory serves me correct, so I couldn't go anyway.

I really like the ones in Vancouver. I thought those were fun. UFC 115 in particular. Calgary was fun. even though it was a bad card. And I got to be honest, I was very high on going to Winnipeg, but without saying too much,

I didn't leave with the best taste in my mouth. I was not blown away by Winnipeg. I'll just say that. But anyway, there have been some great ones, and I look forward to many more, and how about Patrick Cote dropping the nugget that they're going to be filming the show in Quebec, Quebec City, Montreal?

That's amazing. If they need a host of any kind, I know a few people. That's it for the questions. That's it for the questions. Okay. I can go back to Rome if you want.

Sure. And actually last time we did this, you actually skipped the best one. I did. It was brought to my attention, yes. Someone told me, this was the best question. I was like, you know what?

You're right. That was the best question, and we didn't address it. So this one about your favorite Canadian USC event? Yes. Favorite Canadian MMA moments? T.J. Grant Orrory,

who was first for the title. Hendo Vandy 3. Olivera Edgar the UFC commercial with Weidman Silva getting old or Wyden winning Weidman's layoff

What's next for Silva? I'm going to have to go with Obviously it's a very easy one Because the theme today, the Canada Day theme I'm going to have to go with the greatest moments in Canadian MMA history UFC face swap

There is is. Is that even a real person? UFC face swap? Well, that's Ash Ketchum from Oh, it's... What? It's Ash and Pikachu with their with their faces swapped. Is it? Is what that is? What is Ash? Or who is that? The guy, he's the trainer guy from Pokemon? Come on, you didn't play Pokemon? No, no, no, no. You see, people think that I'm like a geek kind of guy that think I'm a way...

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you saying? Pokemon is only for geeks? No, I'm just... Get out of here, bro. The, the fact that you thought, and you were so shocked that I am not into this makes me think that you thought that I was a bit of a, you know, were you into it? Yeah, man, I was... Really? I was in junior high when that stuff came out. That was all the rage. Junior high being, what, seven to nine, six to nine?

Yes, six to nine. That, isn't that a little young for someone that age? Or is that the age? Not here in America. Really? For me, I always thought the people who were into that stuff were a little bit weird. I was into, like, pro wrestling. I was into basketball.

Man things, you know, not this stuff. Men things. So this is, this picture here. I mean, I'm sure it's a real person, obviously. No, of course. But it's very strange. So that's... It's the Pokemon and the trainer guy with the faces switched.

So strange. UFC... What compels someone to have a name like that? Let's see. Let's delve a little deeper in here. Oh, some nice legs there. Click UFC facewop.blop.org spot. Tatsia, hey, Canadian.

Oh, I see, look, look, look, look. Oh, wow. He swaps UFC fighter faces. That is bizarre. His name is apropos. So we got Hafeld Dosayos and Kid Yamamoto there. Wow, that is freaky. How do you do that?

Photoshop. Photoshop. Whoa. Okay, I can't see the writing because of the lighting, so I'm going to guess. I see Spencer Fisher, one of them, right? Yeah. I have no idea who the other person. Oh, wait.

Ivan Menjavar. Yeah, you can look at the head. Focus more on the faces. Yes, yes, yes. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, this is great. Okay. Whoa. Okay, Ben Saunders, Ben Saunders? No. No? Ben Rothwell. Oh, Ben Rothwell on the left. No. No? He's on the right. The face is on the right. No, but the actual head. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Who is that? I don't know who that is. Showing Pearson. Oh, God. Oh, yes. I see his eyes. Yeah, yeah. Okay, do one more. Do one more. What the?

Oh, wait, that's MacDanzig. Wait, that just looks like MacDazig. The other guy is Amir Sadala. Yeah, MacDanzig, when you swap him onto Amir Sadala, apparently just looks like MacDansig. Well, this is endless fun, so actually U.OC. FaceSwap is great. Okay, Mike Swick. Yep.

Is that bad, Sarah? No, Stephen Seiler. Oh, wow, that's a tough one. But I see it. I see it. Okay, I'm going to get this one. You want the next one? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, this one's easy. Okay. Oh, okay. George Sutteropoulos. Yep. And Hussemao-Pal-Haris. No, Brendan Scha. You got to give me a second to rebound.

Well, you guessed it. Yeah, that you're right. That's Brendan Schaubb, that hair line. What am I thinking? Yeah, the hair. You got to. Okay, one more, one more. Oh, a woman.

A woman's one. Yeah, Misha Tate. And that's not, that's not Liz Karmouche, is it? No, Sheila Gaff. That's tough. Yeah. One more, one more, one more. Okay, this is, whoa, this is tough.

Yeah, I wouldn't have known this one, for sure. Is one of those a Gracie? No. Geez. I don't know any of those guys. John Hathaway. Gosh. And Raphael a Sunsau?

Geez. All right, give me one more. I got to get it right. That's Eve Edwards on the right. Yeah. Okay. Ninja Roberts? Nope.

Who is it? Keep going. I don't see anything there. It is. Lorenz Larkin. Gosh, that's tough. Okay, one more. Oh.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know what's freaky about his eyes. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Oh, my God. His name is, oh, Glycine T. Bao? Yeah. Right? This is going to kill me.

You know it? Well, I'm looking at it. Can you give me a hint? Fought recently. I see it. I see it. Just give it to me. MacDessie. Oh, yes. There he is.

Okay, one more, one more. This is so bad. All right, this one's so easy. Okay, okay. It doesn't even count. Oh, Faber and Carmouche. Yeah. There you go. Let's end on the good note.

Everyone stopped listening. UFC face swap, incredible. Yeah, well done, my man. This is incredible. What is? a gem this is right here. Now if you're listening to this, the audio version, I apologize. That probably wasn't the most compelling radio. Or maybe it was. Who knows? Anyway, that's all we got, right? That's it.

Congratulations on winning the UFC 360 subscription. Mr. Facewop. Thank you to round five for this. And you can hit my music. There it is. I should have ended with the Canadian song. What an idiot I am. So we are finally here, my friends. UFC 162. We've come a long way. Remember, was on this show that we introduced you to Chris Weidman back in the day. We had John Valante as he prepared for the Strike Force Heavyweight Grand Prix and we said, hey, guys sitting in the corner, why don't you come on for a few minutes? That was Chris Wyman pre-UFC. That was Chris Wyman, a guy living in his basement, parents' basement with his wife and his child, just trying to make it, had an offer from Beltor, turned it down a couple of days later. Coincidence,

Personally, I don't think so, but he can say what he wants. A couple days later, he gets a shot against Alessio Sakara on versus in Kentucky, and the rest, my friends, is history since then undefeated. And on Saturday night, a little over two years later, he is fighting Anderson Silver for the belt. Will he pull it off? We will find out. Can't wait to see it. I want to thank Chris Lieben for stopping by. Good luck to him against Andrew Craig at UFC 162.

Good luck to Ray Longo, of course, as he corners Chris Wyman. against Anderson, the biggest fight of his life. Without a doubt, Tim Kennedy, appreciate his time. Good luck against Hajer Gracie. Mark Munoz, what an amazing turnaround for him, and thank you for being so honest and open with everything that you have been through, my friend, and good luck against Tim Boch.

Patrick Cote, good luck, Tough Nations, against Kyle Noak. We'll be monitoring that, of course. And Sensei Steven Segal, what an honor to that was. Thank you very much for stopping by good luck against Chris Wyman. Thank you to everyone who called in. Sent in questions. We appreciate it. If you missed anything, Stitcher, iTunes, all that good stuff.

We'll see you next week. I'm out of here. Happy Canada today. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need.

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