MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 190

Episode Date: August 25, 2014

Featuring T.J. Grant, Anthony Pettis, Jon Fitch, Mike Swick, Hector Lombard, and Lou Neglia. 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 Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

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We were just with you on a Thursday. Now we're back in our usual Monday slot. It is scorching outside. It is not as scorching inside. But this is my favorite time of the year. In my opinion, my friends, July, the greatest month of the year. greatest month. Not only because it's my birthday, if you recall last week,

was my birthday, and I thank you all for your great wishes, but it's the only month of the year where there isn't any school. Usually, unless you're in summer school, you're kind of adult. It ends in June. It begins in August or September. July is free. Summer camp, summertime, chilling outside. It's a great time of the year,

and it's a great time in mixed martial arts, my friends, because what was kind of a slow week, or at least we thought it was going to be a slow week in the world of MMA, in particular the UFC, turned out to be a very hectic one, especially on Saturday, the day of rest, the Sabbath. You know, that morning, late Friday, really, we find out that Anthony Pettis is going to be fighting

Benson Henderson for the second time. It's finally going down. UFC 164 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Pettis replaces the injured T.J. Grant. And then later on that day, we find out that Chris Wyman and Anderson Silva are going to fight each other December 28th, UFC 168.

And then the co-mate event, bump down Ronda Rousey versus Mish Tate. We will talk about all of that. A lot to get to this week. And let's not forget, Invicta had a show, a very solid show once again on Saturday. A lot to get to on what was,

at least we thought, a quiet week in the world of MMA. Not so, not so, my friends. Okay, let's get right into it. Who's joining us this week? Well, in the studio, we've got, of course, backstage, behind the scenes, making me look pretty,

making me look smart. We've got, of course, New York Rick. You'll hear from him in the third hour as we take your questions and comments. Hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour and at stake this week for the best Twitter question. Free subscription to UFC magazine. Now, we're also being joined by Buzzkill Brendan, Mike will the thrill. The whole crew is back there. In the late second hour, we'll be joined by Hector Lombard.

He makes his welterweight debut at UFC 166 against Nate Marquart. Looking forward to talking to him. T.J. Grant, he'll be stopping by to talk about the end. injury that forced him out of the fight at UFC 164. We'll also be talking to Lou Neglia, who runs the Ring of Combat Promotion, mostly based in New Jersey, Tropicana, Atlantic City. They've produced a lot of great fighters, including Chris Widman, looking forward to talking to him. Mike Swick will be talking about his eventual move back up to middleweight, and what's up with him when we'll be seeing him fight again. John Fitch will also be stopping by it. We haven't heard from

John Fitch since he was, of course, choked unconscious by Josh Berkman, last month World Series of Fighting. So we got a lot to get to, and let's get things started right here right now. Everyone's talking about it, UFC 164, August 31st. You heard from him on the show just a couple of weeks ago. We were wondering if he would be nudged into this title fight. It's amazing how things work out. Of course, we're talking about Anthony's Showtime Petis.

He meets Benson, August 31st. Anthony, how are you? What's up, Harry? I'm good, man. Well, first off, congratulations on getting the fight. and I want to just go through this chronologically because it's an unbelievable story and only to Anthony Pettis could things turn out this way.

When did you first get word that this was a possibility? I got a word of the possibility right when I got back from the Fan Expo in Vegas on Monday, and I could if you don't hear it back in two days, you know, don't get your helps up, we don't know how serious injury is. And I hear it back by Wednesday

and, you know, I move forward talking stuff with Josh Thompson because, you know, he was rallying for that fight against me in October. And, you know, I get confirmation on Friday night, actually. I was at my coach's house, we're having a picnic for our Danny Boy down. He's actually leaving in San Diego. So we're out having a little cookout hanging out, and Mike Roberts calls up and just ask, hey, do you want to fight in Milwaukee?

I'm like, are you going around with me right now? For real? And it's one of the moments, man, was just like, you know, everything happens for reason. I mean, it's just crazy. So when you didn't get the word around Wednesday or so, were you deflated? Did you feel like this was kind of another? loss for you in a sense? No, you know what?

I mean, I went to Vegas in the purpose of trying to get that T.J. Grand fight. I didn't want to... Now, everybody was, you know, talking stuff like, hey, but it's, you know, a punk move trying to take T.J. Grand spot. I mean, but I had to try. I had to go out there and try to feel what happened. And,

you know, the doctor said my knee would be, you know, Hill in time since it was just an LCL tear. And, you know, but Dana White wasn't having it. You know, that fight's going to stay. That fight's going to stay the way it is. So now left Vegas, you know, I felt okay. You know, I was like, you know, Everything happened for a reason. I'm hurt.

Maybe it's not right for me to fight right now. Maybe I'm supposed to fight with John Thompson. Now, a lot of questions, you know, came up. And now, I think it a lot. I was pretty down about it, man. You know, I went from being number one contender from flight weight to taking a shot at featherweight and jumping back in line that, you know, fight again at lightweight. So a lot of, a lot of stuff changed the last couple months for me.

But, I mean, it all happened for this reason right here. When you went to Vegas, that was a couple of days after you were on this show just a few weeks back. Did you sit down with Dana and give me? your best pitch as to why you should be fighting on August 31st? No, not really, man. I just went there in the total, you know, I just wanted to let him now. I was going to be healthy. I mean, because I spoke to my doctor here in Milwaukee.

You know, they were confident that I'd be, you know, back in, you know, four or five weeks, you know, 100 percent. And, you know, being four to five weeks out now, I'm feeling great. You know, I'm back training. I'm doing everything, you know, normal. But, I mean, I didn't go there and tell him, you know, I wanted spot. You know, I just, I hinted at it. You know, I just made him aware that I'd be ready for that.

And Grant said a lot about you during that process. when you still had the fight. Did you feel bad that you were doing this taking away or at least trying to take away someone else's shot because you have been in that position before? No, man. I mean, put it like in a regular job scenario. I mean, if you and your employee both are up for a promotion, I mean, are you going to compete to get that promotion? You're damn right you are. I mean, you know, so it's the same same situation here. I mean, he's the number one contender. I still I'm the number one contender. Unfortunately, I took a shot out. You know, I had a feather way that didn't work out for. for me, so I don't feel bad about it, but I do feel for TJ Graham, man. I mean, I've been in this position and all I can say is, and keep your head up and so I want to get you down, man, because it really does get you down when you're at the top of the top and then, you know,

injury takes away all of that and you got everybody, you know, just saying ridiculous things, like it's a conspiracy and then he got paid to take, you know, an injury. I mean, no one in their right mind would do that. So you've had some ups and downs, of course, well documented. Would you say that before you got this call that you'd be fighting in your hometown for the belt against Benson of all people. Was that the lowest of the mall? Yeah, I was for sure. I mean, I went from

the injury to the injury wasn't that serious. It was serious, but it wasn't like I needed surgery. It wasn't like I'd be out for months. It was a couple weeks off. No, it could get serious. It was a couple weeks off. And, you know, I just, I felt like,

I feel like I could make it. But, I mean, the UFC, I mean, you know, the doctor said, it wouldn't happen. So, you know, I was forced to, you know, pulled from August 3rd show, which I really wanted to make, even with an knee injury, I still wanted to make that fight. But, you know, they said it couldn't happen, so it was out of my control, you know, it was something I could do about it. After you met with the doctors in Vegas, Dana White told everyone that, you know, you need

some rest, they don't want to risk it. So why are they, quote-unquote, risking him? Because that's why he said you're not getting the shot at the end of the day because the doctor said you wouldn't be ready, but here you are fighting on August 31st. So did you have to get cleared again? No, the crazy thing is that when I went to Vegas, he was thinking I was still trying to get on the August 3rd show against Aldo. So when I met with his doctors, his doc said it was a 50-50 chance.

I could make it, nothing go wrong, and, you know, I'll fight the fight, everything will be fine, or I could go back to training camp, and, you know, it could be worse. So him and I think Lorenzo sat down, and Dana was pretty excited about it. And I was like, you can fight. You're getting back on the August 3rd show. And I'm like off for it. Like, yeah, I'm ready, man.

I'll be ready. But then, you know, before I left Vegas, I got a phone call from Dana. He's like, you know what, we decided, you're young. Let's not risk it. You know, you have a chance, man. Just heal up and get better. So August 31st was never really, you know, an option. But timing-wise, I mean, the injury was only a four or five week, you know, timing off.

I mean, from August 3rd, August 31st, I mean, it's four or five weeks. I mean, the way it played out even when I think about it is just crazy in my head. It is unbelievable. So when they got, you know, when they called you up and said, okay, you can have this Did they need you to get cleared again, or do they believe you that you're 100% now? Well, I'm sure I have to get cleared again. I mean, I think I was suspended or something, but I just saw my doctor earlier today, and I'm, that would be no problem. So you feel no pain whatsoever?

You're 100% right now? I'm 100% because, I mean, there's always that mental aspect of it. But, you know, for a title shot, my hometown, I'll be 100%. When do you feel like you'll be 100% mentally and physically? I mean, give me one good week back. I mean, a full week of training. right back in the group. So you just started last week, right?

Yeah, well, I didn't take completely off. I mean, I've been doing my cardio. I've been doing my conditioning. But actual sparring, the last week's my first time sparring. And why did you even consider? You know, you told me that you would fight Josh Thompson. If you're the best, you'll take the fight, even though no one really knows who he is, took a little shot at him.

Why even consider that? Because in the past, you know, unfortunately things didn't turn out well for you when you took the fight against Clay Gwida instead of waiting. This time it was pretty much assumed that you'd get a title. shut. Why did you even flirt with that idea? Man, because, you know, I'm 26 years old. I only had two fights in the last, you know,

two years. I mean, that's just a lot of time off for me, and I'm not used to that. So I just, I want to stay active. I mean, I'm one of them guys that, like, I've got have something set, you know, in the books for me to be up to train or to be up for all this. So, I mean, I like to fight, man. That's what I'm here for. I'm not here because a lot of people say I

like to talk my way in the fight. I mean, if you watch me fight, man, I don't try to talk my way in the fight. My performance is, you know, steep for themselves. So I like to stay active. I thought Josh would be a good opponent, and he called me out. So, I mean, he called me out, and I can't just ignore that. So did you have a bit of a confrontation of sorts in Las Vegas? No, me and Josh were cool, actually. We went to a, we did that BJ 10 opening gym in Hawaii, actually the first time I met the guy. You know, we trained together. It was all good. You know, it wasn't a confrontation. I heard he called me out. So I had to bring it, I had to bring it up.

I've seen him in person, I had to bring it up. So it wasn't like a physical confrontation or anything. It was just like, you want to fight? Let's make it happen. When are you healthy? I'll be ready. I wanted to fight him in Milwaukee, but he was going to do some surgeries or something like that. So luckily everything just worked out the way it did for me.

Okay, so I want to go back to this call that you got at the barbecue, the picnic on Friday. Mike calls you up. Can you describe the euphoria that you felt? And how long it actually took to sink in that this is. actually happening. Three days ago, you weren't in this position. Yeah, so actually, my phone was on the charter inside Duke's house. And, you know, I didn't even know I had, like, four-mist calls from Dana, four-miss calls from Mike. And they went to Duke's phone.

So they called Duke's phone. And I say, hey, what's up, Mike? And, you know, I knew it was Mike, Robert. So I didn't pay no mind. I thought he was talking about, you know, Chico or Poscow or Eric Koch, one of these guys on the Milwaukee card. And then, you know, Duke turns out of him with his big smile. And he was like, you want to fight? uh... in milwaukee and i didn't even think twice i was like hell yes which send me the contract

like brann henderson i'm like i'm like i just i couldn't even believe it like i was just you know about to eat a big plate of food about to just you know hang out my friends you know enjoyed the summer and then i was so excited that i had to do a six mile run to my dad's grave i went from my house jogged at my dad's grave with my little brother and uh you know it was just one of the moments i just couldn't everything in my head was just like man everything happens to reason now i went from being so down to I mean, even now, I'm just excited to even go train right now. Just, it's everything I wanted is right here.

So you put down the food. You'd even stick around, and you did the run with your bro. No, I left immediately, man. Now, I left immediately. Me and Serge left and did it hit a run and went right to my dad's grave. I just thank him for the opportunity, man. So you stopped there and you spoke to your dad. Oh, yeah, for sure.

I mean, the way this played out, something had some higher power had to, you know, lay this in front of me. I mean, it just doesn't happen like this. I mean, for me to get injured, you know, and give it, be a, to get a fight in five weeks with my hometown against the guy I already beat, you know, for the title. I mean, it just doesn't happen that way. Wow, that just gave me goosebumps right there. That's an amazing visual to think about it. And you were going to take the fight, you know, like they said Milwaukee, you'd even care, right?

This is just gravy for you. Yeah, they said, hey, you want to fight Milwaukee? Well, he said, you want to fight Milwaukee? I'm like, man, yes, he's like against Ben Henderson. I just added, like, is this really happening, man? This is crazy. Does a part of you feel like, man, I wish I had a little more time? Do you feel like you'll have enough time to prepare for him?

No, man, not at all. I mean, I was super ready for the elbow fight. I mean, I was down to, like, 160. And I was cut weight already, so my weight's perfect for 155. A seven-week training camp, more than enough time. I'm always in shape, so that's not an issue for me. And I just feel like I got what it takes to beat this guy, man. I don't, I'm never really out of shape.

I'm never out of the gym, you know, 100%. I mean, I had to take a little bit of time off, but I was still there. I was, you know, I was in the mix. I always knew this fight was going to happen. I've been thinking about this fight for like two years now. So, I mean, I go to this game plan all the time, how I'm going to fight them, how I'm going to beat them. I see my hand getting raised all the time. So, I mean, seven weeks is more than enough time.

And you mentioned the conspiracy theories. Do you believe anything of that sort of happened? And I think why they come up is because this happened with Carlos Condit. They asked him to step aside, GSP, Nick Diaz, all that stuff. Do you believe any of that took place? I mean, I honestly, I don't even know what happened. in TJ Grant? I mean, do you know exactly what? Yeah, he suffered a concussion

while rolling on the ground while doing jit-to. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't, I don't, on my end, you know, even on my end, I thought about it for a second. I see the Twitter post and you're like, you know, like, no, pet it's fake any injury so he could fight Ben Henderson. And then, you know, I haven't thought to myself, like, damn, that I, well, I really hurt.

I mean, what really happened? I mean, just the way it played out, it's just crazy. I mean, it looks so fake, you know, it just looks so fake. But, I mean, you know, I was really hurt. You know, my knee pop, you could actually still big. is Phil Davis is the one that was there rolling with me when it happened. And, you know, it just works so out that I can, I'll be ready in time for Milwaukee. You haven't fought in Milwaukee in a while, at least since you've been a member of Zofah.

Do you feel like it's going to be a little hectic, a lot of distractions? You'll have to get away, seclude yourself. Are you worried at all about that? No, not at all, man. I mean, I'm embracing. I love fighting in Milwaukee. I mean, all my fights before the WC. UFC were in Milwaukee. And I think it's time for me to have my homecoming.

And what do you think Benson thinks about all this? Because they were pretty adamant that you've got to build yourself back up. We'll meet at some point. Do you think he's happy about this? Do you think he wants to avenge that loss right now? I mean, all I know is if I were, if I lost with somebody and I'm the champ and I've been the champ, I mean, I would want to avenge that loss. So I think, I mean, I think he's excited for the fight too.

I mean, it's my hometown now. He knows what I did do. him in his hometown. I mean, everybody saw what I did to him in his hometown. So I'm sure he's going to try doing... I'm sure he's going to bring it. I mean, and I'm going to be ready. Do you think he has evolved since you fought him back at W.C. 53?

Is he a better fighter today than he was a couple years back? Most definitely. A whole new fighter and way different fighter than he was in the WC days. And, I mean, but I am too. So I'm going to say I'm the famed Anthony Pettish bought, you know, in Arizona. This is a totally different Anthony Pettish.

You know, it's funny because my last two fight, the world only got to see him perform for like two minutes. Right. So no one really knows how much I've evolved as a fighter. So I'm excited to get out there and show what I've been working on. Where do you think he's evolved the most? So where do you think he's better today than he was back then? I see him play a little bit around with his striking a little more.

I mean, a little more well-polished on his striking. And his intensity, I think his intensity, you know, picked up a little bit. He's more intense. He's more, you know, more intense when he's fighting. But, I mean, I don't want to talk to much stuff about, you know, the champ at all. I mean, he's a good guy. He's a good fighter, and he's a champ for a reason, and it's my job to go and then beat him. Is there a personal issue between you two? Not on my end.

I mean, I'm good. I mean, the last time we fought, I walked away with a mile, so I'm not on my end at all. And I don't know if you pay attention to this stuff, but how many pay-per-view buys do you think you could do? I think this could do very well with the kick and how the first fight went, if promoted correctly. Do you think about that? Do you think this could do a very high number? I think it should. I mean, if people saw the first fight, I mean, it was probably one of the best.

I mean, I watched the replay of our fight on YouTube all the time. It was a very entertaining fight. I mean, from the ground, from the standing, from, I mean, there was no dull moments in the fight. I mean, if people watched the first fight, I'm sure they're going to want to tune in for the second fight. And they saw, they see my career where it's at now in his career. I mean, it makes a lot of sense to watch this fight. When was the last time you watched it on YouTube? Last night.

Last night, really? What prompts you to do that? man, once I heard I was fighting Henderson, I meant that's all I do. I'm watching, I'm watching how I beat him last time, what he's going to change, what he's going to look for. I mean, I'm just, I'm full involved in this camp. Do you think you finish him this time? For sure. I mean, I'm not leaving this.

I'm not leaving Milwaukee without that. I mean, the Valley Center is like my hometown, right. I grew up watching basketball there, you know, the Bucks play there. And I grew up going there. That was a place to be at. So now it's my turn to perform there, and I'm not looking for no decisions. How many friends and family do you expect to be there? they better all be there.

I mean, once word got out that I was fighting, my phone didn't stop, you know, ringing, and stopped blowing. I had to turn my phone off because of the batteries and a guy. Like, it's going to be insane, man. I'm excited. Final thing, Anthony, after this, I mean, we still have some time to get there, but just where we stand today, do you believe in fate? Do you believe in things happening for a reason?

Can you say right now that all that stuff that happened led to this moment and that's okay with you? Yes, most definitely, man. from, I mean, no one can see me in my personal life, but from the emotions that I've been through from, you know, being ready for Brazil, going to Brazil, facing off with all those, squaring off with all, though, and then, you know, the next, the next, like, two hours later, you know, getting my knee pops, you know, from Phil Davis, being at home, you know, all the attention's off you. No one even cares about you anymore. You heal up, you know,

get lucky, you know, heal up, be ready for the next one, you know, to being able to get a title shot in my hometown against a guy already beat that, you know, the champ that, I mean, That's my belt, I feel like. So if it's not fate or death, I don't know what it is. And by the way, we could say right now that the featherweight stuff is done with, right? That's not happening anytime soon. Not in time soon. I mean, I got what I wanted, man.

All I really want it was a title shot. It's right here in front of me six weeks away, a little less than six, seven weeks away. I mean, I'm not worried about it right now. I mean, the only reason, and every ask that question, the only reason why I went to featherway was Jose Aldo. So I don't want to go down a featherweight and try, you know, working my way up to a I mean, that's not what I want to do. 155 is my home.

Jose Albo was very appealing to me. That's why I took that fight. But, you know, everything I wanted is in front of me, man. I got seven weeks to get ready for my dream and my goals. Anthony, really appreciate the time. Congratulations on getting the fight. I cannot wait. I've been saying this is the fight I've been looking forward to the most.

The one I wanted, that's why I didn't want you to go down to 145, and it's amazing. I remember you telling me that. You're telling me how they're going to promote it and everything. Yeah. I mean, it's here now. I can't wait to see how they do promote it. can't wait to be there, August 31st. Good luck in training.

We'll speak to you soon, and once again, good luck in the fight. It's going to be huge. Thank you, man. I appreciate you having me on. There he is. Anthony Showtime, Pettus, the new number one contender in the UFC lightweight division, an unbelievable turn of events. Friday night getting the call that he will be replacing T.J. Grant in this title fight in his hometown,

UFC 164, August 31st, Milwaukee, Wisconsin against Benson. and I've been to a lot of live fights at this point. WC 53, the final fight in WC. History may have been the best fight that I've seen in person. Top to bottom, 25 minutes. It all comes down really to the last minute in WC. History, and then he pulls off the kick. It's an unbelievable fight, and he says he watches it over and over again.

I've seen it over and over again. It's a fight that if you haven't seen it and you're watching this show, honestly you need to do that right after. Don't watch it right now. You don't want to miss the show. But when the show is over at some point in six or seven hours, you need to sit down and watch that fight. To pull off that kick, how tired he was, with that much at stake, nail it. It was huge. Sports center, top play, all that stuff, one of the top plays of the year. Of course, it's a kick that will be shown over and over again until MMA no longer exists, until all of us no longer exist. And that's why I said this fight was so interesting. Because now the guy who was hit with the kick is the champion.

The other guy has been through so much just to get to this point. And you show that kick, you show Benson Henderson after the fight at the press conference in Glendale, sobbing, emotional that he just lost in his hometown or adopted hometown. It's going to be huge. And it's a great card. And what's most interesting about this is, is that a lot of people are talking about, you know, the fourth quarter of 2013 for the UFC, and it's an unbelievable fourth quarter.

If everything stays as it is right now, and I'm not jinxing it, but you have to recognize the fact that there's an unbelievable stretch of fights coming up. If everything stays right now, it will be the greatest quarter in UFC history from, you know, even the Aldo-Doreen zombie. That fight I can live with. It makes sense to me. It's a featherweight fight. Great.

but then you have UFC on Fox Sports 1 Chale versus Shogun then you got Showtime versus Benson Gustafsson versus John Jones Kane JDS 3 and that card in Houston is looking great

Johnny Hendrix versus George St. Pierre and then in December you've got Ronda Rousey Mishite 2 and then Chris Wyman Anderson Silva 2 on the same card not to mention some of the smaller shows Bisping Munoz coming up

Glover de Schere versus Ryan Bader it's an unbelievable stretch and what makes it so great for the UFC, the timing of it. Anthony's talking about the timing, how things worked out for him, the stars aligning. Well, the timing of Fox Sports One launching on August 17th, with all these great fights coming up, really at the beginning of all of it, and you've got to feel bad for UFC on Fox 8, kind of flying under the radar right now. A lot of entries to that card, which is coming up not this weekend, next weekend.

But the timing of that channel, 80-plus million homes, rivaling, or at least trying to rival ESPN, getting a huge push. You watch the All-Star game tomorrow on Fox, the MLB All-Star game, you'll see Fox Sports One ads everywhere. That channel launching on August 17th, and finally the UFC rubbing elbows with the MLBs, the NASCARs of the world, getting treated like a real sports entity. And you have to imagine that the coverage that they're going to get from August to December 28th is going to be huge. It couldn't work out better for the UFC. see. Actually, Fan of ours, Robert Pearson,

do we have this New York, Rick? Is he there? Yeah, we're going to put it up right now. He made this little picture here, Fan of ours, and he sent me this poster, which I thought was great. I don't know if we're putting it. Oh, there it is.

You see the back of Benson Henderson, Pettis looking at him. What does it say? I can't read it. It says August 31st, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Live on Paperview. Light Heavyweight Championship fight. Does it say light heavyweight? Actually it does, yeah.

Oh, what? A champion's redemption versus a Challenger's destiny, Henderson versus Pettus 2. Okay, everything except for the light heavyweight part is great about this. And you see the, if you're looking at this live now or watching the stream,

you see the kick there. I'm so curious to see how the UFC promotes this fight. What are they going to do? It's just great. And it couldn't come at a better time with Benson. A lot of people thought he lost the Gilbert Melendez on April 20th in San Jose. So I think that there's this growing sentiment that people want to see someone bring the fight to Benson. It reminds me of, in a very different way, but it reminds me of when Anderson was on that stretch and they brought in Forrest Griffin,

and people thought, oh, Forrest's going to bring the fight. This is the guy, et cetera, et cetera. I think a lot of people are getting behind Anthony Pettus right now. And I don't think there's a growing sentiment that Anthony did anything wrong. The way he puts it, you know, he had to try. And yes, you know, you have to feel bad for T.J. Grant. I do believe T.J. will be back. And I think he shouldn't fight anyone, honestly.

They'll probably ask him to fight Josh Thompson. But considering what he's done at lightweight and who he knocked out in his last fight, in my opinion, T.J. Grant should just chill. Be in Milwaukee and fight the winner. You fight too hard, too long. You sweat, you bleed, you get hurt. too often to get to this point and then take another fight against a very game opponent and Josh Thompson. Just wait and fight him in December or January, in my opinion.

You fought twice this year, a pretty good year, got injured, got some bonuses. That's what I would do. We'll be talking plenty about this as the show rolls on. I'm sure a lot of you want to weigh in on the new UFC 164 main event. But let us transition now. Let us welcome in one of our favorites. the World Series of Fighting, Walterweight contender.

John Fitch, stopping by. John, how are you? I'm doing great. Thank you for stopping by. I really appreciate it. I haven't heard much from you since your debut in mid-June at WSOF number three. And, of course, it was a fight that was talked about a lot, especially the aftermath of it all.

But here we are pretty much a month later. Are you over the loss? Do you still think about it? Are you still, you know, Are you still dissecting it in your mind, or have you moved on? I mean, fighters, I don't think we ever really get over losses. That's kind of what drives us to keep working and keeps us moving to get better and trying to get better. So, you know, I mean, I've dealt with it, but, you know, I'll never be over the loss.

It's just a matter of me putting together a winner to and get a rematch. have you watched the fight since it happened No Just the replays In the cage afterwards Was all I needed to see really You never felt You never had a moment

Where you're like You know let me just sit down Because I'm sure When that happened When you're in the cage Maybe your mind is not all there You're a little emotional of course You never just sat down on a Sunday

And just popped it up And just wanted to relive it Um no Because you know Talk me about it been thinking about it and, you know, there wasn't much to watch, really, to sit back and go through and watch. It was more of talking with coaches and then, you know, going through my own head,

what I was going through, you know, through the fight, and just dealing with that. You know, sitting there watching it, it was one of the more surreal things we've ever seen in MMA because you have been so dominant and just seeing it end up the way it did. looking back and knowing how it ended up, I know you say you haven't watched it really since then, since you got home and whatnot. Why do you think what happened happened? You know, I didn't respect the choke at all.

I went to lift right away. I mean, there was a moment when you first sank the choke in where I made the decision, you know, I could have went one way and defended the choke or could have picked them up and tried to slam them, and I decided to try to pick them up and slam them. And I think it was much deeper than I had thought. And when I got to probably the apex of the lift,

like my body started to give out. I still was conscious, but I think my body already started to go out. And by the time my head at the mat, I was unconscious. When you have been put in that position in the past, is that what you usually go for? Do you usually go for the lift? Do you usually try to get out of it that way? No, usually it's straight to defense.

One of my biggest rules is always, you know, defend first, whether it's submission or take down. You have to defend 100% first before you move on to the next thing. So why do you think you went that route this time? You know, I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to make this debut, you know, the biggest debut was the biggest thing I could. And, you know, I was looking for something bigger. You think that if this is just, you know, another UFC fight for you, you go the traditional route, you don't try to gamble like you did?

You know, maybe probably, but then again, you know, I've been, I've skewed on some game plans in the past number of UFC fights too, and those I think have cost me a little bit also. So you said you didn't respect the choke. Did you respect Josh Berkman? Did you think that Josh was gained? Do you think he could actually pull off something like this? Were you worried about what Josh Berkman brought to the table? I knew he was, yeah, I respected Josh. I knew it's explosive and he's got a knock out power and he was athletic.

But as far as submissions go, you know, I rarely get choked, even with deep chokes, even in training and in the gym with, you know, high-level guys. So, you know, it's kind of a shock. I know a lot of my team and a lot of my friends and people that know me were pretty shocked by it, too, just because I have a pretty difficult person to choke even when it's in tight. Yeah, I remember maybe a year or so ago you were telling people, you were almost like putting out a challenge for anyone to choke you to even submit you. I mean, have you ever been put in that position before?

Have you ever been choked unconscious like that? In training, yeah, I've been trying to have a number of times of training. But it's been a while, a long while. Wondering what you thought of all the criticism the referee Steve Mazagadi received, of course, like you said, you haven't watched the fight. So I'm sure you weren't really analyzing that when you were looking at it. I saw enough of it. I thought he was fine.

You know, I'm traditionally traditionally a very tough person to show. so for him to give me the extra time to get out, I think I don't know, I didn't see a problem with it when I watched it back. But should a referee... My wife didn't say anything or complain, so if you don't say it complained, it must not have been that bad. In your opinion, though, should a referee go based off reputation or what, you know, you should do if it was just two white belts in there?

I mean, he was really out of the frame if you're watching it on television. You know, I mean, I'm a little bit old school. I like a lot of the fights definitively finished, and I think a lot of times nowadays, Russ are pretty eager to jump in and stop and break things up before you really get, you know, that solid finish in a fight. How long did it take for you to regain your bearings

to understand where you were? Do you remember that? A few seconds, I think once the roll to my back I came to You mentioned that you were putting some pressure on yourself To do something kind of spectacular Did you feel more nervous going into this fight Than you did in some of your other UFC fights Leading up to that point

Um No, I wouldn't say so I wouldn't say more nervous or anything like that I just more of an expectation Maybe a different expectation For myself how so um you know

I think this company put a lot of effort in the promote me and put me out there and I wanted to to step up and represent and uh and help take uh

world series to that seems to that next level because I knew a lot of people be watching after everything that's transpired over the last several months and do you feel like you let them down um a little bit I think I let myself down

But I think a lot of the fans and people who have been supporting me, you know, I wanted to give something big back to them. And in a little bit, I feel like I have a look down a little bit. I feel it's kind of my responsibility to represent and do something big for them. That seems like a lot of pressure to put on someone because it almost feels like, to me, listening to you, that you're trying to put the success of the promotion on your back.

And yes, fighters do do that and are put in those positions, but that's a lot to handle going into a debut, right? You know, I kind of like pressure a little bit. You know, I strive for excellence and being the best that it can be, and I want to be a part of a big thing. So if you're just complacent with just being there, I think, you know, you're limiting your potential. And what was it like leading up to that point that week,

being in a new promotion? How did they treat you? Do you feel like they have to learn some? stuff about putting on an event. What was your takeaway from, you know, just being a WSO fighter in the fight week? It's pretty good. I mean, they do a good job. I think there's some growing pains that are going to happen, you know,

with just getting people the right places on time and getting checked into the arena and stuff like that. But that'll come. Everything else was smooth that week went smooth. You know, but I think just just, just, It's been a busy few months with, prior to that, it was a busy few months with everything happening with getting released from the UFC and finding the organization and trying to find new sponsors and all that stuff. There's just a lot happening in a short period of time.

And I don't know if that had anything to do with the outcome of the fight, but, you know, my mindset in that 40 seconds of the fight wasn't in the right spot. do you feel like you took the fight too early? No, not at all. I was there. I was ready to fight. Harm's ready to go. The mistake, I think, that was made was just that choice in trying to take the

flashy route and slamming it rather than just defending. And, you know, with everything else that happened with the pressure and all that, that stuff, I think it was fine. I think I was going to be fine to set. a good fight and put on a good show, but it was just that one little mistake. And Josh Berkman is a good fighter. And when you're talking about the sport, it's a matter of centimeters. So if you make a little mistake, you're going to pay dearly for it, and I did.

Was there ever a point where you were like, man, you know, not so much that you missed the UFC, but you miss sort of being the big show with the sort of, you know, how organized they are? Was there ever a point where you felt like you were in a sort of minor league promotion? Did that ever hit you? No. They're doing a good enough of a job where that never happened. So it definitely didn't feel like I was in the farm leagues again, you know, driving to a fight and hoping they had somebody close to my weight so I could fight.

You know, wasn't anything like that. Everything was good, you know, hotel check-in, pickups. Everything went smoothly, in my opinion. and so there was no complaints at that and there's nothing on that part that could have affected anybody's performance that night. And I kind of liked the smaller venue,

smaller show, too. Why? You know, I like fighting the hard rack back when I started in the UFC. It was just kind of fun, so I think there's a lot of good memories for me doing that. But it's a little more intimate,

like, I think, And sometimes in the USC crowd, one person who's a fan who takes a picture and the light goes off. And then everybody else wants a picture, not because they know who you are, but because they saw somebody taking a picture with you. Where the World Series, I felt like everybody who came up on approach you came up on approach you because they wanted to see you. Have they talked to you about what's next? I think maybe we're looking at something like October.

Okay, and what about an opponent? No opponents that I've talked about yet. I've been harassing crazy, Bob, but no answers yet. So you want to get in there? Yeah, I just, I've been kind of on vacation. I went back home and see this family and check out some other stuff. And then I'm back in the gym, you know, this week. So I'm ready to get back in the swing of thing and start training and play it again.

You know, you were supposed to fight Aaron Simpson in San Jose last summer, and then because of injury, the fight never happened. He's coming off a loss in WSOF. Does that make sense to you? Yeah, I could be. I heard rumors about him considering retiring, but if he's still in the game, that would be something I would consider. How far away do you think you are from fighting Birkman again?

Let's be honest, I mean, the division isn't as deep as the UFC, because they haven't been around. They're still trying to develop it. So in your mind, do you think you're just one win away from fighting them again? Yeah, I think one or two. It just depends. You know, if it's the right matchup for me,

my next fight, you know, a tough fight with somebody could justifyably earn a rematch. You know, if Bickman's fighting for the title next and let the rematch be for a title. But there's no one in particular in mind right now that interests you, or at least who's out there? I'm not sure yet, and I don't want to throw anything out there because I don't know if they have something planned,

and I don't want to screw up their plans either. By the way, you know I love your video blogs, and around the time of the fight you put out of a blog showing your weight cut for the Eric Silva fight. I believe it was Eric Silva, not Damien Maier, right? It was Eric Silva, yeah. Yeah, why then? I mean, you had fought once, you know, between that.

Why did you feel like you needed to put that out then? A lot of people are asking me for like a year, not a year, but years about, you know, advice on weight cutting and what I do for weight cutting and stuff like that. It's not a matter of that fight. It's just a matter of, I decided to take the steps to film all this stuff while I was cutting weight. And then it took a while to edit it. You know, I got a kid running around the house. It's kind of hard to find the time to do little extra stuff like that. So it took like a year to edit the thing.

So that's why there's a big delay, a big gap. So you actually edit the stuff yourself. This is a one-man band show in your, as far as your video blogs are concerned. Yep. You want something done right, you do yourself. That's true. That's great advice from John Fitch. John, just wanted to ask you a couple more questions, and we'll let you go,

and we appreciate it very much. Also, all the stuff with the pay and all that. Are you done with that? Do you feel like you put out your say, you said your piece, and now you're moving on from that, or do you feel like this is something that you have to keep bringing up? This is kind of your thing that you're going to champion. The pay?

Yeah. You know, that wasn't a complaint or me bitching or a moat about anything. There's a lot of people who are just asking questions about money. and a lot of speculations being made, and I have no problem with sharing what I made because I'm proud of what I made, and it's good money,

but it's not what people think it is. And in comparison to what, you know, some of the promoters make in this sport, it's definitely not comparable. So people need to keep that out of mind. We still are getting paid a good amount of money to do what we love, and we understand that,

But when people are making, you know, almost 10 times more money than you are for you getting punched in the face, sometimes it might be time to look at what our money goes. Do you think anything will ever change? I mean, everything changes with time, but, you know, it'll take some time and it'll take some competition. I think we need some other competition besides the UFC. World Series, Belatory. You know, I think if these other organizations start growing a little bit, it'll help with the pay, too, because it gets more competitive.

Is this something that you're going to keep bringing up and talking about, even on your own video blogs, et cetera, because often we see people bring up issues that they're unhappy with, but then it kind of just goes away. Is this something that you're passionate enough about that you want to help the younger guys, or do you feel like you've said what you had to say? I mean, I think it's important to kind of be open and talk freely about these things. I think it's important for the fighters to do that because we don't really have an organization or anything,

like a union or anything where we can meet and do this and have representatives. So it's kind of important for us to just kind of say things here and there. I'm not going to champion this cause, though, because I'm still a fighter. I still have fights in me and I still have money to make. And if you're going to champion a cause like that, it's really going to take up all your time. It's going to be what you do. So I'm not ready to do that.

But I am going to tell the truth and speak my mind and give my open opinions about how paid things to break down and where the money goes. And I think other fighters need to be encouraged to do the same thing because if we can at least talk openly about it, that's a step, you know, you know, promoters keeping the pace, the pace of secret from a lot of people

to keep some in control of what's going on. Would you like to see a union formed? You know, it's hard to say. I would like to see the fighters having a voice. I'd like to be able to organize and meet can give opinions on things like rules and drug testing and things like that. But, you know, unions can turn south and get ugly fast. And it's hard to say whether or not it would be the best thing for us.

But I think we need some kind of voice. We need something, some kind of representative somewhere to speak for the fighters. John, you're 35. Did this make you start thinking about when you'll walk away from? the sport? You know, I started thinking about that a little bit because I started seeing stuff online about guys retiring all the time. They were like my age.

I'm like, oh, the hell? You had your parents. I thought he was young. Right. But, you know, I figure fight three times a year, that's at least 15 fights in five years if you're healthy. That's quite a lot of fight. So if I can get, you know, 15 to 30,

fights and that's, you know, five to ten years. I'll be happy with that. So you're thinking another five to ten? Yeah, I'm thinking at least 15, because when I break it down like that, you know, 15 fights, that sounds like a lot, but you could easily hit that in five years. So I think that's a good number to say. I think I have at least five, 15 fights left than me. Final thing, your pal, he's not a member of the team anymore, but I think you still keep in contact with him. Josh Kosteck, we recently heard he got injured. Do you know what happened to him and how long he'll be out for? No, I haven't, uh, haven't got the details on the injury. Are you guys still pals? Yeah, you still talk. Okay, but you just don't know what happened to him or how long he'll be out for,

etc. All right. Would you have gone to that fight with him because you, you know Damien Maya? I would have probably going down to help out in Fresno a little bit or if I had the chance to or just giving a breakdown. I talk with Crazy Bob and getting him a breakdown and Dave Camarillo a breakdown technically of things that they should work with constip on just because I couldn't really get down there as much as I wanted to. I can't get down there with the kid.

That's understandable. John, I want to thank you. Thank you. Thank you for stopping by. I know this is probably not the most fun interview we've ever had, but speaking very candidly and open, I always appreciate talking to you and looking forward to your return. All right. Thank you. All right. There he is. John Fitch, stopping by, fought Josh Berkman, June 14th. Someone had a salad earlier before we started, and it wasn't me. I think I know who it was, and it was just chilling on the top of my desk here. New York, Rick, you know whose salad top this would be? I think we'll do an investigation. Okay. Yeah, that's weird. I mean, it's just unbelievable.

People eating salad and leaving their garbage on my desk. It's unbelievable. Respect around here is dwindling, my friends. We preach. Oh, that's great. That's great. It's good to know. I don't know if anyone heard that.

Was that just to me? That was just to me. Will just like to talk to me, so no one can really understand what we're talking about. It just sounds like I'm crazy. But anyway, we want to thank John Fitch for stopping by. that was very honest and open stuff and always appreciate talking to John

and like I said, looking forward to his return. Now, one of John's long-time teammates over at the American Kickboxing Academy joins us right now. Via the magic of Skype, there he is. Familiar face, Mike Swick. Mike, how are you? What's up?

How are you doing? I'm doing great. First, I got to ask you. I mean, what was your reaction when you saw John lose that way? I couldn't move. I felt numb, just knowing what he brings to the table, how tough he is.

Was that shocking for you? Yeah. I mean, that was one of those fights where, I mean, you have fights that you're worried and you're nervous about, and you have fights where you think he got it in the bag and, you know, how Fitch has been doing and where he's at and obviously his experience. We definitely thought he was going to go out there and have a great performance and get the win. So I think everyone was just kind of shocked, you know, but Burtman's a tough guy, so, you know, not taking anything away from him. But, yeah, it was definitely a shocker, you know. we didn't expect to see Fitch get beat, you know, especially like that.

So that was kind of a tough hit for the team. You know, a couple weeks back, you made headlines when a fan just asked you about your future and you tweeted back to him and said, you're going back up to middleweight. Is this true? Can you confirm this? Yeah, I'm working on my health right now, and I'm going through some procedures in California. I mean, well, obviously in California, but Southern California. At Beverly Hills, Cedars, I want one of the best places for what I have, gastro and esophageal stuff. And we are going through different medications and procedures and my health is looking a lot better.

I mean, it's seeming like we're going to get this thing fixed. And if that's the case, then I want to obviously fight again and fight healthy and not just keep fighting and having mediocre performances and bad performances. and it will be a middleweight. I won't be able to fight at Welterweight because I'll be able to eat again. So I'll be, you know, 200, 210 pounds walking around. So this is the same issue that has been plaguing you for the last few years? Several years. Since I dropped to Welterweight.

It's a condition that basically stopped me from being able to eat the foods that, you know, I was used to eating. Actually, it just cut my diet down to a third of what I would normally eat because how specifically I had to eat. So, you know, when you're burning all the calories that we are at the gym, you know, it just shreds your body down to nothing. And then you start getting injured and you're not recovering. So it's been just such a hard battle, like trying to get through fight camps

and having decent performances dealing with this issue. So now the focus is getting my health back and see if we can beat this thing and then come back and fight happy and healthy and where I want to fight. you know, versus just taking what I can just to get out there and feel that experience and then fight. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you were about to fight the Marcus Johnson last summer after that long layoff, it seemed to me like you had everything under control. Did you think that? And then when did you realize that wasn't the case?

Well, it was under control to where I could get through fight camp, and I could eat enough to get by, but the condition wasn't fixed. So that's kind of, I guess, the big misconception. with the interviews I did is it seems as though I fixed the problem, whereas we just kind of suppressed it through medication and some of the procedures. So it was short-lived because obviously with anything that comes, it's good. There's always a side effect or a downfall. So it had its downfalls, you know, being the medication was kind of a sedative.

And, you know, it was a temporary fix. But, you know, now we're working with, like I said, Cedars Sinai, and they think they can fix it all together. So right now I'm on medication so I can eat. I've gained my size back. I'm over 200 pounds. Now we're starting to hopefully transition to where we get off the medicine and then I can continue this weight and continue this training without taking the medicine

and then I'm back to normal. So that's the transition that we're trying to take right now. You said you started to feel the effects of this issue around the time that you dropped down to 170. Do you think the cut had anything to do with it? The cut was because of it, and it wasn't even much of a cut. Dropping to 170 is the reason of this. I mean, not the reason, I'm sorry, this is the sole reason of dropping to 170. Okay.

Before I knew exactly what was going on, I experienced weight loss because I was having what I thought to be acid reflux and stuff like that. So certain things I was eating was affecting that. So I would take those things out, immediately started losing weight. And then through that period of where I dropped to 170, it was a big guessing game and me wondering what's going on. I knew my body was having some issues, and that's when I noticed the problems. And then by the time I fought Okami, I was just too light. And so I knew after that fight, but I was going to have to drop weight classes to continue fighting.

And then I was going to have to figure out what's going on. and through being misdiagnosed two times, it was a tough battle because the doctors tell you you have one thing and you start treating that one thing and it's not affecting the actual issue itself. So I was going through all this experimental treatments and medications and wrong diagnosis while having my well-to-weight career. And it was pretty frustrating. What's your day-to-day life like? How much of a burden is all of this? How uncomfortable are you? Before now, really uncomfortable.

My life was miserable. I mean, as far as I would be stressed out every time I ate because I had to be so specific of what I had in the food and the ingredients. And if I ate the wrong thing, it would send sharp pains to my esophagus and it could last up to six hours. So it takes an enormous amount of stress onto your life. Now, with the treatment that I'm getting and the fact that I'm not in fight camp for, so I'm training, you know, not that hard, it feels way better. I mean, my life is getting back to normal. The medication is working.

The treatments are working. And I'm getting my size back. So this is the best I felt in six, seven years. You obviously had a great moment when you knocked out the Marcus Johnson on Fox, the big comeback. It was one of the real feel-good stories of 2012. But even though that was such a great moment and you looked very strong, did you feel like you weren't yourself in the cage fighting as a welterweight? I don't know. You know, that fight, I mean, it was just a great moment.

just a great moment. I mean, I think it was a bad performance, but at the end, it worked, and one of the best feelings I've ever had is a fighter. I mean, to come back from 910 days, you know, without fighting, plus dealing with all the stuff I was dealing with, I, I knew for sure my career was over, you know, before that, during that 910 days period. So to be able to come back and walk out in front of a crowd like that on Fox and get a knockout was, was definitely one of the best feelings I've ever had. And then, of course, then I agree to take another fight right after that because it was Fox 5.

And then, you know, I lost that one. So it's kind of bittersweet the two comebacks. But I'll definitely take that win, you know, and I would have taken two more losses if I had to just to get that one, you know. So that was kind of my moment, you know. You returned just four months later to fight. Matt Brown, as you alluded to, did you feel in hindsight like that was too quick of a turnaround for you?

No, you know, I definitely 100% don't want to sit here and make excuses for fights. You know, like, you make the decision to fight and so you, you know, you're saying that you're able to go out there and you're able to fight and perform your best, and that's what I've done, you know what I mean? So I don't want to sit here and take anything away from the fight or anything away from Matt Brown. He's one of the best fighters out there, and I love watching him fight, and I actually, I I think he's got a bright future straight ahead.

But it definitely is time at this point for me to focus on getting my health together and trying to get my life back in that area before I step back in the octagon. So did the UFC call you initially and try to get you back in there and then you told them you'll call them. You need to figure this out. It could be a while. It could be a year, whatever. How do they know that you're kind of on the sidelines here? Yeah, they've known for a while that I've been dealing with issues and trying to get better. So they've been very supportive, and that's exactly what happened.

You know, they knew after this fight that it was a bad time for me and that I had to go get treatment and try to get this fix once and for all. And, you know, they supported me. You know, Joe Silva's like, you know, go get your stuff taken care of, get healthy, you know, and give us a call when you're ready, and we'll get you out there and put you on a fight. So that's kind of where we stand. And it's great having that support, not having the stress of a fight coming up while dealing with this, and being able to focus on getting my health back, you know, and being happy again, you know, where I can eat and train and not have all that pressure and stress of the medical condition and fighting and stuff.

UFC returns to Houston, a place you know a lot about in October. and you've obviously fought there once before for the UFC. Is that something you'd like to be a part of, or do you think that's too soon? I think it's too soon. We're working on a bunch of stuff with Cedar Sinai right now, and it's going to be a bit before I'll be able to train full-time if all this stuff works.

So, you know, right now I'm focused on when I'm in country, I'm training at AKA, just helping the team and doing what I can there, and then I'm working on the project in Thailand. So that's pretty much my full-time gig right now until we get this health under control. And that was my next question. What is going on over in Thailand? If anyone follows you on Twitter, that's ad official SWIC.

We see that you spend a lot of time over there. You opening some kind of gym over there? Yeah. Actually, your show is announcing the official name. Oh, yeah. I like it. Yeah, the first time that we've launched the social media and website and everything. but yeah I've been trying to do a gym and working to do a gym in Thailand for

four years since 2008-2009 I've been training there for 13 years so it's been a dream of mine for a long time and I want to do something big and something very different and unique and so I teamed up with a business partner there as well as AKA I mean Javier from AKA and we're doing an official AKA gym so it'll be eight AK's first global gym and AK's biggest project. It's going to be very unique and very interesting, but it will be called AKA Thailand, and all the info will be at AKATiland.com.

And that's up right now? It's up as of like 3 a.m. last night. We were working on all this stuff last night. Yeah, it's up and all the links to social media. But it's not just a gym. I mean, it's going to be a culture and a community. I mean, we're doing accommodations, restaurants, multiple training facilities, everything you can imagine on site, on this big piece of land in a cove of tropical mountains and terrain right by the ocean and paradise, Phuket Thailand.

So it's been a long project, and it's something I'm very passionate about, and I'm very excited to get this thing open and get their own. guys over there and start changing lives, you know, start planning the seed and set in the direction for thousands of other fighters who are coming up and wanting to pursue their careers and achieve success, you know. Now, when does the actual gym open? When will be open for business? We're going in phases with the building, so we're building such a big first phase.

It's going to be a while still. But the good thing about that is I'm starting now with social media, with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, we're going to start blasting all updates of basically what it's like building a gym in Thailand because it's very, very unique and very different than doing a gym in America or anywhere else. The issues that we run into, the people that we deal with, is very interesting, especially a project this size. So we're going to start promoting all kinds of updates and you can follow along every step as we build the rest of this gym. And we're hoping winter at the end of 2013, the beginning of 2014,

to be actually officially open with first phase, which will be a huge, multiple training areas and buildings on site. But I give or take, I think we have over 12,000 square feet of Muayai area and 5,000 square feet of MMA training area, you know, along with a full-fledged weight room. boot camps, AK fits and everything else. So not just for fighting, for fitness, for strength conditioning, fat loss. It's going to be a great place to accomplish your goals and train and hang out.

We're going to have fire pits and lounge areas and all kinds of stuff. So it's going to be really cool. Now, does this mean you will have to move to Thailand? I'll be back and forth. So I'll be back and forth from Phuket to here in San Jose with AKA. And so I will pretty much be living over there these next several months getting us going. And I want to be there to post a lot of updates and show, like I said, the process of what

this is like. And but, yeah, I'll have to spend a lot of time there for sure. So does that mean? Go ahead. Sorry. Oh, no, I was just saying it's paradise. It's not a hard place to stay. Right.

For sure. So does that mean when you say winter or so, does that mean we shouldn't expect to see you fight again because you'll be worried and work? I should say, you know, consumed by all of this to like the spring or summer of next year? It just depends. You know, whenever the health gets back, and I can train there and train here. So whenever the health gets back, then I'll definitely be ready. I want to make sure that I get my health back.

I want to make sure my size and strength is where it needs to be. And I want to make sure I'm fighting for the right reasons, you know, and due to all this that's going on, my body is, it's old. I'm getting old and, you know, and then with this health problem, it's made it really difficult. So I don't want to take fights just for the paychecks and just to get out there. And, you know, it's not fair for the fans or myself or my family. So the number one focus is just getting my health, feeling better, and then getting out there and fighting because I want to and because I'm excited and because I'm ready. By the way, if that happens, it'll happen. Why Thailand? Why do you feel like Thailand is the right place to open such a huge project?

Because I've been training it for 13 years and it's significantly changed my life every single time I've trained there. I mean, the mental things that you go through, until you go there and train and see the culture and the environment, you can't really understand, but it's just such a big part of my career. And it's the home of Muli Thai. there's no better place to get the Muay Thai training. And so this project is going to be an extension of that. It's going to be the gym that I would have always loved to have had while I was training there all those years, where AKA and our proven system as an MMA gym meets the best Thai trainers in the world

and strength and conditioning trainers. And we just, you know, collaborate and build this training facility. And over the past few years, Pouquet's became the mecca for fighting for fitness anyway. So it's kind of a hotbed for fighters to come train Muay, train Mouitai, train MMA, hang out. You know, it's obviously beautiful. So there's a big demand for gyms there. And there's a lot of other great gyms in the same area. You know, right now on the UFC roster, there are only four cast members from the Ultimate Fighter 1 still on the roster.

There's yourself, Chris Lieben, who suffered a tough loss just a couple weekends ago. Sanchez and Josh Kosteck. You're seeing all these guys retire. You're seeing all these guys who weren't even a part of that show retire. You're starting to think that, you know, I need to start preparing for the future. And is that where this gym, this project comes from? I've always been preparing for the future. That's why I started the screen printing shop, and most of what I've made I've invested and tried to put to business. I understand, as Dana mentions all the time, that we have a short window as fighters, and we have to make as much as we can

and then utilize that in our post-career. And we never know when our career is over. So I've always been into the business side and preparing for later. but yes I am definitely as of late getting older and filling the wear and tear of my career it's been I think 26 years of competing in one form of martial art or another so that's a long time and you know it's definitely taken a toll but I do feel good if I can just get my health back and be able to eat but yeah as far as the ultimate fighter I think us four I think we have the longest four contracts consecutive contracts in UFC history

So that's kind of cool. I think we've been there for almost nine years, or give or take nine years in the UFC consecutively. So I've spent quite a bit of that time injured, so I'm kind of cheating with my length in the UFC. But who knows? Who knows how long I'll be able to fight, and maybe I'll be the last man standing.

Is that something you'd like? Is that a goal of yours to outlast the other three guys? No, not at all. I mean, we talk about the fact that we're the last guys, but I don't want any of the guys to retire and quit so that I can be the last. You know, that would be mean. I'm just enjoying the fact that I'm a part of the UFC and have been a part of the UFC and, you know, what it's done for my career, the people that I've met,

all those guys that I shared the Ultimate Fighter with, and I've got to meet over the years, which is why this project's so exciting, because now instead of being the fighter that's getting all excited about each big win or each big fight or each big opportunity, I get to sit back and watch other fighters as they get excited and they get their opportunities and they launch their careers. And I get to be beside them and help them and just follow them as they grow. And so it'll be a repetitive thing that I'll just see over and over with all the guys.

And I'm so excited to experience that part. That's going to be gratifying to find true success and giving back and helping other guys go out there and accomplish their dreams. Well, I wish you nothing but the best of luck, Mike. It sounds like a really cool project looking forward to following it and seeing how it progresses. In fact, our guy in New Yorkerick actually tweeted it's AK-Tai-A Thailand, right? On Twitter, that's the Twitter handle.

AK-Tiland.com has all the social media links. The username is AK-Tai-Lan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and on Facebook we are aka Thailand gym. So even if you're not planning to go to Thailand, check it out, and follow the progress, it's going to be interesting. I mean, I'm definitely going to post all the most interesting stuff as we build this gym. It's a very unique environment, very unique culture,

and it's super fascinating, dealing with everyone there and trying to build this project. Most importantly, though, wish you the best of health. I really want to see you back inside. the Octagon, if you're healthy, if you want to be there. And then at middleweight, that's very interesting as well. So a lot of exciting things coming up for you. Always great to talk to you, Mike.

Best of luck with everything. Thank you. Thank you so much for having you. There he is. Mike, quick, swicks, stopping by. The potential newest member of the UFC's middleweight division has a great project. And if you're ever down there or over there in Thailand, that's an unbelievable thing that he is working on.

And pretty cool that AKA is a part of it all. So best of luck to him and his team. and most importantly, best of health to him as he tries to make his way back inside the octagon, like I said, one of the great moments of 2012 when he knocked out to Marcus Johnson after, as he mentioned, 900 plus days away from the UFC, trying to get better, still battling it, but picking up that win live on Fox, Staples Center, last August, an unbelievable moment, really one of the great moments, not just last year in UFC history, in my opinion. Let us move along.

You talk about great moments in UFC history. that will be remembered for many, many years to come. Chris Weidman, knocking out Anderson Silva last week in Las Vegas. He is the new UFC middleweight champion. Of course, you know by now, the rematch is going down December 28th. And when you talk about guys like Chris Wyden, when you talk about guys like Costa Filipu and a whole bunch of other East Coast MMA fighters and not just East Coast MMA fighters, but MMA fighters of all kind from all over the place, climbing through the ranks and making it to the UFC, you often hear one thing in comment, it's that they've all at one point had a pit stop at Lou Neglia's Ring of Combat

Promotion. Right now, we have the pleasure of having Lou Neglia on the show. Lou, how are you? Very good, Ariel. And keep up the good work you're doing other journalists. You ask the questions the MMA fans want to hear. Thank you very much. All right, we're done with the interview. That was perfect. Just giving me a compliment off the time. My good friend, Ray, and Matt, tell me to be careful because you have a lot of trick questions. No, no, no, no trick questions here. I appreciate you stopping by, I've been watching your promotion for a long time and you're doing fantastic stuff. We'll get to the promotion in a second.

But what's it like for you, Lou, to see a guy like Chris who made his debut with your promotion, you helped him climb through the ranks, you gave him the platform, then go out there and knock out the greatest of all time. What are you thinking when you watch this? You know, the first act of all was great happiness because, you know, ever since I knew Chris,

you know, he wanted to be a champion and to see anyone, and Ariel, you know this as well as anybody else. Pursuing your passion is one of the greatest pleasure. of life, and I'm so happy he's enjoying that great pleasure now. It was history. It was no surprise to people that knew Chris. To me, he's the American Isle of MMA.

You know, he was not as known as fighters, but he was not untalented. And I think, you know, he has great championship traits that he had from the beginning. And, you know, he definitely has a great mindset. I think some of the things that prepared him for this great moment of his was his great mindset. He's got great coaches, you know, trains with Henzel, great. wrestling coach, Matt Serra, and Ray Longo. And I think Ring of Combat helped, in a way, preparing him for that moment,

by enabling him to test, develop, and display his skills along the way to his role to the UFC. And I'm always, he's one of the three greatest Ring of Combat alumni, and there's 80 of them that I'm very proud of. And Ariel, you know, even though Rand Combat has super fights and championship fights, the main focus has been and always will be to showcase new talent. And I'm very proud of the Ran Combat alumni. So you say he's one of three? Who are the other two?

Well, I say the greatest ones, and there's some... The three greatest ones would have to be Matt Sera, Frankie Edgar, and of course Chris Wyman. But other great fighters, Costa Filippo, and other fighters, Josh Cushcheck, the Miller brothers, you know, all came through the ranks.

And I think the reason I feel that Rian Covent has been so successful is, you know, I only match competitive fights. I have guys that tell me, you know, they want easy fights, or they don't want to fight a stand-up guy, or they ask a million questions. I tell them, what do you want to date the guy? You want to fight up, you know, tough fights make tough fighters.

And one loss doesn't define you as a fighter. You know, the loss sometimes works in your favor. It shows you deficiencies. It kind of makes you work a little bit more on your floors. And one thing about Wyman, which I think he's so unique. I mean, he had some deficiencies when he came to M.A. because he was a great wrestler, but he had no good stand-up. He didn't do it before, and he had no judicial.

But instead of just, you know, concentrate on his pluses and now working on his deficiencies, he went right after training in the areas that he needs. And that's why he's such a well-rounded fighter for sure, and he's going to be around for a long time. Now, honestly, when you first met him, he made his debut with you in 2009. When you first signed this guy, did you think that he could do something like this? Did he have that in him back then? The first fight? No, because he just seemed, you know, like a guy just started.

But the second fight, third, final fourth fight. And as I says, going back to making competitive fights in rean combat, I pitted him against Uriah Hall. Now, they were both undefeated. It was a risky fight for both of them. But as I told them, that's what rean combat's about. And, again, fighters that lost in rean combat, it doesn't define you with a fighter. It doesn't mean you're not going to be ring in combat material or even UFC material because I've had fighters that lost but show great fighting spirit and technique and courage and passion, and I've used them again.

So it was a risky fight. But that fight, I think, helped him against the Anderson-Silver, because Uriah Hall was a great stand-up fighter, too. Not as good as Anderson-Silver, but he was able to execute tests and develop and believe and believe. And I say that word because it's so important in his fight plan and stick to his fight plan. You know, it's interesting when Uriah Hall went on his run on the ultimate fighter, that fight seemed to resurface online, and it's like the fight just happened, and it was giving you a lot of attention and your brand a lot of attention.

Is this the kind of thing that, okay, you root a lot of, for your guys to go on and do that so that in turn it helps out your brand, even though they're not with you anymore, that's good for business? Ariel, you know, I was a former world champion in kickboxing. I have a passion for what I'm doing now as a promoter now, and I love to see guys. It gives

me such great, but I ripped up contract, it's not a promoter around that would do that. When I had fires in the contract, when they went to the UFC, because I don't want to have any stumbling block for them, because I know as a fighter, I would want to go to the UFC if I was fighting now, and I was so happy, and again, you know, when you're doing something

for your passion, it's different than just to promote. I have a great relationship for the fighters. I feel for what they do because I was a fighter myself, and we have a great relationship. New Jersey says he can't believe the relationship of a promoter and a fighter to them because of some of the passion I have for the sport. But I've ripped up contracts when guys went to UFC.

So that answers your question. I'm happy elated that they went to where they want to go. And when I, you know, a couple of years ago, and I won't mention the promotion name, two big promotions that are not in existence anymore came to me and want to merge with me because they had a great history, you know, having many fighters go to the UFC. But after sitting down

with them, I found out and I realized that their main focus was out of greed and jealousy for the UFC and they wanted beat the UFC. The UFC is the World Series of MMA. I say it all the time, and I'm glad the fighters go there, and that's the place that I'm...

You're still there, Lou? You may have lost them. ...platform that they have now through the UFC. And people are, you know, listening to you talk about being a fighter, of course. If you don't know this, an eight-degree black belt, a three-degrader. time world kickboxing champion, a former

U.S. kickboxing champion, a Florida karate champion, New York State champion, this is a man who has been around the world of combat sports and martial arts for a very long time. And so you say that you don't want to be a stumbling block and you didn't like those promotions that were trying to take down the UFC fueled by

greed. You've never been motivated, you've never been enticed to try to make a run and not let your guys go off to the UFC to be your own standalone and try to compete. And I say no, because I'm very happy with my place in MMA history that I kind of found

or maybe the American Idol of the MMA world finding new talent. I enjoyed that place. The UFC should be at their place and I'm just glad to funnel people to the UFC and I have, you know, I mean, there's not a UFC, this last one that just took place. Alibera, Edgar, Wyman, of course,

were all UFC and at Simbaalboza all UFC alumni, you know, and they were all over successful. Oliveira lost, but it was the fight of the night and I'm definitely very happy. You can't watch to UFC without seeing a couple of Raycombat alumni. I'm very proud of those alumni. What is it like to have a promotion of your size and of your stature where you're building

talent, you're building talent, you're trying to generate buzz on the East Coast, mainly Atlantic City, and then they're here today, gone tomorrow? How does that work for you? That's a tough thing, no? I'm very happy with it because that's my purpose is to get them to the next level. So that's really the main focus of my promotion to get them to the next level. so I'm very happy for that. And again, I enjoy that place in MMA history.

You know, and good is good. I also promote big kickboxing shows. And, you know, as you know, the sport evolved so much. You have kickboxes now submitting ground guys and ground guys knocking out stand-up guys. And that's the beauty of the sport. I just did a big glory show in New York City. The winner got $200,000. And kickboxing, you know, I believe helped make MMA the exciting sport is today.

People love the ground, but they also love to stand-up. And today, you can't exist with one aspect of fighting. And that's why these athletes deserve whatever they get. They're great athletes. And they make more sacrifice than any of the fighting art in existence today. So you're a Brooklyn guy, right? Brooklyn, born and raised now live in Long Island. I've been here about 15 years.

I still have a big school in Brooklyn. And I go every day to Brooklyn and train fighters in kickboxing. Now, how much does it bug you? Does it annoy you that you can't put on these events in New York State? It bothers me. You know, there's no logical reason. and I've got a lot of awards from different governors and senators in the state for doing some work with handicapped kids. I'm very close with them, and they tell me behind closed doors, Lou, there's only one reason.

And we all know what it is, the culinary union. And, you know, it's just dirty politics. And it's sad. I mean, I bring three. I do five shows a year at the Tropic Canada. This is my 46th show, September 20th. And, of course, I invite you if you like to come and see the next MMA stars developing at September 20th. But again, back to your question.

it does annoy me, and it's just dirty politics. And every fight I fought in Madison Square Garden eight times, and every fighter would love to fight there. When I was in Rio DeGnell, they dreamt about coming to the United States, and it's sad that the great fighters should be at the greatest arena in the world. And it's definitely strictly because of the culinary unions. Now, you used to have a TV deal with HGNet. Now they're known as Access TV.

What happened to that? Well, I'm still, you know, they show highlights of the show, and I pick a couple of fights, and my shows on Go Fight Live, live on the internet that night. I'm looking for a TV network that would be interested in my show, and I think we have enough history that it could be called

the American Idol of MMA, and I think Chris Wyman is an example of being an American Idol. So has this generated some interest in that front? Now that people are seeing, all these great fighters are coming from this one promotion, we need to be in business with them,

and even though it's not, you know, it's not the UFC, as you put it, it's still a good product to air on television. Have you received offers from people now? Yes, I got a couple of... of all was that an offer right there that the phone just ran it heard something i just showed it off there and a matter of fact it's funny i see the person's name and he's a person that's reaching out to the different networks also for me so maybe you were right and maybe he is calling

about something but you know it'll happen and if it happens or it doesn't happen i don't care you know area i'm very very happy you know in life you know the richest of our life is not our material world is how we feel about ourselves i'm very proud of you know the success of rancers the longest running show and uh this my 46 show coming up in september and there's a lot of energy in the arena and fighters grow mentally and physically to a very high level. So according to your bio states that you put on the first sanctioned MMA event in the state of New Jersey in 2000, right? Well, you know, I was doing kickboxing shows at the Tropicana and Taj Mahal. Matt Sera, four of my kickboxing shows.

He had four of his fights before the UFC at my show. And I went to the commission and I told them, you know, why can't we do a bad? They said, well, you know, it's barbaric. It's not safe. I said, let's sit down and just make a weight division. So that was interesting to them. It was Larry has it at the time. And then we kind of eliminate some of the rules that he was against,

and we put on a bout with Mark Sharp and Steve Anselowitz at one of my kickboxing shows. They said, see, this is safe and it can be safe. And then after that, sanctioned bout, it was the first sanctioned bout ever in the history of MMA. Then after that, the UFC came in town and did a sanctioned event. And then I started doing my shows after that. But I had the first sanctioned bout in the history of MMA that was regulated by the state. you think 13 years later the sport would be where it is today? You know, I personally loved it.

I mean, you know, if you're a fighter, it shows all aspects of fighting. I didn't think the fans would embrace it as much as they did. I loved it, but I didn't know their reaction. But, I mean, the fans fell in love with the sport. I sell out all my shoulders at the Tropicana. People love this sport. And, you know, if you're a fight fan, you've got to love it. It shows every aspect of it.

And, you know, it also helped other fighting arts. Boxing gyms are doing better. The kickboxing gyms are doing better. The wrestling gyms are doing better. The jitza schools. So it really helped everyone in a very positive way. Were you part of those discussions to help put together the unified rules of MMA? And if so, what were those like?

Well, I helped with Larry Hatchet and put together the unified rules for that belt, and some of them carried over to the unified rules that are now globally used. And Nick Limbo, New Jersey, and Nevada were instrumental in that. So I started them with a bout, and they transitioned. and some of them to the unified rules that are globally used. So why do you only stick to the Tropic Canada? Why don't you – Trape Canada? Tropic Canada. That's where my mind's at.

Why don't you move around? Well, I did a show at the Mokhegan Sun. I did the Seasons. I did the Taj Mahal, but they just been very good to me. And, you know, to me good is good. And I'm just happy where I am right now there. But I'm also talking about doing a show in Pennsylvania. I've been meeting this Thursday afternoon about that. So I will be going a little bit further out, but this will always be my home base.

You know, I started there. I'm very happy there. You've had events in rings and cages. Which do you prefer, and are you sticking to one? You know, I'm going to stick to the cage now. I have them in both. But, you know, having to reset them again, that's why I think the cage, of course, is better for the fighters. And that's why I changed it.

I bought a cage, and I leave it, and I store it at the Tropicana. But definitely, I think, for the fighters, I think they enjoy it better. And it's better for that type of fighting, for sure. Live event, though, which do you think is better? For the audience. You know, I think just the visibility sometimes is better with the ring, but I think the fighters enjoy the cage for sure. But you do agree that it is as a spectator.

It's probably better to watch via the ring, right? Without a doubt, without that. But with the screens and most arenas, you know, it helps out in that respect. So who's the next Chris Wyman? Who's the next Sarah? Who's the next Frank Yeager? Do you got some guys we need to look at right now? I got some guys coming up in my next show.

I got a guy, Adam Townsend, who's definitely on Andre Harrison, who's a Grand Combat Champion, Frankie Perez, Chris Wade, there's quite a few guys come up there. You know, they don't fight for a Grand Combat Championship until they have five or six fights, and there hasn't been a Rear Combat Champion

that has not been in the UFC, but only in the UFC, but successful in the UFC. So that's the goal is to get them to become Ring of Combat Champions, and then they just get picked up automatically. It just happens that way. It just, and it's a very, rewarding feeling to see that happen. And how happy, I mean, if you know Chris Wyman, the guy is one of the good guys, you know,

he does a showboat, he just trains hard, he has the mindset of a champion, he got great work ethics, and just to see that, it's just a great feeling, I think for everybody that knows him. I mean, I saw Chris Wyman, when he got hit, he grinds his teeth and wants to come at you, but not in an emotional state, but sticks to his fight plan, and I've seen different aspects of him from the very beginning. And I mentioned this was in 2000, I believe, 2010 or 11, after he started fighting for me that I mentioned to Black Belt magazine that he would be, and he has the capabilities to be a world champion. And I definitely so happy for his success. By the way, you mentioned Chris Wyman.

You've promoted shows with Ray Longo, right? Yes, yes, as Ray Long does some of my kickboxing shows with me. And a good friend of mine, you know, personally we socialized together. He's one of my best friends, and we're very, very close. Wow, you socialize with the great Ray Longo. I'd love to be a part of those social events, those gatherings. We've got to invite you to some of our backyard parties, that for sure. Well, you guys have back-air parties, too?

Wow. He seems like quite the guy to party with. It's funny. He's coming over tomorrow afternoon. I have a backyard on the water, and we're going to be hanging out and ring fever, which is everybody, wait a site coming down. I was just going to talk about the upcoming events, etc., if they do a lot of interviews at my shows.

So, pass by tomorrow, then, 2 o'clock we get together. All right. Sounds great. Lou, I really appreciate it. Best of luck to you. I know you have an event coming up on September 20th at the Tropicana over in Atlantic City, New Jersey. You're doing it. You're doing it your way. You're developing talent, and you have no problem with being that guy who is developing that talent for the UFC, and it's great for your brand to see guys like Chris Wyman graduate and then become UFC champion and do what they do inside the Octagon.

So congratulations on that. Congratulations on the success of Ring of Combat. Good luck getting that TV deal, and we'll be monitoring it and watching to see what happens next with you guys. And you keep up the good work you're doing there. You're doing a great job. Thank you, Lou. Appreciate it.

Talk to you soon. Bye-bye. There he is. Lou Neglia of Ring of Combat, putting on great shows. They have already put on 45 events. They've got their 46th, as I mentioned, September 20th.

Edgar, Sarah, Wyden, Philpoo. Tons of guys, as he mentioned, 80 or so guys, have gone from Ring of Combat, to the UFC, and a lot of them, as you hear from those names, have done a lot of great stuff inside the Octagon. So congratulations to him. And it's an East Coast brand. It's an East Coast promotion. So that's great to see as well. And one that has not tried to get all rough and tough and combat the UFC, so to speak, do their own thing, okay with being the miners. And we're seeing more of that these days, RFA, for example. So it's okay to be that promotion. There's a place for

you as well, and it's good to see guys like Lou have continued success. Okay, let's move along earlier in the show. As you know, we spoke to Anthony Pettis. He is fighting UFC 164. He is replacing the man that is on hold right now, the man who's supposed to be fighting Benson Henderson, August 31st, unfortunately due to an injury, unable to fight and really appreciate him stopping by. He is, of course, T.J. Grant. T.J., how are you? I'm doing all right, man. How are you doing? I'm doing great, and very sorry that we're talking under these circumstances. I know this was obviously a very big deal for you and your family and everyone involved in your team.

Can you tell us what happened? Why you had to pull out of the fight? Yeah, it was about two weeks after the fight with Gray. I was just doing jihitsu, and my train partner, you know, it wasn't even like his fault. I think he just went for a sweep, and when he came back, his heel just smacked me in the ear. And, you know, it didn't really,

I just knew it was a good solid impact, and it didn't, like, hurt me or anything. But, you know, we kept rolling, and then later on in the role, I just, like, I always would. I put my head out to kind of stop the sleep, you know, and it was one of those, too, just after I was done the role, it was the last, last role of the night, I was done. Like, I just felt like a headache and difficulty concentrating, all that stuff. And then, you know, like, pretty much the next day, I had to go to Winnipeg for the UFC. So, you know, it's been a while. I've been just trying to lay low and get better.

And, you know, I am doing that now. I'm feeling quite a bit better. But I still haven't trained or even exercised in like four weeks or four weeks plus. So, you know, I'm just almost five weeks, really. So officially you suffered a concussion? Yeah. Yeah, I had a concussion. And, yeah, I mean, it's getting better.

I've never had a documented concussion that I can, you know, I'm sure that every guy that fights has got some form of concussion, but I never had any symptoms or anything like that. And it was never knocked out or anything. So it was just unfortunate. I tried to hold on as long as I could, really. I didn't want to pull out of the fight. I wanted to wait as long as I could. And, you know, actually last weekend I watched the UFC.

I watched most of it on silent, just, you know, because noise and stuff. was giving me headache, and it wasn't until the main event. You know, I kind of, I was a little vocal because, you know, I may or may not have met Chris Wadden to win and win in the second round. Wow. I may or may not have won a good amount of money. So I may have ran around my living room and jumped and yelled a little bit. But that literally sent me back to feeling like the day after I had a concussion.

Like it really, and then at that point it kind of scared me. I was like, damn, like I shouldn't have done that. But at the same time, like, what happened? if I start feeling better and I start training, I mean, I haven't even exercised at all. And at that point, it was kind of like let the UFC know because at this point, if pulling out became an option, you know, I didn't want to wait until two or three weeks before the fight. You know, maybe I start feeling good, start training a little, and then, you know, I decided I can't do it. And, you know, it's three weeks out of a main event type deal.

So, you know, I wanted to not make a selfish decision, and obviously it would really piss them off, too, if I knew about an injury for six or seven weeks, and, you know, never told them. So we'd be included the minute, and then, you know, I was talking to them, and, you know, I had them ride down. Everything's clean.

I'm getting healthier every day. I'd say, you know, hopefully by the end of this week, I can start some light exercise, just work my way back slow. So basically what you're saying is, this is all Chris Wyman's fault. Well, you know, what? No, but maybe, maybe a little bit. But, you know, I'm not going to cry about that one. But

it just, you know, that kind of reiterated, you know, what I was thinking, like, how am I going to do a training camp? I mean, you know, I'm not worried. Like, one thing we even talked about is barely even sparring leading up to the fight. If that was, you know, just get in there, getting great shape and, you know, how do you have a game plan and work through everything, but just avoid the sparring. That was going to be a plan, too. And I mean, I'm not scared to fight anyone. I'm, if I was healthy and I knew that I could, you know, get in good shape, but I would have, I would have fought. But, you know, it's a little scary. I wanted to kind of make the best decision for myself.

And I didn't want to be selfish for the UFC had I pulled out. You know, that would have, you know, pissed them off, but it would have really, you know, hurt a lot of fans and stuff like that, too. Maybe they would have to cancel the main event type deal. Who knows, right? Now you've really piqued my interest, you know, hypothetically, how much might you have won by, may be picking Chris Widman to win, maybe in the second round. That's irrelevant. I don't even know if I did that or not.

Is that illegal in Nova Scotia? No, no, no, no, no, of course. Of course. It's a little change, you know what I mean? A little change. How long after you suffered the injury, did you actually go to the doctor, the hospital, and we're told this is what happened.

You have a concussion? Well, I knew all the symptoms. I felt like I had one, and I phoned a doctor that I know back home while I was in Winnipeg, and he basically, you know, he told me what to kind of follow. And I figured, you know, a leak and it would kind of pass, but it took a little longer. And, I mean, it's getting better and better. Sometimes, like, I'd feel good, and then, like, I would, you know, I just take off my sunglasses or, you know, play with my kid a little too long,

and it set me back. So there's been a lot of, like, little setbacks, you know, like you start making improvements, then just like, you know, maybe you check your text, a text, and you text somebody back, or you read an email or something like that, and it kind of, you know, it's a shitty deal, but, you know, I'm getting, like I said, right now,

I'm feeling a lot better. I'm able to, you know, talk, and I don't feel stupid or anything like that, so good. And you've never suffered anything like this before, right? No. And we just spoke to Anthony Pettis earlier on, he said that he was told that this might be a possibility around Monday of last week, and then come Wednesday he kind of, you know, said, all right, it's not happening.

And then he was told on Friday, I'm assuming it was because you wanted to give them final word. At what point did you say, you know, what led you to say to them, okay, I really can't do this? Well, I did an MRI, and that was, that came back clean. I just really, I just didn't feel comfortable, you know, like I didn't feel good, like, especially, Especially last week, you know, it was, there wasn't really much improvements. It didn't really come until, like, you know, I'm starting to improve every day. I've been improving every day, but I just felt like there, you know, it would be a selfish decision, even though, you know, this is the opportunity of a lifetime.

I feel like, you know, I won five fights in a row, and, you know, I got two knockouts in the last two fights in the first round. And I feel like my stock is, you know, still pretty high. There's going to be other fights. I want to do what the best for me. I want to fight a long time, and I want to live a long time. I want to, you know,

enjoy my baby girl and all that other stuff. So I thought about it a lot, and, you know, I talked to the UFC doctor and a few doctors here. And, you know, I just kind of, the decision was 100% mine.

But, you know, when you're still feeling symptomatic and you're not even training, you know, five weeks close to it. And, um, it's,

you know, it, you know, you could, when you're sitting on the coach for five weeks, too, you could go back and get injured, you know, the first day you're praying because, you know, your body hasn't been, you know, I'm not fit right now, and there's been eating all right, but that's about it, yeah. How difficult was that phone call for you?

No, I kind of dealt with it for a while, but, yeah, it was difficult. It was even more difficult, like, once it, like, kind of became official, and, you know, people, like, questioning my integrity and all that other stuff. It was, you know, but I got over that pretty quick. realize that you just, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of idiots out there, and there's just really no point in responding or anything like that. That's why I kind of wanted to just get it out there from my point of view real quick, and I didn't really want to do too many interviews because, you know, it's still like I'm not

100% and I don't want to, you know, so I've only done a few and you're one of them, so. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. As Canadians have to stick together. In fact, you told me that the only reason you were doing this interview was because I know and friends with Charlie Brennamin. Fact or fiction? That's a fact.

That is a fact. And I told Charlie I would mention that on the show just to give him a plug. That's an amazing story, and I want to get to that in a second. But does it annoy you at all? Does it make it worse that Anthony is getting the shot? Because you were vocal afterwards that he was disrespectful. You said it was low-class, that he was campaigning. Does it bother you that, because of your injury, he's now replacing you?

No, I felt like you was healthy. they would probably go with him or Josh Thompson. And, you know, no, I'm not really, I don't really care. Like, you know, I don't really have any problems with him. What he did was, you know, like, it is what he did. And, you know, I'm over that. But it's going to be, you know, it's going to be a good fight, I guess. No, I mean, that's kind of the guy I figured it would go to

because, I mean, I read a tweet about him starting to train and feeling good. And then, yeah, just no worries, man. Will you watch it? Absolutely. I want to fight the winner. That's my goal. I mean, Joe Selva never made any promises one way or the other, but he did say that it wouldn't be, if it was a step back,

it would be only one step back. So, you know, my next fight could be that or a title eliminator. So, I mean, I'm not going to cry and proud about it, but I definitely want to fight the winner. That's, you know, I felt like I earned my shot, and I feel like, you know, I deserve it. I said earlier that I think you should wait to fight the winner.

I think you've done enough, obviously, to deserve it, especially when you consider the fact that you knocked out Gray Manor in the first round. But I could see them coming to you and offering you a Josh Thompson in the title Eliminator. Just, you know, based on what he's done as of late, kind of makes sense. Are you going to be one of those guys who waits? Would you prefer to wait, or are you okay with that? I just want to get healthy and see the timetable. If the title, I mean, you know, if I can get a title fight,

then I don't have to wait in nine months for it. I'll do that. But if I do, then, you know, I'm a fighter and this is my job, and it's what I want to do. You know, I don't care. I'm not scared to fight anyone. So either way, I'm just going to approach it with a positive attitude, have they told you when you might be 100% ready to train again?

It's just, you know, it's unpredictable. Like, I'm getting close to starting, like, you know, I'm going to start just getting back into it light, like, no impact and just keep, you know, not really get my heart rate up too high or anything. And then, you know, you just kind of follow the standard protocols as far as coming back from a concussion and that can, you know, take like a week. And then, but again, I want to give my brain a little rest and I don't want to take another one. So I'm going to take a little time.

And, you know, the early said, like, the fight would be November. You know, that would give me a good amount of time to train and get better. It sucks because, you know, the whole Benson-enderson thing, I mean, my coach watched tape, but I never watched any tape to study him, because I was planning on doing that later on. I was just kind of giving myself a couple of weeks. It just freedom after a win. It always feels good, you know, to not think about things for a little while.

Because, I mean, as the fight gets closer, you make it your life. It's all you're thinking about. So you're kind of just like, yeah, I'll worry about Benson a little bit later. And that happened, and then, I mean, you know, you can't do anything. I made zero improvements from my last fight. you know, that's kind of unfortunate, but, you know, I feel like I'm going to make improvements for my excellent investment. If you do fight the winner, do you prefer to fight one over the other?

Will you be rooting for someone on August 31st? You know what, I'm not rooting for anyone. I mean, I don't really, I don't really care. I hope they have a good fight. They beat each other out pretty good. And I hope that the winner doesn't, get injured, though, because I want to fight him. And do you agree that if you don't

get a chance to fight the winner, that it will probably be Josh Thompson? You know what? I really don't know. I know he's right there. You know, I know Gilbert's tied up, so we're going to see, man. I don't really, you know, I'm not piggy. Yeah. But if it's a guy that's going to put me in it right there. If that's the road I have to

take, I want to fight, you know, the best, you know? And just curious, I mean, right now you say you're not 100% and you know, suffering a concussion. very traumatic and not a lot of fun at all, even listening to you describe it, not fun at all. And then to go online and see people say, how much did Dana pay you and all these conspiracy theory stuff, does that really piss you off? I mean, how do you handle that? Do you have to, you know, shut off the phone or computer? How does someone stomach that when you're actually

in physical pain here? You know, I do. I was, like, mad at the very beginning, and then I realized, like, it's almost just a good thing that people are talking about me now, because, you know, six months ago or a year ago, people wouldn't really care. I mean, I got 500 Twitter followers in, like, in, like, an hour or something like that, so I can live with that.

On Saturday, or on Friday when this was announced? Yeah, like, I went from, like, 9,600 to, like, 10,100 or something like that. Pretty close to, like, well, that was probably within, I was probably within like 12 hours or something. So yeah, it was cool. I live with that. Wow.

That's a bizarre phenomenon. And how many of those tweets that you were getting? I think they all got on there just to tweet that I was in low life. But I don't care. I mean, they follow me. So it's not good, right? But were a lot of them negative? No, there's a lot of positive, man.

Tons of people kind of came on. And I know who I am, so I don't, but it feels good, you know, feels good to have the positive people come back and just say, you know, like, they want to see me fight again, and they, you know, felt like I deserve to fight the winner and stuff. But, you know, the guys that go on with the conspiracy, I don't even know if they really believe it if they just are doing it to piss people off. You know, you can't argue with people like that.

You can't even, it's not even worth it. Their IQ is so low, man. Yes, we have a name for those people around these parts, but... Dochebag? Well, you know, we actually have a lot of names for those people. But let's just say, because they did this with Carlos Condon, if they offered you like a million dollars, did this even come up at all before the injury?

Would you have even considered it, or did that title shot mean more to than any amount of money? I don't know. As a million-dollar man said, everybody's got a price, right? Wow, look at you, Ted DiBiase. No, no, no. I mean, hey, I don't even know what a million dollars looks like. So, no. Realistically, I know that a lot of money can come along with being the champion of the world,

and it's a long-term thing, and that's just been my goal. I mean, I wouldn't sell out for anything, man. The fight is still a month and a half, or it was supposed to be a month and a half or so away, but did you start to feel what it was like being a top contender in the UFC, you know, main event, media attention? Did you notice people starting to treat you differently and getting more attention? from people around town? You know, winning fights definitely helps.

And as a late, I mean, I've been getting a lot of more recognition and stuff. You know, as far as the last month, media and all that requirements, I kind of just shut everything out. I tried to be minimal. You know, it was kind of awkward and people would be like, hey, man, how's your training going for this fight? What are you doing? How are you going to prepare for Ben?

And I'm literally sitting there, you know, sunglasses on and the curtain straw. just chilling, you know, and they're asking these questions. I don't like why. Right. You know, that was kind of shitty. I won't lie. Yeah, and when you did that Q&A in Winnipeg, were you feeling it? Oh, yeah.

It was a mess, man. Before I went out there, I was like, I was worried more in my hotel room. I just, how stupid I felt. I mean, you're just in a fog, and, you know, I went out there, and honestly, when they played White Snake, it kind of, because, like, I walked to a curtain, and they played your music, gave me a little bit of pump up, and made me feel good.

And I got through it. I got through the whole weekend. But then I really felt that when I got home Sunday and Monday, I really, you know, stimulated the brain a little too much when it's trying to heal. Yeah, I can't imagine flying helping it very much. Yeah, flying was actually, and I had to go to Toronto a couple weeks ago for the launch of Sportsnet 360. And that was another thing I was starting to feel all right.

And then that, you know, that sent me back quite a bit. You know, I got off the plane and then I went and did some stuff. and, you know, just if you do anything, like if I'd do anything, it would really set me back. So I'm just trying to take it cool right now. Let's end on a positive note.

I mentioned Charlie Brennaman a few moments ago, and that's an amazing story because you guys were supposed to fight in Pittsburgh with two years ago, and you get injured, or you actually got sick the week of the fight, and he had no opponent, of course, and then Nate Mark Hark gets pulled.

He ends up fighting Rick Story picks up the biggest win of his career. Then I see him with you in your corner at the Wayans prior to your fight against Gray Maynard. How did you guys become friends again, or not even again, how did you link up to become friends and not only that, training partners?

Well, we met the UFC on version 6, and I fought Shane Roller. He was on the same card, and we just talked a bit, and then I ran into him in Toronto when the U.S.C. 152. And, you know, we just, we swapped numbers. And, you know, I knew he was contemplating the drop to 55 before that fight.

And then after that fight, he was like, you know, I'm going to give it a go. And, you know, I gave him whatever I, you know, whatever pointers I could really give. And, you know, we stayed in touch. And then when I found out of us fighting gray, I reached out to him and just said, hey, man, like, we talked about doing some training together. Like, I felt like you'd be a great, great training partners. And stylistically would be really good. because he's a hard-nosed wrestler with, you know, great fitness.

And, you know, he came down and he stayed at my house. He was here when my baby girl was born, so he had to look after our dog. Wow. So, yeah, he became a really good buddy. She's a really good deed. You know, he's been winning some fights here as a way, too. And I know he's got a big one coming up in August. Looking forward to that.

Yep, he'll be fighting for the title against Kyle Baker, a lightweight title, a local promotion. But most importantly right now, T.J., get well soon. again, sorry that it's under these circumstances that you have to come on the show and talk about it, but handling it like a true Canadian with all class, and it's amazing how you were doing the Q&A, the sports inside. I saw all those interviews, and you couldn't tell that you were suffering inside. So, you know, get well soon and looking forward to seeing what the UFC does with you next. Like I said earlier, I think you should fight for the title.

Hopefully everything works out for you. Thank you very much, man. All right. There he is. T.J. Grant stopping by one of Nova Scotia's own, one of Nova Scotia's own, one of Noseph, Scotia's proud sons. And it's interesting, someone just tweeting me, that it's not really interesting. It is kind of a weird coincidence. But the other famous athlete from Cole Harbor, Nova Scotia, Cindy Crosby, has dealt with concussion issues in the past. And now here is

T.J. Grant, and if you think about T.J. Grant doing the Q&A in Winnipeg and all those interviews, I spoke to him right after, and that was fresh back then. That was a month ago. And he's still feeling it today. It's pretty amazing that he did all of that. It's pretty amazing stuff. So hopefully he gets well soon, gets to fight the winner of Benson Henderson versus Anthony Peddison. Everything works out for everyone. Anthony gets his shot. T.J. gets to fight the winner and everyone's happy. And Josh Thompson fighting someone in the interim, number one contender fight, maybe two away, I think makes sense as well. Maybe we can dig into that after we get through our final interview of the day. now, UFC 166, as I mentioned, the fourth quarter for the UFC turning out to be a fantastic one for the promotion and probably the best one in their history, if it all actually sticks together.

And it's not just about the main events, some great fights being put together. And the UFC 166 card is really coming together nicely. It takes place October 19th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Main event, of course, Kane Velas versus Junior Dos Santos, one of the interesting fights on that. that card already announced Nate Marquart going up against Hector Lombard and Hector Lombard's welterweight debut. So we wanted to talk to Hector

about why he's going down to 170. We have him now on the MMA hour. Hector, how are you, my friend? I'm good, thank you. Good to have you on the show. So why are you dropping down to 170? Well, that was in my plan. So it was USC wanted me to

go to 170. they believe that I have that I would perform better on 1-7 and then 185 and you know

I had to do what the boss is you know I can I agree with the bosses but if it was up to you you would still be a middle weight yeah

if it would be up to me I would have I would say I 1 in 5 but um you know I have to be disciplined and have to show the way what the deep in the doing tried wanted me to do. And I've been training hard and I think I would be able to make it. And I think I would be able to perform better that way.

Did they tell you why they felt that you were better served, being a welter rate as opposed to middleweight? They say that I'm too sure for 185, and I would be best at 1.70. And did you try to convince them otherwise? I tried to convince, but, you know, for example, Joe Cibati's just talking that I don't know, no, no, I don't want you at 1.85,

so I have to do what he says. time. So initially you said that you were going to do a kind of pre-cut just to see how much weight you can lose and kind of get used to it, and then you would decide. How was that? Was that tough for you? Because you lost a considerable amount of weight, right? Yeah.

About 30 pounds. 30 pounds? 30, yeah. And was that tough? It wasn't that tough because I made 185 and now I walk around 190. but tough ones gonna be

another 20 that we have to cut How do you plan on doing that? I'm gonna continue do a little cardio and and watch my carbs and watch my diet

and train a little bit more for in order for me to make the weight is it not a fun life? No, I don't. It's a nightmare?

Is life better as a middleweight? Before when I was 1.85, I was like enjoying my career. I was enjoying my life, but right now I don't. And so you were supposed to work potentially with Mike Dolce. Why didn't that happen? Mike Dolce is too easy. he has a lot of going on. He has become, I think, too big for everyone.

He works with a lot of fighters, and he works. He has new things coming up, so annoying for me, for a thing for every other fight, it's going to be tough. to work with Mike Doshi. He's busy right now. So you think that he's gone too popular, too busy,

that he doesn't have time for the fighters anymore? He always going to have time for the fighters, but he will have a lot less time this time. So who are you working with? I'm kind of like working with fresh meal here in in Florida

is a company that deliver the food to your house and they work they actually they prepare the meals and then send it to you all healthy and

with a very small percentage of carbs and, you know, and very small amount of food. So kind of like I eat like for the fire of doses every day. And I've been losing a lot of weight since then. Yeah, I've seen pictures of you. You certainly look like you've lost a lot of weight. But what would have happened if you just couldn't lose the weight? Would the UFC have been okay with you sticking?

If you just told them, I can't do it. I just can't get down to 170. Would they have been okay with you sticking around at 185? I don't think so, but I don't think that's kind of happening. I believe that I will be able to make the way. And I don't want to even think about that. And then, you know, when you and I spoke a few weeks ago, you said that Nate Marquart makes sense for you in your Walterweight debut.

Why did you like Nate Marquart as your first opponent at 170? Well, he was the one who picked me. We were supposed to file like two years ago. In Belator, right? Yeah, when he got caught from the U.S.C. Right. He was using that stuff,

and the fight didn't happen. But, you know, now we both are in the U.S.s. Why now? They did that out of the way. You like this matchup? I'm never going to walk away from any fight or I'll fight anyone. Right.

And, uh, yeah. Are you going to do a test cut to 170 before the fight? Uh, if I can, if I can, um, uh, break the 180, I know there for sure that I will be able to go. So you're going to go down to 180? Yeah, to see, like, how, how I can, how I feel. When are you going to do that? Right now, I'm 190.

Okay. So you're almost there. Yeah, I'm almost there. What was it like for you to see Anderson Silva get knocked out? Because I know that's something that you wanted to do, right? You wanted to fight Anderson Silva. What was it like for you to see it? I mean, it's quite funny that you mentioned me that.

You know, everyone was expecting him to win that fight. and I think he actually he lost he lost the fight himself so he was too cocky and I don't know

he went great during the fight do you think he'll win the rematch he's going to be hard the rematch because now that Chris will have a lot of confidence and he will have a lot less confidence this time

so right now he knows that he can be big and now Anderson Cibar knows that he can be beat. But it's funny because if he actually watched the fight, these women, he actually went to the chest. I remember when he went back to the corner and his trainer. Yeah. She's just go to the chest, right? Just go to the chest. And if you actually see that punch, when Anderson's scuba,

when Ben down, actually he went to back a little bit, he was out of balance, and the punch was going to the chest, actually. And that's how he got it. If he would have pulled the punches to the head, Anderson Cidde would have been able to, that's a little bit. But I was quite impressed with his Chris Wiman trainer. Yeah, Ray Longo.

Yeah, he got out with very smart. He's crazy. So right now, Hector, you're one and two in the UFC. How much does this eat at you? How bothered are you that your UFC career has gotten off to this start? I have confidence. I believe that I'm going to pick it up. I don't see myself losing from now on to anyone.

But in order to just, I'm going to do that. You know, I've got to do that. You know, I'm going to get to see it. I'm not worried in mind. One of your big traits is that you have a crazy amount of power. Are you worried that you may lose some of the, that power by going down to 170? I'm going to lose a bit, but at the same time, I'm going to be faster.

And right now, and no only that I'm going to be faster, I'm going to be, my stamina has got to be, it's going to increase. I can't even feel it when I'm, you know, in my training right now. Well, they do call you lightning, so you'll maybe go back to your old nickname of lightning. Yeah, definitely. When was the last time you weighed 170? That's a long time ago. Were you like 12 or something?

I was in Olympic, actually, like 15 years ago. How much of that weight... Go ahead. Yeah, you go ahead. How much of that weight is going to come off your legs? You have unbelievably big legs. Yeah, they've been very much smaller. He's cutting a little muscle.

Yeah. I don't have a fat on me, but I have a little muscle. My body is just very strange thing. I wish I could have a small leg, but that's a way. That's the way to go out of mainly, so I can't complain. So you're coming off a loss. Nate Marquart's coming off a loss. Do you feel like you have to win on October 19th to remain in the UFC?

Yeah, 100%. I've got told you before. I don't see myself losing anymore. I don't see myself losing 2 on 8th, name of heart at all. So that's my opinion. All right. Well, I look forward to it.

October 19th, Houston, Texas, Toyota Center. Good luck with the cut, Hector. And thank you for coming on. It's always good to catch up with you. Thank you. Appreciate it. There he is. Hector Lightning Lombard makes his Walterweight debut October 19th against Marquard.

Interesting. If you recall, as you mentioned, Nate Marquart, when he was out of the UFC, when he was still a free agent, there was some talk that Belator would sign him to fight Hector Lombard at 185 pounds. That never happened. And now here they are in the UFC at 170, both very much in need of a win. Nate Marquard coming off the loss to Jake Ellenberger a couple months ago. Hector Lombard lost Yushina Okami. That same month in Japan, both of them in very much even a win.

And that card, like I said, really coming together, Diego Sanchez against Gubermelaide is a great fight. And if everything works out, it appears as though Daniel Cormier will fight Roy Nelson on that card as well. It's a fight both men want. The only hang-up is Roy Nelson yet to be signed or re-signed by the UFC just yet. but it seems like if he does resign in the near future, he'll get Daniel Cormier, and they could settle their differences on October 19th. And what's interesting about that,

in addition to everything, Daniel Cormey, of course, coach of one Cain Velasquez, who will be fighting the main event. He told me, in a perfect world, he would like to fight maybe the first fight of the pay-per-view card so that he can then get ready to help Cain. I don't know, Cain and JDS will obviously be the main event.

and then Roy in D.C. would probably be given those fights already announced, maybe co-main event or the third. I don't know if it would be the opening fight of the pay-per-view card, but maybe he can request that and we'll see what happens. Appreciate Hector Lombard stopping by, and now it is time to answer some questions and go backstage there to Mr. New York-Rick. Have you guys figured out at all the mystery of the salad top? Now, we're still working on it. There's a lot of conspiracy theories out there, but...

Yeah. That's all the rage in MMA these days. I mean, it's fitting. You were very happy for Anthony Pettus. I saw on Twitter over the weekend. You were rejoicing. You celebrate it. Well, I mean, on the show a few weeks ago,

I said that out of the two, I want to see T.J get a shot because I feel like he earned it, and I wanted to see him more. But I look forward to the Pettis. Benson fight more. But in terms of who I think should have fought, it's T.J., in my opinion.

I know people really wanted Pettus to fight, but I wanted to see T.J. But now that that fight is out of the question, this fight is amazing, and I can't wait for it. Now, where are you coming to us from? Is this Studio 54 or something? It's a rave back here. What is it going on over there?

With the blue and the black, why is it so intimate? This is my time to speak to the people. It's like the brother love segment. The old school... Is this something that you requested? No, this was not my doing, but I kind of like it. You do like it.

You like the ambiance? Yeah, it's working. Really? Just the white shirt, it looks good. It does look good. Also, what's interesting is that your face is on like four different monitors, so it's really... Oh, yeah. Your time to shine.

Now, obviously, you mentioned your face. We can only really see your face. We can't see the rest of the body of work. And I have to say, I received a phone call late last week. week from someone. I'll just leave it as an anonymous phone call. The person who kind of helped orchestrate the whole Rick's Fit campaign. And I'll be honest, he said he was very disappointed. He feels like, he or she feels like, that was a poor save on my part. But anyway, he feels like he's not getting what he was promised and that we're not really, or I shouldn't say we. I say,

you're not really doing your part. And this is something I brought up in the past. Lack of videos, lack of access, lack of progress. We don't see any of this stuff. What do you make of that? It's tough, but fair. Definitely fair. Really? Okay. You acknowledge it. It's just, I don't know, it's tough to do, like, things like that. Things like what? Like, take pictures and take video. Yeah. Why is it tough? again? I mean, I have to take them myself, right? But you do it with other people, right? There's a situation I can't talk about that's preventing that, but... Oh, okay. I'm sorry. That's still fair. No, no, no, no. It's still a fair criticism. Did this get awkward?

No, no, no. Nothing bad. There's just timing. Something's the timing that worked out badly. Are you doing these solo? Yeah. Now I am. Interesting. Was there a tapping out involved? No, no, no. Okay. Something I can't disclose. But nothing bad. Absolutely, I promise you, everything's great. But, you know, a couple selfies here or there, you know, even if, you know.

I will take a picture as soon as this show is done, and I will tweet it out. Fair? But I don't, honestly, I don't even know if that's enough. See, they were very mad. They were very mad. And you know what I said, listen, we're doing it the way we want to do it. I see you. I see the progress, but they were very upset.

They feel like, and honestly, I can see where they're coming from because there really isn't. If no one's seeing you, they don't really know your progress. I see it. But it's, I agree. It is fair. You will do your best to rectify this. Correct. And also, at the end, you're going to see a completely, like, change.

You do have the before picture. I do. Right. It's there. And I'm half, on Sunday, it was the. halfway mark, my body's completely different. And I expected to, if the results from the first six weeks continue into the next six, which I don't see why they wouldn't, have been very dedicated to the diet, haven't missed

a workout yet, haven't even eaten an earned meal, saving one earned meal for my birthday. Wow. When's that? Soon. What are you afraid? I don't know. I'm not into birthdays. I don't really like talking about it.

Don't be that. Who cares? Who cares? This is the day you're born. I know. I don't feel like a celebration. It's not a big deal. I didn't ask if it was a celebration.

I just asked when it was. You're the one that brought up was your birthday. Now you have to say it. August 1st is my birthday. Coming up soon. Okay. Is that a Monday? No, it's not a Monday.

Thursday? Thursday. Yeah, yeah. I'll be in Brazil. Thank God. So, yeah, I'm saving that for then. And it's going to be 90-day difference. Is it going to be like an epic, like an epic meal time?

Well, no. What happens is if you're doing well on the workout, you're supposed to eat what's considered an earned meal. If you feel like you've earned it. Sure. And it's like a little, it's like a treat for yourself. Like I think one of them is called pit bull pancakes, which is named after Tiago Alves, I believe, which is pancakes with like hemp and blueberries on top. And it sounds delicious. And there's like a pasta dish. But I haven't treated myself to any of those. Even though I definitely have earned it, I'm trying to hold it. hold out. I was planning on not doing it at all, but my girlfriend suggested on my birthday at least have one. So I think that's what I'm going to do. But you're not going to have like crazy ice cream party. No, I'm going to have the one thing. Maybe pit bull pancakes. Now my second bone to pick with you before we get to the questions, you finally have taken me up on my let's work our way up the ranks challenge as far as betting is concerned. And you make one bet in Victor 6. The fight doesn't happen. Is there some sort of curse going on here?

Man, that was a really good line too. What was it? Ian Gomes was, I think she opened at like minus 200-ish. I got her at minus 215. Man, that was a really great line. I was really happy to see that one. And the fight gets scrapped. Unbelievable.

The only fight you picked, right? Yeah, because the other lines, I have them open right here, actually. The other lines were so, like, the other fighters I liked were Leslie Smith, and she was at, like, minus 400. and Joanne Calderwood, who was at minus 500. Cyborg was at minus 900 something. So there really wasn't anything great. And then the Etienne Gomez line came out, and I was like, oh, hallelujah, this is something I can actually play.

And it didn't work out. So now what? So now you're still in single A? The next card, yeah. Anything coming up? What's coming up? I'm looking here. XFC 19

I don't even know if they put out lines for that kind of stuff King of the Cage, Pancrasis I mean go crazy The world is your oyster I think they do put out lines for these So I'll have to look into it Yeah

The thing the problem is I won't know as many of the fighters Well you know what This is the situation you've got yourself in You're right you're right Man that line I can't believe I can't believe it She gets injured backstage Unbelievable crazy and she was like the third fight right

I mean she was supposed to fight Julia Bud It was the last fight before the prelim so they had to, I think they just, they didn't even fill. No, I know, but what I mean was, the original opponent was Julie Butt. Then it was Charmaine Tweet, and then they picked up this girl the night before, and then she gets hurt. Yep. Yeah, she was the third replacement. You watched Cyborg Kunin?

Yeah, I watched the whole card. Invicta, in my opinion, in terms of my level of enjoyment, UFC, then Invicta. Wow. I really like Invicta. Over Bellator. Over Belator, over WSOF. Really? I really, really like Invicta.

I feel like every time they deliver, every card is, the length might be a problem for some people. Yeah. I would be okay with 20 fights. I love seeing these cards, and every fight delivers. They always bring it. So Invicta is my number two, you know, just in level of enjoyment. My mother would like to know how old are you going to be on August 1st? I'll be 26 years old.

Wow, that was my guess. 26 years old. All right, well, happy early birthday. Thank you. Good job on the Ricksvick progress and putting the curse on the Invicta fight that never was. Do we have any questions? We've got questions.

And I've got answers, but before I tell you about that, let me tell you that at stake today for the best Twitter question is a subscription to UFC 360, courtesy of our friends over at UFC 360, see some of them on the desk over there. That's what's at stake. Let's go to the questions. Okay, this is our first question.

This is from the website, Gavin Devlin. Who do you think has improved most since their first fight in the WEC, Pettis or Henderson? Okay, no it's crazy about this question. I think you and I just had this conversation before the show, and I asked Pettus this exact question. Honestly, I'm going to say Anthony Pettis. He was always a great fighter in WC.

I think he has more of a killer instinct. now. Super, super talented. As I said, I think him and Aldo, the two guys, and again, it's weird that I didn't want to see them fight, but the two guys who I feel like are must-see TV, they always put on something great, they always kind of wow the crowd. Petis, maybe even more so than Aldo these days, if you can only stay healthy, and that's the big question going into this fight, will he remain healthy? But I'm going to say Petis. I mean, other than the Guida fight, he has had some super impressive performances. And let's not forget,

Benson Henderson fighting top-level competition, but some of his wins were squeakers. And it's still impressive, nonetheless, to do what he did to the Edgars of the world and the Melendezes's of the world. But Pettus has, I think, he has evolved more, he has improved more. Maybe that means Benson was a little more ahead of him

when they fought even though Pettus won. But I'm going to go with Pettus for that one. What do you think? I think, first of all, it's hard to gauge just because, not even for the factors you might think, but just because Pettus' style lends itself to people getting excited and being like, oh, he added this to his game.

I feel like he's always been this good. In my opinion, I really like Pettus and always have. I've always thought he's one of the most dynamic strikers in the sport and definitely worthy of his accolades. Whereas Benson is more of a, I wouldn't say defensive because there's times where he goes on the offensive. but my problem with Benson is always that I want to see him go out there and just

show the killer instinct and just completely demolish guys where most of the time he's letting the fight come to him, countering. The fight with Nate Diaz, that's the Benson I want to see every time. Now, that may be a symptom of Diaz's lack of takedown defense or whatever it may be, but that's the Benson I want to see. That aggressive nature is what I want to see.

Whereas the fight with Melendez, I feel like he was letting Melendez dictate the pace a little too much. And I feel like that makes it hard to gauge because of his style. Overall, I really can't determine who improved the most. I think they both improved leaps and bounds, rather. And this fight is going to be incredible. I'm so excited. Someone told me recently someone in the know, I won't say who, what, where not important,

but that Benson now fights not to lose. And they could see that in the way he fights. Hard to say, but you can't say that about Anthony Pettis. Absolutely not. And there's nothing. I don't have a problem with that. If you're the champion, fighting not to lose is the same as fighting to finish, fighting to win.

It's not like Benson's not going to take an opportunity if it comes, but he's got a lot more pressure and a lot more riding on it. So he has to fight that way. These guys are coming to give him their best shot every single time because he's the champ and they're trying to knock him on. off. And he is going after Anderson Silva's record, as he said. And now that record is no longer active. So there's a number he has to reach if he wants that record. So we'll see if he can do it. And I might agree with that, but I don't think it's as, it doesn't have the negative connotations for me

that it might for other people. Bottom line, UFC tweeted recently, which of these main events coming up in the fourth quarter you most looking forward to to me? This one. And then it ends with Chris and Anderson, too, are just mind-blowing rematches. Can I'll wait for those fights? And I pray to the MMA gods that we actually get to see them when we are supposed to see them. Here's our next question from the website, Gangi, Gangi. If Jose Aldo had beaten Anthony Pettis, there was talk of him moving up to lightweight to fight Benson. If he beats Korean zombie, is it possible for him to move up and skip to the front of the line ahead of T.J. Grant to fight the winner of Bendo and Pettis?

if you're asking what I would like to happen, no, I don't want to see that happen. I want to see how long Jose Alda can go as featherweight champion. Now, if he can't make the weight anymore and he's had trouble in the past, then that's another question. But if it's just to go up there and try to get the title, no, I don't want to see that happen. There are guys featherweight all of a sudden is getting very interesting. Of course, you have Ricardo Lamas, Swanson doing great things, Frankie Edgar, doing great things. I mean, it's an interesting time to be a featherweight when for a long time it was one of the

weaker divisions in the UFC. So I don't want to see all they'll go up and I hope the UFC doesn't do it. I don't like to see champions fight champions only because I feel like it holds up the division. I get more excited seeing guys climb through the ranks, getting a title shot, titles change hands, defended, et cetera, et cetera. So no, I don't want to see that happen and I hope the UFC agrees. Here's our next question. Wow. It's blown up quite big. Yeah. It's because it's more square than rectangular. Okay. As they stand now, if they met at 140, who do you think would win, Rousie or Cyborg?

Wow. That is a tough one. And of course, this coming up again after Chris Cyborg looked very good in defeating Marluse Kunin. She is obviously the best at 145, no question. And it's going to be interesting to see who Invicta finds for her. And that title now essentially becomes the Strike Force 145 belt. She's the champion again.

UFC doesn't have that division. if they met at a catchweight of 140 it's so tough because I have a hard time going against Ronda's pure skill I feel like Ronda is the more skilled fighter of the two obviously cyborg incredible strength power she is a cyborg she is a terminator out there I don't know if she's technically as sound as

Rhonda. She's a better striker than Rhonda. Rhonda obviously better with her jiu-jitsu and her grappling and wrestling. But Rhonda developing into a striker in her own right, you know, talking to the guys who did the last prime time with her, saying that, you know, the way she boxes and trains and spars, very comparable, if not better than a lot of the men. So right now, I'll give Rhonda the nod if it's at 140 and I'll say she'll be able to outskill cyborg on the ground. What do you think? I think that you're underrating cyborg a little bit just because when she did clinch up with Marluse

this weekend, she looked pretty great in terms of how her takedowns and her tosses looked. So I don't know if it... And she's so strong. Obviously you know, MMA and grappling have taught us that strength isn't the key factor, technique, leverage,

things like that matter. But I think that it wouldn't be one of those fights where Rhonda just throws her on her butt and takes an arm home, which is what I expect from everybody else other than Cyborg who fights Rhonda. If I'm putting my money down, my money is on Rhonda, but I think it would be a very close fight. I agree. Very tough. And it would be a shame if we don't see it at some point. It's the biggest fight in women's in my history. Such heat there, such intrigue, they really need to figure it out. By the way, are you still there? Yeah, I'm still here. I think we lost the stream.

right? The stream? Yeah. Yeah. Was Will taking a nap? We thought... Oh. What? Yeah, I think we lost some internet back here is what happened. All right. Well, let's keep going. They'll get it on the replay. Hold on one second.

Do I think that fight is going to happen anytime soon? Probably not. Rhonda says, I'm the champion at 135. Come down and see me. Chris Cyborg doesn't appear to have any interest, although she did. say 140, I just don't see it happening. Why would the UFC account? What would that fight? I mean, sure, it's a big fight. It wouldn't be for the title. But what would that fight accomplish? That's not a real weight class. And the UFC has done catch weights before 195. They've done a ton of catch weights. And honestly, maybe no one cares. Maybe no one cares. I'd like to see it for the belt. You know how I feel about the belts. Maybe no one cares at this point. But if you can get to

140, just trying to get to 135, it would be so great. Okay, so due to that, the questions are not going to be shown on the TV for you, but they'll still be up on this. Okay. Okay, so actually, I'm just going to read them to you. Sure. Next question. Bonner in the booth. Now that Stefan and Dana have buried the hatchet, wouldn't it be a nice nod to fans from the WEC days if they added Bonner as the third man in the booth for the Pettus Bendo rematch? His call of the showtime kick during their first fight was one of my favorite commentary reactions ever.

It was great because it was so genuine. It was very reactionary. It just felt like that's exactly how he felt at the time. I don't usually like three guys in the booth or three commentators. I just, for some reason, it feels a little crowded and it works, Goldberg, Rogan. So I don't see it happening. I definitely feel as though there is a place for Bonner on television. I had the opportunity to work with him on those WC pre-fight shows.

post-fight shows, I think he is very knowledgeable and very charismatic on television. But given the state of things right now, I don't think you should mess with Goldberg and Rogan and their chemistry. And I think Annick and Florian have great chemistry. Now, you're talking about a replacement. Absolutely, he should be on the short list. And I'd like to see him do more studio work and all that kind of stuff. But I wouldn't suggest putting in a third guy, Bonner or anyone else, for that fight or any fight. Our next questions are from the website. Again, I'm going to read these out.

Our first question comes from Jeremy Grog. He says, do you think T.J. Grant gets a title shot after he heals up, or does he need one more fight? Well, again, if I was in charge in this perfect world where I don't have to worry about schedules and fights and all that kind of stuff, I do think he has deserved it. he's done enough. I think he has looked amazing at 155 and knocking out a guy like Gray Maynard. That says it all. Now, what do I think will happen? I feel like based on what Dana has said in the past about not waiting and, you know, needing fights and things of that nature. And when you look at the UFC lightweight rankings, I mean, there isn't much out there for Josh Thompson. It sounded like he was trying to get the Anthony Pettus fight. And of course,

that's on happening and I could see them giving T.J. Grant. Anthony Pettis. You look right now. Melendez has a fight. Pedis has a fight. Grants who we're talking about. Thompson, who we're talking about. Maynard, no fight. I don't see them giving him to Josh Thompson.

Soroni has a fight. Diaz doesn't have a fight, but he is coming off a loss. Jim Miller. Does Jim Miller have a fight? I will look on that. There's Pat Healy. Pat Haley, Josh Thompson.

That's interesting. His suspension should be up soon. What's going on with Jim Miller? He's coming off a loss as well. I don't think he has anything coming up, but he's coming off a loss. So it's really just Pat Hilling and T.J. Grant, my guess I say that they...

And there's Habib Nirmagamato, although they do train together. My guess is they're going to match up T.J. and Josh. Our next question comes from Mike Jones. He asks, if Anderson wins the rematch on December 28th, Will the super fights with GSP and Bones be back on? I guess. I mean, I saw someone asked Dana about that.

I think SportsCenter asked him that. And he went back to, you know, this is just hypothetical. And, you know, we're not going to really count our chickens before they hatch type of thing. I'm certain that that talk will resurface. But who knows? I mean, if he wins, who says that Chris Wyman shouldn't get a third shot? why shouldn't he get a chance to complete the trilogy, like JDS and Kane are doing October 19th.

But my guess is, with all those fights that he has signed for, and if GSP wins and if Jones wins, I'm sure that talk will happen. I expect if John Jones to win that the new super fight will be and if Kane wins Jones versus Kane. I think that's the fight that could very well happen before John Jones versus Anderson at this point. I think a lot of people feel that way.

I would like to see that one, Jones and Kane. It's an amazing fight, and John continues to say that if he breaks the record, the light heavyweight title defense record, which he would do if he wins on, what is it, September 25th or something like that? 21st. Then he wants to go up to heavyweight. By the way, we're back, right? Should be.

All right. Thanks for letting me know. I can't tell you on the chat because... You can tell me here. I can't. That's what I'm trying. Oh, on the air you mean? Yeah. Our next question from Josh Spicer. Do you think it's unreal to think UFC 168 will break the record set by UFC 100 in terms of buys? Say it again? Do you think it's unreal or unrealistic? To think that 168 will break the records set by UFC 100? Here's the thing about UFC 100. We don't officially know how many buys it generated. I mean, I've heard everywhere from one point, 7. This week I saw someone write someone credible 1.3. So we don't really know. That being said, forget about that. I mean, Dana White told me point blank, I asked him, how many buys do you think this will get? And he never talks about numbers publicly. But he said to me, I do think it could be the

highest generated pay-per-view buy show in the history of our company. So that says a lot. And of course, that puts a lot of pressure on them to go out there and sell this fight, which I think they'll do. I truly believe if promoted properly, this fight can do $1.2 million, 1.3. I think 1.5 might be a little high. But then when you consider the fact that Ronda and Misha are going to be on in the co-main event, after a season of tough, maybe 1.4, 1.5 is possible. Right now, I'm going to say 1.2 would be a smashing success and not out of the realm of possibility.

Our next question comes from McAvelli. What happens if Anderson pulls out due to injury? Would the USC replace him with Vitor or postpone the match until Silvis healthy? I mean, that's a lot of what-ifs. Hard to truly predict. Vitor is in a tough spot himself because he has done a lot to get to this point, defeating Michael Bispying and Luke Rockold in the way that he defeated them. Certainly he has a case.

Right now, though, when you consider who's out there, Jacques, Jocay, obviously, fighting September, Bisping Munoz. I thought maybe they might give him to Munoz, but they're going to fight in October. It's really down to Costa Filippu, and I don't see him doing that.

Or maybe he takes, you know, a light heavyweight fight. Maybe he takes, you know, maybe he goes up to heavyweight. Who knows? Who knows what Vitor Belfort can do? He is the young dinosaur after all. So I don't know what Vitor Belford is going to do. I can't see him sitting out, honestly, but maybe he does at this point.

That's a long time to sit out because that means he won't fight again until like April or so at the earliest, right? So I can't see it happening. But maybe don't stick with the middleweights. Maybe there's something out there, some kind of catchweight, some kind of light heavyweight fight. Because at middleweight right now, there aren't a ton of options for him. There was one that I think I'm forgetting. Oh, there's Gagar Musassi who is certainly worthy of fighting someone like Vitor Belford. and there's some heat there as well.

Vitor doesn't seem all that interested, but maybe when Gagher comes back, which would only be around December so they can fight. And maybe that timing works, because if this fight's taking place December 28th, they fight in December, the timing of it all could work out as, you know, that being a number one contender fight.

Our next question comes from Sean Brady. Which challenger has a better chance of beating the champ? Pettis over Benson or Silva over Wyden? People love these. Silver River Wyman, that's weird. Who has a better chance? Gosh, that is a tough one. I mean, they both have an amazing chance.

I'm going to go with Pettus. He beat him already. I think this is a great time for him. He's looked very good. If he is healthy, if Pettus is healthy, then I say Pettus has the better shot. You? I think that...

You think both are going to win, right? I think both are going to win. Right. But in terms of who has a better shot? I think it's more interesting betting wise just that Anderson Silva's the favorite. It's been a while since that happened. Maybe Frankie Edgar and the BJ Penn rematch, something like that,

where the guy who won was the underdog again. And I think that Pettus is going to be... Actually, I think the line is out for that. Let's see. Is it? Yeah, yeah. I believe I saw it, so let me... God, just thinking of those two fights. Oh, wait. So excited.

No internet. No internet back there. I think that Benson is the favorite. I could be wrong on that. I'll double check. So I think it's going to be interesting that you can get Pettis at underdog price and get the champion Wydenman at underdog price. So I think that might be a good bet if you're going into it.

But I favor Silva very slightly going to the rematch. But betting-wise, it would be interesting for Chris Wideman, for sure. Right now, Chris Wyatman is, well, best fight odds, plus 150, and then Anderson is a minus 156. And Anthony Pettis is a minus 119. Look at that. And Benson, it's a minus 109. Pettus is the favorite.

Slightly. That means he's the favorite? Yeah, the higher negative number would be bigger. I don't think it opened that way, but that's very interesting. It looks like a lot of people are picking Pettus, betting-wise. I mean, he did, you know. He did beat him. He did beat him.

Right, but, I mean, there's so many ways you could look at that. Like, Kane lost a junior in a knockout, but people still pick Kane, me being one of them in the rematch. There's some, it's just, those two fights are going to be amazing. The end of this year is going to be one of the best ever in M.M.A. If it all remains intact. See, why did you have to put that now? Well, I know, I'm just saying. I'm the one who's saying it's great.

You're jinx in it. I'm scared now. Next question from Scott Lagden. Following Cyborg's win this weekend, is it time that the UFC introduces the 145 women's division? Cyborg is a star. Ah, but what else? I mean, honestly, I don't see them bringing in Cyborg at this point.

They want to put on the Rondorowski fight. They want to make that fight happen. So at this point, bringing in Cyborg to fight at 145 kind of, you know, weakens their stance. So I don't really see them doing that. And plus, let's be honest, the talent pool at 145, I heard in Victa at the press conference, there were some hints that they may bring in a lightweight division, a 155 pound division. I can't name one lightweight in the women's division, in the women's MMA.

I just don't know if there are enough talented women at 145, let alone 155. It's that problem that we thought we had in the lower weight classes, and maybe they're there, Maybe they just haven't had a chance to shine, but at 145, they have had a chance to shine, and there aren't a ton of options there. I mean, Misha was at 145. She's down on 135. Ronda, down on 135, Kunin. I mean, you can't do that fight anymore.

She's 0.2 against Cyborg. So there's the Goams fight. They were supposed to fight in April. It sounds like they're leaning towards that. There are no real other options. Maybe other people are coming through the ranks, but I do not see the UFC doing it. In fact, I don't see the UFC bringing in another women's division for a very long time. Our next question from Alan Stark.

Do you think Chad Mendez is being forgotten about in the featherweight title picture? I'll add to this question when you were talking about how many people there were at featherweight. You did not mention Chad Mendez. He was omitted. You said, Lamas, who else did you say? Edgar. Swanson. Swanson.

You're 100% right. I do forget about him sometimes. I don't know why. He's looked amazing as of late. I don't think he has that big win against a big name. he is fighting Clay Guida August 31st so that's turning out to be a very good card as of right now

I think the way he lost to Aldo I think people are slowly coming around to him it's kind of like Vitor Vitor and Anderson it's such an emphatic K-O that it's hard to get around to the idea of him you know fighting Aldo again and that was less than two years ago

but you're 100% right when I was mentioning some of those names I was like yeah I think I'm forgetting someone, but I couldn't remember who. Chad Mendez is the guy. He certainly deserves to be in the conversation. And it kind of an interesting thing. Cubs Swanson was knocked down in eight seconds, although that was a little more freakish.

So I think you could get away with it. But Mendez knocked down in the first round. We're starting to get to the point after Lamas. All these guys have fought Aldo already. And maybe that's when Aldo moves up. Who knows? Our next question comes from Guillermo del Smito. What happens now for

Demi and Maya? Is he waiting for Koshek or hanging out waiting to fill in for another injury? I've heard multiple things. It sounds like maybe October or so. It sounds like it's a possibility that he will fight Kosteck. Not sure how severe Kosteck's injury is. That's why I asked Fitch.

Another possibility, Jake Shields, who's coming off a win over Tyron Woodley last month in Winnipeg. So some options, no great option for him. There's also Tarek Safedin who was injured and pulled. out of the July 27th Fox 8 show. I think in a perfect world, he fights the winner of Jake Ellenberger versus Roy McDonald, number one contender fight. For some reason, I don't see that happening,

but let's forget about timing and whatnot. I think that makes the most sense in the world. The Kostach fight didn't make a ton of sense for him as far as records as of late, but he's still a big name, so why not? Shields makes kind of sense. Safdine, he was interested in because he's a former champion. But I really like the idea of him versus the winner of Roy versus Jake. I just don't see it happening.

Our next question comes from Bill Conway. Is it time to remove the interim from Henan Barow's belt? Dominic Cruz has not fought in over two years. At this point, no. They're very loyal to Dominic, and it sounds like he is on the right track. So they're going to do the Eddie Wyneland-Hen-Brow fight in September and Toronto. And I'm happy for Eddie.

Got the shot. I hate when that happens. That's why I want T.J. Grant to just sit and wait for the shot. So I'm happy that that's out of the way. And then, you know, the schedule is pretty much full at this point for 2013. But early 2014, the return of Dominic Cruz is a big deal now. And at this point, you waited this long. Why take it away from him?

Our next question comes from Jonathan Abramovichi. Oh, yeah, my man. With the possibility, we can't see it, but his Twitter icon is him and you together. Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. with the possibility of BJ returning at lightweight, where do you believe he ranks in the division, and who should he face? You know, I think he's pretty high. I mean, like I said, I still consider BJ Pan at Lightweight

to be one of the greatest of all time, and I hate the fact that he moved up to 170, and I'd love to see him fight the Bensons of the world, the T.J. Grants of the world, the pedicists of the world, et cetera. And, you know, I put him in my top 10. B.J. versus Josh Thompson. B.J. versus Grant, like I said, BJ versus Nate Diaz, BJ versus Pat Healy, BJ versus Gilbert Melendez, all those fights.

Are you kidding me? I'd love to see those fights. Now, if it's a shell of his former self, I don't want to see BJ back in there. I'd love seeing him fight. I know you do as well. But I still think there are a lot of interesting fights for him at 155. Even at the top, I think he could still make a run. He's still young enough that you put him in there with any of those guys at 155. You know, it doesn't matter if he's retired, if he's not retired. it's always the same thing with BJ.

If he comes in conditioned the way he's supposed to come in, he can fight with any of those guys. But if he doesn't, then he can't. It's going to be a bad scene. I really want to see him fight again, but I don't want to see him fight like he's been fighting lately. As he told me, never been knocked out, never been knocked down. And that's what's so interesting about Dana's stance on him

because, like he says someone like Rich Franklin could stick around. He's been knocked out, knocked down way more than BJ Penn. But if he's not into it, then I'm not into it, then I don't want to see him do it. But I don't know why. BJ Penn fans, so to speak, it's like we have a hard time seeing him kind of fade away and just kind of walk away from this all

because the way he has left, I don't know, he has left us wanting more. And I don't view, the Rory fight felt like a very bad styles matchup for him and you credit him for taking the fight, but you still think back to 107, UFC 107, the way he demolished Diego Sanchez or UFC 80 or was it 84 against Sean Shrek,

As a lightweight, he was such a killer. It'd be fun to see him back like that. 101 where he fought Kenny. Absolutely. Our next question is from Luke Murphy. I think he was a winner recently, one of the last two weeks. This is a fun one. Why was Usher giving Anderson Silva advice after his loss?

I'd like to see Anderson coaching him after a bad concert. Hashtag, go away. That video blog that they put out, it was so amazing seeing Anderson Silva in that vulnerable state, crying, talking to his team, depressed after the loss. That was how we expected him to deal with this, not just kind of happy, go lucky and saying, I'm done fighting for the belt.

That material, I hope there is someone gathering all this stuff, the stuff Wyman did last week, the media tour, and that just makes me want to see the fight tomorrow. It makes me want to see the fight yesterday. That was so fascinating to see Anderson like that. Now, the Usher thing was a little goofy, I won't lie, and the goofiest part of it all was his advice. his advice made no sense.

Right now I can't really remember, but go back and listen to it. His advice actually made no sense. Still, it was kind of cool. I mean, let's be honest. It's Usher giving Anderson advice. It does kind of feel like the moment Anderson might have jumped the shark.

You know, I think I referenced this on the show last week. The shot of him after Rogan and Goldberg did their little recap, and it's him and it's him and it's him and it's just like, what, of all the people there, of all the people of Anderson, Usher is getting this shot right now. Bizarre. And I hope he hasn't gone to Hollywood. And by the way, one of his coaches had a fantastic interview with Globo online where he talked about this, about Anderson getting to Hollywood and forgetting his roots and all that. And here he is with Usher of all people. But back to the question, I didn't mind the Usher presence, the cameo. It was just the

advice that bothered me. It made no sense. It did not pertain at all to what Anderson was dealing with or who Anderson was. I remember thinking that I just can't remember what it was. Our next question comes from Gavin Devlin. He asks, who would win a UFC openweight Grand Prix? And who would be the lightest competitor? Just of anyone in the world? UFC, openweight, Grand Prix.

Yeah, but he's not giving me options? No. Jesus. I mean, realistically, who would enter? I figure all the champs would. Okay, let's go with the eight champs. John Jones? I think he'd have to be the odds-on favorite, no?

Yeah, yeah, I'd say so. Him or Kane? I'd say him or Mighty Mouse? Mighty Mouse would be an odds-on favorite. Imagine? What'd that be amazing? His reach versus John Jones. Yeah, I'd say John Jones.

Who do you think wins? Jones or Kane? I'd have to say Jones right now, but if Kane beat him, it would be like, it would be the mildest of shock to me. In fact, it wouldn't even register and be like, oh, of course, can't beat him. How about John Jones taking a shot at Wyden for bringing up the whole Superfight stuff on Twitter?

You see that? Yeah. He's like... Come on, man. Yeah, some sort of thing. I think he's earned that at this point to be like, come on. You just won one. Yeah, sure.

But, I mean, people are asking him. I don't really think Wyman's going out there and saying he deserves it. Sure. But back to the idea. Yeah, I think John is the... He has to be the... odds on favorite. And I think the lightest guy, probably like a Benson would enter, I'd think.

How much, that would be a lot of fun? Open, open, open, way? Yeah. I think it would be fun, but it would be definitely geared toward the bigger guys, as is every open weight thing. I wonder who's the lightest guy that would be into it. That's what he's saying. Oh, that was part of the question too? Yeah. Who's the lightest competitor? Good question. You know what? Anthony Pettis. Yeah, he'd probably be into it. I feel like the guys at 125 up to about 155 would probably stay away.

And just, it's too tough. How about something like Johnny Hendrix, the wrestling, he's a big guy, can hit the way he hits? It'd be interesting for sure. I think that you'd have to be a middleweight or bigger to really be a competitor in this thing. Man, it's just like giving up that much weight to Cain and even to John Jones. would be brutal. Like boxing against a guy like Junior Dos Santos, if you're a 170, 185 guy would just be brutal.

Someone is telling me that my good pal is telling me that the advice Usher gave Anderson was the teacher has become the student. But now that I'm actually reading it, it actually does make sense. Why did I think it was so weird? He phrased it weirdly. I remember being a little taken aback by it as well.

Just because, like, he's talking about himself as a teacher and stuff. It was very weird, and I don't think it was apt for the situation. The teacher has become the student. I mean, it does kind of make... I mean, it actually really makes sense when you think about it. But... It does? Sort of.

I mean, he's still the same guy. It's not like he's going to, you know, go back to the minors. and work his way back up. He's still getting the rematch. But anyway, it was just the way he was sitting there in the room and whispering to him. It was awesome. Honestly, I don't get uncomfortable about that stuff like some of you out there. You know, like the Segal appearances, although I must say a little disappointed in the fact,

like, has Segal jumped bandwagons here? I mean, did Prebeck foreshadow something with those videos? But in the pre-back video, he was a double agent. Yeah, but maybe he foreshadowed the idea that he would go and train someone else because Sagan, nowhere to be found. Wasn't there in the moments leading up to it, nowhere to be found in the aftermath. I know a lot of people have turned to me for this, but you know what? I wanted to see if he'd do it himself, and I see nothing. Probably had some contracts or something to, you know, take care of some people to terminate.

Sure, sure. Our next question from Toti Ruiz. What's your mom's prediction for the Bendo versus Pettus fight? Well, that's interesting. My mom's prediction for the Bendo versus Pettus fight. Well, I know we're on a bit of a delay, and I know she's watching because she was just trying to explain to me the teacher-student advice.

So we'll have to stand by. But it's very interesting. A lot of people, I don't know if you notice this, A lot of people wanting to hear what my mom says, they're taking her advice to the bank. Yeah, she knows what she's doing, as I explained last time. Right. Well, we'll wait because...

Well, our next question is from forbidding cargo who wants to know what she thinks of. Oh. Rory McDonald and Jake Ellenberger. Another question about my mom's. Wow. Roy McDonald, Jake Ellenberger. Okay, I'm going to say that she's going to pick...

Benson and... Rory, no? Yeah, she's going to stick with the Montrealer. I think that those are two pretty good picks. Although I'm picking Pettis. You're picking Pettis, yeah. I'm just telling her that people are asking her questions. She's telling me that the stream is down,

but I'm looking at the stream right now. Maybe she hasn't refreshed from when it was down? No, no, no, no, no. We're way past that point. I'm doing so much here, it's unbelievable. Okay, well, let me just ask her. So while we wait for those, how about we decide a winner on these questions? I'll cycle back through them, you tell me, okay?

Okay. The Grand Prix question, which I thought was pretty awesome. That was amazing. The Usher question. Yes, that was amazing, too. Your boy Abramoviche asking about BJ Penn, another good one. Although he's Canadian, I know that. Interim belt for Dominic.

What's Demi and Maya doing? Chad Mendes being forgotten. The 145 division in the UFC. Which challenger has the best chance of upsetting the champ. If Anderson pulls out due to injury, what do they do? Will UFC 168 break UFC 100's record? The super fights being back on if Anderson wins the rematch. And does T.J. Grant get a title shot or does he need to heal up?

Let's go open wait. Fun. That was a very fun question. I like that. Let's go open weight. Congratulations. Gavin Devlin. Gavin Devlin. And in case you're wondering, Mama Halwani picks Pettis and Rory. Look at that.

We're on the same page again. She's starting to doubt herself, though. She's asking me to tell her, tell me if it makes sense. Ha ha. And then she says, don't say I wrote that. Oh, sorry. I just outed you. We're very open here.

It's an open book. We have no secrets with our viewers. So Gavin Devlin has won the UFC 360 subscription. Thank you very much to them. Follow them on Twitter. Twitter.com slash UFC 360 is the handle. And by the way, side note, only because I never go this route, I never go this route, but only because a lot of people are asking me about MetaWorld Peace signing with my beloved Knicks. A lot of people asking me about this on Twitter right now. I will say I do not like it. I think it is a freak show waiting to happen, a car wreck waiting to happen. And I would like the the beloved orange and blue to not go this route, but alas, they have no other options. You sound very disappointed. I am disappointed. That's it, right? That's it.

Mike, you can hit my music. It's such a nice day outside. I need to go get a frozen yogurt or something. I've been talking to you guys for way too long. Beautiful in the city right now. Great time to be living in New York. It's a great time to be alive, let's be honest. It's July, like I said, at the top of the show, the best time of the year.

An amazing slew of fights. It's like when I sit there and I see that coming up are all these great fights in the UFC alone, not to mention the fact Bell Toys doing good things, they have a great show, July 31st, their next event. But you just sit there and you see these fights happening in the UFC. It's like, what an amazing time to be covering this sport. Honestly, I don't mean to get all emotional on you guys right now. I am 31 after all. all, and this is a time to be emotional.

But really, if these fights happen, if these fights actually remain intact, this will be an unbelievable. Like, when we sit back on December 31st and look at the last four months before us, it will be a true pleasure to be covering the sport. And I really, really hope it all remains intact. All those injuries last year, all that bad news, it will all be worth it if we can get this string of fights to go down. the fourth quarter of 2013.

Can't wait for it. I want to thank Showtime Pettus for stopping by. Good luck to him as he faces Benson Henderson at UFC 144. John Fitch, really appreciate him stopping by. Good luck in his road back. And also good luck to his teammate, Mike Swick, and his road back. And good luck in his new venture. Lou Neglia, thank you very much.

T.J. Grant get well soon. Hector Lombard, good luck to you. And thanks to all of you for your questions and comments. We are back next Monday. Same time and place. Until then, I say to you peace. Some idea. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen.

As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new terms and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. Support for this show comes from Odu.

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