MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 191

Episode Date: August 25, 2014

Featuring Demian Maia, Josh Thomson, Costa Philippou, Danny Castillo, John Crouch, and Sean Loeffler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

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I'm Ariel Halwani inside our New York City studios after a relatively quiet but pleasant weekend in the world of mixed martial arts. No huge event, but there were some notable things that happened on Friday. Holly Holme delivered one of the best knockouts of the year, a headkick knockout to Atlanta Jones. Jones. Also Leonard Garcia got back on track. Both those wins over at Legacy Fighting Championships on Saturday. Paul Daly picking up a win over at Cage Warriors, his fourth in a row. But that was pretty much it. But now, my friends, we can call that the calm before the storm. Now things get crazy. Now the summer begins. Now the UFC's summer of fun really starts to heat up on Saturday. coming up, July 27th, we've got UFC on Fox 8 in Seattle.

I'll be there going on Wednesday. We're going to be talking a whole lot about that on this very show. And then, of course, it's UFC 163 following that. Then it's UFC on Fox Sports 1, number 1, UFC Fight Night, as we're calling it now, on August 17th. Then the second Fight Night show on Fox Sports 1 on August 28th. Then we've got UFC 164. It's crazy. It's a crazy time.

And we've got a lot to talk about for the next few weeks. and it begins today right here right now on the MMA hour. Joining the back, as always, by Buzzkill Brendan. New York, Rick, you'll be hearing from him in just a matter of minutes. And Mike is back there as well as Will himself. We've got a great crew in the back, and we've got a great show plan for all of you. In the third hour, we're going to be taking your questions and comments.

If you use the hashtag, the MMA hour, hit us up on Twitter, or leave questions, comments in the post below. If you're watching this live, We'll take them, we'll address them. There's a lot of interesting things out there to discuss. I've seen some of them already. And a growing phenomenon is brewing, my friends. A lot of people interested in my mother's take on things.

As far as the world of mixed martial arts is concerned, my mother is actually on vacation right now in Italy, but she is tuning in live. So I say to her, a Buena note over there, or bonjourno, or a bonaswade, or whatever they say over there in Italy, joining us live. A lot of you interested in what my mother has to say

about the world of MMA, We will get to her in the third hour. She won't be joining us, but she has relayed some information. At around 2.45 p.m. Eastern Time, we'll be talking to Danny Castillo. He was supposed to fight Bobby Green this weekend at UFC on Fox 8. That's not happening. He's now fighting Tim Means. A lot to talk to Danny Castillo about.

Sean Loughler. Remember Sean Loughler? A year and a half ago, Sean Lofler was getting set to make his UFC debut in Nebraska. Omaha, Nebraska, injures his anger. just moments before he's going to walk out in front of an arena, step foot inside the octagon, fight for the first time, realize a dream, and he injures his ankle. We've never heard from him since. Never got another shot in the UFC. And really, no news has come out about him. What happened to this guy? Remember, he was trying to find his daughter as well. He was on this show around February

of last year. Around the time that we went to Japan for UFC 144, just a couple of weeks after that ill-fated debut. Sean Loughler is back to update us on what the heck is going on with him. Josh Thompson, he'll be stopping by at around 205. We wonder what's next for Josh Thompson now that T.J. Grant is injured. Anthony Pettis replaced him.

Thompson and Pettus were going back and forth. What does Josh Thompson want to do next? Damian Maya, he'll be stopping by at around 145 p.m. Eastern Time. A lot of interesting things going on with Damian Maya as well. Remember, he was supposed to fight at UFC 163 against Josh Kost. Kosteck got injured. Now we're wondering what's next for Damien Maya.

125 p.m. Eastern Time. Another guy we're wondering what's next. Costa Filipu. What's going on with him? Remember, he was supposed to fight Jacare-Suzza in May. Got injured, injured his eye, suffered a cut above his eyelid. And now we're kind of wondering what's next for him. He's been talking about Vitor Belfort. A couple other names being thrown out for Costa. He was going back and forth with Michael Bisping, but now it appears that Michael Bisping will be fighting Mark Munoz in October. So I am wondering what is next for Kosovo. That's why we had him on the show,

we will have him on the show today. But first, as I mentioned, it is UFC on Fox 8 week, and the main event on Saturday is Demetrius Johnson versus John Maraga. And if you missed it yesterday, Fox aired Road to the Octagon on Big Fox. Now it's all over the place. You can watch it on MMAFighting.com. And this was one of the more impactful, quote-unquote, countdown shows. And I'll talk about it a little later on as well.

Why was it so impactful? Because we didn't really know much about John Maraga. The guy's fighting for a UFC belt on Fox on Saturday night, one of, if not, the most anonymous UFC title contender of all time. And I'm looking forward to talking to him later this week. Today, right here, right now, I wanted to talk to one of his coaches. The great John Crouch joins us once again on the MMA hour. John, how are you?

great. I love that. Nobody's ever said that about Vue Sport. Thank you very much. Well, I appreciate you stopping by, and it's another big week for you. You've got, obviously, John Maraga fighting in the main event. And, of course, you know a whole lot about main events. You know about title fights. You and Benson Henderson closely linked.

How is this one different? Because John, like I said, very anonymous. A lot of people don't know much about him. Now they're starting to learn more. Does this feel like a Benson-Henerson title fight, or does it feel different? Well, it's a different guy, you know, different situation. I think a lot of the anonymity comes from just the newness of the 25-pound division. You know, Demetrius has been around, and he was around at 35.

I mean, he fought Dominic for the title there and, you know, Benavides too. But other than that, there's not really a whole lot of people that you know at 25. So though Johnny isn't unknown at this point, I think that's true of a lot of 25ers. John's a guy who's fought twice in the UFC both times on Facebook. Now he makes the leap. It's like the outhouse of Facebook to the penthouse main event on Fox. How is he dealing with all this? Fine.

If you call fighting in the UFC, the outhouse, but I'm not sure, man. We're all in deep trouble. But he's fine. He's unflappable. The kid is not scared. So I don't think it makes a difference to him. He fights in front of anybody he could be in. in the parking lot fighting, he could be in the main event.

He'll fight the same way. And quietly, he has done his part, but, you know, last week on the conference call, you know, he was on, I don't know if you heard it, but he was on there with media, and just giving one or two-word answers, which was surprising because, you know, here you are getting a shot on Fox, you think you want to kind of bang the drum a little bit and generate some buzz. Have you talked to him at all about that? I know you're a coach of a different kind. You don't worry about the media stuff and all that, but surprising to hear him just,

give one or two answers. Does he not like talking to the media? Is he a shy kind of guy? That's just his first time. And he said, he came in to work out that day. And I didn't listen to it, but I said, how'd the call go? And he like dropped his eyes and smiled. He's like, man, they're giving me a hard time. I said, why? He said, I've given one word answers. I go, what? Come on, man. We were laughing about it. I think he'll do better with practice. It's just, you know, one of those things that if you're not used to it, it can be uncomfortable and intimidating to talk to the press and you don't really know what to say. And he's kind of a quiet guy anyway. So I don't think it's a, I mean, you know, obviously the people that wanted him to

make some noise, it's a negative thing. But not for him. I just think it was brand new and it kind caught him off guard a little bit. He made some headlines a couple of months ago when he said that Demetrius Johnson's style is boring. Do you agree with him? No. I mean, I like Demetrius and he's a great fighter. and he's a great pro. I think it was taken a bit out of context in that John likes scraps. You know what I mean? Like he wants it to be a fist fight.

And Demetrius is a really, like he's a consummate pro. So, you know, he goes in there and does the right thing at the right time. It's more measured, you know. And so I don't think he's boring. No, I think he's a great fighter. And honestly, I don't really think John thinks he's boring. I think he's more talking about a style thing. And you wrote to the Octagon special.

Did you see that yesterday? I loved it. I'm a huge Tomorogga fan. I was huge before I'm bigger. I'm driving the bus now. You didn't know all that stuff about him? I knew a little bit, you know, but I didn't. It was just, I've never seen him in the context of his, where he grew up.

And, you know, I was seeing his little boy there and hear him talk about, you know, what I've, you know, I've held his son during practices, right? Like, I carry around the car seat while I run. practices sometimes. Wow. So he brings his family in every day. And that's fine. We love that. We want to be a family here, you know. But I just had never seen him in his element talk about it. I thought it was moving and I liked it a lot. It was incredibly moving. I loved it. It was one of the best pieces of work the UFC's done in a long time as the coach. You don't mind having a little kid there, a car seat, a kid running around. Is that not a little? I mean, I love being around kids, but you guys are fighting your training. Is that not a little strange for you?

No, I grew up in the Gracie Academy, and we had kids running around all the time. So, you know, we don't want them to get run over. It's not like they're out there in the middle playing ball while we're, you know, going full speed. But if a guy can, if he has to either make practice and bring his baby or miss practice, he can bring his baby. We'll figure it up. He also mentioned that when he got the first word that he was going to fight Demetrius Johnson back in February, they were supposed to fight in April, his cousin was killed and he was very emotional talking about him. How do he deal with that from your perspective?

You know, he's a very quiet guy. Johnny's like super strong, but he pulls things in, you know. He worked really hard and didn't talk too much about it. And it was very hard when, you know, we all want to be here for him when we heard about it. Like a bunch of his teammates and me, we all tried to reach out at various times. and he said he was good and he really you know he wasn't good but he just needed some time to work through it so i i think it just he was really close to him and it hurt him a lot and you know it's it was a sad sad moment for all of us you know here with his team mate did it help him then that demetrius was injured and and then the the fight was delayed because maybe mentally he wouldn't have been

prepared to fight in two months You know, I think he would have been ready to fight, but I think his mindset would have been different. I'm not sure you want to fight from that place, you know, all that sadness and all that passion. But, you know, I'm not saying it would have been better or worse for John. I'm kind of glad it happened, but I don't think he would have been unprepared. I think he would have been ready to go and ready to fight,

but I'm glad he's in a little more peaceful place right now. Is John the kind of guy that has a bit of a chip on his shoulder? he seems to have come from, you know, a tough upbringing, you know, the sort of mean streets of Phoenix, and he walked down those streets during the special and talked about having to sort of, you know, fight his way out of the streets, and these are the places where he was beat up the most and hopes to never be beat up that bad. But do you get the sense that he has a chip on his shoulder right now in his life? I never do.

I never feel like that. He's just a hard worker. I think that his past and his desire for more for his family and for himself drives him. But I've never seen him be chippy in a practice ever. He just works hard. He's always friendly and working hard. So I can't say for sure. I don't feel like he does.

But maybe he does. I know he's driven. More than a chip, I think that he's just very driven. It's amazing to think of Benson Henderson as this sort of veteran-level. leader, but now that's what he is, being this champion who's defended his title multiple times and really the leader of that team as far as fighters are concerned at the lab. Have you noticed him, you know, with John about to fight for a UFC belt and Benson knows a whole lot about that?

Have you noticed Benson, you know, giving John advice, not about the fighting itself, but what it's going to be like, that week, Fox, all that stuff, this is something Benson knows a whole lot about? Well, you know, our team is together quite a bit. Like, they're both in the wait room right now as we're speaking. And so I'm, it's not, there hasn't been an official, hey, let's sit down and talk about this. But I know they've visited about it. I know they've shared things about it.

And any questions that he has, I know Ben's talked to him about it, but I haven't been there or heard about it. I heard it myself. So you mentioned that the comment that Demetrius is quote, quote, boring, a little bit taken out of context. but John did say on the show yesterday that he knows exactly what Demetrius is going to do. He can go and get something from the fridge and it will be the exact same thing every time. Do you agree with that? Is he a predictable fighter in your opinion? I think that if he's got a game plan, you know you're going to stick with it, if that makes any sense.

That's what, like, he's very disciplined. He's a complete pro. So if his idea is that he's going to punch twice and shoot, then you're going to see that a lot. you know, if that's working. So in that respect, I think he's predictable, but honestly, I think he can bring a whole lot of things to the table. I don't exactly feel that way about him. You know, he's a super dangerous opponent,

and I really like him as a fighter. He's really good. He's a consummate pro. He's been around a long time. Seems to be the kind of fighter as well who gets better in the championship rounds. How's Maraga's cardio? Good. He looked on Saturday at the best rounds I've ever seen him have

maybe the best rounds anybody's had in this place, getting ready for a fight, whatever that means. I think he's prepared, you know. Like, it's hard to put it in context as far as Ben's rounds or Jamie Barnard or DeFren or whoever, but man, he had great rounds. He felt great. He got stronger in the fourth and fifth round,

and so I think he's ready. I know you don't like talking about this stuff, but it seems like, you know, the last time I had you on the show, a lot of what we talked about was you getting the respect that you deserve in the MMA community. It feels to me like the lab, all of a sudden,

I'm not saying it has anything to do with anything that was done here, but it feels to me like all of a sudden in reading articles, your name gets mentioned more, people giving you more credit, giving the gym credit. You know, we'll talk about Mitch Clark in a second, but you get that feeling as well. Is the lab and John Crouch finally getting their due? I don't feel like that at all.

You don't? No, I don't care, man. Like, it's nice when people say nice things about, you. makes you feel good for 10 seconds, and then you've got to go back to work. So the same people that are singing your praises one day are digging your grave the next, or vice versa. So our sport is so mercurial. You can't.

I think you're great at your job. And if you like me, I like that. But if you don't like me, I can't let it change my work. I can't let it change what got me to where I am. And so while it's rewarding sometimes, you can't sit there and look at it. You've got to go back to work. So, you know, I honestly don't really care. It's nice to meet people.

I think some of the success has brought in more people. And I've met some awesome folks coming in to do their camps and training. So I feel like in that way it's been really rewarding that we've had a little bit more sunshine because I've loved meeting new people and working with some great athletes. But as far as for me, it doesn't make a difference. So you've noticed fighters coming to you saying they want to train with you guys. that has to be a great byproduct of all of this, right? Yeah, I agree.

I think it's awesome. That's my favorite part is that I get to meet some new people and help some, you know, the process, the gym is my favorite thing, the learning and the building and the relationships there. The fight is way in the distance compared to being in the gym working together for me. You win this fight, and John Maraga wins this fight on Sunday, or excuse me, on Saturday. There are nine champions in the UFC, if you consider obviously Ronda Rousey and that mix. You'll have two of them.

That's pretty amazing. Will you then pat yourself on the back? No, man, because then a month later, we've got to fight Anthony Pettus. Right. You know, we've got to fight Gleason Teabow. And then, you know, there's 25 others in here that have fights. You know, we just had some fights the other night. And a kid that I love

lost, and it hurt my heart badly. And so if I sit there and bask in that sunshine, then I'm stealing it from other people. So it'll be great for that night. and then Monday I'll be back at it trying to win another one. I'd like to have a whole collection of those dang things. So you mentioned Anthony.

I was going to bring him up, to be honest, but since you mentioned him, I got to ask you about this fight. UFC 164, it's finally happening. Are you upset that Anthony got the shot and not someone else? Are you upset that you're not fighting T.J. Grant? No, not as such. Like, Anthony is a great fighter. He deserves it.

But I'm pretty tired of people talking their way into title shots. I don't agree with it. I don't think it's right. I think T.J. Grant earned this fight, and he deserved it. You know, we talked briefly about it at the last show I saw you at. Yeah. And I don't like that. I hate it.

I hate it. And it's part of our sport. It's undeniable. The people in the UFC respond to loudmouth and people saying crazy stuff. And that's great. Like, I guess, you know, those guys are really smart. They've made a ton of money. I'm able to do what I do because the people at the UFC are really smart.

mark. It's part of the sport that I don't like at all. You were very fired up. When there was a possibility of Anthony replacing T.J. Grant, I've never seen you this fired up. You didn't like that idea at all. You, correct me for wrong, you feel as though he has talked his way into this rematch. Well, no, if T.J.'s hurt, he didn't. He deserves it. You know what I mean? Like, T.J. getting hurt changed the dynamic. But I don't want anybody. I don't think it was right for Chil Sun. That guy's a great athlete and a great guy. I love him. I don't think it was right for him to talk his way into a title fight.

You know, I just want people to earn it. You know, Jim Miller, how many fights in the road did he have to win at lightweight? And he never got a title shot. Right. Right? The guy was on like a nine-fight win streak. It was ridiculous. So, you know, to deny, not that Jim Miller's in the same spot, but you get my analogy.

Sure. To deny somebody that's put together some valuable wins and they're on a pair, and because they're just not as sexy or they don't talk enough crap, they don't get their justice. do? I don't like that. And it really has nothing to do with Anthony, to be honest. You know, like Anthony, he's a great fighter. It's fine. You know, but to jump from a title Sal Cose Alder, the one with Ben Henderson and just a blink of an eye, I don't know, man. I'm not digging it. Do you feel as though Benson, in order to fully be accepted and respected as a great UFC champion has to avenge that loss to Anthony Pettis?

No, that never crosses my mind, ever. Do you feel like a lot of people think Anthony is the one guy out there who has defeated him as of late? And thus, if he doesn't beat him, if he doesn't fight him soon, he won't be viewed in that light. I don't care what they think. I don't care. I really don't. Those people don't know what they're talking about. Those people are buying into the hype machine.

You know, Anthony is great, and T.J. Grant is great. And, you know, the Russians are great. Josh Thompson is great. Like, there's a lot of great lightweights out there. So, you know, they want to discount those other 10 guys and just put Anthony on the top. You know, it was three years ago that we fought. It's going to be almost three years. That's a long time.

That's not as of late. That's a long time ago. Both guys are completely different, right? Same styles, but they've developed a lot. So it doesn't matter. We've never talked about it. Benz and I never talked about it. And we talk about a lot of stuff, and we've never ever brought up the idea that, oh, we have to get this one back.

It's not something we talk about. So this hasn't been a fight that Benson has been actively talking or thinking about. It's just another fight for him. Yeah. Really? With that history there and how he reacted to the loss and the Showtime kick, just another fight, and you're going into enemy territory. That's, if so, amazing, but I find it somewhat surprising.

I know it sounds like we're pretending, but really it's not a big deal. He's another tough guy. He's really good, man. He's super skilled. he brings a lot of problems to the table, and we're going to have to be 100% ready. I think we're actually better in enemy territory. I didn't like it when we were in Phoenix.

I would sooner travel. Really? Why? There's too many distractions. It's like, though, you know, home teams and football talking about they'd rather, they go stay at a hotel and stay at their house because it's just too distracting. They can't focus on their job. And while we did our best not to be unfocused,

I wasn't pleased with Ben's fight when he first fought. Anthony and Ben wasn't either. And so I'm not saying there's a reason, Anthony won, no problem. But I would have liked to see us be more focused. And so I think being out of town is actually better. I'm fine being in enemy territory. Let's do it. He's going to be asked about that kick over and over again.

Do you think it will bother him come August 31st? Is this something that you have to worry about just having to think about that all over again? No. There's a fluke. It's like getting caught with a punch. I mean, all the best fighters have lost. You know what I mean? How many times Anderson Silva seen the Rio Chonin heels up?

How many times are you going to see Chris Wyden and catch him with that hook? If you're great, you're going to, if you compete with the best people in the sport, you are going to have an unfortunate moment at some point. And they're going to replay it and replay it and talk about it. But it's just another moment. It's one speck of time. You know, there was 25, 24 minutes.

minutes and 59 seconds of that fight that still went on. You know, the most, the thing I remember about the showtime kick or whatever you want to call it is that Ben got up and was on a single leg to finish the fight. But he was going to get that single. He was getting that takedown. And there's 15 more seconds, Anthony's on his back. So people want to show the kick, but they don't show the rest of that round. That Ben survived that, got up and was changing the position at the end of the round.

That's what compensated to me. Now, I'm Ben's guy, so I'm biased. Sure. There you go. One of the great stories, and we just have two minutes with you, we appreciate the time very much, John. One of the great stories of the year this far, the return of Mitch Clark and how emotional he was after his win in June in Winnipeg.

This is a guy who talked afterwards about all the personal problems he had leading up to this point. How hard was it to get Mitch Clark to focus and get back on track when he was pretty much facing the pink slip if he lost that fight in Winnipeg? He just worked really hard. Honestly, I didn't know he was carrying that a much emotional. baggage with him. I didn't know that he was feeling that kind of pressure, which makes me sad because you would think a good coach would need to know that, right? And I love the kid. I would help him, however, he's really, really genuinely one of the nice guys in the world,

Mitch Clark is. And I didn't know. And when he, when he started crying and his trainer started crying, I was kind of taken, I was surprised. I didn't really know that it was like that. Because we had talked about, hey, man, let's just do our job. You know, yes, they're going to They might cut you if you lose, but just go out and perform and forget about it. Let's have a good time and fight hard and just do our best. And so it's kind of surprising to me, but I think it's totally cool, you know, to have some redemption like that in your life. I was proud of him.

How does John Maraga win on Saturday? By getting his hand raised at the very end. Well, that's not how you win. That's a result of winning. Right. How do you see it on semantics now? Yes. How do you see it going down?

Is this a five-round, typical fly-way title fight? I mean, he's had two finishes, brutal finishes thus far. Are you foreseeing that? I think Johnny can finish the fight. Yeah, I do. And if it goes five rounds and it's one of those decision things, it'll be tough because Demetrius is really good at that, you know? And I'd like to see Johnny finish him.

I really would. I'm looking forward to it. I'm actually really looking forward to it, especially now that we've learned a little more, and Demetri's having the kid and John and his kid, It's just a great story overall, and it's always great when a lab guy is fighting for the title. On Fox, it's like, we should call you guys Team Fox. It's like every Fox show.

You guys are fighting for the belt over there. It's unbelievable. They're putting us on Fox. That's fine, man. Put us wherever you want. Like I said, we'll fight in the parking lot if that's where you want us to fight. Let's do it. It's not the outhouse of Facebook.

It's pretty good. It's the Pennhouse. I mean, wherever you said that, that cracked me up. I was like, wow, I guess. And someone reminding me that you know a thing or two about that. Benson was on Facebook. Then he fights for the title. you've done some amazing work over the last year or so

and it can't continue on Saturday adding another belt to your mantle. Good luck to you guys. We'll see you out there in Seattle. Thanks, Ariel. Take care, man. There he is. John Crouch joining us, one of the true good guys in this sport, and you can hit him up on Twitter.

Twitter.com slash JCP BJJ. Of course, he has Benson Henderson on his team. He mentioned Jamie Varner is on his team. Mitch Clark, who picked up a win in Winnipeg at UFC 161. Joe Riggs on his team. You see him on Fightmaster now on Spike TV. Efrin Escadero is on their team. And John Maraga, if you haven't seen that UFC on Fox A wrote to the Octagon, John Maraga talking about bringing his son to practice his baby, to practice just chilling there in his car seat. And yes, that did get me quite emotional

because I know all about that car seat. I know all about that kid crawling there and running around and that's an amazing thing to be able to focus on the biggest fight of your life by far. This is a guy who's fought twice in the UFC, both times on Facebook, not a lot of fanfare. This is a guy who I remember when the UFC brought him to the media day that they had at UFC 160. He looked like everyone else, short, flyway type of build and no one was really coming up to him. This is a guy who a fighter told me when he took a picture with a group of fighters, he looked at the picture afterwards and said, oh, this fan ruined the picture. That was John Maraga. Anonymous. I can't remember the last time such an anonymous fighter got a UFC title fight on a stage like Fox.

And now we're starting to learn more about him and just kind of the juxtaposition of two lives from Demetrius, who just welcomed his first baby boy to this great world on Friday. Congratulations to him and his wife, Destiny. And then you have John who's come from some rough upbringing. and Demetrius as well, but just the way they juxtaposed that, it was very interesting to see. And if you haven't seen it, I do suggest you go check it out very soon. In a minute, we're going to be joined

by Costa Philippe, who, as I mentioned at the top of the show, was supposed to fight Jacare in May, unfortunately had to pull out due to an injury, and now we're wondering what's next for him. So let us ask him that question. Costa, how are you? Hi, what's going on?

Great to have you on the show, Costa. So first things first, you were supposed to fight in May. You suffered an injury, had to pull out of the Jacare fight. Explain to us what exactly happened. Thank you for having me, first of all. And unfortunately, in May, I suffered through my resting session, a deep cut on my eyebrow, my left eyebrow. I received 15 stitches.

and apparently the cut was too deep. It went all the way down to the bone, and the doctor had to put stitches inside. And unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to Brazil. Now, I don't know, a couple of months later, now I'm healthy and I'm waiting for an opponent. I don't know what's going on. And just curious, how did you suffer the cut?

It was obviously in training, but what exactly were you doing? I was wrestling from wrestling to Jiu-Jitsu and it was actually a position on the ground that the guy I was in his crowd and he was coming up and over to reverse me and as he was coming back up I was trying to go down and push him and he elbow me in the face

so he got me right on above my eye in the eyebrow and sliced me open and do you think that if you were wearing headgear because it was so close to the fight that you could have avoided this or not really in the cards for you? Not really were a heckier during wrestling or jujitsu. It was in a sparring session.

It was mostly for jujitsu. It was a tech town and then started your jiu-jitsu on the ground. I never wore a heck here for jiu-jitsu. Will you do that now? I mean, I know it's a little weird, but when you're so close to the fight, will you try to protect your head?

I don't think anybody was heckier for jiu-jitsu training. I don't think it's possible because, again, the guy's trying to choke you, trying to grab your head. With the head gear, I don't think you'll be able to move and get out of move or do anything. I don't know. Nobody came up with a specifically head care for Jiu-Zitsu yet. You know what? I'm going to come up with that.

I think that's a great idea. But the spotting, the boxing heckier that we wear, it's kind of too big, and I don't think it will be possible to wear that. for rescuing what you did to. Afterwards, word came out that you had left Ray Longo's team and you're going to join the Belmore kickboxing team in Long Island as well. Why do you leave Longos?

Yeah, that's true. I left right after the fight. I just, I don't know, nothing against Ray Lango or Matt's there. They did a great job, obviously. We went five wins in a row. I couldn't be any happier than that. But I just thought that I needed a change

and just changed my environment. And I was training with the Thermo Keywatching Academy for the past couple of years back and forth. My spotting partners are mostly from that place. So it was only natural for me to just go and have more opportunities to spawn. more often and they have different fighting partners because

I'd raise the schedule was kind of all over the place for me and I just needed kind of but better schedule I guess I don't know just to change from everything I guess and there were some people who

hypothesized that you were doing this to eventually you know get ready for a fight against Chris Weidman any truth to that no that has nothing to do with anything. I'm not even close for the title shot. But even if I was, it wouldn't change anything if I was training at race or anywhere else. Let's say if I was a race and I keep winning and I don't know, eight wins in the role when Creeze was the champion and it was the only

matchup for me, then we're going to figure something out. We're not the first team is that They have to fight and we won't be the last. But that has nothing to do with anything. Like I said, I just made a change and it has nothing to do with Chris. Now that you're not a member of the team, are you more willing to fight him? Again, no. I'm not there and when and if I'm from there, then I don't know. I don't think that will ever happen, but I'm not even thinking about that.

Chris did a great job against Silver. He couldn't do a better job. Yeah. And now he has other things to worry about. He has to prepare for the next fight with Silver. And like I said, I have other things to worry about right now, prepare for my next opponent. And hopefully we'll both keep winning.

And if a year or two down the road, we keep winning. And the UFC or the fans decide that we have to fight, then there will be something that, we're going to have to talk about. But at the moment, I don't see me fight increased in the near future. Were you surprised that he beat Silva? I was surprised the way he beat Silva. I said that he was going to submit him by the third round,

and I honestly believe by the fair round. He was going to control him on the ground because he has amazing control, and he was going to come up with the mission. And that, I don't think anybody saw that coming. But Chris is strong, he's long, and I think that's where Silver made a mistake. He didn't realize how long Chris is, and he's leaning back and doing the same things that he's doing with everybody. He worked in the past, but against somebody with Chris's reach didn't work. So now he has to come back and figure it out a different way.

He won't be able to do the same stands like in the first fight. And again, Chris didn't even show any. of his skills. So he doesn't really know what Chris has for him. So for a while you were campaigning and trying to get a fight against Michael Bisping, that doesn't

appear to be happening because Michael is going to fight Mark Munoz. And now you've shown some interest in fighting Vitor Belfort. Do you get the impression that you're close to getting that fight? Do you think it's a possibility? I don't know if I'm close or if it's

possible. They mentioned Belfo's name to me so I said yeah, why not? I just don't want to fight him in Brazil. I don't want to fight him in his hometown. Right.

Who's they? Who mentioned him? People in the business, reporters, and whatnot. Okay. They just threw names. I mean,

nothing on paper. And I just came out and said, yes, I'm willing to fight him, and why not? We can do the fight the fight in the state, we can do the fight anywhere, but Brazil.

I don't want to fly to Brazil. I don't want to play Padereux, and I definitely don't want him to be able to be comfortable and use TAT and do whatever he did in the past. He fought his last two fights in Brazil, and he did an amazing job. The guy looked like he's reborn as a fighter. He's an amazing fighter, and it would be an honest to face him one day. But I would like to do it in the States.

So do you feel that by using TRT he is cheating? No, I don't feel like he's cheating, but if I can prevent him from using TRT, why not? I know there's some firefighters get an exception and it's a technicality that they say it is legal and as long as by the five time you'll leave it's a certain number, you're okay. But what happened is two, three months before, they load up, they go soon. the roof with the hormones and everything and then a couple of weeks before the fight, they dropped down to the legal level. And it's not, I don't think it's fair.

Either legalize it for everybody and give everybody an exemption to use it or band it all together. But seven states, they don't allow it. Seven states do. So make up your mind. Either legalize it everywhere for everybody or ban it all together. If a doctor told you he thinks that you need to use it while you're an active M.M.A. fighter, would you take it? If I really had an issue

that it will harm me as not just as a fighter, as a human being, that it will have something to my health, and the doctor says, yeah, you've got to do that. Otherwise, you're going to peace or whatever. Yes, I understand.

But I don't think that's the case with any of the fighters. I don't think it's a health issue. It's taking advantage of technicality that they can boost their performance. You mentioned you don't... Go ahead, sorry. Yeah, no, no.

Go ahead. You said you don't want to go to Brazil, but you were going to fight Jacques-Ré in Brazil. Why did you agree to fight in Brazil if you seem to think that, you know, things aren't being done the fair way over there? Not that I believe that they're cheating in Brazil. It's just that...

Why does it always want to fight in Brazil? There must be a reason. So I think he's comfortable in Brazil, and I don't blame him. It's his hometown, his home country, maybe he feels the support of the fans, and he's more comfortable. And even just for that reason, I don't want him to be comfortable. I want him to fight some or all that it's going to be uncomfortable. Like me, Whitehall, and fighting him on his house, fighting a neutral ground, right? Of course.

Now, if you don't get Bitorbel Ford, is there anyone else that you think they'll offer use or anyone that you'd like to fight. Listen, I really wanted to fight Michael Bisting. Yeah. And he mentioned my name a few times. I don't know why he decided to go a different way. Good for him. It is what it is.

I hope he made the right decision. But other than this thing right now coming over a win, I don't know. I haven't seen Vandelaide's silver. I also use a two- or five. For Vandle, I know he's not a... a top-rank guy, but Randele is a legend. And if I get a chance, I'd go out to 2 or 5, or if he's willing to go down to 185,

that would be a fight that I would definitely take. Randele is a legend in the sport. It's been around forever, and it would be an honor of fighting Randerah Zilla. That'd be a fun striking match. Now, back to Michael Bissping for a sec. Do you feel as though he avoided you that he tried to find a reason not to fight you?

Listen, if you look hard enough, You can find a reason not to do something and not to fight somebody. And he claims that I'm a new fighter and I'm not a big enough name or whatever the case may be. But they had me ranked higher than Munoz. I don't know why. I said I'm willing to go to his hometown. I'll go to Manchester and fire him. I said I'll wait for him going to heal because he has the surgery or whatever and I'll fight you.

But I have five wins in the middleweight division in the row. He never had five wins in a row in the middleweight. I don't know why. Obviously, he's a bigger name than me, but he's a bigger name that most of the people in the U.S. He has 25s in the U.S. So what? So I don't get it.

Without reasoning, who is he going to fight? That is as big of a name as him. Vito. Before Vito, he's not getting a title shot against Silver for Whiteman. So what's next? Beat me, you break my fighting street, they might give you a title shot. But now he wants to fight Munoz.

You know what? I hope he beats Munoz, and I want him to fight me before he gets a title shot. I don't want him to get a title shot unless he goes through me. How's that? It sounds good to me. Do you think he will beat Munoz? To be honest, no.

I don't think he's going to beat Munoz. watching Munoz against Porge, or the guy had a 3rd 3rd and 5 for the year, he took him a round to kind of warm up. He had both came strong, double-legged him a couple of times and took him down, and I was very surprised. It kind of made me feel better about my take-down defense,

but Munoz came back in the second round, and he was more aggressive, it was in shape, and he was a different fighter. I think Munoz is going to take him down, controlling him on the ground, and got him pound him. and it's going to ruin his game. I don't think Munoz is dumb enough to try to exchange with Bistling

and practice is striking. Although Munoz's a striking is good, but I think it's going to go to his shape and go to his game and take him down and ground and pounding, and I think Bistin will be in trouble. But you know what? It can never stop hoping. It may fight.

Maybe Bistling wins. And again, it's going to be in the middle. As long as I win my next fight and I'm going to come prepared and I'm going to come ready. Who, wherever they put in front of me, I'm confident enough. I'll be able to win. And then we'll talk again with Mr. Bisting. Because when you do it the right way, the respectful way, and you tell him, yes, I respect you as a fighter, you're a great name, you're a great fighter, and I would like to praise you.

Everybody ignores you. So I should get out in public and start casting the guy. So I pick a fight in order to fight this thing. I don't get it. That's not me, but I guess that's what I'm going to have to do. But I hope he wins, and then we'll talk again, and unless he fights me, he shouldn't be allowed to fight for the title. What, he's going to get to win in a row, and then he fights for the title. In that perspective, I should fight for the title before B three.

I have five wins. It's funny that you mentioned that because I've noticed on Twitter and whatnot, you're a lot more vocal. Do you feel like you need to be more vocal? someone told you, you need to go out there and ask for what you want in order to get it. I know that I should be more vocal and everything, because I know how the game changed today. Although I'm a young guy. I'm 33 years old. I'm not that old, but the way I think it comes kind of old school, as I like to call it, I want to let my fighting do a talking, but it doesn't work like that anymore. Right.

I got out and I asked him very respectfully. If you read my tweet, I said, yes, you're a great fighter. I respect you. And I would like to face you. I think I can beat you. But nobody, I don't get any response from this thing. And I get response to everybody else. And they go, yes, you did the right way, the respectful way.

But I guess this thing was to pick a fight with somebody. He wants somebody to hate in order to motivate himself to fight. I can do that. That's fine. I can do that. But I don't understand. It's the profession. We go in.

It's a job. We're going to fight, and the best men will win. I told him I'm the best fighter. I'm the better fighter. I don't understand why we need to get personal and cut each other out. So I should call him a coward, and I should call him a bitch. And we should start like that. I don't get it.

But if it comes out to that, yeah, I'm willing to do that in order to get what I want. yeah. UFC rankings have you ranked seventh, you've won five in a row. Does it annoy you? How much is it bother you when you hear people say

you're not a big enough name? Doesn't really bother me. You know what? You can't please everybody. They see what they say Anderson Silva's up. So if that guy with what he did in the sport

can please everybody, what's my chances. Hayters will be there no matter what. I'm going to keep winning and I'm going to keep shouting people up. It is what it is. But no matter how many time you win or how you beat somebody,

they're still going to give people that they're going to doubt you and they're going to hate you and they're going to say you're not good enough. You can't win everybody. At this point, since you haven't fought in a while, you haven't fought in 2013, when do you want to return, Costa? As soon as possible. You're ready. I don't know.

I wanted to fight in Boston. That didn't happen. I know this is a show in Toronto. September 21st. I love fighting in Canada. The fans are great over there. It's a short flight for me. I don't have to change anything.

I would love to fight in Solano. Why not? I don't know. The UFC, I'm expecting a call. They gotta figure out who I'm supposed to fight. And just give me somebody at this point. I don't really give a shit if it's a big name, small name, whatever. Everybody in the UFC, they're the good fighters,

fighters, they're only the best of the best in the U.S. So no matter who I fight, I be prepared. And it is what it is. To me, everybody's a thing. I don't have to fight top five or top ten. I'm not like that. I'm not looking for the fame or anything. I just want to fight.

Final thing, Kossi, you know, I always find it so interesting to hear your honest take on your career when you say, you know, not right now, not ready for a title shot. How far right now, today do you feel like you are away? You always seem to have a very, you know, a very honest take. you don't say you want one next shot, whatever. You just say, give me a couple fights, a couple of years, then I'll be ready.

Right now, how far do you feel you are away? Two more fights. Two more, okay. If I win the next to fight, then I don't think anybody should deny me a title shot. So if I get in the next time, and I'll be my next opponent, and then they're going to have to give me a big name,

and I'll be the next one to fight. So that will take me to seven fights in a row. I don't think anybody should deny me a time. title shot. But again, for me, it's not all about the title. It's about fighting, about winning, it's about the game. It's not about the glory. It's not about the money. Don't get me wrong. The money

is good. And I hear a lot of people complaining about the salaries and everything. You fight, you win, you get money, you get paid. And you're still fighting. A lot of people complain about that and be more exciting, keep winning, and eventually you're going to get the big money.

we can get paid more, yeah, who wouldn't want more money, but it doesn't work like that. Everybody mentions boxing that they get way more money. Yeah, there's one guy that gets money, Mayweather. Who else is getting money? And Mayweather has been around forever. He promotes, managers, he does everything himself. We don't do anything.

We just work out in the gym, we get in, and we fight. At this point, I don't know. I'm in good shape. unhealthy. I have new coaches, new schedule, new training camp. Just give me a date and throw a name. Whatever they give me, I'll sign the contract, and I'll go win, and I'm going to win the next opponent. Great stuff, Costa. Great to have you on the show. That was awesome stuff. Looking forward to your next fight. Thank you, though. There he is. Costa Philippa, bringing the heat. That was the most animated Costa I've ever spoken to. Really opinionated,

very straightforward bringing the heat about Michael Bisping, TRT, pay, Chris Wyden, leaving Longo's gym. That was great stuff at Acosta Philpoo. And as you mentioned, I mean, yeah, five in a row, ranked 7th as far as the UFC rankings are concerned, which I don't contribute to for no particular reason other than I just always forget and I don't know. I mean, it's pretty clear that it's a TV thing and that's great. And I do think it adds to the broadcast. But the UFC isn't looking at those rankings, which kind of makes it a little confusing. I think if you're a fan, fighter, agent, manager, whatever. I think it will make it a little confusing because now you have the rankings and we're used to rankings, you know, holding some weight.

But for me, I think it's just a way of educating the audience. Oh, number three is fighting number five. All right. Now we know what this means. but look at and you know what I've noticed when someone's fighting for the belt they all of a sudden vault up the rankings

you notice that like if Alexander Ghoserson is fighting for the belt all of a sudden he's like number one because the champion isn't ranked it's a very interesting thing I wonder if the matchups are actually affecting the rankings and if you don't know the rankings

are being done by by media members and oftentimes it's very confusing like someone who, I don't know. There was a time where like Chil Sondon was like the eighth best middleweight, even though he hadn't fought at light heavyweight yet. But it was only because people had forgotten to put him at middleweight. So by the average, he goes down to eight when he really should have been number two or number one, really before Chris Wyden fought.

This is a guy who almost beat Anderson Silva, fought him twice. Hadn't lost anyone else at middleweight for a while. You know who he did lose to? Back at UFC 102, he lost to our next guest. Damian Maya, we're trying to get him right now. Damien Maya was, that was one of the great performances of all time. Damian Maya submitting Chelle Sondon, doesn't that feel like a thousand years ago? Without even landing a single punch.

Remember that? That was in Portland, Oregon. Chil Sondon's return to the UFC. Defeated him. It wasn't, it wasn't, oh, my bad. It wasn't Portland, Oregon. It was UFC 95. I never get those wrong.

UFC 102, Maya lost to Nate Markhart, that's right. UFC 95, he submitted him in 2 minutes and 37 seconds back in 2009 in London, England. That was Chil Sondon's return to the UFC. UFC 95, one of the great underrated cards of all time. Sanchez versus Stevenson, it was a great card. Anyway, one of the great performances, Damien Mai, now we're wondering what's next for him and we have him on the line right now.

Damien, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. How are you, Ariel? I'm doing great. Great to talk to you, Damien. You were supposed to fight at UFC 163 against Josh Kosteck. He pulled out. How disappointing is all this to you, especially considering the fact that you have no opponent and you're not fighting in two weeks?

You know, it's always disappointed, but, you know, these things happen. We know our sports right now. It's very tough, and a lot of injuries are, you know, happening. So you need to be prepared for that also. You know, when this fight was announced, you versus Josh Kosteck, a lot of people, including myself, were surprised. You're on a winning streak.

He was on a losing streak. We're wondering, why is Damien Maia fighting Josh Kosteck? Did you have the same reaction? Actually, you know, I'm thinking very high about Josh. You know, I think he's... He lost his last few fights, but, you know, if you remember, he lost to Johnny Henry's a very controversial fight. I thought he won that fight. And then he got a knockout by, what's his name?

Robbie Loller. Yeah, by Lauer, yeah. So, you know, actually, I don't think he wasn't, you know, in a downpoint of his. career. He just, you know, had a bad decision against Hendricks. And, you know, he had this problem, I guess, I guess, Lauer. But

I don't know. Actually, you know, we U.S.C. chose the fights and I need to go there and fight. So I'm not the guy who will go there and say, you know,

not going to fight this guy. You know, when they say they had conversations with my manager, but, you know, in the end of the day, they decide. Has the UFC told you or your manager that they want you to wait for Josh Kosteck to come back to have that fight again? No, no. They didn't say that, you know, I think I will have a new opponent right now. I really don't know the nature and how bad was his.

but I know, you know, we move into, you move on to a different opponent that I don't know yet in a different date. Is there anyone in particular that you'd like to fight? What I want to do, you know, is fight a fight that makes sense for me to get the title shot. I want to, you know, fight a guy that I have, if I have a good win, you know, they can give me the chance to fight for the title. But no one in particular comes to mind I get the sense that there is someone in particular

You just don't want to say his name There's many interesting guys You know to fight But I just don't Yeah I just don't want to say the names right now You expressed interest A few months back in fighting Nick Diaz And now there's some talk that he may return

Is that something you'd like to explore Yeah that's an interesting fight But I heard he's going to To meet away to So we know them. Yeah, yeah, I heard that. I heard he'd go fight 185. Or at least he wants to fight 185.

Okay, I understand. I know you're a budding MMA journalist, so you may have heard from your own sources. Sorry? I know that one day you want to be an MMA journalist, so you may have heard from sources, because honestly, I haven't heard that, that he wants to go up to 185.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I heard that. I don't even remember for who I heard, you know, and I heard he wasn't in which he won't 5, so let's see, let's see what's going to happen. By the way, why did they take you off the card, UFC 163? Why did they get someone

to just replace Josh Kosteck? I think, you know, they either have no one. I think they want to put me, I guess, a rancet guy. And there was no time to replace. And also, you know, if there was a guy

from, not from Brazil, where they need to do like a work visa, this kind of thing. The same we do when we go to financial states. And, you know, it takes a while, I think, takes that it a month and a half, too much to get the worth visa. So, you know, there was no time to do the site in this card. You know what's something I'd love to see,

and I don't know if the timing would work out, because I think you're right there and I think they're right there. You versus the winner of Jake Ellenberger versus Roy McDonald, that happens this weekend in Seattle. What do you think of that? Yeah, that's interesting. But the problem is that, you know, if I will need to wait too much.

I don't want to wait so long like that, you know. They are great fights there in the same, you know, line, but I think, you know, if I wait for there, it will be, you know, too long. I just don't want to wait too long. I already waiting a lot, you know. So last year I was fighting a lot. You know, I was five every three months and did like that.

But this year, like, I fought in beginning of February, and I was going to fight now in beginning of August, seven months. After, it's already, you know, a long time. So if I wait for there, it would be almost a way. One year, I don't want to do that. That's true. By the way, who do you think is going to win that fight? It's tough.

Very tough. very tough to say. I really don't know. I really don't know. It's a very interesting fight. I just want to see this. It's different. Ellenberg is a great wrestler with a heavy hands.

McDonald is a very complete guy who does everything like new generation. So it's very interesting, you know, to watch this fight. But I really don't know. And I have no idea who he's going to win. Since you're so close to fighting for the fight, the belt, again, now at 170. Are you hoping that GSP continues to win, defeats

Johnny Hendricks and anyone else so that you can fight him and maybe defeat him? Yeah, the main thing for me is the belt. It doesn't matter if I fight, you know, if I have the chance to fight, you know, GSP or somebody else. But of course, you know, if you think like, you know,

do something like if I'm able to do something like, Whiteman just did, you know, in the era, and win against a very dominant guy, you know, is much more interesting. Do you think Johnny Hendricks is going to beat GSP? He has a chance.

I think GSP is the favorite, but, you know, I don't think I'm so good in guessing because last time when Anderson fought wide-mount, I thought Anderson was the favorite. And he, you know, we saw what happened. So I think Jessby, you know, is the favorite but Hendon is a dangerous opponent.

You're one of the few guys. You fought Chris Wyman, you fought Anderson Silva. How shocked were you when you saw Silva get knocked out by Chris? You know, at the same time, I think Anna's the favorite. I knew that was not so, you know, so big difference between both because I know how good white is, you know.

And some people are saying, especially in Brazil, like, talk about fixed five. That's so stupid. That's so, you know, people don't understand how good Weidman is. Because, of course, Andrew, so he has a lot of marketing on his back, and he's, you know, for sure, the best in the world. But, you know, Wideman is no true. He's, you know, grating everything he does. He's, you know, and plus he's the size of honors.

and I was not surprised you won the fight. I was, of course, I was like, you know, I was speaking about him, but I knew he had the chance, and he capitalized on his chance. When you were seeing Anderson acting the way he did, did it remind you of your fight against him at UFC 112? Yeah, right away. I think sometimes he goes over,

and especially, you know, one thing we need to change, in the MMA rules that I think is very bad for the sport. You know, in any sport, if you start to talk to the guy and you start to say, you know, curse, you know, curse, not curse, but how I say you. Sure. Curse. Say bad. Yeah.

Sorry? Yeah, curse is right. Bad things, bad words. Yeah, bad words to the guys, you know. It's not allowed. It's against the rules. And I think they, you know, they should do the same in the M&A because we are sport. We're not street fighters.

So, you know, that's the point that I think, you know, he goes sometimes too far, you know. He can, you know, put his arms down, everything, you know, he's baiting, the opponent. Everybody knows that, you know, if you understand the sport. He's just a guy trying to push. Did we lose Maya? I think we may have lost Damien. I think he's somewhere in some remote part of Brazil right now. That's what his manager told me, and I think we may have lost him.

Did we get him? No, I think we lost him. We'll try to get him on in a couple of seconds here, and then we'll transition to Josh Thompson. Interesting things from Damien Maya there. And actually, someone mentioned that on the show last week, about a sort of red card, yellow card system where, yeah, you're right. I mean, if you're playing basketball, if you're playing other sports, you could say things, but if you act, you know, unsportsmanlike, you'll get flagged, you'll get penalized.

And, I mean, you could say that was very unsportsmanlike. That was not a very sportsmanlike thing to do the way he was acting, not a very martial art like thing to do. Yeah, that would be interesting. I mean, the referee is just standing there, hearing it all, taking it all in, allowing it to happen, and nothing actually happens. Damien, are you there? Yeah, yeah, I mean, here. Sorry, I didn't know which part you hear. It's okay. You know, I have a bone to pick with you, Damien, before we let you go.

I heard you say, where I read this, I heard this on, or excuse me, I read this from a transcript that you said this on a Brazilian TV show, calling Sensei Segal's influence on Anderson Silva a lie and a joke and trying to discredit him for everything he's done to Anderson. I mean, why would you say that? Did someone make you say this? Were you drunk? What's going on? Yeah, they ask, you know, about St.

I think, you know, what I said, that I think it's just marketing, you know? Which is okay, no problem, you know, but I think it's just marketing. What do you think, Ariel? Oh, no, I mean, look. It trains under, so? Of course. I mean, look, the proof is in the pudding, my friend.

He teaches him the kick. He lands it on Vitor. He teaches Liotto the kick. He lands it on Randy Gature. He wasn't in his training camp for this fight. Anderson loses. I mean, it's all right there. How can anyone say it's just marketing?

He has made the sport better. He has made Anderson better. And when he's not there, Anderson's no good. Yeah, that's true. Maybe, you know, I'm totally wrong. You're right. You know, I have a lot of respect for you, but on this one, I think you may be wrong.

Yeah, yeah, for him, but people are wrong sometimes. I know. You picked Anderson to beat Wydenman, but you didn't know that Sensey Segal, you know, wasn't there helping him. Had you known, you probably would have picked Wydenman. Here's my question. Is this your way of trying to get him to help you? Do you want to learn from him? Actually, you know, I was training with a guy.

You remember that movie, the drag or the last drag or something like that? Sure, sure. With Bruce Leroy. Yeah. So I trained with this guy, you know. He's a very nice guy at Marcel Garcia Academy. So I have a red, you know, a guy to train with. Yeah, but he's no Sensei Segal.

No, but he's the drug, you know. Remember, he holds the bullets with his feet. He's a good guy also. Did he teach you about that? Not the bullet stuff, you know. Actually, you know, I said to him that I need because I'm living in Brazil. but he said that's the next the next level.

All right. So, but what you're saying here on the show, because this has made very big news, you take back what you said about Sensei Segal. You didn't mean it. No, no. You know, I'm just,

I was, you know, I just kidding. You know what I think was, was just marketing, but it doesn't matter, you know. I don't know.

I don't know what, what they do. actually. Will you be at UFC 163 next week? Maybe, yeah. Maybe I'm talking with Eduardo, my manager, you know,

to see if we have another things, but I think, I think, you know, we're going to be there. Okay, and finally, when are we going to see you? When do you want to return to the cage?

As soon as possible, you know, I, uh, what I did now with my camp, uh, I was, you know, in a good shape, very good shape.

So I stopped to train for one week, then I'm doing some weights. Tomorrow I start again to do some jiu-jitsu. So I let my body rest a little bit to start to peek in the right time again. So I think, you know, I hope I will fight in Brazil. I know they have shows here they will have in September and October, so it would be great if I fight one of those shows. All right, we're looking forward to having you back and watching you compete inside the Octagon.

Very sorry to hear that you won't be at UFC 163, but always a pleasure to talk to you, Damien. Thank you so much for the time. It's my pleasure. Thank you very much for you. You know, it's our pleasure to talk to you also. Thank you very much. There he is, everyone.

Damien Maya stopping by. I said this about John Crouch. I'll say this about Damien, one of the true nice guys in our sport. Arguably, pound for pound, nicest guys in our sport. He's an unbelievable guy to talk to and very upset that we weren't able or we aren't going to be able to see him fight at UFC 163. That's an interesting matchup.

When you look at the rankings, when you look at what they've done, obviously he's on a winning streak, Kostchak on a losing streak. But, you know, Maya, given his background in Jiu-Jitsu, Kostchek, what he does on the ground. And yes, that loss to Johnny Hendricks, somewhat controversial. Another step for Maya, and then maybe he can fight, you know, the big boys. The timing won't work out as far as Rory and Jacob. our concern, but maybe there's a Jake Shields out there. Maybe there's a fight against him. Maybe there is a Nick Diaz fight. Interesting what he said about 185. That wouldn't be, of course,

the first time Nick Diaz fights at 185, but it'll be interesting to see what the UFC does with Damima. I wouldn't be surprised, to be honest, if they have him wait for Koshik, he said no, or Jake Shields. We shall see. All right, let's move along now and welcome in one of the top contenders now at 155 pounds. We've got Josh Thompson on the line. Josh, how are you? Good. What's going on? Not much, Josh. Good to have you on the show. A lot to talk to you about. First, let's get it out of the way. You made some headlines, some controversial comments about gay marriage. Don't really care to talk to you about your thoughts on this topic per se. But I'm wondering, what did you learn from that? Some people joke that back when you were fighting in Strike Force, you know, not a lot of people paid attention to you now that you're in the UFC and winning, you get a lot more attention. What did you learn from that whole experience? You know, I learn a lot. I mean, as far as, like, everyone's all for their right of freedom of speech

until someone actually uses it against what they actually believe. So it's, you know, that. And then I also learned that it's an actual... The UFC is just such a media powerhouse. You know, people follow it a lot more. Like, I was saying this before, is that when I was a strike force, you know, no one really cared what you did or, you know, who you were or whatever. You know what I mean?

Like, I was telling people, I said, you know, how many times I fought Gilbert, and how many other guys that I fought in the UFC area in Strike Force. You know, I had fans that came up to me at the UFC Expo, you know, the Fan Expo, and we're just like, hey, man, I saw your Nadeas fight. It was a great fight. You know, and it's the first time I've seen you fight, and I'm like, man, I've been fighting in the UFC, I've been fighting in, you know, all in the biggest organizations across the world for years.

But then now being back in the UFC, since the UFC has just exploded, you know, since, you know, basically like 2004, 2005, you know. you know, it's been huge. So I just think that everything is more scrutinized, I think, when you're with the biggest promotion of the world, and these type of things happen, and, you know, you see athletes do it all the time, and, you know, it kind of sucks that people can't speak their mind

without people getting all irritated over it. You know, everyone's the title of their opinion and kind of how they feel. But like I said, though, too, I felt a lot of it was not so much taken out of context, just not present. presented in the way that it was meant to be presented. You know, like when you're texting somebody, sometimes they take it the wrong way.

Sure. And, you know, and it's just all texting and emailing and all those things are all, like, a matter of fact. And it just comes across the wrong way. Sometimes it comes across. It depends on how the person's reading it. I don't feel. I have no ill ill at all towards anybody, you know. And, you know, I believe that everyone deserves to be happy. Just, you know, I just felt that there was more than need to be talked about than just right there than what was in front of us.

and, you know, not that's all, and that was the biggest thing. And, you know, I think the UFC, being with the UFC, it's huge, man. It just showed. I mean, that thing took off like wildfire and less than 24 hours. I mean, you know, and then, boy, less than 48 hours, I was on the Huffington Post. So it was, it lets you know that people scrutinize and watch athletes more than probably anybody else. And, you know, especially when you're with the biggest promotion, you know, in the world, you know, the UFC. considering that it expanded outside the MMA world,

did you regret even going in that direction? Not so much what you said or how you said it, but just talking non-MMA things because when you put yourself out there, sometimes these things can happen. No, I don't regret that at all. You know, but I think also, too, what people do you understand is that

I like to bring up topics of conversation. You know, I mean, and I know that if people, they talk to me personally and talk to me, like, on a personal level, they understand, like, where I was, coming from. Obviously, I use extreme measures. You know what I mean? Like, that just, it's just, it kind of is, it's just something you bring up, you know, like, it's like, I want to play, like, the devil's advocate for a lot of things, and not just that topic. I talk about a lot of other things. I'm the

person in the gym that does that all the time. You know, I mean, I get it, you can ask Javier Mendes. I get in tons of arguments with him, just trying to pick the other side, even if I don't believe in the other side, just trying to pick the side of the argument, to get conversation going. So, you know, no, I don't believe so. I think that, you know, like I said, everyone is a part of their opinion, and I respect people that have their own opinion, you know, and I'm not agree with it, but it is what it is. You know, that's the great, that's the greatness about living here in America,

you know, it's like people can say what they want, believe what they want, and they can do whatever they want, you know, it's all in the guidelines of the law, and that to me is great. So, you know, I wasn't trying to show any disrespect to anybody else, and, you know, and I like to just bring up topics of conversation and really motivate people to really just talk about it. about these type of issues. They'll never get worked out if people don't talk about them. You know, and I think it's almost like people think it's a sin to talk about.

I get a carol thing like not to bring it up. And if you bring it up, you're against it, I could really care less, you know, who does one and you know, who gets married and who, and it doesn't bother me at all. I don't care. You know, it doesn't affect my life. So that's what I'm trying to get at. These are things that I like to just talk about and have conversations about, you know, and people feel that sometimes when you bring it up, you're automatically against it or you feel negative towards it, and I don't. I don't want to be that typical guy. I have gay friends.

I have gay friends, and I'm actually pretty close to a lot of my gay friends, but it is what it is. Like, I don't bring this type of stuff up. You know, it is what it is. Okay, let's move along. You were coming off a very big win over Nate Diaz. After the win, you underwent surgery. How are you feeling now?

I feel good. Everything feels good. You know, I'm really just kind of waiting for the UFC to bring someone to the table that I feel that I feel that. it's kind of right there on the top 10 top five you know I was offered the seroni fight I felt kind of I wasn't ready yet I just had surgery and I know I was actually when that was when I was offered it it was I just got out of surgery probably like two three weeks before and so her two weeks before and so I felt like I wasn't going to be ready

by August 28th when they had when they had offered it to me and you know and then you know next in line was you know I'm kind of just waiting to see I'm hoping that I'm pretty much be ready here pretty soon. And so I'm feeling that, you know, like, I really like to fight, you know, T.J. Grant's available. Fight T.J. And, you know, and the winner of that, hopefully get the title shot. You know, I feel like I'm right there. I feel like, you know, I like, you know, I'd like to fight a top five guy, you know, and go from there. I mean, I guess, I guess if I was younger, you know, if I was 27, 28, you know, I mean, I'd feel like willing to just fight whoever,

you know, and I am willing to fight whoever, you know, I just feel like, I don't want to fight whoever, if it's not, if it doesn't have title implication. You know, I feel like I'm right there. I feel that, like, it just, I lost my opportunity in 2004 to fight for the title when I fought ease. You know, I know, I didn't get the chance to, you know, and it's kind of like I said that when I came back in the U.S. It was the one thing that alluded me, I felt like it was just, I was never given the opportunity

being the number one fighter in the world of the time back then, you know, and it should have been for the title and it wasn't, and it just is right there, man. It's right on my fingertips now, and it's like I just want to fight the guys that are, you know, that are going to get me there. You know, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to duck or dodge anyone. I just, I want to fight the best guy that's going to give me to the title. You know, this may be my last run, and, you know, and it's just right there. It's right at my fingertips. You're 34 now.

Obviously, you've been in a lot of fights, fought for a lot of promotions, and I notice that you're talking a lot about the belt right now. Do you see the end? Do you feel like it's coming? Do you feel like you only have a short amount of time left in the sport? You know, I think everybody starts filling it around 34. I'll be 35 in September. So before my next fight, I'll be 35, you know? And it's like, you know, and I want to, I just to basically say to sum it all up,

is that I've been fighting for 15 years now, 14 years, 15 years, and I've always been considered one of the best fighters, you know, or guys that guy don't want to fight. You know what I mean? And so now that I'm here back in the UFC, back from the biggest promotion, right now, like basically rank three or four, depending on what rank you look at. And I'm right there at the, you know, right there waiting for the title.

If I was 27, I'd want to fight. I wouldn't care who I fought because I knew I had my whole career at me. But I'm right now. I'm 34, you know, B 35 before my next fight. And I just want to fight the best guy. I want to fight the, whoever, whoever they put in front of me to get me the quickest way to the title, you know. And I think every fight when they hit 34, 35,

they start wondering, like, how much more time do I got? And when someone's this close, you know, they can't, you can't let it slip away. I mean, I think you can hear the emotion in my voice right now. It's really, it's something that, you know, I've won in my whole career, and, you know, I felt like I could have, should have had it, you know, back in 2004, you know, and it just, I never got to it, and then now I'm here, and I'm here again, I worked hard to get here. There's fighters that have come and gone, you know, in a lot of organizations,

you know, that were considered the best, you know, we're right there fighting for the title, and now they're gone. They don't even fight anymore. You know, and that shows you how quick your career can end. You know, with bad choices and bad, you know, bad choices in fights are just bad way you fight. You know, guys that go out there and just slug Daniel pro down and, you know, and next thing you know, their chin's gone, and, you know, then they're done fighting. So it's like I've managed to be successful in my whole career.

You know, I've had three epic fights with Gil, and I think the two of us have made each other better and prepared us for this moment of being here in the U.S. I was seeing, you know, and I just think that it's right there. I feel like I'm right there for the title shot. I just want to fight the best guy. I'm not asking for any favors. I want to fight the best and the toughest guy is going to get me to the title. That's it. Definitely sense the passion when you speak about this.

And that makes me wonder, even when you were a strike force champion, was it still not enough for you? Was that UFC belt still always on your mind? Every, every time I fought, you know? Like, where's this going to lead? You know, I mean, like, if I didn't get the next. contract done with Strike Force? Was I going to head over there? And, you know, was I, was I good enough to beat those guys? Was I going to, you know, was I going to be able to fight for the title?

You know, when I came in, were they going to bring, give me somebody tough? Or were they going to give me, you know, a no-name guy? All those things went on my mind, man. I mean, every time my contract came up with Strike Force, I always thought about, am I going to, you know, is Cochran to resign me? You know, am I going to go to this? Am I going to the UFC and try to make a big splash there? You know what? I'm getting towards the end of my career.

All those things. It's all past my mind. You know, I thought about it all the time. You know, like, you know, anytime I fought over in Japan, all that stuff, it was like, you know, the end goal back then was just to get back into the UFC, you know, it was like, hey. And then, you know, Strike Force came out with the, strike force came out, and it was like kind of just led me into Koker always, you know, wanted to resign me, and we were always able to work together and do well.

And now I'm with the UFC. I really just feel that the goal is that. the goal is now that I'm here, is nothing but that title, you know, and it's been that way. I predicted last week on the show that I think that they're going to match, based on how they've worked in the past, you versus T.J. Grant is sort of a number one contender fight. Has anyone told you that this is going to happen? No. I mean, actually, no, I'm begging and pleading for it. You know, I mean, you know, whoever they, I've made it very clear that whoever they decide they want me to fight,

it's going to make it the fastest way to the title that's who all fight. And T.J., you know, it would be great. I mean, obviously they offered him the title shot and, you know, and things didn't work out. He got injured.

And I'm not going to be ready anyways until, like, probably the end of September, early October, you know, as far as full being ready to train hard and go at it. And, you know, and T.J. said something about he'd be ready in November to fight, and I think that's perfect. you know so i'd like i said i'm not asking for any favor favors i want to fight the toughest and

the best guy who's going to give me to the title the fastest you know that's it that's all i want so considering that timeline you just laid out why were you campaigning to fight anthony peddiss in october no no that's i'm saying i was i'd be ready to fight by october okay i mean like i can have a full camp so i'm just getting into training full time right now i'm just starting back lifting a little bit rehabbing the you know the knee and the end and the elbow I'm pretty much, I'd be ready to go by like October. Are you disappointed? You're not going to get a chance to fight Anthony. Of course.

You know, I think, I think I was tell, who was I tell? I was telling Joe Silva, like, man, when I was with Strike Force, all I heard was, man, you and Pettis would be the best fight ever, you know, da-da-da. That's all I heard of it was about Anthony Pettis, you know, and a couple times about Benson. But, I mean, the main guy that everyone really wanted to see me fight with Pettis. you know, and so then I thought, I thought, really believed that this was going to be a perfect opportunity to fight that, you know, and given that he realistically was the number one contender going down to 45, he's in the title shot, now he's backed up at 55. I was like, wow, this would be a great fight, you know, and so, you know, like I said, that's not doing me any favors.

He's one of the toughest guys, you know, in the UFC right now, and the fact that he's the number one contender, you know, in 45 or 55, whatever, it would be. great opportunity to fight him. When there was some talk of you guys fighting, he told me he'd be down to fight you, even though no one knows who you are. How much did that bug you? It didn't bug me at all. Like I said, we talked to each other at Vegas at the Pan Expo, and we got a lot of respect for each other.

But, you know, I told him, I said, well, there's no reason to tell you my name twice. I thought it to remind you after I wake you ass. I'm knocking your ass out. So it's not a big deal. You know, I actually, when I heard you got the title shot, I actually sent him a tweet, you know, saying, hey, congratulations, you know, he deserves it. You know, he's been waiting a long time

for that opportunity. And, you know, that's all you can do. I have no hatred toward anybody. He's got a chance to live out of his dream. And, you know, I got a lot of respect that. I can appreciate that. Who do you think wins that fight? The rematch.

You know, it's really hard to tell. I haven't seen a fight a little bit. You know, I watched the Cowlors-Corpsoroni fight. It's kind of a hard tell. You know, I couldn't get a lot out of that fight. from him. You know, so I haven't seen him actually grind one out in a while. I'm going to lean towards Benson,

only based on that Benson's been a lot more active lately. And, you know, the two of them. And then I'm interested in see how Pettus does as far as he's going to keep fighting left-handed or is going to switch to right-handed again because I worked for him last time. Is he going to go to left-handed like he's been working on lately? So those are the things that are going through my mind, you know, kind of watching that fight.

So we'll see. It'll be interesting to see. I think he's going to be a great fight. Entertaining as hell. I'll never forget when you were fighting in Strike Force and all the rankings talk came up and you just kind of no one really asked you about him, but Benson

was the champion in W.C. and you were talking about how it's kind of crazy that Benson is above you in the rankings. You don't get the respect. Did you ever think that he could turn it to the fighter that he's become? Well, you know, at the time, no, no. He's always been that type of fighter. I just felt

that I guess, I guess it just, like I, I guess it just had the opportunity at that time, I felt that I wasn't talking about myself, I was actually talking about J-Z. I felt that Jay-D had fought all these tough guys from Aoki to, you know, he's fought in K-Wong, he spot all these tough guys, and you have him, you know, you have Benson who has fought, who basically just fought, I think Seroni and Jamie Varner at the time, you know, And it just seemed like those guys are completely different compared to the guy that Jay-G has fought and beaten. You know, and so that's kind of what my argument was, is that I felt like I feel that the guys in the UFC are guys in the UFC get a lot, had got a lot of more respect to the guys that were fighting in, you know, in strike force.

And that was kind of my point was, you know, the guys that are, if you're under the UFC umbrella, like we were just talking about as far as the media, the same thing. The media tends to flock to it a lot. You know, it's the biggest promotion in the world. Everyone's going to follow it. Then W.C. was under the UFC banner, you know, and so then it became that more, they got more publicity than the guy that Strike Force as well

because it was all one big, you know, organization. And so, you know, it just goes to show that when you fight for the biggest promotion in the world and under those guys, I mean, the media is going to latch on to you and really give you guys, you know, the go. And that was my point then, you know, and now, I mean, I just went through it with the talk, the conversation, I guess, the controversial conversation. The quote-unquote conversation.

Josh, always appreciate the time. Thank you for stopping by. And by the way, I'm still waiting for you. You said a year or so ago that you wanted to turn the tables on me and give me the business. Whenever you're ready, pal, I'm here. Don't be scared. All right. I'm not scared of you, homie.

Don't worry. Thank you, Josh. Get well soon. looking forward to seeing you return and seeing who they match you up against. All right, but I take it easy, man. There he is. The punk, the real punk, as he calls himself on Twitter. Twitter.com slash the real punk.

That's where he got himself in some hot water trying to clear it up right now. Again, as I mentioned to him, honestly, in an interview, he brought it up on his own. In an interview, I would never ask, unless it came up where, you know, someone, I don't know, if someone said, I don't want to fight Liz Karmouche because she's a lesbian, unless it came up, then we would get to that topic. But I don't really care what Josh Thompson has to say or what he thinks about gay marriage. Now when he got himself in trouble, then you wonder about what he learned from this, if he's going to act differently, et cetera, et cetera.

And, you know, for the most part, I thought he handled himself. Well, interesting side note, if you care about this kind of thing, obviously a lot was made of the fact that Liz Karmouche was the first openly gay slash lesbian fighter to fight in the UFC when she fought Ronda Rousey. She fights once again this Saturday at UFC on Fox 8. She is fighting Jessica Andrade, who according to Brazilian reporter Guillermo Cruz, articles have been written about this in Brazil, is also a lesbian. That would make it the first matchup in UFC history pitting two openly gay fighters.

So how about that? some history being made. On Fox, by the way, on the main card on Fox, that fight wasn't featured on the road to the Octagon special, but interesting nonetheless, the other fights on the card, of course, Bobby Volker versus Robbie Lawler, Jake Ellenberger versus Roy McDonald,

and then the main event, Demetrius Johnson versus John Maraga for the UFC Flyway title. Now, let us move along to our next guest. Last February, a very interesting thing happened in the world of UFC. They were in Nebraska, if you recall, Jake Ellenberger fought,

Diego Sanchez in the main event. Sean Loughler was getting ready to fight in his UFC debut. He was just minutes away from walking out into the arena, stepping foot inside the octagon for the first time. But while warming up, he injured his ankle and was ruled out of the bout. Never got another chance to fight in the UFC. Never got another shot. And to be honest, pretty much, at least from my perspective,

fell off the face of the earth. Never heard from him. He came on this show around February of last year, spoke very openly about all the trials and tribunal. that led to him to get to the UFC and then the unfortunate accident, been through a lot in his personal life, and then professionally, it was a very dark time for him. So I reached out to him last week, and I wanted to know what was up for him. Great article on him on MMAfighting.com. If you Google his name, you'll learn about the backstory. But now here we are today, July 22nd, 2013,

and I wanted to know what's up with Sean Loughler. So he joins us right now on the MMA hour. Sean, how are you? Yeah, I'm doing really well. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm very curious to talk to you today, Sean. Because as I mentioned, yesterday, excuse me, last week I was just kind of thinking, you know, who are interesting people to get on the show and whatnot,

and then you popped into my mind. And I thought to myself, Sean Lofler, what happened to this guy? Reached out to you, very happy that you came on the show. I'll ask you point blank. Why haven't you fought in the UFC again? Well, it's an interesting story, and it's got a lot of dynamics.

The story, I'll be really candid with you and make it short as I can, get some of the details involved. Because it is kind of an interesting story, and to tell you the truth, are you, I've been asked five million people, other media people, the same question. But you and you have a good relationship,

and I just kind of avoided the question for a little bit because of the dynamic of what happened in all the instances. What happened was, is right after I fought my fight, the UFC absorbed all the strike force contracts, and they had a bunch of people involved in new management changes, I guess, or whatnot, and new rules changes are starting to get girls, the 125ers. There's a bunch of stuff going on with the whole Fox thing and Fuel TV.

We are fueled the first vital through it. So there's a bunch of changes going in the ZUFA organization, right? So they let us know of new procedure changes about testing for every fighter, blah, blah, blah, blah, for all these different tests and for paperwork, you guys got to get it all done, and we've got to get into the system. Well, it was about to be my birthday. It was a couple months after February. I was going to Hawaii for two weeks, and they said, hey, we're going to call you for a test in the next couple weeks.

or the next month, be ready, you can't miss it. Well, I'm new to the UFC. Like, I've been through a lot of child tribulations, so I want to do everything on the up and up. So I said, hey, let's do it, like, in the next two weeks because two weeks from now I'm leaving for a while. So why, I'm going to be on a boat in the middle of the ocean, so you're not to be able to get a hold of me.

I don't want there to be issues. So they said, okay, they called me on a Thursday and scheduled for the next day, and I said, that's fine, but I have surgery that morning. I had all these surgeries for my... As a lot of people know, they've been following me, like my ankle got infected, And I had eight surgery there.

The screw that rejected itself, and I got off a malitis, which is a bone infection. So I had a surgery the next day, and I said, I'm going to be waking up from a surgery. Is that cool? They're like, yeah, you've got to get to that to do. You've got to be called back. So I was all messed up in surgery. So my dad picked me up. They take me to the request test center.

I take my test, and we're all good to go. Before that, my doctor, me, my agent, and my coaches, my nutritionist came up with the list because they want a non-disclosure list of all the supplements you take just to be on me up and up with them. We came up with this list, emailed it to the guys, the lawyers at the UFC and the UFC doctor. And we thought everything was good. Well, when I'm in Hawaii, I get an email, check a blast day on there. I check my phone.

Hey, there's an issue. They said, did you pop for something on the test? So I looked at where it was. I never even heard of these things before. So I call my doctor. My doctor goes, well, you had surgery. One of those, the glucodial steroid. The other is a mixture of two things.

One of it is a supplement that we put you on for stem cells and plover or replacement therapy. He wanted me to do testosterone replacement therapy with Gregory Weiss, but I didn't want it. It was expensive. I didn't know what the legality was it out. So there's all these things. And the doctor goes, well,

I know exactly what that is. He writes it out in an affidavit on his letterhead. The doctor put his medical license on the line to say, this is what happened, blah, blah, blah. I go back a week later at my own money and own billing, take the request of test test by the same lady, observed test, exact same test.

The exact same test. The thing that's supposed to be in my system. It's 18 months if I took something. Doctors is right there with the affidavit. Test comes up clear. Test comes up negative and clean. I'm all good. I got all my disclosed emails.

I got my text messages. My doctor comes, and I've got the affidavit and the letter, my lawyer, and everything is good. My ankle's still injured. Remember, I just had a surgery. So they write me back and basically say, yeah, so even though it's a false positive, it doesn't matter. If you look at our stipulations, it's any positive, whether it's a false positive or not, still gets you a suspension and makes you not eligible.

And I'm just confused with them. I didn't fight. I didn't have a fight schedule. I asked for this test, and they turn them on the up and up with the UFC. My doctor gives a letterhead here is a clean test. And my agent who has other fighters in the UFC at the time was just like, I don't worry about you're not really, you're not in a shape to fight anyway. I mean, your ankle's so much up.

Who knows how many surgery are you going to have it if you're ever going to fight again? And they were right. And so I started concentrating on my business, the callout, the gym in Northtown and San Diego. And since I couldn't fight, I was coaching a ton more and working a ton more. And my gym just started to blow up, because now all my focus wasn't on being a UFC fighter. It was on training these guys. So we opened a second location, and things started to get great. Well, by the time I realized I could fight again, it had been a while,

and then I thought, do I really want to make a public beef with UFC because they wrong me because they, you know, freaking asked me over, and didn't give me an opportunity and took a false father into the out of screw and get rid of him? Or do I want to just keep my business growing because I've got a kid coming in, you know, in two weeks and uh and her names are just like you and and i've got a bunch of business stuff and i thought to myself you know what dude you do not even shake fight you can't fight with the ankle as the way it was this was about you know six months a year ago and so i kind of like fuck it like why cause a big stick when there's all these other people that that cost and they're like cry babies and people

talk trash or something like that i don't need to do with that my goal being a dad a business owner and giving my family stability so i kind of just let it go but then i had an opportunity opportunity to August 24 to have a retirement fight at a local organization since the UFC has no interest in me right here in Oceanside, which is where the compound is and my house is and my daughter will be two weeks old and I thought, you know what, I'm just going to retire. I'm just going to fight that local fight, like some guy that's a decent fighter and call it quick and call straight out of business, which kind of a little sad because I guess the only reason I'm really trying is the U.S. just kind of broke my will because I don't feel like

jumping through all those troops when I know I do the right thing. So I was just like, you know what? Maybe this is God's will. If God wants me to just retire a fight, constantly have a kid and grow my business and work on these young fighters, that's fine. Because I didn't want to be that guy, you know, Ariel, like getting involved and all that. But then I thought about it.

I think I've known me a while. I was like, it would be nice for at least people to know why. I was never given that opportunity. And I'm so little confused as I wasn't. But I don't want to be on bad terms of Zup because I want my guys always have good opportunities. So I just kind of smile, and I'm hoping that my family and my gym will keep doing amazing, you know. So at this point, you're 25 and 5 in your career, you're on a winning streak, you finally get to the UFC, this happens. Why give up now?

I mean, you've been through so much, you talked about it at length with your coach dying and all the personal problems that you had. Injuries, as you mentioned, you don't seem to be like a quote-unquote quitter. Why quit now? I mean, I know, and you're right, and it irks me. You know, I mean, there's a gaggle of reasons why I want to fight in the UFC. I think I would probably be in the top eight, realistically, when I look at that division, I can only think of, like, maybe Andrew Craig, Chris Wyden, Munoz, Anderson, Chale, those are really the only guys I would think would dominate me.

You're like that hand at wrestling or anything, everybody else would think I knock out. So it's frustrating, but the reason that I say why now is, like, as weird and spiritual is, like, I don't even God, man. And, like, before my Bellator fight, you know, a couple weeks before my Belator fight, my coach is shot and killed in the gym. and everybody knows that. And just like, God, and that's my first big opportunity. Then my U.S. 3 fight.

You know, I go and I tear my ligament to my ankle, and I don't get that opportunity. And then this whole thing happens with, they said, because of something with my system from a surgery that combined with something else, my doctor or an affidavit, and then I got a clean test, and I said, I'll just take some time off. I kind of looked at it as pathetic as it is,

and the U.S. They broke my world of fight. They put me in a worker's comp, not even fighter's insurance. So then it's like I don't even get everything taken care of the way it should. And I care about Zufan. I care about the sport and I care about the UFC. So I'm not going to sit there and I'm not going to sit there and get into some public argument with them.

You know what I mean? Oh, shoot, Joey Goldfiners is walking here. Talking to R.L. Hawaiian in the U.S.C. Hey, Joey. So, yeah, they say what's up. Um, there you go, Barry. I'll call you later. All right.

All right, go ahead of George. Sean, let me ask you, just to be clear, the, the cost that came as a result of the ankle injury that you suffered in Nebraska, the UFC did not cover those? They cover, like, some of them. And then right now, I'm still in, like, insurance deal. You know, like, my, I got, I got this business thing denied for some, for some credit, a credit issue, right? And I'm like, what the heck? So, I'm like, I got good credit. Like, call in a city investment dealer.

new business, Bob, I'm like, oh, I don't know, we look into this, and I look into it, and there's like $150,000 of, like, a chartered medical bill from, like, Nebraska and from back here, and I'm like, what the fuck? And so I call the company and, like, oh, just have the UFC call us here and do this and that, and so, like, half of them have gotten taken care of for, like, the anesthesia, the other stuff, like the prescription stuff, never got and take care. There's still two collection companies, and I'm dealing with explaining, dude, this

happened in a UFC site from Nebraska. like you're from Omaha Hospital and in the Omaha College area. So it's just, it was really a hassle. That's not like anybody in the big name. That's not Joe Silver, Sean Sheldry, or Dana White, or Lorenzo. That's not any of their fault. You know, it's just that's all that legal department stuff. But it was still frustrating because I feel like, wow, like, after everything it already happened.

And we're all saying the same thing. Like, yeah, this really sucks, Sean. What a bummer, you know, false positive stuff. And the mistests here. It's really unfortunate. And Joe's like, yeah, just calling back. get you a fight after another fight or after a little break. And I just was confused.

And then I realized, like, it just broke my little fight. Ariel, like, I fought for 13 years to find the UFC. And then maybe this is God's way of just saying, concentrate on your family, concentrate on your gym, concentrate on your fighters. Like, as weird as that is, but it's like how many times can, you know, like Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity, you know, doing the same thing over and over again.

And it's like, if the results are always saying, if I get some shot to a big show, and my coach gets killed, and my fucking ankle tears and half. I can't walk down to the shoddy warm-up mouth in the U.S.C. room. And then some insurance thing happens, or a thing happened after my surgery, and then we have to go through it.

It's almost like, maybe I'm not, it's not so that. Maybe my focus should be somewhere else because when my focus was with my gym and my business, we've already spent it. We've doubled in size or open new locations left and right, and we're coming out with fighters that are just studs. And so maybe, you know, there's got to be the great coaches out there and that focus just on that, that are young and energetic, not these older, 40, 50-year-old guys that think they're going to the shit,

but young guys that know that have been in there and computed at a high-level that are going to be the next wave of high-level coaches are going to be the wave of guys that work in there. Not to guess, just coach the good guys. You know, all those camps, and who know they are. The next wave is going to be coaches are related to there and can coach, you know. And also, to be clear, Sean, just because it's an obvious question that'll come up, you took no PED of any kind, no steroid, no illegal drug that would have

caused this test to come up positive. No, and I've got the clean test. I got a clean test for 10 days after there, or I get through it six weeks because I was in a 10 days after I found out that happened. Second I got back, I had an observed test with the result. I can

put it all public, you know, plus the after day from the doctor, like, an observed test is when a guy or a guy, I think, actually, the girl takes your information, and a guy watches your dick. Like, you watch your piss come out of you. You know what I mean?

And like, I mean, yeah, I've got a clean test. I've got a doctor's note from, hey, this is what we put in Sean. This is what we told them to take afterwards. And when you take this and this, it makes this in your system for six hours because it does this. And the doctor wrote all that, disclosed all that, I have the clean test. And then they, in the UFC literally wrote me back saying it doesn't matter if it's a false positive. Any positive puts you at, you know, you, you, you, you know, you, you, you know, you, you, you know, hit the situation of positive tests.

Like, it just didn't matter of the fault, positive, it didn't matter of that. And I just wasn't, since I wasn't able to fight, like if I was 100% when that happened, like if my ankle was healed, I had surgery, and I was ready to go, you know, like I could do train four weeks after that and fight.

You know what I mean? Are you like, I was like, fuck this. But I was at the point where I was like, I was on my six surgery. I think at that time I had a day, I didn't even know if I would fight. So I'm like, why does that? I didn't even care.

They're like, oh, we're not going to... And like you said, they're like, we're not going to tell media. And so that's what I knew. I was kind of in the right. It was when they didn't announce it anywhere. They didn't out anywhere that I popped. They didn't out anywhere that I was cut. They didn't out anywhere.

They just took me off the website, slowly took me away, took me out like a video game stuff or whatever they do. Like, they just slowly took me away. And then I just didn't have an interview that I didn't address the subject on my Twitter and Facebook and whatnot. And like you said, I just kind of disappear off. basically you have to concentrate on business. And then I started to think about it.

And I was like, if I was really been wrong, they would have just said, like, you're fucking wrong. It wouldn't, like, kind of brushed it on the carpet and done it like this. They would have done like they did to Alster and Chris and Chris Levin and, you know, Sean Shirk and everybody else, Nick Diaz that's popped in the UFC. They would have made it public, you know, but I think they also knew, like, he's got a plethora of evidence here. He's got doctors out of the day.

He's got clean drug tech. He's got disclosed emails. He's got tech messages back and forth and my commercial to the UFC. and Joe and the doctor, Stephen, and disclosing all this stuff. And so, I don't think they're threatened at all by me. Obviously, the UFC's not, but I think they were just like, well, let's see if you make a big deal out of this, and I really didn't. And they didn't make a big deal of it either, because I haven't fought.

It was kind of a unique situation, you know what I mean? So you're fighting again August 24th. Is that the soonest you could have returned to action because of the ankle injury you suffered in Nebraska? That's a year and a half. That's more than a year and a half. I probably could have fought sometime around. Now, maybe three months ago, realistically.

You know, I maybe could have fought April, April, or maybe March of this year, April, May. But that would have been for sure the sooner. Because of the injury you suffered. Wow. So that was a serious deal, and you were considering fighting that night, right? Oh, yeah, like the night that it was hurt, I wanted them to just truck me with a knife, so they'll tape it because they can't put tape on an ankle with a number. ask the commission, you can't have any tape unless there's an open wound.

And so I was like, we should fucking just drain this thing because it's all swollen and just wrap it really tight. I'll lose blood, so we can get in there and find the UFC. I don't care if it's like the karate kid. I'll fucking stand on one leg and throw a crane kick. Like, I just wanted to fight because this has been my goal for 13 years, and my coach has already taken from me right before my Bellas Tour debut, and now my ankle was tore up before my UFC fight, but I was like, I don't care.

And then when this whole thing happened, it sounded like third time to charm. if God really wants to constantly on business and stuff, I don't know if that's too spiritualistic or whatnot, I don't know. I don't know, but I'm not going to fight a system. It seems like they don't want me when I know I'm one of the best fighters in the world.

One of the stories that came out when your story got a lot more attention was your search for your daughter, who you said you hadn't seen in five years, you signed some paperwork, and that allowed your... Was it your ex-wife, or was it your ex-girlfriend? Just ex-girlfriend.

Ex-girlfriend. to not allow you to visit your daughter. Have you seen your daughter since? I haven't seen my daughter since at all. Like, I haven't, you know, really heard anything from her. You know, I've heard some rumors from people about, like, oh, she's here, she's there. But at the same time, it's like that I walk to be involved in her life, and I would be involved in her life in a heartbeat.

But when the mom changed the kid last name and from basically 12 years old, she tells the kid what she wants to tell them, once again, it's another decision like, do I will like that's an easy way route to go down and try and get really involved and really ruin your own life especially in your cage fighters or coming after your own kid you know like this and that so i've been trying to do a legal route and wait that route and then i've got with my girlfriend i've got my daughter coming in two weeks who are her name her and already going to be already too which is funny you guys got that and and so i'm really constrained with my family you know like you know there's a a lot of things that uh have been going on my life like the fact that august third roping second location, Escondido. August 12, I'm having my daughter,

August 24th, I'm supposed to retire. You know, so there's so many crazy dynamics going on. But, yeah, if my daughter comes forward and there, somebody knows any information for me, I love to have two daughters instead of just one. So you mentioned all these exciting things happening to you in August. Once that

fight happens, August 24th, you know, God willing, you'll be a father, you'll have the second location, your gym right now is doing well. Are you at peace, or will it take some time for you to get over everything that's happened to you over the last year and a half. Well, just your life, I mean, do you feel like, okay, now things, you talk about all the things that have happened to you on the negative side, but, you know, come August, there are three,

you just mentioned exciting things happening to you. Will you be at peace, or do you still feel like you have a lot of, you know, wounds that have yet to heal? That's a really good question, man, to be quite honest. Like, will I be at peace when I do all that stuff. I don't know. Like, after I retire, August 24th, I might have this huge feeling if you come over me and be a piece and be like, that's my purpose is coaching, managing, and business and getting big boy money and spreading a lot of locations to really help young fighters and kids that had my situation, people to make dumb choices or something, help them out with and give them an opportunity. Or I might fucking retire and two months later

realize, you know, watch Chris Leidman get beat or something, and then Anderson Snowbo get beat again, and then the division's open, and then I might start getting tears and I'm going to go, God, like, I would have been there. I probably would have been number three right now, you know, so I don't know. But I do know that, like, you know, whatever God's plan is for me, I'm going to follow that. You know, one big thing is my daughter, obviously that's going to be a huge priority in my business because my business is going to take care of my daughter. So those are my, you're going to have to be my priority to be responsible, you know, to get financial stability and whatnot and to provide for my family.

And who knows, I mean, you know, I don't believe in miracles, but if fucking Joe Silver Day and why here's this, and they go, you know what, we do remember, Sean County got fucked and they want me to fight. You know, maybe I'll go and fight, maybe I'll go and fight two or five, me up and $1.85, but that's not going to happen. They're not going to read some interview or hear some story and say, oh, he deserves a chance, even though I know I do. And so, like I said, if that's the way it's going to be, I'm not going to get on my

knees and beg for a step or for opportunities, and I know I'm in the right. You know, I'm going to concentrate on business and hopefully get a bunch of my fighters whenever UFC championship they can. And then they would have been like, fuck, what if I want to fight, that would be crazy. Because he sure of all these guys have a fight, and they're all champions now. That's the way we do it at the compound, and that's going to be our goal, is just thinking positive, power positive thinking, and accepting whatever opportunity

in front of me, you know? When's the last time you talked to anyone at the UFC? Um, you know, Joe Silva, me text on and off or call on and off. And then the last, he's the last one I really talked to. And Larry was like my best friend, and guy got me in the UFC, kind of like my manager. He talked to them all the time. But it's basically more of a friendship thing now, like talking about other fighters or how you doing, how the family, you know, and you're just like, hey, go get a win.

And, you know, then, you know, maybe I'll give you a call, that kind of stuff. Pretty informal. And the other people I talk to are just the fucking insurance and lawyer people who, they're not nice at all. I'm not trying to get this situation, take care of the medical stuff. But like I said, there's so much social media

and trash talkers out there and jealous people and people that are, you know, that just try to stifle other people's success and look down on people. So rather than me sit there and cross a big dramatic scene or poor me or this happened now

after my coach, my ankle, they do this to me, I took a deep breath, I smile and I go, it's a hurdle. Take the hurdle. I've had a lot of hurdle in life. I've grown a lot of the person

in the past three, five years, you know. So be mature and look at it and learn from it and take advantage of it. And especially if I deal with it the way I deal with it, not knowing, you know, what position my ankle is in any way, maybe it'll turn out to where the U.S. you'll appreciate the fact I handle everything the way I handle it. They handle the way everything they handle it. It might have been a miscommunication. Maybe I should have got an opportunity. Maybe I shouldn't. But, hey, we're going to make sure that we take care of this guy's fighters. And, you know, we know he's going to be on the up and up and keep us in the

loop. So hopefully that's the way it pays off. And some people will talk trash. Some people call me out and I just smile and go about my business, you know? Well, Sean, it's great to catch up with you, and I'm sorry the way things turned out. Like I said, one of the freakyer... I don't think of it is a bad thing.

Well, and that's great, and that's great to hear as well. You know, first and foremost, hope everything goes well with the birth of your daughter, and I appreciate, by the way, you naming her after me. That's an unbelievable honor in one that I... I'm very honored to... to...

We were sitting there, we said, we have to name our daughter after our own Elkawadi. We're like, she's the UFC guy. Sure.

Why not? And my chick was like, no, Sean. And we just, we fought for months about it. And I finally won. So, so we,

I appreciate it. Exactly. I'll, for you, baby. She's going to be a great person just giving that name alone. And I hope everything works out. You know,

you have this big retirement fight coming up, August 24th. Hopefully you win that one. And like I said, you can be at peace with all this because one of the

stranger stories to happen in the world of mixed martial arts and UFC in particular, and I commend you for taking the high road here and not trying to create a big stink over it. Yeah, I mean, I mean, and I appreciate that. I really do. And like I said, a little of reiteration. The main reason, too, why not to create a big thing, even though I know I'm in the right. My paperwork knows I'm in the right, and the U.S. he knows I'm in the right because they did it. And not to make a big deal of it. But the other tough thing was that they kept saying, and I had to kind of understand it, well, when could you be ready? you know, after all the clear tests and all that,

they would say, well, when could you be ready to their defense? I was like, fuck, I got a hole in my foot. You know, I had eight-thirty, so I said that's why, like, you know, about taking the high road, it's like, if I was really ready to fight, Ariol, I might have been like, that's this, I'm funny now going public and probably, and I'd call you, you know, a year ago, but since the circumstances where I just kind of smiled and said,

well, what, and even if they say, okay, you're good, you're ready to fight. I couldn't have done it anyway until about now. So, like I said, am I apiece? I think I am. I think just did everything, happens for a reason, and I got to meet people like you, and, you know, learn the whole biggest side of the industry from the UFC and coming with those people and media people like

you, and now I can put the work out about the compound, and give my family a life, and give my fighter an opportunity to be interviewing me if you one day for their UFC debut, you know? All the best to you, Sean. We'll talk to you very soon. Good luck with everything in August. I'll keep in contact. I'll send you pictures of the baby, and congrats on your kid, too. I know your kids all of mine, obviously, but I congrats on that as well. Thank you very much, Sean. appreciate it. I'll talk to you guys there. Thank you.

There he is. Sean Loughler stopping by. I appreciate his time, and good to hear that he's in better spirits now than he was back in February of last year when we spoke to him. Okay, one guest left today. We still have your questions and comments to get to in the third hour and a new wrinkle to the show that we'll tell you about in the third hour as well. But let us go back to the phone lines and welcome in Danny Castillo, who returns to action this Saturday at UFC on Fox number eight against 10.

means. Danny, how are you? I'm great. How about you? I'm doing great, man. Thank you very much for stopping by. You were originally supposed to fight Bobby Green. He was forced to withdraw from the fight due to an injury. How disappointing was that? Because there seemed to have been some I don't know, some tension brewing there.

It kind of sucks because I thought it would have been a great fan for, I mean, a great fight for me, but the fans he gets a few things online. He kept tweeting me back and forth. I mean, was tweeting me. I just usually don't take, I don't even respond to stuff like that when fighters tweet me. It just kind of adds to the fires. I was really looking forward to it. It was one of these fights where I had a full camp to train for. We got Coach Bang, and he dissected

the film, and I was looking for a stoppage. His last fight was very impressive. Dana White went backstage and talked to him, shook his hand. I've been a fighter with Zupor for four years. I have 15 fights under the Zupor umbrella. I've never even talked to Dana White once. It would have been great to beat up his boy and, you know, finally get some recognition. But, you know, that's the nature of the sport.

You know, people get hurt. I don't think he would fake an injury. I'm sure he's really hurt. But, you know, it sucks for him because I know he has a family and we're fighters. in order to see, in order to pay those bills, we have to fight. It's going to be a rough few months for him because I'm sure, you know, and he doesn't have money coming in, so it's unfortunate.

But fortunately, Team Means stepped up, and I do have a fight, and my friends and family aren't out hundreds of dollars on plane tickets, hotel rooms. Just curious, because I missed it, what did he say about you on Twitter or other social media? Just it was going to be a rough day for me. it was, you know, my fans were going back and forth as his fans, and you were just like, oh, you just made it even worse. Danny Castillo, July 27th, just what kind of... I don't know, after a couple of those, I just kind of blocked them,

and it's just like whatever. I mean, I'll see you. I mean, you can say whatever you want online, but eventually we're going to have to be in the cage, so we'll just wait for July 27th, and unfortunately that's not going to happen. I mean, it's a fight that I'd love to have in the future, so, you know, hopefully we can do it in the future,

future. Did you actually physically block him on Twitter or just kind of mentally block him? Yeah, no, I block him. Oh, wow. That's amazing. I don't know if I've ever heard that before. He was that annoying. He just, every time I look on my timeline, it was Bobby Green. If it wasn't Bobby Green, it was his buddy. And then him thinking his buddy for talking trash about me, it's just, you know, I just don't have time for that. So Tim Means, I mean, this is a guy who looked good up until he met, a whole Jorge Mazvedal in April. Did you have to change anything in training, or was it business as usual?

Because, again, this was kind of a late replacement. Well, it's kind of a completely different matchup. He's a little bit taller. He's not as fast. He's not as athletic, but his striking is a little bit better. He's left of a wrestler. In many ways, they're a completely different fighter. And, you know, I'm sure that he's really fired up.

and motivated. And I'm sure, because usually after a fighter loses, you know, they get back in the gym right away, and they start plugging away. You know, he took the fight on two weeks notice, but I'm sure he's in shape and ready to go. You know, after a loss, if you don't change things up,

then you're probably not going to make him this sport. And, you know, he's got a pretty good career, so I'm sure that he's motivated and far enough to fight me. You know that feeling well. Your last fight, you were coming off a loss. You picked up a win in February against Paul Sass. How much pressure did you feel going into that fight? Did you think you were fighting for your job?

Every fight is the biggest fight of my career. You know, I don't have a big name in the UFC, so two losses in a row isn't good for anyone, let alone, you know, me, especially a lightweight and a stack division as the lightweight division is. So, yeah, there's always pressure. It's pressure for me to succeed. It's pressure for me to represent.

my team, pressure for me financially. You know, I don't make a ton of money. Not that I'm complaining. I'm happy with the money I make. But I started in this sport. You know, the WC, I've got 15 fights under ZUFA. I started at 3,000 and 3,000. And, you know, I've been plugging away.

I've been gliding, working my butt off, fighting my butt off. And, you know, for me to get half my money, I don't live in an extravagant lifestyle, but, you know, it would suck for me to lose. So financially and, you know, purpose-wise, my goal is to be in the top 10, my goal is to be the best fighter in the world. And if I lose, it's a huge setback for me, especially because, you know, I'm coming off a win. So another loss wouldn't be good for me. And, you know, there's always pressure, but it's good pressure.

It's motivating pressure. It's not stressful pressure. You recently opened up a Pilates and Fitness business in the Sacramento area. area. And I'm wondering, did you do that to give yourself some kind of backup plan in case the fighting thing in the UFC doesn't work out? Or is this something that you wanted to do even before you became a UFC fighter? It's called, by the way, P2O Pilates and Fitness, hot Pilates and fitness, I should say. Oh, nice plug, man. Thanks. I appreciate it. Well, I just did that because I just thought, you know, I have a great mentor with your eye favor, and he's got his hand and everything. And, you know,

I learned a lot from him and being by his side. And, you know, it was time to put my money and somewhere that was going to bring money back. It's something that we were in tough. I was out in camp while Tough was being filmed. I was able to work out with the tough guys and do a little bit of coaching out there. We're in Las Vegas, and Hot Potties is really big in Las Vegas,

Vegas Hotwood. I had a line out the door, and I knew that Sacramento didn't have. had one and Sacramento would definitely really, you know, take to one of those hot potty studios. So, you know, the ball started rolling and, you know, things started happening than I expected. So, yeah, here I am today. We're seven weeks. We've been open for seven weeks, and we've have 80 plus members. It's really good. I'm excited. It's brought something to me that I didn't expect. And that's, it's seeing people get better every day.

It's something that's been expected. In the beginning, I did this for some kind of so-for financial reason, and now it's really rewarding, seeing people get better, seeing, I mean, it helps me push more. It motivates me to see, you know, a mother to a full-time mother to come in the gym and you could have motivated for me. And I think that's a tough fight in life. me, I get to train to have fun

to hang out with my buddies all day and people have a tough life. It's not tough. I mean, the pressure gets to me sometimes, but in terms of what I'm doing, it's an extension of college wrestling, and I got a bunch of teammates that are like

brothers to me, so every day I enjoy life and every day I have fun. Are you the sole owner of the business? I have a business partner. Okay. Yeah, I have a business partner. I'm wondering because of all this talk about, you know, UFC pay and whatnot, I mean, did, do you think that the pay that you received in the UFC helped you, you know, make this business a reality, or do you feel like you had to make this business a reality because of what you make in the UFC? Do you understand the difference? I think I know what you're saying. You know, I just want to make it really clear that I'm happy with the money I get. I'm not complaining about anything.

I get paid to hang out with my buddies and have the best time of my life and make myself a better person. Because of my contract of the USC, I quit drinking a month's summer, and my life has got better because of the USC. And, you know, because of the money that I made, there's money just not, I wouldn't say necessarily laying around, but there's money that could be used to bring money in. You know, I wrestled in college, you know, some of those business classes I was half-awaken and, you know, I learned a few things. And it was just something that needed to be done for the future. I can't fight forever. And, you know, it was a big way to, you know, have a supplemental income and something for the future.

And you're actually in there teaching the classes, right? Like, someone walks in, you'll be in there actually getting your hands dirty. Yeah, I teach a few Pilates classes. I don't really teach Pilates. I have a class called Kettle Combat that I use. It's pretty much kettlebells meets the insanity workout, so it's a mixture of cardio and a little bit of weightlifting with the kettlebells as well. So it's something that every day progresses,

and, you know, it's something I'm trying to get trademarked as we speak. What are you trying to get trademarked? The class. Kettle Combat. Okay, got it. You know, I obviously follow you on social media, and I always notice that every couple days or so, you're, you seem to be at some kind of diner, and you're taking pictures of older men that are teaching you wisdom of life, and you quote them and whatnot.

What is going on there? Who are these men, and why are you doing this? It's just one guy. His name is Dennis. Just one guy, okay. Yeah, there's a, there's a, there's a, guy, kind of like a Denny's right by my house. And I started to go there and have breakfast before practice,

and I just start to talk to this guy a little bit. And, you know, he's just pulled with him. And a lot of things that he said is kind of open my eyes into a lot of things. He's super cool, man. You know, in fact, it's been on if I seen him. So I need to get over there. But hopefully I can get out of there tomorrow before I jump on the plane to Seattle. So he's there every morning.

Yeah, every morning. He's there twice a day. Wow. And in the morning, then he comes there for lunch as well. So I know that he's, you know, he's kind of lonely a little bit. He's elderly. His family lives far away, so he doesn't really get a chance of family. His wife is no longer with us anymore.

So, you know, he takes joy in hanging out there. And every time I see him, his eyes light up and, you know, talk life. Does he know you're a UFC fighter? Yeah, one of the ladies that works there brought it up. I told him, and he was just like, he didn't really think that that was the smartest thing to be doing. But he was cool about it, you know, so now, you know, every once in a while we talk about that, I try not to make my professional career the focus when I meet people, because, you know, I think, not that they look at me different,

but, you know, there's more to me than just being a UFC fighter. And, you know, I don't know. People just, sometimes people have different thoughts, make it abused about me being a cage fighter, per se. But, you know, I don't know, he's really cool. And, you know, you should meet him one day. You should come out to Sacramento and hang out with this. Have some breakfast.

I would like to meet him. Will he watch your fight on Saturday? He doesn't have cable. Okay. Yeah, he doesn't watch TV. Maybe one day you can bring your computer to the diner, just to show him what you did. Maybe he'll be proud.

Maybe I could win a bonus and I'll fly him out to my next fight. That would be a great story. That would be a fantastic story, by the way. Or if they fight, you know, Dana has been talking about Sacramento, putting a show there, I'm sure that would interest you. That'd be a cool story as well. Oh, man, that would be amazing. When W.C. came to Sacramento.

It did extremely well. It did better than some of the King's basketball. It did, I actually did way better than the King's basketball games. And, you know, with four UFC fighters living in Sacramento, it'd be the Team Alpha Male show. So that'd be awesome. That'd be a dream-con-true to fall on the same card. And speaking of helping people out,

I know this got some attention recently, the article in M.M.A. Junkie, you going out, giving some pizzas to homeless folks, and just trying to help out the community. Why do you feel the need to do this? That's tough. Like, I've been catching a lot of slack about it. Like, oh, well, if you are really humanitarian,

you wouldn't be posting pictures. But the whole reason why I posted pictures was to inspire other people to do the same thing. It wasn't necessarily for people to be like, oh, they haven't necessarily or to win fans or anything like that. But I just think when people are reminded that other people do need help them, you know, a lot of people,

those people, they just fall in hard times. It's not like they're living there. They don't want to work or, you know, and, you know, sadly, a lot of them have, you know, mental disorders. So I don't know. I was just kind of feeling crappy and I decided to go out and help someone else. And, you know, what things that makes me feel better is helping someone else. And, you know, I've been doing it quite some time now and it's really rewarding for me.

Took my little brother out there as well. So he's kind of learning a little bit. But in that homeless, you can't really look down on homeless and not to judge a book by its cover. Because some of these homeless people that I talk to are extremely, extremely intelligent. You know, they sit in the park and they read all day and, you know, talking to them, you kind of get a different respect. I mean, if you were to come across a bunch of homeless people and talk to them, I mean, it wouldn't be the same thing as you've seen homeless people with a cup asking for money.

You'd have more respect for them. And I think that it's sad, but for the most part, the general public just sees homeless people as, you know, just kind of bad people and lazy people. And it kind of sucks that people, few people that way, but society. So you said you received some flack and, you know, you're always going to have people who have that reaction. Will you still continue to do this but not publicize it? Yeah, I think it's a mixture of both. You know, I think that I did get some positive back from it. You know, people were posting pictures and tagging me in the pitch that they went in the same thing,

and they felt really good about it, and it was highlighted their day. So I don't want to necessarily, you know, stop that. But, you know, I don't know. It's just, you know, you know how people are. arm. I'm sure you get it and you don't even fight. You know, you're just covering the sport. And I'm sure people always have something to say about what you're doing or what you're saying. And that's just the way it is. You know, for the most part, it was all positive feedback. I got a bunch of people that tagged me in a picture. So in a way, I was able to feed homeless people

and I wasn't even there. So that was really cool. And, you know, being a good example for my brother and some of the people that follow me is something that I take pride in. Just wondering, you know, I've talked to Yariah and Chad and T.J. about the positive influence Bang Ludwig has had on your team. Haven't talked to you about this. Have you noticed the same? Has he changed the way you prepare for fights and the way you attack in the training sessions and whatnot? And do you think that this will result in a better Danny Castillo come Saturday?

Yeah, man. I think I'm pretty sure you hear this all the time, but I honestly do feel like I'm one of the hardest workers in the UFC. I'm constantly working. I'm never out of shape. After fights, I'm working out constantly. You know, it's not this take two months, take three months off, and then jump in the gym. And, you know, being that I work so hard, having a coach that works just as hard as me is one of the best feelings ever. I come to the gym and bang's already there. He's studying film. He's constantly texting me, sending me video footage of my opponent, sending me video footage of other fights and things that are similar to

the match-up style that I'm going to have with Kim Means. So just to have him around, he's a really good guy. He's a good role model. I mean, he's a good dad. He's a good husband. He's a good coach. And, you know, we're really fortunate to have him. Like, in fact, you know, we really lucked out because of names are on the list that

Uriah was going to look to recruit to be our head coach. and having Dwayne is awesome. And, you know, I can't see myself training for another fight without him. On Friday at the Wands, will you be rocking the tuxedo? Yeah, for sure. What does that come from? Well, you know, you wore tuxedos for some of the most important days of your life. And each fight is really important to me.

And the Wain is where the fight starts. If you don't make weight, then the fight doesn't go on. And so me going to this scale in a tuxedo, just I'm all business. You know, that's what it is. I come there to do a job, and I show up dressed to impress. I love it. And also, you also, speaking of attire, you wear the headband. Why?

And you wear that, like, out and about as well, right? Not so much. I used to have longer hair, so the training, the sweat would get in my eyes. And it just kind of started to be my thing a little bit. and I don't usually, I don't wear it. I don't wear it in town. I don't wear it to church. I don't wear it elsewhere.

I just wear it to train. I feel like I've seen you around, like at an MMA event or so, a way in you were wearing it. No, you never wear it when you're not, you know, maybe when you're around MMA people, no, none of that? Yeah, I wear it at MMA events, for sure. It's your calling card. I guess.

I guess. I guess a headband would be my calling card, but I guess it's kind of right. You know, I'd rather my wrestling be my calling card a little bit, right? Yeah, no, no. It's one of your calling cards. So I would say your calling card would be the dunks that you wear? Sure, why not? You know, everyone has their thing that they like, that people recognize them.

You could say that. Or my nose. Yeah. Oh, your nose. Yeah. By the way, is it a Sacramento thing? or is it an alpha-mill thing? Why do all of you sound the same?

You all talk the exact same way. If I close my eyes right now, I could be talking to Chad Mendes. You sound all exactly the same. I have no idea. Maybe it's because you just spend a lot of time together? That could be it. We hang out all the time.

When we're not training, when we have barbecues, we're all together. Our girlfriends are friends with each other's girlfriends. It's like a big family. but that has to be it because, you know, chat from a different part out from Sacramento,

you know, Joseph's from New Mexico, TJ's from a really small town in California, so it's got to be because we hang out so much. Yeah, it is actually kind of freaky, but you guys are a great team. You're doing very well, and I'm looking forward to seeing how you do on Saturday. I was really looking forward to that fight against Bobby Green, but unfortunately that's not going to happen,

at least for now. You get Tim Means next UFC on Fox 8. really appreciate the time, Danny, and good luck on Saturday. Thanks, man. It means a lot coming from you, and it's good to finally be on your show, man. I feel like since you have me on a show, there's like, you know, people are starting to take notice of who I am because I'm on your show, man.

Oh, thank you. Come on, man. I've been following you since the W.C. days, and even before that. So why does it take it so long for me to get on your show? You know what? That's a very good point. and I apologize. There's no good... I'm not going to make an excuse. There's no good reason.

I wanted to wait until everything was coming together for you to finally get you on the show here. Good save, man. Good save. That's perfect. Perfect answer. Well, best of luck to you on Saturday, and I look forward to talking to you

after the fight as well in the winner's circle. Yeah, for sure, definitely. You know, if I don't talk to you after the fight, then that means that the fight didn't go as well as planned. So I hope to be standing next to you talking about your dunk. and talking about the fight and my victory and a stoppage as well. And one more plug for you.

It's P2O Hot Pilates and Fitness there in Sacramento. If you're in the area, 2012 P Street in Sacramento, go check him out. There he is, Danny Castillo. Thank you so much, Danny. Thank you. I appreciate it. There he is. Last call, as they call him.

And you can follow him on Twitter. Last call 155. Okay, let's get your questions, comments, concerns, all that good stuff. First, we have a caller, our good friend Mario, from Albuquerque on line number four. Mario, are you there? Yes, Ariel, how are you doing? It's been too long, man. It has. How are you?

I'm doing all right, I guess, man. Trying to finish up some school assignments. But actually, it's not going to be so positive at the beginning here, Ariel, because I do have a little bit of a bone to pick for with you. Okay, here we go. All right. Well, first off, you consider yourself a amount of the people, right? You give us what we want? I'd like to think so, yes.

Okay, then why haven't you answered the call to bring back Ben folks to the MMA hour? Why haven't I answered the call? First off, you're getting a call right now. Are you not? I'll step out. I mean, really? Yeah, it's not me. Could you not find a quiet place to make this phone call? Who has been making this call other than Ben and his maybe three or four friends?

Who are these people that are asking him to be on the show? the Twitter sphere. They are? Show me where the Twitter sphere is asking for this. I called for it on your hashtag MMA page, and I've been a bunch of retreats for it. The people want it, you've got to bring him back. Okay, I have nothing against Ben.

I mean, yeah, he deserted us, and he went to, you know, he went to go play. You know, usually when you're, when you reach a point, you want to take a step forward and not take a step back into the minor leagues, but he felt like it was better for him to be in the minor leagues, and that's cool. That's all right with me. He's doing his nice little, cute little podcast, and I heard they played my music one time because I want to bet. All that stuff is great, and I think he's doing very well, but I didn't know. I honestly, I thought people just got tired of him.

You know, he had the band, and then it was out of sight, out of mind, and I just didn't know that people cared, but now that you mentioned one person cares, maybe I'll do a personal podcast just for you, and you can hear us talk to each other. If you would do that, that would be awesome. If it was just for me, I feel even more special. Yeah, well, you're the only one who cares, so I will do that. Why would I bore everyone else? Well, let's see.

Let's do a rally for Ben Folks, and just like we have a lot of... Let's do rally for Ben Folks for the MMA. Yes, that will be extremely successful. I can't wait for it. All right, and my main question for giving you the call today was because... I can't believe that you waited to... Of all the things you could talk to me about, you talk about that. Okay, what's your next one?

This is going to be great. There was a lot of news this week, but recently Chuck Liddell came out bashing on safe fighters in the enemy. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. I want to see what your opinion is on because back in the pride days, you never really saw that. It's only kind of a UFC thing. And even the old pride fighters that made it to the UFC kind of changed their style as well. And I don't know what it was.

There are exciting fights in the UFC. I definitely agree with that. but the fights are a different kind of exciting. Yeah. I don't know what it is about the Pride. I know what it is. I know what it is. First off, if anyone didn't hear it,

Chuck Ladell told Access TV, quote, I'm probably not going to be popular with the fighters with this one. But my biggest problem is guys playing it safe. I understand it from a coach's standpoint and a manager standpoint. I understand why you'd want to play it safe and win a fight with every fight.

I get it. But do I want to watch a guy go beat up a guy, for four rounds and then ride him in the fifth round not doing anything. And I think where this comes from, that's the end of the quote, by the way. I think where this comes from, I mean, let's be honest, this day and age in the UFC, you lose two fights, you may be out. And guys are very concerned. There are maybe less places to go.

They maybe don't want to fight for another organization, whatever. They want to keep their job. I mean, you often see guys say, what was that fight? Ryan Jimo said it in Winnipeg. I'm sorry. I just had to win. That fight sucked, I just had to win. And that's the nature of the sport.

Guys aren't going out there. And to be honest, I don't begrudge guys for that. And the UFC has proven that if you are an exciting fighter and you lose, they'll keep you around. You'll still have a job. Look at someone like Dan Hardy. But I can't begrudge a guy who makes a living doing this and feels like he may be out of a job and doesn't know what he'd do if he was out of a job. Just getting back on the horse. because look, if you win one fight, you're buying yourself really two fights.

And who knows that? Then you only have a one fight losing streak, and then you can come back, et cetera, et cetera. It's this whole little game that you have to play. Who am I to tell a guy that he's playing it, quote, unquote, safe? I understand someone like Chuck Della could say it. But also, there is something to be said for the fact that you don't want to have brain damage. You don't want to go in there. Balls to the wall, get nailed with a thousand shots, put on a show for the crowd,

be like a Gary Goodridge, and then when you're 40 years old, 50 years old, have brain damage. So there's a lot of factors that come into play. And I can't sit here and complain or criticize fighters for, quote, unquote, playing it safe. I just don't think it's fair. Okay, that's fair enough. Actually, it made a list of reasons on why I might have thought it was, too. Is there if I go over those? Well, how long is this list, for God's sake?

It's just, I think it's just four reasons. Okay, let's see. Let's see how you start. Give me one reason. Okay, well, there was steroid use back in Pride days, and that was kind of allowed because, what was it, the Japanese mafia? Sure, but what does that have to do with playing it safe? I mean, that just makes it even crazier that they took so many shots.

They were taking shots from people on steroids. Well, yes, I don't think that that's what he means by guys just, you know, laying and praying and riding out the victory. What's your next one? This is going great. The Japanese culture. I listened to a podcast, Rogan's podcast, and he had Incheon Inuan. Yes.

And he was talking about his fight with Igor, I don't know how to say his name. Was it Vof Chanchin? That one, yeah, I think so. And he said that there was a culture in Japan. The warrior spirit is what he called it. And he said when he was in front of the Japanese friends, there was just something that he was actually willing to die just to win a fight or something like that. He said, but he was so pissed that he couldn't go back to the fight, even though he couldn't stand up.

He was disinferiorated. And I don't know if that was a Japanese culture that has the influence on the fighters that make them go out there and just pour their hearts out or what? Yeah, I mean, I think there was a connection with the fans, and a lot of the events took place in the same arena, and you'd see a lot of fans, Rampage spoke about this. But I don't know. I don't know.

Again, I don't really see it as, a reason for quote-unquote playing it safe or putting yourself out there, I just really think that today there are less options. People want to stick in the UFC. There's a bigger gap between UFC and the competition, and they know that if they lose two or three in a row, they're gone. They lose two in a row, they're gone. What's your next one?

Okay, and what about the yellow cards? You know, the yellow cards are interesting. You could certainly get it for stalling and things like that. I'm down with that. I don't know if I want to see the physical yellow card, red card system, but I am down with a system being implemented in the unified rules of MMA. Remember, the UFC can't implement these rules. The commissions have to.

I would be interested in them putting in something that penalized fighters for stalling, for unsportsmanlike conduct, things of that nature. Again, I don't know if that plays into playing it safe or not. Maybe you could get penalized for that and you'd do less. So, yeah, I'd be into that. Okay. And finally, I just wanted to get your opinion on what your top five most exciting fights are ever. Ever?

Gosh. Five UFC, Bellator, BUBB, XFC, or some minor league. What's the most exciting fight you've ever seen? Man, it's kind of hard to think about this off top my head. Most exciting fights have ever seen. Ooh. I feel like I just saw one recently, and I said that was the most exciting fight I've ever seen. and now I don't remember what it was.

You know, I'm having memory problems lately. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or whatnot, but I used to have an amazing memory, and now I feel like I forget everything. That being said, off top my head, you know, recently Porrier's zombie was fun. Vangelet, Chuck was fun. Most exciting is a very big honor to give.

New York, Rick, are you there? Can you help me out here? My memory is getting shot. What about a... Benson Pettus 1? Benson Pettus 1. Of course. I actually, I think I just said that last week, right?

I believe you did. I was there. What else? What else? Help me out. John Frye versus that one guy... Takeyama back and forth. I mean, that was kind of crazy, but it was a fun little moment.

I actually saw that guy, Takeyama, fight in or wrestle in a pro-wresting match. Noah when I was there for UFC 144. What else? What else? What's an exciting fight? Oh, Shogun Dan Henderson. There you go. I see you guys are helping me out. Anything else come to mind? What about you, New York, Rick? He's going to say BJ Penn Matt Hughes 3. Well, that was a great one. I don't know about exciting. It was over a little too fast.

I mean, Wyden Silva was pretty damn exciting just because of the intrigue of it all, but I can understand. Griffin Bonner was exciting. Yeah. It was. all right. I don't hold it in the same regard as everyone else. I feel like because it's held in such high regard, you're downgrading it. Maybe. But objectively, it's pretty damn awesome.

It was pretty awesome. I need to watch it again. I know they made it available recently. Anyway, there are a few. What's your top choice for this discussion? My top choice is definitely Frye v. Takayama. That's my favorite fight ever to watch. Okay. You can watch over and over and over

again. What else? without a doubt. Number two would probably be the Henderson Shogun fight. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Oh, you know what was another great one? Eddie Alvers, Mike Chandler. That was a great one. Yes, yes.

Very true. What else? And let me see. I liked, some of these were beatdowns, but I loved to watch Shogun versus Rampage. I liked the Vanderlay versus Crow Cop. Oh, yeah? And also Chale, and also Chale Sonan versus Anderson Silver.

That was exciting for me to watch anyway. Yeah, I was. Well, obviously the Chale one was interesting because it was just so surreal seeing Anderson get beat up like that. All great choices. It's one of those classic debates that you can have for many, many years. But we have run out of time, my friend. Always appreciate hearing from you. And yeah, good luck with that rally. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. We'll see him on next week, I'm sure. Okay, there he is. Mario and Albuquerque. Some people throwing out some suggestions. My good buddy, Sean, saying Hughes Trick 2. That was a favorite of one Dana White's for a very long time. I liked, when you talk about my favorite fight, one that I hold near and dear to my heart because it was kind of sentimental for me. Really liked the GSP versus Matt Hughes two fight.

I enjoyed that, watching that in the bar in Montreal. I feel like I've told that story a thousand times already on this show. And then the reaction, it was like the Canadians that just won the Stanley Cup. So that was a fun one. UFC-65. There are tons. How about Gerard Gordo versus Tela Tully? Maybe not.

All right, let's go to the questions. We got questions? We do. All right. Let's do the website first, as per usual. First question from Justin Shepard. Oh, yeah. Holly Holm.

After her impressive victory over Alana Jones, do you think the U.S. should sign Hollyholm? And how do you think she would fare against the other women in the U.S.s Bantamweight Division? You know, I must say very short on breath today. I feel like something weird is going on with my chest. Have you noticed that? I haven't.

It's very, it's very concerning. Do we need to call somebody? Not right now, but just be on your toes. It was very impressive. It happened on Friday, Holly Home, head kick knockout, Atlanta Jones. Our pal Mark Romandi of the New York Post, he made his debut here in this studio on the M.A. beat, he made a funny joke about Alana Jones being the Axis

TV Jobber. She, of course, faced Fallon Fox. A couple months ago now, she fought Holly Home. That was great, and you heard Holly on this show a few weeks back, dedicating herself to MMA, 135 pounds, obviously one of the more legit boxers, accomplished boxers to make the transition full-time transition to mix martial arts. And she continues to do all the right things and continues to look better and better every time she fights. I think, Well, first off, she has a contract with Legacy. I'm sure they can work something out. But I think she's three fights away from getting a UFC deal.

And of course, the ground game is the toughest thing. And that's why I feel like people need to relax a little bit with the Ronda Rousey talk, because you know what Ronda would do against her. I want to see her get tested on the ground before we really start singing her praises. But right now, she's certainly one of the women that you really need to pay attention to. And I think it's inevitable. She will make it to the UFC. I'd say she's maybe two or three fights away.

Our next question regarding the UFC 165 poster. It has received a lot of credit, which is definitely deserved. However, there's two other fighters that deserve to be on the poster, which are Henan Borough and Eni Wein, the two fighting for the UFC Bantamway title. Do you agree? Well, not necessarily. First off, kudos to Eddie Weinland. That mustache.

I don't know if you follow him on Twitter. If you don't, you should. the mustache and the hair and all that. The whole package is really turning into something special. And it's almost peaking for his title fight. And I'm happy he got the title fight. And he's getting a chance to fight Hennon Burrow in Toronto. Let's call it like we see it, though.

Jones, Gustafson, that's the main event. That's the fight that people will buy. That's the draw. That's the one that's going to make headlines. And sure, there's a title fight on there. And there should be some kind of mention, maybe. But that's one of the best posters the UFC has put out in a very long time and I think it would just clutter what they're trying to sell by having the other fight on

there. So I have no problem with it. Also, the poster just looks awesome. Yeah, it's great. So no need to change it. Looks pretty damn great. That's what I meant when I said it was one of the best posters UFC put out in a while. A question about the featherweight rankings. Ariel, can you please elaborate why you rank Frankie Edgar at the number two featherweight in the world? I'm a big Frankie Edgar fan and obviously he fought a close fight against Aldo, but I don't think that this is in any way warranting ranking him above guys like Mendez or Lamas.

Rankings should represent what a fighter has achieved in a weight class and nothing else. Thoughts. You know, the rankings have been causing me a lot of grief. I had Jessica I, who I did not rank in my top 10, call me out over the weekend. I didn't rank her in my top 10 pound for pound women's

rankings. And now this man, Wild Renate, or is it Henate? Frankie, Edgar, I still consider it to be one of the best lightweights in the world. He took Aldo to the distance something Chad Mendez did not do, have a lot of respect for Mendez, Lamos, of course, all those guys. I think that when I rank someone, I consider their body of work. I consider how I think they would do against some of the top guys. I consider, of course, what they have done as of late. And I think Edgar has a very good shot

of beating those guys. And I think he fought Aldo very closely. Like I said, went five rounds with them did not get knocked out and look good in his last fight. And I think he, he obviously can still hang with the best at 155. So that's my criteria. As I've said many times, I think rankings are silly. Who the hell am I? Your rankings are just as good as mine. You watch just as much MMA as I watch. I think rankings, you know, the best kind of rankings are probably the ones that are, you know, from a, taken from a pool of experts, maybe some fighters, media, et cetera. et cetera, et cetera, and then you kind of get the average, but just one guy's ranking, I mean, silly. They're silly, and what's the difference really between two and three?

But I think if Edgar fought Mendez, I'd favor Edgar. So that's why I have him too. One of the reasons I have him too. I just listed some others. I could be 1,000% wrong, and I wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong. But that's really what I take into account. And even pound for pound, you know, pound for pound is even sillier. just make-belief stuff.

I mean, do you have a problem with this New York, Rick? Do you think he should be lower? Not necessarily. I don't have a problem with it. I just think that consistency is important. Like, for example, you've talked about in the past, like Anderson Silva losing to Chris Widman drops him below or whatever that may be. If that's the case, then that single loss for Frankie Edgar or those few losses in a row should

matter in your rank. So you think my rankings are wrong? Is that what you're saying? I don't necessarily. I hate when people say... I also agree that rankings in general are just silly. Sure. I don't... I don't...

By the way, I just want to interrupt everything. Kate Middleton had a boy. Congratulations. I love the Royals, by the way. I don't know why I'm so fascinated by them. I'm sure there's a lot of our fans out there who are equally interesting. Breaking news, I just saw it right now. Back to the rankings.

Wait, how's your heart, though? Are you going to be right? It's very weird. I feel it. Maybe that's why I was so... That was it. I was so anxious about this. She went into labor this morning.

It's all over the place. It's a boy. It's just a very big deal. I mean, they had a kid. Back to the less important ranking stuff. I hate when people rank someone. Just lost the title fight, and they put them all the way down to like six or seven.

I think that's crazy. You lost to the best guy. You should be it, too. And Frankie lost to the best guy most recent, so that's another reason why I haven't met too. I don't know. All right. Let's get off rankings.

All right. Final website question regarding Connor McGregor. Have you ever seen another new quote-unquote UFC fighter? UFC fighters' profile grow so quick like Connor McGregor. Yeah. One fight in and he's hanging out with the boss Dana White. Dana loves him. I think he loves how brash he is, how cocky he is.

He says what's on his mind. It's very entertaining. He's got the total package. He's Irish. Putting him in the Boston card, you know that means a lot to Dana. And yeah, he's hanging out with him and lost. Vegas, they're having a little joy ride down Las Vegas Boulevard, like two high school girls giggling and squealing, having a time of their life. He's growing a very nice beard, I must say.

And, you know, should we say that his rise in popularity is directly linked to his first appearance on this show when we really showcased him to the world? I mean, I'm not going to be that guy. But it was a great performance. It was a great interview on his part. And, you know, you know, if we had a part in it all, then great. I'm happy for him. But yeah, it's a very interesting thing. He has attached himself or, you know, the UFC has, that's what they do. They're a promotional company. They are a promotion. And their job is to, you know, pinpoint these stars that they're going to promote. I mean, they said the same thing about Ronda Rousey. She got that treatment. There are fighters who have received it. And it's going to be interesting. He has a very tough fight against Max Holloway, August. 17th, he was supposed to fight Andy Ogle, said that he wanted to fight Ricardo Lamas. They gave him Ogal instead. Excuse me, the game at Holloway instead. They're giving him the slow build, but he is very confident. You listen to interviews of his before entering the UFC two-time

champion and Cage Warriors, always talk, you know, very openly about how confident he was and how he expects to do well and how he expects to be UFC champion, not afraid of anyone. And the UFC is smart to attach themselves to him. So kudos to them for that. And kudos to him. And kudos to for really putting himself out there. He has done a great job of marketing himself. You follow him on Twitter. He's hilarious. You can hear his voice in the tweets.

So I'm not surprised that Dana is very fond of him. Moving on to Twitter. How do you think UFC on Fox 8 will fare this Saturday, given all its injuries, in terms of ratings? Yeah, it's not the strongest UFC on Fox card. I was really looking forward to the Robbie Lawler versus C.R. Bahadresada fight. I was looking forward to Liz Karmouche versus Misha Tate. Obviously, you have to understand why they made that switch.

And I'm kind of surprised, I mean, usually when they promise someone a position on a main card like Fox, they're not going to take them off it. But I'm surprised maybe the Michael Kiesa versus Horny Mazvedal fight didn't get bumped up or something like that. But it doesn't appear like it has received the same kind of promotional push as other cards. And I think UFC 162 has really benefited from the fact that there was a break before. it, there was a break after it, so we've really had a lot of time to digest Chris Wyatman's win over Anderson Silva. And I think the amazing ending of that fight took some of the shine away from UFC on Fox 8. I think the fly weights aren't as popular as some of the big boys. There are a lot of big fights coming up. It just, for whatever reason, kind of got lost in the shuffle. And I will say

the most important stretch is the final week. And if it started yesterday, UFC's Road to the Octagon was, in my opinion, a home run. So if it started yesterday, and that's the important stretch drive to building a card and building buzz, then they're doing okay. It's going to be interesting to see what they do. And in the past, at least last year, the summer fight cards were a little weaker as far as ratings are concerned than the ones during the football season. And I expect this one to be the same. But what, to me, what this really speaks of is the Fox cards are a big deal, but we don't view them and cover them in the same. same way that we did last year. I remember last year this time, that was the card that Shogun fought

Brandon Vera in the main event. There were some switches there, Little Machita versus Ryan Bader. And I remember people saying like, oh, look at the Fox cards. It's so weak. You know, this is not good enough for Fox. And now you don't hear people to say that. And it's interesting. It's interesting to see the way people have reacted to the evolution of the Fox card. Maybe because we're just getting good cards you know, every step of the way and we don't really care as much anymore. But But I wouldn't be surprised if this gets, you know, one of if not the lower wadings on Fox as far. There have been eight. And of all of them, this has received the least amount of buzz right now,

but we still have, you know, six or so days leading up to it. Our next question. Being a father yourself. Oh, yeah. How much effect do you think having a child one week before a fight will have on Demetrius Johnson? That was the first thing I thought. That was the first thing I thought when, word got out that Demetrius Johnson had a boy last Friday and again,

muzzletov to him and his family. I can't imagine. I can't imagine leading up to it. It's not hugely stressful leading up to it. I mean, the final days, especially if, you know, your wife's a little late, it gets a little anxious. But afterwards, how do you just leave and go train? And he's kind of lucky, to be honest, that it happened in the last week.

I would think that it's easier to happen now than if it happened a month ago, because then you're in the real, you know, midst of training camp and your sleep is all messed up and all this stuff. But now, Friday, eight days before the fight, you're kind of tapering off and, you know, the hard part is really done. So maybe this motivates him. Maybe I can really see that happening. You know, when I first heard about it, I didn't really think of it this way, but I think it would have happened a month ago. It could have been a big distraction, but because it only happened eight days ago or eight days before the fight will happen on Saturday, in his hometown, so he doesn't have to really travel all that far, or at least close enough to his hometown. He lives in Kirkland, which I believe is an hour or so away driving from Seattle.

I don't think it will be a detriment. I think it could only be a positive. The way you'll feel about life and your motivation and how you feel now after having a kid, I think it will help him. Month ago, it could have been different, could have been a little hairy, but the timing, I think, helps out Demetrius. Great question. Our next question. With Paul Daly winning again this weekend, will he ever fight in the UFC again? That's another great one, and it was one that I was asked a lot this past weekend after he won at Cage Warriors. I don't think so. I don't see it happening.

I know Dana has said never, and he's gone back. You know, Nate Marquart, that was the most public one of the mall. Josh Barnett, another one, but don't worry. Just lunch. I don't see Paul Daly happening because of what he did in the cage, because of how he did it after the fact. And also, I think he had his chances at redemption to a degree in strike force, lost to some wrestlers.

And I think they think, well, if you can't beat those guys, you know, what is there really left for you to do in the UFC? Now, could he get a late replacement fight? Maybe on a car in England and they needed to step in, maybe. But right now, if you ask me, I don't see him getting another chance. unfortunate because I think he deserves it. And right now, let's not forget he's in Belator, but about the UFC, I don't see it happening.

Our next question, do you think Fightmaster will do for Belator what Tough did for the UFC? No, I don't. I don't really find the show interesting at all, to be honest. And you know how I feel about Tough at this point. I've called it stale. I have a hard time watching it. I'm very interested in the upcoming season

because I think the dynamic of the women will really help it out, a cautiously optimistic, I guess you can say. Fightmaster, to me, the real draws are the coaches, and they're not going to fight. You're not going to sell any shows. You're not going to sell out an arena because of those coaches. They're all retired except for Joe Warren. And it just feels to me like, okay, you win the show,

you're the champion of Fightmaster, and then you go in another tournament. It's going to take a long time for you to be able to capitalize on this victory. And it's no different in the UFC. You win tough, you don't get a title shot. But to go from one tournament to the next, I don't know. I just don't see it happening. The ratings took a bit of a hit, and they're doing okay,

but I don't hear many people talking about it after the shows. I don't get a lot of tweets about it. I think that's the first time this week, really the first time we've been asked about it. I don't really see it doing for Bellator what tough did for the UFC. And I heard Shannon Knapp talk about it for Invicta. To me, a reality show now should be used to develop the stars that you have. Not to showcase 32 guys and you're only going to be using, you know, one or two of them. And then all that time was devoted to these guys that you have nothing to do with.

You can't benefit off them. If you're going to do a reality show now, if you're an MMA promotion, use the guys that are in your organization and tell us about them. Don't waste your time with prospects that many of them aren't even going to make it to the UFC or the Bell Tour or whatever. that's my problem with MMA reality shows right now. Have you seen it? I haven't seen it.

I haven't watched an episode. There you go. But that's just because I don't even watch anything on tough except for the fights. I'm just not interested in reality. See, I disagree with you in that sense. If you're telling good stories, it's good. It gets you emotionally invested. The other shenanigans, I agree, are silly.

But if you're just watching Joe Schmo versus Joe Schmoe, you want to know a bit about them beforehand. Not interested. No? No. If it was two guys wearing black masks, you'd still be as interested as, you know, if you knew who these guys were. Sure, if I thought that eventually that would lead to some kind of more exposure with the UFC. If, you know, these guys go on to have careers that I care about, sure.

But I don't care about the idea of the ultimate fighter and living in the house and all itself. Zero percent interest. I agree, the house and all that. But if you're telling stories, even if they're at home with their family and, like, Like, exactly. Someone said to me, oh, what it wrote to the Octagon tell me about John Maraga as a fighter. Well, they didn't really break down his win over Ulysses Gomez, but it told you about him as a man, as a guy. And now I really care about the story of John Maraga.

Now I want to see how he performs in the biggest fight of his life. That, to me, is good promotional use of the platform that you have and telling the right kind of stories to get people interested in these fighters. That's how you should be doing MMA, quote, unquote, reality shows. I can agree with that in a sense. I'm still less interested than you are. All right, fine. Next question. The UFC rankings have been around for a while now.

Any thoughts on their effect, if any? I kind of addressed this earlier. I mean, I really think that they're just used for TV purposes. I don't think Joe Silva uses them. I don't think Dana White uses them. I think they use them when they want to use them, when it benefits them, when they say, oh, T.J. Grant, his number or so-and-so, and he's getting a title show when people question them.

them. But otherwise, I don't think it's being used for anything. I think it's being used to put on a lower third graphic, a bottom graphic on TV saying this guy is ranked 6 and he's fighting this guy who's ranked 7th. And this is why you need to care about this fight. It's a quick way to get people interested, to a quick way of telling people that these are important fighters who are fighting an important fight. That's pretty much it. And I think that if the UFC wasn't with Fox and Fox didn't recommended or if it wasn't brought up, they probably never would have done this. I was saying it's bad, but we should recognize it for what it is. Our next question, who needs a win more? Shogun or Sonan? That's a good question. I'm going to say, honestly, I'm going to say Chal Sunnan.

You know, after losing two title fights at 185, after losing a title fight at 205, he loses to Shogun. It's going to be very hard for a guy who speaks that much, who's that outspoken, who's that, you know, brash, cocky, confident, whatever you want to call him to keep banging that drum if he now loses a non-title fight to someone who some may consider to be tail end of his career. So I'm going to say if Chail Sondon loses August 17th, he is losing more than if Shogun loses. Now, if Shogun loses, it will be a big blow and he's coming off a loss to Alexander Gustafin. But then you can say, oh, it's two top guys. All right. Bad matchup, wrestler, all that good stuff. I think if Chale loses, it's a huge blow to his career. Do you agree?

not particularly especially with the point about um losing to gustavs and well chale loss to anderson sova and john jones that's i mean his losses can be discounted if not equally but then what do you do it more so well i think that the fact of the matter is basically if son and loses i could see him almost like stepping away gladly and and you know doing the media thing and um having something to fall back on other than fighting in terms of his fighting career, I think, I don't know, does he need it more than Shogun? I don't know. I think for a guy who is, like I said, that outspoken, people are going to start listening to less, listening to him less if he is on this losing streak and he's losing to non-champions. Yeah. You might have convinced me.

Yeah, I think it might be son. All right. Another good one. Yeah, great question. Here's our next one. Who will be the next UFC fighter to win belts in two weight classes? Connor McGregor? No. B.J. Randy and... Hmm. I mean, Connor has said that he wants to fight at 155.

He's currently fighting at 145. Although Max Holloway... No, Max Holloway is 145. Hmm. Well, I think you're approaching it from the idea of who's will hold him. simultaneously. There's plenty of guys that could who are former champions that could just move to another division and win

there. Well, then I'd say John Jones. I think that's a good answer. I also think Jose Aldo is possible to win at 155. God, can you imagine? Frankie Edgar at 145. He's won at 55. He would be a multiple champion if he won. He probably has the best shot.

Well, he did lose that opportunity because it's going to take him a bit to get back there. I was just about to say, by the way, can you imagine Jose Aldo versus Pettus for the belt at 155. And it's so weird that I'm into that now, but I wasn't into it. I think it's because we get the Benson fight out of the way.

You really were on that Benson fight. So I think that once that's out of the picture, then you'll be properly excited for Aldo v. Pettis, which I think is one of the best matchups. That would be sick. That would definitely be a great fight at 155. So yeah, I'd say Jones, if he goes up to heavyweight, obviously I don't see Kane going down

you have to look at the guys Wide men I don't see him moving up It's too big of a gap there From 205 to 185 And the ones that Rick mentioned And it also I mean it doesn't have to be current champions

There could be guys who formerly held belts That are now in new divisions But who's there? I mean other than Edgar Hmm I mean there's still Brandon Vera Do you see a picture of Brandon Vera recently? No

He's huge He is very big Is he gonna fight at heavyweight? Yeah, he has a fight coming up. Against who? He's fighting in Milwaukee. Brandon Vera is funny, I'll tell you right now. He's fighting in Milwaukee.

I just saw a picture of him. He's looking massive. He's fighting Ben Rothwell in Milwaukee. I kind of like that. Yeah, it's great. Important fight for both of them. But yeah, remember he said that he was going to be a dual champion. Oh, Leota Machita.

If he dropped to 85, that would be. a possibility. That's a good one. I think there's a few out there that could possibly pull it off. It seems really tough though. If only two guys have done it, I mean... Yeah, but I feel like back in the day,

guys weren't moving around as much as they are now. Sure. Okay, next question. If Hendrix beats GSP, does he deserve an immediate rematch like Sova since he's been champ for a long time? 1,000%. No question.

I mean, look how smart the decision was to do the rematch now, the buzz, people like that 100%. Do you disagree? I do not. I'm not a fan of immediate rematches, but I think in certain cases like GSP and Sova, it's warranted. Just because they've been the champion for so long, I agree that it would be fitting. Here's the thing. It depends on how he loses also.

If Hendrix comes out and just knocks him out in 10 seconds or. something like that, you could make a case that, you know, that won't happen again in a rematch. But if Hendricks beats him up for five rounds, I don't know if I necessarily think that it's that sellable. Sure, it does depend. I don't see that happening that way. Total beat down for five rounds. Certainly depends.

But I'm going to say right now, if you just say he wins like Widman won against Silva, that kind of ending stoppage second round, I would say do it. I agree. Our next question, who is Mrs. Helwani's favorite fighter from the list of fighters in the UFC Hall of Fame? So, as I mentioned at the top of the show, there's been a growing phenomenon. People are very interested in my mother's take on things. She watches watching right now, as I mentioned in Italy, although it's getting kind of late over there, so she may have checked out.

I'll have to check. did see this question earlier, and I did ask her this question. And I, as you can see over there, and I sent her the list of the UFC Hall of Fame. Believe it or not, she doesn't know everyone in the Hall of Fame, you know, off the top of her head. And within a second, she wrote back, of course, Randy Couture. And I said, oh, Dana White won't be happy about that. But she said, the natural. That's her guy. That's who she likes from the Hall of Fame. So there you have it. Maybe an older fighter can relate to him. I don't know. It's a very hardcore pick.

The hardcore of hardcore fans do love them some Randy Couture. Sure. I mean, if she was truly hardcore, maybe she would have went old school on me, Dan Severin or something like that. But I thought she was going to go maybe a Forrest Griffin. She's maybe seen him fight, Stefan Bonner, seen him on TV. I don't even know if she's seen Randy Couture fight.

But she knows Randy Couture. Our next question from the same person. Yes, very interested in my mother, this guy. Very interested in your mother. Has Mrs. Halwani ever had a tearful moment from any fighter she has, I guess that's any fight she's witnessed? Yeah, well, I asked her this question and again responded right away and she said, of course, UFC 154 when Carlos Condit, her guy, she was in attendance.

She bought tickets, you know, spent money at her own pocket to be there at the Bell Center and Carlos Conded, her guy, lost to GSP. And I mentioned on the show she's not the hugest GSP fan. Carlos, like I said, one of her favorites, I'd say Carlos and Uriah Faber tied for her favorite. fighter. She was very sad. She was very emotional. She was actually there with my wife and she, my wife couldn't quite understand why she was so emotional about this result. But yeah, that was her moment. And then at UFC 158, the open workouts in Montreal, my mom came and she had a chance to meet Carlos Condon in person. It made her week. It made her month. It was a great moment. He was

very nice. So that was her saddest moment as far as being a UFC fan, MMA fan. Night Carlos Condit lost the GSP. We have one more Twitter question. Okay. Now that New York, Rick, has put topless videos of himself online, are we going to see the men of the MMA hour calendar on sale?

Well, this is a great transition, and I was checking. The last thing my mom wrote to me was about Kate having the boy. She knows where my heart's at. I was going to bring this up because I saw that vine. we can't show that fine

we probably should have thought of this earlier finally New York Rick listened to the criticism and he put out this vine of him about to do some some UFC fit and he's been I believe to a degree that he's doing it I don't know if he's doing it every night it's obviously very hard to tell

because I'm not there but he was topless and I thought wow that is risky that is risky to put yourself out there what was the response to that most people said good job. Did they think that this was a good

sort of litmus test as to where you are right now? What are you six weeks in? Did they think that this was a good look for you? I just finished week seven. Wow. Just starting week eight now. What's the first thing you're going to eat when you're done with all this? Some beef, I think. Just straight up beef. Yeah, I'm missing red meat a little bit. The thing is, the cravings are so gone that like

I'm, there's nothing I'm like dying to have. I feel fantastic. I'm eating great food. And there's the cravings of, you know, candy and beef are the two things I want the most. But even that, I mean, if I had to do this for the rest of my life, I wouldn't be tortured or anything like that. Because it's pretty, it works pretty damn well. The Dolce diet is great as part of the UFC fit program. I'm very interested in the breakfast bowl.

That's what, that's the one that I keep hearing. about. That's the one. What is in it? You put buckwheat, blueberries. It's kind of like a lot of fruit. You want to put a lot of fruit in it to start your morning, right? And you can actually find that one. The breakfast bowl has been talked about a lot. You can find that one online. You don't have to like search too hard for it. So you could find out a way to make that and it's a great breakfast. So you like it. I like it. So you put out this vine and you put out two, right? Well, the second one was kind of weak. It was just me sweating after the workout. And how do we know this was taken after your workout? You have to take my word for it. You could be doing a lot of things while sweating. I can't vine while working out. You're going to have to just trust me.

But there is some kind of sign that you're doing. Oh, I see it. Oh, wow. Is the second one topless too? Oh, yeah. Holy moly. Look at you. I do the workout in my shorts.

What are you talking? In my shorts. And then I... Let me try to hear this. Oh, I'm listening to the damn show. All I see is you in front of a camera, in front of a mirror, holding a camera phone up and you're sweaty and you're topless. It's very strange.

Wow. You must have gotten a lot of love for this. This is what it's come down to. I mean, there's a lot of guys out there on Twitter interested in seeing topless picks of me. Yeah, why? I'm happy to provide, I guess. Well, you know, people want to know if this thing really works. Oh, it works.

I mean, let's be real. You know I'm doing it every night. I mean, I can't actually say that because I haven't been there. I haven't seen the proof. Well, you're welcome to come over and videotape it yourself. Okay. But yeah, it's, I mean, people notice it. People have noticed.

Oh, yeah. The people in my life and even, you know, seeing my face, the shape of my face on camera, it's a lot different. It is. Yeah, I see it. It's a lot thinner, narrower. there's certainly a big change happening in front of our eyes. You know, not once have we heard a thank you for changing my life or we appreciate, you know, everything that you've done. That's not over, first of all.

It's true. It's not over. Are you expecting to fail? No. Speaking of failing, you used to be the, you used to, and thank you to everyone. That was it, right? Yep. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. If you're wondering, by the way, why we're not giving out any prize. Why don't you tell the people, Mr. New York, Rick, why there are no prizes this week? I'm not sure. We got word from somewhere.

I don't remember what happened. For whatever reason, New York, Rick has gone very busy. Maybe he's too busy doing his workouts or making breakfast bowls and whatnot. But he has not been sending out the prizes on time. So I thought to help him, I would ease up on giving out prizes, not let them pile up. And then when he has cleared his plate, we'll get back to it. And to be honest, I mean, you have proven to me that you don't need the prizes. These were great questions.

Actually, some of our best, and a lot of you would have won in the older days. But, you know, we don't need to entice you with prizes to ask those questions. At least I hope not. So keep them coming, and we appreciate those very much. And if you want to complain about not winning a prize, you can send those complaints to Twitter.com slash New York Rick. Now, speaking of failing, as I mentioned, New York Rick used to be the resident picker, the gambling expert on our squad here. As you know, he failed not one but two challenges to earn his spot as said gambling experts.

So I've decided, since a lot of you want to know what we're thinking and there are a lot of big fights coming up, I've decided to call upon my lovely mother to help us make sense of these fights and to help us pick these fights. So we're calling this segment Mama Knows. and it's of course not spelled K-N-O-W-S. It's Mama N-O-S-E, as you can see right here, the play on words. And that's where, of course, I got my now-famous nose. So I have asked her who she thinks is going to win on the main card. I'll just ask her main card because, you know, I mean, it's a lot of fights to pick.

And, of course, she didn't do all that well at UFC 162 her big gambling debut. She went 0 for 2. but I think she'll turn things around. So as far as UFC on Fox 8 is concerned, she picked Liz Karmouche to defeat Jessica Andrade. She picked Robbie Lawler to defeat Bobby Volker. She picked Roy McDonald to defeat Jake Ellenberger. And then this one she had a lot of trouble with.

You've seen right there on the desk the champion Demetrius Johnson defending his belt against John Maraga. She picked Demetrius. He will retain. What do you think of those? She picked chalk. She picked all four favorites. She doesn't know that.

I agree. I agree with her. All of them. I agree. Mighty Mouse is going to win. I think, man, it's going to be tough to challenge Mighty Mouse in that division. He's really, really good. Just in the way he mixes up, takedowns, and striking, it's going to be super tough.

But there are challenges out there for him. But I think that this is one where Mighty Mouse is going to win. probably a decision. I'm seeing a five-round decision here. Yeah. Ellenberger and McDonald's. She picked Rory. I agree with that.

Can't wait. In fact, I think it's going to be less of a close fight than people think. I think Rory's going to really showcase himself here. Finish him? I think he's going to finish Jake. Wow. Early? Middle to late rounds. Okay.

Jake has been known to slow down. Now, I think that's overplayed. I don't think that he's, you know, some guy. who gases out or anything like that. But understandably, fighters get tired. And I think that Rory just, he has the ability to break people and I think he's going

to finish Jake in the middle to late rounds in this one. I think he's going to be able to grapple when he wants to grapple and be able to be competent enough on his feet to stand with Jake. That said, if Jake lands one of those bombs, it's night night, obviously.

But I think that Rory is going to take this one. And rather, easily, in my opinion. And what about Robbie? I mean, honestly, I don't even know why I'm asking, but I'm curious to see maybe she'll, you agree with all of them.

I agree. Lawler, he's going to win, and Karmouche is going to win as well. Well, that's no fun. One of these days, she'll pick a big, you know, upset or something, and then... Well, she did pick Olivera. Yeah, she did. But it almost came true.

Well, I defended her pick. Yeah, you did. If you remember after the show. I wouldn't have picked it, but I defended it. it. All right. So there you have it. It's mama knows. Let's see how she does.

It would have been fun if we put her in the RPI and won the whole damn thing. We could add another female contestant. And then we'd have Wonna Bed calls. Well, you know, it's very interesting because when you talk about the percentage

of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all you betters. And by the way, you had some opportunities. You had Cage Warriors. You had Legacy. You didn't feel like you needed to better. One of them didn't have lines. I believe it was Legacy.

Okay. Did not have lines. Cage Warriors had. I saw someone tweeting them. I think it was MMA odds. I don't think legacy headlines, though. No, it wasn't MMA odds. Who was it?

It was the other guy. Someone was tweeting. Was it Nicolicus? Someone was tweeting. Anyway, one day, you do have some opportunities. Beltor is in the mix for you. World Series of Fighting has a show coming up, August 4th, August 10th, I should say. World Series of Fighting 4.

So you do have some opportunities. Don't give up hope. I'm still in it. Speaking of not giving up hope, one more thing before we go. some news coming out out of France. Unfortunately, France has upheld its ban on MMA. This article says UFC, but it's not UFC only.

It's mixed martial arts. This is coming from ESPN.com, despite intense lobbying, the French sports ministry has confirmed the ban on mixed martial arts will remain blocking hopes that UFC could make inroads in the country last year. UFC chief executive Lorenzo Furtado called France, a quote massive opportunity in showing outstanding cultural stereotyping added he was encouraged that you'll be eating

croissants watching what is this nonsense this is a horrible article anyway the point is um France still not allowing mixed martial arts and that my friends is crazy unbelievable

still banning MMA I don't know how big it would be over there but it's just kind of crazy yeah France we don't even have it here in New York I know but And by the way, how about next Wednesday? Everyone's going to be at the Beacon Theater here in New York. Dana White, Ronda Rousey, Misha Tate, John Jones, Alexander Gustafson, GSP, Hendrix, Kane Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos.

They're going on this multi-city world tour. All those big fights coming up, of course, Wyman Silva, they're giving them a break. But all those big fights, and they're doing these press conferences, it's brilliant. It's a page out of boxing. I love it. And the UFC should be commended for this. I don't know about doing them on the same day, of them kind of stealing each other's spotlight but it's a great idea and and i hope they do more

of it when need be of course when you have a really big fight to sell and uh one more thing before i go uh how about that uh anderson silver did you see that video of him crying i did that was bizarre right it was i mean here's the thing about anderson silver nothing really surprises me he's such a like character that like i'll see anything and just be like yeah okay Anderson's over um um I mean, Usher, like, there's going to be a new video every week that is going to have some wacky thing. It is very bizarre. It is very bizarre. And last week, just want to tell you, last week we actually misquoted Usher.

Did you know that? I think you misquoted Usher. Well, we were given some bad advice, or some bad reporting, I should say. But the actual quote was, I looked it up. Wait, wait. Wait for it. Oh, here it is. The actual quote was, the student becomes the teacher. That's what he said. The student becomes the teacher. Not the teacher becomes the student. He actually said the student becomes a teacher. And that makes no sense whatsoever. No sense. Anderson wasn't the student. Anderson was the teacher. And how is he now becoming the teacher by losing? Makes no sense. Anyway, UFC on Fox 8. It's this weekend. Mike, you can hit my music. Meza versus Albert

Riley versus Salas That's on Facebook Germain Darandami versus Kedzi Trevor Smith versus Ed Herman Darren Krukshshank versus Eve Edwards Mac Danzig versus Melvin Galard Danny Castillo

versus Tim Means Michael Kesa versus Jorge Masvedell and then the main card Andrade versus Karmouche Voka versus Loller Ellenberger versus McDonald And how about Ellenberger Tears for Fear

All that trash talk Is it tears for fear or tears for fears? What is it? Anyone? Anyone? No one. No one wants to help me out.

Johnson v. Maraga, that's the main event. prelims start at 4 p.m. Eastern, FX, 5 p.m. Eastern, on Fox. I want to thank John Crouch for stopping by. Best of luck to him and his squad as John Maraga goes for the belt on Saturday. Costa Philpoo. Great stuff out of Costa. I really enjoyed having him on. Damien Maya as well.

Always good to hear from him. Looking forward to what's next for him. And Josh Thompson. Thank you very much to The Punk for stopping by. Sean Loughler, very interesting story. Good luck to him as he not only welcomes his second daughter to this great world, but also in what, at least for now, is being built as his retirement fight, August 24th. Good luck to Sean Loughler and Danny Castillo.

Thank you very much to him for stopping by. He returns to action again. Saturday night, UFC on Fox 8, Key Arena in Seattle, Washington. And then I want to thank all of you for your questions and comments. I'm going to Seattle on Wednesday looking forward to it. All great coverage coming at you Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Friends, MMAFinding.com. Until then, we ask you to watch the replays on Stitcher, iTunes,

all the good stuff. Peace, so many. 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.

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