MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 194

Episode Date: August 25, 2014

Featuring Freddie Roach, Phil Davis, Mike Brown, John Howard, John Kavanagh, Pat Cummins, and the UFN 26 conference call. 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?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for the show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to talk to each other. Introducing O-DU. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-DU replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-O-4-3

at O-D-O-D-com. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-com. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with... The Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life. On this Monday, August 12, 2013, it is so great to be back here on our usual Monday slot, my friends, because this is the start of a very big week in the world of mixed martial arts. This is the start of a very big week. In the world of the UFC, this is the start of a very big week in the world of television. Because on Saturday night, a mere five days.

from now, Fox Sports won, the rival America's new sports network, the alternative is going to launch, and a big part of that launch is UFC Fight Night Chail Sunan versus Shogun Huah goes down in Boston, will be there, cannot wait.

I'm not sure if you've ever been more excited about a card, and not just because of the fights themselves, but just about what all this means for the sport, selfishly professionally, and all that stuff. It's a very exciting time and also exciting. is the fact that the MMA hour is being presented this week

by the aforementioned Fox Sports One. It is America's new sports network, and on Saturday, August 17th, UFC coverage starts at 4.30 p.m. Eastern time with the premiere of UFC Ultimate Insider. If you haven't seen this show on Fuel, trust me, it is a fantastic show. It is hosted by John Anick. Then it will be followed by UFC Fight Night at 5 p.m. Eastern. For more information on the launch, follow them on Twitter.

Fox Sports One. Also, right after the fights on Saturday night, Fox Sports Live, the new kind of nightly sports highlight show hosted by two fellow Canadians, Jay Onright and Dan O'Toole. It's going to be great. It all kicks off on Saturday. I cannot wait, and I cannot wait for this particular show, my friends. We have a stack lineup for you. And you can see it all on the website from Phil Davis to John Kavanaugh to Pat Cummings, the UFC Fight Night 26 conference call Mike Brown, John Howard. They will all be. be joining us, but we will get to them in a second. Right now, let us go to the phone lines because one of the biggest guests that has ever joined us on our show is joining us right now, a true legend from the world of combat sports, so honored to be joined by the great Freddie Roach, online one right now. Freddie, how are you? I'm doing fine. How about yourself? I'm doing great, Freddie. Thank you so much, and really appreciate you stopping by. I know you're very busy right now. And by the way, congratulations on being inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame this past weekend. That must have been a pretty big thrill.

you, right? Yeah, it was great. It was a really good show. You know, Ernie Shavers, Larry Holmes, Tyson, Leonard, Chavez. Everybody showed up, Mayweather. It was a great night. All right. One of the main reasons, we are a mixed martial arts show, as you may have heard,

and one of the main reasons we wanted to have you on is because you worked with Shogun Huah as he prepared for Chail Sunnan. I'm wondering off the top, how did you even link up with Shogun? Well, he came to contact to my gym and asked me to come work out. And, of course, I was really excited about having come, you know, because working with guys like this is really an honor for me. And, you know, working with the best guys in the sport is just a lot of fun. And, you know, I've had to learn a lot about the MMA sport from boxing because, you know, the rules are different, a little bit, distance is a little bit different

because the aspect of kicking the knees and so forth. So, you know, I've been working with going to St. Pierre quite a while in Anderson Silver. So I've learned a lot along the way. And I was really excited about having Shogun. He came and worked really hard. We had some great workouts, and he's just a great guy to work with. How long did you work with him for? We worked together for two weeks, and, you know, it's funny because when we first started

working out, he wasn't punching really hard because he didn't have his balance in his feet under him. and I told me he punched like a girl. And then the last stage, he said, Freddy can I ask you question? Do I punch like a boy now? I said, yes, you do. He's a really fun guy to be around and a really hard worker,

and we had a really good time working out together. It's interesting to hear you say that, and I saw a clip that they did. They aired this on Fuel TV last weekend, and they put it online, you're working out with him. And it seems like at first you weren't all that impressed with his striking, you know, just kind of showing him the basics. And this is a guy in our sport who's considered one of the best strikers in the history of the sport.

Why did you think his skills, as far as a boxer is concerned, so elementary? Well, he didn't have his feet under me. He wasn't pivoting off the right foot at the right time. You know, the thing about striking is having the weight on the right foot at the right time and driving off that foot. And he was more or less just using his upper body, which was, you know, okay. I mean, because you're holding your whole thing. whole body behind the shot is just much, much better.

And he really started, I mean, he went from okay punches to a weight puncher and less than a week. He picks up on things very quickly because the athlete he is. And it was like night and day when he started to when he left. He really, really had a lot more power under his shots. But the thing is, he has to set down with the shots a little bit more. And sometimes it's a little bit harder with the – and maybe because the aspect of being kicked at the same time. So, you know, but it did work for him.

And when we worked off angles, it worked really, really well. And I was really happy with the progress. When you watch MMA fighters, are you surprised at how elementary their boxing skills are? Or do you think that because they have to deal with so much, the kicks, the takedowns, et cetera, it's okay for them to be not as good as actual boxers? Well, to me, it's not okay just to be okay.

I think that the perfection is you want to be perfective. You want to be the best in all aspects of the game because the better you are. One thing is just a great tool that you can use a lot more. So, you know, the thing is I work on the striking end of it, and we bring the foot end of it into that what can happen and so forth. So it's really a complicated sport because you actually have to be very, very good at four different sports.

And, you know, they're all coming together now with the young kids growing up and so forth. But the thing is just the work of the Shoghung was just so great that he just became. a much better puncher in a very short time. Were you surprised that he, as you said, hit like a girl for a guy with his resume. Were you shocked by that initially?

Well, he didn't really hit like a girl. I wouldn't go that far, but he was a decent puncher. But I was given a hard time. But the thing is, he did improve quite a bit, and his punching power did go from L, like, C, to an A really quickly. In two weeks, is that possible? Is that normal for a pro athlete? Yeah, because, you know, the thing is,

he understands the transfer of weight and he understands the pivoting and so forth. He just had to be shown how to transfer the weight correctly with the punch that he was throwing. And most of the good athlete guys like George St. Pierre and they pick up very quickly on that. When you watch UFC MMA in particular, are you, or in general, are you surprised that their boxing skills have not evolved? Is it hard for you to watch it because you are a trainer for boxers you live and breed the sport? Is it hard for you to watch because maybe some of their, you know, the most basic skills aren't being used in an MMA fight? Well, I wouldn't say it's hard to watch it, but I do have a couple guys out there that would like to help. But the thing is, you know, it's like sometimes when they, you know, when they get the guy on the ground and, like the pounding ground,

and they're just kind of arm punch and just not really getting their body behind the way, where they're, you know, could end it with one shot instead of 50, you know. So it does get a little frustrating at that point. But the thing is, you know, again, it's not their main sport at first for most of the guys. So it's just a learning process. And I'm very open to helping these guys out. And it works out well for me because I love working with great athletes. Is there one famous MMA fighter?

You see him on TV, you see him training, you say, I wish I can have a couple weeks with him. I can transform this guy's career. You know, I'm not that cocky a person. Oh, you should be. I just like help me. And, you know, it's funny because our opponent, Judge Shale, when I was at the M.MA Awards, when I gave the fight with the year award away,

he was asking me some questions about punching and so forth. And I told him, it's really, really hard to show you, to actually show you, but if you come to my gym, I'll definitely show you. So the thing is, it's just such a nice thing when I have the best of the best coming in here. Did Chale take you up on that offer? He hasn't showed up yet, but no. He didn't take me up on that offer, but the thing is, you know, I'm sure we both have busy schedules.

But I didn't get a chance to work with him. But I do want to give me a better answer than I gave me a good word. when I do see him. So you would like to work with Shogun to prepare for Chale? Yeah, you know, obviously, I like Shogan going into this fight because I work with him and so forth, and hopefully I can help him. I helped him out, and hopefully he'll be prevailing and win the fight. But the thing is, I have nothing against working with the Shale after the fight,

but it wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't be correct if I took him on before the fight. Now, you won't be in Boston with Shogun, right? No, I won't be, no. My hometown, Boston is a big fight going on. But I won't be there. I've got four title fights for the rest of the year. So we're kind of overwhelmed right now with the four title fights we have coming up.

Now, a couple more things, and then we'll let you go, and we appreciate the time very much, Freddie. You mentioned George St. Perry. You mentioned Anderson Silva. When's the last time you worked with either of those two? One champion, one now former champion? Well, George was here last week, and then I went to Montreal, to work with him for two weeks up there, so I've been quite closer to it.

Anderson has been a couple years. He did come by my gym and likes my speed bags, and bought one of my speedbags off me for his new gym in L.A., but I haven't worked with him in quite a while. And I hear a lot of rumors about them, too, maybe fighting down the line. It would be great fight, but if I do train something for that fight, It will be George, and we'd have to come over there, a very good game plan to beat, and because he is a talented guy. Did you see him get knocked out and how he got knocked out,

and if so, what was your reaction, considering all the antics and the theatrics he was doing? I definitely saw him get knocked out, and, you know, my thought on that is that he just plays around too much. He's just like, I think it's too easy for him sometimes, and he just got close. copy, he just got caught playing around, and, you know, in the sport, one punch can change things, and this isn't like a sport that you should actually play. But the thing is, I think he gets a little bored in there because he is talented, and he seems like he's more talented than a lot of guys. He is one of the best that I've ever worked with.

He understands his time and distance really well, and he just, I think he could avoid taking those shots, But again, I'm not sure what his thought process was, but I think he just was a little bit lazy and he was playing around too much. Do you think that should hurt his legacy the way he lost? Obviously, you know, a loss is a loss. And regardless of how we lost or why we lost, it's not anyone's fault but your own.

So it is part of his career. So, you know, it's part of his life. So we can't, like, say, well, he wasn't ready for that one. know he didn't train for that one so it is any part of his legacy and i think he needs to come back and come back well and george is defending his title again in november i know you have a very busy schedule as you just said will you help him prepare for that fight against johnny hendricks we watched a lot of tapes on hendricks we came up with the game plan for hendricks and i went to montreal to work with him and then he came down to l.a to work with me and uh so uh we're we're

trying to get together one more time before that fight happens and we do have a good strategy for him. He is a big puncher with the left hand. I understand that. But I think we have a great game plan in store for him. Now two quick boxing questions. Mayweather Canello, what's your prediction? Mayweather wins every round.

It's not a fight, though. He's a boxing match. And when he wants a boxing, he doesn't take chances. It might be a little bit boring, but he's very good at what he does. But he is a little bit boring because, he doesn't take chances. He doesn't go for knockouts, but that's just the way he is. And then you have a big fight.

You were just promoting it, Mani Pachiav versus Brandon Rios in Macau in November. If, let's just say if, and you want to, obviously, you know, harp on this, but if Pachial loses coming off the loss, will you ask him to retire? Yes, I will. Well, there's a lot of depends on how he loses and so forth. But if he loses, I think that this opponent, if he loses today, guys like this, it's about over, yeah. Are you concerned?

No. I'm 100% positive for this fight back. Yeah, we're going to train the Philippines. He's at a year off. He's anxious to get back in the gym. I wrote him up a little schedule because he wanted to start before I get there. And he's going to train every other day until I get there. And, you know, right now I've got Ruslin-Panovikov getting ready for fighting Denver

for his world title. fight. I've got Miguel Cotto fighting on October 5th in Florida, and he's fighting a big big fight for him back on HBO and trying to bring him back is going to be

I'm working with him every morning right now. I finish with him and we started at 5 o'clock this morning and then we finished three hours later with doing the conditioning work and then he's come back at 2 in the afternoon and work in the boxing. So right now you know, in Abanis Matarosian,

for the world title on the Chavez show on the 7th. So we get our hands full right now, and it's great to be busy, though. And then two last questions about you personally. You know, UFC President Dana White told us that he's been battling this Mnierrez disease, and he went to Germany to do this stem replacement therapy, and it says that he says that it has cured him, and Alex Rodriguez recommended it to him, and he told us the MMA media that he was going to,

or at least he did tell you about it, and you were interested in going to Germany to see if this could help you out. Have you inquired about this? Have you done the trip to Germany? No, I haven't done the trip yet, but I definitely have my doctors working on that, and I have my neurologist talking to the ones in Germany. So we are working on that, and when I have my last study this year, December is going to be a slow month, and that's part of the plans of going over there in December, possibly,

and getting some more work done because they're doing great things over there. And we just want to make sure that it's going to help the Parkinson's because sometimes when they put the stem cell, they have no control of where it goes and so forth. And it's still kind of new. And my doctors, you know, they're a little bit concerned, but the thing is, you know, Dana told me he had great results from that. And it was really, really nice of him to call me.

It was actually the first time I've ever spoke to him on the phone. Wow. And, you know, we know each other from Boston and stuff like that. We know of each other. But the thing is, I thought it was really the – it was one of the best calls ever guys because he cares about me, and that shows a lot. Final thing, Freddie, how many more years do you want to be a trainer for? Have you thought about that yet?

Yeah, I'll probably die in the ring on the mitts one day when I get hit a hard body shot from these fucking guys. You know, when the One thing about Shogun, when he did throw the power shots, he really throws hard, and he really is good puncher.

And the other thing is, when I said he hits like a girl, I was just giving him more of a hard time, just trying to motivate him to do it, to do it more correctly, and he uses body weight. So I'm really anxious to see him fight, and fight this fight.

And, you know, I think he won't by knockout with a punch because he has knockout power, and I wish him the best in the fight. Thank you so much for stopping by Freddie. This is a huge honor for us. We really appreciate it. Good luck to you in all your big fights coming up in 2013, and if you do make it over to Germany,

hope everything works out for you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. There he is. The legendary, the inimitable, one-of-a-kind. You throw around the word legend, but in his sport, and now helping out MMA fighters, it's great to see Freddie Roach stopping by.

Thank you so much to his great team for helping to make that happen. And very interesting stuff that he said about Shogunhua, about really, you know, going down to the basics, you know, a lot of these guys, we consider them world-class strikers. And they are, you know, in their respective fields. And, again, you have to worry about a whole lot more when you're talking about mixed martial arts. You know, you can't – I find it unfair when people criticize MMA fighters for being bad. boxers. I mean, if you just strictly look at what they're doing on their feet as boxers, yes, I mean, a lot of them don't move their head. They don't use the proper foot movement. They don't, you know, they don't jab enough. They don't go to the body. They don't mix it up.

All that stuff. Absolutely. But then we sometimes forget that they have to worry about so much. I mean, you look at a guy, I remember the Robert Whitaker fight against Colton Smith. I mean, he had one hand down the entire time, but there was a strategy behind that. You remember that fight in May. The strategy was he knew that Colton wanted to shoot and worked out perfectly. At first, it seems strange that his left hand was down the entire fight, but then we knew that he was using that to stop his takedowns to hook him. So I think that sometimes it's unfair, but it's interesting to hear someone like Freddie Roach, who's worked with the best, say that he just had to break him down, but it then took him just two weeks to get Shogun up into this level of being able to really do

a lot of damage. He obviously is picking Shogun. He thinks he can knock Chale's Sunnan out. Tough matchup for Shogun. When you consider it's a five-round fight, Chail's a wrestler, likes to grind it out. I'm very curious about it because it's one of those kind of classic striker versus wrestler matchups. Both of them in very important places in their career. And, you know, both of them coming off losses for Chale, you know, even if he loses, I think there's more riding on the line for Shogun because Chale is switching weight classes even though he's going back down to his original

185 pound weight class you often in the eyes of the fans, and this was a pit stop for Chale at 2.05, but in the eyes of the fans, when you change weight classes, it feels like you get a fresh coat of paint put on your career. I feel like Shogun at this point after the loss to Gustafson, he really needs

a strong performance here on Saturday night. So it's going to be interesting to see, and we're going to talk about it, and I feel to mention at the beginning of the show in the third hour, we'll also take your questions and comments, so hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour, excuse me, and, yeah, using the hashtag the MMA hour, or leave the questions, comments in the post below if you're watching this live on MMAfighting.com. One of the interesting fights on the card on Saturday night pits Uriah Hall, who the last time we heard saw Uriah Hall in action was in April, when there was all this buzz, all this momentum, all this talk about him being one of the true great tough winners to come off that show. Of course, he never won the show because he lost to Kelvin Gaslam.

What's interesting now is that they actually trained together. Uriah Hall left his longtime team at Tiger Schulman's here in New York, moved out west, has been training at the Rain Training Center, has been training in other places. Spent some time with Ronda Rousey's team, and he finally returns to action, and he's actually had two opponent switches. He had two guys pull-out due to the injury, and now at the 11th hour, essentially, John Doomsday Howard reappears. John Doomsday Howard, if you recall, was released from the UFC a couple years ago, mired in a bit of a losing streak, but he has looked very good as of late,

and after his last win, he actually publicly said, the cage, he was fighting for a promotion called CES MMA, and he publicly said in the cage that he wanted to fight on this card in Boston, his hometown, for free. Now, of course, he isn't being paid nothing to fun on this card, but that's how badly he wanted to be on this card, and he was pushing for it, pushing for it. Really, him and Cahal Pendra, the Irish fighter, born in Boston, were pushing for this. They really wanted to be on this card. Well, John Howard, after a couple injuries, finally got the call, and he'll be fighting Uri Haul on the main card.

Great striking matchup, and a very important one for both them. Howard getting another chance in the UFC, Uri Haul looking to get back on track after losing the ultimate fighter. The last time John Doomsday Howard fought in the UFC was back in 2011, lost three in a row. Matt Brown, prior to that, Tiago Alves,

prior to that Jake Ellenberger, won his debut. actually won his first four fights beat Chris Wilson, beat Tam Dan McCrory, beat Dennis Hallman, beat Daniel Roberts, and then went on the losing streak. So we're supposed to be talking to John Howard now, but apparently we're having trouble reaching him. Or do we have him? Mr. Rick, what's going on?

Oh, he is. Okay, he's talking to him right now. We'll get him on. And also interesting about John Howard was that he came out that he actually had trained at Wake Crew in Boston with one of the Boston Marathon Bombers. And that got him a lot of attention in the press that he actually hurt this man, the one that was killed.

Tamerlin Tarnayev broke his nose, beat him up pretty good in a sparring session. wasn't a full-time member of the team, but they did cross-pass, and that got John Howard a lot of attention. We now go to the Skype machine and welcome in. Mr. Doomsday, is he there? John, how are you? I'm doing great.

Where are you right now? I'm at the gym. Actually, I was in missed of training, and my manager told me to get on the phone, so I did. You forgot about us? Now that you're in the UFC, you forgot about the little people. Oh, no, not thinking about the little people, man. I don't think you're little people.

I'm still little people, so trust me. I don't think I'm big yet anyway. But it's just like I got training hard, and I got a good fight. A good fighter, man. I can't waste time. I keep training and keep running. You know, and we appreciate you taking some time out

and very happy that you're getting another chance in the UFC. After your last win, you publicly said, you want to fight on this card so badly that you will do it for free. Yeah. Can we confirm that you're getting paid for this fight? We can confirm. I'm definitely getting paid. I'm getting paid for this fight,

but if they told me that you said that you want to hold your word, I would have. I would have fight for free because I want to fight in a whole town, Boston, man, in front of my fans and family, so I would have, but I got paid for it, so it's just a bonus. Now, you wanted to fight, obviously, on this card very badly. Why was it so important to you to not just get back in the UFC, but to fight on this particular card?

Why was it? Because you were campaigning for a very long time. What it is, man, I'm from Boston, man. Y'all called it a TV garden, we called it a Boston garden. And as a kid, I went to the Boston side, Celtics, the Bruins play. It's an amazing to see these athletes play, man, but most of these athletes are not from Boston. Well, as a kid, you always want to be from Boston

and play in your hometown. Well, I got fortunate enough, man, to, you know, be from Boston and play in the garden. So it's a dream from true, man. Every Boston story can understand that, you know, that's a dream from true, to be an athlete in play in your hometown. So it's awesome.

I get to perform in hometown, so it's awesome. I just can't believe a dream from true, man. And it looked for a while, like you weren't going to get this opportunity because the card was filled up. And unless something crazy happened like an injury, you probably were going to be on the outside looking in. At some point, did you just come to grips with the fact that, all right, I try, but this is not going to happen?

Yeah, man, I did, but I kept grinding. I kept waiting, man. I was like, well, to see what happens. Man, I just cut my fingers crossed. And I stayed in shape. And I got the phone call, man. It was like a dream country. It was just, you know, certain stuff found the place.

Certain people got hurt. I mean, I'm sorry they got hurt, you know, but I'm also glad I got the opportunity to fight. So, I mean, it just happened. Perfect time and perfect placement. And I'm happy I got the opportunity. What were the emotions? How did you feel when you got that call? You're going to fight back in the UFC and not only back in the UFC on this card in Boston that you wanted to be on.

I screamed, dude. I was at my dojo. One of my dojo was in New England with a comeback in Arbor Island. And I screamed to the top of my lungs. Everybody was like, what's your problem? I explained later. But I was screaming, running up and down the street for a little bit, man. I was so happy.

And not only that, you're on the main card. You're fighting Uriah Hall, who's had a lot of buzz. You know, he fell short on the Ultimate Fighter, but this is a real showcase fight for you. It's not like you're on the Facebook prelims or anything like that. Did you know of Yerahal when you got this card? Did you hear about all the buzz about him, despite the fact that he lost the show?

Yeah, of course I did, man. He's a new East guy, man. He's from New Jersey. You know, a good striker. So I knew what about him, everything. I saw on the show, man. I mean, he did awesome on the show, man. So I knew about him, I knew who he was, man.

But, you know, everybody knows I love having to fight a striker. I love fighting strikers, man. That's my thing. So I'm happy to get back on the show. Not only to fight in Boston, but I fight another good striker. You know, everybody knows like to stand the bank. I stand the bang with the best guys out there. So I can't wait, man.

He's a good striker. He throws some serious power. I have power, man. So it's going to be crazy, man. I can't wait. I'm so happy. Do you think he's mentally soft? Some people have questioned his.

mental strength. He did not perform in the finals of the show. What do you think of that? I don't know man. I think he had a lot of pressure on him and I still think he does. Maybe that's the case, but the way he's talking, maybe he's back on tune. I'm not sure, right? But to tell you the truth, I respect him, but for this fight

I can't have so much respect him. I go out there and do what I do best. It's going to be a pressure because he has a lot of hype behind him. But what it is, is he hasn't fought nobody's serious that everybody on the show on the movie show was no serious guys. I mean, he did good, but those guys, in my opinion, wasn't really good fighters.

Now, this time he has a fighter who's been in there, who was a UFC vet. Coming back to UFC, he was fought like tough fighters. And I noticed in his head that I fought strikers like Tiago, all this. And I was crazy enough to stand 15 minutes with Tiago, where people were like, that's crazy. I was like, well, I'm a striker. I'm not scared to get beat up or get hit. You know, that's my thing. I'd rather have a striker versus striker than a striker versus grappler.

I don't like fighting Brapplers too much because it makes me a boring fight. because I'm trying to knock him out and they're trying to take me down when someone's going to bang with me makes for a better fight. He's changed camps. He moved from the northeast to California.

When you hear that stuff, when he was part of a team for so long, Tiger Schulman's, now he's kind of trying to find a new team and reinvent himself. Is that good for you? Are you happy about this? It seems like this is a guy

who's in a transition period. Yeah, I'm happy about this. What the thing is, he don't have the experience. He's changing team. I understand he wants to grow, but he was like he's, wrestling with top wrestlers, top grapplers.

Let me tell you a little of something. I've been doing this for 10, about to be 11 years soon, okay? I don't care what he learned is six months a year. He's only going to catch three or four good things, and that's it. You know, he's worked one of these great guys. Congratulations to him. But what he has to understand is, I don't care you work with the top tier black battles, top tier wrestlerless.

You can't learn yourself within six of my parents. It takes time to learn yourself. You got to learn it. You got to play with it, and it has to become a part of you, you know? And he's learning good stuff, yeah, but I don't think, you know, the stuff he learns is going to be able to use because he's. He has to use it as a second nature. I don't think I doubt it if he learned it to that great yet.

But, I mean, me personally, and his situation, I wouldn't have changed camps on the fight. But if he thinks it's his best interest, you know, but I'm excited. I'm excited, you know, because I know it's from experience. You can't learn anything brand new real soon. Considering the fact that he's training with those wrestlers at Rain, do you think he's going to try to take this fight to the ground? That would be shocking, but what do you think? I wouldn't. I'm actually, he might.

He might. The way he's talking on some interviews, he says, he's saying, He has a strategy. I'm just saying I want to stand and bang. You know, that's what I'm famous for I want to do. The way he says he thinks he's going to try to pick me apart. And I think he's going to have a fight where it's up and down, up and down, up and down. And if he does take me the ground, you know, I don't necessarily have a bad ground game.

You know, I grab it with some of the best guys in the world back and forth. So I'm not scared of the ground game. Wherever the fight goes, I'm comfortable with. I'd rather stand, obviously. That's where I'm strong at. But if he looks to take me down, I think he'd be quite surprised because, you know, in the past, maybe I got a wrestle, maybe. but this doomsday is totally different. I'm one, I'm fighting in my original weight.

I should have fought in the first place. I'm stronger at this weight, and my wrestling is not bad, so I improve my wrestling. So if you try to take me down, I think my experience, fighting fighters around the world, got the ground game,

I can't even take him on it there too. But I'm down for whatever, man. Where he takes a fight, you know, I'm there. I hope it's a striking war, though. That's what I'm hoping for. You mentioned the way, last time we saw you in the UFC,

you were fighting at 170. Now this is at 185. Why do you feel like this is a better weight for you? Well, guys, well, people don't know. I walk around like two or five or heavier sometimes. I mean, right now, believe it or not, since I'm Scott, you see me right now. This is me at 200 pounds. I'm 200 pounds right now, and this is, I've been trying twice a day.

This is my natural weight. This is my natural weight. Training in a good shape, 200 pounds right now. I just weigh myself 200 pounds, maybe 197 or something like that, something simple like that. But that's my natural weight. When I used to cut all that weight, that was 30 pounds or 40 pounds of misery, I used to hate. You know, I never complained about it, I just did it. But if you see that, my performance wasn't the same.

As a matter of fact, I went 85, you see my highlight clip. I used to kick people off their feet. That's how strong I was, I went 85. A welterweight, I could never do that. I can never generate that power. I just couldn't get the same energy back. But now, at a middleweight, holy crap, stronger. I hit harder.

I mean, go to YouTube, talk about my videos. I hit harder than ever. I had an instructor come in at the whole page with me. He had a brand new pads, and I broke his page in for one day of hit. Wow. You know, last time we saw you in action was 2011. You had that three-fight losing streak. I'm talking about it in the UFC. And then, you know, you went out, you fought on the local circuit. You've looked very good on the local circuit. But how hard was it for you? After a great start in the UFC, then the losing streak, you get released, how hard was it for you to go back to the regional circuit and try to build yourself back up? Was that tough mentally? I wasn't tough mentally because the guys who I lost to Jake Elliberger, Tiago all this,

Matt Brown, they've been winning ever since. They've been on tear. Jake Albuquer just lost to McDonald, but before that, he was on the tear like a 5, 6, 7 win street. Matt Brown's on the 5-1 street. If he gets his win in Boston, he might get a title shot.

And Tiago Alves, enough said, he fought for a title before. So, I mean, the guys I lost with top tier guys, and I didn't lose, like I didn't get knocked out. I got finished because of the doctor stopped. from Jake Allerberger. I could have kept going.

I wanted to keep going. But besides that, I mean, these guys didn't finish me. They beat me by decision, but they didn't finish me. So it's totally different. It's totally different. I didn't feel too bad. I mean, it was a little depressing. But, you know, I felt good that I fought top tier people, and that's the way I got out.

Yeah, I remember that Matt Brown fight in Pittsburgh, and it seemed like you guys kind of had this agreement that you would stand and train, and you were frustrated afterwards, right? It didn't go as you thought it was going to go, right? It didn't. I thought we were going to trade more, and it was a lot of takedowns involved and stuff. Like, he took me down, I take him now, so it was a back and forth. But, you know, I watched that fight over and over.

I thought I won that fight. I still think I won the fight, but, you know, I'm not so illusive to Corruptcy and Matt Brown. I mean, it was a good fight, man. I mean, he could take some punishment. I mean, I was giving to him. He was given to me, you know, and he hits hard. He is surprising hard, but, you know, it was a good fight. I thought I had it because I thought I had him would take down as more control, but judges gave him.

I mean, but it's either here or there. It's spilled milk. I'm looking for better and bigger things, man. I'm trying to do better and coming back strong. Did other promotions reach out to you, or did you want to save yourself for the UFC? Because you have a name, you're a very exciting fighter. You know, everyone loves a striker, et cetera, et cetera.

Did you tell, we've heard this, you know, other guys say, you know, other promotions out there, you know, the second-tier promotions have reached out to me, but I'm waiting for the UFC. Was that the case with you? Not really. What it was is I didn't go to a big promotion, another big promotion right away because I need to go back to my roots.

I need to rebuild myself. felt that I was doing stupid stuff. Like, when I was in the UFC as a welter way, I was just swinging and winging. I wasn't really being tactical and being skilled, using my true skill, you know, not really being technical. I was just swinging and banging. It was working for me.

So, now I wanted to go back and clean up my technique, which I did. And now, my technique's way better. I hit more accurate, more stronger, you know, and since I've been cleaning up, I had a personal back. I had a personal best, a 23-second knockout for CES. So, I mean, it shows you right there in the first round. It shows you right there that my techniques way better and I'm a lot more powerful and I'm a lot more accurate with my arm strikes.

You received a lot of media attention back in April with the unfortunate Boston Marathon bombing. It came out that you had actually sparred with one of the suspect, Tarlan Ternayev. Tamerlian Ternive. You sparred with him just once, right? No, I sparred on him multiple times. What it was is. back then when he came in my gym, he was looking for people to spar with. He's a tough box that people don't know. He's a two-time golden glove

Massachusetts winner. You know, he's really good. And what it was is the gyms he was going through that he wasn't getting a lot of work because the guys who was just beating up. He was actually that talented. He came to the white crew to spar with me. He was, I heard you got UFC Friday

as he went on the spot. I'm like, yeah, let's do it. You know, he was a better boxing to me, but I gave him good work, so we work, work. By the fourth time we sparred, he got a little real, he got a little cocky. So when he got a little cocky, he tried to tune me up.

I was like, oh, you want to hit hard. I was like hitting hard. He came in, and I called him my famous love hook. I broke that guy's nose the opposite way. And then when he put his hands up, I kept going. I dropped him on the body shop and put him on his knees. And then we broke it up right there. And that was the last you saw of him?

You still there? Yeah, I'm still here. That was the last, not exactly the last time I saw him. I seen him a few times after that, but not so much. And what was your reaction when you heard this name that he was, you know, connected to all of this. Did you, did you right away remember that this was the guy? Did you even remember his name?

Man, when I saw him, they had it on TV, on the news. I saw it. I saw the picture. I said, wow, this guy looks familiar. I was with my mom that day. I said, Mom, I think I know this guy. It looks familiar, but I can't be him. He's not that type of person.

Then boom, it was him. I was like, wow, I can't believe that. I can't believe him, not only that he did that, but it was so close to home, like I knew him. You know, it was crazy. at that time, I felt so bad. I felt really bad because I felt like, you know what, had I knew something, I could have beat that man down.

I could have hung up in my Wikoo basement. You know, if I knew something that he was going to do something or any plot like that, I would have killed him with my bare hands. You know, I'm from Boston, and you heard my Boston people, and I really don't appreciate that. You know, and that's some terrorist sucker stuff, you know. And to let you know, terrorists don't come say, oh, we're terrorists.

They come with open hands, shake your arm, like how it's, act like your friend, and then basically stabbing the back. That's what he did to WICU, you know, and he wasn't a team member. He was a guy who was spoiled with. There's a lot of gyms I come to WICU who gets sparring session with.

You know, the media confused him as a team member. Like, no, he's a guy who's spot with us. You know, and it's been a few times a way who are ex-hack coaches or actually I train. Just don't listen, I have a fight. Can you, I'm corny me? I just being a weak people we are. But yeah, sure, we help you out.

But that's it. You know, we didn't teach him boxing. We didn't teach none of that. He was a skill boxer before he came to like her. And that's how that happened. Was he a bit of a weird guy? Go ahead. Go ahead, sorry?

Go ahead. Was he weird guy? Not really. He wasn't a weird guy. It wasn't a weird guy. It was somewhat normal, you know? The only thing that was weird is, you know, he was Muslim and he prayed and everything, but we have a lot of diverse in our school from Asians, Muslim, Indian, all kinds of diverse.

so any religion we don't diss. We didn't know something wrong. And he didn't give him no sign that he was a terrorist. So we didn't know. So, but besides that, I mean, nah, he came off nice. I mean, he didn't, he dressed. He was into the European dress, um, dressy flashing, like. So I, it was weird, bro.

And by the way, when was this? I followed him? Yeah. This was years ago, bro. Oh. This was right before. It was, this was about to, I was about to go into UFC. Oh, okay.

Wow. It was like two fights after the UFC, actually. Wow, I can't even imagine your reaction when you found out that this was the same guy. That's amazing. And, you know, just, you know, to be connected to the story like that, that must have been a kind of surreal feeling, right? It was serious. It was crazy, man. Serial feeling.

And also, man, it was bad media because every time they mentioned him, they mentioned my name. You know, he's small. and with John U.S.C. John Doomsday Howell, UFC vet. So that was a bad media, man. And I was trying, that's why I always tried to explain the situation, because I got in bad meeting in that. I tried to tell us everybody, listen, I'm from Boston.

I'm from Boston native. I would never ever want to see my people ever. You know, and it was just that, I have the association with that, you know, and the media, necessarily don't always get the truth. They just see what the possibilities are and they go on and a rant with that, you know, rumors this, rumors that.

But they don't get the facts, you know, but I think why crew and myself, the facts up really good. Hopefully we did. Hopefully the media and people out there understand that what the situation really was. Okay, final thing, John,

and then we'll let you get back to training. When you walk out there at the Boston Garden in front of that crowd, new network, huge day, huge night for the UFC against a guy like Uriahal. How is it going to feel when you make that walk in front of your people?

After everything you've been through over the last couple of years, do you have any idea what it's going to feel like? It's going to be a final unbelievable. Dreams come true, man. I want to be so excited. I'm going to be so pumped. I'm going to have all the energy of the fans.

I'm so ready, man. I'm so ready. It's a dream coming true. Only a few people from Boston get to be a performer at their own garden. And I'm so happy that I'm one of them. I'm so fortunate, man. So I can't wait, man. It's going to be a great time, a great feeling, and a great fight.

We are happy for you as well. Thank you so much, John. Welcome back to the UFC. Looking forward to the fight very much. Thank you. All right, there he is. Doomsday, they call him. John Howard returning to a weight that he is more comfortable at.

185 he faces Uriah Hall. My friends at FightMetric giving me a nice little stat about John Howard. The John Howard fun fact of the day, his knockout of Dennis Hallman, at 4 minutes and 55 seconds of the third round at the tough 10

finale is the latest knockout in a three-round fight. How about that? Talking about UFC, of course. So there you have it. John Howard versus Uriah Hall. It's on Fox Sports 1. It is this Saturday, August 17th. And as I mentioned, this particular episode of the MMA hour is being brought to you by Fox Sports One.

So why don't we give you a little teaser of what this new network is all about? Here we go. America's new sports network is here. Fox Sports One with live sports like Major League Baseball. Unbelievable! College football, UFC, college basketball, NASCAR, and more. Original shows like Crowd Goes Wild, Fox Football Daily. And Fox Sports Live.

and highlight show fans have been waiting for. Fox Sports One. Premiers August 17th. There you have it. It's big news here in the United States. It's a new 24-hour sports network. And of course, you know, not trying to hide the fact. I also do work for the Fox Sports Media Group and the show that I am, I guess, most prominently featured on UFC Tonight, which currently airs Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. Eastern.

That is moving in September to Fox Sports. One, much bigger platform on Wednesday nights. It's going to be airing. And that's very exciting. UFC night will be Wednesday nights on Fox Sports One. Fuel TV was in approximately 35 or so million homes. This is an 80 plus million homes right now going to grow. And it's a very big deal for the UFC for the sport of mixed martial arts

because for a very long time, the UFC has been wanting to, you know, you want to be on a sports network. You want to be treated as a sport. That has always been a very big thing for the UFC. And now on a network where, you know, there's a highlight show where you're going to be discussed alongside the NFL, alongside NASCAR, alongside Major League Baseball, you're going to be – and those are just the Fox properties. But back in the day when the UFC was on spike and even, you know, the transition now with fuel and whatnot, those weren't necessarily the kind of, you know, typical sports networks that people go to get their sports coverage. Now they're going to be on it and a very big part of it. I mean, think about the honor.

that is being given to the UFC to be on the first day of the network. 4.30 p.m. Eastern Time, Ultimate Insider, then a 5 o'clock pre-fight show, and then the action kicks off at 6. And you don't have to switch around from the prelims on this channel and go there, to the main card on Fox Sports 1. It's all on Fox Sports 1. It's very exciting. Then right after the fights, Fox Sports Live, the new highlight show will air at 11 p.m. Eastern Time. And by the way, also on August 17th, Fuel TV becomes Fox Sports 2.

So it's all under the Fox Sports umbrella. It's very exciting times. Now, let us move along. We talk about this exciting day for the UFC on August 17th. I'm very excited that one of the true good guys in our sport, guy I've been watching for a very long time, the former WC featherweight champion, Mike Brown, will be returning to action on his home turf.

New England, he's back. He's fighting Steven Seiler, also on Fox Sports One. He joins us right now via the magic of Skype. There he is. Mike Brown, how are you? Good, man, good. What's going on? You know, everything's great. I'm very excited about Saturday, and I'm very excited that you're fighting on this car, and I'll tell you why. I want to play you a clip. This is us back in May of 2012. The last time we did an interview, and this is what I said to you at the end of the clip. Of course, there were some rumors you were hinting at a possible retirement. And this is what I said to Mike Brown after his last one in the UFC, UFC 146 against Daniel Paneda. Let's roll the clip.

Mike, you're one of the greatest featherweights of all time. If this is the end, thank you for everything. I have a feeling it won't be. I think after a performance. like that, I think we'll see you again. But if it is, I want to thank you for everything. Ariel, thanks, man. You've always been a support of me. And I appreciate that. Best of luck to you, Mike, and hope we get to see you again because tonight you showed that you do belong inside the Octagon. Thank you. Thanks so much. So there you haven't, Mike. I remember that. I actually got very emotional because, you know, covering you and WC and whatnot, and you were very emotional. I remember your eyes getting a little watery. But I said to you, this isn't the end. And I was right. How about that?

Right, man. I still got some laugh and it was about getting help. and fixing the body up and had a one thing that was plaguing me for a long time was was my neck. I was, you know, getting stingers a lot and having a lot of numbness and weakness in my left arm. But I finally got a fusion done, which was needed badly. And now I got the strength back in my left arm and feel great. So that night at UFC 146, how close to retirement were you? Uh, no, I mean, I wasn't going to retire after I fought, but before the fight, I had thought, if, if I didn't perform well or didn't feel good in the ring, I was going to retire. Wow.

Like, had I lost, or even if I had won, but didn't feel good, I would have retired, you know? But I felt really good in the fight, and I had a lot of fun out there. I was, like, really enjoying myself in the cage, you know? It was one of those things where, um, I just had a good time doing it. So after the fight, I was like, no, I'm going to keep going. But it was something that I was thinking about before the fight. That being said, were you feeling a lot of pressure? I mean, that's a lot of pressure to put on your shoulders.

You've been in this game a long time. But to say, if I don't perform up to my standards, I'm done. Were you feeling this was do or die for you? But there's, yeah, but there's pressure for every fight. You know, there's no fight that there's, it doesn't feel like a great. yellow pressure. Right. You know, because every, every fight is so important, you know, goes on your permanent record

and everybody remembers it, and it never goes away from you. So I guess there's the same pressure for every fight. And you say that you looked good, you felt good in that fight, and this was before you had the procedure done on your neck, right? Yeah, yeah. What exactly did you? Go ahead. I had been feeling poorly in a handful of fights.

Even in the NAM fight, I didn't feel great. But I just felt in that fight really loose. I felt like I could have went, you know, 10 rounds. And, you know, I just felt on top of my game. I felt sharp. I mean, I made a mistake at the end and I gave up my back, but it was, you know, just an error. But even when I made that error, it's, I felt, even when he was on my back, I felt like I was fine and just trying to figure a way out. But I was enjoying the fight.

It's funny because you mentioned the NAM fan fight at UFC 133. and I remember feeling like this was a very important fight for you, that you were coming off the two-fight losing streak, and you kind of, you know, you silence those critics. People weren't talking about whether or not Mike Brown deserves to be in the UFC. Then you followed that performance up, you know, some time later at UFC 146. But you still, you didn't get that procedure done. So now I'm wondering if you look good, I thought you looked, you know,

like you were getting back to your old self. Now you must feel like maybe you feel like the guy who was the featherweight champion back in WC. Is that accurate? I mean, I feel amazing. I mean, it's, it's so cliche, and I don't even like saying it because it's dumb, you know. But I feel like the best shape I've been in, maybe, maybe ever. Wow. I've added a, I got a new strength conditioning coach.

It's been great. This guy, Brian Harris, but I'm also, like, I'm running a lot. I'm not sparring as much as I used to. I'm doing more strength conditioning, and it's treating my body well. I don't have all the injuries that I was always walking around with. My gas feels the best it's ever been, so I feel really, really good. I can't wait to show it off next weekend. What was the procedure that you had done on your neck?

C-7T1. Geez, that sounds very scary. Yeah, they took out the disc and put like a plate in your neck, so you kind of lose a little mobility, you lose a little bit of range of motion because you no longer have that joint working. But I don't think I had a great range of motion before anyway because it was always damaged that disc anyway.

So I don't notice any loss of range of motion for me. And I just notice I'm not as hesitant to shoot before I was afraid to drive through guys because I didn't want to bang my head because my neck was always giving me problems. And I was having a lot of weakness in my grip on my left hand and now that's back. So, I mean, I'm happy to be back together. How long have you been dealing with this?

Yeah, man, years off and on. You know, it comes and goes, because I had a, I mean, I had neck surgery like literally 20 years ago now. I had a discectomy when I was in college from wrestling. So I've never had a good neck, but the last three or fours really bothered me where I was getting the weakness. So this is the second time you've had next surgery? Yeah, yeah. Wow. And did they tell you, you know, if this doesn't go as planned, this could be it for you,

you wouldn't be able or we wouldn't recommend you fight again? Well, they recommend that anyway. Oh, really? Anytime you have like a major surgery, you know, they kind of say that's maybe, you know, this isn't the best thing for you. It's kind of rough on you. But, I mean, it's what I do. It's what I love.

And it's worth it, you know. It's worth it to me. Are there any risks? I mean, I don't think The only thing is when you get a fusion done You're putting more stress on the surrounding discs Because, you know, they all work as like cushions You know, they buffer the impact

And if you take one out, that puts more stress on the surrounding ones So it's possible that I might You know, if I bang my neck up a lot That I might have to get the same procedure at another level later on So how many more years do you think this added to your career? here? You know, I don't think of it like that. I'm taking one fight at a time, and I've always been a short-term goal guy. I like to set short-term goals, chase that goal, achieve it, and then make a new one. So I don't really think too much past this fight here next Sunday.

How much do you think about when you were a champion, missing the belt, missing being on top of the hill? Man, it was cool, man. It was cool. It was a good feeling. I'd love to be back up there. But, like, I feel like a, you know, I accomplished a lot in the WEC, but I haven't done that in the UFC. That's where I feel there's, there's like a hole, hole in my soul. You know, I don't think I've done what I want to do in the UFC. That's why I'm really not ready to leave the sport yet. had had I, if I was still in the WEC, I'd probably be more apt to retire, but since I'm in this new organization and it's the biggest show in the world, you know, I haven't fought to my capabilities yet in the show. And I really want to leave my mark in the UFC. It would be nice to get back to title contention. But, you know, I'm thinking short-term goals. And right now I just would like to have a couple nice memorable fights. So why do you think your success hasn't translated into this UFC run of yours?

Do you feel like it's just because of the neck issues or something else? It's just a little bit of this, a little bit of that, you know, some of health reasons, some bad luck, you know. But I haven't fought to my capabilities yet. And I think that I'm going to show what I'm capable of this Sunday. things are going really good I think it's a good matchup for me I'm really excited to be in Boston

things couldn't really be set any more perfect and by the way it's Saturday so don't show up to the arena on Sunday and miss your fight oh yeah yeah Saturday you mentioned Boston the last time you fought in the New England area was 2004 against Joe Lozahn

what do you remember about that night man that was a that was a long time ago man But yeah, I had a bunch of fights there. I had like most of my first fights. I had like seven fights there. The one with Joe was, man, that was a heartbreaker for me. I had just lost to Genki Sudo in the UFC.

I was really undersized for 155, but I fought Genki 55. And the LaZan fight was weird because that was the same-day weigh-ins. It was 155. Oh, wow. But we fought the same-day weigh-ins. That was a little different. different. But yeah, it was a good fight, man. That was when nobody really knew him. And that one, man, that one broke my heart, you know, because it really, it sucked losing to a local guy.

And, you know, I had just got out of the UFC. I had been dropped out of the UFC. And I was doing well. I remember, you know, I won the first round. I won the second round. I was winning the third round. And he hit a nice Camor sweep on me. right into Mount. He threw some punches. I scrambled. He got my back and choked me. And, oh, and that one killed me, man. I was so sad for a while about that one. But that was before he was well known, and he kept winning and winning, and it didn't well. And then, you know, he turned out to be, you know, quite the world-class fighter. And that took some of the sting off it. You know, it's always better to lose to a guy who's, you know, had some great accomplishments than to lose

a guy who didn't, you know, ever live up to much. Do you remember looking at him and being like, oh, this guy kind of looks like a computer nerd? I could take him. I just thought I was going to smash him. I mean, I knew him. I knew he's dangerous. You know, I knew what he, that he's, you know, he's a finisher.

He goes for broke, you know, many times. He's dangerous that way. But I just thought, oh, I'm going to beat him, you know. And I was. I thought I was cruised into a victory. I won the first two rounds, but he's dangerous, man, and he's a finisher. That's what he does, you know, even if he's, and he comes at you in the first round all the way to the last minute. So you can't sleep on him.

He can put you away. And he's done it to a bunch of good guys, so it didn't make me feel so bad. This card's also cool for you because you're fighting on the same card as your good pal, Brad Pickett. I'm assuming I can't think off the top of my head, but you fought on the same card as he. him in Zufa, right? Yeah, this is the third time we fought on the same card. Once in a small show in the AFC,

we both won. Then we fought on the pay-per-view show, the WEC one, where he beat Demetrius Johnson, but I lost that night to Manny. But hopefully tonight, that night we'll get the wins, and we'll both be able to celebrate.

You know, Dana White, UFC. President, Dana White said recently that he would love to put on a show in Maine. He spends a lot of time there. They have this new arena that is pretty much done. I think in September. You're probably the most famous fighters come out of Maine. I'd say, yeah, maybe you and Tim Sylvia,

but you're the one who has a better chance to get on that card. Is that a goal? Is that something you'd like to cross off the bucket list? Fight for the UFC in Maine. That would be amazing. Now, again, that was something that I just never even thought would ever be possible. Like, oh, the UFC is going to be in Maine and you can fight on that. There's like, just no way would this happen.

If you told me this, you know, five, ten years ago, I would think never in a million years is going to happen. But it's crazy to think it's possible. I would love that. A dream come true. It wasn't even a dream because I didn't even think it was possible. But now that it could be possible, man, it would be maybe even better than fighting in Boston. You know, Boston's pretty damn cool. I would assume you got to stick around for this to happen.

You can't leave before it happened. That would kill you. No, no, I got to stick around because it's, yeah, they just had a, they had a Ballotaur show up there, and I think it did well. And, of course, the UFC would do much better because, you know, it's the big show. But yeah, man, count me in. Count me in on that one. I love talking to you in Bang Ledwig, and we have two more minutes. We'll let you go.

We appreciate it about memorabilia. I know you guys are big fans of this. Any new memorabilia, MMA memorabilia that you've recently acquired? Well, the last thing I got was for Christmas, the UFC sent us one of those, like a gift card. That was our present this year. We got a gift card to the website. So I bought a couple new action figures. I got Tiago Alves. Oh, your teammate?

Yeah, yeah, and had him sign that. And then I got a Brock Lesnar just to have the old Brock Lesnar actually. That's it, man. But I'm out of room. really to be honest with you my my room is uh is full what's the best one man the coolest thing uh i don't know i like my pride poster is probably the best oh yeah those you know i got the one where it's like the pride grand prix the sperm cell oh that one's incredible kind of weird unique you know i have that one i also have the one a little boy you know he's flexing yeah um um um

Those are my favorites. Do you have the breastfeeding one? I really like that one. No, I don't have that one. I never got that one. But I got a lot of action figures. I don't have any. I always wanted to get some of the Japanese ones.

I always want to get one of the Japanese one of Fedor. But I never wanted to shell out 300 bucks for it. That's what it goes for. Last thing, Mike, before we let you go, you say you like this matchup against Steven Seiler. why and how do you see it playing out? Why? Because he, I think he's very susceptible to what I'm very good at, you know.

And I love the fact that he likes to come forward and I like to come forward. So I anticipate it being a really exciting fight. Neither guy likes to dance around. We're both forward fighting guys. And I expect a quick collision, you know, and I just, I don't want to give away too much, but I just think my stuff is going to be there.

I'm looking forward to it. It's a great story. It's good to have guys like you, John Howard, Joe Lozon, a lot of local flavor on this card, a big one for the UFC, and really happy that you decided to come back and keep fighting,

and I'm looking forward to seeing the new Mike Brown out there with the new neck and all. Good luck against Steven Seiler, and we will see you in Boston, my friend. All right, thanks a lot. We'll see it. There he is.

Mike Brown stopping by former W.C. Featherweight champion. and good to have them back in the mix. And I like that fight a lot. It's a fun fight, and it's a really nice card that the UFC has put together. You knew that they would try to put together as interesting a card as possible, and you have to remember that there are a lot of fight cards coming up.

There have been a lot of fight cards this summer, and, of course, before that, and in August alone, and when you consider UFC on Fox number 8, July 27th, it's a pretty busy month, essentially for the UFC. After this card, they go to Indiana. Indianapolis with the card headline by Carlos Condit versus Martin Capman number D. And then just three days later in Milwaukee for the big Anthony Pettis versus Benson Henderson fight. Now, in a moment, we will be stopping by the UFC Fight Night 26 Shogun v. Sunnan conference call. On this conference call will be Chail Sunnan,

Shogunhua, Dana White, Alistair Overeem, and Travis Brown. This is going on live. We thought we'd listen in for the next 20 minutes or so. And then we'll be be joined by Pat Cummins, who has a very interesting story, and we'll get to that in around 20 minutes or so. But the conference call is going to happen any minute now. I'll be heading or shipping off to Boston on Wednesday morning. There'll be a workout on Wednesday, press conference Thursday. Way-ins are on fuel TV for the final time fuel TV on Friday, and then it's the full afternoon and night of action on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday. Now, if you're looking for Fox Sports. One right now, you won't find it if you're here in the United States on your television dial. It is the speed channel. And on Saturday, August 17th, it will turn into Fox Sports One. So maybe if you go ahead on your guide and search for it, you'll be able to find the Fox Sports One programming. But right now, there is no Fox Sports One on your TV, on your cable provider, et cetera. It's speed. So try to find that. And then you'll know where all the fun will take place on

Saturday afternoon. Also interesting tomorrow in Boston at Peter Welch's gym in Southie. That's the Conne McGregor Media Day. A media day for Connemer McGregor only.

No one else. Just him. Talk about pushing one guy and love the response. And I appreciate it very much from all the fans about last week's interview with Steve Collins. I don't think Steve Collins.

I don't think Steve Collins is going to be cornering Connor McGregor. I don't think that actually happened unless there's some big surprise in the works. But in Conner's corner will be John Kavanaugh, who will be stopping by at around 240. He is of the straight blast gym in Ireland and developing a lot of great talent over there, like Connor McGregor, like Gunner Nelson, Carl Pendred. He'd been doing this for a long time and finally getting his due. and kind of awesome that Connor's getting his own media day tomorrow

and it actually received our little interview actually received some coverage, some newspaper coverage. One newspaper, the Irish Mirror, a fan sent me a screen grab of this on Twitter. One newspaper actually referred to our show, our little show, as world-renowned. The world-renowned MMA Hour

featured a nice little interaction between Connor Mac and Mr. Stevie Collins, Irish Steve Collins. So that was really cool. You know, honestly, when I was pitched the idea, I've heard of Steve Collins. I didn't think it would have the reaction that it did or generate the reaction that it did. And I was really surprised and pleased,

and especially that it was on a Wednesday show. It was great. I really liked it a lot. That was one of my favorite, I'd say top five favorite moments in the history of our show. And I've tried to do this before. Matt Sarah called me out on it when I tried to do with him and Chris Widman

and then him and Ray Longo and I think it always usually works. One of the really good ones was back in the day, the old studio Henzel Gracie and BJ Penn. That was magical. I know Mr. New Yorkerick, I like that one a lot. And this one worked out.

So I'm happy that everyone enjoyed it. We're still waiting for the conference call. It should be going down any moment. Again, after Cummins and Kavanaugh, Phil Davis, will be stopping by fresh off his win over Lyotumachita at UFC 163. While we have this brief moment, I'll run down the card on Saturday. So this thing, Ultimate Insider, a brand new episode. And like I said, a very underrated show hosted by John Anick. The packages on that show, it usually airs after UFC tonight.

It's beautifully shot. It really is. and it doesn't receive the attention that it deserves. It tells great stories. The packages are very nicely shot. It's our version, I guess you could say, of an E-60, but not really. It's just a great show, and I'm happy it's moving to Fox Sports One. That will kick off at 430, but there are also Facebook fights on Saturday there.

Three of them. Ramsey Nidjim versus James Vic, OSP, Ovinst St. Peru versus Cody Donovan, and Maddie Gamburian versus Cole. Miller, a very interesting fight. So those three fights will be on Facebook at 430. Then there are four Fox Sports One prelim fights, but again, once that kicks off at 6 p.m., you don't have to change a channel. And by the way, from 5 to 6, there's a pre-fight show. All right. I'll get to the card later. Conference calls starting. Let's go to it right now. Heavyweight Travis Brown, joining us here momentarily,

Alistair Overim, and the main event stars Chale Suna and Shogunhuah, who today will be translated by Fernando Prachis. At this time, we're going to go ahead and turn it over to Dana White. Dana? Good morning, everybody. Thank you for calling in. We appreciate it. Obviously, a huge, huge week for us, a huge week for Fox Sports,

and we are truly honored to be the sport that they chose to launch Fox Sports One. There's a lot of things going on in Boston this week, a lot of fun things for the fans, for the fighters, and obviously for me too, being as I came from Boston, live there for most of my life. So that's it. Well, let me take this one off the table real quick before you start asking questions, because I know everybody's going to ask me about, you know, oh, I heard that they haven't come to a deal with DirecTV and they haven't come to a deal. This is what these guys do. This is what Fox does.

They build networks and they negotiate with these different systems. And a lot of times, these things go right down to the wire. Am I worried about it? Not one bit. I'm not worried about it. I'm not thinking about it. It's not my concern. It has nothing to – I have no control over this thing.

It's not what I do. So whatever happens, happens this week, and that's it. I really have nothing else to say about that. So go ahead. Who has the first question? If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, press Star 1 to ask a question.

And I'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone to assemble the queue. And we'll take our first question from Jeffrey Davis with 411media.com. Hello there. Thank you for joining us today. First question is for Jail Sondon. Chale, does it upset you at all that the Culinary Union Local 226 is questioning, your moral turpitude and tried to block you from having this fight and affecting your livelihood this week?

Well, it confused me more than it upset me. I didn't know much about it. I got a call or a text message, rather, the day of a hearing that was scheduled by the commission. So I didn't know about it. I didn't have any time to prepare. I got a text message. I called in. I was there to answer questions.

I wasn't asked any questions. I was on the phone for less than a minute. So I was very happy that the commission thought that way. But, yeah, I mean, it was something that could have caused me a great deal of stress that I known about it. And for Dana, does it confuse you as well that here we have a labor union trying to affect, you know, the livelihood of professional fighters and trying to keep them from fighting and questioning, making these sort of, I would say, transparent claims when they're, you know, I think it's pretty transparent what they're trying to do here, and they're not really interested in moral turpitude or the UFC not being appropriate for children.

I agree. And, you know, it becomes, what these guys are doing, for the simple fact that they're spending their union members dues to try to hurt the UFC, which has nothing to do with, you know, the union members or whatever it might be, it's so transatlant. transparent and just so ridiculous. These guys are bad. For instance, what they do is they use different organizations like, you know, on serious issues, you know, whether it's women, gay rights, or whatever it may be, they use these different, you know, what's a word I'm looking for? Yeah, these different organizations. They use these different organizations to try to get what's the way. they want. What they want is station casinos. If they get station casinos, it's another $10 million a year to the union. So they'll use any dirty tactic and spend as much money as it takes

to try to get station casinos. Thank you. And for Travis Brown, Travis, I would say this is without a doubt one of the biggest fights of your career. What does it feel like to be in the co-main event of this card against, you know, a big fighter and Alistair over him? And what is a win here mean for you? Yeah, I mean, it's a great honor to be a part of this card. You know, they've been talking about FS1 and Boston and how big the card is going to be. And Dan's done a good job of Jane and Joe.

He's done a great job putting each card together. And I'm just happy I get to be a part of it. You know, as far as Alster goes, you know, he has a great name fighter. and I look forward to competing against them. Thank you. And for Alistair, Overim, are you going into this fight with the chip on your shoulder, and do you feel like you have something to prove in this fight after what happened against Antonio Silva? He's not on the call yet.

We're still looking for him. Okay, thank you. Thank you, guys. And once again, if you do have a question, please press Star 1 at this time. It will take our next question from Dave Meltzer with MMA fighting. Yeah, this is for Shogun. I saw that you've been training with Freddie Roach, and I was just wondering, like, you know, what have you kind of like learned

and how is the, you know, how is the application of his boxing into your Muay style, you know, changed and what kind of things of you, you know, kind of improved on, do you think? Sure, he asked about Freddie Roach, He said that you've been trained with him, asked what you've learned, what he's doing, what he did he also, and accreted his style,

you know, and what he made up to train with him? And apparently Shogun is disconnected. Okay, let's go back to him, and then Dave, we'll circle back on your question for Shogun when he reconnected. He's just arriving

into Boston now. Can I make a quick question for Chale? Of course. Yeah. For Chale, you know, you switched locations as far as training goes. Was there any specific reason? Was it just work-related because you're working a lot in L.A.? Or was it just you wanted to change the scenery?

And how has that benefited you or changed? You know, you're coming into this fight. I went to practice one day at the same gym. I've been out most of my life. The coach brought me into his office, and he said I lost the gym. He didn't say anything until the 11th hour. He was trying to save it. So there was really no way to jump in and help.

help out. He said, we're closing the doors. He's had some health issues and some other stuff in his personal life, and I told him I was sorry. I gave him a hug, and I got on a plane and with L.A. Okay. So when was this? Six weeks ago. Okay. All right. Okay, thanks very much. And we will now go to Dave DeBair with Post Media News. Hey, thanks guys for the time. Dana, it's something I've been wondering about for a while, and I'm not sure if you've ever addressed it. You guys had the history with Fox going back years ago when you had the special Best M. Sports show. Yeah, all that stuff.

During all that time when you guys were potentially looking for network partners, why did it take so long to get back around with Fox? Well, I think that, you know, when we originally came out, we were pitching this thing, even though when we did that show on the best-dance sports show period, it pulled like the highest number they'd ever pulled. And, you know, it was very successful, but everybody was afraid of it. You know, people weren't willing to keep putting live fights on free TV. They were afraid.

And the only way we got it done was by paying for it. You know, we ended up paying for the first season of the Ultimate Fighter. And that's the only reason it got on the air, and then it ended up working out. Then our deal wasn't up. We did a second deal with Spike, and when our deal was up, we were going to do another deal with Spike,

but we couldn't come to an agreement, so we had to go out and start shopping. And Eric Shanks, who's the president of Fox Sports, you know, I had actually built a relationship with him over at, he worked for DirecTV. Then he went over to Fox, and that's sort of how it all fell in place. Okay, all right.

Another quick one for you. What with the main event, you know, what happens with either guy with a win? You know, what, what's the win mean for Mauricio? What's the win mean for Chale? Well, obviously, a win is a good thing to get a win that doesn't hurt. And, you know, for Chale Sonan, the last two fights that he lost were against two of the pound-for-pound best fighters in the world. you know, and he is still considered one of the best 85-pounders in the world. So, you know, a win puts him in a good place.

And for Shogun, you know, beating Chiaelson and puts him in a good place too. All right. Put them one step closer to a fight that gets them one step closer to another title shot. All right. Thanks, Dana. Yeah. Also, as a note, Shogun has rejoined the call, and Alistair will be with us here in the moment. I'm here.

Alastair. Hey, Alistair, how are you? Yeah, I'm good. Are you guys in? Good, good. Next, we're going to go to Michael Stets with SB Nation, MMA, Mania. Yeah, I had a question for Alster. Now he's on the call. Alist, with the heavyweight division is wide open pretty much, you're coming off a bad loss. Do you feel a win here gets you another crack at Tain or JDS after they go down in October?

or do you think you'll have to play more effort? For me, I just been really focused on my own development. I was recovering from an injury, getting back on track, made a lot of changes in the camp, in the preparation, and the whole process. So for me, I've just been focused on myself, and for me it's just important to get that win. I put 100% everything into that, into my preparation. And it's up to the general of the UFC to decide what they're going to go,

do next? And how hard of a loss was that on you mentally? Was it a tough adjustment period? Did you take some time off to reflect on stuff, or did you get back in the gym as fast as possible? I took some time off to overthink everything. I'm not a person to get the press and meant to be down and this and that. I just think of what it used to be done. And I took my time for that. I also, I was slightly injured, so I couldn't really train. I'm going to run away.

And then, yeah, major changes, went back out of it. Thank you. And a question for Chale. So you said you're going back down to 185 after this fight with Shogun. Why such a quick decision? You have this will be your second fight at 205. Why not keep it open to the fight at both divisions? You know, I was really chasing after two guys,

chasing after Vitor and I'm chasing after Vandah. And Vandlea had mentioned right before I had made that decision that he was going back to 185. There wasn't a whole lot of other motivation than that. All right, thank you. And once again, if you do have a question, please press Star 1 at this time. And we will now go to Zeus King with MMA Opinion. Thanks for taking the call.

For Chale, last time we got to speak, you gave us some free business advice about simplifying our domain name. And we've taken that to heart. And what we've also done is we've also gone after. And we're purchasing MMAopinion.com.com. dot BR.jp.j. We're also getting shalp signing.com.

And they're all redirect you to our site. So I want to say thank you so much for that. Well done. I remember. I remember you. Thank you. You plan on using your regular high pressure in your face

grinding style against Shogun, or do you plan on striking whatever? No, I will be going straight ahead, and he will be too. Not only is that how we fight, and I mean, I can speak for him as well. We both have our skills, and we're going to bring our skills. But in addition, it would have a main event, and you can't play around when you're in the main event.

It's going to be a lot of action, whether it's positive or not. negative. I don't know. We're going to have to, I'm in the same boat as everybody else. I've got to tune in and find out as well, but there will not be a feeling out. As soon as they say go, we will. 100%. All right. All right. Finally, you know, you know, a lot has been made over the last several years about, you know, the way that, you know, that you poke fun and head fun at the Brazilian's expense and everything. And your record's not, you're not exactly great against Brazilian.

You turn it around this time? Yeah, well, I mean, you guys understand. I wouldn't poke fun at somebody if they were weak. I want to go bully somebody. The fact that those guys have a lot of belts and a lot of history and a lot of good wins behind them is why they became the target. It's the same reason I pick fun and go after the champions, and so should everybody else. I'm not going to sidestep anybody. I'm not going to back down from anybody at any weight.

And most importantly, I'm not going to pick on a guy that's weaker or smaller than me. Outside of Vandalay, I never have. All right. All right. Thank you very much. I'd like to ask a question for Shogun. How is your brother Merlin Ninja doing and how is the University of De Luta? All right.

Are we back? Yes? Okay. Great. great stuff from the conference call you heard from shogun hua you heard from chale sunen dana white alster overeem fashionably late shogun hua uh Travis brown a little bit so it goes down on saturday fox sports one uh shogun versus chale and if you want to hear the rest of that conference call we'll have it up later on today at mhmat fighting dot com all right let's go to our

next guest and he may not be a household name just yet but he's undefeated he's four knows an him, a fighter. He trains out of the rain training center over in Southern California with the likes of Chelsunin, Mark Munoz, and many others. He's a man that his manager, Ryan Parsons, has been terrorizing me to get on this show, and this is a great time for that. Really excited to have Pat Cummins on the show right now. Pat, how are you? Great, great. Thanks to be here. Glad to be here. Thanks a lot for having me. It's great to have you on the show, and obviously you heard a lot about you and have seen some of your fights, fought for pro elite, among some other promotions, and a lot of things I want to talk to you

about. But, you know, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you this off the bat, considering your connection to Jason Miller. There were some reports that he was arrested yesterday morning. Do you have any more information about that? I don't, actually. I did just, I haven't really had any contact with him in a long time, but I ran into him a couple weeks ago. He seemed like he was doing well. But, yeah, I mean, as far as any of that news, I really don't have anything. But, you know, I wish him the best. He's been good to me, you know, helping me out in my career early on.

So I always, I always wish him the best. You guys were close for a time. Why did you go your separate ways? I just, I kind of noticed a change in him a little bit, and it concerned me. And, you know, I'm doing everything I can to. to be on the right track and stay out of any kind of trouble. And I just, I thought it was a good time for me to kind of take myself out of that situation. You know, for a long time, I lived with Jason and trained with him.

And, you know, I'm really, I'm very appreciative. I owe him a lot for that. But, yeah, I just think things got a little, just a little strange with him. And I decided that, you know, maybe it's best if I remove myself from the situation. And it turned out, you know, it was a good decision. You know, you had a great college wrestling career at Penn State University. You made the transition over to mixed martial arts. As I mentioned, you're undefeated right now.

But according to your manager, Ryan Parsons, man you also train with, you have had 40 or so opponents turned down fights against you. Is that true? 40 or so? I mean, you don't seem like that scary of a guy. You know, I don't understand it either. I feel like I'm a pretty nice guy. Yeah.

Man, we had such a gigantic task getting a fight. This last fight we had, we honestly, 40 people, you know, initially would agree to it, then would come back and say, oh, we can't do that. We can't do that for that money. And it's just, it's hard for me to, to, you know, I don't know, get a handle on that because, you know, I come from wrestling and, you know, you sign up for a tournament, you show up that day, whoever else shows up, you're going to end up wrestling them. And it just, you know, that's the nature of competition.

I don't really understand, oh, hey, you know, I don't want to fight that guy. I don't want to be, you know, I don't want to be in that situation. It's like, what are you doing out here? You know, what are you fighting for then? So how frustrating is this? because you probably think you have a fight and then it gets turned down. I mean, can you get on a role here in your MMA career when you have so many people turning down fights against you?

Yeah, it's been very hard. You know, fights have been really spotty. I think my two closest fights may have been five months apart, maybe six. So it's so hard to keep, and everything else beyond that has been, you know, much longer. So it's hard to keep competition. flowing. Now, for someone who doesn't know you, why are people essentially afraid to fight Pat Cummins? You know, I don't understand it. I mean,

I guess it's just a wrestling background and, you know, guys don't like to fight wrestlers. That's kind of, that's kind of known. But, you know, I guess I have a little bit of a gym reputation just from, you know, I've been training with a lot of the really, really good guys. And, you know, I think people, people come in and if they're, watch practice, they say, oh, you know, you're not really doing all that bad against some of these guys. So I think word gets out a little that way, too, but I still, I don't understand it. You know, I would think an opponent wants to beat the best guy possible, so it makes sense to me.

So are you able to, you know, do this as a full-time job, or do you need to have other sources of income because you fight so sporadically? Yeah, well, you know, when I stepped into this, that was, that was the plan. set aside, you know, basically my savings and said, okay, I'm all in on this. I'm going to, I'm going to invest in myself and, you know, because I think I can be the best. And, you know, initially that was, that was the plan. But, you know, lately I've been picking up private lessons here and there to kind of pay the bills as I go. And I'm lucky I've had a lot of support from, you know, from my manager, Ryan and, and, you know, other guys at the gym, you know, kind of,

they want to make sure that I keep doing what I'm doing because I think they, they, they, they, expect big things from me. The one place where you know you can get consistent fights is the UFC. Right now, you're 4 and O. You ever consider going the ultimate fighter route, or have you guys approached the UFC, despite the fact

that you don't maybe have as many fights as they usually, I mean, they've brought in some guys who have had less fights than four, but, you know, despite the fact that maybe on paper you don't have, and that give you a shot there to get on a roll over there? Yeah, I mean, that's that's the goal for me. You know, I, I,

I would absolutely love that. And I know four fights maybe doesn't look desirable to them, but, you know, I'd be, I feel like I'm ready for that, for that situation. And it just makes sense.

You know, it's, you can't really turn down a fight in the UFC. It's not the nature of the business. So it's, I would love that. And we've definitely approached them and talk to them a little bit. And every time, hey, just you know, get a couple more fights in. You know, we know about you and um you know we we hear a lot of good things but just you know keep keep plugging

away and i mean that's that's kind of what i've been doing but you know you can only do that for so long have you thought about the ultimate fighter i'm i did just see that uh that that that show came available yeah um i guess they're doing they're doing tryouts here pretty soon um yeah i mean it's definitely a consideration i'm not sure you know, if that's a route, they want me to go. But, you know, I'm obviously, I'm open to whatever. And for the record, you're fighting at 205 these days, right? Yes. Yep, light, heavy way.

Do you feel like one of the reasons why maybe you haven't had an opportunity was, and some people may remember this, you had a bit of a run-in-with-the-law back in your college days, perhaps you were a young kind of, you know, I don't know, a silly boy you're stealing stuff from frats and whatnot, and then you had to have some jail time for that. In 2011, right after your MMA debut in Strike Force, which probably impeded some of your progress, do you feel like people are shying away from you

because you have this on your record? No, I don't think that's the case. But, you know, I think the people that know me and people that, you know, have had interactions with me, I think they realize that that's kind of, you know, that was just a strange kind of thing, you know, very uncharacteristic of me. And, you know, I really have no excuse to give for it. It's just kind of, you know, I did something really, really stupid. And I've been, you know, I've been paying the price for it. And I've been doing

nothing but, you know, positive things since then, trying to, you know, dig myself out of this hole. And I think I've done a pretty good job. And I actually have, you know, a funny, a funny thing from, from actually being in jail, I was on, I was on work release. And just, just an example of kind of turning, turning something like a negative into a positive. I, I worked, I worked, uh, work release. So every, you know, six days a week, I went out and, and did, you know, worked at a construction company and, you know, just worked myself as, you know, as much as I could. As long as I could be out of there, that's, you know, that was, that was all I cared about. And then on Sundays, I worked in the kitchen. And my very first

time in the kitchen, I decided I wanted to make some hummus. And nobody knew what hummus was. And I didn't really have all the correct ingredients for it. But I kind of like introduced to like, I would say 90% of the people in there. Like, oh, you know, hey, this is hummus. And, you know, I made it for you guys. It was just kind of like, you know, hey, if I'm in the situation, I'm going to make the best of it. So that's what I've been trying to do. And what was their reaction to the hummus? I'm a huge hummus fan myself. I can eat like a whole thing from the grocery store in one sitting. What was their reaction?

Me too. I think they were all pretty interested. I doubt they actually remember what it was called, but they all like, they seem to like it. And, you know, I don't think anybody would just kind of say, in that situation, I don't think anybody would say, oh, yeah, hey, this is really good and not meet it, you know. So when you say work release, what exactly does that mean? And so from Monday to Saturday, you're out working, but you still have to sleep in the jail, and then you work there on Sunday. Is that essentially it?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it was kind of, I mean, I guess they reserve that right for, you know, for people that aren't, you know, they don't really need to worry about them as much as, you know, somebody else that's in there for some, you know, a more serious offense, I guess. And, you know, the judge granted it for me. so I was very, very happy about that. And that really, that saved me in there because just staring at a wall is not my, not my kind of, you know, excitement.

I was so happy to be out of there and just, you know, I could work. I did a construction job. And, you know, every day coming in and out, I had to get strip searched. That was kind of like my payment for it. Nobody wants that. But, you know, it was definitely worth that. You have to wear the whole outfit and everything? Inside there, yeah

No, no, no, outside When you're working in construction I wear my own clothes Oh, okay I worked for a construction company That's actually mammoth Restoration Company Wow

They were I really I really appreciate What those guys did for me Just to have an opportunity To work for them And get out of there It was awesome

So could your family Like stop by And come see you while you're working? No, no Definitely not Oh, okay Yeah I mean you would think

Hey yeah But no They're very strict about the whole thing. So to kind of do, you know, obey the rules. Yeah. That was it. Now, while you were in jail, I mean, what kind of people were you rubbing elbows with? I mean, were they all, you know, people who had done, you know, crimes like yours, not too serious?

Or were there some serious dudes in there? Yeah, I mean, I think there were serious people in there, but I never, you know, I never saw them. Basically, the place that I got to go was, you know, the work release block area. So all the people that I had close interactions with were all, you know, we were all housed in the same area. And they all, they all afforded the same, you know, hey, you can go out and work and you have this, you know, release. So I never, you know, I never had any kind of crazy run-ins with anybody. And it was, it was all very mellow. So it was just kind of, everybody kind of did their own thing and, you know, wanted to get out of there just like, just like me.

And for the record, the stuff that was the stuff in question, that was like electronic stuff, right? You just took that from fraternity guys? Is that it? Yeah. Yeah, it was all fraternity house. Like, it started as a prank. You know, we're just going to take some stuff from these guys and, you know, just, you know, of course, just like anything else escalated. and we just, it's just, it's one of, you know, it's one of those things that I'm very, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm very sorry for. I'm very, you know, I really, it's a regrettable time of my life, but I can't take it back, so I can only move forward.

So you made your strike force debut in December of 2010. You looked very good finishing your opponent in the first round. Then you had to go off and do your time. And you return essentially a year later for pro lead. While you were in the slumber, as the cool people call it, I mean, how tough was it? Because you got the taste. You know, you were part of this exchange program.

You got to travel and go to Brazil and train with Novuniao and all this stuff. You were fighting on a strike force undercard. While you were there, what were you thinking about? Did you think you had blown it? Did you think you were going to get another opportunity? How did you keep yourself motivated to then get out and resume your career? You know what? Actually, it kind of, it was pretty unique because it narrowed my focus.

You know, it kind of made me real. Because, you know, at the time when I had my first fight, I was kind of, you know, up, up before, you know, before all that happened, I was kind of like, well, you know, I'm still liking wrestling a lot. I feel like I could do that. and um but you know it kind of like it's solidified the fact that hey i want to i really want to do this i would much rather fight than do anything else and it it really made me kind of buckle down and say okay i need to get i need to get through this as best as i can and in the best you know mindset that i can and get back out and and do what i really want to do and that's fight so it was it was i mean i don't want to say it was good but in a way it really it kind of cleared my mind

and made me realize, hey, I need to, all my focus is on fighting now. So where do we stand right now? It's currently August 12, 2013. Do you have any fights lined up, or are people still turning down fights against you? Yeah, I thought we had one lined up for the end of September, but no. So it's, I mean, and, you know, Ryan Parsons is a saint because he's the one that essentially deals with all this stuff. and he, I mean, I guess that's kind of a testament.

He believes in me so much that he's willing to go through all this crap to, you know, just to get me fights, to get me where I want to be. So he, but he's really the one that deals with all this, and he's, he's as frustrated as I am, probably more. I can't imagine. Yeah. And are you saving yourself for the UFC? Like, what if a Bellator World Series of Fighting,

an overseas promotion, wants to lock you up for a few fights? Are you into that, or do you want the UFC? UFC, UFC or bust for you? You know, that's something that I was just kind of thinking about. And I would definitely, you know, just because the UFC wants me to have a couple more fights, I would fight a couple more fights with, you know, with another organization, absolutely. But every opportunity that I get in those type of organizations are, you know, we want to sell you up for four years. And that's not the, that's not the route I want to go.

ultimately I want to be against, I want to be fighting the best guys there are. And I think that's obviously in the UFC. I've heard part of your training regimen is gymnastics. You're doing some gymnastics over there, along with Ryan and others. How does that help you? You know what? It's a pretty unique thing. It's, you go in there and, you know, you think a grown man doing gymnastics is just, you know,

they're just going to goof around, jump in the foam pit, you know, try a couple things here and there. But it's, I mean, and that's kind of the attitude I have towards it. I don't, and, but, boy, I tell you what, an hour into it, I am just like, I'm shot, and I, and I don't realize it. You know, it kind of keeps, it kind of makes things fun and keeps things light. So, you know, instead of grinding out in the weight room or, you know, whatever you're going to do, it's kind of, oh, it's our, you know, one day of the week where we can have this refreshing, fun workout, not realize we're working really hard. And, but, you know, at the same time, I'm definitely getting strong. longer. And I'm definitely, you know, increasing kind of my, my awareness, you know, spatial awareness. You know, I've never, I've never been able to do a backflip just kind of

because I was afraid to hurt myself. And now I'm just like jacking backflips left and right. Wow. Feeling great. So it's really fun. And you feel like it helps you in a fight? I definitely, it definitely has benefits to it for sure. I mean, there's, it might not be obvious, but I think, you know, our gymnastics coach is, he's a big MMA fan, and he's, you know, he's always wanted to work with MMA guys because he thought that the, you know, just kind of the athleticness can transfer over.

And I totally agree after doing it for a little while. I was like, yeah, I totally see this. So. Final thing, you know, we were just talking about Chal Suna, and he's over at Rain. Have you had a chance to help him prepare for this fight? I mean, we know that his background is in wrestling. Of course, he's fighting a striker. but now he's getting to work with guys like yourself.

I'm assuming Mark Munoz, et cetera, et cetera. Have you, you know, closely worked with Chale as he prepared for this fight? Yeah, we've been, actually this is, well, I've met Shale a couple times just, you know, through Ryan, but, yeah, we've actually had a chance to train together, and it's a pretty good fit for us, actually. So I'm excited to train with him.

We've been getting to know each other, and when Ryan just Ryan Parsons went away to go to Brazil for Tom Watson's latest fight. And I stayed behind and worked with Chale, kind of worked through the rest of his camp with him and got him ready. So I'm looking for big things from him. Oh, nice. Will you be there with him in Boston? No, I won't. I won't be able to get out there. But I'll definitely be watching. And do you feel like he's a better fighter than the one that got to rain?

than when he got there? Yeah, do you feel like he's improved? I know he hasn't been there too long, but do you feel like he's improved dramatically? Yeah, I think so. Really? I think just being in that training environment is good, especially for a wrestler,

because you're, you know, you're surrounded by a bunch of, you know, high caliber wrestlers that are all training MMA, and it's kind of, it's a comfortable environment. You know, I think that has a big, that has a lot to do with it. And, you know, we've worked, on some technique and things like that. And he's, uh, he's, uh, he's come along. I think he's,

I think he's definitely improved. Yeah. Well, Pat, I'm not going to say it because of me. Sure. Well, you know what? I'll say it's because of you. Great background. You're kicking ass. People are afraid of you. I think it is because of you. If he wins on Saturday, you take all the credit, all right? All right. I'll see what I can do about that. You might have something to say about it. No, no. Great to have you on the show, Pat. Good to meet you very, very much for the first time. and good luck. I know a lot of people have been very high on you.

A lot of people saying that you are one of the true prospects at 205, and quite frankly, the UFC's 205-pound division is probably one of their shallowest right now. And I'm surprised they're not jumping in there with you, but I'm assuming sooner rather than later we're going to see you in there. Continued success, and good luck getting some fights en route to the UFC. All right. Thanks so much, I really appreciate it. There he is.

Pat Cummins, you can follow him on Twitter. his Twitter handle is official Durkin, which I'm told Durkin is his middle name, in case you're wondering. A true prospect, you talked to Ryan Parsons, a guy who's worked with the likes of Mayhem Miller and King Mola Wall and many others back in the Team Quest days,

Randik Gator Dan Henderson, he glows. I mean, the guy, when he talks about Pat Cummins, it's amazing how high he is on him. And of course, it's his guy, but you can tell that he truly believed, that this guy can be a superstar in this sport. And, you know, thus far, very impressive.

All of his fights have been finished in the first round, as I mentioned. 4-0, he won his Strike Force debut in just two minutes and 44 seconds. TKO, then followed that up after he got out of jail with a win in four minutes, a submission win, then a TKO win in a minute seven. And then most recently, back in May of this year, another source. submission win. Guillaume Choke 319 of the first round. So he is rolling two-time All-American at Penn State. Everyone you talked to about Pat Cummins speaks very highly of him. And back when Sherdog did that fighter exchange program for EA sports a couple years ago, that was in anticipation of his

debut. He went over to Brazil and he was featured heavily in that. I don't know if you can find that online. I don't know if you can see that anywhere, but great to have him on the show. And I think a lot of people will be hearing about him in the months ahead. Amazing. I don't know he told me that. 40 plus opponents have turned down fights against this guy, but, you know, he confirmed it. Who are these people? You know, and why wouldn't it a promotion? Why wouldn't it a local promotion just try building them up? I wonder why an RFA wouldn't sign someone like Pat Cummins. RFA announcing today that they've signed a deal with Adidas and they will also license. the UFC Octagon.

They'll be the first promotion outside of the UFC to use the octagon, which is very interesting. And it kind of falls in line with their whole, we're going to be the minor leagues of the UFC. We're going to be the AAA organization of the UFC. So why not keep the fighting structure the same? And Ed Sores is doing a lot of interesting things since becoming president of the resurrection of fighting alliance. and they have a fight this weekend, August 16th. I told Ed that I thought a good idea for him, I saw him in Brazil,

would be to try to link up. Like, let's say there's a UFC event in Boston. Have your event on the Friday night in Boston. And, you know, he might have thought that doing that could overshadow or ruffled some feathers. But you see this in pro wrestling a lot. There's a big event on a Saturday night. A local promotion will come out on a Friday and put an event. Because on Friday, after the,

way-ends, you know, Joe Rogan does a brilliant thing. He does his comedy show, and a lot of fans are just looking for something to do. By then, most of the fans who are going to the event on a Saturday have already arrived. And they're looking for something to do probably in line with what they're going to do on Saturday, which is watch fights. They want to be around fans. They want to take it all in part of the experience. I think they should link up, you know, not every time, but if there's a big event in Chicago, if there's a big event in Milwaukee, if there's a big event in New York, if there's a big event in New Jersey, if there's a big event in New Jersey. Jersey in California, et cetera, et cetera, have the event on a Friday. And I think you'll do very well. And I think a lot of media will come, a lot of fans, et cetera. Anyway, they sign with Adidas for an apparel deal, and they license the octagon. So big things coming out of RFA,

and they return to your TV screen, Access TV on Friday. All right, let's move along, as I mentioned on the MMA beat on Friday, which I hope you've enjoyed and seen by now, that I think the two most interesting storylines, and there are a lot, from the Mike Browns to the John Howard's to Chale v. Shogun on Saturday

for the Fight Night 26 card. The two most interesting ones, the ones that I feel like, you know, I really think we're going to learn a lot about these guys on Sunday, post-Saturday night. Alster Overeem, big fight for him. There's a lot at stake.

He's fighting Travis Brown. He needs a win after the Bigfoot loss. And Connor McGregor. As I mentioned, you saw him on the show last week, a lot of buzz, a lot of hype. surrounding Connor since his debut back in April, finishing Marcus Brimidge in a matter of seconds. This is a guy you've seen on the show many times.

And the man behind Connor McGregor, in fact, his only cornerman coming with him from Ireland is the brains, is the leader over at the straight blast gym in Ireland, producing a ton of talent over there. And I told one of our Irish fans, Sean Sheehan, on Twitter, that I'm just going to have another Irish guest on every week because the fans over there are so passionate, they're so loyal. And this is one of the, really one of the true pioneers of MMA and BJJ over in Ireland.

I'm very excited to welcome in, Mr. John Kavanaugh, who is in Boston right now for Conner's Fight. John, how are you? Very good. Thanks for having me on. It's great to have you on the show. And you're in Boston right now. I know you guys are having that media workout, open workout tomorrow. And one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on was because there is so much buzz and hype surrounding Connor.

I'm wondering, did you think all of this would happen so quickly for him? And as a result, I know it helps you, it helps the gym, it helps your students, the fighters training there, but for this to happen to Connor in his second fight, joy riding around town with Dana White, all the attention that he's received,

did you think it would happen leading into his second fight, this fast? I don't really think about that kind of stuff, to be honest. I suppose it's pretty surprising, but I've known Connor almost 10 years. and he just tends to have this effect on people whether he's meeting a new guy walking in the gym

he'll sit with him for half an hour talking about how to throw a jab or whether he's meeting the boss of the biggest fight company on the planet he just he has a kind of magnetic personality that people are drawn to so it's surprising but at the same time it's not that surprising

is he the same Connor McGregor when he was fighting outside of the UFC or now and I asked him this and you know he gave me a very good answer but from your perspective, you know, a little more rich, a little more famous, you know, getting a lot more attention from all corners of the world, you feel like he's the same guy? Yeah, actually, it was pretty cool. I have another guy to do the corner with me now on Saturday night, and it's his teammate Tom Egan. Right. And Tom Egan actually was the guy, he was my first guy to find the UFC, that was USC 93, and he was the guy who brought Connor to my gym for,

the first time. That was nine years ago. Tom was with me about a year at that stage. And then you brought this loud kid that was his friend, Connor McGregor, into the gym. And me and Tom were talking about some of the stories you have from back then. And he's absolutely no different. And I say the same. If you're sitting at a corner watching a movie or that's just his way. He's, he's, what do you say, loud and opinionated. it about anything. It doesn't matter what we're talking about. He's just the way he is. He just doesn't

change it for whoever he's talking to. Dare I say loud and proud? That's a good way of putting it. Loud and proud. When you met him nine years ago, what were his skills like? Did he have any kind of skills to become the MMA fighter that he is today? Do you see that in him right away?

Right from the start, you could tell you hit hard. That's a difficult thing to teach. so he already could do that. He was kind of wilder back then. And obviously he had no grappling whatsoever. That was all new to him. But he did have that touch,

no matter whether he was going forward or backwards or fighting off his back when he landed, it was always a hard shot. So as a trainer, when you see that straight away, that's something that catches your eye. How much has his success helped your gym and yourself just getting more, tension here in North America.

Also, Gunner Nelson doing very well. Carl Pendred doing very well. Trying to get into the UFC, unfortunately for him, he failed in his attempt to get on this show. But it really feels like Irish MMA and your gym in particular, in 2013, its stock has really gone up a lot. Yeah, it's been a gradual rise. In the last, about five or six years ago, I had a group of people that just seem to

click together. I'm very interested in reading about what makes what some people call talented athletes great. And they all seem to have a common storyline that it's almost like a perfect storm. That a certain number of years ago, they happened to meet the right trainer, they happened to be in the right place at the right time. They happen to have, like it just so happened that this group of very dedicated, very hard training, all of the guys pushed each other, and they're all of a similar mindset.

All kind of came together at the same time. And since then, they've been feeding off each other, working off each other, and then you fast forward five or six years, seven years later. And now they're all starting to reach, I won't say peak. I don't think any of them are close to that yet, but they're starting to get world fame,

if you want to put it that way, whether it's being Irish champions or European champions, and now Connor and Gunny being the first to go towards, being a world champion. So it's been interesting for me on the outside looking in, but it's something that hasn't happened overnight. And someone made a joke to me, it's taking you seven years to become an overnight success

because it is something that we're just day in, day out, working at, and now we're starting to see the fruits of the labor. The fans in the media, you know, we tend to gravitate towards certain coaches. You know, a lot of them get attention, like the Greg Jackson's of the world, And recently, you know, someone like John Crouch is getting some attention and Farah Zhabi, et cetera. Did you ever sit back with your team and say, when are we going to start to get attention?

When are we going to get the respect that we deserve? No. For me, it's just, you know, every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, every day is the same. You just go into the gym and you just train away. And I don't really follow too much what's going on outside. I'm just, I'm drawn to certain. personalities and certain personalities are drawn to me. And I enjoy working with fighters that are curious about martial arts,

about why certain things work, training strategies that work. And like I said, I've learned as much from them as they have from me. I'm constantly amazed when I'm looking around the gym, and I'm always picking up new stuff looking at my guys. It could be someone that's training would be six months. and then of course the likes of Cahole and Gunner and Connor etc that are with me almost a decade so that's just my focus I just believe I believe if you train every day in the mindset of being as perfecting your movement as much as possible

well then the results are just going to come if you do what you love results money fame wherever everyone whatever your goals are will follow I'm very fascinated by boxing, MMA coaches, combat sports coaches, because of everything that you guys go through that a lot of people don't see. Like now, I mean, this is a Monday. You're here with Connor. You know, you have a lot of other fighters, but you dedicate that time. And that whole process with getting him ready, making weight,

then getting him mentally ready, the camaraderie, the team aspect of it all. I find it very interesting. And, you know, this morning when you tweeted, I'm going to be on the show with Freddie Roach. Freddie Roach was on earlier, and he's an idol. mind. He's a hero of mine. What do you do as far as looking at other coaches, how they prepare guys? Do you study them? Do you read about them? Are you that kind of guy as far as how you then take what they've done and implement it to how you are a coach? Yeah, 100%. I'm definitely the phrase I think is a student of the game. But I very much enjoy trying to understand why and how. They're my favorite questions.

I'm actually, I have a degree in mechanical engineering. That's what I was going to do when I, when I, when I, when I finished college, and I probably would have been a maths teacher if I wasn't, if I wasn't doing what I'm doing now. So I was always interested in problem solving and, and trying to figure out how things worked. And when you look around that why certain coaches have had a lot of success over others, then I don't want to put that down to some kind of supernatural thing or a silly work. word like talent. I know there's a reason behind it. I know there must be a natural phenomenon

that's making them be able to do what to do. So yeah, for sure, I study the coaches who are who are being successful and I try to learn from everybody, learn from them, learn from other fighters and learn from mistakes, learn from successes. But yeah, the whole process is fascinating. And of course, someone like yourself that's involved in the industry knows that a lot more goes into it and just what people see on a Saturday night. I made an analogy this morning that an artist works for months behind closed doors and then gets to put on an exhibition

and people come in and can see the fruits or labor. A fighter and his coach and his training partner works for months behind closed doors and then they have a fight and that's their exhibition, that's their chance to show what they've been working at, what new skills they have. And then the whole process, is fascinating to me. So there's a joke.

I can't remember quite how it goes, but it was shown that I'm an MMA coach. This is what people think I do. This is what I think I do. It's what my mother thinks I do. I don't know. You've probably seen those before. And the side that people think,

where it looks like you're, Tint Eastwood in the Million Dollar Babies Corner, whole Natel, I mean, that's 5% of it. The whole process that goes into it is, it's a very interesting one. And it's what made, It's what attracted me to the sport, and it's what that's kept me interested day in, day out.

And what's this fight week like for you? In particular, with someone like Connor, there's a lot riding on this fight for him. He's being put on this card for a reason, the Boston-Irish connection. A lot of people want to see if he can continue the role. A lot of people want to see if this has all gone to his head, and he doesn't show up like he did back in Sweden and April. How do you keep this caged animal in check? And what are some of the things that you'll do to make the time go by, you know, in a good way? and not like you guys are, you know, wanting to blow your brains out by the time Friday comes.

You know, I was actually talking with Connor about this yesterday. This is his 16th time doing this 16 pro fight, and then he had one amateur fight before that. And it just doesn't feel any, it feels it's getting easier each time rather than, because I've been asked this quite a bit, you know, oh, well, there's been quite a lot of media attention for this fight and maybe there's a lot of pressure on a young guy's shoulders and et cetera, et cetera. But actually, I find it, I find that it's getting easier to go along. We seem to have more time now to explore the interest in aspects of martial arts. Like I said, that's what really attracts me to it.

You know, like stuff like making weight and stuff like that, that's just a science now. every day, I know from nine days out, I knew what weight he had to be each day. And we share the same hotel room. I can almost tell you what time of the day he's going to go to the toilet. That's how we are at this stage. And I

like that with all my guys. I just, I have that relationship when someone's fought for me over 10 times. You get to learn you know, what triggers they need. How to have to keep them in the right frame of mind, some like silence, some like silly jokes,

some like talking about the fight. And each one is kind of unique and you approach each one differently. Well, Connor, we've always had a good relationship. I know in a long time and we have a similar taste and we're curious about stuff. You know, we'll be flicking around YouTube, listen to different, you know, different types of music that we enjoy. Again, we got to meet up with Tom Egan this trip and he's living in Boston the last. five years and we haven't really seen really seen him in that time. So that was a nice

distraction as well to have him call over and hang over him while we're being here. But really, I don't feel any then. I don't, I know Connor doesn't either. I don't, I don't, I don't really feel any pressure in the lead up to this. I don't go on to a whole lot of the the MMA websites to sort of read about this. So maybe, maybe that's a good thing. Yeah. But yeah, I genuinely feel the process gets easier with each fight. You mentioned Tom is also going to be in the corner on Saturday, and Connor on the show last week said that because of the whole social security number visa issue,

he couldn't bring over the cornerman, all of them that he wanted to, and you were the only one who came with him. Is that tough for you guys as a team that you're the only one that's able to go over? Genuinely, and I'm not saying this lighthearted, if Connor come over here on his own, the same thing would happen. He'd warm himself up in the change. change room by punching a wall. He'd carry his own bucket out and he'd still get it done

in a round and walk back out. Everything has been done. The work has been done over the last, not only what people sometimes call a fight camp, I don't believe in that word, but what people call a fight camp, but it's been done over the last decade. And Saturday night where I walk him out, his mother walks him out, he walks out, he

walks out on his own, none of that would really matter. Not what Connor, anything. Any luck in getting Stevie Collins to be his corner. I don't think that's going to happen this time, but I think he's in London now. Thanks very much, by the way, for organizing that. That was really nice. It was a really nice boost.

But, yeah, not this time, but who knows, maybe if he does a fight in Manchester or somewhere closer to home, Steve would be able to make it, and that would be a true honor to have him there. He mentioned afterwards he was buzzing. He said on Twitter, he went. wanted to go an extra, you know, 10 miles, more rounds, et cetera. Did you notice this? Did it really give him a boost to talk to Steve on the show?

Yeah, I really did. It meant a lot to him. Obviously, Connor originally came from a boxing background. And if you're a boxer and you're Irish, well, Stevie Collins is your hero. That goes around saying. So it was a really nice little boost. The last two weeks of training tend to be the most emotional for a fighter. both being on limited calories

and you have your most amount of knocks and bruises during that period so to get it down meant a lot on the last trip over when we went to Sweden we had an actor show up at his house and that was a nice a nice boost as well

so any of those little things just make it you know just a little nice little emotional boost so yeah for sure he had an extra a pet in a step. An Irish actor? Is this one that we wouldn't know here in the US? I don't think so. There's a pretty famous show back home. It's called Love, Hate.

They say it's going to end up in Ireland because it's sort of like our version of The Sopranos. Okay. In Ireland, it's huge, and it's just like being released in the UK. And they'll probably have to do something if it goes to America. I don't think anybody would understand anything they're saying. But if you're Irish, you love the show. And when we're training in Sweden for this, or sorry, in Iceland for his his debut there's a group of his living

in a house together and we all go into it at the same time and then we gave each other characters names that were in this probe

that's how we're referring to each other and all of her favorite character was the guy called his name is Frano and he's just he's a bit of a wild

wild man on the show and sure enough the morning we're heading out to Sweden and he rings the doorbell walks in the door and it was a wow

It was a real shock. It was a real shot. Who set that up? There's a guy in my gym. He's friends with a friend of a friend. Oh, wow. And it turns out that he's actually a Connor McGregor fan. And long story short, I was able to kind of get this as a bit of a surprise.

So I showed up that morning. And then just behind me was this, this. Right now back home, he's a major star. And yeah, it was pretty funny seeing a, kind of injury action. Everybody was just kind of shocked this guy walking. Two last quick things for you

and then we'll let you go and this has been great. We really appreciate the time. I've always wondered, why is the gym called the straight blast gym? And according to Sherdog, you haven't fought an MMA since 2003.

Why did you cut your career short? Okay, well, first question. Straight Blast Gym is over 20 years old. It's originally from Portland, Oregon. That's where my coach is from, Matt Thornton. He was the original MMA coach to the likes of Randy Couture, Matt Linne. And then his student, Robert Fawes, went on to create Team Quest and all those guys.

So he's been around the game a long time. And he named it the straight blast is actually a boxing technique. Most famously used in Vitor Belford v. Barnelie Silva, where he knocked him out, and it wasn't 10 seconds or something, when he ran him across the series of straights. So that's called it. let's call a straight blast. Why did he pick that name?

I have no idea. I guess you'd have to ask Matt. Okay. Maybe he liked that. He was a boxer originally, so maybe that was one of his, one of his go-to moves. I'm not sure. And secondly, in a nutshell, I never really saw myself as a competitor. I was always more drawn to the coaching side of things.

I was always more drawn to teaching. I love teaching. I love teaching anything. When I got my degree, I wanted to be a math teacher rather than, work in the field. It's just something I really enjoy doing. And so, but I wanted to experience it. I wanted to experience cutting weight. I wanted to experience fighting. I wanted to experience winning. I want to experience losing. I wanted, I wanted to have the full range of emotions that goes into it. So for me personally, not every coach has to do, but for me personally, that was,

that was important. You know, of course, you only have to look at the very, there's a lot of very successful coaches who have never fought MMA. But for me personally, I thought it would be important for me to at least try it. So I only did. I don't know what my record is in Cherokeeard out, but I did 12 fights all together because back then a lot of fights weren't recorded. And so, you know, I wanted to feel it. And that actually led to when I fought on a card in South Africa, and that's where I got to meet

my coach, Matt Thornton. he was actually in South Africa cornering Forrest Griffin got to me Forest Air and the the guys from the hardcore gym their coached you know that's where

Forest originally came from so yeah it was a very positive experience trying it out but I knew I would eventually going to the coaching this that's what kind of got me excited well it has certainly worked out for you when your prized pupils

returns to action on Saturday very much looking forward to it Connor McGregor versus Max Holloway. Great to talk to you, John. I could talk to you for a whole lot more time, but we have run out of time. Best of luck to you and Connor on Saturday. I'll say one quick thing before we go. Sure, sure. Yeah, it's my mother's birthday on Friday.

Oh. And she's always coming out to me. I never say anything in an interview. So I want to say, thanks very much for everything, ma'am, and happy birthday. Well, we love mothers on this show. They are our favorites. So you can talk about your mother all day long. Happy birthday to your mother as well. And best of luck to you guys. That's a pretty cool present for your mother. Birthday on Friday, then you get the win on Saturday in Boston. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The win's for you, ma'am. We'll see you in Boston. John, appreciate the time. Thanks, area. I look forward to seeing you. There he is. John Kavanaugh is stopping by. He is, of course, the coach to 1, Connor McGregor,

who returns to action on Saturday in Boston, Massachusetts. Okay, let's move along. One last guest to get to. He had a big win less than two weeks ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, against Leodomachita. He is, of course, Mr. your wonderful Phil Davis. Phil, how are you? I'm good, I'm good. How are you, Ariel?

I'm doing great. So good to talk to you again. Of course, this fight much talked about. Some have dubbed it, including myself, somewhat controversial. Have you watched the fight since then, and do you still think you deserve to win? Yeah, I have watched the fight again since then. Yeah, I'm pretty confident I won that fight. I'm pretty confident I won that fight. interesting to me that, you know, some people still feel like he won the fight, but not to you so, everyone's a lot of their opinion. Which rounds do you think you won?

I believe I won first round and second round. Okay, so you will concede the third round. That was his round. The second round seems to be the round that a lot of people are now saying was yours. Why do you think you won the first? The first round was pretty even. Yeah. It was pretty even. And the first round is almost always hard to score.

Almost always hard to score because there's not a lot of momentum, and there's a lot of time guys spend feeling each other out. And Machita has this style of he'll wait until the last minute and a half of a round, and then he'll explode with a flurry, and then he'll evade, evade, evade. You know, kind of for the, not for the rest of the time, but pretty much for the rest of time. And if you get taken down during that minute and a half time span, yeah, you're screwed. That's it. I'm sorry, you lost that round.

That's the way the game is played. And to say that, oh, you know, take down shouldn't, you know, decide, you know, who wins a round. Well, okay, then one flurry should decide who won the round. Take away that one flurry. Who won that round? That flurry. That was a question. Oh, that was a question.

I thought it was just like a rhetorical thing. Yes, if you take... That was a question posed to you. Okay, if you take away the flurry, which I want to ask you about, because some have called it into question, if you take away the flurry, the most dominant aspect of the first round, yes,

was the takedown. I thought that the flurry did more damage than the takedown. But now my question to you, Phil, is, did it do damage? Because if you look at the replay, in real time, it looks impressive, dominant, he's coming forward, and you stumble a little bit, but if you look at the replay, it seems like some of them may not have landed.

How much of that flurry did, in fact, land and hurt you? I think one punch actually landed. And did the knee land? The knee missed me entirely. Okay. Like, wasn't close. I mean, in retrospect, it was too close. but it was too close for comfort

but it was definitely not I mean that was one of those things if that hit you you know oh man you'd have been in big trouble but no it didn't you didn't get close to connecting and again that's one of those things when you see it on TV

it's like oh snap you got hit with that yeah but then when you watch it again an instant replay or if you were Cade's side you saw no it didn't it didn't hit him he actually hit his knee

against the fence. That probably suck. If you look at the stats, it says you landed two of ten takedowns. You look at that. For someone like you with your wrestling background, was that a success, were you happy with 20%? Were you expecting that? Or do you think, or did you think going into the fight that you'd be more successful with your takedowns? Let me explain something. The mentality of a guy with my wrestling background says that when you go for a take-down, it's not always to get a take-down.

A lot of times it is to basically establish your dominance. If I go for a take-down, I could be trying to take you down, but I could also be trying to say, if you get too close to me, I will take you down. And that is also why Machita keeps a long range. You know, he doesn't want to end up in that grappling game. I know that. He knows that.

but forcing to take down, not only does that say, hey, I'm in control of the center, I'm the one pressing the action, I'm the one pushing you around, making you back up. You know, the judges see that. In wrestling, if a person takes three shots in a row on the other guy, the other guy is officially stalling. So if I take 10 shots on him and he takes zero shots on me, that doesn't say, hey, I stop big shots. That says, hey, you didn't do anything.

That's how it's perceived in the wrestling world. Nobody keeps the stat of how many shots you take. We keep how many takedoms you get, and we keep who's in control the match. And if you get, you know, if you have 10 take-down attempts, 10-take-down attempts, and you're successful two of those, well, that's two takedowns, and that's also no attempted takedowns. Why would you ever want to have a zero in that column? That's an offense column, my friend. but hey

you can look at the stat type you want to I was talking to Kenny Florin about the fight last week who by the way scored the fight in your favor and he was very passionate when talking about the way stats are done in MMA how it's still in the infancy

phases right now or stages I should say and this would seem to be like one of those things where maybe it's not noted the right way would you agree is it wrong the way these stats providers are, you know, looking at the takedown and noting, you know,

how many are successful and whatnot. Do you think it's wrong? There are areas where the stats are collected wrong. A lot of people, I heard this statistic, that Leotamachia has the best takedown defense in the light-heavyweight division. Yeah. Now, why is that an interesting stat?

Because that sounds like he's really good at wrestling, except the difference is he's not really good at wrestling. What you're talking about is people attempting takedowns on him versus the success rate. You see where I'm going with this? Sure. Okay. So if you have a guy Leo de Machita who keeps an extra long range, he keeps a very rangy guy, his great kicks, his kicks would really allow him to keep such a great range and allow him to strike from the outside.

He's an awesome counterstriker. So in order to close the distance on him and take him down, you've got to jump through some hoops. You've got to make something happen. And he's able from that distance to evade a lot of those takedowns, which is great for him. Now, to say he has the best takedown defense in a light-heavyweight division,

while you are inaccurately reporting what is going on. That's just not the case. Now, granted, he is great, great hips. He is extremely fast hips. And, no, he's not easy to take down, not by any stretch of the imagination. But that can be worded differently, and those stats can be recorded differently. Do you feel like there should be more 10-10 rounds, especially when a guy like him is concerned, a little bit of those rounds are so close, but I feel like judges, they don't give out any 10-10 rounds.

or it's very, very rare. Would you like to see more of that? I don't. Okay. I don't. I don't. Because here's the thing, is that what each fighter has to know is that there will be a 10-9. And you need to make sure that the judges see you getting the 10 and the other guy getting a 9.

They need to know that there should be that sense of urgency. see that, hey, you know, I need to do make sure I go the extra mile to make sure that I get the 10. That should be that should be there. And that's kind of input into the system the way it is right now. With more,

with the allowance of more 10-10 rounds, it could turn to a sport, like a point sparring match. And then people said, oh, Leota Machita, like, I'll just talk you. I mean, the narrow margin in which he landed more over in significant strikes. It was something like four.

No one's counting that. You think judges sit ringside and count that? No. No. That's not significant. In the grand scheme of things, more significant strikes is not significant. They're not counting. That's what you have to realize.

They're not counting. They're going by who has their back to the center, who's pressing to action, who's going after stuff. Who's making stuff happen? And that's what they're after. So when you say, to bring that full circle, what's your original question? The 10-10? I thought that it was about 10-10 rounds.

The reason I brought it up was because I feel like if a guy is worried that he's just going to get a 10-10 and it will be equal, his opponent will get the same amount of points, then maybe he'll be a little more aggressive and he'll take more chances. He'll push the action more. If there's an option of, man, we're pretty even, I better, I better go all out for the next minute to make draw. I get the 10 and get the 9.

Yeah. That's what I look at it. Otherwise, if there's four minutes left and I feel like we're perfectly even, hey, maybe we'll, maybe we'll dance around for a minute. Was he... Maybe we'll both collect a 10-10. Was he the most frustrating opponent you've ever faced? Well, definitely so. You know, I expected him to be a puzzle, and he definitely was.

He's a, man, his kicks are fast. That dude is fast. That dude is fast. You know, he has a certain kind of game, and he's very particular, and he's very hard to deal with, and knowing that you can, like, get the opportunity to train with will be, you know, very close to him. What was the experience like for you? I remember, you know, usually I'm in the back doing the interviews for fuel and I'm kind of tied up there. But for that fight in particular, I went into the arena because I wanted to hear the crowd.

Kind of felt like it was the unofficial main event. The crowd was amazing, singing along to his song, and they were very vocal throughout the fight. And then the post-fight press conference, you were kind of the, it felt like the lone non-Brazilian just getting peppered with questions and, you know, people questioning whether or not you won and all that stuff. did you feel like you were kind of, you know, enemy territory? Did it really kind of sink in that you're on this island all by yourself here? Well, I'll tell you what, if the walkout wasn't loud enough, and no, it was kind of sweet how Leona walked out. Whatever song he came out to, it was definitely not the same song he came out to

when he fought Dan Henderson. But everybody knew the words. I have no idea what that song was. But everybody knew what it was. It was cool. So that was cool. You know, a bit once we got going, you know, the crowd becomes like a,

not that they don't exist, but they become part of my memory that I don't, I have no idea what happens. Like there's certain things that happen to walk out. My coach talked to me. I don't remember that. It's just part of the overall memories that I just do not have at that time.

My memories of Fight Night are very, very limited. Even in our post-fight interview, I was still not aware everything that was going on. But, man, it was definitely pretty hostile. Definitely after the win,

I said to myself, man, it's considerably louder than any other arena I've ever been in. You were limping after the fight. Is everything okay? Yeah, you know, I checked a lot of kids.

and I take a lot myself. So that's also just those injuries that, you know, just require some maintenance, some ice and some TLC. Have you found someone to provide the ice and the TLC? Well, I'm looking for a one-stop shop. Oh. That has the I've been to the TLC. But right now, I'm just driving around town.

Okay. You know, your teammate over at Alliance, Brandon Vera, was very vocal on Twitter. or accusing Brian Stan. You know where I'm going with this, of being biased and had some not such nice things to say about Mr. Stan, who everyone, included myself, I thought he did a fantastic job on the entire call.

Overall, I thought he was very research, etc. But that fight in particular, Brandon had an issue with. You rewatch the fight you said at the top, do you think he was biased? And, of course, you fought and beat him way back in, what was it, UFC 109? Well, I went back and watched the fight. I did think it was a little biased.

I did. You did. But, you know, I was watching the telecast in the back the entire night. We got to the arena super early. I thought Brian Stein did an awesome job. I thought he did an awesome job the entire night. And I thought he did a good job in my fight. But, I mean, his job is no easier than mine.

Please believe his job is so easy than mine. He did the best he could, and sometimes it's hard to objectively say what you're seeing, because, I mean, even when I'm watching a teammate fight, I have to control for, man, I know he's my guy. I have to kind of go with, you know, look at this fight objectively as if he's not my teammate, you know. And it's hard to do that. And, you know, he did the best he could. I did think it was a little biased, but I thought he did a great job speaking the entire night. And I thought he did a great job called the fight.

Does he, do you think he has it out for you? I mean, why would Brian Stan want to be biased? No, no, no, no. No, Brian Sand doesn't have it out for me. He's a cool cat. And, no, he has no real feelings towards me. We're buddies. We're buds.

You know, it's just one of those things, you know. I think Leo, well, I don't think. Leota was the favorite going in. And it was a close fight. It was a close fight. And I think it went as close, people tend to lean towards the favorite. Okay. Well, that's fair. And that's as simple as it gets. I don't think

Brian Stan was intentionally being either any type of way. He did a great job the whole night. So on paper, it says right now that you have a win over Liotto Machita UFC 163, August 3rd, 2013. Does it feel like a win after, you know, people saying that you lost and the fans

not embracing it like a big win for you? I mean, this is the biggest win of your career against Liotta, the former champion. Eight days removed. Does it feel like a win? Nine days removed. Does it feel like a win? Well, you know, you have to take into a lot of things. I mean, people will say what they want.

You know, if I would have went in there and knocked him out in five seconds, they would have said, Leotto's washed up, man. He's old news. He needs to quit. You know, if I would have, you know, took him down to submit him, people that said, man, Leoto sucks. He's never been good on the ground. He needs to quit.

If it was a close fight, and it went my way people say, you lost. Oh, Davis, you suck. You need to quit. Right. There's just no pleasing everybody. Man, I just do my job.

That's all I can do. So last week I spoke to Ed Soros, who's Liotos manager, and he told me that they won a five-round rematch against you, a main event of some sort coming up. And when I asked you about this, at the time, you didn't want to respond, but you said you had a tremendous response for this idea. Can I hear it now? Indeed you can.

Well, here's what I'm thinking. So, what am I? I'm like, 12 and 0 now, 11 and 0? No, you do have one loss on your record. What am I talking about? 11 and 1. Did you forget 12 and 1, first of all, and second of all, did you forget about the loss?

That's good. I think that's a good sign. Did you really honestly just forget about it? You know what? I'm just trying to forgive and forget, man. You know what? You think you're undefeated. That's great.

That's the way you should be. Oh, God. There's a lot of the headlight now. I was like, what? Yeah. It's crazy. I hate to bring it up. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, man. I mean, I have 12 wins, 11 wins, however many wins I have. And all of those guys won't rematches. Sure. You're not the first person to want a rematch, dude. Get out of here. You fight everybody like this. You fight everybody like this.

You fight close fight. You fight close fights. Name a fight if somebody didn't get knocked out that it wasn't close. Name one. Name one. Name one. Name one. I'll wait.

He's done. Okay. No, wait. He has knocked people out. Ryan Bader. He knocked him out. That's what I said. That's what I said.

Okay. Name a fight where he didn't knock somebody out. Okay. wasn't close. Yeah, the knocks them out or it's close. Sure. And listen,

you just can't when you live by that sword, you die by that sword. That is the way it is. You know, when you habitually leave it to the judges, eventually that

strategy will fail you. I can't, I can't say it any other way. Now, does the man a great friend? Absolutely. Does he deserve a rematch? Not really.

I, I'm doing things. I'm trying to keep you rolling. So what do you have in mine? What do I have in mine? Right now, a little R&R, a little ice, a little TLC. I'll take a mimosa on the side. Yeah, I bet.

Uh-huh. Some pancakes, sprinkle of cinnamon. And, I mean, that's all I got going on right now. Pretty soon my phone will be bringing off the hook without a doubt. and then we'll go from there. You want to know what my theory is? I love your theory. I've ever told you that.

Well, thank you. I have two. It's a two-parter. Basically, they said at the Postpike Press conference that if Glover to share looks great, he's probably going to get a title shot next. A lot needs to happen, though, because A, he has to look great.

B, John Jones has to retain. I think if John Jones loses to your teammate, Alexander Gussesveson, they might do an immediate rematch since he has been so dominant. But let's just say he A doesn't look great. B. Ryan B. Ryan Bader wins or John Jones loses. I could see two things happening for you.

I could see you fighting the winner of that fight, Glover versus Ryan Bader. Or this is the oar that I'm really excited about. If they don't go... I love these oars. I love these oars. If they don't go... If they give it to Glover or whatever, the option A works out, and Daniel Cormier beats Roy Nelson,

DC versus Mr. Wonderful and his light heavyweight debut, I think that fight makes all the sense in the world. What do you think? Man, so many options. So many theories. But what do you think of the Daniel Cormier one in particular? Well, here's what I think. Number one, I think we need to give you

your own show separate from this show, just full of all-up-air of Hawaiianian crazy theories. Call it Awani 5-0. What do you think about that? You like that? I like playing matchmaker. I like playing out the scenarios. It's true.

And I'd be into that show. I'm a good ring. I'm telling you right now. If that ever comes fruition, I want in on that. So, anyhow. The winner of Vader versus Glover, I mean, those two guys, they're hammers. I mean, there's no person.

I say, I don't, I don't want to fight that. person, not, dude. They're good fighters, and I'm down to fight those guys. And, Roy Nelson versus... DC in particular.

Yeah, he's going down to 205. Yeah, that's sexy, right? Well, from what I understand, you know, I think Daniel Correa, he would rip up like a diesel, like one of those diesel models, underwear models.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It should be very interesting. But I heard talks of him getting an immediate title shot. Well, that's what he wants, but at the press conference, you heard it. They said, if Glover looks good, he's going to get it. So then, what do you do with DC in his light heavyweight debut? You put him up there against a top, you know, contender. The winner then

gets the fight for the belt. That would be you versus DC. What do you think? Well, I mean, listen, I'm not the business turning down fights. I'm actually in the business to take and fight. When the phone rings, I just answer and I say yes. And then I ask, what's the question? What's the question? I don't know what it is. What's the question? Answer, yes.

That's what I do. Honestly, though, are you hoping that Gustafson lose to Jones because then you're probably not going to fight him, right, if he wins? I won't fight if who wins? I won't fight Jones. No, if Alexander Gustafson beats John Jones, it becomes the champion, I'm assuming since your teammates, unless I'm wrong, correct me from right now, you won't fight him, even though you fought him way back when that's before

your teammates. So my question is, are you hoping he loses to John Jones? No, no, no, no. I'm hoping he wins. I always hope he wins. And, you know, I 100% would fight Alexandria and Augustine for a title of shot. Oh, okay. But only for a title shot.

You know, it's one of those things. Like, when, to me and Alex, you know, it's not. like this, you know, this mean-spirited fight that takes place, you know, with lava and mechanical sharks outside the cage. You know, we spar so hard and so often, it's like, why wouldn't we get paid to do this? Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? It makes no sense not to.

when it comes down to doing it to fighting, not for a title, well, that changes things. Why would you lose a training partner for the sake of, you know, moving up in your position? But, you know, we're in this to be the best. And there's 100% of the time when my teammate is fighting, my teammate I respect to win. So he's in there against the champion.

I expect he takes down the champ. Simple as that. All right. So for now, just sit back and let it all unfold. But the Uramachita, thanks, but no thanks. Yep. Thank you very kindly for the gesture. It was an honor to fight you the first time,

and most definitely would be an honor to fight the dragon for a second time. But I think that might have to wait a little while. Okay, last question. When I was in Brazil, I was there for 72 hours, and I had six servings of assayi. I was blown away by it. It has changed my life. Not the first time I've had it,

but really this time it really hit a sweet spot. Did you have any opportunities to eat it? I know you were cutting weight, but afterwards did you go for a celebratory assayee bowl? Absolutely. Isn't it amazing? It's so good. It's amazing.

They put the granola on it? Oh, man. Oh, it's amazing. Oh, my gosh. I've now entered a very happy place once you said the granola. Is it? Is this your way of telling me that you're not sponsored by Bonnie ASEI? Oh, my gosh.

Are you sponsored by them? I don't think so, right? No. They don't need to sponsor me. Just give me something. They're just going to sponsor. I want them to sponsor. I don't even care if they sponsor.

I just want it. I want, because I've had it here in the States, and I've heard in California, it's a little different. But here in New York, East Coast, it doesn't taste anything like it does there, and I can't figure out why. And I can't figure out why no one has decided to bring the authentic assayee, because if they do, And by the way, some people have hit me up since last week's show wanting to get into business with me. But honestly, I would be their number one customer. I would do whatever it takes to get that because I think it is the most delicious dish

as far as dessert, fruit is concerned that I've ever tasted. Oh, so do I. It's amazing. I crushed like three or four of those. Oh, yeah. But you know it's even funny when I went down to Brazil for the press conference, I ate like four bowls just a one-day span. Four in one day, wow. You beat my record.

Yeah. Yeah. I knew we had a lot in common. You know? When I do something, I do it 100%, Ariel. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. We've learned that about you. Phil, great to talk to you, as always.

Congratulations on the win, and I'm looking forward to you either fighting Glover-slash-Bater or my X-Factor idea of Daniel Corme, if he wins in October. Thanks a lot. I'm looking forward to whatever comes down the line for me next. As always, thanks for having me on. I hope to see you on the Howe Winning 5-0, virtually.

Thanks, man. Let me know if you need some help with that. I appreciate it. I will do, no doubt. There he is. Phil Davis stopping by. Big win on August 3rd. He's up there.

I mean, like I said, Glover versus Bader winner or Daniel Cormier. Newarker, are you there? I'm here. Who do you think won that fight? I believe I had Machita. You did, yeah. He certainly brings up valid points. Oh, definitely.

I don't. And you're Phil Davis guy. Love Phil Davis. Yeah. One of my favorites. Great interview every time. Definitely, I was rooting for Phil Davis in that fight. My thing is, first of all, his point about Machita fighting in that style and then expecting

somehow to win cards that way is spot on. You can't fight that way and say, why didn't the judges see what I saw? You leave it that close. You evade that much, and you have to live with the result. So definitely not a robbery. The word robbery gets thrown around way too much. Very close fight. I think I had Machita edging them out, but anybody who scored it for Davis, I have no problem with that whatsoever. I think it was that close. And I actually agree with you that 10-10 should be handed out more. And those first couple of rounds definitely could have been in the 10-10 realm.

Casey, who's our cameraman, E-KC on Twitter, there's no bigger fan of the 10-10 round than that guy. He loves it. He even asked Dana White about it in the post-fight scrum. When was it after Fox 8? And I just think that if you have more 10-10s, guys will be a little more aggressive. but if you're up two rounds to none, going into third, you could be really relaxed and not really go out there and go for the finish or be aggressive. So it could work both ways. But, you know, you look at the stats, fight metric.

He's right, you know, significant strikes, 21 of, what is that? 90 for Davis. Machita 27 of, my eyesight is horrendous. 27 of 61. Davis through 90 strikes, Machita is just 61, and Machita's significant strike percentage is 44% to 23%.

But he only landed six more. He had the takedowns, and Machita had none. I watched it again. It's a very close fight. I think gun to my head, I'd probably give it 29, 28 for Machita. But that being said, you do look at that flurry, and that's really the reason why I gave Machita the first round,

and you really, you really analyze it, it does kind of seem like not a lot of those shots lined it. And that's obviously a big deal. But here we are. It's a win for Davis, and he is not interested in the rematch against the Yonamachita.

And you know what? I don't see the UFC doing it again. I really don't. It wasn't the most exciting fight of all time, and a five-round main event with it, I think would be a tough sell unless it's maybe in Brazil, but I see them moving on from this. Now, this past weekend was a quiet weekend in the world of the UFC,

but there was World Series of Fighting. They had their fourth event, and if you saw on Twitter, I actually couldn't watch the fight live because my family and I were going to the Hamptons here in New York and an establishment called South Hampton Inn. Just completely did us dirty. and it was actually very frustrating. They canceled our reservation. They pretty much left us out in the cold.

And I kind of went on a bit of a rant because I was all upset about them on Twitter on Saturday. But as a result for them canceling our reservation and being unbelievably rude about the whole situation. And borderline disgusting, like shocking, appalling the way they spoke to us. I never done that before. I never felt like, oh, I need to go on Twitter and call these. people out. But this time I felt like I did, Southampton in and East Hampton, New York, do not go there. Just bad people. Just bottom line, bad people and horrible customer service. And I was unable to watch the fights. I did watch them on Saturday, but I know Mr. New York, Rick, was watching them live

and even put down a little wager, right? I did. I wagered on Gerald Harris going into that fight. And he won. He did win. I think he opened as the favorite, and then all of a sudden, the line swung in the other direction and Santiago became the favorite rather quickly and rather heavily. So at that point I saw Harris as an underdog at plus 105 and I jumped all over it because I thought he had the wrestling to control that fight. The knockout power with Santiago's touchable chin to end that fight at any time. So I thought that was a good bet.

And at a certain point right before the fight started, I believe he was up to plus 140 and I thought about dropping a little more on it but I hesitated and and the line shifted and I didn't get it in. So why just that fight? I didn't like the lines on some of the other fights. I thought about betting on Hakaba but I wasn't sure if he was going to stand if he was going to wrestle don't really know much about his skill set other than you know YouTube clips of him banging it out with other dudes on in various organizations that I don't even, I've never even heard of. And I did say that the Cavalcante Griffin line was closer than I, than it was presented.

And I said that on the show, but I wasn't favoring Cavalcante, so I didn't want to jump on that quite as heavily. But he ended up winning, so I was a little disappointed that I didn't jump on that. I don't think there were any other good lines. Obviously, I was embedding on Spong at 15 to 1. Deonda, obviously not. It was a funny night because there were these on paper mismatches, but the underdogs didn't get the memo. Yeah.

Actually, they were a game. Brandon Hempelman. Hempelman, I have to say, he was, he's incredible. He's one of the toughest dudes I've ever seen. He was getting his legs brutalized, tenderized, and he's just limping around with a broken leg, trying to throw flying submissions, standing in there, and still firing back at,

at an amazingly talented Marlon Marais. So that was a very, I was very impressed by him. I'd say out of everybody, I was the most impressed by him in the entire night. In a losing effort. In a losing effort. Now, obviously, Marlon Maris is a stud, but I knew that going in. Hemphleman was the one who really stood out to me as, wow, I didn't know that this was there, and that guy's incredible.

Now, when we take the questions, any questions about Nick Newell? Yeah. Okay, so we'll touch on Nick Newell in a second, but the UFC, as I mentioned, many times on this show, they return on Saturday, and that means it is the return of Mama Nose's Picks. Is it the Mama Nose Picks? Or is it Mama's Nose? Let's just call it Mama Nose. Oh, just Mama Nose. Yeah, you don't have to put picks in it.

All right, all right. It's the return of Mama Nose. By now you know, my dear mother is 8 in 1 with her picks. A couple people were trying to call her out for the UFC 162 picks, but those were exhibition. Those were amateur fights. That didn't count. Eight in one, her lone blemish, Machita Day. Davis, and we're not one to make excuses.

She did, in fact, pick Davis first. I kind of said, oh, I think this is a tough fight for Davis, et cetera, et cetera. I don't know what's going on there. In any event, sorry, getting strange text messages in the middle of the show. So she's 8 in 1 right now. And as we currently stand, she would be 9-0 if she would have not listened to me and gone with her God. But here we are heading into UFC on Fox Sports, number one, the debut, UFC Fight Night 26, and she has picked the main card.

So that's six fights this time. And these are her picks. These are the official mama-nose picks looking to improve her record to 14 and 1. Can't she do it? We will find out on Saturday. She picked Joe Lozahn to defeat Michael Johnson. John, no, Uriah Hall to defeat John Howard. That's Yariah Hall to defeat John Howard.

Matt Brown to defeat Mike Pyle, Iraa Faber to defeat Uri Alcantara, Alistaira, Alistaira to defeat Travis Brown, and then in the main event, she went with the gangster from Westland, Oregon, Chale P. Sunan, to defeat Maricio Shogunhua.

Now, what do you say? I know you have accused my mother, my dear mother, Mr. New York, Rick, of going chalk, as they say, right? Of going with the favorites? I have not accused her of that. Yes, you have. I've pointed out that that is a fact.

Wow. That's not an accusation. No, it's not. Because obviously, 8 in 1 would mean that she's been correct. What would the accusation be? She's not looking at the betting line. She's breaking down the fights and she's picking her winners. What were those as far as?

Those were, that was chalk. All of them? All favorites. Jesus. Sunnin is the favorite. Overim's the favorite. Faber is the favorite. Lozahn's the favorite

Uriah Hall is the favorite There's not one underdog No But that's proven effective in the past And if you remember I was often criticized for that But No one dares to speak for themselves

Well first of all She's 8 in 1 Sure Wait until she at least stumbles She hasn't even broken stride yet Before you start criticizing Sure sure Yeah so

the betting lines are interesting for this one for sure. I didn't expect Sunnan and Shogun to be this close. I haven't looked at these lines in a while, but Sonan is only minus 140 and Shogun is plus 120. Stylistically, I really don't like that matchup for Shogun. His takedown defense has never been anything to write home about. You heard what Freddie Roach said he's going to knock him out. I mean, that's his shot.

That's how he's going to win. He's not going to out-wrestle or counter-wrestle with Chail Sunan. I'm very surprised by that. if I was a betting man, I would probably be all over the sun in line. I think that's a bargain at minus 140. If you could bet on these fights, of course. If I was allowed to bet on these fights, that's what I would do. Overeem is minus 190.

Travis Brown is 160 plus 165. I'm really not touching. I wouldn't touch that one, betting-wise, if I was allowed. Because we don't know what Overeem is going to show up. I got to see one more before my confidence is back in Alistair Overeign. Plus, Travis Brown is kind of. of a stud. He's got the one loss on his record, but it's the big foot loss where he, he, what was it, a hamstring? He, like, detached it or something like that. He's a stud.

And he was looking good up into that point. I mean, it was early. I don't know what to, I picked Travis Brown going into that fight, but it was kind of early for me to make any analysis on the fight itself, but Travis Brown's, you know, a stud. And he's got the knockout power to compete with Dallas or over-ram. Faber and Alcantara, the line is Faber is minus 280. Al-Cantara is plus 240. I think Uri has a chance at an upset here, but at plus 240, I don't like that play, because Faber seems to win every single fight. That's not a title fight. I love this fight for that reason, because it's a tough fight, but he wins all these fights usually. Will this one be the same? I see Faber winning, but I've also been riding the Uri train.

He, he, during the Rick's Picks challenge and the invitational, he's won me some money because I really like him. And I've picked him to finish opponents, which he is very successful at. McGregor minus 255, Holloway plus 215. I like Connor in this one. Maybe the line's a little off. It might be a little closer than that. But I think Connor is going to win and he's going to look pretty good doing it.

Holloway's tough, though. So that could go either way. Brown and Pyle Almost a coin flip Matt Brown's minus 160 Pyle is plus 130 Pyle seems to be the underdog In every fight

Yeah I think I've leaned toward Matt Brown here But Pyle's a live dog So that might be worth looking at What does that mean live dog? Well there's dogs like Angel Deonda And then there's dogs like Mike Pyle

Like his his His line may move Is what you're saying? No his line is better than represented. Even if you're getting Angel Diyonda at 30 to 1, the value isn't there, and he's not going to win that fight.

So he's not a live dog. Okay. It's an analysis. It's not an objective thing. It's a subjective thing. Joe Lozahn minus 260, Michael Johnson plus 200. That's an interesting one. I think Johnson's wrestling might come into play,

although getting on the ground with Joe Lozahn's probably not a good idea. because he's a master. So I think I would favor Lozahn, but at that line, I don't know if I touch it at minus 260. And then this is the most interesting one to me. Uriah Hall, once again, a huge favorite. Minus 515.

For a guy who just lost his UFC debut over John Howard at plus 375, I might even go so far as to say I would take Howard outright. Wow. But I would definitely jump all over him at plus 375. Uriah Hall has shown that he's in a depth striker, absolutely. He's a highlight reel waiting to happen. But John Howard isn't just some dude off the street.

This guy's had some battles in the UFC. And I think he's got the... First of all, I don't think he's going to stand with Uriah Hall as long as he seemed to indicate in the interview. I think he might go for takedowns. He might try and mix it up. Sure, he's going to stand for a certain amount of time and throw some bombs at him,

but I think he might mix in the grappling a little bit. and I might favor Howard. Maybe saying I'd pick him outright is a bit of a stretch, but plus 375, I actually like Howard there. And I don't know what Uriah Hall is done to earn minus 515. It's an interesting line. I love that fight, by the way. I think it's a great fight.

I'm very surprised at that line is what it is. You know, it's interesting. I'm looking at that website, Best Fight Odds.com, and they have the six fights, but they also have the Conner fight. That's how much interest there is for this fight. And what is it? $2.65 and plus $2.155 and plus $2.15.

What do you think of that? Connor. I like Connor, but I think the line may be slightly off, if at all. It's either dead on or slightly off, where Max Holloway should be a little bit closer. But I don't think it's anything that you need to jump on at this time because I see Connor winning. Yeah. All right. Any other thoughts on the card? You're okay with my mom's picks, except for essentially John Howard.

I'm always okay with your mom's picks. Other than Olivera, our picks have been almost 100% in line. You're just trying to butter up. We know deep down. Got nothing but love from all the hell one. You don't feel, you feel to a degree like she's taking her spot now. What has she done to deserve this? This is what Will told me you said.

In the back there, you're complaining, what has she done? You know, what's her track record? How much money has she won? Well, we can get Will on the money. No. So what's it called? Nope, there's room enough for her. She can sit right here, right here next to me.

By the way, she just let me know on text right now that she is listening, so just be careful of what you say, all of you is back there. I got nothing but love for Mama Helwani, as I've said, over and over again. Sure. Well, we'll see. But the one that you're questioning right now is Uriah Hall. Is that accurate? I, I, yeah, I would pick Howard.

Man, it's tough to say that. because he's been away for so long, but the line is influencing my pick a little bit. I think I would go with Howard, yeah. All right. We shall see. I'm looking forward to it. Dana White, by the way, on the conference call there,

you saw they're trying to work out the deal with DirecTV right now. I guess, I thought Speed was on DirecTV, but I guess I'm wrong. Or maybe when it moves over to Fox Sports One, who knows about that stuff? I do know Time Warner Cable, we get it here in the New York area. And I would be surprised. I mean, obviously they're working.

They need to be on Direc TV. That's a big part of all of this. I would hope that it gets done by Saturday. That would be unfortunate. He says it's out of his hands. They're trying five days away. Let's see what happens. Of course, a lot of these things often seem to happen at the 11th hour.

So if you have DirecTV or any other cable provider, satellite provider, that doesn't have Fox Sports 1 right now, sit tight. You still got some time. And, again, usually these things work out. where at the 11th hour they do it because then the heat is on, the pressure is on. Now, we are sitting here in New York City, Time Warner Cable. CBS Showtime have been taken off Time Warner because of a disagreement, contract dispute, whatever you want to call it. Fees, nonsense.

So these things happen, but I think in the end, it all got worked out and everyone can watch it. And a lot more people can watch it than the fuel situation, which wasn't available to the likes of Comcast, etc. So that's where we stand as far as the mama-nose picks. Good luck to my dear mother. Let's see what happens. And I know a lot of people are rooting for her, excluding the boys in the back, as we'd like to say. We got some questions.

We do. Let's go. Questions from the website first. This question says, George St. Pierre paying for UFC 167 VADA testing out of his own purse. With George St. Pierre paying for his... Repeating myself. UFC 167 Vata testing

out of his own purse, do you think his name is linked to the biogenesis report scandal? And when will the UFC or other leagues let us know which MMA fighters are on the list? Kind of an interesting stretch there, because you're going from one guy who is willingly giving

up his own money to pay for this random testing now. Vada, the voluntary anti-doping agency, they will come to your house. They will ring your doorbell. They will actually bother you at any hour of the day, to do this drug testing and legitimate.

I mean, this is random testing. This is what we've always said is the best way to go about weeding out the cheaters. So you say by him bringing this up, but let's see if he actually does it, of course, you think he's on the biogenesis list. I mean, I think that's a bit of a stretch, just given those two stories, examples.

I don't think... First off, I commend him very much for, you know, talking about this, bringing it up, saying he'd pay for it. Again, let's see if you... does it before fully commending him. As far as the list, the UFC is not going to come out and say these guys are on the list. Why the heck would they do that?

Now, I think it is up to the media and perhaps any of the moles, the whistleblowers, so to speak, that were, you know, aggressive in getting these names out as far as Major League Baseball players are concerned. That's the one that's been hit the hardest as of right now. There was a story that came out on ESPN a couple weeks ago saying that there were some. some MMA fighters on the list, boxers as well, other athletes, but nothing has progressed as far as that is concerned. And I don't know, honestly, I don't know if we have the kind of media covering this sport to, and I'll put myself in that category. I don't know if we're able to break this kind of stuff. This is big. This is a legitimate news story that can rock the

foundation of any sport. But I will tell you that I think, I don't think the UFC is going to come out and say these guys are on it. It would be very interesting, though, to find out how the UFC would react if a big name fighter was on this list. Let's say someone fighting in November or December. Would they get taken off the card? Would they give their big fight to someone else? Would they get fine, suspended?

You know, it's different in our sport as opposed to Major League Baseball. Alex Rodriguez was suspended for X amount of games. 200, something crazy. A fighter has a fight coming up. What are you going to do? Take them off the card? Otherwise, what can you really do? Find them a little bit? It's a different

ball game. I'd be very interested to see what do. UFC now testing guys as they sign them and doing the TRT stuff as Dana has talked about, but there's always more that can be done. And if a big-name fighter is on this list, if a small-name fighter, you can just cut them. A big-name fighter, it would be interesting to see what they do. Next question. Jose Aldo versus Randy Couture.

What do you think of Jose Aaldo's comments on Randy Couture not being so natural? Those two have never crossed paths. Well, I thought his comments were very interesting on many levels because A, he said that if he needed it, he would take TRT. B, he said, well, you know, I'm okay with people taking it, but our gym has never done it, which I thought was a little interesting as well.

You're okay with it, but our gym has never done it. And then his take on Randy saying, like, this guy fought almost till he was 50, and it's almost unimaginable to think about what he did and then think about, oh, he never did anything or took anything. It was kind of like a backhanded compliment. Like he was so good that he,

It's unimaginable that he did this on his own, so he must have done something. Of course, Randy never tested positive, and, you know, that's just the way things are. So I could see why a Randy Couture fan would be offended or upset by that. But you can also take it as a compliment. He's like, he's so good, I can't believe he was natural. He's so good, I can't believe he never took anything. But hey, credit to Aldo for being honest and saying, if I needed it, I would take it. But just kind of funny when he said, but no one in our gym has ever taken it.

No vunial. But when a fighter of his stature, a champion like him, says that, that is news in my opinion. And just another story that the great Guillermo Cruz has passed along to us. What a week for that guy, a debut for him on MMAFighting.com coming out swinging. So happy he's on the team. He also just put across the wire, Jake Shields and Demiomai. verbally agree. First reported by some guy over on UFC tonight, but let's not.

Is that a show? Did he even credit me on that? Geez, here I am. Here I am singing his praises, and I don't even see my name in this report. How about that? Now, he did get the event. I didn't have the event. UFC Fight Night 29, but I mean, really.

I'll have to have a word. Next question. This is the final one from the website. regarding Travis Brown, the most underrated heavyweight in the UFC. Why doesn't Travis Brown get more attention as one of the U.S.C.'s top heavyweights? His only loss came after an injury inside the Octagon. How he may, excuse me, might not have fought the very best in the U.S. just yet. He's shown to be a fast and athletic heavyweight, well capable of finishing fights quickly.

I personally can't wait to see him against Overee. Thoughts. By the way, you read that very quickly. Why are you in such a rush? People like to hear you speak. Did I mess up and get it? You got the gist of the question there? Travis Brown, I do think

he is underrated. In fact, I think people give Stefan Struve more credit than Travis Brown, which is amazing, because if you recall it, UFC 130, Travis Brown knocked out Stefan Struve with an amazing Superman punch. It was one of the most unbelievable sights ever in the octagon.

I mean, this giant of a man just crumbling backwards at the hands of a punch of a guy who is also equally very large and Superman Punch it was just great and yet I see a lot of people's rankings Struve is ranked higher than him it's like they forgot

you know he came back short fight in April against Gonzaga and now he has a massive opportunity against Overim if he wins this fight he has to be quote unquote in the mix and I think he has a chance I mean people are I don't think people are dogging Travis do you feel like people are

dismissing him I don't think people view Travis Brown as just a gimmie fight for Alistair Overim do you I don't think people are dismissing him. It's it's definitely, think of it more as a situation like Chad Mendez, where people are just not remembering him and giving

him enough credit for the things he's done. And they're kind of keeping him out of the conversation, not willfully, but just out of forgetfulness. Because Travis Brown is a super talented dude and a very legit contender

at heavyweight. But he doesn't get as much attention as some of the other guys. But I don't think it's a willful thing. I think it's just forgetting about him, which is, I don't even understand that because every time he goes out, he knocks some dude out impressively. I mean, the elbows that he delivered to Gonzaga were some of the best we've ever seen. It was great. So yeah, I don't think it's willful, but he's definitely kept out of the conversation for some reason, much like Chad Mendez recently. And also go back and look at how he

looked when he made his UFC debut. And look at him now. He looks much better. Great shape. Very fit. I'm very excited. Like I said, Overeign McGregor are obviously those stories.

But, I mean, Travis Brown in that Overeign fight is a big part of it as well. If he wins, we all of a sudden have a very legit contender in the heavyweight division. That lost the big foot. It was a big show for him. I mean, that was a big opportunity.

Main event, FX card gets injured. and he rebounded, looked nicely in a short fight. But here, win over someone like Overeem with Overeem's resume, pedigree, even though he's coming off a loss would be huge for Travis. And I think he's been given the respect that I think he deserves. So I'm curious about this one, but I don't feel like he's been dismissed. And different than Chad, because Chad lost to the champion. Here, it feels like this could be a real step up for Brown.

And I don't know. I don't think that he's being overlooked. Our next question is from Twitter, from Brock Randolph. I wasn't impressed with Tyrone Spong. I think he's another Alistair Overim. This is his description. Overrated, one-dimensional, and no cardio. Thoughts.

I wouldn't say that that was the best case scenario for World Series of Fighting. And to be honest, glory. I mean, he has really become the poster boy for both those organizations. And a lot of people were expecting and wanting to see him just completely knock Angel DeAnda's head off and that didn't happen. DeAnda was game and really it felt like

took the beating and the fact that he survived as a victory. That was a moral victory. That was the silver lining. I don't think it kills him. He didn't lose at the end of the day and I think people need to slow their role. He is very young and new to this sport and

he's not going to be able to beat everyone up like he did in his first fight. Yet in this fight I think given the competition a lot of people were expecting it. Let's see. Let's see. I still think that it's going to be tough for him to juggle all these sports. And I think he's going to have to pick one, in my opinion. And by the way, I saw him in interviews call himself the Bo Jackson of Combat Sports saying, oh, someone said this to me in an interview, and I don't remember who.

I told you to call yourself that, Mr. Spong. You relate to my interview. I gave you a nickname. And now you're going to make millions of dollars off this nickname. And you couldn't even give me a shout out in the interviews. I mean, unbelievable this guy, the nerve on him. He returns in October, by the way, for Glory's debut on Spike. And I don't think it helped him or hurt him, but I just don't think it was, you know,

people were expecting Spong to be the story coming out of that card. And I don't really think that was the case. I think the story was really Nick Newell, A, B, that all these underdogs actually hung around with their counterparts who were big favorites. And maybe you got a credit World Series Fighting. Maybe they knew something we didn't. but I think it's early calm overrated, unathletic, all this stuff, one-dimensional,

but it probably wasn't the best result for all those people involved. What do you think? I definitely don't think no cardio, one-dimensional. I don't think those are things you can prove or claim yet. He hasn't been in deep waters.

He stood there for three rounds and did whatever he needed to do. He completely destroyed DeAnda's legs. I don't think he's, ran out of gas at any time. I don't know how you can make the claim that he has no cardio. That's yet to be proven. Um, one dimensional. We haven't seen anybody really try to take him down all that hard yet. So we don't know how good his, uh, grappling skills are or have become since he started. Um, but in terms of a performance, I thought it was dominant, just not impressive. Uh, maybe like

the Rory McDonald's fight where, um, sure, he completely controlled the fight and dominated somebody for three rounds, but, you know, didn't do anything too flashy. Now, the difference here, I think, is Spong was trying to take DeAnda's head off. It's not like he was going in there, you know, just content to throw leg kicks. He was definitely trying to finish that fight. And I came away thinking Tyrone Spong is just as good as I thought he was before. Now, overrated in terms of maybe like betting, betting lines, I don't think he should be a 15 to one favorite over anybody in MMA just because he's not proven yet. He's not a commodity that's proven himself as a complete fighter yet. But I don't think he's overrated in terms of being a mixed martial artist or being a kickboxer.

I think he's a very, very talented, dangerous opponent for anybody. Yeah, I'm curious to see how into MMA he becomes and if you really want to devote his time to this. But look, it wasn't a loss and at the end of the day, it wins a win. Our next question from Manuel Valverde. Do you believe Morias is a top 10 bantam weight? You know, it's tough, and honestly, I'm surprised that he kind of fell through the cracks of the UFC. He doesn't have the best record, but boy, I mean, he is so talented. And I think he looks like Frankie Edgar Jr., the way he moves, the way he strikes.

Everything about him feels like Frankie Edgar Jr., and, of course, he trains with Frankie and his great boxing coach, the great Mark Henry, Pinos Pinos, you remember him from our show. Remember that pizza that was good. I was so, I was just thinking about this last week, and I was like, I'm so happy I wasn't doing the U.S. Fit thing at that time because I would have had to pass that, that delicious food. How many more weeks you have left? Two weeks. Wow. Maybe he can hook us up with pizzas to celebrate. See, I don't know if I'm going to be like all over that. Oh, you're just going to be done? This is a lifestyle change for me. You're done? I'm not done. I'll eat pizza, but I'm not going to, man, last time I had three slices of this, had some pasta, had this. It might be a little. more tame this time. But it was incredible. Pino's pizza, shout out, amazing. And they made a pizza in my honor, so of course we have to love him for that.

You know, top 10, it's interesting because if you look at his wins, it's not like he's fought total nobody's. The Hempelman fight wasn't, you know, it wasn't the most, you know, a lot of people were thinking he's going to win, not the toughest test. But prior to that, he beat Tyson NAM, who had the big,

win over Dantes in Brazil last year. And then prior to that, he had the win over Miguel Torres, which he looked very good as well. I mean, those are quality wins. Think about it, though. Is he top 10? I'm trying to pull up some rankings here.

Give me a second. I would be inclined. I think he certainly has the skills. I mean, you're always going to favor the UFC guys because of who they fight, and that's the best way to judge. But of course, you have Henne Borough, you have Dominicruz up there, Faber, McDonald, they all deserve to be up there, Wineland, Pickett. I'd

they deserve it. A Sun Salas look great. Jorgensen. Now you get into the Dillishaws and the Dantuses of the world. Yeah, I think I would put him in the top ten. Do you agree with it? I think I think he's, if he's not top ten, he's right there. Yeah, I think I would. He's incredibly good, super well-rounded. I would put him in the seven to ten range right now. Yeah, I mean, I said I was most impressed by Hempelman just because of how much punishment he was able to absorb and recover from. Now, that means that Morayas was dishing that out, and he's amazing. I'm very high on him. I think he's one of the best fighters, not in the UFC.

He's incredible. I think that when you talk about World Trade's Fighting, and there's a theme here, right? And next up, we'll talk about Nick Newell. But, you know, Spong, Morayas, Nick Newell, the resurrection of Josh Berkman. A lot of people are very quick to crap on them, and there are some things that you can criticize. But in less than a year, let's not forget they started in November,

they've done a pretty good job. Wouldn't you say, I mean, for the most part, I know it's hip to crap on the new promotion, and there are certainly a lot of growing pains, but they've, it's tough to launch a promotion. I think for the most part, they've done a nice enough job of mixing some veterans with some new guys, we don't know about.

And some of the fights are definite mismatches, but you talk about like the kind of resurrection for the likes of Anthony Johnson, the fighters I mentioned, you know, they're doing this middleweight tournament. They'll have a lightweight tournament coming up. It could be worse. People aren't going away disappointed,

and that's what you can ask for early, right? I mean, if everybody's enjoying themselves, then that's all you could ask for when you're just starting up. And people seem to be happy every time they tune into WSOF, including, you know, they've signed John Fitch. It's not like they're just bringing in. It has a bit of a strike force slash eliticsy, like a Showtime MMA feel to it.

You know, like, it's going to be entertaining. There'll be some kooky things, but overall, you probably won't be bored. I can ride with that. Our next question also about WSOF, I believe it's the last one, from Piaw. Is it time for Nick Newell to get a fight in the UFC? He looks more and more legit every time he fights.

Well, we know Nick Newell wants to be in the UFC. See, he sent out feelers. He's tried out for the ultimate fighter. It didn't work out. He's now 10-0, submitted Kian Caldwell. Obviously, he's getting a lot more attention, and I think the next step for him is the right one. He's going to be in this four-man tournament. That was the plan beforehand, alongside Dan Lozon, Justin Gaichi, and J.Z.

Cavalcantec, as he won on Saturday. And I think that's perfect. I think they should keep Justin away from him because he's the other fresh guy. And have him fight someone like Dan Lozon or Jayzee. one of those guys, then wins this tournament, it becomes champion, then we could start talking about him being in the UFC. But if you really look at his opponents, and I do agree, Jeff Wagenheim, I retweeted what he said. He's much more now than just a human interest story. This is a guy who's undefeated 10-0, and he's fighting better competition, but he's yet to fight that

name guy who is once in the top 10, top 15, et cetera. He's going to get that opportunity now. Let's see how he does. That's going to be the true test. And I think this is better for him in the long run than to get thrown in there in the UFC. I think he's taking the right steps. And if he gets by those next in those two fights, of course you'd be champion then, it'd be tough to go. But let's just see how it all shakes out before saying this guy can beat Benson Henderson. That's my feeling on Nick Newell. Next question from Yoss the boss. Oh yeah. I love Yoss. Where do Shogun and Chale go from here with a win or a loss? Well, Chale Sondon is going to go down to 185. He already said that.

on UFC tonight. So it's a whole new world for him, or I guess it's back to a familiar world. For Shogun, it's going to be tough. I mean, if he loses this fight, I think he may fall out of the top 10. Coming off the lost to Gustafsson, look good against Vera,

but, you know, did lose to Dan Henderson before that fight. So it'll be a bit of a losing streak for him. It's going to be tough. I still think he has a name. I still think people want to see him fight. But I think this is a very important fight. I think there is more pressure

on Shogun than Chale. Of course, Chale has a lot going on. He has the TV stuff. He has more to fall back on. I feel like there's more pressure on Shogun's shoulders than Chale. Do you agree? I think we talked about this and I forget, which way. Well, we said who has more pressure going in? And I think you convinced me. I said it was Shogun. And then you convinced me that it was Chale. Did I? Yeah, because I said, you know, Chale can fall back on the analyst thing. he did. And you convinced me that it was Shogun. Wait, wait. I mean, you convinced me that it was Chale. I don't remember that.

We can go back to the tape. I'll find it. But I'm like 99% sure that that's what went down. But man, I think I don't know. I have no clue who has more pressure. I just know that both guys need a win here. And I like the fight.

It's intriguing. And Shogun has been a little more vocal leading into the fight, but I don't know. I just feel like if Shogun loses, what the heck do you do with him then? For Chale, he still has the new challenges at 185, especially Sands Anderson, is champion. Yeah, I can agree with that. Our next question from Samuel Bruce, could Uriah Hall be the next Felipe Nover? And by the way, side note, Shogun can maybe go down to 185. That's been bandied about in the past. That is an interesting question. I think it's a little too early to say that, of course,

it almost seems like it's the Madden Curse or the SI Curse to proclaim someone a killer on the ultimate fighter. It happened with Nover, didn't pan out, happening with Hall. I think Hall has better skill set, more potential than Nover. And I don't see him fizzling out of the UFC like Nover did. We'll find out he did lose in the finale. But if, did Nover even make it? to the finale?

I don't think he did, if I recall correctly. He was one of those guys who didn't make it, but everybody was like, oh, you know, he's still the guy to watch be on the lookout for him. I feel like he did, because why then would Dana White, let's see, yeah, he lost. He lost to Eskadero. Yeah, he did make it to the finale.

Because Dana White, when he was, you know, saying he was such a badass, the show was already taped, so he wouldn't have done that if he lost in the semis. He lost to Escadero, Tough Eight finale. So kind of the same thing. We'll find out. It's a great connection.

And by the way, two New Yorkers. So let's see. I think that Nover had issues outside of just fighting, which is, you know, it's not fair to say, you know, Uriah Hall's fought once and lost. And it wasn't like he got dominated. It was a competitive fight. Sure, he was a big favorite and he ended up losing. But, you know, it seems like he's got a good head on his shoulders.

And if he comes out and wins, that's obviously, you know, out of the question. and win or lose, he's going to be exciting. People want to see him fight. So I'm not sure that's there yet, but it's interesting to see some of the guys that come out of tough and then ultimately either fizzle or become stars. It is the elephant in the room.

Let's see on Saturday. Next question from our friend Robert S. Pearson. Belfort wants a fight at 205. Davis needs another big win. Does Davis versus Belfort make sense for UFC 168? You know, I guess it kind of makes sense. it's not the kind of fight that I want to see Vitor Belfort in, but it's certainly a big fight and, you know, a sexy fight for Davis

and a gift, not a gift, but a reward for a win over someone like Leromachita. I wonder if Belford will be all over it. It's intriguing. I like the idea. I don't like Belfort's idea of just taking a fight at 2.05 when he's not sticking around there just for the heck of it to waste time. I like when guys, as I mentioned many times, move up the latter of fight contenders.

That's why I like Davis versus D.C. or Davis versus Bader slash Glover. On paper, this is obviously a fight that I would be interested in watching, but I don't like the idea of Belford going up to 205 just to wait for Anderson Wyman to do their thing. I agree with that, but it seems like he's dead set on that. So assuming that's true, I don't think this is a bad fight. I think this is pretty good. Yeah, it's okay.

I don't know. You know, if Belford is going to fight in December, then I'd rather him fight someone like Musassi at 185 when he's going to be back. Well, see, I would like that fight too, but I really, it's weird. I think he's not going to take a fight at 85 for some reason. Yeah, that seems strange. Because let's say he loses.

He loses this fight. Is he still the normal contender? Of course not. He's coming off a loss. I mean, it's happened, but it would be crazy. It's weird logic, for sure. Our next question from Huntillia. Huntillar?

Yeah. I suppose that. Hundlar? Hunthlar? Yeah. Who will have the bigger impact that 170, Lombard or Paul Harris, will either of them get near a title shot? How funny is it that? Both these guys who fought in December, who looked very similar, are now both going down to 170.

And oh, by the way, both of those news items broken on the great UFC tonight, which is moving to Fox Sports 1 in September. I'm going to say Lombard, more well-rounded. more more weapons to deal with. I still want to see both of them at 170, the site. Eric Albarassian, I want to make sure I'm pronouncing that correctly. Abaracin, who has been on this show, wrestling coach for the likes of the Nogara brothers, the Yodo Machita, Anderson Silva, told me that he did a test weight cut with Husseemar Paul Harris to 170, and he did it with Flying Colors,

had his wrestling diet, used that to get down. So he can make it, apparently. Lombard was a little skeptical when I spoke to him about it, but right now, if you're going to ask me, impact 170, I'd go with Lombard near a title shot.

Sure. But it's going to take a while. I think the thing with Paul Haras is the same that it's always been. You know, if he can get his head right, he's dangerous because he's going to, you know, grab a leg and not let go. Yeah.

he's super strong. But I think Lombard is a much more complete fighter. Obviously, he showed head-to-head that he's a better fighter. So I think Lombard will have a bigger impact. And I think, will he get near a title shot? I'm not so sure. It'll be a while. I mean, Marquart's a nice fight.

You know, at least three fights before we start talking about that. I can go with that. This is our last question from Jimmy Nash. What are your thoughts on Ronda Rousey's retirement plan? Yes, this was a very hot topic last week. Ronda Rousey, who has hinted at this in the past, telling MMA junkie that she's kind of on a four-year plan here with their MMA career, meaning she'll have two more years left.

And, of course, a lot of people worried, expendables three, Fast and Furious Seven. Is she going to go the way of Gina Carrano and leave mixed martial arts when she really gets a taste for Hollywood? And it's a possibility. It's something we've talked about. It's something a lot of you have brought up. I know Sean Sheehan, our buddy in Ireland has almost promised that this will happen.

I've asked Rhonda about it. Let's see what happens. I mean, so much can happen. And the UFC is really, obviously, high on Rhonda. She's a big part. I mean, as I said, last week on the show, I think she's one of the faces, if not the face of the UFC. I don't think they're going to let her go that easily. They'll try to make it worth her while.

Now, it is a lot easier to make money in Hollywood as an actor than getting punched in the face for a living. So, you know, let's see what happens. If you recall that interview that I did with Dana in New York, where he talked about those issues that he had with one of her lawyers, her team right before the ultimate fighter, and that's why she thought she was being replaced, could these people be the ones who are trying to push her out? And will they be the rift between the UFC and Ronda Rossi?

You know, there's a lot that can happen. Of course, she's fighting Mish Tate again. After that, probably Katzengano, if she recovered. and it looks like she is on her way. And then so many things can happen. But I definitely think it's a real possibility now. Two movies, two big movies. She'll get a taste for Hollywood.

And it's happened before. And I don't think a lot of people thought Gina would disappear the way she did this quickly. I think it's a definite possibility. But I think there's a, the X factor this time is the UFC Dana White. And I think that they will be a lot more convincing and try harder to keep her if she tries to leave. But someone wants to leave, they want to leave. So I think it's a real possibility. And very interesting to see the way she reacted on Twitter saying that all the people scolding her and giving her crap has almost made her want to leave.

And that'll happen. Honestly, yesterday I was telling our pal New York Rick that I've never blocked more people on Twitter on a day than I did yesterday. Very rude, very aggressive. You know, the whole Mayhem Miller thing was happening. and I was trying to do my best in reporting it the most careful and professional and I guess careful is the word possible. And people say, mind your own business. This is TMZ journal and all this stuff. First off, this is my own business.

This is my business. M.M.A fighter, retired or not. This is my business. What are he talking about? Leave that stuff for him as private. This is something that happened. the public space, just trying to confirm it. Guy by the name of Jason Miller arrested 8 a.m. Sunday morning.

Same middle name, same birthday, same occupation. They wouldn't tell us if it was, in fact, him, which I thought was a little strange. But it's news, especially year after he was arrested. We didn't officially report on the site, but I wanted to keep people abreast because there were a lot of rumors that was all over the place. Anyway, to make a long story. story short, the fans sometimes, and I know it's on all of them, it's a very small vocal minority, they can be annoying. They really can. They're why we're here. They're why we love doing

this. It really drives me and fuels me to get feedback of all kinds. I love the fans and I feel like I interact, but some of them are damn annoying. And they're annoying just to be annoying. And that's why we have to block them. And that's what I would suggest that Rhonda does. Don't let them get to you. Don't let them be the ones to make you want to leave MMA because there's a lot of great fans out there. A lot of them. I think it's the best. fraternity, this fraternity that we have, a community, a sorority, if you want to call it that as well, to be inclusive, not exclusive. It's great. It's unlike any other sport from Abu Dhabi I've been to, to Australia, to Rio, people coming up and so nice, thoughtful fan last week in

Rio giving me a soccer jersey, my friend Enrique, with my name. I mean, these people are true saints, a lot of them. And then there are some annoying ones that ruin it for everyone. But I would just... The block button. I used to take pride in not blocking people, but now I just, bang, block, you're done.

I don't want to read your crap. Why do I have to read this? On my phone, on a Sunday, who wants to read that crap? So there you have it. We're done? We're done. Sage advice.

Yes, thank you. All right, so there you go. That's the show, my friends. Very excited for this week. UFC on Fox Sports 1, UFC Fight Night 26. Before I go, let me just run down the card here because I was in the middle of that

before we went to the conference called the rest of the card, Diego Brandeau versus Daniel Paneda, Mike Brown versus Steven Seiler, Max Holloway versus Connor McGregor, Michael McDonald versus Brad Pickett, very important at 135, and then the main card, which begins at 8 p.m. Eastern,

Johnson, Lozon, Howard Hall, Brown Pyle, Akantara, Faber, Overeem Brown, and Shogun v. Sunn. So, again, 4.30 p.m. Eastern Time, Ultimate Insider on Fox Sports 1, the brand new Fox Sports 1, channel launches Saturday and then 5 o'clock pre-fight show for an hour and then 6 to 11 all the

fights on Fox Sports 1. You don't want to miss it. And I remind you that this episode of the MMA hour has been brought to you by Fox Sports 1. We want to thank Fox Sports 1 for sponsoring the show and a reminder once again that UFC Fight Night 26 on the all-new Fox Sports 1. The debut of Fox Sports 1 is this Saturday, August 17th from the TD Garden. in Boston, Massachusetts. Mike, you can hit the music. As I said, I am shipping. Is it shipping up to Boston or shipping out to Boston?

I think it's shipping out. Is it? I thought it was shipping up. I'm shipping up to Boston. No? Shipping out to Boston? Doesn't make sense. Shipping up. Shipping up. Confirmed by Will.

There you go. Will's always good. You know, he's kind of one of those grungy, long-haired mustache-wearing guys. You know, the music stuff, although he didn't know tears for fears a couple weeks back, but this time he comes through. Anyway, very fun show, my friends. Good to be back on a Monday. We'll be back, of course, next Monday. But on Wednesday, we head out to Boston. We ship up to Boston for this card. Very interesting. It's always fun when there's a big event, a big to-do, and it's not

just the fights, the network. I'm pumped. As you can tell, I'm very pumped. I want to thank Freddie Roach for stopping by. Best of luck to him. As far as show, and all his great fights coming up in the boxing world. It was great having Freddie on the show. I really enjoyed it. John Howard, welcome back to the UFC. Good luck against Uriah Hall, one of those underrated fights on this card. And one of those few fights were there are a lot of injuries, changes,

and the end result is probably better than the original fights. Mike Brown, great to have him back in the UFC. Good luck against Steven Seiler. I like that fight a lot and very happy he's back. Pat Cummins, already, I'll tell you, I won't tell you who, but already a promoter, a known promoter, has reached out to me asking for number. That's what we do on the MMA hour. Just ask Chris We make things done. We get things done, I should say.

John Kavanaugh, good luck to him. As far as Connor McGregor is great having him on. And Phil Davis, appreciate the time very much. Always a pleasure. If you missed it, Stitcher, iTunes, we'll have the replays up for you in a matter of seconds. Until then we say, peace, somebody out. Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports, you're always looking for ways to get closer to the action. And your Chase card can get you exactly that. With a Chase card, you

can experience more. That means access to pre-sales, preferred seating, and more savings. For more information about how to step into a world of more with Chase experiences, visit chase.com slash experiences. Benefits available only to eligible Chase card holders, deposit and credit card products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A, member FDIC. Terms, conditions, restrictions, and limitations apply. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host Soccer's moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and

Futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf.