MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 196

Episode Date: August 25, 2014

Featuring Vitor Belfort, Josh Barnett, Stefan Struve, Donald Cerrone, Erik Perez, Louis Gaudinot and Duke Roufus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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No, I think I said, how do you like us now when we first moved into this studio slash set? But now we have revamped it a little bit. As you could see, we've sprinkled it up a bit. We've sexified it, if you know what I'm saying, as the kids say on the street. So what do you think? Let us know. Hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour. Let me know what you think.

I think it feels better now. It's a little more open. It has the blue lights here. You can see out there. I think it works. But you let me know what you think. I know you are all creatures of habit. We are creatures of habit,

and that's why we come here every Monday to do this show. So excited for a big week in the world of mixed martial arts. A big week for the UFC. Two events this week. Three in the span of six. seven days, and it all begins on Wednesday. It's UFC Fight Night 27. Last week, we spoke to Carlos Condit. This week, we're talking to a couple of the guys who will be competing Wednesday in Indianapolis, Indiana. I head out there tomorrow morning, 6 a.m. flight tomorrow morning,

holy moly. So we'll be in Indianapolis, and then it's off to Milwaukee for the much-anticipated rematch, Anthony Pettis versus Benson-Henerson, 2, UFC 164. Now in the back, right over there, that's where they are. You'll see New York Rick, Alfred, Buzzkill Brendan, Will the Thrill. They're all back there making me look good. You'll hear from New York, Rick. You'll also see New York Rick in the third hour

as he has finally completed UFC fit. I saw the pictures before and after, and I'll just say it's interesting. I won't really reveal what I saw, but you'll want to stick around and see this. So you'll hear from him as we take your questions and comments as well. As I said, you can hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour.

And I know there's a lot on your minds. On a rare weekend in the world of mixed martial arts, a rare quiet weekend. No UFC events, no Bellator, no World Tour's fighting. Not much going on this weekend. A couple events out in Brazil, but nothing huge. The calm before the storm, as we like to call it. So who's joining us today?

Well, in the third hour, Vitor Belfort will stop by. Of course, you heard last week on UFC tonight that he'll be facing Dan Henderson, November 9th, rematch of a Pride 32 fight back in 2006. That night, Dan Henderson beat him the unanimous decision. We'll see what happens November 9th in Brazil. Stefan Struve, you also heard about him on UFC tonight last week. He is battling a heart condition. He has a leaking aortic valve as well as a enlarged heart. Spoke to him yesterday as we prepared for today's show and is in very good spirits. He's on medication right now. I'll let him talk about it. But you'll want to hear

from Stefan Struev, a great young prospect, not even a prospect anymore. I mean, a perennial sort of top tenor in the UFC's heavyweight division. Hopefully, he is able to overcome this, and he seems to be in good spirits right now. We'll also hear from Josh Barnett, who makes his long-awaited return to the Octagon on Saturday. He faces Frank Meir at UFC 164. That is the co-main event of the Pettus Bendo main event card, and looking forward to seeing how Josh Barnett does inside the op-gones, still somewhat surreal that he is back in the good graces of the UFC. Eric Perez, El Gojito, he will be stopping by at around 205. He faces Takea Mitsugaki on Wednesday, UFN 27 in Indianapolis.

It's been a long road back for Eric Perez last fought in December, looking forward to seeing his return. Now, Duke Rufus, who's the longtime coach of one Anthony Pettis, the head of Rufus Sport, he'll stop by at 145 to talk about the big rematch at UFC 164 And then around 125, we are going to be joined by Donald Cowboys-Soroni talk about his big fight against Hafei L dos años this Wednesday in Indy. But first, let us go to the Skype Machine and welcome in one of the best flywights in the world, man who also returns to action after a long layoff.

This Saturday at UFC 164, he is, of course, Luis Gaudenau. Luis, how are you? What's going on, Ariel? Thanks for having me. Good to have you on the show. Now, you're wearing a hat over there, and I heard a rumor that you shaved your head or at least you cut your hair significantly. Is this true? Yeah, I trimmed most of it off. It was about three years since I had an actual haircut. And, you know, going back and watching the fight, I don't know how the hell I fought my life.

Nope, you just paused us. Now you're back. Are you there, Lewis? You got me? Okay, yeah, yeah. Okay. So you were saying you don't know how you were able to fight with hair like that? Yeah, I mean, during the fight, you're in the heat. the moment you're not really thinking about it too much but then going back and watching film it's kind of crazy that you know I had this this mop in front of my face I don't know how

Clay Gweed it does it all the time so you hadn't cut your hair in four years three years three years did you ever consider braiding it or something like why go so drastic and cut it all off um I don't like the braid look okay so is it completely gone uh there's a little bit left you guys will see uh on on the way ends on Friday oh so you're doing a reveal for us. You don't want to let the cat out of the bag just yet. Not yet. I'm going to keep the hat on. Now, are we still going to see some green hair there? Oh, yeah, there's a little... I'll give you a little sneak peek. There's a little green.

Oh, okay, okay. It's always going to be green. That's, you know, it's kind of like my trademark. I'm sticking with it. Is there any specific reason why you always go to green? Why not different colors? Just green's my favorite color, and, you know, I did it for my first amateur fight, and I just stuck with it. So I'm going to keep it going. I'm not going to switch it up. You know, it's interesting because, as I mentioned, you're one of the best flyweights in the world, and the flyweight division is moving along, it's evolving, all that stuff. And it seems like after every event, people talk about the contenders.

And then we're like, what happened to Gaudena? Where did this guy go? He last fought in May of last year. You beat Linneker, who all of a sudden is a contender. And it kind of felt like you kind of were out of sight out of mind. Why were you out for so long? I had two fights that were lined up, and, you know, right as the UFC sent the contract over, I got hurt twice. and I could add surgery, but I decided to rehab and take my time.

It's a little bit frustrating because, like you said, Linderger's fought three times. You know, he's moving up in the rankings. I think he's actually ranked higher than me now. And, you know, some people did forget about me, but on Saturday I'm going to go out there and I'm going to remind him, you know, who I am and I'm going to put on a good show. What kind of entries were you dealing with? I don't want to get into it too much because I never let the cat out of the bag. You know, I never disclosed what the injuries were.

So, you know, it could have been worse than what it was. How are you feeling now? I'm feeling great. I'm feeling healthy. I had a great training camp for this fight. You know, I'm just really excited to get back out there. It's been almost a year and a half, and I was able to stay healthy this time. Do you agree that you kind of have been forgotten in the flyweight division? Do you agree that some people are, you know, when they talk about the contenders,

they're kind of overlooking you just because you have been so inactive? Um, you know what? No, not really, because at Demetri's Johnson's last fight, you know, during the press conference, you know, he actually mentioned me by name, you know, as one of the guys who are coming up. So, you know, I'm definitely on, on his radar. I'm sure the UFC hasn't forgotten about me. You know, maybe some of the fans have, but like you said, whenever they talk about the flyweight, you know, I read the comment section and, you know, somebody brings up, you know, hey, what happened to the guy with the green air? You know, where's Lewis Cowlone had been? So I don't think too many people forgot about me. me. Has it been frustrating watching all these flyweight fights? I mean, you see a guy like Maraga go from the Facebook prelims to the main event on Fox. I'm sure, you know, and correct me from wrong, you're sitting there and thinking, that could have been me. I could be that guy. Yeah, that thought definitely went through my head. You know, he got two wins in the flyweight division and they gave him a title shot. And, you know, had I not got hurt, I would have fought before him, you know, and I could have had two wins in a row. So it's frustrating, but, you know, it's one of those

things you just have to deal with it and everything happens for a reason, you know, and I'm in a good place right now and fighting somebody who's ranked in the top 10, you know, so when I beat Tim Elliott, I'll have two wins over two top 10 opponents, you know, and I can make my case for a number one contenders fight or, you know, maybe even the title fight. It depends what the UFC wants to do. What do you think of Tim Elliott? You know, I think he's good all around, you know, he's got a, he's got a little bit unorthodox style, but, you know, the guy's tough. He likes to push the pace, and I think, I think we match up well and it's definitely fight the night potential between me and him. Have you seen his beard? He's growing an amazing beard right now on Twitter. Have you seen

this thing? No, I haven't seen his beard. I got to check it out. It is very large. Do you have an issue? Because last time we saw a big beard, Jorge Mazvedal was saying he wanted to complain about it with Michael Kea said you have an issue with beards. No, I have no... I mean, who am I to complain? I went in there, you know, with that long hair. So, I mean, it's his style, whatever fits him, but it's not going to affect me on Saturday It's funny you mentioned that because in the main event of that card, Benson Henderson is fighting, and I remember in his fight against Gilbert Melendez back in April, his hair was really in his face. And it got to the point where you were wondering if this was truly going to affect him.

Were you annoyed by it in the middle of fights? Do you feel like you got hit more because you were playing around with your hair? You know what? Watching it now, I probably did. But, you know, during the fight, I'm in the heathom moment. You know, there's like four or five times where I had to dip my head down and flip my head back to get the hair out of my face. During the fight, I wasn't too concerned about it. I actually was arguing with my coaches in between rounds one and two. I'm like, just leave it alone.

And they were like, no, we're putting it up. We're putting it up. So, you know, it took like five minutes to get. They put a knot in my hair. I couldn't get it out. It took like 10 minutes in the back after the fight to get that out. So who finally convinced you that you need to cut this thing? I just think over time.

You know, my fiancee's been wanting me to cut it for a real long time. And then getting ready for this fight as I was training, it was in my face when I was training. And I'm like, if I can't deal with it during training, you know, I don't want to have to deal with this during the fight. So I decided to take it off. Do you feel like, I know, I remember you telling me this after your last win and your last appearance in May that you're undefeated as a flyweight. You can, I mean, with the weight cut and everything, that's the best place for you, right? You're 100% sure of that.

Yeah, I belong at 125. I'm not built for 135. And sometimes people ask me, oh, if they open up a 115, that's never going to happen. I can't cut that love. I could tell, and correct me from wrong, you're at the gym right now, right? Yeah, do you hear the timer in the background? I hear the timer, that's right. Are you at Tiger Shulmans?

Yeah, I'm at Tiger Shulmans, our headquarters over in Elwood Park. Now, recently, and I mentioned this because I brought this up on UFC tonight that I thought he should go back, Uriah Hall left Tiger Shulmans, and he was there for a very long time. Are you surprised that he left? You know what? That's an issue that I don't want to get into. too much. You know, he left for whatever his own reasons were. You know, it was kind of weird when he left. He didn't let anybody know or talk to anybody. And I think here we're a real close-knit

family. We have a lot of lighterweight guys. We don't have too many big guys like him, like 185ers, 205ers. But, you know, I consider my training partners, my brothers. And, you know, if one of them decided to go to another camp or change pads, you know, I would think that they would, you know, want to tell people why or what's the reason or say their goodbyes. So that didn't happen. No. No. You seem like the kind of guy, you feel very loyal to this team.

You've been with them for a long time. You're a northeast guy. You're going to stick with them for your career, right? I started with Tiger Solman since I was six years old. So I mean, I've literally grown up in the organization. And, yeah, this is my family. Like I said, it's not a team. This is my family.

Six years old. who got you into it? My mom put me into martial arts. You know, I cried like hell my first class. I didn't want to do it. I was scared. I was nervous. But, you know, she made me do it.

And, you know, I'm glad she did. You know, she didn't force me, but she encouraged me. And I think martial arts definitely helped me to become the person that I am and, you know, gave me confidence and self-discipline. And, you know, I owe a lot to my training in Tiger Schulins. You say she made you do it at six years old. Why did you feel like you had to do this? I don't know.

You know, it's hard for me to think back of a time when I didn't train in martial arts, but I think it gave me the confidence, you know, to do other things in life. You know, like in college, I had a public speaking class. And to me, that was, it was easy because when I was younger, I would do demos in front of crowds, and we actually used to do demos at, you know, like a Mets game or halftime at a Mets game. So things like that kind of, you know, it opened me up

and it gave me a lot of confidence, you know, growing up. I can't think back at the time when I wasn't training in martial arts. Does she tell you now, like, were you a really bad kid and she thought that this would help you? I had a lot of energy, so that's one of the main reasons why. I was never diagnosed with ADD, but I think now as an adult, you know, I think I have it. Yeah. Everyone in America thinks they have ADD, though. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Us Canadians, we kind of joke about that. It's a joke amongst Canadians. Perhaps you wouldn't get it. Did she think you would be a fighter, though? Is she happy? about this because she kind of made this happen?

I'm sure she'd rather her son, you know, not get punts in the face for a living and, you know, do something else. But, you know, she knows that I'm happy and I love what I do. And, you know, she supports me. She's always at the fights. I can hear her scream in her lungs off. So I'm sure she's not 100% happy, but she's definitely proud and she does support me. Is she going to be there on Wednesday?

No, she won't be flying out to Milwaukee this time. You know, it's interesting because, I mean, you're pretty much, you are undefeated fighting in New Jersey. You had the one loss in Las Vegas against Johnny Bedford, the ultimate fighter finale. Are you happy to be leaving New Jersey, to be fighting elsewhere, or do you like the comforts of fighting in the familiar state? I definitely like fighting here because you don't have to worry about getting on an airplane and riding in the taxi. I mean, at my last fight, I stayed in the hotel room just to keep my mind away from distractions and everything. but, you know, I could drive home and go visit my daughter and hang out with her during the week of the fight. So it's definitely nice being home for your fight, but, you know, it's something you got to deal with as a fighter, you know, traveling to other cities, other states, and it's not going to affect me too much.

You know, I don't know if you know this. You probably do because it's been happening for, like, the past year or so. Ian McCall really wants to fight you. You notice that? Yeah, he's been talking about me a lot lately. Yeah, and he said this to Sherdog. I just want to read you a quick quote. He said this recently to Sherdog.

There's one certain person after his UFC 164 about, this is what he said after UFC 163. There's one certain person I would love to beat the crap out of. That's Louis Gaudenow. I want to beat the green off that guy. There's something about him. I see his face. I want to punch it.

Your hair offends me. Well, he doesn't have to worry about that anymore. Your style. Your ground is garbage. Et cetera, et cetera. He also says, and honestly, mostly it's just business. My agent said, hey, we're not getting this fight. Go call someone out.

And he wants to pick on you. wants to call you out. So why you, though, of all people, and he says it's business, but he makes it kind of personal talking about you. Where's this coming from? You know what? I don't know. I did an interview after my last fight with Linearger, and I think I said I wanted to face somebody that was in the tournament, but obviously

that was eliminated. And I mentioned him and Yuritatani. And I guess he took offense to it. And that interview was a year ago, and then he's like, yeah, I heard an interview where he's calling me out. And in my head, I'm like, That was a year ago. You know?

I don't know if he's trying to play the Chal Sonen role and try to beef up a fight. You know, he says it's nothing personal. I saw another interview where he said, oh, yeah, you know, he's a really nice guy. And he said hi to me, but I really just want to punch him in the face. And I'm not concerned with him right now. You know, I'm focused on Tim Elliott. And I want to go out there, perform well on Saturday, put on a performance where the UFC, you know, wants to give me a number one contenders fight or match me up with Mighty Mouse.

Maybe I don't even have to worry about him a call. So you're done with that? You think that you've passed him by? Right now I'm not thinking about him. Maybe on Saturday I'll have something else to say or then I can start focusing on him. But, you know, he's ranked higher than me. Why is he calling me out? He should be calling guys out who are ranked higher than him.

You know, hopefully in my performance on Saturday, I'll be ranked higher than him. And maybe that'll give him a reason to call me out. When you read his comments, though, do they bother you? Are you offended by any of them? Oh, not at all. I'm the biggest shit talker we have in the gym. You know, I'm talking crap in the middle of training, you know, to my training partners. And I joke around and I tell him, you know, when you make it to the UFC and you make it big and, you know, some guy tries to talk smack to you.

You know, it's going to be nothing because I've done ten times worse. So I'm used to it. It doesn't bother me. You know, I'm not trying to beef up a fight between me and him because right now there is no fight between me and him. It's, you know, I've got to focus on Tim Elliott right now. How do you react when people talk smack to you in a fight? Do you like that? I don't know

it makes me laugh I've never had somebody actually talk smack in the middle of a fight you know I've had guys try to mean mug me at weigh-ins or you know do things like that but it doesn't really get to me do you talk smack in the middle fights um I've done it before

yeah really what are you saying um just little things you know like come on hit harder is that all you got you know this and that I had a you know a long time ago my first pro-MMA fight. You know, I was on top of the guy in his open guard, pounding on him. And, you know, his corner tells him, come on, get up. He hits like a girl.

You know, in the middle of the fight, I looked up at the corner and I gave the cornerman the finger. Wow. Yeah, I didn't, I took a, that at that time I took offense to what he was saying. Wow. And did you finish him? You did, right? No, the round ended like 10 seconds later. It was, it was my first fight in ring of combat. It was only a two-round fight. Yeah, I see right here. Four-minute round. Yeah, they do like three or four pre-limb fights where they're two four-minute rounds,

and then if there's a draw, you know, kind of like the ultimate fighter, then they'll go to a third round. Right. And by the way, what do you feel or how do you feel about the flyweight division right now? Since you've been out, you've obviously looked at it, you know, Mighty Mouse made event at a few Fox shows. Sometimes it gets criticized, but I feel after his last performance, no one's criticizing him, going for the finish that late in the fight. Do you feel like it's evolved? Do you feel like it's moving along nicely?

I feel like it's moving along nicely, but we're still, you know, I feel like some fans aren't turning over to the fly weights. You know, sometimes in the comment section, oh, you know, my 13-year-old son weighs more than him and this and that. But, you know, we offer something different than the heavy weights do than the other weight classes do. I think as we start putting on more exciting fights,

you know, fans will start, you know, demanding that they put the fly weights, you know, higher up in the fight card. You know, me and Tim could be a number one contenders match, you know, and we're not on the, you know, the main... But at least we're not on Facebook, so that's good. Does that bother? I mean, look, Maraga went from Facebook to Fox, so what does that mean? But does it bother you that you're on the prelims?

You know what? No, not really, because I was on the prelims last time, and, you know, I haven't fought in a year and a half. But I'm going to go out there and put on a great fight, and they'll probably end up showing me and Sims fight on the pay-per-view portion of the card because that's how good it's going to be. I never understood the whole thing about,

oh, I'm bigger than these guys, my kid is bigger. I mean, if you can't tell that these people are athletes, that you guys are athletes, and that you may not weigh the same as heavy weights, and you're probably more athletic than most of the heavy weights. I never understood that sort of alpha male and no pun intended mentality. It shows a lot of weakness in someone to think that way,

to put down fighters such as your caliber and other fly weights. just because of your size. It never made sense to me. Yeah, I mean, you're going to have people hating for whatever reason, and, you know, they think because they're bigger than us, that, you know, we're not actual fighters or whatever the case may be. But, you know, 125, 135, 135, 145. I think those are some of the most exciting fights that you see

because those guys don't get tired. They can go five rounds hard, three rounds hard. And everybody at that weight class is really well-rounded, and you always get a good display of MMA when you watch. to those fights. Well, the flyweight division has certainly, you know, come along, it's evolved since you've been there. Do you feel a little anxious? This is kind of,

this is kind of like your re-debut in the UFC and the fight. It's been a very long time, like what, 18, 12, like 16 or so months since you last fought. So internally, how do you feel about the fight on Saturday? Anxious would be a great word, you know, to describe it. I'm just excited to get back out there. Like you

said, it's been almost a year and a half and I just want to go out there and fight, man. It's been way too long since I fought. Final thing, I remember last time when we interviewed you post-fight in New Jersey, you were wearing Nike SBs, which I'm very fond of. Any...

Oh, there's a pause. There he is. He's back. Yeah, I got you. Any SBs that you've added to the collection? No, I haven't added any SBs. You know, I'll be rocking my pink Air Force ones for the way-ins. Nice. So you'll see those.

All right. So the old-school ones. You still got the same ones? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. After my last fight, you know, I got the fight of the night win bonus, and I almost spent $5,000 on sneakers. I was going to go to Flat Club in New York City and get the Marty McFlyves. Wow. I was that close to doing it, but yeah, I decided not to. Did you decide not to, or did someone tell you that was dumb?

I love Fly Club, by the way. That's my favorite store. I decided not to. I was torn. I was like in the car on the way there, and I'm like, I can't. justify paying $5,000 for sneakers. Yeah. What'd you do with the money? You know, I spent some of it. I got most of it, you know, sitting aside and, you know, hopefully I can have another good performance when fight the night and, you know, maybe get myself a house over here. It's kind of expensive to live in Jersey. Yeah, I know that very well. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing you back. It's been a long time coming. Great flyweight fight.

It's on the prelims on Fox Sports One. It's Louis Goudnault versus Tim Elliott this Saturday in Milwaukee. Good luck to you, my man. I'm looking forward to seeing you in action. and the new hair as well. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. And next time I see you, if you're at the fights, you got to get me one of those

Hilwani nose shirts and green. You want one? All right. All right. All right. We'll put it down. Do we have green? Do we have green?

No, we don't have green. No. So now you don't want it? No, I want it still. It's a good shirt. All right. It's a deal. Thanks, man.

Thanks for having me. There he is. The man with, well, it used to be long green hair, and now it's short green hair. And that's his trademark. Very smart that he can kept the green hair going because you need that stuff, especially in the flying weight division.

You need that stuff to differentiate yourself. And it's probably better. I've never understood, you know, guys like Guida and Benson, it's part of their thing. It's what they're used to, and they have every right to continue having long hair. But it definitely feels and looks like it affects them when they fight. Remember in the fight against Gilbert Melendez, Benson was doing exactly what he said he was doing, what Lewis said he was doing, cocking his head back, doing the big brush-up movement, just to get his hair in the back of his head, and just slick it back like that.

And it's probably for the best to shave it all off. One guy who I don't think will be seeing rocking long hair like that anytime soon is my next guest at this time. Donald Cowboy Soroni, who faces Hafeel Dosanos, this Saturday, excuse me, this Wednesday. Forget there's a Wednesday fight, UFN 27 and Indy. Donald, how are you? I'm good.

Good to have you on the show, Donald. You know, I just noticed this morning, this is your first time ever on our show we've been around for four and a half years. Wow. What do you... Why do you think that is? Why do you think it's taking so long

to get you on the show? No, sir. Can you hear me? Okay, I set my phone down on a cup holder, and the damn speaker got wet, so you can't hear me. That's why. I hear you just fine. You sound great. Okay. All right.

Are you an indie right now? I'm in indie in the hotel room. How's it treating you? Good man. We went to Kid Rock last night. Perform live. It's awesome. Great show. Wow. So Kid Rock's an indie right now? He was last night. I doubt he's still around. Oh, because you could have had him perform your entrance song live in the arena. That would have been great. Yeah. That would have been very right.

Are you guys pals? He gave us some nice tickets I don't know about pals But Yeah, all right Are you ever going to stop using that song? Probably not No

From the beginning Gotta keep it going From the beginning From your first fight? Yeah, absolutely Really? Wow So is this the thing

Where the UFC is telling you That they want you to keep it Or do you actually like hearing it Before you come out? I've never Whether it be WC or the USC I've never I don't even know who I'd call to change my song.

I've no idea. I've never requested a song ever. It just comes on. Wow, they don't even run a bayou anymore. Yeah, so I just never have. Is it true that when they offered you this fight against Hafeld Dosayas, you never even heard of him? Correct.

You never even heard of the guy. I'm just, I don't really pay attention. If it has nothing to do with me or directly around me, I just don't pay attention. So I'm sure he's, you know, I'm sure he's, went out there doing great thing. I just have no idea. But the name didn't even ring a bell.

Like, you don't even remember maybe, you know, hearing about him, watching a card with him on it. He could have been a guy up the street. Wow. Did you know that he had won? I mean, afterwards, did anyone tell you that he has won four in a row? Yeah, I mean, I just recently figured out. I don't care.

I don't care. It didn't care of me. It's been 10 in a row. He has to still fight me, so. Sure, sure. But I was just wondering if that impresses you at all, because it is probably the most stacked division in the UFC. So to win that many in a row.

I'm with you 100% I agree with you And yeah man It's the most active vision And very impressive He wins You know I just don't You want me to go

Congratulations the guy I don't know what you want me to do But he's got to fight me I'm prepared Did you happen to watch any of those fights Because there's one or two Where some people thought Maybe he didn't actually deserve to win

In particular the fight Most recently against Evan Dunham See I haven't seen him in tape I just This fight's about me brother When I'm performing doing what I do, I don't need to worry about what he's doing. I need to worry about me starting fast,

things and strong, dictating the pace, and just controlling my mindset out there, man, not worried about what, what's he going to take me on, or what's you going to take me on, or what is he going to hit with the big old man, or I don't care what he's going to do. I'm going to fight my fight, let him worry about what I'm going to do. What's cowboy's going to do? You know, last time we saw you in action,

great performance against KJ. Nunes, you were coming off the loss to Anthony, and you were kind of, you know, flying under the radar on that card. Now you're at the co-main event. Do you feel like you got some of your mojo, your confidence back after a very strong win over KJ? Well, I mean, my confidence in no Joe is that.

I mean, the pedestal, it just happens, man. The name is his game, you know, you get caught and get so much living that you'd be capitalized on, you know? Unfortunately, we don't have a team to fall back on you. It's just you, and when you make a mistake, you get caught. But did you lose any of that confidence, or you just chalked that up to a bad night after the loss in January? Just chocked it to a bad night. I mean, that's what it was. the back of the drumboard and kick out and come back.

How long do you take off after your fights? It depends on the season there, you know? We're talking prime weight board in seasons, or it just all depends on that. Well, like the summertime season. Yeah, then I take off until they call me, just go play around in the water. Are you still planning on being a pro-wakeboard surfer?

Well, it's something I've done. definitely because of receiving or something I enjoy doing, but as far as I competing, I called him out three months ago and asking about competing. He goes, no, so that was into that. That's it? Yeah, it was like, no. Well, he had been able to know and not, but, you know, it's just, you know.

You'd even try to convince him at all? No, he may just sound very close to me. Just kind of the end of the story conversation. Can guys get seriously injured doing wakeboarding? Well, I'm looking at, like, can somebody get really seriously injured to kickboxing and taking jitjitjit. Yeah, you could if, you know, if some guy out the treatment. But we've been doing it for so long, you know, for me to go out there and ride and perform me

that I have control. And, you know, you know what we're doing, you know what I mean? It's not like, yeah, if you just put on the wayboard, you know, out there and just gave it hell, I'm sure you get into it definitely, you know, but I feel in control and feel just fine out there. Why wakeboarding as opposed to, like, the sexier sports, like surfing or windsurfing? I've seen shark. Have you seen shark weeks? Are you afraid of sharks, really? I thought you're afraid of nothing.

God. Yeah. I wouldn't want to go to go to go out of day that. Wait, so when you're wakeboarding, you can't, you know, encounter the same kind of troubles? It's really only way to board on lakes, you know? I mean, I guess a giant carp won't eat me, but I don't know. Well, shows how much I know about the sport you love. You can't wakeboard in the sea, in the ocean. You can't do that?

You can't waveboard in the ocean. You want, like, real flat water. You know, you don't want any kind of rollers or ocean has, you know, current and just the number of things that would be working against. Recently, it was announced that you have teamed up with the Kevin Harvick's management team, right? Yeah, I'm super-punct about that, man, you know? How did that happen? I met him for example of a guy a few years ago.

We established a friendship just been working out. and hang and going to races. I don't know how the company came up, and Josh was just Kevin's manager. Like, man, all the other people. You were like, good. I got one more fire with a little management team. This makes this happen, and then it did.

And is he actually the guy who's managing you, or does he just kind of give his name to a management company? Well, Kevin and Josh, they both do it together. It's kind of like a co-management deal. Okay. Who's Josh? Josh is Kevin's manager. Oh, okay, I understand.

What's his last name? Josh Jones Okay And our What's that? Oh JJ Oh JJ Do you feel like

A guy like Kevin Harvick You know In your corner Opens you up to more sponsors More legit sponsors Mainstream sponsors Things like that Yeah 100%

I mean I got real treat You're sponsored When I'm in the short It's awesome You know Hunting's like A level in camo

So it's cool You know Just bring a lot of Like I think my whole except in my Tribe United Fighter shorts, everything that I have sponsored by the outside of MMA. You know, it's their first event. So it's your super cool.

Wow. Will he be at the fight? Yes, you will. And has he ever let you ride around in the cars that he likes to ride around in? In the last car guys, I don't have about, you know, $3 million to put it in the walls, so I just have any ass. What do you think Dana would say about that? Probably no as well, right?

I'm not really sure, but I don't know if Kevin has the authorities. Like, yeah, go ahead and jump and get it right. It's all sponsorship on, so it would be kind of... I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't know how that works. So he doesn't even own any of those? No, he doesn't own the vehicles. You know, they're all sponsorship. I'm the wrong guy to ask about how that all works.

I don't know how they... Yeah. Do you watch NASCAR? I do. Do you notice that lately? They've been getting into a lot of fights, but kind of like scraps, like kind of catfights, you know what I mean? freaking awesome

but do you think they need some work on their technique it doesn't look very impressive I watch you guys a lot but you know what I mean sure it's just not everyone is built to do it do you train with him I never train with you now

I'm not no you got go back beers big uh big lightweight title fight on Saturday who's your pick Benson or Anthony You know both guys, of course.

Yeah, I hope Benson can come do with it. Why? I think that's coming hungry. I just, I like Benson, man. You could do it. And you don't like Anthony? I thought I don't like him. I just, I'm cool with Benjam.

Some people have said, and I can see why they'd say this, that he lately has been fighting not to lose as opposed to winning. Do you agree with that? You know, whatever he's got to do. I mean, that's not my fighting style by any means, but, I mean, hey, that's how you got to hold on to it, I guess. How do you feel about all these guys who, or some of these guys who have been complaining about UFC pay?

What's your take on that? Do you think it's fair? I think U.S.C. pays me just fine. I have no complaints. And it's the only job I know that pay you just fine, and then if you go out and do an exceptional job, they could be a big fat bonus. So I have no complaints. At this point, are you chasing the bonuses as opposed to the belts? Because you've always said you don't really care about the belt, right?

Yeah, you know, over the last little five years, my first year I was saying that, but now you know, definitely get that bell out when the big money comes over. I mean, I'm always chasing those bonuses every fight. I'm coming out there to get two of them, so, yes. But you feel like the belt would be something nice to have? 100%. Yeah, I'm trying on a win over those are probably giving me a fight. I'm not sure who's in line.

I don't know if TJ Grant's waiting, or there are any of another fight, or if Josh Thompson's in line, or I'm not sure who the number three guy is right now sitting. But I want to win over this or put me in line with them, and then I win over that will give me the line with that title. I think I want me two fights away. I find this fascinating because I remember asking you about this, like around the time that you were winning all those fights your first year, the NAPDS fight, all that stuff,

and you'd almost get annoyed when we asked you about the belt. Now it seems like you have the whole thing planned out. You know who's ahead of you, you know who the top contenders are? How did this change? Well, I mean, that was my first year. I was overwhelmed with the whole situation. You know, five, five, five, one year, all we're already talking about title contention. Like, oh, man, you know, coming in and it was just, it was just a lot of news really fast. So now, you know, I'm coming in, been there a couple years, and I'm ready to get it.

A little older, a little wiser. Sure. You know, when you started your career in 2006, did you think you'd be around seven years doing this and actually making a living out of it? Oh, that's your hoping, though. All right, so that was the plan. You weren't just doing it for fun and just hoping something would happen out of it. Well, I was just doing it for fun hoping I wouldn't have to go back to laying

a harbor floor How long did you do that for? Forever. I mean, I used to roof houses and lay a hardwood floor. And I'll do it and work out I'm going to lay tile with my buddy Mikey. Hopefully we can keep their going.

And that's how you were able to build that barn and you were able to train out of it with your knowledge as a guy who used to... Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah. Do you spend any time at the Jackson's camp in New Mexico? In Albuquerque?

Mm-hmm, all the time. Oh, so how do you split your time? I go to Denver, go to my ranch and Jackson's just how that feeling. When's the last time you rode on a bull? Oh, a couple years ago. You're done with that? Are you being serious? Are you telling me the truth?

Oh. Yeah. Well, I lie to you. Well, I don't know, because you were like, oh, it just sounded like you were making up a time. No. That sounds right. You don't miss it? Of course, I miss it.

It's a lot of fun. Yeah. How many bowls do you think you've rode on in the past? Thousands. How many? Thousands, wow. Speaking of which, how much is the hat that you'll be wearing on this fight week? I've got a little bullshit palm leave on, maybe $50, $80.

What? The summertime hat, yeah, summertime hat. Really? $50. There's like hat etiquette. What does that mean? Now we're coming in the fall, well, you wear your white hat during the summer. That's why everyone always wears white hats in summer, and, you know, dark hats in the winter.

You go, you wear your black hat if you're going to life to a fancy dress going out for the night, or if you're, or it's wintertime, you wear your summer hat during the summer. Oh, really? I didn't know there was etiquette like that. Like, girls wearing white pants. Sure. Labor Day. Yeah.

But can you wear a white hat after Labor Day? I'm sure you could, but why not? girls do it. And what's the most expensive one you have? Probably a thousand bucks. And you have the whole case for it too, right? Now a $50 hat. Will you even put that in a case or it's not worth it?

No, I'm throwing it for the car. No big deal. And so, okay, will you ever go anywhere without the hat? Yes, I don't know. I don't go to a lake. I don't wear my hat and stuff, you know, but I definitely had it on the Kid Rock last night. Oh, yeah. Was that at the same arena that you'll be fighting in on Wednesday?

No, I have my special hat for that one No, no, no, when you saw Kid Rock Was the concert in the same arena The Bankers Life Fieldhouse? I don't know, I don't know where the arena. What was that arena? I do you remember? Some big-ass outdoor arena out here, I have no idea, it was huge 500 people were there.

Wow, so he still got it because I feel like he kind of lost a bit, no? Oh, he still got it. It was sold out, not an open seat. Wow, that's cool. At Clips Music Center. Okay. One more thing before I let you go, I'm sure you knew I was going to ask about this. Anything you could talk about with the boating rage incident from a couple months back?

No problem. No comment on that matter. Will it be resolved soon? Yeah, sure. Okay, you're not worried about it, though. Not worried in the least bit. Are you worried about Rafael Dosanos on Wednesday? No, I'm not worried about Raphael either. I hope he's worried about me.

keep moving and thinking about what Cowboys going to do. This Cowboys coming hard and I come on fast. I'm coming for that win and I'm coming for that belt. All right. Hey, it's good to have you on the show, Donald, and I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, and you should stop by more often. I think you enjoyed it as well.

Sure. Anytime. Just give me a ring. We'll just talk. Thank you, Donald. Good luck to you. Oh, buddy. There he is. Donald Cowboy Soroni stopping by. Big fight. Halfel Dosanos. Dosanos won four in a row. He's been looking good.

Surprising that Donald, you know, at first glance, you'd say, oh, he doesn't know who he is. But then you kind of know the guy and you kind of know the way he operates, and it's not all that surprising. F.L. has won his last four in a row, as I said. Most recently, he defeated Evan Dunham. But a lot of people, if memory serves me correct, the

Evan Dunham win was a very important win in the Rick's Picks Invitational. Was it not? That is correct. What happened? You had picked Dunham? No, you picked Osanos. And then, was that it? I picked those anos and most people thought Dunham won that fight. Oh, that's right. And that was a crucial one. I think that would have been the difference between winning and losing that night.

So you'd have been out of the tournament had they got it right? Well, let's not call it had they got it right. Right. Because if I recall correctly, I believe I did think that Dosayños won that fight the way I scored it. But it was definitely close enough that I don't think anybody who said Dunham won that fight was wrong either. I remember it being very close. Where Dosanos was kind of doing a little more damage landing the harder shots, but Dunham was landing more accurately.

One of those, you know, what is it, 12 of one, a dozen of another or something like that? Right, right. I'm not sure that's the exact. Do you know how it goes? It's six in one, half dozen in the other. Wow. You and Will just said it at the same time. There you go.

We're smart. Well, now what is that implying there? I forgot to mention at the top of the show. we actually have 11 fights to pick. Well, not we. Your mom and I. Sort of.

Not really me. You? Oh, I have to relay the message. You just kind of come along for the ride. Yeah, we're all along for the ride. It's her world. It is her show. It is her show.

All right. Well, thanks for weighing in on that. And butchering idioms. Yeah, that's fine. It is a good one. It's one I only actually. heard recently later in life. Six in one, half dozen in the other. I felt like I was doing a like a rapid fire there with Donald. Sometimes I feel like, sometimes he could be rather intimidating.

Sometimes I feel like he doesn't really want to speak to me. I don't know why I get that impression. But then I think I can warm him up and kind of break him down and here we are. So he returns on Wednesday, co-main event of the Carlos Condé versus Martin Kampman fight a rematch, of course. It's a five-round main. event and it airs live on Fox Sports 1. Now, the prelims, by the way, that's on Fox Sports 2 on Wednesday, but then on Saturday, the prelims are on Fox Sports 1, and then the main card is on pay-per-view. In a minute, we're going to be joined by the coach of one-half of the main event on Saturday. Anthony Pettis, of course, fighting in his hometown, fighting in Milwaukee, going up against Benson

Henderson. They got this one right. I mean, it's very unfortunate that T.J. Grant was forced to pull out of the fight due to the concussion. I spoke to him maybe 11 or so days ago, a little more than that, maybe 13 or so days ago. And he told me that he's still not 100%. Anyone who thinks that he was lying, this is some kind of conspiracy, that he was messing around, or the UFC was messing around, and they paid him off to not fight for the belt. who, let's not forget, was a, you know, kind of a mid-card, Walterway, drops down to 155, goes on this amazing streak,

knocks out Gray-Maynor, gets a title shot. You think he's going to step aside? I mean, I'm sure, you know, money talks, but I just didn't buy it. And he told me, still doesn't feel 100%. Is training lightly, slowly, but not quite there just yet. feels like he'll be ready to go around January or December. So this is a significant injury that he suffered a concussion. But as a result, unlike last year, and Dana White has said this,

last year it felt like a lot of the injuries led to worse cards, worse fights. This year, for whatever reason, the injuries have in a way led to better fights, in my opinion. For the most part, more intriguing fights, more intriguing cards. this being one of them. We had the John Howard, Uriah Hall situation a couple weeks ago, two opponents for Yariah pull out. John Howard comes in,

and I thought that was a more interesting fight. There have been a bunch of cases like this, and this is the rematch that we've wanted to see for a very long time, ever since WC 53, ever since Anthony Pettis hit the Showtime kick in Glendale. It was great.

Wait a second. New York Rick? Yes. Isn't it Duke now? Say what? Not Duke now, right? It's Duke now. No.

All right? You'll have to figure that out on the back end. But let us go to our next guest. Joining us via the phone is Vitor Belford. Vitor, are you there? I'm here. How are you, my friend? How are you?

I'm good. I'm good. It's been a while since we had a chance to talk to you. you actually haven't talked to many people. Yeah, you know, just in silence. Sometimes, sometimes just not talking is better. Why do you feel that? Just because the Bible said, you know,

sometimes being wise, just being quiet, being silent. Because, you know, the more you talk, the food you get, I think. So I'm just trying to learn, you know. now I have a lot to talk to you about I have a lot to talk to you about because it's all been building up and you haven't been speaking much has it been tough to hear

Dana White say things like oh he doesn't want to talk about you he's kind of tired of your antics things like that hasn't been tough for you because for the most part you've always kind of positioned yourself as a company guy as someone who loves the UFC I am

but I believe you know you know, we all make mistakes. You know, I make mine, you know, and I think the key of life, the only thing we can do it is just to recognize what are mistakes. And when you recognize it, you just solve it. But it's not who's right, who's wrong. Sometimes it's just different fears and things like that.

But I spoke to him and I asked him to forgive. me for anything that I did. So it's good, man. It's always good, you know. We have a big fight. We're happy. You know how much... The good thing, too,

I don't need to tell how much I am a company guy and how much I love to work for your city. You just can tell by the habit and what you do inside and outside of the cage. I'm very happy and very blessed to work for the biggest promotion company of the world and fighting business.

And I honor my commitments. Where do you think this came, where do you think this all came from? I don't know. I don't care, man. It's all in the past. And I'm looking to the future. I'm looking to November 9, my friend. I'll get to that in a second, but what was your conversation like with him?

Like, do you feel like you've actually settled your difference? No, I think we are good. I think we are good. And like I said, it's something, when you work, like, things get between, you know, us, you know, our things, our business is our business, the public business, the public business. But the bottom line is, I know where I can stand. what's my my where what what what have to do and I really apologize whatever whatever

thing I did whatever thing I did that cause him to harm in anything I'm here I'm here to to do my job you know they often you know this fight and I'm I'm I think it's great it's a great time it's great everything's on the past you know they're often know, anything that happened. Nothing was, I was very focused in my training and what I've been doing. And that's it, man. I'm there. OU.C. always.

I always be there for them always. Did the UFC offer you a fight against Tim Kennedy, and if so, why didn't you want it? I think it was just missing understanding. And in my business, just to, my business just to, my business to fight. And I think it was all missing understanding. The bottom line, I'll fight with anybody. That's, you know, that's what it is.

And the fight is on. And I'm excited. I'm very excited. But did you feel like the Tim Kennedy fight kind of came out of nowhere? like it didn't make a lot of sense for you? It's bad. It's already gone. It's like I don't have nothing to talk about something that's already gone.

So now I'm looking ahead. I'm a head guy. Okay, but then let me... But let me ask you about the Liotomachita fight. Did they even present you with Liotomachita? No. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never.

He seems to be a kind of guy who's kind of like a low-key guy, but he gets very fired up when he talks about you, about this t-shirt you wore at UFC 152. Do you know what he's talking about? Your son never walks away from a fight? I don't know, man, because I never, I don't have that shirt. I don't know what he's talking about. And actually, this is like, I don't know. I never heard, I never had the shirt, I never walk about whatever it is. But, you know, like now I'm in a position that, you know, everybody wants to fight Vito Belfer. You know, oh, let's get to the title. You know, I want to get to the LRICTor.

Let's go. Vito Belfare is a person. So the only promotion I can give right now is the guy who has the guy who has. and fight next. And what I'm, I'm focused on my division. In 185, I'm focused on the winner. I'm still going to wait for them. That's my main focus.

Danny Anderson, I'm 205, that my next fight, and the fight for the title. That's what I'm focused, and that's what I'm, you know, now I have to win Ben Anderson. That's a great tough fighter. I got with a lot of history He defeats one of the greatest fighters of all times He had won

He won A last fight By decision But so it's a great It's a great challenge It's a great opportunity for me So it didn't It didn't bother you that he had lost his last two in a row

That you know you're on a streak You want two in a row He lost two in a row usually we don't see this that didn't bother you at all? Because he won is a rematch for me. So, you know, like

something like I said, you know, and the fire was offered and I don't want any politician, you know, so one thing, the last thing I want is like the organization, you know,

anything, like any harm. I really love to work the EFC is the office in this fight. That's what it is. One guy who's kind of like you is Chale Sannan, right?

Because everyone seems to want to fight him. And even after this fight came out, you and Dan Henderson, you were still going at him on Twitter. And, you know, he said that, you know, you asked for him when he has a fight. It was really funny, you know, Ariel. Yeah.

He was really relieved when the UFC he gave him to me. He was relieved. I think he was relieved. Like, oh, my God. I'm glad I'm not going to be with you. I'm not going to have to fight veto.

He was relieved, like. And we know that we have a common friend. He knows what I'm talking about. We have a common friend. Yeah, Neil, you know, Neil? He's a, he's a, he's one of common friends. Okay. And one time he was in his camp, and he said,

one of the guys that would never like to fight is Ditch Adela. Really? He knows. He knows. So, you know, I'm cool, man. You know, he's going to be, he's around. I'm around.

You know, one day we're going to have to, he's going to have to face me or, you know, I think it would be a great fight, but like I said, you know, one day, who knows, the key is just now getting prepared to fight one of the best wrestlers in the game. Ben Henderson is like, that guy is a tough, tough, tough fighter.

Were you surprised that Chale submitted Shogun that quickly? You know, like not surprised. You know, Shogun make that mistake. But it's a fight, man. You know, things can happen and just got to be focused and don't make mistakes, you know. Charlie's a fighter, you know, he's trained. Every wrestler has a strong B-GIT team.

And you may not make mistakes. The other fighter capitalizes. This is what about MMA. It's a very big-train sport. You're just got to be alert all the time. Did you ask for this fight against Dan Henderson to be at 205? because previously you said if I'm not fighting for the belt

at middleweight, I don't want to fight at middleweight. So was this your idea for it to be at 205? Just ask down what you see? Which is 1-85 on 205? They said 205. It's okay. All right.

Did they tell you? I'm very happy. I'm very happy. It's a good rematch for me, man. not a lot of guys give me rematch. That's kind of

my first one in the UFC. So I'm very excited. And did the UFC tell you, you win this fight, you're getting the winner of Anderson versus Wydenman? You know, I'm, that's the only thing makes sense right now. But

in my view, that's what's going to happen. But like I said, I'm not a promoter. No, so we talked promotion right now. It's just a waste of time. And Dana is the one who calls the shot, UFC, so I'm here on my spot,

you know, working my job's trained. I'm getting ready here. I'm talking to you, telling everything, getting ready to go to the gym, and buy my goal, my friend, you know, it's just trained, focus, happy,

enjoy. That's the only thing I can do it. What do you say to the people, Vitor, who say that you only fight in Brazil? That's, the UFC's keeping you over there. Is that fair? You know, a lot of guys, a lot of fighters in TRT right now. Hey, I'd even say that word.

You said it first. I didn't even say, I wasn't even talking about that, but go ahead. But it's just everybody saying that, you know? Yeah. Because they fight there. But just for instance, right now, when I fight in Brazil, is the only place, fighters, they draw blood work after the fight. That's the only place we do that.

So now I'm fighting a guy who does too, T.R.T. So they are very surprised. They're going to have to draw blood. Oh. But, yeah, because, like, in other places, you don't need to, but there you have to. So that's good to see guys having to fight there, and now they see how they're very straight in Brazil.

But I believe the reason that I fight in Brazil is just I sell a lot, you know. I sell a lot in Brazil and it's great for me for fighting my country also, but I miss to fight in Las Vegas, I miss to fight in other places. But eventually, you know, I don't see any problem. Just like Damon's scope as I don't see any problem that I'm not, I will not be finding, but it's just. because we settle deep in Brazil. So, make sense for them,

makes sense for me, and I fight whatever I have a fire. Are you packing to go to Brazil right now? What's going on over there? I'm talking to you, man, but I'm doing a lot of stuff. Oh, okay, okay. When you have kids. Yes.

So I'm working through some stuff here. By the way, it's very interesting, You mentioned the blood. How many times do they do that before the fight, the blood test? At least, at least, like, two months after the fight, I have to draw blood every week, every, every month, like at least twice a month. But I actually, I do probably on my own. Yeah.

I like to do probably, like, every week. Oh, wow. So make me on the level, make sure everything works good, you know, just. show my ethic, I think, is important when you're doing something and you're just trying to be fit with everybody, but with myself also. You mentioned Dan Henderson, you know, he's being a lot of great fighters,

Fador, et cetera, et cetera. Do you think now at 42, is he as good as he was before, or do you think he's lost a bit? And he's a lion. So I'm facing a lion and I'm just to be ready. Two lines facing off. Anderson, we had the greatest, one of the greatest of all the time is Randy the Church. Yes.

So he passed until he's like 47, 46. So, you know, like he has a very strong wrestling foundation, Jiu-Jitsu. He comes from a great king. him, great fighter. And it's good, man. His fighting five-round, you know, tough guys, you know, going after guys, not backing off. Just charged people.

You know, then Henderson's a great fighter. I think he beat further like two years ago. I don't remember. I cannot keep track, but, you know, we've got to be ready, man, prepare. focus. That's what I'm doing, man. My job is true.

You got ready to know. Have you thought, Vitor, how long you're going to do this for? You've been doing this for a very long time. It must get tiring. You know, it's been a blessed, man. Totally opposite. I'm very, I'm very blessed to do what I do. You know, my purpose, my ethics.

It's good, man. It's fun. You know, it's joy for me. So I can't wait to keep doing. And then I'm here. You know, when God, when my body cannot take it, you know, when they're going to tell me, everybody's going to tell me, hey, it's time to stop. Even Eust is very truthful with the fighters.

You know, they take care of the truth. Hey, it's time to stop. So I think I have good people to tell me the truth, you know, to tell me straight. straight forward. And who who do you think is going to win between Anderson and Chris? I don't know, man.

I think Victor's going to win. I'm focused, and I only can talk about myself, not about others. So we never know. The two guys are going to be prepared. Anderson Seals are going to be more sharp and more hungry. We're a few.

it's hard to tell and we don't know what's in their mind what's in their heart and that's what to make the whole thing the whole decision is who wants more

I believe who wins who wants more who's smarter who trained smarter and all these things so we're gonna see man we're gonna send it that day

you know Vitor one last thing last month that came out that the Brazilian police had arrested a suspect in the murder of your sister. Is there any update on that? Have they, in fact, found the person who is responsible for this horrible crime? Yeah, man, you know, one thing that, like, it's really, oh, it's just this day, this day

I want you to kind of spiritual retreat. And we're just talking about these horrible things that happen everywhere and with a lot of people. So the thing with my sister, the justice has already been done, you know. It's like a lot of facts always pop on, you know, this and this, they cut this guy. They did this. You know? So a lot of humorous about a lot of things. but I really already

resolve this case inside of my heart inside of me so of course when you hear things you know your heart get oh wow it's going to come up something

sometimes it's true sometimes it's just just a lie or someone's trying to get proposed you know the corruption and people people are very corrupt you know

societal corrupt. The whole world right now is going to your corruption. Corruption. So when you're talking about this fact, you know, talking about life, talking about death, talking about something that's like, it's hard to explain. But, you know, it's not like, oh, okay, we're talking about it can be a problem for some people, but for the other is like, it's life, it's death in life, you know. So I have a lot of pain when I see people going through kind of similar conditions

and just like, I pray. I pray. And God, even people, they don't believe, man. I believe God's seeing everything. I've seen everything. I've seen the things you're doing in your secret life. And the judgment will come. One day, we'll be all standing in the throne of Jesus,

and everyone is going to be judged by the attitude, by the things that you did. So I'm very confident on this. So I'm truly talking to you. I have 100% if I can say, Ariel, one thing that I know is one day, not just the guy that did something to my sister or whatever, but everybody, me, you, every fighter, every athlete, every politician, every football player. We're going to be judged by attitudes, by our acts.

What is the motive of things? So we just, I'm working in myself on this behalf. And when I work in myself, I just resolve inside of me. And when I resolve inside of me, it's already done. So this is very important in our life. We have the attitude. Very well said, Vito. always great to talk to you.

Thank you so much for stopping by it. And I'm happy that you're happy with the Dan Henderson fight. Yeah, you know, I'm happy, man. I'm just, like I said, I love to do what I do. And I think the fans, thank God for the opportunity. Thank the UFC and, you know, Dana Lorenzo and, you know, all the people that are doing a lot of work. And that's it, man.

We're moving forward. That's the fight. It's said and done. Now it's just time to smash the grapes. All right. Good luck to you. November 9th, it goes down. Looking forward to it very much.

I'm sure we'll talk to you before then. Thank you so much, Vitor. Thank you. Bye-bye, my friend. There he is. The phenom. Vitor Belfort stops by. Rematch of the Dan Henderson fight.

That first one went down, Pride 32 in 2006. Let's move along. One of the great characters in the UFC right now is a man known as El Gojito, Eric Perez. And for this interview, I'm going to have to wear my mask. So bear with me for a second.

There it is. He faces Takeda Mitsugaki on Wednesday in Indianapolis. Eric, how are you? Hey. I'm good. I have my mask on, too. You're wearing your mask, too? I don't believe you.

You need to tweet a picture. You need to tweet. I am wearing, people can see I am actually wearing the mask right now. I need you to tweet a picture so that I know you're not. a liar, all right? Yeah, I'm a Twitter picture. I'm just my phone for the interview, and after the interview, I'm a Twitter picture. Okay, by the way, these masks, they're not made for a gonzo like me.

I have a very big nose, and I don't know if you noticed the last time, the nose comes out. It doesn't look as good as when you wear it. You know what I'm saying? You look good with Goyito power. Yeah. What does Goyito mean, by the way? Gojito is like little Greg. My name is Eric Gregorio.

Okay. So Gregory is like Gregory, so Greg and short. So Goyo and Shurr, so Little Greg. Oh. So is that what your family used to call you when you were a kid? Yeah, and everybody, when, because I used to fight a professional white tie when I was 16 years old. So my face looked very, very, very young, so everybody told me the guillito.

When you were a little kid, did you want to become a luchador? Yeah, for luchador-dor-lidore. Yeah, was that your... Was that your dream, though, to be a luchador? What? When you were a little guy, a nina, as they say, did you want to be a luchador, or did you always want to be a real fighter, as you said it? When I was younger, you know, when I was six years old, I want to be like a luchador.

And after that, when I was 15 years old, I would start training. And I want to be like fighters, like real, real fighter. And now I'm here. Did you ever expect this to all to happen to, like that you would be this famous fighter, that you'd be the guy potentially opening up the UFC to Mexico, the mask and everything? Did you envision this? Did you think it would happen to you? No, I never realized, realized, be like that.

And, well, right now it's all crazy, you know, and I'm turning really, really hard because I want to, I don't want to be the guy just open the doors to Mexico. I want to be the guy that they open the doors to Mexico and I have the bell. Very well said. Now, how popular today? as we speak today, how popular is UFC mixed martial arts in Mexico?

Has it improved a lot since you got into the UFC, which kind of coincides with also the rise of Kane Velazquez? The UFC, the MMA fight is coming and bigger and bigger and bigger. Five years ago, and right now, it's more bigger every time. So I think a team, a UFC need to go to Mexico. Mexico, because right now it's a lot of most people know the U.S.C. A lot of people see U.S. a team. And a couple more years, more famous than boxing. Oh, you think so? More famous than boxing. I heard that Mayweather and Canelo,

they had a press conference there, and there were like 15,000 people in Mexico City. You think the UFC can get bigger than that? Yeah. Five years more, 10 years more, why not? Why not? Are you a fan of Canelo? Yeah. Yeah, I'm fond of Canelo and my weather too.

You like both of them, but you're going to be cheering for Canello next month, right? Yeah, yeah, because he's Mexican and I want Canelo win. It's hard fight for Canelo, for I want to Canelo win. By the way, I have to apologize. Twitter is telling me I called you a little girl. Nina means girl, ninio, is boy, right? I tried. Yeah.

I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. Nina means girl, ninja means guy, yeah. My father used to call me ninia, and now I realize he was calling me a little girl. I'm sorry about that. Now, Eric, you haven't fought in almost nine months. You haven't fought since late December,

and I read an article recently on Yahoo Sports by Kevin Ioli that you had a very serious staff infection. How did you get the staff infection initially? I think in the gym, in the gym, rolling, because by this fight, I was rolling a lot, grabbing a lot, because I think my opponent is going to, like, take me down. So I always want to roll, it, rolling, and the stab infection grabbing my knee, and for the next day, I was in the hospital, and almost, almost my, my career done, you know. Wow, it was that, where was it?

In your knee? Yeah, in my knee and my left knee. Okay. Yeah, I grabbed the stuff and he's got, in two days go big and big and almost grab one surgery. So thank God, no, no, the guys know got me the surgery and just medication. But why did they say, and I heard not just your career. your life, it was potentially life-threatening this staff infection? Why was it so serious?

Yeah, because the staff infection, how do you mean? Much, much, much, much, much. It's like, staff infection goes to Morcia or Morda? Okay. Mursa, Morsa. Okay. First I grab the staph infection and groans and groans and, and, and, goes to Morrison, so it's right, it's going bad.

Now, when did you get the staff infection? When? Yeah, like one week before the fight, one week and a half. Right. The fight that you were supposed to have in New Jersey, right? Yeah. And how long did it take for you to get to be back to 100% to feel like you were 100% healthy again?

after the I'll go to the hospital and wait like that for one week and after that I think like almost one month almost one month

and coming one and a half okay now you feel 100% yeah I'm 200% yeah I saw a picture of you

yeah With Bubba McDaniel and Carlos Condit, you look to be in great shape. But when this happened, I was reading, and I also saw you at some events, you gained a lot of weight. Why did you, was that part of the process? You were very depressed, and so you ate a lot? Yeah, I was in depression and go to Mexico. And you know, my mom is from Mexico, so my mom cooked me a lot of food. So I want to eat it.

and get in, yeah, and go fat, be fat, and a lot of depression, man. How big did you get? How much did you weigh? Oh, man, can I say that? Sure. I'm very interesting. 180? Yeah. Wow. Have you ever weighed that much?

No. Wow. No, I'm going to get 180 and I'm just thinking in my head. Wow. Like, I need a diet. I need a diet. I need a comeback in shape and out here. I'm here and almost in my weight, almost in 135 pounds.

Wow, that's great. Was it hard to lose the weight initially? No, no. I've been training really, really hard, like four times, three, sometimes five. five times a day. So it's not too hard for me, quarter the way. And I'm, I was just eating cleaning and just it.

And how does it feel, in two days you're going to return to the Octagon, you've looked so good in your UFC career. For a second, you thought that you were going to be an ex-UFC fighter, that you would have to retire, that you couldn't fight anymore. How good does it feel to be back? Does it feel like almost like you're making your debut all over again? Yeah, I feel very, very, very good And I feel awesome because I'm in the min car

It's my first mean car And I need to show all the people's What is Gojito powers mean in the cage Yeah, oh, I can't wait Do you like this fight? Mitsugaki is always one of those guys who Very exciting, he's very aggressive He's always bringing it

Do you like this matchup? Yeah, I like I like and I want to make the fight the night for everybody. Let me ask you, any of the luchadores, now that you're wearing the mask now, any of them contact you and tell you that they like the fact that you're kind of bridging the gap

between Lucha Libre and mixed martial arts. You talk to any of them? Yeah, I was talking when a lot of luchadores, I was talking when Blue Demo Jr. and the guys like it. Who's your favorite? My favorite, how a lot. One in my favorite, Octagon, and another, El Santo and Blue Demon.

Isn't it funny? His name was Octagon, and now you're fighting in the Octagon. Yeah, yeah. He's what other people told me, and it's really, really funny, and, well... Did you ever see the movie Nacho Libre? Yeah. What did you think of that movie?

Did you like it? I was in Nachelibre. Two months ago, three months ago, I was in natural liberty. That's a good one. I like that one. That's great. So for this fight, will you have the same mask or have you brought out a new mask for this fight?

No, it's the same one. Gojito Power Mask. The same mask. So you're not going to change it up for every fight. You're always going to keep the same one? Yeah. Yeah, this is my... My...

This is go you, though. You'll wear it to the way-ins, to the fight, all that stuff, right? Yeah. I love it. By the way, my friends at Fight Metric, they're telling me this. A very interesting fact about you.

You are the first bantam weight in UFC history to finish your first three opponents in the first round. Did you know that? Yeah, yeah. I know that. And is it...

Do you want to keep this going? Is your planet to try to finish the fight in the first round on Wednesday? My plan is going and fight hard. If you finish the five, awesome. If you know, I'm ready for five three rounds, the war, from war. Okay.

By the way, we have a lot of Mexican fans watching right now. Anything you want to say to them in Spanish? Thank you. Thank you for the support that they're giving. and I'll be on 28, the meerkles, 28, that I'm going to have an excellent play.

Is it? What does that mean? You wanted to thank them, and you said you're going to have a great performance, right? Yeah, great performance for in two days. Now, what are you going to do now when this interview is over? What's your first thing you're going to do?

I'm going to go to the open workout, so if everybody go and see me, And training a little bit, I'll go over there. No, no, no. You're supposed to tweet a picture of you wearing the mask while doing the interview, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. And I need to treat the picture, yeah.

Sorry. All right. Well, Eric, good to have you on the show. Sorry, I mispronounce. It's El Gojito, right? El Gojito. I mispronounced it, so it's El Gojito. And you are a nino.

You're El Nino. El Nino. And I'm El Goyito. Yeah. El Goito. Niño, Eric Perez. Bottom line, I'm really excited that you're back and I'm happy you're feeling better

and I'm looking forward to this fight. Great fight. You versus Takiami Tugaki. Good luck to you. Thank you. Thank you, Heron, and thank you all the fans and thank you, UFC, and thank you everybody. Viva Mexico. Viva Mexico, Latin America, and all the people, all my friends. Tos la Raza, right?

All right. Thank you, Eric. I appreciate it. Okay, Hewani. There he is. I love that he calls me Halwani. That's great. Now I'm going to take this mask off because I can hardly breathe. It's particularly tight. You know who would appreciate the mask is Josh Barnett, but we still haven't gotten a, what's it called, a webcam here? So, so much for that. But there he is. Eric Perez returning to action. What a great fight. I think I've said this on this show many times. Takeda Mitsugaki's fight, how about if I put this right here? How's it going to look? The mask over the computer. How does that look? That's not bad. I've said this many times on the show.

Mitsugaki's fight against Miguel Torres at WC.40, one of the best fights I've ever seen live in person. And always an exciting fighter, emotional fighter, against Eric Perez. three straight finishes in the first round, UFC record for a bantam weight. It's going to be great. That's on Fox Sports 1 on Wednesday. Now, on Saturday, we have UFC 164.

As I said, it's a very busy week for the UFC. Main event, of course you know it. Anthony Pettis, Benson, 2, UFC lightweight title this time online. Co-main event features Frank Meir versus the returning Josh Barnett. Oh, yeah.

First time we've had entrance music on this show. You cannot be bothered. Reading the Empire Death. Look at that beard. That thing's looking amazing. I didn't realize you were there. I was just listening some Sky Inferno from Goethor and just catching up on some light reading. You don't really like that kind of music, do you?

It's just so aggressive. Really? You know, I mean, I'm not one that a person would associate with such things, aggressiveness and violence and death and all that. But, you know, it's good to get out some of those feelings that get pent up inside from everyday struggles and annoyances. But do you ever get tired? Do you ever say, you know what?

I just want something light, you know, like a little Frank Sinatra, something like that. Do you ever feel like you need something else? Yeah, I listen to light I mean like You know Sometimes I don't feel like Goathor or a bolt thrower

I'll listen to maybe Iron Maiden A white snake That's pretty light But it's always that genre You know For all intents and purposes For this interview Yes

Now what was that book that you were reading I'm very curious about that What exactly is that book about The World History of Osiris And carnal houses Would you like to see what I was reading? Yes I don't know Was it a prop or were you

actually reading it. Oh my Lord. This is the Chapel of Skulls in Poland. Jeez. And these things are all over Europe within chapels and there's a lot of monuments of the dead. All

around the world. So that's what this... Is that a picture or a painting? It's a picture. Oh, man. Jeez. You like that? Did you need to look at this stuff and surround yourself with this stuff before a fight? Is this kind of how you prepare mentally for the fight? No. It's just not a different fun.

This is what you do on a Sunday afternoon, right? Pretty much. I mean, that and, you know, bathe me, baby's blood or something. What's going on with the beard? See, here's the thing. What people don't know about baby's blood is that it is really the secret to getting a good based hand. Okay. What's going on with the beard?

It seems a little bigger than usually. It's a tad. There's been a bit of a struggle amongst who's in control here, me, the beard. the people was making a very fierce argument. But, oh, and the other day I was in a shop and some guy just goes, you should have been on the, you should have been on Vikings. You know the TV show? Oh, I thank you. Wow.

Yeah. There's always season two. What is that show? A reality show? No. It's a, it's a historically based fictional drama on the history channel. based on Vikings and the time period and how they live their lives and what, you know, the kind of things that Vikings would do. But it is dramatization.

So it's, and it's actually incredibly well shot. There's some real money been put into it and acting is good. So it's not like watching your typical informative sort of content. It's like watching something you might see on HBO. Now, what is going on, speaking of acting with your acting career? Aren't you a budding actor? That's what I heard. Very budding, yeah.

I'm just a little sprout at this moment, but I imagine I'm going to leaf out into a mighty oak at some point and cover the entire silver screen. This is what you want. You're going to try to be an actor? It's something I am interested in heavily. I'm a huge fan of movies. I have watched so much cinema over the years that... I don't even have a place to keep quotes for all the movies I've seen anymore in my head. It's just something that I find fascinating.

It's a really enjoyable hobby for me. But the acting part is it's a new area. It's a new challenge. And it isn't much alike fighting in any way. And it's not one of those, if you do the best, you get all the rewards. It's a much different environment. And that takes them getting used to, but also it's just challenging different parts of your brain

and different modalities of thinking than are necessary for fighting or maybe car racing or some of the other things I've been involved with recently. And I like it. I like to go out there and be nervous. I like to go out and be challenged and be doing something for the first time. So I really enjoy it. And I have a bit of a bit of,

blast whenever given the opportunity. I think it's a lot of fun. True or false? Did your appearance on this very show get you back into the UFC? There have been rumors and murmuring around the streets of old. I heard yet over at the blacksmith shop, them as saying as such. All I'm wondering is I didn't really get like a bouquet. I didn't get like chocolates, cookies. Thank you. Oh, don't worry. You're going to get it. You know, I saw pictures of you doing like the interviews, the countdown show, and it still feels very surreal to me seeing Josh Barnett wearing a UFC shirt. You, of course, fought in the UFC way back when, but you were very much an outsider,

an outsider for the, you know, better portion of the last decade. Is it weird for you? Landscape, yes. Is it weird for you to be a UFC fighter? Will it only settle in on Saturday once you fought? Well, you think it's surreal now. I hope to do all my, my countdown stuff by either. John Waters or David Lynch from here on out.

We're really going to go for surreal. No, but honestly, is it weird for you to be a UFC fighter? No, it's just a gig, man. It's nice to actually be in the show, if anything. But as far as, like, the... If it being weird or surreal or unusual, I don't feel anything like that. Maybe that's just because I'm just such an old codger that this is, you know, fighting is fighting and rings of rings.

And it just one leads to the other. How did you get back? Because initially you guys didn't come to a deal and then a few months passed and then you did come to a deal. So how did you actually come to a deal with them? Well, it's not something I like to go into. Okay. It's nice to know that you've always got knee pads handy. Wow.

No, not quite. Come on, look at this lovable mug. Who wouldn't want me? You know, I mean, just because the girl turns you down doesn't mean you stop hitting on her, right? Eventually, I guess I may have caved in. But did you get at least sort of what you wanted? I mean, do you feel like you got a good deal here? I have a great opportunity to cement a legacy and to move on to another stage in fighting.

That's what I have. What do you mean by that? Well, I mean, where else can you really garner the sort of attention or even just to be blunt pay scale that you can get out of the UFC? The opportunity for pay-per-views and the opportunity to be on free television on a nice big channel like Fox 1 and everything that comes with it. And by fighting the people that I'm fighting within the UFC, whether they were better or worse than my previous opponents outside of, it's only going to re-beats. benefits for me to go out there and fight those guys and beat them. So I just, there's nothing but pluses. But did you not say recently that, you know, guys these days are just fighting for the fame and the money used to fight for different reasons. So you don't really care about that, right?

No, I don't, but I do. I do in the sense that there's the business side of me and, uh, and my, my little business elf, uh, at Blue Entertainment. And I'm aware. I'm not an idiot. I realize, what is necessary for the entertainment side of things. The fighting side of things, I just see as a whole opportunity to try and murder a whole new batch of people. And that's incredibly attractive to me. Was Frank Mear one of those guys that throughout your career, because you guys kind of had similar, you know,

you were kind of on top at around the same times. I mean, you probably longer, he had the injury and whatnot. Was he one of those guys that you said, before I'm done, I want to fight this guy? It never really, I never really paid a whole lot. lot of attention to Frank particularly or personally. But I always thought that it was a fight that would be nice to make happen, especially because of all the interests abroad to watch us fight.

And then from my constant hearing of how similar we are or how this fight is going to turn out such a certain way, you just, I like to just step up and just be like, well, here, I'll show you how it's going to turn out. And it's like I walked into this barbecue joint with a whiskey bar in the back in Ballard. And there's all these dudes standing around jaw jacking about whiskeys. And they're just snobbing it up left and right. Nobody's drinking a damn thing. And so the bartender, he grabbed this bottle.

He's like, oh, well, this is, I can't even remember, but it was like a 21-year-old bourbon. Oh, man, this thing's blah, blah, blah. And they're all just, man, now they're really whacking it hard. just spitting and, you know, flames coming out of their crotches. I just walked back and I go, all give me a glass of that. And they all stop and look. And I'm like, yeah, give me some of that, you know. Or he goes, well, this stuff's like, like, 45 bucks a glass or something.

I go, you know, I'm here to drink whiskey and not talk about it. Everybody just shuts the fuck up and grab my glass and go sit in the back. How'd it taste? Delicious. Yeah. It was great. It went really well with the halapeno mac and cheese and the smoky tritp. When you left the UFC in 2002, I mean, you won the belt, never defended it.

Did you think you'd be back at some point? Did you think that was just a short kind of detour? I never thought of it as a detour or anything like that. But I did think that the potential for me to be back in the UFC was just, you know, a phone call away. it wasn't as far-fetched as it seemed within the public eye. But I'm glad it seemed that crazy to the public eye because now it means so much more to see this fight, and it garners that much more interest.

Where is that belt, by the way, that you won in 2002? Oh, it's just sitting over there right next to my King of Pancras belt. Is that true? Oh, yeah. Can I see it? Sure, sure. Hold on. Okay. Look at this.

Josh Barnett going to get the UFC belt. that he won in 2002 when he defeated Randy Coutur via TKO at 435 of the second round that was in Las Vegas, of course, UFC 36. Way back when he was just a young buck. He was 13 and 1 after that fight. And of course afterwards, went on a long journey all across the world, fought all over the place from Pancras, Pride, Strike Force. Oh, wow. I want to see this sounds of gold right here. This bad boy.

Wow. Now, that's not one that you bought at the store at the UFC Expo or something, right? Oh, no, no, no. This is not one of those bells that John Jones would refuse to sign. This is the real thing. This is the World Championship right here. This is the kind of thing that gets you limousines a mile long with 27 women just waiting to, woo!

Now, so they never asked for it back when they stripped you? Yeah, good luck with that. So is this something that you looked at? Like, did you use that as inspiration in something? said one day, you know, I'm the uncrown champion. I mean, I'm the undefeated champ. I haven't been stripped of this belt, at least in the cage. No one has beat me to get this belt.

So did you feel like this was kind of your motivation to keep going? I have a lot of different motivations, but this does factor into it. And the idea of this fight being not just a return of the UFC, but it's a defense of my title. You're viewing it as such? Mm-hmm. Really? They should build that. The champion comes back.

Hey man, I don't know why you're doing this show and not running all the marketing for UFC aerial, but we should put in a few phone calls. Are they making it out to be a big deal in your opinion? Are they pumping up the, there's a lot of fights, and we talk about this, like the Chale Sun and Fight on Fox Sports One, they did a fantastic job. And then sometimes they kind of skip shows because there's just so much going on. There's a big title fight, obviously, in the main event. Do you feel like you're getting the attention you deserve?

Well, I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to what marketing and promo stuff. I don't own cable or basic television. That's not because I'm trying to seem like a highbrow snob of any sort. If I want to be a highbrow snob, I talk about the books on philosophy that I read and the coniacs that I sip in front of my fireplace. Right. Next episode. But this motivation will become entirely apparent after I win.

But also, it's just I have a job. to do and I can't be concerned with how they're marketing or how much money or time or I don't really know what's what's going on. I hope they're doing a fantastic job to promote this fight because I think it's going to be a big, big match for years to come, something that people are going to want to want to have repeat viewings of. And I think we're going to steal the show. But I can only I don't know, you've been watching it. You're out there in the public sphere, keeping the track of all the MMA media. What do you think? Are they promoting it correctly? Are they putting the time and effort into it? It's all right. I mean, when I see the commercials and stuff, it's all about Benson and Pettus. There's not much about the big return of Josh Barnett. To be honest.

Well, I guess they just didn't want the little guys to feel, you know, give them a Napoleon complex. Yeah. Well, why do you say your motivation will be apparent after the fight? Well, because then I'll get a chance to get on the mic and say exactly what I mean. Wow. So. Well, you wouldn't think that a Josh Burnett fight would end without some sort of promo. No, no. So you have something ready. You have something that you want to say to the people.

I have a few things off the top of my head. Did you see Frank Mears' last fight? I did. I've seen all of Frank Mears' fights for the most part. If anything, just because he's a part of the heavyweight division, I consider it as a global thing. And you need to be aware of what your potential competition is up to. So do you feel like he's as good as he was a couple years ago? In the last fight, I mean, he kind of said he took some shots at Cormier.

It wasn't the best fight, but it just wasn't a very compelling action-packed fight. So what do you think of it? It was a more control fight from Cormier as output. But I was surprised he had the energy to rip off a couple middle kicks at the end of the fight, of all things. But then I don't think he had to work as hard as he hadn't. and he wasn't getting tagged up nearly as much. So whether or not Frank's cardio is improved significantly or is still essentially the same animal,

I guess we're going to find out. So right now we've got Kane v. Junior in October. Travis just had a big win. Travis Brown over over him. Verdooms kind of out there. Where do you think this win puts you? If you beat him, where are you in the heavyweight division? Well, one, I'm the defending champion.

That's true. That's true. But two, I don't really know. I don't really know. I just, I like, I'm the kind of guy that everyone talks about, like I said, everyone talks about what they'd like to see or how this may, they want to push all the pieces across the board. I just go out, chop the guy's head off, bring it back,

throw it on top of the board and go, well, what do you want to do now? What do you have next? You tell me I'm fighting for the title, then it'll be mine. If you tell me I'm going to fight this other guy, all right, well, then he's done. Are you bringing that belt to Milwaukee? No, I will not. I will be leaving it here at home, safe and sound.

It could use for a good polishing. Yeah. I think it would be great if you brought that to the press conference. Have you ever tried carrying this thing across country, man? It's kind of a pain in the butt. And they always want to stop and strip you and talk to you about it. Maybe they just want to strip me anyways. What do you think Dana White would say if you saw you bring that to the press conference?

I don't really know. I think his head just might catch fire. Are you looking forward to seeing him? Seeing Dana? Yeah. Sure, I guess. I mean, we don't, it's not like we hang out all the time and take showers together or anything.

I mean, well, maybe in the past, but not as of recent. I think he's happy to see you back. I think deep down he always wanted to have you back. I think that at the very least, the idea of me bringing a lot of attention and money to his company doesn't really diminish his interest. But, I mean, we've had complimentary things to say about each other. Yeah. Had a great fight last time. And I was like, well, it's a very nice shirt.

It's you very well. Wow. I think that's very slim. He compliments you on your work, and all you have to say is nice shirt. Wow. I mean, he looked fantastic in his shirt. The color really brought out his eyes. It was, I think that's a quality compliment if I've ever heard one.

I've used the same sort of line on women all the time, and they love it. That's true. By the way, are you done wrestling? No, I'm going to be wrestling this Saturday. No, pro wrestling. I am a professional wrestler. It doesn't matter what cage you put me in. All right.

But, okay. What about overseas in Japan? I see where you're going. And am I done? I don't really, I don't consider myself done. I don't know where professional wrestling fits in with what's coming up. Sure. With this UFC contract, exactly.

But there may be an opportunity here or there. I think it could be worked out. Does it make you somewhat sad that MMA and Japan is pretty much dead at this point? Yeah. It makes me really sad because the more MMA there is globally, the better off all of us are in terms of increasing our fan base and increasing our revenue opportunities. But it's also sad from my perspective of someone that lived over there was a big part of that to see the ancient Atlantis of MMA crumble into the sea. You have an interesting demeanor, kind of less than fair. demeanor. But deep down, this is a big deal for you, right?

35 years old, coming back to the UFC, 10 years later, 11 years later, this is a big moment for your career. I understand what a big moment this is for me. But where I go, the things that are in the forefront of my mind

are simply Frank Mir. Simply just beating and punching and grabbing and choking and ripping and tearing and biting and spitting until a ref makes me quit. That's all I care about. And I realize that it's a matter of chicken or the egg,

or, well, it's not really that either, but it's, you know, one event triggers the next. Yeah. The event of winning and winning dominantly, that makes everything else possible. I don't, I can think about the importance of all the external factors afterwards, but for me, it's got to be the fight. and nothing else. It's just like going into a title fight and people, oh, the belt, the belt, and I'm aware of it. Trust me, I want it. I like gold, shiny things. I'm not all that unlike a fish in that way, I guess, or raccoon. But the fight is what gets you those gold shiny things.

To the winner go the spoils of war. Very well said. I'm happy you're back and we'll talk afterwards. We got the picture right over here of you and I in our other life. as manager and pro-wrestor. So let me know what you need me to do on Saturday leading up to the fight as far as our agreement is concerned. Indeed. If you could find a megaphone, preferably gold-upil. That would be fantastic.

Okay. I think there's a lot of screaming you could do for... Sure. I mean, it's going to have to be about me. You could just start screaming about anything you want. But that all counts and is a plus towards our... And I'll get the gold coins as well. Yes, even the chocolate ones count.

Josh, always a pleasure. Safe travels to Milwaukee. Good luck in the fight. Can't wait for it. Thank you, Ariel. I'm just going to get back to some light reading here. Oh, look, the Chapel of Bones of the Church of Nosa, Sonora de Carmel. Oh, that's pretty awesome.

All right. Thanks, Josh. See you later. All right. Yeah, a little light reading. There he is. The Warmaster himself was some. reading before his big trip to Milwaukee, he returns to the UFC after an 11-year hiatus

has fought all over the place and now coming back home, essentially home. Didn't start in the UFC, but close enough, where he made his name initially. A big fight against Frank Meere, co-made event bout, looking forward to it very much. And it is true in the commercials, perhaps. they don't mention it as much. What was going on? But there is a big main event on Saturday, and we can't forget that.

And it is huge. One of the most anticipated main events in recent UFC history. So I don't blame the UFC for putting all their eggs in that basket. But it is nice to know. Great card on Saturday. Chad Mendes versus Clay Guida. Eric Koch versus Dustin Porier. The return of Brandon Vera is a heavyweight against Ben Rothwell.

That's just the main card. And by the way, after our last interview of the day, Duke Rufus, we will be giving you my mama nose picks, if you know what I'm saying. What is she? 8, 11, 11 and 4 after three events. And this one is really going to tell the tale. This week is really going to tell the tale because there are 11 fights going down in the span of seven days here. And let's not forget next Wednesday.

on Russia Shana, the maybe the second most holy day for my people. The UFC is holding an event in Bello Horizanch in Brazil. But between now and next Monday, two big events, six main card fights on Wednesday, five

on Saturday. So the pressure is on, Mama Note. Now, speaking of the heavyweight division, last week, just telling Eric something about the Skype, last week we broke the news on UFC tonight that UFC heavyweight, Stefan Struve, has been battling a heart condition and wanted

to have him on the show this week to talk about it and explain what's going on, what the next steps are. So very happy that he's able to join us from his home in Holland. Stefan, are you there? Yeah, I am. How are you doing? It's good to have you on the show, and it's very good to hear from you. First things first, I mean, when you hear things about, you know, the heart and heart

conditions of all kinds, small, large, whatever. people are very concerned. So how are you feeling right now? I feel great. I don't feel a thing about the condition. I've had it my entire life, you know, so that's the crazy thing. I've been, you know, fighting my entire career with a heart that's only working about 70%. Wow. So you've had this your entire life and they never found it before? Well, with pre-5 medicals, they do an electrocardiogram, cardiogram of your heart, and it doesn't show up on ECG. A couple weeks ago, I think it's almost a month ago now, they did an echo of my heart as a routine test. So I was chatting with the lady who was doing the test, and she was not a...

eyes and family and explaining everything and you see your heart beating and then you see your blood flow and all of a sudden she gets a little quiet and she's you know i'm like is something wrong or she's like i can't tell i we need to uh ask the cardiologist to uh you know explain what's what's going on and then he uh he uh ask me to uh you know sit down and uh take the news and he's like uh okay you can uh there's two things you can have a tear in your aorta and you need to go in surgery tonight and the other other option is you got a leak in aortic valve so um i had to go into the MRI uh immediately to find out what exact was going on and well you know you can understand that was scared as well yeah for what was going on i was like you know maybe i'll get open-art surgery tonight but um luckily everything

okay with the aorta and the only thing that was wrong was the leaking aortic valve and enlarged heart so so what does one do to correct that can you correct that yeah and um for the aortic valve um the the problem is that i only have two leaflets um the normal um the normal uh the normal aortic valve has got three. So normally, because of that, blood leaks back into the heart chamber. And because the enlarged heart, it's about 70% right now. So what they're trying to do right now with the medication is lower the blood pressure so that the pressure on the heart chamber is going down. And then they're trying to get the leakage to become less as it is right now. So they're trying to get it. back to 90% or something like that.

And what if they can't do that? Will you have to have surgery or have they completely ruled out surgery? Well, sooner or later, I'm definitely going to have to get surgery on this, on the aortic valve and have it replaced. But the thing is they're finding out right now when I'm going to surgery and how fast is going to have to be. That's why I had to stay in the hospital for a week. they had to put me on a heart rate monitor and see if there was any, you know, a disturbance

in my heart, any, you know, weird sequence or whatever. But my heart is working perfect except for the leakage. So if they're going to have to replace it, there's a couple options. And there is an option that will probably allow me to keep on fighting if everything goes well. There's even a fighter in glory, Mark Miller, who had the exact same procedure done, and he came back after that. Have you talked to him? No, not yet, but we're definitely going to reach out to see how he got through that. So right now they haven't told you 100% if you can fight or 100% that your career as a fighter is over. It's a wait-and-see approach?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. there's a couple, you know, question marks still open to be filled in before we can really give a clear answer on, you know, what's possible for me. And if I am able to keep on fighting for me, you know, from day one, the first doctor said, we're going to check this out right now. But what it means for your career is your career is pretty much over. And I was like, I don't believe that. I don't believe that, you know, this thing that I'm having for my entire life will cause me to have to end my career right now. And, you know, what I said, there's still a couple of question marks,

but I don't believe that this is going to be the end of my career. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get back into the cage. But, you know, really happy that they found it right now. Because if you keep on, you know, working your hard, the way I did before this, then you can blow up your heart to an even bigger size. And that's when it gets dangerous because right now the chamber has gotten bigger, but it's gotten bigger in a way that it's still got its elasticity. And when it gets really big, it loses the elasticity,

and you can get small cracks in it and all that. And that's when you can get a heart failure or whatever, you know. So that's what you don't want, of course. Have they told you 100% when they'll know if you can resume your career or, you know, when you'll find out if you can't continue fighting? Is there a time frame in place right now? I'm going back to the hospital October 2nd. If, you know, nothing weird shows up, but, you know, I've had it for my entire life. So we don't think anything is going to show up in the meantime.

But going back to the hospital October 2nd and they're going to see what the medication did from my heart. and the doctors in Holland are going to give their final view on this and their final answer on what they think for my career. Think of my career, but the thing is they're not really used to working with athletes, the doctor over here. So after that answer, we're definitely going to the U.S. for a second opinion and see what the doctors over there think and what they think is best to do so that I can resume my career and live a healthy life. I heard that the clinic in it, the name escapes me right now in Cleveland, Ohio is one of the best for the heart. Is that correct? Yeah, I did some research myself too, and they seem really good. But the thing is that the hospitals in Holland are really good too, but they aren't really used to working with athletes.

You know, and you need to have, you know, work with athletes in the past to be able to give a clear answer because they don't, you know, MMA is not that big in Holland. They don't know how to deal with me in my situation. They don't know what to expect because they said when you have to go and get surgery, I think cut your open, they have to cut your chest open in half. And they think that, you know, of course, with a scar that big, your opponents are going to, you know, seek for that spot. But I was like, you know, they're seeking for your head too.

And, you know, they're trying to hit you all the time. But still, you know, when you fracture something, it grows back stronger. So that's the way I look at it. And, you know, what needs to be done needs to be done. And I got myself over it, and I'm just waiting and, you know, hoping for the best. Have you ever heard of a basketball player named Jeff Green? No, I didn't. You should read about him because I'm sure he will inspire you.

He is a basketball player for the Boston Celtics who had open heart surgery a couple of seasons ago and missed the entire year. And he went to this clinic in Cleveland and has since come back. and amazingly, he's even better and more effective. He's kind of the star of their team in Boston. Now as a player, I mean, no side effects, no nothing. I mean, he's a better pro player than he ever was. So clearly people come back from this. But I'm wondering, have they told you, okay, if you were a soccer or basketball or hockey player, it's okay.

But because you are involved in such a physical sport, your body takes so much punishment that that might be an issue for you? Yeah, they're afraid of the... Yeah, when you get hit of the impact, they're afraid for that. Plus, with different sports, they'll probably use a mechanical valve. But the thing is with mechanical valves, you need to be on blood thinners for the rest of your life, and I cannot fight with blood thinners. You know, when you get cut open, you'll keep on bleeding.

That's not what you want. But for the rest, we just need to see. what, you know, it was going to happen, and they said that when they replace it, there's a big chance that my heart works more efficient because right now my body, you know, is asking for a lot of oxygen, and my heart needs to beat really fast, but it's not getting the oxygen. It needs, you know, so a really good example of what can happen is my last fight. About six weeks before the fight, I got pretty sick, and I kept on training. I thought it was a normal flu, get out of my body in about seven days and I just didn't leave my body and I stayed ill for about three or four weeks

and I was really heavy flu and what I know now with this condition is when I have a flu I cannot train it's it's absolutely you know crazy to do that because when you have a flu like that the bacteria will seek for a week's spot and they love going to that valve and you can get an infection on the valve or the aorta and you know you don't want an infection in your heart that's really, really dangerous. And I just didn't recover from the flu. So about three weeks before the fight, my manager and my trainer and me had a conversation, and I convinced them that I was able and ready to fight.

But, you know, my conditioning wasn't there. It just sucked. And, you know, I didn't know why I didn't recover from it. and I had to train once a day and all that. But now we know this, it really answers a lot of questions from what we had in the past or training, why I didn't recover well for the second session of the day and all that. And it's, you know, it's a crazy situation. And now during this time of uncertainty, how do you pass the time?

You can't train for a fight or anything like that. What are you doing day to day? I told myself to see it as one big vacation. Relax as much as possible, and I'm training about, you know, six, six times a week. And just taking my time, training really relaxed, you know, no conditioning or whatever, don't want to, you know, go crazy and, you know, look for, you know, for problems. But, you know, just killing time, doing stuff around the house. And, you know, I'm lucky it's summer. So weather's nice.

Just trying to relax and don't think of a, you know, about it because it's, you know, about it. It's still open-art surgery, and they already told me that the success rate is absurdly high, and it's crazy because they have to really put your heart still, and they'll put you on the hard and lung machine. So they'll get the blood flow in, you know, for about two or three hours. They'll do the surgery, and they'll, after surgery, they cut open the aorta. they take the leaking valve out, they put the new valve in, they close the aorta, and then they'll start your heart again.

So you're just laying there for a couple hours without your heart beating. You know, it's crazy to think about it. But only 1% of the people that go in that surgery don't make it out of surgery, and that 1% is people that are elderly or sick, you know. So, you know, the chances are looking good. And what I said, you know, I'm going to do whatever it takes to get back in the cage. And mentally, I mean, when you heard the news as opposed to now, how are you dealing with this? How did you take it initially and how are you dealing with it now?

It was really crazy. It was like I was dreaming all that a lot. I just didn't believe it after a week or so. It just finally got in my head. And I was like, damn, this is crazy. I mean, I may need to in my career and all that. It's, you know, a lot of things go through your head, of course. But I got it under control right now, and, you know, what I said, I'm over it, and whatever needs to happen needs to happen. You know, I cannot change anything about it except for taking the medication and just hoping that something positive is going to happen because of that.

And I heard from your manager, Lex McMahon, that the UFC, Dana White, and Lorenzo Furtita have really gone out of their way to try to help you. Is that accurate? Yeah, yeah, but the thing is I'm under medical guidance in Holland right now, and after that I'm going to the U.S. and the U.C. told us that they're going to get us the best cardiologist, the best people to work with me, and they, you know, of course, they said, of course, we're going to cover all the expenses, so that's awesome. Wow, that is great.

And by the way, how is your jaw? Because the last time we saw you, you injured your jaw, which obviously pales in comparison to what you're dealing with now. is it 100% healed? Yeah, yeah, I was getting ready for a fight. I was just waiting for Joe Silva, call me and tell me that I had a fight coming up. And, you know, a couple of days before this news came out, I saw online, Nogero wanted to fight me in Vegas, the December show.

And that was pretty much what we were aiming for. That was what I wanted, you know. But I already knew back then what I had, but for the rest, you know, nobody on the internet I knew. So everybody was going off. Like, yeah, that fight needs to happen. It's an awesome fight and all that. And I'm like, I wish it was happening.

So if you have the surgery in October, when, you know, would you have to be out for another year after that? Do you have any idea when you could possibly come back? Well, it needs to heal really good. You know, you need to take your time with that. But I got a lot of messages from a lot of people that practice a lot of sports. And I got messages that people did a triathlon about, four months later.

Wow. You know, it's, it's not, nothing you can compare it to, you know, when you go into the cage and the impact your body needs to, you know, endure. But you can really, most people say that after the surgery, they feel so much more energetic and all that, you know, and now I'm not training. It's really crazy. Not then at like five or six in the evening, I got really tired and the only thing I want to sleep.

And, you know, it's really weird. but, you know, I'm going to get through this for sure. And you've had it forever. That's the most of it. You've had a great UFC career with this. That lady who was with you, that nice lady, she's pretty great. The nurse that was with you that initially caught this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I'm really, what I said, I'm really happy they caught it. But, you know, it's, I didn't know what to say or whatever. There were so many things going through my head. And I was like, it's crazy, Dad. it comes up now, you know, after all those fights, you know, it's, my heart has been only working for 70% you, is what you said, a basketball player that came back after that surgery and got so much better, you know, that's, that's probably, you know, that's an option that might happen, you know, that my conditioning will, you know, go through the roof, so.

And by the way, I know, because I was tweeting about it last week when the news came out, a lot of people sending you very nice messages, anything now that you, you know, you're going to you're able to speak and do this interview here and kind of speak out to everyone in one shot. Anything you'd like to say to those people who have been supporting you for a very long time? Yeah, that was awesome. The day the news came out and the day after, it was just nonstop messages, thousands of messages. So that was really awesome.

That was really hardwarming and it was really cool. The main concern for me was that when I heard about it that my mom was going to be, you know, not too stressed out about it. You know, I was like, I'm going to be fine. They told me it's not life-threatening and all that. They just need to see how severe it is. And, you know, if I can, you know, continue my career, I'll just, you know, try to relax and don't worry about it, please, you know. Right.

And she's doing okay now with it? Yeah, yeah. She's, well, you know, the first couple days, it was, for it was really scary, of course. Right. She, you know, nobody really knew what was going on. We didn't have any experience with it. And we were just learning more and more every single day. But, you know, I told her, just please try and relax.

Don't worry about me because I'm going to be fine, you know. The worst thing that can happen is I'm going to have to end my career, but they found it in time. And, you know, I'm not going to drop down all of a sudden. Well, it's so great to hear from you, Stefan. Really happy to hear that you're in good spirits, that, you know, you have a positive outlook on all of this, and we wish you the best with that appointment in October and then beyond.

And please keep us posted. know a lot of people follow you on Twitter.com slash Stefan Struth. Keep us posted on how you're doing because everyone in the MMA community sends our best to you and hopes that you're able to beat this. Thank you.

I will beat this for sure. Thank you so much, Stefan. Best of luck, and we'll talk to you very soon. Looking forward to seeing you back in the Octagon very soon. Thank you. There he is. Stefan, the skyscraper, Struve stopping by. Wish him nothing but the best.

One of the great people in our sport. one of many. Always a pleasure to talk to him. Always gracious with his time. Always pleasant. And initially, some unfortunate news you hear it, especially when it deals with the heart, you get a little concern. But hearing his outlook and hearing how he plans on beating this and then resuming his promising UFC career, it's great to hear. And we wish him nothing but the best. And it's great to see that he is going to come to the United States and try to get the best attention that he can receive because he certainly deserves it.

We wish him the best. I know mentally and physically it can be a bear to deal with things like that, but it sounds like he's in a good place right now. So that is very, very reassuring. We will finish up the show with one last guest. I apologize earlier. I thought, totally my mistake. Long story, but I had thought that Duke Rufus was supposed to be on at 145 p.m. Eastern Time. I got a mixed up with my times for Vitor, because initially Vitor was 145 and Switch. Long story. We're tracking him down right now, I believe, and we'll get him on for a few minutes

to talk, of course, about the big title fight in his backyard in Milwaukee this Saturday, Anthony Pettis versus Benson Henderson, and we have Duke on the phone right now. Duke, are you there? Yes, sir? I sincerely apologize. Totally my fault.

I messed up the time, so I'm sorry for screwing up your day if I did. Oh, no worry, she did not. I'm just at the beginning of practice. So no worries, not a problem. So how much are you looking forward to Saturday? And not only the fight, the rematch that you guys wanted, but in Milwaukee, like I said, your backyard. Can you describe, where were we, five days out, how you're feeling about all of this?

Like a kid on his first Christmas when he knew what was going on in Christmas. I mean, I've been excited for a while about this. You know, it's just a cool experience, you know, especially for Anthony and another one of our guys, Chico grew up here in Milwaukee. We used to go see the Bucs play at the BMO Bradley Center, big concerts, some of the most memorable sporting and entertainment events here in Milwaukee, and let alone both of them been able to cement their legacy in their hometown. Obviously, Anthony, the support that he's going to have is going to be overwhelming.

Milwaukee is a neat fight town, and definitely Anthony has an incredibly large family. His mother's grandfather has 23 children. Wow. And his father's grandfather has 18. So when people say they're Anthony Pettis cousin, there's a lot of them in Milwaukee. And long before he was in W.C., they used to come out and drove to support the Pettus family. and I just think the buzz of the UFC being here in Milwaukee is going to be insane. So what is the buzz like?

Can you tell you, like, do you actually feel it? Is it much bigger than the first time that they came to Milwaukee a couple years ago? Do you feel like there's a big event coming up on Saturday? Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, in passing wherever I go, people who, even in my neighborhood and who normally wouldn't talk to me about this stuff, and everyone's talking about it. You know, the only thing that is bigger this week is the 110th anniversary of Harley Davidson.

That's the huge other buzz and rumble in town with all the motorcycles coming. But as for the sports fans, everyone's got pet of fever right now. I actually feel sorry for Ben Henderson. It's going to be a hostile crowd. This is going to be like Montreal, Brazil-type crowd. Really? Because Milwaukee fans, I mean, at least in our world, in the MMA world, not known for that, you think it's going to be hostile.

You actually sincerely feel bad for the guy. Yeah, I do, man, because it's going to be like fighting GSP in Montreal. I mean, you know, the last time they came to Milwaukee, there wasn't any of the local fighters on the card. I believe there's five local fighters or guys based out of this area, you know, training and fighting. That there is going to be a great buzz out there for the show. And again, I think that the UFC has grown tremendously with the Fox Sports deal, and now Fox Sports One, the buzz of our sport is just rising incredibly. No, I mean, what's they're not to like about Anthony Pettus' fighting style,

and then to have him be here from Milwaukee. As Wisconsinites, very loyal, loyal sports fans, the Green Bay Packers sell out Lambeau Field win, lose, or draw every year. You know, it's just sporting events are a big part of our culture here. now in the summer, we're having a lot of fun, but in the winter, there's nothing else to do except watch people compete. You have often said that you really didn't think Benson wanted this fight. Why do you believe that?

You know, I just think personally, as a former competitor, you know, I lost Maurice Smith in 1996. He's older than me, and I'm so old, I almost fart dust, I think. I mean, but if someone said, hey, we'll put a fight on between the two of you, I'm going to go fight. I just think that someone who lost a fight would want to, you know, take that fight again, especially

in the manner that it went down. I mean, he really didn't push for that fight, and I really believe round six coming in this fight on Saturday at beginning around six, Anthony has this guy's number, and I think it's going to show Saturday night.

I think that Anthony's improved in every area that Benson Andrews is going to try and attack, Anthony. You know, I wanted to see this fight from the second that fight ended. As you mentioned, this is kind of like round six. The first one happened a few years back, the final WC event. The one kind of concern, I guess you can call it, in the back of my mind, is I want to see this fight when they're both healthy. And of course, in MMA and pro sports, no one's ever truly 100%. But because of what happened with, you know, a pet is supposed to fight Aldo earlier this

month and he pulls out due to the knee injury and they say, oh, well, he couldn't even fight on this card anyway if he was, you know, going to get 100% healthy in time. And then all of a sudden, T.J. Grant gets injured and he steps in. Is he healthy? Are you 100% certain, or at least close to 100% certain that this is the right call that Anthony should be fighting on Saturday? Yes. I mean, you know, that was the UFC doctor and there's a local surgeon who had worked on his shoulder who had looked at his knee and said he could get him healthy. And we just been very mindful in training to make sure that Anthony

didn't re-injure or hurt anything. I mean, he just, he's a young guy, he's resilient, he takes very good care of himself. He diligently rest and recuperates himself, and he's done all of his vis-yo with the specialist. So, I mean, you know, no one's

ever 100%. I mean, you have a little bump bruise, but that's what makes these guys champions. I'm sure, you know, there's something wrong with Ben coming into this fight, and he's going to bring it 101% to keep his belt. That's just fighting. That's professional sports.

When you do this is your job, it's never a perfect day at the office. You know, it would separate the special from the not so special or the people who can overcome those setbacks at the office the day of the event.

So the last time Anthony fought was in January, great performance, great win over Donald Soroni. Then he was preparing for the Aldo fight. That was a long layoff, gets injured, you know, was like almost two months before,

so he's on the sidelines for a bit. and then he has time to prepare for Benson Henderson. Are you the kind of coach? Is he the kind of fighter that prepares specifically for an opponent, or do you view this as essentially he's had around seven or so months to prepare for this fight? I look at it both ways. Anthony's a very active fighter. You know, when he fought Benson Henderson and Joe Loseon,

he was back in the gym on Monday after his victories. He truly loves training and martial arts. I mean, he loves the role, it loves the kickbox bar. He loves every aspect of it. So he's the type of guy that is continually in the gym. So I'm always comfortable taking a fight on short notice with him. But at the same time, you know, he has fought him before, and we did do a lot of specific training.

You know, we've got the same wrestling coach that helped him the last fight in the camp. John Messonbrink, Ben Asperin's longtime coach. Diego Mariah, Dano Van der Wae Helping out on Jiu-Jitsu So yeah, I mean, it's a mixture of both, definitely I mean, no one's a bigger fan of Anthony Pettison, me. I know his true potential And, you know, he's the type of guy

that can do amazing things on a short time clock. He told us that when you told him that he was getting this fight, and you got the phone call, and I believe, I think it was his manager, Mike Roberts told him in person, but you were there,

there was a going away party, for Danny Boy Downs, that he stopped what he was doing, left the barbecue, and ran several miles to his father's grave. Can you tell us from your perspective his reaction, what it was like seeing him get that call, that he was finally going to get this fight, not only that, in Milwaukee? It was wild because he didn't believe me at first, because Mike was on the phone with me. Anthony had his phone charging inside my house, and, you know, the boss called him a few times. Dana White was blown up his phone to let him know about this officer.

opportunity and, you know, his phone was in the house, and Mike contacted me, and I said, hey, you're fighting in Milwaukee versus Henderson. It's like, now, come on. You're punking me, right? I'm like, yes. And he saw the look at my face, and, I mean, played a food down, stood up, hugged his brother, hugged me, everyone high-fived, and he's like, well, hey, Danny boy, I love you, I got to go. and he, you know, great outside. And, you know, it's just, that's the way it goes in the fight game. You know, someone's lost, unfortunately, he sure gain. And he's very enthusiastic about the opportunity to perform on Saturday.

Did you feel like this was what should have happened? Like, I always thought, Aldo and Pettus are probably the two most exciting fighters in the sport. And I've always said those are two guys. If you had to ask me, who do I want to pay to watch? Those are the guys. But yet for some reason I didn't want to see the fight. I didn't want to see Pettus go down to 145 and get stuck there. I wanted to see the rematch and now we're getting it.

Did you share that sentiment or did you want to see him fight? Were you in favor of the Pettus idea? Excuse me, the Aldo idea. I'm always supportive of Anthony, but I think this is the bigger fight that interests the public more. Yeah, I think going down to 145 wouldn't have necessarily been good. I liked it in a super fight, but not being. stuck, like you said, at 145. I think 155 is Anthony's true division, and I think this is going to be a special fight

between him and Ben Henderson's fought differently in tactics. Anthony's improved, and they have their history. I mean, take the showtime kick out of the fight, because sometimes people talk about that too much about the fight, and, you know, I think that it was an amazing fight without the showtime kick. I think that Anthony, even with the knee and the last round, going. The way I saw the fight, it was two rounds to two going into the final round, and Anthony was winning without the kick.

And the kick just was, you know, some icing or a cherry on top of the Sunday. You know, he had already wrapped it up. But it wasn't an amazing fight. Respect of both fighters, I mean, it takes two guys to make an incredible fight. They have a history, and I think that we're going to have her hands full Saturday, but it's going to be Anthony getting his hand raised. And by the way, Aldo's coach, Andre Petaneris, has been saying that he thinks Petis fake the injury. Is this something that you want to settle?

After this fight, if all goes well, do you guys still want the Aldo fight? Sure. I mean, you can come up to 155. You know, in my old age, I'm just getting a little softer. I mean, it's just spend too much time with my baby daughter. And it was her first birthday yesterday. Wow. Happy birthday.

Yeah, thanks. is my little daughter's first birthday yesterday. Anthony was over with his daughter. You know what? I think Duke Rufus a year ago maybe would have been spewing some fighting back verbally. You know what? It's all proved in the octagon. Anthony did get hurt.

I mean, the UFC flew him to Vegas. There's a fact there. I mean, I understand that, you know, at first they didn't even want the fight. That's the funny thing. You know, it's like the little kid who screams down the block after, hey, let's go, let's crap, you know, after the fight. You know, I just hope Aldo comes up to 55. I'm a fan of him. I think he's an incredible fighter, and I think he'd really add a lot to an already deep, lightweight division.

You know, first and foremost, Anthony's got a big fish to fry on Saturday, and it'll be in the UFC's hand after Saturday, what happens? By the way, your brother, Rick Rufus, teaches at the lab where Benson trains out of. Is that strange for you guys? No, I mean, it's just, you know, you're going to cross. He was there the last time the fight went down, you know. I mean, it's all professional. I mean, at the end of the day, it's the two athletes to do their thing.

I, you know, I coach against really good friends all the time. I mean, it's part of the sport. It's a small circle of people that are doing well in this industry. So, I mean, you just got to deal with it. I mean, it's just there's no malice, but, you know, there's only one, right? Every squirrel's trying to get that big UFC nut. You know, there's going to be some collateral damage sometimes. Do you believe Benson when he says he doesn't consume himself with the kick?

This is not something that he thinks about, that haunts him, all that stuff. Do you believe him? you know what i don't know i mean i just you know i don't know i mean maybe it doesn't bother him um but i know what down deep bothers him is the threat of a guy who can beat him again so if it's not the kick it's the threat that uh you know everything at benson benson tried to do everything he's great at he wasn't able to do to anthony and anthony was able to even take him down in the fight you know i've been watching the fight daily and uh you know you can see in the beginning of the fifth round that Anthony had his number. And I think that's what bothers

Benson the most. Not necessarily the kick, but man, everything I did my best to do against everyone else didn't work against this guy. And at times, Anthony had him in his favorite positions on the mat, and Anthony was threatening him on the mat. So I've said it over and over. I think Ben is an incredible fighter. I just think Anthony Pettis is a special fighter. Is Ben, a better fighter than the one you fought in 2010? In some aspects, yes, but in the aspect that he's actually gotten worse at striking, in my humble opinion.

Really? Why? Yeah, he's... He just tried to experiment more. You know, experimentation when you make fundamental mistakes is not good because that's actually what I do when I watch, say the Saroni fight, and Joe Lozon fight, I haven't done this so long,

my thing is fundamentals. I try and attack their fundamentals, and then Anthony just picks up on their lack of making a mistake fundamentally, and that's where he capitalizes with the big finishes. That's why we have such a great relationship. I'm able to lead them to the places where they're susceptible, get struck. The cool thing about striking is you can't work your way out of a, you can work your way

out of submissions. You can get taken down and work your way back up, but when you make mistake striking, you get knocked on your ass, you get hurt, it's painful, and it's striking is a very chaotic art even at its top point. So sometimes when you feel confident that you're doing a lot of things right, it actually gets you in trouble. Do you think Anthony, and do you think you know this better than anyone, is he going to plan something, is he going to do something to try to top the Showtime kick on his home turf,

the rematch, all that stuff? Can we expect that? Man, I never know with this kid. I mean, I don't, I didn't know the Showtime Knee was coming. Yeah. We did an open workout in Chicago that one of the internet sites shot. and like it happened Saturday we did an open session and I was like what the I just hang on to the ride man this like when he gets in his zone um you know I don't know what he's going to do it's that's the fun thing about being around Anthony and his progression if it's there you it'll happen you know I mean with the crowd on his side and and his mindset

said coming into this, I expect something. You know, I just, I don't even know sometimes. You know, I do all the fundamentals of basics, but, you know, Anthony, he's the creator of his legacy with what he comes off the cuff from his heart. I mean, training with him some days is, I'm still blown away. It's a lot of fun. Two last quick things. When you envision this fight, how do you see it ending?

You know, finish and Pettus doesn't matter how. But he's going to finish the fight, whether it's submission on the mat, standing. One thing that Anthony has, beyond being the champion winning, he wants to create a legacy, he wants to be one of those guys that the UFC wants to make him a marquee, the UFC person, the guy that you want to watch at lightweight. Right now we don't have a lot of guys in the lighter divisions that are huge pay-per-view draws. Anthony wants to become that guy that I got to buy a Pettis pay-per-view.

Anytime Pettis is on, you've got to watch them. And his style of fighting, he wants to win with that style of fighting, and he wants to perform for his fans because he knows that's what's going to make him a superstar. So look for a finish from Anthony one way or another. That's a very good point about the pay-per-view stuff. And then final thing, for which promotion will Ben Ascreen's next fight be? I'm hoping the UFC.

I think they're going to talk this week whilst they're in Milwaukee. I think it's pretty exciting for Ben to come over. He's definitely going to go into the deep water of the UFC, and we're going to see how well he's going to do in the UFC. I think it's not good for Bellator to just say, hey, let our champion go. Yeah. But, you know, it helps Ben, but it hurts their organization in the long run.

I mean, you've got to value your champions. But I can't, and not comment any negatively. I was at their last show with Ben. I thought they did a great job, but it's just, you know, how do you just let your champion go? You basically tapped out and said we are second place to the UFC. Are you surprised that Bjorn said the things he said about Ben? No, not at all. Why?

You know, he's trying to market his product at the end of the day, too. And, you know, I have no ill will towards him. I mean, he wants to advance Bellator and a brand, and he didn't feel that Ben was the guy to do it, you know. But got to find guys that can't get taken down by Ben. Then there are. There's some really great fighters in the UFC. You know, I think this is going to be.

be pivotal in in Ben's career to find out how real the deal is Ben Hasgren and you know is he's the best wrestler in MMA and can he finish guys in the UFC the cool thing about Ben

you know love him or hate him the guys mindset of training is special he's a special athlete I know a lot about Ben's history and psychology what got him to this point even from his wrestling career on. I love training with Ben because he's a special individual,

as is that whole group of guys who are on the Olympic team with them. These guys who come from that high level of wrestling, it's a completely different level of psychology and confidence that I've rarely seen in a lot of other fighters. Duke, I can't tell you how excited I am for Saturday, and I know you're a thousand times more excited you in the team over there. Looking forward to it very much this Saturday, UFC 164 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Anthony Pettis versus Benson-Hentersson 2, this time for the UFC

lightweight title. Thank you so much for the time. Again, apologies. Apologies for the mix-up, and best of luck to you guys. I'm looking forward to seeing you in Milwaukee. Thanks, you too. Take care. There he is. The great Duke Rufus of Rufus Sport in Milwaukee, as he mentioned. It's a big moment, and by the way, side note, I do echo his sentiments. There is this idea that I am anti-Ben Asker or anything. I mean, if you recall back in the AOL days, Ben Ascran was in studio on our show when he was, I don't even think he was the Bellator champ then. Have known about Ben, have watched him for a long time.

One fight I didn't love. And then all of a sudden, I'm anti Ben Ascran. If that's the case, I'm anti George St. Pierre. I'm anti-Cain Velasquez. I'm anti-Josea Aldo. I'm anti-Anderson Silva. I'm anti everyone. If that's the case, if all it takes is to not like one fight, to not think it was the most

exciting fight of all time. than I am anti-every-one. But I do agree. I do think it would be better for him to be in the UFC for his career. He'll be tested more. We'll truly be able to find out how good he is. And if he is that great, a fight between him and a Johnny Hendrix or GSP would be great because he does market himself.

Shoots from the hip. He's exciting when it comes to interviews and controversial. And you either love him or you hate him. You care about him. And he's very dominant. So I'm looking forward to that. I am more looking forward to UFC 164 in that main event on Saturday. Okay, that does it for our interviews.

We have a phone call to take. We've got James in California on line number one. James, are you there? Yeah, what's up, Ariel? What's up, bud? How are you? I'm doing good. I'm doing good.

I'm doing good. I'm doing good. What's on your mind? It's a bit off topic, but I want to ask you this for a while. with the recent signs of a rampage and Tito to TNA do you think that

tishes the integrity of the sport because I don't know people from the outside that they may see TNA and see those team guys and it may

make my night take you know I'm really seriously I think it's a joke I don't like it I think once with King Moe is okay

but the whole thing with Rampage and Tito kind of furthering their quote-unquote feud on TNA I do think it hurts Bellator, I do think it doesn't, it doesn't improve the feud. It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't advance it. In fact, I think it cheapens it and I don't like it. I don't think there is

that built-in crossover. If anything, TNA is probably helping Bellator because they have more eyeballs, but at the end of the day, I, I don't think it's, it's good for the Belator brand. Maybe you'll get a few more ratings, you'll get a few more pay-per-view buys. I don't think it helps to keep signing these guys and having them appear on a week. weekly basis and saying, oh, this is a great platform and they could do their thing. I think it actually hurts more than it helps, it cheapens them. But do you think it, like, it tarnishes the sport of the L'OME as a whole? I don't know if it, I mean, what does, what does Bellator's, you know, idea of putting

these guys on TNA have to do with the UFC? I don't think it hurts the UFC brand. I don't think, you know, I think people already have their own. ideas of who and what Rampage and Tito are, and they think that, oh, it's, you know, these guys who are, you know, getting up there in age and they're doing this wrestling thing, and they've always been kind of wrestling characters, if you know what I'm saying. So, but I don't think it hurts the UFC at all. I do think it cheapens what Beltaire is trying to accomplish with that fight, but again, I don't think it cheapens Michael Chandler. I don't think it cheapens Eddie Alvarez or

Ben Askren or those guys. Just that fight. I don't think it's a bigger picture thing at all. I don't understand what people say that. Okay. Yeah, because, you know, like, if you were like to, like, like, FYA, like, some DVDs, they have all they ever made DVDs in the same section as pro wrestling. Of course. I mean, it is the same kind of genre.

It's combat sports. It's under the same kind of umbrella, but, you know, honestly, I don't think it hurts. I mean, I always have believed that pro wrestling is the, or mixed martial arts is the evolution of pro wrestling. A lot of people grew up watching pro wrestling, and they've graduated to MMA fans, especially where the pro wrestling product is right now.

I have no problem with it being the same section, same umbrella. I have no problem with guys going over, you know, like Brock Lesnar and all that stuff. I have no problem with, you know, people like CN Punk training. I have no problem with all that. I do think it is cheap to try to advance a feud, a fight, a storyline via pro wrestling. There are other ways you can do that. And I think by doing it on a pro wrestling stage, such as TNA, which I don't think is a good product, makes it seem very hoaxing.

and makes it seem very cheap. So I'm not a fan. All right, my man? Okay. Thank you for the call. Thank you very much. There he is. Our buddy James in California.

All right. Let us move along. First, let's get the picks out of the way. What do you say? Sure. Let's hear them. Okay. Well, as I mentioned,

it's UFC Fight Nights 27 on Wednesday. Then we've got UFC 164 on Saturday. These are my mom's official picks. Mama knows. Don't you forget it. You seem to want to watch. want to say something. Nope.

Slip of the finger. Okay. She was going back and forth, very nervous about these, because this will tell a lot. This will say a lot. This will really shine that spotlight on Mama Helwani, because let's be honest, you've got 11 fights here, and right now, in three events, she's done 14, right? Is that 14? She's 11 and 4.

No, 15. You need to start keeping track. By the way, I don't mean to bring this up and make a big deal about it, but when you were making pegs, you were keeping track of the record. I get the sense you're not doing that for my mom. Is there a specific reason for that? No, no specific reason. Is there something we're working toward that I'm keeping this?

We'd like to know if this is something we should continue doing. If it's not, then we should, you know, if all of a sudden she gets to your territory of like 500 or so, 500. Wait, wait a minute. My picking record before we started doing the competition was very, very, very far above 500. I don't recall. Yeah, you wouldn't. But I'll keep track of them. So she was 8 and 1, and then she went 3 in 3, so that's 11 and 4.

All right? Write that down wherever you write things down back there. Okay, here are our picks. Huge Carlos Condit fan, so you know that she's going with Condit over Catman. Donald Soroni over Hafeld Dosanos. Kelvin Gastilum over Brian Melanson. I'm really looking forward to that fight, by the way, not getting a ton of buzz. Kelvin's 170 debut, Brian looked great in his.

his Octagon debut in July. Robert Whitaker, she's picking him. Who's Robert Whitaker fighting? He is fighting another... Court McGee. That is right. So Robert Whitaker over Court McGee, Battle of the Tough Winners. Eric Perez over Tchaemi Tugaki

and Brad Tavares over Bubba McDaniel. And let me just give you 164 as well, and then we'll ask Mr. expert Rick in the back, what he thinks of this. Anthony Pettis over Benson Henderson. Now I'll say something about these 164 picks. She did go back and fourth on a few of these.

Kept the original picks for Wednesday intact, but did go back and forth for Saturday. So we'll see how that plays out. Frank Mear over Josh Barnett, Chad Mendes over Clay Guida, Brandon Vera over Ben Rothwell, and Dustin Porreier over Eric Koch. What jumps out of you?

Agree, disagree? Going back to this Wednesday's card. I don't... My take on Whitaker McGee is I'm not sure why Whitaker is the favorite. McGee has the UFC experience. He's proven to be a very tough fighter with a very diverse game. Now, Whitaker definitely impressed me with his takedown defense against Colton Smith

and how he was able to implement much superior striking throughout the fight. But I think that I would ride with McGee on that one, and he's currently an underdog. So that would be something I might look at. What's the line there? Whitaker is minus 130. McGee is plus 110. Okay. I think it's a good line.

Whitaker, when there's guys who were brand new onto the scene and looked really good in their fight, it's hard to cap right away. So lines like this tend to be very close. And I think his next fight will be less so close, depending on if he comes out and looks like a killer out there. and beats a very tough McGee, or if, you know, McGee's experience trumps his superior striking. All right. Anything else?

Let's see. I feel like, I think, I feel like on Wednesday, the one, knowing you and how you pick, I feel like on Wednesday you agree with everything, but Dosanos,

I feel like you're a Dosanos guy. I definitely am. We know this from the last of it. Rafael Dosangos is a very, very complete and capable fighter. If it's even money, which it's not right now, Ceroni is minus 165, dos angios is plus 145. Why do you call them Dosanjos?

Somebody actually tweeted during the show that that's the proper way to say it. Get out of here. So I'm rolling with that. Now, they could be completely wrong and making me look like a fool, but when you said the name, they tweeted, hey, Ariel, you're doing it wrong, bud. Now, is this a Brazilian fellow or is this some guy in that? Cincinnati.

I believe he's, I believe he's Brazilian because he was talking about the difference between Spanish and Portuguese and in the pronunciation of it. Oh, all right. How would we just call him Raphael? That's fine by me. As I was saying, Raphael, if it was even money, I'd definitely lean Soroni. More proven, a finisher, definitely a complete fighter. At this point in his career, he looks amazing.

So at even money, I would lean Soroni for sure. If that line creeps higher than plus 145, I might think about a play on Raphael. But right now, it's probably a no play for me between those two. What are you playing? Nothing. I can't. Well, I mean... My own money? Yeah.

Let's see. I would definitely play McGee. That's one. And then probably Perez at minus 1. 140, Mitsugaki plus 120. I like Perez in that fight. I think that's a decent line. So probably Perez.

And then there's some interesting undercard fights. Yeah. My friend Jason High is on the card. A minus 115 favorite over James Head. I like High in that fight. Oh, yeah, I'm sure you do. Yeah, he's the favorite. Good for him.

By the way, you know what I'm really looking forward to? I don't know if people will realize this. Brandon Thatch, Brandon Thatch, since losing his first fight, which was his second pro fight, he has won eight in a row. All of those eight wins in the first round. This guy, you need to YouTube,

Brandon Thatch, spitting fire, and he spins light sticks. They call it poey. He's incredible. Like, he gets hired at the parties to do this stuff. He's very talented, and I will actually have more. This is a tease. I'll have more on Brandon Thatch

on our pre-fight show. on Wednesday at 5 o'clock on Fox Sports 2. But anyway, I'm very excited for that fight. Brandon Thatch is going to be making his UFC debut against Justin Edwards. Yeah, I believe the last time Edwards fought, I picked against him, right? What was it, Josh Neer? Yeah, and then he got the big submission. An amazing submission.

So moving on to the next card. I mean, there's a few plays on that card, but in terms of your mom's picks, they all seem sound to me. But I would probably lean with McGee. and betting-wise probably a hop-a-el. Well, my mom just wants to say, it's very nice that you gave her your confirmation that everything is sound,

and she wishes you the best of luck. Oh, ditto. I love your mom. I'm glad. So 164. I also favor Pettus, but I think this is one of those fights where if the best Pettus and the best Benson show up,

I think Benson takes it. But we normally do not get that best Benson. We normally get a very, very good Benson, but one that is content to counterstrike. And against Anthony Pettis, that's going to be a mistake if that Benson shows up. But if he pushes the pace, uses his wrestling offensively, and puts Pettus on his back, where Pettis is absolutely no slouch. He's one of the best at continually going for submissions off his back. But if Benson puts him down and then also mixes in his striking, I think that it's his fight to lose.

but I can never count on that Benson showing up. So I think that I favor Pettus right now based on his activity level. I think it's going to be a very similar fight to the Gilbert Melendez fight, but the difference is that Pettus has a more diverse arsenal. And not only is it more diverse, but it looks better just because it's so flashy. It looks better in the judge's eyes. So I would favor Pettus at this point. But it's probably no play at the very close line that it's at.

It's Pettus is minus 105. Benson is minus 115. So with that line, who's the favorite? Benson. Because he's a little more? He's a little bigger of a number. He's minus 115. Okay.

But it's a slight favorite. It's practically even odds. Right, right, right. Barnett. She picked Barnett, right? She picked Mir. Oh, I like Barnett in that one. Okay.

Close fight. Minus 175 for Barnett, Mir, plus 155. I like Barnett. that I think that he's just a better overall grappler because of his wrestling and jujitsu. But as Mir has shown, if you go to the ground with him, it's oftentimes a mistake. Big Nag learned the hard way, who is an amazing, you know, one of the best jujitsu players in MMA history had his arm broken by Mir. So I like Barnett. I think if he keeps it standing, he has the advantage there.

If he uses his top control, he has the advantage there. And I think he can actually finish the fight as well. So I like Barnett there, for sure, over Mere. Mendez is a huge favorite. I don't see any reason to disagree with that. I think Chad is the second best fighter in that division. Better than your boy Frankie. I love Frankie, but I think Chad is the second best fighter in that division.

Chad beats Frankie. Yes. Wow. I'd love to see that fight. It would be a great fight, but I think that Chad would use his wrestling and his stand-up to batter Frankie a little bit. Wow. So I like Chad. You're all over Dustin Porier. And I would favor Dustin Porre who's an underdog to Eric.

Oh, wow. Yeah, he is. He's plus 110 and Coke is minus 150. Now, this is another case where if the best Eric Koch shows up, it's going to be a long night for Dustin because he's a stud, Eric Koch. but... What a great fight. It is... Man, Dustin's been in some great matchups lately.

Yeah. And this is no exception, and I really like this one. I don't know if I'd play Dustin because I think that's a really close fight, but as an underdog, he's somebody to look at for sure. And then I'm assuming you're...

Maybe not. What are you thinking? Brandon Vera or Ben Rothwell? I think that Vera... That's a tough one. Vera has enough to get it done, I think, at this point. But it's hard.

to put your money on a guy who, you know, is so up and down over the course of his career. But I would definitely favor Vera, I think. I think overall he's a better package than Ben Rothwa. But Ben Rothwell hasn't looked that bad lately. But I think Vera has enough to get it done over Rothwell. But I wouldn't play either one, betting-wise. It's very hard to predict their fights. And it's so bizarre that Brandon Vera is back at heavyweight.

I was watching an interview with him. done a couple weeks ago I think it was with Fight Now TV and he was talking about how he's cut everything out of his dye and he has the right kind of weight but I don't know I thought he was he was better served as a light heavyweight leaner maybe he'll get some of that power back some drive

it just seems to really trying to be finding himself and this could be one last ditch effort to stick around in the UFC so there you have it that's UFC 164 that's fight night 27 on Wednesday and it's a Big week. Mama knows. This is one we'll see. Good luck. Good luck to her. Good luck to you.

To me. Well, just, you know, if you're doing your own bets. Nothing official. Thank you. I appreciate that. Nothing sanctioned, of course. I did well on the last card, so thank you. Sure, well, who knows if you're actually doing it. And speaking of which, now we move along. And oh, let me just say that on Wednesday, the Facebook prelims are at 5 o'clock. Ben Alloway versus Zach Cummings and Roger Bowling versus Abel Trujillo. but also at the same time is the pre-fight show also on Fox Sports 2. So maybe do a little, I don't know, multitasking and have the Facebook fights on and watch us on Fox Sports 2. Then you got four fights on the prelims on Fox Sports 2 beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern James Head versus Jason High. Darren Elkins versus Hatsu Yoki, Brandon Thatch versus Justin Edwards, and Papi Abedi returning versus Dylan Andrews.

And then it is the main card fights beginning at 8 o'clock on Fox Sports 1. So that's on Wednesday. We told you about the main card fights. And then on, whoops, just click that of my thing. I just want to let you know about Saturday. Because I know people, you know, they rely on us to give them the information. There are three Facebook prelims on Saturday, 6.30 p.m. Eastern time. It all kicks off.

And then prelims are at 8 o'clock on Fox Sports 1. and then the main card, of course, Paperview, 10 o'clock, UFC 164, Benson versus Pettus. Okay, I think before the questions we have to address UFC fit, don't you think? Let's do it.

This is a moment that a lot of people have been waiting for. How long has this thing gone on for? A total of 12 weeks. 12 weeks. 12 weeks ago, we had Mike Dolce on this show, and we laid out the challenge because you failed the first challenge,

and then you feel the second challenge with the RPI and we're like, all right, well, maybe he's not really good at the actual picking of fights, but maybe something just physical. They doesn't really have to think about he can do. We're here to say that you have officially completed it.

What a great... Is that not true? What a great plug. Is that not true? At first, I have to confirm that you did it officially completed and then I'll have my other thoughts. Yes, it is over.

Congratulations. Friday, thank you. Friday was the last day I had any exercises to do. Saturday was the official last day where you're supposed to take measurements and pictures and all that stuff. Oh, yeah. You take your own measurements.

I didn't do any like, what's it called? Well, of course you did. Metric measurements. I did weight only. I wasn't like measuring my waist or anything like that. Okay, now before we get to the pictures, everyone wants to see the pictures. Scale 1 to 10, how hard was UFC fit alone? Let's just talk about UFC fit, you know, the DVDs, the workouts, all that stuff.

How hard was this? You had to do this for 12 weeks, six days a week, right? Yes, you get one rest day. It's hard to, like, qualify it in terms of hardness, but I'd say it's not hard in the sense that anybody can do this. It's hard. It's hard like anything is hard where you have to commit to it. If you don't fully commit to it, you're not going to do well. It takes a lot to do this kind of exercise every day.

Now, you know, the DVDs are 45 minutes. You know, sometimes you have to do two. One will be shorter than the other. But it's not about, there's time that's required to cook the meals. There's time that's required to, you know, get their DVDs ready, to play them, to do the cool-down exercises, to shower afterwards. So it's a commitment and it requires your full dedication. But if you're committed to it, doing it is not hard at all. They make it very easy for you.

They lay out everything you need to do, everything you need to eat. And at certain times, it's actually fun. So you enjoyed it? Absolutely. Was it harder than you thought it would be? I didn't really have any expectations going in, so I would say no. I didn't think it'd be super difficult or super easy. Because I hadn't done like any kind of, you know, P90X or any of those other exercise

things in the past. So I didn't really know what to expect. but as I said it's not hard they give you what you need to get your goals accomplished but you need to you need to dive in you need to put both your feet in now what was harder the workouts or the diet change initially it's the diet because I was craving all these things and you know I felt like I was I was limited by one I want to eat and now I find myself looking for those healthier choices If I have the choice between, you know, eating a candy bar or eating some cottage cheese, I'll choose the cottage cheese willfully. So at a certain point, you cross a threshold where you want to continue this healthy lifestyle because, you know, it feels good and because it's positively reinforced.

And it changes your mindset toward the food, particularly the food part. That exercise part, that part was more of a grind because I would also play basketball and then I'd exercise on top of it. So it started to like pile up in terms of wearing on me. But it was definitely effective. I definitely felt the exercises and got what I needed out of that in combination with the diet. So you say those cravings, you say initially, how long does that initial period last to the point where? Maybe two weeks. Okay.

And then you're kind of in a groove. Then you get to the point where you're choosing healthier options, but maybe not on your own volition. You're kind of just going, okay, this is my diet, this is what I need to do. And then I'd say maybe at the month and a half, two month mark, I started shifting into a mode where I willfully chose healthy alternatives and actually sought them out and implemented them into my diet. whereas, you know, it wasn't forced upon me at that point. I felt like this is something I want to do for myself. So this is a guy who, you know, would eat fried catfish and grape soda for breakfast. This is a guy who, after the show, would go to Wendy's and McDonald's and things of that nature.

True. You're saying now you're a completely different man. You're not going back to that old era. No, I'm not. That's it. That's it. Now, why? Why?

You like that guy? I like that guy, for sure. but I also like this. I like the way I feel now. So there's no reason to go backwards. There's no reason to decline. There's no reason to seek out unhealthy alternatives when I realize that the healthy ones

can taste just as good and can be better for me. There's really not a reason to go back to that. Well, Mazel tov. Thank you. That's a good thing. I mean, I feel like, you know, did we, let's be honest. I called you a schlub and things like that.

That was all kind of jokes. But you have made your life better. And have we not presented this, you know, some people saying, oh, you're so mean, you're always insulting. I mean, I'm just wondering, was this the period when you were going to thank us for changing your life? And when I say us, I mean, me, Mike Dolce, the people who put together, you have sick fit. I mean, everyone, the whole team behind this. So you had equal hand with Mike Dolce and putting it together? Well, it was somewhat of an intervention, you know.

We felt like something you need to be done, but we had to disguise it. First and foremost, thank you, Ariel, for bringing the team who put together USC fit and Mike Dolce into the fold. But let's give the most, the lion's share of the credit words due to Mike Dolce for developing his diet, for putting his time in to make these DVDs. Now, I saw, I was wondering at a certain point how long it took, and he, he told people on Twitter, he does Q&As on Twitter, so he told people on Twitter how long it took. And it was something like, you know, filming every day for two weeks to put together. The complete DVD set, like training like two times a day film sessions for two weeks or something like that, something crazy. And he's the one that I'm the most thankful to.

Sure. He deserves it. But, no, all jokes aside, you can tell, like, I think that you have become a better person to work with, even talking to your other employers. They told me the same thing. You've definitely, and I know you play a lot, but you've definitely become a better basketball player, right? I agree. You know, are you better at picking fights? You know, that's questionable.

But I think overall, like, you have transformed into a different person. I feel, I do feel better. I don't know about like a different person I feel like that's kind of like a cliche But I feel like a better version of myself And I'm much healthier for sure Now I haven't been to the doctor But I imagine my next checkup will be quite good

That's gonna be fascinating We should film that How much how many pounds did you lose? How much weight did you lose? As I said in the very beginning I didn't have a scale initially But if I had to guess I would say I was around 185

in that area of how much I weighed. And now? And now I'm at 155. 155. Okay, I feel like we've been stringing the people along. They want to see the before and after shots. You have your before pick. What are we doing?

Side by side here? It's a side by side. It's a side by side. We're not going to reveal. I would have liked to do that. No, that's too much ceremony. Let's just show it. All.

Let's see the before and after picks. I'm going to put on the TV. Wow. It is remarkable. The famous piece. pants. Yes, the famous pants that you wore. Now, where are you here, by the way?

In my bedroom. Oh, okay. It's remarkable on many levels because, first off, you, okay, we know this is not Photoshopped. So we know it's 100% real. This is a real person. You weren't a fat guy before, but you could tell looking at the after pick, just the definition, the pecks, stomach, the arms, all that stuff. It is, and perhaps most jarring is the face.

Yeah. I didn't realize. You had such a fat face before. It's unbelievable. Did you try to like, did you slump down? Did you play some tricks on us? No, I've seen like a lot of things online now about like how you can like fake those kind of pictures. I wanted to give the most accurate representation.

Let's throw that up on the full screen by the way, right? Yeah, let's put it up. The things I wanted to commit to when I was doing this was one, I wanted to go. as hard as I possibly could with this. I stuck to the diet as strictly as possible. I did the exercises with as much effort and energy as I could. And there was no faking in the pictures either. I wanted this to be as accurate a representation as it could be for USC fit.

Yeah. Why does it feel like your chest hair is almost... Like I have like the thinest, wispiest chest hair? No, but it almost looks better now. I don't know what to say to that. It's amazing. Like looking at... So, excuse me.

Honest question. Yeah. Do you feel like you're too skinny now? I definitely, when I look at the picture, like in person, when I look in the mirror, it doesn't look like that. But when I see the picture, I'm like, maybe I'm a little too skinny. But I think that I'm at a good point where, you know, the fat is almost completely gone. So bulking up will be the next move. I wonder what your body fat percentage is.

Yeah. I'd be curious. I want them to do one of those little things. The caliper. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So right now you don't know how much you weigh. I do.

Oh, you do? You do know it's 155. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So why didn't you weigh yourself before if you weighed yourself now? Well, I didn't have a scale then. Now I have the scale. Now you're all health conscious. Now what's going on, I guess, the right side of your belly button?

There seems to be a patch there. It's a, what did Michael Jackson have? Is it a Vidaligo or whatever? Oh, you have that? Yeah, I've got. I've had that patch since birth, that one right there. Now, it seems like you've been wearing a lot of tank tops. You have a bit of a tan there.

Is that accurate? Basketball. I play every day. Okay, okay. Well, you know, you're holding your head up higher. You seem to have more confidence. Your hair, I mean, it was nice if you not to get a haircut there just to add the effect than the before. But it is striking.

It is striking. And you think you'll stay this way. I know. Like, I've done a diet in the past, and I lost a lot of weight over the course of one summer. But I just did it in a way that wasn't as it didn't feel good. And it wasn't natural. But the way I did it this time, it changed my lifestyle more than saying like, oh, I went on a diet and lost X pounds. For me in the beginning, it was, and still to this point, it wasn't about how much weight I wanted to lose.

I didn't have any goals in mind. I didn't think I needed to lose any weight to begin with. I didn't have that as an objective. My objective was, let me do UFC fit and get as healthy as I could possibly be. and get, you know, get my life and my diet as clean as possible. And I feel like I accomplished that. And now I plan to continue it going forward. By the way, my mom says, congratulations.

She's a big health freak. So she is obviously very impressed by this change. Thank you. So my one thing is, man, I really thought I was going to have some abs by the end of this. But now I just, I got a. I mean, you kind of add. I got like the, like, the, like, kind of. That's fine.

You thought you were going to have like the hardcore? Oh, yeah. Oh, really? No, well, I didn't think I was going to have them. You wanted it, yeah. So the thing is when I said that you would do this, like, we kind of dangle the MMA beat card. That's something that you want the people want it, right?

The people definitely want it. The people want it. But I have to admit, it's obviously there. The proof is in the pudding. But I feel like you kind of didn't really hold up to your end of the bargain in the sense that you didn't monitor it. I mean, we've got a couple tweets here. You were sweating.

Who knows maybe you were dripping water on your face. We don't really know. So I feel like, I don't know, I have to think about it. I don't really. Cop out. No, not a cop out. But I don't know if it's, if it warrants the hot seat on the MMA beat. I have to think about it.

I mean, I feel like Ellis are over him a little bit. What do you mean? I mean, I was promised one thing. Yeah, but did you hold up to your end of the bargain? I mean, did you? do exactly what you said you were going to do, the videos, all that stuff. How do we know?

I mean, you could do a lot of things to lose that weight. How do we know that on a Wednesday night, when you were tired, you were actually really doing UFC fit? So what I was supposed to do was set up a security camera in my house, like a big brother house, and show you guys my 24-hour UFC fit experience, showing all the meals I'm eating.

That'd be nice, like Ed TV. Yeah. Remember that movie? here's the idea I had I mean obviously in front of us you were looking great and obviously we didn't see you

without a shirt but now here it is like I said proof in the pudding I feel like you are in peak physical condition right now I mean

I do feel like slim I feel like I could gain a little bit of muscle and I never was like very muscular I was always just kind of whatever

so I think that the next goal I have is to put on the muscle for sure but in terms of like my conditioning and things like that. Oh, yeah. I'm in great shape.

Well, I have the perfect idea to do that and to secure your spot on the MMA beat. The perfect idea is this. I feel like you are a great representative for the show. You're part of the show. You look great now. Here you are. You've been up here for 10 minutes

with your shirt off and those pants. And I think that while you haven't gone the traditional route in terms of securing your spot on the show, one of the most coveted seats in all of MMA media, People want to be there. I get calls. I get emails from all over the place. M.A. Media, they feel like they are validated once they're on the show.

You're not going that route. I mean, you're on the show. You're kind of like this intern guy, and you made some picks, and U.C. Fit, the rest is history. I kind of feel like, all right, we went this way. We went the journalism route. You can go the other route. And because you're such a great representative of the show, because you are in such great shape, that maybe an amateur fight of sorts is in your future. to show to the people that you really care about this sport, that you really want to put your neck out there and represent our sport on the grandest of stages

inside the cage, inside any kind of ring, octagon, whatever. The New York Rick trains with the best here in New York, the best available, the Hensel Graces, the Marcello Garcia's, the crew fill nurses, the best of the best that is available. And I will set this up that you will go out there and train with these guys for eight, nine, ten months, whenever you're ready, and have a fight.

And guess what? It's amateur. I've thought about this. It's amateur, so it will take place in your home state, New York State. It'll be a big event. Everyone will come out there. Win or lose.

You do this. You pull this through. You make it happen. Then you will have earned your spot on the MMA beat. What do you think? So, oh, God, I have no background in martial arts. other than being a fan of various martial arts and the sport of mixed martial arts.

So what you're essentially promising me is I get to train with the best of the best, you know, Phil Nurse, Hens O'Gracy, and then after I feel sufficiently confident that I can hold my own. We'll put together a camp. We'll make it happen. I haven't really reached out to these people.

I kind of thought of that about this. But I feel like they'll help me out and they'll help you out. And you'll make it happen. And you think about it, it'll be a huge deal. We could get like Casey or the guy who does the Ream documentaries, Eldar. We can have them follow you. We can make videos or even the great team here at SB Nation.

We'll make a real countdown of your MMA debut. We could talk about headgear, no headgear, whatever you want to wear, Rashgar, whatever. But, you know, you will. Now, this is a huge commitment. Oh, sure, sure. But we're not saying it's going to happen tomorrow. So this is a long-term thing. man

I feel I feel like I have to I have to go along with it because why would I pass on the opportunity to train with the best guys in the sport It's not fair to put you on the spot like this Take a week

Think about it And next week We'll give the people the answer Ask the people what you think You know maybe I'm being too harsh Quite frankly I think I'm being too easy You want to throw me in tomorrow

No, I just think that, you know, here you are saying, all right, I did a diet, I did some exercises for 12 weeks, I deserve to be alongside the great Luke Thomas, Mike Chippeta, Chuck Mindenhall. Now we're telling you, all right, you're going a different route. You prove your worth. You get inside that cage, that ring, that octagon, and you let us know what's what. Look, we're even getting, look, anticipation already building, we're even getting word from fight metrics saying that they're going to try to get some live scores for your debut. How about that? this. People are going to live score this. We're going to have a camera crew there. Oh, God. It's going to be huge. We'll call up our buddy Lou Neglia, have it on Atlantic City, maybe. Who knows? I'm warming up to it. I'm warming up to it. You don't have to give us the... Don't give us your answer to that. I'm not going to commit to anything, you know, obviously, but I am warming up to it, but somebody on Twitter makes a great point. Sure. I say, what's next? Do I only get the spot on the MMA beat after I make it to the

UFC? No, no. When have I fulfilled my obligation? I will say it now into the camera. You heard it here first. If you take that fight, win or lose, if you take that fight after training, as long as you want, within reason, of course, let's not go like two years here. As long as you want, within reason,

you take that fight, win or lose, get smoked, knocked out in 10 seconds, submitted in 5. You win in 2. You'll have a seat on the MMA beat. Until then, not quite sure if you deserve it. Oh, my God. Me and Alistair. Okay.

I will let you know. Ask the people, talk to your minions out there, your fans. Let people. Let me know on Twitter what you think about this idea. Let them know. Twitter.com slash New York Rick. You know, we're getting... One guy says only if you win.

Only if I... Oh, my God. New York Rick's going to have an artifact. I vote no to an MMA match. Maybe a fight-style specific match. My mother is saying poor guy Look, these people don't know how badly you want it Show them, tell them

With your actions, go out there and grab it First, I want an iPad also I don't know if I can afford that Kyle Marley is saying your old pal It's just an amateur fight, do it So you'll be fighting a scrub It'll be well worth it I'll even try to handpick your opponent

How about that? We'll get into that if I even decide to do it But let me know people Get on Twitter Let the people know New York Rick, do you want to see him have his amateur MMA debut? One night only, he'll never fight again. If he goes through with this, if he trains with the best, he feels mentally and physically ready, he'll get a C in the

MMA beat. Until then, there's no offer on the table. My God. But congratulations on this. Let's go to the questions. All right, let's go to the questions. Man, I got an adrenaline dump. I got to recover from that one. Why? Why are you dumped? Man, my adrenaline was riding high. Telling me he's going to be an Amateur fights and all this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, here we go. First question from the website about Anderson Silva. Anderson, please put a sock in it. It's titled. I can understand Anderson Silva not wanting to give Belford a rematch, but Silva being so adamant about not wanting to fight any Brazilian fighters is just absurd. You don't see American fighters or Canadian fighters or British fighters, etc., saying they won't fight any of their countrymen.

Jim Unity and Solidarity is one thing, but an entire country is nuts. Am I way off base with this line of thinking? I realize Brazil is a proud country, but come on. I mean, he's fought Brazilians in the past, ladies, Damien Maia. He's fought these guys in the past. Has he said, has he outright said that he refuses to fight them? I think when push comes to shove, he would take the fight. So, honestly, I feel like you're off base.

I really do. Has Anderson really come out lately and said 100% no matter what? If the UFC approached him, let's not forget, he didn't really want to fight Chris Wyman. And there are other fights he didn't want to take. He didn't want to have, you know, you don't want to have that rematch against Chelsunin. He did the fight, you know, he can be convinced, so I honestly think you're off-based, to be honest. Our next question is about Steve Mazzagati.

Oh, yeah. Having read Chuck Mindenhall's great article on Steve Mazzagasy, excuse me, sorry. Steve Mazzagati, I was wondering what your personal opinion is about him as a referee. I think the amount of heat he gets is totally unjustified and a prime example of how both MMA media and fans like to jump on the bad wagon if Dana White tells them to. You know, it is a very good point, but again, proof kind of in the pudding here. I mean, he does make mistakes. Some people, they posted this gif of him jumping out of nowhere, knocking someone over, I forget which fight. Well, yeah, I guess that's impressive to stop a fight that

way, but why weren't you closer to the action? I mean, I was cool with some of the things he said, but he also says, you know, all these weird things happened to me. I mean, all the refs are confronted with this. It happens all the time. It's a lot. It's. the way you handle it. It's the way you react. And I think we've seen enough Steve Mazagadi fights to know that he is not the best and that he probably isn't close to the best. Great article. I loved it. I loved it. If you haven't read it, Chuck Minnholl did a great article on Steve Mazagadi kind of being the most hated man in MMA. I don't know if that's accurate, but you get the point. I think to a degree people do jump on the bandwagon, so to speak, when Dana

says something. But in this case, I tend to agree with them. Our final question from the website. With Connor McGregor and the Korean zombie both injured, what do you think of a possible matchup between the two? P.S., big fan from New Zealand. Oh, thank you, sir. You know, I think it's a little early. A Korean zombie had shoulder surgery.

He had a broken orbital bone, so he had to have eye surgery. Of course, you found out last week, Connor McGregor with the knee injury, a lot more serious than originally thought. I think it's early. I think it would be a fun fight. One's coming off a loss, though. Once coming, obviously, off two straight wins. Um,

Kahnah McGregory has pissed off a lot of people, but if you notice in those videos and those Twitter callouts, Korean zombie is not a part of that. So maybe he likes the Korean zombie. Maybe he likes Chan Sang Jong. Uh, I, I feel though that, uh,

they'll go another route. One of those guys is going to want to call them out. Who knows what happens to you now and then? He's going to be out for around 10 or so months. So let's see what happens. But on paper, yes, it's a fun fight. I just think it's too early for those stars to align,

or at least to pretend. predict those stars aligning. Our first thing is from the web, from, excuse me, Twitter, but not a question. Our friend, USC face swap, noticed Lewis Gaudenose hat and said he looks like Akira Khorasani. He provided comparison for us. Holy moly, that's nuts. I asked them to do a face swap and send it in, but he did this. Wow.

And I see the resemblance for sure. It's incredible. It's uncanny. There it is. Same facial hair, except Akira's facial hair kind of comes up a little bit over the chin, as you can see. But overall, that's a great call. Yeah. No face swap needed.

Thank you, sir. Here's our first question. If Louis Gaudenow wins against Tim Elliott on Saturday, how close do you think he is to a title shot? I think he's pretty close. I mean, at this point, I'd love to see him fight Ian McCall. He has had some time off. I think it depends on how he wins. There are a few fights coming up.

There's that fight. John Linnaker versus Phil Harris. of course he beat John Linnaker in May of last year, but Linnaker has won a bunch in a row since then. And then there's the big Formiga versus Joseph Benavides fight coming up next Wednesday. So let's see what happens with all those fights. Demetrius has been rather active this year.

And over the last years, I mean, he fought twice. He had the injury. I don't think he's going to get another fight this year. So I don't know. Let's see what happens. I'm going to guess maybe one win away, and it depends on how he wins. If it's impressive, like the last one in May of last year, definitely one win away.

If not, maybe two wins away. But what's great about the flyweight division, as we saw with John Moraga, one win on the Facebook prelims, and you're in a title fight. So timing is a big key, but he is not far off at all. Our next question, what does a win for Guayito Perez do to him this Wednesday? Just like Connor, we Latinos are high on him. Yeah, are you as high on him as the Irish are about Connor? I don't know. I don't get that sense that pride.

And maybe that's because MMA is not as big in Mexico as it is in Ireland. But, you know, that would be four in a row in the UFC. If he does it in the first round, I mean, he continues his amazing streak. First round victories, that would be four in a row. That would be a record. And he currently holds the record in the Bantamoy Division, of course. I mean, that division needs new blood. You know, right now you have Faber and Michael McDonald up there,

but they've already lost to the champion Henan Brough, or the interim champion, Henan Brown, we're still kind of waiting on Dominic Cruz. So he is certainly new blood, and I think they'll try to time his title fight if he can get it with their debut in Mexico, which shouldn't be too far off, but it's definitely going to happen next year.

So I will guess one or two more victories away. Her next question, do you think the incredible one 64 main event is losing out on some buzz due to the number of events surrounding it. This one feel, I kind of feel like it sells itself and we'll see how much they'll promote it on Wednesday with the Fox Sports One show. Was it promoted on August 17th? I mean, I think there were some commercials, but maybe not. I mean, it was all about that one event with Chale. I've been looking forward to this fight for so long that I'm not in that mindset of buzz, no buzz, are they doing it right? I mean, to me, I feel like I've built it up in my mind and I've seen,

enough commercials that I think they're doing a good enough job. Talk to me next Wednesday, three straight UFCs in a span of seven days. Let's see what we're saying about Ryan Bader versus Glover, but obviously this is a bigger, it's a bigger fight, it's a bigger pay-per-view, all that stuff. It's a bigger event. But I, you know, I don't get that sense. There's a lot, and I think some fans will chill a little bit after the Bader Glover fight. They'll get a couple weeks off before Jones versus Gustafson. But I don't agree. I think this one's getting the buzz that it deserves,

or it's generating the buzz that it deserves. Our next question. Dana talked about how Bendo could carry pay-per-view, but he's put him on a stack card. Will it be a good measurement or not? Yeah, and this is a specific, special kind of Bendo fight. This is a rematch. This one sells itself.

It's very different. It would have been a better measurement if he was fighting T.J. Grant on pay-per-view. you know, in the main event. Then, okay, then we would have really known, okay, after two, a Fox shows how much is Bendo really worth as a pay-per-view draw.

Now, I mean, it's a whole different deal. Pettis is a very exciting fighter. He's a good draw. You have the rematch. The commercials are great, all that stuff. So it's not quite the same kind of measurement as we saw with the potential T.J. Grant fight. But it will certainly tell an interesting tale.

And, again, there are a lot of free fights is what we were talking about on the MAB. There are a lot of free fights are people skipping pay-per-views. This is not one that you skip. I could see them skipping some of the other ones from this summer. This is not one you skip.

It's a title fight. It's a massive rematch. And the first fight was so good. You can't miss the second. I think I know what you're going to say to this one. Oh. Any upcoming fight you're more excited for than Bendo versus Pettus 2.

The first one was amazing. Well, I guess it depends what time frame we'll be speaking about here. but if we're going to talk about 2013, it has to be Wydenman versus Silva. Is that what you were guessing? I was actually going to guess you were going to say Bendo versus Pettus. Oh, wait.

More excited. Oh, I thought he meant like aside from Ben-Ben. No. Oh, is that the one? Any up? Oh, yeah. I mean, yes. Okay, I'll put it this way.

To me, there are three massive fights coming up for the end of 2013. This one, Hendricks-GSP, Wydenman versus Silva. I'll probably put it as Wyden & Silva 2, Benson, Pettis, like 1A, but really kind of, very cool,

you know what I'm saying, it's right there with Anderson versus Wyman, and you know how I feel about that one, and then GSP Hendrix, and below that, probably Jones Gustafson, of course there's Kane

versus JDS, Misha versus Rhonda, there's a great stretch coming up. Chandler Alvarez. Chandler Alvarez, Tito Rampage. But, yeah, I mean,

I cannot tell you. you, I'll never forget being there. And I was in, back then, I was actually on the desk for versus the post-fight show. And it was, uh, it was me and Molly Karam. And we were on right after the kick. And I just, I couldn't, I couldn't put into words what I just saw. Go back and listen to how Stefan Bonner called it. It was so, it was so authentic and real.

And it was just what we were all thinking. It was such a great fight. And people forget, as Duke Rufus said, tied to two, two going into the fifth. In my opinion, it was tied. Two minutes to two minutes going into the fifth minute of the fifth round of the final WC fight, pulls off that kick. I can't tell you how excited I am. You mentioned the call, and I often forget that that is so crucial to, like,

when you see the highlights played back. Yeah. Stefan Bonner was absolutely amazing on that call. It was amazing. And I miss Stefan Bonner on the call. It added to the moment so much. Kind of like the, you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of Mike Breen's call on Tracy McGrady.

dunking over Sean Bradley in the playoffs. Oh, yeah. Man. When the call is good, it just adds so much to highlight. And that highlight was, if you turn the sound off and you just watch the, you know, the video or have a GIF of Pettus doing that kick, it's incredible. And then you add the excitement and just, you know, the commentary to it. It's incredible. It was very real.

It was so good. Next question. Does Chad Mendez get another title shot with another big win on Saturday? That would make it four in a row. I was talking to someone about this. I don't know because the first fight against Aldo was so decisive. Yes, Aldo held onto the cage, and there's that controversy, but that knockout in the first round. And let's be honest, the three wins up to that point weren't exactly.

I mean, the Darren Elkins win was great, and it was killer. I mean, to finish him that quickly was very impressive. But the other two weren't, you know, top-level competition and not necessarily his fault. he had a lot of injuries and pullouts and things like that. But first off, Aldo's going to be out for a bit. There's Lamas out there. Swanson, he had a loss, and it was back in WC. It wasn't for a title.

So I tend to give him the nod. I think at the end of the day, regardless of what's going on here, I really think Lamas needs to get that title shot. He was promised it twice in the past. He's done enough. Top 10 competition, four in a row. He needs to get it. And then I'd love to see Mendez fight either Frankie Edgar or Cubs Swanson.

I like that. Yeah. But I definitely feel like Lomas has earned it. Yeah, he has to get the shot. But as I said earlier, I think Chad Mendez is the second best featherweight. I think he just needs a couple more top 10 wins. After getting a title shot and losing in the first round, you need to do more. Because you need to have people wanting to spend money or spend their time watching this fight.

and I don't know if you can get there just yet. Well, I mean, that's not necessarily Chad. I mean, you're saying you have to build up and have people, you know, rallying to see you fight. Aldo, right? That was your point? Well, it's not like Lamas has this, you know, huge support behind him that is pushing him to the title shot anymore so than Chad Mendez. But here's the thing. We just saw Mendez getting knocked out by Aldo.

Oh, definitely don't disagree with that point. But in terms of like, you know, the support in terms of like pushing him as the guy, I don't feel like he's that far behind Lamas, if at all. Yeah, but at some point you've got to do what's right. Sure. And as I said, he deserves it. Lamas. Yeah.

Next question. Will ESPN start snubbing the UFC now that they are on Fox Sports 1? You know, ESPN has a history of not really giving sports that they are in bed with the coverage that they deserve. But, I mean, honestly, I have a hard time watching ESPN. And I'm not saying this because I'm a Fox employee and all that stuff. I just find there's so much football talk. And I used to love football. And I feel like ESPN has really diminished my interest in football.

It's really, it's too much. It's too much football. And I just want to highlight. I just want to see scores and plays. And I don't want to see you guys talking about football all day. And that's what I really feel like ESPN has become. Now, that being said, they don't really cover UFC slash MMMA all that much. And I say this on a day where Rampage and Tito.

excuse me, are in Bristol, Connecticut right now, promoting their Beltor show, their pay-per-view, and that's a big deal for Beltor. Will they snub them? I mean, I see this as no different when, you know, the UFC signed their deal with Fox. This is just kind of an extension of that a couple of years ago. It was actually two years from now.

And they've given the UFC time. You know, Dana's been on. They've had guys come on the car watch. So I honestly, I don't really see it changing all that much. Our next question, what did you think of the Fox Sports one low-down cameras? Different look and feel. I thought it was great. Good angles for ground game.

Someone quoting the Stefan Bonner call, he ran up a wall like a ninja. That's what he said. It was great. I loved it. And they were lucky that the angles, the cameras were positioned in the appropriate spots where you really got a sense for what was going on. But I didn't necessarily love. Now, this is going to get a little too inside baseball, too technical.

but that look was like 24p, 24 frames per second. And it has a film look to it. And I felt that it was somewhat jarring to go from the normal broadcast look to the film look. It felt like it was a replay, like it was like NFL films. I wish they would go to that look or that angle, that shot, and just have the same broadcast look. That's my only complaint. Otherwise, it's brilliant.

And kudos on Spike. They were doing it with Belator. And I thought this was better. And they had tested it out before, and they've done it before. But this seemed like it was better. It was more on point. I just don't like the switch of the feel of the shot. That's my only complaint.

I'm on the other side. You like that. I like that the look from the camera was a little different. I feel like it highlights this is something. We're doing this for a specific purpose. this, we want you to pay attention to this. So I kind of, I definitely, the first time it happened, I was with you. It took me out of it and I was like, whoa, what just happened?

Because I wasn't expecting it. But now that I knew, going forward, I knew that that camera was there. And I liked that they were saying, here, look, this is something we want you to focus on. And we're going to show it from this perspective with this frame rate. And I thought it looked spectacular. To me, it's not usually done. It's a very rare thing to see that. I've never really seen that in sports

unless it's a replay, not for live television. So maybe I'll get used to it. We'll see this week, but that was my initial reaction. I like the angle. Don't like the feel of the shot. Our next question. In your opinion, who are the top three to five pound-for-pound fighters not in the UFC?

In my opinion, Mike Chandler is a new-brainer. Mike Chandler comes to mind. Pat Curran comes to mind. Ben Ascran comes to mind. I mean, all those guys are Belt-Tor champions. I wonder if there's anyone outside of Belator? Shinyeoki, possibly? I guess we're talking about just pound for pound outside of the UFC.

I guess, although I've never been high on, on, I never been a big Shinyaoki guy. I've never been on that bandwagon. There's Kawajiri out there as well. We're talking about the Japanese scene. I feel like I'm missing someone. I'm missing someone that's an obvious one. Someone just tweeted me a picture. You know, there's that

called Pendred. Of course, there's Paul Daly out there who one could say is certainly deserving of a UFC shot. It's all those invicta fighters, but it's kind of a different kind of question because those weight classes aren't in the UFC. Those come to mind. Any heavyweights that are not in the UFC?

Not really. So I guess that's pretty much five right there. So those names come to mind. Oh, maybe King Mo. Yeah. Some of those other guys from Belichael. as well. The Belvoir guys.

You know, there's the Marlon Moraises of the world. But Berkman certainly has proven a lot over at World Series of fighting. Yeah, so that's pretty much it. Next question. I know it's early, but do you think the UFC will offer Asker in a shorter deal to try and minimize the effect of matching? I don't really see how that matters. They could just match the deal. less money, so it might be easier for them.

I think the UFC's going to offer them a deal. Not so much because they love Ben Ascran, because they're big Ben Ascran fans. I think they're just trying to take talent away from Bellator. I mean, let's not forget Dana White, not only did he have that tweet where he said, you know, he would rather watch flies go at it. He also, in a famous video blog,

kind of joked about, you got this guy with an Afro before one of our fights. I mean, clearly Ben Ascran, you know, hasn't been a, you know, a prize-free agent for him. But I think they, you know, they kind of relish that opportunity. And I'm disappointed to hear Bjorn say what he said about Ben. I agree with Duke, and Duke's obviously biased. That's his guy.

But I don't think you should try to diminish. All of a sudden, you now think that, you know, Ben is not everyone's cup of tea. But for the last two years, you've been telling us how Ben's dominant, he's one of the best, he's top five, top three, all this stuff. He could beat anyone. And now he's not everyone's cup of tea. that to me is somewhat dishonest. And yes, promoters are like that,

but just to be honest with us. Say, we're not going to match it. Don't put the guy down on his way out, in my opinion. And this happens all the time. I'm not trying to pour it on Bjorn, but it just, it came off very dishonest. And all of a sudden, you know, he's a free agent, and you might match, you might not.

Kind of said the same thing about Eddie. Oh, we want to see him fight the best at 155. I want to see Eddie versus Benson. and then they did match it. So who knows what's really going on? But to answer this specific question, I don't think they'll try to offer them a shorter deal so they won't match.

I think they're just going to offer them X amount of money, not as much as Eddie, not as much as Hector, and see where it goes. I don't know if... I'm not sure about the benefits of the shorter deal in terms of matching myself. But I imagine, like, if you offer the shorter deal, they may not match...

they may not match because they want to lock him into something long-term. They don't want them to flee later. Or from the UFC's perspective, they don't want to be locked into him for long-term. But I'm not sure about what the effects of the shorter deal are either. I can see him going, quite frankly, I want to see him go. Do I want to see fights Ben Ascreen versus these guys who he's outstriking 20 to 20-203? I don't want to see that. I want to see how he does against the Ellenburgers and the campmans and the condits and eventually the Hendrix's and the GSPs.

I want to see that. I think at this point, it benefits everyone. And by the way, some people saying Mamid Khalidav, Bibiano Fernandez, and UFC face swap, did a face swap of Gaudenow and Akira, and it's pretty damn amazing. Let me see if I can find that while you're answering this. Okay. With Wentelho, winning his last four or five and dropping to 205, don't you think? think he's primed for a UFC. He's primed for the UFC in an unstacked division. Yeah, I think he needs a couple more wins there. I mean, he had his UFC run again and didn't

really work out. I don't see them going that route. Let's not forget. I mean, we see this all the time. Guys go out there and, you know, they'll win a few fights in a row against lesser competition. They get to the UFC and it just doesn't pan out. I don't think the UFC, well, well, a nice win. He looks good at 205. I don't foresee the UFC just jumping in there and and giving him another chance now. I just, they're signing a lot of guys. They're, you know, they're cutting all over the place. Yes, that division is weak, but I just don't see it happening.

There it is. No? Save it for the end. Okay. Our next question. At what point does playing it safe hurt your job? Exciting losers seem more profitable than boring winners. 100%.

Exciting losers will always have a place in the UFC. To a degree, look at Dan Hardy, lost four in a row, still stuck around. You get a, you know, look at someone like Nick Lentz was released, but then later brought back. You don't want to stick up the joint. You don't want to put on a lemon out there. It is better to have a fight of the night in a loss than a very boring win as far as I'm concerned. You're not going to get cut after the loss. You're not going to get cut after the win.

But if you lose the next time and it's not that exciting, you're going to get cut. Look at someone like a Gerald Harris. Perfect example. It was what? Three in one in the UFC when he came back after. you know, his run on the regional scene after tough got cut. So yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's one of those rare things in our sport

where sometimes it is better to have an exciting loss than a boring win. Our next question, what would make you scream, holy shit, Tate arm barring Rhonda, Gustafson embarrassing Jones for 25 minutes, or Bendo pulling off the Showtime kick? Wow. I mean, I'll cross off Gustafson,

embarrassing Jones, because I don't think I'll say, holy shit for 25 straight minutes. Tade, armbarring Ronda. We've seen her submit, you know, people like Marlos Kunin, so I'll cross that one off. But if Bendo actually pulls it off and nails it,

that's a moment. I mean, even if Anthony pulls it off and nails it, I'll scream that. If Ben pulls it off and nails it in the rematch in Milwaukee, I'll probably say that in a whole lot more. I think that's definitely the right answer. The other thing seem to be in the flow of the fight.

Yeah, an arm bar is in the flow of the fight, fighting a technical fight for 25 minutes and beating guys in the flow of the fight. Pulling off, showtime kicks is unheard of. Now, if it's a flying arm bar, maybe, but no, no, your regular arm bar, not really. Hmm. Oh, we're skipping that one? Yeah. All right.

I think we addressed that. Sure. Now, we had two submissions for people playing dress-up today. Oh, yeah. I like dress-up. We had Ash at a girly MMA. Catfish Ash. Playing the role of New York Rick today.

Red headphones blue shirt. Menacing Stair. This is her interpretation of New York, Rick. Now who's, oh, okay, scroll up for a second. She said, I thought it was Sini, but it's Shawnee. Shawnee. So Shawnee's supposed to, so now she's throwing. He's supposed to reply with his look.

He's looking, oh, he's supposed to be dressing. Okay, now let's go back. I was trying to digest it. Go back to the pick. So she's wearing the red headphones like yours. I don't remember you having a, a nose ring. True.

But close enough. Yeah. So I wonder which creep out there paid a girl to dress up like this. It's probably like, what? What am I doing this for, right? Man, you love that catfishing. I was watching yesterday.

Great show. All right, well, what did Sean say? Oh, we've got a response from Sean. Our best friend, Sean Chan. Now, look at the bottle. This is, the key is in the details. He's just, he's incredible. The attention to these.

Now we don't, I wish I had Beats by Dre headphones, but I don't have that. But man, he even is starting to develop the hair like me, the facial hair like me. He's got the plaid. I'm telling you, if you're not following this man on Twitter or Instagram, you're missing out on incredible action. That's your shirt, isn't it? Like, did he take that from you? Not quite, but it's very close to a shirt I have. But yes, last week I was drinking that yellow stuff to make himself feel better.

And actually, after last week's show, I completely blew out my voice. I had no voice. If you saw UFC tonight, I was actually yelling, and I still had a horrendous voice, and it was lingering on the M-A beat. But this is very nice. It's nice to know that people dress up as us. That's kind of flatter. Now, Sean is not a catfish.

The other one, I'm not sure of. Well, how do you know that? Like, what is the- Oh, trust me, I know. Oh, God. Here we go. This is our face-op from you. How did he do it?

How does he do it? It looks so good. From UFC face-swap. It's unbelievable. It's funny seeing Lewis with that kind of... Wow. Now, without the fedora and stuff, you do see that they have very different facial structures.

I wouldn't confuse either guy for the either. I'm a little puffier. I love these face swaps. It's unbelievable. How does he do it? Now, does he change the ears, too, or just the actual face? I feel like it's just a face transplanted. That definitely looks like Akira's head and ears.

Well done, my friend. And he did it at 428, so, like, in two minutes. He must have some kind of formula to do this. Photoshopping expert. That's it. That's it. All right, guys. Well, once again, congratulations on passing UFC fit is certainly, and I don't want my new challenge to diminish what you've accomplished.

But I just think it's really something that needs to be done. So congrats, I know it must be fun. Did you have a big meal, by the way? Are you going to go nuts? No, not going to happen. Stick into the diet. Mike Dolce, thank you. Shout out.

Shout out Mike Dolce at the Dolce Diet. Alfred, you get my music? Is it Alfred? Is it Will? I don't know. Who did hit my music? I want to know for sure. It was Alfred.

Well done. It was great. Did a great job. Great show, guys. We are off to Indianapolis. Tomorrow morning, I have a flight at 6 a.m. 6 a.m. Do you understand how crazy that is?

6 a.m. flight. That means I have to wake up at like 3.30, leave at like 4 something. With a young child, I'm just going to go to sleep when he goes to sleep tonight. 6 o'clock, I'm done. I'm going to bed. So 6 a.m. Then I'm off to the Wands on Fox Sports 2. Don't you forget it. And then Wednesday we have the UFC Fight Night, number 27.

And then it's off to Milwaukee, two events. By the time I come back here, I'll have covered two UFC events. How about that? UFC 164 this weekend, looking forward to it. I want to thank Mr. Lewis Godineau and his new hairstyle for stopping by. Good luck to him as he returns to action against Tim Elliott. Donald Soroni, Rapid Fire, Soroni. At first I felt like he didn't really want to be.

there, but then I want him over, and I really want him over with that boating question at the end. I can feel it. Good luck to him as he faces Hafeld dos años on Saturday night. No, Wednesday. Excuse me. Got a weird text while I was saying that. Anthony Pettis is facing Benson Henderson on Saturday and his coach, Duke Rufus. We screwed him up with the time, but I want to thank him and good luck to him. Wish him the best of luck as they prepare for their big title rematch.

the rematch that has been three years in the making, my friends. I can't wait going down this weekend in Milwaukee. Eric Perez, thank you so much, El Guayito. Josh Barnett, good luck to you in your return to the UFC. Stefan Struve, our best to you. Wish you nothing but the best in Vitor Belfort. What can we say about our friend? Thank you so much for sobby.

Thank you to all of you for talking by. We'll see you next week. Peace. Some out of here. 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 Odoo.

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