MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour - Episode 200

Episode Date: August 25, 2014

Featuring Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, Chris Weidman, Conor McGregror, Urijah Faber, Dan Hardy, Greg Jackson, and John McCarthy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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On this Monday, September 23rd, 2013, a happy 200th episode to all of you. I say it's to all of you because it has always been about all of you. We've always tried to make this show as great as it can be every single week. And honestly, I try, as I've said on this show before, I try to book the show every week like it is some kind of anniversary show. But for this one, 200, I felt like I had to step it up a notch. And honestly, it was eating at me for months and weeks and days leading up to the show. How am I going to make this show special?

How am I going to get the biggest names in the world of mixed martial arts to stop by in the span of three to four hours and talk to all of you about what's going on in their lives? And I think I may have done it, my friends. I'm so excited to announce today's guest list. You know it probably by now. If you don't, sit back, relax, strap on your seatbelt. I guarantee, as far as the MMA hour is concerned, you have never been on a ride like this before. In the back, we are being joined by New York Rick.

You'll hear from him later on. Buscoe Brendan in the house, Alfred's in the house, Will's in the house. Everyone is in the house. Everyone is dressed up very nicely. They're wearing tuxitos back there. I don't know if you know this. I thought, you know, I'm going to be talking for a long time. I need to dress down a bit.

but they're wearing tuxedos. That's how big this show is, my friends. And let me ask you, coincidence or did the MMA gods smile down on us when they put, in my opinion, the greatest fight in UFC history just two days ago? At the ACC in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, let's not forget, UFC 165, less than 48 hours ago, Alexander Gustafson, John Jones, put on, in my opinion, the greatest fight, not just in UFC history, not just in UFC light heavyweight title history, in the history of this sport.

I am still on a high thinking about that fight. I cannot believe what we witnessed. It was, in my opinion, theater at its finest as far as MMA. Sports are concerned, the heart that we saw. It was great stuff, and I can't wait to talk about it with all of you here today. Okay, let's run down the guest list, and then let's get right to it. In the fourth hour, we're going to be taking your questions and comments. Hit us up using the hashtag the MMA hour, and we want to give back.

Like I said, to the fans, up for grabs, good friends at Topps, UFC Finest, 2013 training cards, Ronda Rousey, George St. Pierre. They're on the box. We're giving out one of these to our fans. Okay, so hit us up using the hashtag DMMA hour. Leave a question in the comment section below. 3.50 p.m. Eastern Time just added referee, big John McCarthy. He had the best seat in the house on Saturday night.

He was in the cage with John, with Alexander. We'll talk to him, particularly about what happened. between rounds four and five and what he said to the commission doctor. 340, Greg Jackson, trainer for John Jones. We talked to him about not being in John's corner on Saturday night. We'll hear from him. Then at 3.30, we're going to be joined by George St. Pierre, making his first appearance in the history of the MMA hour,

George St. Pierre stopping by talking about UFC 167. How about at 305? We're going to be talking to Anderson the Spider-Silva, making another appearance on the show, getting ready for his big fight against Chris Wyden, the UFC 168, can't wait to hear from the spider. Stone Cold, Steve Austin,

he'll be stopping by at 2.45 p.m. Eastern time, a huge mixed martial arts fan will talk to Stone Cold. 225 p.m. Eastern. Connor, the notorious one, the pride of Ireland. He'll be stopping by talking about his ACL surgery and the road back to the UFC. Chris Wyman just mentioned him.

He'll be talking to us at 205 as he's in Los Angeles for that big UFC World Press. tour 145, one of our favorites. The Outlaw, Dan Hardy. What's going on with him? Will he fight again? We'll hear from The Outlaw at 145. And then the bad guy. He finally decides to grace us with his presence again, Chale Sun and stopping by, Chale P in the house at 125. But I had to do something special for our first guest. And so I went to our first guest. The first guest in the history of this show when it was known as Fight House Radio was that man. The California kid. Uriah Faber, and now he joins us again on episode 200.

Uriah, how are you? Doing good. What's up, dude? I'm doing great. And I'm very happy that you're joining us first, kicking things off. And before we get into it, let's just go back in the time machine. Let's just play that clip when you first joined us. In your bed, following the Mike Brown fight, the second Mike Brown fight, you were very tired, a little banged up, but you graced us with your presence, even though you didn't even know who we were.

You didn't know that one day I would become your favorite MMA journalist. the guy you love to talk to, but you did it anyway, and I appreciate it. Let's hear a couple seconds from that. Let's go to it back in June of 2009. Mr. Faber, how are you? Pretty good. How are you? All right. Well, welcome. We're coming at you live here from the premiere edition of Fight House Radio. We've got Ariel Hawani in studio here in New York. I'm being joined by Mike Rubens and MDS, Michael David Smith, in Chicago. And I appreciate you waking up early for us here. It must be tough when you're on this sort of mini vacation over in California.

I believe it's like 9 o'clock in the morning, so thank you very much. Hey, my pleasure. This is the first show, huh? This is the first one, man. We wanted to come out with the big guns. Ha, ha, I appreciate it. Thanks, guys. Well, let's talk about those guns of yours.

That's a good segue. That's why they pay me the big bucks. You obviously injured your right hand in your, like I just said, an epic five-round title. So there you have it. Even back then, Your Eye, I was talking about your physique, the big guns. You know what to look for. You got good taste in arms. I guess.

Do you even remember that interview? I do, just because I listened to it again. I was pretty much asleep for that interview. But it was a great interview. I think I said right at the end of it, I said, good job, guys, great interview. Well, I appreciate that. In all honesty, I felt like it could use a little more aerial Hawaiiania. You could have been the cowbell for that first episode a little bit more.

Well, thank you very much. And it's enough looking to the past. Let's look to the future. Back then, I was talking very quickly. might be talking quickly today because I'm so excited, but I think I've calmed down a little bit and gotten a little better, but you're the same old your eye. Did you cut your hair, by the way? I cut it a little bit. I was doing a little part in a movie. I filmed it like months prior, and so I had to cut it back to exactly where it was. Just a really little part. Nothing to really

talk about here. I know you're going to ask them what you're going to ask you. I am going to ask you, what movie and when's it coming out and who's in it? It's actually called Reach Me And we did a campaign on Kickstarter Which is pretty awesome And Sylvester Salone And a whole bunch of really, really good actors are in it So check out Reach Me on

On Kickstarter.com You can see like everyone involved There's some serious acting talent Myself, not the serious acting. Do you play yourself? What's that? Do you play yourself? No, do you play with yourself?

No, no, no, do you play yourself? I don't know what you're talking. I don't want to celebrate with you. I don't think like, thanks anyways. When's it coming out? Probably early next year. Okay. Well, I'll look out for that.

Let's talk about Saturday night. I want to ask all my guests the same question. You watched the main event, right? Yes. Who'd you scored for? You know what? It's hard to say because if I were to judge it by how the judges are supposed to judge it

I would have to say Gustavusson because I think he won the first three rounds but the one thing I always give a lot of credit to is the latter rounds and the latter rounds we saw Johnny Bones Jones you know bring out the champion heart and show some some resiliency and have to come out

of some adversity and he was landing some nasty kicks, elbows and like some more damaging blows even though there are less of them so but then you see Bones' face and he's all jacked up after the fight, and Gustafsson, not so much. So it was a really, really hard one to call. I would have said on the judge's cards, I thought it should have been Gustafin, but at the

end of the fight, I feel like Bones would have wanted a fight to the death. One of the greatest fights you've ever seen? It was, man, for a couple different reasons. I didn't think about that until you just said it because I was actually doing an appearance in Dallas, and I couldn't really listen to the commentary, and I was like, you know, signed autographs and stuff like that, so I don't get to enjoy it as much. But it was just kept on pulling my attention, and everyone in the bar was super into the fight. And the thing is, it was one of the greatest fighters of all times having an amazing fight against

another guy who could possibly be in the same boat because they're both 26. So I feel like that's a fight we're going to see a couple different times, maybe a trilogy, maybe more. So I'm excited for the future that matchup. I'm sure you were watching the co-main event very closely. Eddie Weinlin, man, you fought, Henna Brown, man you fought. Brown with a great finish. Do you agree with Wineland that it was an early stoppage? You know, I always tend to say, look, I didn't, first off, I didn't know he said it was an early stoppage.

I would love in a title fight for the world championship against two guys that are fighting for everything they've ever dreamed of and, and, and, and, and, you know, made goals for and everything else to let them have the benefit of the doubt in those situations, you know? It was a, it was a clean shot that caught him on the chin with the spinning back kick and then he followed up with some punches. But like, this is a world championship fight. It's not like you get these every day unless you're me, right, Ariel? Sure. And so, like, let the guy have his final hurrah and fight to the finish.

Well, right now, Hannah Brow is still the interesting. champion. Next month, Dominic Cruz will not have fought for two years. Two years. Last time you fought was October of 2011. Do you think it's crazy that he's still the interim champ? I don't know, because he's only fought a couple times himself. It's hard.

Before I was saying, you know, I don't know if it makes sense to strip Dominant Cruz because everybody's going to want to see him fight the best guys. But at this point, I'm going to fight a couple of guys. that he hasn't fought that I think have a good chance of beating him. You know, the last guy I fought is a very well-rounded guy who's tough on the ground, who's tough, you know, standing. And I feel like Dominic hasn't fought him yet. He hasn't fight Michael McDonald yet.

I will have fought a couple of guys that would have been title shots for Dominic Cruz. So I can kind of see a case to make him, you know, maybe, I don't know if you strip them, but at least make them, you know, bring the conversation up. Who, in your opinion, is the best bantamate right now? You know, I got to always go with myself on this one. I like it. And I think, in my mind, I feel like I'm the guy that has tools to give anybody trouble in the division. But right now, I was legitimately beat by Hanan Boreau,

so Berao is the guy that is for sure. the champion right now. I feel like he's been doing things that other guys haven't. He finished Eddie Warland impressively. He beat me not like, I mean, it was a decision, but he also injured me in the process, which is, you know, it broke my rib. He's getting an incredible win streak. So right now, Barow is the man. Dominic, he's the man also. He's, I don't know, it's hard to say, to be honest. We've got to let everybody fight. That's the problem. That is the problem. And hopefully Dominic comes back sooner rather than later. Now, I want to get to your next fight in a second.

Of course, you're fighting Michael McDonald in Sacramento on December 14th. But there were talks, and UFC President Dana White has addressed this since then, that you were in the discussion to coach opposite Frankie Edgar on the next season of the ultimate fighter. They couldn't come to terms. What exactly happened? Why is BJ Penn coaching opposite Frankie and not you? You know, I can only say what was told to me, and that is that, Frankie didn't want to come down to 135s.

I don't know if you didn't want to come down to 35s just the one time. I think he was okay with that. But Dana was going to make him stay down at 135s if he came down. And same thing for me. If I went up to 45s, they're going to make me stay up at 45s. And they didn't want to do a catchweight because they're not into that. It doesn't lead to a title. And so I said I would go up to 45s.

I'm not sure if Frankie said that he would come down to 35s or not. but it might have happened that Dana got a call from BJ and BJ was like, I want to come back just scrap, he lobe, like wherever, and they're just push everyone aside and made that happen because that's a big fight

also. I mean, it's happened twice, but who doesn't want to see BJ Penn come back in the mix, especially at a new weight? I mean, I'm a huge BJ Penn fan, so you know, that's a good one for ratings. Are you disappointed you didn't get the chance, though, to be on the show to fight Frankie? That's a fight.

that has been talked about for a while, and you guys kind of teased us with that picture. You apparently even had a tweet ready, Tupac Biggie, East Coast, West Coast. So it sounds to me like you were into the idea. I was really, really excited about the idea. I'm not going to lie about that. I'm about these super fights, you know. In my opinion, some of the guys I've been fighting that no one really knows are just as dangerous as these guys that have names.

And I don't know what's the determining factor in that, but I'm like, you know, I want big fights. I want the fights that people care about with the champions being out. I haven't had that opportunity. And this is a sport that I want to look back at and be like, oh, you know, I did this, I did that, I did this. And fighting a guy like Frankie Eager, who's, in my opinion, a legendary fighter, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of all times, is something that I would love to do. So, you know, I was a little disappointed.

But I got my hands full man, young gun. Michael McDonald, I've seen him since he was a kid, and it's in my hometown. It has title contender written all over it, and I'm excited about that too. One more thing about Tuft before we get to Michael. Why didn't they do you versus BJ? I mean, that's a fight we haven't seen. BJ wants to go down. Is it because you don't want to go to 145, or did they not even bring it up? I don't know. I think the UFC really likes Frankie. I mean, the guy has put so much into the sport, and he's not one of those guys that really anybody knows his personality too well, I don't think. So I feel like it's an opportunity for him to be a coach. I think it's something that is something that BJ and I have done before.

And I don't know. It was never in the discussion. I don't really know if I'd want to fight BJ. I mean, that would be a cool fight, but I really like BJ. You know, BJ is my buddy, and, I mean, it doesn't really – it's not the fight that really I'm screaming for. I think a lot of people But it wasn't offered to me, that's for sure. All right.

So then you did get Michael McDonald. You mentioned that, you know, you guys are from Northern California, same kind of stomping grounds. You're obviously a little older than he is. When did you first hear about this kid? And did you think that he might cross your path? At some point, I spoke to him actually on Friday in Toronto, and he said that you were one of those guys.

When he was coming up, you know, you were obviously at the top of the mountain. And, you know, when you're at the bottom of the mountain, and you're not really thinking about, oh, I'm going to fight this guy next, but you were certainly in his thoughts. Was it the same with you when you first saw him? Did you think this kid had what it took to really get to the point where you were at? You know, I knew Michael McDonnell because of his brother. Joseph Benevita actually fought his older brother back in the day.

And so I've known those guys, and we've had a lot of different encounters. I've been pretty encouraging to the kid ever since I've met him. I mean, he's such a nice guy. talented kid, he's got like a great heart. And, you know, I don't ever doubt anybody. You know, there's guys in my gym right now that should probably be pro that had been with me since they're 10, 11 years old. Joseph Bopo Morales is one of them, Angela Trevino, Solomon Admahar.

These are kids that have been with me since they're really young and are now able to beat me up on occasion. So it's kind of one of those things where you never count anybody out. and he's a super dangerous guy. I'm excited for the matchup. I need those fights that are dangerous to really get my juices full and get me motivated to go out and have my best performance.

When you were talking super fight in Boston, a lot of people got very excited thinking about guys like Edgar. This is probably the biggest non-title fight you can get at 135. You're saying even though it's not a quote-unquote super fight, it's still exciting for you? Very exciting.

This is why I go into the sports to fight the guys that are the best guys in the world. And there's no doubt that Michael McDonald, in my opinion, is the most dangerous striker in our division. I mean, he knocks guys out, he rocks everybody. He's smaller but faster than most of the guys. I feel like he could probably, it might be hard, but he could maybe make a run at 25s, even though he's probably grown still as a 22-year-old. I mean, he's a scary kid. period. And that has to excite you because the real motivator in there is instinctual. It's,

are you in a dangerous spot? And you need to prove that you can survive and prove that you're the man and prove that you are the better fighter. And I'm going to have to do that with every ounce of my effort. It's obviously been a while since you fought in Sacktown. Obviously, we'll never forget you versus Pulver, Aldo, Mike Brown. Like the, the, the, the crowd reacts to you there when that music hits is unbelievable. Are you looking forward to it because you miss it or is it, does it come with a lot of distractions, a lot of, you know, pressure, a lot of nuisances and things like that fighting so close to home? You know, it does come with a lot of responsibility. The bottom line is it's really good for our city. I mean, it brings a ton of cash

into the economy. People are excited about it. It, you know, brings a lot of attention to our team, which is really the biggest professional team in our town, aside from the Sacramento Kings, is Team Alpha Male. So when I really look at it, it's a really, really great opportunity. I love feeling that energy from the crowd. But it does have a couple of things that make it kind of a hassle, but they're definitely a lot more benefits than hassles. By the way, you mentioned Team Alpha Mail.

Benevita is fighting Johnson. once again on November 30th, and this is the first time since you linked up with Bang Ludwig that a member of the team will be fighting for the belt. That's why I find this rematch so interesting because now we're going to see, all right, did Bang really make... Because you guys were winning these fights beforehand,

but will he get you the UFC title? Do you agree that this is the fight that... Obviously, every fight's different and things can happen, but this is the fight that a lot of people will be looking at to see whether or not Bang Ludwig has truly made a difference for the team? Yeah, I think so. you know, there's a lot of different talk about, you know, things that are happening in this world. Dwayne has definitely had a huge impact, but, you know, we brought him in there to win us belts.

You know, that's what, that's what this whole move was about. And we've been doing our time for 10 years myself, Joseph for six, seven years, Chad for five, six years, T.J. Dillishaw, you know, four years now. Danny Castillo, everybody's been putting in their time for years and years and years and years, and those belts are what we're after. So this isn't going to be the last opportunity we get, as you know, and you always bring that up. But it's because we've been killing ourselves for years and years and years to make this happen. And I think Duane's extra help is going to be the difference.

And this will be the first in the saga of the Dwayne Ludwig era. So I'm excited for it, and there's going to be a lot more opportunities. It's something that Joseph can't wait for himself. On the post-fight show, we just have two minutes left. We appreciate the time very much. On the post-fight show on Saturday, I said that if Cruz can't come back to fight Barow next, I'm looking at the winner of Dilashaw versus Hafeu'll Sunsau next month in Brazil as a potential number one contender.

What happens if Dilashaw wins, fights Barrault, wins, and you're up there as well. What do you do then? I don't know, maybe look for some more of those super fights. Okay. You know, I could always, you know, move around, do whatever. I'm in no rush to try to, you know, get the belt. I just take the opportunities that are given to me. I think there's a lot of fights that people want to see,

but I don't really feel like fighting T.J. at the moment. He'd have to ask me if I would fight him and, like, be really genuine, like, can you please fight me without to happen? You know, it's not really exciting for me. But if you did that, what would you say? I'd say, we'd have to have that discussion across that vision we get there. Fair enough. Hey, by the way, I saw you tweeted that you have a new contract.

Congratulations. Oh, thank you. You want to tell us the terms? Is it a good deal? You want me to, you know, just make sure it was a proper deal, that one that you deserve and whatnot, you got everything you needed, all that stuff? I can advise you, and then maybe if you haven't officially signed it, you can go back and get some more.

Okay, Shay, maybe I'll send it to you. You can look it over and tell what you think. Well, you can say now it's a big show. You know, people expect big things on a big show. It's an eight-fight deal, and I just basically told Dana Lorenzo, like, you know, sign me up. I'm not going anywhere.

I don't want to fight any other organization. You know, I'm a UFC guy for life. And so we just made it official tied to not. Eight fights, really? That's great. to retire a UFC fighter? For sure. Will you go past the eight?

Is the eight just a number? Is that the number that you want to retire at? Why eight? Oh, that was their number. I just said, thanks for the offer. Do you think you'll go past eight, though? Let me see. I had four fights this year.

I have, if I did three to four fights, yeah, I'll probably go past eight. It's interesting. Four fights this year. You beat Michael McDonald. You go 4-0 in 2013. We could talk about Yariah's fighter of the year. It's very rare to go 4-0 in the UFC in a year, in a calendar year. It is. It is.

I'll be banging that drum for you. I appreciate that. What's that? You've got some new windows tonight. Even though twice you've tried to take a jab at me saying that, oh, I talk about the towel shots. I will bang that drum for you, all right, Your Eye? Thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks for banging that. Well, you know, bang Ludwig, bang the drum.

Uriah, you joined us back in June of 2009, our first show, first guest. Appreciate you stopping by. It means a lot to me. Thank you so much and good luck against Michael. All right. Thank you. Ariel, you've come a long way, buddy. Thank you. It's only going up from here. Congratulations on an awesome 200 shows. And I look forward to be back on the show soon. There he is. The California Kids stopping by, one of the best in the business.

faces Michael McDonald, December 14th in Sacramento, California. Okay, let us go to our next guest. They get bigger and bigger every time we switch to new guests. This time, it's the man who once famously said to me just a few months ago, I'm too big for your show. I can't carve out a few minutes for a colleague. I can't do that. But for 200, he stopped by.

Of course I'm talking about. Chale P. Sunnan, my colleague on UFC tonight. Chale, are you really there? Ariel, of course I'm here. I'm a man of my word, brother. is the gangster way. If I say I'll do it, I will do it. Wow, it is so great. I thought you'd never graced us with your presence here because you've moved on to such bigger and better things, but this means a lot to me. Let me ask you, I'm asking everyone on the show today because we're

coming off one of the greatest, if not the greatest fights in UFC history and MMA history. Who'd you score it for? I had gufts of sin, but I do not dispute the decision. It was very close. It could have gone either way. Perhaps if I rewatch it, I'd have a different answer, but when the fight was over, I did think we were going to hear a new UFC champion. Do you respect John? Of course, you've had your history with him, but you respect him a little more after a fight like that, that he was able to withstand that kind of pressure and that onslaught from Gustavson, which a lot of people didn't expect, by the way. Absolutely. Yeah, his stock definitely went up.

You know, John made a comment after the fight, he said, I just wasn't really feeling on tonight. When he rewatches that fight, not only will he realize he was on, but, you know, he's not. But that will be one of his proudest moments. You know, it's dealing with that adversity that makes any great leader, even if you're talking about a president, you know, he really can't say a guy is the best president ever if he didn't deal with a crisis situation or find out how he reacts and performs. And John stepped up.

No doubt about that. You know, it's interesting. In the build-up to the fight, you were actually the one who kept bringing up his toe, the toe he injured against you. And I was thinking, well, I don't know if this seems like much ado about not. nothing, but when you look at him, you know, getting all those takedown stuff, then of course he later injured his foot even more. Do you think back now that maybe the toe was a bigger factor and it should have been played up more? I know you asked him about it in a great

interview that aired last week on Fox Sports One, but you watch what happened in the cage on Saturday. Did you think to yourself that toe really isn't 100%? Yeah, you know, I think that that's exactly right. And, you know, if a guy says his toe's ready, that doesn't always mean physically it's ready. It just means, look, this isn't going to slow me down. I think John was pretty candid about that. But I do wish in that interview I would have pressed him more. It really isn't physically possible for it to have healed.

And I know we had a gentleman on UFC tonight, the highest rated and highest watched show in all of Fox Sports. And he said, he goes, well, look, it was such a clean break. I think it will help Hillwell. That was one guy's opinion. And I talked to many other doctors who've also just shared their opinions, but they're saying, you know, listen, it's just not possible. This is a tremendous deal that ends careers of many athletes that are a little older than John.

I think it was a problem. Whether he knows it or not, yeah, I think it was a problem. When I was watching that fight, I couldn't help but think of UFC 117 because the whole time I was like, this is happening. This is happening before our eyes. The king is going to be dethroned. A lot of people weren't expecting it. reminded me of your fight against Anderson Silva.

Were you thinking that same thing? You know, I don't know if I ever had that actual thought, but, you know, I did think we were witnessing history, and I did think that John would shut down and wilt, and he didn't. He didn't at all. You know, back to your original point, do I respect him even more now, and the answer is yes. It was just so hard, you know,

something that people have to understand in that fight, and in the fourth round, we really saw it with those. elbows and the spinning elbows and the step in and the lead elbows that John landed. And that is, you can't practice those. John can hit mitts or he can throw those at the air, but the only time you actually can throw those at a target is in a fight. If you do that stuff in practice, you won't have any partners. You'll put them out.

So for John to be that spot on, that accurate, while his eye is bleeding, why he's physically exhausted, while he's stressed and worried about losing his championship and to still keep fighting that target was really quite remarkable from an athletic standpoint. Do you agree with me when I say that's the best fight in UFC history? Yes, the best fight in history. And there's some guys that were saying,

oh, this is one of the best fights in the history of the light heavyweight division. You don't need to narrow it down that far. That's the best fight in the light heavyweight division history. I don't think there's any argument there. And, you know, we do have short-term memories. You and I are as guilty of this as anybody where, you know, next week we see another great fight. And we declare it the greatest fighting history. The greatness is something that we have to be reminded of very often as human beings.

But with all of that said, yes, that's my vote. That's the fight. Best of all time. Now, you mentioned the interview with John last week. Is it an ongoing transition for you to take the fighter hat off, put on the TV? analyst hat on and keep switching back and forth. To be, you know, you see a lot of athletes try to go on TV and play TV guy. The transition isn't smooth.

You do it better than anyone, and you're an active fighter. A lot of these guys are retired fighters. Is that a tricky thing for you? Well, first off, thank you for that compliment. And, you know, a little bit it is, because there is a very specific role and a very specific integrity that comes along with the job. when you put that suit on or when you go on air. You know,

and it can't be about me. Let's say I was interviewing, you know, one of my colossal enemies in this sport, Vandalé Silva. I can't and I would not use that platform to take shot at him. I would have to conduct an interview would have to be about him. I would show him appreciation for his time that he's given us,

and it would be an opportunity for him to get his message out. But that is a little bit tricky at time. because it is also a great opportunity to promote something or get something going to pick a fight if that's what you want to do. But at the same time, and I was behind the desk one night when Vitor Belfort thought he fought Rock Hall. And he won and he calls me out or something. He said something where he brings up my day. I thought he called me out. It turned out he called me a cow.

But at any rate, it's not my night. I can't just come on and start yelling at Vitor. It's not my night. It's Vitor's night. Vitor's the one that was in the rain that got this spectacular win, knocks out the number five guy in the world. But there is what I have to remind myself a little bit. Hey, I'm not shale a fighter right now, and this is this athlete's night,

whether he said my name or not, it's his night. to that point, Dana White said last week that you need to know when not to be a comedian. Did you hear those comments? And do you agree with him that there's a time and a place for some of the comments as a fighter and then as an analyst? Well, there definitely is.

And I did hear his comments. And you've got to understand a couple of things about Dana. First off, you know, I've been with him for eight years. He's not just a boss to me. He's a very close friend. But he also wears a mentor role. He's a guy I look up to. He's a guy who I

study and copy in many ways. So that's not always going to be moonlight and canoes. And you know this too. I mean, every now and then Dana Grafton and says something that isn't pleasant to here, but that doesn't mean it's not constructive. You know, you and Dana have a very public and very fun banter. But you've got to listen to those things. You know, when a guy who's created the industry and is an expert in all aspects of the

industry wants to give you advice, you've got to shut up and you have to live. listen to that advice. So, yeah, he is right, but look, it's fun for me to entertain. I enjoy that, but that doesn't mean that sometimes you have to put the reins on. Do you regret what you said on that show? No, well, here's what you have to understand. I don't ever, I'm an employee there. Right. I own stock in the company, but I don't own the company. So it gets done their way. And that's it. And, you know, if you want to look at chain of command or compare it to the military, there is a chain, and you don't question and you don't push back.

You listen, you shake your head, and that's it. And whether I like it or not, that's it. You mentioned Vangelis Silva. He told our website, MMAFighting.com, this morning. This quote, and I wanted to get your reaction, quote, I want to beat him up in front of all his friends, him being you. I want them to watch how bad I will destroy him. I'd be down to fight in his backyard.

You can call all his friends. I want sudden to feel ashamed of how bad. he'll be beaten by me. Your response? Well, it's just silly. I mean, first off, we're both fighters, and any time one fighter threatens to beat up the other fight, you kind of scratch your head and go,

well, yeah, yeah, that's what we're doing here. You know, thank you for stating the obvious. And the other thing is, you know, look, it's tough with Vandalai. He's terrible. I'm going to fight Van der Leigh. I want to fight Van Gogh. The worst thing that I can do is to say he's terrible. It doesn't do me any good to beat him up there.

It doesn't bring any eyes to the television set when you tell people the outcome. But the reality is he's just terrible. It's very hard to take him serious. And I also know it goes on behind the scenes, and so do you. You know good and well that this is a huge fight that people have wanted to see for years. The Vandalay's version is I'd really love to do it, but the UFC just hasn't offered it to me. For anyone to believe, the UFC hasn't tried to put on this colossal mega fight between two guys that genuinely disdain each other

is more than silly. It's a level of ridiculousness. Of course they tried to do the fight, and of course Vandale won't accept the fight. But I'm sure he came on your show and said otherwise. So what do you make of that? At this point, do you just take the offer back? Because it feels like we keep getting teased by.

I mean, in Boston, that promo was so great. I wanted to see the fight that night. And then he comes back with something like this. I mean, you took a fight. You're fighting November 16th, and Dana said he's injured. but, I mean, he never said that when people were saying, where's the fight?

Dana was saying, paper viewpoints. He's putting out videos that he wants to fight you, but then at the end, oh, he's injured. So at some point, you just have to kind of move on? Well, it's his career. I mean, I've moved on a long time ago. I don't want to bully a guy. If there's guys I want a fighter, I try to pick a fight with,

and they tell me no, I'm out. I will never mention it again. I won't pressure him. I won't make them feel bad nothing. What I've got with the end of the guy that doesn't, want to fight, but he keeps saying he does. So I don't have to back off yet. I don't feel that I'm bullying Vandal.

Am I picking on him? Yeah, I'm picking on him. You know, this dates way back to when he was fighting in Japan. I'm the first guy to ever, you know, and I did it with you on your show, to ever point out the fact of those were fake that he wasn't winning fights in Japan, that he didn't go 22 and 0. These were set up matches, and it pissed him and Crowe cop off, but as soon as I said it, other guys started coming out.

Go out chills right, from Gary Goodrich to Mark Coleman to Don Fry. It's called, oh, yeah, we were in the back, and yeah, these were set up. He's upset about that, but it doesn't change the reality of what happened. Look, let's fight. I'm not mad at the vandalier of today. I'm pissed off on the fakeness that he's living off of yesterday. When other guys were scratching the clans, fighting illegal, sanctioned events here in the States, and another guy's running off with all the fame and money

doing works over in Japan. That's really what this is about. So back it off, I really don't care. He's not going to affect my career one way or the other. I'm going to move on and keep fighting guys, and that's it, and he can do what he does. You know, I'll tell you one thing interesting, though. Van der Lees-Silva calls himself the most popular fighter in the UFC.

He might be right. I've been there when Vandalay's walk through the curve, and the reception that guy wins for having as upside down and terrible record as he's got. It's incredible. It's awesome. There's people that relate with him and like him and good for him, and this is how he stays relevant. On some level, I get it.

You know, I get that he's got a right to have his fun. What did you think of that NWO-esque call-out video he put out? It was all right. Here's kind of where I scratch my mind with me in a way. I ended up in a van with Vandley one time. We're hanging out all day. We're having a nice time. We had lunch together.

We're in Texas. We go to the state capital. We meet governor. You know, Rick Terry, we meet the Senate, the legislature. We're with Dana. We're with the UFC executives. We're having a great day. And all of a sudden, he brings that camera, and he starts mumbling to me something about,

after I fought Anderson about, you know, you shouldn't have said all that. that stuff. You speak like that in Brazil and you lose your teeth, and he's doing this whole routine. I don't have the foggiest idea what he's saying, right? He's mumbo. I don't know what he's saying. So I find out a week later when he puts it on YouTube with subtitles. So you ask me what I think of his NWO's video. The NWO will say it to your face. They don't mumble and then go back and subtitle it later. I don't even know if it's what he really said. I know it's what he's claiming he's saying, and also the subtitles are saying, but kind of scratching my head going, man, I don't even, I don't get this.

Just a couple minutes left with Chale, and we really appreciate the time, Chale. Up next for you is a good friend. You go from a potential arch nemesis to a friend fight. You and Rashad, colleagues, is it a bummer for you? Like, you have to find some kind of motivation to get up for this guy, because you like him. I was in a car with you guys in Indianapolis for two straight days, and you guys looked like you were pals.

Yeah, it is one of those tough spots that you end up in. And the problem with Rashad is he's really, really good. You know, and when you get these guys that are top ten fighters, you've got to fight with them. And, you know, I'm in the same spot. I've had a career in a lot of wins, and it's just one of those deals where your name's going to come out of the hat. You end up matched up, and you've got to go out and do the competition.

and as far as motivation, you know, we're both competitors, we get it. But as far as animosity, it's just not there, and it's just not going to be. Is that tough for you? Is it tough for you to go into a fight, not feeling that? It's not my preference. It's just not the preference. You know, we're in the fight business for a reason to fight. And there's people out there I don't like.

But at the same time, if those people, are preferring to do their fights over subtitled videos, and the rest of us prefer to do our fights in the octagon, we've got to operate within that hierarchy. There's not a lot we can do. What does it say to you when you see him training with the Frankie Edgar team, the Hensow Gracie team in New York, not with the Black Sillians at the beginning of this camp? That is news to me. I didn't know that that was happening. Has he left the Black Sillions? He has not left the Black Sillians, but in fact, on this show he was en route to the New Jersey area, and he's been tweeting pictures,

as recently as just a couple days ago, I believe he may still be there or just left. He's been with Frankie, Henzhou, Ricardo Al-Meda, all those guys. He is the sort of, you know, the face of the Blacksillians to not begin his training camp with them. I found to be somewhat surprising.

Wanted to get your thoughts. I find that interesting. I mean, you know, the Blacksillians are doing a good job. They got Kenny Monday out there, a guy that I look up to and have since I was 12 years old, but I'll tell you what,

team you just described me. That sounds pretty awesome, too. You know, Henzos' royalty in the sport. He's a true legend. Almeida's genius. Frank Yeager happens to be my favorite fighter. Really? My number one favorite fighter, Frank Yeager.

Why? So I'm envious. You know, why, geez, oh, why do it? How could he not be? One, he's awesome. Two is his style. Three is his heart. Even the 91, the championship, to go to the Middle East to take on.

you know, all the stuff you hear about BJ Penn. I've worked out with BJ Penn many times. This whole BJ is the greatest fighter, BJ's pound for pound the best. That's all real. BJ Penn is awesome. And I'm telling you this firsthand. He's as good as the hype to watch Frankie, you know, find a way past him at that time. And then come back and do it again.

But many other friends look at his very last fight, the night that Anderson-Oideman saw. You know, it was incredible. It's just incredible boxing lesson that he put on guys. No reach advantage, no height advantage. He's pretty small for the weight. You get at breakfast today. I'll get on the scale, make weight. And he uses that speed and heart and tenacity.

I can go on and on. Frankie's the man. Final question, Shale. I saw a picture of you training with your old pal Dan Henderson in California. And, of course, you spent a lot of time at the Rain Training Center getting ready for the Shogun fight earlier this summer. who are you training with for Rashad and who will be in your corner come November the 16th?

I will be at rain. I mean, I'm officially that is my team. I'm a member of the Rain Training Center. For the next month, I'm in Dan Anderson's guest room and I'll be training up with him. He is getting ready to take on

Vitor Belfort in Brazil one week before Rashad and I fight. So I'm getting him ready. I'm a Southpaw, and I think he wants to use a little bit more wrestling in this fight with Vitor. So when I work-trained with each other, Dan just fought Rashad. So it's good for me, too. But anyway, did that answer your question?

In fact, I'm staring at Dan's gym right now. He just opened a brand-new gym at Temeculine in the parking lot. And then the rain guys, they'll be in your corner on the 16th? I don't get that worked out. I don't know what anyone's schedule is, and I haven't spoke to anyone about that, so I'm not sure. Okay. Well, Chelle, this means a lot to me. Thank you so much.

I know you're very, very, very busy. Appreciate you taking out some time to come on the show today, and I will talk to you in just a couple of days on UFC tonight. And, Arrow, if I may just have a moment. You know, I really do want to congratulate you. You're a self-made man, you know, when it was MMA-rated. You did it all yourself. You did it at a time, and you had a vision. when people didn't even know about this sport,

they had no idea where we would be today, including yourself. You kicked and scratched and found a way to stay alive, to keep your head above water, which was almost impossible, and if you did. Congratulations. You're the best reporter in the business. You're a great and loyal friend,

and I've never thought I was too big for your show. Would you quit telling your fans that I'll see you Wednesday, and congrats, buddy. means the world to me. Thank you so much, Chale. There he is. The one and only. The gangster from Westland. That kind of makes me emotional to hear that from him. Those are great words, and I appreciate it very much. Okay, let's move along. The train continues. Episode 200. Let's bring in a man who I've been trying to get on this show for the last few weeks, and it just so happens he's able to pop in on episode 200,

and I'm thrilled about that. Of course, I'm talking about the Outlaw, Dan Hardy, one of our favorites. He's on the line right now. Dan, how are you? I'm good, mate. How are you? I'm doing great. Well, I want to talk to you about a lot, but first let's talk about Saturday night because I'm asking all our guests today about this. Who do you think won that fight? Alexander Gustafson or John Jones? Yeah, I would lean towards Gustafson. I thought three rounds to two, to be honest. You were very vocal on Twitter afterwards, not just talking about the judging and all that stuff, but it sounded like you were kind of outrage, not just three rounds to two. You thought this was a

clear-cut win for Alex, right? Well, you know, I just think that he did enough damage with the striking. I mean, the problem is that everyone divides the fight into five pieces, you know, it's into five rounds. And obviously, that's how the scoring system set it up. But for me, Alex did enough in the first part of the fight, you know, enough damage and, you know, was aggressive enough and effective enough with his striking to steal the fight. And also, you know, the takedown defense.

I don't think that was taken into account at all by the judges. I mean, John Jones is a good wrestler. just have some stuff, a lot of his takedown. It's something that should be taken into account. So then when you bring up how the judges score a fight, that sounds to me, the way you're talking, that sounds like the old Pride way, score a fight as an entire fight,

not just round by round by round. Do you prefer that to the 10-9 system we have now here with the Unified Rules of MMA? Well, I don't know, to be honest. I don't really have the answers. I have some ideas as to what could be done. But the problem is that, you know, the 10-9 system is great for boxing because you only have one discipline to take into account.

But, you know, it's not the same for them, May. And really, you know, will it be in such a different, such an individual sport, we really deserve our own scoring system. And something that's applicable to mixed martial arts as opposed to borrow from boxing. Honestly, I couldn't agree more. So what are some of these ideas? I'd love to hear them. Do you have any you could share?

Well, you know, I think it's time to start getting retired fighters involved. You know, I think it's time to start, you know, maybe the U.S. you can bring, you know, five or six fighters. in the first show and I just have them sit, you know, separately and watch the fight and score it themselves and just see what they think and how they, how they would score it. I mean, I don't know all the answers, but I think that they're getting people that know the sport involved would be a good idea. I mean, you know, these guys that are scoring, I know we get some good judges, but then other

times we get guys that probably don't even watch the UFC when they're not working, and that's not helping anybody. The one thing about the retired fighters, especially if they're newly retired, do you think that it might be tricky? because a lot of these guys may have fought the fighters in there, have issues or past allegiances with cornermen, trainers, etc. It will be somewhat tricky to get truly unbiased judges out there, right? It would, yeah, it would.

But, you know, I'm not necessarily saying guys that have fought to that kind of level, just guys that have fought, guys that have gotten interested in MMA. I mean, I'm not naming names, but I can pick out a bunch of judges that they probably couldn't even pick out a fighter from a fan. You know what I mean? You know, we need guys that are dedicated to the sport in every sense of the way, and not just for a job. It's funny when they say don't leave it in the hands of the judges,

but really that's a ridiculous statement. You should be able to leave it in the hands of the judges. You shouldn't try to fight just to end it quickly so that you don't get screwed, right? Well, this is the thing. I mean, you know, it's always been a role in it. And any sport I've competed in that you don't leave it in the hands of the judges. But at least in other sports, you know, more established sports, if you do leave it in the hands of the judges,

you've got some idea that they know what they're watching. And sometimes I watch the UFC fights, and I really wonder what the judges are watching. It concerns me. If you're President Dana-White, U.S. President Dana-White, do you do the immediate rematch because it was so close? I think so. I think so.

I think both the guys deserve it. I mean, obviously, you know, John Jones is fighting all, fight all the best guys. And then Alexander Gustavson's, you know, stepped up to fight the belt. And I think they're both put on a great. great show. They're most of a lot of risks in that fight, which you don't generally see at those

high-level fights. And I think, you know, they said they're still out. They came to fight. They came to entertain. And I think that, well, I would certainly want to watch the fight. And I'd be leaning towards Gustafson again. I think that the rematch will be a much more interest in the first fight. Okay, let's transition to you. A lot of people wondering how you're feeling and whether you'll fight again. First off, how are you feeling? Of course, you came out earlier this year, an issue with your heart, you called sort of the wolf heart now. What, you know, what are you feeling like?

Same, has anything changed since the last time we talked to you around April or so? Well, loss has changed. Nothing really as far as the stats of my career. I have another meeting with the USC on Wednesday, and I'm hoping that we can get something figured out. But I would very much like to fight again, whether my option to fight is with the USC or not. know. It really depends on whether the UST have got any kind of

flexibility with this rule about the treatment that I need. Obviously, it's a difference of opinion. I don't think I need it, and you know, it seems that the UFC are telling me that I do need it or to fight against. So, I don't know, really. I mean, my job with the UFC

is not done. I've got a feeling that they're going to want to use me for other stuff, but it might not be inside the oxygen, which might be a shame. But I'm good, I'm ready to fight, and I'm training every day, I'm just about to start a yoga class. I've got CrossFit later and then sparring tonight. So I've still got a full

training week and I'm still, I'm still training like I'm preparing for fights. Because, you know, if I can do nothing else, at least I can prove that I'm able to fight, even if I'm not allowed to. You mentioned some kind of treatment that they want you to take. What does that entail?

But basically it involves going in through my femoral and carotid artery and going into the heart. And basically having a look around, the problem is that because my heart not abnormal in any way, you know, from the ultrasound. They can't see any kind of enlargements in any parts of it. So they don't know where the second heartbeat is coming from. They don't know whether it's in a safe enough place where they can't treat it.

The problem is if it's too close to my regular heartbeat, they can't touch it anyway. So, you know, I've discussed this with my doctor back in the UK, and he said the best to do is not to touch it at all. And that was my instinctual decision that was going to make anyway. So that just kind of confirms it for me. It's not worth allowing to me to go in and start poking around when I don't feel like anything he's doing. And this doctor in the UK, when you asked him, I'm sure you did,

can I fight still? What do he say? Well, we didn't really discuss that. I would like to discuss it with him further and actually, you know, I actually discuss what his opinions are about the dangers of it because from what I understand it, from what I've been told by the cardiologists in California,

that the risk is very, very low. I'm talking, like, you know, less than 1% of an increasing risk. So, I mean, we side a death waiver as it is, and I'm pretty comfortable with those odds, to be honest. I would like to say that gamble, but it's not, it's not, unfortunately. So even if it's 1% or 0.5%, 0.01%, you're okay with that? Because most people would say if there's even 0.000-1%, they won't do it.

they obviously don't want to, you know, suffer a fatal heart attack or anything like that, but you're okay with those odds. Yeah, I don't think it's going to happen. I mean, my heart's seen it through 31 years of all kinds of stress and extreme situations, and it's never failed me. In fact, it's always come through and it's always been solid. So I don't want to start poking around with it. It's never let me down.

I've never had symptoms or anything either, so it's never even given me an inkling that there might be a problem. I mean, you know, and everyone's telling me that this is something. and that's unusual them. This is our work. I mean, I don't want to get into an evolution discussion, but,

you know, people, people develop unusual things in the past and they become commonplace because they seem to work out. So maybe this is my superhuman trait that they're trying to keep me down. Have you,

I don't know, maybe heard or read about any athletes that have this heart condition who have been able to have great careers, whether it's in combat sports, any other kind of sports, any other kind of sports? Is there anyone out there that you know of

that shares this with you? The only people that I've managed to find, the only information that I've found are people that have had to have treatment for it because they've had symptoms. You tend to find it a lot in the Air Force as well. Any kind of Air Force pilot that gets diagnosed with this has to have treated before they allow it to fly a plane,

which I understand. I mean, they're carrying all kinds of explosives and stuff. but as far as actual people getting it treated just so they can do their job as an athlete, I've not found anything because people generally don't know about it unless they have symptoms. And that's really the problem I'm having, everybody that's coming up to me is like,

oh, well, I've had it done and I'm fine, but they needed it doing it and I don't. They've had symptoms, they've had palpitations and business, panic attack. And I've not had any of these experiences, so it's not something that I feel needs to fix them. Do you almost wish that this never came up recently so that, you know, people would just leave you alone, then you can continue career and end it the way you want to end it?

Well, it is frustrating because if I've been fighting in pretty much any of the state, I wouldn't have known about it. If, you know, if the fight was in Nevada, the fight would have happened, and I would have been preparing for the end of the fight by this point. So it is frustrating, you know, because it was California that it was found. But at the end of the day, it's one of those things, and I can't be annoyed at the situation because,

I can't change it. I have to accept what it is and make the best out of it. So this meeting that you're having with the UFC brass on Wednesday, who's going to be there? Well, I'm going to be in Gary Cook on Wednesday. He's the big guy in Europe. And I want to be discussing some stuff about the UFC and TV within Europe because there's just signed this new deal with BT Sports

and that has a lot of potential to really push the UFC into the, the mainstream marketing here. I mean, I know we've got a good foothold there already, but we need regular TV time, and I think BT sports might be the way forward. So hopefully there'll be something that I can help out with, maybe some kind of presenter to our analyst or, I don't know. So that's something you'd like to do,

be like a Chal Sun and sit there with your suit and everything and talk about the fights? Is that something? I mean, maybe you cough the Mohawk a little differently, but that's what you want to do? What I would like to do is be inside the Arctic and fighting whilst people are talking about me, but that's a good second option.

If that's my way to be involved with the UFC, then I'll take it. Do you think that they're going to try to convince you to retire? Well, they could potentially not give me a choice. That's the issue. Because my MMA career is done with the UFC regardless of whether they claim it to fight or not. If I get a couple of more fights than the UFC, then great. And if I don't, then my MMA career will be over. But it's kind of out of my hands.

I need to know if the U.S.C. have got any flexibility on that. But as far as fighting goes, there are always options for fights, and there are always places that would have to go and get clear to fight. So I'm not done by any means. I'm still a martial artist in every sense of the word. So just to be clear, if they say we don't want to promote your fights because we're afraid and all that, you would or wouldn't go out and fight for another organization?

Not MMA, I wouldn't know. So what are we talking? Kickboxing or something? Yeah, maybe kickboxing or boy tie or. K-1 or, I don't know, I'm not sure. I mean, wrestling's back at the Olympics, and we'll know how good my wrestling is, so that's always off. And so when you say, you know, anything else but

in May, is that just because you're so loyal to them, or you just don't, like, what's the reason for that, but you'd still do other stuff? Well, if the UFC, I mean, I would be disappointed if I went to another organization, I think, because I've grown so fun and so accustomed to the UFC and I, you know, I enjoy the whole UFC circus that is when it comes into town and all the

fighters are there for the week and the fans gather at the hotel and it's just such an electric environment. I don't think any other show have. You know, they put on good events and, you know, they have good fights, but the actual the actual UFC fight week, the event is not going to be the same thing.

And, you know, I've kind of grown accustomed to it. I don't really want to go back to doing something different. By the way, you mentioned kickboxing, which is very interesting because here in the States, there's a promotion called Glory that's doing a big push to try to get, you know, the kind of attention that MMA has received. Do you think that kickboxing as a sport will ever reach the level that MMA has over the last few years? You know, many have tried, many have failed, but for whatever reason, it just hasn't, you know, it hasn't materialized into a big sport.

Do you think it has it, you know, not just overseas, because we know overseas in Europe and other places, Japan, of course, it's been popular. North America, do you think it can be that popular? I think it can. I really do. The problem is that everybody, you know, we always have these good shows, these great kickboxing shows, and then they disappear.

We have, like, the promotion puts on maybe one or two shows, and then they go away. And everybody tries to go too big. Every tries to build a massive show, and, oh, yeah, we're, what, 20,000 people there, and then they're bringing all these huge kickboxing stars that just drain the budget. In actual fact, there are so many good,

the good tieboxes that are around that are looking to fights that just want to stay active. And we just need to show that's good and consistent and can be bringing these guys in and giving them a platform to fight because the thing that's made the UFC

so strong is the familiarity of the fighters, you know, that the fans get used to seeing the fighters on a regular basis. And we don't have that with kickboxing because you'll see a keep boxing match and then it'll be six months before you see the same guy fight again. And that's no use to anybody

because you can't build a franchise guys are an organization on that. We need to, hopefully this organization is going to be consistent of when on regular shows because that's really what we need. Is it tough for you to see someone like Matt Brown doing so well you're supposed to fight him and now he's getting these big fights, he's fighting Carlos Condit? Is that a hard thing for you because you could have been the one to stop that winning streak? It is frustrating.

I mean, you know, I've got nothing against anybody in the sport, you know. And Matt, I was preparing for a fight and I was looking forward to fighting him. And it is unfortunate it didn't work out. but I'm glad he's doing well. I'm glad I think he deserves that he worked hard, and he's having some great fights, getting good wins together. That doesn't mean to say I would like to get that fight

that I was supposed to have back in April, but I have no resentment for people that are doing, that are still fighting, as frustrating as my situation is. November 16th, your old pal, George St. Pierre, is going to defend his title again against Johnny Hendricks. Put your presenter hat on. Who do you think wins that fight and how? It's a very interesting fight for me because I really don't know.

I mean, usually I would be like, okay, GSP's got the, you know, he's got the well-roundedness to be able to take the fight where he wants it. But I don't really know what Johnny Hendrix's capabilities are as far as wrestling. I mean, I know I've heard a lot, but I've really not seen a great deal, you know, in the octagon apart from his fight against Condit. And I was very, very impressed with his wrestling there. But obviously, on the flip side, can he stop GSP? think that that's the question that we have to ask

when everybody steps in there against the champ and that's that's the question that I won't be able to answer until the night's here but one thing we don't know about Johnny Hendrix is that you can punch, you can really punch and JSP doesn't like it and punched hard so that that can put a whole new

spin on it you know if he can keep the fight standing and just threaten that punch that could change the JSP's whole game plan and whole approach and we might start seeing some holes in it so I don't know. I mean, I think Jenny Hendrix has got the potential

to cause some of real problems for GSP are on a level that other people will happen. So I'm excited, but at the same time, he's GSP and his champion is the best sport right now. So, you know,

I wouldn't be surprised if he came out with some amazing performance and kept himself. So officially you're picking GSP? Yeah, I will always pick GSP. I can't vote against the guy because he beat me up

and I'm the best fire in the world. So, you know. I mean, he's the champion, and I can't bet against him, but I do think Johnny Hendricks poses some very interesting problems for it. Once last time you watched that fight? My fight against GSP, I don't remember, probably a couple of months after it happened, to be honest. The thing is, one of those fights, you see bits of it over and over again, so I feel like I've watched it every day since it happened,

but in actuality, I've not really sat down and watched it for, you know, probably for a couple of years now. It just gets frustrated. I just pull it apart and get angry at myself. Why? I mean, obviously you didn't win the fight, so that in itself, but people always talk about,

oh, well, you didn't get submitted and you were able to defend he tried so hard. I mean, is that somewhat of a feather in your cap, or do you just hate the entire 25 minutes? Well, the problem was that, you know, I got beaten pretty soundly, but I didn't put up any kind of, any kind of fight, really. I didn't really threaten him a great deal.

When it was on the feet, I wasn't as active as I'd, plan to be because I was hesitant at the take down so I was trying to invest myself in two fewer strikes, you know, obviously because I wasn't expecting to be on my feet for very long.

But, you know, I look back at the flight and I can just see hesitation, I can just see myself holding back when really I should have just, I shouldn't just bit down on my gumshed and just committed to the strike. But, you know, it is what it is. It was, it was everything I had to give at the time and it was the best performance I could have given on the night.

and GSP's the better fighter. I'm constantly trying to find ways of improving myself. And sometimes if I look back too far into fights where I didn't perform very well, even fights that I won, I mean, I can go back throughout my career or all my fights and pick up apart. So it's not like I'm avoiding it because I didn't win the fight.

I just don't generally watch fights after a certain amount of times past this, because I irritate myself. Very understandable. Two last things that we'll let you go, and we appreciate it. Right now, it is. is September 23rd, 2013, your prediction. Will you ever fight again in the UFC?

Yes, I will. All right. That's my prediction. I can't wait. And also, just wondering, because it was Alexander Gustafin, and there was a lot of talk about him being the first European champion in many years since Andrei Alofsky, and you were talked about as that guy as well when you fought, that was part of the promotion when you fought GSP.

Who do you think will be the next European champion? Is there someone that you think could be that guy right now? Well, after seeing Gustavson's performance on Saturday night, my money's on him now, I think he did a great performance. I think that he's closest to taking the belt out of any European fighter right now. I mean, obviously, you know, I have a lot of support for Ross Pierce, and I think he has all the potential in the world. But, you know, he still fights away from the belt.

So we'll see. And, you know, this thing, as much as I like Mike, he's in a division for the world. of sharks. And I rate Mark Munnius very highly, and I'll get a lot of heat for that on Twitter, you know, because I should be supporting Bisklin because of British and stuff. It's not about who I'm supporting. I think Mark Mnui is a killer, and I think that's a real top division. Yeah, I just think Biskings in the wrong division to be the champion right now, whereas I think Gustafson can potentially take it out. I think Westperson's got a good show as well. Very interesting stuff. Dan, good luck in that meeting. Good luck.

Obviously, with everything as far as your heart is concerned and your campaign to fight again in MMA, hopefully, if everything's okay, I would love to see you again. We miss you. It's not the same without the outlaw. So I wish you the best of luck. And if not, good luck in your budding TV career. I think you would do great on that side of the fence. And always great to talk to you.

Really appreciate you stopping by. Thank you, Matt. And congratulations to you and your guys as well. We're 200 shows. That's amazing. And it's always an honor to be on here. And I always enjoy talking to me. So keep it the good work, and thanks to all the fans for the team there,

because you're the people that made this happen. Appreciate it very much. Thank you so much, Dan, and good luck to you. All right, mate. Cheers, mate. Sweet you soon. There he is. Very nice words from Dan Hardy.

Really appreciate it a lot, and wish him the best of luck. If he is 100% healthy, would love to see him fight again, because still think he could do some great things, had a few solid performances before his hiatus. Okay, let's move along now. Let's welcome in a man who, I don't know, has he been big-timing us lately since he won the belt? Has he changed since he won the belt?

I mean, that remains to be seen, really, but there are warning signs out there. Let's see if he's even on the line. Maybe he got upset that he had to wait a couple minutes here. He is, of course, the middleweight champion of the UFC. Chris Weidman. Chris, are you there? This is a PR agent.

Hang on. He's not here, one second. Okay, how you doing? I'm here. Oh, is that your own personal PR agent, Chris? That's right. That's right. He's hired some big bucks.

How big is the entourage now? because when you fought Anderson, he was rolling like 500 deep. Have you added a couple bodies? Well, same old guys. Same old guys. I'm here with my strength coach. I'm in that way right now. It's starting to tour, the World Tour.

My strength coach came with us to keep me in shape. My manager, Randall, and then UFC's a guy, and then we have a camera guy following us around. So I'm not as big as Anderson's crew for sure. Are you going? Anyway, congratulations. Are you towards the show, man? It's big time.

Thank you. You're probably our most famous fan, right? You don't ever miss an episode. Never, never. Makes my Monday, every Monday. Yeah, I know. You're too kind. Are you going to do the EA scan now, or did you do it already?

I did it already. How was it? I know you're a big video game there. Did you enjoy that? Yeah, it's really cool. I'm going to enjoy when I actually see myself in the video game. I get to play with myself. Why did you just laugh when you said that?

Come on. You know, it came up a little weird. When is the game coming out? Later on next year, right? Yeah, they said the spring of 2014, so. So let me ask you this question, Chris, and thank you very much for stopping by, obviously. What's, you know, the biggest change?

Champion, two months in, what's the biggest difference now that you're the champion? Now that you have the title, can you feel the difference? Other than obviously people coming up to you and all that stuff, is there something that you can feel in touch? Wow, things have changed, really, since I was just another fighter in the UFC?

I think the biggest change, I want to say a lot of people coming out of woodwork, like with all these business ideas and just different things in my ear. A lot more commitments, a lot more opportunities that you want to commit to, but at the same time, you've got to realize your main focus to keep winning.

So just kind of be able to scale through the things that are not as important and take advantage of things that are important. but maintain that focus. I mean, everybody, the only reason why people, you know, are into me right now is because I'm a winner.

You know, so I got to stay a winner, and that's the main thing. Is it crazier than you thought it would be? Less, more, same? Probably a little, this has its spurts where it's like, wow, this is crazier than I thought. And there's times where it's like, you know, it's not that bad.

It's not bad at all. And are there any drawbacks, or is it just the people coming out of the woodwork? Is there anything that you're like, man, you know, life was a lot simpler back then? No, I think it's all good thing. You know, I wanted to be champion. This is where I wanted to be.

So all this stuff is what comes with it. I'm buying a new house. So getting out of my hometown, I lived, I was, you know, born, raised and never left. Moving like 20 minutes away. But getting out of the house, I got, you know, affected by Hurricane Sandy. It's going to be a nice little change. So you're really moving on up? I'm moving on up

move on up would you have been able to buy that house if you didn't beat Anderson Silva I don't know about that it was definitely one of the motivations I know we were my wife was looking at houses before the fight

and I'm like oh my god I got to win this fight because that's the way you know because I actually started getting me excited she showed me because of the houses like new houses I'm like oh yeah that's expensive

you know I got a you got to win this fight I really got in this fight. So that was definitely another little small motivation. There's been talk that you were seriously broke going into that fight. Is that accurate? I mean, right after her, I mean, did I was, was I rich, no? Was that the best situation, no, because I had to look at my parents.

I was Hurricane Sandy, you know, affected me, so I had to leave. But only for a couple of months, going into the training camp, I was good. UFC hooked me up a little bit and it made it easier for me. I was good. I have a great support system. So I was right. There's a lot of people a lot worse than me, so I didn't feel bad for myself.

I never looked at myself as broken in a bad spot or unlucky or anything like that. I felt blessed. So no excuses with them by that. Do you feel like the MMA community views you as champion? Because you have some of the fighters, the fans, they say, oh, Anderson was clowning. That's why he caught him, and of course he's going to win.

Anderson says, I back. I'm going to be the same old Anderson. Do you think that it's almost like two fights? That was the first half, and then to truly be considered champion, you have to win the second one? Yeah, I do feel that. You know, and I kind of knew that. I knew going into this fight, I was going to have to fight them again,

and that's what I wanted. If there wasn't a lot of doubters right now, this next fight wouldn't be something that people would even want to see. But there's a lot of people that just can't fathom that Manifon to actually just, you know, losing to anybody if he's actually being serious. So the fact that I got him and knocked him out when he was doing his torn thing that he does in every one of his fights, people just are going to say that, you know, he wasn't serious.

So the serious silver is, I guess, going to come out on December 28 and we'll see if I got lucky or not. Is it true that you said you think the rematch is going to be easier? Well, I'll tell you one thing. The preparation is, like, I was at this point before my last fight, I wasn't even able to work out. I came off two surgeries. I was still rehabbing from my shoulder. Hurricane Sand and everything that affected me with that. Had a year layoff for this fight.

I'm going to have a full training cap, obviously, and there's no injuries. I'm just getting better and better right now. And last camp, I couldn't do that. You know, I had to just rehab at this point. But as far as the fight itself, since you've already fought him, do you think it will be easier the second time around?

Yeah, I'm expecting a war, just like I expected in the first one. I'm going to be going for the finish. I expect to feel better in this fight, just not having you a lay out with the two surgeries. I did feel like a little slugged in my last fight. It didn't feel really 100% myself. And I got the W, which is good.

But in this next fight, I feel like I'm going to feel a bit more comfortable and confident that we go out there and do what I got to do. There was originally some talk that this fight would take place Super Bowl weekend in New Jersey. Obviously, you can't take place in New York because it's still illegal here. But now it's in Vegas on December 28. Were you disappointed? that it wasn't taking place in New Jersey? Not really.

I mean, I know it's going to be bigger if it was in Vegas, I guess, because the whole Super Bowl thing, you know, the Super Bowl is going to take away from the fight, I guess. So I understand, and, you know, I've won the NBN the last one, so I think it's good to go back to where I won the belt and won it again. Speaking of New Jersey, you were on the sidelines for the Giants Broncos game, and you being the front-runner fan that you are, you were wearing a Giants jersey,

even though we all know that you're a Broncos fan. How weird was that? How weird was that? I went to church on Sunday morning with the Broncos jersey on because, you know, my wife, I'm a Broncos fan now because my wife made me choose so my son has a team to go for. So I had to choose Broncos. I'm still, I'm a New York guy.

I'm a fan of any team from New York, so I'm a Giants fan too. But I guess I'm 100% of Broncos fan. And, yeah, so I went to church with a Broncos jersey, and then I found out that the Giants, So I was going to the Giants game and that the Giants used my fight with Anderson to get inspiration for the game.

And now I'm like, if I'm going to be on the sidelines with the Giants, you know, I'm not wearing a Broncos jersey. I'm not going to put that on their face. So I threw out of Giants jersey. A couple of years ago, I was a Giants fan. So now I had a jersey, so I was good to go. So the coach Tom Coughlin came up with this idea the night before. Of course, they ended up losing in a very bad effort.

Do you think that you may have, I don't know, in some ways, jinx them or demotivated them? I mean, that was not a very, inspiring effort, you'd think they'd be inspired after seeing a fight like that? I'm a Trojan horse, man. I'm a Trojan horse. The Broncos won. I'm a Broncos fan.

They watched my film, everything. They didn't see it coming. Did you speak to Tom Coughlin about why he did this? No, I think I didn't speak to Tom Cawthland, you know, just me and Ham, but I spoke to the people, like some of the people with the Giants, and they said that, you know, they were fighting, you know, someone. And I mean, they were playing Broncos who were, you know, obviously known to feel like more of the best front runners to win the two of all right now. There was a lot going against them, just like I had. So they kind of drew a parallel between my finance and them and the Broncos.

And so it would inspire them. But I guess it didn't go good. I will admit, it was truly, you know, it's one of the moments of the year, a very inspiring thing, especially if people knew your story going into it. How often do people come up to you and say, you gave me inspiration, you motivated me, you gave me hope, you were that guy. just a regular guy from New York comes in there and beats the greatest of all time.

Do you hear that a lot? Yeah, I actually do. It's pretty cool, man. It's all about touching people and become a good role model. And from my story, if someone else could do something great, it's an honor to be able to add that type of influence. So it's pretty cool when people say that.

If they actually mean it, you never know. But if they're really truly inspired by me, that's awesome. Wow, you're really skeptical of people, eh? No, you know, there's people who are, you know, my best friends when they see me to my face and then I'm sure

they're on Twitter just like, you stink, you got lucky. No, that goes, but anybody, I'll take them

for what, I'll take it for what it is if they're truly inspired and I'm happy. We asked everyone on the show thus far who they thought won the main event on Saturday.

I want to get your take. Who won? Goets of Sinner Jones. You know, I got to go back and watch it. I was actually, I was at the event.

You know, I was just kind of enjoying the fight more than trying to judge and figure out who won. At the time, I admit, I thought Justice Sim won. But I had a hard time actually believing they were going to give it to him.

But I kind of thought Gus Sim won. But I got to go back and rewatch. It was a really close fight. You know, the spinning out of it from Jones, I think, in the fourth, was definitely a huge defining factor. I think Dustin was a little out of it. Going into a fifth because of that shot, you know, almost like probably was like in Dreamland still

and being tired and whatnot. So, I don't know, it was a good fight. probably could have one either way, but originally I thought it was Guston 1, but I got to rewatch it. Do you think that Gustafsson put out the blueprint, how to beat John Jones? I mean, yeah, you don't want to get underneath him with those elbows, so he did a great job of not over pursuing him on punches and kicks and not letting John deceive him into getting down. I think the size is a huge thing because John Jones wasn't able to keep the range and dictate that. So definitely, yeah, it's a blueprint.

I mean, he could have won that fight. And some have brought up that it showed that John doesn't have finishing power on his feet. Would you agree with that? I'm not agreeing. I don't think anybody if you catch somebody right, you have finishing power. You got the small gloves on. So I don't know about that. Guserson's good, man.

Gusin's really good. John has he knocked anybody out? I don't know. I'm pretty sure he has, right? Well, on his feet, I mean, he's done with ground and power and things like that. He's obviously beat up guys, but not like what you did to Anderson, for example, as champion. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I'm not going to say he isn't a finishing power. I'm sure if a guy, I think she doesn't have finishing power at the time, we're going to see him knock someone out. You know, you got to respect everybody on the feet. But, yeah. Were you rooting for John because you want to fight him? No, I was rude. Obviously, you know, I like Gus and Sen, both of those guys I hung out with.

Gus and said, I like, you know, I like his story. He's such a good kid. You know, another underdog story sponsored by Bad Boy, too. Yeah. And I train with him. And I know how good he is, and I knew it was a huge opportunity. I was in, you know, yes. Okay.

I'm sorry. I'm walking. PR is pushing me everywhere right now. No problem. Let me ask you two more questions, then we'll let you go. Okay? You said you trained with Gustafson. When did you train with him?

For this fight or just in the past? No, in the past. I went down to San Diego, maybe like, I don't know, two years ago. Okay. And we trained a little bit, and I knew he was good. I knew if it stayed standing, it would be, I think, Gusson's advantage. And, yeah, so I knew

it was going to be a better fight than a lot of people were saying. And this may have, you know, the fight may have changed things, but, you know, it's still that fight that I think could do massive business here in New York, you versus John at MSG, the King in New York. Is that something that you still think about?

Is that something that you want? Yeah, I think eventually, you know, I want to beat the best guys and who everybody thinks is the best. So eventually, that's, you know, if he's still on top and I'm still on top. And UFC wants to make it out

and the fans want to watch it. I'm a thousand percent in for that fight. Okay, I lied. This is the last one. Is it going to be weird being all over the place with Anderson face-to-face holding the belt?

He's not holding the belt doing all this media. Are you dreading this world press tour that's coming up kicking off today here in Los Angeles? Yeah, I think it would probably be a little weird

being around them and stuff like that, but it's part of what we got to do and make the best of it. All right, Chris. Thank you so much for stopping by. I know you're very busy, but it means a lot to have the champ stop by. It wouldn't be the same.

Let's be honest. I appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me on. Okay, there he is. Chris Wyman stopping by in Los Angeles. World Press Tour kicking off today. They're going from L.A. to Vegas, to New York, to Miami.

They're going to Rio. You can learn about it over at UFC.com. You can also purchase tickets for, UFC 168 later on this week. They go on sale. That is the card headlined by Anderson Silva versus Chris Widman 2. Of course, Ronda Rousey versus Misha Tate 2, even though the poster doesn't really mention that it's a rematch. That's because the first fight didn't happen in the UFC, and that's kind of the UFC's way. If the first fight or the second fight didn't happen, they won't acknowledge it. Not because they're trying to downplay it. Of course, Zufa owned Strike Force when that first fight

happened back in March of last year, Rhonda versus Misha number one in Columbus. But for whatever reason, interesting question to the people who actually make the posters and promote the fights and all that stuff, for whatever reason, they don't acknowledge it. Also, it was announced last week that Josh Barnett is fighting Travis Brown in a very important heavyweight fight. I mean, in my opinion, if Verdume is fighting the winner of Kane v. JDS3, which is the case, that's the next big show coming up. There's a fight night next Wednesday in Brazil. the Jake Shields Damien Maya card. But if Verduman at this point, you have to think he is, I mean, they kept him on the sidelines,

then I would have to imagine that the winner of Travis Brown versus Josh Barnett would be next. And I think it makes sense. If Brown beats Barnett after what he did to Alistair Overeem, he should be next. And if obviously Josh Barnett beats Brown after what he's done in his career, after beating Frank Mir and then Travis Brown, then he should be next. So that's a huge fight. That's a huge card. My opinion, I mean, I almost feel like I have to apologize to UFC 165, and in particular, the main event, because we kept saying 166, 167, 168, as far as paper views are concerned,

the best stretch in UFC history. We may have kind of skipped over or forgot to include what, in my opinion right now, is the best fight in UFC history, not just in UFC history, MMA history. have brought up Edgar Maynard, people have brought up their second fight, maybe even the third fight, but I'm pretty sure they're talking about the second fight when they bring it up. Obviously, Hendo versus Shogun. There's Eddie Alvarez versus Mike Chowne that comes up. But considering the stakes, considering the fact that Gustafsson was such a big underdog,

considering the fact that John Jones, you know, is the pound for pound king, that he really did look, quote, unquote, not quite human going into that fight. considering what Alex did in the first round, opening him up with the takedown, stuffing his takedowns, watching that I could not look away. I was afraid to blink. I was afraid that if I looked away for a second, said something to someone else, turn my head that I would miss something magical. Something like what Chris Wyman did to Anderson, Sullivan. When you think about that, when you think about what Wyden did to Sylvan July, Pettis did to Bendo in August, then, of course, what just happened, a couple days ago in Toronto. And what is, you know, yet to come this year. This could go down as the greatest year in UFC history. This could go down as maybe the greatest year in MMA history. That, in my opinion, had it all. And my favorite part of the entire fight was the heart. The heart that both men showed, the determination, the never say die attitude. I mean, those shots that Gustafsson took in the fifth round, to me, I still don't understand how he stayed standing. He'd even get dropped. And he was still going

forward. He was still giving it back to Jones. In my opinion, I haven't said it, but very interesting. Thus far, we've had four guests on the show. We had Uriah Faber, Chale Sunnan, Dan Hardy, Chris Widman. All four of them said they thought Alexander Gustafson won the fight. Four and O. And when I talked to the media on Saturday night after the fight, most of them scored it exactly like I did. I had the first round for Gustafson. The second round I had for John Jones, although I remember it being very close and thinking, maybe he just did enough. But the second round I gave to John Jones,

the third round I gave to Gustafson, the fourth round, in my opinion, the most interesting round because maybe three minutes and 40 seconds of that round, the first three minutes and 40, I thought Alex won it. I thought he was doing enough, and he was going to seal the deal in that round. And then, with the spinning back elbows,

I believe he took him down in the final minute, the last 60 to 70 seconds of round, four, in my opinion, won the fight and helped John Jones retain the title. That's what did it. Last 60 to maybe 80 seconds of that round, if you go back, that was the most crucial aspect of this entire fight. And then fifth, everyone agrees it was all John Jones. So he wins it. And, you know, at this point, and I know you guys are going to ask me about it and we'll address it then too, but as we're trying to get Connor McGregor here, at this point, I could see both ways. I could see maybe trying to build it up a little more, having them fight someone else, and then maybe one or two

fights in, they cross past. Remember, a lot of people bringing up the fact that Anderson beat Shale at UFC 117, but they didn't, and it was such a close fight, and Chale was obviously winning throughout the entire thing up until the last, you know, two minutes, but then they had to go fight other people. Well, Chale was suspended, and by then they kind of had to move along, and he did beat Brian Stan, and there was some issues. with Anderson and came back very quickly to fight Michael Bisping and then got the title shot. So it could happen. And I could see them giving it to Glover because, yes, he is undefeated in the UFC.

He's 5 and 0. He has won 20 in a row. The UFC obviously very high on him. Good friends with Chuck Lidl. All that stuff, you know, there's a case for Glover. I do think now, I know I've been banging the Cormier drum, I think he may lose out on it. I think it's going to be hard for Cormier to leapfrog both Glover and Gustafson if he's in the mix. And let's not forget about Phil Davis. I think a Phil Davis versus Glover, Phil Davis versus

Cormier fight. I don't think we're going to see Phil Davis versus Gustafson, too, because they train with each other. But I can see, I could see them going with either Gossifson or Glover. I don't see Cormier jumping the line at this point. And guess what? I spoke to him yesterday on the phone, and he agrees. He actually kind of agrees. He actually said he wants to see it again. And there's no way he could be upset if, you know, they gave it to Gustafsson again. There's no way. That fight was too good. I don't think anyone in the world, even if you were so close, even if you're Anthony Pettis waiting to fight the winner of Edgar versus Maynard, I just don't see how you can be upset. It was such a great fight, like I said,

one of the best, if not the best of all time, and Cormier agrees. And it maybe is a blessing for Cormier because, well, now you just have to focus on Roy Nelson. Now you don't have to worry about anything else. Now you don't have to worry about cutting the line. Now you don't have to worry about trying to do something spectacular so that you can then go down to 205 and get a title shot there. Just worry about Roy Nelson. You get that win and then you go down to 205

and you're probably one or two wins away. Because I still think that's a fight that a lot of people will be into, especially now when you saw Gustafsin stop those takedowns and even take down John Jones the very first time John Jones has been taken down in his career. Kudos to Alliance and Phil Davis and all those guys over there for getting him ready for that because that was amazing. And it was interesting that I was talking to John Jones about trying to find his Joe Frazier,

trying to find that foil. And it was almost like, again, have to apologize to Gustafson, almost like we were forgetting about him. He may have found him. He may have found his foil. The guy is going to fight a few times. The guy that brings the best out of him, the guy that really pushes him to the brink. I am in such awe of Alexander Gustafson and his heart and the determination and the fact that when he said, I'm going to shock the world, he actually truly meant it. You really felt like he meant it. He wasn't just saying it. He wasn't just going through the motions. You see a lot of title fights where you really get the impression that the contender, when he is an underdog, doesn't really believe in himself. But in those interviews, during the fight week leading up to the fight, I really got the feeling that Gustafson believed in himself.

He had this quiet confidence to himself. He was so focused, didn't look around, didn't joke with you. You know, it was just answering the questions and wanted to get the hell out of there and wanted to get to Saturday night. And even during the first world tour, when they were next to each other, wasn't messing around. John was bringing up his phone, facing off with him, putting it up in his face, all that stuff. And the guy was just, you know, very serious, very stoic. And he really did have an entire country on his back.

He really did. That would have been the biggest win for Swedish combat sports, in my opinion, since Ingmario Hansen defeating Floyd Patterson in 1959 at Yankee Stadium. Without a doubt, that put Swedish boxing on the map, and even in defeat, even though it was so close, Swedish MMA has now been put on the map because of what Alexander Grysson did on Saturday. Where's Connor McGregor? All right.

Let's go to the Skype machine and welcome in. There he is. The man with the beard. Connor, how are you? How are you, bud, I'm doing, I'm doing great. Okay, a lot to talk to you about here. Oh, and he's brushing it. I like it.

You haven't trimmed that thing, right? No, no, no, no. I'm never ever going to trim it. Yeah, I trimmed it once or twice and I always regret it straight away, so I'm never going to trim it again. Okay, a lot to talk to you about, and I love it. Keep it going. How is the knee doing?

You had the ACL surgery. How are you feeling right now? Yeah, I'm going to show you real quick. Oh. Can you see you? yeah, whoa. Wow. I mean, look at a muscle definition in that leg. The physio said that's unheard of,

I have my muscle definition back, you know. They shaved it as well, so it was like a little bitch leg for a while. No hairs, I'm not a little skinny-ass leg, but I'm getting the muscle back and I'm putting in the workout here, you know, following the same, following the identical route that GSP took, you know, same surgeon, same, same everything, you know what I mean, same rehab. and he was 10 months and the doctor record the surgeon reckon he could have been back earlier so my physio reckons I'll be back full full training in six months the way

the way I'm going I mean I'm a super freak I'm a specimen of movement and and I feel good you know what I mean I'm just going to keep a positive hair and get it done now the fact there's a lot of ass weapons to be handed out are you know what I mean so yes of course and we will get to that we get back fast I'm out here on my own I mean out here in LA doing it rough on my own, don't have no family, don't have no friends. I'm in a little room on my own. I have my management team part of the time, come by everything now and again to look after me.

And then, of course, the UFC, making sure everything is looked after as well. But really, I'm on my own here, you know what I mean? Doing it, doing it. No, dedicating myself to this. This is just a new phase to what's going on in my story, you know, another chapter that I will overcome. Now, why are you in California not in your home country where you're more comfortable of Ireland?

just because yeah well I mean the surgeon was out here the best surgeon they had you know the guy that worked on Kobe the guy that worked on George the guy that worked on Tom Brady

and the rehab setup is really good out here you know so I'm going home now at the end of the month I'm trying to big party you want to come yes am I invited

of course you're invited yeah no fat chicks yeah don't bring Mrs. Helwani wow oh Connor Now you may have crossed the line, my friend. I will beat you down.

I will beat you where you stand. No, boy. Yeah, what we're talking about again? We're talking about why you're in California, so you say it's better there. But let me ask you. The rehab is top-notch out here. I mean, I'm in here.

They just know, not that it's not bad back home, you know, but I'm going to go home now at the end of this month and see what I am, what kind of rehab is back home and what kind of setup is back home. Well, the setup is too good out here. You know, I mean, honestly, I'll do anything. I will do anything it takes to get me back full health and quicker than everyone else.

I plan on setting records here, you know what I mean? But at the same time, I'm going to set records on this return. People are going to study me, study this injury, and study how I came back from this. At the same time, though, I'm going to listen to instructions. I'm not going to do something. I'm not going to rush it either. I'm well aware that you rush this injury and you're right back to square one, you know what I mean?

So I take instructions. But honestly, I'm planning on setting records here. Were you shocked when you found out the – Do you have like a man servant there? What's going on? Someone giving you tea? What kind of like... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, he's works for my management team, Ron. He's a nice guy. Oh, Ryan's the best. He'd be bringing in building up and looking after me and shit. Literally, I've been in this hotel the past... The past while now, you know what I mean? After that surgery, it's tough on the minds. You know, you're just in bed.

You're just locked in bed. You know what I mean? Dwelling over everything. And you're damn right, it was a shock. You know what I mean? I only found out on Twitter. I was already planning my next conference. I mean, I was going to everyone.

My next contest was the top 10 of pound. There's no doubt in my mind. I believe Diego Brandel got that, got that fight that I was supposed to get against Worriere, and I don't even know what date that was scheduled for, but I believe that was my fight. But anyway, I was going out. I was going on everyone.

You know what I mean? I was planning my next contest, my next time getting in there. And then I goes on Twitter, and I seize this thing that Dana White tweeted, fuck sports has just announced. Our fuck sports, McGregor injury, 10 months. A, A-C-L, MCL, P-C-L, fucking all sorts of C-Ls.

You know what I mean? So I'm sitting there and shuck. My heart is in me. My heart's at the coming out of my ass are you, and not I mean? So, and then a message goes on from Dana. The beard is glorious, and you know it out of you there. It's good.

I'm jealous. It's getting nice and tick and everything. See, do you, see a man, Healy. Yeah. Kipch, Norma, Dirka, Dirk. And start saying, eh, I made him cut the beard, man. That's horrendous that is. He was like fighting women out so.

I'm not. I'm sorry with that. Leave the guy's beard alone. I mean, you make him cut his beard and then give him an asswomen. That's got the, that's got to stink bad for Healy, you know what? What if the commission tells you to shave that for your next fight? What do you do? What do you do? Honestly, we're going to, I was thinking a bear better, but we're going to have problems. I don't know what? I don't know what will

happen. It's not happening at him. Trust me, I tell you this as well. Find a guy with a beard compared to finding a guy who's freshly shaved. I was the fresh-shay of my face and the stubble off the bald head and the stubble off the thing. When someone's fighting for head control and that hits your chain and stuff, it rips you to shreds. You know what I mean? The bird is a little bit of cushion. I mean, don't fear the beard, don't know what I mean?

Don't fuck with the birds. How much do you hate Dustin Kimora today? You tweeted a picture that he screwed up your parlay. You would have won 11,000 euros? Is that correct? Yeah. I don't hate the guy. He dropped them with a body shot and everything.

It's just one of those things, isn't it? But to be honest, I rush that one. I rush that one. I always do studying on it, you know what I mean? I like to, I've limited myself now to only betting on the fights. You know what I'm, it's what I specialize at. I'm specialise in this game. And so I have only, like, you could have caught me at 4 in the morning one time,

betting on, let's say, I'm betting on these live bets, just go online and these live bets, and the matches are like five minutes from over, and it's nil all. And I'd bet that it's going to remain a draw. You know what I mean? So let's say there's three or four days in a row. I bang three or four in a row real quick and stick a few quait.

That was where I was at for a while. So I stopped doing that. Now I'm only betting on the fights, but I rushed that one. I mean, I didn't study the other guy as much. You know, Dustin was an undefeated guy. He's in Holloway's camp. I don't know. I just kind of liked him.

I like this style. I don't know. He let me down. What can you do? It would have been a nice few quaid. So we've asked every guest on the show thus far. We've had Uriah Fabor, Chale Sonnen, Dan Hardy, Chris Weidman.

We wanted to get everyone's take on this. Now I'll ask your take. Who won the fight between John Jones and Alexander Gustafson? In my eyes, they both won. I mean, they should have brought out a second battle. Just handed the two of them, because that was a special, special contest. I mean, Gustafsson, good in the pocket, his boxing. You know what I mean?

John Jones' dynamic kicks, man. It was a special event. and that to follow the Maywey at Canelova, you know, it was just a beautiful team for the sports, you know, the show, true combat, you know, is where it is at. Man, there was no loser in that contest. If I had the cheos, you know, John finished the stronger, I'd probably have to say John, you know, my heart probably say,

hey, look, no of these whiskers is out. The guy in the shop, the guy in that trimmed my beard said five more months before I get them properly out. to do that. Yeah, I'm gonna try I see what it's like. Oh, why. I'm gonna try, not.

I'm growing with hair, but. But you're still, but you're still, uh, fading it on the side there. Yeah. So,

what we're talking about? Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I think, I think, I think,

I think, I think, I think John, I think John's just done enough, you know what, I mean, but, I mean, what a,

what a contest. He would have taught that, you know, I didn't think that. You mentioned, Mayweather. Did this prove that MMA is a better sport than boxing

or more, I mean, that fight wasn't... Not that I meant it like that, you know, boxing's great, and I really, I love that, that Mayward of Canelofa. That was a masterclass in defense, you know what I mean? A lesson in evasive, evasive combat, he taught Canello, and he teaches everyone, you know what I mean? Well, when it comes to MMA and the excitement

and the back and forward, and the... The unpredictability and the, you know what I mean? It's so dynamic. You don't know what the fuck is going on in there. You know what's going to happen at? And it was a special event, and it just reinstated my, not that I love this game, but it just really made me look at this and think,

man, I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing. I'm in love with this game, you know what I mean? So it was a special contest. Knowing you now, I feel like you. I don't want to see the rematch. Hopefully, you know, hopefully they're he-look, because I'd imagine both of them are in a hell of a lot of pain right now. Knowing you, I feel like you were shadow boxing on one leg,

you were so amped after watching that. Yeah, yeah, I've been squeezing in workouts now I don't let I don't let this get to me I mean, I'm an intelligent martial artist and I adapt to my situation you could put me in the jungle

you could put me anywhere on planet earth you know what I mean I'll come out surviving I'll come out well fed and well dressed and looking good you know what I mean

right now this injury I'm only have one leg on my juicing to it and I hobble into my bathroom and my bathroom on the sink and I lean over the sink

and start them push-ups you know me clap push-push up leaning over it do about 100 them I'm doing about 500 sit-ups a day

and then I'm doing my rehab all this I'm getting like two sessions a day pretty much now I'm a lot more mobile now I'm a lot more mobile now I'm two weeks one my two weeks one day

two weeks two days just over two weeks over the surgery I'm on the bike I'm walking I'm leg pressing wow you know what I mean like I said

I'm a special specimen that scientists have already got in touch and they want to they want to pay big money to get money my buddy and study my buddy after I'm gone. I'm a specimen of movement, my friend.

You know, after the Max Holloway fight, you created quite a stir with the videos and the tweets about, you know, talking about the division. And you're getting it a bit back. You have Aldo saying, who, the Irish guy. You have Nick Lentz taking some shots. Chad Mendes saying who. Are you liking the fact that the featherweights

are stepping up and giving it a bit back to you here? Yeah, I mean, You know, when that interview I've done with Fox, you know, they said we're going to do Word Association. I'm going to name something, you're going to give me your response. Like, okay, they start naming all the top ten. I gave an honest assessment of what I thought.

I believe it was correct. I believe my assessment was correct. What about you, Ariel? You believe that was correct? I believe it was too safe. I believe Chad is a 135er. I believe Cub is aging. I believe Denis Cever is aging.

I believe Poirier is a peahead. I believe Lens is boring. I'm just stating a boring hillbilly. I'm just stating facts. And of course, get response, respond to all, yeah,

of course, honestly, there is no one else in this division. This is my division. You know what I know it. I know it. How many times I'm on this show and air? This is my fourth time.

Yep, that is true. In less than a year. Who's the most? In a year? I think this might be the record for less than 365 days. This is a bit,

and this are 200. So we brought the big out the binguds today. I set records out of it, yeah? Set records. Oh, how's the show going on? That's a big one, yeah? It's 200. Yeah, you know who's next?

Don't cold, Steve Austin, your boy. No way, man. That is too cool, that is. I was only watching a documentary on Netflix about him, man. What a kill motherfucker that guy is? Not as cool as Stevie Collins. What? Will he be in your corner, Steve Collins, for your next fight?

I set that up for you. Don't forget. Yeah, Dana ring me that. Dana rang me the Tuesday before the fight. Okay. I mean, I was talking about the entrance. He was talking about the boss. I want me to come out to you too.

And then he said he's going to get Steve Collins. Wow. I'm going to fly Steve tons out. And then it turns out Steve was busy or Steve couldn't do or something. Because it was last minute, you know, so. But I believe that would happen down the line. Now, maybe, honestly, I'd like to be back. I believe I'm going to be back before the Dublin card.

Wow. That's my aim. I want to be back before the Dublin card. card. I have a contest back. Maybe at 1.55. I'm going to... Honestly, I feel... I feel too fast for these guys at 155, and I... And 1.45 is just too damn easy, you know what I mean?

So, I might have 155 on my return, and then... And then, a meaningful fight at 1.45 in Dublin. You know what I mean? A meaningful fight. Yeah. I don't know what way it's going to play on my comeback. What kind of opponent they're going to give me, or what kind of what, you know what, you know what? I mean, but...

I know I'm going to make it look easy. I'm going to make the return look easy. No one has... No one has the mind I have. No one has the intelligence I have to this game. You know what I mean? So you, it's going to be like I never left. And not only is it going to be like I never left, it's going to be, you know, I'm going to improve.

I study this game, I study movements. I take my notes. This is just, like I've been saying, this is just a new phase of training, you know what I mean? I'm off-site. You know what I mean? You're doing an apprentice. You're on-site for a while,

and then you go off-site and go to college. Now I'm in college, you know what I mean? Studying videos, taking notes. And I'm going to, you know, I keep it fresh, keep it fresh in my mind, then it will remain fresh in my body. So on my return, I mean, I'm still going to be whoop my ass, it's still going to be,

still going to be creating headlines, I mean, so I'm just, I'm just buzzing to get back, you know what I mean? My life is contact area, and I'm for some, for this, I never knew nothing about injuries, you know what I mean? I knew injuries, I didn't really know much about the ACL injury, I mean, so someone to take this away from me,

you know, it's been tough. It's been tough on the mind, tough on the brain, out here on my own, I mean, but I just reinforced down, I'm out here, I'm out here, doing this and I'm how to dedicate myself to this and no one's going to stop me. I'm unstoppable and what I mean? In some ways I feel like

it might help you. It gives you even more motivation because all you have is your bum leg and your thoughts right now. That's all you can think about, right? My bum leg, man. I'll give you a smack on my bum leg right now. No, definitely, yeah, you know. I'm here, honestly, but it wasn't for the internet

if I didn't have the internet set up, I'm just sitting here chilling out. So, but these past already. I've been doing them ass and authorities and I've been having a bit of fun down that. getting them trending in Ireland. I mean, I put up as, this thing, hashtag Asno Taras, and it'd just be trending in Ireland within like, within like five minutes.

Okay. That'd be fun. Final question for you. Have you thought, like, you say that one fight and then the Dublin fight, who's the guy you want to come back to? Who do you want to face in your return? Honestly, it's a long way to be, to be, to be, to be, to be calling people out. But I'd love, I'd love a 155 fight.

That 155 fight I thought was in slow motion. on Saturday night, if I'm being honest, you know what I mean? I believe I'd be too fast for these guys, so I need these guys. And I fight at 155, you know what I mean? I've fought at 155. I've held belts at 155. I've knocked people out on 155. There's a different dynamic.

There's pros and cons to it. You know, there's pros and cons to fighting up and down. They're a little bit, they're faster that fast that fed away. Max was, Max is one of the fastest guys, you know what I mean? He was a defensive fighter. He took a defensive approach. I mean, but a lot of the 155s are slow. Luggest.

You know what I mean? To me, they seem a bit more open. I honestly feel like going there in light 90% to that division up. And so I don't know. I'm going to have to think about it. And I haven't even said out to the U.S.A. or anything.

I'll show on Shelby. I know he wants me to stay at 145. But we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. All right. Well, we will be following the rehab very closely at the notorious SEMA. Always a pleasure.

The beard is looking great. Keep the spirits high. My man. And please join us. again when you're ready to return. We appreciate it very much. Very, very big deal for us today's show. So thank you so much for stopping by, Connor. And good luck to you. All the best. Hope to see you back sooner rather than later. Thank you, man. Congratulations on your 200 show. Still making peanuts, though, I reckon. Thank you. Maybe you could give me a couple of tips in the future. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good, man.

There is. The notorious Connor McGregor stopping by. We wish him the best. Hopefully he returns to the octagon sooner rather than later, he is one of a kind, and he says he wants a piece of the 155-pound division. How about that? How about that? Conne McGregor, if he goes up, and remember, when he fought for Cage Warriors, he was a lightweight and featherweight champion over there. So this is a guy who has obviously done a lot in his career in both divisions, and thus far in the UFC. He is 2-0 as a featherweight defeated Marcus Brimidge in April, and then, of course, defeated Max Holloway in August at the first Fox Sports One show. That was a big deal. And of course, things may have, I don't know, slowed down for him a little bit. But if he says he comes back,

six months, ACL surgery, that might be a little too quick. But if he comes back in seven or eight, I don't think that the momentum will halt all that much on the McGregor train. I really don't think. I think that there is enough buzz and he keeps himself out there that I think a lot of people will still be interested and be excited about him. Now, remember when he beat Marcus Brimidge in April of last year, of this year in Sweden, he talked about how he felt like he was Stone Cold Steve Austin there, playing the video game, all that stuff. Well, how about this?

We go from Connor McGregor to Stone Cold Steve Austin. There he is. Wow. I'm in awe right now. The one and only, the legend. Steve Austin. Thank you so much for stopping by. This is huge for us.

Hey man, I appreciate you having me on the show. I'm a big fan. Well, that is very kind. I appreciate very much. And you're no stranger to podcast now. All of a sudden, you're Mr. Podcasts. Where did this come from? I tell you what, it's a work in progress. I'm still a hack at best, but two days a week, I do my best that I can to put together an entertaining show. It's a Steve Austin show. And Ariel, on my show, I'm not trying to solve the problems of the world, just provide about an hour, hour and a half of content in the form of audio whoop ass. It is not rocket science by any stretch of the imagination, just me using my creative juices to turn out a product.

But I'm having a lot of fun doing it. What kind of preparation do you put into it? Because the questions and the guests are obviously great. I mean, you take this very seriously. Well, yeah, yeah. You know, when I'm talking to people, I don't really like to consider myself like interviewing people. Boy, it's more like a conversation between two folks. And a lot of the guys that I've talked to are guys from my world, pro wrestling.

I got a chance to talk to, obviously. some MMA fighters, Chal Sondin and Josh Barnett. I look forward to talking to more people in that world because I'm such a huge fan of the UFC and MMA in general. So, man, you got to do your research. You got to know, know some background. And I don't like to ask the tough prying questions because, hey, man, with some of the cats that I've hung around with back in the day,

some things are better left unsaid. But you got to be up to speed with the subject at hand. So I just try to prepare myself. and that comes in a form of research. And so, you know, it's a lot more work than I thought it would be, to be, you know, quite frank with you. But nonetheless, it's a lot of fun. And I just enjoy talking to people in general.

So it's been a great outlet for me. You mentioned you're a huge MMA fan. We are on MMA show. I've seen you at MMA fights. Did you watch the John Jones-Oxand-A gustavs fight on Saturday? And if so, who do you think won? We've asked everyone thus far on the show. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Man, I'll tell you what, I'm down at the ranch right now in South Texas. I haven't shade. I'm down here doing a lot of work. But we watched the show, me and my buddy, the fights just the other night. And I was blown away by Alexander Gustafson. We've seen him come along, and I've seen him, you know, turn in outstanding performances. But I think this was a shining moment. And I think a star has been into making all this time. And, you know, and the fight against Jones, I think a superstar was born.

And I think it was just a great fight. And I thought it was interesting to hear John Jones. Jones, talk about how much he was tested in this fight, the most he's been tested since he started fighting, maybe that he needs to reevaluate what he's doing in training camp to take it maybe a little bit more seriously. Because, I mean, you know, he's beating some big-name people and really smoked him and dominated him because he's so strong, he's so long, and he's just so unpredictable. That guy's a hellishist fighter. Gustafson had a lot of answers for Johnny Jones that he didn't know what the questions were seemingly.

I was impressed by the fight. I think the champion really has to get his ass beat a little bit more to lose. But that being said, I come from the world of pro wrestling aerial, as you know. Yes. I do not have a score fight technically. But, man, I had it three to Gustafson. Wow. Wow.

What did you have it at? Were you down with the decision? When they said unanimous decision, that really caught me off guard. I thought that Alex won the first round. I thought John won the second round. I thought Alex won the third round. I thought John stole the fourth round with 60 seconds left.

I thought he stole it and then won the fifth, so I had it 3-2, John. Okay, man, again, man, I'm a super fan. I don't know how to score, so I don't want the MMA boards eating my ass up. I just know it was a hell of a fight.

I didn't think it was going to go five rounds, but I tell you what, I was well worth the money. Do you think, and it's interesting that you mentioned coming from the pro-ressing world, see, this is a fight that a lot of people were kind of overlooking.

Everyone thought John is going to smoke, Alexander Guffston. But is this the one thing when comparing those two worlds? And I say on this show all the time that if anyone will argue or disagree that MMA didn't come from pro wrestling and steals a lot of its values and its foundation from pro wrestling, then you're crazy. But do you think this is the one thing MMA will always have over pro wrestling, the unpredictability? You never know what's going to happen. And pro wrestling, often they tip their hand and that leads to some lackluster shows and fights, don't you think? Well, I don't know. I think then you could probably point the finger at the booking wasn't as smart as it could be.

Yep, yep. Or, you know, sometimes with the ring age of some of these kids in WWE is quite green, quite young. So maybe some of them aren't quite up to the experience level to carry out a lot of these, you know, intricate details of a very, you know, heavy duty angle. So that would be, it's a question of booking and execution. and with the green dynamics which go into, well, you know, you can have green fighters, but when you're talking storylines and execution, that does happen. So, I mean, I'd like to, I don't know, there are two different worlds, but two worlds that often, you know, runs somewhat of a parallel.

You know, pro wrestling by all rights is basically what MMA is, but at a work level and with the theatrics and the character development. Although, it seems these days UFC is kind of, you know, there's, there's, there's, more characters popping up here and there. For you personally, a massive pro wrestling match, one that's been built perfectly, whether it's wrestling, anything like that, or a massive UFC fight, what gets your blood boy that you say, I got to sit there on a Saturday night or a Sunday night if it's wrestling? What are you more into these days?

Well, you know, just from the world that I come from, I kind of left, you know, pro wrestling behind a few years back when I kind of started doing my own thing because of the experience that I have coming from my world, I can read between the lines and these angles. So I can kind of almost pretty much guess or tell you what is about to happen just based on my experience. So I get a little bit more charged up on a UFC fight because anything goes. And I'll tell you, man, when some of these championship matches, you know, start out and these cats are coming to the ring, you know, my heart's already pounding

and sitting on my couch, you know, watching the fight. I'm invested. So I got to tip my hat right now these days from where I'm in my head. life to, you know, the excitement of a badass UFC main event. That being said, I say with all of due respect to the world that I come from, pro wrestling, that, you know, obviously that is my first love. If MMA, I love asking this question to pro wrestlers, if MMA, UFC was as popular as it is today way back in, let's say, 1980, 1981, 1988, would Steve Austin have gone that route? Well, you know, speculation, who knows, hindsight now is something that I'm very, very interested

sit in. And I would say that, you know, with the way that I approach football or anything that I do, it's all or nothing. It's killer instinct. It's gopher broke. You know, I think I would have had the right mindset to do it had I, you know, got a chance to be introduced to it at a younger age. But by no means, am I going to sit here and say, yeah, and I would have been good at it because I don't know. I just know that I'm a big fan of it. I've been a fan of watching how it has just, you know, transitioned from back in the day when you had a wrestler versus a striker. And these days, these cats go in a ring, and they're well-rounded, and in all different aspects with the jiu-jitsu and everything that goes into it.

So I just like to say that I'm a super fan, and I enjoy watching the sport and watching it continue to grow. And to see, you know, where it's going to go. Will it flatline? You know, can you keep building the stars? All the things that it takes to draw big money when it comes time for a pay-per-view. Because you can look at that roster. You can look at the different weight divisions, and you want depth in each one of those divisions,

so you can have compelling fights to sell tickets, and you've got to have good storylines to do that. So I'm just a big fan. I just love to keep watching the transition go. And looking down the road to see if down the road, UFC or MMA in general, we'll have problems with some of the head injuries, you know, all the stuff facing the NFL at some level, you know.

You sold storylines, you sold tickets, you made people more interested in wrestling matches than arguably anyone in the history of the sport but there was no one like Stone Cold when you were on top. Do you ever watch some of these MMA fighters who are super talented and say, man, that post-fight interview was boring. You had a chance there. You got to sell yourself.

Does that drive you nuts? Man, I do it all the time. You know, a guy gets a chance to get on a horn, you know, Joe Rogan, or whoever goes out to talk to them, and they just, they crap to bed. You know, that is an outstanding opportunity for you to, you know, and do yourself to those, and that's the wrong word I was looking for, that's just a great way to reach out

and to let that crowd know who and what you are. Some guys just start spewing off at the mouth, talking a bunch of stupid trash, which doesn't make sense, or, you know, it's a good chance to pick up a new sponsor. Some of the guys who lose fights, you know, they get the boo-boo face, and they're pissing and moaning. You know, like, man, anytime Brian Stan fought,

That's one guy, whether he fought, when he lost or won, when he's on the horn, that guy commanded you respect, and he was well-spoken, he was articulate and eloquent. I always like to watch that guy's promos, and he knew what he was doing. He's a smart catch. So, yeah, any time one of those guys picks up the horn, I'm looking to see, and I'm listening to see, will they resonate with me or will they turn me off? Do you listen to some guys, and do you have favorites? Like this kid, Connor McGregor, I don't know if you know him, but he is a promo machine. Do you have some guys that you love listening to as far as MMA fighters who can really get you excited for a fight? Well, you know, of course, Chale Sutton is one of my favorites.

You know, of course, talking to Josh Barnett and getting a chance to talk to him on my podcast, and he's a very smart cat, and I've known him for quite some time. I'm not familiar with Connor McGregor, but I will be. Now that you mentioned his name, I'll check out some of his promos. Who else comes to mind? No one jumps off the page right now. Of course, I enjoyed what Brock was doing. back in the day, you know, when he was in there and enjoyed listening to him talk.

But, you know, some guys really need to step it up because, and I like all the different dynamics of how UFC builds some of their fights. Because, you know, some of it's all about, you know, just straight up as, you know, Kane Velasquez, you know, he basically just says what he's going to do, you know, what he's doing in his train. And, dude, if there's anybody that was born to fight, it's that guy, I don't need a wild promo out of him. I just need to know that he's going to go out there and take care of business. I'm looking forward to him and Junior DeSantos and number three. So they don't need crazy promos to build that. That's already there. And the fact that those two are just real pure fighters, that's all I need out of that match.

You know, someone who could help with that is someone that we had on our show. Last week, your good friend, Jim Ross, who recently announced his retirement from World Wrestling Entertainment. And he expressed great interest in working for the UFC, whether it is in front of the camera or behind the scenes. Are you in favor of this? Do you think Jim Ross can help? help the UFC grow? Man, I do just because the guy has, you know, 34 years' experience of, you know, storylines, angles, and knowledge, and booking and how things worked in our world.

And like I said, there are two parallels. Obviously, we know that MMA is a shoot. It's real. But, you know, that's the parallel. Does he have, yes, I think he could help in some capacity, some way, somehow. I got to turn that question on you. Do you think he could help? Oh, wow. I appreciate that very much. I don't know if the UFC will do it on camera because I think it's just he's too close to pro wrestling. I think they're going to want to shy away from that. But behind the scenes, talent development, I mean, he did that for many years in WWE. He can find, you know, ex-football players, collegiate wrestlers, things like that. Why can't he help? They need talent development.

But yeah, and sometimes, I mean, you know, certainly just natural storylines present themselves within MMA. So, you know, an idea here or there as far as a little creative. You know, you've got creative in anything you do, whether it's a shoot or a work. So I think he might be able to lend some experienced opinions on that. I just interviewed Jim Ross. He's going to be on my podcast. It's going to drop tomorrow as we speak. And it was a very reserved conversation because I think he was trepidious.

It might be a good word. But he took the high road. He's a class act. And, but it was, it was, it was an interesting conversation because Jim Ross is one of my best friends, but it was a little difficult. So I think it was, it was, you know, came very quickly after he'd resigned. But with that being said, an interesting conversation. So, but he did mention the UFC on my show, which will be tomorrow. Wow.

So we will look out for that. I know, he's a big fan. You know, I'm very curious to ask you this because, you know, and this has nothing to do with MMA, but you're here, so I have to ask it. It seems like every year, and I don't watch pro wrestling as much as I once said. I mean, back in the day, I never missed a Raw, a Smackdown, a pay-per-view, anything, anything. I mean, there was no bigger fan, no bigger mark. If you were, whatever term you want to use, I was that guy. Will you ever get in the ring again?

Because every year, it seems like there's a rumor about you, CN Punk, something. Are you officially done, or is that door still slightly open? Man, I'll tell you what. You know, the longer and longer I wait, the more and more time it goes down the road. You know, I just, when you really think about it, Ariel, you just think, okay, on one hand it may be fun to do but then on the other hand what's on the other side of that you know it took me three years

to get the business out of my system you know almost withdrawal would be a good way to put it and I got through those three years and now hell has been 11 years since I've been in the ring so you know sometimes I think on one hand I know a lot of fans would love to see that but what if it's not what it

should have been or could have been I don't want to go out there and do 90% of stone coal. That's not who and what I am. You know what I'm saying? So it would take three to four months of really a UFC-type camp to pull it off. And we're talking about a work deal here. But with timing, with the right win, with the right everything, you're looking at three or four months, okay, at least a three-month training period.

Sure. Okay, and then you go out there and you pull it off. Okay, then what next? You know, what next? So I was there. I did it at a very high level. I had a great time. I took the business to a height that it had never been before. Hopefully someone will come on. Now that I'm done, take it to an even higher level. John Cena has done a wonderful job doing what he's done. So, man, I'd say his pretty chances are pretty damn slim, you know, just to be quite frank about it. I've worked very hard to make the roads that I've made, you know, in my reality television stuff, which I really love doing. And some of the independent movies stuff that I, you know, I do and I enjoy.

I'm not trying to be, you know, I'm not trying to be the next time cruise. I enjoy myself working like I am not my ranch. I enjoy spending time on my reality shows. I enjoy my time prepping for my two podcasts that I do a week. maybe adding up a number three podcast, maybe breaking down a Monday Night Raw show, something like that. So I got my hands full, and I'm working on maybe doing a hunting show with the outdoor channel in 2014. So I've got a lot of my energy and my ideas focused on doing down those roads. Last week, we also had Roddy Piper on our show, and we'll end on this.

He gave me one of the best answers we've ever received on this show, and I'm curious to hear from you. Because I feel honestly, I could talk to you for the next three hours about all your great matches. and promos, just a massive admirer of yours. But how do you want to be remembered when it's all said and done for a certain match, something you said, something you did? How does Stone Cold Steve Austin, the character and the man, all combined into one, want to be remembered when it's all said and done? Hey, man, just to be remembered, I guess.

I don't spend too much time thinking about stuff like that. But I get a lot of great feedback from people who are all gathered around their television set and their grandfather watched her. the kid watched with his father and his grandfather, and it was kind of their thing that they did together, and they had a lot of fun watching Stone Coat, Steve Austin. So, man, I guess I just want to be remembered as a great entertainer, or as I would still call myself, a great pro wrestler. And a guy who went out there and whipped ass. I don't want to make it too complex because my job as a pro wrestler was to sell tickets to make people believe in what I was doing. I was good at it. I believed

it myself, because that's how much I love the business. So I guess that's all I can say about that. What did, uh, what did Roddy Piper? Roddy Piper said he wanted to just be remembered as a good father. And I, and that blew me away. Well, you know what? Yeah, I was sticking specifically to the, uh, the business of pro wrestling. But yeah, that's a damn good answer. And I'm a big Roddy Piper fan. I'm one of the biggest in the world. Steve, this has been a huge honor for me on our 200th show to have you, uh, you know, the 1998, you know, Ariel is just going nuts inside. Thank you so much for everything you've done, everything you can, you know, currently do. The podcast, I'm a huge fan of everything that you put out there.

This has been a massive, massive deal, so I can't thank you enough. I know you're very busy, so it means a lot to us. No, you know, I appreciate you to have me on the show because I'm a huge fan of the MMA, UFC, and to see my name on the list of the people that you had on. You know, sometimes, like I said, there's many parallels between the business and a lot of the guys and pro wrestling love MMA and vice versa. But there's those purists who would think,

well, why would you have this guy on the show? Hey man, I'm a big fan. I was proud to join you on your show. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Hope to talk to you soon and best of luck with everything.

We'll check out that podcast tomorrow with JR. Can't wait. You got it, man. Take care of you. There he is. The one and only. Stone Cold Steve Austin.

How awesome was that? Can't wait to check that out. His podcast is tremendous. If you haven't heard it, go out there on iTunes. Check it out. It is truly great. He is one of a kind and a legend.

They throw out that word a lot, but that man is a legend and honored that he is a part of today's 200th episode. Let's move along. Speaking of honored, I am honored that we have this man, arguably the greatest of all time, the former UFC middleweight champion, the greatest champion in UFC history, stops by once again on this show. He is, of course, Anderson, the spider. Silva, Anderson, are you there? I'm good. How are you, Anderson? It's good to hear from you. on?

Good time, bro. Okay, lots to talk to you about. I know you're kicking off this World Press Tour. What has the last two months been like for you? You're not the champion anymore. You don't have that belt. Has it been weird for you?

Yes. No. I have a lot of working. It's normal. Working. My job, outside the orthogonal. You miss the belt?

That's the central office. How come when this fight ended, the first fight ended, you said you didn't want to fight, Chris, and who convinced you to take the rematch? What did you tell you? Chris can't convince him? So, Chris is the new champion. The people need to respect this. But why did you say you didn't want the rematch? And who convinced you to actually take the rematch? You have a bunch of key in common stories.

Because the time, the finish the fight, the time is the Chris Weidman. Ah. And then who told you that it is the right move, or who convinced you that you should actually fight him again? You said nobody convinced him. He just said, what he means to say is that basically, that was Chris Wyden's moment. He just became champion, and he didn't want to cloud his moment by saying that rematch. He has a contract with the UFC. He's going to fight whoever the UFC puts in front of him.

So at that point... He can't fight. Yeah, you've still got... He's still got... He's still nine fights. And hey, Ed, how are you? Good to hear from you. Hey, I'm good, Ariel.

How are you? Good, good. What's that? Sorry, Ariel. Oh, no problem. No, no problem. It's great to hear from Ed as well. So, okay, so now you're actually fighting him

December 28th at UFC 168. Are you surprised that so many people are not picking him? he actually beat you, but still, everyone's, it seems like the fighters, they're picking you, people still kind of consider you the champion. They almost forget that he is the champion. Does that surprise you? You can say,

to pay you, that many people are choosing to go to to this battle. Ah, no, I'm working hard for a long time. I have, I have my story in this, this fort.

I have my fans. I respect the people. I respect my fans and RFCia. I respect my fans in the award. And this for me is the big, big chance for give the back, the presents for my fans. So when you said, I'm back in that interview, would you say that we're going to see the best,

Anderson Silva? Is that your present to the fans to come back and get the title back? Hello, I'm back. except because we have been used to respond to most that you, you're going to attack. Yeah, yeah, I try. I'm working hard now. I try.

This is a new champion is a good fighter, but I took me hard for a rematch. And New Anders has come. You know, the most amazing thing about that fight was how you dealt with it afterwards. You were so humble, like you said,

you wanted to give him his moment. And a lot of people said that it felt like the weight of the title was off your shoulders and you were relieved. You were happy about that. Is that true? I said, a lot of a shock, like, I was so humble in this fight, and many of the pressure of carrying this centauron,

you're feeling relieved. That's the truth? Yeah, a little bit, because for a long time, I defends my title, and I want to... working hard for the defense, the UFC belt. But sometimes you have good energy. Sometimes you don't have.

And I need to say Chris for the last fight is a good one. That's it. I know I need you talk too much because Chris losing the... Geotechnic and quiz win. That's it. How long did it take for you to move on and start thinking about the rematch and not the first fight? So I finished the fight, and then I thought to me for rematch. I changed my mind and working hard for the...

rematch. I saw an interview with you recently, and a lot of people have compared you to, you know, Floyd Mayweather and things like that. You don't seem to be a big fan of his. Why is that? If you only introduced you, what's the following to Floyd Medo

at his profession, not someone to respond in. No. I like Mayweather. It's the good boxing in the world. But Mayweather, sometimes the problem is no respect to the sports. I respect boxing.

Mayweather is the best fight, the boxing award. Definitely. Did you watch the John Jones-Alexander Gustavson fight on Saturday, and who do you think won the fight? I don't see the fight, but John Jones won. He did win, but a lot of people thought Alex won. So, I don't know, I don't see the fight, brother. Okay.

My energy, my mental, all the time, John Jones fight is John Jones because I like John Jones. Is that still a fight that you hope to do one day, you versus John Jones? Man, I have nine fights in the U.S.C. But my real opinion, no. Your opinion? Okay, your opinion, you don't want, why not?

Because in my team, I have a lot of guys, is the same class with the John Johns. And Rafael Fezhou, Germino Toro, Glover, Lyoto, Matida, and all the guys. These guys, I need to chase for fight for the belt. Are you surprised that Machita's going down to 185? No. It's normal. It's good. So you say that that's the fight that you don't want.

In that nine-fight stretch, of course, Chris will be the next one, and that's the one you're thinking about. And not including Roy Jones, because we know you want that fight very badly. Is there one that when the time is up, when that contract is over, that you really, really want one fight in particular? So, man, for me, my fault was his. my rematchee and Finanage rematch is a fight for Roy Jones this is my goal my big goal in the sports

Have you noticed that people treat you differently now that you're not the champion You know She's normal, no? It's a game But you've noticed it, right? People don't look at you or talk to you the same way, right?

Yeah, but that people are chatted in different, Yeah, of course, but my family is normal. My family is the same. This is more important for me. My sons, my wife, my brothers, my dad, the other people, forever. And what's your relationship now with Sensei Sagal? Because you did an interview recently where it seemed like you were saying that he doesn't deserve the credit for the kick against Vitor Belfort.

The medical guy, he can get the hell of course. Oh, no. I have the good. relationship for the Mr. the master Sigal. It's a great man, the great master, but

I working hard for this, the kick, the front kick for a long time. I started the martial arts. Then my first master, show the movement, and I trained teikundo, capoeira

and all the martial arts standout. But one day, Master Sini Sigal come to the academy, watching the training

and watching my front kick and talking me, hey, you move you a little more your leg, the kick is more fast. That's it. No too much. Don't show me the new kick or

blah, blah, blah. I respect Mr. Seagal, but is no my coach is my friend I understand what he said absolutely yeah

go ahead teach him the kick he just made some adjustment and helped him out with it but it's not his coach he trained with him that day and he and he's his friend but it's not like his coach

you know so I think that is I think some of that stuff in the media kind of got a little bit mixed around he wasn't by any means discrediting Fagal or or anything like that, he just, you know, sometimes it got, I think the way it would put out in the press was not the right way, he meant.

Fair enough. Three quick questions, and then we'll let you go, Anderson. Thank you so much for your time. Will you do anything in training differently for this fight in the rematch against Chris Weidman? So I train more jujitsu because right men come to fight me and no stand up to gather me now on this fight. Go for the ground, go for the ground.

That's it. I train more to Jitsu and ninjitsu. Okay, and for your legacy, do you feel like you have to do something spectacular in this rematch to cement that you are and

we're always the best ever? I mean, because all of a sudden, you know, people jump off the bandwagon, it happens all the time, but do you feel like this is not just a fight to regain your title, but it is too Cementra legacy is the best ever. Come on, bro. Definitely.

No. I working hard for a long time. And I fight in Brazil. I fight in Japan. I fight in Korea. I fight in England. I fight in a war, bro. I have, I have al-Bubadi.

And I fight for a long time. My big goal is the change the life. The new athletes come, change the life, the kids, the people, because I'm a normal guy. Sometimes I have good days. Sometimes I don't have good day. The people have the chance now for see the real Anderson. It's normal.

And final one, Anderson, and that was an incredible answer. One of my favorites that I've ever heard from you. So thank you. How will you win on December 28th? Anytime. What was that? Are you? Can you repeat the question? How does he expect to win on December 28th?

Jiffing what you does now. Oh. I give it back. You know-call. Wow. Chris back his knockout. I heard it loud and clear. Thank you so much, Ed.

Thank you so much, Anderson. This is a huge honor for us on our 200th episode. Really appreciated. And best of luck as you prepare for December 28th, one of the biggest fights in UFC history. Obrigado. anytime thanks ariel

the guy who has the second best shoe collection in mnama i'll bow down to you thank you ed i appreciate it there they are and ed in the car going to the world press tour we will be there we have correspondence we have like eight minutes to kind of catch our breath here for a second

before we go in the final sprint of this uh this this 200th episode, we just went from Uriah to Chale, to Dan, to Chris, to Connor, to Stone Cold, to Anderson in a little over two hours. Do you have anything to add, Newark, Rick?

Do you want to be a part of this? This murder is row. I do want to be a part of this, but not right this second. You can't. Why? Why not right this second? what are you doing that's it he doesn't have what it takes look at that oh okay all right um how about that how about that uh they they told me i don't know if will speaking my ear personally or privately or publicly um but he's on the phone how about that comment from Anderson Silva I give Chris

back the knockout was that the exact comment I'm reading Matt gerard here who quoted it for me and the one before about his legacy, that made the interview. And of course, when you interview Anderson, you know that English is not his first language, so you get it. But that made it for me right there. That was great. In a minute, in five minutes, excuse me, we will be joined by George St. Pierre. We go from Anderson-Silve to George St. Pierre. And of course, George St. Pierre meets Johnny Hendricks on November 16th at UFC 167. After that, we'll be joined by Greg Jackson for a quarter of quick update on John Jones. And of course, why wasn't Greg Jackson in John Jones's corner? I don't know if you guys realize this. I tweeted this on Saturday night after the fact.

For whatever reason, the Ontario Athletic Commission only allowed the main eventors. Typically, they're allowed four cornermen, but on Saturday night, they only allowed three. and, you know, I don't think they do it, you know, for any particular reason or there's a hierarchy when they're writing them down. But for whatever reason, when Team Jones wrote down the names for his corner, Greg Jackson was fourth. So they cut off the list at three. And Greg Jackson, who is obviously a big part of John Jones's team, a big part of who John Jones is, a big part of his preparation, all that good stuff. he wasn't in his corner. He wasn't there. He was off to the side yelling instructions at Mike Winklejohn, who was obviously a big part of John Jones's team and all that stuff I just said,

off to the side, yelling instructions, and then Winkle John, who can obviously be on his own, and Greg made it a point to say that to me when we spoke, relayed what he needed to relay. But could you imagine your guy, one of your mentors, your back, backbone in many respects wasn't there. Now, I talked to some fighters about this afterwards and they say, look, at the end of the day, fights a fight, you're in the fight, it doesn't really truly matter who is there. But you think about, you know, the connection they have, the camaraderie they have, the impact Greg Jackson has in his fighter's corner, the way he talks to them, the way he communicates with them, he's a big deal. You can't dismiss that. I'm not saying

that that's the reason why John, you know, was beat up, not taking anything away from Alexander. of Gufferson, but it is certainly a big deal. So Greg Jackson wasn't in John Jones Corner on Saturday night, and I find that fascinating. And I find it strange because usually you get at least four guys for a main event. Title fight. Ontario didn't allow that. And how about Ontario making Pat Healy, that wasn't a big beard. Can you imagine if Connor fought there with that beard?

Can you imagine if Kimbo fought there? Imagine Roy Nelson? That wasn't a big beard. They made him trim his beard. They made Costa Filipu trim his beard. I'm wondering now, now that I think about it, the two guys who had to trim their beards, both lost. How about that? Weird, right? The power of the beard. It's not something to be overlooked. But anyway, the Ontario Commission, a very strange one, and they've had their, we've had our ups and downs of them as far as how they handle things. But the beard,

the beard, the beard is crossing the line. You don't touch the beer. And especially those weren't even big beards. Did you see Pat Healy's beard before the fight? That was not a big beard. That is not a beard that would affect either the opponent or the fight in any way. And I can understand. Someone's saying, oh, the beard pads at the chin. Cormier saying that Nelson gets an unfair advantage with his beard. People have brought this up about Kimbo Slice. But honestly, that beard, I don't know. What's the point? Why mess with a guy? If a guy's comfortable with that and it's not big, it's not a certain length, why make him shave it? Anyway, reason why I bring up the Greg Jackson thing is because he will be joining us right after George at around 340.

And then at around 350, we will be joined by Big John McCarthy, who was the third man in the Octagon. Of course, he was the referees, the legendary referee. And he was there on Saturday night for the John Jones, Alexander Gustafsson fight. And Dana White said on Saturday after the fight, he told the story about how the the commission was close to stopping the fight going into the fifth round. They thought that the cut above John Jones' is, I believe, right eye was very problematic, and they were going to stop it. And Dana said that Big John also, quote, unquote, pleaded for the commission not to stop

the fight, which is interesting because that's typically not what the referee should do or technically not what he should do. So I wanted to get Big John, and I think it would be nice to hear from Greg, who wasn't a part of the main event and find out what happened there and then get Big John. Of course, for the 200th episode, God is my witness. I did try to get John Jones on the show, and, you know, I can understand. That was my Hail Mary. That was me kind of going for the gusto there.

I tried to get him, but I'm told that he is not 100%. I actually did get an update. I did get an update from his manager, Malki Cowell. who told me this before the show, he said that he's getting some tests done this week on his foot and we'll update once we get those results back. So they told me, Team Jones told me, that it is probably broken. They figured it was broken.

They wouldn't want to speculate whether or not the injured toe truly affected him, but it was the same foot that he seriously injured early in the fight. I believe on a kick, that was his left foot, of course, severed the toe against Chibbett. Sondon and then he injures it and, you know, you talk about wrestling and all that stuff. I mean, that could affect you. But again, you can't take anything away from what Gustafin did, stopping those takedowns, taking him down, busting him up on his feet. It was a show for the

ages. It was a fight for the ages. And what we made it so good was that everyone counted out Alexander Gusson. I don't know one media member that picked him. The only person that I saw pick Gustafson on the record was Dominic Cruz during the broadcast on Fox Sports One, and of course he would pick him because he trains with him at a line to May. Of course, I don't think they're sparring together, but he's not going to pick against his opponent. You can't do that. I didn't see anyone who was unbiased pick Gustafsson, and that's what made it so good, and it happened so quickly.

You're watching that fight in the first minute and you're like, wait a second, is he going to win this round? and then I went to like, wait a second, he has won the round. Is he going to win the next round? Is he going to win this fight? Is he going to be the new champion? It was all happening so quickly, and I'm very, very curious to see whether or not the UFC makes that rematch right away or if they book Gus of Sin versus someone else along the way and have Jones fight, Glover-to-Share.

Because if they don't do the Gustavs to fight, I think at this point they're going to do the Glover fight. I actually spoke to Glover to Share, and that interview will air on UFC tonight, which is this Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern time. in the West on Fox Sports One. Hope you're liking that. It's the new one-hour version, primetime version of UFC tonight.

And I think we have a big guest on the show this week, but I won't spoil it just yet. I want to talk quickly about Hannah Browne since we were talking about Dominic Cruz, and I'm sure people are going to ask about him as well. And George is coming up any minute here. He is, of course, the interim champion at this point. Interim, no interim, what does it all mean?

He's the best active fighter at 135 pounds. Part of me feels like it would be a disservice to Dominic Cruz if they just bring him back more than two years later and have him fight this guy, who in my opinion really needed a performance like that. You know, he finished Michael McDonald's, which was super impressive, but a flashy knockout in the dancing where you saw some personality out of handing because it's so hard with some of these foreign fighters, the Brazilian fighters, to really get them out there and promote them and show who they are. But that's something that you can play on highlight real. That's something that you can sell people on.

I thought it was great. I thought it was perfect. That's the kind of fight and finish and win that he needed, and he got it. And at this point, let's see. I mean, you look at the calendar, they're pretty much booked up until the end of the year. December 28th, that's the last show of the year. All right, so what are we? November, September 23rd.

So you got three months there. And then you could probably wait until, you know, February and March. And that has to be kind of the deadline. for Dominic Cruz. And if not, then I'm really looking at the T.J. Dilloshaw versus Hafele-Sonsaw fight. That fight is taking place next... What is it? Is it next week?

Yeah, I think it is next week. No, it's in two weeks. No, it's next week. October 3rd. In Brazil, that's on Fox Sports 1, a Wednesday night card. That's a huge fight. That's a huge fight at 135 pounds. And I think T.J. Dilashaw, if he's victorious, could be a very interesting opponent for

Henne Barra. I really think with his wrestling. He's turned into obviously a great striker working with Bang Ludwig and the team they're at Team Alpha male, I think that's a great fight. So that's what I'm looking at right now, but everyone wants to see that fight. Again, I do think it's somewhat of a disservice, but it's such a big fight, a unification fight. They've kept Henan as interim champion for so long that I think it only kind of makes sense to do the unification back, because you're not going to strip him now. That would make no sense. Why would you strip him right off the bat upon his

return if you kept Henan as the interim champion for all those years? Makes no sense, right? Let me just tell the people here. And don't forget, after our last three interviews, we will be joined by all of you. We will take your questions. So use the hashtag the MMA hour to get them out there or leave them on the website. And as I mentioned at the top, as we continue to give back to all of you, hope you're enjoying the 200th episode of the MMA hour. As we continue to give back to all of you, we're giving out these cards, this prize from our friends. at tops. UFC finest.

2013 trading cards. Look for the autographed jumbo relic cards on inside. And you got Ronda Rousey there. Does it say anything I should know? Oh, here it is. Every mini box contains an autograph and two jumbo relics. Every master box contains six autographs or jumbo relics. And I believe this is a mini box.

Five cards per pack, two six-pack mini boxes. I think this is a mini box. Anyway, we're giving this out, as we used to do in the old days. Hopefully they will get to you. Hopefully they'll actually be sent out. As we wait for George, I wanted to also address the whole promotion thing. Dana White getting in his shots in our post-fight interview. If you listen to this show, if you've listened to the MMA beat, you know that I had no problem with the promotion. I actually thought it was a smart way to sell a fight. For the first time and a long time, they were using tactics. They were using things of that nature. I will address that in a second. For now, let us go to the phone lines and welcome in for the very first time and what better time than now in our 200th episode to welcome in the UFC welterweight champion George Rush St. Pierre. George, how are you? I'm doing very well. Thank you. Good to have you on the show. Okay, lots to talk to you about. I know our time is limited, so let's get right into it. Back and forth, you and Johnny Hendricks have gone leading up to this fight about Wada, Vada, all this stuff. Why did you feel the need to do all of this

before this fight when in the past this hasn't really come up for you? Well, many reasons. First, the first reason is you cannot be against the virtue. So I'm not against the virtue. Secondly, a lot of people have been accusing me. I'm on steroids. In the past, it always, I always feel like it was because they feel like I have good athleticism, so I took it as a compliment.

but with time goes by, you know, I wanted to make a point. I wanted to prove to the world that you can be world champion without using Stereid and never use Stereid in my life. And I wanted to make a point for myself. Third reason, I wanted to do something good for the honest people in the sport that are fighting. And I wanted to do something good for the sport, you know. I want to, as a champion, I want to be a good role model, and I want to, as an athlete, outside of the octagon, my role is to, I want to elevate the sport to another level. I want the sport be, elevate the sport to a more mainstream level, and I think is the next step because a lot of things have happened.

I wanted to raise the bar and to do something for, like I said, for the sport to, for that. and I said I was going to do it Andrew said he was going to do it in the past he changed his mind but me I'm still doing it because I'm a man of my word So you're still doing the VAT of testing How much of a nuisance has this been for you? How often are you getting tested?

I've done the Vada testing so far I'm waiting for the athletic commission too But we wait for the paper They never sent back the paper. I wanted to do both at the same time because Johnny, that's what he wanted to do. So I wanted to do both in St. Papa. I want to make sure I was doing better as well. And so far, I've been tested two times. They arrive randomly. Two times they arrive so far. I was not expecting them. They arrive like randomly.

Sometime in training, where you train or in the morning, they knock at your door. It happened two times so far. They arrive. You know, it sucks. Sometimes they, they disturb. view, but that's how it is. That's the super price I want to make for this scam. And Johnny Hendrix has said that he believes you are kind of in cahoots with Vada, that you're being paid by them. Is that true? No, it's not true.

It's ridiculous. I heard what Johnny Hendricks said, and I don't think he knows what he's talking about. He was talking about weather. He said he wanted to do weather. First, let me justice take you on the subject. Yes. WADA, WADA, WADA, it's an organization that makes the guideline.

It makes the guideline for the testing association. WADR followed the guideline of WADR. So when he says he wanted to be tested by weather, there is no such thing. It's an organization that made the guideline and made the prohibited list for the association that do the testing. So whether it's just like a guideline. Vada is an association that tests. It's probably the most profitable association that test.

It's been recommended for me because I'm friends with Freddie Roach and many professional boxers in the past have used it. And also, Rory McDonald and BJPen have used it as well. It's a very refutable organization. And they test for synthetic, for a lot of good, a lot of product. They make sure they do it. They do it all.

So that's why I wanted to go with fado. And the fact that he doesn't want to do it, what do you think that says about Johnny Hendricks? Do you believe when he says, oh, I don't want to do it because George is in bed, or do you think there are other reasons? Listen, I don't want to accuse Johnny Hendrick. You can ask Johnny himself the reason why he doesn't want to do it.

I'm not going to answer. him. The only thing I can say is this. People they want to be champion, they want to make money. What make you have money as an athlete? It's your brand and how you succeed in your sport. Even if you're champion and your brand is not good, you have a bad reputation. You're not going to make money. The sponsor will not want to sponsor you. So it's important to have a good dimension, have a good brand. When you see something, you have to be a man of your word and do it. You know what I mean? When I say, I'm going to be that said I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it. I'm a man of my word. That's why I make the money in the sport because I have a good brand and the man of my word. When I say something, I do it. It's part of my person to be authentic and who I am and what I stand for. So that's one thing. It's very important to understand in the business. I have an athlete, professional athlete.

Johnny said that one of the reasons why he doesn't want to do it is because he doesn't want anything. to come up. He says if you're doing something illegal, he just wants to get you in the cage because he's afraid that you might get caught. Does that bother you to hear him say that? Guess what? It's too late because I'm already doing it right now, so you should do it as well.

It's already in process right now. I cannot go back. It's already done. I already do it. I even offer to pray for him, if you want to do it, because I'm the champion, and I want to make, like I said, I want to make something good for that sport. I'm the champion. responsibility. I said at first,

I have even paying for him if you want to do it. I pray it at death. You know, Vazzo it's voluntary. You pray for this. So I'm paying for him if he wanted to do it. But he said he won't in the beginning, but then he changed his mind. So

I cannot answer for Johnny. That's up to him to do whatever you want to do. UFC President Dana White said that all this talk makes, quote, both of them look stupid. You and Johnny Hendricks. He says he's not in favor of of it and doesn't know why you just don't do the commission testing.

What's your response to that? I said I was going to do the commission testing. I'm still waiting for the paper. We have the email. We have proof of the email that my manager is done. We're waiting for the athletic commission to step. I want to do both. I don't care.

I'll do any test. I don't care. The reason I asked for a better is because I mentioned the reason why, before what I told you, why I asked for a better. I don't care. any other association, I don't mind. But I want to make sure I do better as well.

A lot of people think, given his style, the wrestling and the striking, that he will be your toughest test as champion. Do you agree? I agree. It would be the toughest test. And believe me, I'm ready for it. You're ready already, two months before.

No, but I mean, I'm getting there. I'm ready mentally, but I'm getting there. I'll be even more ready to have a person to speak. And now, you know, obviously, this is a big card and everything like that, but you're not fighting in Canada. Are you happy about that? Are you happy that you're getting to fight somewhere else?

A little bit in a way because it changed. It's important to change the place where you fight. I think I'm happy in a way. That's because I'm not fighting Canada, but I'm happy to go back in Vegas because I start my career in U.S.D. in Vegas. So that's biggest. That was my first fight in Vegas.

That's the city that gave me the first chance where I had the first chance to prove myself in the Arctic Garden I'm happy to go back there. That's actually the place I fought the most in my career is in Vegas. I'm happy to go there and fight again. You were in Canada this past week, obviously, for UFC 165. You cornered your friend and training partner Francis Carmel.

Did you watch the main event? We've asked everyone on the show thus far who they thought won. So I'm curious, if you watched it, who do you think won? John Jones or Alexander Gustafson? I'm a little bit biased because John Jones is my friend, but I do believe if I would have watched the fight with no emotion. I believe John Jones won the fight because I believe first round, I would have give to Gustafsson. Yeah.

Second round, Jones. Third round, I believe it was, if I remember well, he was Gustafsson. Yep. Fourth round, that's where it's interesting. The fourth round, I believe Gustafsson was winning the fourth round until the end when he got cut with that. spinning elbow. Yep. And I believe that spinning elbow is the key to the fight.

That's what changed the whole momentum into the fight. Because after that, Gustafson never recuperate from it, never came back the same. And that's the reason why John Jones won. I think it was a great showcase of skill and heart and determination by John Jones. It was probably one of the best, probably one of the best or the best fight I've seen in the octagon. And I want to give props to John Jones and Alexander Graftsen.

it was an amazing, amazing fight. I think this proves, George, that people from Montreal are, in fact, the smartest people, because I scored it the exact same way. I mentioned the fourth round, and I think it is the best fight. So how about that? We actually agree. Ah, there you go. We think that same way, Ariel.

Thank you. Okay, last question for you, George, and I'll let you go, and I appreciate it very much. After Anderson Silva lost, John Jones became, in many people's eyes, the pound-for-pound king of MMA. Were you bothered by that? And you consider yourself now the best fighter in mixed martial arts.

Yeah, I believe Anderson, Salvo. Sunseva is still the best in the world. The thing is he just got caught, you know? It happened to everyone. But, you know, it's so hard to, you cannot really, you cannot really say that. Jose Aldo is very good as well. I would say, it's hard to say, between,

between, of course, Salvador, also you have to consider that, but I believe it would be between John Jones and Jose Alto. I believe one of these two guys is probably the best fan. I believe it's very tight to say. It's very hard to say. Well, in my opinion, you're in that discussion as well, and I can't wait to see your fight on November 16th against Johnny Hendricks.

A huge fight and a very interesting one. George, I know you're very, very busy. It means a lot to us that you would come on the show today. Thank you so much, and good luck in training for that fight on November 16th. All right. Thank you very much. Okay, there he is. The UFC welterweight champion George Rush St. Pierre making his first appearance on the 200th episode of the MMA hour. So great to have him on the show.

And very interesting that we actually scored the fight the exact same way. And we actually thought that the fourth round, the final minute of the fourth round, was the most important part of the fight. Now, a man that knows a thing or two about John Jones, a thing or two about title fights, a thing or two about George St. Pierre is our next guest, Greg Jackson, on the line right now on the MMAR. Greg, how are you? I'm good, brother. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks for stopping by. I know it's been a very busy last couple of days for you.

So lots of talk here, but I've been building this up all show long. And by the way, congratulations to you and the team for the victory. Oh, thanks. Congratulations to you on 200 episodes. Thank you. And it wouldn't be a 200th episode show without Greg Jackson, just for the record, a member of the tribe, so to speak. Why weren't you in John Jones's corner on Saturday night? I was there, but I had to move back a little bit. They only allowed three cornermen, and because of name shifts or something, my name was the one name that wasn't on the corner list,

so I had to back up a little bit, and I was kind of on the outskirts, but the other coaches handled it just fine, and I was kind of yelling and screaming for where I could be, and it worked out. It was a good fight, but it worked out. How does that happen? Honestly, you're Greg Jackson, you know, you're so close to him.

How does that happen? How do you get left on the outside looking in? Did you raise a stink at least? Well, no, because you're only allowed three-quarter men, and I think there was a miscommunication somewhere as to we're going to put me on, but it didn't happen, but it wasn't a big deal. I've got a great, great team, and they're much better coaches than I am,

and so it worked out. And I was kind of right there. I was sitting right next to the corner, so I could still yell stuff and stuff, so it wasn't a big deal. Now, correct me from wrong here. It sounds a little bit like you may have lost your voice. Is that why? Because you were yelling so much? No, I have a pretty good head cold, and I got sick as a dog on Sunday, and I had to teach a seminar, so I worked through that, and then it just got worse and worse.

One of those where you don't sleep all night, fun illnesses. Well, certainly, sorry to hear that, and that means I appreciate it even more, and we'll let you go rather quickly. Uh, can you give us, take your time, so we can you give us an update on how John is feeling? Uh, well, I talked to him, I was letting him rest, but, uh, his foot was pretty busted up. And I'm not sure where that happened. I don't know if it was from all the head kicks he landed or checking one of, uh, Alex kicks. I'm not sure where it happened, but his foot was the primary thing. You know, he had his face was his full and a answeration stuff, but, uh, his foot was what was given him problem, his left foot. How much did that affect him? I mean, do you feel like the takedown, things like that? He would have been more effective. his foot not been seriously injured?

I mean, we can play that game. Like, you know what I mean? Maybe, maybe not. But I think it just, Gufferson just came in and had a great plan and executed it really well. And I think the credit should really go to him. I think he was just able to shut down those takedowns. And we need to be better and evolve our setups and get to be better fighters. But I think that credit should go to Alex.

How much should the injured toe bother him? And even leading up to the fight, I mean, we kind of look past it. But then you think about it. and the same foot gets injured, et cetera, et cetera. Do you feel like it might have been a bigger deal than we might have thought, at least us in the media? I don't know. You'd have to ask John that. I got the sense that, well, you know, he thought about it,

that it wouldn't impede him too much. But that'd be a great question to see how he felt about it because a lot of times they'll hide those things from me. I mean, I go, know everything's fine, but, you know, in reality, it's bugging them. But I actually don't know the answer to that question. In training, he never really brought it up, never complained about it. it? Not to me. We would tape it a lot just to make sure everything was stable, but you know, I'm not aware that it hurt him, but again, you have to take that with a great

assault because the boys and girls that I have fighting, the men and women usually don't let me know that they're injured at all. I have to get a dragon out of them. In a million years, in your wildest dreams, I know you game plan, you know, as good as anyone in this business. Did you ever foresee the fight happening like that? You know, the cut, obviously, these are little minor details, but taking him down and busting him up, all these things. Did you think

Gustafson would be able to hang with John Jones? Because let's be honest, the odds makers, the media, no one gave him a shot. Yeah, but that's what it always happens. You know what I mean? So, yeah, just because I've been in the corner so many, so many, so many times, seen that it happened where everybody's like,

there's no way this guy's going to win, there's no way, and then, you know, it goes in there and gives it, it goes in there, gives a great battle and, you know, made it a great competitive fight. So I wasn't shocked at all. You know, I know Alexander's great. I studied him a lot, and it wasn't, like, terribly shocking. Certainly I wanted it to be a lot more one-sided than it was, but no, I wasn't shocked or anything like that.

It's just been too many, you know, 20 years, and God knows how many corners I've been, and I've been in too much to be like, oh, my goodness, what's happening? That's not me much. What do you say to the people who say that this proved that John Jones doesn't have finishing power on his feet? I would say that has Alexander ever been finished on his feet? I don't think so. I think his only finished was when Phil caught him in the choke. So I wouldn't say that at all.

I'd think that he pretty well finished a shogun on his feet. You know, he kind of fell down and finished down there. But no, I mean, everybody's just looking for, you know, any kind of weakness or excuse or whatever. And that's normal, you know, I mean, that's what they do. But, you know, if you get hit by John, it'll hurt you, that's for sure. Why do you think the fans react to John, he's so polarizing. I mean, after the fact I was getting blasted for saying that I thought he won the fight three rounds or two,

for the record, I thought he won the second round, the fourth round, and the fifth round. And people, you know, and this happens. People get very passionate and emotional. they think that their guy got robbed, but it just feels like, you know, little things that he says or does, he wears the shirt, not quite human, things that it rubs people the wrong way.

Why do you think that is? Well, I think that he's so good that, you know, you get a lot of, what's the word, I wouldn't call it envy or jealousy, but people just don't like that. Like, you need to be a little more human and a little more relatable.

I guess people maybe have a hard time relating to him because he is so talented and so, excuse me, sorry. I think that would be the reason, I guess he's not because he's so good at what he does. And, you know, he doesn't make any, I mean, he's a humble guy. He's not, you know, going around screaming on the, I mean, he says he's the greatest, but so does everybody in that position. That's a fighter's job. But I think he just, people don't relate to him well, or they really appreciate him, like you said,

it's really polarizing. but yeah I'm not really sure I think that's much more of an insecurity thing than anything else that people are you can't relate to them so you automatically dislike him do you think this will make him more likable that the fact that he's human

was stood this onslaught came back won a big fight you know he said on Twitter that he needed something like this do you think this actually helps John in the end I think so because I you know a lot of people when you look back in history you kind of need to look back

at the bigger picture. And I like to use Ali a lot because he kind of went through similar things in that there were a lot of people that didn't like Ali, especially when he did some of his best performances, and we're screaming about it and angry about it. In hindsight, those people respect Ali now. And I think that John's going to go through a similar thing. I mean, a war like that and coming out on top, shows his spirit, shows his tenacity, shows his heart. I mean, everything that people should admire about fighters and be inspired by.

was exemplified in that. And so while it might not be for everybody at the moment, I think in hindsight, as you look back, it's going to be a momentous set of fights. I'm happy you brought up Ali because I've been criticized a bit for this, but I asked John about it on Thursday. I said that, you know, John Jones, in order to really be considered one of the best needs,

a Frazier to his Ali, Chale's son and to his Silva, a Larry Bird to his Magic Johnson, on and on, every great champion needs a foil. And at this point, you didn't have it. He told me on Thursday, he already found his Frazier, it was Rashad Evans, but the thing is,

Rashad didn't win around against him and really didn't give him a tough test. Do you think Alexander Gustafsson could be his Frazier? Well, I think it will have to see the rematch. You know, if the rematch is another war like this, back and forth, then certainly he will be. It's too early to tell. You know, it certainly is very, very possible, and all indications seem to be that way.

But that's great. I mean, that's good for the sport. It's good for everybody's legacy. and if it turns out that way, everybody wins. We don't know what's next for either, man, but would you like to see them fight again next? Well, I mean, it's not up to me. I just help with whoever,

but I'm sure we'll be fighting Alexander again. I mean, he's such a great fighter. There's not many people at that weight class that are going to be able to beat him. So I'm sure we'll be fighting him again. How soon I have no idea, but I'm sure we'll be beating him again. What's your preference? I don't have one.

I don't deal with. in preference. You can't because like my, you can't be like, oh, darn, I didn't want to fight that, or I really want to fight this guy

because I don't have any control over that. So my job is just to deal with whatever they bring me. So they bring you this. You know, I'll give advice if somebody asks me, should I take this fight? I say, well, at this point,

you might want to wait or, you know, yes, jump on this fight. I'll always say that. But John is a point now that as long as he's prepared, he should be able to fight anybody. And so if Alexander's a rematch and is in the cards,

then that's what we do. Let's just say you guys do get a chance to fight Alexander again. Will you do anything differently in training for this fight now that you fought him once and saw how it all went down? Oh, yes. A lot, a lot of things different for sure. Just because you learned so much, it was such a great educational experience. In a lot of positive ways, like you really got to see John's got a great jaw.

You really got to see that John's got heart. There's a lot of positives that came out about it. And then the technical deficiencies that we have were going to correct and overcome and figure out. And so it was a really good thing to have happened because it gives us a blueprint of where we want to go and how we can improve. So anything in particular that you can say, what you'll do differently? Not until after the second fight, then I'll tell you. But fundamentally and kind of technically, when you were watching that fight, did you notice John doing anything wrong? Did he stray away from the game plan at all?

Not specifically, but just putting the things together. we're going to do that a little bit better. We were kind of separated in what I mean. You know, there's kickboxing to the takedowns wasn't as smooth as I would like and the transitions from the takedown into the jihitsu stuff. So a little thing like that, excuse me, I noticed, but we can correct that. And there was some other stuff too, but, I mean, that's why you go to work the next day when you're a fighter is to improve and to get better.

And if I was going to say that's the best John ever was, that I think would be incorrect. I think that John is still learning and still growing. As a matter of fact, I know he is, and still improving. So I hope to get him even better for the next fight. Two last questions. How soon before you see John Jones back in the gym, in your opinion, do you foresee seeing him quickly, or do you think he takes a lot of time off here?

I'd like him to take some time off and let his body heal up and get some rest and let his head heal up and take some time off and then slowly get back into it again. But it's up to his management and all those. guys and Dana and everybody at DOC to when he's fighting again, but I'd like to see my preference was added and I have a preference about that, I'd like to see and get some rest. And finally,

do you think that was the best fight in MMA history? Oh, wow, I don't know, that's a tall order, you know, I'd have to sit on that for a while. I don't know if I could just order, or just say that, there have been so many great, great fights, some fast, some, you know, back and forth battles like that. Certainly it's got to be up there, right? I mean,

it was, because you didn't mean think about even the one that launched us into the mainstream with Bonner and Forest. I mean, that was an amazing fighting. So, yeah, there's a lot to go up against for that. I'd have to think about it. The stakes, the title, the underdog, five rounds, all that stuff. My opinion, it was. Just for the record.

Oh, well, thanks, brother. That's cool that I got to be a part of the greatest fight in history. That's cool, even if there's a small part holding a bucket far away from the course. I was just about to say you should have been a bigger part of it. That's a travesty. No, no, not at all. It was such a great coaching team with me, and they know what they're doing, and it's awesome. All right.

Well, thank you so much, Greg. Get well soon. As far as the cold get well, of course, to John Jones as well. And congratulations to you guys. An amazing performance. I think it elevated both men, and appreciate you stopping by here on the 200th episode to relive it all with us. 200. Love it, brother. Thanks a lot. There he is. Greg Jackson. The man himself stopping by wasn't in the corner.

Certainly a big part of who John Jones is. And we wish them congratulations on that big win. In my opinion, the best fight in MMA history. Okay, final guest of the day. We finally made it to the end. What is this? Our 10th guest of the day, something like that. But let us end with, in my opinion, the best referee of all time. the man who is synonymous with UFC refereeing, MMA refereeing, and wouldn't you know it, he was in the cage on Saturday night for what I consider to be the best fight in MMA history. Of course, I'm talking about Big John McCarthy. John, how are you?

I'm good, Ariel. How are you doing? I'm doing great. All right, lots to get to here. Let's get to the nitty-gritty off the top. Dana White said to me in the post-fight interview that in between rounds four and five, the commission, doctor was considering stopping the fight because of that cut, John Jones suffered above his eye.

He also mentioned that you, quote, unquote, were pleading for them to stop the fight. No, to let the fight continue, to let it go into the fifth round. Is that true? I heard I was begging. Begging, pleading, begging. It's all the same. Well, you know, look, he's right in one thing, yes. You know, the doctor was concerned about John's eye, and if you looked at it, it was a serious cut. That cut happened in the very first round, but it continued to evolve throughout the fight.

And by the time it got between the fourth and fifth round, the cut was actually on his, there was an upper level one that was on his eyebrow, and it creased off into like a point that bent crossed into his eyelid. And there was a flap of skin. And so the doctor absolutely had a reason to be concerned with the cut that John had. And so he was absolutely looking at him with the possibility. of, you know, saying that he couldn't go on because his concern is the health and safety of the fighter. And so when he looked at John, we talked, you know, we are a team when we're in there. I talk with him, he says, you know, I really doesn't look that good.

And I talked to him and I said, you know, Jason is the name of the Jason. I said, this is the last round. I think we need to let him go. I will look at it. If it gets worse, I promise you I will bring him to you. And he said, okay. and that's, you know, both of us working as a team together. You know, he let the fight go on.

The cut didn't get any worse. And the fight came to its natural conclusion the way it should have. In hindsight, was that the right call? Absolutely. You know, I don't care if it was John Jones or Alexander Gustafin. It should have been the same call because both of those guys had given so much in that fight that to end it off of something that is a cut. If you have to do it based upon.

on the fact that, you know, John could have a problem with his eye later on based upon them trying to sew that. That's the real problem is when they try to sew it. If they leave any type of, you know, kiloid scar on that eyelid, it can sit there and rub on his eye and cause him eye damage later on. That's the real problem with it. If that's, you know, what is going to occur if you let it go any longer, then you need to stop the fight.

But I think he made the right decision. I think John made it through the fight fine. and, you know, like you were saying earlier, that's one of the best fights I've ever seen. I want to get your take on that in a second, but was John saying anything to the doctor? Was he telling them, I'm okay? You know, the only thing John said to the doctor, you know, was the doctor, you know, talk to John. Stitch was working on the cut. Stitch was very vocal and saying, hey, you know, let me take care of it.

I've got it. You know, and that's Stitch's job. That's what he's supposed to do, take care of that cut. And we want to have someone like Stitch in there that's taking care of it and giving, given the time to show that, you know what, I can make this thing okay. And he did. And, you know, John was asked by the doctor, are you okay? Do you want to continue? And John said, I'm good. Let me go. And that's what I heard out of him. I don't know if he was pleading with him. I think he was just telling him, look, I want to fight. And the doctor made the right decision.

How often does that happen where, you know, it's a big fight and the doctor is kind of leaning in one direction and the fighter is kind of telling him, hey, you know, I'm good. You don't think the fight should be stopping. I mean, obviously there are different levels of fights, but do you find yourself in this position often as referee? You do. You find yourself there a lot, and this is why, you know, people don't

understand the entire concept of what goes on, but as a referee, I work with that ringside position all the time. I want to have a good relationship. He has to trust me, and I have to trust him, because together, we're the ones that are going to say, whether that fight's going to be able to go or not.

And now, you've got to look at what a ringside position is. He's a doctor. He's taken a Hippocratic oath that he's supposed to heal people. So what he's allowing to happen in front of him, honestly almost goes against that, Hippocratic oath that he's taken. So it's a hard position. And you have to trust the referee that you have, and you have to believe that that referee is going to help you and taking care of that person if things get bad that, you know, he's going to help you and bringing you in so you can get that person out of the fight. If it has to come to that point.

But, you know, it happens all the time. It's like that very same doctor. if you go back in time to UFC 129 with Mark Hominick against Jose Aldo. Yep. That's the very same doctor that I worked with when Mark received a large hematoma on his forehead, and that doctor let the fight go on because it was the right call and right thing to do at the time. Do you ever come across doctors who may not know about MMA and just they see a cut or some kind of, you know, injury, laceration, whatever, and they're just too quick to pull the trigger.

And then you have a guy like this who, you know, has been in fights before, has worked. You know, UFC events knows what's at stake, all that stuff, and, okay, is open to it? You know, like, you ever have that kind of, that, that challenge where you kind of have to educate someone who may be a little squeamish and say, no, no, no, this is not going to continue, even though the fighter can obviously continue. Absolutely. You know, it's like anything in, you know, just any walk of life. You get guys that are great journalists, like yourself. You get guys that are horrible journalists. You get guys that are, you know, they're good.

at what they do, and there are definitely ringside physicians that are out there that are very, very good at what they do. You know, the UFC actually pulled away one of the very good, you know, ringside physicians and Jeff Davidson, who they have as their doctor for the fighters, but he now travels around with the UFC instead of being a ringside position in Nevada. We have Paul Wallace in California. He's one of the top guys. He's fantastic to work with if you're a referee because you know that he is not squeamish.

not going to sit there and just call something based off of, you know, because there's an absolute order to what he does and how he does it, and to be able to work with those guys only makes my job easier. Do you have any idea why they only allowed three-cornermen on Saturday in the main event? Greg Jackson was saying earlier that he wasn't, have you heard of this? You know what? It's in Ontario. They have, in their rules, it says three-cornermen,

and, you know, Ontario is very tight, and when they have a rule, they stick with it. The UFC allows four cornermen for championship fights. If you watch, most of the time, it's three-cornermen for most of the fights. But in championship fights, they allow more. Well, you know, Greg came out with John, and he was there in the beginning, and then someone said, hey, they've got four cornermen, and the Ontario Athletic Commission had the inspector remove one,

and Greg was a guy who said, I'll leave. And Greg went out. So, you know, it's too bad. You never want to lose someone that's a coach like Greg Jackson, and so good at calming a fighter down, making them feel good about what they're doing, giving them good instruction. But I think, you know, like Greg says, you know, he's got a phenomenal team with him. Mike Winkle-John is fantastic.

I don't think it hurt John. You know, it may not have helped him, but I don't think it really hurt him in the fight. You were the referee for that fight, obviously, but do you score the fight in your mind? We've been asking everyone all show long how they scored, and I'm wondering if you have someone that you think legitimately won the fight. you know, I went back and I watched it yesterday. When I got home, my wife had taped it because she watched it. And so I went back and watched it like a judge,

and I had the fight going exactly like they had it. I had Alexander Gustafin won the first round. John Jones won the second, Alex won the third, John won the fourth. And a lot of people are talking about the fourth, and it's kind of funny because they said, well, Alexander, you know, did like he was ahead for four minutes. That doesn't matter. It's the damage that John Jones did to him that last minute of that fourth round

absolutely is what you're looking for as a judge and it's what you would say is someone that possibly just about brought an end of the fight that's going to win in the round. So going into the fifth round, I thought it was an even fight, and I thought in the end I thought John Jones just did a little bit more in that fifth round. I thought he won the fifth round and I thought the judge has got it right. Do you think that was the greatest fight in MMA history? Ah, you know, there's so many phenomenal fights, but if you take everything into account,

the amount of importance that was on it due to the title fight being John Jones's, you know, six-titled defense being the Alexander Gustafin was this young guy coming in, and no one expected him to put on the fight that I think, you know, there was certain people were looking at saying, you know, he's got a good chance, but there was a lot of people that were coming out saying, oh, he doesn't have a chance. With everything and who John Jones has been, I think it's probably the best. fight I've never seen. Would you like to see a rematch, an immediate rematch?

Absolutely. Are you kidding? I don't know if I want it immediate. I think both guys, first up, they both need to heal up. They both inflicted a lot of damage on each other. But, you know, even if they gave, you know, John a different opponent, give them Glover-Texhaer, take sure, give Alexander another opponent, and if both of them goes through that and then immediately bring them back together, absolutely.

But somewhere along the way, those guys are going to meet, and you know what, I would say they're going to meet more than one time. You know, it's always kind of a special thing to see you ref UFC fights because we don't see it as often as we should. Do you ever cross-pass with Dana, the UFC brass, and how's your relationship with them now? You know what? I have, I don't have, I talked to Dana. I talk to Dana, you know, the night of the fight. I have nothing but respect for Dana.

Dana is, you know, the best promoter there is out there. He's passionate about, you know, the sport. He's passionate about his promotion. his people and he does a great job with, you know, promoting the sport that I love, MMA, you know, whether, you know, I get used in a fight or not. That's not up to me. I don't think it's up to Dana. You know, if they want to bring me to something like a Brazil, they can do that.

But when it comes to in the States or, you know, Canada, that's the athletic commissions there. When they go to a place that doesn't have an athletic commission, the UFC could ask me and bring me or they don't have to. And that's their business, and it doesn't matter either way, whatever they do, I'm happy just being able to do what I do. Have you ever asked them why they don't bring you to those events? No. I would never do that. You know, it's a lot of people, you know, look at things in a certain way,

and I'm not saying right, but I have never asked anyone ever, be it an athletic commission, be it a promotion. Hey, why don't you use anything like that? That's none of my business. If someone wants to use me, give me a call. If you don't, don't call me. It's okay. And you knew I was going to ask you about this,

but recently Nevada has come under fire after C.J. Ross scored the Canella Alvarez versus Floyd Mayweather fight a draw, and it seems like Keith Kaiser is on the hot seat. Is John McCarthy maybe rooting for a change over there so that you can get back to where you belong, and that is roughing big fights in the state of Nevada? You know what? I'll say it. The truth of the matter is this. I have nothing against the Nevada State Athletic Commission. They're a great commission.

I think they take too much from one person. They sit there and that person's the one that picks their referees. That's the one that picks their judges. And they've had some problems. Well, that's Keith Kaiser's problem. I don't work for Keith Kaiser. I would work for an athletic commission. Love to work for him.

I would never work for Keith Kaiser. Never. So if Keith Kaiser came to you today and said, we want you back, you say no. If he's in charge of that, he's the executive director, I want nothing to do with it. Where did this come from? haven't said this in the past, when I've asked you about it. Why are you saying this now?

You know what? There comes a point when someone lies so much that you get tired of hearing things that come out of it. And the truth is, Keith Kaiser is a person that does not know combative sports. He's never been part of them. He's never done them. He puts people, you know, at times that maybe shouldn't be put.

You tell me why C.J. Ross said that the Floyd-Mayweather fight was a draw. Did you watch it? My God, I had it 11 to 1. it wasn't even close. So, you know, if you're doing that, you keep putting those same people back, you don't care about the fighters. You don't care about them as athletes. You don't care about their livelihood. And you know what?

You shouldn't be in that job. And you know what? He shouldn't be in that job. And if someone doesn't like what I said, too bad. Do you think that he is doing a disservice now to the sport putting in people like, you know, C.J. Ross. Other referees, we don't have to mention their names who people criticize all the time. Do you think now he's actually hurting the sport? I think that there comes a point where things become very personal for people.

And the reason for doing them is sometimes to say, I have power. You don't. Let me show you what I'll do. You know what? That's their choice. But in the end, usually it'll catch up to him. And I think maybe now, maybe it's catching up to him. And so I'm wondering, has he reached out to you recently and have you said no?

No. He does not reach out to me and I don't reach out to him. Do you think a change will happen? Oh, you know what? I have no idea. That's for the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the commissioners that sit on that. They're going to have to take a look at what they have

and what goes on there. You know, that's their business. It's not my business. It's, you know, take a look at what's, you know, what's been happening. Could it be better? I think it could be better. Crazy question.

What if they asked you to replace him? Would you do it? Hell no. I'd be a horrible executive director. I would definitely not be the guy to do it. that. That's, you know, that's for someone much smarter than me. You know, it's, this is not about, it's not about me. It's about the sport. It's about the sport of MMA. It's about the sport of boxing. Tell me this. Why is it that if you have professional athletes, why is it that you don't use

the very best that you have available to you for those athletes? Because it's not that, you know, the lesser person can't do a good job. But overall, who's going to do your best jobs? Who's be the fairest to the athletes, who's going to give the best overall job that makes that fight be fair? That's what you should be looking at as an executive director of commission. Who can I put in this that is going to do me the best job so I have as little controversy as possible? You can always have controversy, but you want it to be as little as possible. Well, that's what you should be looking at. I don't know if that's what's going on. Let's end on this.

And by the way, I couldn't agree more with everything that you're saying. And I've said it many times, not just saying now it's a crime, it's a travesty that you're not in Nevada, especially given the fact that our sport is so young and there's so few great referees. The fact that the best is not there is just absolutely absurd. But let us end on this. You know, Dan Hardy was on our show earlier saying that he does not believe the 10-9 system works for M. It's a boxing system, someone who knows about the refereeing and judging of our sport. Do you agree?

Do you think that it is time to change the scoring system for M. I agree with Dan Hardy and the fact that we borrowed. We really did borrow the 10-point must system from boxing. And if you look at the amount of rounds that we have, comparatively, you know, for boxing, box is going to have a chance to have around at 12 rounds, and we're going to have one at five. Our, you know, the shortest boxing match you're going to get is a four-rounder. Our norm is a three.

Well, that makes it very difficult at times with a person that gives a score, it's hard to make up for the fighter. And it's not, we always need to educate ourselves more as judges and what we're giving credit to and what we're not. You know, there's all kinds of people out there giving credit to things. You know, Alexander Gustafin took down John Jones. What did he do with it when he took him down? He stood back up.

So what was the effect of that takedown in the fight? Nothing. But he took him down. There's people who are going to give a lot of credit to that takedown, but it didn't do anything. And so you've got to be smart in how you do it. Do I think that we should always be working about ourselves? Yes.

Do I think that we should be always working towards coming up with a better system, one that's fair to the fighters, fair to the judges themselves, fair to the fans? Absolutely. But let me just ask you, you mentioned the takedown. Take down defense. All those stops, that should count for something, right? It doesn't count for anything under the way that we judge right now. You look at all the takedown attempts that John Jones did,

and the defense that Alexander Gustafin, all the defense does, allows him to stay in the position he wants. He doesn't really get credit for it. We give credit to offensive maneuvers, not defensive maneuvers. And so when you're looking at those things, he got to keep the fight where he wanted to keep it. That's his outcome for that. It's the person trying to execute and do that, get that takedown that we'll give credit to. So it's not only do they get it, it's once they get it, what do they do with it?

When John Jones took Alexander down in the fifth round, what did he do? do with the taketown. Nothing. It made no difference in the fight. The one thing I'll give him, Alexander was already tired and he had to use more energy to scoot himself to the fence and get himself up, so it worked in that manner, but there was no offensive actions off of it, so how much credit are you going to give John Jones for that take down? Not hardly anything. It was nothing more than a change of position. We get change of positions in MMA all the time. Doesn't mean that it really affected the fight. Should defense be rewarded, do you think? You know, the biggest problem with when you look at giving credit to defenses, you know, you and I are fighting.

In fact, you and Hennar Grace here fighting because we saw him put a dars joke on you. Yes. He puts that dars choke on you and you work your way out of it. Well, how do I – it's not an even thing. You were in a choke. He was not, right? He's the one that's putting on that choke. He should get credit for it.

Well, to give you credit for getting out of it. is now going to equal him putting it on, and that's not going to work as far as the system is. The way we have it right now, you know, we give credit to the offensive maneuver. But this, again, along with the judging criteria and the scoring of it, it's something that we should every year be working towards making this better. We should always be trying to evolve things and make it fair for the fighters. So we usually come out with the right outcome. if we go to the judge decisions, most people,

you're always going to get fights where people are going to say, they liked Alexander in the fight, they didn't like John. They're going to say, no, it's a bad decision. Was it a bad decision? It was a very close fight. It was a good decision. Even if it went to Alexander, I can understand people going, hey, John Jones, you know, he should want to,

it would have been a decent decision. It was a very close fight between two great fighters. But you can't agree that we are not doing that, right? We're not getting better. We're not evolving. It doesn't feel like we are. No. think, you know, it's people become very happy and content when things seem to be just

rolling along fairly well. And we always need to be working towards making things better, but that's not an easy thing because with our sport, we don't have just one set, you know, base like the NFL or the NBA or Major League Baseball. We have all of these athletic commissions, and those athletic commissions have legislation. So when we talk about changing those athletic commissions have to go and put this into legislation or law within their states. And so it's not the same as the NBA doing something, the NFL. They can just change a rule. Boom, it's done.

When we talk about boxing or MMA, there's a long process that goes with changing it. It's not an easy thing to do. Are you confident it will change at some point for the better? You know what? You have to be. You have to be. You have to be confident. You know what?

things are going to always work towards getting better. You have to have a belief that there's people that have to work towards, you know, making this, you know, every year better than it was the last, because that's what's going to help the sport grow, and that's what's important. You know, we have unbelievable sport. You take a look at that fight on Saturday night, and two guys, they wait in at 205, they're probably 225, 2.30, going that hard for that long, with that much skill level involved, that much heart, What more can you ask from a sport? You know, that's art.

To me, that's beautiful. And, you know, we've got to always be working to make it better for the next generation that's coming up. Tremendous stuff, John. Thank you so much. That was amazing. So great to have you on the show. So glad you were able to stop buying.

Great to end the show with you, our 200th episode. This has been a real treat for us. Continue the great work, and hopefully that we'll see you have many more major UFC MMA events, all that good stuff, because you, my friend, deserve to be there. Thank you very much, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on your show. There he is. Big John, the man who was in the cage alongside John Jones and Alexander Goffsen. Wow, what he said about Keith Kaiser. I will never work for that man.

It seems like slowly but surely people are going against Keith Kaiser. Very interesting to see what is happening here. And I guess it took a bad boxing decision. And we've had some in the past, but for some reason this was such a big fight to make people come out and say this. want to run through a couple of stats here from our friends of fight metric. We're going to take a phone call. Then we're going to get your questions. But I want to make sure I get to this because they work hard giving us this stuff.

Just give you the main event stuff. All right, here we go. How big was this fight? John Jones and Alexander Gustafsson, well, they gave us an instant classic. We know that. And there are many illuminating numbers that came from their five-round battle. Gustafson surprised many by becoming the first fighter to ever take down John Jones in an MMA fight.

Jones had previously defended all 16 of his opponent's takedown attempts. against him in the UFC. Despite being taken down, John Jones actually displayed plenty of excellent take-down defense for the remainder of the bout, defending seven of eight Gustafin attempts, and after 25 minutes of fighting, Jones' UFC career finally met and surpassed official sample-size minimums to qualify for the all-time takedown defense. And having defended 23 of 24 attempts,

his takedown defense rate of 95.8% is the highest in UFC history. Now, Gustafin may have impressed even more with his takedown defense stuffing 10 of Jones's 11 attempts. Gustafsson take down defense is now 86.7 percent right behind Jones as the second highest in light heavyweight history. Minimum five fights, 20 opponent attempts. Moving along, John Jones and the Mahler combined for 244 significant strikes landed, the most ever landed in a UFC title fight. Jones's 134 significant strikes landed are the second most ever landed, by light heavyweight in a single fight, and the maller's 110 significant strikes landed

are the fifth most by light heavyweight. Jones v. Gustafson is just the seventh fight in UFC history to feature both fighters landing 100 plus significant strikes and the only one of those seven bouts to take place in a weight class higher than welterweight. Final note, John Jones became the fourth fighter in UFC history to win 10 consecutive bouts, joining Anderson Silva, George St. Pierre, and Hoyst Gracie. His unanimous decision victory over Gustafson is his 13th win in the UFC tying Chuck Ladell for most victories since the advent of the 205-pound weight class. Note Ladell had three prior wins in the 199-pound middleweight class,

and one that I remember from Saturday night, Brendan Shob's Darce Choke, is the very first in heavyweight history. How about that? Huge stuff on Saturday. UFC 165, the main event, in my opinion, the best of all time. Okay, let's go to the phone lines and let's talk to some people here. Then we're answering your questions. We're giving away Tops cards. We are rolling here. I feel like I can, I feel like I can stand up right now and Shadowbox for 30 minutes. I am so amped. We have heard, whoever we heard from? We have heard

from Yeraya Faber, Chale Suna, Dan Hardy, Chris Wyden, Connemarer, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Anderson Silva, George St. Pierre, Greg Jackson, Big John. What's the final time? Hallie, by the way. Yeraya gave it to Gustafson. Chale gave it to Gustafson. Hardy gave it to Gustafson. Who do Wydenman give it to? Gusifson?

Yeah, he gave it to Gusson. Connor, did he give it to? I don't remember. Someone tweeted to me. Someone's been paying attention. Tweet it to me. I think there were 10 in total. Let's go to Sandu in London on line one.

Been waiting patiently. Hello, my friend. How are you? Ariel, how's the good, my man? I'm doing great. Welcome to the show. the historic 200th episode. I feel so honored and privileged, honestly.

I'm so lucky to be one of your guests on the phone, on the 200th episode, and to have Stone Cold Steve Austin, my favorite pro wrestler of all time, and to have Anson Silver, my favorite MMA fire of all time, unbelievable. I take my half of you. So congratulations.

200 episodes. Absolutely fantastic. Well, thank you. I am here giving myself the old, I don't know what this thing is, but people do it when they're proud of themselves. It's been great, and you know what? Usually, I am tired by this point.

I've been talking for the last three and a half hours, and I feel like I go another three and a half. Call up Jose Aldo, call up Dominic Cruz, call up all the champions that turned us down here today because if they weren't here, they're not real champions. This was historic. The world was watching, quite frankly, I should have charged you all $75 because it was pay-per-view-worthy.

Just kidding. I would never do that. And I think that we would all pay for it, to be honest to do, I think that on behalf of all the fans, we just want to say a big thank you, not just to you, not just to all the production staff currently in the building. But let's give a shout out to everyone that's behind the scenes at the MMA hour since episode one, from day one. This has been my favorite show.

It's often imitated, never duplicated. It's the MMA hour. And yes, it's an amazing show. I know that Eric told me that we were quite short for time, so I'm going to try and reel off some of the points that I wanted to get through to as soon as possible straight away. Sure. Obviously, first of all, thank you so much. Much appreciated and well done.

Congratulations on the 200th episode. The second point I wanted to make was I finally got a chance to meet you back in July for UFC 162. Oh, yeah. Silver versus Widman 1. And I know you're very, very busy, but you did take the time to kind of take a picture and kind of hang out with the fans, which again, much appreciated. Now, the main point that I wanted to make is one of the biggest things and part of the history of the MMA hour show, is of course their Helwani nose t-shirt. Yes, there it is.

So I have a story to tell you about the impact, the power of the Halwani Nose T-shirt and how it's been happening in my life tissue. I'm ready for it. Give it to me. Right. Let me set the scene for you. Set it. Set it. WrestleMania 29, MetLife Stadium. Wait a second. I know who you are. I know who you are now. Okay, keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

Okay, WrestleMania 29, MetLife Stadium, over 90,000 people, 90,000 people. The mecca. The show ends. The mecca. The show ends. I'm on my way out with my cousin and my nephew, and we run into a bunch of guys from Toronto.

So we're just hanging out, chilling, talking, and the talk conversation turns from pro wrestling naturally into MMA. Of course. And then, you know, the debate starts of how much of a hardcore MMA fan are you. And without even saying anything, I took off my WrestleMania 29. merchandise t-shirt to reveal the Hellwani nose

t-shirt, black and silver edition one. Yes, yes, yes. And there it was. And there it was. The conversations ensued. The debate went on and on. Then we went to Times Square.

We went to the Five Guys Burger place and we just started talking for hours and hours and hours. And what ended up happening was a friendship between me and the boys from London and these guys from Toronto was formed, was forged. And we've been in touch ever since. And it was all because that my affiliation with how much of a hardcore MMA fan I am was because of that T-shirt.

And it led on to that conversation, led on to some more debates. We kept in touch. We've been keeping in touch almost on a daily basis. And we're actually going to meet up again as a group. We're actually meeting up again for UFC 168. All the gang from London and Toronto are going to meet up as a big crew. And we're going to be there to see the biggest rematch in UFC history. How about that?

giving me goosebumps. No joke, you're giving me goosebumps. I love the fact that the shirt had a small part and all of that. That's an amazing story. I'm being dead honest to do that. There's no kind of like, no, no, I appreciate it. Law line here. I'm being, yeah. You know what I love? I thought, I thought you were going to say we're meeting up next year at WrestleMania, but it shows the evolution that you're now meeting at our granddaddy of them all, UFC 168. I love that. That's great. And will you all be wearing my t-shirt? Well, that's the idea. We'll have something planned I'm show because we're both big on T-shirts. But the plan is, but the plan. is to be at UFC 158 and we're actually

also in planning on going together for the big WrestleMania 30 show as well. And so yeah, that was a big story I wanted to tell you. I thought it was a big part of the NMA hour show and the history of the show. So I wanted to give a big shout out to the whole one he knows. I can't wait for, you know, the third edition, the third series to come up, which I'm sure you're planning as we speak.

And I just want to kind of finally end on this note that I'm a massive fan of yours and I've just recently started my blog. And I try to preview and write about the main event of every UFC show that comes up, which can be found at MMA UK. So if you go to Facebook, you type in MMAUK. You're MMAUK on Twitter?

You're the guy? No wonder, now it all makes sense. Now it all makes sense. You were trying to do People's Hero versus New York. I know I bombarded you last week with a bunch of tweets. And you know, I know the whole thing with Eric and the whole MMA beat fight. It wasn't something that you guys were interested in, but that's absolutely fine.

I moved on. But yeah, but that's the big thing. I want to give a shout out to MMA UK. On Twitter, you can find us at MMA underscore UK. All right, all right, all right. Enough with the plugs over here. This is my show. This is 200th episode.

I appreciate it, my friend. Thank you so much for buying the T-shirt. That means a lot to me, and I love the fact that it brought everyone together. And I love the fact that you love today's episodes. Stone Cold and Anderson and all those guys. Much respect, and I will see you at UFC 168.

Peace. I'm out of here. That is a true fan. All right. Thank you very much to Sandu. Did you see that guy? He was trying to start a fight with you or trying to set up a fight with you in your Craig.

You saw him last week? Yeah. I did see that. You wanted no part of it. Well, he was trying to make me fight the guy who was in your like preview video that one time. Yeah, yeah. People's hero.

And that guy was like, wait, what are you even talking about? He wasn't interested in it either. Yeah. I think it's his brother, to be honest. Really? Okay. Now, a lot of people, you know, this is a big deal of this show. I don't know if you've noticed. We've had a lot of big guests from Uriah Favre to Chil's son and to Anderson

Silverwood's still quick. I wasn't really paying attention. Yeah, anyway. And how about all the guests? I was really nervous. I must admit, I am so happy the interview portion of the show is over because I was so nervous that someone would not show up and we built it as this big deal. But everyone showed up. How about that?

Yeah. I know you were nervous, but we got it done. We got it done. Now, in honor of the 200th episode, maybe we thought it would be, you know, appropriate to have you officially announce whether or not you're actually going to fight. Are you still playing games with our heart here? Have you made a decision? What's going on? Henzel Gracie, you reached out, right? Are you going to at least take him up on that offer? He did. And here's what I'll say at this moment. Okay, okay. I'm going to begin training starting in October. When I get back from Glory, I'm going to begin training. I'm going to begin training.

Now, that doesn't mean I'm necessarily going to be comfortable taking. I can't say at that moment that I'll be comfortable taking a fight. But if it goes as I expected to go for maybe nine months or possibly less, but my realistic expectation is about nine months, then I will take a fight at the end of it. Wow. So you're dipping the toe in the water. I am.

And the training will begin regardless of, you know, that nine month, outlook, I will begin training starting in October. Wow. All right, all right. At Henzo Gracie Academy in Brooklyn. That'll be like where I'll mainly go because, I mean, it's a perfect fit for me. That's just you to kind of, you're just basically like a piece of Play-Doh that I took out of the yellow case right now.

You're the Play-Doh, I'm plopping it down on the table. Once you get your feet wet and I can comfortably offer you up to the best of the best and not feel like I'm embarrassing myself, because I don't know if you saw the way I took that Darst choke. I have quite the reputation, particularly in the jitzy world, but, you know, world renown as far as combat sports are concerned. Once I can say, hey, you know, Mark Henry, let's work on some striking. Hey, Marcelo Garcia, we want a different look on the mat. Hey, crew fill nurse. You know, we want to work on some Muay. Once I get, I feel comfortable in doing that, then we'll get it done. But you just got to get out there in the gym. You got to get out there on the mat, bro. You got to make it happen.

Yeah, bro. October, October 1st. or in the beginning of October. It will happen. I will be in the gym. Starting this process. Let us put the talk about 165 to bed. We asked everyone, it's only fair if we ask you. Who did you score for?

I scored it for Jones. I had it similar to most people that I've heard scoring it for Jones. I had 2.4 or 5 for Jones. 2.45, like me. Yeah, very nice. I find that most people who scored it for Jones scored it that way.

Now, admittedly... Are you surprised all these fighters were scoring for Gustafson? No, I'm not really. I noticed on Twitter a lot of the fighters were scoring it for Gustafsson as well. It seems like the fighters were leaning more toward Gustafson. I'm not sure what the correlation is, but fighters seem to have that Gustafsson won. Maybe they sigh with them because of the heart and the underdog and all that stuff.

Sure. But most of the media had it 245. Interesting that John had it. Now, two was close. Two was very close. Very close. That was actually the toughest round to score, in my opinion. And, you know, the other interesting thing is I know everyone likes to call it a controversy or it was fixed.

At the end of the day, I really think it was not an easy fight to score, but it's not like Condit Diaz where you say, ah, look at this round. I think it's pretty clear most people, two, four, five, but it was just so close that I would love to see the rematch. Would you immediately? Of course. I want to see that again. Right away. Over anyone else? Nobody's made John Jones even look mortal.

And Gustafson hung in there with him for five rounds. and at times made it look like he was going to take control of that fight and end it. So, of course, I want to see it again. For the record, of course, we can't forget about Mama Nose, the big part of the show, have to mention her on episode 200, went three and two. Obviously, she picked Nirmaga Madov. She did not pick Carmon. She picked Mitrione.

Excuse me, she did not pick Mitrione. She picked Brow and she picked Jones. You mean she did pick Mitrione? She didn't pick Shop. Correct. That's what I meant. Yeah, three and two. Three and two.

Did you do any betting? On UFC? Yeah. Oh, you mean my own, like personal stuff? No, I kind of, I wasn't really loving any of the lines except for on the show. I said that Shab was probably going to win that one. But even that, I wasn't like that happy to jump all over. So I didn't bet anything this week on UFC.

Greatest fight of all time? Hard to say. Probably greatest title fight. Not sure if I'm willing to go greatest fight. I also... What's better than that? See, I feel like the criteria is different for different people. I don't necessarily...

It doesn't necessarily have to be five rounds of nonstop war for it to be the best fight for me. Even a one-sided finish early can be the best fight for me. It's... I don't necessarily... It doesn't have to necessarily be a back-and-forth kind of contest. So, like, Anderson Silva versus Forrest Griffin could be there. The first round of Diaz and Daly was like one of the craziest things I've ever seen. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a back and forth kind of war like the Vanderlei Stan or the or the Gustavson Jones.

But definitely up there. It's top five if not higher than that. But this had, you know, what was that stake, the guy, you know, the champion, the belt on the line, the aura, the massive underdog. all that stuff, no other fight in my opinion has it. Really? Yeah, the circumstances, the surrounding the fight, definitely elevate the importance of it and its stock. So if somebody says it's the best fight ever,

I'm not going to argue with them. I saw some people online posting the scorecard. I'm trying to pick it up, pull it up here, but I can't seem to find it. You know what I'm talking about? You mean the judge's scorecard, right? That came later. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I saw it briefly. I'll try and find it. Yeah, it's somewhere. Anyway, let's go to the questions now. Sure. So three and two for Mama knows. Still has yet to go under 500. So, in my opinion, she lives to fight another day.

By the way, what's her record? Have you gotten any confirmation on that? Well, I can confirm that last week I was correct. I don't know. Did you go back and listen or did you just go off Twitter? I can confirm that last week I was correct. You went back and listened? And that it was 22 and 10.

I don't believe it. And now that would be 25 and 12. Did you go off Twitter? Did you actually go back and listen? I went back and listened. I don't believe me. You don't have to believe me. That's the record.

It is what it is. You don't have to believe me. Let me just get this out here. Mike Chiapetta of Fox Sports, formerly of MMA fighting. He got the scorecard. Chris Lee had it round one. Judge Chrisley had round one, Gustafson 10-9,

round two, Jones 10-9, round three, Jones 10-9, round three Jones-10-9, round five Jones-10-9. Judge Richard Belton had it round one, Gustafson 109 Jones, round 2, 109, round 3, Gustafson, 109, Jones, round 4, 109, Jones,

round 5, 109. I agree with that one. And then Judge Douglas Crosby had it, round 1, Gustafsson, 109, round 2, Gustafsson 109, round 3, Jones 109, round 4, Jones 109, round 5, Jones 109. Don't really agree with that one. I had it, again, two for Jones, three for Gustafin,

but that is the official scorecard. Let us go to the questions, here we go. here's our first question. Lately, Dana White has made some offensive remarks about you and your journalism. Personally, I don't think it's fair at all. Where does it come from? Why do you take it on the chin and don't respond back? You know, I sometimes respond when there is a response to be made on Saturday night on the post-fight show.

He was talking about how me and three people on the internet were complaining about the promotion. And I said, for the record, here's the thing that sometimes people forget. just because I ask a question, doesn't mean that I actually believe in one answer or the other, in the sense that just because, let's just say I say to someone, hey, was that the best fight of all time, doesn't mean I believe it's the best fight. In this case, I do believe it's the best fight. But if I ask people questions, it doesn't mean I think that the promotion sucked because I said that, you know, there have been questions about the promotion.

And so many media members, not all of them were in Toronto, but so many media members' fans were complaining about the promotion for this fight saying that it was kind of silly, that they were just focusing on hide and reach. It was talked about so much. And I said on this show and on the MMA beat that I didn't mind. Didn't we actually talk about it in one of the questions where I said I didn't really mind it? And you said, didn't you say that you didn't like the promotion?

I did. Yes. This is all your fault. How's this all my fault? What I said was, and I think it's still proper, is that it was selling Gustavson short. And that's what I was trying to say. Build them up. Knockout, Sweden, Johansen, all that stuff, European. That's all part of it. And that's what I was just trying to say. But to answer the question, I was saying, when he says that, okay, fine, I'll bring it up. But he

could say whatever he wants in my opinion. I'm asking him for his time. I'm asking him questions. And it's not my place to get into a back and forth debate, an argument, things like that. It's just, it's just not my place. That's not how I do it. So I don't feel like anything he has said to me is offensive. I think it comes from a good place. And I don't mind it. I don't mind people taking jabs at me. I don't mind that at all. Really, I don't. But if he says something that I think is wrong that I said, then I'll kind of stick up for myself. But if he says things like I'm, you know, a nosy, things like that, that's cool. I don't mind it. I am nosy. I like, honestly, I take that all as a compliment. When I was bothering you about the shop thing on Saturday and he's like,

Do you have another question? I take that as a compliment. I am there to ask those questions. That's what I take pride in to push those buttons. They shouldn't like it all the time. So I'm not bothered by anything he has said or anything, anything anyone else has said. Okay, now we're going to move to the Twitter questions.

Oh, before we do that. Only one website question today. Yeah, there was a lot of congratulations. And I wanted to give as many people on the Twitter questions the chance to win as possible. Sure. Because we have such a great prize. Yes, yes, the tops.

Finest, UFC Finest 2013. Correct. I'm going to show it off back here. Oh, by the way, where are the tuxitos that I was promised? Toxitos? Yeah, I said it at the beginning of the show. I thought you paid that MMA, UK guy to make that wonderful plug for Helwani Nose shirts. I think you took that.

By the way, there are still some shirts left at MMA warehouse.com. Go for them. There it is. Tops cards. Here it is. Hopefully you guys will actually send them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They, uh, these retail for about $100.

Really? Yeah, yeah. Holy moly. Because they have one autograph, one jumbo relic with an autograph on it, four regular jumbo relics with no autograph. Um, you can win like mouthpieces, parts of the cage, parts of the shorts. Um, yeah. To, I mean, that, that's just the, the simple terms to find out about it.

Go to, um, Topps. Uh, Facebook.com slash Topps or follow them on Twitter at Topps Cards. Find out more about this box. There you have it. But yeah, it's a good price. Thanks to them. Are we ready for the questions? Yep.

Okay. Putting it up now. Okay, first question. From Reese Leonard. Do you buy the adage that you must clearly beat the champ to be the champ? Shouldn't round by round scoring eliminate that? Okay, this is what we're going to do, since we have a big prize and a lot of questions, let's just earmark ones that we like.

Earmark, this bad boy. Yep. So we don't have to go through and all that. Um, love this question. Why? Because I think it's a silly statement. To be the champ, you have to be the champ. Beat the champ. No, what does that mean? We're not scoring the fight on the whole. We're not scoring the fight at the end and saying, I think this guy won. We're going round by round. And then you add it up. That's the way the 10-9 system works. So I hate when people say,

yeah, it goes to have great showing. But honestly, can you stay on the one for a second. Oh, I can hear you. Honestly, to beat the champ, you got to beat the champ. No, no, no. That makes no sense. That makes no sense. If he won three or more rounds, he is the champion. So I love when Rick Flair says it. I know what you're trying to say, but it makes no sense when talking about MMA or boxing or anything like that because he has to win the majority of the rounds and then he is the champion, not beat the champ, be the champ, all that stuff. No one scores a fight and says, but did he really beat the champion? No, they add it up and then they find out. I agree with that. Next question. From Luke Sargent, would you agree that now Gustafson and not Cormier

could be the Frazier to Jones's Ali? Yes. I mean, I don't want to discount, you know, Cormier, because remember, Ali, in this little comparison that I like to make, had many foils. Fought a bunch of people a bunch of times. But right now, what I meant by that was, Jones needs to be pushed. He needs to be tested in a way that he has never been tested before in order for the fans to truly respect him and to truly view him as a legend. And that never really happened.

Whether it's because the fighters that he fought in the past put him on a pedestal, whether it is because he's just that much better. Whatever reason it is, it never happened. Gustafin did that, made him look human. And oftentimes people can relate to human. people sometimes feel like superhuman is unlikable. And I was actually thinking that during the fight. Wow, he's getting that test that we talked about.

He found his foil. We want to see them fight again. Look at that picture in the hospital of them beat up. But again, people are crapping all over John, thinking that he stole this one. I really think there's no controversy here. I think in time it will come around. But yes, he found his guy,

and he'll be fighting him again and that's what he needed. That's what I was trying to say. Cormey could be that guy too, but right now, Gustafson did almost as much for John as John did for him if you know what I'm saying.

Our next question from Darren Chung. Does it set a bad precedent if they do the Jones Gustafson rematch considering the champ one? Darren Chung, who by the way, just complaining on Twitter here that he was promised a prize in May and never received it

for the record, I just saw that. his email. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think so. It was so close. I don't think there should be any kind of precedent. I'm not a huge fan,

and I know what he's trying to say. I'm not a huge fan of the champion having to fight someone again after successfully defending the title. But this was so close, so fun, and so unexpected, that I think a lot of people would be down for it. And I think it's because there isn't a clear cut

number one guy. I know Glover's there again, but I don't think everyone's clamoring for that. I don't think there should be any kind of precedent. You have to go based off of what happened in the fight, and this was such a fun fight, and I think you could do so well in the rematch that that's why I think they should do it.

Business, athletically, everything, it's so perfect. And to be honest, I can see them, you know, coming up with reasons why they shouldn't do it and should build them up. I could see it. But right now, I sit here two days later saying, I would watch that fight and pay a huge amount of money, money to see it tomorrow, the rematch.

Our next question from Graham. Oh man, a lot of good questions. Do you think Jones... Are you deleting these, by the way? What do you mean? Are you exing them? Or can we go back? Some of them we can go back to, the ones we're going to mark off.

Don't X them, because I can't remember all of them. Next question. Do you think Jones suffered not having Jackson talking calmly in front of him between rounds? You know, obviously Greg is going to say no to that question. but I do think, I mean, if we're going to say that Greg doesn't help at all, then what's the point of having any cornerman? They help. They relax their fighter.

They give them pointers. They, you know, explain things, pinpoint things. They make them, you know, stick to the game plan, get back to what they're supposed to be doing, a whole bunch of stuff. I don't think that's the reason why it was such a close. fight, I don't think that's the reason why, because if some busted him up, took him down, stuff to take downs. But I do think it is something to consider for the next fight. And I do think it is something interesting to talk about when talking about this first fight. His main coach wasn't there. And that's a big deal. If you would have said going into this fight,

Greg Jackson wouldn't be in his corner for whatever reason, it would have been talked about a heck of a lot. It's a big deal. And he's so great in the corner. And that's why it's a big deal. So yes, it's important to note, but I can't sit here and say, oh, the fight would have gone differently had he been there because no one knows the answer to that question. Our next question from amateur profit. Do you believe Barow belongs in the top five pound for pound now? The recently updated list suggests otherwise. I wonder when this list was updated. Today?

I don't think it comes out today. Let's just see. Um, on UFC.com slash rankings, Brow's 7. Do you believe Bravo? I don't know. I think it actually comes out on Tuesday. But anyway, you look at who's top five now, Jones, St. Pierre, Silva, Aldo Kane. I wouldn't put Brow over any of them. Remember, Brow is not fighting the level of competition that those guys are. And that's just it. He's great. But he's a interim champ. He's been, undefeated for a long time, but he hasn't fought, the guys that Jones has fought, St. Pierre has fought, Anderson, even Aldo is featherweight champion, and Kane. And let's not forget about Pettis, who should be up there.

Wideman, in my opinion, Benson, I think he's doing just fine at seven. Our next question. Oh, and by the way, my good friends at Fightmetry tell me Brow is six now, so the new rankings are up. I don't know why it doesn't say that on the website, but I think that's even more generous. Our next question from Robert Brown. Weinland stoppage was too early. Do you agree? Shouldn't title fight combatants be given more leeway?

Look at the MacDessie fight stoppage. Okay, when I was watching it, I didn't think it was early. I saw him complain about it, but I think maybe we were focusing too much on the kick, the impact, all that good stuff, but I didn't think it was early. Do you think it was early?

I do not. No, that was the end. That was the end. That was it. And the MacDessie fight, I thought was too late. So that's not really a comparison you're trying to. I think what he's trying to say is give him chance to recover,

but give him too much of a chance. Honestly, as far as judging and refereeing is concerned, maybe I'm missing something. I thought that was a pretty good night. No real controversies, right? Well, we avoided some because there was one judge who was incorrectly scoring fights, but the other two got it right. Which fight was that?

There were a few. It was in the prelims. I'm forgetting, but there were, there was a judge that, the scorecard was just ridiculous compared to the other two judges who got it right. And luckily, we avoided any kind of controversy. But it could have been bad if another judge scored it a draw or scored it the same way. By the way, my good friend Matthew Pauley, who's a tremendous writer, writes to me on Twitter now, this is just a side note just because I know it won't be addressed.

He writes, quote, to be the champ, you have to beat the champ makes sense because judges tend to give close rounds to the champ. like they did in round two of the main event. Very good point. And maybe that's why, you know, it's still being used. That's why it makes sense. But I think when people always bring up that line, they always use it for, he didn't do quite enough.

And I don't know if, and that was certainly a close round. And maybe subconsciously I gave it to John because it was a close round. But I don't ever think that like, God, so close, he's a champion. I'm going to give it to him. He deserves it. He's a champion. That's just not the way I think. But when you break it down like that, then you,

yeah, I could see why you would say that. It's still a ridiculous thing to even be in practice anymore, though. Just score the fight. Sure. And the fight you're talking about is Alex Casares versus Roland DeLorm. It was more than one, honestly. But that's probably one of them, where it was just a head scratcher for one judge and the other two were just spot on. Our next question from Alex Brueur.

How would you pronounce that? Brueuier. Okay, that sounds good. who do you think Brendan Schaubbs' next assignment slash injury replacement is? Gonzaga, Jordan, Mir, Overeem, Hunt, Bigfoot, or something else completely. Well, here's my theory on this one. It has to be a big fight because it wouldn't have crossed Dana's radar on a Saturday night, title fight, all that good stuff if it wasn't a big fight.

So, no disrespect to them. I'm going to cross off Gonzaga and Jordan. Watch me look like an idiot, but that's what I'm going to do here. Now, Hunt Bigfoot is in almost three months, a little less than three months. I think that's too far, so I'm going to cross that one out. I think it's really down to Mir Ovrem or Cormier versus Nelson. I spoke to Daniel Cormier yesterday, and he told me that he's healthy. Didn't hear about any injuries, so of course, that might not be the case.

I mean, Conn McGregor, for God's sakes, said he found out about his injury, the timeline, that he was facing on Twitter somehow. I don't know how Dana got those results before him. But anyway, I'm going to say it's one of those two, and we'll just have to wait and see. But I know that Lex McMahon, Shab's manager, had no idea what was going on. Didn't hear about this.

No one told him about it. That's what he told me. And it was off the record, on the record. He wasn't lying. So we'll wait and see it. I'm not going to sit here and predict who's injured and who he's going to replace. But hey, kudos to Brendan.

I know you'll say Matt Matrione is not a black belt. Matt Matrione's not Cyborg Obreu, but all those people that made fun of him, all those people that laughed and kind of snickered when he talked about his jiu-jitsu, he went in there and pulled off the first dars choke in heavyweight history. That's a big FU to all the haters, in my opinion.

Good for him. Yeah, it was a very impressive submission. It was great. And I didn't tap. Why did they have to show the camera the bottom half? I could have just said I didn't tap, or maybe gone around. Still, it was very close.

It felt like my nose was going to explode. It felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head. It was very tight. 20% strength, he said. Our next question is from Piao. If there is room for questions today, there is. I'm a fan of him, but is Matt Mitreone done? I can't help but feel this was a very bad loss.

It was a tough loss. Of course, a lot was said before the fight, so that makes it even tougher. But I'd like to see him get another shot. I mean, he had such a quick win in his last fight. you know, Shab is in that right below contender status, like kind of knocking on top 10 but never quite got in there, maybe top 15 in the heavyweight division,

which is one of the more shallow divisions in the UFC. That came up when I asked, wow, Nandor Guamino is getting a shot who eventually lost, but, you know, it's just a shallow division. So I think Matrione is a big enough draw, and has enough fans and is exciting enough to where he gets one more shot. Our next question from Andrew Mayer. After an impressive win at UFC 165, which fight does Nirmaga Madov deserve next? Benson or Dos Anjos?

You know, it's funny, I went to camp with a guy by the name of Andrew Mayer, who is a big MMA fan, but spells his last name the same way. Excuse me, a different way. So Nirmaga Madov, what a performance? Again, I wonder if having to shave the beard hurt Pat Healy, but that slam reminiscent of Hughes and Trigg crossed the cage, slammed him. That was unbelievable, and he skunked him.

And it was very interesting. I don't know if you guys saw the post-fight interview that we had with him and Josh Thompson was there, but Josh Thompson saying, hey, if I become the champion, I would give him a piece of the pie, we'll fight. Interesting because in the past,

AKA has said, Fitch, Kostrak, remember all that? No, we're not fighting each other. So maybe times have changed over at the American kickboxing Academy. As far as what's next for him, I mean, in my opinion, he has to be one or two fights away. I don't know if you give him Benson right away, but maybe you do. The reason why I think they won't is because I think he is very close to getting a title shot. And if Benson beats him, then you're kind of left without a contender. I think the fight that makes the most sense is him

versus Dotsangios, both on a very impressive winning streak, you know, both with some big wins as of late, Nemagamadov over Healy, Dosangos over Seroni, both need a couple more top 10, top five wins. I think that makes a lot of sense. That's what I would do. I like both those fights. And I think you're right, it makes more sense

because also you want to get Benson stock back up. So putting him in there against a guy who potentially could beat him, who's on the rise right now wouldn't be great for Benson either. He's incredible. I'm going to be able. I'm waiting for the guy that he faces

that he can't ragdoll, and we've yet to see it. He just throws guys all over the ring. It's incredible. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. And to do that against Pat Healy, one of the toughest, grittiest fighters out there in the UFC. He completely shut Healy down wrestling-wise,

which is very rare. You're not going to see that from a lot of guys. He just, you know, Healy himself just had a crazy performance against Miller, Jim Miller. And then Irmaga Madoff just shut that down. It was a very impressive performance. And of course, the guy we can't forget is T.J. Grant, who's out there.

versus Norma Gmanade will be a tough fight for Grant to come back to, but that could be a number one contender fight. I could see that. Yeah, if you feel bad for T.J. Grant in that situation, man. Yeah, but don't hate on him. What do you mean? Don't hate on T.J. Maybe he'll shock the world, knock him out.

Yeah, sure, but I mean, he had the title shot. That's why I'm saying you feel bad. Of course, of course. No, no, I'm not saying, you know, I feel bad that he's in there with him. I do because he's a beast, but it's sad that he had the title shot, and now he can't. By the way, a fight metric telling me

that Nirmagamatov went 0 for 13 and take down attempts against Glyson Teebao. Sorry, Rick. That's their exact quote. Yeah. I forgot about that fight. Glacin actually looked really good against him. The best that somebody's looked against him, because Glacin was doing pretty damn well on his feet. Well, T.Bow is also a light heavyweight, so it's going to count.

Yeah, no, that's a good point by Fight Metric. That was a great fight. I liked that one a lot. Next question from Kenny Murphy. Yes. When you did episode one, could you ever have imagined you'd do 200, much less do a 200th episode with such an incredible lineup? Honestly, no, for many reasons. First off, when I found out that AOL had the capability to put on a show like this, like a radio show that you can also watch a podcast of this kind, I got very excited because they wanted to do, back then, they wanted to do like a sit-down show, kind of a more studio show.

and I was like, no, let's keep it relaxed, informal. I want to do, you know, of course it sounds silly, but a Howard Stern version of an MMA show where you can watch the radio show. And you see that now with a lot of other radio shows. But, you know, four years ago, it wasn't really done. Have they copied me? You know, I'll leave that up to you guys.

So they said fine. And they said, let's keep it at like 15 minutes. I kid you not, 15 minutes. This question portion of the show has been longer than 50 minutes. We have approached over the four hour mark. We have officially gone, I think this is our longest show ever. We've never gone into 5 o'clock. By far. Okay. Look at Will. So quick to say no. Have us sleep back there. Anyway, so they said 15 minutes, 15 minutes. Give me an hour, for God's sake. And then we had this guy, if you watch the first episode,

which I linked to on the page for this episode, and I tweeted it yesterday on Sunday night, we had this guy Michael Rubens, which was so bizarre because he's an executive at AOL, and he was just sitting there in the show. He added something, but in hindsight, I was like, that's very strange. We also had Michael David Smith on the line, which originally Michael David Smith and I did a podcast on Fan House, which it was just us talking. So I had him on as kind of the co-host for a bit, but it was tough to do a show with someone on the phone, Chiapeta stopped by, and then we had Faber, and I remember that was such a big deal.

Wow, Faber. And if you listen to the show, Josh, who was kind of the New York Rick before there was ever a New York Rick, and who deserves a lot of praise as far as launching the show and actually put together the intro, he actually called him on the air. Like you hear the phone dialing and all that. That's how low budget the whole thing was. And it was great to have your eye. It was great to have one guest.

And then we expanded, expanded. And now all I'm worried about is how I'm going to top this tomorrow. How am I going to top this for the 300th? episode. I've been working on booking this show for so long. I'm so exhausted thinking about episode 200, but to answer the question, no, and I'm so thrilled that it all worked out, and I'm thrilled that everyone liked it, or at least I think they liked it. Give me one second here. By the way, Fight Metric replied to that last comment saying, and Rick wants to be on the MMA beat, question mark. You don't even know about Glysson T. Bounder,

my God, Fight Metric's getting a little... What? That's the word I'm looking for. Um, snarky. No. That's not snark. But yes. So we had an issue, thinking that some of the questions might be gone. Uh-oh.

It's not a bad question to end on, but it would be a shame. Yeah, that might be the one. How about, um, I can do them from memory. Um, we had another one. Sure. What was one of your favorite moments or what were your top five favorite moments? In the show's history? In the show's history.

That's a tough one. There's so many that come to mind. I mean, Piper last week. I mean, this show, this show... Whoa, look at that. Do you see what just happened? The microphone just fell. That's how long we've been doing this show today.

The microphone just fell off the table. Can someone come in here and help me with this? Will's on his way. I'm not qualified to do it. Wow, Will will actually make an appearance. Anyway, Rowdy Piper yesterday was great. rampage in studio was great oh there he is

will the thrill making an appearance we had fade orange studio we had um Anderson Silva oh there was a fun show one time that we had Chuck Liddell Anderson and BJ on at the same time that was fun

I remember that one so nothing really comes to mind I remember a great Jay Haran interview talking about being in jail but yeah it was great just doing the show show every week is great with great people like Will over here. Hello. There he is.

How about Maham Miller in studio? Mayhem Miller was somewhat of a low light. You had to bring that up. I was trying to avoid it. But yeah. Oh, did we have, was that the first time you'd been in studio? I don't remember. Anyway, those are something that come to mind.

It's just so much fun doing the show a night. And the best part about the show has been that it lasts through different studios, different people who've worked on it, and different companies. How rare is that? And it's still here standing. And remember, we actually probably could have gone way past 200 episodes, but we were on hiatus for like six months when they were making the new AOL studio. And who can't forget the first episode in the SB Nation era that was a complete disaster that we had John Jones in studio for a great lineup, but that was just the worst. Here we are still standing 200 episodes.

And a great one it was. Oh, yes. Oh, wait, the episode or the John Jones one? No, this one. Oh, yes. John Jones one wasn't that bad either. That was good, except I was sweating so much because I knew how disastrous it was. I was wearing an earpiece. I was in a control room. It was very strange. Does that mean we're done? Yeah, I mean...

You lost all of them. We might have lost them. Jeez. I think I figured it out. We go past the four hour mark and you just... Everything falls apart. The microphone fell off the table. You lose the questions. the gods are telling us to wrap it up. Yeah. It's a good thing that we're wrapping it up anyway because we have our winner. We did. We had our winner.

I mean, the first guy was the only, you said, we're going to go through these and we're going to bookmark these and dog ear these. And you didn't say a single one that you actually like. But honestly, they were all great. They were all great. But sure. Except the first guy, the first guy who asked about beating the champ to be the champ. I believe Jonathan or Jacob, something like that. Something with a J, top's finest, right here, 2013.

All right. So will you know how to find them even though? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll be able to find that question again. All right. From Toledo, Ohio somewhere. I'll find them again. Someone in Toledo, Ohio has won this top's finest box.

UFC finest 2013. Melvin Williams on Twitter is asking me, when will the 200th episode be up on iTunes? guess what? We're still going. We are still going, my friends. All right, so that does it. No more questions. Congratulations on winning. We actually have a few tops boxes, so we'll be giving them out in the coming weeks as I try to top this. I'm not going to top this, that's for sure. Just try to return to the standards that you have expected from us, which honestly, like I say many times, I always try to make the best show possible, put together the best show possible. I'm just so happy and thankful to all the guests that stopped by today to make this show. special and thankful and happy that all of you were able to stop by, whether it was live or taped, means a lot because honestly, this is kind of my favorite thing to do. I love doing the show. This is my show. This is where I get to be me, and I get to do what I want to do, and that that really means a lot to me. You can hit my music, Alfred. For a second, I thought the music

was going to play, and then I would have really been sure that four hours plus is just too much. But there it is, our famous music that we've had since episode one. Intro music we've had since episode one. If you want to watch episode one, you can do so. I link to it on the page in the Uri Fabor bio part. So there you have it. It is in the books, episode 200. Looking forward to episode 201.

But first, let us send out our thank yous. Let us thank Uri Fabor for stopping by. That was awesome. Start the show with our first guest back in the day. Great stuff out of him and good luck as he prepares for Michael McDonald. Chelle Sunnan, my colleague, my pal, very kind words. His fight against Rashad Evans goes down. UFC 167, can't wait for it.

Dan Hardy, hope everything goes well with him. Always appreciate him stopping by, kind words as well. And looking forward to seeing if he does fight again. If not, I think he'll do great as a presenter, as they say. Chris Wyman, good luck on the press tour. That kicks off today in Los Angeles. Thank you very much to the UFC for hooking us up with that. And good luck.

UFC 168 tickets go on sale, end of this week. Connor, good luck in your road back to recovery, ACL. Always great to see Connor. And it's amazing beard. Keep that thing going. And how about Snow Cold Steve Austin? That was amazing. What great Skype connection, Stone Cold had.

That was incredible. Great insight as well. Anderson Silva, good luck to him as he fights at UFC 168. George S. Pierre, how about that? Greg Jackson, big John McCarthy. I'm just going to keep going and going because once again, our show was so great, and it was even better than the music, even longer than the music.

I need more time to thank everyone. I want to thank all of you for stopping by. Thank everyone in the back. Thank you for all the kind words. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you to everyone who stopped by. Thanks for all the questions, the comments, the love. I love you all back.

I will see you next week. I say, peace. I'm out of here. Support for this show. 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

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